6:48 p.m. - 2004-04-13
another day, another drama
It's amazing how hard it's proving to get "back to normal." If there even is a normal anymore.
Today we had mental instability, serious Nintend0 setbacks and a plane crashed into I-680. Ha. Oh, and my database is acting all corrupted. Fuck you, Tuesday.
SimParentCompany is a somewhat intimidating place. It's not like we weren't already in the big leagues as far as the game industry was concerned - Hunter and I sure skipped the "minors" - but now we're playing for the Yankees. Some people hate us and some people love us, but you'd better fucking play well or else it's going to haunt you for the rest of your days. There's no real handbook on how to conduct yourself in this new situation, and I'm finding that even things like how you dress and who you talk to can have an impact on your life down the line.
I'm also a little antsy right now, because things are too calm on my team. Yes, too calm. I function better under pressure. That's why you'd keep me on your team - because I'm going to take the bat in the bottom of the 9th. [Yes, alright, enough with the baseball analogies. Give me a break...fantasy season just started. ;)] So I'm sitting here in the calm period feeling underutilized and generally bored.
I know it will get worse. Oh yes. But until it does, I need to be content to sit here and soak everything up like a sponge. I need to pay attention to every little nuance of our work with other companies and our own executives. I need to learn while I can.
We've warmed the new apartment, and all of the important boxes are unpacked. At the beginning of April we spent $900 at Ikea on all sorts of very utilitarian furniture [liquor cabinet anyone?] and it's all assembled now. The most shocking addition to our furniture universe....wait for it...A BED! A very basic bed, but the operative concept here is that the mattresses are not on the floor! Goodbye, ghetto pile o'mattresses!
The housewarming party actually went surprisingly well. Thank God Hunter reined me in on the guest list because I was about to invite everyone in the Bay Area the way I was going. We kept it to the people we see the most - Larn and Obi, who are moving out of town on Sunday, VA and Chris, D and Suz, Ray and Laura, and Joshy. Well, OK, we don't see Joshy all that often, but that's because he's too busy curing cancer. So sue him.
We ate beforehand at Bucca di Beppo, and the highlight of the evening was definitely ordering the 5-liter magnum of wine for the table. I was having such a great time, and the food was excellent - I haven't been that content in a long time. Mmmmm. There are definitely pictures of Hunter taking a swill out of the magnum, too - great for posters and keychain keepsakes!
Afterwards it was back to the apartment for copious amounts of DDR and additional alcohol. We whipped out the Lemon Lime bombs again, except that we ran out of sugar so we only made one batch. (Everyone's livers most likely sighed a big sigh of relief at that revelation.)
One creepy note: shortly after we arrived back at the apartment, we noticed a large number of police and fire vehicle presence outside on our quiet little street. We didn't find out until later that [what we assume to be] an elderly resident across the street passed away and was taken away in an ambulance.
Once D, Suz, VA, and Chris took off, Larn and I ducked upstairs for a smoke (just Larn) and girl talk -- probably the last time we'll be talking like that for a long time. Once the boys started hovering, we rejoined the group and the rest of us played a game of Cranium and watched Moulin Rouge on the gorgeous new TV. [soo...pretty...] Apparently, Josh had *never seen* Moulin Rouge, which as far as I'm concerned is an absolute travesty - so we wouldn't let him leave without seeing it. ;) [He liked it.]
My boss leaves for another week-long excursion next week. Next week is also the week we hit our E3 milestone [our project is going to be announced very shortly] so I suspect it'll be an interesting week. Even more interesting since we sort of hit a major setback today that might cost us significant money in the long run. YARGH.
Meanwhile, Hunter is absolutely besieged over on the SimSequel side of the building. They just keep piling on the responsibility and it's starting to erode his well-being on a physical and mental level. We had an online argument today about psychiatrists and I suspect this is going to be a very sensitive issue for the next several weeks/months. The stress isn't going to be diminished until the product ships, so something else is going to have to give.
In family news, I got a long AIM from my aunt while I was sleeping last night (um, hello? There's this thing called email -- it's kind of neat...) trying to see how things were going in the family since Mom's not talking to her. Sigh. Stupid family politics. I've had enough of all of the suicides and backstabbing and sneakiness and drama to last me several lifetimes. Note to family: BE NORMAL. She asked me to send her my address so she could send me my birthday/Christmas money. Yeah, like she's ever going to get around to that. And you didn't leave an EMAIL address so that's going to be rather difficult, eh? Sigh.
But the good family-related news is that my cousin Kevin got an internship WRITING FOR DAVID LETTERMAN. So awesome. This is what he's always wanted to do. It's what he's been working for. And he did it. He'll be working directly with the two head writers. For my part, I sure hope he gets a couple good digs at our family in there somewhere. I did my part in sticking some digs in SimExpansionPack... what's the good of growing up in a dysfunctional family if you can't turn it into comedy?
Of course, we don't necessarily have cable or anything right now (long story, I hate Comcast but getting the satellite HDTV receiver would cost $700, not to mention the fact that we might not have a clear line of sight to the DirectTV satellite from our balcony) so I'm obviously going to be spending some late nights in the company game room with its plasma TVs. (There are a few key perks to the move...)
In the third prong of my family's MEDIA CONVERGENCE ATTACK!!, Doug is talking with some people at CNN Boston. If he gets that internship (it's a longshot but hey, so is writing comedy for David Letterman) then step one of my family's World Domination Plan will be complete. Athena in video games, Kevin in comedy, and Doug in broadcast journalism. Keep your fingers crossed, because we're totally cooler than Geraldo.
As the month winds on, we are rapidly approaching the opening of the Pokemon Hotel. By which I mean, the start of our revolving-door of houseguests. We open with a bang, as our good friend Max will be staying for a week or two while job-hunting... then after Hunter and I are done banging our heads against a wall for E3 preparation, Laklak will most likely be spending the summer in our second bedroom. Good old fashioned college fun, No Doubt style! We already have tickets to the No Doubt concert in June, which is going to be So Awesome. [Hunter got major brownie points on the Great Wine Trip for knowing all the lyrics to all the No Doubt songs on the radio. They were muchly impressed.]
And who knows who else will be crashing on our couch? Joshy will most likely spend a few drunken evenings crashing on the couch, and perhaps even our friends from LA. Who knows? The Pokemon Hotel is fun for all!
Yeah, I'm a little punchy. Punching the Cheat, actually. [Well, tapping him. I can't really bring myself to hurt the poor little guy so much as hug him.] Time to go...
