Who Knew Laundry Was So Tiring?

I am so very far behind on so very many things in life right now. Some days I feel like I'm so far behind eventually I'm going to come around and encounter myself. So, of course I'm writing a blog post instead of actually accomplishing things. Tonight I'm blaming this stupid cold that's continuing to hang around. In good news, it's not affecting my lungs as much, which is good, but I've blown my nose so many times I think it might fall off at some point. The hubby is also sick and has spent the entire day in bed. I managed to get up and go to the store earlier, but have spent a good chunk of the day in bed as well. In the last hour I folded laundry and cleaned the kitchen and now I'm exhausted. This cold is no joke. 

I figured looking at shoes would cheer me up and wouldn't involve a lot of energy, and I was right. I typed in "laundry shoes" and found a brand called Chinese Laundry. I really like these two pairs:

They're all the things I like: Blue! Stripes! Wedges! Ankle strap! I rarely wear heels anymore, but I still very much like to look at them.

Well, it's 8:30 and time to sleep, or at least read for awhile and then sleep.

Stripes

On Sunday I went outside to clip the dogs' toenails.  While I was out the hubby joined me and decided we should clean the grill.  30 minutes later and:

Yeah.  I even SAID, I'm going to burn, I should go put on sunscreen.  But did I?  Noooo.  Because I am a dork like that.  The hubby, who isn't as pigmentationally challenged as I am keeps saying, "but you were only out for 30 minutes!  How is it possible to burn that fast?"  Oh, it's possible.  Welcome to the land of Pasty-ville, hubby!

Tonight's shoes are red and white striped in honor of my silliness.

I'll take a pair of each, please and thank you.

Now, let's talk about my less than stellar landlord, OK?  In February we had a storm that blew down part of the fence in the backyard, so we called the landlord.  He told us we needed to go talk to the neighbors so they could share the cost.  It turns out that they were in India for 2 weeks, but we spoke with their 20ish year old son who said he would pass the message on to his parents when he talked to them.  The landlord then started (all in phone calls and emails to us) demanding updates, complaining that they should be able to authorize repairs from India, berating their parenting skills that they didn't raise their kid better, and finally telling us we had to call India and get their authorization.  Um sure, I'll just pick up the phone and call and entire country to find one couple who are just trying to visit their family.  Eventually they came home and we got things sorted out.

In April when the World Traveler was here she said the toilet in the guest bathroom was running.  We turned off the water and called the landlord. The handyman he uses came out and fixed it, so no drama, really, except that now every time we talk to the landlord he reminds us that the toiled cost him $100 to fix.

Last week when it was super hot our ac went on the fritz.  It kind of works, but if it gets over 95 it basically stops and we have to turn it off for several hours and then it will kind of work again.  So we called the landlord.  He told us to call 3 ac people to get quotes.  We got a guy to come out who said that basically it's an old unit and it's also too small for the size of the house.  His recommendation was to replace it.  The landlord informed us that no other tenant has complained about the ac in 20 years and he isn't going to spend the money to replace it.  He told us to buy fans and "go to the mall when it gets really hot."

On Sunday this past weekend our water heater died.  Monday we called the landlord.  He told us to call a plumber (noticing a theme here?) and then proceeded to tell the hubby that he really doesn't have time for this, that we are becoming a nuisance to him and we are giving him a headache.  We had PG&E come out on Tuesday to see if they could light the pilot light, but they couldn't and the guy said he thought it was the thermal coupler.  So we called the handyman again, who came out yesterday to replace the part.  Turns out that wasn't it, that he needed to get parts.  He let us know today that he had to order the parts and the won't be in until Monday or later.  He's also worried because he can't get in touch with the landlord who is currently in Canada and has turned his phone off.  

Really, the man is a peach, don't you think?

On the plus side, when it gets really hot at least I can take a cold shower...

Happy

After last night's wallowing session I promised to do a happier post tonight, so here it is.  Today was actually a really good day.  A dear friend/angel called me this morning to ask about the storage unit and see if she could help.  I'm dreadfully tired of asking people for help, but she was so sweet and somewhat insistent.  We went to the storage unit place and found out that they screwed up with their advertising and aren't having an auction in June, so we actually had another month.  Notice they didn't let us know that particular bit of information.  But the good news remains that the storage unit is safe.  We are going to get our stuff out of there and close out our contract.  They have raised the rates 4 times in the last 2 years and our monthly fee has doubled, so we need to just to find room at home for everything.

Anyhoo, I was going to write tonight about my awesome friends anyway, this awesome friend just gave me one more reason.  I've been thinking that for all of it's crazy stressfullness, 2017 had been lovely in terms of catching up with friends.  I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the Camp/Author Friend being here for a visit and how wonderful it was to see her. I hadn't seen her in a couple of years.  In fact, we tend to hang out in June:  The last time she visited was in June, and the only time I have been to her house was in June.

A few weeks before that a friend from seminary was here for an overnight visit.  (Oh dear, she needs a nickname, and I've already used Seminary Friend...)  This particular friend is possibly one of the coolest people I know.  She's hilarious, smart, engaged, passionate, and since I've known her has lived in:  California, Washington, Ohio, New Mexico, England, Boston, Washington DC (twice), Niger, and is soon to move to Belgium.  Oh!  I will call her the World Traveler!  On a side note, I am from Montana and married a man from Ohio.  The World Traveler is from Ohio and married a man from Montana!  Really, it's just another reason to love her. I actually wrote a post about her visit, which I just now remembered.

In March (I think?  Hooray for Swiss Cheese Brain!) The Texas Friend was in the Bay Area with her significant other who was on a business trip.  I hadn't seen her in almost 7 years, since I went to Dallas for a visit in 2010.  She was the happiest I had ever seen her, which was really really great, and was a balm to my own heart.

Last week, I had a lovely Skype chat with The Coffee Friend who very sweetly agreed to be on my Bible Study Podcast.  I haven't seen her in person since 2006 when I was driving home from internship and spent the night with her and her husband in Wisconsin.  I'm so glad I got to chat with her and catch up.  It was the Sunday after that her beloved Labradoodle died, and I'm glad I got to talk to her before that.

I've said before that I have amazing friends, and 2017 has simply been more proof of that.  I am grateful to all of you who have loved and supported me even when I'm grumpy, depressed, freaking out, wallowing, whatever. 

Now, on to shoes!  I went to my handy-dandy ideas folder tonight and just chose a bunch that made me happy:

Today was Bring Your Dog to Work Day, so I had to include these.  They're Mary Janes!  Also, it's much easier to bring my dogs to work when I'm working from the home office...

I want a skirt in this fabric.  How could you not smile wearing this?

Dragonflies!!!

Those are mermaids, how funny and cute are these?

Overall these shoes are kind of scary, but I love the colors and the stripes.

I will also take a skirt out of this material, please.

Look!  A garden for your feet!

Thank you, my friends, for helping contribute to my happiness.  I hope I can do the same for you.

Sadness

My heart is sad today for 2 friends in particular.  SKD texted me this morning to tell me that their beloved Lucy died this morning.  She was a Chihuaha/something or other, and she had the sweetest, funniest little underbite ever:

They are heartbroken, of course.  She's been with them for 11 years and will be missed.

Yesterday I found out that The Coffee Friend's dog, Marty was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. It's already spread to his lungs, liver, kidney. It began in the right sinus and that tumor is now protruding against his skull. She made the heart-rending decision to have him relieved of his pain.  She will have the weekend with him and say good-bye on Monday.  Marty is the cutest Labradoodle I know:

Neither option is good.  In one you don't have a chance to say good-bye and in the other you get that chance but have to wait for what's coming.  I want to hug both of them.  SKD is closer, but I still can't get to her right now, and The Coffee Friend is in Wisconsin.

I don't want to do puppy shoes because it seems too sad.  Instead I will do rainbow shoes tonight in honor of these beloved pets who are making their last trip over the rainbow bridge.

Hug your fur babies extra close tonight, and please pray for these dear friends.

Stripes

Tonight I decided I needed some heels in my life.  I don't really wear them anymore, that there's no reason I can't do a little window shopping for the imaginary shoe closet. I'm in the mood to stripes, so here are some stripey heels:

These would be cute in blue and white stripes, too.

I both like this and don't.  I'm not sue what it is that's slightly off-putting, though.

This is a little bit crazy, but I like it.  I wear a lot of black and this would add a pop of color.

Not a fan of the colors on these, particularly.

Love these.  They're like Monet inspired stripes.

Yes, please.  I think I need an imaginary shoe closet just full of wedges.  Or maybe a real closet full of wedges (they're easier to walk in than stilettos, you know).

Ah...I feel better.  Stripes always help.

It's a Mystery

Today's shoes have a theme.  They are what came up when I typed in a certain word + shoes into the image search.  I'm just not going to tell you what that word is.  Because apparently I'm feeling stubborn today.  And for those of you who know me, you'll know that I am very rarely stubborn...😁 Without further ado, here are the shoes:

Well, that's weird.  Kind of cool in an arty way, but definitely weird from a shoe perspective.

These are very similar to the shoes in yesterday's post, and I still don't really care for the cross detail.

I actually love this, although again from an arty perspective.  The colors are bright and fun, and I can see Ms. Frizzle wearing these on a Magic School Bus Adventure.

I'm not completely sure what's going on here, but I like the colors.

Speaking of loving the colors.  Plus stripes!  So fun.

And there you have it.  Mystery theme.  If you have any guesses, let me know, but I don't think anyone will actually figure it out.

Hope

It has been in the 80s here the last couple of days.  For those of you who woke up to snow in the past week, I apologize.  I would gladly send you some of our heat so we can all have a happy medium, because I'm not ready for hot yet.  But the sun was lovely, and maybe the Vitamin D helped my mood. After yesterday's post about friendship, today I am actually feeling hope for the first time in what feels like forever.  It might be short lived, it might turn around tomorrow and bite me in the rear, or maybe it will blossom into good things.  I don't know, but I'm sure as heck enjoying it while it's hanging around.  In the spirit of hope I figured I'd type "hope shoes" into image search and see what popped up.

We all know I can't wear white shoes or they would be completely filthy in about 5 minutes.  I like the style of these, though, and I'm going to pretend that the lighter color is actually gray or silver, because then they would be the colors of my alma mater, and that would be fun.

This one is sort of cheating?  But not really.  The name of the first (technically 4th, but you know what I mean) Star Wars movie is A New Hope, even though everyone just tends to call it Star Wars.  Besides, it's my blog and I say it counts.

 

I want to like these.  They're so close.  The colors are fun.  There's just something about the velvet that doesn't quite sit right with me.  I'm not quite sure what it is.

 

I love the colors on this one (duh) and you know I love stripes.  This isn't 100% for me, but I still think it's fun and quirky.

This one is my favorite.  Love the colors and the stripes.  It makes me happy.  As do you you, my friends.  Thank you for being in my life and helping contribute to my feeling of hope.  I hope (hee) I can do the same for you in some small fashion.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

As you probably gathered from the title of this post, today is my dad's birthday!  I wish I could have been home to help him celebrate, but at least I got to talk to him on the phone both today and yesterday, so that helps.  Look at how cute we all were once upon a time:

(the tiny one is me).  I'm assuming Mom was taking the picture as she isn't in it?

Anyway, as I often do, I looked up shoes by name, although this time I went with Dad's middle name just to see what came up.  His middle name is Emanuel, and unfortunately only girly shoes showed up in that search.  Sorry, pop.
 

But stripes!  So yay!

And polka dots!  More yay!

Kind of plain, but cute, and good for work.

Ditto.

I'd like to see these on, but I think they might be cute.  The color is fun at least, and ankle straps have potential.

 

I'm intrigued by this one.  It might cute?  It might be over the top?  It might have a spider web on it?  It's interesting.

Emanuel means "God with us" (think Advent), but I decided not to search for God shoes today. At any rate, Happy Birthday, pop!  Sorry I couldn't find any manly shoes named after you.

Raspberries

Today was kind of a weird day.  Not bad, just weird.  The hubby's tummy was yucky all day and I have a sinus infection.  I thought I was going to be away from the office for an hour and then our meeting ran long and I was gone for 5 hours, which meant I had to stay late to catch up on at least part of my to-do list.  I also had weird dreams this morning that I only vaguely remember.  So, weird.

It's also the BFF's birthday, which isn't weird at all.  She's awesome and I miss her.  She, her hubby, and the nephew are on their way to Michigan right now to visit her in-laws.  That's a long, hot drive with a 6 1/2 year old, so wish them luck.

Today is also National Raspberry Tart Day and National Raspberry Bombe Day.  Which isn't weird, per se.  Or at least no more so than any other random holiday.  The likes raspberries and they are kind of in the purple family, so it kind of works.  Here are some raspberry shoes to celebrate this day, whatever adjective you apply to it.

To conclude:  today was weird, but I love the BFF and hope she had a lovely birthday.  I also like raspberries very much.  Raspberry shoes are kind of cool, kind of weird, so they fit with the theme.  I think it's time for bed.  Stupid sinus infection.