Homework

M held my hand as I met with The Realtor (fille) and signed stuff. I gave her a largish check. In return, she gave me two ring-bound reams of paper: one for me to keep; the other to read, sign at each of the dozens of post-its, and return within the week.

Went to lunch with M. We discussed my (conditionally) impending change of address. How to arrange my furniture, the logistics of me hosting Thanksgiving, appliance purchases, that sort of thing. I was exceedingly tiresome about insisting on the conditional tense. She was remarkably forebearing. At some point I should compile a list of useful phrases: "don't count your chickens," "many a slip 'twixt cup and lip," all that jazz. [damn - I should have worn the coffee cup & chicken earrings. Must make note for future The Realtor meetings.]

A brand-new building in the neighborhood was having its Grand Opening, so we inspected the place. Good layouts, kinda loud. Of course, there's only so much you can do about sound when the property is on Bush Street and the the current fashion is exterior walls of glass. There were these two apartments on the second floor, with terraces and bedrooms below, that were totally excellent. One had a ladder from the terrace down into the lightwell for the bedrooms - so cool. Really smart use of space.


Today's earrings: elephants, brass triangles

Bedtime reading: Disclosure Package, The Realtor

I got stuff checked off my list

Didn't get a whole lot of work done, but I did make contact with the Loan People (sent them much paper) and The Realtor (fille) (made an appointment to do paperwork Sunday).


Today's earrings: eyes, liberty dimes

Bedtime reading: Red As Blood, Tanith Lee

all before noon

I thought up a really good curse in the shower this morning: May you experience the consequences of your actions.

Too harsh?


More of a crowd than usual at the bus stop this morning. Some guy walked up to one of the regulars and started threatening her - I heard, "If you were a guy I'd beat your ass," and there was more I didn't hear. She just stared at him. He walked away, but he kept pointing back to her and miming kicking as he crossed the street. Coward that I am, I did nothing until he'd gone around the corner, and only then did I go ask her if she was OK. "I don't know him," she said. "I didn't think you did," I said, "Just wanted to check you're OK." She said yeah, and I heeded her 'I have had way too much human contact for now' vibe and stepped away.


Came in to find three months of the Barbados Gazette on my chair. Hooray! I <3 gazettes.

10:30 finally got a call back from the city. I'm approved. Didn't the realtor call? (Yes, she called two days ago, but for some reason, we decided to do the "who's on first?" sketch instead of having a productive conversation.)
10:40 vm to loan officer.

Finished sorting through the Barbados Gazette; found one (1) piece of relevant information.

11:15 Boss hands me my annual review form. She said nice things. We're going for a muffin later.


Today's earrings: strawberries, apples

Bedtime reading: Red As Blood, Tanith Lee

Brush with B-52

I was on my way to the supermarket after work. Round about Kearney, I realized the tourist next to me getting all sticker-shocked about the fare had a very familiar voice. I glanced over, and went Fred! I didn't say that out loud. No, I said something inane about the mass-transit experience. He said he could get that on the subway. Seemed a fair point. We stopped at Grant, and a row of tourists formed, snapping shots of the cable car. He started laughing. "You don't get that on the subway," I said, He and his companion said, "Well..." I suppressed the urge to point out Coit Tower and the steeples of Sts Peter & Paul as we went by. I suppressed the urge to get all fangirly effusive at him - if he wanted effusion, he'd have been traveling differently. I did, however, keep sneaking peeks. And eavesdropping. They were on their way to Whole Foods and then meeting some people later. I suppressed the urge to tail them to Whole Foods, and got off at Cala like I'd planned.

OMG OMG OMG Fred!


Today's earrings: bunnies, flowers

Bedtime reading: "Useful Phrases for the Tourist," Joanna Russ

Scales

Happy Equinox! The sun enters Libra today.

I spent the morning on the phone trying to figure out how to set the time on my 5-year tchotchke. My quest was hampered by the nice lady's inability to find me in her computer. Turns out I'd been filed under the wrong company, and was actually supposed to have been picking from an entirely different tchotchke array. Did I want to send my tchotchke back and choose another? I told her no, no - now that I know how to set the time, the clock is lovely.

Then I got a call from The Realtor (fille), talking about me coming in write an offer this week. I asked if that meant she'd heard from the city about my ap. Um, er, no. Mmmkay. I'd be happy to move along with this, but until we get approval from the city it's kind of pointless, and The Realtor (père) only submitted the paperwork on Friday, so, huh? I did take it as a reminder to leave a follow-up voicemail with the city.

Later, I did some actual work.


Today's earrings: alligators, other alligators

Bedtime reading: Night of the Morning Star, Peter O'Donnell

The Object-Lesson

At twilight, however, no message had come from the asylum,
so the others retired to the kiosk,
only to discover the cakes iced a peculiar shade of green
and the tea-urn empty
save for a card on which was written the single word:
Farewell.
- - Edward Gorey

Did anyone see a psychiatric explanation of why House's hallucinations were of Amber and Kuttner? Because I didn't. Rendered the whole enterprise fairly pointless.



Today's earrings: diamonds, suns

Bedtime reading: Night of the Morning Star, Peter O'Donnell

Pettiness

Mid-morning, the receptionist came around to say that A had been invited to lunch by the chief consultant guy, and the chief consultant guy had decided to turn it into a pizza party, who wanted in? She described A as our "former office manager." Said everyone really liked him. Not quite. A was the dude sent by corporate to manage the post-takeover integration. By the time I got there, he was mostly making busywork for his assistant. The assistant left; he made petty, time-wasting busywork for himself out of me and my coworkers. There were a few things he might have done to improve how corporate was treating us, but he was way too busy with his busywork... They ended up firing him four years ago.

On the "always postpone meetings with time-wasting morons" principle, I said no, thanks on the pizza.


Today's earrings: cups, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams