I'd only read 1/3 of this poem aloud before Heather made me stop. Via
sraun. That career meme:
1. Computer Support Person
2. Computer Programmer
3. Multimedia Developer
4.Anthropologist
5.Business Systems Analyst
6. Communications Specialist
7. Public Relations Specialist
8. Writer
9. Print Journalist
10. Critic
11. Market Research Analyst
12. Translator
13. Web Developer
14. Database Developer
15. Technical Writer
16. Activist
17. Political Aide
18. Public Policy Analyst
19. Video Game Developer
20. Webmaster
21. Professor
22. Website Designer
23. Clergy
24. Sport Psychology Consultant
25. Archivist
26. Historian
27. Psychologist
28. Cardiovascular Tech
29. Electroneurodiagnostic Tech
30. Editor
31. Computer Network Specialist
32. Optician
33. Corporate Trainer
34. Tattoo Artist
35. Customer Service Representative
36. Special Effects Technician
37. Desktop Publisher
38. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
39. Computer Trainer
40. Actor
TMBG is going to be in Tucson! Hmm... Except that's right in the middle of Prime Moving Time, dammit.
Wednesday: Took a look at the place that M found. Whatever the woman's motivations in picking out the spot, her instincts were dead on. The place seems fabulous, and a great fit. It's a coffeehouse/gym/art haven/stuff-shop/retreat kind of place, by and for the LBGTQ population. It's well-lit, well laid-out, has wi-fi (keyed), and has the most comfortable and sheltering aura of any place I've walked in to short of my best friend's room on a day when he's feeling especially protective of me. I'd be comfortable moving right the hell over there next time, but this is something for the group to decide. Group was small that night; I wound up half in IRC, half ripping Circle of Fire into shreds and rewriting it tighter and better, and half present for the plotting, gossip, and medical woes catchup session. Fruitz is a blessing -- I can be listening to my music without stressing out my laptop even more.
Happy New Year, by the way, for those celebrating.
Thursday night was again minus the traditional dinner, because that night has become not the best night. Negotiations are in progress about a good replacement night. I'm reluctant to suggest a work night, because of how early we have to get up in the morning. That'll become a little better once we get moved out thattaway, but it's still not an easy timing.
I wound up with the His Dark Materials trilogy in omnibus form, and commenced reading that as soon as I finished off Born to Rock. In the bookstore, I had found the books in shiny new release form, in connection with the movie coming out soon. I wandered over in search of Born to Rock. In the YA section, I observed an employee letting an older couple know that the book down there had the book that they wanted, but it was an omnibus with the rest of the trilogy. My ears perked up, and I wound up swapping the omnibus they were holding for the trilogy I was holding, and we all walked away happy.
hcolleen and I went to the little Turkish restaurant in the same plaza as Changing Hands. Their hummus is tasty. It's a great place to unwind from work. As we were getting settled into Vash in the parking lot outside Changing Hands,
hcolleen commented about the magnetic sign on the side of a nearby car. I took a look. hcolleen was curious about the domain name, of course. I took a look, and something about that domain name struck me as familiar - www.masterpiecemassage.com - and suddenly I was leaping out of the car, flying across the parking lot, and shouting. I was right! It was manifestress. After exchanging a hug and doing a happy little dance around, she wanted to know who I was. And then there was more hugging and giggling! There were introductions all around. a_joyous_life got a picture with my cellphone, and I posted it immediately. It was the sort of event that someone of V's generation might describe as "cosmic", and I agree profoundly! Friday: Morning: checking email, answering comments, reading. Afternoon: getting
hcolleen's banking done, hitting IKEA to take a look at furniture (Myrrh's dad is going to be pitching in on a couch, especially given that relatives will be descending upon her soon and will need a place to sleep), hitting Lee Lee's for tea, LJ, shower, and now bed. At IKEA, we started looking at couches. It started out subtly -- none of us was really feeling that there were three people involved in the process -- there was a silent fourth. When we started bounce-testing couches with
jai_dit in mind, we knew why. One of the things that IKEA does not necessarily test the happy raw pine basic futon frames for is the ability to be repeatedly bounced on, and the one that myrrhianna had is well-nigh totaled (a group effort, actually -- I helped). It'll be all right just sitting there, but it'll have to be used gently and with a mind to how it's fragile, and it won't survive the move. So the next couch we get is going to have to survive far more bouncing. (It wasn't as bad as the CLIMB-IT episode* with Dad, because that was a single moment of pure bad idea. This was just constant heavy use involving flopping and ROCKETBOY and some injudicious leaning.) We're planning as if JD will definitely be coming back this summer (and coming for Thanksgiving), because while it's still up in the air on his end, it won't cause any difficulty to be prepared and have JD make other plans, it would be inconvenient if we needed to prepare but didn't, and ... well, he's sort of like a little brother now, and he'll always have a place with us. We had a great old conversation with an IKEA co-worker in the couch section. We wound up on the topic of Kitchen Disasters We Have Known, at some length. I thought we were going to try to take him home with us.
Curtains in the living room are going to be the next big debate. I like the leafy ones! I like blue, of course, but my taste in blue doesn't get to dominate the public areas.
myrrhianna gets the master bedroom, because otherwise hcolleen and I would fight and be disgruntled no matter who got it -- we know we're too much like sisters, but we can agree that myrrhianna gets it, on the condition that we get to use her bathroom too, as necessary. The couch color coordination problem was solved, at length -- neutral/white couch stuff, and then COLORFUL FABRICS to make things work. Hooray fabrics! I nearly got lost at Lee Lee's, because I wandered off. It turned out to be in search of pickled sushi ginger slices (mmm) and more vinegar-based dressing, and a few other random things. Perhaps they should leash me, as if I were an errant toddler?
I still need to make sure that HR got that paperwork faxed to the apartment complex.
* Mama was reading a book on (I think) Woolly Mammoths to Tay-Tay and me. She had finished with the book-part, and had moved on to the glossary. "Climate," she started reading. "Climb it?" said Dad, in that bright and cheerful tone that our clan (especially the male members of our clan) substitutes for the phrase 'Y'all watch this!' Dad proceeded to plant his great booted foot on the arm of the couch, and pushed off from the ground with his other foot, intending to climb the couch as we children (I think we were four and two) did. Instead of the desired effect, of Dad standing on the arm of the couch, there was the sickening sound of a 2x4 cracking. When the catastrophe was over, Dad stood there, looking very silly and no little ashamed, with one foot on the floor, and his other leg up to the thigh inside the newly broken arm of the hideous orange burlap couch. The couch was broken like that for years before it finally was thrown out.
