January 12, 2009

6:56 p.m.

My Lovely Day

I have a new, wee office space. Once upon a time this was the knitting nook in my bedroom. Later I had to remove the two file cabinets from the walk-in closet to turn that into a bookmaking room, so I placed a board between them and created a little desk, and put it into this corner. That "desk" has both my printers on it, and I have a little cubby in between them where I can place my laptop and slip in a chair. It's cozy. It also gets the computer, once again, off the kitchen table, so I'm not surfing Diaryland every moment that I'm eating (or indeed, just passing through the kitchen on my way somewhere else). I was pretty much wearing ruts into the linoleum -- all paths leading to the computer at the kitchen table.

But, since it's hard to just eat when I eat alone, I've started reading again during meals. This is good. I have a backlog of books. I started Eat, Pray, Love, and am enjoying it immensely.

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Today was fun! I needed a zipper for my pants. In the wee hours I awoke, remembering that I hadn't prewashed the fabric before cutting it. They'll have to be hand washed in cold water and hung to dry. And the cheap fabric store only had big fat zippers for sports clothing -- suitable for manipulating while wearing ski gloves, I assume. I thought I could check JoAnn Fabrics for those cedar chests again. Maybe they've gone on sale by now. So I made my list of errands and went here and there, enjoying the sunny day and the way things were melting in the sunlight even though, officially, it was below freezing.

I found the stackable pill containers at Walgreen's. I made a bank deposit. I stopped at Quilter's Dream and got two patterns that I can use for my wall hanging (Whee! Exciting!). I drove through Coventry (where Rose and Marc live) and picked out all the houses I'd like to live in, on Main Street. I hied me to JoAnn's and not only got the required zipper, but found some other misc. quilting items on sale. The cedar chests are now hidden between the dried flowers and the baskets. They are still $90. There still are not any prices on them, so I had to get a salesperson to look it up for me. How do they expect to sell them if there are no prices marked on them? How do they expect to sell them without marking them down to half price? That is what I want. I will pay $45 for one of those little cedar chests (they're not even FINISHED -- there are instructions on how to seal the wood, for heaven's sake) and no more. It looks like none have sold, either, since the Fall. Hmph. Universe: I am Bornearly. Hear me roar. Mark them down to $45, please.

Then, since I was right next to my favorite Sushi place... I picked up dinner. While waiting for it to be ready I stopped in next door at a clothing place and found a pair of great pants on sale. These pants will match two tops for which I haven't had pants for a couple of years. I love it when a fashion problem gets solved.

On the way home I stopped at the ShopRite near where Rose's ex-husband lives. I never go there, but I had a vague memory of finding my one favorite Decaf Espresso coffee there, the one I can't find anywhere any more. Sure enough, they had it. I got a couple of other things for the week and headed home.

I'm still planning to make the lentil stew for tomorrow. I guess it would be better to make it tonight and get it overwith.

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The other thing I awoke with at 4:30 this morning was the idea of rejoining my Community Center (read: gym) for a three month period. I can't afford a year right now, but I'm dying for lack of exercise and it's dangerously cold outside. I thought I might be able to swing three months if I charge it and worry about it later. I was going to put that on the list but then Rose wrote and said she might be interested. Though it's probably not allowed because we have different addresses, it would be cheaper for both of us if we joined under a family membership. So I have some questions to ask first. I want to decide by Wednesday though. That'll be my first workout day, regardless. I really miss the track, I miss running with my iPod and feeling like everything good is possible. I want that back before Spring.

I want everything good to be possible again before Spring.