Ready, ready, ready (or nearly so) to …

1. Welcome my brother for a visit next week.

My little brother [17 months younger than I] hasn't ever visited me. He lives in Florida, so I've seen him several times in the past few years as I traveled there to be with my dad. He's only been north of the Mason-Dixon line a handful of times since he moved to Florida 40 years ago.

My father's widow is [finally] interring Dad's ashes, and my brother is driving up with her, staying with me for a few days and then flying back. She will be staying in Ohio with her children for a few weeks.

There wasn't much to do to get ready for his visit – we just needed to dig out the guest room, which ends up being a repository for all the stuff we don't know what to do with. Which really means we have too much stuff.

At any rate, I'm ready to see him and the house is ready for him to see. Heh.

2. Co-host an ice cream social honoring a state legislator.

I've never done anything like this before. I've hosted plenty of parties, here at home and, when I worked in an office, I hosted a couple going-away receptions. I helped my dad's wife plan his 75th surprise birthday party.

The delegate who has represented my voting district for more than a decade is not running for re-election. She has done so much for her constituents, and it just feels right to honor and thank her. The county Democratic executive committee, along with my group, the Democratic women's club, are organizing the event, but really it's the women's group who is doing all the work. [Go figure.]

It happens next Saturday. I've made name tags, the guest book, sent reminders, purchased the fun and colorful tableware, and designed and distributed posters and invitations. The only thing left to do is create some kind of donation receptacle to coordinate with the very colorful tableware and I'll be as close to ready as I'll ever be. 

3. Ward off vampires.

The softnecks came out of the ground yesterday, and not a moment too soon. A couple of them are bursting through their outer covering, just as Anna's were. Most of them are fine. I'll put the more mature ones in the garlic keeper for immediate use, and braid the rest. 

The rest of the hardnecks will be harvested Sunday, because we're leaving today to help

4. Turn West Virginia BLUE!

West Virginia's state Democratic convention begins today, in Charleston, and I'm a delegate. I'm also a candidate to be a delegate to the national convention in Charlotte in September. Am I excited?!?!? In the words of the former part-time governor of Alaska, "You betcha!"

West Virginia doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of turning blue this election cycle, even though registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin. President Obama would have a better chance of carrying West Virginia if he were blue. [There. I said it. Some WV voters are racists. As evidenced by the fact that 41 percent of them voted for an incarcerated felon rather than the incumbent President in the May primary.]  

But going to the state convention will be interesting and entertaining, at the least, and I'm sure it will be a good networking opportunity. And I don't have to organize anything or make anything to get there. I did have to clean the car for the trip, because we're carpooling with another couple. But it needed to be cleaned anyway.

So there you have it. Now you know why that to-do list has been such a focus for me this week. It's good to have deadlines, maybe just not so many at once. After the reception next Saturday, life should calm down and I should be able to get back to Walking and Gardening in the Middle of Nowhere. [Sounds like a good title for the blog, doesn't it?] Hope your weekend ROCKS! Hope mine does, too.

Sleepin' 9 to 5

Well, I didn't go to the movie after all. Even working a half day did me in. But I will get used to this, I will, I will, I WILL!

Instead, I stayed home and played Scrabble with my husband after we watched Jeopardy. We are SO old.  Thank goodness we don't feel old on the inside, even though we do old-people things. Like, we used to eat dinner at 6, but have gradually backed that up to 5 on most nights. We might as well live in Florida.

So bedtime was delayed until 9-ish. It was probably 9:30 before I fell asleep. And I didn't wake up until 5:05 this morning. If I can add one or two hours of awake time at the end of the day, I think I can overcome the early wakefulness at the beginning of the next.

Gingerzingi mentioned recent reports of "blue screen time" interfering with sleep cycles. Interestingly, when I work I'm not spending any time in front of a screen. When I'm home, I'm checking e-mail or cruising the web A LOT. And I watch very little television. (I guess I've turned into one of those people who gets most of my news from Facebook. That's not how old people get their news! Heh.)

One of the bloggers I've recently started reading has chosen to [mostly] unplug for the month of April. I'm so guilty of spending too many of my remaining hours on earth following links and repinning things on Pinterest. But I'm not ready to back off yet. Everything I do lately feels like a job: losing weight, working out, volunteer activities. I like my part-time job, that feels like fun. As does my computer time, whether it's at the laptop or on the new phone. Giving it up at this time would just be mean.

Screen time is automatically being reduced because of the hours I spend at Groundworks. And once my own garden gets going I'll be spending a lot of time weeding and, eventually, reaping. We'll certainly have more cold snaps this spring, but I think hope we're done with freeze and frost warnings.

Today I get to be a good Democrat and attend our county convention. We will be choosing delegates for our state convention in June, at which time we'll select the national delegates who will be going to Charlotte in September. Despite registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans 2-to-1 in West Virginia, we are a red state. (Riddle me this, Batman: Why do these Democrats vote against their own interests?)

I'd love to go to Charlotte, but there are an awful lot of West Virginia Democrats who've served their party a lot longer than I have who will get to go. I'm pretty sure I'll be going to the state event, though, and that will be fun and interesting and something I've never done before. (And no screen time!)

When you're as old as I am, virgin experiences are hard to come by.