Keep Up

There I am, sitting on the couch at 7:00 Friday night with the dog at me feet. I start the movie and am settling down for a nice peaceful evening after the running around and erratic sleep patterns of the previous week when, "Hello?"

Hmm, someone's in the house. I get up and go towards the front door and there's a woman in the hallway. Apparently, the people for whom I am housesitting gave a key to the old lady across the street for her to check on the dog during the day. The first thing I think is, wtf? The second thing is, I live alone and therefore have a habit of not closing bathroom doors, glad she didn't come at an inopportune moment. The third is, I'm glad I made my bed and didn't leave dirty dishes around. The fourth is, I'm here now, what the hell are you doing here?

She lost her keys and ran all over town so she didn't have a chance to come during the day so she decided that she'd better come now. OK, that makes no sense. You know, since.I'm.here.

So the dog is going crazy, after I had her calmed down. And then the woman says to the dog, "Are you calm now, can we move out of the hallway?" Umm, now you're inviting yourself the rest of the way in?

I back up a little into the kitchen and lean against the counter so she can't get to the living room. No way am I going to sit there a socialize with this woman. I am not a natural socializer and this is my time, dammit. I am also very aware of the not-in-polite company language coming from the movie that is still playing. Snoogans. She chats some more about losing her keys and having to run all over town and that the dog wants a treat. Umm, she just had one. You know, from the person being paid to watch her. But, if it'll get you to leave....

As she's finally leaving, she says that she'll be back tomorrow. Umm, tomorrow's Saturday, I'll be here, no need for you. Then I thought, what the hell, I'll go home and do some laundry and play some Wii.

Needless to say, I don't think I'll be sitting for them again. Not that I think they'll need it anyway, they're home bodies and have a B&B. Best part about staying there, they paid me to stay in a nice room with bath robes and a jetted tub. And a high strung dog. One would think if she's a B&B dog that she'd be a little better at the people thing.

I had Megan for a few hours on Monday. With Stacey out of town, Ryan had "some things to do" so he asked if her could drop her off for about an hour and a half. Like he had to ask. So we made chocolate chip cookies and played with the blocks and Play-doh and cookie cutters while watching Wallace and Gromit. An hour and a half came and went and I thought that I should probably think about lunch. We were eating lunch in the back yard (beautiful day) when he called to say he was on his way. She finished her lunch and we were having a cookie when he showed up. An hour and a half turned into 3 hours. Not that that's a bad thing, jsut an observation.

My grandfather and his wife are coming in a couple of weeks. I was going to take her to the meal prep place -- where you chooses meals and assemble them for the freezer. However, the place released the menu for June and nothing really sounds very appetizing to me, let alone trying to choose 4 meals. I think we'll just do things in my new freezer cookbook. When I was housesitting, I made the frozen breakfast burritos and they're pretty tasty.

My dad and I finally nailed down a date to go to his Father's Day present ballgame. I told him that it's June 28, July 4, or July 5. After that we're into August since either my weekends are booked or there are no home games. Looks like June 28 for the game and we may go to North Dakota to get his street rod from the body man over the 4th.

Some friends mentioned needing me to watch their animals for a few days in June, but I have yet to hear from them. So far no sitting in July and about 16 days in August for two different houses.

A co-worker invited me out to have dinner and a pitcher with him and his wife tonight. At first I wasn't going to go -- that socializing thing -- but, now it's not even 10:00 and I need a beer and a gyro.

Work is nuts. Mostly thanks to the HVAC renovation. Juggling people and rooms to stay a step ahead of the contractors. One faculty member and his lab members are absent so I have to clean his area out today. Luckily, it's the neatest of all of the faculty members so it's just schlepping books and computers and animal skulls for the most part.