December 06, 2008

10:51 p.m.

My Just AMAZINGLY Interesting Day

Superbornearly, reporting in after a long and arduous day of world-saving. I stopped a train wreck, thwarted an arch enemy, went round the world backwards to reverse time and undo some irreversible devastation, and came back round in time for dinner at Rose's house.

Actually I didn't do any of those things, except the dinner part. Still, it was a full day. I did get my hair cut. Slow out of the gate as usual, I angsted over arriving at the salon late, only to find that a) I was exactly on time at 11:00 walking in the door, and b) my appointment was not until 11:30. That's okay; I sat and looked at magazines and found a photo of the hairstyle I'd like to grow into in the next year. I showed it to my stylist and she came up with an interim cut that removed some of the older, damaged length (perm plus highlight = straw hair) and took it the next step toward the goal. I enjoy talking with her. She's a very sweet, soft-spoken woman, but she gets me laughing. She's also a wonderful artist and does miniatures in oil, which she sells on eBay. She did offer to carry my books in her store, and I might do it. I'm at this point planning a store of my own but it will have a lot of miscellaneous things in it, and hers is all about art. Plus she has a lot of regular buyers so there's already a certain amount of traffic there. It was really nice of her to offer. Marc later suggested that I have a few books in both places. The thing is, if something sells you have to send it right away and if I'm out of town it could be problematic. Anyway there seem to be options.

Post-haircut, I stopped by a new, gluten and dairy free bakery she told me about that was down the street. It looks very promising although gluten free breads can be way expensive, and these were high. But I bought one to try, plus a square of apple cinnamon bread pudding. I talked with the baker and asked her a few questions and she was really nice and helpful. When I left she gave me a sample of their version of Indian pudding, in a cute little pie tin and wrapped with a ribbon. I haven't tried that yet but the bread is acceptable (nice toasted, and may make a decent sandwich) and the bread pudding was REALLY good. Not too sweet.

Then to Wholefoods for a few staples, and then on to Rose's to clean her house. When I got there it was really cold inside, and I noticed the pellet stove was not running. I called Rose and told her, and she said, "Oh, NO!" in that voice that implies, "Not AGAIN!" Marc's been tweaking it a lot... I ate the lunch I'd brought, they came home and got the stove going (at least they got 6 days out of it before it jammed), and I commenced cleaning.

My efficiency is always hindered by the presence of playful cats. Arthur wants a scritch ("rub hussy"); Linus wants to play with the duster or chase the vacuum. I got through it all before the other dinner guests arrived at 6:00, plus did two loads of laundry.

Dinner was fajitas, and I ate them without the tortillas. All that stuff all mixed up on my plate, the chicken, the beans, the salsa, avocado, tomatoes, sour cream, onions and peppers... a little grated cheese... I didn't miss the tortilla at all. It was great.

I got cold though, and my brother-in-law's neice Pearl loaned me an extra sweater and we went into the living room where the stove is, and talked about sleep stuff. I've discovered that the state in which I hear the music tones, when falling asleep, is called hypnagogia, and it's the same state where people experience sleep paralysis and other phenomena (voices, colors or visual scenes, inspirations, solutions to problems). So we were talking about odd experiences we've had around sleeping, and it was interesting that we've had some similar ones. I really want to make this a study.

Tea, and a little dessert (the rest of my bread pudding), and then I was really sleepy. I gathered my things and came home. That was my beautiful, relatively ordinary day. I did not have a stomach ache or a headache, and as I sat at the dinner table listening to conversation and adding mine, I felt such a sense of peace and beauty within and all round the table. I felt lucky to have people in my life, these people. They stood out in relief, suddenly, clearly essential parts of my life and being. It's hard to explain, but it's like I saw that I'm supposed to be with these people, and how lovely my life is with them. Honestly I think that Seth book is changing the way I look at things. Either that or perimenopause is weirder than I thought. In any case, this kind of weirdness is welcome.