古崇賢的学报

Tonight, various things. Mi comprensión oral de español mejora por mi trabajo, cual sea buena. My oral comprehension of Spanish is improving due to my job, which is good. Especially since they hired me for my Spanish skills. It's been a bit rough, as i've not had regular telephone practice with my Spanish since 1985.

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I'm about ready to pick up on the cycle of poems i started in November. For some reason, only now do i feel ready to carry on with the project, which will occur over in seain_scribbles, the community i set up for my writing. I wonder if i should move my personal essays over there. Likely, i will cross-post them, as i have more readership here, and not everyone wants to be part of helping me edit my writing. I shall make some new tags in this journal to better group personal essays and poems.

I've come to realise that my personal essays, some of which are properly vignettes, are really some of my strongest writing. I find that kind of odd, as i'm not one to talk about myself, which some of my friends are discovering as they're being interviewed for my Level 2 Clearance. One commented after her interview that she feels she knows me well, but doesn't really know about me. That did not surprise me, as that's rather how i am in general. I'm really rather introverted and shy, despite the face i present to the world.

Not that i never talk about my homosexuality, spirituality, kinks, and what, i just don't do it often, nor to a very large audience. One friend was shocked at first that i'd remade acquaintance with a charming man with whom we'd both gone to HS on a kink site. Her shock turned to pensiveness, leading her to comment as to whether all of us from the first couple of classes of that school had turned out queer and/or kinky. I posited all but one person, quite maybe...hmm...make that two people on further consideration.

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I'm falling into the rhythm of the new job and its wack schedule. I'm enjoying it, and like my coworkers, though one of them knows not what to make of me, though i'm guessing that'll change as we work together more. Either that, or we'll maintain our professional relationship and never gel socially, which is cool. One cannot be social with everyone, though one can be pleasant with [most] everyone. I've also come to learn that i must be in bed not later than 22 if i want to be rested, functional, and focused for work. Lack of sleep makes me highly unfocussed.

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The cats are doing well. Bunbun's been a bit skittish of late, but he goes through periods of that. I said hi to him earlier when i went up to get the cat bowls to wash so i could feed them, and he shot off like i was a threat. *shrug* He's cute, and cuddly when he wants. Very rabbitlike. :)

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Right now i'm tired, a bit antsy, and wanting social interaction. So, sleep, a walk, and a conversation, though likely not in that order, are what i want right now. Likely i'll read a bit, fall asleep, get up in the wee hours, brush my teeth and go to bed. Guess i'll see. Maybe i'll be all grown-up and brush my teeth and go to bed to read. Stranger things have happened.

Oh! I've tried a couple of the wines i received for helping bhanfhlaith move. Very nice so far, the ones i've had. Thank you for them. I've not yet opened the gallon of homemade mead. I look forward to that once the weather cools a bit, toward Samhain or so.

Oh, and a random tidbit: I was surprised to learn that my street address is unique in the US.

Peace unto you, my friend.

Hey, yall. Quick update. Slow week for me at work, though i'm learning a lot.

Monday - listened to calls being handled, got a feel for general process

Tuesday - Got in was handed an email by a coworker n the middle of a call. Paper said to go to another facility to pick up my paperwork. So at 08:30 i went to that facility and got the paperwork. I identical paperwork to the piece of paper already in my hand. Took paper back to my facility and got a badge. Spent 2 hours with my manager learning a new process - then general training at yet another facility, happily one closer to home.

Today - On-line training, chatting, some explanations of the Level 1 [clearance] checklist - now 80% complete, more chatting and a nice lunch with a coworker from another facility. Spent some time seeing how a partial system-down is handled - a system-down that required reverting to paper for about 14 hours - i'm guessing - today at land ports of entry.

Tomorrow - More listening in on calls and learning how to do things.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. This days thing is tiring. I'm wondering if i'll get used to days just in time to start working nights. Guess we'll see. More on my schedule tomorrow or Friday.

Wednesday, i went up to the nookery mid-afternoon, via White's Ferry, cause it was a nice day, chatted mith Marc some, and then nosebeepbear and i went to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the AFI Silver in Silver Spring, MD. We got to go for free thanks to someone at my church giving me some member passes valid through the end of June. It was great fun seeing it, especially since i'd not seen the ending before, oddly.

Paused to get her a salad and me some fries at Wendy's, then back to The Nookery. Chatted with Marc until i passed out on the couch. Awoke there mid-day, and Marc made some lovely cous-cous, then we hit Giant and Magruder's, then i, for the first time ever, took White's Ferry from MD to VA. At 14:00, it's empty. First time i saw a bike on the ferry, too.

Headed to Hamilton to help bhanfhlaith with her move to Atlanta. Packed up part of the kitchen, and helped empty the storage unit into the 24-foot truck. Went home, took a bath, and have been chilling. Tomorrow, i have evening plans, and hope to chill through the day, and take the dog for a long, leisurely walk.

In other news, my friend Tom's house was burnt down - total loss according to the fire dept - last night. He's in NC, the house in TN. He's dealing with insurance stuff, and plans to walk away.

In September 1975, when i was 4, my family moved to Dale City, VA. Not long after we moved in, a cat appeared at our back door. Mom let him in. The man from next door came looking for the cat later that day, from whom we learned the cat was named Amos. The next day, Amos was back. He hopped onto their AC unit, onto the fence, onto our AC unit, and appeared at our back door.

Pat and John, the neighbours who owned him, asked us to watch the cat during the day while they were at work. About 9 months later, they divorced, and we got the cat.

Amos was declawed, yet by the time he died in 1989, he'd worn threadbare the back right corner of the La-Z-boy by the couch.
( Furniture sacrifices to date ) Lorelei and i spent a whole day shopping for that slip cover some years ago - i was a bit sad to see it go.

I clip both cats', and the rabbit's, claws. Even with clipping their claws, Jasper has damaged now 3.25 pieces of furniture - i'm counting the slip cover as the 0.25. I consider this furniture damage as the expected sacrifice of owning cats. So let's see...3.25 into 14 means Jasper destroys 1 piece of furniture about every 4.33 years. Happily, the chairs will be easily reupholstered once he dies.

Went to court today for the Reckless Driving and the expired inspection offences. Got a continuance to 23 Aug, and hired a lawyer; thanks to sharrainchains for the reference. He's asked that i get my spedometer callibrated, which i shall do.

After court and the lawyer, i visited the Virginia Epmployment Commission, and was told that i can get a maximum of 4 weeks paid out onec i accept an offer, but i need an offer with a date ~4 weeks out. So must call employer to get that, or just go cashier again for a spell, as that would pay about the same as unemployment would.

I just made egg salad, and am toasting some bread to go with it. Smelling it brings me back to the lazy Sunday mornings of my childhood, mostly because it's Safeway store brand bread in the toaster, which was the bread we most always had on hand growing up. It's always amazing hov evocative smells are.

( In the town where i was born, lived a man who... )
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

182, 273, 282, 455, 281, 353, 586 & 1066: those were the numbers of my yellow submarines. I never, in 13 years of K-12 school, had to walk to school. I was always bused. My HS class chose Yellow Submarine as our class song, as most of us spent at least an hour riding to school.

Virgnia "Ginny" Mondgrain drove me to school for most of those 13 years. Her grandson Jimmy would be with us sometimes in the afternoons coming home from HS. ( Invariably... )

So we got back on the bus at 11:30. I got home that night at 19:00. So 7ish hours getting home that day. If i recall, neary half of all students in Fairfax County and Fairfax City did not get home that night. And Bob Spillane learned that here in DC, we do not do Winter like up in Boston.

I had a very wonderful last couple of days. Let's go backwards, shall we:

• Monday 2 Apr: Part 1 of interview for a job supporting ACE for CBP. Part 2 will be in Spanish, via telephone on Wednesday. Plus: it pays well, and comes with a Secret clearance. Minus: It's night shift, 19-7 or 21-9.
• Sunday 1 Apr: Got home at 5, slept through church, oops, i was supposed to be there for the middle-schoolers, slept through a gaming session i'd RSVP'd yes to, and slept some more.
• Saturday 31 March: I got to go to dinner at Lonestar with nosebeepbear, supremeherptile, and not_the_pope, i make a nice meal of sides there, and then i helped not_the_pope sink a bowling alley. My years of helpdesk experience actually aided nicely in figuring out how to do that. Later, scruffycritter joined us. Much fun was had by all. Somewhere in there, nosebeepbear and not_the_pope and i went to Giant for Chocolate, thanks to palmwiz.
• Friday 30 March: Gaming chez_turtle YAY!
• Thursday 29 March: Went to the nookery and visited and cooked with Marc, and got to spend time with the other Nookizens, too. (If you're not in the know, The Nookery is a house, inhabited by the 4 Nookizens, comprising 2 Nookerinas and 2 Nookerites; it's a very, very happy place.)

Cold mostly gone, as is the swelling in the throat - the steroids and rest and the humidifier and much water did their jobs. Um. I think that's all for now.

Today, i:

1. Had lunch at Buca's in Gaithersburg with nosebeepbear
2. Went to my mother's house and spent some time with the dog and two cats, and let the dog out to do her business, all while chatting with nancylebov
3. Then went to my sister's, where we celebrated the 1st birthday, two days late, of Gavin, my younger nephew
4. On the way home, got a call from my sister informing me that our grandad, our father's father, is getting married on 28 April to Bea, his companion since Marie, his 2nd wife, died a few months after my father did.

So, looks like i'm heading to Cleveland at the end of April for a wedding. :D Only downside to all of that is that i'll have to see Uncle Phil and his daughter Elizabeth, but ah, well, the price of family.

Had a lovely game of Killer Bunnies Chez Turtle this evening. Dinner at Amphora in Vienna afterward with grlsctgnbad, savant_da_rat, kody_wolf, and E, whose lj handle i did not get, if one exists. I should sleep soon. We'll see.

Yeah, it's that kinda day. And there's rehearsal tonight. Sigh. And i still don't know what to get my sister for our birthday, which i'm pretty sure we're observing on Saturday.

As of Monday the 8th, i'm working 7-16 shift again. I'm looking forward to that. And, yes, benhill, i'm capable of getting up and to work for that hour.

Tomorrow, we have the first read-through for Anything Goes!. We'll see how that goes.

I'm tired of being sick. I can fix that, though. I slept most of today, and between that and the weird wakefulness one gets one taking oral steroids, i'm awake at the moment. Bleah. Probably will have to go back to doctor. At least the drugs have made the chest thing less onerous than it could be.

I went to dance class tonight. I've really enjoyed getting to know leiacat, sincityopera, and selki better. After class was dinner at Ambrosia in Montrose Crossing shopping center in Rockville with leiacat and selki; selki kindly paid, as coincidentally, leiacat and i both left our wallets home today. Conveniently, i had enough cash on hand to pay for the ferry to get there in the first place.

( Ferry? What ferry? )

During class and dinner, i left my phone in the car. nancylebov rang and left a message - i'll ring her back tomorrow, and my roommate, benhill rang three times, which is the reason i checked my vmail while heading down the 270 Spur toward home.

( And i go into DC because it seems that my roommate's car has been stolen )

I've had a chronic sinus/upper resp thing for some months now. It's flared up again this past week, as has a bizarre rash in my right armpit which also appeared last month at full moon. :| I've an appointment with an LPN on Wednesday for a blood draw, and will discuss both these with her then.

Saturday, i slept almost all day, which health-wise was a very good thing, but sadly therefore missed helping a friend pack and get things into storage, and missed gaming at badmagic's place. :( Saturday evening, at 18:30, i did put in an appearence, with 6 lovely wines, at a church dinner that i'd forgotten i'd signed up for until i got a phone call about it. That evening, i briefly stopped by the nookery and visited with the Nookizens, dmk and her hubby who were visiting from North Carolina. I went to bed early.

Today, i got to church on time, which was good, as today we had an ethnic Bengali Muslim from India visit our class, and who spoke to us about Islam from her experiences. She's also a school teacher whom some of the kids have had, which made for a pleasantly relaxed time. After that, i had a lovely time visting chez mergyeugnau, where i became re-acquainted with ruth_wielgosz, a very wonderful person whom i am thrilled to have run into again. I also made the acquaintance of karma_soupra there; he is most interesting, and i hope i get the chance to know him a bit better. I'm home now, and have been for a bit.

I'm fading VERY fast, and so hope this post is coherent. And somehow, despite my social interactions this weekend, i'm feeling empty, and totally emotionally drained. Here's hoping a good night's sleep rectifies that some.

This post is inspired by a reply to a comment i made in this thought-provoking post in fallenpegasus' LJ, in which he said:

But people are not socially "equal" and cannot be, because people are *different*.

He's absolutely right, and i do not in the least disagree with his statement. But does that mean that we should not acknowledge those who are too different from us; that we oughtn't treat those lower than ourselves socio-ecomically as they are people; that we should refuse to try to dilute the concentration of below-poverty-line people in the ghettos we as a society have, in most places, forced the poor to live, or that we should not at least try improve the conditions therein?
( An auto-biographical vignette, which gives some pertinent personal background - in short, my view of middle-class is skewed. )

In summary, will there ever be full social equality? Very probably not. Can there be less social inequality? Most probably, if not in the near-term. fallenpegasus is absolutely correct that people are *diferent*. We don't all want, desire, or even need, the same things. But hould we each have a truly equal opportunity to have the same? Yes, we should.

I've posted no real content since the 1st. ( Highlights, and I am so tired of being ill. Horizontal lines set off the main non-church, non-illness thing. )

And thus has been my life this month. Oh, almost forgot. I had dinner with muzikmaker and agentxs at Yuan Fu Vegetarian in Rockville on Monday the 18th, at which i get my violin back. I need to get 2 new mutes and a new dampit. I really like the new bridge. It's cut a bit differintly than the one it replaced, but in a good way. And the rehaired bow plays so much better than it did before. Who knew that rehairing would make such a huge differnce. I still want to get a new bow, as i'm not fond of the lightness, nor the balance point of this one, but it's quit usable now. Thank you muzikmaker21!

( Saturday at the log house in the woods )

Leaving there, i'd planned to go to the nookery for gaming. I called J to see what he was up for, and he wasn't up for going out, so i went to his place instead. Had a lovely evening with him, crashed there after staying up half the night.

( Adventures at The Nookery, at which there were frogs )

( On Atheism, Rationalism, Agnosticism, and Unitarian Universalism )

Yet another evening that i feel a need write. I remember when that meant picking up a pen and using paper. Of course, i've found barely any of my pens, though i have found some of the paper. Nice absorbent paper, that really takes the ink. My blotter has been found and unpacked, and is back at its usual roost on a bookshelf. It might fun a day to try western script using my Chinese inks, brushes, and paper.

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Tonight, i wanted more than anything to talk to someone; not sure why or about what. So, in the abscence of direct human interaction, tonight, i reach out via electrons and introduce you to CRK. He's not on LJ. His name is Chris, but i've always filed him under his initials in my head, heart, and files.

( CRK's tale of woe. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, but he can't see it yet )
Anyway, i tried calling him tonight. He didn't answer. I hope this means he was asleep, and not just too depressed to bother to talk.

After leaving a short, hey, how ya doin' message for him, i read several more chapters in the book i'd started after dinner. But i still wanted to talk, though i'm not sure about what. So, i thought about calling Fred.

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You do remember Fred, don't you? He was separated from his wife, and was released from a mental ward after 3 days confinement, and showed up at my door. I took him in for a year, and kvetched quite a bit in that time. Happily, our relationship endured, as did mine and nadyalec's after our episode of sharing housing. I ended up not dialing him, as he's in school, and very busy, and by then it was twenty of twenty-three. I miss him. Our relationship is rather mystical, yet grounded. We share a strong connection on a deep level. There are very few other humans to whom i feel that connected. I'll not enumerate others here and now; somehow, that would be rude, at least from my point of view.

Um, i think i'm done blathering for now.

( Here's what came out of my fingers tonight )

And thus was my last summer of innocence. I knew i had an essay itching to get out today. Had no idea this would be the topic. Though it's been on my mind of late. I even pointedly went to, and much enjoyed, a cookout at leiacat and bfudlmint's place on his birthday this year, rather than my usual picnic at the graveyard.

Saturday i left the house early, arriving at 1000 in Springfield to help The Mama* get her new kitchen in order. I got the joyous task of papering the drawers and shelves. Talk about f'n tedious. After that, a 7mi hike through the hills along the river. Got home at 1930 to find my keys in the house, and benhill not home. Read on the front porch in the rain for a bit, then called agentxs and had a lovely dinner at Yuan Fu Vegetarian in Rockville. Got home at 2300 for the evening.

Sunday, slept late, fed the cats, read the paper, dressed, and went to a lovely cookout at leiacat and bfudlmint's place. lonebear, heptadecagram, muzikmaker21, madbodger red_lynx, and others i'm too tired to recall by lj handle at the moment, were there too. Much fun was had by all. At the end of the evening, lonebear and i were trying to wait out the torrential storm. We finally gave up waiting it out at about 2045. I then drove at 25-35mph down I-95 and I-495 to VA 267 back home Reston, VA. Then found a fallen tree on Glade Dr, requiring me to turn around, back up Glade to Soapstone to South Lakes to Colts Neck and back to Glade to home. Bleah. Considering the severity of the storms and the amount of rain, really, no complaints.

The top of my throat is sore too,and it's a bit hard to talk. I should get some lozenges and maybe some chloroseptic. Well, off to bed now, at all too late, early, whatever, an hour.

Saturday, i slept a bit later than usual, despite protest on the part of the cats, then went over to the nookery, ( and gleefully dealt with a bunch of trash and recycling )
It was wonderful getting to spend a bunch of time with nosebeepbear, and we got a lot of useful things done around the house, too.

Sunday, which it still is right now, i got up, started to go to church, realized i forgot the smudge stick, went home, got the smudge stick (of sage and piñón), went to church, and helped lead a very successful Summer Solstice Service, ( and had a lovely afternoon )

Then i came home, fed the cats, who are right now on the couch beside me, sleeping on benhill's blue fleece, read the Post, did some laundry, did the dishes, cooked dinner, then surfed some.

A most wonderful weekend all-in-all. Low key, great company, and fun activities. Little more can be asked of a weekend.

I've had a few readings in the last week. The first three, all of their own accord, with me providing no data to the reader, other than choosing a deck, focused on work. Things will go well there, if not in the way i expect, is the consensus.

The last one focused on potential relationship and basically said, get ye in order, all around, and all will fall into place.

G'night.

Saturday:

1. Maryland Faerie Festival in the morning through mid-afternoon
2. Pick up maddogairpirate from Union Station at ~16
3. Eat
4. Get to 2GV (Closing night, haleluia!)
5. Make at least a token appearance at the joint cast party afterward.

Sunday:

1. Hang with maddogairpirate for a while
2. Hook up with quentinor, with whom maddogairpirate will be spending a few days.
3. Buy some picknicky, easy-to-eat food
4. Meet up with the Dutkys so we can get to Nissan Pavillion to see Depeche Mode (I'm totally looking forward to this because my friend hanklider in Amsterdam raved about the show when he saw it in late April.)