Friday, December 4th, 2009
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12:58 pm - Charm City
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Living in Baltimore has been pretty nice so far even though Mark is never home. (Some days he's at the hospital for thirty hours straight.) I'm awfully self-reliant, but I still wish I saw more of him. He mostly just eats, sleeps and works. When he gets a day off, we walk over to the museum cafe for brunch, or, when it's warm out, we go to the farmer's market.
I've heard a whole lot of mugging stories, but haven't had anything bad happen. I'm cautious when it comes to living in this city. I don't go out walking (or try to take the trash out to the alley) after dark, but I still haven't gotten used to how no one smiles at each other in the street.
It's been pretty awesome having a grocery store so close I can walk to it. I researched all sorts of grocery carts online to help carry home the heavy Diet Coke my boyfriend loves to drink before I realized a rolling backpack was a perfect solution, since I could just carry it to the store on my back and roll it back home and not have to deal with the weirdness of rolling an empty grocery cart through the streets of Baltimore. (It's not like that's the weirdest thing anyone's ever seen here, but I knew I'd still feel self conscious about it.)
Next week we're going back to Charlottesville. Mark has a week off and a paper he has to work on. So instead of his usual twelve hour days, on vacation, he'll be working eight hour days. We're staying with my sister. I think I need some book recommendations. I'll probably spend a day in Daedulus. And at least a day in the garage sorting through the last of the stuff that wouldn't fit into the moving truck.
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
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7:16 am - What can I flush?
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Every single time we're in Lowe's or Home Depot my boyfriend manages to steer us over to the bathroom fixtures section and insists I admire the American Standard Champion 4 toilet with him. He loves it. He wants it. It's taller than the average toilet. (He's 6'2.) It can flush a bucket of golf balls. ("An entire BUCKET of golf balls!" he tells me, excitedly.)
Last night he looked up its reviews on consumer reports.
"They're all positive," he says, "They LOVE this toilet."
"Not as much as you do," I told him.
Then he made me watch a video he found of it flushing golf balls, followed by forty feet of toilet paper and, inexplicably, twenty packets of miso soup. There are all sorts of odd videos on youtube of people flushing stuff down toilets: five pounds of tomatoes, three dozen golf balls, a bowl of popcorn... even a couple of barbie doll heads.
"This toilet can handle ANYTHING," my boyfriend says.
He can't wait to get one.
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Sunday, July 26th, 2009
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10:30 pm - Moving Soon
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I've got a lot of stuff. Even after having a yard sale, I've still got enough stuff for three of me. I just keep finding more of it. Under beds and in closets. I found some pictures that I cut out of a magazine in middle school that have been sitting in a box in the garage since I moved in. (They survived two moves, but went in the recycling bin this afternoon.)
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
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8:22 pm - Mystifying sale
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Most surprising purchase at my yard sale was the teenage boy who bought my broken digital camera for $5. I kept saying, "Are you sure? It's broken." But he handed over five dollars with a huge smile on his face.
I was surprised no one wanted my Masters of the Universe lunch box. They bought all ten pairs of my (new in package) Hello Kitty knock off underwear though.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
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2:49 am - Nothing New Under the Sun
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Part of the reason I stopped writing journal entries was because invariably I'd run into someone on my friends list and I'd start telling them a funny story or an exciting thing that had happened to me recently and forget entirely they'd probably already read about it. I haven't been very social lately or written about what's happening in my life, so I guess if I do see any of you, I've got lots of news.
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Saturday, August 16th, 2008
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11:21 am - Car in a ditch
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I woke up this morning to voices outside, peeked out the window and saw firetrucks and a car in the ditch at the bottom of a big, huge hill right outside our house. I went, "Gosh, I wonder how that lady managed to do that."
I watched out the window as they put her on a stretcher (she seemed okay though). Then there was a knock on the door. This police officer asked if my car was the one parked on the street. I came out to look. I'd left a little more than a car length between me and the truck in front of me when I'd parked the night before. My car was halfway up on the curb right behind the truck.
She'd smashed right into the back of my parked car, going forty, forty five miles an hour, bounced off it and over the curb, between the trees and down the hill into the ditch. My back window was smashed. My trunk was caved in. The police officer wanted to know if I had AAA. If I preferred a specific towing company.
I just went, "How the heck did she even manage to do that?" and watched as the fire and rescue workers tore off my bumper and told each other, "What a weird accident."
The bright side is, she missed the house by about a hundred feet. But who knows? If the ditch hadn't stopped her she might have kept going, plowed right into the side of it.
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Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
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6:36 pm - Room For Rent
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Nate says he's moving out. If you know anyone who needs a place...
It's a basement room, but is above ground level with a window and a walk in closet and has its own bathroom. We're on Avon Street a mile and a half from the downtown mall. Rent's $500 plus utilities (they average $50 a month). Shared kitchen/living room. Washer and dryer. Internet. No cable. Plenty of parking in front of and behind the house.
At this point it looks like it'll be available as early as September 1st.
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Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
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6:36 pm - 50 Ways to Get the Sleep You Need
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Someone's been sending me issues of Prevention magazine. It's Reader's Digest sized and has articles with titles like, "Boost Brain Power in 1 Day!" and "Fight Fat for Life! (Win Back Your Metabolism: What You CAN Eat)" and, one of my favorites so far, "Amazing Motivator!!! (How Faith Helped 3 Readers Lose 241 Pounds!)"
The three exclamation points really sold me on that one.
As I was writing this a couple of ADT salesmen knocked on my door and offered me a free security system if I'd let them put their sign in my yard. The hill my house is on is apparently a prime advertising location.
When I said, "no thanks," one of them told me if my house ever caught fire the security system would call the fire department... even if I wasn't home!
I said, thank you very much, but I still wasn't interested.
He was obviously the hard pitch guy. The other guy just stood there looking uncomfortable.
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Friday, July 11th, 2008
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11:02 pm - Bones. Schmones.
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Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
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3:13 pm - Addicted to Netflix
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Thursday I'll be working a double from 6:25 in the morning until 9 at night. It should be interesting. I volunteered. I need some money for Henry's wedding gift. He's getting married next month. It'll be sort of interesting to see how many of the regulars not only eat bagels for breakfast and lunch, but also for dinner. Oh! And I'll finally get to try a dinner omlette. That's totally worth a fourteen and a half hour day.
I've gotten myself addicted to netflix. So what little social life I had is totally gone. There's a feature where you can watch stuff directly on your computer. I've watched the entire first season of Heroes and the first season of 30 Rock in the last week and a half. Today I saw "This is England." It's about the skinhead movement and what it was like in 1982 in England. It was very good. Made me cry.
I told my brother he should form a one man Johnny Cash tribute band. That I would go to all of his performances if he did. He said he only knew two Johnny Cash songs. I found a second hand Johnny Cash songbook and bought it for him. I know it's a long shot trying to convince someone else an idea is good, but it would be awesome if he did it, even as a side project.
I was going to bake cookies today (I found these delicious reeses flavored chocolate chips and was going to make chocolate cookies with them) until I looked in the cabinet and found my sister had used all the flour, so I guess that's a no go unless I feel like going down the street to the food lion and buying some. My room needs to be cleaned more than I need to make cookies though. It's spring after all.
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
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11:07 pm - Chronic Ear Infections
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I read an article in the health section of the Washington Post the other day which talked about how children with chronic ear infections have less coordination and balance and delayed speech. Apparently, to the child, it sounds like everyone's under water when they're talking.
I knew I had a bunch of ear infections when I was a kid. And I had tubes put in my ears. And I had to wear ear plugs when I went swimming, but I guess I didn't realize that my less than stellar coordination had anything to do with those early ear infections. Every once in a while I've run across an article about ear infections or cleft palates and gone, "huh," because I've never researched any of that. I'm sure I would identify with the stuff and say, "how interesting" in my head a lot, but I guess I was just never curious.
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
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10:22 pm - Mysterious Red Glitteriness
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I received a mysterious pair of ruby slippers this afternoon in the mail. I recognized them from my amazon wish list. When I told my sister about it she decided I must be shopping in my sleep. I went back to look at my order history and it turns out I'm not suffering from early onset alzheimer's. I didn't buy them and then forget about it.
Someone sent me shoes.
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Saturday, March 15th, 2008
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8:44 pm - Of Dogs and Children
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I got about four hours of sleep last night, put in an eight hour day and was going to take a nap when I got home from work, but I can never nap. I just can't fall asleep before it's dark outside unless I'm sick or I'm on the twenty fourth hour of not having slept.
I'm going to a nineties themed party later tonight. Still haven't decided what to wear. I'm leaning towards a long sleeved shirt under a short sleeved one. Maybe some cords.
This afternoon a customer walked in carrying a puppy. One of my coworkers (I think she's a senior in high school) took his order then went, "Ooohhh, what a cute puppy! Can I pet it?" Meanwhile I was telling my manager, "Ummm... That guy has a dog." He told me to go ask him to leave. That's when I saw my coworker lean in to pet the thing.
I walked over as she was about to continue taking orders and snapped "Wash your hands!" before following the guy to the end of the counter. "I'm sorry, you can't have that dog in here," I told him and added that I'd be happy to bring his food outside to him. He shrugged and said okay.
I've had people argue with me over being asked to leave when they've got a dog with them. But come on. It's a dog. In a restaurant. I can't help that the other cashiers don't have enough of a brain in their head not to kick you out before taking your order.
As someone who grew up in the country with dogs that were never allowed in the house it makes it even harder to understand people who bring dogs into restaurants. It's always during the warmer weather, when temperatures are moderate. It's not like the dog will bake to death if you leave it in the car for five minutes when it's 65 degrees outside. There are health codes. I agree your dog is probably just about the same balance of cute and annoying as a child, but unfortunately I can't ban babies from coming in and peeing all over our high chairs and throwing their cheerios underneath the booths. I wish I could.
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Thursday, March 13th, 2008
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8:01 pm - Ones that cover your belly button.
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I bought four t-shirts and three long sleeved shirts that fit amazingly well from Old Navy today for thirty five dollars. Seven shirts. Five dollars a piece. I hate a lot of their dresses and shoes, but they make some pretty good fitting t-shirts for lady folk. I appreciate clothing that leaves room for my boobs. And I like that their shirts'd be guaranteed to cover my tramp stamp (if I had one).
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Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
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5:19 pm - Project Runway
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I do not normally get excited about celebrities. Sissy Spacek lives in the county. I see her around town every once in a while. Dave Matthews comes into Bodo's all the time. His neice used to be our baker. But today, oh man, I got super giddy over a celebrity.
I was on register trying to untangle a few football players orders when I looked over at the other register and realized Tim Gunn was standing a few feet away from me. He got some coffee and some food and sat down at a booth and it was just sort of crazy that Tim Gunn had stepped off the television screen and into Bodo's. I kept glancing over at him.
After he left, my manager, who loves him even more than I do, talked about him for the rest of the day. We both kept saying, "Tim Gunn!" to each other. And the boys we work with all went, "What? Who?" even after we explained who he was. Towards the late, late afternoon I wrote her a note that said, "Tim Gunn cordially invites you to Red Lobster for dinner and to discuss your future career in the fashion industry."
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Sunday, February 17th, 2008
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7:39 pm - Guilted into updatin'
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I started updating my comic again after my momma bought me a new computer for my birthday and said, "so are you gonna start updating your comic again?" I couldn't very well say, "No."
I've been feeling pretty antisocial recently. I get into these hermit moods and don't really want to leave the house. I spend a lot of time reading books on the couch and renting movies on Saturday nights.
The boys I do end up going out with have gotten a lot ruder in their old age and I just don't get along so well with them. (Never have.) So I'm cutting my losses and giving up on even trying to date anyone. I'm much happier by myself even though I know I'm supposed to pair off. And really I'm beginning to think it's the pressure from other people that makes me want to not be alone, not any real dissatisfaction with being alone.
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
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10:45 pm - Six Degrees of Seperation
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This guy I work with was telling me, when his neighbor asked him how he'd gotten sick, he told him it was my fault. (He'd insisted he didn't get sick so I hugged him a bunch and coughed on him a little bit just to prove him wrong.) The neighbor asked what my last name was. Turns out my coworker lives next door to an ex-boyfriend of mine. Robert. I haven't seen him in years. Not since high school. One of the last times I heard anything about him was when he got out of jail.
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Thursday, February 7th, 2008
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2:22 pm - Sick Mug
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I've been sick for the last four days, so sick I had a hard time standing up long enough to do the dishes yesterday, but went into work this morning anyway. I kept having coughing fits and spent more time washing my hands than I did working, so right before my first break my manager told me to just go home. I think I'm getting better though. I can sit up straight. Which is a good start.
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Friday, February 1st, 2008
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1:25 pm - Those Wacky Chipmunks Make Ornaments out of Sandwiches
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My little sister and I took my half sister's kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks yesterday. My neice just turned nine. They had seen it once, but when I asked if she wanted to see any movies for her birthday she went, "yes... but oh... you probably don't want to see it."
She wrote us a thank you note before we'd even gotten there. It said, "Thank you for taking me to the movies. It will be fun."
We bought candy and drinks from the Kmart behind the theater and smuggled them in and then asked my neice if she wanted popcorn too. "Maybe we should get some," she said, "because when I eat too much sweet stuff I want something savory," so I got the biggest tub of popcorn they had. Her six year old brother kept it in his lap for most of the movie and ate the crap out of it.
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Sunday, January 20th, 2008
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1:48 pm - The coat trick
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The other night I went out with a guy who pulled the coat trick. He took my coat when I walked in the door and put it in his bedroom, so I had to go in there to get it later on when I wanted to leave. It was pretty obvious what he was doing once I walked in his room, but I guess I just assumed he was being nice when he'd taken my coat in the first place.
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mimiakemi's journal