Once again I must look myself in the mirror and admit I have become a very bad blogger. Sorry. To myself, that is. For getting too busy to write down everything that’s going on that makes me so darn busy at the risk that I will not be able to remember it all in ten years, or ten minutes for that matter.
So, at the risk of not providing enough back story, here’s all the stuff that’s been going on lately that has prevented me from feeling like anything really blogworthy is going on.
1. I bought a house. And then I returned it. This was a big deal for me, who struggles to return anything to a store. Seriously, I will keep a mispurchased item for years, knowing I will never use it, perhaps move it across a state line or two, and then give it to D.I., Goodwill, Salvation Army—whatever’s closest, rather than take it back and ask for a refund. But yeah, in March I bought a new construction townhouse in Chula Vista, a lovely master-planned suburb of both San Diego and Tijuana. (I swear it’s nice--they have an Anthropologie!) I picked out the flooring (high-end laminate/tile/loop pile carpet combo), cabinets (dark java), countertops (white quartz, cuz I’m green like that) awesome appliances and everything else. It was supposed to be finished in early September, but got pushed to late fall. I enlisted the help of a super headhunter because there’s nothing I hate more in this world than job-searching. And then the whole economy fell apart and I just couldn’t find a decent job there. So I pulled out of the deal and, miraculously, got every cent of my deposit back. Hooray for Shea Homes, they couldn’t have been nicer to a reluctant house returner such as myself. In retrospect, I feel really lucky to have had the chance to do a trial-run at the whole house-buying thing.
2. I got really good at riding my Vespa. Now that the weather is warm, it sees a lot more use and I have gone from sort of fearing the thing to absolutely adoring it. It gets ridden to church almost every single Sunday despite the riding-in-skirt debacle. Also, the Roommate recently volunteered to be my first passenger, which I think takes faith (in a higher power), guts and trust (in me). We went on busy streets down to the beach and everything, and the whole time she was respectful of my above-average personal space issues by only placing the occasional finger on my right shoulder and otherwise holding onto the rear rack.
3. I turned into a semi-experienced lawyer despite all efforts to the contrary. Unfortunately, what I have gained in confidence has been balanced out by a stressful schedule full of court appearances and depositions. When I think back on my esteemed law school classmates, I definitely wouldn’t have picked myself as most likely future litigator, but the future is often funny that way.
4. I went to Arizona for Fourth of July and hung out with my parents Dave and Mary for a weekend chock full o’ fun. Seriously, they wore me out. For those of you who haven’t heard or haven’t figured it out from reading the more frequently-updated blogs of my family members, Dave has been sick with all sorts of things lately. When I got there on the third, he had just completed months of chemo and a week-long hospital stay due to blood and lung issues that may or may not have been related to the Big C, but were dangerous enough on their own. So I was kind of expecting we’d all have to take it easy for the weekend, but noooo, Dave had drummed up a tight itinerary of fireworks watching (complete with local hotel room in which to sit-out post-event traffic--nice!), Diamondbacks game attending, ample walking in 110+ heat and lots of local foodstuffs-eating. It’s the first time I can remember telling my parents “I think it’s past my bedtime.” Repeatedly. Also, my lil’ bro and his wife visited the weekend before and lil’ bro arrived with a shaved head in a show of solidarity with the now-bald Dave. But I did not shave my head or really do anything except offer Dave and Mary a can of Olestra Light Pringles that I had snacked on during my 400-mile drive from Los Angeles, which they consistently declined. Apparently it didn’t compare to shaving one’s head. I suppose I could have offered to get a 3/4-inch trim, which I think would approximate the amount of hair lil’ bro sacrificed for his much-lauded effort, but it didn’t occur to me until after the trip. Oh well, we still had tons of fun, despite my full head of hair and the fact that it’s hotter than Hades in Arizona and everything.
(Oh, and incidentally, Blogger, which lets you label posts, has these permanent suggestions for labels: "scooters, vacation, fall." Yet how many bloggers have actually had a post, like the one above, for which these were all appropriate? All I'm saying is, I'm thinking it's time I earned another medal...)
