I have a long (and growing longer every day) post in my saved folder. I'm actually working on it, not just typing whatever my brain spews out. And yesterday it occurred to me that you don't know that. So if you, my entirely hypothetical reader, is checking this blog there's been nothing new for a week (maybe, I don't know when I posted "Bathroom Humor" and it seems like a lot of trouble to go back to check the date just to prove exactly how much I haven't done). So let me fill you in.
I visited Bestie in Ashland, Kentucky, over the holiday weekend. We crossed the bridge and spent about two hours in West Virginia. Which is a big deal in this COVID world. We shopped at Target. She bought blackout curtains for her guest room ( already referred to as "Misha's room") and I found a large lampshade. Which was super exciting because I spent I don't know how long one night on Amazon searching through large lampshades looking for one that actually was:
large
not a drum
not too ugly (that qualifier was dropped early on)
and reasonably priced
(aka under $50, preferably more like $15 because I bought that damn floor lamp and I don't think a new shade should actually cost more than the lamp itself -- $50 -- and really should cost a great deal less than the whole, tho it seems lampshade manufacturers disagree with me). I didn't buy the large white normal lampshade-shaped $20 shade at Target. There was a reason, but I don't remember what it was. I did buy more humidity shield cream for my hair and pretty nail polish. I used to do my nails every week and now I don't and I don't know why I stopped but I'm reclaiming that habit dammit! Then we ate really good Thai food.
I almost backed out. I'm really excited to visit and be visited by my friends again. I've missed them. Bestie and I met our first semester of grad school, August 1993. Two Kentucky girls in library school in Louisiana almost 28 years ago. And starting Thursday I considered canceling. Really. I do this all of the time, but it has gotten worse since COVID. Counterintuitive? Hell yes. Once I'm home I just want to barricade the doors and turn out all of the lights and not interact with humans again until I absolutely have to go to work. I've learned to treat it (this weird not exactly agoraphobia) like it's a child asking repeatedly for something that's just not gonna happen, like ice cream and candy bars for breakfast. I nod and say I'll think about it and go on with packing. And obviously I'm so glad I didn't cancel. We watched Rocky & Bullwinkle while doing crafts, listened to Abbey Road, and did Mad Libs. And mostly we just were. Just two Kentucky girls back in Kentucky many many years after a deliberately dull (we played a Gregorian chant very quietly during our presentation) yet disturbing group project on libraries in the middle ages.
My family (mom, brother, SIL, and niece) made an unplanned trip to South Carolina and back. My aunt isn't doing well. They were going to visit her in mid-June, but there's a good chance she won't make it that long. And I really didn't want to see her like that. She was ill and already showing signs of dementia when I saw her a few years ago. But she was happy to see me then (not sure who she thought I was). And that's how I want to remember her. Not in stage six of dementia and racked with pain. So that's what I didn't do on the three-day weekend.
Also, it was only a two-day weekend for me because I worked on Saturday and people get so worked up when the public library is closed on Memorial Day there's no way we can close for the whole weekend. Ditto 4th of July, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Presidents Day, and Easter.
p.s. This is not a paid ad for Target. Or Amazon. Or Acme Lampshade Manufacturers. I am willing to do an ad for the Thai place we ate in WV. You may pay me in spring rolls and tea. Ohemgee those we awesome spring rolls.
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