who the hell can talk on the phone for 5 1/2 HOURS?!
March 11, 2006, 4:02 P.M.
The weather is so changeable in March. In the last 48 hours, we've had cold, frosty, damp, chilly, rainy, sunny, warm, and breezy.
Most recently, it's been warm and breezy, but now it looks as though thunderstorms are on their way. The sun locked in combat with the clouds, and the TV is warning of severe weather. What a time of year.
I spent the ENTIRE morning on the phone with my mom. Just yakking--how everybody's doing, and the usual political, philosophical, psychological, and emotional stuff we always talk about. Normally, I find such marathons exhausting, but today was actually good for me. I needed my mom. And we each gave sufficient to the other in this exchange, and came out feeling better on both sides. Those are the best times with Mom. It was fun. And now I won't have her voice in my head! For a few days, anyway.
I've been feeling a tremendous need to call her all week, but our schedules aren't the most compatible, so I waited till this morning. And after I talked to her, we realized why she's been so much on my mind.
28 years ago yesterday, we buried her dad. My maternal grandfather. My wonderful, very much loved grandfather. So we took a few minutes and had a really good, weepy session of missing Grandpa. It did us both a lot of good.
Spouse is stuck working a full second shift tonight, so I'm on my own. Probably a good thing, because I can get the laundry caught up (including bedding), and do a bit of cleaning and tidying around here. I'm not feeling overly ambitious, but I'll just keep pecking away at it until I'm satisfied that I've done enough. I'm rather tired, though. I pulled one of my endless Fridays yesterday. From my usual early morning rising until finally going to bed at 1:00 this morning. Work, errands, grocery shopping, cooking, kitchen messes--on and on for 20 hours straight.
I'ts kind of hard on me, but Spouse was sufficiently grateful (for his meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and baby peas, with strawberry shortcake for dessert) as to bestow upon me a wonderful neck and shoulder rub that completely erased my tension headache in about five minutes. Bless him.
After that, I'd have slept this whole morning away if it wasn't for the dog. She was on top of me in the bed at 6:15 to announce that it was walkies time. So I got up, hit the button on the coffeemaker, walked the dog, and then came home and settled down in my chair with my phone and a large mug of "Trader Joe's Island Blend".
I'm proud to say that we got the taxes done on time again this year. Mainly because I no longer trust to the spouse to take care of it, but I have to admit that he was very good about calling the accountant and getting things set up. Of course, if I hadn't collected all the pertinent data and taken it to her, nothing would have happened, so I still take the credit for getting it done. We stopped by and signed everything yesterday at lunchtime, and came fairly close this year. Getting some back from the feds, and have to pay a small amount to the state. It's pretty much impossible for us to tweak our withholding to what it needs to be, but the government likes it that way, so it won't be fixed anytime soon. They get to penalize the people who owe, they get to borrow money interest free from the people who overpay--what incentive do they have to change things?
I kind of punked on an entry yesterday, although I had guess I had time to do one. I was just not in the mood to be anywhere near a computer after the week I've had. It's back to the whole "bricks without straw" thing at work--this time, I'm trying to teach without materials, preparation time, or even a clear understanding of what information they want me to convey to these people. And do my regular work, too. With a re-org of this size, I'm certainly not the only one in this boat, but that really doesn't make it any easier. And it is just wearing me to the bone.
Reading: Finished "My Life with Corpses" by Wylene Dunbar. Now I'm indulging myself with re-reading an old favorite--"Random Harvest", by James Hilton. It's always been one of those books I can climb right into and lose myself in the story. Listening: CD Sountrack, "The Commitments". I can never watch the movie without yearning to pop the soundtrack in afterwards.
Beading: Working on recreating that pattern, and running through several project ideas in my head, to see which one jells first. Will it be the spring green pearls and firepolish? The(re-imagined)pink tassle phone charm? The bracelet in shades of true blue, or something in vibrant, electric blues? Only time will tell.
One Year Ago, I didn't post.
At Random: click here
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