Okay, this entry was meant to go up on Oct. 14, but I forgot to do the actual uploading. Whoops. Anyway, I've added a couple things to it at the end. Enjoy!
Well, finally saw Serenity, and man, was it good! I have to say I was satisfied... although, a certain thing happened in there that I really have to question... was it really necessary? People who have seen the movie probably know what I'm talking about.
But overall, it made for a really fun weekend! My cousin was, unfortunately, on fall break at the time, so she didn't get to go with us. But Stef came down and Gibson tagged along, too, so we had a nice little group to see the movie. We even watched some episodes of Firefly beforehand. Gibson didn't like the camera work (it's a lot of handheld work; she's a big supporter of tripods. *shrug*), but really liked the story and characters. But anyway, it was good that she at least had some idea of who everyone was. Stef and I are already fans, so we're good to go. We chatted about lots from that show. Then we saw the movie and had lots more to talk about -- like how Gibson broke a button on the shirt she was wearing because the Reavers scared her so much.
Don't ask.
Afterwards, we did try those firefly cocktails (grapefruit juice and vodka [2:1] and a spash of grenadine). They didn't so much "glow," but that may have had something to do with the fact that we didn't use ice... I think the recipe calls for ice. Whatever, they were pretty and they tasted good. Didn't crack open the firefly chardonnay, but that's okay -- tonight I found a wine from Knapp Winery (on Cayuga Lake) called serenity, so now there's two to compare! Anyway, we had cheese and played "Scene It" and drank fireflies until dinnertime... at Lucatelli's. Oh, what a way to cap off the evening! It's a great Italian resaraunt with a full coffee menu... as in, they have a wine menu, a food menu, a dessert menu, and a coffee menu. Amazing. Never seen that before.
Nice and stuffed, we crashed for the night -- Gibson went home, and Stef crashed on my futon (which I think may actually be more comfortable than my bed, oddly enough). But before bed, Stef and I sat up and chatted a lot about high school. Of all things. Maybe it's because Stef works in a school now and I almost did... but we tend to talk about the educational system a lot and how much better things were when we were in school, or how much better we would teach than some of the jokers out there. If I have one regret from the weekend, it's that I didn't spend enough time chatting with Stef. It's funny: growing up, we got sick of each other. Now, I really appreciate talking with her. Well, when she's not giving me a play-by-play of what her cat's doing at any given moment... ;-)
Other big news: Mom and Dad sent a bunch of stuff for me with Stef, so now I have some boxes of my old stuff to go through. So far, the only stuff I've gone through are the old records. Yeah, I bought a record player a little while back. My ex-roomie Joe had a pretty big record collection, and I always thought that was pretty cool, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Anyway, I told my parents that and they offered to send their old records along, since they no longer have a player. From my childhood, I remember some of the records -- I knew there were records from The Moody Blues (because their name was funny and the album covers looked neat), The Monkees (because they're funny), and The Beatles (because... they're the BEATLES), but beyond that I couldn't remember 'em. Oh, my goodness. Here, I'll just list the stuff:
I'm currently on-call for the Red Cross. Remember how I used to work there? Yeah, well, I'm still volunteering some time. Not that I have a lot of time to donate, but I'm doing what I can. Basically, the deal now is that if the little beeper goes off at all during the weekend, I get to call up the 911 center and see what's going on and where they need me to be. I run out there and go help people who have just had a disaster. That's what we do, you know. Anyway, I know I could handle it, but I'm really hoping nothing happens. Two reasons: 1) I don't have to do anything, and 2) nobody's having a disaster in their lives. We'll have to just wait it out and see. Keep your fingers crossed!
Work at church has proven to be good. It's a bit crazy sometimes, but the tasks are pretty well laid out, and I feel like there is a pretty good routine. I'm settling in pretty well, I think. The office politics are a bit surprising. Call me naive, but I always figured a Christian institution would be a little more... well, Christian. This is just like any other office setting I've been in, with toes getting stepped on, a bit of ill will here and there... in some ways it's disconcerting, in others it's reassuring. I mean, yes, we should be living our lives better than all that, but this is another example of how Christians are just ordinary people trying to live their lives. We have the same issues and troubles as anyone else.
So where do I stand in the politics? Well... for the most part, I'm trying to stay neutral without ticking anyone off. I'd like people to like me. ;-)
Old stuff ends...
...new stuff begins:
Okay, so the Red Cross duty? Yep, went all week without a single call. Thank goodness! I got to sleep through the night, and everybody in the county got to keep their houses in one piece. The dams didn't break from all the rain and the creeks didn't overflow (at least not in Ithaca... prayers for those folks in New England!), there were no fires, there was no major disaster... I'd say it was a good week to be in Tompkins County. If you were a duck.
See, it's been raining. A lot. It's like Noah's flood, almost. A while back we had eight straight days of rain, and it was pretty steady the whole time. Then we had about a week of decent weather, and now we're back to rain. The forecast is only calling for more.
Well, like I said, the ducks are loving it. I'm sure umbrella salesmen are, too.
The house could really use some cleaning... I've done some, but not nearly all that I'd originally planned on. The big thing for today was my fish. Their tank was filthy, so I switched them over into another container and cleaned the tank pretty thoroughly. Trouble is, they're acting very very sluggish in the new container... one of 'em looks nearly dead, and that does NOT make me happy. The newly-cleaned tank is all set for them, except that the water needs to sit out for a while to get the chlorine out and the temperature equalized, so they have to tough it out for a little while yet. I'm just nervous. I know they're just goldfish, but I do really like 'em. I don't want them to die.
The only other cleaning I got done was some floors. The kitchen floor got mopped, the entryway got cleaned, and the bathroom and bedroom upstairs got swept. That's about it. It's so rainy and grey that I don't want to do anything today but curl up with a book or a movie and a nice cup of tea or something.
Except that now the kitchen floor's all wet... so no tea for me.
Oh well... at least I can do the reading!