Huh? March 28, 2008 ~ 10:43 am
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedThis morning on the radio, I heard that on a list of emasculated husbands, the top three were Keith Urban, Rudy Giuliani, and Elton John (not necessarily in that order, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention until I heard Elton John).
Elton John is an emasculated husband. Let us ponder that.
And now let us move on with our Fridays.
Breathe March 26, 2008 ~ 3:44 pm
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedBoss still has the flu, I just got off the phone with her and she sounds terrible - it’s settled in her throat. She is going to try to make it in for our staff member’s memorial service tomorrow, and reminded me that it was only a month and a half ago that there was a memorial service for said staff member’s husband at the same funeral home (I was in Florida when that happened).
To that end, I have taken care of the staff member’s college obituary. I have cleaned out her desk. I have had someone contact her family so that they knew to contact HR about benefits. I have arranged that the two offices where staff member worked over the years will be closed tomorrow at 2 for the service, and informed the offices who will catch our overflow of the closings. I have almost coordinated transport for those in our offices who are going to the service. I have done everything that I had to do, all of the things that no one else was stepping up to do. And I am exhausted by it.
So tonight I am going to have some me time. A friend offered me a free ticket to see the musical Juno (in no way related to the movie of the same name) at City Center Encores tonight, and I am meeting her for dinner before that. I need some down time, and I am taking it. A deep breath before tomorrow is in order, and I am taking it.
Carpe diem, peeps. Life is just too damned short.
Must be the full moon March 25, 2008 ~ 10:42 am
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedI am going through a period of time that I am just going to start calling “The Weirdness.” Because there is no other way to describe it and all the emotions that go along with it.
Rick’s mom is not doing well - I haven’t seen her in a couple of months again, so it’s easy for me to tell myself that she’s better than she apparently is. She’s depressed from losing two of her kids in the past year, she’s not managing her diabetes like she should and ended up in the ER with a sore on her foot last week. Her health isn’t great, and she is relying on Rick a lot. His stepfather is also not doing well, so Rick feels a lot of pressure to be up there.
Unfortunately, we’re at two months before Commencement, so there is no way I can go up there to be with him. I have had major deadlines at work, I have a pile of degree audits on my desk that are waiting to be done, the phones ring non-stop with questions about degrees and students, and oh my god, at the end of the day I just want to put my head down and sleep through the headaches that days like this give me. I just have to keep telling myself “May 29, and then this is over.”
This happens every year, the stress, teeth grinding, headaches, and exhaustion that accompany Commencement. But on top of this, one of the women in my office was diagnosed with cancer a month or so ago. We were told that it was very bad, and then last week we were told that she was being moved to a hospice, and then on Sunday I got a voicemail from one of the other ladies I work with letting me know that the woman with cancer had passed. I’m still not sure how to deal with this. I worked with this woman for six and a half years. She was a nice person, good with the students, had some great stories, and we got along well for the most part although there were some downsides to being her supervisor as well. But I have this thing about becoming friendly out of the office with the people I work with at Some College. I just don’t do it. I have another life, and so do they. So how do I reconcile the fact that someone I worked with for all that time is now gone? If it were a friend or a family member, I would know how to deal with it. But in this situation, I am just kind of numb. It’s affecting me, but I’m still not sure how.
There are other things going on as well. My student loan payments went up by over $100 a month and that is a big thing to get used to. I have friends that are having their own issues to deal with, and I feel like I should be there for them, and I should be there more for Rick as well, but I am teetering on the edge of a depression and am not in such a great place to be supportive of other people. One minute I am fine and everything is good, and the next I am an automaton with a million thoughts rushing through my mind that I can’t even sort through. I need to find my balance again so that I can be there for the other people in my life who need to find theirs.
Thanks, cat March 21, 2008 ~ 10:57 am
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedI have long suspected that Freddie would be an excellent hunter if given the opportunity. They way he crouches down and waits for an opportunity to pounce, the way he flies out of nowhere to tackle Joe, how he launches himself out from under furniture to grab my feet, all of this shows he’s got a great hunting instinct. I think he lived on the streets for at least a year, so it makes sense- he had to hunt for food, if nothing else.
In my apartment, there really isn’t much opportunity to hunt live prey. We don’t have rodents, the insects are few and far between, and the landlady’s dog is too big to hunt (besides, Freddie would much rather befriend London - he rolls over and shows his belly every time she comes near). He has to content himself with the five million cat toys we have. But this morning, an opportunity apparently arose that apparently couldn’t be resisted.
Before I continue, I have to say that Freddie is a lap cat. If a lap is open, he would like to be there. Especially if you’re sitting on the toilet. I think this goes back to when we first got him and he was confined to the bathroom - toilet sitters having the only accessible laps and all. I am generally okay with this because what the hell, I’m sitting there anyway, I can pet him and give him some attention and he’s happy and doesn’t try to attack Joe if he’s had some attention.
So this morning he hops up on my lap as per usual, and only after a moment do I realize that he has dropped something into my bare lap. A house centipede. I hate these things because 1.) they’re ugly, and 2.) I’m allergic to them. If they bite me, it’s like a spider bite, I get a lump the size of a baseball on my skin and it hurts and is itchy. I repeat, he dropped this on my bare lap, right between my legs. I jumped up and the damned thing went into the toilet and Freddie went flying. I think the centipede was stunned by Freddie’s ferocity and was playing dead, because it didn’t move until it landed in the toilet water, but gah! I’m shuddering now even thinking about it.
I praised Freddie for hunting, because I didn’t want him to think that I wasn’t appreciative (and if he ever finds a cockroach, I would like him to get the fucking thing), but I did tell him that next time, he could just leave it at my feet. Or maybe kill it first. Live presents are not encouraged. Thanks, cat.
Brief photo essay March 19, 2008 ~ 9:00 pm
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedAfter more technological errors than I care to remember (none of them my fault), I have been sitting on my couch for the past four hours. It is my happy place. I have finished a book while here, I have watched a lot of TV, I’ve cleaned out the fridge (okay, that wasn’t while I was sitting on the couch) and I took the trash out (also, not on the couch). And because I’ve been able to relax a bit, I can finally post this, which I’ve been meaning to do for a week and a half.
Sometimes, babies get stuck: (more…)
Things Julie does not have the energy for March 18, 2008 ~ 2:49 pm
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closed1.) Upgrading Wordpress
2.) Cleaning the house
3.) Cooking (I sense Chinese delivery in my very near future)
4.) Working
5.) Writing the grant
6.) Blogging about my weekend. It was fan-fucking-tastic, but blogging everything and linking in pictures? That’s more than I can take right now.
7.) Uploading pictures that would have provided a great alternative for the weekend recap. Too late now, they’re at home, I’m here.
8.) Even thinking about the commute home.
9.) Pondering why the old computer system at work is throwing different sets of results to me when I keep asking it for the same damn thing.
10.) Doing much more than staring off into space.
Hopefully I’ll recover enough for a regular blog post tomorrow. Till then…
In summary… March 13, 2008 ~ 9:08 am
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedYesterday, in the midst of the chaos, I heard one of the women in the office next door say something that just typified everything that was going on in the office. A very difficult person had just left and when the door was closed behind her, my coworker said “That woman just wasted three minutes of my life. There go three minutes that I will never get back.”
Exactly.
Craziness March 12, 2008 ~ 2:03 pm
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedIt’s that time of year again. Commencement. The time of year when I am so freaking busy for three months that I don’t know if I’m coming or going. Today, I asked myself where my cell phone was and started going crazy when it wasn’t in its usual spot in my backpack. That’s when I realized it was already in my hand. A hand that I had just used to hold said backpack while I was digging through it. *sigh*
Fortunately, I do get a long weekend if I can make it through today and tomorrow. I’m going to D.C. for an early 50th birthday celebration for my uncle Norm. During the course of this weekend, I’ll be seeing many relatives that I haven’t seen in years: my aunt, my brother, my sister-in-law. I’ll also be meeting my cousin Meaghan, who is in high school. (Yes, she’s in high school and I’ve never met her. Because my family is dysfunctional like that - sometimes we don’t get together on a regular basis, sometimes we don’t talk at all.) And I’ll get to see my mom. I have seen her within the past year, but I think it was June.
All I have to do is get through the next two hours and then one more day. But with the week we’re having here, it’s questionable that I’ll be able to do so.
So, how ’bout that ex-Governor Spitzer?
Questionable taste March 10, 2008 ~ 12:13 pm
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedYesterday I was chatting on Facebook with a the husband of a woman I used to work with. He said that their tastes in music have grown in a similar direction as my own. I agreed, but then asked if his wife was still fond of Supertramp. This was a running joke between us when she was in my office, the fact that she liked Supertramp when she was younger, because of all the bands you could have liked, you liked Supertramp? Really? And then Rick, sitting beside me, chimed in with “Supertramp was one of the greatest bands of their time!” No accounting for some people’s taste, I guess.
And then I started wondering about the bands and singers that we like that others may find questionable. Like how I know for a fact that Rick has Linda Ronstadt on his iTunes, and that disturbs me greatly, but he is equally as disturbed by me having Duran Duran and Eddie Money on my iTunes. (How to make Rick cringe: start singing “Two Tickets to Paradise.” Works every time.) I’m talking bands that cause others to say “No, really?” in that Eddie Izzard voice when you admit to liking them, and you truly don’t understand what prompted that reaction. This is not to be confused with bands that you like that embarrass even you. An example of the latter would be that I have Rihanna’s single “Shut Up and Drive” on my iTunes, but I am generally loathe to admit it. Until now. On the other hand, I will shout from the rooftops that I have Right Said Fred’s album “Up” on iTunes, and I lurve it. See the difference?
So, what are some of your questionable bands?
Evolution of a friendship: The Quote Book March 7, 2008 ~ 11:53 am
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , comments closedFor the first two years I lived in New York City, I was too busy to breathe. I was going to grad school full-time, working part-time, doing productions, and then interning on top of everything else. I was also young, so when all of my coursework was done and I had time to breathe again (even though my thesis wasn’t done), I realized that hey! I was in New York City! And hey! I was young! And hey! Shouldn’t I take advantage of those two things? Yes, yes I should. And I did.
Through the theater I had interned at, I met a bunch of people in their twenties that I really gelled with. Two playwrights (Ryan and Cory) and two actresses (Amanda and Lori - yes, that Lori). And after Monday night readings at the theater, and often during the weekends, we’d all go out to a couple of our favorite local bars and hang out for hours, drinking, talking, karaoke-ing (if we were at Mr. Bigg’s) - you know, what young people do if they’re not into the club scene. Invariably someone would come out with at least one really good comment in the course of a night because we were creative people, dammit, and creative people come up with good lines. Finally one night one of us pulled over a napkin and a pen and said “I’m writing that down! That was awesome!” (I can’t remember who the genius was who did this, because as I said, we were in our twenties and there were copious amounts of alcohol involved. These were also the days of my peripatetic lifestyle where I would throw an extra set of clothes in my backpack in the morning and end up crashed on Lori’s couch overnight rather than take the train back to Brooklyn.)
That night, we bought the cheapest small notebook we could find, and the quote book was born. By the looks of it, it lasted about six months to a year, and ended about the time I started dating Rick, because towards the end there are several quotes by him. I blame Lori for losing it. But she found it in a recent cleaning binge and it has been revived. Unfortunately, we only ever wrote down the initials of the person being quoted, and some of those people have been lost to posterity because we can’t remember who the hell CM was…wait! I just remembered who that is! Another mystery solved.
Some of the better/less cryptic quotes: (more…)
