| Wednesday July 21, 2004 -- 2:20pm I'm home sick today. It has taken me until now to even bother getting dressed. I just went outside (on the fire escape) to check on the renegade tomato shrub, and it's hot and slow out there. Lots of little yellow flowers on the tomato. I might get something from it after all! I put collars on both cats - something I've been meaning to do for a while. Minnie accepted hers without so much as a peep. Bennett, when I caught him, was so relieved to find out that I wasn't trying to clip his claws that he too happily accepted the strap around his neck. I have gotten sick every July for at least the past 4 years. I blame air conditioning. It's 90 degrees outside and 40 degrees inside. That kind of routine temperature change cannot be good for a body! Down with the a.c.! Well, except for when it's really hot and unbearable. Then I like to go to the movies for a brief deep-freeze like anyone else. Tuesday July 20, 2004 -- 11:15am I seem to be afflicted with my annual July Illness. Seems like just a head cold this year, which is big improvement over Mono. Last night, my strange neighbor Bob began a campaign to convince me to plant roses on my fire escape. He saw my tomato shrub (yes, shrub) and the vacant pot that is waiting for the red peppers to be transplanted, and he decided I should plant roses. Using elaborate hand gestures, he described to me how the roses would climb up and down the rails. There seem to be two things motivating this passion of his. (1) He wants to steal a rose plant for me from the park, and (2) He wants to refer to me as "Rose." I told him I prefer plants that I can eat, to which he replied, "Phhhhhtttt!!!!" Friday July 16, 2004 -- 10:00am Well, this is wildly irritating. I made these post cards to send to people who use a certain program I run. I mail them out once a month. This month is the second time I have used the post card form (instead of a letter - saves postage, you know) and they all got returned to us. Apparently, the way I set them up causes the dumb post office computer to read the return address as the send to address. Duh. So I basically mailed all these post cards to myself. Apparently this also happened last month, when I used them for the first time. The mail man was rather snippy about the fact that he already told "the girl" what caused the problem. Well, "the girl" (who no longer works here) must have taken care of it herself last time, but never told ME about the problem, so I sent the stupid things out again, thus invoking the disdain of Mr. Postman. As if all of this was not irritating enough, I had to go and contribute to my own irritation in the following manner: The mail man said, "It's ok. Just cover up the return address with a mailing label and pop them back into a mail box. It'll be fine, but only if you do it today." So, I spent a bunch of time yesterday cutting mailing lables and sticking them onto the postcards. Then, do I remember to take them with me when I leave and put them back into the mail?!? NO!!!! So now I am writing up NEW postcards, which, since they're already printed, I will have to put mailing labels on to cover the offending return address! Furthermore, it's Friday, and I'm the only person in the office, and that's not fair. Wednesday July 14, 2004 -- 7:00pm Holy Cow, am I ever bored at work this summer. It's not as bad as last summer, since it's not coming on the heels of leaving the high intensity environment of the museum, but it is bad nonetheless. I should be using the down time to work on my Nobel prize winning novel, but I seem to be stuck in the Idea Phase on that one. Things are looking up on the Fire Escape Farm front though. The tomato has things that look like they might someday turn into flowers on it. And the pepper seeds I planted - which first seemed mysteriously inclined to only produce grass - are now showing signs of producing actually pepper shoots. It would be exciting if that one works out, because the seeds were from a gorgeous red bell pepper that I wouldn't mind having more of. I have more Amazing Art, Stick Figure Theater, and other things to post, but technical difficulties have abounded lately. Soon, my puppets. Soon. Tuesday July 13, 2004 -- 10:00pm Steve and I went on a nice little walk today after dinner. We imagined buying huge houses, picked a bouquet of wildflowers and made friends with donkeys. Love the donkeys. Seriously. They were really cute. We scratched their heads and promised to return with carrots. There were horses too, but I really just fell for the donkeys. In other news, my tomato plant (growing on my fire escape) finally got tall enough to require support. Maybe by January I'll have a tomato. Mainly I'm just pleased that I haven't killed it yet, since I seem to have acquired the Touch of Death recently, as it pertains to plant life. I don't even want to get into my plants at work. Sunday July 11, 2004 -- 10:45am This morning I have formally accepted my defeat in the Battle of the Kitchen Table. Minnie wins. I hereby surrender all efforts to convince her not to lounge upon it. I look at it this way: If you translate her age into the proportionate human age, she is substantially my elder, and I respect my elders. She'd also be more mature than I, and therefore more likely to make right decisions. So, perhaps, it is right and good for her to lounge upon the kitchen table, even if it doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'll understand when I'm older. That's my theory, anyway. Saturday July 10, 2004 -- 3:20pm I got an invitation to a "My Little Pony" party, oh yes I did. I'm pretty sure this means I am really old. Unless I am really 4. Also, I am approaching maximum capacity on this here web site. I either have to redirect things into various other free websites, or get rid of them. Getting rid of them is infinitely simpler, and that is what I plan to do. So sometime in the near future, some of the older stuff on this site will be going away. I'll probably leave all the What's Up? stuff on for as long as can, since that is the most active section, but the poetry and other writing will get the axe... perhaps to be replaced by *gasp!* new things! Finally, for those playing along at home, I still owe over $22,000 for my education! More on that front later. Thursday July 8, 2004 -- 4:30pm I am home early (yay) because I went to a workshop about a grant that I'm 90% sure my agency isn't even eligible for. I figured that out after about 30 minutes, but didn't want to be rude by walking out. Anyway, I drove home in the most insane weather. Torrential rain. Blinding sunshine. At the same time!!! If I hadn't been concentrating so hard on trying to locate the lines on the highway, I would have looked for rainbows. The only time I got over 40 miles per hour on the Northway was on the ramp to I-90, which briefly swung out of the storm. My main goal was to get home before the storm made it here, which I apparently did since it's been 45 minutes and it only just started to rain. -- 10:40am I don't want anyone to panic or anything, but I really miss the museum. I still dream about it on a regular basis. I'm always finding hidden rooms no one knew about. Rooms with supplies and brilliant ideas. I still come up with hands-on activity ideas. Sometimes I even contact the museum with them. I get all of their press releases. I have nightmares about the fish tanks. I... I... well, ok, I actually asked a friend who still works there if they were hiring any part-time educators. (They aren't.) Do I regret leaving? It's hard to say. So I won't. What I will say is that I am taking steps to get myself into a more stimulating and appropriate line of work. That's all. And I still want to be a farmer. Tuesday July 6, 2004 -- 12:50pm Major Milestones have been passed during the last few days! -- The Baby Blue Soccer Mom Superoo passed the 200,000 mile mark! -- Steve and I passed the 1 year mark! -- The bike I have had for 5 1/2 years and ridden twice now works once again! Also, this ridiculous piece of news just in: Someone the agency was considering hiring just got ruled out because a previous employer told us that she had come to work intoxicated. The sad part is that the woman put this employer down as a reference!!! Please Note: If you lose your job because you showed up drunk, don't put them down as a reference!!! Thursday July 1, 2004 -- 8:40pm Happy Canada Day! Last night I realized something. I am probably never going to be a race car driver. I think this is how mid-life crises begin. Wednesday June 30, 2004 -- 9:40am For some reason, my Guest Book is not working. So you'll all just have to save your flood of comments until I get that worked out. Sorry. Last night was very exciting. My first race at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway. It's a short dirt track, and the time trials were fascinating. I don't know how they control their cars around those curves! I was overwhelmed by the crowd and the fact that I had to wear heels until Steve showed up with my boots, but I was really getting into things right about the time it started raining. Steve declared the event cancelled right away, but I was feeling optimistic and insisted that the rain would pass. We sat on the bleachers, protecting our sweaters as much as we could so that we'd have something dry to wear when the rain stopped. Then the track lifted the "No Re-entry" rule, so we walked out to my car and hung out there for a while. When things started looking better, we walked back, found our friends, and bought a couple of beers. Then it started to rain again. Moments later, they cancelled the event and everyone headed out. It was 9:00pm. They rescheduled the event for tonight. Everyone in our group is scheduled to be at Rollarama tonight. I'm supposed to be there for purposes of fun with my friend Jen. The $20 non-refundable race tickets have me inclined to go back up there though. So disappointing. But I really am looking forward to finding out what happens when they have more than one car at a time taking those crazy sharp turns. Monday June 28, 2004 -- 8:30pm Before anyone calls the Mobile Crisis Unit, I cannot believe that I may not have mentioned the White Shoes before now, but it seems possible. They are the elderly couple across the street who sit outside with their little pig-dog that thinks he is a Rotweiler. They have inexplicably fat offspring who live upstairs, one of which I have dubbed "Beach Ball Belly" for the reason you would guess. -- 7:30pm Oh my. Some serious White Shoes drama seems to be unfolding. Beach Ball Belly just came out and asked something to the Mr. and Mrs., who were innocently sitting on their folding chairs. Mrs. Whiteshoes became more excited than I've ever seen her and began gesturing wildly down the street. For a while, she and B.B.B. stood staring down the street, taking turns pointing and glaring. Finally, B.B.B. said something to the Mrs. which caused her to squawk incomprehensively as he walked indoors. Then Mrs. Whiteshoes slammed her folding chair shut and shook it menacingly at Mr. Whiteshoes who, naturally, quickly folded up his chair and followed her inside, moping. And, frankly, I haven't seen the little pig-dog in days. -- 6:45pm The wedding, by the way, was very cool. It very nearly mimicked my fantasy wedding - only at mine there would be no guy blaring bad techno until daybreak. It was on this beautiful chunk of old farmland way out in I don't even know where. The band, an aging collection of local stoners called "Rye Bread," played for FIVE HOURS, taking all of about 2 breaks. They were completely awesome, except that I now have very work-inappropriate songs stuck in my head. The lead singer wore a terrific fuzzy purple hat that I very much wanted to steal for Dee, but I wasn't sure the band could go on without it. We pitched our borrowed tent (hint: only 179 shopping days until Christmas) in a field of cut hay and settled in to a cozy night of sound sleep in the great outdoors. Not. Actually, I conked out a couple of hours ahead of Steve, so I had to fend for myself in the ridiculous freezing cold. I ended up sleeping in jeans and a sweater with my pajama top wrapped around my head and my pajama bottoms wrapped around my feet. I say "sleeping," but what I really mean is listening to bad techno. Really loud bad techno. Until daybreak. When I saw how close other homes were in the morning, I was shocked that no one called the police. Of course, we were in East Nowhere. They probably did call the police, but they won't get there until sometime later this week. Anyway, it was fun, as was coming home and sleeping on Sunday. -- 6:30pm Gasp! Now that I've lived here for more than a year, my downstairs neighbor JUST informed me that this is a gay neighborhood!!! I mean, who knew? I mean, you'd think I would have figured it out by now, what with all the gay bars, the gay pride events, the rainbow flags, and the card shop down the street that sells cards for same sex weddings. My God. How shocking. I should have pretended to be shocked. I'm such a bad liar. |
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