All posts by Mush

About Mush

I want to be a veterinarian because I love children.

Small Things Add Up

Blurbs

I live two and a half miles south of Hwy 34, between Fairfield and Batavia. There’s a big project to upgrade all of 34 from a two-lane highway to a four-lane Interstate all the way across Iowa.

For the past year or so, we’ve been watching the new highway take shape. First many houses along 34 were moved or downed, then several million dollars worth of large equipment appeared and moved earth for months. Then they put down blacktop. (It was cool. They have this gigantic machine that does the entire road surface at once. One time they covered a couple MILES worth of new blacktop with tarps because it looked like rain.) Watching the new road come into being has been pretty fun.

I’ve been wanting to drive on the virgin concrete for months. Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Brett called to tell me it was open and that he was driving on it! I couldn’t wait to drive home and try it out myself.

After Gita class last night I got to drive on it. About half-way between Fairfield and Batavia, the old, cracked, bumpy, shitty 34 veered off onto the NEW BLACKTOP. It’s divine: smooth, smooth, smooth! It made the Jeep feel ten years younger, I swear. I’m really quite excited about the whole thing.

Soon I’ll be able to go 65 MPH from my house to 1-Stop Rental!

– – –
Today I was Joe’s lunch date. He has The Dread, poor dear. I feel for him. And the weather today – overcast, chilly, forboding – certainly doesn’t help.

We had iteration #47 of the “What the fuck am I doing?” conversation over mediocre Mexican food at La Hacienda restaurant. If you’re not familiar with it, #47 goes something like this: ‘I have no energy, I don’t care about anything, even partying seems stupid and unsatisfying and insipid, I want to move to Canada because then at least I wouldn’t be an ignorant fucking American, everyone seems to feels like this lately, maybe the Russians really are bombarding us with bad mental vibes after all. I mean, it’s no worse than Jyotish for explaining this shit.’

The Dread. It isn’t fair. I don’t have the dread right now myself, I have mild anxiety. But it still sucks and makes me ponder my “quality of life.” (The fact that my quality of life is so high that I have ample time in which to ponder it does not escape me. Which is a good sign.)

– – –
I love happy endings even in non-fiction, so here’s the obligatory wedding and a baby:

[13:32] reni: i have an idea
[13:33] reni: what say you about you and me flying out to see dharmaja’s wedding the end of june, complete with an extra added bonus of seeing her be married by Amma on the same day?
[13:34] Administratrix@work: WHAT?!?!?!
[13:34] Administratrix@work: I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend!
[13:34] Administratrix@work: I thought she was NEVER. GETTING. MARRIED.
[13:34] reni: she’s pregnant too
[13:35] Administratrix@work: WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!??!??!??!??!??!
[13:35] reni: due in the fall
[13:35] Administratrix@work: ARE YOU TRYING TO *KILL* ME, WOMAN?!?
[13:35] reni: yeah, pretty much

Blogs

Soapbox

I spend time every week going to every blog I read to catch up on people.

Some of you I know personally. Some of you are on my blogroll because you’re fucking brilliant writers, or because we have something in common like knitting or I just get a good vibe from you. Some of you are just plain old funny, like Dooce and some of the gay blogs I’m addicted to.

I am however quite pissed off at those of you who are so busy living your lives (one assumes) that you don’t update your damn blogs: Bucket, Buzz, Chrispizza, Matt, Keef, .frank – you know who you are!

How You Found This Site

Blurbs

I am now having to post how you found this site keywords as an image, because when I type things like “naked pussy” into an entry, it just increases some poor porn surfer’s chances of ending up here. (PEOPLE! STOP SURFING FOR PORN WITH MSN SEARCH! THAT SEARCH ENGINE SUCKS! You’ll just end up here, and THERE’S NO PORN HERE!) (Although you’ll be even more likely to end up here tomorrow, since now I’ve typed the word “porn” three, er, FOUR times now. Snort!)

Anyway, my favorite thing in the world: it’s today’s installment of how you found this site.

Sushi!

Social

I went to Christina’s for lunch.

She had set the table with a vase of flowers, which made me wish for the day that I, too, will live in a mostly remodeled house with amenities like dining rooms with tables to put vases of flowers upon!

She made chai – I only had half a cup, since caffeine and I aren’t necessarily getting along – and sushi. The sushi was delicious and I had lots of wasabi with it. I kept trying to get her daughter Prasada to eat a big spoonful of wasabi, but she wasn’t going for it. There were also turtles for dessert.

It was Christina and her wonderful kids, me, and Tahmi. A great time was had by all. Tahmi was late because she had to styptic a wound on Kaia’s ear from a dog fight, but apparently Kaia’s fine.

Lunch date! Whoo-hoo!

We discussed possibly seeing Amma in November. Maybe we can go together!
——–

Cash flow: NO

Blurbs

mozco.gifGod I want to dig up enough cash for tattoos this weekend! Seriously! The last time we went to Chicago, Brett got his famous cartoon tat (of the terrified nail running away from the mean scary hammer) but I got only a simple Japanese character. This time I want this (or maybe this) in the middle of my back. I’ve been wanting to get this tattooed on my body for at least six years now AND THIS IS THE TIME, DAMN IT!

So today I’d like to vent about being broke. Broke, broke, broke. Ugh. I hate it. We’re so cash-poor right now I can’t even explain how cash-poor we are.

Suffice it to say that several bills are excruciatingly late, and I hope they don’t turn off my cell before I get paid on the 16th. And no, I have no idea how we’ll even afford gas to go see Todd this weekend in Chicago, let alone the hotel, food, drinks, and the tattoos we both need.

I guess I shouldn’t bitch; we haven’t been this flat broke in ages. And I’m still only working part-time – it’s not so bad I’ve had to think about another P/T job or anything.

Brett and Jimbo are working a job and are being paid from Canada. They’ve turned in two bills and haven’t seen any payment yet, and when they do it will be in the form of an International money order (which means they’ll probably have to wait a week for the funds to clear before they can actually pay themselves). I suppose I should take some comfort in knowing that Joy is probably feeling quite as broke as I am, since her hubby hasn’t been paid in as long as mine hasn’t!
Continue reading Cash flow: NO →

I need a new battery

Redneck, Rural, Rustic

When I went out to leave for work this morning, the Jeep wouldn’t start.

I had to walk up and down the hill between the house and the barn several times. First to find the charger. (In the barn. Not in the garage or honey house.) Then I had to find an extension cord. (Not in the garage, house, barn, or honey house. In the yard, in a pile.) Then I hooked it all together and plugged the Jeep in, and went inside and watched half of some morning show about well-balanced, clear-skinned virgins with good morals.

The boy, a virgin, asked his friend, a virgin, to double-date with him and the cute new girl, also a virgin. The friend, I believe, was in love with the boy and was pissed at being an extra on a dumb double with some other guy who had no lines. They all looked like they were 25, yet they were playing highschoolers. Dawson’s Creek, I think it was, or some shit.

Anyway. Then I went out and started the Jeep up and drove to work. Got here a freakin’ hour late, damn it.

The reason the battery dies is that I sit in it with the door open a lot, since I’m often too lazy to go find a lawn chair. The dome light kills the battery quite rapidly. I need a new battery, but am and will be too broke to buy one for another month or so.

(After that length of time, my DH assures me, he’ll be working a nicely-paying job and has plans to BUY. A. MOTORCYCLE. He never, ever, EVER stops buying stuff. I am so serious. I’ll be struggling to get my never-to-be-sufficiently-damned credit cards back under control and he’ll be shopping for ANOTHER. FREAKING. BIKE.)

Have I mentioned I want a Mac? (A Mini. And a powerbook. Yum.) Yes, I officially hate Windows now. The opsys I use is five years old, I hate XP too much to use it, and I’m certain the next Windows entry to the opsys world will be another bloatware behemoth. (I’ll keep at least one Windows box to run all my warez on, natch.) OSX, here I come!

Er, here I will come, if my husband ever stops shopping long enough for me to buy new geek equipment!

My to-do list

Domestic Goddess

So far today:

Get up, go back to bed, get back up, herbal tea, work out, laundry, dusting, change sheets, laundry, lunch, wash blankets, dishes, make bread, think about making rhubarb pie then decide making a crust would just be too much of a pain in the ass, lie around aimlessly and read, clean the living room, take out the garbage, laundry.

Now I’m thinking about dinner, and still considering making a pie although I don’t really know if I want the world to know I’d made both bread AND pie in the same day. It seems a little like overkill.

My pits reek, BTW. Working out + housecleaning = stinky Mushlette. But the weather is fucking DIVINE! It’s breezy and balmy and downright freakin’ perfect out, and I love it.

The other day a bird got in the house, and it flapped at each and every window until it found the open door and went back out. I have a set of six tiny, delicate cordials made of Depression glass (you can even see a couple of them here) and I keep them on the kitchen window sill so I can look at them while doing the dishes. The bird knocked every single one to the counter below.

Amazingly, all but one survived.