Death comes for us all.

I did have pretty good intentions, but it turns out that, at least for the time being, I have pretty much no inclination to write anything here. It very soon began to feel more like a chore than an interesting thing to do, and though I am driven by some nonsensical internal force to pen (metaphorically speaking) this post, I am hard pressed to believe that any of the zero readers of this blog will be terribly upset by its indefinite period of hibernation. So that's a relief. Rest well.

Did I mention a sieve?

Last night? I have no idea. None at all. Something about sleeping.

I have such a bad memory. Maybe I should get one of those memory video things from the Niven short story.. I can't remember the title, but it records everything you see.

Tonight, though, I went to see the new HP with Kelly, Jr, David, Maggie. It was really good. And then we (minus Kelly) went to try to get ice cream, but found the store closed, and then I came home, mucked about online, and now I will walk Miley and do some laundry if I remember, and hit the sack. Projected bedtime: about 1:30 am.


I hugged David goodnight before we all left the parking lot of the closed ice cream store. It was a really good hug. There's still a part of my mind, especially when I see him, in which we are together. In which the natural thing to do is to stand close beside him and slip my arm around his side and lean against him.

Last night I turned off the computer at 10 pm--something I have been meaning to try for a while. I was pretty proud of myself, but then I watched two hours of tv (only two shows though!) with my mom. It happens. TV is what counts as bonding time when we're in the house, so I decided it was alright. Plus, I like Burn Notice and White Collar. Whatever. They ended at midnight, and I helped my dad, walked Miley, wrote in my notebook (as the computer was blessedly powerless), and went to bed. Estimated bedtime, 1:30 am.

Birthdays are special, ok?

Okay so last night, our family went to dinner for my mom's birthday. This was rather tasty. When we came home, her friend Mary came over to wish her a happy birthday, deliver a gift and card, and eat some delicious orange cake. The cake was indeed delicious; however, it was also so acidic that after one slice I couldn't even entertain thoughts of a second, and my mouth, lips, and throat were slightly burned. I realize that this sounds extremely intense, so maybe I should point out that this is the same reaction that I have when I eat more than a few bites of fresh pineapple. So if you're cool with pineapple, you're probably cool with the orange cake. And man, is it delicious. So delicious.


I guess I messed around online for a while after that, and talked to Chloe on skype for a while (the motivation behind this being an opportunity to show her the cake via webcam), and then finally remembered around 1 am that I needed to walk Miley. I think I turned off the light around 2.

Like a sieve.

Right now, I honestly have no idea what I did last night. Can't remember at all. Tonight though, I've spent the evening constructing an orange cake (recipe in The Joy of Cooking, 1970-something edition) for my mom's birthday. The cake seems to have come out well, but I'm not sure I can say the same for the orange creme filling. I'll see what I can do for it in the morning. The recipe also calls for "luscious orange icing," but this is a boiled icing recipe (similar to a meringue, and similarly finicky), and I'm not sure whether I'm up to the challenge. Also, it's raining, which isn't exactly the right environment in which to make anything that requires egg whites to be beaten until they're stiff. So I might make the "quick orange icing" instead. Quick sounds good.


My time in-between mixing and baking and writing this has been spent watching Glee and Raising Hope, clearing some of the wreckage from the kitchen, and Christmas shopping for my father. Now I have to walk Miley and then see if I can convince myself not to put off showering until the morning, when I'll be mad at myself for not having taken one tonight. Projected bedtime: 2 am.

Not the greatest excuse.

I was talking to Sara on gchat (and silent skype for a while as well, since Brian was conducting an audible skype interview on the other computer at the time) for ages last night, and when she finally went to bed (rather ridiculously late, her time) I discovered that my mom was watching a Madea movie on tv, and that I sort of like Madea. (I had never seen any of the movies.) Luckily (ha) for me, TBS or whatever it was always shows "encore performances" of the movie they've just shown, so I got to watch the whole thing through again until it ended after, I think, 1 am. See? You see? That's why I try to avoid television. Television makes my already-anemic self control go jump out a third story window. And then I walked Miley, and then I went to bed. Around 2 I guess. I really don't remember.

After my great-uncle's funeral and the gathering (reminiscent of a wake) at his wife's home, I came home and walked Miley, and then went to my aunt's and walked Augie, and then sat on the couch sipping Kahlua on the rocks and drawing depressingly uninspired pictures in my notebook with colored pencils and then paging through her coffee table book of garden retreats. That was inspiring, as was the other coffee table book about home offices. Not that I find home offices inspiring, but the book was beautifully photographed and filled (front-loaded, honestly, as was the garden book) with inventive ideas for storage and repurposing and decorating and such. So that I found inspiring. The Mountain Stage was playing in the background, and at midnight The Electric Crowd came on. I usually enjoy that show on the rare occasions that I hear it, but last night it was wasn't doing it for me, so I went to bed shortly thereafter. 12:30, maybe.

Such a good excuse.

So, Friday afternoon, my dad called me an innocently asked, "are you coming to the premier tonight with me and mom?"

What?

Evidently my classmate's older sister, Scottie Thompson, is starring in Skyline. I'm not generally a big sci-fi thriller fan, but I am a Thompson fan, so we all went. Luckily for me, my classmate/Scottie's sister was there, so I did have someone I sort of knew to talk to for a bit. Later some of her friends, who I didn't know, showed up, but this happened around the same time that I got to talking with a teacher from middle school, so I didn't even have to go be shy. I would have liked to meet them, but having a solid excuse (conversation in progress, also had trouble locating their table in the crowd) was a little bit of a relief.

We got home around 10:30 and I immediately lost my purse (forgot that I had taken it off and left it on the floor of the car, where it blended in rather well) and spent about thirty minutes wandering around the house looking for it before going to take care of Augie. By the way, I'm house sitting again, this time for one of my many aunts. I took Augie for a walk/run around the development and then sat on the sofa drinking Kahlua on the rocks and listening to NPR and writing and reading some magazine about living in California.

Amazingly, her sofa bed is beautifully comfortable. This may have something to do with the memory foam mattress pad and the feather pillows and down comforter. Just a hunch. I am tempted to try to move in. Anyway, I was in bed by 12:30-1 am.

I am having a hard time remembering what I did two nights ago, but I don't think I was up extremely late. Last night I watched Sherlock and did some cleaning up in the basement and removed some old books from my room/worked to make my end-of-the-bed bookcase more reasonable, and read a little bit. Bedtime: around 1 or 1:10. I Think I should start shooting for midnight instead of 1.

I have no regrets.

I planned to go home just long enough to eat dinner, say hi, get some family time in, walk the dog, and then leave. I really couldn't stand just sitting there and watching TCM though, and I was determined not to screw around online, and I'm not really reading anything at the moment, so I decided to get going on a project I've been planning for a long time now: make space on my dad's beside-the-bed bookcase for his wheelchair charger. As it has been, the charger has been by the door, demanding that the wheelchair has to be parked at the end of the bed at night and thus blocking my mom's route out of the room. Now, not only have I moved the charger, but I have also replaced the terrible little chair that was holding my dad's room phone and alarm clock and stack of "nighttime reading" books with an old piano bench that's been sitting around and getting in the way for years. And we went through every shelf of the eight-foot-high bookcase and got rid of at least sixty books. It's okay, you can say it. I am a beast.

Needless to say, this all really cut into my planned bath time. But I have decided this: screw it. I am taking my bubble bath with my book and I am sleeping in as late as I want, and then I am walking the dog and then going to work. I have earned it.


Edit:
Bedtime: 3:30 am

I was actually being relatively good at first.

The day flew by, honestly. After church I went to Kelly and Maggie's to play Little Big Planet, shortly thereafter Kelly and I met the mentoring crew for bowling, and then Kelly, Jr, David and I all had dinner at Denny's. The food was not awesome, but it was nice to hang out. Thanks to daylight savings, it felt much later than 8pm when we left. I hung out "housesitting" for a while, went home to walk Miley, came back here and it was already just about midnight.

The point is, I was in bed by 1! Unfortunately, a few minutes later I realized that I only had a few hours left to get these discount awesomeness vouchers that I want to give to my mom and sister. I got up and made sure i had enough money and bought them, but then it was nearly two. Bedtime--roughly 2am I guess. I don't remember checking my phone right before I went back to bed.

Last night I came to feed the dog and cat, and ended up talking to Sara on gchat for ages, ages. Nearly four hours. I am hoping it will come to have been a productive conversation. At home my parents were watching some terrible-looking show when I got there around 10, so I put on Harry Potter (#1) while I had dinner, not planning to watch much of it. Usually I wander off when movies are on at home, whether I put them on or not. I watched through Harry's intro to quiddich with Oliver(?) Wood, then walked Miley, then came home and packed some stuff/played dress up (this seems to be a recurring habit lately) before coming back over to Sara's parents' house to go to bed. Bed time: about 1:30 am.

Well,

But my mom and I built a fire and watched Order of the Phoenix and ate too much ice cream, and I walked the dog and viewed Victoria and Jesse's engagement photos (the few that are up are really wonderful), and talked to Lindsey about life and a mutual friend/acquaintance. Then, I must admit, I just sort of sat around for a while. Bedtime: 2:15 am.

I wasn't actually really planning to sleep early tonight

Because I am house/pet sitting, and knew that I'd have to walk Miley at home before coming back here to chill with the kitty and dog-dog. (Those are given nicknames--I am not making up baby talk for a blog.) Still, instead of going to sleep in the middle of the night like a normal person, I have been sitting in the living room lamenting my empty bar glass of Baileys on the rocks, listening to http://www.grooveshark.com/, and reading comments on the latest entry at http://www.misplacedmama.blogsome.com/. If you have strong opinions about homeschooling, you might be interested in heading over there. Then again, you might be interested in staying away. She and her husband homeschool their two daughters. Projected bedtime: 1:30-1:45. I hope.

Was very vaguely shooting for 11

Because Sherlock was to come on at 9 pm. But then there were so many interesting things to do online, and Anna texted and said that she was on my side of town visiting her grandmother. She stopped by around 11:15, and we made tea and took it for a walk in the rain, and talked about dancing and friends and acquaintances and life and Halloween costumes and teaching ESL in Costa Rica. (I am always trying to convince her.) She left at maybe 12:40, and then I got on here because, like I said, there are so many interesting things to do on the internet. I am getting the hell off the computer now. Projected bedtime: 1:45

I was going to sleep early, but...

I went back to work and painted for an hour or so instead, listening to Julie Andrews recount the tale of her childhood. And then I walked the dog. And then I stared into space for a while. Bed time: 1:30-2 am.