SEARCH FOR PERFECT RESTAURANT

SEARCH FOR PERFECT RESTAURANT

We bought one of those “GoPlaySave – Raleigh” coupon books for $30, good through 2014, hoping it will give us incentive to try new restaurants in our area  – even though we’ve only moved across town. 

We were in the mood for Italian food last night.  (Put more precisely, I wanted Italian food.)  I wanted to go to a nice restaurant, as opposed to a quick order-at-the-counter place.  (Do those places have a name?  Is it “fast-food-indoors,” or “sort-of-fast-food restaurant,” or maybe “over-the-counter food”?)  I clipped one of my coupons and we drove there.  It turned out to be a quick-food pizza place.  

Throwing the coupon book to the back seat, we kept driving.  We found an Italian bistro and wow!  The atmosphere was wonderful!  The aroma was wonderful!  The service was wonderful!  We ordered drinks and talked about how this might become “our special place”. 

But then the food came.

COMMENTS MADE WHILE MOVING & DOWNSIZING

  

Someone asked if we owned a beach house because I donated so much beach stuff for the church sale.

Seeing all the junk I brought to the church rummage sale, a friend asked if I could talk his wife into downsizing, too.

OK.  I'm going to quit drowning and start swimming in this clutter very soon!

I caught myself thinking of buying bar stools for the apartment.  What am I thinking?!!  Am I crazy?!!  This is temporary!!!

What?  They broke my recliner?  And they’ll only pay me only six dollars a pound for it?

I discovered that if you plop an empty box over the back of a chair, it assumes a perfect position for cutting the tape off the bottom.

Opening boxes is like getting surprises at Christmas.  I found some bagged cat shit.

I’m not drowning any more.   I'm doing the doggie paddle.  :)

Downsizing gets drastically easier when you’re unpacking boxes and realize you’ve got to pack this stuff all over again when you move out in six months. 

What?  They jammed my expandable dining room table?  I’ll take it apart later.  Next month.

I think I threw my crystal water glasses in the church rummage sale pile.  I'll try to buy them back.

Now I'm swimming!  Got the living room, kitchen and bedroom basically cleaned up. 

Did you know that you can’t open an elevator with a car key fob?

 I'm looking forward to having the gang over as soon as I get the TV off the sofa.

And I’ve got to do this all over again in six months?  !

PACKING JEWELRY

PACKING JEWELRY

Carefully, I lifted the many necklaces off their many hooks and draped them over my left hand.  The intention was to pack them without getting them tangled.

Holding the necklaces with one hand and a piece of twine with the other, I attempted to wrap twine around the necklaces in a doughnut shape.  I inserted the twine into the hole under my left hand and wrapped it around the necklaces twice (not easy to do with one hand).  Satisfied that I had averted disaster, I laid the heap of necklaces on the table.

Dang!   They surely did not form a doughnut shape.  More like a cluster thing.  They had fallen into a tangled mass-of-a-mess.  I must have run the twine back through the hole in the wrong direction the second time around. 

Oh well.  At least I know that unsnarling them will be fun.  When I was a child, my cousin pulled a Tom Sawyer whitewash on me when he was untangling some fishing line, and I’ve enjoyed untangling things ever since.  Not!

TRYING TO STAY CALM

TRYING TO STAY CALM

If you can remain calm, you just don’t have all the facts!

I'm working hard at trying to keep things normal while packing for the move.  It’s difficult.  Everyone who looks at me offers to help. (Do I look like a basket case?)  One good friend is going to have the party that I had foolishly planned to have this weekend - as well as the guests I had invited to stay overnight. 

I’ve done a fair job of maintaining a normal life.  For meals, we’ve had Coney Island Hot dogs, popcorn at the movies, chocolate shakes at McDonalds, take-out ribs from Chili’s. 

One morning at 8 am a parade started through our house –plumber, handyman, electrician, daughter, and brother-in-law.  Tune in next week.  I’ll be the lunatic clown!

of paper and things: paper arts | karen margolis

of paper and things: paper arts | karen margolis


I love paper art!  But this is the most fascinating I've seen yet - but then, I haven't seen much - yet.