Kate's Ink: Is This Thing On?

By the time you read this, I’ll be sitting back and relaxing in the car, letting Paul drive all the way to Atlanta.

“But, Kate,” you say, “you’re so Type A! And you hate not being behind the wheel!” Yes, this is true, my hypothetically argumentative friend. But I stayed up late, I’m sleepy, and he promised I could catch some zzz’s during the entire drive. Awesome.

The embodiment of ^_^

We’ve got to pack a few things and get the housesitter set up before we go, so I don’t think we’ll be rolling into Atlanta till about midnight. No matter. This is vaca. No 6 a.m. alarm clock.

Nearly two weeks have passed, and my foot’s still swollen.

I’m not complaining for the sake of complaining. I’m complaining because we’re leaving for Atlanta tomorrow afternoon, and I have one pair of shoes that fit: aqua blue flip-flops. I can’t fit in my biggest pair of Birkenstocks buckled on the loosest hole. And I certainly can’t fit in my sneakers.

So tonight, I went to my local outdoors store to look at their KEENs and Chacos. And you know what? None of them fit. Not even the infinitely adjustable Chacos. (Try on a pair if you’re ever in the market for hiking-style sandals. They’re completely customizable, and I would definitely buy a pair after my swelling goes down.)

I have a high instep already, so it’s hard to find comfy shoes. But when the guy saw my foot and said, “That’s really, really swollen,” I knew I was out of luck. Sure enough, I left the store empty-handed.

That made me angry, like Hulk:

I got Tiny-Head Hulk here in my Happy Meal. Press a button on his back and he smashes things, such as walnuts. This makes him much more functional than the Littlest Pet Shop ''cat'' (they all look alike to me) in my last Happy Meal.

TL;DR: I’ll be sightseeing Atlanta in flip-flops.

My friend Dee Dee gave me a pair of earrings tonight. It’s so thoughtful when a friend says, “I thought of you when I saw this and wanted you to have it.” Johanna left a beautiful flower headband on my doorknob recently under the same premise. I buy things for my friends too, but I leave them in little piles here until I see them again. I have at least a month’s worth of gifts for Johanna in my den. And I could walk to her place to drop them off, if I could walk.

Anyway, back to Dee Dee. I’d heard she was going out of town this weekend, so when I saw her, I asked about it. Our convo went something like this:

Dee Dee: “I’m taking my daughter to Atlanta.”
Me: “No way! I’m going to Atlanta too!”
Dee Dee: “We’re leaving tomorrow and coming back Sunday around 4.”
Me: “Me too!”
Dee Dee: “Are you going to the aquarium?
Me: “YES!
Dee Dee: “What day?”
Me: “Saturday!”
Dee Dee: “Me too!”

I guess it’s good we figured this out in advance; it would have been really weird running into her there, you know? Synchronicity is a wonderful thing. Dee Dee says there’s no such thing as coincidences.

So … I have great earrings but no shoes. What’s a travelin’ girl to do? Any suggestions?

Memphis Pizza Cafe lovin’ tonight:

This is a Cajun Chicken Supreme without the supreme: no green peppers (eww) and no mushrooms (double -- no, triple -- eww).

Paul and I are taking a celebratory trip to Atlanta this weekend. (I don’t feel unsafe saying that, as we have both an alarm system and a housesitter to love on our Fred-Kitty and Joe-Kitty.) It’s in honor of our anniversary (a few weeks late), the start of the school year (a few weeks early) and my new job (right on time).

Why Atlanta? Because Paul’s never been. Seriously. So I booked us a room at a swanky, four-star hotel Downtown, and we’re going to spend a couple of days wandering around Centennial Park, the Georgia Aquarium — largest aquarium in the world — CNN headquarters, the Turner store (Cartoon Network and Adult Swim swag ahoy!) … and the World of Coca-Cola, natch. That place is awesome, and I couldn’t take Paul to Atlanta without taking him there.

My foot is still too swollen to fit in shoes, but I’m not letting that stop me. I’m going to buy some Tevas or KEENs, strap ‘em on and go. Time to load up on podcasts and hit the open road!

… Well, I guess I have to get through two more days of work first. But that’s not a problem. Today worked out splendidly.

I got my Oatmeal mug in the mail the other day. (If you’re unfamiliar with The Oatmeal — and, specifically, “15(ish) Things Worth Knowing About Coffee,” visit it immediately. Well, visit it after you read this post and leave a comment. The Oatmeal is a wondrous thing indeed.)

''Imma give u an adrenaline sandwich k?''

I’m going to need lots of caffeine, stat, as TDN hired me back today as associate editor! I’ll have many of the job duties I had before I moved to Charleston, with two big differences: 20 percent of my job will continue to be in IT (which is where I’ve been temping since May) and — drum roll, please — I’ll be in charge of all the social media: Facebook, Twitter, website and blog. Holy moly.

It’s a lot of work (read: I’m feeling a little overwhelmed), but come on — editing, data mining and QA, social media … this job was made for me. (No, really. It pretty much was.)

I don’t think I made any secret of how much I missed TDN while I lived in Charleston. Not many companies tailor jobs to play off a person’s strengths, but that’s what I had. I talked about it all the time. I remember a friend once saying, “OK, I get it! You had the best job and the best coworkers and the best environment and the best benefits, and you’re never going to find another place like it. You’ve told me! But you might as well get used to the fact you’re not there anymore and move on, already.”

He told me to quit holding out for another “perfect job” because “most people don’t get that opportunity once, much less twice.” But I did hold out (and Paul was very understanding, and we scraped by on one salary), and now I’ve come full circle: I’m back in Memphis — near my family and friends — and hired back to my “perfect job” just four days shy of the two-year anniversary of when I left.

Mathematical!

To answer your burning question: No, Paul has not finished his cupcakes yet (he has two left). However, I took my last one — a “Pucker Up” (lemon with lemon buttercream) to work today via my handy-dandy Cup-a-Cake:

My day started heading south about 8:30 this morning, and my ''lunch'' cupcake was gone before 10. (The day improved vastly -- fortunate, considering I had no more cupcakes.)

Heh. Paul just used “wrongeous” (the antithesis of “righteous”) correctly in a sentence. He always finds ways to surprise me with his awesomeness. I think it’s time to quit posting so I can hang out with him for a while.