Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Daily 5 - Day 203

Today's Daily 5:
  1. An evening spent with L.  The sort of good friend who you can slip into easy conversation with, because you know all the people in each other's lives, and you've lived with each other for the last couple of years.  The kind of friend who could hear my stories about the first few days of life with Grandma and laugh knowingly both with me, and at my expense.
  2. A goodbye hug.  This one was hard.  but good.
  3. Watched a goofy movie, and ate popcorn.  Used up the Christmas gift from our former landlord in style, and laughed a lot.
  4. Had the auditors in my office today.  Not generally a great thing, but hey, this year they're not much older than me, really attractive, and one of the two has a great British accent.  If you're going to have an annual audit, it's not so bad if the auditors are young, hot, polite, and one has a great accent to boot.
  5. Wednesday is over.  Not too much of the work week left.

Kiwi Vocabulary

After living with two different Kiwi girls for the last 3 years, I've had a number of additions to my vocabulary.  Words that will no longer be particularly useful now that L. is leaving the country.

Before I reveal the meanings or usages, I'm curious to see how many of the following words you can guess.  They're some of the major ones that I got used to mentally translating over the course of the last three years:
  • Flash
  • Togs
  • Jandals
  • Plasters
  • Busting
  • Boot
  • Mince
  • Capsicum
Leave me a comment with your guesses, and I'll be back tomorrow with the meanings!

Looking Ahead

Are you getting tired of these posts dealing with moving, and my mundane schedule for the week?  I suppose I would be, but for the moment, they're very helpful to me in sorting out my days.

So, looking ahead, here's how the rest of the week is shaping up...

Tonight I'm hanging out with L.  After living together for the last 2 years, it's been a bit odd not to see her for the last several days.  And tonight is the big "goodbye".  She leaves the country on Friday, and becuase of my lack of a car, and her flight schedule, I won't be at the airport when she leaves.  So, this is it.  It seems a bit weird to be at the end of this chapter of life.  I wrote in a card to her last night that the last 7 months or so in particular, living at our apartment, just the two of us, have been a time where I really felt that healing was finally beginning to take hold after some very hard years.  In a time period where the community I'd thought I'd found a home with evaporated around me, she was one of the only steady influences and friends who remained.  And more valuably, when my expression of faith looked totally strange, or I dropped off the radar of church attendance, or came up with entirely random weekend trips to walk and take photos and pray, she never made me feel judged, and instead often laughed, indulged me, helped me laugh at my own crazy actions in response to Jesus' leading, and frequently tagged along, taking photos, helping with the driving, making me smile along the way.  We made living together and cooking together work, despite my many quirks and constant need for alone time, and we laughed a lot along the way.  I'm going to miss sharing my "you work in a soap opera" moments with her, sharing the cooking, and just the general laughs.  I'm also no longer going to have a use for quite a number of words that have crept into my vocabulary in the last three years of living with Kiwi's.

So, tonight we're planning to have dinner, see a movie (our former landlord gave us a gift certificate for that for Christmas, and we've not yet managed to use it), and hang out for a bit.  And say goodbye.  At least for now.  (I'm already dreaming of finding a way to make a trip to New Zealand a reality.  Anyone want to tag along?)

Tomorrow night is house church.  Because of my carless state, I'm actually meeting one of the other girls from the house church for dinner after work, since we work near each other, and catching a ride with her, since she generously offered this up as a solution to my transportation issues for this week.  I missed the gathering last week, because it was on a different night of the week than usual, and I was in the final throes of packing my life into boxes and couldn't unbury myself from that long enough to emerge and join them.  I'm looking forward to time with the community that are now becoming friends, praying and worshiping and sharing together.

And then comes Friday.  Friday night is going to be my catch-up night, I think.  Deal with some administrative stuff that will get pushed these next few nights as I enjoy time with friends.  Prepare a grocery list and do some meal planning.  Work on the unpacking situation.  And rest.

Saturday morning will be for more unpacking and settling in chores.  Saturday afternoon I have a natural health treatment scheduled (it's been a while since I've had one, and I'm looking forward to it, since it usually helps with my messed up sleep schedule), and after that I'm hanging out at my parent's house for the afternoon, doing some stuff with my mom, and likely some errands as well.

I'm actually quietly anticipating the next few days.

Wondering what they'll hold in terms of the continued attempt to adapt to my new living situation.  Hurting a little as I ponder saying goodbye tonight.  But feeling at peace as well.  And that, my friends, is something for which I've learned to be thankful.  Because those weeks and moments tend to be few and far between for me (though happening more often these days - a fact for which I'm also very grateful.)

Jamie Oliver

I've loved Jamie Oliver's cooking shows for years.  And I love his recent passion to re-create a healthy awareness of the food that we eat.  This video of Jamie speaking on this subject for a TED gathering is great, and definitely worth watching.

Everything. And the Bathroom Door.

The auditors are at the office this week.  Asking for paperwork, working quietly through loads of numbers.  I had my first visit from them this morning, requesting information from employee files and payroll files.

Last night at Grandma's went a tiny bit more smoothly.  She only came downstairs once.  She didn't get up to chatter at me every time I slipped upstairs.  It gave me just a little bit of hope that this will somehow work out.  That we'll find some sort of happy medium.

In the quiet that she left me to, I sorted and unpacked.  I think the unpacking will actually go quite quickly this time, because many of the boxes that remain will not need to be unpacked.  My books and dvd's are on shelves, most of the furniture that will go in my bedroom/living room area is now there.  What remains, I think, will be to sort the leftover piles into two - things that stay packed, and things that need to be given a home.  And then comes the decision making process of where to house the things that need a home.

Best of all, I got a text message yesterday afternoon from my brother J.  It read something to the effect of: "I put up a bathroom door for you, and even rigged up a latch."  That news made my day.  The little toilet and sink in the basement have their own room, but it's a room inside of the laundry room, and next to Grandma's large freezer.  Anytime I used it during the day, I did so with the fear that my grandma would make one of her many appearances, looking for me, while I was sitting on the throne.  Now, at least I don't have to worry about that!

And with that, I'm off to do paperwork.  There's lots to be tackled today.