Filed under: My People
My friend Kacey’s mom got a “Cancer Free” report this week! YAY!
Filed under: Photos
I’m at the VIM’s house, but he’s not here. Unfortunately, his job isn’t all sunshine and puppy dogs, and sometimes he has to travel and do things he’d rather not do. This is one of those nights.
So I’m here with the cats. They aren’t quite as entertaining as the VIM, so I have more time to catch up on blog reading.
For the past half hour, the cats have been stalking a group of deer out in the yard:
I call this one “View from the Balcony.” Officially I guess it’s actually “View from the Bay Window,” but whatever.
Here’s the same bay window, different cat, different deer.
You might wonder what life with the VIM is really like. Well, it goes something like this:
At 6:30pm I say, “Sure, I’ll be happy to help you move the canoe to the back wall of the garage as long as I don’t have to go in the yard for anything because I just have my slippers on.”
Two hours later I’m in the yard in my slippers, in the dark, in 48 degree weather. The sky is clear and the stars are bright. There is a coyote howling from up the mountain. I am getting a lesson on how to swing a golf club. The VIM wants to go inside and I keep saying, “Ok, just one more. Ok, just one more.”
I’ll bet if I look back, I won’t find many posts that were written on Saturday. Probably not a lot of posts written about Saturday, either. That’s because Saturdays are generally the busiest, heaviest scheduled day of my week. My Saturdays are committed to other people. The free time that I DO have is spent cleaning, doing laundry, and paying bills. Quite frankly, I’m not a fan of Saturdays. I put up with them the way they are because the crazy race to get everything done on Saturday pays off with (usually) a quiet, peaceful Sunday.
This morning I woke up before the VIM and sat down with a cup of coffee and the laptop at the dining room table. I tried to catch up on blog reading, but I found myself staring out the window instead. It’s truly a late-autumn day here today. The leaves are past their prime, but that incredible, unmistakable, earthy leafy smell more than makes up for it. It’s time to switch from visual to olfactory delights, and I’m ok with that.
The VIM is now awake and in the kitchen preparing breakfast. I love to hear him putter around. This is our Sunday routine – he cooks breakfast while I catch up online, then we eat while watching the Food Network. Then I’ll head back to my apartment to do web page stuff for few hours, and he’ll do the male bonding thing over the Steelers game.
Life? It’s striking me well.
Filed under: The VIM
The VIM and I have gotten in the habit of eating dinner, then crawling into bed for a few hours of reading every night. He is reading a Joe Strummer biography I got him for his birthday, and I am reading a St. Francis biography that the VIM recommended. Every once in a while we check in with each other:
Me: So how’s Joe doing?
VIM: Well, his parents just died, the Clash is pretty much broken up, and he’s taking it all pretty hard. He’s acting out. He’s in a pretty bad place.
Me: Oh.
*silence*
VIM: So what is Francis (or as he calls him, Frank) up to?
Me: Well, he’s been on his deathbed for the past year due to malaria and the effects of his lifestyle, but he felt he needed to be part of the Crusade, so right now he’s in Egypt, in the midst of some pretty barbaric acts of war. He is distressed.
VIM: Oh.
*silence*
Filed under: Lists
- I wish I could write more freely about my job change. I CAN say that I really REALLY like my new job. Have quite a crush on the entire organization, actually. I feel fairly confident that once I settle in and pass out of the honeymoon phase that I will be fully and irrevocably in love. One reason why it like it there: I went from a very, uh, pinstripey environment to an environment where one of my coworker’s email signature lines is “Pax et Bonum” (Peace and Good). My inner hippie chick is, like, “Right on, dude.” Seriously, I can already tell that these are my people.
- The only real downside to the new job is the change in routine. I actually have shorter working hours, but a longer commute, so my morning schedule has been shortened by about 20 minutes. I MORE than make up for it in the evening, but I’ve found that I just don’t know what to DO with myself at that time. It feels weird to me to read my daily blog reads at 4.45 pm instead of 5.45 am. And don’t even ask about web design (why, yes, I AM still doing that on the side…) ! I’m just gonna have to learn to create creativity in the afternoon (when I’m generally my dullest.)
- At work I’m within walking distance to a Starbucks. The only thing that is keeping me from going broke is that I looked up the nutritional info on a Medium Carmel Macchiato, and it’s 6 Weight Watcher points. SIX! I try to stay around 20 points a day, so even though it’s a lovely coffee drink, it comes with a high nutritional price. I treat myself to one about once a week. It’s true – anticipation really DOES make it taste better.
- Although I TRY to stay around 20 points a day, I will make exceptions. Last night (and the night before), the VIM and I had spaghetti and his homemade sauce and meatballs. mmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Filed under: Analyze This
Yesterday, I was sitting quietly making a mental to-do list (must pay bills TODAY, must research debtors’ prison, etc…), when all of the sudden I remembered, “The Blog! Sweet Mother of God, I have a Blog! That I haven’t updated in a LONG TIME!”
It’s been a whirlwind here. Left old job, started new job, biked through Pittsburgh, met the VIM’s family, yadda yadda yadda. I am physically and mentally tired, but in a good way.
Something weird though…I’ve started dreaming again. For the past year or so I haven’t been able to remember dreams the way I used to. I’ve always been a dream-rememberer, so when I realized that wasn’t happening I got a little worried. All I know is since I started the new job I’m back to remembering dreams, or at least recognize that I was dreaming when I woke up. I haven’t changed sleeping habits or anything. I’m just aware of dreams again. I feel like the guy in those “Your Dreams Miss You” ads.
My friend has had severe headaches for awhile now. After an exhausting run through the “we’re going to send you to another specialist” gamut, she has her diagnosis, which I won’t write about here because I feel weird writing about someone else’s matters. What I WILL say is that while the condition isn’t life-threatening, apparently the only way to stop the headaches is surgery. On her brain. But it’s her decision. It’s Elective Brain Surgery.
I am almost 40 years old and have never heard, never CONSIDERED the idea of Elective Brain Surgery. I can’t wrap my head around it. (Aha HAHHAHA wrap my HEAD around it. Get it? Get it? I didn’t even do that on purpose!) Apparently there is quite a large waiting list for Elective Brain Surgery, as the earliest she can get scheduled is December or January.
