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EL and I learned a valuable lesson this morning: If you miss the HOV onramp between Cypresswood and I-45 southbound, you're fucked. Every other entry is from a feeder, so if you are on the 45 already, you are pretty much hosed. Dammit. It wasn't too bad, the number of morning accidents was low and the flow was acceptable. Our completely unreasonable landlords at the old house are pulling some last minute security deposit sheisting after two years of tenancy with no major problems or damage and faithful, on time, overpriced rent payments. I don't have the time or energy to take them to court... even though that is what they deserve. Bastardos. Anyhoo, I'm on my way to a coffee high and no one is stopping me!

I'm running seriously behind this morning... DOH!

"True companion" - Marc Cohn Baby I've been searching like everybody else Can't say nothing different about myself Sometimes I'm an angel And sometimes I'm cruel And when it comes to love I'm just another fool Yes, I'll climb a mountain I'm gonna swim the sea There ain't no act of God girl Could keep you safe from me My arms are reaching out Out across this canyon I'm asking you to be my true companion True companion True companion So don't you dare and try to walk away I've got my heart set on our wedding day I've got this vision of a girl in white Made my decision that it's you allright And when I take your hand I'll watch my heart set sail I'll take my trembling fingers And I'll lift up your veil Then I'll take you home And with wild abandon Make love to you just like a true companion You are my true companion I got a true companion True companion When the years have done irreparable harm I can see us walking slowly arm in arm Just like the couple on the corner do 'Cause girl I will always be in love with you And when I look in your eyes I'll still see that spark Until the shadows fall Until the room grows dark Then when I leave this Earth I'll be with the angels standin' I'll be out there waiting for my true companion Just for my true companion True companion True companion

Hey!

I suppose this morning's outage is no more.

Ok.

Check it out.

When you have one of those really deep, 6 jet, jacuzzi tubs and you plan on taking a luxurious bubble bath... you take the very conservative estimate of how much bubble bath you think you'll need so as to not fill the bathroom with bubbles gone wild and then cut that in half...

then, take half of that and use a quarter of it.

Do you get what I'm saying?

It was quite an experience.

Lookie... here I am 10 minutes from 12 hours since I left for work... getting home...

Welcome to my new work day.

Rain on a sunny day...





It's a day to be at home and looking out the window. I worked though lunch in the loosest definition of work. I went to lunch with co-workers and briefly discussed work matters, but I was no where near a work state of mind. I am still inexplicably groggy and can not get with the program. My lethargy is annoying because it makes the day drag on and on. Nothing seems to help. I fear that only sleep will save me. Hours away, it consumes my thoughts and the onset of post-lunch-nap-syndrome is not a positive contribution to my struggle. Calgon, take me away. Heh.

Cheese.

I just got back from a much needed ergo/caffeine break with Michael. I dropped of a print that he asked for (which I thought was hella pimp because no one has ever asked for a print of something I shot) and was telling him about the talking-to-himself dude. Then, as if on cue, he shows up. He was wearing the same clothes he had on Friday and looked like he was headed somewhere on a mission. Interesting coincidence. Work is slow this morning. I have been tracking down port requirements and have spent a lot of time on the phone. I'm still groggy... need to snap out of it.

I made it.





I am definitely going to have to get with this bus thing again. Traffic is insane in the morning. I don't mind the volume, I mind the brake happy motherfuckers that aren't satisfied with flow rate or lane position. One cool thing about coming in relatively early this morning is the abundance of parking. I am sore and bruised and feel like ass in general, but hey... we're done. Lisa offered a nifty idea to set up web cam(s) at the house warming party. Honestly, it's a cool idea, but I don't have the time or skilz to code a front end for it, so maybe I'll hit Michael up so he can exercise his foo. I can not drink coffee fast enough this morning. I need caffeine in a bad way. I mean, like in that handful-of-No-Doze-and-a-44-oz-mug-of-espresso way.

Here comes the drive.

One never really realized how much shit one has until you have to move that shit from one dwelling to another. Holy shit. I can't say that the last few days have been too eventful... well, at least not in an action-packed sorta way. We went to a friend's house for a brief social gathering on Friday night and then it was straight bustin' ass for the rest of the weekend. We moved completely out of our lease house and into the new place in three days. My mother came into town with her boyfriend and my sister for a day of assistance with the small stuff. I hired some hourly movers for the refrigerator and washer/dryer. Boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes... I don't want to look at another cardboard box for months. I did manage to time my moving trips in order to catch the Prairie Home Companion replay this afternoon. I love that show. Intellectual entertainment that is worth a listen every week. After all the boxes were in the house, I commenced the unpack. Getting my home office in working order was a high priority because I need it for work. It's a mess, but functional. I sped my progress with a little solitude and Philosomatika. I haven't made it to the park much recently and I definitely haven't had time to go out and shoot as much as I'd like. Honestly, I've only taken one shareable photo since Friday... an unsuspecting bug that was shaped like a ladybug, but had some different colored markings.





Friday afternoon I was walking to the car and thinking about why it's so hard for me to get into street photography. I have some perpetual hesitation when I see a shot that speaks to me, I just can't get my eye to the viewfinder. It's like I'm invading someone's privacy... taking something away that I didn't have permission to take. I walked right past this guy talking to himself. He was really going at it... rambling about something I couldn't understand, but it was full of rich feeling. He meant to be saying something important. I should have captured the angle that I first saw... it was great. You could instantly tell he was in the middle of a heated debate with an invisible opponent. Alas, my hesitation returned. I did was to remember this as a lesson in street photography. Clayton, get over it. I took this shot as he exhaled and leaned back in retrospection. Maybe he out debated his invisible pal?





I'm so tired. Ironically, my physical exhaustion is irreverent to my mental composure. I am mentally awake and ready for more... bring it on! Uh, but I am sore and achy... and generally uncomfortable. Whaaaaa. You want some cheese with that whine? I wish I had a good book to read. Reading has always put me to sleep. Tomorrow is my first day with "the big commute". I've been an IL'er (Inner Looper) for so long now that I'm sure there will be a serious adjustment period to not having everything you could possibly desire within a few miles of your house. I'm going from an 8 mile commute to a 25 mile commute. I know... that's not terrible, but it is not great either when you're talking about Houston traffic. I'm going to switch to the commuter bus as soon as I figure the routes out. I want a weekend where I can just veg. I feel like my free time was robbed by the moving monster and now it's back to the grind for another week. Ugh! Anyhoo, at least the move is done. Standby for hella house warming party! w00t! I guess I'll go. I hear a deep glass of wine calling me.

Goodnight.

moving sucks ass.

I was listening to NPR this morning on the way in... like I do everyday that I drive myself to work... and they had this spot on Pearl Jam. I've never been a huge fan or anything, but Eddie Vedder had a really surprising quote about his thoughts on corporate America and I can't remember the exact verbiage, so I won’t misquote him here. It was just cool coming from someone you wouldn't expect to here it from. If NPR didn't charge $5.95 for a single transcript, I'd share it with you... but in retrospect, it's probably not all that cool and I was probably still half asleep at the wheel anyway. Another thing that I heard that was absolutely hilarious was a blurb about the police chief that was the PR conduit during the sniper investigation in the DC area last year. Apparently, he is writing a book about the entire investigation and the county's ethics committee put the kibosh on the whole deal. They state that it is unethical for someone under the employ of the county to make a profit from something they did in the official capacity of their office. So the dude resigned. No problem, right? I mean, he quit to follow his little detective book dream and he doesn't have to worry about stepping on toes with the county... and the county doesn't have to violate any ethics by endorsing one of their employees profit from something quasi job related. I'd think so... but, no. Apparently, now that he's free to exercise his First Amendment rights as a free man, the county (his former employer that was gravely against his making money with his book for the sake of ethics) is now evaluating whether they should be entitled to a few slices of his book pie. Where the fuck did their concern over ethics go? Greedy bastards... all of 'em. I got on the elevator in the parking garage today at the top. As it stopped at each floor on the way down, more people piled on, and with them came more smells. Elevators are funny that way... little smell containers. Anyhoo, about the fourth floor or so, this young lady got on that smelled like a grandma's house. You know, smelled like an estate sale? I am not sure what that smell is... old? Mothballs? It wiped out every other smell in the elevator for the rest of the ride down. Potency. Speaking of potency, the potency of my cup-o-joe is drastically reduced by the sorry bastardardos that make coffee that looks like water with a drop of brown food coloring in it. I've said it before and I'll say it again... Coffee Making 101 should be part of orientation.

Life is too short to get wrapped up in all that negativity. I don't know why I'm suckered into it. Every time I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the bad shit that's going on at work, I get to find my way back to a better place by spending a few moments with truly one of the most wonderful women to ever grace this existence. EL is single handedly planning our wedding, running interference with our old landlord and fixing up the lease house, doing about 80% of this move without me because I'm slaving to the grind every day, and somehow finding time to take care of our home and family (pets) and still, after all that, treat me better than I could ever deserve. She is wonderful beyond the words I hold in my vocabulary to express. She is the most kind and loving woman I've ever known and she has a strength that is super-human. She is like an ant. Well, not really like an ant, but I needed a clever segue to show you this cool ant all incognito while carrying a gazillion times his weight up the side of a tree.





Don't believe it's an ant? Check this out:

Apparently, my thought-to-be-professional associates and myself now all work at Burger King. We are babies that need to be held by the hand while we are instructed in the fine art of micromanagement. We are unable to efficiently manage our time or technical skills and require constant monitoring and direction. We need little timers to tell us when the fries are ready and buttons to pre-pour just the amount of coke in each cup. We need tiny images of the menu items on the register to push-button your order (which our incompetent asses will probably fuck up anyway).

You want fries with that?