Over in Tacoma

I just fielded a phone call from a calling service that originated somewhere else. It wasn't Asia or Africa -- the people I could hear in the background were speaking largely unaccented English. My caller had a faint Hispanic accent.

The agent she wanted to speak to does not work in my office -- she works on the Westside. So when I gave the caller her cell phone number, she asked if there were different hours which would be better to call in.

Me: "No -- she doesn't work in this office at all. She works over on the Westside. But call that number, that is her personal cell phone."

Caller: "Oh, then that would be -- the Burnside office?"

Me: "No, THIS is the Burnside office -- that one..."

Caller: (interrupting me) "Oh, that would be over in Tacoma!"

Somehow I knew this was going to happen

Well, I was stood up this morning!

Yes, I had a date with a man from my Internet dating site -- for a breakfast date, just to meet and say hello and chat for a little while before work. This is supposed to be good, since no one has to be at all concerned about getting killed, or having to come up with a good and inoffensive reason not to sleep with someone -- there is a very definite terminus pro tem -- the workday is starting soon! And if you are uncomfortable, you can speed it up a bit -- "Oh, my commute is going to take half an hour," or something like that.

And still, I was toying with the idea of leaving him a quick e-mail and bagging on the whole deal. Just because I'm a coward, as we all know.

But I did not! No, I showered and dressed and combed and drove over to Sully's, getting there about five minutes early -- and then I sipped that extra-good coffee, and waited. And waited. And chatted with the owner/chef (whom I always call "Sully" in my head) and ordered oatmeal with raisins and toast, and waited. And finally I got up and paid my bill and left.

And although it makes a good story, it didn't bother me a bit. In fact I was quite glad and relieved not to have had to make conversation with anyone at all. I got a hot breakfast that I didn't have to make myself, I got some of that great coffee, and I got a few sentences with Sully. A good time was had by all!

No one is getting called back

So tell me -- if you were feeling so panic stricken about getting a document signed by your supervisor, that you sent his secretary four e-mails in the space of five minutes, then wouldn't you want to allow him or her to get back in touch with you? Wouldn't you, for example, stay by your computer in case she "replied" to your e-mail? Or perhaps, if you absolutely had to leave the house, wouldn't you take your cell phone with you? And turn it on?

Yes, you would, you say? Ah, well, then you would NOT be Nameless Agent.

But then, I know Nameless Agent -- I know that she is scatty and dingy and nutty and always just on the verge of leaving her head behind somewhere. Which is why I left her a quick e-mail and then a voicemail, when I saw that Doug had also left her a voicemail, and neither of us were getting a call back.

Checking in

Mmmmmm...... now this is GOOD coffee. I just took the first cup of the pot I brewed for the Wednesday morning meeting. It is very nearly as good as the cup I made for myself at home this morning, before I got dressed and drove here. I drank it while looking down on the extreme, heart-swelling beauty of the back yard -- the lower part greening all over the ground, the fresh new green of the leaves on the three trees, the fresh cool air and the silver grey of the surface of the water. It was quiet this morning, too -- I mean, twitters and chirps, and the occasional splash landing, but no one was honking or quacking. Very peaceful and early morning-ish. The large green circle of tall sword-blade-leaves -- soon to be lilies, or possibly irises -- is vividly green. Green like it was creating the color right there. Man, I hope irises. That would be such a thing of beauty if it were true. The beds of riotous purple and lavendar and shading-to-pink of the hyacinths is starting to fade, but the intensity of the green leaves is still passionate and earnest. Lovely.

Well, quarter past nine, and still no one is here. Where are they all?

I'm meeting Paget for lunch today, at Newport Seafood Grill. That will be fun, and will break my day up nicely. And tomorrow morning is my blind-date-breakfast. Although I haven't heard anything from him for several days -- so perhaps not. But we will see. In either case, it means I will get a breakfast!

Oh, and by the way -- this is Day Three of the No Candy at Work program. I keep the candy bowls full, but do not eat any. That ought to be a significant lowering of my caloric intake. It's harder than you might think, too!

Well -- I talked to Joe last night -- he called for no other reason than to apologize for never calling me back that day. So that was nice. I wish I were able to just accept this kind of thing without looking for behind-the-scenes ulterior motives. Which of course I did at once.

Okay, well -- nothing really to say. This is just me, checking in.

Weather Vamping

Today is a weather day and no mistake! Right now it is pouring, pouring down rain -- very thick, fat streams of steady vertical water, pounding the ground. I actually sat and listened to the sound while at the computer, thinking , "What can be making that noise?" How's that for weird? I should know all the possible sounds made by falling water hitting things! I live in Portland!

And now it has stopped. Still wet and grey, however.

This morning, when I woke, I could hear the steady and raggedly rhythmic sound of drops of water in the leaves of the tree directly out my bedroom window. Light rain falling, after a night of pretty much constant light rain. Dancing and fluttering and sparkling leaves in the pale morning light. By the time I had realized that my electric tea kettle was no longer working (ARG!) the sun had popped out and the sky, although distinctly pale and watery, was brightly blue. No rain fell on my way in to work, and now it is just dripping here and there.

So yes, my tea kettle and my digital camera do not seem to be working this morning. One plugs into the wall, and one has batteries, so they are not related to one another. No operator error, I mean. I put fresh batteries in the camera this morning, too, so -- I don't know. And this is twelve hours after the microwave stopped working ( still keeps time! I just can't make the ON button work.) And the day after my car overheated for the very first time, and I found out that the coolant tank is apparently leaking like the veritable sieve.

So.

In other news, the maintenance man came in this morning, and showed me where someone had turned the slider on the bottom of the thermostat from "Auto" to "Heat." Which, of course, keeps the cooling sysem from coming on, even when turned to its lowest possible setting. No wonder we have all been sweating in here. And not good for the computers, either! Good thing I wore my double layer sweater set this morning, as I would be freezing already, otherwise. This air conditioner is powerful. I am in charge of it, however, so I can bump it up just slightly, if I choose.

Oh, and by the way -- when the air first came on, it brought a powerful and fresh pungency of small animal poop -- some rats are nesting in the air ducts! It is starting to wear off now, though.

So any news? Or am I merely vamping in place while the brain turns?

Keeping my germs at home

Okay, I have pretty much decided that this bout of allergies is actually a cold. I caught Doug's cold. I think this because it has been coming and going in such large waves all day, and that is what a cold does, and not really what allergies do. Not so much, anyway. So this is good, since it means I will get over it fairly soon, and is also bad, since it means I can't just take an antihistamine. It also means that I can't go over to Jill's birthday party this evening, but must just go home and keep my germs away from her and the rest of my friends.

Spot of annoyance with Joe last night -- he called and asked me to pick him up at his girlfriend's house at eight-thirty. I was reading but I finished my book at 8:28, and then got shoes on and drove over there. And waited. And waited. And waited. At last I got out of the car (in my sweatpants) and rang the doorbell. Her mother and father both answered the door, and were amazed to see me. Parents don't do much door-to-door picking up in this age of cell phones. Joe came upstairs and left with me. And then when I asked him why on earth he wasn't waiting for me, he gave me this long high-pitched senseless flood of information to indicate that he had called me and when I did not answer the phone, somehow it never occurred to him that I might be on my way to get him. He thought I was "asleep" or "had gone shopping" or maybe was "out driving around" -- none of which I ever do when I have arranged to pick someone up!

Definitely, back to the Northwest

I am right at the perfect middle distance between sneezing and itching and sniffling like crazy, and dropping dead asleep. I took my antihistamines about an hour ago. And right now, with the exception of a very small headache -- or at least a feeling of pressure inside my head -- I feel fine. Long may it wave!

I went to see "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" last night at Cinema 21 -- and it was GREAT. I really enjoyed it. It was filmed, if not on location, at least on some location that looked a great deal like where it was supposed to be. And since it had been filmed in Swedish, and then sub-titled, the translation problem was completely gone. None of that sort of separation from the action, that the first book had in its prose.

I'm a little over halfway through the second book, by the way, and enjoying the hell out of it.
(Query: should one not use abbreviations when not in need of brevity? Why abbreviate something, unless it is either difficult to say in long form, or there isn't enough room to write it out? Right? So no need to write BTW up there!)

I also enjoyed just leaving the office without calling home first and letting Joe know, I enjoyed the drive over to Northwest, and through the entirely new and foreign Pearl District, I enjoyed hanging out briefly at the Lovejoy Starbucks (hey! the Gypsy is closed on Monday! That should keep me from going to Cinema 21 on Monday ever again!) and I really enjoyed walking through my old neighborhood. I LOVE those houses. If I am ever moving again, which god forbid, I am definitely moving back to Northwest.