December

Wow, it's December! The last few months have really snuck up on me.

Last night's "Jethro Tull Christmas Album" virtual listening party was fun! It's a great album (minus a few little things, like "Bouree") and the virtual listening with Andy was an interesting way to hear it (never done that before- actually, I don't think I've listened to an album for the first time with anyone else before). Even though I'm not a very visual person, this album provided lots of visuals: a rowboat on a lake in the country, a quiet city street long after most people are asleep, a European harbour with seagulls and a lighthouse on a windy morning... I'm not sure how/why I saw all these things, but they were fun. The album also got me in the Christmas spirit. Although I guess I should really call it a Winter Solstice spirit since it's not the religious aspects that I like. It's the atmosphere in the air and the lights and the music. It's the way I feel about people I don't know- most of the time they're just in my way and/or irritating me, but this time of year I feel at peace with them (and if I'm in a charming area like Main St. USA, I might even smile at them as we pass each other crossing the street). I just feel more alive during this time of year (it's nice to have some real emotion, especially when the emotions are mainly positive, which they usually are this time of year).

Anyway... did some work this morning, had an okay psych class (we're finished with individuals and have moved onto societies), had an easy SM test (he realised his tests were getting out of control in the length department and this one was a breeze), and did some cleaning tonight (need to finish straightening up a few things tomorrow, but that shouldn't take long). I also played with the foam some more (I think when I put up drapes, everything will be fine- it stays put, it's just not very tight) and decorated a bit (not Christmas decorations, I decided not to bother this year since the few things I have aren't very festive and I'm never during home during the end of the month anyway- I just rearranged some of the stuff I already have).

I'm taking the rest of the night off.

Every so often, I hear loud noises coming from the apartment above me. Last night was one of those nights. At around 2:00 AM, it sounded like they were breaking glass while doing aerobics. I hope I don't appear that loud to my downstairs neighbours.

I've been enjoying my most recent "manic" phase- not needing too much sleep leaves more time for everything else.

Long day today (mostly with the Johnson program). This evening I hung out with Paula until Harvey got back around 8:30 and then had dinner with them. Their schedule is particularly crazy right now- I'm having trouble keeping up.

It looks like Jeff will be coming up with Brian and Rebecca the weekend after next after all (unless he needs to be in Florida). That'll be fun!

I decided to check out the Union Square Holiday Market before meeting Paula last night at Craft. I didn't take in the cold factor enough when figuring how much time I would need there though and wound up hanging out at Barnes and Noble for a bit as well to let my face thaw. Hasn't anyone invented anything other than a ski mask for dealing with wind? Fortunately, there wasn't much at the market that made me want to walk around for too long, and I did wind up getting some candles for Maureen and Lynne, so at least dealing with those strong winds wasn't pointless.

Craft was excellent! Finally a restaurant that doesn't feel a need to put 50 ingredients that I don't like in each dish. They like simple. And I like them. My skate & cauliflower were delicious as was the toffee pudding Paula and split for dessert. The main problem was that I wasn't really hungry, even with anticipating this and not eating all day. But it's a great place, and they have several other things on their menu that sound good (even most of their desserts), so I'll definitely have to go back.

"Beckett/Albee" was wonderful (especially the Albee- not quite sure why they put these pieces together other than the fact that people who like Beckett like Albee and people who like Albee like Beckett- these 2 playwrights are often linked together, and I don't really get it, but even I have them next to each other on my mostly-arranged-by-subject bookshelf). Albee always has such interesting ideas, but it's the little tidbits included in the dialogue that I really enjoy. In "Counting the Ways", it was the way he had "He" and "She" discussing what "love in the afternoon" meant and the way he had "He" think about what children did with dandilions that made the play virtually perfect to me. But what really was an interesting touch was the way he had the actors break the forth wall. Not only did they acknowledge the audience (something that happens quite often), they actually stepped out of character at one point and each told a little story as themselves. And Brian Murray and Marian Seldes were born to be in both Beckett and Albee plays (having these actors in the pieces tied the pieces together better than any other actors would have). Often while watching a Beckett play, my mind will drift to strange/abstract/philosophical thoughts. Last night I had a scary thought. I thought, maybe I'm trying too hard to live a "normal" life and it would be more natural for me to live like a character in a Beckett play. Oh, and last night was Lincoln-Center-taping-night- I wonder if that had any effect on their performance.

I'm going to skip psych today. I just feel like I need a little extra time at home today to take care of some things. I'll just ask Maria if she can email me the notes from today since she offered to do that when I sent her my notes once. I'll go to theatre though- that one I probably shouldn't miss.

Tonight I may go check out the Rockefeller tree with Paula and Harvey (yes, they're still here).

Just had a flashback of driving to Ellicott City. Can't wait to go there in a few weeks.

Harvey didn't get back until late last night, so we didn't go see the tree. Fine with me- there were already too many annoying people on the sidewalks to deal with on my walk home last night. and I didn't really want to go to a more crowded area.

I was supposed to go out to Long Island on Sunday to see Sheila for a quick visit, but she couldn't get to the airport today for the flight from BWI to Islip, so now I have Sunday free (which is good since I have a ton on my to-do list). She wants me to try to go down to Baltimore next week to see her, but I really can't take the time to do that.

Did some Christmas shopping online today. Still need to make a few things and get a few things in Maryland, but the hardest thing this year seems to be holiday cards. I've been to 3 places and either find cards that are completely ugly or completely expensive. I'll try again this weekend, but I'm running out of places to look.

I was reading the Hunter newspaper yesterday and learned that they are indeed planning some schedule changes. Right now, mostly because of poor schedules and class availability, it takes most students over 6 years to graduate. I was checking the list of closed classes earlier, and almost all the theatre classes are closed (and I can't register until the 10th). Unfortunately, the changes to the schedule won't do me any good since even with the near-impossibility of getting into all the classes you need, I'll still graduate before they actually have the new scheduling in place.

It's been snowing all day, but thanks to midtown traffic, it's not sticking on the streets on only sticking on the sidewalks in a few places. The traffic has been horrendous all afternoon, with everyone trying to get over the 59th Street Bridge. But if everyone's leaving, and it continues to snow overnight, maybe my street will be a little more quiet than usual tomorrow.

The rest of the day was filled with little odds and ends. My to-do list is starting to shrink slightly but still has a long way to go before it's empty (especially when I keep adding things every day).

The problem is that part of the reason the to-do list is shrinking is because I'm giving up on some of it. A lot of it is organisation stuff, and as much as I like to be organised, there are enough external factors against me for me to think giving up is easier than being organised. I'm tired of all the people/companies that make things difficult. Here's my current list:
- RCN
- AT&T
- Sprint PCS
- cordless phone batteries
- NYC retail stores
- NYC DOT
- Citibank (credit card department)
- Gumley/Haft
- USPS
And I'm sure there are others I'm not remembering right now. The bottom line is that service/products are just too unreliable these days, and I'm tired of dealing with it. I actually spent a few minutes trying to see if I could live in this society without dealing with these things (or at least 90% of it). But it's impossible to do without living in a remote area and hunt & harvest anything you need for survival and giving up any form of communication that's not face-to-face or going to jail or a mental institution could work as well. Or I guess being a fictional character could work in some instances. Yep, Beckettland, is where I belong.

There is still massive amounts of traffic trying to head out of the city. Not many people are coming in though, and the side of the street heading west actually has some snow sticking to it. And some of the sidewalks are more snow-covered now as well.

Today must be "problem day". Right now I'm chatting online with Tonya who is stuck at work because of problems at their Roanoke office. And a few hours ago I learned that the people who plow Paula and Harvey's driveway forgot to finish all the way to their house, so that caused some problems (and will cause more problems tomorrow when they do finish plowing and plowing the newly fallen snow as well which will create a huge mountain). And of course there's Sheila who could't make her flight this morning. I have a feeling tomorrow will be better. For now, I'll remind myself of Maria (who did indeed send me the psych notes, which were not only notes but a detailed outline of the lecture sent as a brilliantly formatted Word document) and Todd (who always returns my calls and shows up on time every time). And I'll also remind myself of how happy I am not to have to own a car (and car insurance)- that was always such a huge hassle in my life.

Last night I got an occular migraine (these have been too common recently), and part of the time I saw a clearly definied white zig-zagging telephone cord in my left field of vision (usually they happen in the right, so last night it was even more noticeable and obnoxious). It was really odd.

But last night was peaceful. The traffic was almost entirely cabs and buses (which is what the traffic should be in this city), and it ran smoothly which meant no honking. What a wonderful thing. And no noises in my building either, which added to the beautiful quiet.

Today I got to add to the list of things not working: my CD burner. I tried a few things but got tired of dealing with it for one day.

And to shorten my to-do list even more (since actually completing tasks is proving to be near-impossible), I decided to skip sending Christmas cards this year. I think I'll try to do some phone calls instead.

The blizzard in NYC that everyone's talking about- it's not in my neighbourhood. Sure, there is snow falling (actually, it's moving horizontally from west to east), and yes, the winds are 100mph, but there is no snow on the ground. It must be flying off to the river before it hits the ground. The traffic is still light though, so that's nice.

Or at least it was snowing earlier. I just checked, and currently we have a light freezing rain falling.

I've still been really nocturnal. And this morning, I forced myself to sleep in so I could stay up all night tonight (since I have to be up early tomorrow morning) and hopefully get a large chunk of my to-do list done.

I started reading "The Da Vinci Code" yesterday, and so far it's a fun and interesting read. I'm torn between reading more of that tonight or making the 3 hour commitment for HBO's, Angels in America (which will wind up being a 6 hour commitment since I'll probably want to watch the 3 hour Part II next week). Of course, I could tape the movie, but when I tape things, it's ages before I get around to watching it (and there are still some I haven't even watched yet). So I'm leaning towards watching the movie. I'll just bring the book down to Maryland and finish it there (since the next few weeks are going to be crammed with other stuff- work, school, guests, and odds & ends).

My to-do list is shrinking though. Although part of the reason is because I split the list into 2 parts: "Before I leave" and "When I get back", but I have actually completed some of things on the "Before I leave" list.

My hair turned out darker today than I would have liked, but maybe it will lighten a little bit. Then again, winter is a good time for dark hair, I think. I seem to be living very seasonally recently (music, colour, food & drink...). But even with our crazy weather in recent years and the fact that I live in an urban environment, my awareness of the seasons comes from nature rather than society.

I forgot to mention my lack of blizzard. Supposedly, the city got quite a bit of snow, but I never saw any.

So I wound up staying up reading. And I'm surprisingly still not tired. I want to try to finish the book this morning and hope that I don't get tired after that and wind up sleeping all day. I'll just do the caffeine thing today and hope that keeps me awake until tonight (and hopefully I'll get to sleep early tonight and get back on some sort of better sleeping schedule).

I haven't read much fiction this year (actually, I haven't read much for myself this year at all- each year, I seem to read for fun less and less). Getting caught up in a detailed work of fiction can be so much fun- I really should make the time for this more often (although my sleep really does pay for it since I prefer to tear through a novel rather than read a little bit each night).

I chatted with Jeff earlier and he's definitely coming up to New York this coming weekend. And he sent me a link to his South America pictures- can't wait to check those out. And we talked about maybe travelling to southeast Asia together at some point since he really wants to go and I really want to go back. I don't have very high hopes of this actually working out, but it would be fun.

And I got in touch with Daniel, letting him know that I'll be in Maryland in a few weeks. Looking forward to seeing him.

I forgot to tape Angels in America tonight, and with the 6 different parts, it's getting too complicated for me to want to bother watching it at all now. I never saw the play- I tried reading it once but didn't get into it. The main reason I wanted to see this movie was to see how this particular production turned out, which would mean more if I had seen or at least read the play, so I just won't bother.

I've had Ian Anderson's "Lost in Crowds" in my head all day- it really is a wonderful song.

I'm having fun confusing myself with time- my sleeping schedule is so off, I'm not even sure which hours I'm sleeping and which I'm awake- I'm just going about my business without noticing anymore (aside from classes). But I'll have to stop doing that today since I have plans that involve others the next few days. It was fun for a few days though (it would be interesting if I could do it longer).

The other night, I did something I've never done. While I was reading at one point, I was partially concentrating on what I was reading and partially concentrating on thinking about something completely different, and I could understand both. I knew I could keep a lot of things in my head at once, but this was different. It was strange when I finally noticed what I was doing.

Thought this little note I got in an email the other day was kind of funny:
Note: due to the current, rather unfriendly situation in the room (which we share with a few others), you are not likely to find us in the room unless we are having an event. So, wandering by the room is not the best plan of action right now.

I registered for classes today: Theatre History I and Playwriting (both are marked as writing intensive) and I'll also work on the production.

If I still lived in Phoenix, maybe I'd go to the pathetic Insight.com bowl that Virginia Tech has the honour of being in this year.

Tonight Harvey's working late (yes, they're back), and Paula and I are going to watch "Hamlet".

I have the hiccups.

I just realised that the new building going up on 3rd will change my view drastically. Well, maybe drastically is a strong word, but instead of seeing a lego-type area with different heights and patterns to the buildings, I'll see just one more big (probably ugly) building. So when I look to the right, I'll see big ugly red and white brick buildings and when I look to the left, I'll see generic glass buildings (and straight ahead- 2 ugly brick buildings- one brown, one white). And I'm pretty sure facing north (like I do) is the second best view in this area (east being the best, and on a clear day, I can see the bridge and tram in between 2 ugly white brick buildings). So yes, when this building is finished, except for a tiny hole revealing the bridge and tram, I won't be able to see beyond 2 blocks. But now I barely mind that I can't see out my bedroom windows anymore.

As typically happens when making plans that involve several people, I'm at the point where I just want everyone else to figure everything out and I'll just go along for the ride. Between shows and restaurants and Rebecca's colleagues and Jeff's friends from business school, there are a lot of details. And there are people that do this almost every weekend- I can't imagine ever doing that.

I have a lot of thoughts on my mind these days. Perhaps one day I'll take the time to put it all down here.

My to-do list in shrinking again! I got a nice amount done today, so now I won't feel as stressed when having fun this weekend.

Just wanted to draw attention to this funny article on the NCAA tournament that I originally linked to last March. I think my favourite line is, "You realize we now have a state named McNeese and wonder when it joined the Union. Not that it matters, you just want them to beat Mississippi State because, well, because someone says McNeese is a 14 and Mississippi State is a 3 that's why."

I've been having some intense thoughts recently. I want to start writing about them here, but today is not that day. My guests will be here soon and I still need to do a few things before they get here. But then next week is extremely busy and then I'll be in Maryland and then I'll be in Virginia... Maybe I'll just keep some personal notes of these things and maybe or maybe not put them up here early next year. Or maybe I'll do some kind of abbreviated version in the next week...

My guests left this afternoon, and I've been trying ever since to get stuff done, but instead I've wound up spending more time trying to consolidate and postpone enough things so I don't have to be as busy this week since I'm trying to fight a cold and would rather spend more time resting now and not be sick around Christmas and if I happen to get sick in the middle of January (that's when I hope to accomplish many of the postponed things), so be it- I'll just try my best to get as much done as I can.

So, Friday night Brian, Rebecca, and Jeff got here around 8:00, and we went to Townhouse for dinner with Tim and Todd (a colleague of Rebecca's and his boyfriend). Then since Rebecca had to get up somewhat early, we just came back here after dinner- Brian and Rebecca went to sleep and Jeff and I stayed up until 4:00 hanging out. Then I took care of some things since I wasn't tired, and around 7:00, planned on not sleeping and just starting my day early. But at 7:30, I got in bed for some reason and wound up sleeping until Brian called at 11:30. So I was a bit groggy when trying to quickly get ready to meet them at Norma's, but I made it and enjoyed the cup of coffee I had while waiting for a table.

After brunch, we went to see about tickets for "Wicked", but they were sold out. Then we decided to forget about seeing a show and instead go to the Museum of Natural History. By the time we got there, it was too late to check out both the museum and a show at the planetarium (which was what Rebecca originally wanted to do), so we decided to do the night music show at the planetarium and just check out some of the rest of the museum in the afternoon. I enjoyed the Vietnam exhibit a lot; it was a nice little supplement for my trip (plus it was nice to see an exhibit I haven't seen several times already- I think I've been to that museum more than any other). I got to be reminded of many of the different ethnic cultures and also got to learn about their views on death- something I'd been interested in but didn't get to learn about it there nor did I remember to look into it when I returned home. It was a small exhibit, but they had 3 or 4 different minorities' views on death and mourning as well as their funeral rites. Then after checking out a few of the permanent exhibits, we took a cab through horrible traffic back to my apartment so they could take naps (and Jeff went to his friend's party).

After Brian and Rebecca woke up, they decided to look into the show concept again. They finally decided on mezzanine seats for "Cabaret", but the ordering process was being difficult and we wound up not being able to buy the tickets and still wound up leaving a little later than I would have liked for the planetarium. Finding a cab was impossible, we waited for 15 minutes and then gave up and took the subway. First we waited about 15 minutes for the N train. Then when we transfered, the train was there as we were running down the stairs but was ridiculously crowded. There were 3 particularly obnoxious kids (I'd say between 9-13) who really pissed me off and put me in an even worse mood (I was already not happy because we were running late). The 2 girls were pushing and kicking me and giggled the entire time. Once the crowd thinned out, the boy decided to take a piece of thread, close it between the train doors, and acted like he was jet-skiing. Fun, right? Sure, until the train stopped at each stop, when he'd lose his balance and fall on top of people. We did finally make it, after running a bit, at 8:35. The show was just about to start. Between having a need for some sleep and having the stressful trip up there, I didn't enjoy the show as much as I thought I would (although that was also partly due to the poor quality- what do you expect from something "presented in association with MTV2"?), but it was okay. Some of the animation was fun (I especially liked the roller coaster finale) and I liked the selection of artists (Radiohead, Coldplay, U2...), just not the particular songs chosen. I'd like to see it (or something like it) again when I'm in a better mood and maybe have a pot brownie or something beforehand.

After the show, we had dinner at Churrascaria Plataforma. All-you-can-eat is so not my thing, but they all enjoyed it so that was good. Jeff really wanted to hear live music, but music to Jeff means modern rock, and I didn't feel like going too far from home, so we just came back to my apartment and watched "Trainspotting" (Brian and Rebecca went to sleep).

I didn't get to sleep quite as late (or shall I say as early in the morning) as yesterday (this time it was about 5:00 AM) and slept until 11:30 (and was groggy again when I woke up, which is really unusual for me). We watched the lovely footage on CNN while trying to decide what to do. Jeff went to brunch with another friend and Brian, Rebecca, and I went across Lex to the crappy diner (the roads were slushy and I didn't want to be out too long, so we didn't want to go too far). Then they went shopping for an hour and I came back here to get some stuff done, but Jeff got back shortly after I did, and we hung out watching more lovely footage on CNN and alternating that with some football.

Now that I've consolidated, postponed, and decided not to worry about many of the things on my to-do list, I decided that I could take the night off and just work on not getting sick.

Weather update: there has been some form of percipitation all day- currently we're on the "sheets of rain" variety.

(still alternating between light rain and sheets of rain).

Well, I was in bed just before midnight, woke up a few times in the middle of the night but forced myself to go back to sleep, and wound up sleeping until 10:00. Still wish I could sleep for another day or so; I think then I'd sleep the almost-a-cold thing away.

Shortly after I woke, someone's smoke alarm was going off on my floor and there was smoke in hallway. It turned out to just be a neighbour's poor cooking skills, but I was scared for a few minutes there.

Theatre final today. I'm not even sure how to go about studying for it (haven't looked at any of the material yet). I guess I'll just skim the book and handouts, and hope I can come up with enough information to bullshit through the final. There won't be any wrong answers, so as long as I can use enough terminology to make it sound good, I should be okay. I'm not worried- this is Duane, and I already have an A going into the final (I just don't want any of my essays to look stupid).

I'm not worried about the psych final either. I'll definitely need to read and memorise a lot before Thursday, but even if I wind up with a C on the final, I'll still get a B for the semester.

I can't seem to really wake up today. Maybe (hopefully) my brain will kick in later this afternoon.

Weather update: chance of snow? and it's supposed to be 42�F? Guess we won't be buried yet. Maybe we'll get a nice blizzard in February. As long as the weather doesn't mess up too many of my driving plans this winter (and there will be a lot of those driving days with all of the Maryland work planned), I'll be happy.

Yesterday was somehow productive even though I was exhausted most of the day. I managed to work, take a theatre final (and do well on it, I think), and cross off some things on my to-do list (including finally dealing with 3 weeks worth of mail).

I got around 7 hours of sleep last night, and I definitely feel better today. I think if I can sleep enough tonight, I will hopefully stop this "cold war" before it starts ;)

I was chatting with Andy a bit today about religion, and it made me question something. I understand how you can have family/ancestors from a certain geographic background and therefore you are of that background as well, but I don't understand how that works with religion. So what if your father was Muslim and your father's father as well? Why does that make you Muslim? Why isn't religion more of a choice (for people living in a nation that allows for it), like political affiliation? Geographic location is a physical, concrete thing whereas religion is more a matter of opinion. So I can see how your grandmother being from Germany makes you part German (it's in your genes), but I don't see how your grandmother being Catholic makes you Catholic. When did we decide that passing along your beliefs is the same as passing along your genes? And with our modern mobile society and inter-cultural marriage, I don't even see how geographic background/cultural affiliation matters much anymore.

I must be feeling better, my brain is back to questioning things (it had been tired and not caring to question anything the past 2 days).

I got a Christmas present today- my favourite iced tea from Paula! I bet it can help kick the cold germs far away if the sleep can't conquer it on its own.

Bowl games start tonight. I don't care too much this year.

My least favourite thing about Hussein being captured? The damn "Iraq playing cards" spam is back.

My throat started bothering me last night and has been a problem all day (and I'm tired). Some of the time I think I actually enjoy being a little sick (especially during those rare moments when I don't have to accomplish anything important). It's fun to feel floaty. And I think the gloomy weather added to that feeling a bit.

I decided that since I didn't send physical Christmas cards this year, I'd send virtual ones instead- hopefully I'll do that this weekend.

The amount of emergency vehicles on my street was enormous today (mostly fire engines).

This album brings a rare Phoenix flashback- I remember listening to this album on my drive home from Jaime's one night and recording a million thoughts on my mini tape recorder.

Psych final tomorrow. I guess I'll be ready for it. I'm hoping that tomorrow everything will make enough sense.

For tonight, I'm finished with being productive and thinking about anything important. I just want to enjoy my floating and go to sleep semi-early (and hope I don't wake up 100 times in the night).

Don't like Launch's new rating system- glad they kept the old one as well.

I'm planning on leaving for Maryland on Sunday so I can stop by Jackie's open house that afternoon and also have a full work day on Monday. It looks like the weather will be kind to me that day. The only annoying part is that I have to drive back and forth across town (to pick up the car and then pick up my stuff at my apartment and then go back cross town to the tunnel) since the rental place near me is closed on Sundays- hopefully the traffic will be light. I guess I could take a taxi to the car place, but I'll be carrying so much stuff with me, I don't know if that's worth it. I'll figure it out on Sunday morning.

The psych final today was okay. I'm sure I could have done slightly better had I been able to study some more, but partially because of my "cold", partially because of my wandering brain, and partially because I was sick of reading about all this stuff, I just gave up on studying much more than just skimming the book and reading over my notes twice. But I'm pretty sure I still got a B and I'll get a B for the class.

Okay, something I've been thinking about for a little while: this is really becoming more and more of a public journal. There are certain things I just can't mention because it's not fair to the other people invovled. So I've just been avoiding mentioning things and I'll probably have more and more that I'll have to leave out. I've been jotting down some of those things in a private journal, and this journal will remain for things that 99.9% of the population can hear (I'm sure I'll still slip in something that someone won't want to hear at some point- like when I complain about Sherry or something- Jay, if he ever found this site, wouldn't want to hear that). I decided that's better than stopping the whole thing altogether- I don't want to do that. So I'll still rant and question and mention most things that's going on in my life, I'll just have to leave out certain things (and I haven't completely figured out how to do that yet- there's quite a bit I'm still trying to figure out how to do these days).

I finally switched the phone batteries from Radio Shack today (actually I don't think I mentioned the fact that I tried to get a battery a few weeks ago- I got the wrong size and it took until today to make myself go and get the right one). I'll leave it uncharged while I'm away (in hopes that the theory of overcharging is why I've been having trouble even though Paula and Harvey are away more than I am and don't have problems with their phones), and hopefully it'll last longer than the past 2 lasted.

I'm taking tonight off and planning on sleeping in tomorrow morning (really hope I'm able to do that). I deserve the break after these past few days and with all the work that awaits me in Maryland starting next week.

Oh, and I'm feeling better today- not 100%, but certainly 85-90% better. I swear it has to do with the weather (it's dry and not as gloomy today). And it's not that I see what the weather is and then figure out if I'm sick or not. I wake up and either feel sick or not without seeing what the weather is first (especially now that I can't see outside until I go in the living room), so I'm not taking 2 uncorrelated things and making them correlate to fit my expectations ;)

I really hope now that the social psych class is finished I don't think in this way 100% of the time- I want to figure out how to be more accepting of shortcuts in thinking (from both myself and others)- it would make things so much easier.

I feel okay, but I still have some cold symptoms- hopefully they'll be gone in a day or two.

My stage management grade is posted already (and I'll give credit where credit is due- Hunter is finally putting technology to use- online grades right away, easy online registration, semi-timely emails...). Gotta love Duane- he gave me an A+. I didn't deserve it this time, but I'll certainly take it (although an A+ isn't any different from an A, it just looks cooler [and probably no one will ever see it other than me]).

All my clothes are packed (the hardest part of packing for me)- I'll pack everything else tomorrow so I can leave early Sunday morning (since I decided I'll have to do the drive-back-and-forth-cross-town-with-the-rental-car thing since I'll have too much stuff to do the taxi-to-pick-up-the-rental-car thing).

Edward Albee's on Theatre Talk tonight- I'm going to try to remember to watch. I might also watch "The Sting" if I get enough done this afternoon/early evening.

Looking forward to seeing Jackie, Jen, Marvin, and whoever else happens to be there that I know (most likely there will be several people that remember me and I won't recognise them at all- I never really paid attention to who those people every year at Jackie's were).

The scaffolding for the Bloomberg Tower is now taller than the office building in front of me.

This is a particularly dry winter.

Well, sometime yesterday evening I got a full-blown flu (or something). Nothing I've tried taking seems to be working much. It would be great if I would magically feel better tomorrow morning, but if not, I'll probably wait and leave on Monday (I'm assuming at least the fever will be gone by then). If I can leave tomorrow, I need to finish packing and cleaning today, and right now I'm too tired to any of that. And if I can leave tomorrow, I think I'll sleep in, leave later, and skip Jackie's. For now I'll just watch some tv and hope I'll feel better enough in a few hours to do something productive.

Still have the flu, but I definitely feel better than I did yesterday. Yesterday all I did was sleep a little and watch some movies on TV ("Better Off Dead", "Adaptation", and "Barton Fink"). The Robitussin Flu actually seems to be working somewhat, so I'll keep taking that and hopefully this will go away quickly.

Last night I tried to change my car reservation from today to Monday, and that didn't work. They said if I didn't pick up the car today, they would give the car to someone else and no other rental place in the city had a car for Monday. But I got lucky. Akhmed (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) is actually picking up some stuff in the city tomorrow and driving down toward Maryland, so he's able to pick me up in the morning and will drop me off at the Avis in Towson. And of course renting a car outside of NYC is a hell of a lot cheaper, so this is working out to be better than my original plan. I'll just ship my stuff back in January and take the train home. I really got lucky. If Akhmed wasn't available, I don't know what I'd do.

And I think I'll stay closer to Timonium until Christmas Eve, so I'll have less driving to do while I'm still sick and hopefully get more work done since I'll have less driving time. Hopefully I can find a place to stay.

This fever is making me a bit delirious. I just called Neil and Maxine and wound up leaving a message, but I have no idea what I said. And my brain has a split second delay between what my eyes see and how my brain interprets it. So if I look from one thing to another, I see it all in slow motion and the second object seems to appear out of nowhere. I'm not explaining this well. My point is that I feel strange. But things are always worse in the afternoon, so hopefully in a few hours I'll feel well enough to take a shower and finish packing and cleaning.

I don't know what I'll do about picking up last minute Chrismtas presents. If I run out of time, hopefully those people will understand.

Guess I won't be carolling with Lynne.

Poor Bledsoe, Miami's just not letting him do much today.

Two minute update:
- got down to Maryland without a hitch
- fever's gone, cold symptoms linger
- lots of work to do
- we'll possibly have a white Christmas if this thick fog of today sticks around
- Merry Christmas

Christmas was nice, and the church we went to on Christmas Eve was my favourite in MD so far.

Saturday was social day. I went to Daniel's in the early afternoon- he bought a house in Silver Spring this summer. I saw Naomi briefly and then played Settlers with Daniel and Michael (his brother). Then in the evening, I went up to Les and Carol's for dinner. Fortunately, my next stop was only 10 minutes away (driving has been the theme of my time here and it was nice to have a short drive for once)- Jon moved into a gorgeous house off of Stevenson. I hung out there with Jon, Jeff, Brian, and Rebecca (Michelle was out of town). We played ping pong (after a few minutes of warming up, I got my some of my champ skills back) and Trivial Pursuit- fun times.

Work's been busy- nothing else to say about that.

In between working this week, aside from running some errands, I plan on seeing Matt & Sylvia (today), David (tomorrow), and Jay & Sherry (New Years Eve).

The best thing about being in Maryland this time? There has been 3 nights of seeing stars!!

Yesterday was the first day I got completely overwhelmed with everything, but for some reason, I feel a bit better today. I'm super-tired though and wish I had more time for sleep. Tonight I'm at Jon and Michelle's, tomorrow I'll be at Jay & Sherry's. Too tired to write anything else.

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