dissonance

Bring on the nitrous

I just came back from getting my wisdom tooth pulled.

Note: tooth, not teeth
Note: pulled, not be put to sleep and wake up with chipmunk cheeks

I'm enjoying telling people this and then everyone responds with their own horror stories using shudder inducing phrases like "impacted" and "cracked in 3 pieces" and "couldn't eat for days".  And then I gloat and reply, "Ih owly took firty thehconds" ("It only took thirty seconds")(I still have gauze in my mouth).

The thing that keeps me humble is that in a couple of weeks I have another dentist appointment to fill four (4) cavities and fix up 2 degrading fillings. (I'm so sweet I give myself a toothache!  Aww yeah...) And then a couple of weeks after that I have a regular cleaning, which I normally despise getting but this place offers laughing gas for it I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing what that's like. (Is it weird to be excited about this?)

Silence revealed

I don't know how else to say this so I'll just come right out and say it:

I'm moving to the UK

About a month ago we get news that my office might shut down.  There was a chance it might stay open but I saw my career (such as it is) coming to a halt as long as I stayed here.  Panic set in and I actually got a rather lucrative job offer from a rival company and I considered it for about a weekend.

And it just didn't feel right.

I like the company I work for now. I respect what they do and how they go about doing it.  I've been with them close to 3 years, which is nothing and I feel like I'm just getting started.  And in the past month I've learned that for me, it isn't about the money or the stock options or even security.  I need to be working on something I believe in.  So I looked internally within the company and found an opening in the UK that matched very close to what I do now (identical really) but with more visible responsibility.  On top of that, they have senior level positions that I feel really motivated to work toward.  I considered it for about a minute.

It felt right.

So here I am, with an offer on the way and it's just as well I tell everyone now so that y'all can make plans to come party it up with me before I leave (I don't know exactly when, I'm guessing I have a month).  I hope everyone forgives me for the lack of posts these days but now you know why and it'll be hard to get me to shut up about it.

Jolly good.

Pixar needs to step up

Turtle Power!

I haven't been this impressed by animated work since Toy Story.  It actually looks like a comic strip coming to life.  CG has come a long way and me likey.

Uh huh, yup. Over it.

Amazon has betrayed me.

I went to their site today and they have something called a plog and this is what I see:

   

Reminder    Jul 21, 2006

New! (HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED) - You asked to be reminded of this birthday 30 days in advance.

Hey Amazon, DID YOU NOT GET THE MEMO?'

Blarghity blargh. Just when I thought it was safe to be over it.  I mean, I am over it.  So totally over.  Yeah. For sure.

Odds and Ends

1) When I was young, I lived right by the ocean. It was nice to ride my scooter (purple!) to the coast and back.  The neighborhood was quiet with wide streets paved in flat asphalt and it was mostly populated by lower middle class families.  One day I was out riding my scooter and right in front of my house I noticed some writing on the sidewalk written in chalk. It said, "Go back chinks".  I felt very sorry for my Chinese neighbors to be living in such a hostile environment.

2) I used to take the N Judah home.  One time my friend Angie was with me and while we were waiting for the muni a car stopped right next to us at the light.  We can't help but look inside and it struck us as odd that the driver was shirtless.  Half a second later we realize OH MY GOD HE'S NAKED.  Half a second later: "AHHH HAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!"  I don't think that was the reaction he was looking for. He peeled off in the middle of our hysterical laughter.

3) During college I worked as a office assistant at the Political Science department.  One day a student came in asking about courses.  She asked very complicated questions and I had to help her for a long time.  She made some odd comments here and there but I didn't think much of it, thinking she's being friendly because I took so much time with her.  When she left, my coworker came up to me and whispered, "Oh man, I can't believe she was so obvious about hitting on you!"

The new place, it is different

At the old place, my room faced a driveway, where posh cars (not mine) maneuvered quietly into covered garages.  The most annoying sounds I had to deal with were the kids riding their skateboards, and at this point I get nostalgic about it.

The new bedroom faces an alley.  Among normal alley noises (cat howls, menacing footsteps echoing in the dark) I've come to know the strangers that share the lane with me.

There is Mr. Apnea who I am sure lives directly below me and his snores pass through the floor  and reverbrate through the legs of my bed.  There is 11:23 Car Alarm, which without fail has gone off for exactly 12 seconds every night (at 11:23) before the owner scrambles to shut it off.  At least, I hope they're scrambling to cease and desist the annoyance, but really if it's going to go off every night at the same time is it that much of a surprise that requires scrambling?  And the reason I get nostalgic about the couple of whippersnappers on their skateboards?  I now live directly across the street from an elementary school.

Yesterday (at about Oh Three Twenty Three hours) (Three fucking twenty three am for the civilians) I was charmingly woken up to the sounds of... well to put it mildly, impassioned cries in the night.  With the current heat wave, closing the window was not an option (and I was fucking tired, as people tend to be when they are asleep) so I resolutely tried to ignore them thinking to myself (rather ungenerously) "oh surely this can't last very long..."

Lucky for me it was all over in about 3 long minutes (or unluckily in 3 short minutes, depending on perspective) but what cracked me up was the snatches of conversation I was able to catch in the ensuing 30 minutes following the uh, energetic episode.

It began with some muffled mundane conversation that progressively increased in volume until I was quite sure they were debating the topic of her weight.

Attention Casanovas: Do not discuss her weight directly after sex.  Most certainly do not suggest trips to the gym and then act all innoccent saying, "What? I'm just asking!"  And certainly do not be surprised when she suggests you "move your ass to the airmattress in the livingroom".

What confused the hell out of me though was that in about 15 minutes she is the one that ends up outside calling someone and insisting they pick her up and drive her to her car.

"What? No I told you if you're going to be gone for more than an hour then you should... no... that's not what I mean... look can you just pick me up or else I'm going to walk to my car... shut up there is no way you're already on the freeway, come pick me up... stop fucking joking with me... no pick me up..." repeat infinitium until I scream out "JUST START WALKING BITCH!!"

Just kidding about yelling out that last bit, but day-am I was tempted.

Any sympathy I had for her concerning Casanova quickly disintegrated and I now dub her Whiny Crazy Alley Biotch.

Alive and kicking

I know this silence is just so un-shmee-ly but there is so much going on right now and yet really nothing going on that I hesitate to say anything at all.

Definately a big, juicy, satisfying update as soon as the first wave crashes.  Til then:

Don't die without embracing the daring adventure your life is meant to be.