Riding the Bike with One Pedal.

Category: Rambling (Page 3 of 3)

1,2,3,4,5….

annnnd 6.

I will admit, I had planned to get Mimi Murano’s official MO Safety Inspection earlier than today. It’s just been a bit… chaotic.  So after my morning of meetings, I took off about 2, and headed out to get the inspection, with plans to continue on to get new plates at the DMV, as well as exchange the faulty DVR remote at the cable store.

Stop #1. I am greeted by a hefty man who looks like he’s walked out of a small-town movie set, shot by Clint Eastwood. When I ask if they can fit an inspection in today, he sorrowfully shakes his head, adjusts his glasses, and prepares to write me in for tomorrow. Sorry, buddy. I’ve got a limited window here, so I’m going to try someplace else.

Stop #2. I am greeted by a burly man who looks like he could be cast as one of numerous State Troopers in a straight-to-DVD Dukes of Hazzard movie. I repeat my inquiry. He shakes his head. Tells me they’re scheduling inspections after Tuesday of next week. Obviously, that’s a bit too late for me. I am starting to worry a little bit about my afternoon’s plans.

Stop #3. I spy an inspection sign on a muffler and brake place, and veer into their parking lot, thinking they might be a little less busy. The waiting area is spartan, and I apparently startled a customer out a deep stupor. I am greeted by a skinny man who looks like he was an extra in Deliverance. It wasn’t so much his disheveled appearance – greasy, unkempt hair seemingly trying to escape its own destiny and owner by spiraling outward in various directions – nor was it the various-sized nodules studding his neck and face, but it was his eyes, vacant and staring, while he intoned they had no time, and astutely observed that this was the end of the month. I exited quickly.

Stop #4. Actually, it was a drive-by. I started noticing that all these places have their phone numbers on their signs, and as I passed another hole-in-the-wall, I shouted out the phone number to myself. No luck, they, too, were busy.

Stop #5. I pull into the parking lot, and immediately find myself in a sticky cluster fuck of cars, as suddenly three vehicles are trying to exit. I park. And call the number on the side of their building. No again. Their inspector hurt himself and is out for a week.

I am starting to get a little panicky at this point.

Stop #6. I pull into another little garage’s lot, and see a woman swiffering the floor to the waiting room. Having made eye contact, I think it will be a little odd for me to call from 5 feet away. I walk in, she gestures towards the back, and a man comes around to ask me what I need. I repeat my request for an inspection.  He tells me to come back tomorrow. I think my shoulders slumped a good four inches.  I started to succumb to what seemed to be the inevitable, and asked what time they opened. 8 a.m. How long will it take? The guy asks what kind of car I have. I start to flail. I’m feeling defeated, and frustrated, because I have a 2006 Murano that has just over 17,000 miles on it, for pete’s sake, and I can’t believe I even have to HAVE an inspection, and I’m saying all of this while flapping my arms like a flightless bird, spiraling on his freshly-swiffered floor. He pauses, and says, “Come here. Write down your name and address. I do it right now.”

At one point, while I waited, I’m pretty sure I uttered an audible, fervent blessing upon this man.  This wasn’t the most comprehensive inspection, I’d wager, but frankly, my car doesn’t warrant a fine-tooth comb. It’s still under warranty!!  The bill was $12? I gave him $20, with heartfelt thanks. And he blessed me, at that point! It was a win-win, in my book.

So, finally, I have new plates (that are grammatically incorrect, but yours truly & a Sharpie are gonna fix that), a new remote, and I dropped off a lemon-berry slush for my husband, who’s having parent-teacher conferences all day today. I’ve got to get my halloween costume pulled together tonight, and I must say, I’m ready for the weekend!  I’ll get some pics of the costume up tomorrow, and hopefully (fingers crossed!) get back to slightly more regular blogging! I’ve missed it – and while the blogs I write in my head are undeniably awesome, they’re also super-easy to forget.

Heard on the Street

I pulled up to the Panera on the Plaza this morning, and noted this odd-lookin’ dude pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. Not odd in the sense of “By-Night-I-Live-Under-The-Bridge”, but I just don’t see a lot of professional men in sweater vests and Dutch Boy haircuts, and this one had his earbud-cellphone thing going on so he was talking while pacing. I wasn’t sure if there was much of an accent, mostly because I was trying to contain my surprise at hearing, “I just hope that getting off the SlrrrrrXicrrrrr is easier than getting off methadone.”

Well, I certainly hope so, too.

And once again, proving how the world is shrinking, I ran into a couple of co-workers. I marveled at how fantastically well (and fast) our brains can work, you know? I just glanced sideways into the seating area as I set my bag down, waiting for my breakfast sammie, and I saw my two friends. Chatting with them turned into a longer-than-expected delay, but was lovely and worth it. And didn’t require a smidgen of methadone!

It’s Good To Be Understood

I really, really, really like my dentist. I’ve had the same technician (Danica!) for years now, and she keeps up with our lives, because JWo goes to her as well.  I had to change dentists a few years ago when Dr. Palmer retired, so now I see Dr. Morgan, and anyone who recalls my cracked-tooth-crown-root-canal saga from last year will know, Dr. Morgan is quite patient with me. He drew diagrams of my tooth, explained the science and anatomy to me, and answered all my questions, because I am the original Curious Georgina, and I find all these things fascinating, plus, the way I see it, facts remove fear.

So  I don’t think either one of them blinked when I asked them if my tooth (yes, same said tooth) was loose. They said it was not. I said, “Well, I’ve been thinking I could just reach right in there and yank it out with a couple of swift tugs.” If they thought this was funny, they did not laugh. Nope. My tooth isn’t going anywhere. It’s funny what our brains can do – I’m still unused to the texture of the crown, and gum likes to stick to just one small part of the tooth. (Good thing I don’t really like gum all that much.)  I have phantom pain – phantom, because if I had real pain, I’d have levitated right out of the chair, what with the tapping percussion and testing they did on my tooth, and apparently, the delusion my tongue can push the tooth around.

But since my visit on Tuesday, I’ve let it go. Facts. Imagination. I have both in vast quantities. But nothing knocking about in my head ‘cept ideas and dreams. Welcome to Friday!

Widgets & Countdowns & Crazy

I’m a little nutters right now. Each day has been jam-packed, and it definitely feels like it’s Whack-A-Mole time here at PlazaJen Enterprises. (The PJE covers all aspects of my life, btw. Laundry to Work to Dogs.)

I did finally flip the switch on a bunch of WordPress Widgets. They should all be working fairly adequately, though I will say, I thought importing my Bloglines feeds would be a snap – and it was – but then re-categorizing them all? That blew chunks. Big beefy ones. Bleah. And it’s not one of those things I can  just leave hanging out there, either. OCD! Must! Finish! Or! Gouge! Out! Eyes! So who knows if I mastered that properly but right now, I am done with it and let’s leave it at that.

If you look over there to the right, you’ll see my Plurk feed, which may get entertaining over the next couple of days, as long as Plurk Mobile stays intact and doesn’t self-destruct. (Reports from the field are that it’s not working, which puts me in a TIZZY.) I’m off to NYC tomorrow, with a whip-back-home the next day, getting in late Friday night. Again with the little planes and the connecting flights, but at least coming back we’ll have time to eat/drink in Chicago. She says, even though last time we were stuck on the White Plains tarmac for an hour. LA LA LALALALALALA. And I forgot to buy my airline-approved liquor as a cost-saving measure. Maybe tomorrow. I miss the good old days, when you could take an entire bottle on board.

OH, and because I haven’t had enough time, I squeezed a pedicure in over lunch, went across the street with a co-worker, and while they were fairly fast, they were NOT my Nancy at Nailcessity, and they also charged more. Bleah. But I was happy, at least, to have gotten a good polish and buff….for fifteen minutes, until I dashed off to another meeting and put my very nice leather handbag on my foot as I got into my boss’ car. I noticed the bright pink polish on my bag, first, then the large gap down the center of my big toe. Nice. I will say this: what did we do before the internet? I found a site that instructed me on every way possible to remove nail polish from every surface imaginable.  And? It worked! With very little effort. So now to just get the toe fixed and be done with that … lordy!

Now, I’m heading home to finish laundry & pack. And pick up OPI’s “Kinky in Helsinki” from Beauty Express on my way there. Or not. A quick search (I was going to link you to the color!) shows it’s discontinued. I might have it at home….. or I might be that girl with one big toe that just doesn’t match the others. Hell, at the rate I’m going, I could start a trend.

One Day At A Time….

It’s hard, because I just got home (again) and am already wound up about the next trip (and it’s unholy, inconvenient schedule), but I just reminded myself that the next one is a week away, and I have many days and hours in-between now and then before I need to be worrying about it.

Recapping the travels to-date: I took the train for the first time! It was actually pretty fun, and very no-stress, and I listened to podcasts of  This American Life and worked on a new pair of socks. I even toyed with the idea of designing something on the fly that would incorporate railroad tracks intersplicing, but I didn’t spend much time following through on that. If I want to, I still can – the toes are all I got done.  We had a business trip in Rockford IL, and one of my co-workers had a meeting in Galesburg, so we took the train to Galesburg & got a rental car (an ’09 Murano!) for the trip up-state. Our meeting went well, and the only real glitch was the train getting in an hour later than planned. I hardly knit on the ride back, because we spent a lot of time in the observation car (which is the party car, or at least it was that night), chatting and talking – with our group and other folks who wanted to chat as well. The train is full of all sorts of people! And the movement is very soothing – it rocks a bit, so it’s like being on a boat, or in a giant steel bassinette! And they sell wine by the half-bottle, which I drank straight from said bottle. I put the “k” in “Klassy”, friends.

Then we went down to the Lake of the Ozarks on Friday, for the traditional post-4th get-together, complete with a fireworks show that rivals any small town.  Much less drama than last year, and I really feel my role in “the family” – not that I’ve not felt part of the family before, but there are all sorts factors – your own upbringing and then the time you spend with your in-laws, it all contributes to how connected you feel.

I was raised apart from relatives – we rarely saw any family outside of our tiny three-person nucleus. My father hated doing anything that involved my mother’s family, she hated her own mother, so we rarely did anything with her side of the tree. My Auntie K lives in Florida, so our time seeing her was infrequent, and I think my dad just liked his isolation and not having to bend his schedule or wishes or share a bathroom because of any familial obligations.   So I really grew up with these high walls and boundaries – and I still have them. I’m an only child, I’m very selfish about my time, and find it difficult to be flexible if it involves me giving up “my time” if I’ve committed to other things or just carved out a chunk of time in my head for myself.  So, I guess this is a long, roundabout way of saying that I’m embracing and understanding a new sort of family, and it’s good.

And “our” nuclear family – JWo & me, all three dogs, had a good time this afternoon swimming in the lake before we rode home (with the smell of wet dogs permeating our entire trip…).  I spent some time this weekend with a new yarn project – a CROCHET project, lord help us all, I really don’t do anything for the craft and I certainly won’t be pursuing many more projects like this. Oof.  More to blog, and more to come, peeps. I’ll definitely get more posts in this week…..before the next onslaught of travel begins! More on that tomorrow!

~~Jen

Hi, what day is it?

Well, I had these lofty high hopes that I’d go live with the new blog site on my birthday! I dunno if that’s still going to happen, because, well, I haven’t done squat to the template, or the home page, or really anything at all. I need some of those magic elves. You’d think if they can whip out cookies inside a tree, they’d be crackerjacks at html editing, right?!

Anyway, I’m still going to get this off the ground, and because next week is going to be NUTSO with work and travel and vacation (all rolled into one!), I don’t expect to have a lot of time to blog, anyway.  It’s ok. It’s a self-created deadline (and situation), and I know my friends will roll with it. I may just flip the switch and move over here, to give myself the kick-in-the-tuckus I need to get it done!

Holy Crap, I’m Tired.

This has been a LOT of work, just to reach this screen. I had to have a stranger install my WordPress files, and then I’ve battled my server and config pages, and then spent thirty minutes mentally arguing with an error message, that I got because I was trying to access the wrong thing. YAY! If this were running, I’d be skinny.

More to come. I have even announced this site yet. Just a big quiet room, four white walls, waiting for me to do mah thang. And you know I will.

Hello world!

I don’t want to delete the first auto-generated post, because this entire process has felt like giving birth, if I knew what giving birth was like, but I’m pretty sure the screaming has been comparable.  But I am not leaving the dippy auto-generated text in here. So there.

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