blah and blah

One of my closest friends from work has up and left. Tuesday she still worked here, and then yesterday she said that a school that she interviewed at had offered her the job, and then by the afternoon she had decided to take said job, and today at 11am she left for good. I'm slightly depressed by this, because she was my regular lunch buddy, and now I'm back to eating at my desk. I don't like imposing myself on other groups' eating habits, so I will probably continue eating at my desk until someone decides to start inviting me to eat with their group. Aren't I such a dork? I just can't encroach on other groups.

In other news, though, I didn't think it was beyond me to raid her desk (before she left) to get the good stuff. I took her monitor riser because I had none, and the speakers she got from IT because I also had none. Sadly, they've banned all streaming-bandwidth Web sites, but I found a back way to listen to NPR, but it's not the easiest thing to listen to in the background. I'm going to need to start bringing in my CDs, now that I have speakers. I listen to my iPod, but listening to the same songs every day is starting to grate on my nerves, and I'd rather not have to continue changing my songs out to keep things fresh.

I have figured out how to eat in the cafe downstairs in my building without going broke. It's quite simple, really. Only eat the specials. Today I got an italian foccasia and a side of pasta salad for $5, and it was quite good, but I could only eat 1/2 the sandwich. I will bring the rest home for Christen, and I think he'll be pleased. It should heat up well in the toaster oven. The other secret is to not buy a drink down there. It's $1 for a 20-oz drink in the machines, but $1.25 plus tax (coming out to about $1.36) for the same thing six floors down. I'm not entirely sure why, but I suppose it's not my problem. :)

I've been piddling around with a few books lately. During lunch today I finished Ghosting by Jennie Erdal, which was quite good, but in between that I took out two nights to re-read High Fidelity, since I re-watched it while the cable was out. I also continue to start and stop Saturday by Ian McEwan. I don't know why, but it just hasn't been keeping my attention. It lies in my backseat and I reach for it when I need a spare book at work. I'm not sure what to read next; I really am in the midst of reading half a dozen books, and it would probably be good for me to finish one or two of them.