So far behind in my multimediating.

The workout at the gym today was kind of hard, but there wasn’t all that much leg involvement. This made things seem a lot easier and thank goodness. I got up this morning and didn’t just hit the snooze, I just turned the alarm off. Fortunately, I didn’t sleep in more than 5 minutes. I was tired when I got to work and I realized I forgot my coffee cup. They’re trying to get us to quit using the paper cups at work and they’re using cheaper cups, making the Thermos cup a necessity. In any case, the morning kind of started off poorly.

I also had my check engine light on, and once again there was a bad oxygen sensor. I guess there’s more than one, because they told me a different one needed replacing, along with my blinker fluid. That’s what I get to do tomorrow morning.

I’m really behind on my TV shows. I just watched Chuck from last week and noticed I have three episodes of Bones to catch up on. Plus I have those GreenCine DVDs I’ve had since early March. My goodness I’m behind. I better check to make sure my bills are paid, too. Sheesh.

So much for going to bed early.

I was a zombie at work today, but what would you expect? After sitting through a 2 hour-long post-lunch meeting (having a hard time staying awake) I had a huge headache and I went home early. I got in a nap and went to the gym where I stumbled around and lamented the fact that my quads were so sore that I couldn’t walk down stairs today. And just for the record, Jeff kicked my ass.

After the workout, though, Sean and I were talking hamburgers. He was a vegetarian for quite some time, and he just started eating meat. He said his favorite was at “Lovely Hula Hands” and we showed up there with me still wearing my gym clothes. They didn’t really seem to mind and Sean bought me a delicious cheeseburger for my birthday. I’m not sure what my favorite hamburger is any more because there are so many different kinds of hamburgers, but this one was definitely in the “excellent” category. No added condiments were necessary and they can cook it rare for you. Certainly it was worth resetting my counter for it. I did avoid having a glass of wine, as I think my soreness is a combination of dehydration and lack of sleep. Why push my luck?

My dad’s bedroom is empty.

I took the day off to clean out my dad’s room and I had no idea I’d be at it until 11:15PM. I also had no idea I could move so much heavy stuff by myself with a hand truck. Well, I guess I cheated and just moved things from one bedroom to the next, but still, it was a chore. The bad news is that most of the stuff didn’t get sorted and is just in boxes to be sorted later. I’m hoping my mom will look at it and agree with me that most of it looks like garbage.

Since that’s all I did all day (besides sleeping in) there’s not much else to talk about. My legs are incredibly tired from yesterday, which I suppose is good. It means I’m actually doing something when I go to the gym.

Once again, Fran kicked my ass.

We did something similar to the Crossfit benchmark workout “Fran” today, but instead of using a 95lb barbell I used two 40lb dumbells. (It’s easier for the trainer to use dumbbells in large classes.) It truly sucked and once again I proved my abilities by coming in Dead F*cking Last. I wish I could say I was impaired by drinking all weekend, or from the dust in my dad’s room, or staying up too late doing my laundry, or even just stressing out about all the crap my dad had packed into his desk. But I think Fran always just kicks my ass. The front squats didn’t help, either. I ran up the stairs after the workout and my legs almost gave out.

I came home early to continue clearing out my dad’s room and after an hour-and-a-half I realized I had to take a day off from work to finish. Not only is Jason the Contractor waiting on me to clear out the room, but it’s been two years since my dad died and the room still hasn’t been completely cleared out. At this point I’m getting crazy and am just shoving things into boxes to get them the hell out of his room, but really, we need to sort through all the stuff. Eventually. After I clear out the room and get the carpet replaced, that is.

Happy Birthday to me!

I forgot to finish laundree!

I think that’s the whole rhyme for the day. Yesterday I was going to a birthday party for a friend of mine, but I had to skip out when my sister got in IM from Japan. I had to take care of some travel changes for her. I was also busy reading a mystery that kept me from doing anything worthwhile. I did go out to the Rogue Brewery for dinner with a bunch of people and while I don’t remember drinking all that much, I didn’t feel all that great in the middle of the night. I got up and my stomach and my head hurt. I stayed in bed until 11 or so and felt much better.

I spent the afternoon boxing up my dad’s old bedroom and I’m not close to being finished. Unfortunately, OfficeMax and the hardware store were closed for my birthday, and I wasn’t able to get an extra dust mask or more boxes. I did have lunch at the new Kenny and Zuke’s in my neighborhood which has a much smaller menu than their main store but is quite good nevertheless. I finally knocked off around 7 and made it to the Rogue again, because you have to go through a lot to get a free beer on your birthday and this I was finally going to do it. I had dinner by myself since it is Easter and everyone was busy. By the way, the hot fudge sundae at the Rogue is surprisingly good.

Megan’s right, it’s bachelor time.

I a dinner of Bagel Bites while standing in the kitchen. It was suitably awful, but I was too lazy to do anything else. And I’m having problems with my web server, so I’m sitting here trying to figure things out when I should be doing SOMETHING like washing the dishes. OK, so I use like two dishes when I’m here by myself and I actually did wash both of them already, but the reality doesn’t make for good copy. Plus, you’re going to notice that my web server is locked up once in a while, not that it really matters. There was a time, in the past, when my sister would knit or sew or cook and blog all about it and my web server actually mattered, but she decided to do something else obsessive and so no more regular postings. Nothing else on this web server matters that much.

In any case, I’m in the house by myself and I really should be back in my old routine, but there are several things that have derailed that. My mom is gone. I got a Kindle 2. I usually spend Friday night catching up on TV but last week I had a blind date. I could spend Saturday and Sunday watching TV, but I have to clear out another bedroom. You see how my life is all confused now.

I think I’m going to sit quietly and read a book now. Even though I should be sleeping.

Me forget to blog? That’s unpossible.

My mom and sister left for Japan today so the women in my life are all gone to a place where it’s a toll call to tell me what to do. I have instructions, however, to do things I’ll probably forget. Water the camelia. Forward some email. I’ve written it down and I’m already close to forgetting them.

I now have spent a day with my Kindle 2 and I suppose I have a few complaints. It’s expensive, you have to buy books from Amazon to keep things easy, and the contrast isn’t that great. But really, I didn’t get it to be a gadget, I got it to read books. An English prof once talked about how many of the people in the department were there because we’re readers. We can’t help it. We read cereal boxes. We read newspapers. We read scraps of notes that we find on the ground. So when you think about it, the Kindle 2 is perfect for us. We don’t have to stash books around the house. It’s easy to hold. It’s not that hard on the eyes, even with the lower contrast. And it has MANY books inside!

I guess I forgot to write on my narcissistic blog last night. I have a blog for many reasons. One is to give purpose to the server in the basement. Another is to practice writing. And, as I alluded to before, one is the pure self-centered joy I get when I find out that I’ve subjected someone else to my writings. HaHA! All this empty rhetoric and SOMEONE ELSE READ IT. Yeah, it’s not that big a deal. Really, there’s the whole practice aspect which is the main point. That and the giving the server purpose thing.

OK, I have to go read the mysteries I have on my Kindle 2 now. Michael Connelly, do your stuff.

Excuses, excuses.

I have lots of excuses for not going to the gym, and one good reason. Well, two good reasons. My mom is leaving for Japan in a couple of days and I figured I should have dinner with her. Plus, my elbow hurts when I pick anything up with my left arm, and it’s getting better, so I should probably lay off that arm until it gets better. So really, I had a pretty good reason for slacking today.

I should really go to sleep earlier but today my sister called and told me that there was something happening on House and I keep hearing that there’s a big development and I have to find the episode and see if this is the one with surprise. I’m staying up to see what it is, and woo, and there it is. So much for going to bed early, I have to watch this whole thing.

The problems with spring.

There are always a couple of days in spring in Portland that are incredibly nice and make us think we’ve turned the corner from winter. But really there’s no early break and we go back to cold and rainy most years. The bright sunny weather does bring out lots of people and also crowds the roads with bicyclists who have no business being out in traffic. I almost saw one crushed between two cars as she wove in and out of traffic and then rode between the world’s worst parallel parker and a parked car. The worst part for me, of course, is that it’s the start of hay fever season.

I spent most of this beautiful day indoors, in a dusty room, just shoveling my dad’s crap into boxes. It takes too long to sort through stuff and I really need to get the room cleared out by the end of the week. I’m not going to make it, I think. The dust doesn’t do much for my hay fever, either. Lifting the boxes didn’t do much for my arm. So really, this first really nice day of spring has been a joy all around.

Shirking my duties.

First off, for those wondering, I went on a blind date and it went well. I don’t want to say too much, but I guess I can say that she wouldn’t be approved by Mrs. Oh, but that just means she’s not 6′ tall and Korean. And now I know why John suggested we don’t get the tapas, she’s tiny and she doesn’t eat much. That just meant I wanted to eat a burrito afterwards. Or a cheeseburger. Or maybe fried chicken. I think maybe a cheeseburger.

I went to Five Guys Burger and Fries yesterday and the burger was one of the tastiest greasy burgers I’ve had. I still prefer my In-N-Out but this is one of the best substitutes I’ve found. Much better than that inconsistent Helvetia Tavern nonsense.

I was supposed to empty out my dad’s old bedroom this weekend but I took today off because my arm hurts. In fact, I can’t even raise it over waist high sometimes. I even went to get a massage to try to fix it and it’s kind of a mess. My back and arm are all knotty. I may need to take some time off from the gym and what’s up with that? But it did give me a chance to finish Monsters of Templeton so now it’s time for the Kindle!

Blind date.

So I usually don’t write about my dates on here until things have gone horribly awry, but I figure I can talk about blind dates in general. But how would I know? I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever gone out on a blind date before. Internet dating, once. Willamette Week dates twice. This is in several decades of trying, mind you. I figure I must be even more underwhelming on paper than I am in real life.

In any case, I’m going on a blind date tomorrow. I know hardly anything about her but I guess that’s the interesting part of all this. The problem is that I’m supposed to act like a normal person and, really, my charm is not in the normal or fake normal arena. I figure the worst that could happen is that she (or he — I really know nothing about this person) is humorless. That would be truly awkward. OK, it could be worse: they could be smelly and then try to kill me at some point. But I’m hoping for a normal dating situation. If this goes the way of my recent experiences, she either won’t show up or she’ll bring her boyfriend. I’m an eternal optimist.

Speaking of which, I’m optimistically thinking of getting some actual sleep tonight, so I better get off my silly computer. I know there’s something I’m supposed to do, but I can’t remember what it is. Cleaning my mom’s fancy espresso machine was on the list of forgotten tasks, as is watching some TV show from earlier in the week, and finishing the last book I have standing between me and my Kindle 2. Oh, and clearing out my dad’s old bedroom. The bedroom is so filled with crap that the contractor usually goes in, puts his hands on his hips, blows out a breath through pursed lips, and says, “Wow that’s a lot of crap.” I just have to find a place to stash the crap for a little while so the flooring can be redone. It also needs a new window, new plaster, and new paint, but I’ll worry about that after I get all the crap out of the room.