The Final Days of Unemployment

I was literally in the midst of a lamenting update for this very blog last Thursday when I received the email that signaled the beginning of the end of my months-long job hunt.
Oh yes, I did finally get a job. How about it?
Anyway, in my last few days of unemployment (my start date is not yet set, though it will probably be in less than a week), I've been doing some NON-job search things I haven't been able to enjoy as much over the past few months. I've been really wanting to play around in Photoshop lately, but I've not really had any projects or much inspiration to work with. So I decided to take a lead from Learning to Love You More, a kind of community project online, and do one of their assignments. Maybe I'll eventually do more of them. I mainly just wanted something to work on, as a diversion from GRE studying (which is also my way of noting that I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this; it was mainly for fun). Also maybe later, I'll say more about the job thing (!).

Assignment 10: Make a flier of your day.

Order: Rodentia

• I don't know if you know this, but I have a rat. I actually had two rats, but one died almost immediately after I got her. Now I'm stuck with Maggie, who enjoys sunflower seeds, vacant cardboard boxes, and climbing. Also she might be blind and she has a strong distaste for humans. As in, any hand that comes near her will be mercilessly attacked. This is kind of unfortunate, because I've had rats in the past, and they were friendly. They would sit on your lap to watch scary movies and they would explore the couch or coffee table calmly and well-behaved until you scooped them up to return to their home. If you approached Olivia or Uli or Lola with a friendly finger (may they all rest in peace), they'd sniff and/or lick it cutely and either wander off or climb aboard your hand. Maggie just bites or poops repeatedly until you leave her alone.
  
  
  So let me know if you want a pet rat; I can hook you up (leather handling gloves not included).
• There was something living in my wall or pipes recently. On Friday there were distinctly rodent noises coming from my bathtub. I actually recorded them and had a small video clip ready to accompany this paragraph, but it was a really uneventful clip that included way too much of my droning voice. It's gone now, but it was loud and a welcome distraction for approx. one afternoon of GRE studying.
• Baby squirrels are also distracting. This one lives somewhere near my patio and is not afraid of people. Is it bad that I care more about it than I do about Maggie? Because I do. I put her food out for it.

Dear Residents:

From a note found on my door last night:

October 17, 2009

Dear Residents:

This notice is to inform you that an Alligator has been spotted by a couple of residents fishing last night in our lake. We have informed the Wild Animal Rescue and they will be here this week-end to bait it and catch it.

Please use caution when walking in the lake view area.

...

Thank you

Management


My afternoon just got busy.

Anatomy Chart

Sort of. Not really.


1. Fresh ground coffee from the grinder from my parents
2. Clean energy filters from Jeremy
3. Organic French Roast from Aunt Janelle and Co.
4. Coffee maker from Jeremy
5. Big black mug from Rachelle
6. (unrelated) Perfect kitchen shelf built by my dad
7. (unrelated) Favorite coffee mug sitting in place of honor

So thanks to all, for contributing to a most premium quality pot of coffee. Special thanks also to the fall, finally showing its face in this weather-confused state and providing good rain and cold, cold mornings and reasons to wear scarves and layers again.

Cheers.

Three Things

1. Recent Conversation
You might as well replace the names with Sheldon and Leonard. Or something.
Jeremy: Your ear is pointed on the inside. (pause while turning my head) Both of them are pointed! You have pointed ears, on the insides.
Jori: I am 1/16th Vulcan.
Jeremy: On which side?
Jori: Dad's.
Jeremy: Oh. I can see that.
And then we were both quiet, because we were watching Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the second installment in our recent Planet of the Apes-athon. So. Is that, or the later (much longer) conversation we had about the theory behind the Planet of the Apes, nerdier?

2. Iran
I mean I ran. Running with thousands of people is unbelievable. I went home for The Race for the Cure and it was just exactly as awesome as I remember. No, more awesome, because this year (in a lapse of judgment) I agreed to sign up for the competitive run. What I originally thought was a tragic mistake actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise of epic proportion. Running with that many people is exciting and addictive and challenging and I quite like it.

3. Lunch

It was supposed to be a sardine pasta salad with cucumbers and fresh herbs, but I chickened out upon opening the can and playing around with the sardine chunks for a few minutes. Oh, I enjoyed removing the fish spines and playing with them and being all in awe of skeletons in general. But when it came to adding the oily, still-having-skin-on fish bits to something I was going to actually consume, all bets were off and I opened a can of trusty albacore instead. And it was extremely delicious. It was like eating an herb garden.

Oh and on a related note: Food photography is no easy task. I was going to fatly post about some brownies I made last week, but the accompanying photographs were so disappointingly lame and terrible that I abandoned the effort.

The One Where I Talk Too Much About the Weather

You know I've been in far too hot a place for too long when I go for a run in 86 degree weather and think of words like "brisk" and "chilly." 86 degrees is not brisk. But relatively, it is pretty exciting to still be below 90 first thing in the morning. The worst was a couple weeks ago, just after I moved in, when it would get down to 101 in the evenings and you'd use phrases like "finally cooling off a little."
Well. If you've spoken to me or of me at all in the past few weeks, you know of the losing battle we fought against the cockroaches of Bethany, OK, which subsequently led to another week in Kansas and a scramble for an inhabitable residence. I have one now, of course, but due to the fight we fought a few weeks ago, I still shudder when I see any insect of any variety anywhere in my new place. Believe it or not, a few have shown up here, but by a few I really do mean two or three in the past three weeks. And you better believe that I don't afford them a quick toilet paper death. Not even. I, the one who usually shoos insects out a window or door instead of stomping or squashing, have been sprinkling them with boric acid and letting them suffer. I still let spiders live, though.
ANYWAY. Two or three hasn't been so bad, but I am still haunted. And this next part, I thought I imagined. I noticed this spot on the ceiling above my bed. Not a dark spot like anything living, and definitely inanimate. Just like a small trick of light or a large inconsistency in the ceiling crumbles. It kept catching my eye though, so last night I decided to take a look up close. You might have to click it to enlarge it to see what I am talking about.

YES. THAT IS A COCKROACH PAINTED ON TO MY BEDROOM CEILING ABOVE MY BED.

Exit Cue

Take a look at those highs for Bethany. Admittedly, the highs in Lenexa aren't much lower, BUT THEY ARE LOWER. I take that triple digit in the middle as both an offense and an exit cue. I'm heading out for a while, to a place where I can sit by the pool and reap the benefits of a highly developed library system and go on bike trails with hills and with no hurricane-force winds. Maybe even motorcycle rides, if I'm lucky.
And then, if you haven't heard... I'm moving. It's actually way more sad than I thought it would be, because the dogs notice. They notice when one of us packs a bag to leave for the weekend. So the moving boxes and the emptying room appear to be a little stressful for them. If you know these two, you'd know it's such a downer to see them both so melancholy.
And... I just dropped my toast butter-side down, so I'm going to make those two dogs very happy. Although last time they were given toast, they just buried it.