easter weekend

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3.2016_easter eggs

It took a solid 36 miserable hours on antibiotics before I began to feel marginally human again. For the record, I still have some discomfort whilst swallowing, so this strep was no joke.

Yet Miss L & I soldiered on and salvaged some of our weekend. On Good Friday, we typically bake something, and plant some seeds, and do a bit of early spring clean up. Yeah, none of that happened. But on Saturday, we did our annual pilgrimage to Kensington to see the new babies at the farm, and have a bit of a ramble on the nature trails.

3.2016_easter lambs

3.2016_easter heron nests

There is a little island in the middle of a lake where the Great Blue Herons have their nests. It’s pretty amazing, even at a distance, to watch them come and go; I always wish I’d remembered to bring binoculars.

And then on Easter Sunday – despite feeling drained and wan with fatigue – I went to church. YES I WENT TO CHURCH.

***DISCLAIMER – IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY RELIGIOUS FRANKNESS, PLEASE STOP READING SO WE CAN STAY FRIENDS***

I am not a religious person in any way, shape or form. Under generous circumstances, I might be termed spiritual, but I can’t put a definition to what I believe. I just know I believe it, if it makes any sense. I tend to be a bit suspicious of organized religion in any form, although some aspects of it appeal to me – the traditions, the old-fashioned aspects of storytelling and mysticism, old hymns, whatnot. I haven’t been to church in over twenty years, but when Jax invited me to Easter service at his church, I decided to say yes. I didn’t even know what religion he is, but I was touched that he would want to include me in that part of his life, and it’s clearly important to him.

I was envisioning ponderous but lovely Latin hymns and a measured sermon in an old brick chapel covered with ivy, sunlight streaming in through jeweled stained-glass windows. I thought a dress would be most appropriate, but all I have are tailored black and grey numbers for work, or summer dresses. So I threw my capsule closet rules to the wind and went out and bought a navy blue and white number with a slightly full skirt, to be worn under my navy cardigan with my navy blue platform heels. It felt very Junior League but my impressions of Easter services involve pastels and white gloves and big hats and matching purses, and this was as close of an approximation as I could muster with limited time. (Yes, I will be getting rid of the requisite 2 items from my closet to make up for this.)

Jax looked very handsome in dress pants and a tasteful Brooks Brothers shirt and I was slightly agog with anticipation. When we walked into his church, however, it became clear that my expectations were completely off-base. It was essentially an auditorium, darkened but with flashing lights up at the front and a LIVE ROCK BAND. There was a drummer behind a glass window and three singers gyrating and singing a pop song into microphones. There were guitars and video screens showing lyrics and women wearing skinny jeans in the pews holding their hands up and dancing and singing along. It was all quite astounding and I felt ridiculously fanciful in my Junior League outfit.

It was an utterly mind-blowing experience. I tried to hum along and look interested and attentive, although on the inside I was slack-jawed with shock and horror.  And then when the singing was over I tried to relax and enjoy the sermon, which was about hope in the face of suffering. Then there was some mention of Satan, and I felt my cheerful optimism begin to fade again. And then the pastor said that when it comes to Jesus, you either completely reject him or you fall on your face worshipping him as your savior. Too many people, he said, take the middle road; they might not totally believe, but they’re okay with Jesus, they can take him or leave him. MAYBE EVEN SOME PEOPLE IN THIS CHURCH TODAY, he said, and I felt the cold sweat that had broken out all over me during the singing begin to prickle again. I know my eyes were the size of teacups. Am I so wrong? NO, I don’t 100% believe. I have doubts. I like the basic messages and feel that they are beautiful stories, but am greatly troubled by the forms that organized religion of all forms can take. I would be interested in the Bible from a historic perspective, and I could probably really get absorbed in the Gospel of Thomas. More than that, though – well, I just I can’t attend a church that forces me to attest to believing in things that I don’t totally know if I believe – and that’s what’s kept me away for twenty years. I have no beef with Jesus. But, in the words of a pretty awesome Criminal podcast that I listened to, when asked why he selected a Buddha statue over a Jesus statue for a specific purpose that you will learn about in the podcast, if you choose to listen, the subject of the podcast said, “(Buddha), he’s neutral. I mean, if we threw Christ up there, he’s controversial. Everyone’s got a deal about him. But Buddha – nobody seems to be that perturbed in general about a Buddha.”

Of course, I didn’t tell Jax about my discomfort. If he asks again, I will try to explain it to him; I still think it’s pretty great that he invited me to the service and we spent a really nice Sunday in the sunshine afterwards. But I don’t know if I’ll go back. In many ways, I still feel that my way of spending Easter – with lambs and birds and rambles – is just a better fit for me.

strep

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03.2016_back road field

I sneezed three times on Tuesday afternoon, and one of them was a hard sneeze that hurt the back of my throat and made me wince. I thought idly on the way home that sneezing like that even once usually means I am getting sick. I felt fine, though, so I used my neti pot before bed and thought nothing more of it.

By Wednesday midday I felt like I’d been beaten with a stick, and swallowing was a misery of broken glass shards. I went home early, crept into bed, and stayed there until I forced myself to Urgent Care first thing Thursday morning. If I could have drooled helplessly on myself to avoid the flaming cavern of agony that resulted from swallowing, I would have.

Urgent Care was, as usual, a gallery of crazy although I suppose I looked no different, hunched over my knitting and whimpering every time I had to swallow my spit. The nurse took some swabs (which hurt like hell) and ran the tests. “You have strep!” the doctor cheerfully announced as he bustled in a few minutes later. I resisted the urge to say “NO SHIT SHERLOCK GIVE ME MY DRUGS” but merely smiled and nodded. He flashed a penlight into my mouth and said, “Yep! That’s an easy one! Look at all of those white spots! Look at those tonsils! Textbook.”

Although the doctor told me that I couldn’t give strep throat to children, that they are usually the carriers and the contagion is reserved for adults, GB kindly took  Miss L so that there was no chance. Plus, I could barely lift my head off the pillow.

I’ve been on the antibiotics for a full 24 hours and while I do feel better than I did yesterday, when I rocked up to Urgent Care and nearly throttled the kindly doc for my antibiotics, I’m still reeling. This strep came on fast and hit me hard and took me out at the knees. My throat is still on fire and although I can knock it back with ibuprofen, at least enough to swallow, I was expecting a much more rapid improvement. I also missed a day of work when I can scarcely afford to, with two board meetings next week, one the following week, and no time to prepare all of the agendas, packets, and presentations that I am responsible for.

I’m hoping another dose of antibiotics will give me less pain and more energy, but in the meantime, I am tucked up in bed with my (admittedly indifferent) nursemaids and a book.

3.2016_sleepy boyz

daylight savings fails and more.

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3.2016_em yawn

The most ferocious thing about Emmett is his yawn.

I consider this year to be a Daylight Savings Fail as it took me at least four days to adjust and be able to get out of bed at the new time. After I had Miss L, sleep came to occupy one of the most important places in my life and I just never felt like I had enough of it. Miss L is a big little lady now but I am still extremely protective and fussy about my sleep patterns and any hiccup renders me useless. Luckily, apart from being relentlessly picked at by my lovable colleagues in Tokyo (and there’s a time difference so their precise and disapproving emails come into my Inbox at night, which makes them easier to ignore when I get into work the next morning for some reason), it was an easyish week at work and my boss is never a reliable office presence, anyway. So, yawn.

I spent some time with Jax and his puppy Iz, watching March Madness and eating pizza. Rather, Jax & I ate the pizza and watched the basketball and Iz enjoyed her bone in the sunshine streaming in through his open door. I really like that little dog but am glad that she was focused on her bone this time – she has a history of creeping into my luggage while we are occupied doing other things and stealing items of my clothing, which I later find all over his house. “What gall,” Jax says, and he’s right. Under normal circumstances, her little leather collar jingles and when she’s on the prowl, she knows to move slowly and silently, quiet as a ninja puppy as she stealthily raids through my bags for that stray sock or undergarment.

3.2016_Izzy

Despite the persistent ennui, I got in a few good runs on the treadmill during my lunch hours and am hopeful for a longer run this weekend. I am somewhat reluctant to make it official, but I am looking towards the Glen Arbor Solstice Half Marathon in June. I’ve run the 5k a few times and it’s a nice course and I am in surprisingly decent shape; my big “meh” about it is the time of year. The 5k is usually extremely humid and muggy and warm, and I’m just not a good hot weather runner. Fall races are the best for me but I don’t want to wait. I am excited to get back to that distance over the next several weeks and add a new experience to my run collection. (Past halfs confined to the inaugural Ann Arbor Half Marathon which I hated because we ran around Briarwood Mall around the 8-9 mile mark and who wants to run through a mall parking lot at the darkest part of a half, when you are starting to flag but still have too many miles ahead to see the light? I think they’ve changed the course now, maybe? And my favorite race of all, the Sleeping Bear Half Marathon, which I’ve done twice and is my half PR at 1.57.)

Anyway, the sun is shining today and there are little green things determinedly poking up through the detritus so perhaps there will be some raking and yardwork. The six suburban deer have raided my birdfeeders and there are a lot of cold robins heading to the neighbor’s buffet instead – I should rectify that. I can bundle up and listen to my audio book. I finally finished the seemingly endless “Lake House” on my Audible subscription and have started on something called “Nightlord” which at first listen isn’t really my cup of tea but audio books aren’t like library books – if I don’t like them, I actually paid for them, which makes me loathe to cut my losses. (As I did recently with “The Witches” library book, which I found to be little more than a sensationalist rehashing of the same old story – I swapped it for V.E. Schwab’s “A Darker Shade of Magic” which I am really enjoying.)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend recharge. xo

 

weekend and Capsule Closet Project: 1

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Miss L & I are both fighting off colds and spent the dreadful Daylight Savings weekend being quiet. (This was perfect for me but less than exciting for her.) We fetched a soup bone from the local ham shop (yes, HAM SHOP, we live in a beautiful world) to make bean soup and stayed up late fast-forwarding through the scarier bits of the Hobbit films. (Again, I have to ask – why did the filmmakers find it necessary to add a completely fictitious ROMANCE?! I am still offended by their need to alter the perfect source material. If they wanted to make it a love story, go fangirl in a separate movie with a stubbly Kili and elfish vixen.) Ahem. Anyway.

I also had a tree guy come look at some of my greenery; I made a running schedule for early summer; and, of the greatest interest to this post, I did some work in my closet. I have been reading about capsule wardrobes lately and there are a lot of things that appeal to me about it.

  • I tend to wear the same items over and over again anyway, leaving probably 75% of my closet untouched.
  • I like the idea of buying classic, well-made pieces that will last a long time rather than a multitude of less expensive items that wear out quickly, don’t fit as well, aren’t quite right, or aren’t on-trend next season.
  • In my old age I am becoming ever more frugal.
  • I like the idea of simplifying, decluttering, and becoming more organized and streamlined.

I have no interest in paying $20 for a course on how to create a capsule wardrobe, and I’m not sure I can go as few as 10 items, but in my own way, I’ve started identifying and segregating what I actually wear from what I don’t. I think this will be a long process. At the end, I’ll be able to identify what I have and also what I need, and start filling in the gaps with some good pieces.

I’ve already identified a few things that I know I need – mostly shoes at this point. I need a pair of fashionable sneakers for work travel. Comfort is key, since I can’t hobble around airports in heels, and yet I always feel bad clomping around in my running shoes. Black suede Pumas are the ticket. I made a count and can donate at least 5 pairs of cheap, old summer sandals and flip-flops in exchange for 1 quality pair of comfortable, well-made sandals – I am thinking about a pair of Birks. Maybe these. And ballet flats – I have two pairs of old or not-quite-right ballet flats that I could get rid of in exchange for one pair of Tieks.

I have some loose, self-imposed rules for this little challenge.

  • For everything new that I buy, I have to be able to get rid of at least 2 items from my closet. So new pieces have to be considered and researched and I have to show myself a space-and-use advantage to acquiring the new item. This will be my most rigorously enforced rule for the length of this project. It allows for splurges, but if I slip up and come home with a shopping bag from Old Navy, I’d better be prepared to roll up my sleeves and get rid of things.
  • Where possible, I would like to buy a gently used piece from a site like Thred Up rather than buying new. If I’m buying a quality item, it will be less expensive and most of my experiences with those items are very good. People take care of their more expensive things and honestly, it makes more sense to me to buy used. I know this gives a lot of people the heebie-jeebies but I have absolutely no squeamishness or snobbery about buying something from a consignment shop or the Salvos, if I can find it there. It just makes sense to me. For example, I know I will need a black skirt for work since my old one is almost worn to bits. I could go and buy one new, but I can look at Thred Up and find six pages of designer black skirts for $10-$15 or less, in every cut and style possible. What’s not to love about that?
  • Lastly, I would like to almost entirely fund my new purchases with money made from selling my old brand-name items. I have tons of things that I’ve barely worn but paid a lot of money for and have already started selling a few items online and salting the money away in my Paypal account. The Pumas were an exception, but I used a gift certificate from my mom for those so I feel okay with that.
  • Workout clothes, pajamas, undergarments don’t count. If I need a new pair of running shoes because I’ve hit the miles in my old Brooks, I will buy them. I’m not interested in getting another stress fracture or injury because of this project.
  • Obviously this project is only ongoing in *my* closet – not Miss L’s. I’ll continue to buy for her the same as I always do – mostly new, less expensive things every few months due to wear and tear / growth rate / seasons / activities.

I could afford to go out and spend money at the mall, stocking my closet, but that feels lazy and overconsumptive and illogical to me. And it would be at the expense of other things that I find more financially important and motivational – like home improvements, savings accounts, retirement funds, paying off my house early, and saving for a new (probably used) car since my Camry isn’t going to last forever.

I like this idea and am having fun with it and overall I think it makes a lot of sense for me, my value system, and my lifestyle. I expect this whole process to take at least a year – decisions made in every season. I look forward to keeping tabs on myself via this online journal so if this bores you to tears, skip posts titled “Capsule Closet”.

 

when you wake up it’s a new day, and you’re going home.

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3.2016_iowa road

Mornings come early in Omaha. I set off in my rental Nissan Sentra in the darkness pre-dawn. Hills rolled in the distance and the roadsides outside the city were full of billboards and the orange lights of enormous factories, puffing plumes of smoke into a glowing Harkonnen landscape.

Soon, though, the blue light of morning was upon me. The stark landscape was bleak and brown still, but oddly beautiful. Neatly fitted fields swirled in curving rows and red-winged blackbirds perched on fenceposts. I stopped for coffee in a town with no stoplights, but which proudly offered their very own McDonald’s in the shade of a looming agricultural silo.

3.2016_omaha sunset

I had two two-hour presentations scheduled at two neighboring facilities and lunch with a colleague at the coffee shop on the town square. Despite how often I’ve had to travel and give these sorts of presentations, there is always a moment when I’m walking in, bag banging my hip, imagining the churlish faces that will regard me blankly from my audience, in which I think, “I really wish I didn’t have to do this.”

But I always do.

The day was long and exhausting and the long drive back to my hotel that evening was less lovely than it had been that morning. I called my parents and listened to NPR for the early Super Tuesday returns. Finally back at my hotel, I debated with myself about whether I was too tired to care about dinner. I knew that I had no energy left to chat with an Uber driver, no matter how nice they were. I changed into jeans and walked a block to another Omaha restaurant for dinner.

3.2016_old mattress salmon

03.2016_old mattress beer

When I posted my whereabouts on the ubiquitous social media, a couple people thought that the Old Mattress Factory was a funny name for a restaurant. It seemed obvious to me, but maybe only if you are in Omaha and see how much history many of the buildings have, particularly in and around Old Market. Uh….it’s called that because it actually WAS a mattress factory. Ahem. And that was a later incarnation (1940’s). The building itself actually dates from the late-1800’s.

The service was friendly but lackluster, which was okay because it gave me time to slowly absorb a much-needed Nebraska Brewing Co. Ale Storm American Blonde into my parched and overexposed system. The salmon, when it came, was among the best I’ve ever had.

As usual, after presentations, I dream about being in social situations and realizing I am only half-dressed – usually pantsless.

It was another early morning the next day, but I was heading home, and so that was okay.

There aren’t many good quotes about Omaha.

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The two hours that Miss L and I spent manning a Girl Scout cookie booth this weekend seemed to swell and fill up THE ENTIRE WEEKEND. When we got home all we could do was nosh on turkey chili and talk about how much our feet hurt and then go to bed.

All too soon it was Monday and I was on a flight to Omaha. As usual, I ended up between someone who was too large for their seat and so had to take up half of mine (I don’t judge or hold a grudge; anyone who is tall or big-boned is ill-suited to the third world conditions of domestic air travel) and a sick person who did not bother to disguise the non-stop mucus clearing on her side of the armrest. Nor the fact that she was bored and blatantly ogling my Mah Jongg game.

But we landed safely and I made my way to my hotel. I actually really like Omaha. I am a Midwest girl and being in such a place is comforting. The space, the old architecture, the mellowness. Unfortunately the difference between EST and CST always creates a bit of havoc so I inadvertently scheduled a meeting at one of our facilities (an hour and a half away) for 8AM tomorrow.

First, though, before collapsing into am anonymous scratchy hotel chain bed, I ventured to Old Market for chow. Q had nearly strong-armed me toward a weird hipster bar, whilst making his measured restaurant recommendations, and in the face of my demurrals, at the last minute crossly gave me a lower-key secondary option. So I Ubered to Plank Seafood. Oysters are the specialty but I went with fish tacos (really nice). 

Then, feeling that dissatisfaction in my tumicular region, I asked the waiter for a dessert rec. It was between raspberry cobbler and Bananas Foster bread pudding. He made the call.

  
I don’t even like bananas all that much and this dessert was utter perfection.

I love Uber and on the way back to the hotel, I was picked up by my all-time fave (now) driver. He was a tatted, muscled young stud with a sleek BMW. I got in and he instantly confessed that it was only his second night driving. He’d signed up to be a driver while his partner was deployed- Air Force. He was a little lost and after a few minutes getting straight where I needed to be, he showed me a ring and said happily that he had proposed to his boyfriend and the wedding was set for September. Ahead, the bright lights of my hotel loomed and we beamed at each other in the rear view. 

“I wish you and your partner a lifetime of happiness!” I said, clambering out, full of camaraderie and bread pudding.

“Thanks Sara!” he said, and it made me feel like traveling is a very good thing indeed. 

date night

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3.2016_grumpy selfie

On Thursday, it took me almost two hours to get to work, due to Very Bad Drivers on the road. I took this selfie immediately after the man driving the gold minivan behind me honked because I’d let two car lengths grow between myself and the car in front of me. He had a Canadian license plate. Normally I am quite admiring of Canadians so this guy must have been an anomaly. I couldn’t quite believe that anyone would honk over something so trivial, especially considering the 2-3 mile backup ahead of us. Trust me, those two car lengths were not going to get him anywhere any faster.

Today was better. I had a couple of routine doctor appointments this morning so I rolled out of bed past my usual bedtime and had coffee and a nice chat with my gyno whilst I was in the stirrups (TMI, I know) and then took a couple of conference calls before seeing my GP. It was a bright clear day and there were cardinals in the trees. I noticed a sushi restaurant next door to my GP and stopped off for a bowl of warming udon and green tea. The restaurant slowly filled up, mostly with Japanese, which is a pretty good sign in a sushi restaurant. The udon smelled like dishwater but tasted fine and I felt happy. I really enjoy eating by myself. A book, some food, I am golden.

3.2016_udon

Yesterday, after Horrible Commute, I got to swapping stories about dating with “CPA”, one of my single female colleagues. She’s never been married so her roster of horrifying dating stories is longer and more hilarious than mine.  My male colleague, “Q”, much younger than me and also single, whom I definitely think should be writing a blog about the Detroit restaurant and night life scene, or at the very least getting some actual work done between shopping for beautiful dress shirts online all day, and who has longer eyelashes than I do, told me that I really need to get back on Match. Or, he said after a pondering moment, go hang out at happy hour at a certain exclusive Birmingham hotel’s cocktail bar. He said, “Tons of rich old guys. And the women are just bad plastic surgery NIGHTMARES. Reeking of desperation. You’d be the A-team!” I didn’t really know what this meant but I then had to confess that the last time I had a date lined up, I called to cancel on the basis that I had norovirus.

Of course it was a stunning lie – someone had suspected norovirus from the Widget Central workout room and it was the first thing that sprang into my head.

CPA and Q thought this was one of the funniest things they’d ever heard. At some point, the two of them are going to insist that I socialize with them. I’m not good in situations like that and they both drive identical low-slung BMW’s that I struggle to get into and out of and all in all, I’m just a suburban homesteading mom with a used but paid for Camry who likes birds and cats and her kid, and otherwise is super comfortable being alone. I do go out sometimes and I’ve dated since my divorce, and have really liked one or two of them. I continue to see one friend, “Jax”, off and on, but nothing has entirely worked out with that “click” that you feel when it’s right.

I still feel a little bad about the norovirus thing. I didn’t want to hurt the guy’s feelings – I just really wanted to go home and get into pajamas and spend time with my two favorite boys.

3.2016_twins

After I shut down my work computer and had a quick conference at the school with GB and Miss L’s teacher (this is another story entirely and one that likely won’t be told on the blog, as I do try to protect her right to confidentiality and privacy – I will say that while I thought it might involve the inappropriate use of the word “asshole”, it didn’t and that is totally okay with me – even though there ARE kind of a lot of assholes in Miss L’s second grade class, so who can blame her, really) I noticed that I was really hungry and dressed with a modicum of polish.  So I went to a Middle Eastern restaurant nearby and had an enormous plate of hummus, tabbouli, falafel, grape leaves, spinach pie, and a bright salad that quivered with a mouth-puckering acidic dressing. I came home to a bath and a glass of wine, and Marion Cotillard in “Macbeth” and as I sit here in my pajamas, I am thinking that this is the absolute best date that I’ve been on in a really long time. And it didn’t involve low-slung sports cars or bars or anything other than doing things that I really like including reading a JK Rowling / Robert Galbraith book while shoveling pita bread into my gob. I love date night.

 

 

in which i like them apples

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I don’t have any new pictures to post unless you want to see a pic of the cashmere sweater I just sold on Ebay (full price!! score!!!) — wait, I DO have this recently saved to my camera roll:

007

In keeping with the disorganized theme of this post, here are a bunch of random things that I am too impatient to make full, well-written posts about individually so instead I will barf them up in no particular order here.

  • It’s snowing again. Actually, it started with rain, and when I went out to the parking lot my Camry was encased in ice. Given our school district’s antipathy towards educating our children when there is even any HINT of inclement weather, I suspect a snow day for Miss L tomorrow. Please note: It was over 60 degrees on Saturday. #puremichigan #nowonderweareallsickallthetime
  • I was standing around waiting for a meeting to start today (I was early) and idly chatting with some other (prompt) meeting participants and I noticed that two of the heavy grey leather chairs in our commons area were just…gone. There are usually two groupings of four and they are too large to be dragged around to serve as supplement seating for meetings. Plus, oddly shaped and not functional. I mentioned it and HR got a little interested and looked around and yup, NO CHAIRS. Who took them? And why? And is my job really so boring that I actually care?
  • During this same pre-meeting idyll, one of the Finance guys said bitterly, “Kids today are SOFT. We NEVER got snow days when WE were kids. If the f-ing buses couldn’t run – you had to WALK. Or your parents had to take you. Now – two inches and it’s a SNOW DAY.” See my sarcastic commentary about the dedication of our district to keeping schools open – I agree with him. We live in MICHIGAN. We should not be closing schools for anything other than a genuine polar vortex. And I want Jim Cantore over here to authorize it as such.
  • I so, so wish I could tell you all of the odd happenings with my work and my dating life. I really wish I could tell you about my shady former lawyer boss, She of the Sitting In the Parking Lot in Her Mercedes Very Very Late for Meetings Putting On her Makeup In the Rearview Mirror, and about the time one of my dates turned his car into his parking space at his modest rental community and SENT A COLONY OF ENORMOUS RATS SCATTERING INTO THE BUSHES WHERE THEY HAD SET UP A HUGE NEST. But I really try to keep things anonymous and kind over here, I seek not to embarrass anyone or call my work integrity into question, and I don’t always know who reads my blog (hi Mom) – but DAMN I wish I could tell you some things. I can, however, tell you that I am currently interviewing attorneys who will likely serve as my boss. When I tell them firmly that I am NOT a lawyer, and I speak to them forcefully and with complete frankness, I can see them receding into a tight-lipped shell of “WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS”. Yes, I inform them, I am not a lawyer, I will likely be reporting to you, and yet I get a say in whether or not you get to come work here. I usually do not add “HOW DO YA LIKE THEM APPLES” but today, interviewing the Donald Trump lookalike with a name like an Edgar Allan Poe novella about a casserole, I almost couldn’t restrain myself.
  • Currently reading: “Career of Evil”, Robert Galbraith – love this series, truly I do.
  • Currently watching: “An Idiot Abroad” which is just wrong. I really shouldn’t laugh myself off the couch when watching it. It’s just – wrong. But I do and I keep coming back.
  • Weather update: Still snowing. Time to go make dinner. Stay safe and warm out there. And if you are in a warmer clime than Michigan, I don’t want to hear about it but feel free to tell me “HOW DO YA LIKE THEM APPLES” because that’s just karma. xoxo

in which i don’t tempt fate

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2.2016_tracks

I have only two goals today – pet store,  before Emmett chews my face off, falsely believing that he is starving, and library, since I’m finally almost done with the seemingly never-ending ‘Eye of the World’ (not a bad book by any means, just LONG, and in tiny tiny type that made it seem even more arduous) – and both of them involve leaving my driveway. This could be a problem – see below.

2.2016_ice boulder

In typical Michigan fashion, the snowplow came by and tossed up a wall of snow at the bottom of my driveway, which froze overnight and is now as dense, heavy, and impenetrable as ice boulders. I gunned my Camry over it twice (this was not well-thought-out) but I fear a third time, my luck would run out and I would leave my axle or some other important car part amidst the Great Wall. So, hopefully it melts a bit. In the meantime, I will just sit inside and eat Girl Scout cookies and watch the below over and over and over again.

Happy weekend. xo

snow day

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I’m sitting in my back den with a glass of wine and the flames in the woodstove crackling merrily. The westerly sun through the pines is casting long shadows on the pristine snow of my backyard, unmarked except by bird tracks like runes. Sarge is sleeping in his Superman pose and the little red-haired girl is finishing up her pre-dinner hot chocolate (a snow day treat). The snow fell all night and most of the morning and so it was one of those no-school holidays.

I worked from home but when posts started popping up in the local elementary school Mom’s Page on FB, asking when everyone was heading to the big sledding hill, I remembered snow days as a kid. Building igloos with my brother, rampaging with the neighborhood kids…I want my little one to grow up with just as many memories of her childhood as I have of mine. Email could wait.

2.2016_sledding hill

There was a mad rush to find snow pants, boots and gloves; the hill was already crowded. She found some of her friends, neighborhood kids, and they were off while I stood at the top of the hill and watched. There was a haystack mogul on the far right side that caused a lot of glee and terror. The local news crews were out in force – all of the major channels with news vans, filming the kids, likely lingering longer than they needed to. Maybe everyone needs a snow day.

Finally, wet and freezing, hungry and thirsty, we came home to eat and relax and back to emails and IM’s from my restless non-snow-day enjoying friends in the office. On breaks, we organized Girl Scout cookie orders for delivery to all of my work friends tomorrow. (Yes, I am the Compliance manager, frequently lecturing people on Conflict of Interest, the Perception of Hawking / Soliciting, yet I still twisted a few arms on the down low to get the little one enough sales for that summertime trip to Mackinac Island. No one minded much. Even the COO was pounding on my door this week demanding his Thin Mints. “I KNOW YOU HAVE THEM. I NEED THEM…It’s been a bad week.”)

2.2016_girl scout cookies