Soul-Mate (My Day Thus Far)

• I'm exhausted. You're asleep.
• I forgot to take my pills last night. You offer me money to buy breakfast so I don't feel sick.
• I'm running late. You make the sandwich for my lunch.
• I'm miraculously on time. You make sure I'm okay before flopping back in bed.
• I'm having a difficult morning. You call just to tell me that the new Harry Potter trailer is out and insist on staying on the phone while I watch it.
• I have to get back to work. You suggest re-watching the fifth movie tonight. I propose marriage.
• I call to ask if you want a chocolate croissant. You agree that the answer to the problem of what to do for dinner is to eat six croissants each.
• You're amazing.
  

[Boss 2] Antics

The fact that she would send me this e-mail just because she knew I'd understand says a lot about how awesome my relationships with my bosses are:

SUBJECT: Workers
TEXT: are listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Want to kill them.
Or myself.
[2]

Context: [Boss 1] and [Boss 2] are having their bathroom remodeled, and therefore have workers in and out of the house all day.

Stolen from Wren

Copy the text below, erase my answers, then use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things... nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial... You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Madeline
4 LETTER WORD: Mars
BOY NAME: Michael
GIRL NAME: Moira
OCCUPATION: Macroeconomist
A COLOUR: Mauve
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Maroon
BEVERAGE: Milk
FOOD: Macaroni
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Medicine
PLACE: Marylebone (London, England, UK)
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Mauled by zombie
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: MORE!

Moving Forward

It's so nice having the dresser set up. All of my clothes are put away. In fact, my unpacking is essentially done apart from putting up a few pieces of art (which are waiting on a hammer). I feel like once we get all of the cleaning done (by tomorrow night), I might really feel at home in the apartment at long last.

I'm a little stressed out at needing to have the apartment clean and needing to be packed up for Kalaloch all by Friday night, and then being busy all day Friday which means that most of the cleaning and packing has to be done by Thursday before bed. But on the other hand, Friday is going to be amazing (tea, Mama Mia!, dinner at Spaghetti Factory, and the Dark Knight all in one day with (and paid for by) family and friends), and if anything this gives us a definite goal by which to get the place looking great, so we get to come home to a clean apartment after vacation.

I'm really looking forward to Kalaloch, so now I just be patient and productive until then. I also need to clear out this inbox at work so I don't come back to a mountain of work!

ZOMG!

The dresser is done!

And it's here and it's beautiful and it's full of clothes! Now all I need are some pretty knobs (must save money first). Pictures are forthcoming once the rest of the room looks respectable. We even bought a pretty tablerunner to protect the top from scratches.

So now we've begun the exhausting process of finishing my unpacking and overhauling (cleaning-wise) the apartment so that it's fit to be seen by any guests that might visit while my family is in town. I guess it'll be worth it when we get to come home from vacation to a clean apartment with a place for everything and everything in its place.

Things Maddo Should Not Do

1) Forget to take medication at bedtime on Saturday
2) Panic Sunday morning and take Saturday's dose immediately
3) Remember that one is only supposed to take full dose if taking at bedtime
4) Spend entire morning trying to turn stomach back into a bodily organ from its newfound state as viscera-eating monster
5) Wonder how the hell you're going to be a functional human being today

Lunch Time Revelations

Today I brought canned soup to eat for lunch. So I went down to the lunch room with my stegosaurus lunch box and began to heat up the soup in the microwave. About a minute into the microwaving, a youngish guy (probably 5-10 years older than me) came in and began to prepare his food.

Guy: "I'm about to do the same thing you're doing.... *pauses and notices lunchbox* stegosaurus."
Me: "Hey, Mr. Stegosaurus is way cooler than a brown paper bag! *looks at Guy's lunch bag disdainfully*"
Guy: "Yeah, but the bag has a certain nostalgic value."
Me: "That's true. I always had the brown bags growing up. I never had a cool lunchbox. *revelation* Maybe that's why I have to have one now!"
Guy: "Yeah, look at you, you finally made it to lunchbox status."
Me: "I'm a cool kid now!"
Guy: "*laughs* Yep."
Me: "... Well, enjoy your lunch! *leaves quickly*"

I Love My Job

The following is an e-mail exchange I had with my boss. I will call him [Boss 1]. The other boss is, of course, [Boss 2].

*****
Hey [Boss 1],

Any chance you have the Aarts file in a super-secret hiding place? [Boss 2] and I have no idea where it is.

Thanks,
Madeline
*****
No. There is no chance whatsoever of that. Or if there is, I shan't tell you. Bwah hah hah! I suspect [Boss 2] has it somewhere in a pile. That's my suspicion.

[Boss 1]
*****
[Boss 2] claims her piles are innocent. Who do I believe?!
*****
No one is innocent.

Vocabulary Story 2

Date due: 07/06/08
Vocabulary: Extreme, Awkward, Bluish, Quitting, Technology
Word count: 500-1000

Twenty Feet Part 2: Peter

Peter was not the kind of person who regularly asked for girls’ phone numbers, much less the kind who asked them back to his place. Having a roommate was risky enough without showing strange girls where he lived. But for Julie, Peter already felt like he would risk quite a lot. He couldn’t ask her to come home with him, though. Even if he had the courage to propose something so extreme, he doubted she would agree to it, and he felt that he might respect her less if she did. Her phone number couldn’t hurt, though. Could it?

He made a point of saving her number directly into his phone. This was a sign of good faith that he hoped would prove his seriousness, and it had the added bonus of allowing him to casually suggest that she take his number as well. It was possible that Peter had never been so happy about the existence of modern technology. He would gladly take back every snide remark he had made about sixth graders with iPhones in exchange for this moment.

“I will call you, you know.”

“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” she teased, before adding sheepishly, “Okay, I actually haven’t heard that one before.”

“And don’t be afraid to call me,” Peter added a little too enthusiastically.

“Am I that obvious?” she smiled shyly.

Julie said goodbye and crossed to the other side of the room where the door was. He willed her to glance back, and she did, but so briefly, before quitting the room. The expanse of twenty feet that lay between them was as unfathomable as the endless possibilities of the days ahead, but Peter would not let them slip by.

***

Peter awoke with a fleeting memory of the bluish-gray shade of Julie’s eyes, which had been barely discernable in the sickly yellow light of the soft glow bulbs in the lamps at the party. The sky above him was a similar shade of gray and he protected his eyes for a moment from the brightness reflected off of them. He felt as though he had slept in the most awkward position a contortionist might dream up. Everything hurt. He was covered in bruises, and he was quite certain of this fact because he was naked. He also had cuts and scratches all over his body and a fair amount of blood on him. His mouth was dry and a foul taste lingered in it.

He groaned and rolled over on the rocky ground he had apparently spent the night on, stood, and tried to orient himself. There had to be a way of dealing with this that wouldn’t lead to him accidentally dying from exposure. At least everything seemed to be all right for now. He was just in the woods behind his house. It was only about half a mile to his front door. Peter was grateful for the unusually warm temperature of this October morning, and prayed that he would meet no one on his way home. He was even more grateful when he found a decently sized stream in his path, and used the water to wash as much blood as he could off his skin.

John answered the door and smirked.

“Good party?”

“A blast,” replied Peter as he ducked inside and wrapped a blanket around himself. John and Ralph were used to him showing up at weird times in worse states, so it was no surprise that John did not pursue the conversation and allowed Peter to climb the stairs up to his room without further comment.

Miraculously, when he had made it safely to his bedroom, he found that his beloved boots were there intact, as were his wallet and cell phone. He must have remembered to get himself at least partially undressed before he left the house. Thank God. Peter winced as he twisted his body around so that the vertebrae in his back popped into alignment audibly.

He looked at his phone. One missed call: Julie. Peter swore. He hadn’t counted on her actually calling him first. He had waited a few days because he had hoped that that would make it seem like he was playing it cool. Now he felt like an idiot for making her wait. He brought up her number and pressed “send,” suppressing a nervous pang in his stomach that did not interact well with the significant nausea he was already feeling.

“Hello?” Her voice was just as he remembered it.

“Hi, Julie? It’s Peter.” Did he sound as nervous as he felt?

“Oh, hi Peter!” Peter prayed she was really as happy as she sounded.

“I’m sorry I missed your call last night. I was studying for this Physics exam and I fell asleep at my desk! But I’ve been meaning to call you and I’m glad you got a hold of me. Listen, there’s this great movie out…”

Coffee Shop Antics Continued

As I left the office yesterday and passed by the coffee shop, the three employees were sitting on stools in a circle. Two were playing acoustic guitar, and one was playing violin. I had heard the violin from upstairs, but would never have guessed it was the crazy coffee trio! The best part was, they aren't bad!

*****

Today (two days later) I came back from lunch to find the three of them sitting at the shop's only table playing "Sorry!" while they waited for customers.