All My Little Words

Yesterday was a loathsome, vertigo filled day, so miserable that even the fact that it turns out we are actually paying even less for our refi than we had thought could not budge me from despair.

Vertigo is one of those things that strikes suddenly and for no reason and no one really knows why and there is really nothing you can do about it. AWESOME!!!

This followed a weekend that, although good in parts, was not exactly what I was hoping for, and the whole thing left me feeling like it was simply a lost weekend. So much so, that when I woke up this morning, I could barely drag myself out of bed, and around the house to get ready for work. I was unable to go to the store yesterday (so no one did) and therefore, there was nothing for breakfast and lunch, facts which did nothing to improve my mood.

It is amazing how quickly an order of teriyaki delivered to you can change all that. And, since the refi money got transferred to where it was supposed to go, the fact that we had another extra $1000 sank in finally, and I feel better now.

It also doesn’t hurt that I think I’ve finally definitely decided to take Mondays off beginning in July. That means in just five short weeks, I will have three days off every week. IN A ROW, EVEN.

Also, Dooce makes me laugh. I want some of whatever makes her her.

It is a lovely day today, and promises to be delightful all weekend, as if, right on cue, absolutely everything in the world righted itself all at once.

I have a long, brilliant wekend to look forward to, and it begins with us finally signing the closing papers for our refi, which saves us about $1k this month, and at least a few hundred bucks every month from now on. It is substantially odd that we will be paying that amount less now, as that is just about exactly how much behind we were due to various circumstances. Funny how things turn out.

Having a super low key mini bbq with friends this evening, then a slightly larger more boisterous one at our house tomorrow. Still going sailing on Sunday, and I got truly excited by the realization that we are getting on the boat (and off, of course) in Renton.
Yes, that is right, I see another trip to Carl’s Jr. in my near future, woohoo!

Mostly, it is just really nice to be back on track, no longer behind, caught back, not broke anymore. It makes going to work a lot more satisfying when you don’t feel like you’re not getting a damn thing out of it.

Speaking of work, I have been reading this brilliant article this morning. While I in no way think that my job is as complicated as mechanical repair, it is very true that working with your hands can be very satisfying and it certainly is more tangible than a lot of office work. It also echoes quite a bit a lot of what I have been saying for a while now about “fake jobs”, which are mostly jobs which have no tangible end result, and are often jobs which could be part of another real job.

Ok, I’ll admit it – I’m pretty damn sad about missing Sasquatch again, as it turns out that 4 bands I’d really like to see and haven’t (Devotchka, Doves, Grizzly Bear and Silversun Pickups) and 1 more that I have seen (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) are playing. I didn’t see how they are lined up though, so I’d be willing to bet that I would have had to go all 3 days, which is probably 2 days too many in the dirt and the sun and the heat amidst the stupid masses for me. Maybe next year, maybe we can take the kid too. More expensive yes, but with the extra added bonus cool points for taking your 13 year old to the Northwest’s most awesome music fest.

Consolation prize for this weekend?
Well, we are supposed to go sailing on Sunday. Even if we only go for a couple of hours, that is probably enough time out in the sun for me, and let’s face it – no one drops a boat in the water for only a couple of hours. I’d be willing to bet it’ll be more like 4, and I will be damn ready to go home by then.
On my shopping list? Lots and lots of hi SPF sunscreen.

With that to look forward, and the fact that I finally seem to have lost a few pounds, I’m feeling a bit more ok than usual today.

I just have to make it through today and tomorrow and a short Saturday, then it’s an actual 3 day weekend? Catch me quick, I’m about to pass out from the shock.

If sailing doesn’t actually happen, I better get another consolation prize. Like a pony or something, jeebus. No seriously, I’m talking something fun. REALLY REALLY FUN.
OR ELSE.

Yesterday was probably the best weekday off ever, as it included actual relaxation. Yes, Re-Lax-Ay-SHUN. I slept in, and watched two movies, and a few tv shows, and went out for late lunch/early dinner in between getting some things done. Not as many as I should have, but I’d rather get less done than the usual having my head fly off from chasing my tail trying to get it ALL done.

Today already is proving to be the evil anti-yesterday, complete with early, often ringing phone at work, and OHTHEHORROR people who are utterly shocked that they cannot come RIGHT NOW. I personally am always utterly shocked when someone I am trying to coordinate with can see me anytime less than a month from now. That includes friends.

And now – BACKTOWORKSLAVE. Who says being your own boss is any easier? Blech.

The remainder of last week was stressful for reasons that are themselves kind of stressful to me. The big problem being that we are waiting for the refi to close (yay!) but until it does, we are kind of financially trapped, as we were informed on Wednesday that we might need to essentially pay our mortgage at signing to close (previously, we weren’t going to need anything to close, I’m not sure where this came from, but what can you do?)

We have that money, but only because I haven’t spent any money to make sure all of it is held in reserve. This is on top of stupidly, frivolously spending too much money the weekend before, only to find out that Alex wasn’t getting an UI payment because his claim did not get re-opened properly. So at the time I found out that we would have to make a mortgage payment as much as two weeks early, we were already $1k behind for the month, with $1k various bills waiting to be paid as well.

For a delightful stress cake frosting, the Ford needs a $200 part still. If that truck runs, it is easier for Alex to get things done. He had to strap a bunch of stuff from the hardware store to the Subaru yesterday, and we saw a ton (literally) of free pavers on Craigslist this morning (that he called about anyway) that would have needed to be hauled in the truck.

And between the truck fixing shitass that is never ending, and Alex’s sweet nature to try to help others by mowing their lawns and moving their boxen, and lifting their pots he hasn’t gotten as much of our stuff done as I’d like for him too. And I was busy at work last week, which is great for making some $$, but terrible for my mood and energy level.

Despite the fact that not enough got done this weekend (still) I feel somewhat brighter this morning for the fact that the damn refi is surely almost closed now (finally) and that Alex will get his unemployment this week, and came up with half of the money for his truck part. And then there is the bear.

I read some headline about someone seeing a bear in Magnolia yesterday, but didn’t think much of it until I read this morning that the bear had swum to Ballard in the night, and was on the loose just a few blocks from out house. Delightful! No, seriously, I thought it was awesome. I did drive the kid to school this morning though. I am aware that the bear is little and not dangerous, but I figured it was also scared, and I figured that one thing that would ruin anyone’s Monday morning would be running into a scared bear on the way to school. From what I understand, the bear has moved on towards Shoreline now (way to go, bear!) but it was pretty nifty to think he was right by our house for a while anyway.

Apparently, yesterday we were destined for two things – a car trip to somewhere, and frustration, as that trip didn’t end up being where we expected.

We got up pretty early, so that we could drive to the Bremerton ferry, get on it, ride across the Spund, and then drive to some wrecking yard in some place called Belfair to get a part for Alex’s truck. Being the bright boy he is, he called ahead to make sure they still had it. Confusion ensued, as he had just called the day before and been told that it was there, but now, mysteriously, it was not. We drove to the ferry terminal anyway, he thinking he’d for sure get a call saying it was there by the time we got there. The frustarting process ended with us not getting on the ferry, not wasting time and money to go there for nothing, which turned out to be the right decision, as the thing turned out not to be there. I was kind of glad for this, as I was objecting to spending the money for it at this time. I was, however, a little disappointed that we didn’t take a drive/ferry ride. We honestly never really go anywhere, and it would be really nice to just go. Somewhere.

I am a lazy fuck and went back to bed with all my clothes (and shoes) on when we got home. THat afternoon, we took a random drive to Renton, to our friend’s house to pick up some things. After stuffing a gigantic tool box into the Subaru, I asked if there might be a Dairy Queen about. On the way over, we had discussed (and looked up) whether or not there was an In N’ Out (nope, I was thinking of Sonic), where a Sonic might be (nearest one = Puyallup) and the interwebs crashed out while looking up Dairy Queen locations. Miraculously, there was a Dairy Queen right up the road. Even more amazingly, there was also a Carl’s Jr. A Carl’s Jr! How did I not know this! I could drive to Renton almost once a week for Carl’s Jr! I honestly cannot recall what I used to get from there most when I lived in California, but I was pretty effing happy with a Western Bacon Cheeseburger and some Criss Cut fries. Oh, lord.

I wanted the Dairy Queen for some sort of Blizzard that I saw advertised like, a year ago, that I almost made Alex drive to Bellevue for. I am not really a Blizzard type of girl, but I like one ever once in a while, and the one that I saw the ad for was some amazing looking Cherry flavoured thing. Of course, they did not have it yesterday. I got the Raspberry Truffle instead and it was delicious (although I could have lived with the soft chocolate-y pieces that were the “truffle”).

But that Western Bacon Cheeseburger, oh man, that made the whole trip worthwhile. I think I used to get a Charbroiled Chicken Club when we lived in California. It looks like there are now 9 Carl’s Jrs in WA. There used to be none. Now if only we could have an In N’ Out. Sigh

How do I know that you are a huge whiner? When you start complaining about how loud the Ice Cream Truck plays its music. How do I know that there is something wrong with your parenting? When you don’t let your children get ice cream from “the obesity wagon”. For realz, people? Ice cream trucks have been around for like, a fucking century now, but it’s only been in the last couple of decades that everyone has gotten so goddamn fat. If your kids are so fat that you don’t feel ok letting them have a fucking otter pop once a week (because the ice cream truck doesn’t come by six times a day anymore like it did when I was a kid) then there is something more wrong than them getting something from ice cream man. I don’t know wtf your kids are doing when the ice cream truck comes around, but mine runs inside desperately searching for some cash so that he can sprint however many blocks he has to to chase that guy down (because it seems like the damn truck never drives right down any street we ever live on). The desperate dash to tackle the ice cream man ought to burn off enough calories that neither he nor I needs to worry about him eating an Eskimo Pie. Also, note that he heard the ice cream man while he was OUTSIDE. PLAYING. Probably playing basketball like a madman. Or at least walking to the park with one his friends from the ‘hood.
Back in the day, Eddie Murphy did this hilarious routine in Delirious about the how kids would lose their shit when the ice cream truck came how they would make fun of that one kid who was on welfare and couldn’t afford it.
“You don’t got no ice cream…..!”
Now the neighborhood kids are gonna tease your kid because your kid don’t got no ice cream because you’re too much of a safety/health nazi to let your kid have some?
Well, if nothing else, I suppose that’s fodder for the future stand up comics of America!

I always say that I don’t like to cook (probably because if I didn’t have anyone else to cook for, I would never lift a spatula) but I guess I actually do. Or, at the very least I am SO impressed by my own cooking that I take pictures of things I cook and Twitter it. Not everything I make, just some of it. Today, it was grilled cheese BLTs, bacon fat fingerlings, and cucumber avocado salad. Is that a weird thing to make? I’ve never had a grilled cheese BLT before, but it seemed like a good idea. Surely I couldn’t be the first one to think it up. It must be on This is Why You’re Fat somewhere. Or is it just weird that I Twittered food that I cooked? A lot of people seem to Twitter food that they eat (where do you think I got the idea) – is this really that much weirder?

This week started off fairly normally, and then BAM. Swine flu breaks out.

I will be the first to admit that I am somewhat paranoid about it. Who wants to get the fucking flu, whether it kills you or not? Don’t get me wrong, it would probably be better to get it now and get it over with, and I would certainly welcome a week off of work. HOWEVER. That faint possibility of DEATH BY FLU keeps me cautious.

On Monday, there were very few confirmed cases in the U.S. – I still decided that I was going to stock up on non-perishable food, and on Tuesday I did just that. Having no idea how quickly things would accelerate, I only filled one bin with food and drinks.

By the following evening, WHO had raised their pandemic threat level to 5 – the second highest. It still stands at that level two days later, but yesterday, I made sure we had enough pet supplies (dog and cat food, kitty litter) for a bit anyway, and then I stocked up on Theraflu and cough syrup, ibuprofin, Powerade, Emergen-C and Echincae, and something I have never purchased before. Hand Sanitizer. I got a little one for each of us, and one big one. Two bags of flu prevention and treatment = $90. Totally worth it, even if it was totally unnecessary. And I’m thinking another trip to the grocery store is in order, due to the fact that on Tuesday, there were no cases of flu here, but as of today 6 schools are closed, due to probable cases.

I got the flu supplies in case people panic, and stores run out, and also if we get sick, who wants to go to the store? I want to have more food for pretty much the same reasons.

I think we are still keeping a date to hang out with friends tonight, but that might be the end of socializing for a bit. Do we really need to go pub crawling Saturday?

This morning, someone who was supposed to come in called because they were sick. I’m glad he called rather than just showing up, especially since he seemed to want to come anyway, but knew deep down he shouldn’t. I tried to get him to make the choice to re-schedule on his own, but ended up having to tell him that I couldn’t let him come in and end up being responsible for more people getting sick.

So here I sit, wondering if my throat is a tiny bit scratchy, or if I’m imagining it. Is my nose a little runny because of the flu, or just allergies? There was a person in here the other day who had a sick child at home. Not necessarily with the flu, but he threw up. In kids, that is usually a sign. So did she come in here crawling with germs and get me sick?

It sounds weird, but I have been wiping everything down with Clorox wipes before I will touch anything in here.That may seem OCD, but I honestly think too many people are taking this way too lightly. It is way too inconvenient for people to stay home, and many of them scoff at “OCD” hand washing. I have always washed my hands a lot anyway – they always have sticky hair products and hair on them, and I like the feel of neither.

While I am taking all of these precautions to not get the flu, part of me almost wishes that I would, just so I can tell all the naysayers that they were wrong, wrong, wrong. This is one case where I do not wish to be right, but I am really tired of people not only being ignorant, but choosing to be so, by ignoring even the possibility, by making a big deal of not even peeking at the internet, or looking at the news on television. Knowledge is power, people.