Week 6 - Embracing Plan B

The theme for this week had to be flexibility because time after time, my original plans fell through so I had to go with the flow. Oh well, I still managed to have some fun.

I started the week with a day off to finish my decrapification. I spent the entire day tackling the last piles and getting stuff done. By the time I left for knitting, I could honestly say I was done. It felt great. I did have one kitchen drawer to go through and wanted to clean the espresso maker but neither felt like a show stopper. Knitting was fun, as usual, and Andrea gave me a fun pin and some wonderful orange sock yarn. Becky brought treats and told us she is expecting again. What a nice day.

Tuesday was my big 5-0. I had baked a cake to bring to work (decadent chocolate cake with ganache frosting from the Silver Palate Cookbook – best .cake.ever.) when I got home from knitting but didn’t make more treats because I was hoping for a snow day. I was already snowing Monday night and was supposed to snow and blow through Wednesday. But did UNL close? NO! UNL was the only school in the area that didn’t cancel. Luckily the wind had scoured the snow from most of my driveway so I could head out after only minimal shoveling. And since I was the only car on the road, the drive in was fine. I was almost to campus when Belinda called to wish me a happy birthday and tell me that her husband had fed my campus cats. Since it was bitter cold, that was wonderful news.

Since LPS was closed, Nora didn’t come in and Mary decided to work from home. Lots of other people stayed home too. But my office mates took me to Applebee’s for lunch, chosen for its proximity to campus, and we had cake when we got back. Helen sent me beautiful flowers and the day was flying by - it was deans’ reports day. The snow blew all day so I left at 4:00 so I wouldn’t be driving in the dark. That meant that I was home and cozy but not having dinner with friends on my birthday. I made some chicken poppers and sat down for a quiet night of TV. My gift to myself was not answering the phone. It was a peaceful night.

I was supposed to go to the movies with Darla on Wednesday but, having not slept well because of the storm, I begged off and headed straight home. I don’t know if it was the weather or not sleeping, but I was just dragging. I rescheduled dinner on Thursday night with Lorri too in favor of going to the pool for the first time that week. It just felt good to be inside, sitting and knitting. By Friday I had gotten my energy back. At least I got a lot of knitting done. : )

I had a Friends meeting Saturday morning and then ran all my errands. Then it was home for more knitting. I somehow had a big list of things with imminent deadlines – a birthday present for the next Friday, a baby gift for Sunday and the stuff for my swap needed to be in the mail on the 14th. So I knitted like a banshee, did my chores and threw in a bit of cooking. I had done three rounds of felting (purposely shrinking 100% wool knitted things for my non-knitting readers) in the washing machine and was going to kool aid dye (yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like – using kool aid to dye knitted stuff) the stuff for my swap, only to read the fine print on the directions to find that it only works on animal fibers to neither of the things I needed to dye would work. It was on to Plan B for my swap things – more knitting and more buying. Sheesh!

By the time Lorri and Bob picked me up at 4:45 for my postponed birthday dinner Sunday night, I had made a big dent in the knitting projects and had enjoyed a nice weekend. We were headed to Andy’s in Fremont for Italian food, figuring it would be deserted because of the Super Bowl. Yeah, it was so deserted it wasn’t open! No sign, nothing. With limited other options in Fremont, we ended up at a restaurant that Lorri and Bob recommended. Well, the restaurant wasn’t open but the bar was so we ended up there, surrounded by TV’s blaring the game. To top it off, they were completely out of steaks so it was a burger or the spaghetti special, which we all opted for. While it wasn’t what any of us had planned on, it wasn’t bad. We headed next door to the Village Inn for pie and I was home early.

So, it was a week full of changed plans but all in all, it was a good week. The BIG 5-0 came and went and I fell just like I did when I was 49. I’m in the camp of “It’s just a number.” I have wonderful friends who made it special. Life is good.