The Busy-ness of Life

I’ve been quiet for awhile now, because I’ve had other distractions happening. Good distractions. Some busy-ness. Good busy-ness. And some laziness. Because I can.

Last Saturday I headed south to San Mateo, CA with the seats for my son’s van in the back of my vehicle. He had stored them in my garage when he moved to California after returning from teaching abroad, but now he needed them, so we agreed to meet in San Mateo a day early so we could have some time together before I picked up Kat from SFO. She is returning from teaching in South Korea and Thailand for the past five years. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven in real traffic, so I was dreading the drive through San Francisco but it turned out to be nothing like I had imagined – like so many things in my life, because I am an expert builder of mountains out of molehills.

Gep took me Elephant Bar with a view of water per my request
For a delicious dinner of Parmesan Chicken with Shrimp

After which we returned to our room to visit some more and to relax. Sunday we dawdled, then went to Panera Bread for lunch after moving the van seats from my car to his van. The day was gorgeous, but very windy, so after he headed home because he had to start his summer job the next morning I scuttled my plans to find a waterside Park to sit in and read. Oh yes, but before I scuttled those plans, I returned to my room. Or attempted to return to my room but –

it seems that my reservation, for whatever reason, got to the hotel as two reservations, which meant that when checkout time came, my room key was no longer valid. After some dithering and trying to figure out why my key wouldn’t work, I was escorted to the lobby desk by a hotel employee, where we discovered the issue, and it was rectified. But during that process, it was also discovered that I had a car which I was parking in their lot, and they have a $17.00 per night parking fee. Say what? Oh well, it is what it is.

Issue resolved, I returned to my room to do what it was I was going to do, then realized how strongly the wind was howling outside, and inside seemed a good place to be. We had made a stop at Trader Joe’s where I had picked up a salad, grapes and beverage – so I was all set for the rest of the day. Time to read, nap, and watch some television because Monday morning meant an early rising so I could pick up Kat and her four kitties, which was made more interesting by my failure to understand what garage I parked in – although I did not see any indications of which garage was where when I was entering it. So of course, I ended up in the one furthest from her arrival gate. Oh well, I got my exercise, we eventually got together, got everything in my car, and headed home where kitties were released into their part of the house, which is separated from the Shasta part of the house thusly, to keep peace because neither had met the other before It was good to be home, where we stayed for a couple of days before heading into our bigger town down the road aways to take care of some business for the Kat. She needed a cell phone – check – with a deal. It happened to be the last day of a promotion that included a free phone. Celebration!

She needed an eye exam. Check.

She needed a car because she will be teaching in north central Oregon this next year. We had been shopping online, found one in the bigger town down the road, as well as some in the big towns over the mountains, but the local car suited her needs, so we went to look at it. She loved it, spent the afternoon completing the purchase process, drove it home. Meet the Chevy Spark, Elpheba Sparkls. Car – Check.