What were you expecting?
On my way out of the office, I sneezed as I stepped off the elevator. My eyes watered, and my nose tickled because I was suppressing a second sneeze, and I could swear people were looking at me like I was Patient Zero. Dudes, it’s allergy season! Besides, I didn’t sneeze ON you. I didn’t even sneeze AT you. Maybe I should have. Next time. Watch out, starers. I’m coming for you.
Slowly, with lots of wheezing and sniffling.
Like a zombie.
And just as terrifying.
I skipped April Fool’s Day this year. I mean, I was there for it. I was awake and active in the world or whatever, but it completely slipped my mind until fairly late in the evening, and I wasn’t aware of a single prank. This morning, John showed me the Firefly one on Reddit (which I can’t find right now). That was a good one, if mean. Oh, and I saw the Google Nose thing after I got home last night. I don’t mind missing it. I don’t usually do April Fool’s. It makes me wonder if that’s how April is going to go, though. Am I going to miss every other day? Or rush through the whole month? Maybe I’ll just view everything through my congested fog. That’ll be fun.
I think I might be getting sick. I can’t tell yet if it’s just seasonal allergies, but since John just got over the flu, I’m a little nervous. My head is a little (not a lot) congested, my throat is sore enough to hurt when I swallow, the lymph nodes right under my jawline are swollen, and I think I had a fever for a little bit during the night – I woke up freezing and shivering and went scrambling for socks and warmer clothes and more blankets. Everything but the fever could mean allergies – that stuff happens to me every spring. And fall. And at random times throughout the rest of the year. I was planning on running today, but I think I’m not going to. We have a 5K with Jess in less than a week, but I gave up any hope of a good race a few weeks ago. Running today wouldn’t help that much, and a day of real rest might. So I’m going to do nothing. Almost nothing. I might go to the library with John. Maybe.
I’m off to DC for work this morning, and I didn’t want to get up early enough to go to the gym for a real workout, so I decided to make it a yoga day. I don’t feel like what I did counts as working out since I didn’t do it for long, but it felt nice. It was quiet and peaceful and full of stretching. And I think I needed it to balance out the very stressful dream about traveling to Peru. We were packing to get ready for the big vacation, but I couldn’t remember the name of the town or area in Peru we were going to, so I couldn’t look up the weather forecast, and I didn’t know what to pack. I was scanning my email for the details, but all I could find were pictures of goats, and none of them were captioned with the name of the town. Very stressful. Then John’s alarm went off, and I bolted upright, arms flailing, totally startled awake. I hate alarms. I needed yoga.
Now I’m eating my breakfast of granola and yogurt, listening to the yoga station on Pandora (which is great until the ad breaks – jarring), and glancing at the clock to see how much more time I have before I have to get in the shower and get moving (not much). But that way leads to rushing and stress, and who needs that?
I have decided to stop feeling like I’m behind on everything. I’m not behind on the internet; now I’ve got lots of wonderful things to catch up on. I’m not behind on reading (now that I’ve finished my book club book); I’m reading at my own leisurely pace. I’m not behind at work; I’ve just suddenly got two jobs to do, and I’m keeping up as best I can. I’m not behind on blogging, either. It’s not like I can go back and post something for all those days my mind was elsewhere. I’m where I’m supposed to be, and that’s okay.
Yoga class was nice last night. Can you tell?
I want a brownie. Ooh, rice pudding. Hey, can you say ADD? I have the attention span of a gnat. A gnat with ADD. Who drinks a lot of caffeine. Except I’m tired. I don’t want caffeine. I don’t even want to read. I just want to sleep. Why is rice pudding so good?
This week is going to be a good week. And when I say good, I mean uneventful, quiet, restful, and not at all like last week. Work will slow down from last week’s breakneck pace. John will continue to get better. No one is coming over this weekend, so I won’t have to race around and plan and shop and clean. It’s going to be heavenly.
Quick updates:
There’s a new pope, and I don’t really care, but I did think this description (from a reporter I heard on the radio) of how he was going to spend his time in those first couple of days was telling: “The new pope will have some time to himself. He’ll use it to pray, meditate, talk to himself…” Yeah, I imagine he’ll be talking to himself a lot.
It’s Sunday afternoon, and I should probably be doing something useful to prepare for book club this Friday (like plan the appetizers or iron the new curtains – can I get away without doing that?), but I don’t want to. I want to play on the internet and read my book. Especially now that I’ve just spent entirely too much time looking for a tablecloth that will fit our dining room table once the extension is in. Tablecloths are not that exciting. Not like curtains.
During the meditation part of yoga class last night (my favorite part), I was thinking* about doing yoga at home. I always mean to do it the rest of the week, but I never do. Then last night, I realized that since we put the desk away (the one I had the puzzle out on – the table wasn’t big enough and the puzzle was going nowhere, so I quit), there’s a ton of open space in the library (that used to be the dining room). It gets all of the morning and midday sunlight through the east window and the bay windows, so it’s a cheerful, sunny room, and ZOMG I’m going to do yoga in there! Isn’t that just disgustingly perfect? Yoga in a room with sunlight streaming from windows all around? So I tried it this morning. At 6:30. Flaw #1: it’s still dark at 6:30. Flaw #2: it was pouring down rain. Actually, Flaw #2 was just fine with me. I found a yoga station on Pandora, and that kind of music combined with the rain beating on the windows was very relaxing. Then I lost all my zen peacefulness when I kicked the baby gate on my up the stairs and pulverized the toenail on my second toe.
*I don’t think I’m supposed to think during meditation, but it’s hard to just be.
John and I have finally gotten our asses in gear with regard to doing house stuff. It’s about time, too, for a number of reasons, the most pressing of which is the imminent arrival of 10 ladies he’s never met and I barely know who live in big, beautifully-decorated houses. (I’m not sure about my deployment of commas in that sentence, but I can’t look at it any more.) I’ve had lots of conversations with lots of people about what food to serve, and John and I are using this opportunity to do a few things around the house that have been on our minds for a long time.
1. Do something about the hole in the door to the basement.
Why was there a hole in the door to the basement? Because it used to be a cat door. Did we ever own a cat? No, but the previous owners did. Why didn’t you just call it a cat door? Because Riley stuck his head through it, broke the door flap off, and left the hole. And how long ago was that? About seven years. yes, we’ve had a hole in our basement door for SEVEN YEARS. Long overdue. John considered just covering it with a kick plate, but apparently doors only cost about $30, so while I was at the bridal shower last weekend, he hung and painted the new door. It looks very nice. No hole! So exciting. You know what’s more exciting? Riley can’t reach through the door to knock the trash can down the basement steps any more when he’s angry with us for not getting up early enough on weekend mornings.
2. Replace the drip pans on the stove.
Again, something John did while I was gone. He bought beautiful new brushed metal drip pans and threw out the disgusting, crusty, rusty, drip-covered drip pans that have been on that stove since before we moved in. It’s lovely.
3. Take the blinds down from all of the downstairs windows and replace the curtains.
We did it! There are officially no more blinds on any of our downstairs windows, including the sliding glass doors. It’s amazing how much more light there is, even compared to when all the blinds were up or open. We went to Target yesterday, found curtains and rods we liked (simple black rods, simple white cotton curtains – yes, they’ll get dirty fast. I’m on top of it. So fresh and crisp!), and then ran into our problem. We needed two sets of long curtains for the front window. No problem. We needed one set of short curtains for the kitchen window (which looks fantastic) – no problem. We needed twelve mid-length curtains for all of the other windows on the first floor (these don’t come in sets of two). Problem. They only had two. Well, okay. We’ll buy those two, put them up on one window, make sure we like it, and then order the rest. We still have two weeks before the book club ladies come over. That’s how we spent the rest of Saturday, and we’re really happy with how the curtains came out. Unfortunately, when I went to Target.com to order the rest on Sunday, I found that they do not exist. Not that they’re on the website but only available in stores, no. They don’t exist on the website at all. Not by description, not by item number. So I called one of the other nearby Target stores and asked them if they had any (by item number). One store said they might have some in the clearance section, but they couldn’t check for me. I’ll called another Target. They had three. I need ten. They put those three on hold for me, but only for 24 hours. Can they order the rest? Nope. Okay… I called another Target. They had one. I put it on hold. Can they order the rest? No. Okay. I called another Target. They didn’t have any, but they could tell me that another store had three, another one had five, and the one in Falls Church had ten. Magic number! I needed ten. So I called them, made sure they had them (they did), and I drove all the way to Falls Church (about 45 minutes away). I bought my ten mid-length curtains and two long ones (for the sliding glass doors), and then looked for rods. None. No matching rods. I gave up. I’m fairly certain those won’t be as hard to find, and there’s a Target near my office (that’s the one that told me they might have some curtains in the clearance section), so I’ll check that one for rods tomorrow at lunch. Wish me luck.
The part about this that bugs me the most is that I couldn’t order these curtains. Not even from the store. And they don’t ship between stores, so if the Falls Church location hadn’t had all ten, I would have made several stops all over the region yesterday to track down the right number. Did I just choose the wrong curtains? Or is Target just being difficult? Regardless, the rest of the curtains will get done by the weekend. Assuming I can find rods.
I was listening to the radio in the car the other day, and I heard a commercial for the National Association of Realtors. Except they didn’t say it that way. Not the way I say realtor. Not the way anyone I know says realtor. You know, like realter. Kind of. Anyway, no. The guy on the radio announcing the official name of the organization over and over again pronounced it real-tor. Over and over again. Tor. Like the rock formation. Or the publishing company. I assume that’s how it’s pronounced. Tor. Like or. Four. Bore. Core. If tor is pronounced “ter”, then I’m just going to keep saying it the wrong way ’cause that’s ridiculous. But when it’s at the end of a word? And that word is realtor? Please. Real-tor. As if there are fake tors out there somewhere.
Reminds me of these guys.
Guys, I have more mugs! Really cute ones! For reals, see? My sister loves me. The bamboo one has a panda in it!
I’m afraid I have a mug problem. You’ve seen a sampling of my other mugs before, and I just got these three new ones (the floral ones are really good for deliciously sweet coffee on snowy days). Well, last week I saw more mugs I MUST HAVE. (Except that I don’t need them. I just want them. Really, I don’t know where I would put them. We’re out of cabinet space. But really, I want them. Want is not the same as need, so I won’t get them. I’ll just drool from afar. Because I can’t have them. Even though I want them. We’re trying to stop accumulating stuff. Really. No more new stuff.)
The London mug
I can still admire them, though. They’re made by Villeroy and Boch, and they’re part of the New Wave Caffe collection (cities of Europe). There’s one each for London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin, with matching plates, and they’re adorable.
I would only want them if I got rid of all of my other mugs. Which I will not do. Why do I have a mug thing? I don’t really have a shoe thing. I have a book thing – isn’t that enough? It’s not like I display my mugs. … No, I’m not going to display my mugs. Back to these particular mugs – they’re not cheap. Not crazy expensive, but we’re talking $20 a mug (when they’re on sale). And that’s not including the matching plates or the cool spoons you can see in the picture I took. So, yeah, maybe we are talking crazy expensive. They’re MUGS. I’m not spending $20 (or more) on a mug. Boom. Talked myself out of my muglust.
Is anyone else disappointed every time you’re confronted with a picture of Bob Woodward? He should look like Robert Redford. Gets me every time.
So does this guy.
I counted two (TWO!) Doctor Who jokes.
I have not gone off the deep end, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, and I have not gotten trapped under something heavy. I’m here. Very distracted, but here. Except not really because I have to get on a plane tonight and go to a bridal shower tomorrow. And I’m not bringing my laptop. But I WILL come back. Very soon. I swear.
It’s Book Club time again. We’re meeting this Friday to discuss The Secret Keeper (which I really liked), but that’s nothing to worry about. No, it’s next month I’m worried about. March is almost here, and that’s my month. I have to host the entire club here, at my house, and I have to pick the book. And I need to be able to tell them which book on Friday. So I need some help. Off the top of my head, here are three I think I could suggest.
I think any one of those would be fine. World War Z is the slightly crazier pick. I’ve read The Shadow of the Wind, but not the other two. Is it cheating to pick a book I’ve already read? It was only a few months ago. Other suggestions?
I’m going to need ideas for food, too, but that’s weeks away.
I was listening to the radio the other day on my way home from work, and the guy (I guess he’s still called a DJ, even if he does work for the classical music station) introduced the next piece of music as The Spanish Dances by I-don’t-remember-who (he remembered who – I don’t). The music started, and I thought, this doesn’t sound very Spanish, but what do I know. Then the music cut off, the radio went silent, and after a couple of seconds, the DJ (that just doesn’t sound right) said, “My apologies. I jumped ahead. That was Haydn. These are The Spanish Dances.” And then something that sounded somewhat more Spanish (more classical guitar, less orchestra) started.
Good story, huh? I know. Hush. It struck me as odd, though. You so rarely hear silence on the radio, and I’ve never heard music get cut off so abruptly like that, outside of emergency broadcasts. If it were me, I probably would have let the Haydn finish, then apologize, identify it correctly, and continue with the actual Spanish Dances.
For reasons I don’t remember anymore, I checked Netflix the other day to see if Babe: Pig in the City is available for streaming. These were the first two results of my search:
What on earth is there about Captain America that would cause it to come up in a search for Babe?
I went to Starbucks this morning, the one with the drive-thru. I like this one for a couple of reasons:
Today was one of those days. I got to the window, and the cashier (is she a barista?) told me that the woman in the car in front of me paid for my coffee. I handed her my card and asked her to ring up the car behind me, and when the cashier handed me my card and my receipt, she said, “She also wanted you to have this,” and handed me a CD. A music CD, in a sleeve, like many of the others Starbucks sells. How exciting! That’s different – maybe that woman just wanted to make someone’s day (more than buying their order would)! I’d never heard of the guy on the CD, but I’m open to new music. This could be cool. Happy Monday!
Well, I got into the office and googled it. Surprise! It’s Christian rock. I don’t think that should be allowed. I mean, Christian rock should be allowed to exist (I guess), but proselytizing* via the Starbucks drive-thru is not cool.
Hm. It just occurred to me – I don’t think she bought it at Starbucks for me. I assumed she had, but I doubt Starbucks would sell it. I think she gave it to them to give to me. Weird and weirder. Well, it’s not working. I’ve spent half the day wondering how I should get rid of it. Do I know anyone who might appreciate it? Not really. I don’t want to just leave it somewhere or give it to some unsuspecting stranger – that’s how I got it, and it didn’t make my day. And I’m hesitant to just throw it out. Maybe John knows someone. Or I can always leave it at a church. I know where I can find some of those.
*Maybe she wasn’t proselytizing. Maybe the guy on the CD is her boyfriend or husband or son or cousin, and she’s helping him gain a wider audience.
I can’t figure this weekend out. I’m in kind of a funk. A petty annoying funk. I did stuff yesterday (the gym, wrestled with TurboTax on linux, a couple of errands), but not enough. I HAVE to get to the store today (we’re nearly out of calf liver for Roxy, and we need some other essentials), and I need to go to the gym…I think I’m going to put off my pedicure until later in the week or next weekend…
I did just finish our taxes, so that’s something. I broke down and used my work laptop.
I’m on the verge of pouting because I have to go to the store. Or because I have to go to the gym and the store, and that’s a lot of time out of the house. Pouting! Jesus. I think it’s Sunday Afternoon Syndrome. I can feel the weekend slipping away.
[Break]
Haven’t left the house yet (it’s about two hours later), but I’m about to. John and I did finally call the bank to discuss refinancing, and now that we have all the numbers, it’s possible that we just won’t. It depends on when we’re really trying to get out of this house. I feel better having gotten that information (I’ve backed off from the pouting ledge). And we’re about to go to the store. Looks like the gym isn’t happening today. I can take a day off, right?