EvilJulie.com

Because I am boring and feel compelled to keep returning to my to-do list for the weekend…

• PC Scrubbed? Yes. Unfortunately, I have to take it to Goodwill for recycling, so it is sitting on the floor of my office until I can get Rick to drive me over there. I am not hauling a hard drive on the subway.

• Bookshelf picked up, hall looking semi-clean? Check. Didn’t vacuum, though, because I lacked enthusiasm for that project.

• Laundry done? Check. Rick took pity on me and went to the laundromat yesterday. He washed, dried, and folded everything, so all I had to do was put it away when he brought it home. I actually did that instead of staring at it in the laundry bag for a week, wondering where the magical laundry elves had disappeared to.

• Homework done? Uh….yeah, that’s where I hit a roadblock. 9/11 always throws me for a loop, so I spent that day avoiding homework, instead reading Tim Gunn’s new book. Don’t judge, Tim Gunn heals me. I did pick back up on the homework last night, and am positive I will be done with the reading by the time it’s due – this book reads much more quickly than the last.

Now, what else did I get done that wasn’t on the list?

• Total rearrange of office space, including decorations? Check.

• Finding new way of listening to Steelers games so even when the stupid Giants or Jets are on at the same time, I can listen to my boys? Check.

• Finishing of the pair of socks I started for Rick’s Ma in February, the ones that were sidetracked by my snowboarding injury? Check. Also, washing and blocking of said socks? Check.

• Appreciating the irony of finishing a pair of wool socks for a woman who is moving to Florida? Check.

• Weekly letter to Amelia written? Check.

• Quality time spent with Rick? Check.

• Sunday dinner cooked for the first time since probably May? Check. It’s been too fucking hot to cook all summer, so last night I went all out and made fresh sauce, pasta (not fresh, Buitoni), cauliflower, and brownies. And then I made rice for today’s lunch, which was leftover veggie curry from Friday.

So, not exactly what I had planned, but on the whole, I was pretty damned productive. Now I just need to add one more thing to the list.

• Total glossing over of the fact that I didn’t get my homework done this weekend? Check.

Last week was…well, it was chaos. We’re in balls-to-the-wall mode on the audits at work, and 900 of them have come in. I should add that’s 900 graduate audits, which are processed by me. I have a helper because of the hand problems from the snowboarding, but I’m still doing the audits. Ouch.

Speaking of the hand problem, I saw a hand doctor last week. He took x-rays and didn’t see anything broken, so that’s good. He says it’s a joint that’s prone to injury and sometimes he sees people who have the same problem as me just because of writing. So basically, the writing I do all day aggravates it. He prescribed a thumb spica (basically a thumb immobilizer) for while I sleep. Trouble is finding one. I think I have to go to a surgical supply store for it.

Fortunately, I’m on spring break right now, so I have some spare time. I had forgotten the joys of spring break as a student. Sure, I still have to work, but no classes and almost no homework? It’s brilliant. I say almost because I still have to come up with a first draft of the major assignment in my research class – a twenty page paper. I’ll need to get plugging on the researching again this week, but I basically took the weekend off for mental health. Went shopping with Lori, bought little bento supplies (because bento is my new obsession – I think it will help me with portion control and not getting bored with the lunches I pack), went into several Asian food markets…I should have had my camera with me, the picture opportunities were something else. Maybe I’ll go back next weekend on photo safari and pick up some ingredients.

There’s some more to tell, but I’m waiting a little bit to get more details. In the meantime, I’m going to wrap my hand with an ace wrap and get working.

You know what’s enough to get me to blog again? Oh, that I missed wishing Freddie Mercury a happy birthday yesterday. So hard to believe that he would have been 63 this year. I think he would wear the years with grace and style though, don’t you?

I feel like I should write one of those “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” essays for all of you. Let’s see, what did I do? I missed Joe, of course. And then I found a little guy who needed my help because his owner was abusive. So we welcomed him into our home:

His first rescuer named him Nutmeg, then his foster family called him Shoyu, but I thought he was more of a Charlie, so that’s his new name. He had a little bit of an adjustment settling in, but every day he’s more at ease with us and torments Freddie a fraction of a millimeter less. But when I see Charlie harassing Freddie, I realize Joe probably sent him to us as revenge on Freddie. And I’m okay with that.

My office also moved to a new building, and there has been a hell of a lot of adjustment from that, let me tell you. We’re finally settling in, but it will be nice when the new building is finally finished. Which, at the rate they’re going will probably be in ten years.

And then last week I started classes for an MA in history. I’m struggling a bit with getting back in the academic groove (I’ve been working on what should have been a simple one page article summary for a couple of hours now because I’m not used to formal writing anymore), especially while living with Rick. Relationships didn’t phase my first two degrees at all (because for large portions of both degrees I wasn’t in one), but it’s interesting trying to figure out time to study and write without neglecting Rick. Of course, he’s got his own adjustment going on because he started a new day job last week, and that’s been quite a change for him. We’ll work through everything, I’m sure, but in the meantime it’s still a little strange. But also in the meantime, I’ve got this stupid summary to write, so I’m going to get back to that. Hope you all are well, and thanks for the emails prodding me back into blogging!

I laughed, I cried, I almost had a heart attack. I think that sums up my Super Bowl-watching experience this year. And while I am very much enjoying my Day After The Six-Pack, I also have a feeling that this means Dan Rooney is going to dismantle the team again next year. Because that’s what the Rooneys do, get a winning team, and then don’t extend contracts of said winning team because “it’s too expensive.” Ah, the life of a Steelers fan. I will say, however, that between Obama’s Inauguration and a Steelers Super Bowl victor, I am liking 2009 very much so far.

Especially when it includes entertainment like this. Watch as Mayor Mike almost gets his hand taken off because he was stupid enough to take food away from a groundhog. Go get him, Staten Island Chuck! Show that motherfucker it doesn’t matter how rich you are, you do not take food from a rodent whose hibernation was interrupted to forecast weather!

I have spent way more time than necessary trying to plan when I will see Twilight this weekend. Oh, that’s right, I’m going to fork over $12 to see Sparkly McVampire fly across the silver screen. Me and five million teenagers. Well, that’s where the planning comes in. What movie times will be least likely to have hordes of people? The movie is geared right at teens and tweens, and I have to work tomorrow when they’re in school (that was the best viewing option, and I did consider it, but the boss will be out and we can’t both be out at the same time). Then I thought “Okay, they’re all going to get their Edward on Friday night. And possibly Saturday night. So if they’re out all night and up until all hours, they will sleep until noon. Hell, I used to sleep until one when I was their age.” Obviously the best time over the weekend is thus Saturday morning. At least that’s what I’m planning on. And the small movie theater up the street from my house will be far less crowded than any place in Manhattan.

Do you see all the thought I have expended on this? Do you? If I would take this much time to think through my finances, I wouldn’t have credit card debt. If I would think this hard about world peace, we might have it by now. But no. I waste this brain power on vampire love stories in the Pacific Northwest. And I know at least two teenage girls who have done the same. Fear for America, people. We are the future.

And in honor of ITLAPD, I ask ye to wave yer cutlasses in the air and shout “Arrrrrrr!” or it be the cat o’nine for the likes of ye scurvy dogs. And no rum, neither.

ITLAPD is more popular than a hangin’ this year. On Plurk, me mateys be changin’ their user names to *pirate* names for the day. Me pirate name be Bootstrap Julz, because the damnable system wouldn’t let me use “Dread Pirate Evil Julie.” Too many characters or suchlike nonsense.

On Ravelry, our undead-codemonkey Casey made it so if you posted in a thread with “pirate” in the title, yer words would be instantly translated into pirate-speak. By Davy Jones’s locker, a good idea. And if ye had a Ravatar with “pirate” in the filename, ye got a parrot for it. Here be mine:

Parrots don’t taste like rum, mates. But when the rum is gone, ye get desperate.

I leave ye with the best responses I’ve gotten to ITLAPD via text:

Rick: “Arrr, gimme yer booty.”

Jordana: “The wee one and I are in Maryland, lookin’ ta storm the Kennedy Center.”

Mom: “Are you f’in kidding me?”

(I come by me ability to talk like a sailor naturally, if not me ability to talk like a pirate.) Drink up, me hearties, and to celebrate ITLAPD, might ye consider stoppin’ by Savvy Brooklyn and pickin’ up a bauble fer yerself or yer second-in-command?