happy dancing, books, and fun with lists

I'm really enjoying my first homework-free Monday in what feels like FOREVER.

*does a little snoopy dance*

In truth, the quarter only lasted nine weeks, but I swear, those weeks were totally time-warped.

And now they're over.

*does another little snoopy dance*

And I have nothing to do for a whole week (except prepare for the following week, which I'm not going to think about now).

Over the weekend I completely bummed out. I slept in on Saturday until almost noon (!), which was a fantastic treat since I seriously can't remember the last time I slept past 8 a.m. I also didn't do any of the errands I had so heroically planned on doing, like getting the oil changed in my car, getting a hair cut, returning books to the library, laundry, shopping at Lane Bryant. All the things I haven't had time to do in the last couple of weeks, and couldn't be bothered to do once I did. Heh. I just sat on the couch and watched television (like the Mythbusters marathon). And it was glorrrrrrious. I did leave the house once this weekend, making a run to the supermarket for milk and cookies and chips and dip. (Priorities!)

This evening, I started my school-free-week-o-celebrating with a little bit of reading. Why do I want to read on my week off from school? I don't know. I just do. It's nice to read something silly and light and fluffy without having to worry about writing a ten-paper on it. Plus, the HB is in the middle of a grand battle with his sister via xbox live so the television is temporarily occupied.

For a while now I've had my eye on a book I picked up at a used bookstore back when I was in... oh, I don't know. Junior high? Or maybe even the sixth grade. Shit, I can't remember, it was so long ago. All I know is that I wasn't yet old enough to know exactly what a Harlequin book was about. Come to think of it, I have no idea why my mom bought it for me at the time. Wouldn't she have said, "Uh, you sure you want to read this?" Hmmm... maybe it just got lost amongst the stacks of books she was buying.

The cover (semi-noir-ish painting of dark-haired Nancy Drew like chick and a man with an eye patch), title (School For Spies (I love me the spies!)), back blurb ("...and in the fight to save her own life, she found that everyone had a motive and everyone was a suspect - including the man she loved." *gasp*!) caught my interest that day in the used bookstore and I've been meaning to read it ever since. Meaning's been all well and good, but it's still been low priority until now. I figured it'd be a quick read that I could finish in a day or two.

I'm already half way through it, not because its that good, but because it sucks that much. I've skimmed through most of it. Sigh. Looks like I'll have to find something else to do tomorrow. Like finally clean *shudder* the desk in the bedroom I've been meaning to clean for months.

Or maybe I'll pick another book from the stacks of dusty unread books in my To Be Read pile. Why can't Don't Look Down be out now? Or Definitely Dead? Or Proven Guilty? Or... eh, I think that's it for Upcoming Books I'm Dying To Read But Won't Be Able To For Months Because I'll Still Be Doing Homework But Will Buy Anyways Just As Soon As They're Published.

Anyways, I thought I'd take a break from the sucky book and update my book consumption list. Instead, I got caught up in the 43things section, adding 10 new things to my Things I Want To Do list.



I love adding to my list, even though I don't do it often (neither do I actually do anything on the To Do List, but that's another story). I also love seeing what other people want to do. Some are admirable, like quit smoking, be a better person, wake up when my alarm goes off, become a hippy... while others are, well...

568 people want to learn the Napoleon Dynamite dance

5 people want to be bitten by a shark.

490 people want to fly.

4 people want to meet david desrosiers and hang with him and the band and be friends for life and marry David and have 2 kids named Jacob and Cayce.

I get sucked into this site very easily and now they have a new feature I'm completely in love with. Emails from the past! I can set up reminder emails to my future self to remind my future self of all the things I, the current and soon to be past self, want my future self to be doing.

Hmmm... I wonder how frequently I need to remind myself to set up my underground lair.

Another Drive-By Listing

The last couple of days have been busier than the ones before. Hence another List. I don't know if the amount of crap I have to do has actually increased, or it just seems that way because my brain is overcrowded with To Do lists that multiply like horny little bunnies. So here it is, my list of:

Things I Would Have Written About Had I Not Been Busy Doing Things Interesting Enough To Write About

(Not that I have high standards about what I'll write about. I was consumed by snot a couple of posts ago so that's what I wrote about. The fascinating subject that is snot.)

Last weekend I drove up to my parent's house and visited with a kiwi cousin I haven't seen in about fifteen years. He's been touring the globe for the last couple of months and made California his last stop before heading home. It was fun to chat and hang out with him, which might not happen again for another fifteen years (maybe sooner if I can ever manage to pay off credit cards and student loans and stuff).

Another perk of visiting my parent's this weekend was attending an "Evening of Art and Wine" charity event hosted by the Zonta club my mom belongs to. I walked around for hours, sampling wine like I knew what I was doing, eating yummy hors d'oeuvres, getting chatted up by the featured who had to tell me all about the awards she's won, and meeting my mom's new friends.

My car developed another problem. One that made me miss another day of class. Grrrr. One that cost $300 bucks to fix. Double grrr.

I have two temps working for me at work for the next week or so. Very strange. Like I'm actually important enough at work to have underlings. I tell them what to do, but I don't feel like a boss. Maybe because I'm not mean enough.

This last Friday was the last day of classes of my first quarter back at a university after my many year hiatus. (I'm not counting the semester at the junior college last term; that was just a warm up compared to these big leagues.) Next week is finals week, then its spring break. And even with two finals to work on (take home projects) as soon as I left class Friday night I was sighing a huge sigh of relief. Ahhhhhhhhh.

One day last week, or maybe it was the week before, I was totally HOTT For Teacher. My English professor is smart and funny and charming, which are attractive qualities, but I never thought of him as dreamy until he walked into the room wearing black pants, black mini-turtle neck shirt, and a black blazer. It just screamed hottttttt. Then he took the black blazer off and the look changed and I realized I should probably close my mouth and wipe away the drool. I drooled again during the last day of class because he brought in Krispy Kreme donuts for everyone. What a dreamboat!

The instructor for my other class also brought in Krispy Kreme donuts for the last class meeting. This is an interesting tradition they have at this school.

I'm out of clean underwear! That would have been the title of Wednesday's post. And I didn't have time to do laundry until Friday. Holy underwear dilemma batman! But I managed, finding squirreled away butt floss and a pair of undies I should have thrown away five years ago.

The HB bought the new 360 xbox last week. And he's obsessed with it. Particularly with the new Final Fantasy game. Which is fine, until his obsession interferes with my tv obsession. Then we'll have to throw it down, see who gets control of the tv. So far I haven't watched much tv because of last minute homework assignments, but starting next week, or as soon as I finish my two finals, we'll have to work out a compromise. Just so long as get to watch my Veronica Mars and Surreal Life in timely manner.

I think there's a Murphy's Law that says when everyone who works in your department is either out sick or at another facility and you're the only one there to "man the fort", the only problem that you do not know how to handle (because it falls under everyone else's job description) will, of course, happen, and will need to be resolved with the utmost urgency. This will more than likely happen on the same day that a Big Scary Term Paper is due that isn't quite finished but is being worked on, during office hours, because your creative muse procrastinates and waits until the very last second to be in the mood to write. Sigh. I don't know how I'm going to break the muse of this habit. It was fine before, when I didn't have to work full time and my hours were more flexible.

Hey Brain, are you pondering what I'm pondering?

Why do fast food drive-thru window operators tell you to pull up to the "first" window when they only have one friggin window?

Is it habit from their old fast food gig? Or do they just not know where they work? Because they are the first window. They are the only window. Do they think that there's a series of windows after them?

I ask, because I care. I think the grease is getting to them.

And also, I hate it when they get my hopes up like that.

"First window?! You mean I get to talk to more than one of you fine McWorkers? Oh joy!"

But alas, after that first window there are no more windows. No more chances to see another surly face of someone who's been on their feet for 6 hours straight that I can say hi to, you're doing a great job, thanks for the wonderful food. I don't actually say all that out loud. I say it with a smile, with is just as precious to them, I'm sure.

Because Fish Have Problems Too

My fellow Business Improvement Super Users and I hadn't had our End-Of-The-World-As-We-Know-It meeting (fridays at 6:30 am - wheee!) in a couple of weeks. Which was nice, but it sort of lulled me into belief that everything was peachy warm and fuzzy. But our Super User Leader is back from a conference so the meetings are back on. And they're on with a vengeance.

Reality sure has a nasty slap in its repertoire.

Worst part of the meeting though was worrying about Imminent Snot Drippage. I'm over the worst part of my cold - the immense sinus pressure is gone (I can breathe out my nose again! yay!) and I'm only blowing my nose about half the time now - but there's still snot. And sometimes it creeps up on me when I least expect it.

I went into the meeting without a Kleenex - silly mistake, I know, I'm just full of them this week - but I'd just blown my nose and I felt like I could go awhile before the next evacuation. About fifteen minutes into the meeting I felt a little snot droplet slowly make its way down the inside of my nose until it was resting just at the mouth of the cave.

I thought about getting up in the middle of the meeting and running to the other end of the trailer to my Kleenex box, but I didn't want to be rude and interrupt. Plus, the Leader was talking about stuff I really needed to know so it was at a very inconvenient time. That, and I didn't want everyone watching me squeeze my fat ass between the chairs and the wall as I made my way to the door. Due to construction we're now having these meetings in the other half of this trailer I work in, and the conference room is just wide enough for a conference table, chairs, and a non-fat girl's ass.

So while I was paying attention to all the important info I was also praying to the Gods of Embarrassing Situations that the little snot droplet didn't drop on my shirt.

Gawd! My life is so exciting the only thing interesting I have to write about is snot!

Best part of the meeting though was the guy sitting next to me who kept cracking jokes. At one point, someone was talking about a guy who used to work at a "battered fish company" (a production plant where they put frozen battered fish into bags and the bags into boxes and the boxes onto trucks to be delivered to the frozen food aisle at your local grocery) and the guy next to me said, "Is that like a battered woman's shelter?" Trust me, it had everyone chuckling.

In fact, there's been lots of chuckling so far today. Everyone's in a good mood. Everyone's making fun of everyone else. It's all good all around. And thankfully, with the sinus headache gone, it no longer hurts to laugh.

Time to go now and attend a training session. New system. New training. New problems to deal with. Wheee!

The Sickness

Yesterday, the mother of all head colds hit me like a two-ton hippo with an attitude problem. The sickness started toying with me a little bit on Sunday night so I took some… well I have no idea what the hell it’s called. It was green and round and the box said it relieved cold and sinus pressure and sore throats and yadda yadda yadda.

The box is a lying little bastard.

Yesterday morning, the symptoms were worse. And continued to get worse throughout the day. Mainly because I forgot to take more medicine before I left for work.

D’oh!

It’s a theme this week, this forgetting thing. I almost drove off without my glasses this morning. I thought long and hard (for all ten contemplative seconds) and decided to brave the pouring rain and run back upstairs and grab my glasses.

Because, oh yeah, its raining. Was it raining a week ago when I felt perfectly fine and would have welcomed the rain with great big hugs and smoochy kissy faces? Nooooooo. It waits until I feel icky and achy and snotty. As someone in the office just said, this is stay-home-under-the-warm-covers kind of weather.

Amen sista.

So yesterday, I didn’t feel good at ALL. Besides having a head that felt like it was going to explode at any second, I felt achy all over. Feverish achy, though I don’t think I actually had a fever. I couldn’t concentrate on anything, which is really great when you have a lot of work to do, and need to be doing some schoolwork during breaks and such. After work, instead of going home and getting warm and medicated I went to class. Because I’m a superstar that way.

I hate being in a classroom, surrounded by peers, when snot is constantly leaking out my nose. It would not stop, my leaky nose. So embarrassing. So, so embarrassing. And its not like I could hide at the back of the classroom. Noooooo. We’re in “workshop” mode, which means we all turn our desks around and form a little circle so we can all stare at Lisa The Red Nosed Reindeer stuff Kleenex up her nose before snot drips everywhere.

Sigh.

And then, after class, I had to walk over ten minutes to get to my car (construction project made me park in the BFE lot). This normally wouldn’t be a problem but it was pouring outside and all I had between me and the big bad rain was a dinky little umbrella. And the wind was blowing so hard my umbrella kept flipping up. And I couldn’t breath through my nose so I looked like one of those creepy mouth-breathers. And I was cold. And wet. And miserable.

And oh so whiny.

I took some claritin when I got home. I don’t know if what I have is allergies or just regular cold symptoms but holy crap that shit worked. A hundred times better than the green thing I took Sunday night.

I feel about fifty percent better today. I’m just a little bit achy, and my nose is still producing snot like its on some kind of deadline, but I don’t feel like my head is going to explode in the process. So that’s something.

Yesterday, every time I needed to blow my nose I stepped outside the office/trailer. I really don’t like people (other than family) hearing me blow my nose. It didn’t start raining until after work, so I didn’t mind the exercise.

But today? It’ll be raining non-friggin-stop. And there’s nowhere in this trailer to blow my nose quietly, so I warned the people in my office that they were going to listen to my snot symphony all day. They said they didn’t mind, but Mr. Funnypants Office Guy just had to make a joke or some silly comment whenever I blew my nose.

Oy vey.

So now I’ll be stepping outside, in the rain, to relieve myself. It’s not too bad, actually. I stepped outside in the middle of writing this and its only sprinkling outside. I’m feeling well enough that I actually enjoy the feel of the light sprinkling. So I’ll be doing “my business” outside again.

In fact, I think I have to blow my nose again. Dammit! Why did I have to get sick now for crying out loud???

Things I Would Have Blogged About Over The Last Couple of Weeks If I'd Had The Time

Doesn't it just bite the Big Fuzzy Woolly One that just when exciting things happen to me, things interesting enough to actually blog about, I have absolutely no time to write them down! Grrrr! The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of meetings and midterms and deadlines and cleverly disguised mini freak-outs. Anyways, here's a list of the things I thought, "hey, I should blog this!" but never got around to the follow through.

If I'd had the time, I would have written about...

... how the techno virus I was afflicted with during the last few blog rants was contagious. The HB's car completely shut off while he was zooming down the freeway. Scary stuff. His car is working fine now, but like all good viruses, it boomerang back to the initial victim, causing my "Check Engine" light to wink at me the other day. It hasn't come back on, so I'm assuming the car was just being cranky, but needless to say I'm feeling super paranoid while driving my car.

... how some guy was shot dead right outside my apartment. And I mean RIGHT OUTSIDE. I could have hocked a loogey from my balcony farther than where the guy was shot.

... how much I'm loving my George Eliot english class (even though I spend all weekend trying to speed read through long Victorian novels). The professor is fun (I laugh at least once every class period) and passionate and so wonderful to listen to.

... the four hour meeting with the all important Business Excellence hotshots who grilled me on my department's poor business practices. The meeting wasn't bad. But it was loooooooong. Especially since it was the same long-ass list of questions I've gone over TWICE before! Sheesh.

... the freaky psychic dream I had where I dreamed about being in a college bookstore staring at a bunch of mini globes I had to buy instead of books thinking, "Hmmm, guess I'm gonna have to look up a bunch places for the class" and the VERY next day my professor says, "When you're reading, if you come across a country you haven't heard of, you might want to look it up on a map". Seriously. How freaky is that?

... all the other weird dreams I've been having lately. They've been awesome. Though they escape from memory within just a few hours of waking up so writing about them now would be pointless. I have got to keep a journal by my bed. And I have got to be willing to wake up enough to write them down instead of going back to sleep for another hour or so.

... how I almost got in an All-Girl-SmackDown-A-Thon with an old lady. I'm pretty sure I could have taken the snobby table-snatching beyotch.

... the rough outline of an essay I'm thinking of titling Why Satan Invented Parallel Parking.

... why I <3 Coworker Zack.

... Olympics! Olypmics! Olypics!

... the office move from hell. I work in a trailer now. I go potty in another trailer. A trailer that has its own key. The Potty Key. I like to think of the potty trailer as an Executive Washroom. One that's locked to keep out the riffraff. Beats thinking that I'm peeing in a dinky little trailer that could blow over with the next big Santa Ana gust of wind. In the last couple of weeks there's been four power surges. So getting work done has been spotty at best. Barrels of fun, let me tell ya.

... the Valentine's gift I got from the HB that was half-crappy (a box of fancy chocolates just mere days after I said I didn't particularly like boxes of fancy chocolates) and half-wonderful (a very, very, sweet poem he wrote just for me. *sigh*)

Okay. I think that's about it. For now at least. When I trip down the potty trailer stairs (which I feel might be one of those inevitabilities) I'll have something more interesting to write about.

Me? Paranoid? Why that's just sil... Wait, who told you that???

Got my car back on Saturday.

Yeah!

After I shelled out 600 bucks, that is.

Bummer!

And yes, I know it could have been worse. That was my favorite mantra of the day actually.

It could have been worse, it could have been worse...

Good news is the car only turned itself off once before I got home! Even better news is I wasn't driving at the time; I'd made a stop along the way.

I was so excited at once again having that sense of freedom that is attached to owning a working car that I felt like making a stop at the drug store for a much-needed stick of deodorant. You know when you can see the plastic bottom of the deodorant tube more than you can see deodorant. I was there. I could have made due for about... oh... another day. Then I would have been reduced to using the HB's deodorant. But by then, of course, he would have been back in town and I could have asked for a ride to the store. It didn't matter either way, because I had my car back! Wheeee!

So after my drugstore pit (heh) stop, I turned the car on, already thinking about where I was going to go next. Five seconds later, the car shut itself off. I was too shocked to utter even the simplest of curses. I turned the car on again, and when I felt it try to die on me again I pushed on the gas and said, "don't you even think about it you little beyotch." Whether it was the gas or the epitaph that worked, I don't know. I'd like to think that they were both persuasive.

I made one more stop that day (for groceries) and the car was still a little shaking on its feet. So I took it home and decided to give it a little rest. A little R and R for the loon-mobile. When the HB got home the next day from his family drama outing we decided to take my car for a fast food run. And the car started up beautifully, as if it hadn't had any inkling of a problem whatsoever, just like use to before making me a nervous driving wreck.

So the car works. Yeah! But I'm going to be paranoid for a couple of weeks now, wondering what every little sound or movement from my car means. Is that normal? Has it always made that sound? I can't help it. I'm like that every time something happens to my car.