Frog Blog

i'm currently on my snazzy vaio, blogging from my dining room on a wifi signal i'm picking up from somewhere around the block. it's a total nikki c. night: i opted out of dinner with family to eat and unwind at home. blogging from my dining room is just the icing on the cake. i'm hoping to make this a more regular occurance.

so of course i'm drawing a blank on what to write!

my wifi signal is pretty weak; it's strongest in the kitchen and goes away completely in the living room. i have a favorite new memory: B sitting in the kitchen with the laptop propped up on the dishwasher to check his email.

stay tuned for more entries (if you're even still out there and haven't given up on reading me!).

i'm awaiting a phone call from my 14-year-old cousin regarding how to do something on myspace. every now and again, randomly, i feel so old. out of touch. don't recognize bands on "rolling stone" anymore. seriously, i subscribed to that magazine for about 10 years and always thought i'd be up on stuff. maybe it's just changing tastes.

anyway, i do hope she calls me back. i used to be very anti-myspace because it seemed so clique-y but i have to admit, i'm a little into it. i've reconnected with old pals and people i haven't thought of in years.

what do you think?

i always promised myself i wouldn't blog about my current job. it's quite the conservative establishment and in light of all the blogger lawsuits, i'm a little gunshy of the whole thing. that being said, work in general is a giant part of my life simply by default: i spend nine hours of my day there. i haven't told anyone i work with that i have a blog, nor do they refer to me by my signature name (nikki c), but i'm sure any techie doing a little sleuthing could figure the whole thing out. and people at my job are just the type to freak out about something like this, as innocuous as it may be.

perhaps if i do mention work, i'll be as vague as possible. here's what i can say:

i'm in a profession i never thought i'd be in. the type of work i do is similar to other jobs i've had in an administrative sense, but the field is relatively foreign to me. my office is on the small side but part of a larger corporation based in another city.

i'd rather be busy than not while working, in any job. i do enjoy having some down time but overall i'm not the type to sit around idle at work. my job ebbs and flows. for a few days at a time i'll be twiddling my thumbs and checking my email every five minutes; other days i'm so swamped i can barely drink a cup of tea. i'm sure this is all very normal in most jobs. but it's not the busy times or the slow times that really bother me. it's all the other stuff in between. more on that later.

i'm hoping people are still reading this blog. i quite enjoy writing it, though i'm still struggling with whether or not i feel like i have anything interesting to say. in france, every day was this fresh new experience. back in reality, it takes work to find the freshness in the mundane. wish me luck.

my eyes are about to burn out of my head. i'm writing this at work, posting it in here at home. it's a very typical nearly-christmas sort of day: very slow, low on staff, hardly any phone calls. i'm bored out of my gourd. here are some things that have happened since my last post:

saturday night was a long-anticipated date night with B. i'd called a teensy italian restaurant last tuesday for reservations. they told me they were having a private party but could accomodate us at 7:30. no problem. it had been a while since just me and B went out for dinner-- we've done a lot with friends and family but not by ourselves. plus, he does all the cooking, so we were both looking forward to going out.

we'd just dug into our antipasti plate when zoooomph, the power went out. at first we couldn't tell because it was relatively dark in the restaurant while the power was on. but the christmas tree lights were out, as were the streetlights outside. the restaurant got quiet for a few seconds but then carried on as usual: diners kept dining, waiters scurried around wondering if any food would be available. unfortunately, not. even though the kitchen most likely used gas stoves and ovens, without electricity there was no ventilation (or lights to see any prep, etc.). the teeny room began to get quite stuffy. that large private party had just sat down when the power went out. they seemed a bit boring but did have some christmas crackers and took everything in stride. a table down the way was like an incarnation of the ya-ya sisterhood. the women dominated the room with their shrill, drunk laughter. B and i struck up a conversation with an old couple next to us and almost finished our dolcetto.

finally, a maitre d' came over and explained that all hot food had been called off. no black cod for me or wild boar for B. however, the chef was going to boil up a giant vat of pasta and we were welcome to a share. no, thanks. we bundled up and dashed to whole foods a few blocks away. the moment we rounded the corner however, the power came back on. but we stayed on course and bought an already-cooked chicken and B made a lovely chicken/green salad at home. we got to take our half-drunk wine, too. thank god.

going back one more day, on friday my department went to our christmas party. a wind storm had just been through. many interstate signs had been blown over entirely and were laying face down on the side of the road.

sunday came and went with much newspaper reading and last minute shopping. so far the week has been dragging on. i know it's because i'm looking forward to some holiday time off. i can't wait to sleep in and wear jeans for THREE DAYS IN A ROW and spend time with my family and drink tea every hour on the hour. happy holidays to everyone.

some nights, all i crave is comfort food and two hours of television. tonight, i had the comfort food (miso soup) but nothing worth watching on television (dr. 90210). it saddens me to see young girls wanting boob jobs. what do they know about anything at 18? but i remember being 18 and thought i knew everything. i suppose i did know everything that i was supposed to know but now i see that i lacked a certain amount of perspective. but anyway. you know how some shows are so bad they're good? like certain "true hollywood stories." dr. 90210 is definitely not like that for me. i don't find it at all redeeming or guilty in pleasure.

here's something that really bugs me: when i'm telling a good story, full of buildup and personal experience and a killer ending and the person i'm talking to guesses the ending halfway through and blurts it out. example: an old friend of mine once drank drano. she's no longer my friend and wasn't when she took the fateful gulp but it's a compelling story nonetheless. i was relaying this to a person i know and she interrupted and blurted out the end. it's so disruptive and rude and left me hanging. i lost my place and lost my pace and felt she did an injustice to the story. it's not just about someone drinking drano, it's also about how she came to drink it in the first place.