Our Easter weekend was quiet and domestic. Poor Wee was still feeling terrible due to his sinusitis – one of the worst cases his doctor has ever seen, apparently – and quite understandably wasn't up for much of anything in the way of activity. As for me, I was perfectly happy to spend the weekend puttering around the house. I did a lot of gardening, and finally assembled the gardening bench my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday last year (Wee rallied to help with some final assembly – drilling of holes for screws and repair of a drawer - but I managed to put together most of it myself, of which I was rather proud). This summer's new paper lanterns are now in place; swapping them out has become sort of a yearly tradition, marking the official beginning of the spring/summer season at Casa Del Tessenwee. I planted yet more flowers and cleaned up the back patio area, and I hung some cute dragonfly lights I got for Christmas. My tiny veggie garden is flourishing with herbs and little tomato and pepper plant seedlings. All in all, it looks pretty nice out back now. I'll post pics of the finished results pretty soon.
I also did something a little bizarre with our master bath area – I painted it orange. Not a sedate pastel Creamsicle orange, either... I'm talking about circus peanut-tangerine-carrot-safety orange. Orange with a capital "Oh!" I've had this thing for this color lately, you see, and combined with some time on my hands and a decorating itch I needed to scratch, the results can only be described as unique. It came out significantly brighter than I anticipated, and I'm not entirely certain whether the results lean more toward cheerful or… well, scary. I have a plan for adding some toned-down accents of dark blue, turquoise and green, but we'll see how effective they are in anchoring the wildebeest of a color I've unleashed on that quiet corner of the house. Bill has been remarkably tolerant of my whimsy but has successfully lobbied for keeping the sink area clad in its current, sane whiteness. Once again proving that compromise is the essence of a good marriage…
This morning at 3:30 the storm that moved over us last night was so intense that it woke me up - I got up and looked out the window, surprised at the violence of the rain and wind. The huge eucalyptus trees behind the houses across the street were whipping around like Solid Gold dancers on meth. I was glad we topped ours a couple of years back to shorten their spindly growth and keep top-heavy limbs from breaking off and hitting our house.
The storm reminded me a lot of monsoon season in Tucson, less the thunder and lightning (unfortunately). I miss monsoon season so much. I miss Tucson in general, really. I would move back there in a heartbeat if we could find decent enough jobs. We could get a great house for the money we'd make selling the one we have. I'd love to buy a place in the Sam Hughes neighborhood, an area east of the University filled with gorgeous Craftsman-style houses. The University area has dozens of great restaurants and shops within walking distance, and I miss being able to walk to places like that, not to mention the places themselves. There are days I'd give a small body part for lunch at Sausage Deli or a slice of Z's pizza, or Sunday breakfast at Frank's (home of the Food Bitch). Yeah, Tucson... I miss the kaleidoscope of its sky; the technicolor sunsets, the way sunlight and shadows crawled over the sharp edges of the mountain ranges encircling the city. I miss the smell of creosote and wet mesquite in the air after a good hard rain. Tucson's climate was different from the traditional spring/summer/fall/winter that I grew up with, but it had a definite character, a rhythm and an intensity to its fluctuations. I always felt strangely in touch with the outdoors, even when I was locked in the windowless bowels of the electronics factory where I worked.
San Diego's climate is simply monotonous in comparison. Of course, I wasn't complaining last Saturday as Wy and I sat on the patio of the neighborhood Mexican restaurant with a margarita, enjoying the not-too-hot, not-too-cold bliss of a perfect spring day... I admit that I have a particular soft spot for April here, when the hills are still green from winter rain and their rampant blooms help explain why there are signs along the highway for "wildflower control" (which we thought was proof that San Diego was in fact Paradise when we first moved here from Tucson - where else would you see a place with so many wildflowers that crews had to go out and wrangle them?), and sunlight finally begins lingering into the evenings after work again. April was the month we moved here, and also the month we closed on our house, so I have some sentimental associations with this time of year here, a sense of exciting new beginnings in both a physical and psychological sense. Much to my surprise, though, it turns out that perfection can be, well, boring. Which is why nights like last night are worth losing a little sleep over - appreciating the rare novelty of extreme weather in Paradise.
Happily for me, today has been as good as yesterday was bad; to wit:
- We got our yearly reviews at work, and mine was a good one (got somebody fooled...); unlike last year when salaries were frozen, we did get raises this year - it wasn't a huge one, only 4%, but when you have zero expectations, then getting anything is a pleasant surprise...
- My beloved Sensa pen that Bill gave me has been lost for a couple of weeks; I put up signs in hopes that someone would see it (or realize that the cool pen they found actually belonged to someone who missed it...), and today when I went to make a copy I glanced over at the whiteboard above the copier and there it was, sitting on the pen tray. So either it's been there the whole time and I was just unobservant (me, missing something right in front of my face? Inconceivable!!), or someone decided they'd better give it up and just put it someplace they figured I'd see it eventually. Either way, I got it back when really I didn't expect to - so, w00t!
- My boss is leaving work at noon - always occasion for joy. Not only that, but he didn't make us go through the weekly interrogation, which I was dreading due to a couple of pending issues over which I expected to be chastised for not having them done. The path to the weekend now appears to me less like a huge emery board and much more like a Slip-n-Slide...
So there it is - the little things that have brought Tess some much-needed joy on a Friday morning. Bring on the weekend!
No, I'm not having a fit of existential angst. At the moment, anyway. The reference is to the website of this Scottish/American guy, Hugh MacLeod, who does kick ass sarcastic works of art on the backs of business cards. I'm verklempt.