I may be imagining things, but I think I see a hint of blue sky. There was blue sky on Saturday, but I wasn't here. I went northbound, first to hang with Miller in his lovely new townhouse, and then later that day up to ye olde stomping grounds for Debbie's birthday celebration. It was a tad erie to be driving on Rt 46 again. I mean, it's only been three weeks so it's not like it was unfamiliar to me, but it no longer felt habitual. There was a weird sense of "I shouldn't be here"

Deb's celebration itself was fine. We met at the Cheesecake Factory at the Willowbrook Mall. This was the first time I have been to one of these places, although I've heard about it a lot in the last year. There's a strange aura surrounding this chain of stores. From the way people talked about it, I've gotten the impression that the place was some sort of den of culinary debauchery, a place you go to only if you intend to gorge yourself.

Well, the foot is certainly fattening. I had a dish of chicken alfredo that stayed with me until the next morning. Though perhaps the fried checken I had for lunch didn't help. I swear, the one thing unemployment seems to have the most affect on is my eating. I think I've gained ten pounds in the last two weeks alone. Alas, the sudden cold snap we're now experincing (the weather finally caught on that it's winter with temps in the low thirties and falling into the twenties later this week) isn't giving me much insentive to go out for some exercise. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

After a lenghty hiatus of about a month and a half I'm back on web designing. I have one layout for the Felician Exceptional School and my brain is percolating ideas for a second that I hope to put together tonight. I'm trying approach to working. I have a habit of micromanaging my webd esign. I'll sit and design something, then spend three times as long tweaking the design. So, rather than sit at the computer for five hours straight, I'm trying to design for two or three hours, and once I realize I'm making endless minor tweaks, I walk away for an hour or so, let my head clear and approach the design more refreshed. I have no idea if this is going to be effective., although at the very least it should reduce the monotony that marathon design sessions give me.

And as it's Monday, I'll be heading into Philly for my interview with Suburban Outfitters. It's funny how much prep time you need for an interview. You'd think, if your interview was at noon you'd only need to account for travel time, but that's really not true. Firstly, you also have to take into account grooming, unless you plan to get dressed in your business suit as soon as you get out of the shower. Although this may or may not be effective depending on your battle-plan. For example, if you feel like sleeping in, then you may not have much choice but to get fully dressed because you have to head out the door in five minutes.

But if you're like me and you wake up several hours ahead of time, the need to be fully dressed immediately isn't as paramound. Hence me sitting in front of my computer in a T-shirt and shorts rather than suit and tie. (Hmmm, there's a thought: Formal Blogging: when you dress up to blog. I have visions of thousands of men and women dressed in tuxes and evening gowns just to update their blog. Weird.)

Anyway, beyond dressing there's the whole breakfast scenario. You need time to make breakfast and then eat it with time to spare so you're not wolfing down your food in a mad rush to get on the road. And, of course, you have to schedule time to sit down and blog about the whole process beforehand, because it's absolutely imperative that you do you.

So, essentially, for me to arrive at thia interview by noon, I have to get moving by 9:30. That gives me time to make breakfast, eat breakfast, change, head down to the train station (as the interview's in Philly I'm testing out what my commute would be if I took mass transit), then walk the three or four blocks to my appointment. This, of course, does not include the previous forty minutes where I browsed the latest job postings and actually wrote this rambling entry.

And for some reason my upstairs neighbors have suddenly become incredibly noise. Since I got up this morning, sitting here in my living room on the computer, I keep hearing footsteps. It's very bizarre because it alsmot sounds like wood creaking, but all the apartments are carpeted so I can't imagine the carpet that thin (and the wood underneath so thin) that I'd get this loud a creaking. Perhaps I've been spoiled by being on the top floor all this time; maybe this is what our downstairs neighbors heard all the years Sean and I roomed together. I hope I don't have to deal with this the whole time I live here (and let's not talking about the snoring I've heard coming through the bedroom walls for the last two nights--but that'll be another entry).

All right. Well, this has rambled enough and it's time for me to get cracking. See you for the post-interview wrap-up.