More photos needed

* I have a second dress, and two pairs of socks, and a small crocheted rabbit that I completed over break, and I need to get those photographed. (I am also nearly done with the "Paddington's Garden" shawl, so maybe in a few days I'll have a "while it's blocking" photo)

* I think I have to reiterate - after approving a comment and then deleting it because (a) it was on a VERY old post and, more importantly (b) it wound up to contain a link, presumably to a site selling things - I don't accept advertising on the blog. I don't get paid for doing it (not that I'd want to be) so I feel like I shouldn't let other people use it for advertising.

And yes, I "promote" things on here that I've bought and think are good or that I like, but that feels different. With advertising, unless it's a product you used before the advertising, it feels kind of....sleazy....to me.

* SO DONE with the humidity. My dehumidifier runs almost constantly and I'm emptying it generally three times a day. This equates to about 12 gallons of water sucked out of the air. I know some years ago I read a news story about "wow there's this new innovation that can get water for the desert out of THIN AIR" and I was like "you sillies, that's called a dehumidifier" though maybe in a desert it has to work harder to suck water out of the air than it does in swampy Southern Oklahoma.

But still, yeah, like every eight-year-old has said to their parent, when said parent tried to shame them into eating some gross vegetable with the old "Children back in China are starving!" line "Well, then, let's get an envelope and mail it to them!"

* I think the humidity makes me clumsy. Am dropping things and I tripped over my own feet going back to my closet (which is off my sewing room; the bedroom one is small and only holds dresses) to get a t-shirt for today. Granted, I was still wearing my big heavy tennis shoes from working out and also the room is a mess, but getting your feet tangled in something isn't fun. (At least I didn't fall)

It could also be that this is the first time in several weeks I did the dvd workout (instead of walking or using the cross-country ski simulator) and that works different muscles and...yeah, I'm probably gonna be sore tomorrow.

* They are saying next week the temperatures may drop into the 80s (which is really where they are SUPPOSED to be) but at the expense of heavy rain. Womp womp. I mean, we need rain, but I hate the gullywasher style we so often get.

This year, more than past years, I really notice how badly I miss lower temperatures. The biggest thing is sleeping: one of the things I loved so much about the winter was piling several quilts on the bed and being able to roll up in them and get cozy when reading or before sleeping. Now I'm doing well if it's cool enough to have a sheet over me, and it feels terribly exposed....I think mentally I need something like a "cave" to sleep in, but I also tend to sleep hot, so I can't be physically comfortable with a "cave," but I can't be emotionally comfortable with just a sheet.

And I've pretty much always "slept hot" (I also tend to run hot during the day; I'm the person going "Oh, I'm comfortable, the temperature is FINE" when other people int he room are shivering)

* I was thinking about that "300 small pleasures" thing I've quoted before this morning. One of the "small pleasures" for me being things like cupcake-scented showergel. ("Duschgel mit..." I don't even know what 'cupcake' or "scent" is in German yet). I could smell it this morning in my bathroom from yesterday's shower. And yeah. It's a dumb little thing, and some people might argue that the whole darn world is burning down, so why am I allowed to be happy about cupcake-scented showergel?

And my answer to that is: I don't know, but if I don't find at least a few moments of happiness each day, I won't be functional. (And really, hasn't the whole darn world pretty much always been burning down, and we're just more aware of it now? I don't mean not doing things you can do to improve the situation but the truth is most of us can't do much....)

* One other thing I need to remember to do tomorrow when I go out: pick up a card for my new card swap person. She likes cats and apparently enjoys kayaking, so that gives me something to look for and also ideas of what to write in the card (The idea here is: you send your swap-partner either a postcard or a greeting card, and you write some kind of encouraging or happy message in it, even if it's just writing about what flowers are out where you are. And then you get a card back from someone else)

I also think I'm going to look at the Books a Million or the Target and see if there's any kind of small blindbag toy. I don't know. I don't NEED any more of those but they are another one of those "small pleasures" things for me.

* Summer is just super lonely for me. I realize now how important the little daily interactions were - joking with a colleague in the hall, going down and talking to the secretary while dropping off copying, even some of the interactions with students.

Maybe.....maybe I'm not actually an introvert? Which seems really weird to me. I mean, I can still be happy doing stuff on my own but I need to talk to someone occasionally or I start to feel sad. (Ah well. Next week there will be bell-choir practice again, if nothing else. And Saturday I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the church kitchen.)

I guess I'm glad I became a prof and didn't take a remote research job somewhere where I'd be living in a cabin and only really communicating with my PI every few days.  I know I once joked - and please forgive the rude word here, but there's no way to make the joke work with out it - about a position I saw offered, where you were (among other things) monitoring the basal temperatures of caribou. And I commented to a labmate, "Well, you'd still be working with assholes, but that kind couldn't talk back to you."

But yeah. One of the great paradoxes of life is that people are terrible but they are also sometimes kind of wonderful. And as much as I hate dealing with disagreement or soothing other people's feelings or listening to that person who thinks he knows my subject better than I do, there are also times when someone says something that cracks me up and makes my day immeasurably better, or who listens to me when I'm unhappy about something, or who comes to tell me "Hey I read this thing and I remember you're interested in that thing so let me tell you about what I read."

The sad thing is you can't usually have the connection without the conflict. I find with some really good friends I can manage it without conflict, but with a lot of people you can't.