Wednesday, March 29, 2006

*Spazmodic, choked back laughter*

I have been supressing my laughter about this website since yesterday in the hopes that my boss won't catch me surfing the web while I should be working. Okay, to be fair, I was working, I just jumped back and forth from my project to this website while things were, you know, rasterizing and stuff.

This website is called "Go Fug Yourself" and I have no idea where it is based or who writes it, but it is funny! It's basically these two chicks who make fun of celebrities clothes. Not all celebrities mind you, just the ones who go out looking like homeless aliens and what-not. I have come to the conclusion that when famous, rich people want to go out and don't want to don normal-people clothes, they call it "Haute Couture" (is that even close?)and we are supposed to forgive them and be dazzled at their trend setting ways. However, if someone like me, who is neither famous nor rich, goes out of the house looking like one of these people, rumors begin to spread that Steve lost his job and I'm having to take odd jobs as a circus clown to make ends meet. At any rate, the ladies who write this are really sharp.

It harkens me back to the days when I dated that guy who turned out to be gay. When he saw someone dressed badly, he would say "Oh No She Di'ent!" and go on to explain their fashion faux pas and how it could be remedied. Something tells me that I should have known he was gay WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY before he told me.

Anyways, have a laugh.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Greetings!

I'm not going to do my usual weekend update, simply because I had a rather uneventful weekend and it would be boring. However, there is one thing I think is worth telling you.

Sunday I wore a new sweater to church (riveting, I know). I had bought it a little big on purpose, because with my inexpert laundry skills I tend to shrink stuff and I wanted to be able to wear it more than once. The result of it being a little big was that anytime I bent over without the modest hand at the neck of the sweater, I basically flashed anyone who happened to be looking. I had been careful all that morning not to forget about that, but by the time service was over, I had forgotten. So I bent over to grab my bible and purse. Because I had some other stuff with me that slid off of the pile, I had to stand there for a few moments and gather everything together. It wasn't until I felt a breeze that I noticed what was going on! I jerked upright and held all of the books to my chest and walked out of the sanctuary with a really red face.

You know, looking back on it, it wasn't so much that I flashed congregation that bothers me. What bothers me is the beads that came flying out of the choir loft as I walked by.

Quick note to self...shrink that sweater soon!

Sunday, March 26, 2006

I used to think I didn't like children. However, I have come to the conclusion that I like them fine but they scare the bejeebus out of me.

I had a dream the other night, which I will not delve into because it was complicated and strange and mostly fogotten at this point, but I remember one thing very clearly. I was trapped in a room with about 4 other people, one of which was a little blonde girl who was about 3 or 4. I don't know who she was, or more to the point WHAT she was, but she was freaking me out. She didn't talk like a little kid, and she seemed to be trying to find something out from us. Like some kind of bizarre mind-meld or something. I saw her coming at me and I tried to get away, but she pointed at me and two of the other adults in the room grabbed my arms and pinned me down. Then the little girl said "I have to see!" and she ran over and grabbed me by the face and pulled me to her level. She pressed her forehead to mine and stared into my eyes. Her eyes got bigger and went all black, but I couldn't move to get away. After a minute or so she pushed my face away, slamming my head on the floor and walked away. All I remember her saying before I woke up on the verge of screaming was "She's empty, except for the stars."

HUH!? No more crack for me before bedtime.

Friday, March 24, 2006

OKAY! Apparently Jason will not let me live it down until I fix it, so let me fix it. A couple of entries ago, I made a link to our Save the Saturn V website, but the link was wrong. You may find it here. Are you happy now?!

I went to dinner with the IT department from Steve's work last night. I was the obigitory spouse and only woman with the group other than the boss. I made the mistake of asking a tecnical question and even though they tried to explain it to me in simpler terms, the explanation just kept getting longer and longer. Note to self...if you have questions about cmoputer stuff, look it up on Google. We had a great time, but after dinner was over, I got sick. It wasn't the normal kind of sick. It was the "makes Ebola and the Bubonic Plague pale in comparison" and you start making out your will just in case you don't make it to tomorrow kind of sick. Who knows what it was, because I felt much better this morning. As a good friend of mine says, maybe I just got a "holt" of some bad chicken. : ) Through the haze of yuck, I finished my paper for better or for worse. In the words of everyone's favorite guy, Han Solo, I have a bad feeling about this. I know the teacher won't say anything to me specifically, but she always writes little notes on the papers she grades and she grades HARD. I dread getting it back and she hasn't even read it yet. Oh well... Now if I could just finish my Flash project and make it to summer.

I'm getting all of my hair cut off tonight. Hopefully it won't end up looking like that travesty that happened right after I got married (screams of terror), but I have to do something! As much as I want long hair, it just won't do anything anymore. It looks great for about 15 minutes every morning, but by the time I get in the car, it's like wearing a dead weasel on my head. So to combat road-kill hair, I'm chopping it off. : (

Well, I need to get busy with some work or a reasonable faximile of it at least. Even if you don't have anything specific to do, it's nice to look busy sometimes!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Do you know how disheartening it is to come home, have every intention of doing some hard core research paper writing, and suddenly wake up in the fetal position in a puddle of your own spittle? Charming...

I have almost finished writing my paper and it sucks. I'm not kidding. I just can't make myself get interested in it. I don't want to write it, I don't want to think about it, I would even kind of like to go back in time and trap Alexander the Great in a big, sticky piece of fly-paper and keep him from conquering Persia so that the Hellenistic era of Egypt never happened and this particular subject wouldn't exist!

Yeah, it's gotten to that point.

Poor Steve has fallen asleep in the living room. He's been so stressed and busy that I don't want to have to wake hium up and tell him to go to bed. This is the first night in a long time he's been home. I was just thinking last night when he came home that I feel kind of like we've gotten to the point of "Hey! Nice to see you again. How's the family? The Kids? Well, got to run. See you in a few days!"

Speaking of the kids...we had to take ChickenDog Butler to the vet. He acted terrible. He also got so nervous that his fur started flying out of him for no reason. It's like he thinks he's a porcupine, but since he doesn't have any quills, he just throws furs all over the place. By the time they called us back, I was boot deep in blond Lab hair. He also slobbered all over be from sheer anxiety. YUCK!

Although it's a little late, I'm going to go ahead and give my WEEKEND UPDATE!

Friday after work, Steve and I went to dinner with his newest co-worker Todd and his wife Sharon. They are really nice! I wasn't hungry, but when we got to Beaureguards, I decided that I would order a fried baloney sandwhich. I don't know what I was thinking. When it arrived, I became frightened at not only the smell of it, but the huge slices of baloney kind of oozing out. I only took a couple of bites before I had to give it up. *Shudder* I don't like to think about it.

Saturday I got up early and thought that I would finish my Flash project. I worked on it for about 10 solid hours, but couldn't get the darned thing to work. I got to the point of frustration I very rarely ever reach. I literally had to restrain myself from punching the monitor of my iMac. I had to get up and walk around for a while until the feeling passed. Luckily Jason is a Flash Master, and he gave me some code that will hopefully get me out of my bad spot. If it doesn't, I'm going to burn down his house. : ) Since Steve was down in the 'Ham visiting his mom (who is still freaking in the hospital if you can believe it) I decided to get out of the house for a while and see if I could get the ol brain working on the research paper. While I was getting ready, my friend Sara called! I haven't talked to her since November. She said that she reads my blog every day so, Hey Scary Spice! After she sort of fell asleep while we were talking (I knew I was boring but...geez) ; ) she let me go and I got my stuff together and went back to that coffee place where my friend and his band play. They weren't there, but I got a latte and settled back with my lap top. About half an hour later they came in, and informed me that they had been to his grandfather's funeral. : ( I never got to meet his grandparents, but I know it was Mr. Harris' dad who died, and that made me really sad. Jason was all torn up, which is understandable, so after they played a few songs, they all came to my table and we talked it out. I think the lead singer of the band, Eric, must think I'm kind of a moron. He kept finding it necessary to explain simple things to me. He also said "Can I say something without offending you?" I love that question, by the way. Like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get. : ) Since I don't know him that well, I didn't really know what he was going to say, so I told him "sure". He said "You've got to be the most romantic person I've ever met." I must've looked taken aback, because that was certainly not what I was expecting. I was just trying to puzzle out why that would be offensive in any way when he said "No, I totally mean that as a complement" and then went on to explain what he meant by romantic. I knew what he meant, that I had a good imagination and a way of looking at things through the rose-colored glasses you hear so much about (I won't explain the convo, if you don't mind, for pacing reasons). If he wasn't so nice and funny, I might have gotten offended at the fact that he was explaining what he meant! I actually ended up staying out there much longer than I had intended. It's nice to have a place to go and hang out without feeling like a bum, a NORM! kind of place, but I'm afraid Jason thinks I'm stalking him now. I was just thinking that I wouldn't mind making the place a regular stop for Saturday night lattes, but Jason said he was surprised to see me there. I didn't really know if he was glad to see me or what, but now I'm afraid if I keep going back, he's going to get a restraining order! : ) Nah. Probably not. Oh well, at least he doesn't have that crack-head girlfriend anymore to do it for him. I'm too old to deal with jealous girlfriends. I can't help it if I threaten other women! Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! Sorry, I can't really even think that with a straight face!

Sunday was the norm. Church in the morning, my parent's for lunch, and then back home to work on the paper.

It's been spring break this week, but it's been the most un-springy break I've ever had. Last year at this time I was in Florida getting a tan and lying on the beach with my bathing suit top on upside down...I wish I was there now! : )

Well, I need to get back to the paper...always back to the paper.

Blech.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

DRIVE BY BLOGGING

This is just a brief note to say hello and to say it'll be a little while until I can write a good blog again.

School has become a thorn in my...um...side, but it's nobody's fault but my own. I have the little brother of Stupid Paper due on monday and I haven't been able to find a great deal of information on my topic "The Herakles Knot". Don't even ask. I've also got to finish my Flash project. You'd think 10 hours on Saturday would have taken care of it, but noooooooooooo. Hastared project.

Work has been busy. I haven't had that many different projects, but what I've been doing has been time consuming. I had to make some vinyl logos for the company vehicles. It took me hours to do them. Imagine putting together a very tiny, very sticky jig-saw puzzle. It was like doing micro-surgery on a smurf. Oy.

More to come...
DRIVE BY BLOGGING

This is just a brief note to say hello and to say it'll be a little while until I can write a good blog again.

School has become a thorn in my...um...side, but it's nobody's fault but my own. I have the little brother of Stupid Paper due on monday and I haven't been able to find a great deal of information on my topic "The Herakles Knot". Don't even ask. I've also got to finish my Flash project. You'd think 10 hours on Saturday would have taken care of it, but noooooooooooo. Hastared project.

Work has been busy. I haven't had that many different projects, but what I've been doing has been time consuming. I had to make some vinyl logos for the company vehicles. It took me hours to do them. Imagine putting together a very tiny, very sticky jig-saw puzzle. It was like doing micro-surgery on a smurf. Oy.

More to come...

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Sorry for the lapses in posting. I'm sure all two of you who check my blog on a regular basis are going through withdrawl or something! : )

It's been hellaciously busy for me at work these last two weeks. Yesterday I was finally able to start on the biggest project that I had on hold, and I finished it this afternoon! Woo-Hoo! We are running a "Save the Saturn V" fundraiser and I had to make a bunch of posters and stuff for advertising, 57 of them at last count. Please, go and buy some coffee in the groovy pouch my friend Rodney designed and help us restore that big rocket that's laying down in the back of the park!

I also stabbed myself again. You know, no one should ever get to the point of such flippancy to be able to say something like that and not be upset about it, but alas, that's where I have come to. I had just changed my blade out yesterday, when my mom called. I still had the blade in my hand when I sat down to talk to her, and when attempting to take the blade out of my left hand, I jammed the blade a 1/4 of an inch into my right palm. Oh....I wanted to say curse words so bad, but my mother was on the phone with me and I couldn't! It didn't bleed much, but it hurts like a heifer-dog!

We thought Rhonda was going to get to come home today, but they had to do another minor procedure on her again which has set her ETA back to "we don't know". Nothing really terrible, thank goodness, but they thought she was having a bad reaction to some of her meds, and they were going to put a filter into her femoral (?) artery to keep her from geting blood clots or some such thing. I swear, by the time she gets home, with all of the plastic and silicon she will have inside of her, she'll be like the Bionic Woman. *insert obligitory nananananananananananana sound here*

Steve took me to see his new building last night. I have dubbed it the Starship Westar-prise. I wish I could explain why, but I'm not allowed. It was...interesting. I will say, however, that I may look into becoming a corporate interior designer. Apparently you don't have to be that talented and from what I could see, it's a possibility that they let you drink on the job. ; )

Well, I need to get back to working!

Monday, March 13, 2006

WEEKEND UPDATE!

This weekend was fraught, FRAUGHT I SAY, with a plethora of highs and lows. It was a veritable sine wave of emotional journeys.

OK, yeah, I'm over dramatizing that a bit. : ) However, I did see both ends of the joy spectrum this weekend.

Friday night I went to the gym on my own. That night they had me down for the upper body workout, which I hate, and I was hoping to get done quickly. I didn't get to do everything because the "Popeye dudes" were there. This is what I call those guys who have such big muscles that they can't put their arms all the way down to their sides. Seriously. Once guy looks normal everywhere else, but his arms are huge. I fear for any shirt that he puts on that doesn't contain a healthy amount of Lycra, because if he sneezes and flexes his biceps, I'm pretty sure it would fly off in tatters. Don't make him angry...you wouldn't like him when he's angry. The Popeye Guys all hang around the free weights and watch themselves in the mirror as if they are tryng to figure out one of those 3D pictures that look like bad TV reception. They make me too nervous to get near them, AND the sheer largeness of their muscles doesn't leave me an awful lot of room to move around anyway. So I left early. As I was getting in the car I realized that I had missed some calls, one of which was from my friend who had gotten so sick last fall. It wasn't actually her that called, it was her mother. My friend went into surgery on Friday, but unfortunately all of the healing that the doctors had been anticipating had not happened. In fact, her small intestine was pretty much gone completely. They had to reverse her gastric bypass so that her body would be able to hold more food, but she will probably have to rely on the liquid nutrients they were giving her intrveinously, maybe even for the rest of her life. They still have some ideas that might help her, so the outlook isn't completely dark, but my friend is horribly depressed and scared. I can totally understand that. Please just keep her in your prayers.

Saturday dawned beautifully. I woke up way earlier than I wanted to and couldn't go back to sleep. So after letting the dogs out (yeah, I let the dogs out!) I decided that all of the beautiful flowers blooming outside needed to be photographed. I love Spring for many things, flowers being #1 on that list. However, I do not love spring because of the nerve gasses that the flowers and trees spread around. I totally forget that mornings are the worst time to be outside if you are allergic to pollen. There I was wallering around on the grass trying to get a good shot of the purple wildflowers growing on our lawn. I was right up against the Bradford Pear, and I'm all but climbing the ornamental plum tree to get good close ups of the blossoms. It wasn't until I went back inside that I started itching, sneezing and breaking out into a lovely rash. Nice. That being done, I medicated myself and then sat back to watch the recorded Monk and Battlestar Galactica season finale. Since I know and love some very big Battlestar fans who probably didn't get to see it, I won't ruin it, but the end had me scratching my head. It was awesome, though. I decided to give Steve a day to himself, since he doesn't seem to get any peace from anywhere else these days, so I did my own thing while he did his. I shopped and got groceries and I think he told me he had to go into work for a while and get his oil changed. I didn't see him again until he came home after lunch. I worked on some homework and he listened to his audio novels It was very nice. I had planned to go to The Coffee Tree and listen to my friend's band that night and Steve declined to join me. Josh was supposed to meet me at our house, but he was late, so I went on without him! He met me there, and we sat and talked for a while before the band set up. I was expecting something a little flashier, but I was plesantly surprised at their sound. Sort of a countryish-folkish-Edwin McCainish type thing. Since it was open mic night, two other acts performed and Josh and I spent the time when they were playing getting aquainted with Jason's (my friend) band members I didn't know. We had so much FUN! We just sat back and talked about this and that. I got caught up with Jason's life, since I hadn't seen him in forever. He had just broken up with his girlfriend, who apparently was kinda psycho. She showed up that night with her little boy and I recognized her as the lady who used to cut my hair! It's a small world afterall. Apparently her craziness surpassed even what Jason told me because everyone who knew Jason kept a watch out for her to make sure she didn't...hurt him, cause a scene? I don't know, but I do know they didn't leave them alone for long periods of time when she would follow him outside during his cigarette breaks. Very creepy. Apparently she had come there that night to beg him to come back to her...using her little boy as kind of a weapon. It's not their child, it's her son, and Jason had made it clear that he wasn't interested in playing daddy to him unless things looked like they were getting serious between them. Ex-girlfriend had different ideas. People who use kids like that make me sick! Anyways, after that uncomfortable moment was over and she had gone, they asked me to sing with them! I got to sing!!!!! Yay! We ended up staying until well after the cafe closed, because the lead singer's mom runs the place and said she didn't mind if we stayed while they were cleaning up. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday was blah. I don't know if it's my allergies or what, but I felt like the inside of my body was on fire. I couldn't get cool for anything. I went to church, but ended up coming home because of the way I felt. I went out to my parent's house and then on to Steve's parent's house to water the plants and clean for them. Steve had gone down to Birmingham to see his folks and by the time I got home, he was home and taking a nap. I did more homework, made dinner and went to bed.

So what did you do?

Friday, March 10, 2006

I just came across a link for a person who makes wooden wedding bands and engagement rings. I don't mean to be rude, because the person who makes these things is obviously talented, but...wood?

I've been to many a wedding where the officiant has said, "These rings are made of gold, which does not tarnish, much as your love for each other and the love of Christ for you does not tarnish or fade."

I wonder what he would say about a wooden ring? "These rings are made of wood, such as trees are...and trees can get pretty old, but only if they don't get parasites or a subdivision isn't planned where it stands. So here's hoping!"

Somehow, it doesn't strike me as appropriate. After all, the mask of Agamemnon was found still shining after years and years, but the box that heald it and the body it was on was long gone.
OK, that last entry wasn't exactly fair.

I know I shouldn't judge anyone about anything because I have enough of my own faults.

Anyways.

Oh! I found out that a old friend of mine from school has a band that plays at one of the coffee shops near here. I'm supposed to go hear them this weekend, and he said if I'd like to sing with them sometime that I could! Yay! Of course, I don't know any of their songs, but the gesture was nice. : )

Well, the day has blossomed into beauty, and so must I. Off to the baths!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Grrrr.

I am Kelly's sense of righteous indignation.

Some people have much more than they deserve.

That is all.
I have a new purpose in life. I am going to learn how to say "Your Mother" to Jason, the Office Sniper, in many different languages. If you know any obscure language and can tell me how to say it, I'd appreciate it. Please e-mail it phonetically, though.

That brings up another thought. I wonder if there are support groups for people who were Hooked on Phonics?

I'm feeling rather British today. I've been listening to "Goblet of Fire" while working and I've been listening to the reader's accent so much that I copy it without thinking. I'm bad about picking up accents, though. We had an exchange student from Germany who I'm sure thought I was constantly making fun of her. I couldn't help it! God help me if I ever get around someone from New England. Even with just the slight southern accent I have, that would probably make my head explode. It's bad enough that I have to teach myself to talk all over again when I spend the afternoon with my family. I end up sounding like one of the Clamppets.

I've been very productive today, although I'm sure no one who has been in my office today would think so. I spent hours cutting out vinyl lettering and other such things, but any time someone came into my office, I was eating lunch or talking on the phone. That's just my luck.

We drove down to Birmingham to visit Ms. Rhonda again last night, and she is way more alert than she has been thus far. Steve and his dad went to dinner while I stayed with her, and she was fine until the morphine kicked in. She had been talking about eating oatmeal and then she got stuck. She just kept saying "oatmeal" over and over. She finally stopped and told me she was going to just let the meds do their thing and she fell asleep. I read until Mr. Lee and Steve came back. Steve has been wiped out due to work stress (BTW, I am SO glad I'm not an IT person.) so he let me drive home. I say he "let me" because my driving scares him to death and he doesn't ususally want me to drive. I only saw him put on the passenger side breaks once. I think that's a record.

ACK! Now I know why MySpace.com is usually banned from the Sprocket network. I have a friend with a MySpace page that I wanted to read, and I just figured that I'd try and see if I could find a way onto the page while I was at work one day. Well, I was allowed in, and after I was done reading that page, I started searching to see if there was anyone else I knew who had pages. I actually found a page from an old friend from high school. I hadn't talked to him in a while so I went in and started looking at his profile and what not. Then I clicked on a link that said "More Pics" and I clicked on it, and OH. MY. GOD. There was a picture of him in his underwear. I know that it's not such a big deal, I mean he wasn't nude or anything, but I certainly wasn't expecting it! Of course, then I freak out because I'm on my work computer. I can just imagine the Internet Nazi finding this website on my history and coming down on me like a ton of bricks. So I attack the back button and try to back out and I don't know where I ended up, but I was staring at a picture of a guy who actually was naked! That website LIES when it says you can't post those kinds of things! I was within an inch of just jerking the cords out of the walls, but somehow I managed to just get the search engine turned off. I sat there for a moment, almost as if I thought that my CAT5 would magically explode out of the port and start flogging me, but it didn't. So far none of the computer guys has questioned me, but I'm certainly not going to try MySpace at work anymore!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I am such a dork-fish!

This morning when I went to school I was busting it to get to class on time. IWhen I pulled in to the parking lot, there were hardly any cars there at all, so I was confused. Of course the first thing to pop into my head was that I had missed a holiday of some sort. I can't help it, I'm a flake! When I realized how stupid that was I parked and went inside. Still, I didn't see anyone else and the door to the computer lab was closed. My teacher is always threatening to close the door to late comers, so I went to the other door in hopes that I could slip in unnoticed. That's when I saw the clock. It was 1 minute to 8:00 am. My class starts at 8:30! Well, at least I wasn't late. : )

Also, I apparently don't have many friends here at work because I came to work wearing 1 big, dangly earring and not 2. No one said a word about this! I really need some kind of indentured servant whose main function is to make sure I have my clothes and jewelry on correctly in the morning. I'm going to end up one of those little old ladies who have their underwear on the outside of their clothes!
What a beautiful day! Days like this should be set aside for specific purposes other than working, such as going to the park, taking pictures of early budding flowers and trees, and generally bollyfoxing about. I'm not really sure what bollyfoxing is, but my mom says that word occasionally. Even if the context is wrong, at least I do know it's not a bad thing. : )

Monday, March 06, 2006

Boy, that was stupid!

Yesterday morning I got up early so that I wouldn't be late for school. I went ahead and ate breakfast, which I rarely do, because I didn't want to be starving to death by the time my first class let out. Of course, that didn't help at all and I ended up leaving early so that I could go get a muffin. Seriously, all I wanted was a blueberry muffin and only a muffin was going to do! I drove across town to go to a place that I knew had muffins, and I got one plus a giant mocha latte. Pretty much, I got busy and that's all I had to eat or drink all day. I forgot that little fact.

I worked about an hour late and I went to the gym. They've changed my workout program and put me into the next level, so everything is harder and heavier. I did everything, even the cardio part, and when it was time for me to go I felt fine. I knew I needed to stop at Wal-Mart and pick up some stuff before I went home, which I did, and right in the middle of the sock and underwear section, my mind went blank. I couldn't remember why I was there. I needed neither socks nor underwear, of that I was sure, but I didn't know what I had come for. I also started to get really, really flushed and dizzy. I decided that whatever it was I was missing in my basket wasn't that important, so I bought what I had and drove home. By the time I got home, I couldn't see very well and I couldn't walk straight. I also couldn't focus my mind, and while Steve was talking to me I kept losing the thread of the conversation. Apparently I had become dehydrated to the point of passing out, and if it hadn't been for Steve telling me to sit down, I probably would have fainted. I finally got some water and made myself eat dinner. I'm glad I went home when I did. Can you imagine passing out at Wal-Mart? Yeesh.
I'm in the process of chewing my own face off in frustration. Yes, it's quite a sight.

Most people I work with seem easy going and not hard to please when it comes to the more simple aspects of my sign making abilities. They request them, I make them. No big deal, right? Well, not everyone is as easy-going as that. We have one lady who works here who is legendary in her inability to make even the most simple of decisions when it comes to her signs. I will not tell you her function in our business, but let's just say, she is near the top of that proverbial hill where the excrement succumbs to the pull of gravity.

One of my functions is to make standardized, temporary signs. You can think of my office as the old New Orleans red light district of signage. You need it dirty, fast, and cheap...you call me. I have templates of just about every standard sign we have, including the ones she always asks for, but she always asks me to send her a proof. People, I'm telling you, I plug in a logo and a date she needs and that's pretty much it! Why would she need a proof?! What does she think I'm going to do, screen an image of tap-dancing drag queens in the background? Well, I do this for her, because I've learned that it doesn't matter what I do or say, she will ask for it to be changed in some way. She will especially do this if I decide I don't want to deal with her and I just print it out and send it over to her. I think she does it to drive me crazy. At any rate, since I do this for her, I've asked her to do one teeny-tiny favor for me. When she needs a sign created, please, PLEASE request a high resolution logo from the company in question. I've asked her to do this & my boss has asked her to do this. It seems like a fairly easy request to make, right? Every time, every stinking time, she sends us a 72 dpi logo that is about 2 inches square that she pulls off of the internet and wants us to blow it up to fit into a space about a foot and a half wide. I'm pretty sure you know what happens to an image when you do that, right? It gets pixilated beyond belief. Before I knew what to expect from her, I e-mailed her and told her that the image was fuzzy and that she might want to request one from the company that we can use. She immediately e-mails my boss, not even me, my boss - and freaks the heck out about it. So now I just use the crappy logos she sends, or we are forced to re-create the logos if they become completely unusable (which is hard because you aren't supposed to approximate with logos, you have to be dead on). You'd think if she was so worried about making these look nice, she'd be more concerned with the company logos looking nice than what color border (which we only change for her, at her insistance) that the sign has. Grrr.

Anyways, time for the WEEKEND UPDATE! WOO-HOO!

Friday I had to work late, so all I did was stay at work and make a new sign. It was very exciting. It was actually a good sign, so I was proud of it. I did a little more design work than I usually do, so it wasn't as much drudgery as usual. If you come to the Sprocket (even without the spinning disk in the lobby) and see the signs advertising the Dog Tags in the gift shop...that's it. : ) Steve was being a good son and he went to Birmingham to stay the night with his mom and dad so that he could help out when needed. Awwwww.

Saturday I tried to be useful, but mostly all I did was laundry and clean the living room. Hey, don't judge, there was a lot of laundry! : ) I also had a date with Josh and Anthony that night to have dinner at Little Tony's and go see a movie. The dinner was great, but the movie wasn't. We went to see "Date Movie" which had the potential to actualy be really funny, but it was mostly bad. There were a couple of scenes that were funny, but for the most part it was like a spoof of a spoof and it relied on dirty jokes and potty humor for the most part. I just don't find stuff like that funny anymore. It's my one and only proof that I'm an adult now! heeheehee. I didn't get home until almost midnight, and Steve was back home when I got there. We talked for a while and then fell asleep.

Sunday we went to church in the morning and to my parent's house for lunch. I stayed home to work on homework last night, but I kept getting sidetracked. I finally resigned myself to watching a Harry Potter movie with Steve, who is fast realizing how much is cut out of the book now that he is listening to the audio versions of the novels in his truck. It's not as much fun watching movies with him when he keeps saying "HEY! They didn't talk about (insert missing part of story here)!" That's usually my job! : )

Well, I need to get back to work! Jason keeps shooting at me from the hall, and I need to move out of his line of sight.

Oh yeah, I get my book review back from my Prof today, so keep your fingers crossed for me. I need a good grade to offset the last exam I had!

Friday, March 03, 2006

Speaking of dreams...

I had another one that is still bothering me. Not quite like putting the baby in a drawer, but still weird. I dreamed that I found out how to go back in time. I could only go back once, and I chose to go back to save my grandmother from getting killed in a car accident. So I made all of these arrangements and knew exactly what I needed to do and where I needed to go, but when I got to the past, I kept getting stalled. I looked at my watch and realized that I needed to be at the place, so I ran to get there, but when I did, the accident had already happened. I started running between all of the emergency vehicles and screaming "There's nothing I could do! There's nothing I could do!" I just kept repeating that, over and over. It was scary. I just felt so helpless and sad, and I woke up feeling that way. Yuck. The weird thing is that my grandmother died of cancer, not in an accident, so I don't know where that came from! Strange.

Anyways, I ended up not going with Steve down to Birmingham last night. I still felt horrible by the time work was over, so I decided I would go home, have dinner, watch my two shows and go to sleep. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. Well, it was not so much fate as it was Steve. : ) He had to stop by his parent's house to pick some stuff up, but remembers at the last minute that he doesn't have the key to their house, I do. So I have to turn around and drive into Madison to open and lock the house. The twenty or so minutes we spent looking for his parent's stuff is probably the most time we've spent together in a week! He's been working a lot, so at least I know I'm not being left at home because he's having fun! : ) I got home at about 7:00 and did everything I had planned and fell asleep around 9:00. I remember Steve coming home, but I have no idea if I made send when I talked to him. Somehow I think he gets a kick out of hearing me not make sense. Who can blame him, though, right?

Do you remember when I told you I was crocheting a poncho like Martha Stewart had? Well, I got done with the main part of it, and it is HUGE. It's less like a poncho and more like something from Chattanooga Tent & Awning. Apparently, I made it using the "plus-size" pattern. Oops. Now, I'm not a little skinny thing, and I'm not unfamilliar with plus size clothing, but I don't think their idea of plus size and my idea of plus size are the same. No wonder it took 10 rolls of yarn! At any rate, I'm not too disappointed. Even if it looks like I made a "Kelly Cozy" rather than a cover-up, it's still nice and soft and snuggly. If nothing else, it'll be a nice blanket I can wear around the house. Now I just have to make some slippers to even it all out!

Wow, I'm boring myself. I'm going to go! : )

Thursday, March 02, 2006

I'm so tired. Literally so tired I almost can't function, but I've got too much to do to take a nap. Besides, my boss frowns on me sleeping while on the clock. : ) It might be because I didn't sleep well last night. I had this nightmare that I had a baby and when I brought it home, I just put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Several (dream) days later, I remembered it and panicked because I hadn't fed it! When I went looking for it, I couldn't find it. I had to wake up and remind myself that A) I don't have a child, in a drawer or otherwise B) I don't have anything with drawers to put it in C) The baby would have cried if it was hungry, helping me to remember it was there. At any rate, I woke up feeling like I didn't sleep at all. The only chocolate I had anytime close to when I went to bed was a frosty from Wendy's, but that was way earlier. I suppose it still could have caused it. Ick.

Being back to work has kept me busy. Everyone seems to have waited until monday to tell me about stuff that they needed IMMEDIATELY. I mean, there were people here who could have done some of it while I was gone, if they needed it that quickly, but everyone seems to be on some kind of schedule that requires me to do what they want RIGHT NOW!!! It's like I'm working for a whole bunch of Varuca Salt clones. My favorite order came from a lady in Marketing. She needs 52 signs by the end of next week. I can do it, but I wish I had known about it on Monday rather than yesterday. It's a good thing I like my job!

Steve has been so busy lately that we haven't had a chance to go to the gym. I could go alone, I guess, but our gym isn't exactly in the nicest part of town, so I'm too scared to go alone. Hopefully we can start back next week.

Steve and I plan on going back to see his mom tonight if nothing happens. If I don't feel any better, I don't think I should go. If I have caught something rather than just interrupted sleep, I don't want to give it to her. She's already been sick as well as recovering from her surgery, and the last thing I want to do is give her something else to keep her there longer. I talked to Mr. Lee last night and she says that she's slowly but surely getting better, but that she may still have to have a feeding tube when she comes home. I think he's worried that he won't be able to take care of her, but I think he'll do fine. They will have nurses to come and help, and they will teach him what he needs to do. I just wish she'd get better soon. She's been sick for so long.

Well, I need to get back to work. Enough of this time wasting. It's such a beautiful day though, I may have to go out on the roof for a while. I love the spring! I just wish that it wasn't indicating that it's about to get hot again. Boo!