An Odd Day

I had one a strange flip floppy day where good and bad flukey things kept happening. Don't know if I can recall them all at the moment - perhaps because I celebrated finishing the taxes with a wee bit of vino. But I'll do my best.... *computer screen shimmers and fades into a series of flashbacks*

I went to the thrift shop today, the one that's only open a few times a week for a few hours. I'm trying to make it there once a week in my search for a couple of specific items for my Faerie garb for this year's festival. Before I even got in the door, I spied a box of PErFeCT for me set of cappuccino cups and saucers. The woman who runs the shop offered them to me for a great price and I carried them inside and set them on the counter until I was done shopping. They were clinking around in a plastic sack and I was afraid I'd chip them. But people make little piles on the counter ALL THE TIME. I found another good coffee cup for Hubby and some pretty coasters that match my living room decor. Then I went into the back of the shop where the clothing is displayed and, although I didn't find either of the items I'm searching for, I found a great piece for one of the skinnier faeries in our group, a lovely book about the seasons, and two fae-ish skirts for me to wear any time.

I brought it all up to the counter in order to pay, looked around. "Where are my cups?"

The youngish woman behind on the other side of the counter looked around and then said "Oh, no! I sold them to that other lady!"

She'd known they were mine, she'd even offered to put them in a box instead of the bag - which she then did. But this other lady apparently had set her stuff on top of my stuff and she just started checking things out and .... well, sold them to someone else.

They weren't even priced, so I am highly suspicious. I think the other lady WANTED them and intentionally didn't say anything when they were added to her purchase. I mean, who "accidentally" buys five extra cups and saucers and a stack of coasters, huh?

The manager was standing there too and I was just sort of speechless, hoping that I was imagining it all. And then I said something snippy about wishing that she hadn't put the cups in the box until I'd come up to pay for them (thinking that it would have been more difficult to accidentally buy a bunch of loose pieces), which I immediately felt bad about because the girl obviously felt bad enough already.

The manager, a really nice woman, we know each other from years of chatting back and forth, as folks do in a small town, felt really bad too and she then grabbed a bag, threw the rest of my stuff into it and said "Free". I objected, she insisted she'd feel better. I felt bad because the stuff I got for free was priced a lot more than the cups I "lost", but I also felt better about them being so nice. On the way out of the shop I stroked some pretty silk scarves and she popped those into my bag as well.

So, wierd. Maybe the lady didn't mean to buy the cups. Maybe she'll get home and take things out of the car and go "Huh?!" and bring them back. Maybe. But if not, I have to "let it go".

But they were sooooo pretty....

But so are my new skirts.....

Okay. Let it go. Moving on.

I went to the school to get a copy of William's track meet schedule. He kept forgetting to bring one home for us. And I needed to coordinate the family's schedules for the rest of the week. I went into the office and stated my request to a woman who glanced at me briefly from behind the counter where there's a really large work desk area with two doors opening up on both the right and left side, and three more doors on the back wall.

The woman listened to my request and then disappeared, stage left. She then appeared and strode quickly, disappearing stage right. Another woman came out of one of the right hand doors and disappeared into one of the back doors. Someone else came out of another back door and went through a door on the right and then popped back out and went into a door to the left that no one had used yet. The second woman came out of the other left hand door and went back across to the right hand door she'd first come out of. Another woman came out of a back door and went left. The orginal woman moved from right to left again and then popped back into view only to go through a back door. A fourth woman went..... oh, never mind . It goes on like this for a another few minutes and then finally the second woman, NOT the original woman who listened to my now long ago request, came out of the back door waving two papers and set them in front of me on the counter. I felt like I had just witnessed a very complex choreographed Act III in a comedy play.

Not as comedic, the two papers, one which appeared to be the requested schedule, came with the following news. William's report card will be arriving in the mail tomorrow and he GPA are now officially so low that he will not be able to continue to be on the track team. That is, without using a one time waiver allowing him to continue to participate in an extra curricular activity even with his grades in the crapper.

As if on cue - maybe it was some sort of karmic theatre? - William's football coach came in and caught the end of the conversation and started to say "You're gonna use the waiver on tra...." and then stopped himself, shook his head, and exited stage right. I have to admit I can see his point, although that's not my first concern. My first concern is the whole idea of allowing a waiver in the first place. Perhaps there are circumstances when it would be appropriate to use but this isn't one of them. We've been helping, questioning, demanding, cajoling, inquiring, questioning, confused, frustrated, and any other verb you can throw in here trying to convince William that his ever decreasing GPA over the last FOUR semesters is unacceptable. There doesn't seem to be any logical punishment or natural consequences that have or will help in this particular situation, but I certainly can't justify rewarding him by signing this waiver.

Next - went to the library. Returned some library books. Uhmmmmm...... I don't think anything wierd happened.

I had a half hour before my appointment with the tax lady. My breakfast seemed long ago. So I decided to try the newly reopened Port-a-Sub next door to the library. They had a poster on the front door offering "NEW Mini Grilled Sandwiches and Wraps - Only $3.99" I ordered one. The kid behind the counter didn't know what I was talking about. I explained what I wanted again. He said that I must mean the breakfast grills. No. I walked back out and looked at the poster and said I meant the regular ones. Still confused. We both went outside and looked at the poster. Then he excused himself and went to some back office to ask some invisible person about the wraps. He came back and said I could have one but they didn't have any small wraps so he'd half to make it on a large wrap (meaning the tortilla it's wrapped in). Fine with me. He proceeded to make me this humungous grilled wrap and charged me $3.99. I ate half. I saved the other half for dinner tonight. I thought the universe was trying to be nice to me because it had lost my cappucinno cups.

I had our taxes done this year because it's been a decade since we've had an outsider do them and I thought it might be useful to make sure I was doing them correctly. That, and I was just sick and tired of doing it myself. It turned out that I had been doing a few things incorrectly, although because we ended up not needing to itemize for a few years, it hadn't cost us anything in real money. She also knew of a few new things I wasn't aware of and answered my questions about some money issues we'll be facing next year. So in the end, it was well worth the cost of the appointment. I was glad for that.

I took Rosie out to pee just awhile ago and in the dark I heard the neighbor's dark start to bark. A few barks later it turned to wild squealing and then sudden silence. It was very disturbing. We have coyotes. We have mountain lions. It was dark. My flashlight decided to choose that moment to go dead. There was no way to go see what happened. I have to hope that the owners were home and went out to check things out. I'm still freaked out.

Two more days to get the backyard and assorted outside spaces ready for our big weekend of digging and fixing. I got my brick walkway all dug up tonight, the bricks stacked tight against the house to be re used. It bums me out that all that work of designing and laying the walkway - undone. I can't think about it. All the fences we have to take down. Still worried about losing my apple tree. I have to just. not. think. about. it. I'm holding onto my friend Kathy's comment -

"If this was happening to me, so that I wouldn't think about everything that was getting torn apart, in my head I'd just start planning my brand new back yard design."

So, there is that.

I'm rambing, huh? I mean, rambling. It's probably the win. Wine. Why didn't someone say something? Okay, so I'll shut up now. I'll show you some photos instead.

You like my new lawn ornaments?

Is this a stop smoking campaign? Or a sports challenge?

Last night's late night dinner. Veggie stir fry. With the black beans, it didn't even need any sauce.

THE END