Month: April 2015

Don’t shop hungry!

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I went to the store on my way home from work to pick up two things.  TWO!  I left with six.  I cannot be trusted.  It’s not like I went crazy – I didn’t buy caviar and dog food and ice cream and olives and six pounds of potatoes.  (Feel free to substitute your own list of things you don’t need when you go to the store.)  I bought things we eat, things we like, things I knew we were out of (or thought we were).  But still – TWO things were my plan.  I needed salmon and croutons for dinner.  I got salmon and croutons…and crackers and two types of cheese and a bottle of wine.  Turns out we’re not out of crackers yet, but we will be someday.  Someday soon, I mean.

It could have been worse.  I stayed away from the cookies.

I would like to stop having such long days

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It appears to be Crisis Week at work.  I spent hours on conference calls with one client yesterday, and hours on conference calls with a different client today.  Also, I went in early to help wrap up yesterday’s problems, but couldn’t do that (someone else did) because of the new crisis, AND I worked until 8pm because we’re short-staffed and I didn’t want to screw anyone on my team by making them work the late shift more than once this week, so I just finished an 11-hour day.  Half of it was productive, much of it was annoying.  But it’s over now.  John just watched Atari: Game Over (which appears to be an episode (the only one?) in a series called Signal to Noise that maybe failed, based on the IMDB results), and the music over the end credits was happy enough to make those couple of minutes the best part of my day so far.  Of course, Google is failing me – I can’t find the song.  Don’t ruin this for me, Google!

But hey – I feel much better than I did, and it was super-duper nice to work the afternoon from home.  My twice-monthly meetings with my boss start next week, so I plan to make this a regular thing and let everyone get used to the idea.  I want to talk to her about it before I do it, but it’s going to happen.

Reading is next, and bed, and tomorrow is Thursday, and you know what?  I really like Thursdays.

Running with purpose

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We made an actual, literal, grocery run today.  A milk run, even!  The plan was to have tomato and mozzarella sandwiches for dinner (things we already had at home), but John realized (at lunch today, while trying to eat a sandwich) that the bread was moldy.  We’d talked about running after work, so we combined the two and ran to a Harris Teeter a little over a mile away for bread and milk.  If we’d gotten anything else, it would have been awkward to run back, but I carried the bread and John carried the milk like a football (it was a half-gallon).  It worked.  Can’t say I want to make a habit of it, though.

It was nice to run with John.  Usually I run alone.  I might have a running  buddy in one of the women we box with, but we haven’t managed to meet up yet.  She’s running tomorrow morning with someone else we know, but it’s BEFORE boxing.  I wouldn’t mind going for a run and then going to boxing (we might run to boxing tomorrow anyway), but not when it means we meet at 5:10am.  Class starts at 6.  I’ll be there then.  I don’t want a running buddy THAT badly.

My evil twin returns!

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I’d completely forgotten about my evil twin, but she made an appearance at work the other day.  I was typing my name and didn’t realize my right hand was shifted one key to the left when, like a cobra, she struck!  There, in black and white on the screen, I saw her name:

Zabbag

What is she doing here?  What nasty tricks will she play on me this time?  Will she insert a paragraph of gibberish into our product’s installation instructions?  Will she hit Reply All on a company-wide email  when I only meant to reply to the sender?  Will she sign that email “Love, Zannah” and click Send before I can catch it?

I won’t let her!  Instead, I’ll spend the rest of the day second-guessing everything I type, slowing down to make sure I feel the ridge on the J key under my right pointer finger (Forefinger?  Why can’t I remember what that finger is called?).  Sure, I won’t be as productive, and yes, I’ll be constantly distracted, looking over my shoulder when I feel her hovering nearby.  But that won’t affect my work, right?  Right?

Drat.  She wins.  I can hear her laughing.

Too much fun was had by all

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I am SO tired.  No, really.  Seriously very tired.  Like, beyond tired.  So tired I can’t use any other words to describe how tired I am.  It was worth it, though.  John and I got back from a quick trip to Kentucky today.  Very little sleeping occurred.  We got up stupid early to get to the airport Friday morning, drove to Baltimore, flew to Kentucky.  Had a VERY good brunch with Mom and Dad (scrambled eggs with goat cheese, wild mushrooms, garlic, and truffle oil – holy hell that was good), hung out at home with them for a while (I wish I could remember what story John was telling that he had to pause so Dad could finish laughing), and then surprised Gaby at her bus stop (with Candy) and had a snack with the two of them before going back home for dinner with Min, Mom, and Dad.  Ate GIANT steaks (and my first Brussels sprout EVER), and then we (me, Min, and John) went out to meet Corey for a couple of beers.  Got the whole family in over the course of the day – it’s like collecting points.  We were out late-ish – went to bed around 1:30, but that made it a VERY long day.  Saturday was just as bad (worse?) for sleeping, but if I had slept more, I would have missed time at home.  Not acceptable.  Min came over early afternoon, and the five us played a very loud, very long, and very profane game of Ticket to Ride: Europe.  It was awesome.  Then some guitar-playing and singing (Corey and Christine were there by then), never to be missed, a delicious dinner, and several rounds of pool in the basement (I almost won one game) until around midnight.  Up before 6am to get back to the airport and THAT’S why I’m so tired.

We should have stopped at the store before we got home.  Silly me thought we’d go back out.  Don’t know what I was thinking.  We are in for the night.  At 2pm.  Since 11:30am, actually.

Small town? Large town? Hard to say

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Our apartment is only about 4 miles from (not) our house, but I shop at different stores (except Wegmans), go to different gas stations, different Starbucks, different Panera, take a completely different way to work…sometimes it feels like we moved much further away.  I don’t see the people I used to see around, which makes perfect sense – they’re not our neighbors anymore.

I do still occasionally run into people we know, though.  I went for a run after work yesterday and ran into a woman from our boxing class.  I guess she lives in THIS part of town, and now that I do, too, it makes perfect sense to see her out and about.  But it’s still not that far from where we lived before, so it seems insane to think we never crossed paths before.  Outside of boxing.

Probably a whole third of the people I work with live in this town – how is it that I never see any of them around?  Because really – I NEVER see anyone from work, and we’re all practically next door neighbors.  Where are they all hiding?  Maybe I’m oblivious to it.  They see me coming and duck behind the nearest bush.  It’s what I would do if I saw them first, so I can’t blame them if that’s what’s happening.  People from work should stay at work (with very few exceptions).

Or I should hurry up and move away.  Like, actually move away.  Four miles is a tease.

Narrow escapes

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Hm.  When I wrote the title, I’m pretty sure I had at least two narrow escapes in mind.  Right now I can only thing of one (the near-accident from last Friday).  Maybe it’ll come to me.

I took my car to the mechanic yesterday because the serpentine belt was making noise and I wanted to have the alignment checked.  I mentioned my curb attack to the guy while he was checking out the car, told him I hit it pretty hard, but when I looked I didn’t see any obvious damage.  After one look at the front driver’s side tire, he was like, “Oh no,  lady, you did some damage.”  There was a lump the size of a baseball on the sidewall of the tire.  Apparently, that’s like a ticking time bomb.  The tire was still holding air, but I guess that kind of swelling is just waiting to pop at the most inopportune time.  So I got two new tires yesterday (and they fixed my alignment).  We said goodbye to just under $400.  I also got an estimate for $430 dollars to replace the belt, the idler pulley, and the tensioner (the noisy culprits) AND apparently I need to replace my rear brakes for only another $300.  John looked up the belt parts – we can get those for $75.  He’ll do that work.  The brakes we might consider having them do.  That’s much more annoying to do ourselves.

Car stuff is expensive.  But we’ll live.  More importantly, so will the car.

Maybe the other narrow escape was avoiding spending over $1000 on the car in one day?  I’m not sure.

Same old

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It’s that time again: time to pick a new book.  But it’s bedtme and I’m sleepy, so I’m going to put it off until tomorrow.  Which really means tomorrow after work.  Why do I even want to put it off?  I certainly don’t want to NOT read something.

I have made this complaint before.  No more.

Hey, my company offered Molly the job she interviewed for, and she’s accepting it!  That’ll be interesting.  Good, but interesting.  More to come as the story unfolds.  Or however that goes.

You know what’s cool?  My keyboard.  It lights up.  See?

IMG_20150421_205512

Yeah, that’s a great picture.  I’m on a roll tonight.  I should definitely keep writing random stuff and then trailing off without any attempt to make it interesting.  Yup.  That’s what I should do.

Oh, wait!  I know what I’m reading next.  Finally, I have purpose!  Energy renewed, off to start a new book.  (Is this my process?  Kind of irritating.  Thanks for wading it through it!)

Time to visit the car doctor

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Wish my car good luck, please.  It’s been making noises (squeaky belt kind of noises) for a couple of weeks, and then a kind of ticking sound started this morning, in time with the belt noise, and John decided that sounded like imminent failure.  I’m not sure what’s about to fail, but I’m dropping the car off at the place tomorrow morning.  I also want to have the alignment checked, since it feels off and my near-accident last Friday couldn’t have helped things.  (Some guy swerved into my lane out of nowhere (and at high speed).  I swerved violently up the curb and onto the median.  There was a very loud noise when my tire hit the curb, but no obvious damage.  The guy sped off – I’m not sure he even noticed he almost hit me.)  I wonder if insurance will cover damage from avoiding an accident.

Life is a stage

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My run this morning was so great, it had to have been faked somehow.  I’m pretty sure I was on a movie set.  It was around 8:30 on a beautiful Saturday morning in spring.  The sky was clear and brilliantly blue and the sun was shining.  Everyone I passed answered my “Good morning!” or least waved or smiled back at me.  My running playlist (which is huge and on perpetual shuffle so I’m always surprised) skewed heavily toward Dean Martin with Three Dog Night’s “Let Me Serenade You” to bring me to the finish line.  The trees are still in bloom, and – I swear I’m not making this up – as I passed under a couple of cherry trees, a breeze picked up, and I ran through a cloud of tiny pink blossoms falling to the ground.  The only things missing were chirping cartoon bird.  I think I’ve seen this happen to Jennifer Garner.  Minus the cartoon birds.  I guess neither of us rate those.

Unreal.

Dammit!

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I was going to post something deep, something meaningful, something that would change everyone’s perception of…something.  I’m sure I was.  It was all right there, right at my fingertips.  But then John sent me a link to reddit.  (The only thing more dangerous (in a losing time kind of way) than reddit is TV Tropes.)  This particular thread is about getting songs stuck in your head, or having other people do it to you on purpose.  Every redditor lists another song, and before you know it, reading the thread is like listening to a jukebox on absurd shuffle, where a toddler with ADD is in charge and you only get 10 seconds before the next song starts.  But even with all that constantly-changing noise, you know what I keep coming back to?

I love it.

Not quite rainbows and puppies, but I’ll take it

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Today was a good day with good things in it.

Thing the first: I wasn’t able to leave work early enough to go for a run before dinner, but I did get out of the office to enjoy the weather a little bit.  I had an appointment in the late morning (quick trim), so I headed out (running late) and rushed over.  Got there just in time.  It was fast, so I felt like I could take some time to myself before going back to the office.  I walked over to Starbucks, picked up an iced chai latte, and sat on a bench with my book for about 15 minutes.  It was SUCH a nice day.  All the trees are still in bloom, I FINALLY saw lots of daffodils, the sky was blue and clear, and the air was warm-ish.  I would have stayed a little longer, but a landscaping company showed up and started making a TON of noise.  It got a lot less peaceful, so I headed back to work.  Just as well, I guess.

Thing the second: My officemate has decided she’s getting too worked up over every little thing, so she’s going to let all those annoyances roll off.   I’m supposed to help her remember that.  It’ll help me remember it, too.  Now we’re listening to soothing sounds on YouTube.  All we need is a palm tree.  (“I just wanna see some paaaalm trees.“)

Thing the third: my friend (and coworker) Stephanie asked me to check on something that hasn’t been working lately, and when we found that it IS working now, she sent this back to me in her emailed reply:

internet high-five

I’m sure it’s not new, but it was exactly what I needed to see, and now I laugh every time I look at it.  (Did I high-five my screen?  Yes.  Yes, I did.  And I might do it again right now.)

Update (8:08pm): I just found out today was National High Five Day.  So many things are clearer now.  Except why, exactly, we have a National High Five Day.  Happy Random Holiday Day!

Dinner!

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I don’t cook much (as most of you know), but for some reason, I feel like what I made tonight for dinner was more like real cooking than the other things I make for dinner.  Patently ridiculous.  I don’t consider salmon, brisket, pasta, stir fry, etc., real?  I even include vegetables when I make those!  Crazy.

Tonight’s meal wasn’t any harder.  I diced onions and a bright orange bell pepper.  Sauteed them in a pot with a little butter.  Added canned red beans and garlic and pepper and a little salt (didn’t need the salt). Tossed in small pieces of already cooked andouille sausage.  Steamed some rice.  Threw it all in a bowl.  It was good.  Why does it feel more like cooking?  Because it took more steps?  Not any more than stir fried vegetables over rice.  It wasn’t exactly healthy.

It was maybe a little satisfying to have it come together so nicely.  But I didn’t enjoy it, no.  I don’t like cooking.  I do not.

Not from concentrate

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Today was not a good day for getting anything complicated done.  Or anything easy, if it took more than 30 seconds.  I’m sure it would have been different if anything had been interesting or on my list of things I want to do.  The music from Pirates of the Caribbean (the film score, not “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me)”) was going through my brain (just that one snippet – dum dum de-de-dum-dum de-de-dum-dum de-de-dum), and I think that was part of the problem.  Maybe if it were longer, I could have focused for longer on one thing.  Instead, I’d get to the end of that one bar, decide I must be done with whatever I was doing, and move on to the next thing.  Except I WASN’T done, and then I didn’t get through the next thing, either, and wouldn’t it be nice if I could just go home and read my book?  I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have had trouble focusing on my book.

On the other hand, I had plenty of bite-size tasks, and today was the perfect day to get those done.

Long Day

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I got home today (tonight) at 9:30.  PM.  It feels later, and I feel like I’ve been away a lot longer, and for some reason I feel greasy.  I need a shower.  I’m pretty sure that’s the humidity.  Today was the first muggy day in months.

I’ve been awake since 5:15.  I think it’s time to end that streak.   I went from boxing to work to an early dinner with John, Molly, and their mom (Molly interviewed with my company this afternoon!), and then straight to meet up with my friends from our neighborhood for about an hour.  We would have stayed out later, but the coffee place kicked us out* at 9, and they all have kids, so we scattered and went home.  It was fun, and today was a pretty good day, but I’m ready to be sleeping.  Shower, then sleep.

*I’d like to say they kicked us out because we were causing a ruckus, but I’d be lying.  They closed.  Hey – we closed that place DOWN.  Four rowdy soccer moms and me.

How many laptops do you think I need?

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I picked today to unsubscribe from all those marketing emails I get every day.  Most were easy – I don’t need to get emails from FansEdge, an online store I ordered something from once and then promptly canceled the order.  I suffered a pang or two over a couple (like Lucky Brand – love those jeans, but I’m not in the market right now.  Unless they start to sell boot cut jeans that aren’t giant flared bellbottoms.  I’m looking for actual boot cut jeans.).  The one I really don’t understand is Lenovo.  I keep getting emails from them.  I bought my laptop from them in December (which is why I’m getting the emails, I know), but AFTER that, they immediately began sending me marketing emails about laptops.  Guys, I JUST bought a laptop from you.  I no longer need one.  I’m not going to buy one.  Back off!

Sleeping until 7am feels sinful

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This whole getting up at 5:15 every morning thing is wearing thin.  I like working out in the morning MUCH more than doing it at night, but 5:15 is just SO EARLY.  I’m 36 years old – I shouldn’t feel like I’m up past my bedtime at 9.  It’s 8:34 right now, and I can feel the anxiety creeping in.  I’d better start getting ready for bed so I can be falling sleep by 9 or a little after.  I know I need about 8 hours every night, but worrying about not getting enough sleep doesn’t exactly help.

Good news, though: the end is in sight.  We just have to make it to August.  We’ll continue getting up this early most mornings as long as we live here and belong to this gym.  The 6am class is the class we can get to before work, with the instructor we like, and the other people we know and like, so we’ll stick it out.  Even if we’re working from home before then.  We might not go that early EVERY day if we’re working from home, but instructor, people, etc.  We’ll do it sometimes.

Once we’re really working from home, we’ll have more control over the work-day schedule.  No commute?  That’s sleep-in time!  No office clothes or office people?  The post-workout shower can wait a bit.  More sleep-in time!

But speaking of sleeping, it’s 8:43 now, and I need to get ready for bed.