Hamster brain
Apr. 14th, 2005 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidOK, I think I've got both seders figured out (*big sigh of relief*). I still have to arrange to sell my chametz, and the rabbi will be around after shacharit Monday, which might work.
I've got most of the things I need to get for Pesach, except for plastic to cover everything, more produce closer to the holiday (I'm glad there's going to be a delivery in the middle), a new vegetable peeler, a new toothbrush and toothpaste, also some kind of skin cream and lip balm, if I can. Oh, and one or two bottles of water, one for work and one for home, to encourage proper hydration. Oh, and some jesus candles (they work better for me than yahrtzeit candles for staying lit and having a flame to transfer).
The every-other-week cleaner is in today, which means I can start doing the more intensive stuff tonight. Ideally, I'd like to have everything done by Tuesday night, since Wednesday is gaming, and it would be nice to have Thursday to cook for the 3-day chag, which is a fair bit of food even without the seders. Though if everything is mostly clean and cleared off by Thursday and all I have to do then is kasher and cover, that might work.
Oh, and Z offered the loan of a fleishig pot (among other things; that's the most useful to me, though); I should find out when I can get that, since they're leaving Wednesday evening.
I put the futon frame up for grabs on Freecycle last night, and someone's coming to take it tomorrow. Huzzah! I'd decided I needed to do that months ago, and never seemed to get around to it. The plan is to get the futon frame out, move the bed into the small room, and get a new futon for the bedroom. The new frame will be a unifold (read: more seating), and I'd like it to have drawers underneath (now that I know such things exist). Once I clear more clutter, it means that I'll have a second non-dining room for hanging out in, and I'll not be sleeping in the same room as the computer. Theoretically, this will help me not stay up late...
The other part of the plan involves getting bookshelves built into the living room, freeing up the bookshelves that are there now, which will move into the current bedroom, and I'll finally get rid of the white ones I've had since I was (what? 9?). And the desk in the living room moves, too (if it can fit around the angle in the hallway. I'm not thinking about that. I'm definitely not thinking about that.), leaving more room I can turn into a reading nook. If I can figure out where to store the bike. Well, there's plenty of time for that.
More immediately, there's the porch. I'm getting some herbs and tomatoes mid-May, and I need to figure out how I'd like to set things up this year. If I order a vermicomposter (on the list of things to do; I don't know why it takes so much mental energy to do something that's less than five minutes of my time...), I can use it as the base for a plant, if I think it can handle the glaring sun I get on the porch, even partly covered. If not, I'm not sure where to put it. I mean, the basement would work, but I don't tend to go down to the basement except to do laundry. And it would mean schlepping stuff (food bits, dirt, etc) up and down twisty narrow stairs, which isn't appealing. Really, the porch is the best option; I can put it in the back hallway for the winter (when it won't get too hot there). I need to punch holes in the bottom of some containers, get dishes (or whatever) to put under them. And transplant the non-voracious lavender, which needs more dirt. Hanging plants and some planters would be excellent (and a first).
And there's the learning to do by mid-chag. I've got 10 prakim to go.... ack! I'm not exactly sure when that's going to happen, though I should push to do a lot over Shabbat, if I can. Oddly enough, I don't tend to think of Elka while I learn (except if I'm tempted to let things go when I know I need to push harder at it; she never let me be sloppy like that, and I can't do it now.), but I pass by an apartment she used to live in, or I think of the spices I have for Pesach already, stored safely with a bit of plastic wrap, a trick she taught me, and she's there. Today I finally moved the last of her email into a folder, and it felt extremely odd. She wrote this, I have it, she did, and yet now she's not there. Disconcerting, somehow. (A first: previous family members who've died were not in email contact with me.)
And once I start, the memories keep flowing, of the Pesach rolls she always made because she disliked matza so much, and how once I found out just how much oil there was in them I couldn't bring myself to make them. Of when they announced their engagement, and she had a massive black eye, and the teasing she got, though everyone knew that if anyone was going to be beaten up, it wasn't going to be her. Of her astuteness in reading politics in college faculties, and her complete inability to dress past the 70s. All sorts of things, many completely trivial. And I hear her laugh, sometimes, a bit.
I don't know when everything is going to get done. It will, but I'm tired thinking of it all.
So much change going on around me, and I feel a bit stuck in a rut. A rut I like right now, but a rut all the same. Need to figure out what specific change would be good.
Slowly the details about the trip to England are falling into place. I need to make a reservation at the hotel/guest house/whatever for the first weekend, figure out food a bit more clearly, and get a guide book out of the library to start thinking about what I'd like to do the rest of the time.
And then there's the possible Israel trip, in August. It looks like I could possibly swing the time (it doesn't hurt that it's over August 23, the beginning of my year for time tracking), and it would be good to go for a number of reasons. I haven't been in a while. There are people I could see. The trip will go places I haven't been, or barely made it to. I'd get to travel with cool people. On the other hand, I'm a little leery of a scheduled trip, however good the itinerary is. I've never done any organized touring (since I was a kid); I tend to just go off where I choose. And it leaves me with little vacation time next year (there's a metric __load of Jewish holidays on weekdays coming up). And though it's a reasonable price, it's another big expense, and there are other ways I could use that money.
I've filed the forms online, but haven't gotten a confirmation email yet, and that's starting to make me just a bit nervous. And I didn't get my act together to make a Roth IRA contribution yet, and I haven't figured out how to do this in time without driving to somewhere tomorrow afternoon to hand over a check. Which is possible, but a nuisance I'd rather avoid. Sigh.
I've got most of the things I need to get for Pesach, except for plastic to cover everything, more produce closer to the holiday (I'm glad there's going to be a delivery in the middle), a new vegetable peeler, a new toothbrush and toothpaste, also some kind of skin cream and lip balm, if I can. Oh, and one or two bottles of water, one for work and one for home, to encourage proper hydration. Oh, and some jesus candles (they work better for me than yahrtzeit candles for staying lit and having a flame to transfer).
The every-other-week cleaner is in today, which means I can start doing the more intensive stuff tonight. Ideally, I'd like to have everything done by Tuesday night, since Wednesday is gaming, and it would be nice to have Thursday to cook for the 3-day chag, which is a fair bit of food even without the seders. Though if everything is mostly clean and cleared off by Thursday and all I have to do then is kasher and cover, that might work.
Oh, and Z offered the loan of a fleishig pot (among other things; that's the most useful to me, though); I should find out when I can get that, since they're leaving Wednesday evening.
I put the futon frame up for grabs on Freecycle last night, and someone's coming to take it tomorrow. Huzzah! I'd decided I needed to do that months ago, and never seemed to get around to it. The plan is to get the futon frame out, move the bed into the small room, and get a new futon for the bedroom. The new frame will be a unifold (read: more seating), and I'd like it to have drawers underneath (now that I know such things exist). Once I clear more clutter, it means that I'll have a second non-dining room for hanging out in, and I'll not be sleeping in the same room as the computer. Theoretically, this will help me not stay up late...
The other part of the plan involves getting bookshelves built into the living room, freeing up the bookshelves that are there now, which will move into the current bedroom, and I'll finally get rid of the white ones I've had since I was (what? 9?). And the desk in the living room moves, too (if it can fit around the angle in the hallway. I'm not thinking about that. I'm definitely not thinking about that.), leaving more room I can turn into a reading nook. If I can figure out where to store the bike. Well, there's plenty of time for that.
More immediately, there's the porch. I'm getting some herbs and tomatoes mid-May, and I need to figure out how I'd like to set things up this year. If I order a vermicomposter (on the list of things to do; I don't know why it takes so much mental energy to do something that's less than five minutes of my time...), I can use it as the base for a plant, if I think it can handle the glaring sun I get on the porch, even partly covered. If not, I'm not sure where to put it. I mean, the basement would work, but I don't tend to go down to the basement except to do laundry. And it would mean schlepping stuff (food bits, dirt, etc) up and down twisty narrow stairs, which isn't appealing. Really, the porch is the best option; I can put it in the back hallway for the winter (when it won't get too hot there). I need to punch holes in the bottom of some containers, get dishes (or whatever) to put under them. And transplant the non-voracious lavender, which needs more dirt. Hanging plants and some planters would be excellent (and a first).
And there's the learning to do by mid-chag. I've got 10 prakim to go.... ack! I'm not exactly sure when that's going to happen, though I should push to do a lot over Shabbat, if I can. Oddly enough, I don't tend to think of Elka while I learn (except if I'm tempted to let things go when I know I need to push harder at it; she never let me be sloppy like that, and I can't do it now.), but I pass by an apartment she used to live in, or I think of the spices I have for Pesach already, stored safely with a bit of plastic wrap, a trick she taught me, and she's there. Today I finally moved the last of her email into a folder, and it felt extremely odd. She wrote this, I have it, she did, and yet now she's not there. Disconcerting, somehow. (A first: previous family members who've died were not in email contact with me.)
And once I start, the memories keep flowing, of the Pesach rolls she always made because she disliked matza so much, and how once I found out just how much oil there was in them I couldn't bring myself to make them. Of when they announced their engagement, and she had a massive black eye, and the teasing she got, though everyone knew that if anyone was going to be beaten up, it wasn't going to be her. Of her astuteness in reading politics in college faculties, and her complete inability to dress past the 70s. All sorts of things, many completely trivial. And I hear her laugh, sometimes, a bit.
I don't know when everything is going to get done. It will, but I'm tired thinking of it all.
So much change going on around me, and I feel a bit stuck in a rut. A rut I like right now, but a rut all the same. Need to figure out what specific change would be good.
Slowly the details about the trip to England are falling into place. I need to make a reservation at the hotel/guest house/whatever for the first weekend, figure out food a bit more clearly, and get a guide book out of the library to start thinking about what I'd like to do the rest of the time.
And then there's the possible Israel trip, in August. It looks like I could possibly swing the time (it doesn't hurt that it's over August 23, the beginning of my year for time tracking), and it would be good to go for a number of reasons. I haven't been in a while. There are people I could see. The trip will go places I haven't been, or barely made it to. I'd get to travel with cool people. On the other hand, I'm a little leery of a scheduled trip, however good the itinerary is. I've never done any organized touring (since I was a kid); I tend to just go off where I choose. And it leaves me with little vacation time next year (there's a metric __load of Jewish holidays on weekdays coming up). And though it's a reasonable price, it's another big expense, and there are other ways I could use that money.
I've filed the forms online, but haven't gotten a confirmation email yet, and that's starting to make me just a bit nervous. And I didn't get my act together to make a Roth IRA contribution yet, and I haven't figured out how to do this in time without driving to somewhere tomorrow afternoon to hand over a check. Which is possible, but a nuisance I'd rather avoid. Sigh.
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hamstery?
Date: 2005-04-14 04:00 pm (UTC)*runs and hides*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 03:22 am (UTC)Oh, and I'm planning on bringing the UK guide
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 03:35 am (UTC)And yes, all UK guides good :-). (Well, I hope it's good; I assume it has been useful...)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 06:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 07:26 am (UTC)it's 5 years old at this point, but that won't affect places to visit. and it also always helps to have a couple of books to leaf through, since the personalities are usually radically different - i mean, i don't care about family travel and family-oriented travel, so some books are wasted on me.