There Is A House In New Orleans

Did you know that you actually get results when you search "songs with house in the title"? There are whole websites devoted to this subject.

Who but me would need to know these things, Google? WHO BUT ME?

Okay, sorry about that. I knew this post was going to be house themed, and all I could think of was "Brick House," but that didn't seem super appropriate. Brick houses in California? They won't be so mighty mighty when the big one hits, amirite? Rookies.

Anywho...I landed on "House of the Rising Sun." Please enjoy the song as you read the rest of this. Try to avoid staring at their super-high-buttoned tailored suits and matching-but-ever-so-slightly-different bowl haircuts. I think they know we're watching them. Could you have made a creepier music video, The Animals? Come on now.

I'm looking for an apartment because I'm tired of having, well...let's say "a housemate." Technically, nothing in my current household arrangement is equal in any way, and I am just mooching off of this housemate's well-earned cash, as I have been for the last 23.8 (rough estimate) years of my life, but the term still applies.

Now, it won't be the first time I've looked for an apartment, but it will be the first time I will be completely financially responsible for the place that I find. No co-signers for me! I'm a grown-up, after all.

Anyone who's ever looked for an apartment knows that it is a lot easier said than done. You have to troll craigslist, weed out the crazies and the liars, make appointments to view places, hope that you aren't going to be murdered, weed out even more crazies and liars (the ones you missed the first time around), fill out applications, get credit checks and reference checks, and finally sign your lease. I probably missed a few steps. As I said, I'm new to this whole apartment-hunting gig.

However, at least in my current location, there seems to be a time window. I'm trying to get a jump on things by looking for apartments early, but since my ideal move-in date is sometime in January, no one in their right mind is going to hold a place for me unless I'm willing to pay December too. I'm not really sure why I'm bothering, except that it gives me hope that there is indeed some sort of post-collegiate freedom on the horizon.

Still, it's tough. Especially because, at school, if you didn't start looking in June for that apartment you were moving into in August, you were totally screwed. I guess I'll just have to hold my horses.

How anti-climactic, right? You totally thought this post was going to be all YEAH I FOUND AN APARTMENT, but instead it was all meh, I guess I have to wait a bit longer before looking. Sorry about that. Not as triumphant a return from hiatus as I had hoped, but you have to take what you can get.

A Swedish Mystery

I was hanging out at Ikea today (you know how I do) and somehow mysteriously found myself in the grocery section, where I witnessed quite the sight:

There was a Swedish person there! He was an older gentleman, looking for what I think was lingonberry jam (though my Swedish is a bit rusty), and he asked the cashier where it was. I looked at the cashier, assuming that she'd look back at me with a puzzled expression and shrug her shoulders as if to say, "I have no idea what you are talking about, crazy Swedish man." But she didn't! She responded in kind. IN SWEDISH. And there I was: in an Ikea in California, listening to two people have a conversation in Swedish, and my mind was blown. I felt like I was trapped in some sort of Ikea Inception.

So my question is this: Do you suppose it is just coincidence that there is actually a person who speaks Swedish working at Ikea? Did she just stumble upon the position and say, "Hey! I speak Swedish. Ikea sounds like the perfect place to work!" Or is there some sort of Ikea trafficking going on, where Ikea HQ sends over at least one Swedish person to every single store in the world, just in case someone starts screaming, "Brunkrissla? Is that even a real word?!" And then she can swoop in and be all like, "Yes sir, it is. BAM. You've just been Sweded."

Learn Something New Every Day

I'm a firm believer in this philosophy. Not only that you do learn something new every day, but that you should actively try to learn new things. Maybe it's just me and my ridiculous obsession with seemingly mundane details. Or maybe it has something to do with my job, where I actually get paid to figure out how fast buffalo run (up to 34 mph) or whether the correct pronunciation of that delicious confection is 'karəməl or 'kärməl. Either way, learning new things is the bee's knees.

It is for this reason that I've decided to learn a new language. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. I've decided to try to learn a new language.

I recently discovered that the libraries around here have a partnership with an online language-learning company. If you have an account with one of the participating libraries, you can sign up for free* and get access to language courses ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese (and tons of stuff in between).

At first, I was thinking Spanish because of its practicality. But then my eyes fell upon Pirate, and I knew what I had to do. Belay yer carousin' and haul wind smartly! Then again, it was lacking in the usefulness category, so I went back to Spanish. After completing the first two lessons, I decided to switch over to Italian. Why not, right?

Buonasera signora! Come stai?
Sto bene, grazie. 
Marco!
Polo.

I'm not exactly ready to go to Mexico or Italy or...the high seas, but maybe if I stick with it, I'll actually get somewhere. Now I just need to pick a language. I'm taking suggestions, folks!

*Do you really need to know any more? Check it.

The First Day of Summer

And probably also the last. Today, September 7th, 2011, marks the first and only day of the year where it will be warm enough to wear shorts after dark. Oh, Bay Area summer. Why must you be so fickle?

I keep trying to explain local seasons to my coworkers, none of whom are Bay Areans (have I mentioned lately how unfortunate that moniker is?), but they seem to have some sort of mental block, so I've made this handy dandy graph. Please enjoy.

 

Apologies for the rough* sketch. In a perfect world, the peaks and valleys would be more distinct. The biggest weather-related question I get is some variation of "How can it be raining right now?! It was like 95° yesterday!" It just is, okay? It. Just. Is.

Happy last day of summer, everyone!

*My editor brain is super pissed that only one of the labels on the y-axis has a period. Consistency fail. Laziness win.

Are You an Innie or an Exie?

Two blog posts in two days?! What is the world coming to?

My coworkers and I were having a discussion about introversion and extroversion the other day. It was prompted by this article, which was featured in The Atlantic in 2003. Oh gosh, I just realized that was eight years ago. Now I feel old.

Anyway...

In case you didn't read the article before moving past that link (it's really short, I promise), the basic idea is that introverts and extroverts are practically two different species: while extroverts get energy by being around people, introverts are drained by social situations and need time to recharge. On this count, I definitely agree with the author.

Almost all of my friends are extroverts, and while I love them all, I just...need a break every once in a while. Many of them cannot comprehend the fact that I actually enjoy being by myself. I'm not by myself because I don't have anyone to hang out with; I'm by myself because, after a day of interacting with my coworkers for eight straight hours, I don't have the energy or the desire to be around other people. All I want to do is sink into my chair and watch Netflix movies. Is that really so strange?

I loved almost everything in the article, but I did have a problem with one assertion: the idea that extroverts are easy for introverts to understand. Maybe the author meant that extroverts as people are easy to understand -- they often wear their hearts on their sleeves and are not shy about expressing themselves -- but I took it more as an assumption that extroversion as a concept isn't hard to figure out, which I do not agree with at all.

I just don't get it. How in the world can a person spend every waking moment with other people? I have friends who, during the summer, would just hop from group to group. The only time they would spend at their own houses would be the eight hours or so that they needed to sleep, and the only waking minutes they would spend by themselves was the time it took them to arrange another outing. I never understood how a person could do that, and I probably never will.

So, while I agree that extroverts will probably never understand introversion, it's also pretty hard for us introverts to wrap our heads around how you extroverts do what you do. Maybe we can all just make a pact to be a bit more understanding of one another. World peace and all that jazz. Because I'm certainly never going to change.

My Life, In Numbers

Quite the eventful week this week:

One surgery avoided, thanks to my negative MRI results.

Two computer monitors that are all mine. My new dual system has exponentially increased my productivity, which was the whole point, I suppose.

Three different burrito places visited for lunch. We're on a quest for the best burrito. We will not stop until we find it.

Four(th) hockey class missed. Looks like I'm officially out for the season.

Five new projects at work. The next few months are going to be fuuuun.

Six-month anniversary at my first real job. I've now officially broken my previous employment record. What. Up.

Seven sodas enjoyed over the past seven days, despite my intention to "cut back." No sleep + no caffeine = zombie. No sleep + caffeine = productive zombie. I'll have to work on that.

And, I couldn't think of anything for eight, so I guess this experiment is over.

It's almost the end of July, and I haven't even gotten a chance to enjoy my summer yet. I want to go to the aquarium! And the zoo! Have to go to the zoo.

Serial (Comma) Killer

Dear Oxford University Press,

I was about to sit down and type up a missive on my love of the Oxford comma, but then I discovered that you were absolved of this oh-so-heinous murder. So, my apologies. I should never have doubted you.

But there goes my brilliant idea for a blog post.

Things in my life are about the same as usual. However, I have this overwhelming feeling that a storm's a-brewing. I haven't decided if it's a good storm or a bad storm, but I can definitely feel the rumbling. And yes, that was oddly vague.

In other news, I'm currently in love with Bruno Mars' album, Doo-Wops and Hooligans. Maybe it's just the name - or the fact that I can't get enough of his Rockabilly style - but I've had it on repeat for days.

Sorry for the drive-by, but I have warm weather and cool tunes. Can't get much better than that.

Happy summer!