Hugs as a bartering strategy and other tales of late October.

I've been in a bad-ish mood for the past couple weeks and not really feeling up to writing anything that wasn't whining about my lot in life (which would have consisted of things like, wah, why can't my boyfriend and I want to eat sushi at the same time, and stupid Oktoberfest meant the farmers' market was stupid cancelled, waaaah, although at the time these things felt like the weight of the world). But a few things are going on that may be noteworthy.

One: I have been walking to work. I walked on a Friday and continued walking every day last week. It takes about a half hour and I get very sweaty and upon returning home all I want to do is collapse, but I think it's good for me. The reasons for this can include my need to exercise and my hatred of driving, and that's all well and good, but they also include my reluctance to take my car to a mechanic to get the brakes or whatever it is that's making a scraping sound while the car is in motion fixed. (Mom, if you ask me about this, I swear I will stick my fingers in my ears and hum loudly and off-key like a five-year old. It WILL get taken care of, okay? I feel shitty enough about it without having to discuss it.)

Really, the best part of walking is that I am way less angry at stuff. Driving makes me an angerball, as even in my 10-minute commute I see no fewer than two traffic infractions that make me want to kill/flip off/honk/scream, so I get to work, teeth gnashing, snarling about some idiot who ran a yellow light or took too long to make a U-turn.

Two: I have been being a little better about actually cooking for myself. We went through a spat of eating out almost exclusively, and we both decided that was Bad, and I think my credit card statements are thus far a little less intimidating as a result. (Second note to mom: My finances are in perfectly fine shape.) The farmers' market is basically the highlight of my weekend, including today, when a friend from work also came to the Campbell market and we goaded each other into buying lots of things we probably didn't need. I usually don't take samples if I'm there on my own, because although I realize sampling does not imply intent to purchase, I feel like it should in my stupid little head, and so I try to avoid trying things that look delicious but are things I am highly unlikely to actually spend money on. Like toffee and cheese and cookies. I did give in today and try some cheese that is organic and locally produced, and ended up buying some spiced white cheddar that made me want to sing.

There's a dude who sells juice, mediocre guacamole, and organic avocados at one end of the market, and he's a little overly flirtatious. I asked him if his smaller 'cados were 4 for $5, and he took the sign away and said, "No, for you, they're 6 for $5." I bought the half dozen, and later brought my coworker by, warning her that he was a little on the creepy side. What followed was more flirtation in which he implied that he changed the price based on my negotiation skills that involved a hug. Which...they did not. But this gave my coworker an in to wrangle 4 for $2 out of him--via the hug negotiation tactic.

The bad thing that happened (or didn't, really) was that I have been wanting to get a pet, specifically a bunny, and I took Kevin to a house rabbit adoption fair last weekend to see how he'd react to the fluffbutts. There was one there who took a shine to him, sitting calmly on his lap for an hour and eating hay out of his hand (it sniffed me and stretched up to my shoulder, then got bored and hopped back to him), but after we left, he told me he was having an allergic reaction to it--itchy eyes, the whole bit. I'm allergic, too, truth be told, but I'm happily medicated and it isn't bad enough to bother me. Anyway, the no-bunny scenario has me pretty bummed out overall.

I'm sure there's more going on, but whatever.