random thoughts – Day 1,667 – (Thursday) – casual fun

Today was an office day, because I had plans to attend an event after work. There was an event with DIY Lowell hosted by a law office a block away from the office. The venue is a historic building that was once the Lowell Gas & Light Company, and later, the Revolving Museum. It features a colorful garden at street level, a rooftop deck, and some interesting views of downtown.

View from a downtown rooftop deck.

On the deck, it was slightly chilly, but comfortable. A musician sang and played guitar while the guests mingled and chatted on the deck. Leaning over the deck rail and looking between some buildings, it was possible to see the setting sun. Later, evening light reflected off downtown apartment windows and soon, lights began to glow from within.

Inside, there was a spread of amazing food catered by Fork Included, an Asian fusion restaurant in town. I had heard of Fork, but not had their food yet, so I was glad for the opportunity to check it out. It was delicious. There was fried rice, spring rolls, garlic tofu, cauliflower, and two chicken dishes. There were desserts including homemade apple crisp, cookies, cupcakes, and more.

In addition to a casual, pleasant setting and fabulous food, the event was an opportunity to hear about the projects DIY Lowell has nurtured, leave ideas for potential future projects. It was a chance to catch up with some folks I haven’t seen in a while, socialize with a couple colleagues, and meet a few new people. And I was home by 7:30, so it was winning night all around.

When I left the event to go home, I was handed a cardboard takeaway box and invited to take some of the food. Yes, please. I left with a box of delicousness and now lunch is settled for tomorrow. Perfect!

random thoughts – Day 1,666 – (Wednesday) – driving and listening

The garage was a horror show this morning. The first several levels were packed full, then there was a plastic sheeting bisecting the ramp to the remaining upper levels and it wasn’t clear to what degree they were accessible or not. A guy in a truck left his spot and I nabbed it without further wondering or stress.

After work there was a plan to attend the New Hampshire Humanities event beginning at 6:30 at Tupelo Music Hall. The guest speaker was Gregory Maguire, author of the book Wicked,(and many other books). Wicked became a Broadway hit and is soon to be released as a movie. There was no time to go home first and I stayed at the office, waiting for the Lowell traffic to calm down and facilitate the journey. 

Where are the cars? Oops, wrong floor.

When I arrived at the garage, I trotted up to the fourth level upon which I usually park and was met with a desolate scene. The floor was deserted. It inspired a moment of panic as I wondered where all the cars had gone, and most importantly, where my car had gone. I took a deep breath, swallowed the panic, and I went down to the third level, which was as packed with cars as at 8:30 a.m. and was where I had parked today.

During the drive, the sky was pale sky-blue pink and the round, bloated, silver moon was inching upward in the sky. It was beautiful. I have seen few full moons this year, due to forgetting to look or being in the wrong place/wrong time to see it. I was glad to see it tonight.

My friend from work and I arrived in the parking lot at the same time and entered the building to check in and get our table assignments. She knew several people working at the event and introductions were made. Two people were already seated at the table, which featured a centerpiece of a black box with an array of snacks. The two ladies at the table were deep into chomping on bags of popcorn.

The eldest lady, decked out in a bright red jacket with 1980s-era puffy sleeves, allowed for quick introductions, then launched into a tale of her time living in Rome for seven years and teaching at US Department of the Military schools, and blah, blah, blah. And she continued yapping about herself, not allowing anyone else a chance to get a word in.

When two new people joined to complete the table set for six, she asked them a question and used it to launch into her dissertation all over again. She dominated the conversation about what seemed to be her favorite subject – herself – until the lights were dimmed for the presentation. It was kind of terrifying in the sense that it reminded me of myself. Sometimes, but not all the time, thank gawd. Then I hoped I was being paranoid and just imagining I’m like that. Then I was scared all over again that probably I am like the lady in the red jacket.

Red jacket lady also singlehandedly proceeded to eat most of the contents of the snack box intended for the whole table. She was crinkling the bags and chomping her Chex Mix which sounded as loud as rocks once the program had begun. Her friend even leaned over once or twice and shushed her. She was writing notes with a pencil on yellow paper and they were the loudest notes I’ve ever heard scratched out.

Gregory Maguire and Jaed Coffin.

In and around the noise of the lady to my right, the presentation took place on the stage with two writers seated in armchairs and talking. Jaed Coffin, journalist, memoirist, lecturer, and associate professor of English at University of New Hampshire asked keynote speaker and author Gregory Maguire questions about his life and his work and what inspires it. 

Maguire coped with his childhood, which began with his mother dying during his birth and had some rough spots for a while after, by reading fairy tales. Eventually, he invented his own worlds in his writing, which began at an early age and which he still has stored in a box. It was interesting, entertaining, and inspiring. Maybe I'll finally get to reading some of the Maguire volumes sitting on my shelf for years.

random thoughts – Day 1,665 – (Tuesday) – back in the saddle

It was the first day "back in the saddle" at work after vacation and it had a slightly rough start, like the 100 grit on my new emery boards. As I sat sipping coffee before work, I heard a familiar and wretched  sound from the neighbor’s driveway. They were scraping the car windshield. I wanted to cry. It feels too early for that crap! I wished I was still in Mexico where the temperature is in the 80s.

It was a remote day, so I was spared windshield clearing, but the system log-in was rough. The first system alert screaming at me was that my password had expired on Sunday the 13th. That’s when I remembered the email notifying me of the upcoming expiration about two weeks ago and that I had intended to change it before vacation. Then I forgot about it, and that meant calling the help desk this morning. It took multiple efforts and a half-hour to get it reset. So much for logging on 30 minutes early to get a jump on things.

Once finally logged in, the email inbox had only 279 emails, which was much better than expected. There were times when there were 100 emails for each day out of the office. One was the shared email with the link for the daily newspaper. I got an error message that the login was locked out, so catching up on the local news was out of the question. There was a voice mail from the print shop to which I sent an order at the end of August that was to be delivered directly to another department.

At the end of September, I learned it hadn’t been delivered. It seems the print shop forgot to do it, but they didn’t say that, exactly. What they said was, “we’ll look into it.” On Monday the 7^th, they left a voice mail that it was ready for pickup, which would be great, but the instructions asked for delivery, meaning that once they finally got around to printing it (a month late), it sat in their shop for another week because they failed to consult the print instructions that accompanied the artwork file. I hope they don’t spend too much time wondering why I don’t send them many projects, because this isn’t the first screw up.

By 9:00, I was ready to run away. Fortunately, the day sorted itself out and was less annoying, more like the 180 grit side of the emery board. At 10:00 I was in a webinar about a new time card process which didn’t run as long as scheduled and I could get back to business. Soon, I had several new ads set up in the graphics queue.

After work, it was soup for supper then off to dance class. I hoped to see the comet on the drive, but I didn’t. I missed class last week because I was on vacation and tonight I was totally lost. It’s amazing how much is covered in a one-hour class and how far behind I was from missing just one session. Yikes. The new dance we are working on has some fast footwork and really cool moves, and once I master them it will be great, but tonight I was a bumbling doofus without a clue. Hopefully, next week I’ll be better.

Soup season in full swing.

And just like that, everything is back to the ordinary. Kiki is back to mostly ignoring me and the affection bestowed upon my return was shirt-lived. The morning kicked off with the usual granola bar and work annoyances for breakfast, leftover sweet potato fries for lunch, and soup topped with cheese for supper because I was chilly and I also love cheese. 

The weekend will likely see a pot of vegetable stock simmering on the stove with all the onion skins and ends and broccoli stems accumulated in the freezer over the summer. Unless it's suddenly and miraculously hot, in which case, I may be at the beach pretending it's still summer.

random thoughts – Day 1,664 – (Monday) – back in the real world

Welcome back to the real world.

Things are easing back into the usual at-home holiday day-off routine after the excitement of packing, traveling, and unpacking. Even the TV welcomed me back to the real-world routine (in three languages) after the pretty-much-on-schedule reboot of the cable box, which has been required roughly every three or four weeks for the past eight years. 

There was a brief respite after the box was replaced a couple years ago, but the problem is back and is so annoying. The app troubleshooter never detects a problem, and neither do the reps at Comcast, who take about 30 minutes to deliver no solution, so now I just turn it off and turn it back on all by myself and cut out the time consuming middleman.

This time of year generally includes the usual seasonal wardrobe changeover from summer to fall/winter. The holiday morning provided time for packing away the freshly laundered clothing taken on vacation with the other summer clothes pulled from the closet during the trip packing process.

For decades, my seasonal clothing storage philosophy has been “like things together.” Dresses are in one space bag, pants in another, tee shirts in another, and so on. There are always a few rogue items that are jammed into a bag with a different clothing category very late in the process, so the favorite shorts might end up with a few favorite shirts, a random swim suit, an office jacket, and a dress.

 As I was nearly finished the day’s wardrobe effort, a new idea struck. The altered concept would be to group items as outfits, such as shorts, capris, and skirts packed with coordinating tops. This way, if my imaginary life took an exciting turn with another warm-weather trip, I could toss a space bag or two into a suitcase and be on my way, spared the agony, overthinking, and gathering that came with packing for Mexico.

Everything was packed into a compression bags for the trip anyway, so this concept could really simplify things. Too bad I didn’t think of it until after the tee shirts, summer pants, skirts, and dresses were all already sorted and categorized into bags with the air sucked out. Maybe when I pack up the fall/winter stuff I’ll think of it in time.

After the wardrobe changeover work, it was back to the couch under a blanket half-watching Black Sails while reading social media feeds, news, and playing Words with Friends and other phone games. A grocery list was scratched out with butter, rice, the Tajin spice we had on pineapple at Tulum, and broccoli. At 3:15 a trip was made to Market Basket where the list of four things magically turned into a cart with 19 things. I often overachieve at Market Basket.

Had I stuck to the list, the total would have been about $12, but it came to $44 with the extras. For some reason, I can’t resist the dates when I enter the store and see them displayed near the dairy department (not on the list). There was a two-pound package of a variety of cheese ends (not on the list). My favorite flavor of the often-scarce creamy chicken brick ramen and the even rarer savory herb and garlic soup and dip mix were in stock (not on the list). I finally found where they keep the Gardein vegetarian meat substitute in this particular store location and bought the scrambled pretend meat (not on the list).

Rice and beans dinner.

Supper had a bit of a Mexican flair to it. A few minutes in the kitchen yielded rice with onions, black beans, vegetarian meat crumbles, Tajin seasoning, salsa, cheddar cheese, and a side of corn chips. It was delicious, even if I had to make it myself. 

And suddenly, it’s nearly 8:00 p.m. and tomorrow is a work day. Vacation and leisure happy time is officially over.

random thoughts – Day 1,663 – (Sunday) – crashing back into reality

DIY Breakfast.

The last day of the vacation trip was filled with travel. The first few hours at home were filled with laundry before going to bed. There was a decent night's sleep with some crazy dreams featuring cameo appearances by some of my travel friends. 

Today was needed to recover from all the activity of travel, because, despite the eight hours of sleep, I was still tired and sometimes regular life can be an exhausting letdown. Thank goodness it’s Sunday with a Monday holiday because I really need the cushion to adjust to the crash landing back into reality. 

The resort had buffets and cooked to order menu items all day and night long. The BungaLowell (my house) had six eggs, some black olives, a few slices of American cheese, and a jar of sweet relish in the fridge and not much more. Two eggs were used to make a cheese omelet. By me. I had to do it myself. Nobody poured my coffee and added the cream. The toast was underdone. The butter was too cold to spread. And nobody cleaned up the egg pan afterward. Talk about a two-bit operation.

The vacation resort had juice.

There is no fresh fruit, no muffins, and no pastries. No colorful array of juices lined up on a counter, two pitchers deep. I never even got to find out what the Palladium resort "green juice" at breakfast tastes like because I ran out of days. I almost stayed an extra couple days and now I wish I had. This new hellhole has no juice at all, except for a can of frozen lemonade concentrate bought for a summer recipe I never got around to making. 

Home life is nothing like an all-inclusive vacation. the only “all-inclusive” here is that all the chores are included in my life's responsibilities. Trash, recycling, and yard waste day are tomorrow, so the team (once again, me) better get busy because the pickups are often early. Yuck.

The grounds are a mess.

At the resort, there were countless workers swinging machetes to trim trees. Workers walked the property to pick up trash and set everything right. I could use the services of a couple of them here. At present, The BungaLowell is hosting the neighbor’s pop-up shade tent which seems to have blown over the four-foot picket fence to rest upside down in my back yard. Two of the post caps from the six-foot fence on the back property line are laying in the yard, knocked off by either the squirrels or wind. There are probably more little surprises, but I never went outside today.

Humidity makes my
hair extra fluffy. 

The staff at The BungaLowell (me) was tired and slept late today. I didn’t go to dance class, which was stupid. It would likely have helped work out the upper body soreness from the foreign vacation activities of swimming and water aerobics and the mild leg soreness from all the walking. Instead of logging the 8,000 to 17,000 steps recorded daily with vacation activity, I was a lump on the couch huddled under a blanket. At 8:25 p.m., the fitness watch showed 668 steps. Regular home life could kill me.

My laptop seems to still think it’s still in Playa del Carmen and is showing the temperature at 83 degrees. I get it laptop, I wish we were still in that weather, too, instead of swathed in fleece, sitting under a blanket with the home thermostat showing 65 degrees with the heat on and the gas bill increasing with each passing minute. 

The only part of me that is finding the dry, cool, New England air beneficial is my hair. It has dropped its slightly wild, voluminous, bushy, humidity-induced look and has returned to its mostly flatter, calmer state. It didn't help that I forgot to pack my everyday comb and brush so styling was extra challenging with just finger combing and the small pick in my travel bag.

Beyond Burger Dinner.

For dinner tonight, I had to order an a la carte delivery (at an additional cost), because apparently The BungaLowell food service staff has gone on strike. At least the "Beyond Burger Dinner" was delivered quickly and still hot. The sweet potato fries were extra tasty. The salad and more than half the fries were saved for Monday's lunch, to delay grocery shopping until the afternoon in case of another slow moving morning.

If I were leaving a review of today's accommodations, most of the categories would get zero stars. The service stinks, the food prepared onsite was mediocre, the weather is not so great, and the grounds are unattended. There is laundry drying all over the bathroom and laundry closet. The only interesting feature of the facility is the performance art entertainment provided by a sweet little cat which sometimes appears to meow and then hides. The entertainment would get five stars. The rest of the staff should be dismissed.

random thoughts – Day 1,662 – (Saturday) – home again

The travel days are probably the worst days of a vacation. There is the rushing to and then and waiting around in queues for shuttles and in the airport, and the crowds. After landing, there is the waiting for baggage, which felt especially long at Logan today. Then there was a wait for the Logan Express bus to Woburn, which wasn’t too bad, and the ride home, which was also not bad.

Today’s 14-hour travel day began at 6:00 a.m. to finish off the packing with the pajamas worn Friday night and the toiletries used this morning, and confirm the screenshots of the digital documents because wi-fi is often spotty or not always available. 

The bags were scheduled to be picked up and brought to the lobby at 7:00, followed by breakfast at the buffet restaurant off the lobby, where I finally scored some of the French toast I wanted on Friday but couldn't get to. There was time for a quick stop back at the room for a final check and to use the bathroom before checking out and boarding the shuttle to the airport to arrive the recommended three hours before the 12:40 pm flight time.

The Cancun airport is nice – clean, modern, and filled with shops and food places. The check-in and bag drop were quick, which left lots of time to leave some more money in Mexico. I’m sure this is by design.

My final financial contribution to the Cancun-area economy was the purchase of a $17 veggie burrito filled with rice, beans, roasted peppers, guacamole, salsa, corn, and hot sauce. I was already getting hungry and knew there wouldn't be much available o eat on the plane. On the walk from the food court back to the gate, the burrito felt heavy enough to qualify for a weight lifting program. It was fresh and delicious and the second breakfast/early-ish lunch was devoured at the gate. Now I’ll spend the rest of forever trying to find another one just as good and closer to home. 

My friend bought an adorable Mexican blanket coat for her dog at a shop with nothing but pet tee shirts, dresses, coats, and collars, but I was pretty sure Kiki would have no part of such garments. She got her regular, everyday treats when I arrived home.

I was cold in the airport, then cold on the plane. A friend’s fleece jacket became the lap blanket that helped me endure the flight. The airline "snack," presented as if it was a gourmet meal, was a bag of plantain chips, which are delicious but not substantial and I was glad to have had the burrito earlier. 

I felt less cold at the Logan Express lot in Woburn than on the plane, but the best part of being in my car was blasting the heater. I miss the Mexican heat and humidity, even though my hair looked like a tumbleweed most of the week.

Not so many souvenirs.

Finally home at around 8:00, after the journey by van, plane, bus, and car, there were greetings to Kiki, and the suitcase was abandoned in the kitchen, right outside the laundry closet. Kiki was very vocal, and I couldn’t tell if she was happy to see me or was delivery a lecture. My friend checked on her a couple times while I was away, so I knew her food and water had been taken care of, and new treats had been planted, but I wondered how she would be feeling.

The clothes went straight from the suitcase into the washer. Hot laundry, fresh from the dryer, was folded on the couch. The few souvenirs were liberated from the gift shop brown paper that the clerks had taped securely for packing. It seemed to be norm across shops to use generous amounts of packing paper and excessive amounts of tape.

Kiki is watching me closely.

The laundry and tchotchke unwrapping was done under the very watchful eye of Kiki. Sometimes she was observing from the dining room, sometimes from very nearby in the living room, but her gaze was constant. Maybe she was taking inventory of the few items brought back, some of which are intended as gifts.

Kiki approached for head rubs every few minutes. I dare say she may have missed me. Maybe she’ll let me pick her up, but I'm afraid to press my luck with that. 

random thoughts – Day 1,661 – (Friday) – more food, more leisure

It was another day in paradise. The sky was blue and the sun was out. There was a sort-of plan to catch the sunrise, but when the alarm went off at 6:15, I just couldn’t get up and slept for another couple hours. I guess the 17,110 steps logged during the adventure day at Tulum had caught up with me. Today was a little easier at only 11,344 steps. I barely log 4,00 on an in-office day, and about 1,200 on a home office day.

Breakfast eggs and bagel.

Breakfast was eggs, a bagel with cream cheese and salmon, three pineapple chunks and three prunes. Why prunes? I've always liked them. Why three? No idea, it just looked nice on the plate. Mexican resort bagels are nothing like New England or New York bagels. They were small, light, and delicate. Not bad, just different. I really wanted some French toast, but the line for the made-to-order omelets was blocking access. 

The critters were active today. A dozen or so croati were on the walkway to the beach. Iguanas were lounging in the sun and walking around everywhere, including the open air beach restaurant where we ate lunch.  

Flamingos.

After an afternoon at the beach where the toughest decisions were whether or not to take the rafts in the water and if another beverage was wanted when the server appeared, we went in search of the resort's resident flamingos. It was a quick walk over where they reside and we gawked at them while they stood in the water minding their own business.

Fried banana dessert.

Dinner was at the hibachi restaurant. The food was great, but I’ve never been a fan of the interactive performance art dinner. No thank you, I don’t want to sit there with my mouth open and catch the broccoli you are going to toss at me. The dessert was fried banana with ice cream and it was a tasty treat. I'm definitely a fan of dessert, especially when I'm not asked to perform stupid human tricks for it.

I wonder how long it would take for me to grow tired or bored of this lifestyle of leisure and fun. No grocery shopping or cooking. Decision-making limited to where to lounge and for how long, and where and what to eat. It was never a question, but just in case a job is available for hopping from beach to pool to restaurants, I can make myself available. Not that it is likely to happen, except in my wildest dreams.