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Think really good thoughts for us, okay? We’re putting a bid
in on a house this afternoon before I go to work. We have no
pre-approved financing because god bless me if we ever do anything in
the right order. This smacks of shades of the Little Red Wagon Wheel
House: Bidding! Suddenly! Want a house! Yes, crazy!

But this house, oh. It has cosmetic blemishes (for the love of
alpaca, the earnest young realtor had placed a red BOW on the side of
the house), like needing flooring in pretty much every room in the
place (linoleum in the bedroom), and it smells like smoke (and
again, the young male realtor who probably called his mother for advice
on this was burning candles, as many as possibly ALL the scented
candles in Oakland, ALL the scents, so evergreen was mixed with vanilla
mixed with lemon mixed with old smoke, and he was just grinning away on
the couch — he seemed very sweet, though). But it has three small
bedrooms, one for us, and one for an office for each of us, which will
add to sanity, and it has a yard, and it’s in the BEST neighborhood,
one that we know and love, and we met some neighbors who were the
cutest things, and the best was when La told me later just what I was
thinking, "It’s the kind of place I always thought I’d live when I grew
up." Me, too.

And hey, if it’s not to be, it won’t be. I worry about disappointing
Lala, and I worry about disappointing myself. I worry that my big
sudden dreams will be smashed on the ground, but I  know that the
actual truth is that if that happens, I’ll just be disappointed. I’ll
have a good cry, and Lala will be sad, but she’ll tell me it’s okay,
and then we’ll rent out my place and rent a bigger place for us to be
together, and that’s what this is all about anyway, right?

It sure could be cute, though. We’d paint it orange. Dreams don’t hurt.

How did typepad manage to break EVERYTHING this weekend, huh? Someone was stressed out at that job, and I hope it’s getting easier for them. I’m still missing some images, however, so I’ll throw a couple more at you, how ’bout?

    Yes, manic. But happy on a caffeine high.

I can’t remember what she was explaining, but I can tell she was really into it. If I remember correctly, it was something complicated about the internet and connectivity and allsuchthings. She’s better at that stuff than I am. In fact, at this moment, she’s over at her apartment, doing something mightily complicated computer-wise that she couldn’t wait to get to. Me, I’m going to sit by the heater and spin (when did it get so cold? I thought it was going to snow earlier, since it was raining AND much colder than normal. Doesn’t that mean snow?).

Then I’m going to make dinner (ribeye and soup, good food for cold rain) and try not to think too much about the wonderful open house we went to today. Just think good thoughts for us, won’t you? Don’t even know if we can put in an offer on it, and it’s rich for our blood, but we loved it. It will be a very happy house for someone, no matter what. Dreaming…..

Also, for the record, if Lala sings "My Humps" to me one more time, I will not be responsible for my actions. All I’m sayin’.

https://rachaelherron.com/how_did_typepad/

(which is not as much fun as sleeping over, by the way)

Knit-Out!
Isn’t it time for one? I’m planning now, ’cause I need to plan out my movements THIS far in advance right now. Mark your calendars, Bay Area Knitters:

January 14th, Saturday, 1pm, Temescal Cafe, 4920 Telegraph, Oakland (just down from Article Pract)

Don’t worry, I’ll remind you again.

I’m at a coffee-shop in Oakland with Lala, the Hudson Bay Cafe, and they just started playing Johnny Cash. Lala sighed and said, "I’m never leaving." Her internets are down at her house and while she works to fix them, she still needs a fix. So we came down here together, when I woke up from the longest nap ever.

See, I got off work this morning, came home, and meant to take a nap and then have my first day off. (If Thursday is a "day off" for you, but you don’t get home from work until 7am, you’ve already lost 7 hours of that day off, so you can’t waste much time sleeping if you want to maximize your weekend. You know?) I’d had a bit of MSG at work, and the roof of my mouth was swollen (in bad cases my whole face and then my tongue swells and I land on my back in the ER). So I took some Benadryl and went out for my nap. I thought nine to noon would be good. The alarm went off at noon, I groaned and hit the snooze, apparently turning it off for good, and woke again at 3pm. Fully rested, yes, but CRANKY. I’d lost a day! Grrrr! Stupid Benadryl.

But this is nice, just surfing the webs looking at this cute thing (and by that I mean the stud in the foreground, although the other two are cute, too):

I hope to entice her over to my place later, where I’ve promised her that I have wireless and silly TV, which will occupy her while I spin.

Tomorrow I go to the realtor to drop papers off — going to look at how much we can qualify for. We’ll look at how realistic buying another house and keeping the condo for income property is. Might be totally fucking nuts, in which we’ll rent something and rent out my condo. But might as well dream, right?

We finally secured the spot for the wedding. Whew. It took us long enough. There just never seemed to be the right time to go down to the City Center and fill out the forms, never seemed to be the right amount of money in the bank, you know how it goes. But we got it. It’s paid for. Even if we have no money on the day of the wedding, we can have people show up with potluck goods and wine-in-a-box. We’ll have a party.

The place we’ve rented is amazing – an old lodge in the sequoias (in Oakland!), surrounded by a huge deck, an inlaid hardwood floor inside, a fireplace…. I dream of white lights and candles and romantic lighting. And a dress that’s pretty and fits and is just what I want.

I got the dress out the other day and started work on it again. It seemed that I had to have the hall rented and a solid date before I got serious about planning. So I’m knitting again (I might show you a bit at some point, but not much. You do understand. You’ll see it all afterward….). And I’m completely okay (I keep saying this) with this idea: If I get to that moment of truth and try it on and dislike it, I’ll go buy a cocktail dress, just like THAT. I want to look great on the big day, knitted dress or no knitted dress. We’ll just have to see.

Of course, now that my training period at work is drawing to a close (with any luck, just two and a half more weeks left), I can occupy my mind with other Big Things. Like moving. Oy. I want to live with my girl. She wants to live with me. But neither of us want to move. Boxes! Packing! Dust and disorder! Ack! I can’t sell the condo yet. Do we rent it out and rent another place? (Oh, going back to being a renter….) Do we rent it out and buy another place, calling the condo income property? (Oh, California real estate terror.)

Moving. Planning a wedding. Things to keep me awake at night. Good problems, though.

I’m at the coffee-shop, and I just had to put in my earbuds and pop open the iTunes folder. Sometimes I don’t even have to – sometimes they’re playing good music and no one’s annoying, but that day is not today. Now, if you’re going to sit in a coffee-shop and talk on a cell-phone, don’t you think you could at least amuse me and use this?

Isn’t that wonderful? I’d heard of it, but hadn’t seen it. I really just want to use it while driving. Hee.

I’m sleepy this afternoon, a hold-over from earlier today. This morning I drove home, which is always difficult after the first night of work. I was so tired that I started “reading” my audible book back to myself, a second delayed, just behind the reader herself. It was pretty fun, actually. I added inflections and every once in a while threw in a funny accent. It kept me awake and made me think about the way I move my mouth when I talk in a new way. It’s odd to think about your tongue. Go ahead. Think about it. (Was it Calvin who used to run around suddenly realizing that his tongue didn’t fit in his mouth?)

When I hit the bed this morning, I couldn’t even roll over to turn off the ringer as usually always do. Didn’t figure anyone would call, and if they did, I’d just ignore it. Instead, the phone rang at about 10:30am. In my addled state, I thought it was the alarm going off, so I hit the snooze button. Then it rang again, and I thought, Oh! Might as well answer it! It was my sister Christy, and I think I totally confused her.

“Allo? Shneff?”
“Rachael? Are you asleep?”
“No! Shnerffgh.”
“You sound asleep.”
“No, I have to get up anyway. It’s time to get up. Bhecksl.”
“Why do you have to get up?”
“I don’t know.”
“Go back to sleep.”
“The alarm-snerrfh just went off. It’s time to get up. Wait. It’s not time to get up. Hgegh. Wait. Wait a minute. Wait, wait. It’s NOT time to get up? Hey! It’s not time to get up! I don’t have to get up! That wasn’t the alarm! I get to go back to sleep!”
“Okay, I’ll call you later.”
“Shhhhhhhhhhnerfffffffffffffgggggghhh.”

I was asleep four seconds after that. But I LOVED that phone call. It’s like a  present. Hey! Wake up! You don’t have to be awake! Isn’t that great? You get to sleep! Yay! (What’s bad is when you can’t go back to sleep, but I didn’t have that problem, so it was just fun.)

Howdy. How’s your day? Mine’s good, one of those Must Do Errands All Day In Order to Maintain Life’s Order kind of day, not the kind of day that’s good for spinning or knitting or dreaming, but one that’s satisfying nonetheless. I’m trying to have less of these days, so on the days I must have them, I try to pack every single thing I can into them. When I got home yesterday morning from work, I did clean the house at least, something that makes me so happy for the rest of my weekend. The little things, like pulling dust bunnies out from under the bed and the couch (there was a LOT of dust, hellfire-have-mercy, it was a lot), and doing the coffee-cup dishes that have piled up over the work week, THAT makes me feel like I can go drink beer and eat sushi with a clear conscience.

So, because I’m off to do erranding, I’ll just show you a couple of pics. Finally getting around to showing you the shawl thingie I made… I had a great date the other night, Skates by the Bay in Berkeley, steak AND crab, creme brulee for dessert, and I wore my new creation:

    Digit says he’s never been fed, ever.

Specs:
Yarn: Mine! Woot! It’s a blend of merino and silk, about 80/20, I think, hunted and gathered at Deep Color in Kensington, spun into very thin singles and plied into a sockweight yarn. I loved the pinks mixed with the greens.
Pattern: Mine! Well, with a liberal dose of Barbara Walker, volume 2. I just pulled out two lacey things I liked and put ’em together, garter at edge and borders. I didn’t write it down, I apologize, but you could totally do the same kind of thing with similar results.

    Why, hello!

A longer shot:

    What you can’t see is the lace skirt with cowboy boots.

    Yes, this is after dinner. Thus the blurredness.

    My new favorite!