Baby Finances

I'm starting to wonder where the bad part comes into my new job. Everything that has happened so far has been done with openness, honestly - and not just if I ask a direction question honesty - but like full disclosure, and general understanding. Questions about my preferences have been asked, work arounds have been found, and quick reponses have been received. I'm just wondering when the bad stuff starts to happen. Maybe I shouldn't be so cynical and looking for the bad stuff starting out. So far, even looking, I haven't really been able to find anything.... here's hoping.

The last few days I've basically been doing nothing. And by past few days - I mean a week. Last Friday the movers came to pick up my stuff - I cleaned out the apartment and had my last day at work. Then I had the six hour drive to Toledo. Most boring drive ever. At least it was at night though. I would much rather drive at night because you have less people on the roads and therefore less assholes and crappy situations. Last Saturday was Goetzfest. I assumed that anyone under the age of 80 knew how to use the internet. Apparently I was wrong. It's odd to think about how people who never use the internet really experience life differently than me. It's a strange thing to think about. I'm so connected into the internet - that I can't imagine not having it all the time. We did the traditional Christmas eve thing at my parents house - hung out all day - ate cookies - went to 4:30 mass - then came home and had dinner with my grandparents. We opened a few pres...

A few days ago the check engine soon light came on. This is always a bit of a freak out moment. It was a super freak out moment because I have to drive to Ohio on Friday, and then after Christmas from Ohio to Boston. ==== SUPER FREAK OUT ==== It's done it once before right after the gas light came on. Looking it up - it said that it might be due to an engine misfire and that I should wait until the 4th warm up and cool down cycle happened and it would turn off. This time - it went on while I was driving up a hill. I didn't freak out like last time as much - but I was still pretty freaked. But on the way back from the bank - after the 5th or 6th time I turned it on and off - while I was driving it turned off. I assume yet again - that it just corrected itself. THANK GOD! I need to go tomorrow morning to get my oil changed anyways. I'm not thinking that this car is going to last that much longer.

I really over analyze any situation. Be it a simple situation where someone says something and I read too much into it, worrying about thing I can't change, or stressing out about potential situations. This can be a good thing - picturing the worse possible scenario - which rarely comes true - just makes the situation look so much brighter. Whatever the outcome actually is - it is usually not half so bad as what I picture in my head; so it usually turns out well. This technique works really well in most cases. However, there are some situation that I know are so unpredictable that there is no way that I can picture worst case. One of those such cases will happen tomorrow. Our CEO is coming into town and that means that I will get a grilling for why I am leaving. There's no other possible outcome other than having him justify to himself that my current work place is really the best place on earth and that either A) there is something outside of his control that is causing...

I never really thought about it until now - one of the perks of this new job is the frequent flyer miles. Just going to Israel alone is going to be like 12K miles. I only need like 25K for a US economy round trip. I have a feeling that I'm going elite status next year! Yeah for upgrades and perks. Anyone wanna go on vacation? I'm really close for a free round trip from American already, and I'm half way there on Northwest and Continental - I've got a million different airline mile programs - and I'm betting I'll have a few free round trips before the end of the year. Anyone wanna go on vacation? Hopefully I can at least get free upgrades.

I never really understood how people could be so self-awareless to not really realize when they were bitching and complaining. Not that it makes me stop - to know that I'm doing it. It's always been a bit of a defense mechanism against stress. I bitch and whine. Welcome to my blog! We're having a craptastical storm here in Rochester NY. To the point where I'm not really willing to drive on the roads. I know on occasion I have used crappy weather as an excuse not to do something; really it was just that, an excuse, because I really didn't feel like doing whatever it was I was trying to excuse myself from. It's been snowing since last night, with no let up. Not a ton - but enough where the snow plows don't have enough break in the weather to be able to keep everything clean. It has made it rather inconvenient for people to come and pick up all the crap that I don't want. Adding to my stress because I just want to be done with this move already. It...

So I've never posted anything on CL that has been really popular before. Especially in Rochester NY. Usually I get like one or two interested parties max. Oh holy crap did I get a lot of responses for a pub table that I have. I really have no use for it - it's cute - nothing wrong with it. Between a dresser I have, pub table set - which I have to say was the most popular item on the list, and a bed that I need to get rid of -- I've had 227 messages so far. Freaking ridiculous. They just keep coming in. I really wish that CL updated more often and could delete my posts faster. I really just didn't expect them to move so fast. Crazy. It's been an exhausting day so far. I've got a big day of packing, laundry, and organizing left to go. Now I need to learn some hebrew too. I don't even know how to say thank you! Anyone know hebrew that wants to teach me?

I've been having some issues with the intertubes lately. I came home maybe Wednesday night from our Holiday party and it wasn't working. It had been working before I left. Strange. I thought that maybe the crappy weather or something and gotten to it and they would just come fix it. Finally I called them yesterday to ask them to come out and repair it. This morning I woke up thinking "Maybe it's just the phone jack." OMG it was JUST the phone jack. Crappity crap. It sucks to realize that me being so dumb was the cause of pain for multiple days. I guess I didn't realize all this resigning crap would be so difficult mentally. I got my ticket information for going to Israel. I'm leaving the afternoon of the 4th and coming back on the 18th. If anyone wants to talk to me - I'm going to be 6 hours off EST; please adjust accordingly. I hadn't realized until they brought it up that Israel works Sun-Thursday and Friday/Saturday is their weekend. ...

What the hell happened to us? I don't remember it being like this. When did we start to care about interest rates and who was having babies... on purpose? It's amazing how it sneaks up on you. We are actual adults now. Like xkcd says: we get to decide what that means. It's really awesome in some ways - that whole deciding what it means part is pretty cool. The complicatedness and the obligation and responsibility - not so cool. I think I wanna go back for a day. Or a week. Maybe even a month. Just screw around and really enjoy it for a few days. Let's go do something stupid like drive around in a convertible going 90mph - and have a friend with a fake ID buy some booze and go get drunk in our parents basement. The most we had to worry about was our parents catching us with a six pack. This is what you get when you make me plan a move for 4 hours in a row. *Sigh*

Well, our yearly "holiday party" is coming up again tomorrow night. I have to put it in quotations because the office secretary (read: office supply Nazi - and no I do not use that term lightly) likes to bitch and whine about how it's so dumb that we can't call it a Christmas party and blah blah blah being politically correct sucks. She's very vehement. She loves to bitch and whine to the CEO about this; who's Jewish. So, in light of the timing I thought I would put a few tips together for all of those who must go to their parties. Yes, you MUST go. People like to ask you for RSVP's like it's optional. Let me tell you, it's definitely not optional to go. This is really a survival guide, but I like making lists; so I've completed it in list format, in no particular order. 1) Tell the person organizing the party about how great their job was on last years - and how wonderful it was. Really - you want to get the inside scoop on when the b...

I hate when I just feel incredibly stupid. I don't know if its because I hate not being the best at something. Am I really that competitive? I guess I've never thought of myself as "that girl." The one who always has to be right and who always has to win. It's a little hard to figure out that you are that thing that you've always said that you abhor. People always amaze me. In both good ways and bad ways. Why is life so confusing sometimes?

The damn thing is probably the freaking hardest thing to refill and it takes forever. It's not my favorite culinary task. I think that my favorite culinary task is actually chopping; or maybe searing. I had to go to the laundry mat today and people were being ridiculous. All of the washers worked but only around 2/3 of the dryers were functional. Lady I (let's nickname her "White Trash" for the sake of discussion) decided that it will be a good idea to only use the minimal amount of quarters - so she spreads her clothes into dryers = 2*washers. Then, to further help minimize the usage of quarters she only puts in two at a time; checking after each two quarter cycle. This craziness would not be an issue in an empty laundry mat, but it is a bit of an issue when three people are waiting for dryers. To complicated the matter further she does not show up on time for any of these two quarter cycles. After waiting for her to come back inside (I think she was just chi...

So I just got a settlement paperwork in the mail for refunds on foreign transactions between Feb 96 until Nov. 2006. If you've been outside the US for less than a week - they suggest the quick $25 refund. I've definitely been outside of the US more. Please anyone - help me remember all the trips to Canada... 10 days for the UK trip, 10 days for the France/Belgium trip, 3 days in high school for the day before thanksgiving trips to Toronto, 5 days to Toronto for a spring break trip w/my parents in high school, 2+ trips at least to Canada for gambling, 1 trip to montreal for boozing, 1 high school band trip to toronto - how long was that? like 3-4 days?, shit dude - this is ridulous trying to remember all the dumb trips to Canada.... anyone remember anything else that I did?

Remember all the great cartoons from childhood? Animanics was absolutely the most amazing cartoon ever. It actually had some learning potential along with being entertaining. It didn't have it's head up its ass like Sesame Street or Barney. It didn't try to force learning on kids - it was just so damn catchy that you couldn't help learning things like the country song. Why the hell do all the "kid" tv shows try to force learning - all it does is seem force and neither entertains well nor educates well. One of the girls at work said that I should be a business analyst for a VC firm. Honestly - that's the best part of my job - doing the research and competitive analysis to try to find out stuff that no one else knows. I'm not sure if I'm so interested in it just so that I know the information for my own well being - or if I want to know the information b/c I'm nosy and like to know everything. Either way - it might be a job opportunity th...

Thanksgiving was fun as always. Eating, boozing, playing wii, laziness, which is a great vacation. At least I had a few days off work. Both my brother and my father have since bought HDTV's. They're great and all - but all the programming isn't in HD yet so it kinda sucks. Plus the HDDVD vs Blu-Ray war isn't over yet. I honestly am not sure if either will be adopted or well accepted b/c consumers where so disillusioned after BetaMax vs. VCR's. I hope everything just moves to the non-disk - and you just download everything. I don't think that will happen anytime soon because the tubes of the interwebs are going to be clogged by all those TV's soon. I think that networks are fast finding ways to make cash off of interwebs streaming. I think that they could potentially make more money if they would do the research surveys and properly use the interweb tracking tools to see who is actually watching their programs - which would give advertisers better i...

I saw a couple of different "interesting" things as I was driving. I actually saw the cops using areal equipment to catch speeders. All of a sudden I saw this blimp hovering over the highway. About three seconds later I saw some speeder pulled over and about 3 miles away I saw another cop. Crazy. I didn't think those signs were actually telling the truth. The second was more tragic/scaring rather than interesting. All of a sudden I saw someone a truck pulled over with their flashers on and someone waving a white light at oncoming traffic. At first I thought it was a hitch hiker or something, then as I got closer the cars in front of me slammed on their breaks. And that's when I saw it. A deer in the middle of the road, it's body in the left lane, its head just over the center line. It's back clearly broken - but it's head didn't know that as it was struggling to try to get up; clearly in pain and clearly struggling with no hope of repair. N...

You don't really think about it - but food make from fresh ingredients really does taste better. Yes it's probably more expensive, more complicated to make, and involves more planning. But, man, is it worth it. The closer it gets to the end of the year - the more excited that I am to start this new job. Work hasn't been very exciting lately - just the same old same old. Though I have been able to do some fun stuff because I don't really have anything else to do - so why not go do something fun. I have to say the lack of things to do is hard. It's really difficult to pretend like you are actually working when you don't have anything useful to accomplish. I'm still really thrown off by the time change too, which isn't helping matters at all. I can't sleep when I need to. So then I'm exhausted at work and want to sleep. But then I'll go to bed early - and sleep too long. Then, the next night I won't be able to get to sleep. It'...

With the new job, and my younger brother looking for a job - the major thought that has popped into my mind is a question of if I really want to do what I'm doing. It's a hard question to answer. I think overall I am happy with the job I have, the industry. I think the things I'm really not found of are the company culture (really what it has changed into) and the location and the fact that I'm really fucking bored with the work and I have to spend more time on politics than actually getting shit done anymore. I think there are a lot of things that I wish I was doing and am not. But there's no time like the present to start changing that. I guess you can't do anything about the past but you can try to change the future. And you can't change anything without action. There's a law of physics or something that says that. It's a LAW in science - not just a theory. They can almost prove it! There's also a law that says for every action there ...

Can I just say that my printer/copier/scanner is the most ridiculous thing on the face of the planet. They try to make these things "user friendly" but in fact by dumbing it down so much for the "average user" it's actually more difficult to use. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out scan multiple pages and have it automatically include it in the same file. It shouldn't be that hard. Either the software writers were really dumb and couldn't figure out how to do it easier - or some applications developer thought it was a good idea to have less buttons (but not even have anything about it in the DROP DOWN MENUS!!!) So dumb. Still super excited about extra vacation days. I think if they paid me to move to Boston + vacation I wouldn't need any increase in salary. I really value vacation that much. Freaking amazing. I'm on cloud 9 right now. Don't know when that is going to stop. But definitely super amazing.

I got my the formal offer letter yesterday (way longer than I thought it would take) for me to sign. It's better than I thought. What we discussed for a sign on bonus - apparently they gave me the post-tax dollars - not pre-tax. I thought it was pretax dollars we were talking about. ROCK! They also said two weeks of vacation. I thought that this meant 10 days. Apparently two weeks to them - means a full two weeks - like 14 days. OMG. Plus 7 fixed holidays and four floating. 10 sick days if needed. Holy crap!!! Right now I have 10 vacation days, 8 holidays, 4 floating holidays/sick days/personal time. That's 22 days total. Now I'll have 25 days off + 10 sick days if I need it (I think I had to use 2 days in the last two years for being - but it sucks to have to use vacation days when you are sick)!!!! And for every year that you work there - you get an additional day of vacation. My current place you have to be there three years before any additional vacation s...

I would just like to say that I totally support the writers striking in Hollywood. I think that they got totally screwed back with the original DVD deal - and they are trying to screw them again with online media. I hope that the SAG starts to strike too. I'm half temped to boycott all TV and media - but it's really hard. I really like TV. But I hope to god that the big companies lose crap tons of money. I've been watching Weeds. OMG is it an amusing show. It's like an amazing guilty pleasure. And by guilty - I mean arestable. Who doesn't like a drama about a pot wielding mom, a jerk off brother who cares more about being baked and getting fucked in the ass by his jew school teacher, a kid who gets his girlfriend pregnant and she buys him a car b/c the girlfriend gets an abortion, and gets married to a DEA agent. That's right, the pot dealer is sleeping/married to a DEA agent. I'm not sure the writers could make this any better. I'm feeling re...

I was super pissed when I left word today. I asked for a day off - and got an email back saying "I'm not against it - but can you consider only taking half a day?" Um... that's kind of like saying how about you take half a day off on Friday to take a long weekend - but you can't take the afternoon off - you can only take the morning off. WTF? I sent a nice polite email back say "pan for me taking the entire day off." I should not be emotionally blackmailed, or made to feel guilty for taking a day off. I've done my work, I come in the hours I need to, I've even put in extra hours when required. So if I want a fucking day off, and there's not a really really really good reason for it, I'm taking the fucking day off. Screw you guys. I was getting really pissed off and upset about it - almost sent a really bitchy email to my boss - but then I remembered "the pay's the same." I'm sure he's not over thinking this....

Said "Small is beautiful." Which I think is very true in our culture. Right now at least, we like everything small. We want small gas efficient cars, small Ipods, small computers, small bodies, small candy bars at Halloween, and small cell phones. In some cases small is not better for some people. They want big cars, big jewelry/diamonds, and big food portions. It's always the really big or really small things that cost a lot of money. I think for most things I can agree that small is beautiful. Small animals, small efficient cars, small carbon footprints, small amounts of trash, and small compact computers. I'm totally turning green aren't I? Can I just make a quick comment about diamonds before I go on? I really think that it's dumb that the American population has fallen prey to one stupid ad campaign from DeBeers telling us that if you really love someone - that you'll get them a diamond engagement ring. Before that ad campaign started peopl...

I love fall. I don't love the cold. I like when it's cool enough to snuggle in with a blanket (and your favorite someone!) and watch a good football game. (OMG can Notre Dame please start winning. It makes me very sad how bad they've been playing.) I like all the seasonal foods that come with fall. I think pumpkin everything, apply everything, yams (I know not really a fall thing - I still associate them with fall), squash, chicken pot pie, your basic home grown foods. So I totally tried to google myself today (because I clearly have really important things to do on the weekends... really I'm avoiding the things that really need to be done - including trying to find a place to live in Boston....) and there is totally another person with the same name who lives in Florida, is on a local chamber of commerce, and apparently is a "godly woman" much older than I. Let's go over how much alike we are. Me: not godly, never want to live in Florida, and nev...

That plans for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Today instead of doing the little work I did have to do - I spent it Christmas shopping. It was very productive though. I got a lot done in that sense. I just want to get some things settled. I'm feeling so unsettled and ungrounded because of the upcoming move. I can't finalize any moving details until I find a place. Which is actually really hard to do when you don't live there (surprise... not.) Hopefully I'm make a Boston house hunting trip soon - and then I can figure something out. I never thought life could be so complicated. Can't I just have fun and not have to think about these things all day?

So today has been pretty cool so far. I went to work, got a free massage after work, went to the grocery store and got stuff to make an Apple Gadette - and picked up some delicious scallops too! Made the gadette - and now I'm waiting for it to cool to see how tasty it will be. The weird part about today is that I'm watching a Nova episode or something on PBS about funeral homes. I've never really thought much about them and they lifestyle that you would have doing that type of thing. I've experienced my fair share of death in my life. But not on a daily basis. I've always been a little creeped out by dead bodies. I always think back to zombie movies - and think that they are going to jump up and grab me. Every time at a funeral home I'm always watching the dead person's chest to check to make sure that it's not moving. They never really look "right" like when they were living either. I don't think that there is any way to capture ...

I've totally been thinking about what I want out of life lately. Not only b/c of the new job and needing to move (thought I admit that that has been the major motivating factor in this train of thought) - really it comes down to me second guessing my choice. I always second guess myself (I mean - what happens if I was wrong... it happens ... though I won't admit it in an argument - b/c I am always right!) After some serious (read: 20 seconds) of thought - I've realized that being in your 20's is the time to decide what is right for your life. There are many roads to reach the same destination. Some are more direct - but much harder. Some are long and winding and scenic; while others are long boring and then all of a sudden you are there. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like I should be having fun, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, not just trying to reach a goal. The goal should be the journey not the destination. So I nee...

So I read an article about average things with lots of germs on them - and they said that laundry was up there and that the average pair of used underwear had 1gram of fecal matter on them (gross - I know.) That just makes me think - does no one wipe their ass? Is this incomplete ass wiping. I wonder what A) how they came up with the stats B) is there a disparity between mens and women's underwear? C) does this mean that everyone should wear white underwear so that we can bleach and sanitize them D) that old adage saying that you would never want to go to the hospital in dirty underwear is soooo true E) I'm totally grossed out by this F) I'm so glad I don't do laundry for a living The other odd place I hadn't thought of was the kitchen sink. That there were tons of germs per square inch. After thinking about this one I totally concur. I don't know about anyone else but I mainly use my sink for washing fruits and veggies - IE all the germies on the grocery ...

To answer Josh's question... the guy has two good laptops, and he does some computer stuff for a living (I don't really know what...) A windows one and a mac that he just bought and apparently is obsessed with. I know the mac one is a personal laptop.... I'm not sure about the windows one. I'm guessing it's a work laptop. I'm all about my solution for a work computer... have mine laptop at home and just remote desktop in. Then I don't have to screw around with the stupid VPN and then I don't have to have work files on my personal computer. I don't want the possibilities of my work and personal files to get mixed up. I don't want any possibility of impropriety or possibility of even an image of stealing work secrets or proprietary information. I just don't want that possibility to exist both for my own protection and for the protection of my company. None the less, my argument stands. If they guy wants two laptops - no matter why he w...

So for some reason I picked up corn tortillas at the grocery store instead of the normal flour ones. I have to say that corn tortillas are the most terrible thing that has ever been invented. They're horrible. I think that the rest of them are going to go in the trash. Terrible terrible hateful things. So in all my glory of nothing to do at work today I found an article on Digg about a woman who had so screwed up her families finances that they were $135K in credit card debit. Let me repeat that $135K in credit card debit. Their house was another $685K or something ridiculous - and she didn't work and spent over $400/month just on Starbucks. Her husband - made 60-70K a year. Holy shit. How do people let things get that bad? That's just freaking crazy. I can't even imagine. I know that things can get expensive but geeze - live within your means. Her kids didn't even have health insurance. I guess I've never felt like I had to "keep up with the ...

I started writing about the nicknames I've given people at work (oh there are a lot of them) - but I realized that the internet is probably not the most discrete place to write them. So I've erased it all and been forced to write about something less incriminating. Can we talk about the fact that I've been having huge sugar cravings and just want to sit around and watch TV? I think I've watched more TV in the last few weeks that I have in the last year. I think I need some more hobbies. I might sign up for an ice skating class. I thought that might be something to do. Who wouldn't like to actually be able to ice skate around the rink? There's a 6 week class at a local ice rink that I might sign up to. It's only $100 - why not? I'll be done before I move to Boston. I've never really learned how to skate - so it could be fun. Or unbearably hideous. If so - I'll never have to do it again. If it's fun - then I had some fun and learn...

OMG I should totally be a spy instead of an engineer! (Or I could make designer hand bags...) I got this from an article about a spy bar in Milwaukee (Josh take note - a REAL SPY BAR!!! with passwords to get in, secret entrances, spy tests!) so I thought "I wonder what it takes to be a spy?" So, being the curious mind that I am - I quickly established that I knew nothing about spies or how to become one. Then I used my analytical thinking skills to come up with a solution ... CIA.GOV! and looked it up. Apparently Biological Engineering is a needed skill in the CIA. Who knew? I guess all those biological weapons and stuff ... people need to know how they work and how to stop them. Maybe I should become a biological weapons expert, or a field agent, or just wear cool spy clothing and have cool spy gadgets. I wanna be like inspector gadget! Go Go Gadget arms! Or I could have cool James Bond style gadgets - like a Blackberry! Rock! Who needs stuff like cars that can automa...

It's delicious trying to eat the stuff up in my cupboards and freezer. I forgot that I had some of my mom's tasty homemade rolls (frozen of course - like everything else in a good midwest family home.) DELICIOUS! I could eat those things all day. I've totally forgotten about half the stuff that I've bought. Since I have to start eating it up it's a time to explore the cabinets and come up with meal ideas that actually use up some of these rarely used items. Makes the grocery bill a lot slimmer - and makes for some interesting dinner combinations. There have definitely been success and failures in this quest so far. The greatest failure was a Thai red curry made from this mix that I bought a while ago and haven't used (mainly b/c every time I looked at it I couldn't really figure out why I had bought the damn thing in the first place.) I have to say - it ended up being a complete and total failure. The sauce was not spicy enough - and it was not hot e...

The great part about clean up my apartment really means that all those buttons that you get when you buy a new pair or pants or a suit jacket or whatever - YOU FIND THEM! All those little buggers have been hiding from me for months. MONTHS! Now the little fuckers are all together in a little box where I can actually find them. This is HUGE! Now I can put the right button on the right pair of pants... now if only I could find my thread and needles to do that... Guess I have a lot of work ahead of me. I wish you could pay someone else to organize you.

Finalized everything today... now I just have to move to Boston at the end of the year. So now I have something new to obsess over. I obsess. A lot. I like obsessing over stuff. It's kind of fun. My obsessing has lots of stages. Stage 1: Beginning of obsessing. This typically includes getting lots of information "just in case." Trying to get basic information and a general idea about the lay of the land. In the case of moving this includes but is not limited to getting initial moving quotes, researching different areas that I could live in, finding out what the drive to work/airport would be, and writing out extensive "to do lists" that I have no intention of fully following. Finally doing some "spring cleaning," again, "just in case." Stage 2: Semi-Hard core obsessing. (Current stage.) Includes freaking out and thinking "I'll never find anywhere to live," "I won't be able to afford any of this," and ...

Baking... not eating. In the name of trying to start eating up all my food in my cabinets for the move ... I've started trying to get rid of the baking supplies. Which means making cookies and bringing them in to work for everyone else to eat. I don't want to get fat off of all these cookies! So tonight will be the second night this week spent baking cookies. The problem comes in the proportions. You always need to buy butter - and I don't have enough flour - but I've got too much brown sugar (I thought I had ran out - two shopping trips in a row.) Now I've got enough brown sugar to last me about a normal year and a half. I need other people to live with so that I can pawn my cookies off on more people. Job negotiations are going pretty well. I need to call and ask a few final questions - then do the formal acceptance thing and have them send me the paper work. I'm looking at moving at the end of the year. Anyone wanna do New Years in Boston? I read th...

I totally made cookies - and they are tasty. Like mad tasty. Mmmm cookies. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with pecans! I accomplished quite a bit this weekend and am freaking out just slightly less than I was on friday night. I've still got a ton to do... but it always seems a bit more manageable after you get a few things done. It's amazing how a few experiences can really make a person give up the fight at work. Another employee has started to "drink the koolaid" and is now just as bitter as the rest of us. Congrads! Welcome to the show! Sit down, kick back, have a drink, and just try to get through the day. The Dilbert on Sunday really is what happens at my job. It's whicked funny. I do try to warn people - but they don't believe me. So then they try it - and fail - and then I laugh at them. They are not amused.

One of my co-workers started talking about the Emmy's or some other stupid Hollywood award show that they were watching - and how the award recipents were completely horrible in person. They didn't know what to say - couldn't ad lib. Just poor speakers. They contrasted this with the Tony Awards were they thought the actors were better spoken - could ad lib. Noting that stage actors and movie/TV actors were very different in that regard. Without cue cards or a script they didn't know what to say or do. I'd like to contrast the current disparity between the stage and hollywood with movies from back in the day. Like 1950 and previous. I would argue that these actors had very similar styles to the stage actors of their time; that they could easily move between the stage and the sound stage. The movies of that era were completely different as well. I can't say if the actor was better or worse than today - just different. People have different expectations of...

Good news! In the process of getting everything settled. Very hard to be at work and not say anything to anyone. I will probably have hard news to report by the end of next week. Unless I'm too busy doing more important things wink wink* This week was absolutely exhausting. I've been at work or hanging out with the out of town employees from like 8am-10pm everyday. I haven't had much time to myself over the last few days. This weekend is not going to be filled with anything really interesting. I'll be doing some "spring cleaning" to prepare for a move. Cleaning up in general. I figure that the more time and effort I spend now getting everything organized and together - the easier it will be to move and unpack. I don't want to be running around the night before a move trying to deal with stuff I should have done weeks ago. It's amazing the stuff that you find when you are cleaning up to. Stuff you forgot that you had. Or everything is so spre...

I really hate being an adult sometimes. It's not the bills and responsibilities so much as the really tough choices. But then when you take a step back and really think about what I want out of life and who I want to be - the choices aren't so tough anymore. *Sigh* Waiting really sucks. Good thing though; all this waiting has made my try to distract myself with household chores I should have done ages ago. So I'm really getting my place organized and together if nothing else. It's a nice feeling to have things together and organized and know where to find things. I could really use a spa day and a day of no responsibilities and not having to think/deal with all this crap. It's kind of bad that I'm so frustrated so early in the week. This waiting has got me on edge. Everyone else isn't on pins and needles as to what is going to happen. I need some distractions. Please anyone - I need something to do instead of sitting around thinking about it and ...

I finally got mufasa's muffler fixed today. But I think that Mufasa is going to keep his name. I like having a nickname for my car - it makes it a little more personal. It's really weird getting in and starting theI car and it's silent. I can't even tell that the car had started. It's a weird feeling. It doesn't feel like my car - it feels like a whole new experience. It's like I got a whole new car! I'm amazed how long this car has lasted. Hopefully it will keep lasting for a while. I like not having a car payment. It may look like a pile of rust - but it does pretty well for me. I went to the eye doctor yesterday b/c I need more contacts. They dialated my eyes which is always an 'amazing' experience. I should have taken pictures of the freak eyes.... then I work up this morning with either a horrible attack of allergies or an incredibly bad sinus infection. I think that they are related. Along with the horrible stomach ache. Bas...

I came up with a corny - yet potential amazing business idea today. Now I just have to figure out how to accomplish the task - and then how to sell it to the business that would really want it... just give me time my friends. Just give me time.

So yesterday I confessed to my not-so-secret love of bad reality TV. I was mistaken. The Office is the best thing EVER. It's absolutely hilarious in its ability to make fun of situations by blowing them out of proportions (think Seinfeld funny.) I'm so happy that I can now stream it for FREE! Today someone at work said that I should be an animation. When I asked why - I was compared to a "real-life Dilbert." I don't think I make up the ridiculous rules/regulations/officeness - but rather I make fun of them. I don't see how other people can actually refrain from making fun of them. It is just so apparent to me - it's like I'm constantly being Captain Obvious. I think I have a good humor about all the crap that goes on. I don't have a lot of patience - but good humor about mistakes as long as people don't repeat them a million times. The only thing that makes me really mad is when people aren't trying. Just try SOMETHING. I get re...

So I have a confession: I love horrible "reality" tv. I know, I know, I'm horrible. I can't help but watch shows like "The Bachelor." It's the most amazing and most horrible parts of the US in one show. There are girls who drink way too much and take off their tops and run around half naked, then there are "christians" that want to stick to their "morales" and must tell everyone around them about it. It's like the range of humanity that you are able to watch... in one hour a week. Or if you're lazy like me - and only watch TV shows online - then it's really only about 43 minutes. Its like people watching at the mall or on the beach or at a cafe in Paris. It's all the amazing fun-ness of eves dropping. You feel really guilty doing it - but it's so much fun. It's my dirty not-so-secret. I hate waiting. I have another week until I hear from Boston. It's hard to wait. I really just wish I would kno...

I have to say that Andy Samberg is absolutely hilarious and super talented. Who else can come up with classics like " Dick in a Box " and " Iran so far "? I love the fact that he can get celebrities to get involved by not making fun of them - but rather the situation. I want to be as good as my job as he is at his job. Absolutely amazing. I wonder what other things he's good at ... can he do a good weekend update? Or daily show type comedy? I hope song writing isn't his only talent and that we will see more of him in the future. Speaking of other stuff that was really funny - did anyone catch David Letterman grilling Paris Hilton about being in jail. It was awesome. I'm glad that he knows that she's not famous for anything other than having money. I'm sure she didn't think it was "fair" how he treated her - but it's how anyone else in the world would have been treated. It's not our fault that you were dumb and got...

I've got an early morning flight to DC tomorrow. I've got to work at a trade show on Thursday/Friday. Which means that basically I have nothing to do tomorrow and I can't even check into my hotel until 3pm. Party baby! I get in at 8am - and I've got about an hour's worth of work to do.... awesome! Anyone in DC wanna take a long lunch tomorrow? I've still got a couple errands to run tonight before I'm completely ready to go - but nothing major. I should do some other stuff - but I don't think it's all going to happen realistically. I'm way more interested in watching the Biggest Loser on TV than I am cleaning up my apartment. Hopefully it will be a fun day of screwing around and doing some touristy things. It's supposed to be warm tomorrow too. I've had to travel a lot lately - I expect that if I get this new position it would be around the same amount that I'm doing now. I don't feel like this is ridiculous - I can see ho...

Said one of the guys I interviewed with. Yeah! I should hear by the end of the week. I hate lying to everyone at work - but there's not much to help that. Meh . I've got the next day to pack and get ready to go to DC for the rest of the week for work. This month has been pretty busy. Not unmanageable - but just busy. I imagine it would be much like this in the position I just interviewed for. The exciting thing about DC is that not only is there Neuhaus and Chipotle - I basically have all of Wednesday to fuck around!!!!! Yeah for playing! I went to the dentist today- and apparently I'm not getting enough fluoride in my diet. When I think about it mainly I drink filtered water and bottled sugary goodness. IE no fluoride - and no dentist treatments like when you were a kid. They recommended that I use a fluoride mouthwash - which hopefully will help curb some of the softened enamel issues I've had in the last year or so.... easy enough fix... hopefully.

I called into work yesterday - and apparently my boss didn't listen to his messages or didn't diseminate the information until sometime during the afternoon - as I recieve a couple calls from co-workers on my cell phone asking "are you alive, are you sick, or did you die in an accident?" My boss emailed me at 6pm - so I'm thinking that's about the time he listened to his messages. *sigh* Definitely didn't pick up the phone. They can survive without me for a day. I think the interview went relatively well yesterday. There are not a lot of people that work there - and I only interviewed with 2... but with that small of a company I wasn't too surprised by the small number. I'll have to write out thank you notes. We'll see how everything goes. The ball is in their court now. I have to say that I love the people that live in Massachusettes. The speed-limit that is posted is 55mph. However, no one abides by a simple posting of the speed lim...

National Talk like a Pirate Day went well at work. Many scurry scoundrels participated in talking like a pirate. Though no one dressed up.... this year. Finally got some sleep yesterday - it was delicious. Tonight I'm packing up to drive to Boston tomorrow for my job interview on Friday. I feel a really bad migraine is going to be happening to my on Friday. I have an aura already... or maybe I'll have really bad cramps... one or the other. I'm a little mad that I missed the Biggest Loser yesterday though. I need something to watch and follow since LOST wont' be back until FEBRUARY!!!!! I always like watching fat people have to jump around and try to lose weight. It's pretty amazing the changes that they have to go through and the amount of exercise that they get. I would lose that kind of weight too with 4-6 hours of exercise a day and a very strict diet. I'm always surprised by the people who only lose like 2 lbs and are the most over weight. I'...

I just want to formally apologize to Josh for showing up at his apartment at 1:30am on a Wednesday night. I know that it's not so cool.... I'll try to make it up to you some how at some point. This last week has been uber crazy - we had guests at work that had to be entertained, then I had to go back to Toledo for Lauren's wedding - which was really a lot of fun, and was really beautiful. Then I had to try to see family and friends while in Toledo. Next friday I have a job interview in Boston. It seems like the company is a really good fit for me. We'll see if the people/job are really going to be a good fit for me personally. We'll see how it works out. I'm not counting on anything. Sorry I didn't call you back Jess! I got a call from the recruiter - then from my mom - then from my brother.... then I forgot...

So I basically spent all day preparing for the upcoming week. Really boring shit like household chores and getting through a little bit of work so that I have time to do all the random shit tomorrow. I had to go do laundry this afternoon (I have like one pair of clean underwear until I get to the granny panties - which I hate and only end up wearing when I actually have to go do laundry.) The granny panties are not very sexy - so they don't make you feel good - you feel like a 80 year old hooker on heroine. It's amazing how such a small amount of fabric can really color your day one way or another. Cute underwear makes your whole day better. Ugly gross underwear does not help anyone. It doesn't help "the girls," it doesn't make you feel better about yourself, and it makes you lack confidence. If you don't spend a lot of money on your wardrobe - spend the majority of your $$ on your underwear. It's what will do the most good for you.

Where are my slides?!?! Where are my slides!?!?! WHERE ARE MY SLIDES!!!! Hurry up everyone! I need my freaking slides so that I can finish up the whole project! This is the bad part about working with procrastinators (not like I'm not one.... but if they procrastinate it really puts the pressure on me to pull it out at the last minute - which by the way - I'm awesome at.) Michigan sucked it up again this weak. (Pun intended.) Apparently my ISP has some deal with ESPN - so that I can watch TV streaming... LIVE! And I get to pick which games I want to watch!!!!!! Why aren't other networks picking up on this? This is flipping amazing. It plays commercials like normal TV - but amazing that I can watch cable TV for free (well not free... I do have to pay for internet.) There's that phrase "there's no free lunch." Which I never really understood in college. There was always free lunch somewhere. Some club, or school event, or whatever always had food. ...

Well the reviews are in (at work) I'm an excellent employee with a bad attitude. I realized that I've been getting the same assessment my entire life. I had a bad attitude when the girl who sat next to me in first grade lost her purple crayon - and then stole mine instead. When I insisted that she had stolen my crayon and that she couldn't have it. The teacher told me I had a bad attitude and broke MY purple crayon in half. Shortly thereafter the girl "found" HER purple crayon and gave me the other half of mine back. And I had the bad attitude. I was the one with the bad attitude when my high school music teach - who had a horrible experience teaching at my school - left. But she couldn't just leave things in peace she wrote a letter to the new music teach. Telling the new music teach that I was "trouble." I was marked from the first class. And I was the one with a bad attitude all year and came in with the preconceived notions about her. ...

So I should be doing work right now. But I really am not in the mood. I had a kind of crappy week at work so far and I had a bad run tonight. Instead of running errands (for work) I'm not watching PBS with the most amazingly interesting and wacky show about growing giant pumpkins. That's right. Pumpkins. These people are CRAZY about pumpkins and trying to grown them super huge (like over 600kg!!!) This one guy made a "pumpkin hammock" which was two fold in strategy. He could not only make sure that the bottom was round (not flat from all the weight) but he could also track in real-time the grown rate. Now that is genius. If I was a pumpkin grower I would want to track the change in weight in real-time (read my obsession with the Ipod Sport kit...) These guys (they haven't shown any women yet...) literally sleep by their pumpkins at night. It's like Charlie Brown and the great pumpkin!!!! Then even put blankets on them to tuck them in. This is such ...