The Passing of a Friend

I lost a good friend this week. This friend has been there, through thick and thin, in good times and in bad times. No matter what kind of mood I was in, or how long it had been since our last interaction, this friend never left me. This friend passed no judgements, offered no criticism, was around for every holiday, work day, weekday, weekend. Every winter and summer, spring and fall . For about five or so years this friend has seen it all. Best of all, this friend came free of charge.

Yes, it is sad but true. My TV has finally passed on. Thank you, TV, for your years of dedicated service. I shall never again know your like (mostly because they don't make your model anymore....that and I'm broke).

Crazy? Plenty of evidence for it...

I spent last night on my couch. Again. Sigh.

I'm not the best at keeping things clean. Since moving to this back apartment, though, I've never let it get too out of hand, but if you were to walk in at any given moment you would invariably find something that has gone undone, most typically the dishes. For a week or so, though, I've had clean laundry waiting to be put away. Not to be deterred from my leisure in order to do it, however, it spent some time migrating back and forth from the bed to the couch and back again. If I was too tired to move it from the bed I would just sleep on the couch. While I do have a comfortable couch, my neck is paying the price.

A week or so I got an email announcement for my ward's book club, for which there wasn't yet a meeting place set up. Having been in charge of the book club before and wanting to help (and knowing I'd be much more likely to attend if it was at my place), I emailed the new leader and offered to host. It was on a Wednesday, and I anticipated having the entire day beforehand to get my home cleaned up and ready.

A few days later, my boss and I were discussing the schedule. All of his meetings had been moved from Monday and Wednesday to Thursdays, one of his days off. Having experience in scheduling, I knew the thing that made the most sense was for us to switch days off (which he had already discussed with his boss, but I made the suggestion before he could ask :)). It wasn't until later that I realized that this would put a damper on my plans for book club. I wouldn't get home until a few minutes before it was scheduled to start. Oh dear. I started cleaning a bit on Sunday, but didn't get anything major done until Monday. I got some dishes and laundry cleaned while making brownies for FHE that night, which turned out very good, thank you very much.

I had thought I'd have more time on Tuesday to finish up, but after receiving an email that day with an offer for free tickets to Curtains! at Hale Centre Theatre, I got a couple and took my sister Amy along. The play was great--a musical, murder mystery comedy. I got a kick out of the guy in the lead, he was perfect for it--so expressive, engaging, and not to mention attractive ;) It was also rather amusing to watch the crowd- Hale has a center stage, with seats all around. The people on the front rows across the way provided a nice side-plot--the family with a dad soo excited to be there that the teenage son (in a pink shirt...) finally got into it as well. The man who when one of the actresses was dancing in front of him watched her while occasionally shooting guilty glances in his wife's direction to see if she noticed and then later tried his best to avoid looking at the actress (hard, as she played one of the main characters, lol). Just off to my left on the front row was another, older man who, during the same dance kept staring at the actress in front of him. When she winked at him, his wife whipped around to glare at him suspiciously (or at least I would suppose, as I didn't actually see this part but Amy did).

I made it home sometime around 10:30 or so and set to cleaning up. It only took until...oh...2:30 or so. My laundry was put away, my movie shelves arranged, my dishes (while not clean) all moved to the kitchen, my table cleared off, a couple of pictures put up. I knelt to pray at the end of the night and got the impression that I needed to read my scriptures to help me through the next day. After a chapter of the Book of Helaman, I finally went to sleep sometime around 3:00.

I got up the next morning and made it to work. One of the first things I found was a virus on our main Retail register. I ended up having to trade that system with another register, which took about 20 minutes or so. We also had an event that day for which we got the check-in information a bit late, but fortunately I work with some very talented people who were able to work it out. I did however run up against several challenges of my own throughout the day. The Lord knew what He was saying when I was prompted to read the scriptures. For all I don't recall anything relating to what I went through, the spiritual boost was definitely needed. I was very happy to be on my way home.

Book club went well. Mom kindly baked my cookies for me, so that when I made it all I had to do was set up some extra chairs and put up a couple of signs. After everyone left, I enjoyed my clean living room and relished in the fact that I had the next day, today, off. I ended up falling asleep on the couch, despite the fact that no laundry covered my bed. Ah life. My neck is stiffer than ever, but at least I know better than to avoid going to the trouble of walking the 15 feet or so to my room :)

Yep, um, yeah, uh huh, and how!

I keep waiting for something that seems worth blogging about, and in the meantime I've let much slip past. Go figure.

I took last week off for a "stay-cation," during which I stayed home almost all day every day. I had a migraine from Sunday through Monday morning, at which point it finally left and I could function on some level. That being said, the migraine wasn't as bad as usual, and I'm wondering if being on an aspirin a day has helped. For FHE that night we combined with several other groups at the church for pumpkin carving, though I confess I spent most of the hour socializing for a change :).

The highlight of Tuesday was taking Michael up to the Clark Planetarium. After some debate, we got tickets to one of the IMAX shows and then got dinner from the food court to pass the time. We got back to the Planetarium in plenty of time, but unfortunately the upper floor was closed down for a private event. We spent the time wandering the open exhibits and the gift shop, then sitting at a table where Michael kept trying to convince me it was time to buy concessions. Not wanting to run out, I held out, though most of it was gone before the movie was half over. The movie was called Fighter Pilot:Operation Red Flag, which followed a jet pilot through portions of training in battle simulations, quite fascinating, informative, and intimidating all at the same time. What our soldiers go through is both amazing and daunting, and I hope that we as a country can honor them for their service.

At the end of the day I went up to the front of the house to visit mom and dad for a bit, and found them in the middle of a conversation. Afterwards I ended up helping mom empty a set of bookshelves, which she gave to me, and then helping her bring in another set that better matched her decor. On Wednesday the highlight was a visit from my Visiting Teachers. It gave me a reason to clean the apartment, and I finally had laundry and clean dishes. I was also able to get all of my books shuffled around the way I wanted them, and happy day! I love books, and this certainly reaffirmed my satisifaction in my collection, though I confess that I'd rather not move anytime soon, thank you very much. Here is the before picture from when I moved in:

And here is what the look like as of a few minutes ago when I took the picture:

Happy Day :) For the last big event of Wednesday, I finally assembled a 3D puzzle of the Eiffel Tower while watching Star Trek: Voyager. I've had the puzzle for years, seven or eight at least, and it had been started but never finished. Now that I have a place of my own and am free to decorate it however I choose, without fear of it being moved, or disassembled or in any way. I was up until at least 3 AM completing it:

On Thursday I slept in until past noon. I got up and picked up Voyager where I left off. I had borrowed all 7 seasons from my friend Nate, and had fallen off watching it some time back. I was half way through season 2, and am now almost done with season 4. It was 4:00 before I realized the time, and had only a short time to prepare a Visiting Teaching lesson of my own. After our first visit, about two hours later, I had another hour or so to refine the lesson, and to help dad in getting dinner for him, Michael, and myself. After the second and final lesson, I returne home and watched more Voyager, but only an episode or two as I went to bed early in hopes of a productive Friday, and to not completely blow my sleep schedule as I had to work on Saturday.

Mom woke me up on Friday to ask if I wanted to go to WinCo with her, a new discount grocery store that opened recently on 7200 South right off the freeway. As it was payday, and I had spent the week on the last of my food supply, I jumped on the chance and spent the entire morning with her, first at WinCo, then Costco, and finally Walmart for some last minute additions. All told, I spent over $300 between groceries and bills. After unloading everything I did some more laundry and spent the rest of the day doing...something...mostly involving watching Star Trek and playing Taipei on the computer. We were going to attend the neighborhood Halloween party, but opted to stay home instead.

Saturday marked the last morning I had to myself and my first day back at work. I think I enjoyed the morning, but I confess it hard to remember. At work I first helped close out a couple of registers, and then spent the next three or so hours going over and correcting the reports that had been generated in my absence. In the meantime the museum's Spooktacular event was going on, and our admissions numbers were significantly higher than they had been for the weeks prior, keeping everybody on their toes. Welcome Back, eh? It was both frustrating and exciting, though I confess I wouldn't have minded a couple more days to myself ;)

Fortunately I had Sunday as a buffer. I went to Sacrament Meeting and then choir practice, followed by yet more Star Trek and then cards at Grandma and Grandpa Petty's, where of course mom and Grandma blew the rest of us completely out of the water, despite Grandpa's cheating ;) Several more episodes of Star Trek later, I finally went to bed for the night, not sure whether to be excited or dread the next day.

I suppose dread won out, as I got off to a bad start and it only got worse. When I got home I was in no mood to prepare an FHE lesson, but got right online and chose a General Conference talk. I guess the Spirit had a hand in it, as I finally chose one that ultimately helped me, while seeming to help those to whom I taught the lesson. It was That Your Burdens May Be Light by L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy. I spent several hours working on the lesson, in the middle of which I made lasagna. Ah lasagna, one of my long-time favorite meals :) Since giving the lesson on Monday things have been going better. While most things have not changed, my attitude has. Here's hoping that I can continue to remember what I've learned, and things will continue to improve.