Month: June 2007

this is the first time, really, since i’ve been back from vacation, that i have a moment to collect my thoughts. there is a lot going on.

while i was in maine, i had several adventures. one was titled “driving in fog so thick you can’t see 10 feet away, and you almost hit a moose twice in a three hour drive starting at 11pm after a full day of work”. the other is titled “getting stopped by a co dea/ins blockade on 95s because your rental car is full of pot residue, and the drug dog lunged as you waited to go past the checkpoint.” that second one was quickly followed by the sequel “nearly getting strip searched as the feds tear apart all my worldly belongings because i am a long-haired ny’ker in a maine rental car with a NYC street address and a yankees hat”. that whole two-part series would have been way more amusing if i actually smoked pot. i don’t. that made it a lot less amusing.

you can catch a few pics here.

while i was gone, my roommates informed me that they were moving to ca. now, this vexes me for a few reasons:

1. I had spoken with my roommates a few weeks prior, and they had assured me they were hanging around another year. my one roommate was supposed to be going to ca for training, and his wife was going to stay behind. the story changed to both of them going, because he got a job offer. i found out two nights ago, he didn’t get a job offer, but interviewed for two jobs. his wife says that _he_ say that means he will get one of them. then again, he was the one who said they would be around another year…
2. L and i are not transitioning into new space together. this had been on the table for some time, but the sudden appearance of a deadline has made the process sufficiently icky that i don’t relish the thought of the next month or so.
3. my living space is a shambles. i start packing this weekend. i’ve seen a half-dozen places, but nothing has been decided in terms of where i am moving to.
4. i just realized last night that i need to be in buffalo from july 29-aug 1. aside from the added financial pressure of a business trip _at the same time as a move_, the logistics nightmare of getting an august 1 apartment are making me nauseous. particularly since L needs me to help her move.

i learned and launched that whole wifi thing i babbled about on tuesday. that seems like a year ago. i’ve spent the rest of the week trying to recenter and get through my backlog. i clocked like a hundred thirty something hours in 10 days. two of those days were spent in 12 hour meeting followed by multiple hours of schmoozing with sales reps. this was mandatory schmoozing. that is usually only as fun as you make it.

a close friend of the family, phillys, passed away wednesday. it was actually a super-sad story. she has been suffering from cancer for some time, and was home on hospice. her husband, fred, has been taking care of her. apparently, she got really agitated (she was kinda spacy on pain meds) and kept insisting that she go home. when fred told her she was home, she started to cry, and asked why she was still in pain, if she was home. fred told her then that she should go visit her dad (who passed away a few years ago) if she wanted to shake the pain, and that he would be o.k. until he saw her later. she took a deep breath and died.

fred is having a hard time. my folks are out there for the service and stuff now, and are generally trying to keep him from flagging too far. phyllis was in her mid 60’s, fred is in his late 60’s. they both lived hard lives, and from looks alone, you’d guess they were both a decade older than they are (or were). until you saw the glimmer in their eye or heard the bells in the back of their laugh. age treats some people like newspaper, and others like mahogany. the world is definitely lessened by the departure of a hardwood masterpiece like phillys.

i’m beat-down, but not gone. i put a hold on an apartment in the building next door to where , and live. it is a nice-sized two bedroom, but it is my safety at the moment. it is in my price range, but just barely, and i feel like i could get more for what i would pay a month elsewhere. the main benefits of the space are that it will be available july 1, it is no fee, and it is a decent location that i already know.

work, despite being killer, has been rewarding. my boss has definitely recognized that i am a self-starter asset to the team etc. etc, and, as such, i am getting what i feel is the right mix of props and responsibility.

i’ve been re-connecting with some old friends. this always happens to me when i move – i get very introspective, and usually end up touching base with a few people who i haven’t heard from or seen in some time. this is good and bad. so far, mostly good.

i just realized i should probably put this behind a cut, but i am not going to re-read all this to figure out where the right place to do it is. instead, i am going to post a video clip that has been helping me through my week: