Wednesday

I really don't have much to say but I felt the need to blog.  Maybe because I have a little time.  Something that I don't seem to make enough of.  Time.  And I will go to bed soon and read for a little while, but before that, I just needed to unwind a bit, so here I am.


I am feeling better.  Still tired after the marathon I feel like I have been running, but I am getting more rest and it is amazing how 8 hours sleep, and better yet, 10, like I would like to get, really does help heal the body.  Those past weeks of 4 - 6 hours really took a toll on me.  Well, that and all the emotions erupting out of me like the rash from the chemo.  I don't get that many spots on my face that it is that noticeable, but the ones inside my nose are quite painful.  But the antibiotic salve, especially the one with the "pain relief" really does help....... a lot.


I have stuck to my 1:00pm deadline to be turning off my computer and walking out the door at work.  OK, I have also brought home work, but not as much this week, and I am resting between work and then working outside and then coming into do my take home work.  I have also limited the amount this week that I have brought home.


I was able to take a packed car of trash to the dump today.  It is mostly trash left behind by others who have passed through, OK, Larry.  When he was here the last time he left all kinds of junk in boxes and bags.  And then add all the animal feed bags that had piled up and I had a car load.  The problem is that they have "modernized" our trash places so that there is someone there to assist you.  But these employees only work so many hours a week at each spot, so the trash is closed when they are not there.  My life has not adjusted to these hours yet, and the trash tends to build up and drive me crazy.  But the Malibu was full and after stopping by the license plate people before heading home after dropping off my trash, I was finally able to deal with the title situation with Larry's truck.  It is a long and involved story.  But finally, and with a large check it is taken care of, and I can turn over the title now to the people Larry wanted to have the truck.  So I will no longer have to worry about it.  Nothing like getting things in order.


And before I go any further, happy birthday TOM!  That is my baby brother and he turns 52 today.  Happy belated Birthday Christopher!!!!!  That is Tom's youngest son and he turned 12 on May 3rd.  He is officially a tweenager!!!  And a handsome and adorable young man he is.  His older brother is pretty special also, but this is Christopher's birthday month, so happy happy my favorite Christopher.  And keep thinking of a name for our rooster.


Today when I left work, at 1:00 the Bureau Chief of Pesticides had asked me to lunch.  Always priding myself on being a kind and gracious woman, when he had asked me on Monday, I said, "why?"  That sort of took him back, but at least we were now in the same place.  And he said, "well you are getting ready to leave and I would like to get to know you before you do."  We have worked together for many years and I know him and his wife and family only a little bit.  Mostly through community events that they have been involved in with the kids at school.  Bob and I usually go to those events together.  Like the French Brunch to raise money for the French Club to go to France.  I think.  I don't know, the food was good and I won a bottle of Grand Mariner in the raffle.  When the woman called to tell me I had won, she called it grand mariner, like a sailor, not like the French accent.  I was not sure I wanted a person, but then I realized she meant the liquor and I was just fine with that.  


Anyway, when he said to get to know me, I again had responded graciously with, "Why?"  Thank goodness my brain kicked in about that time, and I stepped back and said, "thank you, that would be lovely."  Which is what I should have said in the first place.  I think I have caught some kind of social disease where instead of responding as I was raised and would at least a year ago had responded with the graciousness my mother tried so hard to make a part of my very soul.  I now respond in the most abrupt and rude ways.  I am not comfortable with this rudeness.  I am a Southern woman after all, and even if you are telling someone that they resemble the wrong end of a baboon, it is said with the appropriate amount of graciousness and then always ends with a "Bless her heart."  And then of course, once you have said, Bless your heart, everything else is OK.


So I had a lovely lunch at the Indian Buffet with Mr. Howard and we talked about our similarities and differences and love of mangoes and exotic foods.  It was a quite and lovely lunch and then we drove back to the office, he trudging back into the building, me putting the top down on the toy and heading east with garbage on my mind.  


And now, I think I shall end this short little post.  I feel much lighter, just writing out these few unrelated thoughts. I am hopeful that my friends P & J will be well enough to come to the play on Friday night.  J has been under the weather.  P, with lung cancer is doing just fine right now, thank you very much.  He has chemo tomorrow, and hopefully all will go well.  My thoughts are with you both.


I was able to get another flat of plants put in their new homes, and just that hour of planting and watering did my soul so much good.  Dirt is the food of the gods.  And all you have to do is get it under your fingernails, smeared on your face, ground into your arms and you will feel so much better.  And get this no calories to add to your hips, but instead you might even burn off a calorie or two.  I guess not if you drink beer at the same time.  But I don't drink beer.  Chemo and all.


And to the rest of the world, sweet dreams.  I shall lift the sleeping Stella off my lap and carry her to bed with Bob and me.  Turn the air conditioner down from 80 to upper 70s and dream.