Wednesday, March 26, 2008

postcards from the edge

Dear Everyone,

Hello. How are you? I am fine. I will update soon. I am in the first stages of carpal tunnel, so I've had to stay off the computer. I have some wrist braces now, they are very elegant. Sometime this week I will post photos from my trip to Los Angeles. You will get to hear all about my sunburnt neck. We will have fun!

your friend,
Amanda

Saturday, March 01, 2008

New shoes and nyquil

Happy birthday to my chronic state of malaise, which turns 34 days old today! It seems like only yesterday I was coming down with the flu, which then morphed into a hacking cough and laryngitis, which has now settled into bad cold territory (but not before bringing a second round of laryngitis, much to the delight of my "friends," who thought it was really hilarious to ask me to recite lines from "Ghost" in my smokey early 90's Demi Moore voice). YEAH, OKAY. So, needless to say, I've been rather absent from life and the internet because I have little time for anything other than eating citrus fruits, taking nyquil, and moaning in my sick bed. It actually makes no sense to my why I've been so sick, since my lifestyle is probably the healthiest it ever has been or will be: I'm happy, I exercise regularly, I always get enough sleep, and my diet is based around fruits and vegetables. I eat like, 5 oranges a day. I even replaced my morning coffee with green tea and fruit juices! I think my body just misses eating candy all day at Rentertainment and having 4:00 beers with Geoff.

But anyway, I do have a few pieces of news:

1) I had my 1st review at work, and it went extraordinarily well! My marks were very good, and my boss complimented me on my "calm and in-control" attitude on the job, which I guess means she hasn't heard me crunching loudly on the ubiquitous bag of pistachios that I keep in my desk drawer. I get to buy now, which is sorta fun. And one day I even got to work on poetry books! I have more work to do now, so I rearranged my work schedule to earlier, longer days for most of the week, which means that I usually get to leave pretty early on Thursday and Friday. Leaving work at 3:30 on a sunny, 60 degree day is basically like being handed a sack of gold. And a box of powdered sugar donuts. At the same time!

2) Geoff and Jill visited! We had fun. I won't post photos because they're all terrible, but we spent most of the time eating, drinking, and making fun of people, so you can conjure up your own mental picture of what we looked like. They should move here, don't you think?

3) I almost got a bike ticket!! I met a friend over at Pix Patisserie and was in such a rush to get there that I forgot to put my bike lights on (it was light out at the time). Literally 15 seconds after I left Pix and started to pedal home, I passed a cop car. I saw the cop staring at me, so I immediately pulled over to the sidewalk, got off the bike, and called Ben, trying to make it look like I was just hanging out. The cop car responded by doing a u-turn in the middle of the intersection, parking in the middle of the street with its headlights shining directly on me (nervously leaning against a building and talking on the phone) and sitting there for two full minutes. It then revved its engine, screeched its tires, and zoomed off. Okay, you made your point, Mr. Policeman... I'm a bad girl. Man, it was close.

4) I cut my own hair (at 6:00 in the morning, without contacts in) and ended up looking like the mom from "The Family Circus." This is not the look that I was going for.



It's also the day that I decided to wear my new shoes to work without breaking them in first. I knew it was a mistake after about 10 seconds, but I was running to catch the bus and didn't have time to change; I have to walk a few miles every morning to get from bus stop to bus stop, and by the time I got to work, my feet were bascially giant lumps of ground hamburger. My solution to this was to fashion half-socks from a pair of fingerless gloves I keep at my desk, which also involved stapling the thumb opening to the rest of the "sock" after it freed itself and flapped open in the breeze, making me look like a total idiot. Did I mention that this was also the day the CEO of the company was visiting? I'm sure no one even noticed (I was wearing pants that covered up my terrible secret), but it's surprisingly hard to feel professional when you're wearing gloves on your feet and dragging them behind you like Quasimodo. The punchline to the entire day came when one of my coworkers complimented me on my shoes, then asked if they were comfortable. I said that they were.

5) I'm going to visit Ben in LA in a few weeks! It's the first Spring Break trip I've ever taken. Then, the weekend after I get back, I think I'm going up to Mt. Hood and staying in a cabin with some friends! They're going skiing, but I don't have any ski clothes here, so I'll probably just hang out and wander in the woods while they do that. I'm excited!