David's Service

Was lovely yesterday. His sister Bonnie spoke for a while, then his mom. A co-worker also jumped up and said a few words. It was very informal and I guess as happy as a service can be. There was laughter and more than a few tears. Afterwards, we all went down to Grump's. What really was lovely was how his sister Bonnie touched on the idea of Grumpy's being his other family. We spent some time talking to them and Patrick volunteered us to help finish cleaning out David's apartment tomorrow. I guess David was more of a packrat than I realized. Good way to spend Memorial Day (no, I do mean that sincerely). Our friend Vince, who is on the board of the local Hotdish Revolution Contest held every year, came up with a great idea. David had won the competition 3 times, so he was thinking of having a "Flesland" award. I thought it was a great honor. Patrick promised that he would create the dish that David wanted to make for this year's competition, but couldn't as he was too busy. I'm not spilling the beans on the idea, but it's freaking brilliant. Vince is going to help with the cleaning, then we're going to bbq here. I bought a big hunk o cow today, some beefsteak tomatos, portobello mushrooms to grill and stuff to make a salad with. We have chips and salsa, so good there. Should be fine.

Tuesday I have off also, to go see Souther Culture on the Skids! I'm so excited! Bringing my girlfriend Chrissy to get "Liquored Up and Laquored Down". Really looking forward to seeing Mary Huff again. My rock idol. Smart, Sassy, AND Gorgeous. I made a skirt for the gig out of old SCOTS tank tops, am wearing my high heeled granny boots and a black tank top. May or may not wear wig. We'll see. Will def take picture of my outfit. Then it's back to refi at WF. Gar.

Ghost Bike

It was bizarre. Just on the way home from work last night, Patrick and I were talking about how amazingly cool it would be if someone parked David's bike outside the bar. Lo and behold, we pulled around the corner and there, as it stood out in the darkness, was a bike painted white. Curiousity made us walk across the street and there it still was. It was real. Not David's bike, but one painted white with a chef's coat attached and a pan hanging from one of the bars. People had written on the chef's coat, their thoughts on David and wishes. An empty bottle of gin rested near the back wheel. I sat down in front of it, trying to collect my thoughts about how to best express myself on the chef's coat. I wrote "David - always a smile and a kind word. This place won't be the same without your face. Love always, The Lenlings". Not my best writing moment, but it was honest and from the heart. P put it better, writing, "Sorry, the kitchen is closed. Chef David has returned home."

I took the camera across the street before work to snap some pictures, but it wasn't the same as seeing it in the glow of the neon. They had also taken the chef's coat and pan (and of course, the empty booze bottles) inside so no local jackass would mess with them overnight. Before bed tonight, I'll steal over and take a proper pic. It's still amazingly hard to admit he's gone. He got P a job cooking at Rick's (fancy pants strip club). He was always there with his face in his laptop, his gin on the rocks and a Skyy cranberry - yes, both at the same time, the man was usually on a mission when he was there, but aren't a lot of chefs? When P and I were stone cold broke, he'd be the first one to offer up one of his home rolled smokes if we wanted one.

As I wrote on facebook, "Dear David - sorry for the faux pas on your name on Friday. DAVID, not Dave. You are so missed right now. I hope you see the tribute/shrine to you outside Grump's. You always had a smile and something sweet to say to me. I remember I smooched you on the mouth about 2 weeks ago and you said I made your day. Wish I had done that more now. I miss you a lot, darling. I'll always hold you in my heart."

Gar

I had started this wonderful blog about my amazing weekend with LJ, but had to put it on hold, as I got a shit ton of bad news yesterday.

1. I have cataracts and need surgery.
2. My dear friend Jason's father passed away the other day.
3. My friend David passed away also. LJ, you met him across the street Friday night. I introduced him as Dave and he corrected me to David. He was the first person I introduced you to, he was sitting at the bar. I may have a picture somewhere of him... Gar, can't find one.

So, the rest of the week, I'll be laying low. I'll try and post the fun weekend blog soon, but I need a little time out right now.

Out Damn Stress!

I refuse to get stressed out about how clean the apt is for LJW's visit. It sure as hell will NOT be anywhere near perfect (in any way shape or form). So there. I may just have to hold off on that load of laundry until she gets here on Friday. Pish. What needs to be done is a few days off in a row where I can battle the mess. I was fine over my unemployement days, but everything went to hell in a handbasket when I started working again. I'm still blaming the hours. I don't feel motivated to clean before work, and after work, it's 10 pm and feels stupid to clean at that hour. I'm still adjusting. LJW, I know out of all my friends, I am the least embarassed to have you see this disaster. So there. I'll do what I can and stop freaking out about it.

This morning I DO have to hammer nails into my art for hanging at AAW. I only painted 3 pieces (which I am very proud of) and then have to drop them off at the bar after work. I will do the dishes. There is food. No one will starve over the weekend. The toilet shall be clean and there will be clean towels. If clothes and random crap are everywhere, so be it.

Beginning to feel comfortable at my job. Still having trouble understanding the HARP program (Making Homes Affordable) that the government is doing. It's really detail orientaited and there are a lot of restrictions. Other than that, I now know more than I ever wanted to know about points, buying up and buying down, interest rates, etc. My job makes me want to NEVER buy a house. Even more worries than just payments! Then there's "Holy shit, what if I need a new roof?" or "The hot water heater just blew and we need a zillion dollars to buy a new one!". Not to mention worrying about mowing the lawn. I have enough on my plate, thank you very much.

Good news is they are kind of taking back their forcast for rain on Saturday! Whee! Friday should still be a little yuck, but that's settling in day. Saturday and Sunday are the important ones. I have nothing planned for Sunday for us, so it's pretty open. I'm thinking another trip to the giant SalArm? Should we try and go out dancing on Saturday night? I need to stop making plans and just let the weekend go as it may. Pish again.

Friday!

All week, it's all going to be about this weekend! LJW is coming to visit for this awesome event, Art A Whirl, and I'm thrilled! Actually, I'm thinking of just meeting her at the airport, showing her a bit of downtown and then coming NE. MUST TAKE PICTURE OF US IN FRONT OF THE Mary Tyler Moore Statue!

Also looking forward to a 4 day work week. Seriously!

To do this week:

Straighten up around here
At least one load of laundry
Add hanger-thingys to paintings for AAW
Not freak out

I think I can accomplish those...

Will I Ever Sleep In Again?

Gar, woke up at the crack of 8 am today. Was SO looking forward to waking up around, oh, say 10ish. No such luck. Beautiful thing is, since I have the "day off", I have the luxury of taking a nap later. Which I may do after I finish blogging.

Yesterday was great. I accomplished a lot. Mom picked me up at 11:30 and we went to the Farmer's Market. She was in full on FLIRT mode with the men behind the counters - it was super cute. Bumped into a gal from her church who had a booth supporting urban farming - keeping chickens and even a goat in your backyard. I love the idea, but as we have no backyard, I'm keeping that on the back burner. Sampled caramels, MN cheeses and chocolates, looked at super cute baby clothes made from organic cottons (I WANT A SERGER)and listened to great music. After that, I took her out for her Mother's Day brunch at The Modern Cafe. I had an egg and hashbrowns and she had gigantic pancakes. Then, I got to "thrift shop" through a bunch of clothes that she brought for me. Scored some good stuff for work. I have to admit, my mom does have good taste in "grown up type work" clothes.

She dropped me off and I took my Saturday nap. Got up, did all the dishes, finished up my paintings for Art A Whirl, finished up my skirt for the Southern Culture on the Skids concert, and made the grocery list for today.

Today shall consist of hopefully a load of laundry, going to the grocery store, cooking off a chicken, baking cookies (choc choc chip?), and getting clothes for my work week together. Time off my ass. Still struggling with the whole work week/personal life balance since I work 1 pm to 9:30 pm now. It's terribly awkward. I can do Target runs on my way to work (my bus runs right by Target downtown) so I can do kind of little stuff like that. On Saturdays that P has to work, I can do little grocery store runs with my shopping bag (that gets heavy tho - must buy cart still), but I like to save those days for artsy stuff that I can do when he isn't around.

Enough of this for now. I'm off to rip seams out of a pair of jeans and probably take a nap before I wake up P and go to the grocery store...

Oh, and am I and LadyJaneWriter the only people who read my silly blog?

ETA: I am now link unchallenged!

LadyJaneWriter Wrote...

Also, sweetie? You didn't realize this, but you're doing all your web links wrong. Blogger adds the "http:/" part right away, so all of your links have two "http's"

Since that's technically incorrect HTML, it breaks the link.

...just delete the first "http" that they automatically put in in the little pop-up window, paste in the web link, and then hit save or post or whatever the button is.

She is right. But I'm too lazy to Google it, so look it up. I refuse to go through back blogs and fix them, so if you want to see them, let me know or just Google. I'll do better care in the future. It's not that I don't love you, it's simply that I'm lazy.

Bonus points to LJW for pointing that out though! That means an extra bottle of champagne when you are here!

Half Hour on the Phone With the Landlord

Taking care of catch up on rent biz for about 5 minutes, then 25 yapping about craigslist and random other stuff. I have NO IDEA how we got so lucky to have such a great guy as a landlord.

This weekend will be busy again, hanging out with the materfamilias for Mother's Day. We're looking to spend this Saturday at the Mill City Farmer's Market! I'm very thrilled. If I'm nice, maybe I can drag her to Salvation Army Target Bargin Basement. Personally, I've been feeling rather evitable in my personal life, so she's rather pissed at me.

Excited very much for the new Harry Potter movie! What still stuns me, is the fact that J.K. Rowling had to write using a pseudandry much as S.E. Hinton did for the book "The Outsiders". Why is it that when women write about strong male characters that they feel the need to write with initals, rather than yelling out "HEY, I'm a girl and I understand boys/men and can write about this!"? My two cents. It makes me feel a little borborygmus. HA - look up THAT word!

Okeay, enough rambling. I need to watch Law and Order now. Get lost and stop bugging me.

Note to Self:

How do ppl who have normal 9-5 jobs do it? Working in the service industry for 20 years busted my ass on working Monday through Friday and now I try and cram everything I have to do into two lousy days off? Must figure out how to not spread myself thin and whoop my own ass.

Maybe get up later and go to bed later? But doing chores at 10:30 pm seems so wrong! I cannot wield this burden like this! I feel like my own personal misogynist, trying to do the domestic thing AND M-F job. No wonder Dolly Parton snapped in the movie "9-5"...

(playing catch up with word of the day...)

I Rocked the Chicken

Just had to brag before work. Came out perfect. Should have taken a picture! Also did the laundry, baked a batch of cookies, hard-boiled some eggs and took a teeny nap.

P's giving me a ride to work, so I have an extra 45 minutes to kill. People's Court, here I come!

Not So Much On The Puter Anymore...

And that's okay, especially with summer coming up! And most importantly, Ladyjanewriter coming up in 2 weeks to visit!

Once again, I've overbooked myself and have to cut a few things out of my weekend. I feel bad about it, but today there is still laundry to be done and a chicken to bake... The chicken will be interesting, as I am not a big chicken cooking person. The extent of my talent there lies in cutting up a breast and stirfry-ing it. I have no choice, as it's been defrosting for 2 days and needs to be done TODAY. P is at work, and told me I'll be fine, so what the hell? I'm also craving chicken salad again, so this is perfect. Need to do the dishes also and finish up paintings for Art a Whirl. I'd like to finish up one more before, but doing the ending stuff on the 3 completed is much more important. It's not a lot of work, it's just the matter of getting my ass in gear to do it. Laundry is really important today too. Really freaking important! 2 loads at least. I'm getting smelly. ;)

The job is still going well. It's a little nerve wracking learning all this stuff, but I think I'm doing fine. At least my supervisors say so to my face... Let's hope they aren't blowing smoke up my, er, in my ear.

Been having really weird dreams lately. I wake up feeling confused and unnerved. I have no idea why this is. Usually my dreams are kind of funny or I don't remember them. Lately they have been powerful, but I can't remember details. I mean, for heaven's sake, if I'm going to have them affect me in a weird way, the least my mind could do is remember them so I can hash them out. How rude.

Dad's deathaversary came and went without any major hitches other than a mild case of the blues. On the "big day", I had saurkraut, pierogies, and kielbasa for dinner, and after work, I had a bump of Jim Beam in honor. The photo you see is from Christmas at his sister's (my late Auntie Joan's) house, obviously sometime in the 80's. I'm guessing I'm thinking maybe 1984? I don't remember my hair being that light in that era, but obviously it was! ETA: Looking at this photo closer, I remembered I colored my hair light around 1987. And that's not dirt over Auntie Joan's walls, the photo got messed up over the years! That's my little bro next to me. May just have to run across the street and have a bump for Dad again when I'm done with this. I need quarters anyhoo for laundry! Eight years later and I swear I talk to him more now than I did when he was alive. That is a serious regret of mine, but I think he knows it and still likes our conversations. One of the best things that I remember was when I was little and he was installing my love of crosswords into me, he'd always tell me that doing the crossword in pencil was "cheating". Because you could go back and change your answer. He told me that if you were going to commit to an answer, you had to do it for real and that there were no takebacks. And using the pencil eraser eventually ruined the newspaper and you dug holes in the puzzle. If you think about it, it is a good analogy for life too.

That's all I have for today. Hopefully, I'll post more this week!