here

I've noticed a bunch of things about people out here. Here are two of them: People who live here, at least the ones I meet, aren't from here. I think I only know one person who grew up within a couple hours of here. Its interesting and I like it. The other thing is that people around here have traveled all over. China, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Russia, etc. I've pretty much only been to London and Munich. Its almost time to go somewhere.

not much

It's been a while... Still not much to say but I can say that I still don't know what I want. I might be a bit closer to figuring a small piece of it out though. Progress is progress, right?

Rain! (again)

Its raining again - I guess that means we've made it to fall. Last year I remember being fascinated with the rain after not seeing it for so long. We were about a month later last year, at least according to a post from last November. Today I took advantage of it and went running in it. It was pretty pleasant actually and I just didn't feel like stopping. A bit over 9 miles later (that's far for me!), soaked, and thirsty I found myself by my building and gave up and went inside. I think I could have kept going but there's only so many circles you can run in before you get bored. With a little better route planning, next time hopefully I can do more :) It should be good training for the half dome hike that's planned for the weekend!

dog!

On the way home tonight I remembered again that I am afraid of dogs. I was biking along past a school and I heard some jingling. I thought it was my keys. No! It was a dog! It was dark so I couldn't really see him but I definitely heard the barking. He was gaining on me pretty quickly until he hit a fence or a bush, I couldn't really tell. My heart skipped a couple beats, I veered into the middle of the road, and my legs shook the rest of the way home. How they turn from cute little puppies into things that want to eat me.

j & k

You know you've been reading too much email, via gmail of course, when you get to a random web page with sections and you use j or k to try to get from one to the other. I don't even use vi so I can't even try to blame it on that.

mistake

Why is it so hard to learn from mistakes sometimes? The little mistakes seem easier to learn from a lot of the time. Oddly enough, the big ones tend to be easier to ignore and then, as a result, repeat. That just seems kind of backwards.

comfort

I've found that the more comfortable I am around people, the more willing I am to voice an opinion about what I want to do. Actually, it's probably that I'm more willing to say things I don't want to do. So with people I know extremely well, of which there are only a handful, I go into things much more close-minded. This silly behavior makes me miss out on things. I'm not so sure how to fix it though because if I end up hanging out with the people that introduced me to these things I would have otherwise dismissed, they eventually become the people that I am closest to. Then I stop being as open-minded. I guess I can just find new people, but its cyclic. There must be some kind of balance. I'm just not sure how to find it.

vacation

I took 3 vacation days in a row and decided to go away for a few days - pretty good considering in the past year I'd taken a total of 3 and I'm hesitant to count one of those since I probably worked for a good 8-10 hrs that day. I spent the beginning of the weekend at home then took off for Michigan on Sunday. Here's a few things I learned on/from this vacation.
1. I need to trust my gut more. It tends to be right, especially when it comes to stuff about me. Listening to other people just gets my hopes up and really, that's no fun.
2. Effects of alcohol are greatly intensified by extra exercise and not eating. Yeah, maybe I'd been told that already but yikes, who knew how true.
3. I'm not a morning person, at least not when morning means 4am. I handle 6am much better.
4. I like waterskiing! Wake boarding could be a close second with a bit more practice.
5. I bruise entirely too easily.
6. I like playing cards.
7. It's time for bed - I just fell asleep typing...twice

lots and lots of water

It has been a bit hot around here lately. I'm not quite sure what happened to that nice 75 and sunny thing that I always tell people back home about. Someone we ran into today said it was 100 and that was in the shade. I guess that would explain why I had no trouble drinking about 1.5 gallons today. As we were descending, one of the guys on the ride got it exactly right when he said "it feels like riding into a hair dryer".

age

I fell asleep before 11 on Saturday night and I hurt my lower back. What kind of people do these things? Old ones, that's who. So as I hit the 1/4 century mark and can officially be called old again, why have I been feeling and acting like a 16 year old lately? I've always been a bit behind on this kind of stuff but shouldn't I have grown out of that phase a long time ago?

black dots and blue spots

I got a new bike yesterday and I even had a chance to take it out for a short ride :) I didn't have too much time today but I did get out and ride it around town a little bit. It was just light enough on my way home to take the trail instead of the streets. Bad idea. Lesson learned: Just because it's light enough to ride in the woods doesn't mean you should. I was a human windshield. I ate a ridiculous amount of those little tiny black bugs. I couldn't breathe in without getting them in mouth or my nose. They got stuck everywhere. At one point I looked down at my arms and there were probably at least 15 dead ones stuck on each one. Gross.

I seem to have acquired a large number of blue spots (aka bruises) on my legs this weekend. I put on some shorts tonight and stood in front of the mirror and it really looks like I've been beaten. Turns out I'm just clumsy. I like bruises and if you've hung around with me long enough, chances are you've seen me get excited when I get them. This is bordering on excessive though.

lots and lots of....

Guests! Guest number 4830231 left last night. Guests number 4830232, 4830233 and 4830234 arrived today. Until last night I hadn't had the place to myself since before I went home for memorial day weekend. Wow. It should be a fun week though - an extra long weekend and hanging out with the girls. Its been a long time. I guess that's what happens when you work in a male dominated field.

Oh yeah and one more thing: No! I don't know what time I'm going to be home!! ;)

my office

My office is a bit crazy. Conversations are, for the most part, ridiculous. I wish I could remember them all. There was one the other day which was actually kind of interesting. It stemmed from the question: what's the female equivalent of the word "guy"? For boy it's girl, for man it's woman, but for guy there's nothing good. You can use girl or woman to describe the same person in different situations. If someone got up and gave a speech, I think they'd be referred to as a woman. However, if you met this same person at a bar, I think you'd refer to her as a girl. Some people get offended when you call them a girl because it sounds too childish or something. Personally, I don't have that objection - I actually prefer it - woman just sounds weird. So yes, we had an in depth discussion about this issue the other day in the office. It was rather amusing, although certainly not the most strange one of our conversations. For example, this afternoon I was half paying attention to a couple of my officemates when I heard this: "So, I started dating my mom..." The great part is that this is all pretty normal for my office...

40, 2600

I can't decide whether I should feel a sense of accomplishment or shame. I did something I've never done before and certainly couldn't have done 8 months ago so in that sense its an accomplishment. But, I still did much worse than the people I was with which is embarrassing. I guess it was good for me so it shouldn't matter.

nuts

Apparently I take a lot of crap from my coworkers. Tonight I got a small container of peanut shells dumped in my hair with no retaliation. Something else happened too, though now I've forgotten what which makes this post rather useless, but it caused someone who doesn't usually see what goes on to make a comment. I need to come up with some kind of comeback soon :)

I try and keep more personal stuff, like what I'm thinking and stuff, off the blog but once in a while it sneaks in so here goes. I've got some rather lofty goals set up for the next few months. They're things I've always wanted to do but never thought I could. I'm in a better position this time around though so maybe I'll make progress. I shared some of them with a few people and got a lot of mixed reactions as to whether or not I'll actually accomplish them. I guess that means one thing: Time to go for it.

bunnies

The easter bunny made an unexpected visit to my apartment today. He, or I guess I should say the visitors I just had, hid a cute basket filled with all of my favorite yummy things. There was also some toothpaste in there to counteract the serious amount of damage that has just been done to my teeth. Good thing I got a new ipod yesterday so I can spend the rest of the week at the gym to counteract the other badness - It's going to take at least that long!

living things

I got a plant today. Actually I got two. Any bets on how long I'll keep them alive? Just to give you some background information - the last couple plants I had lasted about 2 months. I put them outside and forgot about them. Lesson learned: don't put plants in places you don't go often. So since I'll walk by these ones every day, that should solve the problem. I'll add some pictures eventually to track their progress.

Fishnappers!

They stole my fish today. They decided he belonged in the fridge. They've stolen him a few times recently. Oh, and the "they" here refers to my teammates. If this keeps up, I'll have to get even. Teammates beware - things could get ugly ;)

In other news, I've had lots of visitors recently. One for all of last week and two more arrive on Friday and stay for a week. I might have to be a tourist for a while with the coming set. After that, the next scheduled set isn't until late June though. Since I've moved I'm 9 for 10 at having visitors or traveling somewhere to visit people each month. Not too bad considering almost everyone I know is 3000 miles away. I wonder if there will be any victims in May...

Cold, Rain & Wind

It's cold and rainy these days. Seems like March is the new February. Good thing Wubby is around to keep me warm. By the way, Wubby's hiding in this picture somewhere.

Wubby!

Wubby is my new buddy and some people have also labeled him my significant other. He's actually been around for a while but it's just recently that I've realized how important he is to me. He likes me. I can tell because he follows me around everywhere. I've found him hiding at the gym, in my car, and in my apartment just to name a few places. It sounds a little creepy, like he's being to clingy but really, he's not. He's perfect for cuddling. He always lets me go when I want him to, and he never kicks me out if I want to stay. He's just so lovable and he makes me happy. I miss him when we are apart, but I know he's always there awaiting my return. Wubby is wonderful!

clams

Busy day at work today. I'm completely wiped out, but happy as a clam :) Where did that expression come from anyway? Are clams really happier than any other thing? And if so, why? I'd like to know just so I can always be as happy as they are, provided that they're actually happy most of the time. Maybe google knows. Query of choice for tomorrow: clam I should pick a new one every day, perhaps I'd learn something useful.

Thanks to a bunch of presidents having their birthdays around now, we have a 3 day weekend. 3 day weekends are perfect because you can spend one day working, one day doing errands and getting stuff done, and one day doing something fun. That's how it should be at least. It didn't quite work out that way this time. Maybe in May when the next one rolls around. This weekend I had plans to sleep and to sleep a lot (which means I was shooting for 8-9 hours every night. I think that's a very reasonable amount). It's hard to sleep when the phone rings before 9am 2 of the 3 days though. I guess that's what happens when you're 3 hours behind most of the people you know. Yes, I realize 8:30 is a very reasonable time to be awake but sometimes I don't want to be awake then. I was even promised one morning that I wouldn't be called too early. Moral of the story for the 2 people who may actually read this: 8:30 (that's pacific, *not* eastern time) on Sunday is generally too early to call me, especially if we get disconnected and you have to call back 5 times.

?

I'm confused and that makes me sad. Good thing I'm tired. (no that's really not sarcasm - i am glad i'm tired)

four

It seems that I write when people come to visit so since visitor set number 4 just left I guess its time for a post. To comment on the previous post, yes, my trip back to the east coast was interesting just as I suspected. I thought the trip might shed some light on a few things and in some ways it did. Mostly it just leaves me to figure more things out, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Overall it was a good trip. I got to see some old friends, spend a few days working in NY, meet some new people and see my family. One more year down. Time to get used to writing 2006.