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We're having spaghetti for dinner tonight. Calvin is always less than enthused, but I heart me some spaghetti.
High: I work until 10:30 tomorrow, go to school, then go to the park for a teambuilding for two hours, then go to happy hour.
Low: The landscapers apparently hacked our Mexican Bird of Paradise (it's a bush) to pieces.
Finding new, non-boring recipes for dinner.
Everybody Loves Raymond - "Stomach-ach-ee". Guess you had to see the episode.
"I fought the law, and the law won..."
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March 3, 2004
Impulse Control Issues
It is Calvin's habit to perpetually tease me, pretty much every moment that we're in one another's physical presence. I usually reach the end of my endurance sometime during the evening, while we're sitting on the couch watching TV. Last night was no different - he spent a good long time after dinner poking, tickling, and bodily-functioning in my general direction. I finally made a move to get up and move over to the loveseat, and he held me down (his feet were in my lap). "Look," I said, "I don't have to sit here and be tortured just because you have impulse control issues."
He looked at me for a moment, then started cracking up. "Impulse control issues! That's the perfect way to describe it! That's exactly what I have!"
"Yeah," I said, "Well, don't go thinking you have an excuse to behave this way, just because you think you have a "condition"."
He continued to cackle, and said, "That's what you should call your next entry. "Impulse Control Issues"."
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Direct from my life to your monitor.
I'm reprising the look that I've used before.
I'm feeling pretty discouraged about school. I spent some time planning out the classes I need to take, and in what order I need to take them. By taking two classes a semester (fall, spring, and summer), I won't be done with my associate's degree until the end of 2007. And then I still have to take the classes at ASU for my bachelor's. Which will put me beyond 2010, I'm sure.
I thought more of my credits from WIU would transfer, but of the 38 that I had, only 18 applied. That's the reality of switching from a non-technical to a technical degree - the classes I took before simply did not apply (though, hey, if I ever wanna go for my MBA, I'm golden. Yeah, right. And monkeys will fly out my ass.). I'm not having fun, the degree I'm pursuing isn't one I'm particularly interested in, and yet it makes the most sense given the field I work in today. I just can't imagine having to go to school every day from now until 2011, and work at the same time, and have homework, and deal with the commute, and have to concern myself with taking time off from work and school if I want to take a vacation, and... and... and... all for a stupid piece of paper which will probably make me more employable, but isn't going to help me move up in my current position any time soon.
All this whining is for nothing, of course. Am I going to quit? No. Can I take more than two classes at a time and shorten this thing up? No. Can I take a leave of absence from work to become a full-time student? No (not because AcronymCo won't let me - they would - but because we very much need both of our paychecks). Is there anything I can do to change the situation? No. So I'm going to keep going, and occasionally fuss about it.
And you, you lucky people, get to read all about it.
I just went out to the truck to get my CDs, since LaunchCast has been unreliable today. A teeny little hummingbird was sitting up in a tree near the sidewalk, cheeping its little heart out. It made me happy. Another thing that's making me happy today is the cool, damp weather, and the fact that I'm wearing one of Calvin's sweaters. I'm not looking forward to the warm weather - there is not one article in my summer wardrobe that I'm looking forward to wearing. I will, however, sorely miss my sweaters - and Calvin's.
I'm sure you're dying to know that I've made significant updates to my reading list.
Just got back from having lunch with Calvin. I don't know why I keep going back to TGI Friday's, their service and food always sucks at lunchtime. I've had better dinner experiences with them - still nothing thrilling - and of course, the service is always decent at the bar.
But I digress. Calvin and I were talking about all the little "honey do" things we want to get done around the house. We're trying to stay motivated, while at the same time spend as little money as possible, in light of our financial goals. But we always end up getting grumpy and blue if we let weekend after weekend go by without doing something at least a little productive. Calvin said he wanted to put together a list of projects to keep us busy.
Lists are SO my thing.
Shit To Keep Us Busy
- Paint the spare room. (What the hell should we call it now? It's no longer Michael's room, and though it houses my books, it sounds pretentious to call it "The Library".)
- Trim back all the dead plants in the front and back yard, so they can re-sprout as the weather gets better.
- Buy a hedge trimmer so we can fire the landscapers. And then? Trim the hedges.
- Paint the plastic bits on the Avalanche (this one is strictly a "Calvin" project).
- Replace the sheet rock in the garage, dump every little thing that can be dumped, and re-organize the crap we're keeping. Paint the garage floor.
- Move the hot water heater out of the bedroom closet, into a shed in the side yard.
- Rent a carpet cleaner, and then? Clean all the carpets.
- Build a cubby for the cat's litter box, so we can get it the hell outta the dining room and save ourselves from having to listen to him bang around inside of it, pause for a telling moment, then scrape-bang-scrape-exit-shake, while we're eating dinner.
- Replace the filters in the hot tub.
- Replace the filter in the fridge.
- Paint all of the trim in the house.
- Paint the front door.
- Paint the skylights. (Who knew life was so full of the need to paint?)
- Take down the little bracket thingies that used to hold the strand of lights along the edge of the ceiling in the living room, that recently came crashing down and scared the b'jeezus out of Calvin who was innocently sitting there and watching TV.
- Plant grass in the side-yard for the doggies.
- Buy a couple more corner shelves to install in the spare room for my mom's Hummels and my grandmother's dollies.
- Replace all of the trim in the house.
- Replace all of the inside doors in the house with panelled doors.
- Replace the tile stairway with something that has a spoked railing and wooden stairs.
- Replace the dining room table.
- Replace the couch, love seat, and ottoman in the living room.
- Install cabinets in the garage.
Speaking of lists, I have been productive at work. Of the 19 items listed on my white board to get done, 11 have been crossed off. And of the eight that are left, I am procrastinating on only four of them.
Go me.
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