Heh.

I've always been very self-sufficient and independent. It's probably one of the big reasons I'm still single. Well, that and the fact that I've run into more than my fair share of men who turned out to be married, engaged or otherwise occupied. But anyway, yeah, I'm very much the do it yourself kind of woman.

I hear tell that can be attractive, at first. And then it gets intimidating as heck. I don't know. I'm not a guy. I don't suffer from penis envy. I just do what I need to do to get through each day. Although I will gladly let someone else do it for me, too, if they are available. Unfortunately, that availability thing doesn't work out so well when the guy you want to date is in Iraq. Or Wyoming. Or anywhere other than the passenger seat of my jeep.

So yesterday I brought home a boat load of paperwork that was time sensitive. I cranked it out and finished things up around midnight. And then I was wound up so I was up until about 1 am. Which meant today stunk. But I also made the conscious decision to come home a couple hours early and relax.

After I took care of a few errands. So my soft deadline of a 2 pm departure turned into my 3 pm hard deadline, and I got back to the north side of town right on schedule. I also noticed that my check engine light had turned itself back off, since the jeep computer reset itself after yet another "random misfire" occurred over the weekend. (The jeep has narcolepsy, in my opinion, which I'm sure to gripe about at some other time.)

Life was good. I was home early, and I ran to the grocery store and picked up cake mix and frosting. Not to make a cake, but instead to make cake balls, which sounds obscene and probably has an obscene amount of calories in them, now that I think about it. Fortunately, they're going over to the troops, if they turn out well. Heck, they're going to the troops even if they don't turn out well, because that's how I roll.

I got home and unloaded the groceries. I dashed up and changed into old shorts and a t-shirt too, because the lady who lives downstairs, otherwise known as my Mom, had finally decided we were ready to tackle the leaking kitchen sink. Go Mom! First I mixed up the cake though, and got that started.

Because I had an agenda. It went like this:

1. Bake cake, let it cool. Crumble, mix with tons of icing. Make cake balls. (I got as far as baking the cake, okay?)

2. Figure out what was wrong with sink. Fix problem. (We found the leak, and I had to call for reinforcements. I'll keep you posted.)

3. Go to Staples and get the USB cable for new printer at work. (Done!) (Bought some other crap I couldn't live without, either.)

4. Go next door to Hobby Lobby and buy the chocolate wafers to make cake balls. And paper lollipop sticks, in case I wanted to make cake pops, too. (Bought 'em. Also bought 3 bags of pillow batting, to restuff the armchair cushion in my room.)

5. Go to Home Depot and get whatever I needed for the sink. (Didn't really need to do that trip now did I?)

6. Go to the car wash lube center and get the oil changed, then get the complimentary full service car wash on the jeep. (It was an option, okay?)


That was the agenda. It morphed the minute I walked out of Hobby Lobby, because there was a woman a bit younger than me staring at the right front tire of her car. I tossed my purchases into the jeep and approached her to see if she needed help. The hood was down and the trunk was open, so it was either a call the auto club moment or change a tire moment. I needed a shower afterward, so you can guess what I did about 5:45 tonight.

And I was done by 6.

Hah!

As Kim held up the trunk carpet liner, I pulled out her donut. Then we took out the jack. I loosed the lug nuts, jacked up the car, and swapped the tire out. Right as we were lowering the jack, two guys walked out of the store and approached us warily. Granted I understand that, because I'm the whitest white person I know, all slobbed out in home repair clothes. And there's a dainty, beautiful black woman squatting next to me as we worked, who was in office clothes. It was probably a very unusual site to begin with.

And then there's the fact that women in our society do not want to be approached by strange men, even if they are stuck with car problems in a parking lot. It's just not a comforting feeling. So the older guy of the pair ambled up, about ten yards away, and asked if we needed help. I told him we were almost done, and thanked him.

Then he stood back and watched. "It sure is fun to watch two women change a tire! It's not something you see every day!"

No, no I bet it's not.

Then I came home and scrubbed up a bit. Tumped the cake over onto a cookie sheet to continue cooling. Ate some spring rolls. Went upstairs and restuffed my armchair cushion. Chatted online with a friend for a couple minutes. Then broke down, took a shower, started some laundry and then messed with cake some more.

It was a pretty typical day.