The Opposite of optimism is cynicism

It’s been chilly all week long which means it’s starting to feel like fall in LA. In a previous post, I mentioned it was a little hard to adjust to the normal routine since coming back from vacation. I mean it’s been my first major vacation in more than two years. Plus it was my first vacation since having a baby and it was my first time being away from her for a week. I think around Wednesday was when I finally got the hang of my routine again (for the most part).

I pray nothing awkward happens

I must preface that my husband comes from four brothers and one sister. There’s this one brother — who I’ll call BIL #3 — was deployed to Poland for a year and he just returned last week. My husband really wants to see him and spend time with him. Initially, we were supposed to go to San Diego to visit him this weekend but plans had changed; my husband has to help a friend with his car in Orange County this Sunday and Lana has her weekends booked for the next two weeks with dance class. Lana missed two weeks of dance class because she was out of town so they’re letting her take make-up classes. To make things easier, we’re meeting BIL #3 in SIL’s place in Orange County — it’s pretty much halfway between San Diego and LA. Rather than spending the entire weekend, we would spend the day there.

It’s going to be the first major family gathering since Mother’s Day. I pray it’s a smooth family visit at Orange County where Lana can spend time with her extended family and cousins. There will be no fights and petty criticism….What? Does that sound too optimistic? Well…I’m trying to hold off on my cynicism and my dark comedy. Sure humor has helped me cope with frustrating situations many times over but really…*sighs*…I just don’t like the idea of family being mad at each other forever. My husband deserves at least a day of peace where he’s not approaching me with a huff…wait! I’ll stop now because I am getting cynical again…

Reviving a house project

I’ve been reaching out to contractors to revive a house project that’s been on the backburner. My husband and I are trying to make our room into a master suite where we have a bathroom and a closet. We’ve been holding it off for some time because we wanted to wait until BIL #1 moves out to free up some space when construction happens. Right now our house has two households worth of stuff.

We’re not trying to go forward with anything yet–we just want to get an estimate of how much it would cost to add a bathroom and make a closet space. I forgot to mention that this project would require adding square footage to the house which would making it more expensive. At the beginning of this house project we thought to not search for a contractor because we were committed to this one contractor we previously worked with on a major house project. We approached him to do a proposal for the master suite but we did not like his design proposal. Also, this master suite project is far below his project cost minimum so we’re not going forward with this contractor.

What am I loving lately?

Pecan pralines! I got a bag of pecan pralines from Texas. I’ve been eating them every day since coming home but I’ve only been eating a few at a time because I know that I’ll be sad once I finish this bag. Then again they are easy to make. Maybe once this bag is empty I’ll buy pecans from Sprouts and make my own pralines.

Things I am gifting this week

More books to circulate. Also I’m gifting away candles. I have received a lot of candles as gifts but I don’t use candles most of the year.

Tags: Weekend Coffee Share