Day 270- Bosom-rific Party!

Met Mebbie for a blow out at Gene Juarez school. ($8!) Forgot my earring there.

Ran back to the hotel and frantically prepared. Drove Mon's grandparents to the church and handled the florist.

Tied bows to the candles and watched the photographers snap away.

Walked with Rachel, Jackie, and Scott to Plaid Pantry for Gardetto's, sour gummi worms, and Dr. Pepper (i.e. "breakfast").

Sat with Dan and Katie. The ceremony was brief and very pretty.

Took off out of there with Mebs and rushed to the reception site and got the guest book materials prepared. Had a nice time.

Cleaned up and Mebbie I headed through terrible traffic to Yummy House for dinner with Dani and Keely. Got back to my car and headed up to Paul's 40th Jamboree. Rode along with some folk to get Rock Band 2 from Wal-mart. No luck.

Had cake and nearly napped while Deuce shot stuff on the X-Box.

Came home and immediately passed out. bosom

Day 263

Helped Jim paint his room and finished off the bathroom.

Grabbed a grinder and headed over to Dan and Katie's. Watched the kids while they were out. Played with play-doh, pretended to be puppies, played Cheater, then Matt went to bed. Emma and I read and then she went to bed too.

Watched 48 hours mystery after I finished Gang Leader for a Day and Entertainment Weekly. So stupid; watching true crime at night in strange houses.

Dan and Katie came home early and we got to chatting till quite late.

Went home and started The Story of Forgetting.

Day 256

Woke up nice and early and bought paint. Got first and some second coats on some of the walls. painting is stinky and exhausting, more so when it is your walls being painted.

Read more Pillars of the Earth. Finally picking up storywise.

Day 248

Made breakfast with Jim. Jim and I picked up Sean and the Jasons and helped Paul move his stuff back into the house. Had lunch at Roundtable.

Dropped Sean off. Tidied the house. Jim and I went out shopping and he bought a nice bedroom set.

Picked up Czar and went to game night at The Stop and saw the debut of Kirby Krackle.

Dropped Czar off at home.

Day 241

Got up early and met Kim down at the farmers market in Edmonds. She showed me my birthday present, a Dalek cross stitch. Genius. Bought berries and cherries. Dropped in at Starbucks and headed home to make blueberry buttermilk pancakes with Jim. Froze the remaining berries.

Watched TV and finished The Red Paperclip.

Blew off my tenth HS reunion, because I'm a jerk.

Had dinner and went to bed. Read more Pillars of the Earth.

Day 234

After a frustrating phone conversation I met with Mom and Grandma at Café Ladro in Bothell and then Mom and I drove out to La Conner. We had lunch at Calico Cupboard (and picked up cinnamon rolls for later) and then went shopping in town. I picked up a few gifts and we made it back to the car before it started raining.

Ran over to Alderwood Mall and looked for a new skirt for Mom, but her heart wasn’t in it so we returned home.

Later we met with Steve and Addy for dinner at Taste of India. Afterwards Mom and I watched Broken Flowers, which was very good.

Day 227

Got up at the ass crack of dawn to drive 3 hours (one of which was on a dangerous unpaved curvy cliff side road) to go on a jet boat trip. Auntie has nerves of steel.

Jet Boat Trip Summary:

Eavesdropped on moron ranger who knows nothing, while waiting for the very late boat.

Sat on nice boat and saw bald eagles and mountain goats.

Had delicious lunch.

Got on other boat.

Passed wreck of other boat.

Saw dam.

Started really cold raining.

Then hailing.

Thought angry ungrateful thoughts.

Went through very cold rapids.

More mean thoughts.

Drove to Dog Bark Park Hotel.

Drove back to Hells Gate State Park.

Shorter Summary:

It was Hell's Gate.

Had pizza.

Read more Pillars of the Earth.

Day 220

Woke up early and headed out to Rock Candy Mountain for a Rock Candy Safari. I made the error of riding out on the cliff side path with my grandfather who has ADD and basically almost got us all killed. Her ran off the road twice. My life, short and mostly filled with cake flashed before my eyes.

We took a fairly lengthy path up to the mine and it was pretty exhausting. While there I dug for Fluorite, Barite, and more. I got some very lovely samples, some for display and some for jewelry making.

Afterwards Auntie and I dropped everyone off and headed to the laundry. We did some laundry and snuck over to get homemade ice cream across the street. I had coffee flavor and it was good.

Read more What is the What. Played some boardgames.

Day 213

Cleaned up my dogsitting house and took the dog on a pretty good walk. Returned to my place to do laundry and start packing. Visited with the roommate.

Returned to the dogsitting house and had one last lengthy walk with Theo. Then I had to meet Angie to swap out some dogsitting keys, and so we met at DQ. I invited Paul to join since he loves DQ. He and I had treats then fed my other dogsitting dog. Afterwards we ran up to Everett Mall to visit with George and watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (which was stunning). Had a quick bite then I ran to the airport to fetch Lynn. I pulled up just has she got outside, which was quite lucky as traffic was a mess.

Dropped Lynn off at her place, returned to dogsitting house and read some NG.

Day 206

Had breakfast with Jim at Voula’s. Helped Paul finish his walls. His parents, Jason, Jim, and Brad all showed up and pitched in.

Had dinner with Paul then caught Hellboy 2 with a bunch of Comic Stop folks. Diane and Kevin serendipitously showed up too. Hellboy was great!

Read more comics.

Day 199

Picked up Sean and helped Paul and his parents paint his condo. My arms are quite tired.

Had dinner at Samurai Noodles with Kim and then went to the M’s game (against Detroit). Beard Papa’s is opening a location at Uwajimaya and had cream puffs for sale at the stadium.

Recap of game:
Ate cream puff.
Ate second cream puff.
Losing kind of badly thus falling asleep.
Had Dr. Pepper.
Scored a home run.
Kim caught a ball.
Garlic fries.
Scored another home run for the win.

Today was a satisfying day.

Day 192

Got up early and cleaned my cat sitting house. Ran back to my place and devoured toast and watched some Colbert Report. Paul came over and helped me move my footboard out to my grandma’s shed (it was just very big for such a small room).

Had lunch at Tona’s and ice cream at DQ and retired to Paul’s to examine paint colors. I am experiencing high levels of anxiety regarding these paint colors as the colors I have chosen coordinate with Paul’s art and furniture The colors others have suggested are nice too. The issue is that Paul has a lovely collection of comic book art which has a very bright primary pallet and I think that painting his house in smoky greens etc. would not present the art well.

Meh.

Ran to dog sitting house and walked Theo. Paul dropped me back at my place and I ran a few errands and then headed to poker night at The Stop. Josh joined the group and we split into three groups with one staying to play games, one going to see Wanted, and the group of Kim, Josh, and Paul and I going to Wall-E. SO FANTASTIC!

Chatted with Josh and returned to Theo’s to crash.

Day 185

Watched cartoons. Returned to my house and worked on culling my comic collection and separating unread items into piles by title and in order. My floor: covered in comic piles. But it has to get worse before it can get better… right?

Picked Rachel (so good to see her) up at the airport and went to the Thai-ger Room for an early dinner. Had dessert at Trophy Cupcakes. Walked Green Lake with Rachel, Scott, and Jackie. Met Maya, Jon, and Sarah for cocktails (2 over 2 hours) at the Green Lake Bar and Grill. Had a really good time.

Returned to cat sitting house at midnight. Sober and fine. Read some more Th1rte3n. Went to bed at 12:30.

Woke up at 3:30 and ran to the bathroom and hurled for four hours straight. I am guessing it was food poisoning (or my reflux is back again?), as I had only two cocktails. I cannot speculate as to what caused this, but suffice it to say, it sucked a lot. Tired, confused, hurly Quiana was convinced it was Salmonella and that hideous illness was coming.

Wished for death. Brushed teeth furiously. Assigned blame.

Day 178

Slept in and missed all of Skunk Fu and most of Viva Pinata. Made poached egg whites, coffee and English muffins, while watching Spectacular Spiderman.

Met with Grandma and Olivia at Country Village and did some shopping. Bought an apron. Then Mariah and Meagan met us at the tea house for lunch.

Met Steve at my house and ran to let Sammi and Riley out. Got Slurpies on the way to Lynn and Michael’s for Theo’s birthday party. Very entertaining.

Ran back to the house and picked up the cheesecake and left, but then returned to grab Jim’s cell phone. Went to George’s for Mary Ann’s birthday party. BBQ was consumed, presents were opened, and while the others played games, we loitered in George’s office talking about nothing at all.

Left quite late and returned home to continue reading Nocturnals.

Today was a very good day.

Day 171

Had buckwheat pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Left early for MetroTown Centre to buy some new work clothes and a handbag for mom. Did really well at shopping for her. Didn't like anything for me, which is fine as I am totally broke.

Had lunch at a place called Nando's. Really good.

Watched Southland Tales.

Had a fight with mom.

Had leftovers.

Watched National Treasure- which I strangely hated less this time. In fact, I kind of liked it. (Burning with shame.)

Read more Th1rte3n.

Spoke with Addy.

Day 164

Got up early and walked the dog, then started cinnamon rolls. (The sugar crystallized instead of caramelized- too high heat?) Had cinnamon rolls with Angie and her niece, then we ran to Target to grab some retirement gifts and wander aimlessly. Dropped them back at the house.

I popped by Starbucks for some tea and headed over to Ron & Czabrina’s. Chatted and watched garbage TV on VH-1.

Ran back to Theo’s and served him his dinner (and me mine) and took an extra long walk. Because we got totally lost,I thought we could loop around, but in the end we had to flip around and retrace our steps. Ran home to shower and do my hair. Picked up Chris and headed to Jeannine and Mike’s Rock Band party. Had a wonderful time!

Spoke with Chris, Lynn, Burke, and Paul.

Day 157

Got up quite early and headed down to my old place. Arrived at just before 8 and moved all my boxes to the security hall and loaded up my car. Had an ice tea and scone from Peet's.
Soon Kim arrived, closely followed by Brad & Sean. Grandma and Roy arrived at about 10:20 (after talking me into starting the move at 9) and Ron and Czabrina showed just in time to help move the last few things into the car.

Arrived at the new place in time for the guys to assist in the unload. Kim stayed put to help get boxes in order and Paul, Brad, Sean & I went back to my place to pick up my exercise bike.

Had pizza at Brad's and returned to start unpacking. Unpacked for a while, then went back to the dogsitting house.

Later joined a bunch of people at George's for BBQ and Rock Band.

Wussed out early and went home to catch some z's.

Day 150

Apparently made some error as to when my dog sitting clients were returning and scurried out at great speed. Of course forgetting to return their bus pass.

Had brunch with Addy at Julia's and wandered around Wallingford. Returned home and watched Bones together while I packed.

Attempted to join a bunch of folks at a BBQ at Leigh's, but my brakes made a scary noise and I decided I had better just take my car into the shop in the morning instead. Stayed home and watched Law and Order instead of going out.

Teared up, but didn't cry. It is just so incredibly frustrating to never be able to get ahead. I know that every month I pay my rent and have electricity and can do everything by myself is a success, especially considering how I was raised. But I am just utterly demoralized by the constant strain of just squeaking by.

I know that almost everyone is a pay check or two from homeless (though they may not know it), and that I have family that will help me, but it kills me to ask for favors. It just burns. I'm sharp, well educated, and employed. I live within my means. I do what I am supposed to do. I just don't know what else to do. But there is clearly something that I'm not doing or something that I am doing wrong.

It is as though someone knew that I was getting that economic stimulus check this week and just wanted to see if they could fuck with me. Two years running my car has broken and taken up my tax return. So by now, I should be adjusted.

I keep being afraid that I will keep pushing ahead but that the status quo will stretch like the horizon. I just can't shake the feeling that I'm a fuck up.

Spoke with Grandma (she said my uncle James and Grandpa would come help me move, so that at least is good news), spoke with Steve to arrange dropping my car off, and spoke with Paul and Monica to cancel my attendance of a concert at Nectar.

Day 143

Spent the morning selling badges. Was transferred to Jamie Bamber’s (who was very polite and gracious) booth. Had tacos with the Scales and picked up a few things from Chris Yates (kind of a dream boat, actually)(and really polite)(not that I’m stalking), which was awesome. Then ended the work day helping out at the charity auction. Had dinner with most of the volunteers at Rock Bottom (had a sundae). Paul and I retired to my dog sitting house. I was out like a light.

Today was very exhausting, but it was good to pull my weight this year and actually help my friends out.

Day 137

Went through my clothes and found another entire garbage bag to send to Goodwill. Also went through my keepsakes and tossed a bunch of old stuff.

Did some cleaning and filing while watching Karate Kid. Loaded up my trunk with books to sell and laundry. Headed up to the Comic Stop for a Con meeting and stopped at the library on the way. We mostly just chatted while the junior volunteers, all cutely excited, did all the work.

Had baked potato bar at Family Sunday Dinner. Made Mother's Day dinner plans, watched Ugly Betty, then Rosemary and Thyme.

Read a few more comics and then crashed.

Spoke with Mom and Czabrina.