Country Life
As it is officially summer, North Texas is oven hot, leading me to avoid the outdoors as much as possible. But I discovered something very interesting the last two weekends; my tolerance and acceptance of heat seems to be regional in a way.
The Bat's parents bought a retirement property in the country and we are spending our weekends renovating and repairing it. So far, with the help of the Bat, his folks, and Housekeeper (HK), I've crawled under the house to jack it up and shim a few beams, scraped off popcorn ceilings, and pulled nails from walls and baseboards. Oh, and took off the plates of roughly 345 outlets. I also helped with the preliminary cleaning of the shop (converted barn) and enjoyed a few donuts (some performed by yours truly) in the later hours.
Oddly, when in the country, I seem to just give myself up to the fact that I am going to be hot and sweaty for the most part. I'm fine with it because it seems appropriate. It isn't comfortable or awesome or anything, but I put up with it with far more acceptance than I do when I'm home or at work. Feel the sun beating down on me as I help in the shop? No problem. Get into my car after work where I need oven mitts to grab my steering wheel? Huge attitude. I just find it very funny that if I'm in the country working on a house, I treat the heat differently.
Working on the house has been a lot of fun and I get to be proud of myself for learning new things and giving everything a chance and putting in the labor I have. It's an extremely small town with a population of less than 2,000, one restaurant, a couple of antique stores, a (new!) Walmart grocery store, and no liquor licenses (the restaurant is BYOB). These days I really like small towns, especially ones like this where there aren't strip malls. Part of it is that I like the quiet and solitude and having to make your own entertainment. I also like the lack of pressure. I've talked before about hating when people ask if I have plans for the weekend or what did I do this weekend because I end up feeling like a loser because usually I don't have plans. I feel that same sense of pressure or anxiety or whatever it is about having things available to me entertainment-wise and not taking advantage of them. I don't want to go downtown. I could and it is close and it would be OK for a special date or something but I don't want to do it regularly. I don't want to go to clubs or concerts. I would like to go to museums and gardens and the theatre but I don't, mainly because I don't have anyone to go with me. So I feel like I'm wasting the opportunities.
There aren't a lot of opportunities where the Bat's parents are going to be living so that pressure and anxiety dissipate. Save for the amount of work involved, going to the country is a lot like camping because the entire world just melts away. I probably also like it because I've read so many damned Agatha Christie novels and so have this romantic vision of country life. Don't get me wrong, I don't for one minute view the house or the area like it is a wealthy English countryside vignette circa 1945 or anything. But the minute I got there I started thinking about how awesome it would be to have a good old fashioned country murder who dunnit. Not in the house where we are, but the neighbor's. The Bat's dad and I have pretty much convinced ourselves that the neighbors are up to some shenanigans and use their barn to store stolen goods that they sell in a neighboring town in a shop that is ostensibly a beer and wine store. It's to the point that the Bat's dad actually said something like "it says a lot that I'm believing your stories. That isn't a comment on you but on me". I'm pretty sure he meant "why am I allowing myself to be drawn into her crazy?"
It will be really awkward should he meet these people in real life. It will be a special delight to me should their last name turn out to be Caddigan because that is what I've christened them.
Other Life - Briefly
In my real life, things are going well. Work is still engaging though I get annoyed at myself when I make mistakes that I think I shouldn't have. I'm not being too hard on myself as I am still new to this and my boss has a great deal of confidence in me, but I do still get a bit annoyed. I like my job and don't dread going into the office every day and I'm really glad that hasn't worn off.
The Bat and I are doing OK. I'm still wary and he's still making an effort. I really don't know if we are going to work out. Sometimes I sit and think about the fact that we don't have a great deal to talk about. When we go to dinner, we either talk to friends at the bar (if we go to the sushi bar) or end up looking at our phones and maybe discussing the Facebook page we work on. We don't talk about politics or world events because I don't think that interests him very much and we just don't, well, talk.
I also don't know 100% if this is what I want. I don't like ruminating on it too much because no one likes to ruminate about a topic that makes them uncomfortable but I'm going to have to be a big girl and do so.
Back to real life and my real job.
As it is officially summer, North Texas is oven hot, leading me to avoid the outdoors as much as possible. But I discovered something very interesting the last two weekends; my tolerance and acceptance of heat seems to be regional in a way.
The Bat's parents bought a retirement property in the country and we are spending our weekends renovating and repairing it. So far, with the help of the Bat, his folks, and Housekeeper (HK), I've crawled under the house to jack it up and shim a few beams, scraped off popcorn ceilings, and pulled nails from walls and baseboards. Oh, and took off the plates of roughly 345 outlets. I also helped with the preliminary cleaning of the shop (converted barn) and enjoyed a few donuts (some performed by yours truly) in the later hours.
Oddly, when in the country, I seem to just give myself up to the fact that I am going to be hot and sweaty for the most part. I'm fine with it because it seems appropriate. It isn't comfortable or awesome or anything, but I put up with it with far more acceptance than I do when I'm home or at work. Feel the sun beating down on me as I help in the shop? No problem. Get into my car after work where I need oven mitts to grab my steering wheel? Huge attitude. I just find it very funny that if I'm in the country working on a house, I treat the heat differently.
Working on the house has been a lot of fun and I get to be proud of myself for learning new things and giving everything a chance and putting in the labor I have. It's an extremely small town with a population of less than 2,000, one restaurant, a couple of antique stores, a (new!) Walmart grocery store, and no liquor licenses (the restaurant is BYOB). These days I really like small towns, especially ones like this where there aren't strip malls. Part of it is that I like the quiet and solitude and having to make your own entertainment. I also like the lack of pressure. I've talked before about hating when people ask if I have plans for the weekend or what did I do this weekend because I end up feeling like a loser because usually I don't have plans. I feel that same sense of pressure or anxiety or whatever it is about having things available to me entertainment-wise and not taking advantage of them. I don't want to go downtown. I could and it is close and it would be OK for a special date or something but I don't want to do it regularly. I don't want to go to clubs or concerts. I would like to go to museums and gardens and the theatre but I don't, mainly because I don't have anyone to go with me. So I feel like I'm wasting the opportunities.
There aren't a lot of opportunities where the Bat's parents are going to be living so that pressure and anxiety dissipate. Save for the amount of work involved, going to the country is a lot like camping because the entire world just melts away. I probably also like it because I've read so many damned Agatha Christie novels and so have this romantic vision of country life. Don't get me wrong, I don't for one minute view the house or the area like it is a wealthy English countryside vignette circa 1945 or anything. But the minute I got there I started thinking about how awesome it would be to have a good old fashioned country murder who dunnit. Not in the house where we are, but the neighbor's. The Bat's dad and I have pretty much convinced ourselves that the neighbors are up to some shenanigans and use their barn to store stolen goods that they sell in a neighboring town in a shop that is ostensibly a beer and wine store. It's to the point that the Bat's dad actually said something like "it says a lot that I'm believing your stories. That isn't a comment on you but on me". I'm pretty sure he meant "why am I allowing myself to be drawn into her crazy?"
It will be really awkward should he meet these people in real life. It will be a special delight to me should their last name turn out to be Caddigan because that is what I've christened them.
Other Life - Briefly
In my real life, things are going well. Work is still engaging though I get annoyed at myself when I make mistakes that I think I shouldn't have. I'm not being too hard on myself as I am still new to this and my boss has a great deal of confidence in me, but I do still get a bit annoyed. I like my job and don't dread going into the office every day and I'm really glad that hasn't worn off.
The Bat and I are doing OK. I'm still wary and he's still making an effort. I really don't know if we are going to work out. Sometimes I sit and think about the fact that we don't have a great deal to talk about. When we go to dinner, we either talk to friends at the bar (if we go to the sushi bar) or end up looking at our phones and maybe discussing the Facebook page we work on. We don't talk about politics or world events because I don't think that interests him very much and we just don't, well, talk.
I also don't know 100% if this is what I want. I don't like ruminating on it too much because no one likes to ruminate about a topic that makes them uncomfortable but I'm going to have to be a big girl and do so.
Back to real life and my real job.
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