Monthly Update
I went to Kansas City and then Chicago over Labor Day weekend. Kansas City was terrific - I stayed in the Westport area at a lovely hotel that played Regina Spektor as elevator music, went to a rockabilly concert/parking lot car show, ate some barbecue, and enriched myself with some art at the Kemper Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the latter of which I have dubbed the best museum in America that you've never heard of. I went to wedding #4 of 5, where I knew only two people besides bride and groom and which featured beer pong at the wedding reception. Great to see Seattle people, but I was out of sorts at the reception; the bride and groom were busy, of course, and the other two people I knew were, like, socializing, and I don't play beer pong, so I ended up sitting at a table by myself, playing with my phone. That my friends' wedding reception was the least fun I had all weekend should be indicative of how surprisingly awesome Kansas City was!
The other half of the weekend, in Chicago, I seriously did nothing but ride transit from point A to point B, where both points were someplace I ate while catching up with friends. Unfortunately my poor planning skillz meant that I screwed over starofpersia on Sunday and we didn't hang out at all, except for two brunches, despite her being kind enough to put me up.
I came to the realization that I have done this same thing on no fewer than three of the trips I've taken this summer. I blew off starofpersia, blew off my host in D.C. for wedding #1, and blew off a friend of a friend in Providence whom I was supposed to stay with after wedding #3 but instead stayed in Newport. That's not cool. I don't get to be all "here's what a friend acts like" and then pull that shit. THREE TIMES. We call that BEING A HUGE, GRADE-A FLAKE and I thought I'd outgrown that kind of inconsiderate West Coast shit. I've apologized in each instance and tried to do something nice to make up for it, but going forward, when traveling, I need to not overcommit myself socially and stick better to my plans ("it's been nice but I have to go now" instead of "oh what the hell, I can totally spend all my time at this hot dog stand/pirate bar/fancy hotel with you instead of leaving to see my other friend, who is important to me"). And most importantly, when social engagements do run overtime, check in earlier instead of leaving people hanging. Communication: it works, bitches.
Boris got his external fixator off! NINE MONTHS he had that thing on there and he finally looks normal again instead of like Frankenkitty. However, he has had a yeast infection in his ears for ages that we've been trying to clear up. At this point I have to squirt two different kinds of cleanser/medicated fluid in his ears, twice a day, and he HATES it. It's really almost as bad as the worst times caring for him just after his leg operation, with him struggling and clawing and yowling and me ending up with fresh scratches every time. He sulks for ten minutes and then gets over it. Twice a goddamn day. #$%^@* moist, humid environment.
It's apparently fall, as the hideous heat and humidity of August have abated somewhat. People keep leaving (another one today); I think there are two or three more who are leaving at the end of this month or early next month. The incoming newbies are great; I've gotten lots of socializing with them and the fall interns. I wish there were more people in OSJ, but except for like three people, everybody who lives in Condado lives in the same building, so at least I get one-stop shopping. We had a pool party at that building yesterday. It's a hard-knock life, it is.
Lately I am really digging the latest LCD Soundsystem and Bo Diddley. I have only myself to blame for getting through nearly three decades without being exposed to the genius of Bo Diddley, who wrote some of the sexiest music of all time.
I'm coming to SF October 9 and 10. Making no promises about seeing anybody unless they're at wedding #5. (Come to think of it, god damn it, I flaked on my family when I was home for wedding #2, also. I barely saw them because I was out socializing. But that's more to be expected, I suppose? Or more forgivable, when it's your family, y'know, your one and only blood relatives with whom you have limited time on this earth oh god I am a terrible daughter.) And then the weddings are over, for me anyway. I'll have attended 5, out of the 10 that have happened/will happen this year among my various friends. I expect another bumper crop of babies by 2012, people. Speaking of babies, OMG, it's any day now, isn't it? -- by the time I go home in October, Josh will have spawned. This has been freaking me out. But not nearly as much as it has him. :)
P.S. ARRRRRRR AVAST ME HEARTIES!!!!! Today be TLAPD 2010! I remember exactly two years ago today, driving back to Seattle and getting in late at night to find voicemail following up on the videoconference interview from earlier in the week, asking me to call the next day, just a couple more questions... and the question turned out to be a job offer. And here I am.
The other half of the weekend, in Chicago, I seriously did nothing but ride transit from point A to point B, where both points were someplace I ate while catching up with friends. Unfortunately my poor planning skillz meant that I screwed over starofpersia on Sunday and we didn't hang out at all, except for two brunches, despite her being kind enough to put me up.
I came to the realization that I have done this same thing on no fewer than three of the trips I've taken this summer. I blew off starofpersia, blew off my host in D.C. for wedding #1, and blew off a friend of a friend in Providence whom I was supposed to stay with after wedding #3 but instead stayed in Newport. That's not cool. I don't get to be all "here's what a friend acts like" and then pull that shit. THREE TIMES. We call that BEING A HUGE, GRADE-A FLAKE and I thought I'd outgrown that kind of inconsiderate West Coast shit. I've apologized in each instance and tried to do something nice to make up for it, but going forward, when traveling, I need to not overcommit myself socially and stick better to my plans ("it's been nice but I have to go now" instead of "oh what the hell, I can totally spend all my time at this hot dog stand/pirate bar/fancy hotel with you instead of leaving to see my other friend, who is important to me"). And most importantly, when social engagements do run overtime, check in earlier instead of leaving people hanging. Communication: it works, bitches.
Boris got his external fixator off! NINE MONTHS he had that thing on there and he finally looks normal again instead of like Frankenkitty. However, he has had a yeast infection in his ears for ages that we've been trying to clear up. At this point I have to squirt two different kinds of cleanser/medicated fluid in his ears, twice a day, and he HATES it. It's really almost as bad as the worst times caring for him just after his leg operation, with him struggling and clawing and yowling and me ending up with fresh scratches every time. He sulks for ten minutes and then gets over it. Twice a goddamn day. #$%^@* moist, humid environment.
It's apparently fall, as the hideous heat and humidity of August have abated somewhat. People keep leaving (another one today); I think there are two or three more who are leaving at the end of this month or early next month. The incoming newbies are great; I've gotten lots of socializing with them and the fall interns. I wish there were more people in OSJ, but except for like three people, everybody who lives in Condado lives in the same building, so at least I get one-stop shopping. We had a pool party at that building yesterday. It's a hard-knock life, it is.
Lately I am really digging the latest LCD Soundsystem and Bo Diddley. I have only myself to blame for getting through nearly three decades without being exposed to the genius of Bo Diddley, who wrote some of the sexiest music of all time.
I'm coming to SF October 9 and 10. Making no promises about seeing anybody unless they're at wedding #5. (Come to think of it, god damn it, I flaked on my family when I was home for wedding #2, also. I barely saw them because I was out socializing. But that's more to be expected, I suppose? Or more forgivable, when it's your family, y'know, your one and only blood relatives with whom you have limited time on this earth oh god I am a terrible daughter.) And then the weddings are over, for me anyway. I'll have attended 5, out of the 10 that have happened/will happen this year among my various friends. I expect another bumper crop of babies by 2012, people. Speaking of babies, OMG, it's any day now, isn't it? -- by the time I go home in October, Josh will have spawned. This has been freaking me out. But not nearly as much as it has him. :)
P.S. ARRRRRRR AVAST ME HEARTIES!!!!! Today be TLAPD 2010! I remember exactly two years ago today, driving back to Seattle and getting in late at night to find voicemail following up on the videoconference interview from earlier in the week, asking me to call the next day, just a couple more questions... and the question turned out to be a job offer. And here I am.