Day: March 28, 2007

I hate being allergic to cats. I hate wheezing up when I visit people who have them. It is alarming and uncomfortable to have my lungs constrict and my energy ebb. Most of the time I don’t think of my allergy at all. It is a non-issue. But this trip we are staying with the Strohls who have 3 cats. We’ll be visiting with Pi and Kreely who have cats.

I wish I could love and snuggle the cats. I wish I could tussle with dogs. I hate seeming to be fussy or reluctant about animals. But the truth is that I am. I don’t touch the animals because I know the consequences.

The outside air is cool and moist. The night is filled with frog song. Inside the house is spacious and the guest room we’ve been given is fit to be a bed and breakfast. Our room is stocked with everything from a canopied bed, to a breakfast table, to a shelf full of teas, to a basket full of bath and hand lotions. It is all so thoroughly thought out.

I look around and I wish I had a space like this to give over to guests. Currently our only guest space is a futon couch in my office. Usually the only guests we have are my family. My family will quite happily throw air mattresses on the floor. But I’d love to be able to provide beauty.

I think of my home and I see it with the eyes of familiarity. My home does not seem beautiful, or spacious. I know where all the patches are, the cracks in the walls. I know that the front room, supposedly the nicest room in the house, hasn’t had baseboards since the year we moved in. We removed the baseboards to lay the hardwood floors and never put any back. I see clearly the dark stripes on the paint that mark the locations of the studs behind the wall board. For some reason the stud-backed boards collect more dirt. I wish I knew why.

I could go on listing the faults of my decorating. The core of the problems is this. My house is not beautiful, I wish it were. The reason my house is not beautiful is because I have chosen to spend my time and money on other things. That will probably continue for a time longer. Money is still tight. This expensive trip to Seattle is not going to make it any looser. Perhaps I need to frequent garage sales again. There I might find things which are beautiful and inexpensive. Perhaps I can squeeze enough money out of my budget and enough time out of my schedule to paint some rooms. Just paint would make a world of difference.

I have a dozen things I’d like to post today.  

I want to post about how sweet Patches was in the car during the 8 hours of driving.  Mostly the kids were totally focused on the dvd player, but Patches frequently glanced out the window to comment on the rivers and trains.  At one point he declared his intention to watch for a blue truck.  He wanted one that had both front and back sections blue.  “Watching for a blue truck” has been a past distraction attempt for when Patches was tired and cranky on car trips.  I love that he remembered it and decided to apply it to himself when he was bored.  I don’t think he ever found a truck that met his specifications.  That’s alright we have hours of driving on the return trip to continue looking.

We ate lunch at McDonalds.  The current set of happy meal toys is Ninja Turtles.  The turtles have totally capture Patches imagination. He’s seen the movie trailers a couple of times and now he’s begun to collect the happy meal toys.  He stood in front of the display and made plans to collect the whole army.  McDonalds was an ideal stop for all the kids and it hit at the perfect time because the kids were beginning to be cranky.

Dan and Donna’s house is already proving to be a wonderful place to stay.  I couldn’t be more grateful that they offered to have us.  They have turned over the downstairs for our use.  It is a guest suite worthy of a bed and breakfast.  I look at all the beautiful decoration and I am now spinning plans to decorate my house.  I want my house to be as beautiful as this one is.  Kiki, Gleek, and Patches all made themselves comfortable within minutes of walking in the door.  Link had something of an anxiety attack when he was face with a large enthusiastic dog and knowlege of several cats.  At first he wanted to hide downstairs.  Donna kindly removed the dog which allowed Link to aclimate much more easily.  Link is a much more conservative person than my other kids.  He is uneasy being in this totally new place with totally new people.  Most of the travelling we do is to the houses of relatives.  It is good for him to have this experience, but it wasn’t easy at first.  Thank goodness for legos.  They bridged the anxiety gap and when last I checked Link was playing happily with Patches and the little boy of the house.

Tomorrow we have a tour at Wizards of the Coast and then in the evening is Schlockfest.  I’m really looking forward to both.

Hmm.  This seems to be fewer than a dozen things.  That means I’ve probably forgotten some of them.  Maybe I’ll remember later.  For now I need to give Dan his computer back.