February 23, 2009

• For the education of you folks who have never been unemployed I thought I'd paint a picture for you of a typical day.

  First off I read email and respond to Xanga comments while still in my jammies.  Oops, I mean my crotchless teddy.  I'm trying to broaden my readership here.  Maybe I make breakfast for Mike (if he's nice to me) and sometimes, if he's been extra good, I make his lunch too.  Once he's out the door I go outside for a shower.  Today it was raining a little but not hard enough to get my towel too wet.  At least it was warm enough outside to shave my legs without shaving off the goose bumps.

  Then it's off to the gym.  I chat up a few of my friends, ogle the young trainer guys, run a couple of miles, lift some weights and finish with some yoga.  Ah, now I feel really good! 

  I needed to get a baby shower gift for my cousin's son's baby, due in March, so I drove across town, to Target where they're registered.  Yes, I drove the car instead of the bike.  It was raining and I'd just done my hair. 

  It looks like the bad economy hasn't hit the Hispanic population, I was almost the only white person in the store.  There was one white woman with her mother.  They both had greasy hair and bad haircuts.  They were buying Saint Patrick's Day happy crap. 

  I like shopping with Hispanics; they make me look tall.  And thin.  You know you're poor when the prices at Target seem high.  (She sighs remembering when she shopped at Nordstrom.)  I looked at yoga mats but decided $30 was too much to spend when I can just layer my thin one over one of the extra fragrant ones they have at the college. 

  In no hurry to get home to Judge Judy and Dr. Phil, I browsed, marveling at all the stuff that people evidently need.  Ironically, the selection of truly practical things is very slim.  I was looking for some small glass bowls with covers suitable for heating/cooking in the microwave since I read there may be some health concerns over plastic.  There were none but they had a lovely asparagus steamer.  Who in the *!# has room to store an asparagus steamer?  Oh, yeah, those folks with the 4,000 square foot homes that are in foreclosure, that's who.

  I shouldn't be so sarcastic because I truly love my little house with the Taj Mahal bathroom. 

  Back home, I watched an Indian film called Water.  What a day brightener!  It's about widows in India who have three choices when their husbands die:  Be cremated with him (that would be my first choice); marry his younger brother (hmm, some young stuff, that might not be too bad) or go live with other widows in a convent like place where you have to beg for a living.  For the older women it's bad enough but some widows are as young as seven years old and they can never remarry.  It was so tragic, I bawled like a baby at the end.  Great film!

  Finally, I forced myself to make some phone calls.  My rear shock is blown up and needs to be rebuilt.  The county is hitting me up for weed abatement fees again after I paid a kid to clear them.  Mom needs a dental appointment.  All give me an excuse to procrastinate on doing my income taxes.

  And then it was happy hour.  Yay!

  • 9:49 pm
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