crazy green plants

My crocus are up. Which is clearly insane. And I told them as much.

Last week, dear Brit and I headed out to Starved Rock. It isn't too far from here and it's a great trip through the flats of Illinois. It's really in the middle of nowhere. It's all flat and then- the road dips and curves, you go through the bar lined town of Utica and there you are.
Besides being a very large rock on the Illinois River, the park has many little canyons. Brittany remarked that it was like being in a different world. And it is. There's something very peaceful and beautiful about it. The air is very soft and gentle in the canyons. It is a very wonderful place.
I look forward to going in the spring. Apparently, there's a lot of wildflowers and all the ferns will spring back to life.

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Trendy, old and creepy

Soooo, ahhhh, yeah.

Working at work, minding my own business when this old lady comes up. Now I shouldn't say old. She was like later sixty-ish old. Old enough (TO KNOW BETTER). Errr, yeah. She had on this yellow beret and this outfit that old ladies buy when they have too much money and way too much time.
I didn't expect much out of her. She wanted me to a put a hold on “Healthy Aging”. Ok, ok. I remember that book from working at B&N (it's by this stocky old guy with a beard) so I'm typing in all the information and she's standing on the other side of the counter giving off rich old lady vibes. Kinda crackly. Yes, crackly. Like paper that is being scrunched.

Well, for some reason, I can't hold the book for her. Odd, I think and I take a moment to go ask someone why that is. Oh! It's because she's not a St. Charles patron (she's from Elburn and her library card says Elburn) and only St. Charles patrons get first dibs on new books. “Healthy Aging” is a new book. I tell her this in my distorted way. I don't communicate the best when people are crackling like paper in front of me.
She scowls. She crackles. And she says, “You're discriminating against me.” For a moment, I didn't think she was serious and I just Smiled. I mean Smiled. I thought she was kidding around. And in the second I smiled, I realized she was Not kidding. She was deadly serious. I wiped the smile off my face in that next split second but alas, she caught it. I'm not sure how she took it because the next thing she said was, “Yes, that's right. That's how it is.”

Anyway, blah blah blah, I wouldn't (and couldn't) hold it for and said she could speak to my supervisor, which she said would be useless (which was true). And woah. Woah. I wish I could have died laughing. I'm glad I smiled. It wasn't a pretty smile. It was a mocking smile. Yeah. Old white ladies get descriminated against. You know how it is, folks.

Antiwheat days

I sit here swatting at fruit flies and further procrastinate on the daily writing grind. Oh! I'm writing, yes! but not on what I should be writing on. And it's really not much of a grind to write out a story that has beautiful mythological elements- but I still have to procrastinate over it because it's work.

Well, I got all hardcore today and made a pizza dough out of wheat-free mix. My first time using yeast and thank God, it was a success. Wheat-free flours or mixes are always a little funky and this pizza dough was too but it's definitely good enough to eat and eat…and to keep eating. Success, in my book.
Oh- and in case you don't know, I'm allergic to wheat and dairy. I can only take one letting go of at a time and wheat is the first. It's a slow process, this letting go of wheat. In case you haven't noticed, we live in a society saturated in wheat. I'm surprised there aren't wheat babies yet (whatever that means). Eating food without wheat is very tricky. In most cases, I can get around it but the two things I can't resist are 1. pizza and 2. hamburgers. It's hard to order a salad when there is pizza to be had. It's darn well impossible. I did bravely resist all forms of incredible sandwiches and had a salad on Sat. at this rockin independent bookstore cafe but that wasn't pizza, was it? Or a hamburger.
So yeah. If I eat wheaty things I get tired. Not just tired but oh my god I just turned into an eighty year old sort of tired.

So yeah. That was babbling enough.

getting to blockbuster before it closes- maybe

It is nearly midnight and in an attack of “I don't want to go to bed! I think I'll watch a scary movie!”, I noted to Jeff that I might watch “Skeleton Key”. Not that I really want to but it's the only thing Comcast has that's remotely scary without being too kitschy. Apparently this didn't sit well with him and he announced after a sigh of disgust that he would go to Blockbuster and find me something else.

I hope he gets there in time. I listened to him trying to start his car for a good few minutes before he finally left. I know the true secret of why he went to Blockbuster. He just wants to get “Lord of War” (which I refuse point blank to watch). I wonder what he'll get me. I suggested “The Fog” because I laughed myself silly when I read the premise for it. This also made him sigh in disgust but I think it'll be funny and scary rather then “Skeleton's Key” plain scariness.

So he's out there somewhere- on Randall Road, I hope. I asked him if he needed directions but this only emitted Further disgust from him when he yelled out “No!” and hopped.

And yeah, I know I'm pretty lucky to have such a nice husband that goes out near midnight just to bring home a movie or two. Because I know he'd do it even if my back wasn't out.

Well, here's crossed fingers that he gets there in time.