So I finally took my second bike excursion today. I say finally because I have been haranguing myself for the past month to get out there again. I am way too hard on myself sometimes. Anyway, I got a little bit farther this time, and actually managed to get past the initial instinct of 'okay, I look like a foolish ass, time to run away inside' and go up and down my block a few times. There were one or two people outside or driving by, but I had resolved before I went outside that I may need to make an absolute spectacle of myself to get this done and with that accepted as a possible outcome, I found myself slightly less worried about being seen. It's amazing how much easier it is to accomplish something when I just accept ahead of time that I will probably look foolish doing it. So anyway, my butt hurts, I'm tired, I have chain gunk on my fingers, and I still didn't actually get much of anywhere, but for a second try it wasn't half bad.
This bike thing is kind of complicated. First of all, the thing with the gears just mystifies me. The chain was making some kind of clickety noise when I was pedaling, so I'm pretty sure I had it in the wrong gear or something. Also, what is up with all of the little pokey, gougey parts sticking out of my bike? I think being poked and gouged may just be something you get used to as a cyclist but I'm not one of those yet so it offends my delicate sensibilities when my beloved bike pokes at me.
That's all for now. I think I need a nap.
xo
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
News
Well, I passed my A+ exams yesterday, so that's some good news! They were both pretty easy and I know I didn't study as much as I should have so I think I probably just had a lot of the info I needed tucked up in my head somewhere from my years as a support technician. At least this crap job I hate but can't seem to get away from has had one positive effect! Actually, things have been okay at work lately. I got a largely positive performance review, so that always helps. It's funny because whenever I walk into one of those things, I'm totally expecting my boss to whip out a list of infractions and mistakes and ways I suck and usually I just get good feedback. I suppose I, like many people, am my own harshest critic.
No good news on the house front. I went with my parents this weekend to look at a house that seemed ideal. Perfect location, good size, everything I was looking for. Unfortunately, the owner wanted to sell rather than rent it, and his asking price was almost $50k above any of the neighborhood comps. And it was a cute house too, but there is no way I would drop almost $350k on it (even if I could afford to do that, which I really can't). So I'll just have to keep up the search. I'm sure, when the time is right, that the right house will just present itself to me. No, that won't stop me from looking on craigslist every day :)
On my way out the door this morning I ran into the mailman and he delivered the honeysuckle plants I had ordered a few weeks ago. I am planning to plant them in front of the trellis in my front yard. They will probably die. Okay, no, I'm not going to give up on them already. I'm sure that they will live long, healthy, beautiful lives and they will make the residents of my house very happy for years to come. How's that for positive thinking? I wish I had waited to order them until I was situated in my new place, but by then it might be too late to plant them. I guess I'll just leave them behind for T and Pat to enjoy. If they live that long, that is. The plants, not T&P :)
Two more hours....I want to be anywhere but at work today...It was all I could do not to drop everything, call in sick, and plant my honeysuckles when they arrived this morning. The sun was shining, there were white fluffy clouds in the sky, birds chirping, just a beautiful day. So naturally I'm spending it in a cubicle. Bah.
No good news on the house front. I went with my parents this weekend to look at a house that seemed ideal. Perfect location, good size, everything I was looking for. Unfortunately, the owner wanted to sell rather than rent it, and his asking price was almost $50k above any of the neighborhood comps. And it was a cute house too, but there is no way I would drop almost $350k on it (even if I could afford to do that, which I really can't). So I'll just have to keep up the search. I'm sure, when the time is right, that the right house will just present itself to me. No, that won't stop me from looking on craigslist every day :)
On my way out the door this morning I ran into the mailman and he delivered the honeysuckle plants I had ordered a few weeks ago. I am planning to plant them in front of the trellis in my front yard. They will probably die. Okay, no, I'm not going to give up on them already. I'm sure that they will live long, healthy, beautiful lives and they will make the residents of my house very happy for years to come. How's that for positive thinking? I wish I had waited to order them until I was situated in my new place, but by then it might be too late to plant them. I guess I'll just leave them behind for T and Pat to enjoy. If they live that long, that is. The plants, not T&P :)
Two more hours....I want to be anywhere but at work today...It was all I could do not to drop everything, call in sick, and plant my honeysuckles when they arrived this morning. The sun was shining, there were white fluffy clouds in the sky, birds chirping, just a beautiful day. So naturally I'm spending it in a cubicle. Bah.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
What is up
I had a supremely craptacular day yesterday. No real reason for it ('cept maybe mother nature) but I just had this grumpy, crabby feeling all day. It was one of those days where I found myself rolling my eyes and becoming irritated with my callers and I had absolutely zero patience. Even once I recognized that I was just in a foul mood, it was not easy to chug through a day when every little thing ticked me off. Luckily, when I finally got home it was a different story.
Living alone can suck ass sometimes, especially since I have these dogs and cats to look after and that kind of thing can take a lot out of a person. Also, nobody else is there to do the housework (or blame for the fact that the housework isn't getting done ;) and, most importantly, there's nobody to really talk to or to share experiences with. If the dogs or cats do something cute or funny, I'm the only one who will ever witness it. Likewise, if they make a mess or do something else frustrating, I'm the only one who has to care.
The cool part about living alone, though, is that...well...nobody else is there. This affords one a certain amount of personal freedom. I can do whatever I want and nobody is there to comment. I can wear my pajamas all day and no one is the wiser. I can sit in bed all day, watch movies, and eat hot fudge from the jar if I really want to. So last night, when I got home, I resolved to really take the time to appreciate the freedom of living alone. I didn't do anything all that special, though I did turn on some music while I was surfing the web and, being alone, experienced the freedom of being able to sing along at the top of my lungs with no one there to hear me. That was totally liberating. Singing to the radio has always been a great stress reliever for me, but since I don't have a car anymore, that hardly ever happens now. Anyway, it was fun :)
I'm only 45 days into the 365 days project on flickr and I have already learned something kind of great about beauty and self-image. First of all, I usually take several photos and choose the one I like the best. Most often it's the one that I find the most pleasing to my picky eyes, but sometimes I'll pick the most expressive or interesting one that maybe isn't the "prettiest". Anyway, the thing I realized is that virtually every picture of someone out there in the media is the absolute most perfect culled from probably dozens of other photos in the same series. Just as I comb through my photos for the one that appeals to me, so do photographers weed out photos that make their clients look less than perfect. I don't know, maybe that's the tinest, most obvious realization I could have, but it's got me thinking of the idea of attractiveness and beauty and how physical beauty is such a fleeting thing, captured for a split second with a photograph but then in the next shot the subject goes back to looking ordinary. How strange that we, as a society, hold in such high esteem a quality so transitory, so subjective as physical beauty.
Just some random crap that was on my mind. Also tossing around in there are camping, traveling to Paris, the music of Guster, where the F I'm going to live in June, my upcoming A+ exam, and what a struggle it is to override your defenses and really trust someone. Maybe some time I'll write about that stuff.
Living alone can suck ass sometimes, especially since I have these dogs and cats to look after and that kind of thing can take a lot out of a person. Also, nobody else is there to do the housework (or blame for the fact that the housework isn't getting done ;) and, most importantly, there's nobody to really talk to or to share experiences with. If the dogs or cats do something cute or funny, I'm the only one who will ever witness it. Likewise, if they make a mess or do something else frustrating, I'm the only one who has to care.
The cool part about living alone, though, is that...well...nobody else is there. This affords one a certain amount of personal freedom. I can do whatever I want and nobody is there to comment. I can wear my pajamas all day and no one is the wiser. I can sit in bed all day, watch movies, and eat hot fudge from the jar if I really want to. So last night, when I got home, I resolved to really take the time to appreciate the freedom of living alone. I didn't do anything all that special, though I did turn on some music while I was surfing the web and, being alone, experienced the freedom of being able to sing along at the top of my lungs with no one there to hear me. That was totally liberating. Singing to the radio has always been a great stress reliever for me, but since I don't have a car anymore, that hardly ever happens now. Anyway, it was fun :)
I'm only 45 days into the 365 days project on flickr and I have already learned something kind of great about beauty and self-image. First of all, I usually take several photos and choose the one I like the best. Most often it's the one that I find the most pleasing to my picky eyes, but sometimes I'll pick the most expressive or interesting one that maybe isn't the "prettiest". Anyway, the thing I realized is that virtually every picture of someone out there in the media is the absolute most perfect culled from probably dozens of other photos in the same series. Just as I comb through my photos for the one that appeals to me, so do photographers weed out photos that make their clients look less than perfect. I don't know, maybe that's the tinest, most obvious realization I could have, but it's got me thinking of the idea of attractiveness and beauty and how physical beauty is such a fleeting thing, captured for a split second with a photograph but then in the next shot the subject goes back to looking ordinary. How strange that we, as a society, hold in such high esteem a quality so transitory, so subjective as physical beauty.
Just some random crap that was on my mind. Also tossing around in there are camping, traveling to Paris, the music of Guster, where the F I'm going to live in June, my upcoming A+ exam, and what a struggle it is to override your defenses and really trust someone. Maybe some time I'll write about that stuff.
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