I don't care...
what everyone else says. When the curtains are washed, I think I've accomplished something.

Pardon Me...Do You Have any Jagermeister?

I would hope that Bridget would get some time off from her job promoting Jagermeister...at least on November 3. I think it would be fair. (I'm glad all those years of drama lessons are paying off. In the realm of show biz, being a promotional spokesperson beats picking up dog poo. The hours are crummy but the pay is good. And I haven't seen so much merchandise since my sister dated the son of a Schlitz exec back in the 1970's.) Personally, I think Jagermeister is like drinking NyQuil.

Couldn't Quite Do It
Washed a lot of curtains.

Manuevered some Halloween decorations.

Read another big chunk of Prayer: A History, which is excellent but a bit of "everything you wanted to know about prayer but didn't have time to ask." Thorough is an understatement. Where else would I find Bill W., Reverend Ike and St. Therese all in one place?

So? The curtains really needed washing. Halloween is almost here. And edifying reading should be done. So I'll sew tomorrow.
Tomorrow. When the light is good. And I'm better rested, what with that extra hour of sleep I'll be getting. We do get an extra hour tonight, don't we?

Help me, St. Anne, I will become...a seamstress?
Big plans for this week-end. I am hauling out the sewing machine and practicing sewing straight seams. Or whatever. I'm doing a little side project for church which has me doubting my abilities. Which is to be expected, since I remember more of eight grade Lutheran catechism than intro to home ec. I passed catechism, but washed out of home ec. In the cooking part of the course, I failed to thoroughly rinse the Comet Cleanser from the sink and the teacher declared me a "hazard to my family." In sewing, I broke several needles on my machine and only completed the triangle head-scarf project. I was sent home with the remnants of the dirndl skirt - which my mother disassembled to salvage the zipper.

I've recovered the bolsters in my boudoir and may try making some throw pillows. That will be good practice. All I really need to develop is a mad skill with sewing a straight seam. How hard can that be? We'll just see.

I'm regretting not buying the rose damask table cloth that I saw at TJ Maxx while killing time on the way to the movies with the girls on Wednesday. We went to see Marie Antoinette, which was fabulous - if your idea of a good time is watching a tableau vivant of shoes, fabrics and dissipation. There is something wrong with a movie that leaves you thinking, "Damn, I wish I had bought that table cloth. I could use it to make curtains in my bedroom."

PS - Upon a late reading of this, it appears that I can't even spell "seam." Must be some sort of mental block.

Raise the song of harvest home...
Except while driving through that stretch of I-94 in Racine. (At that point, hold your breath.) I had forgotten how aromatic the fields are after the cabbage harvest. That peculiar sensation was the only negative moment in a lovely trip to Milwaukee.

Some of my high school girlfriends have decided to get together every 6 months or so. I missed the last 2 lunches, so this was a priority.

I missed my turn-off (the highway construction was worse, not better, since we went up to the Milwaukee Public Museum in April) and I spent the slow leg of the journey, cutting across town on North Ave., worrying that I might walk into the restaurant and not recognize my group. That was not a problem. There have been a lot of changes over the decades (the Uptown Theater where we saw Springsteen in ‘76 was gone!) but the girls were the same. And I mean that in a good way. (I’ve heard it said that to tell people they haven’t changed a bit is not really a compliment.)

The time flew by. And we decided to get together again in April. The scary part is that April will be here before we know it. Back at work today, I jumped into a bunch of the pre-Advent stuff. And as soon as Christmas has come we’ll start thinking about Lent and then April will be here. (Time does seem to be accelerating. And working in a church, where we are always thinking ahead, makes me feel like I am on some sort of demented “time carousel.” Or maybe more like an “Octopus,” since I try to keep part of my soul in the present while plotting a season ahead. Or would that be a “Tilt-a-Whirl?”)

Well, really...
I would have written more yesterday, but we were recovering from a brown out and the power went totally off for a while. Then I lost my momentum.

So we’ll start all over again today. New Day. New Momentum.

I find myself waffling every morning as I am about to leave for work. My decision is always tipped by the consideration that we need the money. But lately we’re not quite as broke as we had been. (Still, on a scale of broke to brokest, we register a low brok-er) It has been pointed out to me by several friends and relatives that the whole Catholic Church is not resting upon the Holy Father and ME. I can take a little time off. So I am - with great caution - plotting a few ways to preserve my sanity.

Next Monday I am going to Milwaukee to have lunch with a few friends. To illustrate how long it has been since I have seen them? I last saw my friend Karen when she was in dental school at Marquette; I had Emily along in a stroller. Emily now has a brand new Master’s Degree and is married to a man in dental school. So, yeah, it’s been too long.

And I’m planing on taking a day or two off to visit my sister over the week-end when she has her annual Halloween gala. I’ve never been to one of her Halloween parties (or much else) because I’ve always been broke, busy or bedraggled. This year will be different. Some of my girls want to go with me. That should be an interesting drive. If I find a cheap plane ticket? Ixnay on the ivedray. I know that driving an hour to catch a plane to an airport an hour away from my sister and all the attendant hassle adds up to the same amount of time, but I can handle a trip of slow increments better than one long haul.

Time to get ready for work. This afternoon I am going with Fran and Bridget to see Little Miss Sunshine, so I have to have all my work wrapped up right on time.

I'm baaaack!
I sneezed about 500 times yesterday and I think it shook something loose in my head.
I suddenly feel verbose again. There was a lot I was thinking of writing at midnight, but I didn't want to sneeze on my laptop.
Now...time for some DayQuil and off to work. Later....