Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Tuesday morning stuff

* I did get the grocery shopping done. I don't generally shop in the afternoon, and also, I can tell I'm still not totally well, because as I walked back out (alllllll the way) to my car, I thought to myself, "When did obtaining sustenance become such an ordeal?" I mean, I get that 100 years ago or more it was a bigger ordeal, but it seems like there was a time, when there were grocery stores that were on a more human scale and that had helpful clerks and didn't have rude, pushy, entitlement-minded customers, that it was actually maybe even kind of pleasant to shop for food. And you didn't have to hike past everything else just to get to the milk cooler.

I also saw a parking-lot vulture: someone sitting in their car waiting, waiting, waiting, while someone in a "close" space unloaded their 15 bags of groceries and buckled their two kids into car/booster seats, and traffic stacked up behind the vulture because of course they were in the middle of the lane with insufficient room on either side for anyone to pass....

I don't have the kind of patience being a vulture takes. I just grab the closest open spot I can see. Usually that means a walk, but most of the time, I'm up for a walk. (Yesterday, it was kind of cold and I was still feeling unwell, so not so much, but I did it anyway)

* I did do one preparatory step for a birthday dinner later this week. The local wal-mart (which is where I went) carries almost-organically-raised chickens (which is as close as we'll get in my town) that aren't too bad, so I bought a whole chicken with plans to roast it. Never mind that I don't care quite so much for dark meat and that a whole chicken is a lot for one person to eat up....I can dice up the leftover meat and freeze it and make enchiladas later on or something.

I might also get some small red potatoes (I think I can do that at the smaller grocery in town) and make mashed potatoes. Or, more likely, something like champ (mashed potatoes with green onions in them), because mashed potatoes without salt aren't very good. Or I could do something like champ and add sour cream, that might be good.

* I will have a few presents to open. One big one (that I already know what it is because it's something I asked for) from my parents. Two smaller wrapped ones from my mom (one feels like a fat quarter or two of fabric). There's also an Amazon Mystery Box which could be anything - could be my brother and sister-in-law's gift (though they are not known for being on-time about gifts), could be from another relative (one of my uncles, I think has some kind of Amazon store, and I don't know if he uses his accumulated earnings to just buy stuff from Amazon, if that's possible - I've gotten a gift or two before from him despite a general family policy of "extended family doesn't send gifts to over-18s"). Or it could be from ANYONE, seeing as I have a link to my gift list and I've gotten surprises from blog-readers before. (I haven't opened the box, and on the label it does say something like "A gift from Amazon" so I know it's nothing I ordered, and anyway, I don't have any orders I'm waiting on from them)

* Not sure if I'm going to do anything this weekend to celebrate. I'm still kind of beat (yeah, I know, it's only Tuesday) from this virus, but in my experience, it can take me more than a week after the last symptom ends to start feeling really normal again. I might wait until spring break - I'm not traveling this year because a student and I are supposed to do some stuff on her research (I need to get in touch with her, now that I think of it....) and I could feel freer to take an entire day and just go do something during break. 

* I'm trying to distract myself because this afternoon is my dental checkup. I don't like having stuff stuck in my mouth at the best of times, and as I've noted, this go 'round I'm expecting to be told it will be time to have a crown prep done again (that one tooth on the right side that I've been worrying about.) On the one hand, I know that I won't have to have it done TODAY, and I've also had enough done to know it's not unbearable....but still. I just don't like having dental work of any kind (even just cleaning) done.


2 comments:

Lydia said...

I hope the dentist goes well. What a week.

Lynn said...

Oh, I'm probably a bad person but when I get a parking lot vulture waiting on me to back out (unless it's Christmas shopping season when nearly all the spots are taken) I just sit and wait in my car until they give up and go away. It rarely happens to me though because I usually park toward the far side of the parking lot even if there are closer spots.