weekend of fun and adventure

I made it to Michigan and back safely, and here I am in the town of beans trying to remember what it feels like to be a normal person.  Or at the very least, as normal as I get.

It was an action packed weekend of wedding goodness and roommate reunions.  On Thursday Northwest did manage to get me into Detroit only 45 minutes late, which is a vast improvement.  The flight was mildly turbulent, but considering the thunderstorms we were flying over, I think it’s pretty good that I only thought we were gonna die like twice.

Friday I made it to the rehearsal pretty much on time despite the fact that I was in no way prepared for the highway to be completely shut down, putting me in stopped traffic for several miles before I could exit.  Upon my arrival the bride handed me a 5 (yes, five) page list of instructions and itinerary for the weekend (no, I was not a bridesmaid), including details on everyone’s sleeping arrangements Friday night.  To say my friend was prepared is an understatement.  People think that I like to plan and organize, but I’ve got NOTHING on her. :)

The rehearsal dinner was extremely fun, and definitely memorable.  It was a 3 hour sailboat ride around the Saginaw Bay (sing it with me now, a three… hour…. tour……).  It was my first time on a sailboat, but if all sailboat rides involve sitting on your bum while enjoying free food and beer, I’m there. 

Here is a picture of the boat, it’s called the Appledore Tallship:

The wedding itself went off without a hitch, the service was quite lovely.  Yours truly gave a stirring interpretation of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13.  It was magical.  Here are a couple photos for your viewing pleasure:

 5/6 of the CMU roomies, the bride was busy receiving people

 It was a confetti cake, which might be the best idea on the planet.

 

 We never seemed to get all 6 of us in a picture for some reason.

 

Once we hit the reception it was a full blown partay.  My college roommates and I have not all been in the same place at the same time together since we were actually roommates (which was like 5 years ago – gasp!), and some of them I hadn’t seen at all in the last 3 or so years.  One of them did actually comment on the fact that I had gotten my braces off (you know, the braces I got off in 2005) though it was later determined that she’d seen me since then.

Anyway, there was much reminiscing, much dancing, much drinking, much craziness.  We had a great time.  Sunday morning there was a quick stop at the farewell breakfast in order to fend off the hangover fairy, and then it was back to the ol’ hometown for further festivities.  I did have to stop on the highway twice on the way back; once for a pickup truck that was in flames (as in, completely engulfed, black smoke everywhere) and once because some guy was walking his dogs across the freeway.  Seriously, guy?  Yikes.  This now brings the percentage of my trips to Michigan in July where I was stopped on the highway because a dog was wandering around to 100%.

After a brief visit with some knitting friends and a much needed nap, my mom and I went to see Wicked Sunday night.  I had never seen it before, and I believe it was my mom’s third time or something.  I LOVED it!  I want to see it again.  I really hated the book (like, really hated it) and I knew that the musical was quite different, but I didn’t know I would love it that much.  Then again, I know how much I love musicals in general so it probably shouldn’t have been that big a shock.

Can I just quickly tell you that the mosquito situation in Michigan is terrible?  I know that for those of you who live there this will not come as a shock, but wow.  I think in the 10 or so minutes I was standing outside the theatre waiting for my dad to pick us up I got like 12 mosquito bites on the tops of my feet.  I hadn’t been bitten by a mosquito ALL YEAR.  Put that to the top of the “things I do not miss about Michigan” list.

I had one more day in the state where Motown was born to lunch with a friend and relax a little, which was nice.  Headed back Monday night, had a completely smooth flight followed by the worst cab driver ever. *This is where my parents may want to stop reading so that I don’t get a phone call later giving me a stern talking to for getting in the car in the first place.* The guy was sleeping when I got up to the taxi stand, but you have to go in order and he was at the front of the line.  I knocked on his door twice to wake him up, but he still seemed kind of out of it.  I told him where I was going, but he didn’t seem to know how to get there.  He was having a fair amount of trouble staying in his lane, and it remains unclear if he had just been driving for too long or if he was drunk or something.  Either way I was not feeling terribly comfortable with my chances for making it home without getting in an accident.  I was safely buckled into my seat just in case.  All of my directions had to be practically shouted, repeated at least twice and accompanied by hand gestures pointing which way to go.  I’m not sure what was so difficult about “go straight” and “turn left” but apparently it was like asking this guy to do complex math or something.  When we finally got to my apartment and I breathed a huge sigh of relief for getting back on solid ground, the guy starts to tally up the “extra charges” on the fare.  I watched in disbelief as he stopped at $7.50 (it should be $2.25, I take cabs from the airport a lot).  At this point I flipped my lid at the guy and started screaming at him about the extra $7.50, there was no way I was paying that.  His response was “oh sorry, sorry, I never come to this town.  I forgot.”  With his eyes only half open and his vague swaying I’m sure he probably didn’t even know where he was.  I calculated my own fare and paid him accordingly.  He almost forgot to open the trunk and get my bags out but I just sat there staring at him until he got a move on. 

I guess the important part of the story is that I got back to my apartment safe and sound, collapsed into a coma-like sleep and am now almost completely functional.  Hooray!

It's like deja vu all over again

And once again I'm leaving for Michigan tonight (fingers crossed, knock on wood, pray to whatever higher power you're most comfortable with).  I'm having serious flashbacks to December.  I think the reason for that is, despite having flown twice since then with (relatively) few problems, this time most resembles that time.  I'm flying Thursday night for a Saturday wedding, just like last time.  While I'm not a bridesmaid this time, I am doing a reading and therefore have to be there in time for the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night, just like last time.  I have the whole weekend planned out, just like last time, and the weather does not look to be terribly helpful, just like last time.

Now, while I'm pretty sure I'm safe from a giant blizzard in the middle of July (but seriously, cross your fingers, let's not tempt fate here), the weather forecast does seem to show thunderstorms all day today and tonight in Boston (80% chance of precipitation).  At the moment it's fairly sunny outside (I think, it seems to be kind of bright when I look at the construction site across the street, but I can't see the actual sky anymore) and as we all know weather forecasts have been wrong before.  And it's much more likely that flying can actually take place in rain as opposed to blinding snow.  And if we can take off, chances are we can fly above the weather.  Last time Northwest straight up canceled my flight before I even got to the airport, so far today (as of 9:00am) it's showing as on time.

I'm seriously just so, so nervous that something will go wrong.  However, I have made a pact with myself that whatever happens I will not go insane like last time (because this time I'm pretty sure the bride will go insane enough for both of us if something happens).  Also, last night it was thundering and lightning, but I could still hear planes coming in to land (and presumably, take off) outside my window all night.  I'm preparing myself for the worst (not taking off, missing the wedding), so that whatever happens I will not be disappointed.


Just to be safe, though, will you please all send some positive thoughts my way today?  Particularly around 7:45pm?  Thanks, you're the best!

creepy and crawly

This morning, shortly after my arrival at work, I was pulling a binder off a shelf when something fell on my foot and then bounced to the ground.  At first I thought it was simply a piece of the binder falling off (it's on the old side and it gets used a lot, pieces tend to fall off).  Then I looked closer.  And I saw what looked like some kind of mutant worm/centipede thing curled up next to my foot.  It was approximately 3 inches long, it was blackish with a pink underside and I did not get a close enough look to see if it had legs. 

I shuddered with disgust/fear/revulsion and walked quickly away from it.  I tried to convince myself that maybe I was seeing things, it probably was just some random piece of plastic or something, I'm sure I was being silly.  Only when I went back to check it out the thing was gone.  Clearly I was right about what it was and clearly it was still alive.  I went back into my office without passing go and without collecting $200 and I have avoided that part of the office for the rest of the day.


I can't even think about it now without getting grossed out.


The worst part is that even though the thing really only had contact with my skin for like 1/4 of a second, I still feel like there are creepy things crawling all over my foot.  I keep looking down to check, and I want to go home and take a shower.  

I'm also pretty convinced that the shelves underneath the front counter are somehow home to a civilization of these things, bent on taking over the world starting with our office.  I can just see them, plotting away, planning their revenge on me for separating their fallen comrade from the rest of the group.

Man, I hate bugs.

Update

Earlier this afternoon my boss came and sat down in my office, and I immediately asked her, "are you sure you don't have a pair of cute silver sandals that don't fit and you want to give me?" (because this has happened before, with these amazing red shoes that I love even though they're ever so slightly too big for me)  She began to taunt me about how she has these really cute silver shoes that she wears all the time and everyone always compliments her on them.  She may have even stuck her tongue out at me while she said it.

But then, in the next breath, she said to me, "why don't you take the intern and just go this afternoon?  I'm sure she wouldn't mind the walk."

My response was, "um, are you serious?"

The result:

Probably not necessarily my normal shoe style, but they will serve the purposes of this weekend well, they're fairly comfortable, I can see myself dancing in them, and I could wear them with any variety of dress up clothes in the future.  There's a little something extra going on, but they're not so ornate that I'm afraid to put them on my feet.  Because that happens.  More than you'd think.


(photo taken under my desk with the office camera so you could all see a picture - sometimes I'm really shady.  Oh, and just in case you're wondering, the boss who yelled at me about spending too much time on the internet?  On vacation this week, and my other boss is so tired of me asking for more work she sent me shoe shopping in the middle of the day.  I feel like this is ok)

I would like to note that the shoes were $49.95, I used my $50 gift card to pay, and after she rang me up the cashier said, "You have 5 cents left on your gift card."

Really?  What am I gonna do with $0.05?  Well, honestly I'm going to keep it in my wallet until the next time I'm at DSW and then I'm getting my $0.05 off, that's what I'm gonna do.  Still, it seems silly.  I think I could have given them my gift card to recycle and they could have given me that nickel and we would have been even. 

Meanwhile, my night just suddenly opened way up. :) 



 

I'm fairly certain there's something wrong with me.

OK.

So there's this wedding I'm attending this weekend, right?  I have a brand, spankin' new dress to wear (super cute).  I need only shoes to make the outfit complete.

I love shoes.  I love everything about them.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but when I'm not feeling up to snuff I put on a pair of cute shoes and wear them around my apartment.  What's more, I got a gift certificate to DSW for my birthday, so I'm looking at essentially free shoes.

Now, here's what concerns me:  I have absolutely no interest in going shoe shopping today.  And it pretty much HAS to be today. Tomorrow I have to pack (which is pretty much an all night process, given my spectacular level of procrastination) and Thursday I'm on a plane.  This has never happened to me before.  I ALWAYS want to go shoe shopping.  I've been trying to psych myself up all morning about it.  It's not working.  (technically, Friday before I leave for the rehearsal is sort of an option, but Michigan has sales tax and I'd really like to avoid that if possible - more for my money and all that)


I'll say to myself, "yay, new shoes today!" and then I shoot myself down with, "man, I really don't even want to go."  It's kind of a problem.  I suspect it has to do with having broken my cardinal rule of 'find the shoes first, the outfit second.'  In my experience, when you buy the outfit first, it's so hard to find the perfect pair of shoes that match it, but if I'm in a clothing store I'll inevitably find myself thinking, "oh I have the PERFECT shoes for that."  I'm not sure where the breakdown in the system came from, but I'm starting to get concerned that I'll have to attend this wedding barefoot.  And I can promise you, the bride will NOT be ok with that. :)

Outside of the shoe thing the major problem I'm facing is that all morning the song in my head was, "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor...." and now it seems to be the theme song from the movie Chasing Liberty (yep, it's a Mandy Moore movie where she's the president's daughter and goes running around all over Europe.  Super cheesy.  I still love it.  No explanation why the song is in my head, though).  Pretty much it's just "she's an American giiiiirl" over and over.

I may be chemically imbalanced.

I hate when that happens.

See, here's the thing.  I need a new TV show to watch like I need a hole in my head.  For the last couple years I've been actively trying NOT to watch some of the shows that everyone seems to like because I don't want to get hooked on one more thing that makes me have anxiety about leaving my house the night it's on (which has gotten much better since the advent of the next day online thing for most shows - except TBS.  They take forever.  It makes me insane).  I have done my very best to avoid Lost, 24, Friday Night Lights, I'm sure there are others, but those are the big ones (oh, I never once saw an episode of The O.C.).  See, I know that if I were to start watching any of these shows, I would not be able to stop and more of my life would be sucked away watching television.  Plus, I have come to LOATHE commercials.  I really, really hate them.  When I'm watching regular TV I usually have a book sitting next to me and whenever the commercials come on I just tune them out and read for two minutes.  You can't make me listen to your stupid ads!
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What I do like to do is make sure I'm behind enough in the times that I can netfilx an entire season at a time and watch them at my leisure, commercial free.  That way I can always find out what happens next without waiting a week or longer.  I realize that this mentality is part of the reason that good shows don't last long, and I apologize (I recently started watching Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks.  Both excellent shows and I'm pretty sure I knew nothing about them when they were on the air).  However, I would like to state for the record that I watch PLENTY of shows real time, so I'm pretty sure I'm doing my part for the television industry.
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Anyway, yesterday HG sent me a text saying there was a Mad Men marathon on AMC in preparation for the 2nd season starting next week.  The text was followed up with a phone call to make SURE I was watching, because as he said, "have I ever been this excited about a show?  Ever?  You better watch it, I want your opinion."  I had to admit he had not ever been this excited about a show (with the possible exception of The Amazing Race, but I'm fundamentally opposed to those kinds of shows, they don't count), so I figured I'd give it a shot through one episode and see what I thought.
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Yea.  I loved it.  Unfortunately I only saw episodes 2, 8, 9, and 10.  Clearly, there are some holes that need to be filled and since I get my cable for free (shhh!) I don't have on demand or anything like that.  I suddenly need to see all the episodes.  I HAVE to know what happened during the hours that I've missed!
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Crap.  This will end up being like Damages where I scoured the internet until I found all the episodes and ended up watching the entire season in a week.  Oh, man.

Movie Review!

**Warning:  There are probably spoilers ahead.  I won't be able to stop myself** 

So, I saw The Dark Knight on Friday.  It was freaking SWEET.  Seriously, I'm pretty sure I could not have been more impressed with that movie, and particularly Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker.  See for me, the Batman/Joker dynamic is one of the best in all the comic book movies.  And they did an amazing job with the story in the movie, and Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was incredible.  It made the movie, and I really believe there's no way they can top that so they shouldn't even try to make a 3rd installment.  It also makes me sad all over again about Heath Ledger dying.  Such a talented actor, such a waste.

Anyway, the performance (in my opinion) totally blew Jack Nicholson's Joker out of the water.  There was no comparison (though I should tell you straight away that I really don't like Jack Nicholson that much, so I could be biased to begin with).  But with Nicholson the Joker always felt more calculated, and that there was a line somewhere he wouldn't cross.  Not with this one.  You expected nothing and everything to happen every time he was on the screen, he was a total psychopath, anything was possible.  I also enjoyed that they didn't try to humanize him in any way, there was no back story, no "real name" given, nothing like that.  To me, a comic book villain should just be evil.  I don't really want to know why he/she does what he/she does, it takes away from the fear they're supposed to inspire in you.  I really can't say enough about why it was so great, it just was.  I can't wait to see it again.

I liked the way they handled the Harvey Dent/Two Face angle, it fit perfectly with the arc this series of Batman movies is going with, I thought they effect they did with Aaron Eckhart's face after it was burned was pretty incredible (reminiscent of the Tales from the Crypt guy who always creeped me way out).  They also did some things that I really didn't see coming.  Like at all.  I still don't really believe they killed off the Rachel Dawes character, even though it was pretty perfect for the pathology of both Two Face and Batman. 

It was just an all around great movie.  I loved, loved, loved it.  Who wants to go see it with me again?? :)

That time of year

It’s the time of year in my office when pretty much everyone is ready to kill each other.  The number of federal holidays has dwindled, we’ve just finished the end of a fiscal year, we’ve been spending way too much time together trying to accomplish everything that needs to get accomplished and there is no escape.  Emails are getting shorter and more tense, phone calls are more of an exchange of barking than actual talking, every time you ask someone for something it’s like taking your life in your hands.

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Thank goodness for vacations.

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The last month or two has seen almost everyone I work with taking a week’s vacation.  It’s been an interesting study in human behavior.  So far, each person on the way out has been cranky and overwhelmed and generally unpleasant to be around (see first paragraph).  You can tell that they’re at the breaking point where something might just send them right over the edge of sanity.  More than once, a person has sat down in my office with a look of total defeat and said something along the lines of, “I just don’t feel like I can do one more thing right now.  I’m going to lose my mind.”  They leave for vacation almost crippled with stress and fatigue, a mere shell of their former selves.

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Then they come back.  Refreshed and with renewed energy, suddenly ready to tackle all the things that seemed too overwhelming to think about before they left.  Their heads are clear, the path before them has fallen into place, new projects are popping up all over, and it’s go time.

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Now, this is great for those individuals as well as the office as a whole.  Productivity increases, more work gets done, we look good and the company thrives.  But it has also resulted in increasing the level of stress and desperation in the poor suckers who are at the end of the vacation lineup.  I believe one of my coworkers has pushed herself as close to that breaking point as is possible without going over it and 5:00 this afternoon really can’t come soon enough.  I’m concerned for this coworker as well as the rest of us (you know, the two of us that AREN’T on vacation today).  I’m not sure when the explosion will come, or in what form it will take, but I am keeping my fingers crossed it happens after work or some other time when I’m not around.

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As for me, I’ve already broken a couple times in the last month or so.  It’s not pretty, and I fear there are couple people out there I’ve made afraid for my overall mental health. :)  My ‘real’ vacation won’t come until November, but for now I’ve got my sights firmly set on Thursday evening when I take off (again) for Michigan, this time with a couple days off work, some new dresses and the promise of what should be a VERY good party to get me through.  And I can rest easy in the knowledge that when I get back everyone else will be more pleasant to be around.

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As far as this weekend goes, let’s hear it for sleep sleep sleeping and seeing The Dark Knight!!

1 down, 2 to go

Well, I managed to make it to Michigan and back with only mild travel issues, which made for a nice change of pace.  My flight out on Friday night actually arrived half an hour early! (We’ll ignore, for the moment, that the entire plane’s bags were unloaded on the wrong carousel and it took approximately 45 minutes for a Northwest employee to find them)  There was only a short time when I feared for my life because of the crazy turbulence we found ourselves in and they temporarily suspended in flight service so the flight attendants could remain strapped into their seats.

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It was an action packed weekend as Saturday morning found my parents, me, and both of my brothers all in the same place together (namely, my parents’ house) and we all went for breakfast to mark the occasion.  Saturday afternoon brought with it a bridal shower for 2008 Wedding #3 (September), at which I laughed so much my face hurt afterward.  My table actually had to be shushed because we were disrupting the proceedings a couple of times.  :)  Saturday night came and I headed out to a wedding party (reception, basically – aka 2008 Wedding #1) for a friend and his wife who had gotten married a couple of months ago in Mexico.  That was a decidedly less rowdy affair, but still nice to be able to share in the celebration for a short time.

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Sunday was a fabulous shopping trip with my mom, who bought me not one, but TWO very pretty sundresses, which will be making their debuts at 2008 Wedding #2 and 2008 Wedding #3, respectively.  Typically, I hate clothes shopping for myself.  It’s rare that I find even one thing I like (unless I bought it online, which is like a license to spend too much money and like everything way too much).  However, on Sunday, if I’d had unlimited funds (which, sadly, is so not the case as I have yet to locate the ever elusive money tree) I probably could have walked out of the mall with at least 10 new outfits.  Alas.  The coolest thing about the shopping trip is that now I have a legitimate reason to go shoe shopping!  And spend the DSW gift card I received for my birthday!  Hooray! (though it presents a conundrum.  My new dress is white with different shades of blue.  Do I go with silver shoes?  White shoes?  Do I attempt the impossible and look for blue shoes that won't make me look like a clown?  So many choices, what is a girl to do?)  After the shopping trip my parents took me out for a late birthday dinner, which was splendid (seriously, I miss Olive Garden So. Much.)

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The trip back was a little interesting.  Metro airport apparently felt that on Sunday night there was no need to open more than one security checkpoint in the Northwest terminal (which is huge, for those of you unfamiliar).  The line was LONG.  It moved quickly, but still I got to my gate with about 10 minutes to spare before we were scheduled to start boarding.  Only suddenly my flight seemed to be leaving at 9:55 instead of 9:19.  This was due to the fact that there was a chain of thunderstorms stretching from Canada all the way down to Florida and we couldn’t fly through them.  After about 5 minutes, the flight time abruptly changed to 9:15, only we never boarded.  Apparently there was an issue with the tail of the plane, making it unusable, so we were all sent from Gate 6 to Gate 53, where there was a working aircraft.  Once we got on the plane, it was a very smooth ride, and with the delays I was home by about 1am.  Since then I’ve been tired and uninteresting, then last night I headed to the neighbor’s to catch up with them.  I love having neighbors :)

d'oh

So, you know how when you’re really not having a great day and you feel as though you’ve quite possibly reached the edge of your sanity and then all these other little things happen as if life is just TRYING to push you over the edge?

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I was at that place yesterday.

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First, my boss sent me on a little errand (which was actually nice because it got me outside and walking through the Commons and it was very sunny).  As I was walking through the park, the wind suddenly whipped into a frenzy and started trying to get fresh with me (I was wearing a skirt).  I ended up having to walk most of the way to where I was going holding the sides of my skirt so that it wouldn’t flail about.  I noticed as I was walking in this incredibly attractive manner, that every other woman I saw wearing a skirt did not seem to be having this problem.  I will allow that it’s possible (probable, even) that their skirts were just less flowy and probably a little thicker than mine so there’s good reason, but still.  It was kind of a problem.

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As I was walking back (still holding onto my skirt), I somehow managed to get behind the slowest walker on the planet.  Under normal circumstances I would have been able to simply pass said person and resume my normal walking pace.  But yesterday, not so much.  I seemed to be surrounded on all sides and when a window did open up, the person I was trying to pass would suddenly change direction as though intentionally cutting me off.  I don’t really think this woman was doing anything like that on purpose, but I was thrown off my normal stride and it didn’t help my mood any.  She did, eventually, turn off to a different path and I was able to go on my way.

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Last night, as I was attempting to open the bottle of wine I ended up finishing two hours later, I somehow managed to bend the fingernail on my right index finger back way down in the pink part.  You know, where it’s supposed to be attached to my skin and therefore not bend?  And then it started bleeding and it was kind of gross and can I just tell you how it’s incredibly tender today?  And I know this is not news to anyone, but let me just tell you how you never realize how much you use a certain part of your body until it hurts and you get notification in the form of pain every time you do use it?  Yea, you use the index finger of your dominant hand A LOT.

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But, that’s enough complaining.  Today has been much better than yesterday, it’s almost the end of the day, which means it’s almost time to head to the airport and get out of town.  It’ll be a quick trip (2 days), but I’ve been feeling like I need to get out of town for awhile so it’ll be nice.  You ever notice how sometimes just a small change of scenery can do wonders for your spirits?

Cross your fingers.

Tomorrow I leave for America's high five for the weekend!  You know, assuming there are no blizzards, thunderstorms, computer problems, etc.  Seriously, please cross your fingers for me.

An action packed weekend of family time, wedding shower, post wedding party, late birthday dinner, good times.  Looking forward to it!

And I had a terrible, terrible day, so that's about all I've got.  Yea, I accidentally seem to have consumed an entire bottle of wine tonight.

Oops.

Totally random things about me you never knew you wanted to know

1. I hate condensation on the side of a bottle/can/glass.  It’s necessary for me to have a napkin/towel/tissue on hand at all times to keep that situation under control.  If there’s too much condensation, I will try to pick up said object with as little of my skin touching it as possible.  Even though I know it’s only water.
2. The reason I like to wear flip flops all the time is that my toes need freedom.  I like to stretch them out (which a childhood friend once told me made me look like I had duck feet).
3. You know that song from Alice in Wonderland, “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it…”?  That song could have been written about me.  It’s practically my motto.  But, you know, not in a good way.
4. I have a very hard time (near impossible) sitting still.  It is for this reason I hate going to the beach with people who want to lay out in the sun.  I can’t stand just laying there.  I feel like I’m taunting the sun or something, “hey, I’m right here!  I’m not moving!  I dare you to burn me!!!”  And I always think it’s been about 2 hours when really it’s probably been 5 minutes.  I’m pretty sure this also makes me really annoying to sit next to in a movie theatre or on a plane.
5. When I’m in an awkward situation I start talking and can’t make myself shut up.  For example, if I’m having a conversation with someone and it’s not going well (we have nothing in common, we’re not hitting it off or whatever) all of a sudden I will notice that my mouth hasn’t stopped moving.  At that point I can feel my brain start to shout, “Shut up!  Stop talking!  You’re coming off as totally insane!  They don’t care!  Shut. Your. Mouth.”  But I never do it (see #3).
6. When I get really nervous and/or tired, I start to cry.  It’s hugely embarrassing.  Two examples:  1 – Homecoming the first year after I graduated college.  I was visiting with all my old roommates and we got up really early Saturday morning to go tailgating (like 7am).  We drank all morning and then went back to have a party nap (around noon).  I, however, went out with another friend who was still living in Mt. Pleasant for what I thought was a couple of hours.  It turned into me being hijacked until like 9pm despite almost constant begging to let me go take a nap, I was exhausted, etc.  By the time I finally made it back to where my old roommates were and they were getting ready to go out for the night having rested all day, I just burst into tears and had to stay home because I was so tired I couldn’t pull myself together.  That was awesome.  2 – When I was giving my notice at my job in Michigan before moving out here, I was so afraid that my boss would be mad at me for leaving.  I psyched myself out about it so much that as soon as I sat down in her office I started to cry.  She ended up having to comfort me through my whole quitting speech, and she said she pretty much knew it was coming when she saw I had scheduled an appointment with her.  I felt spectacularly lame.  I think she ended up quitting about a week after I did to take a new job, so that explains why she wasn’t upset with me.
7. At the same time, when I’m sufficiently pissed off about something, there is no fear when confronting said situation.  For example:  when I was on the softball team in high school, we lost this one game senior year we really shouldn’t have lost.  Afterward our coach was so mad he made us all go home and each write him a one page paper on how we threw away the game.  I’d had beef with this guy for awhile over some of his coaching decisions and interpersonal skills, so I ended up writing a two page paper on all the reasons he was a terrible coach and shouldn’t be allowed near children.  Then I gave a copy to him and to the athletic director at our school.  I was so filled with rage at this man that I couldn’t make myself care what the consequences were or if he yelled at me or whatever (and generally speaking, I really can’t handle it when an authority figure or perceived authority figure yells at me.  See #6).  From that moment on, this guy went out of his way to be nice to me (probably because there were all kinds of facts to back up my accusations).  The rage is powerful.  I should keep that in mind, but again.  See #3.
8. At work I can hear the music being pumped into the patio of one of the restaurants below, but it’s kind of muffled and usually results in me getting a completely random song stuck in my head that sounds vaguely like what’s coming from below.  When that happens I’ve been known to spend the afternoon doing this weird bouncy dance thing I do in my chair while said song runs through my head on a continual loop.  I’m pretty sure everyone I work with thinks I’m crazy.
9. I don’t really believe in the concept of one best friend as far as it relates to my life.  I know plenty of people who have the whole best friend thing and it’s great for them.  For me, not so much.  I think it’s too much pressure to put on one relationship.  This could also be why I’m not married. J
10. According to Amy when she was here last weekend, I have my “things” that I’m very weird about.  I don’t know how many of these things I have, but she mentioned at least two:  She says I’m weird about my nose (I mean it’s a big nose but I think I have a normal amount of concern over the size of the pores on my big nose.  She thinks it’s a thing) and that I’m weird about my drinks (I’m not entirely sure what this one is about but she said it just after I mentioned that when it came to my new tea drinking habit I would start with raspberry flavor which I already know I can tolerate and branch out from there.  Is that weird?).
11. Sometimes I have a tendency to overshare.  See the first 10 items on this list.

Weekend Wonderland of Wine

So remember how I got a smackdown at work the other day for spending too much time on the internet?  I would just like to take this opportunity to tell you that I started asking for additional work at 12:30pm today and it hasn’t happened yet (current time 3:30).  However, in order to keep my word about not spending all my time on the internet, I’m writing this as a word document and I’ll just copy and paste it later. (ha! Take that!)

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Anyway, my weekend was pretty glorious, even if it was not exactly action packed.  My good friend Amy came to visit for the weekend, and Friday we walked around Winthrop, ate lots of munchies, drank a couple bottles of wine, and sat next to the ocean and watched fireworks.  Neither of us really wanted to go into Boston, because we’re not exactly crowd people.  We started walking over to where the Winthrop fireworks were being held but we got distracted partway there because from Winthrop Shore Drive you can see the Nahant fireworks show, some other show on one of the islands around there, and the Winthrop fireworks.  So we sat on the wall along the road and watched all the different fireworks and enjoyed the small crowd of people around us, without being annoyed by huge amounts of crazy people everywhere we turned.  And then there was the soothing sound of the waves right next to us.  I didn’t hate it!

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Saturday the weather wasn’t exactly spectacular so we went to Target (yes!  I love Target!) where I bought a dress and a tea kettle (I have decided it’s time to start drinking tea.  We’ll see how it goes), then we went downtown for a couple of hours to have lunch and go shopping, then we rounded out the day with girlie movies, manicures, pedicures, facials, and more wine.

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Her flight out was outrageously early yesterday morning, but I took the opportunity given by the fact that I was awake to do all kinds of laundry, clean up my apartment and take a nice, long nap.  Oh, how I love the naps.  I still feel tired today a little bit, but at this point I’m pretty convinced it has something to do with the aforementioned NO WORK IN THE LAST THREE HOURS.  You know, not that I’m bitter.

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I also feel that it’s necessary to point out that Amy showed amazing restraint in only mentioning that I should move back to Michigan about seven times in the 42 hours she was visiting.  That’s about seven times less than I expected.

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And now my question of the day:  One of my birthday gifts was a gift card to Barnes & Noble.  I will be on a plane this coming weekend and again two weekends later.  Does anyone have any suggestions on good books I should get for my flights?

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why why why has blogger started taking away my spaces again?  When will they come back??? 

Happy Independence Day!

It's the 4th of July!  Happy birthday, country of mine. :)

Today also marks the two year anniversary of my residence in Massachusetts.  I alternately can't believe it's ALREADY been two years and that it's ONLY been two years.

And now I have only to finish preparing for the visitor coming this afternoon and the holiday celebration will begin!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

um...

I just saw a commercial on ABC Family that said, "This weekend, ABC Family celebrates America with a Harry Potter weekend!"  

Because, you know.  Nothing says "America" like movies about a bunch of wizards in England. :)

In other news, Amy will be here in two days and I'm so excited!!  Of course, it's supposed to rain all weekend which is a total bummer, but then again it's still a total crapshoot as to what will happen.

We all know weather reports don't really mean anything.