Saturday, October 11, 2003
Obligations, good and bad
I haven't been feeling too well the last few days. I think it began last Tuesday when I went to Gaydies Night and stayed out waaay too late for an old fart like myself. (Now is the point where everyone is supposed to laugh uproariously at defining myself as "old".) The days since then I felt sluggish at best, and then really sick on Thursday and Friday. Wouldn't you know it, Thursday was an after-work happy hour with the gang, and then on Friday it was a lunch celebration of KL's birthday. When I showed up, I was the only guy among her "girlfriends", and it was at one of those theme chain restaurants that proliferate around the Dayton mall. Their only purpose, it seems, is to allow everyone to drive their super-sized SUV's from their nearby job to have an overpriced meal. Since I rarely go, I'm usually not so bothered by them -- it's a personal choice to support these. But I was bothered on Friday: Sitting in over-air-conditioned "comfort", looking at carefully-planned and reproduction junk artwork, listening to mexican music in keeping with the theme -- I wanted to be somewhere, anywhere else. I even wanted to be back at work, of all things! But KL is an old friend.
We have different viewpoints in life. She's very much into suburbia, and I'm proud of her because she's been on a diet ("the points") whatever that is -- Weight Watchers? -- since the beginning of the year, and she's stuck with it. I hope she stays with it, because I would say there's a lot of hellishly, morbidly overweight -- and I would also say correspondingly miserable -- women (and men!) at work. (I know because they all like to plant themselves on my committees for the sole purposes of looking grumpy and to complain.) She's been looking foxy great! She's a tough old thing (well, not really "old" -- she's 45!), who wears nail polish and lots of gold jewelry. She wants love, and she's been dating up a storm, but with no luck just yet.
KL loves Dayton. (And she hated Colorado.) She bought a condo fairly near our work. When we talk about Dayton, she helps me out a lot, and I'll be glad that she'll be around when I move back. She also *sometimes* gives me perspective at work. I say *sometimes*, because sometimes she really pisses me off with her office gossip. But on the other hand, the office gossip and her experiences (she's worked in BIPC for about 15 years) also help with the perspective-thang. We have a lot of good laughs.
I slept for about twelve hours to try and break the fever. It mostly worked, and in time to go to my landlord's (and friend's) Open House for his new business. I took C, and we had a good time, even though I was feeling kinda out of it. Like my eyes couldn't focus just right. It's a beautiful fall day, as we drove down into the Kentucky countryside, to this ultra-modern office in the middle of an old tobacco field. The office is also his business partner's home -- and had an incredible shower and bathroom as well as an immense clothing closet, complete with triple mirrors, at least three racks of hanging clothes and a floor-to-ceiling shoe rack. C and I chatted with a few of the folks that hang with my landlord, and whom I like. I had seen a couple of them at Gaydies Night, and had laughed with them there, too.
But here's the thing: There were a few of those slashers there, too! And it was the same ole same ole. The guy who hosted the AIDS Fundraiser was there, as was the Proposition Whatever-it-is guy. They didn't appear to open to chatting with anyone they didn't already know, which at this party, wasn't too many people (it seemed to be, oddly enough, mostly older couples with young kids). As we walked to a decayed tobacco barn and then on to the field that was the parking lot, I complained (again) to C that it seemed like they were all very cute but also high-maintenance and that wasn't something I wanted.
Oh well, I'm glad I went. Tonight, it seems my laptop suddenly works! I don't know why. So, after jotting out this entry, I think I'm going to take a hot bubble-bath and then curl up with a book. I'm trying to finish Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto". D and a couple of people at work really liked it. And while I'm not hating it, I'm having difficulty getting past the middle of it.
Tomorrow I'm going to help B with plastering her stairhall ceilings and walls. Hope it doesn't take all afternoon, because the weather has been incredible, and it seems like the summer went by too fast...
We have different viewpoints in life. She's very much into suburbia, and I'm proud of her because she's been on a diet ("the points") whatever that is -- Weight Watchers? -- since the beginning of the year, and she's stuck with it. I hope she stays with it, because I would say there's a lot of hellishly, morbidly overweight -- and I would also say correspondingly miserable -- women (and men!) at work. (I know because they all like to plant themselves on my committees for the sole purposes of looking grumpy and to complain.) She's been looking foxy great! She's a tough old thing (well, not really "old" -- she's 45!), who wears nail polish and lots of gold jewelry. She wants love, and she's been dating up a storm, but with no luck just yet.
KL loves Dayton. (And she hated Colorado.) She bought a condo fairly near our work. When we talk about Dayton, she helps me out a lot, and I'll be glad that she'll be around when I move back. She also *sometimes* gives me perspective at work. I say *sometimes*, because sometimes she really pisses me off with her office gossip. But on the other hand, the office gossip and her experiences (she's worked in BIPC for about 15 years) also help with the perspective-thang. We have a lot of good laughs.
I slept for about twelve hours to try and break the fever. It mostly worked, and in time to go to my landlord's (and friend's) Open House for his new business. I took C, and we had a good time, even though I was feeling kinda out of it. Like my eyes couldn't focus just right. It's a beautiful fall day, as we drove down into the Kentucky countryside, to this ultra-modern office in the middle of an old tobacco field. The office is also his business partner's home -- and had an incredible shower and bathroom as well as an immense clothing closet, complete with triple mirrors, at least three racks of hanging clothes and a floor-to-ceiling shoe rack. C and I chatted with a few of the folks that hang with my landlord, and whom I like. I had seen a couple of them at Gaydies Night, and had laughed with them there, too.
But here's the thing: There were a few of those slashers there, too! And it was the same ole same ole. The guy who hosted the AIDS Fundraiser was there, as was the Proposition Whatever-it-is guy. They didn't appear to open to chatting with anyone they didn't already know, which at this party, wasn't too many people (it seemed to be, oddly enough, mostly older couples with young kids). As we walked to a decayed tobacco barn and then on to the field that was the parking lot, I complained (again) to C that it seemed like they were all very cute but also high-maintenance and that wasn't something I wanted.
Oh well, I'm glad I went. Tonight, it seems my laptop suddenly works! I don't know why. So, after jotting out this entry, I think I'm going to take a hot bubble-bath and then curl up with a book. I'm trying to finish Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto". D and a couple of people at work really liked it. And while I'm not hating it, I'm having difficulty getting past the middle of it.
Tomorrow I'm going to help B with plastering her stairhall ceilings and walls. Hope it doesn't take all afternoon, because the weather has been incredible, and it seems like the summer went by too fast...