Category Archives: Friends & Family

puddle of poobou

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I have to confess, I haven’t really been working out since I moved to Seattle back in April. I’ve been to the gym once or twice, but mostly I’ve been justifying my laziness by thinking that since I essentially walk at least 2 miles a day (work is 1 mile from my place x twice a day), 5 days a week, I’m probably getting enough exercise. And I also walk around a lot on the weekends when I run errands in my neighborhood. And in truth, I probably am getting enough exercise – far more than the average couch potato American, in any case. But I haven’t gotten rid of these 10 pounds that I added over Christmas, so I think it’s time to take it up a notch. Last night when I got home, I had the energy to work out, but no desire to change clothes & drive to the gym. So I just moved the futon & the coffee table and did my Tae Bo workout video in my living room. I can’t remember the last time I did that, and of course I was completely arrogant in thinking what kind of great shape I must be in due to all this walking I’ve been doing, so I opted for the advanced workout instead of the basic one.

And may I just say: ow. Seriously, can someone please get a spatula and scrape me off the floor? Every single part of me hurts except my teeth, fingernails & hair. I’m glad that the sidewalks are relatively uncrowded in the morning, I whimpered throughout my whole commute to work today.

In other news, my cousin Catherine is going to be in town next week for some business thing. She lives in North Carolina, so I don’t get to see her that often – usually just once a year at our family reunion. She’s one of my top two favorite cousins, so I’m really excited to see her. Her husband Tony is also really great (I was a bridesmaid in their wedding), but he won’t be with her on this trip. Oh, interesting side note: Catherine is the first person I ever got drunk with, when I was 9 years old. She was 12 at the time. Open bar at the family reunion and a lack of supervision from the adults were primarily to blame for that one, I think. I’m pretty sure my mom still holds a grudge against her for that, although she’d never admit it. But once you’re appointed the “bad influence” by a parent, I don’t think you ever get past that reputation. Even though Catherine now has her Ph.D. in psychology and is very successful in her career. Oh well, I think one of my aunts considers me to be the bad influence on her kids because I was once designated driver when they all got completely wasted in New Orleans. (Go figure, I guess I was supposed to forcibly remove the drinks from their hands.)

Anyway, assuming that I can figure out a way to negotiate everyone’s schedule, it looks like Catherine may be the first family member who gets to meet Dave. My mom is very jealous. And this, dear friends, is the convenient thing about living over 2000 miles away from one’s immediate family – the whole issue of meeting the parents almost never comes up. And thank God for that. I like Dave, I don’t want to scare him off just yet.

weekend summary

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Friday: Dave & I went to see Scott do his Emerald City Swing thing. That was cool. We hung out briefly afterward just to say hi to Scott & Ted, then went to a (very late) dinner at the Waterfont Restaurant at Pier 70. I must say, if any of you Seattleites haven’t been there, you must go. It’s expensive, but so worth it. I’ve been fantasizing about the scallops for the past 2 days, they were incredible. And the desserts… mmmm… in retrospect, we probably should’ve gotten the creme brulee in a to-go box, because it was really hard to keep myself from making little happy noises while I was eating it. It is so awesome, it’ll make your toes curl. You can quote me on that.

Saturday: My cell phone died. For some reason it just wouldn’t turn on at all, even though it was charged. I took it to the T-Mobile store, and they had to get me a new battery, except what should’ve taken 10 minutes ended up taking almost an hour because they couldn’t seem to get my phone apart. It appears that the cover was jammed somehow. (I swear I didn’t do it.) They ended up having to cut the back of the phone off completely and then gave me a new cover. So finally that was fixed, then I ran a couple of other errands and headed out to Duvall. And I must say, Dave’s house is actually quite lovely, and not nearly as “scary bachelor pad” as I was expecting. (Except for the wasps’ nests on the eaves of the house, those have gotta go.) It’s obviously still a work in progress, but it’s got potential to be really amazing. And the master bath has one of those gigantic jacuzzi tubs with jets in it – the kind of bathtub that’s been in my fantasy dream house as long as I can remember – so I told Dave that even if he turns out to be a complete jerk, I’m still going to try to make things work so I can come over & use his tub. 🙂

So, Saturday night, we made dinner – or rather, I made dinner, and Dave entertained me while I made a mess of his kitchen. And we watched the end of “Lost in Translation” (which we started last week but never finished) and “Monster”. Both were really good, I thought. But “Monster” had some truly disturbing scenes in it that I can’t seem to get out of my head. It’s definitely not a movie for the squeamish.

Oh, and for the record, I never saw a single alpaca in Duvall. I did, however, see a mama duck leading her little troop of baby ducks across the street, and they were damn cute.

Sunday: Slacked off. Made a bunch of phone calls. Went to the grocery store. Watched the first episode of the new season of “Six Feet Under”. Was fast asleep by 9:00. Overall, very very good weekend.

the career of a transient

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So, I’m sort of homeless at work right now. I was temporarily using the office of a woman who was on maternity leave. But she came back yesterday, so now I have no place to sit. My lead is out this week, so I’ve taken over his office until another office can be found for me. I guess it’s just one of those things about being a consultant, I’m destined never to have a permanent place to call my own at work. Which I suppose is fine. But I don’t much care for my lead’s office, the lighting in here is weird and people keep stopping by to say things like “gee, [lead’s name], you’ve changed!” Ha ha, ho ho. The upside is that he has a window, but the view is just an obnoxiously busy street and an apartment complex across the way. Not much to see, really.

I’m taking another Microsoft certification exam tomorrow, which is one of my 4 remaining tests. I actually took it last week, but I didn’t say anything about it to hardly anyone because I was really nervous about it, and sure enough, I flunked. So I’m doing the re-take tomorrow, and I figured that I’d put the word out so people can send me some good smart vibes. Just think very hard, “You will remember everything you need to know about implementing and maintaining a Windows Server 2003 network infrastructure….”

Oh, and Kris did indeed get some lovin’ from my ex. But she’d kill me if she knew I wrote about it on my blog – not that she ever reads it (neither does the ex, for that matter). But hey, I’m happy for both of them. So I’ll leave it at that.

pimp my friends

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So, my weekend with Dave was lovely. We went to the Seattle Art Museum yesterday because the weather was kind of icky, so we figured it’d be good to stick to indoor activities. I’d never been to the museum before and I had no idea just how extensive their collection is. Right now there’s some rich family’s private art collection on display, and they have a whole roomful of Van Gogh’s. Color me impressed.

After the museum we walked through Pike Place Market (always nice, I love the little old Asian ladies selling those enormous bouquets of flowers) and wandered back to my place. We chilled for a while, then went to Blockbuster, rented a couple of movies, and ordered in for dinner. And of course, at some point I opened my big mouth and mentioned something about my blog (damn spiced rum & diet coke! It’s like truth serum, I tell ya), which seemed to really peak his interest. I wouldn’t give him the address because all I’ve been doing for the past 2 weeks is talking about how big a crush I have on him, and that’s kind of embarassing. But he’s a reasonably intelligent guy, so I’m just waiting for him to Google me & find this site. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Everyone say “hi, Dave!”

Oh, and today I just found out that Kris (this would be my best friend Kris, not insane Krissy or guy friend Chris G., or my little brother Chris) is in Chattanooga for some work training seminar thing, but she was bored because she has nothing to do until tomorrow morning. So I called my ex-boyfriend, Stowe, who lives there and told him to take her out for a drink. She called me from the ladies room a few minutes ago to tell me that she was having a great time. She sounded a little bit drunk. I’m sort of wondering if they’re going to hook up. I know it’s probably weird, but I honestly have no jealousy issues with that at all. I’m totally over him – we dated 5 years ago, for god’s sake – and I know he’s a good guy, so if they want to have a good time while she’s in town, that’s fine by me. Good for them.

Hope everyone had as much fun this weekend as I did.

the weekend

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Friday: Scott mercifully offered to take me to see one of my favorite comedians, Mitch Hedberg, to distract me from the fact that my date with Dave was postponed. The show was supposed to start at 10:30, so we got there at 10:00 & figured we’d be early. Not so much, as it turns out, because the line was already to the end of the block. At 11:30, an hour & a half of standing in line later, we learned that the show was cancelled due to the fact that Mitch had passed out drunk. This thorougly pissed me off. I realize that comedians have the kind of job that might lend itself to excessive alcohol consumption, but come on, if I showed up at work too drunk to perform my job, I’d get fired. That’s just f*cked. So Mitch Hedberg is now off my list of favorite comedians.

Saturday: The date with Dave the Brit. Mmmmm… Nice, nice, nice. Delicious dinner, followed by drinks, followed by enjoying the view of downtown from the roof of my building. He’s just so easy to talk to, we never seem to hit an awkward silence or run out of things to say. It’s so… nice. Everything flows. And it’s kind of crazy – as soon as we part, I find myself wondering when I’ll see him again, and hoping that it’s soon.

Sunday: I was going to help Chris G. move, but he apparently took care of all of that before I even woke up. So instead, I met up with him & a couple of his friends at the Folklife Festival in the afternoon. That was interesting, but not really my scene. Lots of hippies & their offspring dancing with wild arm gesticulations to African tribal drums and things of that nature. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. So, Chris’s friends took off, he went back to his new apartment to take a nap, and I went to Best Buy to get a DVD player. I was in the store for less than a minute when I saw an ex-boyfriend that I haven’t seen or spoken to in over a year. This is someone who really hurt me when he broke up with me, so I was happy with the fact that I hadn’t run into him since then. I don’t know if he spotted me or not, but as soon as I saw him, my stomach knotted up and I bolted. I went to the DVD player section and I hid there for a good 15-20 minutes, until I was sure he was gone. It seems stupid, I should’ve been the bigger person and walked over and said hi, but for some reason I couldn’t. I just panicked. I don’t know why it upset me as much as it did – it’s not like I’m still hung up on this person or wish that I was still with him at all. Hell, I even have a new crush that should make it easier to blow off the ex’es who hurt me. Maybe if the cute Brit had been with me, I could’ve pulled it off a little more gracefully. Or maybe I still wouldn’t have been able to say hi, but my stomach wouldn’t have knotted up quite so much upon seeing him. I don’t know. In any case, it was strangely upsetting, and pretty much spoiled my entire Best Buy shopping experience. I didn’t stop shaking until I was back on the freeway & almost home.

So, after I got the DVD player hooked up, Chris G. came over & we went to rent my very first DVD from Blockbuster. We got “Love Actually” because Chris said he couldn’t deal with anything too heavy. I liked it.

And tomorrow, I get to sleep late. Again. Hooray for holiday weekends!

impatience

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I left the cute Air Force boy a voicemail 2 nights ago, and he hasn’t called me back. So perhaps I really was just Queen for the Day, not for the Week or the Month. Or maybe I’m just being silly & he hasn’t called me back because he works graveyard shift & we’re on totally different work/sleep schedules. I suppose I’ll give him through the weekend to call me back, before I officially give up. Meanwhile, in the interest of not putting all of my proverbial eggs in one basket, I went on a date on Wednesday night. Nice guy, well educated, smart, relatively cute…. and na-da. No spark. I’m pretty sure the feeling was mutual, so no big deal.

In other news, Chris G. called last night to tell me that he’s moving downtown. Yay! His new apartment is going to be about 1/3 of a mile from my place. I actually pass the building every day on my walk to work. So I’m happy that he’ll be able to come out & play with me more often. I’ve hardly seen him at all since he moved to Redmond last year. In my excitement over his big news, I even offered to help him move next weekend. I have a feeling I’ll probably regret that, but it’s typically easier to move someone else’s stuff than your own, so it probably won’t be too bad.

Oh, did I mention how happy I am that it’s Friday?

the weekend approacheth

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I passed my Microsoft exam. Yay! Now I’m on to studying for the next test. Which is kind of weird, there’s no big celebratory/relaxation phase or anything in between, but I don’t exactly have a ton of other work taking up my time at this point, so I might as well study.

I went out with Tony last night. Lordy, how he reminds me of the ex from 5 years ago. Seriously, they could’ve been separated at birth. It’s creepy. Is it weird that I’m kind of starting to not like him just because he reminds me so much of someone who I’m no longer on speaking terms with? Being around him keeps dredging up all the memories of the things that were really, really bad in that relationship, and I find it sort of repellant. Also, there was this one little thing he did that really bugged me, and he might’ve been kidding, I really don’t know. Toward the end of the night, we had this conversation.

Him: So what are you doing tomorrow night?
Me: I’m having dinner with a friend.
Him: Oh yeah, who?
Me: My friend Nate. [Side note: I’m thinking at this point that it’s kind of weird that he asked me who, since the only friend of mine that he’s met is Krissy.]
Him: Reeee-ally? [Very suggestive, exaggerated E sound.]
Me: It’s not like that, he’s just a friend. He has a girlfriend, in fact.
Him: So why isn’t his girlfriend going to dinner with you?
Me: Um… Because I’ve never met her and I assume that she has her own life? I don’t know why, she just isn’t.

He might’ve just been joking around with me, I honestly don’t know. But I don’t pull the jealousy bit on the guys that I date (ask ’em if you don’t believe me), and I don’t tolerate it from others. So if there’s a shred of a possibility that he’s going to turn out to be one of those possessive types, I have no need for him. Good lord, this was technically our first date, I think it’s a wee bit early in the game to start interrogating me about who my friends are and where I’m going (not that that is ever really acceptable). And if he’s going to get jealous of my male friends, he might as well take a hike now, because most of my friends around here are, in fact, guys. And I’m fine with that.

Anyway, Nate & I did have dinner tonight, which was nice. And since he’s the most artistically inclined person I know, I had him draw the tattoo that I want on me with a magic marker. I just wanted to look at it & get a vibe for whether or not I like the location & all that. And yes, I still love it. Y’know…. the Seattle Tattoo Convention is coming up in August, and it’s only a couple of blocks away from where I live. I think 4 months is more than enough time to mull this idea over. I’ve gotten a few different artist recommendations, I think I’m going to go meet with a couple of them & check out their portfolios. (T, you are not permitted to repeat any of this to mom.)

Oh, and tomorrow marks the 29th birthday of my absolute 100% most favorite best friend in the whole world, Kris. She doesn’t read this blog because she can’t surf the web from work & her pc at home is still on dial-up (God bless her), but I just wanted to publicly announce how much of my life’s happiness is owed to this amazing, beautiful, hilarious, awesome, kick-ass woman. I always look forward to Sunday afternoons because it’s our weekly catch-up chat, and it marks one of the high points of my week. Nothing that happens to me seems real until I talk to Kris about it on Sunday. And I cannot wait until the day when she finishes her damn accounting degree and gets the hell out of Memphis so I can see her more often. (She’s actually wanted to live in Seattle since way before I ever moved here.) So rock on, baby girl, and have a fabulous birthday.