Tuesday

Mood: Encapsulated by the phrase "I'm not sick. Yet."
Hair: Curled

The Beasty is sick. Really sick. He just called (at 11:30) having gotten his first real night's sleep since last Wednesday. He still sounds ick. Poor Beast.

Meanwhile shit is definitely hitting the fan here at work. Life goes on, mostly.

Listening to The Essential Billy Joel, backing up my life: "Captain Jack" right now:

Saturday night and you're still hangin' around
Tired of livin' in your one-horse town
Like to find a little hole in the ground
For a while
...
Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push and you'll be smilin'

[Aside: I found those lyrics on a wedding song site---uhm, NO! Seeing as how the above-quoted lyrics are about the only ones that don't refer to transvestites, suicidal fathers, nose-picking, and masturbation. Wouldn't consider any of those particularly wedding-y.]

So, I'm eating pistachios. Cataloging large print books. Being grateful for my family going home.

I commented at Lady Crumpet re families at holidays. I'll repeat it here, as it's a good summary of why holidays and families can be really annoying.

My two oldest nieces (ages 35 and 32) were at my house Weds. night thru Fri. Thursday morning, I'm running around in a state of panic, worrying about getting the house, the food, the table, myself ... ready for the rest of the guests in the afternoon. They are upstairs discussing wedding music, and showering, and God only knows what else. It's noon. Guests could start arriving any time.

They eventually get the idea that I could use some help... (ahem) ... The Lazy Niece [i.e. Katherine] volunteers to clean bathroom(s) if that would be useful. Not what I would have requested, but it frees me up to do other stuff, so yeah, go nuts--the cleaning supplies are under the sink.The next thing I hear is lots of grumbling and commentary. Now, if you volunteer to clean a bathroom, what do you expect? Wipe out the sink and call it done? Well, no, she's in there bitching about the toilet ... being dirty.

The commentary runs along these lines: "Yuck!! [long pause] Do you have gloves? [I bring her gloves] Don't know why this bothers me more than my own bathroom. Maybe cuz it's not mine. And I don't even mind picking up stuff at work barehanded. Ick." [etc. etc.--I stopped listening at this point. By the way, she's a VETERINARIAN!]

Mind you, I clean the toilets in my house at least every other week. She has 4 cats in her condo. How much worse could one toilet be than cleaning a catbox every other day?? Cripes. If you don't want to clean toilets, DON'T FUCKING VOLUNTEER TO CLEAN THE BATHROOM!

OK, so see, I love my family as long as they are on the phone, not in my house!! Shades of my sister Ellen coming down on me when I was 20 for never thanking her when I went to her house while I was in college, I need to land on Katherine for the same thing.

(Her sister, Elizabeth, told me on the phone last night that she was "grossed out" because Sparky didn't wash his hands after handling the guinea pigs, when he got out some carrots for himself to eat. OK, granted, but jeez, what is it with this family?!)

WOW, didn't even realize how cranky I was about these two people, who generally don't annoy me nearly this much. Well, Katherine does sometimes because she's just so fucking clueless about getting along with people in the real world. For someone over 30, she sure acts 16.

Back to the 50 Large Print books. And I think I even feel better for venting. Sorry about the spew.

"Movin' Out:"

You should never argue with a crazy mind
You oughta know by now
You can pay Uncle Sam with overtime
Is that all you get for your money?

It seems such a waste of time
If that's what it's all about
If that's movin' up then I'm movin' out.

Words to live by.