In which the holidays are, thankfully, over.

I am feeling irritated by everything tonight.


I just reshuffled a box full of daily reports from the past two years so that my coworker, Peabo, would be able to find something more easily, and I did it resentfully, because does she not know the order in which the months and days go?  It's true that they weren't in order from January to December, but they were in a special order that a smarter person could have figured out in about a minute.  Yes, I know, I'm in the wrong here, but I still hate her.


I have some (sort of) houseguests right now, a mother and her 13 year old son, who were about a step away from living in their car, and when I heard about it, I told Rich they could stay with us, and they are staying until the middle of February.  It's fine, except that kid needs to bathe, and doesn't his mother notice it?  WTH?? Shower, use deodorant and also?  Brush your teeth!  I ordered him to shower one day last week, and then I told him he had to vacuum the living room before he played his video game, and he did.  I just don't think it's my job to make him bathe.


So because we have the homeless people living here, we have been living around them, and mostly they have settled onto the living room couch.  I used to sit in the living room, shuffling around on the internet on my laptop on a little table, but I don't enjoy hearing those two talk to each other, so I moved my laptop to the kitchen and Rich and I are sitting in the breakfast nook, computing together now.  It's actually pretty pleasant, and we are talking more than we have in a long time, because when we were each on our computers in different rooms, well, you know.


On the positive side, Rich and I are slowly tidying things up in the house that we've let pile up, and that started because we wanted to be able to have all of us sit at the table together to eat dinner.  We're also fixing some dinner more often (well, twice a week) and eating it at the table, instead of foraging in the kitchen like bears and eating in front of the television like savages.  Savage bears, heh. 


I'm kind of liking the fixing dinner and working together on cleaning things up a little, and with Rich and I talking more and all, it's pretty nice. 

On the first day of Christmas...

So I'm doing my own little month of journal posts, like an Advent calendar.  Only without fun little suprises, well, maybe there will be fun little surprises, I don't know.  I'm not making any promises.

Day One:

What I did today - woke up at 3:30 and went to get a large Diet Coke for a dollar from McDonalds with RA, like I do every day.  Then I went to my piano lesson with Carolyn, where it's fun to see the kids, but the downside is that I have to play the piano.  I passed off one of my songs, and I have to keep practicing the other one.  Still working on Minuet in G, and someday I might be able to play it.

After piano, I went to yoga.  Last night I took Laura's yoga class, and later at work I was looking on the internet for a sequence to teach tonight and I found almost the same sequence that Laura taught, so I copied it down and used it with my class.  It went well.

Shelley followed me home so she could pick up the bag of mittens and hats I knitted during the summer for the school kids who need them.  On cold days, if they don't have mittens, they can't go outside, so now there are extras for people who don't have them.

I wish there was something to eat in the this house.  There is food, but there is nothing already made!  If I want to eat, I have to cook!  WTH?  I'm going to the kitchen to forage for food like a bear in the woods.

In which I am grateful.

I forgot that Diana was going to start posting gratitude posts, and I said I would do it, too.  So today I looked at her blog to see if she has been grateful for anything, and hey!  She has!  So I feel left out now, and I need to post something, too.


What I'm grateful for today:


I'm grateful that Rachel walked all the way to my house from work to see if I was dead because I wasn't answering my phone or any text messages.  Because I was taking a nap so I could work tonight, which is what RA thought when I didn't answer her text, but no, Rachel's brain jumped right to dead and she had to come and check on me.  I'm grateful, though, because what if I had been lying on the floor unconscious because I tripped on a dog toy and fell down the stairs and cracked my skull?  She would have been first on the scene and called an ambulance!


What I cooked today:


I'm grateful for the side of beef that Rachel and I bought, because now I have hormone-free, organic beef for winter.  And so does Rachel.  Today I put a roast in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes and we had a lovely dinner when Rich came home.  Imagine his surprise!


What I'm reading today:


I'm grateful for my Kindle and the thousands of books that I can carry around with me.  Today I'm reading My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.  I'm also re-reading Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie, and I'm looking forward to sorting all my books that have Christmas in the title and reading them during the month of December.  Including Envious Casca, because it's a very entertaining murder mystery by Georgette Heyer that doesn't have the word Christmas in the title, but takes place during the holidays.



Okay, that's enough gratitude for today.

So much technology!

Did you know that when you buy a CD from Amazon, that you get a digital copy of it, too? I found that out tonight when I was thinking about a Ben Folds song, and went to buy the MP3 on Amazon, thinking that maybe someone would show me how to put it on my phone later. (The song is There's Always Someone Cooler Than You, since you're dying to know.)

So I bought the song and then, not having anyone here at this moment to show me how to put it on my phone (and mock me in the process, I'm sure), I Googled "how to put a digital song on my phone" and I was told to get the music app from Amazon, so I did, and it said I had 499 songs in the cloud! What?! I looked to see what I have, and apparently every CD I (or anyone using my account) has ever bought from Amazon, is stored in the cloud!

I have no idea who bought some Andrew Lloyd Weber, but I bought that Patsy Cline album for Kim after she worked the soundboard at the theater for the Patsy Cline retrospective. The Monkees! The Beatles! George Michael! Lots of Ben Folds! Vampire Weekend! Cake! OMG! You know what's going to happen is that it will all sit there in the cloud, never being listened to, because I never listen to music unless I'm in the car.

Also? I already listened to the one song I wanted, so I'm good now.

Remember when I used to go to yoga classes 3 or 4 times a week? Well, I don't go that much anymore, and I can't really explain why. I started slowing down when I became a teacher, and I've just never gotten that momentum back.

I keep promising Shelley that I'll start going to the Monday night class at the Y with her, and then I never do it. I just sit there in my big chair, staring into the internet and talking to my cousin Diana on Skype, and I never leave the house.

Until tonight! I set an alarm to remind me to go, and I actually got up out of my chair and went to the class! Woot! Of course, I am going to have to work on this, to get the strength back for holding hard poses, but I can do it. I'm glad I went. Also, today I am thankful to Laura, who gave me a little push to go.

What I'm not thankful for? That all the places where I would want to pick up some food to take to work with me are closed before time for me to go to work, so I am eating microwave popcorn and string cheese for dinner at work tonight.

What I'm grateful for today:

I'm grateful to be at work, where there is air-conditioning.

I'm grateful for Kim's Tumblr blog, so I know what is going on with her.

I'm grateful for my friend Laura, who is my yoga, knitting, and taco friend.

I'm grateful for the birthday pedicure I got today with Caroline.

I'm grateful for the dogsitter (AKA the dog's boyfriend) who is making my life so much better.

What I'm knitting today: I'm about to start sock #2 of a pair of lovely cashmere socks for my friend Paula. The yarn is a beautiful color:


The yarn is Dream in Color Jilly Cashmere, and I'm sorry to have to tell you that it is splitty as hell. It is soft to the touch, and as I mentioned, it is a wonderful color, but it's really annoying to work with.

In which I am keeping up with the cool kids.

I haven't written anything here for like ... two years? A long time. But now Diana is writing her blog again, and Kim just started a blog, so you know I have to be like the cool kids and write mine, too!

What I did today - well, I went on a mile-long hike with Maddy, Rachel and Rich. Rachel is trying to get Maddy ready for a Girl Scout activity called the Thin Mint Rally or something like that, and it requires Maddy to walk a mile a day. I said I would do it, too, because I feel like I hardly ever get off of my own couch, so tonight was the first night of doing The One Mile Walk. We mostly talked about our favorite amusement park rides while we walked.

Also, I practiced the piano this evening, which segues nicely into what I'm thankful for today - I'm thankful that I am terrible at reading instructions, so I didn't practice the right song for Primary today, and I got to practice sight reading.

In other news, I went to Goodwill yesterday with Rachel to look for something she needed, and I found a fantastic coat for Kim to wear for cosplay. It's a really great steampunky long coat.

Picture of the coat, modeled by Carolyn.