It's Only A Paper Rose

Awesome things my birthday has so far included:

--A two-hour hot-stone massage from Nick Night over in Bisbee

--Sitting in one of the comfy chairs at the Copper Queen Library reading the second Temeraire book

--Meeting some nice folks at one of the galleries while I waited for Brian to be ready for lunch, and inviting them up to the winery tomorrow

--Having a perfectly nice, if slightly overpriced, birthday lunch (with some fantastic onion rings) at the Bisbee Grille

--Earning my Arizona residency in my own mind, by driving from Bisbee to Sierra Vista (and running a few errands) in triple-digit heat in a car with no A/C (but a targa top, woo!)

--Finding two packages in the mail, one an outright present and one a prize for a bit of parody that finally arrived (but it came on my birthday, so it counts as a present too)

--Taking one of the most delicious showers in the history of hygiene and then curling up for one of the most relaxed and happy naps in the history of sleep

--The realization that 30 really isn't that far off, and I'm not going to be young forever...but, y'know, that's not actually such a bad thing

Also, Nick had a quote up on the wall in his office that I found oddly inspirational. "Oddly" because quotes don't often do much for me, but this one spoke to my personal neuroses rather well. (It was attributed to Nelson Mandela, but there seems to be some dispute as to whether it was written by him or a woman named Marianne Williamson - either way, it's still worth pondering.)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Guess I'll see how I can apply that to my goals this year...

Monday morning Brian woke up with gastrointestinal ick. I've been taking care of him and hoping against hope I don't catch it myself. So far, so good. Fingers crossed.

Meantime, aside from the aforementioned caretaking, I did almost nothing productive yesterday. And much as I enjoy the occasional day that consists of nothing but lying around in bed, I start to feel grouchy after too much of it. So I decided that today would be better. And lo and behold, it has been:

--I got some housework done, including cleaning the kitchen and deadheading our rosebushes.

--I balanced our accounts and brought them up-to-date in our records.

--I went down to Sprawl-Mart and spent part of my first paycheck on stuff for my convertible. Specifically, a set of seat covers (because the fabric on the seats was getting worn), a matching steering wheel cover (because the leather on the steering wheel was wearing through), and a CD visor (because it was part of the box set and I figured it'd come in useful). So now my car has big purple flowers all over it. I just need something purple and vaguely flower-ish to hang from the rearview mirror...maybe I'll find a crystal or something next time I'm in Bisbee.

--Also, I bought new speakers, which I even managed to install myself! The system still sounds a bit tinny, which could be due to the deck being wired to the pre-amp-out instead of the regular output (checking that's next on the list), or just the fact that it's not a high-fidelity system, but it's much, much better than the Altoids-tin sound that the battered (and seventeen-year-old) stock speakers were putting out. Plus, the driver's side speaker no longer rattles when the bass fires! Go me.

--I made good on a debt to Adam and cleaned out his Subaru Baja, which hadn't happened in, oh...I think the two-and-a-half years since he left Alaska. It's a nice car, too, so it was rewarding to realize that again once I got all the caked-on crap off of his center console. Not to mention Resolve-ing the stains out of the carpet, vacuuming the whole thing, cleaning the windows/mirrors, and Armor-Alling the dashboard. I do good cleaning, if I do say so myself.

And now for the real challenge - can I actually write something tomorrow like I've planned? Stay tuned.

Warm night.

Topless car.

Suddenly a routine run for dinner ingredients is svelte and cool and full of promise.

Thanks, CJ.

So it seems my longtime friend cyranocyrano is moving to Michigan, and rather than bring Nauti, his white 1993 Honda del Sol with him to brave the winters there, or sell it to the (no doubt) large local tuner community, it struck him that he knew this chick in Arizona who was obsessed with finding an inexpensive topless car. So for whatever reason, he decided that the best option was to load it up into a trailer and drive miles out of his way to bring it to her, even though she couldn't afford to pay him for it and get it the maintenance it needed. This is because he is either an amazing friend or a little soft in the head...and considering that he owned a car with a removable top in California for nigh on a decade and didn't remove the top once? I'm going to go with a bit of both. (But we love him for it just the same.)

She's not exactly pretty, what with being a combination of primer-black, Bondo beige and several different shades of faded white, not to mention fairly dented and scarred from her long life. But! Her interior's in good shape, her top comes off just fine (insert obligatory stripper joke here), and the drive train's still running well at 189,000 miles (as well it should, being essentially a Civic). She needs a new timing belt, thermostat, and some brake work, but that's all pretty standard maintenance. The biggest issue stems from a previous accident - the interior of the hood is warped and the both the radiator and A/C condenser are twisted. Amazingly, the radiator still works, but if it goes for whatever reason, a new one won't fit without some serious body work. So I'm probably not going to invest a lot in cosmetic stuff like repainting. But considering the radiator's been like that for years now and it still runs fine, I think I can justify spending the money on the maintenance - chances are she's got another year or three left in her, and for a free car (plus an eventual grand in repairs, give or take) that's not bad at all.

One of the nice side benefits of the new car delivery was getting to host Cyrano and his traveling partner Amanda for a few days. They were excellent guests, and good company; Saturday night we had a couple of Cyrano's old friends who live in Bisbee over for a game night. I can't even express how starved I've been for socializing, and it was all great fun - I even got to mix a few drinks! I hope we'll get to see them again. Sunday night our houseguests earned extra brownie points by taking us to a lovely dinner at Feast, and I learned that no matter how lovely and full and sleepy you feel at the end of a meal, taking a shot of espresso with dessert with the intention of going to bed not long afterwards does not make for restful sleep. Coffee, yes; espresso, no.

And now, because I'm starting to ramble from sleep deprivation, I leave you with a song.