Collected Thoughts

In honor of Poetry Month,two of my favorite poems by Elinor Wylie (which I've probably posted before)

My house was reroofed. There are nails everywhere. My landlady came in and found the house and got mad because there was food trash and it was really cluttered (thanks to that flat feeling from no Lamictal). Basically said she might not renew the lease in September. I sent a letter with the rent apologizing and spent the weekend cleaning and organizing and getting rid of. Plus Mom got me an early birthday present of 2 bookcases so now all my books have shelves! (actually I have one spare shelf which means -- more books!)

However, my a/c isn't working and there's a mysterious leak in the bathroom. So I have to call my landlady and let her know about this. I went outside and got freaked at these swarms of tiny red insects, thinking an exterminator was going to be needed. But it turns out they are clover mites, which are harmless but swarm but are usually gone in a few days so I'm going to let them be. Except I have to do yard work.

I did this thing with my shrink where I tried going off Lamictal, which I've sung the praises of it but I wnated...well not to take it and save the $50 /mth copay.

And I'm not depressed or manic, which yay, but I'm flat and low energy, so I'm going to call tomorrow and be resoponsible and say that I need it. Everything tires me out out. Actually that's not ture, the idea of do anything tires me out. I just don't ...can't do simple things. So my house i sa wreck because I set something down and think "I'll get it later" and two days later it's still there.

And god, right now I'm so paranoid my landlady will check on my place tomorrow and the kitchen isn't spotless, hell I did the dishes. But the floor needs to be cleaned and the rest of the house is stil cluttered.

I bought new clothes this week so I feel pretty. Got my hair cut, no length was really taken off except for an arc on my bangs so it's not so heavy on my face.

Next month, right before the F2f, I'll be getting my hair colored. I want to do a reddish color...of course I bought a pinkish outfit on ebay (slightly by accident). But I have no real desire to go blonde and I just hate my current hair color. I'm still looking for a dress for F2F prom. I found something liked at Ross for $13, but the zipper was broken.
Mom comes home tonight so that's good.

Also I joined the local food co op. I've wanted to for awhile and haven't spent any of my tax refund yet so I did that. I got a ton of coupons with the welcome package, some of them are manufacturers coupons so I feel like I got away with something... I can use them at the grocery store and really save money!

I had my consult with the oral surgeon. Due to my anxiety around dentists he recommended I go completely under anesthesia rather than just the local/iv drip thing. This will cost $2000 out of pocket. I'm not sure where I'll get the money. Then the procedure will be $1800 of which my dental insurance will pay 80% because wisdom teeth extraction is considered basic care.

But this won't get done until summer because some will have to take me to the clinic and wait while the procedure is done and Mom can do that. The other bad thing is that they only have the OR on Wednesdays so I'll have to miss work, at least two days.

I end the weekend with 3 birdfeeders, Dad installed the last one while I was gone, I just need to put seed in it.

Today I saw a pair of Blue Jays, a pair of Cardinals and one (possibly two) chickadees.

I need to make something for lunch tomorrow, I'm probably going the easy pasta and sauce route. I barely ate anything today so when devoured some bread, cheetos, and left overs at about 4 pm. And I forgot to watch hockey on NBC!

I was looking through 3 cookbooks Mom gave me, I love old cookbooks & pamphlets, it's always interesting to look into how people cook. Two are Campbell's cookbooks and both are about convenience foods and I leared that Swanson used to make 3 Course Frozen Dinners, that had soup, meat, two vegetabels, and dessert, there was even a picture. The tray had five slots, with the soup next to the meat (at least in this one).

Maybe I'm missing some kind of cultural thing but there are 3 recipes for chilled beef broth drinks, one called a Beef Fizz which is condensed beef broth and club soda.

Has anyone heard of something like that? The other two recipes are beef broth served over ice, one diluted with water and shaken "Frisky Sour" the other just Soup on the Rocks.

Today was a good day. Dad and I went to this small park that he found out about, it's tucked away in a neighborhood. We had lunch and saw all kinds of birds. Bluebirds, yellow rumped warlbers(they have a bright yellow patch on their rump), wood stork, Canadian geese, Egrets, an osprey,etc. It was so nice to walk around and check out the neat birds.

Then we went to a local nursery and he got me a pole and baffle for one of my bird feeders and also some bird seed. Then we came back and set that up and he's figuring out a way to set up another more squirrel proof bird feeder so I'll have three that I can see from different vantage points.

After that was some yard work and Dad showed me that I have tiny wild violets growing in my yard, I'll have to be careful of them when I rake.

Eventually I had dinner. I was really not sure about spending the money on the lettuce because it didn't seem like much for the money, (I mean not compared to the bagged salad I'm used). But I washed it, spinned it, and then made a simple oil and lemon juice dressing, I had the lettuces, some minced Vidalia, some of the red pepper, zucchini, and minced parsley.

OH MY GOODNESS! So very good. The lettuce was sweet and crisp and I could tell the subtle differences in the flavors and textures. But you know how the fashion advice is look in the mirror and then remove 1 accessory? I should have done something like that with the salad. The pepper and zucchini were too heavy. Tomorrow I'll just mince some onion and parsley and toss that first then add the dressing, the sharpness of the onion and the wonderful fresh taste of the parsley were a perfect compliment to the greens. Hopefully my lettuces will stay crisp.

I'm not sure how long I can make the greens last. AND the farm I got these from won't be at the farmer's market next weekend. I'll never be able to eat bagged salad again.

Today I got up early and went to the opening day of the downtown market. I got there way early and looked around at the art for sale and the humane shelter's booth and petted the cats. I was mainly looking at the produce and only ended up buying some Brussels sprouts and strawberries. Then I went to another farmer's market and splurged on lettuces. I feel so decadent, they are organic, locally grown and cost $9/lb, I ended up with $6 worth of assorted lettuces (and nibbled on bits on the way home...very yummy). I also got some very nice young Vidalia onions, zucchini, red peppers, lemons and bananas (at various places). At some point I'm going to make a salad and top it with an olive oil and lemon dressing (but not much, just enough).

It's very pretty outside and tomorrow I'm doing yard work (must rake!). Dad called and asked if I wanted to go on a bird walk, so he's coming over and then we're going to get some lunch and go to this park he knows and walk around and watch birds. I'll ask if there are picnic areas maybe we can do a picnic lunch.

Totally forgot but tonight is a hockey game, don't know if dad is going to be able to watch it but it throws a wrench in my plans to see Casino Royale. Maybe I'll see that tomorrow.

Last night I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and I loved it! I'll probably end up buying it. Robert Downey Jr was great and so was Val Kilmer. I also liked the actress, although I'm not familiar with her at all.

Today I discovered I can access gmail from work! YAY!

I cut down my friends list and unsubed to a bunch of threads on b.org, I just don't have time since I can't access anything at work.

Now to massively clean for the insect guy tomorrow.