Meme Monday
This is pretty much how I feel when I don’t wear makeup. I didn’t feel that way when I was younger, but now the years of sun damage really show. Sigh. Anyway, this isn’t a post about much, just catching up, and I thought the meme was funny.
These are our seats to see Peter Gabriel in concert last Wednesday! It was a great show. The seating for the upper levels is REALLY steep, however, and tightly packed, so much so that I didn’t even feel comfortable standing up to dance, I was afraid I might fall. Those fancy rooms you can see across the way look like the way to go, though our seats were not cheap, and I can only imagine how much those were. Anyway, the concert was great, Peter Gabriel still has an amazing voice and a wonderful gift of storytelling. The concert was in two acts, the first of which was almost all songs from his upcoming album, I/O. He’s been releasing one song per month, on the full moon. It’s really good so far. The second act seemed to be mostly from his album So, with a few exceptions. If you’re a fan, this article has some videos from earlier in the tour.
Thursday I took the day off from work, because I didn’t want to be worrying about getting to bed after the concert. Good move, it felt good to sleep in until 8am. My body rarely lets me do that anymore. I went to the local nursery and bought some potting soil and some fall decorations, then came home and did some yard cleanup and basic gardening. The flowers and pumpkin above are the extent of my Halloween decorations.
I still have Fridays off from work, which I love. This Friday, I went to lunch with Ted’s mom, whom I also love. We went to a restaurant at the marina near her house, where I enjoyed linguine with clams and she had shrimp tacos. I rarely have linguine and clams at home because Ted is low carb and Maya hates clams. A perfect solution is to have it at restaurants. We had a lovely time.
Saturday morning I went for a walk and tried to see the eclipse. We weren’t in the main path for the ring of fire, but still it’s usually pretty cool. I tried taking some pictures using the selfie mode on my phone, so I wouldn’t look at the sun, but it didn’t work very well. It was cloudy anyway, and mostly just darker than it should be for that time of morning. Thankfully the clouds parted in time to see some of it, and I came across a family, and the daughter had made an eclipse viewing box out of a cereal box, and they let me take a peek there, which was very cool. Maya was out of town for a wedding, and Ted and I went to the Farmers’ market, then ran some other errands, and got our flu vaccines. I had intended to get my COVID booster, but you have to have an appointment for those, and I couldn’t get one. I think I will make an appointment at a small locally owned pharmacy instead. That’s where I get most of my vaccines anyway. After the errands, I made some popcorn and watched ‘Three Weddings and a Funeral’, which I haven’t seen in a long time and really like. Sunday was low key, went for a walk, did some blogging, read my book.
I think all weekends should be four day weekends, don’t you? With full pay, of course. Or perhaps a raise, since you have more time to go out and spend money.
18 Comments
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I think all weekends should be four day weekends! In a past job of mine (before all of the WFH stuff) some departments (not mine) got to do a 9/80. This meant they had every other Friday off, but worked 9 hours a day. I found it ironic, since we were kind of given too much work to do in an 8 hour day and so often worked 9 hours or 10 hours anyway, but for me, I still worked 10 of them! I was also always jealous of a friend of mine who works for the public works department, where they do 4 x 10 hour days. Again, I pretty much have always worked 9-10 hour days anyway, so only doing four of them would be great!
J
Kyria, I hate the idea of putting in the long hours but not getting the Friday off, that blows. My company started giving us 32 hour work weeks last summer, probably to attract/keep people in such a tight labor market. They changed it in January, but how it has changed varies from team to team. For our team, it’s 32+ hours, meaning we work 8 hours Mon – Thurs, and if something comes in on Friday that needs to be done, we do it, but otherwise we have a 3 day weekend. I’ve never had to put in more than 3 or 4 hours on a Friday, and usually I just check my email and that’s it. We are a good team and can plan around the possibility. For example, since I was going to lunch with my MIL on Friday, I could tell my team, “If something comes in I can work on it Friday morning, but need to leave by 11”, or something like that. Or even, “I’m not available this Friday.” Someone always is available to take care of something if it comes in. This is not how it is for some teams, though. Some of them work 5 days a week (some 9 or 10 hour days, 5 days a week, mostly programmers), some do the 9/80, some do 4 10s. It depends on your manager (like your place it sounds like), and also on the workload.
nance
I love Peter Gabriel’s music. He’s just consistently good, and his voice is so distinctive. He’s also very socially responsible. His song about the South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko is haunting.
Your philosophy about ordering linguini and clams at restaurants is a good one. I’m sort of that way about fish. I recently began trying fish, which I’m not all that fond of usually, by getting it at our favourite restaurant. They do everything beautifully, and as a result, I’ve begun to like fish. I know I’ll never cook it at home, so I order it when we go out to eat instead.
J
Nance, when Peter and his team came out for their finale, I told Ted I hoped it would be Biko, it’s one of my favorites of his songs. Happily, it was! A perfect song to end the night on, because you can really draw out the ending and just have the drummer stay on stage. The audience filled in the vocals near the end, and Peter slyly left, along with the other band members. Truly a great song, and as you say, haunting.
Fish can be tricky to cook at home. I have a few recipes that I know work, but plenty that don’t. Like you, if I know a restaurant is good, I’ll order the fish, because I know it will be tasty.
Ally Bean
We had to have an appointment for our flu shots but not our Covid boosters. The randomness of the ways in which our healthcare system works never cease to amaze me. I wouldn’t be dancing in those seats either. Glad the concert was fun.
J
Ally, interesting about the vaccines, isn’t it. Hmmm. Yeah, those seats were STEEP.
Nicole MacPherson
Lolololol I feel that meme!
J
Me too!
Margaret
Our trip to see the eclipse was well worth it although John was much more excited than I was. We had a lot of fun along the way which also counts. I wear some make up but not enough to cover up the sun damage, sadly. Old age doesn’t help either!
J
Margaret, there’s that! I look at old pictures and wonder why I don’t look like that anymore…then I realize I’m inching toward 60…
Lisa's Yarns
I rarely wear make up! I have found that my skin is much healthier without it. I would look better if I wore it but then I’d have all these blemishes. So I wear the absolute bare minimum and since I’ve never been big on wearing make-up, I don’t think I look all that different! But I know I am in the minority around make-up wearing!
J
I didn’t wear a lot of makeup either until I got older…something about the uneven skin that makes me feel crummy if I don’t. I mean, I always wore mascara because my lashes are light, but that used it be it. Sigh.
Suzanne
Four day weekends, yes!!!!
Love that meme. It is so true these days. I’m really rocking the haggard look.
J
Sometimes I can’t believe it’s me in the mirror, then I realize I’m inching toward 60, so what can they expect?
Elisabeth
I love long weekends. There is something so happy about that extra day (or two) to get work done AND recuperate.
J
Elisabeth, me too! I LOVE having an extra day off every week. Friday is generally my day to just do what I want, which is really nice. In this case, I had Friday with Maya too, she took the day off since she was going to a wedding.
San
I don’t know if you know that I work a 4/10 schedule and I LOVE my Fridays off. I wouldn’t want it any other way anymore. My work days are long, but the Friday off is so worth it.
I am glad you were able to use that extra long weekend for something fun.
I was out for a run on Saturday morning during the partial solar eclipse (I totally forgot about it) and just noticed how eery the light was … haha. And then I looked at my watch and remembered.
J
San, the light was eerie, wasn’t it? It was cloudy enough and we were out of the main path, so it wasn’t dramatic, just weird.
I love a 10/40, I think I do remember that you have that. It’s so nice to be able to do other things when it’s not the weekend, isn’t it?