Down in the Dumps

I've been feeling pretty blah lately. Not entirely sure why. I feel like for the last few months things have not been going my way. My fantasy baseball team has been stinking up the joint and things just keep getting worse (plus, I've probably been taking it way too seriously). We've been having more and more bug review meetings at work, and my patience with them has gotten rather frayed. Getting the water heater inspector in here a few weeks back was stressful. Debbi and I had an unpleasant disagreement on Sunday which lingered for most of the day. And I've been having more little bouts of what-am-I-doing-with-my-life-itis.

It's not all that rational, though. Apple stock is up quite a bit this week, giving me a good chunk of change on paper. I've picked up a slew of good prog CDs, and also converted a bunch of comics into cash on eBay. And Apple just announced new Power Mac G5s, so I'm finally going to buy a new computer for my desktop. Yay!

Anyway, it's been a couple of weeks of feeling like I'm on an emotional roller-coaster, snapping at people, and so forth. I've been trying to do things like cut back on caffeine somewhat to keep myself from being jumpy on top of it, although I have not been very successful at getting a good night's sleep lately, as I've stayed up too late pretty consistently.

I'm hoping this is just a phase I'm going through.

What I could really use is a weekend of downtime, which I certainly didn't get this past weekend! Although that's because we were really busy seeing people.

First of all we went with a bunch of friends to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday to see their new shark exhibit. It's not a bad exhibit, although I found the Hawaiian decor to be a bit overdone, and the sharks in the display are by and large pretty small. We had a good time seeing the rest of the aquarium, though, as we usually do.

My friend Karen was also in town this weekend, looking for an apartment as she's going to spend a year on leave from her school working in the Bay Area. Saturday night we drove up to visit her and her SO Sam and go to Yoshi's for dinner and to see Monty Alexander and Freddy Cole in concert. It was a very good show! Alexander is a pianist reminiscent of Oscar Peterson, but his improv style is a lot more exciting. He's also quite the showman. Cole - Nat King Cole's younger brother - is a vocalist and pianist in his own right, and is also fun and charming, and has a very different style from Alexander. Yoshi's ain't cheap, but the food is good and the club is comfortable, clean and cozy (and smoke-free!). I was the only one of our quartet who'd been there before, but no one had any complaints. I think Karen will be going back there.

It was good to see Karen again. She's been pretty frazzled lately and I think will be oh-so-glad when her move is over. She crashed at my place on Monday night after Sam flew out, and we had a good time talking once she made it in. She kept the cats company and mooched off my wireless network on Tuesday until she caught her own flight.

Oh, and Sunday we went over to Becky's for an afternoon of Bridge. After a morning of running around doing errands. So that was a pretty busy day, too, albeit with less driving.

I think I'd like to take it easy this weekend and not feel rushed to get places. I've just been too busy lately.