Pancakes at my place!

It is currently 56 degrees here in Albany, NY. Tomorrow they say it will be 59. This means two things; I get to wear my sunglasses all the time (I enjoy wearing sunglasses) and that the wasps are back to hovering right outside out apartment windows (terrifying).

Last weekend I went down to stay with my friend Thuan and see Anna in the city. I love visiting, but lord, all that walking wore me out. I think my feet are still recovering. We had a really good time. Thuan cooked us the most delicious Vietnamese meal which included some of her best egg-rolls ever. Her place is great and all her friends were super nice and fun to hang out with. I used my trusty TomTom to drive in and out of the city. It went surprisingly well, I only got honked at twice.

As I mentioned before in this blog, I have been looking forward to jury duty for a long time. Yesterday was finally the day! When the whole jury pool was finally in the court room the judge read the charges. It was for a murder case, a stabbing! Pretty intense stuff. Then they began pulling random juror numbers to begin the questioning for jury selection. I was the second number called. The questioning went on for what seemed like two hours, which was just of the thirty or so jurors, like myself, that had their numbers pulled in the first group. I really didn't have to answer them for many of their questions. Most of the other people were older than me and had way more life experience that might hinder then from being open-minded. In the end I, along with most all of the first group, was excused. I am curious why I was excused. It may have been because the accused was a young person like myself or because I had a family member in the military. I guess I'll never know.

I've always wanted to be on a jury, but a murder trial may have been too intense for me. Now I get to wait another six years for my next chance.

Take a look

Being unemployed has its ups and downs.

Between Tuesday when I got my new library card (very overdue) and Sunday I read three books. Three books in less than a week is more books than I have read in the last couple months. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy reading.

I have also been happy to sleep in everyday of the week.

We went to a U Albany basketball game this weekend. Another loss, but this time it was heart breaking. The team played much better than the last time we saw them, but it wasn't enough.

Picking up the Pieces

I was gearing up to write a post on Friday afternoon at work, when something truly surprising happened; I got laid off. My boss walked in with my pay check and with it was another envelope. He started to explain that he was really sorry, and work was slow, and checks weren't coming in, and they couldn't afford to keep me. For a couple beats I thought it was a joke and did a head tilt at him, an are-you-for-real look. It wouldn't be the first time he jokingly fired someone. But after those beats I could tell that it wasn't a joke, he was serious and he looked like he might cry.

So now I'm part of the sad statistics of the US of A. I felt really sad and angry about it for a couple days. I wish I had some warning. He told me they were turned down for a loan so things must have been bad for a while and I didn't know about it. I hate thinking the guys knew all week and still talked to me as if things were normal. But it didn't matter much as I packed up my few belongings (and the good pens) and took off.

Now comes the hassle of figuring out unemployment, figuring out if I'm starting school in the fall, and figuring out what to do with myself. Mostly right now I'm in a waiting pattern. I'm really thankful that I don't have a mortgage or a car payment, things could be a lot worse I guess.


Other than that the Bachelor was nuts last night. I knew most of what happened in advance since I spend a lot of time on the internet and the show was leaked all over the place. I think Jason made a mistake and he did his best to correct it. Like him, I thought Molly was better anyway.

As a "wise" man once said...

"You have a blog, blog on it"

This weekend I visited my friend Rachel in Boston for Valentine's Day single girl weekend. I am not really single but it was a lot of fun to hang out with a group of hilarious, nice females. We all put on our skirts and dresses and enjoyed a truly delicious Valentine's Day dinner. The restaurant decided to play Eleanor Rigby which is about all the lonely people (and faces in jars). My table was having none of that.

Boston is very easy to get to from Albany.

I have a new site I visit all the time: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
Check it!

A couple weekends ago we attended a U Albany basketball game. It had been promoted as the, Big Purple Growl, and was kinda of a big deal. UA played awful and was lucky enough to stay within about ten points of the winners the whole game. The place was packed and the whole crowd was behind them, but Albany never rallied. Coming from GVSU this wasn't fun for me. The games I usually attended at college were almost always a win for us, often by huge margins.

On the way to work I always see the Hudson River. There have been some really cool ice flows lately. Since I am driving I don't really get a good look at them. When I was a freshmen in college, I took the bus from campus to downtown Grand Rapids all year to get to work. I would walk across the Grand River on my way to work. One of my favorite things (when I wasn't cursing the cold or the bus) was seeing the river everyday.

Note to Nicole: I gave up Diet Coke on New Years of 2007. Do you not remember my resolution?

Love it!

Bringing the LOLs

I really did laugh out loud, see if you can't.

Lucky or Unlucky?

I've got two pieces of news this week:

1) The County of Albany wants me
2) My mouth had turned against me

Lets cover number 1 first. As I have mentioned before in this blog, it has always been a dream (deluded?) to be a part of a jury. I was pretty sad to get my summons for Grand Rapids a couple months ago, which was well past my residency there. But the heavens were listening and I received my jury questionnaire for Albany County yesterday. I haven't even been a resident a year yet. What are the chances!

Next up 2. My whole life I have never once had a cavity. Sadly this fact ceased to be true yesterday when I was informed I had some small decay on a molar. I guess it's my own fault for not seeing a dentist since July 2007. The news made me feel very deflated. I always thought I was impervious in some way to tooth decay.

On a side note: I really enjoy hearing hygentists and doctors talk to each other as they refer to teeth by letters and numbers. They know I have no clue what teeth they are talking about and I like it that way too.