Dreaming and Doing

So Wednesday night was the show here in SF I was most excited for PopTone! And they did not fail to deliver. I loved every moment of the show. I did not catch the opening band as I stood outside in line to get in for over 20 minutes, which seems weird, as it was a big show, and still they processed people like a small club, one security guy and one person collecting money and one person scanning tickets. I did not talk to anyone or have anyone talk to me even at the bar or buying a t-shirt, which was weird, no eye contact, no smile to share the joy, SF is a weird place.

SetList:

• Heartbreak Hotel
• OK, This Is the Pops
• Mirror People
• Movement of Fear
• Happiness
• No Big Dea
• Lions
• Twist
• Love Me
• Performance
• An American Dream
• Christian Says
• There’s Only One
• Cracked Actor
• Encore:
• Physical (You’re So)
• Flame On
• Go!
• Encore 2:
• Slice of Life
• Sweet F.A.

This last weekend has been quiet, as I have been alone a lot which is super nice and peaceful.  I also got some stuff done on the house, which required a trip to Ikea on Sunday – wow, now I remember why I go during the week.

Anyway, Rick my wonderful handyman, came by and fixed the leaking toilet, hung shelves, hung curtains, and even sorted out hanging pictures.  Whew!  Plus he came back today to start filling in a doorway, so the house has three rooms, not two rooms and a walk through junk room.

Yesterday I grilled out and bought ribeye, woah, I forgot how expensive good meat is, I normally don’t buy meat anymore,  sticking to chicken and fish from Costco, bought in bulk and then frozen in packets.  But, I splurged and Greg was coming for grilling out and I haven’t seen him in almost 6 weeks.  The meal was perfect!  I did the grilling, ribeyes (medium rare), chicken thighs (crispy golden), corn and baked potatoes with truffle salt.  Plus a caprese salad.  I was going to do grilled peaches with mascarpone cheese, but we were full up, and about to leave to go watch the fireworks.

I love the fireworks at Lenox, it is one of my great memories of the USA is watching them and being wowed.  So that is what we did.  We caught MARTA to Buckhead Station and walked on over, it was quick easy and stress free.  Surprisingly this year the cops did not close Peachtree Street off early enough, so there were cars stuck while people watched fireworks.  Which was odd, and a little distracting.  There were some cool colours and newer explosions, and I loved it.  The MARTA back was just as easy and stress free, definitely the way to go.

Today was my first day back at yoga, oooh, I am unfit and stiff, and tight.  Hopefully I will go a bunch this month to release the tension in my shoulders and back.

So I handed in my two weeks notice at my job. I do not have another job. I actually am unsure what to do, but though I like my boss, I like my co-workers, the job is not for me. A few years ago I would have stayed, kept at it, tried to fit in more, been unhappy, and just gotten depressed. Today although I realise I have stayed too long(I should have quit in August), I gave it my best try. And now I am satisfied, that I am doing the right thing by quitting.

I have learnt a lot about myself and how I work and how I would like to go forward. Firstly, I would prefer to work on a team, with regular collaboration. I would like to learn from someone, get given a direction, and if I go off course they notice, because we are in regular communication.

I learnt I am very organised, I am able to take charge, I do not shy away from delegating to others, and I do take notes, lots of notes. At first I was worried as I seemed the only one writing stuff down, and referring, back to my notes, now, as I am passing my knowledge on, I am immensely grateful.

I also learnt I like planning, thinking things out beforehand, instead of just diving it, and now I understand a lot more about how the business world works.

So the experience has been invaluable to me.

But the jumping without a net is scary, I know I am a good employee, I get stuff done, I do my tasks, I look for more productive ways to work, I listen and I work hard. So I am hopeful I will find a new job soon.

Sleeping the last few nights has been rough. It was easier to deal with Hana-Cat dying as I had, had time to prepare, I knew he was sick, I knew he would not get better. Badtz was so sudden it has blindsided me. One visit to the vet and then next time he was gone.

I had hoped the infusion of fluids and painkillers Tuesday night would help him, but they didn’t he just seemed tireder and sicker. I feel like I did after PandiCat’s death, lost and just shocked. These were my babies. I never wanted children, but I always wanted cats. Seems odd to type that out. I like people’s kids, I love my nephews, I just never wanted them for myself, I have never had my clock tick, or whatever. But cats, oh I wanted them, from the very beginning.

I have taken yesterday and today off work, I really am not doing a good job in concentrating, and even yesterday I tried to run a few minor errands and I just screwed them up, today I wrote stuff down so I don’t forget, but still my brain feels foggy. I don’t want to read or do anything. This is when I wish I watched TV, and I could lose myself in something for a few hours, but I still can’t.

I miss my kitty so bad. My house feels so empty, so barren. It is weird, so quiet and everything I do is on my own, no little faces watching me, sighing as they lay next to me, getting on the table, sitting on my papers, getting on couch, meowing when I am in the shower and closed the door. And worse of all no one to greet me when I get home, it feel so odd opening the door and no kitty waiting.

What a jam packed weekend, even though my calendar did not look that full, I had very little time to relax.

Friday Night:I booked a table for 5 at One Eared Stag, for Greg A’s birthday dinner, so Greg and I got there a little early so we could chat, and then Misty, Jake and Adam arrived and we started ordering food. We split 4 appetizers, and 3 main courses and split it between as all, it was plenty of food. And the food was really good. Next up we went of to The Earl to see Richard Devine and Alessandro Cortini perform.

This was like a mini get together as lots of people were there: Tim deGroot, John J and his fiance Sara, Char Radford, Amber (Richard’s wife) so it was great to see people say hi, and listen to Richard’s set which was much more beat heavy than the last few I saw. It was great and I got some awesome photos. I left about 3 songs into Alessandro, not because it wasn’t good, it was great! But, I was tired and knew Saturday would be jammed packed.

Saturday: Up early to drive to my sister’s house to pick up Aaron and take him to swimming lessons. Both Charlotte and Mike couldn’t do it, so they phoned me in desperation on Thursday and I said no problem. I was nervous about this, not gonna lie, as I have never really been alone with Aaron. But, he was an angel. Followed all directions and was very good at swimming, no crying or even baulking on the jumping in without googles on. I gave hime gummies afterwards and we drove home.

Then I hung out waiting for Charlotte to get back so I could see Noah, who was little grumpy and I left soon afterwards. I quick stop at Octane Coffee and it was great to see Dan back behind the counter. As I was getting my iced – coffee the Crate and Barrel delivery peopled called and said they would be at my house in 30 mins. I went home, cleaned out the living room a touch – not much in there already and boom, they were at the door with my couch :).

Couch in place and then I looked at the mess on the floor in the reading room(sounds so fancy) and decided to start packing up some books, and maybe get rid of some more books. I really could not focus, so I called Jessica who kindly came down and kept me company which really helped me. I got almost all the books up and filed nicely. We then took a quick afternoon tea break and went to Julianna’s Crepes. What a cute little place! I had the veggie crepe and she had nutella and strawberries.

Home and a few minutes doing laundry the off to feed Ziggy and keep him company for a little while. After Ziggy loving time I went to little 5 points to get boxes and Wax’n’Facts, comics at Criminal and see the sink hole at Criminal, chat to friends and then drive home. On the way home I texted John M, and met him at the Earl (twice in one weekend at the Earl!) and we hung out and chatted for a good while. I drunk a lot of water and so left and went home to pee and feed the cats, it was a good evening.

Sunday: A day I thought would be quiet turned into a pretty big day. Up early to start listing my books I was getting rid of on Amazon, and then Adam called and wanted to shop at Costco to by stuff for BarBQue, so off I went to meet him, by the time I got there Misty and Jake were back from there brunch and we all went to Costco. It was Jake’s first time so we toured Costco, and ate samples, and bought a ton of stuff. It was pretty cool.

I then went home, started prepping the fruit I bought for the week and cleaning up and then people started arriving for cookout. Misty, Jake, Joseph, Adam, Sonya, James, Andreas, my neighbor Kelly, Greg A, and eventually Black and Tina. It was a lot of fun, a casual get together that grew as we just invited people. The salad, the roasted sweet potatoes, the fruit salad and most the lamb went! So it was a success, I cleaned up as about half the people went off to see Jurassic World and I collapsed into bed.

Richard Devine at The Earl

Aaron waiting to swim

Ziggy being cute.

Monday afternoon already, and I haven’t even finished Sunday night’s sleeping…Saturday, I got up as Greg called and said he was coming over and we were going to make hollandaise sauce, as he had found a fool proof easy recipe online.
He also bought bacon, and bread (both from Holeman and Finch), so I started coffee and heated up the oven and poached some eggs.

The hollandaise sauce recipe was not as easy as described, I read it, and it sounded easy, but the comments offered some tweaks which I thought sounded interesting. While Greg and I were cooking, Desiree texted, as she was in the area she came over and watched as make the first batch – fail – and then the second batch – success-!.

Hollandaise Sauce with Immersion Blender
1 stick of butter – heated to 220°;
1 jumbo whole egg;
1 teaspoon lemon juice;
1 teaspoon water;
salt and pepper to taste.

place egg, lemon juice, water and salt and pepper in immersion container, and start blender, then slowly drizzle scaling hot butter into container, sauce should thicken in under a minute and then serve over eggs, asparagus etc!

And so we sat down to a very tasty breakfast. Then it was time to work on my backbone.js app, which slowly is coming together, and about 4pm, off to Charlotte’s house to go pick up Mommy.

Mommy and I made a few stops on the way back to my house: H&M, West Elm, Whole Foods for dinner and then TJ Maxx for mommy to ooh and aah over the bags and suitcases. She eventually picked a bag and home we went. I did more backbone.js work and then bed as I knew Sunday would be a big day.

Up early and off to Thumbs Up Diner for very tasty breakfast with Charlotte, Noah, Aaron, Mommy and Adam, we got there at 9, and there was no wait! Though the waitress forget mommy’s order so her meal when it came was free. We then all drove downtown to the World of Coca~Cola. It was pretty high tech compared to the old one, and they move you through pretty fast, though I think Noah drunk every single sample at the end! They polar bear was there to pose for photos:

Noah and Aaron

Mommy, Noah and Aaron

Okay time to work, part two later.

Good morning world, it is early again and I am at school learning, and watching my homework not be awesome. :(.

Busy weekend, and lots not really done, but at the same time not to far behind.

Got my alarm system updated, made stew, did serious costco shopping and saw MOMMY.

Yep, my Mom arrived Sunday from South Africa, I was meant to be at the airport to meet her, but, I assumed she would not take 3 minutes to get through immigration and customs, and so I was still driving by the time Charlotte picked her up. We went to Octane(Eastside) for coffee and a quick snack and then to Charlotte’s house to hang with the boys and eat waffles. Taught mommy how to use an iPhone, and updated her Facebook. Then she gave us each a huge bag of candy, mmmm peppermint crisps and dainties, and bar-ones.

A quick trip to Lenox Mall, and mommy got a pair of gold loafers, very comfortable looking, and very nice. Then I left to go to grocery shopping and work some more on my game.

The game, ahhh, Chomp & Stomp, is not great :(, it works but doesn’t display correctly. So more learning is needed.

Today driving to meet Greg for breakfast, at the unholy hour of 8am!, I was listening to NPR, and there was a brief discussion of Banned Book Week. I knew this was happening and I even wrote very serious paper on it for my Library Science class last year. I feel incredibly strongly that information should be available to all. I might find it offensive, I might think it is ‘bad’, but I cannot say you cannot read it! Often I look over the band book list and realize I have read almost all of the books for school, college or entertainment value. Some I found boring, some I loved, but all shaped my thinking process, and that is important!
Just looking at the list of top ten books from 2013, is sad:

Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

So many kids books.

But looking at the Top 20:

Is even worse, all those classics. Read a banned book!

Up at 7:20 this morning to go walking with Andy, funny how it is July and still not a billion degrees here in Atlanta. Normally it would be awful, but lately not to bad, not great, but not awful.

I need to get some work done on my house, I have a vision, vague, of what I would like, but I need help, someone who can plan it out and then a recommendation for a contractor. I think I want to go for the Martha Stewart cabinets in the kitchen, as I looked at Ikea, and the cabinets just felt so flimsy. Then I would like to redo the floor if I am doing cabinets. I do not have enough artistic vision to design and say this will look good. But, finding a designer/contractor/renovator is hard. I have used Kip, and I liked him, but he is a little out my price range. Making my house more open plan would be great. Two years ago I got new windows, and that was a great, I love them a lot!

Work is work, summer is not super busy, but I wish I could do more at work, sometimes the fact it is owned by two people, who do not want to grow, makes life hard :(. But, I still love seeing records every day. I would like more money though, that would be awesome. I am not sure what I could do part time to make more money.

Scowling man