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. :)

In Case You Weren't Sure You Were Buying A Chick Flick

Yikes, is this enough pink?

Vocab Day.

Scrub: What you know you are when you come into work with makeup on your face and your hair styled and the security guards do not know you.

Stress: When you make a point of stopping at the liquor store to buy two bottles of wine and walk the rest of the way home in the rain because the wine is more important than staying dry just then.

Phantasm: When you give the potatoes sitting in your kitchen the stink eye because they're taunting you about having cheese & crackers for dinner instead of actually cooking.

Lightweight: When you drink one glass of wine with dinner and feel tipsy.

Champ: When you drink two more glasses, to spite the potatoes.

Chump: When you wake up the next morning with a hangover.

Tuesday: When you're not sure the bottle and a half you still have will be enough.

Boredom is the Best Motivator

This weekend I was bored. It would be hard for me to properly explain to you how boring this weekend was. Suffice it to say that everyone I know was leading a more interesting existence than I was, and none of their plans involved me. This first led to a ridiculous amount of Sex and the City watching (like, shameful to the point that I watched most of the 2nd half of season 6 online because I did not want to wait for the last three DVDs to reach me, despite having received three non-viewed ones on Saturday, which translates to a total of like 20 episodes watched this weekend or something. Shameful). After watching that much Sex and the City it became necessary for me to switch to some Disney fare in order to maintain some balance and not become skewed by the SATC universe (ps - have you seen that Fergie is doing the theme song for the movie? I listened to it. It's gross, I'm so annoyed).

Round about 11pm on Saturday night I decided that my apartment needed to be cleaned. IMMEDIATELY. So I started going through my living room throwing away as much as possible, took two trips to the dumpster, scrubbed my bathroom AND started a new knitting project (I'm easily distracted, what can I tell you). I finally went to bed around 2am, woke up the next day and the cleaning continued. My apartment is (relatively speaking) completely spotless now. Every now and then I need a weekend like this to make up for all the weekends when I look around and think, "instead of cleaning this place I think I'll take a nap and then go drinking instead." (just kidding, I don't really drink that much. Mostly)

Anyway, it's another Monday here in paradise, and so far it's shaping up to be a 'stop on the way home and get a big bottle of wine' kind of day. Sounds like a good dinner, right?

doing my happy dance

...because Grey's Anatomy is coming back tonight. Yes!

And now a brief moment of lamenting the fact that I don't have a Tivo so I'll have to watch The Office online tomorrow. Stupid putting them on at the same time!

Anyway, yea I really don't have anything more interesting than that today. I slept like crap last night so today I'm in a cloud of tired. Should make for an interesting Thursday.

Word.

Another TV Post

So as it turns out, I'm pretty boring and I watch a lot of TV.

Anyway, one of my very favorite shows on television right now is How I Met Your Mother. This is a highly enjoyable show. Like, really great. And last night's episode was stupendous. I know there are a lot of times when I tell you that you need to go rent something and watch it immediately, or read something really good RIGHT NOW or what have you, so I'm going to do my best to refrain from that this time, but it's not going to be easy. Especially since CBS hasn't quite renewed it for next year and I will be a sad, sad girl if it's gone (and some of the things popping up here and there make it seem like they're gearing up for a big finish this season). But I know that this show has a definite target audience and if you're not in your 20's/early to mid 30's it might kind of miss the mark and not come off as all that funny to you. I will just put out there that you can rent the first two seasons on DVD and I'm pretty sure you can see all of this season's episodes at cbs online. You know, in case you're curious. I don't think you'll be disappointed. And if you are, it probably means you don't have a very good sense of humor and you need to lighten up.

I will send anyone who's interested on a little scavenger hunt for my top 5 episodes (in chronological order, oldest first):

1. The Pineapple Incident
2. Slap Bet
3. Spoiler Alert
4. Slapsgiving
5. Sandcastles in the Sand (last night's episode).

If watching any one of those 5 episodes doesn't make you want to see more, we probably can't be friends. Go check it out and get hooked if for no other reason than I need someone to be able to email after each episode for discussion purposes.

Thankyouverymuch.

I heart the office

Okay, seriously? That was a great episode of The Office last night. How adorable was Jim with that ring he bought a week after they started dating? It's so cute I can't stand it. All I'll say is she better say yes and no I don't think it's a problem that I get this involved with fictional characters, why do you ask?


Toni came over to watch with me last night and we made cookies! Yummy, delicious cookies! As it was the first time I've ever made cookies in my oven, they didn't turn out perfectly, but they were still edible and people at work seem to like them, considering 4 of the 12 I brought were gone before 9:30 this morning.


As an added bonus, I didn't even burn myself! And I only mildly set fire to my hot pad with no real harm done. Not too shabby!

Unbelievable

Dane Cook (despite being fairly annoying in general, is actually a pretty funny comedian. They should just stop letting him do movies, give interviews, appear at awards shows, etc) has this bit where he talks about the difference between men and women when they get angry. I don't remember the exact wording now, but he says that when men get angry about something, they tend to get a certain look on their face, shake their heads and mutter "unbeLIEVable..." under their breath. I can't say if this is true for mankind as a whole, but it's definitely true of every man in my family so for now we'll say he's right. I'm willing to bet that right now in your head you can see at least one of the men in your life (or yourself, if you are a man) doing this.

That brings me to this morning, when I was trying to get to work. It was a total fiasco, the result of which is that I've never before heard that many people doing the "unbelievable" utter at the same time in my life. Men and women, young and old, in English and I'm pretty sure in Spanish, Russian, Italian, etc. (I don't speak Spanish, Russian or Italian, but this is a kind of frustration that transcends language)

I knew there was a problem as soon as I got off the bus this morning. The sheer number of people standing on the platform with a train in the station was a clear indication that this would not be a good morning. The official word was there was a power problem at Aquarium station. An announcement said they were running trains to the airport and then busing people in to Government Center from there.

In reality, the trains were barely running to Airport, the shuttle bus situation was a joke, and people as far as the eye could see were calling their places of business to say they'd be late. I had to let two trains go by before there was one I could even get on, and then it took about 20 minutes to get the TWO stops to Airport. Once there, it was a fight with a ridiculous crowd of people to try and get to the other side of the platform and get on the bus. Only to find that what I originally thought was a ridiculous crowd of people was nothing compared to what I was in store for. Here is a picture I took this morning while waiting for the shuttle buses.

This many people waiting, and three little buses showed up. In the mass confusion, we learned that there were no shuttle buses running to Maverick, so if anyone had to go there, they had a nice walk to look forward to. The buses to the airport terminals were still trying to run their regular routes but people were so insane at this point they were trying to get on any kind of vehicle that pulled up, so the T employees were basically herding us like cattle. Eventually someone got smart and started routing Silver Line buses to us, because the Silver Line Runs from the airport to South Station and this way people could at least get into the city and get public transportation from there. So, my commute this morning ended up being Orient Heights to Airport to South Station to Park Street to Boylston. Blue to Silver to Red to Green. I got to work a full two hours after I left my apartment.

Unbelievable was really the only way to describe it.

Sunday, glorious Sunday

Sundays, as a rule, are bittersweet, obviously. It's a weekend day, you get to sleep in, but you know you have to go to work the next day.

Here is my recipe for a glorious Sunday:

1. Brunch with your friends. When I was little, brunch was a terrible thing. I didn't like breakfast food, more often than not I wanted a salad or cereal for breakfast and my family always went to my grandpa's Elks club so they never had what I wanted, I always had to be dressed up, and most of the people were really old (at least, that's how they seemed to me at age 8). Not fun. Now, however, brunch is a magical time full of delicious breakfastyness, yummy lunch items, and even dessert! Very few things are better than brunch.

2. Spontaneous shopping trip. After brunch I went shopping with Alisa to help her buy some gifts she needed. My role was solely to help her get ready for an upcoming trip but I ended up with these:

Macy's was having a big shoe sale, I found these on the clearance rack and an additional amount was taken off at the register, so you know what's better than cute shoes? Discounted cute shoes!

and these:

A nice summer dress to wear to at least one of the weddings I'm attending in July (the red) and this nice white top which I'm sure will get lots of use this summer.

3. Get home, pour a glass of this:

and enjoy while you sit on the couch and relax.

mmmm, good Sunday.

Also, look what I actually finished! I rock :)

sotto voce

I am, to use a phrase from back in the day, on struggle today. Yesterday I had a bit of a sore throat and was feeling under the weather in the morning, but it got better as the day went on. Last night I noticed the sore throat seemed to have come back but I just went to bed early, because that's pretty much my cure-all. Only to wake up in the morning without the ability to speak. I was sitting in on a phone call earlier and had to shout in order to make myself heard at all. I hate losing my voice. And because I'm about 7+ years younger than everyone else I work with, they automatically assume I've been out partying too much. So not the case.

Anyway.

Tonight is the return of The Office! Hooray! Is everyone as excited as I am? Because you should be. :)

- one more thing, the Tigers finally won yesterday! Hooray! I can't tell you how happy it makes me that they snapped the losing streak against the Red Sox. It gives that warm, fuzzy feeling.

please make me stop!

Yea. So.

About a year ago (holy crap that means my subscription is coming up again) I decided to take the plunge and sign up for Amazon Prime. I thought, hey I live far away from everyone now and I don't have a car so it would be smart to get free two day shipping on books and movies and gifts for people. Well, as you can imagine this has led to a shocking increase in the number of books and movies (etc) that I'm buying. And they have that little one-click feature where you just click a button and it automatically charges your card and sends your items in two days. Or you can preorder. And they learn what you like and suggest more things you probably want. It's kind of a problem. Particularly because I went there today thinking, "I wonder when the movie Penelope comes out on DVD, that was a great movie and one that I surely must own." I was just going to check. I swear.

And then Amazon Prime sidled up to me and said, 'oh hey did you know? 27 Dresses is coming out April 29 and Juno is coming out April 15!'

To which I replied, "Why no, Amazon, I DIDN'T know that, and thank you for convincing me without any persuasion at all that I needed to spend $30ish to own both of those as soon as they come out!" (30 total, not each, don't worry) Also, the release date for Penelope has not been set yet or you can pretty much bet that I would have also preordered that one.

Seriously, it all happened so fast! I had just been thinking to myself earlier in the day how I was going to be so good about saving money and rely on netflix for my movie watching needs (well, until they didn't get the movies I returned Monday back until today, putting me a day behind....unreliable $^#$#@) and buy my groceries and actually cook and blah blah blah blah blah. Yea. Anyway. Because you know, it's not like I have three weddings to go to in Michigan this year or anything. :) Alas, my resolve fails me so quickly.

At least I finished the socks I was knitting yesterday (but obviusly didn't take any pictures yet, because that would have been smart) so I have at least a residual sense of accomplishment to make me feel better about having absolutely no self control with the online shopping.

* given this post, doesn't it seem like the smart thing for me to do would be just not renew my amazon prime subscription? Yes, yes it does. And yet, the chances of that happening are slim to none. I NEED it. ha

Nothing in Particular

First, I would like to say Happy Anniversary to my parents, who are celebrating 36 years of wedded bliss today... probably while sitting by the pool sipping delicious umbrella drinks or something, because they're on vacation. I am insanely jealous of the whole concept of a "vacation". I vaguely remember what that is, and I hold out hope that someday I will get to experience the wonder of going to a completely random place and doing nothing for a week.

I'm sorry to tell you that today I'm feeling so uninteresting that I was actually looking up ideas for things to post about. The fact that I found several websites devoted to that particular problem was a little disconcerting. And they were full of helpful suggestions like, "review something. Make a list of something. Talk about something. Be funny." Thank you websites, that's very helpful. I don't know why I couldn't come up with that myself!

OK, yes, sorry for the bad attitude. It's a Tuesday, it's sunny outside and I'm at work, the Tigers are 0-6 and currently playing at Fenway so I'm watching gamecast on my computer all the while wishing it was 5:00 (surprisingly no one at work has taunted me yet about the Tigers, but I think that's because it's a one season at a time kind of thing and the Celtics are good so they're focused on that). Then I was trying to think of something to do after work only I realized that I had to go straight home to wait for my groceries to be delivered so that won't work either. Alas. The good news for today is that when I get home there's half a bottle of wine and some leftover cake waiting for me. :)

Also, maybe I should try and actually finish knitting something so there's stuff to take pictures of or something. Now there's a thought.

Sense and Nonsense: Part 2

Ugh. Hated it. I can't even go into it beyond that.

The Den of Laziness

Yesterday I had this whole list of things I was going to accomplish when I got home from work:

Do the dishes, finish up a project for a friend, email a recipe, prepare for the weekend, upload some photos to myspace, straighten up, do some vacuuming, etc.

Not one of the things on this list actually happened. What did happen is I got home, changed out of my work clothes, sat down on my couch to eat dinner and proceeded instead to watch three episodes of Sex and the City followed by an hour of Miss Guided and an hour of The Office. And then I went to sleep. I did manage to do some knitting on the socks I'm currently working on, but I didn't even do too much of that. It's a little bit shameful, to be perfectly honest.

I think my apartment is some kind of crazy alternate universe which sucks all the energy and motivation out of me as soon as I walk through the door. It's possible that the sounds of the ocean right outside my window (I know, you hate me) are just so soothing that all they make me want to do is sleep and I don't realize it when it's happening. I need to figure out how to counteract it these effects. Stuff must get done! Alas.

On a completely separate topic, in preparation for the awesomeness that is going to be the Sex and the City movie (May 30, 2008) I decided to watch the entire series in order through the glory of Netflix. I'm up to season 3 so far and I have to tell you that the difference of perspective that comes from having watched these the first time from the ages of 16-22 or so and watching them again at 26 is enormous. (I know, a lot of you don't think there's a huge difference between 22 and 26. There is. I promise) When I first saw this show (at 16-17) I would think to myself, "man, these ladies are so awesome, I hope I'm that cool at that age!" Now I watch it and I think to myself, "Man, you are one crazy bitch, no wonder he's running for his life!" along with (and this may just be my sheltered Midwestern upbringing) sheer wonder at the number of guys these chicks managed to sleep with. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying these episodes and I'm still excited for the movie to come out, I just didn't realize the level of ridiculous reached by some of the things these characters in their mid-30's (and later) were doing. Although, ask me again when I'm in my mid 30's and still single and I'll let you know if I've changed my mind. :)

The other show I've been reliving on DVD is Moonlighting. I remembered liking it a lot when I was younger, and I'll be honest it's probably where I first fell in love with Bruce Willis, but I didn't really REMEMBER remember it. Last weekend I watched the first three episodes and I can tell you it's still a fantastic show. Bruce is the man. Was, is, will continue to be.

Tonight Toni is having a show opening, which we will all be attending the reception for. I'm looking forward to it, as I know I've previously stated she's ridiculously talented and who doesn't love a function that includes free wine? I can't think of anyone.

A smidge of randomness.

1. Yesterday I decided to brave it and went back to DD in my building and ordered my usual mutligrain bagel with butter. The guy saw me standing there and handed off my bagel to be given to me by another member of the staff. Whatever it was I did to this guy, he's holding a grudge. Yikes. I haven't been back.

2. While riding the train yesterday I saw 4 people I know. Let's be clear, I know approximately 10 total people in Massachusetts so to see 4 of them on the train was quite something. And to show you what a zone I'm in on the train, the first pair had to wave and say my name for me to notice them and I was standing right next to them while the second pair had to actually poke me in the back because I stepped right in front of them. And usually I'm so aware of my surroundings.

3. While saying my goodbyes to couple #2 on the train yesterday I was suddenly and inexplicably thrown backward and off the train much quicker than I had planned (and with far less of a handle on my balance). Turns out this was due to my sweater getting caught on a man's umbrella and when he walked out, I went with him. At an alarming speed (he was tall). It took me several steps to get his attention called to the fact that I was attached to him.

4. Somehow I have tricked everyone I work with into thinking that I'm a fantastic cook. I started them off slowly around Christmas 2006 when I brought in puppy chow. Apparently people in New England are completely unfamiliar with this and therefore don't know how easy it is to make, they just know it's delicious and new to them and therefore amazing. Next I made some calzone bread in the spring, also quite easy but definitely a crowd pleasah. I sealed the deal by making a big batch of the Stornant family tomato sauce in the fall/winter and now they all think I'm spectacular. So much so that today when I was eating leftover chicken marsala takeout from a few nights ago someone stopped in and said "oh that smells so good! Is it homemade?" and was actually surprised when I said it wasn't. Ha! Though this does make me want to try and make chicken marsala now.

I think that's about it. Oh, also I got completely fooled by just about every April Fool's thing that came across me yesterday. A blog I like reading said it was quitting and it never occurred to me that it was probably a joke, gmail said they were starting custom times for email where you could say you sent something like a year or whatever ago and I just thought 'hm, that's weird.'

Hello, I'm Gullible. It's nice to meet you :)

Sense and Nonsense.

*If you haven't watched the PBS version of Sense and Sensibility yet and you're planning to and don't want to know anything about it, don't read this.

So last night I watched the first half of Sense and Sensibility on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre. In case you haven't been able to tell by my sidebar noting the books I've been reading or below in my recent DVD/book purchases or from having ever met me, I am what they call a fan of Jane Austen. I blame my mother. She got me started with her video tape of the 1983 PBS Pride and Prejudice miniseries (which is GREAT) when I was young and then I got all into it. I've seen multiple versions of each of the movies (and in a few cases I own multiple versions), I own all of the books, I've watched pretty much the whole series that PBS has shown this winter/spring, and yes I realize that this along with the knitting thing makes me approximately 150 years old.

Whatever, it's glorious I don't care what you say :)

So, back to the point. Sense and Sensibility. I should preface this by saying that I love Emma Thompson's version of this, for which she won an Oscar (best adapted screenplay). This new version was always going to suffer by comparison. Also, I am completely aware that it is impossible to get every piece of the story in a 3 hour miniseries, it's a long book. Changes will have to be made. And I'm not saying Emma Thompson's version was perfect. But it was pretty darn good.

That being said, I have several issues to raise with the first half of this version:

1. Why why why did Elinor and Marianne keep calling Fanny "Aunt"? She's not their aunt! She is their half-brother's wife! You know what they should call her? Fanny.
2. The guy playing Willoughby doesn't look even remotely like someone anyone would fall in love with. He's kind of slimy and not very nice and the Marianne from the book would never have been fooled by such a phony (because, you know, he didn't fool her, he actually loved her)
3. Even Marianne would know better than to kiss the man when he took her to Allenham. Never happened. Don't put it in the movie, because then you make Marianne silly and easily manipulated instead of just overly romantic and disdainful of hiding her emotions.
4. Starting with the seduction of Beth was weird and a little too sexy for Jane Austen, if you ask me. It's supposed to be this shocking thing to find out about Willoughby in the middle of the story, not presented right up front (especially considering she's not actually a character, just someone they talk about)! What if someone who wasn't familiar with the book was watching? You're already predestined to hate the man, when you're not supposed to hate him until later! (ok, I know it's entirely possible that no one was watching PBS on Sunday night who was not already familiar with the story, but just in case that was an unnecessary spoiler)
5. What was the deal with that little showdown between Brandon and Willoughby at Barton? I'm pretty sure Brandon wasn't even supposed to know about what went down with Beth at that point. He had no reason to think badly of Willoughby other than as the guy who had Marianne's affection.
6. Mrs. Jennings was hardly in the story so far, and she's a pretty major character. I'm just sayin', give the lady her due.
7. This one is a little shallow and I feel bad about that, but the girl playing Elinor should be prettier. Or they could have at least done her hair better or something. Or if not prettier, just make her stand out in SOME way. Obviously she was always going to suffer in comparison with Emma Thompson who was pretty fabulous, but she was definitely missing something. She just sort of fades into the background at the moment, and she's supposed to be the cornerstone of everything. You know, loving sister, pillar of strength, everyone's confidant, economically rational, morally upright, etc. I'm not getting that from this chick. (I know, that's knitpicky, but Elinor is a really great character, and she should be played by someone who can fit that profile)
8. What's the deal with that book Edward gave to Elinor? With the inscription and everything? Way to turn Edward into kind of a shady character instead of a poor guy who made a stupid mistake when he was young that he's paying for. The "real" Edward would never have given a woman something like that which would practically be evidence of feelings that might bring about some expectation from Elinor when he was engaged to someone else.
9. Marianne got along too well with everyone else. She was generally agreeable and spoke to everyone, and only acted badly a little bit (I'm throwing that whole kiss thing out, see above). Ok, Marianne was a COMPLAINER. She couldn't stand being around Sir John or Mrs. Jennings or Col. Brandon (or anyone who wasn't her mother, Elinor or Willoughby), especially after she found out they all wanted her to marry the Colonel. When they first got to Barton she was rude to everyone because she was sad about Norland, then she was rude to everyone because they wanted her to marry Brandon, then she was rude to everyone because she was in love with Willoughby. She didn't ever give anyone the time of day because she thought they were pretty much all stupid or annoying or too old.

Yea. So. This all led to a conversation with my mom on whether or not the person who wrote the screenplay has actually ever read the entire book. I'm going with no. She agrees. If you're going to tackle a very famous piece of literature that lots of people love, do your homework and work on at least capturing the true spirit of the story and the characters. People will notice.

To be fair, there were some parts that I really enjoyed. I liked how they had little Henry in there, just munching away and not being all that stellar with his mother fawning all over him while John Dashwood was trying to decide what to do for his sisters; I like the girl playing Margaret (though why do they keep calling her Mag or Meg or whatever? I can't completely distinguish what they're saying); I like the guy playing Colonel Brandon (I'm trying to avoid unfair comparison with Alan Rickman, who is pretty great); and shady book-giving aside, I do like the guy playing Edward.

*sigh. I had such high hopes.

Whatever, you know I'm going to watch the 2nd half when it airs on Sunday, because I want to see how much more there will be to complain about (all the while hoping something happens that will redeem it). :)

***I realized later that "Beth" is actually "Eliza" Oops. Where did I get Beth?

Mr. Creepy

So it turns out it's 2 for 1 day here on Jessie! Enjoy.

This morning as I was walking into work I decided to allow myself a breakfast sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts. Generally speaking I start my day by eating a mutligrain bagel with butter (mmm, birdseed in your bread, delicious...). However, this morning I ordered a ham, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich on a croissant to change it up a little (aren't you glad to have all these food stories today? Yea, you're welcome).

The first thing you need to know (in case you've never been to Boston) is that Dunkin' Donuts is like a religion out here. It was started in Massachusetts and you can find one approximately every 50 feet on the street. Well, maybe not 50 feet, but you can definitely always find one within a one-block radius of wherever you're standing. And they're always packed. For example, there is a cop stationed at the Dunkin' Donuts on the way out of my town every morning to direct traffic because it's the last one for awhile and people can't handle the possibility of getting into the tunnel without their coffee so someone needs to be there directing people out of the drive thru lane. I'm completely serious.

The second thing you need to know is the DD in my building is a marvel of inefficiency. The setup is not what I would call functional, helpful or ideal. It really can't be described in any kind of positive language. It's a tiny little place where you stand behind a little rope barricade thing to form a line and wait for someone to yell "next!" The problem with this is that there is one person at each cash egister and another person helping the cashier by making the coffee. Now let's say you have someone who doesn't order coffee (like me and surprisingly I am not the only person in Boston who doesn't drink coffee, despite what you may have heard), the helper person will just yell for the next person in line, but you still have to wait for the cashier to be ready for you, and this creates a sub-line. Meanwhile, other people are trying to get to the other cashiers, so you could have up to four lines in there at once. And just in case you didn't catch it the first time, this place is TINY. It's basically a mini hallway about 5 feet across. Not really enough room for the 12,000 people trying to get their coffee/breakfast in the morning. Oh, and if you order something that needs to be toasted (like a bagel or a breakfast sandwich)? You crowd around the door people are trying to walk in and out of to wait for your food to be ready. Really, it's brilliant.

Anyway, I placed my order, paid for my stuff, got down to the food pickup area and was standing patiently waiting for my order to be called. When the guy called "ham-egg-cheese on croissant!" I raised my hand and said, "right here!" (which is standard operating procedure when there are that many people standing around waiting for their food) at which he stopped, put the bag down at his side and stared at me. Stared straight into my eyes. I wasn't sure what was going on so I gave him a "thank you for my breakfast sandwhich, kind sir" smile and sort of inched my hand forward to grab my bag. He did not make a move to hand it to me, he just kept right on staring. It was a weird stare, too. One that contained what I perceived to be disapproval or malice (or like I was a ghost or something). At this point I started looking around to see if there was someone behind me because I really couldn't figure out what the deal was, but he was definitely looking at me. He never said anything, just kept staring. This went on for a full 60 seconds before he finally handed me my bag and I ran away.

When I got to my office I pulled out my mirror to make sure I didn't have anything on my face or that my bangs hadn't slipped to form some sort of obscene symbol or something (I didn't and they hadn't). I'm not sure what it was that was so offensive about me today, but it sure must have been something. I might have to stop going into that particular Dunkin' Donuts if Creepy McStaresatyou is going to be there. Which is ok, there's another one on the corner. :)

Garbage Plate

First, FYI I've been trying to get this post up since Monday. Work seems to be totally getting in the way of that. Work and the fact that I didn't sleep essentially all last weekend and I am an old woman who cannot handle things like that and have been a crazy zombie all week. :)

Last weekend in Rochester I was introduced to the wonder of something called the garbage plate. I use the term 'wonder' as loosely as possible. Basically, it's a plate about half covered with pasta salad (or mac salad, to use the lingo), and the other half is covered with french fries. On top of that they layer either two cheeseburger patties or two hot dogs (your choice) which they then smother with, if you so desire, onions, mustard and hot sauce. You can then add a side of bread just in case that's not quite enough for you and of course they provide as much ketchup and steak sauce as you could possibly want. It's hard for me to relate the disgustingness of this concoction in words, so I took a picture.

Right? Nasty. I would also just like to state for the record that this was not my meal. I ordered a grilled cheese and then was somehow forced to turn that into a plate (I blame the fact that I was sitting between two individuals who create what I like to call the Vortex of Bad Judgment) but I only ate the grilled cheese and then dumped the rest of the plate onto someone else's. At any rate, it was an interesting gastro-intestinal experience. Also, there was a rather large LINE of people waiting outside the restaurant to come in and get one of these a heart attacks on a plate. So gross.

And as previously stated I've been like a zombie all week so this is pretty much the best I can do. Happy Friday!

ella ella ella (or why I am completely ridiculous)

Sometimes I'm pretty sure I could just change the title of this whole blog to "Reasons I Am Completely Ridiculous" and it would be pretty fitting for most of what I've been talking about recently. Anyway.

I have this problem with umbrellas. It's actually a three-pronged problem:

1 - I generally don't own an umbrella unless someone sees that I don't own one and, in extreme exasperation, gives or buys me one (this happens more than I care to say)

2 - When I have one I never remember to carry it unless it's definitely not going to rain, despite having the handy kind that fit in your purse (I once bought a purse that came with an umbrella inside it thinking that would solve all my problems, but it didn't work out that way)

3 - If I do have one and I am carrying it, chances are I will either break it, leave it on the bus or simply forget to use it when it's raining.

One other quick thing: I never ever check the weather before I leave my house in the morning. The only time I'm ever prepared for what the weather is going to be like is if someone happens to mention that it's going to rain/snow/be freezing the next day. This explains why on Tuesday I wore a jean jacket and flip flops when it was 30 degrees outside because it was sunny when I woke up so I figured it was like spring outside. Very scientific.

Now then. While HG was staying with me, he was very good about checking the weather and before we left my apartment in the morning he would say, "where is your umbrella!?! It's going to rain today!" and I would grab my umbrella and all would be well. Aside from the fact that my umbrella is apparently not good enough (for him). It's yellow, and it is very tiny (it's cute, my mom sent it to me, and it came with a little bag) and he made fun of it every time I carried it. Well, I brought the yellow umbrella into work a couple of weeks ago when it was raining and then it stopped raining by the end of the day and I forgot to take it home. One umbrella in the office.

In a strange twist of fate I actually had a backup umbrella for probably the first time ever, and yesterday when it was raining I brought it with me. It's kind of broken and so not entirely functional, but it was fine in a pinch. Two umbrellas in the office.

Just in case you require further proof of my umbrella issues, I give you the following:

On Tuesday we ran out of fax toner at the office. I ordered more and expected it on Wednesday morning. Clearly it didn't show up so I ran to Staples yesterday afternoon to try and get one. In the rain. I did not take either one of the umbrellas sitting in my office. I knew it was raining, and that it would be unpleasant outside. I just completely forgot about them despite the fact that one is bright yellow and they're sitting right next to my desk. So I got completely soaked (and the Staples by my office didn't even have the toner I needed. They carry the fax machine but not the toner. I hate Staples).

Yesterday evening as I was leaving work I once again left my umbrellas in my office. This time I pretty much did it on purpose because the black one was broken and therefore not much help and the yellow one is a little on the small side plus I was meeting HG for dinner and did not want to be mocked. I had to run to CVS anyway (I spend an amazing amount of time and money in CVS. It's like the poor man's Target) so I decided I'd just pick one up while I was there. You know, a "grownup" umbrella. Not tiny and cute, and not emblazoned with a Lansing Lugnuts logo (and is broken). Though I did opt for periwinkle instead of the typical black or navy. I ask you, who wants a depressing colored umbrella? If you have it with you it's already gray and rainy out, why not carry something brightly colored to counteract it?

Which brings us to today. I now have three umbrellas in my office. However, in what I hope the future will prove to be excellent planning ahead, I threw away the broken one, I have the new one in my purse/giant bag I carry everywhere and I will keep the yellow one in my office in case of an unforeseen weather situation in the future. Good plan, huh?

This weekend I am headed to Rochester, which I'm pretty excited about because it includes taking Friday afternoon off and who doesn't love that?

well rested

Have I told you how much I love a three day weekend? Oh, I have? Several times? You're sick of me rubbing it in? Okay then.

Houseguest moved out this weekend. He left early Saturday afternoon for a boys' day/night out and didn't get home until after I was in bed, then Sunday I left before he was awake to hang out at Alisa's all day. He called about 5:00 and asked what I was doing because Sacha was gonna be there soon. I asked him, "what, are you moving out today or something?" and he said, "well, actually, yea" then told me I should come see his new place around 6. I must say it caught me rather off guard. When I got home Sunday night my apartment felt HUGE. I'll miss having someone around a little, but I love having my space back.

So Sunday night we went to dinner at this little restaurant that I have no clue as to the name of (we just happened upon it) and the food was extremely delicious (Italian. Chicken Marsala. My. Favorite.) but the service was quite possibly the worst I've ever seen. This little man had absolutely no idea what he was doing. There were probably about 10 tables in the whole place, so there was only one waiter. He took kind of a long time to even notice we were sitting there, and he kept running back and forth between his station and each table putting his glasses on and taking them off again (I don't know why he couldn't just leave them on!). He never ever brought our wine, which is kind of ok (I mean not really, but this guy was seriously having issues) except he still put it on the bill. Then he took it off the bill, then he charged the credit card the original amount, then he charged it the correct amount but we do not have confirmation that the original was ever refunded. Now, picture this same scenario going on at every single table in the place. I'm not exagerrating. There was an issue with the bill of every table. It was insane.

Anyway, I did a lot of knitting over my three day weekend, including much work on these:

As well as Amy & Todd's wedding blanket (no pictures taken).

Finally, Thursday night I went to the New England Spring Flower Show and took some lovely pictures, so here are some flowers (and some kissing frogs) to get you thinking spring. :)

I have the hiccups.

Every time I go to take a bite of food. I think this could technically be a choking hazard.

Do you think it's grounds to take the rest of the day off and play outside in the sunshine?

Probably not, but at least I have a three day weekend coming up! That's right, St. Patty's day is a full-blown holiday out here (and ok it's technically called Evacuation Day) but either way you shake it I don't have to work!

And no, I am not planning to go out this year. Last year I drank for 9 hours in South Boston and let's just say it wasn't the prettiest end to an evening I've ever had (cause this girl doesn't drink beer so that's 9 hours of liquor - I'm sorry you had to read that, Mom).

The year before that I was in.... Ferndale? I know I was at B Dub's, I was with Marie and Jenny and there was a lot of tequila involved (again, sorry Mom) but I don't remember the exact location. Either way I'm sitting a year out. You know, unless something comes up.

Because

...because I can't just run over and borrow my mom's when I want to read them anymore.

...because you know there was no way I was going to get this from Netflix and not immediately want to buy it.

...because I'm always looking for something fast and easy.



...because it's just so pretty.

It's official, I'm an old lady.

And one more.....

...because Houseguest couldn't believe I would wear flipflops on March 6. (he took the picture)

this weekend's accomplishment (hopefully)

This is the first one, finished (sans woven ends) and I'm through the first band of the cuff on the 2nd one...there's a slight possibility I could finish these today! Hooray! That way I can say "this weekend I finished a pair of socks" instead of "this weekend I went to a cocktail party, drank too much wine and didn't do anything of use until I cleaned my apartment on Sunday" :)

two lessons I just can't seem to learn

There are some things that it seems like no matter how old I get or how much life experience I obtain, I still can't seem to get through my head.



The first one is: The oven is hot. If you touch something that has just been in the oven or is part of the oven it will be hot, you will get burned and it will hurt. Seemingly simple lesson, right? Something most people learn at a very young age. I'm unclear as to why this is hard for me. Just about every time I cook something, I end up touching something I shouldn't and something along the lines of "ow! #%$^@! #%&#!" comes out of my mouth. HG remarked that it's possible I should stay away from the oven/stove area, and I politely told him to be quiet.




Tuesday I felt a pressing need to make some brownies, and I had to sort of make due with a not quite right sized pan which resulted in a sort of brownie mountain. Anyway, while trying to get this mound o' brownie out of the oven (which took some maneuvering) I knocked my arm against the top rack. So this is pretty:




You know, maybe I shouldn't be allowed to use the oven after all. At least they were delicious brownies.




The other lesson I cannot seem to learn is that despite my delusions to the contrary, I am a low-maintenance hair person. In reality, the only thing I'm going to want to do to my hair on a regular basis is quickly dry it and run out the door and have it not look like crap. A low maintenance haircut is usually the best option, but I always talk myself out of it. Even when I know it's not a good decision.



Case and point yesterday. It had been a disgustingly long time since I had gotten my hair cut (like, 3 months. I know). My bangs were so long they were basically just a layer, the color was faded, the roots were grown out (thankfully not as noticeable as when I used to get blond highlights), and I was feeling rather blah about it. Usually when this happens I just chop it all off and sort of start fresh, but Toni had talked me out of that about a week ago. After discussing my options, I decided that what I really wanted was MORE layers. More dramatic! More face framing! More more more! What I failed to think about was the fact that all this would translate into MORE work I'd need to do in order to make my hair look reasonable. No longer can I just quickly run a hair dryer over my head and let the pieces fall where they may. I will have to spend actual time and take actual care. The chances of this actually happening day-to-day are slim to none. I have been learning this lesson repeatedly for approximately 20 years and I still can't get it right. Oh well, here's hoping, right? Maybe this time I'll make the effort (today doesn't count. Today I was unprepared) and I'll actually take time to get ready in the morning and make sure I look nice.



You know, and maybe the Lions will win the Superbowl this year.

10 Things That Creep Me Out

The following is a list of things/people that make me want to stop whatever I'm doing, go home and take a shower because they're creepy and gross. In no particular order:

1. People who eat on public transportation. For example: the woman sitting by me on the train last week who was scarfing down on some sort of strong smelling glazed pastry and then proceeded to take a gallon of milk out of the shopping bags she had with her and just start chugging. I wanted to throw up when she pulled out the milk.

2. People with excessively long hair who don't keep track of it. Another train story (which I don't think I've told before, but so sorry if I have). A woman with hair approximately down to her bottom sat next to me on the train one day and apparently was not at all bothered with the fact that her ridiculous mane of nastiness (it was not well-cared for hair) was now all over my shoulder, my arm, touching my neck (I am gagging just reliving the memory). I made an exaggerated shift to try and get as much of it off me as possible, and she noticed (admittedly, it would have been hard not to) and moved her hair back to her person. With an exaggerated sigh as though this was a huge inconvenience to her and I was being unreasonable. I don't care if you have to pull it back, tuck it in your coat, or cut it off, but just keep it off me, lady! I would also like to point out that the same process was repeated at the next stop when someone sat down on the other side of her. It's not just me.

3. The mouse running around the ceiling of my office. There is construction across the street right now and the weather is warming up (kind of) which means there are mice in the building (it's the city, this is a fact of life). I can hear this one's little feet scratching as it runs back and forth across my ceiling. The reason this creeps me out is because I'm afraid it will fall through the ceiling one of these times and land on my neck (much like the spider that caused the Mailbox Incident of 2000). The chances of this actually happening are quite small, as the mice in this building are TINY (I've seen them) and definitely not big enough to cause a ceiling tile to fall, but I still cringe every time I hear those tiny feet. Luckily we have an exterminator who comes in once a week so this will be short lived. I hope.

4. The inside of a bag of chips. I love chips. Particularly tortilla chips with taco sauce (I don't like salsa because I don't like the chunks, so I substitute). However, I don't like to reach my hand into the bag because it's next to impossible to get the hand all the way in to the chips and back out again without getting chip residue on the back of it. Because of this, when I'm eating the little single serving bags you get with a sub or something, I cut the front of the bag off Parent Trap-style (the old version, with Haylie Mills, the skirt at the dance?) in order to keep my hands as clean as possible. When I'm eating out of a larger bag, I'll cut down the top as I go so that there's enough at the top to fold over and re-close the bag, but not so much that I have to really go digging for the desired chip.

5. Things that have been refrigerated for longer than about two weeks. For whatever reason, when something hits that two week mark, I really have to force myself to eat it. I've gotten better about making sure that something has actually gone bad before I throw it out, especially since I (theoretically) live on a budget and it's not good to just throw away food willy-nilly. Along this same vein, if I have leftovers in a tupperware for too long and the leftovers are not good any longer, chances are pretty high that depending on what it is (i.e. how liquidy), I'll throw away the leftovers and the tupperware. I'm kind of weird about food. I also don't like eating stuff out of the fridge if the floor is dirty.

6. Deli meat that's been sitting out just long enough to get that slightly slimy feel. You know what I mean. When you're at a deli buffet kind of thing and you pick up the tongs and you can just feel the tiny layer of slime. Gross gross gross.

7. People who treat public restrooms like their home bathroom. There are times when I can overlook this one because I've been guilty of it, if I'm going out after work and I have my going out clothes and stuff with me (though I always try my best to be considerate of other people and/or only do it if no one else is in the bathroom). But it grosses me out when people come in and spread their stuff all over the counter, the floor, etc, and leave it there while they go about their business. This is not your house. Kindly do not get your makeup dust everywhere! And stop looking at me as though I'm going to steal your things! If it's a concern, don't leave them laying around everywhere!

8. People who cough and hack all over the place without covering their mouth, especially on the train. Yes, it's cold season. Many people are sick. Maybe you have a job that absolutely requires you to be there, even if you're on your death bed. But seriously, didn't your mother ever teach you to cover your mouth when you cough? You're spreading germs EVERYWHERE.

9. Men with really long fingernails and/or toenails. I always want to ask, "Why do you have those? What purpose do they serve? Cut them!" Yuck.

10. People with a really strong personal odor who touch my stuff. I used to work with a guy who had a REALLY strong (and kind of unpleasant) personal smell. And then he would touch my stuff and the smell would linger on whatever he touched after he left. I remember one day he came in and I was eating lunch and he just stuck his hand in my bag of food and helped himself. I had to throw it away, it was very sad. And anyway, who just goes around touching other people's food without asking permission? That is a definite level of friendship violation (but that's a whole other post)

Wow, it was a lot harder to come up with 10 of these than I thought it would be. And I know that later I'll get home and think of about a billion other ones that I couldn't remember now when I was trying to actually document them.

Anyway, what creeps you out?

I am the absent-minded professor

Last night I lost my house keys for 30 minutes.

I knew I'd had them Saturday night, because we managed to get in the apartment (Houseguest put his key in one of his 24632324 jackets and can't remember which one - yes, he's still here, the apartment didn't pan out). I didn't leave at all on Sunday (I had a very busy day of staying in my pajamas and alternately napping, reading and movie watching) so they had to be there somewhere. Also, ever since Houseguest came to stay (24 days ago) I have done my best to keep the place as neat and clean as possible because it's not the biggest place and the addition of Houseguest and all his belongings did not exactly make it any bigger.

They had to be there somewhere.

I do tend to lose my keys approximately 5 times a week, for about 30 seconds each time. When I first noticed they were missing, I wasn't terribly concerned. However, when I reached minute 7 keyless, my anxiety level started to rise. My imagination started running through all sorts of possibilities, #1 being that I had accidentally left them in the front door when we got home Saturday night and some crazy neighbor had taken them without saying anything and was secretly plotting when he could come in and kill us in our sleep (I know, I'm a freak, and yes this was an actual concern though where I live is very safe and I doubt anyone actually wants to kill me). I started pacing through the apartment faster and faster, looking on every surface and moving stuff around in order to find the missing keys.

During this time, HG was laying on the couch/his bed lamenting the fact that he still hadn't found an apartment (and his life is so hard, nothing ever goes his way blah blah blah blah blah) until I explained in the friendliest, most patient way I could (I know what you're thinking, and you're right) that his time could be better spent helping me find my keys, particularly if he didn't want to quickly find himself homeless. We searched through and overturned everything in the apartment. I checked the front door. I checked the mail table downstairs, I checked the bathroom cupoards, the refrigerator, every drawer in my bedroom. I emptied every purse, bag, wallet that I own. Then HG checked everything again just to be sure. I had just about lost my mind and resigned myself to the fact that we were going to get murdered by one of the crazy neighbors (my money was on the grouchy guy downstairs who was kind of annoying and helpless when my shower was draining into his apartment the first weekend he moved in. As if it were my fault that the plumbing is crap and he didn't have a phone yet) when I heard the familiar jingle and breathed a pretty big sigh of relief. The keys were finally found in the middle of a pile of clothes on the makeshift clothing shelf situation I built a few months ago (actually folded into a shirt, I believe). I have no idea how they got there.

Thursday I left my apartment without my cell phone (this can be blamed on HG, who had the TV on and didn't turn it off when he left. This distracted me to an unbelievable level. I can't handle the TV in the morning. Plus, I like to blame pretty much everything on HG) and I felt as though half of me was missing that day.

Saturday evening I lost my purse for about 2 minutes, because it was sneakily sitting in the middle of the floor. Who would have though to look there? I think it was disguised as a rock, like those magic cloaks in Lord of the Rings [sidenote: Saturday night we watched 300 over at Sacha's. This was the first time I'd seen it. The narrator's voice was very familiar to me, and then when they showed him, I said, "Holy crap, is that Faramir?" All three of the boys looked at me as though I were totally insane and that's when I realized that I'm a way bigger nerd than any of them. I'm pretty sure they've never read those books or seen any of the movies. And yes, I own all the books and all the movies]

Imagine my happiness when I got to work this morning and discovered that I was missing my building ID badge. It turned out I'd left it on my desk Friday afternoon so it's not lost (because that would have been the second one in as many weeks), but all morning I've been repeatedly looking all around me to make sure I still know where everything of importance I carry with me is. As though at any moment all these objects are going to make a break for it.

Oh well, at least I remembered my cell phone today, I am fully dressed and have my contacts in, I have makeup on and am wearing matching shoes. For the time being, we'll put Monday in the win column.

you wouldn't like me when I'm angry

OK seriously.

My replacement disc of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was cracked. Yes, ANOTHER cracked disc. I gave up trying to watch that movie.

I got Season one of Sex and the City on DVD because I'd like to try and watch all of it before the movie comes out in May. Instead of disc 1 and disc 2, however, I got two copies of disc 1. One of the envelopes contained the wrong movie.

I am getting close to losing my good natured-ness about all the screw ups. I just want to put that out there. :)