Musings on a Small Life

Yesterday I read a post over at Layla Morgan Wilde's blog, Boomer Muse, on loving every #^&* word of your life . "What if we loved every fucking word of our life right now? Wretched. Shitty. Tiresome. Depressing. "Okay. "Confusing, overwhelming, nasty, scary. "Fine. "Heart-opening, tiny joy. Awe-inspiring wondrous. Soul-nourishing. Quixotic. Awful to awesome." I can't tell you how much this resonated with me. All sorts of negative words came to mind: Miserable, depressing, stuck, tiring, boring, lonely, frustrating, angry, angry, angry , ANGRY , screaming, hair-pulling...and on and on. And then I started to laugh and other words came to mind: absurd, silly, ridiculous, crazy, joyous. What else can you do but laugh at how truly ridiculous life is? I was talking with Mom yesterday afternoon...She'd been to get a haircut and a man the stylist knew well came in to get his hair cut. He has lung cancer from working with a...

At last we have a perfect day, about 23C/73F and low humidity ("low" being 50%). If only all the days of summer could be this glorious. Storm clouds earlier in the week The house went from 85F on the main level, about 90F or so upstairs, to low 70s overnight. Bliss. I'm wrung out from the lack of sleep, but welcome the respite. I took Friday off to run errands, did more shopping yesterday after a routine haircut. Found a pair of dressy jeans at Alia (middle-aged/elderly ladies clothing store) that actually fit my ever-expanding chubby body with its short legs and long rise. I went looking for lightweight slacks, but had no luck there. Everyone has fall stock in now, of course. Pretty plum and navy colours coming in for the autumn season. But it's been decades since I had to care about fashion and seasonal colours (when I worked in retail in my early 20s). The boys are okay, were perkier this morning in the cool. Nicki had a run-in with Carla (the swee...

I didn't get home till 4PM yesterday, and I had left the house at my usual 6:40AM. Honestly, I don't feel like I had a day off! LOL. On the plus side: I wasn't in the office at my somewhat cluttered desk: And I found two rain jackets on sale at WalMart, for $9 each. I couldn't choose between the fuschia or the royal blue, so I got both. I'd pay more than $9 at Value Village for a secondhand one, so thought I got a pretty good deal. My current too-big, too-poofy, lined windbreaker-style jacket, in an ugly green and purple, will return to Value Village in my next donation. I ate too many carbs, but avoided buying any chocolate or cake or eclairs or tarts along the way, no easy feat, believe me. I got three more annuals for small pots for the garden, all pink. Except for potting one, I'm done. I hope they all take, but if not...shrug. I didn't spend much this year, and had a leftover bag of earth from last spring anyway. I had low-lights pu...

Yes, I have but one more year to go before I qualify for the McDonald's senior coffee discount. Their discount starts at 50, and I was 49 yesterday, as most of you already know. I'm not sure who let it slip it was my birthday, but thank you all very much for the well wishes.  :-) The day was spent like this: Nicki had his anal glands expressed (yippee!), though they actually weren't full at all this time. After I dropped him off at home, I headed out to run a few errands and to treat myself to dessert(s): Oh, and I had picked up a small Lindt chocolate bunny too, at half price or less, no pic. I ate the head right away! The tulips I bought on the weekend, my once-a-year fresh floral treat:     I'm back at work today, was treated to a lovely lunch at a downtown restaurant by my cubicle-mate and her co-worker, two truly wonderful people. They're not in my department, but I just couldn't ask for better work companions. And yes, I had two dess...

I took today off work, since the forecast was for sunshine and reasonably warm temps (about 13C/55F). Spent most of the day doing something I normally detest--slacks shopping. It took trying on 22 pairs in 6 different stores to find 2 that actually fit, but that's better than not finding any. (And thank you, Dad and Mom and Harry, for the birthday money -- this time I didn't use it all for bills.) Didn't I just do this, though? Slacks shopping, I mean. Maybe it was over the Christmas break. If I didn't have such a difficult pear shape, it wouldn't be such an ordeal. And it still was an ordeal when I was in my 20s and 30s and 30+ pounds lighter. So I came home with a pair of black slacks, a pair of dark jeans, two short-sleeved blue print tops, a short-sleeved heavy-weight turquoise-ish top I'll wear as a little jacket, and the practical socks. All new and on sale, and at great buys. Oh, and the dark chocolate Lindt Easter bunny, half price of co...

Alternatively titled, "You call this a day off?" Because I don't call being up at 3:30AM and doing 6 loads of laundry (including winter coats, curtains and bedding), steam-mopping floors, vacuuming, and purging 5 boxes of household goods and books plus 2 large garbage bags filled with clothes and old blankets restful. Especially considering it all entailed going up and down the stairs, upstairs to basement, 12,036 times. And that's not even getting any dusting done or cleaning the bathroom. Right now the boys are flaked out on my bed, poor things (said sarcastically). They didn't get to sleep the morning away because they were too busy "helping" me. Well, one was "helping" and the other was running away from the crazy lady toting all sorts of scary things around the house and out to the garage. I, too, would be flaked out on my bed right now, except my favourite daytime show (okay, it's the only one I watch) will be on in a hou...

It actually adds up to 136, which is how many cans of cat food I ended up lugging home on the bus today. Who needs the gym? I took the day off from work for errands, too much to do for just Saturday and Sunday. Very happily got the boys' ProPlan for half-price, three cases, only 65 cents per can, so I'm glad I popped in to check. (This was at PetValu, a store I used to shop in ages ago. They have new ownership and new staff, so I hope to frequent them now--they're more conveniently located for me than PetSmart is.) Then I did go to PetSmart--they had the one flavour of Fancy Feast I feed Nicki (Derry doesn't like the FF I offer) on sale for Pet Perks members, $0.60 per can instead of $0.73. And Zellers had Friskies on sale, which is all I give Toby (the mystery outdoor cat). Fifty cents a can instead of the usual 60+ cents. I have to go to Wal-Mart tomorrow AM for the boys' litter and food for myself, so I'll check the prices on Toby-food out there too. I...