Crappy Workout

I haven't worked out for two weeks, with much thanks to the viral death plague. So, hitting the gym today was hard.

I managed 2 miles, in just over 23 minutes, but I couldn't finish the last 7 minutes of my workout. And, I didn't feel so hot afterwards. Tragic and annoying. I need to build that back up.

In other news: It's much easier to workout to Dead Kennedys than the Les Miserables soundtrack. No, really.

Longevity

Being the senior member on a team apparently means that you know the answer to everything.

Today the woman who was on call had a major problem and didn't know how to solve it, so she asked my cube buddy. When he got stuck he asked me. Naturally, I had a connection who could help out, so I asked him for help.

Then someone else had a problem which needed to be resolved right now. His problem had partially caused the problem that the on call person was dealing with, so it really did need to be taken care of. Unfortunately, I didn't have the answer. So, I had to call another buddy who did, and get him to walk me through the solution so I could update a wiki doc with steps for the other guy.

And, I had to help someone else with something else.

So, by the end of the day stand-up meeting I could officially say: today, I updated a wiki. And, folks, that's one expensive 20 line wiki.

My boss didn't seem too pleased, so I expounded on everything I had done to help people today. Now, when do I get time for my own work? I think I'm going to have to lock myself in a closet, or work from home some evenings to try to get it all done. Not happy about that.

Infatuation

InternBill and I were joking around the other day when he said something that prompted my usual reply of, "You're a dork, you know that?" For some reason this has become a term of endearment when lobbed in his general direction.

His reply, however, took me a little off guard, "But would you still be infatuated with me if I weren't :P?"

Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap!!! So, I went with the time honored deny and dodge, "Oh, deary, you only wish that were true."

And that was the end of that.

The problem? The deny and dodge is the exact opposite of what one should do in these cases. In fact, the correct response is admit and amplify. I should have gone with, "Nope. That's pretty much the only thing that keeps my attention in your general direction." Alas, I didn't. Well, not like it's some great secret, right? I mean, we do spend hours and hours flirting with each other.

I actually wish that I weren't infatuated with him. It would make life so much simpler.

A New (with)Out-Look

This past week has found me at home. Dying a slow, painful death as I suffer from the Viral Death Plague of Doom.

I have, however, had occasion to venture out of my carefully constructed cave. Those occasions arose when I finished the DVDs I had rented. It's amazing, but did you know, if you sit at home and do nothing but watch DVDs you can go through at least 3 a day? Yeah. I limited myself. Each time I donned the same outfit: jeans, flip flops, and an over-sized sweatshirt. I did manage to brush my hair and (because even sick I'm a stickler for hygiene) clean underwear. (My mommy always told me to wear clean panties, just in case I get in an accident and have to be taken to the hospital. The last thing you want to be worried about in a situation like that is, "oh, no! I didn't put on clean underwear today!" Ok, she didn't, really, but the fact still holds!) The one article of clothing that I just couldn't bother to put on (unanticipated hospitalization be damned!), however, was a bra. That's right, kids, I went a whole week without a bra.

Wow. What a liberating experience that was, let me tell you. I had no idea.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end. Today, I realized I must truly be on the mend, for, as I was dressing, post (daily) shower, just before pulling on the same sweatpants and sweatshirt I've been wearing for a week, I automatically reached for my brassiere. I'm cured!!!!

Finally.

Too Much Time

Since contracting the Viral Death Plague of Doom all I've done is stayed at home and watched Stargate: SG-1.

In season 2 episode 18 I saw a familiar looking device. The SG-1 team called it "a digital notebook." Amazon calls it "the Kindle."



Strangely, both look as if they were designed circa 1998. At least one of them was.

I rest my case that the Kindle looks like it was designed in the previous decade. Sigh. Maybe Amazon will see fit to update their UI design once they see the striking similarities of 10 year old 'cool' technology.

Wow, I really am a geek.

VDPD

I have contracted an unknown virus that I have lovingly labeled "The Viral Death Plague of Doom" (VDPD). Today it seems to have mutated to strep.

Tomorrow I'm calling Herr Docktor to see if the swab they took on Friday is, in fact, what I fear it is. If not, I'm going to go in and demand they take another swab to determine what it is, and give me something so I can go back to work.

It has been a beautiful weekend, but I've been stuck here, trying to not die. It sucks, and I'm so done with this illness.

Provo Ward

I went to church today at what I call my "Provo Ward." When I lived in Provo I was in the same ward for 5 years—yeah, it's kind of home. So, today I, naturally, had to attend that ward. Frighteningly enough, there were still people there that I knew. It was good to see them.

After church I called up my old bishop and asked if I could drop by. I did, spent a few hours with them, then left. I ended up hanging out with a friend from Seattle who is going to BYU. We had a great time, but it was time to find a place to hang my hat for the evening.

I was supposed to stay with Commie, but we still haven't connected. So, at his invitation, I'm spending the night at my old bishop's house. One more homeless night to go. I may end up on a couch (turns out that the hotel I crashed at last night was $100! No thank you!) somewhere.

Ahh, the life of a nomad.

Provo, Baby

Yeah, so I'm in Provo for the weekend. Wheeee!!!

I am so exhausted from my 2 hours of sleep last night + 1 hour on the plane that I can hardly keep my eyes open. I just want to sleep. I'm supposed to be staying with Commie this weekend, but lost her number when my phone was stolen. Now, I just have to hope she checks her email and sees how lonely I am and calls me.

I may catch a nap in my renal car. sad times.

I Maintain It's Love

I have to take two buses to get to work in the morning. The first is a small local shuttle-sized bus, the second is a regular-sized city bus. They're spaced about 5 minutes apart. This is generally pretty great timing. It becomes a problem when the first bus is late and the second one is early. Most often the first bus is late. I went about a week missing the second bus, which is more frustrating than anything since I can wait another 7 minutes and catch another bus which drops me off 2 blocks from the office, not the door-to-door delivery service, and it does involve a hill, but, it's not that bad.

The drivers on both buses are the same every day, so we're quite familiar with each other. I happen to think the city bus driver is quite cute. I flirt with him, but just very mildly. Lately the shuttle driver has been just late enough that we get stuck on the wrong side of the red light, but the bus driver has waited for us. Every time I see him waiting, I jokingly tell the guys I ride with that he's waiting because he loves me.

Today he had to wait a good three minutes for the shuttle. As we saw him waiting the guys voiced their doubts that he would wait. I insisted, "Oh, he'll wait. He's madly in love with me." We chuckled about that, but then, when he waited for us I teased the guys again, "I stand by my assertion. You know I'm right."

I maintain it's love, the guys maintain he's just a nice guy.

I'm thinking love. Bwahahahaa!

Off the Handle

This afternoon I ended my work day on a really sour note. I have to leave the office no later than 5:08 in order to catch my bus, or I'm walking two miles home—the last mile is uphill. At 5:07 my boss called me to his office and wanted me to resolve something. The frustrating thing about this is we knew about the problem since last Thursday, and there was no pressing need to have it done tonight. LaBoca joined him at my desk as I investigated the issue. We determined that a mistake had been made and a file incorrectly updated. By checking the log, it became evident that either she or I had made the change. They wanted it fixed, and now. It could have easily waited until tomorrow morning, and at 5:18, I missed my bus home.

I was livid. And I let my boss know.

In an attempt to calm me down my boss told me to call a cab and expense it. I told him that I had no intention of calling a cab for a 2 mile ride home. Fortunately, I was able to bum a ride off of a friend.

The problem here was two fold: (1) Either LaBoca made the mistake, or (2) her shoddy directions cause me to. Either way, she always puts me on the defensive, and this little problem was no different. Having here there, hovering over my shoulder with the look of triumph in having caught me in a mistake didn't make me any happier, either.

However, I totally over reacted. And, tomorrow, I get to apologize to my boss for snapping at him. Whee... I hope crow tastes like chicken.

Face Painters for Charity

Mumsy was approached last week about getting a group of face painters together to paint for charity. She was super excited and wow motivated. In 3 days we put together a web site which (in my humble opinion) pretty much rocks, and got 9 buy-ins. Holy cow! Today, one of the ladies decided that she wants to paint for another charity. A second lady thought that was a good idea, so she's picking one tomorrow. Great. Frankly, the last thing they should do is break up causes they're working for. I drafted an email to the woman in question, and sent it to Mumsy to review and send (since I wasn't on the original email). Let's hope this quickly dissipates.

Bus Scriptorian

As I was waiting for the bus home this afternoon a friend and I started chatting about my trip to Jerusalem. The conversation carried forward on to the bus. As were stood in the aisle talking about the current conditions of the Middle East I said, "Well, it really boils down to 'God said it was ours and to kill everyone and take it!' and 'No, God said it is ours!'"

The silver-haired man who happened to be seated right next to us took umbrage that I would make such horrible comment, and, in disbelief interjected, "Where does it say that? In no one's religious texts does it say that. It doesn't say that in the Koran, it doesn't say that in the..." at that point he either kind of petered off, or I interrupted. "Actually," I corrected him, "it's in the Old Testament. When the Hebrews enter the land of Canaan they were told to that the land was for them, and they were to kill every last Canaanite." He got quite irritated at my answer and turned back to his reading material. What I didn't get to ask him was: What do you think the Battle of Jericho was all about? or how about Ai, or, pretty much any group of peoples living in present day Israel when the Hebrews were approaching?

(Joshua 8 :1 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land:

2: And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.)

Does he think God was just kidding? Of that could possibly be misinterpreted? The icing on the cake, though, is: Every religion that follows from Judaism, automatically has that command/promise/covenant grandfathered in. It was part of the original, ergo, it's part of the newest. Therefore, it's in the sacred works of anyone of the Judeo-Christian beliefs, and (gasp!) Muslims (who believe that the Qur'an supersedes the Torah, but that it is a holy book as well). Which leads us to: Everyone fighting over the Middle East (specifically: Israel) honestly believes that God told them it's theirs. And, they're all pointing to the same book of scripture. The only thing that makes it their land rather than the other guy's is the correctness of their religion. Which, frankly, is subjective.

I don't know why people question me about scriptural fact. Maybe it's just because he doesn't know me. Well, needless, he shan't be making that mistake again anytime soon.

Dutiful Me

I've been going to the gym nearly every day (skipped Sunday and Monday), and I feel so good! Now I remember why I used to go. Wow.

Problem

I told you I had a problem. I just didn't really believe it myself. Until, that is, Tuesday night.

I had to replace my All Stars, as they are in a horrible state of disrepair, so I went to the shoe store. 5 pairs of shoes and (only) 80 bucks later, I am the proud new owner of some super cute shoes. I know you don't believe me, so, behold! The power of the internet:

Broken Window

I got home from church today and noticed that some nice person had broken my bedroom window. They didn't get in, but they certainly tried. I called my apartment maintenance, and they told me I had to file a police report. I called the police and someone stopped by to take a look at the window. He came to the same conclusion I did: well, that sucks, but they didn't get it. Call maintenance and have it replaced.

Excellent.

Broken Ward

My ward was disbanded today. I can't say I'm terribly surprised. We had about 30 people coming to church every Sunday. We'll now be attending church a few miles away from where we have before. There are about 100 people in that ward, no, now 135. It should be good. I hope it improves my dating prospects a bit.

In all honesty, it was a bittersweet day. I shall miss our bishopric greatly, but we can still keep track of one another. I hope we do.

Swimming

I woke up early this morning and felt like hitting the gym. I went for a swim. 30 minutes of laps is fun. But hard. I hereby vow to keep it up.

High School Reunion

In the mail today I received an invite to my 10 year high school reunion. Printed on light blue copy paper and in comic sans font.

Two days in late September. The first evening is a wine/beer and cheese reception. The second is a dinner and dancing. With an afternoon at the park. Wheeee.

I figure I have 7 months to get in some semblance of "in shape." Who doesn't for these things?