One Week

Dear Blog,

It's been over a week since my last real entry. Can I even remember what happened last week?

Monday: Wake up to the doorbell ringing at 9:00am. “Who's is ringing my doorbell this early? It rings again and it dawns on me. Fedex?

I run to the front bedroom window and look out. The big white truck is blocking my neighbor's driveway. I throw on a robe and run like a mad woman down the stairs, to the front door and yank it open.

“Hi!”

My delivery person is a woman and I'm pretty sure from the amused smile on her face that she A) knows what my package is and B) has been following my chain of thought. “I heard you,” she says, referring to my thumping down the stairs like herd of elephants. Without further torture, she hands over a pad, I sign it, and she gives me the box containing my shiny new Macbook Pro.

“Thanks,” I say, holding my robe closed.

I went back to bed, but the doorbell wasn't done with me. It rang again an hour later—post office package for Jess. By the third time I had already given up and gotten out of bed and was watching Battlestar Galactica. I wasn't expecting UPS and my girlfriend was at work which meant it couldn't be anyone I wanted to talk to. I went back to the upstairs window and waited to see who walked away. After a minute, two older women came into view, carrying pamphlets.

I was glad I trusted my instincts. I get annoyed at the best of times, by anyone who tries to convert me to their religion—but I think it's the height of rudeness to interrupt people in their homes to try to tell them who, what or how they should worship.

From there it was pretty much downhill. Other than moving my files and settings from my old Mac to my new one, not only did I get nothing done, but I was barely functional. I didn't feel like eating or drinking, so the inevitable headache showed up right on time and then I just felt crappy for the rest of the day. Total waste.

Tuesday I had class, which forced me to get up and be productive. The cleaners showed up at a ridiculously early hour, which they've never done before. Jess got called off work, so rather than stay home while they cleaned, she got up and rode to Cascade campus with me and we had breakfast in the cafeteria.

Thursday started out with me getting a flat on the way to school and Jess coming to rescue me. I took Tri-met to school and put Mr Tuffy liners into my tire when I fixed it. I much prefer the quiet, peaceful, point to point transfer of the school shuttle.

In the evening we had my old roommates Carrie & Davina over for dinner. The house was nice and clean and we finally had an excuse to extend the table into it's large configuration, with real place settings and a lovely looking (and tasting) spread of couscous salad, Mediterranean carrot salad, dolmas and vegan chocolate cake for dessert. The salad is one that Jess's friend Jessie (I know, too many Jesses!) made us when we went to her house for dinner. It's filled with things I supposedly don't like (zucchini, peas among others) and yet I couldn't stop eating it. Luckily she was happy to part with the recipe but this was our first time making it. It came out great. C & D are a little party shy so I knew that personally inviting the two of them to dinner was the only way to get them over to the house. We had a fabulous time though so maybe it'll be easier the next time. Carrie has possibly an even drier sense of humor than I do and she kept us in hysterics for most of the evening.

They also told us about Bob, a friend they met while traveling in southeast Asia last year. Bob caused another kind of hysterics when I finally got to see a picture of him this weekend. They met him in their hotel bathroom and once they saw him, they always wanted to know where he was. It's not like you could kill him. That would only heighten the trauma. Personally, I think Bob would've sent me on a one way search for the nearest airport.

Friday after a slow start, we decided to go out and be touristy on our own turf. This included riding down to the south waterfront and taking the OHSU tram up to the top of the hill. We hung out on the balcony of the Kohler Pavillion enjoying the view and then we bombed down the hill at 30mph. We easily kept up with the cars so we could take the lane and the road was twisty enough to be exciting but mellow enough not to need much braking. I found out my three month Trimet pass is good for the Tram too so I'll probably go up and do it again at some point.

After that we took the MAX up to the Zoo for an official Zoobomb, which wasn't as steep or as fast as I remembered, but still fun. And we finished off with some drinking chocolate from Cacao, Drink Chocolate.

Jess worked all weekend so I spent the quiet time mostly studying. I seem to work best very late at night. I think it's because the world is mostly sleeping and I don't have the feeling that I'm missing something cool while I'm studying.

Sunday I got another random job, helping Carrie with backing up and cleaning up her computer. In exchange, she and Davina are giving what I like to call the 'double feature' acupuncture/massage treatment. I love bartering. I really should try to do more of it.

In the afternoon J came over for a study date. She worked on algebra which made me all nostalgic. I will probably remember math as one of the only good things from 2006. I made some progress on my first programming assignment.

And that was pretty much the week.