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The Journals: You Post, We Read, Might Even Comment
A number of us in the community miss the journal section. We enjoyed writing our personal thoughts and musings. Sometimes they were epiphanies... other times they were mundane. Sometimes they lead to some interesting side discussions that became full blown General Discussions.
So here's a thread where the Journal community can at least post their thoughts, people can respond, accordingly. In order to keep the comments organized, one has to change their view by clicking on DISPLAY MODES on the right hand side of the thread and select THREADED MODE. HYBRID MODE is good for reading the entry and seeing all the comments on one page. Click on the journal entry and it will bring you to the entry and all the comments together on one page. This will keep nest the comments together so that it doesn't get all out of hand in trying to read and comment on the appropriate entry. Posting rules are as follows: Journal-ists: Please create a new reply off this main topic for each entry. Please use the subject lines to emphasize your topic and journal entry as you would in your normal journal. Please also uncheck SHOW YOUR SIGNATURE. *****REMEMBER:Post under Post #1 if you are starting a journal entry!!!! ***** Readers: Please press reply under the entry you wish to comment on. This will keep the comments nested together with the entry. |
Our life in business jargon
We have been trying very hard to brainstorm new ways to increase cashflow. We have done what we can to reduce our operating expenses and we are very wary of any large capital expenditures. Most assets are under maintenance contracts that have been prepaid so there is no monthly expense.
We are looking to expand our investments into rental real estate or retail business. The ideal would be rental property as there is a monthly passive income and a backend equity profit. We are currently conducting studies for different scenarios and investment models. I will present our findings in 30 days. |
testing testing 1 2 3
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testing testing 4 5 6
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Testing 7 8 9
purposely responding to the 123 comment. |
Brokedown and in recovery
I did it. I registered the software. I tried many other ways of getting it to "give me" the HD recovery but none of the techniques I used before worked here.
Sucks but not really. I am using this to practice doing some data recovery. Data recovery pays really well. I've done several recoveries for people and it's tedious work, but it's good work because you get paid flat first... just to do the intensive work. Second if you set the table just right, you can also get paid for how much you recover. The dilemma was a simple on. Do I register the software that will recover the files, a one time charge of $30. I tried to find serialz but didn't come up with anything that worked properly. I'm trying to recover all the palm applications that I have. I had taken lots of time to find keygens, patchkits, and the like for lots of palm software. Do I just register the Palm software and restart the quest for finding the ones I lost? Anyways, it's in the process of recovering about 10-15Gb... I'm not sure just how much space, but that's my guess. It could be less. It's weird to work without your primary workstation. Another couple of days of doing this. I figure the IT group will finish my machine by the end of the week at the latest. |
Damp
8/18/04, 9 AM
Oh how gross. Today is one of those really humid days. The temperature is only in the low 70s, but the humidity is at 91% and I can really feel it. I just got in to work, and my undershirt is damp. I feel disgusting. The annoying part about it is that as I was leaving the house, the bus drove right past me. I waved my arms around helplessly, trying to get his attention, but instead he pretended like he didn’t see me. I understand that if I’m not at the stop, he has no obligation to stop for me. But he could have been a nice guy if he had wanted to. It’s days like this that I miss Pierre. He used to drive the bus in the mornings. And he knew our names, and always said hello, and was a great guy. One morning, we were getting ready to drive in to work. As we were walking to the car, Pierre saw us coming out of our house, and stopped the bus – in the middle of the street – to ask us if we needed to be picked up. Now THAT’S exemplary service. Oh, and he used to wave at our kitties if they were in the window when we left. I think I’ll call the bus company and ask what happened to Pierre. hang on... Okay, so the woman at Customer Service tells me he now drives a different bus line. Damn! Well, I just wrote a praise letter to the bus company. I should have done it a long time ago - he deserves it. But I'm also kinda hoping he reads the letter and switches his route back. Writing praise letters is always a good thing. I try to write one whenever someone gets "customer service" right. I've done it for the cable company, for the phone company, even for a random employee at Staples who helped me load a file cabinet into my car. They take 20 minutes of my time, and often it can help somebody get a promotion, or at least a moment of recognition at a staff meeting. Plus, it also gives my complaint letters more credence - the woman at Time Warner, for example, knows me now, as I've written two praise letters. When I had a complaint, she called me, updated me on the employees I praised in the past, and then addressed my complaint. |
That's right. :thumbsup:
We are always so quick to criticize and so slow to praise. I try to remember to send out letters of praise when I can. I should try to do it more often. Thank you for the reminder. |
Weekend Happenings 8/15/2004
Date Rape Drugs
________________________________________________ So, I've got the news on, and they've got a story, about a test kit that you can use when you are out for the evening, and it tests whether or not a date rape drug has been slipped into your drink or not. Interesting test, but the twisted part of my brain wonders who'd actually buy such a test. Some girl who thinks she's so incredibly hot that people would want to drug her drink, what kind of disappointment would she face when if her drink wasn't drugged, would it mean that she wasn't that hot to begin with? Just seems like a silly test. Not So Horriblescopes ____________________________________________ My horriblescope for the week of 8/16 - 8/22 is as follows: You'll accomplish a great deal by performing a series of small tasks. You are prepared for a change. Keep in mind that all people are grateful for all the joy you are bringing them. You inspire others to follow your path. Well, damn, isn't that just the nicest horriblescope ever, what'd I do to deserve it? De-Cluttering... _____________________________________ So, yesterday I started my mammoth project of de-cluttering, my apartment is just too small for all the crap that I have acquired, and my best laid plans of listing it on Ebay, or having a yard sale, just aren't going to happen, so I was left with two choices. Just throw the crap out, and set up my video camera on the trash area and watch the dumpster divers collect the stuff, and that'd be my entertainment for a while, though I'm pretty certain it'd also raise my blood pressure because I really can't stand the people in this complex. So, I did the adult thing, I listed my crap on the same board that I ranted about a few short months ago, www.freecycle.org, and wow, within five minutes of posting my crap, I was getting inundated with emails from people who wanted it. I feel a George Carlin routing about stuff coming on here...* Some of the emails I got were a little on the demanding side, like what's the model number of something , one thing I didn't have a part for, did I plan on finding it? (no) and then a little beligerent when I told them the item was promised to someone else already. It's free people, be a little nicer, I am not obligated to give you ANYTHING.* So I tried to do first come, first served... and it's doing OK do far... So, I made a bunch of arrangements for people to have my crap become their crap. Some nice lady this morning, picked up 3 boxes or about 100 or so prerecorded video tapes of all sorts of movies, no porn. Good for her, I like my DVD player thank you very much. She told me that she was taking the videos to the nursing home where she volunteers because the movies are something to entertain the old folks. Yay for giving away crap. Another lady came by to pick up an old keyboard, still worked, the keyboard was going to be for her autistic grandson, who came with her, and even though it was a little dusty, OK, a lot dusty, he seemed to really be excited about it. (he also took custody of my Tickle Me Cookie Monster, which wasn't on the giveaway list, but he likes blue, and he likes Cookies, damn kids, just can't say no to them). Yay again for giving crap away. I finally parted with the very first piece of furniture that I ever owned as an adult, a really hideous Oak and glass table (I guess it's not that bad, I just detest oak) I think I picked this table up on big trash day and refinished it. It looked pretty good and it served me well. I listed it because it just didn't match my other furniture (Antique Cherry is my wood of choice) The young couple that picked it up, oohed and aahed about how pretty it was and how it would look great in their first apartment. It was going to be their very first piece of furniture, they were picking up a couch from someone else later that afternoon. Furnishing an apartment for young love.. YAY again for giving crap away.* I also listed two, very very warm, like you'd be warm on the tundra, comforters, that were clean, but gently used, it just never gets that cold in NJ to bother having and they take a lot of shelf space. The woman who came by, showed me her employee ID, she works for Catholic Charities, and said that she scans the lists for coats, blankets and other warm things to be used for the homeless come winter months. I had just listed a coat that I handed her, and two other coats that were going to good will. As she left she hugged me and god blessed me, damn lady, all I did was list the stuff, you were the one who spends time scanning lists to see what people are giving away, and makes sure you are first in line, then drives all over creation to pick that stuff up, talk about being blessed... She was a neat lady... Now I'm not so gullible to believe that some of these stories aren't complete crap, but it's nice knowing, that my de-cluttering is helping someone out. This is kinda fun...* Can ya spare a quarter? ______________________________________________ Back in 1999, the US Mint started putting out the state quarters, and I think it was QVC that sold these silly little state maps, as a place to hold all your quarters, at the time, all I could think was, what idiot is going to collect these quarters for 10 years, won't they just get bored with it?* Well, I decided to be one of those idiots, and bought one of those state maps that holds all the state quarters, and 5 years into the Mint's process, I'm still collecting those quarters. Iowa was the state most recently added, and I got it. No these coins aren't mint, they've all been in circulation, and the ones from 1999 aren't near as shiney as the 2004 ones are, but it's still kinda neat, and frankly I'm amazed that I've been able to stick with it for 5 years... and only 5 more to go, will my map fall apart by then? Who knows, but this is fun... and the map looks pretty with all the quarters filled in... Though West, by god, Virginia is looking awful lonely, but that quarter doesn't come until late 2005, so -- -patience... |
Manic Monday - 8/16/2004
The Open Road..
________________________________________ So, I left the remote office after our meeting with another colleague. As we're leaving, he asks how I feel about the wind in my hair. I'm all about the wind in my hair, I say, it's a bright sunny day, the sky is blue, the top on the Mustang convertible comes off,and we hit the open road, the long way back to the office. Took us about two hours, just have been about an hour and a half, and we surely weren't going the speed limit. But it was awesome... I love a convertible. Though I just tried to pull a wide tooth comb thru my hair, and let's just say I was incredibly unsuccessful, and practically yanked out a big clump of curls. But the rat's nest look is in this year I hear. I've always wanted to be in fashion. I wanna go driving again... Good Morning, Rise and Shine ________________________________________ I arrive in Chicago at 7:20CDT, and head down to baggage claim, as I am heading down in that direction, I give a call to a colleague who is supposed to be picking me up at the airport so I can be dragged to a meeting that I don't want to go to at a remote office. She was supposed to be picking up at 7:30, I was calling to ask her where she wanted me to meet me. YAWN, Oh says she, she's stuck in traffic. Well, points to you for pulling that lie out of your ass so quickly, I ahve clearly just woken you up, and now you have to cover, Oh the traffic is really bad, it's going to be at least 20 -30 minutes, enough time for you to shower, change, put on your 3 coats of makeup and do your hair, I'd guess. I'll call you when I am closer to the aiport, says she... Would you prefer I just met you out at the remote office, I can jump in a cab, just give me the street address, Oh, no, I'll pick you up, I'll be there as soon as I can. Now oversleeping happens, I've done it, but not when I have to meet someone, this womean does it regularly, more than likely because she had that gallon of wine the night before, but please, don't lie to me, I'm not that stupid. I've known you how long? I know your habits, I know your tricks, you overslept, just tell me so. She arrived, an hour and a half after the original call. AIDS Vaccinne _________________________________________ As I was leaving the airport, I couldn't help but notice a gentleman with a t-shirt that screamed AIDS Vaccinne, Maine to MOntreal on it, something about a North American AIDS Vaccine push or some such. Is there even an AIDS Vaccine? WHo'd actually take it? Wouldn't it make more sense for people to actually know who they are knocking boots with rather than just screwing anything that moved? It just seems that fear of AIDS is the one thing that keeps people someone sane in their sexual behavior, if there's an vaccine for it, doesn't it give people Carte blanche to do whatever tehy want? Gawd, am I old, and really way more of a prude than I ever thought. If there's a vaccine for AIDS, I'd be terrified to know about what vaccine resistent disease is coming round the bend. Sex isn't wrong, it's not dirty, but common sense must be appplied. |
Terrible Tuesdays -- 8/17/2004
Mirror Mirror
____________________________________________________ I'm chatting with a colleague the other day over lunch, and somehow, the subject of plastic surgery came up, not sure how, it just did. My colleague looks at me and says, now you should really consider Botox. I'll take that under advisement, thanks. She continues on about how it would do wonders for my squint crinkles between my eyes. Now I have a crinkle the size of the Panama Canal between my eyes, brought about from years and years of squinting. My eyeglass prescription is perfect, I just squint a lot, it's something I've always done. I squint especially when I am concentrating on something. She went on to say that Botox is painless, and would do wonders for getting rid of the wrinkles that made me look older than I should be looking, and it's just worth the investment. She has it done regularly. Now, this woman is about 4 or 5 years older than I am, and is a smoker and a sun worshipper, so she looks about 10 years older than she is, and she's lecturing me about Botox? Gotta wonder how bad I really look. Later that evening, I got back to the hotel, and used the magafying mirror in the hotel bathroom, and did something scarey. I looked at my face. I can live with the laugh lines I'm getting around my eyes, I can live with the laugh lines around my mouth, it must mean I've laughed at some point, but the laugh lines aren't really so funny. The crater between my eyes, is really deep, I do wonder if Botox would fix that? But I'll never go beyond the wondering stage. I have better things to spend my money on. Sometimes I wonder about other things as well. I look in the mirror at my face, and think, well that's not so bad, but then I'll look at a picture taken of me,and thing, gack, do I really look that awful? Now people are pointing out that I should consider Botox, so do they see what the picture shows, or do they see what I see in the mirror. Must be the former. What does the mirror show us? The true reflection of ourself, or what we want to see? Now I hide from my reflection in the mirror most times, but I've never thought it was bad as what I see in pictures, but other people look like their pictures, so maybe, I really do... oh well... Saturday, I got my hair cut, for the first time in ages, went to a new stylist, and she pointed out to me that my gray needed some coverage, because it was making me look older than I am, and oh, my eyebrows needed cleaning up too, yes, that was on my list of chores for the day, to have my eyebrows waxed, it didn't help me to hear that it would make the wrinkles less apparant if they were cleaned up. Gack, I should really wander around with a paper bag on my head or something. So, would filling in those squint creases even help? Probably not... Falling in Love ____________________________________________________ Oh great, I have an admirer. I'm such a lucky gal. :eyeroll: I swear this is one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments, I casually mentioned to a friend the other day, that maybe, I was ready to fall in love with someone again, after a pretty long drought, my heart wasn't as closed off as it once was, and was open to the possibility. This is a bad joke. I swear this is a practical joke of some sort, and if I find out that someone I know is behind it, they are toast. This morning, I got a "love note" in my email, I logged on to Yahoo, and got 6 offline messages, all declarations of love, and adoration. Sweet, I suppose, but it's also a little more than disturbing. Creepy even. How can you fall in love with someone you don't know, that you've barely had two disjointed conversations with over IM, I swear I am blocking everyone but customers from now on. I am torn between telling this guy exactly what I think, but if he's in love, then that might just hurt him, and that would be wrong, but he's starting to tick me off royally. Eh -- becareful what you wish for maryellen, you might just get it... It's Raining Again ______________________________________________________ Last time I checked, Chicago was in the mid-West, so why was it that when I walked out of the office, there was torrential rains, I swear I was witnessing a hurricane. No cabs available, and I was already soaked, just walking from the building to the corner, so I walked the 1/2 mile back to the hotel. Crossed one street, and it was like forging a river. Bad day to be wearing sandals, the water wasn't all that clean, really bad day to be wearing black leather sandals, because my feet have turned black from where the color bled. Fun Fun Fun... |
It's nice when someone takes the time to write a letter to commend someone. As a former manager, it was always nice to get letters like that about someone on my staff. Too many people take the time to complain about bad service, but no mention the good service... So good for you... :)
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New Car
New Wheels
So got the new car on Sunday, yippee! First thing I wanted to do was come home and put it in my journal, only to find out Halx was updating the site and there was no journal component back yet. Been having a great time breaking the car in, except for finding a pool of condensation from the A/C unit under the truck getting back into the truck after a doctor's appointment. A quick feel test back at home revealed clear fluid, so no big problems on that one. I posted a picture of my new baby in the What Ride You have for real thread in tilted motors, now just need a car name. Friends Have a few friends I've been thinking about lately... some I've been a little worried about since life has been giving them a handful lately, but a few others were happy thoughts. Just have to try my best and remind them that I'm here if they need me, and just be ready to give a hug. Sometimes the only problem having friends internationally is the inability to respond how I'd like to in certain situations, since there's no feasible way for me to actually be everywhere at once. Schools Starting up So went to school today to get my books, decal, and replace my Sun Card, since I was stupid enough to misplace it during all our moving. It's SOO hot, and it's only gonna get crazier starting tomorrow when all the residents move back in for the year. Crossing my fingers that I remembered and did everything I needed to so I don't have to go back before class Monday afternnon. |
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it's still a pretty truck.... :thumbsup: |
very nice looking truck. just don't name it Tackie...
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Well, right now it's an IT and "MY truck". My sister wanted me to name it "Matt" for Matt Damon, :p. I haven't quite figured out if it's a she or a he, need a couple more miles to know.
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I wonder where this post is going to wind up. I am typing this live on my handheld in Washington Square Park. It will also tell me where this comment will wind up if you are not in the right view.
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It takes just one Hurricane...
...to mess up your vacation plans.
This last weekend I went to North Carolina to meet up with my Russian friend who's spending her summer there. We've kept in touch through Email and talked over the phone, but this was the first time we would see eachother face-to-face. I had planned to spend a relaxing weekend on the beach with her. Flew into the area on Friday evening, rented a car and drove to my hotel then went to bed. Then I woke up the next morning only to find that Hurricane Charley was coming later that day. So I picked her up and we got some lunch. Then we tried to find something to do to about the Hurricane. We ended up deciding to drive around it using my rented Pontiac Sunfire. Using my cell phone I called my parents in Colorado to get periodic updates on the hurricane's position. Then we would make adjustments on where we would drive. We did get caught up in some of the storm activity and the rains were really bad. At one point the winds got pretty strong, but I think the worst was the localized road flooding. We waited out the last part in a bowling alley and by 6:00pm the hurricane had passed. So we went and got some pizza for dinner. Then we decided to head to my hotel room for the night rather than drop her off then backtrack to my room. There was only one bed and I didn't want her to sleep on the hard floor so we shared the bed. The bed was higher than she's used to and I woke up several times from her pushing herself into me. In the morning she admitted that she was afraid of falling off. I woke up to see her watching me. We laid in bed talking for a few hours, nothing sexual, just laying there talking to each other. Eventually, with housekeeping knocking on the door, we realized we should get up. After leaving the hotel, we tried to get some breakfast, until I discovered the impossible: There is a town in this country that has neither a Denny's, Village Inn, nor IHOP, and we were in that town. Since it was noon, we ended up stopping in at a chinese restaurant. Her first time trying chinese food. After "Breakfast," we headed to the shore. She wanted to visit some botannical gardens in the area, so we went there. While there we sat down in a gazeebo overlooking the water. There we got caught up in the moment and kissed. After an extended amount of time there, she wanted to see what minigolf was, so I took her to one of the many minigolf places there. After a game there, we dorve around looking for a place to eat and settled on pizza (again). We sat in the car after dinner knowing that our time together was almost up and not wanting to leave. But after a half hour, I drove her back to her place and went back to my hotel which was an hour's drive away. Looking back, I'm glad I made the trip. It was a lot of fun, but it also seems that things got complicated. After kissing, I'm not sure what to do. Our paths have us on opposite sides of the world for at least the next 2-5 years and I really don't want a long distance relationship. The next chance we'd be able to see eachother won't be until next summer and a lot of things would have to go right for both of us if that is to happen. But on the other hand, I had a great time and we got along great. She's really smart, fleuent in Russian, English and Spanish, and nearly fleuent in Portuguese. I will have to see what happens next time we can talk to eachother over the phone. |
very nice!!!! It's always nice to meet someone from another place and discover things with them, and conversely it's nice when you get to go to their place and they discover things with you.
Russia is a great vacation destination :) |
Reverse Wishful Thinking
It was brought to my attention that my signature(which is currently off so I can post this quasi journal entry) seems a bit at odds to my expressed opinion on rain and rainstorms. Of the top ten things I love about being alive, rain is up there at 3 or 4. However, my life has a way of teaching me that when I wish for certain things, I end up getting the exact opposite. To counter my problem, I've decided to plead with Mother Nature to keep her precious rain far far away from this dead desert. And whadya know, we've been getting rain! It WORKED! I KNEW it would :) :cool: While I do realize too much of anything can be a bad thing(ie Charley when you add wind), we get rain so seldom here that I think it should be a statewide, or at least a city wide holiday.
As it stands, so few people here know how to actually drive in the rain (I wonder why :rolleyes: ) that it's always a mess on the roads when we do get a decent storm. So I prefer to find a place outside out of a direct lightning path, close my eyes, and just breathe in the smell, the wind that caress my hand and brings wetness to my cheeks. It always seems to be that the rain and wind drown out the sounds of everything else. Our storms here don't send rain in depressing grey clouds - We get the building dust wall of brown, and then as the sun sets for the day, it brings purple, orange, pink, dark blue tints to the clouds that are illuminated when the lightning starts jumping from cloud to cloud. That smell of rain seems to bring a promise, or at least the pretense of waking up the next morning with a whole new world before my eyes. It's amazing to wake up the morning after a storm to see hardly any clouds in sight, and the temperature right back up in the 115 degree range. The next task becomes surviving through the heat and the building humidity until the next storm graces my eyes with its presence. The year doesn't seem right if I don't get my month of monsoon storms.... I think wherever I end up in this world through my life, I will always consider Arizona to be my home for the months of July and August- you have to take the worst the desert has to offer in order to be rewarded with some of the most awe inspiring moments I remember. Funny how so much of life is like that. |
Dude! Cool! I guess this is a new function of the TFP - posting remotely!?
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A man and a woman that have forever changed my life.
This past weekend brought many things for me--the ending of my summer at home, the ending of an internship that was nothing thatI thought it would have been, the ending of a man's life who I'll never forget and will always miss terribly.
As those of you who actively read my journal know, on 13 August 2004, my grandfather died. The memorial service wasn't till this past Tuesday, and the interim was spent with family and close friends trying to assess the damage that was left behind. My grandfather, directly descended from a signatory of the Constitution of the United States, was by no means a perfect man or even a man I would expect anyone outside our family to model their life after. He'd been born in Arkansas in 1920, and for him, the civil rights movement never happened--by 1968, he'd grown to adulthood in a segregated nation as a white man, and some habits die hard. This was a man who drank a beer or two every day of his life till three years ago, at the age of 81. He died at 84 having beaten cancer twice, but with a body that couldn't rebound from the chemotherapy and radiation treatment. This is a man who only gave me one material posession, a fiddle that's been in our family for 8 generations now, passed from grandfather to the son of his oldest son without fail, at the grandson's twelfth birthday. With that fiddle comes the responsibility to carry on a family name that has been on American soil for over four centuries. I am his only grandchild that can carry the family name and pass it to children, and with him gone, the load is heavier. This man taught me everything I needed to know about being an adult, but never in words--simply by behavior. He taught me that to lead a family require that you put them before you, whether it be in the sharing of gifts at Christmas or simply being the last to get food before you came to the table. He taught the game of "Tease the Ones You Love" that sustains my family and allows us to draw humor out of life even at its roughest points. He carried the entire history of my family in his head, and now those of us left are trying to patch together the pieces we learned over the years from him. He lived longer than any person in our family ever had, by a full five years. Even with four shattered vertebrae, a softball-sized hernia, and tumors on lung and throat, the most he ever said was "I'm having trouble breathing, and my back hurts," continuing to walk around and enjoy life. Anyone else I know that would have been in his place would never have gotten out of bed and gone straight to the hospital. Anyone else I know wouldn't have saved the only strength left in his body for a handshake for his grandson and a smile for his wife. He never failed this family, and his grip never failed his body. I miss him something fierce. And, as life is wont to do, it provides joy to go with grief, pleasure to go with pain. Ann came with me to the memorial service, and has been my anchor as I was anchor for my father and grandmother. Last night, in a tradition that goes back to when we first dated three years ago, we went to Bill's Steak Shack here in Houston, as we've done the night before I head back to Texas A&M every time I've gone. Then a friend of ours who'd just gotten back from Afghanistan with the Marines met us and the friend we were dining with to shoot some pool, and the night got tougher with every passing moment. Every song that played for the last hour we were there was a song I knew the words to, and they all made me think of her. On our way back from dinner with my mom two nights ago, I told her that I'd broken a promise to myself by getting attached to her, and she semi-seriously told me to get un-attached. Last night after we got done shooting pool, we went to the park down the street from her house where we've always gone for the tough discussions of our lives. Found out the reason I hadn't seen her for the first two months of summer was due to a guy she was dating in Rhode Island (I'd gathered as much from some of the off-hand comments and her trip to Rhode Island to visit him), which I was prepared for. And then she said "And the reason I can't just simplify everything for you by telling you to walk away is because six years from now, when I'm out of med school, the only person I want to be with is you." As we continued to talk, it was amazing how closely tied our thoughts on the subject of "us" were. I told her the same thing I told her in January..."I'll be there." This girl is considered family on both sides of my family, and my dad dotes on her lovingly as he would a favored daughter-in-law. I'm also close with her family, and get along well with her older sister, grandmother and parents. If there were two young people (21 both of us) in the right place, loving the right person, with the right family, at the wrong time of our lives, it's us. We've spent three years in love with each other, done everything we could to drive the memory of the other from our minds, and we keep coming back to where we began. If it weren't for 2000+ miles of separation for the next two years, I'd put a ring on her finger right now, no second thoughts. As it is, I told her to give me two years, and wherever she goes to medschool (most likely in the northeast), I'll find myself a job within easy driving distance with an accounting or financial firm. It's a measure of how much we've thought it through that I'd already decided to quietly look for a job in the Boston area upon graduation--something I hadn't even discussed with my dad yet because I didn't know whether Ann and I had a future. As it is, the next two years of my education will fly by, and the degree is right around the corner. And most likely, the drinking will curb itself over the span of a few months, as there won't be a face I'm trying to drink out of my mind. Something I'd observed about our lives struck me pretty hard last night. Last summer ended with us at Bill's, rushing to make it to a wedding in time, watching what we'd made fall apart. This summer ends with us at Bill's, home from a funeral, finally acknowledging the bright future we will build together. I can't wait to see where life takes us. |
Forget The Coffee Machine
The executive office, which is right down the hall from us, has a new coffee machine. It seems like they just keep upping the ante when it comes to the fancy schmancy, high-tech machines.
The one they have right now is the Flavia S350. Apparently this is one fancy fuckin' machine. Not only can it combine little packets to make cappucino, "chococino" and mochachino, but it has a million different blends of coffee. French Roast, Italian Roast, Ethiopian Roast, Colombia, Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Irish Creme, Choco, the list goes on and on. (Except for the Ethiopian Roast. I made that one up.) My point here is that I think this machine is stupid. First of all, I'm obviously coming from a selfish standpoint, 'cause I don't drink coffee. I occasionally drink hot chocolate, and truth be told, their hot chocolate ("choco") doesn't taste any different than any other hot chocolate I've had. Even when I turn it into a Chococino by adding the "creamy topping" (which is a powder, but I digress), it still is unimpressive. Plus, aren't we drinking enough coffee? Do we really need more coffee? (Anybody reading this around the time I'm posting, which is around 9:30 AM, is probably screaming "YES! WE NEED MORE COFFEE!!!") My overall point, in reference to the title here, is Forget The Coffee Machine. I want a Juice Machine. Not a juicer, not a vending machine. A juice machine. A machine that will take juices, even from concentrate, and blend them. I mean, of course I'd prefer a fresh fruit juice machine, but even that's too advanced for the fine people at Flavia. Can you imagine the possibilities? Apple juice? Sure. Orange? We got it. Watermelon Mango? It can be done. Apple-Pear-Pomegranate-Banana-Kumkwat-Kiwi-Starfruit? No problem, mon! It's my little pipe dream, probably concocted because there's no Jamba Juice near my work, but dammit, I'm going to hold onto it. Even if it's completely impractical, and even if I know that offices will never give up on their coffee fix. But I could really go for some starfruit right now. |
Post away! That's what we're here for! :)
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Very true. I think the issue with juice is that it's got a short shelf life and it is a bitch to clean out the machines of the little bits...
but it is a great sounding machine... I'll have my change ready when it's available. |
You'd probably regret not kissing her, if you hadn't...
Sounds like Charley didn't do much to dampen your weekend... Glad it worked out for you., |
Oh, you non coffee people just don't understand... The advantage of those machines, is that it's fresh coffee all the time, after coffee has been in the pot for more than 10 minutes, I wouldn't ever drink it.... It's gotta be fresh...
I'll talk to management about getting you that juice machine... :D |
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Hey, hey! Finally someone else who loves stormy weather. Some of the electrical storms (no rain, just lightning in the clouds) I've borne witness to are breathtaking. Figured I'd let you know I was back, and how much I've missed our journals :) Also have a post of my own that may alleviate some worries for you :o
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after burning my leg while driving to work at 17 due to someone stopping short... next morning I had a Pepsi in my hand... never looked back at coffee in the AM again.
I still have coffee, on Sunday mornings and once in a while after a nice dinner with dessert. One place that I worked at in the garment center had a coffee machine that used fresh grounds and filters for each cup of coffee. For some reason because the boss knew I could fix computers, he made me fix and maintain that too, along with the fax and copy machines... |
I grew up in SoCal and it never rained there except during Jan and Feb... and even then it was very rare that we got thunderstorms.
Here in NYC... it's part of the annual summer need. It gets hot and humid... then afternoon thundershowers :) oooh.. those are nice..opening the window and cuddling with the wife listening to the rain and the thunder :) |
Doing adult things
No this post is not about sex or any sexual topic.
It is simply about doing things that only adults do like financial planning, estate planning, life goals, etc. Part of this is being done with input from Skogafoss, some of it I'm thinking on my own because well its not ready to discuss. Right now I'm looking into different revenue streams to support us when we are older, retired, etc. Looking into the future is really trippy business. I am currently looking at columns of numbers showing all the different premiums, payouts and death benefits. The biggest impetus for this is our current housing situation. If one of us died there would only be enough savings to allow one income to live in the apartment for 2 years before needing to sell the apartment. I want to make sure that the survivor is covered 100% from mortgage to credit cards. I'm not looking to make someone set for life but I do want to try to remove a good burden. So I'm looking over these numbers. It looks very bleak, and thats only because I'm looking at worst case scenarios. But still. How much does one need to live until they die? What about the rising costs of medical? aCk! being a grown up sucks sometimes. |
Pet Peeve du Juor
Ok, so I am generally a walking pet peeve, on any given day, the littlest things might bug me. But watching the 'lympics for the past few nights, one of my long time pet peeve is coming up to the forefront.
The Star Spangled Banner, I happen to love our national anthem, it give me goose bumps and can usually bring a tear to my eye. It deserves respect. I've been to football games and baseball games where imbeciles who don't quite get the respect thing, are berated and practically tossed on their heads for not removing their caps and standing during the playing of it. You are supposed to, I don't know if it's the law or anything but you are supposed to. (I guess I spent too many years as an Army brat and have way too many friends in the service.) So, I'm watching the medals ceremonies for the 'lympics, and the boy swimmers seemed to get it, that silly laurel wreath that is dropped on their head when they receive their medal, is in their hand during the playing of the national anthem, even the girl swimmers last night removed the wreath. So, what exactly was Paul Hamm's problem last night, when he got his medal, and never bothered to remove his wreath, that just seemed disrepectful. It's the national anthem, some of us take it seriously, especially when you are on an international stage. Grrrrr. I would love to say, don't sweat the small stuff, but this doesn't seem small to me. |
It's sometimes weird to see what thread goes through our memories... seems like Bill's seems to be that common thread for the moment. Also seems like Ann is your safety.
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Even when living in another country it is still respectful to just stand quietly and remove your hat.
I only think that freshly naturalized Americans take it so seriously nowadays. I still stand reverently as I was taught in Scouts. |
Lots and lots of insurance... :) (Just make sure that Skogafass really loves you before you go for the accidental death double indemnity -- that accident in the tub, could make her a very wealthy widow :)
Being a grown up does suck.... |
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Trying to remain positive
My throat is sore. The left side hurts when I swallow, and I’m convinced I’ve caused it.
Stress. I’m stressed out. It’s money. I owe too much, I spend too much, and I don’t make enough. I’m trying to figure out how I can fix this. There are little things like not going out for lunch. That $6 I spent at Brueggers for lunch yesterday doesn’t seem like much, but it can add up. If I put change into a change jar instead of spending it on chips at the snack machine it will add up. Cut coupons. And use them! I just threw out 3 yesterday. One for chicken, one for cat litter and one for cat food. Sure, it’s not much, $0.50 here and there, but it’s something. I can cut back on the gas I use by not driving around during lunch. Sometimes I’ll use my lunch break just to drive around the area. It’s wasteful. And then there are the big things I can do to save money. One thing I already did was switch my car insurance companies. That’s going to help out a ton. $500 instead of $800 every 6 months? I’ll take that! I’m going to go to basic cable too. After the Olympics that is. Bravo is showing the Equestrian events and I really enjoy watching that. So I’ll wait until it’s done to cancel standard cable. I’m struggling with another thing too. Internet. If I canceled internet I could save quite a bit of money each month. I could do without it but… I talk to people online. I have friends who I would miss terribly. Sure, I could email them while at work, but it wouldn’t be the same. I love chatting with my guy and typing out (K) and seeing the cute lips. And I wouldn’t be able to email him at night when he’s out with friends. It’ll make it so hard though. As it is we’re 7 hours by car apart, it’s the emails and chatting and phone calls that fuels this. And how would I be able to tease you about liking a girl, Kostya? And how could I convince you that John Wayne is awesome? I’d miss chatting with Ryan too. He’s been such a good friend to me these past 3 years. I just need to decide if I can deal with not being able to chat with these people on a somewhat daily basis. It’ll be hard. I’m just so worried. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning and it’s so hard to breathe. I sit in my apartment and look around and I wonder if I made the right decision in moving out. I mean, I know I did, but it’s hard. It’s hard living on my own. It’s not that I don’t like it or that I get lonely. But I see all of my furniture and things and I know that it will take forever for me to pay it off. I think I got such a deal with it all, but I didn’t really since I’ll be paying interest forever. Every single thing I buy that gets put onto a credit card I regret. I have clothes that I’ve bought with credit and I swear it feels like they choke me. I’m on my last pair of contacts and I’ll have to go to the eye doctors to get a new prescription before getting more. My insurance doesn’t cover contacts. And they only cover exams every 2 years. I don’t need contacts but they make life easier. But yes, I can do without. I need to get Pumpkin fixed and declawed. I’ll get that done next month, but it will be a strain. But I can’t have him not get fixed, and I don’t want my furniture getting ruined. I shouldn’t have taken him, but I’m a sap. I hate how this consumes me sometimes. I hate how I can sit in front of my computer for hours looking at a spreadsheet with my expenses. I hate how I sit there and look and play with numbers and I still can’t get out of the red. There are too many negative numbers staring back at me. There is no one to blame but myself. And I know that. I know I’ve made my own bed. And I’m lying in it, but damn, I want to get up. I don’t want to be where I am right now. It’s not an easy place. In about 6 months things could change so drastically for me. My lease will be up and I’ll have a decision to make. It’s hard for me to look ahead. I do, of course. But it worries me because every time I look ahead to something it changes. I don’t want this to change. My relationship means so much to me and it terrifies me. In so many ways that I don’t have time to even put to paper (or type as it is..). It’s not something I would discuss here anyway. But I just worry that because I’m in such a financial hole it will cause problems in moving this forward. I try not to think about it though. I’ll figure it out. Things will be okay for me though. I’ll make it. I won’t starve and I won’t become homeless. I’ll be okay. |
You absolutely will be OK. It's honestly, only money, your have friends and family who love you, you have a roof over your head, you have a job, you have a kitty who loves you, and that cute Canadian guy too. Focus on the positives. There's so many in your life.
It's a good thing that you aren't ignoring your financial situation, while it sucks right now, it will get better. It's not a bottomless pit you are in, there will be end to it. If you want to have a lunch at Brueggers every so often, enjoy it. You aren't doing it every day. Pack your lunch on those other days, bring chips from home to save money. Cutting expenses is good, however you don't want to cut what makes you happy too. If internet access gives you pleasure because it keeps you connected to people, then don't punish yourself, the savings aren't worth it. Don't second guess your decisions, in a few years, or less, your financial situation will be nothing but a memory, if you like living on your own, then you absolutely made the right decision. Nothing worth having is ever easy... Just relax a bit and take care of yourself. (Have a cup of tea...) |
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that is correct you don't want to make the savings equally painful. You want to do it somewhat comfortably. You also don't have to do it all at once, you can do it slowly, just like you did it slowly in accumulating those things.
You know the bed you made, and you are lying in it. A the same time don't let it get you down and not enjoy what you do have. I know easier said than done. I stopped eating out for lunches and dinners, I was able to save enough money to refill the savings that were drained when I was unemployed. You know the actions.. it is just a matter of letting time pass with you doing them consistently. good luck! |
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number there should be one but where do i count from?
there is a whistling, hissing sound coming through the window of my living room, which is to my left. when i look toward the origin of the sound, i see a blue cube that occupies almost the entirety of the window. words visible, printed in white italics, lower center: home oxygen therapy. above them a curious yello logo, like a bad matisse figure. maybe a yellow jet aircraft expressing surprise using the conventions of traditional comicbooks. from the top of the cube billow clouds of oxygen. engine sounds curl around the cube--it must be a truck but i cannot be sure from this vantagepoint. i just rolled a cigarette. while i was rolling, the hissing, which had stopped mometarily, resumed, accompained by more clouds of oxygen. the smoke from my cigarette trails across the monitor of my computer. i walk to my window. i see the words: aporia health. by the time i get back to my chair, i am perplexed by the term aporia health. investigation leads to the oed: aporia: 1. Rhet. See quots. 1589 PUTTENHAM Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 234 Aporia, or the Doubtfull. [So] called..because oftentimes we will seeme to cast perils, and make doubt of things when by a plaine manner of speech wee might affirme or deny him. 1657 J. SMITH Myst. Rhet. 150 Aporia is a figure whereby the Speaker sheweth that he doubteth, either where to begin for the multitude of matters, or what to do or say in some strange or ambiguous thing. 1751 in CHAMBERS; and in mod. Dicts. [E.g. Luke xvi. 3.] 2. A perplexing difficulty. 1888 Athenæum 18 Aug. 219/3 No quibble was too sophistical, no too transparent, for him to think it worth examination.] 1893 W. CLARKE ROBINSON tr. Ten Brink's Hist. Eng. Lit. II. 80 The solution of many an aporia, as attempted by the idealistic thinker. 1902 Daily Chron. 12 Dec. 3/4 Mr. Kidd does not seem to us to surmount this aporia very successfully. |
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I will read your post in a moment here :) And the longest storm I've ever seen was when we were driving through Texas on our way to Minnesota once when I was like 6 or 7, and then entire night was just one huge long lightning storm. I has half terrified we were gonna get hit, and half so fascinated that I couldn't fall asleep. :)
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Yayayayyay!!!!!!!!!! And sometimes I wonder if you would have had a chance to find all this out about how Ann felt about you if your grandfather had not decided his time with his family here was done. Now your drinks can be a toast to your future, something to savor and enjoy :) *hugs*
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I find this hilarious
Well, not really. Because I really do not want to deal with it. Again. But here we go.
We've got a customer not paying. Nearly $500,000 is owed. Insane! If I acted like this corporation (A subdivision of the evil GE) and didn't pay my bills somebody would be coming by my house and taking my stuff away. But when huge corporations do it, it's alright. Why? Because they're a "good customer." They order a shit load from us. But what does it matter when they DON'T FUCKING PAY?!? I wrote an email to these guys a few weeks back. Heard nothing. Last time when this happened in March we stopped shipment. Looks like we may have to do this again. Fantastic. And these guys get mad when we don't ship ontime. I can understand that. But why should we respect their ship dates when they don't respect our payment dates? It's mind boggling the way they act. Sigh. Ah well... Off to finish compiling a ship date list for GE, then to write their evil child a letter. Pay up or you're not gettin shit from us. Biotch. |
business extend this to other business as a courtesy because they "think" that the other company will make some profit and then pay their bills. If they didn't bother to ship any more products then they wouldn't have any more income and thus would definitely go under.
it's retarded but that's the way that it works. |
Adolescence All Over Again
I need to get a lot of things off my chest and the TFP seems like both the best and worst place to do it all at once. That always seems to happen when it's about ubertuber. I am the kind of person that needs to share my rough times, otherwise I carry them around with me for long, long time, but when it involves another member of the community I'm sharing with, something about it never feels quite right. In any case, I have never said a word to tarnish his reputation here, and I'm not about to start now.
About five days ago, we broke up. In some ways, I saw it coming for months and months, but in my everyday consciousness, it was big shock. It has been hard for a lot of reasons. The primary reason for the first few days was that I missed two days of my pill immediately before it happened and my hormones were on a mission to make me cry uncontrollably. This only led to more problems, namely me vomiting pages of conflicting and confusing emotions at him via middle-of-the-night email, which of course, led to him getting angry with me and telling me so. You can probably guess that this just led to more crying. I finally realized that my hormones were the culprit when I later reread my emails and didn't remember thinking or writing 99% of what I apparently had. Next, more emails to apologize, and finally an explanatory phone message. I was forgiven. Now, the hard part. In 8 months, I grew as a person in a way that I never could at any school or camp I ever went to, or with my oldest and dearest friends. I grew more into the person I am glad I have become while dating ubertuber than I have from any other experience I've had in the past, and I grew because I paid for it. I paid almost constantly with the pain that comes from doing things that make me uncomfortable. (The good kind of uncomfortable, of course. The kind that teaches you things and makes you grow.) While there were needs I had that ubertuber just wasn't the person to fulfill, I knew from the start that we would have a very meaningful and valuable relationship. And so, I ignored these needs - at least, I thought I did - because they were less important to me in the long run. Last night, I sat up thinking for hours about things that made me cry and then stayed up even longer thinking about why I had these thoughts and where they were coming from. I realized something important in those hours. I realized that I was crying over a love I "lost" that never existed. What keeps me up at night crying over my loss are thoughts of the comforting things that ubertuber used to do that made me feel the good things I did for him. Those were the moments that changed my respect and admiration for him into love. Those were also moments that never happened in real life. They were daydreams: from mornings I would come home from a night with him and feel like I wasn't quite satisfied with the time we had just spent together, from difficult times in my own life when I cried and he couldn't get away from school or work to come comfort me, and from simple wishful thinking. They filled in the gaps where he couldn't for so long that I never realized there was a difference between what ubertuber was and what he meant to me. I've been crying over a person that never existed. Unfortunately, just because I've realized this doesn't mean that it's going to be easy to separate the two. The ubertuber in my head and the one that lives and breathes still bear too close a resemblance. They look the same, sound the same, smell the same, feel the same... I sure wish they were the same, but they aren't. I'm not worried that our friendship will end or that I will be plagued by this misdirected love for my whole life, but I am worried about starting over too soon and missing the lesson in it because of my hurry to heal. I suppose this will come in time, regardless. There are a lot of things like this that I worry about a little everyday. I'm sure they will all pass. The worst part now is that I feel like an ass. For 8 months, I grew and grew like a potted plant in a sunny window, oblivious to the hand that watered me and the pot that held me, feeling very big and proud of myself and saying "Wow, this is finally it. I'm 20 years old and grown." Now it's hard not to say, "I'm only 20 years old and that's still a kid in the long run - what did I expect?" It's a similar feeling to my adolescence when my family told me constantly how proud they were of what a responsible person I was and what a good driver I was, but still didn't let me drive by myself until I was 17. I worked this hard to be able to do this thing that kids can't do, but here I am. I'm still a goddamn kid. Obviously, some things have changed since then and I'm confident that things will continue to change and improve. Yet, knowing that it's going to be better later sometimes makes it hurt worse now. |
It's weird. We try so hard to grow up and get to the top, only to realize that we're really at the bottom again, it's just a moment of a plateau. I experienced that when graduating middle school, high school, and well.. I didn't finish college.
But it's the same even in the work force. You stay someplace and you eventually go from the fuckin' new guy to the old timer... and when you move on because there's no more for you to learn... you become the FNG again. It's good that you are introspective and able to see the difference between the realities. It's not an easy thing to do when speaking in the tongues of love. I had to just stop dating for a while in my life until *I* made myself grow, until *I* was able to comfort myself after a bad day... it wasn't easy it took time, but I'm a stronger person for it. good luck. and we're all here for you... |
Day Off tomorrow...
I'm off tomorrow from work, but I still have lots of work to do. I'm going to spend some time working tomorrow. *sigh* but at least I'm going to be able to catch up on some of the work that has slowly buried me this past week.
The Disaster Recovery project is really killing me. There's just so many little gotchas that I didn't know about becuase I didn't set the wheels in motion so I'm catching them. At least I'm catching them. anyways.... onto the evening activities. |
I've heard of this concept .... day off...
Enjoy it... Don't work the entire day.. go play... :crazy: |
XXV111 Olympiad
The Olympics enthrall us again.
Every two years as the Summer/Winter Games cycle through our awareness, we become entranced, enchanted, entertained, and inspired by the marvels of the human body in synchronization with mental timing, toughness, grace, and training. I really can’t watch professional sports - the standard team sports that are mass broadcast to their evidently massive audience. But every two years, I become a sports fan, fanatic even. Telecommuting here during this current Olympiad offers me just about 24/7 cable coverage of the 2004 Athens Games. And during the evenings, the girls and I have suspended our standard movie viewing for nightly rounds of Olympic drama. We have a personal love of certain events because we are involved in them ourselves. We’ve done white-water kayaking and canoeing for many years. We love horses, we ride and the equestrian events are inspiring and the horse themselves are beings of great grace, strength, and beauteous to behold. Shooting guns is a favorite pastime here. There are many more events in which we participate as recreational activities. There are so many awesome and inspiring stories of human drama and hard work overcoming adversity that unfold during these global games they are too numerous to mention. If you’re watching, you know. If not, you’ve probably never heard of these folks. Their dedication to their practice is a revelation of the focused life. Watching their perfect bodies move through time and space is to experience sensuality at its highest level. The root meaning of amateur is lover, after all. |
I don't have a love for professional sports either. I do have a soft spot for Basketball but no love for it enough to watch it so regularly.
I do like college basketball alot as I find that it's more about rudimentaries of the game instead of a superstar carrying the team. I do have my own soft spot for the olympics because I did get wrapped up in it living in Los Angeles, and then seeing it again swirl around me when I was in Singapore and the tourism boosted from Korea. |
I had a wishlist of features for the Journals at one point in time.
The ability to do the VBcode easily, embed pictures, email notification of comments and fellow journalists. I recall one member asking how come we didn't have more features like Live Journal, such as the ability to limit viewing to certain "friends." I didn't understand truly the functionality that is capable from the Live Journals. With the new upgrade to the system and us not having journal access but posting in this hyperthreaded manner, it's giving us alot of those features, save the privacy features. I do like getting emails that tell me who just posted a journal and the text of the journal in email. It would also be great to reply and it autopost your comment, but just getting it is really nice. Via my gmail account it gives me everything back in a threaded manner too so I'm able to follow the posts pretty easily too. I'm not sure what is going to happen with the journal module. I don't know if we'll get any new features or if it's just the same thing. While I'd mourn the loss of the features, I definitely do enjoy the seperateness of the Journal community. I thought of it like going from party to party, club to club, then just taking a break and dropping the normal dialogue and start to reveal more intimate private thoughts. Anyways, it made me think of this cartoon. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...nal/pearls.gif |
You know the bit in The Good the Bad and the Ugly where Angel Eyes tortures Tuco even if you did that I would not be convinced John Wayne is good...
Also, stop teasing me or I'll tell on you... |
oh...
Very sorry but I can hardly bear this threaded view deal. Well, actually, I can't deal with it at all. I was so thrilled about the old journals. I must wait for the new, hopefully klunky as before, version to get back into this... This comment is probably in the wong place, since I find the threaded display hopelessly cluttered and confusing. I'm a linear guy - just like our attention - I focus on one thing at a time. Linear is right with me. |
the threaded view I can do without too... but the editor, I do hope makes it back with the klunkiness. Not that I do lots of colors or Font Changes...
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Yeah, I'm having a hard time dealing with it as well. I find myself a bit less motivated to actually sit down and write a journal entry.
I'm hoping that the new Journals will at least have abilities to hyperlink to each individual entry, and that hopefully a section can be created, along with "most views/most entries" that has each user's personal favorite journals. If they just come back the way they were, though, I'll be fine too. :) |
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lol mal, you're wonderful. and i'd challenge you to a tickle war, but i always seem to lose those things :D |
Mom's gettin' married
My mom's (2nd) wedding is today. I met my new sister and her husband last night at the rehersal dinner. Weird. Not her, just that I never had a sister before so the idea is new to me.
My brother and I are walking mom down the aisle. For some reason it was left up to me if we were going to dress formal or informal. Usually Scott takes command (ex-Navy guy, go figure) and makes these decisions into semi-orders. Maybe retirement is agreeing with him. Anyway, I went with jacket and tie instead of dressy sweaters because of the heat and, well, it's a fucking wedding. If you're not going to dress formal for a wedding, when are you? The T-bone steak was awesome. Not mearly tasty or delicious, more like mega-fuckin' succulint! Part of that may be that I've had strep throat for a week and have been eating bland foods for the most part. Certain relatives have made it clear that they don't like that I'm moving to Arizona and taking their grandchild/nephew 1800 miles away. I'm sorry they feel that way, but I gotta do what I gotta do. The most vocal of these is an aunt who just came back from Africa last year after being gone there 3 years. Doing nurse stuff in Malawi. I don't recall her asking anyone's opinion of her little adventure before going. Gotta feed the kid and get ready. Will write more later. By the way, I switched to the light blue background with the black text and it's really hard to see yellow font. Maybe Cynthetique (sp?) could change the yellow to red? Just a thought. |
Congrats to your mom on her special day... That's so cool that you can share in her happiness... As a sister, I can tell you first hand, that we're pretty cool, most of the time, enjoy your new extended family (at least you're past the torture the brother stage)
You have to do what's best for you regarding the move, there's email, photographs, web cams, planes, buses, etc - it's not like they won't see the child.. What's doing best for you, is what helps out the child... and the rest of the family should appreciate that and see that. |
People Watching
My friend Mike and I were eating dinner at TGI Fridays last night, and out of a half empty restaurant, they gave us the table ALL the way in the back, next to the hall entrace for the bathroom. We didn't think much of it till later in stay. Now, I need to say my friend is VERY VERY good looking, and that fact that he doesn't really believe me and his other gal friends when we tell him, and because he's not hung up on his looks AT ALL, that makes him even more appealing. He was facing me and looking out the window, while I could look behind him and see the rest of restaurant. Every five minutes or so, a girl from one of two huge groups of girls that all had their sorority shirts on, would start walking towards the bathroom. Almost every single one, as soon as they caught sight of my friend and realized they would be in his field of vision the last ten feet to the bathroom, would instantly start strutting their stuff. The first couple times, I was like "whatever", but it was SOOO obvious!?! I could see them for about 20 feet back into the restaurant, and they'd leave their table walking like a normal person, but then those last ten feet in front of my friend was the total hip moving- I'm so sexy- LOOK AT ME!! walk. They'd come back out and try making eye contact, and he's oblivious, because hey, he's talkin to me :cool: I finally clued him in on it after about 45 minutes, and the next time they came around we were both trying hard not to laugh, since he started imitating them. He had a nice buzz going by this point, so he wasn't really too concerned about their feelings. They finally caught on and left him alone. All in all, interesting dinner at that place.
Two more days of freedom before school starts again... :( |
Reminds me of the Sammy Kershaw song She Don't Know She's Beautiful only a guy in this case. It's happened with several female friends of mine. One of em here at school would come with me on Monday's to get my paycheck from the Papa John's pizza I worked at, and the second time she came in, all my coworkers were staring at her. Then it got to the point where they knew we were coming, and after a bit, the shirts were tucked in, guys were actually shaving before coming to work, their pants were actually ironed, etc. Pretty humorous, but also pretty sad the lengths people will go to catch the eye of a member of the opposite sex.
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I too miss our old journal entry system. It is what keeps me sane in stressful times, like now....so here I go anyways.
RELOCATION: I accepted an offer from the LA branch offically on Friday. We worked out all the details and made sure my wife and family were comfortable with the move. My family is always my first priority and I certainly did not want to cause undo emotions without consulting my wife on the whole matter. It has been tough, however. Picking up and relocating so far away seems very intimidating. We had our first rummage sale this weekend. Surprising enough, we sold alot of our crap that I don't want to take with us to LA. (almost everthing). Even thou we still have tons of stuff left, we seemed to have moved out the big stuff and liquidated old useless furniture and etc. The sale was fun however. We had good weather and even had some friends come and visit and help. A shout out to Reanna74 for the help. It was fun and we plan on continuing our effort next weekend as well. I have given alot of stuff away, just so I don't have to take it with us. I gave a lot of stuff to my wifes family too. I feel better knowing the items I give them will be used and taken care of. It's nice to offer things to family and friends. My offer is a good one financialy. The relocation budget alone is over 10K. I will use that up in no time I am sure. I will leave for the coast Sept 1st. I need to report to work on the 7th and since I will be driving my car, it need about 4 days to get there. Once I find suitable housing, my family will come out. The faster the better, but I want to make a smart choice and not make a decision in haste trying too hard. I need good schools and a safe neighborhood and of course, something I can afford. I am very jiddery on this whole deal. My nerves are mostly shot and my focus is nonexsistant. I have a hard time finishing a thought before I jump to the next. I have soooo much work ahead of me in the next week. I hope I pull through with my wits and sanity. |
Rat, that's funny! :) Some of my friends think that he's hurting my chances of getting a guy to ask me out, if they see him as competition. Thought about dating him at one point, but then I introduced him to one of my close friends, and they ended up dating before breaking up in a huge drama spectacle. So now he's in no dating land forever. :)
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Congratulations on the new adventure you are about to embark on, it's gonna be a blast.
Your new company should be able to put you in touch with a relocation specialist, that can help you out with all the picky picky details, it's better than doing it yourself. Enjoy your new life... |
Airport Fun -- August 20, 2004
Sexual Harassment at the Airport
____________________________________________________ I'm checking in for my flight, and O'Hare has this thing where they, to speed along the check in process, or to make a person feel useful or something, they have the TSA Agents search the bags by hand, rather than going thru the security machines. It's a little faster, and a few less steps, and a few less people to deal with, so I'm OK with it. Until tonight that is.* The check in lady calls the guard over, and asks if he would like to hand search my bag. This is the same guard who has been searching my bag for the past few weeks, so he makes a joke that I'm a regular and we're old friends. I made some sort of joke about how he has become rather fond of my undies, and well , whatever works for him. And I trotted off to my flight. Chuckling on the way. wondering if I could be stopped for sexual harassment. Now I know I can't make jokes anymore about bombs and blowing up planes and stuff, I wonder when they will institute the no harassment policy in the airport. When they do, I think I'm the person who's responsible and I'm sorry. OOOOOH Pretty.... _________________________________________________________ Oh My! Subtlety has never been one of my strong suits. I say what's on my mind, and often times, I chase those words when they come out of my mouth, in hopes that I can shove them back in. I am rarely successful. My mouth is quite large from sticking my feet in it. So, there was Dave on the plane last night. Dave was the flight attendant in first class, and oh he was worth the upgrade. So very pretty, and so very straight (there was no sashay at all in him). That expression, long, tall drink of water, oh baby, did it apply to him. About 6'2", thick wavy brown hair, amazing green eyes, smile that could light up a room, no facial fuzz, but just enough five o'clock shadow to make him unbelievably sexy. And when he took off his uniform jacket, the buns oh baby, and the shoulders... A cold shower would have been appropriate. So, he strides over to me and asks me if I wanted anything... Ummm... (Oh, if only the running commentary in my head would shut up) While my social skills generally suck, tonite, I also started to stutter, somehow I got out that a glass of wine would be delightful. He came over and chatted for a bit mid flight, kept me in wine, and eventually I could put together a sentence or two. Then sadly, the flight ended.* But what a nice bonus on the flight, he was just soooo pretty and didn't seem to realize that he was. That makes a nice boy. |
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Glad you had someone to make the flight more interesting!
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:) Good way to think of it. Thanks Rat :p I didn't have any dates for a year and a half before I met him, still haven't had any in the year I have known him, so I think it's just me. C'est la vie.
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Any fella who doesn't see your charms - isn't worth your time... It's not you.... I've said it before, I'll say it again, we knew it in kindergarden,., boys are stupid :) |
Thanks for your comments. At the wedding tonight, various relatives weighed in with their thoughts and most seem to be of the opinion "Hey, that's great, go do what you want to do, our prayers will be with you, good luck, etc.". Can't let a few sour apples rain on an otherwise lovely parade. It was a very nice simple ceremony, tastefully done considering a 2nd wedding and there both nearing 60. After talking to my new sister, Holly, I feel better about step-dad Pete. She thinks highly of him and he's proved himself to be a responsible committing kinda guy. So I'm a little more assured that mom's in good hands.
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Not quite a nunnery, but being an RA, which is a 24/7 job, kind of made me everyone's mom for two years - a little hard to date someone you might have to end up disciplining at one point :) |
The Anti-Borrowers
Ever buy something, then just put it away and forget all about it? I do that often, and in my cleaning, decluttering, organizing projects, I've found some things that have just made me say... why the hell did you go and buy that? It had to have been me that bought it, because I live alone, and it was in my box o' crap in my closet, but I honestly can't remember buying it, nor can I figure out why I would have bought it. It's a puzzle.
Maybe it's the Borrowers, you know, that family of tiny people that live under the stairs and are responsible for all the missing stuff in the house, only instead of taking my stuff, my house is the dumping ground for all the stuff that they borrow, since I'm never home, I guess they figure I'm as good a place as any. |
German club kickoff.
Great German club kickoff for the school year. We start our classes on Monday, so we all had a party on our last weekend of freedom. Met up at (Br)'s house and hung out for several hours drinking, having fun, some watching the olympics. It was around midnight that some left, including (M) and the girl who I referred to as my future ex-wife, (R).
Then (Br) and I made a beer run across the street to Safeway. When we got back, we all climbed up on the roof of (Br)'s house and continued drinking. BTW, that roof is the single greatest drinking spot in all of Phoenix. When (V) left, (Br) and (Ry) did a "Full Monty" show for her. Then we all went down into (Br)'s house. After 5 beers, I was in no condition to drive, so I crashed on (Br)'s couch. A great night to kick off the school year. |
YAY for you having a good time... :)
(and even better for being smart enough to not drink and drive) :D |
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if there's one thing i've learned in the past three years, it's that there is a time and place for everything. i don't say this simply to be nice, but because for three years things have been the wrong time for everything. i wasn't ready for what occurred in my life, nor mature enough to appreciate what i'd had. that changes as time goes by. he's out there somewhere. he may not know it, but he's meant for you and he's out there. :D |
Its nice to have a boring weekend
After dealing with two days worth of cramps so bad that I had to call in sick to work, which is TOTALLY embarrassing when you're the only female where you work, I pretty much stayed home and did nothing all weekend and got pampered by Dave. It looks like Im going to have to repeat 3 years ago, because of new insurance and new doctors and deal with the invasive ultrasounds and tests to determine that the uteruan cysts have come back and I will have to go back to taking BC pills for them again. I really really dread this...Im "hoping" I can take the test results from before with me and the perscription to the new doctor and tell her that its the exact same thing...please try me on the pills FIRST and that if it doesn get better THEN I will go for all the stupid tests.
My soon to be mother in law is all concerned that its endometriosis, but I had no signs of it whatsoever last time...its just the stupid cysts... So....a nice quiet weekend, quality time with Dave... makes for a boring journal entry...but I was going thru withdrawals from posting :lol: |
Bummer...
Grabbed dinner from my local take out sushi place tonite, and decided I really and truly wanted green tea ice cream for dessert. Yes, it's bad for me, and no I don't need it, but it's been a shitty week, this week is going to even be worse, so I wanted the treat. Me LOOOOOVE green tea ice cream.
So I get home, and get all comfy on the sofa, which had finally been liberated from clutter, I had no idea my sofa was green, it's been so long since I've seen it, and enjoy my spicey tuna roll and eel roll. I then eagerly open my green tea ice cream container, which now should be suitably soft, and really tasty, and my mouth is just watering for it... and it's... it's.... CHOCOLATE. But I hate chocolate. Really and truly hate chocolate. I guess this is a bad omen, that I can't even get the ice cream I wanted, and of course I'm too lazy to walk back to the restaurant, get the right ice cream and walk home, that's entirely too much effort. I really didn't need the ice cream, but I did want it... :pout: Oddly, there were fortune cookies in with my sushi, guess we're going multi cultural. Since I am the very mature type... You know what you're supposed to do with the fortune don't you... These seemed very appropriate to the game too. It is better to deal with problems before they arise (in bed) -- Though, I must say things "arising" in bed are seldom problems. and When you learn to be flexible, amazing opportunities reveal themselves (in bed) Well, this is a perfect reason to get back into yoga then. |
:) I had that on my door when I all my peoples coming to me, nice to see it coming to me from somewhere else. I'm sooo pyscho when school starts, hardly any time for going far out of my way to entertain boys. Although I seem to do well enough keeping people entertained with my attempts at balance and poise. :rolleyes:
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aaah... :) come to my neck of the woods... the Chinese Homemade Ice Cream Factory has excellent green tea ice cream... lychee too!!!
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Can't do it.
Arrrgh.
I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around doing the journals this way. I know it's just temporary and that it's better to have this than nothing, but for some reason, this way of doing things is not working for me. I'm finding myself with things to say, but immediately and reflexively stopping myself from writing them because, well, the journals aren't here. Which is lame. I didn't ask Halx about the journals when I saw him yesterday. I guess I could have. I didn't want to be annoying about it. I just hope they're back up soon. |
Innocent Freshman.... you're so Small!!!
So school officially starts today, had to get here about 4 hours before my class actually starts to meet with one of the professors who I'm going to be grading papers for. So stopped in the school computer lab to check up on email and such. All the Freshmie classes are doing campus orientation things today, and every 5 minutes or so, a whole group of 5-10 comes traipsing through the door to have the counter lady sign things to say they'd stopped by. I'm a senior finally, and they all just look so cute and small! :p , I just wanna rub some of their heads and go "aww..... jou look so cuwte". Parking is NUTS!?!?! Last year, certain parking lots were always full, but this year there's one that typically only had 3 of the 10 rows full. Got here, and find out that all 10 of the rows except the back half of the 10th row were full. And there's this bulldozer thingie sitting in the middle of the lane as you exit - the rows are angled so it's one directional parking. So in order to get out, if they don't move the stupid thing, I'm gonna have to pull out in reverse and back out of the entire row, passing probably about 15 cars. Just hope no one is waiting to hit me when I get to the end. *sigh*.
And now my contact just moved, so think I'm gonna get off and go get it straightened in my eye. |
I don't write journal entries anymore without it being in some sort of editor, which is I guess why I don't have that pavlovian reaction.
ngdawg just asked Halx about them... :) he's getting to them as he can... |
Suffering journal withdrawl even as we speak. How the heck can I convey the pain and soreness that was my dental appointment today? Where can I post how the dentist had to remove a tooth, one root at a time? Where can I put down my thoughts of when he cracked the tooth into smaller pieces. Where can I write about the pain that is starting to come into being since the numbing agent is wearing off? Where? I ask you where?
Oh wait, I just did, never mind. Shout out to Halx and the gang for the improvements! Great job so far! |
Have I Gotten So Predictable, or Memorable?
So, plane lands in Manchester, NH this morning, and I head out to the car service stand, I take the first available car and give the driver the address, and ask very nicely for a quick stop at the Dunkin Donuts on the way in from the airport. Reasonable request, heck I'll even buy him a cuppa coffee.
Driver stops at the Dunkin Donuts, I run in and grab 2 dozen donuts, and come back out to the car. Driver turns around and looks at me, and says "you must have a really long list of things that you need from your programmers this week". Ummm, why yes, I do, now I'm totally confused, how the heck would he know my methods, now granted this is the technology corridor, and most folks heading in that direction are working with tech firms, but... He tells me that he's driven me a few times before, and my usual MO is to stop for donutes for the boys. OK, so I'd imagine that he drives more than one person a month, and well, it's been at least 6 months since I've been to the office, I think it was snowing last time I was up here, he'd remember me? That'd disturbing... my mind flashes thru all the really evil nasty things that must make me memorable... He did get a good tip though... This time... And Speaking of Coffee One of the things I was free cycling over the weekend, was a bunch of old coffee mugs from various sets of dishes that I've had over the years, even with all the coffee and tea I drink, I figured that 20 coffee cups was a bit excessive, especially since I only use one cup all the time, and I have a handful of other cups that I've gotten in my travels that I use for company, I didn't need all these old cups, so I got rid of them. Joe, who came to pick them up on Sunday, rang the doorbell, and said he was there to pick up the CAWFEE Cups, really, he said CAWFEE, all the years I have made fun of that accent, I've never quite heard anyone TAWK like that... I had to have him repeat himself just because it amused me so much. |
Going to the dentist never quite seemed so bad after seeing the movie Marathon Man, with Laurence Olivier as the evil dentist... Makes me want to utter the simple question.... "Is it safe?" Hopefully your experience was slightly better.
...and you got some good painkillers. |
my ponytail is my idenity mark. People remember I'm the guy with the long ponytail... not many long hairs out there... especially asian guys.
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Going to the office is fun...
Whine alert
Now I know why I only come to the office every few months... My boss just stopped by my desk... Says, we have a customer presentation tomorrow afternoon, and I need you to talk about X, Y, Z, A, and B - -put together a demo to go with it you'll have about 2 hours to present the material. Thanks. And he goes home... Oh this is going to be fun... |
:) sounds like you are going to have your own Harold and Kumar adventure!!!!
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feeding the jones a bit....
i have to say that this format is not making me terribly happy--i write in a way that uses the distance provided by the other journal format as a frame-assumption--here i feel a fly against a windshield on the freeway (a paraphrase--wish it was my line)....nothing seems to work right. anyway across a hopelessly strange birthday weekend, one fascinating, bizarre object floated to me--this book: "russian criminal tattoo encylopedia" by danzig baldaev et al. (gottingen: steidel/fuel, 2001) it is like seeing the edge of a huge, dark, slowly turning, largely vanished galaxy, the elements of which are drawn onto people's bodies. amazing, fascinating, disturbing, pornographic, offensive, hilarious, desperately sad. cant recommend this highly enough as a window and as a jolt. |
Home, Sweet Home
It's only my third day living at my new place, but already I feel at home. This is the first time in three years that I've felt at home in this city, and I have to say that it's a good feeling. Sure, I still have to steal toilet paper from the student center, my refridgerator froze all of my eggs solid and I almost burned some of my hair off getting the pilot lights on the stove lit yesterday... but somehow, it doesn't faze me.
The security guards at the desk insist that I stop showing them my ID when I come in (an old habit from more strict dorms) because they all know me already. The regular people who live in the building are nice and actually smile and greet me in the elevator. I get to watch the empire state building light up every night through my lovely windows. Best of all, I finally feel like I have a good amount of space, which is such a commodity in this crowded city. I never thought any place other than Los Angeles would feel like home to me, but I guess I take a little more time to feel at home than most. I just hope that my positive outlook doesn't change too radically when the academic year brings my suitemates back to the city and I can't walk around naked anymore :) For now, I'm enjoying every last bit of having a place to call my own. |
First day of the semester
...I can't wait for the normal journals to get back up... I like them a lot better than threads, hense why I'm not really keeping up and writing a journal right now. But after starving you guys of my life for a while, and my wanting to have my journal back, I decided that I'd finally post an entry here...
Overall things seem to be going fine. Summer's now officially over.:( It's a shame. I had one of the best summers of my life! It was soo much fun! But alas, freedom like that doesn't last when you're a student. I had my first day of classes today. Thus far it continues to look like I'll have the easiest semester ever! It'll be good for me! Plus it allows me to divote more time this semester into the fencing club so that things hold together really well, don't fall apart, or anything, when I don't have much time next semester. I have one class with a friend of mine, plus today we found out we have another person from our church group in the class as well! Yay! That geology class will be easy and fun! Then the lab is going to be easier and even more fun! The only problem is that due to my buddy's packed schedule, he could only have one lab time, which conficts with the only time that my only senior level class is offered. Oh well, I'm meeting new people and I'll continue to make more friends, which is something I very much enjoy doing.:) My American Sign Language class will be more challenging than I thought it would be. The instructor is 100% deaf, and we will not have any interpreters, except we had a few today. Not being able to ask the instructor verbally to repeat something they signed or ask any other questions will make things much more difficult. But I suppose in a way it means that I will be forced to learn the material better, and that is something I look forward to. This is material I want to learn, so that I can speak to my mom years in the future when she becomes completely deaf with her old age. Right now she's been struck by a heretitary disease that skips generations, but it hit her 20+ years earlier than it should have. While she's still holding strong to what hearing she has left, and is still hearing and amazing the doctors by doing so, there's no telling how long it will last. I hope it lasts for many, many years to come, but that doesn't mean I'm going to skip out on a chance to learn how to communicate with her later on. As far as the class goes, they made it mandatory to set up a study group and meet with them on a weekly basis to help us out, which I thought was really cool. I'm in a group with another guy and three beautiful girls.:) None of us knew each other before today, so we're all in the same boat of meeting new people and whatnot. It'll be fun... there's always going to be fun... for if you can't find something to enjoy in it, then there's no purpose in doing it! And if there's always a purpose of somesort, then there should always be something fun to enjoy about everything!:) Tomorrow I have my Beginning Jazz Dance.:) That one credit hour class will be soo much fun! I love dancing, but never learned how to dance to anything other than some to techno, and a very small amount to hip-hop. I'm very much looking forward to this class! Then I also have my only senior level class tomorrow: The History of Space Exploration. I've always loved space so much that my major is Aerospace Engineering, so having a class on the history of what I want to do with my life is just awesome! I know a guy who took it and he said it was the easiest thing ever, but then before that class if you asked him anything about NASA, he'd be able to answer it. So for me it will be a bit more challenging than it was for him, but I don't expect it to be that bad at all. I expect the material to be so interesting for me that it'll be fun to study! Considering I'm a senior in Aerospace Engineering and am used to taking high stress level classes with outrageously huge workloads, this semester is going to be a brease! There are some advantages to me extending my graduation by a year in order to regain your mental health: I get to have the funnest and easiest semester I've ever had, I get to meet new people outside of my major and not have the same people in every single class (but that did have quite a few advantages to it), I get to enjoy life a bit before going back into the hard core engineering classes, I now have time to pick up a geological sciences minor that I had thought about picking up during last year after it had been "too late" to start one, I get to spread out what I have less as to not overload myself with too many credits any semester for the rest of my undergraduate degree, and I get to regain my mental health from my depression while not losing my financial aid (which I would have by taking a semester comepletely off)! God works in mysterious ways. While bringing me to the lowest depths and closing some doors, he provided me with a different path to follow which had more open doors and more fun than I would have otherwise had. It has been a learning experience which has affected me greatly, and it's not over yet. I am not the person I was when I started college. I am not the person I was a year ago. I am not the person I was six months ago. I am not even the person I was three months ago. Going through the depression, especially one so severe, and then getting help both medically and spiritually (I think the later has helped the most) has helped me to grow and change my heart for the better. Funny how in the past when people told me to never change, they probably never thought about me changing to be even better... I doubt most of those people even thought it was possible... ...I can't wait until the normal journals are back... |
Having the Empire State Building as part of your view is incredible. I had it from my apartment in Hoboken. I loved it.
Enjoy the solitude. :) |
a rant
last night the collective turned up for a ridiculous pr event for the philadelphia live arts/fringe festival. which we are playing sept 11-12 (reflex plug, like a headless chicken walking around) amira and laura did a duet reading. no-one could hear laura because she stood to the side of the microphone. it did not really matter, given the space. brett and i did not play. it was one of those events that began as awful awful awful and managed somehow to transcend that, achieving a level of foulness that makes you question why you do anything that would bring you into any contact with these people ever. it was one of those evenings that starts off bad and ends by engendering a series of questions concerning one's committment to doing a performance based artform at all. this is accomplished by presenting a situation far beyond the boundaries that one draws in order to maintain a serious committment to something in a space of general indifference....why bother to work on music or poetry or anything? why bring any of it out when your stuff is framed by the aggressive mediocrity of folk like this? no matter what you do, it gets flattened back into this one-dimensional space moderated by braying idiots proud of their idiocy, secure in it, revelling in it microphone empowered. "do not worry...hahaha.....just sit and have another drink......we are all in this together.......i dont get it either.......hahaha." we were there to shill. i am pretty sure that the only people in the place were also there to shill their shows. so we shilled each other. it was like practicing. we did get a cd copy of some of our stuff to a columnist who writes for a weekly pseudo-hip paper in philly. a columnist whose column i read but never like. whose sole virtue in this case is that he exists. but that was ok. relatively speaking. mangled fragment of a conversation with the columnist, after the usual introductions and coded acknowledgements of mutual indifference: the guy: so did someone inform you of my listening habits? [this with an air that indicates his assumption that he is such a big deal in this miserable backwater of a city that any and all personal habits are transmitted through social circuits that always always buzz buzz buzz] me: um.......no. [at which point a shift in tone, like a needle had been moved from one track to another, almost the same, but not quite...] the guy: this sounds great--i'll check it out. [[[[later]]]] me: so what do you listen to? the guy: o everything from britney to brand nubian. i write for alot of music magazines you see. [i thought about making some joke concerning his working his way through the letter b. and was inclined to take the cd back. somehow i refrained on both counts. i am learning.] here ends the summary of the evening's positive parts. then there was the rest of it. allegory is best in a situation of irritation, i think, a single instance that stands for the whole. one act was a guy playing an oud. oud: http://www.kairarecords.com/oudpage/Oud.htm the hosts did not know what an oud was. they yelled at the crowd for a while about not knowing what an oud was. "we do not know what an oud is" they said. "hahaha" "this is an oud" the oud player said. "what is that?" "this is." so he played two pieces the first was indeed an oud piece. the player claimed it was based loosely on indian forms, but did not say which, and proceeded to play a piece full of led zeppelin quotes. for the second, he switched to hand drum, and played a series of generic patterns. he was joined by a local Jazz Musician, who plays far too often out, who turns up everywhere playing the same basic thing--in this case, he played "night in tunisia" over the drum patterns, ornamented with a sequences of modal patterns. the hosts began trying to act like they were doing drunken impersonations of belly dancing. hahaha. there is layer on layer of being-patronised in this little story. |
Today Sucks
I dont want to be me today.....can I be somebody else, just for a little while? I have a gyno visit today and I had nightmares last nite about all the responses in the "Worst part about gyno" thread....Has TFP really invaded my life THAT much :crazy: I woke up actually physcially hurting like I'd already had the exam...
note to self...check to see if Dave and I engaged in really rough sleep sex before 430 this morning Sad thing is....Id really like to have sex tonite but I've never really been able to "get into it" after a gyno visit...I want to go home after the doctors and soak in a warm tub for the rest of the nite...but its mine and my daughters "movie day" and she looks so forward to that and is SUCH a big deal to her I dont have the heart to cancel today just because I'm sore from the exam and leaking KY jelly everywhere. Movie day is a great thing...usually...we have one day a week were when I get home from work I do not pass go, I do not turn on the computer, and we both snuggle together in bed and watch whatever movie has come out on DVD lately that we've gotten but havent watched yet...Today is Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Dave usually gets home within the last 20 minutes or so of the movie and lays down with us until its over...poor thing, hes seen the end of SO many movies, and never seen the rest of them...I just hope that I can deal with it today and not let her know that Im really not into it. *really big heavy sigh* |
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