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Monday, February 20, 2012

President's Day Sale Week Whining

Did you hear, Pixies, apparently the malls in the US were crazy this weekend?

Fortunately, I missed it (AW!). I don't shop much (at all, actually, when I can help it) but received many confirmations that it was a good weekend to stay home from my braver (shopping-enjoying) pals.

How is your week unfolding? I've managed to see family (AW!), break a ski (expensive W!), and bake a "very pink" cake. What's up in your neck of the woods?

30 comments:

Sue said...

We cal, this holiday weekend "Family Day". It is relatively new in Canada, but much treasured as a much-needed break in a long winter.

Today I have celebrate by doing......okay, nothing.

Well, unless you count laundry and Angry Birds.

kathy a. said...

photo of the cake!

i'm almost all about antiwhines at the moment: great conference! saw so many wonderful people! am all energized! caught up on much gossip, and developments in my field!

by some miracle aligning of stars, the giant work project may actually be finished on time [albeit not in such good shape as hoped], despite not getting time we could have used.

W: my fingernail tore off across the nailbed, but thanks to copious application of bandaids, it happened slowly and i did not bleed on anybody or anything.

kathy a. said...

W/AW combo plate: wonderful dinner with my aunt over the weekend! she was driving me to the motel, and right after she turned a corner, this guy suddenly walked right in front of her car -- he was talking on a cell and looking the other way up the street. my aunt couldn't stop in time. fortunately, she was going slowly.

the guy was an on-duty transit person in a yellow vest; this happened across the street from a bus hub, and two other transit people ran over very upset. he said he was OK, and sent them away. he admitted he was looking the other way. it was obvious he did not want to call in a report.

my aunt swung into "responsible citizen" mode and started writing her information; i gave him paper and pen, and he wrote his. (he was so flustered that he kept my purple pen.) anyway, my aunt decided if she doesn't hear from him in a couple days, she'll call and make sure he's ok.

esperanza said...

Yikes, kathy a! I had a glancing-blow encounter with a dog a couple of weeks ago, who ran off before I could determine where his/her owners might live. I'm still a little shaken by it; can't imagine hitting a person.

W: ouch, ouch, ouch. Spent almost 5 hours this morning removing hideous row of bushes from our front sidewalk. Half of the stumps are gone. My goodness, but I am sore. I haven't done hard work like that in...a while.

AW: that major item on my to-do list is almost crossed off. I think I can remove the rest on Wednesday morning (provided I can move by then). Taking advantage of a good weekend rain and the wet ground.

W: not exactly my idea of fun.

esperanza said...

I should clarify that the bushes were not actually *in* the front sidewalk, but alongside it. Digging them up was hard enough without having to jackhammer concrete!

Sarah at ratatat said...

redzils - I avoided the malls too. I don't know how I haven't absorbed the holiday weekend shopping thing. I even like shopping.

Sue - best use of a holiday day - rest!

KathyA - how scary for your aunt. And glad the conference and the big project went well.

Esperanza - yay for bushes removal. And not having those bushes in concrete ;-)

Anti-whine: yoga feels good. It has almost squished all of the whine out of me. They'll be back tomorrow, about 3am, I'm sure.

Miranda said...

I'm back at work "for real" in less than six hours. I am wide awake. Oh, this will make for a Very Whiny Tuesday.....

W: My project is still in shambles. I am going to "forget" it at home. And finish it tomorrow night.

AW: Daughter is going to help me organize my shambolic mess of papers into a proper file since she is off of school and feeling generous with her brother at her dad's.

W: There is one more project that got the short shift when I was promoted suddenly that suddenly came back from the dead. Whoops!

AW: Maybe Daughter will help me organize these papers too?

W: I hate, hate, hate the clerical portion of my job. I can organize stuff electronically. I can write up briefs and memos that will knock socks off but I loathe the paper end but it is hard to do the writing piece without the paperwork organizing piece.

Kathy A - How scary!!!

Sarah @ R - Yay for yoga!!

Redzils - Pics! Pics! Pics!

Sue - Angry Birds and laundry are family time I can get behind. ;)

Esperanza - I tend to attack outdoor projects like that myself. I work myself to the bone and then....not again for a long time.

Oh, and I did go out with grown ups last weekend and it was amazing. It was so amazing, we are doing it again to ring in my birthday.

kathy a. said...

yay for time out with grownups, miranda! oy on the project from hell, and especially the clerical portions thereof.

yay, sarah, for the yoga! i should really get around to trying that. my aunt is 73, and she does yoga. what's wrong with me?

esperanza, you are amazing! there has got to be a big award for bush removal.

esperanza said...

The Overambitious Award, maybe.

Did I mention, ouch!

JenR said...

I'm out of town all alone... Which could be an anti whine, but I miss my babies. But at least I will get a couple nights of sleep.
I also skipped the shopping. Partly because I was clueless and didn't think of holiday sales.

kathy a. said...

happy sleep, jenr! i don't actually sleep well out of town, but like a little away time, anyway.

pixies -- the project is done done done, all except making copies and getting it where it needs to go, which is not my job but i've made sure the person in charge has that lined up. YAY!

Sue said...

No outdoor projects here - we're living in a winter wonderland this morning. Everything has a beautiful coat of light snow on it. It will melt by noon, but for now I feel like I'm in the ice palace scene in Dr. Zhivago. The difference, of course, is that I get to look at the pretty without being in the cold. My office is quite warm actually....

W: First time ever. Hubby and I had a discussion over coffee this morning about depression. I said I was going to add more regular exercise to see if that helped. He has never once said this before, but he said, "You look fine. You sound fine. Your head is okay. Maybe you're overthinking this."

Not.

Overthinking.

Anything.

I know this feeling. It's like I've swallowed a big black rock. I can't sleep. I don't care about anything. I just want to stay in bed until spring, because at least then I won't have to come to work.

Not overthinking anything. I'm not sure I convinced him of anything, and I left for work really not caring.

kathy a. said...

((( sue ))) that's one thing about depression -- it's invisible. as much as your beloved adores you, he does not know how hard you are working to "pass" when the black times hit.

have you considered seeing your doctor, in addition to the other measures? xoxoxo

Anonymous said...

((((Sue))))
and Yay to Kathy a for project being done!!!
--Neighbor Lady

kathy a. said...

BOOM. that's the sound of the next shoe dropping in the ongoing saga of my difficult sister in law (who has early dementia and mental illness).

her first ex just called to say he wants to move her to the apartment complex very near our house. this weekend.

it probably would be better than where she is now. but there will certainly be ongoing problems. almost on our doorstep. she's had a raft of legal and financial problems in recent months. the last time her ex tried to move her, she got into it with a neighbor within days, and the police came, and she had an emergency mental evaluation.

i sound so darned mean, but when she lived at this apartment before -- when she was more functional -- we had calls virtually every day. she is very very difficult.

esperanza said...

ooh, kathy a., that's a very large shoe. Sorry. But hooray for the large project!

Hugs to Sue.

My own large project is done, too! Bushes are gone. My heavens, but the last two were harder than the first three. Could have had something to do with the state of my muscles. Only one nosy neighbor conversation. He's also a church member (we live in the church's house, 'member?) This was more of a "ask forgiveness rather than permission" project, so we'll see if anyone else even notices.

W: ouch. My whole body, ouch.

kathy a. said...

oh, esperanza. nice long hot bath with no baboos?

i am so laughing at the "ask forgiveness, not permission" project -- you renegade landscaper! pre-emptive cluesticks to any complainers.

Sue said...

Oh kathy, so sorry about the massive shoe drop.

I saw doc re: depression last Monday. He's looking into what other med he can add to what I'm already on.....one of those "booster" kind of meds that make what is already working, work better. It's been ten days. I'll call tomorrow to see if he forgot about it. It would be very unlike him....

AW: went to the gym today. This time I actually got out of the car, went into the building and used the treadmill. One day last week I drove there and cried in my car for half an hour. Today was much better.

Sarah at ratatat said...

Oh Sue. I'm sorry. It took a combo of 4 drugs plus 2 sleeping drugs to finally stabilize a friend with depression. So proud of you for getting there, even with the crying in the car episode.

Esperanza the renegade landscaper. Love it! Hope you recover soon.

Kathy - yay for finished projects!

Miranda - yay for adult company. And helpful daughters.

JenR - sleep is good. And you'll see the babies soon. Hang in there.

esperanza said...

I also have no idea, for the record, what happened to those ratty sheers hanging behind the ugly drapes in the living room. If I get really brave, the ugly drapes might meet with some sort of accident, too. Srsly. They are almost as old as I am.

Sue said...

Thanks Sarah. I think that's the hardest part. Doc and I went through literally years of trying various cocktails of meds for my very intractable depression.

We seemed to have found "It" with my present combo. Very few side effects, good results, and then this. I was feeling low before my last headache treatment and I thought that once my head wasn't hurting so badly every day, that low mood would lift.

Sigh.

Not so much.

On the other hand, we've fixed this before....we can do it again, right? In the meantime, I'll try to do more workouts in the actual gym. Much more effective.

Anonymous said...

Sue-- I wonder if there is some sort of interaction between your headache injections and meds? Maybe they act on similar receptors or the one blocks a bit of the other? Doc would know that though.....
Hugs in the meantime as you get things adjusted!
:) Neighbor Lady

Sue said...

I hadn't thought of that NL. I was thinking more along the lines of "it's always something" ......but what you suggest makes sense.

I'll check it out with the doc....thanks.

kathy a. said...

((( sue ))) go endorphins go. you are so good at identifying what helps. maybe just a tweak of the meds, along with that, will turn this around. don't forget kitten therapy! my daughter goes to the shelter and pets the kittehs when she really needs a boost, and it works every time. ;)

esperanza -- there were ancient drapes in our house when we bought it, and they literally fell apart in the wash. could happen to you... (our son had asthma, and those things were total dust traps.) it's very easy to make curtains with a pocket to feed over a curtain-rod, and also easy to make pleated drapes -- fabric stores sell a strip to sew on the back top, and these prong things to insert and create the pleats. or, the church could just spring for ready-made drapes, seeing how they are past-due for replacement and probably posing a health hazard for the baboos.

Sarah at ratatat said...

Hang in there Sue.

And Esperanza - giggling at the disappearing drapes. Who knows how these things happen?

esperanza said...

Oh, making new curtains doesn't scare me. Antagonizing the church ladies too much in a calendar year...now that is a bit more daunting. First the sheers, then the bushes, who knows what I'll do next!?!

Miranda said...

Esperanza, your "beg forgiveness, if needed" approach has inspired me this week. Tee hee hee!

Kathy A - I hope your difficult relative has a support network that doesn't include you or the Beloved.

Sue - best of luck with the meds adjustments.

W: Project. Still not done. Argh.

Sue said...

Thanks all. I guess I've been at this long enough to see what needs to be done. Now I just need to get it done.

Hubby apologized for not being super supportive and has been really helpful since. He felt terrible.

Off to bed. This weekend is a marathon of meetings, 90th birthday party on Sunday, and hopefully home in time to catch the end of the Daytona 500.

Sarah at ratatat said...

Sue - I'm so happy that your husband got it, even if late. Good luck with the weekend of things to do.

Miranda - darn projects. I am sticking my fingers in my ears and not letting that remind me of a work project that I should be tackling much more firmly.

AW: pants on sale (super crazy 85% off sale) and bought 4 pairs two sizes smaller than I used to buy. I miss you bread, pasta and beer, but my waistline does not.

kathy a. said...

yay, sarah! i have many wardrobe complaints, and pants are one of them. it would help if i was 2 sizes smaller...

miranda, not done projects are so not fun.

happy purry sleepies, sue.