not-so-sticky

Alright, so, perhaps I've given my old best friend, Brian, some undue press. We spent this afternoon goofing off, drinking coffee, listening to music, and being lazy. Brian and I reminded each other of some things we had forgotten. Me, the blueberry beer from the Gilded Otter in New Paltz. Brian, sitting together in the Hobbes class with Heath - but in all due fairness, Brian pointed out that we took a lot of classes together, so how could he recall which ones I was there for, and which ones I was not?

We both remembered the time we got the ticket in the old car, and we both agreed it had been a great day.

I said to Brian, "I wish you still had your old car...where is it, anyway? Is your brother-in-law still driving it around?"

"No," he laughed, "No, it dropped two cylinders and was beyond repair. It would have cost a couple thousand to fix it. It's probably been turned into scrap metal."

"Your old car was turned into scrap metal?! Oh no!" I…

This morning we were wrangling kids early, trying to get the kids ready for the Farmer's Market in Uptown Kingston. Dana, Lily, Liam and I were wandering around the bedroom, passing each other in circles, as we tried to pull ourselves together. I was looking for my missing Teva; the kids only ever move one on me...Dana was rifling through his top dresser drawer, searching for I don't know what? Lil was tucking her Tigger into bed and Liam was looking for a button to push.

Liam doesn't have a chance with Lil around. She will tell on him at every opportunity. Neither Dana nor I had noticed that Liam had gotten a hold of Dana's cell phone and was busily pushing buttons. He's an avid button pusher. It's irresistible to him.

He didn't have long to push buttons, though, before Lil blew his cover. From the other side of the bedroom, she yelled, "Quick! Get him! He's calling the cops!"

Not something I expected to hear my not-quite-three year old daughter…

At the end of a day, for all intents and purposes, I'm done. Mentally sucked. Physically drained. Tired. Done.

I tend to retire early. But I don't fall asleep right away. Don't let me confuse you. I adore sleep. I love everything about sleep. I love my bed, I love my high thread count cotton sheets, I love my reversible down comforter. Flannel sheets are nice, too. Fuzzy. Sleep conducive accessories are a passion of mine.

Fans are a necessity. Multiple fans, even, for the white noise. Lately, I've been sleeping with both a rather loud air purifier as well as an air conditioner. I don't even think the air purifier 'purifies' that well, if at all. You know how stores market "low noise" fans as something good? Yeah. To me, that is a negative, not a selling point. In the winter, I turn a mini box fan against the wall, just for the whirring noise.

Obviously, I love sleep.

But I have a fear about falling asleep.

It's completely irrational. I've never…

Early this morning, my arms were elbow deep in soapy dish water when Dad took his position at the side of the sink.

"You're doing a good job there, you know," Dad said.

"Thank you. I'm very good at dishes. I am a woman of many talents," I replied.

"Well, of course you are! You're my daughter!...What are we having for dinner?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, Dad. I haven't even thought about breakfast yet. Let me have some coffee first, please..."

Dad continued to stare at me. And then he wandered off to the dining room, through the living room. A few moments later, he had come full circle and was standing sentinel by the kitchen sink. He was silent. He was staring at me.

I looked up from the sink. Dad was studying me - scrutinizing every movement I made as if he couldn't quite figure something out.

"What is it, Dad?" I asked.

"Doesn't something seem 'off' to you?" he asked, tilting his head a bit to the s…

When half of your life is spent as a corporate lackey and the other half of your life is spent as a caregiver, you have no time to spare. You have to take the fun where you can get it. Even lunch at the cafeteria can seem fun...

So even though the commute is terrifying, the carpool has become more of a social club. Whoever is driving needs to be kept awake and entertained. Therefore, passengers are under a certain obligation to perform.

The carpool line-up was going to be a bit different this afternoon. Kyrce had rehearsal and wasn't returning to Kingston right after work. So the Intern (she gave me permission to use her name, but I enjoy referring to her as 'the Intern'...) had parked her car in the morning at the Wal-Mart (cringe shudder) in Monroe. She had some trouble getting there, having made a wrong turn along the way. Monroe looked terribly confusing to me. I couldn't imagine driving through there myself, and actually navigating to a 'real' destination se…

Thursday in USR, we got one of those weird emails from Facilities. It was a warning that there was a black bear sighted on the grounds so tread cautiously!

Oh no! A black bear!

New Jersey kills me.

Previously, we received a notice about fox sightings on the grounds. I think I've mentioned this before... but the foxes were different from the bears, in that the foxes were not real. They were cardboard decoys placed to scare the geese away. I really wanted one of those decoys but I didn't think stealing one would be worth losing my job! :)

I should have had the production assistants do it. They stole us all poinsettias at Christmas time from the cafeteria to decorate our area. Probably not something I should write in a blog, but it was good for the company; it was good for our little team's morale.

Unfortunately, my poinsettia didn't make it. I watered it with coffee. Occasionally. Until it just died.

I used to reside in Shady, just beyond Woodstock, New York. Meeting a black b…

This morning when I got to Kyrce's house this morning, I was met with a gift! Kyrce had been digging around, sorting through some of the things she had stored away in her parent's attic when she came across this old canceled library book. Knowing my petrification of riding in vehicles, she thought it would appeal to me. The book was titled The Man Who Loved Bicycles - Memoirs of An Autophobe and was written by some guy named Daniel Behrman. It has this great jacket on it with some beautifully wonky illustrations of bicycles. I was checking it out the entire ride in this morning.

"Wouldn't it be funny if the guy who wrote this book got run over by a car while riding his bicycle?...That would be ironic!...But I don't know...if I was that guy, I think that'd be the way I'd want to go!" I said. Perfect proof that his book was on to something.

Most of our dialogues entirely meaningless, which is really what is so great about our carpool. I hear some carpool…

3 out of the 5 days of the work week, there is a coffee incident inside of Kyrce's car which results in either of us spotted, if not covered, in coffee or the car sustains upholstery damage. Since we only commute 3 out of 5 days of the work week, this means there isn't a day the two of us share that doesn't result in a coffee incident.

Perhaps worse than this is the admission between us that the highlight of our entire day tends to be stopping at the Citgo for Green Mountain Blueberry coffee. I really need to get out more...

Now, we have a new rider to frighten - the intern.

She has to be a bit crazy because she's riding two hours a day to work with us! And she worked with us last summer so she knew what she was in for before she came! And yet she still came! The crazy girl came back two years in a row to work with me!

She must be crazy!

But she is also awesome!

So, on the first day of our intern's return ('Intern', may I use your real name?), I felt it would be…

I was tidying up the kitchen this morning when I felt Dad standing behind me. You would think I'd be used to this by now but I still find it a bit unsettling. Logistically, it's a challenge because I'm often running around the house between chores. Many times when I turn, I actually run into him physically. I know how much better it makes him to follow me around so I try not to get agitated with it.

"Hello. I am standing right behind you. I am here," Dad announced.

"AndI am here!"

"I just wanted you to know that," he continued.

I laughed, "...Um, O.K., Dad. Thanks!"

"I wanted to let you know that I'll be in this perimeter all day today."

I knew I was in for a long day!