Dinner with Gary

I sort of left you there with my last story.  Again, every time I try to sit down and write, I get interrupted by life. 
Dinner with Gary was nice.  We went to this sushi place.  I've only been there a few times, but it was the first place that I was introduced to sushi about four years ago (with Stephanie and Lia.)  Last summer, when Nate and Dean and I went there. 
I had my usual and Gary had something adventurous.  We mostly ate and talked like old times. 
Gary's been doing well.  He has been having lots of career related successes lately, and I'm really proud.  He was invited to a political rally to speak and he's always getting invitations for fancy dinners and conventions.  I'm so proud of him.  I always knew he was smart and passionate, but I didn't guess he would be this ambitious.  Good for him. 
He also told me about one of his favorite hobbies, genealogy.  He's talked about researching his own family before, and it has lead him to learn lots of interesting facts about his family and even to finding lost family.  More recently, he's been working on a website version of a basic genealogy guide, written for people who are just getting started. 
"I've always wanted to do something like that," I said.  "But I don't really have the time and I wouldn't know what I was doing.  It sounds like a good project for you." 
He told me that he did research for other families, and I told him my family would probably do that.  "What do you charge?" I asked. 
"Oh, no, I wouldn't charge," he said.  "I would do it for free." 
So maybe one day I'll ask Gary formally.  One side of my family has been thoroughly researched, but the other side is fairly dark.  And I'm sort of curious as to what Gary would find. 
Gary was even sweet enough to pay for part of my dinner. 
The only bad thing, at the end of the evening, was that my computer fell off a chair.  I was worried it was going to be damaged, but so far there's been no problem. 

Training

Alexander was training me with some new computer stuff.  Mostly, it went well.  I weirdly enjoy myself.  It makes me feel peaceful. 
Maybe a little too peaceful, since I screwed up and erased some data Alexander had taken care of.  And then, to make it worse, I couldn't figure out how to fix it (that's what this training is for.)  The good news is that it took me a while, but I figured it out.  I kept thinking he was going to show up and ask me what was taking so long.  I did eventually figure it out, and rushed over to make sure he knew I was done. 
He didn't say anything.  Hopefully he didn't notice?

Tripping Over Myself in Happiness

This afternoon, I was sitting on my computer, doing some writing.  Nina was in and out of the bathroom, doing various things. 
"I am going on a trip," she announced.  "I will arrive on Sunday." 
I paused for a moment.  It occurred to me this morning she might be going somewhere, just because a large bag appeared today at her desk, packed full of things, including her toiletries, which where on the top of the open bag. 
"Do you mean you'll be back here on Sunday?" I asked. 
"Yes."
Okay then, sounds good to me. 
Well, actually, it sounds better than good to me.  It sounds heavenly. 
The only sad thing is that it lands during Claire's birthday weekend.  We're all planning on going out tomorrow in celebration.  On a weekend like this, where I have guaranteed alone time, I would prefer to abuse it but staying in all weekend and enjoying the silence/lack. 
In any case, I'm very pleased with this turn of events. 

Roommate Troubles

When I was younger, I started leaving rooms when I got really angry.  I didn't have to do it a lot, but occasionally I did.  I did it mostly to allow myself the time and space to calm down. 
At around one in the morning yesterday I realized I needed to do the same thing.  So I grabbed my key and left. 

I ended up in one of the common rooms, watching television.  The screen was all snowy, but I watched part of an episode of Stargate Universe, which I had actually never seen before.  I tried to concentrate on the show and not what was making me angry, although my mind kept wandering back to my problems.  I hate this. 
By the time I went back to my room, I had a compromise in mind.  It was too late to do anything about it tonight, so I tried to sleep. 
And couldn't.  Again, even though I tried to concentrate on sleep, my mind was wheeling around problems.  This is both a good and bad feature.  Good in that I can usually quickly figure out how to fix something.  Bad in that I have a hard time thinking about anything else, and when I'm trying to sleep, not being able to relax is bad. 
But also because, well, the problem was my sleep.  There's a lot of noise on the street below us, even well into the night.  My roommate won't let me close the window at night because she says she gets too hot.  And then the noise keeps me up.  (It apparently doesn't bother her one bit.)  Instead of her, say, not wearing winter pajamas to bed, which would be an obvious way to fix it, she said something that angered me last night, which is what prompted the retreat.  I was trying to be the better person, but trying to do that was meaning I was up half the night, the sound of ambulance sirens and car door alarms keeping me up. 
I tried to tire myself out.  I have all sorts of tricks that sometimes work.  I got on my computer for a half hour, hoping the harsh computer glare would make my eyes tired.  No luck. 
Around 4:30 this morning, still awake but in that state of "dear God, just let me sleep," another set of sirens went off and I finally shut the window.  It took me at least another half hour, but I finally fell back asleep. 
She woke my up in the morning, opening her drawers and doing something strange with liquid.  (Every morning there's a glug, glug, glug sound and I find myself wondering why she can't do that in the kitchen, since that is where she is heading next.  I am trying to be patient, but I am stunned by how generally inconsiderate she is.  When she is sleeping and I'm awake, I try to do things that are either inherently quiet or if they aren't and they have to get done, I try to do them as quietly as possible.  Every morning she must open and close at least six drawers.) 
I got up then because it's not worth trying to fight it.  I just got up and waited for her to close her drawers enough to let me walk past.  Once she was out of the room to get her breakfast I changed and got breakfast myself. 
I was tired at breakfast this morning.  My eyes were doing that itchy thing that tells me they're red and that I'm tired.  I didn't really feel like talking to anyone.  I thought about offering her a compromise, trying to decide which one would be the best. 
When I got back to the room, I sat down at my computer and started doing my usual morning routine of catching up with the news.  And she left.  I was going to offer it to her this morning, but she's gone. 
Part of me is still really angry.  Like, ready to pick a nasty fight angry.  But the other part of me so wants to make this work, since other then the noise thing, I mostly don't mind her.  I can try to forgive the early morning wake up if I can just manage some decent sleep in the first place.

Out Last Night

As Elena sat there on her computer, I was rushing about trying to get ready.  I had ten minutes.  I reapplied my makeup, lamenting how ugly I am.  I put on a belt, which I've been meaning to do all week.  I made sure I had money and my ID.  And then I got going. 
A group of friends and I were going out for the evening.  Tamara knew this particular bar that she said she took all her friends to and was excellent.  We were very disappointed to get there and discover that the bar had been overtaken by a party for some reporters.  We spoke to the man right outside, who clearly worked there.  The girls begged a bit to get in, except for Ruth and I, who mostly giggled at how silly they were being.  We hadn't had anything to drink yet, but I suspect that this man wouldn't have believed us.  He told us if we came back the next day he would give us free margaritas.
As we were walking away, Claire said that she had heard the bartender telling the party planner that he didn't want us coming in, even though the planner said it was okay.  So we ended up at this burrito place down the street.  It was tacky in a hilarious sort of way, and we sat down. 
Our waiter took our IDs, and upon seeing mine, he got excited because he was from Ann Arbor.  And then he got us drinks.
I have not been having much luck with drinks lately.  I am trying new things and mostly have been disappointed by them.  I've had vodka lemonades before, but neither one was very good.  (The second one was strawberry flavored.)  The other girls had margaritas of varying kinds.  I worked on the chips and salsa. 
Claire and I had a look around at the other men in the bar and were intrigued by several of them, but since they were often holding hands with other men, they were probably gay.  Claire had to give a performance the next day, so Lavvy quizzed her on her lines.  Claire, Tamara and Caroline all texted. 
As usual, I ended up talking mostly with Ruth.  I can't even remember most of what we talked about, but it was probably about work.  Ruth likes her job, but I think it mostly is more work than she can stand. 
"I calculated my hourly salary and it came out to 7.50," she was telling me.  It's particularly sad, as she is always working.  Tamara told her she needed to write more and read less, which is advice I should take. 
I told Ruth that in less than the last two months, I'd written forty poems.  I am really meant to be writing other things, but I find that I want to write poetry more. 
Claire told me she wants to do a dramatic interpretation of one of my poems.  So I guess I'll give her one of them.  I really don't want to, especially since I don't have a printer and will have to write it out, but I still will anyway.
I was texting with Nate, which was going a little badly because I wasn't texting well. 
Tamara and Caroline left early because both of them had things early in the morning.  After we paid up, Claire, Ruth and I walked home.  Claire has been learning to dance lately, and she showed us her entire routine with her fingers at the bar.  Then she was Charlestoning out in the street. 
"I feel a bit ill," Claire commented.  I did too, which is unlike me, because drinks have never made me sick to my stomach before. 
Right at the street corner closest to home someone was standing near us.  They had on a dark coat, high heels and very blonde curly hair. 
"I'm enjoying that," I commented.  Clarie hit me in the stomach.  "Don't be such a pervert!"
"Was that a man or a woman?" Ruth asked.
"I thought it was a man," I said.  Claire disagreed.   
When I got back, I checked my phone and saw there was a message from Nate to be careful.  I told him I had walked home with friends and was safe.  It's so nice to have someone like that care about you. 

The Cleaning Lady

As I was staying at Nate and Megan's, I tried to be a good houseguest, which meant being as out of the way as possible.  Megan and two of the other roommates went out for the weekend, so it was just Nate and I hanging out.  I was thinking about blogging here to you, but then I decided that I should do something nice for Nate and co.
I had just taken a shower, and, perhaps feeling like there needed to be some cleaning, I started working on the kitchen.  In my pink bathrobe.  I started on the dishes, but then realized there were just too many, and many of the things were caked on.
So I went looking through their stuff for one of those brillo pads that scraps stuff off really good.  That was my first clue that people didn't clean too often, because there weren't any.  There were just one sponge.
Then I noticed that someone had tried to bake stuff.  There was a small cake in a pan.
"Should I put this in the fridge?" I called to Nate, holding the pan up.  Nate was on the other side of the room, on his computer, working on his online class.
"Yeah...that's a good idea."
There was a cupcake pan with chocolate cake still stuck, glued really, to it.  I would need to soak this.  Soaking something requires that I temporarily plug their sink.  So I went looking for the rubber stopper that every house has.  Nothing.
This of course led to the next best thing: filling the two bathroom sinks with water and then plugging both of those up.  And then putting in the pan, silverware, plates, a water bottle, Tupperware.
On the way to the first bathroom sink, I found a spoon sitting next to a sock.  If I had seen it in any other context, I would assume it was a piece of modern art.  I showed Nate and he was grossed out by it.
Putting things in a different part of the house would mean I would need to carry it.  They had a plastic dish holder/rack thing that was meant to hold dishes as they dried.  I was about to use it when I noticed that too was stained a orange color.  I imagined it was meat sauce from something.  But I could be wrong.  So I started scrubbing it.
In the meantime, Nate saw me and decided I needed some music to help, so he put it in some Lady Gaga, a favorite of mine.  He put on one of my favorite songs, "Bad Romance."
As I was cleaning, I bounced around and sang the song, as Nate almost certainly knew I would.  Nate, for some odd reason or another, really likes me singing.  He sang along too.
There was something nicely and bizzarely domestic about the too of us.  I could totally see us living together, doing this sort of thing.  Nate would make food, I would wash dishes, we would pretend to be in a musical about the woes of college life.  We'd be bigger than Rent.  
After "Bad Romance," Nate put on "Telephone," which I am embarrassed to say is a song I'm actually working at perfecting.

I scrubbed at the rack thing.  The tough thing was it's odd shapes and little crevices that I couldn't get to with the sponge.  If I had a toothbrush on me, I could have used that, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice my own, and I was afraid going to look for one wouldn't work, since I had already tried to find a vacuum cleaner, to no success.