It Never Rains But It Pours

I mentioned in January that I had returned to Weight Watchers. I needed to get serious about the “Pity Party” weight I had put on since getting laid off. I’m not there yet, but I have lost 25 pounds, which means I’m closer to where I need to be than where I used to be.

After the meeting I took myself out for lunch at a local fifties-style hamburger chain called “Cheeburger Cheeburger”. I’ve been doing this just about every week since I started WW, which I figure is testimonial enough to the whole “you can eat anything in moderation” approach WW takes to weight loss. I do forgo the fries and onion rings, and I have them omit the croutons and cheese from my side salad, but I still get cheese on my burger.

While finishing my lunch, my cell phone rang. A youngish-sounding man who talked way too fast asked for me. Confirming my own identity, he went on to ask if I was still interested in a job at somewhere unintelligible; it’s a sign of my current state of desperation that I said “yes” immediately instead of asking him to repeat himself. He immediately set up an interview time of 2:00 tomorrow, and was about to hang up when I asked him where exactly the address was. He became flustered and apologized, and then gave me the address of the place. Driving home after lunch I drove past the address, and it turns out to be a Big Pharmacy Chain. I remember applying for this job – it was a part time position with the potential of full time eventually. If the job is offered I’ll have to figure out how to put off answering until after the decision is made on the Big City Vet School position on Friday. It’s kind of nice being in this position, though there is no guarantee that I’ll get an offer from either of the two places.

I then went to get some blood drawn for regular blood work I need to get. The skies were clouding up when I parked my car outside the lab, but the forecast had called for rain this coming evening so I didn’t think too much about it, except making a conscious decision to leave my umbrella in the car.

Big. Big. Mistake.

The first bolts of lightening started hitting about thirty seconds after I sat down in the draw room. A second after that, the fire alarm went off in the building. We had to evacuate the building into the rain. That lasted about fifteen seconds. The water was coming down so hard that I think I’d have felt more comfortable standing at the base of Victoria Falls. The phlebotomists said that the designated gathering point was under a small grouping of very tall pines on the other side of the parking lot, but ain’t none of us were feeling that suicidal. We ended up huddling just inside the door, waiting for the fire engines to arrive. The fire alarm finally shut off, so we arbitrarily decided to just go back inside after about ten minutes. The fire engines finally arrived just as I was leaving, and somewhat coincidentally, just as the rain was winding down.

First thing I did when I got home was change my shirt, which was still pretty wet.

In other news, the mystery blue flowers which bloom in my garden every year are blooming again. If anybody knows what these things are, I’d appreciate your sharing the knowledge.

I also have a cute little iridescent garden spider hanging out in the arbor vitae. He’s (though actually I probably should be saying “she”) is less than an inch long, but when the sun strikes his body it glows like stripes of gold. I have several good spider ID books upstairs, and I definitely need to look this one up.