The Lazy Song

Today I don't feel like doing anything. I just want to lay in my bed. Don't feel like pickin' up the phone, so leave a message at the tone. Cause today I don't feel like doing anything, nothing at all. (Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song)

Bruno Mars is one of my favorite newer musicians. I've liked almost every single he's come out with, and his latest single is fun and probably a little tongue-in-cheek. And today, it has been my theme song. I think everyone has days every now and then when they just want to be lazy, myself included. But today especially I really felt like doing nothing. In spite of my lack of motivation, I did get some work done today, but it wasn't easy. I just felt SO. TIRED. I think all the driving of the last couple days caught up to me. And I'm pretty sure I was also recovering (emotionally) from the car accident I had yesterday. Yeah. Thankfully, I am fine physically. And I didn't cause any damage to the car I hit (because it was a van). But I did do a decent amount of damage to the front of my car (hood, bumper, headlight). It was so stupid, I wasn't doing anything wrong, I just couldn't get stopped fast enough. It really was just an accident. I took my car in today and will hear back in the next day or so about the prognosis. I guess because it's old there's a possibility it might have to be totaled, but I'm really hoping that's not the case. I think she still has some life left in her! In the meantime, I'm driving a rental. I have a Jeep Patriot for now (because the options were pretty limited), which I have to admit is a pretty sweet vehicle, but I will probably end up trading it for something smaller with better gas mileage. So now I'm gonna try to relax, get to bed early, and hopefully feel better tomorrow.

A Weekend Away

In January I started thinking ahead over the year to try to plan out my vacation time. I had some vacation time already planned for May and I wanted to spread out my Sundays off through the year if possible. I decided with the busy seasons of Lent and Easter I wanted to take a weekend off before May, around this late winter/early spring time. Lutherlyn, the camp I attended as a kid and worked at as a counselor, has several off-season retreats, and at least a few of them are related to crafty things and often attended by my friend Mandy and her mom. I found out that they were having a "Mystery Quilting Retreat" the last weekend of March, and confirmed that Mandy would be attending, and decided to sign up and use it for a Sunday off. I decided to make it a long weekend, and I headed home to my parents' on Thursday, and then made my way to Lutherlyn Friday evening. Unfortunately Mandy had caught the flu and spent all day Friday in bed. She was feeling better by Saturday though, so luckily it was only a 24-hour thing (as of this posting, I am still feeling ok, and hoping I avoided catching it!) and we were still able to spend some time together, even though she wasn't feeling 100%. Her mom and I each worked on the mystery quilt project, and Mandy worked a little each on a t-shirt quilt, some placemats, and a stuffed rocket (see below). The way the mystery quilt worked was that we received a list of how much fabric to get and how to make the first cuts, all before we got to the retreat. Then we received clues every so often, and you work one clue at a time and when you finish it you move on to the next clue, so that you don't know what the completed quilt will look like. And everyone can work at their own pace. Even though I waited until I was at the retreat to cut any of my fabric, I was still able to catch up to about where most of the women were. The first few clues involved a lot (a LOT) of tedious cutting, sewing, cutting, and squaring, all to make the small squares that will be put together to make the blocks. You can see a lot of these squares in the picture below. Out of 9 clues total, I only made it to clue #5, but because of all the prep work, I think most of us ended the weekend around the same place. I was able to complete one block, and put enough rows together to complete 7 more blocks when I put those rows together. Then I can move on to clue #6! My completed block is the last picture below. I wasn't expecting to complete a quilt in one weekend, so I still feel pretty satisfied with what I was able to do, and I look forward to continuing to work on my quilt. The weekend was a nice break from the normal, and a great time at a place I love with a good friend. It was also nice to see my parents for a few days, but the time definitely went too fast, so I am looking forward to them coming out to visit me for Easter.

Signs of Spring

Rant and Rave

Rant:
As I've mentioned previously on my blog, I am part of the South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble. Because this is the first time I've been playing my saxophone regularly since college it's in need of a "tune-up". I took it to the closest music store at a time when I knew I would be missing the next rehearsal, so I thought it would leave plenty of time to be repaired. When I turned it into the store they told me that they don't do repairs in-house, they send them out, but that it typically only took a week, or maybe two at the most. I was also told I would receive a call from the repairman with an estimate. This was February 15th. A week or two goes by and I haven't heard anything, so I call the store and ask about it and they say that it still hasn't been returned and assure me again that I will receive a call when it's ready. Another week or two goes by and I call again and get the same answer again. Finally, a few days ago, I reach the point where it has been a MONTH and I have heard NOTHING. So when I call the store again I ask for the number of the repair place. I'm given the number for another music store that this person said does their repairs. I call them, and the person I spoke with has no record of my instrument! She assures me she will look into it and get back to me. I call again the next day, they still don't know where it is, and I'm told they're pursuing some different possibilities and they'll let me know. I say, I'm a little confused as to how a saxophone can just be lost. She thanks me for my patience. Grrrr. When I speak with the woman again the next day, she explains that they do repairs for rental instruments, and that there is a different person/place who does repairs on owned instruments, and this whole time she had been assuming I had a rental instrument (even though I definitely said MY saxophone). So at this point, I call the music store that I originally took it to in the first place, and after asking a lot of questions, he finds the record of my sax being brought in, and gives me the correct name and phone number of the repairman. I call him and leave a message. After no response, I call him again (today - over a month after the store first took my sax) and he answers and says that he hasn't had it, the store has had it this whole time and he was on his way to pick it up. WHAT?!?! He called back later in the day with an estimate and said it will be back at the store next week. Clearly, either there are totally incompetent people working at this music store, OR I was lied to several times (or both). Absolutely RIDICULOUS.

Rave:
I have great friends. I am lucky to have them. I am thankful for the ones who stay in touch regularly and especially for those who have visited me. This is because maybe 95% of my friends live more than an hour (and most several hours) away from me. It's been hard out on here on the island, especially this winter. It has helped me to discover that maybe I'm not quite as much of an introvert as I thought I was or used to be. I need social interaction! And I've learned that making new friends as an adult is not always the easiest thing to do. Especially when most of my life revolves around my congregation, and I need to have some friends outside of that group of people. Well I think I have finally begun to find that. I have made some new friends recently that are (amazingly, for this location) around my age, and have given me reasons to get out of my house and laugh and have fun. Yay!

And now, in honor of Saint Patrick and my Scotch-Irish heritage, I'm going to enjoy a beer. Sla'inte!