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Saturday, 5-29-04. Perpetually sunny and hot.
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One thing after another (mostly procrastination) lead me to being a bit late to meet up with my folks this afternoon. Like a f*cking idiot, I was in the fast lane while driving through speed trap central, CA (Sausalito). I then compounded my risk of being pulled over by allowing myself to get distracted by a program on NPR I was intently listening to. It's my first ticket in 6 years, and my worst thus far. Just when my insurance finally slid under $100 a month, too... I am extremely pissed. I have no idea how I'm going to pay the fine, either, as I have no savings.. joy, eh?
Later on, my dad and I went to get me a new cell phone. The guy in the Radio Shack was a bit weighted on the side of being a moron, and he tried to jack us around with peripherals. In the end, however, I got a nice one. My old phone has been having significant trouble for some time now, so it had been long overdue for retirement. It still feels really awkward being at my folks place now that Meenee's not with us. When she was around, there was always a sort of constant, happy vibe. Now there's just awkward silences peppered with mind-grating silent dispair. There was a Giants game at the park tonight, followed by a grand fireworks show over the water. Being only 2 blocks away, the precussion was pretty intense. Several fireworks misfired and went off either on the barge they were launched from, or only a few meters above it.
German word of the day: Angst (f) - Fear
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Thursday, 5-27-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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I've been spending far too much time online lately. Ever since finals week ended, I've spent the majority of my days surfing the net, losing complete track of time, and rushing my errands at the end of each day. Tomorrow I'm going to limit myself to an hour. Hopefully this will allow me to finally get some substantial progress made on my two current woodworking projects, as the timetable of their completion has been moving at a snail's pace for quite some time now.
In other news, Calgary lost rather badly tonight. The playoffs aren't looking so sure for them now, though we'll see.
German word of the day: Hinderlich - Hindering
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Tuesday, 5-25-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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At last, I have broken the cycle in the longstanding cessation of work on my TV cabinet project. After finally getting the main cabinet sanded to finish, I wiped on the first coat of polyeurothane. This will be the first of probably 8 coats, though I'm just glad it's finally under way.
After work tonight, Justin and I went to Briana's place and watched the first playoff game of the Stanley Cup. We had pizza, Calgary won, it was good times. Briana is rather ticklish...
German word of the day: Gelassen - Calm, cool
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Thursday, 5-20-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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Today has left me with a lingering feeling of emptiness... an aftertase, really. After work I went over to my friend Justin's house to do the final sanding and stained his desk top. That was followed with some not-so-well-cooked pizza, and then we watched numerous movies until around midnight. When I finally came home, hauling a mountain of freshly-cleaned laundry into my pitch-black apartment, I found an earwig stumbling across my carpet near my computer desk. Without as much as a flinch, I stepped on it, twisting my shoe to ensure a quick death. I went to wash up, and upon my return, brandishing kleenex to retrieve my supposid kill, the head portion was still moving around... antennae swinging in circles, the shredded fragments of the insect's body writhing in agony. I scooped it up with the kleenex and flushed it just before taking a leak. The horror was rather inescapable.
My life feels a bit lost these days, but the mental mechanisms I developed in my teen years tend to kick in before I get in very many thoughts on the subject. Things have been feeling better since Monday, however. I didn't lose it today, so that's a positive development. I have, however, been feeling strangely numb, which worries me.
German word of the day: Bürokratismus (f) - Red tape, beurocracy
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Tuesday, 5-18-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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Today was the last day of the semester. More importantly, tonight was the last shop class with my long-time teacher Ken, and his student assistant Ryan, both of which I've become very close to over the last 4 semesters I've taken their excellent evening shop class. I gave Ken some of my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies he likes so much, we swapped contact info, and heartily shook hands. I'm still not done with my folks' TV cabinet, but I'm getting there.
The rest of today hasn't been easy by any means, either. I've been having to constantly pull myself up psychologically to prevent losing it in front of people all day. I am feeling better though.. I guess my mental mechanisms are working overtime to patch things up.
RIP Tony Randall.
German word of the day: Beute (f) - Booty, loot
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Monday, 5-17-04. The sky might as well be black.
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This is probably the most difficult day of my entire life. Meenee (Cinnamon), my dog of 14 years and 9 months, died today. She was a model of kindness, the best friend I've ever had and a little sister rolled into one... I'll never forget her. We didn't find out until this morning, but she had advanced Cushing's Disease, a terminal disease often associated with older dogs. My dad had to make the choice to put her down, which he did with immense difficulty. Everyone in the family is very upset... this is truly a sad, horrible day for all of us. I had to drive down south to hang with my parents this evening, as we all have been breaking down repeatedly since we heard the news. I plan to make an album of photos of her on here and maybe post some writings, but until then, here's a pic I took of her last Thanksgiving. RIP, Meenee pie... the pack misses you.
German word of the day: Faible (n) - Weakness
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Sunday, 5-16-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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Bay to Breakers wasn't too bad this year, in fact it was the easiest one I've done yet. The weather was perfect, and it went fairly quickly. That, however, still does not discount from the fact that my joints are killing me and my legs are a bit on the sore side from not having trained at all.
Meenee, our gray-bearded family dog, doesn't seem to be doing too well. We think she might have a disease, but we won't know for sure until the tests come back tomorrow. She hasn't eaten for a few days now, and she was having substantial trouble keeping control of herself this evening. It was nice to see her and the fam today, regardless.
German word of the day: Textferarbeitung (f) - Word processing
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Friday, 5-14-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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I met up with my friend Justin for "lunch" today. We went to Wendy's and I had a frostie and a 99-cent burger. Then I headed home and, though I thought I'd take a 15-minute nap, I ended up sleeping for over 2 hours. After work I met back up with Justin, Ethan (the guitarist for Grub 'n Dubb), and Ethan's girlfriend Briana for a jam session. Following the jam, we went to Grub's show, where we also saw the bands Djin and Derivative. The concert injected some well-needed musical inspiration in me, and I stayed up until 3 am recording riffs and working on arrangements of some of my new tunes. I also expelled 2 spiders from my kitchen sink just before going to bed.
German word of the day: Streichholzschachtel (f) - Matchbox
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Sunday, 5-9-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
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I decided to stay in the city this weekend, taking it easy with the folks. We drove to Sacto this morning to have brunch with a large number of extended family, then came back and watched The Thin Man on DVD, while eating fudge.
It looks like I might be moving to the city in a few weeks. I'm sick of living in this town, as I have grown annoyed with the lack of culture and means to meet people. I'm still not entirely unpacked in my current apartment, and now it looks like I'm going to have to start packing again once finals are over. This is in addition to making sure I'm going into the right college program, finding a new job, and getting a long list of other things organized. My stress level has now officially tripled.
Über Onion has been updated with a new photo.
Ever wondered if Escher's "Relativity" could be done using Legos? Well wonder no longer!
German word of the day: Karambolage (f) - Collision, crash
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