So tonight I head home for Wisconsin for my tenth year class reunion. Hopefully I will sleep on the flight the whole way.
I am nearly finished with the booklet. Talk about cutting it close, huh? Hopefully not too many people will complain. As hard as it was to track some of these people down, they should just be grateful that I managed to get the 50 that I did. Stephanie and Kris have both mentioned that this has been a lot of work for a lot of complaints, especially regarding money. Emily Anderson mentioned something to me the other day that also struck an idea in me. So here is my plan: I think that if someone wants to do a 15th year class reunion, we should scrap the traditional shindig and do something completely casual, like a picnic. That way everyone can see everyone else's kids, it's not as expensive, just as easy to talk, etc. We could rotate it that way every other reunion. If everyone brought a dish to pass and all that needed to be bought were paper products and perhaps meat to grill or bbq, and of course beer, then the cost would go down dramatically. As Emily said, that's how our class is anyway. We don't need a dance and dj. We don't need to dress up, even though it is fun. I would really like to see people's kids. I don't know. It's just an idea. It doesn't remove the hassle of tracking people down. But it's got to be a little easier.
Friday night I was a "naughty girl." Maybe naughty isn't the right word. What I did was certainly uncharacteristic of me. I won't go into it here, though. Saturday started out great because I finally found the Realms perfume. When my roommate moved in, I smelled hers and really liked it. However, when I looked for it in department stores I found it to be exorbitantly priced. Now, I love perfume but I don't like paying a ton of money for it. I looked at Ross and Marshalls to no avail. I finally found it on Saturday morning at TG Max in Woodinville for $16.99 as opposedto the $60 I saw at Sears. This made me a very happy girl. When I got home, my roommate and I went shopping at Nordstrom Rack. She was the one who has a mission; I just went along for the ride, but I found a really nice shirt there. It has several things going for it: buttons, it's red, and...well...I won't say what the third reason is. You'll just have to see me in it to understand. :) Saturday night, although I thought I had tentative plans with Luke, I ended up going to Tim's place for awhile and we went to a play at the Fringe Festival. It was actually two short plays written by the same playwright. Both were awesome. It had been a long while since I had been to a straight up play. It made me want to act again. After the play we hung out with one of the actresses who happens to be a friend of Tim's. Today is a little less fun filled. I am trying to muster up enough energy to clean my room and finish off the long "to-do" list I composed on Friday afternoon. I have started throwing clothes into my suitcase, though, so I am ahead for packing.
This week was a mad dash of phone calling. Mostly my mom was making the calls to my former high school classmates, trying to get bios for the class booklet. I probably have 40 or so. Not too bad, but not the greatest considering there were about 100 in the class. I don't know why this had to be such a difficult thing. You'd think some of these people were in the witness protection program or something.
Nikki on 09.22.02 @ 03:32 PM PST [link]
Wendy informed me that some of the e-mail messages that she's sent me are bouncing back to her. This is very annoying to me. Hotmail doesn't allow all that much space for mail (2 MB) and lately I've received a ton of spam. Especially over night, when I am not there to obsessively filter out the crap from the good stuff, it builds up. So this morning I got rid of a bunch of old messages (I'm such a pack rat that way.) and made a snazzy new contact list so that all I have to do is type in someone's name and when I click send, it will resolve to their address. Every once in awhile, Microsoft applications still amaze me. I realize this is a somewhat elementary feature, but cool all the same.
I had every intention of cleaning last night, but did I? No. This weekend.
It's Oktoberfest in Fremont this weekend. Fremont is one of my favorite places in the world. I hope to go.
It's quiet here at work. Not much to do. I slept in this morning because I figured as much.
This time, it only cost me $15, but still. Last night as I drove home from seeing Luke, the oil light came on again. This morning I called and then took the neon in so that they could hook it up to a computer which is how they decided it was a sensor problem. Thank goodness it was an inexpensive fix. I was worried that it was going to cost me a fortune.
I had the strangest dream last night. I can't go fully into it because I won't disclose who it was about to all of you. You can ask me in instant message or something if you want to know. I may or may not tell you. :) Anyway, it was probably the most sensory filled dream I've ever had. Usually my dreams are pretty sterile; I don't feel things in them. But I certainly did in this one, the overwhelmingly memorable one being how someone's face felt. Strange, huh? There were also the usual oddball details like it all taking place in my grandparents' backyard in Boaz and somehow an alligator fit into it all. There are no alligators in Wisconsin! I can say that I didn't need this dream. Not now. Probably not ever. But of course I can't stop thinking about it. And no, it was not about sex.
I sumitted my poem, Dating, to the Seattle Metro poetry contest. I hope I win. :)
Tonight I will clean my room. And, do laundry.
So I just get my car back and now I have to take it to the shop. At least the oil light coming on is covered by the extended warantee. Thank God I purchased that. However, the mechanic called me and had this list of other things that need to be fixed and his first estimate was $695. I gasped and immediately refused. He then pared it down to $550, which I also balked at. Finally he whittled it down to $395 for something to do with the throttle body. I bet that I am getting screwed over. I bet they saw a young female walk in there and figured they could lampoon me with a bunch of, while possibly not completely bogus, less than immediate potential problems. I acquiesced and agreed to this since mechanics have this way of guilting me into thinking that if the "problems" aren't fixed then my car is going to fall apart. And we all know how much I love this car. Dammit. On a positive tip, though, when I took the car in I mentioned that it needed to new brakes. However, he told me that it didn't need new brakes, just some of the rust needed to be removed. So, that would've been a prime opportunity for him to say yes. But he didn't so that alleviates a little of the hostility I have.
Luke called last night and we had a very nice chat. I'm glad I stayed home. I wish I would've cleaned my room afterwards. Maybe tonight.
The weather has turned to Autumn. It rained yesterday and the days and nights are cool enough that a sweater is appropriate. It reminds me of last year, which stings a bit. It'll be okay, though.
Nikki on 09.17.02 @ 11:39 AM PST [link]
The rain is back today.
Luke and I ended up not going out last night. We played a little voicemail tag but were unsuccessful at hooking up. That's okay. I wasn't really in the mood to go out. My neck hurt (still does actually) from sleeping on it wrong the night before, our team lost the tournament to Rolf's team (who wasn't there), my car is acting weird, and then there was the whole not being allowed to play fiasco. Hardly a recipe for conjuring up a date persona. I went to the Triple J for a little while and mostly stared into space.
I am going to get a kitten, I think. I have a line on one. I miss having a pet. I need something to cuddle with and if there's no guys around then, dammit, I will have to settle for a cat. :) I can be one of those old spinsters that have lots of cats. Why not? I definitely have the spinster thing going. And, I like cats well enough so it seems to be a perfect combination. Children will walk by me, pointing and whispering.
In just a couple weeks I go home. That is always a hit or miss adventure. Mom has already warned me that on the day of the night of my reunion, certain family members are hosting the annual turkey bbq. Good lord. Of all the dates for me to come home, I pick this one? Maybe it won't be so bad this time since I haven't had to endure it for a couple years. I used to like going to relatives' houses. Now I only like going to certain places. Mostly I am irked that it is the same day as the reunion. If I miss one minute of time that I want to be there...I'm not going to be a happy camper. This is the whole reason that I am going home this time.
Nikki on 09.16.02 @ 11:10 AM PST [link]
Actually, it's not the game that sucks. It's the fact that during today's tournament, I didn't get to play. At all. I never touched a bat. My glove never was put on. I was the only one that Mary didn't play. I am really angry with her and I don't care if she doesn't like it that I write about the fact on this Web site. I can be angry about whatever I want to be and this is my site and I have the right to write about it. What she's done is unfair and unsportmanlike. She has taken a game that the majority of the time has been fun and supportive and made it exclusive and alienating. But, I will go to tomorrow's games, knowing full well it will be a repeat of today so that if she feels one smidge of guilt about her choice that she will feel it again. I am part of this team; I went to every game and to every practice and I deserve to play a little.
Enough ranting.
A strange thing happened when I got home from the games. I'd left my Internet connection on accidentally and when I went to check my e-mail, I saw that a Yahoo! chat dialog box was up. I clicked to check his profile and when it displayed, I realized that it was the guy that my roommate has been dating this week. I quickly closed it and proceeded to internally debate what to do: tell her now, tell her later, wait for them to break up. I decided to tell her because I think that I would want to know. Now, granted they've only been dating for a week and it wasn't exclusive, but he was acting, she told me, as though he definitely wanted to move that way. And here he was contacting someone else via the personals just a mere couple hours after she'd left his apartment? So, I told her and she thanked me. We toyed with the idea of messing with him for awhile. She called him and and ended it, telling him that she knew that he had answered at least one personals ad because he'd answered her roommate's. He sputtered and tried to deny and then excuse his actions, but she shut him down anyway. He's added me to his contact list, though, just minutes after she ended it. So, I will mess with him if he ever contacts me. :)
Tomorrow Luke and I are supposed to get together. I've left him in the position of Entertainment Director. He tried to say that he'd come up with last week's idea, but he hadn't. Good lord, don't let me be with another guy who has problems thinking of stuff to do!
I need a drink.
NOTE TO SELF: Do not "accidentally" find yourself in the cologne section of any store that sells Drakkar Noir. Do you enjoy the torture?
I just sneezed something like ten times in a row. I heard somewhere that sneezing is as close to death as one can be because the heart actually stops or skips a beat...something like that. I was in real danger then.
Last night was the Writergrrls Zine meeting which was pretty productive. I didn't find myself getting too antsy, until the end. I know that going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth is part of the normal sequence of such meetings, especially for a Zine as new as ours, but sometimes it just drives me crazy. Afterward, Erich and I went to dinner. It was a pretty cool place. After some wine haggling between the waitress and Erich I finally had my first glass since the drunk-off-an-entire-bottle. Even one glass I can feel. No other alcohol does that to me. It didn't help that I hadn't ate much during the day. Don't think that I was so drunk that I confided all my secrets to poor Erich, or that I started dancing on the table. I didn't even do that after the whole bottle. I am just that good at keeping things to myself when I need to.
While I was driving home, though, he called to make sure that I was okay since I'd mentioned that I was a little buzzed. I don't know what difference it made at that point when I was already on the 520 bridge, but it was sweet all the same. I was perfectly fine, though. I took my half of the road out of the two lanes and I was fine. :) But actually, then I started worrying about if I was indeed okay to drive. Plenty of drunks believe that they're okay and that's when they crash into trees. And then I saw a police car hunkered down on the side of the road and started to worry even more. I made it home fine.
Lately, and I don't think it's only due to the fact I am driving again, I have a hard time just staying home. I avoid being home. Yesterday at work I made a list of things I want to do now that I can get to them more easily now. I even went so far as to print out a calendar and start filling it up. Unfortunately, there are three regularly scheduled things that I would like to do that all take place on Mondays. That leaves six other days to fill. When I am home, I just want to leave, and usually that's when I go to the Triple J even though that's not really where I want to go either. What is wrong with me that I can't just be content at home? I have plenty of things to do there.
New discovery learned the hard way: don't wear rings while batting, especially if you're batting 20 times in a row. Blisters on the hand isn't a good thing. :)
I need to hire someone to come over and fold my clean clothes for me. Once again, two loads of clean clothes are heaped on my bedroom floor because I was "too tired" (or so I told myself) to fold them while they were heaped on my bed before I went to sleep. I hate folding and putting clothes away.
I wish that I had a journal entry for what I did the night before this day last year. I would like to know what I did. Probably, I finished the baby afghan for Camille, since I took it to work the next day. It's always interesting to me how life is causually living itself out before a momentous event, proving over and over that things can change so quickly.
When I woke up this morning, it was foggy. I have awaken to this kind of fog many times in Wisconsin. It's wet and dense and appears to be settled in the for the entire day. This kind of fog only seems to show up about the beginning of the school year.
It seems not many people have responded affirmatively for the class reunion. Stephanie Shannon called me yesterday and said she had only 30 or so people's registration. I only have 13 bios and I know some of those are from the 30 people she knows about. How am I supposed to brag about working at Microsoft if only a handful of people are there? See, it's all about me. Everyone that doesn't send me a bio is going to be given the generic "twelve kids and living in a cardboard box" bio then.
Last night was pretty uneventful, the highlight being that I bought some new sheets for my bed. While doing laundry, I discovered a shirt that I had forgotten that I bought a few weeks ago. Now, is that a sign of a fairly weak memory or that I simply have too many clothes that allows me to go too many weeks between washings (especially for shirts)? And how sad is it that I was actually excited about the fact that I have this new-again shirt?
I also watched the finale of "Sorority," another of the MTV reality dramas. I didn't think that I would like that show; I'd never even meant to start watching it. I was never in a sorority; I'd never even really considered it. But the show was kinda interesting. The girls chosen to live in the pledge house were so...well, so California, which I suppose is appropos since it takes place at UC-Davis. Their hair was always perfect; they were thin and cute and kinda ditzy. My college experience was not like that at all. These girls also seemed to have a lot of money to buy expensive clothes with. Aren't you supposed to be poor in college? Anyway. I finished watching it and two of the six girls from the house chose to "de-pledge" but the rest made it. Next week Real World- Las Vegas begins. I say now that I probably won't watch it, that I won't like it, but I know where my butt will be next Tuesday at 10 pm. I can't stop watching that damn series because I've watched it since high school. I wanted to be on that show. Now I feel really old when I watch it.
On Sunday night when I was at the Triple J, I realized it was the first night in months that I had been there. Most of my excursions have been during the day because of the bus situation. It reminded me of Rolf. Everything does. Good lord, I can't get away from it. Everywhere I turn around: smiley faces. The other night I got out the red sweater with the buttons and remembered that I bought it because of him. This morning I looked in my rearview window and I swear that he was in a car behind me. But he doesn't work on Main Campus and I looked at the license plate and it wasn't his. But it sure looked like him. I have to get through October. That will be the rough month as far as memories go because that was the best month. The month. The pumpkin patch month. Cicele says it's good that I am thinking about him so much because it means that I am getting over him, but that doesn't seem right to me. If I was getting over him, I would be able to go for longer than an hour without remembering something, right?
For once, I had a pretty busy weekend. Friday night, as mentioned in the previous entry, I went out with Erich, Kevin, and Dave. On Saturday, I had to go into work for awhile. It was a tad annoying because someone that was supposed to be around to okay the changes, wasn't, so I spent an extra two hours there that I hadn't needed to be, waiting for the okay. He finally did so at 6:30 that evening, when I checked my mail from home. Scoundrel. Thank goodness I didn't hang around waiting for him all day. I probably would have had I not had better things to do, like get my hair cut and attend Kevin's daughter's, Camille, birthday party. On Sunday, I spent most of the day in preparation for the big event. The big date with Luke. I shopped around until I found a cute peasant blouse. Usually I like these shirts on the hanger but once I try it on don't. However, I found a blue (surprise, surprise) one that I liked. Then I found a swirl (another big shocker) necklace. Finally, for fun, I had my make-up done at the Bobbi Brown make-up counter. I debated about this since I didn't want this guy to think that I look this cute all the time. When I even care enough to put make-up on, it's usually mascara and lip gloss. I've given up trying to look good most of the time. It's futile. Anyway. I decided to do it because...well because I wanted to, damn it. I don't need a reason! The application was okay. I felt like the eyeshadow was too dark, but maybe that's only because I'm not used to it. I wanted to accent my eyes which I think may be the only decent thing about me...what am I going on about make-up for? Geez. No one wants to read about that. I know you just want to hear about the date.
The date was good. We talked for about three hours at the Triple J in Kirkland. He has a great voice, which I always like. There wasn't this huge amount of fireworks, which isn't necessarily bad. I know why I am balking about him. He isn't...he isn't whom I would prefer right now. But he can't be and I shouldn't expect him to be. If he asks, I will go out with him again. I am not discounting him. I am hoping that, if things go well, that who I want is not who I will want anymore. It worked once. It can work again, right? :)
Tonight I am going to go to an MS orchestra rehearsal. I really hope that they don't have a full line-up of marches selected like the Bellevue Community Band did this winter when I played with them. Orchestras don't play marches, right?
Luckily, when I scrapped the old blog, before I started the Grey Matter blog, all the stuff I wouldn't want them to see was eradicated. :) Just kidding.
Last night was great fun. I ended up disclosing just about everything about my experience (if you can call it that) to those guys. It was actually amusing to surprise them; I so rarely get to do that to anyone. But it's good for me. It's not a big deal, right? To talk about sexual topics with friends, of either gender. But this is what I've found regarding that subject. With guys, it's easier for me to just answer questions. With girls, I can bring it up and be fairly detailed. I wonder why that is. Anyway. They said that I could ask them whatever I wanted. But, that feels really weird.
We did go to Hooters, but it was lame. We left without ordering anything. But now I can say, "Oh yeah, I've been to Hooters." I think I can use that at the reunion, too. :)
Have I mentioned that I love my car, my purple Neon? I love driving. I love it that it took me ten minutes to get to work yesterday. That I could pick Dave up for once. That I can go to Seattle tonight if I want. I may just do that. Theatre Sports?
When Dave and I were at Barnes and Noble yesterday, I picked up a free CD that consists of two tracks byMario Frangoulis. It's kinda New Age opera. Interesting. Not sure if I would buy a complete CD, though. But it's good to broaden the horizons. I relearn that lesson every once in awhile.
Nikki on 09.07.02 @ 10:17 AM PST [link]
I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon trying to contact the DMV, to make sure that Dr. Fosmire's fax had reached the appropriate person(s). I got a busy signal for hours. I tried again right before five o'clock because I knew that's when they closed and finally got through to a live human being. She confirmed that the fax was received and then in a sort of off handed way said, "You're clear to drive." "I'm clear to drive??!!!" I asked. She repeated it and I said, "That's the best news that I've had in a long time. Thank you so much!" So, a half hour later I got on the 545 to Seattle, hopefully for the last time, and made my way to Tim's to get my wonderful purple Neon. I wanted to drive across the country a bit, but instead made my way back to the Eastside, stopping at McDonalds for a celebratory meal, the best part being the strawberry shake. This morning I drove to work. I will drive home tonight. This weekend I will drive everywhere I want to go. I love my car.
I also had a nice chat on the phone last night with a guy, who will remain nameless unless heturns out to be a horrible jerk and I feel vindicated by naming him or he turns out to be really cool and I want to brag about him. He called me while I was on the 545 and the bus is really too loud to hold any kind of conversation, let alone a conversation as important as a first conversation. So I told him that I would call back once I got off the bus. He said something kinda cool before that, though. Just after a few sentences were exchanged he said, "You sound tired or distracted." Usually guys don't so easily detect intonation fluctuation, certainly not in someone's voice that they've heard only for about ten seconds. Perhaps it comes from his music training. Anyway. So, I debated about where to go from there. Tim's house didn't seem like quite the place to be holding this delicate talk. And, I thought about going downtown anyway, but I have a hard time focusing when there's a lot of noise around me, so what I wanted was a park. However, I settled for a back corner of the Borders downtown. We chatted for almost two hours. He was really cool, smart, and most importantly, more than capable and willing to engage in witty repartee. We had a lengthy discussion about how Kirkland is trying to take the Microsoft campus out of Redmond and make it part of Kirkland. Great fun.
Tonight I go out with Erich, Dave, and Kevin for dinner. We're supposedly going to Rock Bottom, although it is very close in proximity to Hooters. I hope they don't want to go there.
Last night was the bi-weekly writers' meeting. It had been dwindling in numbers lately and I thought it was on its last legs, but it was revived and a whopping six people in attended, half of which were girls! No one brought anything to critique, so instead we did three writing exercises. It was pretty cool. I wonder if the tease of food and beer brought people. :)
I know, I know. I've been delinquent with the blog entries. But I have a good excuse. Yesterday I spent the majority of the day finishing a short story...the first in a year. When I say "finish" I mean that I completed the rough draft. Very rough. But at least the majority of the framework is there and now I can begin the tedious task of polishing. It's about eight pages. Not so bad. Last year's story was over ten. The end of the story is rushed, but that always happens when I get to the end of a story and I am so excited to finally be to the end and I'm getting all these ideas. I sent it off to Wendy, my favorite credentialed editor, and we'll see what her feedback is. I think it's decent...hopefully she will, too.
This weekend I saw two great movies: My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Amelie. The first one was quite hilarious. The second was very sweet, too. The challenge of that movie was trying to eat and read subtitles concurrently. I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to look down at my food sometimes. Whenever I did that, I missed some critical part that would force us to rewind and rewatch.
Last night was our last two regular season softball games. We won one of the two which we needed to secure first place. Our season record is 14-2. Not too shabby. During the second game, I was injured a little, took a ball to the knee, but I am fine now. It didn't bruise afterall. It was my turn for an injury. :)