May 16, 2000 -- 8:00 PM EST

Ohmigod, this one just had me rolling around. Hello Kitty toaster that stamps her face on the toast! I'm such a Sanrio freak. The good thing is that I don't want my whole house decorated in pastels, and overly cutesy things, so I do have some control. But the idea of a Hello Kitty Kitchen with pink appliances makes me laugh.

Not that Paul would let me have it. He won't let me paint the kitchen walls and just came around to a retro-Coke-diner-y look. Maybe. This is why, after a year of living here, we have one large bricked up and set flowerbed, but no plants because we can't agree what to put in it and why we've only painted the living room. We can't decide on anything else. We agree we want a tree, but can't decide which.

[...]

Home Owner's Association meeting last night. This one we actually went to, because things are getting serious with our board. They're whacked, for one, and there have been some resignations and goofy stuff happening with funds and whatnot.

Paul and I ditched out early. We both had the same flashback that we were in high school listening to some inane after-school meeting complete with the whiny girl types who complain "But we ALWAYS do the bake sales! Don't you guys caaaare? Why don't you help?" Only this time, it was grown women whining "We're always doing the stuff for the kids. Don't you caaaare about your kids having activities?Why don't you help?"

It was all out of control. It's not that I don't care about keeping the kids safe and off the streets or the landscaping around here or whoever is having problems with their neighbors, but if the purpose of the meeting was to try to do something about the board, why aren't we talking about the board instead of these tangential issues? Without a board that is strong and together, there is no way we can get to the other issues like the landscaping and the kid stuff and whatnot.

Priorities, people! This is why we do not like going to HOA meetings. Big waste of time. :P

You know what? I'd be perfectly happy to pay more in HOA fees and hire professionals to deal with this shit. Not that it isn't nice to volunteer in the community, but jeez! I'd rather pay for professional service, than be at the mercy of volunteers, even well meaning volunteers, who are inexperienced or just plain incompetent.

Well, you never really win.

If you rent, you could have annoying neighbors right on top of you and you can't do anything you'd really like to the flat. Plus you pay out all this rent and never really own the place you live in.

If you own, you have more space between you and your neighbors and you can about do what you like within reason, but then there the HOA crap to deal with. Very rarely do I see houses for sale that don't run along with HOA crap, especially in newer developments.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. My parents moved from their house to a new area because they hated their HOA so bad and they were afraid their property values would diminish if they didn't get out soon since the HOA was such a big mess and screwing things up. I'm afraid we might have to reconsider something like that in a few years if this HOA goes to pot too. Blah. I wanted to move to a house so I wouldn't have to be moving every few years anymore!

Paul said he wants to buy 10ish acres of land somewhere, put a house smack in the middle of it and have a good 5ish acres between us and anyone else. Well, if everything goes ok, maybe by the time we've outgrown this house, we'll be in a position to be able to have that! We can dream!

[...]

My feet still hurt. Ugh.

I think it might be the new insoles just not working out the way I had hoped. So now I have to try to dig up the receipt and take them back and change them for another set. I wish shoe people were more helpful! Every single one I talk to doesn't know what I'm wanting or how to point me to the right products and I end up paying for it with crabby feet. Bah.

I'm worried I won't find my marathon shoe!

[...]

Today Paul went to the dietitian. We haven't talked about it in great detail since he's napping, but he told me he liked her and that I was right, she IS intense.

He needs to be eating something like 2800-3000 a day, his activity level is fine, his food is horrid.

"I think she thought I was anorexic. I probably am, technically speaking."

"Just not emotionally?"

"Something like that. See, she was asking me if I had any problems or aversions to eating fatty foods, or meat and all these other foods classic anorexics might have issues. I told her I have no problems eating anything, I don't have these emotional issues or body image issues. I just forget to eat!"

" What did she say then?"

"She kept shaking her head at me. Then she told me she isn't surprised. Apparently professional people have the worst eating habits, and of those, the ones who have it the worst are lawyers, doctors, and computer people."

"So what can I do to help you? We'll have to talk about it later tonight. You have to tell me more about this visit."

"OK"

I took a peek at his folder form Karen and there are some shake recipes and things in there. It's going to be a challenge. It was a challenge before with me veggie and him nonveggie. Now, it's even a greater challenge because he needs to be eating all these rich foods to help put on some fat tissue and I'm trying to avoid those very same things because I've got to lose weight!

Well, hopefully, we can come together with biking, walking and do some weight training. He needs to put on some muscle too.

The rough spots are definitely going to be food shopping and preparing.

This is going to be soooo weird!

~Astrophe