Diaryland Import: August 2003 Archives

last night i told nick i was going to atlanta on thursday. "wow, you haven't been there in forever," he said sarcastically.

i am looking forward to the weekend. despite the fact that i was just in atlanta a month ago, i am already again feeling the need to get away, the need for a mini-vacation. to forget about work and moving and money for a few days.

ah. i let the little things stress me out.

yesterday was pretty relaxing. i watched baseball while eating cheesecake factory leftovers. i picked becca up at the airport, which was unfortunate because i had to drive all that way, but it wasn't so bad when i turned the stereo up, and now i have someone who owes me a ride to hobby on thursday. i ran, on the treadmill because of the heat, and more slowly than usual because i was tired. but i ran for 40 minutes, which is a good long run, and especially miraculous because i really hate the treadmill and can usually only stand to stay on for 20 minutes max before abandoning it for something else. i much prefer to run outside, but it was just too hot.

after running i came home, talked to nick, and looked through the entire new ikea catalog. (side note: this morning on the radio, the winner of a name-that-movie contest won everything on a random page of the new catalog. the random page turned out to be page 49, which consisted of an entire living room's worth of furniture. i am so jealous. not because i need the furniture, but simply because i adore ikea.)

such is my life.

i am sunburned. sheesh. good thing i bought some aloe gel the last time. damn my fair skin.

yesterday i got to ride a segway. you know, one of those fancy two-wheeled gyro-controlled scooters. ginger. IT. whatever they were calling it before anyone knew what it was.

anyway, turns out that a guy in my apartment complex has one, and i happened to come home from work at the same time he was riding around the parking lot. i followed him, pulled up beside him in my car, and started asking him questions. ("hi, i'm sarah in 803." "hi, i'm mike in 1301.") he bought it 3 weeks ago, and he is one of 6 people in houston that owns one ("we have a little club," he explained). apparently there's a segway store opening soon, but when i commented that i'd have to go see if they gave test rides, he offered to let me ride his. of course i jumped at the chance.

standing on it felt sort of weird at first, but if you just stand still and level the thing will balance you perfectly. all you have to do is lean forward, and you move forward. lean forward a little farther, and you move forward faster. lean back, and you move back. twist the control on the handlebar and you turn in tight little circles. you don't even have to be moving to turn--the darn thing has zero turning radius and can spin on a dime. the top speed is controlled by which magnetic key you use to turn it on.

it was so cool. if only i had $5000 to blow, i'd buy one. ("i rewired the atm at the food emporium to provide an honorarium to anyone with the code...") ah well.

when dubya tried to ride his segway, he fell off simply because he forgot to turn it on.

figures.

today was lovely. spent some time by the pool, made myself enchiladas for lunch. spent 6 hours with cari at the mall on the oh-so-crowded tax-free weekend, and had dinner with her at my favorite restaurant ever.

cheesecake. mmm.

our work is trickling into the news again. there were articles in the houston chroncle and orlando sentinel today, as well as one in yesterday's florida today. i recommend the orlando sentinel article, as it contains the most educated information.

yesterday i went to another very interesting meeting. i never would have guessed that the workings of upper management (at least when it comes to issues that i have a role in) are so fascinating. it makes me want to work my way up to that point. sort of.

last night i did a bit of shopping, but didn't have much luck. i am in search of something to wear to james and chrissy's wedding, and am sort of at a loss as to what to get. i've never been to a wedding that i haven't had my dress picked out for me (i.e. as a member of the wedding party) except for ron and buzz's back in april. but i think their wedding was much more casual than this one will be. i have no idea what i need to wear; i only know that i probably don't own something currently, since 99% of my clothes are either for normal use or work use, and the other 1% are formal dresses that would be too fancy for a wedding. hmm.

i wish there were good movies coming out this weekend. i feel like i haven't seen nearly enough good movies lately. i guess that is to be expected in the summer. time to retreat to my video and dvd collection.

jen is going to yosemite this weekend to climb half dome. ahh, half dome. i have such fond memories of my trip there, and would love to go do it again someday. in the meantime, i'm just here in houston trying to get into even better shape. actually, it has been a great week of workouts. sunday i swam, monday i biked. tuesday and wednesday nights were busy, but last night i ellipticalled. if i go running tomorrow, i'll have a grand slam.

i do love that on any given day i can swim, bike, run, or elliptical (which is sort of like running, but different, so i count it differently). it keeps my workouts interesting. and variety is the spice of life.