Category: Daily Life

July was so crazy-busy that I’m just now realizing that it’s summertime and I should think about doing some summertime things before it’s too late.  As of the end of BlogHer, I’ve taken so much vacation from work that it’ll take me seven months to actually earn the vacation I’ve already taken.  Clearly, I need to think about some activities close to home.

For starters, I’d like to go swimming at least once this year.  I don’t know anyone rich enough to have a swimming pool or young enough to live in an apartment complex with a pool.  I wouldn’t object to swimming in a lake, but it’ll be kind of icky-warm by now.  Then there are water parks, but they always give me the uncomfortable suspicion that I’m sharing a portion of the clientele’s weekly bath.

What else do I want to do before autumn invades?  (I’d like to take this time to mention that I went to the grocery store last week and saw a large group of employees setting up the Halloween candy display.  In early August.  Better hurry, there are only 83 Halloween candy shopping days left!)  Well, I haven’t grilled out enough.  I haven’t made cucumbers with vinegar.  I haven’t eaten any watermelon yet – I bought a piece but it got hidden in a fridge drawer and had to be thrown out.  I don’t have even a hint of a tan, but that’s always the case given the 60-level sunblock I use.

More than anything, I want some lazy summer time.  I want to nap in my hammock, read two books in one day with cats piled on my lap, make a tuna noodle salad and have it for lunch two days in a row.  I want to have dinner on the deck every night, just because it’s warm out.  I want to break out of my laziness briefly to weed my flower beds and cut down the volunteer trees, then take a shower in ice-cold water and sit on the porch swing to let my hair dry.

Maybe I can start some of that on Saturday.  In the meantime, off to work!

On Saturday, I attended my 20-year high school class reunion.  After the last one, I had sworn I wasn’t going to any more of them, mainly because I’d barely recognized anyone and vice versa.  On the other hand, the previous reunion had been held in a big, bonfire-lit field, so that could have made things a little more difficult.

This one was in the basement of a suburban, Irish-themed pub.  Note to potential bar owners:  carpeting does not belong on any bar floor, even in the "party room."  Every time I stood still, my sandals stuck lightly in place.  Fortunately there was adequate lighting, a buffet, and the occasional yearbook scattered around for reference.

I was heartened to see that everyone was having as difficult a time recognizing people as I was.  My husband and I sat at a table with two of my classmates I’d recognized more or less immediately.  Everyone who had any idea who I was seemed to think I looked "exactly the same," which didn’t make much sense to me considering that I’d changed my hair color and lost 15 pounds since the last reunion.

Two of the "popular" girls from my class (and let’s keep in mind that everyone was popular compared to me) came over to say hello.  "You look great!" they said.

If any of my current friends had said that to me, I’d have said "thank you" and moved on.  In this case, High School Jane was lurking in the back of my psyche thinking, "What does that mean?  Do I look fat?  Does my hair look weird?  This outfit is all wrong, isn’t it?"  Aaagh!  I’d never go back to being a teenager!

I did a minimal amount of mingling (once a wallflower, always a wallflower), but managed to at least say "hi" to everyone I’d been friendly with in high school.  My husband passed out more business cards than I did because two of my friends happened to mention needing a recording studio and computer help, both of which he can provide.

After all this time, two-and-a-half hours of high school reunion struck me as no different than any other social activity with strangers.  I don’t have any high school glory days to relive.  I could barely fill out the questionnaire they gave us asking things like, "What were your three favorite songs in high school?" 

Maybe by the 25-year reunion I’ll have more time for reflection…

I have a lot of stuff to do this morning before I leave for BlogHer, so I’m going to be a little lame and lean on a meme.  Feel free to carry it through to your own blog today if you’re feeling equally uninspired!

All About Jane

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30

2.  What was the last movie you saw?  The Fantastic Four

3. What is your favorite TV show?  For the summer, it’d be a tie between "Veronica Mars" and "30 Days"

4. What do you usually have for breakfast? A Luna bar and a cup of green tea with jasmine

5. What is your middle name? Alissa

6. Favorite cuisine?  I have a soft spot for barbecue.

8. What is your favorite chip flavor?  I like a plain, restaurant-style tortilla chip.

9. What is your favorite CD at the moment?  I don’t have one right now.  My most recent favorite was the Scissor Sisters CD, which I played incessantly until I got a little tired of it.

10. What kind of car do you drive?  Honda Insight

11. Favorite sandwich?  Corned beef, sauerkraut, horseradish and swiss on marbled rye.

12. What characteristic do you despise?  Feigned helplessness

13. Favorite item of clothes?  My "Inappropriate" t-shirt


14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?  I’d like to go somewhere to see the remains of ancient civilizations:  Mexico, Greece, Egypt, etc.

15. What color is your bathroom?  It is so unspeakable, we shall not linger on this question.

16. Favorite brand of clothing?  Are you kidding?   
I’m lucky to dress myself at all.  Well, I do like American Apparel t-shirts and Lee One True Fit jeans.

17. Where would you retire to?  I’m not holding my breath that I’ll ever be able to retire.

19. Favorite sport to watch?  I’m not a big sports fan, but I can appreciate the occasional football game.

20. Goal you have for yourself?  Keep going…

21. When is your birthday?  July 7th

22. When is your anniversary?  December 9th

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?  These days I’m a morning person. 


24. What is your shoe size?  9

25. Pets?  Four geriatric cats

26. Any new and exciting news you would like to share?   Not so much.  Ask me again after this weekend!

27. What did you want to be when you were little?   A vet or an archaeologist.

28. What are you today?  A copywriter (with cats, who subscribes to Archaeology magazine).

29. What is your favorite candy?   Truffes from Andre’s.  My sister bought me a box of them for my birthday and I’m savoring each one.

30. What is your favorite flower?  I like really fragrant peonies.

I knew that July would be a bad diet and exercise month for me.  Now it’s becoming clear that my excessive caloric intake and insufficiently active lifestyle are catching up with me.  Here are a few of the signs:

• The armholes of the sleeveless dress I wore yesterday felt as though they were going to saw my arms off by the end of the day.  I don’t think the dress is at fault here.
• I wore a pair of capri pants last week that I distinctly remember having to safety-pin at one time because the waist was too loose.  Now they’re uncomfortably snug and the pockets stick out funny.
• I keep telling myself that wearing a belt will help disguise my pudginess above the waist of my pants, but my mirror-editing abilities aren’t powerful enough to allow me to believe it.

It doesn’t help that I spent last week working with almost 200 extremely fit people.  "Look, here’s the out-of-shape girl, gasping for breath after her trip up the stairs with your class paperwork!"  Not cool.

I don’t think I can afford to go back to the expensive yoga classes anytime soon, but my plan is to hit our perfectly good treadmill several days a week, and get in some push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises that are easy to do at home.  Exercise opportunities are everywhere – I just need to START DOING IT.  After BlogHer, of course…

I finally finished "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on Sunday and passed it along to my sister.  All I can say is that it’s going to make a very scary movie.  I can hardly wait for the last book!

After I sniffled through the last part of the book, I decided I needed to re-read "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."  As I read through "Half-Blood Prince," it was obvious that I’d forgotten a lot of details from the previous two books.  That’s not too surprising considering that I’m sure I gulped them down as soon as they arrived and then put them on the shelf until now.

I find it odd that the articles about each new Harry Potter book or movie always center on kids’ reactions and usually mention adults’ love of the stories as an afterthought. 

On the weekend of July 16th when the latest book came out, one of my friends sent her one-year-old and her husband to her parents’ house for the weekend so she could read in peace.  Another agreed to a quick get-together early in the day, but only because his partner was home to receive the book when it was delivered.  My dad picked up a copy for my stepmother at a grocery store at 3:00 a.m. on the 16th and by the time I talked to her on Sunday, she was already starting her second reading.  Even my husband, who never reads anything but technical manuals and the occasional magazine, will make time to listen to Harry Potter books on tape (these days, as podcasts).

All I can think is:  what will we all do after the last book and movie come out?

Words can barely express how tired I am of dealing with 100-degree heat every day.  My clean laundry is dwindling alarmingly because I have to change my clothes between day and evening activities.  No matter how I style my hair in the morning, it turns all wavy and frizzy within seconds.

My little car does its best trying to provide air conditioning when it’s moving, but it gives up when it’s stopped.  Thus, every stoplight seems interminable.

I’ve been watering my impatiens every morning, but they’re still turning into little wizened, blossom-free stubs.  My yard is so dry that even the weeds are shriveled (except for the crabgrass – that stuff is bulletproof).

I haven’t lain in my hammock, played a game of frisbee or gone for a walk in weeks. 

One ray of hope:  the long-term forecast for Santa Clara, California, where I’ll be attending BlogHer this weekend, says they’ll have a high of 85 degrees on Friday.  I just hope it’s true.  The last time I was in the San Francisco area, they had their biggest heat wave in living memory and we were miserably hot the whole time.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

As the weeklong seminar progresses, here are some random facts, figures and lessons learned so far:

• Number of cans of Red Bull it takes to cancel out two pints of beer:  1
• Shocking cost to fill up a Jeep Grand Cherokee with gasoline:  $45
• Number of miles Jeep can go on $45:  approximately 280
• Number of miles my Honda Insight can go on $45:  approximately 1,000
• Number of days of 100-degree Fahrenheit weather I managed to handle driving around in a Jeep with no air conditioning:  2.5
• Number of pages of the latest Harry Potter book I have read since it arrived on Saturday:  408
• Number of really bad curse words spoken by me this morning before I had my first cup of coffee: 15+
• Number of those words directed at cats:  10+
• Number of times I have fallen asleep briefly in the middle of the day this week:  1

Just three more days of the seminar to go (counting today).  After that, I’ll be back to my regular life and perhaps I’ll even have some things of general interest to talk about.  I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath…

Recordkeeping is by far the most difficult thing about coordinating a training seminar.  First, everyone must register for the seminar.  All of that goes out the window as soon as people start showing up because, inevitably, a good 5% or so of the attendees never sent in an application (and then another 2-3% who did register never show up, so it almost evens out).

After that, we need a good set of completed paperwork for everyone who is there.  And we need everyone to sign in each day when they get to class.  Already we’re looking at three separate lists that never match up.  Still, I enter everyone into the computer, make educated guesses as to who’s actually in class, and print a certificate for each person figuring that the instructors can throw away any certificates they don’t need.

For the first two days of the seminar, everyone is in the same big class.  For the next four days, there are as many as seven different classes on any given day, spread out over four separate locations.  You can imagine how much I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

The good news is that we’re having a pizza and beer party tonight after class.  I may be tired and frantic, but at least there are a few perks!

This is the busiest week of my year.  I’m helping my dad coordinate his annual six-day training seminar (180+ attendees spread out over four locations), I’m keeping an eye on three separate projects at work even though I’m technically "on vacation," and I would love to read the new Harry Potter book, but I’ve only gotten through about 200 pages so far.

I need our Jeep for transporting seminar attendees, but it’s been garaged for several months due its gas-guzzling ways.  As of yesterday morning it was packed with drums, had a low battery and a flat tire, smelled funky from being closed up, and had a burned-out headlight.  Yesterday afternoon my husband emptied out the drums and charged the battery (oh, and he licensed it last week because we’d let the tag lapse).  I discovered the flat tire at about 11:00 p.m. last night and filled it with our air compressor while I sprayed Lysol all over the carpet.  Today after the opening ceremonies for the seminar, I had the headlight replaced, had the oil changed and cleaned the insides of the windows.  All that’s left is to vacuum out the aged french fry crumbs and I’ll be good to go.

It’s going to be a long, tiring week.  Wish me luck!

I’ve finally gotten tired of running around with terrible-looking hair, so I’m trying a new hairstylist tomorrow.  I hate dealing with my hair – perhaps even more than I hate shopping for shoes – so it’s an effort for me to prepare properly. 

I know I should try to come up with a photo of a hairstyle I like, but I never think about people’s hair enough to know where to start.  My husband has offered to flip through the last few issues of Entertainment Weekly and make some suggestions.  I’m happy to take him up on it.  He’s way more interested in hair and haircare products than I’ll ever be.

The one thing I always demand in a hairstyle is bangs.  I know, they go in and out of fashion and they may likely be out of style right now.  Too bad.  I have forehead issues and I refuse to walk around displaying my vast expanse of increasingly creased forehead to the public.

My only other hairdo specification is a reasonable amount of length.  I cut my hair short about five or six years ago and was not at all pleased with the result.  And what would the heavy metal band think if their new lead singer cut her hair short?!  No, I think I need to stay with the shoulder-length hair I have now.

When I get my hair cut, I’m always amused when the hairstylist wants to show me the back of my hair.  Sure, I’ll take the mirror and have a look – it’ll be the last time I see the back of my head until I’m in her chair again.  I think of my hair like the facade on a Western movie set:  the front’s the important part; don’t worry about what’s behind it.  That’s probably why I always had a dark spot on the back of my head when I used to bleach my own hair…