Saturday, October 29, 2005

Hi.

I'm still here.

And not overly excited about it.

Still working on the adjusting and the balancing and trying to figure out where everything should end up. However, I decided that I would drop in here and say hi.

Hi.

Ok, that's where I started. Anyway, here are a few random, unrelated things in the life of Citycat.

1. I hit absolute rock bottom at work today. I mean, the absolute lowest of the Trump-esque corporate doublespeak nonsense. We have to do these presentations on what our offices do for the rest of the agency (strike one). Under instruction, I was preparing ours in PowerPoint (strike 2). All that would have been reasonable had I not had a moment today where I was searching for clip art (argh!)... of... a forest (the Hell?)... because the first part of the presentation is....

"The forest for the trees".

And I was also looking for clip art for the second part, which was... (oh yeah, you know where this is going)....

"The trees."

Then I e-mailed all my friends and asked, again, that they PLEASE, for the LOVE OF GOD, just KILL. ME.

2. Yoga. Ok, I like yoga. I really like yoga in the sense that I HATE HATE HATE to work out but I can do yoga and it occupies enough of my mind that I am not bored to tears. However. I have a yoga DvD that was "Yoga for Stress Relief", and it is wonderful, and there is this one exercise with your neck and the stress going away and maybe you don't feel like your neck can so much hold your head up afterward, (which... not so good, since that is like the sum total of the necks' purpose, unless it's to show off pretty necklaces, but...), but you don't care because it feels So. Damn. Good. So maybe I was lulled into a false sense of security with yoga. Maybe yoga... lied to me.

Because since I moved to the new apartment, there is no actual room to do yoga in the living room, on account that there is a coffee table there and there is NO WAY I am doing yoga around a coffee table. So I bought lots of yoga tapes, and do yoga in my room now. And I bought all different types, and I liked AM and PM and conditioning and abs. And I thought I really liked yoga.

Then I tried Power Yoga.

People. The FUCK? I hurt in muscles I wasn't even aware I had. Normally, yoga is kind of like, "Ok, ow, ow, there, that feels better, ok". Power yoga? Power yoga was like, "Ow. Ow. OWOW. You want me to... WHAT? I don't think... it's supposed to bend that way... and OW, and ooh, my hips are a little, and eek, my arm isn't really, and OH MY FUCKING GOD I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR MY WRISTS TO HURT THIS MUCH". The yoga? It hates me.

So yes, I realize that this is probably a combination of me not being in ANY sort of shape and probably doing the poses wrong and overdoing it and also pushing too hard into the poses and you know what, y'all? I DON'T CARE. Because those are all reasonable, rational explanations that put the blame on ME, so I am ignoring them entirely and blaming the INANIMATE YOGA TAPE. So there.

3. I so have ADD. It was almost embarassing. This week I went on a field trip for work, in which I went to a Port, and we learned all sorts of really fascinating things. And despite the ship captain who nearly had a coronary when I established my rudimentary knowledge of diesel engines, (Quote: "Who the hell IS this chick? She knows engines??"), I had a good time. However, we were standing there, and the port man was talking, and I swear it was even interesting , and the next thing I knew I was complimenting one of the general counsel attorneys on her bracelets. So to recap:

Guy With Knowledge I Need And Want: "Blah blah blah very important stuff."
Me: "Oooh. Shiny."

I clearly left a large portion of my mind back in Texas.

Happy Weekend!!

Monday, October 17, 2005

Return

Well, I'm back.

For the last three weeks I have been in Texas, helping the Red Cross with disaster relief after the dual tragedies of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I spent several days in shelters, and then joined a mobile feeding team. My team moved to Orange, Texas, where we lived without electricity and potable water in a devastated area. We took out Budget trucks filled with food to people who had not yet been helped. In 2 weeks we served over 100,000 meals and provided for the basic needs of the community. In addition, on our own time, we saved dozens of animals that had been abandoned after the storm.

It was incredible, it was sad, it was fun, it was amazing. I met some of the most incredible people I have ever met in my entire life, and I will never, ever forget them.

If I could, I would go back again as soon as I got some rest and my strength back. (And had a doctor check out my leg, because seriously people, who actually punctures themselves on an actual rusty nail? Oh, I do.) I fully intend on doing this for the rest of my life, whenever I have the opportunity to do so.

In some ways, it was time to go, and in others, I don't want to be back. An experience like this challenges you on a deeply personal level, and I haven't worked out my answers to those challenges yet. This is not an overall bad thing, and although the Red Cross emphasizes the potential need for mental health assessment when you get back, I don't think I'm going to fall into a deep depression or anything. (Unless shopping with the Peanut or talking on the phone with Jen while moaning, "I haaaate my life" counts). But in some ways a lot of things have shifted, and it will be awhile before I come to equilibrium again, and maybe longer to come to terms with that new equilibrium.

So, until the next day to day disaster provides me with something to write about (or until I process some things and get my pictures developed), I have been tagged with the following by WaveUnfurled:

"Five idiosyncracies I have and am willing to own up to."

1. I have always, even before my recent time in Texas, said "y'all", even though there is not a damn Southern thing about me.

2. I have no maternal instincts whatsoever for human beings, and overwhelming maternal instincts for animals.

3. The list of Things I Am Petrified Of includes: monkeys, marionettes, and revolving doors.

4. I refuse to eat any meat attached to any bone. (This one cause my Red Cross team to reconsider my need for psychological counseling).

5. I prefer all foods to be lukewarm, except ice cream, but only because that is impossible.