So I’ve been staying out/up kinda late the last few weeks or so, and have managed to even further screw up my “normal” sleep schedule. So I’ve tried to reconstruct the activities of the last 2 weeks to chart out when exactly I’ve been going to sleep each evening. I’ve found it hard to remember what all I did each day, and so some of the days might be off, but I think they’re pretty close. Anyway, come marvel at my ability to function somewhat productively while systematically eliminating all the things the body needs to survive:

Sunday (Feb. 8)

After a very long and trying day, I found it necessary to get out of my house.. So eventually Mindy and I went and saw Along Came Polly. I thought it was funny, but not spectacular. We went to the latest showing (but sadly did not have the theater to ourselves like we did for Mona Lisa Smile), so I finally got home sometime after 1:00/1:30. I then had great trouble getting to sleep.
[asleep ~ 2:30 a.m.]

Monday (Feb. 9)

Work. I had dinner at Max and Ermas with Joel, Swac, and Mandace. Had a couple. We headed back home and played some Mario Tennis for quite a while. Once again I had trouble sleeping…
[asleep at 2:45 a.m.]

Tuesday (Feb. 10)

Worked from home. Met Tim for lunch at Max and Ermas. Rachel later joined us, and I ended up chatting with her for an hour or two after Tim took off. Headed back and got my work finished. Kristin and I went out shopping, and I got myself a snazzy watch. We then had some dinner, and then she headed home, and I headed out for the Pickwick. Had a couple. I got a call from Rachel, and afterwards headed over to her place, and Joe, Rachel and I watched a movie. (Sliding Doors). After it was done, Rachel tossed in About a Boy, so we watched that. I finally headed home around 4:00.
[asleep at 4:30 a.m.]

Wednesday (Feb. 11)

Went in to work… I drove, which was an experience…[I was tired...] Worked. Made it home, and fell asleep. Woke up at around 8, and quick drove out to Tuuk‘s place to join Tuuk, Mark, and Joel for Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles. That game rules. I’m a Selkie girl [of questionable morality, based on attire]. Anyway, 4 player Zelda-esque goodness == hella fun. I got a call from Rachel while we were playing, so after I left (11ish?), I headed over to her place, and there was a bit of a party going on… a few hours later Joe drove me home. After short online chats with Joel, Steve, and Peter, I headed off to sleep.
[asleep at 3:30]

Thursday (Feb. 12)

Work. I joined Mindy at Max and Ermas for lunch, as is the routine. Rachel picked me up from there, and brought me back to her place so I could get my car. Worked the rest of that day, then intended to get a lot of sleep, as I was quite tired. I got into bed at 9, and watched some Futurama, and some Arrested Development, and an episode of Scrubs then got a call from Joe, and joined him at Knoshville, and hung out with him until around 2:30 then headed home.
[asleep at 3:00 a.m.]

Friday (Feb. 13)

Worked. Afterwards I headed over to Tuuk’s place, and the group got together for some more Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles fun. I was pretty exhausted, So we hung out for a while afterwards, played some trivial pursuit, watched some TV, then eventually things fizzled, and I headed home. Once home I watched some DS9, then faded off to sleep.
[asleep at 3:45 a.m.]

Saturday (Feb. 14)

I intended to sleep through this day, as I was not at all in the mood to deal with the holiday that has been nothing but a bitch to me my entire life. I got a call from Cathy, who was apparently in a similar frame of mind, and so she came over, and I donned the traditional attire (all black everything), and we went out to dinner. Afterwards, I returned to an empty house and occupied my time with low quality movies (but Julia Stiles was in one of them) and Deep Space 9 episodes until I was so sick of looking at screens that I started reading Harry Potter 5. Eventually I headed off to bed.
[asleep: at 2:00 a.m.]

Sunday (Feb.15)

Church, then video games and cleaning. Robb and I went to Max and Ermas for dinner, then watched Arrested Development and some Monty Python.
[asleep at 2:00 a.m.]

Monday (Feb 16)

Work, then dinner at Max and Ermas with Joel. When we returned, Cathy was at the house, so we hung out with her for a while. We were going to watch T-3, but that never quite materialized. Eventually Cathy and Joel off, and I watched some TV for a while.
[asleep ~ 1:30 a.m.]

Tuesday (Feb. 17)

Work, like normal. I had lunch with Tim out at Buffalo Wild Wings, then headed back home for more work. Afterwards I headed out to Tuuk and Mark’s for some Chrystal Chronicles fun, then there was the Pickwick, then we returned for more Chrystal Chronicles. It was excellent.
[asleep ~ 2:00 a.m.]

Wednesday (Feb. 18)

Went in to work, as is the tradition. Afterwards, Joe and Rachel came over, and we played some video games, then watched Notting Hill. Eventually Joe took off, and Rachel and I hung out til about 5:30.
[asleep at 6:00 a.m.]

Thursday (Feb. 19)

I worked from home, which was fortunate, cause wouldn’t want to have had to drive at 7:00. I had lunch with Mindy. Then Gwen came over to work on some stuff on her computer while I finished up my work. Afterwards we played some video games, watched TV and had some pizza. Mindy came over with her friend, Ebony, and we played some cards. Joe joined, and we played some euchre. Mandace joined us in time to play some Mario Kart, and then Rachel joined us. We play cards until late (my guess is 2 or 3), then Mandace and Joe called it a night. Rachel and I hung out for a while more.
[asleep ~ 4:00/4:30ish a.m.?]

Friday (Feb. 20)

I did the work thing, and got my stuff done. I was most pleased. Got home, and then headed out to Sven and Julie’s place, where we were joined by Keith, Kristi, and they’re baby son, Jonathan. So we had some deep dish pizza there, talked for a while, then played cards. It was a good time. Keith and Kristi rule. I returned home, talked to Rachel for a while, and watched a few Deep Space 9 episodes, and then finally fell sleep.
[asleep ~ 2:00 a.m.]

Saturday (Feb. 21)

I got a decent amount of sleep, and woke up at 10:00. I headed out to lunch with Sven, Keith, Kristi, and Jonathan. Afterwards, Keith and Kristi (and yes, Jonathan as well) Headed back towards home, and Sven came over to my place for some video game fun. We played some Home Run Derby (I believe Coors Field is simply unable to allow balls to not sail 100 feet past the fence. It’s beautiful.) Later on, Julie joined us for some Mario Kart fun. After they took off, I tried out Pac-Man World 2. I am a fan. Later that evening, I joined Joel, Adam,Jplant, and Tuuk for some Ice Skating. I was skeptical, but I had a good time, and my ankle is starting to heal. After that we headed toJplant‘s place for some SNL. (Jesus Horses!) I headed on home, watched some TV, then got a call from Joe, who was at Knoshville. SO headed out there and joined Joe and Rachel. Joe took off around 3:00-3:30, and Rachel and I stuck around til a bit after 5:00 a.m..
[asleep at 5:30 a.m.]

Sunday (Feb. 22)

I got up at 8:30, got ready, went with Rachel to the church where her dad preaches. Afterwards we had dinner with her parents. Then I headed on home, watched a Deep Space 9 episode, then took a nap. I got a call from Joe, and then headed out to Rachel’s place to join her and Joe for some board games (Clue, Payday, Sequence, and then Uno). I headed home around 3:00.
[asleep at 3:30 a.m.]

Monday (Feb. 23)

Did the work thing, then had dinner with Joel, Swac, Robb, Mandace, Joe, and Rachel. We all came back to the house, and Rachel and I worked on her Psychology. After that, Joel, Joe, and I watched Futurama and 2 episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Then Joe and I hung out for a while. Joe took off when I began to lose consciousness.
[asleep ~ 2:00 a.m.]

Tuesday (Feb. 24)

I worked from home. Headed to Max and Ermas for lunch with Tim. Then worked some more, then was joined by Gwen. We headed to Best Buy and she bought a scanner, then began setting that up as I worked. Eventually Gwen had to jet, and then I cut my hair, and headed off to Tuuk and Marks for some Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles. We had to fight a Zombie Dragon, and it was just plain awesome. After having our asses handed to us right quick the first time, we returned and [eventually] took him down with some spectacular teamwork. We took him down just in time to be a few minutes late for the Pickwick, and quick headed out there to join Alan, Jplant, and Adam. Afterwards, we headed back to Mark and Tuuk’s for a short bit, then I headed out, and headed off to Rachel’s, where we eventually watched Finding Nemo. I headed home around 2:45.
[asleep at 3:15 a.m.]

The weird thing is, besides Wednesday (the 11th) morning, Sunday (the 22nd) afternoon, and Monday (the 23rd) night, I’ve not felt any more tired than I usually do. One could reach one of two conclusions from that, I’d think:

1. I’m not getting enough sleep as it is, and the exhaustion I ought to have felt having so severely deprived myself of sleep was not noticeable because my body has become accustomed to feeling that level of exhaustion at all times. Without a significant alteration to my “normal” sleep schedule, my body will continue to degrade until limbs simply fall off and my brain starts to digest itself.
2. My body doesn’t really need as much sleep as I had been giving it before, and I can afford to trim the average down to a tidy 3 hours or so, and be just as productive.

[update: Wednesday (Feb. 25) Home at 5:00 a.m. Asleep at 5:30 a.m.]

This week has been “something”. I can’t say it’s been good, because some things about this week have really pissed me off, or frustrated me, or made me sad, or just annoyed me to the point where that knife on the desk seems like it really ought to just lodge itself nicely in my neck somewhere. But it’s not been horrible either. I got to go out on a date, and had a good time with that, and subtle progress seems to have been made in other pursuits, while other [potentially] important decisions made seem to have been validated… which in one way is a good thing [though by no means a happy thing]. And significant progress is [continually] being made at work, which is a good thing [But I must say, it completely wipes me out by the end of the day. I start going retarded by about 4:15 most days. I can usually stay just sane enough to finish whatever project(s) I had assigned for the day, but after that, even speaking proves difficult.] Anyway, that’s a whole other thing. I don’t want to even call this week “interesting”, cause aside from a few happenings, it wasn’t.. It was a lot of monotony. [Work, sleep, feel like shit, work, possibly eat, sleep, feel like hell, work.. etc..] All the while, I find myself rushing from one thing to the next, with little time to slow down until it’s so late that normal people are sleeping, or waking up for work… and at that point, it’s not so much “slowing down” as it is “collapsing in a heap somewhere on or near my bed”. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that this week was… well, kinda typical, I guess…. Damnit.

So I plugged my earphones into the wrong jack on my laptop, and blasted Celine Dion at work for about a minute and a half before realizing that the sound wasn’t coming through the headphones, but rather, the laptop speakers.

Anyway, the fast, fast week-so-far recap:

Sunday

Spent much of the day waiting around and cleaning the house [for no reason, apparently]. I headed of to church in the evening, as I had to get another deacon to cover my counting duties on Monday, as I had “plans”. Then Mindy joined me at Max and Ermas [...eventually....], and we went and saw Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, which I enjoyed, of course, as it conformed to the rules I think life ought to abide by but never does. (i.e., The nice guy is rewarded for being nice, rather than just getting jerked around, then killed by bloodthirsty pirates).

Monday

Work… Then I had dinner with Gwen and David Veldhof, and Gwen’s friend, Brianna. It was one of those “get introduced to each other in a hopefully not awkward type setting” type things. I had a good time. It was snowing like mad, and she had driven up from Kalamazoo, so the outing did not last too deep into the night. But a night out is still a night out.

Tuesday

Worked from home. Met up with Tim Vroom for lunch, as is the routine. Cleaned the house, and waited around… to no avail. Then it was Pickwick w/ Joel, Adam, andJplant, which was quite a good time.

Wednesday

Work… Then had dinner with Joel, Sven and Julie, and Mindy. I drank beers. Joe swung by a few times, and so I told him he and Rachel ought to come out to my place sometime (as Mandace and I had hung out with them at Rachel’s place a short time ago, and had a helluva good time.) So after dinner we headed home, and Joel and I played some Wario Wares, then Mario Tennis, where we were joined by Robb, and later, Swac. Got a call from Joe, and so he and Rachel showed up at our place around midnight or so. Giving them a tour of the place took about an hour (they seemed quite impressed with just about everything, so that was kewl.) then they had to take off. I hung out with Joel for a while, then he took off, and I eventually went to sleep… after watching every available episode of Red vs. Blue. (“You shot Church, you team-killing fucktard!”)

Thursday

I woke up a little late, but had quite a bit of work to do. Met with Mindy for lunch, then went back to work. Took a break around 6 to teach myself No Doubt’s Don’t Speak and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s – Tuesdays Gone on the guitar. They both sound kewl. I’m working on Aerosmith’s Dream On as well (It was Dream On that made me think of Don’t Speak, as they have similar intros.) Anyway, went back to work. Got a call from Joe, and he and Rachel would be coming over later in the evening. They showed up around 10:45ish, so I quit working then.

We ended up playing pictionary for a while (Robb, Swac, Mandace, Rachel, Joe, and me), which was quite, quite fun. My first word was “frisk”. WTF? I was also ridiculed for knowing what a menorah was, apparently. Anyway, afterwords, we played Apples to Apples, which was fun as well, and likely aided by the alcohol being consumed. Eventually they had to take off, which was unfortunate. We cleaned up, then I talked with Mandace for a while, then eventually went to bed around 3ish.

Friday

Woke up, headed to the meeting point [fairly late] just in time to see Andy heading towards the exit (Joel already informed me he would not be joining the car pool [slept in] and Dave was telecommuting). So I gunned it and got behind Andy as he was turning out of the parking lot onto the street. So I chased after him, flashing my bright lights and honking my horn, but no luck. It was kinda funny… especially when I drove along side him on the highway for a while and couldn’t get him to look over. Anyway, that was that. Tonight is the final episode of Ed. Hopefully that’ll be an enjoyable enough event. (watching this show, not the fact that I won’t get to see another new one, ever.)

And that’s all I have, at the moment.. besides a really long rant that I may as well keep separate, as I’ll prolly delete it before I decide to post it anyway.

First, the Wisdom of General Martok:

“We are not accorded the luxery of chosing the women we fall in love with.”

Ed

In the off chance that you haven’t seen the advertisements, next week Friday may well (and more than likley will be) the final episode of Ed. Ever. It’ll be Edand Carol’s wedding, so it’ll nicely tie up the storyline that began with the first episode. In the past few episodes they’ve also done a fairly good job of wrapping up other people’s storylines as well: Molly ended all of her relationships, cause she’s stupid, and nobody cares, cause Molly isn’t an interesting character. She’s a principal at the school, so her storyline is more or less wrapped up. Let’s face it, her job on the show was to be Carol’s best friend, and the go-between for Ed and Carol when things were rocky. She played her part well, and there was much rejoicing. [For the record, I'm of the impression that the position of "go-between" only really works on TV shows and movies. In real life, that person either gets pissed early and quits, screws things up, or gets screwed over by the two people trying to hook up.] Okay, so Molly is set. Mike and Nancy are going to have another child. They just found out Nancy is pregnant in the last episode. Mike is working with Dr. Jerome, and that’s going well. Mike will get the practice when Dr. Jerome retires, which ought to be sometime soon. Nancy is the guidance counselor at the High School, and seems to enjoy that quite a bit. No telling if she’ll stay on with the new kid, but that doesn’t really matter much one way or another. Shirley hooked up with Toby Gibbens, Phil… continues to be Phil. Eli hooked up with Jenny-fair, the Pie lady, and now works at the radio station as well as the bowling alley. Mark lost a ton of weight, and is presumably still happily hooked up with Diane, though we haven’t seen her almost all season. And then there’s Warren. I mentioned before that Warren isn’t going to college.. at least not right away.. he’s looking to do his TV talk show thing. I also mentioned the Stella thing.. Well, he hooked up with her again, though only briefly. He also walked in on Carol in the shower, and apparently got a handful of her ass in a typical sitcom-esque mix-up. Anyway, Stella dumped him again, and he was crushed again, but handled it quite well. He’s learning! Ed’s brother just got sent to jail for not paying taxes…but he finally was taking responsibility for his actions, so his little arc completed nicely as well… As for Ed and Carol… Ed’s still the bowling alley lawyer, and Carol is writing back in Stuckeyville. And they’re going to get married.

So am I pissed that it’s prolly done? Kinda… but I don’t think “pissed” is the best word for it. I think I’m more resigned to the fact that it’ll happen. That’s just kinda how it is. As soon as you ackowledge that you like something, it’ll be taken away from you, one way or another… Add that to the fact that network decision makers are without question the result of many generations of inbreeding, and suddenly their decisions seem to make a bit more sense. At this point, I’m terribly afraid that Arrested Development will be cancelled, simply because the show is so funny, and on Fox, where funny shows are killed. E.g.: Undeclared, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Family Guy, Futurama, The Critic, etc.. Anyway, the show [Ed] is going to end, and other shows that suck completely will be renewed. That’s just how it goes. Hopefully this means the show will get tossed out on DVD soon, as the first season was the best season of any television show ever. And I’ll admit, I lost a bit of enthusiasm [though not much] after the plot of the show and my own life stopped matching up so nicely. I suppose it’s my fault.. Ed got the girl, and I didn’t.

Guster show at the Orbit Room

Saturday, March 13, 2004. Who is coming with me?

Freebie List

So, that Friends episode was on the other day.. the one where they had the list of 5 celebrities they were allowed to sleep with. In the off chance that I ever meet a girl that’d give a damn if I went off and slept with someone, here’s my current list:

1. Julia Stiles
2. Keira Knightly
3. Julie Bowen
4. Natalie Portman
5. Sandra Bullock

Finally, this is me: