I am a Stalker

Tonight I got to drive Anja around by myself while Martin stayed home to do some work. I was happy to go alone because I like driving and I don't get to drive all that often. When I drive her by myself I go around town past places I like, or like to think about. I go by my favorite house on 6th street and imagine the fancy people living there. I go past the downtown restaurants and see if I know any of the people standing around outside. I drive past The Old House and see if it looks like anyone's home. Tonight they looked to be having a party there--all the lights were on and the front door was open and the street was lined with cars. I could see the stairway from the street. So pretty! I also drive by the houses of people I know and wonder what they're doing. I drive by Laura & Dan's and think maybe they've made a pot of coffee and are playing Scrabble on their new kitchen table with their new green chairs. I drive by JC & Alison's and think maybe they're watching a funny moving and writing thank-you notes from her shower. I drive by Sarah & Andrew's and imagine maybe Andrew is bouncing Bella around on his shoulder while the big kids are watching Scooby Doo and Sarah is sleeping. And maybe next door at Wes & Rita's, Toby is having a bath! I drive by my parents' and I know that they are sleeping since it's past 8:30. Sometimes if she isn't asleep yet by the time I've driven past all those places I go back down my own street and imagine Karenin and Theodore being psycho together and Martin in the back room doing boring work stuff. And I don't imagine the Cooks doing anything because they aren't home.

Tonight we made tea and sat on the porch together during that nice thunderstorm. It's definitely Porch Season again!! I'm so glad. Except that Mike Prangley's recent forecast doesn't really fit with the Porch Season style.... but I don't mind some cool spring days, especially since it means I can keep wearing my new $12 jeans and my super cute grey 3/4 sleeve sweater.

Today was a good day! I dragged myself out of bed when Martin woke me at 6:30 offering me first dibs on the shower. I spent the morning being fairly lazy, and then around 9:00 I had this brilliant idea to vacuum the house. Too bad our vacuum is a piece of garbage. I seriously wasn't getting ANYTHING up off the floor. I mean, I never get great results, but today? Nothing. Not a speck lifted. And my carpets were FIL.THY. Soooooo, my next brilliant idea was to call my mom and see if I could borrow her vacuum for the morning. Hooray! She brought it by an hour later, and I got to use it for a whole hour! Unfortunately, some of that hour was spent putting Anja down for a nap, but it didn't end up mattering at all. I had done the front of the house, the hallway and most of the back room when my mom came back. That was about the same time that the vacuum started blinking "Bag Full" and not really working very well. My mom assured me that I could keep going. Haha. Yeah right. I opened the compartment where the bag is kept and carpet fuzz started spilling out of the hole where the bag connects. IT WAS SO FULL. And it's completely carpet hair. Our carpets suck. (sorry for the bad word.) But really, I'll be SO GLAD when they are gone. Or replaced. Or we move to a house with better, or better yet, NO carpets. Anyway, so the vacuuming was done and my mom left and then Anja miraculously kept sleeping, so I decided to mop the kitchen floor!! Talk about productive!! And this is all while laundry is going!! So I swept, mopped, swept again and just when I finished, Anja woke up and that was the end of my productivity for the day. After that I burned a CD for Laura and we walked it down to her work. On the way home we stopped by a few of the Main Street stores just for fun. Then home to make dinner, which we ate promptly when Martin arrived home.

And after dinner Mrs. Schap stopped by with a gift for Anja from John's sister. It's an adorable piggy bank, with even a starter dollar bill tucked into the slot. How cute is that?

From there we went to Vienna for a date. I, unfortunately, gorged myself on a VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHERRY TART, lingering in my mind from my earlier post. It was delicious. But then I felt like death for the rest of the night (including now, as I type this post.) We were going to take a walk but between the running out of time thing and the possibility of rain thing, we decided against it.

But at Vienna we saw Turgay! We haven't seen him in ages. He seems to be doing well. It's always fun to see people you know at Vienna. It doesn't really happen so much anymore.

So that's been my night. Now it's time for bed. And tomorrow is Friday! We were going to go up to Wheatfield to visit Fr. Alex and go to their monthly bluegrass show up there, but because of the time difference and Martin not being able to get off of work early, we wouldn't have made it up in time. Booo. Maybe next month though. So now we've got a free weekend. Especially free since the dog (the marvelous dog who has finally gotten the poo-outside thing down pat) will need much quiet time to herself after her special operation. *shiver* Glad it's her and not me.