As my previous, brief entry alluded, I find that I am busy trying to reshape my world. This manifests itself through my attempts to bring the walls down in the two rooms that are currently in need of remodeling. I think my progress in the bathroom has reached a standstill, so today will find me back in my future craft room with a hammer, crowbar, and a bandanna tied around my nose. My brain finally processed the fact that I don't like drywall dust in my lungs or mouth, so I pulled out my neglected headgear. The problem with this is that I may find myself trying to be Rhoda again. I suppose this wouldn't be my problem. It would only cause confusion of those who haven't been subjected to my tendency to need to switch up my style.

Sadly, my obsession with getting the remodeling done as quickly as possible has led me to neglect my fiction blog a little bit longer. I still question whether anyone has read it since they aren't commenting, but I hope to get into a groove and maintain it better before the month is over, so maybe that will inspire my readers. As always, have a fantastic day and keep out of trouble...

Maybe the change of the weather affects me. Maybe as I age, I acquire burnout quicker. Maybe some things remain unexplainable. Whatever the reason, I feel the itching desire to hide away in my closet and let the world spin around me. Some days, even the social butterflies consider the joys of becoming a hermit and turning in their wings.

Luckily, the mood didn't strike me this weekend, since my beloved and I made a journey west to catch up with as many people as possible. Saturday found me choking on cigarette smoke and trying to air out in the hot sun while I munched on a Blizzard. This mission proved unsuccessful. Luckily, my many friends who had converged on Touchdown City overlooked the fact that I smelled like an ash tray as hugs were exchanged and memories shared. Sadly, I seem to have missed one of the more amusing happenings of the day.

One of the children in attendance learned that she didn't like salt and vinegar chips. According to my husband, she pulled one out of the bag and put it in her mouth. Almost immediately, she decided that was a bad idea and placed it back in the bag. If you ever needed a reason to only go through the line once, I think that is a good one.

As always, we washed up in the happiest hobbit hole in the world. I swear I gain five happy pounds every time I go there, but I just can't say no to cake. Who can say no to cake? If you can, you are better than me. Luckily, the birthdays we are in attendance for seem to be over for now. Somewhere out west though, Mezon is eating a cake so healthy that the rest of us would be mortified...or not...

"I believe that I can learn patience by better studying the life of our Lord and Savior. Can you imagine the disappointment which He must have felt, knowing that He had the keys to eternal life, knowing that He had the way for you and for me to gain entrance into the celestial kingdom of God, as He took His gospel to those people in the meridian of time and saw them reject Him and reject His message? Yet He demonstrated patience. He accepted His responsibility in life, even to the cross, the Garden of Gethsemane preceding it. I would hope to learn patience from the Lord." ~Thomas S. Monson

"Let us have gratitude for our friends. Our most cherished friend is our partner in marriage. This old world would be so much better off today if kindness and deference were daily a reflection of our gratitude for wife, for husband." ~Thomas S. Monson

1. You think I am going too fast.
2. You want to be baptized.
3. You want to buy me cookies.
4. You're a momma's boy.
5. You like my shoes.
6. You want to have your teeth drilled.
7. You think this car is hotter than yours.
8. You always lose at Scrabble.
9. You believe in hobbits.
10. You dream about cotton candy.

Clearly, the majority of the above bumper stickers are meant to discourage people from actually honking at your car. The first one actually is my favorite, just for the information of my most persnickety readers. The second inspired this fabulous list. What can I say? Missionaries inspire me!

This week has been spent adjusting to a new, potentially temporary schedule. I have been crawling out of bed at five in the morning to put on exercise clothes. Then I shamble into the car with my husband for some early morning workout time. I follow that up with a horrifying public shower experience. I wouldn't normally subject myself to such terror, but my bathroom is currently gutted, so I don't have a better option.

Of course, I feel I must mention what is on everyone's minds today. I think that we all need to take time to remember terrible occurrences and move forward. Some of the broadcasts I tuned in for today, focused more on the horrible. Others focused on how people remember those they lost more than once a year and how that love which never fades inspires them to live their lives every day. I prefer the second. I have been and always will be amazed by the strength that we can find inside ourselves when we focus on the positive.

I have neglected these digital pages for another week. I can use every excuse in my unwritten book, but I think that perhaps I should just fill in a few gaps from my week.

The main event of the week was going from no children to three children in a matter of a few hours. My brother let me borrow his kids for a couple of days. This has taught me that I need to work on both my communication and listening skills. My youngest nephew was a little hard to understand for the first half of the day, but something clicked and he began to make more sense to me. It may have been after he proved that he really was my mini-me.

My oldest nephew proves to be a chatter. He offered commentary on everything. Of course, his statements didn't always match up. I am still confused as to whether he thought my house was fancy or filthy. I can see how he would have trouble committing to either of these adjectives as my house is still in a state of flux. My bathroom is still miles from being finished though we hope to make some progress this week. We have the sub-floor down and insulation in the walls, but the tub still remains in a very movable state and the toilet is in another room entirely. Anyway, all of this means that the kids had a limited area of safety, so I had to entertain them in a small space, particularly since the youngest had forgotten his shoes in daddy's car.

Of course, my niece was seeking some female solidarity. She kept telling me that I was pretty, which tends to make me act funny because I am notoriously incapable of taking a compliment, despite being a diva. I'm just glad she likes me after being subjected to my early morning, stressed out charm. My brother reassures me that everyone had a good time, so we'll see if he ever lets them come hang out with me again. (In my defense, I didn't try to teach them any new phrases like "Daddy eats bugs"...)

"There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good." ~Edwin Denby

The local gym has been graced with my presence for the last couple of weeks. While our bathroom remodel drags on, we need a place to shower, so people will continue to be our friends. Besides that, they have more exercise equipment than my diva's collection of blue balls. I can work up a sweat and then go wash it all away. Of course, this experience has brought back memories of trying not to drop my clothes in the toilet while changing in a bathroom stall and trying to hurry up and dress between walking past me. Being divalicious, I do have some observations:

1. You should never wink at another person who is half-naked, even if you know them. A perfect stranger winked at me on her way into the locker room the other day and the hair on my hobbit feet still stands up in fear at the thought.

2. Some exercise machines want too much information. It takes me longer to enter all the information they want than to workout.

3. Working out at the butt crack of dawn causes amusement you may not expect. Blurry eyes can make some of your fellow exercise enthusiasts morph into Sasquatches or movie stars. (Maybe this just happens to me.)

4. Every gym should hire a friendly guy to walk around and encourage you to keep up the good work. I like the positive reinforcement.

5. People are always going to be scheduled to come work on the house during the one class I want to take. The gym offers a belly dance class and I have not been able to check it out because the plumber keeps being scheduled to arrive at about the time it starts. Maybe next week thought it isn't looking promising.

As anyone who has ever remodeled even the smallest space knows, trips to the local home improvement store(s) happen. This morning, I stopped into Home Depot in search of some peel and stick tiles to match the ones that are already in the half bath. Of course, the aisle next to the aisle I needed was being stocked, so both aisles were closed. The man stocking said that I needed the aisle he was in and that he would be done in five minutes. I wandered off to look at towel bars and toilet paper holders for about ten minutes. When I came back, they were still hard at work, so I continued my exercise by meandering aimlessly through the store.

After another five or ten minutes, I veered back toward the aisle I had been informed I needed. It was clear, so I wandered down it to find that it had tiles, but none of them were peel and stick. I'd think you'd notice that when you were standing next to it, but I shrugged it off and reminded myself again to take off my annoyed face. I walked over to the next aisle to find that it was still blocked off. Despite my attempts to peek down the aisle and see if it had what I needed, I could only see about a third of the tiles they offered, so I went in search of a store employee to see if they just forgot to open the gate. The first one I saw ducked and ran from me (extreme work avoidance). The second one got snippy that I was asking for assistance. She found someone else who decided to let me go down the aisle. Picture my lack of surprise to find that they didn't have the tiles that I needed and had wasted a half hour of my time. I took a certain sense of satisfaction in purchasing nothing from them.

Now I am sitting alone with my computer listening to walls going up upstairs. I am hoping to be able to paint two rooms in the next few days. Then we can finish putting in the rest of the electric and plumbing fixtures and resume life at its best. Wish us luck in out continued journeys...

So I cycle back to my annoyance with people implying that I should feel bad. The more this happens, the more I feel my guilt organs atrophy from overuse. If I have already told you I have no interest in doing something, asking me again and again will not change my mind. Some people just aren't suited to doing favors that would make them uncomfortable or set them up to do even more favors, all of the time. I paid my debt of friendship and overpaid in some cases. I have no intention of being the rock under a sandy foundation that tries to hold it up. If you don't know what I mean, be grateful.

In other news, the clutter fairy has given up on my house. I have piles of journals in progress in various locations. I may not even know where all of the piles are at this point, so if you are looking for a journal for a Christmas present, let me know what you are looking for and I will sell you something awesome. Anyway, it's time to hop back on the grouch train and try to appease the grumblies with some cookies.

Finally, a subject line with promise. Is Bella turning into a zombie? A vampire? A huge cookie? Has she decided to turn over a new leaf and be more amusing and cheerful in the blogosphere? Of course not, she has been affected by poor turn signal use again. Affected and amused. Hopefully, others join her in a smile or two.

TEN THINGS LESS IMPORTANT THAN USING YOUR TURN SIGNAL

My other observation of the last few days involves the myriad of gullible people who use facebook. Admittedly, the constant updates and upgrades annoy the average and above average person, but the developers tend to let us know about their plans. The reason why I make this observation? I have seen the post about facebook allegedly charging its users. The posts would annoy less if they weren't in all caps and obviously invalid. Eventually, the obnoxious posting will stop, won't it?

For those who are interested in postings of a personal nature, my stress levels remain elevated due to construction that never ends. If this lasts too much longer, I may use some leftover drywall to block off the barely usable rooms. I harbor fear that I am going to try to use the main bathroom in the middle of the night and break my tailbone as I fall to the floor. While this looks amusing in cartoons and sitcoms, I figure it won't prove as entertaining in real life.

The husband and I took a trip through a store that sells everything within its walls for less than five dollars. For this very reason, Pepper came home with us today. Pepper is a tuxedo cat with a pink-tipped tail and huge pink eyes. (I may be addicted to the huge-eyed beanie babies in case anyone is interested.) Anyway, dearest Pepper earns her keep by making me giggle by sharing her views on the world.

"Oh my gosh. This commercial is making me hungry. Those birds aren't angry. They're tasty. Come here, birdie, I'll make you forget about pigs."

Already a connoisseur of smart phone apps. That's my girl.

"That dude's hair is almost as fuzzy as a sheep's. I want to snuggle up in that wool and sleep. Bella, do you think he would mind?"

I probably shouldn't let her watch television with me. Trouble follows comments like that.

"Purrrrr. I love these piles of fabric...Hey, why are you swatting me?"

Real live kitties never understand that the piles of fabric are sacred either. They also assume that soft, fluffy beds fall out of the sky.

"Where did you go? I was lonely... and why do your feet look like ghosts?"

I had just returned from sweeping up spackle dust. I get to paint tomorrow. That always promises to be fun. I think Pepper will be locked up in another room. She doesn't need speckles of paint to liven up her coat.

Clover feels that he has been left out of the excitement since Pepper arrived yesterday. Of course, Pepper offered to let him help me paint today. He didn't appreciate being volunteered as a paint brush. He went into hiding when I started banging a paint can around. Pepper decided he didn't want to have hints of blue in his fur.

Thus they left me alone during most of my day. I could have used them to dry off, since I apparently have turned into a waterfall of salty sweat. I soaked through two shirts today, which was three levels beyond the nasty that I can handle. I did finish painting all of the walls in the bathroom though.

I also failed to acquire an attitude adjustment from my impromptu shock treatment this morning. Apparently the outlets in my potential craft room aren't grounded correctly. I am so glad my body could channel some electric to make me aware of this fact.

I also decided to try out one of the local Chinese restaurants. After receiving assurances that one of the establishments closest to my house wouldn't cause intestinal distress, I decided to visit. This meant that I got to be one of those people eating alone since it was a sit down restaurant, so I got to amuse the wait staff. One of them kept excitedly attempting to refill my glass every time I took a sip. The other kept getting the maitre d' to translate everything I said. He actually informed me that my selection was very spicy in a way that implied I couldn't handle it. When my order arrived, I found it to be tasty but not even a touch spicy. I have to wonder if he told the chef to make a more docile version to protect my tongue from potential flamage.

Upon my return to the home of paint and cleaning, Pepper greeted me with, "You smell yummy. Is that bag for me?"

Clearly he has not heard the rumors about what really constitutes the meat in Chinese cuisine. Don't worry. I didn't feed him my leftovers. I hear that animals go crazy when they eat their own.

Morning always brings out my inner grouch. Other people's attempts to send me (and thirty-two other people, apparently) on a free guilt trip. The sages of the computer age constantly remind us to review our messages before we click send to avoid offending or alienating people. At the heart of my annoyance, however, is the implication that all the people who were contacted by this travel agent could have juggled the million things to make time for someone's concerns at the last minute. I managed to squeeze in some time to help, but that is because they ended up needing help in the afternoon as well as the morning. I've seen some social network explosions that accuse someone I know do their due diligence of being lazy, which makes me sad, but I am tired from being more active than the average couch potato today.