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March 28, 2009

Rainy Day

I'm sitting in my breakfast room with French toast with strawberries and hot tea. However, it didn't exactly make my breakfast sweet when I read the paper that people in India who drink loads of very hot tea had much more risk of esophageal cancer. I like my tea hot, but guess I'd better rethink that and let it cool a bit first. The rain is dripping off the roof and the sky is grey, but the room is still bright and shiny and very, very light. I find that I can bring my computer in and enjoy writing at the table. But, on bright days, I have to shut the blinds so I can see the screen.

I have a writing group in three days so I'd better get something done. Then, again, April 15th is coming up and I have to finish my income tax. Then again, I may have to teach my Skagit class beginning on Thursday, and I am not ready. It has been on hold for want of 14 students. I told my new boss that I've always had about 12 or 13 students. It is such a specialized class that it doesn't have too many takers. It is really an upper division class, not planned for the Community College, but someone decided that aides in the classroom who want certification need to take it -- so they granted permission for the two year colleges to teach it. They have always taught Child Development through grade 3 -- but this one goes from that through college. In any case, I didn't want to put in any more time until I found it was going to go -- and I won't find out until Monday.

I had two workmen at the house on Friday and it felt almost nostalgic. Mike the electrician needed to finish off a few minor details and Dave the sound guy needed to install my small speakers in the lower living room. They both had to finish off cleaning up the old comcast lines and consolidating the telephone lines. Dave will come back some day when I move my desk downstairs. I'm really not ready to do that yet. It means heating the whole room just for my desk -- and since it is not furnished yet (and since my old study is not yet transformed into a bathroom), I see no reason to change things.

And, I'm really maxed out financially. I haven't begun to get creative about how to finish off putting in a downstairs bathroom. I'm in clean-up mode. Getting back on my feet after having to put out such an enormous amount of money in the most creative ways I could find to do it. Now, I have to pull in and mop up. So, I do hope my class will go, but I also have five new interns from City University so some discretionary income keeps arriving. Jolly good! I can pull in my belt and not eat out whenever I have the whim or take anyone out just because it is fun. All the while, I can enjoy what I have and be grateful for it. I guess I'll close this for now. I think I'll play a bit today. I'll do something that doesn't cost much but includes exercise.

Posted by Marilyn at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2009

Quiet on the Home Front

All has been very quiet on the home front. After outfitting my breakfast room, I've hardly even used it and my tile project has been put on hold. I've been busier at church than I ever was when Don was alive. Somehow I've gotten myself involved in several different endeavors. Fortunately, some of them are slowing down, if not coming to a halt. I've always been involved in my circle and for the past few years, I've been what you might call the program chair -- that is, I put the programs together. That is not too time consuming and lots of fun. However, that lead to being asked to join Adult Ministries which has been exceedingly demanding because my committee has put together both a year-long series on Religion and how it intersects with things like science and politics and the environment. Further, I got involved doing the Lenten programs which are now underway. Then, somehow I said I would be the chair of a short-term committee on deciding if a homeless program could use our facility while theirs is being remodeled and I continue as chair of a Hospitality Committee. YIKES! I've been spending more time with church work than I have with my college jobs. Oh, and I said I would be a teller so I begin training soon for that -- Now, none of these jobs demand much time by themselves - which is how I got into this mess in the first place. It also may be why I'm writing this blog at 5:55 a.m. after having difficulty sleeping last night. But, they've been adding up lately and I'm wanting to take a vacation.

When Don died, it just took the fun out of vacations. It was so much fun going off with him. Perhaps because he worked so hard and so many hours per week, vacations were really renewal for us. When our children were young, it was a time to spend all together and have daddy's full attention. It was watching him chop wood and help set up the tent in Yosemite or ride bikes all over Balboa Island each morning and walk each evening. When they were grown, it was the two of us meandering, reading, shopping, hiking, dining, and talking time. We liked to do the same things and enjoyed just being away together. Sometimes that was relaxing at Yellowpoint Lodge alongside each other with a book or lazily kayaking in the afternoon. Sometimes it was meandering through art galleries or interesting antiquarian bookstores in Victoria, BC or cross country skiing and eating crepes with friends in Whistler. It didn't matter where we were because we never ran out of things to say or do. It was a lovely part of our marriage. I realize that it was being with him that was always relaxing and vacations have lost that special blissful quality and the intimacy of the closest kind of friendship.

One of my daughter's told me (when I was questioning why someone did something) that she is surprised to find that I am a very suspicious person. I told her that was because I was telling her something that I was concerned about that I would normally have told her father instead. (It probably comes from years of reading British mysteries and always looking for clues!) It was lovely having a partner that one could just muse aloud with without worrying that he would think my ideas a little barmy. I guess that is what marriage is all about. What a gift it was!

Posted by Marilyn at 5:44 AM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2009

Such a Long, Long Wait

After 27 years, I finally have my breakfast room. I'm sure I have mentioned before that the moment I saw the little old back porch in our house, I said that I wanted to use it as a breakfast room. It is so very sunny and so happy! And, after this weekend, I finally have accomplished that long term goal. The cushions arrived on Friday and the table on Saturday. It is truly charming. Dani, Charles and I sat in the breakfast nook for lunch today and later Keith, Eulalah, and Marilyn came over and we sat and just chatted for an hour or so. I can't tell you how excited I am because I've always pictured the room just as it is -- even when it was filled with cruddy old storage stuff and sloping floors! It is now truly a happy room. It is hard to capture on film, but I'll include some pictures here.

The table is a work of art. It should be in a museum. Jerry is such an artist! You want to continually move your hand over all parts of it to feel the smoothness. There is not one sharp corner or place that doesn't feel satiny. Wow! The cushions are also beautiful. After thinking that I shouldn't spend the funds on having them piped, I'm glad I did. I'm just a happy camper this evening. Come and have tea with me anytime.

New Cushions

Wall to wall breakfast nook

Completed at Last!

This is the Side to Sit on and Watch the Boats on the Bay

Posted by Marilyn at 5:37 PM | Comments (1)