She Likes It

sunset

the end of the day
Alki Beach - Aug. 09

So here it is, the end of 6 months of unemployment. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a job. No, just the coming end of the dole. Hopefully, the Obama's plan will work for me and I'll get 5 more months leeway, but I just sent off the application, so there are no guarantees there.

One would think that not having to trudge off to the salt mines everyday would be awesome, and in some ways it has been. No getting up early. No needing to get on the bus at 7 a.m. to sit in some cubicle for some ridiculous task. No needing to work through hangovers or just tired days. Yes, that part has been nice. However, applying for jobs and not getting many responses and worrying about the end of the dole and not having a steady income anymore is quite stressful. Put that on top of personal things such as the cat refusing to go in the litter box and having the new kitty scratching up every exposed skin surface and yadda yadda yadda, the past six months have been anything but the bliss that I've imagined it would be.

I'm not depressed, no, I'm not saying that, for those that may be concerned. But it is true that I get in moods...and yes, I am in one now. It's just very frustrating to not get what you want, despite the efforts that you put into it. Sometimes it's just hard not to think that everyone else has what you want. Oh sure, there are the choices I've made that have resulted in exactly the place I am, but that's cold comfort...and so, I'm self-medicating with a very large gin and tonic while the kitties doze in their post-dinner food coma.

I'm also quite sad that the pool that I just started going to 2-3 weeks ago is closing for the season this weekend, the very weekend that I'll be wandering around Seattle's music festival discovering new (to me) and fantastic bands. Bittersweet, I think is the correct word.

I still want to go to India on a trip.
I still am hoping to go to France next summer.
I am still hoping to get a job that I'm actually interested in.

These are the things I'm focusing on at the moment. Everything else can - in the words of a friend - crawl up my ass and die. Is that harsh? Perhaps, but I have only had one swallow of my drink and am still a little agitated. I suspect somewhere at the bottom of my glass and towards the end of the queued up Will Farrell movie, I'll have recovered.

funky chicken

Sunk
Seattle, WA - August 2009

I know I've typed quite a bit about how I've been staying home and saving money, but every now and then we need to get out and enjoy some of the things we used to do quite frequently. So, we went to Tiki Night at Vessel - or rather Tiki Afternoon.  Had some fine cocktails made by the visiting bartender and our favorite, Keith.  Even drank one out of a pineapple.  It's funny to be all buzzed up early on a Sunday afternoon, so strange to walk out of a cocktail bar in the searing light of day. I highly recommend...but not every weekend, that would be bad.

Monkey man is still zooming around the apartment annoying Cassie and generally getting into all sorts of mischief. Like any young thing in an apartment of old crankies, I think he is bored by our general lack of energy.  Maybe if he'd vacuum or do the dishes, he'd understand, but, like his older feline companion, he refuses to engage in anything productive. The nerve! 

Speaking of productivity, I have still not found gainful employment, however, did have an interview for a job last week that I'd like to have.  They said they'd let me know in 2-3 weeks. I fear that is not a good sign. Oh well, the search continues. In the meantime, I am going to a MAST class this weekend and maybe I can get a part-time job as a server or a cocktailer somewheres. This is my back-up plan. Better to be serving others instead of being served and draining away our meager funds. At least this is the logic I pose to Companion Cube who has so far been very good and not freaked out about the idea that I have 4 weeks left of unemployment benefits.

In other news, one of my dear friends has sent me sonogram pictures of his baby and another has been tooling around Italy for a few weeks. Guess which one has sent me into fits of jealousy.

I am supposed to be - meaning I've tasked myself with - making a pie crust for the cherry pie I want to make tomorrow.  I am procrastinating because, well, it's just more fun to shoot the shit out of zombies. I mean, I've already talked about how some of my fellow apartment dwellers are so lazy that they'd rather sit there and sleep and purr instead of rinsing a dish or fucking two. Okay, so maybe the spoon in the sink is the only thing they've collectively dirtied, but mamma needs a new pair of shoes break. Deadbeat moochers. Harumph.

I think a trip to the range is in order. What do you say?

I could get used to this

window flare
Paris, France - March 1991

So, week four is here and rather than getting antsy about being home a lot, I find that I have really begun to enjoy my time at home. I have read three books and am in the middle of two more. I have started to play xbox online. I bought a new bike. I started (with the companion cube) yoga. I go to the grocery store and make dinner and am generally content with not really asserting myself when it comes to finding a job.  There, I said it. I suppose my severance is going to dwindle down to nothing and I'll be struggling to go on drinking benders on just my unemployment check, but for right now things are good.

Tomorrow I will apply for jobs. I promise.

A friend of mine lent me the book Eat, Pray, and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I have been thoroughly enjoying it.  Even so much as to be laughing out loud while the Companion Cube cursed at the computer in frustration - probably didn't help with whatever his problem was at the time - but I couldn't help myself. Besides being funny and thoughtful, it reminds me why and how much I love to travel. I told the Companion Cube (albeit prior to my non-work situation) that I wanted to go to India this year. I still do and this book is only making that desire deeper. I especially want to go with him. Taking someone who hasn't traveled out of the country hardly at all to a place so foreign is probably not the romantic fantasy (not that kind of romantic fantasy!) that I've built up in my mind. However, I do feel like it would be utterly reminiscent of the first time I went to Paris.

I was so utterly excited and happy (and probably being 15 didn't help with the intensity of feeling). In fact, I didn't even make it to the actual city of light before I was overwhelmed with how incredible the trip was. I remember the rush of emotion when we alit the bus in Brussels and wandered around outside the Atomium. I couldn't believe that I was actually there. Which is silly because I had been living in Norway and England for almost a year at that point, but I do think I've already mentioned my age at the time and I don't think that age is known precisely for logic. Everything about that first trip - up to and including getting left behind by the bus and making everyone else hate me because they had to spend the evening at the police station while my companions and I made it back to the hotel just fine on our own - was magical.

Maybe I should have applied for that tour guide job, because how satisfying is it to bring that level of excitement to people? Or maybe I should just move to Aix like I wanted to before I moved to Ohio. Total aside: a friend of ours here in Seattle is from Aix and even though he's happily married and I'm happily with the Companion Cube, some days I imagine kidnapping him and forcing him to take me to his hometown and I will live there happily ever after. Did I type that? Let's pretend I didn't. Ahem.

Moral of the story: I could get very used to this life...as long as we can schedule in some international flights.

Day 3

Olympics at Night
January 08, from Alki Beach

So, day 3 of unemployment. I've given myself this week to sleep in and play xBox and not be concerned about looking for new work. I figure a week will give me time to reset so that next week when the job hunt commences that I'll have a clean slate to think about what it is I really want to do and what I need to do to set the plan in motion. Although, it'll be hard to not sleep in and play games all day after this week.  It is really nice not to have to do anything. As one can imagine.  Maybe I'll spend my severence on lottery tickets.  Heh. I'm kidding. No really, I am.

Today was a great day. Rose at 8ish - you know since Companion Cube still needs to get up and his alarm is freakishly loud - checked the Internets, worked out, played Guitar Hero til my arm gave out, then went to the grocery store. Came home, played some more Guitar Hero until it was time for the Companion Cube to get home.  I've made it a piont to make sure cocktail hour was ready when he alit from the bus. That's my goal for the week as I always wanted to have cocktail hour be a set thing.  We're running out of booze though; drinking vodka tonics right now instead of gin. I'll live, I'm sure.

What else is going on? Went to the range on Sunday. I killed the shit out of some clay pigeons. Okay, only 9 of 25, but still, I tied for the highest clay pigeon kill ratio of the four of us. I am beginning to think that I missed my calling since I really have no training on what I should do, but can still instinctively pick flying objects out of the air with sport shot. At least I know that I'm prepared if the zomb-pocalypse should arrive. We'll have to purchase our own shotgun though before that happens, since we don't have ready access to Kraig-O's.

We also went to the annual Sci-Fi short film festival on Sunday and out to see the Gourds on Sunday night at the Tractor. Those things plus getting a little too drunk on Friday night via Keith at Barrio made for a packed weekend.

So, yeah. That's that. Time to stir fry up some dinner.

News?

Office view, Slightly left
Seattle, January 2009

So, yeah, I came down with the Black Plague and have been suffering the symptoms for a couple of weeks now.  It's annoying. The Companion Cube tried to put me on the cart, even though I was not dead yet.  In the meantime, stuff has been happening - despite my need for the world to be on hold until I got better.  Damn the world!

The good news is that I will not be spending a lot more time alone in my office.  The bad news is that I will not be spending a lot more alone time in my office.  I'm trying to decide if I should use this opportunity to go to China - as I had been wanting, but I think it is in the middle of the semester, so it might not work out anyhow.  I've also started my Foreign Service Exam application.  The next test is in June, so I have plenty of time to get studying.  That would be killer. 

Delores is here, in fact, I'm typing on her now. She's great. We love her.

We went to a Burns Night dinner (invited by a friend who is learning the bag pipes - so cool) and won a couple of door prizes. Isn't that awesome? I'm such an ungrateful girl though, because even after winning two prizes, I still wanted us to win the raffle for the Scotch. Sadly we didn't win the booze - however - one of the prizes was four tickets to see Kodo, which we went to see last night. It was, in a word, amazing.

What else?  I suppose that's all that's fit to print on the interwebs.  If you want to know more, call me we'll go out for drinks and I'll babble like I do when I have a bit o the booze in me. If you don't want to know more, FINE, I didn't want to tell YOU anyway.

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

cloud cover
Mt. Rainier from Seattle (specifically, my office), December 2008

2009. Holy cow. It seems like 2008 just blew on past, doesn't it? I keep hearing that that's how it goes when one gets OLD, but then I show those people what I think of that and continue to marvel at the speed at which the last year went by.

I'd say that I didn't DO anything, but that wouldn't be completely true.  I did stay at the Overlook, go to Austin & Vancouver, I also moved the apartment around and got faux-married. Oh don't get the vapours, remember the computer-merge thing?  Yes, that's what I'm talking about. I also worked a ton at my day job.  Which is just silly because my blogging has suffered.  In fact, Planeteye and I just had a mutual break-up. Sigh. Oh well. I should tell them what I tell all my exes: you'll never find anyone better than me.  Heh.  KIDDING. I only say that in my head.

Looking forward, no, I didn't make any resolutions for the new year, but I do have several goals in mind. This month, I am planning on writing an article to shop to Imbibe (aka my favoritest magazine) and to get back in the saddle at Metblogs - that is if they haven't lost hope on me yet.  I want to write a post there about Keith's new spot, Barrio.  We spent NYE happy hour there and went home very happy. I just remembered that we stopped at the liquor store on the way home that night and I bought a homeless man a pint of Canadian whisky. Also that night, the companion cube farted under the umbrella while I was trying to take a picture of the fireworks. So not right. I probably shouldn't have typed that because its embarrassing, but there has to be some sort of punishment for ruining the fireworks show.

Oh and before I forget. Muppet Mondays returns this month. Be on the lookout for an invite.

2008 Holiday Season

the unusual is becoming usual
Alki Beach, December 2007

It has certainly been an interesting couple of weeks around here: XBox red-ring, snow, unexpected visits, ice, cabin fever, and more snow. Through it all, I have been to work maybe a total of 1 day in the past 10. And yet, I have probably driven more than in the past year or two put together. Luckily, I managed to stay accident-free, despite a couple of dicey moments including the white-knuckle exit ramp experience I had going to the airport last Saturday to rescue my sister and her family. The three of them squished into our little apartment and spent a few nights with us before escaping into a rental car to try to salvage their planned vacation to Montana. I was nervous about their drive, but they made it safely and are, I'm sure, enjoying snowboarding and a full sized bed much more than being trapped with us and Cassie-Passie.

Thus, compared to the days leading up to it, the Companion Cube's and my Christmas was incredibly low-key. Games were played, food was et, calls were made, and presents were opened. While we were snug in our little apartment, the snow outside has been steadily disappearing. I never thought I'd be so happy to see rain and the dirty, sludgy mess of melting ice-snow mix. But I am. Life can get back to normal: meaning I think I'm trudging up the hill to see my favorite purveyor of cocktails this evening.

Except, I just looked out the window and it is indeed snowing again. Bah!

Rawr!

RAWR! I drink your orange juice!
June 2008, Alki Beach

Yesterday was a crazy, crazy work day. Like I got in and proceeded to work straight through until 6 p.m. with only one break around 11:30 to run and get coffee. Like I never get irritated with my boss until yesterday when he had called me for the 7th time in 10 minutes with yet another thing to do. I started typing a snippy response to one of his emails and caught myself just in time. Delete delete delete went the "Maybe because you keep interrupting me." sentence that just may have been in all caps. Oof.

On the way home, instead of dropping by the bar and drowning my angst, I stopped by the old Office Max and picked up a shredder, which promptly shredded my thumb with its box. It was a rocky start to a relationship that I feel is going to only get better and better. And in fact, I spent the evening making diamond shaped paper pieces of old paycheck stubs and bank statements and Sprint bills from 2006. Lest you think I'm complaining, I should tell you that I fully enjoyed every single minute...well maybe not those 15 minutes I spent fretting after the thing overheated...but every single minute besides those 15. Maybe there is something to that Bulimia thing, because purging sure felt good. Especially after I accidentally broke the leg off one of our computer desks. Oh yes, it was that kind of day.  A day only pizza, beer, and 2 solid hours of shredding can fix.

Today is a better day, although I do have a lot to do including but not limited to writing for the various web sites that I have committed to writing for, sulking at the fact that I probably won't get to work from home, and going to an benefit art auction with free booze.  Last year at this auction, I won a utterly fantastic pastel of a dragon and a boy created by an 8 year old. It is hanging on my monster wall and I love it. I hope to score another gem this evening.

what's up

Recently I discovered that I’m not as smart and knowledgeable as I think I am.

It got me thinking about how perhaps if one isn’t actively seeking knowledge to replace the stuff one is continuously forgetting, then one is perhaps getting stupider just by sitting around and absorbing the trivial crap that one gets bombarded with on a daily basis. And by “one” of course I mean me. Sometimes I think I can feel my brain getting duller by the minute. Sure, I’m spending most of my brain power on spreadsheets and pretty reports for the higher-ups so that’s something, but it’s not an interesting something to have conversations about with anyone other than, well, no, with anyone at all.

Of course what that all means is that it’s about that time to focus on a completely new thing. I’m toying again with the idea of graduate school and/or exotic travel. In the meantime though, NaNoWriMo time is only about 2 days away, so I may just go ahead with that.

Oh, but what a disaster last year’s effort was. I have three paragraphs of a start of a story. I like the story quite a bit, but I’m a little stuck with it. It’s fairly ambitious and perhaps it might behoove me to start out with something a little simpler; something that won’t stall at three paragraphs for a year. Hmmmm?

So that’s what I’m working on these days. Although I did just get back from a lovely weekend in SFO (courtesy of Kristen, photos to come) wherein we ate lots of good food and succumbed to much idleness (aka weekend awesomeness).

Which reminds me of two good overheards from the weekend:

1. A girl a few tables down from us was reviewing the menu, “Scallions are the vegetables and scallops are the seafood, right?” Uh, yeah. Scallops probably wouldn’t be so hot in that vegetarian omelet you’re reading about.
2. Someone else at an entirely different restaurant ordered the “chi-pol-tee” sauce. You know instead of chipotle. Isn’t that burrito place pretty much part of the common vernacular these days? You’d think that would cut down on the mispronunciation.

Of course hearing these things assuaged my feelings of inferiority in the smarts department at least for a few moments. Ah, condescension, how I love thee.

I guess I should get back to working, here's a picture of my office environs for your viewing pleasure:

School's out forEVA

This summer Beard Boy and I will be attending his high school reunion.  It'll be an interesting culture shock for me to attend a real-live American small town high school gathering.  One in which house parties and fights and all those things that used to mesmerize me in the John Hughes films of the 80s actually existed. 

I'm very excited.  I told BB, however, that he couldn't stab anyone with a pen although he could certainly tell his former classmates that he is an assassin if he wanted and that I wanted to tell everyone that I invented the glue in Post-it notes (extra points if you can guess both movies those references are from). 

He - the complete party poop that he is - refuses to lie about what he does and I guess I have to go along with it.  It is his reunion afterall.  Besides, I am the worst liar in the whole entire world.  Exhibit A: No one believed me at the last wedding I went to that I am a food critic for the PI.  That is an entirely believable lie from anyone else.  From me? Not so much.  Of course it didn't help that my so-called friend, Tom, laughed after I said it to the one person who asked what I did.  Bastard.

I wonder if I should buy a prom dress for the dinner-dance.  I wonder if anyone will recognize Beard Boy, what with the impressive beard he has grown since we left Ohio...

Meanwhile, this week, my high school has closed its doors forever. [ss]  I meant to try to attend the closing event, but ended up going to a wedding instead.  I'm sure getting drunk in the confines of a non-young-adult, families-only beach house was probably much wiser than trying to hike through the woods to town and sprawling drunkenly in the middle of the Rye.  Although, I really should get back to that town one day.  There really are a lot of strange-yet awesome memories held in those horrible shade of military beige buildings and the town situated below. 

Anyway, let us have a moment of silence for lift our glasses to London Central High School and to all the silly things related to it that will now be relegated to only the alums increasingly failing memories.

Damn, now I really feel old. Quick! Someone bring me some booze!