I finally finished our antique ceiling!
Correction: Gray finished one of the sets and I finished the other set.

Then we painted, primed, painted, primed, painted and primed and bought some mirrors for the bathroom and sealed the grout. Though it doesn't sound like much, it really did take all day and I'm exhausted.

Lake, summer, work

I went swimming last night at the lake, had some drinks, sat in the hottub.
Went swimming today at my friend's pool, had only 1 drink, sat in the hottub.

We discussed biodiversity a bit and how to promote non-engineered bio diverse crops. Seems no one had any real ideas. Sometimes I do wish to tell the federal government how to behave. "End or modify agricultral subsidies." "Make your federal employees document the amount of work they are doing each week and if no one is using their work or if they're just incompetent jackoffs collecting paychecks, fire them and hire someone else who will actually try!"

But at any rate, that has nothing to do with swimming. I might go out to the lake again tomorrow, just because lakes are wonderful and so is swimming. Hoping to stop drinking so much though. 3-4 times a week is probably more than I need. This week I drank at trivia, drank at my work dinner, drank at the lake, and just stopped myself from doing it tonight.

Met my new boss at the work dinner and I think she and I can get along pretty well. In fact, I think that I can get along with nearly all of my new bosses since I won't see them very often. I'm working overtime for the next two weeks and I look forward to it after getting the promotion. Cheers!

Vacation at rest

Ever read all of the John Updike Rabbit books? Me either. But I wanted to write Vacation: redux
or Vacation: at rest
or maybe, Vacation: remembered

It would be nice to see how those books go at some point. I know Rabbit: Run is the best. Some friends of mine love them. I sorta think John Updike is a bit too last generation for me, but who knows.

We spent the first part of our vacation at a class reunion. It was mostly like cramming 100 people you went to HS with into a bar and drinking. Tons of faces I didn't recognize. Would not recommend this to others debating about whether or not to go. Our class did not have much cohesion and our class did have a lot of yuppies. Not much has changed, and it's neither good nor bad, just highschool.

Then we did some other stuff in DBQ with family. Visited my grandma's grave, rode the 4th street elevator and ate a nice dinner on the river. I should have talked louder for my grandpa, because he couldn't hear me well and now I feel bad.

Now, now, now, we have returned to finish the bathroom and clean the house like crazy.

Paint

I'm on a mission to find a cream colored paint can from Sears. Bought Habitat's for Humanity Restore's last can and it has NEARLY covered all of our room. Hoping to get another store to match it as close as possible. Sears donated all of their paint to Habitat Restore, so I am pretty much hoping the two slightly different cream colors will not be a problem.

Habitat has some awesome stuff--a $250.00 antique chandelier that matches our woodwork. Tempting, tempting, tempting.

Last night we went out for dessert unexpectedly at Brio with some Kansans. One of them actually said that poor people were lazy and he was being punished for working hard by the government. This is the second time in 2 week that I've had Kansans bitch about the liberal government and taxes. I bite my tongue each time, I bite my tongue. The complainer literally didn't know what WIC was. Then they bashed my neighborhood a bit, which is very insulting. HOwever, some people just don't realize when they're saying something rude and since there was no malice behind it, I brushed it off, as one should.

Thank god we have so many other liberal friends. I wish I knew why I remained so quiet instead of speaking out. Perhaps cowardice? Perhaps because I can only supply anecdotal evidence?

Tonight is my friend's retirement party. He devoted his career to alcohol and drug rehab options for addicts as the director of a non-profit organization and now he's devoting his retirement to PIAC and neighborhood planning/zoning meetings. He and his wife work so very hard and I sincerely doubt they believe the government is punishing them for it.

tattoos

Ahh, yes, there is one thing we forgot to mention about our trip to IA:
We are getting tattoos. Dan's going to tattoo the Amen break on his arm and I'm going to (most likely?) tattoo the Hyde Park Fleur de Lys on my back. Technically, Anne is going to do this for us.

It happened rather unexpectedly. We've been discussing it for months and months, but nothing came of it. For me, it's about the person doing it. I need to find someone that I trust and a place that I trust--and to be honest, I don't have the combo of those things in KC. But my friend from our class reunion ended up working at a tattoo parlor and she's literally one of the smartest women I know. She has a biology degree from UI and worked in a lab researching genetic pathways of oncological treatments for 2 years before she started tattooing. She and Tabitha saved my ass with clean clothes while I was hospitalized at UIowa and creates great artwork, and we took AP Biology together in highschool, where we taught little kids about genetically engineered core-bore repellant corn stalks. SOo I guess you can say that I trust Anne to 1) provide a good design 2) be friendly and diligent and 3) be clean and safe about the entire process. Neither of us wants hepatitis C.

So, stay tuned for photos, though I know my auntie and parents will frown when they see the end results. They say there's no reason for anything permanent.

I think the fleur will be perfect because it symbolizes our first house and all of the energy that I feel I put into the neighborhood.

Though, right now, thinking about the Homes Tour and after-party makes me sick with anxiety, mostly because I know we will have Jess's wedding and bachelorette party surround it, with little time for everything fun we hope to accomplish. Ahh, holy heck, the Homes Tour is a great time!

Iowaaa

I don't want to go back to IA, but I want to see my family.

So these are the things we're doing:
-Going to Grinstead Family Reunion
-Going to 10 year AHS reunion
-Drinking with Mary and JOe and Mike
-Going to Fong's pizza with Tammy and Jennie
-Going to visit my Grandpa and June and Geri
-Playing a game of Arkham with Vic and company in DBQ
-Boating!!!!!!
-Horse riding???

365 days later

I missed the "Don's Death" anniversary post. What can I say, except we can't believe it's been a year? We can't believe how strong we've become? We can't imagine going through that again?

Hospice house is the worst place in the world. It's terrible, oppressive and pretty much hell. I am glad it exists and I understand the need and glad they could find a place that would take care of him.
Cancer is exhausting and painful. It gives you time to process the death, but none of the cliche things they say about cancer are true. It's all a bunch of bullshit, at least it was in this case. Maybe it's easier for some people and each death is different. I'm glad I got to witness it as a younger age, because it helps me make plans for my parents and it helps me to know what can and can't happen in the health care system.

One year or so ago, we sat, after the funeral, after the wake, after the burial, and watched TV, because Don had every single cable package ever. True Blood marathon was on. People would call the house in the morning, early, early, early, and I would curse them. "Don't they know there has been a death? None of us can answer the phone this early!"
And all of us just wanted to sleep, sleep, sleep and forget that in the middle of this sunny day, there was something really terrible happening.

Post Script

PS: I made my first weight goal. It feels great. Now I'm on to the next one!

Minnehahapolis

I made it back to Kansas City after a week away.

I'm not sure what it is about Minneapolis, maybe it's the fact that you can rent bikes there, that there are bike lockers and giant locker holders at every train station. Maybe it's that the Vikings and Twins stadiums are located downtown, right by 3 performing arts centers. Maybe it's the promotion potential or the restaurant we ate in at 3 AM on Friday night. Maybe it's the diverse neighborhoods or the fact that I'm just hungry for more urban exploring, but I loved this city. It could be that there are lakes everywhere, or that some of my good friends live there, but I LOVE it.

Coming back to Kansas City is hard. I forgot about everything, except for Dan and Nitro, and I am sure if they were up there with me and I had all of my stuff, it would have been 10 more weeks before I started to miss the city.

I resigned from my neighborhood post, effective in October. Now that I'm back, there are definite things that I would have missed. My hope isn't to hate on KC. In fact, I wish it all the best of luck. But I do know that to really change it, people have to get even more involved, and I'm burnt out. I feel like I'd either have to leave my job and devote all my energy to this city and improving it or I feel like I have to separate myself from it for awhile before I go crazy. It's been great watching people change it for the better, though, and watching people get recognized for their work. These people are the shining stars of this city and I hope that someday I can make as much of a difference as they have.