i’ve rediscovered text-based games. holy crap, i love these things. back in the day (5th – 9th grade) i used to steal my dad’s 30 pound work laptop and lay in bed, typing my way through adventures in space, castles, and beyond. i was especially fond of doing this on days i didn’t feel like going to school, er, sick days. now that i have a 30 pound laptop of my own, i’ve downloaded a few of my old favorites, including hitchhiker’s guide. i also downloaded some other old favorite non-text based games, like ultima and wasteland. i think we all know that my straight-a record is in danger.

work has been going well. we moved, and now i have my own little cube. actually, it’s not little at all. i need to take some pics. it’s a lot nicer than the old place, but it’s harder to chat with people. there’s always aim, i guess. the drive is weird, but it’s shorter. and also less pretty. but shorter.

and sohei is at some law thing again. i don’t mind him going to these functions or anything, but when i went to the dinner with him on sunday, i felt like i didn’t belong there. i guess i should get used to it.

you know what should be the norm for relationships, married and otherwise? living separately. you could still have them sleep over or whatever, but when there’s been too much togetherness, you could send them back to their place. for instance, i like sohei about 40% of the time. but, work aside, i’m with him about 98% of the time. (and, yes, i have disliked sohei many times while at work.) this just doesn’t make any sense. when i do like him, i certainly want to spend time with him. and i like him enough that i don’t want to divorce him, so maybe 40% is unfair. but when he starts making unreasonable demands, picking fights with me, and being generally unpleasant, i want to be rid of him, at least temporarily.

as an example, last night was a lot of fun. we watched a bunch of movies and ate tasty snacks. today, i think i would’ve sent him home pretty soon after we woke up this morning. and, in view of this afternoon, i probably would’ve asked that he stay there all day. i have schoolwork to do today, and saturday night is britcom night, anyway.

i have to finish up my schoolwork, but thought i should just put that out there.

the good: my boss sent out an email today with our stats, and i had a 100% activation rate on my websites.

the bad: i got a 75 on my first paper.

the ugly: the medication i’ve been taking for my stomach has, after years of working wonderfully, apparently decided to not work so well anymore.

also, i withdrew my application for the ad position today. i’m having enough problems getting my schoolwork done. besides, i really love my current department, even if i don’t love customer service.

it’s been internal crisis time for gish again. i actually have time to write today because i stayed home sick. after last night, and then this afternoon, i’m never eating chicken again. not for a long time, anyway. which sucks, because that’s about the only meat i like. hello, turkey.

so anyway…

a job in the ad department opened up this week. i put in for it. but i’m considering withdrawing, because apparently sometimes you have to work 60 hour weeks, and working weekends while trying to go to school probably isn’t a good plan. it sure would be nice to not have to deal with clients every day, though.

there’s some other stuff going on, too, but i don’t feel up to writing it now. after all, i have a paper to write…

i need to think of pseudonyms for the people i work with. i’m really bad at that, though.

anyway, i’ve found a fellow political wonk at work. we all instant message at work because we’re really lazy. and my political friend and i have been chatting a lot lately regarding all the stupid shit that’s going on in the world. he blogs about it beautifully, and i whine about my gall bladder. which makes me think i should go back to being political sometimes. i kind of quit writing about that stuff because i was worried about offending people. but i need to not do that.

i guess you’re all expecting me to start talking about politics now, but i’m too damn tired. i will say that america needs to grow the fuck up and quit being afraid of everything, though. yeah, new york stinks. what else is new? and a bunch of birds died. i’m sure that a small section of austin has spontaneously erupted into avian flu. fuck. i hope we all die from noxious gas or the flu just so i don’t have to listen to this bullshit anymore.

i know i haven’t been saying much. i guess i figure my trip wouldn’t really interest anyone thus far. what i can tell you, though, is that i’m a terrible house guest. i will eat all your macaroni and cheese, drink all your vodka, and use most of your orange juice to make screwdrivers. i will also eat a lot of your candy.

the internet hasn’t been working for the past couple of days, which is why i haven’t been saying much. here’s the week so far, in a nutshell:

saturday: stopped at mom’s in land o’ lakes, drove on to tampa/brandon, ate an awesome dinner, crashed

sunday: don’t remember what we did all day, went to sohei family party, got suitably drunk, came home, crashed

monday: got up too early, ate awesome breakfast, went to mom’s house, got neat presents, ate another awesome dinner, came home, crashed

(i was interrupted here. i’m back in tally, but will go ahead and sum up the week.)

tuesday: stupidly went out to spend our gift cards, bought sims expansion at best buy, didn’t buy anything at the mall, got in a fight with sohei over spilt french fries, went to sound exchange and bought cure and pee shy cds (not the cranes one though, bastard), etc.

wednesday: spent the afternoon at some old haunts in tampa, ate lunch at villartas (or whatever it’s called), got ice cream at tanya’s (no malted milk ball ice cream, though, darn it. my flavor of choice back in the day), went to sound exchange tampa, etc.

thursday: went over to pinellas to check on the house, cleaned the house, met with realtor, went to greektown, ate worst mykonos gyro ever (what the hell, guys?), went home, got sick all night

friday: ate lunch with mom, discovered grouper is $20/lb, went to comic book store and bought vampire card game that we still haven’t played, vegged, went to dinner with dad and had the best italian food ever

saturday: drove back to tallahassee, etc.

so basically we drove around and ate a lot. and didn’t get to do everything we’d wanted to. i miss tampa so much… not enough to leave sohei for it (yet) but if there’s a town i’d leave someone for, tampa is it. it’s dirty, ugly, and hotter than hell, but it’s home. i kept wanting to lay on the ground and hug it. i grew up moving from place to place – almost once a year – but have never been so homesick for a place except maybe iowa sometimes. i was hoping i’d get my fix and be able to just suck it up for a while, but it didn’t really help.

anyway, i have to get back to writing my story. or playing our new card game, coz sohei just said he wanted to. the story is coming along slowly, but i’m really liking it so far. if i haven’t been updating much, that’s why. when i find time to write, i mostly spend it working on my novel or whatever it is.