Category Archives: Bandwagons

Flotsam / Jetsam, National Blog Posting Month

The things we’re doing

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The weather has been just lovely here lately. We’ve been walking to the library and the playground, stopping along the way to pick up especially pretty leaves or to examine a flower or a bug or sometimes just a rock.

A very small amount of progress has been made around the house. Rockford put my plate display things on the wall over the weekend, and I ordered a loveseat from the internet. It arrived yesterday. It isn’t hideous, but I probably won’t order furniture online again. It’s smaller than I’d pictured it to be, and it’s much more blue than grey. But you can sit on it, and the living room was very much in need of something that fit that description.

Things I still need to do:

  • Decide on a paint color for the living room. It’s still primer white. I’ll probably go with something bright and neutral.
  • Tame the flower beds. The house has a very nice landscaped spot in front and a few flowerbeds around the sides, but they’re overrun with weeds. I’ve never done any gardening before, so I’m a little intimidated. I guess I’m just going to have to get in there and start yanking things out.
  • Finish unpacking. A resumption of unpacking would help. We still have quite a few boxes in the back of the basement, and I haven’t opened one in quite a while.

    • I know there are other things, but I keep getting distracted by the sounds of construction from next door, and by the breeze, and by the cat, and by paint samples. Which brings me to this: I’m having a hard time writing here lately. I’m hoping NaBloPoMo will pull me out of the writing funk. We’ll see.

    I think I just wanted to put something up here that wasn’t a menu plan, even though I can’t really think of anything to say.

    Mighty List

    I am preparing to party like it’s 1975

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    My hometown library was just across the street from the high school, and it was where my friends and I hung out after school before we could drive ourselves off to places better suited for making trouble. The library was marvelous, and we were living in an Arcade Fire song. There were a few record players — complete with gargantuan headphones — in the center of the main room, to the left of the circulation desk. That’s where Rockford spent most of his time. Just beyond the turntables was the “young adult” section. If I remember correctly, it was a pair of blue armchairs next to a few rotating racks of paperbacks.

    (The town where we grew up moved the library a few years ago, and I feel so sorry for the carless young nerds today who don’t know the joy of walking across the road to hang out at the library. Poor little things.)

    Anyway, one day a number of us youthful nerdlings were hanging out at the library. Rockford was most likely listening to albums, a few people were probably sitting in those chairs back by the paperbacks, and I’m sure someone was perusing the latest copy of “Rolling Stone” over in the periodicals section. But it was yours truly who found gold that day. Solid gold.

    Friends, our library had a book all about how to do The Hustle.

    (I hope you’re whistling to yourself now. I know I am.)

    The nerd-types gathered around, and we laughed and laughed, and much fun was made of those earnest purveyors of disco. And then I checked the book out, took it home, and tried to learn to do The Hustle. Did you know that you cannot learn to dance from a book? Well, maybe you can. I, however, cannot learn to dance from a book.

    That was the only run-in I’ve had with trying to learn how to dance. Many years later, I put “Learn to dance” on my Mighty List, and then I ignored it for a good long while. And then! On Monday night, I went to a ballroom dancing class with a friend. And we did The Hustle. I think. The instructor called it the nightclub merengue, but then he let it slip that it was also known as The Hustle if one danced to a disco beat. Which I do.

    My first dance partner looked a lot like this guy. It doesn’t get more awesome than doing The Hustle with that guy. (Unless you’re doing The Hustle with Rockford. I’m guessing that would be more awesome. Everything’s more awesome with Rockford. I’m trying to convince him to sign up.)