#6, 5, or 4

another hot topic of conversation last night was palm reading & personality types. for those of us who are nerdy & enjoy analyzing ourselves with personality testes like the myers briggs type indicator, you may enjoy the enneagram. we were looking through a book about it last night & talking about folks' personalities. this girl i'd never met before & hadn't really spoken to pegged me as a #5. initially indignant, i got over it when i came home & took a quick little test on line & read about the types. i think she may have been right & dammit, that's annoying! the interwebs said i could be 6, 5 or 4 though...

big fat seed

the first half of turkey day i spent deep-cleaning the kitchen, thanks to a cup of caffeinated chai. our place would be a lot cleaner if i consumed caffeine on a regular basis. oh well - we'll just have to be dirty. farmer katie & i went to the garden to pick some veggies & herbs to add to our meal, which was very exciting. i hope to always have a garden - it makes me happy to pick fresh foods i've grown & then turn around & make a meal out of them. for dinner, we were joined by katie's sister & several other good folks. a wacky group. the conversation was a bit bizarre at times. this morning i had to check out one of the random topics that came up. apparently, this is what the young folk have been enjoying these days: what what. it seemed pretty silly until 2-1/2 minutes in & then i just felt grossed out. so... that's that.

talked w/ my folks this morning. my dad's being layed off in mid-january. his company's been struggling for a while, so it's not a huge suprise. my mom's part-time job doesn't provide benefits & my folks really need healthcare coverage. i worry for them because it's never easy for folks near retirement age to find jobs & i imagine it will be much more difficult in this ecomony. i often find myself wondering & worrying what things will be like a few months from now. will there be another depression? this is where dan would say, "we'll just have to wait & see" just like he does when i start asking all kinds of questions during a movie...

the other night when i was procrastinating our turkey day preparations, i was catching up on reading the blog, no impact man. The recent post about christmas & gift-giving really speaks to me. i'm not a fan of running around, spending lots of money, buying gifts that aren't really needed & feeling stressed about it. you can read about it here, if you're interested. i wish it was easier to move in a different direction with the celebration of christmas... but i don't see that happening any time soon either.

the danner's off at work on this black friday. no fun. & i'm off to clean up the disaster in our kitchen & then learn some physics for the final - also no fun.

lazy weekend

not much going on. wrote some physics labs - hooray! ate some bad cheese - boo! got some sleep. hung out with my pal, katie & my hubby, d. fixin for a 3-day work week & then 4 days of jackin' around, cooking & hanging out. it'll probably turn into 1 day of cooking & 2-3 days of some mean physics learnin for the final exam. there's a wacky little bug on our couch cleaning his antennae. kinda cute, kinda wierd. i got a raise the other day. that hasn't happened often in my life - mostly because i seem to switch jobs every year -this year being the exception.

wanna know something embarassing? sometimes, when i'm bored, i watch an instant download of Charles In Charge on netflix.

freedom on the horizon

one more physics class before my final. how the hell is that? whatever. i just want it all to be over! even if i got a zero, i think i'd still get an A in the course. the thing is, i want to know how to do what we're doing so i'll probably read the book & study & spend an insane amount of time figuring it out. plus, part of me doesn't want to let the teacher down. i mean, he thinks i'm super smart for whatever bizarre reason. i'm such a lame!

turkey day's next week. can't believe it. me & the d-bone will be enjoying a tasty meal with our pal katie & possibly some other folks. we shall see. wish we could hang w/ the oregon gang + rr. maybe in the spring?? i succeeded in carrying over a few extra vacation days so i don't have to stress too much about running out next year.

well, the excitement of the new gang is starting to wear off. my supervisor was right. it was just the newness. i mean, they're still great & everything. but i think we're starting to slide a ways down as reality sets in & they realize it's going to be cold as crap for the next 3 or 4 months & they won't always get to work with folks they like... such is life, i suppose. in a few months, i'll have to start the whole process over again.

i'm off to read some physics & eat some diggity-dog dinner. ciao.

cha cha so nasty

it's been a quiet weekend in baltimore. the sleep has been good. the radiators are warm & i only left our place once so far, with the exception of our friday night anniversary celebration. generally that would make for a terrible weekend but i just needed time to chill out from a super busy week.

another physics test come & gone with a score of 139... don't ask me. on thursday the teacher spent at least ten minutes going over the next 2 chapters with me, one-on-one, because he'd decided that not enough students came to class. so he ignored them & talked to me & spilled coffee on my book & cursed a bit & then i left. i felt bad, but it was such a long day/week, i wasn't listening anyway.

aimee came over for dinner on tuesday - cheesy fondue night. it was great to catch up. pkp spent the night & got his car towed - LAME. i felt so terrible - we got there just as the dude was pulling it up on the truck. the bastard. went to a good training - "how to make difficult conversations less difficult". i felt a lot more prepared for the particular conversation i need to have... finished writing the grant at work. didn't have time to proofread it or anything before i submitted it on friday. hope it turned out ok. d & i went out to dinner & dancing friday night. it was pretty fun - though i/we got laughed at by some goons at the dance. what can i say? i'm not the most graceful dancer in the world. i'm not graceful at all, really.

other than that, i've been feeling much older than 31 this week. strange body pains. since thursday, i've had this wierd muscle pain in the back of my knee... like someone kicked me. really terrible. but no one kicked me. what gives? pretty sure none of my shoulder exercised from pt have affected my knee. i've also had this wack pain in my tailbone. i've had this before though. the first time was my sophomore year in college. my ass hurt so bad (from sitting for hours doing drafting assignments) that i went to the health center & some student doctor spread my cheeks & sliced open the cyst that was apparently growing on the tip of my tailbone. it was pretty awkward... i wasn't feeling up for any of that so i've been taking very hot, salty baths for the last few days & it seems to be working. so... i feel like a lemon. maybe i'm really 71 & i somehow missed 40 years of my life...

i'm off to clean up our kitchen cuz my good buddy katie is joining me for some dinner & hanging out. she's back in balto for the winter & i'm uber excited about it. yippie!

again with the boogers

in physics last night, this douche bag asked me who i voted for & silly me, i shared my vote. he was all, "That figures! at that point, i was kind of annoyed so i questioned his response. he asked me if i worked & in the end, he said, "Say goodbye to your salary!" though i was pretty pissed off at that point, the big booger hanging out of his nose made it a lot easier for me to walk away with a smile on my face.

now for some real excitement!

i enjoyed my 4-day weekend... not as much as i thought i would but enough. i was nervous about work-related things i didn't finish for the first 2 days. i think i need to leave town when i have more than 2 or 3 days off so i have a clear break from work. anyway, d & i went on a short hike at Catoctin Mountain Park & that was pretty cool. i'd like to go back again... there was plenty o'time for just chilling, which i miss. i sat around & read a book for fun! screw you physics! um... oh, i also did a lot of physics. writing labs & whatnot. my gal-pal katie is heading back to b'more shortly & i don't want to be tied down w/ physics all the time. sunday was the best day though. i slept so well saturday night that i woke myself up laughing. i don't think that's ever happened to me before. (maybe it's the shoulder stand? i did it a few hours before bed @ they gym... my yoga teachers always say they're a great cure for insomnia but i never believed 'em.) anyway, i was up early writing more physics labs. i wrapped it up around noon, biked to the garden & worked for a few hours. it was great! there's something almost magical about being in the garden for me. there aren't too many places i can go & just be in that space. the garden is the only one i can think of... i'm just there doing whatever i'm doing & i'm only thinking about what i'm doing & nothing else... it was wonderful. my compost is looking so great - chock full of worms & grubs & all kinds of creepy crawlies. it's actually loud, if i put my ear close to it. there's a lot of action going on in there. makes me happy. i biked home with a backpack of kale & leeks. made a fat pot of potato-leek soup (sans dairy), some apple crisp & homemade veggie stock. d-bone & i hung out for the rest of the evening & it was great. a real good day.

today's a different story. back to work. i started wondering why i have this job. this is the part of the year where everything starts slowing down & i feel uber bored. kinda strange how it goes in cycles like this. in a few months i'll be wanting to tear my eyes out because i'm so stressed.

had a conversation at lunch with a coworker about living up to our potential. she watched a documentary about peace pilgrim, a woman who walked for 20-some years for peace. i don't feel too drawn to the documentary but the idea of living up to my potential is interesting... what does it really mean? ...

& i've also been thinking a lot about going back to school... or not. what to do? i'm not getting any younger & school/the idea of school is getting less & less appealing. & yet, it's still appealing. d & i talked about this & some general life stuff a week or so ago & i realized that i feel pretty disconnected from architecture & from all the things that get me excited to go to school & learn more. probably because my job has almost nothing to do with any of that... so, it is what it is. i think i need a few more free-lance gigs to re-evaluate my interest in school. i just started one last friday - for my supervisor. don't know what it is about him though. he kinda intimidates me. not sure if it's because he's my supervisor or what... in most respects, i just feel like he knows way more than me & so why should i bother putting myself out there. kinda stupid but there it is. i really enjoy chatting with his wife though. she's great.

... so that's about the size of it, i guess. other than that, been going to a new physical therapy place. it's great. the therapists are great. they totally kick my ass & it hurts, but i trust them which is a step in the right direction. i could never live like peace pilgrim cuz i need me some damn health insurance.