The Myth & The Majesty

Two weddings, a large birthday party, a couple kayak outings, the end of Neub's run at the office, and who knows what else. September is looming... Bring it on.

I feel odd today. Odd in a way that almost always means something large and unpleasant is going to happen. Almost. Maybe this can be one of those minority days where something large and pleasant happens. All the same, now I'm nervous. Argh.

To Shorty: Happy birthday! To Darren: Welcome back to the States! To Mia Sorella: Hey, I haven't heard about Japan yet. We need to chat. Okay, so I haven't written. At all. For over a week now. Here's the thing: there's a lot going on. I've been taking a yoga class, started another round of Zumba, gone kayaking, and attended a community-wide fundraiser. I've had friends in town and I've been trying to get caught up on normal adult things. On top of that, I'm headed out of town this next weekend for a wedding, which is taking more preparation than I would normally expect. There hasn't been anything interesting to say. I'm busy -- but really, what do you care? That being said, I'm working on a post about travel vs. vacation that's been amusing me so far, and I'm definitely open to suggestions. Heck, I may even write about a book at some point in time. (Finished in the last couple of weeks: Ghost, Under the Banne...

Yesterday was a truly fabulous day. Actually, the whole weekend thus far has been fantastic. I took Friday off because, well, I wanted to, I had things to get done at home, I have some vacation time I have to use or I'll lose it, and last week had been slow enough that I could stay home without guilt. Did you get all that? Good. Anyway, I stayed home on Friday. By virtue of being a day longer, my weekend was automatically 50% more awesome. Managed to laze around, clean up my house (more or less), get a hair cut, and enjoy the weather. All in all good use of a Friday, I think. The Admiral turned up and we went out for dinner, then grabbed a couple drinks with other friends. Yay for Friday. Yesterday there were no set plans until 7PM. The two of us and Neubs ended up grabbing breakfast at what may very well be the best little diner in Wisconsin. (Seriously, I love the place and I need to go there more often. It's clean, it's inexpensive, the staff is awesome, the fo...

Have I ever mentioned how much ice cream trucks creep me out? They do. I don't have a lot of memories of them -- when we moved outside Sioux Falls we were officially outside ice-cream-truck-jurisdiction -- but there are a couple that make the rounds here in town and they give me the willies. Maybe it's the fact that they're intended so that a stranger hands out sweets to kids, or it could be the super-slow drive-by thing. But I'm pretty sure the main issue I have is the music. Tinny, wordless songs that everybody knows, drawing people in Pied-Piper-style. Eek.

Sometime Monday evening, Murphy grabbed onto this building and just started shaking it like a snow globe. It started with the phones, which went down during a system backup. All day yesterday, they were silent, which was both kind of soothing and really irritating. No ringing, no pages, no voicemail. It was all down. Somewhere in there they decided to test the air system as well thanks to a negative pressure issue in the building. (Yes. This means that this office does, in fact, suck.) Naturally, we're in the middle of a heat wave and yesterday was quite warm and humid. The building took on that wonderful malaria quality that it seems so fond of and the complaining hit a fever pitch. Today, the phones work but voicemail is still malfunctioning. This means that when people do call, it now rings ... and rings ... and rings ... until the person on the other end realizes that a person can't be summoned back to his desk just because the phone has already rung twenty t...

On a positive note, the chocolate bar is a surprisingly efficient source of iron! - Emma Jean, not too long ago I woke up this morning feeling entirely too combative for comfort. Not a good sign for a day that has, so far at least, been entirely average. Average aside from the facts that the phones in our building don't work and that facilities has been toying with the air system. (It's been eerily quiet and malaria-like all day.) Oh well. As for the combativeness -- I have no explanation. Generally I'm calm and diplomatic (not so much a personal trait as a defense mechanism -- I'm a terrible arguer), so this urge to pick a fight with someone is more than a little confusing. Here's hoping it passes with no actual consequences. I've been lucky so far.

Tomorrow, Mia Sorella is headed off to Japan. Naturally, I'm jealous. First that she can get away so easily (because yes, it's easier to get from Korea to Japan for a long weekend), and second that ... she's just going. It's the kind of thing that makes me feel utterly boring. Heck, I even had a good weekend, and this week looks pretty promising (aside from the fact that I started sweating this morning and probably won't stop until, oh, October or so). All the same -- a girls' dinner night and a company picnic (even at a minor league baseball game) don't quite measure up to Japan. Grr. Dear -- I better see some pretty awesome pictures when you get back. That's all I'm sayin'.

Happy 27th, dude. Miss you.

In my defense, the last three months or so have been crazy. August has almost always been a month to catch up, last year not withstanding. Of course, last year's lack of catch-up had nothing to do with previously-made plans. I'd rather this August stay empty, really. Anyway! Where was I going with this? Why am I asking you? Oh yeah. The last three months have been crazy, which means that now I need to grasp at the chances I have to catch up on reality. This weekend I got to sleep in, clean my apartment, and generally reorganize. While I got a fair amount done, I've only barely scratched into the first few items on my to-do list. In the midst of this, I've decided to set a new goal for me. A fun goal. One that will ultimately be totally useless if achieved. All of this build-up makes it sound like it'll actually be interesting. It's not. I'm hoping to work my way through my movie collection, from "10 Things I Hate About You" to ...