And, I'm off!

Again. Tomorrow bright and early we leave for Greece. Yippy! Yippy! Yippy!

Greetings from UK

I bring you greetings from the UK. Things here have been great.

The flight was relatively uneventful. Out of Chicago I had an hour to change flights, which really means 30 minutes. Since there wasn't anything to eat on the flight from Seattle to Chicago I had to grab a quick salad while dashing to my flight. It worked out, however, that my connecting gate was literally right across the hallway, which was most pleasant.

As I was boarding the plane to London the flight attendant took my ticket, and started to rip it, then announced, "Oh, this is Seattle to Chicago. I need your other one." Whoops. I got out of line and hunted down the correct ticket. This time, as I was boarding I was pulled aside to have my bag searched. Predictably, they found nothing.

After we boarded we got to sit there for an hour while maintenance fixed the
broken black box. Yeah, that sucked.

Customs was relatively painless. Actually, I didn't know BritishGirl's address, so I didn't write it down on the entry form you have to fill out. The agent asked me where I was staying in the UK and I told him "at my friend's place". He asked "Do you know his address?" "No, I don't" I replied. He said, "Ok." Then stamped my passport. Weirdness, eh? Why wasn't it a problem? I'm not sure. Am I glad it wasn't? You betcha. I probably would have just put down a hotel if they pressed the issue. One thing that I didn't do, however, was correct the gender assumption. BritishGirl laughed at that.

After all of that we went to BritishGirl's place where I got some breakfast and showered and changed, then we headed into London for church. BritishGirl and our colleague dropped me off with the promise to return in an hour. Well, turns out the web said sacrament was the second meeting at 2:50, but they recently changed it to the first hour, so I missed it. I was a bit bummed, but that's the way life goes, I suppose.

After church we went to Hyde park and walked around, then up to Buckingham Palace. It was interesting, but not all that fabulous. There was no changing of the guard ceremony (despite the fact that there usually is), so we didn't get to see that. It should have proved interesting, but oh well.

Then we headed back to BritishGirl's flat where we just hung out the rest of the evening. I eventually crashed around 9pm. Totally exhausted.

So far today I've had the joys of working for a few hours, with assurance that I'll be working a complete 8. Joy! Nice bits: no problems getting the power cord I needed, or my id badge set to work in this building.

Oh, and this is interesting: two of the big wigs from the Seattle office are here today and tomorrow. Herm... Interesting interesting.

Holiday!!

I'm leaving in a few short hours! W00t!!!!11! I'm a little excited, can you tell?

Good news: holidays rock my socks!!

Bad news: there's some talk about me having to work a few late nights whilst in London.

Ok news: If I do end up having to work a night or so while in London my boss has told me I'll get comp time later.

Translated news: I certainly won't be "working from home" next Friday.

Related news: I'm going to try to be slightly better about blogging this go 'round than I was about Israel.

Funny news: My new (female) work friend asked me to send her a post card. Cute, eh?

Invite

From: GranolaGirl
To: MapGuy
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:10 -0700
Subject: Invite

Us girls are gonna go get our toenails did tonight. Wanna come? It's only 20 bucks. :D

From: MapGuy
To: GranolaGirl
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:37 -0700
Subject: RE:Invite
Dear Gorp
AKA Granola

Did you really just ask me that? I'll let you take a wild guess at what my answer might be...
I'm planning on playing volleyball tonight; otherwise you know I would be there with my pink shirt and bells on.
Hope you have fun
Map-Guy

From: GranolaGirl
To: MapGuy
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:42 -0700
Subject: RE:Invite

Bwahahahhaah!

Yes, I really did just ask you that. Did I seriously just ask you that? No. But, you never know. I just didn't want you to feel left out or anything. ;)

Just Friends

Nanny finally text messaged me last night after MapGuy told her how things were going to be. As I was replying he called me to give me the heads up and to prepare me for "damage control." As it turns out, none was necessary. She either took it really well, is in denial, or didn't get what he was saying. I think it may be a combination of both.

She and I sent text messages for about 30 minutes before I fell asleep. Whoops. Some friend I am! The thing of it is, though, she didn't mention word-one about him defining the relationship. She actually talked about things as if nothing had changed at all.

I decided that this called for some definitive measures: I called her up and announced I was going to get a pedicure tonight, and did she want to come along? She was totally up for it. We called up Sweetheart to loop her in. I made appointments, and Nanny and I showed up. We hadn't been able to reach Sweetheart, so we left her a lot of messages, and hoped. She did eventually call us and show up. We each got pedicures, and I got a really terrible manicure. Oh well, that's just life, I suppose.

I waited the whole time for some sort of indication, but none was forthcoming. Finally, as we were walking to our cars Nanny said she was going to go watch him play volleyball for a bit before heading over to my place. Seizing the opportunity (and, let's face it, that's not really the behavior of one who was just told that nothing was going to happen) I said, "You mean, you're going to go flirt with MapGuy."

"We're just friends!" she exclaimed. "It's got to start somewhere, and I've decided to quit worrying about it and just focus on being friends!" Ah, so that's how she's going to play it. Cool. Whatever. As long as there's not loads of good, juicy, drama I'm missing out on, I'm good.

Stupid Camera Update

I went to Best Buy tonight to see if I could get my camera fixed. Three problems:
1. They don't have a record of me buying the camera there (It was almost a year ago, so that's reasonable).
2. Even if they did they have to send it off to Panasonic to have it repaired (we're talking weeks here...)
3. Panasonic could determine that the sand isn't a result of "normal wear and tear" and void my warranty (practically guaranteed to happen).

So, I did what any reasonable person would do: I bought a new camera. I'm going to try to hunt down proof of purchase (credit card company) and then go back to Best Buy to see if I can't get it sent off. Meanwhile, I got the guy to give me a 21 day return on the camera. So, assuming that I don't break the stupid thing in Greece and England I can return it for a 15% re-stocking fee. Sweet!

DTR

After I got off the bus tonight I pulled out my cell phone to call mumsy to chit-chat while I waited for my shuttle. I noticed, however, that I had one missed call — MapGuy had called at 5:06. Ok, then.

I called him back.

He asked how my migraine was doing, since I made him drive me home last night. I thought it was a really sweet gesture. Then, we chatted. And chatted. And chatted. In fact, we chatted for 20 minutes, then he said, "I think I'm going to have to have a talk with Nanny."

I didn't even bother to ask about what. I did, instead, ask, "What are you going to say to her?"

"I don't know... That I just want to be friends..."

We talked about good ways for him to break the news, finally settling on the band-aid methodology. Basically, he's just going to have to suck it up and do it. Rip the band-aid off quickly, and all that rot. Currently, I'm waiting up in anticipation of her phone call of tears. Suck. Suck. Suck.

Dinner Calendar

A couple of months ago our elders approached me to ask if the previous elders had ever passed around the dinner calendar (they were both new with the transfer). I told them no, but they should. Nothing came of that. Then a few weeks ago I brought it up in ward council, and made the point that singles wards have an interesting missionary opportunity since they tend to meet a completely different set of people than the married wards. The Bishop agreed, but was quick to point out that if any of the sisters had them over there would have to be a male over 18 there. I agreed, and said that that would encourage them to have investigators over, and give a really good excuse, or, what boy in our ward would say no to a meal with any of the sisters? He agreed to talk to the Stake President.

Monday night I was at FHE and stepped out briefly. The elders were walking down the hall, my favorite one said to me, "Hey! Way to be there one the one week we pass around the calendar!"
"Oh," I said, "I would have signed up, too!"
"I know!" he replied, "we figured you would!"
"Well," I asked, "When are transfers?"
"Tomorrow. And I'm leaving." he frowned.

Tragic, eh? Poor elders, I totally would have fed them, and they would have loved it. I'll have to sign up when I get back.

Sunday School

Today's Sunday School lesson was on Hosea and his similitude comparing the bridegroom to God, and the adulterous wife to Israel. Pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, as you recall, MapGuy's wife had cheated on him, which lead to the divorce. As far as I know, I'm the only one who knows this. I forgot to warn him before church, so he got quite the surprise when I started the lesson. He sat through the whole thing, including the following:

Someone had made a comment about how forgiving the bridegroom must have been to take his wife back after all of the affairs she had. He posed the rhetorical question, "How many of us could do that?"

I answered: "Not me! I'd kick him out!"

A long time ago, MapGuy had confided in me, "I wanted to go to counseling. I would have taken her back. I wanted it to work." How amazing. I wonder how he felt during my lesson. I tried to let comfort him while I was giving the lesson, but I didn't know how. Afterwards the only thing he said to me was, "You did a good job." I hope that really meant that he was doing ok. That's how I took it.

Beach

MapGuy, Sweetheart, Lurch, and I went camping at the beach this weekend. Our trip wasn't terribly organized. The level of actual organization went like this, "Everybody bring what they want to eat. MapGuy, you pick the spot." Yes, the best laid plans... We ended up driving 4 hours instead of the expected three. We got lost, once. It was great fun. By the time we rolled into the camp ground it was dark and rainy.

Sweetheart had been kind enough to furnish the tents, one 6-person, one 2-person. The 2-person was small (naturally) and smelly (not so desirable). The original plan had been girls in one, guys in the other. We tossed out that option and decided to sleep head-to-toe in the big tent. That decision went like this, "Well, we're all adults, and we're all upstanding, good, Mormons. I don't think anything's going to happen, but if any one has a problem with it, speak up and we'll think up something else." No one spoke up. I think some people might have had a problem with it. I repeated the "if you have a problem..." clause a couple of times, just in case.

Lurch and I rolled out the sleeping bags, putting Sweetheart and MapGuy in the middle. I figured they'd both be more comfortable with that arrangement, as MapGuy seems petrified that I'm going to make some horrifically forward pass at him and he won't be able to stop me, or worse, he'll be able to stop me, but the rejection will end our friendship. Yeah, I'm not like that. Sorry. I am very bold, but not in seriousness. When I actually want something to happen the one course of action I'll take is to stew over why he hasn't done anything yet. Pathetic, but true.

Since we had neglected to pack wood we had to buy it. In the morning Sweetheart and I met a guy who told us, "Go down to the stop sign, turn left. There's a Shell station about 1/2 a mile down. It's not very much. And, it's not very cheap. But, it's all they've got anywhere." Brilliant. We set out. The guys eventually woke up and called me, wondering where we had gotten off to. I told them and they came and picked us up. That turned out to be a good thing, as the guy who gave us directions was off by about 10 miles. Whoops. We eventually did get wood, then we returned to camp to cook breakfast. Bacon and eggs. I splugged on the bacon, but passed on the eggs.

After breakfast we broke camp and headed for the beach. We had so much fun at the beach. I took 180 pictures. Seriously. That's how much fun we had.

As we were leaving the beach we got MapGuy's brand new car stuck in the sand and had to push-a lot-to get it out. Ahh... Good times. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that.

We went to another beach afterwards, and just as we were getting there a guy asked us if we had a tow-rope, since his car was about to be lost into the ocean. We didn't, but we offered to help in any other way we could. I got a couple of pictures of that.


Here's the to which we arrived. He had already recruited some volunteers, as you can tell.

The aftermath? Well, here's Sweetheart and MapGuy standing in the holes we had to dig around the tires. The water had already come up and receded a few times, filling them in a couple of inches, but you can get a feeling for the depths to which this guy was screwed.


Fortunately, some guy in a flat bed showed up. He happened to have a tow-rope. Lucky dude. He was sufficiently thankful for our help, but did beat a quick path off the beach.

Oh, and I got some sand in my camera. I think this happened while I was lying on my stomach digging maddly. I have to take it to a shop tomorrow to have it fixed, since I'm headed to London on Saturday, and kind of need it for that.

The return trip was moderately uneventful, excepting when MapGuy let me drive his car for the last 2 hours of the trip. Yessss!

Wit

Well, I've decided I know what I look for most in a man. He must be witty. Not just funny, but witty as well. Wit, I have concluded, is one of the least understood virtues. Given that, let's turn to dictionary.com. They define wit thus: "the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure." While strictly true, I don't think this definition captures all of what "wit" really is. For me I would say that wit is a clever combination of humor and intelligence. One must be intelligent to be witty, but one can be intelligent without being witty; intelligence alone is not sufficient. Likewise, being funny is not enough to make one witty; as humor is not sufficient.

I offer as evidence: TheBoyNextDoor.
TheBoyNextDoor lived (surprisingly, I'm sure) right next door to me one summer, about 5 years ago. Wow, has it really been that long? TheBoyNextDoor and I never dated, but we would spend every Sunday afternoon on my porch talking and intellectualizing. My roommate at the time referred to it as "intellectual making out." I think she was right. We'd have so much fun, not always laughing (though those times were quite enjoyable), that I'd want the day to linger on. It never did. Eventually the summer, too, came to a close, and with that, any "relationship" we may have had. I did learn, however, that "smart" is vital.

The next piece of evidence I offer is: MyPhysicsFriendPat.
We were in physics together (duh). He's brilliant. And Funny. And witty. Oh, wow! That's a hot combination.

There are more, I assure you.

What got me thinking about all of this? Well, I was wondering how I could have allowed myself to develop a thing for RC when it occurred to me: the man is positively witty. Well, at least now I've identified the basis of his appeal. Not saying that I'm moving on, just that I've identified it.<wink>

Evidence of Flirtation

Today I had a boring lunch meeting. The only thing that made it bearable was RC was stuck in it with me. We sat next to each other, through some unspoken agreement, but didn't speak the whole meeting. The opportunity really didn't present itself. Tragically, we had pizza, so I grabbed a couple of slices of plain pizza and peeled the cheese off the top. Leaving two very naked crusts. They were bland.

Around 3 I was starving, so I im'ed RC and asked him if he wanted to come downstairs with me while I grabbed my sandwich. He joined me. We talked and flirted and talked some more, but mostly flirted.

When we got back to the office he reached in his pocket to grab his id badge to scan which would allow us entrance into the office. I reached for the door handle in anticipation. He gave me some crap about looking all expectant and "waiting for me to swipe my card. But it doesn't come, so you wait some more. And some more." I smiled, "I have all day, I don't care." "You're still waiting. Oh, oh!"

Just as it was getting silly, and I was beginning to wonder which of us would be the adult first, one of the new hires (who, incidentally, I met on Wednesday, she's really nice) came to the door and saw us standing there. He scanned his card, and I opened the door. RC was trying to play the whole situation very coolly, as if we had just arrived at the door at the same time as she. I didn't let him get away with it.

As she was opening the door this woman gave me a look. It wasn't a what-on-earth-are-you-doing look. Rather, it was a look that screamed and begged to be interpreted by all around as, "AH! I see now, you like him." I hope he didn't interpret it that way, or I'm busted. Who knows.