You and me in Japan! Watch me dance!
Click to viewIt's ridiculous how much of a kick I get out of that.
Sweet, merciful Mendel, it is cold in these here woods! I've been trying to make my bike a more prominent source of transportation (yeah, I know, great timing, Andrea. STFU!), and the weather is not making it easy. If it's not cold as the ninth ring of Hell, then it's raining cats and dogs. Hopefully the next few days will be a little better - it's supposed to warm up a little bit - perhaps some, dare I say it aloud, double digit temperatures. We shall see. I know I could have it a lot worse. Washington state was thankfully spared from the path that Freatherthach the Ice Dragon rent through the country; leaving in his wake a frost, snow and despair. Make no mistake, though - while we did not see his hoary maw, we have felt his passage. I really am not looking forward to snow. I can entertain hope that, at the very least, we will not again experience the Ever Winter that seized our locale last year. I get the feeling wishing for a snow-less winter is a bit too much to ask, though.
I absolutely love my bike. Her name is, Priss - yes, that Priss - and she's a Lady's Schwinn Cruiser. She's my good girl. I saw the model when I was doing my commutes to Sumner for my tattoo apprenticeship. The bike shop next to the Dairy Freeze (Sumner is seriously like...what you would imagine Small Town America to be) was selling them, and I knew immediately that I had to have one. Just not at the ridiculous price they were selling it for. But, thanks to online shopping, the bike was able to be obtained at half the price it would have been otherwise. So, score there. People say that you never forget how to ride a bike, and I suppose this is true, but I think that if it's been a while since you've rode one, you don't remember, either. There's something about pushing yourself up a hill, working your way over uneven ground, feeling the bicycle leaning one way or the other underneath you as you glide around a curve or the build of momentum as you come to the crest of a hill and go bombing down it, evening out with a headful of velocity. It's one of those activities that, when you're really in the middle of it, feeling the ground beneath you and flying along, you wonder what else it was you'd ever wanted. I adore her.
Some of you may know that for the past year or so, I've been embarking on a chiefly vegetarian diet. Well, while I've been experimenting with new and different ways of eating, I've discovered that I'm lactose intolerant. I don't know if I made myself that way by going off of milk for a while, or if it's merely something that's emerged over time and has become more prominent now that I'm an adult. In any case, it's become evident that some of the nutrients I'd normally get from dairy products to supplement my diet are now unattainable and I'm starting to suffer from it. Under advice from my doc, I'm going to start slowly re-introducing meat into my diet. This is probably still going to come chiefly from fish, which I've put on my 'okay' list as far as my diet goes, but I'm going to begin adding very small quantities of poultry as well. I'll probably still shy away from beef and pork products - I just find them way too heavy now. Tofurkey and Morningside stuff's still likely going to be pretty prominent in my house, though. We'll see how it goes.
Since I'll be moving out and Mel's job as a delivery driver would just not make enough money to support him, I've been helping him out by revising his resume, writing him a cover letter, and slinging them out all over the place; embedding them into the walls of potential employers like ninja stars. It appeared to have been a fruitful endeavor, for he now has a job with a company called Balloon Distractions, the resultant training from said company currently occupying most of my coffee table. What he's going to be doing is heading out to restaurants and making balloon animals and whatnot for people while they wait for their food. One of their employees came over today and spent about two hours with Mel demonstrating how to make flowers, poodles, swords, teddy bears and a host of other inflatable creatures (tee hee!). It looks like a job that's going to be fun, unusual, and at twelve bucks an hour, it's nothing to sneeze at. I'm really pleased he found something, and I freaking knew he would if he just got his shit out there. He also has prospects with a company in Korea who may want to hire him on as an English teacher for Korean students. He was unable to get the JET program stuff together for this year, so this is his alternative and it's evidently pretty much guaranteed employment if you apply. Our friend, Angel, is currently participating in the program and she really likes it, so it's certainly an exciting opportunity. If he gets accepted, he may be leaving as early as February. I'm really, really happy for him and I hope very much that he gets it.
Hours at work are fluctuating and I'm kind of 'AUGH' at the moment. I'm kind of sick of being jerked around, but at the same time, I knew that I wouldn't get guaranteed hours when I signed up. I'm trying for PTE and FTE positions now, and I hope to hear something positive back. It's kind of...annoying when I see these go to people who weren't employees with the co-op to begin with, but that's just the way it goes. All the same, with me losing my health insurance at the end of the month and having to pay for it out of pocket, I really would like that sweet, sweet FTE plum. I'm scouting around outside of GHC and doing some feeling out for other places that would offer a similar sort of employment. I really don't want to have to go back to retail. I should be okay on what I have at the moment, but with moving out costs and everything, I may be eating ramen a little more often than I'd like. Still, I've been in much worse situations before. I'll keep.