spacekadet blog

in a few hours i’m takin’ a plane to lovely san francisco for a fun filled spontaneous weekend. i’m pretty excited - texas is as west as i’ve been in the usa. many props to tizzle for making this all possible.

i had an internship interview with an internet start-up today. the job is something i could really get excited about as it deals with online peer-to-peer transactions (dude i love ebay) and this company is really young and seems to have a lot of potential — how cool would it to be to contribute to the success of a company? success being the key word - it’s easy to contribute to anything, but to actually have a role in the future profitability of a company is somewhat inspiring. why do i say i’d do this? well the company currently has 3 full-time employees. they don’t have office space. they need funding. but first they need to grow. this is where i come in. without going into detail, the job is something i could really get into, as i’ve often said “i wish i could make a living selling stuff on e-bay”. furthermore, i would eventually like to start my own business, and this would be a great chance to learn about what it’s like to start a company.

the guy i met with is also extremely cool and seemed to like beer — i got a company coozie (”for your beer”) and a water bottle (”for your beer”).

so many great things, but also, so little money. i hate money. i’ve always been one to “roll the dice”, but now it seems like practical matters are giving me fjear: student loans, food, insurance. gasp. this move to london is feeling further and further out of my reach. this is troubling, because all i seem to be thinking about is how much i’m looking forward to getting out of this town. i look forward to it, and yet it scares me - i know when i leave i’m going to have to let go of a lot of things i currently hold on to - just certain hopes and dreams that are all in my head. i’m a little kid when it comes to reality, ’cause i always like to think things will turn out my way. i need to learn that they won’t. i need to accept and come to terms with the gaps and move forward. as much as i change scenery, i’m still in this town and i’m still confronted, everyday, with … well if this were a song i’d compare it to salt on an open wound. but since my life isn’t nearly dramatic enough to warrant a song, i’ll just say that certain things are hard for me here and i’d like a fresh start in a place that doesn’t constantly confront me with triggers that cause me to think about certain things.

speaking of cheesy songs, it’s been revealed that i like joshua kadison, as if this is a bad thing?

and now i realize the title of this entry: my pretty good day.

post interview i met up with ginger. i was feeling woefully hungry, so we popped in at the crown. i had a grilled cheese with tomato. i normally don’t like tomato but this was delicious. this would be an appetizer for the trip we took soon afterwards to the parlor. but first we popped into the parlor’s neighboring record shop. they had some Squeeze which made me happy. finally, the parlor and a sad game of pool. they had $5 pitchers of lone star. i tried to enjoy my beverage which was both alcoholic and frugal, but it just made me want to drink water to rinse out the taste (or lack thereof?) in my mouth. finally more people came, and so did pizza which was like a warm comfy blanket for my tummy. eventually there was heffeweisen (sp?) and pale ale. marcella was there; she bought a guitar recently and seems to have taken to it despite having not mastered it in 5 minutes or less. i explained that i’m selling my musical instruments which brought on a rather depressing discussion on my part about forgetting the pipe dreams until i have the time and money to hire an instructor. but i picked up rather quickly when it came to “Degrassi High”. i was depressed again when we had to leave - it wasn’t even 10pm but it is a school night so i didn’t put up too much of a fuss. i had beer and it was good - this may be reflected in my typing. i want to be in my bed now, and to never drink Lone Star again.

oh yeah, i also want tim to come back from californ-EYE-AYE.

i’ve finally started posting again to my training for the apocalypse blog.

damn classes and life getting in the way.

so far my job prospects have been null and/or void. at the moment i feel like i’ll be lucky if i land the $12/hour job i applied for at the austin american statesmen. i sent them a very mushy cover letter about how much i loved being editor of my high school newspaper and “classifieds girl” at the Daily Illini - both humble truths. now that i’m departing from graduate school, why not do something i’ve always wanted to do? since i’m monica shaw, it makes sense for me to move onto new dreams that i probably won’t fulfill, like working my way up the ranks at a newspaper. this leads to interweb notoriety as bloggorbator chick extraordinaire. then finally, the book on training for the apocalypse.

training for the apocalypse: the blog (speaking of dreams) seems to be on temporary hold. the training continues, however i have little motivation or time to keep a detailed log. this is facilitated by a recent unwillingness to give up beer or cigarettes.

seems i have a lot of growing up to do.

but for now i’m 24 which seems like a good age to get some things out of my system. sew some oats. live large. last night i hung out with ginger and tizzle at casa del timothy. recently, spurred on by a fond memory of mangia’s deep dish pizza, i’ve been craving some deep dish spinach. i finally fulfilled that craving last night. this pizza was new to ginger, and the sparks beverage was new to us all. sparks: $1.39 per can malt beverage containing caffeine. 6% alcohol. tastes like redbull. i think we have a winner.

today i woke up feeling like doing nothing that pertained to school or the ominous job hunt. so i took on a task i’ve been meaning to do for some time: learn some cocoa programming. i’ve been wanting to write an OS X diet/weight/fitness app that keeps track of, well, diet, weight and fitness. trouble is i don’t know how to write OS X apps. so today i started by writing a little GUI that calculates basal metabolic rate. the app was simple at heart but i learned a whole bunch and feel super motivated to write something sleek and comprehensive. so now i have a summer project, and something to do on my computer aside from pointlessly surf the interweb.

charming, aren’t i?

once again, time to dish out some props:
mad estrogen props to sheribomb for taking me shopping last thursday for interview clothes. i hate the mall and she made it tolerable. i now own a pastel colored article of clothing - fuck you, it brings out my eyes. i also got some “sassy” shoes with a super high heel so as to give the illusion i am not a hobbit. finally, necklaces. it was a sad day this semester when the necklace i’d been wearing religiously for years finally bit the dust in the middle of class (fortunately i sat in the back that day, so when the beads came tumbling off their skeleton, they rolled and sung a song of death and departure down the lecture hall - a proper burial in my opinion). since then i’ve been looking for a replacement, but failing hard. it’s as if i’ve lost my love and i’m coping in gaudy hotel rooms with casual encounters and cheap jugs of wine. so i’ve acquired quite a few necklaces since then, and two more last thursday. from the urn that is my pencil case (where i stashed the few beads i was able to save), my necklace is screaming: “slut!”

this is too funny to keep to myself.

so i rode my bike to school today. all the while i listened to uplifting music like Enrique’s “Escape” and generally felt good about being alive.

when i got to school i parked where i normally do: in front of my building on the fence post. as i bent over to U-lock my bike, i felt a sudden powerful gush of water

the first thing i thought was “who the hell do i know who would serve me like this?”

when i backed away and took off my sunglasses, i realized it wasn’t a prank. no, the sprinklers had turned on.

while i must admit that the cooling effect of the water was rather nice, the present soakatude of my shirt and hair is a tad, oh, inconvenient.

this is both funny ha-ha and funny wet. i love it.