Friday September 05, 2003: Hearts all over the planet
Sometimes, you close your eyes in early August and you open them and it's suddenly early September, the air in the morning feels a little like fall, and you're trying to decide where the last month has gone.
It's been quite the ride, really.
To sum up:
I think that pretty much covers it.
So my parents arrived here on Friday morning.
They left on Tuesday morning.
I didn't die. No thanks to whatever virus I managed to pick up out of the blue, but.
I've never had a really good relationship with my dad; we never really had anything to talk about. Now, it turns out, we do--I have a house, and he likes to remodel, and I could just see his fingers itching as he surveyed my bathroom and kitchen.
It turns out that the bathroom remodel is going to be inexpensive for materials, but labor-intense--we may well do that this fall, if I can get my act together. The kitchen is going to be...somewhat more expensive. To the tune of about $8k for materials/cabinets/appliances alone. I found the perfect cabinets, which should not be particularly expensive (thank goodness!).
And, of course, the electrical needs to be done, but I have a guy coming out to do an estimate on that on Monday.
But, yes. There was much talk of remodeling, and we went to a nearby brew pub (my dad was entranced by the fact I was driving and he could have as many beers as he wanted--which was all of two).
That night, my dad refused to believe my protests of "I don't get any channels here!" and turned on the TV. Turns out that I get the three major networks. Very loudly. All evening long. Evidently, to get those three major networks clearly, all I need is an antenna that would sit on top of my TV.
I am not going to buy said antenna. I will, however, purchase a pair of wireless headphone for my dad, as after a few nights of loud TV in my very small condo, I was tearing my hair out from the stress.
(Also, I did not really want to know that I get TV. I am attempting to erase that knowledge from my brain. NO TV.)
On Saturday, we went to Home Depot and looked at tile and did some costing of materials. After that, we came home and I cooked up a storm, making a taco bar for the several people who showed up for my Meet The Parents dinner.
It was very weird, these two sides of my life coming together for the first time since I left high school. Everyone behaved themselves, and my parents were very impressed with my friends. My mom said, "you have very bright and personable friends!"
Like I would have any other kind, really. (You all rock, by the way.)
And on Sunday, we went to Whidbey Island, which would have been fun if I hadn't been ill with something that my mom termed, quite coyly, "a 24-hour flu". There was the vomiting, and the other stuff, and the muscle aches and the slight fever and here I was *driving* in a place i'd been only once before.
Not a lot of fun, really.
We came home and I went to bed and slept for three hours. Then I got up and was generally withdrawn and ill-looking for the rest of the evening.
I felt much better the next morning. i wasn't 100% until about Wednesday, but I wasn't deathly ill, either.
And on Monday, my dad and I went and washed my car, and we came home and waxed it. There was a kind of camaraderie we'd never had before, just two people working on something together. I learned how and how often to wax the car (every spring and fall), and Regina is now the Shiniest Car in Shinyville. We finally had something to bond over, after 28 years--our mutual love of shiny objects.
He probably doesn't like to polish silver, though. (I love polishing silver. I am weird.)
And on Tuesday morning, they left, and the house was quiet again.
I've been practicing solitude since they left, and I'm starting to feel balanced again. I'm working out, eating right, and spending as much time as I can alone. I've blocked off this weekend as alone time, and I'll be hiking for the first time in a month on Saturday, and I'll spend Sunday puttering and relaxing.
It's time for me to make the shift into fall/winter mode; It's September now, and October is just around the corner, and it's just about time. Soon Samhain will be here and then it's the long fall into the lightless season. It's time to start submitting poetry to local magazines, time to finish painting the doors and the touchups in the hallway.
It's time to clean out my storage area and my closets. Time to scrub under the bed and give Juniper a bath.
Time to finish the tasks of the summer and get ready for the winter's work.
Amazingly enough, I continue to lose weight. In spurts and starts, but I've been under 200 pounds for the last three weeks. This is a weight I've not been at since high school, believe it or now.
But I'm running now, and it feels like flying still. The grindingly slow runs where all I can think of is the point at which I get to stop are all worth it when I stretch my leg and zip along the ground.
Those moments don't happen often; they're as likely to happen at the end of the run as the beginning.
But they happen.
And I am glad, and triumphant, because it means I am winning this battle.
Somewhere in there, I made it to Rivendell.
Still not king.
caesura
The fact that there was no news
was news. The anchor looked bored,
fiddled with her hair, fussed
with the papers in front of her,
stacking and restacking the sheets that are
always empty.
The newspapers resorted
to stories about school sports; forgot to update the Website.
CNN got into their archived human-interest stories,
and finally decided to play a tape of The Sound of Music.
The weather was so pleasant in Bethlehem
that they took a day off from hostilities
and celebrated all the birthdays that had been missed recently.
There were no beheadings, accidental or otherwise.
Husbands decided to storm out rather than grab the gun.
A CEO decided for the first time in his life to try pot;
instead of driving home after his fifth whiskey
he stayed put, giggling.
Grandpa hung in there one more day.
A burn victim got more morphine and retreated
farther into the healing haze.
Dictators all over the world slept late,
woke up in good moods,
rescheduled the executions for tomorrow.
Children fell and broke their arms rather than their necks.
Suicides hesitated, wondering if there was something important left undone.
Hearts all over the planet kept on beating.
That's the news
goodnight.
--9/4/03
It's been quite the ride, really.
To sum up:
- I started running. I bought running shoes. I am now running a mile almost every day. Go me!
- It's been a hellishly busy social month--I didn't get to hike in August because there was quite literally no time. Things are cooling off now, though, as I have no gaming for the month which makes my weekends much less hectic.
- My parents were here for the Labor Day weekend. More on that later.
- There was a braai (a South African celebration of protein), and I discovered there that my lovely blue dress is too big and was trying to fall off.
- I conquered my fear of meringue.
- I want to do NaNoWriMo in November. I have an idea and I'm working on outlining it.
- In all likelihood, i will be remodeling my bathroom in November. This scares the living daylights out of me.
- Cricket is very cute. When i was ill last weekend, she was the one who snuggled up to me and meeped and tried to make me feel better.
- I'm taking off the last weekend of September from work. YAY.
I think that pretty much covers it.
So my parents arrived here on Friday morning.
They left on Tuesday morning.
I didn't die. No thanks to whatever virus I managed to pick up out of the blue, but.
I've never had a really good relationship with my dad; we never really had anything to talk about. Now, it turns out, we do--I have a house, and he likes to remodel, and I could just see his fingers itching as he surveyed my bathroom and kitchen.
It turns out that the bathroom remodel is going to be inexpensive for materials, but labor-intense--we may well do that this fall, if I can get my act together. The kitchen is going to be...somewhat more expensive. To the tune of about $8k for materials/cabinets/appliances alone. I found the perfect cabinets, which should not be particularly expensive (thank goodness!).
And, of course, the electrical needs to be done, but I have a guy coming out to do an estimate on that on Monday.
But, yes. There was much talk of remodeling, and we went to a nearby brew pub (my dad was entranced by the fact I was driving and he could have as many beers as he wanted--which was all of two).
That night, my dad refused to believe my protests of "I don't get any channels here!" and turned on the TV. Turns out that I get the three major networks. Very loudly. All evening long. Evidently, to get those three major networks clearly, all I need is an antenna that would sit on top of my TV.
I am not going to buy said antenna. I will, however, purchase a pair of wireless headphone for my dad, as after a few nights of loud TV in my very small condo, I was tearing my hair out from the stress.
(Also, I did not really want to know that I get TV. I am attempting to erase that knowledge from my brain. NO TV.)
On Saturday, we went to Home Depot and looked at tile and did some costing of materials. After that, we came home and I cooked up a storm, making a taco bar for the several people who showed up for my Meet The Parents dinner.
It was very weird, these two sides of my life coming together for the first time since I left high school. Everyone behaved themselves, and my parents were very impressed with my friends. My mom said, "you have very bright and personable friends!"
Like I would have any other kind, really. (You all rock, by the way.)
And on Sunday, we went to Whidbey Island, which would have been fun if I hadn't been ill with something that my mom termed, quite coyly, "a 24-hour flu". There was the vomiting, and the other stuff, and the muscle aches and the slight fever and here I was *driving* in a place i'd been only once before.
Not a lot of fun, really.
We came home and I went to bed and slept for three hours. Then I got up and was generally withdrawn and ill-looking for the rest of the evening.
I felt much better the next morning. i wasn't 100% until about Wednesday, but I wasn't deathly ill, either.
And on Monday, my dad and I went and washed my car, and we came home and waxed it. There was a kind of camaraderie we'd never had before, just two people working on something together. I learned how and how often to wax the car (every spring and fall), and Regina is now the Shiniest Car in Shinyville. We finally had something to bond over, after 28 years--our mutual love of shiny objects.
He probably doesn't like to polish silver, though. (I love polishing silver. I am weird.)
And on Tuesday morning, they left, and the house was quiet again.
I've been practicing solitude since they left, and I'm starting to feel balanced again. I'm working out, eating right, and spending as much time as I can alone. I've blocked off this weekend as alone time, and I'll be hiking for the first time in a month on Saturday, and I'll spend Sunday puttering and relaxing.
It's time for me to make the shift into fall/winter mode; It's September now, and October is just around the corner, and it's just about time. Soon Samhain will be here and then it's the long fall into the lightless season. It's time to start submitting poetry to local magazines, time to finish painting the doors and the touchups in the hallway.
It's time to clean out my storage area and my closets. Time to scrub under the bed and give Juniper a bath.
Time to finish the tasks of the summer and get ready for the winter's work.
Amazingly enough, I continue to lose weight. In spurts and starts, but I've been under 200 pounds for the last three weeks. This is a weight I've not been at since high school, believe it or now.
But I'm running now, and it feels like flying still. The grindingly slow runs where all I can think of is the point at which I get to stop are all worth it when I stretch my leg and zip along the ground.
Those moments don't happen often; they're as likely to happen at the end of the run as the beginning.
But they happen.
And I am glad, and triumphant, because it means I am winning this battle.
Somewhere in there, I made it to Rivendell.
Still not king.
caesura
The fact that there was no news
was news. The anchor looked bored,
fiddled with her hair, fussed
with the papers in front of her,
stacking and restacking the sheets that are
always empty.
The newspapers resorted
to stories about school sports; forgot to update the Website.
CNN got into their archived human-interest stories,
and finally decided to play a tape of The Sound of Music.
The weather was so pleasant in Bethlehem
that they took a day off from hostilities
and celebrated all the birthdays that had been missed recently.
There were no beheadings, accidental or otherwise.
Husbands decided to storm out rather than grab the gun.
A CEO decided for the first time in his life to try pot;
instead of driving home after his fifth whiskey
he stayed put, giggling.
Grandpa hung in there one more day.
A burn victim got more morphine and retreated
farther into the healing haze.
Dictators all over the world slept late,
woke up in good moods,
rescheduled the executions for tomorrow.
Children fell and broke their arms rather than their necks.
Suicides hesitated, wondering if there was something important left undone.
Hearts all over the planet kept on beating.
That's the news
goodnight.
--9/4/03
