the Quarterly(?) update ...
It does feel like I'm updating this about once a quarter, doesn't it? So, since it's that time again (I guess) here's what's new...
School
I missed the winter semester registration date and then realized about a week too late that I missed the summer deadlines, too, so I'm registered for Fall in a pre-trig math class. The cost of going to school is manageable at this point, and I'm hoping it'll stay that way!
Vacation
I'm heading up to Washington for the Labor Day week to visit my folks. I'm planning on driving so I can spend some time with Mom both coming and going from seeing Dad and meeting my step-sister and nephew again for the first time in ... four, five years? She and Alex visited within a year of when I left the Rusty State for greener pastures and now they've moved back.
While I'm up there, I'm going to see if I can return some pictures that friends of my ex-fiancé’s parents asked me to scan for them almost a decade ago ... My, the things one finds when they start unpacking the boxes carted around for forever and a day ... -.-; yeah, just a bit on the thoroughly-embarrassed-and-feeling-very-not-so-good side about how long it took to a) find them and b) realize I still had them ...
Work
I get along with my boss and my co-workers and I'm working on asking for help when I get slammed.
Segueing a bit, the first office job I worked (it was a market research company, a "Would you like to take a survey?" job and most of us were under 18), my boss there said part of his job was to teach us kids how to take the blinders off, which got him a lot of "Huh?"-filled stares. Brent's point was that a lot of teens come at life with a very narrowly focused world view. The younger the person, the more likely we are to only see the part of the world that slaps us in the face. The more I socialize, the more I realize that I'm kinda behind on starting those lessons.
I've been the only person I knew I could count on for so long that it comes as a bit of a shock to realize how many people I do have who are happy to support me. I'm learning, and faster than I have with other stuff, but it's still a lifetime's experience biting me in the ass during those rather stressful moments when I need help most.
Toys
Recent shopping therapy has gotten me a guitar, upgraded my laptop, and found me buying a bicycle - and the tools to put it together. They're all very useful items - yes, even the guitar - but I'm still kinda doing the "I did WHAT to my debt balance??" internal yelling.
The guitar is actually turning out to be a GREAT stress reliever. I'm fingering the chords at least a few minutes every day and it seems like the more I do, the more the restlessness that's been bugging the shit out of me is dying down, which makes me happier and more likely to feel like socializing.
The bicycle is very new, as in I-bought-it-Thursday-new. I've been playing with the idea for over a year now, getting more and more serious the higher gas prices have gone. What tipped the scales, though, was fitness. While driving home from work on Thursday afternoon I saw a very, very, very large woman riding a bike along the side of the road and my first thought was how utterly rediculous her ass looked on that bike seat, followed by a thought about how my ass is getting that large. Like quitting smoking, that toppled the scales into action and I went visiting around the stores looking for my lost slenderness.
Romance
That would be a big, fat nada, zilch, zip and zero. Nothing going on. The closest is an attraction to a coworker who is married. Since he's married, there's no dice on it going anywhere - either it's not going to happen on his end or he's not worth my time. I value honor in the people I invite into my life, a lesson I learned at a very high cost. I've gotten the rather strong impression that swinging is not part of their lifestyle and so if he were to pursue an interest in my direction, well, that would be a moderately large, flashing neon sign that I couldn't trust him.