Confessions of a One-Track Mind

Just got back from a successful foray to the food bank. Mb picked me up around 5:30, we got over there and got numbers 107 and 108. This gave us a nice little chunk of time to talk, since thay hadn't even started calling numbers yet.

I caught her up on the job sitch---she asked if I wanted to run down to Melbourne with her this morning to get some blookwork done, and I told her I *must* be back by noon (although I'll have my phone with me, just in case)---she hadn't heard any of it, because it's too complicated to go into over the phone, especially since she's had a habit recently of cutting me short because her call waiting has kicked in.

I really hope I hear something definitive in today's call (12:30, let's all take a deep breath and PRAY). This will be my fourth phone interview (plus a plethora of e-mails), and the suspense is killing me. They haven't been horrible, on-the-spot interviews, everyone has been pretty cool, but okay, hire me already!!!

Meanwhile, I got some chicken strips, a bag of collards, the usual assortment of canned and baked goods, but the real triumph is a bag of salmon. And I'm not talking about nasty little fish cakes, either---I have actual fillets! Mmm! I'm going to have fun with those---cooking AND consuming.

My legs still hurt...I can't believe that a few hours of work has knocked me out so much. I didn't really get anything accomplished over the weekend, and the transition from sitting to standing is harder than usual. I know I'm out of shape, but damn!

I wore my found!brown skirt to church yesterday, and will have to see if I can upload a picture of the ensemble. Brown is my favorite neutral; it works well with my coloring, and this particular skirt fits nicely and is an ideal length. I wore it with a pink tank top, overlaid with an orange sheer tunic that has vertical gold stripes. (The overlay is essential, since the tank has glue stains on it and can't be worn alone.) I belted it in with an olive green belt that has a pretty design of studded circles.

One of the things I ran across while I was cleaning was a pic of me and GK, dated '04. I look huge, and I don't think it's ALL the camera angle! IIRC, at that point I was on my way down from my all-time high, but was still 350+. I remember seeing that top recently, though I couldn't tell you when I last wore it---but thankfully, I've ditched those purple pants! On the other hand, I had all my teeth in those days....

My style continues to evolve; I could thin out my scarf collection substantially---I have a few I embellish purse straps with, but don't often wear then anymore. Likewise, as the '04 pic illustrates, I don't do the "shirt-worn-open-as-jacket" look much, either. I think the zebra suit is the sole survivor of that trend...and may be what sparked BigRed's comment the other day---of course, what I wear to lunch with the girls isn't necessarily what I'd wear to an interview! For a while, AI's influence showed with big, flowing OS jackets, but I've come to the conclusion that on the whole, I prefer a more tailored cut.

Mb will be here to pick me up soon---she had to run home to get Bozo and drive him to work---so I'll talk atcha later and let you know how interview #4 goes!

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For the past few days, my sleep schedule has been buggered in the other direction, as in, I keep waking at 4-5AM and not being able to get back to sleep. Last night, after a few days of this, I couldn't keep my eyes open til the new 10PM...slept til 4, yay.

I made it work for me, though. I get up and was out the door to the food bank shortly after 6. When I signed in, I was number 218, and they were on 89, so I had a while to wait and listen to the conversation of some women in the row behind me, talking about a raffle at some smoke-filled pool hall, and how there hadn't been much of a turn-out for it because it was a cheap cue stick from palMart and serious "pool people" use high-end...blah-blah-blah.

Made out pretty well---got some cinnamon swirls, a Paula Dean Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, a loaf of whole-wheat bread, some onion kaiser rolls, Sandwich Thins, ground beef, ground pork, eggs, baby spinach, tomato sauce, two cans of beans (one kidney, one vegetarian) and some snacky things: two PopTarts, a can of Pringles and some Wheat Thins Stix (Cheddar Chipotle...I'm not a huge fan of chipotle, but hey, free is good!).

My food stamp card doesn't reload til the 13th...mind you, I'm not going to starve, either way. I've got acres of pasta and boxed stuff in my pantry, as well as soups and legumes. Butthis gives me a few more options (I'm thinking out loud here)...french toast. I haven't had french toast in aeons. I can fry up that pork and season it and add it to a can of Save-a-Lot sausage gravy and do something like sloppy joes over the kaiser rolls. Ground beef+beans+a can of RoTel tomatoes (which I have already) = chili, which sounds really good. I've got some turkey kielbasa in the freezer, that'll cover a couple more meals, a couple cans of tuna---I swear, when my card gets reloaded, I'm going to BJ's and snagging a bunch more tuna, and maybe a case of hash---Tuna Helper in the pantry, I might try something somebody mentioned over the course of the poached egg post, namely, poached eggs over spinach---or spinach salad. I can hard-boil a couple eggs and I have some precooked bacon I could snip into it. I have turkey gravy and stuffing; I might attempt stuffin' muffins ala Mb. I have a can of biscuits. Mmm, biscuits and sausage gravy.... So it's not going to be ramen noodles for a week solid. Yay!

Anyway, I was back home and unpacked by 7:45, and feel a sense of accomplishment. Now, If I can just withstand the desire to crawl back into bed--!

I'm trying to resync my sleep schedule, really I am. Especially since I'm scheduled for jury duty at fuck-me-o'clock next Monday.

So Sunday, as I mentioned, I slept til 1 in the afternoon. Was up all night, went to the food bank with Mb Monday morning, then running around: dog park, her bank, CVS drugs, Publix, Sallys Beauty Supply---I returned the stuff I got for the reunion, because $11---FPL pay station, then home,, where I put my stuff away and crashed. It was after 11AM, so I'd been up for about 22 hours. I used to be able to do stuff like that. These days, not so much.

Anyway, I slept til nearly 8PM, missed J's five phone calls telling me The Box from GK has arrived, and I've been up all night catching up on DVR'ed stuff. Looked at listings, was nonplused to see all the infomercials, until I realized it was 3AM. Guh.

Anyway, I'm going to get The Box from J around 10, and try to stay up as late as I can. If I miss primetime, so be it. Hopefully, by Wednesday, I'll have enough of my shit together to do some job hunting. (It makes such a bad impression when you're semi-comatose.)

I need to do some cooking...I got sausages, onions, corn, spinach/arrugala salad greens, a bunch of fruit---yay, mangoes!, strawberries, grapes and a whole pineapple---now to put them to work. With what I've got in the pantry, there's no reason that shouldn't feed me for most of the week.

I know I'm probably boring the hell out of y'all, but it's all I've got.

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Made it to the food bank this morning for the first time in a few weeks. Got the usual canned goods, and a few happy surprises like some portobello mushrooms, chicken strips and a Boston creme pie. Woohoo! Pie!

Watched Leverage last night, first time in a while---I gave up on it midway through last season, being very dissatisfied with the quality of the writing. Last night was good, though. I LMAO at Nate's persona for the costume party (because I got the inside joke). Ditto how I guessed who dunnit...la la la...what? Lighten up, I'm not spoiling anything!

Church yesterday was interesting; AI introduced us to Bar Karma, which I'd never heard of, but it's a show on Current TV, and the really amazing thing about it is, it's fan-driven. Apparently, they post prompts on the show's website and take suggestions from cyber-fans.

I think a Bar Karma/Leverage crossover could be 57 varieties of awesome. And yes, that's William Sanderson behind the bar; I'm so happy he's still getting work! I've been fond of him ever since Blade Runner. And Repo Man. And I saw him in an ep of Trauma that J and I watched just the other day....

Brunch. It's definitely time for some solid food. I can't eat too early in the morning, but I've been up for several hours now, and I'm ready.

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Despite only 5 hours of sleep Saturday night, despite not having had my usual Sunday afternoon nap yesterday, I *still* haven't been to bed. I tried, but sleep eluded me, and I finally gave up around 4, since Mb was going to call at 6---and 2 hours sleep would've been worse than none at all.

She and I have already been to the food pantry and back. In slightly less than an hour, Endeavor will be lifting off on her final mission. I've set a timer so I can turn on the TV for news coverage, grab my camera and scamper outside to watch.

Only one more launch remaining after today. I was at KSC for the very first shuttle launch, back in 1981. More than half my life ago! I feel so bad for the people who've worked at the Cape for decades. The ones from the shuttle program are being laid off, so it'll be a skeleton crew out there to launch satellites, but nothing manned until the space program goes commercial. This is going to be really rough on the local economy.

After the launch, I will probably crawl into bed and be comatose for a few hours. Unless I get a third wind, or something....

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I am absolutely certain that, if I die of natural causes, it'll be between 3:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon. That's the hour when I most want to curl up in a little ball and hibernate, so it follows that The Big Sleep would be the ultimate afternoon nap.

I'm particularly feeling it today, because last night, that goddamned dog next door was barking until 4AM. I swear, I was ready to make a peanut butter sandwich, go over there, feed it to him, and while his mouth was mortared shut, wrap duct tape around his jaws so I could get some sleep.

So, I ended up getting maybe, at a generous guess, five hours of sleep before I romped over to the food bank. I had neither food nor caffeine before charging out the door, Because it was late---they close up shop at 10:30, and it was 9:30 when I zoomed out of here. Worth it---I got some stew beef, and two kinds of cheese, some egg noodles, bagels, canned goods---it's hard to say which is better, getting there early, when there's more choice, or late, when they want to get rid of stuff and give your more. I could've had four bags of bagels, if I'd wanted, but I don't have enough room in the freezer and even I can't consume THAT many bagels.

After that, by prior arrangement, I went over to J's. I have a very steeply sloping driveway, which makes cleaning out my car a major pain in the behind. J has a nice, flat space where I could park and fling...it took an hour for the trunk and another hour for the passenger seat and the passenger side back seat, and that was all I had the energy for. By 2 PM, I was beat.

Got two full black bags into her dumpster (another handy feature of J's place), rounded up a whole bag of cans and inhaled three pieces of pizza at J's invitation (at 2---the rest of the backseat can wait for another day). As usual, there was a certain amount of "That's where that went!", and I could've been more ruthless, but compared to the "Before" condition, when the crap on the passenger side was UP TO the seat, actually more like a 2-inch layer atop the seat---I could actually accomodate a passenger now!

(Honestly, the car shouted "I am a hoarder!", and I was acutely aware of it when that cop shined his flashlight in at me the other night. That was the tipping point, no pun intended.)

This also gives me room to traffic cans to the recycling center. I have the bag of cans from the car, another full bag in the office, and a few partial bags I need to finish filling. I'm missing Kat again---this time her handy-dandy minivan, which held A LOT of cans.

DID remember to drop off library books on the way home, go me!

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I've been up all night, literally. Between the local pyros shooting off fireworks, good old-fashioned insomnia and a pair of roosters who were trying to out-do each other in freakin' stereo. well, but 5:30, it didn't seem worth it to catch a nap before going to collect free food.

First, however, caffeine was a must. I headed to WalMart. There were four idjits ahead of me, being helped by the world's slowest cashier. I noticed that the two guys ahead of me bought a bunch of fishing stuff (and I did NOT know that WM sells fishing licenses), and the guy behind me was buying worms. Apparently the early birds around here like to hit WM before they go off to fish. Who knew? I'm more likely to be there at midnight, when everyone is buying beer and frozen pizza. Well, everyone except me.

I dropped off my library books on the way through downtown, crossed the bridge, made it to the church, got my number (59), and settled in with a book ("Hard" by Emma Gold). Totally. Worth. It. Today was the biggest jackpot since Christmas, IMO. I ended up with a package of turkey burgers and a jumbo bag of meatballs, oh happy day, a bag of lemons, a container of cantalope, some stir-fry veggies, several ears of corn, croissants, 5-grain bread, a box of Cheerios, some shelf-stable milk, a box of Krispy Kreme chocolate cream-filled donuts---seriously, I can live off this for a week.*

Which is good, because by the time I get through paying to keep the phone/net/cable on, I'm going to be tapped.

I *will* be going back to WalMart later during bank hours, but first I think I'm going to take a nap....


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* AND a gallon bottle of vinegar. Not sure what that's about.