Three months of posts at once -- you're welcome!
Mid-April
I ought to be working on a major web project for work right now. But I feel nauseous and gross. Which is maddening on several levels: one, I'm not getting work done, and two, I turned down an offer from Captain Hammer to go to the drive-in movie theater in order to get this work done. On the other hand, if I'd gone to the movies I'd just be sick there, which would be no fun, as opposed to being sick at my house, which is at least comfortable and has ginger tea and Monty Python.
So it's been an interesting few weeks. I haven't posted in two months and publicly in the better part of three. I've been busy. I'm still dating the chap from my previous post, hereinafter to be known as "Captain Hammer." He's still adorable and we're still having a lot of fun. He continues to be considerate and sweet and funny and sincere.
We aren't officially in a relationship, which is sort of aggravating more than two months in, but my therapist tells me not to freak out and dump him. (I can't dump him, actually, since we're only dating. But whatever. That way lies Crazytown.)
The other big news of late is that Erik Harrison, Whose Name Should Be Known Throughout the Land, has moved in to my spare room, which is no longer spare but is in fact Erik's room. It's pretty awesome. He's been here two weeks and it still sort of feels like vacation all the time. Like we have to go to all the good restaurants now, before he leaves. Also, we've been hanging out as a trio a lot -- me and Erik and Captain Hammer -- and I fear we're driving Hammer a little berserk with the constant reminiscing, though he denies it. (Though my policy, officially, with regard to Hammer is to believe everything he says. Because for once I'm dating someone I respect and trust, so when he says something doesn't bother him, I'm trying to make myself believe him.) All of that will subside as we all get used to having him around, I'm sure. But I like having a roommate again, and Erik has been splendid so far, roommate-wise.
First of May
The party that Captain Hammer and I were going to go to was canceled due to host's illness at the last minute, so I decided that it was to be date night. Hammer and I went to my favorite Indian restaurant and had a fantastic dinner, then sat in his car for a while and listened to music, then went to DC for a midnight showing of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. We got home around 3 am and went to sleep substantially later.
Our original plan for Saturday was to look at some potential apartments for Captain Hammer and then go to Lady Windermere's Fan at our theater with Erik Harrison and a friend of Hammer's.
What we actually did: we lay around until 1:00, then Hammer and Erik and I went to a surprisingly good Italian restaurant in Alexandria for lunch; we came back to my place and took a nap for the next three hours; having missed the window for theater tickets, we decided to go to an improv show by a friend of ours; we rounded up Erik and went to DC; after the show we came back and went to IHOP and gorged ourselves on chocolate chocolate chip pancakes and nutella crepes and bacon and eggs and sausages, and got home around 1 am.
Hammer couldn't spend the night because he had to teach this morning, but that probably got me out of bed earlier -- I got myself together, took Erik to run errands, came home and put away groceries, then cleaned like a mad thing. I vacuumed like I have rarely vacuumed before, and finally got a bunch of books I haven't looked at in years boxed up and stored away.
Mid-May
I've been working on decorating again a lot lately -- having more people in the house on a regular basis has made it seem more important. Erik's always there, of course, and Hammer comes over a couple of times a week, and now Erik's got a friend spending time here, and with me and Erik both out here we're having My Favorite Pirate and Salazar more often... this is all good, really, and I love my house and motivation to make it pretty.
It started with a new sofa, which I've been meaning to do for ages and finally had the spare cash for. My old futon had done good service, but, one, Erik needs it to sleep on, and two, it's nice enough for sleeping but always a bit... melty when in seating mode. The new sofa is the cheap-o model from IKEA, but it's quite nice with a custom cover from another store -- dark brown chenille. Looks lovely with the walnut floor and the butter yellow walls and the white rug and the orange easy chair.
I've also done my part to make Erik's room livable by getting as much of my stuff in there stored away as I could manage, and putting a bookshelf in there for him to store things. That entailed getting a (really lovely, actually) new bookshelf for the living room and (a very cheap) one for my bedroom. The one for my bedroom, the white metal thing from IKEA, I covered in blue and coppery brown wrapping paper to match my room. Looks quite nice now, actually. And I cleaned my closet for the first time in around a year, and I got a trash can for my bedroom, and a proper night table (albeit the $7 end table from IKEA), because I'm spending more quality time in my bedroom these days.
There are still some things I want to get done around the house -- finishing the painting in the bathrooms is high on my list -- but I'm fairly satisfied with things there now, and these fairly small (cheap) changes have made it far more amenable to persistent habitation by 2-3 people. Next up: the front porch. There's about two years of weeding to do.
In other news: work is good. We got our new website up and running, and I trained some of our staff to use it, so I don't have to do so much overtime. I'm becoming increasingly useful to my boss and really figuring out what I like and am good at (video production, webmonkeying, social media) and what I'm really not great at (science writing, organizational networking). And our team is coming together and everybody is finding a specific niche, and things just seem to be working surprisingly well these days.
Theater is okay. I got cast in an incredibly tiny role at the high-profile local theater where I did the show with Captain Hammer. It's sort of maddening -- the place does shows six nights a week for a month, and I'm literally onstage for less than 30 seconds. The reason I'm finally getting all this posting done is because my director is holding me hostage through hours of rehearsal for my 30 seconds. I'm not thrilled about this. But I'll live. Still beats the 4 am shift. Next time I'll be more judicious about what roles I say I'll accept.
And then there's Captain Hammer. Still dating, still rather smitten with him. I'm now officially empowered to refer to him as my boyfriend, which I have been doing with wild abandon. I'm still a neurotic mess with some kind of relationship PTSD from Scott, but I'm trying to handle it. (Scott would no doubt argue I was a neurotic mess before we started dating, and he would not be wrong -- now I just have a different set of neuroses.) The key so far has been focusing on the moment and not obsessing about the future. My therapist thinks I should learn to meditate, which seems like a very good idea. I am too impatient and don't have the attention span for meditation, though -- which, I know, is why you learn to meditate in the first place.
I ought to be working on a major web project for work right now. But I feel nauseous and gross. Which is maddening on several levels: one, I'm not getting work done, and two, I turned down an offer from Captain Hammer to go to the drive-in movie theater in order to get this work done. On the other hand, if I'd gone to the movies I'd just be sick there, which would be no fun, as opposed to being sick at my house, which is at least comfortable and has ginger tea and Monty Python.
So it's been an interesting few weeks. I haven't posted in two months and publicly in the better part of three. I've been busy. I'm still dating the chap from my previous post, hereinafter to be known as "Captain Hammer." He's still adorable and we're still having a lot of fun. He continues to be considerate and sweet and funny and sincere.
We aren't officially in a relationship, which is sort of aggravating more than two months in, but my therapist tells me not to freak out and dump him. (I can't dump him, actually, since we're only dating. But whatever. That way lies Crazytown.)
The other big news of late is that Erik Harrison, Whose Name Should Be Known Throughout the Land, has moved in to my spare room, which is no longer spare but is in fact Erik's room. It's pretty awesome. He's been here two weeks and it still sort of feels like vacation all the time. Like we have to go to all the good restaurants now, before he leaves. Also, we've been hanging out as a trio a lot -- me and Erik and Captain Hammer -- and I fear we're driving Hammer a little berserk with the constant reminiscing, though he denies it. (Though my policy, officially, with regard to Hammer is to believe everything he says. Because for once I'm dating someone I respect and trust, so when he says something doesn't bother him, I'm trying to make myself believe him.) All of that will subside as we all get used to having him around, I'm sure. But I like having a roommate again, and Erik has been splendid so far, roommate-wise.
First of May
The party that Captain Hammer and I were going to go to was canceled due to host's illness at the last minute, so I decided that it was to be date night. Hammer and I went to my favorite Indian restaurant and had a fantastic dinner, then sat in his car for a while and listened to music, then went to DC for a midnight showing of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. We got home around 3 am and went to sleep substantially later.
Our original plan for Saturday was to look at some potential apartments for Captain Hammer and then go to Lady Windermere's Fan at our theater with Erik Harrison and a friend of Hammer's.
What we actually did: we lay around until 1:00, then Hammer and Erik and I went to a surprisingly good Italian restaurant in Alexandria for lunch; we came back to my place and took a nap for the next three hours; having missed the window for theater tickets, we decided to go to an improv show by a friend of ours; we rounded up Erik and went to DC; after the show we came back and went to IHOP and gorged ourselves on chocolate chocolate chip pancakes and nutella crepes and bacon and eggs and sausages, and got home around 1 am.
Hammer couldn't spend the night because he had to teach this morning, but that probably got me out of bed earlier -- I got myself together, took Erik to run errands, came home and put away groceries, then cleaned like a mad thing. I vacuumed like I have rarely vacuumed before, and finally got a bunch of books I haven't looked at in years boxed up and stored away.
Mid-May
I've been working on decorating again a lot lately -- having more people in the house on a regular basis has made it seem more important. Erik's always there, of course, and Hammer comes over a couple of times a week, and now Erik's got a friend spending time here, and with me and Erik both out here we're having My Favorite Pirate and Salazar more often... this is all good, really, and I love my house and motivation to make it pretty.
It started with a new sofa, which I've been meaning to do for ages and finally had the spare cash for. My old futon had done good service, but, one, Erik needs it to sleep on, and two, it's nice enough for sleeping but always a bit... melty when in seating mode. The new sofa is the cheap-o model from IKEA, but it's quite nice with a custom cover from another store -- dark brown chenille. Looks lovely with the walnut floor and the butter yellow walls and the white rug and the orange easy chair.
I've also done my part to make Erik's room livable by getting as much of my stuff in there stored away as I could manage, and putting a bookshelf in there for him to store things. That entailed getting a (really lovely, actually) new bookshelf for the living room and (a very cheap) one for my bedroom. The one for my bedroom, the white metal thing from IKEA, I covered in blue and coppery brown wrapping paper to match my room. Looks quite nice now, actually. And I cleaned my closet for the first time in around a year, and I got a trash can for my bedroom, and a proper night table (albeit the $7 end table from IKEA), because I'm spending more quality time in my bedroom these days.
There are still some things I want to get done around the house -- finishing the painting in the bathrooms is high on my list -- but I'm fairly satisfied with things there now, and these fairly small (cheap) changes have made it far more amenable to persistent habitation by 2-3 people. Next up: the front porch. There's about two years of weeding to do.
In other news: work is good. We got our new website up and running, and I trained some of our staff to use it, so I don't have to do so much overtime. I'm becoming increasingly useful to my boss and really figuring out what I like and am good at (video production, webmonkeying, social media) and what I'm really not great at (science writing, organizational networking). And our team is coming together and everybody is finding a specific niche, and things just seem to be working surprisingly well these days.
Theater is okay. I got cast in an incredibly tiny role at the high-profile local theater where I did the show with Captain Hammer. It's sort of maddening -- the place does shows six nights a week for a month, and I'm literally onstage for less than 30 seconds. The reason I'm finally getting all this posting done is because my director is holding me hostage through hours of rehearsal for my 30 seconds. I'm not thrilled about this. But I'll live. Still beats the 4 am shift. Next time I'll be more judicious about what roles I say I'll accept.
And then there's Captain Hammer. Still dating, still rather smitten with him. I'm now officially empowered to refer to him as my boyfriend, which I have been doing with wild abandon. I'm still a neurotic mess with some kind of relationship PTSD from Scott, but I'm trying to handle it. (Scott would no doubt argue I was a neurotic mess before we started dating, and he would not be wrong -- now I just have a different set of neuroses.) The key so far has been focusing on the moment and not obsessing about the future. My therapist thinks I should learn to meditate, which seems like a very good idea. I am too impatient and don't have the attention span for meditation, though -- which, I know, is why you learn to meditate in the first place.