2001-05-25

Diary entry? What diary entry? Oh yeah. This diary entry. I've been lax (as readers may notice) at updating my various online properties. When I have been online, which was less frequent this weekend than usual, I've either glanced at my favorite blogs or been focused on a data hunt, from Googling lost friends to, well, quests for porn.

I've had a hormonal couple of days.

So do I pretend to go back in time and write from last week's perspective or just put one long �berentry in its place? Hmph. I'll try the split approach, so you'll catch another entry after work tomorrow, and hopefully one more on Friday.

I don't think it's only because I'm writing this after the fact...but you know that "Oh my God it's about to get busy" feeling? I had that last week, so I was trying to savor the last of the slack I could squeeze out before I'm called to the floor for shirking my responsibilities.

The Roommate and our mutual friend -- there's just the one -- and I had a lovely evening of decent Italian food (well, mine was very tasty, anyway) and then a couple hot games of Scrabble. I received a set for Christmas and haven't had an opportunity to play until now. Our friend, on the other hand, has been honing her skills with the New York Times Crossword and playing scrabble online.

She mopped the floor with me.

Sometimes during games I do notice my own ugly competitive nature come out in a big way. I have to win! Damn it! I think for our game that night I did better at suppressing that instinct and to just enjoy the game without screaming out, "No Coffeehousing!" I mean, the beings in the chairs next to me are friends, not competitors for survival. It's only surprising to me because I'm ordinarily so non-confrontational -- except when there's bragging rights at stake in a game of skill. And yes, I have tried to use this Mary Poppins-esque motivational technique to productive ends. "In ev'ry job that must be done/ There is an element of fun/ you find the fun and snap!/ The job's a game."

Sometimes it works. Sometimes...Snap!...the job's still a goddamn job.

Speaking of...our group at work has just gotten some new requests...to do ad banners. Old-fashioned, 468x60 ad banners, the kind I used to turn out in bucketfuls. The much-maligned-by-both-user-and-advertiser Ad Banner. The scary thing is that, secretly, I find I'm really excited about doing them. They're easy to make, and very satisfying as a short, no-fuss project. Even there I sound like it's a recipe for some comfort food or something. I'm a sick puppy.

I still need to use vacation time. Will I be better after taking time off? Will I want to be productive? Or will I just be escaping what feels like incessant talking about process, discussing our role and how to fill it, belaboring these fundamental issues we seem to continue to re-address for the first time all over again? Will I want to slap people any less?

I mean, they're disturbing my Web surfing. How rude.

As I wrote in my Weblog, I picked 23 movies to see the 25th Annual International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Yeouch. That's way more movies than I normally see in a year. And of course, only some of them coincide with The Boyfriend's list. We were supposed to collate our lists and make some final decisions on Thursday night, but our game of Scrabble was in medias res and consequently a little too hot and heavy to halt. S'OK. It really was a much larger task than we had expected.

Though there are one or two movies I really want to see that he doesn't. So I'd be on my own for them (assuming I didn't run into my friends who hold festival passes.) My secret confession? I don't think I've ever been to a movie by myself before. I sound like a Victorian spinster sometimes, don't I?

In fact, a friend I've recently started to see around again offered to help buy tickets from the Festival's online ticket booth during the member-only purchase window. We didn't need to take him up on it, but it was nice of him to offer. The Boyfriend and I have joined Frameline each year as "partners", which was a shock the first year when we saw our names printed in the program together -- now that's a realization that your relationship has become serious.

Well, serious, but with a definite goofy streak, as The Roommate will attest.

It wasn't until later that I remembered that my friend who offered to help get us tickets is a regular and generous contributor to the festival, and one of the people who takes vacation time to see everything he possibly can. I had forgotten; that's what happens when you lose several years of friendship with someone.

Oops.

_Casey

2003-03-29 - Moving Notice
2002-06-04 - Accordians and Ambassadors (Diary Fragment)
2002-05-24 - Manias (Diary Fragment)
2002-05-09 - See this little island here?
2002-04-24 - Bored and Drippy.