Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"'You are what you eat' is a truism hard to argue with...."

I love my weekends!! Have I mentioned that enough yet? Last week was spring break, so it was super slow at the library. I think our average was maybe five or six people per day. Ick. But at least Friday was a holiday, so I had a lovely three-day weekend.
Friday I woke up, ready to get a few things done and then relax. Which I did. Lucy and I went to the gym, then to Fred Meyer to do a little bit of shopping. After putting the groceries away at home, I laid down in bed again and turned on a T.V. show (lately it's been "Good Eats" with Alton Brown, a fantastic cooking show). Anyway, at about 4:30 Shane said, "Hey, what time was Pepper's vet appointment?" Crap! I knew I was forgetting something, and I'd missed it by an hour. So I called them, and got another appointment for this Friday, when I'm taking my personal day off. (The reason for that will be apparent later.)
Anyway, Saturday was the day Shane, Dustin and Al were planning to go to Anchorage to see the Star Wars exhibit that was in town. (I declined going because of the expense--I have some dental work that needs to get done later this month that will be expensive even after insurance. Yuck.) So we stayed up until 2 a.m. with James, even though Shane and the guys were planning to leave at 5. He apparently didn't get any real sleep that night, just lying down for an hour before getting up to make coffee, breakfast, and to shower. I vaguely recall saying goodbye to him when the others showed up to get him. Anyway, when it was just starting to get light (about 6 a.m.) I got a call and thought, "Please don't be Shane." It was Shane. So my next thought was, "Please just have forgotten to do something or turn something off." Nope. "Hey, something's wrong with the car. The coolant is boiling over. Can you come get us?" I dressed as fast as I could, let the dog come with me, and rushed off to get them. In my haste, I didn't really dress for the weather. We're getting into the pre-Breakup weather where it's lovely and warm-ish during the day (10-20 above) and well below zero at night. Yeah, it was -20 when I went to get them. (What could make coolant boil over at that temp?!) The poor guys didn't have the advantage of even our truck's crappy heater (which gets less cold at these temperatures, rather than warm) and had to sit there in the cold, waiting for me. Al had to stay there the longest, because he had to wait for the tow truck. But I took Shane and Dustin back to Dustin's house to get his car so they could keep going. Luckily, no more mishaps. It took me forever to warm up when I went back to bed, though. Pepper, wonderful little space heater that she is, just wasn't enough and I clearly needed an outside heat source. So for the first time since moving into this place, I pulled out the electric blanket. (A couple days later, talking in my sleep, I asked Shane to get it for me. When he asked where I'd put it I told him, "Back in the refrigerator, of course.")
When I woke up again later (11-ish) I was ready to get things done. The night before I'd gotten a new bookshelf from Fred Meyer's (Shane's parents birthday gift to me) so I set that up and re-arranged some of my books. It's actually fuller than I would have expected. Probably within the next year or year and a half it will be full, and I'll be cramming books in wherever they'll fit, again. Oh well. Lovely books!
After that, having a gift card, I went to Barnes and Noble to get some more books to go on my new shelves. I got three books: American Lion, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food. I also got made fun of by the girl I asked to help me find them. (I could not for the life of me remember the authors.) Anyway, I gave her the titles and, after seeing the subject matter, she told me, "Sounds thrilling." Wow. Way to judge me for buying books that are educational! Whatever. (I actually saw her earlier today on campus. She's a student.)
After that I decided to run to the hardware store next door just to get some small nails. I got distracted by the garden section and ended up buying a couple of new pots and a blueberry plant. They can't overwinter here, so I've potted it inside, I'll plant it outside over the summer, and then bring it back into the garage for next winter. But blueberries! Yum. I'm also going to try to go blueberry picking this summer. My dad warned me to bring bear bells, though. Which are just bells, but you wear them to warn black bears of your presence.
My last errand of the day was to stop at Gulliver's Books (where I have another gift card, which hasn't been used yet) to turn in some school books for credit (the ones they wouldn't take were sent to the literacy council, a nonprofit) and pre-order a book I've been waiting months for which comes out this week.
Unfortunately, I can't read it for a little while because life is too crazy. I am reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma", but that's not as engrossing as I'm sure this other book will be. ("The Girl Who Chased the Moon" by Sarah Addison Allen.) I won't want to put it down, and that's a problem because of "Sweeney Todd". This is Hell Week, which actually hasn't started out so bad. We had four hours of rehearsal last night, but I had time to relax a bit at home and take Pepper for a short romp around the neighborhood (she even got off-leash time!) before I had to go. Tonight will be much crazier, though, because I'm not done with work until 5:00 and then I have to go get my music from my stand partner (he'll be late because he's teaching lessons late) and rehearsal starts at 6:30. I get the feeling I'll be choking down dinner as fast as I can. Ugh. Oh well. This is why I'm taking the day off on Friday, though. I'll probably be dead on my feet by then. But that's when the shows start, and I'm really excited. Last night was the first night we got to see the full cast and all of the props and such. So well done! (If you want to look at pictures, look at FLOT.org.) And I volunteered for an opera that will be done later on (another paying gig) so that will be cool.
Life is pretty good. If it sounds like I'm complaining about being busy, I'm sorry. It does get crazy, but I love it, too. The only thing is I'm not happy about my classes. They're not as interesting as I was hoping, so I don't want to do the work. I keep thinking, I don't need them for anything. I could just ask the professors to withdraw me, but I'm balking at having a W on my transcript, even for classes I'm taking recreationally. So I'll have to do the work. Ick.
For now, though, I'm trying to put it out of my mind. I have too many other, pleasanter things to think on.

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