At a loss for a title

Wow. I really thought that I had posted something since that last one. I didn't even post a celebratory post about getting my car back last Thursday. I didn't post from home during my visit. I didn't post to let you all know that I made it back to Boulder late but safely. Well, it's too late for all that.

First of all:

New Pictures

Well, there are two really excting things in my world right now. First, I have begun a wonderful experiment: veganism. This was inspired by my food coach/nutritionist housemate, who talked to me about gorillas. He also brought home some killer vegan boston creme pie. Mmmm... Second, I just sent a draft of my personal statement off to my editor. I might actually be being productive. This is good.

It was nice to be home and see everyone, and it is nice to be back in the mountains. I guess that means that I've got it good! Last night we were all hanging out in the kitchen and laughing it up while Debra took a drill to an ear of corn. We'll do some crazy things for birds sometimes. The near-pandemonium resulted in a great quote from Debra: He's making fun of us at the dishwasher!

Well, it looks like it's time to go get some groceries.

The Curse

Remember the vehicular curse that I mentioned in a previous post? Well, I forgot to mention one thing. The "courtesy vehicle" that I have to drive around while Zeus is in intensive care is getting the crap kicked out of it. Every time I park, it's like there must be some sort of war that goes on while I'm doing whatever errand I'm doing. The car has been hit on two or three occasions (in one section of damage, I can't tell if it was two incidents or one). So there is a ~3x1 section of paint scraped off the bumber, a dent on the passenger side fender maybe 7 or 8 inches in diameter, and a substantial amount of paint scraped off along the passenger door panel. I don't know how much they are going to charge me for this stuff. The paint scrape on the bumper is from a housemate, and he said he will pay me back. The other, and more severe, stuff I guess is all on me. It's like MY car isn't enough to worry about.

New pictures!

New pictures are posted in the New Random file. Well, what can I say, they're all of Reza. I need to share my camera more I suppose.

New Random

Also, Reza has requested I post a link to his site.

Reza's site

Radio

What would happen if they took 89X and improved it about 20 fold? Well, it would be awesome, and it would be Modern Rock 93.3 here in Denver/Boulder/Ft. Collins. I'm listening to the radio right now, and I thought I had better tell you. When my mood changes I switch to an indy station called KGNU. You can listen, too!

Modern Rock

Boulder Community Radio

The Everyday

Well, my casserole was not quite as good as Mom's. Mom's is more moist. I think that a big factor was the casserole dish I used. She has these great casseroles that have overlapping lips when they close. I used a normal dish. Mine was still good, though, and Reza liked it. One bonus about eating with Reza: You know how it's so hard to cook for two? Well he eats enough for about three, so all those great family-sized recipes are all to the good.

This morning the downstairs radio was on when I got up. There's no one else here to turn it on, and I know for sure it was off last night. Creepy. Someone could have set an alarm on it by accident. Or there could be a solar flare. Apart from that I expect today to be fairly routine. Here's my typical day:
-get up and make tea
-drink tea while doing my email and applying for newly posted jobs
-crochet while watching a movie
-go into Boulder to run errands
-make and eat dinner with Reza
It's pretty good. Today one of may errands is getting the engraving done on the Pedro trophy. YES! One childhood dream realized.

Yesterday, I called the Subaru dealer. Wow. I can't believe what is happening with my car. I think I have a vehicular curse. I called to get word on when my car might be finished. Jason, my charming service writer, let me know that it's worse than they thought and they don't know when it will be done. The best estimate he can give me is, "a while." Apparently the uncertainty is due to the fact that various parts of the engine have been sent off to various specialty shops, and the manufacturer is directly involved in the repair somehow. He said there is a lot of red tape. I think there will be more red tape soon, because if they don't get my car back to me within a certain period they will be legally obligated to buy it back from me at the price I paid for it (or replace it).

Tomorrow is going to be super radical. Reza and I are going to go into Denver. I am going to buy pants. As some of you know, I wait to buy jeans until all of mine have holes in the crotch (because I sit on my foot and my shoe wears on the fabric). I don't know why I do this; I know it is a bad idea. Well, I have reached the threshold, and am off to the... is there are word for pantmaker? You know like haberdasher is to hats as ________ is to blue jeans? Anyway, I'm going to buy jeans. Also, we are going to go to an Iranian restuarant (I think) and then out to Persian night at this dance club. Reza's friend is the DJ. We went once before and it's so awesome. Everyone is there from seven year olds to sixty year olds, and there are belly dancers! I can practice my Farsi.

Lapse

I has been brought to my attention (thanks Gma) that I have not updated the ol' blog in quite some time. I am happy to say that the reason for the lapse has been me getting stuff done. Yay!

Not only have I sent out numerous resumes to various potential employers, but I have also completed a draft of my new and (hopefully) improved personal statement. Both are now brewing away. The applications are out of my hands, and the personal statement is waiting patiently for my second review. As some of you know, these things need a couple days of rest before the author can revisit them successfully.
Basically, I feel really good. I have had some time to take care of my mental and emotional needs, finished the book I was reading (Sister Carrie), and started running again. That's right, I have started running once more, special thanks to Jason at Boulder Running for putting me in the right shoe. The thing that stinks is that it is hard to get back into the sport. I feel SO SLOW, which is normal. But I'm trying to start back in at 8500 feet above sea level. Can you all hear me breathing in MI?
Speaking to you Michiganders, some of you may not know that I will be returning to our fine state on the 23rd of September in order to defend my Pedro Champion title...also I will see all you wonderful folks.

Another thing I have been doing is learning some Farsi (aka Persian, aka the language of Iran). I can now hold a very intellectual conversation. These are the words I know:
Hi
How are you?
Very well.
Yes
No
Be careful
okay
me
you
two
I don't know

Basically, I can ask someone out:
Hi! Me you, okay?

Tonight I am making the food that has been my favorite ever since childhood for Reza's and my dinner: chicken macaroni casserole. I hope it's as good as Mom's.

Labor Day

Labor Day was chock full of activity. Reza and his friend Ber had a 10K in Fort Collins, so we started our day with a drive up there. Ber got second and Reza got sixth (because he didn't take my training advice on Sunday and was tired). He wasn't too happy with his time, but has another chance to prove himself and his training to his coach with a half-marathon coming up later this month. We shall see.
Reza and Ber both won gift certificates for shoes, so after the race, we went to the local running store and then to lunch. My sandwhich was just okay.

I had been hoping to make it up to Gold Hill after the race in time for a Zydeco concert, but we were too late and decided to go see a movie instead. We saw The Constant Gardener, which I would recommend highly to Dre and also to anyone looking to think about things that should make us uncomfortable. (Dre, it is a medical thriller, like that other movie about organ trafficking that you like but better done and on a subject more dear to you.)
After the movie we visited a couple Iranian families, and I ate very well.

Today has been sort of a lazy day. I have started to write a new personal statement because I hate my current version. I am starting over from scratch. I fear that when it's time to send off applications I will have changed drastically again and need to write another one.
I really should start a business writing application essays for people. Okay, I know that would be...against the rules, but I SHOULD start one doing editing. Too bad the universities all offer free writing help centers nowadays.

Finally Taking Care of Myself

I left the dealership today. Just now.

Who's Doing/Did This Writing?

Friday, September 2, 2005

Sometimes, it’s like my life is actually am novel or movie (perhaps a movie based on a novel). Here’s what I mean.
So the situation at work has been that I am miserable. All my loyal readers know that. First, I stood up for myself and gave two weeks notice of resignation. That felt good. I was happy and sold a lot of cars. Also, shortly after my announcement, my car went kaput. At work, everyone was really nice and understanding, so I got to thinking that maybe the place wasn’t that bad after all. I asked if they could place me somewhere in the office (as had been offered at the two-weeks-notice announcement). Okay. At the end of my two weeks, the owner told me to go talk to the office manager about a job, turns out he had not even mentioned the possibility to the guy. So the office manager was caught off guard, but said he would love to have me if I could only wait a little while until he could try and arrange something for me. Yesterday, he told me they were filling the open spot in the office with a more experienced temp. Of course, he asked me to please stay on the sales floor, actually suggesting that something else might open up for me in the office. I told him flat out that I understand the value of experience and I appreciate that need, but that I am just being strung along here. He admitted the fault.
Here’s where the literary element presented itself: This morning, after a little sebatical from my phone, I finally checked my voicemail again. I had seven messages. A number from Dre, one from Cait, one from Subaru, and one from work. The one from work was just the hold music/message. A full message of just hold music and, “Thank you for calling Champion Ford! We will get to your call as soon as possible.” Incredible.

Why I Need to Further Pursue My Studies

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Today, I went to Whole Foods and got sushi for lunch. I hadn’t really had it before, but I was sure I would like it. The reason I got sushi is that it (I hear tell) goes with seaweed salad, which I love with the whole of my palate.
At Whole Foods they package their seaweed salad and sushi in little plastic containers. The bottom part of the container has a design on it that tips its hat to Japanese art. So, I’m eating my lunch: yum, yum, yum. And I start thinking about the containers’ design. I think about calling the design Japanese-inspired. Pretty much as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I thought, “Wait!" In the adjective construction _______-inspired can the “blank” word be an adjective or does it have to be a noun?” So, I’m enjoying my seaweed and searching my brain for other, non-nationality based examples that might use an adjective. I don’t think of any. So, now I’m thinking that the right way to go about describing this container’s design is “Japan-inspired,” but the design was not inspired by the country itself, the land within the borders (as I’m supposing), but rather the people of Japan. So, in the end my “Japanese” was a noun all along.
As an aside, I do think that the “blank” word has to be a noun because I don’t see how a non-thing/idea/place could inspire someone. I thought maybe a verb could do, but really one would be inspired by the noun form of the verb. That is, you wouldn’t have a pair of shorts that are run-inspired in design but rather running-inspired. (Now the grammar check has planted a seed of doubt in my mind because run-inspired is not underlined and running-inspired is.)
So my point is this: I have to think that I am alone in the dealership on this. If I were to go to one of my coworkers, pose this line of thought, and ask for commentary and (hopefully) counterexamples, I have to think that I would win the weird award.
Normally, I would talk to Dre about this stuff, but I know I can find other strange, over-aware-of-grammar types in academia.

P.S. There is a guy at work named Ryan and we have these very similar pink button-up shirts. We always seem to wear them on the same day (today included) and it bothers him. Maybe he feels too girly. Not only is the shirt pink, the international color for, “It’s a Girl!” but a girl is wearing one right down the hall. This guy sure has it rough.