Dealings with Mono

Dealings with Mono

I am so tired of this illness. It was novel for a while, being careful and getting lots of sleep, and always having an excuse not to go out if I didn't feel like it, but now I'm just everlastingly sapped. Every day after work I come home and sleep for several hours. And since I have to be in bed by 10:30 or so to be up again at 5:45, I only have an hour or two to get anything done. My house needs cleaning desperatly. My kitchen has spilled ice tea under the microwave and cheery juice on the floor. Which I've mopped twice but is still sticky. There are four hairballs on my bedroom floor, my bathroom is half torn to shreds, and I lack the energy to finish, and my fridge looks like a bomb went off. And the worst of it is my GM told me not to tell anyone at work, so I have to keep up an energetic face while sucking down the emergenC's so as not to alert anyone. My hypochondriatic friend is convinced that I have anemia.

I went to Spokane Wednesday, overnight, to visit a friend who just moved there. We walked around downtown and went to Nordstrom, hurrah! I bought two pair of seamed stockings.

And I was told last night at worship team practice that the group touring through on the 30th needs a keyboard player and they've said I'll do it. So I will be highlighting as a member of the Parachute Band for two services and a concert.

Ending things

What a week

Only a quick update. Sorry for the long absences. I likely have a new roommate coming in, and if that pans out we'll be getting internet, so I'll have a computer close by instead of trying to find time to drive to my parents'.

The mono has been giving me a hard time this last week. I was feeling pretty well, but then got overconfident and added a couple more things than I should have, and spent the last week sleeping whenever I'm not at work.

I ended things with someone I've been on again off again with for some time. I'd needed to do it for a while, but couldn't. Sunday I did. I've eaten a lot of ice cream the last few days.

Yesterday was a very busy day at work. The tips were good, too, except for one table of demanding cross toting people who came in after 15 people walked off a tour bus, and watched another group of 30 get seated, and still demanded fresh coffee as soon as they'd sucked down another cup. They left a 60-cent tip on a $58 bill. Good thing I'm already a Christian or my opinion of christiandom would have been sent down the drain (though, admittedly, my opinion of christiandom hasn't been very high lately anyway). Another group of loudly missions oriented people (they had an Indian couple with them) tipped very well and were quite nice about things.

My roses are looking very pretty. I've got a black thumb most of the time, but roses I'll go out of my way for. I'm also tearing out a bathroom, and have picked a color for my living room. Those projects are mosly on hold until I'm less tired.

And Teri will be in the country soon!

Get ready for it

Get ready for it...

I paid off my car yesterday.

(Pause for gasps of amazement)

My baby is mine mine mine. And now that she's mine, not the banks, I'm sure some major catastrophy will occur requiring large amounts of money to fix. Because that's murphy's law of car ownership.

On a Culinary role

On a culinary role...

After smelling my garlic and rosemary scented hands, I decided to try for some more culinary masterwork. I have cheese ravioli in the freezer, and found last week that tomato sauce is too heavy for it - it covers the taste and seems bland. With just virgin olive oil and pepper the cheeses emerge. Today I fine chopped garlic and rosemary and sauteed it with virgin oil. I added some Kestral Cab that had gone to vinegar but I couldn't bear to throw out and more oil and honey. I let it cook down and tossed it with the finished ravioli.

Molto Bene!

Song of Songs served with a side of lamb

The songs of songs, served with a side of lamb.

I am cooking for a dinner party on Friday. It's going to be an all out affair. My bible study said, once upon a time in Genesis, that we should do a themed party when it's time to read Song of Solomon aloud. We discussed chocolate, and strawberries, and laughed. Well, the time has come. We're skipping around Solomon's reign. He's just met the queen of Sheba. And so it's time for the "song of songs."

I have a 7lb bone-in leg of lamb in my fridge, waiting to be stuffed full of garlic and rosemary and marinate in wine and apricots. For appetiser I thought some goat cheese and fruits, nuts and dates, and maybe some strawberries in a brandied whipped cream. And my dessert is chocolate dipped strawberries. Everyone is bringing a little main dish (mine was little until the butcher gave me 7lb instead of 5. I'll be eating lamb until it's time for turkey leftovers.) and a dessert - the theme is romantic finger foods. I've passed on the word that no one needs to bring a meat dish after all, I've got it covered. At last talley Omar is bringing hummus and pita and Denise is making Baklava. Maybe some champagne to go with that. Maybe we'll have some wine or champagne in small quantities.

I'm going to collect my feather beds, down comforters and pillows to lay on the floor. And we're all wearing comfortable dress up lounging clothes, and don't ask me what that's going to be. I'm thinking velvet harem pants for me. I'll post pictures.

Lake Mead, NV

Lake Mead

I just got back from a family vacation in Lake Mead, just outside of Las Vegas. Vegas is a bizarre little city. The Vegas airport is instantly recognisable upon disembarking because of the electronic dinging that you later identify as the sound of hundreds of slot machines that line the corridors. People have a lot of time to kill in Vegas, and most don't wait to leave the airport before gambling.

The strip is unempressive from the air. My trip was so short I didn't have a chance to go see the sights. But then, I'm not a gambler, so I think the pleasures of giant casinos would be lost on me. Drea and Jason picked me up, and we drove to Lake Mead where Grandma and Ken had rented a 70' houseboat complete with water slide, hot tub, ski boat, and two skidoos. Mom, Dad and Allie came in a few hours behind me. Hail, hail, the gang's all here.

Once I put my swimsuit on it didn't come off again until it was time to dry it out and put it back in my backpack to leave. The weather was scorching. Anywhere from a "cool" 95 to 115. Dawnie and I found the best way to handle it was to lounge around on the deck for half an hour at a time (I wearing SPF 50, she trying to become Puerto Rican by the end of the week) and then run for a dip to get hair and swimsuit wet. We had enough food to save Napoleon's ill-fated army. Everyone still remembered the turkey sandwich fiasco in Florida (most of the family can't look at a turkey sandwich without shuddering) and came armed with junk food. We also sent the parents to the store for Malibu Rum, tequila, vodka, and something for Drea. We're not a heavy drinking family at gatherings, so the selection was odd for us. But what better place than on a houseboat for Margaritas and Malibu Cherry Limeaids? There was also beer, but as Dad put it, 'I drove all the way to Nevada and all you have is light beer?!" Ken of course provided the zinfandel for the barbecues.

We spent a lot of time moving the houseboat trying to find the perfect spot. The boys fished, each catching at least one. There was waterskiing, and we all dinked around on the skidoos. And of course rummycubes and monopoly. One evening our entertainment was a fantastic heat lightning storm. I provided a medly of "I will go down with this ship" by Dido, and various songs from Titanic. Wednesday night Nick and Allie built a bonfire on the beach. At one point he added a mound of tumbleweed, and the fire was suddenly at eye level from the second story. Little piros, all of them. I'm suprised Drea wasn't down there dancing to the heathen gods as usual.

Thursday morning I had to catch a flight, which I missed, and then flew standby the rest of the day. In the break between I caught the hotel shuttle to the Hilton, where there is a Star Trek exhibit, but it wasn't open yet. So I have a lovely dark picture of the gated off Promenade. And I played one dollar on the five cent machine at gate 26 just to say I gambled once in Vegas. Woohoo.

And after all the ribbing my family gave me over my SPF 50, guess what they wanted me to leave with them when I packed...

So, to cap off my year, guess who has a lovely case of mono?

Wanderlus

Wanderlust

I almost didn't get out of my car yesterday. My drive to work is bar none the best part of my day. The mountains are as green as I imagine the highland hills of Scotland to be, without ever having seen an actual picture. Kris burned Death Cab for Cutie, and one track has lyrics about driving down a country road with the windows down smelling the scent of the evergreens through the open window. It fits. I play it four times in a row. Out my window I can see the hilltop above the Naches. I want to forget work and climb to the top, lay down in the grass up to my neck and watch the clouds pass by. The sun beats down for the first time after three days of rain. If I weren't driving I'd be able to smell earth and wildflowers.

At work I listen to the acoustic coffeehouse station. There are some obvious singers; Rufus Wainright, Dido, Norah Jones. Someone called the Recliners sings a terrible ballad version of I Wanna Be Sedated. I make a list of songwriters and bands to try to find.

An SUV drives up and parks. A matched set of black labs stick their heads out the window and sniff in parallel. I wonder what they sense on the air. I want to be out there.

At every hint of the sun I run out from behind my cage and go to my window. From the bar all I can see is the rock face above the highway. I hang onto the windowframe and lean in until my nose almost touches the glass and I can see to the top of the cliff and catch a glimpse of sky. Bits of fluff drift down the highway from right to left. Funny. The clouds go left to right. What currents are the fluff balls catching?

My itchy wanderlust has taken over again. I knew I shouldn't have read A Year in the World immediately after Tales of a Female Nomad.

I must go.

Winnies and Speaches

Winnie Awards and Acceptance Speeches

Saturday night were the Warehouse Theater Winnie Awards (their version of the Oscars). Guess who won a Best Actress in a Lead Role for her portrayal of Catherine in Proof?

Contemplation of Felony

Contemplation of Felony

Have you ever had one of those moments when you look down at the register drawer and think, I could do so much with that money. And for half a second you're serious.

I've never had an opinion on gambling. It's always seemed like nobody's business but their own, and if they want to throw their money out the window with both hands, the better for them. But as I'm struggling to pay bills after two months unemployment, am behind on my RDRP (rapid debt repayment plan - for those non Mary Hunt-ers), and am just now able to buy food without counting change, I get ill watching a thousand dollars get blown. If they want to throw it away, give it to me. I'll do something productive with it.

Like pay off the $250 worth of car repairs that were the result of going in for an oil change.