Zilch

as per usual, nothing exciting is currently occurring here.

i found out my next day off is two sundays from now thanks to my two jobs. this alternately sucks and rocks, or at least will rock in the future when i receive my respective checks. right now it just kind of sucks in the man, i'm tired kind of way.

i am in the midst of the cider house rules and a book at work that just came in called vermeer's hat. both very enthralling in their own ways. i've managed to read for four hours tonight without really realizing it.

i love my throw pillows. they provide just the right amount of propping to keep my limbs from falling asleep in all of the awkward positions i end up reading in when in bed. to be truly, ideally comfortable, though, i need a chaise lounge. i will send you my address should you care to send one my way. please include nice reading lamp.

nothing provides better reading ambiance than some strong womens' voices: amy winehouse, sara bareilles, and feist are currently on a loop over here.

back to the book.

Highlight of My Day

giving myself a manicure was the apex of my day today. also that i just worked the word apex into a sentence. what this says about my day, i will leave you to deduce.

Shake it like a Polaroid Picture

i left work today jonesing for something specific. it was a food item, of course, and was something that would make my forecasted dinner of leftover chicken tikka masala just right: naan. i could eat approximately 27 orders of naan on my own given both the chance and some tikka masala sauce to dip it in. it is quite possibly what the greeks spoke of as food for the gods, supposing some little indian man made his way down the future silk road and cooked them some real food in celebration (he had had enough of olives). anyway, i made my way to the indian restaurant located about 4 blocks from my house and waited on some naan to go. i rediscovered why i love this place when they brought me an espresso-sized mug of chai to wait with - their chai is the best around and always a good compliment to the spicy food. the only unfortunate problem with this chai is that it registered about 300 degrees fahrenheit on my tongue. i didn't have to wait long, and wanted to cool it, so of course i did what we've all been taught to do since childhood: i blew on it. then i got to thinking. does blowing on hot liquid actually work to cool it, or is it just a time killer in much the same way shaking a polaroid picture gets you nowhere fast but passes the time til the image develops? i spent a long, hard night researching this (ok actually i just googled my question and clicked on the first link), but all i can find is that air passing over liquid increases the rate of evaporation. does evaporation necessarily determine the temperature of a beverage? does my questioning all of this necessarily determine my inherent levels of nerdiness? possibly, to both.

Encouragement

the reverend writes like it's nobody's bidness. go tell him to enter a contest with this post. he doesn't really need a bigger ego, but i do what i can to pump it up.

Inventory

for anyone working in the retail world, the word strikes fear in your very soul. i had inventory today from 6 am til 5 pm at the major home decor retailer that provides me my second income, and it was rough. it could have been worse, i suppose, had not all of the merchandise been scan-able. we were all armed with scanner guns, and swarmed over the stockroom and store like little ants to try to scan every last item of merchandise. by the time i left at 5, we had about 98% of the merchandise scanned initially, but the auditing of our counts was only at about 10%. i was definitely ready to be done by the time i left - i had done my portion of the duties by doing some of the more painful tasks (read: ornament table). now i'm sore, have a semi-permanent red spot on the knuckle of my right thumb where my scan gun rested all day, and hope to never have to go through stacks upon stacks upon stacks of heavy ceramic plates again. i may possibly go into seizures if i even see a huge stack of plates at this point in the game. not to mention, the lamest part of the whole thing, i missed a 65 degree day from start to finish. tomorrow it's going to snow and rain all day. way to go, inventory.

I've Found My Drink

i feel like everyone has a signature drink they get when they're out. something their friends can predict and pre-order for them, something they might get teased for always having but order anyway. and i've found mine: amaretto sours. they are the best of both worlds, with the sweet and the sour flavors. they go down easily, don't upset my stomach (through trial and error i have discovered that vodka and my stomach, for instance, are not so much friends), and often come with pretty accoutrements like sliced oranges or cherries. so if we ever go out to a bar together, order me this:(not necessarily two, but that might end up happening.)

Masked

several times now i have written my posts during one of my nightly rituals: wearing my nightly face mask. i have to let it dry on my face for ten to fifteen minutes, and it should be obvious that that's about all the time i take to write each post. it makes my face smooth and redness free (briefly). there is just one thing about this face mask that bothers me a little...its smell. the active ingredient in it is, of all things, sulfur. works like a charm for what it should do, but once you get some sulfur near your nostrils, that's all you smell. plus (and this would go for any face mask, really) i kind of almost gag when things dry on me, like if mud dries on my hands, so every night i force myself not to dry heave when it gets dry on my face and i get all tight and crinkly and gagggggggggggggggg i need to go wash this off kbye.