dianaschnuth

Even though I marched two parades over the weekend, I’m still not sure how that, combined with eating three pieces of pizza, made me lose almost three pounds this week. ::shrug::

It’s goddamned hot tonight. I’m even wearing one of my new tank tops from Fashion Bug (yay, $9.99 shirts!), and sitting in the basement, and I’m still sweltering. Yeesh. Aaron’s gotta be having a fun time at work tonight.

I didn’t have a whole lot I wanted to accomplish today, which is good, since I took another 90-minute nap this evening. —Oh, but I did want to boil some eggs. Hang on… I’ll be right back.

*pauses Winamp, runs upstairs and puts eggs on to boil, sets timer*
*waters plants and takes ailing begonia upstairs to better window*

OK, I’m back. Damn, our stove is boil-a-rific. I’m not used to electric yet; this thing gets water boiling in, like, three minutes. Crazy. Must be one of those stoves Emeril talks about when he tells you to use your knobs.

Saturday night up in Michigan was actually quite a good time, watching drum corps videos and DVDs on a projection screen in Russ’s garage in Clawson. Been a long, long time since I attended a drum corps party. This weekend, though, I’m planning to take a weekend off from corps instead of going up to the show in Kalamazoo. I’ve had enough of driving to Michigan for corps for a while. On August 7, I have to go up and carpool to Grand Haven for the Coast Guard parade and performance, stay up there overnight, and drive back on Sunday. I may take a personal day on that Monday, just so I feel like I’ve had a weekend. And before that, there’s the Bluecoats’ home show in Massillon (Canton). Since I’m skipping out on K-Zoo, I’m definitely going to that one, even though it’s two hours away on a Sunday night. Hopefully I’ll be able to get someone to go with me.

In other news, I have the last week of this month off. Yay, vacation! Aaron has it off, too, and the following week, as well. We still haven’t figured out where we’re going, although the consensus is that we want to use the tent we got for our wedding (and, no, we’re not doing a backyard campout). Bring the lawn chairs-in-a-bag, the picnic basket (maybe), do some hiking, maybe some swimming… not sure where yet, though. Should be fun, anyway. I’m ready for a week off.

Hmm. Better go check on those eggs.

Again, not much to report. Finished looking up addresses at work and began changing them and printing out new envelopes for some of the more vital stuff (like titles and deeds and such). Not quite as tedious. Came home, ate dinner, watched the news, took a nap. Bought a magazine subscription from a black girl collecting points toward a scholarship. Talked to Beth over IM. Downloaded a pop-up blocker. Posted to LJ. That’s my day, pathetic though it may be.

I think I’m going to start devoting one evening a week to photographing outdoors. I figure, maybe come home, hang with Aaron until he goes to work, eat a quick dinner, don’t watch the news, and go out to one of the metroparks—maybe Wildwood or Swan Creek or even Oak Openings—for some evening photography. Burn off at least one full roll of film. Bring all the lenses I can, or go with a project in mind. Maybe make a list: landscapes, reflections, panning with rollerbladers and cyclists, close-ups, patterns, structures. Maybe go black-and-white one week, color another, and splurge on infrared another. (Oak Openings in infrared would be soooo cool with all the trees and foliage around the lake there.)

It seems that I now have seasonal hobbies. Photography in the summer, gardening in the spring, candles in the winter. Or maybe it’s just per my whims, rather than per the seasons. That’s probably closer to the truth.

Sorry that this LJ thing has become so… unfocused. For a while, I was being all introspective and philosophical with my entries, especially when I was just putting entries directly on my site, before I went to LJ; but now it’s really become more of a “this is what I did today” thing. Not that my friends from faraway don’t want to know what I’m up to, but… it just seems so… normal. I mean, if you look at LiveJournal entries, 90% of the LJs out there (not blogs in general: LiveJournals specifically) are about random daily crap. That’s not what I want to read if I browse to a stranger’s journal; I want to read about their thoughts and their philosophies and their weirdnesses. Of course, I’m like that. ::smirk::

I think that’s all I’ve got for today.

Not much to report. After staying up late last night to submit my photos, I’m crashing pretty hard right now.

Spent most of the day at work researching missing or incorrect addresses on returned mail. I’m wagering that’s what I’ll be doing for most of tomorrow, too. Sometimes it’s hard to be a conscientious worker when your given task sucks away your soul so much. I guess I’d rather do that, though, than answer phone calls—which I’ve heard I’m slated to do soon. Goodness, no. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to people; I’ve gotten better with that. It’s that I don’t even know half of what I should know to effectively assist banking centers (and the occasional random client). Ah, well. I know I’ve gotta start sometime.

Downloaded some more early-season drum corps mp3’s this evening. One of them is a hack of a .wma file you can purchase from the DCI.org website—and in the middle of the show, during some applause, a voice comes in and says, “Support your local drum corps, you cheap bastard.” I’m guessing the person who “hacked” it from wma to mp3 thought that would be funny. I think it’s just gonna spell a few minutes of me editing some mid-show applause short.

Sorry today’s been kind of boring. I just wanted to be sure to post something, now that I’ve kind of gotten in the habit.

For now, though, I’m really sleepy and I still have to shower and take some Tylenol to prevent the impending onset of overnight girlie cramps that will keep me awake most of the night. (Menfolk, you’ve really got it made, trust me.)

My cat has an extra footpad/toe thingy behind each of her front paws, making six toes, and a little bump even farther up that looks like it could have been a toe if it tried harder. Cat owners, check your kitty paws: is this normal? Did I just miss this on my other cats?

OK, I’m going now.

Garrett, a stranger whose blog I frequent, is giving away many coveted Gmail accounts. All you have to do is donate $5 or more to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, then forward your confirmation e-mail to Garrett, and you will be entered into a drawing for one of at least 36 (people keep donating more every day) Gmail accounts.

I don’t know that I want a Gmail account, but I donated ten bucks to the MS Society, anyway. I think you should, too.

Feeling kinda funky. I think I ate too much low-carb ice cream. I hope it goes away, though, because Aaron and I haven’t gotten it on in a while, and… ahem. TMI. Anyway…

Yesterday was my ten-year high school class reunion. It wasn’t too bad, all told—I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in years, mainly from choir and band. Matt was my main friend of the afternoon, although I tried really hard not to obviously follow him around like a puppy dog or anything. The only thing that was particularly disappointing was the fact that I still had a bit of a cold, and my hacking cough came back to haunt me multiple embarrassing times in the couple hours we were there. But, all in all, no one’s changed too much (physically, anyway); most people are married and most of the married (or divorced) ones have a kid or two or three; a few people do have jobs that one could consider… worth a college degree, I guess. Sonya’s a surgeon, Garrett’s a pilot, Theresa’s a operations manager for an advertising firm, Serafina’s a teacher. I didn’t catch what Jessica does, but Jim’s in the seminary, Matt works for his dad’s ATM business, and I work for a bank. But I’m happy, dammit. And that’s all that matters.

Oh, and I didn’t mention Atkins at all, because that would have required me to admit that I got really fat and sloppy over the past few years. I’d rather them all think I look almost the same as I did in high school, and leave it at that. 🙂

Today, Aaron and I hit the Crosby Festival at the Botanical Gardens. Lots of great artists, awesome photography, neat sculpture, and nifty “plant rooters” made out of blown glass and copper wire. I almost bought one, but figured the cat would destroy it wherever it lived. I also discovered the Photo Arts Club at the Botanical Gardens. I’m definitely planning to join up—their next meeting is in October, though. Sounds like the kind of thing I need: pros and amateurs participating in discussions, outings, and informal photo contests on a monthly basis. Hey, Erk, you with me on this one? I could sure use a photo buddy…