Laugh at yourself...

I have a little bicycle. I bought it a couple of years ago when my car was having problems and I didn't want to have to impose on the ladies I work with to have to come and get me. It was spring...I needed the exercise. It really is a small bike because I am short and I can touch the pedals nicely and not feel like I'm going to kill myself...an important fact when you haven't ridden a bicycle for 30 some years and the idea of traffic while in a car doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.

A friend from work gave me streamers for my bike on my birthday a couple of years ago. They were iridescent pink and fun and just...streamy. Bob and I were running errands a couple of weeks ago and stuffed my bike in the back of Bob's car so we could put air in tires. On the way, I had a conversation with Bob about how much I loved these dopey streamers. We stop to get the air...he does the inflating of tires...didn't take the bike out of the car...was in a hurry...gets back in the car and tells me "I broke your streamers off." I was crushed and got poopy to him. In keeping with the idea that five year olds love their streamers, he told me I was being bratty...and I was.

When we got home, I tried to put my basket back on my bike. It was not going on and was sticking out at a ninety angle to the handlebars. Bob and I got into another little set to over trying to get the basket to work correctly and once again I got called bratty. I do highly recommend living in a second floor apartment on such occasions because stomping in a huff up the stairs is highly effective. Mind you someone has to be paying attention to the stomping for it to be effective and Bob was not. A quiet evening was had by all. It is hard to live with five year old times ten plus two. Bob should get a medal.

So a couple of weeks have past. I found new lovely streamers at Target. I also ruminated on the basket problem and came up with a solution. I call Bob to the garage because I thought that we would have to hacksaw part of the basket holder off. I said we needed to adjust the handlebars because my knees were hitting them. I thought that they had slipped down from storage and moving. As we talked about how to fix the problem, we suddenly had an epiphany.

The handlebars were facing backwards.

My bike is ready...I plan on riding it...you have been duly warned.

A sidebar from when Cory was visiting:
Friend of Cory: Does your Mom have a bike?
Cory: I think so.
FOC: I think I saw her riding it...and dude, it's got streamers on it.
Cory: Huh (I am sure there was some internal cringing and I know that he laughed)

The moral: It is never too late to embarrass your children...even if they live on the other side of the country.

Bare Trees...

Outside my window on this cold, damp early Saturday I see what looks just like the album cover of Fleetwood Mac's 70's album "Bare Trees". It made me wish I was a photographer.

I closed tonight at work and when I was driving home there was this ethereal, rolling fog on the street. At the intersection of our street I couldn't really see forward...I know this will sound macabre but it made me think of London and Jack the Ripper and how easily someone could have crept out the fog and shadows to do harm. I think that is a movie equation...fog...London...fog being spooky...blahblahblah.

...but it is beautiful. The naked trees are just packed in cotton mist and the street lights all glow gold. Somehow the fog seems so right for the season...ominous and hopeful all at once. It's the kind of night that makes you edgy and sleepless.
It's an itchy time of year...like all new hopes and dreams are bristling under the skin...Spring is right on the cusp.I think we're all ready ready for a new season

Feeling Lost...

I have found myself in a strange little place lately and I really don't like it. I guess for lack of a better word, it could be described as a funk. I am just feeling like I am not sure where I belong, if people like me, if anything that I do matters. I KNOW that sounds way over dramatic but that's what there. Everything just feels to be in transition and I am not sure where I fit in. We have had changes at work and that is all still playing out...some days I feel like I am working with the Borgias or the Medicis. I just don't have the energy to play that game...or the cunning.

Interesting...there is an audition coming up that I really want to go to. The play is "The Lion in Winter". I would to audition for Eleanor. I want to audition because I haven't auditioned for so long and auditioning is painful to me. The play is all about machinations and political maneuvering. I may be totally wrong for Eleanor but more than anything want my lovely Bobert to audition...I think he would be wonderful as Henry and have the best time. He hasn't been on stage in so long...he needs to get back in the saddle. I can just see him doing this show. Kathylynn...are you there? Audition!!! You would be wonderful.

I know that my funk will pass but I hate when it descends with it's darkness and bad tapes. I can find everything to hate about myself and have a hard time finding the nice voice to talk to myself with....that's hard on the best of days.

I think I will chalk it up to gray days in Ohio in more ways than one.