Long Way Down
Home tomorrow. I like the end of the shift, especially this one and the next one. Next shift is the last one for the year, and I'll have almost two weeks off to relax and enjoy the quiet, unrushed life of being home. I'm almost done my christmas shopping, and I really have nothing left to do but put up the lights and decorate the tree.
As with my last post, my mood has been uneven lately, like a pendulum. It's not bad, but I'm moody. Having the new living space is great, and almost all the change around me has been positive, but I'm afraid to get complacent. There's a nasty surprise lurking somewhere, I can feel it. Good fortune makes me edgy, I guess.
I discovered licorice yesterday. Not the candy, but the plant. I was killing time (skipping class) and went to the health food store and decided to pick up some organic licorice sticks. Turns out they're good for inflamation, sore throats, canker sores and any number of ailments. I'm planning on doing some research tonight about the magical effects of the herb and writing a piece for our other blog.
Tiger
Justin came in to town last night for a visit. He brought his ibook and we turned into nerds for an evening. Turns out my laptop came with the install disk for OS X 10.4 Tiger. Huh. It's beautiful. I've never been horny for an operating system before. It's... strange... but pleasant. I'm going to play with the Speech capabilities tonight. After Ninja Gaiden Black. And War of the Worlds.
Oh, and I bought a slow cooker.
The Return of Bo Chi
I went to a Partylight candle party last night. The first one I've actually attended. I went to one before, at Diane's mom's, but I pretty much filled a plate with snack food and b-lined for the basement. It's not that I'm too "macho" or masculine for that sort of thing, it's the people that attend that tend to grate on me. For example, last night I was more or less enjoying the serenity of the experience, when this woman with a poodle shows up. Now, I don't like poodles mostly on account of my theory that they aren't actually animals, but that the earth opens up and spits these things out every year. But I digress. The woman comes in with her poodle and the mood of the room changes. Suddenly people are uncomfortable and there's a general negativity that I can't really explain. Now dogs (because there were two already in the house) are barking, the woman who owns the poodle is swatting the other dogs, trying to haul her own into her arms and screeching "Turner, stop it!"
I'm coming out of another "flux state". Since I started blogging back in, was it March(???), I noticed patterns in my psyche. What I once descibed as the people living in my head, have been in states of almost constant rotation. It's wierd, but where before I would go for long periods of time in a certain frame of mind, now it changes frequently, sometimes within days. My increasing moodiness could be a settling out of awareness, or instability. Probably it's everything coming together. The balance I've been looking for, because balance for me will never be a flat line. Closer peaks, is more likely...
Now I'm just babbling. But fuck it. It's my blog.
The Meaning of Bo Chi
I'm enjoying the new place. It's such a relief to be able to do more or less as I please, be it cooking or having co-workers over for poker. Ok, I haven't had anyone over, and the only thing I've cooked so far is rice, but I have the option. Karnie's a great roommate, too. I lucked out here. I've been getting the feeling from Diane that she may be a little insecure about the issue. Perhaps it's just me. I'll have to sit down and talk to her about it.
In other news, I'm no longer sleeping on the floor. I picked up my fouton last night, and assembled it in under two hours. Not bad when you consider all I has to work with was a sheetmetal wrench, a stripped allen key and one page parts explosion detail that looked like it had been drawn by an 8 year old. It didn't take long for me to toss the useless instructions and build it by memory of what it looked like in the store. It works though. I slept on it last night, and it's actually quite comfortable.
Also, I'm feeling more magical again lately. Winter Solstice is in less than a month, and I'm thinking about doing something, if I'm not travelling. Perhaps, if I am, I'll incorporate travel into my plans....
Tuesday Morning
So many details, not a lot to say...
I spent the first night in the new place last night. It took me a little while to get settled, but I've more or less got it worked out. I'm sleeping on the floor until tomorrow night though. I bought a fouton yesterday, but it won't be in until tomorrow. It feels weird being 31 and saying that...
I saw Harry Potter on the weekend, talked to all the women in my family, and relearned an old card game. Other than that, I don't have much to say. Except I feel great.
Last Night
It's my last night in the basement. As I mentioned, as of tomorrow, I'm no longer living in the basement, but moving into a house. With a kitchen. I'm excited! I've spent my evening packing, for the most part. I had to run to wal*mart to buy a couple of totes to gather my miscellaneous crap that I've compiled since moving here. I didn't think it would be that bad, but I seem to have accumulated a lot. Not surprising, really. I like to have things on hand when I need them, and so would rather buy them than have to borrow.
Someone hit my car today. I'd say that I'm riled, but I'm not.
AND I got my tattoo finished today. I decided against colouring the wolves and went strictly black, like my ravens. A toast, to Geri and Freki, Odin's companions and hunters. May I be imbued with their strength and power.
Posts From the Desk
The story so far…
There've been some changes going on lately that I don’t think I’ve been very vocal about. I’ve been promoted, which isn’t new, but I’m also moving. I’ve worked my way into the old purchaser’s house as well as his job. I convinced him that while his house up here is for sale, it shouldn’t be vacant. I couldn’t convince him to pay me to live there though. So, my rent is going up, and I have to pay for cable/internet now, but I’m moving into a (almost) $500,000 house. The catch…. I’ll have a roommate. Karnie from the warehouse lives there now, and will continue to stay after the others are gone. We get along good though, and everything’s in my name, so I get the big bedroom with the attached bath. And a kitchen. Gods, I’m stoked. So, this weekend, between going home and driving back and forth, getting my tattoo finished and possibly playing poker on Friday, I’m also moving.
Des and Brandi (the people I’m renting from now) are upset that I’m leaving. They’re going to hold the place for me for a couple of months incase the place sells right away. That way I won’t be homeless, and they won’t have to miss me too much while I’m gone. I still don’t know how I got to be everyone’s favorite guy.
Sound Bytes
"Marie, I didn't do a project. But then I thought, since I'm not here for credits, it really didn't matter."
"Then why didn't you sign up to audit the class?"
"Audit? I'm pretty sure I did...."
-Trent to his AH101 instructor on Projects Are Due Day
"Sorry dude, I didn't know you were sleeping."
"Nope, no worries. What's going on?"
"Oh, uh, I just wanted to let you know we're doing poker this friday at *censored* so you should come."
"Um, ok. I'm not really sure what I have going on yet. I'll check with Di..."
"Remeber that thing I was joking about last week?"
"No. What thing?"
Silence.
"Fuck off. Tim, she's not pregnant."
"Well, she's a couple weeks late...."
-Trent's dumb ass friend on Waking Me Up To Tell Me the Woman He Left His Wife For is Having His Baby
Weather Report
-26 degrees celsius this morning. It warmed up though. It's only -20 right now.
Crap.
The last few days have been... uncomortable, for lack of a better word. It's mostly work stuff, that I don't want to go into, but I'll sum it up by saying, it's the "out-of-placeness" that I felt at the warehouse, only instead of being able to rely on the knowledge of my hard work, my assistant now does everything. Everything. I feel useless.
I watched Saw II for the second time in two weekends (that's alot of 2's). I was still wincing.
Music
I've been feeling really eccletic and musical lately. I've been feeling especially musically ecclectic. For example, I bought Nora Jones and discovered Godsmack within a week. That's really all I got.
Oh, and I was called an Apple nerd because I was drooling over the new iMac G5. :)
Conversations
I don't know why everyone around me is on the topic of marriage lately. No, that's not true. I do. For the last few days, everytime I turn around, someone is asking if I'm married.
(Trent standing in the bathroom)
Rick: Hey Trent. Are you married?
Trent: No. Common law.
Rick: Oh... how long have you been together?
Trent: Going on eight years.
Rick: Holy shit! My wife and I have only been... *Trent's eyes glaze over, as Rick voice starts to go fuzzy*
(Pause. Rick looks expectantly at Trent)
Trent: No kids.
Rick: DINKS then.
(Trent holds up a hand)
Trent: Look Rick, I don't think it's appropriate, talking about dinks in the men's can.
(Rick's eyes go blank, he looks puzzled as Trent finishes washing his hands and exits).
Then it happened again, about ten minutes later, only this time it was at my office door, and half the building was involved. "Marriage is an expression of love!"
"No it's not."
"Yes, it is. How else can you really show someone that you love them? It's about commitment."
"No, it's not. I express my love for her everyday when I tell her I love her, when I trust her, and I don't betray her trust. When I remain faithful to her. When I don't hide things from her, and confide in her. That's your commitment. Not the paperwork, or the ring, or the vows that no one understands or takes seriously."
"That's not right. Bryce, you're a married man, aren't you happy?"
"Yeah."
"Bryce, if you didn't have kids would you be married?"
"Fuck no."
Discoveries
Hmmmm. I was poking around on my iBook yesterday, after finally looking at the manual for it, and opened up Garage Band. Did you know you can actually make your own music? All alone? In the basement, like that other, less famous Trent??
Speedblog
So, another friend of mine has split from his wife. Here's a couple with two kids, both under 3 years old, who have been together since high school, got married almost as soon as the graduated and HOUNDED me everytime I went over to play cards: "When are you and Diane getting married?" We're not. "When are you two going to start having kids?" We're not. It's not that we don't love each other enough, or that we don't want to spend the rest of our days together (although we work so far apart), it's, for me, a greater sense of....
Anyways, he's left her, and after a week of being out of the house, he's hooked up with another chick.
Goddammit!! I'm out of time again!!!! More later.
This Just In
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of "Is It Fuckin' Thursday Yet?"
I'm getting to that point where I just want to go home. I don't care what there is to do up here, I want to go home. Today is day 16. Sixteen days of getting up at 5am, sitting in line-ups, working 11hr days.... Ah well, there really is no sense in complaining. Tomorrow I get to go home.
In other news, I got my midterm back, and let's just say, I probably coould have done better. Oh well. Reminds me of my days in high school.
