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A place for family and friends to see what I'm up to. Visitors welcome here.

Hail Guest, we ask not what thou art.
If Friend, we greet thee, hand and heart.
If Stranger, such no longer be.
If Foe, our love will conquer thee.
-Old Welsh Door Verse

Monday, August 01, 2011

Kinda Pooped.

We all got 'em.

I tried to lump all my errands into one trip today, in a line to minimize backtracking.  It worked out great and I'm not exhausted (hooray), but I did a lot of stuff.  Because this is my online journal, bear with me as I list what I took care of today.

First stop was the drugstore for a baby card.  My oldest and his wife are having their first child in just a couple more weeks and DH and I wanted to send some money for a stroller (or whatever else they want).  Sending money to Japan has been a little complicated, so we were delighted when my mom approached two Japanese women in a restaurant and asked what they thought was the best way to send money to a Japanese family.  Their answer: International postal money orders.  The fee is under $5.00 and it's a safe, smooth process.  When they try to cash the money order they have to show proof of identification and their address has to match what I put on the MO.

I had to control myself choosing a card.  They had such cute ones.  I really loved the clothesline with the baby bibs hanging by real, tiny little clothespins but I controlled myself and found a sweet one that wasn't 1) bulky and 2) heavy.

Next stop was the ATM in the grocery next store.

Then to the post office.  The little office in the neighboring town is actually closer to me than our town office (and never crowded like the big one in town) so I headed there.  Pretty seamless process.

Next stop was our town library.  It's a gorgeous thing...


Entrance. To the left is the used bookstore where I dropped my donation.  There's a coffee bar there, too.  Sometimes I wish I liked coffee.
Children's story area.  Blue floor is a thick rubber mat.
Check-out.  I got my card here.  Gorgeous mission styling throughout.  That's not a rug but tile on the floor.
Pretty cool, huh?  I've only seen pictures.  Seems to be videos, but there is another video section so I'm not sure what these are.  Guess I'll check it out next time.

Young adults. Spectacular "found" mosaic work.
And my favorite section upstairs in reference.  Actually, my FAVorite section is the little niche at the back of the photo.  There's a window there and I love to tuck in to read there.  During the school year I want to take one evening a week and do cross stitch up there.  Usually quiet (today there was a screaming child who needed to be taken home much earlier than he actually was).  For today's "assignment" I was sitting at a table next to the window just to the left of the fireplace.

My library card.  I had one for the old library for 35 years and only used it twice.  Maybe I'll take better advantage of this one.
Boring, huh?  Sorry.  You can see I really do like our library, although so far I haven't spent a whole lot of time there.

Anyway, next on my route was the Camarillo Police Department.  I have a box of stuffed animals I want to move out and several people recommended donating them to the CPD.  I wanted to make sure that was a real option, and a very nice lady enthusiastically told me they would take them.  I like to think of them comforting a child in a difficult situation.

As a teacher in California, I am required to get a TB test every four years and this summer is my turn.  I tried to stop at the medical clinic that does our testing but ran into a parking lot problem so just went back into the street and promised to come back in the afternoon.  I think my Universe was probably taking care of me again.  Later I imagined that a Monday morning just might have been pretty busy there.

Anyway, I headed to Costco.  First I got my passport photo taken.  It's pretty awful but I figure that just puts me in with an elite group of international travelers. I couldn't figure out why I looked so washed out; then I realized that I had forgotten blush when I did my photo make-up.  And I must be allergic to something in the make-up, 'cause my eye was tearing all morning (still is), which gave me a look way beyond "dewy-eyed."   The photog asked if I wanted another one and I said it was fine.  I'm sure that the "What the hell am I doing here?" look is the one I'll be wearing when I travel anyway, so I'll match.  Got groceries, then gas, then headed back.

Stopped at Home Depot for three more retainer blocks and some 2x6 redwood to finish out my retainer planter project.  That section of deck has been missing one 12-foot strip of decking for about ten years (waiting until I got the planter done).  Now I can finish that out once and for all tomorrow.  From there, on to Target for some Dymo label refills.  (I know, the story builds doesn't it?)

Back in Camarillo I stopped at the Presto Pasta.  DH got dinner there last night, but I didn't recognize my shrimp parmigiana (the little pieces of battered, fried shrimp looked like sausages to me).  DH drove all the way back to tell them we'd been shorted the entree and they gave him another one.  While he was gone (and not answering his phone) my son, who used to work there, pointed to one of the entree's and said, "This is your shrimp parmigiana, Mom."  When DH got back we had two of them.  Sadly, because the shrimp was battered and fried, I couldn't eat it anyway,  So, we had two dinners with nobody to eat them.  I felt sorry for the guy who made both of them (and was probably wondering if he'd lost his mind) and went in on my Errandscapade and paid for the dinner.  I think it made the manager's day.  He kept offering me drinks and cookies.

It's a sad commentary on our culture that people won't fess up when they make a mistake like this, or try to make it whole.  But one of my favorite lines from a song is from Billy Joel's "My Life."

"...you wake up with yourself."  I wake up with myself every morning, and if I'm going to like the experience, I have to try to remedy my mistakes.

One last stop for the day was back at the medical clinic.  Ran into two teacher friends, both there for the same reason as I.  Enjoyed a short visit, got my injections (it's never hurt before but today was OUCH time).  Have to go back on Wednesday afternoon.  My plan is to drive about 30 minutes from here to submit my passport application and materials, then come back to town to get my test read.

Tomorrow...

I'm splitting my time between purging the spare room and garage so that I can give up our storage unit (the year's rent on that thing = a round-trip ticket to Japan.  Nothing in there is that valuable) and working on my Christmas jacket. I will take pity and not bore you with all the re-arranging plans to make this work.

My jacket is coming along splendidly.

Yesterday I had a moment of terror when I started to cut out the pieces.  I'd spent hours creating that strip-pieced fabric and was really nervous about making that first cut.


But, I got over it and got it all cut out except for set of pieces that I have to create using the black background fabric and leftover strips of the pieced.

Here's some of what I did finish:

The little quilt for the back.

Pockets.

I'll get that last piece done tomorrow, then can start stitching it all up.  My goal is to have it done and hanging in the closet before I leave to move in with my mom, who is having knee replacement surgery on Wednesday, the 17th.  I'll be staying with her for the first week or so.  The rest of the family will take over on the 27th so that I can come home and get ready for school to start again.

It's always hard to believe that what SEEMS in June to be a long break (and is, really) is coming to an end.  Next week I have a Disneyland trip with a friend, then will take Mom to the hospital on Wednesday so she can leave her pint of blood. I'll spend the night, then take her to Disneyland for one last visit with the All American College Band and Ragtime Jonny before her surgery.  (The College Band ends their stay the next week, and Jonny only plays on Thursdays, which will be out for me once school starts.)

Even though she will be challenged during that week after her surgery, we're kind of looking forward to the time.  I have a stack of stitchery, writing projects and scrapbook projects to do while I'm there.

And she has promised that once her anesthetic wears off, she will teach me to fancy knit.

Should be fun.

1 comment:

Von said...

Your library looks like a resort, Debi!! I hope your community uses and enjoys it. Our library (nowhere near as sumptuous) still has many many people in and out all day. These days I'm mainly visiting online tho. :)