This and That, Weekend Edition

Work: As to be expected, the week back at work after a very long weekend was a difficult one. I had quite a bit of work to catch up on, I got a bunch of new projects, and things were immediately crazy and hectic. Though my long weekend was a wonderful one and though I was fully rested, the post-vacation afterglow didn't last long once I stepped into the office. But fortunately our summer hours have started, so we're now allowed to leave the office at 1:00 on Fridays. That is certainly something to be excited about.

Birds: The birds in my wall were up early this morning. At about 5:00 a.m. I started to hear a racket in my wall. They were chirping wildly, flapping about, and scratching at the wall. It's not exactly what I wanted to hear that early in the morning, but somehow I still managed to sleep a little longer.

Weather: Right now the weather is absolutely beautiful. It is about 70 degrees, sunny, a little breezy, and mostly clear but with some clouds over the mountains. If this weather holds up and if it doesn't rain, it looks like I'll be able to get in a walk this afternoon.

Current mood: rested
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Aerosmith "Rag Doll"
Current drink: coffee

Day Off, Day Five

Today is the last day of my "vacation"/long weekend, and I decided to make the most of it. Naturally, I slept in and didn't roll out of bed until about 9:30. I did what I've been doing every morning for the past few days—took a long hot shower, made my breakfast, read the news, fiddled around on the computer, etc. At around 12:00 I was thinking about going out for a quick walk, but the clouds were gray and rolling in and I heard more thunder in the distance. I thought of maybe going out shopping for some groceries, but I didn't even want to do that. As lazy as I've been all weekend, even something as simple as going shopping seemed like too much of an effort, and I just wanted to continue being lazy. So I sat out on the balcony again and continued to read my book which I finally finished tonight.

We've been having a lot of rain and thunderstorms lately, and I'm sure that for many this would be considered horrible weather for a long holiday weekend. But for me it was perfect. For one, I just love thunderstorms. I love to watch them, to listen to them, and to feel them. And, two, the storms have allowed me to stay in and relax. Not that I couldn't have gone out in the storms, but there is just something cozy about enjoying a storm from home. For me, this weekend has been wonderful. It has been wonderfully lazy, peaceful, and quiet. I think that this is exactly what I've been needing for several months now.

Day Off, Day Four

It has been another quiet day. I slept in again and didn't do much in the morning other than have my breakfast and read the paper. A little before 1:00 I was thinking about going out for a walk again, but I heard some thunder in the distance. I decided that it would be better to stay in rather than get caught outside in the middle of a thunderstorm. I could have gone out to do some shopping, but I wasn't in the mood for that either, so I decided to just sit out on the balcony and read a book.

The thunder was a low rumble and it was coming with long pauses in between. The clouds were gray to the west and south, but things still seemed blue toward the east. I didn't see any lightning and it didn't seem like it was even going to rain, so I was doubtful that a storm would even materialize. But eventually more clouds rolled in and it got grayer and darker. At that point I could finally see the lightning flashing behind the clouds and the thunder started to come in at a quicker pace. Then, finally, it started to rain. Actually it was more of a drizzle and after about 20 minutes everything seemed calm again. But after some time had passed, the thunder started to rumble again, a little louder this time. Then it began to rain, and this time it lasted for a while.

Things have been calm for the past few hours. There are only a few dark gray clouds in the sky, but it doesn't seem like we'll have another storm this evening. We'll see.

Day Off, Day Three

I slept in again this morning and eventually rolled out of bed at about 9:00. I probably could have slept a little bit longer but the birds in my wall were wide awake. If there were eggs in the nest before, I think they finally hatched. The baby birds have been chirping wildly for the past few days and this morning was no exception. Now I definitely have to let them stay in their nest until they are ready to fly. And I am hoping that the wild chirping is because they are being fed. I'd hate to think that another mean, aggressive bird might be trying to take over the nest. So I suppose that I'll just have to live with them a little longer.

Once I was up, I took my shower, then made my breakfast—coffee, juice, and oatmeal. Then I drank more coffee, flipped through the newspaper, and fiddled around on the computer. The weather people have been predicting scattered and isolated rain all weekend, but at about 12:00 the weather was looking pretty nice. So, with the weather being reasonable, I decided to go out for another walk/halfhearted jog, only this time I jogged for a little longer. I came home, stretched, rested, had some lunch, and watched a little TV. Then I got a little bored with TV. (How is it that you can have almost 500 channels and not have anything good to watch? In addition to the cost of expanded cable services, the complete lack of anything good to watch is another reason why I've been thinking about cutting down on some of the services.) So I turned off the TV and decided to read a book instead. Imagine that! At about 5:00 I was hungry and ready for dinner, but being too lazy to cook anything elaborate, I just had a sandwich and some chips. Then I read a little bit more, and by 7:00 I started to hear thunder again. So I put down my book and sat out on the balcony and waited for the storm to come.

The storm seemed really distant at first and all I heard was thunder. I didn't see the lightning and it wasn't raining. But then, after about 30 minutes, I started to see the clouds lit up by lightning and the thunder was getting closer and louder. Some of it was so loud that it seemed to shake my balcony. It was lovely and wonderful. Then the rain finally started to fall, but it didn't last for long. After about 20 minutes I could already see blue skies to the south.

So, again, it was another restful and relaxing day. What is on the agenda for tomorrow? I'm not sure, really. I do need to go grocery shopping, but I expect to do a lot more relaxing.

Current mood: rested and relaxed
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Melissa Etheridge "Enough of Me"
Current drink: Remy Martin VSOP

Day Off, Day Two

Today was my second day off and I started it out perfectly. I slept in and didn't roll out of bed until about 9:00. I started the coffee, then took a long hot shower, and then I was ready for my breakfast—coffee, orange juice, and Eggo waffles. I lounged around for most of the morning, drinking more coffee, and goofing off on the computer. At about 12:00 or 1:00 (I lost track of time!) and with the weather looking beautiful, I felt motivated to move a little bit, so I decided to take a nice long walk. The weather was wonderful—it was about 65 degrees and it was partly cloudy. The walk was brisk, and I even made some halfhearted efforts to jog a few times. The last time I ran seriously was a little over 15 years ago and back then I was living in California at around sea level. Running feels much different 15 years later and a mile higher. But, still, it felt pretty good. Even though I didn't run far or fast, I was proud of the fact that it didn't feel like my heart or lungs were about to explode. It would be nice if I could keep up this walking and halfhearted running routine. I bet I would be feeling better, eating better, and sleeping better. We'll see.

After my walk/halfhearted jog, I came home to rest a bit, then I had to go out to run some errands. Then I came home, relaxed a little bit more, watched some TV, then made my dinner. For most of the day the weather was beautiful. It was cloudy and cooler than the past few days, but it still felt wonderful. Then at about 7:30 it started to rain. Because my balcony is closed-in, I can sit on the balcony and enjoy the rain without getting wet. The rain was falling really hard, and then came the lightning and thunder. When I was younger, I used to be terrified of thunderstorms, but now I absolutely love them. We had a lot of lightning tonight and there was a steady rumble and crash of thunder. It was wonderful.

The storm lasted for about an hour, and now things are calm and quiet. You can feel the humidity in the air, and you can smell the wet grass and trees and leaves. So now I am back inside, and, with the exception of taking a moment to write this post, I'm sipping some cognac and relaxing. It's a wonderful and beautiful evening.

Current mood: rested and relaxed
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Faith Hill "Breathe"
Current drink: Remy Martin VSOP Cognac

Online News

I mentioned in a post a few months ago that these days I tend to read a lot of news online. But one of the things that I don't like about online news is that most sites give the readers a chance to comment on the stories. Every now and then, you get some thoughtful and intelligent comments, and these comments can sometimes generate some intelligent discussions about the article. But most of the time the comments aren't so thoughtful or intelligent. Reading ignorant and uninformed comments is bad enough, but one of the things that really annoy me is when people comment with the simple phrase "who cares?". I never understood the point of this and it seems to point more to the stupidity of the commentator than to the possible stupidity or irrelevance of the article. After all, this person took the time to click on the link to go to the article, the person took the time to read the article, and then the person took the time to log on to the site to comment on the article only to say "who cares." So obviously this person cares if he or she took all that time to make the comment. Needless to say, why do people waste their time (and ours) by doing this?

Current mood: resting and relaxing
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Snow Patrol "Run"
Current drink: coffee

Day Off

After working hard for the past, oh, several months, I finally decided to take some time off. I decided to take today and tomorrow off from work, and with Monday being a holiday, that means that I get a five day weekend. Yay for me!

I don't have any big plans for this long weekend. All I want to do is rest and relax. Today the big thing that I had on my "to-do" list was to get a haircut. My hair has been turning into a long mess and I've been long overdue for a good haircut. For the past few haircuts, I've been going to one of those chain salon stores. The prices were much cheaper and the cuts were good but they were not always clean or great. So today, since I'm spoiling myself on my little vacation, I decided to go to a real salon. It's a place I've been to before, but I stopped going there because it was getting too expensive for me. It's about twice the price of the chain salons, but I get a shampoo, a great cut, and a style. And I also get a wonderful scalp massage, too. Today's cut turned out great. My hair fell several inches past my shoulders but now it is much shorter and falls to the middle of my neck. I guess you can say that it is cut into a bob. The best thing about it is that it will be very low-maintenance and easy to take care of. I also think that it will be perfect for when the temperature really warms up in the summer. I'm very happy with it.

So what's next on the agenda? Nothing really.

Current mood: resting and relaxing
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—New Order "True Faith"
Current drink: Barq's root beer

To Write or To Type?

Thanks to a Plinky promt, I've been forced to think about an important question. What is my preferred writing medium? Do I prefer to type or to write on paper? Hm, tough question to answer, and like a typical indecisive Pisces, I can't commit to either and will have to say that I like both. My preferred medium has undergone changes over the years, and there have been interesting side effects in the process.

Back in the good old days when I was a student, I would do a lot of writing on paper. I would take lots of notes in class, and even though I had a computer I usually liked to write my essays or papers with pen on paper before typing it up. Now that I'm an "adult" and working in a cubicle—in publishing, no less—just about everything we do is electronic. Granted, we do write on page proofs when proofreading, but that's about it. Ages ago I would always write in a journal. Now I have this blog. Time has changed things and the purposes of the writing have changed, so the medium has sometimes changed with those things.

But what about the side effects? Back when I was writing a lot of things by hand, my handwriting was quite nice. It was beautiful, if I may be so bold to say. I tend to write in what we in the publishing world would call caps + small caps. Basically I write in all capital letters, but the "real" capital letters are just a tad bigger. My handwriting was always neat and clean and easy to read. But, as I began to write less and type more, my handwriting started to deteriorate. My hand would get tired and cramp up quickly. And once I began to work in publishing, I had to write differently. You can't write in caps + small caps on page proofs otherwise the typesetter will set the text in caps + small caps. That's not a good thing if they don't belong. So I had to retrain myself to write the "normal" way with real capital letters and lowercase letters. And a side effect of working in publishing is that in every day writing I occasionally write a proofreader mark here and there.

Using a computer and typing is quicker and easier. I can type my thoughts faster than I can write them. Computers also have the added benefit of spell check and it is much easier to edit electronic words. But writing things by hand is just different. It seems more personal. Any letter or note that one receives is wonderful, but a letter that is handwritten, for whatever reason, seems a bit more charming and romantic. I love receiving handwritten letters (and I wish I received more!). A handwritten journal, no matter if the handwriting is neat, messy, elegant, or almost indecipherable, just seems more alluring and seductive. When you use a computer you can pick from any number of fonts and point sizes, but that font and point size can look like hundreds of other things. Handwriting is unique.

Even though I have this blog, I started writing in a journal again. It feels nice to write things by hand again, and in my journal I can be a little more private and personal and write about things that I would not put in this blog.

So, it seems that I prefer the ease and convenience of typing, but I love and appreciate the charm of writing.

Spring and Time Off

Spring: I think that I can officially say that it is spring. Now that we are well into May and just a few weeks away from June, I doubt that we will be hit by any other freak and unexpected blizzards. Even for Colorado that would be out of the realm of possibility, I think. Lately the weather has been absolutely beautiful. It has been warm and sunny and clear. Occasionally some clouds and winds would sweep through to cool things off a bit. But overall it has been lovely. And, with all of the snow and rain that we've had over the past few months, things are definitely starting to bloom. It seems as if the trees throughout my apartment complex have suddenly sprouted leaves and flowers over night. Although the spring bloom means that I will soon lose my clear view of the mountains, it is nice to have some lush, leafy trees outside of my windows and balcony. It is also amazing how green everything is. When I'm driving past the farms on my way into work, I am amazed at how green the fields are. And now all the cows are out grazing in the morning. It's beautiful.

Time Off: Well, so far I have schedule a personal day for next Friday. With the following Monday being Memorial Day, that would mean that I would get a four day weekend. But this week the crazy idea entered my head that maybe I should take both Thursday and Friday off. That would mean that I would get a five day weekend! How amazing would that be?! I could do anything I want. Sure, I definitely have a lot of errands to run. It would nice to take my car in for a wash and an oil change. And I'm also long overdue for a haircut. But I could take full advantage of a five day weekend to do all kinds of fun things. I could go on long walks. I could go on hikes. I could read a book. I could watch some movies. I could be completely lazy. Heck, I could sleep for the entire five days! The possibilities are endless!

Current mood: ready for time off
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Maroon 5 "Makes Me Wonder"
Current drink: Barq's root beer

My Awesomely Healthy Dinner

I've been feeling pretty tired today. I didn't sleep well last night and I've had an incredibly hectic day at work. So, needless to say, I was feeling pretty exhausted when I left work, and I was feeling tempted to pick up some dinner on the way home. However, I was feeling too tired and lazy to even drive somewhere so I came straight home and tried to find something in my fridge and pantry to eat. And rather than eat something easy (and bad) like a frozen burrito or even some frozen waffles, I forced myself to cook a real meal. And I even managed to cook a healthy meal!


I made a huge salad with some baby romaine lettuce, baby spinach, and carrots, and I topped it with a light and delicate—and yummy!—honey mustard vinaigrette. And I also made some grilled chicken, seasoned—perfectly, I might add—with some olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic powder. And I had a slice of Texas Toast on the side. Sure, I didn't include in the picture the beer I drank with my dinner, but all in all it was a good meal. So I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for rustling up some food of my own rather than picking up something on the way home. Yay, me!

Good to the Last Drop

Having had a very good friend who was recently laid off from her job, things in life have definitely been put into perspective. As an aside, after seeing what my friend went through, I have somewhat of a hatred and resentment for the corporate world that can lay off people without any warning or any notice. All it takes is a simple "pack up your things, you're all out of here." I suppose gone are the days when companies would give people two-weeks notice or more to find new jobs. The corporate world is cut-throat and money, certainly not people, is all that matters.

Seeing and hearing what other people are going through right now makes me appreciate what I still have. As often as I complain about having too much work and working too many hours, I'm fortunate just to have work to do and hours to fill. However the news of people around me getting laid off terrifies me. The thought is definitely in my mind that the same thing could very well happen to me at any time. I'm hoping that my company (and my job) is still secure, but then again my friend thought the same thing about hers.

This whole fear about the potential of being out of work at any moment has reignited a determination in me to be a little more careful with my money. I'll admit that I like to splurge on certain things, but now the realization has hit me that I need to be more frugal and save more money. There are a lot of things that I want right now—an external hard drive for my computer, DVDs, CDs, books, etc.—but these are not things that I absolutely need right now. In the past (like, before this week) I probably would have bought all these things, but now I realize that I need to spend my money on the important and necessary things. And I realize that I also need to save for the unexpected expenses—another friend's unexpected $2,000 car repair expense also scared me into saving more money.

So now I think I'm going to retrain myself to live like I lived when I was a student and before I had a job and a disposable income. So it is back to clipping coupons, cooking more and going out less, buying only what I need and not what I want, and using what I have until it can't be used anymore. In fact I just spent the past 20 minutes pounding the last few drops out of a lotion bottle. When your lotion comes in a bottle with a pump, you're never going to get the lotion that is at the bottom of the bottle because the pump never reaches far enough. So you basically have to unscrew the pump and pound out the lotion that's at the bottom of the bottle. I think I was able to squeeze out two more weeks of lotion out of that bottle!

Current mood: scared of the economy, but grateful for what I have
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Keith Urban "Who Wouldn't Want to Be Me"

Forced by Fate

I believe in Fate. Sometimes things happen for a reason. No, this isn't going to be a profound and pensive post about some miraculously fated event that happened in my life. Fate has forced me to take a day off later this month. It's been a busy day, a rough day, and a frustrating day. So, I decided that it is time for a break. I'm taking off on the Friday before Memorial Day. That means I will have a 4-day weekend. I don't have any plans to do anything big or exciting, but I don't mind. I intend to relax. I plan on not having plans. How is that for profound?!

Rain

It is getting late and I am sitting here in relative silence. I've turned off the TV and iTunes for the night. I just want to sit here and enjoy the quiet. All I can hear right now is the sound of rain falling outside. I can hear the rain tapping on the roof. I can hear the sound of the water trickling down the gutters. I stood on my balcony for a few minutes just so that I could smell the evening. The air is cool and it smells wonderful. You can smell the moisture from the rain mingling with the smoke from fireplaces burning in the distance. It is lovely outside.

This and That, End-of-Week Edition

Once again, there isn't a whole lot to report, but nevertheless I will write a little post for my loyal readers.

Birds: I still haven't done anything about my bird situation. For now I've decided to let them nest in the wall of my apartment. Like I mentioned before, I'm not sure if there are eggs or babies. So far all I've seen are two birds fly in and out of the wall. I can usually hear them rustling about early in the morning. Because I get up early for work, this usually doesn't bother me on the weekdays. But, because I like to sleep in on the weekends, it can be a bit annoying when they wake me up early. I suppose this is something I'll have to live with, if I continue to let them stay. However, I was a little alarmed this morning when I was getting ready for work, because I started to hear a rapid tapping on the wall. I'm really hoping that they were trying to make the outside hole bigger and not trying to tap their way inside my apartment! At the risk of sounding melodramatic, the last thing I want to do is come home from work to find that the birds are flying through my apartment after drilling a hole through my bedroom wall.

Work: Things are busy, as usual. It seems as if this is what I report every time I write about work. I have a huge book to get to press in a few weeks, and for many reasons this book has been more difficult than most. But by March 12 it will, hopefully, be out of my life. Most of my other projects are under control, and after I finish the beast of a project, I'm hoping that I can, if you can believe it, take a day off! I don't have any plans to go anywhere or do anything special. I just want to have a long weekend.

Time Off: I don't know how some people at work do it, but it seems like there are certain people in the office who are always on vacation. Somehow they are able to take time off every month. I, on the other hand, am very stingy with my time off because I'm always afraid that I will not have enough days left at the end of the year to take vacations during Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, sadly, I usually don't take any time off until Thanksgiving and Christmas. I usually like to take longer vacations rather than vacations of just one or two days. But everyone else seems to take time off throughout the year, so maybe I should start doing this more often, too. Other people are also always sick. People in our department must have the worst constitution and immunity defense. I, on the other hand, am never sick thanks to good genes and the right kinds of vitamins. Maybe I need to get "sick" more often. Naturally I don't want to be sick in the real sense. I just want to play sick. That's it, I need to play hooky more often. Or I need someone to whisk me away and force me to take time off.

Current mood: tired
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—David Gray "This Year's Love"
Current drink: Remy Martin VSOP Cognac