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Monday, September 29, 2008

It's Not Easy Being Green

So, admittedly, I am a bit of a naturalist/environmentalist. I mean, I recycle like a mad woman. I try to be economical when it comes to water and electricity. Most of the light bulbs in our house are energy savers. I use the sleep timer when I go to sleep. I want to get a Prius when my Civic goes PPPHHTT! (Which may be a while; we got 16 years, 6-digits and 5 states out of the Camaro. The Civic is over 4 years old with 65K on the odometer. So far it's covered 8 states, though). If you're still unsure about my intentions, look at the small zoo that's claimed my apartment, which currently consists of 9 homicidal tetras, 4 squawky birds, 9 wacky furballs (also known as chinchillas) and Chris, who doesn't live with us, but I hear about his antics usually 2 times a day. The latest is his spitting his medications in a pile in the corner of the backyard after chewing them out of their treats.

So I try to be environmental. I even take the bus to Stanford, enduring an hour-long bus ride over the 25-30 minute land-speed record I usually perform behind the wheel. I actually used to love public transportation. I took the bus when I went to Ohlone (didn't get my license until I was almost 21, a police explorer, and basically had to before I went on a ride-along) and then, for the year and a half I went to SFSU (and the 6 weeks of UC Berkeley) I took BART, a joke of a subway system (let's be honest).

I was more than eager to take the Stanford bus. For one, the drop-off was 2 miles from my apartment (and a mile and a half from my folks' place) so someone could easily drop me off. The buses, usually for the elite businessfolks as wel as the Stanford class, is a significant step up from the usual AC Transit monstrosities I was accustomed to (padded seats, tinted windows and WiFi... very California!). I think the most appealing aspect was the money savings, between the $5 for the gas, $4 for the toll, and $11 for the parking (a permit is almost $700, and that's for just the ACADEMIC year, not the ENTIRE)

But, alas, the love affair is gone.

Why, you may ask? It's simply put, I can't stand my busmates. At all.

For one thing, they stink. Not just like BO, but like old moldy food and musk. I'm half tempted to think they simply cannot afford soap, but the way I see it, if you can go to work in Nordstrom's finest with your Jimmy Choo's and your Coach purse, then you can pay the buck for a bar of Ivory!

The other dilemma is the people are totally inconsiderate. I mean, I can understand a more "big boned" person taking up two seats, but I get tired of those who are on first that have to either sit on the crack of the seat (more common than you'd think despite the discomfort) or throw all of their junk on the seats so no one will sit next to them. Yah, when half of the bus is standing, I would say it's time to move your stuff, sweetheart.

It isn't entirely bad, though. I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude about it all. For one, even though (because of the smells) I get a little queasy, I do not get nauseated from reading. Today I finished about 40 pages of my mystery novel before we hit the Palo Alto city limit, and I only stopped because of the musky woman next to me.

Also, when I'm that exhausted, it's just NOT a good idea for me to be behind the wheel. I hardly pay attention when I'm awake sometimes; I can only imagine how fun I'd be on 4 hours of sleep in traffic.

OK Enough about me. Back to the calm and quiet of work. At least calm and quiet today; I'm the only one here (Coworker LEFT is out of the country; Coworker RIGHT has the day off).

Thursday, September 25, 2008

While at work...

Yes, I blogged at work. There isn't too much to do right now but I'm trying.



This month is going to be an insane one for me. Lots of traveling and diabetes walks.



Next weekend I will be running down to Bakersfield for a Saturday day camp. I might have to stay overnight Friday; it depends on what time I have to be there in the morning.



The following weekend, I will be heading to Las Vegas (woo hoo!) I plan on leaving Thursday, October 9th from Stanford and driving through to Vegas. Friday, so far, has nothing, but this may change because we are trying to schedule visits in-home for me to do draws. Then, depending on what we end up getting, I may get to stay one more night.



The following weekend, I am supposed to go with my team to Sunnyvale for the local walk. It's a huge deal and apparently the entire department will be in attendance. And I get a cool t-shirt :-)



So the next few weekends I'm going to be AWOL. On the plus side, to balance it out, I will get a few days off during the week. And the occassional Sunday. And I might be able to continue with my temple-hopping, if I can get in Vegas and Fresno during my travels *GRIN*



There's more to say but I'll have to add it later when I have pictures and time to actually chat.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Just a brief announcement

I just wanted to check this out... Since I hardly keep a journal and I LIVE at the computer (for work, school, and a great deal of my "life") I figured I'd try one of these bad boys out. Everyone else I know has one. Why not me, darn it??