I have a few "Love/Hate" relationships, which I am about to divulge for the whole world to know about. Or at least my sister, Jen, who said that she was sick of seeing "First Chair" as my last blog entry.
The first one is........Costco. This may come as a surprise to some who think that it is my third greatest love (Kevin being number one, children being number two-I won't tell you which one would be number one in that group), but as much as I love shopping at Costco, I detest the feeling of panic that overcomes me when I see some new fantastic offering they have, only to wonder: How long will this last? For instance, last December "our" Costco finally got heavy whipping cream!! I was so excited, because I had seen it at my mom's Costco in Utah, but never here in a non-Utah Costco, where we are limited in the good stuff that we get due to the amount of alcohol that takes up valuable product display space. So, I was thrilled. I told my friends. I told my family. And then, just two weeks after its arrival I noticed the dreaded *. Meaning that it's days were numbered and that it would not be staying for long. WE JUST GOT IT!!!! How could Costco be so cruel as to taunt me with what they had, only to let it disappear so quickly? The final blow came when they reduced the price to $3.97 for the half gallon. I bought four and froze them.
A different, but equally as devastating event happened with the Pumpkin Streusel Muffin. Fall heaven. It was only offered during the fall of 2009, which I can understand that it is a seasonal item, but then comes the fall of 2010. I waited. I checked the muffin display. No Pumpkin Streusel Muffins. The pumpkin pie was out, why no muffins? I seethed because I had waited through a miserable summer waiting for the first sign of fall: the muffins. Then to my sheer and utter delight, they were back for the fall of 2011!! I stocked up because who know what will happen? They are gone from my freezer, by the way. I can't resist.
The other thing that drives me crazy about Costco is the books. The books!! I could get lost in all of those books and it is so hard for me to not pick one up to read because it's right there. It looks so good. I have no will power when it comes to a book in my hot little hand.
Which brings me to my next love/ hate relationship: Good books. How can one hate a good book? I will tell you. It brings my life to an utter stand still. I am paralyzed because all I want to do is finish this really good book, and then I don't want it to end because it's so good, so then I have to find another good book and then I can't do anything because all I want to do is finish this really good book and then it ends, and I am sad because I have to find another good book to read..........It is a very vicious cycle. One may think that getting a bad book would break this cycle, but au contraire, it only strengthens my desire to find a good book to read to wash out the bad book out of my brain. And, yes I am in the vicious cycle right now. It started when I was casually talking to a nurse that I work with and he asked me if I knew anything about Chicago, and I said "Everything I know about Chicago, I read in the book The Devil in the White City." Which got us to talking about the author Erik Larson, and how he had written other books, and that I had read In the Garden of Beasts, that this other nurse hadn't, but he had read two of his other books, Thunderstruck, which I have since read, and Isaac's Storm, which I am halfway through (it is about the Galveston hurricane of 1900. If you've read it, DON'T SPOIL IT. I want to find out if the storm does any major damage). And, I already have my next book after that picked out Empire of the Summer Moon. I can't stop. I feel like an addict. My two older children have the same curse. I will never forget when I was talking to Dillan's 6th grade teacher and was telling her about a book that I stayed up until 2 am to finish, and Dillan's eyes grew so wide realizing that one could stay up that late to read. I told him that it was still forbidden for him. The best thing about this obsession is that I am able to multitask with it now. I run on the treadmill and read my Kindle.
I have a love/hate relationship with Kevin too. I love him. But I HATE that he scares me. All of the time!! If he walks into a room, I am startled. If he comes up behind me when I am not aware and starts talking, I'm likely to shriek. And he has passed this trait onto our boys. The other day I was drawing Blake's bath, and was leaning over the tub, when Blake starts talking right behind me. I did shriek that time. Dillan noted it and thought it was awesome. Boys.
If you have a love/hate relationship that you would like to share, please do it.
