Organization, yay!

Let's get this out of the way first: I don't know much longer I can watch Battlestar Galactica - arguably one of the best shows on television - if they insist on the FAT SUIT. I cannot even look at him in that thing. I seriously think they must have to do 20 takes for every one of his scenes because everyone keeps bursting out into giggles. Ugh!

Since I went out almost every single night this past week, I stayed in last night and even went to bed at a reasonable hour (fun!). I got up early totally recharged, and came to an important conclusion. Usually the real cause of my stress is disorganization, because when I'm disorganized, I cannot function. So, time to organize! If I were still in school, this is the day I would take my credit card to Office Max or Staples and stock up on index cards and highlighters and those great gel pens. Those of you with office supply fetishes know exactly what I'm talking about.

Alas, I no longer have any use for index cards (and still have a huge box full of unused ones from the bar exam...I should sell those on craigslist, those people will buy anything). So I will go to the next weapon in my organizational arsenal: lists. I've got about 10,000 things to do in the next couple of months, and not having them all properly organized for me to deal with is downright paralyzing.

This afternoon, however, I'm off to the races. That's right, I'm putting on some adorable heels and headed down to Nowheresville, West Virginny to bet on some horses. Okay, it's unlikely I'll be doing any gambling, but Sylvie's office organized some trip, so Steph and I joining them because, why not? Who goes to the track? We're leaving at 3, so that gives me time to get a number of things done, like, hopefully, buy a plane ticket home, pay some bills, and make some notes for a project I'm working on. Tomorrow I'm going to get busy on my India itinerary and making some hotel reservations, then I'll search for my vaccination records and reply to the 100 emails I've inadvertently ignored this past week (Jason, I'm lookin' at you!). I know, you guys totally care, but it's my blog and I'll houseclean if I want to.

Do I need a white flag or something?

Enough is enough already. The past two weeks have been crazy, one of those times when 10,000 things come barreling down on me at once (and all my friends, too, it seems). Some of them are good things, some crappy, but all of them involve the kind of stress that wreaks havoc on my sleeping and eating habits (all my pants seem to be getting a little baggy, hmm).

To top it all off, I was IMing with my mother earlier this week and out of nowhere she says, "your grandpa was just diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's and your aunt has cancer."

If you kind of did a double take and had a good loud "what!" there, you more-or-less had my reaction. Just to get this out of the way...over IM? For real? My mom and I have been having this argument since I left for college. She assumes I'm too busy and shouldn't be bothered with these kinds of "family affairs," like, I don't know, I'm stuck in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and my absence to answer the telephone will ignite nuclear war. Please. A few years ago she didn't tell me that my grandpa was having heart surgery until he was in the recovering room. Let me tell you, that did not go over well.

As for the news itself, to be fair, it's not quite as serious as it sounds. My aunt actually had an unrelated surgery a few months ago when they discovered the cancer in it's very early stages, so it looks like she's going to be just fine. They kept the news a secret for awhile because my cousin (her daughter) just had a baby.

And as for my grandpa, I'm afraid we've seen this coming for awhile. Over the past few years it seems to have slowly crept up, and we noticed how quickly he'd forget conversations we just had, or how he mixes up family member's names, etc. Though it's awful in any respect, it's also fair to say that my grandfather is not a spring chicken, and we're all lucky that he reached 86 before this really started to set in. And the doctor's also say that he still has awhile before it reaches its late stages, so that's good, too. Or at least, better than it could be.

I called him yesterday and actually got to speak to him for awhile, which was nice. He was a crew chief for Raytheon for most of his career and has pretty much lost his hearing from being around airplane engines for so long, which means we have a tough time trying to talk over the phone. I usually just speak to my grandma and she relays my hellos. Yesterday though, my grandma was out and he answered, and seemed to hear me just fine (though I do bellow into the receiver when I talk to him). Lest I make you think my grandpa is a very ailing man, he's actually one of the most fit people in America, at 86 or any age. Up until about a month ago, he rode 4-6 miles a day on his bike, and still walks a few miles everyday. Whenever I call I get detailed updates on the construction at the college track, heh.

Anyway, I had been procrastinating buying my plane ticket home for the winter, but I made a note to do that first thing this weekend.

Figures

For the love of Pete, these logistics are getting complicated. I signed my lease to start Nov 10, but my roommate insisted that I pay two full months, even though I gave him 30 days notice (and even though I've been subsidizing his live-in boyfriend for over a year). So whatever, I'll pay the second month. Looks like I've found a sublet for my new place for Nov, but that means I have to move my stuff in early. To complicate things, my new roommate has to move to DC a month earlier than either of us can get into the house. So she's going to crash on the couch of one of my friends, then sublet from my landlords, then, eventually, sublet from me. It also means I have to move in my furniture in two weeks, but sleep in my current house until almost December. Oy. It will work out, and I think I've got it figured out (I won't be sleeping on the floor), but basically, the month of October couldn't get more stressful if I asked Enron to balance my account for the next month.

I asked my friend David to meet me after work because, I think, "I need a fucking beer." Right. Actually, the night turned into an Al Bundy "I was a phenomenal high school [sport] player back in the day, and here's why:" It was kind of fun. He was a great soccer player, and I was a great softball/basketball player, and they're all stories we can't talk about anymore because we can only sit in front of the Tivo and shove our hands down our pants proclaiming we were "Once Great At Football." So, I told him my greatest softball dives that gave me scars for months, and he told me how he broke some dude's leg. Good times.

Also, I get about 20 google hits a day for "solly's." It's a good bar. Ask for the chips, they're worth every penny (ours were free, they're trying out their kitchen). I realize that somehow I've accomplished coming up third on google for Solly's, but look, it's at U and 11th, cheap beer, good environ. I'm hoping once we can get over with my friend Joy, who knows the owner, we can drink for free, but as it is, we were there for HOURS and drank for $15, so I'm not really complaining.

And on another note, doesn't it seem like these days you can't even idly surf the nets without reading that somebody wants you dead? Oh honestly. I think the romance novelists, my massive herd of trolls, and the people who just want me dead should get together and start a blog. WeHateHeather.org! A 501(c)(3) organization. Now that's an RSS feed I would subscribe to. Oh, the passion! The misplaced energy! (I know, I'm totally picking on you this week, Sandy. You're my blog guest of the month, but blog guests get linkage.)

Alright, I have a season finale of Project Runway to go watch.

Winning Friends Over the Internets

This has been quite the week for meet-ups. I finally got to meet my long-time lurker/recent friend Archana, who is perfectly lovely in person, though unfortunately we didn't get too long to hang out. I missed the Raging Rager they threw on Friday (I was actually a few blocks away at one of my own, preparing for my early Saturday morning required ethics class, naturally). Where, apparently, I also missed Arch flashing people. Naughty!

So I met them Saturday night instead, and let me tell you, you haven't really Arrived as a Blogger until you enter a room and people greet you with your blog name. I walked into the back of the cafe where Arch and Chai (!) and their big group were all sitting and I get a chorus of "It's the Two-Timer!" Ha, that's something I didn't think of when I named TTtC. Apparently there were some other folk there who lurk around these parts, but with all the people, and trying to catch up with Chai, I didn't get to chat with everyone, so if you're reading, say hello!

So then I'm sitting at work on Monday and I get an IM from blogger friend Jake, who tells me he was in DC this weekend and thought about dropping me a line, but figured I'd be busy, and he was quite busy himself, at a conference and visiting friends. But still! I'm mortally offended! Where's all that "naive optimism," eh? Missed opportunities, sigh. I totally would have given you all my bar exam flashcards, too. Now I'll just have to feed them to the dog.

Then today I met my new roommate in person. We didn't meet over the blog, though, but when she answered my craigslist ad. She's from PA, so she drove down to see the neighborhood and meet me. It looks like we'll get along splendidly, and we had a good time walking around the 'hood. Except I think I accidentally dissed one of my neighbors. He lives in a group house a block away, but we've never been formally introduced, though we were talking in the same group of people at a party last week. I really didn't even see him, and my new roommate whispered as he passed, "That guy was totally smiling at you!" which I just couldn't help but think was hysterical. She'll be a good wingman. But anyway, as he passed I realized who he was, so oops. I did that to a law school acquantance the other day, too, I didn't even realize who she was as she was smiling at me, then realized I knew her after I'd given her the stoneface I've adopted for city-walking. If you got hollered at ten times a day, you'd adopt one, too. In fact, my new roommate and I got some seriously gross come-ons walking down U, and I was like, "Now you've been initiated! We'll buy you some mace later."

Paging Sandy Schwab:

You're being plagiarized. Heh.

I've said it before.

There's one thing that drives me crazy when it rains in DC. No, it's not the drivers, although DC drivers rival Californians in their total inability to maneuver a vehicle when it sprinkles. Luckily, I gave up trying not to get crushed by SUVs while navigating the streets of DC years ago.

No, I'm talking about ginormous umbrella holders. They're called "golf umbrellas" for a reason people — they're only supposed to be used in wide open spaces, not the tiny sidewalks of an urban landscape. Consider the fact that, if you use one of these, you're a douchebag who's willfully violating other people's space with your giant tent, while the rest of us perform acrobatics trying not to get our eyes poked out because you're afraid of getting a few drops on you that a regular sized umbrella may have missed. Which is even funnier, because 80% of the people who use these things are men, not realizing that it makes them look like giant pussies. Do we have to subscribe to a 'bigger-is-better' mentality for everything? Or wait, is it because most of these men don't have cars, so they can't buy penis-mobiles, so they must advertise their virility through the enormous-ness of their water-shield?

Eh, this is Washington; all of the above is true.

NO DEAL

So I got home around 8:45 tonight and was looking foward to watching some perfectly respectable television. I switch on NBC and wait for Heroes to start. Unfortunatly, I was about to witness a horror that few moments of home entertainment can provide: Deal or No Deal.

First, there's a lovely looking women standing on the stage looking a bit giggly. Three aging former high-school football fullbacks in pastel polos are standing behind her, one of them yelling, "Yeah baby! You doin' great baby!" She's calling out random numbers while bimbo blondes eagerly clap and jiggle at every spoken word. Howie's looking faux-serious and his soul patch is starting to creep me right the fuck out. Man, what is going on here?

Then things start to get weird. The lovely looking women screams in glee when she gets $400 but cringes when she gets $400,000. They all shrug at $10,000. Seriously, what is going on here? Then the phone rings! You know, the phone on the desk right there! Howie answers! The Shadowy Man In The Booth on the other end has a secret conversation that ends in an offer of $29,000 to the lovely lady! She says no! Everyone screams!

Then things get REALLY WEIRD. Howie non-sequitors, "How's South Africa these days?" Well, not that great apparently, because half of South Africa is sitting in the audience. She screams! We're all on Oprah! Ten men barrel down to the stage! Everyone's crying! EVEN THE BIMBO BLONDES ARE CRYING! It's mayhem! No one cares about the money, because MOM'S HERE TOO! THE MEN IN PASTEL POLOS ARE CRYING! I'M CRYING! No, I'm crying at the soul patch! NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE MONEY LITERING THE STAGE! IT'S THE GOD DAMN GREATEST DAY EVER BECAUSE WORLD PEACE HAS BEEN ACHIEVED! OR SOMETHING! WHERE AM I?!

Continued next time, on Deal or No Deal.

Fresh Starts

Ah, what a great morning! I'm really excited to start planning things for my new place. And this morning it really all started to come together, because it looks like I've found a roommate! She answered my craigslist ad, which I made kind of specific, since I've got a lot of time to find someone. From her email it sounded like we'd mesh pretty well, and she responded to my response saying she agreed we'd get along and wanted to accept my offer. Whew!

Also, she needs a bed, so I'm going to sell her mine so I can upgrade to a queen size, finally! Now I'll be able to sleep without having to fit diagonally. And forget trying to sleep with someone else; I want to wail in pain at all the back cramps I got trying to do that. So, bed shopping! I also need a couch, so I'll have to drop a bit of dough, but I have the time to go looking for good deals.

My current roommate and I are back to good. We kind of talked out the situation earlier this week and we're both civil people and hate holding grudges, so we'll be fine I think. He's looking for places and I'm sure he'll find something without too much trouble. He wants to stay in the neighborhood, too, so hopefully we can still see each other pretty regularly.

Oh, and my new roommate, who I informed that I'd be subletting my room in Dec-Jan while I was in India, apparently spent a ton of time in India, so I'm excited to get some tips from her. I'm hoping that this trip will kind of serve as a fresh start, too. Partly kind of a meditation, soul-searching, or whatever cheesy description there is when you take a long trip by yourself. And partly as a kickstart to my whithering career. I've been looking for jobs, and one of the senior attorneys I work for asked me if he could help me out, which is great and unexpected. I hope that I can find a new position when I get back in January, but I'm not quite holding my breath. The networking I'm finally doing at my current position will help, because obviously my resume isn't standing out to any employers. But we'll see. I could probably stand to temp a little while longer just to save up a chunk of cash to make up for this moving situation.

But I'm very excited. I'm one of those people that needs change somewhat often, and for a little while I was contemplating leaving DC to force some change, but that's not really want I want right now. The move, the trip, and the reinvigorated job search will do me just fine for now.