Yesterday I worked twelve hours and sixteen minutes. Got the punch slip to prove it. Couldn't even finish the payroll, which I'd been working on, but Zubair was a champ and finished it for me. I cried again (only second time, working here!), because Gustavo was teasing me that other places he'd worked always got the payroll out on time and when my face started to squinch up he thought I was laughing. I want to apologize today; yesterday I was more concerned with making sure he knew I wasn't mad at him. I missed out on going with Dave to Pete and Cheri's and listening to Fire Sign Theater, which is a bummer. But! I feel very accomplished and righteous about the fact that I did so much work.
Dave got home a few minutes after I did. I had just gotten out of the shower and my phone started ringing. He was like, "where are you?" and I said, "brushing my teeth." "oh, you're home! I got in and didn't see you." *wags* I had been so worried that he would get home before me, y'see, and instead I was home when he got there. We got to hang out and watched the end of the Be-Sharp Simpsons episode, put a few new Magic cards in the deck and played a couple games, listened to music and just hung out and talked for awhile before bedtime. So the day ended on a really good note.
I had this dream. Part I remember is, me and Dave were snuggling and/or asleep in our room. The configuration of furniture was different. Our bed was a bunk bed (like the one I had on Rockwell) with the long side against the west wall instead of a four-poster with the long side against the north wall, and there was a big clothes dresser in the northwest corner where the little plastic drawers thing is now. There was all kinds of clothes and stuff laying around, like our room is now. We were hanging out and either doing something or talking, I'm not sure. Then we fell asleep and then I woke back up, or Dave fell asleep, either one, and I realized I had to go to the bathroom. I got out of bed, opened the bedroom door (I heard and felt it click open and shut! thought I was awake!), went down the hall to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror (still thinking I'm awake, mind). I spread my arms out low and in front of me, as if lifting a large invisible bundle, and stared myself down in the mirror, the way you do to raise power and make the static really heavy between the mirror and you. And the static in my vision did get really bright, sort of a slate yellow with undertones of blue and grey and mild green. I want to pinpoint the color because while it was yellow mixed with grey, it was not that dirty yellow (typo: typed "tellow") people get when they're invading other people's auras. That's like yellow mixed with french fry grease; this was like yellow mixed with muddy snow from a field. A clean dirty yellow, if that makes sense.
And I was up back in bed with Dave. I turned to him and said, Hey baby, I teleported back to you!
And then I woke up.
Xmas marks the spot (out, damn spot!)
Xmas was eXtremely pleasant. Saw Amber on Monday, hung out at Paula's Monday night and Tuesday day, came back to Chicago Tuesday and saw Pearl as well. Who knows, she may still be hanging out when I gets home tonight.
Still can't, or haven't been able to, escape nagging feelings of dread and self-recrimination. My mind seems to light on any flimsiest thing to hang those feelings on as long as it gets to keep them. But in fact things have been very good. At work today, no disasters or even unusually annoying things. I'm hoping it's something seasonal, psychosomatic like, based on previous dire Xmases, and will pass with the turning of the year.
Been dreaming but not wanting to remember enough to write down or, in some cases, even fix in my thinking. Something basic-assumptiony. Something identity-belief-ified. In other words, "The more something was designed never to break, the more difficult it is to get at when you need to repair it." Within the mind this means motivation and inclination dry up too as you reach the location of the damage. Thus leaving only sheer cussedness to get the job done.
I hope I have a very cussed new year.
Still can't, or haven't been able to, escape nagging feelings of dread and self-recrimination. My mind seems to light on any flimsiest thing to hang those feelings on as long as it gets to keep them. But in fact things have been very good. At work today, no disasters or even unusually annoying things. I'm hoping it's something seasonal, psychosomatic like, based on previous dire Xmases, and will pass with the turning of the year.
Been dreaming but not wanting to remember enough to write down or, in some cases, even fix in my thinking. Something basic-assumptiony. Something identity-belief-ified. In other words, "The more something was designed never to break, the more difficult it is to get at when you need to repair it." Within the mind this means motivation and inclination dry up too as you reach the location of the damage. Thus leaving only sheer cussedness to get the job done.
I hope I have a very cussed new year.
the fire and the stupid
Damn I been posting a lot lately.
This morning I feel all freaky twitchy. Maybe it's time for my period soon? That would maybe explain it.
Three times in a row there I tried to type about how I'm feeling lame and down on myself right now and was interrupted by the phone. Four, five. This feeling I have, I feel like it always happens when I've done some good stuff and rectified some wrongs. I get all shameful and sulky and lacking in self-confidence and it makes me want to go start acting less than awesomely again so I can have more things to rectify. Like I'm not okay with the idea of me being a good person. Like having people mad at or frustrated with me is part of my identity and I wouldn't feel right if nobody had any reason to be annoyed when they thought about me.
Retained an image from my dream last night. I was an old woman wearing rags. One of those is-my-self / am-looking-at-me scenes. It was dark and cold and there was a huge monster, one of those size-of-a-hill monsters with a building or something on its back. I ran onto the monster, to like the first landing or hallway or whatever of the building. One wall was open to the air and you could see the hall stretching down to my left (looking; my right, as character sitting). I don't know if I ran to or was like lifted up and set down on this couch thing on the landing. Had the feeling the couch was like a special place that I was supposed to be sitting. In front of it was a fire which I huddled on the couch and stared at, trying to keep warm. But in later shots it wasn't a fire, it was a kiddie pool with water in it (which wasn't frozen for some reason despite the cold). There was another character, male, saw him only in silhouette. I felt he was a friend or ally, someone I trusted, but that he was frantic about something. Looking for fire. Yeah, in this shot the thing in front of the couch was definitely a kiddie pool and not burning. But there was a scrap of cloth that smelled like fire, was smeared with soot, and he either had this or it was dangled in front of him and he went tearing off through the maze after it, looking for the fire. Also the landing where I was sitting seemed like part of an abandoned building, it was dirty and wrecked-looking. I assumed the rest of the maze was too, only darker because not up by the surface. I wasn't worried about the other character, like I didn't think anything bad was going to happen to him, but I felt bad that he was going off on this wild goose chase through the maze in the cold and dark looking for a fire I didn't have anymore and didn't know where it was.
I'm most sure this has something to do with my problems
[Bossman walked in, we did bills (finally!), it's been like an hour or more]
The above seems like an apt image for how my problems with relationships play out so that I treat people less well than they deserve. And look at my careful phrasing and the phrasing of my dream log even! None of the bad things happening were attributed to me, just actions performed by some shadowy force to whose whim I am also subject. This shadowy force which leads my ally-person on a cold and scary wild goose chase and also picks me up and plops me down in my place. Selfquote time! "Know your place, child. Know / into whose hands you will be delivered / when the metal links are severed." From [acorn iron] which was about being a leader on Gaia. Metal among other things refers to the seven levels of trust, all of which are metals except glass, since glass denotes lack of relationship.
The people who are best at things just do them. They don't sit around all day obsessing about how they are done or figuring out why they are done one way instead of another. People who are very good at things sometimes do obsess and figure in such wise--but not those who are best. For them the knowledge and conversation of the thing they can do is enough and explanation, complication, analysis all seem superfluous.
It comes as a surprise to no one, then, that I am not the best relationship-haver around. I am, in fact, not great at it. I've known I have big problems in this area for a long, long time--hence all the studying. I've been able to say, "well, I'm improving" for years now, which makes me feel both proud and ashamed. Proud of how far I've come, ashamed of how much that means I sucked to begin with.
Big maze monster. Reminded me a little of that giant with the penultimate castle on his back in God of War, the one you get into after fighting the medusas in the desert. 'Cept instead of being in the desert it was just somewhere cold and dark at night.
Looking for fire, the phrase came up over and over. Fire I didn't have anymore and didn't know where it was. That came and went from my place by what means I know not. Meaning that, that burning thing important enough that I huddle around it and others run frantically to look for it, is also under the control of the shadowy force. Maze monster, same thing? Well, maybe the fire isn't under the shadow's control--but access to it certainly is. That's the thing, access. (Axes, I almost typed. May I ax you a question?)
A repeating image across many dreams--I've written about this so recently!--is me about to be in a fight, going to a cache of weapons, and finding all my weapons are flimsy pieces of crap that don't do anything useful. Acute conflicts like fighting are all works of fire magic. Access (axes!) to fire in my dream not being controlled by conscious me (or character me) fits well with this. Part of the same situation, issue, thingy. Problem. That in the place of my fire I am an old raggedy woman huddling in a dirty, ill-kept place over something which is sometimes my fire and sometimes a stupid cold little pool. And I don't know which will be which at any moment, and I don't know how to make it better if it's the wrong thing at the wrong moment. Problem.
Meanwhile while I've been writing this post I've been doing various work things and generally being pleasant and helpful as usual. Once more I had a coughing fit while on the phone but I don't think the lady was too offended--I set her down for a minute then we finished filling out her gift certificate form. Dog. I want to dig more with this, I think it's important, but I really ought to get back to work, this is a ton of words and time spent on words instead of working. Yowza!
This morning I feel all freaky twitchy. Maybe it's time for my period soon? That would maybe explain it.
Three times in a row there I tried to type about how I'm feeling lame and down on myself right now and was interrupted by the phone. Four, five. This feeling I have, I feel like it always happens when I've done some good stuff and rectified some wrongs. I get all shameful and sulky and lacking in self-confidence and it makes me want to go start acting less than awesomely again so I can have more things to rectify. Like I'm not okay with the idea of me being a good person. Like having people mad at or frustrated with me is part of my identity and I wouldn't feel right if nobody had any reason to be annoyed when they thought about me.
Retained an image from my dream last night. I was an old woman wearing rags. One of those is-my-self / am-looking-at-me scenes. It was dark and cold and there was a huge monster, one of those size-of-a-hill monsters with a building or something on its back. I ran onto the monster, to like the first landing or hallway or whatever of the building. One wall was open to the air and you could see the hall stretching down to my left (looking; my right, as character sitting). I don't know if I ran to or was like lifted up and set down on this couch thing on the landing. Had the feeling the couch was like a special place that I was supposed to be sitting. In front of it was a fire which I huddled on the couch and stared at, trying to keep warm. But in later shots it wasn't a fire, it was a kiddie pool with water in it (which wasn't frozen for some reason despite the cold). There was another character, male, saw him only in silhouette. I felt he was a friend or ally, someone I trusted, but that he was frantic about something. Looking for fire. Yeah, in this shot the thing in front of the couch was definitely a kiddie pool and not burning. But there was a scrap of cloth that smelled like fire, was smeared with soot, and he either had this or it was dangled in front of him and he went tearing off through the maze after it, looking for the fire. Also the landing where I was sitting seemed like part of an abandoned building, it was dirty and wrecked-looking. I assumed the rest of the maze was too, only darker because not up by the surface. I wasn't worried about the other character, like I didn't think anything bad was going to happen to him, but I felt bad that he was going off on this wild goose chase through the maze in the cold and dark looking for a fire I didn't have anymore and didn't know where it was.
I'm most sure this has something to do with my problems
[Bossman walked in, we did bills (finally!), it's been like an hour or more]
The above seems like an apt image for how my problems with relationships play out so that I treat people less well than they deserve. And look at my careful phrasing and the phrasing of my dream log even! None of the bad things happening were attributed to me, just actions performed by some shadowy force to whose whim I am also subject. This shadowy force which leads my ally-person on a cold and scary wild goose chase and also picks me up and plops me down in my place. Selfquote time! "Know your place, child. Know / into whose hands you will be delivered / when the metal links are severed." From [acorn iron] which was about being a leader on Gaia. Metal among other things refers to the seven levels of trust, all of which are metals except glass, since glass denotes lack of relationship.
The people who are best at things just do them. They don't sit around all day obsessing about how they are done or figuring out why they are done one way instead of another. People who are very good at things sometimes do obsess and figure in such wise--but not those who are best. For them the knowledge and conversation of the thing they can do is enough and explanation, complication, analysis all seem superfluous.
It comes as a surprise to no one, then, that I am not the best relationship-haver around. I am, in fact, not great at it. I've known I have big problems in this area for a long, long time--hence all the studying. I've been able to say, "well, I'm improving" for years now, which makes me feel both proud and ashamed. Proud of how far I've come, ashamed of how much that means I sucked to begin with.
Big maze monster. Reminded me a little of that giant with the penultimate castle on his back in God of War, the one you get into after fighting the medusas in the desert. 'Cept instead of being in the desert it was just somewhere cold and dark at night.
Looking for fire, the phrase came up over and over. Fire I didn't have anymore and didn't know where it was. That came and went from my place by what means I know not. Meaning that, that burning thing important enough that I huddle around it and others run frantically to look for it, is also under the control of the shadowy force. Maze monster, same thing? Well, maybe the fire isn't under the shadow's control--but access to it certainly is. That's the thing, access. (Axes, I almost typed. May I ax you a question?)
A repeating image across many dreams--I've written about this so recently!--is me about to be in a fight, going to a cache of weapons, and finding all my weapons are flimsy pieces of crap that don't do anything useful. Acute conflicts like fighting are all works of fire magic. Access (axes!) to fire in my dream not being controlled by conscious me (or character me) fits well with this. Part of the same situation, issue, thingy. Problem. That in the place of my fire I am an old raggedy woman huddling in a dirty, ill-kept place over something which is sometimes my fire and sometimes a stupid cold little pool. And I don't know which will be which at any moment, and I don't know how to make it better if it's the wrong thing at the wrong moment. Problem.
Meanwhile while I've been writing this post I've been doing various work things and generally being pleasant and helpful as usual. Once more I had a coughing fit while on the phone but I don't think the lady was too offended--I set her down for a minute then we finished filling out her gift certificate form. Dog. I want to dig more with this, I think it's important, but I really ought to get back to work, this is a ton of words and time spent on words instead of working. Yowza!
one lemon
(Far from my best work. I think there may be more of it. Not enough reason for the lemon to be there. I thought the gold tones would turn out to be something completely different. Also I think "aren't" in the third stanza really should be "ain't" [later edit: changed it to "ain't", cause why not?], to go with "mud-in-your-eye". But I don't know how to make more without wearing my end rhyme to death or somehow finding a new end rhyme. And there are too many Buts. Arrgh and so forth. XD )
Gold tones
at a feast of bones
but I’m pining for a good strong
meal.
Some I crack, some I try
but they open up dry.
Scold my belly, but it just won’t
heel.
Slice of wine, glass of pie
case of mud-in-your-eye
ain’t inside me, so they don’t seem
real.
Splintered bones, coffee grounds
wake the sharp yellow sounds
of one lemon that I can’t un-
peel.
Gold tones
at a feast of bones
but I’m pining for a good strong
meal.
Some I crack, some I try
but they open up dry.
Scold my belly, but it just won’t
heel.
Slice of wine, glass of pie
case of mud-in-your-eye
ain’t inside me, so they don’t seem
real.
Splintered bones, coffee grounds
wake the sharp yellow sounds
of one lemon that I can’t un-
peel.
Miércoles con los Amigos Invisibles vol 1.
john the revelator tell me who's that writin'
john the revelator tell me who's that writin'
john the revelator wrote the book on the seven seals
-White Stripes
Talked to Myke yesterday.
All is actually well on that front. Seems I would really rather be friends with him after all than not. I just have to learn to be better at setting boundaries in re: the use of my time. And he's not mad at me or depressed about it or any of that crap. We just talked about sci-fi and TV for like...an hour. Aye. If I can get the kid to do his conversing in half-hour blocks, that'll be something!
I woke up this morning with a clear conscience and I'm not sure what to do with it. Universe gave me a hint. I'd just put my shiny new dayplanner in my bag, figuring now that I've resolved the Myke issue and removed that source of conflict from my mind I want to be ready to do consecratey things whenever the moment is appropriate. And as I stood up my bag tipped over somehow and all the junk in the bottom started to slide out onto the floor. "Noo!" I said and hurried to keep it from falling out.
"You need to get rid of some of that baggage you're carrying around all the time," is what the universe was saying. "Look how much of it is junk you ought to have thrown away long ago!" I ended up pitching some, piling some on the couch-and-a-half to sort through later, and shoving the rest into my bag because it was easier that way. I also noticed a bunch of crap on the bottom of my bag that hadn't even been dislodged when the smaller junk fell out.
Yes, I do and did see symbolism in all that. Dammit.
See, this is the thing about the magical life. Or whatever you want to call it. A philosophy or religion or system that encourages you to look at each incident in your life as pregnant with meaning, an interpretable sign. Tact, good humor and a healthy slice of not taking myself too seriously are how I keep from going nuts with it and losing the ability to live at all because I'm too busy noticing things. Those are qualities I wish I'd had as a kid! I like thinking of it as "magic" rather than "God speaking to me" because that makes me a little smaller. The universe is not a puppet show put on to morally edify me. These things that happen that I interpret, these sorts of things happen to everybody--only everybody doesn't interpret them. That's really the only difference.
Much, much has happened since my last post. Hopefully I'll remember enough of it to post up more later today. I'm meeting (hopefully) Clarissa after work, and me and Dave are (hopefully) going to see Lucky Boy's Confusion with Meg on Saturday. Dave bought the Simpsons movie last night and we watched it. (with hilarious results! wait, the movie was hilarious as always, the results of watching it merely pleasant.) He's half-expecting to get another one from somebody for Xmas, in which case he'll send the one he bought to Big Dave who will likely enjoy it.
Le sigh. There are many cool things about my dad, many cool qualities possessed by no other dad. But I wish he could enjoy the freakin Simpsons! And other things that people like when they are relaxed and not taking things seriously! Someone with his extensive experience of the other side of reality should not be so bound up tight about his material circumstances that he can't have any fun!
Have I mentioned lately that Dave is awesome and makes me happy? We've been talking more lately, not about anything in particular, just like talk is percolating in through the weave of our normal routine. I find it hard to write about which is oddly enough a good sign; there is some magical thing, some perspective on reality and how we relate to it, that we are sharing in a new way than before.
[interlude; Bossman shows up, we don't do bills, he has to leave again. denied for now!]
I realized when I came back to edit and update that today is Wednesday and hence this can't be Tuesdays With Abhorrent Fiends. So I decided to call it Wednesdays with Invisible Friends, only in Spanish because it sounds cooler. Isn't Miércoles cooler-sounding than Wednesday? I wonder where it comes from. I know Wednesday is named for Odin aka Wodin aka the Norse Zeus: Wodin's Day. Like Friday is Freya's Day. I'm not actually sure about Tuesday.
I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog, and liked it so much that I got it for Myke as an Xmas present. (Shh! Don't tell him!) He's been reading more Gibson. And recently wrote an awesome horror story called Daisychains which he ended up telling me the entire plot, scene by scene, on the phone yesterday. And then apologized all over himself for blathering. And I thought to myself, This, this is why I didn't think I had room in my life for this friend. Because if I work eight and a half hours a day, more or less, take buses another hour, sleep six and a half hours, that leaves only eight hours to do other stuff. I know, I know, my schedule is a lot less hectic than some (Pearl, for example!) but I still have to be watchful.
Here I am procrastinating by blogging. Grr. Back to work, you!
john the revelator tell me who's that writin'
john the revelator wrote the book on the seven seals
-White Stripes
Talked to Myke yesterday.
All is actually well on that front. Seems I would really rather be friends with him after all than not. I just have to learn to be better at setting boundaries in re: the use of my time. And he's not mad at me or depressed about it or any of that crap. We just talked about sci-fi and TV for like...an hour. Aye. If I can get the kid to do his conversing in half-hour blocks, that'll be something!
I woke up this morning with a clear conscience and I'm not sure what to do with it. Universe gave me a hint. I'd just put my shiny new dayplanner in my bag, figuring now that I've resolved the Myke issue and removed that source of conflict from my mind I want to be ready to do consecratey things whenever the moment is appropriate. And as I stood up my bag tipped over somehow and all the junk in the bottom started to slide out onto the floor. "Noo!" I said and hurried to keep it from falling out.
"You need to get rid of some of that baggage you're carrying around all the time," is what the universe was saying. "Look how much of it is junk you ought to have thrown away long ago!" I ended up pitching some, piling some on the couch-and-a-half to sort through later, and shoving the rest into my bag because it was easier that way. I also noticed a bunch of crap on the bottom of my bag that hadn't even been dislodged when the smaller junk fell out.
Yes, I do and did see symbolism in all that. Dammit.
See, this is the thing about the magical life. Or whatever you want to call it. A philosophy or religion or system that encourages you to look at each incident in your life as pregnant with meaning, an interpretable sign. Tact, good humor and a healthy slice of not taking myself too seriously are how I keep from going nuts with it and losing the ability to live at all because I'm too busy noticing things. Those are qualities I wish I'd had as a kid! I like thinking of it as "magic" rather than "God speaking to me" because that makes me a little smaller. The universe is not a puppet show put on to morally edify me. These things that happen that I interpret, these sorts of things happen to everybody--only everybody doesn't interpret them. That's really the only difference.
Much, much has happened since my last post. Hopefully I'll remember enough of it to post up more later today. I'm meeting (hopefully) Clarissa after work, and me and Dave are (hopefully) going to see Lucky Boy's Confusion with Meg on Saturday. Dave bought the Simpsons movie last night and we watched it. (with hilarious results! wait, the movie was hilarious as always, the results of watching it merely pleasant.) He's half-expecting to get another one from somebody for Xmas, in which case he'll send the one he bought to Big Dave who will likely enjoy it.
Le sigh. There are many cool things about my dad, many cool qualities possessed by no other dad. But I wish he could enjoy the freakin Simpsons! And other things that people like when they are relaxed and not taking things seriously! Someone with his extensive experience of the other side of reality should not be so bound up tight about his material circumstances that he can't have any fun!
Have I mentioned lately that Dave is awesome and makes me happy? We've been talking more lately, not about anything in particular, just like talk is percolating in through the weave of our normal routine. I find it hard to write about which is oddly enough a good sign; there is some magical thing, some perspective on reality and how we relate to it, that we are sharing in a new way than before.
[interlude; Bossman shows up, we don't do bills, he has to leave again. denied for now!]
I realized when I came back to edit and update that today is Wednesday and hence this can't be Tuesdays With Abhorrent Fiends. So I decided to call it Wednesdays with Invisible Friends, only in Spanish because it sounds cooler. Isn't Miércoles cooler-sounding than Wednesday? I wonder where it comes from. I know Wednesday is named for Odin aka Wodin aka the Norse Zeus: Wodin's Day. Like Friday is Freya's Day. I'm not actually sure about Tuesday.
I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog, and liked it so much that I got it for Myke as an Xmas present. (Shh! Don't tell him!) He's been reading more Gibson. And recently wrote an awesome horror story called Daisychains which he ended up telling me the entire plot, scene by scene, on the phone yesterday. And then apologized all over himself for blathering. And I thought to myself, This, this is why I didn't think I had room in my life for this friend. Because if I work eight and a half hours a day, more or less, take buses another hour, sleep six and a half hours, that leaves only eight hours to do other stuff. I know, I know, my schedule is a lot less hectic than some (Pearl, for example!) but I still have to be watchful.
Here I am procrastinating by blogging. Grr. Back to work, you!
winter has dog days too
Sick as a dog. Sick as two dogs. To say nothing of the dog! (Which is a fun book so far, by the way.)
Let it never be said that I don't know what it feels like to have a coughing fit so violent I threw up. At least the person I was on the phone with was advertising something and not someone making a reso! It'd be bad for business to have people hear our employees hacking sickly and making barf noises while they're thinking about the gourmet dinner they're going to eat.
Having dinner with Mom after work. Should stop by Walgreens and get her a belated birthday card, just to have something to show I didn't completely forget.
I dunno what it is, but I'm looking forward to talking with Mom. Like I was telling Dave, yesterday or the day before, there's a perspective on things that she has that nobody else has. And in spite of her illness I value some of that insight. If I can just avoid having to see her so often that she becomes toxic, I can actually stay fond of her. I imagine Amber and Pearl feel similarly about Dad.
Pearl wants to come visit on Saturday; I dunno what time. Dave's going to actually work on Saturday during the day, but go to Elmer's house instead of the office. I'm going with Paula and Dave's cousin Mercita to see that cool psychic, Mina. Maybe I should see if Pearl wants to tag along if she'll be there in time to train it out to Wheaton with me. That would be stellar.
Back to macking the payroll data for me. Let's see if I can get this puppy submitted and not screw the direct deposit people over too badly. See, the physical checks all arrive next-day delivery. But direct deposit funds take three biz days to clear. Meaning if I submit the payroll file at 7:30pm on Thursday, the hardcopy checks get in on Friday, but the direct deposit people don't get their money till Tuesday. Which is what happened last pay period. Which if it happens this pay period will make many people very sad. Which is why I should stop typing and mush. Mush I say!
Let it never be said that I don't know what it feels like to have a coughing fit so violent I threw up. At least the person I was on the phone with was advertising something and not someone making a reso! It'd be bad for business to have people hear our employees hacking sickly and making barf noises while they're thinking about the gourmet dinner they're going to eat.
Having dinner with Mom after work. Should stop by Walgreens and get her a belated birthday card, just to have something to show I didn't completely forget.
I dunno what it is, but I'm looking forward to talking with Mom. Like I was telling Dave, yesterday or the day before, there's a perspective on things that she has that nobody else has. And in spite of her illness I value some of that insight. If I can just avoid having to see her so often that she becomes toxic, I can actually stay fond of her. I imagine Amber and Pearl feel similarly about Dad.
Pearl wants to come visit on Saturday; I dunno what time. Dave's going to actually work on Saturday during the day, but go to Elmer's house instead of the office. I'm going with Paula and Dave's cousin Mercita to see that cool psychic, Mina. Maybe I should see if Pearl wants to tag along if she'll be there in time to train it out to Wheaton with me. That would be stellar.
Back to macking the payroll data for me. Let's see if I can get this puppy submitted and not screw the direct deposit people over too badly. See, the physical checks all arrive next-day delivery. But direct deposit funds take three biz days to clear. Meaning if I submit the payroll file at 7:30pm on Thursday, the hardcopy checks get in on Friday, but the direct deposit people don't get their money till Tuesday. Which is what happened last pay period. Which if it happens this pay period will make many people very sad. Which is why I should stop typing and mush. Mush I say!
I shouldn't be on here now, for oh, variety of reasons. Already posted up. Work to do. Would be more beneficial to my health if I just sat very still and cradled my warm cup of tea in my cold, clawlike fingers. Okay maybe they're not clawlike. Big Z just got in.
So did Bossman.
Ye gods it's amazing how little work we all manage to get done despite being in the office together. Boss and I went over bills, paid enough that it makes me less nailbitey. He seems to have a better handle of where we stand with all these people than I do--except every now and then something happens that makes him seem completely naive and out of the loop. I suppose I must look the same way from other peoples' perspective. Both just spent almost our entire office time on the phone, either with their wives (on both business and family care issues) or with various customers or vendors they insisted on dealing with themselves. Not that I put up much of a fight. The only time I put up a fight on that stuff is when one of them is all "Oh I'll handle it" and then they forget and the customer comes and yells at me because I'm the last one they talked to.
My cup of tea is no longer warm. I grabbed a crust of lunch bread (not the good dinner bread our pastry kitchen makes, the just-alright lunch stuff we buy from Red Hen) and it quieted down my hunger.
My cough is raspy down in my chest and I feel cold all over and I wanna go home. Waaah I wanna go home. Dave reminded me (we met outside for a smoke a few minutes ago) that I am awesome and I should stay positive because I'm gonna come home from work and he'll already be in bed and I can crawl into bed and have a nap before we leave for Lemonheads Night 2. I almost don't want to go, I want to stay home and rest instead. But last night was so much fun and I really was excited about the idea of coming back today. Am to some extent--the extent to which I'm not feeling cold and tired and sick and sleepy.
So did Bossman.
Ye gods it's amazing how little work we all manage to get done despite being in the office together. Boss and I went over bills, paid enough that it makes me less nailbitey. He seems to have a better handle of where we stand with all these people than I do--except every now and then something happens that makes him seem completely naive and out of the loop. I suppose I must look the same way from other peoples' perspective. Both just spent almost our entire office time on the phone, either with their wives (on both business and family care issues) or with various customers or vendors they insisted on dealing with themselves. Not that I put up much of a fight. The only time I put up a fight on that stuff is when one of them is all "Oh I'll handle it" and then they forget and the customer comes and yells at me because I'm the last one they talked to.
My cup of tea is no longer warm. I grabbed a crust of lunch bread (not the good dinner bread our pastry kitchen makes, the just-alright lunch stuff we buy from Red Hen) and it quieted down my hunger.
My cough is raspy down in my chest and I feel cold all over and I wanna go home. Waaah I wanna go home. Dave reminded me (we met outside for a smoke a few minutes ago) that I am awesome and I should stay positive because I'm gonna come home from work and he'll already be in bed and I can crawl into bed and have a nap before we leave for Lemonheads Night 2. I almost don't want to go, I want to stay home and rest instead. But last night was so much fun and I really was excited about the idea of coming back today. Am to some extent--the extent to which I'm not feeling cold and tired and sick and sleepy.
you gotta stay up late, you gotta stay in bed
Nother dream. Bad ending, interesting middle. Remember enough to call it three acts but I don't wanna write it down. Woke up around 5am looking into the mental faces (that visual imagination is working better even just from the intent!) put forth by a couple invisibles I felt acquainted with. Ordinary-looking human faces, nothing startling, like very well-done pencil drawings on a back-of-eyelid-colored background, is how my imagination put them. One more than the other. They were like, We get something like this, we call mama let her know. I was like, Don't, don't call her, I'll do it myself if she's gotta be informed. I think I composed a hasty short speech and did in fact think it in her direction. She ain't all ears--she's all mouths--but some of her mouths are ears. And I guess it worked because I fell right back asleep no prob and wasn't weirded out any further then or after I woke up.
That kind of ending to the dream. Grr. Just so I remember: Stan from American Dad. Cockpit of a plane. Me talking lies to the blackbox.
Dunno why it creeped me out so. I've dreamed scarier, more explicit things. I was less culpable in those other dreams though. Probably why it came out in cartoon. That goddamn drill out in the hallway those construction guys are using to slice tile. It showed up in that poem I wrote last week and I'm even dreaming the sound now. I think I feel guilty about Myke. I think I feel guilty about a lot of things.
I'm tired and sick and I had a hell of a great time last night. The Lemonheads kicked all kinds of ass, and both of their opening bands also proved themselves capable kickers of ass. Dave bought the CD of the first one, I bought the CD of the second. Brought it to work with the intent of putting it in my compy and listening to it, but I don't feel like it right now.
Quiet, want quiet so my ears can come back from their ringyness. Something that one of the characters in Children of Men says, sticks with me and bothers me much now: That ringing in your ears? That's the sound of your nerve cells dying. When the ringing stops, you'll never hear that tone again.
I was sitting on the train coming back home last night, thinking of that. I had somehow the notion in my mind that if my ears hurt instead of ringing, if the ringing faded out with pain instead of comfort, that maybe the nerves weren't dead after all, just stunned. Pain is one of the things a nerve transmits, right? Maybe the ones that bring pain are different from the ones that bring sound. I wish I knew more [interrupted by phone] .
Yeah, I wish I knew more. "Always, she asks for knowledge." (said with rolled eyes and a deep, if fond, exasperation.) I wrote about that statement before, I think.
Truly, if it weren't that I'm sick and cold and grouchy for various reasons, I would think I had started to well and truly craze a little. (Remember, craze is a verb also. It's what happens to glass when it's pushed outward by, say, an explosion, enough to develop those spiderweb cracks all over but not enough to shatter.)
(Oh thank dog the hostess is here and backing me up on the phone.)
Boss and big Z didn't do punches last night as they both promised me they would, so I can't do jack about payroll which everyone's been bugging me about for a week. We barely paid any bills at all last week and yesterday was meant to be bill-paying day for this week AND last week. We didn't do any of that, so my report on Bills We Ought To Pay is friggin huge and Boss was supposed to come in at nine thirty to go over it with me and vendors have been calling and asking what's happening with their payment.
And now the hostess (Angel today. Jaye was bomb yesterday! She's actually doing private party stuff and I am exceedingly relieved!) is down here. Because of all the construction she can't hear to talk on the phone anywhere else. Which means I should probably start doing work soon and stop posting on my blog.
But but but. I was so happy at the show. So happy the whole time. The first song they played was Hospital, which I never never expected to hear, and I got this big happy grin on my face that lasted all through the set. Even during the jumping up and down and beer-drinking parts.
There's a disease
going 'round the hospital
green green leaves
falling from the trees
you gotta run away
you gotta spin a web
you gotta stay up late
you gotta stay in bed
Even Dave said it was like a perfect setlist. He normally has the connoisseur's woe, that his tastes in concerts are so refined that he's almost never completely happy. But this time he was completely happy with it. The opening bands are both good, and the Lemonheads' set contained, as Dave put it, ten of the eleven songs he had been scrupulously avoiding thinking about with his conscious mind. Thereby freeing, by my view, the resources of the rest of his mind to nudge the Lemonheads towards wanting to play the songs that he, Dave, was not-thinking about with such intensity and passion.
And then to have this dream, which contained many elements I don't feel like writing down, wake me up at five after I'd just gotten to sleep at one-thirty, bone tired and still a little tipsy. May not even have been the dream. May have been just the dryness in my throat. When I woke up I was laying on my back, my mouth was open, and the air in the room was very warm and dry because Dave had turned the space heater on before he came to bed. First thing I did (after the brief mental conversation I mentioned above) was get the water bottle and drink some, then give Dave some to drink as well. (He was barely awake enough to do this.) Drink of water actually helped me remember further facts about the dream.
How do I end up sleeping on my back with my mouth open? Does it mean anything? Am I just clinging to this because it's me, it's within the ambit of things belonging to my identity, and I want to stay as long as possible in it before I go back to work?
Yes. I'm going to go read book and smoke, despite how cold I am, because I think I need to.
That kind of ending to the dream. Grr. Just so I remember: Stan from American Dad. Cockpit of a plane. Me talking lies to the blackbox.
Dunno why it creeped me out so. I've dreamed scarier, more explicit things. I was less culpable in those other dreams though. Probably why it came out in cartoon. That goddamn drill out in the hallway those construction guys are using to slice tile. It showed up in that poem I wrote last week and I'm even dreaming the sound now. I think I feel guilty about Myke. I think I feel guilty about a lot of things.
I'm tired and sick and I had a hell of a great time last night. The Lemonheads kicked all kinds of ass, and both of their opening bands also proved themselves capable kickers of ass. Dave bought the CD of the first one, I bought the CD of the second. Brought it to work with the intent of putting it in my compy and listening to it, but I don't feel like it right now.
Quiet, want quiet so my ears can come back from their ringyness. Something that one of the characters in Children of Men says, sticks with me and bothers me much now: That ringing in your ears? That's the sound of your nerve cells dying. When the ringing stops, you'll never hear that tone again.
I was sitting on the train coming back home last night, thinking of that. I had somehow the notion in my mind that if my ears hurt instead of ringing, if the ringing faded out with pain instead of comfort, that maybe the nerves weren't dead after all, just stunned. Pain is one of the things a nerve transmits, right? Maybe the ones that bring pain are different from the ones that bring sound. I wish I knew more [interrupted by phone] .
Yeah, I wish I knew more. "Always, she asks for knowledge." (said with rolled eyes and a deep, if fond, exasperation.) I wrote about that statement before, I think.
Truly, if it weren't that I'm sick and cold and grouchy for various reasons, I would think I had started to well and truly craze a little. (Remember, craze is a verb also. It's what happens to glass when it's pushed outward by, say, an explosion, enough to develop those spiderweb cracks all over but not enough to shatter.)
(Oh thank dog the hostess is here and backing me up on the phone.)
Boss and big Z didn't do punches last night as they both promised me they would, so I can't do jack about payroll which everyone's been bugging me about for a week. We barely paid any bills at all last week and yesterday was meant to be bill-paying day for this week AND last week. We didn't do any of that, so my report on Bills We Ought To Pay is friggin huge and Boss was supposed to come in at nine thirty to go over it with me and vendors have been calling and asking what's happening with their payment.
And now the hostess (Angel today. Jaye was bomb yesterday! She's actually doing private party stuff and I am exceedingly relieved!) is down here. Because of all the construction she can't hear to talk on the phone anywhere else. Which means I should probably start doing work soon and stop posting on my blog.
But but but. I was so happy at the show. So happy the whole time. The first song they played was Hospital, which I never never expected to hear, and I got this big happy grin on my face that lasted all through the set. Even during the jumping up and down and beer-drinking parts.
There's a disease
going 'round the hospital
green green leaves
falling from the trees
you gotta run away
you gotta spin a web
you gotta stay up late
you gotta stay in bed
Even Dave said it was like a perfect setlist. He normally has the connoisseur's woe, that his tastes in concerts are so refined that he's almost never completely happy. But this time he was completely happy with it. The opening bands are both good, and the Lemonheads' set contained, as Dave put it, ten of the eleven songs he had been scrupulously avoiding thinking about with his conscious mind. Thereby freeing, by my view, the resources of the rest of his mind to nudge the Lemonheads towards wanting to play the songs that he, Dave, was not-thinking about with such intensity and passion.
And then to have this dream, which contained many elements I don't feel like writing down, wake me up at five after I'd just gotten to sleep at one-thirty, bone tired and still a little tipsy. May not even have been the dream. May have been just the dryness in my throat. When I woke up I was laying on my back, my mouth was open, and the air in the room was very warm and dry because Dave had turned the space heater on before he came to bed. First thing I did (after the brief mental conversation I mentioned above) was get the water bottle and drink some, then give Dave some to drink as well. (He was barely awake enough to do this.) Drink of water actually helped me remember further facts about the dream.
How do I end up sleeping on my back with my mouth open? Does it mean anything? Am I just clinging to this because it's me, it's within the ambit of things belonging to my identity, and I want to stay as long as possible in it before I go back to work?
Yes. I'm going to go read book and smoke, despite how cold I am, because I think I need to.
Tuesdays With Abhorrent Fiends vol. 23
Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise crazy
Just be glad it's him not you
If you had Tom Cruise's troubles
You might be Tom Cruise crazy too
You'd flash your big, white, shiny smile
And wear expensive shoes
But you'd be the only man on earth
Who couldn't enjoy Tom Cruise
- Jonathan Coulton
Tonight, we go to see the Lemonheads! Possibly tomorrow as well, if Dave can locate tickets.
Afterflux has come and gone, like Bureauflux before it. Not having a calendar is killer, but having one is part of my evil plan to make myself more good. Let me esplain zis plan.
Step one: take leave of Myke. This is a move I talked about with Dave yesterday, and Dave actually talked some sense into me on the subject. I am bad at leaving people, especially people who haven't given me a reason why they specifically deserve to be left, and such is my brother Myke. Until I do something, like in this case sending him back all the stuff I have borrowed from him with a note of apology, my guilt and repressed annoyance / aggression will stand in the way of me making big changes in my psyche.
Step two: press the reset button in my visual imagination station. I dunno if the thing I have in mind will work--with this sort of thing, you never know what the correct action is until you're about to do it. It's a move I contemplate with great loathing and longing and trepidation.
Step three: consecrate and mentalize my dayplanner. Step two has to be done before this one, because you can't mentalize a physical object until your visual imagination is well-disciplined.
Yes, yes, I should do the hammer exercise before I try it with something complicated and editable like a dayplanner. Maybe instead of a hammer I should try the first experiment with a pen or some other object I like lots and use lots. Whole point of doing visualization practice with a hammer is that it's a tool which is familiar and used for many things. Then again, the exercise was almost certainly developed back in the day when most young men who would aspire to magical dealings had spent time in their lives building things. The ruler I carried into the dream with me that time is a good example of object mentalizing. A tool I am familiar with, have used many times, and which has many uses. Course I didn't do the visual part first--which is probably why I can't call it up in dreams anymore. Not a solid enough mind-bond to hold it in inventory. I have repeatedly dreamed (retained fragments more often than not, though on some of the older ones I got the whole thing) of being about to go into combat, turning to my hoard of weapons, and finding them all flimsy and rusty and poorly-made or poorly-suited to the job. In a recent dream where this happened, I recall getting a crappy implement out of the box/pile/shelf, starting to fight and having it bend in half the first time I struck my foe with it. So I tossed the "weapon" away, felt myself recede out to the third-person perspective and watch my dream-self dispatch the opponent with my/her bare hands.
Anyway, I've clearly gone fullspeed into a ramble, a good indication that I have no plans beyond Step Three, not even vague mental ones.
I am a sneaky, pouting doormat in some aspects. This is what this next group of transformations is meant to correct. My large deficiency in earth magic having been sorely dented, I now must resolve my problems with water in order to advance.
[time passes]
As good old Gareth Knight has written, the initiate knows how to do magic; the adept is magic.
Just be glad it's him not you
If you had Tom Cruise's troubles
You might be Tom Cruise crazy too
You'd flash your big, white, shiny smile
And wear expensive shoes
But you'd be the only man on earth
Who couldn't enjoy Tom Cruise
- Jonathan Coulton
Tonight, we go to see the Lemonheads! Possibly tomorrow as well, if Dave can locate tickets.
Afterflux has come and gone, like Bureauflux before it. Not having a calendar is killer, but having one is part of my evil plan to make myself more good. Let me esplain zis plan.
Step one: take leave of Myke. This is a move I talked about with Dave yesterday, and Dave actually talked some sense into me on the subject. I am bad at leaving people, especially people who haven't given me a reason why they specifically deserve to be left, and such is my brother Myke. Until I do something, like in this case sending him back all the stuff I have borrowed from him with a note of apology, my guilt and repressed annoyance / aggression will stand in the way of me making big changes in my psyche.
Step two: press the reset button in my visual imagination station. I dunno if the thing I have in mind will work--with this sort of thing, you never know what the correct action is until you're about to do it. It's a move I contemplate with great loathing and longing and trepidation.
Step three: consecrate and mentalize my dayplanner. Step two has to be done before this one, because you can't mentalize a physical object until your visual imagination is well-disciplined.
Yes, yes, I should do the hammer exercise before I try it with something complicated and editable like a dayplanner. Maybe instead of a hammer I should try the first experiment with a pen or some other object I like lots and use lots. Whole point of doing visualization practice with a hammer is that it's a tool which is familiar and used for many things. Then again, the exercise was almost certainly developed back in the day when most young men who would aspire to magical dealings had spent time in their lives building things. The ruler I carried into the dream with me that time is a good example of object mentalizing. A tool I am familiar with, have used many times, and which has many uses. Course I didn't do the visual part first--which is probably why I can't call it up in dreams anymore. Not a solid enough mind-bond to hold it in inventory. I have repeatedly dreamed (retained fragments more often than not, though on some of the older ones I got the whole thing) of being about to go into combat, turning to my hoard of weapons, and finding them all flimsy and rusty and poorly-made or poorly-suited to the job. In a recent dream where this happened, I recall getting a crappy implement out of the box/pile/shelf, starting to fight and having it bend in half the first time I struck my foe with it. So I tossed the "weapon" away, felt myself recede out to the third-person perspective and watch my dream-self dispatch the opponent with my/her bare hands.
Anyway, I've clearly gone fullspeed into a ramble, a good indication that I have no plans beyond Step Three, not even vague mental ones.
I am a sneaky, pouting doormat in some aspects. This is what this next group of transformations is meant to correct. My large deficiency in earth magic having been sorely dented, I now must resolve my problems with water in order to advance.
[time passes]
As good old Gareth Knight has written, the initiate knows how to do magic; the adept is magic.
please don't trample the water lilies
Good weekend, feeling pretty good. Don't at all feel like writing or posting up which is why I think I should. Didn't answer calls from Amber and Pearl this weekend, didn't get the feeling they were uber urgent, I'll call back eventually. Missed Mom's b-day, no call no show no card. Meg and Fey had both called me the previous evening, which I also missed, most likely among other things to remind me not to forget Mom's b-day. I hope she didn't give them grief for me forgetting.
Anyway the thing I wanted to not write about (which is why I think I ought to write about it) is about my visual imagination and fear of mirrors. Talked with Clarissa this morning and told her about shutting my visual imagination off and how I did it, and she very sensibly said that whatever needs to come back in should return by the same door it went out. Or something like that. Which makes me feel as pouty and recalcitrant as thinking about taking better care of myself so as to look nice and be treated in accordance with my hotness and professionalism. All of these things are water magic. The visual imagination, the use of mirrors, the perceptions of others based on your appearance and demeanor and the different interaction styles this makes default or easily available for you, and of course the process of cathection itself. By which is meant, the binding together of emotion and memory so that both memory of event and the internal clock of the evolution of the personality are contiguous through time. The evolution clock can't (as far as I know!) be tampered with, although it takes practice to access it and really the only info it contains is what it's made of--like psychic DNA, you have to turn it into something else before you have any idea what it's going to turn into. But the memory-of-event time track itself, as everyone from Freud to Foul Ole Ron will tell you, is as easy to fuck with a thing as you could ask for.
So yes. I have lots of fun issues with water magic to work on. And the fact that I'm writing them down, growly about it or no, indicates I'm about do be able to / find it necessary to do something about at least some of them.
Anyway the thing I wanted to not write about (which is why I think I ought to write about it) is about my visual imagination and fear of mirrors. Talked with Clarissa this morning and told her about shutting my visual imagination off and how I did it, and she very sensibly said that whatever needs to come back in should return by the same door it went out. Or something like that. Which makes me feel as pouty and recalcitrant as thinking about taking better care of myself so as to look nice and be treated in accordance with my hotness and professionalism. All of these things are water magic. The visual imagination, the use of mirrors, the perceptions of others based on your appearance and demeanor and the different interaction styles this makes default or easily available for you, and of course the process of cathection itself. By which is meant, the binding together of emotion and memory so that both memory of event and the internal clock of the evolution of the personality are contiguous through time. The evolution clock can't (as far as I know!) be tampered with, although it takes practice to access it and really the only info it contains is what it's made of--like psychic DNA, you have to turn it into something else before you have any idea what it's going to turn into. But the memory-of-event time track itself, as everyone from Freud to Foul Ole Ron will tell you, is as easy to fuck with a thing as you could ask for.
So yes. I have lots of fun issues with water magic to work on. And the fact that I'm writing them down, growly about it or no, indicates I'm about do be able to / find it necessary to do something about at least some of them.
in other news
Well now.
I wrote that yesterday poem at work. Which means something.
Those months ago I got that thing that went "poetry won't come back to me till I'm done with this, whatever the hell this is." In part because of the situations and moods in which I unexpectedly remember bits of it with great feeling, I've become increasingly convinced that it was one of those prophecy dealies.
Poetry has come back to me; therefore I am done with "this". The this in question was almost certainly one of those initiation-via-sneakiness-of-universe deals. You know, personality changes that you can't know you're working on or else it wouldn't gel properly. Or something. In my made-up space language the way of describing it is to say I'm an air mage who completed her journeyman's work in earth magic. And since everything that passes through the manifest universe partakes of all elements, in order to do this I had to get above my remedial level in fire magic and resolve some of the problems I'd been having with water magic.
As to how it can be told in something other than my made-up space language, well, that might take some time. You know how the symbol set you're using in large part determines which aspects of reality you have the power to describe? That's the whole reason for making up crazy terminologies in the first place. To enable the terminology-user to pay attention.
[intermission]
Taking care of yourself, changing your outward demeanor and the way people treat you, being a leader, displaying confidence. Every now and then Bossman will have a little pep talk with me about this--more like a pep talk than traditional advice-giving, anyway. He's certainly more encouraging than Dad! Just like we did just now. I even said to him, look, the actual practice of being a leader, of doing the things, I have no problem with. It's being seen to be a leader, to have confidence and things like that, even when I just think about it I get all locked up. Some people are afraid of heights or small spaces, I'm afraid of that. And he said something like, But this is good, this gives me great confidence in you. This fear you are feeling comes from some insecurity, which means you have really considered the subject and aren't just being cocksure. If you didn't have that fear I would be worried.
And he said I should watch Devil Wears Prada; he knows the lady whose life it's based on. She is, he said, an extreme example of the kind of thing he's talking about, but she is extremely successful because of her mastery of that world and the way of presenting oneself that is necessary to succeed in that world.
Grr. So helpful to be interrupted. Now I know exactly what my next thing on my to-do list is, and as always, it makes me angry. The grumpy pouty kind of angry, not anything more sinister. Hell, Dave's been preaching this line to me for months--years!. And I've still got that irrational fear.
You hide something your entire life, you build whole areas of your identity around the assumptions necessary for keeping it hidden, keeping hidden even the processes by which you went about hiding it. However you get from burying it in a steel bunker guarded by shark ninjas in a cave under a mountain at the bottom of the sea, to nailing it up over your front door, it is bound to be long, painful and exceedingly embarassing.
I wrote that yesterday poem at work. Which means something.
Those months ago I got that thing that went "poetry won't come back to me till I'm done with this, whatever the hell this is." In part because of the situations and moods in which I unexpectedly remember bits of it with great feeling, I've become increasingly convinced that it was one of those prophecy dealies.
Poetry has come back to me; therefore I am done with "this". The this in question was almost certainly one of those initiation-via-sneakiness-of-universe deals. You know, personality changes that you can't know you're working on or else it wouldn't gel properly. Or something. In my made-up space language the way of describing it is to say I'm an air mage who completed her journeyman's work in earth magic. And since everything that passes through the manifest universe partakes of all elements, in order to do this I had to get above my remedial level in fire magic and resolve some of the problems I'd been having with water magic.
As to how it can be told in something other than my made-up space language, well, that might take some time. You know how the symbol set you're using in large part determines which aspects of reality you have the power to describe? That's the whole reason for making up crazy terminologies in the first place. To enable the terminology-user to pay attention.
[intermission]
Taking care of yourself, changing your outward demeanor and the way people treat you, being a leader, displaying confidence. Every now and then Bossman will have a little pep talk with me about this--more like a pep talk than traditional advice-giving, anyway. He's certainly more encouraging than Dad! Just like we did just now. I even said to him, look, the actual practice of being a leader, of doing the things, I have no problem with. It's being seen to be a leader, to have confidence and things like that, even when I just think about it I get all locked up. Some people are afraid of heights or small spaces, I'm afraid of that. And he said something like, But this is good, this gives me great confidence in you. This fear you are feeling comes from some insecurity, which means you have really considered the subject and aren't just being cocksure. If you didn't have that fear I would be worried.
And he said I should watch Devil Wears Prada; he knows the lady whose life it's based on. She is, he said, an extreme example of the kind of thing he's talking about, but she is extremely successful because of her mastery of that world and the way of presenting oneself that is necessary to succeed in that world.
Grr. So helpful to be interrupted. Now I know exactly what my next thing on my to-do list is, and as always, it makes me angry. The grumpy pouty kind of angry, not anything more sinister. Hell, Dave's been preaching this line to me for months--years!. And I've still got that irrational fear.
You hide something your entire life, you build whole areas of your identity around the assumptions necessary for keeping it hidden, keeping hidden even the processes by which you went about hiding it. However you get from burying it in a steel bunker guarded by shark ninjas in a cave under a mountain at the bottom of the sea, to nailing it up over your front door, it is bound to be long, painful and exceedingly embarassing.
block
isn't a round edge in town
leaves silver and brown
cold rolled down to bone.
isn't a warm hand in sight
red-knuckled and white-
skinned fingers like stone.
crack of a window, crack of a sheet
of the ice on my eyelids, my tracks in the street.
let through what ain't frozen
let out what must freeze
like the sun you can't hold in
the fingers of trees
never a moment that's dull
saw slicing the tile, dead whine
as the cut pieces fall.
go caulk them into the floor
let it hold what bears down,
solid weights, as I step through the door.
plane of the sidewalk, angled to roll
down to slush-cluttered gutters, the bridges of trolls.
let through what ain't broken
let in what holds still
like the light that just pokes in
from over the sill
can't find a surface that's flat
from the step where I perch my rear end
to the brim of my hat.
come now, fit yourself in the lock
tell the square hole you're far from the only
round peg on the block.
leaves silver and brown
cold rolled down to bone.
isn't a warm hand in sight
red-knuckled and white-
skinned fingers like stone.
crack of a window, crack of a sheet
of the ice on my eyelids, my tracks in the street.
let through what ain't frozen
let out what must freeze
like the sun you can't hold in
the fingers of trees
never a moment that's dull
saw slicing the tile, dead whine
as the cut pieces fall.
go caulk them into the floor
let it hold what bears down,
solid weights, as I step through the door.
plane of the sidewalk, angled to roll
down to slush-cluttered gutters, the bridges of trolls.
let through what ain't broken
let in what holds still
like the light that just pokes in
from over the sill
can't find a surface that's flat
from the step where I perch my rear end
to the brim of my hat.
come now, fit yourself in the lock
tell the square hole you're far from the only
round peg on the block.
Tuesdays With Abhorrent Fiends vol. 22
We could hear the bossa nova
we could sway the night away
the steps of the dance
are best left up to chance
better beautiful than perfect anyway
While the moon wanes and waxes,
death and taxes are lurking out there
Life is grand
Love is real
Beauty is everywhere
--the Peacemakers
Last night I said to Dave I'd been thinking "Beauty Is Everywhere" by the Peacemakers would be a great theme song for the year 2008. He said since it's really been the theme song of the last few months of him and me, it'd be kind of a Johnny-come-lately to give it to next year. So I've been pondering the question and I think I have a candidate. "How Do You Afford Your Rock and Roll Lifestyle" by Cake. Because we can't afford the sort of rock and roll lifestyle to which we would like to become accustomed, and 2008 will likely remind us of that repeatedly.
And again, Dave being smart. I was saying, there's all this debate and discussion and newshounding about baseball because it has nothing to do with the powerful factions who control our lives and steal our money, so we're "allowed" to develop real news about it. He says that's not even the issue. It's just there's too many people who all care about completely different things, and not enough people at the same time care about any one of the things I mentioned to do anything about it.
I had a scary moment last night--I went online and paid the past due balance on the electric bill, then went to my bank's website to check my balance. Turned out the paycheck I put in early evening last Friday had not, at that point, posted. I'd run the groceries as credit on Saturday and the electric company webpage said "pay with credit/debit/ATM" so I'm thinking it wouldn't have posted till today anyhow. But still I turned to Dave and was like, "I think I'll pay the gas bill and order us more tobacco tomorrow." I looked this morning and, yay! My check has now posted and I didn't get any overdraft fees. Still, I feel it was a near thing.
The Heroes season finale was so awesome last night! *wagwag* I simply must get both seasons of that show on DVD at some point. I suspect it's one of those shows that, like Arrested Development, gets miles better when you watch a whole bunch of episodes in a row so all the references make sense because they stuck in your mind. Granted, with AD it's hilarious details instead of dramatic ones, but I like this series so much they'd stick in my mind anyway, week to week. Spose I'm now a bona fide fan and all. I like them all! Even the villains are complex enough that I don't condemn them and in a way I root for them as well! I can't wait to see what happens when Adam Monroe aka Takezo Kensei, Angela Petrelli, Bob, Sylar, and Noah Bennett all find ways of going medieval on one another (and the rest of humanity) in horrible revenge, largely justifiable preventative strikes, or completely in-character psychopathic rampaging as the case may be! :D :D Yes, yes, some of the heroes are annoying. Claire Bennett and Peter Petrelli are dumb in ways that only main characters are usually dumb, but their screen time is balanced so well against so many other, more complicated characters that you hardly notice they're the central axes around which the plots grind on.
I want to write more now, because Boss just stepped out and the day hostess just stepped in, but I can't think of anything. Weird. I'm'a go smoke a cigarette and read some more Lord Darcy stories and probably aggravate this fun flu I've got.
we could sway the night away
the steps of the dance
are best left up to chance
better beautiful than perfect anyway
While the moon wanes and waxes,
death and taxes are lurking out there
Life is grand
Love is real
Beauty is everywhere
--the Peacemakers
Last night I said to Dave I'd been thinking "Beauty Is Everywhere" by the Peacemakers would be a great theme song for the year 2008. He said since it's really been the theme song of the last few months of him and me, it'd be kind of a Johnny-come-lately to give it to next year. So I've been pondering the question and I think I have a candidate. "How Do You Afford Your Rock and Roll Lifestyle" by Cake. Because we can't afford the sort of rock and roll lifestyle to which we would like to become accustomed, and 2008 will likely remind us of that repeatedly.
And again, Dave being smart. I was saying, there's all this debate and discussion and newshounding about baseball because it has nothing to do with the powerful factions who control our lives and steal our money, so we're "allowed" to develop real news about it. He says that's not even the issue. It's just there's too many people who all care about completely different things, and not enough people at the same time care about any one of the things I mentioned to do anything about it.
I had a scary moment last night--I went online and paid the past due balance on the electric bill, then went to my bank's website to check my balance. Turned out the paycheck I put in early evening last Friday had not, at that point, posted. I'd run the groceries as credit on Saturday and the electric company webpage said "pay with credit/debit/ATM" so I'm thinking it wouldn't have posted till today anyhow. But still I turned to Dave and was like, "I think I'll pay the gas bill and order us more tobacco tomorrow." I looked this morning and, yay! My check has now posted and I didn't get any overdraft fees. Still, I feel it was a near thing.
The Heroes season finale was so awesome last night! *wagwag* I simply must get both seasons of that show on DVD at some point. I suspect it's one of those shows that, like Arrested Development, gets miles better when you watch a whole bunch of episodes in a row so all the references make sense because they stuck in your mind. Granted, with AD it's hilarious details instead of dramatic ones, but I like this series so much they'd stick in my mind anyway, week to week. Spose I'm now a bona fide fan and all. I like them all! Even the villains are complex enough that I don't condemn them and in a way I root for them as well! I can't wait to see what happens when Adam Monroe aka Takezo Kensei, Angela Petrelli, Bob, Sylar, and Noah Bennett all find ways of going medieval on one another (and the rest of humanity) in horrible revenge, largely justifiable preventative strikes, or completely in-character psychopathic rampaging as the case may be! :D :D Yes, yes, some of the heroes are annoying. Claire Bennett and Peter Petrelli are dumb in ways that only main characters are usually dumb, but their screen time is balanced so well against so many other, more complicated characters that you hardly notice they're the central axes around which the plots grind on.
I want to write more now, because Boss just stepped out and the day hostess just stepped in, but I can't think of anything. Weird. I'm'a go smoke a cigarette and read some more Lord Darcy stories and probably aggravate this fun flu I've got.
welcome the club
Been whinin' about no dream logs lately, so here's the fragment I remember.
Me and other person had climbed to the top of a something. It was the end of a long plotline of searching, climbing and finding. We were indoors, but a window beyond the top of the pile of whatever it was we were climbing looked out onto the road beyond. Daytime, not sure what season. Up on a shelf to my left as I reached the top I found a round white disc, bout as big as a dollar coin. Made of plastic or wood covered in that white covering that makes it feel like plastic. Patina of dirt across the surface, like the old dry dirt you find on the flat surface next to a potted plant that's been there awhile. On the face printed in black ink was an old-timey symbol of clubs. I didn't think it aloud but I recognized it was the ace of clubs. The person I was climbing with saw it too as I picked it up; neither of us said anything. I was going to kiss the disc but I didn't want to get the dirt that was on it in my mouth, so I brushed it across my cheek and it only slightly touched my lips. Then I turned to the person I'd been climbing with. She was wearing a white button-down shirt and seemed to be hurt or in pain somehow, so she took her shirt off (or we did?). And underneath she was wearing something like a cross between that weird twisty looking black "aromor" chick sorceresses wear in the movies, some sort of medical device (like the electroshock pads the main character guy strapped to his head in that scene in Running With Scissors) or a brace of some kind. It went all over her ribcage and supported her breasts as well, though there the black material held together white bandages. I touched the end of one of the curly parts and it bent up a little bit, like it wasn't firmly attached.
Important themes include: fire magic (ace of clubs). Dave (I got a sense the girl represented him, not one of my brain-sprites! I'd dreamed him last night as well, the dream where we were in the still-under-construction shop that had a bar where they had designer air on tap). Fear of contamination or bad patterns from the past (dirt, weird medical "support/armor" device).
They gonna take private parties away from me. Soon, soon I hope! And I gonna stay. Either I'm a dumb bunny or this is my best vantage point to come into the new year, 2008, which I have already named the Year of Great Change. I've so enjoyed the Year Without Disaster and in many ways I wish it could go on.
Bought my new dayplanner today. I want to start studying it now so by the time the Year rolls around I can make it my mental dayplanner as well. This visual imagination stuff, I've got to do, got to get less remedial in, before I can move forward with so many other things.
Me and other person had climbed to the top of a something. It was the end of a long plotline of searching, climbing and finding. We were indoors, but a window beyond the top of the pile of whatever it was we were climbing looked out onto the road beyond. Daytime, not sure what season. Up on a shelf to my left as I reached the top I found a round white disc, bout as big as a dollar coin. Made of plastic or wood covered in that white covering that makes it feel like plastic. Patina of dirt across the surface, like the old dry dirt you find on the flat surface next to a potted plant that's been there awhile. On the face printed in black ink was an old-timey symbol of clubs. I didn't think it aloud but I recognized it was the ace of clubs. The person I was climbing with saw it too as I picked it up; neither of us said anything. I was going to kiss the disc but I didn't want to get the dirt that was on it in my mouth, so I brushed it across my cheek and it only slightly touched my lips. Then I turned to the person I'd been climbing with. She was wearing a white button-down shirt and seemed to be hurt or in pain somehow, so she took her shirt off (or we did?). And underneath she was wearing something like a cross between that weird twisty looking black "aromor" chick sorceresses wear in the movies, some sort of medical device (like the electroshock pads the main character guy strapped to his head in that scene in Running With Scissors) or a brace of some kind. It went all over her ribcage and supported her breasts as well, though there the black material held together white bandages. I touched the end of one of the curly parts and it bent up a little bit, like it wasn't firmly attached.
Important themes include: fire magic (ace of clubs). Dave (I got a sense the girl represented him, not one of my brain-sprites! I'd dreamed him last night as well, the dream where we were in the still-under-construction shop that had a bar where they had designer air on tap). Fear of contamination or bad patterns from the past (dirt, weird medical "support/armor" device).
They gonna take private parties away from me. Soon, soon I hope! And I gonna stay. Either I'm a dumb bunny or this is my best vantage point to come into the new year, 2008, which I have already named the Year of Great Change. I've so enjoyed the Year Without Disaster and in many ways I wish it could go on.
Bought my new dayplanner today. I want to start studying it now so by the time the Year rolls around I can make it my mental dayplanner as well. This visual imagination stuff, I've got to do, got to get less remedial in, before I can move forward with so many other things.
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