Category: daily tedium

My passport was finished and mailed out on 11/25, which means it should be here any day (any day before my trip would be perfect). I’m so excited that I can almost live with the cold I’ve had for three days, a deadline fast approaching amid numerous distractions (like sinus pain, documents and meetings), a sick kid (who sounds like a mini Joe Cocker at the moment), and a growing list of things to pack.

In doing some research for the trip, I realized that Dublin has almost the same weather this time of year as D.C., so no new wardrobe will be needed. I just have to remember to take walking shoes and an umbrella. I just realized that I can leave my keys behind, which is weird. I’m so used to having the weight of them in my front pocket that I’m sure I’ll walk funny for a couple days until I get my “keyless legs”.

I’ve got three guide books (the DK Ireland book, Lonely Planet’s Ireland bood, and a pocket map book). I’ve read the Dublin sections of the first two multiple times, and looked at the map book over a dozen times now. I’m tired of reading about stuff – I just want to get there. I’ve got my reading material for the plane (appropriately, The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke and Right as Rain by George Pellecanos – I hear it rains a lot in Dublin), the power adapter for the laptop (thanks, Robin!), a schedule, a flight (plane tickets coming Wednesday I think), a hotel room (in the very chichi sounding Alexander), plans and a couple hundred hours to kill before I get on the plane…

I’m off being social and planning for my trip (waiting patiently for my passport, buying touristy books about Dublin, trying to figure out what the weather is like in Eastern Ireland in early December, putting together a shopping list, and trying to find things to do with the 18 hours of touristy time we’ll have there). I’m really excited about the trip, can you tell?

Now the social bit… I realized something rather important about myself while driving around the beltway with half a ton of grain in the back of my truck. I was talking to a guy from church who was in the Army for a looong time about growing up moving around all the time. He said, “Well, I guess then you view all your relationships as temporary then, don’t you?” Ummmm, huh? I what? I… well, yeah… I do, don’t I? It’s caused a tidal wave of emotion as I look back over my life at all the friends I’m unceremoniously forgotten about as soon as I left a place. It was a shock to my system, to say the least.

So, what am I doing about it? I’m trying to actually build relationships outside of my family. We had a family over for dinner after church on Sunday (I made a roast to end all roasts, no one needs to even bother anymore. I made the best roast EVER), we hosted a dinner party a few weeks ago, and we’ve been invited over for dinner this week to someone else’s house. I realized that I’ve been more introverted than I want to be. I’m working on changing that… So, as I spend more time in meatspace, and on nonDependant, I may spend less time here. I know you’re all disappointed.

I’ve been waking up extremely early the past few days. Instead of spending extra time in the shower or eating breakfast at home, I just come into work as I normally do. Only, when I get here, I’m all alone. No one shows up in my buddy list, and I have very little e-mail to get through. I start working earlier, and feel like I’m pretty much done with everything by noon. Not that I am… maybe I mean I’m “finished” for the day.

Work has gotten more complex this week. I have a very large (but very cool) project that has to go to QA soon, a trip out of the country to prepare for (new credit card for business expenses, signing up for frequent flier program, international power supply for the Powerbook, customs to learn, self-preparation for the amount of smoke I’m going to inhale, etc), documents to write and a world to take over (my boss has given me permission to conquer the world… which is at once cool and daunting). Oh, and there’s nonDependant to look after and make sure it doesn’t die before it even really gets started. Let’s not forget Church… Or my family. Ok, when I said I could do “more”, I’m not sure this is what I had in mind.

I also installed Panther this week. I’ll spare you the full review, but I like it. It’s peachy-keen and if you have a Mac, you should install it too.

Now is not the time to get writer’s block and an allergy attack. Really, I could live without either or both. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Go write something for me over at nonDependant. Next time I see you, I’ll buy you a cookie.

I realized last night that I had watched a grand total of 2 hours and forty minutes of television this weekend: Finding Nemo with Max on Saturday afternoon, and Carnivale last night while drinking my virgin bloody mary and unwinding after a very long day. This weekend was so full and so rewarding that I want to do it all over again, even though my back is sore from stooping over our too-short-for-my-six-foot-frame counters chopping countless vegetables and meats for the two big dinners I cooked. Even though I’m still tired and worn out – it was all good.

I’ve come to a lot of realizations in the past month or so that have dealt major blows to my internal status quo. They could, and probably will be fodder for future blog posts, but here’s a small synopsis of the personal epiphanies I can remember from the past month:

• It’s OK to be Mormon and a Liberal. My religion (maybe not the church membership, but the actual religion) is very politically-agnostic. Every November, a letter is read during Sacrament meeting that basically says, “Vote your conscience, people. Don’t use church membership lists for political purposes, and the Church never endorses candidates.” I’ve got to follow my conscience, and my conscience points me to the Left. I’m now comfortable being there.

• I’m less involved, and do less than I used to. I’m trying to fix that. I’m not sure what caused it, although my hypothesis is that it started with my knee injury and us moving. I got comfortable not being outgoing, partly because I was probably depressed, and never realized it. I think that I’ve finally recovered, and I feel myself coming back. I’m more outgoing, friendlier and happier. I missed me.

• I can do more. Part of the previous one is that I realized that I used to work full-time, go to school, participate in a weekly local TV show, and had a social life. Until recently, I worked and came home, grudgingly went to church, and wasn’t very involved in anything I didn’t have to be. I can do more. I’m doing more. I’m more involved at Church, thinking about bigger things at work and in general, and building a social life outside of hallway conversations at work. I’m looking for fewer diversions (TV, PS2) and more activities (dinner parties, new projects, and even more stuff coming soon). I think part of the “doing more” drive is that I finally feel better. I’ve lost fifty pounds. I can move mostly without pain (except for rapid changes in the weather – the mess with my knee something awful). I have more energy than I’ve had in years, and it feels great. It’s time to channel that energy into new things.

• I don’t know my religion. I swear I used to. Somehow, I’ve forgotten a lot of it. This goes way back, and I’m not going to talk about it here. But, I’m re-energized here too. I’m beginning to feel that commitment again, that drive I had when I was younger to be better that I’d forgotten about. I’ve been a coaster for a long time, just attending and not participating, hearing but not feeling. I think that’s turning around. I feel better at church than I have since I was nineteen (nine years is a LONG time), and I hope it stays that way.

It’s only three things, but they’re all connected, and combined are powerful enough that I almost feel like a different person. I’m starting to feel comfortable in my own skin.

I have this week off, and am spending lots of time doing family stuff, so don’t expect too much of me here. While watching TV, or when I’m not doing anything else, I’ve been playing with PostNuke. It’s currently a contender for a community site I’m planning. I don’t really want to talk about the purpose of the site yet, or why I went on a little domain name buying frenzy last week. But, it’s going to be important to me, and hopefully help define a few things.

If anyone out there has used PostNuke before and has any tips/reviews, let me know!

• My wedding ring is getting looser. Sometimes, it slides down on one side. I’m almost to the point of being worried that it might fall off. I still have such a divot in my finger from when my ring was too small (when Jen was pregnant with Max I stupidly ate when she did – gained a loooo-oooot of weight, and got fat(ter) fingers). Maybe it’s time to go shrink it.

• Cool CSS/Web Design Sites/Blogs I’ve Found Recently (or re-found):
  • CSS Zen Garden

  • Mezzoblue

  • Yellowlane

  • SimpleBits

• I’m currently feeling guilty for leaving Automatic for the People off my top ten albums list.

• Tiger Woods 2004 is the most addictive game I’ve played since Civ 2, and I’m slightly embarrassed about that. I spent an hour last night after everyone had gone to bed trying to beat Jim Furyk. And I did. I whipped his ass, but good. Took me about six rounds to do it, but that last one was perfect.

• I’ve been reading The Right Christians recently, and it’s revealing a whole corner of the web, and the religious fabric of the country that I had no idea existed. Interesting stuff.

• I’ve been looking for new blogs to add to the list of 116 subscriptions I have in NetNewsWire. Any suggestions?

As soon as my drawers are dry, I’m pretty sure I’m going to Amphora for breakfast. Either that, or I’m cookin’ some bacon. I don’t have to do either, you know. I’m on vaaaa-aaacation.

If I weren’t sick, this might actually be fun. Why is it that I get sick whenever I take time off? My boss calls it “executive syndrome” – I call it some form of twisted natural justice. It’s not fair. It’s annoying. I have a horrible sore throat, a fever, bodyache – yeah, you know, the flu. It’s the beginning of October and I have the flu. Bleagh.

Sick or not, I’ve got a story. Go look at this pic and then come back. I know it’s fuzzy. The Sidekick has a crappy camera, I know, but you should be able to make out the bumper-to-bumperness of the traffic. That’s the LDS Temple in the background there. That was Friday night. That’s when Jen and Max were supposed to go to Tucson Friday night. Their flight took off from BWI at 5:35pm. We left the house at 2:30. It USUALLY takes an hour to get to BWI, with traffic, the longest it’s taken us is two hours. It took us three and a half hours to get there. Needless to say, they missed their flight.

They made it yesterday in exactly 65 minutes. They? Oh yeah, my dad drove them to the airport because I couldn’t breath or keep my eyes open.

Happy vacation to me…

Thanks to Joey from mortalengine.com to pointing out that the comments were broken and have been since I moved hosts. This is what happens when you move hosts, have your javascript file NOT rebuild all the time and don’t pay attention. I was wondering why y’all were so quiet… I thought I’d offended someone.