saturday

Back to Josh Rouse: "Saturday." I can't post a link to the song/video because there isn't a good one on youtube. There isn't enough Josh Rouse on youtube. You know how for many artists you can type in a song and there will be some montage of photos or the album art as background for just the recording of the song. That's what I wanted for you, but you're not getting it.

I'm thinking of "Saturday" because it's Saturday and because I keep going back to Switzerland at the end of May 2005 when I was listening to his album Nashville on the top bunk of our hotel room. It was an "extra" room, set off from the hotel, and three of us girls got it. It was just outside Lucerne, and it was raining when we got there by bus. (It's raining today.) When it stopped raining, we went walking and found cows and nice houses by a lake. The house on a lane on the lake had a fancy alarm system, and we were impressed. You have to be rich to live in Switzerland. And that was proven to be fact the next day when we took a walking tour of Lucerne and were told just how expensive it is to live in Switzerland. I want to be able to afford to live in Switzerland. So that night, after our walk and dinner at the outside tables, I listed to my tape player (yes, no CD player at this point, much less MP3 player). I was to be going home on a Saturday from London, back to Jedsen at Wichita's Midcontinental Airport. I didn't want to go home; Europe was bliss. But I did miss Jedsen and couldn't help but sing "Saturday I'm on that plane I'm flying home to you" along with Josh.

Jedsen's not here today, and I'm not there with him. This is the last weekend before the semester begins, and I have a lot to catch up on. We have to say that, now and then, unfortunately. I can't spend the whole weekend with you because I have too much to do. Also unfortunate is the fact that we can't really get any work done when we're together in the same apartment. Going to separate rooms doesn't even work. So we have to stay in our separate cities. I love the rain, and I love Saturdays. And I wish Jedsen and I could work and write together so we could sit here and smell the rain together.

So I'm sappy. Sometimes.

I also love shopping, though I've slowed it down, way down, recently. I went out to get necessities earlier--like underwear and food--and knew that something was different when I pulled into the Walmart parking lot. Of course this is the weekend when everyone comes back. Well everyone was at Walmart, and I feel instant dread when I walk into a crowded shopping place like that. I like my space when browsing. I managed to get half of my shopping list before hurrying out. I can go without orange juice until, perhaps, early Sunday morning when people aren't out yet.

And an update on breakfast. Well, I'm calorie conscious now. Not just fake interested but seriously concerned about trying to stay under 1200 calories/day. I won't lie: I loved my morning sausage biscuits, homemade. They were delicious and kept me full longer than cereal. But then I actually made myself look at the calorie counts on the biscuits and sausages and realized, with horror, that I was probably consuming an 800 calorie breakfast for nearly every day for a month. This prompted a look into my favorite fast food breakfast: sausage and egg biscuit from McDonald's. 550 calories. That makes me sad, McDonald's. So when I had breakfast there with my friend Beth last week, I got an egg biscuit without the sausage, and it took me back to the days when my mom would walk to Braum's many mornings and get us egg biscuits or hot cakes. It may have taken me 24 years, but I'm starting to truly understand food now. And the physical consequences on my body.

I sat outside on the patio earlier when it started raining. God, I love it here. I did laundry, and when I went to get my clothes out of the dryer, the hallway where the washer and dryer is was smokey. I think the dryers are faulty here, and that's not my only evidence. But that's outside the apartment. Here, I love.