Friday Randomness

This has been a lovely, relaxing week. I’m up against my PTO cap, which means that if I don’t take some paid time off, I will stop accruing. My company drastically lowered our cap a few years ago (it was admittedly pretty high), and when they did that I didn’t accrue any time for about a year and a half. I don’t want that to happen again. So, I took the week off. We have July 2nd and 3rd as company holidays this year, so I get 5 days off but only have to take 3 vacation days. Or in this case, staycation days. What, one might ask, did I do with myself?

I took me to lunch! One day, I went to one of my very favorite restaurants and had my very favorite salad and a glass of wine for lunch. It was lovely! I thought I would read while I ate, but the lettuce leaves are not really cut, so I ended up just eating and relaxing, and it was really nice.

I rode public transportation and got all judgy! I was on a bus in San Francisco one day, and could not help myself, I had to take a picture of this young man’s pants. I mean, he has a belt. Couldn’t he pull up his pants a tiny bit? How is this still a thing? When he got up to disembark, he pulled them up a smidge, but the waste was still really, really low, around his ass and not his waist. It reminds me of Cher in Clueless, “Look at them. Fall out of bed, put on some baggy pants… and like, we’re expected to swoon? I don’t think so.” As if.

I looked at art! I met up with my friend Elaine, with whom I worked at my hotel job when I was in college. She lives in San Francisco, and was interested in going to see the Monet in Venice exhibit with me. I love Impressionist and Post Impressionist art, so this was right up my alley. In his art, Monet said he was not so much trying to capture the water or the buildings or the trees and flowers, but the air and the light. You get a real sense of that.

He painted so many of his subjects over and over again, which is fine and wonderful, but seeing them together like this somehow didn’t work for me. I wanted to look at one of them, but not all of them. All in all, I’m glad I went, and I’m glad I have a membership so I didn’t have to pay for the special exhibit price to get in. I noticed that some of the paintings were on loan from the Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, which reminded me that Elisabeth went to an art museum while she was visiting Rachel, and probably would have had a special appreciation for these paintings, having so recently been to Venice…but alas, they were here. And I’m pretty sure she went to a different museum anyway, but I wasn’t thinking that while I was there.

I looked at flowers! The de Young museum is in Golden Gate Park, so while we were there, we went and checked the progress of the flowers in the dahlia garden. They’re coming along quite nicely, though I think they will be at their best in about 5 or 6 weeks.

I stopped to visit my friend, Katie. Katie died from cancer a few years ago, leaving behind her husband and two teenaged daughters. They installed a bench in the park for her recently. When Katie’s sister Gretchen goes to visit, she tapes photos to the bench, which I assume are removed by park staff. I taped a picture of Katie with our friend Janet, at Gretchen’s wedding back in 2011. Janet and Katie were BFFs, and this loss has been especially hard on her.

I played word games! I got my Wordle in 2 one day this week. I always start with the same word, PRICE. From there, I have a few rules, which are in honor of Mulder. If, after putting in PRICE, the word could be STEAK, I use STEAK. If it could be STAKE, I use STAKE (because Mulder was very smart, but not a great speller. Also, our girl Genevieve pronounced it “STAH-KAY”, which seems like it would be spelled STAKE.) If the work could be PUPPY, I use PUPPY. I was happy to see that pop up for him. Coincidentally, I saw a Keeshonden (Mulder’s breed) when Elaine and I were walking around the area near the park looking for a place to eat. Keeshonden are not a common breed, so it’s always exciting to see them. I feel like I see maybe one every year.

Today is our 33rd wedding anniversary. 33 years on the 3rd of the month feels kind of like making a wish at 11:11 for some reason. I hope this means it will be a lucky year for us, or at least a lucky day. I’m not sure what we will end up doing, other than going for a nice dinner in San Francisco.

For me, the meaning of marriage is choosing each other, again and again, every day. Some days that is easy, you are on the same page and have stars in your eyes and pink puffy hearts and all of that. Some days it is more difficult, you bug the crap out of each other. And some days you don’t know if you can make it work. On those days, you might stop to consider…is this person on my side? Do they want what is best for me? Are we a team? Ted and I have been together for so long, we have had all of these days. They tend to cycle, but overall, we have so many more good days than bad. I always want Ted to be on my side, fighting for me, believing in me. I always want to be on his side, fighting for him, believing in him. We have a good life.

Happy 4th to my American friends. Stout hearts, things are rough right now. They have been rough before. Let’s make it better. For my Canadian friends, Happy belated Canada Day! And to everyone else, I hope your summer is going well and that you are not melting in summer heat.