July 24, 2014

Last night I came across a tiny spider in my room. It ran out in the middle of the floor and we both kind of froze. I was furiously looking around for a cup and I was cupless. The spider just kind of hung out, seemingly waiting for my next move. I eventually spotted a DVD spindle and grabbed the top off of it to use as a capturing device. When I turned around the spider had vanished but after moving some shoes around it came back out into the middle of the floor and I was able to trap it. Then I had to look around for something to slide under it that was slim enough to slide under but also sturdy enough that I would end up losing the spider or having it come out and crawl on me. I eventually settled on the manila folder I used to hold my resume and stuff for my grad school interview. After taking quite awhile to get everything in place while not losing or crushing the spider, I picked it up. Normally I take insects outside, because that is where they belong, but I didn't want to make the dogs go nuts with the sound of an outside door opening. Instead, I went out to the garage and let it out near the garage door. I trusted it to find its own way out. Or at least not back to my room. Or bathroom. Spiders seem to have a thing for me lately.

This morning I got to climb through a window to get into projection again. It's a good thing I'm limber. Yesterday the upstairs didn't get the memo that it wasn't over a hundred degrees outside and it was incredibly hot upstairs. I ended up having the backdoor open most of the day to at least get a breeze going. Today it was much better. I only got to enjoy it for about four hours, however, because I was sent home around one o'clock. I didn't even get to finish the first level of the last movie in LEGO: Pirates Of The Caribbean. I should have finished it but in my first attempt I couldn't get out of the first room because I pushed something that I needed to use to jump on, too far and couldn't get to where I needed to be, and I couldn't reset it. And then the second time I very nearly beat the level, at least I think. A common thing in the game is too have mini boss fights, where the character has four or five hearts. Each time you hit them they lose a heart but then move to a different area of the map. I was on the third hit I think but had to clock out. I could have rushed through it but I gotta collect all those studs. As I have mentioned before there is no save function outside of the auto-save at the end of a level, so I paused it and closed my laptop and crossed my fingers. I checked when I got home and the game had crashed. So I will need to play that level for a third time. Yay. Tonight I downloaded LEGO Lord Of The Rings and LEGO Batman 2, so I will play one of those next. Although I should probably start with LEGO Harry Potter because I played the first one years ago. I'm just hoping at some point they allow the player to save whenever they want.

I was sent home early from work because patron attendance has sucked recently and work scheduling has been even worse. The managers apparently got a strongly worded email from the district manager about staffing issues. Today they sent almost everyone home early and next week the schedule has been significantly slimmed. Tomorrow they asked if I could work two o'clock to eight o'clock, instead of six o'clock to close, but I can't, so it looks like I'll just be working six o'clock to eight o'clock. Kind of ridiculous. Then next week, instead of opening Monday through Thursday, I work two o'clock to eight o'clock on Tuesday and Thursday. Which won't work on Thursday because I might have a visit with the new volunteer kid. So yeah, thankfully summer is almost over and I can get back to my job at the school.

Speaking of the new volunteer kid, I didn't have a visit with him tonight because I couldn't get ahold of him. This ended up working out because I met my sister over at my grandma's house around four o'clock to look through the house and we were there until after eight o'clock. My grandma has moved down with my aunt and uncle. I believe they have taken everything that my grandma wants / will fit in their house. I guess the plan is to come up sometime soon and put price tags on everything and have a walkthrough estate sale. I'm not a fan of that idea, but we have until whenever that is to take what we want. It is weird going through everything but there is also a lot of meaningful stuff that we don't want to see disappear.

My grandma and grandpa made a really good craft team. My grandpa would make patterns for animals and people and whatever and then my grandma would paint them. All high quality stuff, and there are little things all over the place. Stuff that other people would certainly appreciate for their craftsmanship, but they hold way more value for us, at least the family living here. There are also regular framed paintings that my grandma painted. I separated a lot of that stuff and my sister went through a lot of old photo albums. We saw pictures neither of us had seen before, including a few that look like my grandpa took them when he was in the Army. It was pretty much treated like that part of his life never happened, I think because most of his friends died, so it was kind of weird seeing proof that it did happen. I also found a lot of books, including some that my grandpa used to make patterns for wooden toys we played with as kids. And the train set that I used to love.

The main thing that I wanted was a stick that my grandpa had found in the yard and my grandma turned into a Santa by painting it. I just thought it was awesome and thankfully I remembered where I had packed away all the Santas the last time I took down the cabinet-top display I made over there. I also ended up grabbing all of the Santas my grandpa had cut out of wood and my grandma painted. There were ones actually shaped like a person but several that were in the shape of hearts and triangles. I don't plan on keeping all of them for myself but I wanted to get them out of the house before they disappear.

In my mom's new house there will be room for one of my grandma's chairs and maybe the loveseat which would be nice to have because those also make me feel very nostalgic for my grandparents' old house. I also saw a table, that I always assumed was a sewing table, but today I found out it opens up to a writing desk with a little pull out table. Another thing I wouldn't mind having if no one else wants it. It would be perfect as a laptop desk or an actual writing desk because do still write with a pen and pencil.

It is all really weird going through everything but it is also cool bringing up memories of the past and seeing my grandparents as they were when they were young, completely unaware of the family they would one day create. It is one of the times I wish I was super rich and had multiple houses that I could fill with all this stuff that holds sentimental value. Tomorrow morning I am going with my mom to meet the realtor over at her new house and I will finally get to see the inside, for real, not just looking through the windows. Then I am going to meet my sister, brother, and dad over at my grandma's. My sister set a few things aside today but the only thing I ended up taking were all of the Santas she painted. I think with my dad and brother there we can get a better idea of what everyone wants and figure out how we're going to get it all out of the house.

When I got home tonight I ate a late dinner consisting of the second have of my Chipotle burrito, which I found to be delicious, most likely due to the fact that I was really hungry. Then I downloaded some LEGO games, watched some YouTube videos, and started writing this. Almost two pages later I think I am going to call it a night. I slept a little better last night and right now I am feeling super tired so hopefully that is a good sign. I would like to sleep well tonight.