Too Tired

Way too tired to write. I had an amazing day with my bestest friend and send much love to my family in KC. I keep some love for my family (read, dad) here in the ‘quah.

Day Four: NEW BABY

Today was another good day. I spent the morning vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen, and putting away laundry. I then ran some errands at work, the library and the bank. Afterwards there was snoozes and a walk to pick up leaves for an art project. Later in the day dad took me out to dinner and we went to church (which was great).

AND THEN MY SISTER HAD HER BABY!
Mom and Dad and new baby Caden are doing well and I am ecstatic!

Congratulations to my wonderful family on their newest arrival!!

Insert: Day Zero

My dad informed me that last Saturday counted in my list of “day’s without my mother”.

 

We drove. For ten hours. Then we had snacks. Then we went to bed.

The end.

Day Three: The Great Bread Caper

Today was really fun. First thing in the morning I drove to Bothell to paint with a dear friend from our church. She has a beautiful house and an entirely seperate building for her art studio. Her studio is lovely and very conducive to painting. I can see that I’m going to have to buy another easel to store over there.

The fun thing about this friend is that she can and will talk about anything under the sun. The topics we covered today included (but were not limited to) politics, abortion, adoption, plastic surgery, family, mutual friends, shopping, church, fashion, my best friend and her wedding, getting married and the possibility of being taxed out of our skivvies should Obama win the election.

It was a really good morning. especially because I painted a present for my best friend’s 22nd birthday while I was there.

Day Two: Dishes, Dogs and Dirty Laundry

I woke up early. I woke up early to retrieve my dog. I woke up early to retrieve my dog because my dad works and I’m the only other option.

It was a foggy day on Happy Hound Drive when I pulled up to get my Gustis. The air was cold and I was still slightly foggy brained. But Gus looked none the worse for wear and wasn’t even mad at me like he normally is after we kennel him. Half an hour after I got home the owner of the Happy Hound called to give us a debrief of our dog’s stay. He had a special bed in the kitchen with a blanket to go over him. After the first two nights they decided that he was lonely in his own room so they put him in a room with some of the other old farts. He went to the hardwear store and had lots of treats. When he got home today he alternated between lying in the sun inside and lying in the sun outside. It’s a rough life.

Day 1: Domestic Goddess

Mission: To fill my mother’s shoes while she aids in the birth of her first grandchild.

Objective: Not to die. Not to run out of money. Not to let my father starve. Not to let him run out of clean clothes.

Today’s task: Make dinner.

I woke up at a little before ten which isn’t as late as it sounds since I went to bed at one o’clock. I got on facebook and saw that Amy Rueter had posted a recipe for soup. It was this incredible sounding creamy vegetable concoction that involved La Crueset pans and a food processor (two of my favorite things). It sounded like a marvelous sort of Sunday dinner. Only then did I realize that you can’t just have soup; you need to have bread to go with it!

I remembered that mom has a pumpkin-cheese foccacia bread recipe. Since I’ve never made bread before, and since this new soup looked ever so slightly complicated, I thought it’d be a great idea to attempt a new skill. I’m nothing if not a brave little soul.

Doodles and more doodles

 

I wanted to put these “side to side” as it were, to show you how my style/abilities have changed since high school. The top doodles were done in 2005 and the bottom ones in 2007. I find the comparison interesting…

It came from the black lagoon…

…and took up residence on my face.

I shall explain.

In the last-ditch effort to cure my three very painful canker sores, my mother and I took a little side trip to the drug store today. We found a hydrogen peroxide mouthwash (recomended by the pharmacist) and these tiny little canker sore patches. The rinse is pretty straight forward. It’d be a great way to trick your friends into thinking you were rabid. It also hurts. Remember pouring hydrogen peroxide on your cuts as a kid? Imagine that in your mouth.

But the patches are the real inspiration for my title today. When you take them out of the packaging they are incredibly inoffensive looking. They look like miniature versions of the non-scuff pads that you put on the bottom of your kitchen stool. Then you put it in your mouth where it swells up like an offended toad. It takes on the taste of three-days composted mint leaves, the texture of gelatin (which is itself made of unmentionable animal parts) and the look of a tiny deep sea invertebrate. It would have been ok if this particular canker sore was not so close to my lip. As it was, that tiny deep sea invertebrate looked like it was trying to crawl out my mouth.

Not my best look.

But it makes for a good story!

I Design Wedding Dresses

(The above picture is in honor of Erin.)

In fact, I design weddings dresses with almost alarming frequency.

Today I was looking at engagement rings with my mom. Just browsing the internet for fun. Also, in the hopes that if I show her enough pictures of the kind of stuff I like, she’ll remember and pass on the hints when my turn comes around. When I could get her to stop picking out ones for herself it was really fun! Our favorite is this one. It’s a little pricey but when the man involved is purely fictional, there is no budget! (Does it mean anything that when I went to find the page, the first link that I clicked on landed me on the exact ring that I was thinking of?)

Then I had a brainwave. If I’m going to have a 1930’s Art Deco ring, I should probably have a dress designed in the same style. Enter Madame Gres. She designed Greek-inspired dresses that have this amazing architectural look. Her dresses are incredibly soft and beautiful while still being interesting.

So I did what I always do when weddings come up in conversation; I design the bride’s dress. Last week it was a pile of Oreos, Erin’s enormous couch and her stack of bridal magazines that led me to sketch out her perfect dress. This week it’s a ring, my mom, two HUGE glasses of water, some slices of ham and three canker sores. And I think I’m finally getting to the perfect design for my own dress.

Now I just have to find a man. Or, better yet, get some kind of arranged marriage deal where someone ELSE finds the man.

Does that work in this country?

“I didn’t know I could bend like that”

No, it wasn’t my audition for Cirque de Soleil. Nor was it gymnastics practice. Nor am I reinventing my sadly truncated history as a ballet dancer.

It was none of the above. Instead, it was my attempt at turning orchard worker. The apples on our one tall apple tree have been ripe for a few days now, and we knew we had to get them down before our trip to CA. So it was mom for the ladder, Meghan for climbing said tree.

Now, getting up is one thing, reaching the [non-rodent nibbled] apples is an entirely different matter. This tree has lots of little limbs that kept getting in my way and I had to put all my wieght on vaguely untrustworthy little twigs. Then once I GOT the apples I had to toss them into my [very nice wicker] laundry basket that got kiped for work in the “orchard”. I had a lot of trouble hitting a fairly large target that was a max of ten feet under me.

Pretty lame, I know.

Other than that today I have gone out to lunch, done a prophetic painting, took a nap, helped a little with laundry, made some apple slices to be dried, eaten dinner, played with my neighbor’s cats (long story), practiced piano and wrote the story that you’ll find below.

There are some other miscellaneous things, but I can’t think of them now. I think it’s time for some sleeps.