A Secret Addiction....

~Excerpt from a Beethoven Love Poem on My Photo~

I have a dirty little secret....when I am in the throes of a major flare-up I need distractions. This latest flare has been horrific - I can't move my arms without stabbing pain, and my fingers feel like they are breaking. Normally I would make jewellery or knit to distract myself, but with these latest pains I can't use my hands as well as I have previously, so I did something I don't normally do: I watched television. Now, normally that isn't a bad thing as I usually watch science shows, but this time I couldn't stand anything heavy - I needed something light and fluffy.
Enter Sex and the City the Movie.
Oh my goodness. The storyline is pretty light, but the real stars (aside from the ladies, of course) are the clothing and accessories, the houses and the lifestyles of the rich and successful woman.
Okay, I really liked it for the clothes, shoes and handbags. I don't think I've seen so many guilty little pleasures all at once. Manolo! Vuitton! Westwood! Oh my. Although I want a very simple wedding, I have to say that the scene with the couture wedding gowns was incredible. If I had the lifestyle, I think I would have actually fainted at the sight of those dresses and not rested until I had one of my own.
One scene really got to me - Sarah Jessica Parker was reading love poems from historical figures and one was from Beethoven. Here it is:
Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us -
I can live only wholly with you or not at all -
Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits -
Yes, unhappily it must be so -
You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never -
Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves.
And yet my life in V is now a wretched life -
Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men -
At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection?
My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once -
Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together -
Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell.
Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.
ever thine
ever mine
ever ours

After hearing that I almost cried (okay I did actually cry) and I put the end of the poem on my photo of bleeding heart flowers.
The movie really emphasized the value of great friendships. Really good friends, really supportive, special people in your life. It really made me think - am I a good friend? Can I be a good friend when I am sick on the couch so much? Maybe I should get some Chanel - maybe that would really help me ;-)
So now you know my addiction. I am now addicted to Sex and the City. I'll be purchasing the movie and the entire television series the second I get the money. Fluff never looked so good (I think it's the Jimmy Choo's).
Meghann

New Window!...No Wait, Not Yet

~My Laughing Dog - A Sense of Humour in Our House is a Must~

Here's the back story for you: Last fall, Brennan was cutting the grass when he accidentally went over part of our gravel driveway with the lawn mower. It was over in a whiz-ping-tinkle kind of sound and the huge window in our living room had a crack in it. Not a huge crack, not terribly noticeable, but a crack nonetheless. In a low-E argon window, that spells certain doom and needs to be replaced. Well, we didn't because we couldn't afford it, and paid for it with more heating costs and a colder living room in the winter.
Enter this fall and we decided that we couldn't afford not to have the window replaced so we called the local window people (who shall remain nameless). They came out and measured the window and said that it would be about 10 days to have it manufactured and installed, with a cost of about $500 plus tax. We said okay (like we had a choice, lol). They called us at the beginning of the week and made an appointment to come out yesterday to replace it and we were happy.
Until the poor guy came to install the darn thing.
Turns out that it was just one guy to take out this giant window himself (though he seemed quite capable) and the giant window in question, being only 7 years old, gave him one heck of a hard time to come out. After much cutting and scraping, pulling and heaving (from the inside of the house and a precariously perched ladder in my front garden) it came out. Then the very nice man brought the new window in and started to install it. (Now, I should mention at this point that it was under ten degrees with a slight breeze that just happened to be coming directly in my windowless living room, so in addition to being exhausted from not having my morning nap, I was now very sore from being in a cold, draughty living room). I was sitting in my dining room, trying to stay out of the way and maybe even get my months-ignored accounting up to date, and the next thing I know, I hear very quiet muttering from the guy. Something like, "Come on, let's go, get in there!", "Why aren't you going in?", "No.", "You've got to be kidding me!" and finally, a comment that I won't write down, because if kids read it, their parents won't like it. I was trying not to smile at this point, because I should also mention that very early that morning, before the innocent installer came, I thought, "You know, I have a bad feeling that the window is going to be the wrong size," and sure enough, the window ordered was THE WRONG SIZE. The guy that came to measure (who was the BOSS) had taken 4 sets of measurements, 4 different times, and had done them WRONG. The poor installer, who seems like a really nice guy, had fought with the old window to take it out, bring it all the way down the slippery hardwood stairs of our high ranch house, take it outside the front door, and do the opposite maneuver with the new window, and all to find out it was 1/2 inch too wide. You really have to feel for this guy.
Now you are asking the point of this narrative, right? Well, other than saying that you have to stay positive, because any given situation could always be worse, I thought that one thing he did was hilarious. After all this fighting with the window, he goes outside to make a rather frustrated phone call to the office. What is hilarious is that he goes all the way outside, presumably so I don't have to hear him ream out the person at the other end of the phone, when there is no living room window and I can hear every single word he says! I had to laugh. After about 5 minutes of his furious tirade, he comes in and apologizes most profusely and says that he has to put the old window back in while they put a rush on the new one. What is sad is that he goes on to tell me that of the last 20 jobs he has had to install, the guy measuring has gotten all of them wrong, so he has had to un-install the original glass, try to install the new glass, and only to put the old one back in, or worse, in a house needing all new windows, it has to go another week or so with the elements coming in. You really have to feel for this guy.
On the positive, at least the window isn't smashed, so it is back in place (though I'm not sure how securely, as it isn't caulked in there). We have had it like this for a year, so obviously the sky won't fall if we have to wait another week. Plus, we have an extra week to try to come with the money for it so we don't have to put it on credit (not that we will necessarily, but we can try lol - buy my jewellery!!).
That's my story. I've been in a really bad flare the last week, so maybe it isn't as funny to you, but I did really think it was hilarious.
And I got my accounting up to date!
Meghann