Average Jane

Category: Daily Life

  • Average Jane Stinks

    I woke up kind of late this morning after a night of tossing and turning. I didn't have much time to get ready, so I threw on some clothes, combed my hair, put on makeup and quickly packed a lunch. The whole time, I kept getting whiffs of an unpleasant smell, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

    I spritzed myself with a little Fresh Sugar Lemon perfume before I walked out the door, hoping that it would take care of whatever funk was lingering around me.

    When I got to work, the odor remained. My mind raced over the possibilities. Did I drool disgustingly into my own hair while I was sleeping? No, my hair smelled fine. I checked. Several times. Was it my shirt? No. My jeans? No. 

    I sniffed my hands for the zillionth time and swore I caught a tinge of the nasty smell, but I'd washed my hands repeatedly and they were thoroughly clean.

    All day long I worried about the weird olfactory signature, hoping that I was the only person who noticed it.

    Finally I happened to look down at a bug bite on my forearm. I remembered that I had gotten up in the middle of the night and applied some cheap, store brand anti-itch gel there. A tentative sniff confirmed that the medication was the source of the stench.

    I immediately went and thoroughly washed off all of the gel with soap and water, not even caring if the itching returned. That's all it took. The smell was gone.

    So now I guess I'll throw away the rest of the medicine. Admittedly, it's probably several years old, although it's almost full. It's kind of too bad because it worked really well…but not so well that I can overlook its unpleasant side effect.

  • Average Jane vs. the Triffids

    I generally take a day every spring to tidy up the yard and cut down the volunteer trees that spring up all over the place. This year I skipped one side of the house and never got back to it. Then we had an uncharacteristically rainy summer and pretty soon this happened:
    IMGP1260
    So I finally made myself go out this morning before it got too hot. I made sure to wear long pants, boots and long sleeves to protect myself from all variables. Armed with loppers and a hand saw, I tackled the unruly vegetation and triumphed:
    IMGP1266
    The largest tree in the pile is a locust that had managed to reach a trunk diameter of more than two inches. Special locust tree bonus: lots of sharp thorns.
    IMGP1263
    The final result:
    IMGP1267
    One of these days I should actually do something with that flower bed. The ratty tiger lily remnants are not a good look.

    Now I'd like to introduce you to the bumper crop of poison ivy that's been flourishing near my front door:
    IMGP1259
    I've been trying to kill this particular plant for years, and every time I come near it I end up getting a miserable case of poison ivy. This year I didn't mess around with trying to cut it down, I just bought some special poison and drenched every leaf I could find.

    I also poisoned the stumps of the trees I cut down on the side of the house. We'll see how that goes.

    I dragged the pile of limbs to the back fence and added it to the brush pile in the woods that I'll someday have to pay someone to haul away. I finished up by hosing down the central air conditioner unit to remove all of the cottonwood fluff and grass clippings that had gotten plastered against the condenser fins. The End.

    Now all I have left on today's agenda is work out, tidy the kitchen and record some vocal tracks. Ahhh.

    And in case the title of this post doesn't make sense to you.

  • Average Jane Resumes Her Regular Life

    Now that all of the post-BlogHer excitement and exhaustion have worn off (it took a lot of sleeping!), I'm pretty much back to my regular schedule. Only moreso.

    Remember when I was managing to get my over-scheduled life under control? Well, you know what they say about nature abhorring a vacuum.

    Here are some of the many activities that consume each week:
    • Workouts. A mere eight months after I first declared that I was going to re-join our community center this weekend, dammit, I actually dragged myself over and did it. My goal is to go in at least three times a week, which is more challenging than you'd think. The challenge increases when you take into account that I'm trying to go with my husband as often as possible. I've also been vowing to go back to the yoga classes held at my office on Monday and Wednesday at lunchtime. We'll see if my work schedule makes that possible.
    • Bands. Yes, bands plural. I'm still plugging away with the party band I mentioned a few posts back. I'm still not sure if it's going to work out, but it certainly doesn't kill me to learn a few songs per week. I'm also in the process of forming a hard rock cover band with my husband and a guitarist who answered one of our Craiglist ads from a while back. We're going to try to record a song on Sunday and see how that goes. Being in two bands at once isn't as insane as it sounds. The odds are extremely remote that both of them will last long enough to put me in a position where I have conflicting gigs.
    • Volunteering. Sad to say, but this is where most of my cutbacks have remained. However, I'm still co-chairing or on several Soroptimist Club committees and I have a soft spot for the low-cost spay and neuter clinic. 
    • Spending time at home. I don't even want to think about how long it's been since I last read a book. We're not even going to discuss the state of my flower beds and the other non-lawn areas of the yard. Or maybe we are…it's gotten so ridiculous on one side of the house that I think a before-and-after photo montage is called for, if and when I finally get around to chopping down the volunteer locust trees there.
    • Spending time with the kitties. When I am home, this is pretty much all I do. Yesterday we had claw-clippings all around with a consolation prize of catnip sprinkled directly on the rug. When I woke up this morning, the cats had littered the kitchen floor with two spatulas, an empty Rubbermaid container, a steak knife, and a very bruised peach. Must have been one heck of a party.
    • Attempting to maintain a social life. Betizuka was thoughtful enough to DM me on Twitter this week and schedule a lunch because she hadn't seen me since we got back from St. Louis. I have a lot of people I'd like to catch up if I can find the time. Lunches are good. Except on Monday and Wednesday (see "yoga class, vow to attend," above). 
    • Writing blog posts. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Heck, I'm so busy I'm hardly even on Twitter these days.

    So now you can see why I'm not posting very much and just how boring those posts would probably be if I did write them. I do miss the writing practice, though, and I have a few half-completed draft posts that I'd like to resurrect and finish sometime soon. Perhaps after tonight's committee meeting and band practice…

  • Average Jane Gets Sick

    Just when I need to be getting ready for BlogHer, I've managed to come down with something. My mad WebMD research skillz suggest that it's e-coli food poisoning, which makes sense considering some of the stuff I've had to eat this week.

    I left work around 2 p.m. yesterday because I felt generally awful. As soon as I got home, I went to bed and slept until after 5. Eventually I dug up a thermometer and confirmed that I had a 100.5 degree fever. That explained why I was simultaneously freezing and hot.

    I stayed up for a few hours watching the week's episodes of The Daily Show with a limited amount of attention. My husband went to the grocery store and got me some chicken soup, fruit punch flavored PowerAde and Jell-o cups. I'd asked for cherry Jell-o and he brought strawberry. Meh. I guess they both end in -erry.

    I went to bed for the night at 9:30 p.m. and woke up every few hours, finally getting up at 10:30 a.m. this morning. I feel better than I did yesterday, but I went ahead and canceled all of my weekend plans. No parties for this girl tonight. 🙁

    The weather has been so beautiful lately that I may spend part of the day lying in our hammock, as long as I'll be lying around anyway.

    I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can bounce back quickly and be energetic and well by the time I leave for Chicago on Wednesday. Wish me luck.

  • Average Jane Needs To Blog More Often

    I am getting to be such a bad blogger that I'm almost tempted to start shunting my Google Reader shared items into a post every few days, just to have something interesting posted. (Pet capybara!)

    Barring that, here's a quick update on a few things.

    On the music front, I've gotten together a couple of times with the band I mentioned earlier. The music the band leader has in mind is basically anything fun and danceable, which I think is a good goal even though it's very different from all the other bands I've ever been in. I'm not sure everyone else in the band is 100% behind him on the music selections, but we'll see how that shakes out.

    My other concern is that they seem to be intent on learning songs at practice as opposed to learning them at home and just working out the finer details together. I'm not used to that and it strikes me as a waste of time, but I'm trying not to be too judgmental. I won't be getting together with them again until after BlogHer, so more updates then.

    Speaking of the conference, I have done very little to prepare so far aside from RSVPing to parties and impulse-buying a Poken. Over the weekend I need to make some cards and give some thought as to what I'm going to wear. All of my t-shirts have shrunk in the wash, ahem, since last year, so I might need to do some last-minute clothes shopping.

    Other than that I've been working a lot, hanging out with friends as often as possible, cooking at home when I can, and basically attempting to stretch my life outside the boundaries of my computer screen.

    Tonight I'm going to see the new Harry Potter movie and I'm very excited about that. Not excited enough to have gone at midnight on Tuesday, but that's just because I know my limits.

    What are you doing to finish out the week? Anything fun planned this weekend?

  • Average Jane Has Plenty of Vegetables

    I'm now nine weeks into my CSA share that provides seasonal organic vegetables every week. This week I got summer squash, tomatoes, green beans, a cucumber, carrots, lettuce, fresh garlic and a huge bunch of basil.

    Naturally, my goal is to eat everything I receive. I fell down a bit on that with some of the greens we got early in the spring because I have absolutely no cooking or eating history that involves chard, kale, etc.

    My husband and I have resorted to a lot of convenience foods over the past decade or so, and it's been a challenge to plan thoughtfully enough to include lots of vegetables instead of just resorting to a meal of sloppy joes with some potato chips and pickles are a vegetable, right?

    Last weekend I made a batch of borscht that came out great. Unfortunately, my husband was too beet-phobic to even try it.

    We've been having a lot of green salads with our meals, which happened often when I was growing up except that we always had iceberg lettuce back then. Today I'm making pesto out of this week's basil, some salsa and probably a green bean salad. Not sure if the salad will accompany me to a potluck or just be a side dish with some kind of grilled meat.

    Earlier in the season I purchased some extra strawberries and made a
    batch of jam for the first time since I was a teenager. I'm hoping to
    be able to get my hands on enough small cucumbers to be able to make
    pickles later on.

    I'm really enjoying the fresh vegetables and herbs. I'd been buying grocery store varieties for so long that I'd forgotten how flavorful vegetables are supposed to be. It's also nice to know what's in season so that I can go to the farmers' market on weekends and supplement my share, if needed.

  • Average Jane Has Another Birthday

    As of today, I have a year in which my age corresponds to the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything.

    Because I like to stretch out my birthday celebrations as long as possible, I have already enjoyed a lovely lunch at a Japanese steakhouse and a delicious dinner at a friend's house, complete with angel food cake and strawberries (not to mention the chance to see a litter of adorable newborn kittens).

    Today I'm going to work (I took my birthday vacation day yesterday to extend the long weekend), but I'll be meeting friends for lunch at Manny's on Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City at 11:30 (feel free to join us!) and after work I'm going to a 6-course Schlafly beer tasting dinner.

    Notice the pattern of food-oriented celebrations? Yeah, there'll be another one at my sister's house on Friday night. I believe there was mention of an ice cream cake.

    So other than making me gain another 10 pounds, this additional birthday really doesn't change anything for me. I always figure that I'd far rather continue celebrating birthdays than experience the alternative!

  • Average Jane Starts Her 4-Day Weekend

    Never let it be said that I don't know how to enjoy some time off from work. Okay, I did work a little bit today, but when you work in social media you can't ever completely walk away.

    This morning I met a buddy for coffee, ran some errands, and surfed the 'net until my sister posted on Facebook that she didn't have anything planned for the day.

    After a quick phone call, we decided I'd go to her house with some of my copious vegetable supply to contribute to a batch of chicken noodle soup.

    We hung out from late morning to early afternoon and then I went home to spend some time with the hubby. Our thought was that we'd go to the movies, but unfortunately everyone else in town had the same idea. (Did I mention that it rained almost all day?)

    So we got some groceries, went home and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers while I steamed a couple of ears of corn.

    Xenavelcrojuly3
    After dinner, Xena and Velcro helped me catch up on my TV shows.

    Tomorrow I'm going to lounge around the house all day until it's time to hit a couple of Fourth of July parties.

    On Sunday I have an audition with the band I mentioned the other day. I talked to the guy and it turned out to be someone I've met before. Even better, he'd been thinking of me for his new band project but didn't know how to get in touch with me. Woohoo! So that should be fun.

    I have Monday off, too, because I'm taking my birthday free day early to extend the weekend.

    Hope you have a fabulous 4th. (If you're not in the U.S., I hope you have a fabulous Saturday.) Later, folks!

  • Average Jane Gets Her Wish

    I've written several times about how overwhelmed I've been with all of my extracurricular activities. Between work, volunteer work, my band, and social invitations, sometimes I'd have weeks at a time where I was only home to sleep.

    I've been making a concerted effort to tone things down and it's finally starting to pay off. As of mid-June, I'm no longer on any not-for-profit boards. Band practice isn't currently an issue since my band broke up (although I am trying to find or put together another band soon). I've cut back on volunteer projects, and I'm learning to dole out my time in increments that aren't so wearing on me.

    One of the things I try hardest to do with my schedule is spend as much time with my husband as I can. We're both busy people, but I want us to be able to hang out together when our free time coincides. He's always reminding me that he won't be around forever and that probability was emphasized to me this week by the sudden deaths of two celebrities who were younger than he is.

    So now I have more time to do stuff with the hubby, cook at home, play with the kitties, watch the stuff we've diligently programmed into the DVR, and just relax a bit. Case in point: I've managed to get in three games of Battlestar Galactica with friends in about a month.

    It's hard to break the habit of filling every empty spot in my calendar, but I'm doing my best to rein in the impulse. This afternoon, in fact, I plan on using some of my copious spare time to take a long nap right after lunch.

    Ahhhh…

  • Average Jane Starts Another Home Improvement Project

    I know I said I was finished with spending money on remodeling projects for this year. We got our lovely TV room. I finally painted the half-bath adjoining that room just this Monday night. That should be enough, right? However, this one is different.

    Thanks to current economic conditions, my husband's recording studio business has been sloowww this year. He had a great idea for a demo package he can offer bands that will allow them to record live for an hour – as many songs as they can fit in – and then he'll mix for the next hour and send them home with a demo CD for $100.

    The problem with this idea is that it would mean moving away from the word-of-mouth marketing model which brought vouched-for friends of friends into the studio (and thus, our house), to marketing via advertising. That would be all well and good except that the studio does not have its own bathroom, which means that strangers would be trooping through our living area to use one of ours.

    Now I (mostly) don't mind his friend-clients coming downstairs to use the facilities, even though they almost always catch me vegging in front of the TV or doing housework dressed like a rag-picker. However, I can definitely understand his security concerns with having random musicians off the street casting their gaze over our limited store of valuables.

    This leads to our latest home project: building a half-bath in our basement.

    The way our house is set up, there's a stairway that leads down from the studio, past the garage, and around to an outside entrance to our basement. It's not completely protected from the elements, but it's close enough.

    So, we have guys building us a bathroom this week. They've already jack-hammered the concrete floor, installed the below-ground plumbing, and framed out the bathroom and foyer. By the time I get home tonight, I imagine it'll be sheetrocked.

    Because we're the type of people who will tell a contractor, "Here's what we want, this is what we want to spend, and we don't care about the particulars," the wall that separates the bathroom area from the rest of the basement is not quite where we'd envisioned it, but I'm just going to plan to shuffle stored items around to different shelves until the stuff we use more frequently is accessible again.

    No matter what, the end result will be very handy for the studio and for when we have parties out on our deck.

    This is the last project this year, though. I swear it!