Tangents

My day started with the annoying (although very cute) cat launching stuff off my night stand trying to make sure that I wasn't late for work. She is such an effective alarm clock that knows the M-F routine, but she not great at keeping school calendars. My first day off in 10 months where I had planned to sleep in, could have slept in, wanted to sleep in and I had stuff flying at my head at 6:45. At least she was patient enough to give me that extra 1.5 hours. Did she panic? She didn't want to go outside. In anycase, I am one of those sleepers that can't go back to sleep once I am up, nor can I nap during the day. With all bets off I ambled upstairs and sat there like the vegetable I felt like for a good 30 minutes before moving. I eventually had the pleasure of Chris making me coffee before he raided the fridge to pack lunch for him and his beach buddies. They spontaneously decided at 6:30 AM to go to Jones Beach. I have to admit it was a great day and as my day played out I wish I had thought of that.

I got around to reading my e-mails, blogs and other techno-garble. Kelly's post this morning got me thinking about my own stupid INbox, my house, the EVEREST of laundry, the half packed pile of gear, the list of things that are a must and I started to get flustered, cold hard sweat actually. My sorry, fly- by-the -seat of my pants self had a reality check moment. YIKES I have SO much to do.

First things first, the bike rack. You see, I had all my ducks in a row for the past couple of weeks. I have been gathering the essentials and with the new car, the Bones rack was not going to cut it, I had nothing to lock it to. Not that I felt someone would actually STEAL the rack of the car but with 7K worth of ride on that back who wants to take that chance. To remedy my situation I decided to forgo the original 250. for a hitch installation and opt for the do-it your damn self version, afterall we are paying a boat-load of money for our son to be a mechanic right? I ordered the hitch and the rack from E-trailer with expedited shipping the day after I picked up the car from the dealer. The hitch and rack came 3 days later, YAY. Then while I was out for a ride, so I couldn't watch the suspenseful install of the hitch,  my wonderful son Mikey lays out all his tools, goes and buys the few he doesn't have and proceeds to get ready to install the rack. He unpacks the box, takes out the directions, reads them, supports the exhaust, lowers the mufflers, removes the plugs, drills the holes only to find out that there a parts missing. OK, I know he should have laid them all out first, but hey, you have done things that way too I am sure. I mean who expects that?  So I call the company and they assure me that the parts will be shipped by Monday which is today. Mikey will not be available this week to finish this so we are off to plan B. Can Cap City install a hitch for us that we supply? Of course, but they need the original hardware. I have an appointment for Thursday. I call e-trailer (remember them) to ask them to EXPEDITE the shipping, hah...3 hours and 3 people later I finally find out they haven't even shipped it yet? What? Really? All this for a stupid bag of bolts, shims, and other stuff that should have been there in the first place. I paid for express shipping to begin with and then I get the brush off when it comes to customer service for missing parts? NOTE TO SELF, don't order from them again! Finally, someone listened. Maybe it was the post on FB? Maybe someone caught the mention? Maybe it was my e-mail to the company? Something happened that seemed to get things moving. I should have it Wednesday. I HOPE? If not, I will buy a new hitch from cap city and return this one.

In this time frame I conquered most of Everest, until I ran out of detergent and patience. Why do boys have to be so STINKY? I know they should be doing their own laundry, and honestly, they do help with that most of the time, but hey, I was home. Now my bed looks like the desert of southern Utah, hopefully someone else will take care of moving those pillars before I actually lay my head down tonight?

I cleaned other things too, I was on a roll, aggravated, tired (which I didn't fully realize until Jon sent me a note that said LSD and all I could conjure up were images of Timothy Leary instead of the long steady distance he was referring to) Maybe my workout yesterday was trying to tell me something? I have procrastinated all day. Then Kelly tweets about this blog and I am hysterical laughing. How is it that someone yo don't know at all can peg your current sentiments about life, unwittingly of course. In anycase the laughter did me some good. I was in full meltdown with Kenny on the phone over a stupid trailer hitch. It was 2PM, I hadn't showered, I hadn't ridden, I hadn't really eaten (unless you count a salad for breakfast), I was cranky, ...so my day escaped me? From the other side of this equation, the laundry got done and 2 bathrooms got cleaned, the dishes got washed, my ceramics syllabus for next year got completed and I managed to organize some of my gear for the trip. All that was left was to head out to the concert. Thats if we can figure out where we put the stupid tickets!

Kenny and I get to The Ives Center fairly early, find a spot on the lawn for the time being, our seats were in the sun. We sat under this tree people watching, sharing a bottle of wine, and listening to the opening act, an indie band called Bronze Radio Return. I have heard them before and actually like them. Kenny? Lets just say the jury is still out. We decided to take our seats just as Grace Potter took the stage. We are on the isle, but there is this guy next to me who is skinnier then Kenny taking up both his own and half of my seat. Kenny and I move our chairs over a bit (we were almost out in the isle) and the guy takes up even more space. He was so annoying. He had a really nice DSLR and was using the room between the head in front of the two of us to get clear shots of the stage. When we made more room he used it for more shooting space. Kenny and I spotted Alani taking pictures along the isle. I followed her back to say hello to Melanie (her mom/myfriend) who was standing just behind the handicap accessible area. We hung out talking for a bit then spent the next two hours dancing non stop. Grace Potter was great, not her usual club blasting self, but still enjoyable. The show stopper however was Michael Franti. He is definitely a MUST SEE in an outdoor venue. Dances with audience? In this case he was even out of the reserved seating and on the lawn on more than one occasion. Not much more to say other than we had a blast!