mint jelly

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Hiccups

I have been crying, and trying not to cry, for hours.... in the office with people hugging me, with my bosses, in the bathroom, walking down the hall, seeing all the things that remind me that I’ve spent five years here. I have grown up here and can honestly say that I’ve always loved it, even when it was practically ruining my life. I love the people I work with, and especially the ones I work for. I love the ones I’ve met and the lovely incestuous world of the web.  I love everything I’ve learned. It feels like home. It is home. I’ve spent more hours in these walls than in any one home in my life.

I can’t remember when I’ve been this sad.

I was given the option of staying through December 15th, and I am leaning towards that. My severance is pretty good, and they’re going to fund a fabulous new computer or two.

Thank you so much everyone who has been incredible, helpful, comforting, empathetic. I need you, you’re helping. You’re awesome.


previously today

I have the hiccups, a hangover, and am backing up the files I want to keep on my work machine.

Dear Lord, last night was fun! I had a girls’ night with Mihow and Maria. We must rinse, repeat. 

I had 11 million beers and can think of at least two stories that I started to tell but didn’t reach the point.

point #1 - I was telling you our body weights when we (dave and I) started going out because as a lark I gave Dave a piggy back for about a block through Baltimore, just to show how strong I was, despite being tiny (then).

point #2 - I started telling you about Emily (and all that wacky dorm room stuff, and about what went with peanut m&ms) because the craziest thing.... after a few hours our minds somehow synced up and for at least three sentences our words were identical in word, timing and tone. And then we both screamed, laughed, and ran inside.


as to why I’m here at this hour....

All I will say is that someone pretty critical got the ax, and today we’re having an ominous meeting at 9:30. So I’ve got a touch of the paranoia. It’s good to leave few traces on a work machine anyway. This is a project I should have done a while ago.

8:30 is an hour and a half before people usually show up, and my office is very quiet.

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Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Youch - See OMFG below

When will I learn to not walk over a mile to work in spanking new shoes? oooooow. today is going to be a socks in the office day.

I’ll post more when I get back, I have to set up for my meeting at 11. One thing I want to share is the most recent meeting minutes from my high school reunion committee (i declined to attend). These girls are just as cracked as I remember. From what it smells like, no one I care to see is coming.

O M F G

Nevermind the reunion. My father the teenager called. He’s coming to town for a day and we were going to go out to eat. Now he’s bringing girlfriend of the moment Diana. He dated her back in ‘93 while he was finishing his 3rd marriage.  I went out of my way to shock her, like a good little brat, by telling her about this Mexican boxer from whom I’d bought a bud the length of my hand.  She remembers. I told my father to tell her I was just trying to scare her, that I have a vivid imagination. or do I? heheh

I just thought she was a freak cuz she’d made a really yummy dessert and refused to have even a BITE of it.

So Diana has had a thing for him since then, in between he’s moved to CA wine country and dated his (former) best friend’s wife for the past 7 years. He just broke up with Beth finally (who used to be lesbian lovers with my ex stepmother before they both found naval officers to marry) and now is right back with Diana.

Diana who planted many pots of flowers for the front of his home. Diana, who then SMASHED THEM TO HELL when she dropped by my dad’s house this weekend and he wasn’t there. He went to see Beth, and talk etc etc. He told Diana he was visiting Martin his pal, and that she was a wacko. Then my father charmed her, she made rational about being a passionate person, and they went to the shooting range together the next day. My father’s become a gun collector and has a dealer’s license. whole nother story.

May you never never never have to say, “Dad, this woman is a freak. She’s going to boil your rabbit! Be careful!” while in your cube with no privacy. oi....

I see them tomorrow for dinner and to show them my place. My father said, “just observe” .... this will be interesting.

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Monday, September 08, 2003

I Loved You, Warren

Warren Zevon is dead. He is dead. He is dead.

I am sad.

article

They do not mention one of my personal favorites: Lawyers, Guns and Money

All I have on my work machine is Werewolves of London. lame of me… Here you go.


ahh ok! thanks to Derek dRock. Here’s the song, I haven’t even heard it in forever. But man, I thought it was great when I was heard it at 14.

Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan

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Sunday, September 07, 2003

Hair Cut

Otto’s party friday night was pretty cool. I didn’t know as many as I normally do, but there were gobs of people. I was in an impromptu band for about a half hour, which consisted of me and two other girls with a ukulele, a harmonica, and an oompa. I couldn’t find a good photo of a German oompa, but it’s basically 5-6 kinds of percussion intruments fused to a pogo stick that comes with one drum stick. Guess which one I played? good stuff. I guess people had drank enough because they thought we were great, or at least as interesting as a car wreck.

Yesterday, I had my hair cut. Today I walked to Georgetown and did a bunch of shopping since I haven’t (aside from this week) in forever.  I’ve just paused the movie Red, which is going well, and Prince happens to be playing in my itunes. I haven’t seen Blue or White but it hasn’t been an issue. Last night Maria and I watched Bad Taste to stop Mike’s begging and to keep him from going back to work.

I honestly felt like I was going to throw up for about 2 hours. So ill, but I admit there were some pretty cool parts. Mike likes it way too much, the sicko. The aliens don’t appear in their “true form” until the very end, and while they’re hiding in human form they all wear light blue oxfords and jeans. The actors were just a bunch of his friends on a rugby team. Fucking Brilliant.


Monday Morning

Red ended in the most amazing way!!  I was completely stunned, it was wonderful. See it. See it. Perhaps one of the best endings I’ve ever seen.

In a completely different genre, the coolest fight scene in recent memory is from the movie The Transporter with that big bald guy from Snatch. The scene makes highly creative use of oil and bike pedals. Hot hot hot! Don’t know why I’m thinking about that.... hmmmm eeh hhemm heheheheh

Later Still

Such a badass.

Thank Your Programmers

Last night on cartoon network’s adult swim they had a commercial regarding their web site. It was a simple black screen with white text that gave the number of forum comments they had at that point. Then the text said something to the effect that only 4 programmers kept that up and going. Then the text thanked them, using the screen names of each of the four.

I thought it was impressive, and the nicest thing I’ve ever seen. Especially, it makes the public appreciate it more.

Am I The Last to See This?

etiquettegrrls.com

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Friday, September 05, 2003

Nuthin Doin

Lamest entry ever—read on if you’re bored.

This has been a light week work-wise, but today especially so. I just went to the Gap and bought jeans, chords, a sweater and a red jacket (yay!) after wasting about 20 minutes trying to get some other girls in the office to come with me. It’s just bad having a Gap close to where I work. I would probably not shop there if there were better choices. It’s good for my wallet there aren’t better choices. The pairs of jeans I’ve been wearing all spring and summer I stole one by one from Maria whenever I’d crash at her house. thanks babe!

I made a hair appointment for a cut tomorrow with Giovanna, who has been good to me for years. She probably thought I was unfaithful but when she sees how much it’s grown she’ll know I wasn’t.  I’m not sure if I want to let it grow out or cut it shorter again. I like my hair short-ish. Either way my hair’s undisciplined and needs to be coerced into doing whatever I’m going for. If it were 1950 and I wanted my hair to do that silly flip, then I’d be a lucky girl.

I’m also going to check out color. Not sure if I’ll do my old red or a new red, but as soon as this tan fades, I’m going for it. yay!

I’m so lame, I don’t really have pictures handy. Maybe i’ll dig some up, or take before and after.

In between writing that and this I went to Caribou for coffee and had a nice talk with Alexis.

Now, well. I’m not sure what I’ll do. Update my hours on the record. um. finish coffee. Do some QA changes that’ll take about 6 minutes.

Perhaps I’ll go into these templates and try to lessen the ugliness, finally play with a photo gallery.

One thing has been decided. We the (increasingly small) group I work with need to get together and go to the Lucky Bar. Ayisat was talking about going somewhere end of this month and maybe it would be most fun to go to a dive bar that’s familiar and invokes a lot of memories.

OK, it’s friday. that always feels good. Here’s an upbeat fave from a few years ago (sorry, the zip is the only way I can get it to work for most folks)
Dope’s take on You Spin Me Round (like a record). Ahh fond memories of Dead or Alive’s version which I had on tape in junior high. dang, anyone remember new wave?

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Thursday, September 04, 2003

Hooked Up

I really miss living with a doctor—my stepdad.  Companies would assume that he had an office. They’d send him tons of free stuff like the magazines JAMA and The Female Patient (neither for weak stomachs) but most importantly, drugs.

Sometimes when I go visit them my mom will try to give me like 12 boxes of something, which I never plan on using at the time.

Our favorite was something called Mobigesic. Indications: dental surgery, backpain, and migraine. They came in about 500 individual serving packets and my mother put them in a big ziplock in the kitchen. “And here are some for your purse.”

my goodness. just don’t mix with anything. ANYTHING

I have to tell you they rocked. In my younger years I had both knees operated on, bad hips, bad ankles, shoulder, etc. They were afraid I had arthritis in addition to the general maladies of every young person who dances and wacks out their body. These were great for those rare days it just hurt to exist deep in my bones, or had a huge headache.

Since we always carried them around my mom started calling them “Mobile Jesus” and I still think it’s so funny. This devout Catholic woman who used to bury St. Joseph statues in front of the houses she wanted to sell. (i’d accuse her of witchcraft and she’d just shrug. hmmmm) Well, she used the pills sparingly and retired at 48 so who am I to judge?

Last night I broke down and took something else she gave me, months ago that I said I wouldn’t take. Non prescription I think herbal sleep aid pills. I haven’t slept well in so long I was getting a little desperate. It felt so good to fall asleep and not keep waking up.

But I must say I hate the smell of pills. Worst smells to me are, in order :

B.O. (old sweat, not new sweat)
rat piss
vitamins/herbal pills
bad breathe
anything rotting

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Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Raining, Pouring

As if I didn’t have all a slacking procrastinator could handle....

- my application to Trinity for which i’m also writing one of my own recommendation letters because a certain teacher said “You know i hate to write.” Any suggestions from anyone, please give them to me!!!

- getting the house ready for my father’s visit in a week, just for an evening. He cares not of dust so that’s cool. BUT also for my mother, who’s going to stay with me for a long weekend immediately after, and has crazy high standards. I have to clean like a maniac and hide all sorts of things. Perhaps I’ll find hiding places, or just bag it up and take it to a friend. hehh not like she doesn’t know I have birth control, etc., but still. don’t want to have that converstaion no matter how hard she tries.

- then, i finally called an artist/framer/photographer back who wants me to help with SEO on his already redesigned site. So that’s work, but I think I’m just going to barter with him. I hate estimated taxes.

- and just now, a friend told a friend about me and they want to see if I’ll help redesign her site. I’m no designer. hhhehe hells no. I suck n stuff, but if she knows exactly what she wants (cuz all people who want web sites do right?) then I can help. argh The reason I said yes is she’s got a band and I like her voice. She used to work a couple floors below me but is in NYC now. She kinda rocks.

Problem is, I’m really stingy with my spare time. I just want to spend it with friends, working out, reading or staring at some type of screen. But I feel like I need to accept these sorts of jobs. It’s good for me, gets me out of the shelter of my usual work and teaches me things. Good for the resume. If I get downsized at the end of this year then I’ll have made some more contacts.

To those of you who have full time jobs, yet manage to take on other projects: how the hell do you do it? How much do you give up? Is it worth it? Do you rock and make lots of money? I usually turn down these sorts of thing as the “fun to trouble ratio” doesn’t balance out. Is that short sighted or a good avoidance of pain in the ass clients?

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Tuesday, September 02, 2003

I'm Back

I was out of town last week but didn’t go where I was planning. Some of the geeks in the house set up a net connection but I was either too sandy or too salty to sit and type. And honestly, I was on vacation.

I see there are some postings. Excellent. I’ll give them my attention as soon as I can. I didn’t have work yesterday, but I was so hung over I couldn’t do much but watch DVDs and IM with people.

I was in Avon, NC - the outer banks, way way down the banks. Very chill - not very populated and the beach isn’t busy. Dogs, kites, beer, bonfires. And those fantastic little creatures that go phosphorescent at night. The water was freezing but the sun was warm. I went sea kayaking and ate crab and s’mores.

Fabulous, all in all. The only bittersweet aspect was that I was supposed to go see my niece and my brothers and sister in law. The New York city brother got sick and so we didn’t go. I was worried about him because he’s never sick. But he’s better now. I just have to figure out when I’m going to see little Zoey before she’s old enough to drive.

I have so much to talk about. So many photos to post. I saw a really good old friend from high school Sunday night and that was grand fun. We used to tromp around and take photos and drink gobs of Dunkin Donuts coffee. good times.

Then another random person from my childhood called but I never liked him and he’s still a pompous dork. I must be more googleable than I thought, for better or for worse.

I have such a weird buzz today. I feel like that moment right before uncontrollable giggling.

It’s probably because I’m glad to be back at work, seeing my in-town friends and catching up. Had a weird little tech issue first thing at work, and that’s over now. That’s always a little rush. I’m such a freaking dork. hehe

well, I promise I’ll post again soon, after I catch up on my people’s blogs and get acclimated in this office again.

your humble slacker

Almost 5, later today

Today has dragged and I’ve done a little work and listened to a lot of tunes.

Champagne Darling, by Vertigo Lab This is what I listen to when I have too much energy for a slow day at work.

Here’s one by my friend’s band. He works in my secret little society as a librarian if you can fucking believe it. But he’s all soul and rocks house. And it sounds like they’re throwing the chick in the band around.... I’d like her job =p

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