Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
my weekend in pictures from google image search
My coworkers and I had a little party...
...after awhile with my coworkers, I hopped on over to a cocktail party...
... so I wake up Saturday morning with the World's Worst Hangover...
... my friend Tasha and I go to the sauna because that might help ease the pain...
...which it did, so I was up and ready on Sunday to work extra time as usual...
... and actually came back to not do so great at pub trivia! A weekend well worth it.
Take that, actual writing!
...after awhile with my coworkers, I hopped on over to a cocktail party...
... so I wake up Saturday morning with the World's Worst Hangover...
... my friend Tasha and I go to the sauna because that might help ease the pain...
...which it did, so I was up and ready on Sunday to work extra time as usual...
... and actually came back to not do so great at pub trivia! A weekend well worth it.
Take that, actual writing!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
hooray
I've had a horrendous week-- partially of my doing, partially of my workplace's doing, partially of nature's doing. I have been in a pretty foul mood.
Until, of course, I saw this:
My only non-ironic laugh of the week. Yay.
Until, of course, I saw this:
My only non-ironic laugh of the week. Yay.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
a break from my break
Actually back to blogging. Actually making another attempt to attaining balance between life and work. I'm going to make a low goal here for once a month.
Hooray. Again. No promises this time.
Hooray. Again. No promises this time.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
"vacation" in iowa
I'm not very good at vacation. It doesn't help that "vacation" means a trip back to Iowa which is like a trip to being fourteen-- I'm stuck in the house, with my mom, with very little to do that doesn't require borrowing the car. Serious mother-daughter time. I love my mom, I love my hometown, I love not being at work, but in my precious time off I've barely left the house and I've done all what I feel that Indianola has to offer. I've...
- gone to the mall (bigger than god)
- eaten more food than I can handle (feeling kinda oogy now, but I know I'll miss midwestern eating)
- paced the house (again and again)
- looked at the internet obsessively (why won't you email me???)
- watched reality tv
Thursday, April 17, 2008
sitting around on a couch in fuzzy pants eating a chicken salad sandwich
i am so on vacation right now.
i just introduced my mom to youtube, and she was hooked at the sight of this:
i just introduced my mom to youtube, and she was hooked at the sight of this:
Saturday, April 12, 2008
my secret shame
I get way too excited about my birthday. Ahem:
Rising Sign is in 14 Degrees Scorpio
You tend to be quiet, reserved, secretive and, at times, quite difficult to understand. Others notice your deep emotions and feelings and wonder how to draw you out. Stubborn and tough, you fight for any position you believe in. You are very resourceful and formidable when you become angered or upset about something. You enjoy living life at the cutting edge -- for you life must be experienced intensely and totally. Quite courageous, you are willing to take calculated risks. Easily hurt by others, you often strike back with bitter sarcasm. Sensitive and curious, you are concerned with the deeper mysteries of human psychology. Once you have become interested in any subject, you pursue it with total fanaticism.
Sun is in 25 Degrees Aries.
By nature, you are very energetic and high-spirited. You are fiercely independent -- you must be first in everything you do, and you enjoy taking risks. You are the one who will rush in where angels fear to tread. Quite brilliant at initiating new projects, you are terrible at following them through to completion. You are an enthusiastic leader but you tend to be a reluctant follower. Often you are quick to anger, but you usually recover just as fast, regretting later things you said when you were upset. One of your best traits is that you are simple and direct, blunt and honest -- just be careful you do not hurt others' feelings. Your need to be competitive at all costs may provoke resistance from others, but, as long as you maintain your usual Sunny good humor, this should not prove to be a major problem for you.
Moon is in 00 Degrees Gemini.
Restless in the extreme, you are easily bored because of your short attention span. Your emotions change rapidly and you love to talk about your feelings. Generally, you have good judgment -- your intellect controls your emotions and you do not overreact emotionally to things. A good jack-of-all-trades, you have many- sided interests and enjoy reasoning things through. With your mental agility and need for physical mobility, you are attracted to traveling and learning about other peoples and cultures. You have vivid powers of emotional self-expression - - you can be a nonstop talker. You love to share your ideas with anyone who will listen.
Mercury is in 14 Degrees Taurus.
A slow and careful thinker, you like to present ideas visually and concretely. Abstractions are quite difficult for you to understand. For you, everything must be practical and useful in order to merit your attention. You are a perfectionist -- you enjoy being skillful enough to handle the dexterity required of fine craftsmanship. Cautious and conservative in your thinking, you are very slow to change your opinions. You are more apt to respond to an appeal to your feelings than to an appeal to logic or reason.
Venus is in 03 Degrees Gemini.
You are friendly, warm, open and tolerant toward others. You love variety in relationships, indeed you may even prefer to maintain more than one relationship at a time! Very witty and humorous, you have the ability to amuse and please others. This makes you quite popular. You love to play the field and thus find it difficult to settle down and make any deep emotional commitments. Your innate charm and vivacity makes you welcome most everywhere you go.
Mars is in 07 Degrees Taurus.
Careful, slow and thorough about all that you do, at times you are also willful and stubborn when others try to alter your course. You are definitely not a quitter -- you will work long and hard to get what you want. Your possessions are very important to you. One of your continuing problems is that you tend to regard the significant people in your life much the same way as you do your possessions -- you become overly attached and much too jealous. You repress your anger when you get upset and that is not healthy. Try to learn to show your anger immediately in order to avoid painful explosions later.
Jupiter is in 10 Degrees Sagittarius.
You have a very strong sense of ethics and morality. You are widely read and may also be widely traveled because you are sincerely interested in expanding your knowledge of the world about you. At times, you have an annoying tendency to be self-righteous and preachy about your belief system. You are usually quite idealistic and you demand the right to be able to explore the entire world of experiences yourself. Remember to grant others the similar right -- be tolerant, not dogmatic.
Saturn is in 01 Degrees Scorpio.
You tend to release emotional energies only very reluctantly. This is partly due to your fear of what horrible calamity might occur should they be released -- your emotions are terribly complicated and intense. Try not to repress these energies entirely, however, or you will succumb to negative and destructive forms of compulsive behavior. Give yourself the freedom to look awkward or silly once in a while. The relief you feel will be quite therapeutic and the embarrassment (whether it is real or imagined) will pass quickly.
Uranus is in 08 Degrees Sagittarius.
You, and most of your peers, have the tendency to think that all ideas, customs and traditions from the past are outmoded and irrelevant. You are attracted to radically new ideas, philosophies and religions that will, hopefully, cause sweeping changes throughout the world.
Neptune is in 29 Degrees Sagittarius.
You, and your entire generation, are heavily involved in investigating and idealizing foreign and exotic intellectual systems and religious philosophies. The most extreme ideals will be pursued with gusto. You will be at the forefront of humanitarian attempts to improve the lot of those who are in need of assistance. You will be comfortable with the concept of the "global village."
Pluto is in 28 Degrees Libra.
For your entire generation, this is a time of radical changes in society's attitude toward marriage and interpersonal relationships. There is a general fear and awe at the power inherent in making emotional or contractual commitments -- they will not be entered into lightly.
N. Node is in 26 Degrees Gemini.
You will consciously seek out many different contacts with others throughout your life. Many of these will be of very short duration, not necessarily because you're fickle, but just because you always seem to be more excited by the prospect of meeting someone new rather than prolonging your present relationships. At any rate, you will learn something new from almost everyone you come across -- intellectual stimulation is what you crave from others. You will be well known to neighbors and relatives, partly due to your curiosity about what they're doing -- you delight in keeping up-to-date about the latest news (and gossip).
Rising Sign is in 14 Degrees Scorpio
You tend to be quiet, reserved, secretive and, at times, quite difficult to understand. Others notice your deep emotions and feelings and wonder how to draw you out. Stubborn and tough, you fight for any position you believe in. You are very resourceful and formidable when you become angered or upset about something. You enjoy living life at the cutting edge -- for you life must be experienced intensely and totally. Quite courageous, you are willing to take calculated risks. Easily hurt by others, you often strike back with bitter sarcasm. Sensitive and curious, you are concerned with the deeper mysteries of human psychology. Once you have become interested in any subject, you pursue it with total fanaticism.
Sun is in 25 Degrees Aries.
By nature, you are very energetic and high-spirited. You are fiercely independent -- you must be first in everything you do, and you enjoy taking risks. You are the one who will rush in where angels fear to tread. Quite brilliant at initiating new projects, you are terrible at following them through to completion. You are an enthusiastic leader but you tend to be a reluctant follower. Often you are quick to anger, but you usually recover just as fast, regretting later things you said when you were upset. One of your best traits is that you are simple and direct, blunt and honest -- just be careful you do not hurt others' feelings. Your need to be competitive at all costs may provoke resistance from others, but, as long as you maintain your usual Sunny good humor, this should not prove to be a major problem for you.
Moon is in 00 Degrees Gemini.
Restless in the extreme, you are easily bored because of your short attention span. Your emotions change rapidly and you love to talk about your feelings. Generally, you have good judgment -- your intellect controls your emotions and you do not overreact emotionally to things. A good jack-of-all-trades, you have many- sided interests and enjoy reasoning things through. With your mental agility and need for physical mobility, you are attracted to traveling and learning about other peoples and cultures. You have vivid powers of emotional self-expression - - you can be a nonstop talker. You love to share your ideas with anyone who will listen.
Mercury is in 14 Degrees Taurus.
A slow and careful thinker, you like to present ideas visually and concretely. Abstractions are quite difficult for you to understand. For you, everything must be practical and useful in order to merit your attention. You are a perfectionist -- you enjoy being skillful enough to handle the dexterity required of fine craftsmanship. Cautious and conservative in your thinking, you are very slow to change your opinions. You are more apt to respond to an appeal to your feelings than to an appeal to logic or reason.
Venus is in 03 Degrees Gemini.
You are friendly, warm, open and tolerant toward others. You love variety in relationships, indeed you may even prefer to maintain more than one relationship at a time! Very witty and humorous, you have the ability to amuse and please others. This makes you quite popular. You love to play the field and thus find it difficult to settle down and make any deep emotional commitments. Your innate charm and vivacity makes you welcome most everywhere you go.
Mars is in 07 Degrees Taurus.
Careful, slow and thorough about all that you do, at times you are also willful and stubborn when others try to alter your course. You are definitely not a quitter -- you will work long and hard to get what you want. Your possessions are very important to you. One of your continuing problems is that you tend to regard the significant people in your life much the same way as you do your possessions -- you become overly attached and much too jealous. You repress your anger when you get upset and that is not healthy. Try to learn to show your anger immediately in order to avoid painful explosions later.
Jupiter is in 10 Degrees Sagittarius.
You have a very strong sense of ethics and morality. You are widely read and may also be widely traveled because you are sincerely interested in expanding your knowledge of the world about you. At times, you have an annoying tendency to be self-righteous and preachy about your belief system. You are usually quite idealistic and you demand the right to be able to explore the entire world of experiences yourself. Remember to grant others the similar right -- be tolerant, not dogmatic.
Saturn is in 01 Degrees Scorpio.
You tend to release emotional energies only very reluctantly. This is partly due to your fear of what horrible calamity might occur should they be released -- your emotions are terribly complicated and intense. Try not to repress these energies entirely, however, or you will succumb to negative and destructive forms of compulsive behavior. Give yourself the freedom to look awkward or silly once in a while. The relief you feel will be quite therapeutic and the embarrassment (whether it is real or imagined) will pass quickly.
Uranus is in 08 Degrees Sagittarius.
You, and most of your peers, have the tendency to think that all ideas, customs and traditions from the past are outmoded and irrelevant. You are attracted to radically new ideas, philosophies and religions that will, hopefully, cause sweeping changes throughout the world.
Neptune is in 29 Degrees Sagittarius.
You, and your entire generation, are heavily involved in investigating and idealizing foreign and exotic intellectual systems and religious philosophies. The most extreme ideals will be pursued with gusto. You will be at the forefront of humanitarian attempts to improve the lot of those who are in need of assistance. You will be comfortable with the concept of the "global village."
Pluto is in 28 Degrees Libra.
For your entire generation, this is a time of radical changes in society's attitude toward marriage and interpersonal relationships. There is a general fear and awe at the power inherent in making emotional or contractual commitments -- they will not be entered into lightly.
N. Node is in 26 Degrees Gemini.
You will consciously seek out many different contacts with others throughout your life. Many of these will be of very short duration, not necessarily because you're fickle, but just because you always seem to be more excited by the prospect of meeting someone new rather than prolonging your present relationships. At any rate, you will learn something new from almost everyone you come across -- intellectual stimulation is what you crave from others. You will be well known to neighbors and relatives, partly due to your curiosity about what they're doing -- you delight in keeping up-to-date about the latest news (and gossip).
Thursday, April 10, 2008
i made peanut sauce
... and it was delicious! Most of the time, without a recipe, or without watching someone else make the food before I try making it myself, a dish will be an utter disaster. This time I must say I did well with just a rumbly in my tumbly and some basic ingredients:
- Start with a small frying pan and place it on the stove on medium heat.
- Add a layer of sesame oil, and a healthy drizzle of honey.
- As the oil and honey heat, add two large scoops of chunky peanut butter. Stir the peanut butter into the hot oil-honey mix.
- Drop in a splash (a tablespoon?) of soy sauce. Stir in, and keep stirring until the whole pan starts to foam.
- Once the pan starts to foam, remove the pan from heat (and try not to freak out). Stir in sriracha to taste.
- Eat on cheapo noodles.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
how i manage my pms
Sorry about the delay in "whambien part 2". Suffice it to say, I did survive, it didn't work out like I was hoping-- neither in a funny story or in a more cogent next day. I've been doing things that were blog-worthy, but I've been delayed by my brain chemistry. If you don't know already, I endure a little something called PMDD or full-on ovarian mutiny. Like most ladies, I have the PMS, but unlike most ladies, I have the PMS to the point where it impedes on the functioning of my life. I would have something interesting to write about it, but instead I'm feeling lazy and will refer you to what someone else had to say that I would say if I were smarter and more creative. It might be the most accurate account of intense lady-craziness that I have ever read:
How I Manage My PMS
More entries next week when I return to the living.
How I Manage My PMS
More entries next week when I return to the living.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
whambien
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731sh_shouts
SHOUTS & MURMURS about recipes using the sleeping pill Ambien, which causes nighttime eating. Sorpresa con Queso Ingredients: 7 bags Cheetos, 17 to 19 glasses tap water, 5 mg. Ambien Place Cheetos bags in cupboard. Take Ambien, fall asleep. Wait 2-3 hours, then sleepwalk to kitchen, tear cupboard doors off hinges in search of Cheetos…eat contents of all 7 bags… Icebox Melange…Take Ambien, fall asleep…sleepwalk to kitchen. Devour everything in refrigerator…Belch loud enough to wake wife or girlfriend. When she enters kitchen, bellow, “Can't you see I'm working here?”… Tummy Cake…Take Ambien, fall asleep. Wake up in kitchen, mixing eggs, flour, Crisco, and milk in-for some reason-a mop bucket…Retrieve bucket from kitchen, drink entire contents in 3-5 gulps… Nhi Ho Trang Phu…Lay out beef jerky and Gatorade on nightstand…Take Ambien, fall asleep. After 2-3 hours, awaken half-submerged in a rice paddy in the jungle lowlands just north of the Mekong Delta….
In a few minutes I will be taking Ambien to sleep (I can't think of another reason to take it, it doesn't seem like a very fun drug) for the very first time. I'm more than a little nervous. Will I drink nine glasses of tap water? Will I drive my car willy-nilly all over the streets of Portland? (Will that be any different than usual if that actually happens? Probably not.) As a lifelong insomniac, I have a hard time imagining what a day on a full night of sleep will be like. I once had a job schedule that allowed me to sleep my natural hours-- 2am to 10am. Even when I had the time to do that, there would be days when I couldn't fall asleep. Will I be a completely different person after my first full night of sleep since working for The Big Movie Rental Company? More pleasant? More boring? The anxiety of it all is making me edgy, and if it weren't for the prescription itself I would probably not be able to sleep a wink tonight.
Yikes. Here goes nothing.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
random stuff found in my purse
My purse is a black hole of doom, where items go in and only come out at the most inappropriate moment. Last night, while out at my local pub, I was digging around for some change and instead found:
- a diaper
- three little notebooks
- an "over the door" coathook
- five pens
- another, smaller purse
Sunday, March 30, 2008
about me
I'm a child welfare social worker, a book reader, a cameraphobe, a "creative person", a serious nerd and a longtime confirmed workaholic.
A few months ago a coworker said to me, "You know, [we have these cool jobs but] I'm really a boring guy. I work ten hours a day, four or five hours on Sunday, go home and then go back to work! The last three day weekend we had, I thought I was going to lose my mind, I had absolutely nothing to do." At the time I laughed and agreed, but the more I think about it the sadder that little truth about our lives made me.
This blog is my little attempt to grow by recording bits of my personal life (I'll try to leave out the yucky work stuff as much as possible) in hopes of fostering a better one.
A few months ago a coworker said to me, "You know, [we have these cool jobs but] I'm really a boring guy. I work ten hours a day, four or five hours on Sunday, go home and then go back to work! The last three day weekend we had, I thought I was going to lose my mind, I had absolutely nothing to do." At the time I laughed and agreed, but the more I think about it the sadder that little truth about our lives made me.
This blog is my little attempt to grow by recording bits of my personal life (I'll try to leave out the yucky work stuff as much as possible) in hopes of fostering a better one.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
movie distribution phone monkey: the new job
Today I got to hear a guy from Louisiana call Steven Segal "one baaaaaaadd mamma jamma" and when I agreed with this guy "Why yes, I guess Steven Segal is pretty cool" he corrected me "No! He is a bad mamma jamma!" Twenty minutes later I spent about a half hour explaining how to use the internet to perhaps the dumbest woman on earth. Half an hour. To add "Desperate Housewives" to her list. Half an hour.
Sometimes I have a hard time keeping a straight face at work. Sometimes work makes me wish I were dead.
Just like my last job, strangely enough.
Sometimes I have a hard time keeping a straight face at work. Sometimes work makes me wish I were dead.
Just like my last job, strangely enough.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
steps to curing a bad day
- Drive home in an aggressive manner.
- Huffily smoke cigarettes.
- Argue on the internet.
- Chop the fuck out of a giant pile of vegetables.
- Whine to new roommate.
- Go to the gym.
- Eat overpriced grocery store sushi.
Yaaay.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
government-approved
I am now officially "QUALIFIED" to become a state child welfare caseworker.
How did I get here? How did this become my life?
How did I get here? How did this become my life?
Sunday, November 19, 2006
things to write about when i am not so tired
- holiday work momentum, angst, resulting job search
- gift drive
- hypoglycemic rage
- "rude to strangers", the documentary
- christmas sweater lady and business goth
- consumer desire
- new music and books
Saturday, November 11, 2006
don't ever eat sushi on kappaya on division
I had food poisoning yesterday and was sicker than I had ever been. I had to go to the emergency room (after calling and crying to friends between barf attacks-- thank you, little light, for rushing me to the hospital and being so patient with me through the whole ordeal, I owe you dinner) and felt ridiculous in the waiting room looking disheveled and miserable, wearing SHORTS, and carrying around a gigantic barf bucket while talking to a freshman dormie who I haven't seen since freshman year and I guess is now an EMT. They stuck me with an IV after a few times trying to find my dissapearing veins and gave me some anti-nausea medicine that burned and made me fall instantly asleep. I liked the ER doctor, who wrote me a prescription and told me if I wasn't feeling so nauseous that I wouldn't be very happy to use the suppository, then I probably didn't need the medicine. When he found out what I do for a living asked me if I heard of the case from a few years ago where a large snake almost ate a baby. I was duly entertained.
I am still feeling kinda weak, but much much better. I tried my first non-bread solid food and it didn't go well, so I am back in bed, very glad that I have an entire season of "Buffy" to watch.
That is my three-day Veteran's Day weekend. Boo.
I am still feeling kinda weak, but much much better. I tried my first non-bread solid food and it didn't go well, so I am back in bed, very glad that I have an entire season of "Buffy" to watch.
That is my three-day Veteran's Day weekend. Boo.
Friday, November 3, 2006
more dislikes (and one like)
I don't like being broke. Self-explanitory. Payday is next Thursday, whew.
I don't like the morning commute to Washington County. I'm already late, I'm already upset that I have to go to work, why rub salt in the wound by driving like a total moron?
I don't like coming home from a long week at work only to be witness to my neighbor's domestic disturbance.
I really don't like having to call child welfare on a Friday night. I'm not working, I don't want to.
...
However, I do like schadenfraude. It's my favorite feeling.
I don't like the morning commute to Washington County. I'm already late, I'm already upset that I have to go to work, why rub salt in the wound by driving like a total moron?
I don't like coming home from a long week at work only to be witness to my neighbor's domestic disturbance.
I really don't like having to call child welfare on a Friday night. I'm not working, I don't want to.
...
However, I do like schadenfraude. It's my favorite feeling.
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
things i don't like
I don't like being cold all day.
I don't like having to work in an office populated by menopausal women and having to deal with the fact that they will always control the thermostat and their preferred temperature is always going to be "fingertip-freezing cold". All year. Should I complain, I recieve the passive-aggressive smile of death and a "funny" comment of my youth. The seed of hate towards fifty-something year old women that was planted from my short stint working at The Fabric Store is starting to grow tiny roots and sprout. I hate you, menopausal women, for making me cold all the time. Go away, fifty-somethings! Unless you're my mom, of course. Mom doesn't turn the heat down to sixty. She turns the heat up to eighty (sometimes a problem). Who are these other women and why aren't they cool like my mom?
I don't like living in a drafty-ass apartment. It is never the right temperature for long enough. Also, why are the heating vents up on the ceiling? Don't you know that no one wants heat on the ceiling? Why is the gas bill so high and yet the apartment so small? Why, oh why, does it feel slightly colder when the heat is blowing? Please, apartment, WTF. I clean you. I stuff your windows with sheets to insulate. I know the thermostat is way down because there is not much money to spend on you. But still. Colder? When the heat is on? No. That is not heat. That is air conditioning. I don't want air conditioning in November.
I don't like having to work in an office populated by menopausal women and having to deal with the fact that they will always control the thermostat and their preferred temperature is always going to be "fingertip-freezing cold". All year. Should I complain, I recieve the passive-aggressive smile of death and a "funny" comment of my youth. The seed of hate towards fifty-something year old women that was planted from my short stint working at The Fabric Store is starting to grow tiny roots and sprout. I hate you, menopausal women, for making me cold all the time. Go away, fifty-somethings! Unless you're my mom, of course. Mom doesn't turn the heat down to sixty. She turns the heat up to eighty (sometimes a problem). Who are these other women and why aren't they cool like my mom?
I don't like living in a drafty-ass apartment. It is never the right temperature for long enough. Also, why are the heating vents up on the ceiling? Don't you know that no one wants heat on the ceiling? Why is the gas bill so high and yet the apartment so small? Why, oh why, does it feel slightly colder when the heat is blowing? Please, apartment, WTF. I clean you. I stuff your windows with sheets to insulate. I know the thermostat is way down because there is not much money to spend on you. But still. Colder? When the heat is on? No. That is not heat. That is air conditioning. I don't want air conditioning in November.
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