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Last night, Bobby had his last game as a member of Your Team Name Here. We are pretty good friends with one of his teammates Andy and his teammate's wife Cindy, who is also the scorekeeper at the ice rink. Last night, Cindy came in wearing a big smile and told me that she had good news. She asked me to guess.
"You got a house?" I asked, and I was right!
I asked the usual questions. I looked at her maps and community book and was happy for them. I didn't pretend that; when a friend is happy, I am happy for her, of course.
But the thought kept coming into my mind that I couldn't quite see myself getting likewise so excited. Actually, as she was talking about taking down wallpaper and putting up new paint, I was imagining this awful '70s wallpaper, gave a mental shrug, and thought that I'd probably just leave it up.
I don't know what it is...I've changed so much since last year.
Last year, Bobby and I were the ones excited about getting a house in the next couple of years. Now...well, he's hoping to get a new job, which will mean a pretty big pay cut, and I don't even care. I think of cars and houses and stuff and...*shrug*
I am rarely even motivated to clean the apartment anymore. Not like I used to. I used to vacuum and clean the bathroom twice per week. Now, it seems there are better things to do.
The 2005 model of Dawn Felagund says she doesn't even know the 2006 model anymore. :^P
With this thought in my brain, I went to the pharmacy this afternoon after work to pick up a prescription. Because there is nary a road in Maryland that is not under some kind of significant construction, they have Frederick Road closed and detoured onto Route-40. (Both are pretty busy local roads.) It took me fifteen fucking minutes to turn out of the pharmacy, drive across the street, and drive a half-mile to my apartment community. Why? Because the geniuses who govern the roads closed one of the biggest roads in the area, detoured traffic onto the biggest road in the area, and didn't think to adjust the light so that more than three cars could turn onto the detour at one time.
Argh.
So on top of having in my brain that 2006 Dawn is a drastically different Dawn from last year, I am sitting in traffic thick as mud and cursing the county that I am supposed to love enough to pay an extra $400 a month in rent than if I lived in, say, Harford County. Cursing the whole goddamn area for being friggin' Type-A, corporate-tool, cell-phone-in-the-ear suburbia. Because, really, I know that it's not Howard County. Howard County is honestly a beautiful place to live in a glossy-full-color-brochure kind of way. It's the Baltimore-DC Metro area. Nrgh.
As I sat in traffic, a half-mile from home, the thought came to me: "God or Eru or Whoever-Is-Listening, let this new direction in my life take me the fuck away from here!"
Naturally, because I had definitely caught Murphy's eye, I barely missed the light when I finally made it the hundred feet from the pharmacy to the intersection. I could have stretched the yellow, but Maryland is also the Redlight Camera Capital of the World--yay us!--so I decided not to take my chances. I was sitting there, listening to my iPod and trying not to be grumpy, and a guy pulled up in the car next to me. You know: a hand-draped-over-the-wheel, hat-cocked-to-the-side, rap-music-blaring, SUV-drivin' kind of guy. He was "cool," in other words. Well, his rap music was frankly overwhelming my music, which had just switched to "Evenstar" from the TTT soundtrack. Lovely song, makes me think of Nerdanel and Feanor. Since I was already bordering on grumpy, I turned up my music to match his. So here he is, cool and listening to rap. Here I am--hair to my bum and tangled from blowing in the wind, wearing a tie-dyed shirt and my clunky school-marm shoes from Payless--blaring the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Cool, indeed.
"You got a house?" I asked, and I was right!
I asked the usual questions. I looked at her maps and community book and was happy for them. I didn't pretend that; when a friend is happy, I am happy for her, of course.
But the thought kept coming into my mind that I couldn't quite see myself getting likewise so excited. Actually, as she was talking about taking down wallpaper and putting up new paint, I was imagining this awful '70s wallpaper, gave a mental shrug, and thought that I'd probably just leave it up.
I don't know what it is...I've changed so much since last year.
Last year, Bobby and I were the ones excited about getting a house in the next couple of years. Now...well, he's hoping to get a new job, which will mean a pretty big pay cut, and I don't even care. I think of cars and houses and stuff and...*shrug*
I am rarely even motivated to clean the apartment anymore. Not like I used to. I used to vacuum and clean the bathroom twice per week. Now, it seems there are better things to do.
The 2005 model of Dawn Felagund says she doesn't even know the 2006 model anymore. :^P
With this thought in my brain, I went to the pharmacy this afternoon after work to pick up a prescription. Because there is nary a road in Maryland that is not under some kind of significant construction, they have Frederick Road closed and detoured onto Route-40. (Both are pretty busy local roads.) It took me fifteen fucking minutes to turn out of the pharmacy, drive across the street, and drive a half-mile to my apartment community. Why? Because the geniuses who govern the roads closed one of the biggest roads in the area, detoured traffic onto the biggest road in the area, and didn't think to adjust the light so that more than three cars could turn onto the detour at one time.
Argh.
So on top of having in my brain that 2006 Dawn is a drastically different Dawn from last year, I am sitting in traffic thick as mud and cursing the county that I am supposed to love enough to pay an extra $400 a month in rent than if I lived in, say, Harford County. Cursing the whole goddamn area for being friggin' Type-A, corporate-tool, cell-phone-in-the-ear suburbia. Because, really, I know that it's not Howard County. Howard County is honestly a beautiful place to live in a glossy-full-color-brochure kind of way. It's the Baltimore-DC Metro area. Nrgh.
As I sat in traffic, a half-mile from home, the thought came to me: "God or Eru or Whoever-Is-Listening, let this new direction in my life take me the fuck away from here!"
Naturally, because I had definitely caught Murphy's eye, I barely missed the light when I finally made it the hundred feet from the pharmacy to the intersection. I could have stretched the yellow, but Maryland is also the Redlight Camera Capital of the World--yay us!--so I decided not to take my chances. I was sitting there, listening to my iPod and trying not to be grumpy, and a guy pulled up in the car next to me. You know: a hand-draped-over-the-wheel, hat-cocked-to-the-side, rap-music-blaring, SUV-drivin' kind of guy. He was "cool," in other words. Well, his rap music was frankly overwhelming my music, which had just switched to "Evenstar" from the TTT soundtrack. Lovely song, makes me think of Nerdanel and Feanor. Since I was already bordering on grumpy, I turned up my music to match his. So here he is, cool and listening to rap. Here I am--hair to my bum and tangled from blowing in the wind, wearing a tie-dyed shirt and my clunky school-marm shoes from Payless--blaring the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Cool, indeed.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-10 02:37 am (UTC)Yes, that sounds about right! :) Most of my writing is done at work again these days since we aren't getting so many warrants anymore and I have a lot of downtime. And I can honestly say that I haven't had the vacuum out in several weeks. Bobby had a day off when I had to work, and he vacuumed for me. Awwww.... *pets good husband*
Cities and roads everywhere are getting more and more crowded. Even the rural areas are getting built up so fast, so yes, it makes sense to open the borders to anyone in the world who wants to come here.
Ugh, the whole freakin' world is getting overcrowded. Maybe it makes me a misanthrope, but dang, there's just too damned many people these days.
Baltimore-DC has many awards to our credit. We were the syphilis capital of the country for many years. (We may have dropped to a disappointing second place...or maybe we're still first. Either way, we were first for a long time.) Our State employees are paid the least, taking into account cost of living. (And I'm a State employee...yay us!) We're the redlight-camera capital of the world. And we're consistently ranked in the top five for traffic congestion and aggressive driving. Yay us. *rolls eyes*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-10 11:32 pm (UTC)Erm, sounds like a lovely city you have.
traffic congestion and aggressive driving
hmmm, cause, effect. Anyone?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-12 02:10 am (UTC)Baltimore has it's charming spots. But then it has an equal share of OMG-not-there! spots too. And DC.... o.O