Pretty Much Back to the Daily Grind

Yeah, not so much a "daily grind," I guess, but back to normal? [Okay. Not that yet, quite, either.] Still NOT on the time zone here, though! DH and I have been going to be early. And I mean early!!! I think we made it until 7:30 last night - he made it until 7:30, I beat him - I was ready for bed at 5:30 but managed to stay up until 6:30 when I said, "I'm going to watch TV in the bedroom." Code: "I'm ready for bed, now." The wrong thing to do. What you need to do when you travel this direction is to make yourself stay up as late as possible, like 8P, at least. Otherwise you'll be wide awake at midnight. Not such a big deal, though, as DH has had to work the last couple of days at 4:45. So, we've been waking up at - like midnight - or, at least I have, and then tossing and turning unable to sleep - until I finally just get up. At 1:30 or 2 in the morning. Which means at 10A I'm ready for a nap... It is going on 7P, now, and I think I can make it another couple of hours.

What are we doing with ourselves when we're getting up in the middle of the night like we are? LOST. Season four. We brought it back with us. I wasn't going to like the show. It was going to be too science-fictiony for me. Wow. Was I wrong on that call. I couldn't wait to get my hands on Season Four and it came out right before we left the States. We'll be done with Season Four by the end of the week at the rate we're going. Then jonesing for Season Five. What a great show. The writing is some of the best I can recall from a television show in a long, long time. Done by someone with quite the imagination, if you ask me, to be able to put all the flash-backs and fast-forwards together like they've done. What happened to Jin? He's dead. Will I find out in Season Four?

So, DH left for work this morning and I finished unpacking what was left sitting on the dining room table from our suitcases - a couple things remain on the dining room table. Fifty yards of fabric for the window treatments I'm going to do in the dining room / living room. Now I can get those areas redone like I wanted to do a couple of months ago. I couldn't find the "right" fabric here. Found it in the States in the first fabric store I walked into. And, found it in about a minute and a half. Saw it - knew it was what had to be my new window treatments. "I'll take 50 yards, please." I did, and then spent an hour unrolling it off the roll it was put onto at the store and folding it in half lengthwise and then re-rolling it to get it in my suitcase. Can't wait to get that project underway and finished, now. Painting to be done - and it will, no doubt, require several trips to the paint store for samples. I think I've pretty much got it narrowed down though, so perhaps it can all be done by sometime in January. Before and after photos will be posted here. Rev and his crew will NOT be doing the painting.

So, finished taking care of a bunch of unpacking and then decided I'd get a really early start on the errands I had to do today - go to the bank and cash a check, go to the post office, drop a bunch of things off at the cleaners, and go to the commissary. I was out of the house at 7:45 this morning. What was I thinking?!? The bank isn't even open until 8:30 - I thought it opened at 8 - so after I went to the post office and cleaners I had time to kill. I would have gone to the commissary to start grocery shopping, but I wouldn't have had enough money to pay for everything, so I came back to the house and had the last cup of cold coffee that was in the pot and started a load of laundry before I headed back to the bank. Which still wasn't open. I wanted to be the first person there so as not to have to wait in line forever, but such was not the case. There were others already lined up in the "outside" lobby waiting for the bank to open. The bank sign says it opens at 8:30 but their clock is set five minutes off from everyone else's clocks and watches. It was 8:36 when it opened. No biggie. I was second in line for a teller and in an out within seconds. That was a first!

After the bank I headed off to the commissary to shop - and had the store to myself. There are still no bags of salad - apparently they cannot keep up with the demand - and of course, no one would ever think to order more since it is a fast sell-out. Far too logical. Not complaining, but still, you'd think if a store had a product that they were always out of that someone would come up with the brainstorm idea of ordering more than what is usually ordered, right? Not here. Doesn't work that way. Got everything else I needed, though, including club soda. There has been no club soda in the Sandbox - anywhere - for months. Months! Like six months - and what a surprise to find it today. Nice. Had enough groceries in my cart in such a nice, neat organized fashion that after everything had been rung up and bagged that I needed two carts. Had help taking one of the carts to the truck - I pushed the other - and then had help unloading everything in the truck. It wouldn't have mattered if I didn't. I would have happily pushed and unloaded both carts. I had my new ugly most comfortable shoes on in the whole world!

When we were in the States I decided that I needed a pair of clogs. I used to wear them all the time. When I was wearing them they had wooden bottoms. Apparently wooden bottoms are not even being made anymore as I couldn't find any with wood bottoms. These have a lightweight synthetic bottom. [It is a "shock-absorbing polyurethane sole."] I bought these, and although they are not - by a long-stretch - the most attractive shoes I own, they are the most comfortable! They are like slippers. I just know I'm going to need a few more pairs in different colors on my next trip home to the States. You can walk for miles and miles and miles and not worry about comfort in them.

Inam was here at the house when I returned with my truckload of groceries and although he offered to help unload the truck, he was busy, and I said, "That's okay. I've got it." So, I unloaded the truck myself and then unloaded all the bags into their respective cupboards and spots in the refrigerators [yes, plural - one for food-stuff, the other for drinks - juice, soda, water, etc.]. It is good to have HB13, Inam, back. He, apparently doesn't quite understand the whole "salary" thing - and what should be taking him only three hours or so still takes him four or more. I am not underpaying him by any means, but he could make more if he picked his pace up and got his "chores" done faster. His choice, though. And, in all fairness to him, he does do an excellent job doing exactly what I want him to do. DH and I looked at a house in the States - one that we have absolutely no intention of buying - but looked out of curiosity - we had to - it was 10,185 square feet! It had six bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms - yes, that wasn't a typo - it had nine and a half bathrooms! Sure it was a nice house, not at all my style - far too dark and gloomy - but can you imagine cleaning something like that? Jokingly with friends later on that night as I was describing it, I said just that. "Can you imagine cleaning a house like that?" To which, DH, without missing a beat, responded, "You'd clean it the same way you clean now." Meaning I'd have someone else do it. But of course... [I am going to be in for one heck of a shock when I return to the States and do not have a houseboy coming four days a week!]

With the exception of our time schedule - which is going to take just a few more days to adjust - things are back to what is my normal every-day "life." It's too early to start bitching and whining about things here. Give me a few days and that will be a part of what is my normal every-day "life." All it will take is one trip downtown... Paint... Ahh. Yes. It is GOOD to be home.