howeverbrief: (Temp)
Okay, let's do it.

Read more... )

So, that's it. Now maybe I'll be able to update on some of the other stuff that has been happening, since that has seemed like an endless series of distractions. I'll be back soon to talk about that, I'm sure, but thanks for your patience over the last few entries while I've tried to gather my thoughts about this trip. Overall, it was an experience I won't forget. Under all, life constantly gets in the way.
howeverbrief: (Temp)
Augh, I think this week is going to be crazy, so let's try again...

Read more... )

Two days seems to be my record for the moment. I'll try again later. Thanks for putting up with my short bursts about this trip. Hopefully headed toward done soon.
howeverbrief: (Temp)
Oh good lord, how many days has it been since I said I'd come back and tell more about Iceland? Too many. Let's see how far we can get this time.

Read more... )

As you can see, we packed a lot into all of our days in Iceland, so it's taking much more effort to write about than I anticipated. I'm just glad I kept up on posting pictures. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had a clear timeline on what we did. I will try to come back tomorrow and finish this, mostly because there's a ton going on in real-life, and I ought to clear this before getting to all of that. Let's try tomorrow!
howeverbrief: (Smile)
Maaaan, if I don't at least try to start this, I'm not sure when I'll get to it.

ICELAND TRIP (Insert fanfare here)!
Read more... )

Whew, this is definitely a work in progress, and I'm a little tired and sore at the moment. I will be back with more hopefully soon.
howeverbrief: (Winter)
+Walked almost 40 minutes this morning, which is close to the pace I used to have, because my physical therapist suggested I start trying to take longer strides again.
-Got pretty sunburned in the process.
+Ate delicious food at Villa Basque Deli and Cafe, which doesn't have a proper website but has been up and running for 30 years. Pretty good odds for repeat visits, I'd say.
+Got a steam mop for cleaning the hardwood floors, which was a little spendy but totally a delight to work with. I cleaned the floors in about the time it took to wash a load of clothes, which is a vast improvement considering how much I hate mopping. Would do again.
-The cat food we buy in bulk (specifically, their indoor, advanced age and hairball treatment food that they love) was only being sold in a small bag at the pet store. Mike had to find a way to order some online. First world problems.
+Didn't spend too much on groceries because we were full and didn't have a lot on our list. This might backfire later in the week when we don't know what to have for dinner, but it was nice to save a little money.
+/-It rained. (Plus because it's good for our drought. Minus because it's making all my joints scream.)
-I managed to trip on my computer cord and fall pretty hard on my knees and somehow scrape up the toes on my good foot at the same time. That sucked. Hopefully it won't be too bad tomorrow.
+Mike made sausage and grits for dinner. He's feeling a little better after his endoscopy procedure on Thursday, and it looks promising that he doesn't have Celiac's Disease, though his stomach is inflamed, the doctor took a polyp from the bottom of his esophagus and he might have ulcers. Still waiting for the results on that, but he seems okay if not sore.
+Mike also got a different C-PAP machine which seems to be working better for him and not waking me up as much. So far, so good.
-The ceiling fan in our master bedroom is semi-broken and only works when it wants to right now, which is unfortunate because we can't simultaneously leave the sliding door open at night (which would help with the heat in the room) and set the alarm (which helps calm my anxiety concerning other people). Boo.
-My sister's dog (who I looked after for two years and was a little over eleven years old) died a few days ago from a heart condition. :(
+The laundry just dinged, so that means I can go to bed soon.

And I still haven't updated about our recent vacation to Cedar City, but hopefully I'll get motivated to do so before too many other things happen and I forget. There are at least some nice pictures up on facebook. Shrug.
howeverbrief: (Winter)
I think my last entry touched on anxiety. This is nothing new for me. For some reason, it reminded me about several incidents throughout my life where I've been obsessed with things that scared me, which meant I thought about them all the time even though I knew I was freaked out by them for no reason I could explain. Here's a list of certain movies, songs, and other media that have freaked me out for short periods of time along with anecdotes about each. I almost always end up looking back on these periods and wondering why they had such a strong effect on me, probably because I don't feel that way at all currently. Luckily, I am not as prone to these bouts of anxiety, but as I was reminded earlier in the week, I am not immune to new disturbances cropping up from time to time even now.

Fantasia: Night on Bald Mountain
I loved Fantasia as a kid. Coming from a family who had so much music in their background, I suppose this isn't a surprise. (My father is a near-prodigy at piano, has perfect pitch and plays by ear to this day though he's going deaf; my mother also played piano; all of my siblings had piano lessons, but in addition, my brother has perfect pitch, sang, and played tuba; my older sister played drums; my younger sister plays guitar; and I played flute and clarinet, which I ought to try picking up again one of these days.) My parents tried to instill in all of us an appreciation for all kinds of music, and one of the easiest ways to introduce us to classical music was through Disney. I adored most of Fantasia, from The Nutcracker Suite to Dance of the Hours, because most of it involved happy, dancing animals or other anthropomorphized animals.

Then we got to Night on Bald Mountain, and I would hide in another room. I don't know what it was about the segment, but all the demons running around with the culmination of the devil being revealed set to that music managed to break my little brain every single time. I'd lay awake after watching it and run it over and over in my mind, thinking about how evil it was and how the devil was everywhere waiting to pull me into his grasp. I'd heard about the devil at church, but I think having him represented that way in all his fire and brimstoney glory crystallized something in my brain and stayed with me a long time. I still can't think about it without feeling kind of sheepish about the whole thing, probably because I am not very religious these days.

Toys
My dad had a lot of movies. He tended to buy whatever he thought looked interesting so he could watch it later, which could range from action to drama to comedy. He got to where he wouldn't let my siblings and I watch them until we "checked them out" with him first, but before that, we had pretty much free reign of whatever ended up in the movie cabinet. One of those movies was Toys. With a family history of liking Robin Williams movies (Mrs. Doubtfire, Patch Adams, etc.), it seemed reassuring that he was on the cover, especially in a funny looking hat and under a innocuous sounding title. Boy, was I lulled into a false sense of security. The movie is about an eccentric toymaker who dies and wills his toy factory to his brother, who is a military general. The toymaker's son, played by Robin Williams of course, is more like his father and wishes to see the factory continue to make toys, while the general is very serious and begins to make weapons instead of toys. When Robin William's character decides to fight back against his uncle and storms the factory, my brain broke. I can't find video of the exact scene that gave me anxiety, but here's the trailer.

I have no idea why I found the scene (which involved exploding wind-up toys in a very dark setting) so upsetting. I think it has to do with my strange latent pacifism even as a kid. Through most of my childhood, any time I saw something that involved very overt conflict, even if it wasn't very violent, I would be very uncomfortable. I haven't watched the movie since that time, but watching the trailer makes me think I might find the metaphors and story-telling very ham-handed and ridiculous now. However, I still can't see why this movie was even remotely marketed toward children. Very odd.

Ed Gein
In college, I spent way too much time looking up random stuff on the internet. (That's not to say I've stopped, only that it's slowed way down because I don't have as much time or interest these days.) As I was surfing the web one evening, I ran across a link talking about a documentary that was being made that talked about Ed Gein. Having never heard of him before (and the link saying that this was the man who inspired both Silence of the Lambs and Buffalo Bill in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), I did a search for Ed Gein and was subsequently horrified at what I found.
This might even have been the first site I ran across.
The more I read on various sites about his crimes (necrophilia, skinning, and woman suits, oh my!), capture and trial along with seeing pictures of the crime scene and Ed Gein himself, the more I felt deeply disturbed by it.

However, a few days later, I was barely fazed by it. I've even gone on to read about other serial killers and found their stories fascinating rather than repelling, probably because I have more separation from it now, and these days, Mike and I watch a lot of ID Discovery, which has a lot of true crime stories of a similar nature. Shrug.

GG Allin
Later on, I remember a certain journal I read (who was authored by someone I went on to meet and marry one day ;) ) spent a lot of time talking about various punk bands as well as a man named GG Allin.
GG Allin's Official Site
I spent a couple of nights pouring over GG Allin's story, from his terrible upbringing to videos of him with underage girls on talk shows to his shows where he cut and abused himself in various ways to his death and funeral. It all seemed so crazy to me that I came back to it again and again for a while, trying to understand why someone would live that kind of life. I think I eventually came to the conclusion that I couldn't really understand, though I find it interesting that I never really listened to much of his music, which was disturbing enough, though that's why I went searching in the first place. It's probably better that youtube wasn't as active back then or I might have gotten more into his music. I find it funny that I've had dreams about GG Allin since Mike has moved in, though, because my subconscious remembers somehow. Heh.

EDIT: And Mike just played me a GG Allin song, and I had to laugh at the whole thing, so I guess I'm cured. ;)

I've had several minor obsessions since then, though most of those are situational rather than media-based. For example, I was very weirded out by Carnival's 'Poop Cruise' last year, maybe because I kept thinking about how horrible that would be to experience. I also was very horrified by Robert Swift's foreclosed mansion, again because I couldn't imagine how someone would allow that kind of situation to happen or understand why anyone would destroy such a beautiful home and life. However, these stories also tend to take on a flavor of the week, as my obsession with them is short-lived and I'm easily distracted after a few days, which is good. I don't know what I'd do if I had to live with these odd obsessions all the time, and I'm glad they eventually are overtaken by daily concerns and life.

Obsession: Dark Desires
Still, like I said when I began, I am still vulnerable to these feelings, and I was reminded of this earlier this week. Mike and I watched an episode of Obsession: Dark Desires the other evening, and even though it's a stupid TV show in that soft-documentary style that has the victim telling her story to the camera with reenactments of what happened to her played by ridiculous actors, I was scandalized.
I like what you've done
I don't know if it was the woman's craziness, her stalking or the story of what happened to her victim in general (or the fact that this runs parallel to my own sister's stalker killing himself recently, which brought up a host of anxiety-triggering memories from years ago), but I ended the evening telling Mike that I never wanted to watch that show again. That was probably an overreaction in retrospect, though I don't really feel like I need to see more shows about stalking. I'm still feeling kind of jittery about it, but I'm sure that feeling will go away.

If memory serves, it all does eventually.
howeverbrief: (Smile)
INSTRUCTIONS: Take the first sentence or two (or a paragraph because I don't always follow the rules) from the first post of each month of 2012. That's your year in review.

JANUARY: Around the first of the year, I always have the year-end meme I've been doing for however long now at the forefront of my mind; so I never really say what happened on New Years because I would rather start off on a good foot journalisticly. I don't know if this ever really works.

FEBRUARY: Session officially starts Monday. I'm going in at 3:00 today and working until question mark. Then I'm going in tomorrow at 11:00 (or earlier depending on how much work we have) until question mark, predicted leave time of after midnight. Monday will probably be an early day as well. Hopefully I get next Saturday off, more so the one after that since it's my anniversary with Mike. Sigh.

MARCH: I was shocked to learn yesterday that I got this whole weekend off. We have to go in at 7:00 on Monday, but they didn't have enough work to have us come in on Sunday. So I texted my mom, and she let the guy who offered to fix my door know that I was free. He's coming tomorrow at 10:00, so hopefully I'll have a deadbolt by the afternoon so I can stop leaving the couch in front of the door, which is a little annoying but necessary for my peace of mind at the moment.

APRIL: April is usually the month where I try to post a poem a day. I am going to go ahead and say I probably won't do that this month. With session being what it is and deadlines looming in the near future, I'm not sure I'll have time to think about poetry in the way I want to. That's just the way it goes, I guess. I'll probably still try to get to it now and then, but it won't be a daily barrage of poetry. I'm sure you're all devastated. Haha. Nah, it's mostly a personal exercise I try to do, but this year doesn't seem very conducive to it.

MAY: It's been a pretty slow week. I've only had six hours of overtime total. Compared to last week, it's a damn vacation. But seriously, it's always hard to go from working that much to barely having anything to do. Sure, I always have projects on the back burner to tackle, but considering my project at the moment is reading statutes that were passed before I was born, I haven't been very engaged in what I'm doing, even if it is better than doing nothing at all. It's either work like a maniac or be bored to death in that job. Ah, even if it's not sustainable, I'd rather just have steady work all the time. Makes the day go by faster, even if it's a long one.

JUNE: I uh... Wow.

First off, there's this. (Link pointed to information about the end of session and the special session we were forced to have. Ugh.)

JULY: On the way back to the hotel after eating at Vernon's Hidden Valley Steakhouse (a speakeasy-themed steakhouse where we had an awkward experience at the bar but a very tasty meal), I had this conversation.

"I think I'm drunk on steak."
"Oh, well I hope not. I wouldn't want to steak advantage of you."

AUGUST: So uh, the big project that I said was going to send us into overtime at work a little before or after the wedding in September? The one I was trying to plan the wedding around because planning a wedding is stressful enough without working overtime?

SEPTEMBER: FIVE DAYS! ZOMG MY BRAIN IS ONLY WEDDING STUFF.

OCTOBER: Hey, we finagled some pictures out of the photographer (that is to say, she was nice enough to put some up for us even though she's said it's going to take two to three months to sort through and edit our pictures); so maybe we can get our thank you cards out soon. I'm pretty excited about that, probably because once that's done, I can stop thinking about how ungrateful we are... haha.

NOVEMBER: I'm doing okay. The surgery went well, and I've been mostly taking pills, eating, watching TV, and falling asleep while watching said TV during the day. Mike's been really sweet and helpful over the last two days, and I'm very grateful he's around. It hasn't been too bad considering. I haven't even really taken all the pain pills I could have, though I'm still taking a bit too much hydrocodone for my liking (mostly because it's making me very sleepy and dizzy and I'd like to get away from that soon). I take the recommended doses during the day and let it lapse at night so I don't have to get up any more than I already do when I'm supposed to be sleeping. Seems to be working out fine.

DECEMBER: Ah, okay. I got back from Utah yesterday, and Mike left for Livermore soon after. I have an entry on our Thanksgiving weekend, but it can wait until I'm less tired (which hopefully isn't too long from now or I'll never get it done). I also feel like I'm getting sick, but I'm hoping that's just a combination of hypochondria and my teeth still being messed up, though my new nephew and niece were both sick the whole time I was there (boo). I'm taking Cold-eez just in case, for whatever that's worth.

It's been quite the year. I'd say more, but I'm currently visiting New Mexico until the first. Hopefully 2014 will get rid of this obstinate sinus infection, but we'll see. Other than that, it hasn't been too bad lately. I hope you're all doing very well. Sorry for not keeping up better. I'll try to work on that this coming year.

Formatting

Aug. 6th, 2013 10:25 pm
howeverbrief: (Skull)
1. I:
(a) Picked out flowers today.
(b) Am still working way too much.
(c) Miss sitting and writing at home.
(d) Have so much left to do even if a lot is already finished.
(e) Stay up way too late for being this exhausted.
(f) Keep perpetuating this cycle and wondering when it'll change.
2. NRS formatting demands there be a "2." to every "1." I can't think of a 2., so here's this nonsense instead. Also I could have just made it a normal list, but I liked this better. There's some useless information for you about how I spend my time lately.

And I should be in bed asleep right this second because I have to get up in seven hours, but I'll probably lay awake for another hour or two. Isn't that how it always works? Whatever kind of insomnia this is, is kicking my ass.
howeverbrief: (Temp)
-Did laundry after I got home on Friday
-Slight tidying up
-Picked up Mike from the airport

-Woke up to one of Mike's customers long before we should have
-Made eggs with mozzarella-parmesan mix, red bell pepper and peperoncinis with sausage and tortillas
-Took a walk and got sunburned because I stupidly didn't want to put on sunscreen. Boooo
-Took a nap then got ready to leave
-Drove up to Reno to visit this cheese shop Mike found to try to get some bread cheese (we didn't because they were out but bought some pretty tasty cheese and crackers anyway)
-Had pizza from JJ's Pie Co. with my parents and siblings for mother's day, very enjoyable
-Shopped at Rayley's for three weeks worth of food and supplies (ugh)
-Drove back to my house and watched part of an episode of "Wives with Knives" (which is another one of those silly ID true crime shows that tells you exactly how every show will end in the title but you end up watching it anyway)

-Made eggs with peperoncinis, leftover pepper flakes from the pizza and 5-year old cheddar from the cheese shop for Mike and poured myself a bowl of Life cereal mixed with multigrain Cheerios, which just made me jealous of the breakfast I made for Mike even if I was trying to be healthy
-Hung out on the internet while Mike took orders from his customers, watched the rest of "Wives with Knives"
-Put together and ate a cheese board with the cheeses we bought at the cheese shop-- the cheddar, a buffalo milk cheese, a triple cream and some morel-leek jack I had in the fridge along with black pepper crackers, celery crackers, raspberries, blackberries and some non-alcoholic pear cider. WOOF, so good.
-Hung out some more, laid around while Mike waited for the last of his customers to call before cutoff
-Showered, got dressed and drove back to Reno
-Tried to find a sushi bar I'd been to many times but ended up at Sushi Minato instead. Glad we did because it was not only empty in there but they also served really awesome minimalist sushi, which is kind of hard to find in Reno's vast sea of all-you-can-eat restaurants. A+ would go again
-Cried at the airport and most of the way home :(

The next three weeks are going to be incredibly long. I'm not looking forward to it.
howeverbrief: (Black)
I've had a pretty good day today. I woke up around 8 after going to bed early. Well, let me back up. I went to dinner with my brother and sister. Then I drove home and decided to get into bed rather than turning on my laptop, which lead to me going to bed around 10:30 rather than staying up too late, so that's why I woke up at 8.

After laying around for a little while, I managed to get the following done before noon:
-Cleaned 2 bathrooms, including toilets
-Scooped the cat boxes (well, only one box actually because they only used one for some reason? not sure why)
-Replaced the air filters
-Shook out my rugs and hung them on the balcony to air out
-Took a half hour walk and picked up the mail

I haven't been as productive since then, mostly because once I came back from my walk and sat down, I didn't really want to do anything. I dragged myself to Target and Rayley's anyway, spent a little too much money, and came home to take a shower and do laundry. Other than talking to Mike a few times (which I also really enjoyed), I haven't done much since. Also chili cheese dogs. And yeah.

I think I tend to enjoy these days the most during session, mostly because after I haven't had a whole day off in a long while, every moment not at work tends to feel amazing. Hell, even having nights off feels great after working several 13-15 hour shifts. It gets old; it's totally not sustainable; but the paychecks are great. Same old story.

Still, days like these are definitely excellent. It's nice to have an actual weekend and not have to cram everything into a day or even half a day. So it goes.

It's kind of funny, because I had a story I meant to relay before this latest crazy stretch of work. The weekend before I started, I ended up losing my claddagh ring, which is really special to me because my aunt gave it to me (and I tend to attach symbolism to these kinds of things). I've been wearing it since just after I went to Ireland for the first time. Anyway, I couldn't remember what I'd done after I got home other than cleaning up cat puke and taking off my rings to wash the dishes. Well, between a visit from my mom and talking to Mike, I still couldn't find the ring. I had pretty much given up after tearing the house apart, losing (then finding) an earring back, and doing my other night chores. I sighed and checked the trash one more time, which I thought had just a paper towel in it from cleaning up the puke, and there it was.

I only mention this because the next day, I randomly decided to clean the pantry and baking cupboard, which meant the trash I had searched ended up full of random food that had expired. Very lucky indeed.

Anyway, that's probably enough of my rambling about productivity for now.
howeverbrief: (Black)
INSTRUCTIONS: Take the first sentence or two from the first post of each month of 2012. That's your year in review.

JANUARY: Start the year with a gigantic smile on your face. Laugh.

FEBRUARY: (In response to the Writer's Block question: Who is your look-alike?)
Hmm. While this hasn't happened recently (not counting the store clerk a few months back who went, "You look like, oh, she was in that movie with the thing and you know? Aw, I can't remember"), I've been compared to two people the most often. I don't think either is particularly spot-on, but whatever.

MARCH: So I've been having stomach issues on and off for almost two weeks now. I told my mom about it, and she told me to stop eating salads for a few days to see if it helps.

APRIL: (Also a response to a Writer's Block question on April Fool's Day. Guess I did a fair amount of those.)
I always think April Fool's Day is kind of silly. For the most part, I don't play pranks on other people.

MAY: "So--"
The question becomes
what I haven't said versus
what I haven't done
-May 2, 2012

JUNE: Oy. I like how even on weekends I call lazy, I get a fair amount of stuff done-- laundry, vacuuming, shaking out rugs, cleaning cat boxes, spot cleaning, running the dish washer, and grocery shopping.

JULY: Made it back home about an hour ago. Kind of sad that I haven't made it to bed yet, though.

AUGUST: I occasionally write in my paper journal still. Not nearly as much as I write here (which also isn't much of anything lately), but I thought I'd post it here too, slightly edited.

I watched a program (this program for those who are curious) that detailed the story of a mathematician (George R. Price) who, upon learning of evolutionary theory applied to social behavior, subsequently discovered a theorem that proves altruism is a trait strictly devoted to survival.

SEPTEMBER: Here's the dumb song I was just singing to the phone.

OCTOBER: I found out a week ago yesterday about the paralegal position. The head counsel who was on the interview panel (and who almost never comes down our hallway) came to give me the news in person.

NOVEMBER: And now, the moment you've been waiting for, my massive entry on my trip to Ireland with Mike!

DECEMBER: "What toothpaste are you?"

One day you find out,
after all those years of believing otherwise,
you squeeze the toothpaste from the
middle, and fool yourself later by
squeezing the remains to the top.
You stand motionless, wondering
what this says about your life--
while life continues to flow around you
unabated.
-November 7, 2012

Seeing how little I wrote this year is kind of a shock. I don't know if that'll get any better, especially with session sneaking up on me. Ahh, session. We have our first deadline on the 20th, and our boss has already warned us that we'll probably be at work until 1 or 2 in the morning. Oh well. It's ok. Just hard to get used to again.

Get over it! There's not much left of this year anyway (and there's only two weeks until Christmas? weird). Got to keep it up! Snap snap!
howeverbrief: (Default)
Today I:
-Shoveled the driveway and porch (4-ish inches, I think, though it was melting as I was shoveling)
-Took a walk in snow drifts (took almost twice as long as usual)
-Cleaned the master bathroom
-Did a quick sweep and vacuum of the floor
-Started laundry
-Took a shower

Whew, that's really not that much now that I've written it out. I guess I'd better get used to this trying-to-jam-everything-into-one-day-off thing again. Looks like we're headed back into overtime, and this might be the last full weekend (other than Thanksgiving) I see for a while. It's back to deadlines and wondering how long the day will be. Right now it's only a mandatory 9-hour day, which isn't too bad, plus it's more money and/or time off later and all that jazz. It's okay. Just need to not get too anxious about it. I ought to figure out my Christmas gifts really quick, though. Hmph.

Oh well. I'm really tempted to drink hot chocolate and watch cartoons the rest of the day. Probably because this is stuck in my head:



Wait, now it's this:



Ah, screw it. Maybe I will.
howeverbrief: (Default)
Things I want to pick up again (a truncated list):
-Clarinet
-Drawing
-Painting
-Writing (quantitatively and qualitatively)
-Walking after work

Things that are possible:
-All of the above

Things that I can keep up for an extended period of time (especially given the amount of time I have):
-Remains to be seen

Things that are basically useless skills:
-Oh right, that.

Anyway. I should have been in bed twenty minutes ago so I can get up and exercise/pretend to be healthy before work, but it's such a nice night with the windows all open. I'm thinking too much. Reality's kind of hard to get back into after a nice weekend. Also my neck hurts, but that's besides the point. I'll probably hate myself for this in the morning. Oh well. So it goes.

Yep. Good night.

Index Fun

Mar. 7th, 2012 06:02 pm
howeverbrief: (Smile)
I would have posted this sooner, but I came home to cat litter everywhere and puke on my bed. Thanks, kitties. You're like living with tiny binge drinkers sometimes.

So, I spent the morning formatting a chapter on insurance, which just about bored me to death. Still, that's not even the most boring thing I do. I'm pretty sure that prize goes either to scanning old documents (ugh...) or proofing indices of old statutes from years past. At least the chapter was about something useful, even if it didn't mean much to me. An index consists of all "Such and such, 1253," or something to that effect, and yes, it has to be read word for word because that's what I do a lot of the time.

The index I'm working on probably runs over a hundred pages, so I have to find ways to make it entertaining and/or keep myself awake. Most of the time, I ask questions about the numbers-- either, is this number cool (usually no), or if the number reads like a year, can I remember anything from history that happened that year? (I've figured out from playing the later that I don't remember very much about historical dates, if anything at all, which is kind of embarrassing.)

Still, every once in a while, the index will make me laugh inadvertently, probably because strange headings end up listed close together, a like so:

Prophylactics
Prostitution
Protection and advocacy, office of
Prowling
Psychologists


And...

Racing commission, Nevada
Racketeering
Radar guns and similar devices
Radiation control
Radio
Railroads
Rape


Ba haha. Sounds like a couple of good episodes of SVU to me. What, you don't compare things at your work to a sometimes violent network criminal drama about sexual crimes? Okay, fine. Maybe something's wrong with me. Don't judge! I'm sure you all have weird ways of staying alert at work, too. ;)

Anyway, I should probably go find something to eat besides string cheese and tortillas. Real healthy-like.
howeverbrief: (Smile)
So... While I'm waiting around and watching tv, here are the answers to seven questions tabular_rasa asked me. If you like, comment and I'll ask you seven questions. Otherwise, yeah, just read what I wrote. Haha.

How do you keep track of things you need to get done? (Like a planner, electronic planner, calendar, in your head, etc). Are you usually good at keeping track?
I make a lot of lists and am forever planning things. Most of this happens in my head first, where it usually stays unless I have a lot to accomplish and can't remember all of it. If it's overly complicated or has too many steps to juggle in my head, I have to have something tactile right in front of me to remind me of what I need to do so I can tick off the things I've completed. What's funny is I haven't really been able to make personal planners work for me, though. I try using a calendar (my real estate agent even sent me one of those handy pocket ones this year), but I forget to check it. I think I have to physically sit down and write plans that aren't too far in advance or I'll either get really obsessive over minor details or forget them altogether. Odd. I think I'm pretty good at it, but my system is far from perfect. There are still days I'll annoy myself if I forget to do things.

Provided they do not encounter an unusual amount of dirt or have something spilled on them, generally how many times do you wear a pair of pants before washing them? What's your record?
Hmm... This depends on whether we're talking my work pants or my casual pants. I don't generally get too dirty at work, so I don't mind wearing them more than once. I'll usually wear them two or three times before I wash them, and that's because I have several pairs I can switch out before I hit the two week mark. I don't like to go more than two weeks between washing those. The longest I went without washing those pants was maybe three weeks when I was waiting for my washer and dryer to be delivered when I first moved in here.

Actually, now that I think about it, it isn't all that different with my casual pants because I don't have many reasons to wear them these days. Those usually only get one or two wearings before I'm doing laundry again. It seems silly to me to not wash something if I'm already doing laundry. I think my record for the longest without washing a pair of jeans is around the same, but that's because I was being lazy.

Have you ever gotten food poisoning? Describe.
Oh, this might be gross. Sorry! My stomach runs the gamut from being made of steel (I've eaten hot dogs weeks past their expiration date and other unmentionable food and not had a problem) to being stupid and weak at the dumbest things (usually something harmless I can't even remember eating). When I've had food poisoning, usually everything just heads south (if you want the less graphic description, haha). I very rarely vomit from food poisoning. That's normally something that happens if I consume too much alcohol. However, I must say I think one of the worst hangovers I've ever had was coupled with food poisoning. Have you ever had half-digested pineapple juice make a hasty exit and burn your throat on the way up? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.

What are the best and worst parts about living in Nevada? (Since if I can ever submit the damn application, I might end up living there for a time!).
That application sounds like it sucks! Anyway, hmm...

Best! I like a lot about Nevada, actually. The south is different (in fact, I've still never made it down to Vegas), but the landscape up here in the north is pretty cool. I really like being surrounded by mountains, which are usually very pretty and covered in a thin layer of snow most of the time. While I've visited and liked other places, I almost always end up missing the mountains. Actually, the way the horizon ends in places that are flat really creeps me out for some reason.

I also really like the way the rain smells in the desert. Sagebrush can be a pain in the ass up here (especially during allergy season), but it smells amazing right after it rains, especially since it rains so seldomly around here.

Worst! This state is so damned small. Seriously. I can't go anywhere without running into someone who either knows me or my family or knows someone I know, and it's not always for a good reason. I don't mind it most of the time, but it gets annoying.

What is something you've never done but people generally assume you have?
Correct other people's grammar in conversation. I correct myself a lot (mostly because I'm a weird perfectionist and sometimes I say things differently than I'd like), but I don't like correcting other people. This assumption has been rampant since I started studying English, and it only gets worse if people find out I'm a proofreader. The only time I'll say something is if I need clarification or didn't understand you.

Truthfully, it bothers me when all people care about is correcting other people's language. My dad, who writes dictionaries and is a language nerd in general, does it all the time, and I don't think it's useful. It annoys me even more when people try to dissect my language, mostly because I think if you understood what I was saying, the communication was successful. I believe getting your message across is the point, not how correctly you say it.

Look, I know the rules. I just don't care that much. Don't try to out-language me.

Who was the worst teacher you ever had, and what made them so terrible?
While I might have had some terrible teachers in college, I think my fourth grade teacher still stands head and shoulders above the rest. Ms. Weaver was a chain-smoking broad in maybe her seventies. Well, I don't know how old she was, but she seemed ancient to me. Haha. I think she remembered teaching the parents of some of the kids in my class, which wasn't unusual given our rural community actually. What made her so bad was she had no control over our class (even though there were maybe 15-16 kids in there), and she sent some of my classmates to the principal's office every day. I don't remember learning anything, just how stressful the whole year was and the time a classmate climbed onto the roof of the school to avoid going to the office for the day. Ugh.

Type out or provide a link to a favorite recipe!
Cheesy baked pasta with spinach and artichokes!

I totally got this out of a magazine a few years ago. It's really easy to put together and always delicious!
howeverbrief: (Ink)
Hmm... A few things--

1. I'm no scientist. You all know that. Still, this is getting on my nerves a bit. About a year ago, when it was snowing a lot all over the country, a fair number of people I'm friends with on facebook posted about how all the cold temperatures and inclement weather somehow disproved global warming. Now that we're facing one of the oddest and warmest winters we've had in quite a while (seriously, I shouldn't be able to walk outside in just a sweatshirt this time of year), I don't see anyone talking about it beyond, "What warm weather we're having." Yeah, because extreme temperature shifts from year to year don't point to something being massively wrong with our ecosystem. Of course not!

2. My house smells like coffee. Why did I buy coffee when I don't drink it or have a coffee maker? I have secrets!

3. I'm looking forward to Mike's visit on Wednesday through President's day, but I'm also very nervous about it. Mike my out-of-state friend, not Mike my brother. Who's Mike? Am I ever going to explain how we met or why he's coming here? Uh... There aren't a whole lot of ways I can tell that story without coming off as a weird creep, so I don't know. (EDIT: Well, to be fair, why he's coming is pretty cute, so I might make an attempt later on. ;) I'm still pretty awesome, though. It's all fine.

I thought I had more, but I've run out of things to say. That's okay. Three is a magic number, you know. At least, School House Rock seemed to think so.

Anyway, my relative muteness might be from my cleaning bonanza yesterday, which left me tired, sore and devoid of motivation this morning. Woo hoo. I still managed to finish cleaning and go grocery shopping today, though, so that's a plus. Still, I think I'm going to go sit around and watch TV until it's time to make dinner. I've done enough this weekend. Time to lazy it up before I have to go back to work tomorrow. What are Sundays for anyway?
howeverbrief: (Black)
Hm. Here are a few memorable New Years Eve celebrations from years past.

2000: I remember staying up late with my best friend at the time. We watched Carson Daly's take on New Years on MTV, if I remember right. (And now he does the mainstream show? Odd.) Y2K was a big deal. Like a lot of people, I think we mostly stayed up to see if any weird stuff would happen-- planes falling out of the sky and electronics suddenly malfunctioning and whatever else had been predicted in the mass media hysteria. Of course nothing did, and beyond saying happy new year, that was pretty much it. (I think the process repeated the next year only without the Y2K fears, and it was somehow supposed to be more important because I was graduating that year. It just ended up being boring. Meh.)

Sophomore year of college: I was living in my first apartment with Aurora and our tweaker roommates. (I guess I shouldn't call them that, but damn it, I really disliked them and their stupid druggie friends.) My mom came to town with lobsters they gave her at the casino, and we hung out with her for a little while before venturing downtown to watch fireworks. We pre-gamed with alcohol we somehow had on hand, but I don't think either of us felt it all that much given the cold and the usual vast crowd of characters that gather downtown for such events. (Could be wrong. I was 20, and hangovers weren't near as bad in those days.) We stood under the Reno Arch (or maybe Circus Circus, can't recall which downtown excursion that was), which was kind of cool, but the fireworks were kind of boring; people were generally drunk and rude; and we came home to one of our roommate's friends puking in our common area. We thought it was the worst thing ever. For a while after that, when something bad happened, Aurora and I would just shrug at each other and say, "Well, there's always next year."

Senior year of college: My aunts were in town. I went up to my sister's house to be with the family (though I don't think my dad was there), and I was irritated that I couldn't drink that much in front of them. I kept sneaking into the garage to shotgun shitty beer with my older sister and wandering back in to see if anyone noticed. Pretty lame thing to get mad about in retrospect. I just really wanted to be bombed for some reason.

Somewhere between then and now: It was snowing. There was bargain wine and a hot tub. Neither of us was sure of the time, and fireworks just went off above Reno with magic to spare.

Last year: I was exhausted from just starting to work overtime at my new job and commuting 40 minutes each way every day. My mom came into town to visit my younger sister and I, and my brother came over with champagne. He was really anxious about opening that champagne. "Can I open it now? Should I open it now? What do you think?" Drove me crazy. Finally at 4 minutes to midnight, he couldn't take it any more and popped it open. We almost missed the fireworks because he had trouble, but we toasted anyway. Then, with everyone being tired, we all shuffled off to bed an hour later.

This year: Well, I said I wasn't going to do anything today, but I ended up taking a walk, cleaning parts of my house, putting away various Christmas presents, doing laundry (because you have to do laundry to have clean sheet day!), and taking down the Christmas tree. Now I'm exhausted, and it's not even 9:00 yet. I was thinking about trying to see if there was anything going on in Carson City, but given how small the town is, I doubt anything is happening (though I was surprised by the fireworks on the 4th of July earlier this year). I just wasn't in the mood to go up to Reno and... what, fight the drunkards downtown? Watch fireworks from my younger sister's balcony and drive her crazy? Go to my brother's block party and watch him drink with his friends who make fun of him if he attempts to drink water even though he assured me he "doesn't want to get too drunk"? Yeah, pass. I'll probably watch fireworks on TV and go to bed after that unless my insomnia kicks in. I feel like I should want to do something, but I have no desire or motivation. Oh well. I'm just uber-lame this year, I guess. Par for the course, really.

Anyway, that was a nice little cross-section of New Years Eves. I don't give much credence to this holiday and never really have (though a few years ago when I made resolutions, I actually did very well with them, which surprised me). It is interesting to watch the year tick by, I suppose, but ultimately, these little signposts don't mark that much for me. It's the beginning of the calendar year. Not a heck of a lot more. Hopefully this year isn't rough, though. I have somewhat illogical superstitions about even years, but that's an entirely different story.

Barring any strange happenings, I'll see you in 2012. Hope you have a great one. <3
howeverbrief: (Default)
A selection of things I've thought about today:

-Sure are a lot of ones and twos in the date today. Hmm...

-Spent my workday proofing a NAC chapter on hazardous chemicals (and I'm still not done with it because it's over 300 pages long, arg). I saw several sections devoted to reporting people who had been exposed to radiation, which lead me to wonder how much of the very dry stuff I was reading was inspired by science fiction and vice versa. Oh no! You'd better watch out! He could turn into the Hulk!
This is similar to when I was reading about highly contagious diseases and found some sections that seemed to talk about preparing for mass viral outbreaks... which just lead me to think about the zombie apocalypse. I may or may not be reading way too much into things (or I'm just really creative at entertaining myself sometimes).

-I collect nutcrackers. This stems back to my childhood when we used to go see The Nutcracker while visiting my Aunt every Christmas. I think I also won a book version of it for a "Dear Santa" letter one year, but I vaguely remember that.
My reasons don't really matter. It usually weirds people out anyway. The conversations I've had with dudes usually go like this:
"Oh, you collect those? They're kind of creepy."
"Meh. I like them."
"Is there some sort of hidden meaning behind those?"
I usually brush this off, but really, I think the only correct answer is, "No. Do you want there to be?"
Menacingly!

-My tree is really pathetic. It has all of five ornaments on it. I also hung the silly stockings I got for the cats on it. (Oh, and those jerks knocked their presents off the table while I was at work today. Good thing they were sealed really well.) It only looks good when it's lit. There are some gifts under it, though! I finally finished my wrapping, which is a relief, and I brought home some of the gifts my coworkers gave me. Pretty sweet. I feel weird about that because some of my coworkers have already opened presents, but I still tend to wait until Christmas to open stuff. You know, unless someone sends me something in the mail. Ha.

-Wasn't there something I was supposed to do today? Oh yeah! I'm supposed to figure out when I can take time off. I like how this is something I can forget until the last second if I'm not careful. Wait, not really. I'm just absentminded sometimes. I was bored all day, and I still didn't think about it until about 4:00. Oh well. I'm thinking about blowing off Tuesday already because why the hell not? Might have some other plans coming together too. Got to talk to some people.

-I wasted a lot more time thinking about what to have for dinner, probably because all I packed for lunch was carrot sticks. (I had soup already in my office because session teaches you to always have food on hand for long days. I was just too lazy to make a sandwich this morning. Well, and I was running late because I had some trouble getting out of bed.) I settled on a tuna melt made with this weird spicy mayo mix I found. Okay, plan made, but I still haven't gotten around to actually doing it even though I've been home for an hour. Fail.

-Um... There was other stuff, but it must not be important. I'm tired because I've been going to bed late. Oops. I should try to remedy that. Easy enough to say now. Ask me where I stand on that issue at 10:00. Bleh. Okay, enough. Time to go actually find something to eat instead of procrastinating for no reason.

EDIT: Oh, also this. Haha.
howeverbrief: (Default)
Oy, okay. Today:

-Woke up a few times during the night and hit the snooze button several times this morning instead of exercising.
-Began the day reading numbers out loud for a few hours and am now semi-hoarse... AGAIN. (shoots self)
-It was way too damn hot in the office all flippin' day (seriously, it's usually cold, which I can deal with, but even the people who are always cold were complaining). I was pretty light-headed and almost passed out a few times, fun!
-Ate way too much at the delicious potluck instead of walking on my lunch break like I usually do (and stupid hormones are making me feel like I'm a zillion pounds, which is totally a technical number).
-Two coworkers had their last day; one left at 2:00, and the other left around 3:00.
-Spent some time after the first left thinking about how it could have been me leaving and starting to have a panic attack over how lucky I am to still be employed, but then--
-Between the two departures, another coworker started having heart palpitations and slurring her words and was transported to the hospital.
-Did more work after that, though I don't remember a lot of it (and some other coworkers said they were glad I was staying).
-Eventually got to come home, am now completely devoid of energy and don't want to do anything much less sew, though I'm not completely hopeless on time before Christmas yet.

Too much, man. Too much.

Oh well. There's always tomorrow!
howeverbrief: (Black)
I'm too tired to think. Somehow, I'm okay with this. I have a lot I should try to tackle before it gets worse, but I have no energy to care.

I'm mostly sitting here thinking of silly things to post as my status and how unproductive that is. What the hell kind of person lives their life through status messages? Actually, I didn't have my computer on all day, and I didn't miss it all that much. I just felt bad for being disconnected when I saw the top story on my homepage concerning the massive earthquake in Turkey. It's been a bad couple of years for earthquakes. Sad.

I did manage to do the following last night and today, though--
-cleaned house
-finished laundry and changed bedsheets
-washed blankets
-wiped down the stove
-grocery shopped
-picked up a few housewares and things for the cats
-hunted for a yellow or pink sweater for my Halloween costume (though unsuccessful and I'm still not sure if I'll get to wear it)
-knitted
-took a walk and lifted weights (which freakin' hurt but it's cool)

This weekend is pretty much shot, but I'm looking forward to next weekend. It'll be better than this one day off and some change business I've been doing for a while now. I just have to get through this week. It's hard to be all that positive when I know tomorrow is going to be hideous, though. Maybe life will prove my pessimistic ass wrong.

There are a few things I want to say, but I stop myself right before I say them. The feelings are there. They're always there. I can't do anything about them. It doesn't matter now.

All right, enough. I'm going to go make lasagna for my one true love. Just a little joke there. Ha.

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howeverbrief: (Default)
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