Category: Daily Life

Last Friday I did some on-site work at a client's office. I was sitting at a desk right next to the water cooler and workers came in frequently to get water. It was warm in there and I was thirsty, but there were no cups; everyone there had his or her own.

Fast forward to this afternoon: I'm back in their office but this time I'm ready! I've carefully placed a cup in my purse so I can have water to drink while I work. Always thinking!

I get to the desk and begin working. Yep, I'm starting to get thirsty. I take out my cup, walk over to the water cooler…and discover a sign that says it's out of order.

[Sad trombone.]

Seriously.

Photo credit: CJ Schmit

I know I just crowed about all of the cool clothes I got at a clothing swap earlier this week, but that didn't actually help me today when I was mining my closet for business attire to wear for some on-site client work.

My office doesn't have a dress code. It came up in a staff meeting recently and our CEO said the unofficial guideline could be summed up as, "Don't offend anyone." Then he corrected himself and said it was more along the lines of, "Don't offend lots of people."

So anything goes most of the time, but today was a rare exception. For most client visits over the years I've been able to get away with dark jeans, a nice top and shoes that aren't sneakers. For pitch meetings I've sometimes worn a jacket. Today's client, however, has a conservative dress code.

Until I started digging through my closet room, I didn't know quite what I would find. It turns out I'd ditched some of my older suits already, which was too bad because they would likely have fit now even though I'm sure they didn't at the time.

I tried on several pairs of oversized slacks that weren't going to work even with a belt. Finally I checked out a pair hidden under dry cleaner plastic and they were my current size. I had one decent suit jacket that fit, but it was missing two of its three buttons. Miraculously, I found one of the buttons that had fallen off and managed to locate the extra button that came with the jacket, still in its cellophane sleeve. Out came the sewing kit and I was that much closer to an outfit.

Then I needed a top to wear. I was pretty sure I had a sleeveless sweater shell on my clothing rack somewhere. It took a while, but I finally found it sandwiched between t-shirts. Fortunately I have a pair of comfortable Aerosole dress shoes that work with trouser socks, so pantyhose didn't need to be part of the equation.

Last but not least, I brought out my strand of real pearls because I figured this was a rare chance to wear them in a context that made sense.

My hair, well, the hair is how it is. 

I'll have to come up with a variation on the outfit for Monday, but I think I can find a blouse and jacket or sweater combo that I can pair with the same pants to make it work. After that, it's back to t-shirts, capri pants and yoga sandals—and not a moment too soon.

This morning I’m heading back to work after five days off. Five! Man, that was nice. Admittedly I worked for several hours yesterday morning, but I peeled myself away before lunchtime and limited myself to responding to a few emails after that.

On July 4th my band played at Fort Leavenworth for their Independence Day festivities. Here’s what I wore:

I had on black capri leggings underneath, along with a pair of black Chuck Taylor high-tops. I wore super bright lipstick that matched the red on the dress and I had thick black eyeliner on.

We were playing to a huge group of casually dressed families, most of whom were pretty far from the stage. Once the band was finished playing, I walked up the hill to the restroom and stood in line looking VERY out of place and getting many weird looks from women who obviously hadn’t actually been able to see the band. Finally, someone came in and said, “The band was great! I loved the songs you guys played.” Whew. See, people, I’m not a crazy clown hooker!

On Friday, I got up early to take a friend’s foster kitten in to be neutered. I also made it to a lunchtime yoga class, which was great because my feet still hurt from standing most of the previous day. I didn’t get much more accomplished than that, but I read a book, picked up the kitten from the clinic and hung out with my husband all evening once he got up.

Saturday was more productive. I made refrigerator pickles (both beet and cucumber), hummus, guacamole and black bean burgers. I even got some laundry done. My husband and I finished the day by going to see the other band that my keyboard player is in. It was at a barbecue restaurant so I treated myself to some onion rings. I ordered a beer but only drank half because now that my diet is so clean, it turns out I really don’t want alcohol anymore. 

Then came my birthday! I had plans all day long. I met up with my sister for breakfast and she gave me a new pair of Yoga Sandals to replace my old broken ones. Then we both had relaxing massages at her favorite reflexology place. After that we headed to Lawrence, Kansas to do a little shopping and meet our aunt for lunch. 

I spent the evening with my husband, starting with a trip to Cafe Gratitude for dinner. We both had the black bean tacos (which I am *this close* to learning how to make at home) and split the Key Lime Tart for dessert. Then we went to see Man of Steel, which I quite enjoyed except for the endless fight scenes that got tiresome after a while.

My company gives us the day off for our birthdays, so I took yesterday since my birthday fell on the weekend. As I said earlier, I worked all morning to get caught up a bit. Then my dad took me to lunch at Genghis Khan, which was nice. I ran errands in the afternoon, including getting my microphone fixed so I can use it at my next gig. In the evening, my husband and I had dinner at Marble Top Cafe and then loaded up on groceries at Trader Joe’s nearby.

It was really lovely to have such a long break from the office and so many other things to do. I’m refreshed and ready to get back to work today.

How was your holiday weekend?

Not to jinx myself or anything, but 2013 is turning out to be a pretty good year so far.

First of all, I feel great. I've lost about fifteen pounds since I switched to a clean, mostly plant-based diet. My asthma and allergy symptoms are pretty much gone. I still have a tiny bit of heartburn, but I imagine that will subside eventually. 

Now that I've gotten back to regular yoga classes, I feel stronger. I also took an amazing foot and ankle health workshop last weekend that really tripped some light switches in my brain and made me realize that I can retrain myself out of the postures that have been causing me pain. 

I've been cooking at home more and my husband is surprisingly amenable to trying vegetarian meals. In fact, he's picked out some recipes from various blogs and requested to try them, so that's fun because I don't have to plan every meal myself.

I absolutely made the right choice by cutting way back on volunteer work. It was making me crabby, which is the opposite effect that do-gooding is supposed to have on oneself and the world. I'm still helping out the animal rescue group as needed and I'm on the board of Soroptimist again next year, but I don't have any steady, weekly commitments.

The band is going well and we're continuing to learn fun songs. We have gigs on July 4th and 5th and another on the 13th. I have a feeling we'll be stepping up that schedule even more once we get comfortable with our show.

I'm still not spending quite as much time at home as I'd like, so my housekeeping standards remain a little looser than I'd prefer, but I'm hoping that the upcoming holiday weekend might give me a chance to catch up.

I'd also like to get in more long stretches of reading time that weekend. Right now I'm re-reading all of the Oz books, which I bought for 99¢. I'd forgotten how violent the first book is—the wicked witch keeps sicking various minions on our heroes, who proceed to slaughter them wholesale. As the book series progresses, all of the characters get less crabby and quarrelsome and eventually L. Frank Baum decided that no one could die in Oz, so that took care of the casual killing. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend it. I am highlighting passages I particularly enjoyed and I may do a post later.

The pets are all doing relatively well. My husband is convinced that Xena has lost some weight, but I'm a little skeptical about that. Everyone else seems happy and healthy and relatively well behaved.

So that's my report at the halfway point of the year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps getting better and better—and that the universe doesn't decide to snuff me out in the service of delicious irony right after I publish this. That wouldn't be nice at all.

Scene: I am lying in bed with Toby the Italian Greyhound curled up against my right side under the blankets, huge black cat Xena on my torso and smaller black cat Velvet above my head on my pillow. I hear lightning really close to the house. Here is my internal monologue.

Please don't let Toby wake up! There's no way it's safe to take him out in this. I hope I'm safe in here. I read that interview last week with the guy who was struck by lightning sitting in his office. I'm right by a window, too. Was his window open or closed? I wonder if it matters? Would the drape over the window save me? Probably not. If I did get struck by lightning, it would get the pets, too. That would be bad. Should I shut the window? No, that would wake the dog up. And get me closer to the window, and that's what the lightning wants, isn't it? It would suck to get hit by lightning while I'm touching the metal window frame to close it. Ooh, that was close! I'll bet my hair is frizzy from all this humidity. At least it's nice and warm with the blankets and all the animals. Zzzz…

Afterword: It stopped raining eventually, I managed to take the dog out twice, and everyone lived.

Photo credit: Daniel Vucsko

It's only been a few weeks since my new doctor suggested that I radically overhaul my diet to address my various health issues, but I'm already noticing huge improvements in the way I look and feel.

Basically I'm going with clean eating, which means that every food I eat should ideally still look the way it did when it was harvested. That means processed foods are out (I'm fudging things a little with canned beans and tomatoes). Dairy is also a no-go, which I'd already figured out on my own except that I had to be forcibly separated from my last holdout: cheese. I've discovered the joy of kale (why didn't anyone ever sit me down and explain how wonderful kale is?) and I can whip together an amazing soup or salad at the drop of a hat these days.

It took me about a week to figure out how much food to bring to work. I have my usual Shakeology shake in the morning, then my main lunch at 11:30 and a smaller meal (usually a salad or a veggie smoothie) around 2:30 p.m. My company recently bought a Vitamix blender for us all to use and they provide fruit and vegetables for smoothies. What great timing!

Did I mention I gave up caffeine? For whatever reason, it was completely painless this time. Now I drink the juice of a half lemon mixed with water every morning and it's fully as energizing as coffee without the mid-afternoon withdrawal period.

I lost ten pounds pretty much immediately. All of my allergy symptoms vanished within a week. By the end of the second week, my heartburn was gone. It's really been quite amazing.

My energy levels have also bounced back. I was really in the doldrums when I started, but now I'm going to two yoga classes a week and walking as much as I can. I'm looking forward to taking a running clinic in a couple of weeks to see if I can make improvements there as well.

I know this all sounds kind of fringe-y and granola, but it's working so incredibly well that I can't fault it. I'm getting plenty to eat and I'm not getting tired of it at all despite the fact that I haven't even started consulting the cookbooks I bought at the beginning.

I'm looking at this as a permanent lifestyle change rather than a diet. Whenever it occurs to me that I might have eaten "x" for the last time, I'm perfectly okay with it. If that's what it takes to feel and look healthy, it's worth it.

My husband is not joining me in my new eating habits except when something I make for myself smells really good and he decides to have some. That's probably going to remain somewhat of an inconvenience indefinitely, but as I mentioned when I first brought up these changes, this is something I need to do for me.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. It's pretty exciting so far!

If my mother were still alive, she would be horrified by this post. (Possibly by my blog in general.) I was always the kid blithely telling everyone at the school carnival that the cake she brought was from the grocery store, while she was constantly cautioning me not to talk about "private family business." 

Well here's some private family business: I'm a terrible housekeeper.

There was a time when I had someone come in every other week and clean my house. It was wonderful because I hate house cleaning, but it got to be awfully pricey and so when my longtime cleaning lady moved on to other work, I decided to see what I could do on my own.

It turns out that it's really tough to keep up with housework when you're almost never home. However, I had more free time than usual last weekend, so I decided I needed to tackle cleaning the bathrooms and floors.

Damn, that's a lot of work!

It took me almost all day and I didn't get to the basement or manage to tidy and dust the surfaces in my dressing room, but I accomplished my quarterly deep clean. That's right: quarterly. That's pretty much the schedule I've been on so far. Heh.

Here are some of the stats:

• Amount I would have paid to have the house cleaned twice a month for the last quarter: $420
• Different floor types that require different cleaners: 3
• Number of cats I made into the bed when I changed the sheets: 2
• Length of time it took before the dog peed on one of the clean floors: <12 hours
• Approximate number of kittens' worth of cat fur emptied from the ShopVac: 5

So yes, my house is disgusting until it isn't and then it gets disgusting again.

Where is my husband in all of this, you might reasonably ask? Why don't you not ask. That would be best. The last time we had that discussion, he was very proud that he cleaned the house once. ONCE! In the past 20 years that we've been together. So yeah. The work of the feminist movement is never done and all that.

But at least I have the satisfaction of a clean house that smells like Method squirt + mop floor cleaner (mmm, almond-y!). It won't be long before the cat hair tumbleweeds start forming in the corners again, but for now I feel I can take a little break. Perhaps until summer.

My mother died in 1998, so time has smoothed the sharp edges off the pangs of sadness I used to feel every year when I'd start getting email suggesting where I should take my mother for Mother's Day or what kind of gift she would want. Still, this time of year makes me wistful because of all of the hype around a holiday that has nothing to do with me at all.

Mother's Day advertising is everywhere right now, which may be why I had a dream about my mother last night. I dreamt that I was on a shuttle bus going to meet her at a hotel in another city so we could have a vacation together. The problem was, I didn't know which hotel it was and I kept wracking my brain to think of her cell phone number, but I couldn't come up with it.

When I woke up, it occurred to me that of course I didn't know my mom's cell phone number. She never had a cell phone when she was alive. 

I'm happy that there's a holiday to honor mothers even though I'm not one. I'll probably spend it playing with my kid subsitutes, a.k.a. our cats and dog. Maybe I'll score a flower or a little box of candy if I go out to eat someplace where they have a scattershot Mother's Day to-do that includes every woman who looks like she could possibly be a mom. That's pretty much all I can do.