(no subject)
First of all, thank you for your reassuring comments on my last entry. I'm happy to report the appearance of signs that B is on the mend. At least that side of her face is now painful instead of numb, which her dad and I agree is probably a sign of healing.
What a day, and what a night as well. I didn't sleep through the night, which is strange for me, especially lately. Woke up at 1:00 from nightmares embedded in other nightmares.
First I dreamed that Rob, Steph, and Taylor and I went to visit Buzzy at her family's place, and we were going to leave and take her with us on this huge school bus parked in front of her house. Then I realized I'd left my sweater outside, so I asked Rob and Steph to stall the bus driver while I went to get it. Then I realized there was all this other stuff I wanted to take with me, and I ran around getting it, thinking the whole busful of people would keep waiting for me (I hate it when I do dumb things in my dreams). Of course, when I came back out with my stuff the bus was pulling away, and I tried to run after it, dramatically but of course fruitlessly. So there I was, without Buzzy or Steph or Taylor or Rob, due to my own stupidity. I wandered around B's family's unrealistically huge and empty house, and there were these horrific bodies on lying the floor. Not human bodies. They looked like they might be made of meat, and they had no faces.
After this nameless terror, I dreamed that I woke up and was late for work and in big trouble. The saddest part is, do you know how I knew I was horribly late for work? The sun was up. Oh noes. I woke up in a panic that it was all real, and then I went back to sleep, and then I woke up for reals 2 1/2 hours later.
It turned out to be a 12-hour workday (5 am to 5 pm), due to some cookies that really really needed to get packaged today. I hope the people who eat those wee brightly colored mittens, trees, bells, and stars freaking appreciate them. But other than the hectic overtime, it was a pretty good day. I started out with stripping (cookies off of cookie sheets, that is) and progressed to dipping. Yes, I got to dip things in molten chocolate for hours and hours. Haha, I sometimes refer to this as "my I Love Lucy job," and today it really was.
The awesomeness of my coworkers continues. Rosario gave me an excellent lesson on chocolate dipping. The other ladies use the usted form with her, I guess because she is older than most of us, in her 50's I think. She has bright lipstick and sometimes multicolored streaks in her hair. At lunch, she gave all of us homemade corn tamales, made with corn that Maria's family brought her from Mexico, with homemade salsa verde and sour cream. Delicious. And she made me take the rest home.
Margarita, as it turns out, has a daughter named Rachel and also one named Jaime (which is Buzzy's real name, for those not in the know, except she spells it Jayme). Kinda freaky. That led to a discussion of our relationship, which led to this bizarre yet endearing exchange:
Maria: Do you ever want kids, Rachel?
Me: Maybe someday, but I don't know if it'll be possible to have my own.
Maria: You could do in vitro or something! Like Ricky Martin!
It's now official: they don't treat me any differently at all because I have a girlfriend. We don't have to have some huge discussion of the nature of sexuality. Buzzy comes into the conversation quite naturally, like, "Does your girlfriend speak Spanish too?" I cannot tell you how great and satisfying and right it feels not to have to make my love life some kind of philosophical issue or barrier between me and other people.
And my supervisor, Cindy, took time out to tell me today that I did a great job this week. Which was extremely nice of her, especially because it's probably a total lie. I feel like I'm way more trouble than I'm worth at this point, since there are so many details to keep track of and I'm just learning them; a lot of the time I don't get one little thing and it throws off everyone else's productivity. But yay for getting through the first week. I bet it'll be a lot easier from here.
Also, it seems to be fall all of a sudden, i.e. it's started to rain. I know I'm going to have to get used to this. My instinct is to buy myself galoshes, tea, and soup ingredients and build myself a cozy nest of blankets, but by all accounts I have got to learn to ignore the cold and damp and go out anyway. When I read That Hideous Strength at the beginning of the summer, one of the characters disclosed that the secret to life was loving going out in all kinds of weather. That's definitely something I'd like to learn here in Portland.
Speaking of Getting Out, I have plans for this weekend. Tomorrow I am going to a grad school fair for idealists. I am mostly going to check out seminaries. I'm considering a higher degree in Theological/Biblical studies, since I read theology books for fun, and perhaps there is a place for my academic skills and knowledge of Greek in the hastening of God's kingdom here on Earth. Who knows. Anyway, it should be interesting. Other plans, aside from the practical stuff like cashing my paycheck and getting more food already, include possibly going to SCRAP for cheap recycled art supplies with the Winchers and/or going for a hike with Carleton friends and definitely going to church. Though I still haven't decided which one. And planning Christmas presents. Indeed.
What a day, and what a night as well. I didn't sleep through the night, which is strange for me, especially lately. Woke up at 1:00 from nightmares embedded in other nightmares.
First I dreamed that Rob, Steph, and Taylor and I went to visit Buzzy at her family's place, and we were going to leave and take her with us on this huge school bus parked in front of her house. Then I realized I'd left my sweater outside, so I asked Rob and Steph to stall the bus driver while I went to get it. Then I realized there was all this other stuff I wanted to take with me, and I ran around getting it, thinking the whole busful of people would keep waiting for me (I hate it when I do dumb things in my dreams). Of course, when I came back out with my stuff the bus was pulling away, and I tried to run after it, dramatically but of course fruitlessly. So there I was, without Buzzy or Steph or Taylor or Rob, due to my own stupidity. I wandered around B's family's unrealistically huge and empty house, and there were these horrific bodies on lying the floor. Not human bodies. They looked like they might be made of meat, and they had no faces.
After this nameless terror, I dreamed that I woke up and was late for work and in big trouble. The saddest part is, do you know how I knew I was horribly late for work? The sun was up. Oh noes. I woke up in a panic that it was all real, and then I went back to sleep, and then I woke up for reals 2 1/2 hours later.
It turned out to be a 12-hour workday (5 am to 5 pm), due to some cookies that really really needed to get packaged today. I hope the people who eat those wee brightly colored mittens, trees, bells, and stars freaking appreciate them. But other than the hectic overtime, it was a pretty good day. I started out with stripping (cookies off of cookie sheets, that is) and progressed to dipping. Yes, I got to dip things in molten chocolate for hours and hours. Haha, I sometimes refer to this as "my I Love Lucy job," and today it really was.
The awesomeness of my coworkers continues. Rosario gave me an excellent lesson on chocolate dipping. The other ladies use the usted form with her, I guess because she is older than most of us, in her 50's I think. She has bright lipstick and sometimes multicolored streaks in her hair. At lunch, she gave all of us homemade corn tamales, made with corn that Maria's family brought her from Mexico, with homemade salsa verde and sour cream. Delicious. And she made me take the rest home.
Margarita, as it turns out, has a daughter named Rachel and also one named Jaime (which is Buzzy's real name, for those not in the know, except she spells it Jayme). Kinda freaky. That led to a discussion of our relationship, which led to this bizarre yet endearing exchange:
Maria: Do you ever want kids, Rachel?
Me: Maybe someday, but I don't know if it'll be possible to have my own.
Maria: You could do in vitro or something! Like Ricky Martin!
It's now official: they don't treat me any differently at all because I have a girlfriend. We don't have to have some huge discussion of the nature of sexuality. Buzzy comes into the conversation quite naturally, like, "Does your girlfriend speak Spanish too?" I cannot tell you how great and satisfying and right it feels not to have to make my love life some kind of philosophical issue or barrier between me and other people.
And my supervisor, Cindy, took time out to tell me today that I did a great job this week. Which was extremely nice of her, especially because it's probably a total lie. I feel like I'm way more trouble than I'm worth at this point, since there are so many details to keep track of and I'm just learning them; a lot of the time I don't get one little thing and it throws off everyone else's productivity. But yay for getting through the first week. I bet it'll be a lot easier from here.
Also, it seems to be fall all of a sudden, i.e. it's started to rain. I know I'm going to have to get used to this. My instinct is to buy myself galoshes, tea, and soup ingredients and build myself a cozy nest of blankets, but by all accounts I have got to learn to ignore the cold and damp and go out anyway. When I read That Hideous Strength at the beginning of the summer, one of the characters disclosed that the secret to life was loving going out in all kinds of weather. That's definitely something I'd like to learn here in Portland.
Speaking of Getting Out, I have plans for this weekend. Tomorrow I am going to a grad school fair for idealists. I am mostly going to check out seminaries. I'm considering a higher degree in Theological/Biblical studies, since I read theology books for fun, and perhaps there is a place for my academic skills and knowledge of Greek in the hastening of God's kingdom here on Earth. Who knows. Anyway, it should be interesting. Other plans, aside from the practical stuff like cashing my paycheck and getting more food already, include possibly going to SCRAP for cheap recycled art supplies with the Winchers and/or going for a hike with Carleton friends and definitely going to church. Though I still haven't decided which one. And planning Christmas presents. Indeed.