Sushi and sleep

So I show up at work yesterday, and my S/S isn't in the office to brief me. I was surprised as I was only fifteen minutes early for work instead of my customary thirty, and I thought he'd be there checking his watch and tapping his foot.

He came in a few minutes later.

"Hey buddy, do you like sushi?" :)

Turns out that there'd been a meeting of the higher higher-ups in the conference room that's decked out with the good electronics, and they'd had it catered. The meeting had just broken up, and what remained of the food was going to be tossed. So I was told to help myself to whatever I wanted. Interesting.

So after saying hi to the bike patrol guys, I went off to do my rounds and had a look at the spread. Sheesh!

It looks like they'd started with about fifty rolls of sushi (at six pieces each), litres of miso, punch, a nice selection of juices and pop, bagels, chips, cookies, and candy. They'd put a respectably dent into it all, but there was still better than half left. I helped myself. ;)

Now, I like sushi. But there were two pieces left of this kind I couldn't identify, and the container wasn't labeled. It had what looked like sparkling red sprinkles/confetti on top (and no, that's not what it was), but that turned out to be what looked like tiny eggs. Nevertheless I chewed and swallowed a piece.

Not much taste to the eggs, but those little buggers would SNAP really loud as I chewed them. It was alarming, since they were so tiny, that they could announce themselves so much. I'd taken some down to the patrol guys, and they were laughing at me. SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

Finally I swallowed it. Of course, there were some of those tiny eggs left in my mouth, so SNAP SNAP some more. Finally it was all over. Except... from in the depths of my stomach, muted but unbowed... SNAP! :P

Anyway, it was a nice change of pace. I hadn't had sushi for a while and it definitely broke up an otherwise uneventful night at work.

Speaking of which, my company Christmas party is coming up next week. I hadn't planned on attending, but I've been receiving a surprising amount of pressure to attend from various folks. While everybody seems nice and sociable enough, I frankly spend more time with those bike guys from the other company than I do with people from mine. Is it really all that important to attend these things? I've done so in the past at other places, and always found it to be a wasted evening. I work with the people, I don't want to be their friends. If I did want to be their friends away from work, I wouldn't wait for a company-sponsored event to do it. You know?

Anyway, I think the deadline to RSVP was today, so the point's moot. Maybe I can pick up some work by covering for someone that wants to attend but is scheduled to work.

Last night when I went to work for the first time from my new place, I was a little vague on just how long it would take. I mean, I knew how long it would take to ride the SkyTrain, but not how long it would take to get to the station. I walked out of my building and saw a bus coming. So I jumped on. Then I realized it was taking me to a different station than the closest one. :P

This probably wouldn't have mattered much, since all the stations connect, but I did want to know the route (even on foot) to my station. So after riding the bus as far as it went along my route, I jumped off and started walking. Then the phone rang, and since that's what I'm currently using for a timepiece, I lost track of how long it took me. Or how far it was. Bah.

However, I was determined not to repeat that this morning when I returned home. Twenty two minutes of SkyTrain dropped me at the bottom of the hill. So I started climbing.

Funny, when you've been up all night hills certainly do seem to be steep. :P

But I made it up and into my place in half an hour, so that answers that. And I rather enjoy getting to walk, since I almost never have an excuse to do it. Walking for the sake of walking has never appealed much to me, without a purpose at the far end. Getting home serves as a good purpose. ;)

When I got home, I surfed for a bit and played a solo game of Age of Mythology: Titans versus five enemies. I lost interest after I'd effectively crushed the third opponent, so I went to bed. For nearly four hours of fitful sleep. Luckily I managed to find the following guide for people like me here:

Fighting Insomnia

Insomnia - the chronic inability to fall and remain asleep - affects roughtly twenty percent of American adults. Here are some tips to get a better night's sleep:

• Although it's tempting to use liquor as a cure for chronic sleeplessness, be warned: liquor is quite expensive.
• Getting more exercise can help combat insomnia. If you suffer from sleeplessness, try shuffling from the bed to the kitchen, opening and shutting the refridgerator door, and shuffling back to bed.
• According to researchers at the National Sleep Foundation, there is an actual National Sleep Foundation. Yes, for real.
• If you are going to take pills to to help you sleep, be sure you take enough to knock yourself out. Watching Good Morning America while sleep-deprived and tranquilized is a hellish experience.
• Use your bed for sleeping only. Conduct all reading, eating, phone calls, and sexual relations on the kitchen table.
• Try counting sheep, rather than the number of of times you've failed as a wife and mother.
• If you got less than three hours of sleep the previous night, it's important to to inform everyone you meet of that fact all day long.
• If you're having night after night of hours-long jungle sex when all you really want is a decent night's rest, go cry on someone else's shoulder.
• Minimize noise, light, excessive temperature - all factors that could potentially disrupt rest - by sleeping indoors.
• Sleeping pills can and do become addictive. Before you know it, you'll be giving back-alley blowjobs for hits of Ambien.
• Remember: insomnia is only a problem if you're employed or have a reason to live.

Well, I feel better now. :P

Now, one more link and I'm going to try to get a bit more sleep. There are some popups, but I didn't put them there, so don't bitch me out about it. It's an article about those Febreze Scentstories things that you see advertised on tv. I laughed my ass off at the writing, so maybe you will too. Enjoy.