A Conversation with Elizabeth
1998
Weekends are a Full Time Job

From:          Elizabeth  
Sent:          Monday, May 11, 1998 10:47 AM
To:            LMixson@PEC.com
Subject:       Weekends are a Full Time Job
 
Sounds as if your weekend was a full time job, but that's the way I thought of mine.  Before I forget, you've mentioned artichoke hearts several times.  Are you buying them canned or frozen, or fresh.  I know they come all three ways, but I've never tried them.  I always throw leftover veges on my boboli too, but I seldom have any.  I haven't thought of crabmeat.  I actually like the Louis Kempo syntho type in salads.  I guess canned baby shrimp might be good too.  
 
I feel really good about the weekend, but it was not as project oriented as yours.  Saturday I studied from 8:00-12:00, then took a break to read the morning paper and eat brunch (this is a change because I usually sit down with the paper right away and end up letting prime morning time zoom by).  I resumed studying at 2:00 and studied until about 6:00.  I debated about another round of studying after breaking for dinner, but opted out.  I've been trying to work my way through a mass of video recordings, some unlabeled, so I watched part of a James Bond movie, and a segment on Houston Smith, the religion professor who was just about the first person to introduce yoga to the United States.  It was quite revolutionary when he did so.  It was funny.  He was very conservative, in a suit, and a crew cut, but he got on his desk and got into the lotus position.  He has continued yoga all his life.  The program was from a series Bill Moyers did with him some time back.  I've decided resuming yoga of some sort might be of benefit to me, to prevent and perhaps correct arthritis stiffness.  I did a little from memory on Saturday at my lunch break, to a Haydyn piece.  Don't you love the sun salute. You mentioned it a while back. We learned it in karate and I thought it was fantastic.  I loved doing it.
 
I fretted on and off about when do laundry and so Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. I bit the bullet.  It's really not that onerous, as I only really had two loads (actually I decided one load of turtle necks was not essential as now the weather is 90 degrees).  I concluded that laundry is one of the few things I do which genuinely feels like work.  Also, by 8:00 a.m. it was all done and on hangers.  The part I hate is carrying it back upstairs as it takes two trips with everything on hangers.
 
I then had a bagel and coffee and a brief scan through the paper and started studying at 9:00.  I had a mid-day break, but basically studied until 5:30.  Do you ever get the Vidalia onions up there?  I never heard of them until I came to Alabama.  They are scrumptious.  They are a sweet onion which grows in a special part of Georgia.  They will absolutely "make" a tuna fish sandwich.  Some people just eat Vidalia onion sandwiches, but I haven't gone that far.  I had tuna salad for lunch with vidalia onion.  After studying I took a long bath as a treat and relaxation, got cleaned up and went out to do my grocery shopping, which I now do on Sunday.  I got home just in time to watch the X-files, which was mediocre.  Its the first time I even got up during the show and walked away.  Yes, I saw the advertisement about the movie.  I'll be one of the first in line.  After the X-files I walked 30 minutes, just around the apartment streets. I read a little for fun, about 20 minutes, and then by 10:30 I was asleep.  This morning I got up as usual, but went out to put oil in my car, which it needed, and drop my rent check in the slot.
 
The only unusuality of the weekend was that a man downstairs "threatened me."  He just moved in not too long ago.  I'm guessing he is newly divorced, because on the weekend, two kids come to stay with him.  Well, the kids went in and out of the apartment all weekend, slamming the door, very, very loudly all day long.  (I live in a very quiet section).  I put a note on his door, to PLEASE stop slamming his door.  Well, when I was getting out of my car with both hands full of several plastic bags from grocery shopping, he approached me, got RIGHT in my face, gritted his teeth, and took his finger and shook it withing l/2 inch of my face.  I just said, "You seem really angry and I'm not pursuing this conversation."  He then said something about if I ever put an "imbicilic note" on his door again, he'd "come after me" or something like that.  So, when I went for a walk, I wrote another note and left it on his door mat.  I told him if he ever approached me in such a way again, I'd file assault charges against him.  The technical distinction, ironically if he had actually touched me while yelling at me, it would be "battery" but because he didn't actually physically touch me, its "assault" or "threatening touch."  I think he probably is a hostile mode post divorce (I'm guessing all this), probably having to live in a apartment to begin with.  It makes me wonder though what he does for a living. I think Domestic Relations law is potentially dangerous.  I'm not certain I would want to do it.  
 
So much for my "exciting" weekend.  I'm fairly well prepared for classes though.  (Do you know though with all that work, I still didn't finish all my briefs though).  Every once in a while I feel a shoot of anxiety because I will get my "contracts" grade this week.  My friend thinks they will be out today, but I think Wednesday.
 
Did you hear about Wired Magazine being sold to Conde Nast (they do a glossy travel magazine). 
 
You are a "Larry of all Trades" from your description of your weekend.  I admire your ability to be so versatile, although to some extent I'm that way myself, but I wish I knew more about "wiring" and such.  I saw a write up of a "home of the future" and I thought of you.  I saw a "Pond" magazine advertised.  How to maintain ponds.  Talk about specialization.  It includes fish and plants apparently.  Oh, at Jasmine Gardens there was the most exotic looking water plant.  I wish I knew what it was so I could tell you.  The one thing about Jasmine Gardens was nothing was labelled.  I had to guess at what was cherries.
 
Elizabeth

Ok now the mundane, how she does her laundry, but gave me a glimpse into her life. Her run-in with her neighbor was not the first and would not be the last time she had such with neighbors or people she worked with. There was something about her demeaner that sometimes rubbed people the wrong way.

Artichokes