The lost weekend
I left my house this morning, surveying my living room and said, "This is not the way a house should look after a weekend." It should have looked clean, straightened up and much more organized. What did I do all weekend? Well, yesterday I took a wonderful, 2 hour nap. That's what a glass of bourbon and a glass of wine at 1:00 with Sunday dinner will do for you. We had dinner at Fred's camp, which is a beautiful place, and he had a wonderful fire in the fireplace. It was great and we all relaxed, enjoyed each other's company and the day. Then I went home and crashed. Tess ripped apart my $8 Target purse, frustrated because I had zipped it shut. She tore a hole in the bottom and emptied the contents. One tranquilizer was missing from the pill bottle (but she apparently did NOT eat it, judging by her behavior in the evening) and the car was locked (after she played with the remote door locker, oh these modern inventions I'm just an old-fashioned girl), but at least this time she didn't chew up my credit cards--or maybe that was NOT a blessing. Chances puked all night, sitting humbly in the corner after each episode. I watched the Emmys last night--sometimes I really enjoy the total waste of time that awards shows are. I brought in all my house plants because we had frost warnings. No frost, but now I have plants on every surface in my living room. I cut back the Swedish (jah) ivy to nubbins and am rooting a new potful (as if I needed another plant) in anticipation of the death of my huge (9' long) asparagus fern that hangs from the second floor. I think it's getting to be too old and will die soon. I worried that Tess' heart was beating too fast and she was going to die during the night, then discovered that that is the normal rate for a dog's heart to beat when I FINALLY found Chances' heartbeat under the layers of fat and ribs. See, I found a chewed up and empty pill bottle with the label destroyed on the l. room floor after my nap and I didn't know what she had eaten, or if she had eaten an Atavan, or what she had done while I was asleep. With this dog you just never know. Her heart was just beating so quickly I was sure no heart could make it through the night. But lo and behold that's the normal rate. Go figure.

But I had an ok weekend. Not productive, fairly sociable. I went to a great workshop on Friday, done by an architect who works with libraries (why didn't we have one of those when we did our building renovation?) on redesigning your library. He was great and my time was well spent. Friday night my cousin Tom stopped by and we visited for a few hours. I had my wood delivered and Tom and the driver picked the best spot for it to be dumped (don't you just love it when two men get together). The driver turned out to be my plowman so I had a chance to butter him up a whole lot. He works for the town in the winter. Tom and I talked about Henry and both cried, that felt sort of good.

Saturday I packed up my garbage and went to camp to clean out the refrigerators. Tom, Bill and their brother-in-law Jim were there, just finishing up the dock removal. Boat house out and stored in the slip (see, Jenica--that was a good idea, wasn't it!). We stood in the sun in the driveway, traditional shit-shooting spot and visited for 45 minutes or so. They are very nice people. Then I went to the dump. My friend Lin came over, picked up the book our group is reading this month, we visited a bit. She invited me for dinner at their camp, Tom & Bill invited me for dinner at their camp. In the end I stayed home, just didn't feel like going anywhere. Good idea, bad idea, I just stayed home. Watched Matchstick Men. Nicholas Cage is such a good actor. Good movie.

And now it's Monday, zeroing in on the end of September. Have already had big discussion about who should be deleting records from the data base, how we should handle "unowned" records in the data base, what to do about renegade and unpleasant staff member at library next door. But all was good in discussion, no one got upset and I soothed everyone and lulled them by saying no decisions would be made until I have all the information about how and how much work is currently being done. blah blah blah.

Tomorrow is the hearing for my grievance against the director. My friend Julie has been subpoened to testify on my behalf. That was a big surprise to the director. Julie was referred to in the written reprimand that is the center of the whole grievance. The director accused me of phoning and conversing with Julie to the point of interfering with her ability to get her work done, and in an attempt to subvert the assessment process. Lies, all lies! Anyway, Julie and I never talk on the phone and both know the whole thing is laughable. Whether she'll have to testify is not known but my lawyer wants her there on my behalf. Am I nervous about the hearing? You bet, but not just yet. Tomorrow I'll be hysterical. Today I'm just getting my work done.

The sun is shining and it's a beautiful autumn day. It was very cold this morning, but the leaves are turning and it's one of the prettiest times of year at my house. I have a huge pile of firewood to stack. woo-hoo. I didn't touch a stick of it Saturday or yesterday, oh the shame of it. I did get to talk to my sister, though, which was a nice treat.