The Adventures of Paisley
Blue
Okay, it's been a few days since I've written and some interesting things happened. Let's see... today is Monday. A huge emergency disaster drill started today in Seattle, where a pretend bomb exploded at noon. From my office downtown I could hear dozens of firetruck sirens. I feel good knowing that our government is practicing for this kind of thing.
Last Tuesday night, the 6th, I went to the karaoke show at the Hana's. It was great. The one on Friday night was great, too. A new group of people came in and I hope to see them there again. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night's show.
Friday night Mechanic decided the computer's hard drive just had to be wiped. He'd been working for days trying to replace some very basic but corrupted or totally disappeared Windows98 files. The computer was getting more and more wacky, not running like it was supposed to... and he was getting very frustrated at the growing problems. Perhaps frustrated is an understatement.
Well, I agreed. It was time for the Big Erase. However, we wanted to back up the files we had on the hard drive, of which there were considerably many. Let's just say we needed to store about 10 gigs of files. Fortunately we have a CD-writable drive so I volunteered to find out who sold the best deals on CD's. First we discussed which kind we wanted. In the end, we decided on a few CD-RW but mostly CD-R's. The R's are cheaper, but the RW's can be used again and again.
I found the best deal. We picked up a spindle of 50 R's and a box of 10 RW's, plus a program to easily record the CD's. The program was originally marked $39.99, but marked down to $19.99. At the register the bar code scanned it at $6.99 and since it was right before closing, the clerk didn't want to try and find out what went wrong. So I walked out with all those items for under forty bucks. That made us even happier.
Mechanic did not go to the karoke show. Instead he spent almost the entire time from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon backing up files, wiping the hard drive, reinstalling Windows and all the programs, and restoring the files we wanted from the CD's.
It was gruelling but when it was over, the results were well worth it. The computer now runs fast, like it's supposed to, and without all those constant error messages. Yay for Mechanic!!
Saturday night I had the opportunity to call my sister's house. Turns out she and her husband were out on a date. They try to do a date night 2-4 times per month, in order to have some uninterrupted time to focus on each other and keep their marriage alive. My oldest neice was babysitting her five siblings, but they were all in bed. So she and I spent an hour and a half on the telephone.
I learned a great deal about her life, and she opened up to me on many subjects that I remember dealing with at that age. It's amazing for me to think that she is 13-years-old. I remember when... I used to change her diapers. She laughed at that. It's a generations-old ritual to tease teenagers about that time - and that was the first time I participated in it.
She shared with me a memory she has from when she was around five or six. We were at Grandma's house (my mother) in the family room. She recalled that she was sitting on the floor playing with two plastic spider rings from Halloween - one orange and one black. I asked if I could see them. For a moment I turned my back to her, and when I turned back around, a spider was hanging from each side of my glasses.
I told her, "Help! There's spiders on my glasses!" She laughed so hard she peed her pants. I had slid a ring on each arm of the glasses, then returned the glasses to my face. My niece said it was so funny she could not stop laughing, but then she had an accident, and it embarrassed her. I can see why she remembered that moment. A lot of intense emotions. A moment with her aunt etched in her memory forever. *happy grin*
Knowing some of the details of her life, I felt impressed to reinforce to her that I am always available to talk with, and that she can trust me. I made sure she still had my business card with my home phone number written on the back. (It's in her purse.) If she ever needs to call me, she can reach me collect at home. I just want her to know I'm there for her.
Sunday I called my mother and sister to wish them Happy Mother's Day. It's always a bittersweet day for me. I remember last year was very painful. This year it was agony beyond belief. I could barely stand to think about it. And yet... I wanted to acknowledge my role as a mother... even though my children never lived... were never born... Torn so deeply in two directions, I was frozen on the subject.
Michael was the only person in the whole world who wished me a Happy Mother's Day. I told him thank you, but that doesn't begin to convey how I feel. To me, in my heart at that moment, I was so grateful to him... for acknowledging... for remembering... even now I can't find the words I want.
And now today, the work week has started anew. With it came the start of my moontime, a poignant reminder of unfulfilled potential and possibilities. How ironic. The day was busy, cramps preoccupied my attention, and now I am just doing my best to stay distracted tonight. Soon, it will be time to sleep... and hopefully lose myself to the sweet dreamless sleep of Morpheus.
~Paisley Blue
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