Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Busy, Busy

"In times of great stress and adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive."

- Lee Iacocca

I opened up my inbox this morning and was greeted by this quote. I think I've embraced Lee's wise words wholeheartedly. I've been keeping busy, busy. So much so that I haven't got the energy to blog that much. I'm sure the lack of posts puts my dear sister in some distress that I'm lying dead somewhere or sulking. No worries...I'm so busy keeping my brain and body occupied.

It's been a month now since I've gone from a 2-person household down to one. To be honest, it kind of feels like longer. I spend my days less sad but still quite angry. I suppose it's all normal. To deflect those emotions, I pack my calendar. This past holiday weekend was a blur of activity. I spent a ton of time with Claire and little baby Andre. We had a family style dinner complete with SF drama of someone blocking a friend's neighbor's driveway which resulted in lots of standing around waiting for DPT and the tow truck to arrive to take the car away. Life in SF...people get frustrated looking for street parking and just park wherever they want. That ends up being a painful $300+ mistake! Sometimes...I just don't get people.

The next day was a lovely breakfast out with some shopping in my neighborhood before we went recliner shopping. I'm happy to say my head didn't explode from all the fabric choices! A lot of them were old-lady/old-man-ish and very unstylish. It made deciding pretty easy. I am hoping that when I see the recliner in real life, I am happy otherwise my head may explode for real! I hate deciding on little things that in the end cost a lot of money (i.e. fabric vs. entire chair). Then in the evening, I met up with a different friend and grabbed dinner and watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for the first time at the classic movie theater. What a fun movie! I am so glad I made it out there to see it on the big screen complete with wurlitzer performance before the show. Things like that make me very happy! I think I need to make a more conscious effort to go to the classic movie theater this summer. I mean, where else can you be entertained for 3-4 hours for $7. For the cost of the ticket, you can see either one movie or two (double feature) plus get a wurlitzer performance depending on the time you get there. Plus, a huge tub of popcorn and a huge soda will only run you $5 instead of your first-born like at the mainstream theater! It was a great day!

Sunday, Claire, Andre and I trekked to the Fillmore Festival. It's my favorite one out of all the ones put on throughout the summer. There's great jazz and this year, there was even a swing dance section with music, performances and lessons. It was fun to watch. I found a margarita booth and seeing as it was the 4th of July, I indulged greatly and was in need of a nap by the time I got home at 2pm. LOL I reconnected with an old friend on the phone and it was a nice and unexpected surprise! In the evening, I stopped by a friend's house for bbq with her and her family. I made sangria for the bbq and it was just a boozy day in celebration of our independence. My friend introduced me to True Blood and frankly...what a weird show! I know there's this whole vampire following but I don't think I can jump on that bandwagon.

The last day of my weekend was spent doing lots of laundry and stitching up a frenzy. I am *still* not done with Letter C! Ugh, I am so close though. I finished the cross stitching.

Now, it's onto the backstitching and the beading. I am so close, I can taste it! Since the picture above, I've completed about 2/3 of the backstitching. I think I will be finished by tomorrow...Friday at the latest. One can hope!

So I am keeping busy and trying to find the positive. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard and sometimes, it's unexpected.

One fun thing is that Deb is having a scissor frog giveaway. I want to win it!! I shouldn't be even telling you guys but I guess I'll do whatever I need to to increase my chance to win! lol

Until next time...

15 comments:

Natasha said...

Sounds like a great weekend Val. George is a True Blood freak LOL I say that with much love. Neither of us care for the whole twilight thing. frankly I find the twilight characters to be weird.

But True Blood, I was hesitant to watch becasue it was a vamp show but I just watch season 2 the last episode before the finale and it had me crying, I will admit it really is pretty good... Letter C is looking great!!! I am going to email you about gtgetgher
Take Care

Barb said...

Going through rough times, I learned that I just needed to throw myself into something whether it be knitting or school. It does help to keep busy if you can. Your weekend sounds fabulous! Wish mine could be so jam packed with fun, if only once in awhile! My life is so boring!

Hazel said...

Busy lady indeed! Hope you don't wear yourself out. Letter C looks fab. Can't wait to see the beads on it. It will look amazing. x

Margaret said...

That's great that you're keeping yourself busy. And it sounds like a fun busy too! Hope you like your recliner when it comes! Your letter C is really pretty! I can't get into the whole vampire thing either. There's a new book out called Passages that everyone keeps touting. But when i heard there were vampires of some kind, I steered clear. lol!

Jackie's Stitches said...

I've not seen any of the True Blood Episodes or read Twilight yet, but I hear a lot of conversation about both of them from people of all ages. I'm going to try and rent the first season of TB at some point to see if it's worth all the talk about it!

Letter C really is coming along. I'm not getting much stitching done as I'm at a spot I'm not enjoying. I just need to push through I guess.

Sally said...

Your letter C is gorgeous.

Sounds like you had a very busy weekend :)

Lisa said...

As seems to be the theme of the comments, I will ditto it all by saying: "you have really kept yourself busy"...sounds like they are lots of good fun and you are doing it with good friends. Can't ask for better things. Isn't funny, when you open your inbox and you receive a quote (or two) that really hits home. I have been experiencing that too, as you might have witnessed on my blog postings last weekend.

Your "C" is really coming along and is beautiful. Looks like Natasha is thinking about the gtg...let me know what you 2 decide. The boys have tryouts that day in SJ, so I might be able to find my way down there depending on their skating schedule.

Take care!

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri ~ Boog) said...

Sounds like a fun weekend! I love classic movies - especially on a big screen.

Your letter C looks great!

Katrina said...

Hugs!!!!! Hope you win the giveaway too :-).

Loving your letter C!

Hope things get easier soon and you come out stronger in the end.

Laura said...

I want a scissor frog sooo bad. You have competition now because I am headed over there to enter.

When I was in SF last year we went to a place called Foreign Cinema. Have you ever been there? It's a restaurant but they show old movies in the court yard. So many fun things to do in that city.

Great progress on Letter C. Oh, next time you make sangria send some my way!

Julie said...

Lots of nice activities packed into your weekend, it always nice to have a call from an old friend you haven't spoken to in ages, hope there are many more girlie chats with friends.

Siobhán said...

C looks great!

I'm glad you're keeping yourself busy. Hang in there. True Blood... I like it because I like the books, but the show is pretty bizarre with lots and lots of sex. Twilight is more my speed... I love Edward Cullen! It's not the vampire thing, either. My mother is positive that I am into vampires & has warned me that that isn't good for someone with anemia. ROFLOL Geez louise.

Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin said...

That's great Valerie! I'm happy to hear that you are keeping busy and letting the time go by. Time heals all wounds as they say :o)

What is a wurlitzer?

Fantastic! I bet you'll be glad to see this one done ;o) LOL!

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Carol said...

I'm so happy to hear that you've been able to stay busy and have so much fun on the weekends, Valerie! Gosh, I'm exhausted just reading about all the things you did... But, at 55, I like my weekends slow and relaxing :)

Not into the vampire thing either--really don't get it, but I think that is 'cause of my age!

Your "C" is looking fabulous :)