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There's a bunch of little things I meant to write about and forgot. Like having Valentine's dinner with Marie at Z'Tejas, giggling over the waiter, and having one of those non-stop conversations we tend to have. Marie will soon be spending more time at her mom's, and I'll miss spending time with her. As well as be just an eeny bit resentful that I have to share her. Which feeling I'm suppressing womanfully, since if anyone has a right to feel that way it's her mom.
High: Not working today means that I can catch up on some Philosophy homework.
Low: Not working today means that I'll have to play catch up at work tomorrow. Fortunately, my calendar is (purposefully) dedicated to desk-work for the next two days.
Calling the people I had meetings with today to make sure there are no fires to be put out.
I just got a telemarketer call and pretended I was Marie. "Sorry, my parents aren't home right now, can I take a message?" My sister Susan deals with it another way. "Susan's been dead for two years, and thank you so much for bringing up a painful memory." Guffaw!
I can't sing with a stuffed nose.
Just some stuff.
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February 25, 2002
Shirking Guilt Responsibly
I could have gone into work today. I really could have. I have a cold, but so far it's only resulting in a minor sore throat, a bit of a stuffy nose, and muffled ears. A pill and a giant cup of coffee really made me feel quite a bit more normal. But not normal enough to deal with a day at AcronymCo.
Without sounding like I'm trying to justify things to my boss, let me just say that I am a good corporate citizen and responsible employee. I get what needs to be done completed when it needs to get done, and I usually go above and beyond the call of duty.
But not today. Today the call of duty is a teeny, tiny little voice buried at the very bottom of my subconscious. However, that call is quite loud enough to make me feel guilty for not answering it.
You all do of course realize that I'm speaking directly to my guilty conscience, trying to convince it that taking today to rest and make sure I don't come down with a debilitating illness is absolutely necessary. I'm being responsible, right? I'm not spreading my cold around the office, right? Right?
Yeah. Right.
So of course I'll end up doing what I always do when I take a day off from work - work around the house. There's filing to be done and laundry to be folded, meatloaf to be made and Michael's room to be cleaned. I appease my guilty conscience's need for productivity by being productive at home. It seems to work, anyway.
Onward to more interesting things.
Archibael once told me that my entries have gotten a bit less interesting because they're usually just about how great life is with Calvin, how challenging being a step-parent is, complaining about work/school, or being homesick. Well, I hit two of 'em today. Complaining about work...
...and how great life is with Calvin. I raspberry in your general direction, Archibael.
What a fantastic weekend. A weekend of firsts, actually. We entertained our friends Glen and Rachel, and their baby Alexis, on Friday night. Lord have mercy, I just wanted to forgo dinner and eat that baby up. What a bundle of sunshine. Whenever she smiled she seemed surprised at herself, which made her smile harder. When do children lose that sense of "Oh! I've just woken up from a nap and look at how interesting life is!"? Calvin, while being totally in love with Alexis himself, was so with a certain amount of trepidation. Yes, I adored her. Yes, I want one. But not right now, so relax.
We had an excellent dinner (if I may say so myself) of cornish game hens, shrimp scampi, garlic rice pilaf, and salad. It was so nice to hang out with Glen and Rachel (they're the same friends I mentioned in my very second entry). They're excellent and enthusiastic conversationalists, and we gabbed non-stop for hours. Marie and her friend came home (from - wait for it - the mall) at about 10:30 and volunteered to watch the (now sleeping) baby while we grown-ups hung out in the hot tub.
Aww, yeah. Love that thing.
Saturday I had to get up at the very non-weekend hour of 6:30 in order to make it to school by 8:00. My Philosophy teacher is doing his best to make the topic, one I was enthusiastic about learning, completely uninteresting. He has this unique talent of rambling on for *hours* (yes, hours. Four, to be exact) without saying a damn thing. I've begun taking "nugget notes", writing down nuggets of information that he (mistakenly and coincidentally, I'm sure) drops during his diatribes. No school for me tonight (Monday's are the regularly scheduled class times, but due to the shortness of February and the President's Day holiday, I have to go on two Saturdays this semester). I can probably get more done on my own, anyway.
So. I got home at noon, and had some lunch. We had a few hours before we had to go out again, so Calvin and I went on a motorcycle ride up to the college. Really, 75 degrees in February is unique for Arizona (Readers: "Yeah, sure." Laura: "Hush, you, it is too."). The day was beautiful, and we toodled our casual way up and down the side streets of the shopping district before happening upon a hole-in-the-wall beer-and-burger place. We got a pitcher of beer and obtained a couple of seats outside, from which point we could sip and relax and watch the college crowd go by. As usual, we had the best conversation about everything and nothing. I continue to be amazed that I've know this man for this long and there's still no other's company that I prefer. And that's the way it should be.
We hung out there for an hour or more, then judged it was time to get back home. We were to go to Marie's friend's parent's house (got that?) by 6:00. We have Marie's friend over nearly every weekend, so her mom and step-dad wanted to cook dinner for us as repayment. Before leaving, Calvin and I were cranking KC and the Sunshine Band and dancing around with our beers, to get us in the right frame of mind (and, of course! To embarrass Marie). So we were in a right good mood when we arrived at their apartment. Hilda (the mom) is Armenian and a complete crack-up. Calvin was teasing her for her accent most of the night ("Holy sheet!"), and she was giving as good as she got. She has the ability to insult Calvin in Armenian and Persian, which flummoxed him. We met Chris (the step-dad) for the first time, and by the end of the evening he was telling completely inappropriate jokes. I'm guessing they felt comfortable with us, anyway.
I was cracking up so hard at everything that I ended up having an asthma attack. A search of my purse revealed no inhaler (dammit), so we had to leave earlier than we would have (and at that it was still 11:30!) so I could attend to my limp lungs.
Marie spent the night at her friend's, so Calvin and I had the house to ourselves. We got up at 10:30, after re-setting the alarm twice. He read the paper and surfed the 'net while I watched Yentil (first time I'd ever seen it, and I kept yelling, "Come on! You can't tell she's a girl, ferchrissakes??"). Calvin rolled his eyes and groaned whenever Barbara burst out into song. Heh.
We went out for a late lunch (Mexican - fabulous Portabello fajitas, and hooray! I have the leftovers for lunch today!), again securing a patio seat and enjoying the continually beautiful weather. Then, with windows rolled down and a new mix CD blasting away, we wandered up to Old Town Scottsdale. We got movie star parking right away, and went to The Sugar Bowl for some ice cream. This is apparently the place Calvin would stop at after taking care of his paper route when he was a kid. I'd never been there before. It's an old-fashioned style soda shop with the pink-and-white striped wallpaper and wrought-iron tables and chairs. The menu had a brief listing of lunch items, then the rest of it is taken up with monstrous ice cream concoctions. I got a simple cone (black raspberry in a sugar cone), and Calvin got some sort of shake. They line the glass with hot fudge, blend coffee ice cream with marshmallow and chocolate syrup, plunk the thing down in front of you and defy you to consume the whole thing.
He didn't. Though I tried to help. Really, I did.
We moo'ed our way out of there, and walked hand-in-hand along the myriads of shops and stores. If you've never been to Arizona, this is the place for tourist shopping. Much of it is artwork, pottery, jewelry and sculptures that are very elegant and tasteful. But to appeal to the budgeted family, there's plenty of affordable places with the obligatory kokopelli figures, cactus shot glasses, and tourist guides. We bought a "Places To See In Arizona!" book for my sister (yeah, note to self - gotta mail that out today), but managed to break away from the spending traps unscathed. Further along the walkway the path runs into a park, from which we could hear the beat of a jazz/reggae band. We checked them out for a few minutes, then found ourselves a little bar at the edge of the path and sat in the sun, sipping beers. We flipped through the tourist book looking for likely places to drag my sister and her kids, but finally had to flee the completely annoying voice of the patron at the table next to ours. A haggard woman, slurringly insisting to her companions that she "Doesh not drrrink too mush..." Oh boy.
The rest of the day passed quietly. I did a bit of housework and took Kye to the park to throw the ball around. Calvin nodded in front of the Nascar coverage, and Marie holed up in the computer room, IM-ing. Later in the evening, we all went out for a soak in the hot tub. It was a clear night, and the moon was shining so brightly that we could see each other's faces clearly, even without the lights.
Folks, I am in love with my life. It was just one of those soul-satisfying weekends.
I suppose I should drag myself from the computer and get something useful done. But the sun is shining on yet another beautiful day, and I keep getting distracted by it. Maybe throwing all the doors and windows open to it will help. Bring the sunshine in, so I can get something done without going out to it.