forgot to eat...

Today I had lots of fun - my travel group had a local activity. We went to lunch together first at a place called Obzeet [generally a very weird place with somewhat spotty and unfriendly service, but good food] and then we went to an ice rink and went ice skating - something I couldn't even tell you when the last time was that I went, but probably at least 15 years ago. The last time I was even on an ice rink at all was playing broom ball back in '01.

The first pair of skates they gave me at the rental counter were figure skates made from hard plastic, with buckles similar to ski boots. Although there was a cushy lining inside the skates, as soon as I got out on the ice I immediately felt all kinds of pain, as they were very uncomfortable. I fell once, and then other members of the group, seeing the plastic skates, recommended I go get a pair of lace-ups, which I did. This time they gave me hockey skates [with no toe pick.] Those were more comfortable, and I got out on the ice and made it a lap or two before falling again. It was pretty hard to get back up with those skates on, but I eventually did, and didn't fall again the whole rest of the time. I started getting the hang of it a little by the end - not trying anything fancy, by any means, but was doing better than where I started out. After that some of the members went to Blue Goose Cantina and we hung out talking for a while. I left at 4 to take my friend Chris to the airport for his trip to Germany to spend Xmas with his parents.

I got my car washed on the way home [the winter weather had made it unbearably dirty over the past week and I paid for the $3 wash with the change in my ashtray.] Once I got home I got on the internet and started planning my trip to Austin for the Brazilian Carnaval they have there. It was cold in my apartment so I also got a little fire raging. As I was sitting at the computer planning away I started feeling a little weird. I assumed it was because I was cold [the computer is not near the fireplace] so I went and warmed myself by the fire for a little while. The feeling didn't go away. I took me a minute or two, but I realized I hadn't eaten anything since lunch, and it was now 8:30pm. I usually eat every 4 hours. So I ate some baby carrots, and quickly popped a pot-pie in the microwave and fixed my blood sugar levels. :) Now I'm going to lie by the fire and watch a movie.

great weekend

Ahhh... I love four day weekends...

In an effort to use up the last of my paid time off from work [otherwise I would forfeit it] I took off Friday and today and I'm very glad I did. I originally had a whole lot more planned this weekend than I actually did, but it was a good thing that some of the stuff got canceled - it gave me more rest time.

Friday I took it easy most of the day, and went on a lunch date. Friday evening I had a game night planned, but since I had set it up fairly last minute and it's the holiday party season, no one but my friend Chris came. But that was OK. Chris and I just ended up going to see Twilight. It was my second time to see it, but it's a good little movie, and this time it was in DLP, so it's like watching it in enormous HD [love it.]

Saturday morning I originally had a boot camp planned through my fit club, but the only girl who had RSVP'd yes said she was backing out since there wouldn't be anyone else there. Which was fine... gave me time to sit around and be lazy instead. :)
One of the highlights of my weekend was getting to take a 3 hour nap on Saturday afternoon. Ahhhhh... After I woke up from my 3 hour nap I went to the gym [and had surprisingly little energy there - I couldn't do nearly as much of a workout as I normally would...] and then went to a dinner party. I left the dinner party a little after 10pm and went right to bed when I got home.

Most of the day Sunday was also spent lazing around and taking it easy. Then in the late afternoon I went to the gym again and then to a holiday party at my friend Jim's place. From there I went to my friend Danny's place and hung out with him for a bit, watched Simpsons, and then I went to the LITE Dallas Annual Christmas Party, which was SO much fun. It was at the House of Blues. I got invited because one of the bosses of the company was in my travel MeetUp group. There was a good number of people from the travel group there and we had lots of fun hanging out, dancing, and getting our pictures taken in the photo booths they had set up. Glad I was able to stay out and not have to worry about getting home early to I could go to bed in order to get up for work...

Now today will be another day of lazing around and taking it easy. :) Tomorrow I have to go back to work, but at least it will only be a 4 day work week, and then next week will only be a 3 day work week!

Arizona for Thanksgiving

Just got back from a fun and relaxing vacation to Arizona for Thanksgiving. Here's a quick recap of events.

Erlynne, Chris, Ethan, Tristan and I all drove in Chris' mother's van, taking the drive easy - in installments - staying over night in Midland TX on the way out. When we got there on Saturday evening, Lana, Erlynne and I all went directly out to see "Twilight." It was pretty good. Entertaining enough for someone who hadn't read the books [me] - and from what I gathered - enthralling for those who HAD read the books.

I can't currently think of all the details of all the things I did the rest of the week, except for rappelling. That was certainly a highlight. Chris and I went with his nephew Jared to a park where there was a huge rock formation pretty perfect for rappelling. It was my first time and I was really nervous at first, but I was already feeling like a pro by my 2nd and 3rd trips down the rope. A couple showed up to set up for their family reunion and I went down at the same time as the girl to reassure her that it wasn't that scary. I forgot to bring my camera that day, so I don't have any pictures, but Chris did get some, and some video, so we'll see if I can get some of those and post them.

Thanksgiving day itself was lots of fun. Lana and her kids and I all got up early and went to see Porter, Eric, and Dixie compete in a triathlon. I DID bring my camera with me that day - so you can see my pictures on Facebook where I uploaded the best of them. When I heard what the triathlon entailed I thought 'I could do that, easy' so... next year I will. Lana said Staci had also said she wanted to do it next year... so next Thanksgiving I challenge all my siblings and in-laws to "bring it" because I'm totally there! The rest of the day was fun, too - Thanksgiving dinner at the Shumway's was plentiful and varied, and after eating Dana played the piano and the singers took turns performing. I even dusted off my old, unused, vocal chords and mumbled through a song.

Overall a very fun and relaxing trip for me. I got to take a nap most of the days, so hopefully that will catch me up on my rest. Now it's off to bed so I can get up early for work again tomorrow [frowny face.]

long time no post

I was recently chided for not posting any updates here in a long time. I knew it had been a while, but when I got on and looked - Holy Fudge! It's been almost 2 months. The reason for that as some may already know - is that I'm constantly busy. Ever since I discovered MeetUp.com there's almost never a reason to stay home just killing time. I can always be out and about - meeting and associating with people from different cultures, countries, and all kinds of different backgrounds. I have radically diversified my social circle faster than I ever imagined possible. A good thing, methinks.

So the most recent adventure: Last weekend I went with my Travel MeetUp to Hot Springs Arkansas. We went to experience the fall colors and see Hot Springs. Here are a few pictures I took:



...and here's a picture someone else took that has me in it [to prove I was actually there]

and here's a picture taken by someone who's a much better photographer than I

add a couple of insults to injury

This past weekend I threw my lower back out while over-exerting myself a bit playing frisbee. Well, round about the same time my food poisoning decided to come back [the bacteria and/or virus wasn't really gone - even though I felt ok for a week.] So now not only am I back on a liquid diet with my stomach churning, but also most movements I make that involve my lower back [which is almost ALL movement] are excruciatingly painful. When I woke up this morning I felt so crappy I just wanted to call work and tell them I wasn't coming in. However, since I've already got all my time off planned for pretty much the rest of the year, I don't have much leeway there. So I went in to work. It wasn't long, however, before I realized that I really shouldn't be there. I figured that one out due to the fact that I was spending more time in the bathroom than I was at my desk working. And of course the one day I can't eat anything, and the one day this has ever happened since I've been working here - they were giving away free ice cream in the cafeteria!

So I came home at noon, made myself some chicken broth and am now going to sleep the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow.

sick in Boston, but a cash haul is always nice...

going back a little bit...

On the Tuesday after Labory Day I flew out to Boston for a few days on the Cape [in Provincetown, MA] and then a few days with Clark and family in Framingham. Well, something I ate on Tuesday gave me some pretty hardcore food poisoning, so a disproportionate amount of my trip was spent lying in bed/sleeping during the day/subsisting on a liquid-only diet/and generally feeling like puréed tarnation...

On my first day of seeing Clark and Benjamin I did manage to get my camera out and take some pictures... here's a few of them





I did manage to get out and swim in Walden Pond, as well as go to the site of "the shot heard round the world" [the beginning of the American Revolution.] And the important part was getting to see Clark, Guinevere, and Benjamin and hang out with them, so mission accomplished. Oh yea, the last evening I was there [on Clark's birthday] Guinevere made a SUPERB clam chowder, and since I was luckily weaning slowly back on to solids by that time I got to eat as much as I wanted. :) They also gave me a really funny birthday card and my favorite present - COLD, HARD CASH! Which was just the start of the cashflow... :)

When I got back to Dallas I got another birthday card from Lady and Schteve, with MORE CASH! So, SCORE! Then at work they were going to have cake for my birthday, but the lady who was going to get it had a flat tire, so they just gave me the money they would have spent - so, SCORE! Then our sister department happened to also be having "birthday celebration" that day and had enough cake and ice cream to go around, so we ended up being able to have some after all - AND I kept my cash! SCORE! :)

Then today I went to the Fort Worth Bird Mart and sold off a few birds, and most of the excess cages that I needed to get rid of, so I came home with a wad of CASH, so again, SCORE!

the view from my balcony

ahhh, the joys of pollution :) Here are a few pictures I took from my balcony - a few days apart - when I was waking up really early for work [both were taken shortly before or after 6:30am on different days in the last week of July '08]

busy busy busy

I've been so busy the past few weeks that I haven't even had the time to think about writing a blog chronicling the things that have been keeping me busy. But here I am... during a surprising [and very welcome] respite from the constant onslaught at work.

Last night I went to the Weird Al concert with Erlynne and Chris. It was great! During the costume changes they showed videos which were hilarious. :)

The last two concerts I went to before Weird Al were Ours, and Yaz. The 'Ours' show was amazing. Ours was great, but more surprisingly, BOTH of the opening bands were really good. I bought the CDs they had there at the show and fell in love with one of the bands. They're called God or Julie. I haven't gotten this hyped about a new band discovery since Mika. You can get God or Julie's album "This Road Before" on iTunes, and I highly recommend that you do!

The Yaz show was also great. They peformed pretty much their entire catalog. A few of the songs had been re-worked and hopefully they'll release some kind of live versions and/or DVD at some point.

Now the next concert I look forward to is Nine Inch Nails. First, my friend Tony and I will be taking a road trip down to Houston to see them on August 16th. Then my friend Brock will join Tony and I to see them again in Dallas on August 18th. I've been listening to the NIN cds again, getting stoked!

Some of the other things that have been keeping me busy lately are watching movies and going to plays. I finally saw Iron Man at the dollar theater the other day and really liked it. I'd be excited to see what a sequel will present. I also saw "Baby Mama" [with Tina Fey and Amy Pohler] at the dollar theater - if you haven't seen it yet I recommend it. I laughed a lot. A friend brought over some DVDs one night and I finally saw "Lars and the Real Girl." Another one I would highly recommend. It made me cry - like 2 or 3 times...

My friend Chris is currently in a theater class and had to see and review 3 different plays. Since he didn't want to go alone, and of his friends, I'm the only one up for such a thing, I went with him to all of them. We saw Footloose [the musical] a british play called "House" [we didn't see it's companion play "Garden" though] and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." During both "Footloose" and "A Funny Thing..." I felt like I might have seen each of those plays at some time before in my life... but wasn't really sure, as my memory can best be described as "very spotty" now.

Footloose was put on by the Plano Repertory Theater. It was hard to sit through. The singing was sometimes ok - sometimes not. The acting was bad, the direction was bad. You definitely weren't missing anything if you didn't see this production.

In the next play - House - the acting/direction was all good, but the play itself was billed as a comedy and I think I only slightly chuckled at maybe two or three lines the whole time. It was just generally uninteresting and often boring. It had companion piece called Garden, being performed simultaneously by the same cast in the adjacent theater. Each piece was billed as standing on its own, but there were a bunch of things in the play we saw that made absolutely no sense without seeing the other one. Perhaps seeing the other one would have made it better, but I don't think I could have sat through another boring play just to get the other pieces to the bewildering puzzle.

"A funny thing happened..." was put on at the Watertower Theater in Addison. It was at least entertaining, and sometimes actually humourous. The actors certainly brought energy to the show. Overall good.

Should I BE this excited about an IRON?

I haven't been the owner of decent iron at any point in my life before and the latest hand-me-down I got from Lady was very problematic, basically making any clothes I tried to iron with it worse off than where they started. I've got all these shirts I never wear because I don't have an iron and even I wouldn't wear something THAT wrinkly.

So I decided it's time to buy an iron for myself. I have done this one time before - back when I was living in the townhouse in Allen. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I basically got what I paid for. After about a year the heat setting knob broke and came off.

This time, I decided, is going to be different. I went online and did reasearch. I went to the Consumer Reports website and their "best buy pick" was a Black & Decker Digital Advantage D2030, which I searched for on a few shopping sites and realized that buy.com [where I have all my credit card points accumulating] had it for just over $50, and I had enough points that I cashed in and only paid out of pocket about $3.58. So I'm getting the sweetest iron out there, probably better than anyone else I know - and it cost me less than $4.00!!! And shipping was free! Unfortunately I can't get the instant satisfaction of having it right now... but nearly free is worth waiting for a few days of shipping.

I'm kind of surprised at how excited about this I am. I can't wait to let my new iron loose on all my jeans [the legs always get twisted around in the dryer] and I'll finally be able to wear all of my shirts without looking sloppy.

update

Haven't written any new blogs in a while... I actually just looked and was surprised to see that the last one here was over a month ago. It's not that nothing has been going on, just that I haven't taken the time to write it down. I'll summarize some of the highlights of the past month...

The summer concert-going season has started with a bang. I went to see a band called Rilo Kiley on June 15. Then a week later, on June 22 I went to see the "True Colors" tour - with Cyndi Lauper, The B-52's, Joan Jett, Andy Bell, and Wanda Sykes doing comedy. Both were very good shows. Lots of fun. Coming up later this summer I'm going to see the following:

July 12 - Ours [it's ok if you've never heard of them - most people haven't]
July 22 - Yaz [they got back together for a reunion tour]
August 6 - Weird Al
August 16 - Nine Inch Nails [in Houston]
August 18 - Nine Inch Nails [in Dallas]

So yea, I'll be losing some more hearing, as if I wasn't already deaf enough...

Work has been somewhat stressful. We're short one person, so the rest of us have to work harder to pick up the slack, and last Friday another of the ladies gave her 2 weeks notice. So it won't be getting any easier in the immediate future... :( At least on the plus side, I'm getting into the groove a little bit better and getting the hang of the job. I'm also planning to take the entire first week of September off and do my traveling for the year. I'm thinking I'll hit both San Diego and Phoenix the first part of my time off, then head to Boston to visit my brother for our collective birthdays. Gotta check with everybody to make sure that will be a good time to visit.

I also got a pretty sweet new digital camera [which is to credit for the new profile pic on here.] It's not as awesome as Clark and Guinevere's [I decided to go a lot cheaper] but it's still better than any camera I've ever had previously. Hopefully I'll actually be able to put it to use and get some sweet photos to put up here...

Faceplant!

dah dah dum dum dum, another one bites the dust!

At the end of my weekly bike ride I decided to take the short cut across the field back to my friends' house where we had started the ride from. The normally dry ditch had some water in it, but I didn't think twice about it - surely my bike tire would just roll right out... but nope - I went down in the ditch and the front tire stuck hard - at which point I proceeded to flip head over handlebars and land face-first in the dirt. Luckily I only ended up with a scrape on my chin and no broken teeth or bones. My jaw was a little sore the rest of the day, but that was it. I fully expected some latent aches today, too, but there were none. Not even mild whiplash. Lucky to have escaped pretty much unscathed from my first bike accident in approximately 20 years...

life is good

Ahhh. I just got back yesterday from a great vacation [which I had really been needing] and although it got started off on the wrong foot [explanation to come on that in a bit] the rest of the time was great.


Today, back at work, I got the official offer of employment, and thanks to some great acting by me in the interview [i.e. 'life is hard on what I'm making now,'] and my stellar performance on the job so far, the salary they're offering me is more than what I was making at my last permanent job [a job which had me constantly at my wit's end.] Here's a quick comparison of this new job vs the last [permanent] one: Making more money, working only 40 hours, a manageable workload, better co-workers and bosses, quarterly and yearly bonuses, a MUCH larger company [so there's room for growth or transfer if I decide I'm tired of what I'm doing.] Oh yea, and I'm in a better apartment that costs less. So yea, things kinda fell into place, creating a great relief for me.



Now for the vacation:

First, before we even left for the airport, our flight had been pushed back from it's original 5pm whatever start time to 6pm. But we still left my place at about 3:30pm. Before I left I checked online where it showed that the flight was delayed and the departure time would then be 7:30. When we get into the airport at the gate it shows the departure time listed as 8pm. So already, we're 2 hours behind what the airline said. Well, everyone hurries on board about 8pm because there are thunderstorms coming and we'd like to get out before they hit. No such luck. As they are loading the bags someone notices some kind of tear in some lining in the plane so they have to have a mechanic come look at it. Because he's doing that, they can't load any baggage. Time goes by... he finishes looking at it and decides it's OK to go, but by that time it's already raining and before they can start loading bags again there is lightning. They close the ramp [because for the people on the ground it's akin to being in a swimming pool during a lightning storm] and we have to sit and wait. More time goes by... When the lightning FINALLY clears out, they load the bags and we miraculously start moving. Well, don't get your hopes up too, high, however... because of the previously closed ramp status there are 20something other planes ahead of us in line to take off. At a few minutes each, that adds up to another hour... because of the wind pattern they route us around the airport to the far side so we can be ready to take off, but by the time it's getting close to our turn, the weather has moved through, the winds have changed and they make us taxi to the opposite end of the airport. And it's not like Dallas is a little tiny airport. It's like... 20 miles from one end to the other. I don't remember exact times, but I know that by the time we actually FINALLY took off it had been 4 hours since we had gotten on the plane. THEN we still had the 2 and 1/2 hour flight to go. When we finally got to Utah it was 2 or 3 am [I don't remember exactly because everything was kind of hazy about then] but it ended up being a good 12hour voyage from the time we left my house until the time we got to my aunt Carol's where we were staying. I'd say that qualifies as the height of ridiculousness. We could have DRIVEN half the distance in that time. The rest of the trip, however, was wonderful. There was always something fun going on and we got to spend lots of time together as siblings [something I had been missing... a lot.]

paying for my wreck

My insurance renewal bill came today - first time since my accident last October, and it's over $200 bucks more for the 6 month period than I was paying previously. I don't guess switching providers would save me much... would it?

I'm slowly but surely getting things at my new place in order. There's still a good deal of chaos right now as I unpack boxes. I have had a surprising Lady-like obsession with cleaning every surface of my new place, though. The other day I took a wet cloth to the screen door on the patio - the cloth was BLACK by the time I was done wiping the screen down.

I just realized

As I was getting in bed I just realized that only the youngest and oldest siblings in our family are NOT moving this summer. Oh, yea, and the moves are also occurring in age order... well, that's depending on how soon Lana and Porter's closing happens. First me, then Clark/Guinevere/Ben, then L&P/crew. C&G are winning the "distance" award - for a Utah to Boston trip. Now it'll be a tossup for second between my 17 miles and how far L&P are from their new house.

what a crazy week...

It's really hard to live in the place where you're packing up stuff to move... because you still need a good deal of the stuff to live your daily life. I also found out today that the free move won't actually be moving as much stuff as I thought. Well, they COULD move everything but it would not have been free if I had them do it all.

So I'm probably going to be making at least a few trips back and forth. Google maps says it's 17 miles from one door to the other. Sounds about right... that's going to add up to a few miles, but oh well, that's what cars are for. Speaking of cars, of course, I knew that as soon as I washed my car [which I had finally broken down and done last weekend on the advice of the weather that it would be sunny for the foreseeable future] it would rain... and it did... now my car looks just like it did before I got it washed last weekend. It was clean for about one or two and a half days. Grrrr...

And finally for this post, my new job is going ok. The work can be repetetive, but I keep my mind busy by playing word games in my head with the people's names and the places. Most of the people there are pretty cool, except for one girl... She's not in my department, but her cube is just across a walkway from my supervisor's cube, which is next to mine. This girl talks SO LOUD, ALL THE TIME. I bet she writes in all caps on the internet, just like she talks. lol So yea, she bugs.

Time to start a new chapter

Another big life change is in the works. After getting laid off of an incredibly ridiculous and overly demanding job back in January I worked a few temp jobs, the most recent of which has already recognized what a smart, competent person I am and would like me to go permanent. So yesterday I went and found an apartment not too far from where the job is, and I'll be moving there next weekend [since my lease here in uptown will be up shortly thereafter.] The new apartment will still be an efficiency, but it's got more square footage, and best of all - a full size fridge, a dishwasher, a microwave, and even an included washer/dryer - NONE of which I had here. You're extremely limited in your food choices when all you have is a dorm-room fridge and a stove/oven. Oh, yea, it will also cost me about $45 bucks a month LESS than my current place, too.

I'll be a lot closer to a lot of my friends [who live in Plano and Allen] too.

About the job: I can see myself getting tired of the daily tasks pretty quickly, but at least they're easy, and it's a no-overtime environment, which will be awesome, since I value my free time. When you hit your 40 hours in a week, you go home! I left at 3pm last Friday. Also, you can wear jeans any day you feel like it [which will probably be every day for me.] Now all I have to do is round up a bunch of boxes so I can pack everything for the movers who are going to be coming next Saturday... uhg...