I’m sitting on the stepstool in the kitchen while J experiments with the Shrinky Dinks she got when we went shopping yesterday. Her experimental Shrinky Dink idea is so marvelously awesome that I cannot reveal it here but you should trust me that it is tremendously fantastic. I just made some hot chocolate and am thinking about my pants for tomorrow, which need ironing. My lips feel minty because I am experimenting with a new lip gloss, here in the kitchen in a pilly sweater and my sock feet.
I pried myself out of bed very late this morning and dragged myself into the kitchen only to see that C had bought Krispy Kremes for us. I don’t like Krispy Kremes so I had a cinnamon-raisin english muffin instead but I thought it was so cool that she thought of us. The package is still on top of the toaster oven, mostly full. I guess nine doughnuts are too much for three girls.
I was feeling a little lonely…my Saturday night had consisted of about six hours of Netflix TV, a polarfleece blanket, and a very bitey cat…and C told me I needed to get out today. I moped that I didn’t have anyone with whom to go out and she said, “Too bad!” She told me about a coffee place nearby and said I had to go there. C is from Boston and when she gets authoritative her accent gets much stronger and pretty much you do what she tells you at those times. I took a shower and put on some corduroys and packed a bag full of books and ventured out. I went there in the car but I think next time I’ll go by bike, since it was a beautiful fall day and it’s not too far away and there’s only one big hill I’d have to walk the bike up.
I had some mint tea and some (unadviseable, in retrospect) quiche for lunch and read books and wrote in my paper journal for about three hours. I snagged a huge comfy leather armchair after a while and read one of the books I got from Gael at book club Thursday night and had another pot of tea. I secretly thought I was very cool for doing something that’s supposed to be quintessentially Seattle, even though I suspect that it’s actuallly something that is quintessentially movies about Seattle. Anyway it was a neighborhood I’d never seen before and it was nice to get out.
I went to the swanky outdoor mall in quest of a fall jacket and came away with nothing, sadly, except for a thing of granola bars. I finished the book I’d started at the coffee shop and went on a quick little bike ride to the library to return a couple of other books. The sun was going down and it was pretty chilly and even though some people say we don’t really get seasons in Seattle, I am still from Miami enough to be a tiny bit flabbergasted (just like every year) that a couple of weeks ago I had to wait until seven or seven-thirty to ride my bike because it was too hot otherwise, and that it didn’t get dark until nine or so. It’s the time of year where the sun sets fifteen minutes earlier every night, or so it feels, and it was so dusky and crisp and mellow outside that I just biked around the block a couple of times and looked at the nice Craftsman houses and the pretty gardens.
J was working on Shrinky Dinks when I got in and talking to C about crazy friends and personal responsibility and people who think they run you and people who need to chill. We talked about boys for a while (“So, what do you want, then?”) and and I had a peanut butter sandwich and apple for dinner and gave opinions on J’s Shrinky Dinks (“Yeah, definitely it needs to be sparklier”).
We’ve all moved into the second living room since I wrote that first sentence up there and I’m listening to an iTunes playlist called Just Plain Awesome. Right now it’s on “Nosering Girl,” from an album my friend Frank gave me a couple of years ago. Sounds a lot like the blue Weezer album. J is still working on her fabulous idea and C is starting a new craft project that involves a lot of green felt and a styrofoam form of some kind. They both have drawers and boxes full of crafty stuff and they’re constantly saying things like “Oh, I have just the glue you need for that,” or “Hey, who’s got the paper cutter thingy?” As soon as I finish writing this I’m going to get either my knitting or the ironing board. C’s saying we should have “lots of doughnuts, every day.” I’m going to put another blanket on the bed tonight.
It’s a good place, a good day.