I has been a busy, busy past few days for M. and I! We took a road trip to visit friends this weekend. M. got to go golfing Saturday afternoon and I hung out with M.'s best friend's wife and her kiddos. Sunday evening M. and I went to see Radiohead - live - in person - up close! We were only about eight rows back from the stage. Thom York singing, dancing and giving the audience 'the eye,' Jonny Greenwood rocking out on all sorts of instruments, Ed O'Brien strumming his guitar, Colin and Phil were there too - they were just heard more than seen. It was M.'s dream and I was fortunate enough to be the one with him when that dream was realized.
Radiohead respectfully asked fans to 'keep the show live' and to not take videos or photos so M. and I left all our cameras at home or in the car. Of course, there are bootleg videos all over YouTube. None of the videos are especially good. It was an outdoor concert, it was dark, and the LED light displays don't video well on the type of camera people would have had to smuggle in - lots of cell phone cameras, I am guessing. Here is one video showing Thom dancing. The crowd goes wild! This one is pretty good too. In the videos you can see the pit peoples' heads (they had to stand mushed together the entire time). M. and I were off to the left side in the seated area, but not so far we couldn't make out facial features of the band! I would so follow M. to any Radiohead concert anywhere! Don't tell M., but I totally have a crush on Thom! ;)
The opening band was Grizzly Bear. I am now awaiting one of their CDs to arrive from Amazon.com.
We took Monday off so we could rest up before venturing back into real life. We slept in, I made a delectable chicken tortilla soup, and then treated ourselves to the new X Files movie and dinner out. Not extremely X Files-ish, but a good movie anyway.
So now we are coming down off our concert high and getting back into the grind at work. Not fun - I'm going to quit and become a Radiohead groupie. M., your welcome to tag along too... We are shorthanded at work this week, particularly in the front office. I am helping out, but I have to say there are some aspects of helping out up there that I cannot stand. For instance, when we have two people out on vacation, another calls in sick, and the remaining person up front comes in late then has to go get some water before she can help out and that takes another 15-20 minutes. And this is after she has clocked in. Ok, didn't know your water was in Timbuktu.
And, if you read this blog, you know Wednesday is meeting day at the office. RR. had a snarky moment when asking that the front office not send calls back when she has clearly marked herself unavailable on our OfficeView program. Someone has to comment that sometimes the caller says they were just contacted, blah, blah, blah. I could see the daggers shooting from RR's eyes. And then, I offer to do some front office coverage so others can go to lunch. Well, this same particular person logs herself out for lunch, then spends about 30-45 minutes checking personal email and Facebook. Then she leaves the office for over an hour. Granted, I have taken long lunches and do check my personal email at work, but not when we are shorthanded and have to have everyone pitching in.
Oh, I am going back to my concert-induced high and Radiohead fog. I hear some Radioheaddrifting out of M.'s room now...
PS - M. and I now have a cute little Flip video camera, so I will need to try out some video skills and post them to my little piece of the world wide web. Stay tuned!
Showing posts with label Personal Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Life. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Best Wishes and No Farewells **EDIT**
7/28/08: Had to write an edit worthy of my little brother this morning. By the way, as my brother so lovingly <insert major sarcasm here> pointed out, he is 25, not 26. But he will be 26 at the end of August. I just subtracted 3 years from my own age and ended up a month and a half off... Anyway, back to this post's edit.
M. was reading my post last night at home and said, "You've never been to the west coast?" At that exact moment I remembered I have been to the west coast, once, briefly, back in 2003 or 2004. When I was in graduate school I attended a conference in San Francisco. I didn't see a lot of the west coast, but was there. So, I amend my post. I've never been to the northwest coast...
Portland, Oregon. This is likely a city I would never have thought of much in my entire life if the past couple years had not happened. In the past couple years I've had two dear friends whom I met at work go through some life-changing events and then decided to move on to Portland. (And how ironic is it that the book I started on Saturday is set in Portland and the movie M. and I watched last night is as well?)
The latest friend, Ms. E., will be taking a flight out there on Tuesday to start her new life. We had a get-together Friday evening at a bar for her. M. and I went, not planning to stay long (bars are not our scene), and ended up being the last ones standing outside the bar with E. as the warm, sultry night air enveloped us. We stood there, finding one last thing to say after one last thing to say to delay the inevitable hug before parting ways. Finally, we had to let her go. But this is just best wishes to E. - not a farewell!
I for one plan to keep up with E. as she makes her way our there on the west coast. M. and I will also try to make it out there next summer for a visit - stopping first in North Dakota to see my family and my brother's new house. I've never been to the west coast, so I'm already excited and want to plan the trip NOW.
Dearest E., email me often, send lots of pictures, and don't forget to use chat! I send you best wishes for a safe flight tomorrow and for a wonderful life in Portland. All warm snarkies today are dedicated to you. Don't forget about us back here!
PS- thanks for the 'Free Fla-Vor-Ice' sign - almost didn't see it this morning!
M. was reading my post last night at home and said, "You've never been to the west coast?" At that exact moment I remembered I have been to the west coast, once, briefly, back in 2003 or 2004. When I was in graduate school I attended a conference in San Francisco. I didn't see a lot of the west coast, but was there. So, I amend my post. I've never been to the northwest coast...
Portland, Oregon. This is likely a city I would never have thought of much in my entire life if the past couple years had not happened. In the past couple years I've had two dear friends whom I met at work go through some life-changing events and then decided to move on to Portland. (And how ironic is it that the book I started on Saturday is set in Portland and the movie M. and I watched last night is as well?)
The latest friend, Ms. E., will be taking a flight out there on Tuesday to start her new life. We had a get-together Friday evening at a bar for her. M. and I went, not planning to stay long (bars are not our scene), and ended up being the last ones standing outside the bar with E. as the warm, sultry night air enveloped us. We stood there, finding one last thing to say after one last thing to say to delay the inevitable hug before parting ways. Finally, we had to let her go. But this is just best wishes to E. - not a farewell!
I for one plan to keep up with E. as she makes her way our there on the west coast. M. and I will also try to make it out there next summer for a visit - stopping first in North Dakota to see my family and my brother's new house. I've never been to the west coast, so I'm already excited and want to plan the trip NOW.
Dearest E., email me often, send lots of pictures, and don't forget to use chat! I send you best wishes for a safe flight tomorrow and for a wonderful life in Portland. All warm snarkies today are dedicated to you. Don't forget about us back here!
PS- thanks for the 'Free Fla-Vor-Ice' sign - almost didn't see it this morning!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tales of the Pumpkin
Okay, I originally started this post way back on 5/29 when one of my coworkers came into work a wee bit late because her car had a flat. This made me think back to the time I had a flat tire. It was when I was in high school. But then I realized I did not have the right photos to go with the post. I called up my brother who is 26 years and still speaks in sarcasm (hmm, does that run in the family?!) I asked my brother to email me the appropriate pictures, but of course he didn't have any, couldn't take any, and their scanner was broken anyway... so I got my own photos while I was visiting at the end of June and have saved this post until now.
But before getting into my original intent of this post, I thought I would also give you that update on the end of my trip that I'd been mentioning for so long. I sure am glad I have something else to post about at the same time because now that I look back on what I've already written about my vacation, I realize what I have left is not all that exciting.
So, my last day in North Dakota mom, dad, and I all get up at the insane hour of 3 AM since my flight departs at 4:40. My brother works a job from 4 PM until midnight and he still wasn't home when we left the house. I saw barely a glimpse of him the whole week I was there! So I went through security at the airport, boarded my flight to Minneapolis and dozed. Got into Minneapolis just fine, but then the flight I had to my next stop before ultimately arriving home could not land because of thunderstorms. When we finally touched down I had about 2 minutes to get on my last flight. Naturally, the gate I landed at was no where near the one I was departing from... so I began my hurried trek through the airport to get on that last flight and get home. I paid attention to no one and nothing save the signs directing me to the gate I needed. Then, suddenly I felt my Crocs stick to the floor, my upper body starting projecting forward and downward at the same time and I found myself taking a skid, head first, into the airport floor. No, I did not trip on something on the floor and therefore cannot sue the airport for negligence in having dirty floors that tripped me up. I tripped over my own feet - the darn right one to be exact!
I ended up skinning up my forehead, messing up my right knee, and bending my glasses out of whack. I didn't even have time to look around to see how many people witnessed my intimate tryst with the airport floor, I just picked myself up and trudged on. When finally arriving at my gate I saw the door was closed. The screen still showed my flight leaving at it's regular time, so I was sure I had missed it. I stood anxiously behind a group trying to get rerouted to New Orleans to find out how I was going to get home. This gave me enough time to think about my plunge and how horrendous I must look - red from rushing through the airport, up since 3 AM, head skinned up, glasses all cockeyed... Finally the airport lady asked me where I was headed. When I told her my destination, she said that my flight had been delayed. Whew! Wish I would have known that before spilling myself in the middle of a big city airport! I did eventually make it home a couple hours late and spent the rest of the weekend resting up for a fun and exciting work week!
Now back to the original intent of my post... Like I said, a coworker had come in late because of a flat tire and that made me think back to the time I had a flat tire.
I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but when I was in high school and my first year of college I drove a 1980 Ford Pinto. And it was orange. It was 'The Pumpkin-Mobile.'
My dad bought this car brand new for my mom and it was the car she learned to drive on. It was also the car I learned to drive on since my mom had moved on to better vehicles since then. This car is almost as old as I am and my dad still drove the thing up until a year or two ago! It is now housed in my dad's large storage building.
My sister and I were heading home one day after school and the car was driving a little funny. I didn't know what was going on, and being a teenager wanting to get home after school, it didn't even cross my mind to stop and take a look at the car - I didn't know anything about cars anyway, so how was I going to fix whatever was wrong? I was focused on getting the thing home to dad; he would know how to fix it. So I continued to drive it very slowly towards home.
I know I have mentioned that I grew up in North Dakota and graduated in a class of about 45 students. The high school I attended was in an itty bitty little town in the middle of no where. This town was so small that the only things in the town were a bar and the high school and the surrounding area was all farmland. The school was about a 45 minute drive from my home.
Because I was driving so slowly, several of my fellow students, also intent on getting home, or where ever they were going, passed me. Some made some weird gestures as they did. I had no idea what they were doing until one got me to pull over and told me I had a flat tire. I had probably drove on the flat for about 5-10 miles at that point. Because I was a teenager and was still about 30 minutes from my home and my dad who could repair the flat, and because I knew nothing about flat tires other than they were a bummer, and because cell phones were not all the rage at the time I was in high school, I was still going to attempt to drive that thing home!
Fortunately for me a county sheriff was driving along and pulled over behind me. While my sister and I stood there in the brisk North Dakotan wind he changed the flat tire for us so I could drive home. I am pretty sure my little stint on the flat tire ruined the previous tire - luckily the wheel was not damaged. Dad was not impressed.
He wasn't too impressed the time I backed the Pinto into a deep ditch and over a culvert outcropping tearing a hole in the gas tank either!
I've had lots of interesting, not-so-fun forays in the orange Pinto. It kind of makes me sad to think it is now gathering dust in a storage building. M. even got a dose of the Pinto when he came to visit me in North Dakota after we had gotten together online. M. rode the Amtrak by himself (and got robbed of a couple Mountain Dews in the process) to come see me for Valentine's Day. I don't remember why, but I took the Pinto out that morning - probably to either pick something up or just to make sure I knew where the train station was so I could pick M. up later that evening. That darn Pinto blew a belt or something and left me stranded right in the middle of a busy street during the winter. I put on my emergency lights and panicked about what I was going to do.
Being the nice people they are in that North Dakota college town, no one stopped to help me. After several minutes of wondering what I was going to do, I walked up the street to a gas station and called my dad collect and asked him if I should get the car towed? He said I would have to since he was 5 hours away and there wasn't much he could do. So I had the car towed and spent all of Valentine's Day at a service station waiting for my car to be fixed. When I finally got back to my dorm room to top things off there was a message from my ex-boyfriend whom I had broken up with several months before (but he'd only recently gotten the hint). I deleted the message and then went off to pick up M. And I sure did have an interesting Valentine's Day story for him when he got off the train!
For those of you who followed my blog during my trip to North Dakota, you know my grandpa's van went up in flames. Here's a few pictures of it after it was moved to its final resting spot!
************************************************************************************
And who knew I've had the secret to great skin in my household practically my entire life?!
But before getting into my original intent of this post, I thought I would also give you that update on the end of my trip that I'd been mentioning for so long. I sure am glad I have something else to post about at the same time because now that I look back on what I've already written about my vacation, I realize what I have left is not all that exciting.
So, my last day in North Dakota mom, dad, and I all get up at the insane hour of 3 AM since my flight departs at 4:40. My brother works a job from 4 PM until midnight and he still wasn't home when we left the house. I saw barely a glimpse of him the whole week I was there! So I went through security at the airport, boarded my flight to Minneapolis and dozed. Got into Minneapolis just fine, but then the flight I had to my next stop before ultimately arriving home could not land because of thunderstorms. When we finally touched down I had about 2 minutes to get on my last flight. Naturally, the gate I landed at was no where near the one I was departing from... so I began my hurried trek through the airport to get on that last flight and get home. I paid attention to no one and nothing save the signs directing me to the gate I needed. Then, suddenly I felt my Crocs stick to the floor, my upper body starting projecting forward and downward at the same time and I found myself taking a skid, head first, into the airport floor. No, I did not trip on something on the floor and therefore cannot sue the airport for negligence in having dirty floors that tripped me up. I tripped over my own feet - the darn right one to be exact!
I ended up skinning up my forehead, messing up my right knee, and bending my glasses out of whack. I didn't even have time to look around to see how many people witnessed my intimate tryst with the airport floor, I just picked myself up and trudged on. When finally arriving at my gate I saw the door was closed. The screen still showed my flight leaving at it's regular time, so I was sure I had missed it. I stood anxiously behind a group trying to get rerouted to New Orleans to find out how I was going to get home. This gave me enough time to think about my plunge and how horrendous I must look - red from rushing through the airport, up since 3 AM, head skinned up, glasses all cockeyed... Finally the airport lady asked me where I was headed. When I told her my destination, she said that my flight had been delayed. Whew! Wish I would have known that before spilling myself in the middle of a big city airport! I did eventually make it home a couple hours late and spent the rest of the weekend resting up for a fun and exciting work week!
Now back to the original intent of my post... Like I said, a coworker had come in late because of a flat tire and that made me think back to the time I had a flat tire.
I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but when I was in high school and my first year of college I drove a 1980 Ford Pinto. And it was orange. It was 'The Pumpkin-Mobile.'
My dad bought this car brand new for my mom and it was the car she learned to drive on. It was also the car I learned to drive on since my mom had moved on to better vehicles since then. This car is almost as old as I am and my dad still drove the thing up until a year or two ago! It is now housed in my dad's large storage building.
My sister and I were heading home one day after school and the car was driving a little funny. I didn't know what was going on, and being a teenager wanting to get home after school, it didn't even cross my mind to stop and take a look at the car - I didn't know anything about cars anyway, so how was I going to fix whatever was wrong? I was focused on getting the thing home to dad; he would know how to fix it. So I continued to drive it very slowly towards home.
I know I have mentioned that I grew up in North Dakota and graduated in a class of about 45 students. The high school I attended was in an itty bitty little town in the middle of no where. This town was so small that the only things in the town were a bar and the high school and the surrounding area was all farmland. The school was about a 45 minute drive from my home.
Because I was driving so slowly, several of my fellow students, also intent on getting home, or where ever they were going, passed me. Some made some weird gestures as they did. I had no idea what they were doing until one got me to pull over and told me I had a flat tire. I had probably drove on the flat for about 5-10 miles at that point. Because I was a teenager and was still about 30 minutes from my home and my dad who could repair the flat, and because I knew nothing about flat tires other than they were a bummer, and because cell phones were not all the rage at the time I was in high school, I was still going to attempt to drive that thing home!
Fortunately for me a county sheriff was driving along and pulled over behind me. While my sister and I stood there in the brisk North Dakotan wind he changed the flat tire for us so I could drive home. I am pretty sure my little stint on the flat tire ruined the previous tire - luckily the wheel was not damaged. Dad was not impressed.
He wasn't too impressed the time I backed the Pinto into a deep ditch and over a culvert outcropping tearing a hole in the gas tank either!
I've had lots of interesting, not-so-fun forays in the orange Pinto. It kind of makes me sad to think it is now gathering dust in a storage building. M. even got a dose of the Pinto when he came to visit me in North Dakota after we had gotten together online. M. rode the Amtrak by himself (and got robbed of a couple Mountain Dews in the process) to come see me for Valentine's Day. I don't remember why, but I took the Pinto out that morning - probably to either pick something up or just to make sure I knew where the train station was so I could pick M. up later that evening. That darn Pinto blew a belt or something and left me stranded right in the middle of a busy street during the winter. I put on my emergency lights and panicked about what I was going to do.
Being the nice people they are in that North Dakota college town, no one stopped to help me. After several minutes of wondering what I was going to do, I walked up the street to a gas station and called my dad collect and asked him if I should get the car towed? He said I would have to since he was 5 hours away and there wasn't much he could do. So I had the car towed and spent all of Valentine's Day at a service station waiting for my car to be fixed. When I finally got back to my dorm room to top things off there was a message from my ex-boyfriend whom I had broken up with several months before (but he'd only recently gotten the hint). I deleted the message and then went off to pick up M. And I sure did have an interesting Valentine's Day story for him when he got off the train!
For those of you who followed my blog during my trip to North Dakota, you know my grandpa's van went up in flames. Here's a few pictures of it after it was moved to its final resting spot!
************************************************************************************
And who knew I've had the secret to great skin in my household practically my entire life?!
Thinking about my boys...
The Mental Floss Morning Cup O'Links this morning featured a few links that had me thinking about my boys - Clyde, Luigi, and that wonderful M.
First, we have this lovely cat animation by Simon Tofield that reminds me mostly of that little Lu living in my house, but with some Clyde thrown in. I watched the video at work this morning, so no sound, but still, it was hilarious! My poor little Lu had dental surgery on Monday and his brother is not being very nice to him since he smells all vetty. Luigi had gums growing down over some of his teeth so the vet cut them away and did a cleaning. I also decided to microchip the little bugger while he was down because I can see him slipping past us, out the porch door and running off into the sunset. He is so wild sometimes! His surgery went well, but we are still waiting on a lab analysis of the gum to make sure it is not cancerous. If it's not (let's all pray...) then the vet doesn't know why Luigi's gums are all hyperactive and he may have to have this surgery every year. Still, I would rather plunk down a couple hundred dollars a year than deal with cancer...
Then a couple links that made me think of my beloved M. The first was a guide on M.'s favorite reptile - the SNAKE!! I've mentioned before how much he loves those critters! That coral snake is kind of cute - bet M. would love it if I picked one up after work as a pet. Then we have the Geek Cakes. If M. liked cake, a nice electronic-styled or Star Wars cake would be perfect for him!
And, unrelated to my boys, I saw a link on the Mental Floss blog that took me to a style quiz. The first thing I need to do is 'pick my favorite brands.' What if I don't have any favorite brands? What if I've never even heard of most of these brands? What does that say about my style? Why aren't Old Navy and Target listed as brands?! Today I'm wearing a little Wal-Mart as well... Okay, I picked a few and then I had to rate products I'd never seen... and then you have to create an account to get your style result. So blah, I'm not giving them any of my info. I guess my style will forever remain a mystery...
First, we have this lovely cat animation by Simon Tofield that reminds me mostly of that little Lu living in my house, but with some Clyde thrown in. I watched the video at work this morning, so no sound, but still, it was hilarious! My poor little Lu had dental surgery on Monday and his brother is not being very nice to him since he smells all vetty. Luigi had gums growing down over some of his teeth so the vet cut them away and did a cleaning. I also decided to microchip the little bugger while he was down because I can see him slipping past us, out the porch door and running off into the sunset. He is so wild sometimes! His surgery went well, but we are still waiting on a lab analysis of the gum to make sure it is not cancerous. If it's not (let's all pray...) then the vet doesn't know why Luigi's gums are all hyperactive and he may have to have this surgery every year. Still, I would rather plunk down a couple hundred dollars a year than deal with cancer...
Then a couple links that made me think of my beloved M. The first was a guide on M.'s favorite reptile - the SNAKE!! I've mentioned before how much he loves those critters! That coral snake is kind of cute - bet M. would love it if I picked one up after work as a pet. Then we have the Geek Cakes. If M. liked cake, a nice electronic-styled or Star Wars cake would be perfect for him!
And, unrelated to my boys, I saw a link on the Mental Floss blog that took me to a style quiz. The first thing I need to do is 'pick my favorite brands.' What if I don't have any favorite brands? What if I've never even heard of most of these brands? What does that say about my style? Why aren't Old Navy and Target listed as brands?! Today I'm wearing a little Wal-Mart as well... Okay, I picked a few and then I had to rate products I'd never seen... and then you have to create an account to get your style result. So blah, I'm not giving them any of my info. I guess my style will forever remain a mystery...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Nine Years?!
To My Dear, Dear M.,
Nine years ago today we stood in front of family and friends and took a vow to love and honor each other for the rest of our lives. It is hard to believe it has already been nine years! Time with you passes in a way in which I hardly even notice it is gone.
I remember meeting you in that chat room oh so long ago in a time when internet dating wasn't even a thing. There was no eHarmony or Match.com. All you heard was horror stories of people who had met online and met disastrous consequences. I am so proud to have a successful story to tell featuring you!
I know our parents collectively worried. Worried that we were too young, that we didn't know each other well enough - that we had met on the internet for goodness sake! Our friends thought we were just crazy. Yet, they all stood with us on my parents' lawn this day nine years ago and were witness to just how much we love each other, how dedicated we were to one another. And still, almost a decade later, we are happy, crazy, spunky in love.
And how ironic that Buckcherry's Carousel is playing on my iPod at this very moment! I know, M., that you probably have never heard the song since I am the Buckcherry fan, but take a minute tonight and listen to it. I dedicate it to you on this day, our 9 year anniversary. I love you!
Forever Yours,
Lil'Seed
Friday, June 27, 2008
She did it!
Mom got her tattoo yesterday. She decided on a cherry blossom branch with the Chinese symbol for human life. Below is a little slide show I captured during the inking.
I also found out my uncle (and godfather) is the State attorney in a murder case this summer. Testimony in the case just started today.
This will be my last full day in North Dakota. Tomorrow morning I head out early - 4:40am - for the trip back home. Not sure what our plans are for today, but tonight we are probably going to dinner with my grandfather and his wife since they cancelled on us last night...
I also found out my uncle (and godfather) is the State attorney in a murder case this summer. Testimony in the case just started today.
This will be my last full day in North Dakota. Tomorrow morning I head out early - 4:40am - for the trip back home. Not sure what our plans are for today, but tonight we are probably going to dinner with my grandfather and his wife since they cancelled on us last night...
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Vacation Update
Wednesday, June 25: We took a trip to the state's capitol, Bismark. We did not get going as early as planned (mom takes longer to get ready than I think she realizes), so once we had made the 2.5 hour drive it was time to have lunch. We had tickets for the Lewis & Clark Riverboat cruise of the Missouri River (once again obtained by mom from the Wheeler Dealer radio show), so we decided to eat close to the dock at a restaurant called Captain Meriweather's.
So, we walk into Meriweather's and of course there is a sign asking that people 'Please Wait to Be Seated.' So we waited, and waited, and waited. No one was at the hostess stand and there was no bell to summon anyone from the back where apparently all employees were congregated (not a good idea at noon...) Finally, without apology, a lady comes out and seats us in the dining room. Now, the dining room was pretty much vacant - most people had chosen to sit on the patio, but we decided against it because of the heat and wind - and where do we get seated? At a table that was almost level with our knees. It was the shortest table in the entire dining room! I suppose we could have moved, but we made do. I suppose there are worse things that can happen than sitting at a low table; for instance what happened next.
We gave our waiter our drink orders, he brings them out. I took a sip of my soda and sucked up a small hard piece of something. I spit it out in my palm and discovered a tiny chunk of clear glass. Luckily, I did not bite down on it or swish it around in my mouth! We waited to see if the waiter would come back so we could tell him about the glass, but after waiting a few minutes, dad took the glass and my drink and went searching for someone to tell. He came back with a new drink for me. Apparently, they did not even really apologize, just said 'We don't know how that would have happened.'
Okay, glass-in-the-drink injury averted. We then ordered. We all tried out the chicken wraps. They were okay, but the lunch I had the previous day at the Pita Pit was more enjoyable. The Pita Pit was also about three times less expensive. Meriweather's will not get any kind of recommendation from me!
We then went outside to wait for boarding on the Lewis & Clark to begin. Mom and dad trekked back to the Explorer to slather on sunscreen. I decided against the greasy mess and later paid for it with lobster arms. (I can feel the heat radiating from my arms as I type this.) We then took a relaxing cruise up and down the Missouri River.
After the cruise we did some very light shopping. Mom had to return some clothing she'd purchased at Kohl's in Grand Forks (no Kohl's in Minot) and dad had to get some kind of screws for the basement footings in the house he is building for my brother.
After shopping it was a visit to my mom's parents. My mother's parents have always lived in the Bismarck area while my dad's parents lived right down the hill from us, so in that scenario where there are the 'A' grandparents and the 'B' grandparents, my mom's parents got the role of 'B.' Not because I like them any less, I just never got the opportunity to know them as well as my other grandparents.
We then made the drive home. One of the less exciting days, but I had to blog about it anyway!
Thursday, June 26: I got up this morning and took a 2 hour drive around various spots I used to haunt while growing up to see how things have changed. I drove through Burlington, the town where I attended elementary school and then up to the sleepy town of Des Lacs where I attended middle and high school. I shot some photos yesterday and today and have put them all into a slide show for you to enjoy.
Mom has her tattoo appointment this afternoon and then we have dinner with my dad's dad and his wife. More to come as my trip winds down to it's last days.
So, we walk into Meriweather's and of course there is a sign asking that people 'Please Wait to Be Seated.' So we waited, and waited, and waited. No one was at the hostess stand and there was no bell to summon anyone from the back where apparently all employees were congregated (not a good idea at noon...) Finally, without apology, a lady comes out and seats us in the dining room. Now, the dining room was pretty much vacant - most people had chosen to sit on the patio, but we decided against it because of the heat and wind - and where do we get seated? At a table that was almost level with our knees. It was the shortest table in the entire dining room! I suppose we could have moved, but we made do. I suppose there are worse things that can happen than sitting at a low table; for instance what happened next.
We gave our waiter our drink orders, he brings them out. I took a sip of my soda and sucked up a small hard piece of something. I spit it out in my palm and discovered a tiny chunk of clear glass. Luckily, I did not bite down on it or swish it around in my mouth! We waited to see if the waiter would come back so we could tell him about the glass, but after waiting a few minutes, dad took the glass and my drink and went searching for someone to tell. He came back with a new drink for me. Apparently, they did not even really apologize, just said 'We don't know how that would have happened.'
Okay, glass-in-the-drink injury averted. We then ordered. We all tried out the chicken wraps. They were okay, but the lunch I had the previous day at the Pita Pit was more enjoyable. The Pita Pit was also about three times less expensive. Meriweather's will not get any kind of recommendation from me!
We then went outside to wait for boarding on the Lewis & Clark to begin. Mom and dad trekked back to the Explorer to slather on sunscreen. I decided against the greasy mess and later paid for it with lobster arms. (I can feel the heat radiating from my arms as I type this.) We then took a relaxing cruise up and down the Missouri River.
After the cruise we did some very light shopping. Mom had to return some clothing she'd purchased at Kohl's in Grand Forks (no Kohl's in Minot) and dad had to get some kind of screws for the basement footings in the house he is building for my brother.
After shopping it was a visit to my mom's parents. My mother's parents have always lived in the Bismarck area while my dad's parents lived right down the hill from us, so in that scenario where there are the 'A' grandparents and the 'B' grandparents, my mom's parents got the role of 'B.' Not because I like them any less, I just never got the opportunity to know them as well as my other grandparents.
We then made the drive home. One of the less exciting days, but I had to blog about it anyway!
Thursday, June 26: I got up this morning and took a 2 hour drive around various spots I used to haunt while growing up to see how things have changed. I drove through Burlington, the town where I attended elementary school and then up to the sleepy town of Des Lacs where I attended middle and high school. I shot some photos yesterday and today and have put them all into a slide show for you to enjoy.
Mom has her tattoo appointment this afternoon and then we have dinner with my dad's dad and his wife. More to come as my trip winds down to it's last days.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Vacation Run Down
First, an apology to my readers who checked for a post last night. My parents have one computer and my dad had to use it last night. By the time he was done I was too tired to write a post and was off to bed.
Now, for those of you who are interested in what I've been doing in North Dakota on my vacation, here's what's happened so far. I've not taken very many pictures yet, but do plan to post some photos eventually. I won't give a time estimate since I'll probably not live up to the deadline, but they will be forthcoming.
Saturday, June 21: I spent most of the day in planes and airports. You wouldn't think it would take all day to fly approximately 1,277 miles, but with the layovers I need to take, it does. So I started my day at 5:00am and arrived in Minot, North Dakota about 4:20pm. Since my parents live outside of town in a rural community, they make the most out of trips into town. (M. and I do the same thing now that we have moved outside the city.) Because they were already in town to get me from the airport, we went and had some dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then did some shopping. Finally, we headed home where I was greeted by a very excited dog. Elle - my mom's newest baby was a rescue dog from Hurricane Katrina. She was one of the animals transported from the New Orleans area to various shelters around the US. There was a list of people who wanted to adopt Elle, but my parents' rural home with a huge yard won out and Elle is now a spoiled pooch living in my parents' house.
Sunday, June 22: We all awake early to spend about 4 hours in the car so we can drive to Grand Forks and visit my sister. My sister is an overachiever and very, very busy so it was either drive to see her, or not see her at all. Even though I had spent the entire previous day traveling, I was willing to do this to see her. (Plus, my parents really did the activity planning for this trip and I didn't have much choice in the matter! But what can you say when they shelled out almost $700 for a plane ticket?)
The purpose of the trip was twofold - give me a chance to visit with my sister and give dad and my brother the opportunity to fix sister's dryer which was overheating and install some shelving in the garage of her townhouse. We arrived about lunchtime. My brother and one of his friends were at my sister's already - they had drove down the day before to attend a concert. So we met up with sister, brother, and brother's friend to discuss the game plan for the day. It was decided we would all go to lunch, but first had to wait for sister's friend who would come over to help install the garage shelving. Sister felt since he was volunteering to help out, it would be nice to invite him to lunch too. I was on this trip to visit with my family, so I was not exactly thrilled about going to lunch with brother's friend and sister's friend, but again, what can you do when you're not the activity director and the entire trip is being financed by your parents?
Sister's friend pulls up on a scooter and we all pile into two vehicles to go have some lunch at Boston's. Not my favorite place to eat, but sister is very picky about where she eats and she chose. (I know it sounds like all I am doing up to this point is complaining, but really it has been a good trip so far! I just like to give commentary on my interior thoughts...)
After lunch it is decided mom and I will go shopping since there are stores in Grand Forks that are not available in Minot. Sister, brother, and dad are all going to stay at the townhouse to do home repairs. Sister's friend motors off on his scooter right after lunch saying he has something he has to do and is never seen again. Good thing my parents bought him lunch in exchange for help with those shelves... Mom and I putter around department stores for two and a half hours (my shopping limit is probably half an hour to an hour...) and then we return to sister's townhouse where we find brother and sister playing Bubble Bobble (ah, flashback!) and dad and brother's friend watching them. Brother has spent the entire time we were gone in sister's attic finding a dryer clog and dad installed the garage shelving san sister's friend. So we hang out at sister's townhouse for awhile visiting and playing with her cats then make the approximately 4 hour drive home, have some pizza, and head to bed.
Monday, June 23: I went to the same hair stylist all through high school. My mom still goes to this stylist, so she made me a surprise appointment for a haircut. But I didn't know and had my hair cut last Wednesday before traveling. Because my hair was already shorter than I really wanted it, I couldn't take the haircut and instead got caramel-colored highlights. We then headed back home for some lunch and relaxed around the house.
Late Monday afternoon one of my parents' neighbors knocked on the door. She said she was coming home from work and saw thick black smoke rising in the air near my grandfather's home (my parents live in a community on top a hill - grandpa lives below the hill). The neighbor said she couldn't see what exactly was on fire and traffic was stopped and backed up. She told mom and dad she'd feel a lot better if they went and checked it out (there is a private back road down the hill to grandpa's place). So mom, dad, the dog, and I hopped in the Explorer and took the back way down.
My grandfather is retired from working at the local airport. He now runs his own business selling products of his own design - windsocks with lights that can swivel 360 degrees, roadway markers, a device that thaws sewer vents in the winter. Grandpa has a large shop and that is where the back road leads to, so we parked near the shop and grandpa came out and was irate. Apparently, grandpa's wife (not my grandmother who passed away when I was five) was on her way into town. She got to the end of the driveway and was about to turn onto the highway when the van she was driving made a popping, whooshing noise and then went up in flames. Grandpa's wife got out and was not injured, but it took the fire department half an hour to make it out to the blaze and by the time it the fire was out (and we were all down there staring at it), the van was a complete loss. The interior was completing burnt, the front end was practically unrecognizable and melted into the pavement. The only salvageable part of the vehicle was the rear tires. Not only was grandpa irate about losing a vehicle he had just recently cancelled insurance on, but he had also donated $200 to the fire department of Burlington and they didn't even come out. It was Minot Rural that responded. I am sure the Burlington Fire Department will be hearing from my grandfather with a request for his $200 back...
After the fire incident, we had a hurried dinner and then went into town to see a movie. My mom listens to a radio show called Wheeler Dealer and gets discount certificates from the program. Several of our activities, including Monday night's movie, were based around what she had certificates for. We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall at the discount theater. (Not a movie I had any ambition to see, but our options were limited since it was a discount theater and only had three shows playing - two of which I had already viewed.) Now the movie was not terrible, but if I had known we were going to see Jason Segel in full frontal nudity several times (not just a few times, but several times) I might not have seen this movie with my mom and dad. Not that movie nudity bothers me, even if viewed with the parents, but this was not just quick flashes of the male anatomy, and there really wasn't any reason for us to see Mr. Segel's little soldier flopping around... In any case, the movie was not what we expected. We got home late and headed off to bed.
Tuesday, June 24: Tuesday was a day out and about with my mom. We did some light shopping (much better than the marathon shopping expedition in Grand Forks), had lunch at a place call The Pita Pit (yummy!), mom tried to donate blood, and then we got hydro massages (my first professional massage ever).
The shops we checked out were little locally owned businesses selling gift items. I bought some ice tea mix and some cornnut-like things for M. I also bought a little cat figurine to add to my small collection of cat-related items at home. We also visited a used bookstore. I love browsing through old books, even if I don't purchase anything. Mom bought me a couple books, which is good since I am almost done with the two books I brought with me! I've added them to my Book Bag on the right side of the blog...
After lunch we tried to check out a tattoo place. Mom has a coupon for a tattoo. I found out she has always wanted one. I never knew that about my mom and it's a little shocking. Mom just doesn't seem like the tattoo kind of person. I briefly thought about getting a tattoo when I heard she was getting one, but I don't have a life-long desire for a tattoo, plus M. absolutely abhors tattoos, so I decided not to do something that I did not have a strong desire to do. (But, just so M. knows, if I did really, really want a tattoo, I would get one despite his objections.) Mom had decided on a cherry blossom design for her ankle and we were going to go by the place to talk to the artist about the design and find out how long it would take, but the place was locked up tight. No posted hours. Mom called the number and left a message with her phone number and we went off to the blood bank.
Mom was going to give blood because once she is tattooed, she can't give blood for a year. I dug into my book while waiting for them to test her blood levels. (I can't give blood, it makes me woozy - I can watch vomiting, gut-tearing, etc., but suck blood out of my arm and I am likely going to faint.) During my wait my cell phone rang. The blood bank is not a noisy place and I did not realize the ringer on my cell phone was turned all the way up - so embarrassment ensued while I dug furiously through my purse to get the phone and get it out of it's case while everyone in the waiting room looked at me like, "Are you going to answer that noisy thing?!"
I eventually did get the phone popped open and up to my ear. It was a gal from work letting me know my friend received her referral from Russia! I had hoped it would happen while I was home so I could be in the office when she came in, but I am so excited for her! S., if you are reading this, I saw a picture and I could not be happier for you!! Please don't feel you can't call me because I'm on vacation. I would love to hear from you!
During this exciting call Mom came out and indicated she couldn't give blood - iron levels were too low. So we did some quick shopping and then got our massages. I've never had a professional massage of any kind, so that was a nice treat. I will have to look for somewhere back home where I can get a hydro massage.
The tattoo expedition was a lost cause yesterday since the place was apparently closed and the artist never returned mom's call. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that dad has not a clue that mom is getting a tattoo or that she even wants one, so that's going to be some surprise for him when she comes home with an inked ankle. I hope she will be able to get it done while I am here.
Last night was a quiet night at home with my parents. One of my aunts (dad has five sisters and no brothers!) also stopped by to visit. Aunt B. is my favorite of my dad's sisters and is also my godmother, so it was nice to see her again. The rest of the aunts, I don't really care to see. My mom is the oldest of ten children, but most of them live about 2 hours south of here in the Bismark area. We didn't see them a lot growing up, so I don't really know them.
And that brings me up to this morning. Mom and dad are out walking Elle and I have spent a good portion of my day so far on the internet checking email and writing this post. This afternoon we will be trekking down to Bismark to take a riverboat cruise and see my mom's parents. I can't promise another post today, maybe not even tomorrow, but I will be back at some point to give everyone an update.
Now, for those of you who are interested in what I've been doing in North Dakota on my vacation, here's what's happened so far. I've not taken very many pictures yet, but do plan to post some photos eventually. I won't give a time estimate since I'll probably not live up to the deadline, but they will be forthcoming.
Saturday, June 21: I spent most of the day in planes and airports. You wouldn't think it would take all day to fly approximately 1,277 miles, but with the layovers I need to take, it does. So I started my day at 5:00am and arrived in Minot, North Dakota about 4:20pm. Since my parents live outside of town in a rural community, they make the most out of trips into town. (M. and I do the same thing now that we have moved outside the city.) Because they were already in town to get me from the airport, we went and had some dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then did some shopping. Finally, we headed home where I was greeted by a very excited dog. Elle - my mom's newest baby was a rescue dog from Hurricane Katrina. She was one of the animals transported from the New Orleans area to various shelters around the US. There was a list of people who wanted to adopt Elle, but my parents' rural home with a huge yard won out and Elle is now a spoiled pooch living in my parents' house.
Sunday, June 22: We all awake early to spend about 4 hours in the car so we can drive to Grand Forks and visit my sister. My sister is an overachiever and very, very busy so it was either drive to see her, or not see her at all. Even though I had spent the entire previous day traveling, I was willing to do this to see her. (Plus, my parents really did the activity planning for this trip and I didn't have much choice in the matter! But what can you say when they shelled out almost $700 for a plane ticket?)
The purpose of the trip was twofold - give me a chance to visit with my sister and give dad and my brother the opportunity to fix sister's dryer which was overheating and install some shelving in the garage of her townhouse. We arrived about lunchtime. My brother and one of his friends were at my sister's already - they had drove down the day before to attend a concert. So we met up with sister, brother, and brother's friend to discuss the game plan for the day. It was decided we would all go to lunch, but first had to wait for sister's friend who would come over to help install the garage shelving. Sister felt since he was volunteering to help out, it would be nice to invite him to lunch too. I was on this trip to visit with my family, so I was not exactly thrilled about going to lunch with brother's friend and sister's friend, but again, what can you do when you're not the activity director and the entire trip is being financed by your parents?
Sister's friend pulls up on a scooter and we all pile into two vehicles to go have some lunch at Boston's. Not my favorite place to eat, but sister is very picky about where she eats and she chose. (I know it sounds like all I am doing up to this point is complaining, but really it has been a good trip so far! I just like to give commentary on my interior thoughts...)
After lunch it is decided mom and I will go shopping since there are stores in Grand Forks that are not available in Minot. Sister, brother, and dad are all going to stay at the townhouse to do home repairs. Sister's friend motors off on his scooter right after lunch saying he has something he has to do and is never seen again. Good thing my parents bought him lunch in exchange for help with those shelves... Mom and I putter around department stores for two and a half hours (my shopping limit is probably half an hour to an hour...) and then we return to sister's townhouse where we find brother and sister playing Bubble Bobble (ah, flashback!) and dad and brother's friend watching them. Brother has spent the entire time we were gone in sister's attic finding a dryer clog and dad installed the garage shelving san sister's friend. So we hang out at sister's townhouse for awhile visiting and playing with her cats then make the approximately 4 hour drive home, have some pizza, and head to bed.
Monday, June 23: I went to the same hair stylist all through high school. My mom still goes to this stylist, so she made me a surprise appointment for a haircut. But I didn't know and had my hair cut last Wednesday before traveling. Because my hair was already shorter than I really wanted it, I couldn't take the haircut and instead got caramel-colored highlights. We then headed back home for some lunch and relaxed around the house.
Late Monday afternoon one of my parents' neighbors knocked on the door. She said she was coming home from work and saw thick black smoke rising in the air near my grandfather's home (my parents live in a community on top a hill - grandpa lives below the hill). The neighbor said she couldn't see what exactly was on fire and traffic was stopped and backed up. She told mom and dad she'd feel a lot better if they went and checked it out (there is a private back road down the hill to grandpa's place). So mom, dad, the dog, and I hopped in the Explorer and took the back way down.
My grandfather is retired from working at the local airport. He now runs his own business selling products of his own design - windsocks with lights that can swivel 360 degrees, roadway markers, a device that thaws sewer vents in the winter. Grandpa has a large shop and that is where the back road leads to, so we parked near the shop and grandpa came out and was irate. Apparently, grandpa's wife (not my grandmother who passed away when I was five) was on her way into town. She got to the end of the driveway and was about to turn onto the highway when the van she was driving made a popping, whooshing noise and then went up in flames. Grandpa's wife got out and was not injured, but it took the fire department half an hour to make it out to the blaze and by the time it the fire was out (and we were all down there staring at it), the van was a complete loss. The interior was completing burnt, the front end was practically unrecognizable and melted into the pavement. The only salvageable part of the vehicle was the rear tires. Not only was grandpa irate about losing a vehicle he had just recently cancelled insurance on, but he had also donated $200 to the fire department of Burlington and they didn't even come out. It was Minot Rural that responded. I am sure the Burlington Fire Department will be hearing from my grandfather with a request for his $200 back...
After the fire incident, we had a hurried dinner and then went into town to see a movie. My mom listens to a radio show called Wheeler Dealer and gets discount certificates from the program. Several of our activities, including Monday night's movie, were based around what she had certificates for. We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall at the discount theater. (Not a movie I had any ambition to see, but our options were limited since it was a discount theater and only had three shows playing - two of which I had already viewed.) Now the movie was not terrible, but if I had known we were going to see Jason Segel in full frontal nudity several times (not just a few times, but several times) I might not have seen this movie with my mom and dad. Not that movie nudity bothers me, even if viewed with the parents, but this was not just quick flashes of the male anatomy, and there really wasn't any reason for us to see Mr. Segel's little soldier flopping around... In any case, the movie was not what we expected. We got home late and headed off to bed.
Tuesday, June 24: Tuesday was a day out and about with my mom. We did some light shopping (much better than the marathon shopping expedition in Grand Forks), had lunch at a place call The Pita Pit (yummy!), mom tried to donate blood, and then we got hydro massages (my first professional massage ever).
The shops we checked out were little locally owned businesses selling gift items. I bought some ice tea mix and some cornnut-like things for M. I also bought a little cat figurine to add to my small collection of cat-related items at home. We also visited a used bookstore. I love browsing through old books, even if I don't purchase anything. Mom bought me a couple books, which is good since I am almost done with the two books I brought with me! I've added them to my Book Bag on the right side of the blog...
After lunch we tried to check out a tattoo place. Mom has a coupon for a tattoo. I found out she has always wanted one. I never knew that about my mom and it's a little shocking. Mom just doesn't seem like the tattoo kind of person. I briefly thought about getting a tattoo when I heard she was getting one, but I don't have a life-long desire for a tattoo, plus M. absolutely abhors tattoos, so I decided not to do something that I did not have a strong desire to do. (But, just so M. knows, if I did really, really want a tattoo, I would get one despite his objections.) Mom had decided on a cherry blossom design for her ankle and we were going to go by the place to talk to the artist about the design and find out how long it would take, but the place was locked up tight. No posted hours. Mom called the number and left a message with her phone number and we went off to the blood bank.
Mom was going to give blood because once she is tattooed, she can't give blood for a year. I dug into my book while waiting for them to test her blood levels. (I can't give blood, it makes me woozy - I can watch vomiting, gut-tearing, etc., but suck blood out of my arm and I am likely going to faint.) During my wait my cell phone rang. The blood bank is not a noisy place and I did not realize the ringer on my cell phone was turned all the way up - so embarrassment ensued while I dug furiously through my purse to get the phone and get it out of it's case while everyone in the waiting room looked at me like, "Are you going to answer that noisy thing?!"
I eventually did get the phone popped open and up to my ear. It was a gal from work letting me know my friend received her referral from Russia! I had hoped it would happen while I was home so I could be in the office when she came in, but I am so excited for her! S., if you are reading this, I saw a picture and I could not be happier for you!! Please don't feel you can't call me because I'm on vacation. I would love to hear from you!
During this exciting call Mom came out and indicated she couldn't give blood - iron levels were too low. So we did some quick shopping and then got our massages. I've never had a professional massage of any kind, so that was a nice treat. I will have to look for somewhere back home where I can get a hydro massage.
The tattoo expedition was a lost cause yesterday since the place was apparently closed and the artist never returned mom's call. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that dad has not a clue that mom is getting a tattoo or that she even wants one, so that's going to be some surprise for him when she comes home with an inked ankle. I hope she will be able to get it done while I am here.
Last night was a quiet night at home with my parents. One of my aunts (dad has five sisters and no brothers!) also stopped by to visit. Aunt B. is my favorite of my dad's sisters and is also my godmother, so it was nice to see her again. The rest of the aunts, I don't really care to see. My mom is the oldest of ten children, but most of them live about 2 hours south of here in the Bismark area. We didn't see them a lot growing up, so I don't really know them.
And that brings me up to this morning. Mom and dad are out walking Elle and I have spent a good portion of my day so far on the internet checking email and writing this post. This afternoon we will be trekking down to Bismark to take a riverboat cruise and see my mom's parents. I can't promise another post today, maybe not even tomorrow, but I will be back at some point to give everyone an update.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
North Dakota - A vacation spot?
It is when you grew up here! I arrived Saturday afternoon and will be visiting until this coming Saturday. So far it's been an interesting trip. I plan to do a more 'fully featured' post this evening, so stay tuned.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
What's Been Up?
I've been enslaved by a copier, that's what has been up! We found out that for one of our accreditations we need to send all our reports (burned to CD) from all of history to the accrediting entity. Well, we had reports saved electronically from 2004-present, so I've got those CDs all wrapped up and they have already been sent where they need to go. Anything before 2004 was not saved electronically, so I have been working with our summer helper to get the paper files pulled from the hot, steamy attic and then drug downstairs where our copies are.
Once the files are downstairs, someone needs to plow through them to pull out the applicable reports (sometimes up to 4 reports per file), scan them in and then save them so they can be burnt to CD. Of course, during the entire year we worked on this accreditation it was never mentioned we would need to do this - only after we've received our accreditation does this come up, and of course, it is now URGENT that we get this done. This could not have been done over the course of the year, especially not in the winter when it would have been cooler in the attic...
And, of course this is URGENT so it falls me to me to plow through these files by myself because our summer helper is at camp this week. I will be so glad when she is back! Apparently, it was also policy here in the office back in the day to use a staple per every 2 pages. So, for each report I have to pull out about a dozen staples before I can run the thing through the copier. So, please, fellow workers, please be careful not to trip over my chain and shackles while working near the back copier... I will likely be there all week!!
So because I don't and likely won't have a lot to snark about during this all encompassing project at work, I thought I'd let you all know what I have been up to outside of work. I know you all want to know desperately!
Movies: M. and I went to see The Strangers over the weekend. I was excited about this movie because scary movies and thrillers are my favorite movie genre. Unfortunately, this is one of those movies that did not live up to the previews for me (or for M. who also wanted to see it). I did not have that 'movie high' when leaving the theater. Do you get that 'movie high?' You know, that feeling when you leave a theater that the movie was just great, or that it might have changed the way you look at something or think about things? Well, that wasn't this movie. This movie was just okay for me. M. pointed out about 5 minutes in that the camera work was very shaky, even more so than Cloverfield, which we watched about a week ago. As with many little eccentricities, I really didn't notice this until M. pointed it out, but then it was annoying. Also, as M. says, you really don't get to know the main characters, James and Kristen, so it is hard to feel anything for them when the three strangers start attacking them simply because they 'were home.' I think with some more story background and a steadier camera this might have been a good movie and not just okay.
We also tried out Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. M. had seen something about these movies and that they had received good viewer ratings, in fact, were consider cult classics. I am always up for horror flicks, even the old ones, so I sat down with M. to watch these films. We watched all of the first one although I don't know why. It was entirely hokey. I know, you need to expect a degree of that in many of the older flicks, but this was just too much hokey for me. Zombie dead people who sit in doorways and just giggle are not my thing. I watched about 15 minutes of the second one and it was even worse, so I decided making our bed would be entirely more interesting. M. watched a bit more than me and while I was tucking in bedding I heard "Give me back my hand," come from the living room. Later M. would tell me that the main character's hand was possessed and was trying to kill him. Oh, please! Also, that damn giggly zombie was back in the second film...
The final movie I want to mention is P2. We also watched this movie over the weekend (yes, we watch a lot of movies). While also not a great movie, it was better than the others mentioned above. We definitely felt more for Angela who was imprisoned in a parking garage by a demented parking attendee who had a crush on her than for James and Kristen out in the woods tormented by three strangers. Too bad we didn't go see Iron Man instead of The Strangers in the theater...
Games: We've had a Nintendo Wii for some time now and both M. and I enjoy it. I picked up a Wii Fit last week and it only took me one evening of calling around and a dash to our local Toys R Us to get it - unlike our console which we had to stalk stores for 2 weeks to get. Actually, I picked up 2 Wii Fits last week. One was for M.'s mom who had been wanting one before I even knew what they were. Unfortunately, M.'s parents have had console problems and apparently the 2nd console Nintendo sent them does not like the Wii Fit, so they have to contact Nintendo and have a third console sent out. Until then, M.'s mom doesn't get to use her Wii Fit game or balance board.
I've used my Wii Fit almost every day since we got it. For those who don't know about the Wii Fit (I only recently got the concept), you get a balance board and compatible game for the purchase price of $89.99. With your Wii Fit you can do a body test which will measure your weight, BMI, balance, and give you an estimated age based on those measurements. It also has yoga, strength training, balance, and aerobic activities to help keep your measurements in check. What I really like about it is that you need to bank time doing these activities to unlock new activities, so you have an incentive to work out. I just unlocked rhythm boxing last night and love it! My plan was to do yoga each day and alternate aerobic and strength training. Tonight was to be strength training, but I may slip some rhythm boxing in too!
Last night M. went on an impulse buy trip to town to pick up Rock Band for our PS3 (yes, we have a lot of game systems). The game is a bit pricey and I wasn't sure about getting it, but M. seemed pretty excited, so I gave him the go ahead to get it while I worked on my aerobics with my Wii Fit. I banked 45 minutes on the Wii Fit, unloaded the dishwasher, setup the cats' drinking fountain (after it went through the dishwasher), gathered household trash from our little cans around the house, and scooped the litter box while M. was on his shopping trip. He had to go to three stores, but eventually found the game. (Why do the things we want always have to be so hard to find?)
I left M. in the living room to unpack the box (and it was a big box) while I showered off my Wii sweat. When I came out he had the guitar and microphone unpacked and was beginning to work on the drum set. If you've not heard of Rock Band, this game is kind of like the Guitar Hero games in that you can play a guitar along with popular songs, but in addition to the guitar, you can also have someone on the drums and someone singing, hence making up your rock band!
I wasn't exactly excited about this game, but I am glad M. went out and got it. We rocked the night away - M. on the drums and me on vocals. I am not a good singer, but on 'easy' level I did pretty good. We got to create characters for ourselves and name our band. We ended up being The Beavers - a throw back to M.'s past (don't ask, I don't have the finger strength to finish this post and tell you about that story). M. is the outrageous drummer Storm and I am the Gothic rocker Lil'Seed. What is especially nice about this game is it's song list. Lots of songs M. and I have heard and like (unlike some of those other singing games). You can also purchase additional songs from the music store.
M. and I rocked so much last night we were able to unlock several new venues, gained about 2,000 fans, and even got a crappy van to tour in so we can make it from venue to venue! M. was ready to get to his drums again this morning, but of course, we have to work...
Books: I finally finished Sophie's Choice. Like The Strangers, this was just okay for me. I picked up this book because I had heard vague murmurings about it, and of course, knew it was a movie. I've never seen the movie and I really didn't know what the book was about before actually reading it. The first problem I had was that the paperback copy I got at the library had very small, cramped text. My eyes are okay and I do a lot of reading, but that was hard to get through. Secondly, you don't even learn what Sophie's choice is until the last quarter of the book and by that time there has been so much other drama in Sophie's life (past and present) that it is hard to get caught up in her choice. I don't think the author gave enough text to the actual choice and how it impacted Sophie. Maybe the movie focuses more on the choice?
After Sophie's Choice I read The Virgin of Small Plains. Loved this book! I will have to pick up some more books by Nancy Pickard next time I'm at the library. This is a mystery set in 1987 and 2004 Kansas. The book does jump from the past to 'present' 2004, so if you don't like that in a book, this may not be for you, but it didn't bother me. In 1987 a girl is found naked and dead on a ranch and the mystery is who is she and why did she end up dead (and frozen to boot) on a cattle ranch.
Currently, I am reading Bastard Out Of Carolina. Not very far yet, but I'm enjoying it so far. I have seen the movie version of this book staring Jennifer Jason Leigh. I liked the movie, so am anticipating liking the book. I may have to pick up some other books by Dorothy Allison after this.
Each time I go to the library I update the 'Book Bag' section of this blog on the right side. I know you need to know what I am reading, so keep up to date over there.
This ends our first edition of 'What's Up.' I hope you have enjoyed reading about what fun and oh so exciting things I have been doing. I must now depart for my beloved copier. Tune in again some other time... Adieu.
Once the files are downstairs, someone needs to plow through them to pull out the applicable reports (sometimes up to 4 reports per file), scan them in and then save them so they can be burnt to CD. Of course, during the entire year we worked on this accreditation it was never mentioned we would need to do this - only after we've received our accreditation does this come up, and of course, it is now URGENT that we get this done. This could not have been done over the course of the year, especially not in the winter when it would have been cooler in the attic...
And, of course this is URGENT so it falls me to me to plow through these files by myself because our summer helper is at camp this week. I will be so glad when she is back! Apparently, it was also policy here in the office back in the day to use a staple per every 2 pages. So, for each report I have to pull out about a dozen staples before I can run the thing through the copier. So, please, fellow workers, please be careful not to trip over my chain and shackles while working near the back copier... I will likely be there all week!!
So because I don't and likely won't have a lot to snark about during this all encompassing project at work, I thought I'd let you all know what I have been up to outside of work. I know you all want to know desperately!
Movies: M. and I went to see The Strangers over the weekend. I was excited about this movie because scary movies and thrillers are my favorite movie genre. Unfortunately, this is one of those movies that did not live up to the previews for me (or for M. who also wanted to see it). I did not have that 'movie high' when leaving the theater. Do you get that 'movie high?' You know, that feeling when you leave a theater that the movie was just great, or that it might have changed the way you look at something or think about things? Well, that wasn't this movie. This movie was just okay for me. M. pointed out about 5 minutes in that the camera work was very shaky, even more so than Cloverfield, which we watched about a week ago. As with many little eccentricities, I really didn't notice this until M. pointed it out, but then it was annoying. Also, as M. says, you really don't get to know the main characters, James and Kristen, so it is hard to feel anything for them when the three strangers start attacking them simply because they 'were home.' I think with some more story background and a steadier camera this might have been a good movie and not just okay.
We also tried out Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. M. had seen something about these movies and that they had received good viewer ratings, in fact, were consider cult classics. I am always up for horror flicks, even the old ones, so I sat down with M. to watch these films. We watched all of the first one although I don't know why. It was entirely hokey. I know, you need to expect a degree of that in many of the older flicks, but this was just too much hokey for me. Zombie dead people who sit in doorways and just giggle are not my thing. I watched about 15 minutes of the second one and it was even worse, so I decided making our bed would be entirely more interesting. M. watched a bit more than me and while I was tucking in bedding I heard "Give me back my hand," come from the living room. Later M. would tell me that the main character's hand was possessed and was trying to kill him. Oh, please! Also, that damn giggly zombie was back in the second film...
The final movie I want to mention is P2. We also watched this movie over the weekend (yes, we watch a lot of movies). While also not a great movie, it was better than the others mentioned above. We definitely felt more for Angela who was imprisoned in a parking garage by a demented parking attendee who had a crush on her than for James and Kristen out in the woods tormented by three strangers. Too bad we didn't go see Iron Man instead of The Strangers in the theater...
Games: We've had a Nintendo Wii for some time now and both M. and I enjoy it. I picked up a Wii Fit last week and it only took me one evening of calling around and a dash to our local Toys R Us to get it - unlike our console which we had to stalk stores for 2 weeks to get. Actually, I picked up 2 Wii Fits last week. One was for M.'s mom who had been wanting one before I even knew what they were. Unfortunately, M.'s parents have had console problems and apparently the 2nd console Nintendo sent them does not like the Wii Fit, so they have to contact Nintendo and have a third console sent out. Until then, M.'s mom doesn't get to use her Wii Fit game or balance board.
I've used my Wii Fit almost every day since we got it. For those who don't know about the Wii Fit (I only recently got the concept), you get a balance board and compatible game for the purchase price of $89.99. With your Wii Fit you can do a body test which will measure your weight, BMI, balance, and give you an estimated age based on those measurements. It also has yoga, strength training, balance, and aerobic activities to help keep your measurements in check. What I really like about it is that you need to bank time doing these activities to unlock new activities, so you have an incentive to work out. I just unlocked rhythm boxing last night and love it! My plan was to do yoga each day and alternate aerobic and strength training. Tonight was to be strength training, but I may slip some rhythm boxing in too!
Last night M. went on an impulse buy trip to town to pick up Rock Band for our PS3 (yes, we have a lot of game systems). The game is a bit pricey and I wasn't sure about getting it, but M. seemed pretty excited, so I gave him the go ahead to get it while I worked on my aerobics with my Wii Fit. I banked 45 minutes on the Wii Fit, unloaded the dishwasher, setup the cats' drinking fountain (after it went through the dishwasher), gathered household trash from our little cans around the house, and scooped the litter box while M. was on his shopping trip. He had to go to three stores, but eventually found the game. (Why do the things we want always have to be so hard to find?)
I left M. in the living room to unpack the box (and it was a big box) while I showered off my Wii sweat. When I came out he had the guitar and microphone unpacked and was beginning to work on the drum set. If you've not heard of Rock Band, this game is kind of like the Guitar Hero games in that you can play a guitar along with popular songs, but in addition to the guitar, you can also have someone on the drums and someone singing, hence making up your rock band!
I wasn't exactly excited about this game, but I am glad M. went out and got it. We rocked the night away - M. on the drums and me on vocals. I am not a good singer, but on 'easy' level I did pretty good. We got to create characters for ourselves and name our band. We ended up being The Beavers - a throw back to M.'s past (don't ask, I don't have the finger strength to finish this post and tell you about that story). M. is the outrageous drummer Storm and I am the Gothic rocker Lil'Seed. What is especially nice about this game is it's song list. Lots of songs M. and I have heard and like (unlike some of those other singing games). You can also purchase additional songs from the music store.
M. and I rocked so much last night we were able to unlock several new venues, gained about 2,000 fans, and even got a crappy van to tour in so we can make it from venue to venue! M. was ready to get to his drums again this morning, but of course, we have to work...
Books: I finally finished Sophie's Choice. Like The Strangers, this was just okay for me. I picked up this book because I had heard vague murmurings about it, and of course, knew it was a movie. I've never seen the movie and I really didn't know what the book was about before actually reading it. The first problem I had was that the paperback copy I got at the library had very small, cramped text. My eyes are okay and I do a lot of reading, but that was hard to get through. Secondly, you don't even learn what Sophie's choice is until the last quarter of the book and by that time there has been so much other drama in Sophie's life (past and present) that it is hard to get caught up in her choice. I don't think the author gave enough text to the actual choice and how it impacted Sophie. Maybe the movie focuses more on the choice?
After Sophie's Choice I read The Virgin of Small Plains. Loved this book! I will have to pick up some more books by Nancy Pickard next time I'm at the library. This is a mystery set in 1987 and 2004 Kansas. The book does jump from the past to 'present' 2004, so if you don't like that in a book, this may not be for you, but it didn't bother me. In 1987 a girl is found naked and dead on a ranch and the mystery is who is she and why did she end up dead (and frozen to boot) on a cattle ranch.
Currently, I am reading Bastard Out Of Carolina. Not very far yet, but I'm enjoying it so far. I have seen the movie version of this book staring Jennifer Jason Leigh. I liked the movie, so am anticipating liking the book. I may have to pick up some other books by Dorothy Allison after this.
Each time I go to the library I update the 'Book Bag' section of this blog on the right side. I know you need to know what I am reading, so keep up to date over there.
This ends our first edition of 'What's Up.' I hope you have enjoyed reading about what fun and oh so exciting things I have been doing. I must now depart for my beloved copier. Tune in again some other time... Adieu.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
My affair with Nano
I have a metallic green iPod Nano - 2nd generation. I love my little Nano for all the stupid reasons people love their iPods (or whatever player you have). It's small, it's cute, and best of all, it's GREEN!
M.'s parents got me an iPod Shuffle for Christmas a couple years ago. I liked the Shuffle - it was defitely a great size for a player and you can clip the thing anywhere, but I was still very attracted to the metallic green iPod Nano. So M. and I talked and it was decided I would get a metallic green iPod Nano and he would claim my Shuffle (good for clipping on while mowing).
Shortly after the purchase of my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation) the 3rd generation Nano was released. Have you seen that thing? It's cute, but it doesn't come in the bright metallic green my Nano came in. Plus, it's kind of a squatty little thing. Apparently, this is so you can watch videos on your Nano. I've never had the desire to do that anyway, so I'll just stick to my metallic green iPod Nano 2nd Generation!
Here's a list of what is currently in my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation):
M.'s parents got me an iPod Shuffle for Christmas a couple years ago. I liked the Shuffle - it was defitely a great size for a player and you can clip the thing anywhere, but I was still very attracted to the metallic green iPod Nano. So M. and I talked and it was decided I would get a metallic green iPod Nano and he would claim my Shuffle (good for clipping on while mowing).
Shortly after the purchase of my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation) the 3rd generation Nano was released. Have you seen that thing? It's cute, but it doesn't come in the bright metallic green my Nano came in. Plus, it's kind of a squatty little thing. Apparently, this is so you can watch videos on your Nano. I've never had the desire to do that anyway, so I'll just stick to my metallic green iPod Nano 2nd Generation!
Here's a list of what is currently in my metallic green iPod Nano (2nd generation):
- American Beauty - the score and soundtrack
- Buckcherry - Time Bomb, Buckcherry, 15
- Colbie Caillat - Coco
- Counting Crows - August & Everything After, Recovering the Satellites, This Desert Life
- Creed - End of Days, My Own Prison, Greatest Hits
- Dexter - the soundtrack
- Disturbed - The Sickness, Ten Thousand Fists
- Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
- Great Expectations - the soundtrack
- Raidohead - In Rainbows
- Juno - the soundtrack
- Korn - End of Days, Follow the Leader, Greatest Hits Vol. 1, Issues, Korn, Life is Peachy, See You on the Other Side, Take a Look in the Mirror
- Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
- Memoirs of a Geisha - the soundtrack
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik, By the Way, Californication, Greatest Hits, One Hot Minute, Stadium Arcadium
- Rob Zombie - Educated Horses, Past, Present & Future, The Sinister Urge
- Sneaker Pimps - Becoming Remixed, Becoming X, Bloodsport, Splinter
- Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna, The Other Side of the Mirror, Rock a Little, Street Angel, Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks, Trouble in Shangri-La, The Wild Heart
- The Carpenters - Great Hits from Billboard Top 100
- The Cranberries - Everybody Else is Doing It, No Need to Argue
- Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
- The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
What's playing in your ears?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Story *Warning!* this is another long one...
I grew up in North Dakota and my entire immediate family still lives in North Dakota - my dad would never live anywhere else. If you know anything about ND (which a lot of people don't; I've met people who think it's part of Canada...), then you know people population is sparse and spread out. Also, we don't get very diverse in ND - you mainly have your white people of Norwegian heritage or your white people of German heritage with a sprinkling of Native Americans and perhaps one or two African Americans. My family is of the white German variety which that, plus my disposition, earned me the nickname 'Hitler' at some point during my late grade school years - but that my snarky readers is not part of this story.
One of the questions I frequently get when people learn I am from ND is, "How did you end up here?" The short answer is M. and that, readers, is what this story is about.
I graduated from high school in a class of 42 people, most of which I had known since kindergarten. This means I never learned how to properly socialize and meet people because I never had to do that. Dating was also a big unknown (and really, still is) because I had a guy start flirting with me in my freshman algebra class and ended up dating him for the next 4 years.
My parents hated this guy. Every time they saw him they probably thought, "Bleck," and a whole lot of other not-nice things, so we will call him Bleck. Of course, my parents were right about Bleck, but I really did not start seeing that until my junior year of high school and by that time I was already wearing an engagement ring from him (but not in sight of my parents). Bleck was a year older than me, so he was not in school my senior year. I really didn't like Bleck much by this time, but we were one of the longest standing relationships at the school and in my 17 year old mind, that was pretty cool. Plus, I didn't have to see Bleck all day, so that was pretty cool too.
When I went to college I decided on a school 5 hours away from my hometown (still in ND). My parents weren't too happy about this. I am their oldest and they'd never had a child leave the nest. Plus, I've always harbored the feeling that I am my dad's favorite even though he would never say that. So it was hard on my parents, but I later found out that they had agreed to the 5 hour away school in the hopes that the separation would lead me to break up with Bleck. Since I was already not liking him so much, being out of my high school really broke the only string holding me to Bleck - the length of our relationship being 'cool.' I broke up with Bleck about 2 months into my first year of college. Bleck really didn't get it for another 2 or 3 months, but that's not central to this story.
Now I was left 5 hours away from home and the only person I knew was my roommate who was my on and off again best friend from home. Since I wasn't big on the social scene, I spent a good amount of time in my dorm room. And I had a computer in my dorm room and that computer was connected to the internet! The internet was still a baby when I first entered college. It was especially new to me. I didn't have time to sit at a computer when I was in high school - I was out with friends and Bleck. My sister, though, she was at home learning all about the internet and joining chat rooms.
I decided to check out these chat rooms and the easiest way to do that was to join ones my sister was a member of. She had joined a group called 'Teenchat' which was created by none other than M. and some of his online friends. This is where I met M. - in a virtual world of text.
I met a lot of people, well, guys, in these chat rooms. In fact, it is even how I met a guy right on the same college campus I was living on! Now this virtual world was very new to me and just didn't seem quite real. These people typing things onto my screen weren't real people - I couldn't see them, we couldn't go out for a nice dinner and a movie... Well, that was true of all of them except Campus Guy.
Now while I was 'meeting' all these people online, M. and I both had significant others. Well, to be truthful, I had several people in that short time frame I sort of called 'significant others.' There was Bleck for awhile, then some guy in Washington state who told me he was 19 but turned out to be more like 35, there was a guy in Texas, and there was Campus Guy. Now the most serious out of the herd at the time I was starting to really chat with M. were Texas and Campus Guy. Texas was good looking, nice, but not real. Campus Guy was kind of dorky, but he was real and I could go out on actual dates with him. He even took me to a Prince concert!
Now M. knew about Texas because we were all part of the same chat room, but Texas and M. didn't know about the others and certainly didn't know about Campus Guy whom I had met in a ND-based chat room. When my 'relationship' with Texas started falling apart M. was there for me. At the same time his 'relationship' with whoever he was 'dating' also started falling apart and I was there for him. By the end of my first year of college M. and I were 'together.' (But for me, some guy living thousands of miles away in another state was not real.)
Unfortunately, Campus Guy was also lurking around and one day decided to check out the other chat rooms I was visiting.Bad idea, Campus Guy. He found out about M. who I was online dating and M. found out about Campus Guy who I was in-real life dating (even though I liked M. much more than Campus Guy, he was still thousands of miles away and not a real person). Within minutes of them talking and finding out all my insipid hideousness, I had a call from M. and while I was on the phone trying to explain myself, Campus Guy showed up at my dorm room door.
Now there was a dose of reality for me. While I may not have seen M. as a totally real person, he certainly saw me as a real person whom he expected to meet in real life and who he thought was his exclusive girlfriend. I stayed on the phone with M., sitting on my bean bag with a blanket over my head and sent my roommate out to deal with Campus Guy. Campus Guy was crying and roommate really didn't want to go out in the hall with him, but I insisted (after all, I was once Hitler, right?).
I don't remember all the sordid details, but I ended up breaking up with Campus Guy and pledging myself to this not real guy thousands of miles away. M. and I chatted online and on the phone many more times before we got to January of my first year of college when he and buddy drove those thousands of miles so M. could meet me in person.
They arrived very, very early on a Saturday morning. My first real date with M. was breakfast at Denny's and his driving buddy was there too. We spent the day together after ditching driving buddy with my roommate and that evening M. presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him. I said yes.
And if you have been following my very vague timeline throughout this story, you will know M. and I knew each other all of 4 months (and all that 'knowing' was via the internet) before he popped the question. But when you only have words between two people they actually get to know each other very well - given they are telling each other the truth, which we were (minus my little Campus Guy episode). Somehow we knew this was right - and we must have been correct because that was over 10 years ago.
M. and his buddy had to leave again on Sunday - it was just a weekend trip, they both had to get back to their own college courses. They pushed M.'s little Chevy S-10 to it's limits that weekend, driving up to see me and then high-tailing it home again.
I told my parents I was engaged to M. via email. I knew they had hated Bleck, I didn't know how they would feel about some guy I met on the internet. In March we decided to use our spring breaks to travel and meet each other's parents. M. came to ND first, traveling by train this time and getting mugged to boot. He met me in my college town and we drove the 5 hours to my hometown in my orange Ford Pinto. I don't remember much about the visit except that it was cold, M. hated the weather, and we had to drive back to my college town to catch the train to M.'s home state in a blizzard. I had to do all the driving in ND because my Pinto was a manual shift and M. couldn't drive it. But then again, I grew up in ND. This was not my first time driving in a blizzard.
I don't remember much about the train ride or meeting M.'s parents either, except the very vaguest details. I remember how green everything was when we arrived. I remember M.'s mom giving me a hug which was strange for me since I rarely hugged my own parents. I remember when we got to M.'s parents house it was late at night and on our way up to the bedrooms, I remember hearing M.'s dad whisper to M. that we were not sharing a bed.
In May as we both ended our college courses, M. moved to ND. We got a very, very small apartment together near campus. The original plan was we would be married in July of the following year, finish our college degrees in ND, then decide what to do from there. Well, in that year M. lived in ND before we got married it became very apparent his parents could not stand being so separated from their youngest child and only son. M.'s dad told us he would help us get a house if we moved to M.'s home state once we were married.
We were living in an apartment not much bigger than the office I am currently working in, so of course a house was very appealing to me. Also, I was only 20 years old, separation from my family didn't seem like a big deal. So, about a year and a half after meeting online, M. and I were married and had moved back to his home state to live in a small house owned by M.'s grandmother.
And that my readers, is the long answer to "How did you end up here?"
***********************************************************
And, just because this was probably the most personal post I've written to date, I'm going to finish with just a little current day snarky - a situation that earned the 'Big Eye Roll.'
Yesterday as I was walking down the office hall I was stopped by a coworker. Now, I do like the people I currently work with, but definitely like some less than others. This was a 'I like you pretty much least of all' person. She stops me and says, "I have a personal computer questions for you." Now when my mind heard the word 'personal' in there it started screaming "DO NOT ASK ME A PERSONAL QUESTION!!" even before the word 'computer' came out of her mouth. She told me her Facebook page wouldn't load at home but everything else works just fine. She also went on about some Java script not working or some such thing.
Now, I know a little about computers (mostly knowledge self-taught or picked up from M.), however I do not know much about scripts, Java, the inner workings of the internet, and I certainly cannot diagnose a computer problem while standing in the hall at work. Plus, I have heard of Facebook, but not once have I ventured to that website or even seen a screenshot of it. For goodness sake, that is a social website - what purpose would I have there?!
I tried to be nice and told coworker I could not help her, that I know nothing about Facebook or why it's not working on her home computer. At the same time I really wanted to yell at her and tell her while we work together and are cordial most of the time, we're really not friends, and I really don't like talking to you, so there. I thought telling her I didn't know the solution would send her on her way down the hall, but no. She then wanted to know what I thought she should do. I don't know - Google it? I directed her to another coworker (sorry other coworker) who I thought might have some kind of help for her. And that finally ended it. I waited until she was ahead of me in the hall, but she most definitely got a big eye roll for that little interaction!
One of the questions I frequently get when people learn I am from ND is, "How did you end up here?" The short answer is M. and that, readers, is what this story is about.
I graduated from high school in a class of 42 people, most of which I had known since kindergarten. This means I never learned how to properly socialize and meet people because I never had to do that. Dating was also a big unknown (and really, still is) because I had a guy start flirting with me in my freshman algebra class and ended up dating him for the next 4 years.
My parents hated this guy. Every time they saw him they probably thought, "Bleck," and a whole lot of other not-nice things, so we will call him Bleck. Of course, my parents were right about Bleck, but I really did not start seeing that until my junior year of high school and by that time I was already wearing an engagement ring from him (but not in sight of my parents). Bleck was a year older than me, so he was not in school my senior year. I really didn't like Bleck much by this time, but we were one of the longest standing relationships at the school and in my 17 year old mind, that was pretty cool. Plus, I didn't have to see Bleck all day, so that was pretty cool too.
When I went to college I decided on a school 5 hours away from my hometown (still in ND). My parents weren't too happy about this. I am their oldest and they'd never had a child leave the nest. Plus, I've always harbored the feeling that I am my dad's favorite even though he would never say that. So it was hard on my parents, but I later found out that they had agreed to the 5 hour away school in the hopes that the separation would lead me to break up with Bleck. Since I was already not liking him so much, being out of my high school really broke the only string holding me to Bleck - the length of our relationship being 'cool.' I broke up with Bleck about 2 months into my first year of college. Bleck really didn't get it for another 2 or 3 months, but that's not central to this story.
Now I was left 5 hours away from home and the only person I knew was my roommate who was my on and off again best friend from home. Since I wasn't big on the social scene, I spent a good amount of time in my dorm room. And I had a computer in my dorm room and that computer was connected to the internet! The internet was still a baby when I first entered college. It was especially new to me. I didn't have time to sit at a computer when I was in high school - I was out with friends and Bleck. My sister, though, she was at home learning all about the internet and joining chat rooms.
I decided to check out these chat rooms and the easiest way to do that was to join ones my sister was a member of. She had joined a group called 'Teenchat' which was created by none other than M. and some of his online friends. This is where I met M. - in a virtual world of text.
I met a lot of people, well, guys, in these chat rooms. In fact, it is even how I met a guy right on the same college campus I was living on! Now this virtual world was very new to me and just didn't seem quite real. These people typing things onto my screen weren't real people - I couldn't see them, we couldn't go out for a nice dinner and a movie... Well, that was true of all of them except Campus Guy.
Now while I was 'meeting' all these people online, M. and I both had significant others. Well, to be truthful, I had several people in that short time frame I sort of called 'significant others.' There was Bleck for awhile, then some guy in Washington state who told me he was 19 but turned out to be more like 35, there was a guy in Texas, and there was Campus Guy. Now the most serious out of the herd at the time I was starting to really chat with M. were Texas and Campus Guy. Texas was good looking, nice, but not real. Campus Guy was kind of dorky, but he was real and I could go out on actual dates with him. He even took me to a Prince concert!
Now M. knew about Texas because we were all part of the same chat room, but Texas and M. didn't know about the others and certainly didn't know about Campus Guy whom I had met in a ND-based chat room. When my 'relationship' with Texas started falling apart M. was there for me. At the same time his 'relationship' with whoever he was 'dating' also started falling apart and I was there for him. By the end of my first year of college M. and I were 'together.' (But for me, some guy living thousands of miles away in another state was not real.)
Unfortunately, Campus Guy was also lurking around and one day decided to check out the other chat rooms I was visiting.Bad idea, Campus Guy. He found out about M. who I was online dating and M. found out about Campus Guy who I was in-real life dating (even though I liked M. much more than Campus Guy, he was still thousands of miles away and not a real person). Within minutes of them talking and finding out all my insipid hideousness, I had a call from M. and while I was on the phone trying to explain myself, Campus Guy showed up at my dorm room door.
Now there was a dose of reality for me. While I may not have seen M. as a totally real person, he certainly saw me as a real person whom he expected to meet in real life and who he thought was his exclusive girlfriend. I stayed on the phone with M., sitting on my bean bag with a blanket over my head and sent my roommate out to deal with Campus Guy. Campus Guy was crying and roommate really didn't want to go out in the hall with him, but I insisted (after all, I was once Hitler, right?).
I don't remember all the sordid details, but I ended up breaking up with Campus Guy and pledging myself to this not real guy thousands of miles away. M. and I chatted online and on the phone many more times before we got to January of my first year of college when he and buddy drove those thousands of miles so M. could meet me in person.
They arrived very, very early on a Saturday morning. My first real date with M. was breakfast at Denny's and his driving buddy was there too. We spent the day together after ditching driving buddy with my roommate and that evening M. presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him. I said yes.
And if you have been following my very vague timeline throughout this story, you will know M. and I knew each other all of 4 months (and all that 'knowing' was via the internet) before he popped the question. But when you only have words between two people they actually get to know each other very well - given they are telling each other the truth, which we were (minus my little Campus Guy episode). Somehow we knew this was right - and we must have been correct because that was over 10 years ago.
M. and his buddy had to leave again on Sunday - it was just a weekend trip, they both had to get back to their own college courses. They pushed M.'s little Chevy S-10 to it's limits that weekend, driving up to see me and then high-tailing it home again.
I told my parents I was engaged to M. via email. I knew they had hated Bleck, I didn't know how they would feel about some guy I met on the internet. In March we decided to use our spring breaks to travel and meet each other's parents. M. came to ND first, traveling by train this time and getting mugged to boot. He met me in my college town and we drove the 5 hours to my hometown in my orange Ford Pinto. I don't remember much about the visit except that it was cold, M. hated the weather, and we had to drive back to my college town to catch the train to M.'s home state in a blizzard. I had to do all the driving in ND because my Pinto was a manual shift and M. couldn't drive it. But then again, I grew up in ND. This was not my first time driving in a blizzard.
I don't remember much about the train ride or meeting M.'s parents either, except the very vaguest details. I remember how green everything was when we arrived. I remember M.'s mom giving me a hug which was strange for me since I rarely hugged my own parents. I remember when we got to M.'s parents house it was late at night and on our way up to the bedrooms, I remember hearing M.'s dad whisper to M. that we were not sharing a bed.
In May as we both ended our college courses, M. moved to ND. We got a very, very small apartment together near campus. The original plan was we would be married in July of the following year, finish our college degrees in ND, then decide what to do from there. Well, in that year M. lived in ND before we got married it became very apparent his parents could not stand being so separated from their youngest child and only son. M.'s dad told us he would help us get a house if we moved to M.'s home state once we were married.
We were living in an apartment not much bigger than the office I am currently working in, so of course a house was very appealing to me. Also, I was only 20 years old, separation from my family didn't seem like a big deal. So, about a year and a half after meeting online, M. and I were married and had moved back to his home state to live in a small house owned by M.'s grandmother.
And that my readers, is the long answer to "How did you end up here?"
***********************************************************
And, just because this was probably the most personal post I've written to date, I'm going to finish with just a little current day snarky - a situation that earned the 'Big Eye Roll.'
Yesterday as I was walking down the office hall I was stopped by a coworker. Now, I do like the people I currently work with, but definitely like some less than others. This was a 'I like you pretty much least of all' person. She stops me and says, "I have a personal computer questions for you." Now when my mind heard the word 'personal' in there it started screaming "DO NOT ASK ME A PERSONAL QUESTION!!" even before the word 'computer' came out of her mouth. She told me her Facebook page wouldn't load at home but everything else works just fine. She also went on about some Java script not working or some such thing.
Now, I know a little about computers (mostly knowledge self-taught or picked up from M.), however I do not know much about scripts, Java, the inner workings of the internet, and I certainly cannot diagnose a computer problem while standing in the hall at work. Plus, I have heard of Facebook, but not once have I ventured to that website or even seen a screenshot of it. For goodness sake, that is a social website - what purpose would I have there?!
I tried to be nice and told coworker I could not help her, that I know nothing about Facebook or why it's not working on her home computer. At the same time I really wanted to yell at her and tell her while we work together and are cordial most of the time, we're really not friends, and I really don't like talking to you, so there. I thought telling her I didn't know the solution would send her on her way down the hall, but no. She then wanted to know what I thought she should do. I don't know - Google it? I directed her to another coworker (sorry other coworker) who I thought might have some kind of help for her. And that finally ended it. I waited until she was ahead of me in the hall, but she most definitely got a big eye roll for that little interaction!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thought Spill... *CAUTION* It's a long one!
Oh, I have been gone so long! Things have been extra busy for me at work and I typically don't blog on the weekends, but here I am. Welcome to a new blog post! How have you all been?
Weekend Happenings: After sleeping off the beginnings of some kind of illness all Friday, I was pretty ready for the weekend. Saturday was chore day (not a routine or typical happening at our house). M. got out and mowed our lawn even though it didn't look half as bad as a neighbor. This particular neighbor is also at the very beginning of the subdivision while we're tucked away in the back, so neighbor's grass is visible to all visitors to our neighborhood. The grass is probably about 3 feet high and going to seed (Clyde and Luigi would definitely get lost in that grass jungle)! That neighbor sucks. Our lawn looks all nice now even without any landscaping...
I did stuff too! I cleaned inside while M. took care of the outside. We now have sparkly fresh bathrooms, vacuumed floors, and Clyde and Luigi are having a much nicer box experience. I also finished reading A Darker Place. I am always excited to find potentially good authors I've never read before, so when I saw this book on the shelf at the library tagged as 'mystery' and with the cover proclaiming 'A Nail-Biter Thriller,' this had to be at least decent, right? Well, it was okay as far as putting together sentences and that sort of thing, but nowhere in the almost 500 pages did I feel it was thrilling (certainly not to the point I was chomping my nails) nor was it what I would call 'mysterious.' So much for Laurie R. King as a new author on my book list... This book did get almost 5 stars on Amazon.com, so some people out there like. Not me.
I know you are all here to find out what I'm reading and how much I did or did not enjoy it, so I will tell you once I finished A Darker Place I immediately plunged into The Secret Life of Bees. What a difference! This book is not typed in the same genre as A Darker Place (supposed to be a mystery, but really isn't) - The Secret Life of Bees is more in the range of literary drama, but oh so much better - even in the first 10 pages! I've got about 100 pages left to go and look forward to finishing it up tonight.
I will have plenty of time to read tonight since M. has embarked on a new gaming experience - The Age of Conan. M. has been excited about this online game for some time now and it was just released to a limited number of players for advanced access and M. was lucky enough to register in time for the early access. I am sure he will be totally enthralled in Hyboria tonight. M. has been trying to get me to read the books the game is based on - the Conan series by Robert E. Howard. This is not the kind of book I usually read, but when I am done with my current Book Bag I may try out one, just to see. I did try out the game for a couple hours yesterday and liked it well enough. I do enjoy video games, but those online role playing games where you have to team up with other people to complete quests are totally not for me. I am as antisocial in the online gaming world as I am in real life and do not like to play with others. The Age of Conan has 20 player levels that are single-player before you have to get into all the team up and conquer stuff, so I can play it for awhile - if I can get M. away from it for a bit, that is!
Okay, so the gaming bit last night is a bit out of order. I did do some more productive stuff Sunday before creating Raksasha, the Cimmerian bear shaman. M. and I ventured out to do some errands. Our first stop was the dreaded mega store.
We do try to avoid the mega store whenever we can, but after a bad experience with a 'all we do is eye exams' place a couple years ago I decided to go back to the vision center at the mega store. I really like the eye doctor at the mega store - he explained everything he was doing very well and I now more than I ever wanted to about the shape of my eyes, why certain contacts do not work, etc. It was still nicer than him just saying, "Is 1 or 2 better? How about 3 or 4?" So my exam was well over a month ago. Of course because my eyes are shaped weird (I have an astigmatism plus my eyes apparently also lay funny in the socket or something) my contacts have to be ordered, they are not regular stock at mega store's vision center. No big deal, I had a trial pair that would last me about a month and the ordered contacts were supposed to be in within a week or so. I did get the call that my contacts were ready shortly after ordering them and went in, picked them up and it was all easy peasy. Well, then my trial contacts were done for so I pull out the contacts I picked up. Opened the bag and well, they weren't the right ones! They were not for astigmatism and were the same strength in both boxes. I've known since I was in grade school that my eyes do not require the same amount of correction - my left one is definitely a bit behind my right eye. So I call and mega store vision center doesn't know how that happened, or where the contacts they ordered for me went, so they reorder.
And that is why M. and I made the stop at the mega store yesterday - to pick up my reordered contacts. We were walking through the parking lot behind a guy waving his cigarette around in the wind and thus burning out our eyes and nostrils because it was Sunday at the mega store and the only available parking was a mile from the store. We finally make it to the doors and pop in expecting a quick in and out, but to our dread the vision center was still dark - it doesn't open until noon on Sunday and it was 11:55. Well, since we were already at the mega store, we decided to browse a little while waiting for the vision center to open (M. is on a quest to find somewhere that still sells corn nuts). So we browse, and due to the crowds, end up back at the vision center about 12:05. Still dark!
Since it was now 5 minutes past when mega store vision center was supposed to open, M. went over to the greeter and asked if the vision center would be open today. Her response was, "He should be opening soon." By now there is another person standing at the black ropes keeping people out of the still dark vision center. I want to leave, telling M. I'll just pop in tomorrow since the mega store is near where I work. M. is insistent we wait.
About 12:08 we see someone beginning to move around in the darkened vision center. It is the smoking marvel who irritated our nasal passages on the way in. He's kind of moving around in there - not too fast despite the line growing outside the black ropes. Finally, he makes his way over to the ropes and removes them (still no lights). The guy waiting in front of M. and I slowly enters the darkened area. M. and I slowly enter behind him. It's still dark, but it's now almost 10 minutes past opening time, so is the vision center open or is it not? Smoking marvel still hasn't said a word. He goes over to a table of sunglasses and begins dinking around with them. No, "I will be right with you people who have been waiting and waiting since I decided to do whatever it was I was doing in the back instead of opening on time." No, "I am so sorry I had to have that last bit of cancer-inducing death stick instead of getting my butt in here to open on time."
Now the guy who entered in front of us is giving us that hesitant, "What the hell is going on" smile and we're giving it right back to him. It was probably only a few seconds between the dinking around at the sunglasses table until smoking marvel turned on the lights in the vision center, but it felt like an awkward 5 additional minutes. Finally, he helps the guy who entered in front of us. Of course, smoking marvel hasn't unlocked anything yet, so as he sets about helping in front-of-us-guy, he is also doing what he should have in that 5 minutes before noon (or the 10+ minutes he would have had if he'd skipped the cigarette).
When in front-of-us-guy is done I explain to smoking marvel why I am there. When I tell him that I was given the wrong contacts and I am now here to pick up the correct ones he exclaims, "Really? That has never happened before." Well, goodie gumdrops smoking marvel, please just get me my contacts! Which he did, and it took all of 2 seconds. A much snarkier situation than it should have been.
So then we're out of mega store having spent about 21 minutes/1 second more than we'd anticipated being in mega store. Then it was off to pick up an allergy prescription for M., some lunch, and our final stop, a home improvement place so M. could exchange his mom's defective wind chime and I could pick up terrarium supplies which took longer than M. had patience for and cost more than I had expected. Then it was home again, home again so M. could rush off to our 3-year old niece's birthday party.
My plan for the afternoon while M. was at the party was to try out his new Conan game. It seemed like the perfect time since he would be at the party, not hovering over my shoulder griping about how I chose to plan games or anxiously waiting for his turn at it again. So I got my terrarium supplies situated on our front porch (so the cats couldn't chew the plants) and tried to log in. Alas, the game was down for "tweaks and updates." Likely downtime = approximately 2 hours.
Okay, no problem. I had terrariums to plant. So I prepared my kitchen for that project. I laid mats over our table, brought in all the supplies from the front porch, got my containers out, and set to. I got as far as washing the containers and placing the drainage layer of rocks into the bottoms. I then realized despite the exorbitant amount of time I took to gather my supplies (exorbitant at least in M.'s mind), I had forgotten to get charcoal - a necessary layer to prevent soil mold and rot. Well, after spending as much as I did on the plants and other supplies, I was not going to let it go to waste by letting my soil fall prey to mold or stinky rot.
So I had a dilemma: go back to town and get some charcoal or back everything up and try again another day. Once I get into a project I rarely like to quit right at the beginning (if it's long and drawn out I may quit later, but not at the beginning) so I decided to head back to the home improvement store. I looked all over that darn store's garden section. No horticulture charcoal. Well, I knew where I could get some charcoal for certain - the mega store. Even if they didn't have horticulture charcoal, the fish supplies section would have charcoal for the fishy filters. So for the second time in one day I was back at the dreaded mega store. But I was right, they had charcoal, so mission accomplished.
And, because the people in front of my in the '10 items or less speedy checkout' had forgotten something and I had time to look over the impulse register items, I ended up buying some of these 'As Seen on TV' Green Bags. I thought since I am doing way more cooking and because we buy a lot more fresh produce that eventually doesn't all get used because it's just the two of us, these things would be handy (as long as they work like they are supposed to).
Back at home, I was now prepared to plant some terrariums! But the approximate two hour downtime for the game had passed, and since I had my plants securely shut away in a cabinet, I decided to try out the game. After all, once M. got home he would want to play the game and then I would have free time to plant. Well, on second attempt to log into the game server I found out that they were now approximating another hour of downtime. Well, poo! Back to the plants...
Once again I got everything out. I had planned to take pictures of my in-progress work on the terrariums, but between the unexpected charcoal trip, the ever-increasing game downtime, and attempting to keep cats off counters and out of dirt and plants, the pictures were forgotten. I even forgot to take pictures of the end products, but I created four very lovely terrariums. I left two at home and have two in my office. If any of my fellow office workers would like to stop by and visit, you can also admire my horticulture skill. I'll have to try to remember some photos for the blog too.
I did end up trying out the game, but you already knew that from reading one of the paragraphs way up there in this post. M. graciously gave me some time to try it out after he got home and practiced his guitar in the meantime.
So there is a very long step-by-step theme on 'What I Did This Weekend.' Now on to:
Monday Snarkiness: (Typically, this is Monday morning snarkiness, but my weekend took up so much time that it's now afternoon...) Here are today's random snarks, brought to you from my office:
Weekend Happenings: After sleeping off the beginnings of some kind of illness all Friday, I was pretty ready for the weekend. Saturday was chore day (not a routine or typical happening at our house). M. got out and mowed our lawn even though it didn't look half as bad as a neighbor. This particular neighbor is also at the very beginning of the subdivision while we're tucked away in the back, so neighbor's grass is visible to all visitors to our neighborhood. The grass is probably about 3 feet high and going to seed (Clyde and Luigi would definitely get lost in that grass jungle)! That neighbor sucks. Our lawn looks all nice now even without any landscaping...
I did stuff too! I cleaned inside while M. took care of the outside. We now have sparkly fresh bathrooms, vacuumed floors, and Clyde and Luigi are having a much nicer box experience. I also finished reading A Darker Place. I am always excited to find potentially good authors I've never read before, so when I saw this book on the shelf at the library tagged as 'mystery' and with the cover proclaiming 'A Nail-Biter Thriller,' this had to be at least decent, right? Well, it was okay as far as putting together sentences and that sort of thing, but nowhere in the almost 500 pages did I feel it was thrilling (certainly not to the point I was chomping my nails) nor was it what I would call 'mysterious.' So much for Laurie R. King as a new author on my book list... This book did get almost 5 stars on Amazon.com, so some people out there like. Not me.
I know you are all here to find out what I'm reading and how much I did or did not enjoy it, so I will tell you once I finished A Darker Place I immediately plunged into The Secret Life of Bees. What a difference! This book is not typed in the same genre as A Darker Place (supposed to be a mystery, but really isn't) - The Secret Life of Bees is more in the range of literary drama, but oh so much better - even in the first 10 pages! I've got about 100 pages left to go and look forward to finishing it up tonight.
I will have plenty of time to read tonight since M. has embarked on a new gaming experience - The Age of Conan. M. has been excited about this online game for some time now and it was just released to a limited number of players for advanced access and M. was lucky enough to register in time for the early access. I am sure he will be totally enthralled in Hyboria tonight. M. has been trying to get me to read the books the game is based on - the Conan series by Robert E. Howard. This is not the kind of book I usually read, but when I am done with my current Book Bag I may try out one, just to see. I did try out the game for a couple hours yesterday and liked it well enough. I do enjoy video games, but those online role playing games where you have to team up with other people to complete quests are totally not for me. I am as antisocial in the online gaming world as I am in real life and do not like to play with others. The Age of Conan has 20 player levels that are single-player before you have to get into all the team up and conquer stuff, so I can play it for awhile - if I can get M. away from it for a bit, that is!
Okay, so the gaming bit last night is a bit out of order. I did do some more productive stuff Sunday before creating Raksasha, the Cimmerian bear shaman. M. and I ventured out to do some errands. Our first stop was the dreaded mega store.
We do try to avoid the mega store whenever we can, but after a bad experience with a 'all we do is eye exams' place a couple years ago I decided to go back to the vision center at the mega store. I really like the eye doctor at the mega store - he explained everything he was doing very well and I now more than I ever wanted to about the shape of my eyes, why certain contacts do not work, etc. It was still nicer than him just saying, "Is 1 or 2 better? How about 3 or 4?" So my exam was well over a month ago. Of course because my eyes are shaped weird (I have an astigmatism plus my eyes apparently also lay funny in the socket or something) my contacts have to be ordered, they are not regular stock at mega store's vision center. No big deal, I had a trial pair that would last me about a month and the ordered contacts were supposed to be in within a week or so. I did get the call that my contacts were ready shortly after ordering them and went in, picked them up and it was all easy peasy. Well, then my trial contacts were done for so I pull out the contacts I picked up. Opened the bag and well, they weren't the right ones! They were not for astigmatism and were the same strength in both boxes. I've known since I was in grade school that my eyes do not require the same amount of correction - my left one is definitely a bit behind my right eye. So I call and mega store vision center doesn't know how that happened, or where the contacts they ordered for me went, so they reorder.
And that is why M. and I made the stop at the mega store yesterday - to pick up my reordered contacts. We were walking through the parking lot behind a guy waving his cigarette around in the wind and thus burning out our eyes and nostrils because it was Sunday at the mega store and the only available parking was a mile from the store. We finally make it to the doors and pop in expecting a quick in and out, but to our dread the vision center was still dark - it doesn't open until noon on Sunday and it was 11:55. Well, since we were already at the mega store, we decided to browse a little while waiting for the vision center to open (M. is on a quest to find somewhere that still sells corn nuts). So we browse, and due to the crowds, end up back at the vision center about 12:05. Still dark!
Since it was now 5 minutes past when mega store vision center was supposed to open, M. went over to the greeter and asked if the vision center would be open today. Her response was, "He should be opening soon." By now there is another person standing at the black ropes keeping people out of the still dark vision center. I want to leave, telling M. I'll just pop in tomorrow since the mega store is near where I work. M. is insistent we wait.
About 12:08 we see someone beginning to move around in the darkened vision center. It is the smoking marvel who irritated our nasal passages on the way in. He's kind of moving around in there - not too fast despite the line growing outside the black ropes. Finally, he makes his way over to the ropes and removes them (still no lights). The guy waiting in front of M. and I slowly enters the darkened area. M. and I slowly enter behind him. It's still dark, but it's now almost 10 minutes past opening time, so is the vision center open or is it not? Smoking marvel still hasn't said a word. He goes over to a table of sunglasses and begins dinking around with them. No, "I will be right with you people who have been waiting and waiting since I decided to do whatever it was I was doing in the back instead of opening on time." No, "I am so sorry I had to have that last bit of cancer-inducing death stick instead of getting my butt in here to open on time."
Now the guy who entered in front of us is giving us that hesitant, "What the hell is going on" smile and we're giving it right back to him. It was probably only a few seconds between the dinking around at the sunglasses table until smoking marvel turned on the lights in the vision center, but it felt like an awkward 5 additional minutes. Finally, he helps the guy who entered in front of us. Of course, smoking marvel hasn't unlocked anything yet, so as he sets about helping in front-of-us-guy, he is also doing what he should have in that 5 minutes before noon (or the 10+ minutes he would have had if he'd skipped the cigarette).
When in front-of-us-guy is done I explain to smoking marvel why I am there. When I tell him that I was given the wrong contacts and I am now here to pick up the correct ones he exclaims, "Really? That has never happened before." Well, goodie gumdrops smoking marvel, please just get me my contacts! Which he did, and it took all of 2 seconds. A much snarkier situation than it should have been.
So then we're out of mega store having spent about 21 minutes/1 second more than we'd anticipated being in mega store. Then it was off to pick up an allergy prescription for M., some lunch, and our final stop, a home improvement place so M. could exchange his mom's defective wind chime and I could pick up terrarium supplies which took longer than M. had patience for and cost more than I had expected. Then it was home again, home again so M. could rush off to our 3-year old niece's birthday party.
My plan for the afternoon while M. was at the party was to try out his new Conan game. It seemed like the perfect time since he would be at the party, not hovering over my shoulder griping about how I chose to plan games or anxiously waiting for his turn at it again. So I got my terrarium supplies situated on our front porch (so the cats couldn't chew the plants) and tried to log in. Alas, the game was down for "tweaks and updates." Likely downtime = approximately 2 hours.
Okay, no problem. I had terrariums to plant. So I prepared my kitchen for that project. I laid mats over our table, brought in all the supplies from the front porch, got my containers out, and set to. I got as far as washing the containers and placing the drainage layer of rocks into the bottoms. I then realized despite the exorbitant amount of time I took to gather my supplies (exorbitant at least in M.'s mind), I had forgotten to get charcoal - a necessary layer to prevent soil mold and rot. Well, after spending as much as I did on the plants and other supplies, I was not going to let it go to waste by letting my soil fall prey to mold or stinky rot.
So I had a dilemma: go back to town and get some charcoal or back everything up and try again another day. Once I get into a project I rarely like to quit right at the beginning (if it's long and drawn out I may quit later, but not at the beginning) so I decided to head back to the home improvement store. I looked all over that darn store's garden section. No horticulture charcoal. Well, I knew where I could get some charcoal for certain - the mega store. Even if they didn't have horticulture charcoal, the fish supplies section would have charcoal for the fishy filters. So for the second time in one day I was back at the dreaded mega store. But I was right, they had charcoal, so mission accomplished.
And, because the people in front of my in the '10 items or less speedy checkout' had forgotten something and I had time to look over the impulse register items, I ended up buying some of these 'As Seen on TV' Green Bags. I thought since I am doing way more cooking and because we buy a lot more fresh produce that eventually doesn't all get used because it's just the two of us, these things would be handy (as long as they work like they are supposed to).
Back at home, I was now prepared to plant some terrariums! But the approximate two hour downtime for the game had passed, and since I had my plants securely shut away in a cabinet, I decided to try out the game. After all, once M. got home he would want to play the game and then I would have free time to plant. Well, on second attempt to log into the game server I found out that they were now approximating another hour of downtime. Well, poo! Back to the plants...
Once again I got everything out. I had planned to take pictures of my in-progress work on the terrariums, but between the unexpected charcoal trip, the ever-increasing game downtime, and attempting to keep cats off counters and out of dirt and plants, the pictures were forgotten. I even forgot to take pictures of the end products, but I created four very lovely terrariums. I left two at home and have two in my office. If any of my fellow office workers would like to stop by and visit, you can also admire my horticulture skill. I'll have to try to remember some photos for the blog too.
I did end up trying out the game, but you already knew that from reading one of the paragraphs way up there in this post. M. graciously gave me some time to try it out after he got home and practiced his guitar in the meantime.
So there is a very long step-by-step theme on 'What I Did This Weekend.' Now on to:
Monday Snarkiness: (Typically, this is Monday morning snarkiness, but my weekend took up so much time that it's now afternoon...) Here are today's random snarks, brought to you from my office:
- Bossman is out of town and has sent me two emails in which he just forwards something he received and gives me no explanation of what I am supposed to do with this information...
- There's lemon cake in the break room. You ask what is snarky about lemon cake? Well, it's more to do with who brought in the lemon cake. It's just a symbolic reminder of the sappy happy this person exudes while at work. Sappy happy makes me want to vomit.
- The library bookcase is still empty and makes me snarky every time I walk in the front door.
- I was told if I got my self-evaluation completed by May 9th, my annual review would take place on time this year (a great feat for this place). Well, I turned the blasted thing in on the 8th and my review still has not been scheduled. Tomorrow is my 4 year anniversary here.
- The search feature thingy on my blog is not working right (Google is having some serious issues lately), so I've really had to hunt around to find past posts I want to link to this post.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Birthday Bonanza and Monday Morning Snark
Before I get into any snarkiness this morning, I would like to update all my wonderful, faithful readers (I know I have at least 4) on what I did this weekend.
Wordiness about the Weekend: Most of my readers know it was my birthday Saturday. Because age means nothing to me, I don't mind putting it out there that I am now 29 years old and I do not fear the approaching 30. So for my birthday M. and I went out to lunch and to a movie.
But before we went on birthday fun we made a stop at Lowes so M. could get a mother's day present (way to wait until nearly the last minute!!). He picked out a very nice bamboo wind chime. But guess what? We have to take it back because when his mom opened it yesterday one of the ceramic butterflies and bamboo thingys was missing. It figures we would get the defective one! After Lowes, it was off to lunch...
I got to choose where we ate, and instead of the old standby sit down restaurant (Applebees) I decided we'd venture to TGIFridays - even though it is attached to the mall, the most evil, evil shopping place. I also made M. drive so I didn't have to get stressed out by the last minute Mother's Day shopping traffic.
I ate at a TGIFridays a looong time ago during my first year of college. M. had never ate at one, so it was like a whole new experience for us. Matt had a 'petite sirloin' with a side of very yummy white cheddar jalapeno macaroni. (Kudos to M. for not getting chicken fingers!) I am typically not a big red meat eater, but I decided to try something different and went with the week 3 winner from the Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network - the Chipotle Grilled Steak Sandwich. I was a little weary of this dish since it was steak and plantains, but decided to go for it anyway and it was delicious! (I had mine with fries instead of the onion rings, but M. and I really shared his macaroni as a side to both our lunches.)
We then stopped at the theater to see Baby Mama. Now M. was not thrilled about seeing this movie, but again, my birthday, my choice. He ended up liking it much more than he thought he would. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler = very funny movie. Romany Malco was also in the movie (and has the lines from which the movie gets it's title). M. and I have enjoyed Romany's acting since seeing him in The 40 Year Old Virgin. We didn't know Romany was in the movie, so that was a nice surprise. If you enjoy comedy movies and don't get hung up on un-PC comments made in the movie, go see this one!
When we got home Clyde had decided to leave a nice present in the middle of the living
room - a hairball. Since it was my birthday that present was for M. Then it was present time for me. M. got me a new set of knives - he almost got me a new mixer, but fortunately he is a devoted Snark Chronicle reader and found out that a mixer wouldn't really help me out all that much. M. even consulted with his mom to make sure he got some good knives (OXO Good-Grips). I've not had a chance to use them yet, but they sure do look nice on my counter! I also have a pair of kitchen shears coming for the slot in the front and another knife to fill out all the slots. (M. ordered in plenty of time, but these two pieces were shipped by the ultra slow USPS.)
M.'s mom got me a Xyron adhesive runner. This will come in very handy so I'm not gluing my fingers together or getting glue all over my craft table when working on traditional paperart crafts. My parents sent me some cash.
After all the birthday fun I made a flan to take to M.'s parents on Sunday for Mother's Day. I even got the caramelized topping to work out this time! I am becoming a flan expert!
About 5am Sunday morning I woke up with very itchy eyes, so after about half an hour of trying to sleep I decided to take some Benadryl. Ended up sleeping most of Sunday except for the brief trip to M.'s parents where everyone loved my flan, and then I stay up for the Survivor finale.
So I guess that brings us up to today...
Monday Morning Snark: This won't be much of a snark for those who enjoy coming here mainly for the snarkiness. The only thing I have to snark about at this moment is a coworker's new tops. Last week we were dazzled (fancy word for blinded) by some big floral concoction and today it's zebra-like swirly stripes. This particular coworker must have been told by someone that her old wardrobe was too blah, so now we are subjected to loud patterns and bright colors. I personally preferred the blah...
Wordiness about the Weekend: Most of my readers know it was my birthday Saturday. Because age means nothing to me, I don't mind putting it out there that I am now 29 years old and I do not fear the approaching 30. So for my birthday M. and I went out to lunch and to a movie.
But before we went on birthday fun we made a stop at Lowes so M. could get a mother's day present (way to wait until nearly the last minute!!). He picked out a very nice bamboo wind chime. But guess what? We have to take it back because when his mom opened it yesterday one of the ceramic butterflies and bamboo thingys was missing. It figures we would get the defective one! After Lowes, it was off to lunch...
I got to choose where we ate, and instead of the old standby sit down restaurant (Applebees) I decided we'd venture to TGIFridays - even though it is attached to the mall, the most evil, evil shopping place. I also made M. drive so I didn't have to get stressed out by the last minute Mother's Day shopping traffic.
I ate at a TGIFridays a looong time ago during my first year of college. M. had never ate at one, so it was like a whole new experience for us. Matt had a 'petite sirloin' with a side of very yummy white cheddar jalapeno macaroni. (Kudos to M. for not getting chicken fingers!) I am typically not a big red meat eater, but I decided to try something different and went with the week 3 winner from the Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network - the Chipotle Grilled Steak Sandwich. I was a little weary of this dish since it was steak and plantains, but decided to go for it anyway and it was delicious! (I had mine with fries instead of the onion rings, but M. and I really shared his macaroni as a side to both our lunches.)
We then stopped at the theater to see Baby Mama. Now M. was not thrilled about seeing this movie, but again, my birthday, my choice. He ended up liking it much more than he thought he would. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler = very funny movie. Romany Malco was also in the movie (and has the lines from which the movie gets it's title). M. and I have enjoyed Romany's acting since seeing him in The 40 Year Old Virgin. We didn't know Romany was in the movie, so that was a nice surprise. If you enjoy comedy movies and don't get hung up on un-PC comments made in the movie, go see this one!
When we got home Clyde had decided to leave a nice present in the middle of the living
room - a hairball. Since it was my birthday that present was for M. Then it was present time for me. M. got me a new set of knives - he almost got me a new mixer, but fortunately he is a devoted Snark Chronicle reader and found out that a mixer wouldn't really help me out all that much. M. even consulted with his mom to make sure he got some good knives (OXO Good-Grips). I've not had a chance to use them yet, but they sure do look nice on my counter! I also have a pair of kitchen shears coming for the slot in the front and another knife to fill out all the slots. (M. ordered in plenty of time, but these two pieces were shipped by the ultra slow USPS.)
M.'s mom got me a Xyron adhesive runner. This will come in very handy so I'm not gluing my fingers together or getting glue all over my craft table when working on traditional paperart crafts. My parents sent me some cash.After all the birthday fun I made a flan to take to M.'s parents on Sunday for Mother's Day. I even got the caramelized topping to work out this time! I am becoming a flan expert!
About 5am Sunday morning I woke up with very itchy eyes, so after about half an hour of trying to sleep I decided to take some Benadryl. Ended up sleeping most of Sunday except for the brief trip to M.'s parents where everyone loved my flan, and then I stay up for the Survivor finale.
So I guess that brings us up to today...
Monday Morning Snark: This won't be much of a snark for those who enjoy coming here mainly for the snarkiness. The only thing I have to snark about at this moment is a coworker's new tops. Last week we were dazzled (fancy word for blinded) by some big floral concoction and today it's zebra-like swirly stripes. This particular coworker must have been told by someone that her old wardrobe was too blah, so now we are subjected to loud patterns and bright colors. I personally preferred the blah...
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I shook my card...
... BUT I have not opened it. It sounds like there is something moving in there within the card... oh the suspense!
And what the heck is this?! What a yucky way to spend $300 an hour. But if I had to do this I would choose Landon.
And what the heck is this?! What a yucky way to spend $300 an hour. But if I had to do this I would choose Landon.
Oh by the way Ms. CS...
I have a birthday coming up. I'm not one to bemoan getting a year older, especially since I still feel the same as I did when I first married M., which was now almost 9 years ago. But at the office this means you get together with coworkers for some lunchtime fun and get cards and stuff like that.
Well, coworker CS came down to my office today and she hands me a card. The card's in an envelope and CS has made a note on the front reading, "DON'T OPEN UNTIL B-day" (that's her capitalization). My birthday is Saturday which means I must hold onto this card until then unopened - if I follow CS's directions, that is.
Hey CS, did you know that my sister, brother, and I did expert pre-Christmas snooping because we just had to know what we were getting even though it ruined the surprise? When my mom caught on and started wrapping the presents before hiding them, we delicately removed the tape, took a peek, and then re-taped them. That's how much we had to know what was in those packages! So, do you really think your envelope glue is going to hold up against that?
Well, coworker CS came down to my office today and she hands me a card. The card's in an envelope and CS has made a note on the front reading, "DON'T OPEN UNTIL B-day" (that's her capitalization). My birthday is Saturday which means I must hold onto this card until then unopened - if I follow CS's directions, that is.
Hey CS, did you know that my sister, brother, and I did expert pre-Christmas snooping because we just had to know what we were getting even though it ruined the surprise? When my mom caught on and started wrapping the presents before hiding them, we delicately removed the tape, took a peek, and then re-taped them. That's how much we had to know what was in those packages! So, do you really think your envelope glue is going to hold up against that?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Just some morning thoughts...
It's primary election day here. M. and I voted early at one of the local libraries, so all taken care of. This is the first time I've made any kind of vote in a presidential election - much to M.'s chagrin. The only time I have made any kind of vote previously had been in a school-based issue.
I ended up stopping by AB and KE's office today. Seem to get stuck there a lot (and not to do work). We talked about the election and who we voted for. Normally I stay pretty quite when political discussions come up because 1) I am not politically minded, 2) I typically don't vote, and 3) my parents never talked about voting and politics, so I'm just following what I was taught. But with certain people in this office you can basically discuss most anything and it's okay - mostly the people I've shared this blog with (even though the original intent was no real life person would know about it).
So I told who I voted for and mentioned that I had never voted previously. There was a slight incredulity about my never having voted, but no outrage as I would get elsewhere. I couldn't imagine bossman's reaction to my not voting... but this led to an even less talked about subject for me - religion.
If I have to name one thing M. probably deep down detests about me it is my religious views, or lack there of. I've briefly mentioned my views on this blog before. Even the particular post did not get any comments, for me, it was one of my most revealing because this is something I never talk about. Like not mentioning my previous non-voter status, being non-religious can also spark some very heated reactions of the kind I would rather avoid.
Of course, AB and KE did not give me any snark about my views, they were accepting and for that I am grateful. It's good to be somewhere where you know you can talk to people and even if you have opposing views, the discussion can be orderly and productive rather than rage infested.
This post really doesn't have much of a focused point. My stop in at KE and AB's office just got me thinking about things, and even talking about them a bit today. During the brief religion discussion KE said something to the effect that our beliefs are our own and as long as we live our lives as good people, then that is what matters. Made me think about my life - do I see myself as a good person? Sure, I make lots of quips about how great am I, but is that how I really feel? Overall, I see my life divided into two parts: pre-M. and the now. During one part I was okay, but had a rebellious streak, in the other part I do basically see myself as a good person. Now which do you think is which?
Just some introspection for a Tuesday morning. Thanks for joining me.
I ended up stopping by AB and KE's office today. Seem to get stuck there a lot (and not to do work). We talked about the election and who we voted for. Normally I stay pretty quite when political discussions come up because 1) I am not politically minded, 2) I typically don't vote, and 3) my parents never talked about voting and politics, so I'm just following what I was taught. But with certain people in this office you can basically discuss most anything and it's okay - mostly the people I've shared this blog with (even though the original intent was no real life person would know about it).
So I told who I voted for and mentioned that I had never voted previously. There was a slight incredulity about my never having voted, but no outrage as I would get elsewhere. I couldn't imagine bossman's reaction to my not voting... but this led to an even less talked about subject for me - religion.
If I have to name one thing M. probably deep down detests about me it is my religious views, or lack there of. I've briefly mentioned my views on this blog before. Even the particular post did not get any comments, for me, it was one of my most revealing because this is something I never talk about. Like not mentioning my previous non-voter status, being non-religious can also spark some very heated reactions of the kind I would rather avoid.
Of course, AB and KE did not give me any snark about my views, they were accepting and for that I am grateful. It's good to be somewhere where you know you can talk to people and even if you have opposing views, the discussion can be orderly and productive rather than rage infested.
This post really doesn't have much of a focused point. My stop in at KE and AB's office just got me thinking about things, and even talking about them a bit today. During the brief religion discussion KE said something to the effect that our beliefs are our own and as long as we live our lives as good people, then that is what matters. Made me think about my life - do I see myself as a good person? Sure, I make lots of quips about how great am I, but is that how I really feel? Overall, I see my life divided into two parts: pre-M. and the now. During one part I was okay, but had a rebellious streak, in the other part I do basically see myself as a good person. Now which do you think is which?
Just some introspection for a Tuesday morning. Thanks for joining me.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Mother's Day
Mother's Day continues to creep up on us - it's this Sunday!! I did finally decide on a gift for my mother (as far as I know, M. is still working on something for his mother). No, I did not get my mom some slutty outfit from that site that sent me the email last week (M. thought it would have been pretty funny to do that - well, if he wants I'll order one for his mom). What I did end up getting my mom is a bonsai. I thought about flowers, but they die (not that this bonsai may not die too, but if mom takes care of it, it should be fine). I also thought about those cookie or candy gift baskets, but then mom would just complain about having to eat them, so here's mom's bonsai from FTD:
Mom's been into Asian decor lately, so this should go nicely with what she's been up to. We'll see if it's still alive when I visit in June - and how well it fits into her new decor.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Mother Day Woes
I have no idea what to get my mother or my mother-in-law for the upcoming holiday. This is a reoccurring theme each yet - What do we get mom?
I got a funny email today from an online clothing store. The subject was "Mother's Day is May 11th - shop for the super diva in your life." My mom and the word "diva" not synonymous! Just for kicks, I clicked the link in the email to see what kind of clothing this site was suggesting I buy mom for mother's day. Boy, my mom would love to receive this as a gift - and she would be sure to wear it. In fact, it would probably become her favorite piece of clothing. Um, NOT!
Now this email got the extreme big eye roll! Back to real life, anyone have any good ideas for mother's day?
I got a funny email today from an online clothing store. The subject was "Mother's Day is May 11th - shop for the super diva in your life." My mom and the word "diva" not synonymous! Just for kicks, I clicked the link in the email to see what kind of clothing this site was suggesting I buy mom for mother's day. Boy, my mom would love to receive this as a gift - and she would be sure to wear it. In fact, it would probably become her favorite piece of clothing. Um, NOT!
Mom would probably really appreciate opening up a mother's day package to find this slinky number waiting for her. She would probably make dad take her out every weekend so she could wear the hell out of the thing!
Now this email got the extreme big eye roll! Back to real life, anyone have any good ideas for mother's day?Tuesday, April 22, 2008
All Gangly
A few years ago I noticed I had bump in my left wrist right below the base of my thumb. It was painful if I bumped it on something and since I am left-handed, I was prone to bump it every now and then. I get squeamish about the stupidest things. Give me all sorts of blood and gore, doesn't bother me, even if I'm eating. However, pull your eye lids down in front of me, flip them up, poke an eye, whatever and I have to look away. Same thing with this seemingly innocuous bump in my wrist.
So I decided to go see our family doctor about the bump in my left wrist. I do not live in my home state - I live in M.'s home state in the same area he grew up in. When I moved here with him his doctor became my doctor. M. really likes this doctor, and I don't blame him since Dr. U pretty much saved M.'s live. So, thanks for that Dr. U, but I've never really been 100% comfortable with him, so I was not eager to go see him about my bump. But I did go see him, just in case it was some kind of malignant tumor that needed to be immediately excised from my wrist rendering my unable to write or type since I am left-handed. (I could pretty much do everything else since the only thing I do with the left hand is write, so maybe I'm not left-handed, I don't know, I've always been considered left-handed... I digress...)
Dr. U didn't do much (although I paid the full office visit fee, which kind of sucked). He basically looked at it, he might have felt the bump, I don't remember, and told me what I had was a ganglion cyst. I had never heard of a ganglion cyst before that moment and to, ganglion cyst sounded pretty scary. It sounded kind of like some kind of alien life form had taken residence in my wrist. I almost wanted to tell Dr. U to grab his scalpel and cut the thing out. Instead, I asked him what that meant, and he probably briefly explained it to me, again, I don't remember. What I do remember is that he said it was my decision whether or not to have it removed. Basically, it wouldn't do me any harm, but if it bothered me Dr. U could refer me to a specialist. Well, paying the bill for some specialist sounded even scarier than some alien in my wrist, so I decided to keep my little ganglion. I call it Herve - no, not really.
So over the years I have lived with my ganglion cyst and once in awhile it bothers me, some times it hurts, but usually it's just there. Then last week I noticed a sharp pain in my right wrist. Low and behold, there was an almost identical bump in my right wrist to match my left! So I am guessing I have another ganglion cyst, this time in my right wrist. Instead of driving down to see Dr. U, I went to good old reliable WebMD for some information on my newest visitor.
In helping me identify exactly what a ganglion cyst is, WebMD was much more helpful than Dr. U.
WebMD suggests some remedies that involve doctors - having the cyst drained with a syringe, injection of an anti-inflammatory, or surgical removal. Basically, the only advice WebMD could give me that did not involve calling up Dr. U or some other doctor was gentle massage can help alleviate the pain. Well, I asked M. to rub my wrist and he really doesn't like to touch the alien thing either, and can I blame him since I don't even like looking at them? And more importantly, how do I snark at blobs of jellylike material in my wrists?! People might find me a little crazy if they came into my office and I was holding up both wrists and telling them how much I hate them...
So I decided to go see our family doctor about the bump in my left wrist. I do not live in my home state - I live in M.'s home state in the same area he grew up in. When I moved here with him his doctor became my doctor. M. really likes this doctor, and I don't blame him since Dr. U pretty much saved M.'s live. So, thanks for that Dr. U, but I've never really been 100% comfortable with him, so I was not eager to go see him about my bump. But I did go see him, just in case it was some kind of malignant tumor that needed to be immediately excised from my wrist rendering my unable to write or type since I am left-handed. (I could pretty much do everything else since the only thing I do with the left hand is write, so maybe I'm not left-handed, I don't know, I've always been considered left-handed... I digress...)
Dr. U didn't do much (although I paid the full office visit fee, which kind of sucked). He basically looked at it, he might have felt the bump, I don't remember, and told me what I had was a ganglion cyst. I had never heard of a ganglion cyst before that moment and to, ganglion cyst sounded pretty scary. It sounded kind of like some kind of alien life form had taken residence in my wrist. I almost wanted to tell Dr. U to grab his scalpel and cut the thing out. Instead, I asked him what that meant, and he probably briefly explained it to me, again, I don't remember. What I do remember is that he said it was my decision whether or not to have it removed. Basically, it wouldn't do me any harm, but if it bothered me Dr. U could refer me to a specialist. Well, paying the bill for some specialist sounded even scarier than some alien in my wrist, so I decided to keep my little ganglion. I call it Herve - no, not really.
So over the years I have lived with my ganglion cyst and once in awhile it bothers me, some times it hurts, but usually it's just there. Then last week I noticed a sharp pain in my right wrist. Low and behold, there was an almost identical bump in my right wrist to match my left! So I am guessing I have another ganglion cyst, this time in my right wrist. Instead of driving down to see Dr. U, I went to good old reliable WebMD for some information on my newest visitor.
In helping me identify exactly what a ganglion cyst is, WebMD was much more helpful than Dr. U.
A ganglion cyst is a tumor or swelling on top of a joint or the covering of a tendon (tissue that connects muscle to bone). It looks like a sac of liquid (cyst). Inside theWell, eeww! It does kind of sound like some alien creature. I also learned the following from WebMD that made me feel a little better, but did nothing for Herve and his new twin:
cyst is a thick, sticky, clear, colorless, jellylike material. Depending on the
size, cysts may feel firm or spongy.
One large cyst or many smaller ones may develop. Multiple small cysts can giveYep, that pretty much describes what I have going on in both wrists. However, when it came to telling me how to resolve the pain inflicted by these little boogers, WebMD was not much more helpful than Dr. U. Basically, WebMD told me that in the past people would break the cysts by pounding them with a large book (like the Bible - also called 'Bible Therapy'). WebMD does not recommend I do this because it could cause further injury to the wrist. Gee, you think? Thanks, WebMD. Any solutions for what might help the pain and not cause me further problems?
the appearance of more than one cyst, but a common stalk within the deeper
tissue usually connects them. This type of cyst is not harmful and accounts for
about half of all soft tissue tumors of the hand. Ganglion cysts, also known as
Bible cysts, are more common in women, and 70% occur in people between the
ages of 20-40. Ganglion cysts most commonly occur on the back of the hand
(60-70%), at the wrist joint and can also develop on the palm side of the wrist.
When found on the back of the wrist, they become more prominent when the wrist
is flexed forward.
WebMD suggests some remedies that involve doctors - having the cyst drained with a syringe, injection of an anti-inflammatory, or surgical removal. Basically, the only advice WebMD could give me that did not involve calling up Dr. U or some other doctor was gentle massage can help alleviate the pain. Well, I asked M. to rub my wrist and he really doesn't like to touch the alien thing either, and can I blame him since I don't even like looking at them? And more importantly, how do I snark at blobs of jellylike material in my wrists?! People might find me a little crazy if they came into my office and I was holding up both wrists and telling them how much I hate them...
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