Smiling through the Dog Days
I always cherish these last hot, tired days of summer. These are the days when the summer is getting old, when boredom begins to sink in at the same time as a sort of desperate abandon to use every last second of free time having fun.

The last few days have been one spastic orgy of random glee. After a rather uninspiring start, I'd say the week has finished a success. To begin with, Justin and I have resigned our lease. That means we'll be stuck here in this hellhole (yeah, right) for another seven months. After that, I'm threatening to go abroad. Thursday night, Justin spent a good chunk of time playing WarCraft III team-style with the micro people while I stayed home engaging in what Sarah calls "secret single behavior"; i.e. dancing to angry femme rock in my underwear, cleaning the bathtub, watching porn... heh heh. Sometimes I do so enjoy it when the boy leaves. ;)

I've been especially enojoying mornings this week, not attending my department unless I'm called. And after the last two weeks off, I've learned that I'm seldom called. When I did come in to Micro friday, I had a treat for my coworkers. The day before at Albertsons, standing at the checkstand, I noticed a roll of conveniently placed smiley face stickers. I asked the cashier, "What are those stickers for?" and he said "for anyone who needs a smile. Do you need a smile?" and I said, "Yes!!" "How many?" he replied. "LOTS," I said, eyes aglow. You should have seen my face when he reeled out like thirty-five of them and gave them all to me. Oh the havoc I could wreak! I wore them out of the store as a boa. I gave them to everyone at work, and some to Alex to give to his people. They ended up stuck everywhere! On computers, desks, and my locker... aside from the 10 or so people I gave them to at work. Mayhem!! Smiles for a long weekend....

After work, Rachel and I hit the gym to do some major lifting. It feels good to have a workout partner again and someone I can talk to about working out without feeling like I'm self-conscious or obsessing. When I got home, eight of us from work met up and raided Costco for the better part of an hour- after a rather conspicuous trip to the liquor store. I'm surprised the Costco people didn't kick us out, but they probably have hoardes of college students come in all the time and do stupid things like wearing bathrobes around the store and racing office furniture up and down the aisles. Um.

By the time we left, the store was closing and the sum total of blood sugar in the group was about zero. So after some deliberation (no one wanted to make a decision because we were so hungry), we headed to a new mexican restaurant over by VRC. It's a shame I can't remember what it was called, because it pretty much kicked major ass. (Micah tells me it's called Los Dos Amigos, for those of you in the area who can check it out.) The first thing I noticed when the eight of us went in (and close to their closing time) was that we were greeted by all-mexican/ spanish hosts. A personal pet-peeve of mine (stupid, 'cause I know that one person can cook as good as any other) is when none of the staff of an ethnic restaurant is THAT particular ethnicity. Well, all of these guys were way mexican. Or good pretenders. And they schmoozed with us for ten minutes while they readied a table. AND there was a live guitar player. ANNNNNND they made EXCELLENT margaritas...yummmm.....

In any case, I digress. It was a blast. The food was great and the conversation was... lewd... but also great. I have to say, guys, I'm majorly impressed that such a mixed company could have a successful and constructive conversation about contraceptives over dinner without anyone bowing out from discomfort. *applause* That, and it was refreshing to ask for an honest opinion of whether or not I should stop taking Ortho Cyclen. It's good to be a member of an open generation.

I had to find out if the guitar player new the Pulp Fiction theme song (much to Justin's embarrassment) and one of the waiters brought him over to our table. Unfortunately, he didn't know THAT piece, but he decided to play for us anyway (even though he'd finished for the evening). Rachel insisted that the girls get up and dance, so she and I (and sarah for a bit!) made fools of ourselves in a mexican restaurant. The men all insisted upon staying seated. BUT, during the second song, all the couples managed to do some sort of weak impersonation of Samba. The guitar player was a rather flirtatious Tiajuanan (sp?) guy who decided to teach me a few dance steps and probably thought I was a cute dumb, blonde. Which I was, for the moment being. God, sometimes I am SO ashamed.

I was so impressed by the restaurant staff that I ran out to the car and got more smileys and adorned everyone, including the kitchen staff, bartender and guitarist, with their own stickers. I think the whole restaurant saw us off. I can't believe I gave my phone number to the guitarist. What the hell was I thinking? (well, I couldn't say no...)

After some dallying and a quick stop at a party, we all found our way back to me and Justin's place and Ryan/Tara made FABULOUS margaritas. Justin bought shooter tequila so a few more adventurous (Drunkard) folks did shots the traditional way with limes that were given to us by the mexican bartender. By the time we got around to watching the movie for the evening, Cannibal! The Musical (a Trey Parker/ Matt Stone flick, I highly recommend it), I was comfortably buzzed.

It's a GREAT feeling to be able to sit at home and veg all weekend; to be able to stay up late and get up later... This is the FIRST weekend in a few months where Justin and I have had our own agenda together. It feels wonderful. Today we went to the Saturday market and spent almost an hour perusing the Farmer's market and the gigantic store of fresh fruits and vegetables available this time of year. Nearly every booth had samples. We bought a mouth-wateringly delicious peach and drooled it all over ourselves, our hands, and the ground, moaning orgasmically as we shared it and meandered through the booths. We went home with nine ears of corn for $2 and four more peaches which we just ate over vanilla ice cream.

I grinned the whole time we were there. I'm in love with August and September, enraptured with the harvest and everything that's encompassed by this time of year. I want to hold the fruits of plenty in my arms and bless every one. I want to feast on raw fruits and vegetables, fresh meats and cheeses and make only the best foods with my own hands. Before I napped today, I sleepily told Justin, "I want to be a farmer. I want to wear overalls and bleach my hair in the sun and get my hands all dirty and freckle my brown skin. I want it to be perpetually autumn and everything is always blooming and growing and harvesting." I want that wholesome life. I want to be in touch with the earth in a way that I can't be while I'm sustaining myself like I am. Being at the market today made me Euphoric. I worship the harvest cycle... it speaks to something inside me that comes with being born in mid-october. This is my time.

I wish I had a stomach as big as my eyes. I would have come home with bushels of organic goodies and sat all day on the porch shelling peas and eating canteloupe and getting all sticky with juices and having corn stuck in my teeth. We ate half of the corn for dinner with barbecued chicken and fresh broccoli. I'm drooling now.

These are the days... and soon it will be fall and you will hear me croon in bliss as I do every year before falling into the dark of winter. That's why it's dangerous to love fall, because what comes after it (Especially here) is so devastating. I guess I identify with Demeter... and sunlight is my Persephone. I know I'll enjoy these next few weeks as much as possible, make them as full and fruitful as I can.

The plan for the rest of the weekend is to finish stripping Frederick (my computer) of data and nuke-and-pave him. This will be Frederick the 3rd, upgraded to XP. He's been misbehaving, though. He seems to be having problems posting and I'm guessing they're BIOS related. Granted, he hasn't had an update since early 2000, so it's about time. It just makes me SO NERVOUS to do that to him. Oh well, everything I need to save is burned to CD. And if worst comes to worst.... well, it won't. Anyway, he seems to be working fine now. Enough for me to blog my bliss and away to laziness!

I'm off to a warm couch, a luv and a kitty... WHO IS SO NOT FAT!!!! (I had him weighed today to figure out what flea control I needed to buy, and he's put on about .6 pounds since last year. He used to be 7.5 pounds and now he's 8.1... so he really hasn't grown that much, just gotten fluffy : ) He's a happy kitty, he got to go in the car today and get his nails trimmed and brushed and new flea meds and got some new treats and Toys (which are Duck colored...) So... blar... I'm rambling so off I go to watch movies and enjoy my perfectly pointless but pristine existence. Huzzah!!