Random Musings

Nothing special going on, but I am practicing discipline, and writing something for this blog as often as I can. Right now [Note: written Saturday night], I’m sitting in a hotel room in Marin County, cooling my heels, having forgotten to bring a book or a magazine to read, while my husband surfs the Net and the TV is blah-blah’ing away. (Those who know me well will find this -- not having a book handy -- pretty ironic, given the sheer deluge of reading material strewn through my house...) I blame it on our usual last-minute packing. Both the spousal unit and I are absolutely awful about packing ahead of time for any trip -- be it overnight or three weeks. We wait until the very last minute. We apparently think we get extra points if we leave it until within the hour before we absolutely positively need to leave the house! This, of course, often leads to astonishing lapses in terms of what we did not pack. (There was one business trip where I totally forgot to pack outer clothes -- I did remember pajamas and underwear, but that was it... Thank goodness there was a shopping center across the road from the hotel, and they had a Target store there...) (Don’t ask...)

I will say, however, that this time we DID remember to pack our swim suits, as I had the foresight to actually check out the on-site amenities for this hotel when I made the reservation. (We had not stayed here previously -- the hotel we usually stay at when we’re up this way was fully booked tonight.) Lo and behold, they have a jacuzzi/whirlpool. We love to get in a hot jacuzzi, and just soak... (Our favorite is in Hawaii, where all the jacuzzis are outdoors, and you can lay in the water and look up at the stars... I’m feeling the aloha spirit just writing about it!) Anyway, the jacuzzi at this hotel is indoors, thanks be, as it’s really quite nippy out tonight. It was nice, and very relaxing. There were a couple of pre-teen girls hopping about, cute as buttons, with a very much long-suffering older sister who was roped into watching them, and a lady who was there by herself, attempting to read in peace. (What? Read in a jacuzzi? Hmmm...)

There is cable TV in the room (of course), but the choices appear to be either NASCAR or Fox News. I kid you not. The remote is on the fritz, to add insult to injury. So, I’m taking the opportunity to write. I’d surf the Net, but there’s no wireless access in the room, just hard-line access, and the spouse is on the computer (we, of course, each brought our own laptop) (we are SO VERY SiliValley...), checking out eBay, seeing if there is some fabulous deal on car bits or god-only-knows-what. Oops, he just finished, and let me check my email and CNN and the New York Times. Same stuff, different day... All is disaster...

Now, it’s not as though I didn’t have books to bring with me, of course. I actually picked up three used books in one of the charity shops in the UK; they are from the series written by Alexander McCall Smith, about Precious Ramotswe, the proprietor of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. (The first book was “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency”, which I absolutely loved.) I started one of the books yesterday, started to get quite into it, had planned on bringing it with me, and of course it is sitting on my bed at home, waiting for me.

However, I’m quite pleasantly sleepy now, after the jacuzzi, and a very nice dinner. (Note, please, that I was good and did not have any wine or alcohol either last night -- during our usual “Friday night out at the Elephant Bar” -- or this evening... It really is making me irritable, by the way...)

Tomorrow, we’re off to Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point Raceway), to attend a race, put on by a vintage and classic car racing group that the husband used to be active in. It should be fun. We brought one of our many picnic baskets, folding chairs, and a little folding table. We also remembered to bring our hats, heavy jackets and sunscreen. Yep, I’m pretty sure we have all that. We certainly packed enough crap... [Note: Day at the raceway was wonderful; the weather was gorgeous, the cars were fast -- and noisy! -- we ran into some friends, and generally just kicked back and hung out.]

This afternoon [Note: on Saturday], we attended a play in San Francisco. It was “Rock and Roll” by Tom Stoppard. The spousal unit LOVES, absolutely LOVES, Tom Stoppard’s work. This was in return for his agreeing to go see “Spamalot” when we were in London. (In retrospect, we should have tried to get tickets to “Ivanov” when we were in London -- Richard Branagh was doing it -- but, oh well...) Anyway, the play was OK. I’m not a huge Tom Stoppard fan -- I think he’s a tad too precious, and it kind of puts my teeth on edge. But the performances were excellent, and the play kept my interest. The music they played during the scene transitions was, however, far too loud. (What is it with theatres and movie houses, blasting music? Do they think we’ve all gone deaf from too many rock concerts in our misspent youths?) The play is all about the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and Vaclev Havel, and the role of the Plastic People of the Underground in the whole dissident movement. I cannot imagine how folks who have no background whatsoever in terms of knowing something about those events would understand the play. (Oh, you could follow the action, I guess, but you wouldn’t “get it”, I think.) Luckily, we had some time in our seats before the play started to read the program, which was excellent by the way, and it helped me immensely to understand what was going on. I, of course, would have edited the script (!), to include a little more background on one of the main characters, and delete one of the (to my mind) ancillary plot lines... But, unfortunately, Mr. Stoppard has not asked for my help!

I also have some other books I want to read; three about Marie Antoinette (I’m not sure why that particular theme presented itself), one about the nature of marriage and spousal relationships (written by an Indian woman), a mystery novel by Ellis Peters (one of the Cadfael novels) (I don’t think I’ve read this one), and one or two more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. There’s also the latest Oprah magazine (one of my guilty pleasures), and a couple of other magazines that hit the door recently.

Unfortunately, part of the surgery that I’m having on Monday is on my eyelids, and I’m told that I really won’t be able to read much (if at all) for a few (or more than a few) days. Oh, goodie. What the heck am I supposed to do, then, pray tell? Zone out on painkillers and listen to CNN? the Food Channel? BBC America? Daytime TV is pretty dismal. And, right now, one can either listen to all the ranting and raving on the upcoming election (and I am sick to death of all the negative BS that’s going on) or the doom-and-gloom talking heads blabbering away about the economic crisis. It’s enough to turn me to MTV, for goodness sakes! (Well, no, not really, but close.) I can, I suppose, turn on NPR and listen to that for hours at a time.

I really hope that my recovery time is relatively short. I don’t “do” just sitting around very well, unless I’m really really sick or really really sedated... Or both... It is possible, I gather, to be up and about and relatively healed up in 10 days, which would be lovely. But one never knows. I’ve been really quite good about following all the pre-op guidelines, so I hope it all pays off. I read a bunch of online comments about the procedure last night, and some of them sounded pretty scary; however, for the most part, the women who had the procedure were quite happy with their decision, and felt it was worth the money. Let’s hope I can write a positive comment at the end of my recovery!

Well, I think that’s about it. I could go on and on, but I don’t want everyone’s eyes to roll back in their heads as they plow through my rambling. I’ll pull out the play program, and re-read it... Might make a bit more sense, now that I’ve seen the play. Or not.

I hope all of you are doing well out there, and enjoying the lovely autumn weather. (Of course October in California can be fire and/or earthquake season, for reasons that are unknown... But it’s still lovely...)

Cheers!