I am...

Completely done with my Christmas shopping. I'm fairly happy with everything we got everyone!

Hooray.

So... yeah.

The economy is shit. This is not news to anyone except the obscenely wealthy. However, my review was yesterday, and I managed to squeak by with a raise and a bonus. This makes me smile. Especially since I work in the construction industry, which is only slightly more stable than the banking industry these days.
Happy are I.

Apparently I'm only interested in bitching about working out

Last night I went to a class called "Will power & Grace" - I assumed from the name it would be some variation on Pilates/Yoga/dance... Boy howdy was I incorrect. It was a cardio class that kicked my ass... literally. I can barely walk today. It's bad! For nearly 40 minutes we did variations on squats... SQUATS! FOR. 40. FORTY. MINUTES!!!!

We cooled down with 5 minutes of planks and variations on them. Cool downs should not consist of planks. Nope.

Needless to say - I'm sore. I'll be going back - any teacher who is willing to fix and poke and prod and yell and giggle - well that just makes me smile. Her teaching style reminded me of how I taught when I was teaching dance.

I miss those days.

Does Yoga ever stress you out?

Because it does me...

I went this morning with the hope of starting my day with peace and tranquility and stretching and poses. What I got was annoyance and pain and frustration and a headache.

Annoyance because they decided to set the mats up in a semi-circle so when I got there (which was exactly when class started) there was no place where I could square up and see the mirror. I need to see the mirror if I'm going to bend and twist and such. I am big on alignment (hello 20 years of dance), and I can't be aligned well if I can't see what the hell I'm doing.

Pain because something is wrong with my wrists - as in they hurt a lot when I put weight on them. Pain because we spent so much time in down dog and plank that I honestly thought I was gonna die. I wish I knew what was wrong with them. I will find out and I will make them better.

Frustration because I had to keep resting from the two aforementioned poses because it hurt. Frustration because I didn't get what I should have gotten out of today's yoga.

A headache because of everything above and probably because I couldn't shut my freaking brain off! There was no meditation at all. It was just thoughts about my annoyance, frustration, pain, and the oncoming headache.

I need a yoga class to recover from my yoga class.

Pathetic.

Everyone has a story.

Each person's story shapes them. Some people's stories start and end well - and even have a good middle to them as well. These people are lucky. Then there are others, who at the beginning of their stories were traumatized and who weren't cared for like they should have been. The chances of that person having a good middle leading to a nice solid end... not so high.

I've just learned more of one person's story. This was someone I previously had zero respect for and kind of just wished would disappear. Now I understand more - why he/she does what he/she does. Why this person is probably clinically nuts.

That doesn't mean that I've forgiven this person for the things that he/she has done, but I have a better understanding of why this person is such a disaster.

Goes along with my judgement - need to judge less. Everyone has a story.

Legendary.

She was/is/will be forever.

I was never even a huge fan of the woman, but I've always respected her willingness to do whatever the hell she wants, without regard to religion, politics, other people's feelings.
After last night... multiply that statement times two. And she played Like a Prayer which is hands down my favorite of her songs.

And because I'm so much more clever than the security guy at the door who asked when he pointed at my wallet in my purse, "Is that a camera?" I was able to say "No." Honestly. Nevermind the fact that the camera was just beneath my phone right next to said wallet.

For my memories and your enjoyment:

And here we are... Suite-eriffic!

Before you guarantee you can have something done at a specific time...

...be sure that all parties involved are on the same page with you because I will NOT be your scapegoat for when the project isn't fininshed on time because you made guarantees about my ability to do something without checking with me to see if it was indeed possible.

Today - IT IS NOT.

Siriusly...

This morning on my way to work I was listening to two of the Sirius stations that I listen to on a pretty regular basis, and was completely appalled at what I was hearing. (Both of these stations are definitely smutty stations - but what can I say? I spend a lot of time in the car, and no matter how many music channels I have, they still don't entertain me.)

One of the two stations was talking about potential relationship dealbreakers. There aren't a whole lot of things (especially superficial) that would be dealbreakers for me. At any rate, I was mildly amused by how superficial and sweet some people can be regarding dealbreakers, that is until the host put in her two cents. She started ranting and raving about how someone who liked country music was an automatic dealbreaker. She couldn't believe that the music even existed or that anyone was willing to spend a second of their lives listening to it and that if they did like it, then obviously she was far better than they and their backward ways were.

Don't get me wrong - country music is not my favorite, but I grew up listening to everything - and that includes Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, The Highway Men, Dixie Chicks, and many others. Some country (mostly mainstream) drives me bonkers - it's why I have 4 country stations on my sattelite radio that I've never listened to - but some of it is the best storytelling I've ever heard in my entire life (everyone go listen to Long Black Veil by Johnny Cash, or anyone of the artists who have covered it). To write of a human being simply because of their taste in music?! Abso-fucking-lutely absurd!

I'm not a fan of rap music (almost exclusively I despise it all). Nick loves a lot of it. We have most of Eminem and Ludacris's repoitoirs (don't mock me for my spelling). I don't hate him for it - nor does it make me think any less of him. I might think less of him if it were the only thing he listened to, but if you were to see our music collection - you'd probably think we were full-blown schizophrenics. We have rap, alternative, rock, metal, classic rock, pop, country, spoken word artists, and musicals - and we listen to ALL of it.

I suppose this diatribe is more about the fact that some people are so closed minded about trivial things. It makes me wonder if this woman who was freaking out about country music freaks out about more important issues like race or financial status or sexual orientation.

Needless to say - she pissed me off.

Halloween as Promised.

Sarah Failin' and Balack Obama... we are the epitome of class

The puple Teletubbie endorses Failin...

Or does he endorse Obama... who knows?!

The yellow tubbie wants to know what's in the box?!

Ether bunny and his 40.

Andy Whorehal whoring it up.

Failin has a stick up her ass and won't take a shot.

So I promised some pictures.

Of stuff and such. You won't get Halloween pics this time around. But you will get leaves. Completely un-Photoshopped.

How pretty is that? This is outside my office. Lately it's the only thing I look forward to and here in a day or two that will be gone. Then I'll only have my 22" LCD monitor to look forward to....

Halloween

I don't normally go as "real" people. Normally I'm more of a devil, peacock, fairy type of girl as far as costumes go... not this year.

We will be Sara Failin' and Balack Obama. We are going purely to offend. It doesn't matter whose paths we cross... they are likely to be pissed in some fashion or another. It will be racist and retarded. A part of me is even a tiny bit appalled at the idea. But come on - how often do you have something this fantastic to parody? Even 4 years from now - I doubt the political fodder will be quite so fantastic.

Also- I have 7 business suits that I don't even get to wear anymore. This will be my chance! Also it was cheap. $10 for glasses and$6 on make-up...

We're a class act.

I'm done sugar coating this shit.

My job is downright terrible. The owner of the company is a hyper-conservative politically motivated ass who cares more about Sarah Palin than he does his own company. One of the VPs thinks their shit doesn't stink, and is soooo incredibly wrong. This person is a hypocritical, slightly psychotic, menopausal, crazy, forgetful ass. There are people in this company getting away with murder and it's truly running the company into the ground. The moral here sucks. Everyday is a fucking Monday. I honestly don't even enjoy my weekends to their fullest extent because all I can think about is the fact that the real Monday is on its way. My immediate supervisor and I are being babysat more than ever here lately - after our so-called promotions. It's rediculous! To top it off - they are making me go behind another supervisor's back and verify all decisions he makes - like he's a baby. Well fuck that - tomorrow I'm coming in screaming and someone had better be willing to listen because there are all kinds of things I could cause problems with here if they don't.

This is why I NEVER publish the company I work for!

I'm lucky... right?

I know that with the way the economy is these days, I should just be happy with the job I have. I'm not though. I haven't been impressed with much here lately. Their disregard for employees and their bank accounts is frustrating. The lack of communication is rediculous. Their inability to keep a promise is disgusting.

I was given a promotion a while ago (yay, right?). Too bad it didn't amount to anything other than different words in my signature line. No raise, no changes in my responsibilities, no new office - nothing other than different words. I know times are tight and every one is watching their checkbooks - but don't make promises that you won't even pretend to keep... or acknowledge.

It's a challenge to come to work these days. It's an even bigger challenge to have a decent attitude when I get home from work. I hate this. I hate it even more because I know that I'm lucky right now. I am however, applying for a position in Cheyenne. With any luck it will be fantastic, the pay will be phenomenal, and they will offer it to me. I know - dreams, right?

Nothing like a dreary day...

With a whole bunch of yellow, orange, and red contrasting the sky. It's beautiful here. It really is. I should take pictures.

Definitely.

Judgemental

That's me. I've realized lately that I'm rediculously judgemental - mostly just in my head. I really need to knock it off. I was in my yoga class the other day judging people. Yoga - seriously - the place I should honestly be the least judgemental. I don't know why I was judging them either, but I guess that isn't the point. The point is, I realized I was doing it and stopped. Each of these people has their own reasons for being there, doing what they do, and dressing how they dress.

Who am I to judge?

So I will consciously not judge people from this point forward. I know that sometimes I'll slip in and start thinking something completely irrational about someone I don't even know, but hopefully I'll stop and realize what I'm doing. Because really - I'm no better than anyone else. We all exist and do our own things and have our own reasons for everything, and until I know the whys, I'll refrain from judgement.

And hopefully after the whys are answered... I'll still refrain from judging....

Sum fun...

Had a pretty decent weekend... scratch that... a pretty awesome Saturday and a pretty terrible Sunday (mostly due to the awesome Saturday).

We went to the Springs to visit my grampa and my aunt, and while we were at it, we got to visit my other aunt and uncle and cousins... but most exciting... we got to see Jordyn for a few minutes! The newest Norvell... poor girl - she's gonna have some thick skin when all is said and done!

After the 13 hours in the car and in the Springs, we went out for Nick's cousin's birthday and had a freaking blast. This would be why I wanted to die all day Sunday - and why I couldn't sleep last night... oh well - It was worth it. Though I can't say that I'll be doing it again. I'll hopefully have a picture or two to contribute of the evening's fun, but we now have too many cameras from which to download pictures and I only have one camera's worth here today!

This economy crap sucks. I know it's taking serious tolls on people's lives, but for the first time today - it truly, directly affected me. I was given a promotion a few weeks ago. I deserved and earned this, and it was very exciting. It involved restructuring of our department. A new office (with windows to the outside world) and new responsibilities for me, and we'd hire a new person to take on much of the administrative stuff I've been dealing with that takes up a lot of time.

Not to mention that today was the first day I've done something that didn't require any revisions at all - it was great as it was and garnered full approval of both of my supervisors and the president. My balloon inflated, only to be popped this afternoon.

They have decided not to hire someone new to take on the administrative tasks. This essentially means that I will be doing the same stuff under a different name. Same for my boss. They simply gave us the hope of change, but aren't going to follow through. I'm positive that they did this simply to keep the two of us here. Well it worked. The economy has crashed and there are no opportunities out there for either of us. The really terrible part: my boss actually turned down another position to keep her job here because of all the changes they promised. Now there aren't any opportunities available for either of us and we're stuck.

This is awesome. I suppose on the bright side: none of my money is in any of the banks that have failed (except a small loan through AIG, and oh yeah, our car insurance), Nick and I both work in good, solid, stable industries that are unaffected by the economy (yeah - I could barely type that with a straight face... construction... psha...), we have our health (damn this bronchitis), we don't own a home with an ARM loan (this one's legit... nothing bad about that!), and we're totally in love with each other. I suppose it really isn't that bad after all.

WTF

While I was home sick yesterday I spent a lot of time in front of the television (as one in my cough induced condition would be inclined to do). Against my better judgement I decided to watch miscellaneous talk shows and gossip reels rather than just having a Dexter marathon like I should have.

One of the news shows had a segment about going to the gym. This wasn't your typical going to the gym segment, this was the what to wear and how to look segment. It was absurd - as a woman going to the gym you are supposed to portray an apparent look of not intending to sweat or get a work out of any sort. In order to do this you need to spend approximatedly $400 on miscellaneous crap. I'm so not even kidding about the price tag. You should wear at least $150 worth of clothes and shoes. Then you should buy fancy $10 hair ties so no one can see your ponytail holder. Then you should spend at least... AT LEAST $50 on special before you go to the gym makeup - then another at least $50 for the after you're done with the gym makeup. You also need to drop another $50 on gym perfume... I understand not wanting to smell like ass at the gym, but how bout some $3 deodorant!? I'm not going to put on any perfume that I can sweat through! And finally you should drop another $20 or so on some fancy hair powder instead of just washing it or leaving it in a ponytail... I was appaled. I still am.

I should, however, be more disgusted with the fact that I sat and watched the segment...

All Jammed and Jellied Out...

In the past 3 weeks the following domestic activities have been completed at our house:

• 5 gallons of peaches have been canned
• 16 cups of peach jam have been made
• 4 cups of peach preserves have been jellified
• 27 cups of concord grape jelly have been produced

I'm officially a canning queen. I wish we had tomatoes out the ass instead of fruit I don't like (peaches and plums). Next year I'll do plum jam just because it's there, but I hate plums even more than I hate peaches, so everyone out there better be willing to take this off my hands!

- In other news: we finally had to put Jill on a diet. She refuses to run when I take her to the dog park or when I go for a run (which let's be honest - Isn't that often). This is of course comical since she used to be the dog that I had to buy the high energy food for because she wouldn't keep weight on because she never stopped moving.... So now instead of spending $37 on dog food, we have to spend $75 because Ody doesn't ever stop running, so putting him on diet food would be bad. I know that in the end it will work out the same because they will still eat the same amount of dog food, but seriously $75 is a lot scarier than $37....

I just had to share...

I got home from working out after work last night and was greeted by the love of my life with a mudslide he pulled from the freezer for me. He also walked over to the microwave and hit start, and 30 seconds later I had dinner ready for me.

So. Totally. In. Love.

Proud

I am extraordinarly proud of myself and my dealings with computers these days.

Firstly XP Service Pack 3 fried Nick's computer - it's a good thing we have nearly half a dozen computers in our house so I can do internet research on a working computer for a broken computer. After many hours and many retarded reboots - I was successfully able to uninstall SP3 and the spyware program that caused the major malfunction that I like to call XP.

Second - Jesse got a new computer and after he got it up and running, it took the liberty of screwing up our wireless network. It was pretty awesome. We went from having a fully-functional and secure wireless network to having an insecure wireless network that only his computer could access consistently. Again it's a good thing that one of the nearly half a dozen computers was able to work right. After many hours and 60+ pages of instructions and reboots and additional retardation, we now have a secure fully-functional wireless network again.

Oh also we now have 3 cameras again. Do you know how naked I felt without the extra two cameras for 4 months!? Rediculous I know... but I have the big fancy one for practicing to be a professional (i know... pipe dreams), but that one doesn't stuff into a purse for a night at the bar or for Tour de Fat. Also - Nick needs his own. He works in beautiful areas all day - everyday. And really - I'm just too uptight to share with him. And I was rearended and able to use the insurance check to pay for new cameras - and my vehicle registration. The damage is soooo insignificant that you can't see it and when I go to get rid of the car in a decade or so - it won't matter if there's an invisible scratch or not - it will not affect the value of the car... so I chose to spend the dollars on stuff we wanted (cameras) and needed (legal tags on my car).

Don't Micromanage.

It's odd how one day can be so great and the next so mediocre. I'd almost prefer terrible to mediocre. Mediocre is no fun at all. Maybe it's just today's kind of mediocre that bothers me. Knowing I can do all kinds of things, but my "higher ups" not letting me because they don't think I can or because they don't want to give up that tiny, eensey bit of control - never mind the fact that everything I do is reviewed and proofed and finalized by soooo many people I might as well not do it to begin with.

I shouldn't be so negative about all of it, but it's hard not to be when everything I do is undermined. I'm capable. Really. I am. And if and when I'm not - I'll be the first to let everyone know. Please just give me a freaking chance to do more than your grunt work. I don't have time for it... and really - I have zero interest in it.

Supposedly there are big changes in the pipeline. My boss was promoted, and I will supposedly be promoted soon. We will hire someone to take my position. My problem with all of it is the way the company is run and the way that certain people are micromanaged and how many micromanagers there are. I am underneath 3 of them. THREE of them. It's kind of disheartening to know that everyone thinks you are incapable of completing simple tasks... For instance - I have had one paragraph revised and rethought and reworded and rerevised 5 times this morning. For. A. Simple. Internal. Email. If they don't send it this time, I might throw a printer across the room.

A visual and auditory seziure of grandeur...

Went to Nine Inch Nails at Red Rocks last night. Oh my god Trent - I may give you permission to have my babies! He was definitely on his 'A' game.

The light show alone was phenomenal. Walls of lights. Lights from everywhere! The lights were mesmerizing on soooo many levels. I had no idea that any of that was possible. His lighting technicians had better be paid well. Also - his band... wow. I knew it was going to be one hell of a show, but seriously! It was magically delicious.

It was definitely top 2 as far as my concert goings go. I haven't yet decided if it was better than Tori at Red Rocks. Tori still may rank higher because of my angsty, hate-filled teen years. And it was a freaking awesome show - there's that too.

I bet you wish you were there. I wish you were there. It was surreal and intense and crazy and fantastic.

New baby niece.

She's adorable... I'm definitely in love.

Jordyn Marie

Lightning.

Scary. Up close. Hit by tree shrapnel. Not cool. Loudest thing I've ever heard.

Allergy town.

Apparently something bloomed. Whatever it is, I'm not friends with it. I've been sneezing inappropriatetly and my nose won't stop running! Not to mention that my eyes randomly start watering uncontrolably at really awkward times. For instance - I think one of our field hands thinks I'm losing it because when he came in to see me I couldn't stop with the watering and my nose kept leaking. I'm a wreck.



Good thing I have a wonderful boy!

I'm really tired these days...

It's hotter than hell, and even the frugal bitch inside has turned on the AC... only in the house though. It won't cool down though. It's freaking miserable! The coolest our house gets to is like a thousand and a half degrees. This makes sleeping extraordinarily difficult for a person who can't sleep anyway.

So I've been moody and headachey a lot lately. It is most definitely the least cool thing ever.

Sometimes...

You have to get another job in order to make shit work. I have an interview tonight - here's to hoping they'll work around my schedule...

Baby Shower...

So I've been kind of dreading this baby shower I was going to. It was for my cousin's girl friend, who I don't know very well, and she's much younger than me... so I figured it would be kinda awkward.

To my relief and everyone elses', it wasn't. It was actually a good time. No stupid baby games, just my family and hers... My family, being Norvells, were obviously rediculously obnoxious, but I think she's getting the hang of us.

I also realized how exciting it will be to have a little one in the family. This side hasn't had a baby in over 22 years, so this is a big freaking deal! I'm excited for them.

I'd Post Pictures More Often, but...

Blogger settings suck for picture posting. I hate it. The pictures never go where I want them to. My text ends up being all retarded and ugly... It's a bigger hassle than it's worth to me most of the time, but this time I might actually post some pictures. Mostly because the peonies, columbines, roses, irises, and everything else is in bloom... It's quite exciting. Also because we went camping this weekend and I have some potentially very cool pictures.

So perhaps I'll show you.

Tornado...

So here are some pictures of tornado damage. Some of you may have seen them... some not. There's also a picture of the tornado when it was 2 miles from my office. Kinda humbling really.

Another Reason Why I'm Smitten With Him...

I wanted to see Sex and the City (movie), just like most other women, this weekend. When I told him he said he'd go with me, even after several times I told him not to worry about it, I'd find a girl to go with - or I'd go by myself. When I mentioned going solo- he told me again he'd go with me.

(Let me just tell you all that I listen to a lot of Maxim Radio (don't you judge - I'm in the car a lot, and only so much angsty music will do it for me, so I tend to listen to gossip radio (the Cosmo channel sucks terribly, so I prefer the man version.).).)

So when he offered again, I told him that it was really ok - and that I'm sure just like all the guys on Maxim have said, he probably doesn't really want to go. (They've been making a point of calling any guy who goes to this movie a huge pussy.) When I told him that he didn't have to be a huge pussy and come with me - that I'd be fine by myself - he told me that they were assholes and that he wanted to go with me.

In. Love.

April Showers...

Bring May flowers... and tornadoes apparently.... One town nearby was flattened - almost. I drove by it on my way home, and it was pretty devastating. I was not impressed.

On that note - here are my flowers:

Lindsay's Coming, Lindsay's Coming, La La La La La La

Having a Clue Would Be Cool...

I wish I knew what I was doing. That would be swell.

Things to do tonight:

• Fold all laundry (gag me with a rusty spoon)
• Burn copies of photos for my aunt
• Burn copies of DVDs for my other aunt
• Pack cookies into tins that used to belong to my grandmother and send them to my aunts and uncle
• Update resume (not that I'm planning on going anywhere, but after spending 5 hours last night building Nick's from scratch, I'm going to do my damndest to keep mine in check)
• Call my grampa
• Take the dogs to the park (they need to run, boy howdy do they need to run!)
• Figure out food for dinner (boys are golfing, so I will have to fend for myself and not rely on their hunger to produce food in front of me)
• Call Toyota's service manager and bitch his ass out (don't treat me like shit - I will make your life very difficult - ok maybe only a few minutes of your life, but nonetheless, it won't be polite)
• Lounge on my shiny new sofa, chair, and loveseat (ok they aren't really shiny, but they are delightful)
• Figure out a savings plan to have a house in a couple a few years or so (I'm thinking an online savings account - like ING or HBSC because they have higher interest, and no risk, any other suggestions?)
• Bed.

I think I've hit that age...

Where my friends start getting married in droves (ok - maybe just engaged). It made me realize that one day I would like to be married. Sometime in the future of course, but the idea really is nice.

In the mean time - I'll keep on doing what I'm doing - two weddings a summer for the next few years I imagine.

Weekend with the fam.

Good times this weekend. I got shiny new rims on my car. That's pretty exciting... really - it is. My daddy also got us a hydraulic jack so I can switch my wheel-i-os out without having to take them to a dealer or a tire place. So that too is cool. Hope everyone had a happy weekend. I know some of you did!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

Nick and I purchased furniture this weekend. As in for real - adult furniture from the furniture store. Nothing that was found in an alley next to a dumpster or that was abandoned in the basement by the previuos tenant or that was purchased at a second hand store for less than $50. I'm not saying that any of these options is bad (seeing as I've done all at least once) - I just feel like a big kid now because I have furniture that no animals will be allowed on and that no shoes will touch and that I'll be hard pressed to allow a child to come near.

Please Stop Treating Me Like This

I understand that people have bad days... I get that. What I don't get is when they are constantly taking it out on other people. I'm tired of being treated like and idiot. I'm not one. If I pull an idiot move, I fess up to it. I'm not consistently an idiot, and I certainly don't appreciate being treated like one.

The best way to survive my job is apparently to know what is happening, who it's happening with, and when it's happening - before it happens...

I'm pretty sure that nowhere on my resume and application did I ever write "psychic" - perhaps "psychotic".

I'm tired of being understanding about everyone's personal lives. I understand that divorces happen and they suck and I understand that kids are awful sometimes, but I know how to keep that shit at home and not let it affect me at work. I haven't figured out how to not let work affect my personal life completely - which is why a lot of days I loathe coming to work - because I know that I'll go home and be pissy and that's not fair!

Life's not fair - I know this too, but I also know how to treat a human with respect and dignity and for many days in a row at work now - the same person has treated me like crap and I'm tired of it - and there's no one else to go to about it....

end. rant.

News.

I'm going to have a little neice or nephew come August. (The closest thing to a neice or nephew I'll ever have anyway...)

I'm pretty excited.

Breathe.

I Need a Weekend to Recover from My Weekend...

This was an emotionally and phyisically exhausting weekend. I'm frustrated to no end, with no easy solution. Or not one that I can see anyway.

I get too wrapped up in things and get too emotionally worked up and then I explode on Nick. I hope I don't do it too often... I'd like to not do it at all, but we all know that's not my style. Hopefully I'm enough not crazy often enough that he'll continue to put up with me. I know I'm intense.

Swan-diving, Belly-flopping, Superman to the Painkiller!

Snowboarding kicks my ass.....

Just as I start to gain some confidence on a snowboard - some stupid little snow pile jumped out of nowhere and grabbed the front edge of my snowboard hurling me face forward on to my chest and stomach, where I proceeded to slide a good way down the hill on my Ipod and my phone...

Ow.

My organs are getting used to their new locations... my ovaries are quite fond of my lungs, though my lungs... not so fond of my ovaries....

Insurance Drops!

So my insurance goes down today.... that's cool.

Twitching

I've developed three new twitches...

1. My left eye twitches almost constantly - I hate it.
2. My right upper lip area twitches almost constantly... I hate it also.
3. I'm constantly trying to hold them still with my hand because they are so annoying that now it seems as if my arm is twitching also when it flies to my face.

I am soooo cool.

I'm extremely annoyed and tired this week. I wish I knew why.

I suppose I should get it together by tomorrow... It's Nick's birthday and I should be pleasant and not annoyed for the occasion - it's the least I can do... you know - since I can't surprise him with a super cool birthday present.... since we already got it.

It is officially the coolest monitor ever and quite a cool television as well. We now pick-up tv stations that I'm sure the cable company doesn't want us to know about... like HBO and such.

Taco Bell doesn't take checks...

I left my wallet in the office. I went to Taco Bell at lunch. I did not have anything to pay with other than my lone checkbook in my purse... I was already in the drive through and I had already ordered... so I figured - what the hell... I looked around for signs saying NO PERSONAL CHECKS or NO CHECKS or AMANDA DON'T BE AN ASS... Didn't see any... so I wrote a check for a measly $2.33.

I got to the first window. The woman barely spoke English, but I did finally understand - "We don't take checks." She did not understand, "I have no other way to pay you." By the time it was all sorted out - the manager had decided to give me my lunch for free, but my pride was so hurt, and they refused to even listen to me when I tried to mention to them that they should maybe post a sign saying CASH OR CREDIT ONLY... so I just left. I hope the guy behind me enjoyed his free spicy chicken crunchwrap.

Moral: I won't be going to that Taco Bell again - I can't show my face there anymore... also - they don't have signs regarding payment methods... so I don't like them anymore... also... my pride still hurts from the manager taking pity on me.

Apparently I'm a Keeper

Today I got a nameplate for my desk. Now people will now who I am... damnit! A couple days ago they ordered me business cards... I'm actually excited for those. I think it's a validation thing of sorts. I had actually given up on ever getting them, because "assistants" don't get them, and admins definitely don't get them, and I'm an assistant admin of sorts... but I'm marketing, so I guess I'm special... my mommy thinks so.

Whatever... They like me and they plan on keeping me around long enough to have a brass name plate engraved and to have 500 business cards printed. I think that's pretty cool. I'm quite pleased with myself today.

It makes for a pleasent Friday.

Snowboarding Playlist

We went snowboarding a while ago.... The thing I noticed the most while we were out there playing in the snow was my rediculously random playlist. Here are the artists I heard whilst I was falling and pretending to carve, but mostly falling on my face and my ass:

• Tori Amos (yes - I know - BIG shocker there)
• Eminem
• Black Eyed Peas
• Steve Earl
• Loreena McKennit
• Warren Zevon
• Nas
• Rage Against the Machine
• Rise Against (I think those two bands should totally combine to be "Rage Against the Rising Machine")
• NIN
• Beck
• They Might Be Giants
• Nelly Furtado
• Imogen Heap
• Ani Difranco
• Grateful Dead
• Hot Action Cop
• Cat Power
• Angels & Airwaves
• +44 (P.S. - I know that Blink 182 broke up so they could do their own thing and go their own way and such... but seriously... they formed two different bands that sound almost exactly the same... so much for doing their own thing)
• M.I.A.
• Busdriver
• The Streets
• Led Zepplin
• Jimmy Buffet

So you get the idea... it's spastic. I like it though... I think more people need taste in music like I have. Open minds....