eanja's extemporanea

It’s been ages since I’m posted.This is mostly because, as usual, when things are quiet, I feel like I have nothing to say, and when they re busy, I don't have time to post. I had thought I should try to post at least when I travel, but that often coincides with busy, so doesn't always work. Maybe I should try to post more often when I am tipsy. Really, drinking makes me so much more sociable. I am decidely introverted, but not in a misanthropic way. My default is to think that people are interesting, but talking to them takes energy I don’t always have, and I have no clue how to make more than the barest polite chit chat. You can’t just wander up to people and exclaim that they are so interesting and so pretty, and can’t we just be friends?

The reason I am so tipsy in because there was a work related function with an open bar. (And let me note how weird that seems. I work for a very small compay, maybe 10 people who are in the office with any frequency, and another maybe 10 who are full time employees or subs in distant locations. But my awesome boss is the best schmoozer you can imagine, most because he is just so sincerely nice a guy, and so he is part of a real estate business group that does all sorts of meetings and functions, and a couple times a year I show up for free food and booze and to pretend that I have a clue how to socialize.

So, what's happened in the months since I last posted? Rather a lot. My father died in April. I am not talking about this. It was not unexpected, and I am glad I and my sister from DC were there, but I have found that blathery as I generally am about things, I just do not want to talk about this. I don't actually feel like I am grieving much; we are one of those sensible, controlled families, plus I've been out of the house and only seeing my father quite intermitantly for 30 years. Except that I am persistently tired and have a number of dumb, inattention related things at work (happily I have an awesome boss, whose own father died just a while ago, so he gets this). In a way, this isn't surprising. Post divorce, I spent months feeling like I was short on sleep. So I guess this is just what I do-process things on some subconscious level while on the surface I just have weird spots of inattention and tiredness.

That's enough of an entry for now. Am going to turn on my audiobook and go and fold laundry, and then hopefully collapse into bed earlier than usual. Maybe at some point I'll catch up on travel over the last few months-I was in Louisville, and Salt Lake City in March (sadly on the latter- I don't ski and would much rather have made that trip in summer as anticipated when I could do some hiking, and Puerto Rico briefly in February and May. There should have been a trip to California as well, but I passed it off to a coworker around stuff with my Dad. I suppose I could still post some photos from those trips belatedly.

So in the meantime, have a picture of an art installation I wandered past in downtown SLC.

I just ran across an advertisement slightly spammily posted to the Nextdoor blog for the neighborhood. Their mattresses are so good, they claim, "It's like sleeping on brioche."

I do get where they were trying to go with this, and yes, brioche is tender and luxurious as breads go, but really, does anyone not read this and mentally leap to crumbs in the bed? Of all the soft and cushy things in the world, baked goods is what they thought people would want to sleep on? Or maybe that's just me and plenty of people routinely look at their food and think it might be nice to nap on it.

I am working from home today- had a gas meter safety inspection, so needed to be home this afternoon. The office manager said that since it was Friday, I might as well just work from home and not come in for just a few hours. Of course, I got a call to do some mold sampling at 6 am Monday, so I had to run in to the office after all to get equipment. But I am back home now, the gas guy has come and gone, and now I just have to try and get back to report writing when it's so beautiful out that I just want to go out and do yard work. (I will do some later, though it will mean making report writing tomorrow. That seems more sensible that doing all the yard work in one big batch).

Sigh, back to work.

Am posting this just in case you see it. Your letter from July 15 did not arrive till this past week, so there was for me to get it touch w/ you in writing before you came back to the States. I don't have a current email or phone number for you anymore, so didn't know how else to reach you on relatively short notice.

I don't know that I could make it down to see you at this point- it would have to be on Saturday before you left, and Pittsburgh is 10 hours from Boston, so that's pretty far. But if you see this, please drop me an email (you can use eanja @ livejournal . com if you don't remember the other one), in case something is still doable.

Here are the promised pictures of flowers I saw in Texas. This are all from more or less the Galveston area, and I have no idea what any of them are, and whether they are native wild-flowers, or escaped garden plants. If any of you happen to know, please tell me.

( Cut to not clog your page w/ photos )