| live |
[Mar. 12th, 2013|07:27 pm]
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My landlord called this afternoon and asked if I would be renewing my lease in the fall. I said no.
I am feeling really happy and really sad at the same time. I am not ready to leave Boston. I do not want to leave Boston-- ever, really. And this apartment where I have lived for the last 4 years of my life is the only place I ever really lived alone as an adult.
At least I have the summer to live it up. |
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| you don't say |
[Jan. 17th, 2013|03:16 pm]
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~may cause drowsiness~
motherfucker i napped for 4 hours yesterday. TWICE. |
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| zzzzzzz |
[Jan. 16th, 2013|11:56 pm]
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So I reinjured my neck. Again. hooray. one of my shoulders is literally 3 inches higher than the other and my neck doesn't move the way i want it to.
so yesterday i went to the dr. upshot:
* another referral to physical therapy, and this time, when i graduate, I JOIN THE PILATES GYM LIKE THEY TELL ME. literally everyone in my life has been instructed to get all over my case about this
*c-spine and shoulder xrays. my GP and i agreed that it's almost certainly muscle/tendon issues, but she wanted to rule out me needing to see an orthopedic... she caught herself before saying surgeon but what the fuck ever, if it takes surgery to stop this ever happening again I WILL TAKE IT
* another xray on my shin, where i have a weird bone spur or SOMETHING that is crazy painful to the touch
* i got a flu shot, and i didnt cry for an hour afterwards this time (only 30 sec or so lmao). it looks like the prophylactic anti-anxiety meds actually are helping untie the stimulus->terror response? i might actually be normal in a few years hoooooray
* i have an ultrasound of my enlarged thyroid next week and i am trying not to over obsess about that because, uh, what
* i told my GP that i was concerned bc sometimes this neck thing happens (to a lesser extent) and i usually self medicate with valium and ibuprofen and this time it is not working! she squinted at my med list as was like "uhhhhh... how old are these pills you're taking?" so i got an rx for new ones and OH MY GOD. before i would take 10 mg and be a little loopy and it would help. now i take 10 mg and wake up 6 hours later. if i take only 5 mg and im loopy as fuck but at least i can move my neck.
(i apologize, big pharma. i thought your expiration dates were a scam. i know better now)
uhhh, thats all, i guess. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 16th, 2013|01:36 pm]
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my computer is a lunatic |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 12th, 2013|01:14 pm]
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oh i dont like the way i never listen to myself
i feel like im on fire im too shy to cry for help
oh i dont think you know me much at all
this love is be and end all
this love will be your my downfall
this love is be and end all
this love will be your my downfall
im feeling down about this love |
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| behind |
[Dec. 20th, 2012|12:14 pm]
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I do not understand how I can spend almost every waking hour working on something and still be underwater in almost every aspect of my life.
I am behind in work, despite easily working 60-80 hours a week, every week.
My apartment is a shithole pit of stuff. i am at the point where i basically want to throw away everything i own except - the kicker - I don't have time?
I haven't seen any of my friends in ages and ages.
I haven't started Christmas shopping.
I haven't sat down and spent quality time with myself in ages. I can't remember the last time I read a book when I wasn't sitting on a plane. I don't watch TV unless it's on for background noise while I'm pitifully trying to make an attempt in the mess of my apartment. I don't play videogames anymore (who has time?).
Everywhere I look I have Too Much To Do. It's very paralyzing. |
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| okay |
[Dec. 17th, 2012|11:47 pm]
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today was Dave's first day as a member of the connecticut state police
it was his second day as a person who has a phone with a battery that doesn't charge, though, so i don't know a lot about it yet. i will find out more tomorrow, or more likely wednesday. i am in texas right now and have a long day followed by a long flight staring me in the face tomorrow.
i asked about his schedule, he said it's really complicated and at work, but he'd copy it down and bring it home tomorrow. i asked when he would be working tomorrow, he said "630 til whenever the busses leave"
"Busses?" i asked
"school busses. I'm at a school tomorrow"
oh.
I wore my Connecticut State Police Hoodie down to dinner tonight (at the hotel lobby across the parking lot). The guy who served me stopped by to chat and commented on it. He asked if I was police. I said no, my boyfriend just graduated from the CSP academy the day before the shooting. We talked about the shooting. He has daughters that age.
He came by later and refilled my wine, "on the house." we chatted more. about his kids, about tragedy, about the pain and helplessness and horror of Friday. He helps out at his daughters' school, handing out milk and snacks before he heads to the hotel to work the lunch and dinner shift. He asked how long I was staying in Texas. I told him until tomorrow night, he said if I came back for lunch it would be on the house too.
He talked about how he comes from Laredo, where the drug cartels war with one another, and there are decapitations, but how kids are sacrosanct. You do not touch the families. We wondered how we got here. We wondered how this could happen.
He came back again later, with a giant bag. There is a banana in it, and yogurt, and fruit salad, and two types of juice. "Thank your [boyfriend]" he said. "It's the least I can do."
I did not expect this.
i did not expect this. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 15th, 2012|10:21 am]
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ughhhhhhh as though the new update boxes weren't enough
lj quit breaking stuff, i swear to god i will leave |
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| new chapter |
[Dec. 2nd, 2012|07:52 pm]
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Wow, it's been a while.
I have a lot of things going on but I'm having trouble articulating, I guess. Work is burdensome. I am past one major crunch period and there is another rapidly bearing down on me but I think I will have a couple weeks before it arrives.
Dave is about to graduate from the CSP academy, like, in 10.5 days. That's something. I have a lot of complicated feelings about it.
I finished LA Noire a few minutes ago. I do NOT have complicated feelings about that. It's the first game in I-don't-know-how-long that isn't in the Mass Effect series that I've actually finished. At least a year. I have a long list of Games to Play but I don't know what's next on the agenda.
What's going on with you guys? |
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| argh |
[Sep. 6th, 2012|05:34 am]
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I am still so jet lagged. (Dad has started referring to it as "time scrambled" which is frankly a way better term). This is the fourth day in a row I've woken up at 5 am or earlier. I passed the fuck out at 9 last night but honestly I was in bed by 730.
I just want my life back |
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| housekeeping |
[Sep. 5th, 2012|01:20 pm]
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I don't know why but I had a lot of difficulty with the housekeeping in China.
In the first hotel, housekeeping threw away the scrap of cloth that protects my laptop screen from my keyboard. (They then lied about it, which was frankly enraging. "Oh, we didn't throw anything away!" WELL WHY IS IT NO LONGER ON THE DESK THEN?)
In the second hotel, housekeeping stole my pants. Well, okay, they did not actually steal my pants. It turned out there was free laundry service and they decided my pants were dirty and took them away to be washed. The desk told me that they left a note, which I sort of doubt, because I didn't see one, but I wouldn't have been able to read it anyway. After this the front desk sort of treated me like I was harmless but completely brainless, which didn't actually bother me very much because for all intents and purposes, I kind of was. (After it was established that housekeeping had not bafflingly stolen my pants, I was actually pretty grateful. My trip had been way extended and the wash was an unexpected bonus)
In the final hotel, housekeeping - are you ready for this? They THREW AWAY THE CAP TO MY BRAND NEW TUBE OF TOOTHPASTE. I left the toothpaste behind because I didn't want it to spooge all over my suitcase, but I mean, DAMN.
Also, in all hotels they passive-aggressively did not consistently refill my toilet paper rolls, which was stressful because it turns out I can't digest cow stomach or chicken feet very well. |
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| china, in brief |
[Aug. 31st, 2012|01:23 am]
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So I'm in China. It's cool. My trip has been extended twice now; I left (and arrived) on the 17th, and was originally to leave the 26th, which became the 30th, which is now the 2nd. I am experiencing an unprecedented degree of homesickness. I would kill a kitten to be able to understand conversations with waitstaff.
Or perhaps not. In the last few weeks, among other things, I have eaten: frog legs, chicken feet (boned and deboned), pig foot, pig leg (this one comes with handy plastic gloves, sort of like the bibs they give you when you order boiled lobsters). I've also eaten (somewhat under protest) fried jellyfish. I did request that we not order toads from the enormous tub o' toads.
So far I have been in Nanjing, Zhenzhou (pron. "JUN-jo"), I'm in Wuhan now and in a few hours I fly back to Beijing where I'll be for a day and a half or so before flying home. It's been a mostly work-oriented tour but I've gotten some sight-seeing in, like the memorial in Nanjing re: the Japanese rape/slaughter there, which was especially interesting since I've just seen the Israeli Holocaust memorial. (The two memorials, despite having similar themes, were SO different. The Israeli memorial was much more clinical and disinclined to use rhetoric. The Chinese memorial is much more... sensational and used a lot of adjectives.)
Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Wordpress, Blogspot, and ImageShack are blocked, near as I can tell. Apparently you can get them via 3G - the Great Firewall of China does not extend to mobile networks - but upon landing I got this text message: Free Msg! Welcome to China! Dial 001 & 10-digit # to call US. For roaming support call 001-908-559-4899.
Depending on your plan, calls made & received are $1.99/min. TXT: Send $.50, Receive $.05. Pic/video msgs, web use, tethering, and apps use data while roaming.
Global Data: $20.48/MB. [Ed. note: mother of god] Turn data services off in device settings or use WiFi to avoid charges.
Except I can't use WiFi because I can't decipher the redirect pages so I am stuck with wired connections on my laptop only, whee!
That's pretty much that, and I am basically out of time so I am gonna run downstairs and head to the airport so I can go to Beijing and then San Francisco and then HOME where I can get PIZZA and UNDERSTAND CONVERSATIONS and not need to be babysat all the time.
ILU GUYS |
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| PSA |
[Aug. 23rd, 2012|07:10 pm]
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if you have to call someone for business purposes, and you've been given their cell phone number, unless you've been SPECIFICALLY TOLD to use the cell phone number as the primary contact, you should call their office first
because they might be in china, and it might be three o'clock in the goddamn morning, and they might then not be able to fall back asleep and have to go to a conference on three hours of sleep
thank you for your time |
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| oh, dammit |
[Aug. 19th, 2012|07:58 am]
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one thing about the israel trip I forgot to mention is that Google flipped its shit and kept sending me emails about how it successfully stymied a hacker in Tel Aviv from fraudulently accessing my account!!!! (spoiler alert: the hacker was me)
it's now flipping out about me being in China and blocking me again. google stop being so nervous. |
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| israel, china |
[Aug. 19th, 2012|04:13 am]
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so I'm in China, how are you??
( let's talk about Israel first, thoughCollapse )
Yeah so anyway, Friday morning I got my ass on another plane and flew back to Newark and then to Beijing and then to Nanjing, where I am currently sitting. This time I gave up and brought along a bottle of valium and brute forced myself to sleep on the plane - my neck is still all messed up, but I arrived exhausted but not wanting to faint or vomit. Still wanted to turn around and go back home though, lol. Progress!
I'm here for a training and a conference and then an installation; the pre-conference training is a two day affair. I'm supposed to do a 2 hour presentation to something like 100 engineers tomorrow from 10-12, and my powerpoint got rejected so I am just gonna wing it lol. The training is today too, so they basically told me today is my "rest day" and to hang out in my hotel room all day. They're gonna come collect me in a couple hours (6:30) and show me the sights. Whee!
(There is no twitter here, nor facebook. It hurts me). |
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| 4 |
[Jul. 5th, 2012|09:09 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| |  loved | ] |
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
Today is my anniversary. I'm 3000 miles away in California, he's stuck in the Connecticut State Police academy. He called tonight and told me he loved me.
I miss him. |
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| blah blah |
[Jun. 29th, 2012|07:52 pm]
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I have things I want to talk about wrt Life and Relationships and Fuck My Job Sometimes but I do not have the emotional energy for it.
I just bought a creme brulee beer; it was brewed with vanilla beans. I am very much looking forward to drinking it. |
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| in case you thought you were having a bad day |
[Jun. 21st, 2012|02:09 pm]
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this is a section from an actual lawsuit that has actually been filed. 14. Defendants breached that duty by operating, maintaining, inspecting, repairing and managing the subject property and urinal in a careless and negligent manner. Defendant failed to exercise reasonable care to protect against dangers on the subject property and warn against such known dangers. Such dangers at the subject property include, without limitation: (a) Plumbing and/or water heating systems that violate the applicable Building, Mechanical and Plumbing code, (b) Urinal that shoots jets of scalding steam, (c) Failure to properly repair a known dangerous urinal and/or plumbing issue.
Emphasis is mine.
You can read the whole lawsuit here. |
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| hives |
[Jun. 12th, 2012|11:16 am]
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I woke up at about 3 am Monday morning quite itchy. I had hives - one on my hand, one on my chest, one on my arm. Frantic, I took a cold shower to stop their growth, then freaked out at my parents in the hotel room next door and slathered this prescription cortisone cream my dad has all over them, then went back to sleep. I woke up with about 10 more.
We stopped at a farmacia (pharmacy) to ask for antihistaminas (antihistamines) and I was given loratadina (we're assuming this is spanish generic claritin, since claritin is loratadine). I feel like I'm trapped in some awful offensive joke where someone's pretending to speak spanish by appending vowels to the end of English words except it's my real life.
Tuesday night I was scared to sleep, which was smart of me. I took an antihistamine before bed, which I think just means I slept through my skin exploding. Originally I had maybe 5 or 6 hives total. I just counted forty. On my right arm.
anyway I woke up this morning with no new ones, and the ones that I do have are shrinking and getting less swollen and red and angry looking. They still itch tho.
f u, stress |
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| spain |
[Jun. 10th, 2012|10:35 pm]
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i am in spain. barcelona, actually, following a week in valencia.
spain is really lovely, but i guess i am just having trouble seeing past (ha ha) the fact that i am so covered in random hives right now (stress? this shitawful cold?) that they are even on my eyelids which are half swollen shut |
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| brat |
[May. 2nd, 2012|02:47 pm]
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Dave: Do you remember last night, when you told me the show I was watching was boring? It was after you had fallen asleep.
Me: (laughing) Oh wow, did I really?
Dave: Yeah. I asked what did you care, you were asleep anyway, and you said "yeah, that's why I'm letting you watch it." I was a little dismayed to learn your default setting is 'brat' even when you're unconscious. |
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| okay my job could actually be worse |
[Apr. 30th, 2012|08:58 am]
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mbs wizard:
I am an east facing person and recently my office has been totally redecorated. i am now forced to sit in my total loss direction west and i have noticed my computer keeps playing up. Things like my cds will not play. It is so stressful now as everything worked perfectly when i faced south. It is impossable to sit in any other direction now. Can I use crystals to correct this problem or what is the best feng shui option? Please help
xkfan:
why don't you post in your office floor plan with directions too?
-xkfan
mbs wizard:
dear xkan. what a good idea. i never thought of that. Can u give me a couple of days to get all my directions exactly right by the compass and i will send it to you. thank u for being out there :-*
[Link]
At least none of my customers have ever suggested we use crystals or feng shui to get their equipment up and running again. |
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| strength |
[Apr. 24th, 2012|09:01 pm]
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Solo international travel? No big deal.
Troubleshoot medical equipment that they discovered wasn't working midway through a surgery? I got this.
Teach myself to drive stick, on the road? Sure, fine, whatever.
Remove an 'occupied' mouse trap from under my dishwasher? AAIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 24th, 2012|03:23 pm]
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Last night I watched what i guess was this season's premier of Coast Guard Alaska. It's a Weather Channel production (right?) that basically follows rescue divers/Coast Guard operations based out of Kodiak Island in Alaska.
It was horrific. The word hero is overused in American culture, but you guys I really don't know what else to call these people. I was shaking and crying just watching last night.
Basically it was 2 am and a fishing boat went hard aground in this cove surrounded by cliffs and mountains. The waves were 25-30 feet high, the water temperature was 32 degrees, and the wind was gusting up to 90 mph, which made the vessel (110 miles away from Kodiak Station) very hard to get to. The wind chill put the temperature at -30 degrees. It was a bad night.
They got there and tried to drop a trail line to the vessel to get them supplies, but the wind was gusting so bad the weighted line immediately whipped back towards the tail rotor. If it had fouled the tail rotor the helicopter would have gone down, so they nixed the dropping supplies route and asked the rescue diver how he felt about going down. The pilots were pretty dubious about it, the conditions were pretty bad.
The hoist operator answered for him. "James is throwing up back here, give him a minute."
And then when the rescue diver had finished throwing up from being thrown all around the back of the chopper, he hooked into the line and sat at the door with his legs dangling, because fuck it, these people needed saving.
Unbelievable.
(He didn't go down - they couldn't hold steady enough. Instead they turned around and went home, since they were down to the dregs of their fuel tank, and dispatched a 2nd helicopter to stand watch and effect a rescue as soon as conditions allowed, which actually got waylaid by a second sinking vessel - they pulled 2 people out of the water (the rest of that crew got into the life raft which was picked up by another fishing vessel who responded). The third crew was actually able to rescue the original FV.
This leaves me speechless. |
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| this is amazing |
[Apr. 23rd, 2012|05:08 pm]
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finally, an ad campaign that gets me |
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| yay |
[Apr. 1st, 2012|10:51 pm]
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The boat is going in the water on Thursday :)
Soon I will be back to constantly updating about sailing, instead of constantly updating about Mass Effect. wooooo |
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| what the fuck |
[Mar. 26th, 2012|05:52 pm]
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So last week I went out to dinner with a friend, because I hadn't seen him in weeks (Mass Effect rules my life) and wasn't going to see him for another couple weeks (work rules my life).
I just got this email about our meal:
okay USAIR look. I appreciate that you are trying to encourage me to use this card more and the 100 extra miles are nice and all but holy shit why are you creeping on me, how on earth did they manage to build this form email without ever anyone going "you know, this sort of makes us seem terrifyingly overlordish"
?? |
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| mass effect 3 |
[Mar. 12th, 2012|10:23 am]
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holy shit
'bout sums it up
(i am not done and if you spoil me i will destroy you) |
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| theorycraft |
[Mar. 1st, 2012|01:46 pm]
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who do we think is actually going to be on the GOP ballot in November, folks? is it gonna be Romney, or is there gonna be a floor fight at the convention where they grant it to Jeb or something? |
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| ugh |
[Feb. 28th, 2012|08:14 pm]
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I am reading the Medical Device Directive again. I wish I were not reading the medical device directive. someone save me from the medical device directive.
This is pretty funny tho:(23) it is necessary to remove the incoherence in the classification rules as a result of which invasive devices with respect to body orifices intended for connection to an active Class I medical device were not classified
thanks for removing the incoherence I guess |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 28th, 2012|07:13 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| |  lonely | ] |
And sometimes it gets
Downright shitty in fact
When you call and I don't even know
What city I'm at
Or what day of the week in the middle of the month
In a year I don't recall
It's like my life's on repeat and the last time we spoke
I told you I wouldn't be long
That was last November now December's almost gone
I'd apologize but I don't realize what I'm doing wrong |
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| i am so weak |
[Feb. 22nd, 2012|11:47 pm]
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but at least i am in america again. i forgot what it was like to have a phone. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 19th, 2012|07:39 am]
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I am in Abu Dhabi. Everyone here smells divine. I am frantic to get my hands on some of these perfumes.
It's quarter of 8 in the morning back home. Wake up guys, I finally have internet :( |
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| ;_; |
[Feb. 14th, 2012|01:59 pm]
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The Mass Effect 3 demo just dropped.
I don't appear to be able to download it from the UAE.
:(
eta:  hydrogen_atom and voyevoda were both kind enough to import my Shepard into the demo so I could at least see what she looks like.
( what the fuck happenedCollapse ) |
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| jw |
[Feb. 10th, 2012|02:08 pm]
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You guys aren't getting comment notifs either, right? |
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| idk |
[Feb. 8th, 2012|08:23 pm]
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So I'm going to Abu Dhabi on Saturday. That's a thing.
I had to buy a lot of long-sleeved shirts this weekend. I guess my business dress is not that modest.
I will take lots of pictures. |
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| evolution |
[Feb. 8th, 2012|10:30 am]
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John Pistole says the Obama administration's test run of a program that screens certain travelers based on the risk they pose will expand to 30 more airports around the country. Among them are Washington Dulles International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Boston's Logan International Airport - the three airports where the 9/11 hijackers departed from in 2001.
omg yes fuck yes thank you please do this
by Saturday if possible D:
*reads further*
Passengers approved to participate in the program would not have to take off their shoes and belts when they go through security as often as they do now.
IS THIS A JOKE |
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| example |
[Feb. 3rd, 2012|06:35 pm]
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I whine a lot about how bad I am at cooking/grocery shopping. i went grocery shopping yesterday. this is what I bought:
- pre-made sashimi for lunch yesterday
- toasted sesame seeds
- a coconut curry chocolate bar that was DELICIOUS but i can't eat much at once
- two cans of tomato soup i will probably never eat
- cut carrot sticks
- this weird cheese called "olive treasure" which is some sort of whipped feta + olive mix. delicious. salty
- a gallon of water for the picky boyfriend who won't drink my (probably carcinogenic) tap water
i spent like fifty bucks. this is what i am dealing with, folks. |
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