Getting Late

It's clearly getting late and I'm tired.  I just tried to press alt-F, C, to end a phone call.  Sigh.

Thunderstorms

It took me awhile to leave the apartment this morning because of our saw-toothed grain friends.  I'm glad I at least checked the forecast when it started getting darker and darker so I knew thunderstorms were on their way.  I just thought they weren't coming until the afternoon.  That's what I get for not being able to see the severe weather statements on my blackberry...

 

I left the building and as soon as I hit the sidewalk, I heard thunder to the west.  Loud, booming thunder to the west.  I started racing to the office (speedwalking, not running, for the most part) to attempt to avoid the rapidly approaching storm.  Along the way, I saw the thick grayish-green clouds against the gray-green sky.  I saw a very bright lightning flash followed almost immediately by thunder right overhead.  I walked faster.  The wind started to pick up.  I was more than halfway there.  Thank goodness for all the cars idling in the middle of the street so I could run across the street and walk under the covered part of the sidewalk by the Marriott Marquis.

 

I had one avenue left to go as I stood in Times Square hearing the thundering above us.  I ran across the intersection as soon as it turned to walk, and as soon as I hit the other side of the intersection, felt a big drop explode on my head.  I thought maybe it came from the building, and just kept walking.  Faster.

 

The drops started coming more rapidly.  Huge, soaking raindrops.  Not the little driving raindrops, but the huge ones that are like bubbles filled with water.  Faster and faster.  Why were the tourists slowly stroooolling down the street?!?  I need to get to work!  Before it pours!

 

Half a block away.  It's become a steady barrage of huge, soaking, hard raindrops.  Thank goodness my blue windbreaker is in my hand, and not my backpack.  I throw it over my head and run.  The rain gets harder and harder.  It's hard to see down the street.  I duck under our building's overhang and when I get out, it's like a torrential downpour.  Buckets.  It only took about 60 seconds to accelerate to a torrential downpour.  And it wasn't just any storm.  It was really dark.

 

I get upstairs to my office and you can barely see across the street.  It's like a white screen of rain.  And then the clacking of small hail against the window and bouncing off the windowsill.  Not to mention the dark, ominous sky.

 

If I had battled the saw-toothed grain beetles 2 minutes faster, I wouldn't have been wet at all.  If I had left 30 seconds later or not run (or stopped to take a picture of the gray-green sky, like I contemplated doing), I would have been soaked from head to toe, and not just wet.  That windbreaker wouldn't hold much water and with the way the downpours were coming down, it wouldn't have lasted.  If I had been 5 minutes later, I would have been stuck in the hail.  That would have been craaaa-zy.

 

Now it's a steady rain, but no more torrential downpours, less thunder, and no hail.  It's only about 10 or 15 minutes after that whole mess!  I'm glad I'm inside now.  And I'm glad that there wasn't one more bug in my path this morning to get me stuck in that storm.

Unagi

Last night I had a dream about sushi. I had gotten a few take out
boxes but had to do some work in the computer cluster and was hungry,
so I had a few bites of eel sushi while working. But I forgot the box
there! I was so sad. Tonight I had some eel roll. :)

Containers

I have bought over $100 in plastic containers in the past week. I love
the Container Store, but damn those saw-toothed grain beetles.

Ugh

No more ESPN for today. I am so sick of Brett Favre. Every year with the "will I or won't I" retire, then he finally retires, and then he wants to un-retire. And then the news has been talking about it for weeks. Ugh. I don't care!! Stop tormenting me and stop whining about it! You made the choice to retire, get OVER IT! Agggggh.

Calls

My parents called this morning to talk about Wii Fit but I missed
their call because I was having 2 parallel dreams in which the phone
was ringing.

In the first, Monica Seles was working in the government and refusing
to authorize spending on really necessary community things, so I was
avoiding her call explaining why.

In the second, a friend was trying to buy her fiance a present at the
electronics store and he kept coming around, so we were hiding from
him.

Bizarre. Although maybe the second subconsciously tied into the Wii
Fit call. Hmm.

Lessons

I am learning German on Livemocha (way overdue on lesson 1), and have the following general questions:

1. Why is it that "boy" is considered masculine as a noun but "girl" is neuter?

2. How I can remember that "alt" means old when I keep thinking "alto" in Spanish means tall? Any tricks?

Friday Reflections

Some end of the week observations:

1. First, a note to my 23rd floor "neighbor" who isn't very neighborly.

Dear Neighbor,

There was no need for you to shout "take the stairs!!" at me after I got off the elevator. I kind of thought you were acting like a jerk the entire time before you yelled at me, but that took it to another level. Tapping the elevator button in the lobby 11 times, shaking your head and sighing at the descending elevator (like that will make it go faster?), tapping your foot and checking your watch repeatedly in the elevator after I clicked a low floor button (I do have peripheral vision, you know) and then after I turned the corner, furiously tapping the close button. I understand you're impatient, but the world does not revolve around you (or me, or the next person).

But your shouting "take the stairs"? Rude and unnecessary. And you waited until I was all the way down the hall, which makes you, in addition to being a jerk, a coward. If you felt so strongly that I should take the stairs, why not say it to my face? If you had, I would have told you that I do take the stairs on a regular basis (which may be why I've never encountered you before) but when I fell, I injured my knee badly enough that going up the stairs hurts. But you didn't care. In your cowardice, impatience and self-centeredness, you bellowed down the hallway something extremely rude as the elevator doors were closing.

Someone didn't teach you any manners. Maybe you should stop taking out your problems on other people.

Sincerely,
Your Neighbor

2. Now that the unpleasantness is out of the way, I am very amused by the Gossip Girl ad I saw in the subway. It quoted the Parents Television Council's review of "mindblowingly inappropriate" the way that other shows would quote something like "stunning" from EW. Good job, ad people.

3. I love the Container Store. The only thing about it is that there are too many choices! I went there today looking for airtight storage boxes for dry food, and there were like 2 walls full of choices. I ended up getting Snapware.

I think there was more I was going to write about when I was thinking about my post while walking, but I don't remember any more. Maybe later.

Adobe Salad

I went out to lunch with my parents today and got a salad called the "adobe salad."  The description stated "grilled spiced chicken breast, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, peppers and tri-colored tortilla strips, pico de gallo and guacamole."  I asked for no tortilla strips and they forgot to give me pico de gallo and guacamole.  But that aside - what do you think the salad would be like with that description?

 

Maybe a bed of greens with some grilled chicken strips and raw vegetables? 

 

Nope.

 

It was like eating a chicken fajita over lettuce!  It was good, but I was expecting a "clean" salad, and was trying to be healthier.  I guess I should have been tipped off by the fact that it didn't have a dressing listing, but I didn't think the vegetables would be cooked...

 

Anyway, if I were going to eat something less healthy than a salad, I would have picked the sliders with a side salad.  Having seen all the plates of sliders coming out, it probably would have been a much better choice.  And I love sliders.

 

At least they had big cushioned seats.  Very good when you're really bruised and can't bear to sit in a hard chair.  And my dad's shrimp and asparagus quesadilla was excellent.  I wish I got the sliders!!

Ouch

Since I have been sending this article to everyone, I might as well post it here too. It's about a nude sunbather getting spiked through the groin. (This is going to do wonders for the searches leading to my blog...) It sounds quite painful.

In my own "ouch" moment, I fell off a chair yesterday. I was sitting on our balance ball chair (which has wheels) and it tilted slightly backwards, and next thing I knew, my tailbone and butt had smacked into the hard wood floor and the chair was on its back sliding across the floor into the TV stand. I am so bruised. Icing your tailbone and your right sits bone is not easy. It's also not easy to do at work because you'll end up with a big wet spot on your butt (which not only is misleading and not attractive, but not professional!). So I tried an "instant cold compress" but it took me about 10 minutes to get it to become cold because I couldn't manage to pop the liquid cold center. What a mess. And by the end of tonight, I realized I had also pulled a muscle on the side of my knee and my right knee was swollen and aching. Excellent. I am such a klutz. Sigh.