I call him on my laptop, and he answers with his phone. He keeps dropping his phone, lying as he is on the sofa before bed. He gets his laptop to call me on it. I plan answer the new call on my phone. We will be on two FaceTime calls at once. He calls it a “three-way”. I just laugh at the stupidity of it.
Suddenly, his name pops up on my laptop screen. He has, instead, joined the original FaceTime call on his laptop.
Ridiculous.
Utterly ridiculous.
Post-a-day 2023
In eighth grade, I submitted a partnered science project about soap and how it interacts with water, in which I had typed all about how the soap “brakes” up the surface of the water, etc., etc. Our teacher had us come look at the display and read through it. It took me a long time to understand what the issue was, though I understood immediately that something was wrong with the typed pages on the display. It took some obvious hinting and and bit of clarifying from the teacher before I truly got it that I was supposed to have used the word “break” instead of “brake”. Every single one was written as “brake”. At least I was consistent.
It took me years to understand and to accept how I had made such a big mistake. How had I, one who pays such close attention to details, messed up something so simple? Quite simply, because I had used the word I understood to be accurate, and I hadn’t really realized there were two different words. Why?
Because of the constant road signs around Houston throughout my childhood that read, “GIVE US A BRAKE” and had a character of a road worker on it. I knew the phrase well enough, and, because I didn’t know the spelling differences at play, I never understood the signs. I genuinely always thought they were some form of protest it workers union’s form of complaining about how people driving needed to chill out and not honk at and be mad at the road construction workers, because they were working hard. I always understood the sign to mean, “Give is a break.” I never knew – not for a while after that project – that the signs were just asking people to use their brakes to slow down as they pass through the construction areas… never knew.
And I got to feel like an idiot in eighth grade science class because of that simple little fact.
So, yeah… wasn’t a fan of signs using misspellings or fake words in the first place. Definitely wasn’t after I figured out that one.
😛
Post-a-day 2023
Talk about last-minute things… I have the test proctoring in the morning, then just a few hours before I must be across town to meet with someone. And, just tonight, I was asked to bring certainty bings with me that are not exactly easy to find in a hurry. Amazon could do it, for sure, in a few days. But not by midday tomorrow. So, as soon as the gets finishes, I’ll be rushing to at least two stores. And I’ll have to figure out and find some other things online to print off before I even go to the stores, too. And then I have to drive across town to meet and do all these things relating to everything I’ll have just picked up… 😛
Just nutso.
But I am grateful to be doing it all and to be going to meet this person.
God, grant me the words to help her heal now. Help me to help her see and feel and know you truly, in all your love and Glory. Help me to heal her and return her to you. Keep us all safe, please. And thank you for these many blessings of this love-filled and blessed life you have granted to me. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
Sometimes, it feels like I must pick between several things that are all happening on the same day, overlapping just slightly, such that I technically could do them all, but for shorter amounts of time than I would want to spend at each event, and knowing that I would be absolutely wiped at the end of it all. So, I must pick. And I have nothing to do on any other days – only on these days where everything is happening on the same day.
But then, oftentimes, when I start to see how I could make it all work, things pop up and declare themselves incompatible with something else suddenly, and so the decision is made for me. The priority items win out in the incompatibility contest, and the less important events are set aside and dismissed. What’s funny about it, too, is that I often end up not doing the one thing I was kind of really excited to go do. But, hey, the important stuff is ranked so for a reason. And they usually end up being wonderful, anyway.
Such is the case with this weekend. I had to decline several exciting things in order to do work and to give love somewhere that it is very much needed.
On that note…
Dear God, please, keep me safe this weekend. Help me to share your love with B—, such that she truly experiences your love for her. Help her to feel and acknowledge your presence. Help her to be freed of that which she carries so heavily right now. Help her to let go of all that does not serve her in your will and your love. Help me to say and do just what she needs to hear and experience, in order to find your love newly. Thank you for this opportunity. Bless me with your perfect words and actions this weekend, please. Thank you for this life. Help me help B— be grateful for it all, too. And, if there be demons in and/or around her, help me to wash them away permanently. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
Specifically, Kopfkissen… I believe now truly that I need a new one. We stayed at my aunt and uncle’s house over the weekend while moving my grandma’s stuff, and the pillow I used for my head was kind of exactly what I think I may need at home. I love the ones we have – Tempur-pedic-like with gel on the front for coolness – but mostly only for when I am awake or am sleeping on my side. But I sleep best and most comfortably on my back… and this pillow resists my head just a little too much. I have to have just the right eye cover in order to keep my head from shifting side-to-side all night, and that seems to be too difficult to manage consistently… If I just had a pillow that would let my head sink in a bit more, but not lots, it could work for sleeping on my back and on my side.
Just have to find that pillow… so, time to ask my aunt what pillow I may have used! Fingers crossed she knows!
Post-a-day 2023
Slightly higher altitude and lower humidity levels make a huge difference in the enjoyability of the outdoors, especially at night. We are in Wimberley this weekend, and we totally could hang out on the porch most evenings and nights here, and enjoy it thoroughly. If we were home in Houston right now, we’d be sweating and be attacked by mosquitos all evening and the whole first half of the night.
Hmm…
Post-a-day 2023
So, my man has a sinus infection. Our family nurse told him to go ahead and go to an urgent care place, since he had a fever as of this afternoon, and he still was coughing up all the yellow stuff. (Fun fact: Just before he went, he finally gave in and used the saline rinse nasal pot. He did a very good job, and I am still proud of him for letting go of that fear enough to give it a go again. I hate using them, too, and only do it when I really need to use it.)
Anyway, the doctor said he was fine to be around people and all. Just don’t make out with people, share drinks and utensils, cough on people, etc. So, he stopped at the store on the way home.
While he was there, he was trying to get connected to the wifi at the store, while on the phone with me (because I’d told him that they actually have wifi and it works effectively, and you can actually send and receive photos easily when connected to it). He puts me on speakerphone while he tries to figure it out, and starts kind of cursing up a storm in his ‘I’m already sick and now I’m also stressed and annoyed’ frustration/exhaustion. I tell him, “Chill…” After a short beat, I realize and add, “Although, I guess you can’t, since you have a fever.”
We definitely shared a moment of enjoying that idiocy together. 😛 😀 And it was glorious.
Post-a-day 2023
Very interesting that his sputum went from clear to all different colors of the rainbow in a matter of seconds
Because my man sometimes has trouble answering with clarity… 😛
What had caused such a response? My previous messages had been as follows:
Clear snot and clear stuff he keeps coughing up, he says
He said “it is tinged between white and orange, like tan”…
He just coughed up a yellow chunk, and then told me he gets those a bunch in the morning
Valid response, ma’am. Valid response.
Post-a-day 2023
“It has Brie, salami, and raspberry compote, and is on the jalapeño cheese bread from Goode Co. Is it still considered a grilled cheese?”
“I think so. Sounds and looks delicious.”
Over a year and a half ago, I was gifted the leftover entire loaf of jalapeño cheese bread from a Goode Co. Barbecue catered lunch. I brought it to my man’s house and told him I wanted to make us grilled cheese sandwiches with it – I just needed to go get the cheese first. He is excited about the idea, and keeps the loaf for me to come back and cook up the sandwiches in the next day or so.
The next day, however, while taking with him on the phone, I hear him wondering aloud about what something is… Why is there a twisty tie on the floor? What is this plas… And then it hits him. I ask him what it is, and he tells me with gravity that it was the twisty tie from the loaf of bread.
It takes a tick for it all to set in. At first, I thought he had been eating the bread and left open the bag. But then I remember his commenting on plastic on the floor…
Put simply, the dog was able to jump up and get the loaf off the counter, because my man put it too close to the edge. The dog is not very big, so the bread had to be very much right on the edge of the countertop. Massive fail on my man’s part.
The whole loaf had disappeared, along with most of the plastic, it seemed. My one consolation in the upset was that at least the dog would throw up or have horrible poops after all those jalapeños. She had neither, of course. And neither my man nor I forgot about that incident.
Fast forward to last weekend. A friend of his is having a gathering to celebrate the baptism of the children. The food at the small gathering is from Goode Company. I see the bread and instantly recall our denied grilled cheeses. I laugh about it and share the story. I am not mad about the whole thing at all. I find it comical. But I have always been a bit let down that we never got to have those grilled cheeses. So, I’m not sad or mens or anything when I tell the story, just to be clear. It is no sop story.
Anyway, the next day, the friend reaches out to my man to let him know that they have extra jalapeño cheese bread, and would we like to have it? Of course, we accept graciously and gratefully. He delivers the bread the next day to my man, and only asks that he get to see some photos of these grilled cheese.
It took me until today, a week later, to be able to spend the time and make them, naturally. So, we had stuck the partial loaf in the fridge and the full loaf in the freezer. Didn’t want to risk losing them to the Houston humidity. Even still, we did lose one half-piece cuff of the fridge pieces.
Nonetheless, I made an open-faced slice and a whole grilled cheese sandwich (only three pieces of bread were available from the fridge, you see) today. I tried for the first time coating them in mayonnaise first – will do that every time in the future now, because it is amazing – and then cooking them in Kerrygold butter. I used Brie that I sliced up into thin pieces (to be like shredded cheese, for melting consistency and ease), salami that I had sautéed in the butter already, and then raspberry compote that I had, all on the jalapeño cheese Texas toast style bread.
I kid you not, this grilled cheese sandwich was amazing. We both used utensils to eat them, and it was ridiculously satisfying to do so. They were just really, really good grilled cheese.
Of course, I reminded my man to get a photo of the two before attacking them, since his friend had specifically asked for photos. He took them – the most underwhelming food photos he’s ever taken, likely because he was so ready to eat what smelled and looked so good – but he complained that the sandwiches were totally not grilled cheeses. They had too many other things in them, he said, for them to be grilled cheese. I declared that as immediately false, and said the majority of the filling was still cheese, so they were grilled cheese sandwiches. (Obviously, we are ignoring the fact that grilled cheese sandwiches are typically truly sautéed cheese sandwiches, but whatever.)
He sent the photos to his friend with the message, “Hannah’s ‘grilled cheese’”. He then added the aforementioned message and inquiry, and the friend replied that it still was a grilled cheese. My man immediately shouted aloud, “Wring answer!” And we had a very good laugh about it while we finished off our awesome grilled cheese sandwiches.
Thank you, God. Amen.
P.S. I discovered today that Brie is a proper noun by law in France, as it is cheese named after the region named Brie. And now you know, too. 😛
Post-a-day 2023
Today has been my man’s birthday. We had nothing big deal planned, yet it still turned out to be a wonderful time. I surprised him with chocolate-coffee pancakes, fresh eggs, and bacon (and a freshly brewed coffee) for an early breakfast before I went to school. Then I brought him a surprise chocolate-lovers’ large slice of cake from a restaurant that ships i their cake slices from this awesome bakery outside of town, which he promptly devoured. And I surprised him with a special hot sauce that is expected to be a slightly sweeter version of Sriracha. Hopefully, he likes it. (He told me over breakfast, “I know what I want for my birthday… Sriracha.” I snorted gently and told him something like, ‘Of course,’ and, ‘Yeah, right.’ No such thing right now, dear. We both chuckled over it a bit, but so knew immediately I would go get a bottle of this specific new version that was recently released to a couple Asian grocery stores in town, not far from school. So, I got him a bottle right after school and before the chiropractor appointment, and surprised him with the bottle at the house later, with the chocolate cake.
Anyway, we then went to a rodeo social and my stepdad got to join the committee very easily and be on my man’s team. So, they’ll end up working together for the rodeo this next year, which I think will be quite fun for the both of them, as well as good for them. We also had a great time at the social just being social and talking with a handful of specific people.
And then we had a great and silly dinner together, my mom and stepdad and my man and I. That was a good ending for the night, and I most certainly drove us home (because rodeo meetings typically have open, complimentary bars, and tonight’s was no exception).
Thank you, God for this blessed day and for this blessed man. Thank you for the love I am blessed to share with him and the life we are blessed to share together, through you and your love. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
hannah ananas 