Smoke and Mirrors

Happy Easter!

This is my second attempt at this entry, since my damn computer ate the first one. Grrrr.

It's been a very nice weekend. The weather was lovely, if a bit cool, and Mom was here for a visit. She got here Friday afternoon, and just left about an hour ago. It's very quiet here now. We spent the weekend shopping and relaxing and talking. Friday evening, we went to the grocery store and bought a heap of vegetables and chicken for a stir-fry, and loafed around on the couch sewing and chatting while watching Trading Spaces. She's working on a cross-stitched baby quilt (one that I bought, started, and got frustrarted with, as it's huge) and I'm cross-stitching a very small sampler. Saturday, we spent the day shopping -- I had taken my huge jar of loose change to be cashed in, and had $62 in spending money, woo! We hit the craft store, where we got yet more cross-stitch stuff, and she bought a book on how to paint rocks to look little little houses. It's a cute book -- I want a set of the bookends they made from rocks. We wandered through Pier One and the shoe store, then bought some clothes and such at Target, then headed off to check out a new thrift store near my house. There weren't any clothes we liked, but we did find the best bargains ever on the shoe rack -- a pair of tan suede Mary Jane Doc Martens for $16 for her, and a funky pair of navy blue leather Mary Jane Doc Martens for $15 for me. We couldn't pass them up -- those shoes would be at least $100 a pair otherwise. Happily loaded down with stuff, we went home to walk Mom's dog (she had come to visit, since Mom didn't have a dog sitter). The rest of the evening was spent much like Friday, with a game of Yahtzee thrown in (and a hyterical fit of laughing at the expense of my cat -- she wandered into the room while we were playing, stretched, and belched really loudly, then sauntered off out of the room. She's a dignified little thing, my cat is.) Today, we stopped by the laundromat to pop my laundry into a washer, and then took Queenie for a walk down by the lake. She had a ball sniffing around the shore, and checking out the ducks (though she did hide behind me when a little boy ran up to pet her. She's ahy around kids. She did let him pat her for a minute, though). Mom found some promising rocks to take home to paint. While the laundry was drying, we took Queenie home, then went back to the grocery store for yet more vegetables (I'll explain that in a minute), and then it was home for a quick lunch before Mom had to leave. I do wish she lived closer -- these weekends are very relaxing, and fun. It's nice having someone around to talk to in the evenings.

The mass quntities of salads and stir-fries I'm eating lately are the result of my visit with the gastrointerologist on Thursday. The hernia-thingie that's causing my acid reflux is bigger than he expected (he briefly scared me; I thought he was going to say I needed surgery) and the only real option is for me to lose weight. I knew he was going to say that, and I know it needs to be done -- I'm not at all happy with how I look, and I hate shopping for clothes or looking in mirrors. He suggested the Atkins diet, but since I'm trying to phase meat out of my diet, I'd rather pass on that. Luckily, I've been craving fresh vegetables lately -- I bought broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes, snow peas, and tofu for a stir-fry tonight. I just get frustrated with it, since my body seems to like being fat. I rarely eat sweets at all anymore (my sweet tooth has all but vanished in the past year), I walk everywhere since I don't have a car, and I don't snack between meals, and the weight just won't go anywhere. With the nicer weather, I plan to go for walks around the lake -- I may do that as soon as I'm done with this entry, in fact -- and I'm hoping that cutting back on meat and dairy and bread will help. It just frustrates me.

Adopt a pet!

I added a new feature. Look on the sidebar on the main page, under the calendar. Isn't that cute? Don't you want to go adopt a pet now? I have it set to show pets from my area (which is very bad indeed, as it makes me want to go get another pet myself, and Queen Smoke would not approve of that) but you can search petfinder.org for pets in your area. I highly recommend it -- I adopted Smoke from a local shelter six years ago, and I have never regretted it. )I saw that little feature on Bill's journal, then on Claire's, and wanted to swipe it for my own site. So, there it is!)

Today was not a lot of fun. I woke up in a panic at 5 a.m. because I realized that rent is due tomorrow, and I hadn't mailed the checks yet. Eep. My roommate had also forgotten -- he had the same reaction I did: "Oh, SHIT!" So, the checks were hastily written, and mailed off. That problem solved... but then, I happened to glance at the payment booklet for my student loans. They've been in forbearance for a year, and the first payment is due this month. I thought it was due on the 28th, which would have been fine. Except it was due on the 9th. Yow. So, I mailed that check, and then checked my bank balance, and... well, it's important to remind yourself that I am an idiot. I didn't revamp my budget early enough. I did redo it, factoring in the loans... but I did that last week. So, I don't have enough to cover both checks. Bad news. So, I am currently hoping and praying that the loan check doesn't clear before Friday. I doubt it will, but if it does, I will be well and truly screwed. Sigh. I hate money, a lot.

In further bitchy news, our cooling system at work is broken. Right now, we have heat, or nothing. If we want circulating air, we have to have hot air. It was warm today, in the 50s, which meant it was 90+ degrees inside the library. Tomorrow, it's going to be near 80 outside. Inside, the temperature will likely resemble the surface of the sun. And I swear, if one more person walks up to my desk and says "Hey, do you know it's sorta hot in here?" I will snap and thwap them upside the head with a book. Next week, all the ventilation gets shut down completely, so that they can fix the cooling system. No air at all for a week, yay! I may melt. I nearly fell asleep at my desk today.

Also, Jeff has had no internet access for more than a week. This means no nightly chatting. This makes me sad, and lonely. I miss the chatting.

But, on a brighter note: I got to work today, in the middle of a full-blown panic attack over money, and one of our hawks was back. She (I'm assuming it's a female -- it's working on the nest. If anyone knows anything about red-tailed hawks, correct me if I'm worng) was sitting in one of the trees by the plaza in front of my building, right over the bike rack. I stopped to watch her, creeping closer to her tree to get a better look, thinking "She's so beautiful! So graceful!" And then she preened a wing, shook out her tail feathers, and took an enormous crap all over the bike rack. Graceful, indeed. I tried not to laugh too loudly, while she sized me up from her perch. Then she snapped off a branch, and took off, swooping over my head and making grumbling noises (I assume they meant "Get the hell away from my tree, you") and flew off to her nest. So that cheered me up. And hey, at least she didn't poop on me, right?

Mmrph.

I have a headache. It's one of those stiff-neck ones, where moving hurts. I'm blaming the weather -- rainy days always give me a headache, and the headache will not go until the rain ends. Advil doesn't touch these headaches. Ow. I bet a massage would help. Alas, I have no masseuse. Any volunteers?

The headache could also be because I just watched the Bruins lose. Again. Argh. It sucks to be a Boston fan, sometimes. I yelled at the TV a lot -- there were some bad calls. New Jersey should have had more penalties than they did.

So, headache and hockey losses. I am in a bad mood. But hey, it's Friday, which means a Friday Five:

1. What was the first band you saw in concert?

They Might Be Giants, at Harvard, in... 1995, I think. I'm sure I must have gone to some concerts of some form with my parents when I was a kid, but since I don't remember, they don't count. This was a good show -- it was in a big lecture hall, and I was right at the front. I've seen TMBG a few times since then; they're always fun.

2. Who is your favorite artist/band now?

Do I even need to answer this?

Here he is, Elvis Costello, signing a CD for me last June.

3. What's your favorite song?

Oh, I can't pick one. It depends on my mood. I suppose, though, if I had to choose, it would be Brilliant Mistake, by Elvis Costello. Who else?

4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?

I would love to learn to play the guitar. I plan to save up to buy one, one of these days.

5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why?

You think I'm going to say Elvis Costello, don't you? Nope -- already met him. I would die a happy girl if I could meet Tom Waits. Though I'd be so starstruck, I'd make an idiot of myself. I wouldn't mind having a cup of tea with EC, though.

Brrrr.

I like winter, but this is getting a little old. It was almost 70 degrees last Saturday, and now it's freezing. My poor mom says she already has a foot of snow at her house, and there's more on the way. It's April! There are crocuses blooming all over my front yard! Now I'm worried that they'll all be dead. I wanted to enjoy them for longer than a week, damn it. It sleeted and such all day today, and is supposed to do the same tomorrow. I went to the grocery store after work, so that I won't have to leave the house at all tomorrow. Hell, I don't even have to get dressed if I don't feel like it! I also bought the extended Fellowship of the Ring on DVD, so I will be entertained in my slothful laziness tomorrow. Yay!

I've had the Cold That Will Not Die all week -- massive fits of sneezing, and that horrid tickling that makes your eyes water, and coughing, and fever... oh, joy. I had too much to do to stay home sick, so I dragged myself in to work every day. The only thing that got me out of bed this morning was the knowledge that tomorrow, I can sleep as late as I please.

And now, the Friday Five:

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life?

Hmmm. 17, I think. We moved a lot when I was a kid. I've lived in Illinois (born there, in fact), Michigan, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Massachusetts. It may even be more places; I don't know if we moved many times when I was a baby. The earliest place I remember was North Aurora, Illinois -- a townhouse. I remember two things about that place clearly -- falling down the stairs with my Weebil house, and the big kids at the playground teaching me to say "shit." I also remember my mom washing my mouth out with soap when I tried that one out on her. Heh.

2. Which was your favorite and why?

Oh, I don't know. I remember the house we lived in in Aurora, Illinois (not the aforementioned townhouse) fondly because it was huge, and had cool dormer windows in the bedrooms. I liked the first apartment we lived in in Vermont -- it was a gorgeous old house, and the landlord and his wife were very friendly, as were our neighbors. And I loved the second house in Vermont, because it had a finished basement. My room was down there, so it was like I had my own little domain. Until my brother, his first wife, and their kids moved in, that is. It was way out in the middle of nowhere. We used to see deer all the time, and once, while waiting for a date to come pick me up, we heard coyotes howling near the house. Spooky.

3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?

Oh, God, I hate moving. It costs too much, and is entirely too much work. Packing and lugging things and more packing and cleaning and then the lugging and unpacking... I hate it, every second of it.

4. What's more important, location or price?

Alas, price. I am a poor girl, you see. I don't care so much about location -- right now, I just wish I could afford to live by myself. I like my roommate, but I want my own space.

5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)?

Oooh, a spa bath. Yes, please. A pool would be nice. I want a big kitchen -- mine is the size of a postage stamp -- and a porch, with a porch swing. I also want space for a garden.