and my thoughts go this way and that

Today I think I'll go with the randomness of my thoughts, however interesting (or not) they may be.


This morning someone busted the copy machine. This happens frequently, and it's usually the same perpetrator, but generally said perp just leaves it busted until I stumble upon it later and fix it, and I can always tell who it was by the copies that come out once it's fixed. Upon receiving my request last week that I would prefer people ask for help when there is a paper jam or something like that, this morning help was actually requested (just not my help). After awhile I got tired of listening to two people arguing over what to do about a PAPER JAM (really? Is it that hard to read the instructions on the screen that tell you what the problem is?) I went out and fixed it. Quite simply, quite quickly. As I was walking away, I heard the usual suspect say, "Can you believe we just had to get help from her? A woman had to help us fix a MACHINE!" Ohhhhhh-kay. I'm letting it go because it really doesn't matter to me if he feels emasculated by the fact that I'm able to follow directions and he's not, but seriously. Who still says stuff like that?


Today I am wearing a dress. This is the first time I have worn an actual dress to work....ever. I have been known to wear skirts quite frequently in the warmer months, but never an actual dress. So far today, several people have commented on how cute my dress is and how pretty I look (which, let's be honest, I will never be tired of hearing - thanks, Alisa, for helping me pick it out!), one person asked me if I had gotten my hair done (nope, just wearing it down and combined with a dress) and one of the contractors we were meeting with today went out of his way to open doors for me (I didn't hate that either). It's very strange. I might be the most single person I know (I believe I am actually allergic to dating) so I don't really think about stuff like this (compliments, chivalry, etc) a lot of the time, because it's just so completely absent from my life (which is not meant to imply that my guy friends are lax in this department or anything, I'm just not really the type of girl who inspires this behavior. I'm more of a 'one of the guys' kind of girl). I may have to look into this dress thing a little further, though. Independence and feminism is all well and good, but flattery freakin' rocks.


My dress is red, because it turns out I have kind of a thing for red. This became apparent in grand fashion last weekend when I was shopping at Target, wearing a red shirt, and purchasing a red martini shaker, red oven mitt, red cheese spreaders, and having every red thing in the store catch my eye (which is a lot, when you're in a Target). I might have a slight problem with the red. Anyway, two people have asked me if I'm wearing this dress today because it's "Detroit Red." Red for the Pistons, Red for the Redwings, whatever. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even think about that before I put it on. However, my answers to these questions is, "Yes. Yes it is Detroit Red. Go Detroit!" Down with Celtics!


And finally, the reason for the dress today was that I had planned to go to Sex and the City after work with some friends. We figured we'd buy tickets online this morning and make a night of it. Well, imagine my surprise when EVERY SINGLE SHOW was completely sold out as of 9:30 this morning. I couldn't believe it. However, I think it's glorious. I'm tired of reading all the stuff from all the haters saying this movie won't be able to do much at the box office because it's not good and only women will see it (I maintain that most of these people are probably people who never watched or didn't like the show and therefore shouldn't be writing about it, but I digress). I hate to break it to you, movie industry, but 50% of the population is women. We are a force when we come together on something. We will come together on this movie. There's a little something for everyone. I feel confident that it won't let you down!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

prepare for jealousy

Somebody got a chance to see Sex and the City a day early.

Somebody jumped at that chance.

That somebody was me. I saw it.

I will wait until after the weekend to say more about it so as not to ruin it for anyone, but I will say that it has restored my faith in movies. I would not have changed a thing, it was perfect.

I'm seeing it again as soon as possible!

this could be trouble

So. New phone. Check.


Small and cute. Check.




Rockin' slidy feature. Check.

So, as anyone who has been reading this for awhile may remember, I have a slight problem with my email (I'm completely obsessed with it). Well, this new fabulousness that is my phone connected to my email and now alerts me EVERY time I get a message. Yea, I didn't think that would happen without a blackberry or a treo or something. I'm almost afraid of what kind of psycho this is going to turn me in to. It won't be pretty.


In other, much more serious news, did you see about this? And this is the day after there was a fire on the red line, and a couple of weeks after at least one (and I think two) commuter rail train crash-like scenarios. Makes you feel safe about public transportation, doesn't it?

Amazing.

New cell phone ordered: May 27, 2008 6:30 p.m. EST (ish)

New cell phone delivered: May 28, 2008 9:30 a.m. EST

I am officially impressed.

Cell Phone Lament

Anyone who talks to me on a regular basis knows that one of the things I like to complain about the most is the craptacularness of my cell phone. Since February I've pretty much just been biding time until December when I could get a better rebate and replace it.

Turns out my phone had other plans.

It has all but stopped holding a charge for longer than three hours, on Sunday I was trying to use it and it froze completely (not the first time that's happened) and today buttons started FALLING OFF. As in, if my nails break (which is always an imminent probability) I will not really be able to push the menu button, which is kind of a problem.

Today it became inescapably clear that it's time for a new phone. I can't hold out any longer. So I bit the bullet and ordered my replacement phone, which I hope to have by the end of the week.

On the plus side, my new phone is the kind that slides open to show a full keyboard which will make texting that much easier. I'll take the silver lining wherever I can get it.

randomness

1 - I watched P.S. I Love You again. Still cried the whole time, so now I'm pretty much convinced it's a good movie and that I'll be buying it for whenever I feel like drowning in sorrow (probably with a bottle of wine and some brownies).


2 - I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I enjoyed it, though the people I went with most definitely did not. I don't want to ruin anything for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but I was entertained and I was able to "get there" with where Lucas and Spielberg were trying to go.


3 - If you haven't seen it, go to Iron Man. You won't be sorry. I saw it again over the weekend with quite possibly the toughest critic I know (who is also a big fan of the comic) and even HE loved it. Plus, you should always just take my word for it, because I'm clearly never wrong. Ha.


4 - I've been meaning to put this picture up for awhile, but I keep forgetting. These fantastic little footies are from Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book. I love them, and I want to make many, many pairs.




5 - The three day weekend was fabulous, I got only minorly sunburned (which is impressive), and I'm almost ready to go back to work tomorrow. Almost.

10 thoughts on the grey's finale

So if you don't watch Grey's Anatomy or you haven't seen the finale yet or something, you can go ahead and skip this post. For everyone else, my two cents' worth on the 2 hour spectacular of kissing that was last night's episode (modified form from the running email of bullet points I was making to send to Grace once she's actually seen it):

1 - how is it possible that Meredith's mom never had child protective services called on her or anything? I mean, seriously, the woman slit her wrists in front of her five year old daughter, who called 911 for her, and then they just went back home together at the end of the day? Really? Yea, I like her even less now and she's been dead for over a season. But, it does make me like Meredith more and I guess that's kind of the point, right?

2 - I love Mark Sloan. And no, I don't love him because he's hot (not really my type), but he's so funny! I hope that next season they give him more to do than try and sleep with everyone in sight, because I think he'd be good at it. How adorable was he when he told Callie to go be with Hahn?

3 - I can't tell you how happy I was when Christina finally let Hahn have it and then the Chief backed her up. There might have been actual cheering involved on my part. Also interesting how it made Christina be less horrible to Lexie. I can't wait to see her and Hahn battle it out come fall.

4 - I wanted to punch every one of those little bastards who were making fun of the kid in cement. I mean, yea the girl did the right thing eventually blah blah blah, but she sucked in every possible way leading up to that, so I couldn't even be happy when she finally came around.

5 - How cute were the brain cancer kids? I might have gotten a little teary when the guy said, "I'm not finished loving you!" I'm pretty sure in my next hyper-dramatic, against-all-odds epic love story someone is saying that at some point. That was my favorite line of the night.

6 - When Bailey started going on about Star Wars I was giddy. I love that she's a nerd, and I loved that I could follow along with everything she was saying, because I've seen those movies so many times.

7 - Rebecca/Ava went to a level of crazy I really didn't see coming. I wanted her to go away and I'm glad she's gone because that was getting seriously freaky, and I'm glad that Alex stopped being a total jackass to Izzie finally. He did such a good job with that crying/kissing/begging scene at the end, good for you Justin Chambers (it almost made up for the horrible Italian accent you tried to pull off in The Wedding Planner. Almost)!

8 - Even though it was super cheesy and more than slightly unrealistic (though, seriously, this is Grey's Anatomy, what can you expect?), I totally loved the candle floor-plan thing Meredith made for Derek on his hill. But the best part of that was definitely the pacing and the yelling. I feel like Mer is finally back to being the badass she was in season 1, and all I can say is FINALLY. This is much better than whiny, obnoxious, trying to drown herself Meredith.

9 - My over/under on when George and Lexie get together next season is 6 episodes. Probably less if he passes his exam and she somehow becomes his intern. Especially since they're roommates.

10 - All week leading up to this episode, there was all this talk about "the big kiss" and how no one was going to see it coming and when it did you would definitely know and it would be sweet and amazing and magical and wondrous and you would see flowers and unicorns and angels. I'm still trying to figure out which one they were talking about. I mean seriously. Let's count, shall we? Brain Tumor Kids, Cement Guy and Stupid Girl, Callie and Hahn, Chief and Adele, Alex and Izzie, George and Lexie (though that one was definitely the shortest), or Meredith and Derek. I may have forgotten one. I'm sure it was probably supposed to be Meredith and Derek (because it's always all about them), but for my money, the best was Alex and Izzie. I'll say it again: I'm impressed with how he was able to pull off the begging and the total breakdown and instead of thinking he was teetering on the brink himself and should maybe step back for awhile, I was thinking the kissing was a really good idea and they should get it together.

I loved it, but I think I need to watch it again, there was a lot to take in! And now my TV watching for the year is done (I think) because I don't watch Lost.

One more thing: I'm going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tonight! On a scale of 1-10 my excitement level is like an 8 (only because I don't want to seem over-eager)

First one thing, then the other

I returned home last night to a Netflix envelope waiting for me with P.S. I Love You in it. There are two things you need to know before I continue:

1. When it comes to movies, I am a crier. Back in the day (you know, high school) I'd go to movies with friends and if it was an emotional ending they would watch me instead of the movie because it was guaranteed I would be crying and apparently that was more entertaining than what was occurring on screen.

2. To date, I have not been a fan of Hilary Swank. This goes back to 90210. I don't know why, there's just something about her that made me unable to like her.

OK. This movie was in the theatre for about 4 minutes. Blink and you missed it kind of thing. But the plot interested me, so I rented it. I knew going in this was a movie that was going to make me cry at some point (I mean, the premise gets me a little misty even - and no, I haven't read the book), even if it was terrible. Here's what I did not expect:

• To start crying before the opening credits because of the sweetness
  
• To continue crying for the entire two hours of the movie
  
• To absolutely LOVE it, despite the emotional rollercoasterness
  
• To suddenly think that Hilary Swank is super sweet and not at all manly

I think I'm going to have to watch it again this weekend just to make sure that it's a good movie and I'm not just emotional right now or something, but I did NOT expect to like it that much. As far as movies to watch when you want to cry go, it's up there with Beaches and Steel Magnolias (at least for today - check back with me after a 2nd viewing).


In a completely unrelated story, you may have heard that the Pistons and the Celtics are playing each other in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. You may or may not know that in the 80's this was a heated rivalry. There is no love lost between these two teams. You may or may not also know that my loyalty remains with all the Detroit teams, despite approaching the two year anniversary of my living in Boston. So I came into my office this morning and found this sign:
All over the place:


All I can say is, Go Pistons! Detroit, WHAT?! (and I don't even like the NBA)

food.

For whatever reason today I have all these food-related things on the brain (and at least one of them is gross, sorry).

Thing 1

The absolute best grilled cheese I have ever had is from Kelly's Roast Beef on Revere Beach. It's something about the combination of the gooey-cheesiness and the sourdough bread and whatever form of butter or oil they use for cooking it, but it's FANTASTIC. I love it. So when Friday rolled around and we were trying to determine what to do for girl's night out when 1/3 of our party couldn't make it and it was kind of rainy and gross to be walking all over downtown Boston, my only thought was, "why don't we get Kelly's and then go back to my apartment and watch movies there?" The brilliance of this plan was immediately acknowledged and off we went. While on the way, my comrade in arms had a suggestion of her own. "Why don't we bake stuff?" Obviously, a detour was made to the grocery store, which brings me to

Thing 2

We decided that not only would we bake, but we would have a dessert buffet. Which ended up really just being brownies and cookies, but they were Ghiradelli double chocolate brownies, and sugar cookies in cute shapes with frosting and sprinkles, so I think we get points for extra effort. When making cookies into cute shapes, there's always a bit leftover that won't fit perfectly into a cookie cutter so you end up with random leftover dough. Now, we are not ones to let that stop us, so T made a little mound of cookie to put on the last sheet in the oven, and there was a little crumb leftover which we set right on top. Like a belly button or something. It came out looking a little freaky, and when time came for frosting, we did not do our part to hide the freaky:

It's blurry but you can still see the belly button in the middle.

Thing 3

As we have learned, I am not so adept at removing things from the oven. In fact, you could say it's my weak trait (you know, the only one I have, ha). Anyway, one or two of the cookies had mishaps going from the oven to my "cooling rack" (aka the top of a small cabinet I cleaned off because I have negative counter space and is now completely warped because I put hot cookies on fakey-plastic-wood). While frosting said cookies, something along the lines of the following conversation took place:

Me: Man, some of these cookies got busted. I think I'm going to try and frost them anyway
T: They'll probably just break when someone picks them up
Me: You're right! Ha! I'll frost this and then we'll mix them all up and someone will pick this one up and it will break, and they will be a sucker! (evil laughter)

Cut to this:

me picking up a cookie when it was finally time to taste test (after not mixing them up at all) and it falling apart in my hands:

Me: Oh, man! I got the broken one!
T: hahahahaha, you didn't even mix them up! You knew which one it was!
Me: Yea, that was karma teaching me a lesson

Thing 4

We made 3 shapes of cookies (not counting the belly button one): hearts, butterflies and flowers. I have tried to pretty much only eat the butterfly ones. I think they taste better. Followed by the hearts, and the flowers are a distant third. This is like when I was little and I was convinced that the green M&Ms tasted the best.

Thing 5 (aka the gross one)

Monday evening I met up with some friends from the mitten who were in town for dinner. It had been a long time since either of them had been to Boston (I'm not even sure if they've both been here before or not) and I thought it would be nice for us to go to a seafood restaurant because fish in Boston is definitely fresher and more interesting than fish in Michigan. Anyway, we went to a rather famous restaurant, of which there are several in the Boston area. We had an enjoyable dinner, it was lovely to catch up. However, the first thing that sort of threw me was that I ordered salmon and the waitress asked me how I wanted it cooked. Granted, I don't order a lot of salmon in general, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone ask me how I wanted it cooked. I thought they pretty much only did that with cow products. I just looked unsure and she said that if there was no specification they cooked it medium rare. I said, "yea, whatever, that's fine" but I sort of regretted my choice, and was starting to think I should have just ordered chicken. When it came, it was perfectly tasty, and I ate it. But then I got home. And right back up came the fish (and the spinach that came with it). One thing you need to know about me: Aside from a few alcohol-induced situations (sorry, Mom) I haven't thrown up since I was about 13 years old. Frankly, it scares the crap out of me. But there I was, Monday night, curled up on the bathroom floor. Yesterday I was afraid to eat anything aside from Saltine crackers and 7up until I got home from work for fear of a relapse. Today I'm pretty much fine, but the chances of me eating fish or spinach for the foreseeable future are slim to none. No good.

Yea....

4:25pm Eastern Standard Time: I realize that the pants I'm wearing today are black, not brown as I intended when I got dressed this morning.

The shoes I've been wearing all day ARE brown.

I knew I should have stayed in bed....

Further evidence that I'm Brimming with Awesomeness

So this morning I happened to step away from my desk for a minute (which is shocking, as I joke with everyone around that I'm tethered to my desk and people have actually expressed shock and awe whenever I am let out of my cage and can be found in another part of the building) and when I came back, I saw the Red Light of Voicemail on my phone. I picked up the receiver to check the message, and promptly smacked myself in the eye. With the phone. If you ask me how a person manages to miss the side of their head and instead strike themselves in the eye with a large piece of plastic, I can only tell you I don't know, it takes a certain level of coordination.


Early this afternoon I was hard at work on a challenging mathematical problem, and while trying to figure it out, I was holding my calculator in my hand and randomly pushing buttons because I like the sound they make. It soothes me. Before I continue, you should really get an idea of what my calculator looks like:
Some people (the boys) have claimed this looks like it was manufactured in approximately 1974 and that it's a relic from an earlier time. I challenge that it's an amazing piece of office machinery and I could not live without it. Plus, the buttons make a soothing clicky sound, so what's not to like? And I bought it last spring, so it was most certainly manufactured post-1974. They're a bunch of haters.

Anyway, as I was absently pushing buttons, I suddenly realized that somehow I had switched to the European way of numbering. As in, I had commas where there should have been decimals and I had decimals where there should have been commas. I thought to myself, "oh I must have hit some obvious combination of keys to do this, I'll just change it back!" Yea, not so much. I cannot figure out how to change it back. And of course, the owner's manual is in my apartment where it is the most helpful, so I won't be able to fix the situation until I get home later. Calculator 1, Jessie 0.

I was also having a major (extremely liberal use of the word "major") crisis this morning because I could not make a decision on whether to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight and catch the season finale of The Office online tomorrow, or whether I should watch The Office tonight and Grey's tomorrow. I think it's both sick and wrong that they are on at the same time when I don't have a Tivo. After careful consideration and discussion with my esteemed advisor Toni, I have decided to watch The Office tonight. We do not yet know what the long-term repercussions of this decision will be, but we just have to make due the best we can with the information in front of us (I feel like this sentence should be said in a really deep voice-over sounding voice to make it seem more impressive).

Also, I've been stalking -er, checking the new fall lineups for TV regularly, so far Tuesdays look like a total wasteland (of course they are, why would I want something to look forward to on a Tuesday?). Meanwhile, there are about 3 channels I could watch on Mondays or on Thursdays. My plan to acquire a Tivo has just gone up a gear (which puts it from a 0 to like a .125 because I definitely can't justify the money until I'm living less like a college student and more like an actual grownup).

The Colgate Monster

For the last two days I have been profoundly obsessed with this giant zit currently in development on my chin. Right now it's just a big red bump but it's making me crazy and I can't stop touching it. I never seem to be able to help myself, I feel a zit and I immediately want to pop it. It's like a sickness. Is this an overshare? Probably, apologies.

Anyway, due to recent breakout situations happening all over my face, I started reading up home acne removal remedies online. Let me preface this next part by saying I DID NOT TRY THIS. I WAS WARNED AGAINST IT. I AM IN NO WAY ENCOURAGING ANYONE TO DO THIS. APPARENTLY IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. Hem hem, back to our regularly scheduled blog post: It appears that one home remedy for acne is to put toothpaste on your face (some did it just on one spot, some appear to have done it like a face mask) and leave it on anywhere from 10 minutes to overnight. 50% of people claimed this worked like a charm, 50% of people claimed it burned their faces off.

I had absolutely never heard of such a thing as putting toothpaste on your face to clear acne before this time. Maybe that makes me some sort of weirdo, but there you have it. Anyway, the people who were for the toothpaste-on-face option were ALL for it. They had special tips, swore by it, did it quite regularly and apparently all had perfect, flawless skin. I hate them already. :)

The people that were against it, on the other hand, were suffering serious consequences, like excessively dry skin that never went back to normal, tenderness, minty fresh skin, or actual face burns with scarring. Now, probably because it never occurred to me that putting toothpaste on your face would be a beauty regime, it has never occurred to me that toothpaste is potentially hazardous to your health. I know that you spit the majority of it out when you're brushing your teeth and you wouldn't want to start drinking it (eating it?) or anything, but seriously. Suddenly it is no longer banal teeth cleaning substance, it's morphed into scary acid-like substance that could turn your face into a Joker-esque mask. (yes, I know, this is not the first time I've had a crazy fear like this: see here). I'm still brushing my teeth regularly and everything, but who knew toothpaste was so dangerous? And apparently mint flavor is the worst offender.

Anyway, this research completely put me off home acne remedies because they are apparently all scary and potentially dangerous, so I guess I'll just have to live with the oily skin I was born with and let these little interlopers run their natural course across my face. *sigh

Oh, the pressure

Probably like most people (at least, that's what I'm hoping for), I have my days. I have days where I feel profoundly interesting and fabulous and I'm just full of things to say so you get long, (hopefully) interesting stories and/or rants (I'm prone to the rants). At the very least you get pictures of cute cats and little knitted things.

And then there are the other days. Days when getting through the work day and accomplishing everything that needs to be done outside of work and making sure I take a little time for myself is just about all I can handle and the posting doesn't happen. Not only does it not happen, I probably couldn't make it happen if I tried (believe me, I've started a post just about every day this week and then deleted it about two paragraphs in because it sucked. Hugely). So far every day this week has been one of THOSE days.

And today? Today I just feel like I've hit a wall, to spend an entire day at work and be productive will be a challenge, and it's unfair that it's only Thursday. :)

super cuteness

While having girly time at Alisa's on Saturday afternoon, the cutest thing ever took place:



One of Alisa's roommates' cats decided to take a nap on my lap and it was quite precious.

Birthday socks were distributed and enjoyed:


Good times had by all. :)