Fran's Ramblings

Strangeness and bewilderment.

Today has been a day of quiet curiousness for me.  Not that I'm curious, exactly, although generally I am.  But of strange oddnesses that occur in everyday life that leave me wondering.

There was a lady who came into the shop wearing something unusual.  At least I've never seen anything like it, and I've seen some strange things. She was wearing a fairly form-fitting green top and wrapped tightly around her ribs was a pink ribbon that ended in a chrysanthemum-type bow.

It reminded me of nothing so much as those odd little headbands you see on bald baby girls, the ones that wrap around like a garter, with flowers or something on top of them.  I don't entirely understand those either, since it seems to me that it calls attention to the fact that the kid has no hair, but at least you know she's a girl.

But this was a ribbon and exploding bow on a fully grown lady, and it was just strange.  Certainly eye catching, but then pink on green would be.  Unusual.

And then I got an email from a friend directing me to a website, and lo and behold, it turns out that a man I was once involved with (yes, I played with the other team, and frequently if it comes to that, but that's a whole different issue), anyway, this guy is back in Cruces and he's the head of the Republican Party for Dona Ana.  You can look him up, if you're interested.

Part of me is puzzled because I was under the impression that when he left New Mexico, he was never coming back, but it does have a siren call to it.

What amazes me more is that someone I knew, and knew well ("Yes!  He was my Boyfriend!"), who at that time lived for the theatre, has become someone who's beliefs are so very different from what they used to be.  I'm still pro-choice, pro-gay marriage (obviously), pro-stem cell research.  It boggles my mind that he's someone who advocates for Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.

Granted, his parents were awfully conservative, but still.  It intrigues me, but if it's working for him, good job.  We all have our paths to walk, and I hope he's somewhere even in the neighborhood of as happy as I am.

But these are the sorts of things that have crossed my path today, infusing me with a sense of wonder and vague bewilderment, and it's not at all bad.  I'm glad that I can still enjoy them!

Speaking of which, I hope you enjoy this.  It too made me smile and provided my sense of wonder a little boost.

Shopping

In a lot of ways, I'm not a girlie type girl.  I have limited interest in shopping, although I am enjoying the prospect of house hunting.  I like test driving cars too.

But in a traditional sense, I loathe it.  I have to be forced to go buy new shoes and clothes.  Once in a great while I can get into it, but in general?  Naw.  There are other things I'd much rather be doing.

I've been whining about needing a new purse for a while, and today while we were waiting for Robin's bus to show up, we happened to be at a Mall.  Another place I can do without, but it's where we were.  So I figured it was time to bite the bullet and do the purse thing.

See, I carry a bag and a purse to work every day, so what I figured I'd do is buy a smallish purse that I can tuck into a backpack, and that would be more efficient, especially since A) the bag I've been using has just died a sad and terrible death, and B) it's going to rain here, I just know it, and all the other bags I have are open on top.  Books and water don't mix, although books often seem to think they will.

So a new purse and a backpack were in order.  We went through a few stores until we ended up at Macy's, where Lillian took the drastic and radical action of asking the sales lady, Jennifer, if she had what I was looking for.  Which, of course she did, and she presented it to me and I loved it.  Immediately. 

One down, one to go.

After lunch with Robin, we all went shopping for a backpack for me, and shopping with Robin -- who can do the girlie shopping thing really well -- can be educational and fun.  And it's always productive, so we found me a backpack.  Which I totally love.

Granted, that meant emptying out my old purse, which is an excavation on its own.  But it's worse than that.

See, I keep my old purse for just-in-case, and so I have the purse from BEFORE the current purse, stashed away.  So it's time to let that one go and put the new-old one in it's place. 

Except, come to find out, there was still stuff in the old-old purse!  It's been there for, what, five years now?  Amazing.  I found my old glasses (which I really can't use, so I'm going to have to donate them to someone, because they're expensive, just not good for me), a small metal case with all of Lou's old guitar picks, another case with SCA "coins" in it.  All kinds of stuff.

And the funny part?

The purse I just bought is a smaller version of the one I'm getting rid of now.  I'm consistent, if nothing else!

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On a separate note, for those of you who live here in Washington, please vote tomorrow in the primary!  Of course our votes don't matter in the presidential one, but this time what you do does have an effect.  Even if you think our Top Two primary is a joke, overcome your aversion, please and vote!

Humidity and storms and things.

I accused Lillian of missing living in Virginia so much that she brought the humidity to us here. 

I shouldn't complain, I know.  We get so very few hot-and-humid days it's probably obscene.  But when they're here, we just don't function well.  Our wimpy lungs aren't used to having to work so hard, darn it!

We spent a lot of today packing things up, although we didn't get as much done as we wanted.  When just walking through the house makes you sweat, it's hard to work up enthusiasm for doing much. 

But we are making progress.  Things are getting packaged up, things are going to Goodwill or wherever, as long as they're outta here, things are getting thrown away.  It's good.  Dusty and hot, but good. 

And Lillian's thinking ahead to room presentation for selling, which I hadn't gotten to in my head at all.  We have a little futon and my first thought was to either sell it or give it away, just get it out of the den, which is where we're storing things we've packed up.

But Lillian pointed out that the little bedroom really IS little, and that little bed will make the room seem bigger.  So the first step, aside from packing up knick-knacks that I simply cannot part with is to empty out that room and get it all done and presentation ready and close the door.

We will.  I can see it done, so it will be done.

Provided we don't all die in our sleep due to panicked Ceilidh.  Last night we had a huge thunderstorm, and generally we don't get thunder-boomers here.  One clap of thunder and everyone runs to look, wide-eyed.  Not at all like the New Mexico summer storms where thunder can continuously roll through the sky for hours.

But last night we had thunder shaking the windows and lightning stabbing through the sky, and Ceilidh doesn't handle upsets like that well.  And of course they happened sometime after 3 in the morning.  So it wasn't the sharp clap of thunder or the light show that woke me up but Ceilidh standing with two paws on the side of the bed, ready to crawl up and be protected. 

I thought she needed to go pee, so I stumbled out to the front door and then was kinda surprised when I had to haul her bodily outside.  Of course as soon as she got to the grass, the show began again, and at least she got out to have the pee scared out of her.  But she bolted back in, almost taking out the screen door.

Dante was cooler about it, willing to come inside if it would make ME feel better.  But once he got in, it was too hot inside and he figured he was better off on the porch rather than panting in the living room, so out he went.

And the next couple of hours had me semi-sleeping, muttering, "It's gonna be okay, Ceilidh, just lie down" or some variant on that. But it stopped and we got some sleep and all was well.

Of course it's supposed to happen again tonight, and we're supposed to have torrential rains, the kind we normally get in October.  So she'll be cowering by the bed yet again tonight.

But you know what?  It's okay because it'll mean that the heat has stopped!  So the humidity will GO AWAY!  YAY!

Short, very short

Full moon madness has hit us here.  And the heat.

There was a car crash just outside the shop.  One car came out of the alley and ran into a car going down the street the wrong way, since it's one way.  They hit each other, there's glass in the street, but neither one stopped.  The one going the wrong way zipped down the alley, and the one originally in the alley went the right way up the one-way street. 

And we saw at least two cars dash through serious red lights.  Ah, but I'm reminded that once again, red lights here are just suggestions.

We went dancing again, briefly saw Lucky, and got -- quite literally here -- jumped on by a little dynamo named Gloria who wanted both of us to go dance with her.  She can flat-ass MOVE and she'd wear us out, but we had to pass. 

Speaking of which, she made one.  On Lillian.  So perhaps Ms. Gloria and I need to have words.

The bass was so heavy at the club that if I have kidney stones, they've been jarred loose.  So we came home.

But the moon was glorious.  It's been so hot and smoggy that the air quality sucks, but it makes for a beautiful, harvest gold moon.

And I'm off to bed, perchance to sleep.  Have a lovely Sunday!

We have no stress here. Nosiree.

I have a cold sore. 

And it hurts, and it's fairly unpleasant to look at, and it's certainly interfering with my good-night kisses.  Bah.

But honestly, why on earth would I have a cold sore now?

Statistically (and we know what that's worth) over 80% of the human race has some sort of herpes virus that results in an outbreak of something-or-the-other.  This is HSV-1, which is the ordinary kind.  Like all herpes viruses, once you got it, it's yours.  Forever.  Yeah, okay, fine.

This one, though, seems to be activated mostly by stress.  Once it's lodged, stress (or allergies, which are not to be lightly dismissed, but mostly it's stress) can make the stupid virus sit up and take notice.

But me?  Stressed?  Ha!

So my partner/wife has been diagnosed with something unpleasant.  It's not NEARLY as bad as some things, and it's deal-able.  Of course it does involve the ongoing insertion of sharp pointy things into skin but hey.  No biggie, right?  I'm not needle-phobic or anything!

LOL!  Yeah, I couldn't even type that one with a straight face!  Everyone who knows me knows how I feel about needles.  And if you have any doubts, just go back to some of my dental posts. 

So anyway, no stress there. 

And we're moving.  But I've had practice moving (not nearly like sweet Eunice has, what with Michael being transferred all around the country, she's a moving GODDESS!), and honestly, I like the idea of new beginnings in new places.  So what stress could there be in moving?

It's not like we've got rooms and rooms and rooms of BOOKS or anything.  Or any amount of other stuff that we really don't need to survive, but which I love. Or Lillian loves.  So we must keep it.  And so it's got to be packed up to be stored.

See?  No stress there at all!

And of course then we have to fix up the house and get it ready to sell, but hey, we've seen all those house-flipping shows on TV.  How hard can it be?  A little duct tape, some paint, a strategic flower?  Ignore the shower that needs to be replaced or the weird suspicious stain on the carpet or the fact that the old paint on the house is kind of a dismal color with no yard appeal.  Window treatments is all we REALLY need!

So again, there's no stress at all!  I'm OBVIOUSLY overreacting to something!

And of course we need to find a place to live in once we've got this thing on the market (and really, who would worry about trying to sell a house in this market?  Only a fool, and that ain't me, Bucky!), then we've got to find a place in Everett that can hold Lillian's shop and my books, well, and us too I guess, but that's going to be a piece of cake.  A reasonably priced, good-sized house in downtown Everett?  They're practically GIVING them away! 

Stress, I laugh in your face!

Well, and let's not overlook the fact that Dante's teeth have been bothering him -- again -- and the vet says she's SURE she can fix it this time.  Only $1500 or so!

Nothing stressful there.  Nope, not a thing.

Oh, and then there's the little matter of arranging to go down to California to get married, which takes a little organization, planning, coordination and money.  Well hell, the vows are already written, and we don't have to worry about cake, what with Lillian's diabetes, so that's nowhere close to a concern!

I must be actively searching for something to stress over!  I mean really!  I'm such a whiner!

Well, and besides, who needs sleep?  More than an hour or two?  Honestly.  They don't even have to be consecutive!

But somehow my ganglia are twitching, and the one that's the hoarder of HSV-1 virus seems to have decided to spit it out all over my lip.  (Okay, who here immediately pictured John Lithgow on the ganglia line?  Good for you!) 

So I've got this ERUPTION on my lower lip and of course from my perspective it's huge and gross and incredibly tender, even downright painful.  And I'll take my L-Lysine, and I'll pat it with a baking soda solution, and in a week or so it'll be gone.  But it's going to be a very long, very painful week.

Well, you know, until I get some real stress in my life!

Jangling

There were just the two of us in the shop today, Marie and I.   JB was off erranding. 

It's kind of nice when the usual dynamic is shaken up, and Marie and I get on well together.  It's a little quieter, but we're just as busy.  And we laugh and it's a bit relaxing.

But we work in Pioneer Square, and being downtown has its own dynamic.  It isn't always easy. 

Granted, we have lots of wonderful tourists.  We had a totally delightful couple in from Knoxville, and they've met half of a writing team I would LOVE to meet -- Dr. Bill Bass actually runs the Body Farm in Tennessee, the farm where people donate their bodies so the FBI can learn how people decompose under differing circumstances so they can more correctly identify how and when someone dies in the real world. 

I'd love to meet him.  And they have.  I told them to let him know that he has a true fan up here in the Pacific Northwest and they said they would.

But not all our customers are sweet.  And over the last couple of days, we've had some doozies.

There was the guy who came in, couldn't stop pacing, kept asking questions and talked over my answers.  Repeatedly.  When his phone finally rang and he answered it, I turned my back on him and walked away. 

Or the kid who asked if we had Manga, and when I said we didn't, pawed through the postcard rack (which has some 50's lurid book covers as postcards) giggling and pointing. I found postcards in strange parts of the shop laterI

I understand writing down titles to look up later, say at the library.  Hardbacks are expensive.  But moving them someplace so you can conveniently write down the titles in your handy-dandy little notebook and then leaving them where you took them is guaranteed to irritate me.  Especially when I have no idea where that is, and happen to stumble upon them later on.

Someone was made uncomfortable by the cover of Doug Preston's new true crime book, which was lying flat on a table.  It has a statue on it.  So they took a book from somewhere else and covered it up.  Okay, but then while I was walking around, I was puzzled by the hole in a display, and it wasn't until I found that book covering the Preston one that I figured it out.

They were obviously offended by the erect nipple and bare breast on the statue.  If I'd told them it was called "Rape of the Sabine Women", we'd have probably been accused of peddling pornography, even though, as I understand it, the women really weren't raped at all.  They were courted.  But you can't have a guy and a mostly naked woman and call it "courtship", can you?  Besides, who'd want to see that?

So it had to be covered up.  And there, during my wanderings through the shop, I went and uncovered it again.  I have no shame.

However we had plenty of time to wander the shop because we had a couple groups of people who came in and they set off both our "something's wrong here" antennae.  And believe me, Marie can see the good in ANYONE.  She amazes me that way.

But these two or three groups (they kinda melded at one point) just made us nervous.  Not like we were in danger, but like they could lift stuff, which they may very well have done.  And yeah, maybe a little danger, because they came across as the sorts who had the potential to go nutso.

They were jangly.  Their very presences sent little electric sparks dancing across our neural pathways and we were jittery and on edge and jangly ourselves.  They left the most displeasing vibration.  To the point where, when one of them paid us, we set her cash aside rather than immediately pocketing it. 

We don't have a cash register.  We'd rather spend the money on books.

But we didn't want to touch hers until it had decompressed a little.  Stopped transmitting that funky energy.

Maybe it's the building smog, maybe it's summer winding down and it's getting hot here, maybe it's in the moon and stars.  But this has been a slightly uncomfortable week at work, and it has nothing to do with internal dynamics or the changes going on in our personal lives. 

There's something weird going on in the ether, and it's left us jangly and twitchy.  I hope it hasn't happened to you!

This one may be too gross for some of you, just so's ya know.

Okay, so my nose is still clogged, and I don't feel particularly well. 

Sinuses, dammit.  Stickin' to it. 

I'm one of those folks who doesn't like to blow her nose.  Obviously I DO, but I don't like it.  At all.  It's strange how much I don't like it.  I sometimes get nauseous when I do, so that may be a part of it.  And no, I'm not blowing hard enough to pop my ears. 

I have no problems being a crackpot in this regard. 

But at times like this, I wish I could just snort it all out.  Like the guys on the bus do. 

Years ago I had a mild case of pneumonia, and at one point, I knew -- I just knew -- that if I could take my lungs out, scrape all the mucousy crap off of them, hang them on the clothesline to air out and get some good, clean sunshine, then reinsert them, all would be right with my world.

That's how I feel about my sinuses right now. 

So I did the next best thing.  I steamed 'em. 

I have to admit that there are times when I'd love a good sauna to sweat out the toxins.  Back in Cruces, Lillian and I went to a gym, and while she was off on the treadmill or something, I was swimming, and then I'd get into the sauna followed by time in the hot tub, which was nice and cooling after the sauna.

I used to think the idea of sweating was just dirty, but after going clean into a sauna and sweating out stuff, I saw the light.  I believe.  It is good.

So I poured boiling water in a bowl, covered my head with a towel and sniffed.  And coughed because steam in my lungs is still not a good idea.  But it was good for my pores and my nose. 

And steamed and sweated and snorted and loosened things up. 

Which I had to blow out.  Bleah.

But so far it's helped.  We'll see how the night goes, of course. 

There are probably better ways to clear out one's sinuses, but I'm not sure what.  I could have put eucalyptus in there, if I had any, but the smell is a bit overpowering, I think. 

Don't even talk to me about netty pots!  Those are just unnatural!  (This from a woman who hates to blow her nose, so take that into consideration when reading the above statement!)

So I steamed, and I may very well steam again.  But for now, I can breathe and that really was my goal.

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Quick aside, what sorts of captions would you give THIS particular photo?  (Thanks to Joanna for this one!)

Pills

I'm getting a sore throat.  I maintain that it's because of the rapidly changing weather here causing my sinuses to go into overdrive, not because stress has weakened my system so I'm coming down with something.

Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

But I took some olive leaf to help, and when I track down the echinacia, I'll take that too. 

And I've started taking niacinimide and melatonin to help me sleep, and I'll be starting in with valerian since Kelli so kindly suggested it.  After last night's non-sleeping marathon, I'm ready.

But that means a whole handful of pills to take, and some of these are not small.  The capsules can be, as my mother used to say, "horse pills".  They're pretty big and I need to take two of them in some cases.  It can be a challenge.

When I was a kid, I couldn't even swallow a whole aspirin (this was in the days before we learned we couldn't give kids aspirin).  I'd gag and choke and spit.  I have a lovely, sensitive, delicate gag reflex.  I could have been a classic anorexic, I can gag and throw up so easily.  Fortunately, I loathe throwing up.

So anyway, my mom used to smash up the aspirin and put it in a teaspoon along with 7-Up, and I'd swallow that.  It worked fine, except that now I associate 7-Up with being sick.  But I could take my meds. 

Eventually, though, that becomes impractical, and I had to learn how to swallow them.  And I did.  It's taken ages, and I still sometimes can't handle the bigger pills, but I have learned.

My secret?

I hold my nose.

Yep.  Either suffocate or swallow.  Granted, sometimes there's the unfortunate spitting situation, but since I have to clean it up, and besides I need the pills anyway, I've learned.  And now I can swallow the smaller ones with a good sized gulp of water.  I just pretend they're not there. 

But when my throat hurts, it's a whole new ballgame.  I can only swallow one of the big capsules at a time, and that gets old real quick.  Especially with a handful of 'em. 

So tonight I'm spacing things out.  Besides, the valerian takes almost exactly an hour to kick in, so if I take it an hour before I want to sleep, I bet I can be in bed, and when it smacks me upside the head, I'll be all set.  Fingers crossed on that one, anyway.

But that's provided I can get them down.  I'm going to be thinking a lot of positive thoughts on this one! 

Do you have any tricks that work?  I'm always open to new suggestions!

Foodie changes

You know how things come in threes?  Yeah.  We discovered a friend of ours, Bill, is diabetic.  Then another friend, Dina, discovered she is too.  Sooo okay, third shoe, anyone? 

Here.  Lillian is too. 

And we've been adapting and changing, and it's a pain but it's do-able.  Diet, exercise and some funky little pills, and we're getting things under control, bit by bit.  It isn't always easy but it's necessary, so we are. 

Of course food is the biggest issue because so much stuff has sugar in it, so we have to be careful.

Example.  We were coming back from looking at the house in Everett (another post entirely, I need to process), and we were looking to talk to Sprint about maybe changing to their plan, and we realized we both needed to eat.  We'd been to Famous Dave's before and it was good so we went again.

Only to realize all the barbecue sauces have sugar.  Of course they do.  It means looking closely at the menus to figure out what's do-able.  And we chose reasonably well; she can have sugars but they have to be in small doses and offset by other things.  We managed.

But it was one of those wake-up-call moments.  We need to be picky about where we go from now on. 

And for those of you on restrictive diets who want a support system or are looking for menu ideas when you have food allergies or issues, may I recommend Yasmine Galenorn's forum entitled "What on Earth Can We Eat?" since she's been there, done that, and you can learn from her experiences without having to go through them yourself.  Be positive, though.  No being mean, not that I think you would be.

One of the things we've been a bit concerned about is needing the flavor of sweet stuff.  Obviously all the traditional artificial sweetners -- saccharine, aspertame and the like -- are the default, but we don't trust them.  Not only do they have funky aftertastes, but there is some concern that they pose health risks.  So we avoid them.

But we -- and I include myself in this even though I'm not diabetic; it won't hurt me to cut down on my sugar intake, and besides, she's my wife and I'm supportive, we're in this together -- still want sweet stuff sometimes. 

Fortunately, there's something new on the market, and we're a bit reserved (remember how enthusiastic everyone was about aspertame?), we've been tickled with it so far.  It's an herb called "stevia" and it seems to do the trick with no funky aftertaste.

Well, okay, we haven't tried the stevia-enhanced cola, Zevia, yet although we did try the lemon-lime version which was alright.  It had a mild plasticy aftertaste but not nearly as bad as most diet drinks. 

But the packets, like sugar or Sweet-n-Low packets, are smaller because you need less, and they have no aftertaste that I can discern.  AND the Stevia folks have distilled this stuff into flavored drops, so you can have vanilla flavoring, or chocolate or root beer or English toffee.  We can endorse the toffee -- Lillian put a few drops in a glass of milk and it was like she was having a shake.  It's seriously yummy!

So we're adapting.  Balanced meals, thinking about the results, getting back into exercising (we power-walked through a mall to get to the Sprint kiosk only to discover they no longer had a place in the mall), and doing the pokey thing with the lancet. 

And you know what?  It's gonna be okay.

A lovely quiet day, thank you!

Honestly, with all the changes and upheavals this past week, it was kinda nice to have a quiet day with nothing much to report.  Tinkering around the house, looking into changing cell phone companies, setting up a meeting to look at a house tomorrow.  Small things, really, satisfying in their own ways, but nothing ginormous.

For which I am truly grateful.

Laundry's doing, dogs and people are fed, one box is going to have to be filled and stashed somewhere.

We may very well do the pod thing, but we were looking at storage units up in Everett and apparently they're all gold lined.  Who knew?  When I think that what they want for a 10 x 10 storage unit is what my first apartment rented for. . .well, times they certainly are a-changin'. 

But we're gradually getting a handle on things, and for tonight, a quiet night at home with the fuzzies is not at all bad.  Especially with an early morning to meet the realtor at 9.  Through Seattle through rush-hour traffic.

This'll be the first time we see the house inside and he's already talking writing up an offer.  I know the economy sucks and house sales are way down, but is a little courting out of the question? 

Besides, we're not at ALL ready to vacate here, we haven't even talked to a mortgage broker, much less a realtor for this place, although we're kinda looking at Redfin.  This is all preliminary stuff.  Getting a feel for what's out there. We know, as is, our house is worth more than the one we're looking at but the legalese to get us out of one and into another is exhausting to contemplate.

So that's where we're at.  I do hope you had a lovely weekend, and you're looking forward to a stress-free Monday!