it's moontime somewhere

JULY SO FAR: 

Sunday the 1st: All day shopping frenzy with my sister and visiting Fresno Aunt.  F.A. had very specific things she was looking for and we had to go to TWO MALLS, which is too many malls. Maybe the other mall was later. I almost passed out in the Lego store, so it's all a blur to me now. At the beginning, before things went mall-shaped, we bought some delicious goat cheese at the Irvington Farmer's Market.

Monday the 2nd: More shopping, but this time it was yarn shops - hooray!  Then one more mall (the second mall! I remember now we only went to one on Sunday, it just seemed like 500 malls and when I left the Lego store to get some air I had to stand right in front of the "we buy your gold" guy for what seemed like an eternity. It was interesting watching the gold guy size up potential customers. I was rightly dismissed immediately!)

Tuesday the 3rd: Fresno Aunt and her nice but cat-intimidating German Shepherd, Daisy, leave at the CRACK OF DAWN. (on the road by 7 AM) Rest of day spent in a "don't have to do anything" daze. Wasn't sure how long she'd be staying - thought she'd be here at least another couple of days, so this was a bonus. Don't get me wrong - I love my Aunt, but there were a lot of cat/dog shenanigans that required constant vigilance! Plus she gets up REALLY EARLY. Anyway. She left and now we can miss her and count our blessings about not having to go to the mall.

THE MOON SENT ME A TEXT: Tuesday was the full moon - I know this not only from looking in the night sky with my eyeballs, but because I must have hit some setting on one of my moon apps (I  have two), and it sent me a little calendar reminder at 1PM saying "hello, I am full right now even though it's the middle of the day and you're not even thinking about the moon, which is why I had to send you this message. I, The Moon, have achieved fullness in the sky right over your head even though you're too self-absorbed to even LOOK UP because it's daytime or something. It's moontime where I'm sitting, baby. Get with the program."

 PM ADVENTURES: I often go to a pub trivia game on Wednesdays with my trivia pals, but since this Wed. was a holiday, we went to a different one across town, hosted by the same guy. It was so bizarre! But fun because we like trivia and hanging out, plus we were having a little adventure. (we placed 2nd, which I deem respectable.)

Wednesday the 4th: Goofing off! My sister made jam and then we made cake to take to a BBQ @ Martina's house. Everything was delicious. Got home in time to make sure the cats were safely locked in due to mad bomber-style holiday explosives. Turned out to be a good call because someone a couple of streets over had a full on BOOM BOOM fireworks show. This was supposed to be the year that pdx cracked down on those kind of (legal in Washington, illegal in Oregon) fireworks, but I guess not!

Thursday the 5th: such a gorgeous day. The sun shone and I worked in the garden while listening to book podcasts. Lovely. I forgot to put on sunscreen for the first hour outside, so I'm a little pink. Due to schedule changes and (complicated, budgety) things, I know this month is going to be slooow for  work, so I'm trying to make some visible garden progress. We'll see how it goes... OOh, I also made some serious progress in the nonfiction book I have to finish by Sunday (The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit). I'm enjoying it - loving the descriptions of cosmopolitan old Cairo. It gives me a better sense of the region in that era - I found myself thinking of Justine, which was fiction but set in roughly the same period from the POV of a British ex-pat. Anyway, I'm enjoying it but wish I was done so I could dig into one of the 40 billion things waiting on my TBR stack.

ENJOY this Feist video with fireworks in it. I was going to post this on the 4th, but I'm posting it now instead.

these things happened

Today was sincerely weird. 

I took a short 4 hour job that I thought was for next week, but it turned out to be for... TODAY. And it started while I was blithely standing in the Humane Society looking at cats! 

Busby the cat needs a new friend so he's not so lonesome during the day. I was sure that Busby needed a kitten so he could raise him up right. It worked for Dash, surely he'd do it again. HOWEVER, Busby is now 5 years older than he was when Dash came along and maybe he doesn't want a super high energy kitten bouncing off the walls. So the age bar was raised a little and the nice lady at the Humane Society brought out a cat called Grayson - a cat who (VERY WEIRDLY) looked like he could be Busby's long lost twin. This is strange because Busby is HUGE (18+lbs, tall, long) and has long grey fur - unusual! This cat was also all of those things, although he was not as svelte. He was super sweet and friendly, but it just seemed weird to bring home a cat that looks just like the cat already there. I suppose it would be a way to become a crazy cat lady with a special distinction, but that's not a direction I'm currently aiming. I think maybe it's just too early for another cat. I've never in my life gone into a pet shop or shelter to pick out a cat - they've always fallen into my life one way or another and I think I'm scared of making a mistake. I don't want to pick the wrong one and have Busby ( a very sweet and goodnatured fellow) have to suffer the consequences. 

MEANWHILE, BACK AT MY JOB - they called and left a message to say "uh, where are you?" which I didn't get until I was home and already supposed to be there for hours. I did end up going in for the last two hours. People were very kind and understanding - worried, even, since blowing off a job is not my usual M.O. Everyone was very nice/cool about it, but of course I felt guilty.  

Thing that happened at work: this guy came up to the desk to check out a hold - he was very friendly and nice during his transaction,  and then wanted to know how he could donate to the library. I thought he meant books since almost everyone usually means books, but he meant MONEY! I had to rattle around a little to find the right answer (Library Foundation), but he was like "can't I just give you some money right now? Do you have an envelope or something? I really love you guys." ) So I said sure and he counted out a stack of singles from his wallet and I rang it into the cash register and that was that. 

Best introduction: a few weeks ago a little boy came into the library with his mother and little sister. He was wearing an orange long sleeve t-shirt and an olive colored vest. He seemed shy, sticking close to his mom  until she was putting books into the return slot. He came over to the desk where I was working and said in a loud whisper "I'm Han Solo!" and then ran away.  ADORABLE.