Bearshorty's musings

New York is in the middle of a heat wave which does not make for very comfortable outside activities. It is over 90F in the last few day. And yesterday I had to be outside from 11 to 6, canvasing. It was not too far from my house but there was a lot of walking and it was very, very hot. Two bottles of water were not enough. It was nice to be mostly outside today - we only went out for groceries and to dinner with a few of Bear's relatives.

I finished "The Iron King," the historical fiction about Philip IV today. Definitely enjoyed it a lot and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series - there are seven overall. But only the second book is coming out in English this November (it is originally French) - the rest are not as available. Since I don't want to read them all at once, it will actually be nice to just read them slowly, over time.

I started the autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt today. I just wanted a biography and something non-fiction and I really like biographies of women. Some of my favorites were biographies of Simone de Beauvoir and Golda Meir. So I'm giving it a go. I read the first chapter so far. Her writing style is a little weird so I'm not sure if I will like it but I'm curious so far and I want to learn more about American politics, so this could be a fun way.

My week has been pretty good. On Monday, I took a severely needed day off just to recharge my batteries. I basically just caught up on this season of "True Blood." I'm really liking it. "True Blood" is always such a fun summer crack to me. It is telling that the only two shows I'm watching this summer are "Teen Wolf" and "True Blood." Both are such silly, delicious crack. I can't watch my dance show, since Fox is blocking it for like a month unless you have cable.

Tuesday and Wednesday were my last petitioning days. No more signature collecting. I did get to spend my time mostly in Manhattan parks so that was sort of fun (tiring, but fun). Now it will be all canvasing and phonebanking.

Then came two days of Fourth of July holiday. First my parents came over to our apartment for half the day - my Mom wanted to finally frame our ketubah (marriage contract) - and I fed them drumsticks and oven roasted potatoes I made. Then, in the afternoon, we drove out to Long Island to Bear's family where we stayed overnight. That evening, on July 4th, we drove to a Main Street in his little town, and watched distant fireworks near the dock. It was very much a holiday.

So my week was pretty good overall. The only problem I had to deal with was today when one of my credit cards got declined at the store and I realized once I got home that I never got last month's bill and it just slipped my mind and it got overdue. I've been paying credit card bills for over 14 years, always in full and that never happened. I called to pay it right away and set up an online account too but I will still have to charge bare minimum on this card for the next two month, so I don't pay too much interest. Seriously, I forget one time and they just pounce with the charges.