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homeward vignettes

homeward vignettes

i passed a dead cat on the side of the road on my way home this evening. one of the hardest things i’ve ever had to do was knock on a door after i hit a dog. i was 17 and driving the family safari van with my sibs in the back. it was a 45mph road and dark out, and the dog literally came out of nowhere in front of my passenger-side headlight. we stopped and looked around in the dark for the dog, but we found nothing. i felt sick as i headed up to the nearest house and told the woman who answered the door that i probably hit her dog and i didn’t even know where he was.

i love seeing christmas lights on people’s houses out on backroads. they’re like beacons in the dark eveningtime. i wish people would keep them lighted through the end of february to get us all past the doldrums of winter.

there is a short dead-end road in avon proper where every house is decked out with christmas decor. the neighbors have worked with each other to string lights across the road, criss-crossing from tree to tree to create a twinkly colorful surround-light experience as you drive half a block and then have to do a 45-point turn around to drive back.

is an artificial tree to a real tree like a kindle is to a paper book?

when i was early 20s, i thought 40 was ancient. now that i’m 40, i think 80’s not so old.

every day i think about how i’m pretty lucky that i don’t have mental health issues like some people do. sure, i have anxiety that’s more situational based than anything else, but my seasonal depression pretty much disappeared after i started running on the treadmill through the winter (even tho i’m still sad about no light, it’s just a general “awww, the sun’s down” and not “sigh the sun’s down time to curl into a ball and cry”). there are several people in my life who have varying degrees of depression, and it’s hard to know how to help besides just being there and telling them what i see. i think maybe that’s all a person can do.

i got my christmas poinsettia today (my only xmas decor in the house). next week i’ll get a tree. time to watch some christmas movies.

whole foods – no joke

whole foods – no joke

i’m doing a transformer dietbet, which is 6 months long, and they have regular prize drawings (i guess to keep us motivated). anyway, i won a $100 giftcard to whole foods!

i’d never been to a whole foods in my life. i’ve been to trader joe’s (like it), my local food co-ops (love them), the byerly’s in town when i need something weird and i know they have it (it’s ok but i don’t go regularly). but i’d avoided whole foods because of the whole “apples cost $20 for 3 of them” chatter that the internet proliferates.

but now i had $100 to spend that wasn’t my money, and i guess it was time to set foot in a whole foods. the closest one is in maple grove, so nate and i hauled down there** to go to duluth trading company for a return and nate’s purchase of underwear (guys, i guess the bullpen boxer briefs are where it’s at – be prepared to spend $30/pair though) and then go to whole foods to use the gift card.

well, i guess that the costly apple analogy isn’t entirely wrong…we spent $99.13 (after amazon prime discount) and here’s what we got:

  • 2 frozen skillet meals
  • 2 oatmilk yogurt cups (don’t buy this. it’s bland. and meh.)
  • tofurkey smoked lunch meat (like, 5 slices)
  • smallish bag of terra chips
  • some other smallish bag of chips
  • impossible burger patties (2)
  • box of roobios tea (YAY i’m actually really happy with this purchase)
  • sweet potato fries
  • hamburger buns
  • rice crispy bar (1)
  • prepared burrito (like a lunchbox meal)
  • 3 macarons
  • biodegradable sunscreen for my trip to mexico* so i don’t kill the coral reefs
  • gouda cheese
  • pretzel baguette
  • a peanut butter bar for my drive home
  • a container of cut mango
  • bag of stir fry veggies kit

when i got to the checkout, i realized i needed the whole foods app in order to take advantage of the amazon prime sale/discounts, so i quickly got that on my phone, and that saved $13. good grief.

you know what i could buy at aldi for $100? 3x this amount of food. and overall, aldi isn’t bad about the whole organic, cleanish food thing.

whole foods reminded me a lot of byerly’s, except fewer old people. but the prices, the food, the pretentiousness – yes. the prices weren’t THAT far off from a trader joe’s, but i feel like TJ’s is a lot more “fun” if that makes sense.

if i hadn’t had that gift card, i probably would never have set foot in a whole foods ever. i guess i can now, and i’ve got some food that i wouldn’t have gotten otherwise!

*omg i haven’t blogged about this at all! did you know i’m headed to mexico in 5 days? i’ve gotta pack!

**megan – we need to reschedule our visit! i would’ve invited you to come with me on this, but nate and i had this planned before i even planned our visit 🙁  stupid work. i’ll figure out a day and send you a calendar invite.

deck time?

deck time?

it’s almost time for deck time! what a great time. i have a couple of things happening next week that i’ll divulge later if i can, otherwise, onward and upward with the deck! my tomato and pepper seedlings are doing well (so far), and i’ve got a garden meeting on tuesday about the plots. that is almost as exciting as a deck!
in other, unrelated news, i lost my domain for a short amount of time, which is annoying since the host was supposed to pay for it. i went and paid for it so i didn’t lose it, and now i’ m waiting to hear if i get a refund. what a waste of time. 
know what else was a waste of time? driving to the tmobile store to see what would happen if i wanted to upgrade to an iphone SE. i’d have to pay $350 for my current phone and then enter a new monthly payment plan. i guess i’ll stick with my 5s. it works. (except sometimes the edge letters on my keyboard don’t register my fingers, which is weird.)
tomorrow is my land ethic workshop!! i’m excited. i’m taking my camera and hopefully having a fun time. i got a scholarship, so i’d feel horrible if i went there and decided to leave in the middle because it sucked. here’s hoping it doens’t suck. 🙂

everything at once

everything at once

when it rains, it pours?
right after charlie got in his accident, my grandma tripped on a rug in her bathroom and snapped three ribs and fractured three others. she was in the hospital for a bit, went to rehab, then was home, and was sleeping all the time. she got dehydrated, and she went back to the hospital a week or so ago, and yesterday the docs gave her two weeks to live. we’re moving her to hospice care tomorrow. 
charlie’s skull replacement surgery is next thursday. i’m not entirely surprised by this turn of events, as that seems to be the wallace mojo: already got one difficult thing happening to you? here’s another difficult thing! haha!
i guess that’s the way things happen. anyway, i will be traveling to st cloud tomorrow to see my grandma, and i should be blogging, but you never know. 
maybe over the next few days i’ll blog about grandma derry! but right now i’ve got to pack and get my crap together for tomorrow.

home improvements

home improvements

i’ll be here for a while, i guess, so it was time for home improvements. 
i bought a nice buffet a couple weeks ago that fits perfectly in my dining room; i wanted to stain it, but nate decided that he loved it as it (even though it doesn’t really match the rest of our furniture). so it replaced the hutch in the dining room, and i got a ginormous mirror from tjmaxx that will go over it.
the garage has been painted white and shelving is up! woo! it’s nice to have all our junk off the floor and space to park now. just one last top shelf to put up, and some lower shelves for little junk, maybe a foot wide instead of two feet like the upper shelving.
and i got a Fleck Water Softener! thank god! my skin felt like sandpaper, and winter would’ve only made it worse. so excited!

and done

and done

my adrenaline levels may have dipped close to normal levels. close.
after months of planning and worrying and anxiety over my job and others’ jobs and logistics and etc. etc., the big event for my work is done. last week was just nasty. we had an event on monday, thursday, friday, and saturday. i worked 11 hours on saturday alone and had almost 30 hours of overtime on that timesheet. the last timesheet also had overtime on it. 
the past two days, our office has closed ON TIME, which has been practically unheard of in the past two months at least. possibly four. it’s just weird to leave the office at 4:30 and have it be completely empty. 
so, i’m finally able to do my actual job for a little while, which will be super nice! 
eventually i should have a weekend to do nothing, also, but that’s not happening any time soon.
this weekend my sisters and i are antiqueing down the mississippi river, and i’m hoping we can hope to wisconsin and check out the laura ingalls wilder museum in pepin. i’m excited for this!
next weekend is liz’s oktoberfest party, which i may or may not go to (haven’t decided yet).
after that is NERDCON which i’m SUPER SUPER excited for. two days of writing stuff!
the 17th is the zombie pub crawl, which i also haven’t decided if i’m going to yet. charlie’s willing to go, and i’m trying to get liz to go, too, even though she thinks she’s going to have no fun since she can’t drink. her costume would be epic, though!
meanwhile, it’s pumpkin season even though this month has been peculiarly warm. it hasn’t even gotten close to freezing at night yet, which is bizarre for late september. the forecast is looking out into october already, and the lows at night are mid-50s. i’m not complaining since i’m not a fan of cold, but it’s just weird.
and, on a final note, as a reward for all my overtime i put in this past month or so, i’m expanding my tree tattoo to include some sumac and pine trees. got to make an appt! 

at the fair

at the fair

the people were overwhelming the second day i was at the fair. a person comes to expect a lot of people at a state fair, but this far exceeded what i had thought. it was warm enough that my cherry on a spoon ice cream treat was dripping too fast for my mouth to keep up with it, and trying to get around the throngs and SUV strollers (why? WHY??) while maneuvering my ice cream at the same time was harrowing.
in the past, i had gone to the fair the second time with jane on a thursday evening. while the people were still there, it was manageable. this time was not. the food building alone was enough to drive a person batty. i could see the cheese curd place in the distance; it was mere steps away. but the people between us and the cheese curds were too much to handle. then the lines were winding, long, and sweaty. once you paid, though, the cheese curds were done pronto, and soon the fried, cheesey goodness made its way into my belly. 
once we made our way out toward the outskirts of the fair, down by the eco and pet buildings, the crowd was more manageable. we stopped to watch a lumberjack show at the northwoods tent, and cheered and booed with the rest of the crowd. 
on our way out, charlie picked up some martha’s cookies. there is always a line for the cookies, and while he was in line, i went to get my ice cream. jane stayed under a tree. we stood on the boulevard under the shade while charlie slowly made his way to the counter. cookies in hand, we hightailed it out of there.
i’m not saying don’t go to the fair. i’m saying don’t go on the weekend. next year, we’ll go on our regular thursday evening. 
 

what is offensive about me?

what is offensive about me?

my best friend in junior high has defriended me on facebook. 
twice.
to which i ask, what is so offensive about my facebook posts (and therefore, i guess, me)? am i too liberal? to libertarian? too weird? too many tattoos? too obsessed with grammar? i don’t have kids and therefore you can’t relate? my cats aren’t cute enough? you didn’t really like me that much in jr. high? i exercise too much? you don’t care about my running? my food is too good looking? i read too many literary books that make you feel inferior? i like too many hick things and make you feel far superior? i spend too much time with my siblings? i’m too much of a nerd? i live in too small of a town? i eat too many minidonuts? you’re jealous of my christmas tree? i’m not religious enough? i’m too crafty? i’m not crafty enough? i hate scrapbooking? (THAT’S GOT TO BE IT.)
in all seriousness, i haven’t talked to the girl in 22 years, so it’s not like it’s a big loss, but it’d be interesting to know why she defriended me and is still friends with all the other people we knew in jr. high (who also left the same time i did).
ah well. 

sorry for the delay…

sorry for the delay…

it’s been a busy summer! after my derry family reunion, i was off to spicer for a bachelorette party on another lake. i still have to upload pics from the reunion, too. charlie and i tried to get some moon pictures. right now i’m still working on the cosplay pics – i think when i’m done with today’s, i’ll see if i can remember to post what i’ve gotten done so my dedicated blog readers can see how that’s progressing!

time to travel

time to travel

when you wake up early on a saturday and jump in the car to go somewhere, and it’s almost summertime or it IS summertime, and the sky is blue, the sun is bright, and maybe there are big, puffy white clouds in the sky, and you for some reason are driving away from the sunrise, and the windows are down, and the morning air is a little chilled but not too chilled, and the tires are humming the pavement beneath you, and the road is before you, it might be time to travel.
I-90 swings across the bottom of the state. when i tried to sleep at night with the windows open while growing up, the hum of truckers and travelers whizzing past austin, mn, lulled me to sleep. now the freeway calls me to travel. i hop on and think, hmm, what if i just keep going…