My Heart Was Wrapped Up in Clover

Today I made a break for it and had lunch with a different group of people. Shocking! The Thai restaurant was jammed and we weren’t the only large group. Even though the restaurant was packed and tables turned over quickly, the wait staff acted like they always do: happy to see you, attentive and well wishes when you leave. The food was hot and spicy and delicious, as always. The conversation was lively and, amazingly enough, it is possible to have lunch with a group of people and talk about something other than what their kids are doing.

To all the parents in the audience, hold on before you get offended by that statement. It’s just from my point of view (the point of view of no children); it’s deadening to only talk about children at lunch. There are only so many times I can be animated and excited to hear about how super awesome Johnny is. One of the people at lunch today did give us a brief update on her children and then she told us a raunchy joke. Balance. It’s all about balance.

Plans for the weekend? The National Folk Festival is in our fair city this weekend. The better-half and I hope to stop by at some point to hear some music and eat something exotic and interesting from a cart. I once worked with someone who said all food from carts is exotic and interesting because it is from a cart. That person wasn’t being nice.

We have tickets for the Etta James concert on Sunday night. I’m sure she already knows this and can’t escape it but she must sing “At Last”. Or, I’ll hurl myself on stage and attach myself to her ankles until she does.

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How Can This Only Be Wednesday

Doesn’t it feel like today should be Thursday or even Friday?

Scene yesterday afternoon shortly before 4pm: check electronic system to see if there are any notes or PowerPoint slides for 7pm class. Find slides and print. Pack up stuff and head over to library. See classmate diligently working on laptop. Jokingly ask if she’s finishing up the paper due that night. She nods. Asks me what I’m doing at library. Tell her I’m doing the reading for that night’s class. We share a chuckle. Leave library around 6pm to go over to student center to read magazines and listen to tunes. Classmate says she’ll see me in a little while.

Scene last night at 6:50pm: trudge up four flights of stairs, buy a drink out of machine, look through little window in classroom door, wonder why no one is in room, see note on blackboard that class is cancelled because of professor’s illness. Utter an expletive.

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Oh for F*ck’s Sake

The new vanity top for our bathroom is here. It is beautiful and it is all in one piece. The back splash arrived too and is beautiful and all in one piece. Now, where’s that side splash we ordered at the same time and have already paid for?

Someone at Home Depot is looking for it now. Maybe they should pull it out of their ass which is apparently where someone’s head is.

WHY CAN’T PEOPLE DO THEIR JOBS?

Don’t even get me started on buying five new knobs for the cabinet only to find that one of the five doesn’t match the other four. Come again? How do you pull four knobs from the warehouse and then just randomly end up with a fifth knob that doesn’t remotely match? Happily that company is sending us another knob and doesn’t care about the unmatched one.

I can hardly wait for the tile guys to arrive next week and install the tile on the ceiling instead of the floor.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Two Things I Miss

I really miss spinach. Please come back to me. I did hear an article about swiss chard on NPR this afternoon. Yep, NPR is now your news source and a great place to pick up recipes.

I really miss Battlestar. Lucky for me, it begins tonight. As a warning, if you call my house between 9 and 11pm there will be only the answering machine to greet you.

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I met her in a club down in old soho

Yesterday morning I was disgusted by some stupid thing Dubya said and so snapped off NPR. Some days I just mutter at the radio and let it go at that, but I’ve had enough lately and so I turned the radio off. Then I got a grip and turned it back to another channel and decided I’d sing along instead of muttering about how stupid Dubya is.

The song Lola by the Kinks came on and there I was sitting at a traffic stop singing along when I looked in my rear view window. Crap! A co-worker was sitting in the car behind me. I dropped my head fast to avoid eye contact and then tried to nonchalantly pretend that I wasn’t just singing in the car. The light changed and the co-worker got in the other lane. He didn’t look over at me and since we were getting to the part where Ray belts out “Well I’m not the world’s most passionate guy”, I just sang along at the top of my lungs.

I got to work first and when my co-worker showed up I asked him if he had realized that person in front of him at the light had been me. He hadn’t realized and I admitted that I had been singing the song Lola and felt like an idiot because I’d been busted by someone at work. He laughed and said he hadn’t noticed because he’d been singing along too.

Now that song is still stuck in my head.

Posted in Listening | 3 Comments

Kind of glad to be at work this morning

The weekend wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it might be but it wasn’t exactly fun either. We spent a huge amount of time in shepherd and sherpa mode for the MIL. The mother of the bride was a complete bitch to me and I have warned the better-half that if it comes up again she will be cut in two. He’s pretty sure she won’t let it go and I’ll get my chance. I held my tongue because we were a)in church and b)her daughter had just been married. I held my tongue but gave her the “I’m going to kill you if you don’t shut up” steely glare and amazingly enough the woman who is notorious for talking, talking, talking, bossing, bossing, bossing, shut the fuck up. I’m surprised you didn’t read about her momentary pause in the paper on Sunday morning.

Saturday night the parents of the groom threw a swanky dinner at the Oakencroft Winery in Charlottesville. The better-half and I spent more than a few minutes giving each other the “no, it couldn’t be” look because damn if John D’Earth wasn’t playing with the band. The food was amazing. The open bar with top shelf, no tip jar, how much more liquor would you like in your glass was amazing. When the oldest Indian woman held a large flaming candle hat that resembled a wedding cake over her head and danced out into the center of the dance floor, we thought it was cool. Then when she passed it around, it got better and better. Several young Indian women were standing near us and it’s the same no matter what culture you grow up in when your mother is the one who grabs the flaming hat, you cringe.

The Sikh wedding on Sunday morning was something I’m very glad to have participated in. Sitting on the floor and covering my head I didn’t like so much but when in Rome. My left hip still feels sore from all the time on the floor. The lunch afterwards was absolutely awesome. Everything was traditional Indian fare and so good that people nearly cleaned out the buffet. By the time we got home Sunday afternoon, we were pretty fried.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

There Will Be No Electric Sliding

I don’t know about you but I just said I’d rather stab myself with a pair of scissors than do what we have planned for the weekend.

Friday night: sweet bliss with a bit of gathering revulsion.

Saturday morning: wake up early; better-half calls his mother to get her out of bed; arrive at MIL house at 9:45 to pick her up; drive to Charlottesville to check her into a hotel; sit around and then go to 1pm wedding; go to family pictures in front of church and more pictures at Rotunda unless MIL not feeling up to it then we’re off the hook for the trek across campus; check in to our hotel room if we can’t do it when MIL does; go to reception that’s not really the reception; go to dinner reception at 6:30; hang out there much longer than we want; go back to hotel to drop off MIL; tell everyone we’re meeting an old friend of the better-half and then go have a big, fat drink or 20.

Sunday morning: get up early to wake up MIL and to recover from the 20 drinks; breakfast and check out of hotel; get to another hotel for second wedding (because one just isn’t enough); reception immediately following (Indian food–w00t): drive to MIL’s house to drop her off; drive to our house and collapse.

Should I sharpen the scissors before I plunge them into my leg?

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 3 Comments

Leave Tonight or Live and Die This Way

Do you ever get the feeling that “they” really are out to get you? This morning on the way into work I began thinking that. Why do people who are driving at posted speeds slow to below posted speeds when they see a cop? If you aren’t breaking the law, the cop isn’t going to pull out into traffic to pull you over. Quit with the panicking because the last thing I want to have to deal with in the morning is a multi-car, high-speed collision because some dumbass thinks a cop is going to stop him from obeying the law.

If the lights on Belvidere don’t get synchronized soon, someone is going to go postal and I will help them. I’m sick of sitting at a green light at a short block because the light at the next block stays red. It is demoralizing. I turned down Grace because I couldn’t stand the thought of staying on Belvidere any longer than I had to. Wouldn’t you know every pedestrian on Grace crossed the street somewhere other than the corner? Jaywalking is cool, but every single person?

Then on the last little bit of my journey, a transport van was parked in the middle of the effing side street. The pajama wearing freaks just stood looking at me, vacantly, as I tried to get around. Hmmm, move it over freaks, get some real clothes and maybe next time you should use the alleyway.

By the time I parked my car, I was envisioning the conspiracy of a bunch of people talking into their walkie-talkies saying, “Breaker One-Nine, she’s headed your way. I repeat the prey is headed towards you.” And then the lights go red and green, people pop up between cars and pajama wearing freaks park in the middle of the street.

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A Reason to Celebrate

This week is Banned Books Week.

I especially like the list of banned books because it does my heart and mind good to see that many of the books I’ve read are pissing people off in Smallmindville.

Posted in Reading | 1 Comment

Counting My Pennies

We have a tall, skinny propane tank that we use only to fuel the cook top of our stove. This is in contrast to the huge submarine we used to have at our old house when we heated and cooked with propane. The propane company stopped by the other day and topped off our tank.

The propane bill showed up yesterday and the company has a deal where if you immediately turn around and mail them their payment you can take a small amount off your bill. In our case we could take off more than the tax they charged us. I just wrote a check for $4.86. This has cracked me up because I always open that bill first and immediately sit down to write a check. Saving a whopping eight cents is crucial.

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