Happy Independence

Lois looking radioactive in one of those E-collars. It's pretty funny - she freezes and thinks she can't do things in it - going down the porch stairs took like 5 minutes!
I realized on Wednesday night, when I didn't meet a bunch of friends out at a bar after work (for good reasons - water was shut off unexpectedly and Lois needed feeding, walking and attention, plus I had to teach early Thursday morning), that I am becoming a sort of recluse. No one calls me, and if/when they do, I can rarely get together with people, so I don't go out, at all. Plus, due to the nature of my job/sucky workload and budget, I also never go out with people from work - they're constantly going out to lunch and going for martinis and drinks and what-have-you, but I'm never done with work, so I miss out on all the schmoozing.

The big thing is: I'm OK with all of this. For now. I'm not so cool with completely losing touch with friends from the past; that's no good - but I hope that I can take care of whatever introverted psychological and life-direction business I need to now, and that there will still be friends to call when the dust settles. But who knows? I feel like I'm in the middle of a big change.

My long weekend has begun well - last night I comforted Lois from all the fireworks noises while I watched two "easy" movies and untangled these 3 fine chain necklaces of my grandmothers - she somehow got them into a horrendous clump and it took me a total of about 20 hours (I started when I visited them on Father's Day weekend) and some jeweler's tools to get them apart and separately boxed to mail back to her. It was a funny thing to be obsessed by.

Next, I'm going swimming at the pool, doing a scheduled bike and run workout, picking up a foam roller (pictures to come), making strawberry shortcake, walking Lois, and cleaning a little before heading to friend R's barbecue tonight - alone (- but that's OK!).