Now Playing -
Queer Eye
Now Eating -
Entenmann's Halloween Pop-Ems
Now Feeling -
still achy from the painting
Now Tweeting
- Melanie
Make that "It's now baby blue�all over." In my attempt at an amateur While You Were Out, Joy and I painted my bedroom this weekend. It took about twelve hours, spread out over Friday and Saturday. And all the while, Huz was up in Fredonia partying with old college buddies. So now the west and south walls are a lovely "Lilac Bisque," 
and the north and east walls are a soothing "Serene Sky." 
The north wall also has sort of an �enlarged dentil molding effect� consisting of alternating squares of purple and blue on the quasi-sofit above the wall length closet. One closet door is blue, and the other closet door (as well as the door to the room) is purple. And we accomplished this all for [paraphrasing Joan Steffend]"UN-der one hundred dollars!"[/Joan Steffend] And, with apologies to A.A. Milne,
We had paint on the hands and the legs and the clothes,
And paint in the hair, and paint-between-the-toes.And paint on the carpet and hardwood floors, courtesy of a rather spectacular spill, which added about a half-hour of clean-up time (show those mothers how to do it) to the proceedings. Joy had poured some blue into a tray, and spilled when she tipped the can back in the opposite direction. In the panic that naturally ensued, I then managed to tip said tray and splash blue all over my right foot, drowning one of my flip-flops in the process. What can I say? we got cocky. Next time, I�m going to wrap the room like The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. There will be no paint spillage, no way, no how.
And the outlets! Oh, the friggin� outlets! Super Man and Wife have this umm, endearing habit of painting over the electric outlets and switches when they repaint the apartments between tenants. Our air conditioner was plugged into a power strip because the outlet was inoperable. Very safe, that. Plus, the damn outlet covers were just encrusted with paint. Layers and layers, including one that looked like a neon version of Crayola�s caribbean green. So I bought new covers, grabbed a screwdriver and a knife, and scraped, pounded and pried the damn things off. Evil. I was praying I wouldn�t slip and poke the knife into the outlet. No need to shock myself into next week. But they�re off, and all fixed and matching and purty. And I even managed to chip off enough paint from one outlet that I can now plug the a/c into the wall! Ah, progress.
It was worth it, though. Huz�s reaction? "It looks wonderful." Worth the tendinitis in my wrists, the pulled calf muscles, and the sore shoulders. Only thing is, the rest of the apartment, with its crappy, shows-all-the-dirt casein white, looks like crap. The dining room...maybe the dining room is next. It�s small....
Huz had a really good time back up at school. He got to see old friends perform, visit his old dorm room and the house he lived in off-campus, hit the (remaining) old stomping grounds on the main drag, and have a civilized dinner at The White Inn. And pick up right where he left off with his buddies. Who are Broadway musicians, and college professors, and sound engineers for CNBC and Sony. His friend Vic let them listen to a long, involved voice mail from Clive Davis obsessing over the editing of the applause on a Luther Vandross live track. And he talked with his friend Jeff about how to break into the Broadway pit-subbing clique. We�ll see where he decides to go from there. I hope this will inspire him to work on his chops and take a stab at the next level. But that�s for him to decide.
After I dropped him off at the airport on Friday, I went back to his parents� house and spent a couple of hours there, filling a suitcase with whatever clothes I could find for MIL, and puttering around. I found some more pictures to send down with her. Went up to my SIL�s old bedroom, which is now used as a storeroom for all our crap. Woo. There will be much purging necessary before we can sell that house. And we�ll need to rent storage space for two sets of drums, several pieces of percussion equipment (including a gong), tchotchkes too numerous to mention, Christmas ornaments galore, and the boxes for every appliance we own (including that blasted stereo receiver, which crapped out on us last week). I walked their yard for a while. G-d, what a great piece of land. They have three lots, totalling a little over an acre. You get to the back of the property, and you don�t even know there�s a house there. I would have spent hours in that yard as a kid, climbing trees or acting out fairy tales in my own private forest. The only good thing about that place is that land. The house is a typical Cape, with only one bathroom and an unfinished cellar. It�s old and dark and musty. Either we find a buyer who has some money to spare in this market and is looking for a house to raze and then build on, or sell to a developer who�ll divide up the land and build three houses on it. I�ll miss that land.
The next day, I met my brother-in-law and the Assisted Living caregiver (Suzanne) at the hospital, suitcase and cane in tow. BIL was outside on the phone with my sister-in-law, so he took Minnie�s bag from me and we went to her room. Suzanne was in there talking to her, telling her what they were about to do. I went in and introduced myself to Suzanne and said hello to Minnie. The nurses came to dress her, and we waited in the hall. Then it was a matter of getting her into the wheelchair and out to the ambulette. I stopped to say goodbye to one of the nurses. Paulette�s a Jamaican woman with masses of curls, who Huz had mentioned as being one of Minnie�s regular nurses. I told her I was Minnie�s daughter-in-law, and that my husband had mentioned how good her nurses were.... And then I trailed off, and just couldn�t speak. Paulette looked at me and took my hands and said, "Thank you. That means a lot, to all of us." And I hugged her and thanked her for taking care of Minnie.
I waited in the vestibule next to the wheelchair while the ambulette driver got the chair lift ready. Minnie leaned over to me and said, "I love you so much." I leaned down and wrapped my arms around her and whispered, �I love you, too.� And then she was loaded into the van, and they drove away. I got back into my car, and had a nice Holly-Hunter-five-minute-breakdown. And then I stopped, and started the car. I didn�t want to follow them. I just felt so weird being the only one to see her off, not being a blood relative. And handing her off to people who are not her blood relatives. It just felt like such a strange way to make the transition. Things don�t always go as we wish they would. But it happened, and everyone arrived safely, and now she is getting the care she needs. Changes.
In other medical news, the kidneys are fine. The whole x-ray procedure went well enough, aside from the radiologist sticking me in a vein he really shouldn�t have. He had to finesse the needle around for a bit, and then told me I didn�t have "the greatest veins." I thought to myself, "Hm, no one�s ever said that before - maybe if you�d used the vein I told you to use...!" But doctors have their G-d complexes, and there�s no telling them differently. At least he didn�t have to stick me twice.
And the boobs are fine as well. Yup, I had my first Gram o�the Mams Friday afternoon. They took an extensive set of films, it being a baseline and taking into account the bruising of the breasts from my car accident last year. But the girls are swell. Contrary to what one of the two members of the opposite sex who have seen me naked AND read this diary would have you believe. I remember it as if it were only yesterday�[waxes nostalgic}I believe he referred to them as my �shortcomings,� but quickly redeemed himself by telling me I had a great ass and terrific legs. For which I am ever grateful.[/wax]
'Tis late. Time to hit the hay.
~^ would you like to
leave word? ^~
1
of you lovely people have left word so
far
~^ what
was ~ what
will be ^~
~^ randomize me! ^~
a very fine cat indeed - Friday, Jan. 17, 2014
happy new year! - Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013
this is where i am - Saturday, Jun. 30, 2012
this is how it is - Friday, Feb. 24, 2012
a very late last year's wrap-up - Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
~^
^~
