Thursday, June 28, 2007

This island is big enough for every castaway...

...but most of us are looking 'round for someone else to blame...

Sitting in a Borders somewhere in Red Bank, New Jersey as I write this... switching it up a bit from our usual Barnes & Noble visit, although the wireless is a bit pricier. $10 for 24 hours is certainly a better deal than $3 for 2 hours, but I won't likely be sitting in here for 24 hours - work in the morning, and the store needing to close, and all.

Visited home this weekend past, although only briefly - most of the weekend was spent driving, with a nice visit with Cat thrown in for good measure. She was taking part in a field trip in western Virginia, near Charlottesville, and I managed to meet her out there - we saw some of the sights in Charlottesville on Sunday, and I finally managed to meet her friend Kave, a medical student and generally cool guy. I've been hearing stories about him since Cat and I started spending time with each other, and it was nice to finally attach a person to the various anecdotes (like the one about how she cracked one of her ribs pouncing him one time...) Our stay was extended slightly when Cat lost her keys - fortunately, she discovered this fact before she and I separated and my rental car and I went speeding down the highway, so we rushed back to Charlottesville and rampaged about retracing our steps until we recovered them at an ice cream parlor. There was much rejoicing.

The drive back up to New Jersey sucked (but then, given the destination... I keed, I keed...), but I returned my rental and made it back to the ship intact and on time to get a little rest before starting an MHE - Material Handling Equipment, or fork truck - school bright and early Monday morning. The rest of the week has been spent driving fork trucks around and learning far, far more than I ever really desired about the buggers. Passed my written test today with flying colors (big surprise), but I'm feeling a bit nervous about the practical tomorrow - it doesn't help that the weather, hot and humid all week, has taken a turn for the gloomy and tomorrow might very well receive the rain predicted for today. Class isn't canceled for inclement weather, so if it's pouring rain when my turn comes to drive the truck tomorrow - well, them's the breaks. >_<

Still haven't begun work on my screenplay, and given that the end of the month is the day after tomorrow, I might as well admit that I'm a non-starter for this year. Not my proudest moment, especially given how excited I was in the months prior... but for whatever reason, I just didn't get into it. Ah, well... there's always NaNoWriMo in November.

Less than two weeks until we deploy. I think I'm ready, as far as stuff goes, but I'm not entirely sure if I'm ready, emotionally. A large part of me is ready to quit the States for a while - I get a sort of caged in feeling when I'm back in the world for a long time, and it's been six months since last I was overseas. On the other hand, some bit of me is already ready to say screw it and go home.

Guess we'll see how this one goes.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

I can't get to sleep...

...I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know I'll be alright
Perhaps it's just imagination...

Kicked back in my bedroom, on my futon, looking over at the scattering of dirty laundry and clutter that really needs to get cleaned up before I leave. Just a few more days - then it's back to Jersey, and not long after that, back to the Gulf. The weather's taken a turn for the warm lately, riddled with summer thunder storms aplenty - and oh, how I love the rain - and searing heat and stifling humidity the rest of the time. I don't know what adds more to my misery - the uncomfortable temperatures (and mind, I've always been a cold weather creature) or the knowledge that the current 90+* heat is absolutely nothing compared to what we're going to see when we get back to the burning lands.

Despite taking most of the last week off to get personal business done, I've managed to accomplish pretty much nothing... par for the course, I'm a horrible procrastinator and as lazy as the day is long (and in summer, that's pretty damn long). This makes the weekend a little crowded as I try to squeeze in the last few things I need done, something not helped by getting woken up at an ungodly early hour this morning by my brother, who had discovered his apartment flooded and needed some help getting things back together. Turns out his water heater had developed a serious leak during the night... quickly replaced by maintenance, who also managed to get a carpet cleaner to the apartment in good time, although things are still uncomfortably damp over there at the moment. In the meantime, his two cats are running around my place. They surprisingly haven't done much damage to anything as of yet, although I did take the precaution of moving my fish (Moby, a Christmas present from Cat) to the master bathroom and keeping the door shut - best not to tempt the hellions, after all. I'd forgotten just how much I missed having a cat around the house, but it's not a situation I'm likely to remedy any time soon. After all, it's pretty damn irresponsible to have a pet when you're out to sea most of the year.

Cat and I caught Knocked Up the other night; I found it surprisingly good, plenty of humor (both in witty banter and in general goofiness), although it did little to encourage me to budge from my current anti-parenting stance. I don't think I'm cut out to be a father.

Speaking of Cat, I managed to install the drivers and support software for the MobilePro 790 I bought her - she's off to DC for the weekend, visiting the ex, and since she lacks a laptop this gives her internet (and some word processing) capabilities for her classes. I'm curious as to how the MP will work for her; as much as I adore Madb, I haven't used her extensively, or as my sole means of computing, thus far. She makes a wonderful backup when Cat monopolizes Eris for school work, though, so she's worth the money I put into her.

Speaking of computers and money, I've been toying with the idea of getting Liira fixed - since my printer has decided not to cooperate with Windows Vista, I wouldn't mind having an XP machine around the house, and you never know when an extra laptop might come in handy.

Joined my friends Mark and Elijah (and Elijah's infant son, Cyrus) for sushi today, a rather nice all-you-can-eat sushi buffet near our former gaming hang-out, the Hobbytown off of Virginia Beach Boulevard. Surprisingly good food, I ate until I was stuffed - which is good, because I'm absolutely ravenous right now. I'm supposed to be fasting in preparation for some follow up bloodwork tomorrow (cholesterol... sigh...), and I neglected to eat anything before my 9 PM cut off, thanks to an unforeseen nap this afternoon. Lord knows I can stand to miss a few meals, though, so I'm not in too bad a shape - it's just annoying.

Haven't actually gotten anything written for my screenplay yet - I never seem to get any writing done when I'm home, so I suppose it's just as well we'll be off to sea/New Jersey pretty soon. As things go, I'll have lots of catching up to do...

But I guess that about wraps it up for now. Despite this entry's choice in music, I'm going to need to take a serious shot at getting to sleep soon if I have any hopes of getting up early for the doc visit... I'm also supposed to meet up with Mark to maybe catch a movie (he nominated the third Shrek flick, about which I've heard disappointing rumors), and then meet my parents for lunch/dinner in the late afternoon. And somewhere in the middle, finish cleaning my apartment. >_<