I’m skipping today. (Even though by posting this, I’m technically not skipping.) I had a good weekend, but I’m worn out and trying not to worry about this week. I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow about that panic attack I had a month or so ago and other general anxiety issues. And there’s a conversation I have to have this week that I’m not looking forward to having.
Anyway, I’m heading to bed. Sleep is important. See you tomorrow.
Okay, we finished Lost. The whole thing was worth it for Sun/Jin and Sawyer/Juliet. I cried at both. We also saw the new Robin Hood movie today (stupid, but fun). And we started catching up on Glee. Lots of TV today. But that’s not all we did. We mowed, weeded, mulched, and pruned, and after that, we went to Borders. Busy day.
I gave the dogs a little bit of leftover turkey from my sandwich (Wegman’s sub – SO good), and they’re drooling at (and on) my heels now. They’re not letting me out of their sight in case I have more goodies in my pockets. Smart dogs.
I thought we were only two episodes behind on Lost, but we checked the DVR today and found out we’re THREE behind. So we started watching. And now we’re one and a half behind. We might finish tonight, might finish tomorrow, so until I say it’s clear, don’t talk about it where I can hear. Or read. Pretty please? I’ve avoided every article, every show, every website that even hints at being about Lost, so I really don’t know anything about how it ends.
My wacky neighbor with the electric lawn mower is at it again, mowing his backyard in long khaki pants, with what looks like 50 feet of extension cord connecting him to the house. At least he’s wearing a t-shirt this time instead of a button-down.
Roxy had another seizure last night around 9:40, her third in less than 36 hours, but nothing since then. An appointment with a doggie neurologist is probably in our future, but we’re not completely convinced it’ll be worth the $275 fee.
Later:
We didn’t finish Lost. Probably will tomorrow. We did finish The Pacific, though. John wants to buy the books by Sledge and Leckie tomorrow.
Because my boss can be pretty cool sometimes, I didn’t have to go to work today. I had a long long list of things I could/should do, and I had great plans to do them. And then I didn’t. Well, I did a few of them. Actually, I did nine out of nineteen, and to be fair to me, some of those things were meant for later in the weekend. Okay, I did plenty today. But I didn’t run and I didn’t go to the grocery store and I kept my out-of-the-house errands to a minimum because Roxy had a “welcome home” seizure last night before midnight and another one this morning, shortly before noon. She’s fine now, but somewhat groggy (we’re under instructions to give her extra medicine after seizures to help prevent clusters – clearly didn’t work last night – and that makes her woozy), so I thought it would be best if I stayed close to home.
One of the few errands I did run today took me to Home Depot. John needed grass seed, and while I was there, I bought a rosemary plant and an oregano plant ’cause MY FACE POTS WERE DELIVERED! Yay! And I already have a basil plant, so I’ll put all three into my new pots and put them…somewhere…to grow. The deck, maybe? I could put them on a plant stand on the front porch (if I had a plant stand. I think I just added that to my shopping list for the weekend.). I definitely can’t put them anywhere in the yard. The rabbits will get them. Like they’ve already eaten the three (maybe it was four) black-eyed susan plants that came back this year. I need plants rabbits don’t like.
That’s all. Home. 🙂
I bought a donut today. The woman asked me if I wanted a receipt. I said yes, and I think you know why.
I’m in the airport now, waiting for the plane to arrive. It’s a day early (me going home, not the plane – I’m sure the plane will be right on time (Okay, no, it won’t, but it won’t be a day early.)), and because it’s work-related, I don’t think it’s a good idea if I go into why I get to go home early. But it’s not bad news or anything. So, you know, nothing to worry about.
I had the BEST airport food when I got here. I know, crazy, right? Well, it’s not really airport food any more than any other restaurant in an airport is airport food, but still. UFood Grill. I’ve never heard of it, but there’s one near my gate and I got my lunch there. It was GOOD. (I just checked locations and they do seem to be mostly located in airports, so I guess I was right to characterize it as airport food.) I had the Chopstick Chicken Bowl, which is chicken, broccoli, and carrots in a teriyaki thai chili sauce, all over steamed brown rice. Spicy. And good. And healthy! (Not greasy, for real. I watched them make it.) What a surprise.
I’ll be home in less than three hours, and I get to stay home for a whole week. More than that! Yay!
A few links to keep you entertained while I fly home:
The dishwasher was cold. She cracks me up.
Jess found a baby chicken cam (similar to the puppy cam from a few years ago). Go! Look! Melt into a puddle from all the cutesy cuteness! (And while you’re there, steal her recipes for homemade strawberry ice cream and arugula pesto.)
Not a real statue.
See?
You may not know this about me, but I have a sign on my forehead that says “Pick me! I’ll play along!” I love street performers. I’ll always stop to watch. And 9 times out of 10, I get picked out of the crowd to participate in some way. (Or four times out of the five I can remember off the top of my head, if you want to get specific. The fifth time I can think of it was Sandwich Stealer who was chosen) I love it. This past Sunday, as I was leaving the aquarium to go to Harvard (and before I couldn’t find the State Street T station), I wandered around Quincy Market/Fanueil Hall and stopped to watch a street performer. Of course. Did I get picked out of the crowd? Yes. Do I have proof? Yes! Because I asked some nice lady to take pictures. Are they any good? No. But here’s one anyway.
I handed those flowers up to him and then did weird things with my hand before catching that pillow and throwing it back to him. Fascinating, right?
I shouldn’t go to bookstores when I’m away from home. Unless I’m out of reading material, of course. And if I’m driving, I think it’s okay. So really, it’s just when I’m flying that I shouldn’t do it. Boston has lots of bookstores, lots of used bookstores, and lots of good bookstores. I’ve been in four of them. And one of them was on a sidewalk near Harvard. See?
I found four books there, $2 each. Then I went to Harvard Book Store. New books upstairs, used downstairs, and bought a few more. THEN I went to one near where I’m working and bought three more Lawrence Block mysteries (I’m in the middle of one of them now). And I have to fit them all into the two bags I’m already checking to get them home. No more! I’ll refrain from entering any more bookstores as long as I’m here.
Some other things that happened on my one day off in Boston:
Every picture of this fountain turned out like this. They're all shots of water splashing around and they kinda miss the point. Sorry.
These two had the same morning I had: breakfast while watching the fountain and then the aquarium. I wonder if they followed me to Harvard?
Ivy League. Who knew?
A depressed-looking lionfish. I heard a kid trying to identify it for his friend: "That's a catfish. No, a tiger fish." Close, but not quite. Maybe that's why the lionfish is sad.
What's the name of the other fish in the tank with Nemo? Gill? You know, the one with Willem Dafoe's voice (unless it's Denis Leary...). Anyway, I think this is the fish.
It's looking at me....
Look, it's Dory! Honestly, I must have been looking at the Finding Nemo tank.
Scariest damn thing I've ever seen. No idea what it is (some kind of eel maybe?), but it poked its head out and kept opening and closing its mouth. Creepy.
Up close and personal. Cliche? Yes. Evil with dead eyes? Yes. Too close for me? Yes.
This one's for you, Dad. Herring!
And this one reminded me of Roxy. 🙂
More pictures (not as many fish, I promise) and a few more bits about Sunday tomorrow.
I like that phrase. Except when that’s how I feel. Which is now. I was fine through the day, but my energy level plummeted on the walk from the T stop to the hotel, and when I got back to my hotel room, I could barely make myself leave again. I did, though, and I planned to grab a quick light dinner somewhere and spend some time on a park bench with my book since the weather was so nice. I managed the first part, barely, took a walk around the block in the direction of the park, and then decided this was ridiculous. I can’t force myself to enjoy an evening in the sunshine if all I want to do is climb into bed. So I’m back in my room, it’s just after seven, and I plan to take a bath (I’m coming up with this plan right this very second), read, and go to bed early. I don’t have to be at work until 8 tomorrow, which means I can wait to leave the hotel until about 7:30, which means I can get up early and run outside! In the sunshine! In the early morning! When it’s early! (Which is what I like to do.) Hopefully, I’ll have recovered from this general malaise fatigue by then. (I looked up malaise – it’s linked to health issues more than I originally thought. I don’t think I have any health issues.)
Why does travel take so much out of people? I’ve never really understood that. Maybe when you’re in the act of traveling, but why when I’m staying in one place for so many days? What am I doing that’s so fatiguing? (Pronounced fat-igg-you-ing.)
More Boston travelogue tomorrow, perhaps.
You know, today. 🙂 But doesn’t that sound cool? Here is how I spent the rest of my day off in Boston. With pictures! ‘Cause I remembered my camera! And then I used it! (A crucial second step that I often forget.) I just reviewed every picture I took today (215, thank you very much), deleted the blurry ones, and there is no way in hell I’m posting them all here, even assuming any of you wanted to see them. I’ll show you a smattering. (Good word.)
First, after my run, I went to the aquarium (for several hours) and saw ALL of the fishes, the penguins, the sharks, the jellyfish, and an IMAX movie that taught me way more than I wanted to know about the mating habits of cuttlefish, which, despite how they look, are not squids.
Cuttlefish, not squid. In Atlanta, I heard a woman tell her kid, "They're called cuttlefish 'cause they like to cuddle." The kid was grossed out by the idea.
My penguin pictures aren’t so great, but I did get a good one of a clownfish. EVERYone recognizes Nemo now. In every language. I kept hearing, “Blah blah foreign language, maybe French, then some Swedish or Dutch or something NEMO!” So here’s Nemo:
I’ve got lots more, and lots of stuff about today, but I need to get ready for tomorrow and come back to this. I’ll leave you with my attempts at self-portraits from throughout the day. Clearly, I need to practice this.
1st attempt. Lesson: My sunglasses are reflective. Take them off first. But at least I got the aquarium in the background and my whole head in the frame.
2nd attempt. Lesson: Put something interesting behind me. I was at the sea lion exhibit. Why are they not in the picture? I'm not even facing the right way to include them.
3rd attempt. Lesson: Timing. That's the end of a sting ray behind me. Could have been the whole thing. No idea why the picture is so grainy.
Attempt #4. Lesson: Don't hold the camera above my head and tilt down. That's quite the lovely picture of the ground you have there. Also, again with the reflective sunglasses.
5th attempt. (You'd think I'd have given up by now.) Got the harbor this time, but it kinda looks like I'm stalking that couple at the table. Lesson: Don't take pictures of other people surreptitiously if I meant to take one of myself. (Only do that when I'm going to make fun of them.) Also, please please please get my whole head in the frame.
6th try. Not massively improved. At least my head is in the picture. I'm at Harvard, not that you can tell by any landmarks.
Last try, back in the hotel room. I can barely manage, after four tries, to look at the camera when I'm in front of a mirror. How does Dooce manage this? I tried putting the camera to one side or lower down so it wouldn't be visible, but I couldn't manage that AND get my eyes pointing in the right direction at the same time. HARD!
Who needs self portraits, anyway?
Best run ever. Early morning (okay, it was a little before 8am, but it’s Sunday, so it felt earlier), a little overcast at first, a nice cool day, and I only had to share Boston with a few other early risers. I’m only a couple of blocks from Boston Common (the Boston Common? Or just Boston Common?), so I headed there first. Beautiful. It’s the perfect park, with lots of paths crisscrossing and SO many trees. The entire thing was shady. (In the nice, cool, protected-from-the-sun way, not the scary/sketchy way). So I ran in random directions on the Common, passing the frog pond where a group of older people were practicing tai chi, and then along Beacon Street where I saw a guy throwing a ball for his dog. I headed up Tremont and then took some spur-of-the-moment twists and turns, and before I knew it, I was at Quincy Market. I hadn’t realized I was that close. So I ran through the market (too early for anything to be open) and circled back around to the Common (tai chi people were still at it). I ran by a church (and dodged around the early church-goers) whose bells I could hear from blocks away. The melody was close enough to “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” that it bugged me when it took a wrong turn into something else.
It felt fantastic. I really liked running around the city. Running through suburbia doesn’t have the same thrill. 🙂
Alright, I’ve stopped sweating, and I think I’ve cooled down enough to hop in the shower. The aquarium is next, and then Harvard, I think.
I’m not going to pretend I’m happy to be away from home, but last night and today so far are making it a little easier to bear. I guess I can’t be unbearably depressed and crying all the time. John, can you forgive me? 🙂 If I had my way, this plane would be heading towards home, not Boston. Since it’s not – damn. Ignore the no-crying statement. I’m not crying, exactly, but the song that just started (“(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am”) brought tears to my eyes. Because I’m a sap and I’m away from home. Today’s post is brought to you by The Living Sisters. If I could find that song on YouTube, I’d post it. Here’s the one that was playing right before it, when I was feeling a little happier:
Back to what’s made the last day and a half bearable (and, you know, good). Mom, Dad, and Gaby drove up from Corey and Candy’s place yesterday to spend the afternoon and evening with me on their way north. Mom and Dad have been all over the south over the last two weeks, and I’m ridiculously happy they realized that coming through Atlanta wouldn’t put them too far out of their way. I was done with work yesterday right about 1pm, and I wasn’t expecting Mom and Dad to arrive until about 4:30, so I went to the aquarium. It was cool and everything, but I think Baltimore and Boston have better ones. Not at all the peaceful afternoon I’d imagined when I thought about going to the aquarium. Yesterday was the last day of school for many of the districts in Atlanta, and it looked like most of them let out early and shipped the students to the aquarium. NOT quiet, pretty crowded, but while I didn’t get to experience the whole meditation-while-looking-at-fishies thing, I did have perfect timing to see all the animals get fed. I was checking out the otter exhibit (they were all napping in a big pile) when an aquarium employee appeared and tossed some food at them. They bolted out of that pile like they’d been faking the nap and scurried all over the habitat scooping up the food, doingcutelittlehumanthingswiththeirhands. Where was my camera? That’s right. Hotel room. But it was fun to watch. Oh, one thing that is totally cool about the Georgia Aquarium is how they’ve put half of the tanks and exhibits over the heads of the people walking around. So in the Georgia swamp area, you’re wandering around looking at frogs and snakes and things (this one little boy had camped out in front of the tree frog tank and made it his business to show me every single slimy, slithery thing in there), and then something catches your eye and you look UP. And above me, right there over my head, was a huge tank of water with a glass bottom, and a two-foot long catfish looking down at me. There were all kinds of fish swimming over my head. And that’s just the river exhibit. When we got to the ocean part (Ocean Voyager, maybe?), the track leads you into this tunnel that goes under and through what they say is the largest aquatic exhibit in the world. Lots of sharks, giant grouper, a manta ray, and four half-grown whale sharks. And lots of other fish. LOTS of other fish. After you get through the tunnel (which is just SO cool – seriously the fish and the sharks are swimming next to you and over you and it’s SO COOL – they had hammerhead sharks and the kind with noses that look like chainsaws. I can never remember what those are called.), you end up in a room with a window onto the exhibit that’s the size of a movie screen. I got there just in time to watch them feed these fish, which they do by pumping food in through a pipe. Everything in the tank zeroes in on this one pipe, right in front of the glass, I got to watch the feeding frenzy. Then, while I was in the tropical reef exhibit, they fed those fish, too. It was neat to watch, but I think I’ve had my fill of watching fish eat. After a couple of hours, I’d seen everything (minus the exhibits with an extra charge), so I went back to the hotel. About an hour later, I got a phone call from Gaby telling me they were checking in, so I met them in front. Where Gaby got shy for about five seconds. Then she got over it. I can’t blame her. I think it’s been a year since I saw her last. And at four and a half, I think she can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing an aunt she’s seen all of five times (now six) in her life. She’s the funniest little kid. We went to dinner at PF Chang’s (they have a reliably gluten-free menu for Dad, and besides, they’re good), and she started to fade a little. At first, she wanted to sit with the girls, so they three of us crowded into one side of the booth with Dad all by himself on the other side. After a while, she disappeared under the table after a crayon she’d dropped, and when she came back up, she’d moved to Dad’s side. Mom bagged up the leftovers and left them in the middle of the table. I started making faces at Gaby, who gave me a blank (tired) look and then slowly slid the bag over until it blocked her view of me. Cracked me up. And she insisted on sleeping with me instead of Grammy and Poppy last night. I guess Mom and Dad had suggested it to her earlier in the day, but we all expected her to back out once it came down to it. Not Gaby. I was about to drop and she was on her second wind (and an hour behind me, since she was coming from Central time), but even knowing that if she stayed with me we were going to bed right now didn’t deter her. So we headed across the hall to my room after Mom made her brush her teeth and she settled onto the right side (if you’re on it) of the giant bed. I got ready for bed and climbed in, and she scooted over to the middle so I could read her the two stories she’d been promised. After two stories, I was putting myself to sleep, so we turned off the light (leaving the bathroom light on and the light over by the door so it wouldn’t get too dark). She tossed and turned a bit (and was still in the middle of the bed, leaving me less than a third on the left), and then decided she didn’t want sleep at the head of the bed. She wanted to sleep at the foot of the bed, under the comforter that was folded up there. I didn’t care, so she moved and tossed and turned down there. And then demanded another story. And another. And another. So I made one up, which apparently didn’t go over well, because she asked for princess stories after that, particularly Ariel and Belle. So with my eyes closed and my words slurring (I think), I managed slightly butchered and completely condensed renditions of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” (the Disney versions, naturally). At some point, she moved back up to the head of the bed, in the middle, sprawled out at an angle, and fell asleep.
I didn’t sleep well.
But she’s so cute! I can forgive a lot for a cute face and a little girl who tells me she loves me without any prompting. So yesterday was fun, and this morning, too, and I’m always happy to hang out with Mom and Dad.
On top of THAT, when I checked in online for my flight to Boston today, Air Tran offered me an upgrade to business class for a very reasonable price, and I took it. So here I am, sitting in the very front row of the business class section, next to the window, with free wi-fi. I’ve just finished one of those cute little airline bottles of chardonnay and two milano cookies, I’m listening to The Living Sisters (although I’m on the second round of the album and I’m thinking about switching to something else), and I’ll have all day tomorrow in Boston to do whatever I want before I have to work on Monday. I think the aquarium is calling my name. 🙂 The one in Boston has penguins!
So, even though I’d rather be home (or be going to Boston on vacation with John), I can make the best of it. It helps that I ran this morning. Makes me feel like I’m holding my own in my battle against getting fat.
Enough of this. I’m going back to my book. I just started a mystery by Tana French called In The Woods.
I feel so much better today. For now. I went to bed early and set my alarm for 4:50. I slept mostly okay (weird dream that turned into a horrible nightmare (with people chasing me and trying to kill me) around 4am) and wasn’t too shocked when the alarm went off that early. I took my time getting up, reading a little to wake my eyes up, and then I got dressed to go for a run. I already knew I was heading to the fitness center (it was still dark out, and I’m not running in a strange place in the dark), but when I opened the door, I found out it was raining. Pretty steadily. I dashed across the courtyard area to get to the little fitness room. I don’t really like treadmills, but that’s what I had to work with, so I set it up to go for 30 minutes and I turned on the little TV that was attached to it. I had headphones, but I couldn’t find a jack on the stupid thing, so I watched TV (an episode of Married With Children) and tried to read lips for half an hour.
About halfway through my workout, the thunder and lightning started, and the rain switched from steady to POURING. Like the clouds were hurling all that rain down as hard as they could. I was soaked after my dash back to the room. Rain like that doesn’t usually stick around for long, but it was still raining as hard or harder when I splashed through the parking lot to my car to get to work. I have to park about a block away from the building (at work, not at the hotel), so I stopped at my friendly neighborhood Kroger and bought a tiny little red umbrella. You know what that means. By the time I parked in the lot downtown, the rain had slowed to a sprinkle and I hardly needed the umbrella. If I hadn’t bought it, though, it would have been pouring still.
My point, if I had one, is that despite the soaking wet hem of my pants, and despite knowing that I don’t get to go home until NEXT Friday, I feel a little better because I RAN this morning. (“SO much better” from the first paragraph has already been downgraded.) Also, I get to see Mom, Dad, and Gaby tonight. They’re stopping here to see me on their way back to KY. AND (see? lots of good things today) my first couple of hours at work this morning have already been a vast improvement over the rest of this week ’cause I’m sitting down and I’ve only had to talk to two people. Sitting down is crucial.
Make that five people. Still better than the rest of the week, and I have a built-in, supervisor-approved excuse so I don’t have to stay here all day. Yay!
I’d be a terrible host if I didn’t pass on a couple of fun things I found on my favorite sites over the last couple of days.
First, go visit Bridget and check out the video (and song) for “Tightrope”. The rap section in the middle (short) doesn’t do anything for me, but I love the rest of it. The dancing is fantastic. My favorite part is around the 3:20 mark.
Second, from NN.C, this gem of a slideshow. (Did I just call something a gem? What decade are we living in? I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you. I’ll have to get my ear-trumpet.) I can’t believe some of these are real.
Third, cake can save your life!
And fourth, the answer to “where do cursors come from?”
I don’t have anything else to share (beyond my pounding headache, and I don’t think anyone really wants to share that), so I’m going to spend the rest of the evening with my dinner, my book, and my bathtub. Well, the hotel’s bathtub. I didn’t bring mine with me.
How do I begin to describe how tired I am? Not in great detail, that’s for sure, since my bed is calling out to me. Let’s start by saying that I’d been back in the hotel room less than an hour before I found myself nodding off in a hot bathtub. You may ask why I’m bothering to post anything here when the road from hot bath to bed should be direct. That would be a good question. The answer lies somewhere between the realm of my anal-retentive need to post something every day and, well, pretty much just that. And let’s blame the exhaustion for the odd wording of this entire paragraph.
In short, I think I’m saying “please come back tomorrow.”
I went to visit one of those bookstores I was looking up yesterday. It’s in Little Five Points, A Capella Books, and while the area is really cool, the bookstore was a little disappointing. Eclectic, yes, but not very big and kind of a disappointing selection. It’s not what I was looking for. And they didn’t have any Lawrence Block books, either.
I’m tired and not feeling particularly chatty tonight, so I’m going to read in the bathtub and go to bed. Hope you don’t mind.
John thinks I should change my tag line from “What did you expect?” to “Because Non Sequitur was taken”. And now that I’ve checked, it’s not taken, and I wonder if I should buy it…
In honor of John, here are a few unrelated items:
As I dragged my suitcases from the baggage carousel to the train for the rental car counters, I followed a woman leading a doggie train across the street. Why didn’t I take a picture? I’m an idiot, that’s why. The woman had a rolling suitcase behind her, and attached to that, she had what looked like an overnight bag on wheels with mesh sides. The top was open and there were two little white dogs (Westies, maybe) checking out the surroundings. One was seated with just its head poking out, but the other was up on its hind legs, leaning on the front of the bag, craning its neck in every direction. One of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. They looked like they were riding on the caboose of a little train.
My last rental car (a Kia Spectra), while economy, had power everything. You know, the normal things (windows, locks, etc.). This one, a Chevy Aveo, has power NOTHING. Can you remember the last time you were in a car without power locks? Without power windows? My first car didn’t have power locks or windows, but it was an ’88 Corolla hatchback, not a 2009 Chevy four-door sedan, and I haven’t been in that car since…1997.
I finished the Lawrence Block book, The Burglar in the Library, last night before I went to sleep. That’s right – I liked it SO much I couldn’t put it down. Started it on the plane, finished it before I went to sleep. And as soon as I can find a used bookstore around here that’s open when I’m able to get there, I plan to buy several more of his books. And there are lots of used bookstores in Atlanta.
I started watching Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School tonight, a movie I’m pretty sure John isn’t interested in. I am, but I can’t watch it now. It’s about a guy (Robert Carlyle) getting over the death of his wife. WHY would I want to watch a gut-wrenching, soul-twisting, tearjerker of a movie about a guy who’s lost his wife when I can’t be home with John? I wouldn’t, that’s right, so I’m turning it off. I’m going to curl up in bed with the next Dresden Files book ’cause a little light vampire-killing (or whatever monster he’ll go after in this book) is just what I need.
It’s ten to three. We pulled away from the gate on time, did some taxi-ing (how do you spell that? Taxying? Taxing? Taxiing?), and then came to a standstill on the tarmac with a message from the pilot. “Something something something from Atlanta, 30 minutes before we can take off, approximate time of take-off 16 after the hour, blah blah ten-minute warning to turn electronics back off.” So…why did we pull away from the gate? Why board at all? Maybe so those of us who are sleepy can nap uninterrupted, as both of my seatmates are doing right now. (One is snoring. Lightly, but still.) I’m on the window this time, exit row again, next to two seemingly ordinary people. We’ll see how it goes. And Mom, I don’t ALWAYS have stories to tell about my flight. On my way home from Atlanta two days ago, my seatmate was a woman visting her daughter in Leesburg. She was a bit of a talker, but perfectly nice. It wasn’t her fault that I wasn’t in the mood to chat. (Maybe if she’d been a hot ex-Marine I’d have changed my mind about that. 🙂 )
I finished my Dresden Files book while waiting to board. I have another one with me, but I’m going to try a new mystery writer first. New to me. Has anyone heard of Lawrence Block? I read about his books somewhere (almost everything I buy comes from a recommendation now), but I can’t remember where. So far so good. The book is called “The Burglar in the Library”, the main character owns a used bookstore, and he’s heading to an English-style bed and breakfast to look for a possibly non-existent rare book. Just my cup of tea.
Yesterday, John and I went to Erik’s place to help him celebrate getting his Masters degree in International Commerce and Policy. (Erik, did I get it right?)
Hey, ten-minute warning. I’ll finish that later.
Much later:
I’m in my hotel room after a trip to a nail salon (yay for pretty toes) and a trip to Kroger for breakfast and lunch supplies for the week. Food and relaxing are at the top of my list for right now, so, um, bye.
We really need to make an effort to see our friends more often. Yes, we’re busy, life is busy, and right now isn’t ever the best time, but these guys have been our friends for more than a decade, and I feel like we’re missing out on things. Try harder! I can do that. For now, though, I’m going to track John down. We got home tonight and heard loud music from somewhere down the street, so John went to find out if there’s a band playing or if it’s just someone’s radio turned up as loud as possible. I’m sure he’s hoping it’s a band.
(This is me putting off thinking about tomorrow. Except not really. Just burying it.)
I’m home, but only for two days. Almost exactly. And I’ve spent the afternoon so far trying not to melt into a puddle of tears. I’m SO tired, so completely worn out, that it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open. (And, of course, I don’t want to go away again! Not so soon, not at all…) I made it to Wegman’s, but really only to pick up easy stuff for dinner tonight. I need to start laundry so I’ll have clean clothes to repack for Sunday, but that sounds like too much work right now. The dogs seemed pretty happy to see me. Riley actually jumped up on me, front paws on my shoulders, the better to stick his nose in my face. Apparently, I wasn’t leaning down to say hello fast enough. Roxy, with her cute little red bandage from where the vet stuck the IV needle, has been following me around the house and settling on the floor near my feet whenever I stop. I’d take a picture, but that would take effort.