sofa bed adventure/tale of kindnesses

after working until 7-ish last night and needing to put in a bunch of hours more, the husband reminded me that the sofa bed we've been eyeing for the office/extra guestroom went on sale that day. he really wanted to check it out. after nearly 10 years of marriage, i recognized resistance was futile.

and while i thought that this trip to costco was merely a fact-finding mission, he understood it to be a gathering expedition. by 8:30 pm i found myself outside a closed and locked costco with a sofa that didn't fit into the truck.

luckily a really nice guy came by and saw our dilemna. he offered up his mostly empty panel van and loaded the sofa in and drove it to our house. wouldn't accept a dime for his trouble, although his little son said he would. so the husband told the little guy to treat his dad to an ice cream -- the final stop on their evening of errands.

(yes, virginia and everyone else, people like that do exist. i guess it was karmic costco payback for all the shopping carts we've put back, heavy things we've lifted into people's cars, times we've picked up stuff that our friends couldn't put in their vehicles, etc.)

so sofa bed home but in the driveway, we enlisted the assistance of a neighbour, who felt slightly beholden since we've gotten his mail and watered his garden every time he's gone away. i moved furniture to clear a path, boxed in the bulldog with the sofa cushions so she wouldn't get in the way and made sure i was around to help lift when they needed help.

thank god, the neighbour was able to help because there's no way i could have done what he did. it would have been an evening of tears (mine) and swearing (the husband's) for sure.

two nice people. neither had to help. each could have easily just gone about their business and enjoyed their evening. although we thanked them profusely, it hardly seemed enough for their efforts.

itchy!

what is it that makes mosquitos love me so much?
is my blood sweet?
do i have lots of it?
is my skin thin?

whatever it is, those little bastards feasted on me. i was up in muskoka with my coworkers doing volunteer work at a camp for kids with cancer.

i used deep woods off. i reapplied. but it didn't help. two days later, i am still covered with big red itchy welts. benedryl isn't working to stop the ichiness. neither is the anti-itch lotion the pharmacist recommended. it's really annoying.

i was very happy to go on the trip and it was tons of fun -- we had a big party on thursday night and worked really hard on friday doing lots of heavy lifting and moving stuff.

the after-effects are not so much fun. yesterday i had to nap because of the benedryl. today i'm not feeling like doing work at all. and i really need to.

i'm itchy, i need a nap and i'd just like to lie on the couch for the rest of the day.

hopefully i don't get really sick. when i was a kid, i got bit by so many mosquitos that my face was swollen and i had a fever. how sad is that? i had to cover myself in calamine lotion!

i went to the mall with the husband today and attempted to try on clothes. all i could think about was how itchy i was and everything i tried just made me focus on how red the welts were. so i went home empty handed except for a pair of shoes. at least they're hot shoes...

restaurant cooking shows make me want to eat at home

ok, this is definitely a rant. i love cooking. i love cooking shows. nothing makes me happier than to have a spare hour and spend it with jamie, ina, nigella, martha, yan, trish, michael, any of them.

but cooking shows that are about renovating restaurants or that hells kitchen show just turn my stomach. all that behind the scenes stuff needs to stay behind the scenes for me!

the ironic part is for a while i was thinking about going back to school to become a chef. after watching all these shows, i realized that i would have to work 10x as hard cooking as i do writing. and that cooking would no longer be recreation for me.

cooking, even baking, relaxes me. there's nothing i like better than to make a new recipe. even making a big mess of the kitchen doesn't bother me. the only thing that's disappointing is that the results don't last all that long. maybe that's why i usually make large quantities when i make something complicated.

first day ramble

summer's here. it's feeling a lot more like the first day of a new year, if you ask me. there's just been so much change this year. and more is on the way, i can feel it, almost taste it.

the husband's new job is underway. tonight there's a big function celebrating the company's relocation to new quarters. a party -- not bad for week 2, day 2. ironic that it's on the solstice. do you think the organizers planned it? or even knew? hmm. somehow i doubt it. still the idea of a celebration on such an auspicious day is pretty cool. good for them even if they had no idea of the significance.

another change: we decided to bite the bullet and become a two vehicle household again. with commutes in opposite though reasonable distances from the house, it really did make sense. so that's new. and a little bit strange being back behind the wheel on a more regular basis.

i love to drive. still i really enjoyed carpooling. and i like taking the train every now and then. the sound takes me back to backpacking in europe, even though the seats are full of cranky commuters. the funny thing is riding the train never makes me cranky. quite the opposite actually. it puts a slight spring in my step and a little smile on my face.

it just feels like lots of rebirth is happening. maybe it's all the gardening i'm doing these days. or the reclaiming/recycling of old things at home. it also feels like shedding -- like i'm peeling back the layers. maybe this is the year of discovery. i feel like i'm learning more about everything. myself, for sure.

at work, definitely. never thought in a million years i'd be making a living doing what i'm doing. but the weird part is now i can barely imagine doing anything else. explaining things for a living just strikes me as an odd way to make money. it definitely makes life seem purpose-filled. and i get a real kick out of it. coming from a line of teachers, it even makes sense. what doesn't make sense is how i just stumbled upon it by answering a blind want ad in the paper.

had i thought more about it, answering that ad would not have been the way to go. but then again, if i hadn't answered that ad, i probably would have taken a completely different path in the writing world. maybe i would have been a technical writer. a journalist. a columnist. sitcom writer. who knows. but the way i see it is because i took the risk to write as a profession, all paths are available to me in some way or other. maybe that's the real rebirth. or the reinvention.

hot in the city

so maybe we've skipped spring and gone straight to summer. it's 30° C at 9:15 am and super-muggy. yuck.

spring forward

ok, so i set this blog up and haven't written anything since december. now it's spring, almost summer and life's picking up.

it was a rough winter. on january 9, the husband lost his job. financially things have been fine but it's been stressful for both of us. my industry is traditionally pretty rocky so i'm used to layoffs and downsizing. helping friends through it is just a fact of life. having it happen at home is another story.

in march, the mother's brother died. uncle was playing mixed doubles, something he's done his whole life, and had a heart attack. very sad. at least he died doing something he absolutely loved. his funeral in d.c. was a packed church, standing room only. still, his poor wife. and his son flew back from the gulf. what a thing to have to deal with.

next, i turned 36. there's nothing i can do about the number. i'm certainly not ashamed of it. and if i may say so myself, i look damn good for that number. but here's the thing: i work in a business where everyone seems to be 24. now, i don't want to go back there, but i also wonder what things will be like when i'm 44 and everyone is 24. oh well. that is a topic for another rant.

in april, good friends got married rather suddenly. their carefully organized plans to buy the house, then get married in late summer got changed when she found out their baby would be due around that time. it's amazing what can be done in a short time. it was a beautiful wedding and everyone had a blast.

the weddings continued. the brother got married in may...in vegas. (finally, according to the parents, but that's another post) so we bit the bullet and went out for a couple of days. luckily we got a pretty good deal even with less than 6 weeks notice and the fact that it would be vegas' 100 birthday.

but the whole job thing hung over our heads like a dark cloud, even when we were away. needless to say, we didn't hit any jackpots, mostly because we didn't really gamble. we enjoyed the sun. and once we got back, the husband was even more anxious to change his luck.

later in the month we celebrated some friend's 45th wedding anniversary. the husband reacquainted himself with their son, a long time friend. they had lost touch over the years. maybe they can find what they once had.

so today, he finally got the offer he was hoping for. and a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders. more about that later.