Afterthought

Right, what I forgot to mention - when talking about how good I was going to be by not having coffee with cream and sugar today - was that I started off the day eating the last creme brule and a couple of home made chocolates. Oops.

Turns Out, Yes They Will

Okay, so I hit "publish" and the tickets were dropped right onto my desk.

But supposing I HADN'T posted about the tickets... would they still have arrived?

Green Tea and an Exciting Story

I'm trying something new today - instead of starting off the day with a coffee with cream and sugar, I'm trying a green tea. We'll see how this goes.

Here's an exciting story: Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl who were going to take a train trip down to San Diego to see their sister and brother-in-law, go to a U2 concert, and then drive to Vegas for a much needed break from the day job. One day they bought tickets via the web for the train since there's no kiosk where one could actually purchase tickets in person. The web promised them they'd have their tickets in time to get on the train, and warned them that their reservation number was not enough. A day passed. Another day passed. Another day passed. Another day passed. Suddenly it was the day before the train was supposed to take the boy and the girl to San Diego. The boy and the girl were very anxious by this time, because the train tickets, which the web had faithfully promised would reach them, had not yet arrived. "I can't believe there's no $%#&! kiosk where you can just go to pick up the $%#!& tickets!" said the boy. "This is #$@%!" said the girl. Will the boy and the girl ever get their tickets for the train? Only the web knows.

Spring Feevah

I am going nuts with this great beautiful weather.

Tomorrow we're taking Luna to the vet to investigate her "scooting" issue.

What will I do if they solve this problem? This oh-so-fun-at-parties problem. I remember - for example - one night when we've got 20 people crowded around the TV watching the Harry Potter movie (this is a long story) and Luna wanders right up next to the TV in typical Kitty Diva style and proceeds to lay a foot long skid mark down on the carpet.

GREAT. Thank you, cat. Not the image I would have chosen people to walk away with, but what are you going to do?

She can be fairly shy around large groups of people, but nothing was going to stop her from making that statement. And the expression on her little face said quite clearly: "Here is what I think of you and your loud, disruptive party. Now, when you have dispensed with these intruders, woman, get me some of those tuna kitty snacks. Oh, and a belly scratch. And step on it, I'm missing out on some prime nap time."

Did I tell you that Luna flirts with JB? Now that she "cuddles" with us on the couch, she picks JB maybe 80% of the time and makes him her lounge. Occasionally she'll choose me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that on those rare occasions she's actually trying to punish JB for some transgression.

No, I'm not jealous, why?

Don't They Make Something For That?

I am having one of those crazy days. Bi-Polar Days, if you want to be specific about it. I feel this is in order:

Dear JB,

I'm sorry I am a crazy person.

I am sorry for getting into a fight with you this morning, making up in the car on the ride to work, having a fight with you in the elevator on the way up to our floor, making up with you outside the security door before going into work and getting into another fight over bagels.

I am sorry about calling you to tell you how crazy I'm feeling, then getting into a fight with you about it. Then calling you an hour later to apologize, share a warm fuzzy moment, then spiral into a depression about how trapped I am in this job.

Sorry that you came into my office to tell me something tiny and got sucked into a ten minute discussion about panic, the industry, how old we're getting. Oh, and how I have lost the ability to be objective about my writing.

Did I mention the part where we got stuck in the hallway after lunch for another ten minutes while I started to cry and had to dodge as coworkers came and went. Sorry about that.

So then we have this nice moment like ten minutes ago and even though we're totally strapped for cash we're planning to go out to dinner. My goal for the day is to make it through the rest of work (i.e., the next hour) without any more emotional outbursts.

Love,
Jenn

PS, you don't have to read that outline. Ever.

Serenity

I'll save you all the trouble. "Geek! Geek! GEEEEEK!"

Now that that is over, I have to tell you that I get more and more excited about "Serenity" every time I hear about it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check this review out:

Another Serenity Review

Cannot wait.

Green Hills

I can't get over how green LA looks right now. The hills I can see outside my office look like they were transplanted from - well, some green place. I would say Ireland but I haven't been there. I guess this would be the upshot of all the rain.

I would make a comparison here between depression and the fruits of a creative life but I don't have it in me at the moment. Plus, I've got it out for the rain for some other reasons right now.

All that aside, however, the hills are really pretty.

YAR

JB and I are using Netflix to get "caught up" with a TV show. This is something I never would have thought would ever catch on. I mean, entire seasons of TV on DVD. BUT I LOVE THEM. I own every season of Buffy. I own the tragically short-lived Firefly. We're Netflixing Alias Season 3 in order to bridge the gap between the Season 2 my sister loaned us and the Season 4 our Tivo has been diligently recording for lo these many weeks.

It's like this: "Short Story" is to "Movie" as "Novel" is to "Really Good Season Of TV."

I want to start the HBO shows we're missing next. Sopranos. Six Feet Under. I've seen Season 1 of Carnival, I'd watch more. The Wire.

M, you're going to have to loan us Season 1 of Invader Zim (if you can bear to part with it briefly).

We Can Rule Out "S.A.D."

So today I CAN see giant rain clouds out my window, but I feel much much better. I don't know if the better mood started with the coffee yesterday afternoon, or the realization that I should shut up with the whining because basically my life is good, or the fact that I got halfway through a rewrite for the outline I'm supposed to be sending the manager who hasn't signed me and shows no indication of wanting to do so.

Probably that last thing. I'm realizing that much of my happiness is connected to how much / often I am writing. By "realizing" I of course mean this is something I know and have known about for years. And by "years" I mean since middle school.

Still have to try that sunshine experiment - but today would probably not be the day.

Coffee Haiku

Coffee, I love you.
But you can be such a bitch,
Staining my new jeans.

Rain Clouds

This would be one of those days when I would generally refrain from posting because I'm in a bleak mood. But I'm trying this whole "post-a-day" craziness so let me think of something to say.

Saw JB's mom this weekend. She is a neat lady. I was in a bit of a blue spell, and she and JB went out a couple of times while I stayed home and tried not to infect everyone around me with this little depression problem. She got me some flowers and a flower pot for my container-garden-to-be. Very sweet. The flowers are Gerber (sp?) Daisys, and they are bold, red and yellow (hm... SC?) colors.

Spent a long time talking to my dad on the phone yesterday which was really nice. (Thanks, dad).

Good news, no rain clouds outside. I wish I was one of those people who could stand in the sun and feel all better. Maybe I'll try that. Update forthcoming on the whole "macigal sun cure."

Sugar High

Okay, seriously, I had some pie about 5 minutes ago and it feels like someone is filling my head up with helium. When did I get so freakishly sensitive to sugar? Or is it the second cup of coffee? Or the combination?

I am a balloon. Of sugar and panic. A balloon with bangs.

Philotic Connections

I'm so happy for my sister! She has had a uber-empowering week. After a long time of feeling unappreciated at her job, she fought for a promotion, was denied, and then turned around a resigned. As soon as they heard she had resigned, 2 other departments at her office called her with job offers - but she's taking the offer (right?) of a different company. I love these little living-vicariously through one's sibling moments. Contented sigh.

This is the week after she was evacuated from her house in San Diego and forced to flee to LA to stay with JB and myself for the weekend while the city determined whether her condo was going to slide off the mountain or not. With her two cats. The cats that have "history" with Luna.

Congratulations, M! It's so satisfying to watch a smart, talented woman reach that point where she's just not going to take any more shit from a condescending, unappreciative boss, then when she quits, find out how much the REST of the company loves and appreciates her.

I have to say, I am glad to be able to blog about this - I didn't want to be the one to break any news to anyone (including the evacuation of said condo and/or the quitting of the job). I SUPPORT YOU, CHICA!

Harp, Absolut Vanilla & Tonic, Cosmo

No hang over.

Corporate Drinks

Corporate drinks tonight. This would not be the Long-Island-Iced-Tea kind of thing. More like a Single-Glass-Of-Wine-And-Drink-It-Slowly deal. It's weird getting drunk in front of your boss.

Yeah.

Did I tell you the story about how I got drunk at the Christmas Party and broke two glasses at this very nice restaurant (by toasting everything with my Japanese co-worker)? There was this guy - you know who you are, mister - who would fill up our wine glasses whenever we weren't looking. Bad! Bad! I vaguely remember looking up at one point in the evening to find the ENTIRE COMPANY standing around our table smiling. I think we were toasting the napkins by that point, I couldn't tell ya. That was shortly before the BIG BOSS took me aside and suggested I take a nice walk around the patio with some coworkers who were not intoxicated and maybe stay away from the wine for a couple of minutes.

We also - again, don't remember where this took place in the course of the evening - became the compliment gang. Random people would walk up to us and get complimented and told how awesome they were and how we wanted our daughters to be just like them... I think this caused a little bit of undue stress for some of our male co-workers.

I will just state, for the record, that I am now very conservative with my alcohol intake at corporate functions. And I don't set my wine glass down anymore.

At least I didn't cry.

Cookies

We keep passing Girl Scout Cookie Tables everywhere. Samoas and Thin Mints. Mmmm. Samoas and Thin Mints are particularly good frozen. I tried to buy a year's worth of cookies, but we have this whole mortgage thing now... GS cookies are not cheap. But they sure are tasty.

Oh, Yeah, And By The Way...

I decided to change up the Blog look - and just lost all my comments. Will investigate getting those back. In the meantime, I'll be trying out the new "improved" Blogger comments.

Resistance Is Futile

JB and I just got a new dentist. We've been going to our New Mexico dentists for the past 7 years. This wasn't a problem when we'd go back at Christmas and in the summer. It became more of a problem when we started going back just at Christmas. And it became something of a small emergency when we thought we weren't going to make it back this year at all. I don't know if our "not getting a Californian dentist" was laziness on our part. I don't know if it was a feeble resistance to the idea that we're living in LA. But we've got one now. Add that to the new digs, and I think we're staying for a while.

Just Say No

Some girls can pull off bangs. Okay - I've officially had them for almost a month, and I don't think I'm one of those girls. I thought at first I was just being hypercritical and that they'd grow on me. Nope. Well, I HOPE they grow on me. Grow out on me. Grow out until they can no longer be classified as "bangs."

I'm going back to my hair cutter (I know! there's a better word for it but I don't want to think too hard right now) in a month and will tell her to please let this mistake grow out. I haven't officially had bangs since early EARLY high school. I say "officially" because there was this period in college (amid long year + intervals wherein no scissors were allowed to violate a 5 foot radius around my head) where I'd get bored of growing it out and I'd clip little "cheater bangs." You know, so when you pull your hair back into a pony tail you have these little wisps to fall softly around your face.

But seriously. If I ever ask you, like five years from now, if you think bangs would look good on me, just say "no." Or "Bad, Jenn, bad!"

I Made My Sister Cry

I yanked my previous post. Thank you for the comments, though.

Sorry I made you cry, M. Everything I said to you was good and true (not on the blog, though, the part that made you cry was from evil negative Jenn, and she is back in the hole now. She has to come out every once in a while and snap at the world around her. I think she does it to protect me.)

It's very tiring to realize I have miles to go before I sleep with this project.

Whatever.

Gripe.