It's Raining on 17th Street

I left my room this morning and heard the curious sound of water running. It wasn't the shower, but in my glasses-free blindness, I couldn't see any rain, either.

Upon closer inspection, it was raining. Water was running down the roof and into the dirt and weed-filled gutters of the neighbors' house. Everything was so gray I could barely see the rain itself.

If there's one thing that frustrates me--but of course, there are a thousand things that frustrate me--it's wasting time on other peoples' account. It's one thing to wait around for a few minutes while your friend gets to the appointed meeting place at the appointed meeting time, but lately I've experienced a waiting around of another sort. It's driving me crazy.

The month of September remained completely unplanned for me until about a week ago, when I was let off the hook for jury duty. Had I known I wouldn't actually have to serve, I could've made all kinds of plans. Granted, my boss needed me to work a bunch of that time, so I ended up working. I've had four-day weekends but worked a buttload, too.

The four-day weekends have so far been a waste of time, however.

I drove to the beach last weekend. It was pointless. I already wrote about that. It was kind of my own fault.

I did go see Lost in Translation on Friday night, though. It was delicious.

On Saturday, Kevin and I were supposed to go to Olympia to set up ethernet stuff in my mom's house. He was going to install wall jacks and everything.

First, he didn't get up until pretty late. We didn't sail into town until 3 or so. Second, he spent all day crawling around in the crawlspace (wearing an impressively amusing get-up--oversized windpants, flannel shirt, latex gloves, Knott's Berry Farm ballcap, dust mask and lab goggles) with me in the room, yelling at him through the floor and exchanging knocks. He drilled holes. He moved fiberglass. We poked sticks at each other through the fiberglass. Ne'er did the twain meet.

Third, we hadn't planned on staying over, which is what ended up happening. So we stunk on Sunday.

I thought the whole thing was hopeless after awhile, and Kevin said wireless would be cheaper anyway. Mom agreed. We returned as much stuff as we could to Home Depot and ordered wireless cards for the remaining computers. Then, in an effort to do...something, Kevin installed XP on the computer in the living room that no one reall uses.

We got back to Seattle around 6 p.m., at which time Kevin was too sleepy to even drive home and fell asleep for five hours. I watched a movie and the Conan O'Brien 10 Year Anniversary Special before joining him. He left 40 minutes later.

So I was gone for two days and did jack shit. I hate that.

Yesterday we went to Costco in the early evening and bought too much crap, then came home and made something resembling baigan bharta, which has of late become my favorite dish to order at Indian restaurants. I'd roasted the eggplant earlier that afternoon according to one recipe online that suggested it should be cooked under the broiler until the skin is slightly burned, and slivers of garlic should be wedged in a deep crack through the middle of the vegetable. I think it turned out all right.

Today I have to go to work briefly to turn in my timesheet since on Friday I couldn't figure out how to print the damn thing. I'm sure it's something I should've known, but didn't, and I'll look and/or feel like an idiot. I didn't see any actual printers in the Printers control panel! I can't print it from a lab machine because it's not installed. I don't know how to install the printer. So. I am dumb. And I have to go to work and bother my boss for five minutes.

What else to do today? Umm... we bought some enoki mushrooms at Costco and maybe we'll cook something with them. There are a lot of them, but they were cheap.

Tomorrow I work and Thursday I am supposed to go to the coast with my mom. I guess we are trying to cook exciting things and go to a spa or something. I just want a massage right now, though. My back hates me.