Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Just got the alert from DC EMS (yay push email on a phone right beside your ear on the night stand); the bridges into the city have now been closed. And contrary to what I first thought, I am really and truly trapped in DC now – all of the bridges that could get me out of DC to head south (the direction I’m most likely to go, given that close family all lives south of here) are now closed off. Glad I stocked up on groceries.

A shame it woke me up, I was in the middle of a pretty snarky dream wherein I was verbally getting the best (not that it was difficult) of a pair of camp counselor types. Some of the zingers were quite fun.

Despite my declarations that I would be holed up inside my apartment until Wednesday morning, I did wander out into DC today to grab lunch with Chris up in Columbia Heights. Our first choice of restaurant was packed to the gills with a line out the door (at 1 pm, mind you), and the second choice had a 45 minute wait. We took the 2nd choice and zipped over to Best Buy to waste some time (setting a phone timer so we would know when to wander back). Got in relatively quickly after we returned, and had a perfectly nice lunch (not-quite-screaming-but-just-occasionally-fussy-baby notwithstanding).

The city is just abuzz. I haven’t seen it this packed in ages, and everyone is just full of this energy surrounding the inauguration, it’s wild. The Metro was busy, but not insane. Lots of “Is this our stop? This is our stop! Quick, get off the train!” type conversations going on, but for the most part folks were getting tickets and getting through the stalls pretty quickly and not being obnoxious about getting in and out of the cars and generally not being in the way. I am, however, glad I’ll not be going anywhere near Metro tomorrow. As busy as it was today, with 8 car trains and all of them relatively busy, tomorrow will promise to be a madhouse.

I’m glad I went out today, it was neat to see all these folks who are so excited to be here.

Despite my best efforts to be a complete and utter slug today, I did actually manage to get something done today, namely laundry. Otherwise I called in to work because I hadn’t really slept, and then crashed until noonish to catch up on sleep. Then there was Dead Space. Lots and lots of Dead Space. I actually beat the game once through just now (started it Saturday; easy mode), and I’m trying to decide how much more I’ll play in the near future to max out achievements. Sounds like a good inauguration day activity (when not watching the events, that is).

Called the SIL this evening, no word back tonight, so I’ll pester again tomorrow. I can tell I’m still on edge because my poor fingers have been gnawed down to nubs (I bite my nails/cuticles when I’m upset). Perhaps throwing myself back into work tomorrow will help assuage some of this, and I’m hoping my SIL will have better news about my brother (and their efforts to clean the apartment). Who knows?

Still need to organize some shelving I picked up on my way home (yay Ikea!) which looks pretty good, but needs to have some sense of what-goes-where on it. It’s given me an idea for the entertainment stuff as well, which might not need to be as large as I’d assumed before. We shall see. But first tomorrow evening is prep work for the new triathlete program for this year. We’re getting off to a slightly later start, and I’m hopeful this will help cut out some of our volunteer burnout from previous years.

Family can be a lot of trouble.

In brief summary, I spent the last couple of days down in Tidewater visiting my brother’s family, checking on them in the wake of another suicide attempt by my brother. What I discovered was literally a huge mess. The apartment was a disaster area, clothes everywhere, toys everywhere, trash everywhere. It looked like the inside of a white trash trailer.

(By way of background, my brother (31), sister-in-law (31), her twin sister (31), my two younger nieces (2.75, 1.5) and the twin’s son (8) all live in this 2 story apartment. My brother is currently in a mental health facility after Wednesday morning’s attempt.)

I did help get them started on cleaning things up, and I hopefully got them started on working on their bills in a meaningful way. I was not about to clean their dishes for them, though – both sinks were full, and there were more piled up on the table and stovetop. They were late on rent, they were late on the one car payment (which I did pay), and late on a storage unit (which I also paid).

Last night I sat down with two women and apologized for being blunt, but just looked at them and told them they were going to have to be adults, and the house and their finances as they were now was not how adults lived. Had I been a social worker when I came in on Thursday they would not have the kids. They have to get in the habit of putting things away immediately, and they have to take care of bills and mail ASAP. The younger girl keeps getting ear infections; I pointed out that with food trash all over the house, there was a good chance that was contributing to the kids getting sick. My brother admitted when we visited Thursday night that the mess in the house was a trigger for his depression (which the SIL heard, and I reemphasized a couple of times over the weekend). Hopefully coming from me it will get through to them, because heaven knows it hasn’t gotten through coming from either set of parents.

And my parents have said that if they don’t get this stuff cleaned up and soon that they’re going to have a talk with her parents and will consider taking action jointly to protect the nieces.

I’ll do some follow up with them over the next few weeks to see how they’re doing with bills and the cleaning. As I told them, they’ve got to get their act together and act like adults, or their situation is never going to get better, and it might get much, much worse.

I came home today, did some stuff around my own apartment, but I’m just wiped out emotionally tonight.

I had a follow up with my podiatrist this morning. Result: he carved a corn off my little toe (unrelated to anything else going on), and released me from follow up appointments on the plantar fasciitis. There was almost no pain when he pressed on the heel, and I’ve been able to walk around town and do some short sprints (a la running for an elevator or the Metro) without paying for it afterward, so there was no more need to go in and see him. I have the brace to wear if I feel the need to stretch out the tendons, and I’m cleared to start running when I feel ready to do so, with the caveat that I have to build up very slowly with any running I might do.

I should be relieved, but I’m more scared than anything else. Scared that starting up will mean the return of pain. That this will somehow end up being an even longer process because I’ll screw up the foot by doing too much.

Yuck.

I’m going to have to play it by ear. First step will be sleeping without the blinkin’ brace on my foot to see how that goes. Then maybe some running, on a dreadmill treadmill, in case something isn’t right with it. Keep your fingers crossed.

Had Chris over today to help me cull my clothing collection. 20-odd T-shirts went out, as well as polos, button downs, and others. Much space was made in the drawers and in the closet. All in all, four paper grocery bags got filled with neatly folded clothes. Also found some items I shall offer to my brother for his daughters (blankets our grandmother made, etc.) so perhaps they’ll get use rather than taking up space in my closet which could be better used.

As an enticement to come play fashion critic, I offered lunch. The menu, from The Voluptuous Vegan, was pomme frites, a roasted garlic and herbes de provence aiolï, citrus and cucumber salad, and a provençal stew with couscous. Was tasty, though the pomme frites could have been better (they kept sticking to the paper, making it difficult to turn them when needed).

Finally cleaned up all the dishes (thank heavens I was cleaning as I went along or I’d never have had room for it all), and inventoried and bagged the culled clothing. Relaxing now with a glass of the pinot grigio I opened for use in the stew, and enjoying not having any more dishes to clean. It did push home the need to replace the blinkin’ dishwasher, though – doing that many by hand was trying, and not good for my hands (yay eczema).

Odd, odd dream last night (sci-fi geek alert). Was at a university, a graduate student. There were folks in the world with mental abilities (a la the beginning of the first X-men movie), and I was one of them. Somehow got wind of the board of directors, because of defense contracts & security concerns, voting on a proposal to have people at the university mentally screened (presumably by someone with telepathy whom they trusted) before working on certain projects. I got into the meeting just before it began and accused them all of advocating the equivalent of rape, that they couldn’t possibly know the violation of having to submit voluntarily or “voluntarily” to have their mind probed. It was a huge mess of a fight with several members of the board. And the rant I unleashed on their general counsel for giving in to them and telling them it was okay was truly stunning (ethics much?).

Why yes, yes I am a big ole geek at times. Even in my dreams.

Got it finished, so without further ado:

1. Breathe
2. Find my rituals
3. Race an Aqua-velo
4. Fix the foot for good
5. Go to Comrades in June
6. Get an entertainment center
7. Replace my shelves
8. Reorganize the closets
9. Hire a cleaning service
10. Replace my dishwasher
11. Participate in a charity ride, if there is one this year
12. Cull my clothing
13. Donate the old microwave
14. Check on upgrading my cable service to digital
15. Re-read the Book of the Way and its Power, in Mandarin
16. Frame my graduate school diplomas
17. Assist at CBE in April in Philly
18. Take more pictures
19. Knit some socks
20. Knit Kathy’s hat
21. Knit Tina’s baby scarf
22. Knit something for my nieces
23. Establish a weight routine
24. Visit Atlantic City
25. Make margarita cupcakes
26. Learn to use my convection oven
27. Paint a room
28. Beat 2 games on the Xbox
29. Beat 2 games on the Wii
30. Play a game online with a friend
31. Reduce my waist size back to a comfortable one
32. Increase the gauge on my earrings
33. Commission a piece of art
34. Reduce or eliminate caffeine
35. Reduce my consumption of HFCS
36. Replace the old PC
37. Get a set of blinds
38. Clean behind the fridge
39. “Fix” the front hall
40. Floss regularly
41. Get at least one professional massage
42. Attend a heart circle
43. Pay off another student sub-loan
44. Read more books
45. Get below 155lbs
46. Have friends over for dinner
47. Host a bad movies party
48. Host a game day
49. Do a massage exchange
50. Take a knife skills class
51. Pick up items from Les
52. Brunch
53. Practice erotic play
54. Read the unread Chinese fiction in my collection
55. Go see A in Vancouver
56. Look into getting ink
57. Cry
58. Clean out the kitchen cabinets
59. Update my resume
60. Roomba-ize the living room
61. Go dancing
62. Get folks down to Cantina Marina
63. Come up with a display for my medals
64. Frame my finished cross stitch projects
65. Finish a cross stitch pattern
66. Get a power tap for the tri bike
67. Get a body fat scale
68. Get photos done
69. Use my crock pot
70. Take leftovers in for lunch
71. Decorate the bathroom
72. Go on a date
73. Pay off a credit card
74. Remember that I have an oven
75. Record things in Quicken faster
76. Track my cash spending
77. Clip coupons
78. Go to the Holocaust museum
79. Join a museum society
80. Meet Tycho
81. Fix the tire sensor on the car
82. Fix the AC in the car
83. Get air purifiers
84. Increase my TSP contributions
85. Water my plants regularly
86. Grow balcony plants
87. Cook what I grow on the balcony
88. Use some of my unused gear
89. Donate more books
90. Go to the optometrist
91. Get my annual physical
92. Get away from desk at lunch more often
93. Volunteer at a race
94. Get to a farmers market
95. Get a pedicure
96. Attend a play
97. Do regular core work
98. Reduce surface clutter in the apartment
99. Learn how to do multicolor knitting
100. Clean out work desk
101. Go grocery shopping more often
102. Readjust my sleep schedule to earlier
103. Take chair & shelf to parents
104. Get rid of the extra crates
105. Dispose of roomba battery properly
106. Get prescription goggles
107. Store my bike rack properly
108. Use or donate my old cooking magazines
109. Get a better tool box

Well, I’ve lived up to one of the items on my as yet unpublished Uberlist:

Cry

In many, many ways this past year stunk on ice (the break up and my foot injury being the most notable). As many others are, I’m hoping that 2009 will be a better one for me and for those I know and love.

I’m working on an Uberlist now for 2009. I didn’t do one the past two years, after doing them the 2 or so years prior to that, and I think I miss the structure it imposed upon me, to think about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Having something written just helps, so I’m at it again. Hopefully it’ll be complete by the weekend and I’ll get it up once it’s done.

Until then, have a safe and happy new year.