you know sometimes i have days that make me wonder how i manage as an adult woman living on my own. some days i really feel like i still need some sort of keeper to follow me around and remind me to be more observant of my surroundings.
yesterday was one of those days.
normally i wake up before 8am so it never crossed my mind to set an alarm so i’d make it from oaktown (where i was participating in a 00 slumber party) to shambhala in the city on sunday morning. the crazy dog next door started barking about 7:15ish and there was no sleeping through it. i was on the verge of walking over and seeing what i could do to calm the poor terrier, but the fact that i was pantsless kept me in bed. finally, finally, he calmed down and i shut my eyes *just for a minute*.
it was 9:25 when i next glanced at the clock.
i popped up, dressed, got some tea (to go), and said my goodbyes. i realized i’d probably miss all the sitting, but it might still be worth the effort just to get back in the habit. turned on the truck (which i borrowed from sp guy to haul around a mess of bridesmaids) and tried to flick the shifter from 1st to neutral on my way to reverse. and…
and…
pull, pull, pull. *wonder* pull. hrm. pull *pop!*
ok, i made it to neutral.
push push… this can’t be right. push, grind! OH!
i turned the truck off and slid the gears easily into reverse. maybe i wasn’t pushing on this stiff clutch enough. maybe it was a fluke.
i turned the truck back on and backed into the street. the traffic was still light at this time of day and the cars were about a block away. i jammed in the clutch and push, push, push, push… crap! here come the cars. *hit the emergency flashers* push, push…
truck off. shift to first. truck on. pull back into driveway. *give thanks for driveway!*
i went back into the house and tried to call sp guy, forgetting about his sunday morning tennis tradition. i can’t say those 00 members who were present were disappointed too greatly that i wasn’t going to be leaving any time soon.
then webber popped his head in the room and got the low down on the truck situation. he offered to take a look at it for me so i handed the keys over. i watched him from the porch as he fiddled and pulled and then… put the car in reverse, backed out, shifted into first and drove a few spots down the street and parallel parked.
!!
he said he’d noticed the clutch was really close to the floor and the mat was all rolled up under it. he pulled the mat back and pulled the clutch up with his toe. voila! — and sp guy *has* told me about that. i was just so focused on trying to push the clutch in further that i didn’t notice it wasn’t that far from the floor to start with. now i’ll know what other, more obvious to me, behaviour to look for.
by then it was sure i’d missed all the sitting, and i was almost sick to my stomach hungry, so i joined the grrs for breakfast at a local cafe.
when we returned home i reached for my keys so i could grab some things from the truck and have a quick shower before i had to meet my other friend. and realized i’d left my purse 4 or 5 blocks away at the cafe! i’d been using my wallet for a paperweight so i had that and just forgot i’d taken the whole rest of the purse, too. i handed flo my wallet so i wouldn’t lose it, and walked back.
when i got there our table had a new group of people sitting at it (not surprising) and i tried to suss out the purse location without disturbing them. they saw me looking, though, and asked, ‘purse?’ and told me they’d just turned it in inside. i waited for a while for one of the two women behind the counter to acknowledge me. one had her back to the register, fine, but the other was making a smoothie and could clearly see me. now, i understand she didn’t want to take orders while making the smoothie, but a little eye contact and a ‘just a sec’ would have been all i needed to ask after my purse. finally, though, i spied it on the end of the counter and went to grab it. as i picked it up she still wasn’t acknowledging me, but i did want her to know it’d been claimed rightfully so i sort of raised it up toward her.
she’d seen me from her side vision, which i’d guessed, and said, ‘oh is that your bag?’ and i said it was and she told me the guys had just turned it in a minute ago and i said i knew, they told me when i went back to the table.
and she said…
‘you shouldn’t leave your stuff just sitting out there alone.’
and i thought i must not have heard her right so i asked her to repeat herself.
‘you shouldn’t just leave things sitting out there alone.’
so i said, ‘uh… i didn’t do it on purpose.’
and she said, ‘oh! i thought…’
‘no, i don’t generally just leave things lying about at cafes.’
‘oh, ok.’
weird weird weird.
back to creampuff’s. showered. got directions and a phone number for my friend (since most of my numbers are *still* in my other phone) and drove off — without my wallet. which, you remember, was not with the purse. and, i discovered when i got to her street, with A phone number but not HER phone number.
luckily i figured out which unmarked apartment was hers and we had a great time hanging out. including her asking me, ‘how are you with power tools?’ — one of my favourite questions!
after chatting and hanging things and lunch and a margarita, i went back to creampuffs where mobileguy’s fiancee had brought her dog over. an adorable basset hound who would *not* let me pet him while he munched on his treat but was suuuper friendly once it was gone. but, i did step on poor dragon’s ear at one point. k told me not to worry, he did it to himself a lot, but i still felt horrible and chalked it up to my ‘unable to function right’ sort of day.
finally with all the things i should have with me, i left for sp guy’s house. we picked a dinner spot which is normally just fine but this night was too crowded for their one sushi chef so things took forever. and sp guy was uber work stressed and low blood sugary. we finally asked to just have it made to go and i waited for it while he walked home to get some more work done.
after dinner (finally) i was exhausted, took out my contacts, and laid down on the couch with the learning channel… i couldn’t even tell you what was on i was out so fast. and in the morning i couldn’t find my contact case! on the third scan of the house i found it… in pieces… on the floor.
walter was in a LOT of trouble with sp guy this morning (we also found some other things he shouldn’t have been chewing up). i figured i shouldn’t have left it where i knew he could get it and assumed some of the responsibility. walter’s eyes were fixed on sp guy for a good half hour, but he sat by me for comfort. i was trying to ignore him, but i think i was still better than angry daddy. sp guy took a great shot of us while i checked in with work. it’s on my flickr account.
and now… home and in my glasses and ready to start paying better attention!