Truly enjoying myself this week

Although I’m not enjoying this exact moment! I made pecan bars in a pan that was too small and you can guess what that did to my oven. So this morning I pressed the ‘auto-clean’ button and the entire house is hot and making my eyes water! Has to be done though. Luckily it’s still cool outside so I can turn off the AC and have the doors and windows open to air the place out as much as possible.

I am always reminded of something hilarious whenever I clean the oven. James is the oldest of the kids and he was 17 when Dennis and I got together. It was just the boys living here at that time – Dennis, James and Steven who was 14, and Dennis tried to get the boys to help out with chores. Steven was pretty good but I swear I never met such a lazy butt as James in all my life! This kid would do anything to get out of anything that even resembled chores. Anyway it was his job to wash the dishes and clean the counters and stovetop. Well we came in and the dishes were in the dishwasher but the stove was still a mess with dried food all over it (bachelor cooks and all ) so we went to find James to ask him why he didn’t finish cleaning.

Well he did finish cleaning he said! And he was very offended as he told us had used the self cleaning button to clean the stovetop! We just stared at him for a second then started laughing! Then we explained that self cleaning meant the inside of the oven…did he think a mechanical arm was gonna come out with a sponge attached to it like on the Jetsons? Or maybe it was gonna be like on the Flintstones and a woolly mammoth was gonna walk up to the window and spray water on it? And may I say "DUH!" here? LOL!

Anyway, back to the present,  it has been a low key week for me. I didn’t end up volunteering on Tuesday since I was going to be sent to the freshman annex to help unpack and set up the new library. I had agreed to it but that was before it was explained to me that I had to go to the annex somewhere else in town and I was pretty pissed off. Transportation was going to be a problem for me and I knew I was gonna get stuck on the students shuttle bus and there goes my lunch with hubby etc. I’m not really much on going into unchartered territory. But I had agreed so finally I called in to the other librarian on Monday to talk to her about it.

She got on the phone and sounded really really frazzled. Then I explained who I was and she says "Yeah?" Just like that! I was kinda speechless for a second since I was definitely not feeling the love here! LOL! So I just started talking and decided at that moment that I was going to explain why I couldn’t volunteer instead of working out transportation. I figured since I was volunteering there was no reason I should have to work somewhere I wasn’t going to enjoy myself at all! I was expecting her to be annoyed or upset, but she actually sounded relieved! She relaxed and told me she understood and even started chitchatting with me! Wow.

So after thinking about it and talking to Dennis about her reaction, here’s what I figure happened. The lady I volunteer for (Marilyn) is the big boss and this other lady (Jean) is the assistant. Evidently the two did not always get along and when Jean got sent to the annex to run that library she was probably relieved to get away from Marilyn and run the place her own way. Well, Marilyn is still the boss and stopped by to check on her progress, decided it wasn’t going quick enough and thought she needed help and asked me to volunteer there instead. I’m thinking Jean didn’t like that and here I was stuck in the middle! Yeah, that’s all I need in my life. Here I am volunteering just to be nice and get out of the house and they go and stick me in the middle of their power tug-of-war! Sheesh!

But I backed out and the heck with them both! I will go back into the main library tomorrow and will be sure to get specifics the next time Marilyn asks me ANYTHING! LOL! The week has been very relaxing for me though. The house is clean and staying clean, the laundry is caught up and that is leaving me plenty of time to read, sew myself some new dresses for work and even to write a little bit. I had another diary here back when we first got married and was told time and time again that I should turn it into a book. And for some reason I have been hearing it alot again lately. Even my ex-mother-in-law recently told Alysia that she always remembered the letters I used to write to her and that I should be a writer. And this woman hates me! LOL! So I have been having fun puttering with that too.

Life seems to be pretty much idyllic lately.   (I just hope I didn’t jinx myself by saying that!)