After an awful and brief heat wave concomitant with our AC breaking, we woke up last week to brisk fall air and falling leaves. Fall truly is my favorite time of the year, no matter where I live. To be sure, Minnesota has the best Fall, and London a close second. Poor Portland, per usual, is sub-par compared to every place else but even the cool rains in October were refreshing when we lived there (other than when they'd spook my horse).
We were determined to enjoy the weekend outside as much as possible, although commitments and household tasks acted as barriers to our plans. Saturday I spent the day at an energy healing training session which will lead next week to a visit to a horse barn where we work on animals. Saturday was truly a Portland day, with pouring rain all day long followed by jacket-wearing weather. It was Louisa's first day of music which I was sad to miss. While this class pales in comparison to the classes we took in Portland, Louisa loves the teacher, and the intimacy of the class allows Louisa to be her outgoing and affectionate self, sitting and cuddling the teacher to her heart's content. Amos then met my friend and her husband and child at a local synagogue for a Tot Shabbat which they enjoyed. I get a little uncomfortable with religious teachings that aren't, you know, Unitarian-we-love-everyone-everyone-is-welcome, something I haven't felt as much from Amos's religion, but he assured me it was only a little God-y and no signs alluding to Mideast conflict were displayed in the front yard of the building. I'll attend with them in a couple weeks. I appreciate spiritual teaching, as long as it is compassionate and not judgey.
Amos and LJ picked me up late afternoon and we went to a pizza place we frequent. We are always underwhelmed by the pizza but the ambiance is great and it's in our favorite neighborhood and generally there are cool people always there. I ate a lot and Louisa ran around the restaurant, as she does. Ugh, it's so exhausting. And I'm starting to think that people hate us. My friend always complains about her friends' kids (she has a one year old who hasn't entered the difficult phase yet). I've started to think, is this what people are saying about me?
Sunday, I rode our bike and Amos jogged with Louisa in the jogger for a morning workout. Super fun! Especially because it was such a bright, crisp morning. We shared a pumpkin latte after I had a massive nosebleed (story of my life) and we returned home to tackle the ever-cluttered house. Listen, I don't want a big house, I find them wasteful and too much to clean. Even when we move to Minnesota where rent and property costs are not so exorbitant, I'd prefer a small house on a large hobby farm over a massive edifice with corners to clean and rooms to heat. But, we are starting to feel the compressed size of this place, especially compared to our wonderfully open space in Portland. And something has to be done to address the superfluous stuff that has been encroaching on our everyday lives.
We have an action plan to declutter over the next six weeks which includes organizing the kitchen, installing more shelves, hanging curtains in the basement to conceal my pantry, the kitty litter, Amos's clothes and just smarter storage decisions. This is all to be completed before my mom's arrival in mid-October. This is my deadline given that we'd like to spend the weekend not only sightseeing with her, but also transforming LJ's room into a place she would like to be. And my mom is best at this. So Sunday after our run/bike, poor Louisa watched Tangled on the Kindle for 45 minutes while I organized our bedroom. I felt utterly guilty but reminded myself that (1) she enjoys the Kindle ("candle" she calls it) and (2) I have to accomplish something so our house doesn't deteriorate into squalor.
I made a homemade bolognese sauce that day that simmers on the stove for hours and Cristina came to enjoy with us. We were hoping to rent the movie Neighbors because it's the kind of movie the three of us would enjoy, but it was $17 On Demand. Too much. So we rented a movie, Kelly and Cal, that had received good reviews in my bible, EW. Wait. It was awful. And offensive. Like really offensive. This poor woman was struggling as a new mom, her husband worked constantly and offered little help, and in the end, she apologized to him for not coping well. We were all aghast. Even Amos who was raised and works in a distinctly male-entitled world was like, WTF. I assumed some apprentice of Woody Allen wrote it it was so horrible to it's female characters. The only woman with any sort of agency or voice was depicted as shrill and the only "resolution" at the end was this poor neglected woman begging her husband to forgive her after he had ignored her for the entire movie. It was like a farce. It pissed me off. We proceeded to watch Miss America and eat a lot of chocolate cake afterward.
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| LJ Sunday morning |
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