The No-Bowling Weekend

Shweetie always complains that I spend too much time internetsing. I don't deny that this is true, but he was really opposed to me starting this blog because he felt I already spend too much time online. Actually, I started this blog because I just needed an outlet to talk about the random goings-on of my life, and because I realized that even a lot of the people who know me well often don't know what's going on with Shweetie and me. Also, it seemed like a good way to vent and complain about the things that irk me, without having to call someone and subject them to my ranting. But anyway, I decided that now would be the perfect time to update, since Shweetie is currently completely absorbed by the Super Bowl and will not complain about my internetsing time.

This has been a very low-key weekend. Yesterday we got up and had brunch at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. It's within walking distance of our place, and yet we've only been there twice for brunch since we moved in last May. I think we even used to frequent it more when we were still living in Richmond. When we came back home, Shweetie spent ages photoshopping photos for the frames we bought last weekend at the Aaron Brothers one-cent sale. He spent an especially long time on one of the pictures, where he was trying to make his eyes appear more open, but his modifications kept making him look creepy. He finally managed to widen his eyes a tiny bit in the photo, and I was finally able to look at the end result without yelling, "Auggh!"

After that, we headed to the Sports Chalet in Pleasanton in the pouring rain to exchange one of Shweeties' Christmas gifts from the Hawks. For the past year or so (or maybe longer) Shweetie's been saying to me, "Why does Shweetie never take me bowling?" and so I suggested to Hawk that they get him a pair of bowling shoes for Christmas. The Hawk happily obliged because lately she's been totally obsessed with the four of us going bowling. Every time we get together with them, she says, "We have to go bowling some time!" and every month she enters this contest in their local newspaper and tries to win free bowling passes to the bowling center near their house (she still has never won and every month she's so genuinely disappointed). So we were planning to have dinner with the Hawks and then the four of us were going to go bowling. We needed to go to the Sports Chalet because the shoes Shweetie had received were a half size too big for him. While there, we saw that women's bowling shoes were only $30, so I picked up a very hip blue and white pair for myself, since I figured they'd pay for themselves after ten or so bowling trips, and then I'd never have to worry about contracting foot fungus while bowling again.

Dinner ran late, and we didn't end up getting out of the house until about 10:00 pm. We headed over to the bowling center, which was absolutely jam-packed with high school students, including a gaggle of girls bowling in winter ball dresses. The guy at the counter told us that they were closing at 10:30 and the waiting list for lanes was already full. They were reopening at 11:00 pm for some special event that involved a live DJ, and would be open until 1:30 am, but they already had a standby list for that event. Not to be defeated, Hawk decided we should head over to the bowling center in Danville, after calling to make sure they did not have the same special event going on. We headed over there and encountered an even more hopping joint. There were strobe lights, glow-in-the-dark bowling pins, music blaring, and people in giant curly wigs. We put our name on the waiting list, but after waiting until after 11:00, we decided to call it quits. They had only called four or five parties from the list, and there were still three parties ahead of us. I turned to the Hawks and said, "I don't know about you all, but Shweetie and I actually feel old." So, despite our best efforts, our bowling trip was unsuccessful.

Today Shweetie and I had dim sum at Legendary Palace in Oakland, and actually got there early enough so that we didn't have to wait for a table at all. I managed to snag all of the items I often get swindled out of - leek dumplings, egg tarts, baked custard buns - and then we hurriedly ran a bunch of errands so that we could get back in time for Shweetie to watch the Super Bowl. Since coming back home, I've done hardly anything, and I keep thinking about all of the things I need to do still before the weekend comes to a close.

I can feel myself starting to get negative again, so instead I'll focus on all of the things I have done this weekend, rather than the things I have not done. So, this weekend, I did three loads of laundry, rearranged the pantry to make all of our snacks fit, picked up pictures at Costco, and purchased therapy items and speech prizes at Target. However, the evening is still young, so I will set some goals for me to complete by the end of the day. I need to do one more load of laundry, fold all of the clean laundry, call all of my students' parents to let them know I do not have jury duty tomorrow morning, and write my Christmas thank you notes (I know, I can't believe how late I let these slide). There are other things I really wanted to get done, but I've decided not to stress about it and rather focus on the things that I can still do, and just be happy if I complete those things!