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Weekend Joys
Feb. 16th, 2009 09:41 amIt's been a busy weekend, and it's time to share.
Friday the 13th is usually an auspicious day for me (my parents were married on a Fri. 13), so I was a bit surprised at how rough it started for Ana and I. After much talking about how much she wanted to go swimming and many reminders to bring along her bathing suit, half way down the freeway, she tells me she left it at home. She started to cry, and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't have a spare in the car, and I didn't know of any 24-hour swimsuit stores in ... Washington. She put on a brave face as she went into class, leaving me outside, and I went to do more volunteer work at the food bank.
Though I was sad not to see the Russian woman at the food bank this time (the one who volunteers so she can improve her English), it still felt wonderful to be around these generous, hard-working people. It was especially enjoyable to listen to the manager and his teenage daughter work together, as he's very patient, and she was, well, a teenager reluctant to do her work. During my three hours there, I got not one project done, but two! The first project, archiving, already dealt with files I'd handled, so they were in relatively good order to begin with. The other stack were current papers, which had already been semi-alphabetized, so it wasn't as hard a job as they expected.
Since I had the car (Craig slept in and said he'd take the bus), but needed to stay near the school (no running off to V 'n' V Nation), I drove down to the I-District to find there was less parking than in the evenings. Not to worry, I still found a free spot just beyond the King Street bridge, and walked down to ... gods, I was craving dim sum. House of Hong has a longer span of time each day for dim sum, but they're rather impersonal there. Still, I went, and made sure to ask what was in each one, as sometimes they throw in pork or scallops and I eat neither. Everything I ordered, I set aside a piece or two for Ana in a box for her after-school treat.
When I was done (and it was quickly, because they wanted to keep a heavy rotation on clearing tables for new customers, got only two pages read in my text!), I had plenty of time left to kill. I wandered off to Gossip to get the honeydew milk tea I like so much. I sipped the bubble tea slowly, savoring each creamy bit of honeydew flavor that rushed along my tongue, and I read more of my text for class. After a while, I started to get tired and uncomfortable, and it was about time to move the car anyway, so I headed back up the hill to take the car back up to Ana's school. There, I lowered the seat as far back as it would go, opened the skylight to let in some air, and put the black, fur-lined hood of my coat over my eyes and actually slept for about forty minutes. I awoke slowly, as I knew I still had time, and looked around to see the lot more full.
When I went to get Ana, her hair was wet, and she had a bag in front of her full of Valentines, candies, and roses. Her friend had loaned her an extra swimsuit, and all of the class seemed to ignore the email her teacher sent out saying that they weren't celebrating Valentine's day. Ana was beaming. Did I mention the flowers? No? The manager of the food bank sometimes receives hordes of cut flowers and brings them to Ana's school to give away. They were lining the halls when I'd finished my volunteer work and he told me to go get some of the freshest ones. When I picked up Ana, one of the coordinators was telling everyone to take as many as they liked, because they didn't want any extras for the weekend. We took eight bouquets in all (three dozen red roses, one dozen yellow roses, two pink and white spring bouquets for Ana, one white and red mix, and one green and yellow mix for the receptionist where Craig works). Ana ate her dim sum in the car, and I drove us to the UW campus.
We schlepped flowers (two red for Craig, one for the receptionist) down to his office, only to find everyone was in the meeting. So, we wandered to the HUB to find the Vagina Monologue tickets were no longer being sold in the courtyard. On the way, a lovely young man with a thick Irish brogue stopped us and remarked on the flowers. I asked him his name. "Elijah*, ma'am." I told him I loved that name, and gave him one of the roses. He made to shake my hand and instead embraced me. His hands were icy from standing in the cold all day trying to get signatures and memberships for Children International. As we walked away, Ana said, "he called you 'darling.'" I said, "that's because he's Irish dear." All the while she giggled and made comments about how much I liked him. Gods, is she that age already?
Craig called us as we made it to the HUB, so we wandered back, (Ana kept teasing me that we were "avoiding" the young Elijah, despite my explanation that we were going that path to avoid going up all the stairs; she said, "but I don't think you'll ever meet him again!" She was baffled that I shrugged her statement off) and we gave Craig his red roses (he thanked me with a sweet kiss), and Ana delivered the yellow flowers to the receptionist who kept Ana talking for several minutes.
We headed off to the Eastside and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, since Craig wasn't feeling up for Med. Kitchen. We went home with our flowers, and I spent a good deal of time putting together four arrangements and placing them around the house. I couldn't find my camera to take pictures and was quite frustrated, but took the remaining flowers that didn't get used and kept some as singles and bound several pairs together, and we headed off to Soulfood. There, we distributed the flowers (the singles with purpose, the pairs randomly to various couples, and the most frequent phrase we heard (mostly from the men) was, "I've never been given roses before," and all of them said it with giddy delight.
Yet another boy named Craig
( more pics beyond! )
We loved the blues music and the joy all around us, and went home rather happy.
Good things on Saturday:
Brunch at Galerias
Spending time at the Mysteries Museum next door
Shopping in the Loveless Building on V-Day
Going nuts in Whole Foods and buying everything I wanted
Making a scrumptious dinner of cappellini in garlic and oil with fresh basil and spinach, sauteed shrimp in butter and basil, white wine steamed mussels, and crab cakes in the shape of hearts served with a Caesar salad.
Writing poetry
Good things on Sunday:
Writing poetry
Writing important emails
Going seed shopping
Nom nom bagels for brunch.
Nom nom turkey pastrami reubens with crinkle fries, brussels sprouts, and Virgil's root beer for dinner.
Watching Dr. Who
Finally realizing the best place for me was to be downstairs playing video games with my family.
Now, today, I must summon all the energy I can, for there is much much much to be done. The kitchen, my bedroom, our laundry, trimming the Rhoddies, helping Damashita with some items in the garage, trying on my corset mock up, submitting a proposal to one teacher, writing up a one page paper for another teacher, listening to certain music, reading certain books and articles, and then! dinner and bed.
*I used to play a character called "Elijah Valentine" and remarked to Ana how I found it rather strange that I randomly met a charming (this is important) Elijah and gave him a Valentine.
**ALL images seen here were taken with my iPhone since I didn't find my Canon until the next morning. Not bad, eh?
Friday the 13th is usually an auspicious day for me (my parents were married on a Fri. 13), so I was a bit surprised at how rough it started for Ana and I. After much talking about how much she wanted to go swimming and many reminders to bring along her bathing suit, half way down the freeway, she tells me she left it at home. She started to cry, and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't have a spare in the car, and I didn't know of any 24-hour swimsuit stores in ... Washington. She put on a brave face as she went into class, leaving me outside, and I went to do more volunteer work at the food bank.
Though I was sad not to see the Russian woman at the food bank this time (the one who volunteers so she can improve her English), it still felt wonderful to be around these generous, hard-working people. It was especially enjoyable to listen to the manager and his teenage daughter work together, as he's very patient, and she was, well, a teenager reluctant to do her work. During my three hours there, I got not one project done, but two! The first project, archiving, already dealt with files I'd handled, so they were in relatively good order to begin with. The other stack were current papers, which had already been semi-alphabetized, so it wasn't as hard a job as they expected.
Since I had the car (Craig slept in and said he'd take the bus), but needed to stay near the school (no running off to V 'n' V Nation), I drove down to the I-District to find there was less parking than in the evenings. Not to worry, I still found a free spot just beyond the King Street bridge, and walked down to ... gods, I was craving dim sum. House of Hong has a longer span of time each day for dim sum, but they're rather impersonal there. Still, I went, and made sure to ask what was in each one, as sometimes they throw in pork or scallops and I eat neither. Everything I ordered, I set aside a piece or two for Ana in a box for her after-school treat.
When I was done (and it was quickly, because they wanted to keep a heavy rotation on clearing tables for new customers, got only two pages read in my text!), I had plenty of time left to kill. I wandered off to Gossip to get the honeydew milk tea I like so much. I sipped the bubble tea slowly, savoring each creamy bit of honeydew flavor that rushed along my tongue, and I read more of my text for class. After a while, I started to get tired and uncomfortable, and it was about time to move the car anyway, so I headed back up the hill to take the car back up to Ana's school. There, I lowered the seat as far back as it would go, opened the skylight to let in some air, and put the black, fur-lined hood of my coat over my eyes and actually slept for about forty minutes. I awoke slowly, as I knew I still had time, and looked around to see the lot more full.
When I went to get Ana, her hair was wet, and she had a bag in front of her full of Valentines, candies, and roses. Her friend had loaned her an extra swimsuit, and all of the class seemed to ignore the email her teacher sent out saying that they weren't celebrating Valentine's day. Ana was beaming. Did I mention the flowers? No? The manager of the food bank sometimes receives hordes of cut flowers and brings them to Ana's school to give away. They were lining the halls when I'd finished my volunteer work and he told me to go get some of the freshest ones. When I picked up Ana, one of the coordinators was telling everyone to take as many as they liked, because they didn't want any extras for the weekend. We took eight bouquets in all (three dozen red roses, one dozen yellow roses, two pink and white spring bouquets for Ana, one white and red mix, and one green and yellow mix for the receptionist where Craig works). Ana ate her dim sum in the car, and I drove us to the UW campus.
We schlepped flowers (two red for Craig, one for the receptionist) down to his office, only to find everyone was in the meeting. So, we wandered to the HUB to find the Vagina Monologue tickets were no longer being sold in the courtyard. On the way, a lovely young man with a thick Irish brogue stopped us and remarked on the flowers. I asked him his name. "Elijah*, ma'am." I told him I loved that name, and gave him one of the roses. He made to shake my hand and instead embraced me. His hands were icy from standing in the cold all day trying to get signatures and memberships for Children International. As we walked away, Ana said, "he called you 'darling.'" I said, "that's because he's Irish dear." All the while she giggled and made comments about how much I liked him. Gods, is she that age already?
Craig called us as we made it to the HUB, so we wandered back, (Ana kept teasing me that we were "avoiding" the young Elijah, despite my explanation that we were going that path to avoid going up all the stairs; she said, "but I don't think you'll ever meet him again!" She was baffled that I shrugged her statement off) and we gave Craig his red roses (he thanked me with a sweet kiss), and Ana delivered the yellow flowers to the receptionist who kept Ana talking for several minutes.
We headed off to the Eastside and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, since Craig wasn't feeling up for Med. Kitchen. We went home with our flowers, and I spent a good deal of time putting together four arrangements and placing them around the house. I couldn't find my camera to take pictures and was quite frustrated, but took the remaining flowers that didn't get used and kept some as singles and bound several pairs together, and we headed off to Soulfood. There, we distributed the flowers (the singles with purpose, the pairs randomly to various couples, and the most frequent phrase we heard (mostly from the men) was, "I've never been given roses before," and all of them said it with giddy delight.
Yet another boy named Craig
( more pics beyond! )
We loved the blues music and the joy all around us, and went home rather happy.
Good things on Saturday:
Brunch at Galerias
Spending time at the Mysteries Museum next door
Shopping in the Loveless Building on V-Day
Going nuts in Whole Foods and buying everything I wanted
Making a scrumptious dinner of cappellini in garlic and oil with fresh basil and spinach, sauteed shrimp in butter and basil, white wine steamed mussels, and crab cakes in the shape of hearts served with a Caesar salad.
Writing poetry
Good things on Sunday:
Writing poetry
Writing important emails
Going seed shopping
Nom nom bagels for brunch.
Nom nom turkey pastrami reubens with crinkle fries, brussels sprouts, and Virgil's root beer for dinner.
Watching Dr. Who
Finally realizing the best place for me was to be downstairs playing video games with my family.
Now, today, I must summon all the energy I can, for there is much much much to be done. The kitchen, my bedroom, our laundry, trimming the Rhoddies, helping Damashita with some items in the garage, trying on my corset mock up, submitting a proposal to one teacher, writing up a one page paper for another teacher, listening to certain music, reading certain books and articles, and then! dinner and bed.
*I used to play a character called "Elijah Valentine" and remarked to Ana how I found it rather strange that I randomly met a charming (this is important) Elijah and gave him a Valentine.
**ALL images seen here were taken with my iPhone since I didn't find my Canon until the next morning. Not bad, eh?
