Reality

Last night, I drove back to Boston after a weekend of couch-lounging, storage box sorting, and general slackerdom.

I dropped her off, and then headed back to Cleveland Circle in Brookline to grab a dinner burrito at Boloco. (because I don't eat there enough during my workweek already). Munched it down, gave Erich a call on my cell, checked my messages (one from from Friday... *sigh* no, I'm horrid with my cell phone), texted her back, cranked my "dance mix" on my iPod, and started to head home.

By taking a right back onto Chestnut Hill Ave, and then a right onto Comm Ave.

No idea why - but that just felt like the right way. Okay. I recognize those weird little "don't know why..." thoughts, and entertained them.

Windows down, music thumping, I drove my way down Comm Ave - swinging by the old apartment on Egremont. Then I continued back down Comm Ave., passing by Hamilton House Hell - now private apartments instead of a BU dorm. Through campus- where life was VERY active with the students who had just returned this weekend. Then by Warren Towers, where I spent two odd dorm years. Through Kenmore Square, which looks nothing like it did when I was a student. Down through the back swing of the Fenway, to St. Botolph Street, to the dead end street, and I stopped...

Got out of the car, and looked up at The Beast for just a bit.

The lights weren't on, but there are colorful drapes in the windows. And there was a cat, resembling how Colley would sprawl, enjoying the beautiful evening weather in the kitchenette window.

And that's where I lost it. Really, honest to god lost it. I sat on the wall where I'd brought Colley so many times to explore outside, and released them.

Holy crap, I'm getting married. Three weeks from today, I will be married, starting a new life (which isn't much different than my current life, yet I know it'll be entirely different). The crying, the depression, the loneliness, the thoughts of ending everything in that one room apartment - all in the past. So far in the past, so foreign.

If you'd asked me seven, eight, nine years ago that I'd have sat there last night, staring up at that three-windowed apartment with a little fear, a little melancholy, a little pride, and then a really fucking huge smile, I'd have laughed insanely at you and told you off. I was the one who would never find someone. I was doomed to be a miserable nerd loner for the rest of my life.

It's a bit overwhelming, honestly.

O. M. F. G.

I am getting married exactly one month from today.


(wherethehelldidthistwoyearsandninemonthengagementgo?!?)


*squeeks*



*panics*



*hides under comforter*

Of Stitching and Sorority

I'm back at work today. Still coughing, although my lungs seem to be settling down off the morning hard stuff, and I should be okay until late this evening when fatigue will kick them off again. Bleh. But we have a box of Lemon Zinger tea at work, and it will be my friend for the day so I don't try to drink carbonated soda.

It was an odd weekend. Odd because while still being sick, I was perfectly well enough to have people over. And so I did. Masquedbunny, Whishastar and Myownwench came down on Saturday noonish for the day. My somewhat-but-not-really local cross stitch store, With Heart and Soul, was getting out of the stitching business with a massive 50% off sale of EVERYTHING in stock, and since the three of them also craft, it was the perfect opportunity to go grab stuff.

And I did - all of those patterns I've been eyeballing for years, I bought. Don't know if I'll get to them, but hell - they're all 50% off, so I got almost all of the patterns for about $2-5 each. Can't beat that. AND a good chunk of them were the out of print Teresa Wentzler patterns that are impossible to find (the seasonal fairies and the fruit quartet, fellow stitchers?). With Erich's kind help via credit card, I dropped what WOULD have been $260, whacked down to $130.

Boo. Ya.

Anyway, I can't blame the shop owners one bit. Apparently the town of Cumberland has a yearly inventory tax - so basically any of these patterns that sit on the shelves get taxed EVERY YEAR. So much that the owner point blank said - at this point, I can't make back any of the money on them. We're just recouping whatever we can for the least loss possible. So yeah, I can't blame them at all. Shame they're closing. Wish they'd had some more practical hours, though... 10-5 weekdays and 10-6 on Saturdays just isn't realistic for your average adult woman stitcher these days. We work full time, folks. We're not stay-at-home wives. In fact, most of us aren't. *sigh*

But anyway... we went shopping. And then we came back to my place, where we spent the day doing crafty things, talking about life, the sorority we all belong to (these stitch 'n bitches have been the closest thing we have to official meetings after all), and just hung out. Erich kept the drinks rolling for us, cooked food, etc. He was awesome.

The girls left around midnight, and I went on to another one of my semi-sleepless nights due to cough. Whee.

On Sunday, we spent the day doing some small tidy projects around the house. Erich was daring and jumped in to take care of the worst of my office - it's actually CLEAN now! I just need to go through the boxes to put stuff on shelves, sort through stuff for our yard sale/toss out, etc.

Since I was still coughing quite a bit, I forced myself to do small stuff that would keep me mostly on the couch. Any time I started doing stairs, I started coughing. So I caught up on all of the dishes and got the kitchen somewhat scrubbed up (still need to do those scary floors), gathered laundry up (Erich had to do it, though... due to the aforementioned stairs), and then settled on the couch. I took advantage of the forced couch time to sort through my stitching stuff - both the new stuff that was bought on Saturday and everything else that had been bought but not stored.

So I spent about, I kid you not, six hours winding bobbins of overdyed thread & labelling them. I removed all of the patterns that were in plastic bags from said bags and stapled or paperclipped as needed, and put them all in a magazine rack. They can't stay in the plastic - we have cats who think plastic is a food group. They will literally EAT any plastic bag that comes into the house. So yeah... *sigh* And I had a lot to do, because while I've bought stuff over the past year I haven't really done much of my own stitching - I got too involved in round robin stitching last year to concentrate on my own. So it was good to get a sense of some of what I have. The rest will come as I get my office together. And then post wedding, I'll REALLY get back into my stitching - because I'll be too broke to do much else!

It was tedious, but it kept me sitting still and resting my lungs, which is what I needed to do, but I got stuff done, and that's good. I think I watched the entire season of Ice Road on Discovery, too. Those guys? They are crazy. Driving semis over frozen lakes in Canada in the winter? I realize it's the only practical way to get stuff to those mines... but damn.

So all in all, it was a productive weekend, a fun weekend, and still an annoying weekend because of my cough.

Should be an interesting week, too. ;)

Answers to the Thursday Thirteen... :)

Still home sick today - my cough has escalated a bit, so I'm REALLY not moving much today.

Thankfully, SciFi is doing a Series One Doctor Who marathon until two. So that'll keep me occupied. Good thing - I can't go near my supermarket because right next door they're doing American Idol tryouts.

No. Really.

*sigh*

My little treat to myself (and my 'puter) came yesterday... I haven't hooked it up yet, but I seriously can't wait. And yes, it's complete, utterly dorky. But practical - my iPod won't be plugged into my 'puter via a cord near the floor anymore where the cats will think it's a dangle toy. It can safely sit on my desk.

I am a geek. A seriously sad geek.

But it lights up and makes sound and everything!!! :)



*ahem*

Anyway, here are the answers to the Thursday Thirteen. Laughing Muse? I'm very impressed. :)

1) Contact
2) Princess Bride
3) Young Frankenstein
4) Firefly/Serenity
5) Star Wars
6) Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
7) Field of Dreams
8) Casanova
9) A Christmas Story
10) Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl
11) The Goonies
12) Ghostbusters
13) Logan’s Run

:)
- Mel.

Preventative Sick Day

So... on Day Three of the unexplained cough from nowhere, I decided to stay home to tend to this thing. It kept me up for the better half of the night. Lots of tossing and turning. Bleh.

The thing is, I have a long and annoying history with bronchitis that lasts for months. Not weeks... months. My dad used to drug me up on codeine to try to calm the cough, and THAT wouldn't do it. So when I start getting a random cough that's predominantly dry and hacking, I start getting a bit paranoid. Especially when I'm in the very plausible "I could still be dealing with this late September" range.

I'm not a hypochondriac by any means - except when it comes to bronchitis. I've had enough days of lying on the couch winded with bruised lungs from pain in the past, thanks. I'll be overly cautious here. The kicker is that other than feeling drained from all the coughing, I feel okay. My sinuses are clear. I've had a couple small bouts of fever here and there, I think. But I just SOUND bad. Bad enough that I was getting some annoyed "god, stay home if you have the plague" looks on the train last night.

*sigh* So yeah, preventative sick day.

So after sleeping an extra hour this morning, I came back downstairs to my still delightfully warm cup of hot coffee, and flipped on the TV. Ooh... X-Files. Sick day with X-Files on SciFi. I can do this. Oh, but it's the damn Chupa-thingy episode. *sigh* Why is it always the crappy episodes that show on sick days?

Dammit.

Still, it's being filtered with a ton of ads for Doctor Who tomorrow night. At least I know the show's actually being advertised now. ;)

In any case, while I will be resting, I'll make the day somewhat productive too. The key is to do stuff that won't require me to be physically active, because that's when I really start to cough. So it's a day where I find things that can be done sitting down. I have a ton of various paper to get through & shred (old bills, etc.) that can be done easily while I stay relatively still. And since Victory over Japan Day on Monday has delayed our trash pickup until tomorrow, I can get it into recycling immediately.

I'm going to push to finish something for the Anywhere but Cardiff ficathon so I can send it to beta. Anyone available for some draft reading this weekend if I get it to you? I figure if I at least get the first portion of it posted for the ficathon, I'll be happy. But I am really going to push to finish it so it doesn't become another floating unfinished WiP.

Soniced_Up sent me Chapter 3 of her fic to beta. I'll most likely work on that today so I can turn it right back around. by the weekend. She has an interesting idea going for her ficathon piece, IMHO. I'm interested to see where it's going.

---

Thanks to everyone who replied to me about my wedding ranting yesterday (mostly over on LJ). I do appreciate it, and I'm relieved to hear that while I may be a bit whiney and crabby about all of this, I'm not being a bridezilla. I haven't replied to everyone basically because I got busy yesterday, and then last night was just drained due to this cough. But I do need to get back to people's comments all over the place now.

Erich has been doing an awesome job of tracking down our missing RSVPs. He's whittled the list down by about half already. As of last count, I think he said we have about 20 more people to track down for answers. Which is awesome, because between the two of us we have about a half-dozen people who have become bigger parts of our lives since the original invite list was put together, and we want to have the room to invite them. AND... my aunt asked yesterday if my cousin can bring her boyfriend (which I said I'd get back to her on, depending on what the headcount is).

Now I just need my parents to return my calls so we can get the transportation issues solved - and in my dad's case, hear from him on my proposed father-daughter song so I can get the list to the DJ and strike THAT off my list.

I may whine about this wedding planning, but I am still plodding along. Slowly but surely.

Today, just a bit slower than other days. :P