Category: Daily Life

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you who don’t loathe the holiday on principle.

My husband and I will attempt to go out to dinner tonight after I get out of a board meeting. He told me that for my gift, he’d pay for me to get a massage. I have one scheduled for the 28th anyway, so that works out well.

How about a Valentine link?

• Send a "saucy" Valentine e-card from Pain Is Good hot sauce. [Full disclosure: They’re one of my company’s clients and I wrote the copy.]

As long as we’re thinking about hearts, here’s a strong reminder to take care of yours. Women: Don’t forget that your heart symptoms are different than men’s.

Thank you to everyone who suggested a name for the kitten. I like several of them, and I’m still trying to determine which one is her. I’ll report back once one sticks.

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day or, failing that, a lovely Wednesday.

This is a blurry camera-phone photo I took this afternoon while fleeing (okay, leaving in an orderly fashion) my office in downtown Kansas City due to a massive fire at a nearby chemical plant. We could see the enormous plume of smoke quite clearly from our office and it didn’t take long before our company officials told us to go home.

I live about 10 miles from the site of the fire, but the wind has blown the smoke and haze directly my way and it smells a little chlorine-y outside now.

The EPA keeps saying via the local TV news that the air is perfectly
safe to breathe. Pardon me if I don’t believe a word of it. When 100+
different chemicals are exploding and burning, I can’t help but suspect
that the smoky air may not be ideal for prolonging a healthy life.

I took my laptop home in case it seems like a bad idea to return to the office in the morning. Apparently the fire is pretty much out of control and it may be days before it burns itself out. Another delightful aspect of the story is that there are chemical-filled rail cars so close to the fire that the flames are licking them. Nobody seems to be able to say what toxic goodness awaits within should the cars explode.

Can I come live in your city for a while?

* * * * *

Update 2/8/07: The word seems to be that the air really is safe to breathe even though the fire is still burning vigorously. Best of all, the rail cars (which it turns out are filled with highly flammable paint thinner) didn’t explode. I guess I’ll be headed to the office later this morning.

Amazingly, nobody was seriously hurt in all of this, although several nearby houses and businesses burned. Here’s an article about the fire from a local TV news channel, if you’re interested in reading more.

When I’m not at work, I should be working on song lyrics, cleaning up my home office, painting, etc. Instead, I’ve managed to find a lot of other distractions.

I’m playing games:

• Wordy (it’s like a stripped-down version of Bookworm)
• Jewel Quest – I treated myself to a Mac version of it on a trip to the computer store last night. I finally stopped playing around midnight when my eyes got tired. The real version is way more fun than the free online version.

I’m watching TV:

• Heroes – I was right about who Claire’s father is! The watch and shirtsleeve gave it away.
• Lost – Back today, I understand. I’m getting wary, but I’ll keep watching.
• Rome – It’s always been gory, but last week’s episode was almost more than I could stand. Plus, the Octavian actor switcheroo is going to take a little getting used to.
• Rules of Engagement – I watched the premiere. In general, I like Patrick Warburton and David Spade, but the show’s going to have to get better for me to bother to watch it in the other room while Heroes is being TiVoed (we have the old-school TiVo that only records one show at a time).
• My Name Is Earl/The Office/Scrubs – Otherwise known as my favorite hour-and-a-half of continuous TV watching in any given week.
• The Ghost Whisperer – Cheesy and emotionally manipulative, but it gives me something to watch on Saturday or Sunday morning before my husband wakes up. Thank goodness they made Jennifer Love-Hewitt re-record the voiceover for the intro this year. Talk about a stiff line reading.
• Psych – Love it! It’s just as formulaic as any detective show, but the actors are engaging and the stories are creative.

I’m playing with the cats (but I haven’t gotten another one).

I’m surfing the ‘net:

• I submitted a drawing of a mouse to The Mouse Achivement Page. You should, too! Why not?
• I won a copy of Arianna Huffington’s book "On Becoming Fearless" from A Girl Must Shop. Thanks, Megan!
• My Kaboodle lists are still growing rapidly. Thank goodness I’m just bookmarking all that stuff and not buying it (yet). Well, except for my "Recipes I’d Like to Try" list. I should really tackle more of those.

I guess it’s no wonder it takes me weeks and weeks to make progress on some of my personal projects. That doesn’t even count the volunteer work I do or the time I spend with friends, relatives and my husband. Then you have to subtract the eight hours of sleep I get each night.

I think I need longer days. Or more days per week. Or the ability to pull myself away from distractions. Yeah, that third thing would probably be best.

I’ve done fairly well when it comes to keeping in touch with the friends I’ve met at various stages of my life. E-mail helps a great deal with that.

Thus, I have a large and ever-growing group of friends and associates that I invite to my annual parties and try to see individually or in small groups as often as I can.

One thing I’ve learned: I may be a decent networker, but I’m definitely not an influencer.

Even with 200+ people to draw from, I can’t ever seem to initiate any significant activities. The time I tried to get everyone to go see my cousin play at a blues festival at a much-beloved local roadhouse: nobody showed but me and my dad.  Even my big parties are ignored by many of my friends year after year.

This Saturday, my community service organization is holding a fundraising lunch at a local steakhouse where all of the money collected will go to a battered women’s shelter. The restaurant is donating the meals and the ticket prices are very reasonable for the amount of food involved.

I e-mailed everyone I know about this event and put it in my company’s daily e-mail newsletter. My goal was to sell 25 tickets. Heck, it’s close to Valentine’s Day! What better time to go out for steak (or chicken or salmon)?

One of my friends bought six tickets. Another bought three. My sister and her husband are going. My husband and I are going. Except for one person, everyone else I e-mailed responded with stony silence and I heard nary an inquiry from the two days (actually four days, if you count my pre-Christmas attempt) that the listing ran in our company newsletter.

I’m not upset or anything – I just wish I could be more effective at getting others to support some of the causes that I believe in. As one of my favorite Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey says, "I think in one of my previous lives I was a mighty king because I like people to do what I say."

Don’t we all!

A quick perusal of my blog archives shows that I’ve been involved with my current band project since last May. In that time, I’ve written the lyrics to seven songs, we’ve recorded them, and now we’re in the process of re-recording them all with higher quality gear in the remodeled studio.

We have been searching for a bass player the entire time with absolutely no luck. In my town, bass players are worth their weight in gold and every online bulletin board is filled with "bass player wanted" ads. Unfortunately, many of the ads placed by available bass players sound a lot like this:

"looking for musicians or a band unlike others i dont give a rats ass
about age thats bullshit and i wont deal with pot heads ,tired of
wasting my time so many bands looking for bass players but from what i
heard they need better singers and guitar players that can play ,man
what a bunch of noise arnt there any pro players with good pro gear
that want to play music instead of playing at playing?i love the were
holding auditions ,what a joke like they got a record deal and are
touring,enough of my rant im available to play ,all metal /rock if your
not serious please dont waste my time and i wont waste yours yeah my ad is negative but i
must have e mailed and talked to a dozen bands and not one has their
act together its always somthing…"

Who wouldn’t want to play with that highly literate ray of sunshine?

When we got together over the weekend, my husband was lamenting our inability to find a bassist. I pointed out that our delays with the studio remodel might have chased off any bass player that we found earlier and I predicted that now that we were ready, a bass player would probably fall in to our laps.

Sure enough, within a couple of days a friend of ours mentioned that he knew a good heavy metal bass player who was looking for a band. The guy came over last night, liked our stuff, and pretty much joined on the spot. Once we finish our songs and add a few more, choose a name, and bring in a rhythm guitarist, we should be ready to start playing shows no later than early spring.

However, I think I can guarantee that I’ll never go on stage looking like this again:

No, the bathroom isn’t finished yet, but it’s getting much closer. We were supposed to have shower doors by now, but they arrived last week and it turned out that the company had sent ones with clear glass instead of frosted glass. I say mornings are difficult enough without having to glimpse your naked self in the mirror through a clear shower door. The new ones should be here before the end of this week.

The only other thing we’re lacking is a mirror above the sink. Oh, and as you can tell from the photo on the right, I still need to paint the baseboards.

I have other photos of the remodel on Flickr here.

What do you think?

Last night, my sister came over and did her kick-ass faux painting technique on my bathroom wall (photos to follow soon, I promise) AND brought me two bags of homemade granola.

I’m not worthy.

On Sunday afternoon, my husband and I took advantage of the previous evening’s snowfall and made a quick snowman. You can thank me for the fact that the snowman’s maleness was not made glaringly obvious. Let’s just say I balked at supplying more than one carrot.

I left for a couple of hours and when I came back, the snowman was leaning lazily against the wall. By the time we put out the trash in the evening, he looked as though he’d been shot. I don’t think there will be much left of him by tonight.

I’m intrigued with the idea of participating in the day diary for "This Day in the Life of Working Women." I’ve never documented an entire day in depth before and I think it would be an interesting exercise. I’m always thinking of little things that would make good blog posts and then forgetting them before I post again. An exhaustive day diary would capture lots of thoughts and activities that would ordinarily breeze by.

I started to fill out the application, but I got stuck on the question, "What labels – positive and negative – do you and society assign to yourself?"

Now there’s an interesting exercise all by itself. Here are a few, off the top of my head and in no particular order: wife, friend, writer, blogger, singer, lyricist, musician, yuppie (whether I like it or not), feminist, child-free (or childless, depending on who’s doing the labeling), creative (noun), resource, cat person, club president, volunteer, do-gooder, homeowner, taxpayer, tomboy, Generation Xer, thirty-something (but not for long), conservationist, libertarian, omnivore, sister, sister-in-law, daughter, aunt, cousin, niece, step-daughter, employee, procrastinator, crocheter, cook, baker and do-it-yourself-er.

I’m sure I could think of many more if I gave myself more time.

So what do you think, should I participate? Would you?

I had the day off yesterday, which gave me a third day to tackle the hideous mess that had overtaken my house. As of this morning, the living room and kitchen have largely been rescued from the creeping piles of random junk that had collected on every flat surface. The bedroom will be much better as soon as my husband puts away his clean laundry, and I’ll tackle my dressing room as soon as the bathroom construction is finished. There’s no hope for the guest room right now – it may have to wait until spring.

Yes, we’re still in the middle of the bathroom remodeling project. And to think we believed it would be finished in a week or two. Ha ha! The good news is that the contractors have rigged up heavy plastic sheets around the shower so that we may bathe at home. That alone has improved our quality of life immeasurably.

I went and bought a bunch of brushed nickel bathroom accoutrements at Bed, Bath & Beyond yesterday: freestanding toilet paper holder, towel shelf, hand towel ring, toothbrush/toothpaste safe and soap dispenser. I’ve turned into Will Ferrell’s character from Old School, "…we’re going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get
some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don’t
know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough time."

Every time we get the house cleaned up, my husband and I vow that we’ll never let it get cluttered and messy again. What ridiculously unfounded optimism we have! Still, I plan to enjoy it while it lasts.