Thought for the Day

It's one day prior to April, which some would call a month rooted firmly in the territory of Spring. However, here in northern Vermont it's snowing. Again. And I've been down in the dumps. I've heard from a lot of people lately that things are generally going badly out there, and I'm really sorry. There's unfortunately pretty much nothing I can do to help anyone I've talked to who is in need. But I can share this day-brightening incident that happened a few minutes ago.

As I mentioned, it's snowing. Thus, my car is covered in snow. But when I walked to the parking lot just now, someone had written in that snow. In this neighborhood, which is generally thought of as "the ghetto" of Burlington, one would expect swears, threats, or other epithets on one's car. However, I had:

"Life Can Be Great"

scrawled on my hood. It made me smile, and so I pass it along. Life can be great, friends. Take some anonymous and thoughtful person's word on it.

And the Show Has Reached a New Low

It's is now a confirmed fact that I have regressed as a human. To wit - my refrigerator:

Exhibit A: a miscellaneous foil wrapped leftover in a bowl I never plan to reclaim as usable dishware.

Exhibit B: the alcohol shelf (which, by volume, makes up the bulk of the refrigerated items)

Exhibit C: the cheese shelf. I'm not sure when I purchased anything on this shelf and I don't intend to open any of them lest I unleash a new bacterium on the world.

Exhibit D: the bread section. Note that I have purchased the same loaf of bread multiple times without finishing the loaf before. This can be traced to the practice of shopping on the way home from work after not having been in my apartment for multiple days.

Exhibit E: the lone inhabitant of my vegetable drawer - an aged shriveled onion. Rest in peace my layered friend. I'll give you a proper burial when I move out in June.

The truly sad part of all of this is that I used to cook daily. And the joyful part of this is that I have better things to do with my time than sitting home alone cooking. But still, this is a sad moment for the history of my owned and rented refrigerators.

The Case of the Suitcase

I like to paint things, especially old and somewhat ugly things. So when I decided to browse Recycle North on Saturday afternoon, my eyes were wide with the forest of old and ugly items before me. But one item in particular caught my eye: a blue samsonite suitcase. You know that period before something is antique when it's just old junk? This suitcase was a perfect example:


Faux marble and I just don't get along, so I spray painted it apple green:

Note of caution: do not spray paint inside when you have a chest cold. In fact, just don't spray paint inside. Nothing good can come of it. And my lack of a garage and complete impatience will keep me from ever heeding my own advice.

Now I knew from the moment I laid eyes on this beauty that it was begging for decoration, and so a tree grew in Monkton:


And flowers:


And since I couldn't very well leave the other side blank, this creation was born:


Five coats of extremely stinky poly spray later, this little baby is ready to fly. As soon as I redo the interior. And add something shiny.

A Tale of Two Weekends

Yet again, I have been neglectful of this blog. I blame Oscar:


I could make an absolutely dreadful "cat and mouse" pun but I'll spare you. Even I have dignity. Ok, a little dignity.

The truth of the matter is that besides the relentless crashing of waves of grants at work, the lovely Vermont weather has conspired against me having anything interesting to write of. But I'll do my best.

Last weekend it iced. It didn't rain, it didn't snow, it iced:


Josh, Selene and I were yet again holed up above the Radio Bean. And thus, another vegetable was anthropomorphized (thanks to Selene for crocheting the sweet potato hat and for supplying the googly eyes):



Josh played the guitar he made with the effects board he also made:



And me? I paper mache'd a shoe box. Yeah, I lose.


This weekend finds me refinishing a suitcase I found at Recycle North for a whopping $0.81 and yet again scraping paint and glue off my hands on a Sunday afternoon. I'm documenting the progress and will share soon. Stay tuned.

Tallying the Results

So after taking the afternoon off and making the rounds to change my last name back to my maiden name, I have made the following tally:

Responses by financial and government representatives upon hearing of my divorce (without any disclosure about the nature of the divorce):

"Congratulations" - 6
"I'm so sorry" - 1
no response - 3

My particular favorite came from my credit union rep who said: "Good for you. Dump 'em while you're young".

D-Day

It's official. As of 9:34 this morning, I'm divorced. All I can think is how happy I am that they didn't schedule the final hearing for Thursday, which would have been my fourth wedding anniversary. By the way, you'll notice the new posting name. I ditched the assumed last name.