December Doings
5:26 p.m. - 2006-12-06


I have read that creative people are able to tolerate more disorder because that corresponds with the brain's ability to sort and rearrange things in a new way, if you get my drift. Anyway, I have found this to be true for me, except that I cannot stand to have the house torn up while under construction. One part of this is the disorder and dirt, and the other is the fear that they will rip off the coverings and discover lots of very expensive things wrong with the house infrastructure. This week we are finally, after almost a year of having no back door that works, replacing the ancient and nonfunctional sliding doors in the family room and living room. Lucky for us, we got a nice tax refund which will be used to pay for it all. The construction guy, who is a client of my spouse, has eased my fears with his great competence and confidence. Today most of the work is done, and though they did find some bad stuff, they also fixed it effortlessly. As soon as we can scrape up some more money, we will have the other windows done. And now I don't have to go out the front and through the garage to do the laundry with all the neighbors watching my progress.

I was also freaked out because so much is happening this month what with Christmas and at least 5 birthdays, parties to go to, gifts to shop for, a trip to Palm Springs etc. I am tired already.

We drove all the way down to Palm Springs this last weekend so that he could attend a conference. While he was sitting in a boring room listening to blather, I was driving all over the Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert area and marveling at the beauty of the area and the richness of the people. The mornings are truly beautiful there, but the afternoons are annoying with the sun right in your eyes all the time and the traffic. We stayed at the Rancho Mirage resort, and the room was nice and the view off the balcony of our room was a lovely golf course vista. On Thursday nights the city of Palm Springs has a fair down the main street which has been closed off for the occasion. It was unseasonably cold the whole time we were there, and judging by the complaining done by every resident we met, they are not used to that. We decided to go to the fair even though the temp was low, and we parked on a side street. We didn't notice until we got out to walk to the fair that we had parked in the middle of the gay district, right in front of a gay department store called GayMart. The mannequins in the window were wearing santa hats and red velvet jock straps. I just love that store name! We bought a Christmas gift or two at the fair and enjoyed the walk in the crisp night air. Our original plans were for a slow drive up the coast on the way home on Saturday, but Craig planned his birthday party for that day, so we had to leave Friday night right after the seminar ended. We got as far as Palmdale, which I had never heard of before, but which is a humongous town just north of LA in the dessert. The next morning we drove (mostly me) straight to the birthday party 400 miles away, but arrived in time to say the proper things. But boy, were we tired. This weekend we were supposed to go to Carmel to some company party, but the plans changed and we are not going, and I am glad. I see some sleeping in my future.