December 14, 1999
I made Keith his lunch in advance last night. It was fun, but also guilt-inspiring, because it took a LONG-ASS time. Now I know why he was complaining all that time; he was getting up in the morning at like 5:30 AM, spending half an hour making lunch, and then running out the door to catch the bus. I'd be resentful too, frankly. I had NO idea it took that long to put stuff in Tupperware, make sandwiches, and chop vegetables. I think I will make his lunch more often now, because it's easier for me to do it the night before than it is for him to do it in the mornings when he's all rushed and stuff.
I think I'm going to start taking a pottery class. There was an ad in the Stranger (a Seattle alternative weekly) last weekend for the Seattle Pottery School, so yesterday I called them up. They told me that it's $269, which includes class once a week for eight weeks, unlimited use of the facilities, and 25 pounds of clay to start. They also said I can buy my starting tools from them for 11 bucks, which didn't sound too bad. I'm really excited. I've never done anything remotely artistic before (well, apart from my web page). I can't draw or paint or anything, but I bet I can make pottery. I'd be taking "Beginning Wheel". I think it really sounds fun, and it will also be part of my campaign to get out of the house and do stuff. I'm tired of sitting around on my butt all the time.
The other thing I want to do after New Year's is join a gym. I know exactly the one I'm going to join, too. It's not too far from home, and they offer like a gazillion different aerobics classes and stuff like that. I think it would be good for me to go to the gym and work out several days a week. Since I graduated from college and started working in an office, I get way less exercise on a daily basis than I used to, and I can really feel it.
So, to prepare for joining a gym, I've been doing tae bo again. I'm really sore all over, but I think it's worth it. I feel like a big slacker, though, because before Thanksgiving I'd worked up to the point that I could get all the way through the Basic video, and now, since I didn't do it for a month, I can only do 3/4 of it before totally wiping out. Still, it's better than nothing, and I will get better. I can do it, Billy. I can do it!
A note about the weather. People around here are completely retarded about the weather. It's been in the 40s for months now, and just recently it started dropping into the *gasp* mid-30s! People are bitching about the "cold snap". I just laugh at them. There was a rumor that we were going to get snow last night, and everybody was preparing for the big snowfall. The predicted amount? One inch. That's right, one inch. One inch of snow, and the entire city freaks out. You know, I went to the Eddie Bauer here to buy a new coat and they didn't even HAVE any of the huge parkas that they have at the one in Chicago. They had all this Gore-Tex stuff that's totally water-resistant, but no big downy parkas. Why? BECAUSE IT NEVER GETS COLD HERE! Everybody THINKS it does, but they don't know what real cold is. Oh, no. They have no idea.
When the minimum fatal exposure time is less than 15 minutes, that's cold. When you go outside for half an hour and it takes you longer than that to regain feeling in your hands, that's cold. When you think the wind is going to rip the skin off your face, and then it actually does, THAT'S COLD. Having to put on an extra layer is NOT cold. Turning up the thermostat one degree is not cold, either. These people have no concept whatsoever.
Anyway, the rumor is that we might get "snow" this week. I say "snow" because it will probably be less than an inch, and then it will melt the next day. In my opinion, this is not real snow. Real snow is more than a foot deep and lasts until April.
Perhaps those of you living in the Midwest remember the New Year's blizzard last year. I was sitting in my apartment in Chicago watching snow blow horizontally past my window for over 24 hours (well, I didn't watch it the entire time, but that's how long it lasted). When it was finished snowing, there was over two feet of snow on the ground. I had trouble opening the front door to my apartment building because the drifts were blocking it. Entire cars were buried. They shut the Chicago Public Schools down for two days (this is unheard of). They delayed El schedules and canceled bus lines for a day. They dumped tons and tons of snow into the Chicago River for lack of any better place to put it. It was more snow than I'd ever seen in my entire life.
So, I repeat, ONE INCH is NOT snow. It's not even a good try.
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