A not-so-quick update

I’ve had a satisfying couple of days, although I didn’t think it would turn out that way.

I had Thursday off, and my original plan was to take my brother-in-law’s cousin up to the mountains, as she’s visiting from Europe and hasn’t been able to get out much. Unfortunately, I got a text message late Wednesday night, saying that she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t think she’d be able to go. So I canceled my plans for Thursday and headed out to my mom’s house to have lunch with her and get some chores done. And I even managed to finish organizing my desk, so I finally felt like I accomplished something!

Friday was another day at work (very weird after having Thursday off) and after work I headed straight to Davis to meet up with some friends who were in town. I had a delicious vegetarian Chinese meal with a group of women (and it always feels weird to say that, even though we’re pretty much all over 30 now) and learned that one of them just became the executive director of Tree Davis, a non-profit tree-planting organization in town. I’ve been considering joining the Peace Corps, and was told by the recruiter to spend some time volunteering in preparation for applying, and to also concentrate on activities that I’m interested in. Because I’m an avid gardener and I enjoy being outdoors, I decided to look into volunteering opportunities with farms or other related groups. I was getting a bit discouraged by some of the groups out there, who won’t be having any volunteer activities for at least 6 months, so when I found out what my friend’s new job was, it seemed like a stroke of luck! I’ve already signed up for my first volunteer day, and I’m hoping to add a bunch more soon. I love volunteering and I love getting outside and I love planting things, so I think this will be a great new activity for me.

Saturday was the beginning of my girls’ weekend, although when I think about it, it really started Friday night. But I got up Saturday morning (over an hour later than I expected to get up) and went for an 8-mile run. I didn’t start to hurt until about 5.5 miles into it, so that was good, but still, I’m running 12.7 miles in a few weeks, so this whole “I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk, pulled a bunch of muscles, and now can’t run very far” thing is really making training hard. I stumbled back to the house around 11:20, and then spent 40 minutes cleaning myself up and lying on the couch giving myself a pep talk before dragging myself to the “Christmas Around the World” that occurs every year at the local Greek Orthodox church. Now, when they say Christmas Around the World, what they really mean is “Christmas in North-East Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Russia” which isn’t too bad of a selection, I suppose, but is leaving several entire continents out. I loaded myself up with potato pierogies, cheese pies, spinach pies, herb pies, tiropita, and a hearty plate of Ethiopian food and headed back to my house to get ready for the descending hordes. Or really, the few people who had said they were probably coming at some point, but didn’t know when. Planning these big events is turning out to be a pain. But then everyone started trickling in, and bottles of wine were opened, and food was set out, and everyone pulled out their old clothes for the clothing swap, and it was great! Lots of fun, lots of good food and drink, and lots of new-to-you clothing.

We headed out after that for the Second Saturday art walk, which was strangely quiet this month. It was a somewhat disappointing evening out, but we managed to stay out awfully late in spite of that. Sunday morning was nice and lazy. I made a beautiful frittata with eggs from my friend’s chickens, we threw in some country potatoes and coffee cake, and lazed about before heading to the farmer’s market, which was also strangely uncrowded. I’m usually dodging people left and right as I work my way around the stalls, but this time was a breeze. Maybe the holiday weekend meant a lot of people were out of town. I picked up some sweet potatoes to make sweet potato gnocchi, a bunch of nice mushrooms, grapes, and corn. I need to figure out what I’m going to do with the mushrooms pretty soon, though.

I had to nap for a bit in the afternoon, and then I felt awfully groggy, but I FINALLY managed to pull out the quilt I started for my niece months and months ago and finished piecing together most of the top! Yay!!!! I’m hoping to have the quilt substantially done by this weekend, so that I can get started on the next quilt around Thanksgiving and have them both done by Christmas. That might be a bit optimistic, but I think if I set my sights high, I can get a lot done in a short time.

A really bad weekend followed by an even worse morning

Well, that didn’t last very long. What a horrible weekend. It started badly, with a phone call from the surgery center where I’ll be having surgery tomorrow. The person on the phone informed me that the money I’ve already paid to the doctor only covered the doctor’s services, and I’d be expected to pay quite a bit more for the surgery center’s services as well as the anesthesiologist. It was kind of a devastating realization. The medical bills keep piling up, and I don’t know what to do about it.

On Friday, I had some people over to play games in the afternoon, and then in the evening my roommate and I made dinner for friends of ours who just had a baby a month ago. My sister was going out that evening, and said to call her when dinner was over so I could meet her for drinks/music, so I called, and texted, and although she kept telling me that they weren’t done with dinner yet, she never called me back. I felt so alone in the world. After having no one to spend Friday night with, and finding out about even more medical bills, I spent the entire day Saturday in bed. I spent most of the morning crying in bed, and the entire afternoon and evening watching tv and movies, working on amigurumi projects for my neice and nephew, and sneezing uncontrollably, because the first rain of the season actually made my allergies worse instead of better. I only got out of bed to go to the bathroom, get some food (which I ate in bed), and get a beer from the fridge (which I drank in bed). The only thing that really made me feel better was watching the new Star Trek movie. Again. That always cheers me up.

Sunday was a bit better. I spent the day at my sister’s house, having a nice pancake brunch and carving pumpkins. The part of the day that sucked was running around in the pumpkin patch in the rain (by myself, of course) trying to find some decent carving pumpkins from what was left, and especially trying to find some that weren’t too big, because I assumed that they were sold by weight. Alas, they were $2.99 each, and I should have just bought three giant ones from the small pile that was under the overhang, where I wouldn’t have gotten soaked.

And then this morning just takes the cake. My alarm didn’t go off for whatever reason (unless I managed to turn it off in my sleep), but luckily my roommate woke me up somehow by making noise outside. Then I found all my Tupperware from last week in my bike bag, which I apparently forgot to clean out over the weekend. Oops. So I hurried to throw some food together and completely forgot to eat breakfast. I left for work extremely late because I took the time to put my new headlight on my bike, but the beam was so weak that I might as well not have even had it. As I was pedaling as quickly as I could to work, my stomach started growling loudly, reminding me that I had forgotten breakfast. Then, while waiting at a stop sign for a bunch of cars to go by, most of whom were turning and not using their turn signals, I decided to go for it during a break in traffic. I stood up on my pedal to push and BAM my foot slipped off and I landed partly on the seat and partly on the top tube. Boy did that hurt. I did the best I could to get to work as quickly as possible when I discovered that I didn’t have my badge with me and I had absolutely no idea where it even was. So I had to lock my bike outside because my badge is what gets me into the bike cage, which meant I had to take the headlight off anyway. So much for using my time efficiently. Hopefully the rest of the day will go better, but I’m not expecting much at this point.

Something's finally going right!

Well, I had a splendid night last night, thanks to my good friends who live less than half a mile from me. But first, some backstory. I’ll keep it short and sweet. Basically, about two weeks ago, my kitchen faucet, which had been acting funny for a while, finally broke completely, forcing my roommate and I to turn on the water using a pair of pliers. I finally got around to buying a new faucet last weekend, only to discover the next day when I tried to install it that there were several pieces missing. The weekend also proved to be disheartening. After spending an evening on the town Saturday night, we discovered that our bike lights had been stolen, and the next morning I woke up with a hangover to my roommate informing me that the toilet in her bathroom had started leaking all over. I was exhausted and not feeling well, and it seemed like everything was going wrong.

OK, back to the original story and why last night ended up so well. First, my roommate and I managed to take the toilet apart, replace the wax ring, and put it all back together in record time, with no accidents and almost no cursing. I decided to wait another day to exchange the faucet and buy new lights for my bike, so I made a quick dinner and settled down to eat. Just as I was finishing, my friends showed up. They’re a wonderful couple who are expecting a baby next month, and they came over to pick up some baby supplies my sister had given me to give to them. The husband, Mike, noticed the faucet sitting on my kitchen table, opened the box, found the one missing part that I actually needed (the other two were for an optional installation that wasn’t necessary for my countertop/sink type) and then proceeded to change out the faucet for me! While I’m sure I could have done it on my own, it was soooo nice to have something get fixed and not have to be the person to spend hours trying to figure it out and cursing a lot. Being independent and able to do everything for myself is nice, but it’s also really overrated. Sometimes it’s nice just to have someone around to fix things when they break. I feel like a huge load has been lifted off my shoulders. Tonight, I can go to happy hour with another friend and not worry that I’ve left my roommate without a working toilet or kitchen sink. Yay!

Oh, and a short update on the bathroom: Everything is done except the baseboards. The floor is uneven, but it’s not horrible, and the tile and colors and towel bars look awesome. My roommate did an amazing job decorating it, and it looks like a designer bathroom, and I absolutely love it. I’d like to get the baseboards in before the beginning of December so that I can have a combination Hanukkah dinner/bathroom grand opening. I’m just hoping to find the energy to redo my own bathroom next...

Alone

Lately, I’ve been feeling more and more alone, and I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on why. I know that part of it has to do with the vast majority of my friends getting married and starting families, while I can barely get a date. It seems the relationship train left the station a while ago, and I was late and missed it. Dang. And while I’m ok with being single, being one of the few single people I know is starting to take its toll. Everyone has their own family now. They don’t need my company anymore, and they certainly don’t have time for it. My circle of friends has slowly disintegrated until I can barely tell its there. And on those rare occasions when someone does manage to have some time to spend with me, I’m the one who has to put in all of the effort. After all, I’m the single one!

Another part of it is that I have been working in a field other than architecture for the last 7 months (and was out of work for 3 months before that). Architecture tends to be a very communal field. People work together on projects, and you rarely see real cubicles or offices in architecture firms, with most office layouts being very open. My new job is nothing like that. I sit in my enclosed cubicle for hours at a stretch without talking to anyone. I can literally go all day without having a conversation with another person. And then I go to the gym and either run (which is very unsocial, unfortunately) or climb, and when I climb, I talk my partner’s ear off because it’s the first human interaction I’ve had in some time. And then I go home, where my roommate is often not home or is busy working on projects in her room. So I’ve started watching TV, mainly because it makes me feel like I have some sort of community, even though the other people in the community are only characters, and they don’t even know I exist. But at least I’m a bit less lonely.

Something my sister said to me recently made me want to cry. She basically said that I was lucky to be single, because I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. If only life were that simple! Yes, I might have a bit more freedom with my schedule, but I always have to do everything alone. Which often means I don’t get to do it at all, because it’s just not safe or efficient to do it alone (such as backpacking. I don't feel comfortable heading into the wilderness by myself). Also, it means that I HAVE to do all of the necessary things. I don’t have anyone else to pick up the slack. For example, I wasn’t feeling good yesterday. When I lay down, I felt better, but I was starving. But when I got up to make something, I felt so sick that I just wanted to lie down again. Since I’m single and have no one to help me out, I spent the day lying down and starving. It was one of the worse days I’ve had lately. And then I woke up this morning to a mess in my kitchen because there was no one else to clean it up. That's just not the way to start my week. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be feeling a bit better about all of this. And today I'm feeling much better physically, so at least that's a start.

Things have been kind of tough the last few days, and I’m not exactly sure why. I’m in the middle of tiling the bathroom floor, and it’s much more difficult that I expected it to be. I’m worried it’s going to turn out horribly, although I guess we’ll see when I’m done. At least the bathroom colors look great, and it will be nice to get the towel bars up, even if the floor is uneven. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not the end of the world, that if I ever have any money, I can redo the floor (professionally!).

In other news, I’ve become obsessed with bento boxes, or rather, the art and science of creating a bento meal (and not the box itself). It all came about when I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was interested in buying a bento-type lunch box, and she directed me to the blog http://justbento.com and now I’m hooked! I’ve figured out which of my containers will work for making the appropriately sized meal, so I’m not going to go out right away and buy a portable bento box. Before jumping in and spending a bunch of money, I’m just going to practice making bento-type lunches to bring to work with me. Today was my first attempt, and I’ve packed two small boxes (although I haven’t actually measured these particular boxes, I know they’re fairly small). One box is filled with two types of salads – a potato salad with a creamy sun-dried tomato pesto dressing, and a tomato and avocado salad with oil and balsamic vinegar. This box is basically leftovers from a barbecue this weekend. The other box has a medium-boiled egg for protein, and three large figs from my friend’s tree. I left the shell on the egg because the figs have been kind of sticky and I didn’t want to get the egg all sticky, although I suppose it doesn’t matter too much.

I’ve learned a few things from reading about the construction of bento boxes that I’ve found to be somewhat enlightening (as an architect, I love using the term “construction” for my lunch!).

1. First, presentation is nice, but it’s not the most important thing, and it’s only as important as you want it to be. As a beginner, I’m finding it really easy to just think about the content and not worry about how it looks. Presentation can come later, once I’ve got the basic idea down.
2. Second, it’s a great way to limit portions. Apparently this is a well-known benefit of bento boxes, but it’s new to me. As long as I’m putting relatively healthy, low-calorie (which generally means low-fat) foods in the boxes, I don’t have to worry about exactly how many calories are in each item. If I stick to non-refined carbohydrates (whole grains, etc), lean proteins (as a vegetarian/pescatarian, that means beans, eggs, and tofu with a smattering of fish), plenty of vegetables and fruits, and a small amount of healthy fats, generally olive oils and foods like avocados.
3. Third, it can be a great way to save money and to eat a more diverse meal. I’m guilty of packing boring lunches, I’ll admit it. Usually my lunch is a huge amount of leftovers from the night before, and that’s it. So if I make zucchini soup for dinner one night, that’s what I have for lunch the next day, and often for dinner the next night and lunch the day after that too. Zucchini soup, and lots of it. Making bento means I’ll be incorporating a greater variety of foods into each meal, and since the portions of each food are small, I can use up some of the small amounts of leftovers that I wouldn’t know what to do with otherwise.
   

The rest of my life has been extremely out of control, unfortunately. I haven’t had time to concentrate on my garden, my house is a mess, completely cluttered and in a serious and continuous state of disarray. The garage is an even bigger disaster, and I feel like I'm getting behind on my projects, especially the time-sensitive projects, such as the quilts I'm making for my new baby niece and nephew. As soon as the bathroom is done, I'm going to clean up my house and then start concentrating on those projects. Wish me luck, the next few months are going to be super busy!

Remodeling sucks

Yes, I said it. I know i'll be incredibly happy when it's done, and i'm a staunch DIYer, but this bathroom is just killing me. It started out incredibly well. Removing the baseboards and the toilet and painting the walls was easy. Unfortunately, when I finished painting the walls, the color didn't look nearly as good as I was envisioning, and I was worried that I'd be repainting soon. Nevertheless, I pressed on. Repainting the cabinets was much harder than I expected. The paint began to peel off when I removed the cabinet hardware, and I knew I'd have to remove all of it before continuing. Removing the paint took a really, really long time. But it was all worth it, because the cabinets look fantastic and the color combination makes the walls look good too.

Then it came time to do the floor. It didn't take too long to remove the old laminate, which was badly damaged where the toilet had been. I smashed my thumb in the process, but that was no big deal. But when I pulled up the plastic underlayment, I noticed that the concrete had been painted. I quickly searched online and discovered that the paint would have to be removed before tile could be laid down. I grabbed a scraper and set to work, but it was extremely slow going, so I headed over to home depot (my second home these days) and bought a paint stripper attachment for my drill. While it did work with only a little less effort than scraping by hand, it also created a ton of dust and made me start worrying that I was going to overheat the motor in the drill. Also, it was extremely slow going, and by that point I was exhausted, so I gave up for the evening.

This evening, I will probably head back to home depot (again) and try to find some sort of chemical stripping agent. Hopefully I'll be able to get that done tonight so I can get the tile laid tomorrow and grout on Thursday night, so that Friday I can install baseboard and maybe even get the toilet put back. After that, all I have to do is install towel bars. Yay! I can't wait to see what it's going to look like, if I manage to survive that long. Wish me luck!

Life is busy

Life has been INCREDIBLY busy lately. I was in a wedding recently that took up an awful lot of time, and although I had a lot of fun with it, I've gotten way behind on everything that needs to get done. Here's a small snapshot of where I am:

PROJECTS
I have a huge long list of projects, including:

Redoing the guest bathroom (painting, redoing cabinets, and tiling the floor)
Redoing my bathroom (same stuff)
Building a bar for the sunroom
Furnishing the sunroom, including finding/making a low table and making floor cushions
Refinishing the sewing table a friend gave me, and building a shelf for my sewing maching to sit in it
Finishing the quilts I've started for my niece and nephew
A dozen other small projects, such as repairing the clock my friend made for me
Organizing my whole house and all my files

I don't know when all of these projects are going to get done. It makes me want to cry just looking at the list. I guess I just have to keep going one step at a time. Also, the September craft challenge on the Crunchy Chicken site is inspiring me to get at least one project done. Hopefully I'll keep you posted.

GARDEN
It doesn't seem like the season should be over yet, but my garden is definitely winding down. The tomato plants are all dead or dying, the squash is barely producing, and the cucumbers all died. Only my Japanese eggplant produced at all this year. On the upside, the tomatillo produced like crazy and the bell peppers are starting to, after a very chilly summer (relatively speaking, of course). I've learned a few things for next year. For one thing, I'm going to have to work a LOT on my soil. It doesn't drain well at all, which I think is contributing to my tomato problems. This year, I added a lot of composted manure, which I think is why the peppers and tomatillo have done well, and the zucchini did better than usual. Next year should be even better, I hope. It does get awfully frustrating, though.

HOUSE
Some of my house projects are listed above. I also need to get out into the yard and do some serious work out there, plus I want to completely purge everything. Just because I have room for something I will never use doesn't mean I should keep it just in case. I need to make better use of Craigslist and Freecycle to get rid of the extra stuff. And, on top of all of this, I got a call from the HOA for my neighborhood saying that someone had complained about my yard. So I got someone to fix the sprinkler system, which put a HUGE dent in my plans to pay off my credit card quickly (although I'm still hoping to have it paid off by the end of the year, even if it means I only get to eat beans for a month). And I have to wonder which neighbor complained, and why nothing has been done about some of the other residents whose yards truly look bad (whereas mine looked a little untrimmed, other yards could be considered a wholesale mess). It's not the most welcoming feeling when moving into a new neighborhood.

So I'm definitely looking forward to a long weekend this weekend, which will hopefully be spent completely redoing my guest bathroom. I can't wait to see how it turns out.