October

I shouldn't take this time, but I will anyway since I'm still not ready to give this up. I don't want to take too much time though, so I'll just put up the notes I've been making over the past week or so, whether they make sense or not.

The auction went well. I've really been enjoying the actual auction part of the work (pre/post auction is about the same). Doing Ebay and not having to actually talk to people (or at least not have them talk back to me) makes things much better for me, personally.

Saturday night, I went with Mike and Carl to the bar at The Warwick- great to be able to let off steam and easy people to be with.

Speaking of steam... every other block: Con Ed truck, Verizon truck, Con Ed truck, Verizon truck... The work being done by Con Ed across from The Warwick looked intense- there was a HUUUUUUGGGGGE amount of steam coming up from the street (here's a picture, though the picture doesn't really do it justice). The deterioration of the infrustructure in the city is more and more noticeable.

Oh, and there's more scaffolding on my street. I lost count of how many renovations/new projects there are.

Friday and Saturday nights had horrible traffic!

Subjects I thought about while trying to fall asleep over last weekend: cultures throughout history and how different cultures observe one another and themselves in the present and in the past and in the present about the past, entertainment trends, corporate globalisation and how companies could be more efficient if things were operated on a smaller scale- preferably community-based (guess I'm less of a capitalist than I thought- or maybe I'm changing my views [for a change]).

Sunday- HEAVVVVYYYY TRAFFIC combined with street fairs and parades makes for a NOISY day where it takes forever and a day to get around the city. Paula, Harvey, and I finally made it to The Met (to do some research on furniture), and getting back to midtown was even worse. So even Harvey's good luck hasn't been helping (especially when dealing with travel in the northeast)- he's had some serious delays and cancellations on Amtrak and many of his recent flights have been seriously delayed as well.

Sunday night was dinner with them and Bob at Craft- that was nice other than the problem of trying to keep my eyes open- they kept closing due to sheer exhaustion- I only slept a few hours each night almost all of the past 11 nights- a few hours is fine for a few nights, but after about 3 (especially with the awake time being completely busy with mentally exhausting things), I need some catch up time, and I wasn't getting that (still not getting enough, but I did sleep a nice amount last night and I'm going to try again tonight).

Sunday was a gorgeous day but more chilly than expected- Sunday night had a fairly clear sky and I had a view of the moon and 8 stars- traffic ruined looking out the window for too long though (it also ruined my sleep for a change, but Sunday night was really a bad night for that- Sunday night and Tuesday night were my worst nights for exhaustion).

Sundays used to be fairly quiet in the city. Now, it's so much louder than any weekday (Friday nights may be about equal).

Monday, breakfast with Paula @ Norma's- nice way to start the day, but it still took me until 3:00 PM to feel awake (had some coffee at 2:30- that might have helped).

Monday, after classes, errands, and work, I worked on my visual elements paper and cleaned the apartment to get ready for Rebecca's visit (although she wound up only staying on Wednesday night). The busy night at home was enhanced by loud music coming from the stairwell- when they stopped, I got to hear some lovely drilling going on outside for several hours (the drilling has been going on for a week now).

Rachel came up to the city on Tuesday (glad she had somewhere else to stay). She wanted to get together, but I didn't have time (plus, I thought Rebecca would be here). I don't mind having guests, but it was starting to feel overwhelming (mainly because of how busy I am, the guests aren't really overwhelming- although, it would be nice if I liked more of them).

Traffic was my alarm clock Tuesday morning. So pissed. I need every minute of sleep I can get right now, and I really didn't appreciate waking up an hour earlier than planned.

Tuesday was exhausting- running all over the city (I didn't mean to, but I wound up walking 4 miles at once [looking for things that weren't there, I guess]). Lack of sleep didn't help matters. I did get the majority of notes done for my play analysis paper though, which did help a bit when it came to writing the paper yesterday and today.

Traffic was quiet Wednesday morning (didn't get obnoxious until around 11:00) and let my alarm clock wake me up. Still had to get up early but at least it wasn't earlier than planned.

Wednesday- another exhausting day and didn't get to sleep until 5:00 Thursday morning. At least traffic was quiet Wednesday night, so I didn't have to listen to that mess while I was working for countless hours.

Thursday went downhill from Wednesday. The best part was the ocular migraine in the evening (lasted for a while too). I need sleep!

Friday night and Saturday morning traffic wasn't too bad. Very appreciated! But then Saturday afternoon continued to get more and more noisy (including neighbours' loud music)- not appreciated.

I'm so glad most of my friends and family don't expect birthday presents- a few less things to deal with this week is a good thing.

I did take the time on Friday to do something fun- I watched Jeopardy. Didn't learn much from the categories, but I did notice that Ken Jennings' is a lefty (can't believe I didn't notice before now).

Speaking of lefties, while drafting last week in visual elements, I noticed that 3 of us in a row were lefties- very convenient for drafting in a room with seats that are way too close to one another.

Tried to do some work at Juan Valdez yesterday. All I wanted was a cold drink involving caffeine and a bite to eat. They didn't have either. All the Starbucks were packed, so that didn't work. I finally wound up at the unhygienic, horrible-serviced coffee shop on my corner. I should have just gone home, but for some reason I stayed there anyway for a quick breakfast. Yuck. I hate this neighbourhood.

I also went to Duane Reade to pick up a few things. They didn't have anything I needed (so I'll try a different location next week). When my life is this busy, situations like this make things so much worse. I don't have time for this.

It's so frustrating being this busy during the last few weeks before the election. I wish I could spend more time learning about the details of what's been going on so I can form good arguments for attempting to persuade undecideds to vote for Kerry. And I knew some people who went up to New Hampshire today to go door to door of the undecideds. I really wish I could have gone with them. I don't strongly believe in much of anything, but I do strongly believe that if Bush is re-elected, this country will continue to go downhill over the next 4 years.

In good news, it looks like Andy and I will be seeing Tull in Albany in November. So not only will there be good music involved, I'll also get to see a small portion of upstate New York. For someone who's travelled all over every state in the continental US, it's surprising how little I've seen of New York (especially since I live here).

Traffic was nasty last night (actually, it was about 4:00 AM) when I was trying to fall asleep. Fortunately, it stayed quiet this morning to let me sleep a fairly nice amount (I think it was about 6 hours, and I stayed asleep the whole time). Still could use some more sleep though. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to sleep on the plane (or sleep through Neil's snoring in Zurich).

I got lucky today on one thing: phone calls. I decided to be good and take the time to call a few people I felt like I should get in touch with since we haven't talked in a while. No one I called answered the phone, so I got to leave messages, putting the ball in their court (getting me off the hook), and I didn't have to spend any time with conversation- leaving me with more time for urgent things.

Okay, looking back at those notes, it's obvious I need sleep. I know I could have written about other things over the week, but I guess I didn't think those were as important at the time as writing about the need for sleep (probably because I was exhausted every time I wrote notes). Hopefully if I can get close to a full night of sleep tonight, this next week will be slightly easier. I'll be almost as busy as last week, but I won't have guests, which makes a tiny bit of difference, so between that and being more rested, I should be okay.

Traffic right now is awful, and I expect it to continue into the wee hours since tomorrow's a holiday. But hopefully that will mean it won't be so noisy in the morning, and I won't have trouble sleeping in.

I think I'll try to write a little bit each day next week, since otherwise, I won't update again until well after I get back from Zurich (around Halloween).

Last night the sky cleared and I saw 11 fairly bright stars from my window. But unfortunately, once again, drilling and traffic noise kept me from looking out the window for too long (the traffic quieted down early at around 2:30, but the drilling continued until sometime after I fell asleep, which was around 5:00).

Today the traffic was quiet but my building was LOUD. They were doing some major banging and drilling in my hallway all afternoon and my neighbours were on a loud "music" kick all day and into the evening (they've quieted down now though). Traffic has remained quiet all day (I think I heard 3-4 honks and 6-7 emergency vehicles- I don't think it's ever been this quiet).

Maybe when I get back from Zurich, I can get back to my do-something-interesting-in-the-city-once-a-week idea.

I'm so lucky to not be sick or have any major injuries right now.

I just mentioned the cereal restaurant article to Josh, and we spent a few minutes discussing other good products we could market to stupid Americans who are willing to spend money on anything. That was fun.

Now, back to more important things...

Traffic stayed quiet the entire night (other than a few motorcycles and a little honking)! It was truly amazing. I don't think my neighbourhood's ever been this quiet (other than on Septemeber 11th, and that was an eerie quiet). I felt so relaxed because of it. Maybe everyone else was tired like me and decided they'd rather stay home and rest than drive into the city.

But they were all back today. Traffic this morning was particularly nasty. And for the past hour or so, someone's been playing loud music in the building- my walls are pounding.

The trash shute now is not only locked but has duct tape across it. What, were people picking the lock to throw down their trash?

I originally thought I would have classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so I planned on driving up to Maine on Thursday. Now Hunter seems to have changed their schedule and made that Wednesday follow a Friday schedule (no clue why they changed in the middle of a semester). So, now I'm thinking of taking more time up there and leaving early. But I don't want to drive with the rest of the country on Wednesday, so I thought about leaving on Tuesday and just taking stuff up with me to work on there. But I'll probably be pretty exhausted on Tuesday, after a busy weekend with Andy and a chaotic Monday. That's the good thing about car rentals though, you can usually leave the reservations until the last minute- so I'll figure out when to leave as it gets closer. Good thing the plane option didn't work out, or I'd currently be locked in without an option.

Josh has the kind of luck I have with everything (an unbelievable amount of things breaking, not working, doing other things that would never happen to most people...)- he's going through a particularly bad spell right now. I wonder why it is that some people just have worse luck than others?

I'm supposed to have dinner with Paula and Harvey tomorrow night (yes, they're back), but I don't think I can take the time. I'll have to see how things go tomorrow before making a decision. I probably won't go though. I don't even want to go. It just sounds like more trouble than it's worth. Staying home and catching up on things and/or resting sounds like a better idea.

Time to go read up on "The Wild Duck".

Last night the sky cleared a bit and I saw a few stars. And traffic had some quiet points last night- thank you.

Today's issue? People who think everyone else's life is easier than their own. Everyone has problems, some more than others. Some people have a harder dealing with their particular problems than other people would. Some people manage to cruise through some things that other people can't even get started. People need to leave everyone else alone when it comes to this stuff and not assume what works for them will work for others. As much as the media likes to paint us as all having the same general make-up (same interests, same patterns of living...), we're all different and have different methods of dealing with our own individual lives.

I decided to join Paula and Harvey for dinner tonight (still not sure exactly why, other than it could be a nice break- but the break will probably be longer than I should take). So I'll do my library reading after class, then meet them at Los Dos Molinos, and then come home and work all night.

I've been stuck in elevators before, which is not a pleasant thing, but I think I prefer that to what happened yesterday. I was alone in the Hunter elevator heading down to the basement, the doors opened to the first floor, and then while they were closing, the elevator lifted up a half a floor. After the doors closed completely, the elevator went crashing down to the basement. That was scary. Good thing it happened on the first floor and not the 10th.

Los Dos Molinos was nice. There are 2 things really lacking in our current age- things that are authentic and things that are unique. Los Dos Molinos has elements of both.

I heard The Barenaked Ladies' "Pinch Me" coming from the stairwell last night. It's ridiculous how clearly I could hear the song (and of course the bass was pounding through at intense amounts). Someone must have complained though, since they shut it off pretty quickly. Then I got to listen to some loud construction on my street while enjoying the lovely honking symphony outside for all hours of the night (the construction blocked several lanes in my intersection).

I watched most of last night's debate. I thought Kerry looked slightly better than Bush, though both said some things that I would like to see fact-checked, and of course it's frustrating to hear unanswered questions and half-finished thoughts- I wish they could have continued and/or gone back to some points (like stem-cell research). Had more thoughts about it but too busy to write those.

Because of an administrative error, I'll be getting my own room in Zurich. Hate the fact that they'll be spending more money but like that I have a better chance of sleeping (or more likely, I still won't sleep well but I won't be able to blame it on Neil's snoring).

Have I mentioned recently how much I love AT&T's customer service?

About that last article: why is always Christians who are fighting same-sex marriage? Other religions don't approve of same-sex marriage, but they aren't fighting to propose a ban (or at least they're not doing it in organised groups). I really had a valid point in my Roman Theatre paper, when I said we need to worry about another Christian uprising (comparing current conditions in the US to those in ancient Rome). The slow rise of Christianity in the US is really starting to scare me. Even though Kerry is Catholic, I tend to believe him when he says he'll keep his personal views out of politics.

Traffic was extremely quiet last night (even with more lanes blocked in my intersection). I wonder why everyone decided not to drive last night. And I wonder why that can't happen more often.

Watched Jeopardy last night. I rocked the "Math" and "Lake Cities" categories!

Yesterday, I had a different (but much more safe) elevator problem- waiting 15 minutes in the morning for the one in my building to show up (and then took about 5 minutes to get to the lobby since it had to stop at so many floors). Fortunately, I made good time with my errands and got to class on time.

Also yesterday, I discovered more major construction (at 3rd & 59th) across from the Bloomberg Tower. I'm not exaggerating- the entire few square blocks that make up my immediate neighbourhood is under construction. I wish a local journalist would do a story on it- I don't have time to research everything myself, but I'm curious about what's been going on and what changes will continue to take place.

Gloomy day today. I enjoyed it since it was intense gloomy rather than ugly gloomy. Even a bit of walking around in the rain was nice- minus the traffic, construction, and Verizon doing work on every block.

There are a million travel/work details to work out- got a start this afternoon but not everything is going very smoothly, so I'll try again and continue tomorrow (and super early Sunday morning, so I can call Zurich to find out what's going on with the software changes- then I guess I'll stay up all night/morning on Sunday night/Monday morning- not only will I have plenty of hours to take care of things that way, I might have a better chance of sleeping on the plane [as long as I don't have issues with the people next to me- going to the bathroom every few minutes, taking up half of my seat, sleeping on top of me...]).

Nasty traffic last night but the sky cleared enough to see 4 stars (can't wait until I can go somewhere with a full sky of stars visible- I've really been unlucky with night weather and/or light pollution everywhere I've been since I moved from Phoenix).

I think some kind of nocturnal animal(s) has made a home in the walls next to my living room, by the stairwell. I've been hearing some strange, loud noises coming from there the past few nights.

The mail is completely finished, the apartment is mostly clean, and I'm partially packed. Just needed a break from the unfinished things. I'll get back on those later, along with work and arranging the rest of the travel details.

I tried to call a colleague in Lugano just now, but he didn't answer, so I thought I'd do a quick entry and then try again.

Yesterday the traffic got more and more obnoxious as the night wore on. By 1:00 AM, it was in full force and it's still not really quiet (though it should be quieting down within the next hour).

Tried to watch Bill Maher last night while doing other things. The other things took most of my concentration, but I did get to hear him mention the same example I gave for Bush's performance during the debate- when he evaded every question by answering them with "no child left behind".

One other construction note I don't think I've ever mentioned: the building across from me has been under construction for several months now.

Why don't people believe me when I make a statement and assure them that it's accurate? I get so tired of that. And you'd think after I prove them wrong a few times, they would more likely believe me the next time. But, no, they don't. This is especially true in work situations, and I get a lot of it from family members as well.

Probably won't update again until after the 24th, when I get back from Zurich.

Okay, time to go call Lugano and then hopefully get to sleep not too long after that.

We're having another Sunday of nasty traffic (it hasn't been quiet for more than 30 seconds since I woke up). I'd love to know what people have against taking trains and buses, other than not being able to come and go on your own schedule.

I've gotten an amazing amount done today already, and I have the entire day/night/tomorrow morning to finish up all the last minute details. Now if only there was a way to have time in Zurich to keep up with a few things (at least email) so I don't have a pile of stuff to do when I get home next Sunday (when I'll be exhausted). If we actually manage to get through the time there without too many major issues, maybe I can take care of a few of my own issues during someone's lunch break or something.

The Supershuttle was 45 minutes late, but traffic wasn't too bad, so I got to the airport in time. Thought I'd have a bite to eat (after going through security, of course, since that could take a while- which it did). Got past security and the 2 food options were closed. I shouldn't have been so surprised, but it was only 7:00.

The airport "bookstore" was open though, and what a nice politically diverse store it was. No Jon Stewart, no Clinton, no Michael Moore (not that I personally care about the last 2, but many people do), only Ann Colter, Bill O'Reilley, etc. And this is New Jersey. If the books at this location are chosen by local marketing, maybe whoever told Bush he should campaign here was smart. Or else someone in charge of the book distribution wants to make sure to spread the Republican word. I asked the woman at the cash register if she knew how the books were chosen, and of course she had no idea. I didn't expect her to know, but it didn't hurt to ask.

I slept on and off for about 20 minutes on the flight since I had an annoying guy next to me that kept jabbing me in the ribs (every time I was almost asleep, it tickled and woke me up). I think they should have optional, full-length dividers that extend the length of the seat so there's no way people can take up other people's seats (they can retract for times you want to be close to the person next to you).

Getting into Switzerland was the easiest country yet, and the airport was empty, so I flew through. They didn't even stamp my passport :(

Everyone keeps assuming I speak French, and I don't bother correcting them since I've understood everything so far. The bus driver to the hotel finally asked me where I was from. When I said, "New York," he said, "You're American? You don't look American." I thanked him. I think I've mentioned this at some point, but I think I look generic. I often have people tell me that I look like someone they know or have people mistake me for someone else. And no one can figure out my nationality. I've heard: French, Slavic, Greek (with my ghostly while skin?)...

Met up with Neil, found a cafe for a snack, walked around the lake (in the rain), then walked around Old Town (still raining- came down even harder at this time) and climbed a bunch of narrow, winding stairs in an old church (very foggy view). Can't believe I'm still holding up (minus some joint pain and poor eyesight)- don't remember the last time I got a full night of sleep. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep tonight (even though I have to get up early to go to Liechtenstein).

It was still raining for the journey to and from dinner. Does the rain ever stop?

Slept well until I woke up from a nightmare (a snake was chasing me all over Paula and Harvey's house). Took train to Sargans and bus to Vaduz. Walked around there a bit and then boarded a bus up to Malbun. Malbun was gorgeous! The sky cleared a bit (and was even ... sunny some of the time), it was pretty warm, and the mountains with little bits of snow were beautiful. So glad I got to spend a little time there. It was especially nice since the summer season just ended and the winter season hasn't started yet, so there were very few people (although the season being over was also a negative thing since the lift up the mountain wasn't running- that was one of the things I was looking forward to, but walking up was fun too). Definitely want to get back to that area (maybe Austria, France, and more of Switzerland- can I have 3 extra weeks with that Time Turner please?) and spend more time in the Alps. I love mountains.

And it wound up being really easy to get there. After spending so much time the night before, trying to figure out train schedules (2 employees at the hotel were no help- I knew I should have figured it out myself at home before I left, but I ran out of time), once at the train station in Zurich, everything was easy to figure out and everything went smoothly. Love European train travel- on time, quiet, and comfortable. And for the finishing touch of a nice day trip, arriving at the train station back in Zurich was a charming market.

Had dinner with Neil tonight, where I reminded myself that I still like escargots (haven't had them in years). Fortunately we made it to dinner. When we got off the tram at the stop where the restaurant was located, the street we were looking for was nowhere in site. Neil said, "Shades of Bangkok", when we wandered around for hours, looking for Zanotti (which we never did find). Anyway, we went to a store for directions, and the woman there said that someone else came in earlier asking the same thing but she had no idea the street about which we were asking. We then asked a man on the street, and he said he was looking for the same restaurant. He told us it wasn't in one direction, so we went the other way and... there it was. Nowhere near the fiasco of Bangkok.

So mad. I fell asleep around 12:30 AM and woke up wide awake at... 1:15 AM. From there, I dozed on and off all morning, waking up for various reasons: loud thunder, noise in the hallway, hitting my head on the "nightstand" (it's a very small room)... I'm wiped out. Should make for a great work experience.

Work was slow during the day and got crazy in the afternoon/evening. In my opinion, we left way too much for tomorrow morning, but the powers that be wanted to stop, and it wasn't anything I could do myself. So I got back to the hotel early, which isgreat since it leaves me more time to try to sleep.

I attempted to deal with my email this evening, but I gave up quickly. I'm just so exhausted, and it was daunting. Why do I not hear from people when I have time to deal with them and then when I'm here, I hear from TONS of people (clients, new projects, friends who are trying to make plans...)? Mr. Murphy's doing, I guess.

Everyone keeps telling us to go home and elect Kerry. I hope we can do that for them.

Okay, another night of zero sleep (at least there's no traffic noise here- the only noise that kept startling me was when someone flushed a toilet in another room- that was loud). This is beyond ridiculous. When I get home, I'm going to look into sleeping options again, in case I've only exhausted (pun intended) 99% of the possibilities. There has to be at least one thing I haven't tried yet, right?

I get so tired of people assuming I'm a stupid kid who doesn't know anything (travel, computers, cultures, economics...). I may be young (although never as young as they assume), but I've been around, I read a lot, and I'm highly intelligent to boot. But there's no convincing them.

Oh, I forgot to write about the Landesmuseum. Loved it. It was in a castle, where you wandered from room to room, twisting and turning, up and down stairs, through little passages, and getting lost. Running into very few people was even better- I could explore on my own without others in the way. Oh, the exhibits were nice too. I especially liked the globes from 1680, depicting both earth and sky (1 globe for each) and the medieval weapons.

Yesterday was chaos (in the technical area of things)- don't really want to go into detail. Last night I had dinner with Neil and Dieter (sp?) and then Neil went to sleep and I had a few drinks with Dieter- nice guy. I did get 5 hours of sleep, but I feel like I could use about 5 days. I'm more exhausted than I've been in a long time (or maybe ever).

Yesterday, more chaos- technology is just not what it should be. Personally, I lost it about 2 hours before we finished. Could have been worse- I held it together longer than I thought I could. Between the exhaustion, the technology mishaps, and not eating all day (I didn't feel well enough to eat), I got very faint and had to stop working for a little bit. My brain was also very dizzy from converting francs into dollars, back to francs, back to dollars... at a rapid pace, non-stop for hours (that was one of the technical aspects that never happened- automatic currency convertion- so I had to do it all in my head).

So now I can definitely say that yesterday I was more exhausted than I've ever been in my life, and it still took me almost 2 hours to fall asleep last night. Now I'm at the airport and hoping I'll be able to get some sleep on the plane.

I have a feeling this will be the year the Red Sox will win the World Series.

I'm home.

And exhausted.

And I shouldn't be taking the time to do this, but I can't focus enough to do anything productive, and I can't fall asleep yet. So I might as well catch up here.

The flight home was obnoxious. First there was the HUUUUUUUGE guy from Poland next to me who couldn't not take up part of my seat. He tried not to though, so I didn't mind as much as I minded the thinner guy on the way over who kept hitting me (and loudly laughed non-stop through a stupid movie). Then, unlike Swiss Air (which had individual video screens, on which I played trivia games and watched the map since there weren't any movies that were worth watching), the American flight had one screen for the whole economy section, which was impossible to see a few rows away, let alone from where I was sitting. So I reread a book (oh, the good thing about staying up all night the one night in Zurich was catching up on a lot of school reading- wish I had brought more, although that would have meant more weight in my luggage), and somehow the time went quickly even though I didn't get to sleep at all.

The time between getting off the plane until getting home was longer than it should have been. First there was the passport control guy. He immediately started flirting with me and joking around, and then started asking a million questions (mainly about work). I didn't know if he was still flirting or completely serious, and you don't want to take a chance with anyone in this position, so I answered all his questions seriously, and he eventually let me go. Even with that time consuming process, I still had to wait a long time for my bag- it was one of the last ones off the carousel. Then I quickly got a cab but traffic was so congested coming back into the city (of course, this is the new Sunday way), and it took forever to get home.

Traffic was awful when I got home on Sunday- I guess that was their "welcome home" chant. Fortunately, I was able to fall asleep quickly and got in a fairly nice amount of sleep. Sunday night is when I started to feel sick (more on that in a minute).

Yes, I was a Red Sox fan (and I guess I still kind of am, but only out of habit, not because I really care), but even though I couldn't care less about baseball these days, I still think it would be cool if the Sox won this year just because of the numbers. The last time they were in the World Series was '86. I think they should win the World Series 86 years after the last time they won. Also, I've never seen so many people here wearing Red Sox hats. Maybe all the closeted fans feel safe to come out now.

Monday after classes, I went to the Martin Barre/Willy Porter show. I can barely remember it now- went through it in a daze. I was really feeling sick on Monday. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it feels a cross between a strange, painful stomach virus and a cold. I felt a little better this morning but now am back to feeling awful and in pain (climbing ladders while putting up Christmas lights all over the set for the show at school this evening was lovely while feeling like this). I'm just so wiped out and am thinking about using some of this weekend for resting and just deal with getting more behind on things. I think I'll be able to catch up better next week if I can get a little more rested first. So right, I guess I'm glad I went to the show but I'm not really sure. I remember enjoying some of it (especially Martin's tunes, although I do like Willy Poter too), but I wasn't fully conscious for it. I don't remember yesterday either. I know it was painful, but I was in a daze and still kind of am, so my memory of actual events is fuzzy.

Random question: when meeting fellow fans of a band, why do people tend to talk to each other in terms of their own accomplishments involving the band (how many concerts seen, how many pieces of memorabilia owned...) rather than talk about the music itself?

Due to unforseen circumstances, Andy won't be coming up next month :(

Every time I come home from somewhere in Europe, I'm reminded of how much I wish I could move there. At home, everywhere I turn, I'm reminded of things I hate about the US and those things are not an issue in many European countries. Of course they have their own issues, but they are more appealing than the things I take issue with here. Maybe I'll have some time to elabourate at some point, but not right now.

I'm really hating life these days. I keep trying to tell myself that at least I (and most people I care about) don't have any terminal illnesses, I (and most people I care about) don't live in any super-dangerous areas and stuff like that, but that doesn't seem to help. Even though I am grateful for those things, since those things are not a factor in my individual life (as they're not a factor in many average people's lives), I look at how things are in terms of how things should/could be. And things are just not really good right now. And I don't know when/how things will get better. Maybe if I could just get rested and caught up on things, the big and small problems would still be there but not bother me as much (don't know when/how that will happen either).

And if traffic could be quiet for more than a minute at a time, maybe that would help a little too (they sound really angry out there tonight).

I finally feel a little better today. Hopefully I'll be able to get a lot done and not feel so behind after this weekend is over. I'm overwhelmed and in denial at the same time.

My intersection really needs help. Just witnessed someone getting hit by a limo. This is common occurrence around here these days, but this one was particularly bad. There were 2 ambulances and 3 fire trucks on the scene. And the traffic has been particularly intense last night and all day today. It's just non-stop honking all the time now.

Paula and Harvey are moving into their new house this weekend- exciting and exhausting. Can't wait to see it next month.

Kristin's sister, Lisa, moved to the city this weekend. I'm having dim sum with them tomorrow. Speaking of people moving to the city, I wonder if Rachel's here yet. I'll probably hear from her soon.

Why don't places of business have available products they supposedly sell? Pizza joints are out of pizza, soup places are out of soup, coffee shops are out of ice (this is very common), drug stores are out of vitamins... I'm so tired of this.

I got about halfway through editing my Zurich pictures yesterday. No idea when I'll finish and get them up. I only started yesterday since I couldn't handle doing anything more productive. Maybe I can finish up the 3rd weekend in November.

I'm having lots of Blacksburg flashbacks today.

Another major accident occurred at my intersection early this morning. Two cars were completely mangled; there were 8 cops cars on the scene. I don't know who to call to do something about this growing problem. Anyone have any suggestions? I suggested the story to the local news stations, but I doubt they'll care (they'd only care if it was happening somewhere in Jersey or something).

What a gorgeous day! I left a little early to walk around Chinatown before meeting Kristin and Lisa for dim sum. Then we sat outside while Kristin showed me some of her pictures from Brazil. And then I walked the last 10 blocks home to enjoy more of the weather before heading in. Oh, and I saw a guy get hit by a cab on the way home. This has to stop.

Still feeling sick on and off- this is getting frustrating.

On the bus downtown this morning, we passed Verizon workers jackhammering and a fork lift with the guy in it sitting sideways, his feet propped up and was sound asleep. Would have made a great picture, but I couldn't get my camera out quickly enough.

Saw 2 clever homeless men today. One was trick-or-treating with his change can and one sat on the corner and yelled "boo" at everyone who walked by him, trying to scare people into giving him money.

Okay, time to get back to work.

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