Things are coming together. Sort of. This is just a ramble about my day, for anybody that cares. But at the very end is a cute story, so if you get bored, be sure to scroll down to the cute story (marked with asterisks).
Today was another one of those days. Sometimes I'm just terribly ansy (sp?) and the idea of sitting still scares me. I could, of course, blame it on the three cups of coffee I have had today (waaaayyy over my usual) but I'll just own it up to livin' large.
So after getting up early, I did some stuff on the computer (it sucks me in, I swear...beautiful blue glow of the screen in the morning sun) and got a phone call from Pennsylvania Boy. He announced that tomorrow, instead of running around fields of mud playing tag-touch football, as was originally planned, we are instead going to go to IKEA (again) to fit out our houses. Or, in his case, fit out the school, as he is a giving type and is kindly redecorating the student lounge on the student government's budget. So that was great, fabulous news. I'll go to IKEA anyday.
After hanging up with him, I was about the pop out the door to run a few errands before watching a noon-time documentary at the independent cinema when the phone rang. A friend of S's was in town, and S had given her friend my number as somebody semi-groovy to hang with while in Paris. I was touched by S's faith in me (I mean, she actually thought I might not embarass her! How great!) and made rushed, quasi-plans with her friend to meet up later.
I sped down my stairs afterwards, realizing if I didn't bust ass, I would miss the flick. I swung by the bank, took care of some important shit, and ran to the theater. K and I met up outside, and watched 1.5 hours of Idi Amin Dada footage. I was disappointed a bit in the documentary: I thought it would be more about what he did and less about the man himself. He struck me as a very stupid man. I'm not just saying that because of what I know about him. He just talked in circles.
We spilled out of the theater into the hot, hot early afternoon sun with just enough energy to make our way over to the sunny cafe terrace for our first coffee of the day. I called C and it turned out we had to meet later than I had expected, so K and I decided to grab lunch. But sitting there, we both suffered a lull in our energy despite the caffeine. Starting to get a bit down, we realized we suddenly had three more hours in front of us with nothing to do. Going over the options, nothing sounded appealing: laundry, administrative crap at school, housework. So being lazy and desperate-to-cling-to-our-final-days-of-freedom wackos, we instead went to go check out another movie, "Bruce Almighty." It was about as good as you would think, but it was still cute in its own way. I laughed, which was all I really wanted to do. Afterwards, K and I grabbed another quick coffee, but then she had to run (she has a job and stuff) so I worked my way over to where I was to meet C.
Meanwhile, the phone rang again and it was S's friend again, and my phone kept popping in and out because my other line was ringing. I didn't know how long I would be with C (and later, I learned, R) but I was mainly just concentrating on trying to show up on time. My conversation was short and choppy, mainly due to hearing problems, but I told S's friend to call back around 8.
I met up with C and her friend R, who ended up being pretty groovy. The three of us had a lovely chat about our teaching positions and administrative bullshit alongside the setting sun. I also managed to get some info I needed. C had to scattle out after awhile, but R wasn't up to much so we headed back to Od�on to grab yet another beverage. Colleen met up with us and we had the kind of conversation the topples over itself and forgets to come back to the original point. Love that.
Suddenly, it was 21.00...I still hadn't heard from S's friend and we started to get hungry, so when K showed up, we just decided to grab some pizza. I feel terrible because my phone rang two or three times in the pizza joint, but it was so loud in there I could hardly hear my beautiful compadres' conversation, let alone my silently ringing phone. Regardless, I finished my pizza and my third coffee of the day about an hour later, and the excitement of the day began to take it's toll on me. Suddenly my bed sounded like the most lovely place on earth...
I am completely spent, but in a great, wonderful way.
Happy from my absurdly social day, I came back and kissed the Beau before bringing in the laundry (I had set up a drying device with telephone wire... I swear, the creativity required to accomplish basic tasks in small spaces is absolutely phenomenal at times) and doing the dishes. I checked my email and it turns out that the hyper-anal Frenchies might actually be willing to pull some strings for me! I'm shocked! I've got (yet another) meeting with them come the 25th.
So I'm managing to get some of this shit together. I feel good, but I must, must sleep. A busy day at Ikea awaits.
****Before, though, you must read this adorable blurb courtesy of R. She told us this story at dinner:
A little girl and her mom are at the bus stop. The girl tugs on her mom's sleeve and says, "Mommy, is it springtime yet?"
The mother looks down at her 4-year-old and says, "Yes, sweetie. It's springtime" with a smile.
The girl stops and thinks for a moment. She tugs on her mom's sleeve again, and the mother turns her head back towards her daughter who says, "Ok, so it's springtime...Mommy? When are they going to put the leaves up?"