Fight fair.

I was listening to the radio this morning. They were all up in arms about an anti-porn crusader who apparently said that the "shock-jock" (I like to listen to) is the reason that young girls are being raped and murdered.
Penny Nance's theory is that depravity (obviously, I am paraphrasing here) leads to depravity. In essence, she believes that people will hear the DJs talking about sexual situations and will then go off and use the information gleaned from the radio to perform their own horrifying procedures.

My take:
I do believe that people get ideas from things they see or hear. But I also recognize that most people have a meter in them that bars them from committing violent acts against other people. I think the ones that are influenced are people who are predisposed to cruelty against others. Just maybe they would not get as many ideas, were they not to see or hear them from others?
I also feel that Ms. Nance's desire to put the bible into everything is going to be her downfall. A totalitarian view on a specific religion to govern our society will never be met with favor. Is it not the zealots who are the most frightening of all? Their belief in their faith (and I am not pointing my finger at any one specific faith) gives the believer some self deigned right to trample over anyone else's values. This is frightening to me. We all have read about the Crusades, and the Taliban and other religious fanatics, and the havoc wrought. I am not trying to indicate that Ms. Nance is as intense as previously mentioned religious extremists, but I have to say that it is just as dangerous to attempt to force your beliefs onto someone else as it is to glorify violence. One begets the other.
I wish that there was less violence in entertainment. I wish that corruption and immorality were not glorified. I believe that we would respond to goodness in shows and movies. I think we have kind of resigned ourselves to the current of mass media and it's a shame. I also like that there are people out there willing to fight to bring some sense of humanity into the things we see everyday. I just wish they would do it for us, as opposed to hiding behind the bible. It's a valid fight. Now fight it right.

Thanks for lending me an eye.

Okay, so yesterday I was a 13 year old and today I feel prepared to handle anything. Weird huh? You people who don't know me, or even the ones who do must think I am so schizophrenic. (Manic-depressive? How many terms from the DSM-IV can I toss at ya?)
I guess I usually write when I feel something strongly. There are certain parts of my life that I am not ever going to write about completely and yet others where I feel like I can totally pour my heart out.
I know that I talk too much and I over-analyze everything. (Ever notice that anal is part of analyze. I am totally anal, too. (Check that. I am neurotic.) So I try to use this as my outlet in order to save the sanity of the poor folk around me who have to actually hear me speak to them.
I like to analyze things. I like to try to understand things. I love discussing things, but I get fired up and people tend to take that personally. I am trying to tone it down. Maybe I would have a been a good politician. But I don't think I would have enjoyed it. Ah, maybe an attorney? But I don't think I am scary enough.
I am terrified of misrepresenting myself, but honestly I don't believe myself to be a bad person. I am working on my defensiveness and my ability to attack people on issues. (I don't mean to, like I said, I get fired up.)
My friends are good people. That must mean that I'm not so bad.

Hello, my name is Buggie.

This might just be the purest picture of me. (Not the best.. Marci got that one on her phone this morning. Ha!)

But truly, does it not show my feisty nature? My delightful sense of humor? My ability to laugh through pain? My sexy middle finger? (Sorry, Mommy.)

This is me.

I get it!

Marci and I went to the Nationals game on Friday and afterwards went downtown to celebrate their win against the Cardinals who happen to have a Pujols on their team which may just be the funniest name in baseball. (See Marci's poll.)

30, going on 13

A few years ago, I was the saddest girl and my mother took me from my sorrows on a trip away from my life. We went out of town and my mother became my protector and caretaker. We went to see "13 Going on 30". It was completely how I was feeling. This absolute desire to go back to being a child. To let my mother take care of me. And I was hurting the way a 13 year old hurts.
That was a rough time. Being 13, I mean. You don't know who you are, where you stand, what kind of person you are going to be. That is exactly how I felt when we went to see that movie. Alas, I can't go back and get a "redo".
I just watched that movie again. And I feel that way again. Like a lost 13 year old. I can't quite seem to figure myself out. I thought I had everything I wanted and now I just want to have my mommy wrap her arms around me while I cry into her shoulder. And I want her to pat my hair and tell me it will all be okay.
This whole life thing is so scary. I'm tired of making choices and hurting people, and being hurt by people. I am so terrified that all I am making is foolish mistakes. What if everything I am doing is wrong? What if everything I ever loved is a big lie? What if I am just impossible to love?
I feel like I am trying to do things right. I feel like I am a nice person, somewhere under all this. I am trying to set up my life to be a good one and to help other people, but am I wishy-washy? Am I just coasting my life away?
I am 13 again. Lost, confused and feeling really small.

Buggie poll

Should I post actual pictures of myself and my friends?
	YES!
	No way, that will compromise your identity. It's not safe.
	Doesn't really matter to me.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Mothman cometh... I'm scared.

I think perhaps I should re-title my blog "the parking lot". What do you think? It seems that all my excitement occurs there.

Today, I saw this ginormous moth hanging on the ceiling. It is as big as my hand. As my digital camera SUCKS, I took this with my phone. (Yay, camera phone.. which we are totally not supposed to have at my office. Ah well.)

I was a really cool girl snapping a bazillion pictures with my digital camera and frowning in disappointment at the blurry crap. Then I made other people come and stare at it. Seriously, the moth was HUGE! Finally, I took out my phone and snapped it. That's what you get.

Other parking lot news:

• People got caught having sex in their car! Whaa? Seriously? Not from my company, though. (Don't need that visual.)
• I passed a space and then backed into it. Kind of diagonally. And it took me a couple of tries. See why it is a bad idea?
• Someone flew a kite on the top level of our parking deck one time. More on that later.

Everyday we die a little bit. Now start living.

I watched a movie called "My Life Without Me" with Sarah Polley who could not be any more Canadian. She has truly the strongest accent I have ever heard, and I tend to mimic people's accents, so forgive me if I am soory or start asking you aboot things, eh?

So, the movie is about this young girl who at the ripe old age of 23, lives with her husband and two daughters in a trailer in her mum's backyard. She finds out she is going to die in three months. So she decides to live. Fall in love with a different man, get fake nails... Stuff that had evaded her.

I started thinking how I would live if I only had three months left to live. And I especially wondered why I don't live my life like I have only a short time left. If I took those chances, I would not overthink my actions. I would take risks, because in the end, who cares? It's only for three months. I bet the turn out would be far more positive than negative, because we are a lot more capable than we ever give ourselves credit for. Besides, we waste so much time regretting actions already taken and so much time thinking we can always do it later. Hell, I have all the time in the world. Then suddenly you are 50 years old, and alone and unaccomplished. All because you had all the time in the world.

One thing that bugged me about the movie: this girl is talking about how she held conjoined twin babies, who were abandoned, from their birth until their death. She held them for 30 hours. First the boy died, then the girl. UM!!! I call Bullsh**. As we all know, conjoined twins are from a single fertilized egg that did not separate completely. Therefore all conjoined twins must be identical and that makes it impossible for those twins to have been anything but the same sex. DUH! Ruined the whole movie for me.

FYI

Chocolate chip cookie dough Poptarts are gross.

I love watching people do what they are great at.

Gawd! I love watching women's gymnastics! I just love it. These young, determined compact little people flinging themselves through the air, their limbs all specifically akimbo. I love the looks of concentration. I love their muscle structure. I love their faces when they have a perfect landing, or know that they nailed a routine. I get misty eyed when they perform a really tough vault. I would be an absolute mess if someone I knew was out there on that beam, because I never come out of watching women's gymnastics with a dry eye. (It's a little weird of me...)

ARGHHHHHH!!

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, on the wrong side of everything!, this morning. (But, hey! How do you like the structure of that sentence?)

I woke up late, after having dreams about my ex. Don't quite know how to decipher those yet, but they stuck with me all day, putting me in a funky mood.

I get to my parking lot where, instead of backing in to park, a woman who had just parked in an acceptable manner, stood in the space that I wanted my car to occupy. MOVE! MOVE! I wave her to go and she drops all her stuff. Then I decide to try to find another space, as she does not seem to want to go into the building, preferring to stand in the parking space. Of course, at that very moment, she darts into my path. Thank you! I pull around her and find another place to park. Remarkable.

I get into the building and stop in the kitchen for a bowl, spoon and some milk. I get to my desk, only to find that the cleaning people threw my very full box of Honey Nut Cheerios away. Don't they know I was lowering my cholesterol? Bastards. Where the hell do they get the idea to throw my cereal away? This was the straw that broke a Buggie's back.

So then, pouting, I turned on my computer only to find that the software they had installed yesterday had only been installed partially and now my computer needed to crash. So for the rest of the day, our computer people spent all their time installing and reinstalling everything on my computer, punctuated by not-so-veiled comments and mutterings about a virus and how evil my internet use was. Um, EVERYTHING IS BLOCKED! I can't have let a virus in. The only emails I open are from people I know... Within the company... Suck it, IT folk. You did not install software right. Now just admit it.

So then, I got to deal with one of our IT guys who is a bit random and would not shut up. There is something about him that makes me viciously passive aggressive.

Me reading a magazine...
IT guy: Is that a magazine?
Me: Um, yeah. That's what they call these glossy paged periodicals.
IT guy: Do you like to read magazines?
Me: Nope. Hate them. I like to use my computer.
IT guy: You ever try online dating?
Me: Um, no.
IT guy: You don't need to. Bet you get hit on a lot.
Me running off to pour acid on my body.

In any case, I could not do a damn thing all day. My computer is still broken and all I did was run around annoying people. (More-so than usual.)

Name dropper boss said, " Boy, Buggie. What's with you today? You sure are annoying.. " Um, thanks, name dropper boss. Why don't you eat my shorts.

Big boss said to me, "Don't you have anything to do? "
I said, "Nope. Just gonna hang out with you."
He sent me home at 4:00.

Your time saving maneuver is wasting my time.

I was late to work today. I got to the parking lot at 7:50, but not to my desk until 8:02. Why, you ask? Because the car in front of me in the parking lot had to back into the parking space. First it was a 15 point maneuver just to attempt the space which they managed diagonally. Then it took about 12 tries to get the car straightened out. Unfortunately, the way our lot is set up, it is nearly impossible to get around the car in front of you. So, thanks dude, for taking 652 hours to park backwards just in order to be able to pull out of the space five seconds quicker than had you pulled straight in. Jackass.

Related: I finally passed this guy and pulled into a space and was walking towards the building before that person had even finished parking completely. WTF?!?!?

Surfing the web at work

Everything is blocked... I like this site because only 90% is blocked. Welcome to my world.

I'll take the Reese's one. Small.

Okay, we all know I love Carrie Underwood, but does anyone hate the new Kit Kat commercial as much as I do? IT SUCKS! Why do they give her a guitar when it is so obvious that she has no idea how to hold one? Arg!
I do want one of those t-shirts, though.

Nice to meet you, now leave me alone

I went grocery shopping tonight because I am desirous of a nice, yummy home cooked meal. (And I am a damn fine cook, if I say so my own damn self.) (And am totally not above announcing it to the world every chance I get... See here and here.)
This guy comes up to me and asks if I was just shopping at Trader Joe's and as I had been, I answered yes. So we started talking, mostly about what we were doing in the grocery store. He waved two cans of tuna at me and I waved my basket of random goodies at him. He gave me a nice Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe and then had me guess where he was from.
Me: Um, Italy? Greece? I dunno
Him: You'll never guess it.
Me: Howzabout you tell then, hmm?
So he's from Mexico and he tells me I am surprised because he is so tall and not like 85% of the other Mexicans that came here because they are mostly poor and that's when I started to tune out.
So I am starting to say, very nice to meet you, must continue my shopping and he asks me for my card. I tell him I don't have one on me, because, well... I don't. Then I start to stammer something about being busy and all that and he cuts me off and says that it's okay. He understands. I don't need to make excuses. Then we make some more small talk and part ways.

I kind of felt bad that I was making excuses. But I don't know how to act in a situation like that. I don't know how to say goodbye without either coming across as a complete bitch or a totally waffler, like I did today. I am not flirting, but if you talk to me, I will talk back to you. (Though this apparently makes me a flirt... I don't get it. I guess I should just holler NO! when someone talks to me.)

The power of acting roles.

I watched the Omen today. It's nowhere near as scary as The Exorcist, but man, I would have killed (um, ha!) to have played Damien. Think about it.

This is a dramatization
Kid who played Damien (KWPD): Mummy, I want a pony!
Mother: No, honey.
KWPD: MUMMY, I am the son of the devil. I WANT A PONY!

Or as an adult...
This is a dramatization
Stranger: What do you do for a living?
Adult who played Damien (AWPD): I am an attorney.
Stranger: Oh, sold your soul to the devil?
AWPD: (Rubbing fingers together like Mr. Burns.) Didn't need to. I am the Antichrist.

In any case, I would totally have milked the hell out of this.

Things that make me mad when watching a movie or TV

I hate when the White House is a predominant part of the show/film and they have the Vice President super involved. It just does not work that way. How about having the Chief of Staff take on that role. It would be much more realistic.

I hate when two parents with blue eyes have a brown eyed child. It is genetically impossible, so unless someone had an affair, that ain't their kid. Stop trying to make me believe it.

(This is going to rub many of you in the wrong way, but I just don't care. It's my blog.) I hate really ugly, unlikeable people on TV. I see them all day everyday. (Especially in DC...) Let me live in a fantasy world where the dork is really Cameron Diaz. (Although I do believe this is what has led me to my current state of holding people, myself included, to impossibly high standards.)

I hate shows/movies that have some random guy on the street that sings random songs that randomly suit the moment or the story (See Something About Mary and Gilmore Girls.). Where is that guy in my life? The only musical guy I ever see on the streets has a cup that he dangles out towards me whilst singing Frank Sinatra... (And I am not flying to the moon, so the song has no significance to me.)

And lastly, this one really pisses me off...
When a character is talking on the cellphone and there is a disconnect, the busy signal really gets to me. Why do they do that? There is only silence when someone disconnects on a cellphone. We.all.know.this! Who has not had an entire conversation on an unconnected cellphone simply because you can't hear the disconnect? It sucks!

Completely self indulgent

Ever come to the realization that you have made a complete change in your life? I don't think I started off with the idea to make a conscious change, but suddenly it became a mission to get myself to a place where I feel completely at home with myself. I realized it today. After months of procrastination, I went yesterday and finally took the test to get myself back into school and finish my bachelor's degree. It was really hard and while taking it, I truly believed that I would fail and then have to wait six more months to take it again. But I passed. (And now feel like the smartest person in the world, because did I mention IT WAS HARD??!!!) So, I as soon as I get my packet from school, I will officially be a student again. I have to say that I am really proud of myself. Mostly because I realized that I am doing this for me. Not for my mom, not for my boss and not for my friends. For me.
I decided to take today off. My bosses are all out and I figured I could get some stuff done. And I woke early and started to clean up and put things in storage and get rid of other things. I have to go to court in September because I am a retardedly fast driver and therefore need to take a defensive driving class to demonstrate how much I have learned my lesson. This class can be taken online, yet still takes 8 hours, so I did about one third of the Defensive driving course. I spent some time with my mom and my brother before they go off to Oregon tomorrow. I recognize that so much of what I am comes from my family and I am so blessed to have them.
Now I am back home and I looked around. The whole place looks different. I want my house to be a home. It's going to take me a while, but I have realized that I have spent so much of my life being what I assumed other people wanted me to be, or just accepting whatever it is that I have. Not to say that it is necessarily bad, but it has made me unaware of who I am.
Hence this whole long diatribe. I have being doing stuff for me. I am making a home for myself. I came into my home tonight with a contented feeling I can't describe. I feel like I am finally starting to stretch out in my own skin and I can't wait to see where it takes me. I can't wait to start school and to paint my walls and get to know myself, and not in a dirrty way, punks.

Ew. and Ha!

Bug does a good deed

I just donated $10 (which is a lot.. See "Bug freaks out") to the organization that is keeping the House and Senate from passing a bill allowing the drilling for oil in the environmentally protected Alaskan wildlife reserves. Go me. Make some cars that are more fuel efficient. Create a new fuel and a new car to go with it. Figure something out. These people can send a shuttle to the moon, yet can't figure out a better way to run our vehicles? (Though I may just be the person who pays $25 a gallon for gas. I love to drive my car. Except in DC rush hours. &!?}#&!T!R$&^)

Bug freaks out!

I am currently in a minor state of panic for the following reasons:

• I have to take a test by Friday on subject matter that I am not convinced has any desire whatsoever to stay in my head. None!
• I have ants! Little tiny stupid ants that mock me by walking over my computer or hang out on my feet. Seriously, I must be the dirtiest person. I would totally believe this but for the fact that my whole neighborhood is infested with these little wee bastards. This state of panic leads me to this one:
• I have to clean my whole house. Scrub! Use insect repellent. First off, I hate to clean and second, I am terrified of bug spray. (For obvious reasons.. Hello!)
• I want to redo my house and I bought a huge storage bin for all the crap that wants to remain in my life, yet out of sight and out of mind. (At least until I move and I rediscover aforementioned bin stuffed to the brim with crap that I can't understand why was so damned important to me before.) What terrifies me here is the cost.
• Cost!!! School starts beginning of September and I need to come up with $5000. ARGH!
• Which reminds me that this little computer has not been paid for. ARGH!
• My mummy is going on the road. To Oregon. With my brother. Why do I feel like only one will return?

I am sure to be panicking about other things. But those are the ones on my mind right now.

Damn damn damn.

Just breathe

Hey Faith! You, of the beautiful face. What's with the current 'do? You look so pretty and down to Earth and fun and great with blonde hair. You look like you could be one of the guys, or that girl whom everybody just loves and Damn! isn't my friend gorgeous? But she is soooo nice.

And now, the brunette look is definitely striking and hell, no one can ever say you are anything short of stunning, but suddenly you look like high maintenance. It's a glamour girl look that just seems to override your best features. Please, be a blonde again.

Great!Big!Sea!

If you only ever do one thing that I tell you to do, go see Great Big Sea in Concert. Seriously! Marci, you would love them because everyone sings along to their songs and they encourage it. I wish I could describe the crowd so that you could properly have an image. They were all on their feet either jumping and flailing about, or doing some strange sort of Irish jig. And some person had some strange butt move thingie going on, but that is not something I can explain.

I had no idea there were so many Newfies in No. VA. Nor did I realize they are all Redsox fans.

Great show. Go experience them.

When the boss is away, the Buggie will be bored, mostly.

A day in the life of a Bug at work.

8:00 Watch the Shuttle land. Make unfunny comments about its safe arrival. For example: at one point they were indicating two spots on the shuttle with x’s and I said “Aw man, it was landing safely and so they are gonna shoot it down?” Yeah, I know… gallows humor?

8:20 Check my emails. Ooh, Steep and Cheap is selling $100 goggles that actually look cool, for $30. Too bad I don’t know how to ski. (Won’t someone take me skiing? – which actually makes me regress into a memory of my three skiing experiences.

1. I was visiting my friend in Germany. I must have been 15. We strapped on cross country skis and went out. I was fine on those skis and saw a little hill. Come on, I said, let’s try the hill. My friend reluctantly followed and down the hill we went. On cross country skis. Second try, almost took out a kid who was sledding, as well as a small sapling.

2. Working at Bennigan’s. 20 years old. Worked St. Patty’s day with my pals and we were there until 5 am just cleaning up. We came to the bright conclusion to go skiing. Everyone piled into a car, drove towards the nearest ski resort when 20 miles from home, the car broke down and we had to walk to find a pay phone so a mom, who was not happy we were going in the first place, could come and get us. It was damn cold, too.

3. 25 years old. Finally doing it right. Planned a day trip to go snow boarding. Drove 4 hours to get to the resort. It had rained all day and people were mud-boarding down the hill. Needless to say, I was not one of them.

Those are my attempts at skiing. Not meant to be? My sister lives near mountains. I visit her for a week and a half every December. What the..? (Also, I first typed skies, then skiis… Typing is hard.)

8:55 My horoscope today: You have an effect on people. You make them feel a certain way. Get in touch with exactly what that effect and feeling are. Ask questions. It's time to figure out if you're coming across as you intend. Hmm, what does that mean? I am going to spend some time over thinking this.

9:30 A little bored. My boss is out for the rest of the week. AND he is on a plane right now, so he can’t call and ask “What’s going on?” So I am filling my time by reading amalah. I am almost caught up with reading her archives. I don’t know this girl, but I think I would like to. AND she lives in DC, maybe a stalking spree is in order? I am obviously kidding. But she writes awesomely and seems like a coolio chick. I can already see her influence in my writing sometimes and also others… asshat, Marci?
To give an example of the exquisite writing of the Amalah, read this. That’s literary gold.

9:45 Who is going to want to read some long involved retelling of my uneventful day? AND we still have 7 hours and 15 minutes to go! And in 9 hours and 15 minutes, I will be enjoying the Celtic sounds of Canada. I am going to see Great Big Sea at Wolftrap tonight. With a higher-up in my department. And the President of one of our Business Units. And his wife. Awkward? Probably. Not caring! GREAT.BIG.SEA!!!

10:06 Boss.gave.me.work. You can’t give someone work to do when the whole morning has been spent goofing off.

10:22 Private number ringing on my caller ID. But I am not going to answer it. The office skeeze’s assistant is on vacation, so the office skeeze has taken to calling me every day. To chat. Ew. I ignore it. Message! Let’s see? Yep, it’s him. Uck. Some people just don’t get it.

10:32 Apparently the biggest news of the day is that Dana Reeve, wife of the late Christopher Reeve, has lung cancer. While, yes, it is a tragedy, is it really necessary to televise this fact all morning long? (Here’s to a full recovery.)

10:41 All the delicious coffee and water that I have enjoyed thus far, is done with me. But the bathroom is all the way across the building. So, I always wait until the very last second and then sprint down the hall ignoring anyone in my path. Why can’t I have my own personal bathroom? (Too much info? Count your blessings, there are far worse things I could be sharing.) Let’s see how long it takes me to come back…

10:46 Five minutes! Well, I said it was far! You know what bugs me? When the toilet paper roll is not feeding from the top. So you have to go searching to for the start of the roll while in the meantime, all the paper is piling up in the dispenser somewhere. Just put the damn roll in correctly. Sheesh.

10:49 The women in my office are neurotic. (Myself included.) We have a trashcan by the exit of the bathroom because the people who wash their hands use the paper towel they dried their hands with to open the door in case of cooties from the non-handwashers. But seriously, Wash!Your!Hands!

12:00 Broke down and did a lot of work. I know! It’s insanity. In that time, my big boss called and wanted to know “what’s going on.” I said, “Work, sir. And lots of it!”

12:05 Lunching time. We have a café where they feed us. With a salad bar, and soups, and a dessert bar, and fruits. Today we can have tortellini or prime rib. I might have the salad bar. But people blow me away when they opt to go out to eat. Hellooooo! We have food here. It’s mostly great and it’s paid for. They justify going out by saying they won’t eat as much. Ever heard of a little restraint? Damn!

1:00 A substantial part of lunch was spent discussing Jelly Belly’s. Lunch was not so great today. But still. Paid for.

1:20 Flipped through pages of Elle magazine. It is ads punctuated by the occasional article about something you saw in one of the aforementioned ads. Pheh. Can’t afford nothing in there. And no, I don’t want to talk about my new crush on
Hey! It’s only $100. I must have lost my touch. I used to be the girl who would walk into a dollar store and find the only item that costs $1000.

1:42 Did some more work. It must look like I do nothing all day. It’s true, today. I have two expense reports that are just aching to be done, but other than that, today is a free for all day. It’s not usually like this. I can generally be found running back and forth, editing papers, creating documents, calling people, yadda yadda yadda. But when the big man is out and I got caught up on all of my work yesterday, today is a take it easy kind of day. Hence the diary of today’s experiences. Hope you are not bored out of your mind. But it is keeping me from being bored out of mine, so deal with it.


1:45 Holy crap is this ever the longest pile of self-indulgent crap that has ever been written?

3:00 Talked to my mom and ate M&M’s. It’s hard talking clearly over the sound of crunching candies in your mouth. I’m sure she appreciated hearing that.

3:01 Yay, two more hours. Yawn.

3:02 Boss called. He’s wearing a sport coat and everyone else is wearing golf shirts. It is hot in Texas. He is casting a pox on me. (I forgot to find out the dress code before sending him off. Oops.)

3:11 My coworker just said I am a little spicy and a little dicey. I like it!

3:28 “I like to move it move it. I like to move it. I like to move it move it.” Get this song out of my head!

3:32 “It’s getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes. I am getting so hot…” ARGHHHHHH!!! I don’t even listen to those songs, how they heck did they get in my head?!?

3:38 102 minutes. So sleepy. Wonder if I can stretch out under my desk and nap a little?

3:42 Hell, I practically lay in my seat. I believe my chair is way too big for me. People are constantly telling me to sit up. Hey! Eat my shorts.

3:47 What does castigate mean? I just used it in a sentence and am not even sure what it means, even though I am confident that I used it correctly. I said “I won’t be castigated for issues that I have already resolved.” Ha! I did. DEF: To criticize or punish severely. Thesaurus: chastise, rebuke, scold, berate, chide, reprimand.

3:51 I hate the sound of nails being filed. Hate it so much!

3:57 Spider Solitaire OWNS me. According to the stats, I have only won 3% of the games I have played. Pathetic. Maybe I should play more. Ha!

3:59 The music playlist in my head is horrible. I am going to play music, real music, on my computer. Hmm, Christina Aguilera, Dirrty. I think I will veto. What’s next? Omigod, the music on my computer is as bad as that in my head!

4:02 Ashlee Simpson.. What the… I got her CD in a moment of pop-idol teen regression. I actually kind of liked her voice, but then maybe the realities of “Ashlee” came to fruition, what with her horrendous display of lack of talent at the Orange Bowl.. (Was that the Orange Bowl? Whatever. The college football thingie..) And the clothes? I am still not completely healed from the temporary blindness she has inflicted on me. Ouchie, Ashlee.

4:05 Ok, seriously… My playlist sucks. SUCKS. And I hate Bon Jovi. I am sorry, Jen. I just do.

4:16 We were talking about how our token really short person hates being called “shorty-patorty” and the person who called her that said that she should embrace it, as she herself has embraced her red-headed, left handed, stepchildness. That just sounded all shades of wrong, so I excused myself. (I also wrote “said that she short embrace it” Yeah.)

4:31 Co-worker snuck out early. But she asked me and I said ok. But I want to not be here anymore too. This last half hour is going to drag as most everyone is gone and I have a headache and a multitude of Motrin that is not in my desk as I took it o Philadelphia last weekend. More of a neckache than a headache. Can I blame my chair?

4:36 Does it make me a bad person that I totally badgered the man whom I used to call “the elf” and complain that he smells a tiny bit like old folks home for his extra ticket to see Great Big Sea? Naw, he’s way cooler than he was when he was my boss and besides GREAT!BIG!SEA!

4:48 Thoughts on the Shuttle. Maybe it landed all safe-like because there was a woman pilot. Ever think of that!?!

4:49 Packing up my crap so that at 5:00, I can gogogo!

4:50 Except suddenly I have a ton of phone calls to make. On our crappy phone system. We just got this system, made by Siemens, about two years ago. But the digital displays are all wonky already, so you can’t read the caller ID. If the call waiting rings, you can’t put the person you are talking to into voice mail or transfer them. I know I should be all, Yay! Germany, but this product sucks. What I think happened was that they had these phones in Germany and the Germans were like “Dis ist Crap! Send it to Amerika were dey don’t know any better.” (Sorry. God bless America. Land that I looooove!)

4:57 I think I need to turn my computer off and stand with bag in hand so that I can be off as soon as the clock strikes 5:00. So G’night! Hope you don't hate me after this!

Restaurant Week at the Oval Room

Because you can never have enough excuses to spend $30 on a three course meal in a restaurant you would otherwise probably never enter. (Unless it was for some sort of fund-raising event for Senator/Congressman GimmemoneysoIcanrunthiscountryintotheground. I am not usually invited to those anyway.) So I made a call to the mother hen and forced her to spend money on a dinner she really did not want. (And she paid for dinner! How does that happen? I invite, pick the place, and force her out into a noisy place filled with mean and unkempt Washingtonians and she pays!) On top of all that, I made reservations, but did not bother for directions. Hell, it’s DC. I know where that is. So, armed with an appetite for American haute cuisine, we made our way into the Nation’s Capital. Where everyone was driving as.slow.as.humanly.possible. ARGH! And once in the city, I only knew it was 800 something. It’s either Constitution or Connecticut. My mother had to use the cell phone to find out the location as I would go to jail, Brother, were I to hold that baby to my ear.
Street parking. Nicely done.
Meany that I am, I won’t even let my mother peruse the real menu. NO! It’s restaurant week. We only look at that menu. (What is wrong with me?)
So anyway, dinner consisted of a 5 asparagus stalk salad, some “gamey” (Her words, not mine) pork with yummy polenta for my mother and a very fishy Caesar salad (ew) and a red snapper entrée for me. Normally this meal would have been over in 15 seconds, as the portions were teeny (which is ideal for me! Yay!), but yappy yapperson over here, could not shut up long enough to shove any food down her throat. Poetic justice served? It was so darn loud, my mother could not hear a thing I was saying anyway. Ha! (But she sure as hell tried to listen. I love that lady, did you guys know that?)
Dessert came and presented itself as 3 mini cotton balls of ice cream. Banana, caramel and vanilla. I took all three and jammed ‘em in my mouth. Yum. Mummy got a bowl of fresh, seasonal berries. This turned out to be a strawberry cut into six pieces, a couple of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. But the best part was when she held up one of the myriad of maraschino cherries in her bowl and says, “Mm, in season!”
And the coffee was good.

Yeah, that must be what it is...

I'm a little cranky today. I guess it shows because the only noises coming out of my usually boisterous cubby-hole is the clicking of the mouse in a futile game of Spider Solitaire.

My co-worker comes to me with the ubiquitous "Boy, it sure is quiet over here." What do you say to that? "Nuh uh!" or "beat it, I am performing a silent experiment"? But I said, oh so cleverly, "I got nothing to say." And she says to me, "Maybe you are PMSing." Whaaa? Seriously? I thought only guys threw that out there when a girl's behavior was one that they could not explain. So I responded, very un-passive-aggressively. "Not the case, but it's good to know that it's not just guys who toss that bomb around." She looked rather shocked, because usually I am very nice to her. And I feel bad, but geez, lemme alone. It's silent over here for a reason.

A change for the better?

I think my brain has stopped working. I even think I heard a snap and faint whirring of non-functioning parts. What happened, in my opinion, is that I have spent so much time overanalyzing everything that is going on in my world and everyone else's that my brain said NO MORE and died. So, I sit here with a vacant look and a vaguely confused demeanor, but silently thrill that maybe I will finally be able to get some sleep.

Oh Raffy...

Rafael Palmiero is a big fat liar.

I went grocery shopping

Loving:
The smell of freshly ground coffee. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Fresh veggies.
Finding a really yummy wine on sale $3 off!
Having 14 items so's I could get in an express lane.

Not loving so much:
Having to buy Drano. Seriously, what is wrong with my bathtub drain. It's gross. I will have to buy Drano stock.