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I had a productive morning and a fun afternoon, and am now enjoying a relaxing evening. I woke up around 7:30 and did GRE math problems for about an hour. I'd been talking about doing a spinning class at the gym, and since I was awake, I figured I'd give the 9 am class a shot. Spinning is such a girlie activity, but it was a great workout and after an hour everyone was sweating rivers. I'm considering making it a regular activity.David and I hung out for a bit; we listened to Obama's acceptance speech on YouTube. He's a great speaker with great ambitions and has my vote. To be fair, he could be a crappy speaker with no goals for the future but as long as the Republicans are throwing pro-life evangelical beauty queens at me I would take anything else. We hopped on the 3 pm ferry to the island and Dan picked us up at the dock in their new Kia. David played with Chet while Dan and Mollye figured out what to do with all the little yellow plums they have growing in their yard. They concluded that plum pudding was the way to go, so while the menfolk went to the coffee shop to see a long-lost uncle, the ladies concocted a pudding. It was pretty delicious, though more of a cobbler than a pudding, but "plum cobbler" just doesn't have the same ring. Mollye and Dan fed us a nice dinner, and we ate the pudding/cobbler for dessert. I am amazed at how fast little kids change; Lela is walking, and when we were there two weeks ago she was not.David set up our internet when we got home, and we're projecting Today's Big Fail on the wall. The Drag Show at Julia's is in the Dolly Parton portion of the evening, meaning it's almost over. Time to go to bed.
I talked to my old insurance company and the HR woman at work yesterday, and I think everything will be ok. Whew.David and I were out late last night; we went downtown for shopping, dinner, and games. It was really fun, but I am especially tired this morning. Nothing that a little caffeine won't solve though.
My insurance woes have started again. My job won't insure me until I provide proof of a start and end date from my previous insurance company, which I didn't realize until I received something from them saying I was denied coverage for a year or until I provide this. This will mean actually finding the letter or getting my old insurance company to send a new one. Last week, the fall-back insurance company that my parents forced me to enroll with sent me a letter saying that I haven't paid my bill so my coverage has been terminated. What bill?! I never received a bill! Having had 5 different mailing addresses in the past 3 months it must have somehow not been sent to the right one. This wouldn't worry me, except I am receiving bills for thousands of dollars from my trip to the hospital and subsequent examination and when I should have two means of coverage I actually have none. I'm pretty sure that this will all be resolved, but I'm still a little worried.
The rain meant that my day was very productive; instead of going out, we stayed put. I:-did two loads of laundry. While doing that, found Christmas cookie cutters, a tealight holder, and some clothes in the throw-out bin in the basement. The clothes don't fit.-worked on some art projects.-went to the farmer's market (it wasn't raining when I left). Bought vegetables.-prepped two recipes, which will be lunch for the rest of the week.-studied for the GRE. Learned I need to study more.-finished a mix CD for a friend. Made a sweet album cover.-found all the paperwork from my hospital visit last month. Need to figure out insurance stuff.-cleaned a little. Undid the cleaning with the art and the cooking.-coming up later this evening: gym, movie, fixing my cello. Unfortunately, we missed out on a Tibetan cultural festival at Seattle Center and watching the King salmon at the locks in Ballard, but we're going to go watch the fish some evening this week after work. There is also a Puerto Rican restaurant there that I'm looking forward to going back to.
David and I went to the Mariners/A's game tonight. I like the A's, David likes the Mariners, but neither of us really cares too much. The only real reason we were rooting for our teams at all was because we bet our pride on the outcome. Still, it was nice to be able to watch the A's play an away game and actually be able to root for them, because in Boston you put your life at risk if you cheer for anyone other than the Red Sox, though the drunken Red Sox mob doesn't really care if you root for the A's because they aren't seen as a threat. Plus, our seats, which were pretty nice, cost about as much as the crappiest seats at Fenway. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've paid the same price to stand up for 9 innings in Fenway. It was a good time: the lady who sang the national anthem had a really nice voice, the weather was a little chilly but nothing a sweater couldn't solve, and the A's won. Haha.
I came to the conclusion today that you can admire something without needing it. I can like buildings without needing to be an architect. I don't have to buy every piece of clothing that looks good on me, and I shouldn't focus on something that is pretty but doesn't fit.
A friend of mine from middle school set me up with a friend of hers from college; we both live in Capitol Hill and met up for pizza tonight. It went pretty well; I don't think we're going to move across the country with each other or anything, but I can see us hanging out in Seattle. We had a lot in common and she was pretty nice, so we'll see how it works out.
I didn't do a lot at work today. I actually wrote the bulk of this post there and emailed it to myself because blogging at work is not allowed. Literally: the server bans a lot of stuff. Gmail, myspace, youtube... I haven't even tried facebook because I know it won't work.
Yesterday, I took pictures to inventory the furniture and artwork in the first two floors of a midrise apartment building that my firm is renovating; I guess they're going to try to reuse of this stuff as much as possible. Today, they sent me back to capture floors 3-18. 3-16 were pretty much the same thing: two pictures, a table, and a mirror right by the elevators, with the rest of the floor devoid of decoration, but the top two were pretty lavish: pictures on every wall. It was pretty easy work. I took pictures of the view from the stairwell at every floor. Here are a couple of examples.
I had hoped that the juxtoposition of all the floors would look like the camera was panning up, but it doesn't. Next time I will pick a fixed point on the window ledge for every floor.Carol's daughter picked blackberries this morning, baked them into a pie, and delivered it to the office; it was still warm when she arrived around 3. It was good pie, and I know a thing or two about good pie. I come from a pie family on both sides: my dad bakes apricot pie with the apricots from the tree in our yard every summer; his mom used to smother any leftover crust with cinnamon and sugar and bake it like a cookie, and he now does that too. My mom's mom made a really great lemon meringue. She cooked for a living, and I have never met a flakier crust than hers. Grandma rolls over in her grave a little bit every time I use store-bought crust. I'm sorry, Grandma!
I've been studying for the GRE at lunch and need to start studying at home too: an hour a day on weekdays, two hours on weekends. I'm taking it at the beginning of October and have a lot to review. It's the same stuff as the SAT, and I did pretty well on that, but it's been years since I've had to think about any of those things. Mean, median, mode? Sines and cosines? Words with crazy Latin roots? I really need to buckle down; since apparently a BA is a recommended prerequisite to change lightbulbs (which I did today), I figure that grad school is my ticket to something better.
Yep, boring day.
The Pitlick quotient of Seattle increased by 33% this past weekend: my brother paid me a visit. He got in around noon, and we narrowly missed the #43 bus up the Hill. He'd been on the ferry from Alaska for three days followed by a long ride from Bellingham (fortunately, he arrived with his head still attached to his neck), so even though he had a suitcase we walked home to stretch out his legs. He met David and the Cobra, and we (minus the Cobra) headed out for fine German food and a beer at Feierabend. Say it with me: FEIERABEND! The night sorta went downhill from there. Not literally dowhill: we had to go up the hill to get back home, but there were a few more bars and a few more beers in there along the way and memories get a little fuzzy.The next morning, we peeled ourselves out of bed, rehydrated, and headed downtown. I gave Carl a tornado Seattle tour: Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, and the Waterfront, then David joined us for the long walk to the Olympic Sculpture Park and Hempfest. Disclaimer: we only went to Hempfest to show my brother an authentic Seattle experience, and were sorely disappointed with what we got. I was hoping for booths with products made from hemp, which is a very sustainable and misunderstood material, and maybe some hemp education but it was just full of dirty smelly hippies and underage stoner kids looking to legalize pot. So, we headed to Value Village to get old lady dresses for Chris' Golden Girls party and introduced Carl to Korean food for dinner. We watched Dr. Horrible when we got back, and headed over to Chris' around 9. David made a very attractive older woman. It was a fun evening.In the morning, we crossed enemy lines for brunch at Julia's (home of the noisy Friday and Saturday night drag show) and played a boardgame, then hit up the Mexican smorgasborg down the street for some all-you-can-eat beans and rice goodness. We had to hightail it to the bus to take Carl to the airport, but we made it with plenty of time to spare, since his plane was delayed. We met my mom at the airport; she had spent the past couple of days at a friend's house up in Bellingham after taking the ferry with my brother. We sat at a cafe and munched on a fruit/cheese plate then said our goodbyes.
Another long day, but it will be worth it to leave at noon tomorrow. We went bowling with Chris, Kristin, and Chris' friend Chadwick from work tonight. Oh yeah, we also had dinner at a vegetarian-friendly restaurant on Broadway: delightful. Anyhow, bowling. I love bowling. I used to be a decent bowler back when my mom and I bowled in a league together. Yeah, I wasn't very popular in high school. But, the mighty have fallen and I didn't even break 100 the second round. David, on the other hand, is an excellent bowler: he won both games. I am very impressed. While sitting and waiting for my turn, I was a little distracted by the Olympics (women's gymnastics, my favorite event) playing on the TV next to the monitor with the scores, but the Summer Olympics only comes once every 4 years, so it's ok.
My brother gets in around 5 tomorrow and I'm excited.
Work was long today, but literally instead of figuratively this time: I worked an extra hour so I can take off an extra hour on Friday. Dave (the head honcho) liked the first draft of the proposal, which is good because now he knows that I can handle more than just reorganizing his desk. I think I even surprised him with what I wrote- not too hard since his expectations were probably low. Still, I'm hoping that in the future I'll get more challenging projects. It was the first moment of satisfaction I've had since starting.David was sick today :( so he stayed home. He looks like he's feeling a little better though.
So, as the title suggests, the past few days have been really fun. I will try to condense as much as possible. On Friday night, we went over to Chris' and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Not really much to talk about there. They were really well choreographed but I prefer to watch the actual competition.On Saturday, we went to the island. It was David's folks' 29th anniversary, and Mollye and Dan had everyone over to their house, including a friend and her two kids. Dinner was really good- Mollye cooked up kebabs, corn, rice pilaf and pineapple cake (thanks Mollye!), and afterwards we played a game then hung out by the fire until dawn. Ok, not really, but it seemed pretty late because I'm getting old. I am a huge fan of their yard, particularly the view of the mainland.On Sunday, David entertained Chet with "Land Before Time" and uncle stuff, then we caught the ferry back and had just enough time to spiff up the apartment before Jessica arrived. It was great to see her again. We chatted, got some coffee, shopped a little (not too much) and got dinner, then went to our favorite bar for some beer and Trivial Pursuit, the one board game I can win.I took Monday off to hang out with Jessica. We walked downtown and I showed her Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe on the waterfront, which I think she really liked; she really gets into things like shrunken heads and two-headed sheep for some reason. We had lunch with her "ex-paramour" Cyrus, who despite being 100% blind kept pointing out things for us to look at, such as the view from his office, which is on the 48th story of the Washington Mutual Tower and pretty spectacular. 
Lunch was architecturally significant, which makes me think that maybe I do want to be an architect; we went to a really well-designed restaurant (Purple) and then toured Rem Koolhaas' Public Library, which is apparently a big deal. (I like to drop Rem Koolhaas' name when I want to sound like I know a lot about architecture). It's a cool building, though I think that super-modern structures generally look out of place in their surroundings. 
We walked Cyrus back to work then took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. The ferry ride has stunning views of the Seattle skyline and is just about the best thing about going to Bainbridge Island. 
That's Jessica. We came back, caught the bus (easier said than done), debated for about an hour where to eat, then settled on the Mexican restaurant down the street. Conclusion: large portions, decent price, great soup= I'd go back. We debated for about another hour about what movie to rent, then got some fro-yo and watched "The Man Who Wasn't There" to show Jessica how awesome the projector is. This morning was sad; we said goodbye and David and I left for work. David wasn't feeling well. I bought flowers to spruce up the office because the principal is in town, then cleaned what I think were 3 moldy taquitos, a green sandwich, a fermented carton of OJ, a shriveled... peach? nectarine? and various things ranging from 1 week to 1 year passed their expiration date out of the fridge so that if principal decides to chill something he won't have a heart attack. The day got better though: when I turned on my computer I learned that I've been assigned a REAL PROJECT! I am writing up a proposal asking a small town up near Bellingham to consider us the next time they need work done. That put me in a good mood. I am almost looking forward to going in tomorrow. Carol is letting me work extra in the mornings so that I can leave early on Friday to hang out with my brother. I think I have 2 hours of vacation time that I can take, so I will use those too if I need to. Sweet.
I discovered a few new and exciting things today. Coconut yogurt: like regular yogurt, only made of coconut milk instead of regular milk. It has vitamins added to give it a little nutritional value but otherwise it's pretty much a dessert. I tried the raspberry flavor and it wasn't as coconuty as I would have liked but good enough.The second new and even more exciting discovery is the First Thursday art fair in Pioneer Square. They have craftspeople and artists selling their creations. This one woman had a few really neat linocut prints, which I found inspiring. I went to the art store before the fair and bought some linoleum blocks and knives to carve the wood I took from work, so I'm going to do some arts tonight. I need to clean up a little first...
Work was uneventful as usually, I didn't mind as much today and it went by pretty fast. They've been dangling the carrot of getting more involved in Proposals, which recruit prospective clients, so I'm going to wait and see what that has to offer. Randy the marketing guy is in town, and that gives me hope too. I like doing the marketing mailings, even if they are just stuffing envelopes and looking up addresses, and it pleases me to think that I am at least getting something new to put on my resume.
Carol asked me today if I was bored. I said yes. She said that's the nature of reception and that I'm just too darn fast with what she gives me. Plus, we're slow right now. I took that as an opportunity to stare into space instead of asking for more work. It's not that I didn't try: I had already asked for something to do at 8:30 (I think she thought the task would take all morning), and by 10 I was done. So then I tried to make work. I washed the dirty dishes that people leave in the sink because they're too lazy/self-entitled/still think they're in college to wash them themselves. I watered the bamboo. I cleared off my desk and set everything at a right angle. I updated the firm's address in every single document with an address (since we're moving): letterhead, labels, invoices, fax coversheets, etc. I stared into space. I cleared off the conference room table. I read through a book I cleared off the conference room table. I wikipedia'ed my new favorite architect, Ricardo Bofill, who was the subject matter of the book I cleared off the conference room table. I stared into space. I popped some popcorn. I ate it. I flipped through a design catalog and read every caption. I stared into space. Then, at 4, I caved. I asked Carol for something else to do. I did some filing but left a few juicy morsels for tomorrow morning. I left at 4:59. I ran into David on the bus. I searched for a new job. This has gone on long enough.
I like it when I come home before David and The Cobra is happy to see me. Usually she uses my arrival as an excuse to make her escape. She's figured out that I get home 20-30 minutes after David, so when he comes through the door she knows that it's going to open again shortly. So, she waits. She's a lot smarter than I give her credit for.
David and I celebrated one year since our first date with dinner and a movie. We went to Il Fornaio (really good) then saw Stepbrothers (really funny). I recommend both the restaurant and the film. I especially recommend the film. I expecting a mediocre comedy like "Semi-Pro" or another one of Will Ferrell's recent pictures, but this one is hilarious. There are some classic scenes that will have me cracking up for weeks. I don't want to spoil it for you though. Afterwards, we went over to Chris' apartment to celebrate his birthday, since we didn't end up doing that on Thursday. I brought the pie. It was more syrupy than I would have liked (I prefer my pecan pies on the gooey and gelatinous side), but it tasted pretty good, and I guess that's what matters.
