hale pupule

Bought a camera yesterday during lunch. I've been meaning to buy one for a few years and occasionally did research, but I didn't wake up Monday morning and think, Okay, today's the day, so you could consider this to be one hell of an impulse purchase. A local camera shop was having a Mother's Day sale, so I looked at what was in my price range, looked at user reviews for the same model at Amazon, and went with the best-reviewed one I could afford.

It's very cute. Minuscule, though! It's smaller than a deck of cards, and the memory card has more space on it than my antiquated computer at home. It's bright red -- they were out of black and silver, so it was down to red or blue -- and the instruction manual is huge. I'll take some time before the weekend to read through everything and figure out how it works so I can take a few photos of the family during our Mother's Day/Jimbo's birthday party.

Jimbo turned 42 yesterday. I didn't get to talk to him, but I wished him a happy day on a voicemail. He didn't get the reference, of course (he's appallingly normal), but I said I wished he gets all the answers -- and all the questions -- he wants this year.

Actually, I'm not sure if he's appallingly normal, or if I'm pathetically geeky.

I shall take two days off work in the next week to embroider my craft swap present until my fingers are sore. I have eight days until I have to send it, and I am not even halfway done. I plan to see The Avengers, do some laundry, and clean the hobbit hole as well -- I can't sit on my butt and stitch the whole time!

The powers that be held a graduation meeting this morning: I'm an usher and row monitor. We don't have to handle the hairy situations, because we hire security guards for the worst of it, but my happy customer service face will be firmly in place the whole time. And I will have loads of sunblock covering it, since we'll be out in the sun and humidity for four hours.

The person conducting the meeting said, "You ushers are the faces we present to the public during the ceremony." My first thought was, "Why the hell did you want THIS face, then?"

The roof of the library building is being replaced. Work started this morning. I've been listening to slightly-muted creaks, bangs, crashes, and footsteps for hours, and it's really freaking me out. Especially when the roofers run; it makes the metal in the air ducts clank. Sounds like an earthquake coming from above rather than below.

A coworker asked if I'd noticed all the noise. Seriously, they sound like the aliens in the air vents during the abduction scene of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Creepy.

Four weeks of this.

This is a first. In my mail with the invoices and catalogs was a plain envelope. It was addressed to the library, not anyone in particular, which is why I got it. I opened it and found a two-page advertisement for a masseuse in Newport Beach. She described herself in great detail and gave her rates, plus how much extra a hand job is.

*blink, blink*

Wait ... what?

*reads again*

EW.

envelope --> shred bin

*washes hands quickly*

Making up for the last post, because no Tuesday is ever a total loss.

I went into the break room and saw CJ and JT sitting at the table. CJ said, "We didn't see you at the Academy Awards."

Me: [after a moment of WTF] I haven't made a movie in fifteen years.

CJ: [startled] Seriously?

Me: Well, I was an extra, and it was just a few gigs during one summer break, but there are two things where you can see my face.

CJ: Cool. Are you acting now at your theater?

Me: The Mysterium? No, but I'm stage crew for The Crucible.

CJ: [brightly] Oh, you've been promoted!

I was going to go to Chipotle for dinner, but the gas station was right next to In-and-Out, so I just brought that back instead. Dayum, that onion is potent, even an hour later. Burger out of this world, fries not so much, which has always been my In-and-Out experience.

Red flats a smashing success. Red scarf, not so much. I tied it in a half Windsor, but the V on the sweater vest is so high that you couldn't really see the red, and more than one person said I looked like a flight attendant. Bye, scarf. I still have red rose earrings, though, so it's not a total loss.

Interviewed a student library worker for the newsletter, and I ended up talking as much as she did. And we chatted so much that what normally takes fifteen minutes ended up being more like 45. I told newsletter editor and boss-man JT that I'd have the article to him tonight, but I've been staring at the empty word processor document ever since I got back from lunch. I suppose I can copy and paste the intro I did for another student there -- I wrote the thing, it was two years ago that I last wrote something for someone who works in the serials department. I don't think anyone will remember it, do you?

Not much sleep last night, so I'm a bit of a zombie today.

It's not every day you receive a box from the mailman that has LIVE WORMS written on it, but that's what was waiting for me when I got home last night! bonsaibetz very kindly offered to share some red wiggler worms to add to my compost bin. I shook them out of their bag this morning and covered them with more cardboard bedding, and I'll add some more food for them to munch once I rip more cardboard into shreds. Thank you, Betz!

I love my boss's acidic sense of humor. A student e-mailed a rant about one of the library's rules, and JD's politely-worded reply ended with thanking him for adhering to the rules, "few as they are."

Also, we got our Christmas present today. It's always something useful, and this year it's a messenger bag. Large enough to bung a laptop into, with lots of pockets for spare change, water bottles, and my walking pharmacy. Yay, JD!

Someone sent my supervisor a pound of See's chocolates, so she shared them with us. This reminds me; it's time to go to Staples and buy my annual five-gallon tin of popcorn. I dump the caramel -- Mom's is much better -- and slowly make my way through the cheese and butter.

Performance tonight! My back is hurting lots today, but the show must go on and all that. I'll be extra careful during the dances and while I'm negotiating the steps to and from the stage.

Weird dream last night made me sit up in terror much too early this morning. I only remember it involved a VIP elevator and a building 100 storeys high, and I had to sneak on and bluff my way up so I could do something really important at the top. (Dismantling or sabotaging something, near as I can recall.) I ended up balanced precariously to the top of the building, clutching to the spire for dear life. And the ride was terrifying; of course the elevator was glass, so I could see what was happening, and it didn't stay inside the building ... we were flying all around the city like the worm on the end of a fishing line when the holder of the rod has Tourette's.

And I was Colin Firth half the time. (Told you it was a weird dream.)

Stopping for fabric and fast food on the way to the theater. Munching on potassium-rich stuff to keep my muscles loose and the electrolytes up in the mean time.

Be happy, for it is almost Friday! (For me, anyway; for half of my flist, it is Friday.)

EXCHANGE PROJECT IS DONE!!!

Phil is exasperating and adorable all at once. (I can just see you all nodding your heads sagely right now.) And the L-word has been used once or twice.

Glee tonight! Terri's history, Jesse's a mystery, and I would give one of my ovaries to have Mercedes use and dump Puck.

Seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a693eod5XVY I can't wait for Toy Story 3! I've heard that the dance and the Gipsy Kings will be on DWTS tonight.

Fantastic Jimbo birthday/Mother's Day party over Da Weekend. Phil survived his first all-day family party, had a good time, and even helped with the dishes.

I can't wait for work to be over so I can go to Dad's for dinner and Glee.

I've been listening to the Gipsy Kings all weekend. They're coming to L.A. in July; I might splurge on a ticket.

I'm on fandom hiatus until further notice. I'll check in occasionally with the friends list and Ashwinder, but I'm not following any WIPs, and I have zero enthusiasm for writing or communities.

Three months after I said I would someday find the courage, I told Phil that he has a nice arse. Then I watched him walk to his car.

Been off the nutrition and fitness wagon for two weeks, and I've set myself back a pound or two. Spinach salad for lunch today and Curves in the morning should jump-start me back into submission.

What I said about communities doesn't apply to the Exchange, obviously. I am so ready for it to start. And I'll get the rest of Wolfsbane 2.0 posted soon, too.

Staff meetings won't kill you, but they sure can make you wish you were dead.

I love that our student workers have a sense of humor, but how the hell am I going to work into a newsletter article the joke that our resident Irish boy wants to pass the Bar exam, go home to Las Vegas, and moonlight as a rodeo clown?!

O_O

Freezing at work today. Pulled out a space heater I haven't used in months and turned it on. Lovely smell of burning dust, but I kept the thermostat turned down at first.

Then I nudged it up. No more burning dust smell, and it works very well.

Up again.

Yet again.

Four hours after I plugged the heater in and started it, the fire alarm went off. Migraine-inducing strobe lights and a piercing, high-pitched noise. The entire law school is now on alert; final exams are were going on all over campus. I nudged the thermostat down and emerged from my cubicle. Figured it'd be best to be up front and asked JD (head boss) if my space heater could have caused it. My heart nearly stopped when he said it might.

Ten minutes later, he came back from the facilities department and told us it was a proctor who nudged one of the alarm triggers.

That was fun.

If my supervisor says good night/tells me to have a good weekend a fourth time this evening, my head will explode.