Six Weird Facts about Myself

via frog

The rules:
- You must post with six weird facts or habits about yourself. These cannot be used against you later on :)
- At the bottom name the six people you will tag next.
- Leave them a comment to let them know they've been tagged.
1) I love to read young adult literature. I try to keep up with all of the Newberry winners and honor books each year.
2) I love to grocery shop. I can calculate the price of everything in my cart within a dollar every time.
3) Before I went on the bike ride on Sunday, I reattached the chain to my bike. I didn't realize I was so mechanically able :)
4) I just got a library card for the public library in town on Sunday. I've been using the school library until now. I don't think it's ever taken me so long to visit the public library. They have an excellent collection of lesbian books, though. I'm quite excited. Not that that's all I read, of course...
5) I like to watch the Price is Right showcase showdown. I'm a really good bidder.
6) My cat does Darth Vader immitations by pressing her nose and mouth into my ear and breathing loudly until I wake up. She thinks this is funny. Scares the hell out of me every time.
The Six Who Are Hereby Tagged:
Luna at her new blog that I need to update and her girlfriend if she also wants to participate, gardener of Compostecompote who doesn't update her blog nearly often enough ;), and Lynette, Anndi, Jondra, and Nancy at myspace whose blogs you may not read.

Worn Out and Fried

I went on a REALLY long bike ride today with a good friend. It was great fun. We rode clear up into the foothills, which was awesome. Then we rode downtown to the farmer's market and went to lunch. It was so much fun. I love to go on long bike rides like that. I hadn't done that in years. It's great fun. I just noticed that I am really sunburned, though. It didn't occur to me to wear sunscreen (or really, it did, but I didn't have any). At any rate, I'll be picking some up soon, after I take a nice long nap.

Employment

My job is pretty good so far. I think it will be fine for the summer. I finished the training and got on the phone for the first time yesterday. I got mostly disconnected numbers, but I did get to talk to two people who wanted to take the survey. No one was especially nasty, which was good. Most just hung up on me if they weren't interested, also a good thing. I only got lectured once by a caller, who confused research calls with telemarketing calls and wanted me to be aware of the No Call list. I have a feeling this will happen a lot. But we're truly not selling anything. We're doing research for the national health agencies. Don't hang up on me! :)

I may or may not work today, depending on how quickly I get my thesis printed off and delivered to the graduate office. We pretty much set our own schedules as far as overtime goes, so I'll probably go in this afternoon if I get everything done. It's a pretty nice job that way. I've requested the weekend off for Pride, so hopefully that will go through. I'm really looking forward to Pride. I think it will be great fun. I didn't get to go last year, and I missed it. We're having a magazine editor speak this year, and it happens that I adore her magazine, so I'm quite excited about it.

At any rate, all is well :) I'm going to go do some press work this morning, as well. We might be publishing one of my favorite manuscripts from the last two years, which I'm really excited about. It will make an awesome book. It's quite funny.

Grr

Senate to Vote on Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment (Yet Again)

Go write your senators. They're trying to write discrimination into the Constitution yet again. Tell them to focus their attention on something much more important, like perhaps education or healthcare.

Hello Again :)

I'm back online and this time I have my Master's and I'm gainfully employed. Woohoo! I had a terrible time finding a summer job last summer, and I felt really awful about it. This year, I got a job in less than an hour-and-a-half after I started searching. I'll be working at a phone bank conducting health surveys for research purposes. So if you get a phone call this summer from some woman wanting to know how many times a day you brush your teeth or if you've had food poisoning in the last few days, don't hang up. It might be me :) Come August, I'll be back in the classroom, but depending on how the summer goes, I may stay at the phone bank for a couple more months. You know, until the big piles of composition essays start rolling in. And my credit card debt is significantly diminished. I'd love to get that puppy paid off soon.

Briefest of Updates

Don't worry. All is well :) But thank you, those who have checked up on me :) My folks are here until Tuesday. I graduated on Saturday. I now have my Master's. Woohoo! I have more to say, but not tonight. I'm tired.

Achilles' Heel

It's been a difficult week for a lot of reasons. I was talking to my counselor about it on Thursday, and she said something that makes a lot of sense. She says that everyone has a weakness, one thing that if they let go of it, they just won't feel right. For some people, that's exercise or some other healthy habit. For me, it's socializing. I am a recluse by nature, and it isn't good for me. I get really depressed when I don't get out enough. She advised me to make a point to get out more.

I have taken her advice. I sent out a ton of emails after my appointment asking just about everyone around here if they want to hang out. I've enjoyed the response :) Today I went downtown to the craft and farmer's market with two friends that I haven't seen in a while. We had brunch and wandered for several hours. It was fantastic. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. Then I went to a movie with a very cool lady from church who I sit next to in choir. This evening, I may attend a shindig at someone's house with all of the other MFA-ers. Tomorrow, I have church and a church meeting, and then I may go rock climbing. Then there's another department shindig to honor the (moron) who is stepping down as head of the department. On Monday, I'm going to another shindig, and on Tuesday, yet another. On Wed., my family is arriving for my graduation, which is on Saturday.

At any rate, I think my counselor is right, and I'm glad she pointed this out to me. My whole outlook is different when I'm social. This is a good thing.

New Music

Godsmack's song "Voodoo" is pretty awesome, as is Adiemus' title song, "Adiemus."

On Anxiety

In the last year, I've gotten my anxiety under some semblance of control for the first time. Medication is a good thing. I recommend it. It's one of the best decisions I ever made.

Last night, I talked to my mother when she was in the middle of an anxiety attack. I don't think she would call it that since she does not admit to having any mental problems, but it was what it was. Having been there myself, I recognized it.

My sister and I have been talking for a while now about how we would like to see our mother start on anxiety medication. We just think she'd feel loads better. We both have. How do you tell someone that she ought to try medication?

Last summer, I brought my then fiance home to meet my family for the first time. One night, my mother had an anxiety attack that caused her to be in no condition to go to church with us. I don't think my ex understood what had happened at all, and I think she thought my mother was being weird because of her. I feel bad about that now. It wasn't something I quite knew how to explain to her. I think I said something along the lines of, "Don't worry. My mother just needs to be medicated." A very true statement, but also a vague one.

The truth is, I have no idea how to deal with it in her. I can hardly deal with it in myself, although I'm finally doing oh so much better. I also am reluctant to explain her eccentricities to others because I don't think it is my place to do that. Everyone has to deal with their shit in their own way. This is something I learned in my last relationship.

I tend to cope with things by internalizing them and analyzing them, rather than talking about them. I also cope by writing. When neither of those work, I talk to my counselor. It used to irritate my ex that I don't really talk a whole lot about the negative stuff going on around me. It isn't that I don't see it. I just don't find vocalizing it will do much good until I have processed it and dealt with it for myself. Perhaps this is an odd way to cope. I really don't know. I have found that it works for me most of the time.

New Music

Carbon Leaf rocks! If you haven't heard them, go look for some of their songs. They're awesome :)

Recommendations Please :)

Please recommend the following to me:

1. A book
2. A movie
3. A CD
4. A summer job

Thanks!

Three

Don't disasters usually happen in threes? I've survived the death of my modem and the flooding of my kitchen. I keep wondering if perhaps my couch is going to explode next. Or my vaccuum cleaner. Now that would be ugly.