It Finally Cooled Off Last Night.

Thank goodness. The heat has been driving me crazy. I am lazy by nature--I have to talk myself into doing anything that isn't fun--and when it is hot, I do even less than usual. Last night the delta breezes kicked in and cooled things off right around sunset, so I was able to go out and do laundry because the kitchen was dirty. You see, there were no clean towels of the sort that go underneath the dish drainer, so of course I couldn't wash dishes. To do the dishes, I had to do the laundry first. So five loads of laundry. Two or three more to do sometime today. Somehow the laundry always manages to get its importance felt.

Yesterday FriendL came over for a good catch-up visit. She's been out of the state for several weeks and had only just returned. The past year or so, it has usually been my life that has more upheavals in it, but the past week or so, it is hers. Oh my. Romance issues, roomer issues (she rented a room to a grad student), and a meltdown with her KidOne (this friend also has three daughters). We laughed together over the hope that one day, we will be able to have a visit over coffee and have everything be okay with all of our girls, her three and my three and her little granddaughter. Someday we will get to that point--we are determined. When she left, I reminded her to stay away from bridges and she reminded me to stay away from trains (so as not to jump off of or in front of). What lives our children lead us. Honestly, if people really understood what was in store for them after giving birth to that sweet little bundle of joy and its siblings, no one would ever hop into bed again with someone of the opposite sex.

My tentative journey into romance with match.com is so far a total bust. Maybe my little ad would be more interesting if I knew how to put a picture up, but I doubt it. I've read and re-read the ads posted by men and so many of them seem to be looking for an impossible woman. Where do they think they will find someone like what they describe? "Slender, who can go from jeans to heels in a moment, who love to laugh and drink wine, yada, yada, yada. . . ." Guys, those women don't exist. Advertising made them up and surgeons and drug dealers filled the orders. Real women get cranky, get dirty, have gas, have periods, forget to do the laundry, carry a few extra pounds or too few, and throw up when you keep taking them out on all those river excursions you claim to go on every spare minute of the day. Oh well, I've been alone for almost twenty years--one of these days I'll get used to it.

Yesterday at the library a book caught my eye in the new non-fiction American history section, so the next entries will be heavy on American history. But first I read "Laughing Without an Accent," by Firoozeh Dumas. Thank you again, Firoozeh! It was marvelous. Last night I read it after going to bed and laughed and laughed and laughed. From the open door to KidThree's room, I could hear her, laughing at my laughter. Firoozeh Dumas is that funny--even secondhand, without the book being in the same room, she can make someone laugh. Her father likes to talk about how he actually met Albert Einstein. Well, I can do him one better. I met Firoozeh Dumas! Really, I did. Sort of. It was at a book event down in San Jose; my mother and I go to those together. I wanted to get Firoozeh's book, "Funny in Farsi," for KidThree, but there were none left at the sale table. Mom and I were wandering around, desolated, looking in vain for a copy of that book, when who should walk by but Firoozeh Dumas. I don't remember what I said but it involved doing something to impede her progress while I explained my dilemma. Firoozeh grabbed my hand and cheerfully dragged me to another room, where copies of her book were still available. After I bought it, she obligingly inscribed it to KidThree; it is right now as I type on KidThree's desk in her bedroom. "Laughing Without an Accent" I got from the library, but, Firoozeh, when I see you at another book event, I'll buy a copy and ask again for an inscription to KidThree. She loves you almost as much as I do.

Now off to go do things here. The laundry is waiting to be put away, soaking dishes are waiting to be scrubbed, and KidThree needs help with a bath. This morning we're going to a friend's church, as the friend and her family are putting on a skit and they invited us to come.

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