More Breaking News: Birthday Edition

Today's my mom's birthday! I hear it's cold and snowy back in Illinois, so send good thoughts of sun and happiness! Meanwhile, I'm in Portland, eating cake and thinking about her:

Happy Birthday, Mommy! I love you.

Today I unearthed a pile of old mix cd's, including one that Anna made me right before I left. Somehow she managed to segue from a Decemberists song directly into that Canned Heat song that used to be on a Pepsi commercial. Brilliant! My friends are better than everybody else's friends.

Last night I went to a nickel arcade with my pal Walt. I'm not sure if it was quite as good as Skateland (no skate-up concession stand, for one) but there WERE skeeball machines and a Star Trek: Voyager shooting game that I failed miserably at. We ended up winning a pile of tickets, so I got a skull keychain (complete with faux-jewel eyes, just like real skulls!) and he got some plastic army men. Also, my arm is nearly dead today because I injured it playing air hockey. How pathetic am I? (Answer: infinity.)

This week promises to be exciting. We've been getting treat boxes from publishers every day recently, so all I do at work is wander over to the table and claw through all the piles of candy. On Friday we have our department holiday party, which is some sort of "bagel brunch." Apparently I've been fully assimilated into office culture, because I'm actually really excited about this. FREE BAGELS!! THIS IS GREAT. And then Ben on Friday night! Aaheeeeha! I went Christmas shopping on Mississippi the other day, where all the stores were so festive and happy that it made the task a treat instead of a burden. One shop was giving out free champagne, another had hot cider, and a third had some pet zebra finches that were chirping happily over by a rack of dresses. Downtown is all lit up, and I love walking through it every evening on my way home. And then New Year's Eve!!! Sorry, I appear to be really excited about everything ever lately. Next up: Why I Love Circles, and The Story of How I Ate a Really Good Orange.

Night Janitor at HarperCollins

On my commute home today, a woman walked by me to get off the bus, and a fortune from a fortune cookie fell out of her purse and landed on the seat next to me. (I know. But really, this actually did happen.) It said, "You have an ambitious nature and will make a name for yourself." This was at the very second that I was listening to a song called "Publisher" by Blonde Redhead. Who knew a cosmic symbol would come to me on public transit? Also, my lucky numbers were 4 and 7 (4 + 7 = December 11th!! Or December 47th?) and 23, which is the name of the album I was listening to. That, and 14, 35, and 48, which I'm ignoring since they don't fit neatly into the story. Although, I was 14 once... NO MERE COINCIDENCE.

Ben visits in 10 days, Anna gets here in a month, Shadie comes in 6 or 8 weeks, Geoff visits in February, and Alex maybe comes sometime after that. My thoughts basically consist of a never-ending slideshow of these five faces, maybe with an Abba song playing in the background. Those 5 faces, and one of those cartoon meat drumsticks. Yes, that's about all there is to me.

More breaking news

Aiiiieeeaaahh, I just killed a giant spider that was hanging out in the corner of my room. Why, spider, why? Why right before bed? Luckily I managed to grab a shoe that I don't really like, since I'll probably leave it there (covering the mangled corpse) until I move out. It's December, isn't everything on earth supposed to be dead by now? Next time I'll use Paul's shoe.

In a further quest to make sure every second of my life is documented on the internet, you can now track what I listen to on my ipod every day here. Hey, how'd that Ginuwine track get on there? Clearly there must be some mistake.

Here is how I would rate every tea in the Stash Herbal Tea Sampler:

Apple Cinnamon: B
Blueberry: F
Chamomile: D-
Lemon Ginger: B+
Licorice Spice: F-
Mango Passionfruit: C
Orange Starfruit: C
Peppermint: A+
Wild Raspberry: F

Poking at things with sticks

Tonight I was reflecting back on the week and thinking about how great it had been, when it occurred to me that I couldn't actually explain, in normal terms, why it'd been so great. I have nothing to report. I've lived the same day 5 days in a row. But how to explain? After seeing basically every person I love in the world during Thanksgiving, coming back to Oregon was sort of like staring at a blank sheet of paper. Yet, I wasn't, and am not, unhappy. What I find impossible to include in this blog are the small things that take up most of my time and give me most of my happiness. I love waking up and drinking coffee out of my Edward Gorey mug so much that I start to get excited about it every night before I go to bed. This morning, Ben patiently listened to me drone on about how I got a credit card with a picture of an eagle on it, and how I thought I lost my keys the other day (they were in my back pocket the whole time). The other day I came close to telling you about how I almost fell down on the bus, until I realized that that was all there was to the story. But, I don't know, it was so funny at the time!

And on that note, today was wonderful. It was sunny and cold and I walked around my neighborhood for hours, listening to music. I drank coffee out of my mug. I learned that Will Oldham took the cover photo for Slint's "Spiderland" album, which, I know, I know, I know nobody cares about, but I had to tell you because it gave me such a thrill. I missed seeing Bill Moyers on OPB, but it's okay because he'll be on again tomorrow! After 20 minutes of staring at my bookshelf, I've decided that I'll start reading Kundera's "Immortality" again soon. There's a lot to look forward to, including writing my initials on the bus window and seeing if I can guess the exact minute that I clock in at work.

I also bought some soap that smells really good!

What I meant to say was that things are going pretty well.

Some photos from my trip:

Uncaptionable

Trapped inside a garbage compactor, or just sitting in the back of the Worst Car Ever?

The Worst Car Ever has a patch of rust instead of a sunroof

I wish we had gone to this!



The Worst Car Ever: external shot

Bread and Pen mustache

Mario and Wario



Tweedledee and Tweedledum

Is she standing up or sitting down? Haw haw!

Spockolate

Today I tried to ride the bus to work, which would have been a great success if the bus had actually shown up. After a pathetic chain of events involving a ticket machine that only spoke Spanish and a depressing sojourn at a bus stop located under an overpass, I finally walked home and begged Paul to drive me. From there, the day progressed into something that I would liken to a young adult novel where someone endures their first mortifying day at a new junior high school. I immediately made sure to sit on a giant chunk of chocolate, since the only thing that looks better than a wet, tired employee is a wet, tired employee with melted chocolate all over their ass. I was just getting over this when I noticed that my lunch had leaked all over my purse, which now smells like tuna and capers (though, as a bonus I may now enjoy new popularity with the neighborhood cats). The rest is just your typical laundry list of stupid embarrassments: food in teeth, zit on cheek, stuttering, tripping. I skinned my knee? I don't even know how that happened.

Fortunately, I found the chocolate incident to be so hilarious that I was in an A+ mood all day, which turned to A++ after I got home and unearthed this little gem:

Yeah, haw haw, go ahead and make your "some things never change!!!" joke. The point is, I vividly remember this trip because I sat in chocolate and got in all over that jacket! I feel a kinship with my younger self. The fact that I am posing with cardboard Star Trek characters makes it even more perfect.

Home in 2 1/2 days :)

In Which Various Forms of Chicken Save the Day

Bugh. Ben left for Los Angeles today. The only good that can come from this is the fact that I now enjoy full custody of the chicken-shaped casserole dish that we found by the side of the road a few weeks ago. Luckily, Paul was able to provide hours of entertainment for me today by remaining in a death-like sleep in front of a half-eaten bucket of Popeye's chicken. It's the simple things, I tell you.

Portland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Portland

Big news! But first, here's a photo of a weasel:



I don't think I'd ever really seen a weasel until the other day, when one happened to be on TV. I always thought they were badger-like, but... no! Weasels!

Anyway, the big news is that I'm coming home for Thanksgiving!

Portland to Cincinnati 11/21/07 11:55 pm - 7:07 am
Cincinnati to Chicago 11/22/07 9:15 am - 9:35 am
Chicago to Indianapolis 11/22/07 10:25 am - 12:25 pm

Indianapolis to Atlanta 11/25/07 2:25 pm - 3:59 pm
Atlanta to Portland 11/25/07 6:49 pm - 9:19 pm

Lalalalala!!!!!

Hallowhine

I almost forgot, I have Halloween photos! You can probably already guess what I dressed up as, since I've had the same costume for the past 5 years. I think this also marks five years in a row that I've vowed to dress as Wario (my mentor), without actually making any moves towards building the costume. Maybe next year? I know I'd look great with a foot wide cardboard mustache. Alex, you're obviously Mario.



We went to greatest Halloween party ever, which I've deemed "greatest" solely because it's the only costume party I've ever been to where nobody was dressed as a sexy nurse. LIFE IS WORTH LIVING AGAIN. Ben had no costume, so he borrowed a wolf mask from Kathleen and claimed to be Teen Wolf.

Haw haw!

Corinn, Paul, and Kathleen as Mexican wrestlers

The winners of the "least amount of effort" award pose for a photo

Bjork and "Crazy Eyez Killa" Olsen, having a grand time on the stairs

WHAT ARE YOU DRESSED AS, PINK LADY??

Ricardo en Fuego fears Teen Wolf while Gum studies her scarf.

Boy, did we have a great time.

Unfortunately, Paul's intense look of concentration got him nowhere. He was, as they say, "hosed." Teen Wolf wins again!

A case of the mondays

This update has been a little late in coming, since after sitting at a computer all day, I really don't feel like sitting at a computer again and typing about how I sit at a computer all day. But anyway, about this job: uh, I have no idea. It's sort of impossible to tell what it's going to be like on a day-to-day basis, and I don't want to make any generalizations because they'll probably turn out to be wrong. However:

1) I'm not sure I actually know what I do for a living.
2) Office comedies are based in truth.
3) 5 cups of coffee a day is too much.
4) They're paying me to go there, and I already have benefits, so by default I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

The first few days I really had almost nothing to do, so I spent a lot of time getting hot drinks, shuffling papers around, and trying to figure out what my department actually does. Those were not good times. They've been keeping me pretty busy for the last few days, though, so things are looking up; once I understand what it is I'm actually supposed to be doing, I think the work itself will be kind of nice. I really, really really like learning about the book industry, and I'm one of those boring people who relishes solitary, detail-oriented tasks, so the job will probably be a good fit (and the management style is extremely hands-off, which is perfect). The people there are friendly but reserved, so I haven't been able to meet too many people, but I'm hoping it will get easier (unfortunately, some of my neighbors seem to be a bit stony-faced, even choosing to skip out on the Halloween party we had during work -- which was on the clock and had a ton of food -- to sit hunched in their cubicles). The people I have talked to have been very kind and willing to help, though.

Anyway, who cares. Last weekend Ben and I went to Forest Park, which is a 5,000 acre forest reserve inside Portland. You drive through downtown, then all of the sudden you're in the middle of an old-growth forest! Look:

Forest Park, by Dolce y Gabbana

PREFONTAINE LIVES!!!


This is the Willamette River, sort of. In the distance you can see all the fall colors of the city and on the horizon is the Cascade mountain range.

I didn't take this photo, but this is Mount Hood over downtown Portland. It's one of my favorite parts of living in Oregon. I see it every day (and it really is this visible, and even prettier in real life) and I still can't get over how beautiful it is. We can see Mount St. Helens from here, too. Sometimes it spews ash! Mountains are neat.