Today marks the completion of the first week of Lent. I gave up meat (but not fish and shellfish), and I have been successful thus far. I am pretty proud of my accomplishment. I hope that when I have blood drawn in a few weeks I will find that my blood sugar and cholesterol are within acceptable parameters as a result. Just in case, I plan to start eating a whole lotta oatmeal in the meantime. Good thing I've devised ways to make it more palatable.
Last Wednesday was the first week of trivia without our pal Carl-Os. We did alright for ourselves, coming in second place. I think we need to draft some more people for our team though. Not everyone can make the weekly commitment, and we are hoping to win for the season. Winning feels good. It's a feeling I'm not accustomed to. I should have played more team sports as a kid . . .
Thursday was Valentine's Day, which was cold and rainy, but very nice. I went to my writing group and j^C went to rugby practice, but we reconvened afterward for chocolate covered strawberries and snuggles. It was nice.
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| Here we see Uranium J in her swell V-Day dress. |
Toward the end of the planning session, my new partner mentioned that our workshop was canceled this week. That is when I realized that sorting incoming emails into folders was a lousy idea. I hadn't gotten the memo. No matter, we are now a week ahead of schedule, and I like to be ahead of the game. It makes me feel competent.
At 2 we walked across the street to the Bull Street Library to attend an exclusive Deep Fellows Only lecture by Must Love Dogs author, Clair Cook. It was fun and informative, but I guess I felt like I was back in school because I took 5 or 6 pages of notes. What can I say? She was a fount of knowledge.
After that, I made my way back to Richmond Hill for dinner with the family at La Napolera. Veggie fajitas = De-lish. Also, Horchata. Yes, I think it is a proper noun. And what? Following dinner, the three of us went home where I proceeded to kill time before the FRG Ladies' Night at Midnight Star Pottery. I thought I had it all timed perfectly - I would leave the lecture, grab some dinner with j^C and That Sprout, and the head to the Ladies' Night. Perfect! Except I was off on the time by about an hour. Lame.
I finally made it to the pottery shop and while I would love to tell you that it was a fun night of fellowship, I mostly just felt awkward. There were many reasons for this, not the least of which being the fact that all their spouses had just deployed and mine didn't. I also think, upon further reflection that maybe volunteering with Deep has lulled me into a false sense that I am competent in social situations.
When I am around Deep Fellows, we all have writing in common. While we are all vastly different peopl with a wide range of interests and tastes, we all just kind of tend to get along. If nothing else, we are sharing the experience of teaching a bunch of middle schoolers how to be great writers. It binds us.
Now, you would think that military wife-dom would have the same effect, and maybe for most people it does. For me though, even when I'm trying to assimilate I come away from the situation feeling very much like a square peg. I'm willing to admit that a lot of these feelings could be in my head or problems I'm creating for myself. I don't know. I know I don't like it, and it makes me sad. I've accepted the fact that j^C ain't quitting the Army any time soon, so I have adopted the "If you can't beat em', join em'!" attitude. I just wish I didn't feel so different. Everyone wants a tribe, and in this one, I'm left feeling like Wiglaf - an interloper.
Saturday was spent at home with That Sprout while j^C went to play rugby in the freezing rain. We snuggled and read books while he toiled in the mud. I made the right decision, I feel. I felt particularly accomplished in my lounging as I finally read John Fowles' The Collector from cover to cover. Ho. Lee. Shit. Go read it. Now. Just go. It was incredible. Seriously.
After that, I began reading a book about the alleged Black Dahlia killer, who may have also been The Zodiac Killer and a host of other serial killers who remained at large. I've yet to really get into it though. Hopefully, I'll finish it by this time next week - I have a lot of reading I'd like to get done in short order. Also, I would like to drop this book in the care package for Carl-Os, as it's right up his ally.
About that care package . . . I am sorry to say that it remains unsent. It's on the "To Do" list for the coming week. I so desperately want to fill it with some retail therapy, but you can't bleed a turnip. That means I'm going to have to get creative about it.
I don't really remember Sunday . . . I think we spent the day in bed.
On Monday, That Sprout went to daycare and j^C and I went to lunch, the mall, and to the discount bookstore. Since all of the books were under $2, I had a little shopping spree at the bookstore, which is why I need to get to reading. The "To Read" pile is getting a little too tall. After we picked That Sprout up from daycare, we took her to play at McDonald's where she had a massive fecal incident. I have begun to suspect that she's become lactose intolerant, so that's fun!
Yesterday was long and frenzied. I fueled myself with very strong French Press coffee and set to work cleaning and undercutting my house. I am proud to say that I have finally taken down the Christmas tree and most of our Christmas supplies are safely packed away in a box, but that's as my successes go. But! I hope that this is only the beginning and by the time my birthday rolls around I will have made a significant dent in the problem. It would be nice to live in a clean and uncluttered house. I haven't had that since I lived in the dorms at college. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Yes it would.
There are two other successes I would like to announce for this week:
- I set connected my broken laptop to the new monitor I received for Christmas. Now I can work on the blog, writing, and school work while standing and That Sprout can't hassle me. Exciting stuff!
- I have lost most of my holiday weight. Another 2 pounds will see me at my pre-Thanksgiving weight. This is awesome. I would like to thank Deep, sectarianism, and strong coffee for this success.
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| I saw a whole bunch of these little guys at the gas station on V-Day. Here's one. |
How has your week been? Do you feel like you've gotten a lot done or have you been impersonating a sloth? Do you ever feel like you are the odd man out? What do you do when that happens? Let me know in the comments!
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