Red Sox

Tonight I realized that I haven't changed the channel from NESN in over two weeks. How did I realize this? My remote has been missing for about that amount of time and I haven't even attempted to find it. I apparently don't need anything except for channel 13 and Don Orsillo. Oh, and Jason Varitek's thighs.

Things on or under my desk at work.

10: pens from Basil Tree
9: extraneous folders
8: different types of binder clips
7: pairs of shoes
6: tubes of lip balm
5: bottles of water
4: bottles of lotion
3: ball jars
2: containers of clorox wipes
1: pepper grinder

I have a lot of stuff.

Best. Quote. Ever.

"The drunker I get, the more I feel like people are intimidated by my beauty."
--Brittany

My softball team...

...once again reaffirms my existence.

Likes/And nots.

Things I really, really like:
--My father's over-concern about the states of my air-conditioners because he thinks my apartment is going to get too warm and we (meaning Lin and I, since my cat's comfort is factored into all family decisions) will be uncomfortable (also: see last sentence of this post for important follow-up)
--The fact that I have two air-conditioners. My apartment is a nice size, but it's hardly warranted, unless you understand HOW. MUCH. I. HATE. BEING. HOT.
--That more than one guy on my softball team will ask about Lin, by name, with concern
--Smart Puffs
--Emails that end in i loveeeeeeeeeee you xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxooxox
--The skirt I found in my filing cabinet at work that I forgot about but now realized I was missing a lot
--The little baby tomatoes in the garden
--The very large kale in the garden
--Clean sheets
--My new Calphalon pan that has revolutionized my cooking experiences
--That for some reason, when I'm irritated about my psoriasis, I can yell, "OUT DAMN SPOT" as I'm applying scary steroid cream and it makes me laugh every time
--Also, I get Macbeth and Hamlet confused until I'm actually asked about them
--Also, I love the name Ophelia, but that ends badly. And yes, that's Hamlet.
--shit, wait... no, it is. IT IS.


Things I don't like so much:
--I haven't studied Shakespeare in six years and am losing facts by the day. (But I haven't read The Tempest in ten years and I can still tell you way more than you want to know about Miranda, Caliban, and Ariel, so suck it. Prospero can suck it too, I never liked him. Ferdinand either.)
--Finishing a book and not knowing what to read next because nothing else will be good enough (and no, this is not the cue to pick up Shakespeare).
--My dvr hasn't recorded anything in like a week except the same "Good Eats" about cheese. And I love cheese, but still.
--Lin=haaaaaates kidney food. Not a surprise, but frustrating.
--Olives (always)
--Corks that are synthetic in the middle but real on the outside. It happens, my friends. and they SUCK.
--Psoriasis. It's a freaky mutation and I'm not okay with it.
--My bank balance. But can we say, hello, three pay periods AND A RAISE in July?
--My bedroom air conditioner isn't very cold. The 61 degrees? Is a lie. (Luckily, the father is likely to get involved, as making my apartment AS COLD AS POSSIBLE is his life's mission [see 1st line of this posting]. And that? Is fiiiiiiiiiine with me.)

Small relief.

Although I have an MA in children's literature, I don't usually find children themselves all that intriguing--mainly because they're so...unpredictable. I was, then, obviously pleased to discover--on two separate occasions--that I ADORE my friends' children.
So phew, that chip isn't totally missing.

Rain

Tonight while coming home from work, I was caught in the second downpour in as many days. And when I say I got rained on, I'm not talking like, "Oh, it started to rain and I had to hustle to get inside." No, yesterday when the bus dropped me off in Harvard Square, it was raining so hard that cars were pulling over. I was instantly soaked through and ended up taking a cab to the quad, which was ridiculous but necessary. Luckily, cause I'm lazy and change into my softball clothes and leave my other clothes at work and never, ever bring them home, I had some spare shirts and pants. My hair was wet until after 5pm, though.
Today it rained as well, but just when I was leaving work, even though more rain was in the forecast, the sun peeked out. I did not grab an umbrella. Some people would say that was foolish, but I say, you know what? THAT'S OPTIMISM.

Hindsight

"Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It's like the tide going out, revealing whatever's been thrown away and sunk: broken bottles, old gloves, rusting pop cans, nibbled fishbodies, bones. This is the kind of thing you see if you sit in the darkness with open eyes, not knowing the future. The ruin you've made."
--Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye

They just grow up so fast.

Most of these students are our concentrators.
There is nothing stranger than opening the New York Times and seeing a person that you made a fake award for when he graduated because he's such a spaz. And having that person declare that the fake award was even better than a diploma, cause everyone gets a diploma and only he got the special Kate and Valerie Think You are Truly a Piece of Work Award.

Writing Again.

I missed writing. But I had to retire the other blog--it was so intertwined with the bookstore that I decided a fresh start was necessary. My new job definitely doesn't offer as many amusing stories. But today I sent a professor a file about our cum laude students that I later realized was labeled "students--CUM--with honors." So I'm still the same spaz as before.

That should be a comfort to everyone.