The Good News Is That The Neighbors Are Getting A New Roof

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

I cannot catch a break lately.

Last week as I watched my life get rather wonky, I decided that on this Monday, when I had nothing scheduled, I’d hang out on our screened-in porch. I figured that I’d take my laptop out there and set up camp for the day. To do this, all I need to do is to move the round glass-topped side table in front of a wicker lounge chair, add a few pillows for back support, reposition a smaller wooden side table for my mug of coffee– and I’m good to go.

And considering that the weather today is finally sunny + clear + mild, you’d think that I’d be out there, wouldn’t you? Doing my own suburban take on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Walden Pond lifestyle. Finding spiritual inspiration sitting next to the trees with the birds chirping and the squirrels squirreling. Being all peaceful and such.

But I’m not.

Instead, I’m in my home office with the French doors to the foyer closed, shades on windows down, trying to ignore the loud ruckus that is going on next door– and in front of my house. This is because my peaceful screened-in porch sanctuary looks out upon the chaos and mess going on next door as a new roof is being installed. Meaning that I am not feeling passionately at one with the whole world a la RWE, but I am feeling passive like a victim of Lemony Snicket’s Unfortunate Events.

However, be that as it may, looking on the brighter side of things, the neighbors are getting a new roof that they need after theirs was done-in by some hail damage last summer. So this is necessary. And when this is all finished I’ll be the one who gets to look at the prettiest roof in town.

So there’s that.

~ ~ • ~ ~

~ Pretty Pillows Not Being Used By Me Today ~

Scattered

May 31, 2013May 31, 2013 / Ally Bean / 26 Comments

“Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

~ ~ • ~ ~

My energy this week has been scattered. Some moments I’ve been focused + productive. But other moments (most moments) I’ve been angsty + worried. Then add in the fact that this is a 4-day work week– and I don’t know what I’m all about.

While it is true that I am more comfortable than most with the vagaries of life, this week I’ve felt out of sorts about my lack of progress or connection or accomplishment or whatever. Scattered, I tell you.

So yesterday afternoon I decided that the best thing for me to do was to see what I could see outside around the house. I thought that a distraction would be good. Naturally I took my camera with me.

It was a hazy sunny day which meant that most of my photos weren’t clear– just kind of a fuzzy, glare-y mess. Rather like my week. And with the sun in my eyes, those photos that were clear tended to have lousy composition– off-kilter or scattered. Still a few of them turned out okay.

And so on that positive note, I’m off to enjoy a summer weekend where being scattered is a plus. On the agenda we have a walk in a county park [on the other side of town]; a meal at an English pub [in another part of town]; an art show [in an entirely different direction]; and a cocktail hour on the terrace next to the woods [out the back door]. Life may be scattered for me now, but it is good. Happy Weekend everyone!

The One With Ally’s Weird Dream

May 2, 2013May 4, 2013 / Ally Bean / 14 Comments

{ Image Source: The Silent Films Still Archive – Up the Road with Sallie (1918)}

~ • ~

First, I’ll tell you about the dream:

driving in my white coupe down road in flat farm country where I grew up – get behind slow-moving gray van – pass on the left but van pushes me off the road into corn field – drive safely through field and get back on road in front of van – once in front of van my car turns into my blue bike from when I was a girl – ride bike to lowest level of parking garage at a mall near where I live now – lock bike on bike rack – rearrange all of my stuff into bags so that it is comfortable for me to carry – Abby Sciuto [of NCIS] looks on as I do this – then off we go together to shop upstairs in the mall

Then, I’ll explain the weird part:

In the dream I lock my bike using my girlhood yellow bike lock. When I first look at the lock I’m dismayed because I don’t know the combination, but then I think about it– and remember the lock combination. For real. In my dream. The actual lock combination for a lock that I haven’t used in decades.

Finally, I’ll hypothesize about what this dream might mean:

I’ve flipped for sure this time.
My subconscious is telling me that I’ve unlocked something [important?] from my past.
I need to stop watching NCIS before I go to sleep.
My subconscious is telling me that I’m all organized now, so it is time for me to move on.
On the roadways of life, small & determined [my coupe] trumps large & in the way [the van].
My subconscious is telling me that it’s time for me to start exercising more.
I’m way cooler in my dreams than I am in real life.

Because We Are Just That Exciting, We Went On A Date

April 15, 2013July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 17 Comments

On Thursday I got home late in the afternoon and saw that there was a message on the answering machine from Z-D. This struck me as odd because I had my cell phone with me and if he really wanted/needed to get hold of me STAT he’d use that method.

So I listened to the message, wondering what was up. As I did not just fall off the new wife-y turnip truck, I figured that there was something going on that was a bit wonky. And I was right.

• • •

First: He said, “I have an idea– let’s go out on a date tonight.”

[ME, suspicious: Hmmm.]

Next: He told me his date night plan. He wanted us to drive to a town about an hour away & pick up some sandwiches at a local grocery store that has a deli sandwich counter inside it.

[ME, with raised eyebrow: Okay, maybe.]

Then: He told me that he wanted us to go sit in a parking lot to watch some lights in the parking lot come on.

[ME, stunned: Do what?! That’s a date???]

Finally: He said, “I’ll pick you up at home in about an hour or so. See ‘ya soon. ‘Bye.”

[ME, shouting at the phone machine: That’s not a date. That’s something you have to do for work, isn’t it?]

• • •

And you know as I stood there staring at the answering machine I had three thoughts. Simultaneously. Before the machine even turned itself off.

My God we are old if this is his idea of a date. Honest to Pete, watch lights come on?!! What kind of date is that?
Rather clever of me to know that there was something up with this message before I heard it. I’m getting good at this marriage thing. Yeah me!
Well– phooey, I don’t have a thing planned for this evening and those sandwiches are yummy, so I guess that I’ll go out with him. Might be kind of fun.

… and you know what? It was.