Sun, sea, and soreness
Someday I will learn to keep a stash of ibuprofen at my desk.
Saturday I wanted to do anything but sit on the couch and stare at the DVR. Handily, there was plenty going on in the area, and we ended up catching a free blues festival at the 17th Street oceanfront. Less handily, we ended up parking at the 23rd Street oceanfront and I got my exercise for the weekend in 95-degree weather. I can’t believe I’m not sunburned. But, the music was excellent.
Add in that walking to yesterday’s five-hour cleaning spree in the apartment (2.5 rooms done, yay!) and I am an achy Borg today. Still, I’m pleased with the reasons I got that way, so I’m calling it a win.
Saturday night we ended up as guests of Starr’s parents at a mildly pricey Italian restaurant. The kitchen messed up my order once, and delayed the second attempt; the manager finally comped me the dinner and I think overdid my dessert as apology. With two large cannoli on a plate before me that evening, I’m pretty thankful for all the unplanned exercise.
Today is my mom’s birthday, At first, I was fretting over whether she’d even want to talk to me, but that’s not the right attitude. I want to talk to her, and I’m still commmitted to getting this whole situation worked out in a way that gets her as much of what she wants as is sane.
Good news for today? I just found a bottle of ibuprofen in my glove compartment; and these 90-minute OS X Leopard installs give me lots of time to tap away at the Newton.
To Do Checklist
Things to do today, in random order:
1) Have large breakfast so I don’t mope all day.
Completed at 1:00 pm.
2) Call Mom and check up on her. Continue searching for home care.
No answer at Jon Reid’s. Left message on his phone.
3) Clean gerbil cage.
Gerbils looking much happier. Cat still sad this is not a buffet.
4) Get badly needed haircut.
This is being put off for a week-and-a-half due to time and budget issues.
5) Get lamp for spare bedroom.
Lamp secure. Only been meaning to do this for months.
6) Do laundry.
Third load in dryer. That’s all I have energy for tonight.
7) Contact plumber who fixed kitchen sink at Kentland to make payment arrangements.
Number not in phone. Left voicemail with neighbor contact.
8) Try for Azeroth Olympics tabard and pet.
Got tabard. Pet looking unlikely.
9) Clean up living room. Empty dishwasher from last night.
Dishwasher is empty and reloaded. Living room in progress. Vacuum cleaner belt is broken.
10) Make dinner.
Seared then baked chicken randomly seasoned with garlic, lemon, cumin, and cilantro, with couscous on the side. An Iron Chef would be appalled, but it came out yummy.
11) Call local lifestyle group about demo they asked for on Tuesday.
Done. No problem, they just need me to revise the entire presentation, that’s all.
12) Buy new pantz to replace 1 holed pair and 2 pair falling off my hips (good thing, right?)
This is being put off for a week-and-a-half due to time and budget issues.
Thinned blood
My Mom’s back in the hospital. The blood thinner she had been prescribed caused some internal bleeding; it seems to have stopped, and she’ll probably be out again by the weekend. But… oy.
We found a Jamaican cafe / grocery less than two blocks from us last night, and I tried curry chicken for the first time ever. Extremely yummy, though I’m not used to eating anything that shade of yellow; nor am I used to picking that many tiny sharp chicken bones from my teeth. Oh, and an hour later, my stomach was not pleased with these new spices at all. Still, yum.
The apartment building I live in is very nice, but it’s still an apartment building. One of the tenants on my floor has had multiple summonses taped to their door in recent months; this last weekend, they moved out in a flurry of activity (mysteriously bringing a mattress into the place in the process). Well, police showed up a couple of days later to pound on their door, and there’s an eviction notice taped there now (which doesn’t exactly change much at this point). I’m actually sad. They seemed nice enough, and it’s a shame when people’s mistakes land on them so hard.
At this moment, I am rather physically and emotionally weary. I’ll be fine, it’s hardly life-threatening. But the assertiveness I have been trying to encourage in myself in recent months is eluding me a bit just now. Of course, now is when I really need it.
Oh, and the smoke’s back in Portsmouth this morning. Koff.
Travellers
LiveJournal seems a little slow today. Wonder what their servers are dealing with.
Got a nice evening walk in last night, 1.66 miles according to the GMaps Pedometer, though I swear it felt like 2. Turned out that the exercise was a good thing; right after we got back, Dwight called, and invited us out for sushi and hibachi. Starr wore her new Questionable Content kitty shirt I got her. I told the story of the time that a bunch of us went to a hibachi place in Roanoke, and as we were served, we all eagerly grasped our chopsticks… except for the Japanese exchange student with us, who matter-of-factly picked up her fork.
You’d think that with all the exercise, I’d have slept great last night. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. While Starr said something this morning that cheered me, the weariness is still nibbling away at me. I think I may be naughty and pick up a Coke or two today.
This weekend we will be leaving Portsmouth around 7 or 8 p.m. and driving to Blacksburg. Saturday morning, we’ll be catching up with some of Starr’s family that will be in the general area, Saturday evening we’ll visit my Mom, and then Sunday we’ll be heading to my old house to survey what needs to be done to move Mom back in when she’s ready. Then we’ll drive back to Portsmouth. I may be pretty liberal with the caffeine this weekend as well.
Back when I apparently didn’t eat
If someone’s Twitter profile page says that they are following 35,000 people, than I somehow doubt that their ‘personalized’ request for me to follow them back means much. It doesn’t help that all their tweets are private. How do I know if you’re interesting if I can’t read your tweets / journal entries / etc.? This is also why I don’t have a MySpace.
Spent all night last night trying to catch up on e-mail correspondence, and in the process, forgot to call my mom and check on her, which I am not especially proud of. I did get the gerbil cage cleaned, though, which I’ve been promising to do for a couple of weeks.
cynical_prophet sent me this picture of myself from 1988. I was kind of down that night, and the pic was a surprise, so I don’t have the best expression. Starr had a fairly amusing reaction: “Is that you!?”
“Yes, it’s me, about 20 years ago.”
“Wait… you still have that shirt!”
“Not that it fits, it’s a size medium or so.”
“More like size Tiny!”
Temperatures are down a little, so I am walking again. Missed yesterday, but I aim for a mile today!
EDIT: Hokey smokes, they are sending my mom home from the hospital on Friday. Now that, boys and girls, is a solid recovery. I know she’s going to love getting to see her kitty again!
