Just in a Day...
Is this a guide to keeping sane?
Leave the house at 2:20 pm to hit the grocery store for dinner. Take along some ice packs for the fish and a good book. ("Someone at a Distance" by Dorothy Whipple. She's been called the literary heir to Mrs. Gaskell, and if you've read Gaskell's "Daughters and Wives" you'll know that's a good thing.)
Pick up the best-looking fish you can find. Today it was the rock fish, fresh and gorgeous. Procure some beets because that bottle of lemon balsamic vinegar has been singing to you from it's place by the stove near the olive oil, and you know you'll cook'em up tomorrow. Grab some strawberries too, so your little boy is happy with his lunches.
Pay for all the stuff. Place the fish between the ice packs. Now walk (don't run, because they don't open until 3) to Belmont Station's Biercafe. Enjoy the threatening clouds, the music on the ipod (a mix of Crowded House, Steely Dan and The Flight of The Conchords. Apparently the ipod is feeling sophisticated and lowbrow all at once). Smile at the older gentleman who tends the gardens for Portland Nursery as you pass, even though his back is to you because he's busy working the soil.
Go order some good beer. Beer Chips will accompany such beer, any beer. The first is a glass of some Dogfishhead wonderfulness called Theobroma, which sports chocolate nibs and chiles but reminds me of mead, so there's something to be said for subtlety. Next is a small glass (yeah, really small) of the Flat-Tail barrel-aged Lickspiggot Barleywine. Yum. Read the best parts of the Mercury (the letters, "One Day at a Time", which is the only reason I pick that rag up, and "I, Anonymous", which I have yet to contribute to. One day....)
Walk home in the rain, and pretend it's not raining because, really, you aren't getting soaked, just a wee bit wet. Help someone. Today, a fellow with a loaded up pickup lost part of his load-- some sort of undefinable machine the size of a sander and a bucket with holes punched in all over it. While traffic from Burnside slowed --hey, a big thing that could take out their low end is in the road-- a woman coming from Stark didn't want to wait for me to move the bucket and nearly took her rims out on the curb 'going around'. I grabbed both and ran across the street so the owner could retrieve them. "I've never had this happen before," he said, and I believe him. Pickup Guy and I did have a laugh that the woman who couldn't wait for me to move the stuff out of the road was now sitting at the red light anyway.
Get home well before the kid. It doesn't always work like this, but Ang said he'd be a little late dropping Kiddo off. They were still at the playground because everyone had to use the bathroom. Well, now, that works in my favor now, doesn't it?
Type on your blog. Yep, these little occurrences are fun for you. You aren't sure if they're fun for anyone else, but you don't care. It's a reminder that sometimes, some things go right.
Just as you thought they should.
ps-- and this magical spell was broken about 2 minutes after Kiddo came home. So, pro'lly good I'd had a beer beforehand!
Leave the house at 2:20 pm to hit the grocery store for dinner. Take along some ice packs for the fish and a good book. ("Someone at a Distance" by Dorothy Whipple. She's been called the literary heir to Mrs. Gaskell, and if you've read Gaskell's "Daughters and Wives" you'll know that's a good thing.)
Pick up the best-looking fish you can find. Today it was the rock fish, fresh and gorgeous. Procure some beets because that bottle of lemon balsamic vinegar has been singing to you from it's place by the stove near the olive oil, and you know you'll cook'em up tomorrow. Grab some strawberries too, so your little boy is happy with his lunches.
Pay for all the stuff. Place the fish between the ice packs. Now walk (don't run, because they don't open until 3) to Belmont Station's Biercafe. Enjoy the threatening clouds, the music on the ipod (a mix of Crowded House, Steely Dan and The Flight of The Conchords. Apparently the ipod is feeling sophisticated and lowbrow all at once). Smile at the older gentleman who tends the gardens for Portland Nursery as you pass, even though his back is to you because he's busy working the soil.
Go order some good beer. Beer Chips will accompany such beer, any beer. The first is a glass of some Dogfishhead wonderfulness called Theobroma, which sports chocolate nibs and chiles but reminds me of mead, so there's something to be said for subtlety. Next is a small glass (yeah, really small) of the Flat-Tail barrel-aged Lickspiggot Barleywine. Yum. Read the best parts of the Mercury (the letters, "One Day at a Time", which is the only reason I pick that rag up, and "I, Anonymous", which I have yet to contribute to. One day....)
Walk home in the rain, and pretend it's not raining because, really, you aren't getting soaked, just a wee bit wet. Help someone. Today, a fellow with a loaded up pickup lost part of his load-- some sort of undefinable machine the size of a sander and a bucket with holes punched in all over it. While traffic from Burnside slowed --hey, a big thing that could take out their low end is in the road-- a woman coming from Stark didn't want to wait for me to move the bucket and nearly took her rims out on the curb 'going around'. I grabbed both and ran across the street so the owner could retrieve them. "I've never had this happen before," he said, and I believe him. Pickup Guy and I did have a laugh that the woman who couldn't wait for me to move the stuff out of the road was now sitting at the red light anyway.
Get home well before the kid. It doesn't always work like this, but Ang said he'd be a little late dropping Kiddo off. They were still at the playground because everyone had to use the bathroom. Well, now, that works in my favor now, doesn't it?
Type on your blog. Yep, these little occurrences are fun for you. You aren't sure if they're fun for anyone else, but you don't care. It's a reminder that sometimes, some things go right.
Just as you thought they should.
ps-- and this magical spell was broken about 2 minutes after Kiddo came home. So, pro'lly good I'd had a beer beforehand!
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