Ξ
August 21st, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Briefs |
I hate packing.
I love shedding myself of the extraneous, unnecessary, annoying possessions that follow me from place to place with no clear purpose or emotional value.
Over the last year’s worth of moving, I’ve managed to do both rather well. This move feels like it will allow me to get it down to a fairly satisfactory level of simplicity. I’ve already gone through a trunkload of donations, and I’ll add this monster of a desk and a few other items to that list this weekend.
I’m looking forward to starting fresh with a new roommate, but I also fear that all the old habits I’ve learned will follow me. I’m shedding some - joining the ARC and starting a weekly therapy session have been tremendous improvements in my mental well-being - and I’m working on others. Every so often I find myself looking at my life and thinking, simply, “oh.” Oh in the sense of “oh, so this is what adulthood is, it’s not that different from what I had before except there are more bills and more worries.” Oh as in “oh, this is it? This is all I’ve been waiting for?” It’s reassuring and unsatisfactory - that I’m not off-target, but I’m still not who and what I’d like to become. Every cycle I get a little bit closer, though.
Each time I make the pledge to live a little more fully, see more places, go on more adventures, I get better at it. I just need to keep reminding myself of that pledge, and not let myself chicken out.
As I said though, getting better.
Ξ
July 29th, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Travel, Briefs |
In lieu of actual text, I’ll remind you that I have a Flickr photostream. You can also see a mini preview in the navigation bar to the left.
<<— over there.
Ξ
July 23rd, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Davis, 4-H, Briefs, DC |
With the amount of travel I’m racking up this summer, I will have many, many frequent flier miles. Let’s hope I have the time to make use of them.
My little one-bedroom apartment is great, but it’s lonely and expensive to live here on my own. Therefore, I’m making arrangements to move into a shared house - I don’t know which one from my list yet, but I’ll be saving between $300 and $500 a month by moving. Yes, it’s a bit stressful with all the travel going on, but I think long-term it’ll definitely be worth it.
ACCESS 4-H is moving along well. I lost a lot of confidence in the last couple of weeks, but after 10 days with Bob, Jon, and Jess it’s back and much improved. I was getting overwhelmed with everything going on … now I’m still busy but I feel like I can handle it. That’s good news for me.
So yes, I haven’t been blogging much, and I probably won’t be for a while. But I’m still alive and moving fast.
Ξ
June 17th, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Unfiled |
Now that I’ve been here for a couple of months, on my own (more or less), living in the working world… I realize that I still have some growing up to do.
Telecommuting is awesome, as long as a few things are in place:
1. Regular team communication, just the team, keeping up with each others’ workloads and concerns.
2. Clear expectations and procedures for silly things like reimbursements and travel arrangements.
3. Regular face-to-face meetings, just to keep the human connection alive.
Living in Davis is awesome, so long as I remember these things:
1. I’m not a student anymore. That doesn’t mean I can’t keep up with the campus life, but it does mean that there are some fundamental changes in the way I relate to it.
2. I don’t have nearly the same kind of free time that I used to… same number of free hours but distributed differently.
3. My social circle has shrunk a lot. After spending all day online, I find myself craving human company. This is the opposite of when I was a student, surrounded by fellow students and bustle and activity all day, leaving me craving solitude and quiet. I look forward to evening get-togethers. I miss living with other people.
Budgets are good for you… like going to the dentist. They’re nerve-wracking and frustrating but in the end for the best. I’m learning more about budgeting every day. Yay me.
I love my kittens. Sophie has been somewhat eclipsed by the little one, in that she’s not nearly so cuddly and clingy now. She also seems happier. I’m glad.
Travel is becoming more and more expensive by the day. This saddens me. Daily travel, trips north, trips south… I need to be better about booking more in advance. Two weeks isn’t enough anymore.
I am loved. If anything, I’ve grown closer to my support network both here and far away. I would like to begin writing letters. If I do, would any of you like to trade them with me?
Ξ
June 5th, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Critters, Briefs |
I have a new kitten. I got her for Sophie, and the plan to keep ‘em both occupied is working well. Neither is bored, and both play well with each other.
Excellent.
Kitten came with the name Daffodil, and given her propensity for pouncing and exploring and basically being a ton of personality in a 2-pound body … the name just didn’t quite fit.
Henceforth, she shall be named Onomatopoeia, and her nicknames shall be myriad. Personally, I like Sproioioioing and Kaboom and Squeak, but I’m sure she’ll acquire many more as the mood strikes.
I’ll post pictures as I get them.
I have had a busy, busy month.
I’m now living in a 1-bedroom apartment, in Davis, with my beloved cat and my very own bills. While I have the basic furniture, I’d really like a couch. The bedroom, kitchen, and dining room are all functional, but I have no place besides the floor to crash and watch movies.
That said, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to contemplate the lack of couch. The first weekend back in Davis I spent arranging all my many boxes of stuff and acquiring more stuff to store said stuff and basically settling in to my revised life. Then there was Picnic Day - I entered one of the Alumni Association drawings and ended up with a new duffle bag filled with stuff. Not bad, but more stuff to arrange.
I left for San Francisco the Monday after Picnic Day for the Web 2.0 Expo with my colleagues. Not a bad trip in the least, but it did mark the first of several overnight trips away from my new nest. We spent the majority of the time in meetings with our developers and ironing out bugs… but the eating was good and the company enjoyable.
Two weeks ago Grammy passed away.
I had just returned from San Francisco when I heard, and was looking forward to a trip to Seattle. I ended up heading back to Ojai instead. I won’t say the weekend was easy, but it was surprisingly relaxing in many ways.
I sang Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus at the funeral, and spent most of the weekend reconnecting with all the family members I haven’t seen in a year or more. It felt a little strange at first, but the overall consensus was that Grammy always wanted to be in the middle of wherever the family party was taking place, so it was our duty to give her a good party. There were a few who missed the proceedings, but I think we gave Grammy a good send-off.
About 30 minutes after I returned home, I started a lovely bout of digestive upset. It knocked me out for the bulk of Monday and Tuesday of last week. After a frenzy of catch-up work, I headed up to Seattle for the first purely relaxational weekend I’ve had in a long time. Oh, it was lovely.
Now I’ve returned to Davis once more, and perhaps this will be a normal week. No, in fact it won’t.
I’ve come down with a cold.
Ξ
April 7th, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Briefs |
I am in California. My cat is delighted.
Steven’s wedding was much fun and relaxation and friends and happiness all rolled into one.
Now for the moving!
Ξ
April 3rd, 2008 | →
Comments Off | ∇ Unfiled |
Flight leaves at 1 PM Eastern.
W00T!!!
If you haven’t yet noticed, the link to the left will take you to Flickr and my photo albums there.
Enjoy.
So a couple of weeks ago, as I was in the throes of my homesickness, my boss (who is awesome) offered me the chance to return to California. Specifically, Davis.
So all my plans got tossed in the air, I’m moving in less than two weeks, and I have the joy of coordinating all the ACCESS stuff plus packing and finding an apartment and dealing with the moving of all my stuff between Ojai and Davis (again), aaaand oh yeah. Steven and Allison are getting hitched on the 5th of April. I depart DC with all the stuff I’ve accumulated here on April 3. On April 8 I head north from Ojai with said stuff, plus all the stuff from my previous residences.
Yup.
Color me busy.
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