karmaconniption

Of course on a Friday, when I am already motivated to do far less than I should, it's royally dark and stormy and cold out. I woke up this morning and realized that this was a day for boots and wool, so I am wearing my new wool skirt and a sweater and my heavy brown boots. This actually makes me happy, as it's the first time in 3 years that I have been able to comfortably wear such an outfit.

I am actually loving the cold. It makes my body feel right, as if everything's been re-set after three years in the sub-tropics. I like warm drinks, red wine, heavy coats, gloves and scarves. And I'm endlessly happy that poetry-chic is in this fall (plaids, tailored wools, classic private-school uniform gear) because I can finally pay attention to trends that change with the seasons. I've essentially been wearing the same summer clothes for 3 years (not THE SAME clothes, but THE SAME styles) and I couldn't tell you the last time I wore a pair of socks except for work and working out.

Anyway...so Jenn was off today as her daughter is sick (boo), but I did get a lot done and am looking forward to my date tonight. The aquarium does "fridays after five" for $8, and so we are going to get some Chinese food and go look at fish. Delicious.

Tomorrow I get a trim in the morning (yay!), then brunch with the Fed Hill gang, and then the Salisbury vs. Frostburg Regent's Cup down in Annapolis in the afternoon. I am endlessly happy to have this type of social schedule. It still feels new to me after years of: paper due, grading due, lesson plan due, Friday night shift, Saturday night shift, Sunday double, etc. etc. etc.

And it's COOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLD!! Yay!

And my boots are hella cute.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh

My FAVORITE time of year!!

So of course the day after the wedding, I woke up with a horrific head cold and sore throat.

OF COURSE.

I also got 2 parking tickets from USF (we were there for a grand total of 35 minutes), Gabe locked the keys in the trunk of the rental car and we incurred a $140 bill from the locksmith, the makeup for the wedding ended up costing me $75 (for some gray eyeshadow and foundation, mind you), and it rained pretty much the whole time we were there.

The Vinoy was as beautiful as ever. I was so pissed to be sick during all of that.

Work crazy. Head cold worsening.

But at least that godforsaken wedding is over.

I am be-yond exhausted.

My job is kicking my ass.

I was so brain-dead by yesterday afternoon that someone called to ask me a question and I literally said, "Ahhhh-uhhhh-ummmm...ahhhh..." Just total, incapacitating brain fart. No thoughts at all, just my brain muscles pushing through endless empty sludge. Uhhhh, ahhhhh, ummm.... She must have thought I was drunk.

Even worse- I think I stuttered on the "Uhhhhhh" part.

On October 3, my landlord reminded me that he needs to know by February 1 if we will be staying or moving. Our lease ends April 1.

I'm thinking this is an indication that he wants us out.

Ugh, I have to think about moving AGAIN? The mere thought exhausts me. After the last move, I hammered the posters up on the walls and said, "And there they will stay until we can afford a sprawling 4-bedroom row house with its own parking lot in Federal Hill."

Maybe not?

At this point, I'm actually weighing the pros and cons of taking on additional roomates. We could afford a bigger house if we had more people there, and I am damn sick and tired of sitting at home by myself every night because Gabe is at work.

Ugh.....but moving....and roommates....

...I'm swooning, and not in a good sense.

Banquet last night was awesome. Open bar, excellent (though slightly over-cooked) salmon, great appetizers. My dress turned out wonderful, and one girl from Romania even remarked that it "looks like something Audrey Hepburn would wear." I win.

Exhausted at work. Made a bajillion weekend plans by accident, now have to sift through and see what's actually feasible.

Ugh, moving.

"I'm partial to yarns involving booze and southern gentry. That, or zombies. Just some ideas.- Biscuit"

That is not a bad idea, my friend. Not at all! As long as it's something glamorous, like bathtub gin or bitchy comments with a sweet southern veneer. I love those.

So I forked over $27 of my hard-earned money today to the city of Baltimore for a parking ticket. It really makes me angry. I received the ticket for apparantly parking in a "No Stopping" zone, but I wanted to argue the case that only 3/5 of my car was actually in the "No Stopping" zone. Therefore, I should only have to pay $16.20 of the parking fine! I think that's only fair. So, in the last 2 weeks, I have paid a grand total of $67 to the city of Baltimore for parking-related issues including a new parking pass and $20 for a guest pass. I'm just saying, I really should charge my friends/family for using that pass. I mean, it cost me 20 bucks that I didn't have. And, I think it's ludicrous that you have to pay that $20 IN ADDITION to the $20 permit you ALREADY PURCHASED. And if THAT wasn't bad enough, all parking permits expire in December of each year. So my $20 pass is only good for 3 months, and then I have to fork over another $40 for a pass and guest permit. Ridiculous. Where is all this money going? I bet it's going to the meter maids' salary. Those bitches.

Had trouble sleeping last night. Big honking surprise. Maybe someday I'll see a doctor about this insomnia, but the fact is that I've dealt with it my entire life. I can't turn my brain off. It usually indicates that my mind is trying to work through something, and that I need to be more attentive during the day to exhausted myself.

Tonight is Gabe's black tie Marriott awards banquet. I get to leave work at 4:30 to hurriedly rush home, get all gussied up, and we have to be there by 6pm. Open bar, great food, fancy clothes I'm in! I finally decided to wear the cream satin cocktail dress. It's short, and so not as formal as the evening gowns some people will wear, but it looks great and I feel pretty in it. Now if only my skin would stop breaking out in hives, I'd be all set....

Anyhoo. Is it bad that I want to quit volunteering on Thursday nights because I want to watch "The Office?"

I did it. I signed up for NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org). National Novel Writing Month. No excuses, I've got to churn out 50,000 words in the month of November. It's about 1,600 words per day, which is ambitious but doable. No idea yet what I'll write about. I'd like to try and get an outline together, but I might end up just winging it, as it seems most people do.

I'm working really hard on enjoying the little things in life.

I thought it was helping.

And then.............

Again.





You got shopped.

If you click "Find > By Region" on the upper bar on your LJ homepage, you can search millions of live journals based on region. I (of course, being a Britophile) clicked on "UK" and also "Ireland" for kicks and spent some time this afternoon purusing other peoples' journals.

I would like to point out that Livejournal users must be singlehandedly supporting the Anime/Odakon industry, because I saw shit ton of icons with elfen ears and ginormous eyes. This bothers me. There's also a disconcerting amount of references to Red Dwarf and Dr. Who. Now don't misunderstand, I love my MST3K just like anyone else...but seriously. When I am purusing the livejournals of other people, I don't want to read about your new box set of Red Dwarf. I want to read the nitty gritty details of your life.

Anyway, so the journals that interested me the most were the most basic ones. The ones that talked about their "boring lives" and described their days, from waking up hung over to fighting with friends to arguing with bosses/professors. Somehow, these stories of infinitely normality set against a backdrop of a few cultural references dropped in here and there to remind me that it's someone from another country writing this are completely addictive. I absolutely loved reading about one girl living in Chicago and missing her bedroom back in a rural part of England. I liked reading about how a girl in Ireland went out and got tanked, and then woke up at 6am unable to get back to sleep. So simple! But I loved it!

Maybe I should study more anthropology and start indexing these things.

And in case there's someone out there like me searching journals:

My Diet Coke has gone warm, but I'm still sipping it, and I'm sick of the 85-degree weather in October. I want cold weather. Also, I just ate a giant cookie that I meant to save for Gabe, but since I didn't tell him I saved it for him I ate it anyway and he'll never know that a giant chocolate chip cookie could have been a part of his evening. Also, tonight I'm volunteering at the Visionary Art Museum's big exhibit opening and I secrely hope that they'll have free champagne.

Also the salad I ate for lunch has been in my office fridge for 2 days. It still looked/smelled okay, but in the last hour I have been second-guessing my decision to conserve food and eat leftover leftovers.

The End.