Wednesday, January 27, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING: SILVER LINING EDITION - This is because I realized that most of the things I was going to write about will make me sound like I'm whining if I don't further explain myself!

1) Well, I'm almost all taken care of with the eye doctor, I think. I got my new glasses and I'm on a trial run with the contacts and have had my second consult with them. I thought that my new glasses were making me nauseated because of the slight progression lenses that they have, but I've realized that it isn't that. One of the lenses is just wrong, or my eye is wrong, because I simply can't see well out of that lens. I thought maybe I just needed to wear them more often so that I could get used to them, but that does no good at all. In fact, wearing them makes me dizzy and sick, so driving while wearing them is not at all fun. I've got to call them next week and see if I can bring them back in to be checked and possibly have that lens replaced because for some reason the doctor who takes care of the contact lenses didn't let me order any replacements for the trial pair I have now, and if I have to go back to glasses full time, I'll need some that don't cause me to fall over or vomit! :) I'm not sure why she isn't letting me go ahead and order replacement contacts, because I'm not doing badly with them. My main problem is that my eyes get very, very dry. I'm not sure if it's just me or if it's because of allergies. Sometimes I can wear them all day and sometimes I can't. I also accidentally rubbed my eye the other day and folded one of my contacts over, but I wasn't where I could take it out and I had to wait about 5 minutes before fixing it. Dude, that hurt!

SILVER LINING: I can see, and I have the money and insurance necessary to take care of my eyesight. I never knew how much trouble bad vision can cause a person!

2) Yesterday, as I was leaving work, I slammed my fingertip in the metal and glass door of our office suite. Just my fingertip, and my Lord, it hurt so much! My fingers were cold to begin with, and for some reason, that made it hurt worse. I'm glad I was alone, because I danced around and jumped up and down after I did it. It was one of those things that hurt so badly that it made my stomach hurt. It even hurt to wash my hands later, and my finger is quite swollen up. I've got a lovely bruise under my fingernail, too. It's going to be fun making signs with a comically swollen and painful finger!

SILVER LINING: I have a job!

3) I accidentally punched my boss in the face with the edge of a large sheet of foam board. He snuck up on me! I certainly wouldn't have hit him had I known it was him, but I went into office ninja mode! I have sheets of foam board that are about 8 or 9 feet tall, and I had one leaning against my drafting table while I was working on something else. I had my earphones in, but I heard someone walk into my office. When I turned around, I didn't see anyone, but I knew someone was there. I leaned around my foam board and all I saw was someone's back because whoever it was had leaned around the far edge of the board to peek at me. I honestly don't know why the first reaction I had was to protect myself, but I slammed my hand against the closest edge of the board, which caused it to ram into the face of the person looking around it. This all happened in the space of about 5 seconds. I need you to understand that so that you don't think any of it was planned or even thought about, I just reacted. Luckily he didn't get mad at me. I am not sure why I am so skittish when people come up behind me. Maybe I was attacked by guerrilla fighters in a former life or something, but I have a hair trigger on my self preservation instinct. God help anyone who ever tries to sneak up and play "Guess Who!" with me. I'm likely to break their arm. :)

SILVER LINING: He didn't fire me! Yay!

4) Things are kind of crazy at work, still. I know in my last post I talked about how everyone gave me their sign requests all at once, but it hasn't tapered off much. I'm keeping up fairly well, though, but I'll snap if another person calls me to tell me that they need 60 of this or another 12 of that. Also, it's getting dangerous for me to drop signs off myself, because I get trapped with them until they figure out if they need anything else. One lady kept me in there while she perused her SENT folder to make sure she sent me something. I kept trying to leave, but she wouldn't let me! Right now I'm scoring and folding a bunch of name cards for the Big Wig Table. The name cards are completely unneeded, but someone decided at the last minute that we needed them. It's kind of fun seeing who the VIPs are, though. Hugh Downs will be there, and I found out that my former Kindergarten teacher is now married to Huntsville's mayor. This is really the only way I would know who will be there, because they don't ask me to help out with these events anymore since I flatly refused to ever wear a flight suit again. If they need me to point to the bathroom, I'm going to do it in a dress and heels.

SILVER LINING: I have a job that people believe I do well enough to ask for ridiculous things at the last minute and they have faith I can accomplish them. Also, I no longer have to wear a flight suit.

5) I'm up to 36 hats thus far! Some of these hats are for people I know, and the rest are a part of a project I'm working on that I don't want to talk about yet. I'm afraid that it'll just sound pretentious, and I'm afraid I'll jinx myself. All shall be revealed in time.

Friday, January 22, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) At the time of this writing, I'm actually being a slacker.

After nearly a month of absolutely nothing-at-all being given for me to do at work, suddenly (and I'm serious about the suddenly) I've been slammed with work requests. I'm not sorry I've got the work to do, mainly because I'd begun to feel guilty about coming into work and just sitting here for 8 hours, but I'm just so very busy. I finally just had to stop what I was doing for a few minutes and eat/take a break from all of the cutting and gluing and inhaling adhesives and such. I'm going to end up with a graphic designers version of the Black Lung if I don't stop it with the glue soon. :P

2) Did you know there was a tornado last night? I sure didn't! I didn't know about it until it was over, which kind of stinks for me since I work in a glass cube on the top floor of a building! Granted, I did find out that it didn't pass right by, but I've been forced to go downstairs to safety because of tornadoes that were further away from us than the one last night. Security usually sends an e-mail if there are dangerous weather conditions or even possible dangerous weather conditions, because they are the only people who get to have a TV on at all times, but I got nothing from anyone last night. I was here all alone after hours trying to finish up someone's project, too. I'm just glad it didn't hit us directly. I'd hate to think someone was having to untangle bits of me from around the guide wires that support the Saturn I-B!

3) If you follow me on Twitter, you've gotten to hear a bit about my new experience with my contact lenses! So far so good. I still feel like I've got pieces of lint in my eyes all of the time, but at least it's getting more bearable. The first & second days, I had to take them out at work because my eyes were getting super dry from the heaters being cranked up, but I've been doing much better the last two days. I have a lot of trouble getting them in my eyes, which is annoying, but I figure with more practice that will get better. I have also noticed that since the vision in each of my eyes is so different, my eyes don't focus he same and so my pupils are different sizes. I look like I've had a stroke! I also find it odd that I can see without my glasses on. I catch myself still trying to push my non-existent glasses up my nose all of the time. I'm going to end up with a bruise on the bridge of my nose if I don't stop. I also got my mee-maw glasses! They are seriously very un-me. I am having a lot of trouble getting used to them because they have a very-very-very slight bi-focal progression towards the bottom that I haven't gotten used to yet, so they make me dizzy and nauseated when I wear them. I have run into walls and stumbled around because I haven't learned to focus with them yet. My boss is going to think I've been drinking during my lunch breaks. :(

4) I posted a question on Facebook the other day about whether or not it would be weird to send myself flowers. I got mixed answers, of course, and I think some of the people thought I was just sad because I don't get flowers sent to me! Heehee, that was not why at all. Because of some kind of mix-up over the holidays when a gift I ordered wasn't delivered, I was sent a "please don't stop being our customer" gift certificate to a website that sells all kinds of things, including bouquets of flowers. I thought to myself "Oh, flowers would be nice!" but I had second thoughts, hence my posting the question to my Facebook friends. I ultimately decided that sending myself a bouquet of flowers inched over into Crazy Cat Lady territory, so I didn't get them in the end. I'm just hoping that there is no stigma to sending one's self chocolate! :)

Friday, January 15, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) While I was at the gym this morning, toiling away on the elliptical machine in hopes of achieving that ever elusive "Iron Butt", a woman came over and began to get on the machine next to mine. This isn't an unusual happening, of course, but I got that "someone is watching me" feeling as soon as she came over. I looked over at her and she was looking up at me & pointing to the ceiling fans that run along the ceiling above the cardio machines. I had my earphones in, so I had to read her lips, but she was asking me "Do you mind if I turn that off?" I was almost done with my workout, so I told her it was fine, but it struck me as odd. I don't know how many of you have ever been on an elliptical machine, but a workout on one can get pretty hot and sweaty. In fact, I use the same machine every time I'm there because it's situated in a vortex of air conditioning and ceiling fan air, which keeps me from passing out when I get hot (because, let's face it, I'm a major pansy.) The fans turned off and she came back over and began using the machine. I had just enough time left in my workout to realize how very much I wished she hadn't turned off the fans. In fact, I had just enough time left in my workout to decide I hated that woman a great deal for turning it off. I mean, God forbid you get a bit CHILLY while doing cardio work, lady! I finally got done, and on my way out I realized who that lady was. She is the one Steve and I call Mrs. Valdez. She's the lady who always does her workouts with a cup of coffee! While that seems very gross to me, I always assumed it had something to do with needing the caffeine. Now I realize it's because the very core of her being is made of ice and she needs it to keep her from freezing to a weight machine. Geez.

2) I got to have dinner with my very favorite Kenny on Tuesday! Yay! I don't think I'd seen him since his wedding last June, so I was very glad to see him again. He's been very busy doing smart stuff and working on his PhD. He was up on a quick visit to see his family and took some time to visit with friends. I thought he had decided to stand me up for a while, though, because he was visiting another friend of his and lost track of time. I was almost about to leave the restaurant and go home with wounded feelings when I got a message letting me know he was on his way. We had a lot of fun! Well, I did, anyways, and I choose to believe that he did too. If he tells me any differently then I'll stick my fingers in my ears and yell "LALALALALALALALA!" to drown him out. He also brought me chocolate, which makes him my favorite person of the week, possibly of the year, but it's still a bit early to make that call. :) Even with all of my fun, I eventually had to let him go back home to his lovely wife. He and I had talked for a while outside in the cold before leaving (we closed down the Atlanta Bread Company, because we are rock stars) and my feet ended up getting so cold that I couldn't properly feel them until the next morning. I'm going to have to invest in a pair of stylish Eskimo boots or something.

3) I know I shouldn't say this, because it seems kind of hateful, but we have a custodian here that creeps me right the hell out. He's nice and always very friendly, but there is a certain something about him that gives me the heebs. I've gotten to where, if I hear him coming down the hall, I take my small trash can out from under my desk and sit it across the room so that he doesn't have to walk behind my desk. Honestly, he's never done anything to me and I have no real reason to be creeped out by the man, but something about him makes me think he's got body parts in his refrigerator.

4) Mr. Lee gave me Miss Rhonda's Kitchen Aid stand mixer. She didn't get to use it much before she got sick, and he didn't know how to use it, so now it is at my house. I'm excited about it, because I've wanted one for a while, but they are kind of pricey and I couldn't talk myself into spending the money on one. I wish I could have had it a couple of weeks ago when I was making cookies. I accidentally picked a bowl that was too small to mix up my dough, and when I put the hand mixer in to mix things up, batter went everywhere. No, seriously, dough flung everywhere - my counters, my cabinets, my sink, my flour and sugar canisters and even my own self had splatters of cookie dough all over them. But I digress. I'm going to find some time and use the heck out of that mixer! Am I sad for being excited about a kitchen appliance?

5) I've made 25 hats thus far! That's not very close to my goal, but I'm proud. I'm hoping to be able to make a photo montage so you can see all of them sometime. Some of them I'm very proud of and some are very plain, but they are all made by me! I need to made a wider variety so that I don't get bored, but some of them take forever to make. Eh, we'll see.

6) Have a great weekend!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Sorry for yet another YouTube video posting, but I had to. HAD. TO. This is one of the most cringe-worthy, icky, and hilarious things I've seen in a while. Oy.



Also (and I can't be 100% sure) I think I saw one of my sister's high school boyfriends in this video. If it wasn't him, it was at least his mullet.

Also this. Just Because:

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

I think Beyonce knew this would happen. :)



Also, why does this song make me want to River Dance?

Monday, January 11, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I finally got my Christmas present from Steve last Saturday! No, he didn't wait that long to get me one, but the thing had to be ordered and it took over a month to be shipped! He bought me The Most Comfortable Chair In The Universe (tm). Actually, that is not the brand name or anything, but it is a freakishly comfortable recliner that we found while helping Anthony pick out some furniture over the summer. In fact, I tried to talk Anthony into buying one of these recliners for his new place so that I could sneak in and sit in it when he wasn't home. Alas, he picked a different kind. He chose...poorly. ;) My new chair is big, poofy, and possibly stuffed with puppies. I love it. I named it Brutus, because it looks kind of manly. See, years ago, I bought Steve a recliner as a birthday gift and I'm not really allowed to sit in it. Well, I'm allowed to sit in it as long as Steve doesn't want to sit in it. After calling him a myriad of names for not sharing the chair and explaining how it makes Jesus mad when we don't share, I guess he thought it would be easier if I had a comfy seat of my own. Yay! Of course, now this means we have to get rid of the couch because we won't have room for it when the piano comes to live with us. I really wish my brother-in-law would change his mind about taking the piano, but it's either me take it or they sell it, and my sister doesn't want to sell it. *sigh*

2) I had to go to the eye doctor the other day and order a new pair of glasses. I like the ones I have, but stupid me thought that I had a spot of glue on one of the lenses and while trying to scratch it off I managed to remove a large section of anti-glare coating. It's right in my natural line of sight, too, so I had to get new ones. My new frames are Mee-Maw looking ones, too! I was too impatient to leave the place to sit there and try on frames for an hour, so I accepted the ones they said looked the best on me. They have pink leopard print on the ear pieces, and a big gold buckle looking thing on the left side. Tres sexy, no? All I need now is one of those beaded necklace thingies that hold my glasses around my neck so that I don't lose them. Luckily, I can make one of my own to match! :) I'm also going in to be fitted for contacts at the end of the month, so hopefully that will work out. I just hope that I can stand to keep them in my eyes. I really want to stop wearing glasses all of the time. One problem, though. I have worn glasses since I was 15, so when I'm not wearing them, I feel like I have too much face showing. Anyways, something interesting about my visit, is that the doctor told me that my prescription in my current glasses is actually too strong! Get out! Apparently eye strain caused the major part of my vision problems, and I guess not having to strain so much has helped my eyes to heal a bit. If this keeps up, by the time I'm 80, I'll have X-Ray vision! :)

3) Butler and Bear did not like staying inside almost all of last week, but we couldn't leave them out because it was so cold. We tried letting them out of their kennels while we were at home, and that would be OK for a while, but them Bear would start herding Butler into his kennel and Butler started growling, and we had to put them both back to bed so that they didn't get into a Doggie Death Cage Match in the living room. I felt sorry for them, but we've been able to leave them out longer during the days since Saturday, so hopefully they will get out their cabin fever. Poor puppies!

4) I recently bought some "Organic Pomegranate-White-Tea Gummy Pandas" and they are just as pretentious as they sound. However, they are quite delicious, so pretentious or not, I'm going to buy them again if I can find them. Yum!

5) Here is a neato website for those of you who might be interested: Four Pounds Flour is a blog that is all about historic cooking. This woman (from New York, I believe) re-creates all kinds of antique recipes and explains ingredients and techniques. It's quite fascinating. You wouldn't think that recipes from one or two hundred years ago would be very different from what we have today, but there are some surprising things I've learned. If you are interested, take a look!

Friday, January 08, 2010

GO FOOTBALL!

I watched a football game last night! The BCS Championship game, to be exact! Could someone tell me was BCS stands for? I'd appreciate it.

Anyways, here are my thoughts about what I saw:

1) It was actually a lot of fun to watch a game with so much at stake!

2) I was proud our state was so nicely represented and that no one got in a fight or punched a referee. :) I'm also hoping that the streaker wasn't from Alabama.

3) The national anthem was kind of weird. Josh Groban sang, Flea (yes, that Flea) played a guitar and there was a Mariachi or Polka band playing back up. It was...interesting.

4) Alabama's coach needs to buy shirts his size. No one but buff gay guys at techno clubs should wear shirts that tight.

5) I felt so sorry for the Texas quarterback when he got hurt so early in the game, but his backup guy kicked some serious butt. He was awesome for just being a freshman! I'm sure we'll hear more about him in the future. Also, the starting quarterback seemed to be a really upstanding kid. I wished he hadn't cried, though. Bless his heart.

6) Was it really necessary for the commentators to keep talking about how Mark Ingram's dad was watching from prison? I mean, come on!

7) Did Saban get a concussion from the Gatorate cooler? It looked like he got beaned pretty hard with it. Also, he should think about a different color shirt or different color Gatorade if he's going to coach championship games. Just saying.

8) Don't tell my sister, but I've just realized that I've been calling the coach " Coach Shula" since last night. I had to go back and change the above statement to the right name. To be fair, wasn't there a coach Shula at one point? Yes, I heart football.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

LINKIES!

OK, so I'm stuck at home sick and bored today. I thought I'd share a few websites I'd found while wondering the interwebs. My apologies if you've already seen these!

*Nice Cage as Everyone
- This is both creepy, weird and fascinating. Nic Cage is also creepy and weird, but not really that fascinating. PUT THE BUNNY BACK IN THE BOX...

*Friends of Irony - Even though I'm still not sure of the real definition of irony. Stupid Alainis song screwed me up for life on that one.

*Oddly Specific - This one appeals to me because I'm a sign maker. I'm fairly certain a lot of these are Photoshopped, but the ones that are real are funny!

*Epic Win FTW! - Because who doesn't need some epic win in their lives?

*Clients From Hell - A tumblr site for artists, graphic designers, or anyone else that has to put up with the stupidity of people who have no idea what they are doing.

*STFU, Parents - I apologize to the wonderful people I know who are parents, but this site is funny to people who don't have kids. Fortunately, I don't know many people who behave like these people do.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

OK, so it's the new year, and I have some resolutions.

Well, I suppose they are considered resolutions, since I waited until the beginning of the year to begin them, but I do that more out of some kind of OCD issue than because it was the new year. I also tend to put things off until Mondays so that I don't start new things in the middle of the week. It just balances things better. Shut up, I can't help it. It's just how it works.

Don't worry, I'm not going to list them here. I don't even have a list. I don't even really have sharply defined goals. Huh. Anyways, what do you care what I want to accomplish this year? Geez.

So, what is the purpose of this post? There really isn't one. I'm just trying to look busy. There are guys here taking inventory and I don't want them to think I'm lazy.

Have a nice day!

Monday, January 04, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) SIGH. I watched the last episode of Doctor Who with David Tennant as the Doctor. He's a little bit dreamy and I'll miss his version of the Doctor a lot. I'm not even going to lie about it: I cried a bit when he finally regenerated. Tennant has been my favorite thus far, and the new guy looks a little too much like Marty McFly's dad from Back to the Future! After it was over, Steve got inspired and turned an old clock of ours into a display case for our Doctor figures. See, it's clever because...clock...Timelords...get it? Eh, what do you know anyhow! :)

2) I actually had my very first paid freelance design job today! Woo-Hoo! It was for a graphic to be put on a Fantasy Football trophy! Yay! I hope he actually liked what I came up with. He did some editing to my original design, as he should have, but he was very apologetic about changing anything. I'd hate to think he let something slide because he's afraid he'd hurt my feelings. Do I come across as that delicate?

3) I overheard something at a restaurant that I'd like to address, if you'll give me the luxury of a Monday-mini-rant! I can? OK!

I am lucky to live in a town that is constantly changing and adding new people from all over the world. Some new people come in through the military, others through government contract work, and some through NASA. The point to what I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of people from AWAY that live here now. Usually, this is a great thing. However, because we get so many transplants into our town, we also get our share of the "transplant whiners." These are the people who moved here out here because they HAD to. They don't want to be here and they miss their old homes and towns. I can understand that completely, because I've had to move before when I didn't really want to and when you leave a place, you tend to think of it fondly. However, the "Transplant Whiners" are the folks who just sit around, usually in public, and talk about how lame Huntsville is. How much it sucks because it doesn't have a good pro sports team, or this particular restaurant, or the weather is bad, and there is NOTHING to do, or (and this is my favorite) how stupid all of the locals are because they are all rednecks. If you were to listen to these guys, you'd think we were all a bunch of inbred, ignorant, toothless yokels who sit around whittling on our front porches as we spit tobacco juice into the dust. You know what, we get it. You'd rather be back in Boston, New York, Houston or wherever. WE GET IT!!! Huntsville will never be those places, of course, but it isn't a bad place to live at all. It may not be the "social and cultural mecca" these people left behind, but it has a lot going for it, especially now that things are being built up and rejuvenated. These whiners never actually take the effort to actually go out and look for anything that they can enjoy about the town, because they are too busy whining about what it doesn't have. But I digress...

Anyways, while waiting on our table, I overheard someone at a restaurant start talking about how boring Huntsville was, how lame, how SOUTHERN (gasp!) it all was, and a woman (who wasn't with that person's party) turned around, looked him in the eye and told him that if he felt that way, he could GTFO! Go, lady! I silently cheered for her as she went on to say that her town didn't need people like him in it, and if he hated it so much here, he needed to leave because no one here would have any use for him! Man, I wish I had been brave enough to say that, but even so, I'm glad someone said it. I wonder if the whiners realize that they don't so much come across as too good and cultured for the place as much as they sound like pretentious assholes. Somehow I doubt it. :)

4) We didn't do anything of interest on New Year's Eve this year. We rarely do anymore, really. Steve and I played Lego Star Wars (until I got bored and bailed on him) and I made another hat! I did have one glass of champagne to ring in the new year, but then I was reminded why I don't drink much anymore. My feet started to tingle and I got really woozy. My alcohol tolerance has gotten even lower, if one glass did all that. I'm just glad it didn't get so bad that I started emailing people things that didn't make sense! You should be glad too!

5) It is freezing up in my office today, even with my space heater going full blast. I really wish my windows were insulated!

6) I forgot how long it had been since I'd visited the gym and I wangled my knee while using an elliptical machine today. It hurts! I had to sit down in the floor this morning to do something and I couldn't get back up on my own! Boo, I've got old lady knees!

7) In case you were wondering, the epic journey of the ham has finally ended. Only after eating a majority of it, I found out we could freeze some of it, which I did, and the rest went to the dogs. Butler got the bone and had so much fun gnawing on it. Any time Bear would come around, Butler would gently pick it up and move a little further away. It was funny! I certainly thought Bear would have gotten it away from Butler easily, but there must have been something scary in Butler's eyes, because Bear never got it from him. I'm secretly proud that Butler stood up for himself. Finally! :)