I'm Leaving....On A Jet Plane

Don't be alarmed, but I may be away for a number of days....I'm going to Vegas!!!

It's my first vacation alone -almost ever. Like a real vacation, not just an overnight with friends, but a real "I'm leaving town and going far away" type of vacation!!!!

So if anyone needs me, you can find me here:

Most likely, this will be the best place to look for me:

Just follow the sounds of someone winning big. I'll be in the chair next to them. I always seem to bring good luck to whoever I sit down next to, but don't typically have it myself.

I hope to spend some time here as well:

If I do happen to win big and am sober enough to type---you all will be the first to know about it!!!

Love It!

My crazy sister drove down today to bring my birthday gift (from her and my folks). This is the newest addition to my family!!!!

Yes--it's PINK!!! I wasn't really sure about it at first, but I'm totally feeling it now. It's cute, it's compact, it's PINK, and it's a gazillion times better than my old camera. And I have it in time for my trip, thanks to my drive-like-a-maniac crazy sister.

We went out to dinner with Jen and my niece Alyssa (who skipped school-bad girl). They've never had Thai food! It's a shame. Don't they have Thai food in the Midwest?? :) Kidding of course---but really, don't they?? We grew up without it. Why did we grow up without it?? Regardless, it is here now and we love it.

Well, not all of it. I'm not going to mention names, but the youngest one at the table mentioned that she felt something we forced her to try tasted like dog food. But she did like tofu, which is good for her since she won't eat meat.

Andrew and I have Thai food about once every ten days. It's one of our favorites. We're not too crazy though, we usually have the same dishes.

We LOVE creamy wontons. They are the greatest appetizer. We sometimes get chicken satay (with peanut sauce), but it's a bit greasy and my favorite dish involves peanut sauce and chicken so it's a little unnecessary.

For main dishes, I almost always get Pra Ram, sometimes called Prince Rama. It's de-lic-ious. It's this platter of broccoli, spinach and chicken with peanut sauce on top and you eat it over a serving of rice. LOVE it.

I also like chicken pad thai (unless it's really greasy) and chicken mussamun curry, which is like a mild stew.

The kid loves loves loves pineapple fried rice, with chicken and shrimp, medium spice. One time I ordered medium spice from a restaurant near our house and they brought it to him and it was at a fire level. Seriously-he cried. (he'll deny it, but he did!)

There's also some kind of honey duck meal that he gets at one particular restaurant, with this glaze sauce that he always asks for extra of because it's just that good. I don't eat duck, though-yes I do know it's similar to a chicken!!-but he says it's the best.

And tonight, as a birthday treat and since the girls have never tasted anything, we got dessert!!!

We had sticky rice (mango is not in season-sad), black rice pudding (which Jenny refused to taste claiming to not like black rice OR pudding) and we got some mango deep fried ice cream. LOVE every one of those.

I highly encourage everyone everywhere to taste all of the above. Soon. And then report back about how much you love it all.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Book Review

Has anyone heard of Haruki Murakami?
I am just in the beginning of what is called his best piece of work: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Haruki is a Japanese author who I learned of about 5 years ago with a book called Kafka on the Shore. GREAT book.

This is what the author said about it:

Murakami states that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it multiple times: "Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write".

<sup>And that's how he writes---when you read his books, it's like you are piecing together a puzzle. Sometimes books are translated to English and they lose a bit of their meaning but I haven't felt that with any of Murakami's books (yet). The books are almost lyrical...sometimes on the edge of okay okay-enough descriptive words already, but things just flow together and it's not always noticeable. Maybe that's part of the translation process? But he writes well. It reads well. They are enjoyable books.

This is the kind of book that I would read at the beach if I want more than just a fluff story. It's not the kind of book I would read at a doctor's office waiting room or while on a field trip with a second grade class. You don't have to really isolate yourself, but...well, you need to give it some attention. It's not fluff reading. Easy reading, yes. Not fluff though.

I would recommend any of his books without reading them, as the 1.5 books of his I have read have been awesome. I thought I had read another of his, but I can't find the name of it and it's not listed in the amazon directory so maybe I'm confusing him with another puzzling-type Japanese male writer.... I really wish I had a list of every book I've ever read ever. My whole life.
I would love to take that list and sort by genre, and number of pages, and date published, and date I finished it. I would have pie charts and tables and maybe a small binder of data to review. On my imaginary lifetime reading list, I would also have ratings, so three of five stars or whatever I felt it deserved. Then when someone asked about a book, I could go to my binder and see how many stars, how long ago I read it and maybe a comments section as well. Hmm...maybe I'll look into this.

I'm sure there must be a software somewhere that can do this....anyone know of it? If not---back off----cause I'm going to make one!!!</sup>

Happy Birthday To Me!!

Just like granola in my yogurt, I went my entire life without really knowing how wonderful the taste of Red Velvet cake is. Do they have this in the Midwest? I don't' remember it in my childhood...but I'm glad I know of it now.

The best cake in the world:

Come on over - have a piece!! It's fat-free.

Octomom, Money Trees and Lots of Drugs

Here are my random thoughts on a WILD Wednesday.

Ha, just kidding--nothing wild about it.
Unless going to meetings all day and then rushing to drive the kid to music class and then rushing through the store while you wait for him and then rushing to get home so he can do the report he's put off for a week and then rushing to get the house picked up a bit and then rushing to do a whole lot of nothing before rushing to watch Lost and read a few blogs. Which is were I am now.


Here's my random thoughts:

• I am FINALLY feeling like I am nearly better! After 12 days and about $75 on medicine and one trip to the doctor and many nights going to bed super-early and three boxes of tissues and hours wasted coughing and many irritated looks by people around me and being called Bea Arthur, I am on Recovery Road!!
  


• Octomom creeps me out. She had money for a fertility doctor this time around while she was getting food stamps? And how can she claim that food stamps are not public assistance? Oh...cause she's flippin crazy. Got it. Can we please take those new babies away and give them to some loving parents who have really been desperately trying to have kids and can't for whatever reason? Is that really that unethical? Is that any more wrong than a mother living off welfare purposely having eight more babies when she has no income and lives in a 3 bedroom home that her mother pays for? I'm not so sure that anything could be worse than her decision to get pregnant in the first place. She is a circus clown. I don't like clowns.
  
  
• Lost is the best show ever, even though it clearly has no meaning or direction. Really, what happened to the big three-toed foot statue on the island? Did the writers just forget about that?? I didn't!! I want to know where they thought they were going with it. They had things going on in the first couple seasons that they just totally dropped...it's irritating. I used to really believe that everything had a purpose and some day in the distant future I would learn what it all meant and how it all ties together. Now I really believe that the writers started out with a plan and then it got to be a successful show and they had to take a different route and they left all those little "lost" pieces behind, hoping that we would all forget. I haven't forgotten!!!
  
  
• I turn 35 in less than 48 hours. I'm not sure I'm happy about that. I think that's edging too close to middle-aged. I would like to go back to 31 or 32 and stay that age. For an extra decade. And then I will age one year at a time. Until I turn 40, then I want two decades at that age.
  
  
• I can't believe I am going to move into my very own home in three months!!! (or thereabouts). I mentally plan my house-warming party at least once every four hours. Is it appropriate to have a registry for the gifts I want to receive? Can I have a money tree? I can't wait to have games nights at my house! And dinner parties. And scrapbook parties! And my housewarming party!! FUN!! I'll have a virtual one too so all my blogger friends can sign up and send gifts from the registry!! I'm so nice to remember my online friends! Start saving now folks. Gifts are not optional. Maybe I'll have a webcam for my house party and then everyone can see the fun we're having. And all the great gifts I'm getting!!
  
  
• I have three books to read. I'm not really interested in any of them and I don't think I really have time to finish them before I leave for VEGAS.
  
  
• I have not been on my treadmill in two full weeks. Did I mention I have been sick?? I have! Hopefully tomorrow morning we'll get a little reacquainted. Just a little.

Grand Prize Winners!!!

This was fun -I want to have more contests just so I can make videos of the drawing!
A special thanks to my assistant, the one and only: Andrew.

Enjoy!!
Congrats to the winners---we'll be in touch soon. Very soon.



This showed me that I really need a new camera!! Do cameras get old? Mine is a bit tired by the look of the quality of photos/video it's producing these days.

My 350th Post Prize Giveaway Contest!!

My very first ever blogger giveaway!!

I am pretty sure I am close to, if not exactly at, 350 posts. Close enough, eh? Let's not count and instead, we'll just call it the 350th.

Woohoo!!!

I actually didn't ever think about having a giveaway. I haven't really committed to blogging to be a Blogger - I just write for fun. I used to comment rarely, now I try to every day - my goal is to leave ten comments a day, but some days it's more like 5. In return, I get more comments. That makes sense, right? Leave a comment, get a comment. Logical. I used to not care if anyone ever read my blog and now I get a sincere sense of accomplishment when I get comments.

So today-in celebration of my 350th post on blogger, let's make me feel like I've REALLY accomplished something, and everyone post a comment!! It's easy!! All the cool kids are doing it!! It just takes a minute---leave a comment.

AND - maybe win a prize?

Here's the goods on the table, to be chosen at random:

$30.00 gift certificate at Entangles, Etsy store, by Julia.
I have personally ordered from Julia before and her stuff is great! The shipping costs are very reasonable and she is a super-fast shipper. She takes older jewelry and recycles them by creating one-of-a-kind jewelry - great idea!! I love her store and so should you. Her stuff is always changing and I don't think you would have trouble finding something you would like (or find a nice gift for someone you like). I love Etsy - if you don't know of it, it's like Ebay for handmade items. It's a cool idea, sometimes I stroll through shops for hours and find a ton of stuff I would like to have, but have never bought anything, except Julia's necklaces. They are original, pretty and economical.

$25 gift card to Powells Book Store
Powells is the best book store EVER. If you don't know Powells, I just don't know if we can be friends. It's really the best book store ever. Powells is based out of Portland and has this 8million square foot building and a gatrillion books. They have different sections for books and you can find your way to each section based on what color the walls are - like the travel section is in the green section and the sociology section is orange (totally made that up--I don't go often enough to know the colors!). If you want any book EVER -you will find it at Powells. They also buy back your books in a very easy process and they give you the option of cash or a gift card.
Guess who sold some books? Me. Guess who will benefit? You.

(and I actually sold back a LOT of books - I got $75 in cash and $25 in gift card!! Love that!)

Little Things gift set
This is a hodgepodge of small gifts that I always seem to have on hand to give to people randomly. Exact items are a surprise (mostly because I
haven't gotten that organized yet). I have some little things that I bought in Korea and some little things that I bought for some random reasons, like giving away to my favorite commenters.

$20 Starbucks Gift Card
Cause who doesn't need a drink now and then? And this gift card will buy you about 2.5 drinks, depending on what you get.

And all you have to do is comment!!

I'm drawing random names on Tuesday at 7pm!

Feel free to tell me how much you love me - it won't up your odds of winning, but it will make my teenager roll his eyes in a very exaggerated manner, which is very entertaining.

And a Happy VD To You!!!

Seriously---how did a card company end up creating its own holiday?
The commercialization of love is sad.
I am not giving in.....tomorrow is the Anti-Valentines Day Pub Crawl. I think there are about 90 people going through the downtown area to five different pubs. Should be a blast.

I first went to this pub crawl three years ago. I got really into the spirit of it and decorated a tissue box just like in grade school - but I decorated it in black paper and black lace and skulls & crossbones. Cute.

Then I made a series of valentines made out of dark brown and black paper, in somewhat heart like shapes, but with a big hole in the heart, or broken right down the middle-none were whole- with sweet sayings on them like:

• You'll Do
• My Mom warned me about you.
• I'm better than this....
• You're not the right one. You're not even the right one for right now.
• I don't really like you that much.
• You 're okay.
• Destined to be alone.

I'm not sure I'll go all out this year, but it was fun having strangers in a bar reach into the decorated box and pick out a card.

Will be fun to go out with friends anyway...


AND ---------my next post is my 350th!!!!!!! Woohoo!! My first giveaway!!! I'm so excited!! Aren't you???

Love, Sweet Love....

With the Hallmark Holiday upon us, I feel the love in the air. Here are some of the faces of those that I love.


Fred came to us during the second round of Arctic Blast 2008. Originally, I thought I should feed the birds cause they weren't prepared for the Arctic Blast 2008 storm that the rest of us were, so they didn't have food stocked up. I heard others saying they were feeding the birds, so I thought I should too. Unfortunately, I don't keep bird food on hand. So I spread out some granola that had been in the cupboard for about a year.

The thing with the granola, you see, is that I didn't realize how yummy granola is outside of it's natural form: The Granola Bar, until just about 15 months ago. Yeah, you heard that right---I went 33 years without knowing that granola is GREAT mixed into yogurt. Did you all know about this secret delicacy? Why did my parents not share this secret goodness with me? I don't know-I think I was a bad child. It's really good! So I went through a phase where I ate yogurt with granola EVERY day. And then I got sick of it. And had a large box leftover.

Anyway, once the stale granola was gone, I felt bad, cause it was disappearing fast so obviously the birds were HUNGRY. They needed me. Then I moved on to Honey Nut Cheerios. They liked those too.

Then we had some stale Frosted Flakes. Birds aren't picky. Those weren't as popular (as they weren't they with my son either) but they slowly were being eaten.

And then....one day while working from my couch....I see Fred. Or rather, the cats did. They did this fun super-fast belly crawl across the living room at a lightening fast pace. And there was Fred - eating the frosted flakes meant for our feathered friends!! But honestly, squirrels are more interesting to watch than birds, and so we moved from stale Frosted Flakes to peanuts in the shell (only slightly stale).

Fred is not shy - and as the days went on, Fred grew to love the family.

And then came the day when dear little fluffy non-rabies Fred, took a peanut directly from my beloved first-born's hand.

We love Fred.



And then there's Natalie. Young wonderful Natalie. I adore her. She's like the best pseudo-cousin you could ever have. She's like a little sister who was born after you were already out of the house and you didn't grow up with her but you love her like a sister anyway, and when you're together, it's like you have a connection. Natalie is EFFING hilarious. Seriously, we went to bingo the other night with her boyfriend Sonny/Sammy and she was saying some stuff that left us in tears. TEARS during bingo. It had something to do with eyes, or music, or maybe health, but it was one of those "you had to be there" moments. If I tried to recreate the story, none of you would get it. But trust me---it was FUNNY. Bingo is only fun because of people I hang out with, like Natalie. I could never have as much fun at bingo without someone like Natalie playing bingo with me.

I love Natalie. And I might love Sonny/Sammy too. He is a perfect match for Nat-he is FUNNY.



And this is not a posed picture - I took one shot and without any discussion, they both thought to make a face. LOVE them.


And then there's this one....Alison is like my younger sister who I DID grow up with, if I had a younger sister and was really close with her. We can talk all day about nothing or everything. I think there are very few people in the world who know me as well as Alison. We love the same types of books, we feel the same way about rude people, we have similar thoughts on politics, we make each other laugh when it's inappropriate, we talk about vagina issues and drugs and prostitutes and ethical dilemmas and ex-boyfriends and good friends we've lost touch with and what we expect in the future, and how life could be better or worse, etc. We email non-stop and we text when we're not emailing. I don't know what we can talk about because we have talked about EVERYTHING.

Last week, Ali and I thought it would be fun to start an Etsy shop and make money. We're crafty girls-we really are-people would love the stuff we come up with in our head. We think of great things!! So we got together last week to start on our stock of Etsy stuff. Well, we were supposed to scrapbook first, but she's somewhat like my mom about scrapbooking. She can sort through photos for hours and end up not scrapping anything. But to be fair, Alison hasn't had a lot of experience. I'll work on that with her.

So we got out this great modeling clay and went to work on some of our great ideas. We didn't get far. We made a small series of things that my son took one look at and said, "why were you guys making penises with clay?"

And that might be an original Etsy shop and I expect everyone reading this to buy something!! Stay tuned.

This is Ali hard at work.

I love Alison.



This is the new creature that has taken over for Fred. Fred didn't come one day and so there was a pile of cheerios outside the door. RIGHT at the door, cause I like Fred to be close to me and the kitties. Fred never comes at night and so I was a little surprised when the cats did the low-belly super-fast crawl across the living room in the evening. And then here was this beautiful masked cheerio-thief, all fluffy and fat and I love him. We didn't try to feed him out of our hands, though I had a raccoon outside my old apartment a long time ago and he would come right up and pull a ritz cracker from our hand. (stop---I am aware of the danger--I like to live on the edge!!)

I love creatures who dress up and wear masks!

Love is in the air.....

Baby Animals For All

A new favorite website is here!!!

ZooBorns!!!
A website for all zoos to post their new baby animal pics.

Who does not love baby animals?
--If you raised your hand to that, you should really consider therapy - cause baby animals are precious!!! I LOOOOOVE baby animals!!!!

Go check out the site, especially if your throat feels like sandpaper and it feels like you're swallowing knives every time you swallow anything, anything at all. And you start coughing as soon as you speak more than 15 words at any given time. And if you spoke like Bobby Brady all morning with a fun squeaky voice and then in the afternoon you switched voices and someone told you that you sound like Bea Arthur. Or if you have bouts of cold sweats and hot flashes. yep---go check out the site then, cause it will make you smile through your pain.

I'm not going to make a joke about this looking like one of the octuplets -cause I'm not mean, yo.




The only time in it's life that a rhino can be called "cute."

Kitties!! All kitties everywhere are awesome! I love them all!!! (said the future crazy cat lady)

Baby giraffes!!! They are like the nerds of the animal kingdom. I adore them. They are awkward and look like they just don't know what to do with their oafish limbs.

350th Celebration Countdown Issues...

Well, faithful bloggers, it appears that I am not a professional blogger. I know, you're shocked. But it's true.

There are various reasons why this is obvious-probably some of you may have noticed....but the biggest concern right now is that my big 350th-post giveaway spectacular was due to start eh, today or tomorrow....and as I was looking at my blog post listings, where blogger counts how many posts I have, I deleted a draft of a posting that was yet another picture of my cats that I never posted (lest I start to really convince more of you that I am turning into a crazy cat lady), and as soon as I deleted that draft post, um, well, my blogger count went down by one.

Sigh. Of course, blogger counts the drafts as well....shouldn't I have noticed this?

SO - what does this mean, dear readers? It means we probably have a full extra week to wait before the big 350th Celebration Post Giveaway can take place!!

I really should try and learn more about how to be a blogger. 350 posts is a lot, right? You'd think I would have a bit more knowledge about it by now. I honestly just blog because I like to write. I don't typically put a LOT of time into my blog (as is obvious by the looks of my page, right?), but maybe I should spend a day and learn a little more.

Blogger has these great blogger forums where any blogger can post their question and anyone can answer, but there are "professional" bloggers from blogger that reply with real knowledge as well, which is great. And I signed up to receive notices when new questions are posted, a daily email with ALL the questions asked..helpful, right? Except that every day I get these emails and EVERY day there are about 100 questions. If I didn't work, I would love to browse through these daily digest emails, but um, c'mon---100 at a time?? Can't someone select the top 10 questions of the day to email? And sometimes the questions are repetitive or were answered last week. I just don't have time for that.

I will try to learn one new blogger thing a week--big or small. I think that's a good goal for now.

We are going to be starting a blog at work and it would be great if I had a little more knowledge to contribute.

So, to wrap up......stay tuned for the big giveaway...it's coming!!! I swear!!! I even have prizes ---really!!!! Come back!!! Don't leave!! Stay for the prizes!!!

The 2009 Plan Update

Remember back when we started 2009 and everyone made resolutions that they broke three weeks later, but not me, cause I started a Plan?

Well let's check in on my Plan and see how things are shakin up for 2009 for Kaylen:

1. Volunteer more: hmm...well, I haven't really done this. I've done my 3 hrs for January, but nothing above and beyond my normal monthly project.
   
2. Cook more: Success!! I have done much better in this area. Our new favorite dinner is easy chicken enchiladas. wow--they are DELICIOUS and I can't believe I've gone so long without making these at least weekly (though I'm certain that would not help with #3 of the Plan). Here is a sampling of other things I've made: burrito bar, fried chicken legs (for the kid-eat off the bone? ew, not me), chicken and rice (andrew hates it), chicken and scallops fettuccine. I have a new recipe for scalloped potatoes (a Weight Watchers recipe from a fellow blogger, Maribeth).
   
3. Lose weight: I walked 967 minutes on the treadmill in January. That's about 16 hours, or 4 hours a week. I've tried to be much more aware of daily calorie intake and had smaller servings. That's a hard one--especially with my new favorite meal of yummy delicious enchiladas.
   
4. Purchase a house: Working on it!! I'm somewhat pre-approved for a mortgage. Scary. Four and a half months until my apartment lease is up....time is ticking.
   
5. Improve Spanish skills: um, lo siento, pero no puedo hablamos espanol.
   
6. Rebuild relationships: well, a little maybe. I just have a LOT of work to do lately and actually work ALL day and then sometimes a little in the evening. And then I have emails to answer about my volunteer project, three emails to keep up on and now my Facebook inbox....oh, and real life in general....I did recently get together with Nat and her fabulous boyfriend Sonny so I guess that counts. I have only seen her once since Presents Day.
   
7. Develop work skills: I learn so much every week...still have lots to learn. Doing well at this, I think.
   
8. Travel more: I've gone nowhere but have confirmed tickets to travel to Vegas, where I will meet Amy AND fellow-blogger Flea!!! FUN!!!

Not too bad...somewhat on track, somewhat not.

I Love You, Cherry Coke

I LOVE cherry coke. I always have. I like coke with real cherry syrup, but I really like the normal Cherry Coke product itself.

I had been doing really good in decreasing my soda intake. Mid-year last year I realized I needed to cut back. I had been having a soda with lunch and then again with dinner and sometimes, on the really crazy nights, I would have a THIRD soda in the evening. So I cut back and just had one at lunch or dinner. Sometimes I would go a day or two without any and not even notice.

But then last September, I got a new job. And on the first day, the tour of the building included the kitchen, which included a never-ending supply of soda. Dr. Pepper is my second drink of choice and there it was...row after row of it. I knew it would be a challenge, but I have done spectacular at limiting my soda. I never have more than one a day at work, sometimes I don't even have that one- and make myself drink a couple of water bottles a day instead of reaching for another can. Every now and again, I will have a soda with dinner as well, but not on a daily basis.

Anyway, every now and again, I buy a 12-pack of soda. Which should last over two weeks no problem. However, for some reason, if i pour my Cherry Coke into a glass-a can of soda suddenly becomes like a shot glass full. I can seriously drink it down in probably less than 6 minutes. If I drink it from a can---it takes up to 20 minutes, if I finish at all. Weird.

What does this mean???

Am I bothering people by saying the word "soda"?

If I had a kegorator in my house, it wouldn't be beer that flows freely, it would definitely be Cherry Coke.

The Sociology of Addictions

71%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

How addicted are you? Click above and take the test!!

I love blogs. Maybe because I'm nosy?
I prefer to think it's "curiosity."

I am a sociology major. Sociology, as I explained to my family every semester in college, is the Study of Human Behavior or Society.

And so when I read every blog I click on, I like to believe that I'm really just continuing on in my chosen field of study. I am studying other cultures and other familial units and random people in random situations. I am taking notes and learning and analyzing society.

Or I'm just really nosy and I like to read about other peoples lives for no other reason than I'm NOSY!!!

These are things that fascinate me:
(wow-another list!! I feel like all I do lately is make lists!)

1. Parenting, in particular single parent families. Even more especially-former single moms who are no longer single moms.


2. Reality tv "stars" - it's almost like a subculture of our society, there are just SO many of them these days. There almost is no line between celebrity and "us" anymore because you have all these tv shows making people quasi-famous and they become a celebrity of sorts (think of the disgusting Heidi and even more disgusting Spencer, the worst actors EVER who are suddenly somewhat famous for pretending they are doing a reality show??).


3. Cats & Dogs. Maybe more fascinated by dogs because I don't have one. I especially love reading about these dogs.


4. Psychos and sociopaths. I was fascinated with them before...but then I was actually engaged to one and that was pretty fascinating in itself. Someday I'll share that story and you will all be fascinated as well.


5. Travel. I would like to travel every three months for two weeks all year. And then maybe every five years, I'll go somewhere for a full two months.


6. Geeky people. I have no preference or reasoning on what geeky people I read about, just geeky people in general.


7. People I know, like Alison (who only blogged for a week, but I was excited to read it) and Tori from work. I like to hear things about them or their thoughts that I otherwise might not...nosy, NO. Curious, yet.


8. People who started a home business and aren't making a ton of money, but are making a fun and cute product and are happy and proud of it. I wish I could do this.


9. People who know people who are famous in some random way. One of the guys I went to high school with was best friends with the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Death Cab for Cutie. That's very cool.


10. Squirerels

I'm STUDYING people.

It's not being nosy.

It's not.
I have a very hefty college loan to prove it.

And only 3 posts left til my big 3-5-0!!!! Are you excited??? Me TOO!!!

My Job is Not Boring!

This was my day today:

• Rush rush rush to get to work a little early for a meeting.
  
  
• *sleepy* Why did I stay up so late reading??
  
  
• Driving in traffic, multi-tasking as I go. Every red light frustrates me but it's a chance to put on lip gloss, or plug my phone into the charger, or read the 4 emails that just came in, or check my hair (which was a mess today), or get my laptop booted up and get it started (it takes about 5 minutes!).....
  
  
• Sitting at last red light, look down and see that my shirt, a criss-cross across the chest area--has fully twisted and now is exposing half my upper *ahem* "area". Nice. Wonder how many drivers noticed me flashing them.
  
  
• Can't get to the floor with elevator on the left. Must wait for the one on the right (remodeling ya know).
  
  
• Still waiting.
  
  
• Tapping foot....
  
  
• Still waiting.
  
  
• Sigh....take the stairs, carrying laptop bag, purse, keys (to access the door to exit the stairwell), phone and open laptop (which is still starting up).
  
  
• Attend meeting.
  
  
• *sleepy* Did I put on enough deodorant to be climbing stairs?
  
  
• Working in temporary seating area during remodel....not too bad, nice to see everyone (though I do love working at home).
  
  
• Christy-four chairs over-announces a mouse has entered her locked filing cabinet and eaten part of her Hershey's bar. Holds up chewed baggy. All women in room take in a deep breath and look around and question whether it's really a mouse....Jodi hollers out "CHECK FOR DROPPINGS!!!"
  
  
• Droppings found. Mouse presence confirmed.
  
  
• Go to lunch - take the wrong exit and end up driving 15 min longer than I should have. Sad.
  
  
• Having the best wrap ever (which they stopped and then started again at my old work cafeteria) with my pal J-Mac, but the recipe has been changed and it's no longer the best wrap ever...now it's just a good wrap. Sad.
  
  
• Head to the volunteer office to drop off supplies. Forget they moved their offices and get slightly turned around and frustrated-need to get back to work---back on the freeway! Sad.
  
  
• Back at desk. Lots of work to do.
  
  
• Someones manager brings in her puppy. Cute puppy!
  
  
• Puppy poops on floor.
  
  
• Hilarious.
  
  
• Puppy owner rushed out with puppy. Poop still on floor.
  
  
• *shocked*
  
  
• Jodi picks up the poop. Yay Jodi!!! She's our hero (though beware the story of how she once protected the grain for her sheep with a pitchfork).
  
  
• *still shocked*
  
  
• Make poop jokes with coworkers for approximately 45 minutes.
  
  
• Use the loo and return to find that a rubber band battle has started between the two sides of the room. Jeff is the culprit. Christy looks innocent but she's not -but luckily she turns bright red and laughs when you accuse her of anything.
  
  
• Rubber bands everywhere.
  
  
• Lots of work to do still.
  
  
• Teenager calling 3 hrs before I get home to tell me he's hungry and when is dinner. Dinner is at 6pm almost every night of the week. Teenagers are forgetful.
  
  
• Work work work.
  
  
• Anxious about big meeting at work tomorrow, can't share the details....but it's no secret our country is in a recession.
  
  
• Discuss with Tori about how small mice are okay, large rats are not. We are brave.
  
  
• Shut down laptop - wait the required 6 minutes for it to shut down. Pack bag and head home to feed starving teenager.
  
  
  

***VERY close to 350 posts!!! Will be hosting my first ever give-away ever within the week! VERY excited at the amazing prizes I am going to give away so make sure to come back later!

Quiznos Subs and I Are Not Friends!!!

I have just had a traumatizing experience at Quiznos.

Tell me if this makes me sound like I’m a crazy woman:

I ordered a sandwich for my son, a large roast beef something or other.
And I also ordered a small chicken something or other for myself.

And said NO bacon.

Twice.

I said it twice because he didn’t fully acknowledge me the first time. So the second time I said it, he looked up and said, Okay.

Perfect…then I watched him start the sandwich for the carnivore. He picked out the meat, put it in the little hot vat of grease cup and then got the bread ready. Let me elaborate---he used his gloved hands, picked through a container of roast beef and selected an amount that looked correct, then dug through the container a little more and picked out a couple extra pieces and added them to the scale.

Then he scooped up the blob of beef –with his hands – and dropped it in the grease, using a finger to push some of the meat off the edges into the grease.

Then it sizzled and cooked or whatever roast beef does in hot grease and then my Quiznos friend used his gloved hand to pull out the greasy meat, still dripping greasy goodness.

And he puts it on the bread, spreads it out (with his gloved hands) and then adds the rest of the food products and looks up to me and says: what type of bread with the chicken sandwich. I said wheat…and then swallowed long and hard as I watched him pick up my bread….with the same greasy roast beef drippiness gloves.

Ick.

For those of you who don’t know yet…I do not eat meat other than chicken. And maybe fish. And only certain fish. And only chicken and certain fish without bones of any kind or skin product attached. I’m not weird!! I’M NOT!! I’m just a failed vegetarian. Whatever, I can admit it.

Okay---so I walked away and didn’t watch the guy and swallowed my frustration on the roast beef grease all over my sandwich….but then it comes out of the little grill thing and guess what I see under the melted cheese?

BACON.

Remember when I repeated NO bacon twice AND he acknowledged it? And then I walked away and no more than 120 seconds later and he added bacon!!!!

And after I was nice enough not to ask him to change his nasty greasy gloves???

THIS is how he repays me??

We are NOT friends.

Sorry Quiznos-man….we are not hanging out, we are not going to text each other, and you are no longer allowed to make my sandwiches.

K, so this is where it gets even better – as the sandwiches are strolling through the grill thing, she rings up my order. Then---not putting on any gloves, she starts to wrap the sandwiches as they come out of the grill. Her hands are not REALLY touching the food, she slides them onto the paper and then does a flip-wrap-spin thing, but still…gloves are good. But whatever, I bite my tongue on that too.

I tell the girl pulling the sandwich out of the grill: oh, it looks like there’s bacon.
She looks at it and says, Yes, there is.

I said, I asked for no bacon, I can’t eat bacon. (and okay, technically I CAN…but I don’t feel like it’s really an option)

And guess what Quiznos-girl does next? She starts to pull out the bacon particles from amongst the MELTED cheese. WITH HER BARE FINGERS!!!

You know how cheese melts and it gets all gooey and it’s not like a layer you can lift up? Well, this cheese was no super-cheese, it went EXACTLY like expected. She started pulling off cheesy bacon bits and I stopped her and said “nononono---that’s not going to work” – VERY friendly and with a smile an she just looked at me.

Then she wiped her fingers on a towel sitting next to the sink. Sigh.

I told her—I just want my money back, no sandwich please. And she says, oh no-we’ll just make you another. And I see the five people who had walked in just after me and started ordering and repeat to her-no thanks, just my money back.

But she doesn’t know how to do that so Quiznos-man has to come over and he says “I’ll just make you another one” and I repeated, no thanks…and he said nothing else and just pulled a $5.00 bill out and pushed it my way.

I don’t want to be one of those far-out vegan-esque people who can not eat any meal anywhere because they have such rigid desires, but I think that meats shouldn’t touch.

AND then I started thinking---I think they heat my chicken meat up in the greasy hot cup thingy too!!! And I really doubt they have separate containers for separate meats. So my chicken would have been bubbling up in the roast beef oil? Ick. I don’t like that.

Most importantly: I ask of you - Am I asking too much by thinking he should change gloves when handling different meats? I think that might be a law...

It's been pointed out to me before (via my Red Lobster All You Can Eat posting) that I am never allowed to complain about restaurants, food prepared by others or wait staff because I have never worked in a food-serving position and apparently it's hard---but that doesn't change the fact that they still have to do a safe and good job!! I do my job well almost every time -- shouldn't they?? Ugh, frustrating.