measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post-Marathon weekend... So it�s another Tuesday� the beginning of another workweek following a four-day weekend. It takes a while to get back into the swing of things, I find. Even though I haven�t� by some miracle� had any crisis problems arise while I was gone. Not like the time I came back after a single day off to two hundred emails in my inbox. Today I only had thirty. And half were junk mail. So I could tolerate it just fine. No worries at all. Anyway.. Easter weekend was fun. We drove down on Friday, taking the route down through the New York Thruway, rather than deal with the insanity of I-84. The time wound up being pretty similar, actually, including a few stops for bathroom breaks and munchies. It�s a very pretty drive down�going through the Berkshires and then the Catskills. As Erich remarked on the way back up, it�s nice to see some places on the East Coast that still look fairly undeveloped. I can only imagine how beautiful that drive would be at peak color season in the autumn. Saturday we spent shopping. First by ourselves , and then with my grandma and my cousins. Erich and I hit the �kick ass comic shop� in Bethlehem, which sadly has lost some of its luster since moving to slightly smaller quarters elsewhere in the shopping complex. I�m hoping that it was just a very recent move and they haven�t restocked a lot of stuff� but I was quite disappointed for the first time going there. We also went to the New Age store down the street (which used to be right next door). I bought some new gemstones there, but didn�t realize until after the fact how expensive they were. Salem, Mass has a reputation in the Pagan community of being extremely overpriced�these stones were three times the cost. Ah well, I�ll live. I also bought a bottle incense smoker�I�ve sent he things cropping up at stores everywhere over the past couple years, and wanted to give them a try. Erich bought me my anniversary present, too�a fantastic winged cat gargoyle that I�ve been drooling over for� well, years. It�s the biggest gargoyle I now own�a foot tall and quite heavy, where most of my pieces are the smaller ones that you can get fairly inexpensively on ebay. I love the work by this artist�I have a smaller happy cat by her, too. One of these years, I�ll save up the money for one of her dragons�although those are obnoxiously priced since they�re painted. I still need to figure out what I�m getting him for our anniversary. Guys are difficult to buy for, I�ve realized. I don�t want to go the easy gaming store route. It�s been far overdone in our household. I know I�ll figure something else out. Easter day was beautiful�the sun was shining. It was warm and just delightfully spring-ey. Everyone came over for an early dinner. We watched my mother�s god-awful video skills from her trip last week to Florida. Apparently mom, my uncle John, and my grandparents are thinking about buying a vacation home (and is there an understood retirement home in here?) down in Sarasota. It looks like a lovely place, actually. Gated community, backyard pool underneath this netting thing that allows sunlight in but keeps the bugs out (and wandering kids when we�re not around in case something happens). Somehow I can see myself enjoying a vacation down there. I remember the vacation to LGM�s home in the Tampa Bay area being a lot of fun. So who knows� that might be happening soon, and then we can have a place to go for vacations without worrying about making hotel reservations and such. Erich and I had to leave before dinner and such were really finished so we could head back up to Massachusetts, but we had a good time and good food. The trip home wasn�t too bad until we got back into Massachusetts and hit vicious traffic�at 11 p.m. on a Sunday�merging from I-84. The backup was brutal. I also learned one important lesson about my physiology this weekend�having sushi four times in one week is not a good thing. My body just doesn�t want to deal with it. The stuff is so yummy, but oh, I paid for it. (sigh) Yesterday was Patriot�s Day (or Marathon Monday). I had the day off, Erich did not. I spent a better part of the morning chatting via AIM with Erich and LGM. Apparently more of the melodrama happened over the weekend. I only have two things to say about it�Erich�s words from yesterday express so well what I feel with more clarity than I can express. And I�m so glad that the whole situation is over, and that I can get on with my life knowing that this ending was the right one. A sad thing, but definitely the right thing. After getting off of email, I grabbed lunch and came back to the apartment to watch the marathon on TV. It�s the first year I haven�t been somewhere physically near the marathon�which was a bit weird. I watched them run the route, going by where I work� going by my old apartments. Going by south campus from college. Remembering days gone by and marveling at how amazing (and insane) the people are who run this thing. Men from Kenya swept the race. Russian women won first and second place, and a Kenyan woman came in third. An American woman came in fifth�and she is legally blind, unable to see where she was running. Absolutely amazing. And to see the wheelchair racers speeding along, using only their upper body strength to move them the entire length of the race�it�s awe inspiring (and depressing, as I look down at my hips). Ah well�marathons are an amazing thing. And since the Boston Marathon�s the oldest of them all, it�s something fun to just sit, watch, and dream about what could have been. Maybe what could be someday, if I ever get my act together. The rest of the day I spent doing errands and generally enjoying the beautiful weather. I drove up to Boston to pick up my mail and marveled at how easy the commute up was on the holiday�fifteen minutes. I went to a couple of little stores in Chinatown and bought Pocky snacks and blueberry bubblegum imported from Japan that neither Erich nor I need, but they taste so good. I drooled over Sanrio and Morning Glory stationery at my favorite import store. I walked around for about a half hour before going to pick Erich up after work� at which time I managed to do something that only can happen on Patriot�s Day. I found an open street parking space in downtown Boston at 4:30 p.m. Oh. Bliss. It was a good weekend. And it�s finally spring. I feel renewed and refreshed. Ready to look into the week to see what is next. (contented sigh) ~ Mel. P.S. Go get a t-shirt � support Diary-X and support keeping English alive, rather than turning us all to god-forsaken net speak. :) 11:16 a.m. - 22 April 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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