Barb’s Burblings

The one thing you don’t want to do the night before a snowstorm in DC (defined as “A weather forecast in which the word ’snow’ is mentioned at all) is go the grocery store. I got home around 6 this evening from a day at the HOSC only to realize that I only had enough cat food to feed Colin tomorrow morning. I didn’t want to risk being stuck in the apartment with a hungry cat, so I forced myself out of the apartment. I tried going to PetSmart first, partly because I knew they’d have the type of cat food Colin likes, and partly because it isn’t a grocery store. But no, it closed at 6. So I had to go to Giant, where I promptly found the cat food (hey, at least they had the right kind of Fancy Feast) and then stood in line for approximately 15 minutes. It was insane.
Everyone else had milk or toilet paper or snack food. Me? Cat food. The guy behind me looked at what I was carrying and was all, “Ah, the essentials.” Yep. Colin better appreciate it.

It’s that time of year again. Yep, baseball season. My boys have reported for spring training and I’m once again going to bore you with notes about Brian. Apparently last night on SportsNite was a cute piece about him and Larry hanging out in Ft. Lauderdale, riding in roller coasters and go-karting. Aww. (Too bad I missed it.) And in today’s notes, we get this:

Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa took batting practice together and then took turns launching balls over the fence. Sosa hit a series of mammoth shots, including two that soared over the scoreboard in center field.
“Yeah, we are on next, we’ll top that,” left fielder Larry Bigbie joked. “We’ve got (second baseman) Brian Roberts.”

Um, it might be funnier if know the batting habits of the players mentioned, but…so cute!

It’s snowing and they’re predicting 3 to 6 inches. Virtually all of the schools in the area are closed. The problem is that the real heavy stuff isn’t supposed to start until around noon; right now, the snow isn’t sticking at all. But we all got our hopes up that the office would be closed today. A group of us were just talking in the hallway how disappointing it was to call the office and hear the usual voice saying that the office was currently closed, but would be open at 9. Now we’re hoping for an early dismissal.
In other annoying news, I went to the dentist yesterday. While I really like my dentist, I feel like I personally have paid for his car. I have to get two more crowns. So that tax refund that I was going to put to my credit card debt? Not so much. It’s going right over to the dentist. That’s…just not cool, people.
At least my car is all warm and happy in the parking garage instead of getting all snowy in the apartment parking lot.
Current song in my head:
“I’ll Follow the Sun” by the Beatles

Man, it is so one of those days. First Colin brutally attacks me in hopes of getting fed (word of advice: attacking my arm will not lead to food). Then nothing fit. And when I started off to work, I began driving toward the Metro station, which meant I had to backtrack. And just now I realized that I closed up a FedEx box and put it in the mailroom without including the instructions that go with the manuscript. Geez. And it’s not even 9 yet.

My total reliance on computers was really brought home to me lately. First, the network at work went down one afternoon. I had pages to review, but when that ran out…well. I wound up going through a stack of magazines that I had built up. On Wednesday my computer at work decided to just completely die. It had been slowly dying for a while, but on Wednesday it decided it didn’t want to open any Microsoft Office applications or the Internet. So Wednesday was taken up by more trying to find things to do that don’t involve the computer. I got a lot of copyediting done. Then on Thursday the Internet connection at work was down all morning. So, not quite as bad, but I was starting to go insane.
And at home, I’m just attached to my computer. It’s totally pathetic. No wonder I keep not finishing books for my book clubs; I can’t pry myself away from the computer. I’ll tell myself that I need to do something, like read or wash the dishes or pay the bills…and I wind up playing Snood. It’s like crack. While writing this, I’ve played 3 games. I just can’t stop.
And to add to the complete dorkiness of my life, I think I’m going to head out to the new Wegman’s tonight. I’ve heard fantastic things about it (it has a cookie bar, people) and thought maybe I should go today, but it’d probably be really crowded on a Saturday afternoon. So I’ll just wait until tonight! All the cool kids go to grocery stores on Saturday nights. This is what happens when you find yourself at complete loose ends on a weekend.
Current song in my head:
“The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” from Sweeney Todd

After 26 consecutive Valentine’s Days of being single, I’m pretty used to it. Some years it affects me more than others, and for some reason, this year is one of those years. But since I’m trying to focus on the positive, I thought I’d tell the people who matter that I love them.
Love to my family. We’re scattered, but I feel that they’re always there for me and I know that I have their support in whatever I choose to do.
Love to my friends. They’ve seen me at my best and at my worst, at my happiest and saddest, at my most formal and most casual, and my silliest and most anal. They know what’s good and what’s bad about me and love me anyway.
Love to Colin. Even though he can be a big brat, he also knows when to plop down next to me and when to let me snuggle with him. And he’s the one keeping me warm at night.

I sat down tonight to read The Washington Post. I skimmed the front page, then opened the paper up, where I was confronted with this headline: Study Suggests You Can Die of a Broken Heart. And then I decided that I didn’t need the news tonight and promptly moved on to the Style section.

Thanks to my wanton spending, I received a $25 gift certificate to amazon.com. I decided to get the 1998 revival recording of Cabaret and kind of randomly got the Bowling for Soup album A Hangover You Don’t Deserve. And now just let me pause a moment for you to go buy this album, because it is awesome. They rock, and they’re funny. Go get this album.
Cabaret is also fantastic, though I was more than amused to see that Arvin Sloane was part of the cast. My new goal is for Ron Rifkin and Victor Garber to do a musical together, since they both apparently have musical theater backgrounds.

I belatedly realized that yesterday was Fat/Shrove Tuesday (a.k.a. Mardi Gras). Traditionally, this is also Pancake Tuesday, but I got home and found that I had no pancake mix (and didn’t know how to make pancakes from scratch). So I wound up having the not-so-traditional Eggo Waffle Dinner. Hey, they were good!
In other news, like the rest of the world, I’m sad that Kris and Jon didn’t win The Amazing Race. More than probably any team, ever, they deserved it. Here was a team that was consistently pleasant, appreciative of their surroundings, and loving toward each other. Well, at least Adam and Rebecca didn’t win. And even that would’ve been better than Flo and Zach winning.
On a happier note, I’ve started driving to work and in addition to saving money, I am saving time. By driving, I’ve shaved about 10 minutes off my commute each way. I’m sad that I’ve lost reading time on the Metro, but hey, I can make it up at home.
Current song in my head:
“Cabaret” from Cabaret

To counter some football game yesterday, Animal Planet aired the Puppy Bowl, which was seriously the cutest thing ever. It should be aired at particularly stressful places, like the DMV or at work. Feeling frazzled? Just look: Puppies! Awwww.