Welp, that was a bust!

Drove down 101 (my favorite) to see a possible place.

I have had a certain amount of impostor syndrome over Being A Grown-Up. This was ... well. I didn't feel like I was the incompetent one.

Really, my mind was made up after I drove around in search of a parking spot, found none, wound up at the management office and not the leasing office, and saw the shabbiness (no, Android, not stabbings) and breathed the sadness. There was no street parking left. Once I found the leasing office, the contrast between its shininess and the dingy look of the other grated.

Plus I was parked super illegally in the driveway. There were four other cars also parked badly, but they weren't blocking the handicapped spot as badly. (Based on the way my mobility is improving, I have not tried to apply for the hang tag or plates.)

I explained that no, the one I was interested in was not the 2nd floor studio as stairs are a Bad Idea (and I waved my cane) and I'm coming from a studio. Despite having clicked on the thing, apparently it came through wrong.

So we went to look at the 1st floor studio.

The architecture is unfriendly. One door was chained open across the edge of a portal. I cleared it but with some misgivings.

She unlocked the apartment and switched on the bathroom lights.

I poked my face in.

The bathroom was long and galley-style, combining the worst parts of tiny bathrooms with the worst parts of galley kitchens.

"No," I decided out loud.

"...Would you like to see the rest of the apartment?" she ventured.

I might as well. I liked the kitchen, though I was dubious about whether the 2/3 size fridge could pass the shelf removal test.

On the way back (to get the keys to the van to drive to the 1-bedroom) I asked about the laundry situation.

7-7? "That's a dealbreaker."

We didn't see any other apartments.

I wound up at work.

My tweets

• Sat, 16:05: RT @PaloAltoPolice: Going to a #SuperBowl party this weekend? Pls use a non-drinking driver. And be sure to properly inflate your tires. ht…
• Sat, 20:51: RT @TamMacNeil: New word coined tonight: Piconutsack. Unit of measurement. I blame @zarhooie
• Sun, 01:05: My fitbit #Fitstats_en_US for 1/31/2015: 7,054 steps and 3 miles traveled. http://t.co/gFMrr7ZfJa
• Sun, 04:32: Photoset: allosauropteryx: OH MY GOD, TEACOCKS!  :O http://t.co/pz2yNvtnWg
</ul

2014 in review

So the beginning of the new year is where you sum up the old year! Clearly this has taken a while, as it was started near the beginning of January, and has only been posted in February.

My resolutions have changed over the past year, at least a bit. I have a new external monitor for my laptop, as the old one died. I have a new laptop also. They're similar in size. I swapped out my flaky Android for a new one, and have a tablet also. (A tablet whose protective case I just broke today by dropping it. That's what protective cases are for.) At work, I have a second monitor, which I have set up portrait-style (technically set up on the last day of 2013, but after last year's resolutions entry).

That thing I'm doing with the Fitbit is working out all right for me physically, ( Read more... )

The energy and wakefulness improvements have persisted. I'm generally working a near-full-time schedule these days, and I might even be conscious on the weekends. Treating my various mood-and-sleep horrorterrors as a Vitamin D deficiency has been surprisingly effective, but I can't actually allow that to slip, even if I'm fine right now. It did slip at several points throughout the year.

I am still contemplating moving apartment, though somewhat more actively at this point. The process is not cheap, which is what derailed me last year. At work, we moved building. That process was generally more irritating and prolonged than I'd imagined it could be. I did, however, manage to fit a (small) couch into an 8'x8' cube.

There have been important changes to my team at work -- both my Overlady and my director have left, for vastly different reasons. My manager is now my acting director.

Through sheer volume (loudness and quantity) of support requests, I managed to get swapped between email systems at work early. I have also made a (loud) name for myself in the department of the new helpdesk software. I seem to have collected a couple co-workers who genuinely enjoy the things I write, even/especially when I'm peeved and armed for bear. Work has started to use a new helpdesk tool. I have become one of the people who other people recognize in connection to asking for changes on the new helpdesk tool.

I knew Purple before 2014, but 2014 was definitely the year he was established as an important part of my life. We have become hugging friends who occasionally do group dinners. (Put that way, it sounds so very matter-of-fact and small. It feels like my weekday is incomplete without lunch at his table, my afternoon is very quiet without the occasional ping back and forth, and the frequent parking lot conversations in the evening are often the highlight of my day. We talk about things which have been bothering us. We suggest hilarious stories the other should tell during conversations with new people. It's great.)

#cupcake has also gained prominence, not that it was un-important before.

I tried crossposting from Tumblr to my real journal on DW, but that ultimately turned out to be more of a pain than I felt it was worth. I have been doing better about writing down what I'm actually doing than some while ago. Yay energy.

I have new glasses. Not just one pair of new glasses, but a prescription and a Zenni Optical habit that keeps on giving. So there are spares. I have started sewing more (mostly representing new nightengowns), and continue my habit of making, and then wearing to work, really wacky hats.

This was both the year of my first professional conference in my profession, and the year of my first speaking engagement. I went to Open Source Bridge and spoke there (and met zarhooie in person for the first time!). I also submitted my first patch to the Dreamwidth project. And went to a Maker Faire. And met Brent Spiner, Robert Picardo, and LeVar Burton.

Fishie has been sent safely off to college. My aunt's household has two dogs again: she's got a guide dog puppy to raise, and the poodle has survived a mouth tumor, although a chunk of his jaw and one fang are now missing. My sister announced and then ended a serious relationship. My mother is enjoying her iPad. My father is enjoying his iPad and also his new pacemaker, and has decided to install wifi for the iPads.

I have been using indigo to make my hair more blue. From 2015, I can safely say that 1995's sudden longing for blue hair, and 1999's first greenish attempt were harbingers of a lifelong decision about hair color, and not a passing fancy.

Mostly I have been too busy with work to think (other than attempting to write up my wacky life) but I have had time for a few creative efforts. One of the side effects of all the work put into this year's Halloween costume (a loon) is the use of unorthodox compound words, often with sithjawa: loonmillinery, loonmeasuring, loonpills, loonunit. I also played in the Bad Bang, which was delightful.

My home state allows same-sex marriage now. This is not a thing that I thought would happen before I got married. In 1995, when I got same-sex engaged, I didn't really think about legality. But I was one of the three people in my high school out as not straight: the lesbian, the gay guy, and me.

2014 was very busy, but trending in a vaguely good direction for me. I hope more good things for 2015.