Screw Feeling Whorey...

I'm feeling JUBLIANT!!!

That's right. After my gorgeous day on my bike, where I both ran into people I love AND was called hot, I came home to a quiet house. I got online. I updated my Myspace page, for some reason....and then...

Guess who got a very important phone call.

Guess who has a job!

Guess who is making money in the double digits?! For the first time EVER!!! Oh my gosh. I'm so happy I could pee a little. I think the boy and I are going out to celebrate tonight whether he wants to or not! WA-HOOO!!!! We're having Chinese tonight.

*piddles*

Out

Springtime Fresh...

Ever seen Bambi?

You know that scene where everyone is twitterpated?

I feel like that. All of a sudden, I'm having a whorey day. It's certainly better than moping and feeling unattractive, that's for sure!

Now? I gotta eat some lunch. And then I'm riding my bike to go pay the rent. Let's just hope I don't run into the Water Guy...who knows what might happen!

Out

I just got a call from the bank where I had that bad interview.  They want me to drive an hour tomorrow morning for another interview.  I told them I would.  And now?  I just don't want to...but that's not the point of this post!

It was almost 80 yesterday, and it's looking to be about the same today!

I would have been stupid NOT to ride my bike yesterday.  So, off I went in my black tank top and black and blue plaid shorts.  I wanted a tan.  I figured I'd burn.  I didn't really do much of either, despite being out in the sun for almost an hour.  But there's plenty more year left, and I am determined to be tan (without using a tanning bed) before Pride this year!  And I'm hoping to avoid a farmer's tan for once in my life.  We shall see.

Speaking of seeing...I met this happy lady on my ride:



She was chasing a stick thrown by her man.  I rode up and heard a big SPLASH!!!  I thought, "Gosh, I hope that wasn't what it sounded like!  It was not.



She was a good fetcher!  Her man and I chatted a little about how she was living the high life...and how she touched the Kish so she's never leaving DeKalb again.  But hey, when your whole life is get-the-stick, get-the-stick, get-the-stick, I think DeKalb is a pretty good place to be damned.

It certainly is pretty this time of year.  It almost makes me forget about winter entirely when the Violets start poking their white and purple heads up.



They're my next favorite, after Daffodils...maybe because they usually pop their heads up right after.



We were all enjoying the sun.  And today?  I think I'm going to do the same once more.  Who knows...maybe I'll see the Water Guy leaping into the Kish to fetch something...

Except...i just got a phone call from a friend who wants me to help her move.  Right.  I'd almost forgotten.  Maybe I'll just ride my bike over there.

Out

Texting Your Mom...

I am having a text conversation with my mom right now. It's sort of odd. She's not really "tech savvy." But it's nice when I have a quick question, because most times I don't call her unless I have an hour or so to talk, because a ten second conversation sprials out of control into an hours-long chatfest. It never fails.

And next? Maybe I'll text your mom.

Yesterday I took an hour-long bike ride. I got a little sun and a lot of exercise. I saw the Water Guy! And I was looking cute in my blue, orange, brown, and khaki plaid shorts and my brown tank top. Hell yes! So, I came home and then unexpectedly went to help my friend Jenni move. Let's just say that by 9:00 I wanted to be in bed. I was so exhausted!

Robb was tired, too. And so we came home and had a stupid fight. And then I stayed up and read for an hour while he showered and went to bed. And after I finished James Baldwin's Another Country, I wasn't mad anymore. I just wanted to love my boyfriend and sleep in the same bed. So I went to bed at 11:00 and couldn't fall asleep because the damn blinds kept sucking against the window in the breeze and waking me up every time I dozed off. And I had a lot on my mind. And my arm was hurting from when I sliced it open yesterday. So I had a pretty horrific night of sleep.

This morning I wanted to sleep in, but I was worried the mailman would come and I'd miss him and miss my package. Oh, and the damn cat was knocking everything off the headboard and meowing and walking on my face and biting me...he won't let me sleep past 9:00, ever!

Blah. So I'm exhausted. And today? I have to make two chocolate chip cheesecakes, go pay the electric bill that's overdue, go pay rent, and then we're going to color Easter eggs with friends...and sleeping over...and going out tomorrow and Sunday, too. I'm going to be so exhausted by the end of this weekend.

Anywho...I'm not sorry I'm bitching today. It's one of THOSE days. Maybe I'll take a nap...

Out

It was the most gorgeous day yesterday.  And today?  It's supposed to be EVEN NICER!  So, as I've been itching to do since fall, I hopped on my bike and cruised through town.  Oh my gosh, it was lovely!  I happened upon some new graffiti on the trail, and it made me wonder if it was put there in the fall or winter or just recently, although it looks like someone tried to paint over it unsuccessfully a while ago, so my money is on fall.  Anywho:



"How many have to die?  STOP THIS WAR"

And about three feet down was this:



"Free Tibet."  Good advice.  I think I'll put it on my to-do list for the day.

And, close to my own heart, someone did this:



A cute little bird...oh, and my shadow.  You can't see it there, but the wind was doing tragic things to my WAY-TOO-LONG hair.  It was a wreck.

But I had this little gem to remind me that it didn't matter:





It says, "Whatever you are, it's beautiful."  I'm just glad they got the punctuation correct.

And then I headed past the old train depot,



And into the college multi-family homes area, the older section of town.  While I was riding I noticed this building that I've never seen before, despite living in this area my whole life:



It looks like an old school or a hospital, but it was completely empty with "No Trespassing" signs all over it.  How strange that it's not in use AND that I'd never seen it before...And here DeKalb is in an uproar about building a new school...they're not even using this one!

But I continued, on a beeline for where the Water Guy works.



I took no photos of his place of employment because I didn't want to seem like a creeper, but mostly because I already have some.  So you get this church steeple and this odd house:



I love that neon lime door.  How cute!

I'd never really been in this area, so I rode around for a while, taking some photos.  This house was all decked out for Spring, and I wondered if it always looked like that:



Cute. 

I was exhausted, though, and I had decided that I needed a hair cut.  Badly.  So, I rode home, past an inadvertently funny sign that's in a neighbor's lawn.  There's a back story here.  The county is discussing building a huge landfill somewhere in the vicinity.  So people are sort of in an uproar over it.  Signs have popped up all over in the lawns of people who oppose it, and this is what they say:



Yeah...it kind of makes me want to take a giant steaming dump in their front lawn.  Not gonna lie.  I snicker every time I see one.  And then I crave chicken and dumplings, because what's the opposite of a mega dump?  A dumpling!  I'll be here all week.

Onto the hair cut.  Here's my truly atrocious before photo:



I look wasted, and sort of stoned.  I was neither.

And after?



Much better!  I got so many compliments on the beard at church last night...it's a little overwhelming.  So...there.  Welcome to my day yesterday.  What you didn't see?  Three hours of Final Fantasy II, and me dancing along to Adam Lambert in my car.  That's about it.

I hope you take some time to get outside and enjoy the weather, if it is, indeed, nice today.  My old college friend Derek (derektb) is coming out here in the afternoon and we're going to drive to our old Alma Mater with the windows down and the music on and then meet some people for dinner later.  It'll be a hoot.

Out

Oddballs...

So on my last bike ride (and I promise this isn't going to turn into a bike riding blog) I ran across these four people coming out of the Frisbee Golf park.

Three guys, one girl. They all had their hair dyed weird colors. All the guys were wearing nothing but huge pants and chains. And two of the guys had their hair gelled into HUGE spikes. No biggie, really. I don't usually let people's appearances throw me. I know how good it feels to be different sometimes.

But.

As I was riding up to them, I heard two of them use the word "faggot." I hate that word. Then, they started yelling into the park. The one shouted to someone on the course, "Have you ever had your asshole licked by a fat man in an overcoat?" And the guy on the course just yells, "Only on the weekends."

Funny.

And then I rode by and the girl shouts, "Yeah, you work it, boy." And they all started shouting at me...dirty homosexual things that I couldn't really make out since I was riding away and they were all shouting at once. And I was sad.

I wasn't sad about what they said. I was sad for them. Here they are trying SO HARD to be different with their clothes and hair and piercings and tattoos, and yet...they're acting exactly as I would expect someone who looks like them to act. So really, when you get down to it, they're just as cookie-cutter as everyone else.

I wanted to ride back and tell them. But really, what good would it do? So I just kept riding, depriving them of a response, which I'm sure is what they were after.

Sometimes people are funny...

Out

Rain All Week...

Yup.  That's the forecast around here.  And do you know what I say to that?  Bring it on!

I went out and rode my bike today, since it doesn't look like I'm going to get the chance to do it later in the week.  It was the usual ride, with the trail through trees and the beautiful houses around campus.  I took a short tour of the frisbee golf field in town, too, and let me tell you.  Apparently shirtless frisbee golf is a popular pastime.  And now, so is riding the path through the frisbee golf field.  Can we say hot?  I even got an eyebrow raise from some cute guy...

Anycreeper, it was a nice, long ride.  About an hour all over town, and I didn't even cruise by Water Works.  So there!

The sky was beautiful.



See?

And all that blockage I talked about the other day?



Gone!  (Apparently it wanted to upload this one today and not when I needed it...)  I even saw two guys kicking their way downstream on what looked to be a makeshift inflatable raft.  Cool!  It must have held up, because I saw them again a bit downstream.

All this riding makes me wish I had a better seat...and a water bottle holder.  And a lock.  And a little pouch to carry my wallet/keys/phone/etc so I don't haave these HUGE pockets.  My ass probably looks like a woodchuck...

Enough about my ass, though.  I'm hoping to ride enough to NOT have a farmer's tan when we go to San Diego.  Although, is a wife-beater tan any better?  I can't win.

And now there's supposedt o be rain all week.  Time to stay in and play Chrono Cross on the Playstation.  I never fninshed that old gem the first time through.  Maybe I'll make it this time.

Out

Getting to Know My Town Via Bike...

Note: This is a port from my other blog...Just so you know.


It's funny how much different a town you've known all your life seems once you get on a bicycle.  I've started paying more attention to sidewalks, how busy an intersection is, and where the trees hang low--things I never really noticed before.  It's a blessing to have a long stoplight instead of a reason to shake my fist at the sky and wish I were home.

Yesterday and the day before I spent a few hours on my bike, just cruising around town.  I thought it might be nice to share it with you.  I know...me, posting photos?  It's unheard of!  I think now would be as good a time as any for a blanket apology in that department.  I apologize for neglecting that part of my blog for quite some time.  I remember when every post had at least a little something from my camera.  It's not like I've stopped taking photos.  I take them all the time.  My camera comes with me everywhere.  It's just a matter of getting them from my computer, where they upload on my camera dock, to Robb's where I connect to the Internet.  And before you try to suggest I upload them to Robb's computer or I get my computer on the Internet, I'm just going to say no.  No.  My computer won't connect wirelessly.  And his computer won't take my photo software.  So.  Blah. 

Anywho...I apologize.  Some days it just doesn't seem worth the effort.  I'll try to pick it up in that regard.

Gosh...I typed all that and my photos SILL haven't finished uploading...

*waits*  *fights with stupid computer in the other room that refuses to write a CD of photos and has told me ten times in the last four minutes that it is running low on memory*

There we go!  And...ummm...it uploaded one photo three times and left one out.  And you all wonder why I don't do this more often...

*shakes fist at Xanga*



This was across town, very near to where Robb used to live.  This was the path on which we decided we really wanted a cat after meeting His Royal Highness, Sir Iok Sllod Oog Oog Murphy Pickles Gunther Chuzzlewitt III.  He was a friendly stray cat.

From there I rode on across a bridge that was ALMOST under water.



I may not look like it, but that water is up to the edge of the bridge.  See?

Now it wont' let me upload more photos...what the hell?  Fine.  I had a photo of all this detritus from trees and junk backed up against the bridge, but you'll just have to trust me that you can see it on the right side of thatl ast photo...all that brown crap has water flowing under it.  Blah.

Moving on.  I rode on over to campus, where there are usually a lot of college guys running and biking and doing whatever they do in various stages of undress...but school is out.  So all I saw were Asians feeding the geese and some hippy guy smokingo n a bridge.  But I headed over to the beautiful old neighborhood behind the school and took some photos I've always wanted to take.



This house is one of my personal favorites.  It's the porch that does it for me.  See?



Xanga must have known this, because they uploaded this one three times.  Stupids.

And this is a house I hadn't actually noticed before, but I kind of liked the random green part on the front of it.



It's cute, except for the metal shutters on the front door...eww.  And then I rode across town, passed by where the Water Guy works (I had no idea it was three blocks from where I work), and headed home.  When I got home, I didn't really feel like I was done, so I decided to ride down the street to the little park where people play baseball on one of their two-ish diamonds.  I never see anyone there, but Robb claims it's almost always full when he comes home.

I took no photos of it, but I did snap this:



That's the top of the tower that protrudes from teh ground next to an AT&T building near our house.  I have no idea what it's for, but it's always been significant in my life.  When I was little, I always looked for it from the car.  It's how I knew we were almost to DeKalb.  And now I live right down the street from it.

Funny how life takes you places you'd never think.  Anywho, then I rode as fast as I could home.  It felt good to get out and get to know my neighborhood a little better.  I'd love to go again today, but I think it's going to rain and be nasty out all day.  Blah.

Out