This week was full of fits and starts – extra things that
I’d committed to do, things that got cancelled or didn’t work out, etc. – but I
rolled with the punches and got through it all. I also had some good
productivity to balance it all out so the week ended up just fine.
It started on Monday. Anne and I had scheduled a lunch with
Kate, who we rarely see her since she no longer swims with us. The plan was to
take a pizza to Kate’s office and enjoy catching up. Well Kate had had a bad
night and called in sick so Anne and I went to Dempsey’s for half price burger
day and had a perfectly pleasant time chatting the lunch hour away. Plus
truffle fries – yum!
Tuesday was going to be a busy day. I had scheduled my
annual physical and mammogram in Wahoo, which started at 9:00. It was a food
day so after enjoying some extra time at home, I grabbed my cranberry walnut
cole slaw and headed out. I got to work at 11:00 and started eating at 11:30. I
ate WAY too much (hard not to on a food day and this one was particularly good)
and before I knew it, it was time to head to the Lied Center where I’d
volunteered to be a coach for Husker Dialogues, which was a mandatory program
for all incoming freshmen to discuss diversity. There was a half hour allotted
for check in but with 370 volunteers and only a handful of people checking in,
the lines were long in a room packed with people so hotter than blazes. There
was no time for orientation so we took out packets and then went to our seats.
The students who sat around us were our group so I had 4 students – 2 who
engaged (the 2 “of color” – go figure) and a couple who checked out and barely participated.
I did have a helper coach so between the 2 of us, we kept the discussion going.
It was WAY long because the chancellor only spoke for 10 of his 25 minutes too.
But then those of us coaches sitting in the back rows were told that because so
many students had come to the first session, we probably wouldn’t have students
for the 2nd session, which in fact came true. So when the chancellor
started speaking, I got to duck out the back and so left campus at 7:30 instead
of 9:00. Nice. I had volunteered during a weak moment one weekend and then
bemoaned having to be on campus so late on a work night so it all worked out.
I spent Wednesday dug into a database, working through lunch
because it was too hot to sit outside so what was the point. I was spent by the
end of the day so was happy to head to the pool for water aerobics, heading
home afterwards, showered and ready for a relaxing night. Thursday was more of
the same database but that night I got to go straight home for the first time
all week. I had a nice dinner, watched some TV and went to bed early. You would
think with such a nice night I’d be all set for Friday but I neglected to set
my alarm so didn’t wake up until 6:59, which is more than an hour late. Talk
about a rude awakening! I bolted out of bed and was in the car just a few
minutes later than normal so salvaged my morning. After a nice lunch with
Layton (our last for awhile because he’s headed to Europe) and swimming, I hit
HyVee and headed home for the weekend, opting for Guinness and chips for
supper, figuring that’d be my last relaxing for a couple of days. The plan for
the weekend was to get busy on my spare bedroom.
Now the rest of my house is relatively picked up but the
spare room is where I chuck things that don’t have a place – off season clothes
and linens mostly but also gifts and various other things. Plus it’s my yarn
storage room. It had gotten so bad lately that I’d just stand at the door and
pitch things onto the bed, which was piled high with all and sundry. So this
was the weekend I planned to clear it out and start the organization. Now I had
to run some errands Saturday morning but then planned to stay in for the rest
of the weekend. Then I got an email from Lori. One of the Monday Night
Knitters, Jan, was having a celebration of life for her son who passed away
unexpectedly in Oregon a couple of weeks ago so Lori asked if anyone else was
going. It was from 1:00-4:00 in Wahoo so emails flew and we made plans to meet
at Andrea’s shop just before 1:00. All this meant I had to get way more
presentable than I’d gotten to hit the bank. I got dressed and we met then
walked over to the venue, only to wonder why there were no cars. When the door
was locked we checked Facebook only to see that we’d messed up the date and it
was the next week. Since we were all dressed and out, we decided to have lunch
at the bar/restaurant across the street – The Wheel House. None of us had been
there before and we were pleasantly surprised by the yummy food. We ate outside
on their patio and I got home at 3:00. Now to get busy!
Normally if I’d gotten home at 3:00, I’d have called the day
done but not this week. I changed into grubby clothes and started pulling stuff
out of the spare room, separating it as I went into yarn, clothes, gifts/stuff
and bags. Yes, I have that many book bags. That didn’t take too long so I
decided to tackle the two smaller piles immediately – book bags and clothes. I
culled the book bags then started slogging through the clothes, making piles –
off season things to keep, ironing, donations and things to try on. When I was
done with that, I called it good. Since I had no intention of doing anything
with yarn this weekend, that just left gifts and miscellaneous stuff for
Sunday. I nuked some leftovers for dinner and called it a good day.
I slept late on Sunday and then made a big breakfast and
watched CBS Sunday Morning before heading to the piles in the front room. At
noon when Lorri stopped in after church, I was still in my nightie and
surrounded by even more piles. She invited me to her house for dinner, which
meant I had even more time to work. Nice. I got dressed when she left just in
case. I had gone through most of the gifts/stuff, leaving just the yarn, which
I’d tackle next weekend, when Andrea popped by. I decided to make a pot of tea
and take a break. It was perfect and since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I
needed something. When Drae left, I had just enough time to start moving things
to where they belonged, which mostly meant down to the basement but I also
loaded the backseat with Goodwill donations to drop Monday. I threw in a single
load of clothes while I was down there and then jumped into the shower and
headed to Lorri’s. She’d made an eggplant/tomato pie (she’d recommended it to
me so that’s why she invited me for dinner), jalapeno poppers with “fooled me”
no heat peppers from her garden and mixed greens. It was all delish and then we
had an apple dessert with vanilla ice cream. Nice ending to the day, n’est-ce
pas?
So all in all, it was a good week. I had some lots of fun
social things, volunteered on campus and got my spare room started. And as Mary
Poppins said, “Well begun is half done.” I agree. While the weather for the
coming week was not going to cooperate for the pile of fall clothes I needed to
try on, at least it was a smaller pile and I’ll start trying them on when fall
weather arrives, which has to be soon, right? And next weekend will be the yarn
fun. Because if you have to spend a chunk of time organizing things, it’s more
fun if it’s something you love. I’m actually looking forward to it. Yay!
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