You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone

This last week I almost expired.  I paced the floor.  I pulled on my hair constantly.  I cleaned.  I know! I bathed my dogs.  I did all the laundry in the house all in one day.  (Which if you know me at all, you know that that is a miracle).  I mowed the lawn.  I rearranged the back yard.  Sounds weird, but it CAN be done.

As I write this I am smelling gravy.  Not the crappy, white gravy that you can get on the never the less tasty biscuits and gravy at Dari-Mart, but the yummy brown gravy that you used to get at school on the instant mashed potatoes.

I am using the free wi-fi at Shari's.  Thank God for Shari's.  Except that I have four bucks to my name and I am pretty sure that the coffee I am going to drink gallons of because of free refills is three.

I have found that being without Internet access at home is damn hard.  I am spoiled.  I need to have instant access to the information highway at all times.  And that is all there is to it!

I had to actually look up something in a phone book yesterday.  Yes, I said phone book.  That is after I found one.  Every year, sometimes twice a year, we receive four to five phone books on our door step.  All by different companies.  I recycle all but one, and use the last one to use as fire-starter.  But yesterday I had to scrounge around the Hubby's man-room to find one that I knew he had stashed.  Apparently he wanted to keep it because he liked the picture on the front.  Pack-rats can be handy sometimes.

Unfortunately it was from 2003, and not as helpful as I had hoped.  So I said "fuck-it" and figured I didn't need the number that bad and went out and had a small fire in the ol' fire-pit while sipping a medicinal glass of wine.

I now cannot get this song out of my head!

Picking a Winner, At Least for Right Now

In the last two years I have developed this strange habit of reading several books at once.  I call this "strange", because in the past I have only been able to concentrate on one book at a time; usually all at once.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I could concentrate on more that one, but I didn't want to.  It seemed as if I was consumed by what I was reading, despite all else going around me. 

I believe I used reading a book all in once as a type of "escape" from the real world; if only a brief one.  For those several hours of getting away from my life, I could be anywhere, be anyone, and do anything.  Ever since I was a child this has worked for me.  But unfortunately it no longer does.

No longer can I use a book as a ferry to other worlds, other lives.  No longer can I be that fly on the wall that sees and hears all.  No longer can I hide behind the [book] spine of Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovitch, or anyone else for that matter, to just get away.

One of the reasons this is true is because my life is no longer simple enough to dismiss; no longer seemingly one-dimensional.  I am no longer one-dimensional.  Yes, that is how I thought of myself.

However in the past few years I have gotten into the habit of reading several books at once.  By "at once" I don't mean some super human feat of having eight books spread out in front of me, while my eyes go a million miles an hour devouring every word.  I mean that I have two books ready for me in the bathroom, three in the living room, one in the car, one in my purse, and five on my nightstand.

I don't know what's going on in my head anymore, but now as I grow older, my tastes have broadened when it comes to the written word.  I no longer look for just the popular (although still good) authors when buying a book.  I am taking a chance and reading some independent authors, essays, non-fiction, political, biographies, among others.  Now the choice of what I read is based on my mood.  And it's nice to have so many ready and waiting to choose from, something that at any time can match any moment in my crazy life. 

So in respect to my rambling thoughts, I am recommending the "nightstand book" that I finished today.

A Soft Place to Land, By Susan Rebecca White 

What the heck happened?!?

So the hubby has decided on a career change.  Ish.  After nearly 20 years in the customer service industry, he has decided he would rather work in the kitchen, or the "back of the house" as it is called in the biz.  He once worked as a sous chef at a very hoity toity French bistro in Colorado and he wants to get back to that.  Which I think is great!  However, I am wondering when?

So far he is doing a favor for a former employer and working one day a week in the kitchen for him.  I think he enjoys it for the most part.

Except, instead of putting his head into getting that new, fantastic job that he is so ready for, he is planning on building me a deck.  A deck I don't really want.  Actually, I want it, but just not where he wants it.  He got all the materials for free, so he figures "why not?".  I'll tell you why not.  The man called AAA when his battery died in the car and he couldn't get the cable off; after being together for over ten years, I have never known him to build a sandcastle, let alone an entire deck.  Ah well, we shall see.  He's building it under the apple tree (sigh, I know), so maybe I'll get a tree house.  YAY!  Oh wait.  I had that pruned.  Okaaaaaay . . . maybe I'll get a tree house that's only a foot off of the ground. 

I, on the other hand have been going through our stuff to have a yard sale.  I haven't had one in a few years and I figured we had a ton of shit we could get rid of.  My mistake.  Just a few pounds of shit.

My hubby is a pack rat.  Although I must say, he shocked me when he said I could sell the big-ass, vintage stereo cabinet that has been in my bedroom forever.  And the old stereo receiver that hasn't been hooked up to anything even resembling a speaker for just as long.  Totally unbelievable.

I am just sick and tired of living in what I see as a storage unit with windows.  I like "cozy", but this is getting ridiculous. I am going to keep adding to the pile for the next week and a half and see what else I can get rid of.  YAY!