2006 The year in review

I've seen this done before, but most recently Clara did it and I think it is clever and interesting. The first sentence of each month.

January - I was watching Fraggle Rock as my last video of the old year, having already watched The Dukes of Hazzard and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. (I like how I started the year with a sentence fragment.)

February - Yay! I got the most fun mail ever today.

March - I always find it so funny to listen to people speak in their own language and then hear them drop in a phrase or word that is distinctly English.

April - This morning I had to take Tess to the vet.

May - When I was in college, the dorm I lived in had distinct sunny side and dark sides.

June - Today was our employee appreication event.

July - Isa and I went and watched The Devil Wears Prada yesterday after work.

August - Here's a dilemma and I'm wondering y'alls opinion.

September - Friday was probably the most perfect Friday ever.

October - Sometimes I get tired of my life.

November - I went to donate blood yesterday and after undergoing rigorous testing, (ok finger pricking and taking the big whopping drop of blood) my blood didn't sink in that tube of green water.

December - 1 - Can you believe it is already December?!

It is kind of fun to stroll down memory lane. I reread some posts and was reminded of some good things. :)

New Year's 07 Goals

One can never plan new goals without reviewing last New Year's goals to see how I did. Upon review, I can say I did not do well. :) I only think I accomplished #1 on my list. I have been actively trying to be less judgemental about people whose priorities are different than mine. No meal planning. Yoga happened but only for a little while and, well, I guess I am over WC but I definitely haven't found a replacement. Sigh.

1 - I want to do better at my job. I feel like I've been slacking way too much and I don't like that.

2 - I want to head back to the gym. I felt good when I was going to the gym. I stopped because of the damn tendon that won't heal. It still isn't that great but I know regular stretching will help it. Sub goal 2 - I'm going to take a yoga class offered by the U. They have a ton of them.

3 - I want to do two volunteer projects a month. I'm usually good but I've slacked off a lot recently. I don't think (besides the scouts which is a whole other thing) I've done one this entire fall.

4 - Sunday adventures need to resume. They don't always have to be a hike or walk in the park, but I need to get out on Sundays and enjoy the city I live in. Sub goal 4 - I have to do one very nice thing for myself per month. A nice thing that does NOT involve sitting on the sofa all day. Take myself to a good movie or get a mani/pedi or just anything that is a treat.

New Year's Eve

Did you know that you can find Spongebob Squarepants on TV about 20 times per day. Yesterday I think I watched them all. I should be horrified by this fact, but I'm not.

I can't believe my time off is already almost over. That makes me sad. Although in reality it is a good thing I don't have more time off. I tend to eat when I'm at home and bored and since it is a very LONG time until the next payday (curse you once a month payroll cycle!) I don't have a lot of random money to spend, and what I did have I spent Wednesday. :)

This weekend I'm going to spend with some friends in a house in Long Beach, WA. We rented a house for the weekend. Two of the people are the folks I camp with so I know them pretty well. The other are two sets of couples I don't know that well. I'm feeling a tiny bit of anxiety... this is what happens when 7 people live in a house blah blah blah :) I am also looking forward to it. There are things to do there and we're just a short path to the beach. It'll be a nice quiet relaxing weekend. (Sampson, of course, will be coming with but I don't think there's internet there, so I probably will have a lot to say on Monday when I return.)

Fabulous fantastic day!

Oh so many reasons today is a great day...

1 - (And this is the best one) I passed my test! I PASSED MY TEST! :)
The bus ride out to the testing center was so long. It took 2 buses and I was on the first one at 8:12. I really have to remember that Mountlake Terrace the road is nearby Mountlake Terrace the suburb is really far. :) (Not that I had the choice, the testing for the whole of Seattle area is in Mountlake Terrace). But I ended up getting there at 9:10 in the morning, which was an hour earlier than I needed to be. And they let me test early so I actually ended up leaving shortly after my appointment time. I will say this, it was a HARD test. It was harder than I expected and I had reviewed all the notes and stuff. I didn't do the reading, though. I am bad about that but as I was doing the early chapters of the reading, I kept thinking I know all this so I gave up on it. :) I passed, though, and that's the important part. :)

2 - After the test I decided to go shopping! Yay! I had good bus luck and caught the buses I needed to head back to Seattle. The only bad part is that I called to get an idea of how to get from the Lynnwood Transit Center to the Northgate Transit Center and the instructions I received told me to get off at one stop and then go and grab a different bus just up the block. I walked up and down the block and never did find the bus. So I caught the next bus back to Seattle and then changed buses in Seattle to get to Northgate.

3 - So much was on sale! I bought soap at Bath & BodyWorks. I bought new jeans and then put in an order for two more pairs, they'll mail them to my house. They were only 20 bucks each. I know I'm supposed to be boycotting the fat chick store, but they were having a big sale and I NEEDED jeans. I also bought some Kinnickinnick food from this health food store so I have some frozen GF foods. :) Life is very good.

4 - Now I'm home and I have just had a big piece of pie. One of the very nice things about living alone, I can eat a quarter of a pie and nobody says anything. :)

Oh so full

Yum. My Christmas dinner was so fabu. Roast beef, twice baked potato and I'm looking forward to Black Forest Cherry Pie in maybe an hour. The pie didn't take as long to cook as they do when I'm at my parents'. I think probably because they make like 4 pies, but the custard didn't take nearly as long to cook in my new little pot. Her recipe says take 10 minutes of stirring and bubbling until it is thick. It took maybe 4 minutes to get there when I made my pie. I hope it tastes great. Although the crust is sad and pathetic since I was having a difficult time rolling it out and so it ended up being a lot thinner and didn't goup all the way along the sides of the pie pan. Eh, the crust is really only to help hold it all together the filling is the good stuff. :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!
I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted! :)

White Christmas

I have a hard time believing it is Christmas tomorrow. It doesn't feel like it to me at all. Of course part of that is because I decided this year not to decorate. No tree. No lights. Nothing is up in my apartment. My presents are stacked in the bedroom. I think I'll open them while I lie in bed tomorrow morning.

Presents!

Yay! My parents' box(es) of presents came in yesterday so now I have all but one of them. I had figured on Friday that I'd miss the parents' boxes and so I didn't go down to the post office and pick up the one that's waiting there right now. I never know when to open the presents. Since I live alone, I could totally open them as they arrive. Who would know? But then I feel an odd sense of guilt if I open them too soon, like I'm breaking the rules. I do feel odd opening them all by myself on Christmas morning, though.

I got the girls a Christmas present. (the girls being Tess & Rigby the ferrets) While I was out yesterday not studying (ok I did a little bit but not enough), I stopped at a moving store and got a bag of the packing peanuts that are the water soluable kind. If Rig eats them (which she LOVES to do) they won't hurt her. I put them in a box and so now they can play and bulldoze in the box. Rigby likes to take the peanuts out of the box and tuck them places. I woke up this morning with about 7 of them all around me that she pulled out of the box and laid on the bed. She's so silly.

Best week ever!

It is very early on Saturday morning and I totally should still be asleep. The damn ferrets had different ideas about this and Rigby pestered me until I got up to give her her morning treats. Yesterday I only had to work a 1/2 day and can I tell you how long that half day was?! The only day worse was the day before where I swear the 11:00 hour took 15 hours all by itself. I kept looking at the clock and it would be 11:02 and then I'd do work and think more time passed and looked at the clock and it would be like 11:05. BUT... the best part is that I am now done with work until January 2nd. The whole U shuts down and so I have a week off. With pay. Of course I'm going to be spending it doing boring things like studying for my cebs test on the 27th and cleaning, but New Year's weekend Isa and a bunch of other people and I are going to a house in Long Beach for the weekend. It should be fun I hope.

Oh holy hell. The bus adventure required to get to the CEBS testing place is two buses and I have to catch the 1st one at 8:12 AM to get there by 9:30. Sigh. It's a 4 hour test or else I would take the flexcar.

6 Weird things about me.

Blaugra tagged me with a meme. As if I needed another reason to talk about my idiosyncrasies. (Honestly I started this on 12/7 apparently it has taken me over a week to come up with 6 weird things about me)

Here are the rules - Each player of this game starts with the "6 Weird Things about You." People who get tagged need to write a blog entry of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog!

1 - Even though cognitively I know 100% it isn't true, I still believe a teeny tiny bit that certain inanimate objects can feel things. I blame the Velveteen Rabbit for this. I would've been so fucked up as a kid if Toy Story had also been around.

2 - I have real food texture issues. There are several foods that I may actually like but because I can't get around how it feels in my mouth, I can't eat it. (This includes things like onions which I like the taste of in my food but I can't put one in my mouth because the slimy texture of cooked onions freaks me out).

3 - I have similar touch texture issues. Textures like terra cotta pots make me cringe and don't even get me started on plaster of paris.

4 - I own two ferrets and I walk them on leashes. In public. I should stress that I don't consider this weird, although judging from the reactions of the people in my neighborhood, they may disagree. :)

5 - I am incapable of doing the dishes without having to go to the bathroom at least twice during the time. The running water. I know. I'm a freak.

6 - I love weird socks including Christmas ones. But I have very strict rules about when I will wear certan ones. The Christmas ones cannot be worn before Thanksgiving. The ones with fall leaves or winter snow flakes are only worn in fall/winter. In the spring I tend to wear just regular socks. And in the summer it is all sandals all the time. (Hmm.... Maybe I need to buy spring motif ones this year. :) )

Also I am not big on tagging so I'm breaking the rules and if you want to do it, go for it! :)

Who knows about today but tomorrow...

According to my horrorscope for today:

Nothing beats good news. Tomorrow’s new moon suggests that you’re about to come upon the new affiliations, intrigue, and excitement that you’ve been hoping for. Some of these places to go and people to meet could really be outstanding.

Let's hope for something good. :)

Stubbornly stupid

I have a schedule on Sunday mornings. I do laundry. This morning the elevator was not working (not especially shocking, happens periodically and usually it is due to the door on 3 not shutting properly.) So I go down to 3 and the elevator isn't stuck there so I decided to just take the clothes down by stairs. I started with one set of stairs which are better stairwise (not too tall or narrow) but then changed at floor 2 because ultimately I have to take the other set downstairs. These I dislike because they are fairly steep and narrow. They are the only ones that go to the basement. As I was going down, I misstepped and fell into the wall while twisting the bad ankle. It was awesome. Luckily I only stumbled down 3 steps worth because it was a short spot until the next landing but I did manage to whack my right cheek against the wall. Damn elevator.

Chicago is no longer the windy city. :)

Due to crazy winds and rain, the U was closed today. Apparently it, and 170,000 Seattle homes, are without power. Strangely this side of the hill had no power issues so Isa and I went to the movies and lunch. The downtown area was the place to be because it was very busy. I went and saw the Pursuit of Happyness. It was really really good. Rather inspiring and all that.

Yesterday walking home in the torrential rain was quite an adventure. We were both soaked within about 2 blocks of leaving the U. As we crossed one street we had to get into the water and that was ankle deep. By the time we hit Pike & Broadway, though, the water rushing down Pike was actually upper shin deep. Yeah, you couldn't see where the sidewalk ended and the street began. Ever so glad I wore my new shoes yesterday. I wonder if Nordstrom's does returns based on acts of G_d. Right as my shoes were drying out (one side of the street was MUCH dryer than the other) I ended up having to ford across another street. When I got to my apartment, I wrung the water out of my pants before I headed inside. I was so happy to get into my jammie bottoms and fuzzy socks.

Ooh, yesterday I got a nice surprise. One of my favorite faculty members who retired last year got me a gift card to our bookstore. It was so sweet of him. I helped him out a lot with his benefit stuff getting ready for retirement. He was so super nice and impressed about how much I know. It was a very nice feeling. He also talked nicely about me downstairs in the main office. I just wish my biggest boss or immediate boss heard him. (Actually biggest boss may have, I wasn't downstairs). :)

Dansko Squeak

Due to the informal poll in my office I think we've established that there are two different kinds of Dansko shoe soles - one which may develop the squeak and one that doesn't.

The 'original' Dansko clog sole seems to not make the squeak. One of my coworkers has had a pair for 3 years and it never squeaked. That would be this sole. (This pair of clogs is actually the pair I just bought. I like them so far, although I walked to work in them and I got a killer foot cramp. Now they feel just fine. My other pair of Danskos have this sole too, the little black pair I wear with dresses)


The newer soles are the ones that I had that started to squeak within 2 - 3 months of wearing. I suspect that these are the soles that eventually develop the 'Dansko squeak.' (Something I only heard about after they developed a squeak and I googled it.)

These are things I love today...

1 - My landlord put up a real Christmas tree in our lobby. Our lobby smells so good. I could just move my TV down there and veg for the rest of the holiday season.

2 - This makes me want to bake sugar cookies. Now if only I can find a good recipe for good gluten-free ones. :) I may make some to give to my landlord. :)

3 - Food network challenge. I watched a holiday cake decorating one last night and it was so amazing. It also totally made me want to eat royal icing from the bowl while watching it. :)

4 - Nordstrom's liberal return policy which I hope I don't have to use, but is the reason I'm going there to buy my next pair of danskos. If they develop "the dansko squeak" in 3 months I can take them back easily.

One thing I don't love today... The student center, where I frequently get my breakfast, was closed so I ended up cobbling together breakfast from things I buy at the bookstore. That means today's breakfast is beef jerkey, fruit snacks and soda. (Well soda is normal). I also got fruilt salad from Starbucks but I am not 100% sure that it was worth 2.85 plus tax for a bunch of green melon, 3 pieces of pineapple and like 2 pieces of canteloupe.

His benefits are cut off...

One of the associate directors at my college works in a department where they have access to these rather cool jackets. My coworker has been bugging him about them saying she wants one. Well today he came through for our department. Unfortunately, in his world, our department consists of her, the recruiter, the biggest boss and Isa. There are 3 other members of the team that he neglected. My feelings are hurt. And I'm offended. He said it was a thank you for all the hard work the department does for his department. Uh hello... who helped him when he had a new baby and put the new baby on the plan etc? I'm so cutting off all his benefits.

I think for dinner tonight I'm going to use the left over broth from a bowl of tortilla soup I had yesterday for lunch and mix in chicken and fresh tortillas. (Ooh and more cheddar cheese) Yum. :)

I can't sleep.

I can't sleep and it is starting to make me crazy. It has been a week. I haven't been able to get to sleep before midnight. Not because I'm not tired but because I just can't sleep. I then sleep like the dead for about an hour and a half. At 1:30 I wake up. And then I fall back asleep by about 2:00. And then I wake up at 3:00 or 3:30. And then I fall back asleep. And then I wake up and it is 5:00 or 5:15. And then I am awake. I now have a frequent headache just brewing in the back of my head. I called two of my girls by the wrong name yesterday AND I identified a brother as the wrong person. I'm going slightly nuts. I think tonight I may have to have a little meeting with Mr. Sleeping Pill to see if this will help me. I didn't even have caffeine after 4:00 last night so that wasn't the problem.

At last night's meeting, we tie dyed socks. It was so fun and they were really good about not making a big fat mess (which is always impressive). I now have 14 little and 2 big socks hanging in my bathroom drying. They managed to get some very impressive colors out of the 5 I gave them. They are really all rather funny. Apparently, though, children's sock sizes (like T-Shirt sizes) mean very little. The label on the package says that they fit 6.5 - 8 but my girls all claim they won't fit. Who knows. I kind of have given up on ever hoping that an art project about clothes will ever fit the kids... :)

Testing a theory.

I've joined match.com. I can't believe I've done it but I'm a follower and two of my friends are doing it and I think it is more fun to do it when friends do it together so we can mock the ridiculousness of some of the weirdos together. Like the ridiculousness of the 86 year old man in Utah who just emailed me. Well, according to his profile he is 86 so even if he isn't who the hell would want to date a guy who would make up an age? So either way he is 17 years older than my father which makes him an unlikely candidate. You know, unless he has money. :) I am, however, going to try to be open and embracing of the process, you know until I get yet another wink from yet another ultra conservative and I freak out all over the place. (I'm sure there'll be one that will be the straw that breaks the back and all that.)

Now the above rant will be particularly ironic considering what I'm about to bitch about. My single friends who complain that they can't meet anyone or nobody wants to meet them or whatever and yet their standards are so ridiculously high. I get there has to be some attraction there or something, but seriously to dismiss someone 15 minutes after meeting them is kind of harsh. In the interest of full disclosure I will confess to having done so, but in all honesty the guy was a good 5 inches shorter than me, appeared to be somewhat to considerably older and reeked so badly of pot I thought I was going to get a contact high. So that's not high standards that's eliminating the completely obvious. I digress. Last night Big R (who less than a week ago was bitching high and low about how the gays don't like him and how he'll never find a man blah blah blah) was getting chatted up by a kind of goofy guy about his age. The guy wasn't a Brad Pitt or anything, but was his body type and seemed nice enough. And he wasn't totally a troll. When we left he bitched about how the guy kept talking to him. He barely gave the guy half a chance. (Maybe I'm being judgemental because honestly I get the potheads who are as old as my father... rarely does anyone in my own age bracket talk to me.) My other friend in California, not Michelle, frequently bitches about not meeting men yet she'll discard one with the flimsiest of reasons. Her favorite, she just didn't 'feel the click.' Give me a break and give people a chance! They may surprise you. Maybe I am a romantic at heart but I think real love develops once you get to know someone and I've said it before, someone who looks like Clint Howard can end up being as hot to you as Brad Pitt once you realize what an awesome person he is. And someone as hot as Brad Pitt can appear to be the dog doo on your shoe once you realize what a terrible ass he is.

Pimp my Donor's Choose Challenge

Greetings!

I realize most of y'all read both me and The Peevery where both Peeved Michelle & I are running Donor's Choose Challenges, but I just wanted to let y'all know mine is still open and I have just added 3 new science project requests to give you some more variety. There's now teaching chemistry to little kids, or you can contribute to geometry understanding with kites and high schoolers, or you can send a bunch of little kids (Pre - 2nd grade) to the Baton Rouge Zoo! Or you can help reader Robin with her Attack of the Video Club!

If you can I thank you and have a great day!

Tear in the aorta.

That's what caused my friend's death. Slightly better than what we originally thought. (Not that a person dying young is ever good. Or that a new mom dying is good, but you know.) In the grand scheme of things, the new baby is not what killed her, but a previously known about heart defect. The funeral was as awful as you would expect one for someone so young to be. It was held in the campus chapel and two of our priests presided over it. My favorite campus priest did the eulogy and it was very good. Seeing how shattered the husband was as he held the baby and walked down the aisle after the casket was just heart breaking.

I spent the rest of the weekend shopping and doing nothing. Fred Meyer failed me. This is a first for them, so it is a little surprising. They did not have the pasta or the crackers which were the whole reason I went to Fred Meyer. I'm going to have to venture to Whole Foods I think. I wish it were Friday.

Ooh I'm going to Canada this weekend with Isa. Yay!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my friend's funeral. It will be here on campus and I suspect a lot of people I know will be there. I'm a bit weirded out about that because I'm certain I won't be able to not cry at it. I realized that after tomorrow I will have attended the same number of funerals that I have weddings. How weird is that? I thought that balance didn't happen until you were in like your 60's or something. Of course, in reality I've attended 3 weddings and now 3 funerals so in reality it isn't actually that huge a number for either one. Wait! How could I forget the gay one? Phew. Thank heavens for the gays. I still have attended more weddings than I have funerals.

Two things...

1 - Can you believe it is already December?! How did that happen?!

2 - I think next spring or summer I'm going to go up in a hot air balloon. I've always wanted to do that, it just seems so amazingly cool.

Be envious

Thanks to the power of Amazon, I just finished my Christmas shopping. I'm done, it is all being wrapped by them and everyone should have their presents by next week. (Yes I know Amazon is driving out the little independent stores, but honestly if I had to go to a bunch of stores and buy each thing for each person individually and wrap it myself and then box it and take it to the post office I'd kill someone. Plus I'd still have shopped for this stuff at Target or Fred Meyer so I'd still be crushing the little independent stores.)

Comfort food

I'm well aware that one should not self-medicate with food, but after today I really wanted something warm and comforting for dinner so I'm making beef stew and cheddar mashed potatoes.

During lunch time they did a thing up in the IT office (where my friend worked) and I went up at the recommendation of my biggest boss. It was sad and I teared up a little bit. I hate crying in public. (Really I hate crying, but to do it in front of other people makes me crankier.) I was looking at some pictures her husband had sent to one of my coworkers before and they looked so happy and the baby is so cute. It is kind of surreal. I did learn something interesting though... I knew my biggest boss had gone to boarding school, I just hadn't realized he had been to boarding school much of his life and more importantly why he went to boarding school. His mother died due to childbirth, his childbirth. He was telling Isa how it is rather traumatic and you feel guilty all the time. I can't even begin to imagine it.

Sad news all over my office

In other sad news at my employer, the son of one of our accounting techs was shot and killed in LA on Wednesday. She is so sweet and lovely and wonderful and I feel so sad for her. How awful that must be.

Speechless

Someone I knew died today. From complications post child birth. Who dies that way anymore? All I can think about is her brand new baby who is a week old today, the day his mom died and how her husband must be in such a terrible state. I went to her shower on the Friday before Thanksgiving and although she was freaked out, she was excited.

Yay no work today!

Except that I am at work so that is kind of defeating. :) But I'll go home in a few minutes. I'm just waiting on someone who needs my assistance to come in so I can go over his out of country benefits. I think I'm actually going to go over to IHOP and have some breakfast and then go to the grocery store and then go home where I'll hunker down in jammie bottoms and sweater and fuzzy socks. I also want to look for a pattern for a crocheted hat. :)

Whoa! I lucked out!

I was just reading a scrolling bar along the bottom of the TV and apparently SeaTac Airport is not accepting planes in right now. This could explain the delay in trying to fly in earlier today and apparently I'm lucky that I got to come home today. :)

Someone famous?

I was on the plane and in the next row were two very cute kids and their mom. The little girl was 5 and three quarters (as she told me) and very cute. She and I chatted periodically through the flight. We talked about pelicans and the movie Finding Nemo and her brother and where she was on vacation and where she is going in December. She was very chatty. When we were getting off the plane I helped her mom carry down a big bag since the boy had fallen asleep and the mom needed to carry him. At the baggage claim they were met by a guy from a car service. Now I'm totally curious as to whether or not they were someone famous. :)

It is snowing!

Can you believe it?!

I just got back from sunny, warm, California to SNOW. IN November! That doesn't happen.

I arrived in California Tuesday night. We stopped at El Pollo Loco which I love and we don't have in Seattle and then went to Michelle's. It was kind of late when we got in so I think we just watched a little TV and went to bed.

Wednesday we went to brunch. I love brunch! :) We also went to the grocery store and did a few other things I think. I can't remember because clearly I'm old and my mind is going. Mmm... we did eat dinner at Wood Ranch which is a bbq/steak place. I LOVE BBQ/steak places. It was on my list of places to eat. :)

Thursday was Thanksgiving. We slept in and went over to her mom's for dinner. That was nice although a lot of people which usually makes me a bit uncomfortable. This time there were people not usually there too so that added on to it. We spent the evening planning our Friday assault. We ended up with a lot of stores to hit and the need to be up and out and to our destination by 5:00. Surprisingly a lot of our usual shopping spots were not on this year's list. We said no to Kohl's, and KMart. Michelle boycotts Sears and Mervyns so both of them were off the list. We are not masochists so Best Buy was not happening either. I did, however, put in a request to go to Circuit City and JC Penney's so I could get the snow globe and Grey's Anatomy Season 1 on DVD for cheap for my mom.

Friday the alarm went off early EARLY! We were out the door before 5:00 and I was in line at Circuit City by 4:50. Unfortunately, this Circuit City is only capable of holding 150 people so they could only let in a few at a time. By 5:45, I gave up and we headed to Target. The shopping continued and suddenly it was 10:00 AM and we were done. We had been everywhere we wanted to go, including a second Circuit City (which was huge but didn't have any Grey's Anatomy Season 1 left, hello Amazon.) and we were done by 10:00. That's awesome. We also discovered that rather than go south and drive all over, we could've gone north to one big shopping plaza that has almost all the places we wanted to go. Oh well. We know for next time. :) We got back and wrapped presents and then she had more places to shop so I stayed back and took a nap. Naps are lovely and awesome and I love them.

Saturday we went to the movies and saw the one with Will Ferrell. I can't think of the name of it right now and I don't feel like looking it up. :) It was good, although I was a bit sleepy, so somewhere through the middle I felt like I was dozing off. I did enjoy it, though, and liked how it ended. I had been wondering where it would go and I'm glad it went where it did. We also decorated gingerbread houses. This is an activity I will never feel the need to repeat. It was not fun. (Although royal icing is so yummy, I think I made myself sick eating it. :)

Sunday we had brunch. We spent most of the day doing our craft for this year, glass etching. I had a good time with it. It took a lot of work and initially I thought it was far more fidgety than I like a craft to be, but once I got the rhythm down I really liked it. I liked my results. I did a bunch of ornaments for my girls and 4 cups. We also saw Happy Feet. It went somewhere I didn't expect. I liked most of it, but in as much as I wouldn't want to watch a children's movie where the virtues of war were extolled I got a bit peeved by what I considered to be rather liberal propaganda seemingly elbowed in. And I say this as a pretty liberal person.

This morning I was up and out at the butt crack of dawn and to the airport early early early. All in all it was a great trip! I got to relax and sleep late and read. I also watched a bunch of episodes of The Office. I think I may be converted. It is funny as hell. On the one hand I want Jim and Pam to get together, on the other I like the unrequitedness of it. :)

Update from Michelle

I dropped off Joanne at the airport about an hour ago. She is on her way home. Anyone who has been illegally squatting in her apartment better get out now.

A gal can't catch a break.

So I know I've mentioned that I have a crush on V's roommate. He is cute and a volunteer and kind and the kinds of things I'm looking for in a person. Today V was at home and he heard the roommate coming in and out and V thought the roommate was just bringing stuff in from his shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Apparently the roommate was moving his stuff out. He is driving back to his home state today. V had no idea any of this was going on although he finds it more funny than annoying. I didn't realize this but apparently he doesn't need the guy's rent and just likes having a roommate for company. So now I'm back to the drawing board for a new crush. Anyone care to apply? :)

Busy living life

Holy crap what a week this has been. At work I've been busy as hell because it is open enrollment and our student worker is shite. (Soon to be former student worker as he will not be rejoining us next quarter thank goodness!) We actually had to get in a temp to do all the filing I would normally have had student worker do. However.... However (and this is very exciting for me) I got all the first round of data entry into access done yesterday. That's HUGE. I stayed about an hour late to make sure it got done because I'm going on vacay next week! (Yay vacay!)

Monday I feel like I didn't do anything except grocery shop and cook dinner. It was the only night I was poised to get into bed before midnight.

Tuesday I thought I was going to go to an event at the campus. The guy from PostSecret would be there giving a talk and having the travelling display up. Apparently I am too dumb sometimes to write down the proper date because it actually happened on Monday. So I went out with Big R instead and we played darts and watched scaryokey. V joined us partway through the evening to play darts.

Wednesday I went to dinner with Stephen. We sat and talked until midnight, I think. It was good.

Thursday was scouts and then I had a focus group thing later that night. That ended at 10:00 and so I didn't get home until almost 11:00. The focus group was fun and I got money out of going so that was cool. I'm going to register at their website to potentially be able to do another one. :) (Random money is GOOD!)

Last night I went to a concert with Stephen. We saw the Decemberists play. I liked them. I thought they were really good. We got done early like 10:30ish but I ended up staying up until 1:00. (Finally I gave up and went to bed because I was sitting on the sofa falling asleep but it was silly that I was staying up).

Politics

Ugh. GS politics are pissing me off. We need to have a cookie manager for the entire service unit. Nobody has said they are willing and able to do it. Without one, we cannot sell cookies this year. Without selling cookies, we can run no other fund raisers. My answer to that is fine, we won't sell this year and maybe next year one of the 30+ adults who belong to our service unit will figure out the importance. Apparently according to the council office this is not okay. We're the largest SU in the council. At first I couldn't figure out why we couldn't not sell cookies, but then it was explained to me in terms I could understand. If they were to lose our revenue this would be very bad. (We serve like 400 kids and if each of them sold an average of 50 boxes of cookies... you do the math since we only get 45 cents on a $4.00 box of cookies). Although they keep pushing me on the basis of 'don't punish the kids for their parents'. (Oh please. Like the girls LOVE to sell cookies?! The little ones might.) I understand the concept of not punishing the girls for the parents, but at the same time finding an outsider to do it for them just reinforces the leaders' and parents' bad behavior of not volunteering for stuff. And when next year comes around and nobody volunteers will they find us a person again? Pretty soon it becomes expected. 'We don't have to volunteer because someone else will do it for us.' This whole piece is just disgusting me.

So many pits!

The other day at work a very cute little old man who I had been helping with his retirement paperwork (he has retired) came in for some final signatures from me to finish the process. I had actually called for him to get the papers and then called back to get the right papers when the first ones were wrong. English was not his first language. He was so nice and as a thank you he brought me an orange and a persimmon! That was so cool, yet weird. I ate the orange for breakfast this morning and it had so many seeds that I was kind of surprised. There were about 3 per segment. I am slightly afraid of the persimmon because I did a wikipedia search and discovered that when they are good they are good but when bad, very very bad.

I was cooking dinner tonight and discovered that I'm out of water chestnuts. I hate it when that happens - I usually buy several cans at once so I don't have to. I also thought I had purchased more sauce packets than I found in the drawer. I only had hot & spicy. I should go back to menu planning and only shop once a week. I feel like I spent less money when I did that.

I apparently am doomed to have a dog living across the hall from me forever. One of the 3 college girls that lived across the hall moved out and another one moved in. The new one has a dog. (I feel compelled to share with you that when Michelle, her sister, our friend Amynorbie and I all lived together in Little Beirut the toothless man and the other inbreeders would refer to us as "the college girls in the back.") She claims that new little dog does not bark, but we shall see.

Tonight I think I shall bake cupcakes and muffins. Or maybe cookies and scones. Or maybe muffins and cookies. I can't decide. BUT I do have fun star shaped cupcake foil wrappers that I shall use. :)

Oops!

I had a Service Unit meeting today. Unfortunately only 1 person showed up. Sigh. This is getting ridiculous. (Not that Thursday was any better since nobody would show to that one either.) I had picked up some Starbucks coffee and trays of their cranberry something bars and gingerbread loaf. But the one woman that did show up had a lot to chat about so we actually ended up meeting for an hour and a half. We did get a lot of dates decided upon so that's good. We still don't have a service unit cookie manager so that's bad. After the meeting I was waiting on my ride and there was this terrible loud beep happening. Just one note really not a beeping. It was AWFUL. We thought it was an alarm in the building. As we pulled away, the noise kept with us. It turned out that something in my pocket was making that noise. How embarrassing. :)

I watched Anne of Green Gables last night and finished it today. It is so sweet! I love it. I wish Megan Follows had done more with her acting career than just this movie and at least one turn on Law & Order.

Theoretically I'm writing for Nanowrimo this month. In reality, it isn't going so well. I've never actually finished one but I like the thought that I am accomplishing something. :) The former WC found me on there and teased me the other day for not having submitted a word count yet. Since the word count is currently zero it would be hard to submit one. :)

More exhausting than work.

I had today off due to Veteran's Day. One advantage of the university is that we get a lot of random days off. Isa and I took her dog to the vet this morning and picked the dog up this afternoon. Isa doesn't know how to drive so I drove her in the flexcar. All was fine in the morning. We got to the vet and and home in 2 hours which was the time I allotted. At 2:00 we went to pick up the dog. We made the stupid mistake of going up to the evil empire to visit Big R. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time. It took us less than 10 minutes to get from Kirkland to Bellevue (Redmond?). We only stayed about 10 minutes which left us 50 minutes to get back to Seattle. Since it only took 30 minutes to get to Kirkland, I wasn't worried. An hour and a half later we were still stuck in traffic and hadn't even reached the bridge. I had to call and extend the flexcar but couldn't because there was someone scheduled to use it. Luckily they managed to rearrange that other person so we could extend, although the worst part was, I ended up pulling the car into the lot about 5 minutes later than I was supposed to return the car! Crazy.

I also tried donating blood today. I'm still too iron deficient. Sigh. I'll try again in a couple of weeks maybe. They keep calling me. Apparently there is a need for A- blood.

I've had the wickedest headache ever today. I kind of can't wait to go to bed and I'm hoping it will make my headache to go away.

Tomorrow morning I have a meeting at 9:00. I have to leave at about 7:30 in the morning to get there and be ready on time. This will be 2 mornings of my weekend that I got up and out before I usually do for work. Crikey.

Boys are dumb and other tales

So Moral Turpitude IM'd me last night and was talking about a recent trip to a bar. He seemed semi proud of the fact that he wore a shirt that said "Ass is the new vagina." I pointed out the classyness of the comment and then asked how many gay men hit on him. He then claimed he doesn't look gay and I had to point out that really there is no such thing as looking gay. But today I was thinking about the shirt again and I can't help but wonder what on earth he was hoping to accomplish. Like some girl is going to walk right up to him and be so impressed with his wittyness that she has to have him? It doesn't make any sense to me.

I voted today did you? :) AND I got to do an exit poll when I came out of the voting area. How cool is that? Democracy at its finest people. I love it! I think in a few years (maybe next year) King County is going to go to only mail in ballots. While I understand the convenience of it, I kind of like the comraderie of the polling place. The same gay guy has been the guy in charge of the volunteers at the polls every time I've gone to vote. That's kind of cool to me. (Although I swear this year's volunteers may have been retarded. They were a little (lot) slow and not smart.)

Ooh this is all exciting... I got called and surveyed and then invited to a focus group. They'll pay $100. Very nice and exciting. I love random extra money.

Book reviews

(I sometimes wonder if there should be a catagory in the Super Fantastic Readng Group for book reviews for readers beyond the current book. But I digress)

I finished off 4 books in the past couple of weeks.

1 - Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. I loved this book. I thought it was very well written and engaging. I learned a lot about a subject I knew nothing about (devout Muslim religion). Even though I am not at all religious I could definitely feel a kinship with the main character. There's that feeling when you are expected to live or be a certain way and you aren't. That's a hard life to live. In her case it was religious based, in my case it was because I was the "good" one and the "smart" one. The only complaint I had was the back of the book made it seem like they left the small town after her friend's sister died and that was the reason she was afraid to go back to that town, when really it was much more complicated than that. All in all a GREAT book and I can't wait to read more by the author. (Although this is her first book so it could be awhile)

2 - Second Draft of My Life. This one was another one I really enjoyed. I think because the main character was a teacher who suffered through her first year of teaching. I could really relate to just how hard and frustrating that is. The only thing I didn't like was the way her relationship resolved quickly. It was like a 6 months later kind of thing or something. There was little build up that made you think that was possible. This was also by the same author that did The Answer is Yes which I loved.

3 - Buddha Baby. (I think I was checking out the international chick lit section at the library) I liked this one too. It was interesting and I think I especially enjoyed the delving into her family's personal life and history. I come from a long line of people who don't share information so I could understand her desire to know where she comes from but being stymied by her family's reluctance to talk about the past.

4 - A Wedding in December. I did not like this book. I did not finish this book. I'm not even linking to it because I don't want you to read it either. :)

Discoveries!

I discovered a number of things this weekend.

1 - I do not have enough panties to go two weeks without ending up in ones I hate. (I skipped doing laundry last weekend because of so much other stuff going on and I was too lazy during the week to get my ass down to the laundry room.) I did, however fold all my clean clothes and put them all away. That's the first time in a long time. I've been very lazy about that lately and just picked clothes out of the basket every day. I also have to figure out a better sweater system. Currently they are just kind of haphazardly strewn in my closet up high on the shelf but if I pull one, the whole stack falls on my head. I hate that.

2 - Rigby does not like to take her medicine. She has two meds to take that are both liquid form. She takes one morning and night and one only in the AM. Every time I shoot the medicine into her mouth she shakes her head with her mouth open and I end up wearing a good 1/2 of it. Brat. It is her own fault she has to take them.

3 - I hope my period is starting. Otherwise I cannot figure out why on earth I was tearing up watching several episodes of MTV's True Life. The wedding one... I cried when the gay couple had problems with their parents. (Ok I just looked at the list of episodes I watched and I think I must've cried twice during that one epi because I know the others wouldn't have made me do it...) :)

4 - We've got a new book discussion going on at the Super Fantastic Reading Group. Latest book is an Anita Shreve. Check it out!

Saturday adventure!

(Ok unrelated but how sad is it that I'm trying to decide between a show about the KKK on the history channel and Hollywood's 20 horrifying murders on E!?) (I had to choose the E! show. The KKK are just too creepy.)

Big R & I went to the Seattle Asian Art Museum today. The first Saturday and Thursday of the month are free days so that was nice. (Although entrance fee is just $5 so that isn't too big a crisis). The current exhibit is the many faces of Buddha. It was really rather cool. Some of the sculptures we were looking at were from the 3rd and 4th century. How amazing is that to think that some of these intricate sculptures survived almost 2000 years! It was just so cool.

After that we went walking in Volunteer Park. It was raining a lot. We went into the greenhouse which was beautiful. The first room is mostly orchids. I don't know what kind of flowers the 2nd room contained, but the smell was beautiful. And then we checked out the cacti and succulents and finally bromeliads in the 4th room. We also go to walk up the stairs in the water tower. The views all around were very cool. Although it was rather gray outside. All in all it was a really fun day!

Rigby is lucky!

Do you know those little rubber tips that come with shelving units that protect the shelves? She apparently ate one. It plugged her up. She was severely dehydrated. They rehydrated her and x-rayed her and while she was in my lap on a towel she pooped and out popped the little rubber tip. It was still fully shaped. So they x-rayed her a second time and luckily that was all she ate that she shouldn't have and she won't need emergency surgery to unblock her colon. Poor girl. She is spending the day at the vet's office for observation and I'll pick her up after work. How did she know I just got a raise at work??

Had a bad day today...

(Imagine it sung by that Fuel guy)

So far today (and keep in mind it is 9:41 AM) Rigby is very sick. I can't get her in to see the vet until tomorrow. I'm worried about her.

I broke a shoelace on my work danskos. The bookstore only sold black athletic shoe laces in 9 miles long so now I look like a reject from the 80's with my black work shoes and huge black athletic shoe laces. Also I'm wearing white slouchy socks because apparently all my black trouser socks have been eaten by the sock basket.

Now I get to go spend an hour in a meeting with people who will probably be upset about open enrollment stuff. I'm excited about that let me tell you.

De-nied

I went to donate blood yesterday and after undergoing rigorous testing, (ok finger pricking and taking the big whopping drop of blood) my blood didn't sink in that tube of green water. So she gathered up a bunch more and took it and spun it and discovered what I already knew... my hematocrit (iron) was only 34. Strangely I already knew this because at 4:05 my doctor's office called and told me that it was low but for some reason it didn't register in my head at all that this could impede my blood donation. I was sad. I was especially sad since they had called because they needed more blood of my type.

I got paid yesterday which is ever so exciting so I went grocery shopping as I had no food. I spent $50 and bought no food that had any nutritional value at all. Now I will say that gluten-free food is expensive, but honestly this was appalling. I looked like a frat guy except I had no beer. Mmmm... but I do now have cake and icing and cookies and corn chips. :)

This week's vegetable attempt is green snap peas. I'm going to try them fresh with maybe a little bit of ranch and hope that goes well. I really feel like I should like them. Unlike broccoli or brussel sprouts which I feel nobody should like. :)

The food network challenges are so fucking amazing. I'm watching one tonight is having the competitors make candy castles. It is phenomenal. The chocolate castle which is all dark and brooding is my favorite by far. I do wonder what happens to all the different end pieces.

I've had Flight Plan sitting on my table for a whole week. I don't think I'm going to end up watching it. Up next, though, is Anne of Green Gables. I love that movie.

Greedy & Ungrateful

It has already started. I hate the holiday season, and in truth I only hate it for one reason. My family and gift giving. If I thought I could get away with doing no gifts at all for and from my family I totally would. Every year it gets worse and worse and every year I get grumpier and grumpier about the whole thing.

The problem... my mother. First of all, we must provide lists. I'm cool with the list thing. (Although she will not provide one much to my chagrin.) Believe me, I'd rather her get me something off the list than some random thing she has decided I must have. So I dutifully give her a list of good ideas of things I would like in a wide variety of costs, including (this is new for 06) whether or not this can be purchased at a yard sale, which she frequently does (whether I say it is okay or not). I also send her links to things if I think she might have questions about specifics. I could not be more clear, right? No. Now the negotiations begin. Now she has to go through the process of finding the cheapest version of what I've asked for possible. So now begins the process of sending me link after link of the clearance version of what I've asked for. I really want to say to her that if it is THIS much of a hardship, don't fucking bother. It drives me completely crazy. And ultimately makes me resentful and angry. Truly. I understand the financial limitations of my parents. I know they are both retired blah blah blah. That's the whole reason I give them a wide variety of prices, this way, theoretically, they could get me something I would like without breaking the bank. Instead it becomes this whole tit for tat thing where I end up regretting asking for anything at all. Yet, if I were to say there's nothing I need or want I keep getting harrassed until I give up a list. The whole thing is so infuriating I just want to not have to do it anymore.

Winter has descended

I spent the weekend at the Pacific Science Center. Much to my chagrin, the Dead Sea Scrolls is in a special exhibit that I didn't get to go into. I'm going to have to go and check it out sometime. I did get to spend time in the Butterfly House and I watched the 'science circus' twice which was fun and cool. I really liked spending all that time there and seeing the cute kids in their costumes. There were a couple of very earnest little boys in costume. When I commented about them being Captain America or the Grim Reaper they had to very carefully tell me that although they were dressed like that, it was just a costume. They weren't really that guy. It cracked me up.

Taking care of my friend's dog was also fun. Her little dog was so excited to see me every time I came in to walk her. I'd spend about 45 minutes with the dog petting her and scratching her. She was very sweet, which is NOT how she usually is. :) I think it was the stress of having nobody there most of the rest of the time.

Sleepy

I stayed out way late last night. I didn't end up getting home until 1:30. Crikey work was early this morning.

I spent the day stuffing envelopes. I spent the entire day stuffing envelopes. (I don't think I can stress that enough.) It was brutal. And lucky me... we are completely short staffed tomorrow and so I get to spend most of the day sitting at the main reception desk. SUCK!

I'm spending the weekend volunteering and dogsitting. My friend Isa has a silky terrier. Jomji is very cute, but kind of high strung. (Kind of... that's like saying Phoenix is kind of hot in the summer). She is afraid of me so instead of acting like a dog she flips out and barks her fool head off. It'll be fun to play with a dog though. I'm just supposed to go by in the morning and evening and walk her and check the food and stuff. It'll remind me why I really don't want to own a dog while being an apartment dweller.

I'll be spending the weekend at the Pacific Science Center. If you've got nothing else happening you should come down! :) They'll have The Dead Sea Scrolls. How cool is that??

I've also finally figured out what I'm going to dress up as for the Peevery Halloween Costume Contest. I'm hoping it is clever and doesn't require too much explanation since that defeats the purpose.

I AM judgy

You ever have one of those conversations with a person and think, "Oh my god, are you really saying this?" (Completely and totally unrelated, if I weren't such a hippie about things I think I totally would've found my new car. Apparently some new fancypants lexus parallel parks itself. I don't know how to parallel park for anything, this could be awesome for me). Ok back to the tale of the Oh my god are you really saying this? Moral Turpitude and I were instant messaging this evening and he emails me a picture of a girl he's communicating with. She lives in Russia. So I make some comment about wouldn't it be easier to find a woman, you know, where he lives and not one internationally. Apparently he found her on a marriage site. She is one of 3 he is communicating with. Now this is weird for so many reasons, but the number one reason being that he just broke up with someone not 2 weeks ago because he was still hung up on this other girl. The funny thing is that before he told me the whole thing I made some snarky comment about yes marrying some chick from another country you don't know would be the solution to all your problems. And he asked me what problems? What problems? Is he serious? I deferred back to him and agreed with him... he has no problems. Freakin' weirdo.

Simplicity is good

So my notboss is leaving to be a stay at home mom. (She's my notboss because although she's higher on the food chain than I am... she is not my boss.) And I have been having this anxiety because my biggest boss said that we are doing this thing tomorrow as a send off and we all contributed money and then he said we should do something 'like you know... funny or whatever...' I assumed that we had to spend money and was totally peeved about that until I talked to coworker and got it figured out. He didn't necessarily mean spend money... just come up with something more personal I suppose. Ok so now I've got a clue. Earlier this year I did pot painting with the kids for their moms for mother's day. I have plenty of paint and pots left over I'll make one of those. So I painted one with flowers and dragonflies that I stamped on there and I looked at it and went ew. Too busy. So I went back to the drawing board (actually I fetched another pot out of the cupboard) and started over. I painted some 'grass' and a 'sky' and then I whitewashed it so that it was paler and not quite the harsh dark colors. Then I used yellow and purple and orange little teeny tiny dots to be like flowers in a meadow. And then I used more yellow to make spots in the sky to be fireflies and then I darkened the top part of the pot so it seems like the evening is falling. It turned out ever so much better and yet was so much simpler to do.

Unrelated, I finished up a book tonight called The Widow's War by Sally Gunning. It was great! I highly recommend it. It is set in the 1700's in a whaling community on Cape Cod. A woman's husband dies (hence the Widow title I don't think I'm spilling anything) and she fights with her family to assert her rights, of which she had very little. I was really fascinated as I read through the whole thing.

I also finished up a couple of chick lit books this weekend. Those I enjoyed somewhat less.

Singletini is typical chick lit. Twenty something girl struggles in her life blah blah blah. There were definitely funny parts, though but reading about some size sub-zero's "pooch" annoyed the crap out of me. (Of course that is how 24 year olds talk so...)

The Cinderella Pact I really wanted to like. I had it on reserve for goodness sakes, I must've seen something in it that appealed. Although I liked some aspects, it was this book that caused the gripe about fat chicks in chick lit.

Sufficient Grace was the 3rd book I read recently. I rather liked this one as well. A woman is suffering from the onset of schizophrenia. She flees her family because the voices tell her to and she spends months living with an African American family, the matriarch had taken care of her many years in the past when she was a child. It was a little sad but touching. I even liked the transformation of her husband, a mechanic, into a chef even though it was probably a little unreal.

Snippets

This morning I called the Reserve America line to try to get a yurt for the weekend of July 20th at Cape Lookout. The phone lines open at 8:00 and I called at 8:15. I spent 20 minutes on hold to find out that there were 3 yurts available... None of which were at Cape Lookout or Nehalem Bay which is where we wanted to go. They could've gotten us in at Bullards Beach but that is REALLY far from Seattle and much further than we wanted to go. I'll try again next Friday right at 8, but I don't hold my breath. If we can't get it, we'll just use tents. I was amazed that by 8:35 in the morning 120something yurts were reserved in 35 minutes for a weekend 9 months from now.

I still have a cold and I was called yesterday to donate blood cuz they are low on my type. My type never gets called for. I was all excited until I remembered that I am sick and she told me that I can't donate while I am. Darn. (Honestly though, Aleve Cold & Sinus is the bomb. I worship at its ground. I feel almost human while on it.)

Our new work study student sucks major ass. I have been searching for a form for weeks panicked because I thought I lost it. I checked the employee's file about 3 times and never saw it in there. That's because new work study put it at the very back of the file. Also he is VERY slow. I am not fond of him. Is it vaguely wrong that I keep hoping he'll fuck up again so Isa will have to fire him?

Earlier today I was talking with WC and this other guy. Other guy had taken a cherry lolly pop from my candy dish even though I had tried to convince him that he wanted a pink lemonade one. I made some crack about that's because I like the cherry ones and so he said to me, "You want me to give you your cherry back?" The three of us paused for a few moments and then burst into laughter. I threw them out of my office and as the WC was leaving he said that he didn't think Otherguy had the ability to do that.

I went and watched a movie over at V's today. We watched Run Lola Run which was much better than I thought it would be. About 3/4ths of the way through the roommate came home. We chatted a tiny bit, but not too much. I decided to leave after the movie because I'm just exhausted. If only I could figure out a way to spend more time with this guy...

Why do I eschew the soup?

For the past two days, since I've been getting sick, I've gone and gotten Pho with chicken from the Vietnamese place behind my office for lunch. I've added hoisin sauce and the red really spicy sauce so it provides me this really spicy, really warm chicken noodle soup. (Pho is made with rice noodles not wheat noodles hence it is okay.) And it has been REALLY good. Now ordinarily I say I don't like soup and now I'm wondering why that is. Because this... is hitting the exact spot right where I need it. My sinuses feel so much better (at least for a little while) after it.

Blow, hand sanitize, repeat

Somene gave me their cold. I am not amused. I have a shit load of work to do. I do not have time for this. I currently am sitting in my office, blowing my nose and then immediately hand sanitizing so I can hopefully not contaminate the entire rest of the world. Sigh.

Stereotypes

Lately I've been reading a lot of chick lit. Mostly because I went through a phase where I read a lot of depressing family lit and I was looking for something light and fun that doesn't require a lot of thought. Plus I'll be taking a test later this year that does require a lot of thought and preparation so light and fun is good. I've run into, though, a massive stereotyping that is starting to annoy the crap out of me. I've been reading 'fat chick lit' which interestingly enough is its own catagory under the chick lit label. Originally I was bugged by that fact, but then Michelle pointed out it does make it much easier for me to find books that are NOT about size 2 girls who work in New York City or London in publications or PR. Instead I can find size 12 girls who work in New York City or London in publications or PR.

This brings me to a bunch of questions. Why do many of the women in chick lit work in publishing (magazine or book) or PR? Are women unable to be astrophysicists or is it that astrophysics doesn't create a compelling backdrop? (I know that probably the thing is that the girls who are writing these books all are coming out of the publishing/pr fields but still... it's called research.)

So lately I've been reading fat chick lit because after awhile it is gross to keep reading about the size 2 who obsesses about her thighs and tit size. Now I'm offended by fat chick lit. Why is it impossible for a fat chick to be happy in her size in a novel? Why is it that every main character I've read so far has to go on a drastic diet to discover that really she's great at whatever size she is? How is it romantic for a guy to say to you 'you'd be really pretty if you lost a few pounds'? If a guy said that to me I'd kick him to the curb so fast. Why do all fat chick novels have to have at least 2 scenes where the fat chick binges so much that it would make a trucker sick? I've never eaten an entire bag of chips. I don't even eat an entire pint of ice cream, let alone an entire quart. And I certainly have never eaten both in one self pitying life defining moment. I started reading one book and got so disgusted I returned it after 2 chapters. I looked toward fat chick lit because I wanted at least a little bit of relatability, but not every fat chick is a sad sack. Yes, there is some anxiety the first time the guy sees you naked, that I can relate to. Buying clothes from Lane Bryant and then tucking the bags into bags from the Express or Limited so no one knows I bought from Lane I can't. That's just pathetic at a whole other level and frankly I can't stomach it any more.

Pea Pods & Broccoli Oh my!

I do not like how I cooked the pea pods tonight. They may be better in something else, but the Kung Pao stir-fry was not the best choice to make them. I'm going to try them in something else. Maybe in the lemon stir fry it would be better. It seems like it would meld well? Broccoli also not good in this either. It was bitter. I'll give broccoli one more try before I give up altogether on it. It may not be for me. But I can say I've given it quite the try once I do. :) So far both times I've tried it cooked in a stir-fry type of meal. It is part of my potato medly so maybe there it will be better.

I'm trying to reserve a yurt for next year's annual girl's camping trip. Things are not going well. I'm not sure if it is because everyone has already booked them (and you can only go book 9 months in advance and today is 9 months before the 3rd day of our camping trip so honestly everybody and their brother has already booked all the yurts already?!). The other option would be to call them tomorrow. Maybe I can understand the problem with the reserving I'm trying to do.

I received the encampment call in schedule on Thursday. At first I didn't really think too much about it, we're number 24 and in the second round, but for some reason on Friday that started sticking in my craw. That's not right. So I look up the rules for the lottery drawing and basically the put people into 3 piles based on what they ended up with last year. Both piles 1 and 2 are people/groups who did NOT get a spot the previous year. We shouldn't be in pile 2 since we did have a spot. What to do... I ended up emailing the council person in charge of the lottery. I don't want us to get moved back in the pack, but at the same itme I don't want to take a potential good spot that some other group should've gotten. I haven't heard back from her about what this means for us.

Nostalgia

While standing in the grocery store staring at the wide variety of frozen vegetable medleys trying to find something that appealed to me, I had this total falsh of memory about one of the grossest vegetable products ever... Veg-All. The years I spent at camp, somehow Veg-All was always served at least once over the summer. It was bought in #2 cans and I remember just being so completely grossed out by it. For some reason I just stood there and cracked up.

In case y'all care... I bought 2 different frozen veggie things. One, a stir fry, with water chestnuts, carrots (which I don't like cooked but I think that's usually a texture thing because I think they get squishy), broccoli and snap-peas. I think I want to like snap-peas. The other is a roasted thing with potatoes, red peppers and broccoli. I'm excited for the stir fry which I'll add to my chicken stir-fry tomorrow for dinner.

Look, Ma, no hangover!

I'm rather lucky this morning, I have no hangover. I totally and completely should. But thanks to Big R's magic bottle of water, I am not at all.

Last night I went to V's house to celebrate his birthday. I had entirely too much to drink, and then had 2 more on top of that. :) Peach vodka and orange juice is really good. :) Big R showed up about 1/2 way into the party and luckily gave me a ride home. I'm not 100% certain that I would have made it by walking. When I first got there there were not a lot of people but was there were mostly straight I think. This one guy just kept talking talk talk talking. It was painful. I had a really good time, though. I shamelessly threw myself at his roommate. (A straight guy who volunteers probably as regularly as I do. How could I not?!) I saw a bunch of gays I haven't seen in awhile and that was fun too. Best of all, somehow I managed to sleep late!

Now I'm starving and I have to get the hell out of the house so I can go get quarters for laundry for the next 6 weeks. Blech. :)

Goals and all that crap

The last time I did goals was in the spring. I still haven't found a yoga class, although I think I forgot that goal so I haven't been looking that hard. Since I've been doing the aquajog thing I haven't been going to the gym in a traditional fashion, but I think they are similar. Meal plan. I suck at that. :) Sunday adventures and walking to and from work I'm doing. Saving money not so much, but now that I'm making more maybe I'll be able to save after all. So now we're on to new fall goals! (I think I get somewhat meloncholy in the fall because I work for a college. There's stuff happening all around me that is new and exciting... for other people. I'm a part of it but not really, you know. Plus I have a lot of extra work in the fall. And as Michelle has pointed out it is getting darker in the fall, but at the same time Sheesh is right in that I don't get like this in January and it is way darker then. I don't know, I'm sure it is a confluence of a lot of different things all at once.)

Fall Goals!
1. Yoga. Again with this goal. But I think I really should start taking advantage of what my college's gym offers. They have yoga every night for goodness sakes. I need to just go to one or two classes. (Although now that I've looked at the schedule I can only make Wednesday nights. But one night in addition to my hydrofit class is more than I'm currently doing. :) )

2. Try more veggies. This is a frequent appearer on my goals list and yet one I can't really get into. In a few years I hope to be acquiring children through some means. I feel like I should be able to encourage good eating habits in my future unnamed children and I can't do it with my current eating habits. So to make this a measurable goal I will try one new veggie a week. So far I can say I do not like broccoli (too woody) or green peppers (bitter). I do like red peppers which I will now willingly eat. The veggies I've tried so far have all been in Asian food so there may be a slant there. If any of y'all have a veggie that works for you and/or a recipe that makes it good (nothing with cheese sauce though. I think it might defeat the purpose of eating more veggies.) please feel free to share. So far I eat carrots, cucumbers, lettuce (but not rock & twig lettuce, too bitter usually), corn, yellow beans and now red peppers. There might be something else but I can't remember what.

3. Cut back on the soda. I'm not willing to go to diet. I was successful for a long while, but it slowly creeped back up until my current level. To start I'll cut back to 3 a day (I know) and hopefully get down to 2 and maybe even 1 a day.

4. After Christmas pay more down on my credit cards now that I have more income. (I say that because I do have Christmas presents to buy and a bunch of damn birthdays in December.)

Those are good to start I think.

Shake shake shake

Yesterday I was sitting on my sofa and I thought hmm... It feels like one of the ferrets has climbed into the sofa and is digging around. Yet I reinforced the bottom of the sofa so they can't do it so I know that can't be it. How weird. Apparently Mt. Rainier had a rather small earthquake yesterday. It's weird, I admit, but I kind of dig earthquakes. Not the giant ones that cause damage buildings to collapse or trigger massive tsunamis that kill people, but the little gentle ones. In Alaska several happened while I lived there. Usually in the middle of the night so I just kind of felt it but didn't fully realize it. We did have one while I was working at the library and the bookshelves were swaying we were moving so much. Tornadoes and hurricaines, though, I don't want to know nothing about those things. :)

Dressy bessy!

Over at The Peevery KTP was complaining about her pants. Which totally reminded me of this doll I used to have. Thanks to the power of Google, I found it. Here she is. Dressy Bessy. I remember loving to fiddle with the snap. Ahh memories.

Crappity crap crap

I just did a little google searching. The mold behind the tiles is very bad. VERY BAD. I'm going to have really spend the weekend cleaning my ass off so that I can get the manager in next week to repair. CRAP!

Karmic balance ass kicking continued

So yesterday I had this meeting and it was our first of the year and I'm the new service unit manager and I'm all excited and I buy treats and doorprizes and 3 people show up. THREE PEOPLE SHOWED UP! Fuckers. And just to illustrate how fuckers the rest are... 1 was a new troop leader who doesn't even have a troop yet. One lives around the block from the church. One is the registrar who was there to pick up troop registrations. Fuckers all the other ones.

But yesterday I also picked up my new glasses. Yay! They are essentially the same as my old ones except copper in color. 0ooh they're the titanium kind that means I can twist them so that's cool. So there's a good.

This morning while showering a tile hurled itself off the bathroom wall and hit me in the calf. There are others threatening to follow and what looks like mold behind the tiles. Fuck. I will be spending this weekend cleaning my apartment's ass off so I can call the manager to fix it.

Karmic balance is kicking my ass

I received word this morning from my boss that I am getting bumped up in dollars and in job grade effective 9/25. Yay! And by bumped up in dollars I mean BUMPED. (Ok $5k a year but it is sorely needed I tell you). Plus, this new job grade means I am no longer a non-exempt employee. I love it! No more time sheets! So that's the good.

The more than annoying:

Tonight's the first Service Unit meeting of which I am in charge. I have to go to the Girl Scout office to pick up the keys to the church. A - their hours are only from 9 - 4:30. Ok, that sucks. What about those of us who work. So I check out a flexcar and was going to take a long lunch today to go get the keys and some 'door prizes' in the hopes of attracting people to the damn meeting. (Typically there are 5 of us there. There are WAY more than 5 troops). I start walking over, in pain because the boot is at home because I can't drive with it on, when I suddenly think about the keycard to get into the flexcar. I check my wallet. It isn't there and I forgot my cell phone. Fuck. I walk the 3 blocks back to campus and search my pack and jacket. No dice. I have no idea where it is. Fuck. So I call the Flexcar people and now with the new smartcard they can't remote unlock like they used to. Fuck. So I'm out of luck. So now I'm being billed for flexcar time that I didn't use. I don't have the crap I need and I have to leave early instead to catch a bus to the damn Girl Scout office and deal with this.

Acceptance

I don't like indy films. I really need to just accept this fact. I keep getting my hopes up, though. I'll see one that makes me think, 'oh they aren't that bad', and then I'll see 4 more that make me think 'I HATE indy films'! Netflix delivered to me Friends with Money. I love Joan Cusack and I like Jennifer Aniston. But Friends with Money was just painful. It just kept meandering to me and I wanted to shout at the screen 'get to the bloody point already!' So I'm back on the I hate indy films belief and I think I'll stick with it.

Also, unrelated but it may help me remember things, I don't like Raspberry Cream Italian Sodas.

Tired of life

Sometimes I get tired of my life. Not in a 'goodbye cruel world' type of way, just in a 'can I tuck my head under the covers and wake up when things are a little less crappy. And sadly, things aren't actually even that crappy. In all honesty, my life is actually pretty darn good. But every once in a while, I look around me and think, this can't be all there is. Like Ariel "I want more..."

V and Isa are both afflicted with a condition wherein when they are talking about someone (usually smack) they turn around and that person is there. It is uncanny actually. Today that actually happened to me. Big R and I were in a coffee shop and I was trying to remember what kind of Italian Soda I liked and whether or not I liked it with cream. And so I playfully smacked his arm and chastised him for not being Matthew who would know that. We sit down at a table to work on his resume and not two tables away is Matthew who had been sitting there working. We said hello. That was it.

I went to Dim Sum with Isa, and Big R and a bunch of other people today. I think I'm not going to go anymore. I just order off the menu while the others do all the Dim Sum. I just think it is way pricier than necessary.

I think a fun name for a drag queen would be Anita Dix.

It is hard to stay totally blue when one is watching Grease 2. That's just fully cheesbally.

Also, I'm so glad that the WB and UPN combined because otherwise how would we have valuable channel space for My Q TV channel? I can't believe I'm paying for that non-existent useless channel.

Finally, how can you tell if your desire to just sit on the sofa and do nothing including eat is depression or laziness? I'm leaning towards laziness but it would be nice if it were depression so that I'd have an excuse.

Taxation without something or other

I was all full of righteous indignation about getting hit with a 32% tax on some random extra money I received this month. (My office does supplemental pay when you do random extra work which I did a shit load of earlier in the month so it definitely is NOT a bonus which would be taxed at an outrageous rate because that's how bonuses are). Then I double checked and did the math. Unfortunately $125 out of $500 is 25% which IS my tax bracket. Sigh. Ahh well, difficult to come by, easy to go. :) I did use the remaining $340 (don't forget FICA the bitch she is) to buy my plane ticket to see Michelle over Thanksgiving! A break! I am so excited. I'll arrive Tuesday night. She'll 'work from home' on Wed and I'll hang out. We'll eat with her fam on Thanksgiving. We will get up at the butt crack of dawn on black Friday and be done shopping by noon. (or thereabouts) I will get to eat at all the places I love that we don't have here in Seattle like my favorite Chinese place over by my old work. Ooh and Mongolian BBQ. I love that! And I won't even drag her to Disneyland. :)

Tomorrow I'm taking the girls on an adventure. (The ferrety girls not the Scouty girls). Tess has to go for her shot and I signed up for the Flexcar for a longer period of time so I can also go to my GF bakery and to the Pet Store so I can get their treats. They can go in with me at the pet store so I'll take Rigby too (if I can find her).

My apologies to smokers around the globe.

I just read on yahoo news that New York City is now looking to ban trans fats in restaurants, bakeries, fast food joints etc. They are currently running a voluntary program to reduce trans fats but apparently that's not working, so they are looking to ban altogether. Chicago is apparently currently considering a similar voluntary program. I found several things intereting about the article. (I never link to articles because eventually the article will be gone and it will be a broken link and I hate that!) First of all I found it intersting that it is New York and Chicago doing the banning. I would figure that someplace like LA and even my own home of rock and twig lovers Seattle would be the first two to do something like this.

My next thought was what's next? We've banned smoking. Now we're banning being fat. What's next? Being single? Being an unwed parent? (Oh no, they tried that it didn't change anything). And while smoking IS a health risk to others, my being fat doesn't really hurt anyone else. It does, I suppose, with regards to health care coverage costs since hypothetically we fatties are more likely to need medical care I know in my own life that isn't necessarily true. Although I can tell you that our current health care costs are outrageous at my job and that's because of all the cancer people we've had who 20 years ago would've died a lot sooner than they did and none of those were due to fatness. With the exception of the tendon (also not related to fattness but to short achilles tendons, something else probably genetic), I'm actually rather healthy. (Oh yeah and the celiac thing but that's genetic and totally unrelated to fatness. That's my parents' fault.) And as some of the things I've read suggest being sickly underweight is actually worse for you than being moderately overweight. (Ok I'm NOT moderately overweight, but I'm not necessarily the poster child for the argument either.) I was going somewhere with the rest of this, but I've lost my train of thought. Darn my job. :)

Happiness is...

Thinking how nice a snack would be and then remembering you actually have a dollar in your backpack so you can get one.

Also, in the potential husband's names I would be unwilling to take catagory, we can add Dickson and Butts to the list.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Last night I was having this totally wild nightmare that for some strange reason I wanted to go back to once it woke me up. Luckily this didn't happen.

I was living in this house like a dorm or a frat house on a college campus. (Although I think it was more just a big old house but there was an implication that more people would live in it). I was the only one living there except this ghost that lived on the 2nd floor. She was not a nice ghost, she was kind of evil. She was trying to get me to leave so she put boobie traps up on the 2nd floor. Like if I tugged a door knob a cherry bomb would go off. Or if I touched a lever I think at one point a gun went off. So while this is happening the 2nd floor is just falling apart. I have to escape at once and me and a dog and a guy who had been coming up the stairs race down the stairs with her chasing after us and we run out of the house. And then the house collapses. And then I woke up.

Ghost: In general, ghosts symbolizes aspects of yourself that you fear. This may involve a painful memory, guilt, or some repressed thoughts. You may be afraid of death and dying. Alternatively, ghosts are representative of something that is no longer obtainable or within reach. It indicates a feeling of disconnection from life and society. This dream may be a calling for you to move on and abandon your outdated modes of thinking and behavior.

House: To see an old, run-down house in your dream, represents your old beliefs, attitudes and how you used to think or feel. A situation in your current life may be bringing about those same old attitudes and feelings. Alternatively, the old house may symbolize your need to update you mode of thinking.

Haunted House: To dream of a haunted house, signifies unfinished emotional business, related to your childhood family, dead relatives, or repressed memories and feelings.

Gun: To see a gun in your dream , symbolizes aggression, anger, and potential danger. You may be dealing with issues of passiveness/aggressiveness and authority/dependence. Alternatively, a gun can represent the penis and male sexual drive. Thus the gun may mean power and impotence.

Destruction: To dream about mass destruction, suggests that there is some chaos occurring in your life. Things may not be going the way you want it to. Perhaps the choices your are making are self-destructive.

Dog: To see a dog in your dream, indicate a skill that you have ignored or forgotten, but needs to be activated. Alternatively, dogs may symbolize intuition, loyalty, generosity, protection, and fidelity. Your own values and intentions will enable you to go forward in the world and succeed.

Man: To see a man in your dream, denotes the masculine aspect of yourself - the side that is assertive, rational, aggressive, and/or competitive. If the man is known to you, then the dream may reflect you feelings and concerns you have about him.

Apparently I'm more screwed up than I know. :) But the man and dog represent getting out if it I guess? I don't know.

Square pegs... square pegs...

I was thinking of that theme song because there's a line in the song about having to wear glasses. Don't ask, it worked in my head. :)

I went to the eye doctor on Thursday before Carlos Mencia. I always have such a hard time with the eye doctor. I worry about giving the 'right' answer. I also had my eyes dilated for the first time. My eye guy said that we didn't do it last time because I had some sort of infection, which was true. But all other times with other doctors, they've never done it. I now kind of get why those people have a hard time when their eyes are dilated. It wasn't so much all the light that was being let in, although that was part of it. But it genuinely made my eyes feel weird and not right and periodically I felt like I had to adjust to see through them. I also ordered new glasses which is fun and exciting. I picked them out in less than 20 minutes. There was another woman there who had been picking since before I went in for the exam and still hadn't decided after I made my decision. She asked me my opinion and I said it depended on what she was looking for. The one pair made her look younger and fun and the other a bit more librarian and if she's going for being young and hip she should go with the others. Freakishly enough she took my advice. :) Hopefully I won't run into her when I'm picking up my glasses and she has had a chance to hate them or anything. :)

Also I hate my hair. Completely and fully. I was looking at it in the mirror at the eyeglass place and the color seems to mostly have left it. Although there must be still some color since the roots are a distinctly different color. But the part around my face seems to still be a different color. I'm sure it is the chlorine from the pool, but in any case it does not look good in my opinion. I also hate its current length. So currently it gets worn in a pony tail every day because I hate it so much. Really. I hate it. I'm considering shaving my head but I know that's no solution.

Finally how much do I love Amazon.com? I had a brief flirtation with a boycott of them after I spent 5 hours interviewing for a job I didn't get. (bastards) Although hindsight being what it is, I would've hated that job and wanted to quit 10 minutes later I'm sure. Anyway, I found the book I need for the class I'm taking for $50 less than I would pay directly to the group that does my class. How awesome is that?

Also in answer to Mishka's question about where I find my volunteering gigs. I go to a multitude of sources. My number 1 place is volunteermatch. However, for several places I am now on their books so to speak so I get reminders or requests when it is time for other things. The Paramount actually sends out volunteer emails monthly to say these are the shows we have this month and if you're interested in volunteering let them know. Others I remember from year to year and seek them out myself, AIDS Walk and Firefighter Stairclimb (that one I actually have a calendar reminder to myself to register for because we love doing it so much). (Also thanks to the Paramount I'll be seeing the Killers on the 12th of October. I love The Paramount! :) )

Wicked!

This weekend has been another volunteerfest for me.

Saturday was my college's Day of Caring where the new students participate in volunteering all across the city. This year, unlike previous years, we only did environmental activities. I signed up for neighborhood beautification. I was kind of under the impression that there would be a variety of activities for neighborhood clean-up. That is totally and completely not what happened. The guy from the agency didn't show up until we called him. He had no supplies. Luckily the student leader I was working with grabbed some before we left. Apparently we were picking up trash. Picking up trash from 4 blocks right next to campus. It was obnoxious and ridiculous and we were not thrilled. The guy from the agency left and so it really was just the 8 of us. In past years, people from the groups were there and participated and there were a lot of different activities. We were supposed to be working until 3:00, but honestly by 1:15 the students and I were tired of bending over and the futility of picking up cigarette butts in front of 3 local bars wore on us. We gave up. I told the coordinator from the college and she understood and totally didn't blame us for bailing very early. The students that participated, though, still like volunteering and we had a good time because we had good attitudes, but man it was disenheartening.

Today I volunteered to be an usher for Wicked. It was so good. I really enjoyed it a lot. I missed the opening song and had to come down just before the first act ended, but it was still a great show! I highly recommend it if it comes to your town.

And tonight... Pizza and I want to make a coffee cake! :) What a perfect and good weekend!

It's like I'm hungover

Without the fun the night before. My head aches. My stomach was a bit twitchy this morning, although now that I've eaten it has settled down. And I'm tired. Bone tired. I'm supposed to go to this bbq tonight and I'm seriously considering backing out.

Actually I did have fun last night. I volunteered for the Carlos Mencia show at the Moore Theater. I have to say he is funny as hell. I laughed so hard the whole show. The people who were touring with him are also great. The little person who has been on his TV show before was there. He did some jokes. There were 2 or 3 other warm-up comedians. The whole show was just laugh bring tears to your eyes funny. If you get a chance to see him, I would highly recommend him. Well, I should clarify, if you aren't easily offended you should see him. The two older women who volunteered with me left somewhere during Carlos's show. I believe they had had enough. Although one stuck it out a lot longer than the other and I think I could hear her laughing. So maybe he does have mass appeal. :)

Am I a wuss?

I'm having angst. The swimming class I take in the evenings is in a less than desirable neighborhood. On my way to catch the bus after class, I walk past at least 2 completely boarded up buildings and then some other questionable homes. (I say quesitonable because at least 1 has had an eviction notice attached to the door for the entire time I've been taking swimming class and and several others have windows broken out indicating they may or may not be housing people.) During the summer this didn't bother me in the least because it is still light outside at 7:15. Not so much anymore. Now it is darker (and progressively getting worse as we get into fall). Am I a wuss for not wanting to go past these homes at night? I walk in my own neighborhood late at night all the time with no issues. (Although in my neighborhood's defense no boarded up houses, but then again at least 2 halfway houses so...) There is a closer bus I could grab which would not force me to walk past the worst of it, although it comes later in the evening so I would be standing waiting longer. Or am I just being a wuss and looking for an excuse not to exercise? :)

I hate it when that happens

I am a bad citizen. I forgot to vote today. Dammit.

10 Things

I got this from Jujubee.

LIST TEN THINGS YOU WANT TO SAY TO PEOPLE YOU KNOW BUT YOU NEVER WILL, FOR WHATEVER REASON. DON'T SAY WHO THEY ARE. USE EACH PERSON ONLY ONCE.

1. You are a big part of the reason she is dead. And I have no qualms about all the bad karma I've incurred since then hoping, wishing and praying for your death.

2. Don't listen to your father. Your life will be a whole lot easier if you learn to get along with all types of people and not judge those who have different lifestyles than you. (This may be cheating because I may find myself saying that to her some day.)

3. When someone is doing you a favor, it is your job to make that favor as easy as possible for them to do. Also, don't assume that just because someone knows you have a limit they are prepared to accommodate it for you.

4. I will no longer tolerate your irrational anger.

5. Just kiss me already! ;)

6. I hate that I still miss you being my friend.

7. You haven't learned a damn thing and that's alarming. And ultimately I don't trust you anymore.

8. You will never get married because you refuse to relax any of your ridiculously high standards and open your mind to the possibilities that are out there.

9. I don't want to do this anymore.

10. Please stop asking me stupid questions.

Geeky excitement

I have mentioned before that I like the show the Amazing Race. I think it is very cool. I only semi-recently got into the show last summer when the Game Show Network ran a marathon of every episode all summer long. You can imagine my geeky excitement over the discovery that tonight's race left out of Seattle. I just like it when I see places I recognize on TV. I know that's silly of me. :) (They started out of Gasworks Park.) Also, they are starting out going to China. I've always wanted to go there. If I had any physical abilities and could stomach the possibility of eating gross food, I think I would do something like this. Oh wait, I don't think I'd want to be on TV either so never mind. :) (Of course if I had physical abilities I'd be skinnier than I am and that may affect my decision to be on TV.) (Also fun is seeing the racers get confused trying to get to I5 from Gasworks which can be a bit confusing.)

Bad for the environment

I know it is bad for the environment, but honestly there are days when I could spend forever standing in the shower. This morning's shower was one of those. It was just lovely. (I think because the shower was so hot and my apartment is arctic right now so my feet and hands were so cold that when I got in my hands and feet burned) (Ok now I feel like I should explain why my apartment was arctic this morning. We're currently experiencing the weird Seattle weather where it is cold but then warms to really hot. So my windows are all still open and I have fans going so it doesn't get all hot during the afternoon.)

Have another drinky poo.

I first must warn you that this post may contain both swearing and one potentially offensive and completely embarrassing story. (I may not do the story as I am sobering up and hence feel less compelled to share.)

I went to a party tonight with Big R over at V's house. V and I have been hanging out more (ok 2 times in a week I suppose that is MORE than before). I think it is important for Big R to hang with the gays. He doesn't know too many of them. So we went and I met a bunch of new gays I hadn't met before. They were fun and we laughed. Big Gay Queen is back in town and we talked and I talked to some other folks I know. I met V's roommate who I think I might have a big ol' crush on. He's 32. He volunteers! He asked me about other volunteering stuff. It was a great conversation! V did embarrass me though and make me tell a story I'd rather not but I told it and it was funny and everyone laughed. (I'm not sharing it. I'm too sober now) :) Maybe some other day. Big R had a good time at the party and that makes me glad.

I'm going to the fair tomorrow! I'm rather excited. I can't wait! I've never been.