American Idol is back!!! January 13, 2010

WoW!  It’s been a really long time since I’ve blogged about anything.  Sadly, this isn’t because  I’ve been so busy doing super awesome stuff.  I’ve mostly been working and trying hard to maintain my sanity.  I spend my non-working hours getting ready to work (laundry, ironing, packing lunch, etc.).  I have read a series, though.

Work has been a little…..hmmm….exciting is the wrong word and interesting isn’t really right.  My boss may or may not be having an affair with a girl (yes, girl.  She’s like 21 or something) from another department.  She literally hangs all over his desk for hours a day.  Maybe this wouldn’t be weird if she actually worked with us, but she doesn’t.  There is no possible reason she needs to be sitting on his desk for hours at a time every single day.  The other day he opened his desk drawer to grab a pen while I was standing there and there was a Post-It stuck to the inside of his drawer that said “Boss’s Name, I love (written inside a heart) you! Love S.H.” Obviously it took me lots of time and research to decipher these initials.  I mean, anytime you use initials its unlikely anyone will know it was you.   And I’m sure nobody noticed that the day after his football team won their big game, she wore a T-shirt (yes, t-shirt) with the team on the front under her hoodie (yes, hoodie).  Nevermind that she had never once mentioned being a fan of that team.  I will keep you updated on this situation.

There’s this older guy who works in the billing department.  He is pretty much the reality version of the Stapler Guy from Office Space (was his name Milton or something?).  This guy wears the old headphones that you might have worn jogging in the 70s.  And he always says weird things and talks over you when you’re talking and says “yeah” to everything you say, even if you’re saying that he’s wrong or stupid.  Yesterday he came over to my desk and, completely without preamble, says “I’m hunting undomesticated water foul.”  I literally stared at him for about 2 minutes.  He just stood there.  Finally I said, “What.” (yes, I meant to put that period there.  I wasn’t really asking him a question…more like stating that he had made no sense).  I could hear the guy on the other side of my cubicle burst out laughing and I was trying really hard not to do the same.  So Stapler Guy just reapeats himself.  Again, I stare at him.  Finally he says “I’m on a wild goose chase…..undomesticated water foul.”  Like I’m the stupid one for not knowing that.  He goes on to explain his problem and I can hear the guy (we’ll call him Mike) laughing on the other side of the partition the whole time.  Before Stapler Guy had even walked away from my desk, Mike had ping-ed me to tell me that he couldn’t stop laughing.  Who really says things like that?  Oh, I know.  The guy who will stand behind my chair without announcing himself for almost 10 whole minutes while I try to ignore him.  This is your official introduction to Stapler Guy.  I’m sure there will be many more stories featuring his crazy antics.

On to the books!!!

Everytime I saw these books, I thought about reading them because the covers are absolutely stunning.  I lost my will when I found the first one for like $3.50 at Chamblins.  Luxe was good and kept my attention, but then the end of it did something I completely didn’t see coming and perked my interest in the second one.  The second and third books were good enough to keep me reading the series.  The fourth book was good, but the ending could have been a lot better.  The best way to explain this series is to imagine if Edith Wharton had written Gossip Girl.  That sums it up pretty well.  Except that Wharton’s characters wouldn’t have bounced back and forth between speaking like 19th century socialites and 21st century mall rats.  My overall assessment is that these are good enough to be worth the time (which wouldn’t be much since they are pretty easy reads) and money (again, not much since you can get them at Wal-Mart and Target).

Sarah and I went to see Avatar this weekend.  The previews didn’t really do much to make me super pumped about seeing it, but I’m really glad we did!  It’s the first movie I’ve seen in a long time that was actually a 3-D movie.  The last five or six I’ve seen have been in 3-D for about 20 minutes.  This was 100% worth seeing in IMAX 3-D.  I might actually go see it again before it leaves the theater.  I will definitely buy it on Blu-Ray when it comes out.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I really did like this movie.

AMERICAN IDOL IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! First night of auditions were last night, but I was doing other stuff as I was watching it, so I didn’t pay much attention.  The hippie guy who had two broken arms stood out to me.  Victoria Beckham was pretty much just a waste of a chair.  That’s about all I can remember.

But tonight I am sitting in front of the TV with my laptop, so let the opinions roll!

Duwane Robertson (or something along those lines). His little dance before getting on the elevator terrified me.  He was definitely the guy that might blow up the post office.  But then he begins singing…….and he’s horrible.  I never knew “lady” has a random “t” in it.  I suppose if you make up your own song you can make up words to go in it, too….

Jermaine Something.  AMAZING.  He sang “What if God Was One of Us.”  Some of the runs were a little bit much for me, but there is no doubt this guy has one of the most experienced and beautiful voices I’ve heard on this show.

Country girl (didn’t catch her name).  She was pretty good.  I didn’t know the song, so it was hard to tell, but she was really likeable.  PLUS!!  She’s a bargain shopper and we all know I love me a good bargain!

Holly.  Weird…she looks ridiculous, but she’s actually pretty good.  She has that country twangy thing that most people have a hard time with.

Mallory.  I missed the thing that said how old she is….did anyone catch that?  I can’t decide if she’s young but carries herself in an older way or if she’s older and just looks young.  Either way I like her.

Carmen and Lauren.  WTF???  These girls look like the grown up version of the little girls whose mothers force them into beauty pageants way too young.  And Lauren doesn’t really look like she intends to “100% support” Carmen.

Bryan Walker. Not at all what I expected.  Very, very good.  His intonation is exceptional.  I think him, hippie guy and Jermaine might be my early favorites.

PS. I’m going to start keeping a list of the ridiulous things my phone tries to force me to say.  Here are a few things it has tried to change in my text messages:

Me: “God Bless”     iPhone changed it to: “Elvis is”

Me: “Quasi-”     iPhone: “Quasimodo”

Me: “nope”    iPhone: “Nee” (I can’t get the blog to do it, but there should be an accent over the first ‘e.’ As in the old fashioned term you would use to refer to a married woman’s maiden name)

In all of the above cases the word I was trying to type was much more common than the word it changed it to.  Mandy thinks my phone is just well read.

Walkin in a winter wonderland… December 14, 2009

….or not. I took today off to do my Christmas shopping. I was so excited about wearing my sweater and curling my hair! I woke up early to get my hair done all pretty, only to realize it’s hot and humid outside and I shouldn’t even bother. Literally, it’s about 80 outside today. On December 14.

It felt so late in the morning to me (probably because I’m usually leaving for work before the sun is up) so I got ready and thought, ” the earlier I start, the earlier I’ll finish” I got to the mall at 9. There is nothing open at the mall at 9. Now I’m sitting in the starbucks writing this and waiting for the stores to open and Sarah (who DID realize nothing would be open) to get here. God bless Steven Jobs and his amazing Apple products.

PS. When I typed “God bless” above, it changed it to “Elvis is” for some reaon. I find this mildly amusing. I love my iPhone and all its crazy antics.

Got R Did… December 7, 2009

I have been horrible with keeping up this blog recently.  I wish I had some good excuse, but the truth is……..I just don’t feel like getting on the computer after staring at it all day at work.  No good excuse, just laziness.

The other day I was driving down the road and saw a bumper sticker on a HUGE redneck truck that said GOT R DID in big letters and I thought “how crude” until I got close enough to read the line underneath that.  The bumper sticker really said “GOT R DID…therefore I pay child support.”   I laughed the entire rest of the way to work.  Particularly because I never expected to see any derivative of the phrase “Git r done” next to the word “therefore”.  Maybe you have to have spent lots of time around rednecks to find this funny, but I sure did.

I really wanted to post something for Thanksgiving, but I was too lazy even for that.  So I’m going to hop on the Kyla/Sarah bandwagon and post something relating to Thanksgiving and you’ll just have to ignore that its so belated.

Amanda– I absolutely LOVE your humor, if for no other reason than that your sarcasm is perpetually catching me off guard.  You are always the voice of reason (which would sometimes be lacking in our little group).  You set an amazing example of standing for your principles and faith and never letting anything deter you from what you know is true.  You are such a great example to the young girls you teach (and to all of us, myself in particular) of what kind of woman God wants us all to be.

Devon– In the beginning of this whole college life, you were the person I knew the least.  In fact, I think I may not have officially met you until sophomore year.  I can’t remember what it was like before your feisty little butt barged in!! In many ways you are exactly like me, but in just as many you are my polar opposite.  I love both sides of you! I’m so thankful for the insane level of passion you bring to everything you do, especially when it comes to all of us.

Kyla– You are one of the kindest people I know.  Very few people can genuinely care about others as much as you without pitying or seeming condescending.  Your fierce bravery always stuns me.  You have inspired me in ways that I could never put into words.  I can’t imagine what kind of person I would be if I hadn’t met you.   I second Sarah’s comment about driving away from your apartment that night….I’m about to cry right now.  And that doesn’t really happen to me very often.

Mandy– I feel like anything I could write would just be some lame attempt to explain how thankful I am for you.  You have been there through times in my life when I felt like I had no idea what I was doing.  You are an anchor of sorts, I guess.  I’m not even sure you know just how much you’ve meant to me over the past few years.  And if you don’t, there really isn’t any way for me to explain it because I literally can’t find words to describe it-  Just trust me that I mean it when I say I love you!!!

Sarah– Oh, where do I begin?!  You were the first of all the girls that I got to know.  I remember thinking you were pretty alright until that camping trip when you decided you would rather stay in that sketchy cabin than camp with the rest of us.  I couldn’t decide if you were just too prissy to sleep on the ground or crazy for not running far away when you saw that little cabin.  Turns out it was a little of both! LOL!  I’m just kidding!!  Well, sort of…..maybe, but not really.  You are so much fun to be around and you and I are just different enough to keep things interesting. I love all our late night debates/discussions (although lately they’ve become dinnertime debates/discussions since my bed time has moved up to about 9:30 or 10:00) and how lively they can get but how infrequently either of us actually gets upset or offended.  That’s a pretty rare thing to find, so I’m thankful for your open honesty.

And, as mentioned above, it is nearing my bedtime now.  I’m really going to make an effort to keep better tabs on this blog.  I have sooooo much going on right now (the end of College Football season, our church Christmas musical, Christmas shopping, work, etc.) but I think it should all be slowing down after Christmas…….hopefully! =)

And I’m Back November 9, 2009

I had so much fun in Phoenix this weekend!!  We made Wisconsin Trio fondue (of course) and watched movies and shopped and went to the Art Walk and just hung out.  I miss all of us being together (or at least not soooooo far apart) so much!

My trip back wasn’t nearly as pleasant and easy as my flight out there.  Once I got to Houston it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did.  When I got off my plane, I checked the monitors for the gate for my connecting flight, grabbed some lunch and headed to that gate.  When I got to the gate it said “Flight 2730, Jacksonville, 1:25” so I knew I was in the right place.  I was about an hour early, so I got a book out (more about that later) and read.  About 10 minutes before boarding time I look up and the gate now says “Allentown, 12:55”.   There was no announcement or anything.  So I had to find an attendant to tell me where the flight was actually going to be.  I got there with what should have been 5 minutes to spare before boarding began.  Again, I found a seat and started reading.  I got through a couple chapters and realized more than 15 minutes had passed.  Sure enough, a couple minutes later they announce that the plane is broken and they’re flying the replacement in from TN and it should be there in about an hour and a half.  None of this really bothered me b/c I had nowhere to be and really wanted to read my book, so I didn’t care where I was as long as I could read.  The gentleman next to me, however, felt completely the opposite.  He was complaining so loudly I wanted to tell him that if he was in such a hurry that he was willing to fly on a plane that the hostess had referred to as “broken”, then he could be my guest, but that I would wait for one that was not as likely to fall out of the sky. I was so bothered by his constant complaining that I dug my iPod out and turned it all the way up.  I hope it wasn’t obvious, but I think I was because his wife tried to get him to calm down (or at least stop yelling) after that.  I mean, we ended up being delayed little more than an hour.  This guy has obviously never flown from NY….in all the times I have, I’ve never left within 2 hours of when I was scheduled to.  An hour is a pretty mild wait, if you ask me.

On to the fun stuff!!!!!!

Kyla and I watched this last night (sorry Devon!!!!).  Long story short: It wasn’t awesome, it wasn’t awful.  I was entertained, somewhat confused, kinda weirded out and maybe a (very) little moved.  There’s not really much to say about it.  Pretty much any synopsis you read describes it the only way it can be described.  There’s a few on IMDB, so the picture above links to that.

IN THE WOODS- Tana French I saw this book several months ago and wanted to read it then, but didn’t want to pay for it in hardback when I didn’t know anything about it.  Before I left for the trip, I decided to go get Edgar Sawtelle since I’d been wanting to read that. In the Woods was on the B1/G1 50% off table with Sawtelle so I bought them both.  I read the first chapter of each to decide which would get priority.  There was no contest.  The first chapter of this book has some of the best dry humor I’ve read in a long time (it continues pretty consistently throughout the book, by the way) and one of the more intriguing plots.  I finished it today and I’m already a couple hundred pages into French’s second book (Woods is her first) because I loved it that much.

The plot revolves around Adam Robert Ryan who is found traumatized and bloody  hours after he and his two friends went missing in the woods around their neighborhood.   He is the only one of the three that is ever found and his parents decide to move out of town to avoid the neighbor’s questions and (it’s implied) the guilt of having survived and not lost a child.  He begins going by Rob Ryan to disassociate himself from his childhood and becomes a detective.  20 years after he was found in the woods,  he is handed a case involving a 12 year old girl who was murdered in those same woods.  His partner is a woman named Cassie and the relationship between them makes the book worth it, even if you hated the story for some reason.

I found it very difficult to remember that this was French’s first novel.  There were one or two times that I was harshly reminded of this fact (one of which was a brief moment in which French seemed to believe her readers completely lack the ability to think logically), but for the most part the language was sharp and eloquent.  The humor was always quick and witty and the nostalgic bits were moving.  Here are a few of my favorite parts (bear in mind, they may have less impact out of context):

“I know I said that I always choose the anticlimactic over the irrevocable, and yes of course what I meant was that I have always been a coward, but I lied: not always, there was that one night, there was that one time.”

“If she had hurt me, I could have forgiven her without even having to think about it; but I couldn’t forgive her for being hurt”

“It was only much later…when I prodded cautiously at the edges of my memory and came up empty; it was only then that I began to think this might be not a deliverance but a vast missed chance, an irrevocable and devastating loss.”

“This was our last and greatest dance together, danced in a tiny interview room…, for no audience but the doomed and the dead.”

“I thought of Kiernan then; of what it must have been to him when, after thirty years of partnership, McCabe had that heart attack and died.  More than I have ever envied anything in the world, I envied Kiernan that, that unique and unattainable gift.”

I’m a sucker for a beautifully constructed emotional expression, and this book had plenty.  There were several times that I had to blink back tears and remind myself that I could not get hysterical and emotional over a book at 37,000 feet.  I will admit that the relationship between the detectives may have affected me more intensely than some, considering my personal history.  The idea of two best friends, a guy and girl, that are truly platonic soul mates but let romanticism (or the implication of such by others) affect their relationship after so many years of overcoming it…….well, that just breaks my heart in ways I would never be able to coherently express. (P.S. I know it sounds like I’m spoiling the plot a bit, but believe me, it goes back and forth so often that I am not really giving anything away. The relationship between Rob and Cassie is realistic and has its ups and downs, so some of those quotes have nothing to do with the final state of things and therefore spoil nothing.)

Long story short: I LOVED THIS BOOK.  One of my top three I’ve read this year.  I’m working on the next one (its a sort of companion book to this), so I’ll be posting about that by the end of the week, I’m sure.

**NOTE: Sarah should not read this book.  There are children who die/go missing and that seems to be a touchy subject for you.  Given the way the topic is dealt with by these characters, I would not recommend this for you.**

Arizona!!!!!!!!!! November 5, 2009

I leave for Arizona in less than 12 hours!  I’m so excited!!!!! I’m not really looking too forward to leaving at 4:30 in the morning, but……

I took some pictures of my desk at work so ya’ll can see it.  I have a little office/cubicle that’s two walls, a window makes up the third wall and the fourth wall is open.  I’m still loving my job.  The people are great, the work is right in line with my major, my boss is really cool and the coffee machine is right next to my cubicle!  My new work BFF is the accountant on our contract.  Maybe I should start looking for a male accountant to marry since I seem to hit it off so well with accountants **wink, wink, Mandy**

Speaking of the accountant……..today our billing guy was talking to her about some billing issues and asked her to set up a meeting and invite our supervisor, himself, Lynn and Karen.  So Accountant sends out the appointment requests and everyone she sent them to shows up at the meeting on time.  An hour into the meeting, Billing Guy says, “well, I guess Lynn and Karen couldn’t make it.”  She had apparently invited the wrong Lynn and Karen.  NOBODY SAID ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!  I mean wouldn’t you think the Lynn and Karen who did show up should’ve realized at some point that the topic had nothing to do with them?  Or that Billing Guy would’ve realized that there were only 6 or so people and two of them were named Lynn and Karen?  Accountant didn’t say anything, she just let it go and hoped nobody noticed!!!!  I laughed so hard when she told me that.

I have a horrible story to go along with FL/GA weekend, but it is literally so awful that I can’t put it on the internet.  So if you want to know what it is, bring it up next time we talk.

Sarah, I can’t go out on the 13th cause I have a friend’s bachelorette party that night =(  BUT I am going to take a day off sometime this month to do my Christmas shopping, so we can have a girl shopping day!!!!

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Shows: Glee!!!!!!!!!!  My new favorite show of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NCIS

Music: Noah and the Whale- 5 Years Time

Lady Gaga- Paparazzi (laugh if you want, its pretty catchy)

Books: The Bourne Identity- almost unrecognizable if you’re expecting it to be the movie.  Regardless, it’s a great plot and extremely cool.

Baby its cold outside. October 18, 2009

Yesterday I was in Gainesville for the big homecoming game.  If you watched it on TV you are fully aware that this was nearly this season’s Ole Miss.  I was exhausted from the stress of such a bad game, so I took a nap between church and Christmas musical practice today.  It was pretty wonderful.

My 12 hour work days are over for now.  Starting tomorrow I’m on a normal 40 hour work week and I couldn’t be more thankful!  For the past couple weeks I’ve been working 7-7 everyday.  To be at work by 7:00, I have to leave by about 6:20 which means I have to wake up around 5:00.  By the time I get home it’s about 7:30.  I literally eat dinner, shower watch a TV show or something and go to bed by 10:00.  Now I’m working a normal 9 hours a day.  I’ll be done around 4 and able to get out and do stuff or meet up with friends on weekdays so I’m not cramming everything in on weekends.  I’m more excited about this than a reasonable person should be!

As it turns out, Brooke isn’t going to be coming to Jacksonville next semester.  I’m kinda looking at things now to evaluate what that means for me.  It seems that staying where I am would be my best option so that I can pay off my credit card (which is way higher than I should have let it get) and save up some.  I’m thinking around April I might revisit the situation and see where I am.  I don’t particularly relish the idea of living by myself, but if that’s what it comes to, I’m sure it will be fine.  I’m really not all that worried or upset, things are great the way they are and they’d be great if I chose to move out by myself, so I think I’m in a pretty good situation.

Its sooooo early! October 5, 2009

Today is the first day our contractors can actually call in their shipments for us to load and track. Since nobody seems to sure about when these people will be calling, we came in at 7 to be safe. And we’re staying til 7. And so far I have had 0 calls and a 0 email orders giving me a grand total of absolute boredom.

Busier than I expected September 29, 2009

I’m on my way home from my cousin’s birthday party (dont worry: my Grandaddy is driving)…..

Today was my second day of work. Since yesterday was just policies, procedures, benefits and company background, today was the first day we really got to work with the programs we’ll be using. Eventually I think this will be rather easy since it’s pretty repetitive but for now it’s soooo much to take in! I am completely overwhelmed and somewhat lost. So far, I’ve recognized three people from school, but only one that’s working on the same contract. The company as a whole is very young in both the employees and the entity itself. I really think I’m going to love it once I get more comfortable with my job and the people. My contract has about 37 people (much larger than I originally thought) and about 30 are new, so we’re all trying to get a feel for the place at the same time and that’s making things a bit confusing.

Oddly enough, I’m not finding it as difficult as I thought to get up and ready in the morning. Then again, it’s only the second day. Whatever. Point is I like it and I think I made the right choice. Now I have a couple months to focus on getting settled at work before I move! I can’t wait to rediscover my own things in the garage! It’ll be like an extended Christmas!!!

Homes, Jobs and the Swine Flu September 26, 2009

Brooke and my mom came up on Thursday to go look at some apartments/condos/houses to decide whether we should rent for a year or buy now.  I think the decision is to rent for now b/c the HOA fees at these condos are sometimes more than your mortgage payment and there is no way I’m paying $600/mo on top of the loan on my home.  You get nothing out of that when it comes time to sell your place.  I’m going to keep an eye on houses and townhomes since the HOA fees are so much less and we’ll rent in the meantime.  As soon as Brooke finds out for sure that she’s going to UNF in the spring, we’re going to put a deposit down on a place.  We narrowed it down to three apartments and two condo communities.  Now I’m going to save as much as humanly possible until I move out.

We must have visited 10 different places on Thursday and we were all exhausted around #8.  But Brooke hadn’t been feeling well, so she just sat in the car and slept for the last few places we went.  We went to Starbucks before they left and she said she thought she should go to the doctor cause she was achy and it might be the flu.  If you know Brooke, you know that she gets sick at the drop of a hat and she always gets it worse than anyone around her, so this was not an unusual situation to find her in.  HOWEVER, yesterday, as I’m getting ready for my friend’s Bridal Shower, my mom calls and says that Brooke has the H1N1 and that those of us who have been around her in the past couple days have been exposed (obviously) and the doctor had written us some prescriptions to try to ward it off.  So I go get the pill, take it and immediately get sick.  I am almost certain that the actual virus can’t make me feel much worse than the preventive medicine does.  It says not to take it on an empty stomach, but that is literally impossible as I throw up almost as soon as I take it.  I can’t keep anything down with the stupid thing.

AND I start work Monday.  These pills had better decrease in dosages or something as you go further along in them.  I will not take them before my first day of work if it will make me sick.  Although, I think I’m safe to do that since I haven’t shown any flu-like symptoms in the last 48 hours.

Goals for the week:

Settle in at work and meet at least 150 new people (not really a goal as it is something I can’t avoid)

See either The Informant or Surrogates (any takers?)

Finish The Bourne Identity

Learn all the actual lyrics to “Bad Moon Rising” so I don’t just mumble along when it comes on

Workin’ 9-5 September 16, 2009

I’m sure that all of you are aware (mostly due to my mass text on Monday) that I got a job offer this week.  And I was SUPER excited about it.  So you might be wondering why I haven’t written anything about it.  Weeelllllll………

It’s gotten a bit trickier than I expected beacuse a third party has entered into the equation, but very timidly.  In other words, there is the possibility of recieving a new and better offer before I am forced to make a decision about the first one.  So I am back to the stupid waiting game I have loathed for so long now.  Anyway, Friday may very well be D-Day (as in Determination Day), so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers Friday and this weekend if you can remember to.  I am really hoping to have this second option so that I can be in a better decision making position.  Also, its always nice to know you are so awesome that people are fighting for you!!!! Sorry that’s all so vague, but its the internet and I don’t want to list names of companies.  I also don’t really feel like going into details about something as un-concrete as this, but I will definitely keep y’all posted about whatever the outcome might be!

No matter which situation works out for me, my last day at the Club is tomorrow.  I’m going to be very sad to leave.  I have really loved all the people I’ve met over the last two years there.  It’s still so weird to think that I won’t be able to just do whatever I want whenever I want like I have been for the last 6 years.  No more impromptu trips to the Keys or weekeday fishing trips or long weekends at my parent’s house.  No more late nights watching movies or midnight showings or weekday concerts 5 hours away or Chamblin’s trips during the times of the day they aren’t busy.

Devon and Kyla: Since I can’t come out this weekend, if I am offered and accept the second job, I will ask for a start date a week later than my current start with Company A and come next weekend!

BOOKS: The Bourne Identity (yes, its taking me awhile to get through!)

Child 44

MUSIC: Jason Castro “Let’s Just Fall In Love Again”

O.A.R. “Shattered (Turn the Car Around)”

The Used “Smother Me”

Fred Hammond “You Are The Living Word”

TV: NCIS

Glee

The Office