What would it be like to chronicle your day in all its mundane-ness? There is a certain art to the mundane. The zen of being with the mundane instead of sleeping, watching television, or getting involved with any number of activities so as to avoid facing the giant sleeping dragon Mon-Dane.
Being gentle with myself and observing being with Mon-Dane may be the sanest approach. Staring Mon-Dane right in the eye and responding, “I am perfectly fine with my small list of non-accomplishments today, thank you very much!”
So here is my list for today, Monsieur Mon-Dane:
1. A little bit of email and Scrabble before breakfast.
2. A large helping of cantaloupe and watermelon, dressed with homemade berry yogurt and topped with apple granola, with the last of a good strong pot of decaf. It tasted really yummy, and I was overfull when I finished it.
3. A shower. Yesterday (8/30), this was skipped and I started to dread personal hygiene as too bothersome, much the way Frances McDormand’s character, Jane, in Friends with Money, decides to stop washing her hair. I got back on that scary horse right away. One day is my maximum vacation from a shower, even when camping or sick.
4. Peeked at my prints that were being flattened in the garage. Couldn’t resist taking them out and ooohing and aaahing over how smooth and flat they are. It makes them look so much more professional. Felt them and sensed a small bit of dampishness still, so put them under a few pages of blotter on the dining room table to finish up. Thought about how impatient I am because I was told/warned that this blotting is at least a 2 week exercise, but no, my prints were ready in less than 24 hours. Express Blotting! To be fair, I didn’t soak my prints - only sprayed them with a light misting of water.
5. Made a pot of chili - lowfat turkey a la Judith’s recipe. It was nice to work in a clean kitchen and take my time cooking this instead of rushing to throw it together. I decided after cooking it for awhile this would be a good dish for the Michael Graves crock pot, so I found it and transferred the chili and cleaned the stock pot. Yummy dinner.
6. Took a call from my son that the guy who is buying my fridge from the condo is there and now wants to pay only $40 instead of $75. What a shit. This is a $900 fridge that probably needed a minor repair. I don’t fight it. That point has long past. I feel like a schmuck.
7. Removed two halogen spot light bulbs that are out in my kitchen. Used the reach tool for short people to take the bulbs out as a way of avoiding getting out the ladder, yet again. The nail it is hanging on in the garage is tenuous and I don’t want to have to fix that - as yet another little home improvement project. Yet, I won’t be able to reinstall the bulbs without the ladder, so I am just delaying the inevitable. On the second bulb, the metal can falls down and the protective decorative ring also comes out. Now I have to get the ladder to reinstall this piece. Hopefully, no tools are needed and hopefully nothing has happened that requires a repair person.
8. Worked on my 2010 calendar as a party gift for my birthday party in two weeks. I decided to go with all B&W photos because this reflects my dull outlook right now. I remember Jane, the artist from the Women’s Craft Show and how one year, all her work was in B&W after 10-15 years of gloriously juicy greens and yellows. I asked her about this and she said she was in the midst of a divorce that year. Hmmmm.
9. Printed out the calendar just as I was leaving for an appointment at a local chain store coffee shop. On first glance from the printer, it looked pretty good.
10. Met with the caterer at the local coffee shop. I was anxious because she was 10 min late and at about 15 after noon, I realized she’d been there the whole time, talking to another friend. I didn’t recognize her from the back, with her glasses on and her hair down. I felt stupid for thinking she was late.
11. Discussed the party menu and I outted myself on my expected spend (budget). We removed dessert and oysters from the menu and she suggested a different way to prepare the ahi tuna that sounds good and stretches things a bit. We talked about my burglary last year, how important it is to listen to our barking dogs, and decided to go for a walk up Montara Mountain tomorrow morning. I realize that part of my uggh feeling is probably missing all those endorphins I’ve been mainlining with my super-big juicy walks with Nancy and her dogs these past few weeks, even if I haven’t lost any weight at all. I do feel firmer.
12. Had a phone interview with a woman for a volunteer program about coaching high-school girls who are interested in making social change happen. She asked me lots of really good questions about what’s in it for me, what kind of work I’ve done before with kids, and I start to get a glimmer of a feeling of worth because I think my strong project management skills are going to come in handy in this program. It’s just a hunch I have. She tells me I have to get fingerprinted and I think about going over to HARD for this a few years ago. Too bad they don’t share information.
13. Picked CB up at school and went to the hardware store so I could get light bulbs. Went to Safeway for lunch food and back to the drug store for some nail polish remover. CB is in a much better mood than when I dropped her off this morning, which is nice. We jokes around a bit while doing the shopping together. She pushed the cart, leaving me to just pick up stuff and pay. It was peaceful and almost fun to be at the store.
14. Confronted the pit bull from across the street when we got home from the store. He or she went right into my garage and then into the house, after one of my dogs. Thankfully, they worked it out without a big fight and no blood was shed. The pit bull, which has no collar or tags, seemed to sense I had meat (in the groceries) and didn't want to leave. Finally, we got her out of the house and the garage so I could come in and put away groceries. I realized I'm still a *teensy* bit scared of vicious dogs. This dates back to when a pointer would bark and bite me when i walked home from school in 2nd grade.
15. Somewhere during the afternoon, when I went to pick up my daughter, I realized the sun had come out and that it was actually quite a beautiful and warm day. CB's guitar teacher that I met while in the produce department at Safeway said it was hot out and that he was enjoying the air conditioning of the store. I felt like the temperature was “just right” outside. We drove home with the car top down.
16. I made cornbread to go with the chili. Another nice thing to fix with everything in the kitchen where it is supposed to be. It tastes really good with some butter on it.
17. I waited all day for the email from Blue Cross about my health insurance. It didn’t come. I was very worried, but then there wasn’t much I could do about it. (Next day, I found out they doubled my premium, but did reinstate my health insurance.) This issue was a big factor in how I down I was feeling on Monday. I really want to be well, and most of the time I am, but at my age it is also sensible to have health insurance for the unexpected. Like my meniscus tear last year. Who saw that coming? $10,000 later it was fixed, but the pain was beyond bearable while waiting.
18. The mail finally came at about 4 pm. I miss my 10 am postal carrier. There is was a nice check and a nicer package with my postcards for the Opera Tour of Napa Homes. My commissioned painting at the Green’s will be featured. The post cards are perfect, even though I ordered them while in a stupor. No mis-spellings. Done from bed late one night or early one morning last week while recovering from the pain of painting. Did I mention how much I LOVE Moo.com?
19. I emailed Tia to tell her I got in for the volunteer thing. It will be fun to do, and fun to work with her on this engagement.
20. By 7 pm it was time for me to go to my weight management meeting. I really didn't want to go and ended up staying home because I didn't feel good. Plus, I've felt quite unsuccessful in this program lately. No gain, and no loss. Just homeostasis. Fat homeostasis. I long to lose 30-40 pounds. I believe my life would be completely transformed with this type of weight loss. I eat two large pieces of cornbread with my chili while I think about this. I only had a bran muffin for lunch.
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