Quiet day

Nice, quiet weekend.  Went to the symphony last night with Brody's Mom and had a lovely evening,  today is game day with friends and before that a lovely session of foot reflexology and probably a nap.  I am thinking of going to breakfast or making same here at home,

Not much happening but I wanted to say 'hi'.

Not so much

Went to the house yesterday and realized it is not as spacious as I first envisioned.  I have enough art for two houses now and need to slow down and re-think furniture.  I have the new kitchen mapped out, light cherry cabinets, dark hardwood floor, black appliances, and granite countertops.  Lots of small islands and cabinets for storage and lots of lights.  The sofa I covet may not fit so I have to step back and re-think.  The bedroom situation may have reversed with the smaller bedroom becoming the music and music office room.  I can have a small office in the bedroom as well.  The floors need some sanding and then refinishing.  Brad the Contractor will handle it all, including some cosmetic painting of the outside and removal of some rather large bushes/small trees.  Brad will also be handling the move.  I decided to also have the bath torn out and the tub replaced with a walk-in shower. 

I was so excited when I got home and yakked on the phone for a long time with JB.

Gastric has taken an actual vacation day and I am here all alone.  Oh, well.  She is picking me up and taking me shopping and then will come to my place and I will give tech support for her iPad.  The weather is crappy today...cold and wet.  Perfect day for allergies and a sinus headache.

Oh, well, on to the day!

If Detroit can't win it all...

I am happy the Giants won the World Series and not just because I won a $10 bet.  I hate KC.  Originally I had wagered $5 but after the Giants went up 3-2 I told my wagering compadre that double or nothing that it would go all seven games.  Yee-ha...it did and the Giants won it all.  Almost blew it in the bottom of the ninth on a E-8, but the last KCbatter fouled out to the Panda and voila, they won it all, and so did I.

Today after the Diversity Social at work I am meeting with my general contractor to go get what I want done to the new house.  I have a list and so does he.  I don't know if we will be going to the house for a walk through.  A friend is coming along for the ride and to see the house.  I just want a day off and a little peace of mind, some rest and a quick resolution, and closing.  I am saving my vacation time for when I move and have to take some time off to get settled. Then I can start taking Fridays off for the summer and really take care of the new house.

Yes, looking forward to the time off at Thanksgiving.  I enjoy working over the Christmas holidays as it is so quiet at worki can get a great deal of work done.  Two months left to this year.  If I can make it patiently through the next ninety days I will be good to go for the move.  But a day off would be lovely.

So, now I am going go to work and relish my wager win.

Tuesday panics

For some reason, and I think I may k ow why, I was just in a panic yesterday about the house.  I was afraid. And will continue to be afraid until we actually close, that I won't get the house.  My current bedroom/music room looks like a staging area for Normandy.  Not that I have bought anything more than artwork and cat furniture, but still...

I am feeling better about things today. Perhaps because I actually got some sleep night night.  Had a nice relaxing dinner with friends after work and came home and just crashed.  Actually slept until 4:00 a.m.  Showered and practiced and I am not In Such a shit and a sweat about getting the house.  I was stressing so hard yesterday that my financial guy arranged for me to get a massage.  What a guy!

I did call my psychiatrist and get some sleeping medication.  Prior to last night I was only getting about three or four hours of sleep a night.  With the time change this weekend and and all I hope to catch up on some rest.  No plans this weekend.  The plan for today is to come bphope and get some grocery shopping done.  Watch the World Series and collect on my wager.  I have the Giants in seven and tonight is the night.

Time to get to work and do some, well, work....

So...

This will prove to be a busy week.  Monday I have therapy and my mandolin lesson. Tuesday a haircut and dinner with friends.  Wednesday the furnace gets winterized.  Thursday I meet with my contractor and Friday I teach guitar.  The weekend looks free...so far.

For some reason and I will discuss it with the mandolin doctor I fear praticing.  Once I get through what I am learning for the following week I feel better but basically practicing is a chore and it shouldn't be.  I love music and I am slowly getting better on the mandolin but I think if my mindset were better I would pick it up faster.  Yep, I need an attitude adjustment.

I am waiting to hear about the down payment on the house.  I get paid, monthly, on the last day of the month so it would work out well if I could cut a check this weekend. I'd feel better if they had some earnest monies and the sign in front of the house said sell pending.  Brad, the contractor, is coming Thursday to discuss the renovation.  I am prepare to have the kitchen completely torn out, the bathtub taken out and the floors redone, as well as th house painted.  I'd like the wall paper in the dining room gone and a two tone paint job done.  Brad wants to talk about some plumbing issues and some outside cosmetic issues.  I listen and spend.  I have a notebook full of changes I want and so does Brad.  I listen I spend.

I am anxious...free floating type.  There is still some unresolved tension with Mal. I just have to talk to Hyphen and let her know how I feel.  Some of the anxiety is about the house and wanting to put up the earnest monies.  Once that is done I will feel more in control of the situation.  And getting started on the kitchen and bath tear outs and knowing I have the funds to do what both Brad and I want will relieve some stress.

So. It is 2:30 Monday morning, I am wide awake, and anxious.  Some of the new cat furniture will come this week.  It will look great in the new house.  My music room/bedroom currently looks like a staging area.  Framed pictures, furniture, a new vacuum.  Yep, I am out of room.  I will double my space at the new house.  And you know I know what I am doing.  My aunt called last Saturday and tried to tell me what I should do regarding the new residence and I wanted to crawl through the phone and rip her face off.  I have a notebook of concerns and ideas and I am on top of things.  I just want to get moving. I guess, I felt like she was maybe treating me like I was a child, and really she is just treating me as if I were her child.   I consult my new house notebook daily, adding new items and concerns.  I think I am sold on getting the tub ripped out and a walk in shower installed.  I am almost certain to put in a security system, which will help with my homeowners insurance.  Motion lights outside and on the front porch.  I am now just thinking out loud and this is helping me to relieve some stress.  Now, if I could just sleep some before going to work...

Later

Temper, temper, Ms. Cranky Pants

The last two days I have gone home to small disasters wrought by the cats.  I lost it both days, once in front of Gastric.  I warned her I was going to blow and she said go ahead, so I did.  I yelled and yelled.  And the only cat it impacted was Gonif, my baby and most sensitive cat.  I have got to learn not to lose it, especially as it concerns Mister Gonif Cat.  I am sitting here at work, dreaming of moving into my new home and how many happy times the home will see and the fixated on some sad times, like when a old Gonif goes across the Rainbow Bridge (*euphemism).  I remember how upset I was the last time I lost a kitty and it was not even mine, it was Jerry's late cat Sassy, who only outlived her owner by a few months.  Alright I have to pull myself together.  Yes, there will be sad times ahead, but, hopefully, more happy times.  My cats are really my family now.  Parents...gone...grandparents...gone...Aunties (and uncles)...gone. Yes, my dad's older brother is still around and just celebrated an eighty-something birthday.  And his wife, my Aunt, has been good family to me...but they are in California.  Cousins in Chicago, Seattle and California.  Some family in the Detroit Area but since I apparently ran away from home I don't hear from them unless they need something from me, which is rare. 

So, bottom line, I better learn to stifle the temper and be nicer to the cats, especially Gonif.  Yelling doesn't bother Yankel and Simcha, just Gonif.  The other two just look at me and seem puzzled, or stare at a visibly shaken Gonif and wonder what's up with that.

So for happier times, look to move in by Passover 2015.  Seder-rific.

Big day into a big night

Gastric, as she had been threatening to do all week, called in sick today but I suspect it is more of a mental health day than an illness.  So I am all along.  Went to Subway and snagged sandwiches for a few of us.  I'll eat at my desk.  Leaving at 4:00.  That is when the limo will depart.  I really need to get a good alias for her.  How about She Without an Alias?  Okay, I will work on it.

Big to do on campus tonight to mark the start of a major capital campaign for MSU.  I am going to the dinner at Beaumont extravaganza.  The preliminaries didn't interest me.  I think five hours in celebration of MSU is a bit lengthy, even for a diehard MSU supporter like myself.  Dinner at 8 will be sufficient.  Business casual is the attire.  I will have time to go home and rest before dinner. 

Tomorrow, ah, tomorrow, is the big rivalry football game between MSU and the other Michigan university.  Stand tall, men, and beat the piss out of the A2 riff raff.  I don't know if I will be brave enough to watch the game.  UofM has had a bad season so far and they really may be pumped for this game and take us to task.  I am prayerful we are equally as pumped and take it to them.  Go Green (Go White...fight, fight, fight)

Whatever the outcome of the game the town will be a looney bin for a few days.  I shan't be going out tomorrow.  I think I shall cook up some stew or short ribs turning into tacos.  Slow cooking day.

I wish, I wish, I wish I knew more about the remodel of the house.  And also if I can get the condo sold quickly.  I am getting anxious, like I used to before the end of the year and the holidays.  Having the house worked on will make the winter pass more quickly.  I hope.

I am trying to get an analogy worked out. Something along the lines of:  It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.  And it came out like: it's not the amount of life lived but a life well lived.  This was brought on as I was listening to music yesterday and the song was very upbeat and I wondered, to myself of course, how the singer might have sung the song if she was aware that she'd be dead at a young age.  So, I thought, along the lines, that it isn't the length of the live lived, but the how it is lived.  She sung that song like there was no tomorrow to worry about.  She was living...not worried about how long she would like, but living for the moment.  I need to be more in the moment.