Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Sharing my Fortress of Solitude...

I'm mostly just writing this one because I have the time (all of about 20 minutes) before work.

Kids are doing well in school. Courtney loves Kindergarten. Liam's getting a much better handle on his behavior so far this year in 3rd grade. Let's hope he can keep it up.

Sonya saw her parents off on their European vacation yesterday, meaning that we get to borrow their car while they're gone. Since Sonya's car is still stranded in Rondeau Park in Canada, the extra vehicle will be nice. I'm very picky about my car and lending it out. It's my Fortress of Solitude, where I can listen to MY music, think MY thoughts, keep MY stuff, and just be ME. Lending it out to anyone is difficult for me, no matter what pile of rusted-out junk I drive. Conversely, I don't like borrowing other people's cars, either. I hate imposing and get fidgity about making sure everything is EXACTLY as it was when I got it - from the pennies in the ashtray, to the seat and mirror positions, to the gas level in the tank (to be fair, I'm not as careful about the minutea when I'm forced to drive Sonya's car). That's how I am when I have to impose myself on anyone. I believe in imposing as little as possible and leaving as little a footprint as possible.

The past few days, I've had to share my car with Sonya. Not fun. Sonya's car is usually a flurry of stuff of varying degrees of importance, from dishes left behind from a hurried rush out the door with food in hand, to toys and changes of clothes left from visits to Grandma & Grandpa's house, to supplies and important forms for the Cub Scouts and school. Her trunk is...I don't even want to get into that...

I let her borrow my car for 2 days to run errands and get the kids from school while I was at work, and my car quickly became similarly cluttered. Not as bad, but noticable. After one day I came home from work to find it scattered with some of the kids stuff (I usually clear it out after every trip), 3 umbrellas (none of them mine), and 2 baby gates Sonya picked up for her brother to coral his dogs. Now, I'm no Mr. Belvedere. Being my portable locker and home-away-from-home, it gets its fair share of clutter, but it's usually minimal, garbage is contained to a single garbage bag, and non-essentials are kept to a minimum in the "wayback" of my station wagon. There's rarely more back there than an emergency tool kit, blanket, bag of barbershop music, empty deposit cans from my journeys (excised once a week), and some reading material. Mind you, I don't feel she was inconsiderate or disrespectful. It's not like the car was suddenly a garbage dump. She was just being herself. I don't fault her for it, but I'll just say I'm glad to have my car to myself again. I'm just that picky about my Fortress of Solitude.

The quartet was supposed to have another gig this Sunday with our fill-in bass, Jack Day. I got an e-mail from the organizer yesterday canceling our participation. I'm dissapointed, and yet relieved, because we're going to try and have a garage sale this weekend and prepping for that with a quartet rehearsal in there somewhere to prep for the gig was going to be a real hassle. On the other hand, I like the idea of getting $65/hr to do something I truly enjoy. I should develop a cancelation fee policy. Oh well...

Work's getting better. Ups and downs, but I'm slowly building my client base by "resurrecting the dead" and contacting a bunch of former customers who haven't ordered in years. Still a very gray...gray office and a bit isolating, but not bad. At least it's climate-controlled, clean, and there's no one there I dislike. Even made a friend in one of the warehouse workers - a fellow 30something geek who happens to live real close by. He was gracious enough to play chaufeur for me the past couple days so Sonya wouldn't have to load the kids up in the car to get me.

Well, 10 minutes to get to work. Better skee-daddle.

GARAGE SALE THIS WEEKEND! COME BUY MY CRAP!!!

1 comment:

Kelly said...

Dude. I'm all about the garage saleing - good luck with that. It's a relief to get rid of stuff and make a bit of $$ too...