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Sunday, 18 November 2001 (pretty 50s) 7:42am This is exactly what I'm talking about. I was up until 3am, since we did the Leonid thing (a much better, if chillier, show than the Perseids a while back, and the sky was mercifully cloudless); shouldn't I sleep until noon? Nope. My body gave me until half past seven, but that was it. Admittedly, the kitties were wanting to be fed, and it's rather impossible to sleep through that, especially when Mina starts pushing the metal tray holding their dish across the kitchen floor. Hint, hint. And while I'm still yawning, going back to bed doesn't seem like an option. I'm now experiencing my first-thing-in-the-morning "Oh god I'm unemployed and never gonna get another decent job" anxieties. And, y'know, sfgate really isn't helping with articles like this and this. "Exiled from Easy Street," indeed. I was comfortable, certainly, and do feel exiled, but I was never living above my station. Though I don't suppose that matters. This still viewed as a cosmic comeuppance. It's a pity I don't have an SUV to sell off, nor an expensive apartment to abandon. I have car and rent payments, yes, but they're roughly the same as they were before I stumbled into this field of business.
In gambling, as in life, when we hit an amazing lucky streak, we can easily feel entitled to it and lose sight of its transient nature, until it's gone. Which, I fear, is still my mindset on some level. It's hard to know for sure.
On a different note, I want one of
these. Considering
they retail at $20 and no self-respecting kid these days would want one, they'll probably be in bargain bins
for $5 soon enough.
Why I seem to be focusing on toys on the like, I have no idea. Regression, maybe? |
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Saturday, 17 November 2001 (pads, paws and claws) 6:59am Okay, it's been a month and a half now. Shouldn't I be staying up until 3am every night and getting up at noon? Instead, I'm up by six every morning, usually half past on weekends because of not having to wake up Maddy for work. More often than not, though, it's the dreams which inspire me to wake up. Usually something work-related. I do admire people with traditional scary nightmares. (I know, I know...)
Meanwhile, two ugly hardware issues have come up with our computers.
On Maddy's, the C: drive has gone away. Even I know that's
bad. And on mine, the monitor has begun to die. I bought it used
two years ago, so I guess I've been lucky that it's lasted as long
as it has. Time to start hunting again.
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Friday, 16 November 2001 (red right hand) 7:37pm The second most annoying thing about the Harry Potter hype is that I like the books, but now have very mixed feelings about the movie. Then there's the whole crowd issue, which makes it sound perfect for DVD. (Not that Maddy will let us wait that long.) The most annoying part, of course, is the use of the word "magic." It should be banned from advertising, even if it is for a movie concerning magic. I think it was Disney who really ruined the word for me. What the hell does "Discover Uncharted Magic" mean, anyway? Instead I spent the evening going through the bonus material on the Phantom Menace DVD. The movie's extremely difficult to watch, but the behind-the-scenes stuff is fascinating, giving one an opportunity to figure out where things went wrong. They were even kind enough to include a quick snippet from the "Special Edition" of the first Star Wars, and even better, it's the scene with Han and Greedo. Not only do they make Greedo shoot first, I've determined that they digitally make Han's head move slightly away from the shot, as though he's dodging it. But that's okay, because there's a meteor shower tomorrow night. Who knows, the weather may even clear up. Hey, it could happen. |
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Thursday, 15 November 2001 (the dirty jobs) 11:53am Well, it didn't come up at the bank, anyway. They were happy with my new driver license and SSN card, and copies of the old ones. For the credit card, unfortunately, I had to call the company itself, in spite of the bank's name being prominent on the card. So I called and was told that they can only change "a few letters at a time" of the name over the phone (misspellings, presumably) and that they'd send me the necessary paperwork to change my name for real—and that I'd have to provide legal proof of the change of name. I didn't ask if that entailed a court order, since they almost certainly wouldn't know. I suppose I'll find out. Still, though, so far so good.
I was even more responsible (responsibler?) earlier in the morning, as I
went to Walgreen's for a flu shot. And, as though her newly acquired
Willow fetish
(I say "new" to differentiate her from those of us who've had one all along)
weren't bad enough, Maddy also got her first flu shot in a very long time yesterday
because of me. Not that I talked her into it or anything, but since I a believe
in them, she decided to give it a try. Corruption takes many forms.
What makes interacting with her on this level, and regarding this subject, peculiar yet interesting is that it's so different from when we were together. In '98 she was worried by me merely flirting with the idea of going veggie; now she strongly (but not obnoxiously) advocates organic and "whole" foods. Which isn't a bad thing at all and when I get the remaining forms filled out I'll be very interested to hear her suggestions. And, admittedly, for most of '98 we were in that part of a dying relationship where everything causes turmoil, particularly a change in behavior, however benign it seems on the surface. In any event, it goes to show how much we've both changed from who we were when we were together—a nobrainer regarding me, isn't it?—yet some of the changes have led us to a similar place, one which we probably couldn't have made it to had we stayed together. Ah, the irony of it all. She also strongly recommended that in spite of our curiosity, Maddy and I should hold off on the musical episode of Buffy until we actually get caught up. We're still about three seasons behind. (Well, she's been back at work this week, and FX still only shows two episodes a day.) Darn. |
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Wednesday, 14 November 2001 (montecute) 5:23pm Last week, my vocal therapist loaned me her laptop in hopes that I could get it working properly. I managed to, thanks to KingVolc's assistance. I brought it back in this morning, even though I wasn't expecting her to be there—it was just supposed to be Terri and I. She was, and I also showed her how to go into Safe Mode for defragmenting. (A trick I'd also learned from KingVolc.) Terri had to cancel, and since the therapist had some time to kill anyway, she worked with me for an hour as repayment for the work I'd done on her computer. Considering that her hourly rate is much higher than mine—she insisted on paying me in one manner or another—I'd say I got a good deal out of it. Goes to show you tend to get more in credit than cash. Tomorrow morning I'm going to the bank to get my name changed. I just know the words "court order" are going to come up. |
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Tuesday, 13 November 2001 (enochian calling ii) 3:12pm Today was hour 206 of electro. Just long enough for Dylan's Love and Theft in its entirety, which worked out nicely. I probably overmedicated for an hour session (four hours later and I'm still loopy), but old habits are hard to break. I bought a bottle of generic Green Death at Walgreen's before catching the bus, and the clerk was a tranny. I found that both heartening and a little scary. Heartening because Walgreen's is clearly an equal opportunity employer, and scary because I'm now considering applying at the location nine blocks away from our apartment. I have no particular desire to work there, but it's a three-minute drive (or ten minute walk) and a comparatively low-traffic area, all of which makes it sound less stressful than Le Video would have been. And apparently all the commuting I've been doing for the last few years has made propinquity terribly appealing. Waiting outside the office for Phil to arrive this morning, I noticed a girl on what appeared to be a smoke break a few doors down getting either lightly harrassed or extremely flirted by a pair of very obnoxious guys. As they were walking away from her, one of them commented loudly about how much he likes talking to pretty girls. I took that as my cue to turn away and start rummaging through my backpack. I didn't want them to focus their attention on me, what with a six-day growth of facial hair. It helped that the doorway was set back a little bit from the sidewalk, offering a degree of shelter. Anyway, they walked by, then one of them turned around and walked back to get a better look at me. I glanced up briefly from the book I'd gotten out—the guy was so staring. My heart started pounding, as they looked like the type who don't take kindly to the existence of people like me. Fortunately, he walked away. The worst part was, it totally harshed the Green Death/vicodin buzz I was on. Bastards. Turns out that if I'd waited until the first of the year to file for unemployment, I'd get an additional $100 per week. But I didn't (because I didn't know), and it's only for new applicants. I know it's not personal, but somehow, it still feels like punishment. |
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Monday, 12 November 2001 (never) 10:02am So there's a high-profile plane crash in New York, and since this sort of thing never happened prior to The Great Overshadowing, it must be terrorists. Meanwhile, a rainstorm is pounding the Bay Area, making outside a very scary place to be. (I'm not afraid of bad weather; it's my usual fear of the way people drive, compounded by the bad weather.) The world is crashing down. 3:19pm Or not. 4:23pm Thanksgiving dinner is going to be a rather intimate affair this year, as the rest of my siblings are going to be with their SO's families. So it'll just be the four of us, Maddy and I with my mom and her boyfriend. As scary as that sounds, I'm actually rather looking forward to it, particularly because she'd decided she's not going to cook. Don't get me wrong, I'm fond of my mom's cooking (Maddy is particularly fond of her pancakes), but I like the idea of going out a lot better. Less pressure, somehow. (And no turkey, yay!) Now, if I can just convince her that we should go out for Asian... |
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Sunday, 11 November 2001 (escalation) 5:53pm As always, the secret to being unemployed is to keep busy. I made an appointment to get zapped on Tuesday morning (the last time, honest!), I'm meeting with Terri on Wednesday to work with the voice software again, and on Thursday I'll be getting a flu shot. Plus there's the whole ordeal of changing my name at the bank. So I guess it's a good thing I didn't accept the Le Video job. Yeah, definitely. |
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