Meaning-free, Content-free

I’m sitting here trying to write a meaningful post and I’m coming up empty. It isn’t for lack of topics to write about – many meaty things have been said on several blogs that I’d love to respond to (Theme Park Experience and Dean Dad’s, to name two) but the synapses are not firing and the words are not forthcoming. I also finished reading The Year of Magical Thinking and would love to go into a discussion about loss and coping and what it means to no longer have beside you someone that you have loved and counted on day after day for years, but I can’t seem to do it justice at the moment . . . but I do encourage people to read it, so much of it felt so true . . .

I’m in a holding pattern of sorts this week, due to my exhaustion and the major, raging headache that I had yesterday and which lingers into today. Construction has started on luxury townhomes behind the Random condo, which means they are tearing down many of the lovely trees that I would wake up to every morning, and they are being replaced by the sounds of earth-movers and saws. It is very depressing hearing trees being ripped from the ground – a horrible, guttural tearing sound that wrenches the heart . . .

Mr. Random and I went out to dinner last night to celebrate our anniversary, and while the food was delicious and the company divine, my aching head just would not play along. Also, it all seemed to go so fast – it seems that sometimes restaurants try to get you in and out so quickly that lingering over coffee seems more uncomfortable than it is worth. We went to a local restaurant that is fairly popular and rather upscale – which is why we only go on our anniversary – but they’ve changed the menu a bit, so my usual favorite dish, grilled pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes, was nowhere to be found. I ordered a large salad instead, which was tasty and much healthier, but not quite the same . . .

My ESL class this Fall is going to be quite challenging. I have an autistic gentleman in my class this time, and it is going to be a bit of a challenge working with him in the context of the whole group. He is very bright and has already learned some English in his native Costa Rica, but it is hard to gauge how patient I should be with him while still giving attention to the other 8 people in the class. I don’t know how to describe it and I don’t know what questions to even ask in what I should know or do to be more helpful to him . . .

I have a new laptop now – hooray! – it just came yesterday. It’s kind of an anniversary present, to replace the laptop that Mr. Random appropriated to use for school. I should be fawning and happy and grateful, but it’s not the same as my old one. It’s a different configuration and it doesn’t have the database on it that I needed or the same amount of gigs on the hard drive, so it kind of rankles. I know, I’m an ungrateful little cuss . . . I mean, it’s so awesome! . . . but the little things just annoy me to no end. I just need to go out and buy Access and an external drive to supplement, and I’ll be good to go . . .

I’m going to a baby shower on Sunday for a very good friend of mine. Now that two women that I am good friends with are starting their families, I’m starting to catch a little of the bug. Before, I’ve had friends have babies, but we weren’t that close and I didn’t hang out with them a lot anyway so our relationships didn’t change all that much. However, this time these are couples that I would hang out with fairly frequently so it will make a huge difference in lifestyle – no more just calling people up and seeing if they want to go out that night. It will be interesting to see how much they change and how much they stay the same . . .

My brain is totally fried so I will stop now. I’m so happy the weekend is here – I need much, much sleep . . .