Assorted Crap

Is it time to write another blogger post??

Girl…you know it’s true.

No doubt, I ran hard this evening. Normally, during the flat sections after uphills, I’m forced to scale it back to regain my breath, but I powered through them today. It had to be one of my faster ones…I even had the energy to run home afterward instead of walking!

Maybe it’s because I had the pork enchiladas for lunch today…

First day of work and I’ve got to avoid the habit of paying $8 for lunch. That will destroy my wallet really quickly. Although that Grilled Salmon Salad yesterday was damned good. Fuck, between lunches and that $15 car wash I’ve just been giving my money away lately.

So…a ripe pineapple is mostly green! That’s why those yellow ones I’ve been buying lately have been all mushy inside.

Trying to find the fastest way to cover the 11-mile commute to Fremont. Today I took the street and was introduced to Mission Blvd – 7:30am style. I thought I drove fast…before this morning. The woman in the SUV behind me threw her hands up in disgust because my car and the car in the next lane created a 60mph wall on the street! I thought we were flying. The speed limit couldn’t have been more than 40. So, of course, I slowed down to spite her. I enjoy tormenting obnoxious drivers.

Someday I’m gonna get road-raged for that sort of thing.

We had a circuit speaker for my first day of work; preaching to us teachers about the importance of community and socialization of junior high students. He looked like a cross between Ned Flanders and J.K. Simmons who was in the Spider-Man movies and The Closer and The Cider House Rules and I absolutely did that without looking at IMDB holy shit I’m the king of Hollywood. He was telling us important things; how family support and peer and teacher relationships affect student success and how to demonstrate to kids positive behaviors. It was fantastic stuff, really. But…the dude was so full of shit. He had so many stories from all of these amazing people he’d supposedly met, you’d think they could make a movie out of him. He said he’d randomly gotten, not only the same flight but, the same seat as his brother on a cross-country flight that neither knew the other one was taking. He knew a milkman who littered so that kids could earn bottle money. His neighbor’s 12-year old built his computer setup…and became a departmental vice-president at Microsoft. His childhood friend was a bad influence…until he raised $500,000 for charity running an adult basketball tournament. He knew someone who was the perfect example for every single point he was making and after a while it just became too corny and too obvious. It reminded me of that book A Million Little Pieces that Oprah got embarrassed for promoting; everything was just too perfect. Maybe he didn’t expect for us to believe it all; perhaps we were supposed to realize they were made-up examples for the purpose of illumination, but I was rolling my eyes by the end when he described how his mother’s pulmonologist was a former high school student that the system had failed…until one brave teacher recognized his inner spirit and cultivated it for the world to see.

I love Safeway. From the apples to the yogurt to the mineral water. The flooring. The employees. Especially that one alarmingly cute, sparkly-eyed woman who wears a tie with her uniform. Ingredients for life, indeed.

People, don’t talk shit about the WNBA. The WNBA is fucking awesome. I was on the edge of my seat watching Game 3 of Detroit-New York. Kraayeveld has come a long way since a few years ago and McCarville didn’t play so hot but it’s clear how skilled she is. I can’t look at Cheryl Ford without seething about Karl Malone so no comment there. But the Shock — god, it’s upsetting when the favorites roll — they are damn resilient and damn tough and they’ve got straight veterans who just don’t quit. Deanna Nolan…what a jumpshot! Phoenix and Indiana (rooting for the Shock is like rooting for the goddamn Spurs) in the final so Nancy Lieberman can gush about Anna DeForge (no conflict-of-interest there!) and Taurasi can make SportsCenter provide the highlights ignorant people say don’t exist in women’s basketball.

Rock Band is gonna be fucking awesome.

Fuck, my tooth is killing me. Back to the dentist AGAIN.

So I haven’t found anyone via Match.com (although, admittedly, my interest waned after the first coupla weeks) but I have picked up my own slack and have actually socialized and called and emailed and asked a coupla (new favorite word!) ladies out! And it didn’t take me 10 minutes like when I asked Special K back in January. Holy shit! January!!! Haha! I’m laughing at myself for being so vague on this blog. I’m so immature. But I’m also endless in a victory of myself! Look at me and my new haircut and my clean car and my fancy job taking initiative! So, if you were wondering, I’m busy this weekend. The key question, though…will I be busy next weekend??

Clearly, I wasn’t busy tonight. Good night, everyone!

 

Taking Life By the Horns

It was years ago that a friend of mine told me in a letter that I ought to “take life by the horns.”  I spend so much time thinking about what exactly that means and of all the different ways I could carry out that idea.  Standing up for myself at work, being more aggressive on the basketball team, not relying on my friends to set up events for the weekend, buying that goddamned guitar, asking those Marr sisters about their situations.  Ooh, that one burns!  I did my shopping in a different Safeway just for change of pace and I recognized them…the Marr sisters…two people that hadn’t crossed my mind since who knows when, but there they were buying produce.  I went up to one of them and said I recognized her from my high school and she said she had recognized me, too.  She said she graduated in ’94 (which means I haven’t thought about them in 13 years.  Nice to know!) and instead of “so what do you two do nowadays?” I just ended the conversation.  Come on, WhatUpThen!  Grab life by the horns!  And they were so pretty, too.  Will I continue to shop for groceries five miles out of the way??  I don’t feel like a talker, but when it’s all said and done, what have I done??  It’s time to reset for the millionth time and become a doer…if you know what I mean.

I did, however, purchase my ticket for L.A.  It’ll be a good weekend down there.  I know this because every time I leave town I enjoy myself.  Even if it’s the typical mini-mall or apartment building or golf course found in every town, the simple novelty is satisfying.  I have this wanderlust and I need to feed it.  By wrestling it down by the horns.

 

Resealable Bubble

Headed to Safeway after work to grab a sandwich for dinner. Safeway Deli is great; they make made-to-order sandwiches with all of those good meats and cheeses and sprouts and avocado and whatever-the-hell-else you want on it…and still for less $$ than Subway. Maybe it doesn’t quite warrant such a high level of astonishment because it’s not like delicatessens outside of the corporate umbrella haven’t been serving up delicious sandwiches for hundreds of years, but it works for me.

There was a fire truck and an ambulance parked outside Safeway as I walked up. A young woman was collapsed in one of the aisles and…well, it didn’t look too pleasant. I stole a bunch of furtive glances as I zipped around the store, getting water and canned fruit to go along with the sandwich. Two things: it was scary to see the woman so motionless; had someone attacked her or did she have a seizure or was she drunk, maybe? Second, it was a bit surreal (wait, lemme look that up and make sure I’m using it correctly…okay, yeah, that’s close enough) to find everyone just going about their business. That’s the only thing one can do, though, right? I suppose the situation was being addressed, but it just seemed like a little reminder of our impersonal society, you know? Anyway, as I left the store, the homeless man selling Real Change told me she had had a seizure. So, after that moment of concern I’ve returned to my selfish enclosure.

Audio bird identification exam at 7am tomorrow. Better start studying.