Well, that wasn't much fun. I was washing my hands with a big bar of soap. The big bar of soap slipped out of my hands. It hit my toothbrush cup. The toothbrush cup fell to the floor and shattered into many pieces. The toothbrush landed right next to the plunger. So, I need a new toothbrush and a new toothbrush cup.
What else? Monday and Tuesday were very productive days at work. Wednesday wasn't so productive, but today (Thursday) was fairly productive.
In about an hour, Mara and I are going to go out for dinner.
Today, Mara went to the school at which she will soon be working as a long-term substitute teacher.
Tomorrow (Friday) night, we're going to the They Might Be Giants show at The Fillmore. Aside from that, I don't have any big plans for the weekend. I'll probably do some work. But probably not a huge amount.
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It's Thursday evening. The workweek is almost over. All in all, things have been pretty busy.
I went to the endocrinologist today. Apparently, my thyroid hormone levels are too high. So, she's reducing my dosage of the thyroid hormone pills.
The start date for Mara's job has been pushed back to the 18th. However, the principal just put the details in writing. So, it looks as if it's a done deal.
I don't really have any significant plans for this weekend. Mara and I might go to Greens for lunch on Saturday. I have some financial stuff to take care of.
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Mara got the long-term substitute job! She starts work on Tuesday (the 10th), and she will probably be employed through at least early February. The commute will be pretty long, but it could be worse.
As planned, I went for an eye exam this morning. The optometrist didn't find any problems.
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It's been a moderately productive day.
I got some more cleaning done. I made a list of the people for whom I plan to buy Christmas gifts. For many of those people, I also came up with some possible gift ideas. I made a trip to Walgreens.
I'm quite tired now, though, and I'm not sure why.
I think that it will be a fairly average week at work.
On Wednesday, I have an appointment with the optometrist. I don't think that I've ever had a full eye exam as an adult, and my doctor recommended that I get one. On Thursday, I have my annual appointment with the endocrinologist.
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Yesterday went more or less as planned.
We went to see November. It was pretty good, but not great. One of the reviews that I read said that it was a cross between The West Wing and Mad TV. In my opinion, there was a little bit too much of the latter, I suppose.
We might go see A Christmas Carol this year. A.C.T. performs it every year, and Mara just told me that she had never seen it (or any stage production of A Christmas Carol).
On the way home from the theater, we stopped at Daily Grill for a very early dinner.
We spent Halloween night at home. I looked into what was going on in the city for Halloween, and I really didn't see anything that I was dying to go to.
No big plans for the day. I have a lot of laundry to do. I started the first load a short while ago, and I'm sure that I could do at least two more loads today.
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As of right now, I don't have any work to do this weekend.
This afternoon, we're going to see November (by David Mamet) at the American Conservatory Theater. Here's a brief description: "David Mamet's fiendishly funny, over-the-top new comedy November, fresh from its smash-hit success on Broadway, offers no mercy in its satirical stab at American politics. Meet President Charles Smith, the most corrupt, inept buffoon ever to sit in the Oval Office. It's the final days of his bid for a second term, but the country is a mess and his poll numbers are 'lower than Gandhi's cholesterol.' Toss in a lesbian speechwriter longing to marry her sweetheart on national television, a cynical chief of staff, Thanksgiving turkeys awaiting pardon, and enough shady backroom scheming to make even a Glengarry Glen Ross con man blush, and you've got a new Mamet masterpiece."
After the play, we're going to have a very early dinner on our way home.
No real plans for Halloween night. No real plans for tomorrow (Sunday) either.
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Getting home today took forever.
As is usually the case, I took the express bus home from work. Normally, the express bus makes a few local stops near my office. It then runs non-stop to South of Market.
Today, well after the bus had begun the non-stop portion of the route, two "kids" approached the driver and demanded to get off. (They were probably in their late teens or their early twenties.) The driver told them that he wouldn't let them off and that they would need to wait until the bus got to South of Market.
So, they broke the glass on the emergency door release and pulled the handle. Of course, pulling the emergency door release immobilizes the bus. The bus was stuck there in the middle of the street until the driver was able to contact the dispatcher and reset it.
Meanwhile, the people on the bus were obviously not happy with the situation. In particular, there were some fairly rough-looking black men on the bus who were not at all happy that these two white kids had pulled the handle. And the kids didn't even have the good sense to run after getting off the bus. They were walking away from the bus at a fairly average pace.
So, while we were waiting, I fantasized about 10 (or so) bus passengers getting off the bus and beating them to a bloody pulp. If they ended up swallowing teeth, they might realize that they made a mistake.
Because, given the fact that we're in San Francisco, I knew that the kids would never face any legal consequences. If someone pulled the emergency door release on the Metro in D.C., I bet that they'd be in handcuffs before they even made it out of the station. Here in San Francisco, a deranged man can stab an 11-year-old boy on Muni without ever facing any consequences. (It happened last month.) Or gang members can beat the hell out of someone because he's wearing the wrong color. (It happened this month.)
The city government seems to lack both the ability and the will to deal with, quite frankly, human garbage.
Then, later during my ride, the bus was delayed for a while by Critical Mass. I have decidedly more mixed feelings about Critical Mass. I understand the point that some of the participants are trying to make. But I think that a significant number of them are just enjoying being assholes, basically. I am very much in favor of opposing the dominance of the private automobile. However, I've had Critical Mass participants almost run me down when I was on foot in the crosswalk.
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It's Friday morning.
I'm honestly having a difficult time recalling what I did this past week. So, I probably didn't do anything too terribly exciting. Of course, it is about 6:00 AM. So, the fact that I'm not fully awake might also be a reason why I'm having a difficult time recalling things. :)
I had a moderate amount of work to do this week, on a variety of things. A new employee started this week, and I've been helping her out. We've had clients in the office for the last four days, too. So, we've had to be on slightly better behavior than normal. :)
At least for the moment, Mara's long-term substitute assignment appears to have fallen through. The school needed to get someone to start as soon as possible, and the results of Mara's fingerprint check had not come back yet. So, they brought someone else in. However, it's possible that that person might not be around for very long. We'll see what happens. Mara is also in the process of registering herself as a substitute with another school district.
What else? We got tickets to the They Might Be Giants show at The Fillmore. I reserved one of the "VIP" tables for us. Because Mara's an elf, she frequently has a hard time seeing anything at general admission shows. :) It used to be impossible to reserve a table unless you committed to doing so for a large number of shows. However, they're now allowing reservations for individual shows. (Probably because of the economy.)
Anyway, I'm going to get my blood drawn this morning for thyroid function tests, because I have my annual appointment with the endocrinologist next week.
No big plans for Halloween or the weekend. I probably won't have much work to do. So, it should be a fairly relaxing weekend.
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For the first time in a very long time, I remembered the dreams that I had last night.
In one, I was on a college campus. Overall, it reminded me of where I went to college, but some of the details weren't quite right. For some reason, I needed to go to an office there. The office was below ground level, and there was an exterior staircase leading down to it. I walked down the staircase. The office was dark. There was a small, typewritten note in the window. I think that it indicated either that the office had moved or that the office was closed indefinitely.
All of a sudden, it started raining very, very hard. I was underneath an overhang. So, I wasn't getting wet. But, because I was below ground level, I was afraid that the space might flood. Sure enough, water started accumulating. I saw that the water would eventually reach the top of the wall and then flood the space that I was in. But, for some reason, I didn't try to get to higher ground.
In another dream, Mara and I were boarding a plane to Tel Aviv. We were on the jetway, and Mara was directly in front of me. Then, some people cut in front of me. Typical "Israeli etiquette," I suppose. :) So, Mara walks onto the plane before me. A few moments later, just as I'm about to walk onto the plane myself, Mara exits and tells me that we can't go. Despite my repeated questions, she won't tell me why. But we walk back up the jetway. I think that the dream ended just as I was about to step back into the terminal.
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Yesterday (Friday), I finally finished reviewing that long, boring document for work. In the end, I had over 1600 comments on the document, in a Word document that was almost 200 pages long. Yikes!
Today (Saturday) has been all right. Mara and I went to Greens (a moderately famous vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason) for lunch. I've done some cleaning, and I've taken care of some financial stuff.
I woke up distressingly early today, in spite of the fact that I didn't set an alarm and that I had no reason to wake up early. And now I'm quite tired.
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I don't think that I've done too much over the last couple of days other than work.
And work this week has been pretty dull, unfortunately. I've been reviewing this document that my company's client put together. It's incredibly boring and incredibly long. Whenever I'm asked to do some small task that doesn't involve reviewing the document, I usually jump at the opportunity for a "break."
Anyway, my review comments are due tomorrow (Friday). So, one way or the other, I will finish the review tomorrow!
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Mara went for that job interview today, as planned.
It seems almost certain that she will get the long-term substitute position. She will be working in a special day class at an elementary school. She will be on the job until the regular teacher returns from maternity leave. The regular teacher is currently scheduled to return in early February, but it's possible that the regular teacher could request additional time.
The job sounds pretty good. The commute won't be great, but it will be better than the commute to her job last year. The school is almost within walking distance of one of my former employers. So, I used to do a commute very similar to the one that she will be doing.
Today, I also got tickets for the Morrissey concert. We had tickets for his show back in April, but the show subsequently got canceled due to illness. Remarkably, our seats for this show are almost the same as our seats to the canceled show. We're in the third row (if you don't count the two "pit" rows).
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| Date: | 2009-10-14 20:27 |
| Subject: | Job for Mara |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  optimistic |
Well, it looks pretty likely that Mara will have some kind of job starting next week.
She had a phone interview today that apparently went well. There is a school that has two vacancies for substitute special education teaching positions. One of the positions is a long-term substitute position, for a teacher who will be out on maternity leave. That one will last until the teacher returns. The teacher isn't expected to return until at least February. The situation with the other position is less clear. It might only be a short-term position, but there's some possibility that it could turn into a permanent position.
It sounds as if they would ideally like to have both positions filled by Monday of next week. So, they're in a hurry. Mara will be going to the school for a face-to-face interview on Friday.
Mara has also been doing a little bit of substitute teaching for the district that has employed her as a substitute teacher in the past. However, they haven't been terribly forthcoming with assignments.
She also has a telephone interview with EDD (the agency that sends the unemployment checks) tomorrow. Obviously, assuming that she begins work next week, she probably won't be eligible for unemployment checks for as long as she continues to work full-time. However, EDD still owes her almost three months of checks. They're so inefficient and incompetent that she has only gotten one check from them since she applied. Hopefully, after she has this telephone interview tomorrow, the situation will be at least somewhat better.
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The three-day weekend has consisted of:
- Work
- Catching up on sleep
- Eating entirely too much food at the Indian buffet
- Not a whole lot else
Yeah, pretty boring. But I've got to do what I've got to do.
Much to my surprise, Mara did not have a substitute teaching assignment today (Monday). I don't know if she'll have one tomorrow or not.
What else? Mara is still coughing a fair amount. Nothing showed up on the chest X-ray. So, the doctor told her to get a CAT scan. We haven't heard back about the CAT scan.
That's about it for now.
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Not too much to report about the last couple of days, I suppose.
Mara had a job interview yesterday (Monday). The school at which she interviewed is walking distance from BART. So, she'd have a pretty easy commute.
Today, Mara went to the pulmonologist, because she's been coughing for a few months now. The doctor asked her to get a chest X-ray. If nothing bad shows up on the chest X-ray, Mara is supposed to get a CAT scan. If nothing bad shows up on the CAT scan, Mara will probably take prednisone for a while.
Neither one of us is all that concerned. Personally, I'm fairly accustomed to coughing for several weeks (or even months) after I've had a bad cold. Nonetheless, at this point, getting it checked out is probably a good idea.
Work has been moderately busy, but everything seems to be going well there.
On my way home from work today, I went to Safeway and Whole Foods. At this point, I think that I've got enough food to last for weeks.
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I'm afraid that I'm quite behind on my friends page, but I hope to remedy that (or at least start to remedy that) this evening.
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Let's see. I haven't written an entry since last weekend, and I'm going away this coming weekend. So, I guess that I'll write a quick entry now.
Mara had her first substitute teaching assignment today (Friday). On Monday afternoon, she has an interview for a permanent position.
Mara and I are going down to the southern part of the state for the weekend. Her younger brother (the brother who lives in Israel) will be there for about a week, as will his family.
So, we're flying down there to meet them. My duffle bag is on the floor of my office right now, and I'll be going directly from work to the airport.
I'm feeling really tired right now, though. And it will probably be a pretty late night. So, I hope that I get a second wind.
All in all, I've been pretty busy for the last week or so, but I don't have too much of note to say.
Anyway, I probably won't write another entry until Sunday evening, at the absolute earliest. So, that's it for now.
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Today was a busy day at work. I'm amazed by how much I accomplished.
Anyway, coming home from work, I almost always take the express bus. However, today, the electronic sign indicated that there would be a 19-minute wait for the next one. So I ended up taking the light rail train instead. (I probably end up doing that about once or twice a month, on average.)
But then the light rail train went out of service about a mile from home. However, when it went out of service, we were basically directly across the street from Safeway. So, I decided to make the best of it all, by buying some groceries and then walking home.
In spite of the fact that I'd just bought groceries, I didn't feel like eating at home. So, I went out for a burrito.
Anyway, I've only worked for about five minutes since I got home, and I wouldn't be surprised if I don't work any more than that. Which is pretty unusual. But I just don't feel like working at the moment. Besides, I'm going to end up working a lot this weekend regardless.
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We went to the Turkish place for lunch, as planned. It wasn't bad. I'm not dying to go back, but I wouldn't refuse to do so either. On my way back from the restaurant, I stopped at the pharmacy. While I was there, I got a flu shot, picked up my prescription, and got toothpaste for Mara.
This morning, we learned that Mara's family definitely will not be coming to San Francisco during their visit to California. So, we will be going down to the southern part of the state early next month. I took care of booking our airline tickets, hotel reservation, and rental car reservation a short while ago.
I haven't got much else to say. I'm doing a little bit of work this evening. But not a huge amount.
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Not a whole lot to say, I suppose, in spite of the fact that I've only written one entry in the last week.
For approximately the last two weeks, I've been feeling unusually tired. I don't know if it's a thyroid issue or what. In November, I'm going to have my annual appointment with my endocrinologist, though.
Mara called the district for which she used to work as a substitute teacher to tell them that she'd like to resume working as a substitute teacher. Unfortunately, the woman who handles that was out sick. So, she'll try again on Monday.
Mara is at some kind of Rosh Hashanah event with her mother. I expect that she'll be back home at around 11:00 PM.
Right now, though, I'm lying in bed, typing this entry and listening to the dishwasher run. Shortly after the dishwasher finishes, I'll start making dinner.
Anyway, in about 20 minutes, I'll probably go watch Monk. First, I have a few e-mail messages to respond to, though.
It looks as if some of Mara's family will be in California in early October. They will probably spend at least most of their time in the Los Angeles area. They might or might not come to San Francisco. If they don't, we'll probably fly down to Los Angeles in about two weeks. So, I've definitely got to get plenty of stuff done between now and then.
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okay
good
tired
lazy
relaxed