Well well, where to begin… I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who has been a little behind in updating. I really have been meaning to update since about Thanksgiving, but obviously that didn’t happen….

Turkey Day was great. The Boy came home with me, met the family, won my mom over with the pumpkin pie he baked the night before and then brought to her, won my dad over with non-stop talk about different gardening techniques*, won my brother over with his computer talk, and my other brother latched onto the music topic. My friends loved him, my friends’ boyfriends loved him, my friends’ families loved him… Everywhere we went I lost him to other people. Case in point: when we went up to see Sarah and her family we walk into the house and within 90 seconds he was sitting at the table with Sarah’s dad, beers in hand, discussing orchards. In all actuality, I probably didn’t spend that much time with him over the weekend, he was so occupied by everyone else.

*Odd moment with The Boy and my dad: he’s reading this gardening book, and my dad say it and asked about it, and as he started looking at it, my dad ran over to the bookshelf to grab the original first edition of the same book (The Boy has like the seventh edition or something). Then they had to compare the differences, the updates, Brian had to ask my dad what things about the old one he did or didn’t like… and all the while I’m trying to get him out the door to go meet the girls for dinner. I finally just stopped and realized that my dad and my boyfriend are frighteningly similar. Scary…

I made the move out of Orenco and into NE. We’re talking industrial NE, off Columbia, by the train tracks. I’m way out, but not as way out as I was in Hillsboro. Thank God I don’t have to drive Hwy 26 everyday now. It was killing me. And the fact that I’m closer to The Boy is nice as well.

Tonight we (the Boy, his roommates, their girls, me) are making cookies, building a gingerbread house, and watching Christmas movies. I’m pretty excited about it. Then tomorrow we’re off to Hood River to meet his mom and spend the weekend with her. I’ve talked to her a few times on the phone, and she seems like a very nice lady. Brian says I’m a lot like her. I’m hoping that’s a good thing…

Life really isn’t too terribly exciting right now, but it’s very good. I love The Boy, he loves me, I love my job, I love my house… Maybe it’s just the fact that it’s the holidays and, in my mind, it’s the best time of the year. “The most wonderful time,” if you will.

I’m off to do more work before I head out of the office and start baking like a fool. I hope everyone is doing as well as I am. That’s really all I want for Christmas this year: to be happy and content. How disgustingly cheery am I?


always…..

So I checked my "space" last night and there was message from a girl in my class. I open it and all there is is a link to another myspace. I follow it and its the page for some hot chick. I look at her pictures and there is this, mixed in among her "modeling" pics and "w/ people" pics:

I wish I remembered that.
or her name.

Lips chapped after a weekend of Jack Daniels.

I asked a girl for her number the other day, and she told me I was so ugly, that I should have to move to Africa. I laughed politely cuz I thought she was kidding, but she turned around and walked away. So thats good.

HOLL-E-WOOD!

Oh God I suck. I have been meaning to post for about a month. I keep getting distracted. I know, it's the same ol' story -- but it's true. These last few weeks, I'll start working on something and the next thing I know -- it's my fucking bedtime. I suck. Donkey dick. I'm sorry.

This is going to be long, I can just feel it.

So, the first big news is that I finally ditched the roommate factor. After nearly 5 years of living with different roommates, I dropped the whole concept like an ugly baby. I am now the proud renter of a one bedroom apartment. I can't say that I enjoy paying out the nose for it, but it's pretty nice, I'll admit. It's on the border between Beaverton and Aloha, so I'm even further from Portland, but still only ~5 minutes from work. It's an okay balance. I do miss SE PDX, though. A lot.

But I always got the idea that I wasn't nearly cool enough for that area.

But getting into my swank bachelor pad (which will be referenced as 'the cockpit' from here on out) was a fucking ordeal in itself. I'll give you the condensed version:

I alotted myself a month to find a place. Beaverton is nothing but stripmalls and apartments -- so no worry, right? Wrong, bitch.

I did my homework on the internets, reading reviews, plotting drivetimes, etc. I'm making some real good bread, so I divided that I was going to live in some place that wasn't a total crap-shack (for the first time since I moved out of my parent's house!). So, I made a short-list of places that I would like to live in. I would call them on my coffee break and visit them on my lunch break. I'd pick up applications. I'd act like an upstanding individual. I'd fill out the applications and go to return them only to find that they'd already been rented. Within HOURS.

I soon found out that nicer, one-bedroom apartments are hard to come by. Lots of the places didn't have them. Or they smelled like smoke. Or there was no assigned parking. Or there were no washer / dryers. Or something. I must have looked at 15 different places.

Finally, I found one that suited me. I put in my application, sweet-talked the nice middle-aged obese woman. I'm a charming motherfucker. She takes my application fee and submits my shit for a background check. I have 10 days to get approved and get moved. Very unlike me, I put all my eggs in this basket -- I don't apply anywhere else.

So, these background checks usually take 48 hours. After 72 hours, I call. No word from the screening agency. I call the agency, they are waiting on my old fuckwad Corvallis landlord. I call him. Leave three messages. Finally get a hold of him and plead with him to call. He does. 24 hours passes. 5 days left. No word from the screener. I call them again, they need my current landlord's number.

Now, this poses a problem. I didn't have a current landlord. I was staying with a friend for the previous two months. I wasn't on the lease (thank god too, since that house was FUCKED). I tell them this, but they still need to call him. Takes me a day to get his contact info (see also: fuckup roommates). Three days pass, he doesn't call (why would he -- he has NO CLUE who I am).

Finally, I call up the apartment and BEG them. Since I'm so charming, she lets me slide in. Two days to spare.

Now, this next part is an interactive activity to simulate those two days:

1 -- take everything you own and put it in a box.
2 -- take that box, walk up a flight of stairs and put it in your car.
3 -- repeat 1-2 whole bunch.
4 -- drive your car across town.
5 -- grab a box and walk up three flights of stairs
6 -- repeat 5 a bunch.
7 -- repeat 1-6 a bunch
8 -- unpack all those boxes.

My back still hurts. Lugging my bed and desk and shit solo sucked. I wish I had better friends in the area, but there are few to be had.

So, that's the end of that chapter. I'm setted in. I still don't have a couch or anything, but I went to the dollar store and dropped like $35 bones on cleaning supplies and other knic-knackery (280 straws for $1!). Good shit.

But, beyond that, not much new. I've been spending lots and lots of time working on the mixtapecollective.org redesign. I've never done so much hardcore JavaScript in my life.

Work is going swimmingly. They're starting to overload me with work and give me some pretty crazy tasks / projects to take on. I'm in charge of a committee to drive some change around the internal network structure. It's pretty daunting. There are about 15 people contributing, who are all seasoned vets -- I'm still green as fuck, so I'm having to work for any sort of credibility. I'm also working on like 5-6 projects at any given time. Sure makes the time go by quick. Dig it.

I went to a glorious Holiday party thrown by SarahC. Our bearded friend Andrew was there. I drank a few beers and talked to some interesting characters. I had a wonderful time. I have an office party on Friday that I'm super stoked about -- I can't wait to find out who the office drunk is.

Kim has been coming to visit pretty regularly, which is a nice thing. I like spending time with her. We're pretty much an amazing duo -- we have a blast where ever we go. The Dollar Store was amazing.

But, she totally impressed me (even more than usual). For the past 6 or 7 years, I've been trying to track down a Model M keyboard. It's probably the nerdiest thing ever, but if you've ever touched one, you'd know. It's built like a fucking tank. It's really big. It doesn't have a 'windows' key. Instead of plastic, it uses springs on the keys. It makes a click when you press a key down. It makes a click when you release a key. It sounds like glorious machine-gun fire.

Anyway, out of the blue, my girlfriend brings me one. I told her a long-long-long time ago that I wanted one. She found one at a thrift store for $2. I've seen good ones go for upwards up $80-100 bucks before.

What a rad girl. I feel like a nerd, but it sounds glorious as I type this.

Well, that's about it. Moving, work and keyboards. I love you all.

elephant foetus!