Knucklesalad.blogspot.com's blog

Why I like Atlanta so far

I keep meaning to write down stuff that happens and then I don't do it and I just know I'm going to forget it all.

Job is good. I like the work I do and people above me respect the work and that's really important. I got nervous in a meeting once (but then, I think I panic anytime somebody tells me, "okay, go") so I talked too fast and too much but I did get the things said that needed saying. It is good practice for meetings.

We get to do things here, mostly also because of Job. There was the Sunday Paper 3rd Anniversary Celebration/Client Appreciation Event/SP100 Party at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was cool because it was the first time I had ever been to a work-party that had:

• A private rented-out venue
• An open bar
• Live music (including Drivin' and Cryin', who I guess is famous, because they're in Guitar Hero)
• Professional photographers
• Little lanyard taggy things you have to wear to get in
  

So they did it up right, which impressed me quite a bit, and it wasn't like at Scan Haus where, once a year when they take you out to dinner, you aren't allowed to bring a date and the dinner is BYOB. That was during my second week of work there. Work has given me tickets to other stuff. We went to see The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands on its little Broadway tour — it was a shame that the night we saw it two out of the three performers were stand-ins, and we weren't impressed. We left at intermission. We got to see Amy Sedaris give a book-talk, which I didn't get passes for from work, but which I noticed in the Sunday Paper arts list and it was free. She signed the book that Jenny gave me and we took a picture with her for proof. We had VIP passes to Oktoberfest, which we stopped by last night just to grab some free eats for dinner, and it's a good thing we were just passing through because it was stunningly underdone. The whole event is in one big tent! Booooo! Today we're going to the Greek Festival, which is supposed to be nice. They gave me tons of passes for food and stuff. Ray and Diana are supposed to go with us.

Also, a couple weeks ago John's dad gave us good seats to a Braves game, because his boss or somebody had them and wasn't using them. I really liked it. I would go to another Braves game. I didn't expect it to be any different from a football game, but the entire environment was completely different. And they were playing baseball, which I like to watch. And the seats were close so we could see lots of stuff. And I got a pretzel.

We've done more stuff, but since I didn't write it down when it happened, now I don't remember it to list it. But we have been going out as much as we can and having a very good time. And I've been turning down way more free passes from work than I've been taking. (I don't want to seem greedy.)

 On Monday, the style editor has invited me to go to a trunk show with her at the home of Laura Turner Seydell, who is apparently Ted Turner's daughter. I don't know what it is going to be about (probably clothes? no idea) because I don't know anything about the woman, but if my research is any indication, whatever it is is probably going to be eco-friendly. I do not know what to wear to a trunk show. But I am excited to go, because it is the first time the style editor has invited me to hang out. I like making friends with the people at work because I like all of them. It's weird.

And on Tuesday, if there are still tickets, I'm going to grab some seats for the Broadway tour of The Wedding Singer. I didn't bother to ask for any Thursday, because I wasn't sure if a play of the movie would be a fun time, and it was only last week that we did the Rat Pack so I didn't want to drag John to the same thing again. But it would be fun, and it would be free, so it would be fine. I just don't know if maybe somebody jumped on all the tickets already. Ha, ha, ha.

Anyway, that is what is going on here, for the most part.

Oh, this happened: on Monday, people at work were talking about Crocs. They said, "Do you have Crocs, Kristina?" I said, "I hate Crocs, and yes, I do have a pair. John's mom gave them to me and, as much as I despise them, they're comfortable, so I wear them in the house and to wash the car. I would never wear them in public, though." They were talking about a story that was going into the paper, about Crocs being dangerous on escalators. I assured them that I would never be on an escalator in Crocs, because they only have escalators in public places.

That night, John had to pick up his mom from the airport, and he wanted me to go with. I was already in my pajamas, so I put on the Crocs for the car ride. But then John didn't go to Park and Ride. He parked. We had to get out. And so I went inside the public airport in my Crocs. And then? We went to the luggage carousels and she wasn't there. She was at the only luggage carousel that was downstairs. We had to take the escalator.

I read the story on Sunday when the newspaper came out. It was specifically about Crocs being dangerous on the escalators at Hartsfield-Jackson airport. What are the odds of this, really? I know it's a boring story but it's crazy to me. If I had lost my Crocs on the escalator, do you know who would have been the first to see me and ask why I wasn't wearing shoes? John's mother. You see?

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P.S. QoTD: I am an organ donor, but only because of a combination of pressure at the DMV and checking the wrong box on the form. The next time I had a license made, I inquired about having the organ donor thingy taken off, and they said it was a huge process with a lot of forms. So an organ donor I am. And it's not that I don't want to be, it's that I never decided if I wanted to be or not, and now there's really no point in giving it a lot of thought when my options (assuming I don't like extra paperwork, and I don't) are limited.

Re: democracy: "I can't wait to vote! I am so excited about chickens!"

I have an announcement to make!

Spaghetti-all

GreenGreenYellow.com is having its second-ever contest and we like to vote on stuff and we like to give away prizes so you'd better get in on the ground floor while your chances are still good, before there are 500 names in the drawing and you will have only the wispy shadow of a hope of getting a print for free!

Please?

x

Pardon me.

I just walked downstairs, picked up a banana, carried it back up the stairs, sat down, ate the banana, and took the peel back down the stairs to the kitchen trash.

I just can't help thinking that this is something my simian ancestors would never have approved of.

I'm cross-posting this from MySpace, because it's an update.

So Atlanta, for those of you who are not in it, is (and I want to say this absolutely as delicately as possible) an ALL-DAY FUCKING STEAMBATH that kills puppies and destroys souls. Has it killed an actually puppy? I don't know. But time will tell.

I guess it's hot everywhere. But it is especially hot here. It has apparently made the front page of the paper. I can't say firsthand because I wake up too late to read the paper, and I am not particularly interested in waking up any earlier. There are precious few advantages to unemployment and I'm not about to forfeit the main one.

Other than the heat, and my car's reaction to the heat, I've been adjusting well to my new surroundings. I like living with John and his dad. I haven't been out as much as I'd like, because spending money is too, too tempting, and I'm attached to my last $60. I'm still optimistic about landing the right job, but it's becoming a labored optimism. I could work a little harder at job hunting, sure, but it's too hot to do anything but respond to ads. Car doesn't like it. And networking calls now have to wait, since I've got outstanding interviews. Yeah, that's more detail than you needed, but there is a certain internal obligation to appear as unlike a deadbeat as possible.

I'm trying to get us gallery-hopping here as gently as possible. We did a couple smalltown galleries on Friday night (okay, just one... the second one looked too scary so we drove by twice and went elsewhere for a beer and a burger instead) and we'll do Roswell's First Friday thing next Thursday. Then maybe the following Friday I'll feel ready for some downtown openings. I'm sure there's nothing worth working up to, but I'll feel more certain of that once I've worked up to it. Whoops! Tricky.

I'm gonna go out to an Aseda thing on Monday. Live band. Could be a good time to introduce myself. Or, I mean, I guess it could be a bad time. I can't give you anything definitive until, like, after Monday.

Atlanta is big. I like it for that. Atlanta also has all these totally polar little areas situated really close to one another. Right now, I don't feel like I can go anywhere new with even a broad idea of what to expect it to be like. Which is actually at the tail end of my list of concerns. The flagship concern, currently, is that I'll probably never get to whatever new place I'm heading for, because right now I get (to varying degrees) lost almost everywhere I go. I don't even want to think what it would be like with no GPS.

When I have paychecks again, I will go to more comedy clubs, and I will try more new restaurants. I will also get to see plays and concerts. These are the reasons I am pleased that all those trees outside the window are in Atlanta. When I finally do feel it's okay for me to leave the house, that's where I'll be, too.

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Realtor, dont be scary.

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Steve mill3r

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What do you even do?

I've got these crazy hand-tremors all of a sudden, and I can't tell if it's from medication or emotional strain.

Option 1: Three of the four prescriptions the doctor gave me "might cause" nervousness, sleepnessless and tremors. Why four medications? Why, two for bronchitis and two for strep pneumonia, of course! I have been suffering from only one of those things, but since Dr. Whatsisface couldn't decide which one, he wanted to cover his bases. And believe me, I was feeling crummy enough by then to take whatever he was gonna give me, if there was a chance it might do some good. So I did, and it has, and that's fine. Except maybe it's giving me weird, uncontrollable tremors.

Option 2: I've been on this medication since Thursday and today my dosage was halved. Also, I took the medicine at 10:30 this morning and there have been no tremors up until about an hour ago. So it could, I guess, probably actually have something to do with the brief letter I just wrote to my grandfather, and my packaging up a bunch of photos of me and of my artwork to send to him. We haven't spoken in 10 years, ever since a family fight that wasn't between us, and now he's very ill. I still don't know how I feel about it, so I don't know how to sum it up. Maybe nothing really could sum it up better than this tremor.

An update from my vacation, or "always read the morning paper"

Coach Fredericks* spat a pingpong ball at Diana tonight.

Making nice with Coach Fredericks, 5/3/07

He's not usually this sweaty. And he works very hard. Thank you and good night.

*Tom Wilson **

**Biff Tannen

It wa'n't me

An important update:

Something in the building is leaking, soaking the wall and the carpet all around my desk. Stinks. Ew. Much worse today.

(my day off)

(I came in anyway)

(someone called in sick and I was having a lousy day so I decided I might as well)

(might as well come sit at my stinky desk)

(not sure what I was thinking there)

Two posts in one day! I'm feeling chatty.

Today: I spend the entirety of my morning wondering why I smell so awful and hoping no one finds out. What's the word for when you leave your laundry in the washer too long and it goes off? Sour? I have always wondered what that smelled like, and today when I smell this smell I am instantly certain that that's what it is. And I think that's really odd, since (and this isn't going to help me sound less dirty) the pants and top I'm wearing are ones I've worn already since they were washed. Seems odd that I'd think it's odd, since I'm assuming it's a smell I've never smelled and I couldn't possibly be sure, but I am sure... it must be sour laundry, because it smells like that smell sounds like it should smell. Even though my laundry didn't have a chance to sour. But there's no denying it, I think. I stink.

Of course, every time I get up to do something somewhere else in the building, I stop stinking. I figure it must just be because there's no breeze in the area by my desk and I'm left alone with my hideous stench. I figure it's for the best; I figure it'll teach me not to be so careless and to start smelling better.

I go to lunch. Outside of the building, I don't smell. I come back from lunch and return to my desk and there is the smell again.

So it sounds like I'm really stupid, and of course I should've assumed from the beginning that the smell was coming from somewhere in my office, but honestly, there's nothing on my desk that should smell. And there's nothing on my desk that wasn't here yesterday. And there's no food in the trash cans or anything. But it's not me. I do not stink.

Let me say that again, so the world can hear:

I DO NOT STINK!

...but I don't know what does.

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What else, what else... I had Bagel Bagel for lunch today and I liked it. My sandwich was not bagel-based, which was essential to my enjoyment. What a relief! I am so strongly opposed to making sandwiches on bagels. It is counterintuitive and disrespectful of the dynamic of sandwiches. Bagels are thick. Bagels are chewy. You have to hold a bagel firmly and tear it with your teeth. When you put a condiment on a bagel and then stick meat in between, when you hold that bagel firmly, all the meat squishes out. And when you tear it with your teeth, you create a counteraction where you throw the meat more. Bad. Wrong.

The following sandwiches are acceptable bagel fodder:

Cream cheese and jam.
Bacon, egg and cheese.
Peanut butter and jelly.

That is all. No soft meat should be placed on a bagel ever, and if any solid food item is included, it should be firmly embedded into a soft, sticky food like melted cheese. Otherwise, you've ruined your sandwich and your bagel. Be smart.

Also, is anyone sure of the difference between Thousand Island and Russian dressing?

Yes, I could just Wikipedia it, and it would be faster to type ("wikipedia," "thousand island," "russian dressing," enter) and exponentially quicker to receive a response. But I long for the lost art of conversation. Let's discuss the difference between these dressings. It is so much more humanistic.

As you were.