Can someone remind me again why I am here?
This song fits my current state of mind on so many levels it's scary.
I miss him. It's ridiculous. Somehow he feels impossibly far away, further than the 3000 miles warrant. I miss a lot of people actually, people I know how to relate to and understand and have things in common with, people I don't have to hide from. Out here, I feel like I can't really be honest about who I am or what I believe in, or really anything to do with my former life. I feel very removed from everyone around me, in ways I really wasn't prepared for. It's isolating. And I really don't feel like I belong here. How can I really contribute to the "school community" if I feel like half of who I am has gone into hiding? How can I make friends if I am hiding?
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Monday, August 29, 2005
Oh you must be joking...
My principal difficulty with this whole law school thing isn't so much the amount of reading, or the size and weight of the pile of books, or even the insane spatula sized bugs who are attempting to establish a property interest in my house by hostile occupancy of my porch. It's not even missing Someone. Nope. It's the cheesy 22 year old bubble headed dingbats who sit in Civ Pro class, I shit you not, shopping for shoes online. What the hell is that about? Then they giggle and flip their hair and talk about the next trip to the bar and the frat party and how they haven't done any reading for torts yet and ask me what the Federal District courts do. Isn't that funny?
Ugh. I hate irresponsible people. Especially when they drive off campus in Z3's and go shopping every weekend and I'm stuck at home doing homework (god forbid) and wondering how I'm going to make rent since I had to buy this stupid new computer.
I'm grumpy. What can I say? I always get kind of grumpy around my birthday actually, it just seems to piss me off. Not really helped by the disastrous party planning that has historically come along with it. Or the sad fact that I have my stupid skills class on my birthday until 8:15 at night. grr. Oh well. It's not like I have anyone here to do something special with, or enough of a social life to warrant an attempt at an actual party.
Oh! And my blog is getting comment spam. WTF?! I've been deleting comment spam right and left all week. Really annoying.
Enough pissing though. I actually did really well with the homework this weekend so I can conceivably not study tonight. Amazing. I could do more torts reading if I wanted to, but I'm caught up and probably have done just about all I need to do for the rest of the week. Contracts and Property can wait till tomorrow, and Civ Pro is quick and can wait as well. Of course, Wednesday gets kind of busy so I might as well get further ahead. We'll see. Once I work out what I want for dinner I will decide how much homework to do tonight. What a life.
Maybe I'll just read one more torts case and then knit something. That might help with my general state of mind.
Ugh. I hate irresponsible people. Especially when they drive off campus in Z3's and go shopping every weekend and I'm stuck at home doing homework (god forbid) and wondering how I'm going to make rent since I had to buy this stupid new computer.
I'm grumpy. What can I say? I always get kind of grumpy around my birthday actually, it just seems to piss me off. Not really helped by the disastrous party planning that has historically come along with it. Or the sad fact that I have my stupid skills class on my birthday until 8:15 at night. grr. Oh well. It's not like I have anyone here to do something special with, or enough of a social life to warrant an attempt at an actual party.
Oh! And my blog is getting comment spam. WTF?! I've been deleting comment spam right and left all week. Really annoying.
Enough pissing though. I actually did really well with the homework this weekend so I can conceivably not study tonight. Amazing. I could do more torts reading if I wanted to, but I'm caught up and probably have done just about all I need to do for the rest of the week. Contracts and Property can wait till tomorrow, and Civ Pro is quick and can wait as well. Of course, Wednesday gets kind of busy so I might as well get further ahead. We'll see. Once I work out what I want for dinner I will decide how much homework to do tonight. What a life.
Maybe I'll just read one more torts case and then knit something. That might help with my general state of mind.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Picture me growling
The more work I do trying to my new laptop set up the more pissed off I am getting at the poor dead POiS iBook, may he rest in peace (after giving up the rest of my files that is). All, and I do mean all, of the photo CDs I made from that thing are corrupted in some awful way and will not open on the new laptop. Clovis and I tried, we really did try, but no joy. To make it worse, it turns out that all my portfolio pictures, pictures from the road trip, and god knows what else, are still on the iBook, which still won't boot even in safe mode. Gah!!
Really, it is not beyond my capacity to figure out how to fix this, but I hardly have the time, or the emotional energy, to deal with it. I have got to get my homework situation figured out. This stupidness with laptops and pictures and missing files and reripping every single damned CD I own, that's all just seriously distracting and stupid but it's still pissing me off.
Oh well. I did manage to get off my ass and ride my bike over to campus today, just to test the route. Quite a nice ride actually. Takes about 20 minutes each way, has only one small hill thing, and is very pretty. The plan is to ride to school at least 3 days a week, weather permitting. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are the easy class load days, so I'll try to ride then. Maybe do pilates or something on the other days. Getting in a bit of exercise should help me to keep my mind focused where it needs to be. Which is to say, not the stupid iBook.
I've got to go forth and find someplace to study that is not my house. I'm finding things to be far to distracting here at the moment.
Really, it is not beyond my capacity to figure out how to fix this, but I hardly have the time, or the emotional energy, to deal with it. I have got to get my homework situation figured out. This stupidness with laptops and pictures and missing files and reripping every single damned CD I own, that's all just seriously distracting and stupid but it's still pissing me off.
Oh well. I did manage to get off my ass and ride my bike over to campus today, just to test the route. Quite a nice ride actually. Takes about 20 minutes each way, has only one small hill thing, and is very pretty. The plan is to ride to school at least 3 days a week, weather permitting. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are the easy class load days, so I'll try to ride then. Maybe do pilates or something on the other days. Getting in a bit of exercise should help me to keep my mind focused where it needs to be. Which is to say, not the stupid iBook.
I've got to go forth and find someplace to study that is not my house. I'm finding things to be far to distracting here at the moment.
Salvage rights
A few bits of clarification...
Clovis was one of my favorite historical figures when I was doing my under grad work. Gregory of Tours wrote about him, and I named a snail after him when I had the goldfish (named Odovacar, Theodoric, Boethius and Mo). The POiS iBook was called Heroditus, and my iPod is called Boethius. Now I have Clovis back. Someone rather more war-like seemed like a good plan to carry around to law classes.
Clovis is still running XP, but I'm purging him of all unnecessary MS products and replacing them with other things, so that the only thing I have to run that's MS is the actual operating system. I will probably partition the disk. Once I get up the nerve to do it anyway. I'm a bit terrified of messing with it at this point.
Someone, who is the best boyfriend in the world, was a huge help in the whole salvage and recovery of data of the POiS iBook. I called the poor guy in a bit of a panic and he got himself online and walked me through all fun and exciting alternative ways to start your mac (which of course I can never remember, and are included in all the useless online support materials I have no access to when the POiS is broken). He's getting very good at rescuing me, which I actually don't exactly mind, strange to say. I miss him though. He left for California on Monday. Getting home from school was strange, the house felt so empty, so expectant. Part of me keeps expecting him to walk back through the door and sit down and carry on as usual. It's amazing how quickly I got used to having him around. More than used to it actually...Though I suppose it make some sense given that I'd spent a total of 2 nights in my new place without him when he left.
Clovis was one of my favorite historical figures when I was doing my under grad work. Gregory of Tours wrote about him, and I named a snail after him when I had the goldfish (named Odovacar, Theodoric, Boethius and Mo). The POiS iBook was called Heroditus, and my iPod is called Boethius. Now I have Clovis back. Someone rather more war-like seemed like a good plan to carry around to law classes.
Clovis is still running XP, but I'm purging him of all unnecessary MS products and replacing them with other things, so that the only thing I have to run that's MS is the actual operating system. I will probably partition the disk. Once I get up the nerve to do it anyway. I'm a bit terrified of messing with it at this point.
Someone, who is the best boyfriend in the world, was a huge help in the whole salvage and recovery of data of the POiS iBook. I called the poor guy in a bit of a panic and he got himself online and walked me through all fun and exciting alternative ways to start your mac (which of course I can never remember, and are included in all the useless online support materials I have no access to when the POiS is broken). He's getting very good at rescuing me, which I actually don't exactly mind, strange to say. I miss him though. He left for California on Monday. Getting home from school was strange, the house felt so empty, so expectant. Part of me keeps expecting him to walk back through the door and sit down and carry on as usual. It's amazing how quickly I got used to having him around. More than used to it actually...Though I suppose it make some sense given that I'd spent a total of 2 nights in my new place without him when he left.
Friday, August 26, 2005
A constructive posting
So, yesterday I read the following footnote in my property casebook:
WTF?! I might as well stop reading this now, decide that looking at the text book is constructive reading, and take a nap. I wonder if this would work with my grade? "Yes, I know I blew the final, but that C is really a constructive A, so you see I still have a 4.0."
Anyway, I am feeling totally overwhelmed by homework. The POiS iBook finally died in a grand and catastrophic way on Wednesday, so I spent more of Wednesday night and Thursday freaking out about lack of a computer and my sad inability to pull my class notes off the iBook. The notes got salvaged, and I broke down and bought a new laptop, but it wasn't very much fun. Especially since I up and broke the first one I got last night when I tried to put Linux on it. It wouldn't book with Linux, so I tried to go back to XP, and it wouldn't boot after the recovery process either, so I had to take the thing back. Luckily, they exchanged it without any problem, but they were out stock on the same model so I ended up getting a different one that cost more and had fewer rebates. Grr. I really can't afford this thing, but at least it's functional and light and will get my through school. I've named it Clovis. Clovis is a Toshiba Satellite M55-S325 with a 100 gig hard drive (and a pretty blue case). So far I like it, except for the whole running XP issue, but with some luck I should be able to get it to dual boot so I can use Linux. I hope anyway. I'm a little afraid to try.
All of this computer drama has got me more tense and stressed than I need to be, even more broke, and seriously exhausted, but at least it's Friday. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and spending at least some time this weekend knitting or maybe spinning. I want to go check out the LYS, which would be fun, but possibly less than a good idea given the wad o' cash I had to drop to get this laptop problem dealt with. We'll see. I might be able to resist more yarn purchases if I get my projects out so I can see all the fun stuff I should be working on.
The word constructive, a modifier familiar to all lawyers, will appear regularly in this and other courses. One could say that the word is a way of pretending that whatever word it modifies depicts a state of affairs that actually exists when actually it does not. The pretense is made whenever judges wish, usually for good but often undisclosed reasons, a slightly different reality than the one confronting them. One might call this reasoning by strict analogy: situation A is magically transformed into Situation B by incantation of the word constructive. Then the rule governing Situation B is applied to Situation A because the two situations are, after all, identical!
WTF?! I might as well stop reading this now, decide that looking at the text book is constructive reading, and take a nap. I wonder if this would work with my grade? "Yes, I know I blew the final, but that C is really a constructive A, so you see I still have a 4.0."
Anyway, I am feeling totally overwhelmed by homework. The POiS iBook finally died in a grand and catastrophic way on Wednesday, so I spent more of Wednesday night and Thursday freaking out about lack of a computer and my sad inability to pull my class notes off the iBook. The notes got salvaged, and I broke down and bought a new laptop, but it wasn't very much fun. Especially since I up and broke the first one I got last night when I tried to put Linux on it. It wouldn't book with Linux, so I tried to go back to XP, and it wouldn't boot after the recovery process either, so I had to take the thing back. Luckily, they exchanged it without any problem, but they were out stock on the same model so I ended up getting a different one that cost more and had fewer rebates. Grr. I really can't afford this thing, but at least it's functional and light and will get my through school. I've named it Clovis. Clovis is a Toshiba Satellite M55-S325 with a 100 gig hard drive (and a pretty blue case). So far I like it, except for the whole running XP issue, but with some luck I should be able to get it to dual boot so I can use Linux. I hope anyway. I'm a little afraid to try.
All of this computer drama has got me more tense and stressed than I need to be, even more broke, and seriously exhausted, but at least it's Friday. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and spending at least some time this weekend knitting or maybe spinning. I want to go check out the LYS, which would be fun, but possibly less than a good idea given the wad o' cash I had to drop to get this laptop problem dealt with. We'll see. I might be able to resist more yarn purchases if I get my projects out so I can see all the fun stuff I should be working on.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
How time flies
All is well out in Law School land. I continue to wonder how in the hell the bugs here got to be so big. Last night I came home to find that a giant praying mantis has taken hostile possession of my door, which wasn't very much fun but thank god C. lives right around the corner was able to come remove the squatter so I could go inside. Very bad.
I've discovered that I have really got to get over my totally insane San Francisco attitudes about parking spaces. Some butt-head in my complex keeps parking in my space, which is really that tragic as there are plenty of visitor spaces, but it irritates me on principal. These crazy Southerners have no idea what they are messing with here.
Anyhow, I have lots to post to about Law Boot Camp last week, and my first week of classes, but I have to get going and get to my Skills class in a few minutes. Night classes stink. Who thought that a class at 6:45 at night was a good idea? It wouldn't be so bad except that my other class on Tuesdays gets out at 12:40, leaving with plenty of time to do tons of reading and pass out at about 4. Not such a good thing really. I will find my stride though and get into some kind of a routine before too long.
I've discovered that I have really got to get over my totally insane San Francisco attitudes about parking spaces. Some butt-head in my complex keeps parking in my space, which is really that tragic as there are plenty of visitor spaces, but it irritates me on principal. These crazy Southerners have no idea what they are messing with here.
Anyhow, I have lots to post to about Law Boot Camp last week, and my first week of classes, but I have to get going and get to my Skills class in a few minutes. Night classes stink. Who thought that a class at 6:45 at night was a good idea? It wouldn't be so bad except that my other class on Tuesdays gets out at 12:40, leaving with plenty of time to do tons of reading and pass out at about 4. Not such a good thing really. I will find my stride though and get into some kind of a routine before too long.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Oh you have *got* to be kidding me
The paycheck saga carries on in typical French farce manner...
FedEx showed up, on time, and the package even got to my desk without incident, a minor miracle seeing as I don't actually work at this office, so the mail room had to be notified and some internal routing magic had to take place for the envelope to find me.
But, the paycheck didn't actually pay me for all the hours I worked. Nice. That'll get adjusted next week, but it's that much more bookkeeping I have to track on this end.
So I sprint off to the new, non-crappy bank, and am able to make a nice deposit, but they have to put a hold on the funds, since the check is from out of state and I've just funded the account, blagh balgh blagh. So no cash. The ATM card and checks should show up in "7 to 10 business days." Nice. Not actually that much worse than sending the fsking check to the old crappy bank, but still, annoying. At least they have a branch at home so I will be able to go in and get money the old fashioned and slow way, so I'm not totally screwed, just inconvenienced.
sigh.
When will the insanity stop?
FedEx showed up, on time, and the package even got to my desk without incident, a minor miracle seeing as I don't actually work at this office, so the mail room had to be notified and some internal routing magic had to take place for the envelope to find me.
But, the paycheck didn't actually pay me for all the hours I worked. Nice. That'll get adjusted next week, but it's that much more bookkeeping I have to track on this end.
So I sprint off to the new, non-crappy bank, and am able to make a nice deposit, but they have to put a hold on the funds, since the check is from out of state and I've just funded the account, blagh balgh blagh. So no cash. The ATM card and checks should show up in "7 to 10 business days." Nice. Not actually that much worse than sending the fsking check to the old crappy bank, but still, annoying. At least they have a branch at home so I will be able to go in and get money the old fashioned and slow way, so I'm not totally screwed, just inconvenienced.
sigh.
When will the insanity stop?
Sushi cures all
I'm still feeling panicked, stressed and upset about this whole stupid paycheck problem, but I think I've found a work-around. I hope anyway. Since my old (crappy) bank hasn't got branches out here, I opened an account with a new (less crappy, we hope) bank here, but due to a wire-transfer fuck up it hasn't been funded yet. They have a branch office right around the corner from the office I am at this week, so with any luck I will be able to take my paycheck there once the FedEx guy shows up and deposit the check and get enough cash to get me through the weekend. Hopefully they will be speedy about getting me things like a check card so I can deposit the other checks that are on the way and buy my books next week.
Now if they would just approve my expense reports from last week I'd be in good shape. I can't wait to close this stupid old bank account. Having money and not being able to get to it is pretty much the worst thing ever.
Anyhow, last night my hot date for the evening took me for sushi in Manhattan. Yum. Just yum. Something about salmon nigiri makes me insanely happy. After dinner, we walked around midtown, and ended up at the Empire State Building, for which there was a huge line, so we said to hell with that and went and had beer and desert at a brewery, then walked back to the hotel. It was quite a nice evening out actually, and Times Square sucks way less at night than it does during the day. It's almost fun at night actually.
This morning I'm just trying to stay focused enough to get through the day. My really and truly Last Day at Work. It's a bit sad, in some ways, and I feel like I'm not so much leaving as just fading away, which is really kind of sad, but I'm moving on to bigger and better things. And with luck I'll be able to come back here and work in the legal department someday. Hopefully as an intern over the summer, which would be just about the best thing ever.
Tomorrow Someone and I are driving back down to Virginia. I'm really looking forward to this actually. Not so much the loading up of the car, but the driving part should be fun. I get to see two new states (New Jersey and Delaware), and spend 7 + hours in the car with my sweetie just existing. Somehow, that's very appealing.
Life goes nuts when I get back though, I have to figure out all this bank stuff, and get myself together for Monday. My sad PoiS iBook is going to have to see me through classes for the time being, I can't really afford to get a real laptop at this point, which totally sucks because it hasn't got any hope of having wireless. I've got way too used to wireless networking. So now I have to get in a war with the cable company, since the cable outlet in the office doesn't work and that means I have to either get them to fix it, or run some combination of cat-5 and coax upstairs from the cable outlet that does work, but which is in the living room. Should be fixable but it's annoying.
Secretly, I just want to go sit in Bryant Park with some nice tea and knit and write for the rest of the morning.
Now if they would just approve my expense reports from last week I'd be in good shape. I can't wait to close this stupid old bank account. Having money and not being able to get to it is pretty much the worst thing ever.
Anyhow, last night my hot date for the evening took me for sushi in Manhattan. Yum. Just yum. Something about salmon nigiri makes me insanely happy. After dinner, we walked around midtown, and ended up at the Empire State Building, for which there was a huge line, so we said to hell with that and went and had beer and desert at a brewery, then walked back to the hotel. It was quite a nice evening out actually, and Times Square sucks way less at night than it does during the day. It's almost fun at night actually.
This morning I'm just trying to stay focused enough to get through the day. My really and truly Last Day at Work. It's a bit sad, in some ways, and I feel like I'm not so much leaving as just fading away, which is really kind of sad, but I'm moving on to bigger and better things. And with luck I'll be able to come back here and work in the legal department someday. Hopefully as an intern over the summer, which would be just about the best thing ever.
Tomorrow Someone and I are driving back down to Virginia. I'm really looking forward to this actually. Not so much the loading up of the car, but the driving part should be fun. I get to see two new states (New Jersey and Delaware), and spend 7 + hours in the car with my sweetie just existing. Somehow, that's very appealing.
Life goes nuts when I get back though, I have to figure out all this bank stuff, and get myself together for Monday. My sad PoiS iBook is going to have to see me through classes for the time being, I can't really afford to get a real laptop at this point, which totally sucks because it hasn't got any hope of having wireless. I've got way too used to wireless networking. So now I have to get in a war with the cable company, since the cable outlet in the office doesn't work and that means I have to either get them to fix it, or run some combination of cat-5 and coax upstairs from the cable outlet that does work, but which is in the living room. Should be fixable but it's annoying.
Secretly, I just want to go sit in Bryant Park with some nice tea and knit and write for the rest of the morning.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Because the world is *that* perverse...
My contracting agency is staffed by morons. They somehow heard “I need to talk to her before she leaves” as “No, don't pay her this week” and now I am not getting my regular direct deposit or the reimbursement for my travel last week, which I desperately need for stuff like rent and food, never mind books, until god only knows when a f*ing paper check shows up. What the hell?
In and of itself, this would not be so bad, except that my bank, which also sucks, hasn't got branches out here, so I can't deposit the manual check they are mailing me into the account from which several bills and automatic payments will be coming in the next few days. Damn it. Will this shit never end?
Between loan screw-ups, time-sheet approval screw ups, outstanding travel expenses amounting to more than a weeks pay, and all the crap I need to deal with in the next week, I am royally boned and more than a little cranky. No wonder I couldn't sleep last night.
Why these agency shits would be so astonished that I actually *need* to get paid on time and in the regular way is totally beyond me.
At least I get to see Someone tonight. That always helps somehow. Not that I expect him to solve my problems for me, but somehow it doesn't seem like anything can really hurt me when he's around. Maybe drive me a little nutty, but not really hurt me.
Oh well. I guess they are snail-mailing me my regular salary, which I can, admittedly, deposit into my new bank here, but I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do about the outstanding stuff with the old bank. Now I just want to go home and cry though.
In and of itself, this would not be so bad, except that my bank, which also sucks, hasn't got branches out here, so I can't deposit the manual check they are mailing me into the account from which several bills and automatic payments will be coming in the next few days. Damn it. Will this shit never end?
Between loan screw-ups, time-sheet approval screw ups, outstanding travel expenses amounting to more than a weeks pay, and all the crap I need to deal with in the next week, I am royally boned and more than a little cranky. No wonder I couldn't sleep last night.
Why these agency shits would be so astonished that I actually *need* to get paid on time and in the regular way is totally beyond me.
At least I get to see Someone tonight. That always helps somehow. Not that I expect him to solve my problems for me, but somehow it doesn't seem like anything can really hurt me when he's around. Maybe drive me a little nutty, but not really hurt me.
Oh well. I guess they are snail-mailing me my regular salary, which I can, admittedly, deposit into my new bank here, but I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do about the outstanding stuff with the old bank. Now I just want to go home and cry though.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Giant killer bugs
Things I am stressed about
1. The last 3 days of this f*ing job
2. Student loan drama
3. Money in general (see item 2)
4. Buying books
5. First day of class
6. Brothers wedding and associated West Nile related drama
7. Not much else really
This is a bit of an improvement. #1 will be gone in a few days, #2 and #4 are getting worked out, #5 is will be over on the 15th then the 22nd, and will then be replaced by finals and homework and however many hundreds of case briefs I have to do, but once I get going I think it'll all be ok. #3 I think I am kind of stuck with for awhile, being a grad student and all. This is just going to be life for the next couple years so I had better get used to it. Or something. And I find it interesting that I am not really stressed about Someone moving away, at least at the moment.
#7 is a funny story. This morning I got in to work to find an email from my mother explaining that the wedding has to be moved because there has been an outbreak of West Nile virus at the site my brother and his fiance had reserved for the wedding. Great. So if they want to have the wedding there still, every single guest has to sign a release of liability stating that they will not sue should they contract West Nile while attending the wedding. Even better. I guess they are looking at alternate sites, which is good, but seeing as the wedding is on September 30th, this is not a good thing and causing some bit of stress for everyone, in addition to the usual impending wedding drama. Doom!
Anyhow, the weekend was quite nice. I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn't get any further from my house than the mailbox (which is about 20 feet from my front door) the whole time, and it was sort of nice. Friday I did a bit of running around and had dinner with Someones mom, E, and that was it for outside activities until Sunday evening when she picked me up so she could drop me at the airport this morning. Mostly I unpacked and sorted things and cleaned. All but 3 boxes have been eliminated, my office is in an almost functional state, my bedroom is still a bit scary but I need a dressing table and small bookshelf before that's going to get much better, and my living room and kitchen are looking quite nice. I'm just glad things are getting settled.
Saturday I found a huge, massive, disgusting spider in my living room. After doing the girl-with-spider hopping dance and squealing while begging the spider to "please just die, will you!", I attempted to squash it with my shoe, which failed miserably, so I tried to call Someone. Who was in New York. What in the hell I thought he would do about this while in New York is beyond me, but I was panicking. He didn't pick up, so I got out the vacuum and eventually managed to suck the spider up. Had it politely died in the vacuum all would have been well, but I did more squealing and hopping when I tried to empty the canister only to find a still-alive giant spider crawling around. Ick. The whole episode was pathetic but probably entertaining in a sit-com style way, and Someone eventually called back and had a grand time making fun of me, though I probably deserved that.
I hate spiders.
Sunday was less exciting, as far as huge disgusting bugs go, and I managed to sit down and spin for the better part of the afternoon. I now have 4 bobbins with little one once samples of nicely plied rare breed fiber on them, waiting for me to wind off into skeins when I get home. Hurray! The wheel survived the move quite nicely. I had to re-hang the wheel and adjust the alignment a bit, but aside from some oil that was all she needed to start humming along as usual. Spinning was quite satisfying. Of course I can;t remember when I was spinning exactly at the moment, but I did one one-ounce sample thing and plied 3 other bobbins of singles that had been sitting around for ages. I was ashamed to discover that I had no clue at all which way I had spun the singles though. My wheel will do either scotch tension or double drive, and I couldn't remember which was I had set up when I did those samples, which made it had to figure out the plying direction. I have no idea why I couldn't tell Z from S twist, but there it is. My spinning fu is in a woefully depleted state at the moment I suppose. The plied yarn seems to have some out ok so I think I figured it out, but I really need to focus on the technical aspect of spinning for awhile I think.
I even got to knit! I'm working on a bead-knit purse for my brothers fiance. With any luck at all I'll actually get the stupid thing done. My progress so far is rather shameful, but I have faith in my ability to get this thing done. It's going to be pretty. And not white. The thread is a sort of salmon color and the beads are a rich champagne. It's an odd combination, but very striking and will go well with her dress. Once I get going on these things they tend to go fast, so hopefully I'll maintain focus and get some work done on it over the next couple of days.
1. The last 3 days of this f*ing job
2. Student loan drama
3. Money in general (see item 2)
4. Buying books
5. First day of class
6. Brothers wedding and associated West Nile related drama
7. Not much else really
This is a bit of an improvement. #1 will be gone in a few days, #2 and #4 are getting worked out, #5 is will be over on the 15th then the 22nd, and will then be replaced by finals and homework and however many hundreds of case briefs I have to do, but once I get going I think it'll all be ok. #3 I think I am kind of stuck with for awhile, being a grad student and all. This is just going to be life for the next couple years so I had better get used to it. Or something. And I find it interesting that I am not really stressed about Someone moving away, at least at the moment.
#7 is a funny story. This morning I got in to work to find an email from my mother explaining that the wedding has to be moved because there has been an outbreak of West Nile virus at the site my brother and his fiance had reserved for the wedding. Great. So if they want to have the wedding there still, every single guest has to sign a release of liability stating that they will not sue should they contract West Nile while attending the wedding. Even better. I guess they are looking at alternate sites, which is good, but seeing as the wedding is on September 30th, this is not a good thing and causing some bit of stress for everyone, in addition to the usual impending wedding drama. Doom!
Anyhow, the weekend was quite nice. I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn't get any further from my house than the mailbox (which is about 20 feet from my front door) the whole time, and it was sort of nice. Friday I did a bit of running around and had dinner with Someones mom, E, and that was it for outside activities until Sunday evening when she picked me up so she could drop me at the airport this morning. Mostly I unpacked and sorted things and cleaned. All but 3 boxes have been eliminated, my office is in an almost functional state, my bedroom is still a bit scary but I need a dressing table and small bookshelf before that's going to get much better, and my living room and kitchen are looking quite nice. I'm just glad things are getting settled.
Saturday I found a huge, massive, disgusting spider in my living room. After doing the girl-with-spider hopping dance and squealing while begging the spider to "please just die, will you!", I attempted to squash it with my shoe, which failed miserably, so I tried to call Someone. Who was in New York. What in the hell I thought he would do about this while in New York is beyond me, but I was panicking. He didn't pick up, so I got out the vacuum and eventually managed to suck the spider up. Had it politely died in the vacuum all would have been well, but I did more squealing and hopping when I tried to empty the canister only to find a still-alive giant spider crawling around. Ick. The whole episode was pathetic but probably entertaining in a sit-com style way, and Someone eventually called back and had a grand time making fun of me, though I probably deserved that.
I hate spiders.
Sunday was less exciting, as far as huge disgusting bugs go, and I managed to sit down and spin for the better part of the afternoon. I now have 4 bobbins with little one once samples of nicely plied rare breed fiber on them, waiting for me to wind off into skeins when I get home. Hurray! The wheel survived the move quite nicely. I had to re-hang the wheel and adjust the alignment a bit, but aside from some oil that was all she needed to start humming along as usual. Spinning was quite satisfying. Of course I can;t remember when I was spinning exactly at the moment, but I did one one-ounce sample thing and plied 3 other bobbins of singles that had been sitting around for ages. I was ashamed to discover that I had no clue at all which way I had spun the singles though. My wheel will do either scotch tension or double drive, and I couldn't remember which was I had set up when I did those samples, which made it had to figure out the plying direction. I have no idea why I couldn't tell Z from S twist, but there it is. My spinning fu is in a woefully depleted state at the moment I suppose. The plied yarn seems to have some out ok so I think I figured it out, but I really need to focus on the technical aspect of spinning for awhile I think.
I even got to knit! I'm working on a bead-knit purse for my brothers fiance. With any luck at all I'll actually get the stupid thing done. My progress so far is rather shameful, but I have faith in my ability to get this thing done. It's going to be pretty. And not white. The thread is a sort of salmon color and the beads are a rich champagne. It's an odd combination, but very striking and will go well with her dress. Once I get going on these things they tend to go fast, so hopefully I'll maintain focus and get some work done on it over the next couple of days.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Somebody to lean on...
I am very much looking forward to a quiet weekend I can devote to fixing up my apartment and knitting. Maybe I can even sit at the spinning wheel for a bit and get her tuned up again after the move. A small bobbin full of some unusual fiber would be a very satisfying thing to hold in my hands at the end of the weekend.
I don't know about any one else, but I absolutely love these little one ounce samples of interesting fibers. I have gotten a lot of them from The Bellwether, in sampler kits that come with information sheets about the animal and the fiber. This makes me very happy. The little baggies full of fiber look very enticing, and learning about new animals and new fiber preparations is a lot of fun. Besides which, an once of fiber is just about the perfect amount to tune up your wheel and give you a sense of satisfaction and completion.
For some reason I've been having a really hard time in New York this week. Staving off major panic attacks is getting to be pretty difficult, especially when I'm stuck down in the subway waiting for a train. Maybe it's the heat, maybe it's the sense that I should be at home working on my house, maybe it's the stress of uncertain student loan approvals and impending financial ruin, maybe it's fear and trepidation about starting school, or some combination of all these things, but it's been a really stressful week. I feel like I hate, really and truly loath, this city, but I don't think that's so. I think the city amplifies whatever you're feeling or trying to process, and since I'm stressed and a little anxious about the rest of my life, it's that much worse being here. Thank God Someone has been here. He's about the only thing keeping me grounded at the moment. I'm so afraid this stupid panic is going to drive him away though. Which doesn't help matters at all.
I had no doubts, but he got the job with my current/former employer, but they want him out in California. So he's leaving for the other side of the country in a few weeks. I'm happy for him, and proud of him, this is a great opportunity for him and he'll do well and be happy there, but I am not doing so well with the idea of him being so far away. I don't know how it's possible but I've grown used to him being close by, being there when I need someone to lean on, and for that to get taken away so quickly, well...it just sucks. The bitter part of me that is still angry with work wonders how much more I can give them, how much more will they take from me? But part of me is satisfied knowing that I have left one thing behind me there that will make some kind of lasting impression. It just happens to be the part of me I am least willing to give up.
Of course, I'm probably getting a little PMS'y too, so that's not helping. My coping mechanisms are pretty maxed out as it is, and never at their best when I'm dealing with that too.
I don't know about any one else, but I absolutely love these little one ounce samples of interesting fibers. I have gotten a lot of them from The Bellwether, in sampler kits that come with information sheets about the animal and the fiber. This makes me very happy. The little baggies full of fiber look very enticing, and learning about new animals and new fiber preparations is a lot of fun. Besides which, an once of fiber is just about the perfect amount to tune up your wheel and give you a sense of satisfaction and completion.
For some reason I've been having a really hard time in New York this week. Staving off major panic attacks is getting to be pretty difficult, especially when I'm stuck down in the subway waiting for a train. Maybe it's the heat, maybe it's the sense that I should be at home working on my house, maybe it's the stress of uncertain student loan approvals and impending financial ruin, maybe it's fear and trepidation about starting school, or some combination of all these things, but it's been a really stressful week. I feel like I hate, really and truly loath, this city, but I don't think that's so. I think the city amplifies whatever you're feeling or trying to process, and since I'm stressed and a little anxious about the rest of my life, it's that much worse being here. Thank God Someone has been here. He's about the only thing keeping me grounded at the moment. I'm so afraid this stupid panic is going to drive him away though. Which doesn't help matters at all.
I had no doubts, but he got the job with my current/former employer, but they want him out in California. So he's leaving for the other side of the country in a few weeks. I'm happy for him, and proud of him, this is a great opportunity for him and he'll do well and be happy there, but I am not doing so well with the idea of him being so far away. I don't know how it's possible but I've grown used to him being close by, being there when I need someone to lean on, and for that to get taken away so quickly, well...it just sucks. The bitter part of me that is still angry with work wonders how much more I can give them, how much more will they take from me? But part of me is satisfied knowing that I have left one thing behind me there that will make some kind of lasting impression. It just happens to be the part of me I am least willing to give up.
Of course, I'm probably getting a little PMS'y too, so that's not helping. My coping mechanisms are pretty maxed out as it is, and never at their best when I'm dealing with that too.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
The First Week (more or less)
Wednesday was hot and humid and fairly unpleasant, just like Tuesday, but we managed to get the rest of the truck unpacked after having a nice big breakfast at someplace called “Mama Steves” where Someone explained the finer points of grits making and consumption to Dad and I. Who knew grits were that complicated? After unloading all the boxes, and unpacking as many as we could, Dad and Someone took off with the rental truck to take all the sad empty boxes to a recycling center someplace out near Yorktown. Putting my boyfriend (and a fairly new one at that) and my father in the same truck, alone, for any length of time, was a bit scary but it went off quite well. They apparently had a grand old time looking for this dump place and driving around historic Yorktown. It's good when you father spends several hours alone with your boyfriend and no one comes back in an ice chest. That's all I have to say about that.
After Dad and Someone's little adventure, we all went and had dinner with Someone's mom. Quite a day for compressed relationship milestones, but it went quite well. We stopped at Lions Bridge on the way to her house to see the James River and all the Canadian Geese. Now the James is a serious river. There are a few points where you can't actually see the other side of it. Of course it was still impossibly hot and humid and the air was kind of hazy and misty, but it was a lovely spot. It would be a great place for a romantic picnic at sunset. But possibly not in the middle of the summer heat.
Thursday we went out to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and visited Kitty Hawk and had lunch at a really good Bavarian restaurant and brewery called the Weeping Radish. I will not be suffering for lack of good beer while I am here, that's for sure. The Outer Banks were really neat. It was warm, but not too hot and miserable, we got to see and stand in the Atlantic Ocean, and learned about drive through beer stores called Brew Thrus which I have to say is about the strangest thing I have ever heard of (except for the drive through margarita stands I am told exist in New Orleans).
We got back kind of late, but still had time for a quick trip to the local CostCo for food supplies and a stop at the grocery store, where we ran into Someone's mom, the only other person in the whole state that Dad and I actually knew. Kind of funny coincidence, but it was nice to see her and to meet her boyfriend.
Dad wanted to see Colonial Williamsburg (as did I), so Friday we went dresser shopping down in Newport News or Hampton or someplace that direction, had lunch with Someones mom, huffed the dresser back to my place, and went and walked around CW. Dad seemed quite impressed. It was kind of overcast and damp that day, but it was still a lot of fun to walk down DoG street (see, I'm going native already! DoG St. is how every one refers to Duke of Gloucester Street, the main drag in CW), look at the old buildings, talk to some of the people who work there, and just absorb the place. It's pretty neat. Sort of a Ren Faire version of colonial life in some ways, but it's informative and gives you a new appreciation for how hard it was to live back then. We even got to see them muster the local militia and shot off the canons. That was quite exciting.
After our colonial adventure we all packed ourselves up and Someones mom cooked up dinner. That woman can cook. It was a very nice evening, lots of good food, a little too much wine, and a really good time. The families get along frighteningly well. I'm not really sure what that means, or what I should do with it, but it's nice, and comfortable, and I'm not going to worry about it. Why worry about something that feels so amazingly right?
Dad had an early flight out of Richmond on Saturday, so we got up early and drove to the Waffle House, a chain of rather greasy little restaurants common most of the way between Texas and Virginia. Not the worst food ever, and they make good grits (who knew I would ever become a grit connoisseur, but there it is, I have gone native), and Dad really wanted to go there so we did.
After we dropped Dad off, Someone took me over to Short Pump. Strange, ill-considered name aside, this is a fun little place. There is a big shopping center/mall thing there, with an Apple Store (which Someone loves), so we wandered around a bit and once the shops opened I was able to find some really nice business slacks and a blouse for the first day of classes. We're having pictures taken or some crap and have to show up in proper business attire. Whatever. At least I have proper business attire now. The idea of wearing it in 98 degree heat with 90 percent humidity sounds like a crappy thing to me, but I only have to keep it on till noon or so. Supposedly. The pants are really wonderful. Black with pink pinstripes, very subtle, but enough to not be boring, and they make my ass look amazing so everyone was happy.
After shopping we met up with a couple of Someones friends for lunch and coffee and some general hanging out. It was a lot of fun. S and A are marvelous people with really adorable kids, and they are moving to Yorktown this week, which is right down the road so I hang out with S and the kids when school work starts to make me insane. Nothing like baby toys to get you over insane logic problem related stress.
We eventually got back in to Williamsburg, had a light dinner, and went to the Green Leafe (or just the Leafe) for beers with another of Someone's friends. H was amazing too. This guy really has some wonderful friends, I feel a lot better about being so far away from everyone I know at this point. They have all been so warm and welcoming and genuinely kind people, I'm pretty overwhelmed actually. I'm not sure what I find more comforting, knowing people here, or knowing that Someone cares enough about me to make sure that I have good people around me here. Either way, I'm feeling pretty good about all of this.
Anyhow, Sunday we slept late, finally, and had a fairly leisurely morning just hanging out at the house and watching movies and not doing much of anything. We eventually got ourselves motivated, and Someone took me to the long promised sushi restaurant. Hurray! I am not going to die for lack of sushi. There is good salmon sashimi to be had, and I am a happy kid. No toro on the menu, but I think with some exploring I can track it down someplace. After sushi, we went and met some other friends and former co-workers at a Mexican restaurant and had beers and hung out with them. Goes without saying that these were also wonderful, kind, warm, welcoming people, and one of them came just short of offering me a testing job should I decide that I want or need one.
Being back at work after all this is a bit depressing in some ways. I want to be at home, not holed up in a cold office working on a project I have almost no interest in at this point. At least I get to spend my evenings with Someone, before he gets sent out to California. Ironic thing, that. Here I meet this amazing person who is smart and talented and sweet and kind, do him a favor early on by sending his resume to my boss, and now it looks like he'll be getting a job offer from my current employer. But on the wrong coast. And in the mean time, we get more attached to each other, things fall into place like they were never out of place, our families hit it off, and now he might be making my move in reverse. I'm sad about this, of course, but oddly unconcerned. I'm going to miss him terribly, but we'll both be pretty wrapped up in our work for the next few months so maybe it's just as well we'll be on opposite ends of the country. It'll make the time we do have together that much more precious. And no one will have to watch the other person go insane. At least not all the time.
Besides, New York kind of sucks. It's hot, it smells bad, it makes me cranky and bitchy, and my feet hurt. I honestly don't understand how anyone can deal with the subway here every day. It smells like a sewer, and I come out of there feeling like I need to be decontaminated.
After Dad and Someone's little adventure, we all went and had dinner with Someone's mom. Quite a day for compressed relationship milestones, but it went quite well. We stopped at Lions Bridge on the way to her house to see the James River and all the Canadian Geese. Now the James is a serious river. There are a few points where you can't actually see the other side of it. Of course it was still impossibly hot and humid and the air was kind of hazy and misty, but it was a lovely spot. It would be a great place for a romantic picnic at sunset. But possibly not in the middle of the summer heat.
Thursday we went out to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and visited Kitty Hawk and had lunch at a really good Bavarian restaurant and brewery called the Weeping Radish. I will not be suffering for lack of good beer while I am here, that's for sure. The Outer Banks were really neat. It was warm, but not too hot and miserable, we got to see and stand in the Atlantic Ocean, and learned about drive through beer stores called Brew Thrus which I have to say is about the strangest thing I have ever heard of (except for the drive through margarita stands I am told exist in New Orleans).
We got back kind of late, but still had time for a quick trip to the local CostCo for food supplies and a stop at the grocery store, where we ran into Someone's mom, the only other person in the whole state that Dad and I actually knew. Kind of funny coincidence, but it was nice to see her and to meet her boyfriend.
Dad wanted to see Colonial Williamsburg (as did I), so Friday we went dresser shopping down in Newport News or Hampton or someplace that direction, had lunch with Someones mom, huffed the dresser back to my place, and went and walked around CW. Dad seemed quite impressed. It was kind of overcast and damp that day, but it was still a lot of fun to walk down DoG street (see, I'm going native already! DoG St. is how every one refers to Duke of Gloucester Street, the main drag in CW), look at the old buildings, talk to some of the people who work there, and just absorb the place. It's pretty neat. Sort of a Ren Faire version of colonial life in some ways, but it's informative and gives you a new appreciation for how hard it was to live back then. We even got to see them muster the local militia and shot off the canons. That was quite exciting.
After our colonial adventure we all packed ourselves up and Someones mom cooked up dinner. That woman can cook. It was a very nice evening, lots of good food, a little too much wine, and a really good time. The families get along frighteningly well. I'm not really sure what that means, or what I should do with it, but it's nice, and comfortable, and I'm not going to worry about it. Why worry about something that feels so amazingly right?
Dad had an early flight out of Richmond on Saturday, so we got up early and drove to the Waffle House, a chain of rather greasy little restaurants common most of the way between Texas and Virginia. Not the worst food ever, and they make good grits (who knew I would ever become a grit connoisseur, but there it is, I have gone native), and Dad really wanted to go there so we did.
After we dropped Dad off, Someone took me over to Short Pump. Strange, ill-considered name aside, this is a fun little place. There is a big shopping center/mall thing there, with an Apple Store (which Someone loves), so we wandered around a bit and once the shops opened I was able to find some really nice business slacks and a blouse for the first day of classes. We're having pictures taken or some crap and have to show up in proper business attire. Whatever. At least I have proper business attire now. The idea of wearing it in 98 degree heat with 90 percent humidity sounds like a crappy thing to me, but I only have to keep it on till noon or so. Supposedly. The pants are really wonderful. Black with pink pinstripes, very subtle, but enough to not be boring, and they make my ass look amazing so everyone was happy.
After shopping we met up with a couple of Someones friends for lunch and coffee and some general hanging out. It was a lot of fun. S and A are marvelous people with really adorable kids, and they are moving to Yorktown this week, which is right down the road so I hang out with S and the kids when school work starts to make me insane. Nothing like baby toys to get you over insane logic problem related stress.
We eventually got back in to Williamsburg, had a light dinner, and went to the Green Leafe (or just the Leafe) for beers with another of Someone's friends. H was amazing too. This guy really has some wonderful friends, I feel a lot better about being so far away from everyone I know at this point. They have all been so warm and welcoming and genuinely kind people, I'm pretty overwhelmed actually. I'm not sure what I find more comforting, knowing people here, or knowing that Someone cares enough about me to make sure that I have good people around me here. Either way, I'm feeling pretty good about all of this.
Anyhow, Sunday we slept late, finally, and had a fairly leisurely morning just hanging out at the house and watching movies and not doing much of anything. We eventually got ourselves motivated, and Someone took me to the long promised sushi restaurant. Hurray! I am not going to die for lack of sushi. There is good salmon sashimi to be had, and I am a happy kid. No toro on the menu, but I think with some exploring I can track it down someplace. After sushi, we went and met some other friends and former co-workers at a Mexican restaurant and had beers and hung out with them. Goes without saying that these were also wonderful, kind, warm, welcoming people, and one of them came just short of offering me a testing job should I decide that I want or need one.
Being back at work after all this is a bit depressing in some ways. I want to be at home, not holed up in a cold office working on a project I have almost no interest in at this point. At least I get to spend my evenings with Someone, before he gets sent out to California. Ironic thing, that. Here I meet this amazing person who is smart and talented and sweet and kind, do him a favor early on by sending his resume to my boss, and now it looks like he'll be getting a job offer from my current employer. But on the wrong coast. And in the mean time, we get more attached to each other, things fall into place like they were never out of place, our families hit it off, and now he might be making my move in reverse. I'm sad about this, of course, but oddly unconcerned. I'm going to miss him terribly, but we'll both be pretty wrapped up in our work for the next few months so maybe it's just as well we'll be on opposite ends of the country. It'll make the time we do have together that much more precious. And no one will have to watch the other person go insane. At least not all the time.
Besides, New York kind of sucks. It's hot, it smells bad, it makes me cranky and bitchy, and my feet hurt. I honestly don't understand how anyone can deal with the subway here every day. It smells like a sewer, and I come out of there feeling like I need to be decontaminated.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Finally home
Moving Day Four: The best way to fall in love with a place is to see it at sunrise. Sunrise over the Blue Ridge Mountains was beautiful. The sky turned every color of pearl the world has ever known. I watch it go from the dark purply grey of a black pearl to the warm golden shades of white pearls as we drove through my new home state, past places Someone had told me about and promised to take me someday, and somehow I knew I was finally home.
It took most of the morning to get through the mountains, but we got to Richmond, and someplace called “Short Pump” (I ask you, does no one think about what they name places these days? Please. First Toad Suck, now this) around 10 or so, and were in Williamsburg by 11. Dad and I ditched the truck, met my new land lady, got the quick tour of town, signed the lease, and started unpacking the truck.
I love my new house. It's spacious, has tons of closets, a nice little kitchen (sadly, electric, but I can live with that), a beautiful view over a field from my living room and bedroom window, and a laundry room and dishwasher. We walked in to the place, let the cat out, and it instantly felt like home. Even Maya, who wouldn't get out of her crate for love or money anywhere along the road (except the hotel in Oklahoma), took to the place as if she'd been there her whole life.
Dad and I started getting things unloaded from the truck, and then Someone got there to help, bearing cold water and Big Gulps. I've never been so happy to see a person in my life, and not just because of the cold water. He and Dad and I worked on unloading until we couldn't take the heat any more, but had got out all of the wine and the furniture and enough of the other stuff so we could make up beds for the night before giving up on unpacking for the day and taking the best showers of our lives.
Once we were all clean, Someone drove us to a BBQ place someplace in the area for dinner. That was good. I don't generally like pork, but that was some tasty pig, that was. Dad wanted to do as much “regional” food as we could, this seemed to fit that bill pretty well.
After we all gorged ourselves on tasty meat, we went back to my place, watched a movie, drank some wine, and passed out.
It took most of the morning to get through the mountains, but we got to Richmond, and someplace called “Short Pump” (I ask you, does no one think about what they name places these days? Please. First Toad Suck, now this) around 10 or so, and were in Williamsburg by 11. Dad and I ditched the truck, met my new land lady, got the quick tour of town, signed the lease, and started unpacking the truck.
I love my new house. It's spacious, has tons of closets, a nice little kitchen (sadly, electric, but I can live with that), a beautiful view over a field from my living room and bedroom window, and a laundry room and dishwasher. We walked in to the place, let the cat out, and it instantly felt like home. Even Maya, who wouldn't get out of her crate for love or money anywhere along the road (except the hotel in Oklahoma), took to the place as if she'd been there her whole life.
Dad and I started getting things unloaded from the truck, and then Someone got there to help, bearing cold water and Big Gulps. I've never been so happy to see a person in my life, and not just because of the cold water. He and Dad and I worked on unloading until we couldn't take the heat any more, but had got out all of the wine and the furniture and enough of the other stuff so we could make up beds for the night before giving up on unpacking for the day and taking the best showers of our lives.
Once we were all clean, Someone drove us to a BBQ place someplace in the area for dinner. That was good. I don't generally like pork, but that was some tasty pig, that was. Dad wanted to do as much “regional” food as we could, this seemed to fit that bill pretty well.
After we all gorged ourselves on tasty meat, we went back to my place, watched a movie, drank some wine, and passed out.
Gotta love the South
Moving Day Three: Sleeping in an actual stationary bed is a good and wonderful thing. Especially when that sleep comes after spending something like 36 hours on the road. Of course, I think I only slept for about 4 hours, between FTP related rage, Dad's snoring, and just generally being unfocused and distracted sleep wasn't working out well. Oh well. We had crappy coffee in the hotel for breakfast and were on our way again.
Oklahoma is a rather pretty state. The parts we drove through all seemed to look like well-manicured (if somewhat due for a mow) golf courses. I've never seen so much open grass and rolling hills in my life.
I fell asleep at some point and woke up in Arkansas. Not a bad state, as long as you don't actually stop anyway. The signage here was strange to say the very least, and we say every stereotypical type of southerner along the way. They actually have a place called “Toad Suck Regional Park.” Toad Suck? I'm not really sure I want to know how this places ended up getting called “Toad Suck” but there it is. We also saw a large number of billboards advertising adult book and video stores with convenient truck parking. I know that San Francisco is supposed to be some sort of den of iniquity, but I have never in my life seen a huge road-side billboard for a porn shop touting the stunning trucking parking and wide selection of titles available in a convenient road-side location. But there it is. So much for the Bible Belt I guess. When we finally got to this place, it was, I kid you not, a huge massive bright red barn by the side of the highway. Scary.
We finally got to the Mississippi River and Tennessee around rush-hour. The Memphis sky-line was beautiful. I'd like to visit Memphis someday, it seems like an interesting place. The architecture is interesting anyway.
Actually crossing the Mississippi was a huge mile-stone for some reason. Up to the point, even after we had more than half the distance behind us, I felt somehow as though I was still able to go back. Once I got over that river though, I had no way back. The other side felt very Other somehow. I don't know why I work things up in my head this way sometimes, but finally crossing that river made the whole idea of starting my life over seem very real. Plus it was the first real, large river I'd seen so far. I saw the Potomac when I was in junior high, but California has nothing in the way of rivers like the Mississippi or the Potomac or the James.
I have to admit that I slept through most of Tennessee. We stopped for dinner in a town near Dixon I think, and Dad had enough coffee and sugar to keep him going through the night. I have never seen him that wired actually. It reminded me of Beavis eating too much sugar and turning into Cornholio.
What I did see of the state was beautiful though. All tree, billboards for porn, rolling hills and eventually mountains. Not like the Sierras, but still mountains. Somewhere in the night, it became Tuesday and we ended up in Virginia.
Oklahoma is a rather pretty state. The parts we drove through all seemed to look like well-manicured (if somewhat due for a mow) golf courses. I've never seen so much open grass and rolling hills in my life.
I fell asleep at some point and woke up in Arkansas. Not a bad state, as long as you don't actually stop anyway. The signage here was strange to say the very least, and we say every stereotypical type of southerner along the way. They actually have a place called “Toad Suck Regional Park.” Toad Suck? I'm not really sure I want to know how this places ended up getting called “Toad Suck” but there it is. We also saw a large number of billboards advertising adult book and video stores with convenient truck parking. I know that San Francisco is supposed to be some sort of den of iniquity, but I have never in my life seen a huge road-side billboard for a porn shop touting the stunning trucking parking and wide selection of titles available in a convenient road-side location. But there it is. So much for the Bible Belt I guess. When we finally got to this place, it was, I kid you not, a huge massive bright red barn by the side of the highway. Scary.
We finally got to the Mississippi River and Tennessee around rush-hour. The Memphis sky-line was beautiful. I'd like to visit Memphis someday, it seems like an interesting place. The architecture is interesting anyway.
Actually crossing the Mississippi was a huge mile-stone for some reason. Up to the point, even after we had more than half the distance behind us, I felt somehow as though I was still able to go back. Once I got over that river though, I had no way back. The other side felt very Other somehow. I don't know why I work things up in my head this way sometimes, but finally crossing that river made the whole idea of starting my life over seem very real. Plus it was the first real, large river I'd seen so far. I saw the Potomac when I was in junior high, but California has nothing in the way of rivers like the Mississippi or the Potomac or the James.
I have to admit that I slept through most of Tennessee. We stopped for dinner in a town near Dixon I think, and Dad had enough coffee and sugar to keep him going through the night. I have never seen him that wired actually. It reminded me of Beavis eating too much sugar and turning into Cornholio.
What I did see of the state was beautiful though. All tree, billboards for porn, rolling hills and eventually mountains. Not like the Sierras, but still mountains. Somewhere in the night, it became Tuesday and we ended up in Virginia.
Monday, August 01, 2005
We made it!
I have a much longer post on it's way, with pictures and everything, but we made it! The cat, Dad and I got to Virginia in one piece on Tuesday morning. It was hot. Really hot. Which would not be so bad except that it is also very humid, which makes for some miserable truck unloading. Dad, Someone and I took 2 days to get the truck unloaded but it went ok. The cat did amazingly well with the whole 4 days in a box thing, and seems to be nicely adjusted to her to new home.
Anyway, a full write up of the rest of the road trip and my first few days in VA are on the way. Today, I'm working in New York. Trying to get adjusted to a new office is always entertaining. They sort of forgot I was coming, so I had to set up a workstation and spent most of the morning running around looking for keys, badges, cat-5, power strips, and the basics in office supplies. Lots of fun. Thankfully no one expects much out of me till this afternoon.
Traveling between Newport News and New York is disturbingly easy. Getting up at 5 am is not so great, but I managed to make it to the office by 9:30 this morning. Not too bad if you ask me. Tonight, Someone and I are going to do something mellow (I hope) and go check out the corporate apartment I get to stay in this week and figure out how to take the subway between there and the office. I live in fear of the New York subway system. Less the subway itself and more the ginormous fearsome rats (or R.O.U.S.s if you more the geek type) actually, but still, it's all the same.
Must get to work, I have cat-5 to poach and subway routs to figure out. I'll try to post the rest of the trip write-up tonight.
Anyway, a full write up of the rest of the road trip and my first few days in VA are on the way. Today, I'm working in New York. Trying to get adjusted to a new office is always entertaining. They sort of forgot I was coming, so I had to set up a workstation and spent most of the morning running around looking for keys, badges, cat-5, power strips, and the basics in office supplies. Lots of fun. Thankfully no one expects much out of me till this afternoon.
Traveling between Newport News and New York is disturbingly easy. Getting up at 5 am is not so great, but I managed to make it to the office by 9:30 this morning. Not too bad if you ask me. Tonight, Someone and I are going to do something mellow (I hope) and go check out the corporate apartment I get to stay in this week and figure out how to take the subway between there and the office. I live in fear of the New York subway system. Less the subway itself and more the ginormous fearsome rats (or R.O.U.S.s if you more the geek type) actually, but still, it's all the same.
Must get to work, I have cat-5 to poach and subway routs to figure out. I'll try to post the rest of the trip write-up tonight.
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