You Like Me, and It's Freaking Me Out

Met Wes's parents last night! I was SO nervous I almost turned around 10 times on my way to the restaurant. They were really nice, and so was his sister. Very congenial and conversational. I hope they liked me, too. I'm glad I met them, and I'm glad the first meeting is complete.

They invited me to accompany Wes when he meets them at Disney World today, and I'd like to do it, get to know them better (and, of course, spend time with Wes). Today, there are a lot of good things on the agenda:

1. Coffee and bagels--done. Residual anxiety caused me to wake up very, very early, and I only wish I had some quarters so I could do some laundry. I suppose I could go for a run or grade. Hm.

2. Inspect the condo at 10:00

3. Meet Amy for lunch! at 11:30

4. Drop my bike off at Orange Cycle at 1:30?

5. Accompany Wes to Disney World (probably) around 2:30

6. Buy cake for Cake or Death party?

7. Cake or Death party from 7:00-midnight

Wow, that's a lot o' stuff, but all of it's good. :)

Was Duffy just using a backing track on SNL, and not using it well, at that? I counted one held note (no change in embouchure) when the music stopped completely at a rest, the mic moving away from her face while her mouth continued to move, and, at the end, her saying thank you into the mic when no sound could be heard.

If this is so, will she receive the same backlash as Ashlee Simpson?

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I just got promoted!

I went from Assistant Course Director to Course Director for Creative Writing for Computer Animation. Woo-hoo!
It feels really good to get recognition for all the hard work I've been doing.

I'm sure more hard work will come.

Now, if only the comp. instructors could get raises...

11:03 and done with some meticulous admin. crap mostly having to do with attendance errors because of the hurricane. One day, 10 minutes into lab, the power went out (and stayed out). Now a student failing for attendance says he was going to come to lab after picking his car up from the shop. He told me the next class that he came to a dark classroom, and now he's failing for attendance.

And there were a couple other issues as well. I made some errors with the sheet, and I hope admitting these mistakes for last month won't come back to haunt me.

And, in case you're wondering, I did, in fact, reach my goal yesterday. yay. I kind of wanted to stab my pen into my eye because I left with a migraine. The last five, which I graded this morning, were good. I feel accomplished. Now work isn't haunting me, and I'm ready (I think...) for Monday. Bring it on?

Okay, Livejournal and Jenny Lewis,

It's 10:05 a.m. Thursday. In front of me, I have 35 analytical essays about the likes of Edward Scissorhands and Blade Runner and Fight Club in front of me. My goal is to grade 15 before lunch, 15 after, and five tomorrow.

And, as usual, I'll be using this to update my progress and *coughcough* brag.

I'm listening to "Jack Killed Mom" 'cause I can't get it out of my head. More thoughts later.

Edit: Five down at 10:46. One BRILLIANT titled Blade Runner vs. Blade Runner: Art vs. Product"

Am disturbed that so many people are messing up basic citations, even after getting time in class to work on them and numerous on-board examples. Blood pressure's rising, jaw is clenching.

Edit: 11:43 and five more are complete. It was slow going; I needed a ten-minute break with three left to go. It may be time for lunch.

Edit: 1:52 and slowing down. Five more complete, 20 total to go. In terms of my goal, I accomplished 10 before lunch and have 25 left. I may need to revise my goal. ;)

Edit: 2:49 and done with 5 more, dammit. 15 total to go. 10 left to meet my goal. I have the time, over 2.5 hours, but do I have the stamina?

Edit:</b 3:55 Pant pant. Pant pant. Five more to go to reach today's goal! Pant pant.

So I did, in fact, get the terrible neck pain checked out. The diagnosis? Sprained neck, or minor whiplash. For this, I got muscle relaxers and a series of weird and somewhat painful x-rays.

Yesterday, I stayed home from work and Wes took care of me while I slept, making sure the muscle relaxers didn't cause terrible damage. Jen helped immensely by picking up some handouts for school. I spent most of the day in a stupor and then finally convinced the happy hour gang to rescue me from loneliness. Mark, Susan, Lydia, and Alan caravanned to my house, arriving 1.5 hours after my most recent pain pill, and I fought the weirdness in my head to show them an excerpt from Sarah Palin's ludicrous interview with Charlie Gibson and then several spoofing videos. I love my friends so much, and their impromptu visit gave me some motivation to do some light straightening-up (though I wasn't about to vacuum with neck pain).

It was validating to have my pain justified, and the muscle relaxers have helped. I expect and hope to be healed by Monday, and I was feeling good enough at noon today to make a pancake breakfast for Wes and me.

Tip: if you make your pancakes with Egg Beaters instead of real egg, they end up fluffier. I prefer this.

Today, we're going to see Burn After Reading. Wes has also been talking about some present he bought me, so I'm excited about the prospect of that, whatever it is.

I'm a very lucky, very fortunate person. *Sigh of contentment*

I think I gave myself whiplash.

Today was easy and stressful at the same time--I had to get my MFing tax forms in the mail, which meant finally hunting down a corrected 1099 from UCF, which then meant calling the IRS to get an estimate on what I actually owed, then writing a business letter, then writing a huge check and filling out paperwork and making copies of everything, and then dropping it in the mailbox in the post office for the safest keeping I can imagine.

This happened at 2:30. Besides my 1.5 hours (total) spent worrying over tax stuff today, I was grading papers and, at intervals, doing some brief socializing. I did not take an official lunch break. After dropping my tax info in the mail, I drove home to make a sandwich and put my feet up.

30 minutes later, I returned to my car. I was in a hurry to get back to work and get my papers graded so I could officially go home. I swung my car door open and before I knew it, it hit me. The top corner of the car door. Right in the middle of the chin.

Something in my jaw snapped. My head went back. I felt my chin to make sure it wasn't bleeding, and, once I got into the driver's seat, I checked it out in the mirror--a nasty red bump. Do chins bruise? If so, this one will.

By the time I got back to the office, my chin throbbed. As I sat at my desk, the pain radiated backward, to the hinge of my jaw. A while later, the back of my neck hurt, and, when I went home at 5:00, I lay back on an ice pack for at least 20 minutes. My shoulders have been hurting, and now my lower back. No fun. No fun at all.

And I can't take pain medicine because I'm already on a super-high daily dosage of Aleve, which I'm only supposed to take every 12 hours. See you in half an hour, Aleve. You'd better be ready.

Okay, so you'd think that a chain bagel restaurant would be nice and peaceful at 7:30 a.m. Not, apparently, when the old codgers' club gathers. Not be be disrespectful, but whoa. I got a nice dose of what older Winter Park "gentlemen" think of today's political issues. My back was to them, so they probably didn't think I was listening. Scratch that. They probably didn't care.

Voice 1: Why aren't these 12 and 13-year-old girls on the pill?
Voice 2: 'Cause when they have babies, the grandmothers are there to take care of them.
Voice 3: There should be a time-limit on abortions (this I think I agree with). 60 days, first trimester.
Voice 2: First trimester, that makes sense.
Voice 1: I don't see why a grown woman would decide to just do that, out of nowhere. With all the contraceptives out there--
Voice 2: My niece--
Voice 3: 60 days.
Voice 2: My great-niece has been pregnant twice. What's to stop her from getting pregnant again?
Voice 1: Those pro-abortion women are all dykes.
Voice 2: What?
Voice 1: You ever seen them on TV? (Garbled name of an activist). You think any man's ever touched her?
Pause, laughter.
Voice 1: And what do you think of that bitch Casey Anthony?

This is when I turned to the Hispanic couple sitting next to me and mouthed ("do you believe this?") and then I got up and left, shaking my head.

Meanwhile, during that conversation, in front of me sat a man and what must have been his high school aged son. They sat silently and then the man started in. "So why were you there? To have a good time? Oh, so you didn't do anything but you wanted to be there anyway? Didn't want to leave because you wanted to be a man? (laughter) What can you do next time?"

And then, as I left, on the patio sat some other folks, probably in their late 50s.
"Can you believe those celebrities? They just where loafers without any socks and call themselves famous!"
"Yeah, but they can dance."

What the fuck?! I am now at work to read memoirs and deal with my taxes situation and clear my head of all this nuttiness. Why does crazy follow me around?

Yesterday was all about quality time with Wes, practicing flip turns in the community pool, despising the make-out couple, watching movies, and grading papers. I graded 15 3-page arguments in less than an hour. I'm planning to do 16 in an hour today, and then I will be done with those.

I'm also thinking about going to the Y to do some serious laps with flip turns at either end, if I can handle the strong possibility of looking like a goofball. Swimming just feels so cleansing to me. After just 20 minutes or half an hour, let alone 45 minutes, I can feel completely refreshed and discombobulated at once. Kind of like after a yoga class. As much as I love Spinning, it requires a lot of thought, even when you're not the one leading the class. Rules to follow, things to do. What I like about neighborhood biking and jogging and swimming is that you don't have to get stressed about how fast or how far or how long unless you want to. Otherwise, you can go nice and slow and let your mind relax into the motion and not worry, as long as their aren't too many other people around.

And then, of course, there are also the chemical effects of chlorine to consider. What I need to find is a Y around here with an outdoor pool. I really think that would do me some good.

I watched The Incredibles and Smart People yesterday. I think I could write an indie film in my sleep, so I guess I should try. Even they have formulaic characters and plots. I really like it when SJP is in roles where she's not made up perfectly, like in this movie. I like it when she gets to play a real person instead of a "perfect" person. Case in point: Failure to Launch, which I watched most of yesterday because it happened to be on TV. Probably not her fault, but her character was just so annoying! I much preferred her in this and early episodes of SATC and in The Family Stone.

The Incredibles was all my students had promised it would be. I watched it to better connect with the computer animation students; those in my comp class begged to have it as a choice for their movie to analyze. I like how it is physical and psychological in terms of hero/plot development, and I like that I care about the characters. A couple of times I said, "Oh, shit!" If that ain't a sign of a good adventure story, I don't know what is.

Ah--the swimmer I was truly looking for. Pieter van den Hoogenband. Feast here:

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/03/18/JTMONK_narrowweb__300x489,0.jpg



He didn't make the American swim team, but he's on the Dutch.

Okay, so maybe I'm behind the times, but folks at work have just turned me on to Pandora, and my first station is called--gasp--Rilo Kiley radio. So far, it's played, RK twice--now three times, Tristen and Sara, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Shins, and something else awesome that I was going to give a thumbs-up, but then the window disappeared. Weird.

Oh, and my cholesterol dropped 26 points! And I lost four pounds! I'm in between sections of the scale. And I'm at work early, reading memoirs. This is shaping up to be a good day.

"And your friends, they sing along, and they love you." lalala

My livejournal presence has been quiet lately due to all the crazy going on. Thursday was nutballs. I don't know another way to say it. One of the longest and most dramatic workdays I've ever had. And then Friday went almost exceedingly well. Much better than it could have gone. I hope Thursday's madness will prove to be an isolated incident, and through this I've learned that honest communication is key (just don't give too much of yourself away, of course).

And then I watch Mad Men (thank you, Mark, for letting me borrow your DVDs--they worked very well for class) and I think, "Wow. Now that's a fucked-up office."

I just hope nothing said has repercussions. But the issue was that communication wasn't happening, and it wasn't just my fault. Now I hope things will be better for all.

Sigh.

Beyond that, Wes made dinner and drinks last night, after which I promptly passed out. Noooooo! Today, we're at his place, waiting for the Salvation Army people to pick up some furniture and clothes. I want to sleep off this week like I'd sleep off a hangover or a tennis match in the sun.


I also hope this sore throat goes away. I no longer think it's Diet Coke's fault. Some sort of allergy-related ordeal. Erg.

I'm nervous my home computer's going kaput. I'm typing this on my phone while I run an emergency back-up. Ugh. Beyond that, my ankle hurts badly, and I've wasted another evening with tiredness(though I think I deserved it). However. Work today went well despite the stress.

Well it looks like things have copied. Here's hoping tomorrow I can get some exercise. I've been doing really well, but 2 days out (and not weekend) are bugging me.

If you work with me and you're not at work right now, I suggest you get here ASAP.


Not that you're in trouble or anything, but that I MISS YOU.

Obviously I have too much time on my hands. I have to say, this is kind of a weird list. Hm.

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you really love (and strikethrough the ones you hate!).
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


( Read more... )

Not to brag, but right now I'm bored.

And feeling trapped in the office by the rain. Now I couldn't go home to get my sweater if I wanted to.

It's good to get a head start on next month's work, but whoa. How about an afternoon off?


Oh, well. Guess I get to write to you. Teaching is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait.


Anyway, this morning I took a Trip to the Vet. It was delicious fun. Madeleine wasn't nearly as upset as last time, Prana was silent, and everything was on time and the vet gave me lots of attention. We're trying to get the door-scratching problem solved. She suggested not ever giving in--or even talking to Madeleine--while she scratches, and using more vertical surfaces.

Oh, and they aren't obese, though we don't want "weight problems." Mad is now about 10 pounds, and Prana is 14. She gained .5 pound, and he gained 1.5.

I'm having a cat issue. I've discussed it with a couple of you, and now I'm reaching out for more help.

One of my cats incessantly scratches at my bedroom door on those nights I kick her out. My boyfriend is allergic, and even when he's not there, the cat gets on my nerves sometimes. She kneads the bedclothes, lies on top of me, and gets in my face.

Other times, she curls up next to me and is quite pleasant.

I've lost a lot of sleep lately, either because of the scratching or because I'm trying to corral her to my side of the bed, away from Wes. I'm getting really sick of it. It's a strain on my health, my relationship, my sanity.

Things I've tried:
1. no-scratch spray for the door
2. orange-scented Febreze for the floor by the door (supposedly cats don't like the scent of orange)
3. a soft cat bed in several locations
a. elevated on the couch (she tends to sleep in front of it instead of on top, but whatever)
b. elevated on the desk (aka cat perch) by the foot of my bed
c. on the foot of my bed
4. letting her sleep by me
5. ignoring the scratching, which does not work
6. rewarding the scratching by feeding her, which really does not work
7. keeping her company in the living room for half an hour, petting her while she lies in her bed, which sometimes works
8. Buying more toys to keep both cats occupied in the night


The other cat sleeps in my desk chair, usually, and even when I leave the door open to my bedroom, he's not likely to enter until about 5:00 a.m. And he used to be the main door scratcher!

Any more advice? Please help!

So, there's a lot to update on. And, due to a recent positive development at work, I actually have some time on my hands. My boss made a really nice Action/Adventure Genre powerpoint that already has video embedded, so planning for this class was a breeze. I'm excited, even! Yay! And yesterday he asked if I'd like to continue teaching creative writing, which I would, especially since I've done a lot of work to make many of the lessons my own. I don't know what this means in terms of the program and such, but I guess that remains to be seen. I consider this a compliment; he said he likes working with me and he likes the way I teach.

So: my class is set for today, and I'm almost done grading some short writing assignments from my students, and as far as I know, I don't need to worry about planning the comp class I was going to teach.

More later. Time for lunch.

I've been listening to Coldplay while researching fantasy writing today (I know, right? awesome job), and I think this has put me in something of a funk. Don't mind my funk. I also had to leave my boyfriend in his underwear this morning, which makes me feel very adult and also very sad.

I also really, really, really want to write, but I do not want to do so at work or even on my work computer. I want to own my words, at least until I choose to sell them.

But between this music and reading and not being able to write, I really really want to. This is a good thing.

And it also explains my mood.

Today, I am learning how to teach fantasy.

And meeting with my future lab instructors to discuss how the class is going to go.


This morning:

ME: I'm still hungry (looking down at the English muffin crumbs on my plate)
WES: -----
ME: Mmm...Kashi bar.

Wes cringes as I crunch into it.

WES: (wincing) How hard is that? Like a granola bar?
ME: (biting down fiercely and then breaking off a separate piece and handing it to him.) It is a granola bar.

Wes bites down and doesn't make it all the way through. Closes eyes. Grimaces while he wrestles to break through the bar.

WES: (mouth full) Jesus!
ME: You have to chew with your back teeth.

The only way to describe his look is "incredulous." At that moment, I realized how ridiculous this sounded. And all this time, I've just been chewing with my back teeth.

This may say a lot about me.