Flying into Vegas the flight attendant asked me if I was wearing a lucky elephant (a diamond pin I got in Bali and pinned on my fav jacket I found in Hong Kong at Shanghai Tang) and then she asked me if she could touch it – I told her yes because I’m lucky – and she said she was going gambling tonight and now just touching my elephant she knew she was going to have luck.
The USAA appointed apprasier came by at 7:30 this morning and right off the bat she dropped a bomb on me – a familiar one – she said because the addition was not “connected” to the main house it could not be counted in the total square footage [we went through this in San Rafael when we finished the bottom of the house and because you had to go down a flight of stairs that was outside it was not considered part of the house] – the appraisal has to come in on the high end because of the refi and needless to say in post-Katrina and post-housing bubble times, it has my nerves wracked. But turns out the appraiser is a red head, 51 yrs old, who divorced her husband Steve a year ago – and she gave me her card to go out partying with her – I told her I’d call, we go get wild, cause I feel lucky!
Not that mayor – this is the mayor of our neighborhood or so some call him, he calls TL the mayor – who knows – anyway he was at the LaLa for the MG Marathon party the other morning and as we went through each room he said – “if this were my house, I’d walk through each room and say and look at this, and look at that.” And I said, I know it is truly terrific and I have gone through therapy to deal with the guilt of it being mine. He said, “Rachel, I sell chemotherapy equipment. Don’t ever think you shouldn’t be enjoying and relishing every single thing.”
In the Sky Mall catalog there were three items that stood out as more than mere curiosities – there was something sinister about their concept as if created by delusional crack addict inventors tinkering away in their garages having an ah ha moment that was chemically induced. 1) Dryer Vent Brush $12.99 #131839A – “over time, lint accumulates inside your dryer and that can cause a vent fire and reduce air flow…the 10 foot long brush extends into the vent to remove lint build up. [How many people do you know have ever talked about dryer vent fires?] 2) Driveway Net $89.99 #25346A – “kids need boundaries…the Driveway Net shows kids just how far they can go!’ [and just how far parents can go by erecting a bright orange plastic fence that screams moron to their offspring] and last but not least 3) Breakfix Cereal Dispenser $79.91 “with the automatic Breakfix Cereal Dispenser fixing the day’s first meal will never again be a messy, time consuming chore, the touch of a button dispenses a premeasured portion of cereal. [Come on – cereal?]
After 22 months of all my belongings packed in boxes, I opened my past with delight, surprise and sadness. There was Sam’s photo right before he died.
They say time heals all wounds – it does not – it just dulls the pain. I miss him as if he died yesterday and it has been four years since I held him while the vet gave him his lethal injection. He had lost the use of his back legs but it was dementia that finally took us down that road.
Last night after packing and getting myself ready for today, I ran a hot bubble bath and got in – this was my second bath in the tub and both times I have fallen sound asleep. Obviously, I want to be awake for the next one but I’m starting to think the floaties might not be a bad idea.
By the end of the day yesterday, I had had it with all these men around here making a mess and leaving the toilet seat up! Were they raised by wolves? But on the other hand as I lounged in the bubbles I thought – the pantry shelves got put in, the dimmers were finally straightened out, and the stereo was set up.
On the other hand, a house warming gift went missing – I had hid it in the dishwasher that isn’t working and it is gone. I never got to Pilates. I never got to Fedex and Kinko and then realized one of the documents needed a notary.
I fell asleep in the hot water that had the potential to take the skin off a chicken and thought – whatyagonnado?
I got an email from Bud in which he said, “I miss the Lala on the Bayou! I know it so intimately and I feel like a piece of me will always be there.”
Yesterday Steve was here going over some of the final details of what needs to be done and we were talking about the bricks. He asked me where they came from and I said didn’t you see the original photo of the house? This was a California bungalow with brick clad columns. I moved from California and we turned it into a New Orleans house with mahogany columns.
I also told him that two ex-convicts were walking by as we were doing demo and Bud hired them for $6/hour each to chip away the mortar from the bricks. I used to walk by with the Bean and hear “chink, chink, chink” as they chipped away.
Why does that seem like a million years ago, a million men ago, a million me’s ago?
I was on my way out to Pilates today when things started popping around the LaLa and I was trapped here all day up until locking myself out and having to wait for my new dog sitter to come back over with the keys. It’s now 9:39 – I didn’t get anything hardly done that was supposed to get done today but other stuff got done. Now utterly exhausted, I cried uncle when I was dragging the last bits out of the Can and cleaning the floor for the appraiser who is showing up at 7:30AM as I am getting ready to head out to Las Vegas.
It is days such as these where I wonder if chasing my tail is going to color the rest of my life. I am overproductive. And therefore, never feel as if all that needs to be done is getting done, while so much is being done, and I just wonder how the rest of the world gets on about their daily life without suffering mini freak outs and never a sense of closure on hardly anything at all.
It makes you reconsider what the day should be – maybe if we just said here is the “to do” list and that it is fluid and sometimes it expands and sometimes it contracts and that finishing is never the goal.
So when I get that swimming through jello feeling that I am so want to have I need to remind myself that this too shall pass and today it is strawberry jello but tomorrow it could be mango – so keep your tongue out and lick lick lick as you make your way through each colorful day.
My smoking hot electrician sent his son to work on my house today and I just shook my head. I said you look just like your daddy. Turns out he lives down the street – so now I’m really listening to him – he’s as hot as his father without having the older air about him.
He said he saw me at La Vita the other night. He had met me when I first bought the house – he did? – I don’t remember him.
Yep, he said, he was having dinner with his very pregnant wife. [read: run for the hills]
He asked me how I knew so many people in the neighborhood and I told him I’m a friendly person. So I got his number and told him I would introduce him to people here. He’s been in the area for one year and loves it but feels with a baby due in August he should move to the Northshore – my goal will be to get him to stay here and raise his baby right.
I said I would have him and his wife over for my next party.
A friend – who normally calls a lot – had been incognito and now I know it’s because she spent five days with a 25-year-old. It was kind of like some tour package vacation thingy – where she met him, disappeared into a haze of days and nights of – well must I spell out of what? – but she says she feels like a brand new woman – hmmm.