Another six weeks, please...

It's just about six weeks exactly from groundhog day, and winter appears to be very, very gone. It's still March and we hit 87 degrees yesterday. I actually had no idea it was really that hot, I thought for sure it was just in the 70s and I was a bigger pansy than usual as I was outside running around. Now I don't feel so crazy. Who knew the ice cream truck would be trolling the streets eight seconds after the start of spring?

Anyhoo, just thought I'd post a little update that despite the number of times I blog when I'm frustrated about work, life is good these days. Despite the whining (mine), I really like my job, really enjoy a lot of my clients, and feel like I'm settling in well. I don't earn very much money at this particular job, but I love my coworkers, I set my schedule, and I have three day weekends. And for this year, the sanity has been worth it. I have potlucks with my girlfriends on Tuesday nights, I play Ultimate, I have a social life again. I took up sewing again, I have a Netflix queue, I finally finished all three of the novels that I bought a year ago in anticipation of eventually having free time to read, and a few more. I work hard for my clients, and when I'm not at work, I graciously allow myself to think about non-dramatic, un-angsty, enjoyable topics. I go to church when I can, the singing part still makes me cry every time, but in a good way. I'm in love with a pretty amazing guy, and we have totally nerdy dates where we do the Times crossword puzzle together online before we go to bed. I have decent health insurance. I try to ride my bike a lot.

I might be whining again by tomorrow, but for today, I can't complain.

Try this at home

After a rough month or so at work after the holidays, something needed to change.

Thursdays, especially... my day chock-full of one after the other 13-year-old-boy, these poor kids who come see me in my dungeon because they're failing their classes or getting kicked out of class too much, and they're too old to think it's cool to have a "special friend" at school but still too young to actually understand complicated concepts like responsibility and choices and options in, oh, say, going to class, doing their homework, and not talking back to the teacher.

So, I did what any self-respecting professional would do: I started wearing fun socks to work.

And it actually worked. Who knew? Pink, rainbow, striped, polka-dotted, knee-highs... for some reason, they make a world of difference. Most people have no idea, but I can see them from my chair when my knees are crossed, peeking out. And in a statistically completely insignificant random sampling of one person (me), I have conclusive evidence that fun socks make a long day a lot easier to bear. It worked so well I tried it on Monday this week, with equally spectacular results.

Yes, THAT Corey Haim

Last weekend, I played Ultimate with none other than the one, the only, Corey Haim. Remember Lucas, anyone? He lives here in LA, and is filming his "reality" TV show (I have to put that word in quotes now that I actually have friends who are writers for reality TV shows), and is, supposedly, a huge Ultimate player. So, his people called up some of our people and arranged a permit (expensive and hard to come by) with the parks dept for us to hold a weekly pick-up game at a local park. The game brought out a huge contingent of Ultimate players with the promise of a spectacle, a viewing of a former Teen Idol (TM), and a chance to be on TV.

Corey came about an hour and a half after the game started, and upon arrival, changed into an outfit his producer had brought for him, including a brand-new pair of cleats fresh from the box. Then he smoked a few cigarettes. Unfortunately, by this time, we had so many people at the game that he was having a hard time making it onto the field (when there are too many people, you have to call "last back!" when your team gets scored on and run to the end zone before everybody else in order to rotate into the game). In the end, we let him in the game a few times (hey, he did score us the permit and all) and he ended up playing about four points and then spending the rest of the afternoon hitting on some girl on the other side of the park. We proceeded to enjoy ourselves on the field his producers had rented for the afternoon...

Anyhow, it was quite entertaining. Very surreal, yes, but he was a nice enough guy -- I even feel a little bit bad sort of making fun of him here. Who knows if we'll make it to TV or get left on the cutting room floor -- in any case, I got hugged by one of the Coreys, and he even called me sweetie.