WhatsUp36

Sunday February 19, 2005 -- 5:50pm
I have a cold, so I bought tissues. First of all, buying some damn tissues should not be a huge, overwhelming decision-making process. Why are there 5,000 different kinds of tissues?!? I am going to blow my nose into them! They do not need to be that complicated! The ones I ultimately chose (because I liked the colors on the box, if you must know) came with instructions! Instructions! I'm serious! They recommend throwing them away after you blow your nose into them. What a shame. I was going to use them to decorate my walls.

Also, I bought toilet paper. Luckily, it did not come with instructions, but it did declare itself "safe for septic systems." Well I should hope so! It's toilet paper!

Sometimes I just feel like things have gotten out of hand. Do you know that in plenty of places in the world, people don't have indoor plumbing and they clean their bums with whatever's handy out back? Meanwhile, I am having an emotional meltdown in the grocery store because I can't decide which package to choose out of an entire aisle dedicated to toilet paper. Do people's toilet paper needs really differ this dramatically? (I went for the generic extra-soft, by the way.)

Wednesday February 9, 2005 -- 6:00pm
I survived my interview. I think it went well with the possible exception of my attempt to explain why I left the museum. I find it hard to explain to myself sometimes. There are plenty of times when I think it was a mistake. I also totally chickened out about asking what the work schedule is. I am kicking myself right now because of it. I know it involves working weekends, but I would like to know if it's every weekend, both days, if it's flexible at all, etc. I truthfully said that there isn't anything that would prevent me from being able to work weekends, but I'm not 100% keen on the idea of working both days. I would like to see my boyfriend and friends sometimes. At the same time, if I want to be a museum professional, I'm going to have to suck it up and accept weekend work. Maybe I can convince everyone else in my life to start working weekends!

Anyway, the interview went fine. I liked the people; we laughed a lot. There were all of the usual questions and then a few funny ones like, "How attached are you to political correctness?" One of the women at the table rolled her eyes and gestured toward a pin up girl calendar. I laughed and assured them that I have a pretty good sense of humor about it all, except that I can't tolerate racism. My other favorite questions were "How many times have you lost your keys this year?" and "What's your favorite kind of music?" I think the question about the keys was a dig at someone at the table because everyone laughed.

I got a tour of the ship. Very cool. They have so many original materials and have done a nice job setting up some of the rooms to reflect what life was like on the ship. My mind is reeling with programming possibilities. I think I would like working there. I just don't want the schedule to mess up some important things in my life.

After the interview I went grocery shopping so I can make dinner for us the next time Steve can come over. Apparently people have mistaken the coming snowstorm for the Apocolypse because it was a mad house. I do not understand this at all. 9 inches of snow is not going to make it impossible for anyone to get to a grocery store for the next month and a half. Why do groceries suddenly become an immediate need? I mean, at the very worst you might not be able to get to the store tomorrow. Even I have enough food on hand to make it through tomorrow... and I have nothing!

Monday February 7, 2005 -- 7:35pm
I made the very exciting and dangerous discovery that I can copy all of my music cds onto my computer and play every single song I own in random order. GAH! This might negate the need for me to ever leave the house again. It's terribly exciting. I can also spend countless hours carefully constructing playlists to suit my every mood. Forget about ever getting my taxes done!

Just kidding. About the taxes. I did them tonight. That's right. In February. This is historic. I normally prefer to leave them until at least April 14th. You can blame Steve. For bizarre reasons that I can not explain, he got to doing his taxes today, and it inspired me. I came out well enough ahead to sponsor my trip to Virginia in April and to pretend that parking ticket just didn't happen.

Today was Cable Repaiman Part Two. My cable modem stopped working about 4 hours after it was repaired last week. I don't mean to be too optimistic, but it has been more than 5 hours since the repair guy left and it's still working. I'm trying not to let on that I've noticed, but I'm pretty excited.

Also, I have an interview on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I think it would be a fun job.

Tuesday February 1, 2005 -- 10:00am
On Friday morning, the alternator in my car died. Through a strange, emotionally charged series of events, this simehow inspired me to finally call the cable company and see about getting someone over here to check things out and see if they could fix it so I actually had Internet service more than 50% of the time. Behold, a guy came this morning and, in all of about 15 minutes, solved my problems. I should have asked him for career and financial advice too.

The cable's fixed, the car's fixed, now if I can just figure myself out!

I sent out two resumes this week - both for museum-type jobs. Keep your fingers crossed for me for an interview or two.

Monday January 24, 2005 -- 7:45pm
Well, my job for the next couple of weeks fell through. I was going to work on my resume today, because there are several museum jobs available that I have some interest in... but instead I became extremely obsessed with the dustiness of my room. I cleaned all day. And I'm not done.

I guess I need a job.

Thursday January 20, 2005 -- 10:10pm
I got a parking ticket. For two years now I have lived in this apartment, and this is the first time I have ever forgotten to move my car on street-cleaning eve. The first time! In two years! They should give me $50!

Seriously. I think you should one "Oops" allottment per year of residence on a street. They could only be used for the street cleaning sin though - not for blocking a driveway or fire hydrant. And that is very selfless of me, because I once received a rather hefty fine for being too close to a hydrant. But this street cleaning business... It isn't always easy to find the last remaining parking spot in the entire city and then remember that you can't park in it unless you intend to move your car before...

Oh. I just realized why I have had such a good track record with this. It's known as employment. I always moved my car before 9:00, because I was at work by then. Sigh.

I actually did work today. I taught a little after school class as a favor to a friend. It was a little challenging, since I wasn't very prepared, and I got there later than I'd hoped to, but it was ok. And I got paid! Woo-hoo!

Tuesday January 18, 2005 -- 12:15pm
I think it's time for me to get a job. As much as I love to sleep half the day away, I am so unmotivated to do anything that I end up just wandering around my little apartment all day, perseverating on every little speck of dust I see but feeling too overwhelmed to try to clean anything because what's the point? The dirt all just comes back the moment I'm done cleaning.

So, yes, I think I'm getting a little stir-crazy. Next week I have work though. Then, when that job is done, I am going to apply for jobs at bookstores, because that is what I feel like doing.

My actual plan for today was to go to the used bookstore up the street to sell some books, get coffee at the Daily Grind, and go to the grocery store. My enthusiasm for these projects has been somewhat dampened by the fact that the high today is going to be 8 degrees Fahrenheit. Winter.

Tomorrow I have to go out to where I used to work and have lunch with my former co-workers. They want me to go all the way out there, and then we're going to go to a restaurant that is half the way back here. I'm a little irked by that, but I suspect there may be some sort of hidden agenda, like somebody is going to sing me a song or something and didn't want to do it in public. Ah well. The drive will be nice, I guess.

Friday January 14, 2005 -- 3:25pm
Today I managed to lock myself out of my building. This was made more aggravating by the fact that I did not have my cell phone with me and that someone was supposed to meet me at my place in the afternoon to pick up some stuff I was giving her. I thought about going to the library or coffee shop and hanging out there until Steve was out of work. Then I could call him for a rescue, but what of this woman who was going to come pick up stuff? So, instead, I sat there hoping someone else in the building would come home. I did eventually get let in by another tenant, but not until about an hour had passed.

Erg.

I think I agreed to be part of a writing group last night. This is bad news, since it means actually having to write something. I'm feeling terribly depressed about it today.

I may have a job for a couple of weeks assisting a gilder. Don't ask. It seems like it could be interesting. Anyhow, I am beginning to get the feeling that not everyone is 100% sympathetic to my routine existential crises. I think there may be a few people out there who think I should just do something and just keep doing it, whether I like it or not, like everyone else on the planet does. Sometimes I think that too. That's why I went to graduate school, after all, but look where that got me. $26,000 in debt and a degree I'm not especially interested in using.

Oof. I'm totally depressing myself here.

Last night, Steve's mom and step-father took us out to dinner. It was fun. It's the first time we've done something together with just them, and not the entire family, and I felt a little nervous because sometimes I am such a weirdo. But it went wonderfully. I must keep in mind that these are the people for whom we buy things like marshmallow shooters.

I ate w-a-y too much, as usual. For anyone playing along at home, I now weigh the most I ever have in my entire life and can only wear skirts and dresses because none of my pants or jeans fit me. This should make gilding very interesting. I'll be bringing high fashion to the scaffolding.

Saturday January 8, 2005 -- 9:15pm
I think I have just had the most unproductive day of my life. I blame the snow.

Yes, it's a Winter wonderland out there... as in, "I wonder why I live in this land?" and "I wonder what land that lunatic learned to drive in," and "I wonder how I'll ever get my car out of the parking spot in which I landed it."

He's fine, but yesterday a student planted a large ceramic flower pot on Steve's head. Apparently it was highly dramatic. Steve got an ambulance ride, 8 staples in his head, and the rest of the day off. I spent a good deal of time last night and this morning trying to remove all of the dried blood from his scalp and hair. Frankly, I was surprised I could do it without being totally grossed out. As is his way, Steve is taking this all in stride, and getting a lot of mileage out of the Frankenstein jokes.

Tuesday January 4, 2005 -- 1:50pm
I got my scanner working! Hooray!

I'm having such fun being non-employed! Maybe I'll be a housewife when I grow up! Today I went to Stuyvesant Plaza to run a few errands, including picking up an application at a store there. Therefore, I feel very productive. Anyway, I also went to A Different Drummer's Kitchen, becasue Steve gave me a gift certificate for it. I nearly wept trying to figure out how to spend the gift. I wanted to spend it wisely, but not too frugally. I also wanted to make sure my choices totalled as close to the exact amount of the gift as possible. If I got change, I would spend it on Life instead of Fun. I ended up buying a donut cutter (because my mom gave me a little donut-making ingredients things at Christmas and I want to try it), a springform pan (because I've been wanting one, and, well, cheesecake!) and a stainless steel wok. It came to $1.65 over the gift certificate. Yeah! I rock! Then I went to the grocery store and bought veggies and stuff to make sushi and a stir fry, which will be my next project for the day.

Sunday January 2, 2005 -- 1:00pm
Happy New Year!

I love New Year's Eve, but I don't know anyone else who does too. There's just something exciting about it to me... like a brand new notebook waiting to be written in, or an empty room waiting to be filled with everything placed just so.

I suppose I'll have to start applying for jobs this week. Sigh. Reality is always such a disappointment.

Wednesday December 29, 2004 -- 11:00am
I hope everyone had a lovely holiday! I did. I had Christmas Eve dinner with Steve's family. They are a fun group - especially the kids. There are 3 older kids (20, and 16 year old twins) and 2 little ones (5 and 4). They're all so funny and sweet and awesome! Christmas Day we drove down to Connecticut to spend the day with my family. Also very fun. I was so excited to spend Christmas with them and with Steve! I received some awesome gifts and was also fairly pleased with what I gave.

I've been enjoying my unemployment so far. Next week I'll do some applying to jobs, but I'm just relaxing this week. Steve's on vacation, so that helps. Also I'm sick and not fit for much in the way of energetic job-seeking.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I celebrated with a few friends in my apartment. I cleverly set out all the holiday junk food I could, hoping that my friends would eat some and reduce the amount left to tempt me. Well they did, but Mike D arrived with a huge bag of cookies, and everyone else brought beer. 10 years ago we probably could have put a dent in it, but we're all too old now, and I have many, many leftovers to taunt me.

Sunday December 26, 2004 -- 9:40pm
Happy Post-Holiday Stupor, everyone! More later, when my computer is acting less suspiciously.

Tuesday December 21, 2004 -- 9:05am
Have I mentioned recently how much I hate Winter? I have to admit, we've gotten off relatively easy, up until yesterday. That doesn't make me feel much better about today, just the same.

Sunday December 19, 2004 -- 9:00pm
Today was a great day in terms of increasing the celebrity nature of my friends. I started the day by listening to my friend, Kim, be interviewed on my favorite radio station for their weekly "Community Insight" program. She was brilliant. She inspired me to immediately run out and adopt a teen age child. Well, ok. I didn't really do that, but Kim was great.

Then, tonight, I forced myself to watch 60 Minutes (which I've done maybe once before) because one of the pieces was about former football guy, Ricky Williams, who seems to have made everyone very upset by quitting football and going off to study aryuvedic healing. (I may have damaged the spelling of that somewhat.) While Mike Wallace or someone was busy trying to make Williams look stupid, they showed footage of a yoga class led by our friend, Michael! I think he was leading it. Maybe he was merely in it. Who cares! Michael was on 60 Minutes for about half a second! Very cool. (Williams is a student at the school in which Michael recently started his studies.)

While waiting for 60 Minutes to start, I saw the end of the Green Bay game and witnessed my Favorite Football Moment Ever. Brett Favre accidentally hit a ref with the ball while tossing it back to wherever he was tossing it back to. The look on Favre's face was priceless - like a little boy who just a hit baseball through the mean old neighbor's window.

A job at a certain museum we all know and love was advertised in the paper today. It's a job I would love. (It's a job I've done and loved!) I am very wary of that place though. The fact that tears sprung up into my eyes upon reading the ad makes me think that, maybe just maybe, it wouldn't be the most emotionally healthy thing for me to consider. Not that they'd hire me anyway. I was more or less told that they wouldn't six months ago. So, better to put it out of my head, perhaps.

On a related note, 4 more days of employment left for me. And then... ?