Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Today: pretty good.

Side note: (can it count as a side note if it's the first thing I write?) I think/am pretty sure that I'm actually afraid to say that I've had a good or really good or awesome (or whatever) day. I mean, I have an extremely strong aversion to it--strong enough that I think it must be fear. Maybe I'm afraid I'll jinx it. Anyway.

Accomplishments today, aside from/related to/in addition to? having a--dare I say it?--really good* day!Oh, it was. I mean, I woke up a little early (I don't know how early--I decided that checking my clock would only piss me off) to my brother's little dog barking outside. She sleeps over rather often, and evidently she'd forced my poor mother to take her out. Generally I have a difficult time recovering from a "how was your day" setback like an unnecessarily early wakeup, but I did it! I was having a little bit of an attitude problem, but I decided to text "good morning!" to David anyway. And he texted back in Spanish, which I pretty much always love for some reason, and suddenly I was smiling again. (Crisis averted!)

Went to work, helped set up display cases and so on, then got to go to 7-11 for hot chocolate/coffee (with hazelnut creamer--so delicious) and to the grocery store for some veggies to put out front. And hand lotion! I think, for some reason, my boss doesn't want to argue with me even when I'm not really trying to argue for things. So I mentioned that he'd said we used to have lotion and that we don't now, and that maybe we could use some, and he didn't seem enthusiastic about it and I started to say it wasn't a big deal, and then he said something like, "Fine, get whatever you want." Anyway, Gold Bond lotion seems pretty great so far.

There wasn't much going on today at our little seafood store--not usually a lot of customers in the morning (and today was no exception), and not much cooking to do. So I made some crab dip and put it in the fridge, and then read my book ("Salt: A World History"**) for a while. When I'm reading I tend to force those around me to listen to interesting snippets from the text, so somehow I ended up talking to my co-worker, Colin, about salt I guess, and then about theoretical physics, cigarettes, guy/girl relationships ("why do guys/girls do [thing]?"), theology, books, and then beer. He's actually a pretty cool kid, and this makes me even more irritated that other people (or at least some others, maybe not all) at work tend to treat him like he's an idiot. I think it's an example of one person deciding that another is stupid, and then finding instances that support their beliefs. And then getting other people to agree with those beliefs. Not really ok when what you're supporting is your habit of belittling a perfectly nice and perfectly normal and reasonably intelligent 19 year old kid. Anyway, I like him. Like I said, he's nice and he's interested in theoretical physics, which is a fairly rare find. So. Accomplishment: socializing at work. And I ended up staying an hour late, making up for the time I lost yesterday leaving a half-hour early***.

After work I finally remembered to call my uncle Bud about the radiator in my car (did I mention how I had probably cracked it on Sunday?), and he didn't even chew me out about it, which was pretty fabulous. He said he hadn't been able to get out to look at it (as it is abandoned at a church near us but nowhere near him, really), but that I should go check it out and see if I could figure out where the water (that was the problem right there: the contents of my radiator consisted almost entirely of water, which, you may have noticed, tends to freeze when the temperature drops to 17 Fahrenheit.) had actually been leaking (read: pouring) out.
Sometimes I am a little embarrassed by my affection toward parenthesis.
I told Uncle Bud, ok, I have to stop at home first, but then I will go check on the engine and give you a call to let you know what I find out. I went home to find the number I needed to call to order new contacts (oh my goodness, finally), and lo and behold, there was Jack! His eyes looked a little red--I can't really see him crying, though I'm sure it's possible--and he was on the couch watching Man vs. Wild. I had never seen Man vs. Wild, and I feel like a whole new chapter in my life has opened up. I talked to Jack a little, watched a few episodes, collected packages and addresses so that I could ACTUALLY GET SOME THINGS MAILED (in case you're not aware, this is a really big deal for me), and then, wait for it, called Cynthia and asked her for new contacts. She is our backdoor neighbor, whom I used to see all the time, but whom I never see anymore. I've been meaning to call her for ages (I've been wearing this pair of contacts since September, and they've been seriously irritating my eyes all week--obviously this is a bad idea), but I haven't because, among other things, I was embarrassed to ask her for contacts when I hadn't been seeing her on a regular basis. Never mind the fact that her daughter and my sister, and her sister and my mom, are close friends, and I've known her for about 18 years. Ugh. So yeah, I finally called and it was great to talk to her, and my eye prescription is in her mailbox, and I'll have contacts shortly. Thank goodness. I'm wearing my glasses right now (a last resort) and I'm not a big fan.
^^^ Look at all those accomplishments today! And I'm not even finished!

AFTER that, my mom came home and we...watched some Man vs. Wild and ate some delicious delicious homemade black bean and turkey chili with cheddar cheese and arugula. Mmm. THEN I went to the post office and mailed a book (The Just-So Stories!) to a former camper (hopefully counselor this coming year) of mine--a kid named Sean who I've known since he was nine. He is such a sweet kid, and he's grown up so much. It's amazing to see. I bought this book for him in the summer and have been repeatedly forgetting to bring it to him when I see him, so finally I just wrapped it up and mailed it. Also mailed a cd of that one woman from American Idol (why can't I remember her name??) who sang "I Dreamed A Dream," from Les Miserables, so beautifully. My sister and I each bought my mom a copy for Christmas, so we decided to send the second to our friend Lorraine on Long Island. Mom and Chloe put it in an envelope and addressed it, and then it started kicking around the house, so I took it with me today.

Oh! Also! Today I discovered (via my boss) that they do make lahmacun in the United States! I mean, I guess it was obvious that someone made it somewhere on this side of the Atlantic, but I hadn't been able to find it. He says there's a place in Massachusetts (ok apparently I've never tried to spell that before. It was impossible. I gave up and used Firefox [Blogger?] spellcheck. And I'm not even a bad speller, usually!) that makes it. Not that helpful, and I'm not sure I buy it anyway because the places I've been in DC and NYC that make "lahmacun" made a pretty sorry excuse for it, if you ask me. But still maybe worth a try someday. He said though that lahmacun isn't actually of Turkish origin (I was a little offended by that, which I find sort of funny)--that it's actually Armenian (or something). There's a Mediterranean bakery near where I work, and he said that I should try there, though their version (the Armenian, or possibly Lebanese...or something...) version is a little different (plus cinnamon, for example, and minus tomatoes, which is a shame) and is called "fatayer," which would be spelled "fatayi" in Turkish I think. (Fuh-tie-yuh.) I hope they have it. And I hope it's good.

Back to the timeline: after the post office, Mom went with me to check in my car, and she brought Miley. I'm not sure why, as she seemed pretty aggravated with Miley at the time. That dog is pretty entertaining in the car. Anyway we went, and there didn't seem to be an actual crack in my radiator from what I could tell, which is of course a plus. We'd been hoping that the leak would have come from the place where we'd linked two hoses to bypass the heater core earlier in the fall, but it wasn't. Not as much of a plus. I put some radiator fluid in and turned on the car (okay, vice versa, really), and we looked to see where things leaked out. Here, as I said, things didn't leak out. They poured out, from somewhere underneath the engine casing, near where the air filter hose joined with the casing. Uncle Bud said (I think) that I might have blown a freeze (fuse?)...something. Box? Joint? And I don't know what that means exactly. (Come to think of it, I don't know what that means at all.) I asked, and he said that it would be a little more complicated to fix. I guess though that it's still less complicated (or at least cheaper) than a new radiator, so that's definitely good.

Tonight I looked up Action For Change, which my mom mentioned last night, and which seems pretty great. Unfortunately they want you to have prior experience with Initiatives of Change (their parent organization) programs, and I don't. I've heard of them because my godmother (not the one who had the party David couldn't attend; a different one. Don't ask me how I have two godmothers, because I have no idea.) is involved with them, but I don't have any actual experience with them. I emailed to see whether this could be remedied quickly, as the application deadline is March 1st. Guess I'll just cross my fingers, and then maybe write a letter about how they should accept me anyway. I think I'd really like to do it, because it's all about leadership training, and learning to find yourself and discipline yourself and learn to understand and interact with people of different faiths and cultures (the program is made up fo people from all over the world), and learn how to make a difference in the world and in your own community, and all of these are things I'd like to learn. I have tended to be pretty directionless of the the past several years--all I really know is that I want to be helpful in some way--and it would be fantastic to learn strategies and grow in confidence and experience. I guess we'll see whether that's where I'm meant to be next winter.

So a decent day, no? Tomorrow maybe I'll tackle the IRS. (Or maybe even tonight! Why not?)

Peach out, brothas.















*Another part of my issue with applying superlatives to my feelings: sometimes it feels a little dishonest, or something. Isn't that silly? But I feel like I need to mention that it wasn't only good--that there were not-that-great things that happened as well. I wouldn't want people thinking my day full of unadulterated pleasure when, in actuality, my eyes hurt a lot of the time, and I still owe a bunch of people/organizations money, and I'm not sure yet what the deal is with my car. Why are those things necessary to mention? Or I feel like I should point out that my moods, good or bad, usually last a few days. Sometimes longer. I think. Who knows? I don't judge time well. But dammit, today I feel good! And yesterday was pretty decent too, and the day before that was also downright good. Also: I am working on positive thinking, but obviously (can't you tell?) I've got some old habits I'm working on kicking to the curb.


**There's some really cool stuff in there! I mean, some pieces are pretty repetitive (for instance, the chapters and chapters, and chapters and chapters on salted fish and different processes for producing salt), but there's a lot on history and etymology and even ancient/old recipes, and on the whole it's pretty interesting. Today I read about the salt mine in Wieliczka, Poland where ancient miners carved everything out of salt. I know what you're thinking: duh, it's a salt mine. Of course everything is carved from salt. You don't understand. They've carved a ballroom, and an underground lake, and a chapel, and now (I think) even a spa down there, and everything in them is carved from rock salt. As in, the crystal chandelier in the ballroom is made of salt.

***For the funeral of my friend Johnny's grandfather. Luckily I found out about it just in time--the morning of. I hadn't seen Johnny in a while, and a few other classmates of ours were there too, and it was really nice to see them. Also, Johnny and Andrew (another classmate) have evidently just gone in on a boat together (don't ask me where the got the money; I have no idea. Parents, maybe? Not sure why they'd fund that, but whatever), and I have been vaguely offered a future ride on it, and they're talking about having a "Rejects" high school reunion party on the boat. Not that "rejects" would be a fitting title at all, particularly considering that the other two girls present for the conversation were pretty popular in high school, and Johnny was decently popular himself I think, but whatever. I'm pretty sure he's just referring to the fact that he tends to really dislike being around most of the people we went to school with.

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