Context

Alann and I were laughing last night about how much difference context makes. Here is what we did yesterday, without any context.

We got up and went out for a late leisurely breakfast. We came home and puttered around the house for a while, then went to pick out our new smart phones and make some charitable donations. We had a meeting with our real estate agent, and then went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. What a day!

And here is what really happened- Claire got up early, so I got up early. I finally woke Alann up and we went to Denny's for free breakfast. We came home and Claire slept while we cleaned the house. Since we finished cleaning early, we went to the Sprint store. We are changing our provider (numbers should stay the same) and wanted to see the phones in person before we made a decision. We talked to a really nice salesman. We told him when we got there that we were doing an online employee plan thing, so he knew he wasn't going to make any money off of us. But he was still really helpful. We did end up choosing smart phones, but not because they were smart phones. The new plans have unlimited web browsing, which we decided we wanted to take advantage of. Alann also wanted a really good phone so that when he graduates, gets a job, etc, he will already have it and know how to use it. Property management people are like doctors- people want them that second. I picked out a blackberry curve. It was the least expensive of the smart phone options, and I liked the set up. I also like the locking mechanism. Who knew that how a phone locks would become the most important feature to me. But, with little hands around, a good lock is essential to survival. We swung by the DI to drop some stuff off, then we came home and got a call from Craig. They had come up to Salt Lake and were going to dinner and wanted to know if we wanted to join them. We try not to say no to time with family, so we made it work. (It wasn't that big of a stretch. We just had to leave almost immediately after the real estate agent.) Ron (real estate agent) came over to look at the house. He said basically everything we already knew- paint the doors, put up baseboard, put up some closet doors in the hallway, fix a little here and there. He did suggest taking out the paneling and moving our bedroom into the office, so that will be the next project. Which makes the smart phones an even better purchase- who knows how long it will take and we don't really have the room to set up my computer somewhere else. Then we will fix up the office, paint the bedroom, put the office stuff in there, and be done for a while. He also suggested we get a storage unit and make the house feel as big and uncluttered as possible, while still making it seem homey. We have a baby. That isn't going to change. That is actually going to get worse (or better) with Alex. But there are SO many toys, that she can stand to lose a few and will probably never even notice. Then, after he left, we went over and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Craig and Sarah. It was okay. It's a restaurant that I would definitely say- split an appetizer and then get dessert. Don't bother with the entrees. The few times I have eaten there, it just hasn't been all that great.

So we were laughing at how context makes everything different. If I just told you the first story without context, you would probably assume that we were well to do. Who goes to Cheesecake Factory on a Tuesday? But when you get all the clues, it ends up being just another day, but a rather good day I think.