Random Monday

I swear, this neglect is not because I've been lazy. A little busy, at least over the weekend, but not lazy. I had a post all planned on a specific topic, but I got writer's block and kept putting it off. But I have now realized that I will just have to blog about something else. And there are a bunch of things I've been meaning to tell you, so here they are, in no particular order:

1. On Wednesday after work, I'm going to The Point to meet an out-of-town blogger and some of his other stalkers. Should be great fun because he's a riot, and he'll only be the second blogger I've met in person who I didn't already know. And it'll be my first visit to The Point.

2. I finished reading this book:


Same author as Sex and the City, by the way.

It was OK, but for most of it, I hated all of the characters except the protagonist's sister. You have to admit, it's really hard to get through a book when you hate all the characters. However, I persevered, and something happened in the last fifth or so of the book to make me feel more sympathy for the protagonist. I'm not sure quite what, but it worked. I still can't say I understand on a personal level what drives her, but at least I cared about what happened to her by the end.

3. I'm about 8 rows away from finishing the second one of these:


Another wrist warmer gauntlet thingy. Recipient's name withheld.

4. On Friday I went to the medieval torture chamber where they stuck me full of sharp objects clinic to get all my travel shots, and my arms? Still recovering. So is my wallet, actually, since they weren't covered on my insurance. I also got a prescription for 30 days' worth of malaria medication, and I'm halfway through taking the four pills that comprise the live typhoid vaccine. The "live" part is what really creeps me out. In case you're curious, I got these four different shots (just boosters in some cases), pills for this and this, and although they're recommended, I didn't need shots for either of these two, because I had already had them. I'm trying not to think too hard about how pissed off my immune system must be with me right now. All I want is for it to do its job and make lots of nice little antibodies for me so that when I go to India, all I'll have to worry about is sunburn and whether or not my belly can fit just one more piece of roti.

5. On Saturday, while at a string quartet concert, I was commissioned by the boyfriend of the second violinist to knit him a pair of wrist warmer/gauntlets. I'm totally flattered, but I hope he doesn't expect to see them anytime before about mid-January. After all, I've still got holiday knitting to do!

6. You know you've made the right choice when everything seems to conspire against you, yet it all works out OK. Like when you decide that you really do need to catch an international flight halfway around the world due to a family emergency and you find out five hours before departure time that your employer is actually OK with you being gone for a week right now even though you have a month-long vacation scheduled in three more weeks, and then you call the airline, only to discover that if it's less than six hours to departure, you have to buy the ticket at the counter, and then you drive what's normally a two hour trip in two and a half hours (which is actually great time, considering it's a Sunday night heading toward NYC, and that a Giants game happens to let out right before you have to pass the stadium), and then when you get to the airline ticket counter they tell you that their credit card reader is broken and you have to shell out $1400 in cash or you can't go home to be with your family when they really need you, but then by some miracle the ATM gods are smiling on you and you manage to scrape it all together, and then you have your ticket but only an hour to get through security and on the plane, but then for some amazing reason security only takes five minutes, even though you are the kind of person who usually gets pulled aside for cavity searches by the we-never-racially-profile-anyone-ever-except-when-we-think-you-might-not-be-white TSA people. And you make it to the gate and on the plane with time to spare. No, this wasn't me, but I was there.

7. I have a truly amazing and wonderful man in my life (see #6 above), and I can't believe how lucky I am even just to know him, much less to share so much love with him.

8. I also have really great friends who will take me in and feed me and distract me for Thanksgiving if Taz hasn't returned by then.