Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

It is 5:28am. I am awake and have been for about an hour. Right now, I am blogging from my computer, which is no longer a desktop… more a floortop. It’s set up in the corner, and the monitor is sitting on the printer box.

I have busy brain, as is probably normal for people about to move, but I need sleep, and it just isn’t happening. I have another two and a half hours I can sleep. I hope I’m able to catch some more z’s before then. About a dozen people are coming to help load the truck. In what order will I load the truck? How should I organize all these people? And perhaps most importantly, how many bagels should I buy and what flavors? Do people really want blueberry and chocolate chip bagels? Isn’t that an afront to all bagelkind?

So many things to deal with… and even though I know it will all get done, it’s very hard to detach. I already feel a bit controlling and noone is even here yet! Normally when I feel controlling about things, I leave, like when people are cooking. I have so many opinions about it that I am best to just stay in the other room and busy myself. Some people welcome my kitchen tips, and some people feel that me giving advice means I think they are doing it wrong. Anyway, the hard part of it is that I sort of DO have to supervise and direct. I can’t just disengage. I will be so glad when it’s all in the truck. So very glad indeed.

I sure hope the girls are OK. I am so concerned about their well-being right now. Jeep is on anti-depressants again. Gave her the first one last night. She’s had some real trouble adjusting to change in the past, and knowing this, I didn’t want to throw her into another situation in which I know she’d feel terrified. I hate medicating her like this, but it’s either that or knowingly put her in a situation that I know she isn’t equipped to handle on her own. Man, I love my girls. I hope they aren’t too traumatized by all of this. They’ve never moved before.

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I’Â’m so very excited. In my new apartment building, I’Â’m actually allowed to paint. This is the first time I’Â’ve ever been allowed to paint, which is pretty sad given I’Â’m 34 years old, but that’Â’s the grad student life for ya. I have now purchased all paint supplies, so that when we arrive the first day, we can get right to it! I was hoping Sherwin-Williams would have their paint chips online, but they don’Â’t, so I tried to approximate the colors I chose using Glidden’Â’s Color Selector (which is actually TONS of fun if you’Â’re bored).

The color on the left is the color I’Â’ve chosen for the sun room. IÂ’’m hoping it will be tranquil with much light, although I really have no idea, since I haven’Â’t actually laid eyes on my apartment yet. I wanted a color that looked like the color of plants in springtime. The name of the Sherwin-Williams color is “Gleeful,” which is a really fun name.

The color on the right is for the living room. I will have a lot of my parentsÂ’ antiques in there. I could have chosen something really traditional, but I wanted something bright and fun. The idea I went in with was the I wanted something that approximated the color Turmeric added to food.

I have a nice middle-value, dusty coral picked out for the bedroom, but I have no idea of the dimensions of that just yet. I’tÂ’s supposed to be the color of my lips… well, my lips when they arenÂ’t chapped, pale from cold, etc! Half the time, my lips seem to be the same color as my face! The idea I have in there is that I want it to look like wildflowers colorwise, but actually that could be almost any color!

I just want things to be very much a color. IÂ’m so sick of off-white walls, I could die!

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The packing update: I have the U-Haul out in the parking lot now. Almost everything is packed, and there are lots of people coming to help pack it in the morning, so it should go quickly. We went to Scott & MichelleÂ’’s this morning to help pack after a raucous time at Poornima and Nanu’Â’s last night, only to find that the entire truck had already been packed by their landlord’Â’s maintenance guys. SHUWEET! So we sat down and ate the bagels weÂ’d picked up, drank our coffee, socialized a little, then took off. That was a great bit of luck! It isn’t that often that you get to appear helpful with no actual work!

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Last night I saw the Saw Doctors at Birdy’s in Indianapolis. I’ve seen them several times and met Leo from the band a couple of those times. Last night, I spoke to him for quite a while and remembered to get a picture. It was a super-fun gig, as usual. If I weren’t deep in the packing, I’d write a fuller review, but for now, this is all you get! 😛

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I could write about the fact that after four hours of sleep, I woke up on my own accord (with no help from Jeep) and could not help but do more packing, but I think writing about toasters would be way funner. Yes, I said “way funner.” “Way funner” is just something I like to say because I think it’s funny and way funner than saying “much more fun,” which sounds so very banal.

Anyway, I won’t go into the specifics, but I found myself looking at a lovely toaster on Amazon. Now let me add to this story before I get too much further into it, that just last month, I was railing on a friend for even considering buying anything other than a $10 toaster at KMart because hey, it’s a toaster.

Toasters are lovely little inventions. They make regular bread into toasted bread, crunchy on the outside with a lovely texture that is excellent for holding butter, jam, cheese, peanut butter, bits of Marmite, etc. Toast is one of those near-perfect foods that just hits the spot, especially late at night when you don’t think you have anything good in the kitchen. YUM! (And don’t get me started on my new F.R.O.G. Jam from the Bakehouse…)

Anyway, back to the point of the story. I found myself lusting after this toaster. Isn’t that a beauty? I was imagining this fine piece of machinery sitting on the counter next to my Glacier Blue KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Yes, it’s all a bit obvious and maybe even a bit yuppie, but I’m a foodie, and those are some gorgeous and fine pieces of food-making machinery. I can’t help it. I’m weak.

Let me tell you an interesting story. I have a friend who has been in AA for 15 years. You know what her higher power is? It’s a toaster. Why? According to her, a toaster is a power greater than herself because she can’t turn bread into toast. Imagine that! 15 years in AA. 15 years of sobriety, and what gave her the strength to continue each day, one day at a time? A toaster.

So let me get to the point, and I do have a point. I’m reading reviews of the toaster, because if you know me, you know I love product reviews. I love to feel that I have spent my money on the best product available given my budget. Reading along, I get to this review, written by “A Kitchen & Housewares Enthusiast”:

It is still a toaster!, May 9, 2004

Go give the money to a public school, buy books for a economically depressed area, give a person a second chance on life after a their fall from grace, not to mention a fragmented future.

A toaster, this isn’t stupid, it’s tragic.

If aliens are watching this planet two things are happening. One: they are laughing their butts off, two they going to make sure that the virus call man will not leave this rock to keep the rest of the universe safe from our “Manifest Destiny” to impose our amoral blind beliefs that we are the true owners of existence, similar to what happened to the native Americans when Columbus fond a continent that the natives never lost in the first place.

May be its better for us to follow all the victims we have driven into extinction.

A toaster, how could any one be anything else but embarrass to have to tell others they got the top of the line toaster at a price that could feed a family of four for two weeks.

You people are sick. Use your pocket change to get help.

Wow! Those are strong words, and I know they were written to make me feel guilty for lusting after this Dualit Toaster (in pretty mint green – lovely), and you know what? They worked. I had my lusty moment, but in the end, I think I have to continue life in my kitchen with my $10 Betty Crocker toaster from KMart. My Dad bought it for me and my ex when we moved into an apartment in Atlanta about seven and a half years ago, and it still makes beautiful toast for me on a near daily basis. Why have I double-crossed my toaster, looking at such high-end overpriced pile of metal? Is it because I haven’t had much money for a while, and I’m trying to overcompensate? Has the consumer culture wooed me more than I realize? I’m going to be strong. I’m going to renew my love affair with the functional… with Ole Faithful. Betty Crocker Toaster? I’m sorry I ever doubted you.

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Please click on the comment link below and let me know if you can see a picture of me at the top of the page that pops up. Sometimes it works on my computer, and sometimes it doesn’t. I need to find out if this is a problem related to my computer or to the host site. Thanks!

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