Sadness and Sheets

I am so very saddened by a round of layoffs at my former workplace. Sad for everybody who got laid off, and sad for everybody who works there in general and has to deal with the stress of the unknown.

In lighter news ...
I woke up today with an aimless feeling because I didn't know what our plans were for the day. (I also woke up with a big fat caffeine headache, and that stupid water-with-a-vague-iced-tea-flavor didn't cure it. Lipton Cold Brew teabags do not work, people.) Anyway, I have been very excited this week because we have very little on the calendar, but that also means I feel a little overwhelmed in the morning trying to figure out what to do. Maybe I should be like my parents and start off each day by making out a "time flow chart."

Adding to the uncertainty was the fact that a plumber was coming to install a battery-powered backup sump pump. (For my west coast friends who don't know what a sump pump is, it's a device that sucks out water when it rains so your basement doesn't flood.) Anytime some service person is coming to my house, I feel trapped by their annoying "we'll be there sometime between 10 and 1" window, and then trapped by a feeling that I can't leave this person home alone in my house once he arrives.

So, my husband was getting the battery-powered backup so that we would still have sump pumpery when the power goes out. You know how much I love water? Like, swimming in it, floating in it, doing water aerobics, and taking Nathan to the pool? I consider water essential to my well-being. For my husband, though, water is his arch foe. He is totally paranoid about basement flooding, and anytime it rains he has me out in the backyard at some ungodly hour, trying to help on one end of a homemade water-sucking contraction, while he attempts to bark out orders from the other end, either by yelling or via cell phone.

Anyway, we got the sump pump. And to hold up my end of the water preference continuum, I went swimming at the gym while Bill supervised the sump pump installation. And that damn earbud on the waterproof MP3 player is still broken, in spite of the charge I gave it. But at least this time I had it in my left ear, and I know I'm not deaf in both ears.

Do you know what my current life quest is? To make the absolute most comfortable bed possible. Our Costco king-sized mattress is a start. And then there's my fuzzy pink Target blanket. I bought it on a cold winter day in February when the colorful Valentine's Day display felt like an oasis of color among an otherwise blah day. I had to have it. It is so very wonderful, and in the summer it has somehow morphed into this perfect, not-too-hot bastion of comfort.

So, for my birthday my mom got me these truly awesome sheets that I totally recommend. But my birthday is in January, so they're more of a winter sheet. I wanted something all crisp and summery for the warmer months, so for recommendations I dug up this article I had seen in the Tribune a few years back. I found the cheapest recommendation in that article, which were these sheets from The Company Store. I chose the apparently unpopular lilac color because they were on a really good sale.

Let me tell you what the problem is with ordering from a place called The Company Store. First of all, their shipping was ridiculously slow. Second, every time I got to wondering when my sheets from The Company Store would get here, I got this song stuck in my head.

Anyway, the sheets finally came, and I'm washing them right now, which got interrupted because the installation of the sump pump required turning off the water. I will sleep on the sheets tonight, if I get around to performing my least favorite chore, which is changing my sheets. And I will give you a report on the sheets tomorrow, by which time they will probably already be stained by The Boy's Ovaltine. That's what happens to all my sheets, making them look like they are covered in either poop or blood.

And on that note, I will sign off.