Before we begin, a little astro (or ass-tro, if you're into that)-chatter.

From this week's AstroBarry:

"Oh, Renee, Renee, Renee- marrying someone you've been dating for less than 4 months? I understand that the Apr 24 lunar eclipse in Scorpio fell a day before your birthday, igniting a wild and turbulent year of confronting your deepest emotional passions. (A desperate desire to get married like the other girls?)"

Eeek.

Well, hey, at least my year hasn't started out "wild and turbulent" so far. Except for the normal parental shit, anyway. Definitely NOTHING about "my deepest emotional passions," unless you count knitting. Yes, I am such the spinster. I have the four cats, the knitting, the rocking chair, and no desire for anybody whatsoever.

*eyes eclipse list on sidebar nervously, just in case*

Incidentally and non-astrologically related, I was quite amused reading this entry on how trying to make long-term plans isn't the best idea. My life kind of goes the same way. Except for signing my lease, I make no certain plans beyond 3 months in advance any more, because if I do it, I'll be tempting fate.

I am happy to report that the last few days of vacation have been the most pleasant spent in the presence of family in a coon's age. Pam rocks. God, I love it on the rare occasions when I see a back-East relative, because that side seems to bring out more of the snarky. Pam and I kept making comments all the time, and it was fabulous. Too bad she lives so far away and rarely the twain shall meet. Not to mention that she totally takes the house being a mess, or Mom and I having a screaming fight (I found broccoli salad in the fridge that I thought was some sort of leftovers and ate it. Little did I know she'd stayed up till 1:30 the previous night making it), or Dad well, being Dad these days, totally in stride. (Man, is that nice. You'd think the more local relatives could say, figure out that it takes Dad an incredibly long time to get ready in the morning/afternoon/dusk, but no, they do not.)

I hadn't seen her since I was in seventh grade and hadn't remembered how snarky she was. Back in seventh grade I mainly hung out with her son Jeff, who was the first relative I ever met who was as weird as I was. Then came my also-back-east cousin Matt, who's like my male personality clone, but slightly older and a good deal saner. Man, I like Mom's side of the family so much better than Dad's as a whole- I don't think there's anyone (left) on Mom's side that I've met that I don't like. Plus occasionally, you find someone warped. :) Too bad we probably won't talk much, if at all, after this. Freaking distance is just too great, you know? No wonder Matt bugs me sometimes to move to his coast, but it'll never happen short of some really major "offer I can't refuse" coming up. Too dang cold!

Man, it's hard for me to write about having a good time, especially when no Bizarre Yet Amusing Incidents occurred (beyond the usual snarking, such as Pam saying that Dad trying to point was kind of like a Ouija board. It really is.). I'm always tempted to just say, list the number of items of stuff I bought and what they were.

So, for the record:
(a) pair of black and red Chinese slippers, $10 (woo!)
(b) Hard Rock Cafe shirt
(c) HRC cable car pin for Mom
(d) didn't actually buy this, but acquired it for free for spending enough money at HRC: a freaking giant HRC umbrella. This thing was over half my height unfurled, folks- no wonder they were giving them away. I promptly gave mine away to the parents, who can actually use it.
(e) gorgeous opal claddagh ring- how often are you going to find one of those, in my size? Practically never. So it's mine. And it is shiny. (Damn, this makes...how many opal rings do I own now? Six?)
(f) SF shirt with pretty purple bridge picture- well, that was a present, actually.

Let's face it: a good time for me involves crafts and/or spending money. The funny thing about this list was that Pam kept claiming that she's "not a girly girl" and doesn't like to shop. Well, you coulda fooled me on that one!

On Tuesday, after finally leaving the house around 3 p.m.-ish to go to SF for the er, what was left of the day, we attempted to go to Chinatown so Pam could pick up cheap and silly souvenirs for her five grandchildren. (It was kind of amusing how she was all, "Man, I do not know how Jeff managed to end up with five kids. He's crazy. I really hope he doesn't knock her up again, it's bad enough as it is with five!") But that plan kind of went to hell once we got out of the underground garage and realized Chinatown is all uphill and way too dangerous for a wheelchair. (Another thing we can't do because of Dad, sigh) So I took Pam around for like 10 minutes to pick up souvenirs (and for me, the shoes) and then we felt guilty and left. After that, we went to Pier 39, which had been where I'd suggested Mom bring Pam all along. Despite her being all "I don't shop," she LOVED it. Hah. We took her to the Hard Rock (obviously), around the stores, and out to see the sea lions barking. Plus we bought tons of chocolate and cotton candy. Yay junk!

Wednesday we didn't do a whole lot because of Dad again, but we did do a little outlet shopping. This was something I'd been looking forward to, since I've wanted to (a) hit a real bra store, and (b) hit a real dance clothes store, so I could pick up some sports bras and a pair of workout pants that was cheaper than the stuff I can find locally. Alas, that was pretty much a (har) bust. The dance pants there sucked ass, and as for the bras...well, no wonder I fucking hate sports bras. They're all huge, stiff (and I mean, it hurts to PUT THEM ON YOUR BODY, much less jump up and down for 2 hours), sometimes have strange pointy nipples, all have straps so big your T-shirt may not even manage to cover them... fuck that noise. The only bra I bought was the lone bra I could find with small straps. Bleah. I guess I'll have to suck it up and pay $30 an item at the local stores again.

We naturally got back a bit too late for me to go to improv class, so they dropped me off and I vegged out watching "Newlyweds, Season 1", so I can catch it JUST before Nick and Jessica officially divorce. I figure it'll go well with watching taped Britney and Kevin later this weekend :P

Hm. While I'm still mentioning family news, there is much debate over whether or not we shall be going to my cousin Kristen's graduation. Apparently the deal is that they only get 8 tickets, and those have all been alloted to better family than us already. (Thanks.) But Kristen is claiming it will be easy to bum tickets off her friends. I say, let's not count those tickets before they're snagged, especially if Mom has to cut work to go to this and I have to cut volunteering (on the night I'm due to bring main course, no less. Great timing, eh). Plus there's the usual Handicapped Seating Dilemma. Frankly, I think we're going to end up not going.

Anyway, now I'm totally confused, because I'm back at work and I just HAD a weekend. Though the good news is, I get the weekend all to myself, in peace and relative quiet, with nobody's alarm going off at 6 or 7 a.m. Maybe I'll even get bored enough to go see Star Wars 3. I'm still debating on that one.

I'm kind of confused on my Saturday scheduling these days. I am having a problem getting in everything that I want to do.

Factor #1: It is a Saturday, and thus I want to sleep in for as long as I can possibly manage. Unless I absolutely can't sleep past 9 a.m. for some warped reason, I don't want to get up earlier than the minimum I need to get to my Saturday late-morning class. That minimum would be 10:30 a.m.
Factor #2: If I want to eat before going to class, I have to have FINISHED eating at least 20 minutes before I start walking to class. Which means I should probably get up an hour earlier than that just to cook food, wait for it to cool, chew, and then sit so I don't have some sort of violent stomach cramp because I dared to walk instead of digest. Usually, I do not consider filling my stomach with breakfast worth missing another hour of sleep when I maybe get 5-6 a night on weeknights even if I go to bed early.
Factor #3: My wire jewelry class is approximately during the lunch period of the day- 11:30-2:15. There is no food to get on campus.
Factor #4: If I want to work on glass stuff, I really should do it on a weekend when the lab is often not booked.
Factor #5: Unless I have something specifically scheduled to do at the CC on a weekend, I pretty much won't go over there and use lab time on my own. I slack off and watch DVD's and rot.
Factor #6: The CC is open till 6 p.m.
Factor #7: Also open till 6 p.m.: pretty much every single goddamned store in town except for the bookstores. EVERYTHING closes at 6. If say, I need to pick up stuff I can't pick up during the rest of the week (and certainly not on Sunday, because tons of places either are closed for God or have really short open times. Yarn store, why on earth are you only open four hours on Sunday?), I have about a 2:30-6 p.m. window in which to do it.
Factor #8: If I want to go to the gym, I'd better get started working out by 6 p.m., because the gym ALSO closes early (albeit not quite as early as everything else).
Factor #9: The gym and CC are close to each other. The stores that sell food and at which I must pick up items are on the other side of town.

Where's this rant going, you ask? I haven't worked out at the gym on a Saturday since the start of the quarter, and it's bugging me. Hell, part of why I wasn't too bothered by the timing of this class was that it would facilitate getting my lazy ass to go over to the gym since "it's already close by." It's harder to motivate myself to go use the machines if I don't have a class to go to (and all the gym classes are over by 2 on Saturdays) and if I'm not already on campus to start out with. I figured that I could just skip eating breakfast and lunch because I'm not hungry when I wake up anyway, go work on glass for a few hours after class, then go to the gym, and voila.

And yet, it doesn't happen, because I get hungry (and once I get hungry, that just shoots the fuck out of going to the gym for like an hour, thanks to the digestion issue), and I have to go pick up food, plus items X, Y, and Z, on the other side of town. And since I only have a few hours of time I can get my shit picked up during, all I end up doing is shopping after class, and eating, and then it's after 6 p.m., so there goes going to the gym. And it's pissing me off.

I normally do errand crap during lunch hours, but most of mine have been hosed of late for work purposes or visiting relatives or support group in the last two months, and I can't flee campus for an hour while stores are still open. I made it to the yarn store on my lone free lunch hour last week (well, Mondays are often open, but the yarn store is not then), and now after starting my poncho project, I realized that fuck, I'm going to have to get more yarn after all. And when am I going to do it? Well, gee, I probably can't go any other time than Saturday. And Saturday's also about the one bit of free time I could go see Star Wars. And work on glass. And blah blah fucking blah blah- I'm not going to make it to the gym then either, am I?

One way or another, I've REALLY slacked off this month, and it's bugging me. I'm going half as much as I used to, between Whole Earth and visiting people and taking the improv class and stupid crap happening to prevent me from going on weekends, and I fear I'm going to backslide. Oh, who am I kidding, I probably have by now. Maybe things will improve in June, as my usual activities will start to curtail around the 10th.

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry