mornings

It's Monday again, and I dressed for San Francisco weather. That is to say, I dressed for the weather it should have been in San Francisco, only to discover when I left the apartment that it was reversed; Redwood City is displaying all the gloominess of a typical San Francisco winter day, whereas the City itself is muggy and warm. Earthquake weather, they call it.

At least I'm dressed reasonably for one of the two.

When last we met...

I was scheduled to go on a blind date with one of my sister's boyfriend's friends. I didn't. Not my fault, I might add; he ended up having to work, and I've never gone so far as to reschedule. My sister, on the other hand, has an entire agenda planned. There's a note of discouragement in her voice when she talks about these sorts of things nowadays, however; I can hear it under the hard note of fanaticism that otherwise blankets all statements regarding my love life.

"Don't be discouraged," I said to her, kindly. "I'm living in San Francisco. What do you expect me to do? Meet some straight male?"

"I did," she retorted, glowering and sullen.

"That's different. You're you. I'm me."

A weak argument, but certainly unarguable. She lapsed into gloomy silence.

When last we met...

Our stock, slipping like all stock, is now down to -- what is it now? Ah. -- 9.68.

Last Friday, Eddie Cheever, Jr, and his race cars and racing team came by the campus to tour and give demonstrations and inspirational talks to small children gnawing on sandwiches. All part of the perk to living and working for Excite@Home. It was actually quite interesting, (Eddie Cheever, Jr, that is; not the small children). The man is an entertaining and articulate speaker. They did a full pit stop in the parking lot in front of one of the buildings, and passed out earplugs and t-shirts. Many of the neighbors stopped by to watch, bearing infants in arms. Excite apparently sponsors the team, and so most of their apparel was coated in Excite emblems.

I got a free T-shirt. It's ugly. I wore it as a nightshirt for the entire weekend. It was fun, though, the entire thing.

But our stock is still at 9.68.

When last we met...

...oh, and now it's up to 10.68. They're such weird things, stocks are.

The Norwegian has gone back to Norway, which is where all good Norwegians go when they can't be in the US or Japan. "I was sad," the Marshmallow Peep confessed. "I dressed all in black and I sat on my bed and sniffled. It was pathetic. I said, 'What's wrong with me? He's only been on the plane two hours. He was at Macy's for four.' And you know that old fleece sweatshirt I have? I got it from someone a long time ago and it was old even when I got it, so it's super old, that one. He was wearing it, and I could smell his cologne on it, so I saw it there, and I picked it up and smelled it, and then I had to put it on so I could wrap myself up in it...."

All the world's a bad Pern game, and there's no way out. I could feel my eyes glazing over. Relationship talk always baffles me; I sit and wag my head like a little spring-necked Made In Taiwan dashboard toy, and make commiserating sounds that don't really mean anything, because try though I might, I simply cannot make myself listen to it for any length of time.

On the Saturday before, Smurfette was in a royal mood about the Norwegian, and bitched bitterly the entire way from the apartment to the Dojo. That's an hour train ride.

"I'm not the bad guy here," she insisted angrily, from time to time. "He's the one who did this and that and the other thing. Not me. I'm the one who's being patient and understanding."

"Uh huh," I said, agreeably. "Okay."

"And another thing--"

I wagged my head and thought about tulips. Just thinking about the deep Where Is Our Relationship Going And What Does It Mean To Us talks that those two engage in for fun makes my brain hurt. I can feel little blood vessels popping in my eyeballs.

I know why Jesus cries blood. It's because he has to listen to this stuff 24/7.

Perverse thing is up to 10.9375 now. What gives?

Today, for whatever reason, I'll be down in Santa Clara manning the Excite@Home booth at the Westech Job Fair. It's quite a switch, isn't it? It's the position that I've always wanted to be in: the one where you get to offer people jobs, as opposed to asking for one. It's not the feeling of power -- ahem -- but the fact that I like helping

I just saw the preview for Lord Of The Rings for the first time. This is when having a direct broadband access really comes in handy. There's no way this would have been a good idea if I'd been at my regular faux 56k dial-up modem.

But I wasn't. And all I have to say is this.

Wow.

And now, moving on to something else... Posted by yhirata at October 9, 2000 10:02 PM