Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

On Wednesday, I concluded that I would need two days in which things worked right, in which I was not sitting around waiting for people to do things that I had no control over the timing of, to really be feeling better. Yesterday was such a day, and today looks to be another.

This is working because I had control over the scheduling for yesterday and today, and no FedEx deliveries, intercom repair, or such have been dropped into it.

I started yesterday the way I start most Thursdays: get up when cattitude does, shower and breakfast and head off to the gym. I had a good workout, in the course of which I discovered that FIFA is good for my heart rate and cardio time. I seem to get the heart rate up higher, and more consistently, when I'm not reading, and watching people run around the screen playing soccer, without headphones so I can't hear the narrative, is about the right level of distraction. Conveniently for me, the time zones are such that I'm getting live games when I'm at the gym a bit after 10 a.m. NY time.

After working out, I called Janet WINOLJ, and went down to Chelsea, where she and her husband Matt (also not on LJ) and their infant daughter are staying this week. Janet and I had lunch, and just hung out and talked; I made tea; the baby climbed on me a bit; and after a while we went over to Madison Square Park, for a couple of hours of outdoor conversation. No frozen custard, the hot dog and custard stand in the park was closed for some kind of private event, but we had some Greenmarket cherries.

Then I wandered over to my aunt's house to meet my mother, and had more tea. Mom offered me either skim milk, which I know I don't like in tea, or a category error, "fat-free half-and-half." Having read the label, I now wonder not only how they get away with calling it half-and-half, but how they get away with calling it fat-free; there is a little cream in it, though not as much as there is corn syrup. The next time Mom is in town, I will show up with either a pint of milk or a lemon.

Mom, Cattitude, and I had dinner at Veselka, and more good conversation; decided against dessert; and explored the Trader Joe's on 14th Street. I was innocently watching Cattitude look at olives, and someone said "Vicki." Turned out to be Alisa, who I hadn't seen in several years: she said she'd spent a while teaching theatre at a tiny, very conservative college two hours from Iowa City, before fleeing back to civilization. (Iowa City was her oasis, but someone living in a college town shouldn't have to drive two hours to a different college town to find a bookstore.) She asked what I'd been up to in the last several years, and I sort of handwaved, not sure where to start given that I didn't have much energy left and my heel was getting sore.

From Trader Joe's, we now have tangerine juice, key limes, grapefruit soda, and the basmati rice that was on my shopping list. I'm debating the relative merits of key lime pie or ice cream; the latter has the advantage of not requiring me to make pie crust.

And so home, chocolate, and to bed. I didn't actually sleep in this morning, but I am neither running about, nor stuck with the hurry-up-and-wait of "the repair people may arrive any time after eight a.m."

( gym numbers )

I just followed a link that looked interesting from the title and description, saw who it was by, and immediately hit "back." This surprised me: I hadn't realized I had a sufficiently strong reaction to this person's specific loud stupidities that I wouldn't read zir on a subject that zie was likely to be sensible and useful on.

I called my GP's office and got the podiatrist's surname and phone number, but haven't called yet. (I should probably either call the doctor's office, or check the HIP provider directory, rather than assume the podiatrist's gender from zir surname.)

The reason I didn't call yet is that I was tidying up some bits, and writing things up, for a small research project. That's now sent off, and I figure I'll get back one (at least) of "thanks, that's good"; "thanks, can you get me more about this piece of it"; "not quite what I wanted/can use, the other thing you mentioned looks possible"; or (unlikely, I think) "no, that's not it at all."

As cattitude and I were walking home through the park last night, a firefly lit up next to us, about waist-high. A moment later, another, on my other side. I took a moment, chased on, and got it to land on my hand for a moment, though it flew off before lighting again.

This afternoon, I was standing on the lawn across the street (also in the park), watching the swallows swooping after mosquitos, and realized that one of the swooping animals I was watching was a dragonfly. Having identified one, I spotted a couple more: they're a lot smaller and lighter, and move a bit differently, but you notice the kind of thing you're looking for, and I've been watching the swallows for weeks. This is the first dragonfly I've seen in 2006, fittingly just after the solstice.