(no subject)

[stormdog]

The first hint of dawn in the sky as I drove to work this morning reminded of how elated I was at this time last year. I had been working at Clark Brothers Instruments for probably a month or two and was a little depressed about not only working at a smoky factory with generally uninteresting people and knowing that I was never going to either enjoy it or advance in any significant way, but I had to drive there in the dark too! The gain of an hour last year meant that I got to see daylight again as I drove north along the Van Dyke expressway on my thirty to forty minute drive to work each morning and that went a good way toward keeping my spirits up. Despite the boost to my mood that came with being able to see the sun before my noon lunch break again, the drive and the early risings were wearing on me. I decided that, if at all possible, any jobs I took in the future would be much closer to home and start at least an hour later. Seven o' clock in the morning is just too early to have to be at work.

...

But the Ford call center is so calm and peaceful when I get here at quarter to seven in the morning after a thirty to forty minute drive...

Even though my first few didn't last terribly long, given that that was my third or fourth job through Kelly services since moving out here, it's pretty clear that I've been in Michigan for something over a year. I considered marking the one year anniversary in this journal as it happened but in the end I decided not to. There were a few days when I thought a lot about my last couple days living with my parents. I thought about packing my stuff into the trailer I rented and the pizza dinner I had with my family the day before I left. I thought about all the things that I missed and still do. Not infrequent were the times at work when, my brain needing only about five percent of it's processing power to deal with stamping out widgets, I began to think about all the ways that my life would never be the same again and I had to fight back tears. I was doing work I hated and that I knew was doing me permanent physical harm (my wrist still isn't the same after working a machine press eight hours a day for a few months) and there were moments when I was really depressed.

I made it through because my family was always there for me. My parents and my mate. My parents were there to listen to my occasional despondant phone calls home from the Clark Brothers parking lot at noon and to my inane chatter on many a school night as I drove home from New Horizons at 10:30 at night. My mate was there for me when I got home. She put up with this occasionally depressed, occasionally whiny, nearly always clingy puppy who was in the midst of change on a level he hadn't imagined and, despite a few rough patches, continues, amazingly enough, to like him. Life is weird like that, eh? I am forever indebted to both of my parents and to my beloved raccoon girl beyond my ability to repay; they kept me going. They keep me going.

So today, I've been informed by our resource technician, is a Ford holiday. That would explain why I've been here for a full hour (exactly an hour as I type this sentance) and have taken a grand total of one phone call. Ooh, one just came in as I typed that! And there was *DAH-DAH-DAHHHHH* no-one there. Sp00ky.

Andrea has a half day off of work for a doctor's appointment so we're getting together, going out to vote, and then heading out to see her physician. (There are so few good synonyms for doctor. A friend of mine, a mechanic, referred to them as 'flesh-mechanics', but said that they don't seem to appreciate that appelation. But I digress.) Since I'll have a little time on the way home, I'm going to make a quick stop and look for a present for Andrea that I have my mind set on. I looked all over the internet yesterday afternoon and couldn't find quite the right thing. I'm looking for something rather particular. But I have time yet; I'm thinking this will be a Christmas, or maybe New Year's, thing.

The weekend was very good but I haven't written about it yet. I've been terribly remiss in keeping this space up to date. The two individuals who most care about my day to day activities haven't complained yet though. Since I don't generally post here about when I'm going to get around to feeding them and I don't think cats can read anyway, I doubt anyone noticed the absence of my customary prattle.

Saturday was spent in the company of jenx, cjdoyle, and several others for a Halloween sort of party. Three of us watched half of Bubba Ho-tep upstairs while Chris waited downstairs for more party guests to arrive. As people showed up we migrated downstairs to chat and hang about. As the evening wound down it ended with just the four of us sitting out in the living room talking about books and geekishness. It was a nice time and I enjoyed meeing Jen and her husband. Yes, I've met them once before, but I was with them long enough this time to actually have a usable brain file on them. As I've noted before, not only does face-blindness prevent me from having any real first impression of most people, I often can't even really remember them as distinct individuals until I've been around them a while. I'm hoping we go visit there more often as they are relatively close to us and I enjoyed talking to them. Earlier in the evening, as Andrea caught up on events with her friends, an interesting conversation began about their views on and experiences with polyamory. It was shortly interrupted by, amusingly enough, the arrival of a group of guests including their girlfriend.

Andrea had me all dressed up as a vampire with a plum brocade jacket and lacy linen shirt with cuffs and a red satin ribbon tying back my hair...

I'll try to post some pictures today. Andrea, in her corset, was the hapless girl who chose the wrong gentleman to approach in her wanderings that night...

Sunday was spent in the company of another couple, crazycatladymel and her beau John. After the trick-or-treating was over it was just the four of us for the rest of the evening. John showed off Doom 3 (I am duly impressed) and then we watched half of π (If that's not diplaying properly in your browser, it should be the pi symbol). Despite Missy's and Andrea's opinions on the dim prospects for excitement of a movie about math, I thought it was fascinating. I didn't even get to the part with the shoot out between government agents and the group of Hassidic Jews yet! (Yes, it's an odd movie, but I liked it.) Our respective partners arrived home with the food halfway through it (they went out for pizza) so John lent it to me to finish watching.

Then the group of us sat through the Dawn of the Dead remake. I enjoyed it, though I have to admit that I've never seen the original. The biggest affect the movie had on me was to make me want to play Resident Evil again. I really like survival horror. I do prefer a happier ending though. Anyway, John is possibly dropping by tomorrow to help me figure out some configuration issues on my Win2K Adv. Server box. That will be really nice. I love being around my mate but I haven't really sat and geeked out with computer stuff with anyone for a long time and it was so much fun doing that with John as he showed off his new game. I hope I get to do that more often. I suggested the possibility of a LAN party sometime.

Today is going to be slow. I've been here for two hours and taken three phone calls, one of them a hang-up. It could be worse. At least I'm getting writing done. Two more hours of this and it's off to my den (with a short stop-over) where I get extra time with my 'coon-grrl today! That is, if Andrea doesn't kill me first for not being willing to tell her what the Vorlons look like. "Was the N'ka'lan feeder really a Vorlon? What do they look like? Are they humanoid? Are they shapshifters? Are they blobs? Are they gaseous? Are they energy beings? TELL ME!" I just smiled. Knowingly. It's driving her crazy. *Smiles evilly*

We're planning to sit around and watch more B5 tonight. I had planned to watch the election results as they roll in live but Andrea would prefer not to. Likening it to a fatal accident, she said that she'd rather not see the Mack truck coming until it's already steam-rollered her car. For the same reason, we probably won't be going over to cjdoyle and jenx's house. They're inviting people to come watch the results with them and, though visiting would be cool, we're probably going to pass.

I'm sure we'll find out who our next president is soon enough...