More of life (the past two weeks)
Well, there's no denying that I've been pretty busy over the past two weeks.
I'm trying to be productive at work, so that takes a lot of energy.
The weekend of the 18th, I went up to Visalia for Rob and Candace's wedding. On Thursday the 16th, I went over to Sara's apartment for dinner, as her family was visiting from OR, and were having their birthday celebration. Jeff was already up in Visalia for Rob's bachelor party, so I didn't want to be at home alone, plus I really love the Martins, so it was a pleasant evening. Then I went over to Rob and Candace's apartment (they live in the same complex as Sara and Elizabeth, just in a different building), where Candace and Debbie were spending the night, and I slept there, too. Friday morning, we drove up to LA and got the wedding flowers from the LA Flower Market. It was an interesting experience; not only were we in a place where a lot of the vendors didn't speak much English, but Candace and I were clueless about most of the flowers, whereas Debbie knew all about them. Candace drove up in her car, and Debbie and I drove up in the Feelys' van. We found out that Jerry had injured his leg the night before, while playing volleyball; it turned out, when he went for a real doctor visit the following week, that he had broken his leg up near the knee; it complicated things, in that he was in pain whenever he walked during the weekend, and as the father of the groom, he was an important participant! Anyway, Friday evening, we had the rehearsal and dinner. I set up shots and prepped the video camera, since I had been asked to shoot a wedding video for them. [Did I know anything about doing event vidoes? NO! Did that stop me? Obviously not.]
Saturday was a beautiful day, and things ran pretty smoothly, over all, for the wedding. Candace looked simply beautiful in her dress; it was ballgown style, with lots of lace trim, and it is simply not anything that I would be caught wearing even while dead, but it looked wonderful on her. I like the Vander Koois a lot, and of course I love the Feelys, so most of the people were easy to work with. I dunno... What can you really say about a wedding? Nothing went hilariously wrong. The ceremony was short, and the reception was long. They had a full dinner and DJ with dancing, at some place called the Country M Ranch, which was cute and enjoyable despite that name and the general hick atmosphere. Oh, yeah, Mum and Dad drove up Saturday morning, and it was lovely to spend time with them. They are so cute, and so cool! And Josh (who helped me with the video, and took pics at the reception) and Laurel were there, and the Yoshimotos, so that was nice. We stayed and danced till 10:30, when the bride and groom left; Jeff and I got in a lot of dancing, plus I got some great video footage--the lighting wasn't very good after the sun went down, so I hope it turns out all right--of wild and crazy dancing (including Tamyra, the bride's mother).
Sunday morning, we slept through church (doh!), but got to spend time with both sets of parents. In the afternoon, we visited our model home at The Ranch so that Denise and Dennis Hopewell (Jeff's aunt and uncle) could see it. We drove back down to the LA area in the evening, but discovered that our weekend of excitement was not over, as we were involved in a four-car pileup on the 5 South. Traffic was backed up to the extent that we were only traveling at a rate of c. 35 mph, so nobody was seriously injured. However, both Jeff and I displayed signs of whiplash within an hour after the crash. =( We are currently being treated by chiropractors; if you need chiropractic work, ask me for a recommendation. Anyway, since nobody died or had extensive bleeding, I felt free to view the incident as an adventure. I took photos and video of our car and some other cars and people involved, and the CHP came with their flashing lights and signal flares and police reports (although it wasn't all about us... there were two more accidents at that spot--the 5/60 interchange--within 3o minutes of ours), and I was polite to them, even though two of them told me not to go romping in the brush along the highway (I was exploring, plus looking at one of the other wrecks of the evening; I wasn't hurting anybody, and I can take care of myself while you take witness reports, thank you very much.). When all was said and done, Jeff and I were just very tired and stiff and longing for bed.
The week passed with me fighting a lot of fatigue. I seem to be tired a lot lately, plus it is natural to feel that way when one's body is healing. *sigh* I told some of my managers that I would be at least going to part-time in December, if not leaving the company altogether. In all honesty, I'd like to just leave and get out of there; I am so tired of it! I'm one of those people that can work tirelessly on something, if I am passionate about it, but can barely bring myself to do anything at all if I am just doing work for the sake of earning a living. I feel guilty sometimes. I have so much, and make quite a decent salary, but I am apathetic about my job. Sometimes, I just don't care anymore. I desperately hope that my attitude will change when I start doing something that I choose for myself (namely, science and academia). Some days, I sit and stare and fight back the tears, wondering, "What am I doing here?!?" It reminds me of my first year back in the States, when I would be in my classroom in Portland, and would suddenly look out of the window into the bleary greyness of that city, and it was as if I would have a brief moment of clarity after months of being a ghost of myself. I'd think, "Where am I? What am I doing here? I don't belong here." Even then, I was Difficult. An Iconoclast. A Jungle Pixie in the Overcast World of Tree-hugging Birkenstocks. Bleh.
So. Saturday morning I had coffee with Mum. Saturday afternoon I went to the wedding of Dustin Guenther and Katie Fisher. The ceremony itself was actually pretty fun, probably because it was officiated by Dr. Sanders. I was several people that I knew, but not as many as I'd have expected. I guess a lot of Biola Torrey and science people didn't come because (1) it was summer, and (2) there was, I think, a competing Torrey-related wedding on that day. But the reception was pretty fun, because I got to see Mr. Jim Harrington (who talked to me about cool history stuff from his studies at CSU Fullerton--despite my allegiance to the natural science, I truly love hearing and talking about humanities-related topics) and meet Sharon Biggs (who is a friend of Dan's, and doing mission work in Cameroon), and I sat with Mr. Kevin White, Mr. Eric Holloway, Ken and Lynn Johnson (I only know her b/c she is a secretary in the theo dept at Talbot), and a very nice young man named Steven who is, I found out later, one of the children of the O'Herrins (of whom I know much, via Sara and Jeremy Brown, the linguists). I had so much fun with people (Sheesh, Kevin, you and I should not be allowed to be goofy within close proximity to one another) that I didn't realize how late it was, until I checked Mr. Holloway's extremely nerdy-looking watch and saw that it was 19:23, and I was supposed to meet Jeff and Laurel and Josh at Islands at 19:00! I made some quick rounds to hug the happy couple, and say goodbye to several buds, then blasted off in my Hybrid Civic to meet my other buds at the restaurant. They were almost finished eating, and since I had eaten dinner at the reception, it was no great loss. We reconvened at our apartment, and Jeff and Josh played Halo while Laurel and I looked at knitting patterns and had girl talk.
Sunday morning, we went to church, and then had a Fathers Day/birthday lunch for Dad at a Thai restaurant on Pacific in Huntington Park. Fathers Day had been rather overshadowed the previous weekend (we were just recovering from Rob's wedding), and Dad's birthday is actually the 26th, so it was perfect timing. Tim joined us, as did Andrew, and all the kids but Mia were there (she is excused b/c she is on the other side of the world). The food was delicious, and I had a long talk about "Rules of War" with Tim and Andrew, which was one of those catalytic conversations that prompt me to explore and clarify my own views, even though (due to the emergent nature of my thoughts) I don't always express them to others as wonderfully as I think I ought. I am coming to understand my own objections to certain ideas such as "rules of war" and "just war," and will eventually be able to discuss them in a manner that will satisfy even me (I am guessing that no one else thinks I don't communicate well, but if I don't express myself perfectly, I consider myself a failure). At any rate, it was interesting to see the differences in why Tim and Andrew thought the way they did, even though they both believe that "rules of war" are a good thing.
Sunday evening and Monday, during my free time, I did a lot of laundry, and read, and did other things that needed to be done. Jeff played Halo.
Tonight, Dan came over for a few hours. We ate pizza at Top Class Pizza, then came back to the apartment, and I (again) read, while Jeff showed Dan how to play Halo. We are going to spend some more time with him in the next few weeks, before he ships off to North Carolina for military stuff.
It's nearly 23:30, but I'm barely sleepy. Oddly enough, my fatigue consists of a lot lassitude and bone-deep weariness, but not a lot of actual sleepiness. I think it's related to the abundant light in this time of year. Jeff is taking this week off, so he isn't worried about staying up late. He's playing Halo right now. Surprised?
I think I'll cuddle with my cats. Maybe look at some knitting and paper doll stuff. Having a job totally bites. But maybe it won't, if/when I become a university professor.
I'm trying to be productive at work, so that takes a lot of energy.
The weekend of the 18th, I went up to Visalia for Rob and Candace's wedding. On Thursday the 16th, I went over to Sara's apartment for dinner, as her family was visiting from OR, and were having their birthday celebration. Jeff was already up in Visalia for Rob's bachelor party, so I didn't want to be at home alone, plus I really love the Martins, so it was a pleasant evening. Then I went over to Rob and Candace's apartment (they live in the same complex as Sara and Elizabeth, just in a different building), where Candace and Debbie were spending the night, and I slept there, too. Friday morning, we drove up to LA and got the wedding flowers from the LA Flower Market. It was an interesting experience; not only were we in a place where a lot of the vendors didn't speak much English, but Candace and I were clueless about most of the flowers, whereas Debbie knew all about them. Candace drove up in her car, and Debbie and I drove up in the Feelys' van. We found out that Jerry had injured his leg the night before, while playing volleyball; it turned out, when he went for a real doctor visit the following week, that he had broken his leg up near the knee; it complicated things, in that he was in pain whenever he walked during the weekend, and as the father of the groom, he was an important participant! Anyway, Friday evening, we had the rehearsal and dinner. I set up shots and prepped the video camera, since I had been asked to shoot a wedding video for them. [Did I know anything about doing event vidoes? NO! Did that stop me? Obviously not.]
Saturday was a beautiful day, and things ran pretty smoothly, over all, for the wedding. Candace looked simply beautiful in her dress; it was ballgown style, with lots of lace trim, and it is simply not anything that I would be caught wearing even while dead, but it looked wonderful on her. I like the Vander Koois a lot, and of course I love the Feelys, so most of the people were easy to work with. I dunno... What can you really say about a wedding? Nothing went hilariously wrong. The ceremony was short, and the reception was long. They had a full dinner and DJ with dancing, at some place called the Country M Ranch, which was cute and enjoyable despite that name and the general hick atmosphere. Oh, yeah, Mum and Dad drove up Saturday morning, and it was lovely to spend time with them. They are so cute, and so cool! And Josh (who helped me with the video, and took pics at the reception) and Laurel were there, and the Yoshimotos, so that was nice. We stayed and danced till 10:30, when the bride and groom left; Jeff and I got in a lot of dancing, plus I got some great video footage--the lighting wasn't very good after the sun went down, so I hope it turns out all right--of wild and crazy dancing (including Tamyra, the bride's mother).
Sunday morning, we slept through church (doh!), but got to spend time with both sets of parents. In the afternoon, we visited our model home at The Ranch so that Denise and Dennis Hopewell (Jeff's aunt and uncle) could see it. We drove back down to the LA area in the evening, but discovered that our weekend of excitement was not over, as we were involved in a four-car pileup on the 5 South. Traffic was backed up to the extent that we were only traveling at a rate of c. 35 mph, so nobody was seriously injured. However, both Jeff and I displayed signs of whiplash within an hour after the crash. =( We are currently being treated by chiropractors; if you need chiropractic work, ask me for a recommendation. Anyway, since nobody died or had extensive bleeding, I felt free to view the incident as an adventure. I took photos and video of our car and some other cars and people involved, and the CHP came with their flashing lights and signal flares and police reports (although it wasn't all about us... there were two more accidents at that spot--the 5/60 interchange--within 3o minutes of ours), and I was polite to them, even though two of them told me not to go romping in the brush along the highway (I was exploring, plus looking at one of the other wrecks of the evening; I wasn't hurting anybody, and I can take care of myself while you take witness reports, thank you very much.). When all was said and done, Jeff and I were just very tired and stiff and longing for bed.
The week passed with me fighting a lot of fatigue. I seem to be tired a lot lately, plus it is natural to feel that way when one's body is healing. *sigh* I told some of my managers that I would be at least going to part-time in December, if not leaving the company altogether. In all honesty, I'd like to just leave and get out of there; I am so tired of it! I'm one of those people that can work tirelessly on something, if I am passionate about it, but can barely bring myself to do anything at all if I am just doing work for the sake of earning a living. I feel guilty sometimes. I have so much, and make quite a decent salary, but I am apathetic about my job. Sometimes, I just don't care anymore. I desperately hope that my attitude will change when I start doing something that I choose for myself (namely, science and academia). Some days, I sit and stare and fight back the tears, wondering, "What am I doing here?!?" It reminds me of my first year back in the States, when I would be in my classroom in Portland, and would suddenly look out of the window into the bleary greyness of that city, and it was as if I would have a brief moment of clarity after months of being a ghost of myself. I'd think, "Where am I? What am I doing here? I don't belong here." Even then, I was Difficult. An Iconoclast. A Jungle Pixie in the Overcast World of Tree-hugging Birkenstocks. Bleh.
So. Saturday morning I had coffee with Mum. Saturday afternoon I went to the wedding of Dustin Guenther and Katie Fisher. The ceremony itself was actually pretty fun, probably because it was officiated by Dr. Sanders. I was several people that I knew, but not as many as I'd have expected. I guess a lot of Biola Torrey and science people didn't come because (1) it was summer, and (2) there was, I think, a competing Torrey-related wedding on that day. But the reception was pretty fun, because I got to see Mr. Jim Harrington (who talked to me about cool history stuff from his studies at CSU Fullerton--despite my allegiance to the natural science, I truly love hearing and talking about humanities-related topics) and meet Sharon Biggs (who is a friend of Dan's, and doing mission work in Cameroon), and I sat with Mr. Kevin White, Mr. Eric Holloway, Ken and Lynn Johnson (I only know her b/c she is a secretary in the theo dept at Talbot), and a very nice young man named Steven who is, I found out later, one of the children of the O'Herrins (of whom I know much, via Sara and Jeremy Brown, the linguists). I had so much fun with people (Sheesh, Kevin, you and I should not be allowed to be goofy within close proximity to one another) that I didn't realize how late it was, until I checked Mr. Holloway's extremely nerdy-looking watch and saw that it was 19:23, and I was supposed to meet Jeff and Laurel and Josh at Islands at 19:00! I made some quick rounds to hug the happy couple, and say goodbye to several buds, then blasted off in my Hybrid Civic to meet my other buds at the restaurant. They were almost finished eating, and since I had eaten dinner at the reception, it was no great loss. We reconvened at our apartment, and Jeff and Josh played Halo while Laurel and I looked at knitting patterns and had girl talk.
Sunday morning, we went to church, and then had a Fathers Day/birthday lunch for Dad at a Thai restaurant on Pacific in Huntington Park. Fathers Day had been rather overshadowed the previous weekend (we were just recovering from Rob's wedding), and Dad's birthday is actually the 26th, so it was perfect timing. Tim joined us, as did Andrew, and all the kids but Mia were there (she is excused b/c she is on the other side of the world). The food was delicious, and I had a long talk about "Rules of War" with Tim and Andrew, which was one of those catalytic conversations that prompt me to explore and clarify my own views, even though (due to the emergent nature of my thoughts) I don't always express them to others as wonderfully as I think I ought. I am coming to understand my own objections to certain ideas such as "rules of war" and "just war," and will eventually be able to discuss them in a manner that will satisfy even me (I am guessing that no one else thinks I don't communicate well, but if I don't express myself perfectly, I consider myself a failure). At any rate, it was interesting to see the differences in why Tim and Andrew thought the way they did, even though they both believe that "rules of war" are a good thing.
Sunday evening and Monday, during my free time, I did a lot of laundry, and read, and did other things that needed to be done. Jeff played Halo.
Tonight, Dan came over for a few hours. We ate pizza at Top Class Pizza, then came back to the apartment, and I (again) read, while Jeff showed Dan how to play Halo. We are going to spend some more time with him in the next few weeks, before he ships off to North Carolina for military stuff.
It's nearly 23:30, but I'm barely sleepy. Oddly enough, my fatigue consists of a lot lassitude and bone-deep weariness, but not a lot of actual sleepiness. I think it's related to the abundant light in this time of year. Jeff is taking this week off, so he isn't worried about staying up late. He's playing Halo right now. Surprised?
I think I'll cuddle with my cats. Maybe look at some knitting and paper doll stuff. Having a job totally bites. But maybe it won't, if/when I become a university professor.
posted by Kiti at 11:25 PM
6 Comments:
I also forgot to mention that over the weekend, I chatted with my darling Sarah Ditore. I'm so proud of her!
Also, just to clarify in case Deb didn't make it clear... I've been playing Halo almost non-stop. She vaguely made it sound like I take a break every now and then.
Come now, the world is far too droll as it is. Only our combined zaniness keeps the world from collasping into a black hole of dullness.
Besides, it was one of the last chances to inflict that combination of wackiness on the world...
Thanks for mentioning me! I AM reading regularly now, in case you wondered.
Sarah
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Thanks for mentioning me! I AM reading regularly now, in case you wondered.
Sarah
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