16: Arrange a Chance Encounter

So, here I was, all set to talk about what a busy few weeks it's been -- whenever I got time -- when things took an unfortunate turn. Last night, as we were getting ready for bed, I heard Mel in the bathroom suddenly go, "Fuck!" Seems while she was flossing -- rather than using her waterpik on account of the corn we had had with dinner -- her permanent retainer had come unstuck on one side. Fuck indeed. It was 1 AM.

Now it's the next day and we're waiting to see when we can get to the dental emergency clinic. We contacted them last night but haven't heard anything as of yet; I'll call them again at 10:30 while she rests. It's really annoying, you know -- we were looking forward to a non-busy Sunday and had talked all day yesterday about various things we could do today to enjoy it and/or cross things off our list. There's still a chance for that of course but it really casts a shadow over the day.

Well, naught all to be done about it right now.

So it has indeed been a busy few weeks. I arbitrarily started writing blogs on my fullname site again partly because I was inspired by an article by an actual good writer. I'm considering it part of my professional development, building a portfolio I can show around, although for that to work the writing has to not suck and also be stuff people want to read. Tough. I'm facing a lot of existential crises about what I will be in the future if I can't get "a job" and also can't make any headway as "a writer." Who am I and what do I do? Society angrily demands I answer.

The weekend after Canada Day was a big family gathering at Mom's where we shared our news, to much joy. It was good to catch up with Lori, Karen and Gail, and also lock things down for our trailer trip next week. And also Eric, who manned mom's new charcoal grill, a first for him. It turned out okay, but the flank steaks did need to be finished in the oven. Not bad though. Good food. Hank was much-fawned-over.

The ninth was our Weird Al concert, which I wrote about here, which was enjoyable in a lot of ways and presented a lot of logistical challenges to our homebody selves in others. The following weekend had a triple whammy of hosting Mama and Papa H for a somewhat spur-of-the-moment coffee, doing rounds to pick up cards and gifts, going to Dad and Deb's for Deb's birthday, and then (after a Sunday morning financial meeting) going out to David and Annie's for our annual visit there for David and Brie's birthdays. Not much to report about the first two. The last was a whole day, overall enjoyable. At first I was a little worried because the people we knew weren't arriving and it was feeling a little hard to break the ice with those who were there, mostly couples with kids of their own (which is a change from last year as Aubrey was seemingly too shy for a party with actual other kids at the time.) Then Tav, Kyle and Hans, and Nicki and Mai(sp?) arrived so the childless contingent grew and we were able to talk life and work and Drag Race and Ultimatum Queer Love and all that stuff. Katie unfortunately didn't make it as she was out of town, hopefully we can catch up with her another time. The day was good, the food was enjoyable, and though the weather was hot we got some shade and David's brother-in-law had provided these misting fans to keep the area cool, which seemed to work well. The books we had picked seemed to go over well -- we had hoped to pick some up at Shoppers, but it was not convenient to go to the Shoppers with the good book section so we went to Indigo. As to why we favored Shoppers over Indigo for kids books even when I worked there, we often found ourselves overwhelmed by an excess of choice, and there was a little bit of indecision over which books and how many to get.

Long drive out. Long but okay drive home, just left fairly zapped at the end of it all.

Prior to all that we had an impromptu night out on Friday when we found out the nigbt before that Joe was playing an open mic at the Lyon's Club in our backyard. So we went and surprisdd him, saw his usual entourage, enjoyed him playing a few of his originals (not necessarily the ones we would have expected) and a cover of "Hey Ya." Afterward we went for pizza at Son of a Peach and caught up. It was a nucecnight that enabled us to make good on the ongoing promises to see one another at some point, which we have with many friends. One down, a half-dozen to go.

The week proceeded. I wrote, I gamed, I goofed off probably a bit too much, but it's summer and although we have pressing financial needs coming up, we're still in the period where I don't need to be taking my job search as a life or death matter. Well, Mel may be reaching the end of  that period, even though I said, "Hey, it'll be a while." Like, we had this understanding when I decided to quit. But it's okay. After our vacation I'll probably hit it pretty hard. I found myself at the grocery store a lot as whims changed over what to eat and what treats we wanted.

Wugh, on that. We made this viral "Birthday Cake Pie" -- results, uh, mixed. I will say that it got better the more we had it.

The 30-degree weather finally let up on Thursday and it's been really enjoyable since.

We were all excited for this weekend to be totally open until Mel remembered that she was going to see a junior production of Mean Girls with her mom and Laura. That left me to entertain Papa H for the day, which... was fine, and certainly reasonable since I have all week to do "my own shit." I spent the morning tidying up. Afterwards, Laura hung around and we watched The Amazing Race (after I seemed kind of iffy on watching the Mean Girls Musical Movie -- which Mel and I just saw a few months ago. I would have been happy to let them do it while I folded laundry or something, but they preferred to watch something I could get into. That's nice, as long as they don't resent me for it.) Then after Laura left we chilled and I made the steaks with the ill-fated corn. In fact almost the whole meal was a bust since I overcooked the steaks. The potatoes got well enough done though. We did enjoy it, inasmuch as you enjoy an overly well-done steak. She praised the seasoning. It's really just Club House rub. We ate outside in our new chairs, which Hank likes to steal when I get up to put things inside.

After that we watched the Amy Bradley documentary on Netflix and made some Pillsbury cookies. (We're trying to stay away from evil food corporations like Pillsbury and Kraft/Mondelez but sometimes you gotta.) I walked Hank late and we got ready for bed at 12:30, and that's where we came in.

The outlook for this week would seem to depend on what ends up happening today. I'm going to call the Emergency Dentist again soon if they don't reach out. Tuesday Mel's supposed to have a fun day with work, Wednesday we may or may not take Nonna out to dinner, and then Thursday we'd both be in the city. Hopefully all these plans bear out.

Other than that... plenty to do. I'm actually semi-caught-up on laundry? (Plus or minus a basket and a huge pile in the spare room) The kitchen... has looked worse, for sure... but there are weeds to pull in the garden, and a giant box to break down in the garage, and the toilet's still hissing, and the bathroom needs cleaning, and there's lots of paperwork still to do, and let's not even talk about the state of the basement which has been a wreck for years... there's certainly no shortage of things to full my dad. Unemployment is a full-time job.

Keep on rockin'

-Scotto

Update: The dentist appointment, once we booked it, went well, and Mel was quite happy after they updated her gear situation. The money wasn't too bad and we had a good day taking care of things we wanted, enjoying our patio indeed. All in all, a winning weekend.

KoR-sAw