![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And now that I have actually turned on the computer, I don't feel like it.
Kim and I were supposed to go see the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still today, but it turned out to be a rather shitty day with freezing drizzle and sleet and snow and icy roads, so we decided to forget about it.
It turned out to be a pretty good thing as I got quite a lot done. I've almost finished up my laundry--including washing my old comforter and sheets and mattress pad and all my rugs.
The rugs still have to go into the dryer, but basically every single thing that needed to be washed has been washed. I have a small load of colored clothes that I am going to toss in tomorrow. I don't really need to wash them, but what the heck. Might as well get it done.
I am in shock that tomorrow is the last day of my Christmas break. How could it go so fast?
I have almost everything done that I really wanted and needed to get done done. Today, in addition to laundry, I cooked chicken and rice. I tried something new by adding carrots to it. I ate some when it came out of the oven and it was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. It had onions, celery, carrots, rice, chicken broth, cream of mushroom soup, chicken tenders, a little soy sauce, a little Lowry's season salt, and a little bit of butter so it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the roaster.
I also cleaned and cut up the big pineapple I had bought. I ate some of it and it is delicious.
I did up the dishes after I did my cooking. I've got the stuff to make spaghetti, but the hamburger is in the freezer, and I don't want to take it out while I have a lot of other food in the fridge to eat.
I got down on the floor and worked on the dining room floor. My vacuum is not the best, and the cat hair seems to weave itself down into the carpet fibers, so I went over the rug with the vacuum, then I used my cat brust with the wire bristles to "comb" the cat hair up off the carpet. I found a lovely patch of dried up puke under the table which I had not previously been aware of. Ugh. The "combing" process works well to get the cat hair up from the carpet, but it stirs up a lot of dust and other crap and sort of suffocates me. At least I wasn't wheezing this time. No asthma attacks triggered.
While I was crawing around on the floor, I tidied up the boxes that I had saved from stuff being mailed to me. They are all stacked in the southeast corner of the dining room right now. I'd like to move them into the back room downstairs, but right now that room is in such terrible disarray that moving them would be impossible.
I moved all four of my big five gallon containers of water over by the kitchen so there would be less distance to carry them when the jug on the dispenser goes dry. Those suckers are heavy. I just tipped them on their sides and rolled them to their new location. Worked for me.
Between trips up and down the basement, I sat in my big chair in the living room and worked on a little white blouse with red dots on it for DK's little granddaughter. I finished it all but to sew on the snaps and perhaps a decorative red button or ribbon on the front. I'm real pleased with how cute it turned out. I will have to be sure that I make a few pieces that can be used with it--like red pants or a little skirt or something.
I'll take pictures at some point.
Today, I just had too much other stuff to do.
Tomorrow, I have a few things that I REALLY want to get done. The last thing for down stairs is that I want to get the living room vacuumed. Then I want to just run the duster over all the furniture--get the bulk of the dust off. Upstairs, I still need to scrub the bathroom floor and the hallway. It won't take long once I just get at it, but I HATE getting down on the floor to do all that scrubbing.
When I came upstairs, I took a bubble bath. I was feeling sweaty and dirty from all the cleaning and I wanted to be clean to crawl into my nice clean bed.
Now I am lying in my bed, smelling like the cherry blossom bubble bath I used. I seldom take a bubble bath because it seems to dry my skin out.
Yesterday, I met Jim and DeAnn and Swayze in Owatonna for lunch at the Chinese place by Walmart. Swayzers was in rare form. He was having a little hissy fit at one point because he wanted the cell phone and DeAnn wouldn't let him have it (because he was into throwing stuff across the room...lol...) He just was winding himself up to a real fit, and I distracted him by acting excited, pointing at the ceiling and saying, "DUCKS!"
It was hilarious. He was looking all over for those ducks. He DID forget about the cell phone. LOL. After a bit, we were all just sitting there eating when he perked up, pointed at the ceiling and said, "DUCK!"
It was just tooooo cute.
While DeAnn took Swayze to the bathroom for a diaper change, Jim and I were sitting at the table eating. A skinny man with long hair and a lot of facial hair was at the dessert table, I looked up and he was looking at me. I sort of smiled and nodded at him--my polite but distant smile. Whenever some guy is looking at me like that, I always think that he is thinking, "OMG, that is the FATTEST woman I have ever seen!!" And then I brace myself for the rude comment that is sure to come...
BUT, in this case it wasn't that. He kept hovering around and finally one of us said something--I think I said hi then he said hi, and I suddenly realized it was MICAH. Micah Olsen who graduated back in the early '90s. I think he smiled, and that gave it away.
I said, "MICAH!"
And he said, "MISS CHERYL HARPEL!"
And then he bustled around the end of the booth and leaned down to give me a huge bear hug. We chatted a bit, and he said he had served 12 years in the Navy, which made me think poignantly of my little sweatpea....God, I am missing him so much today. He also told me he was retired because somehow he had a lot of damage done to his ears in the Navy and was now almost deaf. He's on a pension now. I said, "No fair that you get to retire before me!"
He also told me that he had gone to college and had gotten his degree in English Literature. He said, "You are the reason I took that major. Seriously." At some point he told me he loved me and that he had thought he would never see me again but that he had never forgotten me and what a huge influence I had had in his life.
Well, that touched me pretty deeply. Funny how I had looked at him a few moments before that, thinking he was judging me hideous and grotesque when in fact he was looking at me wondering if it was really me and being filled with affection and hope.
I guess that will teach ME. It was definitely an unexpected ego booster.
We exchanged phone numbers and he said repeatedly that we would have to get together and have coffee (well, I'll have tea...lol). I will have to call him. I love my kids so intensely while I have them--then they grow up and leave me to become adults--I always love them, but I never really get to keep connected to them much--life is always so freaking busy. I always wonder how they are doing and hope that they are happy.
Anyhow, Micah is living in Owatonna now, so we at least are moderately close together.
I went by Altell on my way home so that I could get "My Circle" set up so I wouldn't have a several hundred dollar cell phone bill. I got it all good to go, so THAT is done. I got a Chai tea latte at Starbucks--it was way too hot to drink on the way home, but it was JUST RIGHT by the time I got home.
I went upstairs and snuggled my cat a bit and had a little nap.
When I woke up it was time to go to Jim and DeAnn's--they had invited me over to have some Asti. It was awesome. I haven't had any Asti in a long, long time, and I do love that stuff.
Josue was in fine fettle all night. He played and played and played. He occasionally came over to give my arm a snuggle, and once he even gave me a kiss! Even the elusive Bear came down and let me pet him a little. I brought along some yarn and worked on an afghan while I was there. I have this really pretty blue thread that I am going to use with white thread and possibly some yellow, if I don't thing I have enough of the white and blue. I have a whole suitcase full of yarn, and I would like to use it up on projects that are productive. I don't think a person can ever have too many afghans and blankets and things.
I guess there is nothing else noteworthy to record. I cannot find my damn upstairs remote, which is irking the crap out of me. But that's about it.
