Mostly Packed

I folded the basket of clean wash last night after supper so I'd have underpants to wear today and take along, then I bagged up 3 different flavors of tea and my hot water pot so I won't have to leave my room for tea, and I made sure that I had all my toiletries (plus some "I might need" items) in my dopp kit and packed it, then I put in some socks and shirts and a sweater in the bag.  All that's left to pack (I think) are the sweats that I'm sitting in the middle of.  I have my winter tennies/boots out so I won't forget them and I piled all my WIPs into a big bag so I'll have plenty of knitting.  What else?  Oh yeah, this laptop.  Can't forget the laptop.  I've got a notebook in case I feel like writing but I'm not going to be hard on myself if I don't.  (I took some nice sunset pix yesterday from the Michaels parking lot and the $#%&* laptop won't see the SD card when I slot it in.  Grrr)  I'm planning to get my nails done on my way out of town.  Naturally I broke one yesterday, plus they're getting a bit long and scraggly looking so I might as well, plus there's less chance I'll smudge one if I'm just driving for an hour afterwards.  I want to grab some oranges to take along too.  Ha, I act as though I'm going on safari.  There are stores, all kinds of stores, in Sheboygan.  There have to be, my brother and his family live there.  (Ah, I rebooted the computer and now it sees the SD card.  Whew.)  They buy groceries, etc. I know they do.  But I'll take oranges from home anyway, those I've already paid for and we've got extras.  Remember when an orange in winter was a luxury?  I do.  We'd get one at Christmas sometimes and for years I put one in the kids' stockings.  Maybe that's why I love them so much.  Plus they taste good, like a little squirt of sunshine.  Can't forget to pack my surge protector cord with all the chargers on it--camera, phone, iPod, and Kindle Fire.  See?  It's a good thing that I'm telling you all this.  I'm remembering things.

I'm addicted to audiobooks.  Is that bad?  I rarely buy them, only from Audible and then only books I know I want to listen to again and again.  I can't conscience paying fifteen bucks for a book I don't know if I'll like, that's what the library's for.  They let you borrow books for free.  Even talking ones, some on CDs and many online so you can just, zoop, download them onto your device (device sounds vaguely nasty, doesn't it?), and listen.  I'd have a book stuck in my ears all the time if Durwood didn't expect me to talk to him every once in a while or at least respond when he talks to me.  Marriage, it's really an every day thing, isn't it?  *sigh*  See, our marriage wasn't an every day thing for years and years, until about 6 years ago, really, when Durwood stopped going out of town.  Oh, he'd call every night from the road and we'd talk about all sorts of things and then he'd be home on weekends and for about a week and a half per month, not all in a row.  It worked for us, for both of us.  I dread the day when I don't work anymore.  What'll we do????  Probably stop talking altogether, we've both turned into such loners.

March 22--Baldassare Manara, Pyramis and Thisbe.  They were creatures of habit.  They sat in the same places, ate off the same plates, and wore the same clothes in the same order.  "We need a change," Terese said, "we're boring."  "We're not boring," said Peter, "we're settled."  She shook her head.  "We're settled all right.  We're so deeply settled, we're in a rut.  No, not a rut, a chasm, an abyss."  She threw her hands up.  "I'm tired of meatloaf on Monday and salmon on Tuesday."  Peter looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.  "I bought plates that don't match at Goodwill."  He wondered if he could eat off of different plates.  She kept going.  "I want to rearrange the furniture and sit in a different place at the table.  I'm sick of the status quo."  Peter sat stunned watching a bluejay throw peanuts off the feeder.

I had to look up the myth of Pyramis and Thisbe this morning.  It's Romeo and Juliet in even olden-er days.  Why didn't I remember that?  I used to remember all sorts of things.  Damned brain drain.  (a few years ago when I muttered that I was having a senior moment over the radishes in the grocery an old lady beside me told me that I didn't get to have senior moments because I was too young and when I asked her what I got she put one fist on her hip and said, "bah-rain dah-rain" then she turned and pushed her cart away.  guess she told me.  sounded like my mother-in-law, God rest her soul)  Okay, time to eat, shower, and flee.  Adios!

--Barbara