today

I don't normally do journal-style posts; it's never been an interest of mine to record day-to-day activities. But I was reading Lynne's blog and her ending comment, "Ok, I'm off to read how your day went!" and I thought, my goodness, she surely doesn't get much of the day-to-day report from reading mine! So Lynne, this one's for you! And anyone else who has both time and interest ...

I hate to start by complaining, but doggone it, I woke up at 3:30 this morning and could not go back to sleep! The alarm was set for 6, which is already way earlier than I like to get up (waking up naturally -- no alarm, please -- between 7:30 and 8:30 suits me just fine), so it was especially daunting to find myself awake so early. After an hour of closing eyes and trying to stop the spinning thing in my head that passes for a brain at that hour of the morning, I gave up and got up. It's amazing, at this time of the year, the sky is already starting to brighten at 4:30!

I'd set the alarm so early because I needed to prepare 7 lunches to take to a workshop that a colleague and I are giving (he's teaching it, I do the logistics), so I decided to get to work on those. It was a good choice of activity, not too stimulating, and it took long enough to do that I felt sleepy again when I was done. So I put on our overnight NPR news station at just the right sound level and let it lull me to sleep on the couch. Slept a little later than I'd have liked, till about 7:15, at which time I was in a merry rush trying to get everything together! Bake the scones, make the coffee, pack everything into a backpack and a rolling cooler, get it all into the car with a willing assist from The Huz, and off I went!

9 hours later, I'd learned a lot in the workshop, had a great time with the participants, talked with one about perhaps doing some consulting work for his company, served up snacks and lunch and gotten the remains into my car, and headed home to let Simba out and spend 30 minutes with him.

Then, off to rehearsal for two & a half hours. It was fun, and even though I still am not quite getting all these tap steps we have to know, I'm beginning to see that I'm not the only one ... although I still think I'm probably in the bottom 30%! The costume lady gave me a slinky dress to try on. Boy, I sure wish I didn't have that middle-aged spread! But the dress looked nice as long as I let go of the dream of being a size ten ... but I do ... but oh well. Welcome to the 50's. Anyway, I have nice long limbs that look good in jazzy poses, and I'm getting some very fun little vignettes as an extra, and I'm also making some new ... not friends, exactly, but recurring acquaintances to sort of gravitate toward when the entire chorus is told to "space yourselves out and walk across the stage in groups. Make up a story of who you are and why you're walking down the sidewalk and act it as you walk across the stage." So our little group becomes people who have conflicting destinations in mind but who want to stay together. Or minor Hollywood luminaries who are being interviewed and trying to upstage one another. Or whatever ... it's really fun!

Then off to pick up The Huz from work (would you believe two different trucks have died on him in the past month??), with a quick stop at MacDonald's ... I know, I know, I just complained about my middle, but hey, a gal's gotta eat, and I got the Happy Meal so it wasn't a lot of food! Picked up the Huz, went home, let Simba out & gave him about two minutes' attention, and then began unloading the contents of my lower kitchen cabinets in preparation for the arrival of big men with sledge hammers who are going to remove my countertops (see a picture of the current tiles about halfway down this post) in preparation for new granite ones! Which, by the way, I just found out Sunday night was going to happen this week, and I won't bother to list all the stuff that had to be arranged by Monday afternoon to make all of it fall into place. I think I must have had some supernatural help, it's been amazing how very many implausible things have happened to make this come together. Anyway, hold onto your hats, it's going to be a big mess and very noisy and then very inconvenient for a couple of weeks, but it's started and it's not going to stop and at the end will be ... smiles. Ooo's and Ahs. Lots of reasons to invite folks over. I love it!

So, that was my day. Tomorrow will be another one. And this reminds me why I usually don't do journal-type entries, because I do not have Lynne's knack for succinctness and somehow turning her short entries into something so meaningful. But I'm glad to have done it, anway, and now it's definitely bedtime. (I already read about all your days before starting this, that's how I read Lynne's comment that got me started ... and now stopped. G'night!)