we try something new . . .

so today . . . rollie brought me lunch as he usually does on tuesdays. usually he gets our lunch at subway. usually i have a six inch tuna sandwich with double swiss cheese on honey oat bread with lots and lots of lettuce. and a gigantic soda. and sometimes even chips! usually he has turkey with double swiss cheese on wheat bread with lots and lots of vinegar. and a soda. and sometimes even a cookie. or three!

today as i was heading out to his car to eat, i received this text--"i'm here and i have something new and yummy for your lunch." had i read this message earlier, i am sure i would have had all kinds of thoughts about what new and delectable treat he had found and brought me. and i'm sure chocolate would have been a main ingredient. but i only had about 10 seconds to think about it before i saw subway cups in his car. ok, whatever new and yummy thing he had brought me had come from subway . . .

i got settled in the car and saw chips--a good sign. then he said, "they had a new kind of sandwich at subway today, so that's what i got!"

we eat a lot of subway sandwiches, but they have this terrible habit of creating new sandwiches that we fall in love with only to discontinue them a few months later. the last time this happened, the sandwich was called a "pizzioli" and had pepperoni and marinara sauce and cheese and i don't know what else, but it was heavenly fare!!! we ate that sandwich several times a week. and even after they discontinued it, "our" subway would still make it for us--they put it on the menu as a "local favorite," until their regional manager made them stop . . . (i don't like him or her very much anymore, whoever he or she is . . .) so now i tend to avoid the new sandwiches because i know a couple of months down the road they will just break my heart by uttering those terrible words, "i'm sorry, that sandwich is no longer on the menu."

but there it was. the newest sandwich. rollie said, "it is barbeque chicken with ranch dressing. and i got foot long ones, because i am going to play basketball tonight so you can have the other half for dinner!"

see how he takes care of me? when rollie plays basket ball at night, he doesn't eat dinner. he has found that eating shortly before running up and down a basketball court for a couple of hours is not a good thing. so on basketball nights, i am on my own for my evening meal. but not today. today i was going to have the other half of my new sandwich. i sure hoped i liked it!

i took a bite. mostly bread and lettuce. i took another bite. mostly bread and lettuce and dressing. at this point, rollie has had a few more bites and he says, "this barbeque sauce is hot! it is not what i expected--less sweet and more peppery!!" i love hot flavors as long as they are not flaming--but rollie does not. what does he order when we go to a mexican restaurant? cheese quesadilla, no salsa--just a tortilla and some cheese! but now he has this foot long sandwich with hot barbeque sauce on it. i take a few more bites and then i taste it too. it is pretty good. but it seems to get hotter with every bite. and rollie has twelve inches of this stuff to eat!!

i know he is suffering, but he keeps at it. finally he takes the last bite and slurps some soda. i notice that our sodas are disappearing much faster than usual. i continue to eat my six inch sandwich because, as many of you know, i am kind of a slow eater. as he sits and waits, he says, "my mouth is still burning!" that sauce was pretty hot, even for me. i ask him sweetly, "do you want some of my barbeque chips?" he is not amused. so i say, "maybe you need some ice cream." he probably thinks maybe i just need to . . . of course we do not have any ice cream. but he breaks out his chocolate chip cookies and seems to think that is helping . . .

and it probably is. there isn't much that a good chocolate chip cookie can't cure.

except maybe a smart alecky wife . . .

a conversation . . . (yes mom, i posted it . . . )

so today . . . i was not going to post, because i was gone all weekend, and i am exhausted. i haven't even unpacked, and yet here i am on the internet . . .

my mom was gone all weekend too, and so tonight we were talking on facebook a little bit before deciding we should maybe head for bed. and we had this conversation, which made me laugh. so instead of posting nothing, i am going to share it with you. (yeah mom, i didn't go straight to bed--hehehe . . .)

mom: have a good day tomorrow and hopefully the week will go fast. As far as I am concerned, October can go fast. Then it's put up the christmas stuff, have thanksgiving and then christmas shopping. I'm tired just thinking of it all.

Enough whining for one night. Off to bed!!!!! goodnight.

julie: oh golly yes--i can't think past this week. although, maybe i will get out some fall decorations this year--i've narrowed it down to one box, so it doesn't take too long. otherwise we don't know it is fall, because the leaves don't change color, and it doesn't rain, and you can still drive with the top down.

mom: Fall?? I was thinking I should get out Halloween tomorrow.

julie: well, i don't technically have halloween decorations--i just go straight to the leaves and turkeys :) oh, and pumpkins.

mom: Are you bragging? Whine along with me!!

julie: hahahaha!

mom: No raking leaves? Think of the exercise.

julie: that was southern california whining!

mom: hahahahahahahaha

julie: no, we have people to do that (raking leaves)

mom: We have people too. ME

julie:hahahahaha! ok, i may have to blog that conversation!

mom: No blogging. Time for bed.

julie: ok. good night. catch you tomorrow.

and then i blogged . . . because sometimes we just crack me up!

a retreat?!?!?!

so today . . . i am not home, i am at murrieta hot springs for women's retreat. i am actually writing this on thursday night and scheduling it to post on friday, because i am pretty sure i will not have internet access all weekend! but my blogging has been somewhat sporadic lately, between battling evil viruses and feeling cranky instead of funny, and i didn't want you to go all weekend without any new posts. however, since i am writing this on thursday night, i don't know what will happen to me over the weekend, so what to write, what to write . . . i thought about making something up, but then i remembered about last year . . .

usually women's retreat is fairly uneventful for me. i work friday morning, eat lunch with rollie, sit in bumper to bumper weekend traffic for three hours (to make a one hour trip,) arrive at the retreat location, stay there all weekend, and come home on sunday afternoon. and then my weekend is gone. because although we call it a retreat, i usually come home more tired than when i left. while most people think of a retreat as being in a quiet, secluded place where lots of resting and relaxing happen, that has not been my experience. it seems like most of the "retreats" i attend are not restful at all. actually, it would be much more restful for me to stay home . . . but i digress . . .

anyway, last year was not restful (as usual,) but it was eventful. and i blogged about it the following tuesday, on october 7, 2008. here's what happened...

so, this weekend was our church's annual women's retreat. while i am not much of a "let's get all the girls together" kind of person, i usually enjoy it once i get there. this year, however, there were a few bumps in the road on my way to a fun weekend.

it started off great! beautiful weather, a chance for a road trip in my convertible, loud music on the stereo, and leaving early enough to avoid most of the traffic (my usual lunch with rollie being sacrificed on the altar of a quick trip.) my plan was to eat after i got past corona and most of the traffic--i had my book and i figured i could spend a while eating, and reading, and refilling my soda cup. then i would head on down the freeway a few miles and spend some more time at the outlet mall before arriving at the retreat center in time for dinner. it was a perfect plan!

and then i missed the exit--the one with all the food places . . .

it is a little hard to exit when you are zooming along in the far left lane, which is where i was.

ok, plan b. i will just eat at the dairy queen at the outlet mall. but then i almost missed that exit too! either i needed to slow down or start driving in the right hand lane where all the exits were! (when you only go someplace once a year, i guess you kind of forget where things are . . . ) thankfully the traffic was light, so i just quickly cut across three lanes of traffic and made it off the exit at the outlet mall.

ok, mission accomplished. i ate at the dairy queen, but without my book, because i didn't want to schlep it around all afternoon. so lunch wasn't quite as relaxing as i had pictured, but the cheeseburger was still good and there was still shopping to be done!

and then it happened. for the first time EVER, i did not find anything to buy at the gap! nothing!! the gap is my go-to store at this outlet mall--i ALWAYS find great stuff there at ridiculously low prices. always. so it was a little disorienting, but i soldiered on and did have some success at old navy and the guess store. still, nothing from the gap--this was not an auspicious beginning . . .

i checked in at the retreat, unloaded my car, had dinner and went to our evening session--all good. but before i went to bed, i decided to go out and get the new jeans i purchased at old navy to wear the next day. and guess what i found? my car battery was dead!!!

now my car is only two years old, so i'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this, but it is the only explanation i can come up with for why the beeper won't unlock the car. so i went back inside to get ready for bed, without my new jeans, and wondering about my car . . .

the next morning my alarm didn't go off, as i had set it for sunday not saturday, so i got a bit of a late start but still managed to make it to breakfast. and then our morning session began. i saw someone without a chair, and since i don't mind sitting on the floor, i picked up my chair to offer it to them. and managed to tip over my diet soda onto the carpet in the process. i rushed to the ladies room to get paper towels to clean up the spill, but the dispenser didn't work. so i knocked on the men's room door, and when i got no response, i bravely entered and retrieved a handful of paper towels. of course by now most of the soda had soaked deep into the carpeting, but i did the best i could (thank goodness for dark carpets!)

i finally settled down on the floor at the back of the room to listen to the speaker. she was very good by the way (but she had these really cool glasses on that kept distracting me!) pretty soon i was not feeling too good--i got really hot and sweaty and thought "i should probably go to the bathroom now" which i did. and i got sick! and it wasn't fun! i finally came out and laid down on the stone wall outside the building we were in and waited for someone to help me back to my room. there was no way i was going to get there under my own power. and the cold stone of the wall felt so cool to my hot head . . . soon someone realized i had gone missing and came and found me nearly asleep on the wall. security was called, and they came and rescued me. in a golf cart.

a few hours later i was feeling better, which was good, because i still had my dead car to deal with. fortunately we have AAA so i called them, and they said a truck would be there within the hour. fifty-five minutes later the truck arrived. he checked the battery. he jump started the battery, and then he checked it again. the car was running, but he informed me that it wasn't charging and if we shut it off, it probably would not restart. i needed a new battery! luckily he had a battery that would work, and he would be glad to install it for me. so i pulled out the plastic and soon my car was running again.

i went back inside and took a nap.

i managed to eat dinner without incident and made it through the whole evening session without getting sick. thank goodness.

then it was time for me to go home--i was leaving early because i have responsibilities on sunday morning. i'd been looking forward to the trip home, as i really enjoy driving my car at night with the top down. but guess what? it had been raining! the ground was wet and the air felt damp. and it was dark and i couldn't tell if there were clouds in the sky or if it would rain some more. so i got in my car, cranked up the heat, stopped for a giant soda and headed home.

i kind of think i've retreated enough for one weekend.

let's hope that this year is less interesting . . .

i miss my bed . . .

so today . . . i am swamped. again.

lately, this seems to be where i live rather than an anomaly of circumstances. but added to my normal swamp were a staff meeting at school tonight (two hours i will never get back,) packing to be out of town all weekend (and no, not for a restful getaway--sigh,) preparing for diandra's big photo shoot on saturday (paperwork, and unpacking headpieces for the brides,) and figuring out how the washing machine repairman is going to access the back of my washing machine, since it is crammed into a corner of the garage with very limited access (let's just hope he is slim and agile!) and it is already 9:35 . . .

maybe sleep is not all that necessary . . .