WhatsUp15

Tuesday December 17, 2002 -- 5:00pm
Dear Stupid Idiot, If you insist that I plan events with less than one week notice, I am going to lose my freaking mind. And quit my job. Moron, moron, moron! Also, please stop trying to disguise your idiocy with that jolly facade. You are not fooling anyone.

I don't know what to do. I don't want to leave the museum. I love it. I love the youth staff and what I do with them. But I cannot tolerate this ridiculous bullshit! And don't tell me to go get a teaching job. That's not what I want. I don't know what I want! I want to hide under my desk and cry.

I think I will dedicate my life to my job and housework as I am inept at the other aspects of life and as my job takes up enough time for 2 or 3 lives.

Monday December 16, 2002 -- 6:30pm
The one thing I really love about Winter is watching everyone suddenly forget how to drive. Ugh. It is also really fun that my car has suddenly decided that slowing to anything below 5 miles per hour means it is acceptable to stop running entirely.

I need an adult in my life. Here are some other complaints:

Dear 2nd Floor Neighbor,   Just because you don't want your mail does not mean it is ok to leave it in the hallway forever.

Dear 1st Floor Neighbor, You are very nice, but please do not greet me at the door in your boxers ever again.

Dear Landlady,   When your tenants call you to tell you the lot has not been plowed and they are trapped in it due to the 6 inches of snow and ice, "Well the guy is unreliable. It will probably be a couple of days," is not an acceptable answer.

I am eating peanut butter directly out of the jar, and no one can stop me.

Sunday December 15, 2002 -- 9:00pm
Man. Just when you think you've found a good reason to work yourself up into a real self-pity party, some completely awesome kid is weeping in your office because she lives in an unheated shit hole and sees the better of her two parents for approximately 5 minutes per week.

I still feel sad about my little issue, but this kinda put a little perspective on things.

And, if I followed half of the advice I gave this kid, I'd be in good shape.

I went to Dan's tree trimming party last night and ran into someone I met a couple of time about a decade ago through my ex-boyfriend. It was very Twilight Zone. It turns out this guy works at the desk next to Dan's.

This morning I got to spend some time with Natalie and Madelyn. Natalie gets very irate if you call Madelyn anything other than "Maddie." She's cute when she's irate. She's pretty much always cute.

Friday December 13, 2002 -- 8:45pm
Congratulations, kids! This page has now received over 1,000 hits! I feel very famous right now - except for the fact that I am sitting at home, alone, eating a tofu dog on a Friday night. Oh well.

It's actually really just fine, because last night was out of hand. Museum holiday party. There was a period of time last night when I very seriously considered just curling up in a comfortable exhibit and sleeping there.

Much fun was had, which rendered today pretty useless for most of us.

Joe gave his notice today. Uuuuuugggghhhhh. I am scared. Honestly. I simply can't take on any more work. Hopefully we'll hire someone quickly and that person will be, by some miracle, as awesome as Joe. I doubt I'll giggle as much though. Man, this sucks. SUUUUUUUUUCKS!

So El Jefe calls me into his office at the end of the day to tell me it's all going to be just fine. Yeah. Right. I wonder if he realizes how much Joe does. (I am happy for Joe, by the way. I'm just a little worried about my own sanity.) He then proceeds to ask me if I'm going to consider applying for Joe's job. I looked at him like he had ostriches flowing from his nostrils and said, "Uh, no!"

We were very bad at the museum last night. Very, very bad. Also, I was in serious pain for most of the evening. Apparently, if you have been a vegetarian for more than 2 years, you shouldn't eat even a little bit of pepperoni bread. Lesson learned.

Tomorrow I have to wrap presents for 8 hours at Barnes & Noble. By myself for about half of the 8 hours. This makes me very cranky.

Wednesday December 11, 2002 -- 5:35pm
I started the day by accidentally dumping about 1/3 of my coffee onto the dashboard of my car. Luckily, I was in a good mood and, therefor, found this hysterical rather than being reduced to tears. I mopped up the pool of coffee with the roll of toilet paper I keep in my glove compartment for just such emergencies.

It is very lucky I was in a good mood today, because there is some very bad news at work. I guess, as it's not official yet, I won't spill the beans. Let's just say that, despite my cheery mood, I still had to go find a quiet place to cry for a little while.

Dee and I decorated Fraser the Tree last night. The cats were out of my room for five minutes this morning before Bennett came trotting back with an ornament in his mouth. He was clearly quite pleased with himself, which you can't really blame him for. Right now they are both sitting in front of the tree, just looking at it. Sort of like we do.

Tomorrow night is the holiday party at work. Even though this is the 3rd holiday party since I've been working there, it's the first one I will actually attend. I made peanut butter pie - the dessert my mom brought at Thanksgiving. Mine didn't come out as well. Hopefully it's still ok.

With all of the tragedies of the day piled up now, and only the cats' antics to cheer me, I'm feeling a little blue. Fortunately, I bought WAY too much chocolate for the pie. Hahaha...

Tuesday December 10, 2002 -- 8:30pm
Not an overly exciting day, but that's just fine. I had a nice lunch with Cool Work People and was actually fairly productive after a severe attack of overwhelmtion (now a word) first thing in the morning. Most amazing of all? His Idiocy actually helped me with something!

But I really need to get past my fear of making phone calls to strangers. It's probably an insecurity thing, but it really kind of screws me up a lot of the time. And I don't know if it's totally an insecurity thing. If I could email 500 people instead of calling one, I'd have no problem whatsoever.

Go figure.

Monday December 9, 2002 -- 12:30pm
In honor of "Amelie," which I watched last night...

I like... putting on nail polish, steering the car with my knee, the smell of cut wood and wrapping presents.

I don't like... being licked by dogs, being called "Sweetie" by strangers, going into banks and the smell of old library books.

-- 9:30am
Very exciting news, kids. We are approaching 1000 hits on this What's Up? page! Yeah, I know it's basically the same 5 people checking in a couple times each day, but I'm still excited.

At 6:00 this morning, Bennett became possessed by Satan. He is usually sound asleep at 6am, but today, my day off naturally, he decided to remove all of the piled up papers from one of my shelves and shred them. I tried to discourage this without actually having to get out of bed, but that didn't work. I ended up just having to roughouse with him for 15 minutes until he was worn out.

It was kind of sweet - even if it was 6 in the morning.

Sunday December 8, 2002 -- 4pm-ish
Ohhhhh.   I went to see Martin Sexton in concert last night. All I can say is that boy is god-damn funky. And I apologize for the cursing, but there is no other way to say it. Oh man. He is the funkiest white boy ever. And what a voice! I believe he shall be my new obsession. But don't worry, Larry Kirwan. I'm sure you'll win me back over in February...

Saturday December 7, 2002 -- 3:15am
We got our tree last night. It is beautiful, even if it is currently leaning a bit to the right. I did some Christmas shopping today. I love this time of year! The best I have ever felt (post-childhood) was this time of year, 7 years ago, when I had first moved to Boston and was in mad love with the city. I had a long commute, because I was living with my aunt and uncle out in the burbs, and had a long wait for the first train out their way. So, I would wander around Downtown Crossing, looking in the store windows, watching all the shoppers and commuters jostling each other around...

Albany's ok too, I guess. I didn't get too much done. I ran out of checks before I made it to the mall. Ha-ha. Now I am being the Queen of Multi-tasking by simultaneously wrapping gufts, doing laundry, drinking coffee, composing vignettes, and trying to figure out what to wear to the Martin Sexton concert tonight. (I can't wait - even if it means I will be semi-comatose for the museum event tomorrow morning.)

Thursday December 5, 2002 -- 7:00pm
Jeesh. It's a big, sloppy mess out there. I drove home at the break-neck speed of 40 miles per hour and still had little or no say as to what direction my car was going to go.

Now I am home, writing holiday cards, listening to my Kick Ass Christmas Mix, and drinking a dubious beer. Chocolate Something Lager. I'm all for chocolate, and I'm all for beer, but I'm not so sure about chocolate beer.

There's not actually that much snow on the ground. I mean, I can still see the fallen leaves in spots. But it's insidious snow, for some reason. Or maybe the City is getting us ready for real snow by not actually doing anything to clear the streets of this wussie stuff.

-- 5:25pm
Score: Museum 2, Rats 1

Whenever I'm at work and I hear someone say somthing like, "Well, did you tell Deana about it?" I get very worried. Today it was, "Ask Deana. She'll know." Apparently, before meeting its untimely demise on the 3rd floor landing, a rat chewed through the wiring casing on the magnetically controlled door.

Why, you ask, is the door magnetically controlled?

Well, I tell you, because it ties into our whole security system.

Terrific. I think it's ok - I mean, aside from the whole exposed wires thing. I think the building will still arm. But the rats are getting a little too bold. The huge annual holiday brunch on Sunday should be a kick. The food is being served from the exact location of all of the rat holes. Bon appetit!

-- 9:00am
As I feared, I walked into the museum yesterday morning, only to be greeted by a large, deceased rodent. It had died a violent, slap-in-the-face kind of death, and bad karma was everywhere. I don't know. I know we can't just have rats running around the place, but I really think we could control the problem in a less horrible way. Like maybe we could not leave garbage lying around everywhere! But sadly there are a number of people at the museum who cannot be relied upon in this way.

Aside from the whole rat thing, the museum is looking really good. In its typically painfully slow way, the place is starting to come together. The new exhibit is incredible. The lobby is looking good. And most of the staff seem to be getting a handle on how to deal with His Idiocy.

In other news, I went out with a couple friends last night, and I had fun! It was The Lionheart's 3rd annual Ed Wood Short Film Festival. As usual, the films were of the highest caliber. Cough. One of them featured my friend, Bonnie, who was stellar. It was good to be at The Lionheart, and to see many familiar faces - the faces of all of those people that I have always been too shy to talk to.

On the way home I noticed that there is a very hot dress for sale at Web of Threads. I fear I must own it. Actually, there were two very hot dresses in the window. Drool, drool. Unfortunately, I only have one occasion to wear such a dress this year. Maybe one will look hideous on me. One can only hope...

Monday December 2, 2002 -- 8:15pm
The coffee maker at work blew up. More than once today I saw someone standing forlornly staring at the space where it used to reside, sort of unsure what to do. Once Jake opened the can of coffee and peered inside wistfully.

This is really a minor tragedy, compared to the Rat Situation, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go there. Let's just say that the mammals collection has taken an unintentional turn toward the sinister.

I saw Dr. L today. I was good and went right from his office to the pharmacy to put my prescriptions in. To reward myself for this display of responsibility and adult behavior, I bought expensive nail polish. 2 bottles. Metallic purpley and glittery red. Now I am ready for the holiday season. Oh, and I bought Christmas cards too.

Yesterday I attempted to go Christmas shopping. I got a little bit done, but am mostly feeling stumped about what to get for most people. I always have this idea that, if I just wander around the mall long enough, The Perfect Gifts will throw themselves willingly at my feet. It almost never really happens. This year is fun though, because there are so many kiddies to buy for. Self-control will be required.

What, you ask, do I want for Christmas? Oh, just lots of love and adoration. But if you are really determined to find a material way to symbolize it, I'm working on My Wish List.

Sunday December 1, 2002 -- 10:20am
Eish. It is never good news when my cell phone rings at 10:05 on a Sunday. It can only mean one thing: Museum Crisis. Museum Crises usually consist of something like half the staff didn't show up, or someone can't figure out how to turn the volume up in the planetarium. Today it was the half-staff issue. For several frightening moments, I thought I was going to have to spend yet another "Day Off" at the museum. Luckily, the missing staff magically appeared while I was stomping through the apartment cursing. I am saved.

Which means I am back to having to decide between going holiday shopping, helping a friend move, or going back to bed for the rest of the day. I have been mysteriously sleepy lately. I have been the most erratic sleeper on the planet over the past 6 months. I kinda miss the whole manic-insomnia thing. That was fun. That was when this web site was born. I mean, what else was I gonna do with all that energy at 4 in the morning?

Last night, Dee made potato pancakes for Scott in honor of Hanukah. Dee doesn't like to cook. Now, when I say she doesn't like to cook, I don't mean she kind of dislikes it. I mean, you put on protective gear and try not to get in the line of fire.

Next year I am going to buy them potato pancakes and barricade the kitchen.