Category Archives: Solitary Fun

Day 129: Agnes

I rush home after a half day at work to meet Agnes, a petite woman who is going to “make miracles” in my home. She is buzzing from the front gate at the very moment I am coming in. She only brings a few items with her; rags, flip flops and a bucket. She asks how many bathrooms I have. After I point her in the right direction, I settle in at the dining table for some work from home and don’t see Agnes again for a couple hours. The only proof that she is actually there is an occasional bang or the sound of running water.

After three hours, she emerges to kick me out of the living/dining area. I have since quit my work and am watching How I Met Your Mother, feeling like instead of watching television, I should be helping Agnes. When I go back to the master bed/bath, my jaw drops. It is immaculate, sparkling, shiny and new.

Another hour passes and I decide to check on her. She is under the dining table cleaning who knows how much dog hair from the underside of the table. There is a PILE of dog bones on Elphie’s bed that she could only have found in awful abandoned places like under the couch and beneath the stove. I slowly back out of the room, unable to interrupt the master at work.

In total Agnes spends almost five hours cleaning our two bedroom, two bath condo. We’ve had “cleaning services” come before. They spend no more than two hours cleaning and charge twice what Agnes asks for. This lady is amazing and she made my day by making my home look better and cleaner than I could ever hope to.

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Day 127: Catalog

When I was young, my mom taught me the difference between a magazine and a catalog. I called every glossy, book-like item that came in the mail a magazine, and she corrected me when that item was actually a multiple page advertisement for a store.

Today I got four CATALOGS in the mail: William Sonoma, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm and J. Crew. Normally, these would lay in a pile on the coffee table until getting recycled during a cleaning fit. This evening, I actually sat and leisurely paged through them all. (And, to those keeping track–probably only the hubs–it is not the same as my post about looking for a new magazine because these are catalogs).

Highlights: William Sonoma’s smoothie recipes. Pottery Barn Kids’ chevron crib sheets that I wish they made in adult versions. West Elm’s rugs–chevron and ikat–and bold striped bedding. And J. Crew’s everything. Their new stuff is all amazing and I only wish I could afford it. One thing to work on, shopping J. Crew sales.

It was so relaxing to sit quietly, with a cuddly dog, and look at magazines–Catalogs! (I really typed magazines and had to correct myself. I left it in for my mom).

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Day 123: Picture Postage

My grandma told me the other day that her brother, who I haven’t seen since I was a very little girl, wanted some pictures of me and my family. He told her that he doesn’t even know what my sister’s and my husbands look like.

I decided to remedy the situation by ordering a few prints of my sister’s wedding, my wedding and some of us having Christmas with my grandma, putting them in a card and mailing them to him. Hopefully this will catch him up. I would love to start a new relationship with him!

Day 122: SNOW

It’s the first real snow day in Chicago! Big, fluffy flakes filling the air, not melting immediately but accumulating on the ground. Elphie and I went out to play in it, as best we could as human and dog in an urban environment.

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Day 121: Ticket to Ride

Friends introduced me to this game as an app, Ticket to Ride. You are an old-timey railroad mogul, building train routes across America and Europe based on tickets you select throughout the game. Longer routes are worth more points and specific tracks are often coveted by multiple players, making for an interesting game of strategy.

Because the app is based on a board game (combined with the subject matter and characters), I assumed this game was actually an old game that someone made in to an app. I was wrong. The inventor, Alan Moon, debuted the game in 2004, yet it feels so authentically old fashioned, which is one of the things I like best about it.

The app is a little pricey–iPad is easier to use than iPhone–but it includes solo, online, pass-and-play, and, network, so you can easily play with a variety of opponents. The hubs and I play against each other all the time on separate iPads, and we’ve have four people on our couch, on four different iPads playing together (I know).

Tonight, I just played against the computer. But sometimes, it is so satisfying to beat the computer.

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