Meme Monday

(I don’t have a caption for the picture…it’s a beautiful picture that Maya took at the Musee D’Orsay in Paris last summer, but I don’t know the artist. I just like it and thought I would share it with you.)

Thankfully, Nance did a meme a few weeks ago, or perhaps August would have escaped me without a blog post. So, without further ado, here we go.

J is:

Wearing:  Capris and one of my NYDJ tops. It’s my summer uniform. I love the tops because they are light and loose and do not make me feel gross and sweaty in the summertime, which I hate. Also slippers, as my arthritis means I cannot go barefoot for long. I adore my Vionic slippers, they have excellent arch support.

Reading:  The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin. Siblings go to see a fortune teller, who tells them each (separately) the dates that they will die. The novel goes on to tell about how this fear (or perhaps knowledge) affects them. I’m 2 siblings in, 2 to go.

Working On:  Gardening. We have a townhouse, and a small shaded yard, which limits my options of what to plant. This weekend, I bought some potting soil for the potted plants, and some regular soil for the ones in the ground. I added some fertilizer where needed, did some pruning and raking, watered and swept and generally tidied, which made me feel accomplished. So actually, not STILL working on, but I worked on it over the weekend, and it looks much better now.

Hearing:  Like Nance, I am listening to the air conditioner. I hate it. I LOVE IT, and am thankful for it, but I get tired of the drone of it, and I do not enjoy the cold air blowing on me. Ted read somewhere that George W. Bush has a house with pipes of cool water that go through the walls to cool the house ambiently, which sounds perfect to me. I would love cool, livable air, without the stupid cold air blowing on me, or the noise of it all.

Making For Dinner: Not sure yet. Last night, Ted made pork chops with homemade applesauce and garlic bread (and salad). It was lovely. I’m going out for dinner with a friend tomorrow, which means I need to make something that will give Ted and Maya at least a start towards dinner, as they get home kind of late.

Thinking About:  My sister, and her cancer treatment. She is doing as well as we could hope for so far, feeling crappy but has a very positive attitude and is very thankful that she works at a school, so mostly has the summer off, and her husband is a teacher, so he is there to help her out, and she has a lot of support through her work community (mostly parents at the school) and family. So scary, I am terrified and hoping for the best, and am thankful for my friends who are cancer survivors who are helping me through this.

Planning: The big thing in our life right now is an upcoming wedding. Ted’s cousin is getting married in early September. She is having two ceremonies, one Hindu, one western. The pundit (who is also Ted’s mom’s cousin) who performed our wedding ceremony 26 years ago will again fly from England to perform this one. A lot of family from England and all over the U.S. will be here, so it should be a good party. We went and bought clothes (sari, kurta) for the Hindu ceremony. I’m looking forward to that, and hopefully the weather will be nice. We don’t really worry too much about rain in early September here, but the fog could come in and make it cold and windy, and of course, it could be hot, like 105 or so, though thankfully it is usually dry heat. We shall see, and obviously hope for no fires making the air unbreathable while we are at it.

4 Comments

  • nance

    It’s good to hear of your sister’s support network. And that her job (and her husband’s) allows this time away from work without penalty. There are several practical perks to a career in education.

    Gardening–in its various forms–is such therapeutic work. I like anything that shows the results of my efforts, and gardening does that in a big way. It sounds like you really got busy out there in your yard. I need to get back out in my herb garden and weed and grab basil and parsley for pesto, once this rain lets up. It’s been a very good year for basil (thank goodness).

    Glad you got a post up. I always like hearing from you.

    • J

      Yay for pesto! Yes, I think that the instant gratification is one of my favorite things about gardening. Obviously I don’t plant many seeds, that is not fast enough for me.

      Yes, I think my sister is very glad for her profession right now!

  • Ally Bean

    I often find myself wondering about what to make for dinner, thinking ahead, but never quite following through until the last minute. It’s amazing how just a little bit of maintenance in the garden makes it look so much better. I think it’s one of the reasons I like to mess around outside in the yard– *almost* instant satisfaction.

    • J

      Ted and Maya get home kind of late, so if we waited for them to get home and have them cook, I think it would be problematic. Also, I like to cook, and I like to decide what we are going to eat most of the time (though I do get pretty tired of that), and I work from home, so cooking is my job during the week, Ted’s on weekends. Tonight is Salmon Salad Niçoise. It’s 103 outside right now, so salad sounds good to me.