Sunday, September 29, 2002
I'm up too late. But I like the results.
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Today is my 11th day in a row of working. I am not impressed.
Someone stole our tip jar yesterday. Not just the money; the tip jar and all. What is truly bizarre about this is that our tip jar was a glass wine carafe, about a foot high, and while not heavy, not exactly paper-cup light. We're still not sure who did it exactly; probable perps were the group of street boys asking for glasses of water. Fortunately, since the register had run out of quarters earlier that afternoon, I had traded out a bunch of them for bills, and after that had kept those bills behind the counter so not to make the tip jar look too full. Customers are incredulous that anyone would do anything so audacious. Frankly, I'm a little surprised it never happened before.
I'm being stupid again today. I made someone a mocha and noticed about five minutes later that I'd forgotten to put the espresso in. I bet she thought it was the smoothest mocha she'd ever had. She's a regular and when she comes in again I'll give her another one on me. And a day after realizing I haven't had achy legs in a while, guess what? Achy legs. This is why one NEVER mentions such things out loud, because the universe then thinks maybe you miss them, and well, here you go, ta da!
We were supposed to have a friend visiting from out of town, but found out yesterday that she has to cancel because she's moving. Just as well, I'll be glad to have a weekend of peace and quiet. Maybe I'll do some painting (the artistic kind, not the kind that requires gallons of flat latex). There's a few projects I've been wanting to do that are long overdue.
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
random stupidity
- My toe hurts.
- Eugene Celebration ended up being dreadful for business. That's what happens when an entire venue that supposed to be across the street never materializes.
- However, the PR factor was indeed positive.
- Even if it meant I didn't get a real weekend.
- Another relative (this time, great-uncle) is in the hospital with a fairly grave prognosis. It is not a good year for my elderly relatives.
- My keys, which I searched the house yesterday morning (while it was still dark, mind you) for before finally giving up, were found who-knows-where by my cleaning-frenzy roommate.
- Mercury is retrograde. It shows.
- Anyone got about $3k on short notice? Didn't think so.
- They're playing Dead Can Dance on the radio right now ("American Dreaming"). See, it's not all bad.
- I ended up watching "Crossing Jordan" on TV because CBS comes in for shit on the TV downstairs (and, since I had to steal An's housekeys to get in, I had to wait up to let her in after the monthly SCA meeting). I'd much rather have been watching "CSI: Miami". I've never wanted to slap a TV character as badly as I did last night. How did this show make it to season #2?
Saturday, September 21, 2002
So finally, after like MONTHS of not being able to get a working internet (not modem) connection from home for no discernable reason... I now can after obtaining that vital key bit of information that was up until now so elusive.
(You'd think that when your ISP changes the DNS numbers, they'd be sure to let you know. Not impressed.) It's Eugene Celebration weekend, so here we are working extra hours. It vacillates between being crowded to being totally tumbleweed dead. Naturally I didn't bring anything useful to do during the dead times. I guess I'll babble a bit here and maybe play some mah-jongg (Hoyle PC Board Game version).
Last night we'd intended to stay here 'til midnight, since that's when activities were supposed to run 'til. After being bored senseless for too long, we decided to close up by 9pm. Naturally, this meant that we were destined to be found and suddenly we had a whole bunch of people in here. Not that I'm complaining, mind... it's just one of those "as soon as I step into the shower the phone rings" sort of quirks that seems to happen without logical explanation.
We had a birthday party for our friend Leda Friday night. I gave her a copy of House of Leaves, a paperback version of which I found used. I figured it she was weird enough to appreciate it. Marian made vegan cheesecake (made dairy free with tofu) topped with organic apple butter. Delicious.
Today's sunny and cool; perfect blue sky, perfect weather.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
:-)
Never mind the politics behind this issue... cause I really don't want discussion on it (and I mean it!). But this line from this What Do You Think? in last week's The Onion had me rolling on the floor:
--begin quote--
"The last thing we need is a glut of web sites explaining how, if you watch Strange Brew while listening to Rush's 2112, it all matches up."
--end quote--
It makes me want to actually do it.
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Yesterday: pleasant fatigue. Today: aches and pains. Owowow. Yoga is not for wimps.
Again, I say: daily, constant, low-level (and sometimes high-level) stress cannot be good for a person. Not ready to drive my car off the edge of a cliff yet. Just at the "wishing I could curl into a ball and will the world away" stage.
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
For those who have always wanted to know: the colour of my hair and eyes.
(I still can't believe how blonde I've gotten, and it's all sun -- which is odd, cause I'm hardly in the sun. But it's not a two-tone dye job, I swear. The darker tone is the actual colour. And? My little camera gets pretty good close-up resolution.) It's raining! Okay, in six months' time I'll be bitching and moaning about the rain, but today? Today I am happy. My poor brown grass, my sad little rosebush, my deficient rhodedendron, they will all be refreshed. The rain made it terribly difficult to get out of bed though, even if I did sleep pretty well last night.
It seems fitting that on the eve of the one year anniversary of my bus fall I should take my first yoga class. It was strenuous but rewarding. I thought I would ache like crazy today but instead I just feel pleasantly fatigued (if that makes any sense at all).
Monday, September 16, 2002
Rather mundane weekend occupied with laundry, dishes, some cleaning. I also watched the Kevin Bacon film Stir of Echoes, which was not bad at all. Gorgeous dreamlike imagery, especially during the hypnotism scenes. And appropriately spooky (I started to watch it on Friday night but had to shut it off about 40 minutes into it -- finished watching the next day, during the day) without being horrific (though there is one scene with a fingernail and a tooth that kind of grossed me out). I'd probably recommend it to people who enjoyed The Sixth Sense, though it isn't nearly as clever.
This is going to be an awful week, especially since I don't get a weekend next weekend. Yes, it's time for the Eugene Celebration again. They're starting the parade at 8 am on Saturday, which I think it insanely stupid, but they don't want to have to compete with the University of Oregon football game (let me remind you that if the Ducks, their stadium, and all of the fans went adrift on the ocean never to be heard from again, I would probably jump for joy. Chip on my shoulder? Moi?).
I painted some this weekend, trying to emulate the style of later period manuscript illumination on an SCA charter scroll. It took me two hours to do the clothing of two figures and their faces/hands. The rest should go a little bit faster, especially if I decide not to paint in every last feather detail on the gryphon. Whikle I painted I put on an old video tape of tv shows. Since we don't have cable any more and there's no antenna on the downstairs tv, pickin's are pretty slim. This tape had "Alien Autopsy" from 1995, hosted by Jonathan "I'll do anything for money!" Frakes. Actually, it was pretty interesting to see Dr. Cyril Wecht (renouned forensic scientist) and Stan Winston (renouned movie special effects master) admit that they couldn't say it wasn't fake, and why. Winston even said that if someone were to bring in a tape like that and say that they'd made it, he'd hire them on the spot. Next on the tape was an old Nova about alien abductions, probably from around the same time (considering it was taped off of a San Francisco public television station). I think they were right with regards to suggestibility during hypnotic states. And it was awfully nice to see Carl Sagan again.
Gonna give yoga another try tonight (last week the teacher didn't show up). Wish me luck that I don't seriously strain something.
Friday, September 13, 2002
This week is feeling eternally long and stretched out. My head has not stopped aching and as a result it totally tires me out. The exception is, of course, ten minutes before I have to go to bed, when suddenly I feel alive and perky again.
Turns out the library job An was thinking of applying for has a less-than-optimal work schedule. It's going to take some real prodding to get her to fill that application out. sigh
Boy, this post was kind of pointless, wasn't it? :P
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Of the entire two and a half years I took the bus downtown early in the morning, there was only one day that I was not able to watch the morning news with breakfast when I wanted to. My roommate was sleeping on the couch and I didn't want to wake her up, so I ate silently as the sun started to peek up from under the horizon.
On the bus, I was buried nose deep in a book, caught snatches of conversation about a plane hitting a building. Thought they must have been talking about a movie.
The cafe opens at 7am. It was then I logged into all of my usual morning things at my terminal, among them, an IRC channel. Not too soon after that I got an account of the first tower falling, raced to cnn.com to try to get an up to the minute news report. The sudden traffic had all but shut down the site. I know that I had been the one to break the news to more than one early morning customer.
In a way, it was the end of the innocence. We knew about terrorist acts but, with the exception of Oklahoma City, we had no real first hand experience. It showed us we were not untouchable, an uncomfortable realization to say the least.
The best way to remember those who died that day is to go and hug your family. Wishing I could.
Monday, September 09, 2002
It would figure that on a weekend dedicated to down time and relaxing, I would have a persistent, annoying headache that would feel worse the more sedentary I became. The minute I got up to run errands or do laundry -- well either it got better or I was so preoccupied with whatever I was doing that I forgot about it. I can't win.
I felt better at last about 8:30 pm last night... headache free and wide awake. Just in time for bed. I'm convinced that the universe is mocking me. And then I couldn't get to sleep properly. It wasn't insomnia so much as a reluctance to turn off the light and go to bed, since if I went to sleep I'd then wake up and it'd be Monday. It's completely fallacious logic but somehow it seems to get me every damned weekend.
"No offense", says Marian when she comes in this morning, "but you look terrible." Yep. It's Monday all right.
I have my resume all squeakyclean polished up for a part time web type thing. The classified ad was from last weekend but I only just found it, and it's going to be a long shot that it's even still opened. But I know I can do it, and if it turns out they're still looking then we'll just chalk it up to fate. An's going to be applying for a tech type job for the new Eugene Library. Pays very well. I'm hoping.
I did get some serious creative design in this weekend, now that I have a power cord again to keep my iBook fully charged. I whipped together a website for an upcoming SCA event my Barony's hosting. That was actually fun. I enjoyed creating the tile effect. (When it's live, I'll post a link.)
Thursday, September 05, 2002
Busy busy busy. Sorry.
I will say lots of great things about BTI, who makes a replacement AC adapter for the clamshell-style iBook (like mine). It costs about the same as Apple's "yo-yo" style adapter (pictured, right) -- five dollars cheaper, actually -- but is of a sturdier design that won't fall apart like the yo yo does. I'm psyched.Tuesday, September 03, 2002
I bet I'd have done a great interview on Friday... if the person I was supposed to interview with had, oh, actually bothered to meet me at the appointed time and place. So I'm annoyed at the inconvenience of having prepared and wasted my time, disappointed that I didn't get a moment to shine, and ultimately a little thankful that these people were revealed for the flakes that they are. I'm not too keen on working for flakes. Been there, done that.
Truthfully? I felt a bit uncomfortable meeting someone I didn't know in a somewhat out of the way condo complex. I read way too many true crime and mystery novels to know that it seems like a really good way to get yourself "disappeared".
Hugs goin' out to Sheri. Speedy recovery vibes to you.
