Labor Day Weekend

I'm pretty sure that the longer breaks are, the faster they seem to pass. But I did figure something out that's good about a quick 3-day weekend: it makes the following week quick, too! It's Tuesday, yey!
If I actually go back and think about what we did, it's rather lame. But I did get some things done that I'm pretty proud of, so here goes:
Friday - something stupid like sitting around and watching tv shows, but it was good because Adam was home all day and so was there when I got back (early!). We made tacos!! YUM
Saturday - Woke up late, and watched The Office basically all afternoon. That was pretty disgustingly lazy, but I rarely ever do it, so whatever. Dinner: homemade pizza. Delish.
Sunday - Went to Home Depot and got a bunch of stuff to set up the track lighting in our living room, because there are no lamps at all in there. It was essentially a fiasco. I am officially more of a handyman than Jared is, by far. Jared ended up drilling 5 (yes, 5) holes into the wall, taking about an hour due to lots of "oops!" and "ahh damn!" and "crap! shit!", instead of the 2 holes that were needed. He also drilled them so that they were WAY too big for the screws, and we had to go out and get some spackle to fix them back up. I drilled the others on the other wall, taking no more than 5 minutes. I also affixed the tracking to the wall and slid electric box into the sides. We finally got the other massacred bit up and plugged them in. It looked terrific, other than we had 9 50-watt bulbs burning at full blast all at the same time. Next move: buy a dimmer.
Dinner: italian hot sausage, egg noodles and beer.
Monday: More light adjustments, including the dimmer. Now our living room has a big plush red couch, a glass coffee table and sexy dimmed lights. Love it! And also, Adam managed to not electrocute himself when he dug into the wall and the circuit breaker to wire the damn thing. How can they not make that easier to do? You basically need an electrician. Good thing we sort of have one... I also had lunch with a girlfriend! (*gasp* how often does that happen? um, like, never) I met Yael freshman year in gen chem lab. Oh yeah, fun times. I didn't stay too up to date with her because she's environmental science, so we didn't have any classes besides that. But one day at the end of first semester senior year we saw each other walking across COM lawn and ended up standing there talking about after grad plans for almost an hour. She's living uptown in the city now, and it was really nice to have someone to talk to other than the boys I live with. She's planning on keeping this a regular thing, which I'm glad for, and she even lives right next to Jared's girlfriend and her roommate, our other friend, so maybe we can even get her into that circle. Exciting! Dinner: gnocchi fried with butter, garlic, capers and sun dried tomatoes

On This Day

I have an iGoogle homepage with one of those "On this day in history..." windows

It has all the normal stuff, like today is:
Michael Jackson's birthday (1958)
the last public concert performed by the Beatles (1966)
Ingrid Bergman's birthday (1915)
the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr's birthday (1809)
the day that a star in Cygnus went nova? (1975)

But the ones that I truly, truly love are:
Saruman enters the Shire
Skynet becomes self-aware (1997)

Anxiety dreams... again!!

School is approaching way, way too fast. I didn't even get any proper summertime in here, people. I had two weeks between graduation and starting work, and that mostly consisted of unpacking, then repacking, and seeing extended family and then whoosh, off we go! It was definitely good to get some money saved up, though, not gonna lie. Because... my bills right now are outrageous.
One payment for school: $1355.80
One payment for rent: $700ish
1/3 of the pressurized wall: $333.00
1/2 of the couch: $325
a bit of the tv stand: anywhere between $25 and $75-100
not to mention textbook: $80

ahh! Kind of ridiculous. Definitely do not wait to get a job or whatever it is that is going to bring in money... because you will absolutely need it later to even think about supporting yourself for even a little bit. Guh.

Couches, couches everywhere and not a spot to sit.

We STILL do not have a couch -- or anywhere to sit, for that matter. The only chairs in our apartment are Adam's and Jared's computer chairs. I sit on this little ottoman thingie to eat dinner. It's pretty primitive.
After a looong time (read: since before the move) of looking through craigslist and macy's and all these different places for couches, we've finally found one that we've decided to buy. Well, I found it. And called the girl. And arranged the meeting. Whatever.
It's a big red L-shaped couch made of "micro-fiber faux suede" or however she called it. I thought it was going to be gross bc I hate that soft furry feeling, but it was actually pretty nice. The red isn't glaringly bad either. Pretty comfy, blah blah blah. Only funny thing was (well, funny? Eh. More like "umm...") when we walked into her place, this dude was sitting on the couch. With no shirt. Big and sweaty and hairy. That's not really a good sales pitch.
"Annnnnndddddd heeeeere's your new couch!" *presents with gross hairy man rubbing his body all over it* "It's really easy to clean!"
Oh yeah? And how often do you need to clean it? Every five minutes?

I think we're going to have it professionally cleaned once we get it into our place. Makes sense. No one wants to lay down on the couch and get that guy's chest hair stuck in their mouth.

Ew.

Anyway, once the couch comes (this Saturday), there will be 100% more incentive to buy the tv, which we're also excited about. Adam is the designated tv-getter (Jared and I being the designated couch-getters/splitters, even though I did the getting and splitting and Jared only did the splitting... grrr) and he is going to go all out. 52" LCD flatscreen anti action-blur glossy craziness.

Football season is going to rock it.

Hypocrisy, but in a good way

There was that time I was angry that I basically got yelled at (okok not yelled, but none-too-gently chastised) about "doing work" aka being polite and helping other people at work. Now, it's come full circle and I'm reveling in it.

Here are the characters:
Christine played by Herself
M. played by M.
C. played by C.

(.... ok I realize that was completely not helpful, but... who cares.)

Character Descriptions:
Christine: struggling yet tear-jerkingly sweet and independent lab tech
M.: horror staff manager
C.: Christine's boss

Setup: After C. telling Christine to NEVER do ANY work for ANYONE OTHER THAN HIM ("this will not be tolerated!!" i quote.), some packages arrive this morning down at the receptionist's desk. Christine knows that she isn't expecting anything and goes to check it out. The attention line says: "ATTN: M." but M. has written "C." on it. Christine look sat the packing slip on the outside and doesn't recognize any of the contents, herself doing all of the ordering for the lab and knowing exactly what is expected to come. She leaves them down there, because only in a crazed world of anarchy does one lab tech take and open packages destined for another lab. She gets called about it, and says as such. The poor receptionist calls all the other labs, and no one claims it. At lunch, M. arrives in the lunchroom and begins her reign of terror.
M.: "Oh, Christine, your packages are at the desk, take them upstairs."
Christine: "Yeah, about that... they're not ours. I did not order them."
sidenote: this is where the tone of voice deteriorates into one of utter condescension and bullying
M.: "They're yours. I don't care, take them up."
Christine: "They don't have my name, C.'s name, or even our room number or lab name on it. I'm not taking them up until I talk to C. about it."
M.: "You're taking them up to the lab. Do it now."
Christine: "No, I'm not. I'm going to call C."

M. stalks off to inflict pain and agony on another coworker.

Christine calls C. and he sounds real disappointed, because apparently he gave a list of items to M. to look over and specifically said NOT TO ORDER THEM. M. orders them anyway, with who knows whose money. M. does not tell anyone and expects Christine to just read her mind.

However, the important part of this is the point at which Christine stood up to M. Christine is officially NOT staff, and M. is officially in charge of ONLY staff.

Who loves it? Christine.

More oddities

A yellow schoolbus full of adult male Hasidic Jews.

Oddities

I keep seeing weird things around on the street, in the subway, etc.

A few weeks ago, I saw officially the ugliest woman I've ever seen, without counting those with actual facial defects. This woman had the epitome of the witch-nose stereotype. I saw her profile, and the tip of it actually curved down BELOW her top lip. Yes. I didn't even know that was possible.

There was a man with a longbow on the subway on Sunday. It was unstrung and wrapped up in cloth, but there's no mistaking a 6-ft long stick with tapered, slightly curving ends. He thought he was being all sneaky. I know what that is, mister...

A little girl was waiting with her mother(?) on the subway platform yesterday. She had tanned skin, not black or white, but just kind of a dark-ish caucasian color. Her hair was all nappy, definitely with African American texture, and done up in the typical little black girl fashion with sections of it tied up into little buns. But - it was blonde. She was blonde! And it definitely wasn't dyed, because her eyebrows and eyelashes were blonde, too. A naturally blonde black girl! What! Just! Happened!

Another very good, very neglected series

Redwall Series by Brian Jacques

Chronological Order:
Lord Brocktree
Martin the Warrior*
Mossflower*
The Legend of Luke
Outcast of Redwall
Mariel of Redwall*
The Bellmaker
Salamandastron*
Redwall*
Mattimeo
The Pearls of Lutra*
The Long Patrol*
Marlfox
The Taggerung
Triss
Loamhedge
Rakkety Tam
High Rhulain
Eulalia

*Have them/have read them.

Life update

Apartment kicks some serious booty. Had a wonderful time last night - made DINNER in the KITCHEN while jared was making HIS OWN! at the SAME TIME!

Annie's mac and cheese - using soy milk and no butter, mixing the cheddar and alfredo+broccoli cheeses

Salad - green lettuce, italian dressing "con limone" (boy was it sour!), and kalamata olives for me

Water and OJ

Apparently my water boiler is already a hit and will be used mightily. It'll make up for it sitting by itself all summer. Only problem: in the market around the corner, there is no Tetley, only English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast and some other imposter black teas. What is this shenanigans. Where is my Tetley.

I'll have to search elsewhere for it, lest I perish of my teeth getting too white.

Also, no curtains up yet and Adam doesn't know if he wants them at all. The room looks good with just blinds - well, whaddya know. I like it because there is light in the morning, which allows you to wake up at the right time and not feel like a zombie.

We're going to see about a couch tonight - brown leather, 3-cushioned, 2-recliners for $775 because it's "new" and a steal for those stats. Ikea, the cheaper-ish furniture store, has leather couches with ONE recliner (not two) for $1,299. We'll see about that.

Spotty internet, I think we're stealing it from the wireless on the roofdeck. Go us.

No cable yet - the man from RCN is coming on Wednesday between 5-8 and there needs to be an adult over 18 to authorize him to flip a switch in the cable box down the hall. Why don't we just do this ourselves? It's unlocked. Adam checked.

Same thing with legitimate internet, it's going to come through the same box. 2-3x faster than DSL for $18/month, etc.

Figuring out the bus was fun. I now officially take the M15 to East Harlem (limited or local) up First Avenue, through East Chinatown, and stop a few blocks past the hospital at 34th street. It's about a 35 minute bus ride, which is relatively long but it beats getting all sweaty walking to work. I can read or listen to music. Plus no one is on it at the Seaport stop, so I get my choice of seats. I'm going to gallivant out to Second Avenue after work and find the M15 to South Ferry so I can get back home. I re-checked this with a co-worker who takes it. It would be no good to take the subway (way too hot) or cab (???$$$) or walk (o.O).

Did I mention how much this entire experience is reminding me of Germany? It's absolutely ridiculous. Everywhere I turn, there's a major glitch in the Matrix and I'm left blinking at the deja vu. The way the apartment is set up, white walls, wood floor, view of the city, the blinds on the windows... taking the city bus (which I've only ever ever done in Germany going with Maike to school), and all other manner of things.

Tea. Now. I'm off.

big swing in opinion, then back again

1) Cat lady didn't talk about her cats today.
2) The Pope called about the miracle.
3) Had a "performance review" with the boss. He said he was overall satisfied, but that I hadn't "done things still that he had asked me before." Now I know that "maybe" and "if you want to" really mean "do it now." As much as it's my fault for not being proactive about those things, I think it's a teeeeeny bit his fault for not being clearer. Whatever. Also, he said that "I have told you specifically multiple times to not do any work for anyone else, why do you keep doing so?" wtf?? Work? That, to me, does not include bringing up a piece of paper for someone who sits right next to me when the receptionist asks me politely since I'm going upstairs anyway. THAT IS NOT WORK. I see his point, but I was so confused and kind of pissed off, since I really see that as being polite and not wasting my paid time. I've noticed a couple of times when he has been rather unpolite and aggressive when people innocently ask about certain things. It's unnerving. That day, obviously I was a little upset and kind of disenchanted - which was then followed by an atrocious day where we lost 3 test cells (the 4th is considered lost today, so a ton of paperwork and planning and money goes out the window). And I say "we" meaning I lost one at first, and then he lost 2, thank the lord - so apparently it wasn't my fault, they were just frozen wrong. Today was better, I was super busy and did some things well, so I think I'm getting back into the swing of things.
4) My dad recently said I should get a hobby. I've realized since then that instead of not having a hobby, which I previously thought, I definitely do. BOOKS. READING. GGNNNAAHRHRH. I just found out that there's a Border's 6 blocks away from me.... probably not a good discovery. I think I'm going to shift my money-spending habits from clothes I don't need to books I don't need. Yay!
4a) Just bought 4 Tamora Pierce books. I don't know why I'm still writing.... laters, y'all.