15 posts tagged “weekend”

Yesterday I completely forgot that I had plans with homebody to drive out to Roslyn and check out the backdrop for that show Northern Exposure. I don't think I've watched an episode of that show for 15 years, and even back in the day I was kind of lukewarm on the whole thing. It's a pleasantly atmospheric & amusing, albeit somewhat lackluster in the plot department.

Anyway. I remembered when she called to say she was running late. This made it feel slightly spontaneous, even though we made the plan weeks ago.

Roslyn is tiny and Olde. The Old West buildings lining main street are original and maintained as historic landmarks, complete with second-story doors that no longer have stairs leading to them, and some ramshackle shacks hidden between the rustic buildings.

The best taste of local color we got was the group of smokers outside the Eagles lounge with their mean-looking tattoos and familiar NW backwoods accents. When we rolled into town at noon (on Sunday) they had clearly already gotten a good start on drinking in the windowless club. That's the NW working class I know. Go into the Eagles in my dad's hometown any morning and you'll find a similar cast of characters, mostly retired loggers. And yes, I have had a drink at the Eagles before noon myself.

The rest of the town was full of tourists like ourselves. We wandered through the lame open-air market and listened to a melancholy country song played live. We stopped in at the quilt shop and a souvenir/ junk store that sold the weirdest variety of stuff (high-heel camo sneakers, for a start). We stopped in at the Roslyn museum, which was more or less a room heaped with antiques and old photos. A man in the museum asked the proprieter "Do you still have n*gro*s around here?" Um, still?

Roslyn was a mining town before it became a tourist spot. Like all mining towns, many people died there. It seems the mines in the area had numerous bad explosions, collapses, and other tragedies. So there's a huge cemetery, divided into ethnic groups, lodges, and other designations like "Foresters." We were surprised to find a section for Druids. The best part of the cemetery was the un-maintained part where the graves are grown into the forest. It looks like they might get cleared off once a year, but it's no manicured lawn. I prefer the natural look, as cemeteries go.

After our adventure in Roslyn (and what I have designated the "Stupidest Lunch Ever" - plain salad in a tortilla and a "smoothie" that tasted like a weak grape slurpee) we went to the outlet mall in North Bend, and then stopped at Easy Joe's for a tasty diner meal on the patio.

Because I did not get to put the 2nd coat of paint on my shelf yesterday, I will be doing that today, as well as the next phase of furniture shift 2009. Aunt Rosie is having boyfriend trouble and may want to stay with me this week, which will not be very convenient since my apartment is in a state of disarray and I have a bunch of stuff to get done before going to Idaho next week, not to mention work, and the fact that I only have one set of keys. Hopefully they'll make amends today. She's more than welcome to stay here while I'm in Idaho.

On Friday night before I went to see Byron Katie speak (highly recommended if you get a free invitation like I did), my laptop frizzled again. Meaning the display goes all crunchy and then it won't reboot. It has done this before, and generally after vacuuming the keyboard and/or letting it sit upside-down with the battery out for a while it will normalize again. None of this voodoo was working, even when I said the magic words. So Saturday morning I figured I would try taking the spacebar key off. No really, I am insane. On my former laptops removing keys was no big deal - they just kind of snap back on. The Macbook Pro keys have a series of complex plastic scissor mechanisms that have to fit together precisely in order give the key the right resistance and springiness. I wasted an hour fiddling with tiny plastic bits to try to get it back on correctly. Eventually I got all of the pieces in place, but it still felt sticky... and the other problem was no closer to being solved.

So I went to Canada and hoped that maybe by leaving the country and then coming back I might somehow cause the Mac gods to heal my laptop. Actaully the man-friend and I went to see the abstract jazz trumpeter Jon Hassell perform at the Chan Performing Arts Center at UBC in Vancouver. I had to go to Kinko's to print our tickets, since my laptop was broken. I had to buy a new memory card for my camera, because I could not download the photos from it. Our hotel was humorously dive-y, but comfortable. It was unfortunately in the downtown drunk-zone, and directly adjacent to a bumpin' nightclub. The concert was excellent, despite the fact that the bar was (canadian) cash-only and we had not had time to eat first. We got some slices of pizza at midnight and watched The Simpsons and Star Trek until the danceclub closed.

Sunday morning I came to terms with the fact that I would have to take my laptop in for repair, and in the car on the way home I used my iPhone to make an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar for late afternoon. I got to watch the "genius" do exactly the same thing with little plastic bits that I had to try to fix the spacebar... but it was still sticky. Then he ran a little video card diagnostic and determined that I have a bad video card, since this was a manufacturer defect they are replacing the whole logic board for free and giving me a new keyboard to boot. He told me that the repairs would have cost $1,450 if they were charging me. Cripes! If I had had to pay, I think I would have been buying a new laptop.

Anyway, the point of this rambling post is that I'm going to be out of the Vox loop for a few days until I get my laptop back. I have actual work to do at work, and books to read at home. So I'll be seeing you in a few days.

I didn't dust.
I didn't clean my blinds
I didn't empty out ALL of my kitchen cabinets (I have a reason for this one)
I didn't work on my memoir
I didn't refrain from spending
I didn't stay withing my daily calorie budget
I didn't exercise
I didn't go to the thing at the Henry I had planned to go to on Friday

However,

I did watch Blood Diamond and The End of Violence, both of which I liked
I cleaned and organized the rolling cart in my kitchen, and half of the cupboards
I killed a bunch of roaches
I built a storage box
Someone else built a wine rack for me
I made three excellent dinners
I had brunch with aunt rosie
I met with Binky
I took a bath
I ordered Boric Acid on the internets, because it is not available at local pharmacies/ hardware stores
I read some Infinite Jest
I read some Twyla Tharp
I did not get sick... yet

I'm always more disappointed in myself than usual at the end of long weekends. This is time for me to make progress on things that aren't work, but I rarely seem to do so. This has been a nice weekend, but I still feel like I'm falling behind on life - which is a strangely persistent feeling for me. This weekend I have:

• Watched Pierrot le Fou (excellent)
• Ordered a new battery for my laptop (expensive)
• Shipped off 10 things sold on ebay
• Colored my hair (chocolate cherry) and trimmed my own fringe, thus saving hundreds of dollars
• Went to Auburn, ate turkey & pie (etc), tried to teach a 17-mo baby how to use an iPhone
• Reloaded my iPod with a new selection of music
• Read half of A History of Love, some Amy Hempel short stories, and started Beethoven was one-sixteenth black.
• Drank approximately one quart of organic eggnog, with cognac
• Finished off my birthday wines
• Wrote one lame journal entry
• Wrote approximately two sentences of the novel I've decided to try to finish by the end of this year, rather than today
• Went out for sushi and ate a giant heap of Yellow Fin Tuna sashimi
• Watched Notorious (excellent)
• Watched the latest "Fringe" episode (starting to get annoying, but still clever and creepy, so...)
• Cooked a HUGE stuffed pork chop, and shared it
• Took a bath
• Watered plants
  
• Listed 18 more items on ebay (the valuable cds)
• Updated flickr with latest photos
• Decided I should stop using dairy products, based on my body's response to eggnog (heartburn, stuffed sinuses)
• Talked to mom on the phone three times
• Had some wild dreams
• Trimmed my fingernails

still TO DO:

• Trim my toenails
• Order stamps
• Design holiday card
• Photograph remaining ebay items
• Research value of Star Wars action figures
• Order xmas gifts for Idaho family
• Vacuum rug fuzz
• Dishes
• Laundry
• Catch up on bill paying
• Figure out December budget
• Tea with Homebody to deliver Lush CDs
• Dinner with Paul & Katie, and Katie's mom at Olivar this evening
• Clean up hair and hair dye in bathroom
• Quickie clean (sweep, quick mop, swiffer, tidy)
• Exercise
  

Actually, writing the novel started out easy. Ideas were flowing and writing was effortless. Now I'm getting into the weeds where I have some idea of where I want the plot(s) to go, but a lot of words to put down in order to get there, and my brain is getting tired of thinking of words. It prefers to go back to reading novels. So I have to push myself to keep going. I've lost a bit of momentum this week, but I think once I settle into a steady rhythm it will not feel so difficult.

Part of the problem is figuring out how to balance my time. I have not gotten to the gym this week like I said I would, mainly because it is so fucking hard to pull myself out of my cozy bed at 6AM when it's dark and rainy and cold. When I finally manage to propel myself into the day it is usually after 7:30 and I barely have time to eat breakfast and shower and get to work at a reasonable hour. Which totally defeats the purpose of going to bed at 10.

And then there's "having a life" - spending time with friends and family and going out. Not to mention having a Love Life... which I won't mention. There are some inevitable holidays coming up, including my THIRTY-SEVENTH birthday two weeks from today. I'm throwing myself a potluck dinner on the 22nd, so if you live in the Seattle area and would like to join the festivities - PM me. Then Thanksgiving in Auburn the next week and December hoo-ha after that. Maybe going to Idaho for Christmas, even though it's not my favorite time of year over there. Last year Coeur d'Alene was named one of "America's Top Ten Christmas Cities" by Good Morning America... whatever that means! Maybe I should go enjoy a White Christmas (and I don't mean snow) and see what all the fuss is about. I have gone back for Christmas exactly twice since I moved to Seattle 18 years ago, but now the place is teeming with celebrities and gazillionaires. Plus, Grandpa Frank is definitely not getting any younger.

That said, in order to do this writing thing, I really need to sequester myself. Having said "life" distracts me and uses up my precious time and energy. Having connections and relationships is important, but writing - like any kind of individual creative process - is an isolated activity. And doubly unfortunately I also have to keep my day job... which is a stressful job that uses up more time and energy than anything else in my life, and it now involves writing too. So at work I'm writing web content and proposals and press releases, and then I come home and try to switch to my own voice again. Writing in marketing-speak is somewhat soul-destroying, but I would rather do it than not have any substance to my work. And I do like my job, as jobs go it's probably the best one I've had. I'm also grateful to be employed at a time when that is becoming a rare state in this country.

I am slowly making progress on my apartment. Today, between writing stints, I will be cleaning out my giant closet and preparing cds to sell and items to post on ebay. I will also be reorganizing my "office" storage boxes. One day I hope to have a Sunday when I can just lie around without feeling like I'm getting behind on something.

I am predictably falling behind on my apartment cure plan. I'm still only about 75% done with the kitchen and haven't done the oven yet. It's not that it was sooo dirty (though the inside of the fridge needed a lot of scrubbing), but I store a metric shit-ton of stuff in my kitchen drawers and cupboards and I had to sort through all of it and make decisions about it, item by item. That part is now complete, and today I was going to do the stove and surfaces and floor, but then I wasn't feeling very well, so I read this instead:

Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Haruki Murakami

I should be able to catch up this week I think. The next week is not as grueling... I have also gone so far as to mark a green pouch for my daily receipts so I can monitor my spending. This will not be easy for me as my tendency is to totally block out any thoughts about how I spend my money.

I talked to my mom today and got an update on my increasingly-senile Grandpa. He is now forgetting how phones work and calling her to reach someone else. When she answers he tells her to let it ring next time so he can get through to the person he is trying to reach. He also pulls out his own teeth with plyers rather than go to a dentist and refuses to get a new hearing aid despite the fact that he's almost completely deaf now.

In happier news, I went to the Pike Place Market Ghost Tour with Lily and Corey on Friday.  This one had some good stories, but no ghosts appeared for us. I was most intrigued to learn that Seattle once made most of its tax revenue from the World's Largest Brothel. 500 rooms.

Why do Sundays come with this sense of dread? Why should anything that I do by choice fill me with anxiety? Oh well.  I suppose there's medication for that.  Here's what has happened from Wednesday til now:

• Wednesday at 1:00 client calls to see if we will be at a meeting he neglected to invite us to, at 2:00. Three of us then drive across town and sit for 2 and a half hours receiving a lot of information that has little to no relevance to what we are doing.
• Wednesday evening homebody and I had an excellent dinner at La Spiga and then went to the Wedding Present show at Neumo's.  The opener, Earlimart, was better than anticipated. Which is lucky because (I found out later) the door person neglected to give me my all access pass so we could not hang out in the basement with the band.
• Thursday I had far too many meetings.
• Friday I left work after 2 long meetings and drove with my friend to Canada in a rented Chevy. We ate a Domino's pizza in our hotel room and watched the presidential debate. McCain's smug little smirk was annoying.
  
• The Wedding Present show in Vancouver was full of extremely drunk people. One older curly-haired man repeatedly fell down near me, until the angry bouncer ejected him. There was also a surprising amount of moshing by British men over 40 who have been following the band and refer to themselves as "David Gedge's Barmy Army."
• At both Wedding Present show a (different) young couple were making out 6 inches in front of my face. A little awkward. I felt like they should either get a room or I should join in. Two different couples, mind you!
• I slept very well at the Moda hotel and Vancouver.
• Saturday morning I got a mocha with melted Belgian dark chocolate from Blenz before we visted the messiest used book store on Earth.  They have every book... somewhere in a heap.
• I always go to Lush in Vancouver even though there is now one in Seattle. I got a tub of facial mask, body cream, and toner.
• We ate lunch at Mandala Asian restaurant where I gorged myself on sushi.
• There was a long line at the border, but no problem getting through. I was entertained by watching the dog sniffer show particular interest in the back seat of another car. When we drove off the dog was actually IN the car.
• The good bookstore that I never went to in Mt. Vernon is closed.
• Dropping off my friend in Pioneer Square a crazy woman asked us for money in a very convoluted and long-winded way, despite repeatedly telling her that we didn't have any. She proceeded to wander into the street and sing loudly about losing $24 dollars and getting it back 1000-fold in heaven. She reminded me of my mom.
• I had a bath and went to bed at 9:30.
• Sunday morning I got a "hare up my arse" and went to Ikea where I spent over $100 as I always do when I go there. I also ran into Homebody who was buying a desk for her new office space. We randomly run into each other more than most people.
• Then I decided to try shopping at the GreenFresh Market in Renton. It's a nice little store - a lot of local, organic food, and very few customers. I was a bit tripped out by shopping on a Sunday afternoon at a nearly deserted store.
• I went home and took a nap.
• Binky invited me over to her apartment for dinner since we are both trying to be frugal. She made yummy vegetarian pasta and an arugula salad.
• Now I'm going to take another bath and go to bed.
• Good night.

I get up around 9:00 feeling a bit groggy still from the Advil PM I took last night to help me sleep the bad week away.  I desire a maple bar but instead walk to the nearest cafe (a Starbucks - I am that lazy) for an apple fritter and a quad americano. I do some journaling while I fritter but only seem to have two pages worth, scribbly thoughts. I take out the recycling and the garbage, including the leftovers from months ago that have been taunting me from the tupperware in the fridge.  I scrounge up 14 quarters and take two heaps of laundry room in the basement only to find both machines occupied.

I call my mom for our weekly chat but she is still so groggy that I can't understand what she's saying, so I promise to call back later.  I look at random things on the interwebs for a while. I have an IM conversation about a transitional relationship and an electronic music performance. I strip my bed and flip my mattress - which turns out to be a bit of a wrestling match when I decide to flip AND reverse (a la Missy Elliott). I wash my dishes completely for the first time in two weeks and find some things in the sink I'd rather not talk about.

I finally gain access to washing machines and have a chat in the laundry room with a woman who lives in the building.  This is literally the first conversation I've had with a neighbor here in the nearly four years I have lived here, barring the time someone from down the hall knocked on my door to borrow tweezers to use to open their apartment door because the doorknob had fallen off. People in Seattle are not known for being gregarious.

I dry and put away my dishes and clean the counters and stove, then I sweep and wash my kitchen floor.  I consider taking a bus to the University District to buy a keyboard and mouse but instead I call my mom and talk about my Meyers-Briggs personality type (INTP).  She tells me that she now calls my increasingly senile grandpa Frank at 11 pm every day to remind him to take his sleeping pill. "Pill Time!" she exclaims.  He enjoys this little ritual.  She doesn't call if there's a thunderstorm, for fear of being electrocuted.

I put my laundry in the dryer and have another chat with the same neighbor.  I decide to go to Broadway and browse at Bailey Coy books, where I end up buying The Moronic Inferno by Martin Amis and The Sea by John Banville.  I only pay $2.96 because I am able to redeem my book buyer punch card.  I think Martin Amis no longer gets as much respect as he used to from young people.  But I digress.  I consider grabbing a slice of pizza but decide instead to have sushi for the 3rd time this week.  I begin reading the first essay in the Amis book while I eat.

Back home, I let the bird out to fly around and download a couple of episodes of Mad Men to watch while I have cookies (Newmans-O's) and water. And now, at 9:30, I climb into bed with Amy Tan's memoir and a cup of tea. And there you have it. Night night.

This week has been jam-packed with meetings and work crap, and in the evenings I've had very little inclination to do anything except eat, drink, and sleep.  Hopefully this weekend will be a bit rejuvenating...

Saturday:
9:00 yoga class
10:30 breakfast / morning pages
noon-3 more organizing
3-6 working on memoir
6pm-bedtime dinner & drinks with aunt rosie

Sunday:
Go to the gym
Get caught up on bills and email
Drive to ballard to visit my ex & my cat and walk around ballard with my camera
Go over my lists for the week & plan....

Tonight it's dishes, laundry, and a hot bath.

Now, to work.

I've been putting off a real thorough cleaning of the living space since I got back from Europe at the beginning of June.  I pick up here and there... I wash dishes occasionally... but the detritus has been accumulating. today I am taking each room one area at a time.  I figure if I put in a good 3 hours without getting distracted I should make some progress, at least.  I have some storage issues to sort out, a lot of vacuuming to do, and a bird cage to clean.  Not to mention the putting away... of everything lying around.

The other things I've been up to this weekend:  Friday evening I joined Joe and friends for a mellow birthday celebration at the Rosebud.  I only stayed about an hour before I was off to see Memento Mori at the Central Cinema.  Odd film.  It's put together very well, and quite creepy, but the plot is extremely loosely constructed.

Saturday, after a maple bar at top pot and a trip to Halfprice Books, I was strangely inspired to put together some graphic design and imagery on a few "mood boards."  I guess I miss doing graphic design.  Now I have 11 collages to hang for creative inspiration.

I had dinner with Binky at Lark.  I love that restaurant, but it is always very expensive.  She threw out the idea of me going to Morocco next year to help set up new computers at a girls' school she works with and possibly teach a class.  We'll see.  I'd love to have an excuse to go to Morocco.

Ok, housework until at least 4:30.  If I'm good I can reward myself with takeout dinner.