Jul 07, 2016 19:17
This time of year, my not posting on a Wednesday is not unusual--except when it's the week I'm off band. (The jazz group plays this week, and hopefully they'll get the concert in--the weather's been iffy. Like, in my town, the intersection of Kirk and Wilson made the news because around 5 PM we had heavy rain and there was localized flooding there. I just drove through there last night! Phew.)
My coworker--my one regular female coworker--commented to me last year that, hey, it would be great if I could get my sewing room organized. I went, I can help you with that. I'm not sure she took me seriously. It's come up several times, and I'd say my offer still stands, but that's as far as it went...until last week. I had said several weeks ago that, hey, I have a Wednesday and Thursday free, so I'm willing to come over, so she said she'd get pizza and come on over. So I did. She lives in Aurora, which is how I found myself driving down Kirk yesterday, for the first time in a long time; I finally got to see the new Speedway at Kirk and Wilson, which is SO WEIRD. I mean, there previously was no gas station for five miles or so, between 56 and 38, before the Speedway opened, so it's really convenient for some people I'm sure, but for the longest time the northeast corner there was basically wooded, and now it's not, and that makes me sad. The southeast corner I believe is Fermilab property, so at least it still has trees, but considering we're a Tree City USA, we should be growing them, not mowing them down. But anyway.
I haven't been to her house since she and her husband, then also my coworker, moved in last year. It was nice to see it as a house and not just a jumble of furniture. I also got to see her containers; she's growing tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and flowers in a few different places. I got the tour, then got to see her sewing room, which doubles as their guest room. She's mainly a quilter, and has a quilting frame along one entire wall. It's pretty impressive. I guess I never realized the sort of equipment one needed to quilt; it's not simply sewing together a bunch of squares and things. She also makes fancy patterns with thread to help keep the parts together. I got to see some of her current quilts, and projects she's started, and ideas for projects, and just fancy fabrics with cool patterns. The main place we started was this cart where she wanted to keep the things she uses the most or needs at hand when she's working, then started to gather like objects together, and at one point her daybed was pretty well covered with stuff--and I was concerned we'd have to gather it all off the bed and chuck it somewhere if we didn't finish last night--but never fear; in four hours, not only were we done, but we also broke for pizza and discussion. Sometimes it just takes an outside person to give you ideas or look at things differently. I am very much a person who goes, let's get like things together, so that's what we did, and she found some things she'd been looking for, or didn't realize she had, and grouping them made life easier. She may end up going out and buying other containers for things, like all the pins she had; there were so many of them (she'd had to buy more for a large project recently) that the pins were in four containers. It's better to have them all together if possible. But we found a place for almost everything and things make more sense, and she seemed really grateful for my help. She was like, I don't think pizza's enough to thank you! And here I was, going to offer her money for the pizza; she was like, no! It's your payment! Heh.
I also got to see her cat, a pretty gray kitty with green eyes. She's pretty amusing, and at one point when I was sitting on their couch for dinner, I felt one paw, then another on my right shoulder. Uh, hello. I'm used to birds perching there, not kitties. I guess my coworker will lay down near where I was sitting when she watches TV, and the cat will walk on her similarly, and the cat maybe didn't realize I wasn't my coworker? Dunno, but it was funny. However, the best moment came when my coworker's husband went to move a pillow that was leaning against the loveseat, where he was sitting. The cat happened to leap toward it at the same time, like she was trying to land on the armrest. The pillow ended up deflecting the kitty. Neither of us expected that and we were highly amused by the turn of events. Just, who knew you could use a pillow as a kitty repellent shield?
I stayed until about 9:30, and I could have stayed later, but I am no night owl. It was still nice to spend time with them and hang out for a while, and it was especially nice to see my coworker outside of work. We get along so well, but after her husband left she took over his job, something very specialized and something that mostly happens in the other building, so we don't see each other as much anymore. Bummer, but oh well. I know that her husband hadn't been happy in the last few months he worked with us, and he seemed a whole lot more relaxed and upbeat last night. It could be that he was home, but I think he's just happier at his new job, even if the two of them don't work together anymore. Of course, it means they have more to talk about when they get home, and we can still share the antics of our job and he'll know the main players. (I've told my coworker to start a blog on all the crazy stuff another coworker does and says, because dude is crazy and other people need to hear about him. Their desks are next to each other so she deals with him more than anyone else.)
work,
coworkers,
weather,
flood,
rain