Well, "new" is probably too strong a word. It's more a matter of perspective; after I laid out how my life has been for the past ten years, she told me, "This is a lot of loss!"
Losing jobs, girlfriends, fiancees, parents, friends, careers, etc, etc--you know, I knew it, but having someone validate my feelings is pretty refreshing. She arrived at the conclusion on her own; I just laid out the history of my past decade.
So I'm seeing her again this afternoon, because there's still so much initial discussion to get through before the real therapy can begin and I really need to talk to the so-called "sympathetic stranger" some more.
Don't ask me why it works better than talking to friends; I wish I knew.
* * *
I remember reading about "cool biz" in Yotsuba&! I wonder how many Japanese companies are doing it?
* * *
Vox Populi on government statistical shenanigans with unemployment figures.
Vox Populi on how to answer a simple question if you want to be a GOP nominee.
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Yesterday I walked up to the "municipal center" to get city stickers for the Jeep and the Escort. On the way up there, I was cheerfully thinking about, WTF, just going ahead and spending the money on getting the Fiero street-legal so I could drive it. "Screw it," I thought. "I haven't driven the damn car since 2006 and I want to!" Put it on the Jeep's policy, get plates, do some maintenance stuff, and zoom, you know? Thoroughly clean it and put a fresh coat of wax on, and start going to cruise nights again. Shit.
I mean, it's been five years since I was able to enjoy driving my Fiero. Jesus. What's the point of having a car you never drive? I bought the damn thing to have fun, and it's not any fun to have it just sitting in the garage.
On the way to see the therapist today, I saw a yard sale (this weekend is a big town-wide yard sale weekend) and there was a motor scooter sitting there. I couldn't see the price that well; the asking price was either $750 or $150 and I'd wager it's the former, but that got me to thinking about how much fun it would be to have something like that. Well, I didn't go back to look at the price because I'm not going to buy that, but then I realized that if I were to get that motorcycle carrier from Harbor Freight, I could use it to take the Suzuki over to the DMV and get my motorcycle license...and then ride the Suzuki hither and yon. I'd just have to get the Suzuki plated and insured, and that wouldn't cost nearly as much as doing the same with the Fiero.
Food for thought.
The most important thing I can do for myself right now, to help myself get better, is to start doing things that get me out of the house. I think that's important.
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It's been decided that most of the patio is going to be torn out. The square immediately off the back door is to remain, but the rest of it--
The window well floods because the slab is tilted towards the house, and rather than mud-jack it to the correct elevation my brother and sister decided that we're going to remove it and replace it with pavers.
I don't particularly have a problem with this. A brick patio would look very nice--much nicer than the concrete--and it'll be possible to get it to an elevation that is a better match for the way the house sits, anyway.
It does mean tearing out the old concrete, though. My brother got a start on it yesterday by using a concrete saw and hand sledge to clear out around the window well; I'm going to go to Harbor Freight fairly soon and buy an honest-to-god for-real sledgehammer (rather than a hand sledge) and I'm going to take out all my frustrations on the patio. I'm gonna get all up in that mofo. The bulk of the work we'll want to do with a jackhammer, I expect, but I can do a lot with a sledge, and I think it'll be therapeutic.
Someone will probably bitch at me for doing it wrong. *sigh*