a tired thing or two about today…

1. Today was a pretty full day for me. Drove to Fry’s in Concord to get another Jabra blue tooth earpiece because I lost my original one. I have never owned or used a different earpiece than this one. It works so well and is so cool looking too. Plus, I got my original one on sale at Fry’s for only $15! The one I got today cost $20. The next price range for any earpiece started at $50. Glad I still got some kid in me and LIKE looking cool.

Stopped and bought some ingredients for dinner on the way home. Cooked two recipes from this book; Cardamom and Lime; Recipes from the Arabian Gulf. I picked the book up off the new book shelf at the library yesterday, partly because some of the recipes looked really tasty and easy to prepare, but also because the photography in the book is so eye catching. Too bad the low-res images at Google Books don’t give it justice. I cooked the “breaded chicken kebabs” (pg. 49) which were a lot of fun to make and also the “red lentil stew” (pg. 74) which I actually think I overcooked. Came out more like a dal than a stew.

After this late lunch I got a call from my doctors office. They were checking up on the condition of my swelling. Sent me in to the lab to get blood test. Now they are suspicious of my kidneys because they also told me to make an appointment with “nephrology”. How cool of a word is that? I don’t think I’ve ever said it before today.

2. On other technological fronts, my laptop was repaired today. I’ve never taken a computer to a repair store before, but something weird was going on with my laptop (it would not power on) and I had to get it fixed. Bought a replacement battery, which was the first thing that made sense to me, but that did not help. So I called 3 different, local computer repair operations here in San Ramon. They all sort of failed in the “call-back” or “follow-up” area. One didn’t call back for 4 days after I left a message with their answering service. The second had a very nice man with an Indian accent on the line, but he admitted frankly that he was not familiar with “circuit board” repairs, which I alluded might be the problem because there was an instant when I plugged the new battery in and smoke came from inside the housing. He said, “It might take me a few weeks to learn how to do that.” LOL. The third company, who I decided to go with was very convincing about their knowledge and ability to determine the cause of my problem and repair it. Also, the company is named “Barnett Computer Repair”. How could I go wrong with that? Where they failed is that they never asked me for an upfront deposit, which without, they could not even start to work on the computer. Four days passed before I heard from them about this. Once I gave them the deposit via credit card, they had the problem diagnosed and repaired in 3 hours. I drove over to pick it up after I visited the blood lab. Blah, blah, blah…

3. Socially things are really shitty right now. I have not even been to Starbux lately. And tomorrow I’ve cancelled plans to get together with old high school buddy to play chess. A pit of paranoia is creeping into my mind, and I’m becoming judgmental about my ability to be, or have friends at all. I think I lost something when I cut my hair off two weeks ago. I’m not embarrassed about how I look, but I miss how I used to look. I’m determined to get some of THIS and dye my hair yellow as soon as there is about an inch of length to work with, but that won’t replace the joy and comfort my long curls brought to my soul.

You know, another thing that is an issue right now is how much my body aches. All of my muscles are so sore and on the verge of cramping. I have not been to the chiropractor’s office in nearly two months either, not since he replaced his secretary and the new secretary asks me for payment every time I go to the office. I think Dr. S. let me off the hook for a long time with my Medi-Cal payments, but this new girl is trying to impress him with her go-get-it attitude.

I like having this attitude of my own that death is prevalent. It makes me feel just that little bit more serious about getting things done each day. The pain I feel, the swine germs in the air, the threat of an oncoming drunk driver when I’m on the street…

4. And the lovely Zoe Keating posted this video interview on her Facebook today. Pretty fascinating, eh?