All Eyes on Me

Gah, long day yesterday. Yesterday was my day of "get kitchen furniture in order come hell or highwater, God damn it," and God damn it, I got it done. On Monday night my kitchen cart came in, and Jared and Charlotte so graciously put it together for me while I was cooking dinner. Monday was a really good day; Charlotte and Frances came over to Elsinore to have a little body-painting party, followed by dinner. Charlotte did a beautiful design on my lower back and on Frances's arm and shoulder. And to make things even better, beforehand she gave me one of the nicest massages I have ever had. I'll have to ask her in more detail exactly what she did, because it was fantastic. And while Frances and I made a dinner of pesto pasta and ratatouille, she and Jared undertook the surprisingly complex task of putting together the cart. How lucky I am to have such helpful, capable friends. :-) I really like the cart, too; it rolls smoothly, has a good-sized cabinet for storage, and is a perfect height to use as extra counterspace.

As for yesterday, I managed to make agreements with two sellers on Craigslist to pick up a replacement for the kitchen table and a replacement for the pantry shelf. Mission accomplished, but not easily. It involved lots of driving, more than I'd expected because on the first run neither of my two GPS devices could find the address. So that involved lots of fighting back and forth around one-way streets in Cambridge and lots of awkward calling of the seller trying to get to an address that neither my phone device or my car device recognized the existence of. But I managed to secure an item known as a chef's or baker's rack. I started looking for one as a replacement for the shelf-as-pantry we've got going on right now after seeing one in Matt and Lise's kitchen on Sunday, and very quickly I found one. I like it because it combines shelf space with a metal mesh backsplash you can use to hang things on. I've always kind of disliked the old pantry shelf; as Jared once put it, "It's a lot less kitchen than it is garage." I'll be glad to have a nicer, more versatile piece as a replacement. Though it occurs to me I'll need to buy some hooks if I want to start hanging stuff.

Getting the table didn't turn out to be too bad, and the seller was extremely helpful in getting it loaded into my car and making sure everything was set. The table is pretty similar to the one that was there, except it has a little drawer in one end. We removed the legs and it slid into the back of my car just fine. Though the table was all I really wanted, he said it came with four chairs at no extra charge. The chairs are not excessively nice, they are a bit worn and the white paint is flaking off, but I took them anyway just in case I can fix them up. They would probably be perfectly fine if they had a new coat of paint. Maybe I could sand them down and stain them. That will be a project for this summer, I think. And so I accomplished two fairly significant furniture pieces, all without spending a ton of money. Not bad.

After all of that, I was pretty exhausted, especially since I hadn't eaten all day and my back was stiff from all that time in the car. But still, I managed to get them unloaded at the house. They're not really set up yet, as the table needs to be reassembled and their predessors are still taking up their intended space, but I'm proud of getting it done. As I said, I will feel really good about everything when the place is finally all set up and ready to be used.

I'm now waiting at Watertown Toyota while my car is inspected to try and determine the reason my check engine is on. The car has been running normally as far as I can tell, but I'd rather figure out what's going on sooner rather than later when it might have developed into a problem. I just hope it doesn't take forever, I still have things I need to do today, and nothing bugs me more than wasting time.

I also don't particularly like being here. Watertown Toyota has been good to me in the past, so I keep coming back, but i hate the way they talk to me, like i'm either an idiot or a little kid. Maybe because I'm a woman or maybe just a young woman, but they act like they must talk slowly to me about my car or I won't follow. Now, its true that I don't know a thing about cars, but I'm not an idiot. And even when they don't talk like that, they're kind of condescending anyway. The last time I was here the guy was very helpful, but kept asking me if I had a father or a boyfriend to do the stuff he was suggesting for me. Again, I may be ignorant, but I'm not helpless. :-P

Ah, well. If my car is okay and I don't have to pay a ton for it, I guess I should be grateful.

I am a ball of nerves right now thanks to the snow I just drove to work in. I was so nervous about being late today due to having to dig my car out that I woke up ridiculously early AGAIN, then tried to go back to sleep, only to have the slightly-earlier-than-normal alarm I set not go off. So I rushed out to unbury Constantine, which fortunately wasn't too difficult since the snow was still fluffy, and drove over terrifyingly slippery roads that sometimes I would slide over even when I braked. I really hope it quits by the time I'm supposed to go home, but it's still coming down like crazy and doesn't seem to be turning into rain like the weather report said it would. :-( I'm kind of afraid to drive in it again.

I really just want to go home, curl up under a blanket, and not come out until the snow stops. I want to eat that lovely brined and pan-fried pork chop in the fridge, and a cup of hot apple cider to go with it. This being out in the snow stuff is for chumps.

Today Constantine goes into the shop to get serviced. It's just a routine thing, so he's okay, but he needs his tires rotated, I think. It occurs to me that I actually don't know how long he'll have to stay there, but I hope it's just for a couple of hours and then I can take him home again.  

While my car is being worked on, I will be making my monthly Target run. I'm thinking of taking a look around there for any possible vessel options for making my mini-pies. Target has lots of interesting crockery pieces for relatively cheap, but I'm concerned that to get as many as I'd like will come to a little more than I'm interested in paying. So I will probably prefer to go with the disposable aluminum stuff. Still, it will be fun to look. I do love crockery so, even the junky stuff. :-) I looked up a couple of recipes for mini pies, just for the baking time; I plan on using my own recipe for the actual pie, but I didn't know how the size would affect the temperature and time in the oven. It looks like for four-inch tins, bake for twenty minutes at 375 degrees. That is a lot quicker than a full-sized pie. It also suggested serving with a melon baller scoop's worth of ice cream on top; I like the idea of using a melon baller to make tiny garnish for a tiny pie.

I also want to get my suede jacket dry cleaned. It's a really nice jacket, but it's looking pretty grungy right now. Maybe I can get that done as well. I should make a to do list, to keep all my chores and assignments in order.

Tomorrow I'm going to need to find a way to go get my prescription. My parents don't know I'm on it and my car is in the shop at the moment, so I need to come up with a decent reason to borrow a car. When I want to go somewhere, especially in one of their cars, my parents aren't big on the answer to the question "Where are you going?" being "Out." Being home can be a drag sometimes-- I want to show respect for my parents, their rules, their feelings, but a lot of the time doing that makes me feel like a teenager.

Today is St. Patrick's Day, and my dear, mean old horse's birthday. Rish would have been 24 today. I miss you, you jerk.

I thoroughly enjoyed my do-nothing-be-useless weekend, so much so that I am very sad to see it go. I got my car back from my brother, who used it to go home for break. This week shouldn't be so bad, but still, there will be stuff here and there to do. I'm just glad I should still be free enough to be able to help Jared when he needs it, he's got a fair amount of work yet.

Easter is this coming Sunday. Still not sure what's happening with that. My parents are supposedly coming up to spend the weekend with my brother and I, but since he's not going to be available for all of it, my dad, who is a little bit grumbly about doing more traveling on top of all he's done for work lately, is a little less keen on coming up. I'll have to get after them to tell me what the plan is, so I can plan accordingly.