More musings...
10/21/03: Our local chapter of Mother Nature is manic depressive.  This summer was a record-setting one, for lack of rainfall; the entire state got an average of less than two inches.  ALL SUMMER.  Then fall hit. I fully expected the weather to turn gray and crappy right on cue.  However, it stayed really warm and sunny.  A couple lightly-rainy days here and there, but lovely for the most part. 
        Eventually, last week or maybe even the one before, it got seriously gray, cloudy, Northwest-fall-like.  Then, yesterday, it broke.  Five inches of rain in one day.  Torrents and sheets of rain all day long.  It set an all-time record for rainfall in a single day.
10/31/03: Happy Halloween! It is COLD.  I am sitting in my apartment and my fingers are literally going numb. I cranked the heat but it is taking its sweet damn time.   It turned seasons in the blink of an eye...all the fall colors are out, and it is decidedly frosty in the mornings.  Brr.   
     So at this momentous occasion, I must think back to all the previous Halloweens/birthdays in my short but jampacked life.  I remember the party I had at the Gymnastics place, everyone wore Halloween costumes and we had a pinata, and then possibly we stayed the night at the gym.  I remember lots of trick or treating in downtown Issaquah.  I remember a party and trick or treating with a big group of girls in high school.  Then of course, last year, when I, along with my teammates, spent Halloween packing to go back to Perry Point, and deep-cleaning the Bridgeport Habitat house.  What an interesting array of history.
      It's the end of yet another month.  Crazy.  Time is flying like nobody's business.  I am reading another big book, which makes me a little impatient.  Instant gratification, man. 
11/12/03: After I finished Live from New York, I read My Antonia. which I understand to be rather a standard in educational reading.  My other foray into this field (Catcher in the Rye, which I did not like at all, as it had no discernable plot) made me skeptical, but I quite liked it.  The story reminded me of Giants in the Earth, with the whole breaking of virgin land thing.  It's thrilling to imagine all the toil and struggle they endured, and to imagine if you, the reader, would have been capable.  And it's one of those books, like Prayer for Owen Meany, where the narrator, though ostensibly the center of the story, has no real personality, nothing to draw you to them. Their existence is to acquaint you with the titular character, who is often unforgettable and epic in their own way.  You only remember them as being in love with or being friends with or just generally admiring of the real lead character.  Anyway. I liked the book.
          Well, it's happened at long last, I have a forty-hour work week!  I like it.  I am still busy, of course, but things have worked out so that I am no longer just barely keeping up, it's the reverse now; my processors can hardly keep up with me.  Plus, my phone is almost silent.  I clear my desk constantly.  Which is nice, to not be drowning in files, but it makes me want a big, busy project. 
         Outside of work, I have enough time to work out in the evenings, eat some green beans, watch tv, AND relax a little.  I need to work on weekends, because I tend to polarize--I go, go, go, nonstop, or I do nothing at all. Must work on more of a compromise of the two.  But I am feeling more about my life, because I feel more in control of it.
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11/29/03: So Thanksgiving is over, thank goodness.  Thanksgiving has got to be my least favorite holiday; none of the meal appeals to my strict tastes, so I dine on rolls and salad, the smell of turkey cooking grosses me out, and I do NOT like being obligated to be with my family.  Plus, as I told my roommate recently, I have issues with the ideological underpinnings of the entire holiday.  Yes, I am evil and extremely un-American.  Get over it.
    All that said, I do of course love having a day off of work (for once!), and our bosses let us go early on Wednesday AND on Friday (we get either the day after Thanksgiving or the day after Christmas off; I am planning for a long weekend over Christmas). 
    Wednesday was even better because I had an interview!  I can't remember if I mentioned the AmeriCorps jobs that I found last month and applied for.  Well, since it had been a month, I had given up on it, no big deal. But I got a call at work on Monday to set up a phone interview.  It seemed to go pretty well, and it got me all excited and happy. 
12/10/03: So yeah, Thanksgiving sucks. 
     Not so good news: got a call today that I was not chosen for the AmeriCorps position.  Oh well.  It would have been fabulous, but I'll just find something else!  And really, who wants to live in Dallas anyway? 
     Good news--I came straight home from work and cleaned my bathroom!  Bad news for the mold colonies that were making a valiant attempt to take over the shower stall, though. 
     Even better news that I can't believe I almost forgot to share: I am going to Paris!  Thirty days from today, as a matter of fact!  I will be there for nine days, a Saturday to a Monday, and oh, I cannot wait.  It's been two and a half years since I've seen Paris.  They've eliminated the franc and who knows what else in that length of time.  And I've only been there in the summertime, so it will be a new experience to see it in the winter.  I imagine it will be gray and dreary weather, but empty of tourists.  Also hoping to catch some after-Christmas sales.  A first for me--I will be staying in a hostel NOT in the outlying areas--I've just put in a reservation to a hostel in the 5th (Saint-Germain/student district)...woo!  I'm trying to think of the last time I had a real vacation, like on a plane...and I'm pretty sure it was my 2001 Eurotrip.  Egads.