Happy birthday to me

As of 2:03 AM on July 1, I will be 36 years old. Its another year alone, another year of worries, and another year of going into debt, and another midlife crisis. I hate this time of year. I usually spend most of my birthday alone. Tomorrow I will be visiting my mom and dad (taking my nephew) until Thursday. My mom has promised to make my favorite chocolate cake. I am going to try to get outside and take in some beautiful scenery. My dad has a computer, so I will check in.

The end of the saga

I know everyone is sick of me talking about my kitchen floor. Good news! Its finally finished. I want to thank everyone for being patient about my whining. I will try to show a picture soon.

I went to the American Library Association conference in Washington D.C. yesterday. I should say that I went to the exhibits, not the conference. Unfortunately I am too poor for the conference program. Many of the publishers were giving away review copies of books. Plus I picked up lots of bags, pens, and post-its. I have this weird addiction to office supplies. I ended up walking for about 2.5 hours straight. And thats with heavy bags on my shoulder. One of the booths that I wanted to visit (and did) was the booth for the online comic strip Unshelved. Its this great comic that takes place in a public library. Its absolutely hysterical. If you've never seen it, go visit! If you work or have ever worked in a library, it will seem familiar. If you've never worked in a library, it will show you what life in a library can be like.

I recently finished The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry. I should have a review soon. Right now I am reading a YA book called The Book Thief. I'll review that one too when I finish.

Opinions

I just realized something about myself. I ALWAYS watch what I say, even to the point of keeping my own opinions silent, to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. Now thats good to a certain extent. You can give someone honest criticism without being harsh. But there are some cases where it can go too far the other way. When you are afraid to say that you didn't like a book because someone else raved about it, thats going too far the other way. Nothing really triggered this, I guess I just thought about it as I was commenting on various blogs today.

TGIF!

Thanks for the tips about my e-mail address! I forgot to click the little box that says "share" on my profile. Its there now. I am so glad that it is Friday. I am ready for a peaceful weekend. Unfortunately, its supposed to be in the 90s.

There is no longer a huge de-humidifier in my kitchen. The floor is officially dry. Now to wait til the 25th to have the laminate installed. It feels like there is a little uneven spot in the middle of the floor, almost like it was slightly warped, but I'm trying not to worry so much about that. The water people said the subflooring was fine.

I just finished All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris. Its the 7th book in the "Southern Vampire Series" This time around, Sookie Stackhouse, waitress and telepath, is hired by the vampire queen of Louisiana to go as part of her entourage to read the humans' minds. This convention is not all fun and games. There is quite a bit of political manueverings and Sookie has to do all she can to make sure that she gets out alive. If you haven't read the series, its best to start with the first one, Dead Until Dark. They start fairly light and get slightly darker as the series continues. I highly recommend them.

Near Accident and More Floor Issues

I almost wrecked my car yesterday. I was taking the back way into work because there was a traffic back-up my usual way. I was heading one way on a two lane road, when all of a sudden this old "lady" made a left hand turn crossing directly across my path! I had no time to slam on the brakes. I could not swerve to the right because being a back road, there was no shoulder. My instinct was to swerve across the opposite lane of traffic into someone's front yard. I had to do this because the car behind the old lady did not stop either. I was afraid that if I hadn't swerved I would have t-boned her car and killed her husband. I am the type to dwell on things. I kept thinking "what if..." and "maybe I really did have time to brake?" I need to learn to stop dwelling on what MIGHT have happened and be grateful that nothing DID happen! Especially since if anything happened to one of the people in the car, I would have felt terrible even if it was not my fault.

Now more on the floor! I know everyone is sick of hearing about this. Not half as much as I am, dealing with it! The giant fan is out of the kitchen. Now there is plastic blocking off underneath my kitchen cabinet with a big old humidifer running. I know this is important. They need to make sure it is really dry under there., especially since it does not really get the air. But it is kind of hard to get to my sink (although NOT impossible--you kind of have to go at an angle). When I sent a text to my sister to give her a heads up (since I am working 12 to 9 tonight) she just said "How are we supposed to make dinner." I am getting so stressed dealing with this. There is nothing I can do about it. If the floor is not dry, mold will grow again. And I know she understands this too, but I am SICK of the appliances being in the dining room, and I am SICK of eating microwave food.

Saturday I will go to my second yoga class. I went last saturday because my yoga center offers a free beginner class. I LOVED it. It really helps relieve my stress. The atmosphere is low-key and non-competitive and the price is reasonable. Last week (afterwards) I thought I would have to re-register, but she told me how much of a check to write, asked if level one felt right (definitely!) and said she would get me registered this coming saturday.

Enough ramblinhg! I am going to get ready for work (new public computers installed today!) and possibly check in tonight.

Stress easing

Sorry I have not been around. My house has been stressful. The kitchen is still in disarray but the water mitigation people are coming back tomorrow afternoon to make sure that everything is dried. They may have to cut out a piece of the lauan (sheet of plywood on top of the subflooring) but my flooring people can take care of it. Things are slowly coming together. The stove had been moved back into the kitchen because my sister could not take microwaved food another day, but I moved it back out today. The carpenter bees attacking the side of my house have been treated for, so hopefully the woodpecker pecking the house will stop. I have not had much time to read, but I have read a bit. I read The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (I think). He explains the Tao philosophy using characters from Winnie the Pooh. It makes it so much easier to understand. I had to read the Tao Te Ching in college and it was hard to understand. This makes it easier. It is also pretty short too.

More Stress

I never realized how stressful it is for me for things to be messed up. My kitchen is now torn apart worse than ever. I am paying my sister to paint my kitchen. We decided this a while ago. Since the appliances are in the dining room, she got started with peeling the wallpaper and started priming the walls, and she planned to get the areas behind the appliances while they are out of the way and do the rest after the floor is taken care of. It makes sense. I was going to suggest it myself before she got started, but now the microwave is on the floor while she started priming (my nephew wanted to help so that may be why everything is in transition right now. But its really painful for me to have everything such a mess. And my insurance guy is coming Monday morning at 10 AM to re-evaluate and take pictures, etc. So I have to get everything back off of the floor tomorrow.

I know for most people, this seems like nothing. There are people with REAL problems out there and I am complaining about a little mess in the kitchen. But I think the fact that I have not really eaten very well for the past few days is starting to affect me. And now with the microwaves out of commission along with the stove, its just going to get worse!