so sleepie

Tomorrow, I move to night shift at the company. That means I'll be working 6pm to 6am, 5 days a week... good times? In trying to get used to the nocturnal lifestyle, I feel as if I've been hit with a bout of self-inflicted insomnia. I stay awake, staring at the tv, or computer... wanting to go to sleep but knowing that I can't. Wish me luck!

In Memory

May his good works on Earth be rewarded in Heaven.....

Requests filled here!

Loyal fans may want to know, "What happened to the office painting situation?" We painted this week, and it looks good. The color ("Blue Haze") almost looks lavendar in the flouresent lighting. It makes me giggle. Our next step is to do some major purging and organizing as well as putting up things on the walls.... shelves, dry-erase boards, pink canvases with white glitter... all on the agenda. One thought about painting I did want to share:

Sara's way of painting: Wash all the walls, fill in holes, prime over filler, move furniture to the center of the room, "cut in", paint 2 coats

Bossman's way of painting: Prime all of the dirty walls, holes and all, rearrange furniture, paint, fill-in, done

Bossman won.

Island Life

My pet freshman came to visit me this weekend (good times!) and we went out to dinner at the MOA (Mall of America) for dinner. We went to this island themed restaurant. They have good food, and the interior decorating is fun. During dinner, I told him that I wanted to run away to an island, raise island babies, and make grass skirts and coconut bras.... his reply:

"Those would have to be some pretty big coconuts."

NICE! Leave it to him to point out the obvious. :)

And the survey says....

I didn't get all the prep work done in time, so Bossman and I decided on "Blue Haze" Very professional looking. We'll get around to actually painting it one of these days. Probably stay late after work one night and get it done. I still have some spackling and a whole lot of priming to do. He wants to rearrange the room, which is fine, but that's something that he'll have to do... I'm not good with spaces... just ask Audra :)

Survey

So, the bossman has been out of town, but before he left, I brought in pink paint swatches to make him think that I was going to paint the office. He said that he would like the office painted, but not pink, so I took everything off the walls, patched holes and I'll be priming tomorrow... but now for the real question... Do I really paint it pink?

Some traveling stories

Apologies for not posting in a while, but I do have 2 good stories to post. I debated on if I should make 2 posts out of them, but I've decided to let you double dip into my most exciting life.

Let me set the stage for both stories....

Last week I was in New Jersey for supervisor training (yes, one day they may let me supervise... scary, I know) and both of these stories revolve around this trip.

Story #1
On the first night of the training, a small crew of us trainees decided to venture out into the Big Apple (you know, the "First City"). There was much debating on whether or not we should drive into the city, or take some sort of public transportation. Following in the spirit of urbanists, we opted for the bus... Actually, I think it was the fact that it picked us up right outside the hotel and the fact that we weren't actually planning on coming back sober that made the decision for us.
At any rate, we had a fabulous time but had to catch the last bus out of the Port Authority at 1 am. So we leave the last bar at 12:30, walk to the Port Authority, find our gate and sit and wait. Buses come and go, and at 1:02 am, I decide to go read the message board below our gate number. In tiny letters at the very bottom it read,"Buses leaving after 10pm will depart from gate B401 and B402" Good thing we were waiting at B405! So we go down to B401 and B402 with no dice. Then an employee yells to us that we have to leave because they are closing. We tell him our story and he says he can help us out. He then took us on an unofficial behind the scenes tour of the Port Authority. Back staircases, freight elevators, the works, and finally deposited us at the Greyhound station. After much debating, confusion, and sign reading, we left the Port Authority, and hailed a cab.

Story #2
After my return flight, as I was passing the ticketing counter, I went to reach for my car keys only to realize that I had left my purse on the plane. My hands were full, so I guess I had just assumed that my purse was with me. So I leave my bag with someone I was driving home, and I went up to the NWA ticketing counter and talked to Pete. I told him, "I left my purse on the plane." He told me to go to the other side of the security check-point and ask someone over there. So I go to the other counter and tell the lady at the first class check-in my story. She told me to talk to the first lady "over there". Well, there were two women working... was the first one the one closest to her or furthest away. I went to the closest one, explained my situation and she calls to a guy behind me for assistance, which, wouldn't you know, is Pete! He replies with, "I told her to come over to you." Lazy bastard. So this lady sends me to the next lady where I tell her, "I left my purse on the plane." The lady says to me, "Well, you can't get through the security check without ID." She said it in an "end of story, you're shit out of luck" sort of way. And I know I can't be the first person to have left my purse on a plane. But, as everyone knows, I don't keep anything where it's supposed to go, and my ID was actually in my pocket. I whipped it out and she didn't know what to say, but then she came back with "You can't go through the security check without a boarding pass." Well DUH! That's the whole reason why I was there in the first place. If I could just walk back through security, I wouldn't be messing with her. She then asked me where I left it on the plane, and I explained to her that I left it under the seat in front of me. "On the floor?" she replied, and when I said "yes" she rolled her eyes at me! And I thought I was supposed to "Store smaller articles under the seat in front of you to leave room for larger items in the overhead compartments" So I finally get a temporary boarding pass, go through security (including stripping down to a hospital robe they gave me), run to the gate, claim my purse and get back to my fellow passenger. What I don't understand is why, when I explained my situation to Pete, that he just didn't call down to the gate, ask one of the gate assistants to get the purse, hop on a golf cart and bring it out. That would have been a lot more customer service friendly

Strange Happenings

So Andrew and I were walking around downtown... on Wabash Ave to be exact and we stopped at The Coffee Grounds for a mocha and some warmth. Just then, out the window, I see Jen Ho and her significant other walking down the street. She comes in and we chit-chat and came to discover that they were on their way to the Sears Tower. That's right... We were not in downtown Terre Haute, but rather Chicago.

For all of those who don't know, Jen is currently residing in Indy.

If you don't find the irony, this story was pointless. But alas, I have something for you too.

Quotes from this weekend:

"You went duck hunting with a potato gun?!?" --Erik to Mike (because I don't think they'd let Mike hunt, especially after he sunk the kayak)

"Yeah, I'm just one of those guys from the 'burbs who's a pussy." --Mike (after a couple of beers and admitting that after the kayak sunk, he was too afraid to swim to shore for fear of the tadpoles in the shallow water)

"There's a lot of good DNA here tonight." --Mike (looking for someone to carry on his superior genes)

Comfort Food

This past weekend, I was hit with a pang of homesickness, so I decided to combat it with some good ol' fashion comfort foods. You know what I'm talking about... Those foods that your mom used to make all the time when you were young and at the time, they didn't seem like anything special, but now, after being out on your own (even if it's just at school and ARA dinner), you would give your pinky toe to come home one night to mom's meatloaf and brussel sprouts. So this weekend, I fired up the crockpot for a nice batch of ham and bean soup. If you're not from the mid-West (specifically Ohio), you may not be familiar with this classic wintertime dish. Traditionally, the bone from the Christmas ham is placed in a crockpot with some water, pinto beans, onions and enough brown sugar to make your teeth rot. It's then cooked initially for 8-10 hours, and after the first serving, it continues to be cooked until you finish it. And a must-have sidedish for this 5-ingredient wonder... cornbread! Crumbled up into the soup to absorb all the liquidie goodness.... hmmm...

Minnesota Snow

So, for the first time this winter, we got snow last night. It was only about 6" but here they treated it like a blizzard! It started coming down pretty hard around 1pm so I thought that by 5pm they would have a handle on things, so I left work and took the highway home. Well, I was wrong! It looked as if the roads hadn't been touched, and these crazy Minnesotians acted like they were from Jersey or something. They would just drive where ever they wanted to all over the road. No turn signals, no lanes, and they couldn't make up their minds on how fast they wanted to go. And today I went out, and thank goodness the roads were clear, but everyone had their snowblowers out! Snowblowers for 6"??? And Minnesota snow is a lot different from other Midwestern snow. It's light and fluffy and just blows everywhere, unlike the wet clumps that fall out of the Cincinnati sky. I will never understand these people.

Nakedness.... At the Y?

So recently I've been really good about getting up in the morning and going to the Y to workout, but I think that may need to come to an end. This morning, I was extra good, and was there by 5:45am for my morning routine. There are several women that work-out at that time and then get ready for work. Today I was shocked. There is this one lady that I had seen before. The last time I saw her, she was topless... That's right, she was only wearing underwear, while she was fixing her hair and putting on her make-up. Today she was totally NUDE! Not only was she not wearing any clothes, but to dry off, she took two of the hand dryers (that are hung to high) and pointed them at her naked body. I was thinking, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!" Get a towel! I then head over to where my bag is and such, in complete disbelief, and as I'm taking my jeans out of my bag, I look up to see the naked backside of another lady. She's in the toilet area, fixing her hair, carrying on a conversation with another lady. I've talked to Jackie in the past about this, and she said that proper locker room etiquette is to be covered by what a bathing suit would cover. I don't care if it is a "women only" locker room, or if these women are comfortable running around nude, it makes ME uncomfortable! Goodness, I thought that this was a place founded on Christian morals... and last time I checked, Christians looked down on strip-clubs.

AHHHH!

To e-mail or not to e-mail, that is the question!

So I'm having a bit of a struggle.... I have a "friend" who I haven't talked to in about 3 years now living in New Jeresy. We parted ways on not so good terms. I'm going out to NJ for some training next month... do I offer up an invite to meet or not?

Adventures in Baking

So recently, I've been doing quite a bit of baking, bread to be specific. Today, I made my dough and placed it into a greased plastic bowl. I then started to boil some water on the stove and turned the oven on "warm". A warm, moist oven helps the yeast to react (ask any woman) and the bread rises faster and larger. So I placed the pot of boiling water into the oven, with the bowl of dough, turned the oven off and then focused my attention elsewhere. About 20 minutes later, I heard the oven turning on and off... so I went to check on my dough. When I looked at the oven, I noticed that the little "Hi; I'm on!" light was glowing red. I opened up to see my dough burnt, and the bowl it once was in, in globs all over the oven racks and stringing to the bottom of the oven. It seems that when I turned the oven off, I was a bit overzealous and left the oven on "broil" So if there's anyone out there that has some advice on how to clean up burnt plastic, please let me know!

I think I'm going to invest in some glass bowls too.

Snowflakes

So today I was talking to the bossman about the lack of snow in Minnesota right now, and he says to me, "You're probably happy about it... I bet you don't like snow."

If you're not laughing right now, you don't know me.

RARHS!

It's been a long week... leave me some love!

2005.... Are you ready for me?

So I spent the last few hours of 2004 and many of the first of 2005 in the Second City. Good times, Good times! Lots of company with friends and I even learned a few things too. Like, did you know that Hugh Grant was arrested in 1995? Some how I missed that. I like him anyway though. There were a few questions left unanswered at the end of this weekend, the most pressing would be, according to Canterbury Tales, what does it mean if someone's eyes are set too close together. This is not to imply that anyone has unhandsome eye placement, just a question that came up.

Andrew has the picture thing set-up for me, I just have to get some pics up and I think that may also mean that I need to develop a watermark or something. I wonder if I have to apply for copyrights for my images. Something else to look up.

Thanks to Mellissa, I would also like to start a new part of my blog. It will be a project page. Hopefully it will be something that I will update semi-regularly, and it will have a crafty idea for the week/month/whatever. I will give as much info as possible and probably some drawings and or pictures so that everyone do it! Right now I'm in a home decorating phase, so most of my ideas are revolving around that type of craft.

Damn this post was too long!

Wow

So, I feel kinda bad because my posts have been so short recently. I haven't really had much to say. I'm uberly excited about going home for Christmas, especially getting to babysit my niece for a whole day. We're going to have walking lessons in the mall with all the crazy holiday shoppers, and if Leslie is working, I'm gonna let Clair play in her Target. I'm sure I'll come up with more silly things for Clair and I to do during the day, and if Liz is lucky, we'll fit in some nappie time, but I really wouldn't count on it.

Andrew is gonna get me set up with some picture space too. I hope to have a psuedo ordering thing so that if there is a picture you like, I can get it to ya. I'm still working on getting those wedding pictures sent out to everyone. Sorry it's taking so long.

Am I greedy?

another addition to the list....

The Terminal DVD
a mouse pad

:)

Christmas Trees

A holiday saying from Jackie:

"All the smaller trees looked like Charlie Brown gone wrong!"

Love ya Jackie!

addition to christmas list:

Mulan DVD
Aladdin DVD

i heart my list