Chaos Attraction

Weekend of Goodbye Parties

2013-08-26, 8:05 p.m.

Saturday was a mostly quiet day, by comparison to the day after it. I drove myself to the gym and worked out on an elliptical for a half hour--something I wouldn't have gotten off my slacker ass to do normally without there being a class to go to. Though the Lawn Guys coming and making a racket outside my door did drive me out the door as well, hah. Then I went to the CC and tried to work on a skirt...and then I decided to get kr8tiv with the pattern, which I shouldn't have done. Bad, bad move there.

By 3 p.m., I quit working on that and went to Monica's gallery show/farewell party. She got a fair number of folks to come to it, including some folks and ex-coworkers and ex-bosses. It was fun. And then after the party was over, I hung out in the parking lot yakking with Jamie for two hours. I think we definitely need to hang out more, even if Monica won't be around to round up all of these folks for parties.

One of the items in Monica's show is a screen that she made years ago in a woodworking class. She didn't, however, end up putting anything in the display holes. Now, when I was at the party, I couldn't help but notice that Dawn was working on some large patterned plastic canvas pieces. They looked very cool. Anyway, she said that she'd started making panels to put in the holes in the screen, but never got around to finishing them. So I volunteered to start working on them as well, since the complicated bits were done. That was fun as well.


Sunday was a long, very busy day.

Event #1: Flea market. I haven't been to our local flea market for a few months ever since they moved into some temporary abandoned building/permanent location thing. Okay, so I'm not exactly clear on the building thing, but they are all happy to have shelter and a regular location all year round. However, it's no longer within delightful stroll territory of my home, so I haven't been for a few months. But now, I have a car, so la la la.... So I drove over there. The new building is....interesting...About half of it seems very nice and the other half seems like you could get tetanus? It seems to be.... some kind of ex-garage (it's in the "car repair" neighborhood) or something. Anyway, I didn't particularly fall in love with any stuff, but I did check out our local maker group and the booth of one of the CC instructors--she lives on a farm and frequently brings a baby goat along. This time she and her husband brought SIX--three pairs of twins. So cute! They were all snuggling by each other and making baby bleats.

Event #2: lecture/workshop on how to turn your hobby into your spiritual practice. This one was taught by another CC instructor (the spinning one), and some of the folks from knitting group came to it as well. It was interesting--part meditation, part lecture. Debra turns out to be very good at preaching. At one point she spontaneously broke out into singing "Colors Of The Wind" (it related to what she was talking about!) and then she kind of choked like, "I can't believe I just started singing this!" She is one of the movers and shakers at...I guess it's some kind of alternative church? and it kind of sounded like a cool thing. I probably would have hung around for the service had I not been booked already during that time.

Incidentally, it was really nice to be able to go home for a short period of time in between events to go get a snack and stuff like that. That's a rarity when it takes you a half hour to just get anywhere on foot or slightly shorter if you do it in on public transport at the right times.

Event #3: a lecture on obscure but interesting topics in Roseville. I found that to be really exciting. It's held by this....hippie?...organization that I am pondering joining-- I don't think I care much about the official joining up with dues, and I don't think I want to (or wouldn't be busy frequently) go every month, but you can attend without going full member to the ones you want to go to. I plan on attending their open house next month, and then we'll see about the rest of it. I won't bore you, but the psychology of it was very interesting to me at least.

The drive back was okay, but rather mysteriously slow and clogged toward the end of it. I felt relieved seeing a Zipcar and thinking, "At least I'm not freaking about how the traffic is going to make me have to extend my time."

Event #4: Monica's third and last goodbye party, a crafting and "eat whatever food's around" party. I felt kind of bad about arriving late (around 5:20 when the party started at 3), but apparently people weren't showing until 4 or 5! Anyway.... I finally helped finish the panels while I was there. And....nobody wanted to leave, basically. I didn't leave until about 10:30, and I was getting the requisite angry phone call at 9 p.m. from Mom...followed by the 10:30 bitching about how I should call her to let her know where I am because I could have been kidnapped. (Oh, for fuck's sake, she knew where I was because I told her at 9. Nor did I get kidnapped on the 10-minute drive home. Hell, I wasn't even alone for half of it.)

I didn't want to go home even though I knew I should, and go to bed early because of work, and all that crap. It really sucks to know that you are, unless a miracle occurs, never seeing this person again, and who knows if I'll hear from her since....as usual....I do not love me some Facebook.

(I seriously started debating just caving in and mandatorily using it like everyone else. I haven't gone there yet though, and the brief guilturge is already wearing off.)

Anyway...it is kind of worrying, a bit. Monica doesn't drive and she's moving in with her boyfriend in a not safe area of LA (next to Compton!), and she'll lose a lot of mobility, and fuck if I know how she's going to get any kind of job. She doesn't sound super thrilled about dealing with the lack of safety--though knowing Monica, she's naturally cheerful as hell, so it takes a lot to register through that. But they've been long distance for most of the last decade, and she can't get a real job here to justify living here still, so....there you go. But what can you do but hug her and wish her well and hope it all works out and say, "If things go terribly and you need to move back in, you can with me!"?

I had more thoughts about this, but it's been a long-ish day and by the time I had time to finish this journal entry, I think they've worn off.

I then went home and had to listen to Mom bitch at great length about Mauricio's behavior about something while wishing I could go to bed already. But by the time I went to bed...I was exhausted and couldn't sleep for crap. And when I did sleep, I dreamed that I was moving TOMORROW and I hadn't even started packing yet!

I hate the moving years, and the moving time of year here. About every other year half my friends move and it just sucks.


previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry
hosted by DiaryLand.com