At work today this rather large moth kept trying to get through the window.  Now I realize that, from the outside, the building windows are incredibly reflective.  Most likely the moth thought that because everything in front of him looked exactly like everything behind him he could freely continue in his travels.  He bumped against the windows for a good twenty minutes before I lost track of him.

It’s probably a good thing that moths aren’t that smart.  One day they realize they’re bumping into a window, the next day they take over the world.  Or something else, equally frightening.  Like perhaps they would realize they can take people out by flying into a person’s open mouth and blocking windpipes!  I don’t want to live in a world where moths could do that, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too badly about the little thing ramming its head into the window repeatedly.

In non-bug news, people keep asking me how the wedding plans are going.  I have to refrain from cackling maniacally when I reply.  In other words, the stress has begun to set in.  I keep likening it to that feeling that comes with those dreams where you’re at school about to take a super-important test only to realize that you don’t have on any pants and everyone is laughing at you.

I think part of the problem is that I have nothing to do right now.  I may have organized myself into this stress.  You see, I made a timeline.  I listed everything I could think of to do [and everything that numerous Google searches of wedding checklists told me to do] and listed assignments [whether I was doing it or Mr. W was doing it], and the month in which it needed to be done.  According to this list, I have nothing to do until August.  Mr. W says that this is a good thing–means I’m on top of everything.  However, my brain is not reassured.  My brain is telling me, “Okay, there’s something you’re forgetting.  I know you–you forget things.  There has to be something you’re forgetting and you’re not going to remember it AND YOU’LL SHOW UP ON YOUR WEDDING DAY WITHOUT PANTS ON!!!!!”

As I am supposed to be wearing a wedding dress, I doubt not having pants would be all that large of a problem.  But you get the gist.  Oh, I just thought of what I could do!  Study up on traveling in Rome and learn as much Italian as I can in the next 4 months!  Yay!  Take that, Brain!

I’ve been listening to the Poe song "Haunted" for the past 3 days. We’re talking on-repeat-for-hours-at-a-time listening. I don’t know why. You know, other than that it’s a freakin’ great song.

My Halloween costume is nearly complete, all I need is a pair of fishnets [I'm going to a party as a vampire who may or may not be considered a tad on the slutty side]. I’m sure there will be pictures. I also bought some "pumpkin carving tools" and next weekend will be carving a pumpkin or two. Yay, fun! This weekend, Paige and I are going to see the foreign flick "The Boot Cake" on Saturday. Sunday is breakfast with a friend who’s here from out of town and the Wicker Park Farmer’s Market. Yay, more fun!

In more worldly news, I am optimistically planning a trip to France in March of next year. Yes, I will end up broke ("more broke than usual" might be a more accurate description) but it will be so completely worth it. My friend, Katia, lives in France and would love to see me, so basically I just need air fare and money to live off of while I am there. And, of course, I have to get a train ticket to spend a day in Italy. That’s non-negotiable. I am very excited about the trip–it’s a long time coming.

I’ve spent all evening with Reid, hearing his traveling stories and looking at his pictures of Rome and Berlin and all I can say is I so want to backpack through Europe.  I’m going to make that a goal.  If I keep my budget the same when Tim and I move to a cheaper apartment, I can take the money no longer going toward rent and start a traveling fund.  

Now that would be the trip where people would have to tell me to come back.  ‘Cause there’s a good chance I just wouldn’t. 

Funniest Thing Heard Today:
Reid was telling me about the train ride from Germany back to Rome.  Granted, this will lose something in the telling because one of the best things about Reid’s stories are how he tells them, but I think it’ll still be funny.  As told by Reid: I’m sitting on this rickety train, crammed into a seat across from a Swedish guy, a guy from Naples, and the guy sitting next to me stinks.  Really stinks.  He smelled like baloney.  Anyway, I’m trying not to get too close to the stinky guy, keeping my head turned away, and I’m talking to the guy from Naples in Italian.  Out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving on the smelly guy.  I look over and there’s, I swear to God, a cockroach crawling on the man’s neck.  Like, it had crawled out of his shirt, onto his neck.  I recoil in horror right as he brings up a hand, like he feels something tickling.  He freaks out and flicks the thing to the ground, so everybody freaks out as the cockroach scurries out of sight and I’m thinking, “Baloney Man, if you didn’t smell so much like baloney then this wouldn’t have happened.”

That’s Italian for, “Money isn’t everything, but it sure helps.”  Amen to that, Italian Phrase-a-Day calender.

I really wanted to post something interesting and/or worthwhile.  I feel that my blog of late has been lacking in substance.  However, I couldn’t think of anything new to post, so I decided to organize what was already there.

So I went through all my tags and consolidated some of them, deleting the less used, less funny ones.  I then went back to the very beginning of my livejournal to start applying the tags to my earlier posts.  (Yeah, I’ve a touch of anal-retentiveness in me, so sue me.)  And, in case you were wondering, “quizzes” has now usurped the Number One Tag Topic award from “ghost log.”

The prevailing thought while scanning all my older posts was, “This is crap.  I should just delete everything and start over.”  But then I stumbled onto a single entry that actually made me laugh out loud.  It was at that moment I decided to keep all my old posts.  It reminded me of the Old Testament story where the angels of God were going to destroy a city, but Abraham pleaded with them and got them to agree that if they could find one good person within the city they would not destroy it.  My situation is just like that, except where God was motivated by mercy and compassion, I’m motivated by laziness.

I still want something interesting and/or worthwhile to post.  Life’s been busy lately, but not in a “boy, have I got something to tell you!” kind of way.  Tim says I never tell him anything anymore, but you know what?  I’m not telling anyone anything anymore.  It’s not a conscious secret-keeping thing I’m doing, just a “eh, who cares” feeling.  So here’s everything and anything I could think of to tell you:

–My physical health is mosthly great, though I have a bit of a cold going. 
–I found a bathing suit I might not hate myself in come January (I said “might”). 
–I’m excited it’s autumn. 
–I have a rebate check from T-Mobile to cash today. 
–I’ve gotten back into Sims and after I post this I’m going to go try to have a baby.
–I’m still sad about that Keane concert being cancelled.
–Marty’s been calling my cell phone, both before work and after.  We’ve got a strictly “just friends” thing going, but it’s still a little weird.
–I really want to go see The Prestige.
–I finally bought “Lamb…” by Christopher Moore and am looking forward to starting it.
–I want to call my online graphic design company, “Dithered Image”.  I am only mostly joking.
–I’ve been looking into employment elsewhere.  It’s time to stop being so vampiric.

See?  You would’ve have been better off had I not said anything.  And you’d certainly be a lot less bored.

I was reading a couple articles on Reuters: Oddly Enough and came across an article on how an Italian communications network is using prison inmates to staff their call centers.  The centers operate primarily as an Italian version of our 411.  I was a bit skeptical at first, but then came across this sentence which actually made me laugh out loud:

“Telecom says there is no security risk in having detainees consult a nationwide database of phone numbers and addresses.”

Now there’s a sentence that will come back to bite you in the butt.

In other, more Teri-related news, my mom and brother are tentatively planning on coming up here July 31 to August 3rd.  I’m excited by the idea of this.  Also, Stephanie and her husband, Tim, are coming up August 4th to the 6th.  AND I’m having a super-fun birthday party on the 5th.  It’s going to be one crazy week, but a great one nonetheless.  I’ll be sure to post lots of photos.

Speaking of which, here’s a fun picture taken last night of Tim, Josh, and Tim.  All three have recently shaven their heads.