Her e-mail inbox always overflows. Her outbox doesn’t get much use at all. She puts on hold the umpteen-billionth call As music oozes forth to placate those Who wait, then disconnect. Outside, wind blows, Scything pale leaves. She sees a sparrow fall Fluttering to a claw-catch on a wall. Will He be in today? God only knows.
She hasn’t seen His face–He’s so aloof. She’s long resigned He’ll never know or love her But still can wish there were some call, some proof That He requires a greater service of her. Fingers of rain now drum upon the roof, Coming from somewhere, somewhere far above her.
What’s this? Things have suddenly gotten busy. Both in my off time and at work. So I’m running a little behind on my end of the year post. But tonight, I’m sitting down with some Yogurtland and finally getting it out here on the blog.
the wrap-up:
I finished my year working as a lay minister at USC in May.
I worked at a coffee shop (very part-time)…a first experience.
I worked as an executive assistant for just over 2.5 months (during which my exec “left” the company)…another first experience.
I finished the year (and am still) working as a supply chain planning analyst…again, a first experience.
I lived in three different apartments.
I didn’t make it back to Oregon until Christmas (making it a full year away).
I read more books than last year (by one)
I discovered lots of free (or inexpensive) things to do in LA.
Like a bunch of movies screened for free, sometimes months before they opened to the general public.
I reconnected with a few old friends.
Married one of my friends (by performing the ceremony, not getting married myself)
All in all, it was a good year. After 1.5 years, I’ve got a small group of good friends. I even kind of like LA a little.
This coming year I’d like to:
Read more books than last year.
Practice yoga regularly
Improve my diet (partially by getting rid of the fast food habit I fell into while working at USC)
So I didn’t get around to writing a post last week while I was home in Oregon. So this will be a brief post, basically just bullet pointing some things I’ll post more depth in my end of the year wrap up.
Drove home to Oregon over 2 days (stopping in Williams, CA)
Bought chains in Corning at Les Schwab (and stopped at the Olive Pit for good measure)
Roads were for the most part bare pavement throughout all the mountain areas of Northern California and Southern Oregon.
Eugene Santa Pub Crawl 2008
Reconnecting with old friends
Christmas
Cafe Yumm & Hawaiian Time
Performing a wedding
Drove back to LA in 1 day…bare pavement all the way (only a little bit of slush from Mt. Shasta City down to Shasta Lake).
Back to work on Monday (with a flat tire just as I left my apt to greet me, and a bus ride to work instead)
The year winds down, and so do the activities. A couple of my friends left town for the holidays over the weekend. So a few less partners in crime are around. I’ve also been trying to be frugal in my spending to compensate for the unpaid week next week (gotta love temp work).
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am in life. How many of my friends, who are younger than me, seem to be much further along in life. They’ve got good jobs that they love or graduate degrees. They’ve got homes. Are married. Heck, some are even divorced (not that it is a good thing). But even then, they’ve experience marriage and the love that drove them to it in the first place.
It all seems so far away to me.
Its hard being 32 and not really having anything figured out.
I’m leaving for Oregon Friday, right after work. It’ll be nice to be home for the week. Catch up with some friends and family. I’m taking two days to drive up, planning on stopping somewhere around Sacramento late Friday night and finishing up the drive on Saturday. Saturday night is the annual Santa Pub Crawl in Eugene. It’ll be a cold crawl this year as the temps are predicted to be below freezing, with possible snow showers. No matter how cold it is, it’ll be a nice welcome home.
Not much going on the past week. Because of the short work week at Thanksgiving, my paycheck was a little lighter last Friday. So no new food adventures. (Though one food adventure was thwarted by being a day early before they were open to the general public).
I’ve got about half of my Xmas shopping done. Just need to figure out something for a friend in Eugene, and the ‘rents. Ok, maybe that is a little more than half done.
i dreamt about your bed
or mine it wasn’t clear
just that once (or twice)
do you remember that weekend?
the one where the past was forgotten
when we went over that cliff and
we unravelled into each other
or do you remember this weekend?
the one where we drenched ourselves in rays,
our feet in the ocean…
connecting us to the rest of the world
and each other
