Random Access

Another day in Paradise. No, that’s not entirely true. It was another half day in Paradise: Jess, Julia Rick and I abandoned ship at 4 pm; work just wasn’t agreeing with any of us and to be honest: I’m surprised – and a little proud – that we made it THAT long. We went to Sampan, a Chinese restaurant, for lunch/dinner; Delfina, a co-worker of ours, met us there. After dinner, Jess and I wandered through one of the local CompUSAirways. So many bright, shiny things. So many. *sigh* It was only through a superhuman force of will that I was able to walk out of there empty-handed. NOTE: That’s not entirely true, but it sounds better than “I just window-shopped.” After that, we worked out and came home. Jess remarked how odd it was that we had eaten, worked out and gotten home before the time that we would have normally left work. Funny thing about that: I was thinking the same thing when she said it.

Jess took Sissy, one of our cats, to the vet this morning to determine whether or not she has ear mites. She does. From what Jess told me, Sissy wasn’t very fond of the whole “Let’s stick this in your ear” thing. I got to experience that tonight when WE had to swab out her ears and put some medicated drops in them. Can you say “very unhappy kitty,” boys and girls? And, joy of joys, we get to do that twice a day for the next ten (10) days. Wa-friggin-hoo.

I had a stray toaster (random thought that just “pops up”), while watching DS9 tonight.

• Episode background: Sisko and Jake cross into the “Mirror Universe” and meet the Doppelganger of Sisko’s widow, Jennifer. Sisko has met her before, but this is Jake’s first time seeing her; he’s not quite sure how to react to someone who looks – and “feels,” to him – like his mother. She dies at the end of the episode.
• Stray toaster: What would it be like to lose someone twice? “Normal Universe” Jennifer died in a Borg attack. Nine years later, “MU” Jennifer is shot, in front of Jake, and dies in the infirmary, Sisko and Jake at her side. I’m sure that Freud would have had a field day with something like this. I know that the old adage says “It’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all,” but how well would “It’s better to have loved and lost (and found and lost again) than to have never loved at all” work?

I have had this thought a few times before (previous viewings of this episode and when I watched Cast Away a couple of months ago) but pretty much dismissed it. If anyone has a thought or two on this, I’d like to hear it/them.

And, to quote the bard of Avon: “To sleep, perchance to dream…”

Peace.

It was a pretty painless day… for a Monday.

Work. Gym. Home.

I forgot to mention this last night: Jess and I got interviewed by one of the local stations. It seems that people are rather leery of coming to Utah this winter – people have been canceling their winter reservations in Park City in record numbers. The reporter, whose name eludes me, asked us for our thoughts on tourism and how and why it’s facing a record slump. My screen time was pared down to about three (3) seconds. They kept about 10 seconds of Jess’ answer. I had co-workers come up to me and tell that they had seen me on the news. What’s the appropriate response to something like that? “Thanks?” “I know?” “Shablizzablazzim?” If anyone knows, please tell me so that I can use it in the future.

And now, sleepy-bye time.

Peace.

Park City Day (version 2.0)

It was a good day and weather was perfect for an outing. Today’s participants: Jess, Dee, Kim, Gary and Colleen, Angie, Scott, Heather, Dave, Sandi, Rhonda, Larry and me. We had brunch at Cisero’s, which was even better than the last time we were there! After that, we went into wander mode and strolled down Main Street to check out the galleries and stores. This went amazingly smoothly considering the number of people that we had.

When the Main Street wandering was done, we were going to head to the silver mine… but it was closed. Half of the group decided to return to their respective lives, so Jess, Heather, Colleen, Gary, Dave and I headed on to the Alpine Slide. And it was closed, too!!! BAH! So, we wandered around the shops in that area and talked a bit before breaking up and heading back to the SLC Valley. We headed to the inlaws’ to spend a little time with them and then came home.

Add to this: a) Talking to my uncle and b) both the Ravens and Miami won and it was an all-around very good day.

Peace.

Elton John sang “Saturday Night’s All right for Fighting,” but that’s not exactly my style, so I had dinner with Peggy (the coolest ex-gf in the world) and, after picking up Jess from work, went to breakfast with Angie, Scott and Larry at “Ghetto Denny’s.” Whodini sang “The Freaks Come Out at Night” and I am HIGHLY inclined to agree with them… especially after tonight’s breakfast excursion. All shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, and backgrounds. It could have had something to do with Halloween parties, and I hope that it did, but I don’t know. *shrug* I should have taken the camera to prove that what I saw were not just delusions of my wicked little mind. Oh, well… maybe next time.

The day otherwise:

• Went to the gym.
• Took Jess to work.
• Went to the Aerospace Museum to see my favorite airplane – an SR-71 Blackbird (This one is actually a hybrid trainer, but why nitpick?) – but the museum was closed! CLOSED!!! Nooooooooooo! :::ahem::: So, while I was in the area, I went to visit Dee, Kim and the boys. This was a good thing, so it made it worth the trip!
• Went to the aforementioned dinner with Peggy.

…and that just about brings it full circle.

Quotes of the Day:

• Dee: “Why are you telling me to ‘shhhhh,’ jackass?”
  Kim: “Because I love you.”

• Dee: “They aren’t farts, they’re ‘love fluffs!’ “
• Peggy: “She’s special in an ‘I need a helmet’ kind of way.”

On tap for tomorrow is the next Park City excursion. This one is just a little more carefully thought out than the last one. Rather than a last-minute “Hey, wanna go,” I actually contacted people in advance and let them know as many of the pertinent details as possible. It looks like there will be about 12-15 of us going.

Hmm, I should probably get some sleep.

Peace.

Written: 1:30 am Saturday…. Posted: Whenever the servers come online.

Birthdays just don’t get much better than this:

• Sleeping in.
• No work for either of us. Translation: I got to spend the day with the coolest girlfriend in the world.
• No gym – we’re making it up Saturday morning.
• Going to lunch with friends.
• Picking up the week’s comics.
• Eating a homemade dinner (potstickers, sweet & sour chicken, and rice) at Angie’s.
• Going to a movie, K-PAX.

Add to this calls & emails from the family unit and friends… and you get QUITE the day. And now it’s time for DS9. ::: bliss ::: How could I possibly ask for more?!

Peace.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
That’s all for now.

Peace.

Thursday:

• One good thing about today: It’s the end of my work week! Can you say “three-day weekend,” boys and girls? That’s it! I knew you could do it!
• Another good thing: It’s the day before my birthday!

Standard day: Gym. Work. Home.

I talked to Mom this morning. Early. Before-going-to-bed early. Well, technically, I chatted with her. Oh, what a marvel of modern science this “Internet” is. It was good to talk to her, even if it was only for a few minutes. And, looking at the clock, it probably won’t be TOO long before she calls with birthday wishes; maybe I should do more than just consider going to bed soon.

Fast-forward through the sleeping hours, gym time, and the hygiene rituals.

I got more of those highly-addictive frosted almonds on the way to work. Damn, they are tasty!!! After work, I talked to Theo again. Then I came home and practiced the fine art of being lazy… until I went to pick up Jess.

That about wraps it up. And since it’s after midnight, I can officially can say:

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Peace.

Standard day: Work. Gym. Home.

It was colder than brass monkey balls at work today!!!

• The A/C units broke down about two months ago. Yes, you read that correctly: two months ago. Yes, boys and girls, that would be in August.
• We live on a high desert plain… which means “it’s hot in August.”
• Factor in the fact that we work in a building with (at that time) 500+ people, we are pushing 700 now.

Take all of these things and you begin to understand what working conditions were like for the past eight or so weeks. Well, now that the weather has turned cool (Remember the snow on the mountains that I mentioned on 10-Oct-01?), the A/C gets fixed. And it gets turned on. And now it’s COLD inside as well as outside.

::: BRAINCRAMP :::
Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose. And did I mention that it was cold? It was. *sigh* Oh well. Angie met us at the gym, but we didn’t work out together. It was good to see her, though.

Dad called and said that Rana made it safely to the Ukraine; he said that she’ll be contacting me soon. I also got a call from my friend Don. He and Christine, his wife, were concerned about Jess and me (since we work for the USPS) with the anthrax incidents that have been popping up across the country. I reminded him that we are in a facility that does not handle actual mailpieces; he said that he had thought that to be the case, but wasn’t 100% sure of it. It’s good to have friends who care. We talked and caught up on the past few months. At this rate, I will have talked to all of my close friends back home by the end of the week. That’s not a bad thing, mind you.

DS9 just went off, so I guess I’ll surf for a bit… and try to make it to bed before 4 am. Of course, I’ve been trying to do that all week. Maybe tonight will be the night – there’s a first time for everything, I guess.

Peace.

I’m tapped, so we’ll keep this one short and to the point.

Usual routine: Work. Gym. Home.

Watched Smallville. As a comics fan, I have to admit that I like this adaptation of the Superman mythos. If Lois and Clark could be described as “Superman meets Moonlighting“, then this is something along the lines of “Superman by way of Dawson’s Creek meets The X-Files“. Sure, there are some in-jokes and a little tweaking of continuity, but it works. Pretty well, in fact; I think that it has earned the favorable reviews that it’s received in the press. But, I’m biased. *shrug*

And that, as they say, is that.

Peace.

“Monday, Monday. Can’t trust that day…”
…especially when it starts off very cool, drab and overcast but winds up being a not-so-bad-looking day. Otherwise, it was a good day.

Work was… work. And, with the absence of my partner-in-crime, it was oh-so-dull. But it was 8 of the 32 that I am working this week (taking Friday off for my birthday). They are now out of the way. 24 to go. I can handle that.

Had a good after-work workout. Seems as though I’m past the “workout one day, sore for three” phase… although there are still times when my legs still ache for a day or so after a workout.

Nothing major after we got home. Except the Sisko Show, of course. Tonight’s ep was part one of the series finale which makes me wonder what they are going to do starting Wednesday night. Maybe they’ll start over. Who knows. But, now it’s bedtime.

Peace.

Today GOOOD!!! ::: handgesture :::

• Slept in.
• Watched a little football – The Ravens and Panthers lost. The only bright spot was that the Dolphins had a bye this week.
• Took Jess to work.
• Went to Borders where I had a Cafè Mocha and some cheesecake while I perused a few magazines.
• Headed to the inlaws’ for a bit. Jenny – one of Jess’ sisters – and her son Connor were there.
• Came home and vegged to Enterprise and then… I…. CLEANED!!!
• Picked up Jess and we met Adrian for a late dinner/VERY early breakfast.
• Came home.

On the Highlights of the Day front, I talked to Bret (we grew up together) and Theo (verra good friend and ex-roommate). Bret is one of those “never going to change as long as you know him” types. The more that things change, the more he stays the same. We talked for about :40… and, aside from the fact that we haven’t seen each other in almost six months, it was like no time had passed. Theo and I talked for somewhere in the hour-and-a-half to two hour range; I haven’t seen him since last Christmas and it’s been at least two months since we’ve talked… so there was LOTS to catch up on. I’m blessed and lucky to have good them (and a few others, too) as my friends.

Anywho… gymtime comes early and it’s late.

Peace.

Saturday Evening Post… on Sunday, since the servers were down.

Saturday at a glance…

• Slept in. WAY IN. I made up for the complete lack of sleep that I had this week. Sleep GOOOD! :::handgesture:::
• Took Jess to work and went to the comic shop for this week’s take. I walked out with 2, yes that was “two” books. Light week. Maybe next week
  will be better. I picked up some lunch and…

• Went to South Jordan City Park. I’m not very “outdoorsy” by nature, but there are times when even I know that it’s good to be outside. Today was
  one of those days. I ate lunch on one of the picnic tables and then… I flew my kite. “I don’t want to grow up. I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid!” It might be
  more apropos to say that I half-flew my kite – the wind wasn’t as cooperative as it could have been. That’s okay. Kite flying is easily one of the most
  frustrating, irritating and just all-around fun things that you can do, even if the kite is aloft for only a few seconds. I haven’t made any attempts
  to fly it in the last few months, but even though the wind only came in short-lived gusts – it was worth it!

• I came home and spaced off the next few hours, picked up Jess and came back home.

Highlight of the Day: I talked to my sister, Rana, tonight/this morning. This isn’t too atypical. The reason that it’s memorable, though, is that Rana leaves at 9 am Sunday for the Ukraine. She joined the Peace Corps and is FINALLY going. I’ve mentioned the fact that her departure date had been pushed back a few times in previous posts. I would have loved getting a chance to see her again before she left, but living on opposite sides of the country doesn’t make that incredibly convenient. Jess and I did get to talk to her for a while… and that was good enough. After I hung up, I think that I had an inkling of what my mother felt when I moved out here:”[They] will be fine, but it’s sooo far away… and won’t be home for a long time.” I had another realization almost immediately after that: She’s a good person (even though she could be a royal pain in the ass when we were growing up) and I’m happy for her, not just because she’s my sister, but because she’s doing what she wants to do and what feels right for her. This is also something that I would have never tried to talk her out of doing although certain family members asking me to do so. The reason is pretty simple: It is what she wanted, and decided, to do; to talk her out of it would have been a disservice to her as her brother and her occasional drinking buddy. And, had I been successful or instrumental in talking her out of it, she would have spent the rest of her life wondering “What if…?” The fact that I am considered something of the wanderer in the family wouldn’t have helped much, either. But it was what I wanted. It was what I did. And, having done so, there was NO way in Heaven or Hell or on Earth that I was going to do anything that would keep her from this. I will miss her, but I am very proud of her, too.

That about wraps it up for now. Guess I should hit the rack.

Peace.

Friday. End of work week. Amazingly, the day went quickly.

• We attended a viewing for a close friend of Jess’ family; from what I understand, he was more like “extended family.” I never met David, but everyone that I have ever heard mention him had nothing but good things to say about him. There were a couple of things that I thought about there, but I’m tired and it would take too long to go into now; they’d be perfect for a mid-day digression tomorrow, however.
• Work. Veni, Scribi, Vadi “I came, I typed, I left.” Not much out-of-the-ordinary happened. In my brilliance, I left the batteries for my CD player at home. Yay, me! Jess brought some when she came in… along with Zours® candies!!! Just in case I haven’t mentioned this lately: I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. Bar none.
• Came home and vegged for a few hours and then went back to work to pick up Jess.
• We went bowling – actually I bowled and Jess hung out – with a couple that we know from a local IRC channel, their son and a friend of his. This was cool because, other than a chance meeting a few weeks ago, we haven’t seen them in a L-O-N-G time. My knee got that “you went bowling and didn’t wear a brace” feeling, but it’s not too bad. And it was fun.
• We came home and watched Thursday’s episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway?! We laughed A LOT. It’s nice to have something that we can watch and enjoy together. After that, and DS9, I decided to play a little EverCrack – tonight was just a sightseeing/get reacquainted time. Tomorrow, I hunt!

And now, it’s time for sleep. Since we had the viewing today, we are switching our gym day to tomorrow. And on that note…

Peace.

Gym… blah blah…Work… blah blah… Dinner at Redrock… blah blah… Heather’s graduation… blah blah… Coffee with Dave and Jenn… blah blah… Home.

It was good to see Heather, and Jenn, his gf. Yes, we saw Dave and Heather this past Saturday, but we haven’t seen Jenn in a month of Sundays, so that was an added bonus. We also met Heather’s family tonight. Something struck me at the graduation: Things here in the western part of the country have a FAR more casual tone than they do back east. I was amazed (yet again) at how casually most of the graduates (and their friends and families) were dressed and at the very relaxed nature of the graduation itself. I’m not saying that this is a “bad” thing; it’s just… “different.”

Have I mentioned that it’s too early for it to be turning as cool as it is? It is. Ok, maybe it isn’t. Maybe I’m just missing the warm Carolina autumns. And if I remember correctly, the Maryland ones aren’t that bad, either.

Enough rambling, it’s time to try and get a decent night’s sleep… unlike last night.

Peace.

You have to love a morning that starts out with: hitting the snooze button and then turning OFF the alarm, with all intents of just laying there for “just a minute,” only to be saved by the phone ringing. It broke the 10:00 rule, but since it was what FINALLY woke me up and got me moving, I can’t complain. We still had enough time to go to the gym before work. We did a short routine, but any workout is better than no workout.

Before work, we stopped at South Towne Mall to get some of the frosted almonds that I wrote about a few weeks ago. Can you say “tasty,” boys and girls? I knew you could! And “tasty” they are. I foresee many mall-bound almond-gathering trips in my future.

Work was.

I’ve also heard a few things this week that reinforce my belief that people should engage – or make the effort to engage – the filters that lie somewhere between the brain and the mouth. You know the ones: the “keep me from saying something completely asinine” and the “let me show you just how ignorant I am” filters. Apparently a few people missed the factory recalls for the defective ones. This isn’t to say that my filter is 100% effective, excluding the times when I simply refuse to employ it, but it is usually active.

“…and that’s all the news from Lake Wobegon: Where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.”

Peace.