Case of the Mondays

So I’m listening to a song in Spanish (“Suerte” by Shakira) right now and it’s really hard to think in English. I wish I were eloquent in Spanish. Gotta keep practicing, I guess.

Work

It turns out if I do only what I’m strictly “supposed” to do my job is really boring and lonely. I have been prolifically productive in the past week but I’ve had about 4 conversations. I am grateful that my officemates and I eat lunch together every day, without that it’d be even worse.

Since the fateful conversation two weeks ago, I have been trying (in as much as I can) to keep my head down. Mentor 1 is back from her travel so hopefully I can pivot that relationship into one where she advocates and champions me. I dream of a relationship with her that involves reciprocal communication and clearly stated expectations I can meet or exceed. And then I meet them. I hope my dream can come true before this job is over.

So yeah, it turns out that I spend days doing really boring stuff and that’s what I’m supposed to do. For now.

Vacation

PartnerPenguin came in last Saturday so it was interesting to spend some of a workweek together. He was able to telecommute and he was also awesome and took my car to the shop for her three-month check-up. My hours worked out a little wonky so I only worked 2 hours on Wednesday. But after that, I was able to come home and eat lunch with PartnerPenguin. A friend came over and all three of us went to a nearby park. It was really awesome. My favorite part of the hike was this cave-thing we climbed up to. You can hear the stream running below and but otherwise it’s perfectly still. Then we made some delicious tacos.

Thursday was Turkeyday! This year, we did what seems to be called “Friendsgiving”. I really like this concept. There is a lot less pressure on one family/entity for the burden of all the dishes. I guess I also like the concept of people sharing responsibility for the success of an event. We went to two Friendsgivings. The first was held by a woman who may be a future version of myself: she is a geologist, she is good at theatre makeup and she did PeaceCorps. OK, I didn’t do hardcore PeaceCorps but I did the domestic version, which was weirder. We get along well and I was glad she also got along with PartnerPenguin. Her crowd was older and we played Hearts. I’m really bad at Hearts, but it was really fun. I also whooped PartnerPenguin’s ass in Othello. Othello is to Go as Checkers is to Chess.

Second Friendsgiving was with more peer-aged people. Finally starting to find a crew of people who I can talk about the important things in life with. It’s a slow build, but it’s finally happening. We talked about diversity: how even the talk around diversity stuff tends to happen mostly around women without discussing race or intersectionality at all. We talked about cultural differences and culture shock. Social isolation. Good stuff.

I met a guy who is also experiencing long distance and he said he’s talking to walls. Sounds about right. Usually when I come home after work I open the door and say “Hello, Nobody.” I hope we can be supports for each other.

The next day (Black Friday) PartnerPenguin and I stayed home. It was such a good decision. I’ve been very conflicted about Black Friday for a long time. Mostly because I don’t ever have excess money. Also because I don’t really get gifts for people. If you ever receive a gift from me, it will be so perfect you cry. And then you won’t get anything again for years. I think if I had kids I would get them stuff but I’d probably adopt my parents model about Hanukkah. My brother and I would get a gift every night of the holiday but they were usually small things we needed like school supplies and occasionally clothing. We would each get one “big” gift on the last night. But we knew this, expected it and I didn’t feel the need to ask for more because I did get other presents. And of course: dreidels with which to bet all your chocolate money away.

Well. That was a good tangent.

Anyway, on Friday, we stayed in and talked. It was pretty intense talking. The biggest difference between internet talking and in person talking is the ability to actually maintain eye contact. Second difference is the ability to touch. Usually if we’re having intense conversations (good or bad), PartnerPenguin and I try to maintain at least three points of contact. I find that grounds me. I can’t really do that with anyone else the way my life is set up right now, so the wholeness of communication this past week was very fulfilling.

I didn’t mention but we also cat-sat a giant fluff ball of a cat. The only reason this is relevant is that we got to do laundry for free this week.

Friday afternoon we went ice-skating. PartnerPenguin was surprised that I am actually a very good ice skater. He is a very beginner skater so much of his time was spent with one of those little red walker things. It was very preposterous. And fun. Afterwards I was really jones’n for wonton soup. We went to the local “fancy” Chinese restaurant and lo and behold, it was actually tolerable! In fact, the wonton soup was some of the best wonton soup I’ve had in years. They even made the dumplings properly and everything.

Saturday we had a get together at our place where we played board games. It was great fun. I got super drunk, which is not typical for me. I took a shot of Fernet. I do not recommend doing this. It is awful stuff. We played my favorite game, Splendor. If you haven’t played this, I suggest you change that immediately.

Sunday I returned PartnerPenguin to his world. I met up with some friends and bought a fake Dremmel. I’m very exciting about this as I really liked using that tool as part of my last job. I have no idea how to use it or even what kind of material I want to use it on, but it is mine and I am happy. We all hung out with one of the people’s parents and that was fun. They are nice people, all of them.

Then I bought food for two weeks and came back to TLoTH. I put away the perishables and pretty much did nothing else for the night. I had sweet cheese perogies for dinner.

You can probably tell by reading this far in the post that I’m more tired than usual. I will leave you now with this fascinating video. If possible, watch it. This artist is very articulate in his motions.