2003-06-27

The Amazing Race and work on a cross-stitch ornament. Then I DEFINITELY saw the difference – I could see! I could see! For the past few months I’ve just thought that the problem was that there wasn’t enough light in the living room, but apparently the real problem was that I was wearing a contact too strong for my eye. It was nice to be able to see all those squares in the Aida cloth without squinting and getting a headache.

I bought some bird seed yesterday, and it claimed on the bag that it was specifically designed to attract colorful songbirds. I’m not seeing any colorful songbirds out there aside from the same Bluejay and male and female Cardinals I always see. The Doves and Sparrows really seem to like it, though. I finished Pamie’s book at 1 am Wednesday morning. That I stayed up so late to finish it (I usually turn the light out at 11) should tell you that I liked it a lot. The only thing is (and this is my own weird fault, not Pamie’s) is that I spent a good part of the beginning of the book thinking “Okay, who’s that character based on? And did that really happen? What about that?” Once I forced myself to stop doing that and concentrated on the book as a book rather than a book-by-Pamie, I was able to truly enjoy it. I was glad to see the Little Wooden Hand entry, because that’s my favorite entry of all times. Definitely a good book. And definitely a Zany Chick book, no surprise there. I’m only appalled and horrified that I wasn’t mentioned in the book itself or in the acknowledgements. (You realize I’m kidding about that, right?) It could have used a little more Taylor, though. While I was in Target yesterday, I headed for the book section to see if they were carrying Why Girls are Weird. They have a whole Zany Chick section now (though of course they don’t call it that. I don’t know what they call it, now that I think about it. Maybe they DO call it the Zany Chick section! I need to copyright that phrase, no?) Unfortunately, although there were other Downtown Press/ Pocket books, none of them were by Pamie. I was disappointed, because I was going to make sure it was in the prime eye-level location, and if it wasn’t, I was going to move it so it was. Just doing my part to help out, you know. But I was thwarted in my attempts, and instead of raising a great hue and cry that they weren’t carrying the book, I was distracted by the funny greeting cards. I never said I had a long attention span. I dreamed two things last night: One, that we adopted 23 rats, each in its own cage, and didn’t know where to put them. Two, that there was a nuclear bomb about to go off, and I was knocking on Sundry‘s door to tell her, and she was freaked out and wouldn’t answer the door. I don’t know where the rats or the nuclear bomb came from, but I do know that Sundry’s latest entry was the last thing I read before bed last night. Just for the record, if there’s a nuclear bomb about to go off, I won’t be knocking on anyone’s door. I’ll be hauling ass for a bomb shelter. Not that I don’t love y’all, but you can save yourselves. Speaking of books (like I was a few paragraphs ago), upon perusing my reading list for this month, I note that I’m reading book number 19 for the month of June. I don’t know what that’s about – I don’t think I’m spending more time reading lately. I guess part of it is that I read a book while I ride the stationary bike 30 minutes a day (except for this morning. Sometimes I just can’t face the damn thing. I did lift weights, though, so shaddup.), and it generally takes me about a week to get through a book, so that probably adds to the total a bit. Zany Chick books make the stationary bike time go by faster, yes they do. 1. How are you planning to spend the summer? Doing what I usually do – working out first thing in the morning, sitting on my ass in front of the computer, and spending my evenings in front of the TV cross-stitching. Occasionally there’ll be an errand-running day. Next week we’re going to Gatlinburg (leaving Thursday, coming back Sunday), which will be a nice change. 2. What was your first summer job? My first job that was just a summer job (I’d already had two jobs – one as a carhop at the Hi-Hat Drive-In III (it was a restaurant drive-in, not a movie drive-in), and the other at McDonald’s) was on Malden Island, which is located at Five Islands, Maine. I was 17, and I worked in the kitchen house (the island is small with 10 or so summer homes, and there’s the kitchen house, which serves breakfast, lunch & dinner 6 days a week). I worked with the cook, Emily, and another server/ kitchen slave person, Chris. Chris and I switched off – one week I’d work in the kitchen, doing dishes and cleaning, and the next week I’d work out in the main dining room, making sure all the dishes of food were filled and there were enough clean plates and silverware for everyone. It wasn’t a bad job, and the people (with some exceptions – because if you have a bunch of summer homes that rich people from Massachusetts can afford, you’re going to have some flaming assholes. And if I could remember their names, I’d provide them.) weren’t bad. I was going to do it again the next summer, but decided I didn’t want to – because while it was a pretty good job (and the pay was good for a high school kid), it was hard being away from my friends all summer long. 3. If you could go anywhere this summer, where would you go? The Bahamas or Hawaii or the Caribbean. Are you sensing the beach-and-ocean theme here? 4. What was your worst vacation ever? The only thing that comes to mind is the time we drove – as a family, all 6 of us – from Maine to Alabama to visit my father’s side of the family. That much driving just sucks – and we didn’t even live where my parents live now, we lived about 6 hours north of there. 5. What was your best vacation ever? The first time we went to Gatlinburg. Because the trashy little gift shops rocked my world. Really, there’s nothing I could say to make this picture any funnier than it already is.]]>