Thursday, October 30, 2008

getting it wrong without even trying

i've been writing a lot on my pocket internet device, not knowing there was actually no easy way to get that text onto my actual computer. this is a problem. i can spend a bunch of money to fix it, or...i don't even know. i'm not happy about this.

i'm also not happy that my best idea for a halloween costume consists of dressing up as a specific company executive. that has bad written all over it. actually, the thing i'm afraid of is that someone else will have the same costume idea. i think i'll revert to the old standard: dress as a specific former employee.

two weekends ago, i lost the charger to my mobile phone. more accurately, i left it in my hotel room. it's been turned off almost constantly since then. this is not helping.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

north for the weekend

i'm lucky to be on vacation once again, this time watching some leaves. there are some amazing towns in northern new england. i think i like the idea of traveling to more than just the cities, but this seems like the first trip in a while where i have done that. highlights have been the beaches and some incredible cliffs.

one thing that can be tricky when eating out regularly as a vegetarian is finding something you'll enjoy. diners are always a good idea, i think, but i hated the fake mexican food i had at an unnecessarily fancy place for lunch. there were so many grilled red peppers. i think red peppers are a scourge. the key for me is to find somewhere that will serve a vegetarian dish that is noodle or rice based. i need something like a normal non-american meal minus the meat.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

running on not very much

i am on vacation. this particular vacation means hanging out with the people i would normally hang out with if i had never moved two point five years ago. it also means sleeping in. hopefully, it does not involve overmuch concern that my company will decide to stop letting me be an active part of our web marketing efforts.

today's (complete) menu:

one (1) vanilla soy drink

two (2) almonds

small amount of granola

half (1/2) of an imported chocolate bar with nuts and raisins

one (1) grilled veggie burrito

one (1) side of chips with salsa

one (1) cranberry something and corn syrup drink

one (1) serving of lasagna with meat that i carefully removed


i'm hoping for pancakes tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

farewell lunches can really stink

when you order the wrong stuff. i don't know what my problem is. at the most recent one, i got something that was totally greasy and found myself completely unwilling to eat it. i was almost positive that it was going to be something i wouldn't want to eat, and it was. i ate the sides, and was terribly hungry later in the day.

farewell lunches are not about the food. they're fun, but they're not about you anyway.

Friday, October 10, 2008

when being yourself isn't enough

i can give detailed biographies of more than a dozen jazz musicians

i listen to the radio

i like pets

i wear blue shoes with my blue belt

my mobile phone is on silent

one of my many hobbies is knitting

people have been known to imitate my voice because they want to hear it all the time

Thursday, October 09, 2008

so it's not a waste of time

john moved to new york in the aftermath of a snowless winter and took a room for two months in a dismal apartment. he hung on to a long-distance relationship while wishing it was over. one more than one occasion, he wondered how the walls of his apartment were put together. he wandered empty grocery stores hoping to see something that looked like food. john bought pasta and sauce and tried to plan ahead.

he slept on the floor, without a mattress, and with no furniture whatsoever. it was his only single room since college. he dreamed of filling it with ingeniously constructed furniture. he would build it out of cardboard and hope.

he took a few photos out the window, and occasionally heard the meowing of a stray cat. the neighbors played the exact same record weekly, blaring patriotic anthems from a long-forgotten film. other neighbors danced with their children in the streets to the vibrant sounds of their homeland. a homeless man occasionally slept in the unnecessarily large atrium of the building. on other occasions, john would do his laundry and meet the same man, sorting through endless plastic bags. this man was also a neighbor.

the days passed, and john's roommates warmed to him a bit. they told him of their desperate efforts with girls. they shared jokes that the understood a lot better than john did. the roommates told stories that were new york-centric, because they lived in new york. they seemed to be people who were meant to be here.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

well meaning

one of my co-workers asked me, at 3:30pm, in front of my manager, if i wanted to leave and go shopping. i was not interested in shopping.

all of a sudden, it's midnight and i'm fighting with some web site where i want to delete the account i just set up because i did it wrong. i swear plenty of good things happened today, like when our graphic designed totally made a landing page banner in minutes even though somehow no one had asked him to do it yet. there was also the lemon filled donut i bought, that was a good thing. i also remembered to charge my phone before it died, and the old tv shows i watched via the internet were pretty entertaining. i found a hotel for my upcoming trip, and officially got the time off for both of the upcoming weekend trips.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

a day home from the office

you know those ad campaigns where they try to give personality to a brand? well, i think it's time for my own, and it's not even about soda. i'm home sick from work today, so let me present to you:

a day home from the office.

a day home from the office says:

'i've watched twelve episodes of a one-hour drama series today'

a day home from the office means:

'i'm eating the last carrot'

a day home from the office is:

incredibly relaxing