More errata

[annathepiper]

+0: So I wound up leaving two notes on neighbors' porches. One for the lady who slammed the door in my face, to the effect of "Hi, I'm your neighbor at such-and-such, I'm the one who came to your door. Sorry for disturbing you, just wanted to let you know that I wasn't actually trying to sell you anything, I was just wanting to borrow your phone because I was locked out of my house and needed to phone for help. Have a nice day!" And a note for the lady who actually let me use her phone, to thank her for her kindness and to invite her to come to our door if she ever needed to borrow anything. (I figured something should be said to her as well.)

I feel better about that now. I noticed when I was walking to catch the bus this morning that both notes were gone off the porches where I left them; don't know if they actually got read or just tossed in the trash, but at least I made the communication and an effort to establish Good Neighbor Relations. So.



-1: I don't know if it's this sinus infection thingie or what that I hear is going around, but I continue to be fighting something off. Mostly it's just been me sneezing a little, being quite drained of energy, and having that temperature dislocation thing going on. It made me feel weak and shaky enough that yesterday evening I had to forgo hanging out with mamishka (sorry about that, babe!) watching Firefly, and instead just take a long hot soak and go to bed really early. I was zonked enough even that I couldn't write more than a paragraph on Lament, but at least I did get a small smattering of words out. I'll account for them in the next writing entry I make.

But I'll be happy to get this out of my system. I guess it probably would help if I stopped wearing shorts to work, bit the bullet, and admitted that it's getting COLD NOW, so I should just go ahead and break out the jeans.



+2: Last night while bathing I started reading Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris, the same lady who writes the "southern vampire" novels. Her penchant for colorful characters in a Southern setting is heavy in this book as well, but I almost like this book better than her vampire ones. She's got a tough heroine with a checkered past in this, and it almost reminds me of Tami Hoag. Slim little novel, and not a bad read at all. Nice to get a reminder that novels don't have to be long at all to be good, which is especially good for me in my self-appointed superheroine role of Verbosity Girl. ;) I should be able to finish this book off on the way home, I think.



+3: Halloween weekend should be blessedly quiet this year. I am looking forward to that. It will be interesting to see how many zombies we get at the door seeking to satisfy their hunger for delicious brain candies. Er, uh, I mean kids. Right!



+/-4: Must remember to alter my usual bus plans on Tuesday to account for having to swing by the University District to vote since I'm still registered in Seattle rather than Kenmore. Will have to change that after the election is over.



+/-5: I have discovered that if I catch the 522 that hits the bus stop at the corner of 60th and Bothell Way at 7:30, and make it downtown in time to catch the 545 that hits the University Street Station, I can make it to work by 8:45, which was the time I used to get here while living at MurkSouth. In fact, it's the same 545 I was trying to catch before. I think I may need to alter my morning bus schedule to account for this, even if it means punting the 342+233 bus ride. Trading off a less crowded bus ride for ten more minutes of sleep may be worth it... I'll have to think about it. I missed the 342 again this morning so it's good to have this as a backup plan.



+6: Because I desperately needed extra sleep yesterday, I wound up driving in to work. This meant that I got to try the Sekrit Ninja Route from Microsoft campus back to Kenmore, which was initially shown me by one of my co-workers and confirmed for me by llachglin. This involves basically driving around the north side of Lake Washington, through Kirkland, and onto a street that eventually dumps me out in Kenmore seven blocks down Bothell Way from the aforementioned corner of 60th, which leads up to my house. It's heavy on the traffic along certain stretches, but once I get onto Juanita there are a lot of nice lakeside views and long stretches of beautiful trees, which is a much better thing to be looking at while driving than the mess that is 405. And plus, it seems to take about the same amount of time when you take into account how badly traffic sucks on both 520 and 405, especially right around the junction between those two.

If I need to drive in again in the future, I shall be taking this route.

Comments

520

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

Avoid 520 at all costs. Even if you don't take back roads all the way home, you should avoid 520. My typical route home is 148th to Redmond Way/85th, to 405 to Bothell. That avoids 520 and the interchange with 405, but uses the freeway for a stretch where it's fast enough to make a difference.

I still occasionally take back roads all the way home for the better view if no other reason.

Re: 520

[annathepiper]

Duly noted! Yeah, I saw where 85th dumps out onto 405, that was one of the biggest patches of traffic I hit on the way home yesterday. About how much time, roughly, would you estimate that getting onto 405 at that point would save under usual traffic conditions?

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

And what, pray tell, is the probelm with getting those 10 extra minutes on the bus? :-)

My secret ninja route takes me through Woodinville. Oddly enough, it's not the same route my next-door neighbor uses. She works on MapPoint: maybe I should pay more attention? :-)

[annathepiper]

I never can sleep with any real assurance on the bus. The back corner of my brain is always going "aaaaaah! If I fall asleep, I'll miss my stop!" (I've actually HAD that happen to me... just once, way back in the years of yore when I was first getting used to taking the bus to and from the U-district, working at Borg. I wound up trying to walk home from downtown because I didn't know the bus system well enough. :) )

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better soon... I know the feeling... I've had sinus/ear/throat thing for the past 3 weeks, and it gets so hard not to yawn while dealing with customers at work... Thankfully, they have a lounge with a couple couches for crashing out on during lunch breaks... getting really bored with this constant "tired" feeling...

Are you dressing up for Halloween/Samhain? I will be going as some semblance of Capt. Jack Sparrow to work tomorrow, as they are having a costume contest... Got the costume almost done, just need to finish the shirt tonight... Gonna be interesting watching the looks I'll get walking to and from work ;)

[annathepiper]

Thanks for the well-wishes. :) Yeah, I'm given to understand that Whatever This Is is going around.

I am not dressing up for the occasion, mostly on the grounds that while I am a girl of several talents, making good costumes is not one of them. I can think of ideas--usually--but I suck at sewing, and it personally bugs me to try to buy clothing for costumes that I know I will never wear again. :) So given my druthers, I just don't bother.

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always go as the crazed psychopath posing as a normal human being... :)

[annathepiper]

Nah. #1, I couldn't convincingly get into character (not even if you tried to convince me that you were holding the last available ticket to a Great Big Sea concert, or perhaps that Russell Crowe was standing right behind me with a guitar about to break into song), and #2, 'I'm really <foo> disguised as a normal person' is too over-used as an excuse for not being in costume. :)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

"I'm a homicidal maniac. We look just like everyone else."