Night is my companion

I've moved

2005-08-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted over here for so long because I've moved to LiveJournal. You can find me there:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/tvaddictgurl

I don't want bedazzled turquoise sandals!

2005-04-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

I hate shoe shopping! Today I ran out at lunch to look for a pair of shoes. Just everyday shoes, nothing fancy, just something to slip into each day. Could I find anything???? Of course not. First, except for about 3 shoes, all they had were sandals. Yes, I realize that it's almost summer but not everyone can or chooses to wear sandals on a daily basis, especially to work. I did find a couple styles that I thought were okay and could live with. One, the only size she had was 6, I'm a 9 1/2, so that's not going to work. The other one, all they had were medium widths and of course I need a wide width. So basically I'm screwed. I'm limited on where I can shop for shoes and how much I can spend. Last summer I walked in a pair of shoes until they were literally falling apart because I couldn't find any that fit and that I could afford. I guess I'll just muddle through the foot cramps that are keeping me up at night from the shoes I have now.

In a mood

2005-04-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

I hate not being able to find things. I want things to be where they're supposed to be and I can find them. I would consider myself to be a semi-organized person. The books on my bookshelves are divided so that my two favorite authors each have their own shelf and then other books are put together by category on other shelves. My cds are alphabetized. I used to have them sorted by genre and alphabetized but the only ones that are separated that way now are soundtracks. Everything else is just alphabetized.

Lately I have been lax about keeping things organized and it's starting to drive me crazy. Next week my roommate and I are getting out of town for 4 days. We'll be staying over on the Olympic Penninsula near Sequim. We thought for one of the days we'd take the ferry over to Victoria and bum around there for a day. Because we'll be crossing a border they want you to have proof of citizenship. A couple of years ago I had to attend a conference up in Victoria and needed the same thing, so I got a copy of birth certificate from whoever it is that has them in the county I was born.

So last night I'm looking for that and I was sure that it was in the holder that has "important" papers in it, which is mostly vcr and dvd manuals and a couple warranties. It wasn't there. Can't find it for the life of me.

Giant bunnies and magic elixir

2005-04-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Don't eat a bunch of Jedi mix M&Ms before bed... it causes odd dreams.

So, in the dream I'm in this huge room full of people at computers and they're all working away and all of a sudden people start yelling how they can't get on the internet anymore. One of the people traces the problem and says it's my computer, that I must have been downloading something that caused the problem. I explain that I wasn't even using the computer, that I was just sitting there.

Suddenly we're all outside and it's some huge carnival. I walk around the backside of this building with my roommate and there are 3 huge furry bunnies. Imagine a blue or purple stuffed bunny, like a children's stuffed animal... now imagine it about 2 stories tall.. that's what was in my dream. They were some kind of "alien" bunnies and shot at us with a substance that was like cotton candy.

Then there was a Willy Wonka-esque guy, complete with top hat, who was trying to sell this magic elixir, that was like thick Dr. Pepper. We drank that and the cotton candy substance just slid right off.

I have no idea what any of that means. I'd love to know what you think it means.

Life Sucks

2005-04-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

But don't mind me, I'm just having a bad day. I'm waiting for someone to come along and tell me that I'm just having a bad bad dream that I haven't woken up from, but alas, I don't think that's going to happen.

We no longer have a working car in the household. Mine has been dead since January and the other one, well let's just say that it involved a tow truck very early this morning. So now, we're without wheels. Guess it's a good thing we got that grocery shopping done yesterday. And a good thing we don't live too far from the bus stop that gets us to downtown so we can get to work.

I don't know what the hell we're going to do. My shoulders are knotted up so tight I can barely move. My head is killing me and I'm afraid to eat my packet of oatmeal because I'm wondering if we should be conserving food to last us longer.

On another note, I didn't watch any of the movies this weekend. Maybe tonight.

2005-04-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I could have checked online to see if Best Buy had the cd I wanted (see comment on previous post), but

a) it wasn't planned that we were going to get the cd that afternoon so I had no reason to try and see if a store was going to have it first,
b) I don't typically shop at Best Buy because of the smell, the annoying people working there, and the 40 television sets all set to different things with the volume turned up to record decibels, and
c) Best Buy was not my first stop in trying to find the cd

And the whole buy it online pick it up at the store... yeah, we did that once. It took them more than 20 minutes to track down the dvd set that my roommate had bought.

Both my roommate and I were excited to see the new movie, The Interpreter, but after hearing a review of it this morning I don't know if we'll be rushing out to catch it. Not that I put stock in all movie reviews, but if it's someone who's reviews I usually agree with, I tend to pay a little more attention to them. We might just stay home with some dvd and get caught up on shows we've taped over the last couple months.

Right now, thanks to Netflix, we have Finding Neverland, Sideways, and Better Than Sex for this weekend. Yes, we're probably the only people that haven't seen Finding Neverland or Sideways. But then again, we only saw The Incredibles and Closer in the last couple of weeks so it's par for the course for us to be behind in movies.

What is that smell???

2005-04-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

Why does Best Buy smell? Have you ever noticed that? As soon as you walk into a Best Buy there's a very strange and acrid smell. And last night it was particularly nasty. Of course I could be venting because we went there to get a cd, which of course they were out of.

But back to the smell... what is it??? And it's not just at the Best Buy at Southcenter. Every Best Buy I've been in has that same weird smell. Are they pumping some chemical into the air that's supposed to make you want to buy more stuff or at least tolerate the constant aggravation from people in blue shirts asking if you need any help?

And why is it everytime I go to Best Buy looking for something in particular they're out of it? Last night my roommate wanted to buy me the new Rob Thomas cd. We search around for it and can't find it so she tracks down someone in a blue shirt who checks in back. No copies in back. She checks the computer. Nope, they're completely out of it and no idea on when they might get more in. But she can see that the store in Federal Way has 47 copies. So what, your store had 3 copies to start with?

I was not in the mood for a short trek to Federal Way to get it so we might go tonight. Unfortunately we are short of places to buy music downtown except for Borders, B&N, and Sam Goody -- all places that would want $18 for the cd when Best Buy and Target have it for less than $10. And yes, we tried Target last night too, but they also were out of it.

Note: To Patch, who asked if I told the schmoos last week which floor they could get their visa on.... nope, didn't. Yeah, maybe that was mean of me, but I was tired of stupid people that day.

Yes, I'm in a mood today.

2005-04-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, it's been a long time. Mainly because the only time I really have time to blog is at work and things have been crazy the last couple of months and there hasn't been the time. But now I'm hoping to get back to it. And this morning I happen to have a few moments so I thought I would write.

This is my rant for the day... Let's say that you've set out on an important errand, say to, oh I don't know... get a visa for another country. And to do this you have to visit the consulate for said country. Somehow or other you have obtained the address for the consulate and head out. You reach the building and upon entering the building you notice it has both a security desk with a very nice man named Chris sitting at it, as well as a very large board that tells you which offices are located where in the building.

Now, instead of asking the nice man at the security desk or checking the informative board you just get on the elevator and evidently randomly choose a floor to get off on. Just because the consulate is located in a building who's street address is 600 XXXXX Street, doesn't mean that it has anything to do with the sixth floor. But that's the floor you get off at anyway. And then you stand there for 5 minutes with your thumb up your butt staring at the floor directory. And low and behold, none of the businesses listed have anything to do with the consulate.

Now you have three options:

a) Get back on the elevator, ride back down to the lobby and consult one of those two sources I've already mentioned so that you'll know exactly where to go.

b) Get back on the elevator, aimlessly getting off at random floors until you happen to stumble on the one you actually want.

c) Wander aimlessly on the sixth floor peering into the offices until you see someone and ask them where the consulate is in the building.

Today, they chose option c. And guess who they say to ask their question of.... yep, that's right, me. Now I could have been a bitch and told them I didn't know and to choose option a. But I was nice and told them that the consulate is located on floors 4 and 5. Then they asked me which floor they should go to get their visa.

Do I look like an information desk???? Again, you big giant schmoo, had you checked the board downstairs or asked Chris he could have told you which of the two floors to go to, but I'm not the building information operator. Go find it your damn self!

2005-02-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's a tip for anyone that's trying out the internet dating thing... actually read the person's profile! On one site where I have a profile listed under the section about what I'm looking for I said that I wanted someone within 50 miles of Seattle and that this was very important to me.

So far the 3 people that have sent me "winks" through the system are from Madrid, Japan, and Ontario. Unlike a lot of Americans, I actually did quite well in my geography classes and don't need a map or atlas to tell me that none of these places is anywhere near me. As well as the fact that the dude in Ontario looked like the Unabomber and was old enough to be my father!

Canadian dude also was interested in someone that does drugs at least socially. Well, sorry, but the strongest drug I do is Excedrin Migraine. I don't think I'm your type.

Nobody interesting on eharmony. In fact no one at all. Well, actually that's not true. The other morning I had emails telling me that I had 5 new matches on eharmony. However, when I went to the site to check them out, all 5 guys had already closed me out. The favorite reason for why seems to be "Other". Which I'm guessing is the nice way of saying "you're a cow".

another drunken escapade

2005-02-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

Since I shared yesterday's drunken story, thought I would share another... this one also involves my friend A (my best drinking stories all involve A, at least the ones from college.. the other ones all took place in junior high, yes junior high, and I didn't know her then).

At the time A and I shared a house with M. The three of us went out one night along with two other friends R and T. The five of us were drinking and dancing... okay, actually I believe that R and T weren't really drinking, mainly just the other three of us. Several, and boy do I mean several, pitchers later we decide to head home. Our house was within 5 blocks of almost every bar in town (very very convenient). We're headed up the street with T helping M to walk and R and I on either side of A, who was having difficulty with walking herself.

A decided that she was tired and proceeded to lay down in the middle of the sidewalk. Not such a big deal except for the police officer that was driving by. He slowed down to almost a stop rolled down his window to ask if we needed assistance. R helped A up while I assured the officer in my own seriously slurred speech that we were fine and on our way home, gesturing wildly while I spoke. It was a college town and I'm sure we weren't the first or last college kids he'd seen drunk.

A block from the apartment A decides that she wants Cheetos... yes, Cheetos. So we indulge her and walk a couple extra blocks up the street to the 7-11 and get her some. We were now back enroute to the apartment. A is eating the Cheetos while she walks, dropping some and trying to eat them off the ground. R and I stopped her from that. Finally we reach the apartment, T gets M inside and A decides that she's going to lay down on the front steps. It took some convincing but we convinced her to go inside, which she did by crawling.

R and T headed for home leaving the none too sober me to deal with my even none too soberer roommates. A had disappeared into her bedroom. I asked M if she needed me for anything before I went to bed. It was well past midnight and I had class in the morning.

Oh, did I forget to mention that this was a Wednesday night and I had class the next morning at 8.

M says that she's okay but that she thinks that A needs me. I hear this sad "S--" from the bedroom. Yes, A has puked over her laminate floor... orange puke. If you've never had the pleasure, let me just say that Cheetos aren't pretty coming back up. I helped her up and into the bathroom where she joined M who was also now puking. I cleaned up her floor and eventually we all made it to our beds. Let me just say that I'm so thankful that she threw up on her bedroom floor and not the living room floor which had lovely red shag carpet. That would have been nasty.

** Note on yesterday's entry -- For Some Girl who asked if I could still drink tequila and vodka after that night... oh yes! No problems there.

ah memories....

2005-02-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

For some reason this memory popped into my head today and I thought I would share with everyone. During the fall quarter of my fifth year of college (yes, I was there for 4 years and 2 quarters... that's what happens when you keep changing your major), I headed to Seattle to spend the weekend with a friend who had graduated the previous June.

Saturday night, A and I were heading out with her friend J and a bunch of J's friends. We ended up at an Eagles club because one of the guys could get us in because his mom was a member. Basically we went there because it meant cheap liquor. So we went back to the pool room, us three girls and 4-5 guys. A and I had eaten lunch late and hadn't had any dinner, which of course meant the alcohol hit us fast.

I started with a vodka cranberry. I think I had at least two of those. Then a white russian. It was my first and I loved it. Then there was a long island ice tea. We were playing pool, drinking, talking, basically having a good time. We were talking about vodka and none of the guys believed me that I'd do straight shots of it. Well, when I was young and stupid I always took on a dare. So I proceeded to do three shots of vodka and then two shots of tequila.

A had drank almost as much as me. Needless to say we were a little on the impaired side. We left the Eagles, with someone mostly sober driving. We stopped by a restaurant to pick up another of J's friends who was getting off work. A got sick and tried to get out of the back seat, but sadly did not make it and ended up throwing up half in the car and half in the parking lot. They're lucky I didn't throw up too.

The whole big group then went to where one of the guys lived. Actually it was his grandparents house and he lived with them. They were out of town. The guys and J started to play poker while A and I lay sickly in the living room. A and I each took turns throwing up in the bathroom. Unfortunately, she was in there when I too needed to use the facility. There was another bathroom down in the basement. So I managed to make it down the long flight of stairs and threw up. I crawled half way out of the bathroom before passing out face down on the basement floor.

By this time A has passed out in the living room and everyone else is playing poker. An hour later someone says "hey where's A's friend?" suddenly noticing that I'm nowhere to be found. They look down the stairs and see me passed out. It took them quite a while to wake me up and evidently were considering calling an ambulance when I finally opened my eyes. Here's the conversation that transpired --

J: Are you alright?
Me: Yes, but I'm cold.

So they threw a blanket over me and left me at the bottom of the stairs. I woke up again about 5am and trudged up the stairs. A was dozing off and on in the living room while the others continued to play poker. On tv was a documentary called "Endless Summer 2", it follows two surfers around the world. It's a fabulous film to watch but all the waves rolling in and out and in and out... damn lucky I didn't throw up what was left of my stomach.

I've seen that movie a couple of times since that night and it still makes me nauseous.

I hate coming up with titles!

2005-02-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

I put profiles up on a couple other online dating sites I found yesterday. I figured it couldn't hurt. I mean, Match.com has never gotten me one nibble and eharmony tends to be sort of hit or miss. I got a new match from them today. We'll call him B. One of the questions on the eharmony profile is the 'What is the last book you read and enjoyed?'. His answer - none.

So what does that mean... does that mean that you don't read? you don't enjoy reading? you've never read a book that you've enjoyed? A little more explanation would have been nice. I'm going to guess that it probably means that he's not a reader. Not a big deal, except that I'm a huge reader. I typically have 3-4 books going at once. I love to spend time wandering around bookstores looking for new stuff.

I certainly don't expect every guy to be able to critically analyze Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, but it would be nice to know that you picked up a book every once in a while. Though if you could do that, we soooooooooooooo need to talk.

Two and a half hours of my life I'll never get back

2005-02-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

We watched movies over the weekend. We're doing the Blockbuster online thing plus we took the coupons they'd given us to the store and got a couple more movies. One of the movies we had was The Mancurian Candidate, the remake with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep. Okay, I love Denzel, think he is one of the best actors of his generation. But, heaven help me if I ever have to sit through that piece of crap again. By the end of it I just wanted someone to die because then maybe the movie would finally end.

It's the weekend.. party down!

2005-01-28T08:03:00.000-08:00

TGIF!

Not that I have any big plans for this weekend... just watching movies and hanging out with my BFSRM NLLP (that's best friend sister roommate non lesbian life partner). She is my other half. We don't even have to speak full sentences and the other one knows what you're saying or thinking. She's also the one that got the dude kicked out of the movie theater back in December. What else can I say... she rocks!

On a completely different note, I have this weird bump near my right nipple... just thought I'd share.

another one bites the dust....

2005-01-27T08:12:00.000-08:00

Thank you to the people that left comments about my post yesterday... You get it!

So D sends me a message yesterday through eharmony saying that he enjoyed our chat but wasn't sure how to read it and how did I feel about it. I weighed how honest and blunt I should be in my reply. I decided to do like my friend A suggested and give him the benefit of the doubt. I said that I wasn't sure how I felt about it either, but that it didn't seem like he was really interested in getting to know me. I suggested that maybe he had been distracted (he said he had homework to do) or nervous or maybe he just wasn't a fan of chatting online.

He responded that he didn't know why I felt that he wasn't interested in getting to know me, that he didn't feel that way. He said that he'd felt that neither one of us seemed to be comfortable chatting and that we both had trouble (well maybe I was frustrated because you never asked me a damn question!).

I decided not to mince words at this point and be blunt. I responded that I felt that way because in the course of out chat I had been asking him lots of questions (about his taste in movies, music, his family, his school) and he never reciprocated and that made me feel like he wasn't interested.

His short response to that was that he has always worked best when someone just tells him about themself. Okay, maybe it's just me, but I would find it rude to just sit and babble on about myself and never inquire about the other person and actively engage them in the conversation. And conversely I would find it a little rude to be on the receiving end of that... but then again, maybe that's just me.

So long D... you just didn't get it...

just a question or two would be nice....

2005-01-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

So D and I are exchanging emails through eharmony. On the first one from him he gives me his phone number. Okay, slow down there boy, too early for that. Plus, I hate talking on the phone. I have two people that I talk to on the phone regularly (my mother and my best friend and Maine) and that's because they don't live close enough for me to see them very often. I've never liked talking on the phone. Which makes it ironic that I took a job where one of my main tasks is to answer the phone for our office...but I digress...

I send him another email, asking about things he mentioned, his schooling, his music, etc... I also mention that I have msn messenger and am on a lot of nights so if he wants to chat there we could. About 15 minutes later he messages me through msn and we talk for about 45 minutes. I wish I could say it was a good chat. It basically consisted of me asking him questions (in order to keep the conversation going) and him answering them.

Not once did he ask me anything about me. Is it wrong for me to think that seems strange? When you're trying to get to know a potential date wouldn't you want to ask them questions and get to know them???? I was asking about his family, his music, his school, what kind of movies he likes, etc? Not a single question in return.

Now it could be that he was nervous or distracted by something else... maybe he doesn't do well through emails and messaging. I should give him another chance. But another thing that has leaped out at me through his words is that he doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humor and well, the sexiest thing to me is a man that can make me laugh.

adventures in internet dating... part 2

2005-01-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

It's another adventure into internet dating. I have a new match on eharmony that's started communication with me. We will call him D. D seems nice and he's already given me his phone number. But I'm not quite ready to call him yet. I mean, we only got matched yesterday. Let's just take this one step at a time. And this time, definitely our first meeting with be coffee or something equally low key. I don't need another unwanted kiss freak out.

So far he does have two big pluses in my book.... first off, one of his pictures was him with a dog. Note to all the single guys out there, for most women seeing you with a pet or a small child (particularly a baby) is a BIG hit. Second, I was totally upfront with him from the beginning about being a Wiccan and he's totally cool with it.

protesters and inaugurations

2005-01-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

Okay I'm probably going to get nasty comments for anything I write in here today because I'm going to rant about yesterday afternoon. People in Seattle love to protest, give them an issue and you'll have no trouble finding plenty of people to stage a march and protest. And before you start yelling at me, I have no problem with people protesting, I am all in favor of free speech and your right to protest. But I think you might want to be smart about it.

Yesterday in Seattle, as in many other cities in the US, there was a protest about the inauguration. The group gathered at Westlake Plaza (which I only work a couple blocks from) in the late afternoon. After staging there for a couple of hours they began their march to the Federal Building at 4:30pm.. yes, 4:30pm... a path which took them down Second Avenue and right through evening rush-hour traffic.

Do I even need to explain how f*#ked up traffic became because of this? I stood at my bus stop for 20 minutes and watched no traffic move for five blocks because the police had to block off streets because of the 1,000+ people marching down the street. We decided to go have a drink and try to wait it out. We had some dinner, a glass of wine, and hung out till around 6pm. We went back to our bus stop and debated if we should get on the bus that was there. This was not our usual bus but its eventual last stop was our park and ride. Since it was beginning to sprinkle we thought why not and hopped aboard. The bus driver told us how at that point she was already an hour behind in her schedule.

Every once in a while the bus moved, we picked up a passenger here and there. Finally the protesters left the Federal Building and headed back for Westlake Plaza via a different street. Of course that doesn't mean the congestion and back-up was immediately eleviated, no that took some time. Our usual 25 minute bus ride, turned into almost 2 hours.

Unfortunately I think the protesters did more harm than good. I'm sure they had their message that they wanted to get out to people, make people think, make more people stand up and get involved... but all they did was piss people off, piss off the exact people they were trying to reach. No one on the buses, at the bus stops, on the streets that I talked to or heard talking was talking about what their message was, all they talked about is their disrespect for the people around them and how stupid they were.

Several people I was talking to talked about how they were all for protest and have joined several, but would never get involved in one that was disrespectful for people that are just trying to get home at the end of a long work day. Not all of us had the luxury to just be able to walk out of our classrooms at the community college and go stand there the rest of the afternoon. We have jobs, families, responsibilities.

Did they consider the people that have to get to a daycare to pick up their kids by a certain time to avoid being charged extra rates, people stuck in the backup that were trying to get to night classes because they're trying to get an education, the people on their way to their second job who can't call to say they're late and now might have lost that job, the average person who just wants to get home because they're tired and want to enjoy a nice evening at home with their spouse and kids? Did they consider any of those people?

I read a quote from a protester who said he was there because George W. Bush had no respect for the American public. That protester showed me he had no respect for me in chosing to effectively close down my way home last night. In my eyes, last night, he wasn't any better than the person he was protesting against.

me again

2005-01-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

So yes, I'm writing again today. I have this itch to write today, which is a good thing because I haven't felt that way for a couple weeks. I think tonight I'll go home, turn on the computer, put on my headphones and work on my fiction story. I have to have the first 25 pages finished by March in order to get it in for the contest being run by the writing conference I'm going to in June. Of course it might help if I knew where the hell I was going with my story. I think one of the primary things that's making this story harder to write for me is that my protagonist is a man. I've never done that before, always women and always stories from their point of view.

ho hum

2005-01-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

Again, I had written out a whole post and then blogger lost it. I won't even try to recreate it other than to say, nothing has been going on in my life the last couple of weeks and I've been so busy at work, that's why I haven't posted for a few days.

Anyone know of any good creative writing classes, either online or in the Seattle area? I've been trying to find one but it's hard to know if you've found a good one without finding someone that's already done the class.

My question of the day... if you were a writer, what would you write? Would you write poetry, songs, jingles, 1,000 page historical novels that chronicle a family through generations, etc? What does your heart want to write?

where's the white stuff????

2005-01-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

Damn it! We didn't get snow!

All week the news has been telling us about this storm that was going to hit the Seattle area starting Thursday night. Now granted it sounded like the immediate city was only going to get an inch or so, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

I get up this morning and what do I see.... NOTHING... not one damn snowflake! Oh sure, they're getting all kinds of snow up in Bellingham, but down here... NOTHING!

I wanted a snow day! Well, actually I didn't. I have too much to do at work today and having a snow day would have screwed everything up. But would a light dusting of snow have been too much to ask for????

Side note about yesterday: While trapped in the elevator we all started joking about climbing out the hatch in the roof like in the movies. Except there was no hatch! How could that be? There's always one in the movies. Don't tell me, the movies aren't real????

New experiences!

2005-01-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

I got to do something this morning that I've never done before. Are you ready for it....

I got stuck in an elevator!

Whoo hoo! Yeah me! Yes, I spent 30 minutes trapped between floors 2-3 of my building with 7 other people this morning. Actually it wasn't too bad. The people were really nice and evidently the property management company is going to do something for us (whatever that means).

I don't think I'll be taking elevator 3 for a while if I can help it.

what to do in the new year

2005-01-05T11:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes I know, I posted a couple of hours ago. But I think I'm making up for that week that I missed completely. I've been reading all these blogs with people listing their resolutions for 2005. I'm not a resolution maker, never have been. I do however have a few goals for the year.

1- Starting a regular exercise routine and keeping at it. (This begins this weekend when we start doing Pilates, now if I can just keep at it this time)
2- Write everyday -- and I don't mean in my blog, this has to do with my creative writing and I've already started. I have this great book called The Writer's Book of Days and it has a writing prompt for everyday of the year. The last four nights I have managed to take at least 10-15 minutes to sit down and write.
3- Write 5 pages a week on my novel -- there is a writing conference I want to attend in June and there is a contest that accompanies it, an entry requires at least the first 25 pages of your manuscript and has to be sometime in April. The basic entry fee is $10-15 but for $25 you can have it reviewed and commented on by an editor or published author, that's what I'm going for.

They're not impressive goals but they're mine.

there is heat!

2005-01-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

Thank the Goddess we have heat again! We came home last night to find that our thermostat had been replaced and we were once again able to enjoy our living room. After dinner was started on the stove I took over the new oversized chair and ottoman we purchased over the weekend. It is so comfortable that I can already tell we'll be fighting over who gets to sit in it each night.

My boss gave everyone in the office a gift certificate as a gift that was from her and the organization for Christmas. I'm all in favor of gift certificates, absolutely love them. However, if you're giving one to someone, maybe pick a store that they shop in or that you know they would actually use it in. We all got a gift certificate from the same store, a higher-end department store that's about a block from our office. All fine and good, except that even going through the clearance items I couldn't find anything that was less than the amount of the gift certificate.

I'm not a fashionista, I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl. When the occasion calls for it, I'll get all dolled up with the best of them, but for day to day, it's not my thing, and this place isn't my kind of store. A gift certificate to Borders or B&N (both very close by also) would have been perfect for me! Oh well... but after trying to find something at 3 of their stores, I've given up.

I decided that the only way the gift certificate would get used would be to regift it to someone else, use it to try and find someone else a present, or buy lunch at one of the two restaurants in the store.. so that's what we're doing. I'm taking my roomie to lunch today. We figured that we can get at least two lunches out of it and if we're only having soup, maybe three. And when you're as strapped for cash as we are right now, you'll take anything you can get.

where's a maintenance man when you need one??

2005-01-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

I'm back from the holidays. I had all of last week off so I wasn't around to post. I won't talk about my Christmas because well, it wasn't all that interesting. It was just your typical go to the parents house, eat food, open gifts, pretend you're happy to see everyone sort of thing.

Sunday we took down our tree and put away all the Christmas decorations. That's always a little sad to do. Of course then the place looked empty too. But right now we're not using our living room, mainly because we have no heat in it. The heat worked fine on Saturday but Sunday it refused to come on. It works in our bedrooms but not out in the living room. The maintenance people were supposed to come by yesterday and check on that, as well as our washer and dryer and refrigerator (we suddenly became maintenance needy all at once), but they didn't come by. So last night when we got home we bundled into our warmest pjs, turned the heat up in my bedroom, got snuggly under the covers and took refuge in there.

On another maintenance note, my car has decided that it wants to blow up. At least it's threatening to. It makes a horrible squealing noise if you start it up and then after about a minute smoke began to eminate from under the hood. Thank goodness I have AAA so I can have it towed someplace, but I don't have the funds to pay to have someone fix it right now so it's going to have to sit at my apartment for a few weeks till payday.

It just seems that everything has to go south at once.

don't make me go.... please!

2004-12-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

I wasn't nearly as productive last night as I wanted to be. I had every intention of going home, doing laundry, wrapping the Christmas gifts, cleaning the kitchen, etc. What did I do? I put on flannel pajama pants, ate cold pizza, and laid on the couch in unbelievable pain. I suffer from migraines. I get 2-3 a month, if I'm lucky. Yesterday's started while I was at work, it started slowly which usually means I'm in for a monster of one. It decided to wait and hit full force once I'd gotten home. At one point I thought I might have to drive myself to the emergency room because unlike my usual migraines at one point the pain filled my entired head, spread down my neck and through my shoulders. I could not move, everything from mid-chest up had seized up from the intensity of the pain. Eventually I took enough pain and sleep pills to numb myself into slumber, which only lasted about 4 hours. So now I am here at work with still a dull ache in my head and wanting nothing more than to be back in bed asleep.

On another note, I feel like I'm being forced to have lunch with my co-workers today. A few weeks ago when there were only 4 of us in the office (we only have 6 people total that work here), one of the guys said that he was buying pizza for us for lunch. I'd had pizza for dinner the night before and was not interested but he kept pressuring me till I finally gave in and agreed to it. Earlier in the week he told us that if we (the organization) met a particular fundraising goal this week he'd buy us all lunch again. Well yesterday afternoon we met the goal... so now today he's buying lunch again. I was not interested in having pizza again and sitting around attempting to make small talk. I was fully prepared to tell him that a friend had invited me to a holiday lunch and I didn't want to disappoint her. But we're not ordering in... we're going out. In fact I suppose I should call and make our reservations. The last thing in the world I want to do is to go out to lunch.

things that go bump in the night

2004-12-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

My last year in college I lived by myself. Then when I went to law school I had my own place and lived alone through law school and for a couple years after that. Then about 18 months ago my best friend moved halfway across country and we got a place together. So, it's not like I've never been alone before. I tell you this to set up what happened about 4:30 this morning. My roommate left yesterday for the week to visit her parents for the holiday. So for the first time in a long time I was alone in the apartment. I cleaned, ordered pizza, drank beer, watched tv.. a glorious night. Around 4:30am, I woke up due to a strange thump I heard. It was probably my neighbors downstairs or the paper guy throwing the paper and hitting someone's door (don't even get me started on that one). Normally I sleep with my bedroom door closed, but last night I left it open. So I rolled over and thought that I saw something moving in the hallway. My heart immediately began to race. I kept my eyes open hoping that they would adjust to the darkness and I could be sure of what I was seeing. I sat up in bed and pretended that I was just adjusting my pillows, again watching for that movement. I laid back down and tried to listen for any noises (like breathing or clothing moving). At the same time my mind was racing on what I could use for a weapon. There's the lamp next to my bed but then I'd have to unplug it and untangle the cord from behind the nightstand. After about 10 minutes my heart was beating so hard and so loud I thought I might begin to hyperventilate. So I climbed out of bed and turned on the light. There was nothing in the hallway. I proceeded to go through the apartment and turn on every light in the place... just to be sure. I felt entirely silly afterwards but never got back to sleep. Part of me isn't entirely convinced that there wasn't something in the apartment.

it's the English minor in me

2004-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

On the floor below me at my apartment building one of the apartments has this sign on their door --

Please take

off you're

shoe's.

I can't even tell you how much I want to go down there with a red marker and correct it!

2004-12-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Which sucks because I lost my old comments but from what I've seen on other blogs Haloscan seems like a much easier way for people to leave comments. So, if you're so inclined feel free to comment away.

when did you stop believing?

2004-12-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

At lunch the other day we were talking with a co-worker about her kids and if they still believe in Santa Claus. They're starting to catch on and she believes this will be the last year that they truly believe in the guy in the red suit. This started a conversation as to when the rest of us had stopped believing. I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and a few months after Christmas I found the letter I'd written to Santa in the kitchen cupboard. That did it for me, there was no Santa Claus.

The question of the day... How old were you when you figured it out?

Friday night at the movies

2004-12-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

So Friday night I head to the movies with my roommate (C) and another friend (J). We meet at the theater, grab our popcorn and get seats. We found seats on the end of the row. The theater was sort of crowded since it was Friday night and opening night of "Ocean's Twelve" (which I LOVED). An African-American couple were sitting in front of us when another couple came in and moved past us in the row to take seats toward the middle. When the guy went past me I knew he'd either been drinking or had bathed in rum. About a minute later the guy says to the African-American man in front of us "Thanks for holding the door open for my lady", he said "you're welcome" and the drunk says in return "You're a good boy".

Well that's it, I thought, now it's on. He quickly corrected himself after the African-American man said "Excuse me". Okay, we're fine now. Drunk guy's girlfriend/wife gets up and goes out. C, J, and I are talking quietly and J said something that made us both laugh. From the other side of C, the drunk guy says "It's not that funny.... Hey, it's not that funny... Hey lady, it's not that funny."

This was the conversation that followed. Drunk guy's words are in italics.

I beg your pardon?

Oh, you're begging my pardon.

(lowering her voice) I can tell that you are drunk. I can smell your breath from here. (3 seats away) If you cause a disturbance during the movie I will get a manager and have you removed. (she turns back to us content to let it stand at that)

Oh yeah, you think you can do that, you c**t. I'd like to see you try it, you c**t. Yeah, you c**t. (and each time he said it his voice got louder)

C then calmly stood up, straightened her shirt and said "as you wish". She walked out asked for a manager and explained what had happened. Well, evidently she wasn't the only one that must have gone out and complained or told them that the guy was drunk because as she was asking for a manager a city cop was going into our theater.

Yes, he was removed by a city cop! I wanted to start cheering. It was awesome.

Note to any men out there who might not already be aware of it: There are a lot of things a woman will tolerate being called. But I have yet to meet a woman that's going to let you call her that and get away with it.

it's Friday

2004-12-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

So along the upper walls of our public buses are all kinds of small signs advertising resources for just about anything you would need help with... but the sign that cracks me up is one about how using a gun in a crime adds years to your sentence. It says --

Use a gun . . . Do extra time.
Don't use a gun.

Here's a thought... don't commit the crime in the first place! Shouldn't that maybe be the message that we're trying to get across??????

what was she doing in there?????

2004-12-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of toilet seat covers in public restrooms. I mean, come on, I don't know where your booty has been or what you might have been rubbing it up against. This is particularly true if using the restroom in any place that's not discriminating of it's clientele.. say Choke and Puke (also known as McD's), anything with "mart" in it's title or a similar store, or rest areas on the highway. Now, occasionally I've been a little lax when it comes to using the friendly neighborhood tissue paper covers in the restroom of my office building. There are only 3 offices on our floor and it's all business people so you don't get that icky vibe when you walk into the bathroom. But today in one of the stalls there was urine ALL OVER the seat... I mean, come on, how the hell did you do that???? Where you squatting over it without actually touching the cool porcelain afraid that it might touch your lilly white booty??? Use the protector and set your narrow booty down!

The random question of the day... and one that I've seen fist fights break out over, so I know it's controversial.... Coke or Pepsi?

blinding pain and Christmas music

2004-12-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what I want to write about today. It's one of those days where I don't really feel like talking about anything. It's dreary outside and I have a headache that would stop a rhino. But that's not unusual for me. I have suffered from headaches on an almost daily basis since I was about 13. They've never been able to figure out what causes them. I've had physicals, seen chiropractors, had my eyes checked for glasses, had my wisdom teeth pulled.. and still have them. Then after college I got something special to go along with my daily headaches... migraines. Oh boy, what a treat. The headache today is not a migraine though it does have the potential to develop into one. Unfortunately the best treatment for me is to lie in a dark cool room with an ice pack on the back of my neck. Can't really do that when I'm at work.

My random question of the day... since I'm having trouble getting in or staying in the holiday spirit... what's your recommendation for the best Christmas album?

socks or no socks?

2004-12-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I mentioned the phenomenon in Seattle where we don't cross against the lights. Someone posted in response the reason we don't do this in Seattle is because it's a $75 ticket. Well I think that's oversimplifying things a little. I mean, it's not like Seattle's the only city in the world that has jaywalking tickets. And personally that's never crossed my mind as a reason not to cross against the light. I can't imagine that the whole of the Seattle metropolitan area stands there thinking about how they don't want to get a jaywalking ticket. I'm not saying that I have a better answer but I just don't think that's the right one. Also, that wasn't what I was asking people to begin with, I was curious as to what happens where they live.

My question of the day... when you go to bed at night, do you sleep with socks on?

what do you do?

2004-12-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

It's Monday and raining in Seattle... whoo.. news flash there. Actually I like the rain so it's not bothering me. A couple weeks ago I was reading one of those "you know you're from ____ if ..." lists and it was either the Seattle or Washington list said how you know you're from here if you'll stand on a street corner in the pouring rain to cross the street even if there's no traffic. You have hit the nail on the head there! It can be a torrential downpour, there's not a car going to come down the street for as far as you can see, which for some streets downtown is several blocks and no one will cross against the light. And I include myself in that category. I don't know why it happens, but I've always found it interesting.

So my question of the day is... wherever you live, is this a common phenomenon too? Do you cross against the light or are you patient law abiding citizens and wait even if there's not a car for miles?

Misdelivered mail and bus riots

2004-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

We found out yesterday that someone had tried to mail us something and it was returned to them, even though it had our correct address on it. She faxed us a copy of the front of the envelope so we could see. Someone had written on it 'wrong address'... which says to me, it probably was misdelivered and this was their way of telling the post office person that it had been delivered to the wrong place. This wouldn't surprise me because my office is constantly getting misdelivered mail. Unfortunately the post office took it to mean that we weren't at the correct address and returned it.

Now one of my co-workers wants me to show this to the building's post office guy to let him know this happened... and what do you expect him to do about it???? We have no way of knowing who it was delivered to originally and even if we did, what would we do about it? So I'm humoring him by saying that of course I'll show it to him, but am I really going to.... I don't think so.

On another topic, does anyone else take public transportation? I ride the bus to work every morning.. for one thing because we have a decent bus system here and also because I can't afford to park downtown everyday (it would cost half my paycheck). The bus gets to the park & ride yesterday morning and there's a handful of people getting off it. Now, the group to get on is sizeable but we leave room for the people getting off. The first woman getting off the bus evidently didn't feel like we were leaving enough room and starting screaming for everyone to move back because people were getting off the bus. No one moved, particularly the woman standing closest to the bus. She continues to yell that people are getting off the bus and for people to move back. Again, the people closest to the bus don't move. I thought she was going to have a seizure. Finally she got off the bus yelling profanities at everyone. According to a woman who rides with us in the mornings, when she lived in Detroit everyone lined up at the bus stops. There was nothing telling them they had to, they just did. It was all nice and orderly. Unlike here where it's sort of a mob of people jockeying to get on the bus.

So my question is, if you take public transportation wherever you live, do you line up or just mash together in a large group when trying to get on?

Another weird dream

2004-11-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

So I had another weird dream... it started off with my roommate and I kayaking. I've never been kayaking in my life and have no desire to do it, but whatever. A pair of police officers approached us and asked us if while we were down river, if we would do some surveillance on a couple houses for them. Okay, sure, why not. While we're floating down the river near these houses a man comes out to kayak too. We hit it off and somehow end up married.

Next thing I know I'm Valerie Bertanelli and married to Stephen Bauer. I'm driving down this curvy country road next to fields of herds of bunnies. And I'm not talking cute little tiny bunnies. I'm talking the size of a Volkswagen bunny. I have a blow out, I'm on the side of the road when a woman stops to try and help me change the tire. In the middle of that a car comes by and shoots a machine gun at us trying to kill us. They speed away. A pair of cops show up to see what happened and it's Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.

That's when I woke up. I have no idea what all that's supposed to mean... especially the giant bunnies....

Paranoia

2004-11-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

So I could tell you about the rest of my holiday weekend but seriously, do you care? I'm sure you're not interested in where I went shopping on Friday or that the best part of my weekend was Saturday morning sitting in the recliner watching a movie with my mom and my dog curled up asleep on my lap.

A few weeks ago I got in the elevator at work headed up to the office. A man who works on another floor got in at the same time. It was early, about 7:30am, and we were the only ones around. He said good morning and made a little bit of small talk and I responded. But in the back of my mind all I was thinking was who is this guy, why is he talking to me, what does he want.

How sad is it that we've become so paranoid in this society that we question even a stranger's 'good morning' to us.

Sleepy and full

2004-11-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

Turkey day is done and it went off with relatively no major mishaps. There was no throwing of rolls at the dinner table this year (yes, that did happen one year and I thought my mom would divorce my step-father over it). After dinner while cleaning up I was washing dishes when all of a sudden from behind me I hear a thud and my mother swearing like a sailor on shore leave. She had dropped the container of left over gravy. Yeah, that was fun to clean up.

And tomorrow we will be out the door at 5:30am and hitting the stores. Yes, we're some of those crazy people that are there when they open the doors. But hey, we're done shopping by 10am, we come home and take a nap and then have lunch. Last year I managed to get almost all my shopping done on "Black Friday".

There will also be an attempt to fix the heater in my 18 year old car tomorrow. If it needs parts (which would have to be ordered) then my parents are going to send me back to Seattle on the bus on Sunday. Okay, if you've never riden a Greyhound bus on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, well then you haven't lived. There's a theory that there's a crazy person on every Greyhound bus and if you can't spot him/her, then it's probably you. Believe me, it's true, there's at least one on every bus and for some reason they always want to sit near me.

Happy Turkey Day Eve

2004-11-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

I just found out we get to leave work a couple hours early today. Which is great except that if I'd known that this was a possibility I would have driven to work instead of taking the bus so that I could zoom out of town and beat traffic. And even though we get to leave early, there's not a bus for 30 minutes so I'll be standing in the wind and rain waiting. Don't mean to whine, I am actually happy about leaving early. I have some movies to return and a library book to get back, so I can do that. And maybe I can find a book on tape to listen to while I drive to my parents place tomorrow morning. I'm going to leave about 7am because I don't want to go tonight and face all those morons on the roads in the dark, especially over two mountain passes.

Everyone have a Happy Turkey Day.

We're stealing today :)

2004-11-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

I'm stealing this from another blog, thank you Shelley.

Three questions.

A) First, recommend to me:
1. a movie
2. a book
3. a musical artist, song, or album

(B) I want everyone who reads this to ask me three questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want.

(C) Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this allowing your friends to ask you anything & say that you stole it from me.

What the F*%@!

2004-11-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

Okay so sometimes I have issues with sleeping. I used to be a Tylenol PM addict. Seriously. I was taking 4 of those a night just to sleep. So last year I went cold turkey, stopped taking them completely. I then proceeded to not sleep more than 2-3 hours a night for the next six months. But I finally got over my addiction and started sleeping through the night again. But every once in a while I get a little case of insomnia. Tucked away in my medicine cabinet is a bottle of melatonin which is supposed to help regulate your sleep cycles, etc. One of the warnings though is that it might give you 'odd' dreams. Okay, odd dreams... no big deal, I can handle that.

Perhaps though this is what they mean by odd dreams... I'm standing in the middle of a street when above me is a fleet of airplanes made out of red and blue Lego's... which all begin to explode at the same time. Not only are those airplanes exploding but all the Lego's in the world are exploding, except for a chosen few which have now made themselves into some Transformer type flying robot which is blowing up stuff with it's Lego gun. There was red and blue dust falling over everything.

Anyone have any idea what the hell that dream is supposed to mean?????

Thanks for the advice

2004-11-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for your opinions. Everyone was in favor of the second date. I agonized over this issue yesterday. I had a couple very long discussions with someone that knows me inside and out. One thing that came up was that if I thought there was a chance that something might develop between him and I, would I be agonizing so much over just going to the movies with him.

I know that some of my uneasiness over the night came from the hugs and the kiss he gave me. Part of that has to do with my own issues. I only have about a half dozen people that I'm okay with touching me without my flinching. I once had a co-worker who went to massage my shoulders because I was tense and as soon as he touched me I hit him. I certainly didn't want someone I was just meeting to get all touchy with me.

We emailed last night and I told him that I wasn't going to go out with him again, that I didn't see any possibility of any romantic feelings developing for him. I felt bad but as someone told me this morning, you just have to treat it like it's a band-aid, that it's much better to rip it off then go slowly because that's more painful.

Need Advice PLEASE!

2004-11-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

So last night was semi-blind date night with the eharmony guy Mike. We met for dinner, had a nice conversation, etc. Towards the end of the evening we were talking about movies and one that's coming out this weekend "National Treasure". We both want to see it so he suggested us going either Friday or Saturday night. I said sure. We kept talking... yadda, yadda, yadda... He walks me to my car, gives me a hug, and kisses me. Okay, so I was soooooooooo not expecting the kiss. And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I wanted him to kiss me. Yes, he's a nice guy and it was fun, but I don't know that I'm attracted to him that way.

So I need your help... do I tell him it was fun but that I'm not interested in him that way and not go out with him again... or do I go to the movies and see how I feel after the second date?

Dreams and fuzzy things

2004-11-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

Does anyone do dream analysis? I don't remember much of the dream except for the fact that Glen Close was beating the crap out of me. What does that mean????

On another note, I'm sitting here at work minding my own business surfing a few blogs when out of the corner of my eye I see something moving past my window. Now, I'm on the 6th floor so it's not like it's a pedestrian. It's long skinny and slightly fuzzy.... so of course my first thought is alien tentacle... but damn, no such luck. Just the window washers. They're somewhere above me so I'm just seeing their ropes. But that made me think, when they get to my floor what do I do? Do I wave, smile, invite them in for company? Do I try to pretend they're not there while I go about my business? Do I take the opportunity to flash them, because come on, haven't you always wanted to do that?

One more before I depart

2004-11-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

A quick note before I depart for the weekend (I can't seem to get this thing to work at home so I'm reduced to blogging only when I'm at work). Random thought of the day... holiday themed foods.. I'm talking about the "special" editions of the stuff you find everyday.. for example, Christmas Oreos. You know the ones I'm talking about, they have the red or green middles. Why???? Who thought this was a good idea???? The green ones just scream mold to me and the red ones, oh man, don't even get me started on the red ones. It's like someone opened the package and bled all over the Oreos. It's just WRONG!

Who is really this stupid?????

2004-11-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

Arriving home last night my roommate posed the following hypothetical to me -

Let's say that your phone rings and the man on the other end introduces himself as a local police officer. He tells you that he is doing an investigation and would like your assistance. He asks you to go to your front window and take your clothes off. What do you do?

Now perhaps I'm just overly suspicious but I think I'd hang up knowing that it's not legit. Evidently there are at least 6 women in the Tacoma, Washington area who have complied with his request. Seriously, you thought this was real????? And the police had to actually be quoted as saying that an actual police officer wouldn't ask you to do this. Well duh!

If you're this stupid you shouldn't be allowed to breed.

Happy Veteran's Day

2004-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

Is it proper to wish someone a 'happy veteran's day'? Not that I have anything against the holiday, absolutely not! My father was in the army for more than 30 years and served as a green beret in Vietnam. I've had family members in every branch of the service. I have tremendous respect for the men and women of our armed forces and what they do.

It's also nice that this is a holiday that the chocolate syndicate hasn't laid claim to yet. There's no marshmellow filled chocolate soliders for you to pick up or caramel AK-47s to give to the kiddies. Instead we honor it with 50% sales. I, however, am one of those people who do not get the day off. A year ago in my old job I would have but not now. And that's okay, I don't mind, except my roommate who works for a bank has the day off and we were thinking of all the fun things we could have done, like see a movie. But she did let me drive her car to the park & ride this morning since the heat and defrost don't work in mine.

Switching topics for a moment... have we all seen how some people over at Blogexplosion have their panties in such a twist over being given low ratings that they've now turned off the function for you to see who rated your blog and what rating they gave you. I even came across some pissing match between two blogs, one was moaning because she'd been given a 1 by the other blogger and got mad because she'd left a comment on his asking why and he'd deleted the comment. Now she's claiming that he "stole" a link that she had up and put it on his website. Over on his site he screaming libel and how he's complained to Blogexplosion about harassment. She's evidently 10 years old and her Daddy is defending her. I'd almost swear it has to be made up because it's so ridiculous.

Santa Baby...

2004-11-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

In browsing some blogs yesterday and this morning I saw where a couple people had created lists to Santa. I haven't written a letter to Santa in forever so I think I'm going to give it a shot.

Dear Big guy in the red suit,

How ya been? How's the wife and the elves? So here's my list for this year:

1. Return of the King special edition dvd
2. CSI Miami seasons 1 and 2 dvds (yes, I know season 2 isn't out till January, but maybe you could put it on order for me now)
3. a new computer (my old one is fine but seems sort of slow)
4. the heat in my car to work (it's going to be a cold ride home for the holidays)
5. new shoes
6. surgery for Big Bob to go well (back surgery in December with an 8 week recovery time - heaven help my mother)
7. Afterglow Live cd (Sarah is my personal goddess)

That's it Santa. But having already discussed budget issues with the two people that will be giving me gifts this year I know that my likelihood of getting any of these things is somewhere between slim and when hell freezes over. Happy Holidays

ew ew ew ew ew ew

2004-11-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

The building I work in has an underground garage. You can take the elevator from there to any floor in the building (duh) or there are stairs in case the elevator is taking forever. There is now a sign in the stairwell between the garage and the lobby that says --

"We have had complaints that it is unpleasant to use the stairs because of all the spit on the walls. Please stop spitting on the walls."

Seriously! I swear to you that it says this! First I think it's sad that we have to have a sign up asking people not to spit on the walls. But how about recommending people don't spit in the stairwell at all?

To rate or not to rate

2004-11-09T08:39:00.000-08:00

So I signed up for the whole blogexplosion thing the day after I started this blog. And I do surf through blogs using it and sometimes I only stay the required 30 seconds but other times I find interesting stuff. But something I really hadn't been doing was rating the blogs. I happened across a blog where someone even wrote about how she wished more people would rate blogs. So I started rating a few. One that I came across yesterday was fine except that I thought the design of it was really poor. The colors were boring and so I gave it a sort of middle of the road ratings. Nothing against the content of the site but it just wasn't my kind of thing and I wouldn't be back. So today that person had rated my blog and given me a really low rating. If that's how he/she/it really feels, then hey, more power to you. I'm fully in favor of everyone having the right to expression their opinion. But if the really low rating was retaliation because my ratings somehow brought their overall rating down or whatever, then just grow up.

Another name PLEASE!

2004-11-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

So what is it with me and guys named Mike???? My roommate and I are both giving eharmony a chance. So I'm communicating with a guy named Mike who seems really down to earth and grounded, which is exactly what I need. But why does his name have to be Mike???? I have a long and sorid history with guys named Mike. Just once can't his name be Tim or Eric or Mustafa!

I'm back

2004-11-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

According to 123greetings.com Sunday is Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day... who comes up with this??? Did someone sit around and have a meeting and decide this? Or is just a conspiracy by the Hershey's people to try and institute a new holiday so that there's another reason for you to buy chocolate?

I spent Wednesday night in a luxurious 4 star hotel room all by myself. That was living. Now I just have to figure out a way that I can someone pay for me to do that a lot more. I took a bath in the enormous bathtub and loved every second of it. What really cracked me up was not that there was a phone next to the toilet but that it had a place to plug in your laptop right there. Seriously, if you need to be on your laptop while you're sitting on the toilet.. well then, you've got other issues.

Twice in one day again

2004-11-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

So I've been browsing blogs today using BlogExplosion. I actually like doing that and have found several blogs that I've really enjoyed. And I'm sort of disappointed that I won't be able to blog for the next couple of days, I find I'm becoming addicted. I have to go to a meeting for work for the next two days and will be without a computer. How will I survive!

One thing I've seen a lot today in browsing blogs is everyone saying they've voted. So I'll jump on the bandwagon. I voted. Actually I voted a couple weeks ago by absentee ballot. I always vote by absentee ballot just to avoid the hassle of the polling places. I won't say who I voted for because well, it's none of your business.

I'm also not interested in watching the election returns tonight on tv. I will however be watching the Daily Show's live hour long special 'Prelude to a Recount' at 7pm PST. I live for the Daily Show and I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican or Socialist or Fruit and Nut Party or whatever, you have to love them.

Wet shoes, wet socks

2004-11-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

So I'm really hard on shoes, always have been. I can wear a pair of shoes out like you wouldn't believe. Because of this I hate shoe shopping. I will wear a pair of shoes until they're falling apart just so I don't have to buy new ones. I have a pair of Naturalizers which have been great and I've had for a couple years. Well the soles are starting to separate from the shoes... so that means I have to break down and think about getting new shoes. So a couple weeks ago I got a pair of shoes at Target, being on a serious budget right now, Target shoes were about all I could afford. So for 2 weeks they're fine, then last Sunday we come back from grocery shopping and I notice that the heel of the right shoe has basically broken in half. So out go those shoes and I'm back to wearing the ones with holes because I can't afford to get another new pair right now. It's been no big deal until today when the heavens opened up and poured buckets of rain on the Seattle area. Now I'm sitting at work with extremely wet shoes and socks. Hopefully at some point they'll dry. But I might have to go at lunch and buy a new pair of socks.

Of course having the wet feet doesn't help with the cough that I have lingering from my cold of a couple weeks ago. Last night we asked the pharmacist what was the strongest cough syrup I could get at the store without a prescription. He showed us it... $10 for a bottle! I bought it because the other stuff he would have recommended I've been taking for a week and it hasn't helped. He said this stuff should work for 12 hours and if not then I need to see a doctor because there's something going on with my lungs. Well I took it last night and again this morning. Still having coughing fits so I don't know if it's helping or not. But I refuse to go to the doctor!

Twice in one day

2004-11-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

So I didn't intend on writing again today but I guess I just have the writing bug. I've had this idea for a story in my head for a couple months now and it just won't go away. Actually I have several ideas milling about in my head and just need to sit down and try to concentrate on one of them. My goal tonight is to spend an hour writing. I can see my protagonist so clearly, can hear his voice in my head. He's just itching to get his story down on paper.

2004-11-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Samhain. For those of you that don't recognize the word, it's a Wiccan holiday. It's basically our New Year. And yes, I am a Wiccan. Though I don't know if I classify myself as a witch. But I guess I'm an eclectic Witch/Wiccan (whatever you want to call me). I don't follow a particular tradition and have done a bunch of research and studying on my own to develop my own traditions. Last night I decorated my altar with 3 candles and a bunch of beautiful autumn leaves that I had collected earlier in the day. I thanked the god and the goddess and asked for their blessing for the year ahead. It was a simple little ceremony but I felt better afterwards.

Just lop off my head already

2004-10-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

So I'm fighting a horrific headache right now. No particular reason for the headache they just like to spring themselves on me for the fun of it. Thinking and moving is almost unbearable but here I am at work. If I hadn't stayed home most of last week with a nasty cold I would have considered not coming in today. But I'm at -10 hours of sick time, so I didn't think it would be good to go even further down.

It's my first time, please be gentle

2004-10-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

Okay so what the hell, I decided I'd give this a try. I have a diary over at diaryland.com but I think a blog could be fun too. I guess we'll have to wait and see. It's a cloudy miserable day here in Seattle. I'm at work and yes, I suppose I should be working but this is more interesting.

I'm debating on whether or not I want to talk about the upcoming election but at this point I'm not sure I have the energy. I'm so sick to death of campaign commercials that I want to hurl my tv out the window. But I do think it's pretty likely that we won't know who our next president is by the time we toddle off to bed Tuesday night. Other countries must just laugh at us if we go through another 6 weeks of court battles and indecision like in 2000.

So that's it for now. Maybe more later.. we'll see if the mood strikes me.