Too Tired!!!

Last night, when I went to bed I turned on my reading lamp with the intention of reading my bible before I went to sleep. It appears I fell asleep before I reached for my bible (yes, I was THAT tired). But that’s not the “I’m a dork” part. I kept waking up during the night because the light was on, BUT it took me till 4:30 a.m. to comprehend that if I would just reach up and flip the switch, the light would go off. What a concept!!!

Thanksgiving Highlight

Saturday my mom and I went to see my cousin and her family. Here are a few pictures of the weekend...

This is the newest addition to the family, Remington, with his "Aunt" Stacey. The kids have always called me Aunt Stacey, even though I'm actually their cousin. McKensi is finally old enough that she was trying to figure out how I fit into the picture.

Isn't he just the cutest? He was a month old on Saturday.

Bundled up for our car ride to go look at the river and the countryside (they live in a small town in Southwestern Oklahoma and that's about it for excitement). =o)

Colton in his hunting gear. He hasn't managed to get a deer yet, but was quite proud of the wild pig he shot.

McKensi getting ready to go out for an evening in the deer stand with her dad. She was insistent that she was going to shoot that buck they had all been trying to get all week. I somehow doubt that happened. =o) And yes, those are deer hanging on the wall and camouflage furniture. They are REALLY into hunting. ;o)

You would have to see the scene leading up to this to find the true humor in this picture. Colton was goofing off and just being the six-year-old boy that he is and tripped and fell and landed in the baby carrier. You had to be there, but I included the picture anyway.

You Might Want to Think Twice

You might want to think twice before drinking out of hotel glasses. Personally, I may start traveling with my own after seeing this. This gives me the heeby jeebys!

All I Want for Christmas Is...

Not really, but a friend sent these to me a LONG time ago and I had been saving them in my email folder because I thought they were funny and decided with the holidays approaching, it was a good time to share. ;o)

For the Record...

...I like eating at Mimi's because I like their muffins (but their pancakes are good too).

...I don't like the new outside doors at my place of employment. They're heavy and hit me in the elbow every time I try to come in. I also don't like that my key doesn't work in them yet and I had to call and have someone let me in the other day.

...I will like it when the handicapped button is installed on said doors because it will make getting in with my arms full so much easier!

...I like that the trees are starting to change colors.

...I need to get a flu shot.

...for some reason I'm itching to put up my Christmas decorations (hurry up Thanksgiving).

...Magic 104 (that's KMGL Krista) was playing a Christmas song Friday night and it's WAY too early for that!

The Golden Compass

This disturbs me, but the source is pretty reliable. I keep meaning to do some additional research of my own, but haven't had the time lately (hence the short posts).

This is a Sport?

Have you ever heard of cup stacking? Apparently, this is a "sport" and ESPN even covers it. Today we had a bunch of home schoolers (who don't follow directions very well) showing up at our building for a cup stacking tournament. I'm quite baffled by the interest in this particular "sport".

Best Joke Ever

This is my favorite joke in the whole wide world!!!

Two fish in a tank.
One fish says to the other fish,
"How do you drive this thing?"

This Could Be Addicting

A friend sent this to me yesterday and it seems the first place either of us went was to find out where Data from "Goonies" is. Have fun!

Weekend at a Glance

This weekend I was given the opportunity to attend the Highland Plains Leadership Summit for Relay for Life. Honestly, I went because I knew the information would probably be helpful, but I was not looking forward to it. Spending my entire weekend listening to people lecture was not my idea of fun. Thankfully, it was not near as bad as I thought it would be and the lectures were interesting enough that I didn’t find myself looking at the clock on my cell phone every five minutes. Here are the most notable things to come out of this past weekend…

The HOV Lane: I LOVE the HOV! Broadway Extension needs a HOV lane. It easily took 30 minutes off our trip on the way there. It’s the greatest thing ever!!!

The Executive Suite: Don’t know how (and no I didn’t flirt with the desk clerk) but Susan and I ended up with an executive suite. It was so great to have an extra room to watch TV in or to get ready in.

Extreme Stair Master: Twice on Saturday I decided (with others) to take the stairs to avoid the EXTREME elevator congestion to and from break out sessions on the 37th floor. The first time, our staff partner, Sara, and I decided we would just walk down the stairs. Down should be no problem, right. Problem with down was that we started getting dizzy going round and round the stairwell, so at the 22nd floor, we decided to try to jump onto an elevator…it worked. After lunch, Susan and I decided that we would go down to the lobby and jump on the elevator there (everyone else was on the 2nd floor.) Problem was, the elevator never made it down to the lobby. So we came up with bright idea #2 (along with a few other women). We decided to take the north tower elevators up to the 29th floor and then jump on to an elevator. That didn’t work either…elevators were too full. So, we then moved on to bright idea #3…take the stairs. It was only eight floors. It wouldn’t be that bad. We didn’t take into account that 1) we weren’t in THAT great of shape and 2) there is an altitude difference that high up. After the 3rd flight, I thought I was going to die. By time we got to the top, I was sure of it. We did let some people think we walked all the way up 37 flights of stairs…it impresses people more. =o)

Nanotechnology: I won’t even begin to try to explain this, but here is one of many websites that helps to explain its importance to cancer research. Definitely one of the most encouraging things I’ve heard in the stride to fight cancer.

Big THANKS to Susan for being a great co-pilot! I might still be stuck in Dallas if it weren’t for her help (and to anyone we might have cut off in our instantaneous lane switching…sorry, we couldn’t help it.)

Notables This Week So Far…

First of all, I was told yesterday that (and I quote) “…you’re much less pathetic in real life than you make yourself out to be on your blog.” So my goal is to do my best to make myself sound less pathetic, but there is only so much this girl can do. ;o)

Second, my toilet exploded last night…sort of. I flushed it, it made a weird noise (the kind that makes you think that what ever is supposed to go down is about to explode out). Then water started spewing out the top of the tank. I quickly took the top off, but couldn’t exactly figure out why. So what did I do…I flushed it again. Seems the hose that fills the tank with water came loose and when I flushed the toilet the hose shot around and started spraying me in the face (it’s okay to laugh, I’m sure it would have been funny to observe as a bystander). There is a little hook on the side of the hose and it appears to have come loose, but I don’t know where it was originally attached, so I attached to the first thing I could find. It works…that’s all that matters, right?

Third…toe vs. door frame. Jury is still out on exactly who won. My choice of shoes today may be giving the door frame that upper hand. I don’t think I broke it, but it sure does hurt!

Finally, my chiropractor told me I looked like Couisn It today. Sadly, it was probably deserved (oops, did that sound pathetic?). I need a haircut REALLY REALLY REALLY bad, so I’m getting one tomorrow (the appointment was made before the Cousin It comment…only because I was having the same issues yesterday as today.) Don’t expect anything earth shattering. I still don’t have a new roommate, so I won’t be doing anything that requires regular upkeep.

Someone Thinks They Are SOOO Funny

I don’t know if I ever actually wrote about this, but approximately a year ago, I started getting Men’s Vogue in my mailbox. At first I thought it was a trial offer, but I kept getting it every month. Since I have a hard enough time reading the magazines I do get, I would just throw it away…mainly because I didn’t feel like spending the time trying to get off the list. The trash can was faster.

Well, today I check my hotmail and I have an email telling my by preferred member subscription is about to expire. Funny that I was a preferred member since I never signed up for it in the first place. And since there aren’t a lot of people out there who have my hotmail address, I’m curious who played such a prank (and thank you for not using my work address). I’m sure I had it coming because I helped a co-worker play similar prank on a college friend of ours (Jim, was this your doing?).

Now the question is, why Men’s Vogue? Maybe my mom did it during one of her sleep walking (or sleep web-surfing) episodes. Hmmm…

Random Stuff

Mystery Dinner
Earlier in the week, I noticed I had a container of frozen soup in my deep freeze, so I decided to heat it up for dinner last night. It was raining and it was a little chilly outside. Perfect soup weather. Thing was, I didn’t exactly know what kind of soup it was. I wasn’t sure if it was chili or beef stew…either way, it worked. So I proceeded to heat it up in the microwave. When I took it out, it looked more like chili, but it smelled funny (not bad funny, just not like chili funny). So I took a bite. It wasn’t chili. It was spaghetti sauce! Not really what I expected. So instead of chili for dinner, I had spaghetti. Good thing I had spaghetti noodles on hand.

The Less Likely Option
As some of you know, my roommate will be getting married very soon and I have yet to find a replacement for her. It probably wouldn’t be so bad, but I have a furnace that could go out at anytime, so any additional help with expenses is quite appreciated at this time. So, I’ve decided at this point that at least one of four possible scenarios needs to take place in the next 30 days (preferably less):
- Find a new roommate (ideal for more than just financial reasons).
- Find an enjoyable part-time job (if I’m going to be working that much, I want to not dread it).
- Be tonight’s Deal or No Deal’s lucky $1,000,000 play at home winner (not holding my breath).
- Get married.
Of all of these options, marriage is definitely the least likely to take place. My mom thinks ruling out marriage in less than 30 days is a pessimistic attitude, but I’m not exactly the type to jump into something like that, though I guess I could always change my mind. =o)

I Hate it When I Do That!
This weekend I decided to rent two movies to watch since I had no other plans. I rented You Me & Dupree which was better than I expected and Vacancy. I knew Vacancy would be scary, but with Luke Wilson in it, how scary could it really be? Well, I couldn't tell you the answer to that. I decided to watch it Saturday afternoon so that I would have time to watch something else and get my mind off of it before I went to bed. I got 30 minutes into it and started to psych myself out thinking "what if it's scarier than I think because I'm home alone this weekend." Needless to say, I turned it off and ended up having to return it before I found someone to watch it with me. That's the funny thing...I like scary movies, I have just discovered that I don't like watching them by myself. There was $4 wasted. =o(

On a Serious Note…
I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot this last year, but something I heard on TV this morning has me thinking about it more in-depth again. How is it that multiple people can hear the exact same conversation and pull totally different meanings out of it? I’m constantly amazed how people can get bent out of shape over something they really shouldn’t be that upset about? To me it seems that person or group (and let me clarify…I’m sure I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past) is already sensitive towards the person speaking or about the particular subject matter and reads into it what they want (or technically don’t want) to hear. What ever happened to taking things with a grain of salt or being quick to listen and slow to speak? I don’t know. Why can’t we just all get along or at the very least agree to disagree?

I Guess it's Time I Admit It

I've never really fessed up to it...maybe I didn't want to believe it, but there is no denying it anymore. I have become a TV Junkie. What can I say, it's a cheap form of entertainment. I never really thought I was that big of a TV Junkie until this summer when I had nothing to watch on TV in the evenings. To save money, I cut back my cable to the very basic, which doesn't leave you with a lot of channels to choose from. TV pick'ins were slim. But last night was the night I had been waiting for all summer long...the beginning of Premier Week!!! I'm disappointed that Crossing Jordan didn't return, but that's okay because I have added Dancing with the Stars to my viewing schedule. My VCR is primed and ready to pick up the slack if I'm not home or am interupted during a show. Yes, sad to say...I have become a TV Junkie, but I'm balancing it out by reading during the open time slots. =o)

What Does It Take for a Girl to Get Some Flowers?

Obviously, for me it requires the building manager to decide to take out some rose bushes. Some of our rose bushes at work had become overrun by a vine that was killing the bushes, so our building manager decided to rip out the bushes and start over. As a result they cut off all the existing roses and brought them into our office. So I currently have a vase of white roses on my desk.

Six Degrees of Separation

I intended to post this when it first occurred, but was really busy at the time and forgot, but I still think it’s interesting.

I’m sure most of you have heard of the Six Degrees of Separation theory which refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment, have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon.

Well, it turns out I had less than six degrees of separation from the late Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner. No joke (though I’m sure there are more exciting people to have this kind of connection with, but oh well). Here is how I’m connected:

- Tammy Faye’s second husband was Roe Messner.
- Roe has an aunt named Julia.
- Julia is 1) a family friend that I attended church with as a child, 2) the great-aunt of a good friend/ex-boyfriend, and 3) the sister-in-law of my 3rd cousin.

Of course, I was not aware of this connection till after she died. The friend/ex-boyfriend’s grandmother made him aware of this connection. He had to call me right away to find out if I knew that we were inadvertently related to Tammy Faye (I did have to point out that it was less of a stretch to prove he was related to her than it was for me). I can’t believe she didn’t leave me anything in her will!!! :o)

Fortune Revisited

So, I have down time at work again. I don’t like down time at work because it makes the days so slow. Today, I ran out of stuff to do a good hour before I could leave, so I decided to contemplate the items attached to my bulletin board next to my desk. I found the following on my bulletin board:

- A staff phone extension list,
- A cell phone listing
- A cell phone account grouping list (I keep up with our office cell phone accounts which I think it is cruel and unusual punishment to make someone spend so much time on hold trying to make changes to a cell phone account that isn’t even theirs.)
- A paper weight conversion chart
- Bulletin distribution list (that is extremely out of date)
- The label from a ream of paper so I’ll remember what kind I need to purchase next time
- A post it note with a drawing by a co-worker’s daughter when she learned to write her name
- Memos about network connections that I don’t even remember what they go to
- Address and phone number from a paper supplier
- IP addresses for everything under the sun
- A list of people who have a particular program loaded on their computer that 1) we don’t use anymore and 2) half the people don’t even work here any more.
- Names and phone numbers for people that I have no idea who they are anymore or why I have those numbers
- An office birthday list (which is also very outdated)
- A very old “to do” list
- A machine ID cheat sheet so that I don’t have to go look up the number every time I call for service
- And two note cards that I don’t even know what they say on the back or why I still have them (maybe I should read them).

But the most interesting is a slip of paper from a fortune cookie. I look at it every day, but hadn’t paid a lick of attention to what it actually says in who knows how long. So, looking for something to occupy some more of my time, I decided to read what was so important that I saved it on my bulletin board. It read:

“Good things come to those who wait. Be patient.”

Wow. That was definitely something I needed to be reminded of right now.

My life has been increasingly more difficult and frustrating the last couple of years. I’ve definitely been through worse, but there are some elements of the present circumstances that make them more difficult to accept. I’m not going to get into all of that, but I guess I just needed that little reminder to be patient. This too shall pass and I’ll have a whole new batch of challenges to over come. ;o)

Hmmm

I have dreamed about babies three times this week. They are never mine though. I've had dreams I was pregnant (and always trying to explain to people that I didn't do anything and don't know how I got pregnant), but I have never had dreams that I recall where babies were the focus? I looked it up today in an online dream bank, but it wasn't helpful (didn't seem applicable). At first I thought it was because Suzy's sister just had a baby (sometimes events from a day will show up in some form in my dreams), but it happened again last night...twice. It's probably just because everybody and their dog is pregnant right now. =o)

There is a Very Good Reason for My Lack of Posting

I must apologize for not updating lately, but I have been Miss Cranky Pants lately and it wouldn’t make for conducive blogging. Here are the top 4 reasons I’ve been cranky…

#1 – Sick due to the current ragweed count. I just finished an allergy study today (which is part of the reason I’m sick due to lack of necessary preventative measures) so things should get better b/c I can start taking meds I know will work AND I’m $350 richer.

#2 – Major Burnout…I am in serious need of a job change (yes, I know I keep saying that, but nothing has panned out so far).

#3 – In serious need of some time off (I’ve finally found a way I can take the remainder of my vacation time, but I’m not scheduled for my first day off till the end of the month.)

#4 – Really tired of unsolicited advice/input from people lately on various circumstances that they know very little about. Trust me, if I want your advice, I’ll ask for it (and I don’t do that very often). Stop trying to fix something that ain’t broke, don't judge if you don't know the entire story, and don’t tell me to change something if you don’t have a PRACTICAL way for ME to do it. I would understand if I were doing something that might cause physical, emotional, or spiritual harm, but I'm not. Trust me, other than being annoyed, I'm good.

See, there is a reason why I haven’t posted in a while. =o)

Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?

The longer I live in my neighborhood, the more observations I make about the people that live in it.

There is the man that owns the maroon old lady car that used to sit in his driveway and now sits in the street across from his house. What is so weird about this is that 90% of the time, the hood is up. I never see him working on it, but the hood is always up. This has baffled me for a while and then this week, I had a thought. I bet something died in his engine and he’s trying to air it out. This happened to a friend of mine at the beginning of the summer and it’s the only logical explanation I can come up with.

Then there are my Asian neighbors (Chinese speaking but not from China). There are all kinds of funny stuff about them. They’re very nice, but run through the house all the time and the weirdest thing of all is that I often find them sitting on the curb reading the paper or something. Not sure why this is. Some might say it’s weird that they are always outside talking on the phone, but the truth is, cell reception in my neighborhood stinks. I always have to find strange places to talk on the phone.

THEN there is the couple who don’t actually live in my neighborhood, but live close by and I drive by them regularly. Their house backs up to the major street my neighborhood is off of. They appear to have a decent size yard, BUT for some reason, they have planted a vegetable garden on the other side of their fence (not in their actual yard). What is even stranger is that they have to walk half away around the block to get to it because their fence doesn’t have a gate and they’re house isn’t on the corner. This might be hard to follow without seeing it for yourself, but it really baffles me every time I drive past them.