| Monday August 11, 2003 -- 10:00am I officially overdid it this weekend. Ermph. Friday August 8, 2003 -- 10:50am I was declared mentally healthy yesterday. Exciting stuff, that. I won't feel truly mentally healthy until I can do it without medication, but it does feel good to enjoy life. In other news, there is no hope of me being at all productive today. At least, not where my job is concerned. I did just read some very interesting data that have forced me to re-evaluate my feelings about getting into alcohol use prevention programming with the kids I'll have in the fall. I guess when you are a kid in the suburbs and there's nothing good on TV, the trend is to get drunk and drive your car into a tree. Nicolas arrives tonight, speaking getting drunk and making bad decisions. Hehehe! Wednesday August 6, 2003 -- 6:15pm Several terrible things happened today. I write of them because, although terrible, each was also quite funny. The first terrible-yet-funny thing to happen was my complete and utter inability to get out of bed this morning, my declared first Non-Mono Day. Argh. But it gets better. The next terrible thing happened when I typed in the URL of a web site I had on a list of teen websites. I look at them in order to keep up to speed with what's going on with kids. Well, I plug this one in and what appears on my monitor - at work, mind you - but a big penis rather dangerously close to the mouth of a smiling adolescent! AUGH!!! Trust me, this is not what I was looking for. Then I returned a phone call. I knew I was in for it when I saw that the caller's name was Millie. It turned out that old Millie called me to explain to me why she'd thrown the survey I sent her in the trash. Her reasoning was that she had nothing nice to say on it, so she didn't want to fill it out. Yet, somehow, she still felt compelled to call me to complain? Finally, the day ended and I went to the co-op to buy my expensive, but organic and pleasant, groceries. I was very excited at the prospect of a sprouts, tomato and cheese sandwich when I got home. But, while walking back to my car through the parking lot, I felt something hit the back of my foot. I looked back, only to see my tomato rolling away! It miraculously did not get run over by a car, and I retrieved it. It's a bit softer than it should be, but in one piece. I'm going to try for the sandwich anyway. By far the most amusing event of the day took place during my drive home. The annoying Right to Life people were protesting outside Planned Parenthood. "Honk, if you choose life!" While I have, in fact, chosen life for myself, I don't this is quite what was meant by the sign. So clearly, I do not want to honk. But wait! Across the street are two very Lark Street looking young men in Bomber's t-shirts holding up their own signs! One says "Face it. Burritos Rule." The other reads, "Honk, if you choose burritos!" I didn't know what to do with that. Tuesday August 5, 2003 -- 9:15am Here is a little haiku I composed very early this morning: Unmitigated is the rage I feel for you, Morning Garbage Trucks The seriousness of my little street's morning garbage truck problem has not gone unnoticed. I am starting to believe that each apartment building's landlord has privately contracted with different disposal services for the removal of garbage and recycling. I'm considering starting up a grassroot's style rebellion. Monday August 4, 2003 -- 3:40pm Back to work after another busy weekend, through which I managed to stay awake. At least for all of the important things... like driving on the Mass Pike and stuff. Lara's wedding was lovely and fun. Pictures coming soon. Maybe. People at my job seem prone to very long, winding explanations of things that I either don't need explained to me at all or which should take approximately 5 seconds to explain. I try not to get annoyed by this, but when it is the raspy-voiced accountant who has been steeping herself in nicotine for 50 years, and she is leaning over my shoulder to explain to me, for the 8 millionth unnecessary time, the subtle nuances of filling out one's timesheet, I find it very hard not to scream something about personal space and/or communicable diseases. Friday August 1, 2003 -- 8:00am Happy Day After Your Birthday to my lovely Annette!!! Your birthday card - you know, the one you didn't receive in the mail yet - is sitting her next to me on my desk. I'm truly amazing. My talent for failing to mail anything on time boggles the mind. And, wow. Happy wedding day to Lara and Carlos. I'll be driving out to Boston in a few hours. I'm looking forward to this wedding for a lot of reasons. For one, I can't wait to see Lara and the other Boston cohorts. Also, I am very pleased with the gift I put together. I was worried that I would drop the ball on this one, given how my health teamed up with my mad procrastination skillz against me. But then I received inspiration from the muse, and all is well. I know of three people getting married this weekend! So, additional congratulations to Seth and Sarah, and to Doug and Linda! I'm especially happy for Seth. I barely know Doug, but he helped with my car situation, so I wish him well too. Wednesday July 30, 2003 - 8:40pm One thing I really hate is when random people try to help me parallel park. I cannot express how completely unhelpful it is, when trying to squeeze into the last microscopic parking spot in Albany, to have some guy standing in the road going, "Yup. Yup. Plenty a room. Plenty a - OH!" (as you hit the car in front of you because this pain in the ass is distracting the hell out of you!) And, yes, it is always a guy. It has come to my attention that an alarming number of men are under the mistaken impression that having breasts interferes with things like parallel parking and changing a tire. Perhaps they think women are as distracted by them as men are. I don't mean to get male-bashy. I know so many wonderful men who never, ever try to help me parallel park. I've just been having a lot of annoying idiot interactions with random men in my neighborhood lately. In other news, Dee is my favorite person in the world tonight because she delivered me some delicious and nutritious chick pea masala from the Indian restaurant, thereby sparing me from another meal of the concoction I whipped up last night, which I affectionately dubbed "Squid Snot." It actually tastes really good. You just have to try not to look at it while eating it. Tuesday July 29, 2003 - 4:30pm Happy Birthday Tracy P!!! Woo-hoo! I like my job when I can actually interact with people. All month long, I haven't received one request for services or information or anything. Today, within the space of an hour, I got two. I feel good because I was able to help both in one way or another. Otherwise, I'm kinda cranky. I can't seem to stay awake when I get home, which makes it difficult to do things like buy groceries and find wedding gifts. It's pretty desperate. I mean, I'm out of coffee. I have re-evaluated my position on volunteering at the museum. I might still do it, but not directly with the youth program. There are reasons for this, but they have a lot to do with my low self-esteem, and people always yell at me when I discuss that, so I'm just not going to explain. So there! I think I'll volunteer in a different capacity. Then I can still be involved with the kids, but not be responsible for their program. Today the museum called me with a question about the weather station - like, "How do we make this work?" I offered to come by after work and look at it, but haven't heard back from them. I guess they figured it out. Damn. I almost felt important there for a minute. Sunday July 27, 2003 - 8:50pm I hate politics. However, I also hate the way things are going in this here country right now and feel that it's very important to be educated and active in next year's presidential election. To that end, I've been doing some election homework tonight, which I encourage everyone to do. This is a site with a lot of information and other links. Through it I was able to determine that the candidate whose views I most support has, as expected, no chance of actually being our next president. So, again I am faced with the debate: Do I vote for the candidate I most agree with? Do I compromise and vote for someone I mostly agree with but have a few major issues with, but who stands a shot at winning? Or do I vote for whoever the Hell I have to in order to get that wing-nut out? Maybe I'll just write in Frank Zappa. Yes, I know he's dead. Saturday July 26, 2003 - 9:10pm Why couldn't I have gotten mono when I was all depressed and didn't care if I got out of bed in the morning or not?!? Oh. Right. Because I got pneumonia then!!! Today started out productive, but went downhill quickly. Sometime in the afternoon, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until almost 7pm. In a last ditch effort to make something of the day, I staggered down Lark Street in my little fog trying to find a good wedding gift for a friend. Since I was not successful in that endeavor, I felt compelled to buy myself ice cream. So the rest of tonight will probably be spent on the couch, watching a movie, pigging out. I was quasi-social last night. Steve's friend's band was playing down the street at The Bleeker Cafe, so I went there with him for a little while. The band was actually really good! I was oddly mesmerized by the female singer and her perfectly set hair. I met a few more people, saw a few that I'd met once or twice before, and no one was hit in the face by beer, so all in all it was a good night. Friday July 25, 2003 - 4:30pm Wow. That's an obnoxious color. This one's not much better. Hang on...Ok. I think this is as bright as I'm prepared to go today. Anyhow, all I wanted to say is that those leftover cookies in the fridge are totally going home with me today. Thursday July 24, 2003 11:20am I almost hit a cat this morning with my car. I also almost had yet another animal-avoidance car accident. I managed not to go off the road or into on-coming traffic though, thankfully. I also managed not to hit the cat, but am traumatized anyway with fantasies about what it would have been like if I had hit the cat. I know I'd be miserable if I killed any animal with my car, but someone's cat?!? I'd probably jump in front of the next available car myself! (And then that person will have killed another person with their car! Then what?!?) Wednesday July 23, 2003 8:30am I am going to a training today. This is good news for several reasons: 1. I might learn something! 2. I got to sleep in. 3. 15 minute walk instead of 45 minute drive 4. No issues with Opening Day at the Track traffic 5. Moon shake from Shades of Green for lunch 6. Far, far away from the leftover cookies and ice cream cake at work 7. Wearing jeans 8. Done at 3! The after-school program got final approval yesterday, and the consortium washed its hands of it and turned it over to me. I'm excited. Actual kids! And it looks like it's a go for youth councils at both middle schools. Now I just have to get the go-ahed to get the jobs program into the other high school and I'm going to be a busy girl. Thank God! I'm trying to make an important decision. I'm not even good at making unimportant decisions! My visit to the museum last weekend, solely to visit a couple of "my" kids, put a wacky idea in my head. The youth program, of which I was so proud and for which I felt such passion, has disintegrated. The whopping three kids who are still involved are solid though, and I started thinking about how the program could be salvaged, and even used to help the museum. So, the question is, do I offer to volunteer? My idea is that I'd come one day a week after school and one weekend day, only to work on the youth program and refusing to get sucked into anything else. The question is, Am I nuts? With Dork Chops gone, I think I could stay pretty much out of the fray. And I did love working with those kids... On the other hand, Am I nuts? Tuesday July 22, 2003 11:50am And the winner is... Mono! Woo-hoo! I'm in the convalescent stage, which means I won't pass it on to anyone and also that I basically just have to deal with it until it decides it's done. The doctor's orders were, "When you're tired, rest." Well, duh! We had some fantastic storms last night. We even had a tornado warning for a while. Very exciting stuff. And it was really fun trying to get from my car to my apartment in the never-ending torrential downpour. The thunder went on for so long, that even the cats got used to it and came out of hiding. Monday July 21, 2003 9:30am Ermph. Monday. But Happy Birthday to my girl, Natalie, and to the ever-astounding Maen! Somebody mentioned to me that the link to the wedding pictures only brought him to the Image Station site and not the wedding pictures. I checked it out, and it seems to work - you might just have to sign in - but if anyone else is having trouble, let me know. I'm tired today, and the iced coffee I got this morning was, for some reason, crap. I had really high hopes for it too, because the girl rang it up correctly without even having to think about it and everything. Oh well. Sunday July 20, 2003 9:40am I've been horribly remiss, so now it's time to say belated Happy Birthdays to my Dad! Marc M.! Jake! and Cousin Dan! Jeesh. Saturday July 19, 2003 2:45pm OK. We'll see if this works. Instead of posting the pictures from the wedding on my web site, I put them on an on-line photo album thing. So click, and hopefully you'll see the pictures. Friday July 18, 2003 10:15am So I caved and finally went to the doctor, and she doesn't know what the hell is wrong with me either. I don't have strep (which I didn't think I did) but she gave me an anti-biotic anyway, supposedly for the cough that's been rattling around in my chest. I'm concerned about this cavalier dispensing of anti-biotics, being that I'm not a huge fan of super-tolerant new strains of bacteria and all. She had me get some blood drawn to be tested for mono. Mono! It hadn't even occured to me, but I'll bet that's what it is. Even if it's not, I think I'll use it as an excuse to sleep a lot this weekend. I had them draw some blood to check my iron too. I think it's fine, because I've been taking better care of myself and eating better, but it doesn't hurt to see. |
 |
 |
 |