Oh my! Two entries in one week? What is this world coming to?

Like the new picture? Joe took it in September, along with some other great pictures, and I thought the pic should at least look a little bit like I look now.

So, what have been up to over the last few months? Well, a lot, and yet not that much. I'm still at the same job. The politics have calmed down a bit, and since I took my first business trip in October, which I was able to combine with a weekend visit to Tucson, I'm not quite so nuts. Plus, it looks like I'll be going to New York, Chicago and Atlanta for business within a few months with co-worker P.. Since I've always wanted to visit New York and Chicago, I figured sticking around long enough for the company to pick up the tab would be a good thing.

I thought that I had met someone back in September who was very interested in me, seeing how he would call me just about every day and we'd go to lunch at least three times a week (he was temping in my building), but it turns out that he was pursuing me simply as a friend. Which is ok, because we've become good friends and I now know that if we were in a relationship I'd end up smacking him at some point. But now we seem to have a whole Will and Grace thing happening. (Yes, I would be Grace and M. is Will. So there was no way he'd be interested in me romantically.)

Halloween was a bit depressing, because I had no party to go to, but Thanksgiving and Christmas were good, despite my nasty flu that I had to deal with, and I spent New Year's Eve at a baby shower and my older brother's party, so this New Year's Eve was much, much better than last year.

It also looks like I'm the go-to person for cat sitting. A neighbor and some friends were out of town for Christmas and New Year's and yours truly put quite a few miles on her car. Which is fine, 'cause it's kinda nice taking care of others pets and I have tons of experience. One friend suggested that I start my own pet sitting business, and I think it's a pretty good idea. When I used to live with my folks I would ofter look after friends' pets when they were out of town, because it would help them out and give me a few weeks a year when I would stay someplace besides my folks. Hell, I even did it for a boss once, and she was very happy with the way I took care of her cats. I seem to have a knack for it.

It's official. My car is down for the count. It's newest trick: spewing odd smelling fumes that seep into the passenger part of the car. I think it has to do with the exhaust, but at this point pouring more money into my car would be futile. So within a few weeks I'll have a new car. Until that time I'll be biking and bussing where-ever I need to go, with friends and family maybe picking me up once in a while. I've done it before, so I'm not too concerned.

In many ways I just don't belong in Los Angeles.

There are some other things that I wanted to relate, but I honestly can't think of them right now.

I could always go over my feelings about our recent "election", but I don't like to discuss politics all that much. Besides, I think anyone that has read my journal for any length of time can guess my feelings about the whole mess. Suffice it to say that I'm one of them "bleeding heart liberals" who would have voted for Nader if the race between Gore and Bush wasn't so close, so I opted for Gore instead. So nice to know my vote actually made a difference.

Better not to go over that. I have to go to bed now and I don't want to get myself so worked up that I can't sleep.