Catch Up

So, since last we've "talked" about anything other than music...

- The day before Valentines I finally got to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the museum of science. We're all fans of the movies, so all three of us liked it. I found it amusing that if you look at the costumes from when the boys were only 11 or 12 their shoes were so much bigger than mine despite being shorter than me at that age.

- A week later I was driving to work when my car began to make strange noises. I wasn't happy about that because the last time that happened it cost me $1400. The mechanic called me and said, "I have sisters, and if this was one of their cars I'd tell them not to pour more money into it." Argh.

- Trying to figure out what to buy to replace the car was complicated by a two-day power failure. You know what, though? We bought a propane generator after the five-day power failure 14 months earlier, so it wasn't so bad. Sheer misery got upgraded to kind of annoying. Strange to be able to watch TV (on DVD, cable was out of course) and movies, but far nicer than the year before.

- Anyway...about 10 days after my car was given up for dead, I bought another one. I now have something I never have before: a car payment. Up until now I've only bought used cars I could pay cash for. Now I've spent a great deal more for a car that had only 9,000 miles on it. It's a hatchback, my favorite kind. And red. I always said my first "new" car would be, so... I like it so far. It's nice to have a car that your biggest complaint about is that you hate the noisy windshield wiper.

- The very next week we started a project at work that was scheduled to take 10 7.5 hour days. The person designing the schedule must have been smoking crack, because it took 17 days, most of them 9-9.5 hour days. The money sure came in handy given the down payment I'd just put on the car, but working 4 weeks worth of hours in 3 was really hard. But, as it turns out, not as hard as the project we're doing now that is killing us - there is so much running around carrying things to be worked on that we barely have time to sit - not typical for what's basically an office job! I'm sick of going home sore every day. Five more days and we start something else, thank God. I wonder if the interesting new guys at work will stick around...

- Last fall I bought pansies because the ones I'd tried to grow from seed drown :( They were on sale, and I figured that it'd be nice to add some color to the end of the driveway for a few weeks. The man who sold me them said that they might survive the winter, which struck me as silly. Until the first day of spring when I saw them, blooming again. Better yet, they've reseeded! So here it is April, and I've got dozens of flowers already blooming, and buds about to open. These pansies rock.

- Oh, and now I know something first hand that I didn't before: bladder infections suck. And, so does needing to see a doctor when you don't have health insurance... I hope I never get another one. Hey, it's possible, my mom's in her 50s and only has had one.

- And last, I'm another year older as of the tenth. Time can slow down now and let me catch up to my goals. Really, I don't mind.


"I will show no mercy for you. You have no mercy for me. The only thing that I ask, love me mercilessly." - The Bravery, Hatef*ck