Hello from the front lines of life in the El. Things here have been busy but uneventful which is an unusual state. Are you with me when I say that that it can be amazing how the usual tasks of ordinary life can leave little energy left for all those exciting blog-worthy extras? As a result, this post may even be a manageable length.
Fearless Hero and I were lucky enough to have several visits within the last few months. My friend Judi flew in for a long weekend. We did lots of girly stuff, like shop for shoes and eat cupcakes and watch all 14 hours of Grammy coverage. She will tell you that you should come out just to go to one of our favorite restaurants for their Brick Chicken. And you are welcome to come visit; our extra room has a bed and fun pillows just waiting for you.
Mom came for a long visit right after. She hung out in the El while we were working for some of the days. I took some time off of work and we got to do some adventuring, like go to the Getty Villa Museum and cool furniture shopping, and work on several projects as well. Our walls are now more stylish as is our extra bedroom. It was wonderful to have her here to just hang out - and to be able to give her a hug before going off to work for the day.
My brother Judd came for a weekend too. He and Fearless Hero went to a Laker’s game together during his stay. We did some museuming (Even though I am a girl I did appreciate our trip to the Peterson Automotive Museum) and exploring some cool places to eat. He and I got to hang out together on Monday before he took the redeye home which was a lot of fun. Having those people here helped make me feel calm and centered in a way I am not in the day to day life here.
Work and life have served up several stressful stretches leaving me searching for spiritual sustenance and soothing salve for my stressed out soul.
Stress relief through baking is one part of the Comagirl lifestyle. If I did it in direct proportion to the stress I experience it would be like a Sara Lee factory in here. And since my oven continues to lose it’s mind on a regular basis (Existential crisis? Overwork protest? Old age loss of function?) it would be difficult to actually produce edible goods.
I recently made some banana bread using a new recipe. A difficult day and a blinding headache found me in the kitchen attempting to smooth talk the oven while microwaving bananas. This two word phrase, microwaving bananas, more than anything can illustrate the lengths that I will go to try to relieve some stress and find something to eat.
I shared slices of the finished bread with a few comrades at work. I left notes hoping that it would bring them a ray of sanity (is there such a thing?). I requested that if it did raise the sanity quotient for them, to please let me know as then I would proceed to eat the entire loaf. I’m hoping that sanity through quick breads is an effective strategy. It would make a great addition to the Comagirl lifestyle. If banana bread = sanity, then pumpkin bread = ? Come on you mathematicians and bakers, here’s your chance to step up and contribute to my theory.
I had an appointment with one of my doctors recently; I was actually glad to not have to go to work that morning and battle the 405 and discuss my health instead. Now that is sick. I came armed with spreadsheets as created by Fearless Hero that tracked all my headaches and symptoms. My comments were strictly scientific and objective.
Dr. Headache told me that based on my reporting my case of migraines is moderate. Okay. Then he referred to having a migraine as “uncomfortable.” Really? I wanted to invite him over for banana bread during one of my worst episodes and defy him to use such a description. My sensitivity to and lack of successful response with any preventative medications has led him and my previous Dr. Headache to call me a "special case".
And he’s not the only doctor that has used that phrase in the past several months. I suspect other people use it too but behind my back with a healthy dose of disbelief and disdain.
On the snazzy spreadsheets that Fearless Hero made, on one of the days I notated that I was “Hit by a truck tired.” See, very scientific and objective. You all can relate to that, right? Anyone who is filling out a headache diary should be allowed a bit of latitude and as much irony as they can handle. Especially us special cases.
When Dr. Headache saw this he thought I meant in a non-ironic way. I responded no not literally, that came later though. In February I was actually hit by a car. Yep, special case.
So one night we are in Fearless Hero’s truck on our way to our friend Ken’s house. We were going to play Rock Band with the usual gang including our friend Traci who was visiting for the week. I pretty much suck at this game; my biggest contribution is that I bring cookies.
Fearless Hero was driving and we were at a stoplight. I was texting my dad about something quite important I’m sure.
A car came up behind us. The driver later stated that he hit the gas instead of the brake. The car hit us. Our truck hit the car in front of us, which in turn hit the car in front of it. A special kind of fun. We luckily weren't hurt, just sore for a few days.
The car behind us that hit us was a Mercedes. We hit a Lexus SUV. The Lexus hit a Mercedes station wagon. Needless to say Fearless Hero’s truck crumpled. I think it was a civic improvement program designed to expel the riff raff from the more affluent community that we were driving through. Riff Raff in this case = 1997 Toyota Tacoma truck. It was later pronounced totaled by our insurance company. We were fortunate that Ken lent us his truck while we were down to one vehicle.
And so Fearless Hero began his odyssey in the world of auto shopping. It was all consuming. After much research, he narrowed his search to a Subaru. After test driving and forum message posting and online shopping and salesman calling and opinion soliciting and negotiating and we finally bought a car. It’s a blue wagon. Sorry I’m a girl. For all you interested parties it is a 2005 Subaru Legacy Wagon GT Limited with all wheel drive and turbo. Back to being a girl. It has heated seats and a gigantic sunroof and it's easy to manueuver and it can go fast.
After we completed an inordinate amount of paperwork and gave a blood sample and passed the IQ test we became owners of the car. Unfortunately the dealership could not produce the requisite paperwork to prove that the car had been smogged (passed the emissions test). So we couldn’t actually take the car home. Yep, this was a special case. They gave us a loaner. Being a girl: It was silver, an Outback I think. It took us to get cupcakes and then home. If I hadn’t been so tired and so incredibly frozen (apparently they don’t heat dealership showrooms, especially after you’ve agreed to buy the car) I would have given a rant that would have rivaled Denis Leary on a good day. And the cupcakes weren’t even that good. They delivered our car on Monday to Fearless Hero’s work on a flat bed truck, much to our relief.
Fearless Hero was like a kid on Christmas morning when he first started driving it. Like the day he arrived home from work while it was raining after spending an hour on the commute and proclaimed “It’s raining! Let’s go for a drive!” I agreed after the promise of dinner and dessert to help alleviate the trauma I just suffered by a bad haircut. (I’m still recovering. My hair not so much.) Yep, special cases.
It’s great to have that task behind us and to have had success in getting the type of car he wanted for a good price. My Riff Raff = 1996 Toyota Camry. In a desperate bid for attention (Existential crisis? Overwork protest? Loss of function due to old age?) has broken down several times in the last few months.
First it was a radiator fluid leak leading to the replacement of several hoses. Twice. Whenever it leaked the bright green goo that came out in a puddle from under the car made it look like I just ran over the Wicked Witch of the West. I am now an obsessive watcher of the heat gauge on my car.
And then the other day I was getting gas at Costco and again the car was leaking. This time it was gas. We had to have the intake pipe to the gas tank replaced. Yep, special case. Fearless Hero has had to do a significant amount of heroing to rescue me from wherever I am and to get the car fixed.
My new fish is a special case too. I have another female beta fish, this one named Josie Grey. On the first day, after I got her settled in her new home, I fed her and one of the food pellets fell down amongst the stones. She is still, after over a week, trying to get down to that spot where she thinks that elusive pellet is. And I have fed her since, honestly. She’s got food and focus issues. Sort of like her owner.
As I deal with my moderate case of uncomfortable migraines (guess I should have added "sarcasm" along with latitude and irony to the list of allowable offenses for us migraine trackers) I’ve been watching a lot of TV as I am unable to read most days. This is a more disorienting factor for a reader like me than if I was dropped in the middle of the wilderness.
It’s some quality TV (Did you catch “Downton Abbey” on PBS recently? Oh, it was soo good. And “Justified” on the F/X channel? And “Fairly Legal” on USA”? And “America’s Test Kitchen”, where they make good stuff like banana bread that requires you to microwave bananas and boil down the juice [banana juice, is that accurate referral?]). And some crap (what, you were expecting me to actually admit the stuff I watch here?) I am not sure of the effects of this extended exposure.
One result of all this TV may be the adoptation of a new lifestyle rule that I recently learned while watching a promo for reruns of the show Walker Texas Ranger. It’s part of the recommended Walker Texas Ranger lifestyle: “Always kick in Slo-Mo”.
As we speak Fearless Hero is on his way to pick up the heirloom tomato plants that he selected. For his birthday I gave him a gift card from Laurel’s Heirloom Tomatoes. She does a lot of mail order business and stocks hundreds of varieties of heirloom tomatoes. I shall return to the imagery of a kid on Christmas morning. He even talked about getting up early this morning to get there as soon as Laurel’s special pick-up hours started. Inertia is strong with this one, especially on Saturday mornings, so this willingness to be an early bird is a measure of his love for the tomato. He is a man who needs a big ol’ garden someday.
Can I just say how lovely it is to be without a headache and able to think and make plans and drive to my favorite library while wearing my new WMSE t-shirt while playing some guilty pleasure music (Ok, this time I will admit the embarrassing stuff I listened to today: Billy Squier. Come on, you 80’s music lovers, can you actually tell me that you can resist “Everybody Wants You”?) and write while overhearing lots of little boy voices as they participate in the Saturday chess club and then have the energy to go to Trader Joe's and then Whole Foods to pick up some fancy tea to use with my new tea strainer and have fun dinner at home plans with Fearless Hero while he rests after all the tomato exertion (homemade pizza and the movie “The Fighter”) all while wearing my new shoes, Adidas Superstars, that prove I am not a special case but, yes, a superstar. Kickin’ it in Slo-Mo.
