Alone Time

I'm being a Single Girl this weekend because hubby is away till tomorrow night. I'm having fun watching Girly Movies and catching up on work.

A couple of highlights:

First, I got my new camera in the mail yesterday. A Nikon D60, which isn't the newest model, but will serve me well for my photography class, which is starting in a couple of weeks. I really needed something besides a point-and-shoot if I'm going to take this whole photography thing seriously. I'm such a beginner with it all, I really don't know what kind of camera to get. So I got this good deal on t he D60 on ebay and will use it to get myself started. I'm sure in my classes I'll learn a lot, and will find out what I like to use and be able to make a more informed choice in a year or two. But for now, this will serve me nicely. I even have hubby's good lenses from a couple of years ago when he went through a photography phase. I spent time poking around out in the yard just to get used to holding it, and liked this picture the best. I like how the leaves have a silvery lining of light around them. Makes me smile.

Second, we had another Meetup today at the Science Center. Very cool people, but I wound up getting separated from everybody, which was a bummer. Need to figure out how to avoid that in the future. Very cool people, though. I like all these folks I'm meeting at the Meetups.

It's hot - summer is officially here, and that's really odd considering it snowed two weeks ago. But I'm not complaining. I'm going to the lake tomorrow. Hopefully the water will be warmer than it was last week, when I felt like a polar bear, only without the fur.

Cool Things

My life is brimming with coolness lately. It's a very fun experience.

First off, I finally did a new podcast episode, and I'm getting cool ideas about future episodes. The thing I've noticed about myself, and life, is that the more I put something off, the harder it gets to do it. But then when you finally do it, it's so not nearly as difficult as you think it's going to be. It's like the whole Newton thing. Body in motion stays in motion, etc. I get lazy and then, unless acted upon by an outside force (a la Landmark) I stay lazy and don't do the things I say I want to do.

Second, I was driving on Sunday afternoon and caught Speaking of Faith, which reminded me how much I love that show. Coming from Amish Country (though no, I'm not Amish and never have been) I have a funny relationship with religion. I always thought that religion meant deprivation. You can't dance. You can't make fun of things. You certainly can't watch Jon Stewart. So for a while I dropped out of religion entirely. I stopped talking to God. I decided the whole thing was a sham. But then I realized how I had collapsed the conservativeness of where I grew up with religion in general, and God in particular. When I lived in London I went to church all the time. Literally. I said it was for the music, but I also loved feeling close to heaven. I miss that. Not having a church is really something that is missing in my life. Note to self: Finish 2009 New Year's Resolution and Find A Church. In my own lame defense, I will say that a lot of it is because I live so far away from everything. But that's lame and I need to get over it.

Here's the super cool thing of the day - over 270 people have joined the Meetup Group that I started last week in the Ontario airport. Sweet!

Oh, and I spent 2 hours in the Fontana DMV today. Hope I don't have to have that experience again for a long time. It wasn't so bad. People were pretty friendly. But I can think of nicer ways to spend my time. At least that's off my list though. It feels so good to cross things off my list.

Perfect London Day

Samuel Johnson said that when you tire of London, you tire of life. And I agree. I had a completely perfect London day today - did just about everything I'd want to do if I only had one day here.

The morning started out perfectly - sunlight streaming through the windows, and the sounds of Sandor puttering around in the kitchen, and then when he left, a bath and ClassicFM. A side note - I love listening to ClassicFM at home online, but it's annoying with the time difference - in the morning when I want perky and peppy music, they're doing the stress-free-evening-commute music. Nice to have it at the right time of day.

Then some time spent wandering around Covent Garden, exploring alleyways, and eating at nando's chicken. Which is ridiculously hip, but not so much so that I was afraid of it. Then we moseyed back to the National Gallery and took in some art. Original Da Vinci's, Titian, etc. But first, a visit to the crypt of St. Martin's in the Field, because J was so weirded out about a restaurant in a crypt.

We played around in Soho, shopping - J bought trendy shoes and a camera, I bought a new cell phone from Orange and some products from Boots - I always load up on Boots products to take home - it makes me feel exotic to use products from England. We walked up and down Oxford Street, and up to Bedford Square for a peaceful walk. Then I got asked for directions by some tourists. They wanted to go to the British Museum, and it reminded me that the British Museum is really quite nice, so we went and checked out some ancient sculptures.

Then a bus back to Oxford Circus where we met up with my ex-violin-teacher Mark, and got dinner at Wagamama's. I also love Wagamama's. I'm so predictable. For the past ten years I've been going to Wagamamas and getting the number 43. I really should expand my horizons, but I haven't yet. Sandor arrived in Soho and we met up where he was eating dinner with the lovely Anna-Louisa, who is one of my new favorite people. Fortified with hot chocolate, we headed to the arcade to play Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero.

So my day had everything a perfect day in London should have. Good friends, good food, culture, history, good walks, shopping, waiting for busses, and the random rain shower.

Suburban Dates and Lazy Saturdays

Last night J and I had what I call a Suburban Date. We went to Ikea. I call this a Suburban Date because the only people at IKEA are generally Suburbanites driving their large SUV's and making a mess out of the parking lot. I guess the crappy economy is hitting even Discount Swedish Furniture Places, though, because it was EMPTY. We parked right by the entrance, and didn't even have to wait in line at the cafe (where J gets chicken fingers and I get apple salmon with veggies). After our Discount Swedish Dinner we bought flooring for the bathroom. J is determined to have me decide what is going to happen next in the bathroom (we took out the gross shower when we moved in and put in a nice new bathtub, which necessitated taking down the mildewy drywall, and putting up new concrete on which to put tile once I decide what kind) but I'm lagging. It's just too much to decide. Skylight or no skylight. Beadboard or no beadboard. What kind of tiles. It's just too much. I lack direction. Hardwood flooring at least gets us started in the right direction.

Today I woke up for two hours and then napped. This is unusual for me. I'm not a napper. J is a napper. But not me. I get 8 hours of sleep at night, on a good night, and that does me for the day. But today I napped for 2 hours on the couch, which was quite nice.

I worked out and watched Seinfeld reruns, then we went to dinner in Big Bear at the vacation condo of some friend's of J's. I got carsick on the mountain-road drive, coming and going. Realized that I rarely drive at night anymore, and my eyes are really bothered by the Assault of all the bright lights on the dark mountain. Recovered from my carsickness by 10pm, and then wrote 1600 words for my novel. Up to about 13,240. Now it's bedtime, after I clean up the messiness from tuna sandwich lunch in the kitchen. Yucky and smelly. J is installing the hardwood floors and the cats are going crazy.

We're so adult and boring. Tomorrow's big excitement is the Sunday Paper, a goal of 2500 words, a long bubblebath, and Laundry!