Safely home again

* Two good developments here during my absence (well, one is more of not-a-development):

- Painter guy has been and my garage looks FANTASTIC. Worth every penny he quoted me and I'll call him Monday to arrange for him to pick up the check for his work.

- The non-development? No evidence of mouse activity (no traps sprung, no, um, "mouse sign" in the undersink cupboard). Of course, it's been warmer here, but I'm hoping I maybe did turn off the mouse faucet.

* My mom's eye surgery went far better than I had hoped. No complications, and after one day of a somewhat scratchy eye, she commented that her vision in that eye was so much better. (She gets the other one done on the 3rd; a neighbor is going to be her driver that time).

I did spend close to four hours of break sitting in waiting rooms, which wasn't so very fun - two and three-quarter's hours while she was having the procedure done (she reports the worst part was sitting around waiting for  the various eyedrops - they dilate you heavily and use lots of anesthetics - to take effect. They did do a very brief sedation but I'm guessing it was even lower-level than what I had with my wisdom teeth because when they took me back after she was done she was already 100% alert and ready to go home. Apparently the actual procedure only takes 10 minutes....)

The next day we drove over for her to get the whole thing checked out. I drove in case she had to be dilated....she said she could have driven easily (and she drove home, since they didn't need to dilate her). That took much longer than we were led to believe and to be honest, I was getting kind of worried about an hour in (they had told her it would be fifteen minutes, tops). Turns out they overscheduled the eye doctor and instead of having her go back out and wait with me, they put her in another waiting room...

Anyway. I did all of the sous-chef type tasks for the big meal (peeling stuff, making the cranberries, making the pie fillings) but she cooked the main meal and did the piecrust (one thing I have yet to get the hang of) and made the stuffing and all that.

I also did lots of dishes. Because there were LOTS of dishes. (Six people in the house, one a small child who eats on her own schedule, and one relative who is thoughtless-but-without-malice* about using up all the drinking glasses - taking a new glass for each glass of water, instead of doing the typical habit in our family of taking a glass, using it, saying "this is my glass, I'm putting it here on the counter" and coming back to re-use it a couple more times until a load of dishes is being done)

(* I think it really is he just doesn't think about the fact that all the glasses are getting used up, though I think in his home he is usually responsible for the dishes, I don't know.)

* I walked the dog a lot. The dog likes me. Or at least he likes that I walk him.

It occurred to me, stopping at the sixth fire hydrant on one walk: that's really the dog version of social media, isn't it? Or maybe Facebook and Twitter are the human version of fire hydrants, light poles, and tall ornamental grass (for some reason, that tall ornamental grass people have....it must be stopped and peed on.)

I also wonder how the dogs judge how much to "save back" in case there's another marking opportunity. (Maybe that's just a male-dog thing? My parents' neighbors have an aged female golden retriever who seems to go once and then is done)

* I will say something happened that sometimes feels slightly symbolic of my life. My brother and sister-in-law "scoop" (or, rather, "baggie") the dog's #2 - because they live in an urbanized area as do my parents. So when I took the dog out, I did that (and really, really hoped he didn't have to go #2, because picking it up, even with plastic between your hand and the warm leavings, is kind of gross and awful*)

But I did it, because it was their habit, and I wanted to be a good neighbor to my parents' neighbors.

But one day, as I was walking him, I noted that someone had just let their dog go on the sidewalk. I made a note of it and when coming back planned to step over it (I am a people-pleaser, but not enough of a people-pleaser to pick up random poop that belonged to someone else's dog)

But when we came back, I was having to hang tight to his leash (he had seen a squirrel), and I wound up stepping in it

:(

And yeah, that feels slightly symbolic: where I go to trouble to be courteous, but wind up myself paying for others' discourtesy. 


(*that's another reason why I never had a kid: doubt I could cope with diapers day in and day out)

* Small children, man. My niece is sweet and nice when she's in a good mood (about 80% of the time) but look out if she gets over tired or hungry....there were a few meltdowns. My mother said to me "I don't remember you kids doing that" but I suspect we did and she just has conveniently forgotten. (One night was bad. My mom mad a mild joke to my niece about "cleaning her plate" and that set her off, then she decided she didn't want the chicken enchiladas (homemade, with even from-scratch tortillas) and she stomped off. Later, she came back and ate, but I think it was something else....)

And I admit. That was in the thick of me doing dishes and chores and running and fetching things that were needed or "needed" and I thought to myself several times "I wish I were more of a diva"

And, yeah. I've dealt more than I'd like to this fall with Tall People* who would fuss and complain until they got their way over other people's, and on more than one occasion I said "That's okay, I will do it" when someone refused to do a task that was by rights, theirs. (I am on a committee I would rather not be on for the very reason of someone throwing a low-level tantrum about "having" to be on it, even though they were doing less than I was...

(*As in, "So many Tall People, so few grown-ups")

I dunno. I go back and forth. I acknowledge that it's better in the long run, and probably more satisfying, to be a useful person (and I know my parents noticed my efforts, even if no one else did), and you also should do that stuff because it's the right thing, and not to get thanks for it. But there are also times where I feel like I'm being pulled in fifteen different directions and people are just being awfully....demanding....and I would so much rather sit down and pout a little and have people cater to me. But I also realize that being demanding in that way means being unpleasant and putting other people out and that's not me, so....

Still, sometimes I do feel a little ignored and taken advantage of, and....yeah.

* Man, also - kids today. My niece got a Build-a-Bear toy on her way to our house, and TWO on the trip home. (When I was a kid, three stuffed animals a year, other than the v. small ones I saved up my allowance for, was about the limit).

But yeah. I'm also realizing as an adult, with my disposable income, I can probably indulge myself in the way I was not as a child. It's not QUITE the same (I don't have the same capacity for play as I did as a kid - this Allie Brosh comic, while it's actually about depression, the first part is about how you kind of forget how to play when you grow up, and that's true, and it's a little sad).

But yeah. I am still contemplating some big nice more-extravagant-than-what-I normally-buy thing for myself for Christmas. (And I have the money: my parents gave me a check to cover ALL the work I'm having done here, both the painting and the tree, and we are getting a wee small pay bump because times are better and the uni president recognizes a lot of us hung tough through the bad times....)

I'm still thinking that that thing might be a dollhouse, either a Calico Critters (which I keep feeling I should write as Sylvanian Families; that's what they were when I was young) or maybe a kit - though with a kit, there's the trouble of finding time to make it, so I don't know.

* And I really need to go over and prep the last two intro bio chapters before I get too tired...