My Home Away From Home

Daydreams of leisure and relaxation seduce me while I add to my to-do list.

I stopped by my place today, and took care of a few small things - changed the light bulb out front, put the cabinet together that goes behind/over the toilet, ripped the tags off a bath mat & throw rug. I put wine & ketchup in the fridge, and washed a few counter tops down. I found a lamp (but no shade), and put a bulb in it. I now have light in my bedroom. I cannot yet eat or shower there, still need a mattress, went shopping for a filing cabinet & bookcase (but came home with nothing). The other day, I took the plastic wrap off some of the furniture, dwelling on the beauty that has been hidden in storage for well over a year.

It is my home......yet I don't live there. Yet.

As I wander around, I see things I mean to take care of - some of which I've been meaning to take care of for nigh on seven years. The light in the kitchen is cracked, and ugly. There's a problem with the seal around the bathtub, and I don't know if it involves just grout & elbow grease or licensed, bonded professionals who make 5x what I do. There's a soft spot nearby that will probably involve ripping flooring up & hopefully not needing to replace sub flooring. The rickety creak just *sounds* expensive, which means it will probably have to wait.

I used to have towel racks in the bathroom, and a water purifier on the kitchen sink. I don't know where they disappeared to, or who exactly was responsible for the disappearance. Little mysteries await me at every turn. "Didn't there used to be.....", I wonder. The cupboards are different than what I remember, but they must be the same. I never did put curtains up the first time. I believe I shall rectify that oversight this time.

My to-do list is growing by the day - I need to find the piano bench. It must be in storage. And a tuner - it doesn't sound as good as it did when I was a child.....I'm guessing my father hadn't had it tuned since before my mother became ill, and that's pushing 15-20 years. Because of that, I'll probably have to have 4-5 tunings before it's back to normal. Pianos are delicate instruments, and you can't just force them back into shape. It's like going to a chiropractor - they do small adjustments so as not to overstress you with change. That's what I need - a chiropractor for the piano. Does my insurance cover that??

A microwave would be useful. I need a throw-rug for the entry way. And dining room chairs. I inherited chairs, but they are worn out, in need of repair - repairs I once priced out at $1800. Ouch. I have better ways to spend that kind of money. A wine cabinet. Book case. Lateral File. A television set? Perhaps. I have a DVD player I discovered....it was in a dresser drawer, along with a feather pillow and a Mariner Moose. Very strange - I thought I gave all my electronics away.

As I search for things I need, I am reminded of the diner scene from When Harry Met Sally.....not the Deli "I'll have what she's having" one, but early on when Meg Ryan orders pie as they travel to New York.

"Sally: I'd like the chef salad please with oil and vinegar on the side, and the apple pie a la mode.
Waitress: Chef and apple a la mode.
Sally: But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top. I want it on the side, and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream, but only if it's real. If it's out of the can, then nothing.
Waitress: Not even the pie?
Sally: No, just the pie, but then not heated."

I know what I want. I'm even willing to be flexible within reason....I just don't know if I can get it. My kitchen is very small, and floor space is at a premium. I don't have a pantry, so garbage & recycling will have to sit out. But the kitchen is at the crossroads of the entire place......I don't want my whole place looking like & smelling like garbage! I *love* this, but Jesus H Christ - it's a hundred and sixty nine dollars!!!! I've found other things would would be 'okay', but nothing that really solves the issue I have...and I'm not ready to spend two hundred bucks on a TRASH bin. *sigh* But I'm also not willing to throw away $15 on one that doesn't do what I need. I don't want much - I just want what I want.

I need a piece of wood for the sliding glass door, to "lock" it in place when I put the cat door in. I'm so looking forward to my cat becoming more independent - where I can put food & water out, and let him wander out on the back porch at his leisure. I don't know if I kept my chimes or not. I may find them in a box one day. I've already found things I'd forgotten about. I'd like a nice little chair to sit out on the porch and read, inhaling the scent of rhododendrons and wisteria, D'Artagnon rolling at my feet.

Slowly, but surely, my home away from home is being born. For now I live here instead of there, and dream of things to come.

--BT

My Quiet Little Life

It's been a strangely busy and disorienting week. My boyfriend has been out of town, so I can scarcely blame it on him. *smile* Last weekend, I went out on the town with a friend which involved flaming pots of chocolate and a Utah waitress with funky hair. (see Lucky Number Seven). The next day was a birthday party - where adults were asked to come dressed as children and children as adults. Quite fun, and I have the hot pink feather boa to prove it.

My carpet got installed on Monday morning.....VERY happy about how it turned out! So I went in late - this was going to be an odd day anyway - There's one project we have that six people have been trained on (including the manager). FIVE of them were out of the office on Monday leaving only the guy who learned it three weeks ago in charge. Oh joy! So he came in at 6am to cover that.....then my 8am gal came in at 5 to cover *my* teammate who's out. That left *no one* working until 8pm who knows both projects, which is why I came in late.

Monday, I arrive to find out my programmer's hard drive crashed......just as he's uploading the final fix for a program I wrote specs for about five months ago. That night was supposed to be my by-week at pool, but I got called in to play. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we blew up lots and lots of balloons - over 250 of them - and FILLED this guy's cubicle as a surprise for one of my co-workers. He'd been on vacation, and then his grandfather passed away, so we wanted to do something to cheer him up.

Wednesday, I dropped my bike. TWICE. In fifteen minutes. Turned out that I flooded it the first time I dropped it, which is why it died as I was rounding a corner causing the 2nd crash. I waited an hour for a friend to come help me out. Ended up being late enough that we went to breakfast, since my punishment for tardiness is the same whether I'm two hours late or four. Minor damage to the bike. None to me, unless you count my ego.

Thursday I stayed late again to cover the hours I missed on Wednesday, and then went to see Harry Potter!! I have been waiting months and months for this, and it was every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be. But by the time I got to bed it was quite late.

Today, the movers came. Most of my stuff is now occupying the floor space of my condo. Hallelujah. But it couldn't possibly go smoothly, The first guy to show up was totally lame. Clueless, disorganized, and he spent half his time doing god knows what - searching for bandages for splinters, or taking one small box & a lamp down to the truck instead of loading up the cart & the freight elevator with goods. The second guy was good. The third guy was good, once he arrived, but he was 45 minutes late.

After two hours, none of us wanted the first guy touching anything, so we finally sent him out for food. I took a vote, and it was unanimous to let him go, and handle the piano without him. Note - the piano was the entire reason I ordered three men in the FIRST place.

What took three men two hours to do in Florida, it took three men AND me nearly six hours to do in Washington. Now granted a good hour of that was driving time, but STILL. It made me want to pull what little hair I have left out by the roots. Today was my brother's birthday, and we were supposed to go in early so we could eat at the stadium. That was not to be. The game turned out to be really exciting all the way down to the last pitch, but we netted a loss nonetheless.

Tomorrow, I need to get my license plate & driver's license squared away, and then the DS meeting is in the evening. Sunday, I unpack. My boyfriend comes back in town that night, but he may just want to go home & crash. I think I need a vacation to recover from life. Just when I'd like things to slow down, I have a project heating up at work, I have things I need to buy to start living in my new home (like a mattress & box spring for starters....and a trash can). I need to find a roommate.

What happened to my quiet little life?

--BT

Lucky Number Seven

Hitting the Jackpot. Winning the Lottery. These are the types of things most people are dreaming about today, on 07/07/07, but for one such friend of mine - she already has won the lottery. Anne has a date with a doctah! *wink*

Louis Pasteur once said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity - and today, one very, very, very prepared friend and I are going out to celebrate the fact that she now has the opportunity for a life-saving operation. It's called the Duodenal Switch, and it is a remarkable gift that restores life to a body that has been robbed by metabolic disorders and obesity. I know, because I've had it myself. It's one of a category of Weight Loss Surgeries, but it does so much more than that. It eliminated my high cholesterol, resolved my insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), and helped me shed well over 100 lbs.

It has taken literally years for Anne to get all of her ducks in a row - qualifying for disability, getting set up on Medicare, waiting (and waiting ZzZzzZzzz and waiting) for Medicare to finally kick in. She is at that balance point of sickness and health to NEED the surgery, yet be physically able to survive it. Her date is scheduled for August, so the tension and fear of the actual operation is still a few weeks down the road.

Today.......today is all about the potential. Luck, and love, and joy, and hope! The what ifs, what might, what could life be like if she were healed. I'm going to quiz her on what she's looking forward to most - the growing list of Wows she's waiting for, and what she's hoping for. It will take a while for her to get there because she has farther to go than some.....and she will not only need to deal with recovery from the surgery, but recovery from the disease as well. But I can hardly wait - she is already an amazing woman, and the power & vitality she'll gain from this will only serve to launch her further into the stratosphere.

It is only fitting that today, SeaFair weekend, here in Seattle....her ship has come in.

Salut!!!

--BT