Yawn

January 30, 2007

I’m having sleep problems again. Monday morning I woke up to the sound of my alarm through the fog of morning insomnia, and I felt like it never really passed throughout the whole day. I don’t remember waking up in the middle of the night, or tossing and turning, but all I know is that I was in more of a haze of sleepiness all day than I normally am. Thinking perhaps that the beer I had with dinner had disagreed with me, I decided yesterday evening to not have a drink, and since I was staying up until 11 PM to watch the new “Studio 60″ I figured I’d drop right off to sleep. I was practically dozing during the show, so afterwards I climbed into bed and…lay there until 12:30 AM.

How utterly obnoxious.

Last Thursday night was a Beloit alumni get-together, and it was nice to be surrounded by some fellow Beloiters for an evening. I only knew one of the people there–a freshmen who lived on my floor my senior year who inherited my much-loved couch–but I recognized a face or two. There was even someone there who graduated the same year as I, but I had no recollection of her whatsoever. We probably even had a class or two together since she was a History major! Crazy. I thought I knew everyone from my class, even if just by face. Guess some people were more reclusive than even I. I also met an alum who runs the Portland Brew Bus, which takes groups of people on tours around the city to Portland breweries for sampling. Another alum used to be the brewmaster for Portland Brewing Company, and now is in charge of all brewing for PBR in China. When the conversation started turning towards beer, my ears perked up, obviously.

Speaking of college (and…uh…drinking, I guess), on Saturday night Hanne and I decided to do a little reminiscing about our college years, and so we told stories and had a few good laughs about the more…interesting…times of our higher education. More importantly, I showed her the one talent I picked up in college that won’t fade with time: blender drinks! I whipped up two blender-fulls (is that even a word, hyphenated or not?) of my specialty, though since there wasn’t any fruit in season I couldn’t do it right. I had to settle for the old standby of the Andrew Special. Heather’s been imitating my habits a lot lately and calling them “Andrew Specials,” so I had to emphasize that that particular drink was Andrew Special #1. Andrew Special #2 is a sandwich, chips, and beer (though to be exact, it has to be a certain kind of chips and sandwich), Andrew Special #3 is lime juice, cranberry juice, and tequila. I love categorizing my life! I have to come up with Andrew Special #4, but I have a feeling that’s going to be something from McMenamins. A Garden Commie, hold the secret sauce and pickles with fries on the side, perhaps? I’m so predictable. Now I need an Andrew Special #5.

On the plus side of my night of blenderizing with Hanne, I discovered just how much vodka I used to put into those drinks. I finally pulled out my Pyrex measuring cup and poured the right amount of shots into it, then looked in horror as I discovered that each blender full carried a full 1 1/4 cups of vodka. Oog. That might explain a few things.

This past weekend the weather was absolutely beautiful out, though still a bit chilly. I’m willing to put up with a little chill when it’s bright and sunny out. It was frigid Sunday morning, 50 degrees in the afternoon, and then it was back to frigid by 6 PM. Hanne and I took advantage of the weather and took a run together on the waterfront. It was nice to have some company while running, and I helped motivate her into jogging a bit further than she normally would. She made it a full 3 miles or so, though when she stopped to rest I took another lap around the bridges and ended up with about 6.2 miles myself. It felt so good to be outside again. I’m going to go for a run after work today, and it’s just never the same on a treadmill. I know I keep saying that, but after weeks and weeks of indoor running, it’s still astounding me how much better it is outdoors.

After nearly a year and a half in the backseat of my car, I decided to move some of the beer bottles I’d been saving into the basement of my house. I figured that the longer they stayed in my car, the longer I’d put off actually doing the brewing, plus I was getting tired of the rattling and I knew that they were affecting–however slightly–my gas mileage. Great idea, right? Finally get moving on this project that I began thinking about two years ago, clean out my car a bit? Yeah, so I pull the box out of the backseat of my car, and…well, do you know what the sound of 20 22oz. bottles crashing down to the ground sounds like? As it turned out, the bottom of the box wasn’t fully closed. Apparently, when I put the box in the car I just folded the flaps over each other, though I have zero recollection of doing something so boneheaded. I rarely do.

CRASH.

Glass all over my driveway. Under my tires. On my shoes. Everywhere. I managed to salvage about five or six of the bottles, but the rest were a total loss. On the plus side, it just so happens that I have one or two or twelve or fifteen replacement bottles sitting in my closet, awaiting their return to a grocery store. I have plenty of bottles to replace their fallen brothers, but really, I remember what a pain in the ass it was to clean the labels off those damn things in the first place. Plus, that’s a buck in bottle deposits I won’t get back. Bah!

Hanne found the whole thing hilarious, but I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of laughing at it. Yet.

I get paid tomorrow, and it’s going to be a kickass paycheck. I got a raise at my performance review, plus they’re making it retroactive to January 1, so I get “extra” money carried over from my last paycheck, plus I managed to somehow work 97 hours this pay period. I have no idea how. I didn’t stay late or work weekends, and technically, I’m short hours since I had a snow day and a couple of hours from the next day subtracted when the office was closed during our freakish snow storm. All I know is that I’m broke today, but tomorrow I won’t be. I love payday. I have no grand plans for my money besides the usual paycheck expenses (rent, student loan, credit card, and a much-needed trip to the grocery store), but it’ll be nice to not have to count my payments for awhile.

That’s it, I can’t think of anything else. If I’d write more often, I wouldn’t have to try and cram a week into a single entry.

Posted in Beer, Beloit, General, Hanne, Running, Work