Summer days

Things have been fairly quiet lately, which I guess is a good thing. Work is at least bearable for now, and today promises to be a quiet day. Since I have several items I need to work on, maybe the day won't crawl by.

Nothing much going on in my free time, although things are going to be picking up as the summer winds down (picnics, baseball outings, a bachelorette party, out-of-town concert, etc.). I try to head over to the lake a few times a week with my friend Jen and her puppy Kailee, so that's fun. Still lots of lightning bugs and baby toads, so I get to hold them in my hands quite frequently. Who would have thought I'd get so much exposure to them living in the city.

I got a little too caught up in the whole eBay thing, and now I'm trying to extract myself. It's not that I've really spent all that much money, because I haven't. It's just the way it makes me feel. On Saturday, an auction ended for a Cat in the Hat figurine I've been wanting for like five years, and in the minutes leading up to the end of the auction I was shaking uncontrollably. I tried to eat dinner but couldn't because I was so worked up. In the end I won the item and didn't have to pay nearly as much as I had decided I would be willing to pay, but it took me a good hour to calm down and relax (the week before I lost an auction for the same item, so I was quite worried I would lose again in the final seconds). Not a very healthy addiction for me. Last night two auctions ended (two Green Eggs & Ham figurines from the same series) and I was better about it, but I didn't sleep very well afterward. I won them both, but ended up having to pay a bit more than I would have liked, but such is life. Now I'll worry about whether or not I'll actually ever see the items and won't rest easy until they show up on my doorstep unharmed. I even worry that someone will steal them off my doorstep once the postman delivers them. I also started thinking that maybe I shouldn't have paid so much for them (it came out to be $56 total for both, counting shipping-- which in one lump sum, seems like an awful lot). But the items themselves cost $20 each originally, and I only paid $20.50 for the items themselves in the auctions. Shipping was what got me. But still, it doesn't make me feel a hundred-percent good about it. So I am trying to wean myself off of eBay so I can go back to a normal life (or the semblance of one anyway). I have set up automated searches for the few items left that I really want, and I'm not frequenting the site nearly as much as before. I'm not doing random searches anymore either, because I always find things I want but would be perfectly content without had I never known they existed. So I guess this illustrates how pathetic my life is. Even eBay stresses me out to no end.

Sprocket's been awfully snuggly lately, despite the fact that it's summer. Usually in the hot months he spends his time laying on the cool kitchen floor or sleeping in an empty laundry basket upstairs, but for the past few nights he's been curling up with me in bed. Yesterday morning he even got under the covers and was perfectly content to stay there. Last night he slept snuggled up against me most of the night. It's nice when he's like that because it helps me calm down a bit. He has a very calming influence on me -- when he's not peeing on my clothes or chewing things to pieces.