This meme looked fun, so I thought I'd steal it.

( The Meme...Collapse )

I did not cheat at all. If I did, I would have come up with something better than "I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today" for my death scene. But at least my life looks like a comedy.

I thought I'd stop by and say hello. And I'm not dead. Don't worry...I'm not cheating on Livejournal with MySpace or anything like that. (Although i actually do have a MySpace page, which I hardly ever visit. I don't even know why I signed up, honestly. My only "friends" are Paul and his fifteen-year-old niece.)

And since I can't possibly talk about everything that's been going on in my life since February, I thought I'd hit the highlights as quickly as possible:

( I got a new job!Collapse )

( We're moving (again)!Collapse )

( I'm grad school-bound...maybe...Collapse )

( Beyond that, nothing else really seems that interesting.Collapse )

And I guess that's about it. Not much new, I suppose...

I haven't written in awhile. I've been pretty busy with work and life, and I just haven't had a whole lot to say.

I haven't been feeling very well today; I started getting a sore throat yesterday, and I had been dragging for about a week before that. My throat is pretty nasty at the moment. Yesterday, I was supposed to go see Simone, the kid I mentor out in the District, but I decided against infecting her. I would have called off sick from work, except I had a project due that I had completely forgotten about until the day before. Today, I have a MANDATORY (the boldface and capital letters was my supervisor's way of putting it, not mine) section meeting at 4:00. Luckily for me (and my need to sleep in) my shift doesn't begin until 4:00. So I'm sitting here at almost noon, still in my pajamas, and since I don't feel well enough to do much of anything else, I think I'll play Sims 2 for awhile. I'm anxious to keep working on those extended families...

Oh, and P.S.: although I have recently downgraded into a free account (I've had the paid account for about a year and a half now, and at the moment I just don't use it--or the features--enough to justify it) I got to keep my favorite user icons. Yay for Harold's tongue, and Maude's yellow umbrella, and my angry fish. Whoo hoo!!!

...But unfortunately, I'm mentoring today, and if I don't start getting ready in...oh, about five minutes ago, I'm going to be late. I think I'll be driving into the Silver Spring Parking Garage and then taking the Metro from there. If the traffic isn't too bad (I should hopefully miss rush hour) that should save me a little bit of time at least.

And yay, Lost is finally coming back tonight. It's about time! And, for the first time in a long time, I've managed to remain almost completely unspoiled. I haven't had the time to peruse Television without Pity, or any of the other really hard core spoiler sites, and neither TVGuide nor EOnline has had anything substantial recently.

At any rate, I'd better get going now.

Paul called off of work today, and now I don't want to go to my job; I'd rather stay home and spend the day with him. But I know that I just called off right before Christmas, and I also know we'll already be one person down tonight, and I would feel bad about calling off again so soon. It's not like I didn't just have several days off for Christmas, and it's not like I won't have another long weekend for Martin Luther King day. However, we're planning on going to New York that weekend, which means more of that weekend will be spent with his family than anything else. I would like to see his family again, and I miss New York, so on that level I'm looking forward to it. But it feels like it's been too long since we've really had the opportunity to just veg out at home. We still haven't started taking down our Christmas decorations (and it's not like we have that much), and since I have to work this weekend and we'll be out of town next, I don't know when that's going to happen.

I know I shouldn't be too worried about it; I don't have to work a weekend again until February 11-12 and we'll have that long weekend for President's Day to celebrate Valentine's Day, so that works. I'm just feeling a little tired and cranky at the moment, that's all. It's not like we're going to have to spend 24-7 with his family (I hope); at least we'll have the opportunity to go into the city and do the things that we've missed out on since moving here (Patsy's Pizza, anyone?).

I'm having a little bit of an internal debate right now. I want to go back to school, possibily even this fall, but I know that it will take away from the time I have to write. Not that I've been writing as much as I should, but...when I have term papers and whatnot to write, as I did in undergraduate, I know I don't write as much recreationally as I would/should otherwise. Plus, there's no way I can just quit my job (although the one advantage of my job is that it would afford me many opportunities to study, most of the time). Guess I should just play it by ear.

You know the problem with coming back from "vacation" (if you can call a trip to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas with my family that)? Inevitably, before we leave, Paul and I attempt to consume every food item in the apartment that would spoil while we're gone. The result: there is absolutely nothing to eat right now but macaroni and cheese and spaghetti, and I don't have the time to go up to Safeway and do a bit shopping run before work...at least, not if I want to take a shower (which I need desperately).

I guess I'll see what time it is after I get dressed; maybe I'll wander into the city a little bit early and eat lunch with Paul. I need to have him sign some of the forms for our insurance anyway so I can fax them in today, and lunch at Ella's Pizza or Hard Rock Cafe sounds a whole helluva lot better than spaghetti with Ragu.

Paul and I went to my mother's for Christmas. This would have been nice, except for the fact that my mother has this tendency to become extremely anal rententive about getting everything "perfect" for the holidays--more, I imagine, to impress/placate her extended family than anything else--and my brother has a tendency to sleep until 3:00. The result: my over-stressed mother spent the days leading up to the holiday screaming that I wasn't doing enough to help her, although I had done everything she had requested and more, and my brother spent most of the week sleeping on the rollaway bed in the living room. My mother always uses the justification that my brother is younger and that males don't mature as quickly as females and that's why she doesn't expect him to do as much as I do. That might have been appropriate justification when he was twelve and I was fourteen, but now that he's twenty and I'm twenty-two that just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. I don't object to doing work; I merely object to doing everything and still being screamed at while he does next to nothing and my mother doesn't think about it twice. I honestly believe that, deep down, my mother feels guilty that my brother lost his father at such a young age, and has indulged him more than she should have because of it. Granted, I lost my father, as well, but, being female, I guess I didn't need one as much. And I guess I was meant to do the cooking and cleaning, right?

But as for the reason behind the title of this entry: Paul and I took our new car and drove to Pittsburgh and back, dividing the driving responsibilities in half. Today, on our way back, I took the first half of the drive up until Breezewood, PA (the Pittsburgh roads are so convoluted that Paul didn't trust himself to find his way around), and Paul drove from Breezewood back here. At some point after Paul took over, he found himself being tailed by a blue Jetta. He was doing between 75 and 80 in a 65; he couldn't go faster because there were cars in front of him doing exactly the same speed, and the Jetta was riding his ass. Finally, the driver pulled over, passed us on the right, and started weaving in and out of lanes and passing cars, often cutting them off, until we couldn't see her anymore.

About five miles down the road, we spot a cop on the side of the road with a car pulled over. Who was it? The very same blue Jetta who couldn't wait to get around us. That's what she gets for driving 100 and weaving erratically because she was in too much of a hurry to do the speed limit.

Ah, gotta love the intersection of schadenfreude and karma!

Paul and I are officially obsessed with the new car. I'd like to say "Paul especially," but I'm just as bad as he is.

For the first time, we actually DROVE to get our groceries, rather than having to have them delivered from Safeway. Then we drove out to downtown Silver Spring to do some Christmas shopping.

Unfortunately, the Christmas shopping season is in full force, and every idiot who never learned how to drive properly is out on the road at this time of year. I'm a nervous driver generally, and my reaction to bad/reckless drivers tends to go one of two ways: either I get extremely scared and tend to panic, or I start screaming and get a case of road rage matched only by those people who tend to hop out of the car and shoot crappy drivers with their handguns. I've considered it, believe me, but then I remember that 1) I don't have a handgun, and 2) it's slightly illegal, even if it's justifiable. Tonight, as I was driving back from downtown Silver Spring in a new car, in the dark, in horrible traffic, I reacted in both ways simultaneously! And Mom said I was no good at multi-tasking!

But, after not driving regularly since the summer of 2004, I am now beginning to feel more comfortable behind the wheel again (I think the driving lessons I started last week helped significantly). More importantly, I am already starting to feel more comfortable behind the wheel of this car. And that's important if we're going to make it to Pittsburgh and back in less than two weeks.

We've decided not to risk it if the weather is precarious and the roads may be unclear. But we also know that the only way we're going to get our Christmas presents (not to mention the pictures that my mom is giving me) back here in a reasonable amount of time is to drive up there and bring them back. I'd like to go now, but if I have to wait another few months until the weather is better I suppose there's not much I can do. We'll see how things go.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make...

As of today, December 10, 2005, Paul and I became the proud parents of a brand new 2006 Honda Accord LX.

And while we don't have any pictures of our bundle of joy as of yet, it looks something like this:

This meme looked pretty funny, so I'm taking it. Thanks, shhbabe

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad -- BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you.