Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tuesday, Crummy Tuesday

Since today has been such a cruddy day, I figure I'll steal this from Sarah's blog:

The Rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The game rules are posted at the beginning of the post. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment to let them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) After 4 years, I get antsy to quit my job. I think it's because school programs you for change every 4 years. Also, I feel like staying put is settling into a rut.

2) I carry on a running commentary in my head while I talk to people. For example, a co-worker was really excited by the fact that I had curried tuna today for lunch and she was asking me what was in it. As I answered her questions my internal commentary ran something like this, "God, what is her deal? It's just curry. Just answer her questions quickly and get out of this conversation."

3)If I get pissed off on the phone, I switch to a sickeningly sweet voice with lots of gollys and goshes. And after I hang up, I say, "Asshole."

4) I hate crowds to the point that I get ready to leave shows early and basically bolt out of the theater. Or my brother introduced me to a new method, just linger long enough to have the crowd clear out.

5) I'm a fast walker and hate being stuck behind slow walkers. I will run around people to get to where I'm going.

6) If a random stranger freaks me out, I make a point to look him in the eyes. Hopefully, this accomplishes two things: conveys confidence and takes me off of his potential victim list.

7) When something obscure I like becomes popular, I start hating it. It's a good preemptive move since it usually starts sucking ass just as it sells out for popularity (i.e. Dane Cook).

8) I have a running series of dreams which throughout nightly episodes advances a convoluted plot. While dreaming, if a contradiction occurs within the story I can say, "Wait a minute, that can't happen because of X" but that has absolutely no effect. Some nights, I can call up a best of showcase of my dreams.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Things That Have Made Today Great

- Cool scary skies and rumbling thunder. If I wasn't at work, I'd be barefoot on the pavement staring at the sky.

- Connected to the above, thanks to the 6AM thunderstorm, I woke up, had time for breakfast and got to work on time

- A very awesome meeting with my boss. This was the performance review post graduation follow-up. I walked in with a tad of dread, expecting to be laid off. My boss told me the situation that he will be leaving and when he does, my salary has to be paid by another dept. The chances that I can be part of the Operations dept looks slim so by year's end my job could be on the chopping block. We also discussed our respective job searches. He also did a very cool thing where he summarized my strengths as a worker to me. So, I have a very nice mental blurb with new adjectives fueling a re-invigorated job hunt.

- I'm getting non-stop compliments on my dye job.

- My car is in the shop, getting accident damage repaired, and I have a nice Corolla rental.

- I love catching up after time off, it's non-stop check marks against a to-do list. So far no stress.

Mini Vacation




I took Wed. through Fri off from work last week for some well-deserved R&R. A weird fact that I have noticed is that as I get older, it's harder to sleep-in. When I was a teenager, I could sleep until 1pm. Now, I'm lucky if I can make it to 10:00AM. Here is what I did during my time off

Wednesday
I got my hair done at Blondie Salon. Uploaded some hacks for my Sims game so my Harry Potter neighborhood is perfect now. There are spellbooks and cauldrons!

Thursday
I had dinner at Caffe Tosca with my mom. I had their scallops over risotto special and the best glass of Italian wine ever. We had some overly friendly neighbors to our table. When they saw our meals being brought to our table, they oohed and aahed. I didn't mind because I pride myself on my ability to order well at a restaurant. We told them what we ordered and that should have been that. But the second a morsel of our dish touched our tongue, they wanted a report. The worst was when we ordered dessert. The old biddy at the neighboring table stated that we are so tempting and they were trying to be good. I gave her a tight smile and muttered to my mother, "Well, I guess this is why we're fat." They left before we did thank goodness. After dinner, we saw Brian Regan at the South Shore Music Circus. His opening act was pretty good - which is a nice change of pace from most opening acts I see.

Friday
I saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was good despite some draggy parts so I definitely give it a thumbs up. Two scenes especially were completely copied from my imagination: the Weasley twins' exit and the Ministry of Magic battle. Oddly enough, for most of the movies I thought Daniel Radcliffe was the weakest actor, but this time around he was really good. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson seemed to be sleep walking through the movie though. Maybe they need a stint on stage naked? I also visited my grandmother's grave for the first time since the funeral. Finding it was fairly easy since that day is still vivid in my memory. That night I went to a pre-birthday celebration at the Rock Bottom. I learned a valuable lesson that I had forgotten since college: don't mix your liquor in one night. I had a rum based drink, SoCo based, and wine. Boy I was not a happy girl when I got home!

Saturday
For most of the day, I played The Sims and enjoyed the thunderstorms. That evening, I saw The Simpsons movie at Mendon Drive-In with Artist friend, her new boyfriend, and Olympic friend.

It's the first time I've seen him in almost a year. He was a complete dick the entire night. I don't enjoy spending an entire evening with someone who corrects my pronunciation every minute. I was stuttering and misplacing consonants like I was just out of stroke rehab due to getting absolutely no sleep the night before. So, it made me feel extra wonderful to have him correct me ALL THE FUCKING TIME. I kept my cool for most of the night but there were moments when I let a flash of annoyance peep through and then started another conversation completely ignoring him. God, I have no idea why I was hung up on him last year. This totally reminds me of an old co-worker, Kim, who told me that Olympic friend was too much of a stick in a mud for me. At 22, I was too stupid to listen to her. At 30, amen sister!

I had nice chats with Artist friend and her boy (who's a hoot). I had the directions so him him and I had a nice chat on the drive over. He's a fellow Liberal and movie buff. Heh, Olympic friend gamely tried to join some of the conversation but he simply didn't get it. The new boy is eons more fascinating to me because he's new and has good manners. He also laughed out loud at the movie so points for him. I wasn't just laughing, I snorted!

Sunday
As always errands and chores. I broke in my new Black & Decker coffeemaker.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Check Out My New Hair

I went into the salon with two magazine pictures in hand. One was a group shot of the Sex in the City gals. My goal was to have Miranda's deep red as a base color. The second picture was a random lady with red hair and nice highlights. Unfortunately, my hair is still too layered and short to do a nice blunt cut so I got a trim. The blunt will happen at the end of September.

The hair looks very scary wet, kind of radioactive and magenta. So, I was a bit worried when I first got a glimpse of the dye job. But blown out, I think it looks fabulous. See below. I like how my eyes look greener.



Tuesday, July 24, 2007

On the Brink of Vacation

Today, I am a grumpalumpous at work because screw ya'll this is my last workday this week! I'm grumpy also because the work I have been given lately sucks ass. I could be a dolphin and complete them. I miss brainwork... My big vacation plans are as follows:

Wednesday
Hair trim and dye

Thursday
Seeing Brian Regan

Friday
Beach or movie depending on weather

Saturday
Mendon Drive-in

Oh yeah, sleep, sleep and shop.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Okay, I Cried

over a book about imaginary characters. I know, I know. My book only got delivered around 4pm today so I have spent the last 7 hours reading the book. It was a lot more grown-up than I had expected. I'm also fairly pleased that I am on-record for having pretty darn accurate predictions! On the fun non-spoilery side, Hermione has been my least favorite charcter throughout the whole series but she completely redeemed herself in this book! All right, off to bed to rest my broken eyes.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Attention Muggles



Tonight I will be kicking it nerd school here. This weekend, you know what I will be doing. So, I have a couple theories, not spoilers (avoiding those like poison):
1. R.A.B. is Regulus Black, former DeathEater and brother of Sirius and the real Horcrux locket is in Grimmauld Place.
2. Dumbledore is not dead. He had a deal with Snape. That's why Snape lost it over being called a coward.
3. Harry himself is a Horcrux.
4. A Weasley will bite it. If it's Percy, I'd be okay with that. Anyone else, I'll be bawling.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Childhood Fears

Here's a list of my fears from ages 4 - 10. BTW, I was a pretty anxious, imaginative kid.

- My parents dying
- ET: it was the scene where he hid in the pile of dolls. Plus, that evil voice.
- Showers: I couldn't figure out how people breathe while taking showers
- Getting water in my ears while I took a bath: for years, I plugged my ears while I rinsed my hair.
- Drowning: Maybe in a past life I drowned? I had a ton of water related anxiety
- Losing my teeth: when I lost my first baby tooth, I went to my mom. She told me not to worry that I would lose all my teeth. So, I burst into tears because I didn't know the teeth would grow back.
- Walking home from school alone: a very embarrassing memory from kindergarten. I wound up crying in front of the whole class because I was so worried about getting lost.
- Taking off my training wheels: I had no trust in balance and just imagined breaking my arm without training wheels
- My kneecap falling off: I was a very literal child and took a nurse's comment literally
- Nuclear war: I grew up in the 80's and my family watched the news every night
- Dropping a baby on its head: I did this when I was 5 and I was screamed at by the Momma. Scarred me for life. Luckily, my cousin seems fine now!
- Speaking in front of class: In second grade, I was very shy and had a teacher who bullied me.
- My home burning down: GI Joe's "Knowing is Half the Battle" just gave me more ideas for my arsenal of worries.
- A shuttle blowing up over my town: Challenger related
- Breaking my 4th grade teacher's china figurines: I had a mentally ill teacher who kept dozens of china figurines on her desk. I did wind up breaking a figurine and I left the pieces on her chair with an apology note unsigned. She assumed it was my black friend who broke it. Oh yeah, she was a racist.
- My mom being paralyzed: my mom had a herniated disc when I was 10 and was bedridden for months.
- Getting my period: I hit puberty early. I was 5'1" in 5th grade and had breasts. I was a complete freak for my grade. So, my period would be the final nail in my coffin. It happened when I was 11 thank goodness!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Best Weekend Ever

So, not only did I have my 3rd car accident this year and get to see my kitty, my brother broke up with his girlfriend. That makes it my best weekend ever, not his.

This latest girlfriend was an all-time low for my brother. She was rude, very immature, ignorant, and boring. A prime example of her rudeness was when she stayed at my parent's place for a couple weeks helping my brother on house painting. She never said hello to me when I visited and didn't say goodnight to my father. All we got was her turdy silence. The immaturity seeped through every interaction she had. She's 21 years old, never has eaten feta cheese and cannot read highway signage. That was a fun trip when all of a sudden she took an exit leaving me demanding, "What are you doing?" For her if the first two letters match a town's name, that's good enough. Ignorant is that she doesn't read and has no vocabulary. I cannot count the times I had to explain meanings of words to her. Plus, I got to listen to her rant about how "Brokeback Mountain" was disgusting. Ah yes, I forgot to mention that she's uber-religious. Roll all of this up and you have a girl who has no personality and cannot carry a conversation. The only thing that made her tolerable was the fact that she obviously cared about my brother.

Hopefully, once he has recovered, my brother can move onto greener pastures and can look back with, "What the hell was I thinking?" hindsight. I will totally turn her name into an adjective/verb. When he gets to the angry stage, I will be the BEST support system (see above).

Why I Quit Weight Watchers

I have multiple reasons. I did not like the group leader of the meetings I attended. Attending meetings or weigh-ins was a huge hassle. I actually gained 12lbs after a year of membership. So, rather than waste $40 a month on a program that isn't working for me and I'm not so enthusiastic about, I'm going to try a new method.

Maybe I'm not the kind of person who can lose weight with the whole group support thing? The most weight I ever lost was on my own (on a very unhealthy low cal diet and daily exercise). I'll track my food and exercise online and see if I can lose weight on my own.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Job Hunt aka Frustration Central

My plan has always been that once I got my MBA, I would look for a management job to utilize the skills I had learned. That is still my plan 2 months post-graduation. So far, I have applied to over 50 positions and had 3 interviews. Basically, I've received a lot of rejections.

Since my former college has a career center, I decided to turn to them for help last month. They have an online recruiting system that requires registration. The admin who handled my registration lost my application form, mis-spelt my name so she couldn't find me in the student database all within one week. That was the last I had heard from her until last Friday. A whole month had elapsed since my registration request and I was pissed. So I sent a strongly worded email to the entire career center. My main points were that I had waited a month for registration, this is not how to serve the student population and I might become one of the millionaire alumnae. I got a bunch of responses. First off the incompetent admin told me she sent me my log in info last month. So I tried to log in and nothing worked. It turned out she mis-spelt my name AGAIN! I guess she has never heard of cut&paste. Of course this mis-spelling realization occurred via email with no managers cc'ed. I got two pissy email responses from two CCD managers telling me basically that the admin did her job, to shut my yap, and don't email the center ever again. Nice, huh? Wow, when I get a call to support the endowment, I will have a couple things to say!

After all this dramarama, I logged in and found out that I am eligible to apply for maybe 3 jobs posted. Any position I was interested in was limited to the full-time student population. Now I understand why my fellow Evening students told me that the career center is useless.

Surrender in the Cofffee War



I spent about $35 on this coffeemaker a couple months ago and quickly figured out that it cannot make 10 cups of coffee, as advertised. Last night, I discovered it can't even make 4. So, I give up and will trash this lemon and get a new coffeemaker. There is something wrong with the drip mechanism. Water doesn't seep through the grinds, it just build up and overflows all over the machine. I've been drinking coffee swimming with grinds for too long!

Monday, July 16, 2007

An Entertaining Weekend

This weekend, I caught up on a couple movies on my TiVo.

The Devil Wears Prada - Very funny and lots of fun fashion to ogle. I also liked how situations and characters weren't always black and white. Sometimes you thought the heroine was a bitch and other times the villain broke your heart. I wonder what the gag reel would be like? Hopefully, people falling out of 6 inch heels. Speaking of, I'm not a fan of the heavy bang and tendril look Anne Hathaway was sporting. It's too anime for me.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend - I had no idea Uma could do comedy. This was sharply written, funny as hell and a couple surprise casting twists. Anna Faris can really sell comedy so she was great. Plus, the glorious Eddie Izzard has a major role, not as an Executive Transvestite, sadly. The movie was so funny as it started winding down, I got worried if the ending would be some lameass committee written nonsense. Luckily, it wasn't!

Scrub - since I have a video iPod now and I missed this past season of Scrubs, I am catching up. This weekend I saw the musical episode. I was dying laughing and I think my favorite songs are "Guy Love" and the poo song. Instant classic and I can't believe they only did it in a 30 minute format - Buffy took an hour.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Friday the 13th, ANOTHER Car Accident

I got out of work early and was driving home singing along to "Teach Your Children Well" when I got to an intersection which had two lanes to go right. I was in the right-most lane and we had a green light. I was driving through the intersection when a silver car on my left decided to switch lanes into my car. I kept going forward but now I was pinned against the curb.

We exchanged info with her asking me why I was being so snippy with her. The police came and filed a report and she got a citation. THAT'S why I was snippy bitch! She was so ridiculous. Talking about how she's famous and can be googled. Plus, she knows tons of Waltham police officers. The dropped names had no effect on the awesome police officer who wrote up the report.

The damage is basically paint streaked on the drivers side and some body damage on the door. She was so desperate not to go through insurance but I've already filed my claim.

A Solution to Prison Overcrowding


According to this report, we're on a slippery slope to recruiting convicts. On top of this, the army is also recruiting White Supremacists. Wow, the army is going to be a fun place to be! And they're worried about "Don't ask, don't tell"?

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Soliciation Scam (s)

When I got home from running errands last night, I was greeted by one of those door-to-door donation solicitors. She was really nice and had an interesting pitch about MA leading the environmental movement. I'm a sucker for these kinds of pitches because I used to work for Clean Water Action in college. When it came down to it, I had no cash on hand so I left my name on the sign-up sheet and asked for the organization's URL. My plan was to investigate the non-profit through Charity Navigator before donating money. Sure enough, the URL I was given was bogus and no such non-profit is listed with Charity Navigator. Just a warning to be wary before donating money!

Part II
I had a co-worker who is deaf and has a hearing dog. This dog was having medical problems and my co-worker was being laid off. So, my company raised money to help pay for the dog's medical care. Guess what? My co -worker just bought a new 2007 motorcycle. Makes me sick...

My Baby's Back

After two days in the shop, my car is finally repaired. I had a broken EGR tube. From what I understand, it is part of the exhaust system so that's why my car sounded like a Harley.

Since I had a rental car for a couple days, I got to enjoy the latest luxuries of a new car. For fun, I figured out that I could afford a new car if need be. And since I've had horrible experiences with Ford, I would go for a Japanese car. Right now, my heart is on this baby:



A 2007 Toyota Corolla.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

When an Inmate Calls

I'm not easily spooked but I got a phone call last night that put me on edge all evening. It was a collect call from Richmond jail. The name of the inmate wasn't clear. It just sounded like someone hollering into the phone. When I hit *69, I got the phone number for an inmate collect call service. I don't know any inmates especially in Richmond so this was obviously a wrong number.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Yummy Summer Drink

If you want to spice up your Crystal Light, I highly recommend using Poland Springs flavored seltzer. I used their lemon flavored water for lemonade this weekend. Fizzy, cold, and delish!

Signifying Nothing

This weekend was pretty darn good! I got leave work early on Friday, ordered out for dinner, and had a nice time enjoying my new iPod. Speaking of, I accidentally got a video iPod. Yes, I received the iPod I had ordered but I hadn't fully read the description. Y'see, 3 years ago I spent about $300 on a 40GB regular old iPod. Now, $300 gets you a 30GB video iPod. Ain't technology amazing?

Saturday, I hung out with my fab friend and we went to a nice cookout in JP. For all you worrywarts out there, I have dined on a triple decker's porch and have lived to tell about it. The cookout was a wine crowd so I got to try this wonderful South African chardonnay and sampled barley beer which wasn't as wonderful. The food was delish and the conversation ended up in politics and since most of us are like-minded we just debated about what to be the most outraged about. I tried to take on a Hilary supporter but the election is over a year away and I don't have my passionate talking points. Right now, my passionate talking point is Bloomberg better stay the fuck away.

I didn't have any plans for Sunday since it was supposed to be deathly hot with high humidity. Emphasis on supposed. I had a really nice conversation with a Communist clerk at Trader Joes and since I was a wee bit hungover, I thought to myself as I drove past a Bacon Road, "I wonder if kosher Jews can live there."

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Confessions of an Armchair Physics Buff

I love physics. I enjoyed my high school class and regret that I didn't pursue a career in science. Quantum theory was my favorite theory for a while until I learned about string theory a couple years ago. The other day, I saw a Discovery special on M theory (parallel universes). I liked how the theory was introduced by a question: Why is gravity so weak compared to other universal forces? At first, the theory is that gravity was leaking out of our universe into another universe. But that theory was modified by reversing the leakage direction - into our universe. Then, they discussed the 11 dimensions and membranes. One physicist mentioned that in the other universes, matter may behave differently like electrons didn't hold charges. The coolest part of M theory is that it can explain the Big Bang, two membranes collided. Which made me start to think. If two membranes collided, was one stronger or stickier? If it was, doesn't that mean the majority of our universe is derived from that membrane?

A Letter to Women With Low Self- Esteem

Dear ladies,

I used to be a member of your tribe. The self-destructive behavior, the unhealthy relationships with men, and friends who kept me around so they could talk about me behind my back. That was basically my entire life until around age 24.

Drinking and self-sabotage were my main self-destructive behaviors. I really liked being drunk because I couldn't hear that nagging voice that told me that I was a worthless piece of shit. The self-sabotage was tricky and combine it with drinking, I was screwed. Because I didn't think I deserved to be happy/have anything nice, I would make sure to screw up anything that could threaten that perception. Pick fights, cancel dates/appointments, and spend way too much money.

The unhealthy relationships with guys helped confirm that I was unlovable and there was something wrong with me. My Daddy's lessons. I had one guy who convinced me to alienate myself from all my male friends. He knew my history of abuse and low self-esteem so he fed me lines telling me that X friend was obviously taking advantage of me and Y guy was unhealthy for me. Since I trusted him and knew I had blind spots, I followed his advice and had an absolutely miserable year.

The bad friendships all stem from one incident in middle school. Towards the end of 6th grade, I received an anonymous note telling me that I needed to lose weight, wear cooler clothes and ditch certain friends who were "losers". I agreed with a bunch of the notes' points and went about improving myself even though I knew that my two best friends wrote the "anonymous" note. Moral of the story? My hot new $50 jeans were stolen from my gym locker. My only requirement for a friend is someone who was willing to spend time with me. Sometimes I lucked out with decent friends but the circle of people who I called friend weren't there for all the same reason. Some friends liked me drunk, some respected my opinion, and others loved hearing about the latest disaster in my life.

Building up self esteem takes lots of time and can be very painful. Each person has their own limit. Some can be pushed into oblivion and others have a preset mental line that cannot be crossed without pushing back. I would probably still be boozing and hanging out with people who make me miserable if it wasn't for my stroke. Ladies, I just want to let you know that almost dying is not the preferable wake up call! As I see or hear about your lives, yes I do shake my head but I am rooting for you. I know it isn't helpful to you that an outsider can see that you stick with a guy who treats you like crap because you have Daddy issues. Becoming a strong confident woman is worth the loneliness and fear. The strong confident woman tribe is welcoming and would like you as a member!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Friends vs. Simpsons


One of my friends has a theory: that you can't simultaneously be a fan of Friends and The Simpsons. His theory is that both shows have opposite kinds of humor. He is a Simpsons fan, I'm a fan of both but I do understand what he means. Friends sense of humor was more obvious and set-up then joke. The Simpsons has a subtler kind of humor that marinates in your brain and then you laugh. Plus, The Simpsons is eternally quotable. "Linguo dead?"

My God, Just Shut Up Already!

I am sick of this hate monger trying to justify his behavior. I hope his entire career crashes and burns.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Down with the Sickness

The weekend was fairly uneventful except for two things: I broke my iPod and the neti pot turned out to be AMAZING. Other than that, I was camped out on my sofa watching TV or playing the Sims.

I dropped my iPod which wound up corrupting the software. After a couple unsuccessful restores, I realized it was a goner. It's over 3 years old and has already been repaired under warranty. So, I sprung for a new 30GB black iPod. Not that I can actually afford it, but I can think of it as a "gift for myself".

I initially had trouble with the neti pot because it was really hard not to swallow with the saline running down the back of my throat. Swallowing forced me to breathe through my nose too. Friday, I was a salty sputtering mess a couple times. But once I got the hang of the process, it is oddly soothing. When I moved up to a full packet of saline yesterday, I found out that my tear ducts are connected to my sinuses because OW! It was like putting salt in my eyes. Anyone remember that Kids in the Hall skit? Anyways, my sinuses are pretty clear now thanks to my friend neti.