10/31/01
Happy Halloween!
so not only is it halloween, there's a full moon out tonight. it was freaking me out on the way home. i got in my car and i wanted to pull down my sun visor because it was so bright. but then i realized it was really dark outside and that big bright white thing was the moon. so instead i flipped my rear-view-mirror into "night-vision" mode and drove home. on the way, i noticed 99% of boulder heading toward denver, which had traffic slowed to a crawl. luckily for me, i was going toward boulder so i didnt really a problem. except the moon was reflecting off the back of the speed limit signs, and when i looked in my rearview mirror, i could see long, skinny, fuzzy white things slowly fading away behind me. took me about a mile to figure out what the heck was going on. once i got that sorted out, i got to foothills parkway, where somebody had either A) lost a scarf or B) purposely hung one of those silly yard ghosts in a tree on the center embankment. it kinda freaked me out. then, the scariest thing of all - there was a car accident about 5 minutes from my house. i thought i was going to be stuck in traffic all night long. obviously, i wasnt. i got home just in time to see a few trick or treaters hanging outside our front door, waiting for someone to open it and give them candy. unfortunately for them, not only did we not have any candy, but NOBODY ON OUR FLOOR did either. we're going to get egged.
here's a halloween photo for anyone who cares to look. i hope you enjoy it. i did.
Song of the Day: Mad Season (Same song, different day)
10/30/01
so i was trying to justify to someone why i watch "Buffy" and i used the excuse that Spike is a hottie. then i tried to find some pictures of the guy who plays Spike so i could prove my point, and found a bunch of them that don't. then i went to the internet movie database to find out just how old Spike is because his personal, official website didn't say. turns out he's damned near fourty. he's three years younger than Kevin Spacey. and he's playing in a show with a bunch of teenagers! (ok, so Buffy is actually a year younger than I am, and Willow is actually a year older... but still!!) i'm kinda grossed out by this. and i need a new reason to watch Buffy.
Song of the Day: Mad Season
10/29/01
the New York-based CEO made an unexpected visit today. i'm a little paranoid about what might happen tomorrow.
government relased another terrorist warning. it probably sounds odd, but i've been wondering when something else was going to happen. the anthrax thing doesn't really seem like a "hit" in that it's so drawn out - it's just another stupid story on the news that they can't seem to let go of, and i'm completely desensitized. now, if something exploded, maybe i'd feel that immediacy again. of course i realize that's exactly what the terrorists want. funny how that works, huh?
Song of the Day: Searchin' My Soul
10/28/01
thanks carlos! you saved me from spending three hours trying to remember how to cut up a graphic and piece it back together. i haven't done that in ... forever. i always made Hank do it because he was so much faster. i'm really glad you were online. of course now i have to live knowing that you could be reading this at any given moment, so i'd better not post any nasty stuff about you. not that i ever would, i think i've done a fairly good job of keeping my personal vendettas off of this thing, and using it more as a place to relate funny/annoying/obnoxious/stupid things that happened to me during the day.
since it's only noon, i dont have too much to write about. but i just finished updating the family website, and carlos talked me into writing another movie review... which i can add to my list of things i'm supposed to do today but probably wont. also on that list: clean out the fridge, take out the trash, wash the dishes, try to talk ivan into buying me some new clothes, take a shower, clean the cat litter. things that are on the list that probably will get done: go grocery shopping.
i'm really digging this daylight savings time being over thing. i mean, it's sunday, and not only am i awake before noon, i've actually accomplished things!! it will probably also be easier to roll out of bed around 6 tomorrow morning, because my body thinks it's 7. as does the cat -- who started meowing and chewing random scraps of paper in an attempt to wake me up so i would feed her at 5:30 this morning. damn cat has a better clock than the folks at NIST with their atomic clock.
Song of the Day: i had one stuck in my head when i woke up but have since forgotten it
10/25/01
i was contemplating going to bed without doing this thing tonight. but now i know somebody else is going to read it, so i wanted to tell them "hi." so, hi. you know who you are, though i never did learn what the veil of secrecy was all about. i didn't forget your unhealthy paranoia, therefore i will not mention your name. you know who you are.
i got in a really stupid argument today with ivan. see, tomorrow we're going to a play. (yes, theatre! go figure!) ivan's coworker's wife is in it (it's so wierd, she was his fiance for so long... i almost typed that instead) but ivan can't tell me the name of the play. anyway that's not what the argument was about. i asked him a week ago to find out details, because originally the play was going to conflict with a party of a friend i hadn't seen in six months. ivan forgot to ask, so here it is the day before the play and i get an email telling me i need to be back in boulder (30 minutes away from the office) at 4 p.m. friday, because traffic to denver is horrible on friday nights. i get paid hourly, and because of staff reductions, we're wondering if we're even going to get to use holiday vacation time, and he's telling me i need to leave work two and a half hours early? (still haven't gotten to the argument yet) ... so i figure that westminster is on the way to denver and they can just stop by the office and pick me up. i'm imagining grandeous plans to take the bus, get in a nice powerwalk from the bus station to the office before work, not have to worry about putting miles on my leased car that's chugging up a tank of gas a week... when i learn that it's impossible for them to pick me up because T-REX (the stupid name for the TRaffic EXpansion project really screws up the traffic and so they're not taking highway 36 to Denver. which is totally bullshit because TREX has absolutely NOTHING to do with 36, or the portion of I-25 we'd be on. (begin argument) this got me very angry, because i'd been asking for the details of this thing for over a week, and here it turns out i am the one who can't meet everyone at the centralized meeting point, and i'm the odd man out who's making the situation difficult! we argued for a good 15 minutes before i finally convinced him to call the guy (with the wife who's in the play) to figure out what the problem was with taking the major route from denver to boulder. and this is what he learned: they're going some cock-a-mamie, totally out-of-the-way, let's drive in a big fat circle route because last week a friend of a friend spent a half hour in traffic and then his motorcycle overheated and he ended up turning around and coming back home and they don't want to risk it. as the story continued, i slowly realized the guy was stuck in *REGULAR* rush hour traffic - it didn't really have anything to do with it being a friday night. so then they decided they'd figure it out tomorrow. (anger subsiding) still, i really hate not having plans sorted out. invariably, i'm not going to find out what the hell is going on until right before i'm supposed to leave, and murphy's law states that my cellphone battery is going to die en-route, and i'm going to get lost. which is why i wanted the details in advance. oh, and the party that conflicted with the play? it's been postponed.
Song of the Day: song goes here
10/24/01
i was going to rant about how the &*#!ing cleaning people threw away my water bottle, and how i don't really understand why they would think that i wouldn't want to keep it... it wouldn't be so annoying if it hadn't happened at my previous job as well. WHY do they assume i don't want it anymore? WHY do they assume it's trash? can anyone explain this?
rather than go on and on about that, i'm going to copy/paste my most recent answers to the silly "answer these questions and forward it to all your friends" email i received. hope you enjoy.
Song of the Day: Little Star
10/23/01
i'm still majorly craving chocolate, but not as badly as i was yesterday. if this overwhelming desire doesn't go away, i know i'm going to end up making the "Family Size" box of Turtle brownies i bought a few months ago and never made, because two people do not need a 13x9 pan of caramel covered chocolate goodness.
today some crazy guy was flying a kite over by the Corporate Express office park. i'm really surprised he didn't cause an accident - it was really strange to see two triangles floating around in the air in a fairly business-like area.
that crazy girl who lives upstairs is playing outside again, i can tell. she likes to play with rocks...banging them against things to make noise. she's like 7 or 8, and she is very easily amused. she did this earlier in the year - one day when ivan and i were trying to sleep late. it sounds like someone knocking, but a bit more muffled. she can do it for hours on end. she's been doing it for at least 10 minutes. it's like she expects the rock to answer back, or something. ugh! please make her stop!
today's song of the day was inspired by my drive home. i can't remember the last time i flew a kite. i remember trying to make one after being inspired by Reading Rainbow or Mr. Rodgers or some PBS show like that, but i dont recall ever getting one into the air and having it stay there.
Song of the Day: Kite
10/22/01
i'm poor. my meager paycheck isn't cutting it, and i don't know what i can do about it. i've racked up too much debt, and so far i'm above bill roulette, but i dont know for how much longer. this sucks ass, and i hate considering delivering newspapers to make extra money for the holidays. i'm going to end up working retail nights/weekends at the rate i'm going. and ivan keeps giving me crap about my plan to trade in my car and flat-out buy something. used. old. with four wheels and an engine. a high-school piece of crap car. because getting out of debt is more important than a hunk of metal status symbol.
there was a dead deer on the way to work this morning. i dont know how it died - i'd guess it got hit by a car, but i didn't see any car debris, and there wasn't much blood on the deer. it didn't look shocked, surprised, in pain, asleep, alive, anything. it was just lying there on the road, like a cardboard box, only much larger. people were swerving to go around it. i thought about it for a few minutes too, then continued on my merry way. i tried to look for it on the way home, but i'd already forgotten where it was, and i was driving on the wrong side of the embankment to see anything anyway. i did manage to catch a glimpse at the blockbuster where i used to work. i try to do that every night and see who's working. tonight chris' car was in the unoffical "night manager" spot. mary's car was there at 7:30 this morning, too. funny how stuff you take for granted, like cars in a parking lot, have a whole new meaning when you get the chance to take a deeper look.
i'm totally craving chocolate. this sucks ass. i could eat a whole fucking chocolate cake and not even taste it. and i'm in a pissy mood. we need to do the goddamned dishes. we're out of forks. but i'm not doing them. i just said i was in a pissy mood.
Song of the Day: Semi Charmed Life
10/20/01
So you've probably figured out that i dont even turn the computer on on fridays, much less write a blurb about how uninteresting my day was. so now it's saturday, a little past noon, and we've actually got a plan for the day that includes things that both of us want to do.. it's a miracle!! so we're going to the library to loaf around, then going to the surprisingly good hot-dog stand "Mustard's Last Stand" ... then we're going to get pumpkins and leave them at my mom's so we dont have to worry about them rotting away on our balcony (like last year)... if anything out of the ordinary happens, i'll let you know later today. right now we have to go, or our plan will be foiled and we'll never make it.
10/18/01
It's almost Friday! and i think i found a new gym, if i can just find some way to get somebody to pay the enrollment fee for me..
what? is this not making any sense? i currently have a 15-visit pass to the rec center next to my office. but now that the travel industry has tanked and i'm really unsure about my long-term future, i'm reluctant to invest in a 6-month pass and don't want to pay for the higher-price-per-visit punch pass. so i'm trying to find something a bit closer to where i live, rather than where i work, so that if things don't work out, i still have a place to work out. and there's a gym right next to the only grocery store in town...that apparently not many people use. so, right now, it's at the top of my list.
nothing else very interesting happened today. sorry.
Song of the Day: Path of Thorns/Terms
10/17/01
dammit, i knew this would happen. i really do want to write every day. i do! i dont know what happened. but i'm back on the bandwagon. except i dont really have any interesting stories to report today. maybe this is why i haven't been reporting.
i went to the gym today. burned 293 calories on the exercise bike. started wondering what i'm going to do when i lose my job at GORP because the travel industry isn't picking up. we have a bell, one of those front-desk-attention-grabbers, that sales people are supposed to ring when they make a sale. it dinged twice today, and once was because somebody wasn't paying attention to the point of the bell. she knows now -- everyone jumped out of their cubes and asked "was that a sale?" .... ugh, it's so depressing. time to rethink joining the Y. or the boulder rec center. or buy a nordic-trek. who knows. i feel like just when i was getting on a roll, making working out a routine, forces are aligning against me to get me to quit. i have to cut them off at the pass!
now yahoo! is conspiring against me! it's down so i can't upload this thing! everyone is trying to break my spirit! well, it won't work!!
Song of the Day: Fear
10/14/01
woops. i forgot to write the last two days. friday i never turned the computer dn. saturday i was too busy cleaning the kitchen, fighting with the bees to recycle the aluminum cans, and renting movies online at blockbuster to think of anything interesting to write about. let me recap the weekend.
friday night: went to the Foundry and hung out with former XOR-ites, and former NewGuard-ites. seems they don't to pay a need a creative department anymore, so Hank and Jeff have started their own company, and will be billing for their services. It sounds like they've already got some business in the pipeline, so they wont have to worry about the 1001th way to cook ramen for a few months. i only had one beer and left fairly early - around 8pm, because it just didn't seem the same. standing around the bar (no pool tables) with the same 7 people isn't nearly as fun as standing around three pool tables with about 30 people. it was kinda depressing, actually. oh, and then there were all the anthrax jokes. saturday, i woke up around 11 and then got to work cleaning the kitchen. i noticed that the DVD player is broken - the sound doesnt work - and ended up using the PS2 to listen to music. then i went to Saturn to get them to give me a copy of my #$@!%ing invoice from when they fixed whatever the hell they fixed two weeks ago. then i figured i'd try out the new recycling center ... but drove by the old one and thought it was pretty stupid to waste gas like that. of course, the killer bees were hanging out around the cans again -- but i was confident in my grey sweatshirt and jeans. so confident i through the cans in one at a time - and i brought the bag home too! sunday: well, that's today. here's the plan so far: get dressed/eat something/return the movie to blockbuster/go hang out with mom and dad and try not to smell like an ashtray/pick up ivan from the airport. sounds like a blast, huh?
it's too early to have a Song of the Day.
10/11/01
funny story: while rushing to the bathroom at work, i happened to get stuck behind one of those "slow-moving women" like in the dilbert cartoon. and i notice she's also heading for the bathroom. with a book. not like a work book that she accidentally carried with her, but a real, honest-to-goodness-complete-with-pink-frilly-ribbon-bookmark book. and she headed right for the handicapped (largest) stall.
i thought only men did that. in public, even!
i dont have a song of the day today. sorry. i guess i should consider myself fortunate, eh?
10/10/01
i was planning to have this entry be a funny little vignette that actually happened to me last night. i'll start with that story, but go on to more pressing things that are weighing on my soul.
i turn the tv on msnbc, to listen in for the story about a crazy man who rushed an american airlines cockpit. they say it's coming up after the break so i go pee. since i'm home alone, i leave the bathroom door open. as i'm finishing up, my pants still around my ankles, the tv suddenly starts beeping. the familiar emergency broadcast system beep. i hop off the toilet, waddle into the bedroom with my pants barely up to my knees, only to discover it's a regularly scheduled test of the emergency broadcast system for the denver, boulder, adams and arapahoe counties. woops.
so, as scary/hilarious as that is, i've got a just as enthralling story. at 11:30 today, they announced an all-company meeting. turns out that because of the tragedy, people aren't traveling like they used to, and we need to make some cutbacks. immediately i'm sure i'm on the list, as i'm one of the last new people they hired. after 20 minutes of wondering, i learned i wasn't. i'm still employed. still, everything i thought was certain now isnt. i'm spending my free time trying to figure out how i can cut even more expenses. thinking it's time to trade in the Saturn for a $2000 P.O.S that "runs good". and here i was dreaming of mini-SUVs!
Here's something I've been meaning to do since I started this thing. Song of the day - that means the song that's been stuck in my head for a majority of the day.
Song of the Day: King of Pain
10/09/01
Happy Birthday, Donovan!
My brother David and his girlfriend Jennifer had their baby today. I went to work early, did my workout at lunch, and left early so I could see them today. It always seems odd to me to go to the hospital to see the new mom and her baby - I think it would be a time when you'd really want to be left alone - i mean you're not exactly looking your best after spending all night awake, pushing! But there you are, expected to receive all your guests and let all these people hold the baby - probably more than you get to hold it yourself in the first few days. I dunno, I personally think I'm going to be too exhausted to be much company.
In all my rushing around, I didn't get a chance to buy flowers or a balloon or anything that said "congratulations"... and i'm feeling a little guilty about that. hopefully they'll understand.
not much else to report. Day 3 of bombing Afghanistan. So far no retaliation in the U.S., though there was an anthrax scare in Florida that may have been caused by foul play. i guess we just go on waiting and watching our backs.
10/08/01
I really dont feel like I have much to say today. I spent the weekend at a dude ranch, where i spent too much time on a horse and now my ass hurts. ok, i'm exaggerating about the ass. it's actually my back and shoulders that hurt like a sunofabitch because i can't reach them to massage 'em. My butt and upper legs seem to be doing fine... Even after the Nordic-Trek workout (yes, i almost fell off a few times).
I guess we (the US/Britain) bombed Afghanistan for the 2nd time today. It's strange to realize that our military actions thousands of miles away could have some effect on those of us at home - Osama binLaden keeps threatening retaliation. I try not to think about what it could be - it's no fun living in fear, but sometimes thoughts pop in my head. Like "they'll hit the west coast this time" and "they probably won't use airplanes this time" and "maybe it's already planned, and they're going to hit us on the 11th of the month again" and "tomorrow's tuesday - last time it happened on a tuesday." i think i've been avoiding the news by listening to CDs in my car and refusing to turn the television on in the morning - because i don't want to hear what horrible thing happens next.
What a wild and crazy world I'm living in.
10/05/01
I am freezing! It's 41 degrees outside, and 62.5 in this room. All i want to do is curl up beside a hot fire with some cocoa and little marshmallows floating on top. Alas, don't have the fireplace, and don't have the little marshmallows. There might be some cocoa circa 1998 in the kitchen... but i'd have to find it first.
It's odd being alone on a Friday night with nothing to do. I don't have anyone to blame for my boredom. I don't want to go through the hassle of seeing a movie, although there are a couple I'd like to see. And now that I've spent Friday nights working at a Blockbuster, I don't particularly want to go wait in line for 10 minutes to pay 7.96 (that's including tax, for two movies, which i'd invariably get, and only have time to watch one...but that happens to everyone)... so i dont know what i'm going to do. maybe i'll just sit here and turn into a popsicle. wait for the thaw.
tomorrow i'm going to a dude ranch with my new coworkers. i got my COBRA information in the mail today, so if i fall off the horse or break my leg on a hike, all i have to pay is one hundred seventy four dollars and some-odd cents, and i'm protected from exorbant doctors bills. of course if it's as cold as it is right now, i dont think i'm going to be doing much hiking... i'll be sitting in the lodge in front of the fire with my cocoa! (spiked with bailey's, of course!)
10/4/01
I did something completely out of character today. I went out after work. Drinking. With people I barely knew. It's amazing!!
So here's what happened. At about 3:30 I learned that people were meeting at the local bar to send off the guy who got a new job. I knew I had to go to the gym, and that it was an all new Friends where we got to learn who's the father of Rachel's baby. My coworker kept trying to convince me to go, in much the same way my friends from my last job would try to convince me to go... and I answered the same "safe" way I always do - "I might go." Then, while changing in the locker room, I realized that I had absolutely no good reason not to go. So I pumped up the intensity level on my workout so I could do as much work in a shorter amount of time, cleaned myself up afterward, and went out. Got there around 5:30 and didn't leave until 7. And I survived. One little victory on my road to overcoming irrational social phobias. Oh, and I made it home in time to see that Ross is the daddy. Duh.
Oh yeah, turns out the penis was just mold. The coroner guy didn't do any tests on it, just looked at it and said "yup, that there's a penis!"... when the drink company found another bottle with something floating in it, they sent it to the FDA, which actually took the time to analyze it. medicine in america in a nutshell: diagnose first, figure out what the problem is later.
10/3/01
Today, the West Wing, a TV show I've never before watched, aired a special episode that was quickly written in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. In it, the White House was under lock-down because of a suspected security breach. Some important White House dude had just begun a walk-and-talk tour with a group of high school overachievers. Meanwhile, Samir from "Office Space" was accosted by Secret Service agents and questioned because he had the same name as a terrorist alias. I have to say, it was an amazing effort by a television show to put into words what most of us have been thinking. The kids asked the same sort of questions I keep hearing, and the White House adults had the same "we don't really have an answer" answers. But most of all, the message was stressed that the way the average joe blow american can beat terrorism is to go on living our everyday lives. Even the innocent Samir went back to his desk after an exhaustive interrogation session, meant to make the TV audience think he was guilty. But it still bugs me that so much could have changed in the world - and our reaction is to go on with our lives. On Sept. 11, as I sat in front of the television watching the news, I kept wondering how I could get up and go to work the next day with all of this horror going on. I still get pangs of guilt after a good laugh, wondering how I can see humor in anything while there are thousands of people still missing in New York. But it's a trade off - I can sit paralyzed with sorrow and fear, or I can get on with my life and try to make the best out of every day. Because even though the possibility of not making it another day was always out there, the tragedy has brought it to the forefront. I suppose there always was an underlying fear that we could go to war with Country X, or some crazed lunatic could use crop dusters to relase biological weapons, but it's not something we as Americans tend to think about. I'm doing my best to keep it that way - because the reality is you can't live in fear. And now I'm repeating myself, which means it's time to stop writing for the night. I'll go babble to somebody via email and spare you the boredom.
10/2/01
Ever been walking through the mall (or some other crowded place) and see someone you knew from high school? Not knew like they were in your circle of friends, but knew by reputation or through gossip? Well, that happened today and I had this weird thought at my brain flashed "That's Christy So-and-So!" and my mind flooded with all of the things we used to say about her behind her back because we were fickle and cruel and had nothing better to do than gossip, because, it was highschool after all. And then I thought "i wonder if she's looking and you and doing the same thing?" which immediately made my brain stop thinking about her. still, now i wonder how what she's doing and how far she's gone beyond the little box me and my friends had characterized her into.
then i continued on my walk to the bookstore, where this guy who's worked there since i was in high school still works. he's the older brother of this other guy i went to high school with (he was a senior when i was a sophomore)... this guy has looked the same since i was 15, and he was so friendly when i walked in the store, i wonder if he recognizes me as well, since i always stop in that bookstore when i go to the mall. it got me thinking about how jobs and careers are only as important as you make them, because this guy is probably pushing 30 and is still happy. it's like he's in his own bubble of reality. and i decided if i ever lose my job again and have to go back to retail, i'm starting at that bookstore. who cares that it's 20 miles away from my house?
10/1/01
Yup, I've finally jumped on the blog bandwagon. I was inspired so to speak, by Moby's online diary. Mostly because he says such poignant things, and I dont even think he's trying to. I think he's just trying to say something every day. So I'm going to do the same. Hopefully it will be as much fun to read as it is to write, but I can't guarantee that. I also can't guarantee that I'll post something every day, but I've simplified the code in this as much as possible. I really have no excuse for not posting. Unless I don't turn the computer on.
So here's something funny that I can't get off my mind, no matter how hard I try. A friend found a very interesting article in the local newspaper. Apparently a guy found a severed penis in his fruit juice bottle. The police are investigating, and they don't think he put it there himself. But like a good journalist, the reporter mentions that not only did the man drink 2/3rds of the bottle, it was also an opaque liquid and the bottle was clear. Seems to me somebody needs to take a closer look at stuff before he puts it in his mouth. Ugh. I think I'm going to stick to water for a while.
Don't believe me? Here's the text of the article.