Friday, April 27, 2012

Hoping it will be all right

Hmmm.  Well, I came to my blog intending to mention a) that it is Arbor Day, a day when we celebrate trees and living and the symbiotic (if that is the word I want ) relationship between humankind and the plant kingdom, and b) to comment on how, last time I was here, I wrote a lengthy (and although I says it) charming and hilarious entry, and then lost it completely between the last period and posting, and how that depressed me to the point of not wanting to even look at my blog (which, you may have noticed, I haven't done) for a week or so.  And instead I find that the settings for this posting page have changed completely, so that I am pretty much entirely uncertain as to what is likely to happen when I check this over and hit Enter.  I'm hoping it will be all right.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

RIP Dick Clark

Dick Clark has died, really truly, finally died. Dead and gone. This, for some reason, is very hard for me to comprehend. I'm not sure why. Not because he was a large part of my childhood, or anything -- I hadn't even heard of him until I was a teen-ager, and even then it was several more years before I saw him. The first time I heard of him, in fact, he was being described as a remarkably long-lived celebrity who was suspected of having a picture in the attic, a la Dorian Gray. And when I did first see him, although I could tell he was a middle-aged man, he certainly did not look old enough to be Dick Clark.

But, however, all things come to an end, whether good or bad, and his life has at last ended. He was only 82, also, I was sort of expecting him to be 104. But 82, that means he was born in 1930. Twenty-two when American Bandstand began. Thirty-five the year I was born! Really not so terribly old, just a very young-looking old man. Ah, well. Rest in peace, Dick.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Changed his Medication

Well, I did not go and get bread yesterday on the way home from work as I said I was going to. No, instead I drove to Fred Meyer, and then sat in the car in the parking lot with the engine running and thought about it, and decided that I didn't have any money to be buying non-essential items like bread, and so I was just going to go home and eat food-box food until my ship came in. Which I did. I baked a pan of crescent rolls, which were my supper last night -- soft cheese, mmmm -- and my lunch today. And I will do so again tonight, if the occasion warrants, but since I am picking up this week's food-box after work today, I doubt it will.

Joe and Catt came over and picked up their fax (Joe) and neatly hemmed pants (Catt) and then I chased them out, since I was tired and head-achey. Really ready to be over this nasty chest/head cold. Unless it is allergies, which is always possible, too. Dang nab it. Ready to be over it, whatever it is!

Oh, hey! Guess who I stumbled across on FB today! Do you remember Psycho-Dale? The guy I dated very briefly and weirdly back in the early nineties, who was bipolar and quite nutty with it? Wrote good letters, though. Met him at Warner Pacific. He now has a website on which he writes about the Oregon Ducks, and is totally bald. I can't remember what his son's name is, but he isn't mentioned on his father's FB page at all, just his older daughter, whom he never once mentioned to me, but whom I found out about when we were doing the graduation arrangements at Warner. His wife is also not mentioned (on the page or to me) but then she never was -- we never actually broke up, he just stopped returning my calls, stopped coming over, but kept calling me in the middle of the night when he was unhappy about his sex life and wanted to talk to someone about it, or wondered what he ought to be wearing to a play that he was taking someone to. No conversation about the two of us, after the "I love you I love you" conversation. So bizarre.

And then I saw them at graduation holding hands very awkwardly, and then saw their wedding photo in the Sunday paper. She was tall and red-haired, and very uncomfortable-looking. I think her name was Susan? Or Sarah? Or something like that.

ANYway, after listening to him talk in real life, his letters took on a different flavor, since I could now hear them in my head, so I threw the whole big fat file away, shook my head in amazement and was very glad that we never slept together.
So, but now he is a web-site writer! About something that he knows a great deal about, apparently, although when I knew him, it was baseball, baseball all the way. The Giants, I believe were his team. Now it is football and golf, so I guess he has re-invented himself since then. Or, perhaps, he has merely grown and changed. His medication. Oh, now that's not nice.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

We took it right back

Last night I gave Joe a haircut, measured and pinned the hems of three pairs of pants for his girlfriend Catt, made and frosted a panful of cinnamon rolls (which they took with them when they left, AND which were from a can, so but den) and listened to a lot of chat from the pair of them. Gave Catt some advice on how to conduct herself in interveiws. Chased Joe out of the house because he had eaten an egg-salad sandwich and was having trouble with gas. Made him very handsome in a short-haired Junior Executive. And then made myself some dinner, played around on the computer for a bit, and went to bed. Don't remember turning off the light or turning on the book-on-tape, but the lights were off when the alarm went off this morning, so someone did.

So, tonight I need to hem those pants, since they are coming back to get them on Thursday, and make a quick stop by the grocery store for some bread. No bread in the house at the moment, since I ate the last piece of toast on the morning that I drove up to Mom and Dad's. And that was last Saturday. I did enjoy that long weekend, even though I was pretty gosh-darn sick for most of it. Did a lot of sleeping, which was very peaceful, and not at all itchy with guilt at the housework that I was not getting done.

Oh, but here's a funny. Remember, I bought the first two seasons of Downton Abbey on DVD for them, since they are watching a lot of movies, and only have a library at which to get them. And I was pretty excited about it, because it is supposed to be a very good show, and I have not seen any of it myself. So I was just getting ready to whip them out and hand them over, and I asked my mother if she had heard of the current show, called Downton Abbey. Her face puckered up like she had bitten into a lime, and her head began to shake. Oh, yes, they had checked it out from the library, and in the very first scene, there had been two men who were planning to go to bed together. And if they hadn't turned the TV off in a big hurry, who knows, they might have just done it right there!

"We took that movie RIGHT back," my mother assured me primly.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Deep Blue

Hey -- this new computer tower has Chess Titans on it, and I have just played two games. The first one was a stalemate, which pleased me mightily, but then I WON the second!

My first thought was, "What the hell? I BEAT the computer??!" But then I remembered that this wasn't the one that beat the world's chess masters so many times -- what was it called? Blue Something? Something Blue? -- this is just a game, and I was playing it at the bottom rung of three. So probably most people beat it, and I should just move it up to a higher level.

Deep Blue, that's it.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

April Fools!


Well. It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon, alternately raining in a very spring-like manner, and glowing with vivid sunlight which reflects off the just-rained raindrops. The tips of branches are all palely green, and the bright wet lawns are a brilliant, glowing emerald. Lovely.

I am sitting at my computer, having just finished a fresh, hot bean burrito, still crackling from the hot oil it was seared in, and drinking port left over from the Visit of John. For John was here, my lovelies, yes, indeed he was. I provided him with a bed and bathroom and occasional companionship for the past week, whilst he went hither and yon visiting old friends and places, ranging from Eugene to Vancouver, BC. So I hit Powell's twice, where I have not been since the last time John was here, when was that, sometime at Christmas? Close to Christmas? Hit Powell's twice, went to several restaurants, went to a wine bar and drank a lot of Nebbiolo, bought two bottles of port and drank them both. Am just finishing one of them now, which is, I believe, where I came in.

I have a lovely clean apartment, also left over from the Visit of John,(although it was still fairly tidy from the Visit of Matt and Susanna) and needs only a quick load or two of laundry to be back in the game and ready for the upcoming week. I have just returned from a trip to the library, and a trip to the bank, having decided against a trip to the grocery store, and am waiting for it to be time for a trip to the movies.

I did a lot of walking yesterday, all over the Pearl District as we went to Coppia's for wine, to Powell's and then all around looking for somewhere to eat, the Deschutes Cafe having a line that promised a 40-minute wait, and then back to Powell's after eating at Third and Davis Tavern. My calves were faintly sore when I woke up this morning (with a momentary port-drinking headache)and the balls of both feet are still throbbing feebly.

Oh! And you know how I've been watching Battlestar Galactica, and quite enjoying it (with reservations, although I enjoy them, too) and had just finished Season Two? Well,Season Three is available in its entirety, but ONLY if you join Hulu Plus and pay to watch it! Ha, ha, April Fools!