Meeting

I just sat through an hour and 45 minute meeting. I don't think I have retained any information I gleaned from the first hour. I knew the whole time I was listening to him talk that I would not remember any of what he said. It was like hypnosis.

No game...

Even in my dreams I have no game. I dreamt last night that I was kissing a guy. During the dream it was very important to my mind who he was but now that I'm awake I have no idea who it was. The sad part. He was a TERRIBLE kisser.

Kiss: To dream of a kiss, denotes love, affection, tranquility, harmony, and contentment. If you are kissed by a stranger, then your dream is one of self-discovery. You need to get more acquainted with some aspect of yourself.

Penguin

From the waist down I look like a nun. Black skirt, black tights, and sensible black shoes.

It's like I've been broken up with...

I sent an email from my yahoo account. It bounced back because I had a bad email address. This is the message I received:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com.I'm afraid I wasn't able to
deliver your message to the following addresses.This is a permanent error; I've
given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

Hee. I've been broken up by email before, but somehow the way they cushion the blow with 'sorry it didn't work out' makes it much less heartbreaking for me.

It wasn't in the cards

Matty & I have a standing Monday night adventure, (now that Sunday adventures are on hiatus indefinitely). Well, it isn't so much an adventure as it is coffee and cards and sometimes if one or both of is starving dinner. Even though I didn't go to work yesterday, last night was no exception. We walked over to his apartment so he could change into jeans and get the cards (Phase 10 for those who care). I sat in the entry way and waited for him while reading a JC Penney catalog. While there, Andy Warhol (or someone who looked enough like him to make me go what??) came in with his dog who immediately came over to me and sniffed and let me pet it. But the weird part, Andy Warhol just left the dog with me. Eventually it wandered up the stairs of its own accord.

So we head out into the cold (and coming from warm California it was COLD) and go to Tullys for coffee and cards. Except there is no table for us to sit at. Strike 1. So we grab dinner instead at the not so cheap Mexican place near his house. I suggest sitting there and playing cards since it wasn't like there were a lot of people on a Monday night, but he nixes the idea because the old lady loves him.

We finish dinner and walk up to Tulleys. They have tables open but not the comfortable ones, more the ones where we'd be squashed with other people. Strike 2. We head up to Vivace who makes the ginger spiced cider I love so much. We order and they don't point out that they are closing in like 2 minutes until Matty asks. Strike 3. So we wander around the park and drink our hot drinks and look at the new fountains that just scream play in me! (although Matty posits that it is reservoir water and probably not a good idea). Seriously, though, if they aren't meant to be played in they shouldn't have all these cool shallow areas that look ideal if it is a hot summer day. While looking at the fountains, someone is 'singing.' Or warbling. Or yodeling. Whatever it was noise. And then we walk back towards his apartment and I leave him so that I can go home and watch 7th Heaven which he totally doesn't get the appeal of. Silly boy. And so no Phase 10 for us. Next week we'll reserve a table, you know something by a window. :)

I'm back... didja miss me?

Vacation was good.

Michelle's house was fun.

Arts and crafts are done. I'll post photos later.

Ferrets survived without me. Although they did run out of food which surprised me.

It may snow tonight. I'm very hopeful.

Shopping was good.

That is all. :)

Rent - A review (sort of)

Thanks to my subscription to Glamour magazine (yes I subscribe to a ton of chick magazines), I got to see an advance screening of Rent last night. I'm still on the fence about it. As a movie independent of anything else, I thought it was great. As a person who has seen the Broadway show about 3 times (I think) and thanks to my college roommate listened to the original Broadway recording about a million times I did not find it as great. So I'm struggling. I liked it. I'd probably see it again. I loved seeing almost 100% the original cast (Mimi's role is now being played by Rosario Dawson, I don't know who originally reprised it). Taye Diggs and Jessie L. Martin (of Law & Order fame) were awesome. I was completely surprised by Taye Diggs' singing. I liked the scope and the fact that a movie offers an opportunity that the show doesn't... namely all of New York City to play in. The songs with the whole cast were great and I loved La Vie Boheme. Will I? which has always been one of my absolute favorite songs was done well also. Oh and even on the big screen, I do not like Roger's song, Your Eyes. :)

However there were definitely things I missed. Some of my favorite lines do not make it in. A song or 2 is cut. (One of which I'm fine with because it always made me uncomfortable when I watched the Broadway show). Much of the sung dialogue is changed to spoken and that felt a bit weird to my ears. And I think the biggest problem I have is that it seems to have lost some emotional punch. I've said it before, I cry at everything. I cry at freaking Disney movies. This movie should've made me cry. C'mon it is about AIDS and death. It didn't.

T minus 13 hours and counting...

Until I arrive in California to visit Peeved Michelle. There's no logical reason why, but I'm feeling a bit anxious over this. I think it is because I'm leaving the ferrets home alone for the first time with these 2. I used to leave Minka & Baxter and then just Baxter alone when I went on trips all the time. They're fairly self sufficient although tend to get into crap when I'm not home. :) The trash can is safely sitting on top of the toilet seat though to prevent Rigby from spending almost a week in the tub.

I keep thinking I'm forgetting to bring something. I've double checked and can't think of anything. If I have it isn't like there aren't stores in California. :)

Fucking WAMU

So I got a canned response which I expected. What I didn't expect was that they are also going to now charge fees on their side if you are using a non-WAMU ATM. So much for the friendly 'no fees' ever bank I joined. I am so leaving them. I may just go to 100% credit union account. That's just assy on their part. It is just such a pain in my ass to change banking info for all my automatic bill paying.

A very butch weekend

Apparently this weekend, without meaning to, I'm devoting all sorts of time to 'boy' activities.

Friday night I joined coworker and Big R and coworker's other roommate for a basketball game. It was fun in that weird way smaller college games are fun. We spent most of the game laughing at the cheerleaders and people watching.

Tonight I randomly decided to go to a hockey game. It was more fun. Hockey is so much better to watch than basketball if for no other reason than the music they play is much more my style. I really dislike the rap & hip hop that gets played at basketball games. When I first sat down nobody was anywhere around me and that was nice. The seats in the Key Arena are very tight. On one side, though sat a dad and his 2 sons. On my other but 2 seats over, the hottest guy I've seen in a long while. Really hot. During the first period there were 2 open seats and that was nice. After the break, 2 girls sat down. I hate it when girls are at hockey and they aren't watching the game. What is their purpose to sit and talk on the cell phone and to gossip and to make me want to slap them the entire game? Really hot guy was friends with them but did not seem to be with either of them. The game went into overtime. The way they deal with ties here is that first the teams go into overtime for 5 minutes and play 4 on 4. Then when that doesn't work they go to a shoot out. Our team won in the shoot out. It was awesome! I debated sticking around for a 2nd game, Western Washington University was playing the UW hockey team. But I was so starving I had to leave.

Like we need more proof I'm turning into my father?

I was at the ATM at my local WAMU today and I noticed they are now charging $1.50 for any ATM transaction that is not with a WAMU card. I'm pissed. I have been using them for 6 years now and I have always liked the fact that I could use either my Northern Schools Federal Credit Union (in Alaska) ATM card or my WAMU card and get cash. So, just like my father would, I emailed them my complaint. Crikey bust out my cane.

Another installment of what the fuck does Joanne dream about...

Last night I dreamt I had cancer. Yeah that was fun. For some reason I was actually working though in a like a first aid station at a park or something but much much bigger. There were several beds. And Michelle was in the dream for a little while. And her husband too, but I don't think it looked like Bryan I just knew it was her husband. I was laying on a lawn chair like thing and she trooped through with this whole group of kids who were looking for their parents. And there was one little boy who had fallen in the water and I got up and helped him change clothes and he curled up beside me and fell asleep. And then we were outdoors and I was supposed to go in for a treatment but the lady I kept calling at the doctor's office didn't speak English very well and kept telling me my treatment had been postponed. And I came back to Michelle and told her that they should at least hire people who speak English to work in a cancer place. There was more to it, but I can't remember it all. Then the alarm went off waking me up. And I thought dammit I have to stop eating after 9:00 PM. :)

Cancer: To dream that you have cancer, denotes hopelessness, grief, self-pity, and unforgiveness. You feel you are wasting your life away. This dream also represents areas in your life which are bothering you, disturbing you, and hurting you in some emotional way.

Children: To see children in your dream, signifies your own childlike qualities or a retreat back to a childlike state. It is an extension of your inner child during a time of innocence, purity, simplicity, and a carefree attitude. You may be longing for the past and the chance to satisfy repressed desires and unfulfilled hopes. Take some time off and cater to the inner child within.
To save a child, signifies your attempts to save a part of yourself from being destroyed.

Friend: To see your friends in your dream, signifies aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to integrate these rejected part of yourself. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Additionally, this symbol foretells of happy tidings from them and the arrival of good news.

Wow, that's some seriously screwed up images. I really need to stop eating dinner so late!

Weird Discovery

So I seem to have 2 new girls. I'm fairly excited about that. They are brownies. So much for eventually having an older troop. I seem to lose the older girls and acquire new young ones. Last year I bridged 4 girls into juniors and would only have 2 brownies left. This year I've lost 2 maybe 3 juniors and added 2 brownies.

We're working on the space badge for both levels. We looked at some constellations on the star chart and drew our own constellations and told stories about them. We've cancelled this weekend's hike. Too much going on in their worlds. That's fine by me.

The weird thing I learned is that my parents aren't paying for parking. I had assumed they were which is why I wasn't charging them dues, but when they asked about dues this year I said no I don't feel right because y'all are paying for parking. This elicited a lot of laughter and they said they weren't. They've never paid for parking. They just tell the attendent they are with the group and they get to park for free. I dare not ask public safety. If it is being done on the down low by the evening staff, I don't want to get them in trouble. Otherwise I don't know how it is happening.

More Sony BS

1 - You've got to be fucking kidding me. Blogger just ate 90% of a post. Fuckers.

2 - As KTP lovingly pointed out, Sony is recalling the CDs that have the content protection software on it. I notice, with some interest, though that the Foo Fighter's CD I was looking at that is listed as content protected by Amazon.com is not on the list that Sony has provided with the software. That means one of two things... 1 - that another company is doing it too or 2 - that that CD doesn't have the same content protection software that the others have. In either event, I'm not buying it until I can have it free & clear. I'm not downloading it from ITunes, because I shouldn't have to. Although, apparently, I'm going to end up joining some music service at some point. I originally thought Launch since I'm already with them, but somehow they have 2 different download versions, one that would just burn it to CD and a different one for MP3 players. Three guesses which is the more expensive monthly option. Does Itunes have a monthly charge? Does iTunes use a different MP3 software (ie would it be an MP3 or some code of its own like a window's media file is) or is it just a straight MP3 playable on anything?

My issue with this still stands, though. Sony is unapologetic about the whole thing and still thinks they have done nothing wrong. They are punishing 100% of their buying public for the potential illegal activities of maybe 10% of the public. They're treating us like criminals and I don't think that's right. I didn't like it when I worked for a company that treated me like a criminal waiting to happen and I sure as hell don't like it from a vendor whose salary my measley CD purchase is helping pay. So, I continue with my Sony boycott and reconfirm my belief that they are shite and I need to avoid them at all possible costs. If only they weren't so fucking huge in the entertainment industry.

More sony bs

KTP has lovingly pointed out that

More match stuff

So, coworker said yes to 2 and matched with 1. Other person we went with said yes to 4 and matched with 2. Here's the weirdness. The 2 she matched with... same ones coworker and I matched with. And the age difference... 5 years. That's a lot.

Edited to clarify: Otherperson matched to 2 guys. One guy was the same as I matched to and the other was the guy coworker matched to.

Matches

I got the match email just now. I was a little nervous. I matched with 1. I said yes to 8 and matched with 1. I don't feel bad about that. I think that I initially thought I would, but I don't. None of the guys were so fabulous that I was beside myself with excitement over the possibilities. It was more like hmmm... this guy is interesting I'll keep an open mind. The only downfall is that the guy I matched with is one of 2 guys with the same name. I don't know which one this one is. He could either be the 1st guy I saw or the one that was at the very end who I thought after the fact that I would prefer he didn't match with me. Although he was cute, but I got an I don't know how to describe it vibe from him. I'll keep an open mind though. And I'd do it again. :)

Edit: Phew! I love Yahoo! His email address is yahoo and he's the one I liked better of the 2 guys. The downfall... he's younger than me. Sigh.

Weird Music Morning

I sometimes wonder how my MP3 player decides what to play next when it is set to shuffle. This morning on my way to work I got to listen to:
Smile Empty Soul's Bottom of a Bottle
The Killer's Mr. Brightside
Smile Empty Soul's Bottom of a Bottle (again)
DMX's Up in Here
And then Duran Duran's Wild Boys.

I don't think there's a theme here, but there might be...

Also have any of y'all ever listened to words and suddenly realized they mean something else that totally escaped your notice initially. I was listening to Maroon 5's This Love and it was at this one part of the song I thought, Holy crap that's all about sex! And then I felt old for not realizing it sooner.

Final random story this morning. (Please feel free to laugh your ass off at my stupidity.) I was sitting with the group I usually eat lunch with yesterday studying BigR's (he likes that better than RBT) camera phone. I was looking at it and looking at it and trying to look through the viewer for the camera. And I couldn't figure out why I couldn't see through the viewer and mentioned that. And they all laughed and laughed because it is a digital camera (duh) so it doesn't have the standard little window to look through like a film camera (or actually my digital camera) has. Voltaire! When did I turn 70?

I dream of Matty??

I had two dreams last night that I can recall. Both featured Matty in some way. That's weird, especially considering that I had just recently told him he is never in any of my dreams. Sadly, though, at least one of the 2 was not good. The other was not bad for me but not good for him. :)

The first one started right when I fell asleep. I dreamt that I told him I had purchased an SUV and he punched me. In the face. And I fell down on my side and then he straddled me and kept punching me and I couldn't speak or move. I forced myself awake and just lay there terrified that someone was in my room. It was awful.

The closest thing dreammoods offered to being punched was beaten: To dream that you are beaten, indicates that you need to make some fundamental changes to yourself. You need to make some conscious adjustments and evaluations. Apparently I need to make changes about Matt. :)

Much later (maybe in the morning) I dreamt that Matty was in a coffee shop with a rather cute guy. Starts out good, right? ;) But I had been looking for him because his family had been looking for him. When I found him, he had no recollection of knowing me or knowing his family. He knew his own name and stuff about himself (where he lived, his job all that), but all the people he once knew were gone from his memory. So I went over to talk to him and convince him to go with me and he did. (which is weird cuz who would leave a cute guy to go with some girl that he doesn't know? :)) The cute guy was very insistent that I take his number on the napkin to give to Matty so Matt could call him once he got his memory back. Which is where I was taking him.

Napkin: To see a napkin in your dream, signifies neatness and cleanliness. You may be preparing yourself to hear some goodness.

Friend: To see your friends in your dream, signifies aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to integrate these rejected part of yourself. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Additionally, this symbol foretells of happy tidings from them and the arrival of good news.

Such bullshit!

I was just watching the Foo Fighters on Saturday Night Live. I like them and was just thinking of adding their CD to my wishlist at Amazon. So I'm checking and the 2 copies of the CD say "Content/Copy Protected CD." What does this mean I wonder. Luckily, the reviewers of the CD offer up an explanation. It means that I could listen to it on my computer, but (according to this article I just found) I would only be able to listen to it using Sony Software. So I wouldn't be able to move it over to my MP3 player. What's the point of that then? If I want to copy the damn song onto my computer for my own use on my mp3 player I should be able to do that. Sony claims that it helps them 'protect their intellectual property.' What bullshit. All this has done is discourage me from buying any music Sony puts out. As if I didn't hate Sony enough*. And I do realize that the article I linked to indicates that Sony has stopped putting that on their CDs but they pulled it for the wrong reason. They did it because of a virus thing, so once they have that worked out, you know they'll start doing that shit again. It's just wrong.

Ok here's 2 more articles on the subject. I rarely link articles because I know they eventually go away, but this really really bothers me. I am willing to try and do the right thing and purchase CDs even though retail outletters charge in excess of 15 bucks for them and 9 times out of 10 I don't like the whole thing. Even though a CD costs something like 75 cents to make and I have a hard time believing that the artists are seeing say even 10 dollars on each sale, which if you've ever seen I think it is TLC's Behind the Music you'd know it is more like 1 dollar if that on each CD. They make their money with concerts. And this is how a good customer gets rewarded? Ridiculous. (It is funny I'm on such a high horse over this, the last CD I bought was actually for Matty's birthday but the last CD I bought for me was The Killer's Hot Fuss sometime earlier this summer.)


*Brief history of my Sony hatred. It began in college when I had a smallish portable radio/tape player (ie boombox but you know I don't want to be all 80's). I bought it new and less than 3 months later the tape player was squeaking. I consulted with Sony and per their instructions I sent it back to them. They 'repaired' it and sent it back. It was worse than before. I sent it back. They 'repaired' it and sent it back. It wasn't. I sent it back with a nasty letter to fuck off and I won't buy their shit equipment ever again. Fastforward to 2000ish and I bought a Sony Vaio laptop against my own better judgement. Now it was a refurbished model but that's not supposed to mean shittier. It did. That computer spent far more time at the repair shop than it should have. And it came in with a bad memory chip (which was the place's fault not Sony's but still.) I'm pretty much now completely soured by Sony.

Nothing is ever as bad as you think.

That should really be the theme of my whole blog. Nothing is ever as bad as I think it will be.

Speed dating was fun! There were 18 men and I think 16 or so girls. There was a wide variety of men there. Almost all were in my age bracket I think. It isn't like we went around revealing our ages, but based on our little 6 minute conversations I'm making an educated guess. I think I gave a yes to about 8 of the 18. I tried to keep a pretty open mind. There were a couple who were really religious so based on some of what they said they were an automatic no. And not that I'm against religion, but I am an athiest so that may not work out well. :) There were 2 who were very weird but also geographically undesirable so I felt less bad about turning them down since they lived far away. One guy was totally twitchy. He kept looking around and every answer was a very quick yes or no. That was not pleasant. One guy I really really wanted to say yes to but for all the wrong reasons. I figured all the other girls would say no to him... He was a big guy (which I have no issues with). He was difficult to talk to, it was like pulling teeth but maybe he was nervous and I was only the 2nd person he talked to. But then he said he liked to spend time playing the card game Magic the Gathering and that was that. Ex-boyfriend from college loved that damn game, I won't be a Magic widow again. :P There was one that I said yes to, but now that I'm thinking about it I'm hoping he said no. (I wouldn't be surprised if he did.) Coworker only said yes to 2. Coworker's friend only said yes to 3 or 4. They're both only 25 so coworker said she didn't want any that were too old. She kept swearing that at least one of the guys was 50, I'm like no. He may be late 30's but totally not 50. Coworker's friend said something about just wanting to hang out with the guys but not date them. Whatever. I had a good time. I'd even consider going again. :) You know if work stalking victim doesn't work out. :)

For the record I was wearing blue jeans, a long sleeved V-neck black shirt with 111111111111111111 (sorry Tess interrupted) boob enhancing bra. The long sleeves were to hide my hands. They are currently scarred and scabbed... between wrestling Tess & a couple of break outs of my condition. I also wore my hair down and even wore make up! :) Who knew I could look like a girl? :)

What if's?

I'm having a little anxiety over speed dating tonight. Have I mentioned here I'm going speed dating? I am. Tonight. There will be 15 men and 15 women. The age brackets seem to go from 25 - 35. I'm going with 2 friends. While I am hope that I'll just have fun I'm having a brief fit of anxiety. We will have 7 minutes with each person and then check off yes or no. If there are 2 yesses, the place will forward contact info. All my little anxieties are what ifs? Like what if no one picks me? And what if they are all weirdos and I don't want to pick any of them? And well, really I think those are the big 2.

Hmm... this is puzzling

I had a note slipped under my door saying that the hot water issue will be fixed by Monday. I have no idea what the hot water issue is, but I have a very very bad feeling that I will be taking a cold shower before going speed dating tomorrow night. And a cold shower on Monday before work.

New!

My mother ordered a jacket for me for Christmas. She originally was going to have it sent to her in Arizona, and I would get it for Christmas. They told her it was backordered. Interestingly enough, it arrived today. :) I had already picked it out after a lengthly discussion so I knew what it would look like. I opened the box and took it out so that I could try it on and check it out. I likes it. :D It may get used before Christmas. :)

My girls are so creative

Check out their shirts. You will see weird blocking I admit, but their names were on some of them.

My new girl's shirt. I like the tiara.

My other new girl's. She had traced a drawing.

Hard to see, but it is a bear holding a marshmallow in front of a fire. She traced a picture I printed out.

SpongeBob. One of my girls LOVES SpongeBob.

A sunflower done by one of my youngest girls.

Mine. :) I started it and then let the girls who were done finish it off.

I'll take more pics of the completed shirts. Mine has some large flowers garnishing it now. :) I had 2 new girls join at last night's meeting. So now we are predominately a Brownie troop again.

New Shoes

(Random other thought does anyone remember the band NuShooz?)

Today I have the day off thanks to Veterans. Thanks Veterans! I had physical therapy for the great tendon problem earlier in the day. It's just going to take time blahblahblah. I go back again in 2 weeks. Sigh.

But on happy news I bought new shoes! Yay new shoes! They're just plain and oxfordy and I like that about them. There was another pair that was too small that I liked that had more frou frouness but I think these will be good for my purposes. (Work and well looking nice on my feet at work.) :) I've needed a new work pair of shoes since the weather has started getting cold and I can't wear my cute little black ones.

My feet in new shoes!

Hand out the cookies, take the money. How hard is that?

How long is the stupid cookie training? Where the hell are you? Get online already, Joanne.

Christ will this day end?!

The answer is, no. It is 4:54 and I'm still in my office hanging out. Tonight is one of our meetings for the girls that sell cookie group that I lead. That will end at 7:00 and usually I'm exhausted. Will I get to go grab some dinner and go home and vegitate in front of the sitcom Joey? No. Because I will be magically teleporting myself (or checking out a flexcar and driving, you decide) to the meeting where I will be trained to be the group cookie manager because the mom who volunteered can't go to it. Of course I will obviously be late since my meeting ends at 7:00 and I have to be there at 7, but what can you do? I'm not cancelling the girls another week. Then I return the flexcar to my employer's parking lot and field trip to forage for food and maybe a video before I head for home. I at least remembered to set the VCR to tape Everwood. Yes I said set the VCR. Yes I said Tape. :) I'm still old school like that yo.' Ok I'm thinking about Tivo but I still can't convince myself it is a necessity of life. Although I have almost convinced myself that whatever a housekeeper would charge for once every 2 - 3 weeks would be a necessity. In order to reward myself with no future house cleanings, I have to get my apartment into ship shape cleanness so that I wouldn't be embarrassed when the housekeeper came to clean. Yes sometimes I do have issues. :)

Not for the faint of heart (ie don't read this one Matty)

I burned my hand on the toaster oven at home yesterday. I hadn't really realized how badly I burned it until today. I didn't do any of the right things I usually do like run it under cold water because I really thought I moved fast enough to not have burned it. I didn't move fast enough. There is a distinct line across my left hand/thumb area just below the joint. That's not the gross part. The gross part... it's blistered and there's fluid.

Ferrets!

As you know I adopted Tess & Rigby from a shelter. I decided today to send them an update about the babies. They posted it on their site! You can view it here to see the pics too, but here's what I wrote:

Greetings!

It's been about 6 months since Tess & Rigby joined me in my little apartment on First Hill and I thought I'd send an update about how they are doing. In the pics Rigby is flopped on the sidewalk because she gets bored, or tired or annoyed by the confines of the leash I'm not sure which, and just stops walking. Tess is ready to go home and will pull me there by the sheer force of her mighty will.

I adopted Tess & Rigby after my 2nd ferret, Baxter died. I had originally been hesitant to get another ferret and considered getting a cat or just going animalless, but after about a week of all aloneness in my apartment I decided a little bundle of fur was just what I was looking for. When I got to the shelter I had originally made up my mind that I would only adopt 1. Famous last thoughts. I spoke with the volunteers just checking out the ferrets and they mentioned that Tess & Rigby were cagemates and had been there already a year. They weren't kits anymore and that made them harder to place. That made up my mind for me. They came home with me that day. It's been 6 months and I think we are all fairly happy. Tess is still a little bit skittish sometimes, but seeks me out in the morning to wrassle with her. She has an incredible curiosity and a penchant for digging in my potted plants. I've given up on the health of the plants and just let Tess do her thing. Apparently the dig box with dirt from the plants is not the same thing at all. I've been most excited recently to find Tess curled up on my bed in the morning. Not every morning, but the mornings she does make me so happy. That was always one of my favorite things Baxter would do, sleep in a little warm ball next to my knees. Rigby is my trouble girl. She is into everything! She has found that by climbing on the trash can in the bathroom she can fall into the tub and join me in the shower. She's usually happy with that until she realizes she's getting wet. Then she discovers that the walls of the tub are too tall and slippery for her and she jumps around like a spastic squirrel until I rescue her. She's like a little puppy sometimes, following me all over the apartment to see what I'm doing and where I'm going. Our one disagreement is her tendency to bite my feet. She gets a little time out when she does it and a lot of praise when she sniffs around my feet without the little love nip. She also seems to like being on the leash in the great outdoors more than Tess does. Although once she gets bored or tired (who knows?) she just flops down wherever we are and that's it, we're done I have to scoop her up and carry her home. We go to a park near my house and they can scurry in the grass and dig in the dirt. Tess historically has been very upset when I take her outside so I don't force it and then this is just time for Rigby and me. They both get to be free roam in the apartment and have explored all the corners. Tess has found some balls of fur that she has claimed as her toys. She carries them around the apartment and hides them in hidey holes. She will wrassle the big hand to death if I try to take them away from her. Rigby has claimed all the cheweasels as hers and has collected them all into my carrier that they both came home in. She found about 5 of them floating around the apartment. Apparently I was under the misguided impression that Baxter actually ate them. She didn't, just hid them. They are providing me a great deal of joy and humor every day. Even when I'm cursing them for walking across my head at 3:00 AM or knocking a fresh can of soda off the bookshelf I find myself smiling because it is far better than no little fuzzy friend at all.

Observances

1 - Chocolate cake is good. You should eat it often.

2 - Men on the bus with long fingernails freak me out. Men in general with long fingernails freak me out. Especially when only like 1 fingernail is long. I saw a guy on the bus today with 2 extremely long (longer than my 'active' length) nails and I think his pinky was really long too. That's just weird.

3 - Matty P & I were in Starbucks partaking of a beverage. In case you care I took Peeved Michelle's friend Michael's advice and tried a pumpkin spice frapp, creme formula since I hate coffee. It is pretty good although a little heavy on the nutmeg. Totally not the point of the story though. There were 2 law students at the next table. They each had a laptop out and a cell phone sitting on the table. One had a rather large Coach bag sitting open on the floor. I think it was real, Matty thought perhaps it was a knock-off. Moot point. The other had a nice little case that looked like it was probably a wallet of some sort also by Coach. At one point in the evening both girls gathered up their coffees and stepped outside for a smoke break. Leaving everything out and open on the table just like that. Not only that, they didn't seem to be anywhere they could see all that crap. I could've just walked out with any of that stuff. Just ridiculous. Matty and I were both a little surprised about THAT level of trust in one's gear. Matt did point out that there are cameras all over the place, which is a fair thing to say. But I suspect an experienced thief could walk up to that table, drop his or her napkin and without even raising an eyebrow have reached into the open coach tote and snagged the wallet and the cameras would be barely the wiser. If the cameras are even hooked up to anything. I used to know someone who worked at one of the big chain stores and he told me that although there are domes all over the store, not all of them have cameras in them. It's just a ploy to make us think we're being watched. He said the public would actually be surprised at how few of them have the cameras. Not that I want to test the theory to find out, but for my kidnapping plans I find that good to know. :)

4 - I have a theory of relative naivete, with regards to sex. It goes something like this, if I meet a person and become friends with the person I will assume that their sexual experiences or whatever are similar to mine. It isn't something I'll say outloud or even actively think, it is more of a passive thing. But if I were to hear later that that person especially enjoyed something like having sex on the sledding hill behind Patty Center (in Alaska) in the snow, that would shock me because whilst I know that people have sex in public, it would never enter into my realm of consciousness that someone I know would have sex in public. Conversely, it would never dawn on me that anyone I know is a virgin, despite my current friendship with several. Matty & I talked about this today. He seems to think that I may have something there. If only some of my other theories would pan out. :)

It's a jolly holiday with you!

I'm back at work today. I survived the sickness. Although I'm now moving into phase 2 of the sickness where I have a cough like I'm dying only I'm not. It usually alarms those around me far more than me.

Today's a Disney day at work I've decided. I loaded all my Disney CDs* onto the computer last night (an effort that took far longer than it should have). I then moved them to my MP3 player which I have plugged in to my speakers to play me a wide selection of my favorites.

Just in case you didn't know... Everybody's got a laughing place. :)

*I say all my Disney CDs like I have a ton of them. I only loaded the 5 Disney Classic CDs. I don't have too many others besides them. I have Tarzan and The Little Mermaid and one I got from McDonalds and that's about it.

Sometimes I overshare

I eat while sitting on the sofa at home, not at a proper table. I live alone. Sometimes when I'm eating food I know I'll be messy with, or just when I'm wearing a shirt I actually like and don't want to ruin, I'll just pull it off and eat in just a bra. I live alone, who cares. Except every once in awhile I have to return to the kitchen or wander around the apartment. Because I have plants on all my window sills I don't have the blinds shut all the way. So apparently I'm probably giving the hospice next door quite a show. Sometimes I should think more. Also, tonight while eating pizza this was a brilliant idea because I dropped a big glob of sauce and it just hit me not my very white shirt. Except I got a lot of pizza crumbs in my bra and that was not good.

Silly things to say today :)

Firstly, the flexcar I was so excited about finding is parked in a very tight spot. I am neurotic about driving the flexcars so it took me about 20 minutes to pull out of the spot. That's just ridiculous. I was just so afraid of hitting one of the cars parked on either side of me or the one right behind me that I inched my way out of it.

Secondly, Matty & I went to lunch at my favorite restaurant. I had a pretty good time eating lunch. There was a couple at the next table who was totally eavesdropping on us. That wasn't hard since they were inches away. And Matty & I tend to talk about interesting (to muggles at least) topics when we're together. We mostly talked about his love life, although I refrained from asking him all the specific questions I wanted to ask until we were safely in the car. The girl's hair would've curled had I asked what I really wanted to ask within her earshot. The best part of the whole field trip... I got some more GF baked goods! I love that they bake essentially crap food GF and don't make the assumption that just because I eat gluten free I also don't use refined sugars and I like carob and all that rock & twig crap. There's another bakery here in town that makes a bunch of GF foods, but I don't like them as much because they are "all natural." Blech. :) (And yes, Matty, I am eating my cookie right now!) :D

Thirdly, I bought the babies new treats and now Tess is greedily gobbling up the few I tossed on the floor for her. Rig is still sleeping, although I did call for her and shake the treat bags so she would come. She didn't. They had been following me all morning long, driving me nuts and dancing under my feet in the hopes that I'll give them what they want.

I think that's about all I gots for now. Obviously I'm spending today making up for all of my sickness time. :D

Hot damn!

There's a new flexcar in an apartment complex that's even closer than any of the other flexcars! I'm so excited about that. (Yeah, it doesn't take much.)

Take out the papers and the trash..

I swear if I could get a handle on the recycling crap I create that would eliminate about 57.4% of my mess. I have a theory that if I had 3 trash bins besides my normal trash can this would help me out. I could have 1 for glass (because glass can't be thrown with the other recyclables), 1 for aluminum cans and 1 for everything else. I just took out an embarrassing number of bags of soda cans, 1 bag of glass, 2 bags of paper and 1 bag of plastic containers. I think if I were to take these other 2 kitchen chairs that I don't use down into storage, I could set up a whole little recycling station in my kitchen as opposed to where the recycling currently piles up which is in my living room in front of the radiator and then under the unused kitchen table that's also in the living room.

Keys!

I've found my keys! Yay! And Michelle (as always) was right. She sent me a link about how to find lost objects. It was 100% correct. The keys usually live on the sewing table with my MP3 player and wallet. They were underneath the sewing table in a bag of stuff that was under there. I personally think that Tess & Rigby were responsible for this, but I'm probably wrong.

In other thoughts, Bon Jovi can still rock and I think I like 'em. Plus still seriously hot.

Finally, is it wrong that I want to have kids not so much because I want to have kids, but because I want someone to excuse my love of toys and I just want someone to play with? I have a new plan about kids. I think I'm going to kidnap* one. It is a long running joke between my coworker friends (who I went camping with) about the ideal age a child should be if I want to kidnap him/her. Two is that age in case you care. About the age I start liking children but not old enough to be verbal enough to say 'Hey this chick isn't my mom!' I scope them out every once in a while, but damn those parents, they keep a tight hand hold on their kids...


*Ok I'm kidding. No, really, seriously. I have absolutely no intention of kidnapping a child. That would cause so much guilt I wouldn't know how to cope.

Yoohoo I'll make ya famous!

Tess & Rig were made famous on Jeopardy tonight. Well, their kind was. The answer to one of the Jeopardy questions under the catagory unusual pets was ferret. And 2 out of the 3 contestants got it wrong. They are not smart. It was the young one who finally got it right.

I really need to eat more than one meal on Saturdays. I'm so starving I could die by the time I made dinner. But a yummy dinner I made. Roast beef and twice baked potato. YUM!

Hey! A book that Lunacy mentioned was also a clue. Babycatcher is a story of a modern day one of these. I got it right even if the real contestants didn't.

Many things

I am officially going to visit my family. I know I've been bitching about it for months. I know I've been fretting over it. But I have finally bought my ticket. I emailed my mother my itinerary and surprisingly enough she didn't bitch about it. I leave on the 24th and return on the 30th. She did ask if I got buddy passes from my sister. Two things about this... 1 - I've never gotten buddy passes from my sister and 2 - I am so not stupid enough to fly standby during the holidays. That's just asking to spend an extra month in Phoenix. Or, more accurately, to never arrive there to begin with. Hmm... Why didn't I think of that sooner?

You know how when you've been sick you start to feel better so you overdo it? I did that today. I've been in the house since Thursday afternoon and needed groceries so I ventured out. On foot even. Walking home I was so exhausted I wanted to just curl up on the sidewalk and nap.

I think tomorrow I am going to my restaurant for lunch. That will make me happy. :)

Yay Keys!

Yay! Apartment manager just brought by another set of keys for me. I am very happy about that. Now I can take a nap. :) I have given in to the sickness and just stayed home today rather than try to fight it.

Just one of those mornings...

I'm still sick. Rather sick. But this morning I convinced myself to come to work so I could have our meeting with the girls tonight. That's not happening though, since I can barely function right now. I am planning on leaving after my 12:15 appointment. Here's the high drama though. I've lost my apartment keys. They are in my apartment. I spent an hour searching for them so that I was late to work anyway. I cried. You know how when you're sick EVERYTHING is high drama? Finding these keys was high drama for me. So now my front door is unlocked but I am locked out of the main building. I'm hoping when I go home either my landlord will be around or someone will be entering or leaving the building to let me in. Sigh.

I must be high

This cold must be effecting my brain. I do believe I just agreed on a family vacation next spring break time. With MY family. With MY family who I'm already dreading visiting in December. We would all be descending upon Southern California (interesting how when I lived there they never visited) and doing the SoCal citypass. It is my little sister's idea. I think she wants us to be closer as a family. (Now I know my cold is effecting my brain... since duh that's fairly obvious.) I am slightly shocked that my mother is going along with it since the trip will include: 3 days at my holy land (Disneyland), 1 day at Knott's Berry Farm (it is hard for me to find food there), 1 day at Sea World and 1 day at either the San Diego zoo or the Wild Animal Park. I'm so driving... :) (As the least bad of all the drivers, and the one who is at least partially used to LA traffic. Oh and I've been to all of these places to boot.)

Voting?

There are 2 issues that are coming up for me to vote on in the next election. I don't know the right answer for either of them. I've read the pamphlet the election people put out. Is it better to not vote on an issue or to research an issue as best I can and make a decision even though I'm not 100% positive it is the right one? (And no, Matty, it isn't the smoking ban proposition.) :)

Buh-Bye Zicame

I just took my 2nd Zicame quick dissolve pill. I was about 1/2 way through it when it made me gag and then I wanted to throw up and had to spit the rest of it out. Clearly, stuffing a q-tip up my nose or spritzing my throat (or really anything) is infinitely preferrable to my reaction to those quick dissolve tablets.

Fuckit!

The good/bad balance of this evening is odd at best.

Good - I bought some groceries to make enchiladas tonight for dinner. This will allow me to have lunch the rest of the week.
Bad - I saw the bus go by as I was walking out of the store which prompted me to go to the ATM to get cash so that I could buy a RealChange* newspaper for $1.00 from the vendor.

Good - I got some cash to buy a RealChange newspaper.
Bad - I needed to break the $20 so I went back into QFC to do so. I figured the service counter would be quick so I got in line to buy a lottery ticket, and thus break my 20. Apparently of the 5 people ahead of me in line, 2 were doing transactions that required a person with a special key. That person was not at the register, she was at the U-Scan. Is it me or is that completely illogical? So I waited a lifetime for my lottery ticket. And when I got outside the RealChange guy was gone, so no newspaper for me. And I saw the bus go by so I missed another round.

Good - (relatively) I capitulated to the rock & twig freaks out there and bought some Zicam to fight my pending cold.
Bad - Have you ever had these things?? Really?? My choices were: nasal spray, nose swab, quick dissolve tablet or throat spray. I went with quick dissolve tablet. Because the other options were grosser. For future reference, the quick dissolve tablet is beyond nasty. I don't like to chew weird chalky things in my mouth like Tums. The Zicam quick dissolve tablets were not good and that texture. I finished at Bartell and went out to catch the bus... yes I missed yet another one. So I walked home. Despite the instructions not to. I also didn't make it to the library to return my overdue books. I have to go tomorrow now.

Also in the bad catagory, no convo lately with WC. I know I say it on a regular basis, but I really need to find a new one.

*RealChange newspapers support the homeless. They buy one for 35 cents then sell them for $1.00. (Ok I don't know how many they have to sell at a 65 cent profit to actually do any good, but whatever.) The articles are frequently about homelessness issues. I find it kind of interesting.