Quo Vado?

Tonight I said ‘see you later’ to a group of people that have been a part of my life for nearly six years. Our church divides up into regions at various times to accommodate the size of the group, make it easier to create community and stuff like that. When I moved across the top end sixteen or so months ago, I didn’t switch my meeting region. Tonight, however, I spent my last midweek with a great crew of people. It was anticlimactic, after a fashion, with the evening being full of sadness and nervousness about the future. I don’t do change or multitudes of new people well, switching areas definitely has me a wee bit scared. My brain isn’t working so I’ll stop boring you all.

I’m going to try and catch-up and write more this weekend.

Yesterday, while driving home from work I passed a phalanx of bicyclists. Luckily for my purity they were heading in the opposite direction, I think passing the whole group would have thrown me for a real loop. As they pedaled past, I briefly recalled my former love of the wind in my hair. I never really enjoyed riding a bike, but going fast enough to blow your hair and feel the wind brightened many summer days. Then one day I fell off, earning a doozy of a concussion. The subsequent rides with made wearing a helmet weren’t any fun because the hair and the wind didn’t meet.

These days, I achieve the feeling of the wind in my hair without working so hard. It takes two fingers to roll down the windows, and open the roof. Curving and sliding my way home, I still like thinking about the line, contemplating passing options and watching out for distracted people. My ride home, after the eleven speed-bumps anyway, has a great variety of driving. I have to navigate curved two-laned roads, work my way into a crazy traffic light, cross the river and accelerate up and around the bends while following three lanes of traffic. The speed is good, and with a flavor of nearly everything it does a great job of keeping me happy.

You scored as Loner. Loner 81% Drama nerd 56% Goth 56% Geek 44% Punk/Rebel 38% Ghetto gangsta 31% Prep/Jock/Cheerleader 25% Stoner 0% What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

As found on ambivalent imbroglio. I knew I was going to have to give up my geek card. Darn.

I found the day to be littered with odd little miracles. I woke up this morning without the benefit of the alarm clock. I’d forgotten to reset the alarm yesterday, and yet I still made it to work on time. The day was mostly productive, I found yesterday’s error before it left the building, and I wrangled another twenty-four hours out of a client on a project I wasn’t ready to send out. Bossman noticed my hair-loss, though only after he saw it from the back and thought I’d slipped out to get it done today. And, finally, despite the concert in the park tonight traffic wasn’t too evil - I even got to run a stop sign (legally).

Summer has three main things not going for it.

1. Bugs: I don’t like bugs. I understand the need for their existence in the big picture of things; but they really squig me out. Please understand, all of you bugs out there - stay out there. Any creatures possessing in excess of four main appendages (I.E. arms and legs) entering my house should be warned I will do everything in my power, short of killing myself, to kill you. You’ve been warned.
   
   
2. Air Conditioning: I like it warm. I love warm breezes. I love absorbing the heat around me. I love Popsicles. Stop trying to freeze me. I hate air conditioning because the air it blows is always way too cold and too hard. Move the air by opening the windows and blowing out some of them, don’t force the air on me, and don’t make have to keep my winter wardrobe out year around because it’s too cold inside.
   
   
3. Chastain Park’s Summer Concert Series: The eleven speed bumps on my way home are bad enough; but, concert days in the park double the time of the trip and make me question whether or not there is a sane driver left in the city.

In case you’re wondering, yes, we do consider it our fate to wander the Earth like Caine from “Kung Fu,” doling out insipid questions so we’ll have something to blog about. This week’s wisdom, channelled via meditation from Master Po:

1. What’s your favorite season? Fall - the wind is brisk, I have call to wear my field coat, we go back to standard time, and I always find myself renewed in some odd way.

2. Do you have a green thumb? If I tried, possibly, but given my attention span, not really.

3. What is your favorite sport to watch? What is your favorite sport to play? Do you have a sports hero? I love watching good basketball - you know the kind played by a team. I’m not a player of sports as they often involve small quickly moving objects which require a combination of depth perception and coordination. I lack both.

4. Which would you rather be: Mayor, Governor, Senator, or President? Can I just be Big Bird?

5. What are ten must-own items for single men and single women? Well, in all honesty the men’s list was easier, but here goes:

For The Women

1. A tire iron and jumper cables - two things I know, but every car should have them.
2. $20 or $40 for a cab ride home, depending on the city.
3. The phone number of a great friend who will listen to you complain and smack you upside the head as necessary.
4. A life organizer that works for you, whether it’s a formal day-planner or a black book. Having a handle on how your life works helps keeping you sane.
5. Ice cream, or your favorite comfort food. You know you’re going to need it some day.
6. Four decent place settings - they don’t have to match, but you do need enough to have people over or not wash dishes every day.
7. A little dress or skirt shirt combination that make you feel hot. The shoes are important too.
8. Thank You cards - appreciation is good.
9. A favorite person to cut your hair - you wear it every day, love it the way it is.
10. A collection of little mental things that make you smile, they’ll brighten up your day when you least expect it.

For The Men

1. A tire iron and jumper cables - it is still two things I know, but every car should have them.
2. A plan, it may fall through, but please start with a path in mind
3. The phone number of a great friend who will listen to you complain and smack you upside the head as necessary.
4. A life organizer that works for you, whether it’s a formal day-planner or a black book. Having a handle on how your life works helps keeping you sane.
5. A suit that works for you. I love navy suits, but if they wear you rather than you wearing it, pick a different color.
6. Four decent place settings - they don’t have to match, but you do need enough to have people over or not wash dishes every day.
7. A stash of ice cream - I might need it some day.
8. Hand soap in the bathroom. May sound simple, but so often I miss it as look to wash my hands.
9. A clean car - it doesn’t have to be new or fancy but I don’t want to step around your stuff on the floorboard or get the back of my coat stained.
10. A cookbook and the willingness to try. We love the effort, it may not always turned out as planed, but it took time and shows courage.

Following the leads of kristine, chickenmagazine, and Amber I have done my part for research.

You know, even though it’s not tomorrow yet, I can still go to bed.

I think I just might do that.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I returned rejuvenated from my trip to Boston, but lately I the call to sit and do nothing screams the loudest at me. My dreams last night were odd, and of an unusual nature. I don’t actually remember them, but I do remember thinking they were weird while having them. Making it through the day is a contest against the oppressiveness of the ether around me. The walls aren’t closing in, but the air is nearly unbreathable.

I found myself unable to get out of bed at the normal time this morning. With nothing pressing me loudly at work, the whole getting there thing didn’t work. I ended up sleeping an extra hour, catching up on mail, getting my keyboard replaced and seeing Dr. France before getting into work after lunch. The delay didn’t help, as I had to explain to one of our clients through tears that I understood his point, I saw the validity of his point but I didn’t understand what he wanted me to do about it. Yeah, that there was one fun conversation. The day ended with LeWho taking me to task for a letter Bossman wrote. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that if I’d written the letter it would be half as long and be missing the antecedents. For some reason when writing for work I leave many of the understood words in my head off of the page.

Oh, and it turns out that yesterday’s plans were really for today and the date wasn’t passed on in a timely fashion. So, I’m nearly off.

To help Scheherazade out, here’s a link to the Portland Yacht Club Race Committee. Google, come and get me.

Crazy though today felt, it did get something accomplished. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to put on my time-sheet because I didn’t keep track of my time in a manner that will make filling out the form easy. If I’m not currently being coherent, I apologize. My brain is on it’s last legs and the fallen plans of the evening are likely something of a blessing. I don’t know that I was up to a room full of new people. I think I’m going to get some sleep.

Is the text in the format too small? Should I make it slightly larger?

The weekend has concluded and while I didn’t do much of anything yesterday, it doesn’t feel like it should be anywhere near being over. Cleaning most of my room took all of Saturday evening. The Red Circle Boutique sucked a smaller chunk of my money than usual before I got home on Saturday, but I felt weird spending so much money on cleaning supplies given the state of my bathroom. When I arrived home, I began to re-straighten the mess I’d been ignoring for the last three weeks. My two weeks of laundry was finally put away, along with the two new loads I did that evening. Then began the process of pitching and sorting. I’ve once again gotten to the point of having more stuff than I know what to do with. I dropped off a small load at Goodwill including a coffee and end table last weekend but the stuff in my closet keeps trying to break free from it’s bounds. I purged a number of things, but I still seam to have too many clothes. I packed up six of my eleven black tee-shirts, a number of other shirts, jeans that don’t fit and skirts that I wasn’t all that fond of to begin with. Glancing at the line of clothes, I realize that I can no longer say that I don’t have ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ collections. The materials and forms don’t change much, but the length of sleeve does, regardless of the fact I hate most long sleeved shirts because I look like a doofus wearing them. If all goes well, and I’m productive when I get home tonight, the package for Mom will be gathered and sealed, I’ll finish cleaning up the west side of my room, and sort through the sink area, pitching and sorting as I go.

Oh, Tom please don’t. The rest of the world knows the action lacked class, so don’t make it a bigger deal than it already is. You managed to keep most of your cool in the moment, leave it alone.