Grown-Up Snacktime

In America, we need grown-up snack time. Everyone I know is looking for a snack around for four to get them through the day until they go home sometime after six. The Britain has had this problem solved since who knows when. Why did we give up on tea time after the American Revolution? Did the taxes and the Boston Tea Party and all that just put us off from tea time forever as an organized snack/break ritual? It's quite sad, really. I'm also depressed to discover that this isn't even an everyday event in Britain anymore, though the actual drinking of tea in the afternoon may have survived.

I was randomly watching Love Actually last night and this morning and I'm watching the deleted scenes and commentary (which I never used to do but now love -- I'm devouring the special features of my entire DVD collection). Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister and someone interrupts his work to give him tea and some kind of biscuit or scone to munch on. I felt jealous -- though I am not at such a lofty employment level that someone will serve me anything while I'm at work, it would be a lovely to think that at a certain hour every day tea time was served at work. Or to imagine a post-lunch nap such as a Spanish siesta.

Missing socks and other things

It seems I've lost some things along the way. What's standing out at the moment are my grey zip-up fleece from Old Navy (Christina at work has the same one and it reminded me how much I long for mine); certain movies like A Walk to Remember, Shall We Dance, and others -- I often do not have people that will watch girly romance movies with me so I find that my DVD collection includes many; socks -- I have bought lots of socks in the last year and some of them have grey heels, other pink. I have only one sock with a grey heel -- I think it was something like a 10-pair pack of socks and I only have one of the socks left after a year? I mean, I know that people philosophise (if that's even a word) about where socks go but seriously, where are all my socks?

The movies may have been left at my parents' house one time or another and have been put in strange places for safekeeping. The Old Navy fleece may well be in a bag of clothing that I put aside 8 months ago because I wasn't going to wear it for a long time. But the socks -- the socks elude me. I ALWAYS need socks. They are not in fact seasonal. I suppose girly romance movies aren't seasonal either but for some reason, you just have to be in the right mood to watch a lot of them.

Current movies I plan to add to my collection?

-The Lakehouse
-Dan in Real Life
-He's Just Not That Into You
-Up
-WallE
-Center Stage
-When a Man Loves a Woman
-Step Up
-Little Big League
-The Sandlot
-PS I Love You

and... that's all I can think of at the moment. I had bought The Jane Austen Bookclub and The Darjeeling Unlimited from Blockbuster for $4 apiece, since that's how much they cost to rent just once. The Jane Austen Bookclub turned into an instant favorite but the Darjeeling Unlimited was...strange. And I like strange movies. But it seemed intent on you not know what was going on in certain things and focusing on the relationship of some brothers at hand, without really ever explaining the characters themselves. And while I can get behind this type of cinema, I really like to know the backstories eventually. It's sort of a throw-away at times to never explain why a character is so strange with certain mannerisms. Like missing half of a book.

Accidentally Locked In

In the middle of the night I could hear a rodent -- either in my apartment or in the walls. I had purposefully shut my door in suspicion of such a small intruder. I jumped out of bed and was going to go scare it away when I realized my door wouldn't open. My door closes with a tight fit on its own but I have an over-the-door shoe holder held up by hooks over the door and the tight space in combination with the hooks and the fact that I had entirely shut my door left it not only closed but EXTREMELY closed.

I couldn't get out of my room. The door opens in, so I had to pull rather than push. My doorknob is also small and of the shiny brass variety, so both slippery and hard to grasp. I am also quite weak; I have the strength of a small child (since I am in reality a small child). I pulled and pulled and pulled but to no avail. And I considered that even if I called my landlord, both of the doors to my apartment were secured with those little chain hook things (can't think of what they're called) but you have to release them from inside and require a fair amount of force to break. These are the kinds of problems in the middle of the night that you don't have if you have roommates.

I made a makeshift stool in my room and tried budging the hooks. I removed the shoe hanger and kept moving the hooks. After another five minutes of slightly less frantic but still frantic pulling on the doorknob (using a shirt to try and get a better grip) I was able to get out of my room.

I survived unscathed with an increased heartbeat and was unable to go back to sleep for a very long time. But hey, at least I'm not still stuck in my room.

Toby is my hero

Reason #8,472 why Toby is my hero:

Message on Facebook:

Hey, Al! I wasn't sure if you would be asleep yet, so thought I would message you. Are you thinking of coming over next weekend? I may be coming down with the flu (hopefully not H1N1), and I'll keep you posted. You know anything I have is yours, except when it comes to communicable diseases. Then I'm selfish.

List for the Day

My life seems to be comprised lately of mental lists. And whether or not I fail at life depends on how many things on the list I have mentally crossed off by the end of the day. More often than not, the lists are continuations of previous lists from the days and weeks prior. Do this, do that, accomplish this, finish that. I am slowly making progress but it seems I always have to check that mental list and then when I finish all of these things, I can just live my life. It seems sort of a strange way to plan for the future, though, because once I've finished all my lists, how will I know how to live without them? How will I live such an random, meandering life that is built on the foundation of these details? Won't I still make lists despite the randomness?

I thought I had my apartment more or less down until I bought and assembled my desk, which meant pulling everything out of my sunroom to install it and move things around. The trouble is that now that the desk has a place, the boxes that were in there do not have one. But I also assembled shelves for the sunroom closet and so I'm making slow progress. Tonight I need to get a step ladder so that I can replace all the light bulbs that have burned out the last few weeks. The kitchen one burned out this morning. I think I'm down to two overhead lights that have not burnt themselves to lightlessness: bedroom and sunroom.

At one point writing here was on the lists. Somewhere along the way I forgot to put it down and it got lost in all the other unwritten details of my life. It seems exhausting to think of updating anyone on my life since the last time I wrote. I'm still in Chicago, still learning my way around, still trying to make friends, still working, still finding my way. People are coming to visit me, both purposefully and inadvertently, and the inadvertent visits are as wonderful as the purposeful ones. Lots to be grateful for, lots of great people in my life.

And I finally saw the bean!

Lazing Around

I'm on call this weekend, so I'm in relative peace until the phone calls and e-mails start rolling in. It's not a matter of if it's only a matter of when for this weekend, I'm afraid. Yesterday's debriefing on what's going on this weekend ensures it. Le sigh.

Woke up right on time at 8:31 this morning, my body's absolute favorite time to wake up. Even when I change time zones it knows. Climbed back into bed after surveying my apartment and the cleaning and organizing I still must do. Lay there and daydreamed -- or was half awake and dreaming, really, as I would occasionally fall into moments of sleep for a minute or two but I was generally consciously dreaming/imagining. It's a nice thing to do in the morning when you don't want to be awake. I've been told that you can't dream unless you're in REM sleep and I find that to be impossible. Either that or I can instantly go into REM sleep. In the word of my sister, whatev.

Time for breakfast and other things. Cleaning, getting ready for the day and the work that's coming.

Telemarketer Apology

To all the telemarketers out there, I apologize. Your jobs must be terrible. And while you make better than minimum wage, it's pretty much a thankless job where people yell at you and hang up on you. But it was really quite funny when you just called into our litigation consulting firm and wanted to speak to one of our trial consultants about buying land. Really, this isn't his house, it's his place of business. And I'm sure the tract of land you have in Florida on the beach or in the mountains of Montana is just beautiful, really, but he's trying to help people in court at the moment. We all sit in a large room together and can hear people on the phone. One of our Workflow Coordinators picked up the phone and we were all subconsciously/unavoidably listening in on your conversation and the WFC's uncertain replies to a call that perhaps never should have been made about buying tracts of land. We all shared a collective laugh and agreed that the TC in question probably didn't want to talk to you anyway. But, being the nice person that he is, the WFC tried to put you through despite his puzzlement that you decided to call at all.

So I'm sorry -- we were all laughing at you and your futility this morning. I wouldn't take it personally -- sometimes that's just the way it goes.