Just returned from a dinner party at J and J's house. J (male)'s wife is in town from Sweden, and though I have met her before, we had never spent any time together. She was lovely, of course. We had wheat berry somethingorother with mushrooms that she had managed to smuggle through customs by skirting a beagle in baggage claim. There was also quinoa and a salad with tomatoes, and as per usual a cheese course for dessert. We had Van Duzer Pinot Gris, which matched perfectly with my food and the cod that everybody else had. After that we had Velvet Devil Merlot from Washington state and Petite Petit (syrah and verdot). Not having had enough to drink, we went down to the Three Penny Taproom after for a nightcap. Everything was fabulous and I could not be happier.
The week has been mostly good. We took Wyatt to the vet on Monday and found out that he gained ten pounds this winter, which is a gigantic bummer, but since I have already gotten back into the habit of taking them on long walks again on a regular basis, I am trying not to worry.
The weather has been relentlessly cold, which was bad enough without the Nor'easter that we're in for tomorrow. They're saying six to twelve inches, and I just don't know how to face that.
The BH now has two jobs, both of which he is pretty excited about. My job is still going very well. So I get a call from my sister the other day, and she mentions that she and my brother in law are looking at a property in their neighborhood outside of Chicago. As an investment. You know, something that they would say, rent out, to a young and struggling couple who could not possibly afford to buy. It has three bedrooms and a fenced yard.
Yeah.
So I'm trying not to think too hard about that at the moment, because both of us would be much better off sticking here for a year or so in order to put it on our respective resumes.
Other than that, it's pretty much business as usual. I went to Burlington with my friend A the other day, did a whole lot of thrift store shopping and ate at Pennycluse again, which I loved. I have been getting out more often for a beer here and there, and in general tired but happy. Looking forward to some potential travel for rock shows (J. Roddy has residencies in both D.C and NYC next month), and hoping to hit Chicago for the 4th of July. Trying to figure out where Athens can fit in this summer, too. All in all, things are good.

I had a weird bout of some kind of flu-ish thing. I spent all day Saturday in bed, unable even to take a sip of water because I was too nauseated. Then I felt a bit better and went to pick the BH up from work. Spent an hour on the couch, felt crappy again, went back up to bed. Got up to take some ibuprofen, slugged back two and a glass of water, and the next thing I knew I was staring into his face and he was yelling my name at me.
What the hell is he yelling about? God damn, he is so loud. My head hurts. What the hell is that thing above my head. Oh, that's the towel rack. The one on the bathroom door. Oh shit, I'm on the floor.
All of those things went through my head before I was finally able to focus on his face and grumble.
"Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"I don't know." My voice did not sound like me. I could barely get the words out. "I am going to-"
I gagged and never finished the sentence. He had to drag me up off the floor and help me crawl to the toilet. I threw up. I was sweating a lot, my head was on fire, and I felt completely disconnected from my body. I sat on the floor in the bathroom for several minutes while the BH ran around frantically. I heard him dialing the phone. I was waiting for the sound of an ambulance pulling up outside, my head pounding, dreading the idea of all the noise and the bright lights. He came back upstairs. I pulled a washcloth off of the sink, ran it under cold water, and then started wiping my face and neck. He picked me up off the floor and dragged me to the guest bed. The rest of the night was fairly blurry, but I didn't go to the hospital.He fetched juice and ginger ale from the gas station and jumped awake every time I turned over, making sure I was okay. I was achy and feverish and I felt crappy, but the worst was over. The next day I mostly just slept and watched TV. He said later that when passed out he caught me and set me on the floor and my eyes were wide open but I wasn't responding and he thought I had dropped dead. Poor thing. I am such a drama queen. Who knew? The rest of the week was mostly work and work and sleep and work. He got sick on Friday, stayed home from work on Saturday, and finally felt better on Sunday. This stomach bug has been ravaging the Local Grocery. Every day we have been understaffed.
Other than that things have been great on the work front. I am still constantly busy, but starting to feel comfortable with most of my tasks, and getting things organized so that hopefully one day soon I will know what an average day looks like.
Saturday night was the Super Full Moon. Closer to the earth than it's been in something like twenty years. I talked the BH into joining me for a 10pm run up to Morse Farm to take some pictures. They turned out okay, but not stellar. I still don't quite have the night photography down.



Sunday the BH and I went to Burlington. We ate breakfast at Pennycluse. I had French toast made from oat bread with a tangerine curd topping. He had meat with a side of meat. After that we went down to the lakefront and walked around in the sun for a bit. it was nearly fifty degrees, a virtual heatwave by our recent standards, and not a cloud in the sky. I took a bunch of pictures.






After we went shopping to find a case for the BH's iPh0ne, and I got some new jeans and a couple other much-needed clothing items.
Yesterday we went to a wine show all day in Essex. It started snowing about halfway there, and it looked like it was going to be ugly. We had packed extra clothes and things because the forecast was calling for a largish storm and we thought we might get stranded for awhile. This was the first wine show I have been to where I actually got to choose the wines that will be carried at the LG. It was, as usual, enjoyable but not easy. I must have tasted seventy or eighty wines. By the end my mouth was ravaged and I couldn't wait for dinner. We stopped at the Alchemist, where I for once did not partake of any fabulous house-brewed beer. I just couldn't do it. It started snowing again about halfway through dinner, and by the time we headed home it was really coming down, sleety and gross. We burned quite a few layers from our snow tires getting up the hill.
Today I started by getting blood drawn at the doctor's office first thing, followed by more photography (the snow was a gorgeous blanket on everything and Plainfield is particularly scenic, so as long as I was there I thought I ought to shoot some),




followed by half a day of work and then a trip to the dog park. It started snowing there just as the sun was going down, beautiful, light, movie set flakes that don't seem real. It was like standing in a snow globe. No camera at the time, unfortunately, but it's probably just as well. The boys and i ran around for an hour or so, and they got to play with lots of other dogs. Now we're all a bit knackered and waiting for a call to pick the BH up from work. I hope he calls soon.

It was perfect: Five shelves, each four feet in length, full of polished wine bottles in perfect lines. I walked away, feeling a sense of accomplishment (also hunger and dire thirst, since it had taken me an entire day to reset this display and I had forgotten to eat or drink). I went in search of A, my friend in IT and the only person who had been available to help me with this project, so that I could finally address the other things I needed to accomplish.
When I found him, he asked brightly "What's up?"
"I was just looking for you."
"That's funny, I was just looking for you! What do you need?"
"I have to print out shelf tags for that st-"
There was a sound. It started with a faint tinkling, and then very quickly crescendoed into a full-fledged, glass shattering crash. We both made our way immediately to what remained of my wine display. It seems that we hadn't quite hooked the third shelf all the way into the wall, and consequently it had warped, collapsing onto the shelf below it and sending over a hundred bottles of wine crashing to the cement floor.
It was magnificent. There was a wave of wine rushing in every direction, and a sea of broken glass. Fortunately about ten of my co-workers rushed to my aid, including the GM and the heads of Marketing and Accounting. It was cleaned up pretty quickly, and everyone made sure to tell me their story about when something similar had happened to them, and assure me that it could have been much worse. All things considered it wasn't actually that bad, but my shame and horror will likely be lasting. I am actually really proud of myself for not bursting into tears.
On that note, it's time to get dressed for work. Fingers crossed for a better day today.

Shit My Dad Says.

"This hearing aid only works when you put it in a certain place- which is your ass, I think."

Today was my only day off this week. I had just worked six in a row, which due to the LG's status as a Union Shop means that I actually got paid time and a half for the entire day yesterday. (High five!)
I had a hair appointment at nine-thirty this morning, and it started snowing yesterday at two in the afternoon and has yet to stop. When I woke up at eight, I called the salon and the message on their machine said that they knew that some people would need to reschedule due to weather, and so to leave a message and they would call back. I left a message saying that I was coming, but that I was checking to make sure that my stylist was going to make it. I left my number and, not hearing from them by ten after nine, I walked down there. I arrived to find the owner of the salon at the desk, and she looked down at the appointment book in front of her.
"Hiiiiii. You must be heybartender. Sheila won't be in today."

I can't bear to finish quoting her, because I am still a bit pissed about it. Long story short they had not checked the messages and she had just gotten there a minute before I had. I don't know why the hell she couldn't check her machine by phone, or why they wouldn't have known (since everybody else did) that this was going to be a nearly two foot snowfall. Anyway, I was already downtown, so I went and got coffee and a breakfast sandwich at the only place that was open. It was almost completely without flavor, and the music went from bad (David Gray) to worse (Cat Stevens), and I left very quickly and rather grumpily. The snow was blowing so hard that taking pictures was nearly impossible. The cold wasn't bad, it was the fact that my lens kept getting wet and the snow was stinging the tiny potion of my face that was exposed. So, I stopped off at Rivendell, my local used bookstore, and picked up a copy of Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing along the Borderlands.
Eventually the b.h. came to meet me, and we also met up with my friends A and D. This was slightly cheering, and I was convinced to go over to another friend's house to watch and learn while they screenprinted some merch for their band. This was how I spent the rest of the day. I actually wanted to go home, because I was still kind of grumpy and felt like I was being a bit of a stick in the mud, but the weather was just too daunting. In the end I had a good time, and when the weather cleared I met the b.h. at the grocery store and we walked home together. Now I am on the couch with Wyatt's head in my lap and all is right with the world.
The best part? I am not dreading going to work tomorrow. Not at all.

I got the job, and it has been balls (ovaries?) to the wall ever since. I just finished my last photography class, which was terrific. I now feel like I can use my camera in any situation with at least some degree of competence. Hopefully I will find some time to take more pictures in the near future. Got myself a shiny new tripod now, too.
So the whole job thing was ridiculous until the bitter end, and now the person who was a douche about it is pretending like nothing ever happened. Thankfully, I am pretty much on my own now, so no matter. I have already gotten a free bottle of wine ("sample"). This is good news. I will be sure to share it with some co-workers after I have had a glass. Or two.
What else? Oh yes, it is still snowing more than once a week, and it is still below zero. I guess this is what the landlord meant last year when he said we hadn't really seen a Vermont winter. I don't mind, really, except that I am dying to get out and take some pictures. We learned night photography and I am eager to try it out.
Yep, another boring post. Sorry. I promise to try to be more interesting soon.