Chicken Salad, Twice.

Yesterday turned out to be a Comfort Food sort of day. None of which comfort was actually cooked by me. I grabbed a sausage sandwich and hash brown sticks on my drive in. Turns out, I really needed that fortification. We had tons and tons of mail to deal with, and an attorney who is only marginally one of my regulars, wanted vacation letters sent out before the end of the day. [Major family event coming up, which according to his secretary he says he only found out about three days ago.] Had I been back at my own desk, I could have gotten them knocked out before lunch, especially with a shortcut that she showed me, but I was also fielding the phones, dealing with the fax machine, and serving as traffic control up at the front desk.

Good thing we shut down the popsicle stand at 4:00 yesterday; for the last two hours of the day I was having to deliberately put a smile on my face before picking up the receiver, each time the phone rang. And I was not much in the mood to deal with people.

So I got in the car and headed up to the Store Which Sells Expensive Planner Refills, where I got a 20% discount on the next year’s planning pages and declined to pay $38 plus change [before discount] on binders and slipcases to contain the past two years’ pages, which are currently piled in an uneasy alliance atop one of my many bookcases. I will head over to the Container Store later this morning and find a box that looks spiffy and costs much less and will hold everything from mid-2006 until the present. Does anybody here need two burgundy binders and slipcases, classic size, bought in less frugal times?

If not, I have a small dilemma. There is a woman in my old stake whom I knew slightly, and I know that she uses the same planning system. And I ran into her at the singles’ conference in April, so I have her contact information. She is a good, kind woman, *and* all my instincts tell me she is high need, which is why I have never pursued the friendship. [I have five daughters and 4.5 grandchildren to provide my Minimum Daily Adult Requirement of excitement, and I have a ward full of people over whose needs I have some degree of stewardship.]

Any ideas for a tactful way to give her the binders and slipcases without also giving her the impression that I want to renew the acquaintance?

[See, I’m delegating! Or trying to. Or at least counseling...]

My dontcha shirt was a real hit at work. I wasn’t sure if the office manager would like it. She laughed. She hooted. She nearly wiped her eyes, and then she sent all the women in the office over to the front desk to read my shirt.

I’m always happy to provide a little comic relief, especially for a day like yesterday.

I have yet more good news, also in the sartorial department. There is only one thing I dislike as much as shopping for a new swimsuit, and that is shopping for bras. [Guys, feel free to put your hands over your eyes and say la-la-la, I can’t hear you until I’m done.] I went to the store when I bought the last batch, because I blew out an underwire a couple of weeks ago and had been walking about in a somewhat jerry-rigged state ever since.

Ladies, if it’s been longer than six months since you were fitted, you’re probably wearing the wrong size. I was.

Was that discreet enough?

OK, on to the topic of dancing. I had choices last night. There was the monthly singles’ dance in Lewisville Stake, but I wanted to check out the dance at the Southside Preservation Hall here in Fort Worth. It’s just a few blocks from our chapel. One of my friends went to last month’s dance and boogied from the moment she walked in the door at 8:00 until the dance ended at midnight. [And she didn’t have to stay and help put the chairs and tables away, either.]

I checked out the website, and admission is $12.50. I realize that the money goes to keep the Preservation Hall, preserved. And I love old buildings, that one in particular. It’s a decommissioned church which is now a community center. I suppose it has in the strictest sense been desecrated, in that it is no longer consecrated as a house of worship, but it is still serving God’s children, so decommissioned seems by far the better term, although I probably could have just gone with former and been done with it.

Where was I?

Here is where responsible citizenship collided head-on with frugality. I understand that old churches need lots of money for roofs and plumbing and paint and the like. I understand that live musicians like to get paid [dead musicians don’t seem to care one way or another]. And I know that $12.50 is less than a movie and popcorn would cost me nowadays.

And I balked at paying $12.50 to maybe dance when I could dance for free at the church dance.

So I took that $12.50 and bought three DVD’s after driving from the shop in Coppell where I was fitted for new bras, to Arlington where the proper size in the proper color was actually in stock.

I prayed to find at least one movie that was Sabbath-appropriate. I hope I found it in Twelfth Night [1999 version with Helena Bonham Carter and Ben Kingsley]. I also picked up Hitch, which I rented and enjoyed a couple of years ago, and Secondhand Lions [at, I think, Brother Sushi’s recommendation].

The office was really warm yesterday, so much so that the office manager loaned me her desktop fan for a few hours, until she needed it herself. I didn’t want a hot lunch, when I was already warm and the ice machine is unplugged for the break room’s renovations this weekend. I got a chicken salad sandwich and baked potato chips from the deli downstairs. Her food is always good, always seasoned with love.

After picking up my planner refill, I stopped at Corner Bakery and got another sandwich. The only one that sounded appealing which didn’t contain something I dislike or am allergic to, was [surprise!] chicken salad. With chips that were tasty and definitely not baked. I washed it down with plenty of water and got more for the road, so this morning neither my kidneys nor my ankles are mad at me.

I threw all my bags on the couch, peeled the security tape off the DVD cases, and was in bed by 9:30.

In knitting news, the rest of my yarn came from WEBS. And I am nearly done with the right collar. I foresee a lot of ball-winding today, and maybe I will get the left collar done as well. I think I may wait to join the halves until I confirm with my friends at Knit Night. Which means that when I go to bed tonight, I may have started on the sleeves...

But first, there is the small matter of breakfast.