2 funny things ...

Okay, I have two funny anecdotes to share today. One that randomly popped into my head yesterday and one that just happened last evening. Let's start with the latter ...

Yesterday I got home from work and was squatting down to do something when my roommate's cat comes up and starts to use me as a scratching post like cats tend to do (don't worry, she's declawed, so it's more like a massage than actual scratching). She happens to be behind me, so she's pawing away at my lower back, and since I was in this odd squatting position, the waistband of my pants was sticking out a little and her paws kept catching it. Apparently she decided that this game was more fun than just scratching my back, so she kept on pulling at the waistband of my pants! The cat was trying to undress me! She just kept doing it!! It had to be one of the oddest things ever and I cracked up for about 5 minutes.** And sadly, this was more action than I had gotten in a long time.

And story #2 ...

One of my old managers at a previous job, we'll call her Pam, told me this story once about a time she was redecorating her daughter's bedroom when she was little. The daughter made a crown out of a leftover piece of wallpaper and gave it to Pam to wear while they worked. Well, later that day, Pam had to go to the grocery store, and didn't realize that she was still wearing the wallpaper crown. Walking through the store, she kept wondering why people were giving her funny looks! She finally realized why when she saw a particular father and daughter's interaction. The small daughter pointed at Pam and whispered something to the father that she couldn't hear, to which the father replied, "I don't know, honey. Maybe she's a queen."

:)
Heidi

** I do realize that this story would have been much more entertaining had the cat ended up ripping my pants and I had to explain the ridiculous story of what happened to someone, or if someone had walked in and seen what was going on and got the wrong idea, or something along those lines. But that's not what happened, so cut me some slack here. I personally found it hillarious.

Two

That's how many e-mails I received today at work. Neither of which were work-related. And THAT is just how slow this day has been. I wanna bang my head against the desk just for something to do. But at least I get to go home in 45 minutes. Yay, Home!! Where I get to ... do laundry, and ... pay bills, and ... study ... maybe I'll just stay here and surf the 'net some more. :)

Whoa, just got another e-mail and it has to do with WORK!! Let's see if it requires me to do something ...

Heh, well that took all of one minute to take care of. Bah! At least the sneezing keeps me busy.

H

Why does this bother me?

I have had curly hair for my ENTIRE LIFE. Until this week, I have never once successfully straightened it, so no one in existence has ever seen me with straight hair. Today I go to work with stick-straight hair for the first time in my life (yesterday doesn't count because I was kind of a hermit and it was in a ponytail anyway), and NOBODY NOTICES!!!! WHAAAA??

Okay, in all fairness, I shouldn't say nobody noticed. Two people in my department sort of noticed - one who is the most hyper-observant person I know, and one who mentioned in passing that it looked cute. But the people I sit with at lunch almost every single day did NOT NOTICE. Or if they did, they didn't say anything (which I didn't even think about until I just typed it and now it's made me a bit paranoid - does it really look that bad??). I make this gigantic change in my appearance and it does not even register on their radar. What gives?

Plus, I don't think I'm going to straighten it again. It took way too long this morning (freaking WASTE OF TIME I COULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING), and as cute as I thought it looked during my trial run on Sunday, it was not-so-cute today. Maybe it's because it's winter and super cold and the air is dry, but the straight hair is just lifeless and stringy and very staticky (I added the "k" in there because the word looked funny without it - don't know if it belongs there or not). I basically have no choice but to put the sides up in barrettes for it to look decent, and even then it just looks flat. Curly hair just has more life and bounce - on me anyway.

Or maybe it's just because nobody noticed.

H

Sick, Sicker, Sickest

So, I stuck to the plan I mentioned in the last post and I am glad that I did cause I was sick as a dog this weekend. Thursday I woke up with a very sore throat, which is always the first sign of getting a cold. Insert Thursday/Friday plan here. Friday, symptoms worsened and now included a nasty headache and stuffy head (more like a head that felt like it was about to explode). I slept most of the day, then stupidly decided to leave the house and head out to my parents' house because I promised my Mom I'd go to a Pampered Chef party with her. Said party was nearly unbearable because I was feeling progressively worse. When I got back to the folks' place, I was shivering an inordinate amount for the temperature in the room, and though I didn't take my own temp, I'm pretty sure I had a fever. Sleeping was difficult that night, and I had to get up early to drop my car off to get the brakes fixed. I attempted to go shoe shopping with my Mama, but after one store, I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to crash. So Mom drove me home where I slept the rest of the day until my car was ready, after which my parents convinced me to stay for dinner (cannot resist the Gen Hoe fried rice!!). I finally went back to my own place after dinner and spent the rest of the evening on the couch where I watched the most recent Freaks and Geeks DVD I received from Netflix, and then the second half of Back to the Future II on TBS. Then bed. Sunday was significantly better (mostly because I got to watch the first half of Back to the Future II!!). No headache, and the sore throat subsided in favor of an annoying cough (but I'd prefer the cough to the soreness any day). Today I am back at work and feeling like a giant ball of nastiness, but at least I'm here and being somewhat productive. The one work thing I was afraid would be an issue with my not being there on Friday was not an issue at all because something unrelated to my job had not been completed yet, so that made me happy ... sorta. Normally I'm annoyed when this happens, but in this case, it was a relief. Whatever. Work. Bah.

Oh, and I have made a change! Albeit a temporary one that I probably will not do very often except on weekends when I have more time. You wanna know what it is?? Of course you do! I straightened my hair!!!! I have never ever successfully done this before, and now that I have, I kinda like it! Now don't get me wrong, I still love the curly hair and I always will. It's just who I am! But I've always wondered what I'd look like with straight hair, and now I know! Pretty Damn Cute! The reason I attempted this at this particular point in time is because another curly-haired friend of mine has recently decided to tame the curls, and she looks absolutely adorable (not that she didn't before, of course). And she informed me that there are, in fact, straightening irons that can be used on wet hair, thus eliminating the blowdrying step, which I have, for my whole life, dreaded the very thought of! Yay for modern technology. Okay, maybe that's not really technology, but humor me here, folks.

Doin' the straight thing (wait, that sounds wierd ... but still true anyway),
H

Check it out!!

Yeah, so I have some "pure nerd" friends at work and one of them sent me this link. Even if you're not into Tech stuff, this is seriously cool. Basically, I want one.

http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/~rdivecha/archives/2006/02/the_world_of_sm.html

On an unrelated note, I feel I may have caught my roomie's nasty cold. I woke up this morning with a sore throat that has gotten worse as the day's progressed. I think it's because I've sorta been burnin' the candle at both ends the past few days and my body can't handle it anymore (can't blame it, really). And I have plans again tonight that I don't want to miss. So my idea is this: I stick it out today to show my boss I'm tough, go home and nap for an hour or two before heading out for drinks with coworkers/partners in crime, then call in sick tomorrow, which coincidentally happens to be Friday. :) I think it's a very good plan. A very good plan indeed.

It's over, I made it, I survived!

My least favorite holiday has passed without incident. That is a good thing. No, MOMD did not appear suddenly in front of me holding a bouquet of wildflowers and a pound of Jelly Bellies, but at least he didn't show up and stomp on my head either. 'Cause that's kind of what I was expecting.

I spent the day like any other, had lunch in the cafeteria with friends, where Valentine's Day was not mentioned once, went on a mission after work to find the Music Club CD that I need to have listened to 80 billion times before Saturday so I have something intelligent to say about it at the meeting (finally found it after 6 freaking tries!!), and then went out with the girls at night. Though there weren't any guys at the bar that really seemed worth talking to (and apparently none who thought I was worth talking to either), it wasn't a total bust because I got caught up with Jillian etc. and met some other girls who were pretty cool.

Hmm, speaking of the above paragraph, I have a general blogging question for any more experienced bloggers out there who feel like answering. When you mention friends in your blog (or family, or anybody, for that matter), do you generally use their names, or fake names to protect privacy, or the very vague and uninteresting "a friend"? I would never make anything resembling a negative or exploitative comment about any of my friends on my blog, but even so, what is considered proper etiquette? Or is it completely left up to the blogger's preference?

Pondering the universe,
Me

VD-Day ... Oops, I mean V-Day

Even though it may look like I haven't posted anything here since last August, it's a lie. A lie, I tell you! I posted a ... posting ... (posted a blog? wrote a posting? blogged a writing? writed a posted blogging post?) just a couple weeks ago about dumb boys, but I deleted it. The posting about dumb boys was pretty dumb itself and I decided it was better if you, dear Readers, never read it. Just know this: Boys Are Dumb. That was the gist.

Now. On to a more current topic. Valentine's Day. Love it or hate it, it's tomorrow. Personally, I hate it. Perhaps I'd feel differently if Boys weren't so Dumb, but here is my reason for loathing this most romantic of holidays. Being a single girl, I really expect nothing of interest to happen to me on this day (no flowers, candy, teddy bears, jewelry, or romantic candlelight dinners for me - maybe a card from my Mom if I'm lucky). However, also being the hopeless romantic that I am, I can't help but hope for more. I imagine that million-to-one scenario where some Man Of My Dreams (MOMD) secret admirer decides that Valentine's Day 2006 is the day he's finally going to reveal his feelings, and he'll send me flowers and candy and all the other things I mentioned in the parentheses above, and I'll accept the gifts, and him since he is MOMD after all, and we'll fall in love and get married at the Wedding Of My Dreams and move to the House Of My Dreams and have all the little Babies Of My Dreams, etc, etc. But then I wake up from the Dream. Valentine's Day comes and goes and MOMD never appears. I feel sorta sad that nothing exceptional happened, but mostly I feel upset with myself for once again holding out hope that something will. Why do I end up feeling sorry for myself when I'm perfectly happy being single? I resolve that next year I'm not even going to recognize the fact that V-day exists and treat it just like any other day. But this is an impossibility in this consumer-driven world we live in, because as soon as all the Santas and reindeer and angels are packed away and put into storage, we are immediately bombarded with images of pink hearts and naked little cupids and I'm once again reminded just how single I am.

I'm sorry, that sounds very bitter. But I'm really not a bitter person. I'm too young to be bitter. But this is what Valentine's Day does to me and this is why I hate it. I really don't mind being single. It's not bad most of the time because I can do what I want whenever I want and I don't have to check in or answer to anyone but myself. When a friend calls and asks if I can go out on Saturday night, I can answer without having to say, "Oh, I don't know, I'll have to ask what Mr. BF is doing." So when one silly day comes along and makes me feel pathetic about something I normally don't have an issue with, I have to hate it. It's a matter of principle.

But. This year is going to be a little different. This year, I AM recognizing Valentine's Day. But I am not going to get distracted by my annual Dreamings. This year, I'm going out with some single friends to some sort of singles gathering (swallowing my pride a bit on that one) and I'm just going to have a good time. I have no expectations. I'm not going to try and meet someone. If I do, great. If I don't, who cares? At the very least, it's a night out with the girls, which is ALWAYS a good time. So if MOMD decides to come looking for me this year, he's not gonna find me because I'll be out being the social butterfly with the gal pals. He'll just have to wait for some random day in March when I least expect it. I prefer it that way anyway. I love surprises.

Cheers!
Okay, fine. And Happy ... Valentine's ... Day ... ! Man, that was hard to get out.