Yet Another Misc. Post

A belated "Happy Birthday" to two of my favorite people ever--my husband and my bro'. Both turned a year older yesterday. The gifts I chose for M--music (Tom Petty and Bob Dylan) and the memory-foam mattress topper--mysteriously benefited me as well. Imagine that!

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Photos to go see: my cousin's pics from her time in India (welcome home!) and via Nancy, 100 photos of 100 square foot homes in China. Some have two people living in them! Some are lovely, others dismal, desperate. No. Windows! And I thought my 600 square foot NY apartment was tiny…

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I pruned the roses last weekend. I always have to hum "Cruel to Be Kind" when I do that. What an amazing biological reaction, to grow more vigorously and bloom more beautifully after being cut back, hard. As a way of attempting to be more judicious in pruning, I sometimes do it glove-free. Which is dumb, I know. This year, I didn't take off the gloves til the very end, but still got slashed pretty badly. "Got slashed…" as if the canes took action!

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It's been long days at work, but I'm training my replacement, and I think that maybe, just maybe, I might soon be able to actually make some progress in my new job. That makes me very happy.

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I have other things I want to document--how we watched "Rent" and "Devil Wears Prada" recently and I got all weepy over my New York days yet again, jeez, while simultaneously scoffing about how unrealistic the portrayals were of life in NY, double jeez. I also experienced what I'm pretty sure was a menopause moment that involved a trip to the hospital emergency room on New Year's Eve day--I'm fine except for a bad case of the humiliations, so let's just leave it at that, shall we? I'm having car trouble and I'm not happy about it, but at least I'm taking the one taking steps to correct the problems, rather than leaving them to my husband. And today's problems (two new tires and an alignment) meant that I had to drop the car off downtown first thing in the morning and walk through our quaint Main Street and then along a pleasant trail to work, a 45 minute journey. Chilly this morning which meant a stop at the new chocolate shop for a latte to go. The air was fresh, birds were everywhere. I was by myself and had some time for reflection. Not that any earthshattering thoughts occurred to me, but it was wonderful to be alone, outdoors, no computers, listening to trees rustling rather than people talking to me.

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Oh! And! The unthinkable has finally happened. I'm getting a cell phone. For work.