nouvelles of the novel length

contrary to popular belief, i haven't actually been resting on my (ever-growing) laurels since moving to california in late june. i stopped the laurel-resting in august-ish. or maybe it was september...

anyway, lately though, i've rediscovered the word busy. "busy". and it's a strange feeling to come back to. but in a way, it's really nice too -- to have something to do on an almost-daily basis, to scrape up some money, to stop going to ikea to furnish and decorate the house, to be useful after a nice relaxing summer away from the office. aha -- but that's the catch! (haha, catch! get it?!) i'm no longer in an office. my cubicle now consists of a 90-ft (or something like that) research vessel that contentedly travels the waters of the san francisco bay (or estuary, as i'm learning). the marine science institute is great. i get to catch fishies and bay rays and sharks -- and i play with mud (more formerly known as the benthos of the bay) -- and i spy on plankton and teach about water and get muddy and wet and stand on my 2 feet for most of the day. sometimes, my day lasts from 7:30am till 6:00pm with a 20-minute break for lunch... before launching into another round on the boat. other days, i get the day off. it all depends. i wear rubber clogs and msi t-shirts and sunglasses... and golly gee, i only check my email once a day on my working days. it's kinda cool.

and at night, when i finally stumble home (via bike or car, usually after a stint with tutoring), i'm exhausted. but oddly happy with what i accomplished. sometimes last year, when i rode the metro home from the hill to the suburbs, i wouldn't really feel like i'd finished or done anything that day. i mean, i might've succeeded in researching a few things.. maybe contacted a senator or learned a bit more about biosecurity standards at biological labs -- and those are good, solid, and important tasks... but sorta unfulfilling. those memos and papers had to be handed off to the web editor, then off to the wide expanse of the internet and accumulated in inboxes for weeks at a time until a senator's or rep's office staff decided to read it, passed it on to the boss-man, and poked and prodded until the senator or rep determined that it was important enough to draft a proposal about. months and years later, the topic might come up in congressional hearings or meetings... and in the minutest of minute possibilities, it'd get voted on. and maybe, just maybe, it'd have an effect on the general public and the rest of the world. but it'd take a long while.....

but on the boat, the kids -- and teachers (and me too) -- emit "WHOA" and "COOOOOOL" and "huh, i didn't know that" time and time again. and though i honestly had a blast encircling the offices on capitol hill and learning how our government functions in real-time (and not just in a history book in tennessee), it's just a little bit awesome-r when i'm on a big ship pulling up a sting ray wiggling in seaweed.

so i like my job :)

my job also makes me poor. sigh... life's a game of give and take.

so i've been tutoring too: geometry and biology and calculus and SAT and chemistry and algebra II. dude, i know my quadratics all over again, and i got a library card solely to check out calculus books to review. i'm such a gigantic nerd. but the high schoolers are good kids... and well.. hey, once again, there's no middle man. i see them face-to-face, and when one of them scrunches up her nose and wrinkles her eyebrow, i know that i have to find another way to explain derivations fast. stat. it's surprisingly fun.

in my spare time (har har har), i've been reuniting with phi sig west.. and mit-ers. and ma familia. and the msi staff. and those good ole climbing jugs and pinchers. and vegas-the-puppy has grown larger and more rambunctious, but his balls still haven't dropped. poor dude.



speaking of dudes, the red sox died. completely kaput. they ended their season ranked THIRD in the AL east behind both the yankees AND the blue jays. how awfully embarassing. so in the alds championship series, those damn yanks and the detroit tigers (yeah, how did they stay up there in the central league??) meet. insane. the red sox just weren't able to hold onto the energy from earlier in the season, and by the end, everyone was hurt, even the seemingly invincible jason varitek and jonathan papelbon. oh sigh. but i have faith -- the red sox will rise again next year :)

in the meantime, fart on jeter. posada yo mama. and boo on gay-rod. i'm rooting for detroit, pollution capital of the world. eesh.

hmmm, did you hear about that whole controversy with the CITGO sign in boston? pssssshhhawwww. the citgo sign is a staple of the boston skyline (when viewed from cambridge or around the charles river area) -- it's been there for ages and decades and forever. in college, it flickered on and off for a while, but it always kept me on track and notified me of my utter procrastination when it turned off at midnight. it blinks and flashes and emits neon red, blue, and white light onto the murky waters of the charles, and really, it's the bestest ever. but noooo, a few weeks ago, city council began to discuss the possibility of taking it down and replacing it with a large american flag. why? because chavez, the venezuelan president (citgo is partially owned and operated by some venezuelan company, it seems), called the u.s. president: "the devil".


to me, that's just sorta funny. and partially true. but whatever, fine, it's not exactly kosher to call other world leaders evil names and refer to burning hellfire. but replace the citgo sign with the american flag? i'm not really patriotic per se, but i do sincerely respect and appreciate our rights and liberties and history; however, being a practical and realistic college grad of the democratic persuasion (of which boston mostly consists of), i highly doubt that anyone -- least of all the fanatic fans of fenway, which is located 1 foot away from the citgo sign -- would rather have the american flag up there instead of the citgo sign -- all because it somehow represents the devil-caller. aye caramba.

it's already october.... i'm still trying to figure out where september and august and july disappeared to. my cell phone, which is currently giving me brain cancer, still sucks donkey nuts, and because amazon suddenly hates me, i still own my TPOS and therefore, must continue to use it. also, verizon -- because they're total stupidheads and won't take a hint -- calls me every morning around 6:30am because 1) they stupidly fail to note the fact that i now live in california and thus, am NOT on EST, 2) they're trying to convince me to change plans and continue with verizon coverage (even though i haven't technically cancelled with them yet), and 3) they're in partnership with george w. bush (them devils). can you hear me now?

i randomly keep in contact with people in dc.. and in boston too. sometimes, it seems like the east coast is so far away.. but other days, it's like i'll be an atlantic-coaster forever. the cult in dc is ... dynamic (good word?), but it worries me and makes me sad.. because it was (and should be) such a big solid group of foodies and jokesters and sarcastic meanies and happy climbers. and awesome, wonderful things like that in life should stay intact forever.

last weekend, while others in our high school class were gathering awkwardly in chattanooga for the 5th year reunion, me and susan and carolyn met up in san fran and had our own little shindig. much funner, methinks. do people change between 18 and 23? i think so... definitely. but i also think that i was already "me" by 18. 5 years later, i'm just a more solid version of "me".. does that make any sense?

hmm... life is busy and strange. i'm getting used to it. and i'm acclimating to the weather in norcal... nowadays, 60 degrees is chilly. i've become a wuss of the worst degree... hehe.