random thoughts – Day 1,847 – (Monday) – noticing things

Woven around and between the movies recently I watched and episodes of the two weekly HBO series I like (The White Lotus, The Righteous Gemstones), the fill-in show is Love Is Blind. The show has women and men dating without seeing each other. This is accomplished by having each person seated in a pod, talking to the other through a wall, and if they eventually connect and like each other, they can get engaged and then they finally meet each other. They go on a vacation, then they go back to the home city and meet the families and friends and prepare for their wedding in two weeks.

Official show drinkware in a bar.

I’ve watched other seasons, and never have I once seen an unattractive person as a contestant. Almost all the women are an 8, 9, or 10, have movie star white teeth and are attractive in a conventional way. The guys will have one or two who are slightly more everyday looking, pulling the range down to a smidge from 7s to 10s. Love might be blind, but on this show, you are at least spared dating an ogre.

The current season has me noticing some things. No matter where the scene is set—the men's quarters, women's quarters, the date pods, on vacation, or in the city, the drinkware is always the same. Gold-toned metal wine goblets and stemless drinking glasses were used everywhere, including the family homes and the restaurants and bars when they are back in the hometown. They are nice glasses, but come on. They hide the contents, but it seems weird the production company would dictate the drinkware used in a restaurant.

Joey, flossing his teeth.

Then I googled “Love Is Blind drinkware.” It turns out the show has an official drinkware line, which can be ordered from the Netflix Shop, so even we plebian non-contestants can “Impress with trendy drinkware from the official Love is Blind collection.” The show is essentially a 12-episode drinkware commercial.

The quarters are full of cameras, and the participants know they are on camera, but it doesn’t stop them from doing dumb things. In an episode I watched last week, the guys were in their living room area talking, and one guy, Joey, 34, Physician Associate, stood behind the bar flossing his teeth for several minutes that felt like forever. 

Dude! You are on camera, in a show that will be seen by a lot of people, with your fingers jammed in your moth flossing your teeth with your stupid little floss pick. Go to a private place for your hygiene practices. Please.  

Dental picks in a grocery
store parking spot.

It was funny seeing the flossing episode because earlier the same day, I was at Hannaford. In the parking space next to mine, there were dental floss picks scattered on the ground. Was Joey, 34, Physician Assistant, there and left his calling card? Also, I see those things on the ground everywhere. The bank parking lot, the parking garage, on the sidewalks, shopping center parking lots. Everywhere.

What is the deal people? Is everyone sitting in their cars doing a floss and toss? Maybe meet up with your friends, circle the cars and do a group event? Gross. Or maybe it's a panic purchase on the way to an event and the person realizes there is something in their teeth. Then, opening the bag in a hurry, it explodes open and the picks fly everywhere. Could be. Noticing things and then thinking about them can make my head spin.

random thoughts – Day 1,846 – (Sunday) – happy family time

Today is one of the days that are heavy on birthdays. According to the Facebook birthday reminders, five of my FB friends and family members have birthdays today. There are probably more, but not everyone is on FB. The list includes my niece, a former colleague from Tennessee, a friend from Tennessee, a high school classmate, and a belly dance sister. Fun!

Dance practice went very well again this week, and then it was off to my sister’s house for lunch and birthday cake to celebrate my middle niece. Today kicks off a string of family birthdays with at least one close family member birthday in April, May, June, July, and August. Party season has officially opened.

Didn't work like in the video, required a knife.

I arrived in the midst of the pre-dinner comedy show involving a pineapple and a YouTube video. The person in the video had a technique to divide a pineapple without having to cut it. There was rolling, and slamming it on the counter three times, and then the little sections were supposed to be able to plucked out individually. 

It worked in the video, but not in real life in Sis's kitchen. The sections did not pluck out. There was pineapple juice everywhere. Sis eventually used a knife to get some of the sections out. But watching the attempt was certainly entertaining and we all had a great laugh.

Birthday candle fun.

Today’s festivity featured my sister’s cooking with baked chicken, cauliflower, and sweet potato, followed by cake. The cake had a fun candle feature with small birthday candles and a musical mobile that turns like the wooden Swedish Christmas candle spinners. My eldest niece, who lives in Nevada joined us by video chat and we had a fun time. 

These are the things I missed while living in Tennessee.  All the birthdays and lunches and spontaneous gatherings and family moments that I would hear about from afar or maybe not at all. They kept chipping at my stony little heart and I needed to come home. 

random thoughts – Day 1,845 – (Saturday) – bunny season

Real backyard bunny.

Signs of spring continue and today there were clouds and April showers. It seemed like a lighter, gentler version of the many months of fall and winter rain.

There was a brown cottontail bunny sighting in the yard today, the second time in a few days. Now I'll be looking for baby bunnies and better photo opportunities. 

Maybe brown bunny is scoping out where to hide my Easter treats. A year or two ago, there was a blue plastic egg in the yard with a dollar bill inside. I though it might have migrated from the yard of the neighbors with the small kid, but maybe it was brown bunny. 

Inside the house, my minimalist style of spring decorating took place today. The living room currently hosts Creepy Bunny. Creepy Bunny is a papier mâché piece that probably came from Christmas Tree Shoppe a million years ago. 

The family house had a front porch with an enclosed vestibule entryway with space to set bags down and unlock the door. It was large enough for a small table, and Mom would decorate for the seasons. During the Christmas season, a narrow, foil tree usually lived on the table. During the spring season, the table had a spring floral tablecloth and CB greeted/startled visitors.  

Indoor Creepy Bunny.

I was lucky enough to recently be awarded custodianship of Creepy Bunny. This is probably because for years I said I loved and wanted the scary little thing. Victory! And now CB sits on a plant stand and presides over the living room. 

Kiki has not noticed CB, and this isn't a surprise. There are two pom poms on the cat tree stand and I regularly plant a treat on the higher one, hoping she'll use the sisal wrapped pole for scratching. The treat stays on the pom pom, until I take it and feed it to her by hand. 

Kiki always eats the treat off the lower pom pom, but has never once even noticed it on the higher one to retrieve it herself. The only reason she even goes near the thing is to fetch the treats I plant on the base of it each night so she won't be afraid of the thing.

random thoughts – Day 1,844 – (Friday) – springing up

Spring finery is
popping up.

It was in the mid-60s and sunny when I took a walk downtown, and I was comfortable in a light-ish trench coat. There were new pop-up shops and windows covered in brown paper with "coming soon" signs. Next to the newly opened Lazy Cat Lounge Cafe, a nail salon is outfitted with a wall of pink and white fabric flowers and displays of nail polish. A white sign lettered in red posted near the door declared "Nail Salon Coming Soon." Restaurant names I didn't recognize were scattered in the area. It's good to see shops and restaurants opening.

In addition to the new shops, there was an array of attire on display downtown. The warmer weather inspired many people to shed the winter coats and don sweatshirts, jeans, jackets of all weights, tee shirts with no jackets, and lightweight summery floral and patterned dresses and sandals. 

I was behind one such bright and breezy dress and sandals outfit for a full block and it made me wish I was back in Mexico at a beach resort wearing my own floaty dress, but no luck. I was soon back in the office shivering in the very unspring-like arctic environment as the cooling system enthusiastically blasted chilled air. Despite my wearing an indoor-appropriate blouse and sweater and pushing the setting up to 80 degrees, I was cold nearly all day.

Tree with buds.

Later, as I headed to the car in my trench coat, a woman in a tangerine-colored sleeveless dress and flip flops unloaded groceries from the trunk into a wagon with a companion in jeans and a tee shirt. I felt like a dork in my coat but at least I wasn’t freezing.

At home and preparing supper, looking out the window over the sink, I noticed the tree in the back yard neighbor’s yard. The branches that were bare earlier this week were loaded with red buds that will eventually be leaves. Green shoots are poking through the ground where the irises and lilies live, and maroon shoots where the Bleeding Heart is near the front door. Is suddenly seems that spring is here. 

random thoughts – Day 1,843 – (Thursday) –feelings and groceries

The latest x-rays and previous ones.

The follow-up with the surgeon was today and it was more of the usual with another x-ray and quick visit with the surgeon. He had me make a fist and extend my fingers. Make prayer hands. Invert the prayer hands with the backs of the hands touching. The official medical declaration was that the bone is about 90% healed, there are no restrictions, I don’t need any more appointments with the surgeon unless something happens, and the best news of all – I don’t need physical therapy. 

I’m convinced the PT bullet was dodged thanks to two friends who told me exercises to do to work on mobility and flexibility. So thanks K and K!

The appointment took about 10 minutes and I had the afternoon off. Instead of taking the left towards home, I took the right towards the shopping plaza and Hannaford. I had a coupon for $12 off a $60 order and $6 in rewards I could redeem.

The Hannaford discount coupons are when I splurge if the usual pantry staples haven’t hit the total to trigger the coupon. I was keeping a running total in my head, but kept forgetting the total, and unlike the old-timey days before bar codes there are no price tags on items to start over.

Produce, granola bars, coffee, spaghetti sauce, salsa, cheese, English muffins, rice, and more were loaded into the cart to bolster the pantry reserves. Splurge items included ice cream and cookies. At the register, as the number of items left to be rung up dwindled, I mentioned to the cashier the need to hit $60. That’s when I learned that the $6 rewards came off first, which put me $6 shy of hitting the qualifying amount for the other coupon. My math was on the mark, but the rewards deduction knocked me back.

Splurge that led to savings.

The cashier offered to pause my transaction and take the next customer while I got something else to hit the target amount. My mind went blank and under pressure I couldn’t think of anything else I needed. I was darting around the aisles like the ball in a pinball game until jugs of trail mix were spotted on a bottom shelf. 

Usually, I mix my own using whatever is in the baking cabinet, but the reserves are low-ish. The Hannaford mixes have dried fruits and nuts I would never have on hand at the same time. And it let me hit $60 to get $12 off. Getting $68 worth of groceries for $50 felt like a financial and psychological victory. Sure, I had to spend more to save more, but I would have buying the pantry stuff eventually.

The rest of the afternoon involved putting away groceries and watching movies on Max. There was a chunk of Steel Magnolias, of which I remembered only that I didn’t really like it when it first came out, and also someone dies. I liked it a lot more this go-round and bawled my eyes out. It was followed by Sixteen Candles, which I’ve seen several times, and also made me cry. I have no idea what is with the waterworks today. It’s nice to live alone and be able to cry freely, even when it’s a rare occurrence. During my tween and teen years, Mom and I would cry while watching movies and my brother and Dad would make fun of us. My response was to master stuffing down the feelings and choking back the tears, which was preferable to being mocked for having feelings.

There were other feelings today besides the mushy movie ones when I read the follow up notes sent by the doctor’s office. The notes claim that “The patient was informed a slight chance of reinjury/refracture, need for future surgery and a slight chance of arthritis in the future. If appropriate, a permanent growth plate deformity may develop. A home exercise program was given to the patient.” My accompanying reaction was straight up, full blown, out loud exclamation of “what in the actual f*ck?!?” NONE of that was discussed. Not a single word of it. A chance of refracture? A potential growth plate deformity?!? Trust me, had this been told to me, we’d still be in the office discussing probabilities, ways to avoid such things, and options if they developed. And where is the “home exercise program?”

I was all set to enjoy some tropical trail mix that I would probably get all over the couch, but I couldn’t get the lid off, which was disappointing. The lid and the container are each a smidge too large for me to grasp. Maybe I’ll bring my 30-ounce jug of trail mix to the office tomorrow and see if someone with large, strong hands can loosen the lid for me. And who are the sadistic product packaging design engineers who come up with so many cruel ways to frustrate the shopper? I would like to slap a couple of them.

random thoughts – Day 1,842 – (Wednesday) – wednesday walk

Working downtown today meant an afternoon walk downtown, and afternoon downtown walks sometimes mean seeing interesting things. Shortly before going out, I looked out the window to check the world outside. The high school had gotten out and the sidewalks were filled with students. Merrimack Street was filled with seven city buses waiting for the light to turn green.

There was a wait of a few minutes to let the students clear. When I went outside, wearing my leather jacket, after a colleague said it was “wicked nice out,” I was surprised at how chilly it was. There was a stiff breeze as I turned a corner and I wished I had gloves and a scarf. 

New doggy friend.

There was a quick pop-in at the new bakery, followed by a pop back out. There are no prices posted near any of the items and I hate asking. I'm not going to stand at the case asking the price of every item. After buying a loaf of rye bread at the grand opening that turned out to cost seven dollars, a transaction that likely wouldn’t have occurred had I known the price in advance, I’m leery of the sticker shock and potential personal loan that might result from a brownie or a slice of torte.

On the way back to the office, two older gents in fedoras sat in the window of Market Street Market. In a nearby doorway, a stocky and sturdy looking white and brown dog with shoulders about the same width as mine barked at me through a glass door. 

With each bark, both front paws bounced off the floor. It was loud-ish, but didn’t seem especially angry, as in, there was no teeth baring or growling. I was amused enough to take a picture of my doggy friend through the glass door separating us. 

Middle Street stoop party aftermath.

Around the corner and down the block on Middle Street, there was evidence of a picnic of some sort with food wrappers and packaging abandoned in a doorway. A few doors down there were signs of a stoop party, with two empty liquor bottles left on a step. Come on people, there are trash barrels all over downtown. 

On Palmer Street, closer to the office and outside one of our buildings, Heineken beer boxes sat on the sidewalk, presumably from the beer distributor truck parked in the alley on the other side of the street. Why were they in front of a bank building when the bar is across the street? Who knows. Whatever.

On the way to the garage after work, Merrimack Street filled with the wail and scream of sirens. Multiple firetrucks sped by from the station behind City Hall and more could be seen approaching from the other end of Merrimack and turning onto John Street. I was concerned the street might be closed and I’d have to walk another block to the next street and backtrack a block to get to the garage.

When I got to John street, there were several engine trucks, a couple ladder trucks, and a red SUV filling the length of John Street between Merrimack and Paige. The sidewalks were open and available and firefighters walked in the street. The cluster of fire trucks blocking the street meant that there was no traffic blocking my egress from the garage and it was quick getaway to home sweet home.

random thoughts – Day 1,841 – (Tuesday) – luck or whatever

With Monday being a vacation day and feeling like Sunday, it wasn’t a surprise when Tuesday dawned feeling like a Monday. 

Coffee cleanup underway.

As I sat on the couch and sorted through paperwork before work, I reached over to set something in the nearby bookcase. A pillow shifted and knocked over the mug of coffee recently set on the flip-up end table of the couch. The ten or eleven ounces of hot coffee with caramel macchiato creamer in the just-filled mug arced up and out, kind of like a wave in a Japanese painting. It hit the wall, the bottom of the drapes, and the side of the same bookcase that I nearly concussed myself on last week. It was dangerously close to the power strip for the laptop and phone charger. Coffee pooled under the couch and along the edge of the rug in various coffee colored shades and earth tones. It dripped from the end table. It was fun chasing it around on the floor where it sort of blended in.

Paper towels were fetched and the cleanup alongside the couch commenced. In my head I was announcing the intercom page, “Cleanup needed in the coffee aisle,” and thinking it would have been nice to have some of the sawdust that was used at Market Basket when I worked there in high school. 

Coffee dripped from the little side table onto the sleeve of the brand new, rose-colored half-zip sweatshirt I had put on less than an 30 minutes earlier. This was the same sweatshirt that had to be washed on Monday after three hours of wear when I dropped butter-flavored movie popcorn on it, leaving greasy marks. It’s starting to feel like the sweatshirt is cursed. Or maybe yesterday’s popcorn marks were because I’m kind of a slob when left without adult supervision, and maybe today’s coffee dousing was the klutz gene kicking in again. Or an April Fools' Day prank from coffee overlords. Or just crazy luck.

The floor and furniture got a good hand wiping, and hours later, the faint aroma of coffee still lingers in the air and on my sleeve. It’s not unpleasant. It’s actually nicer than most of the fragranced candles I have.

After a work day where things got done and it felt good, it was my big return to the Tuesday night dance group. It was pleasant to be driving there after work in daylight under a sky that shifted to a magical blue-ish teal color that reminded me of paintings by Maxfield Parrish. So pretty, and so impossible to capture in a photo while driving. I really need a chauffeur so I can take photos out the car window while going places. Yesterday I missed some gorgeous soft fog photos while driving down a narrow country road.

Dance group tonight was challenging because I haven’t been in this one very long and I don’t know the dances yet. Missing six weeks of it definitely hasn’t helped. I’ve got some work to do. After arriving home, the April Fool's Day pranks continued on the technology front with the cable box needing to be reset. Again. It's been about two weeks, so I guess it's time. Welcome. Bienvenido. Bienvenue. Bad luck? April Fools' Day? Whatever. Either way, pound sand Comcast Xfinity.