catch up

There’s a line in The Simpsons where Homer is telling someone not to quit. He said “You don’t quit. You just do your job half-assed. THAT'S the american way.” I wouldn’t say I’m a quitter but I would rather just not do something than do it half-assed. Lately my posts have been about food and I’ve been putting off writing. When I do write, it’s out of obligation and I’m not really inspired. And there are only so many interesting ways to photograph your supper.

So, from now on, my posts won’t be daily. I still plan on doing one new thing every day but it won’t always be something I write about. On days I didn’t post, just assume that I had something new for a meal.

the day

It's the holiday that never ends. More new faces today. I think that the best part about the holidays is realizing how nice normal days are.

the eve

Today, I met new friends of friends as I latched onto my friends' family for holiday fullfillment. My misanthropy and anti-social behavioral patterns tend to keep me away from parties, especially when I’m the odd man out. However, it was comforting today being around people who feel like family.

dancing queen

Today, I led 30-35 of my participants in doing the macarena. And I got paid for it! Just when I thought I couldn't love my job any more...

three meetings and a little crazy

My day was supposed to be easy but at the last minute, it got difficult. A county case manager who is difficult to deal with called a meeting at a group home which is also my most difficult home. Also, my co-worker injured her wrist so I had to sit through my client's meeting there and then I had to sit through her client's meeting. Then she ended up giving another co-worker the wrong time for his meeting so I had to sit through the first half of his meeting too. After three meetings with an obnoxious case manager and two annoying home providers, I was ready to go a little nuts myself. I've never even sat through two of these meetings in a row so three was asking a lot out of me. Still, it was way better than most days at any other job I've had.

suit up

I can get snazzy when I want to. Today, one of my participants was being recognized as Worker of the Quarter so I had to bring him to a board meeting. I had heard we had a board room at work but I didn't even know where it was. Damn, it is NICE! Walking in, I started to question how we can call ourselves a non-profit but then they showed a compilation of news stories about the company and we came off very charitable. But for a 501 C3 charitable organization, they can get pretty snazzy too when they want.

wrapping it up

I've always thought that most guys are 'fronting' when they say they hate shopping. It's like when they say 'I don't dance,' or 'Steel Magnolias sucks.' Deep down, they're just afraid of denting their masculine armor.

I used to enjoy shopping a lot. I never liked spending money but I always enjoyed looking. I hate capitalism and all but I will window-shop til my feet can't take it anymore. I hate big box stores and big chains which carry the same crap in the same display in strip malls across the country. Give me a unique shop, preferably thrift, anyday.

Today, I finished up my Christmas shopping. I decided to go car-free and walk Dean to Hawthorne and hit four or five shops there. He's never done that with me before and I think it took a lot out of him. I had to buy him a slice of pizza afterwards. Lazy males.

200

It's my 200th post so I'm taking day off.

top shelf

One of my fondest memories from Europe was sitting upstairs in Lenin’s kitchen with him, a good book and a bottle of Amaretto. Amaretto is my favorite. Therefore, I try not to drink it too much so I won’t get sick of it. Yet, that memory is so calming to me that I needed to buy a bottle today.

I bought it while Dean and I were on a walk today up Woodstock doing our Christmas shopping. I almost always go for the cheapest liquor whenever I buy it which isn’t too often. But today felt special. Maybe I was just in the spirit(s) but I wanted something nicer. I brought it home and shared it with the house. It soothed me like I knew it would. I think those things are important to realize and remember. We all need to know how to spell r-e-l-i-e-f.

a few of my favorite things

Today, I went to a co-worker’s wine, cheese and chocolate party. I haven’t been to Jennifer’s house before but my spidey senses don’t go off around her so I was willing to get a shot. Plus there hardly a quicker way to get me to a place than tempting me with wine, chocolate and cheese. Throw some bumbling puppies in there and I would never leave!

appreciation dinner

We had our second holiday dinner today for work. It's technically an "appreciation dinner" and it's just a coincidence that we have it before Christmas and exchange gifts.

Anyway, it was my first dinner with Long Term Services department at work (which is my department's name). We are grouped with the Job Connection department a lot because we have the same director. Today, I got to meet a lot of the Job Connections people because my boss insisted on assigned seating so we would mingle.

It sucked slightly because I had to sit by some rather annoying people instead of my friends. I did enjoy getting to meet a few of them and getting to know others better but there were other people I would have never sat by and I will never sit by again hopefully. One lady wouldn't stop talking about how annoyed she is when people don't eat with the right fork. Sigh. She also made some slightly sexist/homophobic remark because another guy remarked on how he liked a vase. She's one of those acquaintances that will be forgot come New Year.

it's beginning to look a lot like...

It's late fall. The weather doesn't feel like it's a few short weeks until Christmas but at work it is starting to.

We had our Christmas dinner at my job site today. We'll have three big work Christmas dinners before the end of the year. This was our first one where everyone that works in the administrative offices attends, not just the disabled and their job coaches.

It was very similar to the Thanksgiving dinner but it was a little dressier. There was a harp player and a baby grand in the cafeteria.

I like this time of year because everything is so festive. Work is kind of secondary to being in the holiday spirit.

the Y.W.C.A.

Today I took a client to tour the YWCA for the first time. If it's the YWCA, can you still do whatever you feel? We didn't see a place to get yourself clean or have a good meal and the receptionist wouldn't let us do whatever we feel (including take a picture).

santa secrecy

At work, we are doing the Secret Santa thing. I don't know how this became a tradition in workplaces. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's just the jobs that I've held that do it. Anyway, usually I think it sucks. You end up getting someone you don't know very well something relatively lame and get something lame in exchange from someone who doesn't know a thing about you. However, this year it's working for me.

We made lists of what things we would like or what are interests are and we picked up those after we drew names. It makes it a lot easier. We are supposed to give a little something each week until the big reveal shortly before Christmas. It will end up being six weekly gift and then one "bigger" one. But the person who's my Santa has gone above and beyond. So far, I've gotten a nice coffee mug, two non-cheap dog toys, a pair of gloves, $5 gift certificate for the work cafeteria, too much candy, a santa hat (pictured above), a flashlight, multiple spices (oregano, basil, bay leaves, all-spice, cinnamon, red pepper, paprika, etc), six high end kitchen utensils that were probably bought at Linens and things, a santa ornament, a peppermint stick and a fudge mix kit. I think it's my boss because she loves Christmas and would be the person to go above and beyond. I'm pretending like I don't know though because I'm pretty sure she would like to keep it a mystery for now.

Anyway, for my new thing today, I made fudge. I ground up the peppermint stick and threw it in there too. It ended up being really really good even though I wasn't supposed to (it used marshmellows) but hey, it was free and tis the season and all.

taken for granted

Movies don't normally count as new things. Truth be told, I think I missed my actual "new thing" today unless I would count taking a slightly different path to my stores today. But I'd much rather talk about the movie.

I downloaded and watched "Small Town Gay Bar" today. It's a documentary about a gay bar in northeast Mississippi. They talk about how rare and amazing it is that there is a gay bar in a town with a population of around 1000 people in the bible belt. To me, it's flabbergasting. I went to college in a town with a population just under 25,000. There was rumor that there was a "gay bar" operated out of a residence but that it rotated locations for fear of redneck retribution. People in this documentary talk about taking their life into their own hands by approaching this bar. I can totally understand that. It's not just amazing that there's a gay bar there. It's fucking brave.

The documentary made me think about how easy I have it here. I can go to the gay bars but I'm usually too poor to. However, I wouldn't fear for my life heading there. Also, I can sash-shay a little more at work if I'm in the mood and not feel the threat of a community turning against me. I think about how far I've come, where I'm at and where others are and I feel that I've been taking it all for granted.

I think I'm wear something a little more flashy to work tomorrow.

the kicker

I don’t understand taxes all that well. I know I have to pay them and I hate the fact that they are such a significant portion of my paycheck. I always use a tax program on-line to do my taxes every year. It’s super-easy so I don’t need to know a lot about it. I just need to be able to read the numbers off my W-4. As I said a couple of posts ago, economics was one of the classes in school that I got a D in.

Today, I got my first kicker check in the mail. They included a letter with it that said when the state of Oregon is over it’s expected revenue by more than 2%, they divvy up the excess. I still don’t get how they split it up or exactly how they’re over what budget but hey, I got a check for $372! That’s all I need to know. I cashed it quick-like just in case they decided they made a mistake.

a hard afternoon's work

This morning I woke up and had the urge to build something, anything. I couldn’t come up with anything easy and necessary around the house. Fortunately, Victory! always has a construction project going on somewhere so I was able to get my building fix in. Today, I helped build a greenhouse.

What’s cool about this place is that almost all of the materials were saved from being scrapped and, when it’s all said and done, it’s going to look pretty sharp. It’s on the side of a beautiful garden with a nice firepit and benches in the middle. We didn’t get it done but we got it to the point to where the end is in sight.

you bastards!

Aside from Riot Cop, the Eclectic Bastards are the band I've gone to see the most often. They're good friends and have a violent femmes/pixies/velvet underground sound that I really enjoy. Hell, I've gone to the middle of nowhere, Washington to see them. They're just good fun.
Tonight they played at a BARK benefit in Portland at Organics to You. It was my first time there. The location was decent but it was damn cold in the warehouse. Maybe that was intentional to get people to warm up by dancing.
(this was also my first time blurring out the pics to protect people's private parts. Nothing was exposed anyway in this pic but i decided to blur it anyway.)

me and my big pink tank

I wasn’t a great student in school but I did a little better than average for the most part. I only got three D’s for the quarter throughout my whole educational career. One was in economics (I didn’t do the checkbook balancing project), one was in religion (in catholic elementary school. My mom was pissed.) and the other was in driver’s ed. I have never professed to be a good driver. Before today, I could count seven accidents where there has been damage or vehicle-to-vehicle contact and each one of them have been my fault or a freak act of nature. Today, for the first time, I wasn’t at fault.

I was backing out of a parking space from one of my stores and a pickup decided to back out in a wide arc and hit my car’s ass. I jarred me a bit and he came over and apologized profusely. There was no damage to either vehicle and I felt fine so I said, “We’re cool,” and I got back in the car. I hate paperwork and since it happened while I was at work, it would involve even MORE paperwork if I decided to go there. I’m now convinced that my big pink tank is impenetrable. It may not get crap for gas mileage and my brakes/locks/trunk/turn signal/cigarette lighter/transmission may not work properly but it can take a lickin and keep on tickin.

Also, this is my third bad car thing in my series of three so I’m glad we all escaped it without a scratch.

i get paid for this?

It's been an unusually stressful week. Too many of my co-workers are out sick so I've been going above and beyond with covering their paperwork. However today I had a meeting at a client's house so I went there early to get away from the office.
When I got there, he was getting ready to go out back and smoke. I offered to join him and we sat on his back porch talking casually for 30 minutes while watching the squirrels run about the backyard. It was so calm and peaceful and I got paid for it. Hell yeah.

dreidel, dreidel *hic* dreidel

I like Hanukkah, especially the way my friends celebrate it. This wasn't the first time that I'd played drunken dreidel but it was the first time I wore a head-dressing at the reading of the Hanukkah miracle. I think that if I was raised Jewish, I'd find this as monotonous as the stations of the cross was for me as a kid. However, now it's all new and fun. Plus there's drinking games!

a good book gone bad

They say that you should never meet your heroes because they will only disappoint you. I've always found that to be true. I think the same applies to books you really like. Don't ever see the movie. I always do though and in one way or another, I am usually disappointed. The Lord of the Rings was good but the book was just a little bit better. Tonight, I saw the Golden Compass in an advance screening with a free ticket for the first time.

The line was huge and I expected to get turned away because we were FAR in the back. But much to my delight, we got in and got to sit next to each other. As far as the movie goes, I was expecting the same thing as LOTR. I thought the movie would be good with some literary liberties taken in the screenplay and I knew the book would be better. However, I was beyond pissed at the movie to the point where I yelled at the screen at the end.

The actors were marvelous and the scenery was beautiful. But they were both at the mercy of a lazy and forgetful screenplay writer and an overzealous editor. Oh the horror! They skipped SO much and then rearranged the order that the story was told in. Hell, they ended the movie several chapters before the end of the book!

I am almost done with the third book. I read a lot yesterday, trying to finish it before I saw the movie. However, now I'm glad that I still have a little of the book to read. I want the written word to be the lasting impression of that tale in my imagination.

taking comfort

It was a constant hard rain today. I think it's easiest to survive days like these if you just accept that you're not going out and if you do, you probably won't enjoy it. It puts off the cabin fever by making it feel like it's nothing your body could or should struggle against. Just relax and simmer down.

I started the day by adding one shot of peppermint schnapps to my coffee. No, I'm not an alcoholic. I just needed the caffeine to preemptively strike any up-and-coming caffeine-less headache but I really wanted to chill. It pretty much set my mood at mellow which I managed to maintain most of the day.

I did the food donation s and got a whole lot of mushrooms. When life hands you mushrooms, make soup. I've made canned soup before and boxed soup before but I've never made it from scratch. I found it odd that it was so damn easy and TASTY! It was also very fitting for the day though. I love a good soup day.

preparing for the dark

The weather in Portland is so mild and tedious that I welcome storms. However, I may be asking for more than I am prepared for. At least two typhoons are said to be colliding in the Pacific and we are supposed to feel the ramifications here in Portland. The paper yesterday said that it would be the first time that the city of Portland has ever had hurricane winds up to 100 mph. So we are getting ready.

Ashes and I went and bought lamp oil and candles today. I'm going to get food early tomorrow from our food donations and we will have plenty of firewood. Nothing will probably happen. Like I said, Portland's weather is annoyingly mundane, so much so that it will undoubtedly dull this storm down to a forceful breeze. I suppose I should be thankful, after growing up in the tornado belt but I would like something other than overcast and flat rain. Sigh.