Check

A few weeks ago, I posted about some of things that I wanted to do before leaving town. I'll be honest, it was a little small (kind of sad really) and I never ending up adding to it.

I mean, I'm not exactly picking up and moving all that far away. I could really just come back for dinner or some other activity any time I wanted to. . .so thus ended the adventurous list making. I did however, make some effort to complete the things on my list, since I do love being able to cross things off lists!

Anyway, let me stop cut chit chat and get to the point. . .I figured I'd update you on the progress.

Here's the original list

"1. Make one last trip to Judie's, my favorite restaurant on the face of the planet
2. Finally have money for the homeless man downtown that I always talk to but never actually have change for
3. Go to a movie at the arts cinema in town. I love going to movies here and haven't been to one in ages
4. Have a picnic on top of Sugarloaf, a mountain I love hanging out on, but somehow have not managed to picnic at
5. Drive down this random side road that I always see and wonder where it leads to but never have the time to explore"

Well, I still haven't done either 1 or 2: The latter because the homeless man has disappeared from his usual location, probably kicked out by the businesses surrounding it:(

I did however make it to Noho, to the small theater and enjoyed watching this documentary about Joan Rivers career. It sounds ridiculous but it was actually pretty interesting (and somewhat terrifying!)

4 took place just yesterday, a delightful picnic of chicken salad sandwich, Cape Cod potato chips, and green tea. Followed by some glorious basking in the sun and reading {the picnic abruptly ended when I was attacked and bitten by some weird ant thing and freaked out:)}

And 5? Well, 5 was somewhat of a disappointment. I took the side road, somewhat excited about getting lost. But upon taking the turn, I realized I still knew exactly where I was! Still, though I'm happy that now I know where the road goes, no more mystery!

done and DONE (sort of)

Well, loyal readers, the moment you've all been waiting for (well, OK, maybe just me!) has arrived.

I am no longer employed by The Writer. As in, tomorrow I will not be driving up a mountain to work. Or making ridiculous lists that will never get done, or. . .OK, OK sorry I'm still trying to convince myself that my year of total craziness is finally over.

My day was just like any other day: full of nonsensical conversations, asking if The Writer remembered to eat breakfast, going over several of her to-do lists from which nothing will get done.

I will say, however, that The Writer did get me a coconut cake, after slyly getting out of me the other day that coconut cake is one of my favorite cake.

I contemplated asking to purchase one of her books and having it autographed, but for some reason I didn't. I kind of wish I had, I think it would have been nice for her.

And the crowning glory. . .my final act of my final day with The Writer??

You guessed it.

Those precious last minutes were spend be-gloved and in an apron dying The Writer's hair Ash Blonde for her upcoming vacation South. . .

As I prepared to leave, The Writer began to cry (as expected) and then something happened that you will not believe.

Seriously, you won't even believe it.

It's inconceivable.



I started to cry
(and then I pulled it together immediately and stopped)

You're shocked, I know. I still am.



Oh yea, about that "sort of" part. . .I may or may not have offered to continue to do some web work from Boston since I've yet to find a job which is slightly distressing and rent can't pay itself.

I know I'm nuts. But what else is new. Plus, how boring would this blog be if I wasn't?

Just Another Tuesday

Today I met a 93 year old woman named Peg who is more alert and with it than I am.

Then I came home from work and had a lovely picnic in the park with friends.

Then I went and got ice cream and watched the sun set with more friends.

Have I mentioned I love this place.

Day One Down!

Day one of the three day home stretch is over!!

No surprise. . .The Writer and I didn't get very much done.

A new potential replacement for moi came to meet The Writer and interview today and it was quite interesting. The girl, similar to me, was a journalism major (if this isn't a warning about majoring in journalism in college, I don't know what is!) and very interested in The Writer's career. She asked a lot of questions about when The Writer took time to write during the day and what she was working on currently.

The Writer did a great job of making things up and generally trying to avoid the question while still talking a lot.

I did a horrible job of somehow trying to communicate with the girl (via frantic eye contact) that she has no idea what she is getting into. That The Writer actually does little to know writing and this "project" that she's been going on about will probably never come to fruition.

Also, whenever the prospectives ask questions about the best method for calming The Writer down during a freak-out or other things that could never be answered (honestly) in front of The Writer, I just bumble along trying to sound supportive--as if The Writer is completely normal all the time.

Three Days

Sorry I neglected by blogely duties a bit this week. It's been crazy as you may have gleaned from my last post about my car. I'm happy to post that Betsy is back in action. Here she is snuggled back in her spot :0)


Furthermore, my darling Becca has returned to the great state of MA. She's been on the hill (Capitol, that is) for the last 3 months, but now she's here! And we can start planning our move to Boston in person instead of via e-mails. yay!

AND last but certainly not least. I only have three days (I'm clearly not excited or anything) of my job left. Now this is 1) sort of panic inducing given that I'll then be jobless. But it's also 2)amazing because I'll be free from the random whims, crazy breakdown, and other ridiculous episodes that have made up my time with The Writer.

I hope everyone's weekend was supremely entertaining. Mine was filled with hanging out with fun friends all weekend long and playing this game called "Things" that I LOVE. I mean, I generally just love playing games but this one is fab, and you can play it with large groups which is always a bonus.

Only one more weekend in my valley. EEK!

DMV

Sometime around 7 AM this morning, I awoke (Despite it being an hour early than my normal start) and began one of the most stressful and unexpected days I've had in awhile.

8:15 AM: Head out the door and hop into my car to meet my dad a state away to take care of some title business with my car

8:16 AM: Breathe a sigh of relief as my car seems to start without problems. Betsy (car) has been quite sick lately, and I was worried she wasn't going to make it.

9:00AM: Meet Dad outside the DMV, sail through the first line (to our shock) and sit down to wait for our number to be called

9:20 AM: Realize that Dad forgot the new insurance card for me; meaning we might run into some problems

9:25 AM: Get out number called, head over only to be shortly rejected by the DMV employees because of said insurance card

9:30AM: Both Dad and I are kind of irritated, but we head out and I ask him to listen to Betsy and see if he can diagnose the problem. He checks it out, and we organize a time for me to take her to Dad's mechanic. He agrees she doesn't sound too good. I head home praying the whole way that I make it.

10:45AM: Home on the couch thinking about what to do that day, I get a call from Dad. After describing the problem to his mechanic, it appears that some valve on my car is sticking, and it it's not fixed, my engine will flood or something and be completely shot. This repair is outrageously expensive (NOT as expensive as having a new engine put in, however. That would cost more than my car is even worth!) and needs to be done immediately to save the car.

11:00AM: Hop back in my dying car and head BACK the way I just came, except even further this time. The entire time, I attempted to control a burgeoning panic attack and drive while crying (which you should NEVER do) because car problems are the most stressful thing I can think of.

12:30AM: Drop car off at mechanic. Hitch a ride with Dad back home. I am now carless and stressed, and oh, yea! I'm moving in 11 days!

Thankfully, I have lovely, wonderful roommates who are letting me use their cars to get to work. Oh where would I be without them??

Five more days

In exactly two weeks, I will be in Boston in my new place!! I'm sort of excited and for some reason, sort of TERRIFIED!

I am, however, mostly excited. Actual moving is such a pain, but cleaning and decorating and being reunited with my Becca is going to be fabulous!

********************

I'm not really sure how to preface the situation that follows but I'll just launch into it.

Last week, I attempted to do some vacuuming for The Writer but for some reason the vacuum wasn't working. Partner had been cleaning up his camper with it, so I assumed the bag was just full.

Cut to this afternoon. I wasted approximately an hour searching for the appropriate size vacuum bags.

Finally, I got it together and tried to start vacuuming. No dice. I conclude their must be a clog and The Writer and I spend some time taking apart the whole vacuum.

I finally managed to see around an S curve something that appeared to be a dog hair clog. Using some tools, I starting shaking it loose and an enormous clump of something came shooting out.

"Oh I know what that is" The Writer said.

I asked what she meant.

"It's a dead baby mouse. . ."

Umm, WHAT??? I almost vomited. The clog didn't end their, however, as their was not one, not two, but THREE baby mouse skeleton hair ball things clogged down the vacuum pipe.

Are you kidding me?!? Why did Partner vacuum up a bunch of dead baby mice? Why not sweep them into the trash. I was so disgusted, I just left the house to finish de-clogging the machine and let The Writer clean up the mouse corpses.

Five more days.

Mountain Goats

Several ridiculous events occurred this morning that proved to be only the start of a ridiculous day

1. As I was driving to work, I happened to glance over at one point only to see a mountain goat of some sort climbing up a dirt pile in someone's front yard. I panicked briefly thinking it was like on the loose from the mountains (?? I'm clearly super logical in the morning) until I realized that there were dozens and dozens of them just milling around in this front yard eating hay and picking at dirt. So strange!

2. Shortly after arriving to work, I sat down and went to straighten out my shirt. It was at this point that I realized I had somehow managed to smear a large amount of peanut butter on the hem of my shirt and it was now dried and crusty. Fabulous. I scraped it off, but I'm pretty sure I just smelled like peanut butter for the rest of the work day.

3. The Writer informed me today after taking 2 MONTHS to make decision about her office and separate work room and how they should be set up, that she wanted us to switch the two rooms making her office the new work room and vice versa. Shortly after this announcement, I found myself repeating the matra "one and a half weeks, one and a half weeks. . ."

Sometimes I wonder what my life in Boston will be like. It is possible that things could get any more out of control? Gosh, I hope not!

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On a much better note, my crazy morning did not change the fact that I was coming of some fabulous weekend acitivites. For part of the weekend, I spent my time feeling sick to my stomach from moving stress and dealing with my car, Betsy who is on her last leg {I think :(}.

The rest of the weekend though was spend having fun with good friends, actually sort of doing OK at pool (!), attending a beautiful shower for a friend, making a stop at the north shore for a roomies grad party and spending some lovely time Sunday relaxing and going swimming.

Phew! I think that's it! Here are some grainy pictures (you guessed it, taken with my phone!)

showing off the iPhone 4 (which no doubt takes way better pix than mine)

Enjoying some late night Antonio's and hoping not to get egged. EEK!

Pretty shower table!

Even prettier bridesmaid. Manning the gift table and trying to keep me and my table mates from cheating at Bridal Bingo;0)

Hitting the Fan

Any drama I was spared when telling The Writer I was leaving may be slowly worming it's way back in.

For the past two days, The Writer's stress level has been rising slowly but surely. Her mechanism for dealing with stress is most often sleep. hours and hours of sleep. So when I arrived today and she told me she was really tired and might need to nap, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride of a day.

Most of my time was spent trying to keep The Writer on task, remind her constantly of what she was doing and playing the "word guessing game" because when she is stressed The Writer forgets her words (she had a stroke when she was younger), and decipher her jumbled trains of thought.

It's sort of comical to even me at times.

The Writer: Oh, I really need you to get the. . .the. . .
Me (scanning the room for what triggered her thought): Paper? Pen? Book? Cat??
The Writer: No, uhh, come one think, think. . .

Me: Umm. . . Budget? Mail. . .? (After awhile I start stretching for things) the letters you need to send?

The Writer? YES! That's it!

I scurry off to get the letter and return

The Writer: . . .Oh, thanks hun. What are these for?

Me: you wanted them for . . .something. . .?

The Writer: OK. Umm, let's do that later. . .(she clearly has no clue why she needed them and then we head off on another guessing game)

About an hour later, she'll ask me if we ever got the letters ready to mail out. Which of course we didn't because they're sitting on the bottom of a pile of things I've been collecting all day.

**************
Speaking of words, I seem to be having trouble remembering mine. EEK! I think The Writer rubbed off on me. I just reread this and had to change several things that made NO sense.

Before I go, though, let me apologize for my blog post late Tuesday night. I was clearly deranged with tiredness as evidenced by my lengthy stream-of-consciousness discussion about my new daffodil pillow. Now you all know what happens when I get tired. It's not pretty. But boy is is chatty!

Daffodil Yellow

After schlepping out of bed this morning and languishing a bit longer than usual on the couch (I despise rushing around in the morning), I finally managed to get it together for work.

Just a few minutes before I was to leave, The Writer gave me a buzz to inform me that she, in fact,was not returning to town today. We then proceeded to have a phone conversation about what sort of work needs to take place while her stay is extended.

Regular readers, you know that in person most of our conversations are completely incoherent. Frankly, it's a wonder anything ever gets communicated.

If you will for a moment, imagine one of those conversations taking place on the phone. Now add a dog scuffling around in the background, The Writer "making breakfast", a side conversation of some sort going on, and me on speaker phone straining to createe some semblance of order out of everything The Writer is blathering on about.

Exactly.

I did, however, succeed in my task, and was able to create a functional to-do list for the day. And stick to it. You may or may not be aware, that I might, just maybe, have a teensy problem with actually doing the work I'm supposed to while "working from home."

I always start out with good intentions! It's just that I get distracted by answering personal e-mails, and watching TV, and running errands I've been meaning to run forever. You know, the usual.

Tomorrow is back to normal (hah!) although I'm sure The Writer will be completely flustered after her out-of-town stay. Especially since Partner has no doubt been high the whole time and the house will be a mess. Oy vey.

*******************
In more exciting news (in my world anyway!): Today I dropped a large amount of money on a new bed set for my new bed in my new place.

I'm very excited about my color scheme which is going to have a soft gray and black base with bright reds, yellows, and navies for pops of color.

I bought a new dove gray quilt with bright yellow summer sheets and spent an unnecessary amount of money on this darling pillow
so cute, no? I'm having buyers remorse about it though, so I might return it. I always think to myself that I could just make the same exact thing for cheaper. Even though I never would. Then I return it, and then wish I hadn't. And then go back but it's gone. And so on.

So maybe I'll keep it. It'll be like ISpy when I post pictures of the new place. See if you can find the daffodil pillow in K's room:0)

OK it's getting late, and I actually have to go in to work tomorrow. Sweet Dreams

Working from home

Yesterday boss lady pulled a fast one on me and called to tell me she was driving to some friends house until Tuesday because their mother passed away and I'd be working from home.

I'm sure you can imagine I was devastated.


ahah. err, I mean thrilled!

My day was surprisingly productive (a.k.a. I actually did the work I was supposed to, and their was a lot of it!)

On top of it, I got laundry done, worked out, went shopping, ran errands, applied for a dream job, and even managed to watch some weird whodunit movie about swimsuit models being killed on an isolated island (don't ask).

Also, I've been looking at this picture and giggling all day. How cute are these two little chickens? I can't even get enough of them. They are my cousins daughters and I could just spend all day playing with them and never get bored.


They are well behaved, super smart, and colored me several lovely pictures of unicorns and doggies yesterday from their little travel coloring books.

love love love;0)

List

This is the only kind of activity that should ever take place on weeks like this. No work. No responsibilities, nothing but this.

*****************

So now that I'm down to 3 weeks left here I've started a list of things that I want to do/enjoy before I make my home somewhere else. Here's what I've got so far:

1. Make one last trip to Judie's, my favorite restaurant on the face of the planet
2. Finally have money for the homeless man downtown that I always talk to but never actually have change for
3. Go to a movie at the arts cinema in town. I love going to movies here and haven't been to one in ages
4. Have a picnic on top of Sugarloaf, a mountain I love hanging out on, but somehow have not managed to picnic at
5. Drive down this random side road that I always see and wonder where it leads to but never have the time to explore

There you go. It's kind of small, but I did just start it today technically, so I'm sure it'll grow.

The Countdown Begins

The proverbial cat is out of the bag.

The Writer's knows I'm leaving.

No one died. Nothing was thrown at my head. Tears were almost shed (on her part!), but were kept at bay.

She did go into complete manic mode and already has an ad up online for a new assistant but listed the start date after I leave and she and Partner go on vacation in August. Phew. That was definitely my biggest fear, that she'd kick me out before these next 3 weeks were up, and let's face it: I kind of need this job for as long as possible.

With telling The Writer comes a sort of real realization that I'm actually leaving my lovely valley.

I'm sad.

And happy.

and will definitely not miss the smell of cow that assaults my nose the moment I step out of Barnes and Noble after a lovely air conditioned few hours of reading (like it did tonight. bleck!).

Paris Vogue

Tomorrow is the big day! The Writer is getting dumped. She is so out of it with this weather, I'm not even sure she'll realize what's happening.

This afternoon, I went in to The Writer's office to get her for lunch to find her chucking her computer mouse across the desk. She was throwing a tantrum because she couldn't figure out how to do what she wanted to do. I literally had to take control as if she was a child, demand she leave the office and get a snack and then usher her out of the room. . .if nothing else, I guess I can always be a preschool teacher in Boston.

I have the experience.
~
Zany Writer moment of the day:

I'm sitting in the "work room" while The Writer is wandering around the house/kitchen doing God knows what. Out of the blue I hear her yell to me

"You know I am not even interested in learning how to zip line!"

Unable to control myself I actually laughed aloud and asked if she was supposed to go anytime soon?

Her response: Yeah! It's like I'd rather learn how to jump out of a friggin' plane or something.

I waited, hoping for some context to enter this convo. Nothing. A few seconds later she went out for a cigarette. I'm pretty sure she's not going zip lining anytime soon. . .?

Just another Tuesday I guess.

****************
In an effort to beat the heat this evening I headed to one of my favorite spots on the planet: Barnes and Noble.

I did some actual work and then, of course headed for the mags. I decided on French Vogue today and, as usual, wasn't disappointed.

Vogue Paris is so fascinating and has the most quirky ad campaigns sometimes. Here are some fun ones:

This little gem was at the bottom of an ad for Lite Coca-Cola in designer bottles

It says: For your health, eat at least five fruits or vegetables each day.

I have no idea how this connects to drinking designer lite Coke, but I thought it was cute.

And finally:


This was opposite an article excitedly exclaiming that "new" research shows that sun is good for Vitamin D, positive attitude, and if I translated right, could stall some types of cancer? Um, thanks Vogue, but I'm pretty sure that's still no reason to get burned to a crisp in the French Riviera. That certainly wouldn't put me in a positive mood!

Land of the Free

Happy Fourth of July!!!

(OK, so I know I'm a day late and a dollar short on this, but just go with it!)

Yesterday, I had a glorious day celebrating my country's independence. The roommates and I after vacillating between plans all week decided to have a nice little afternoon with a few friends full of grilling, margaritas, and fourth of july activites.



We starting things off by heading to our town parade. It was so fun seeing all the firetrucks, bagpipe players, horse riders, etc. And we also had tons of fun scrambling for candy with the other (real) kids. I maybe even scraped my knee during one intense stretch for a tootsie roll:0)

the parade was followed buy a feast with friends including steak tips, potato salad, and a flag cake! Here are some pictures of my cutie pie roommates with our treats. . .yum!

The evening was finished off with friends and fireworks, my favorite! They were actually really great this year, and such fun to watch. My favorites are the roman candles and the gold ones that look like weeping willows as they fall.

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Oh yea, and if you're wondering. I'm telling The Writer this Wednesday that I am going to be leaving her employ. Wish me luck (and safety!)