Way Too Excited!!!!!

I have to confess, I am overly exuberant about shopping at Trader Joe’s.  They’re just groceries, and it’s just granola.   I don’t get that jazzed about Safeway or Whole Foods; it’s just Trader Joe’s.   I swear it’s not the Hawaiian shirts.  It’s not the stupid bell either.  I just love buying stuff at Trader Joe’s.  I think it’s because it seems healthier and cheaper.  I get physically giddy.  I actually danced a little in the check out line tonight.

There’s also something about walking home from Trader Joe’s that I like.  I like walking up College past all the joggers and dog walkers with my canvas tote full of fresh and frozen grocery goodness.  Just thinking about it makes me want to giggle.

I could probably psycho-analyze myself, but why over think the simple joy of the eggplant wrap and the take and bake pizza.   I shall not deconstruct the Joe’s O’s, which are just like Cheerios, but organic and yet somehow less expensive.

I know.  I know.  What a NERD!

Just sayin’.

Holed Up

Day 4.   Yesterday, I finally went to see the doctor to see if there was anything to be done to help me give get over the sickness.   Well, it turns out that I have bronchitis.   I have been put on antibiotics and some serious cough syrup.   Earlier, my temperature we got up to 99 again, but it’s back to normal now.

I’ve basically been home alone for the whole week.  I’ve only left the house to go to the doctor, the pharmacy, and the gas station on the corner.   I’m getting kind of bored, and what I really want is some chocolate cream pie.

I’m not contagious after being on the antibiotics for more than 24 hours, so if you want to hook me up with some pie, you’ll be my most favorite reader ever.

The Catch Up Blog

It’s been a while, so I figured I’d just do one decent length blog to catch the masses up on what I’m doing. I’m still not sure who all reads this blog, besides my mom. Hi Mom!

At the moment, I’m sitting in my apartment, which is trashed, in a pair of sweats, ball cap, and tennis shoes. I just got back from picking up supplies at the am/pm on the corner. I have been subsisting on juice, Gatorade, and soup since Sunday evening. I got home from a trip (more on that further down) and found that I had a temperature of 101. My temperature has been fluctuating ever since. I keep thinking the fever is behind me, but then it’s up to 100 again. Although, it hasn’t gotten as high as 101 since Sunday, which is good, because that was miserable. This morning while I was asleep, I got a good sweat going, so that I woke up doing the backstroke in a woman made pond.

The past three weeks, it seems, I’ve spent as much time traveling as I have at home. First was a quick business trip to New York. It was so quick that I didn’t have much time to do any running around on my own. It was also bitterly cold. Luckily I was able to pick up a nice warm pair of boots, which will come back into this tail shortly. I was out of New York before I really knew I was there, and back to Oakland.

However, before I left New York, I spoke to my second oldest sister. She told me that she would be in Bakersfield the following weekend for a funeral on her mother’s side of the family. We are half sisters, with different mothers, so this was not a funeral for anyone related to me. Since it’s only a four hour drive down to Bakersfield, and I hadn’t seen my sister in a few years, I suggested that I could come down, and we could share a hotel together. She agreed, and so before I left for home on Friday, I knew that the next Friday I’d be on the road again.

The reason that I got in touch with my sister that Friday was that I had received an email from our oldest sister earlier that day. It’s always nice to have a second opinion on the goings on within a family, let alone a fragmented one. My oldest sister wrote to tell me that she had been to a new doctor, and they had confirmed that there was nothing to be done about her cancer. She was the one who inspired me to donate my hair. Also in the letter, she said that herself, her oldest son, and my step-brother would be making a trip out to California in a couple of weeks. I was very glad that I would have another opportunity to see her, as the last time I had was when I was still a toddler. Yeah, fragmented.

The following Friday, I drove down to Bakersfield to spend a weekend in a hotel with my sister. I also intended to stop by the cemetery while I was in town to place some flowers on my grandparents’ graves. We were sitting around that first night, drinking beer that we’d gotten from the gas station nearby, when my sisters’ mother called. My oldest sister had passed away about an hour earlier.

It was quite a shock, and I’m very glad that I had been with my other sister when I got the news. I would have hated to have been alone when I found out.

The really sad part is the weirdness of it. My oldest sister and I were not close. We hadn’t seen each other in almost a life time. Sisterhood is rumored to be one of the strongest bonds, and yet, we never really worked it out. The fact that there was a sixteen year age gap and that we were never raised under the same roof, combined with the lack of much in common kept us apart. We were young, though, and I always thought there would be time to work it out. I thought she’d be here in a couple of weeks, and I’d at least have the chance to say goodbye. What I’m mourning seems to be the loss of an opportunity, really.

Before the end of that weekend, my sister and I had booked plane tickets to Missouri, where the funeral would be held. We were going to fly into the same airport together, meet up, rent a car, drive down to the town where our sister had lived, and share a hotel. The oldest of my sister’s boys was going to come with her. I felt it was important to go to the funeral because of our sister’s three children, who are all grown, but I figured would still need some support. I’ve grown pretty close with her oldest via MySpace, especially when he was in Iraq last year.

Thursday morning I headed out, and got into Missouri in the afternoon. It was a four hour drive from the airport down to our destination. We got in and the first thing we did was try to get on the internet. My sister is enrolled in online classes, so it was vital that we had internet access over the weekend. Well, we both could see and connect to the wireless router, but neither of us could get onto the internet. It never worked the entire weekend, and I was feeling with-drawl symptoms.

The next morning we went in search of breakfast and/or an internet cafe. No go. Being from Oakland, I suppose I am quite spoiled. There are no less than four cafes within a few blocks of my apartment where I could order a coffee and a sandwich and sit down with my laptop to do some writing.

Friday evening was the viewing. I’m not a big fan of open casket. I don’t think there’s anything left of the person in the body left behind, and so I didn’t take a very good look. There were many people at the viewing.

Saturday there was a grave side service. The service was pretty nice. They played some very tear jerking country songs that I had never heard. It was just damn cold. This is where those warm boots from the New York trip came in handy, however my feet were still freezing. I woke up that morning already feeling yucky, and I think that the fever started that day.

I was very glad that I got to attend the funeral, and that I got to meet some new family. Hopefully I’ll get to stay home and stay well for a few weeks now.

Bright Lights, Big City

I’m off to New York again tomorrow for another business trip. When I was there in October, I honestly thought it would be a one shot type of deal. Here it is just three months later, and I’m off again. This is going to be a ridiculously short trip. I fly out tomorrow morning, arriving at JFK at 4:20 in the afternoon. I fly back just about 48 hours later, leaving JFK at 5:45 in the evening on Friday. With the time difference, I’ll be back at SFO by 10 on Friday night. At that point, I’ll drive myself home and collapse immediately.

I’m not really looking forward to this trip. I think it’s just too short to be enjoyable. I don’t even care about the fact that I’m going to be in New York. I love that city, but I just can’t get amped this time. One of these days, I’m going to save up some cash and just spend a whole week there doing whatever I want, going to as many shows as I can, seeing all the museums. Of course, I’ll spend as much time in the East Village as possible.

But on this trip, I think I’ll just do the work stuff, get in, get out, and come home.

Gym Motivation

I thought of a new reason to go to the gym today. I’m not cold at the gym. Working out warms me up like it’s summer. Almost like it’s summer in the central valley.

The thing is, I hate winter. I hate chills, shivering, and I absolutely abhor goose bumps. I hate cold that I can’t escape. Lately, there’s no escaping cold.

It’s unusually cold in California this week. I think the high in Oakland was 47. That’s usually the low. I’ve said before that I think 70 is my personal minimum. Maybe 68. I could deal with a day like today every once in a while, but it’s been two days already, and I think tomorrow will be more of the same. Plus rain. The only thing worse than bitterly cold is bitterly cold and wet.

On top of the cold outside, the heat in the office is lame. Someone from my office calls the maintenance dude every day. I sit on my hands. I take off my shoes and sit on my feet. I wear sweaters over my sweaters. I wear my coat. It’s just ridiculous. It’s inhumane. I’m about to call my boss in New York and tell him that if nothing can be done to fix the heat, then I’m going to insist on working from home. It’s that bad.

So, in the midst of the hellish coldness, it occurred to me that if I was on the elliptical, I wouldn’t be cold. So for the rest of the week, the gym is my blanket. My calorie burning, thigh toning blanket.

I Want to Be an Eccentric Old Lady

When I grow up, I want to be an infamously odd old lady, with an equally odd and mysterious house. I came to this conclusion after visiting the Winchester Mystery House yesterday.

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I had always wanted to visit the house, but it’s kind of one of those things that you don’t do when you live here, kind of like Alcatraz. Fortunately, J4’s cousin was visiting from Ohio, so the three of went down to check it out.

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If you don’t know about the Winchester House, it is the home built by Sarah Winchester. She was the widow of the heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune. She was left all the money from the company, and used the money to build the house.

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It is assumed that she thought that the spirits of those killed by the rifle haunted her, and were responsible for the death of her husband and only child. She may have been constantly renovating her home in order to appease the spirits. She was said to have daily seances where she would communicate with the ghosts who gave her the ideas for how and what to build.

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This is why it is believed that there are so many strange elements in the house, such as the door to nowhere, windows in the floor, and many odd combinations of thirteen.

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Above all that, it also happens to be a great old house, with many lovely Tiffany windows and other architectural elements. It also survived the 1906 earthquake, though it was slightly damaged.

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My mom has always wanted to visit the house, too, so I am looking forward to going again the next time she visits.

Overall, I’d say the Mystery House is worth the price of admission. If you’re visiting in the area, and you’re thinking about whether or not to check it out, I say do. I’ve spent a lot of money on tourist spots, tours, and such that were not nearly so cool.