Stuff and Things

i've been hibernating mostly since the year began. trying to step back and take inventory of things; trying to form a vision of what i want my 2005 to look like. still a little murky. plus, i went on a mini-cleanse where i didn't eat meat or drink alcohol for the first two weeks of january, so i wasn't as much fun to be around. but now that i'm back to being a carnivorous alcoholic, i'm ready to paint the town.

there was other stuff going on. i hit a few gnarly speedbumps that doused all the cocksure confidence i had going into this year. i didn't get a job i really wanted. and i had another setback that i won't go into here. there was some anguish. but i bounce back, and the year is still young. otherwise, i've still been working from home mucho, had some 12-hour workdays that felt oddly fantastic. there's still that isolation weirdness going on when i'm home working, where i don't talk to anyone but the dog. some days i decide to just not shower or change out of my jammies.

but stranger than that is the auditory show one of my neighbors has been unknowingly putting on for me. i think it's a couple, though i'm not sure of their genders. one is definitely a guy, and i think he might be a drug dealer or a junkie or maybe a rock star, because he seems to be home all day making noise. they argue non-stop, crescendo-ing in "get the fuck away from me!!" sometimes it's over housework, a la "look what a dirty fucking mess you made!!!" then there's the wretching, which is what makes me suspect he's a junkie. he seems to be vomiting all day -- guts-twisted-stomach-turned-inside-out type vomiting. i get queasy just hearing it. and when there's no arguing or vomiting, there's definitely masturbating. and he takes FOREVER to climax (also a junkie quality, no?). so while i'm sitting there trying to edit children's textbooks like the good nun i am, i get a delightful blend of hurling, horny and swear-landen sounds to fill up my home office (aka living room).

but on to the good news in brief:

• i saw the wonderful lhasa in concert at the conga room. she's a world artist who plays the most hauntingly beautiful gypsy music. she had me hypnotized all night, voodoo style. she looked damn sexy, too.


• i also saw the wonderful k8 the gr8, who was visiting from portland for the weekend. i hadn't seen the girl since we worked together in san francisco almost five years ago. twas quite pleasant.


• i finally received my FREE iPod in the mail this week. free, as in a $300 new 20 gig iPod for FREE. well, i guess it cost about 6 bucks shipping and handling for some beauty product i ordered but never used. "thanks" to the five people who signed up on my behalf, and "up yours" to the naysayers who said it would never happen. you can have one too. this offer is totally legit, but you gotta play by their rules: www.freeipods.com.


• the jasmine bush outside my front door is starting to bloom. it's gotten me all kinds of giddy, retarded style. jasmine is one of my most favorite smells, right up there with home cooking and sweet pheromones borne of intense chemistry. those smells flood the pleasure center of my brain, making me so dizzy i need to sit down. so whenever i walk outside lately, i just stop and inhale for a few seconds. LA air has never smelled better. downside is the bush blooms only once a year, but it should last for a few months. let me know if you want to come sit on my porch and breathe with me.

It's Raining Work, Hallelujah!

every day this week, i've gotten phone calls about some sort of employment opportunity. it's been amazing and completely unprecendented, unexpected and a bit surreal. most of the calls have been from the temp agency i recently signed up with. those fuckers have been hard at work for me, and i must give them mad props. at least four different recruiters have called me offering various opportunities. i've tried to say 'yes' to almost everything because i'm so cash hungry and eager to work, work, work. that's the big resolution of the year -- to work, work, work. whereas 2004 was a year of rest and recovery following two treacherous years of graduate school and hellish heartache, 2005 will be all about the mighty dollar and me as the mighty mouse. (sorry, that was dorky.)

so yes, the new temp agency rocks, making me abandon my old temp agency altogether. i also received a phone call from a place i interviewed with months ago -- they never hired me, citing something about budgets or timing or whatever -- that offered me about five days worth of freelance work in the coming weeks, which i quickly snatched up. i went in yesterday for a full day, have three days lined up for next week and then one more the following week. and THEN, i got a call for a job i applied to weeks ago and forgot about. when the guy called me for an interview, i figured he was yet another recruiter from the agency and we began some weird dialogue that ended in confusion on both our parts. after i figured it out and apologized profusively, we set up an interview, and i interviewed. we'll see how that goes. and to top it off, i'm still working for my mistress zee, mostly from home, and that should continue for about another month. i see some 12-hour workdays in my future, but you know what, a 12-hour workday would do me good right about now.

let's hope this deluge of opportunities maintains, because i need to do some serious making up for the past few months of inactivity. the new year should also be the year of new stuffs, like new couches and possibly a new car, perhaps a new dog, a vacation to somewhere i've never been before. i've made a wish list that only keeps lengthening.

and this LA rain rocks, especially when you can work from home, as i have been doing. it's so toasty in my pad. i'm in my warm sweats and slippers, making homemade meals daily, taking all the breaks i want while still getting my work done. only problem is that it can get quiet and rather lonely. i'll traverse through my day all self-contained and isolated, barely uttering a word to anyone but juice. then the phone will ring in the evening and maybe it's a friend or my parents and suddenly, i'm either chewing their ear off or have forgotten how to form words altogether. i motormouth or bumble, depending on my caffiene intake.

so while working from home has its benefits, i find myself yearning for the office, at least a day or two a week. that would be my ideal situation because i am a social animal. yet i know that too many days in an office space would shrivel my soul into a little unhappy raisin. something about that flourescent lighting, that drone of computers, those same complacent faces day in and out -- ugh. i poopoo on that conformity. (though i fear i shall succumb one day.)