The Yard Sale:
Two days
Day three canceled for rain
Net profit: $2.35
Ebay here we come!
Q:How hot was it?
A:So hot the candles melted together and had to be thrown out in a squishy mess I could barely lift.
Dr. Suess Event?: A cat shat in the tent.
Three Things Not To Do with Enchilada Sauce And One You Probably Shouldn't Do With Salsa Either:
1. Substitute it for salsa.
2. Substitute it for ketchup.
3. Let the cat eat it. Makes for mexican-spices-flavored cat farts.
The garage sale is not yet a rousing success. Ten more dollars and we’ll be in net profit, but that’s going to require a lot of good weather and customers. Right now the weather is ideal. Mid 70s, and sunny but my driveway isn’t in full sun yet. Now yesterday, it was miserable. I threw out a bunch of candles because they melted together on the table. The air was so thick it was as if someone had grabbed a damp towel and was insistent on wrapping it around me for a prolonged hug. I escaped into the living room, put the fan on me and opened the front blind only enough to be able to see if anyone was walking up.
If I can just sell the tent or bike or daybed or warm woolen winter coat… Actually a lot of my clothes have been going pretty well. I need a college kid to happen by for all the pots and pans.
But the benefits of the sale are worth it anyway. The sorting was the hard part, but I’m getting rid of a driveway’s worth of stuff, the carrying burns calories, I have some things I’ll sell on ebay if they don’t go, it’s not hard work—I have time to sit and read I have time to think and reflect.
And this is what I’m reflecting on: The long distance relationship is good for many things, but my social life besides him is not one of them. I need to get back into reaching out. I’ve been very comfortable with Mark across the street and Amy upstairs, other people on the phone. But Mark is gone, Amy is going and I really don’t like the phone anymore. It was strange to realize last night that this is pretty much the first weekend since early June I haven’t seen David and/or had another social engagement and I really had no idea whom to call on a Friday night for fun here in Lansing. My assumption was that all my fabulous friends had already made fabulous plans. I have isolated myself. As I look back over this year, it’s a pattern. I do this often. I think I’m a fool with a lack of perspective. People are important. Why am I not prioritizing them? Why have I allowed myself to drift? Who am I pouring myself into as ministry?
I really think friendships grow at their own rate and it’s no use pressuring them. Still, I need to be purposeful to meet needs (my own and others). We’re supposed to live in community. I need to do my part.
On the Weigh Down
Ok, here it goes. This is a deep breath issue for me.
I am indeed overweight.
Now this is news to no one. Those closest to me kinda get it. They have watched me battle it at different times, or just not be in control of it at all and suddenly gain or lose entirely too rapidly when I go through emotional crap or just get to busy to focus on when I’m putting (or not putting) in my mouth. The problem is that when I drop weight (even, and often especially, unhealthily) I get compliments.
In high school and college it was a “I shouldn’t have to do this” thing. Shouldn’t those who love me love me as I am? I am wary of those who are too focused on the outward appearance. Doesn’t God say He focuses on the heart? Doesn’t our culture send the mixed message that beauties come in every size, don’t change for anyone, and then turn around and back-bite by showing slim-beyond-slim women in every visual form and present them as fabulous?
Then I was on the “ For Me” kick. What did I want to look like and feel like? Somehow in there (an entire blog post by itself), I figured out I think I look pretty good. I rejected and reject the equation that thin= attractive. And that’s not a flippant comment. I’ve got a pretty ok sense of style, great hair, good skin, pretty well distributed weight, confidence and a ready laugh. I average four miles of walking per day in school (including stairs) and can hike a good long while before resting. Sure, I could be more fit, but I think I’m pretty enough and healthy enough for practical purposes.
There was a time when I just resisted to be ornery. But my mom has stopped harping on it, I was never anything but perfect to my father. My close friends have been nothing but supportive whether I was trying to lose or comfortable as I was and the not-close friends have too much sense to bring it up.
This isn’t a David thing. He’s never commented once on my size (except to say he appreciates my softness and that I’m not all angle-y), though he kinda wishes I was a espresso-eyed brunette;). So this isn’t about him, though I think I’ve always felt that what attractiveness I have is fleeting and it’s pretty much inevitable that my young self will age into cushionyness and love will be sorely disappointed if it expects the body not to age. I’m a bit prejudiced and distrustful of men (and women) who look before liking and must continue to be pleased with the looking to then consider love. So perhaps he is part of the security that allows me to do this—he loves me as I am and will be. This is good.
So why now? I’d like to think it’s a Gwen-Weigh Down-Honor-God-With-My-Body thing. But you’ve read the above. If I believed I was putting the visceral enjoyment of food on a pedestal above God I would be concerned. If it were simple vanity I’d be concerned (though I suppose my Aunts’ doing it and not wanting to be the last plump one does figure in). If it were to please man or mother, I’d be concerned. But really, at the end of it, it just seems to be the right time.
One of my high school teachers did this just before I had her; she announced she was going to lose weight in front of the church. And then decided she better do it. Me too.
I’ve rejoined Weight Watchers and lost three pounds this week. That’s unusually high, but it was the first week. I’m too chicken to share my starting weight and haven’t decided on my goal weight yet, but look here on Thursday nights to keep me accountable. Perhaps at the end I’ll total it for you. How can you be supportive? Stay the same. Offer me a second helping, and allow me to take it or refuse as needed, please don’t make me feel guilty if I just don’t take a large portion or skip an item or refuse more of something you’ve worked hard on. Please don’t tell me I look great. This is only kinda about looks and I’ll question if you thought I looked awful before (culture does tie acceptance to beauty and weight is a HUGE part of that these days). Some comment about working at it is fine if you feel the need to compliment progress. Feel free to email great recipes. I’ll definitely post great recipes as I find them.
So that’s said. I think I’ll go make nachos.
Meg’s Weight Watchers Watch (MWWW): -3
Mark's Online!
He is! He is! You can find him at: http://quickoffthemark.blogspot.com/
He and Mike were in Las Vegas last night and having fun. Hopefully Lodi will be just as good to them:)
Welcome to the Freak Show
DC talk had a CD by that title (I liked it).
So.
The Freak Show.
Imagine a large red and yellow big top tent with all types of classic painted advertisements for what was inside. A two-headed mummy, the skeleton of a giant, a woman with the body of a snake, a woman with no head, a fire eater, a glass walker….and the pictures marched on. We’d wandered past it earlier in the night, but come back because it had caught david’s imagination. I had misgivings—what if it was a zoo of people? But we decided to go back.
We arrived at just before midnight. Last show of the night. A girl in stilettos and fishnets waving us in , a midget barker hawking the show, a wrinkled exhausted looking little old man whose face strongly resembled a potato taking cash. Perfect setting for a very creepy movie.
We paid one admission fee and were waved in for the second, the potato man had compassion since it was the last show of the night. There were no live “freaks”, just people with a different lifestyle. They were already most of the way through the show. When we entered they were just starting the headless woman. She was “in a horrible car accident, her head severed from her body! But the body was in good shape, so they cleaned her up…” and through a series of mirrors, she appears headless in the show several times a night. I applauded. She waved. Then the gentleman grabbed some beer bottles, cruched them up a little, showed us his feet and jumped up and down on them (amazingly not cutting his feet or landing on the microphone that was between them catching the crunch). I applauded. He smiled. Next we saw the snake lady. Another illusion that would be quite convincing in the right light from the right angle. I applauded. She yawned.
Then came the grand finale, a fire eater. She had dreads and tattoos, piercings and an excellent sense of showmanship. She ran the fire up an down her arms, blew it out her mouth, juggled it a little and posed elegantly. I applauded. She smiled and talked up one last exhibit, a collection of deformities kept in formaldehyde on loan from the Theatre History Museum in Indiana. David looked at me. I looked at David. We forked over another two bucks and went in.
Honestly, it was one of the best and most sensitive exhibits I could have imagined on the subject. She talked about the fact that they don’t get jobs if they have true “freaks”—people with deformities—but that for many years, it was a (or one of the only) lucrative and loving place for people who looked different to find community. She talked about the fact it’s illegal to have them in many states, but the motive is suspect—out of fear or respect. I’d like to think respect, but I think not. Would a law like be trying to prevent teaching children that deformities are entertainment or belong separate from the rest of society or is it removing a valid form of employment and community to those whose physical bodies would have been drowned as infants a hundred years ago?
She identified each deformity and told a little about it as well as mentioned some famous people who had had it. There was an infant with a second head on its head that died at birth (most do she said), a three legged torso, a set of conjoined twins and one I’ve forgotten. The show ended, the lights went down and we went back into the main tent. It was good showmanship, educational, respectful and interesting. I don’t regret going in. It’s a different way to look at those lost and forgotten children. They still belong to my God’s family.
I said thank you, David said thank you and we went home, sated but with things to think about.
Weekend of Wonder
It’s strange that no matter how much time I have, it always seems there’s never enough to go around. I’ve been living in super-slow mo for the past few weeks and then suddenly, Wham! Bam!, everything happened at once this weekend.
The house feels empty after the weekend too. Pretty much all Friday was spent prepping for the party or being at the party. As we were riding to Meijer for the second time, Mark commented that he hadn’t planned to spend more time at Meijer with me than anywhere else on his last day in Lansing. Yeah, me either. He’s been a good friend for a long time. And a really good neighbor.
I always enjoy seeing peole I haven’t seen in a while, and I think one of my favorite things was that as the night went on (meaning starting about 11) the groups really started to blend. My college friends were playing pool with Mike’s friends, I was chit-chatting with one of Mark’s old co-workers, a bunch of Mike’s friends were doing belly-flops with Riverview people. Took a long time to get there (I only saw a few die-hards trying it early in the night), made me happy.
David finally arrived at 1:45ish(?) I’m glad the jumping off the garage roof into the pool was over by then. Unfortunately, he missed a lot of the important players in my life, but it was good to have him there. Yi was already asleep in the couch and we filled up the house—David and Grayson in the spare room, Amy was home, and Catherine & Zoley in with me. There’s something about waking up with people everywhere pulling my hair up and cooking in shifts that just makes a Saturday morning that much better. Eventually everyone went their separate ways and David and I headed for the beach in hopes we’d make it back for the Koi pond party. After hours of wave jumping and body surfing (no watch available), we got back in the car and discovered it was (gulp!) 8 o’clock! So we gave up the idea of making it back to Lansing, had dinner at the New Holland Brewhouse (which has amazing raspberry apple cider—better than Strongbow) and hit the Ionia Fair (my original promise to him of rides all day turned into a few rides right before closing.) and saw a genuine freak show. Hopefully the freak show will be its own entry later. We got home about one and overslept for church, then headed out to his friend Andy’s little boy’s two year birthday party in Battle Creek. I left him there and headed to a bridal shower for Elan in Lansing (we practiced Greek dancing for the wedding! Karen planned a great shower!)
And now I am preparing for a yard sale. Sheesh. It feels like summer is almost over.
I went for a walk last night and greeted Mike Jones as he was working in his yard. That resulted in a very pleasant hour of garden tour. He’s done so much in the past 26 years to that yard –it’s become a comfortable, peaceful retreat filled with flowers and art and water and a tree house. He also has two kittens. What a gift and a blessing.
RAIDER PARTY TONIGHT!
REMINDER: PARTY TONIGHT!!!
1010 Raider!
Perhaps the pirate flag will be flying!
Do not park on the west side of the street!
Additional parking is avaible at the corner store!
There is a keg and margaritas!
There is a SWIMMING POOL!
There is food (we went shopping this morning!)
This is your last chance to see Mark for a while!
You will meet Mike!
Meg will just be generally joyful ala life events(espcially if David makes it up here!)!
Don't miss the party of the year!
See ya hipsters!
Garage Sale
So I'm thinking I'm going to have a garage sale either next weekend or the first weekend in August. I'm short a garage, so I guess weather'll be a determining factor.
I'm also short tables. Anybody got folding tables to lend? or an idea about how to rig a clothing bar to hang crap on?
I also need a woodchipper. Or at least someone who can help my keep all my blood
inside my body while I rent and & run one.
I also really want one of those weed blowtorches. But we all know that's a bad idea.
He Does This Without a Net
Mark: Should we take down that huge one next?
Me: Are you sure we can do that?
Mark: Yeah, sure. Why not?
Me: It’s really up there and over the power line and kinda…dead. Should I call Phillip? (Mark and Philip took down a bunch of limbs in Philip’s yard recently)
Mark: I think I’ll climb up and crawl out on that limb.
Me: Um…
Mark: Do you think it’ll hold me?
Me: The bark-less dead one? Umm… I think you’d better work from that V.
Mark climbs up the twenty-foot ladder, shimmies a bit further up the limb and starts cutting. I stand and uselessly hold the ladder, try to keep bugs out of my cleavage, fret and pick tree out of my hair. Mark:
cheerfully This is crazy.
Me:
succinctly Yup.
(Inside my head: Well, he’s still got good health insurance, no dependants and his mother is at least a four hour drive away. She’d have calmed down by then. Right? At least it’s not David up there. But he likes semi-dangerous things too. Jenny had to put up with Pete breathing fire. May be this is a Wild-at-Heart guy thing. But I want to breathe fire. I’m not a guy. Damn bugs. Would all the products in my hair be a problem? Will I see Pete Friday? Maybe he’ll--)Mark:
matteof-factly Just wanted to make sure you know.
Me:
sweetly Just remember you can’t drive to California if you’re in traction.
A moment later.Mark:
joyfully I'm a cowboy!
Me:
resignedly, deep sigh Yup.
Found this today and made a discrete giggle. If it doesn't amuse you, ask me to explain it at the party Friday;)
"Theatrical Logic"
In is down, down is front,
out is up, up is back,
off is out, on is in,
and of course -
right is left, and left is right.
A drop shouldn't and a
block and fall does neither.
A prop doesn't and
a cove has no water.
Tripping is O.K.
A running crew rarely gets anywhere.
A purchase line will buy you nothing.
A trap will not catch anything.
A gridiron has nothing to do with football.
A Strike is work (in fact a lot of work).
And a green room, thank God, usually isn't.
Now that you are fully versed in theatrical terms,
Break a leg...
but not really!
A Party!
The Raider Houses are having a party! We're celebrating Mark's new job and move, Meg's turning 30, getting tenure and getting robbed! Meet us at the house on Friday, July 21. Things will start around seven. There will be food, drink, swimming, cards, goffing off and generall merry-making. Bring a swimsuit and towel but no presents or food, the present of your presence is enough (though if you want to donate to offset the cost of a keg, Mark will accept).
Are you wondering if this invitation is really for you?
Well, yes, it is!
Still wondering?
Just ask me!
Hope to see you there!
Is it July already?
Well, it is later.
My parents just left and I’m grieving a little. Those of you that can see your parents more than every six months, take a moment and thank God. Then kiss them on the head the next time you see them in appreciation and remembrance of those who cannot.
That sounds awfully death-y, but think about this: my parent saw three men they used to hang out with in the first twenty four hours they were in town. My father is usually tender with my mother, especially so after he pointed out to her that they were all widowers. Sixty is too young to lose your lover.
Ok Meg, time to lighten up. Shall I go chronologically? I’ll try.
Went to Plattsburgh to spend the holiday weekend with David’s extended famil, parents and siblings
and it went quite well. We had the usual bonfires and grillings-outs. We’d brought Roman candles and bottle rockets ( I discovered I’m OK holding Roman candles and doing Harry Potter-like things with them but was not so successful with the bottle rockets—my sweatshirt has a hole in it). We also went up to Montreal for an evening and it was much more European than Toronto or Windsor. I especially liked watching the New Yorkers hail cabs. They just bust out in a sprint. Impressive in heels.
We managed to do 12 hours of driving in 18. Lord love the flooding. There are so many other things that are fun little memories, but only really interesting if you were there, so I won’t bore you. Oh! Want to have some fun? As the installation guys at Best Buy what they would put in their cars when you buy a new stereo! It’s like asking a room of techies about computers or English teachers about favorite books! I ended up with an Alpine that lets me control my non-existent ipod right from the faceplate while the ipod is in the glove compartment! David was bugging me to get one (the ipod), but I think I better stick to using his, he agreed after he realized with the cost involved in a long distance relationship it’s either the ipod or gas to see him. It’ll be nice to listen to a book on tape on the way down this weekend though.
I got home on Wednesday and decided I love Amy. I always love Amy, but especially when she’s done more than her fair share of cleaning because she knew I wouldn’t make it home in time to do all I needed to do. She and Greg and Mark and I all went out to dinner Thursday at a place on the west side that was really good and had great Margaritas. This was in celebration of Mark getting a job breeding melons in California. He’s starting a blog, I’ll add it to my blog list soon.
Friday Mom and I shopped for all manner of crap. It was fun as far as shopping goes. I got a sparkly skirt for $6.50. You’ll have to let me know if it’s tacky. Then again, since I’m not posting a pic, perhaps that’s inviting all sorts of commentary.
Anyway, Friday evening we ate Koegel’s Viennas (this is important because I want to know if any other family,or, in particular, father, has such a penchant for those frankfurters) and went to meet Amy and Greg for Pirates of the Caribbean. We went to NCG specifically because it had the hearing impaired headphones for my dad. The movie was good (if so patently a flight of fancy that I couldn’t even take the serious part seriously), the headphones worked well, and all seemed peaceful. Then dad tried to return the headphones. Um, they lost his driver’s license. Nobody in my family gets angry particularly gracefully, so we make every effort not to become that way but he kinda lost it. And then they found it for him.
Sensing he needed to calm down, Greg and Amy took us out to Claughdaugh’s for drinks (it’s midnight by this point). We had our drinks and headed back to the cars. At which point we discovered the battery of the rental was dead (it’s one by now). And there were cars parked on either side of us. A quick call to Amy and Greg helped to assemble more people, but there were no jumper cables long enough to do the trick. So I called AAA and they told us it would be about an hour. At 2amish the guy showed up and jumped the car. By 2:05ish we were on the road home. David arrived at 2:15. Always the optimist, I figured this would help the parents adjust to the time change. Not so. They slept in until ten the next morning but went right back to getting up at seven the next day, which is indeed the same five am they get up at home in Idaho.
So that’s the start of it. They met David at an electric two in the morning and liked him a lot. They really liked Grayson too (petted him more). More when I can, including some things I’ve been turning over in my head, but here is some more of the visit in pictoral form:
Yes, yes, I shot too. My shot went through the top of the paper--if you can't see it, don't worry, it was only about half on the paper anyway. David's shots are the cluster at about 7 o'clock on the paper.
If you can correctly identify this thing I'll drive to wherever you are and buy you a fancy drink (coffee, carbonated or alcohol--your choice). Heck, I might try to get that happening anyway even if you're wrong--it's summer!
Short. Perhaps Sweet.
Upstate New York was good. More on that later. There were too many hours in the car. More on that later. I got a new cd player thingy with ipod jack etc. for the car trip. More on that later. My parents arrive in twelve hours and my right arm is unusable due to tubing on Monday. At what point do I decide it's not just soreness, it's an injury and I need to go see a doctor? How shall I mow the lawn?
Eh, it was a good weekend.
I miss Riverview!
For all my wandering, it still makes me feel loved to not be deleted off other people's blog lists.
