doomy doom

This past weekend to Chicago and Indianapolis went really well.  Here’s the Chicago part!

Friday I got into O’hare a little early, so I wandered around until I found the rental car shuttle.  That took me about ten minutes away to the rental car location.  Kinda odd, but okay.  Here’s the part where I wished I either had a GPS unit or someone that lived there telling me where to go.  It didn’t really occur to me that I was going to be in some strange state far, far away from everything familiar.  The VW Rabbit and I were in for some adventures.  We hopped off in search of the freeway, and hopefully in the direction of Chicago.

Now, the night before I realized that I had neither printed directions to my sister’s house, to my friend’s house, or really anywhere.  It occurred to me that I might want to.  So I wrote down rough directions to all of these places, and also to the Shedd Aquarium because I was told it was amazing and that I had to go there and possibly the Natural History Museum.  Armed with a paper full of chicken scratch, I set off in search of the Shedd.

I didn’t get far.  Not because I got lost though.  No, it was because there was stop and go traffic all the way from where I got on 1.5mi from the rental car place to exit 55 – the exit I gave up and took instead.  Kate and I were going to meet at a certain parking lot before the Sox game, and after going about 15mi over nearly 2 hours, I figured I might as well say goodbye to the Shedd and Natural History Museum.  There was no way I’d make it in and out of the city in the time I had left.  Instead, I parked in the agreed upon lot, then wandered across the street to the hot dog stand to eat the most delicious french fries and sip on some Sprite.  I hadn’t eaten much all day and was pretty dehydrated.  After that, I snuggled up with the Rabbit and took a nap.  I had an hour to kill, so why not, right?  It was marvelous.  Shortly after I woke Kate called and we played the find-me-in-a-huge-parking-lot game.  Her boyfriend figured it out for us, otherwise I’m sure I would have been wandering around the lot with the phone pressed to my ear saying, “Yeah, I see the red car. Wait, what kind of car?  Okay yeah, which little red car?  There are a million parked next to silver cars.  Okay, wait, which building?  With what on top? No seriously, I can’t understand you. Yeah I see a building. With what on top??” or something similar.

The game wasn’t that great.  Kate and the rest of the fans booed the first pitcher off the field.  I felt kinda bad for him, but he wasn’t pitching well at all, so I guess that’s what he gets.  The rest of the pitchers didn’t do much better in the long run.  The Rangers shut them out, 6-0.  Ouch.  I took a break from vegetarianism long enough to have a beer with my polish sausage hotdog covered with grilled onions and mustard.  Mmm.  I hadn’t had a polish dog in years. Good times.

I did avoid running straight up to Kate’s belly though.  It’s hard to miss, but I didn’t want to intrude on her by busting through her personal space and accosting her stomach.  I imagine pregnant girls tire of random people touching their bellies without asking.  Kate had mentioned that a couple times, so I tried to avoid doing that.  While we were at the game she started prodding at her tummy, so I asked what was going on in there.  The baby was shifting around and kicking out the front of her stomach.  She moved her hand so I could see and it was really trippy!  It was like in Aliens (Spaceballs) when that thing pops out of that guy’s stomach.  Except, y’know, the baby didn’t bust through Kate’s stomach.  But I could see feet or whatever making her skin rise and fall and that looked so amazing.  I put my hand over it and could feel the same thing.  Then I started poking at it.  She laughed because her boyfriend makes fun of her for doing the same thing.  I was hoping that when I poked, it would kick back or something.  I think Kate would have gotten annoyed with me if I’d kept that up, so after not getting a response after the first couple pokes, I gave up.  Babies inside of stomachs = weird but cool!

Right about now you can tell I don’t hang out with pregnant girls very often, nor have I had many pregnant friends/acquaintances.  It’s still fascinating.

The next day we met up with our mother and her friend, had lunch, then went to Kate’s baby shower.  It was a really nice party.  Her friend Mel had made all sorts of food goodies, put together games for it, and even had prizes!  What an awesome friend.  Kate got quite a few presents that will hopefully get her started with whatever she needs for the baby.  Seeing as how I haven’t been to  baby shower.. well.. ever.. I wasn’t entirely sure what to get her.  She wasn’t registered since she didn’t know what she was having til about 2 weeks prior, so I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t get her something that someone else already had gotten her.  Double gifts.  It’s the shame of all parties.  So, I drew and painted her a picture.

Because, as I mentioned, she didn’t know what sex the baby was going to be she would call it a Seamonkey.  I thought this was really cute.  Really cute.  So cute, in fact, that I did an illustration of a seamonkey.  Now, if you know anything about seamonkeys, you’ll know they look more like a paramecium than anything cute and cuddly.  And, if you happen to look them up online, the things that people call a “seamonkey” look more like a really tall Lorax or some other kind of critter out of Dr. Seuss, but creepy.  Deciding that I didn’t want to draw her something creepy, I opted for cute.

Kate and I had a good time hanging out after not seeing each other for a few years, so I say the trip to the Chicago area was a success.  It was good to see her and meet her new boyfriend.  And when things have settled after the baby is born, I’ll ask Kate when the best time is to come back and see my new niece.

Kate actually lives in a really beautiful area outside of Chicago.  Imagine green, grassy fields interspersed with forests and rivers.  Yeah, it’s gorgeous.  Now put cute little mid-western towns in there with awesome brick architecture and adorable little farm houses.  Yep.  I dug it.  Kate’s a lucky girl.

Side note: Why do they call the middle of our country the ‘Mid-West’? If it’s the middle, why don’t they just call it Mid-US? It’s actually closer to the East, I think, so I would consider it more the Mid-East.  *shrug* Just a thought.

I returned from my trip to Grand Cayman and was presented with a bit of work drama.  A bit of a misunderstanding and miscommunication left everyone a little edgy.  We got it worked out and all is well.  Well enough, anyway.  As well as it can be.

The trip was exciting.  I met some interesting [read: weird] people, I met some really great people, and generally enjoyed my stay.  I helped do a bit of work on the house there, which was a really nice break from sitting at a computer day after day.  I realized, however, that given the climate there, I’m not inclined to want to work with my hands nearly as much as I might otherwise be.  I like manual labor.  I don’t like manual labor when it’s 80+ degrees with 80ish% humidity.  No thanks.

The benefits of the humidity and weather were that my skin glowed with warmth, moisture and vitality, my hair felt amazingly soft and healthy, and I slept like a friggen rock.  As much as I’ve bemoaned humidity in the past, I think there might be something to it.  I’d even be inclined to moving somewhere that has, dare I say it, a bit more humidity than my current habitat.  o.O  whoa.  Yeah.  I said it.

Next up is Chicago.  I fly in, maybe hit a museum or two, hang out with Kate and her boyfriend, then go to her baby shower the following day.  That evening I drive over to Indy to meet up with a friend and party it up.  The next day we go to his graduation, then continue partying it up til I leave Monday night.  By party it up I mean go have a beer, call it a night, then go see Star Trek at IMAX on Monday.  Sweet!  We’re such geeks, but man.. the new ST movie looks sexy.  (Maybe it’s just Spock’s ears..)

Besides gallivanting around the world, I’ve also just moved again.  I wasn’t really diggin’ the place I was living, so I decided to move out.  Got everything packed up and moved over in a week.  Well, actually closer to three days.  I’m getting good at this moving thing.  I think it helps that I’ve been whittling down all the stuff I have.  Less crap to move = awesome.

I have a bunch of pictures of random places that I need to sort through and post up on Flickr.  A friend and I went hiking a couple weeks back and I took a few pictures as we went along.  Grand Cayman, obviously.  I’m going to a show tonight where I think I’ll take my camera and maybe shoot a few.  Odds and ends.  I might post up a couple from my niece’s wedding as well.  We’ll see though.

My roommate and I were talking last night about relationships.  He’s giving up on the internet dating thing for a while.  Or at least finding someone via the internet to date.  I told him I hadn’t even bothered with it for a while now.  I have enough people in my life that I don’t feel like spreading myself out anymore.  If anything, I’ve reeled myself in quite a bit in the past couple months.  My past couple nights have been spent curled up on the couch watching How I Met Your Mother with my roommate.  We’re a bunch of old ladies.  Both curled up on the couch with our blankies and cats watching sitcoms.  My hiking friend told me I need to hop to processing my pictures, so I suppose I’ll get to that this weekend.  That and finish putting my room in order.  It’s nearly there.

“Guess I’ve got that old travelin’ bone.”  I’m waiting for life to settle back down though.  It’s funny though.  No matter how many times I go through airports, security, customs, whatever, I still get that feeling that I’m a little kid wandering through an airport.  I feel like I’m 14 and want someone to tell me where I need to be going.  I ask a lot of questions when I feel like that at an airport.  Or I just wander around lost for a while.  They’re not places I feel like I’ve conquered yet, though.  You go through places enough times and you feel like you know what you’re doing, like you have a handle on it.  Airports, eh, not so much yet.  Well, the Miami airport isn’t bad, and riding the tram thingy there is pretty fun and easy to figure out.  I guess I just still get the feeling that everything is bigger than me and I don’t always shake it off as much as I could.  I’m probably one of the more low key fliers though, so I’m amicable to my fellow travelers when everyone around them is crazy and frazzled.  Even when I’m having slight mental breakdowns because of all the people around me, I try not to lose the ideas of common courtesy and smiling.  Smiles make the world go round.  Believe it.  That and listening.  I heard more life stories between here and the islands than I would have ever thought I’d hear in such a relatively short amount of time.  People like talking to me.  Maybe it’s all the smiling I do.  I dunno.  I’m still trying to figure out how to relate to people half the time.  A smile and a closed mouth gets you all sorts of places though.  Weird as that may sound.

Besides all that, I have two projects in mind that I will hopefully get done before the weekend is over, and another that I think I’m going to start the week after next if I can get my rear in gear.  Time limits are amazing motivators.

Okay, lunch time.  Adieu, fellow travelers of life!

Oh, P.S.  I did get an A in English.  I rock!

I don’t know that anyone else has this issue, but it seems that some people want to give you their opinion on your life decisions.  Ok, I’m lying.  I know that other people have this issue since I was just having this conversation with someone the other day.  We’ll call this person Eleanor.  (I’ve been developing a weird fondness with the name lately.  Could be because it was almost mine.  Digressing.)  Eleanor and I were discussing the reality of being told that our decisions are stupid.

Now, I dunno about you, but I get a bit bent when people tell me my decisions are stupid.  In essence, they’re telling me that I’m stupid, or at least that’s how I break it down.  Whether they are or aren’t, I don’t know if they’d considered this perception before the words came out of their mouth.  In fact, I’m pretty certain they didn’t even take note of the words before they let them loose.  That whole think before you speak thing was defenestrated (heh) without a second thought.  This lack of thinking seems to be a trend.

It seems to me that people like to impose their own opinions on your actions, whether you asked for them or not.  For example, if I were to quit my job and run off to work in a Renaissance Faire, I might incur the naysaying of pretty much everyone I know.  And I did.  But let me tell you one thing:  It was probably one of the best times in my life, and I don’t regret it one bit.  Not the poverty I endured, the tent-living style I adopted, or the well-paying job I forewent.  I learned more about myself, my friends, and my family by taking that course of action than I ever might have had I stayed at home and continued living as per suggested.

My point is this:  You are really the only one that knows what is best for you at any given moment.  You can make this decision and feel okay with it.  If you’ve really sat down, thought it out, and decided upon one course of action, own it.  Feel it.  Hold on to your strength.  You’re going to need it.  As long as you’re doing the best you can, who can tell you you’re wrong?   But don’t lie to yourself and say you’re doing the best when you and I both know you’re not.  Do your best.  Live with passion.  Live with strength.  Nobody can fault you for any of that, and if they do, you can nod and smile with the rest of us.  We know what’s within us.  (Even if it is madness.)

There was ice on my windshield this morning!  It’s California! North/southern California at that!  (The north end of southern Cali.)  It’s been getting rather chilly here lately to the tune of 45F yesterday.  This morning was obviously a bit chillier.  Oof.  But, as I’m out of the garage, I don’t have to worry about the dropping temperatures so much!  Yay for a roof and insulation!   You never really realize exactly what you’re thankful for until you’re without them.

I retook my motorcycle test and passed it!    Yay, excitement.  And this morning I got my letter in the mail that has my ‘She passed her test’ certificate and such that I can take to the DMV and WHABAM, get my M1.  *squee*  My friends have been scouring the interwebs for bikes for me and being a bit overzealous about it, but it’s appreciated.  Bikes are cheaper in the winter.  It’s true.    (Mostly just because I said it is.)

School and finals are over, thank god.  I hadn’t realized just how much it affected me to be in school and how much free time I didn’t have.  I made some, but after work yesterday I was able to run errands, watch a movie, and generally just be quite low key and relax a bit.  Awesomesauce.  I watched Southland Tales, a sci-fi/dark comedy/drama.  I must say, it’s the type of movie you’ll want to watch a couple times.  Or at least I want to watch it a couple times to get a real idea of what exactly was going on.  To me, it’s a cross between Donnie Darko and the Big Lebowski.  Both great flicks.  Both kinda strange in their own right.  Who knows, I may sit and watch it all over again tonight after I get home from work!    Because I can.

I don’t remember if I had mentioned Christmas plans, but if I didn’t, that works.  There were plans, but then I could probably safely assume there aren’t anymore, so yeah.  That’s my bad.  Now, I’ll be driving down to visit with a friend in LA, then picking up my special someone from the airport, and driving back to his place to make something tasty to eat and watch old Christmas specials.  Sounds relaxing and festive, both of which I support.     I support low-key festivities.

And… *drumroll* my sister is pregnant!  Wheee… how exciting!  I’m glad to hear that people are being supportive instead of berating her for it.  Yes, I had that worry.  I was excited to hear about it a while back, and am glad for her.  She does need all the support she can get right now, mostly emotional support, because of the crazy, prego mood swings she’s dealing with.  I can only imagine what those must be like.  When I was taking injections for birth control, I got a bit nutty [read:disturbed] mentally because of the hormones.  They make your body think you’re constantly pregnant, etc. etc. and I went slightly north of crazy.   If I ever get pregnant, jeebus help my poor partner.  That person better have lots of love for me and nerves of steel.  Of course, I think given a better situation than the one I was in at the time I was on those meds, things wouldn’t be nearly as bad.  Still, nerves of steel and patience of a saint.  So, Kate’s boyfriend: You need patience of a saint and nerves of steel.  And give lots of hugs, because we need those as well.

And on that note, have a good Holiday, people.  Cuddle up and keep warm!

In light of some controversy with kids sending out Christmas lists to their relatives, which, correct me if I’m wrong, kids have been doing for years… I’d like to post my own Christmas list for your viewing pleasure, or lack thereof. And if you really feel generous enough and would like to indulge my inane Christmas wishes, I’ll gladly give you my address and open your present with profound glee.

To start, it’s been on my list for years, and I still haven’t been able to indulge myself, but I would like a Konica Minolta Dimage A2 (or whatever the upgrade from the A2 has progressed to, unless it’s the A200, in which case, don’t bother. I don’t like that model’s attributes nearly as much as the A2.) And, I’m partial to the Dimage series, so I will accept substitutes, but there’s definitely a sentimental thing with the Dimages – keep that in mind.

Next, and it was somewhat promised to me a year ago, but whatever. I’d like some really fancy MacBook.. like a MacBook Pro. If you’re going to indulge this insanity, I’ll give you some specs of the previous Book that I wanted that might have been upgraded in specs since then. (I don’t have the time these days to figure out specs for things I’ll never see, so if you’re that interested, the specs listed will give you an idea of what I was going for, and you can take it from there.)

17” MacBook Pro
• 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
• 2GB 667 DDR2 – 2x1GB SO-DIMMs
• 120GB Serial ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
• MacBook Pro 17-inch Widescreen Display (Yes, really. I like the big screen. I don’t care how unwieldly it is.)
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS – U.S. English
• iWork ’06 preinstalled
• AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro/PowerBook (w/or w/o Display) – Auto-enroll
• AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth
• 17-inch TFT Display
Subtotal $3,527.00

Software:

Adobe Web Bundle: Currently – US $1,899
Creative Suite Premium & Studio 8: (Update to CS3)Adobe Photoshop® CS2
Adobe Illustrator® CS2
Adobe InDesign® CS2
Adobe GoLive® CS2
Adobe Acrobat® 7.0 Professional
Version Cue® CS2
Adobe Bridge
Adobe Stock Photos
Dreamweaver® 8
Flash Professional 8
Fireworks® 8
Contribute™ 3
FlashPaper™ 2Q: Does Adobe offer education or government pricing for the new product bundles? (This was something I looked up way back when. At this point, it’s just fyi type stuff.)
A: For qualified education customers, education versions of the Adobe Bundles are available, and pricing is as follows:
• Education pricing for the Adobe Web Bundle is US$599 in North America. Additionally, this bundle is available through education licensing.

What’s next.. oh yes, a Helio Ocean. “Why a Helio?” you might ask. Well, I was sitting at Denny’s last night with some friends and one of them whipped his out and after inquiring about the specs, the availability of networks and service, I decided that the Helio is a heck of a lot better than what I’m paying for Cingular to bend me over, so it’s definitely one of the high points of my Wish List. A glorious highpoint, if you ask me. If it doesn’t come in my stocking, I’ll be half-inclined to go down to LA to buy it, or perhaps just order it online. I was told that if you get it in person, you end up with more goodies tho – free bluetooth headset, cables, SD card, etc. Note to self, and all you Christmas shoppers.

I’m sure there was more that I want, but I really can’t think of it. Perhaps a new car. Preferrably a Toyota. Maybe a Matrix. Something small with lots of gpm. Not a Corolla tho, I really don’t like the seats. Perhaps if you’re going to go all out, you could toss over a Subaru WR-X. That’d be spiffy.

Now, I understand that these things are a bit out of anyone’s price range, mostly mine. But, I just wanted to prove a point – at Christmas, we all make wishes for things that would be nice to have, but that we don’t necessarily expect to get. It’s a wish. It’s not a demand, it’s not begging, it’s just a wish. If someone wanted to send me a $10 giftcard to subway I’d be stoked because that’s food and that’s something that doesn’t always find it’s way into my house.. But that’s besides the point. Now, in all seriousness, if someone Did in fact want to get me something on this list, please feel absolutely free to do that. I would be forever grateful. But that’s not why we buy gifts, is it? We buy them so that someone can have something that they’d kinda like to have and that you were thoughtful enough to get, whether they asked for it or not.

So, in short, if you get a Christmas list from some kid telling you what he wants for Christmas, indulge your inner child and think of where he’s coming from. Kids aren’t usually greedy bastards (and forgive my language there.) They’re kids. They’re innocent in the grand scheme of corporate marketing and societal holiday guilt trips. They’d just like to have a new toy, just like you and I. Sometimes their toys are easy, like a Tickle Me Elmo… other times, they’d like something a bit more sophisticated, like an XBox 360 (god knows I wouldn’t mind one of those as well.) Some kids just have more expensive taste than others. This kid certainly does, but she’s also realistic, which is why she hasn’t bought these things for herself, nor does she really expect anyone else to ever shell out the money for them.

I hope you all see past the corporate marketing and guilt trips of the season and enjoy the cool weather and the changing of the season. If it’s anything like the area I’m at, it’s beautiful and worth sharing with people that you care about. Or, if you’re working ridiculous amounts of time like me, you’ll be lucky to get Christmas day off so that you can sleep in and perhaps wander around the house in yer pj’s.

Peace be with you. Enjoy your winter.

Walker’s Pass ’04