Today’s picture while walking — although I have found the feature that lets me stop the clock while I stop. My time is down to less than a 17 minute mile!
Here’s another shot, complete with finger covering the lens.
So, this weekend we invited our neighbors over to dinner.
Here I have to interrupt to say that although I used to hate having people who weren’t my very best friends over — the cleaning, the deciding, the cooking, by which point I was just done and then people would arrive — I have actually come to enjoy it a lot. But in this case things sort of went wrong from the start — a mixup from the beginning meant that I didn’t invite all the neighbors I should have, and now I feel like the third set of neighbors, who I really like, probably think I don’t like them. Part of the problem, I am realizing, is that I don’t actually know any of these people very well.
And then K is stressed, because he is going out of town next weekend and has a lot to get done, and then we had never quite cleaned up the dining room after tax season, (plus I was away last weekend) so there was a lot more cleaning than there usually would have been.
So it was a bit more of the last minute stressing than is good, plus the fact that I don’t actually know these people so very well, and then – and here is the true culprit — there was a bottle of vodka.
It was a good-will gesture! Our neighbors are Russians and one of them,at least, drinks like a fish.
Anyway, I think the upshot of this whole thing is that my neighbor S and I are buying a boat.
I snuck to work this morning, but other than that I think I may never be able to leave my house again.
This is the trouble with socializing with neighbors. If you make a fool of yourself, they will still be right next door.
Oh my god. Never again.
The thing is, you are never quite sure exactly how much of a fool you really did make of yourself. Did I babble on boringly until they decided to leave? I am thinking yes.
So, that was my weekend. I spent yesterday, probably the most beautiful day in the history of the universe, lying on the couch in the darkened living room, drinking cups of tea and reading the New York Times carefully and slowly. I think I read every page.