The week that was

Last week seemed a little frenetic between meetings and Paul leaving town and me leaving town and all the other stuff and work. I don't know if it really was that busy but it felt that way. And when I'd sit down to write about how busy it was, I'd end up being called away to do something else.

But here is a brief recap of what I've been doing since my last update:

1. Sunday/Monday: Not much out of the ordinary--church, chores around the house, work, etc.

2. Tuesday, I had to drive all the way across town (ended up being about 25 miles from my house) to attend an all-day inservice for librarians that started at 8:00 a.m. I had to leave the house at 7:10 to allow time for traffic and road construction and oh, hey, it was raining so one really gets to see the crazy that is ABQ driving (and I was going the opposite direction of traffic for much of the drive). It wasn't a bad day--I got to spend time with people I like and the sessions weren't useless which is always a plus--but it made me really appreciate my 12-minute commute.

On the way back across town, I stopped by Paul's work for a little bit or I wouldn't have seen him until about 9:30 that evening because of a JLA meeting I knew would be long (it was). When I got home after the meeting, Paul and I packed him for his trip to D.C. on Wednesday and got all his stuff laid out and ready to go so when he got home on Friday night, he could quickly repack since he left again on Saturday to go to California and from CA was heading to Denver on Tuesday. I won't have seen my husband for a week and a half when he finally gets home on Friday night and I only saw him for what seemed like five minutes in the days before he left on this trip.

3. Wednesday felt like it was a catch-up day from being out on Tuesday and getting ready to be gone part of Thursday. I just couldn't get everything going in the same direction nor could I motivate myself to be more interested in trying. When I finally packed my suitcase in order to have something to wear when I left town on Thursday, it was the oddest assortment of clothes. Like, I put in shirts I don't even particularly like but I couldn't get my brain to think of anything else to pack. It was also 10:30 at night before I started on this venture which accounts for some of the randomness.

4. Thursday, again nothing going in the same direction and no interest in making it happen. I realize I hadn't told a couple of teachers I'd be leaving midday so I had to cancel their trips to the library. I don't do that but for whatever reason, I hadn't written this absence on my calendar and so I just blissfully continued scheduling classes to come in. Thankfully the teachers were super-understanding and didn't mind my mistake.

When I got to the airport, I opted to park at the airport since it's still fairly cheap to park there ($6/day or so). The slot I'd pulled into was out of parking tickets so I had to yell back at the person who'd pulled in behind me so that we could back up and go to the next ticket slot. The lower two levels of the parking structure were closed off but there was no parking on the upper two levels so I wound my way down to the second level. I worried as I parked that something might happen to the Subaru and I didn't want to end up towed but that was really my only option. I wore my school lanyard with keys and ID into the airport and didn't realize until I got to security that I had these on still. Not really a problem but since I'm prone to losing my keys, I had to make a very conscientious motion to put them in my suitcase so I could make it both there and back with keys. I had a very disappointing wrap from the sandwich shop at the airport and I drank way too much Diet Coke and water while waiting and then on the airplane. Because I was next to the window, I didn't want to ask my rowmates to let me out and it made for a very painful landing. Needless to say, I was happy when I finally got off the plane and saw Donna waiting for me outside (after a much needed pit stop). We'd originally had plans to have dinner with my friend Steph but because her week sounded about like mine felt, we had to cancel those plans. This trip ended up with a couple of cancelled plans but I still had a lovely visit with Donna.

5. Friday, we had lunch in Dallas with my best friend from high school. Amy and I had drifted apart during college, intermittently kept in touch after Paul and I were married, and really got back in touch after our 10-year class reunion five years ago. We had a great visit talking about the old days and what's happening now and all that jazz.

When we left there, Donna and I planned to go to the Wisteria outlet store. I love the catalog and I wanted to see what the outlet was all about. We ended up taking a turn in the wrong direction but it was OK because we found ourselves at a rather nice consignment clothing store where I found these brand new Gianni Bini shoes for only $20:

The color doesn't show up great but those are bright pink with polka dots. One of the lovely men who works in the store was walking through as I was paying and declared that he "LOVE THE PINK SHOES!" Me, too, my friend. Me, too. Donna got some new Enzo Angiolini black loafers and a new moleskin jacket for next to nothing. It reminds met that I need to check out a consignment store that opened here in ABQ a year or so ago. . . .

We did make it to the Wisteria store with about 20 minutes to go before closing time. I didn't find anything I couldn't live without. Not that I didn't buy something (new candleholders that look like pinecones and some red felt Christmas ornaments). I wish I lived close enough to drop in from time to time to check the stock. I think it is one of those kind of places since it's pretty small. Unfortunately, our dinner plans with friends were cancelled but that didn't stop Donna and me from going ahead to Babe's for a fried chicken dinner. Good stuff but the downside is the smell just lingers in your clothes and hair for hours.

5. Saturday, the plan was to go to Allen to see my friends Karen and Chris and their daughters at their new house, eat a late breakfast, and watch the Tech/A&M game. We'd agreed to get to their house about 10:00. I love Karen dearly but she operates in her own space and time realm, one that doesn't really correspond with the rest of the world. Knowing this, I wasn't too worried when we left the house about 15 minutes later than originally planned to get to their house--Karen didn't mind either since she was out at garage sales. In fact, she got home about 10 minutes after we arrived and after chatting a bit, we found ourselves agreeing to go to one more garage sale with her. Then we went home where we were finally able to have a really late (like it was lunchtime) breakfast. Karen flitted around some more in Karen-world and then, since they'd recorded the Tech game, we were able to watch about half of one quarter before we needed to leave. Eh, well. I wish we could have seen more but Tech won and A&M didn't and that's all that matters. We left Chris and Karen's house about 1:45 to head to Grapevine to stop in at a chili cook-off that is organized by my friend Melissa's family's company. It was a little too hot to eat chili and since Karen had only just managed to feed us, we weren't too hungry for it anyway. Sadly (for us, Paul would be happy), we arrived just as the silent auction was ending but we wandered around for a bit and chatted with Melissa and her husband before taking off.

6. Sunday, my flight left at 7:40 which meant a very early wake-up call. Thankfully I was able to nap on the plane. That doesn't always happen--I'm not very good at sleeping in cars or on planes. On the flight to England and on our flight home from Hawaii, Paul plied me full of sleeping pills so I would possibly nap (I didn't sleep on the way home from England as I was un-drugged). On my way back to the parking structure, hoping I'd find my car where I'd left it, I saw one of the airport policemen on this handy thing--a three-wheeled Segway. Because it could be a bad thing to be chasing one of those horrible airport criminals and lose your balance on a regular Segway:
Thankfully, the Subaru was just as I'd left it and I was back home with a yummy breakfast burrito by 8:45 local time to a very annoyed cat (he voiced his displeasure for a good hour) and the Sunday paper. A neighbor who recently moved to Los Lunas (so I guess she's actually a former neighbor) hosted a luncheon at her new house so I spent most of the afternoon there. Funny that I live two houses from a couple of the people I spent most of the day chatting with but we never have that time to just chat during the week.

7. Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday--pretty much back to the daily grind as I get ready for Book Fair next week minus a Paul to spend time with in the evenings. Mostly that means I can watch junkie television without fear of persecution or a need to quickly change channels when he comes into the room. But I'll be glad when he's back home. I do miss him when he's gone.