Me and the garbage men are going to have to have a little talk. The last couple of weeks they have been using my bins to block my access to my driveway. So I have to get out of the car and move them, before I can park my car. I’ve looked at everyone else’s bins, around my neighborhood, they don’t do that to anyone else. What’s up with that? I am careful to put the proper side out, facing the street. Am I not moving them close enough to the street? are they too far back on my driveway? What is it?

God I hate a passive aggressive garbage man.

I don’t know if all of you realize how old I am, given my obvious childlike wonder with the world, but this summer would be my 20th reunion. Yes, it’s true. I am that old.

I did not keep in touch with my high school friends, except for one… Julie. I left Tulsa a month after graduation. I came back six months later, for a wedding, when I was 19. But that’s it. Like most things in my mind, I’ve taken the memories of high school, for the most part, and backed them up to to DAT tape, and they now sit gathering dust on a shelf. I don’t even have a DAT tape drive anymore. When Julie and I do talk, she’s always reminding me of stuff I did, or said, or things that happened, things that are fuzzy and vaguely familiar. Almost as if I knew someone who had those experiences, I’ve heard their stories, but they didn’t happen to me. And yet I can remember Julie as clear as day.

Even when I was in high school, I wasn’t all that. I wasn’t popular. Or particularly unpopular. I wasn’t completely inactive in school activities, but the ones I did participate in tended to be smaller, less prestigious ones. Red Cross, Key Club, French Club, National Honors Society. I had friends on various social levels, although few on the upper echelons. No cheerleader friends. I was in honors and AP classes, but by no means a star in any of those classes. Except maybe a couple of quarters of Physiology, when I would compete with my friend Michelle for highest grade. Mostly, I was in the middle of the smart kids. I was middle ground all around. My high school experience peaked in my junior year, if you can consider that a peak in life. I didn’t go to prom. Maybe I knew, even back then, that this was just not the high point in my life. I feel sorry for those for which it was. I didn’t go to my 10 year reunion, and couldn’t think of a reason why I would. Julie was living in Bolivia at the time, and if she wasn’t there, there was no reason.

Until last night, I was officially on the Missing List. I liked being on the Missing List, it was mysterious. I could be anything, while I was on the Missing List. I fancied myself an international spy. Fluent in Russian, unfortunately. No one needs spies who speak Russian anymore. Maybe I am currently stationed in the Middle East, learning to speak scary new languages, since that’s where the government says the terrorists are. [Hence the belly dance classes!] Or maybe I am in Africa, working with other doctors on the frightening AIDS epidemic. Or maybe I am living in an ashram, and I’ve shaved my head and now everyone must call me Sunbeam. Who knows? I was on the freakin’ Missing List. I could be anything I wanted.

But, like any good spy, fluent in Russian, my curiosity got the best of me last night. And I found the website for the Class of 86 reunion. And, in order to see the details… I had to register. I caved. My spy instincts got the best of me. But not enough to fake my name. I am now no longer Missing. I’m bummed. But, it’s not like anyone was looking for me anyway, there is a message board with a thread of “Looking for….” and no one was looking for me. I looked over the names of the classmates who have registered. Some of the names sounded so familiar, but again, like names I’ve heard in books maybe. I couldn’t attach faces to most of them, let alone memories.

Am I going, you ask? Well, I gave it a great deal of thought. I wondered if I would be depriving myself of recapturing some truly precious memories. If this, like the prom, was one of those Life Experiences everyone should have. I thought about it for about two minutes. And then I realized it conflicted with the Eels show at the showbox. No way am I missing the Eels. I mean, come on… it was only high school!

But I’m starting to feel a bit better. Except for the coughing thing. I have watched an extraordinary amount of Star Trek: The Next Generation – They play three hours of it back to back on some channel – and lots of other day timey television.

anyhoo… I’ll be back later. After the nighttime cough medicine wears off. yum!

Every day I have a couple of web comics I read to get my day started. Some are also in the newspaper, like Get Fuzzy. But most are web only comics, like Medium Large. [on drinkatwork.com, which has lots of funny stuff every day, and is in my RSS feed 4 shur.]

One of my favorites is Lulu Eightball, by Emily Flake. It comes out every Wednesday, on the Baltimore City Paper online. Lulu is a character I can identify with. She’s got flaws. Yeah. Ummm… it’s Monday morning and I’m not really with it yet. I should be able to say more than “I like comic. Comic is funny.” But that seems to be all I have. So I’ll just show you last Wednesday’s comic and maybe you’ll understand.

click to enlarge.

Does this ever happen to you? Do you ever become, suddenly, hyper aware of the way you walk? And once that happens, you unable to notice? Then, since you are way too aware of your walk, your legs quit working properly, your joints don’t move smoothly and you walk a bit like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz. Also, it feels as tho you are walking on the surface of something very sticky, and it’s hard to lift your foot off the floor… you are surprised your shoes don’t make little popping noises as they pull free of the stick.

Does that ever happen to you? Or is it just me.

I’m thinking of switching to Vonage, I want to rid my life, completely, of all things Verizon. I’m curious if anyone has experience with this technology, and what you think about it.

Madrigalia – you are probably correct, I should go on a tour in Canada. Oh the smarties I shall eat.
To all of you who doubted my ability to clean my cube yesterday… FINE! You are correct. But that’s only because I got a last minute project that had to be done by the end of the day. I did too!
I’m in training all day. I think it’s going to be too technical and above my head. What’s more, I have to use a PC. And INTERNET EXPLORER! Barf!!

Canada, you know I love you. You are so much larger than the UK, and yet I am receiving more hits from the UK, than I am from you. How is that possible?

Come on, Canada… baby… hit me one more time! [they are actually only 1 hit ahead]

There is just so much useful information on my webstats page.

I am doing a riddle contest online… again. This is bad, because I’ll get stuck on a riddle and it will occupy my mind, nonstop, until I solve it. It drives me nuts. I finally had to quit, the last time I did this, because the obsession was overwhelming. And the riddles were getting too hard. Nonetheless, I find myself shamed to be stuck already, on the 5th riddle of round 1.

Click to see riddle… any suggestions?

An adorable girl scout just came by my desk to deliver unto me the most holy and sacred of snacks – The Girl Scout Cookie! I had placed an order a month or so ago, when her mom, an employee here, had put the order form out in our lounge. But never did I expect the boxes to be hand delivered! By a red headed moppet who is missing her front teeth, no less.

Which reminds me… I want to be 8 years old again. Yesterday was the birthday of another coworkers daughter, her 8th. This happens to be one of my favorite of coworker kids, I’ve known her since she was a little toddler thing. Her mom, one of my many ex-bosses here at my P.O.E., had an office full of toys I was looking through yesterday. And I have to say, I wanted to take home each and every one. The Easy Bake Oven, the Hot wheels Starter Kit, the art supplies… all of it. The new bike her grandma got her, which was not in the office. Why can’t I be 8 years old again? Actually, can I just be my age, but have the toys? it would be SoooOOOOoooo Fun!