Another break-in

My car was broken into again last night. The driver’s door was unlocked, the glove box was open, and the ashtray/coin drawer was open. As far as I can tell the only thing that was taken was the flashlight from the glove box. They didn’t even take my ipod converter, cell phone charger, or headset (these types of items have been stolen in past break-ins). Nor did they empty the contents of the glove box. They were so “tidy” about the whole thing hat I would never have known it had happened if they had just closed the glove box and coin drawer. I would have chalked up the unlocked door to my own error when I got home last night.

As irritating as this is, I’m glad that it wasn’t worse. I don’t keep anything valuable in there anymore, and the steering wheel bar was on, but they could have stolen the stereo again and created a lot of hassle for me. I count myself lucky that all I have to do is go buy another flashlight. I look forward to the day when I can afford a new car, one with a security system. At the very least, a security system, if triggered by a break-in, would allow me to run out of my apartment and beat the thief over the head with a frying pan, which would be very satisfying indeed.

Weekend alone

Greg had his daughter this weekend, so I was on my own. I certainly didn’t lack for things to do, though. My to do list seems to grow longer by the day. Friday night I decided to watch one of the DVDs in my tall stack of movies I’ve checked out from the library. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. DUMB. The first movie was so good, the second mediocre, and this third one just plain dumb. What a disappointment.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to try one of the walks in the new Portland City Walks book. I walked around a SE Portland neighborhood admiring the cool old houses and other sights along the way, including a huge old pioneer cemetery. Walking around SE Portland gives me house envy. I’d love to own a house in that part of town. Someday, maybe. If I win the lottery.

Yesterday evening my girlfriends and I met up for a potluck dinner. We met at my friend Tracy’s house. She had a baby two months ago and this was our first chance to see Tracy and meet the baby since the big event. We had a nice dinner and it was great to hang out with just the girls. Baby Lillian is pretty darn cute. She entertained us with smiles, hiccups, farts, and burps, which are really cute on a baby scale. My friends held her every chance they could get, but I hadn’t planned on holding her because babies always cry in my arms. I told everybody this but I somehow ended up holding Lillian anyway. Sure enough, after 20 seconds she started crying and I gave her back to somebody else. I cradle their heads, I rock back and forth, I smile at them, and still they don’t like me and they cry. Sigh.

This morning I aimed for a read-till-I’m-finished marathon of Breaking Dawn, a fat monster of a book that I’ve been slogging my way through for several weeks now. But after more than an hour at the coffee shop, with more than 100 pages still to go, I gave up and decided I’d have to finish the book later.

I went on another walk from the city walks book. The sun was shining and It was a great day for a walk today! This particular walk took me along the riverfront on the Eastbank Esplanade. The Willamette sparkled, people were out enjoying the unusual weather, and the city looked lovely. If you stood there and closed your eyes, you could believe that the beautiful day was the first of many nice spring days, instead of the last of the nice fall days.

This evening I tried to go out and do some urban dusk photography. My heart wasn’t in it, though, and I came home with nothing. I have done pretty much no night photography before and I’d like to do more. But I find shooting photos in the city extremely difficult. If you’re shooting at night you have to use a tripod and I detest using a tripod. It’s bad enough using it in the forest, but in the city you’re always in someone’s way. All in all it’s a pretty frustrating experience, which is why I haven’t done much of it yet.

This evening I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. WOW. What a dumb movie. It was one of those classics that I just never got around to seeing until now. With the exception of The Shining (which is still a pretty weird movie), I’ve never seen a Stanley Kubrick movie that I liked, so I should have known better. I couldn’t believe how slow it was. I ended up fast-forwarding through more than half the movie without missing any of the plot. And when the movie was all over, I was left wondering what the point was. Ugh.

I think I’ll crawl into bed now, under my warm down comforter, and read a book.

Vista “upgrade”

I found out at work this week that the IT Department wants to “upgrade” the staff computers to Windows Vista and Office 2007. I am totally horrified by this prospect. My parents have Vista and Office 2007 and I find their computer virtually unusuable. So do they. I have switched to a Mac at home, so I don’t have to deal with Microsoft crap there. I only have to deal with it at work, and I’d really rather stick to XP, thank you very much. IT had us all fill out a survey so they could get a feel for everyone’s experience with Vista and Office 2007. There was room for comments and I gave them a piece of my mind. I don’t know if it’ll do any good, but a girl’s gotta try.

One year

This past Saturday, November 1, marked the one year anniversary of my first date – and first kiss – with Greg. To celebrate the occasion, we got all dressed up and went out to a really nice dinner at Fratelli, a yummy Italian restaurant in Portland’s Pearl District. It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year already. But it’s been a really great year. I feel incredibly lucky, and incredibly in love.

Relief!

I am so relieved at the outcome of yesterday’s election. Everything happened so fast last night, or so it seemed. I worked until the library closed at 8:00, then sat at the reference desk refreshing the news web pages for 15 minutes until the elections people came to get our ballot boxes. Things looked promising, but nothing was definitive. By the time I got home at 8:35, Obama had won. Just like that. Hooray! In 2000 I was in college and watched the election disaster unfold with horror. In 2004 I was in grad school in Vancouver and watched again with horror, wondering if it would be possible to stay in Canada until my fellow American voters got their act together. This time around was so much better! I’m so happy!

I’m also thrilled that the library district passed. Not only did it pass, but it passed by a wide margin. 61% yes and 39% no. Now all the libraries in Clackamas County will have a stable source of funding. My library will not have to cut hours or cut staff. Things will be okay. Thank you voters, for realizing the importance of libraries! There will be many happy faces at work today.