Surreptitious Opinionation

Ugh, so much to do, and so much of it cleaning. =/ Such is the price we pay, I suppose. =)

Must remember: SAS is not C and trying to treat it as though it were will only lead to pain and frustration. Even though C is better.

1) I’m trying to get a decent amount of furniture into my new place before the housewarming on Saturday evening. Thanks to brown elephant, that may be muuuch easier. A good couch and large dining room table for less than $200? Yes, please. If I ever stay at the same job long enough to climb to a better salary, I can buy nicer. After the credit card debt goes buhbye.

2) I signed up for an environmental action training. Sadly, it has not helped me decide what I want to do. I’m supposed to do some kind of project to “graduate” from the program. They’ll provide up to $400 worth of materials, and a fair amount of staff time to support whatever I want to do. My first idea was a website for chicago environmentally interested folks with a carpool-matching service. It was a little more elaborate than that, but I hate web programming, and besides, I’m not so sure that would even work.

One of their suggested activities was developing a green office team. One of my fellow hired-within-the-past-year folks has already said she’d be right behind me, but given my office culture that does not sound like a career advancing move (and she rather agrees). Furthermore, alot of the ‘greening’ would have to be done by the building management service, which our office has little leverage over. I’m not very tied in to any of the local communities, and these are supposed to be community building projects. Implicit in the homework assignments for Saturday is that I need to have picked a community to work within.

Another suggested activity was becoming a park steward for a local park. Now there is certainly a park in my neighborhood, and I have no idea whether it has a steward or not. Skating through it the other night, I noticed that it had some minor neglect in terms of cleanliness, but I have no idea about invasive species or that sort of thing (invasives were a big topic in our training).

3) Heading to Pittsburgh on Sunday for conference stuff and Carnival. Mad Props to for putting me up, and for offering to provide a means of transportation (a bike) to and from the conference. Now I just need to figure out how I’m getting from the airport to station square on Sunday, and from station square to Barbara’s. I’m thinking I’ll leave immediately after the Pi(e) party. Btw, anyone want to help me ring in 31 years on the planet this upcoming Sunday evening? I’d lean towards somewhere in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill, but don’t really know where, yet.

You save mucho on the commute time. But it is kinda lonely.

What does it tell you that I have a desk, a chair, several boxes, two bookshelves, two working computers, a fully equiped kitchen, and an air bed, card table and 4 folding chairs?

Last night I had the best Indian food I’ve had in Chicago, at Hema’s. And it’s very close to home. Sweet! (It’s a bit spicier than I usually go for, but that’s not a cause for complaint in my book. =)

I have my new roommate. He’s entertaining and seems reliable (if a little wacky). He makes substantially more than I do, and doesn’t seem to have any ridiculously expensive habits, so I doubt rent will be a problem. Yay.

This is awesome.

On Monday I love my coworkers. On Friday I can’t wait to escape.