2014-01-07 - 10:38 a.m.

Friend sent this link which I am sharing just in case it is helpful to anyone else interested in updating their toilet in hopes of reducing water:

http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/05/easy-upgrade-super-toilet/

Reading it made me realize I COULD have bought those cool buttons instead of the handle style I got. Oh well... they still will work.

I also thought I would share the Mailman update as it is kinda funny. The mailman has stopped by with packages twice since I last mentioned him. Once was on Christmas Eve, which I was surprised he was working on being a holiday for some. It was 5:30 pm and as he dropped off a small package and apologized that " it fell under the seat " as it was so small and he found it there (It was a tiny package of earrings my tenant ordered off e-bay), I inquired
"Are you finally done for the day? Time to relax?"

HINT HINT....
I was home, no plans... no kids..

Now the answer he gave was one that had me craking up AFTER I closed the door.

Here I was imagining "Yes I am happy to be done with work" and I imagined him picking up on my cue...

I imaginined that MAYBE there is a job professionalism code which he is following so he can not ask out a customer. I imagined he would indicate he was glad to be off work and perhaps hint he was free... a pause , a direct look of eye contact , something which I could then respond to;
and I imagined boldly asking if he wanted to meet for a cup of coffee at the coffee shop a short walk away that I knew was opened.

Heck it was 5:30 pm and the attorney who ALSO worked Christmas Eve had not called me as of yet. ( I kinda HATE That NOT MAKING PLANS Ahead of time thing. I mean it really irritates me so I try to make plans ahead of time and don't ever stay home if something should come up and I don't have plans! Something like an improptu coffee date with someone I find interesting...)

So here is the response I ACTUALLY Got which I think is absolutely HILARIOUS.

( I mean I recall the time super hot and then single attorney said I should come over to his house to help him with landscaping and gardening and I blurted out "No thanks, I have enough work to do of my own." OR the earlier time same super hot attorney (but not yet really single in my mind) actually asked me to go hiking at OLD RAG one weekend and I LAUGHED AT HIM and said "WHAT you are separated TWO WEEKS. Don't you think its a bit early?" I mean... I could have been a bit more tactful. I could have been more thoughtful before implusively blurting out what I thought. OF course six months or more later when hot attorney was separated for more time and I WANTED to go out with super hot attorney I was kicking myself. OK, I have been dating super NICE attorney- but we both kinda are happy with our mutually well aware spending time with each other as they is no one in our lives we want a serious commitment with thing going on. Its a nice relationship but neither of us are madly in love and I still think he needs to date more. After a few years of dating the same person it begs the quesiton of course "What is love?" I wonder if the separation of sex from love just hardens one to not be able to really believe in a committed monogomous love ever again. I mean the casual dating is super nice- great to have a great lover to spend time with , and freedom to develop other friendships and flirt a bit with mailman etc. without guilt, and have other dates and occassional lovers .... but I wonder if at some point after years if still seeing each other some people settle into de facto commitment just cause they end up spending all time together out of habit. But I digress to only what is likely REALLY just my serious fear of commitment issue and my own anxiety I think if I only have ONE lover in my life for too long; I mean I get a bit afraid of even the possibility of emotional dependence (so that leaves me cutting off emotional interdependance as well) and leaves me with the choice of being single but dating, understandably fearful after serious abuse of a relationship that is too dependant even emotionally on one man ... BUT back to the mailman who has been TOLD I am single but not wanting marriage, so his response struck me as so very funny:)

So as I stand there with my fantasy of asking the guy out, thinking I just dropped the big hint and seeing if there is responsiveness,
Cute mailman says:

"After this I have one more stop and then " (and he is walking away as he says this while wearing jeans and honestly a kinda rugged , manly red and blue checked flannel looking shirt under jacket or jacket over shirt- I am terrible with details but I noticed as it just adds to his rugged hotness) "I am going home. I bought a new memory foam matress yesterday that I can't wait to try."

I responded "AH Good time of year to get that. That sounds like a great end of the week after this busy one."

He said " I delivered 225 packages this week"

"Enjoy"

AGAIN Just hilarious awkward conversation!! Totally cracked me up!

I did have a letter I had to get out in the mail after mail arrived one day last Friday with some standardized test scores I had to forward over to the VA BAR. I opened my mail and quickly addressed an envelope to drop the scores in and ran out to catch the mailman and hand him the mail so it went out on Fridy as those scores are ostensibly supposed to be there by JAN 6 (TODAY) when the BAR Association has their next meeting to review accomodation requests. I trust my psychiatrist's paperwork was received. I also had to send a request with a form the BAR sent out on Friday to my narcolepsy doc for him to fill out at their request.

So getting those out on Friday I did have another weird converstation with the mailman. My right knee has been hurting me and I have exercised the past week in hope of improving the joint pain. I haven't read much about it yet- but thought "Mailmen deal with being on feet all the time. I bet if anyone has knowlege of what is good for knees it will be a mailman"

Yes goofy to see what he thought, rather than google- but it was easy enough to ask randomly as I handed the two letters saying "Glad I caught you as these need to get out today. Hey , as a mailman what do you know about bad knees? Just wondering as have some knee joint pain and heard exercise helps. Figure a mailman might know about that. "

He said "I actually had to have surgury on one of my knees, and then physical therapy- yeah exercise does help. "

"Ah that's what I thought, I am going to try that.""

He said "You might be able to just do evercise instead of going to the dr"

"Yeah, that's what I figured- try that first to see if it gets better. I don't want to have to go to the Dr. unless I have to. Seems joint pain is common once hit age 45"

He said "It doesn't get any better as we get older. I'm 44"

"Really, me too actaully, that's how old I am."
( which was kinda funny as I mentioned 45 and then thought "Wait...how old am I again? I 'm not 45 I'm 44" I always forget and round up or down and have to think about it.)

So another kinda quirky converstaion, but to be honest I was glad to hear that physical therapy exercise is the main thing done after surgery as that is consistent with what I have heard that is the best thing for arthritis and joint inflammation problems is actually to get exercise to strengthen the joints. Its also best to avoid osteoporosis which also runs in my family. I could have googled, but thought the man on the street poll would be more interesting, in this case the cute mailman on my street poll!

As arthritis runs in my family the fact I feel this weird joint pain at night when trying to fall asleep is one of the things motivating me to get out and exercise.

I have also been taking Glucosamine and a couple of days only of running and biking that I did not need advil for the past few nights. I had such pain in my right knee a few weeks ago that I was taking advil in order to reduce it to fall asleep and thankfully I think the exercise is helping. Surprised at the near immediate results of that.

Back to studying. I was up at 5AM getting work done, napped, wrote and am going back to it. My most productive days are when I get up super early.

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