I regularly use #2 at work. But in my head. Generally.

1. I forget sometimes, that people cheat on each other in relationships. (Not mine, in case you were curious)
2. I think I may be getting too much sleep.
3. I need to replace my standard response to something shocking with something a little more grown up. Right now I tend to shout "Shut UP!"
4. Now that the weather has turned cooler, I can't wait to make veggie shepherds pie (although I am not a vegetarian, I think that frozen tofu makes the perfect protein in a pie)

1. Woke up to a weird smell in my house. Then realized, oh yeah, it's that lentil soup I left in the crockpot. Mmmmm, soup.

2. Seeing Carrie Fisher's show tonight at Studio 54.

3. Can't WAIT to go apple picking in a few weeks. I want a kitchen overflowing with apples.

1) I recommend that people go for the brass ring from time to time, even if you don't usually take risks.
2) Remember that stress of any sort can cause physical problems, and see if you can learn to manage it.
3) Sometimes having a nice bitch session is helpful. It doesn't have to lead to intensified anger/stress, though it can.
4) I like that my house is on the clean side, and I intend to keep it that way.
5) Also on my goal list is eating more healthily.
6) Overall, life has been very good to me the past few months.

It's funny how the fall light and temperature makes everything look different and new, as if I hadn't been looking at the same neighborhood all summer.
I can't believe I cranked out a report in 20 minutes this morning. PivotTables!
Making a table of contents in Word is easy unless you don't know how.
It's really cold in the office.
I put an outdoor thermometer on the outside of my office window, and it's awesome.
I would like to have all these new clothes... what to get?? I only have so much money.

1. Need to lose the 20 pounds I've regained this year+. (Out of an original 40 lost.) Feels so, so much harder this time around. Last time it was an accomplishment; now it's just a fucking chore. Fantasizing about Stouffer's frozen macaroni and cheese dinners constantly.

2. All the self-help books and websites tell you how to deal with your issues (depression, anxiety, etc.), and how to "manage" when things get rough, but they don't tell you how to cope when the managing itself gets exhausting, or what to do when you're just fucking tired of managing and would prefer that the issues simply just not be there.

3. (Obviously) Not feeling very positive these days. Fucking.

1. There are only six Starbucks within two miles of my house (and many more independent coffee shops).

2. Summer is really over, it's gray and dark and rainy.

3. I have at least one contact on Facebook who I've known for forty years now, since I met him in Miss Mill's Kindergarten class in September 1969.

*whuffles Melismata*

I've been feeling the same way, just super tired. All the time. And not motivated to eat or cook or really do anything except lie in bed. I've gotten so good at pretending to function.

I should really throw out all that cheap lettuce I bought last week ($1 a bag!) since I'm not eating it and it's supposed to go bad tomorrow.

The main campus people should really learn that sending birthday cards does not make up for the lack of any sort of raises being given out this year. (When we only get 2.5% to begin with and no hope of getting anything higher unless you actually change jobs, which is practically fucking impossible given the current climate, it sucks some serious ass.) Of course, I shouldn't really even be bitching considering I'm in a better position than most. But still, ugh.

I'm kinda wanting meatballs. Just meatballs.

My credit card expires today and the company hasn't sent a new one (as of checking the mail on Monday). Guess it's a good thing I'm not eating because I can't go to the store anyways.

How much longer until I can go home and sleep all weekend? (Oh right, I have to deal with my parents and the condo association attorneys this weekend. Goddamnit.)

1. Just planned a date that I might now have to immediately cancel for a work trip

2. There's been secretive-seeming meetings around here that make me nervoso

3. I started taking some meds for anxiety and I think they're working but they make me sooooo sleeeepppppyyyy

4. I had a fun weekend and a good day at temple on Monday

5. I have a lot of headphones but for some reason zero comfortable working ones. The headphones at work have a too-short cord and keep popping off the earpiece, and the ones on my ipod hurt my ears after a little while. Maybe it's time to buy some, but I also have 2 fallback pairs at home (that equally suck) so it seems wrong to buy headphones when I have 4 pr already.

1. Went through some old boxes of books and achieved a painless 30% discard rate (by volume) for a yard sale.
2. Fond some Nasty Old Sandwich meat in the fridge that I salvaged for a sandwich with miracle whip.
3. Been reading that I should up my consumption of omega-3 fish oil. Trying it out.
4. Used melatonin the last couple of nights because I've been waking up too much at 3AM.
5. How many thoughts am I allowed?

1. Yeah. . .I have issues, but don't want to work on them, nosirrie, I just keep stacking new, more interesting for a moment issues on top of them, and that's. . .what I want to keep doing. . .

2. Old Biddies. It's not nice, but that's what they are, I can think of no other words.

3. 8k in 45 days. This is a challenge.

1. Made a batch of orange and honey muffins. So good. Tangy.

That's all that's really in my mind in the moment, apart from boring work stuff.

1. Barbara Ehrenreich is a national treasure. Gosh, I love her so much.
2. Speaking of people I love, Elizabeth Warren. Aside from her smarts and candor, I love how communicative her eyes are and her lovely thick bob and her tweedy style.
3. I'm really not into chocolate and I wish "Chocolate is the greatest, AMIRITELADIES?" would go away forever.
4. I lovelovelovelove fall. Got my hoodie on, hood up, thick grey socks, down slippers.
5. Bees are amazing.
6. I miss my camera, I hope it comes back shortly.

1. I agree with birdie's #3, but from the other side: I love chocolate and happen to be female, but its role as a gendered foodstuff strikes me as silly, and that role seems to be enforced waaaay beyond any actual observable gendered preferences.

2. I love our re-arranged apartment layout so much that I can just sit immobile and admire it...

3. ... which is great, because my back has gone kerflooey, so I'm mostly lying immobile in the living room, writing and reading and admiring the layout.

4. Mosquitos? Oh, HELL NO. I will swat you little stingers, even if I have to, uh, stand up to do it. Oh, never mind.

5. I have a chicken pot pie for dinner tonight. Yum.

1. I am projecting whuffleage to all who require some. My cow-orkers are in the line of fire, so to speak, and many of them have gone all soft and slack. The Force is strong in me today.
2. I work with wayyyy too many annoying people. One of them is me.
3. Still don't have a working kitchen. This is not, in the words of Martha Stewart, a Good Thing. Not at all.
4. New builder will work on kitchen beginning 10/14.
5. The moon was beautiful last night.

1. The critters seem to know that fall is here: Birds are migrating, varmits are putting on extra fur - and they know this without the aid of a calendar. Those of us who are inside most of the time don't listen to our nature-clocks. I live in an artificial environment during most hours and need artificial reminders of the seasons.

2. I'm afraid to think that things will go right for me for the first time in 4 years so I'm not going to say anything about it so as to not jinx it. *When can I stop holding my breath?*

3. The smell of bread baking is irresistible.

4. Helping others is just so much fun. Little things can be as great as big things. Conversely, allowing others to help is joyful.

1. My Kung pao tofu salad for lunch is hitting the spot.
2. I really need a massage. Maybe I'll get one on Friday afternoon.
3. Having the urge to google 'remote tropical island for sale' and seeing if there are any that I can afford.

adding another:

6. Just got an semi-anonymous note (with an email address for responses but no name), addressed to us and making (in my view, ill-founded) complaints about some fellow tenants. The letter:

A) addresses concerns that would be more efficiently and more properly settled with the (very available) landlord;
B) is filled with strikingly classist assumptions and language about said fellow tenants.


I'm torn: throw the thing straight into the recycling, or forward it to the landlord, who is better equipped to deal with tenant squabbles? I'm going to cool down for a bit before I decide anything.

1. Sometimes the things that people don't say are ever so much more interesting than the things people do say. You just have to listen.

2. I have exactly NO interest in settling or maintaining. I have bunches of interest in THRIVING.

3. CUTE BOY NEEDS TO BE UP IN MY FACE SOON.

4. Almost got in a bar fight a couple weeks ago. I am not the type to get in bar fights (apparently I am the type to have the last word with obnoxious people and finish the bs, though.) It was one of those little defining moments for me - it seems like pretty much everything the past two weeks has hinged on that moment. I cannot explain it better other than to say I decided I was worth fighting for.

5. Feels like right now I'm pretty much in a NUT UP OR SHUT UP place. Not bad at all, really.

1. Feeling a little empty inside and my libido has almost completely disappeared after Poker Guy gave me the "It's not you, it's me" speech Monday night. Need to get my ass to therapy soon.

2. Work is a battlefield right now and I really want to be like R. Lee Ermey. Instead, I feel like I'm Private Benjamin.

3. At least I got paid today. And can't go to the bank until tomorrow to pay bills.

4. Did I mention that my boss has been giving me a guilt trip not getting to work on time because I need to have lab tests done and so I haven't scheduled the cholesterol exam and other blood tests that I need to schedule and OH FUCKING SHIT, I FORGOT TO TAKE MY MEDICINE AGAIN... THIS IS WHY I STILL HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, I CAN'T EVEN TAKE SIMPLE PILLS ON TIME AND I FEEL SO FUCKING RESENTFUL.

5. Just turned this into a shouting thread. Neat!

(((TrishaLynn)))

I want to join birdie's "not a big chocolate fan" club.

6. Apparently I'll be inheriting a bunch of chocolate from people that don't like it! Awesome.

1. I am feeling better about my prospects in life.

2. I too can't stand chocolate.

1. Tried to do the right thing at work today, and got grief for it from a coworker. Plus no support from the acting manager - bonus!

2. Seriously considering getting back full-time with my husband.

3. And on that note, for those keeping track, his cancer is holding - no growth. Yay!! And almost no side effects from this latest cancer drug, either.

4. I think I need a mental health day from work tomorrow....

@ LT's # 3: You're a mensch!

1. Saw the play TPS is raving about on Saturday. Am very disturbed to think that something like this may well have already happened.
2. Saw my cousin perform at an event sponsored by Stolichnaya to promote their new apple vodka. Want her to be safe.
3. Had finally gotten rid of the swine flu cough when I came down with an allergy related sinus infection.
4.Am going to be late for both upcoming meetups. Want to feel better enough to sing the asshat song.

5. If I felt serious enough about a man to want to live with him I would not be hitting on other guys when he wasn't around.

1) Chocolate is nice sometimes, especially foaming in a mug on a chilly evening, and/or baked into a chewy brownie, but it's not life-changing or anything.

2) Most of the people I work with are great. One new guy, though, brings out the worst in me -- he's friendly enough, but for no clear reason I find him repulsive, and I get all cold and snubby around him. I don't like behaving like that and I'm not sure what's causing it.

Must boil bay leaves and buy caulk to deter cockroaches from the bathroom at this new abode. Also wash the floor, the season just changed and ants came out.

The experience of frustration at being the tidiest one in the house.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/09/10/caltech.scientists.develop.novel.use.neurotechnology.solve.classic.social.problem

The safety talk the bicycle cop gave to the cub scout group that came through at the bike collective today did a good job of talking about bike safety, though I could have done without his aside about the homeless population.

Cute boy just emailed me! He's not out of town tonight! (He's good with bikes.)

I'm glad the jeweler was able to squoosh the nice bracelet that I found at a yard sale this morning to fit me.

That was some strong half-caf I had this morning. I am in the mood to give everyone a very enthusiastic hug.

of the conversation that I had with my best friend involving the effectiveness of voting, of its symbolic power/importance, of youth, of apathy and ignorance, and of getting things done.

It's weird to me that of the 8 people who applied who handed in their resume for an (admittedly unpaid) internship, that only 3 replied, and of those three, only one actually showed for the scheduled interview.

Things to do! No more metachat for me, bye!

oops, here's that link.

Good luck, mightshould!