Cleaning

It's been a mostly boring evening - cleaning the microwave, cleaning the toaster, cleaning the bathroom... I also threw out a bunch of old stuff and left a couple things in the entryway of the apartment building, which has become part garage sale and part dumping ground. A few days ago I left some books and a coffeemaker; today I left a broken chair and table but picked up a fan. Very handy.

Tomorrow NASA will announce the prime contractor for the newly-named Orion crew exploration vehicle. The company I work for is on one of the teams that submitted a proposal, and everyone in the lab is excited about the announcement. The company has done some very important work in space exploration over the years, but lately the work has been on much smaller projects, so this contract would be almost like a revival of the 1960's. I'm really pulling for the company because my thesis is based on the Crew Exploration Vehicle, and although I'll still have funding even if the lab doesn't win this contract, it'll be much more educational and a lot more fun if I'm working as part of a team instead of on my own.

Last weekend my little sister left for Spain to start her semester abroad in Seville. She seemed a little apprehensive at first about getting there on her own, meeting the other kids in her program, and finding out who she'd be staying with (she chose to do a homestay, but they don't find out anything about their local hosts until they arrive), but I think she's settling in well. She's started a travel blog about her semester, which is here if you're interested in reading.

Speaking of traveling, Josh has been gone for almost three weeks now, and he won't be back until early next week. We've been able to talk on the phone a couple times during the brief times he's popped up in civilization, but mostly I've been sans boyfriend for the past three weeks. It's been sad. I never realized how often I called him for no particular reason at all, or how I unconsciously store away funny things that happen to me during the day so that I can tell Josh about them that night. But I've also realized that I've let him become my social crutch, so it's been great to hang out with some old friends again.

Packing

I don't think anyone should pack alone. Even if the other person who's packing is in another room in your apartment, on another floor in your house, or down the hall in your dorm, they should be there. This is for those "Ohhhhh!" moments when you discover your high school track shorts crammed in the back of your closet and realize that since the elastic is now so brittle that the shorts would fit a 200 pound man, you have to throw away this piece of your childhood. Since my roommates have all left, you, dear reader, are my audience. Your line is, "Awwwwww."

Thanks. :)

Also, it turns out that my most recent roommate used up all our packing tape when she moved out last week. She bought another roll to replace it, but it turns out that she bought the cheap, flimsy stuff that twists around and sticks to itself better than the box. And the cheap tape doesn't come with a dispenser. Argh!

I buy a lot of generic, cheap stuff instead of the name-brand stuff, but I happily fork over the extra dollar to get the thick tape that comes with a dispenser. I think everyone has those few things that they won't compromise on, and in addition to the tape, my list includes running shoes, ziploc bags, and toilet paper. I may have used furniture in my bedroom and no-name spaghetti sauce in my kitchen, but darn it, I buy Charmin toilet paper!

Blockbuster

Yesterday I looked at my credit card bill and saw four mysterious charges from Blockbuster on it. Two debits about a week apart, then two credits on a later day. All told, it says I owe Blockbuster $11.64.

Today I got a friendly postcard from Blockbuster reminding me to return a disc of 24 that I rented, along with The Ringer (didn't rent this) and some movie called Grandma's Boy (never rented this one either) on the same day. So I called my local Blockbuster and explained that I had only rented one movie when I came in that day, and was there some mixup to explain why I had been charged for not returning these movies that I didn't rent? I eventually talked with the manager who told me that never would one of his star employees have messed up and done something like accidentally left my account open while someone else was renting movies. So then, I asked, what should we do to resolve this? I rented the movie with a free coupon, so unfortunately I don't have a credit card receipt for it. He said that the only thing he could do was look through "the tapes" early next week and see if he could verify that I, in fact, rented only one DVD. I'm assuming this is their security video, but I'm not really sure. Anyway, since they're a "very busy store," he couldn't be bothered to check right now. Apparently I forgot how much of a madhouse Blockbuster is at 7pm on a Wednesday night.

This is really frustrating. I realize that it's only 11 dollars, but I did not rent those other movies, and I'm not interested in paying Blockbuster because someone else didn't return their DVDs on time. But I don't really have much leverage here. I can see that from their point of view, the computer says that I rented these movies and returned them late, so they assume that I'm lying to get out of paying the fees. I should have kept my receipt, I guess, but who keeps a receipt for a movie they got with a free coupon over three weeks ago?

I didn't like the fact that I had to give Blockbuster my credit card information to open the account, but I can appreciate that it's the only way they have to charge delinquent customers. But if they can't keep their stuff straight, then I'm not interesting in keeping an account with them.

Women be shopping

Yesterday my older sister, my mom, and I drove out to David's Bridal in Westland to get bridesmaids dresses for my cousin's wedding next month. Debbie choose the color azalea for our dresses but let each of us choose any style of dress in that color. Seems pretty flexible, right?

Wrong! Since the wedding is only a month away, the saleswoman told us that there wouldn't be enough time to order dresses, so we should both try to find something off the rack. The problem was that there's not much ON the rack in azalea (hot pink). So Katherine and I tried on a handful of dresses and vetoed everything because it was too big or too strapless (chests large enough to hold up such articles of clothing, unfortunately, do not run in our family). After we concluded that we'd have wear potato sacks to this wedding, the saleswoman reconsidered and thought that just maybe we'd have enough time to order dresses before September 16th. So we stuck with the styles we'd tried on that we liked but ordered them about 10 sizes smaller. So this is what I'll be wearing, as long as there's no ordering mixup. Then I'll have to pull out the pink potato sack.

Being in the store gave me a small glimpse of the stress and anxiety that can be caused by planning a wedding. The list of things that need to be written, bought, sent, arranged, and paid for seems endless, and the money is flying out of your hands faster than if you stacked up the dollar bills in front of an open window with a stiff breeze. Is there a point along the way where the process of creating the perfect day is more important than the fact that you're actually getting married? After watching a few friends go through this, it seemed like there was no way to plan a wedding that was both classy and inexpensive. So I began to think that maybe the best way really was to run off and elope - you eliminate the hassle of planning and can put the oodles of money that you or your parents don't really have toward buying a home or going on a nice honeymoon. After all, it's just one day. The marriage is what lasts forever.

I recently finished a book called A Walk Down the Aisle. It's about a couple who'd been living together for seven years before deciding to get married, and the author (the bride) talks about why she and her husband wanted to marry when it wouldn't have made any real change in their everyday lives. But although they already had a home together, they wanted to make the commitment to each other, in front of friends and family, to be together forever, not just while the relationship was easy or convenient. She also talked about how they struggled to decide which traditions to keep, which ones to toss, and how to create a wedding that felt honest and significant without being generic or cheesy.

So after reading the book, my cynical view began to soften a little. It's still just one day, but it's to celebrate a lifelong decision. And there are weddings I've been to that were classy and, I think, relatively inexpensive, so I guess there's still some hope that it can be done.

But I'd still rather spend the money on a trip than a dress.

They just keep on leaving

I met Greddy at 7 this morning to bike down to Carson beach and the JFK Library. I grumbled a bit getting out of bed at 6:30, but the ride was totally worth it. I've decided that August is officially the best month of the year in Boston - June was too rainy, July was too hot, and I don't have a car so I can't drive through the Berkshires to admire the fall colors. That sort of thing is pretty boring anyway unless you're hiking, camping, canoeing, or doing some other actual outdoor activity instead of just ooh-ing and ahh-ing from your car. But I digress. This August has been absolutely beautiful. Very sunny and warm without being hot.

So we biked for about two hours and then when I got back to my apartment, June was getting ready to leave for the airport. First Phil, then Glenn, now June is moving out. My little apartment is lonely again. It was nice to have some female company this summer after all the burping, football, and conversations composed entirely of movie quotes with the guys. I love them, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it would have been nice to have another girl around to balance things out.

~~~

I got a package slip in my mailbox last Wednesday, so on Thursday afternoon I trekked down to the post office to pick up the pillows I bought in Houston that Josh had sent to me. But when I got there, I was told that the package hadn't gotten back in yet, so I should come back the next day. I came back on Saturday and was told, again, that the package wasn't there, but if I could leave my phone number with the post office, they'd check their other nearby offices to see if my pillows popped up. This morning I called again to see if my long-lost pillows had shown up, and the guy I spoke with said that they had. Yay! So I can go pick them up this afternoon and toss out my old crummy ones. (Side fact: According to this website, up to 10% of the weight of a 2-year-old pillow is dust mites and their poop.) The dude told me that there was some confusion with my box because there was another name on it besides mine so someone might have assumed that was the recipient. "The name?" I ask. "Uhh... N-A-S-A," he says. "Anyone you know?"

Important?

Over the past week and a half, I've been asked to be the in-case-of-emergency person for Josh while he's tromping around in Peru, an executor for my parents' will (although low on the list), and a bridesmaid at my cousin's wedding. The first one makes my chest tighten, the second one makes me feel a little unprepared (the extent of my tax knowledge ends with the 1040EZ), but the third one should be a lot of fun! My cousin Debbie only recently decided that she wanted to have a couple extra bridesmaids, so it was a little last-minute (the wedding's in a month), but I think I'll still have time to get everything sorted out.

And although the first two things are a little morbid, I'm flattered to have been asked to do them. And I do think that I would be able to handle that sort of responsibility rationally if I ever needed to. I'm not sure if I like what that says about me though.

Lazy

The past two days have made up the laziest weekend I've had in a long time. On Friday, I was in bed by 9:30. On Saturday, I was woken up at 10am by the maintenance crew who had come to replace my bedroom window. (On the 4th, the glass shattered when I was trying to close the window. Turns out smashing a window isn't as hard as it looks in the movies! I got away with just a few scrapes on my hands and arms, but I went through a significant number of bandaids that weekend.) Anyway, one benefit of renting an apartment is that it usually comes with a maintenance crew, and the guys for my building are, thankfully, prompt and thorough. They removed the window frame and boarded up the hole over the weekend and then came back on Saturday to replace the window.) Anyway, after that I figured that I couldn't go back to bed (sleep more than 13 hours??), so I got up to run some errands. But after I got home, I spent the rest of the day reading, watching a movie, and going to sleep early - again.

On Sunday I woke up late and read some more, then biked out to Fort Independence. The actual fort was closed by the time I got there, but it was still nice to wander around Castle Island (not an actual island at all). On the east side of the island, there's a hill that slopes down from the fort to the water, and it immediately reminded me of Gas Works Park in Seattle. Ahh, Seattle... There was also an enormous cruise ship leaving the harbor, which was pretty cool to watch, and a reminder of Galveston, the only other place I've seen cruise ships up close. I've only seen them leaving their ports though, when everyone's cheering and excited about leaving on their trip. I wonder what everyone looks and sounds like when they get back... depressed that vacation is over? Glad to get out of their tuna-can room? Seasick?

Anyway. I also saw World Trade Center last night. I was prepared for it to be sad and depressing, but I wasn't prepared for how graphic it was. Definitely not a movie for the claustrophobic. I thought the movie was done well, but to me, the more powerful "movie" to watch is HBO's 9/11 documentary. I guess I was expecting World Trade Center to seem more realistic, which now seems silly, considering that it's still a Hollywood production.

Clarification

I should be clear that in the previous entry, my hangups come from the label and what other people will think, not the decision itself. I should also mention that this decision is by no means one-sided - we're both moving from different cities/jobs to be together.

The reason

As graduation looms on the horizon, I've gotten a few more questions about what I plan to do after getting my degree. There have been some subtle hints from a couple full-timers here about staying (which I don't want to do), and I feel I can get out of that relatively easily by explaining that I've spent over 5 years in Boston and am ready to move to a different city.

Of course, the next question that comes up is the our-group-in-Houston one: "Do you want to go back to Houston? Hopefully we'll be staffing up a lot down there over the next year." Well, that gets a little trickier to decline. I may very well be interested in a position with my current employer in Houston several years from now, so I don't want to burn any bridges, but I'm not interested in moving back to Houston right away. Not sure yet how to decline that one gracefully.

Which brings up another question that I'm not quite ready to answer: "Are you going back to JSC after graduation?" That ranks right up there with, "How did you like working at JSC? What was it like as a civil servant?" Again, not sure how to give an honest answer on that one that fits into 25 words or fewer.

I'm planning to move to Washington, D.C. after I graduate. Even if I didn't have personal reasons for moving, I love the city and I'd like a chance to work in the defense sector of the aerospace industry. If, however, I were only making the decision based on the job I wanted, I would be considering a handful of areas around the country, not just D.C.

But there are personal reasons involved. I'm moving there to be with someone that I've been away from for the past year. To me, there comes a point in any long distance relationship in which one or both of you have to move to make things work, and I really want this to work, so I'm going to move.

Unfortunately, there's still a small part of me that doesn't like how that sounds. When I was in high school, I knew plenty of girls (mostly) who went to specific colleges only to follow their boyfriends, and halfway through freshman year they were miserable because the school didn't suit them and the relationship had ended. Even though I know in my heart that this is different, I still feel like other people will judge the situation this way when I tell them about it.

Is this crazy? It's not like I'm moving to D.C. to become a 1950's housewife. And maybe everyone else that I talk to, especially at work, will understand my reasoning, and it's just me who views it as a jaded high schooler. I guess I just never thought I would move across the country for a guy, and it's taking me a little while to get used to that. However, I also never thought the best part of my life would be 1,800 miles away, so maybe I should just throw my high school brain out the window.

(Yes, I realize I'm breaking all the blogging topic rules - work, love life, etc. Too bad.)

JSC FCU

I am still a member of the JSC Federal Credit Union even though I'm no longer an employee at a qualifying institution or even a resident of Houston. This is primarily due to laziness on my part, but it's also because they have good rates, convenient online services, blah, blah. Anyway, I was checking my account this afternoon to make sure my direct deposit had gone through when I took a closer look at the banner on their website:


So they've got a little flash movie of some Star Trek Enterprise-inspired thing floating over the Earth instead of, I don't know... maybe the Space Shuttle? How about the International Space Station??

I guess I can add "sense of humor" to the list of things I like about the credit union.