Tuesday, July 26, 2005

So tell me, why is it that I was asked to go to a meeting when I was all but ignored? Granted, I'm fairly new at the whole graphic designing game, but I do know what I'm doing (believe it or not). Today my boss and I had a meeting with some of the guys in marketing who travel to different places to pimp out our camp. What they want is to update some of the stuff they are using for their booth. It was pretty plain to see what needed to be done, but any time I said anything, the other guys stared right through my head and acted as if I was a rather annoying gnat that kept flyng around trying to get up their noses. At least my boss didn't do that (he's an awful cool guy). At any rate, I decided that I was going to make them listen to me, so I locked eyes with one of them and repeated myself until he got the hint that maybe I wasn't some art-house rat that would undermine the whole idea behind "MARKETING". I worked with customers through our marketing department for three frikin' years! I know what I'm talking about even if I don't have a degree. I would probably know what would catch the eyes of our potential customers just as well as they do, if not more. Great googly-moogly that was annoying.

On a nicer, less annoyed note:

We watched the shuttle launch from the little theater I used to work in. There were tons of people packed in there, and I have to say, it was awesome. It amazes me that people are willing to be strapped to a flaming projectile and circle the earth for the sake of science. Smart and brave people just blow my mind. I realized that even though I've worked here on and off for almost 10 years, I had never watched a live launch or even a whole shuttle launch for that matter. Everyone was cheering and getting all excited! It's fun working in a place where everyone is so interested in what is going on.

I've pretty much been toodling around here all day not doing much. It's weird when we have down time because I never know if I should be doing something specific or if I should be in suspended animation waiting for instructions. I've already put the PMS color markers in order, so what else can I do? : )

I am supposed to sing saturday at my family reunion, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to. Eh, well, as much as I like to sing in public, I think I would gladly sit this out if I can. It's weird, I have sung in front of crowds as big as 2,000 people, but the thought of singing in front of my family freaks me out. I'll keep you posted!

That is all.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Weekend Update!

Greetings Everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. I did.

Friday after work, Steve went to a concert on the mountain with Anthony and Josh, but I didn't care anything about seeing the guy. I'd heard him perform once before and he is super talented, but I couldn't stand the thought of sitting outside in the summer, so me and my buddy Master Wok had dinner and watched TV. I decided to mow the grass once it started getting dark so that I wouldn't have to do it during the day saturday, and I had a teeny little accident. I was kind of hanging over the edge of the lawn mower trying to snag a branch that was in my way, and I ran into a light pole. I wasn't going very fast, so it didn't hurt me, but I got stuck. I put it in reverse to get away from the pole, and on my way forward again, I ran over the neighbor's sprinkler thingie and destroyed it. I didn't know what it was at first, but as soon as I saw the weeping stump I put all the pieces of it I could find in a pile and ran into the house. I couldn't tell anyone what I did because they weren't there that night, so I had to wait and see. If they've noticed, they haven't said anything. I'm too scared to tell them what I did because Mr. Neighbor is kind of freakish about his lawn and I don't want him to yell at me. After that debacle I was watching Poltergeist and crocheting, when thunder blasted outside of the window at about the same time the emergency broadcast siren went off, so I almost had a heart attack. For a second, I thought 'Their here!" I got the dogs and lit a candle in case the power went out, and went about my business. I was thinking that it was going to come another storm, but I don't think it even rained very much.

Saturday was a busy day. I was scrounging some stuff to give my parents for their yard sale, and trying to clean up the living room. It took me all freakin' day, too. I didn't realize how dirty I had let that room get. There was stuff everyhere. Steve and his dad were replacing the water pump in his truck, so he was out of my way for a while. I was able to get quite a bit of laundry and stuff done. we were both too tired to go out that night, so we stayed at home and watched several episodes of the new Dr. Who. I am really starting to enjoy it, but I'm also sad because the guy playing the Dr. is only going to be there for one season. He said he didn't want to be typecast. : ( I hope the next guy is as likeable as this one. I also got to indulge in one of life's little known pleasures. Chocolate ice cream for dinner. Yummers! Because of my new Dr. Who fascination, I want to make a formal apology to everyone I've made fun of who watches the new Battlestar Galactica. Sure, it sucks, but I can't live in a glass house about bad tv sci-fi anymore.

Sunday I was sick as a dog. Mowing the yard apparently unleashed the worst allergy attack I've had in a long time and I pretty much just sat around trying to breathe and not move my head much. I was so dizzy, it was like a bad case of motion sickness. I did, however, rouse myself enough to have lunch with my family and help celebrate Shawn's birthday. He's 32! We all had a great time. Steve and I left there pretty early because I still wasn't feeling well and we were going to go to Wal-Mart to get some stuff, but we ended up going home and falling asleep. I woke up a little before Steve and went back to the couch and read until he left and watched TV and did some more crocheting. I'm a party animal!

I have a new annoyance. I'm kind of hesitant to admit it, because I've been known to do this myself, but I can honestly tell you that when I have done it, I've even annoyed myself. As hypocritical as this is going to sound, people on diets irritate me. Well, it isn't so much the people on diets, but it's the people who are hard core on diets. You know the types. They are usualy one one of those diets that requires buying a book for, and they tell you IN DETAIL everything they eat from day to day, they talk about why their diet is the best one and why you should do it. You can't talk about food in front of them because they will cut you off at the knees with a swift "I can't eat that!" You can't offer them anything without them telling you how bad it is for you and what it does to your body. Personally, I like to eat. If you are on a diet, good for you, but I don't want to know about it unless I ask. Let's consider it to be like talking about your sex life -- I DON"T WANT TO KNOW. If I do, I'll ask, and you should be unwilling to share details without blushing and stammering. With a few exceptions *coughchinesefood&chocolateicecream* I've been trying to eat better myself, but I hope I'm not being annoying about it. There have been many instances lately where I can't enjoy a meal because it never fails that SOMEONE is going to start talking about how fat they are and why they don't eat sugar, and what size they are. You know the one thing that I never hear with the diet people? How much they are exercising to lose this weight. I don't think I'd care so much if I thought they were at least trying to be healthy, but all I hear is how they have cut out all carbs, sugar, oil, starch, sweets, ad nauseum (not healthy, by the way). I would love to turn to them (mouth full of something they wish they were eating) and say, "You know, you can have all of those delicious and forbidden things if you weren't just trying to lose weight by going on some radical and usually unhealthy depravation diet." See, I know I'm being hypocritical there because you don't see me running to the gym six times a week, but at least I know that is something I should do. I'm not going to pretend that eating carrots and wheat germ for every meal is the way to go and generally make something that should be plesant into a three times a day torture session. God gave us food, we are supposed to eat it! We just aren't suposed to overindulge and make ourselves slothy (is that even a word) with it. There. I think I steped on my own toes a little there, but I needed to vent a little. It had been building up.

I'm off!

Friday, July 22, 2005

Why is it, the more sleep you sem to get, the less rested you feel? Last night, after watching the new Dr. Who (which is fast growing on me), I lay back on the couch for a power nap. My nap raged out of control and I woke up just in time to go to bed. I also overslept this morning, and I feel like a nap would be a good idea right now. Could anyone spare a shot of adrenaline or anything? Please? I'm afraid my boss is going to come in and find me in the fetal position asleep under the desk.

I just found out my shirt was inspected by both Inspector 21 and Inspector 13. I don't know if I should have complete confidence that my shirt is top quality or worry what is wrong with it since it had to be inspected twice. I really don't understand the whole purpose of having the little stickers on your shirts anyways. Do we really need to know which inspector looked at our underwear? Are we supposed to feel better knowing that ISP. 12 made sure our underwear was ok before it was shipped out? Who knows?

I got a flippin' parking ticket in the parking lot of the museum yesterday. I was apparently parked one row too close to the entrance. Can you say, puh-leeze? Not only that, but I didn't notice the parking ticket under my windshield wiper until I was halfawy home *with the windshied wipers on!* So there I am with little bits of sodden paper smearing all over my windshield and me having to turn my windshield wipers off so that I wouldn't destroy the ticket. I was afraid that I would have to pay a fine or something and if I didn't, my paycheck would be withheld. However, I found out that even some of the security guards think giving the tickets is lame, so you don't have to pay anything. However, if I make it a habit, I can get fired, or so I read. Oh yes, let me park 6 feet from where you say it's okay or I lose my livelyhood. SOMEONE out there needs something better to do, in my opinion.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

I've come to a decision.

Now that I'm an artist, I can no longer be called weird. From now on, address me as eccentric! I know that tecnically I don't have enough money to be eccentric, but that's what I'm going with.

Went to lunch today with two of my co-workers. These guys are so funny, but it's amazing how careful they are being about offending me. Not that I would want them to go on a free-for-all and be disgusting, but still, I'm not that delicate. However, I do appreciate it, so I'm not going to complain. I guess I'm just surprised that people still do that. We went to La Alameda and had some Mexican food. I need to be more careful about using my Rosie Perez accent in Mexican food places. I'm going to get in trouble! I also had to stop by PetsMart for some dog sedatives. Butler took a chunk out of Bear again, and we scared him last night trying to put medicine on it. So yeah, I'm going to have to drug the dog so that I can work on him. SIGH.

Speaking of Butler, how can a 65 pound Lab suddenly decide he is a lap dog? This is the second time I've been watching TV and he's jumped into my lap and wallowed all over me. It's not just a little wallowing, either, he goes on a full scale, flipped over, burrowing under the couch cushions act. Then he stood on me and launched himself off of my bladder. I think my dog is on crack.

It's still hot outside. Still so dag-blasted hot! I feel like someone has taken one of those hot towels they give you at the doctor and threw it over my head. What I wouldn't give for Storm's X-Men power of controlling the weather. There would be some snow ouside right now.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Scotty has been beamed up.

The man who played Scotty on the origial series of Star Trek passed away today.

May the sky be all the brighter with him truly among the stars.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

I had to staple my shirt to my bra today. I realize that is not the best way to handle a situation, but I had an embarrassing incident this morning. It shall not happen again! Mwahahahahahahhaa! The fun part will be trying to get the staples out!
I hate the summer. Well, not so much the summer but the heat. I have had to be outside more than normal because I have to do stuff out in the parking lot or in Rocket Park, and I hate it. I finally know what "Sultry" means in reference to the weather. It's the kind of heat that wraps around you like a second skin made of hot water, making you sweat the second you walk out the door. I don't even want to discuss trying to get into the car. I'm almost positive that hell is only a little hotter than Alabama in the summer.

Yesterday I wrote a long and involved entry in my blog, but stupid me still hasn't gotten used to the old OS on my work Mac, and I deleted the whole thing. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, let me tell you. I had a long and complicated weekend, but I don't want to take the time to write the whole thing over, so I'll give you the highlights.
*Went shopping like a mad woman for clothes to wear to work. Now I have an abundance of "Career Casual" and I am so darned cute! Steve and I also went to dinner with a bunch of friends. The married couple are not getting along. Can we say, uncomfortable? Saturday I had planned to do so much, but my Harry Potter book came in and I ingored everything else. I finished it already and it is by far my favorite of them all. The end made me cry. I know the people in it aren't real, but I was helpless not to. I don't want to say why in case you haven't read it yet, though. I'll give it a couple of weeks. We also went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was amazing. It was actually based on the book, so I think that's why I liked it so much. Besides, even when he looks weird, Johnny Depp is SO good looking. Heeheehee. Sunday was another church sandwhich. We also went to Decatur with Josh to eat at Steak and Shake. I wish they would build one of those in Huntsville. Yummers!*

I have a problem that both bothers me and makes me feel bad. There is a person I know (who will remain nameless) who hugs me every time they see me. Now, if you know me well, you know I normally love to be hugged. Probably more than the average person, even. However, this person who feels the need to hug me, I don't know that well. Maybe if I knew them better, I wouldn't be uncomfortable with the hugs. To be honest, I don't know why they even want to hug me. I AM awful huggable, I guess, but I don't do anything at all that says "Please, come into physical contact with me! PLEASE!" Once again, let me say again, I normally love to be hugged by friends and family. However, the afore mentioned hugs seem to be both obligitory and half hearted. Maybe if they didn't seem secretly repelled at the idea of hugging me, I wouldn't mind so much. Who knows? I've tried to deflect the hug, even, but it never works. I am too polite to ask them to stop because I know that somewhere down deep, this person feels they are being friendly and I don't want the hurt their feelings. Sigh. I never thought I would complain about being hugged. : P Don't worry, it isn't any of you who read this. Just FYI. : )

I spilled chicken noodle soup into my keyboard here at work. It wouldn't be so bad, but I have one of those psudeo-trendy translucent keyboards that came with the Macintoshes when the computer was new, and all I could see was chicken soup goo moving from one place to the other. However, I cleaned it out, so no worries there. My IT guy is going to LOVE this.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

MORE RANDOMNESS

Greetings to all of you! Yes, I know I haven't been writing much and I apologize. I realize some of you aren't really living until you read what I'm doing! : ) Just kidding. That would be saying that you have less of a life han I do, and that's just not possible. Well, on with the rambling...

1. When did I get old? I mean, I know 27 isn't OLD, but for some reason my body seems to think it's much older than that. I only recently realized this when I woke up and my thumb was jammed. Not jammed in the painful way, but as if it decided that if I don't move it while I'm sleeping, then it's going to take it's time moving when I wake up. I've also noticed that my right knee creaks, I'm gaining weight for some unseeable reason (I'm much more active and eating better, but it ain't working) and I have some gray hair. Now, the gray hair doesn't bother me, but Steve pulls them out if he sees them before I do, so it's no fun. Eh, oh well.

2. I had the worst dream ever the other night. I'll try and give the readers digest condensed version. There were zombies and everyone who hadn't already been killed were trying to get away. There wasn't anyone I knew with me, so I was trying to find some people to travel with to be safe. Everyone I met up with would be fine at first and then down the road some glaring problem would arise with them (being crazy or something similar usually). Just when I thought I had found a safe place, another wave of zombies came through tearing the place apart. I decided to go to my parent's house, and when I got there everything was fine. I told them what was going on, and ran back to my own room to pack my backpack if we had to evacuate. While I'm in my room packing, the zombies come back and I'm having to kill them by beating them up. My dad runs in and hands me a baseball bat and I wake up. Well, you'd think that would be it except I fall back asleep and pick up on the dream. Apparently the zombies are gone and we are cleaning up where the zombies had torn the place apart. While I'm outside, I see them coming again and I run back inside grabbing everything we can use as a weapon on my way. I call everyone into the bathroom (it doesn't have a wondow) and we slam the door. Once we're inside, I realize my brother isn't in there. I ask my mom where he is and she tells me he's in the cellar. I know we don't have a cellar and it dawns on me that they left him outside (for those of you who don't know, he's severely handicapped and wouldn't be able to run). At that point in my dream, I say aloud "kelly, you have GOT to get out of this dream...NOW!" and I woke up. That dream bothered me for the rest of the day!

3. I've gotten a new appreciation for classic rock and roll. While I'm working, I keep a radio going and the guy who left it in here origianlly left WTAK on, and it plays Skynard, Led Zepplin and the like. I normally didn't listen to that kind of music, but I'm really enjoying it! Of course, I never thought I'd ever listen to an Ozzie Osbourne song on purpose, and now I know the words to a couple! This is probably why I'm cutting myself all of the time, I'm jamming to the radio instead of paying attention! : )

4. I just finished the first of my big projects with only a few changes having to be made! Go me! Now I need to go get printing estimates.

5. I went home yesterday and had dinner, and was suddenly hit with extreme tiredness. Thinking I was only going to take a power nap, I fell asleep and woke up this morning at about 4:00 am. I hate it when that happens! It was such a waste of a perfectly good evening.

6. I think I "over-fonted" my laptop. I got a CD of Macintosh fonts and started to load them. I'm not done, but it won't let me put anymore into the folder! Geez...

well, that's about as interesting as I can be today! Ciao!

Friday, July 08, 2005

Contrary to popular belief, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. When I started this job, I knew it was busy, but I had no idea what kind of busy! I'm literally running, cutting, plotting or whatever from the time I get in until the time I leave. It's completely awesome! I haven't had a chance to post anything lately, but now that I have a breathing spell, I'm going to taje advantage of it!

Monday I didn't come to work because of the holiday. I, along with Steve's family, went to Lawrenceville, Tennesseeto see the Amish community. I was a little nervous about it, because let's face it, we were going there to stare at people for being different. However, mostly all we did was drive around and see the houses and Mr. Lee bought some vegetables and jelly. It was actually very interesting. I took my camera along, but you aren't allowed to take pictures of the people, so I took some of the fields and houses. We also went to Davy Crockett state park and had lunch. It was a nice day. By the time we got home, though, it was pouring down rain and our power had gone off. I didn't care, though. In the daytime, a quiet nap in a cool house listening to the rain without the sounds of technology is nice. I guess I was still feeling the Amish vibe. : )

This week at work has been super busy. I'm kind of glad, because the days just seem to fly by, but when you get so busy that you don't realize you've been standing in practically one position for three hours, that's kind of weird. I have had to make a lot of big signs and posters lately, and last night I stayed until 7 o'clock to get some stuff ready for today. What would normally have only taken a few minutes took several hours because one of our printers ran out of the special paper and I had to do it all with vinyl sheeting. Imagine making ten small signs with what basically boils down to stickers. I barely got them to the people who needed them on time. The sad thing? I know that as soon as that luncheon is over, they are going to throw all of them away. SIGH.

I have officially wounded myself every day that I've been at work! I have over 9 cuts on my hands, and yesterday I thought I was doing well by not cutting myself and it turns out that I cut a big hole in my shirt! I also bought what looked like some very comfortable sandles to wear to work, and they ended up blistering my feet so badly that I had to go barefoot most of the day yesterday. Yuck.

I got some bad news yesterday. My mother called and told me that the football coach from my high school died. He had a heart attack while he was jogging. He was only 44 years old. I couldn't help but shed a few tears for the man. I mean, I hadn't seen him in 10 years, but he was a good friend of my sister and my cousins played ball for him. He was always very nice to me. Coach Cavnar was a good man, he loved the kids he taught and he was a talented artist. I hope I can make a difference to people like he did.

Did I ever tell you about my uncomfortable moment? I don't think I did. Well, it probably wasn't as uncomfortable as it could have been, but it still made me feel awkward. Steve, Josh, and I went out to eat with a guy, Joe, who we used to work with at the SpRocket and his new wife. We didn't really know her that well, but she is a really sweet girl who is a lot of fun. Well, all during dinner we were laughing and talking and generally acting foolish. I kept noticing this lady watching our table, and I didn't think much about it because we WERE being kind of loud. Well, the people at that lady's table got up and were leaving when I noticed a younger woman walking with her stop and look at everyone at our table. She looked at me right in the eye and I realized that she was the ex-girlfriend of Joe (and had been really upset that he had gotten married). Now she didn't say or do anything, but she did give us all a measured look and it was so awkward. Joe never saw her because he was talking to Steve, but Joe's wife, Josh and I did. All of us just kind of clammed up and looked guilty! Does anyone have any idea why we do these things? I mean, Joe and that girl had been broken up for over two years, but they had dated for 5 years and Joe's wife was the girl he started dating soon after. There was no reason to feel weird, but we did. Oh well.

Well. I guess I do need to get back to work!

Friday, July 01, 2005

MEDIC!!!!!!!

I'm still a little queazy from what happened to me a few minutes ago. I was standing there, minding my own business and cutting out a sign with my exacto knife, when I suddenly felt a sting on the side of my finger. I looked down and realized that I had cut off the corner of my finger. You heard me right, folks, I sliced a chunk out of my left index finger. Now, I didn't lose the tip off or anything, but there is now a notch on my hand. Amazingly enough, I cut in just the right place for it not to start bleeding immediately, so I ran over and grabbed the liquid bandage goo and squirted it right over whre I hurt myself. The shock of pain that ran through my body when that stuff got down into that cut made me almost pass out, but I was able to keep on working with no fuss or muss. I can't help but still be shaky, though. My knife was sharp enough to go right through me...*shudder*

Anyways. Last night Steve and I went to see War of the Worlds. We were supposed to go and see it wednesday, but I fell asleep! My one work summary of the movie: amazing! I was afraid that the movie wasn't going to be all that great, but I was very surprised! It was awesome. There was just enough action not to be overwhelming and a good combination of sets and CGI special effects. Tom Cruise, while I find him personally strange, does a great job acting as the scared father in this movie. I don't want to say too much because I want you all (yes, even you too) to go see it! I will want this movie when it comes out on DVD! See it on the big screen if possible!

Wow, I'm tired. We are supposed to go over to our friends house tonight and play trivia, but I wish I could just sleep. I would never be ale to get away with not going, though. Dangit, maybe I will get a nap in before I have to go anywhere.

Work is still going well. I've completed most of the tasks that have been turned over to me, except the ones that keep making my computers crash! : ) My work computers are two of the oldest and most dragged down couple of Macs I've ever been near. Just trying to reply to an e-mail on my Outlook makes the computer lock up! However, I'm getting a lot of the more simple projects out of the way. We have 378 projects on our roster, and so far only 17 have been completed. To be fair, they are the more complicated ones, but good greif...

Well, I must go and weed a sign. : )