I hadn’t been spending a lot of time at home, so all the chores (and cat hairs) were piling up. But I had the best Thursday and Friday evenings ever! Well okay, not “ever,” that might be offensive to some people. Thursday after work, I got to fill up my car for the lowest gasoline price anyone had ever seen in awhile ($2.07/gallon). Then I went to Drug Emporium and bought stuff I’d been needing for awhile, i.e. contact solution, shampoo/conditioner, eyelash curler, etc. I found a little clear plastic cosmetic organizer stand that has 12 slots in which you can insert all your lipsticks, mascaras, eyeliners and stuff, so they’re not laying all over the counter. I had been looking for such an item for years! I don’t know why suddenly nobody seemed to carry it anymore. I was so excited at seeing it for $5 that I bought 2. Now the 2nd one is sitting in its box on the counter. I have no idea what I’m gonna do with it. It’s not like it’d run out.

Anyway, I then went to the grocery store and bought a fruity dinner: 2 Red Delicious apples, a cluster of organic bananas. Next was to hit up Longs Drugstore to look for a ChiaPet. There’s a white elephant Christmas potluck tonite at my cousins’ house, and I bought Hungry Hungry Hippos (all you who grew up with me in the 80s, you know this is a ‘bitchin’ gift), but that was only $15 and the gift guideline was $20. I really, honestly thought ChiaPets were like $3-$4 bucks, cuz really, who has them out here? Turns out nope, they’re $17.99. So I’m gonna tape some lottery scratcher tickets on the wrapped gift instead. Mine’ll be the only gift that, altho budgeted at $20, has the potential of being $10,000. But I digress. I went to the pet store and bought cat food and cat litter. Then I went home.

When I got home, I was greeted by a shock. The roofer people left their huge tar-mixing machine thing smack in the middle of the driveway with tarp all over the driveway! There was no way I could maneuver my car into my garage. It was also blocking two other garages across the driveway from me. I had a total fit, called the association secretary, who in turn called the roofing company’s owner. Meanwhile, a new neighbor whom I hadn’t met yet came out and helped me move the tarp aside, and with the association treasurer’s help (he came out to see what I was screaming bloody murder over), I managed to back my car into my garage around all the crap laying around the driveway, so that I could get out and go to work in the morning. They were so nice that I felt bad for being so pissed off earlier, but it’s a total peeve of mine when people park their cars perpendicular to the garage in the driveway despite all the signs that tell you to park on the street or risk being towed, because it prevents me from being able to get in my garage. The neighbors across the driveway from me always has their lazy friends park in front of their garage for hours on end, and I have to do a 9-point-turn to get into my garage. Anyway, I was glad to have met my new neighbor Tom, who said anytime I need to borrow sugar or flour, or if he’s in my way, to go over and pound on his door. I asked how long he’s been living there. “Two years,” he said. Oops. I’m a horrible neighbor. “I’ve seen you around,” he said to me. I don’t remember ever seeing him. The owner of the roofing company called me later on and apologized profusely, saying he wasn’t there when his crew shut down and didn’t know they had left that honking tar machine (about the size of a small tractor) sitting there, but that it needs to be towed away by a truck and his trucker is presently in Hawthorne (i.e. far away). I thanked him for his attention and directed him to the treasurer for a place to keep that machine for the next 10 days that would be out of the way. By the way, Friday and today, Saturday, that machine was still exactly where it was in the way. I backed out of my garage today by running over their cone and tarp at such an angle that I barely missed taking out their machine. But it was the only way I could get out.

The night ended well…I had a Red Delicious apple for dinner while I did laundry and sorted through my bills and receipts and wrapped my Christmas gifts.