RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) OK, who is the man I'm living with, and what did he do with Steve? Last night he decided he couldn't wait any longer to give me my Christmas gifts. I totally understand, because I'm exactly the same way. In fact, I had given him his birthday gift last night even though his birthday isn't until Sunday! He handed me a large envelope, and for a moment I was afraid he had gone and had some boudoir photos made. : ) Inside the envelope was a gift certificate for dance lessons! It was probably one of the most thoughtful gifts he's ever gotten me, and normally his idea of a thoughtful gift is a RAM upgrade! He knew how much I wanted to learn to dance and said he'd be willing to go along and learn with me so that we could dance at his Christmas party next year. All together now: Awwwwwwwww! It's basically for 3 introductory dance lessons which we can choose to continue if we enjoy them. I'm so excited! I love it when people put actual thought into gifts! It means they care enough to pay attention to you. Yay, Steve!

2) I decided a couple of nights ago that I wanted to make chocolate baklava for the marketing department's Christmas brunch. Making baklava is a very time consuming thing that involves buttering dough that is as thin as tissue paper, grinding up nuts, layering all kinds of stuff and making a sugar syrup to pour over everything once you've baked it. One weird thing you have to do to it is cut it BEFORE you bake it. I guess that's because phyllo dough is so delicate that it would probably shatter if you cut it once it was baked. Well, everything went swimmingly except for the fact that one box of my dough was the wrong kind, but I had enough of the phyllo dough to make up for what I didn't have. I chopped, buttered, blah-blah-blah. The sugar syrup is tricky because it has orange and lemon juice, honey, and sugar in it and it has to be boiled for a long time to reduce it. What you have when you are done is basically a very tasty glue that you pour over the finished pastry. Well, I did all of the pouring and left it to cool, but when I went back a couple of hours later and moved the pan it was in, I realized that when I cut the baklava before I baked it, I punched holes into the bottom and sides of the aluminum pan! The very tasty glue had leaked all over the counter and into the grooves between the tiles where I haven't finished grouting! ARGH! Well, at least the baklava tasted good. : )

3) I had to go buy toys for some of my little kid cousins the other day. I know NOTHING about the kinds of things kids like. I didn't even know how old most of them were! I was afraid if I got something too grown up, they'd break it or not enjoy it, but I was afraid if I got something too baby-ish then they would turn their tiny little wraths upon me. I can only hope that they will just be so excited about getting presents that they won't really pay attention to what they got. Most kids are like that, right?

4) I miss Josh. I got a call from him the other day and he seems so happy. I'm very glad that he's happy, but I can't help being selfish enough to wish he was still around. I got to talk to one of his "Brothers" and Josh seems to be very popular with everyone. Apparently he made them all crack up during evening prayers! At least he hasn't changed much since joining the order!

5) I don't like wrapping gifts. At. All.

That is all for now!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I have found a new substitute for crack, I swear. Fresh Market (God bless the yuppies, but not too much) sells this stuff called Crispy Fruit, which is basically freeze dried apricots, peaches, and pineapples. It's not like that gross dehydrated fruit that you buy at the grocery store because this has no moisture in it at all. It's like the space ice cream that is sold in the SpRocket gift shop, only healthy. I bought a pack of the dried pineapples and every time I eat a bag of them I get hyper. Maybe that's not a great thing, I don't know, but it's nice to feel awake without having to pump myself full of caffeine. I suggest you go and get some. Right now...go. Seriously.

2) Wow, that brings up a thought. How am I going to start the caffeine rehabilitation? I've been drinking so much of it to keep me awake for classes, and now I won't need it as much. Hmmmmmmm. I wonder if Betty Ford has a department for that.

3) Speaking of rehabilitation (see what I'm doing here?) I have found out the hard way that Zoloft is not a drug that one should just quit taking all of a sudden. Please don't get uncomfortable while I talk about being crazy, because I'm going to tell you about it. I was diagnosed with PMDD several months ago. Actually, I had to go to 2 different doctors because the first one wouldn't listen to me. Seriously, he just smiled and acted like it was normal to want to kill myself, have severe anxiety attacks, and wanting to beat people up with baguettes in the supermarket. I was a little concerned about feeling the way I did, so I went to another doctor who actually listened to me and he prescribed some lovely brain numbing drugs to help me out. Now, granted, I liked not having bouts of concentrated crazy every few weeks, but the drugs had a lot of side effects that I didn't like. One, I didn't like being so infernally sleepy. Two, I didn't like gaining weight for no reason. Three, I sometimes like to have variations in emotions, and the medicine was making that all but impossible. It was like "Wow, that's a great picture of your family" had the same effect as "Wow, I just cut off my thumb. Blood is a nice shade of red." So I decided to step back the pills, as was recommended, but apparently I didn't stop gradually enough. At first I thought I was getting the flu, because I just felt sick all of the time and everything in my body hurt. When that was over, I thought I was having heart problems because I would be sitting still doing something low stress and all of a sudden all of the blood in my body decided to rush to my head and pulse there for a second before going back to it's regularly scheduled business. I did some research and found out that the whole pulsing blood thing is normal when stopping Zoloft and it's called "Brain Shivers". It's basically a very intense, very brief vertigo that lasts about 5 seconds and then goes away. Friends, that is no fun. I would be walking along and SPLAT! fall against the wall, or stumble down stairs and other such drunken type of behavior. Granted, I'm not graceful, but that has been a lot of stumbling, even for me! I still have the brain shivers, and I still have periodic bouts of feeling...nuts, for want of a better word, but I know what it is now and can deal with it a lot better than I could before. Don't worry, I still have my pills in case I need to take them again, but I'd like to try and deal with life unadulterated for a while. I know that medicine like this is important, but I don't want to have to take it all of the time if I don't have to. Does that make sense?

4) This is so much fun! It's like origami on steroids! Of course, you need some scissors and glue, but you can make so many interesting things. I suggest you try it, it's very therapeutic!

5) My teeth are much better than they were after the YCOTD debacle. I should probably be more fair to the Godiva company and not curse the pecan thingie, it was actually very good. I probably also should mention that I was keeping them in my fridge, which didn't help the whole "being hard" situation. I will say, however, that I could do without the crispy rice in the thing. As much as I like things in my chocolate, I don't like crispy rice in it. I want my cereal to snap, crackle and pop, not my chocolate. Plus it just feels weird, and we all know that if it feels weird, I can't eat it. It's just my way.

6) OK, I need some guidance. Many people sent me money as a graduation gift, to both my delight and utter undeservedness. I am going to be donating some of it to a charity, but that is still going to leave me with enough to do something rewarding for myself. I am thinking about going to a spa which is not far away from my house. However, here is my issue. First off, the spa package includes a massage, a manicure and pedicure, a facial and things of that nature. Second off, I'd love to do this, just to see what it is like, BUT...I'm not too comfortable with someone I don't know rubbing me. Then there is the whole being ticklish thing, and I don't want to kick anyone in the face while they are painting my toenails. So I'm torn between wanting to try this stuff out, and not wanting to kick people and giggle while someone is rubbing me with hot stones (which, if you think about it, just sounds kind of weird in the first place). I need to either be talked into it or out of it. Anyone?

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Why does NO ONE in this town use their blinkers? You can't say it's just not done in the south, because I've always lived down here and I don't remember it being a problem until just the past few years. Grrrr.

2) I think I'm going to have Steve's DNA tested to see if he's the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby. You know, just in case. Yuck. Seems that she had access to more DNA than a crime lab. I also wish that they would just bury her and get it over with. I bet there was less news coverage about the JFK murder. Jeez.

3) I got my letter letting me know I can order my cap and gown next week! EEEEEEEEEEEEE! I also got an invitation to join the Delta Epsilon Iota academic honor society. I think I'll join, just so I can get the tassels for graduation. I'm already a (lapsed) member of the Kappa Something Something honor society, but I didn't go and get my tassel or pin. I paid for the darn things, you'd think they could have mailed them to me! :P At any rate, looks like I never had to be a bowhead to get a few Greek letters! Woo-Hoo!

4) We are having our house reassessed next week for refinancing and I'm supposed to be cleaning. I've been trying to pick up my office, but I had no idea how much of a mess it really was. Seriously, I found a whole stash of screen prints I did three years ago. I know for a fact I've cleaned up my office since then, but I don't remember seeing these things. Weird. On a nicer note...who wants some screen prints?

5) That fathead friend of mine who can't seem to have both a girlfriend and girls who are friends, has struck again. "If I just wasn't a lady, what wouldn't I tell that varmint?!" I don't know why I put up with people like this! If we hadn't been friends since junior high, I'd probably punch him in the neck and forget about him. However, it is the length of our friendship that gives me pause. Well, that, and I really like his parents. I think if I were to assault him, they would frown on that.

6) I had the weirdest dream the other night. I dreamed I was serving cake at a wedding. I don't know who's wedding it was, because I never saw the bride or groom. In fact, I was watching myself serve the cake, which was also weird. Anyways, I dreamed I was serving the cake, and then I took the big silver knife and stabbed myself in the chest and cut out my own heart, but I smiled the whole time I was doing it. Then I laid it, my heart, on the table and continued serving cake with a smile on my face and a bloody mess on my dress. No one seemed to notice that every piece of cake I served had blood on it from the knife. It was kind of gross. I'm not quite sure if I want to know what that dream says about me, you know?

7) My friend really liked the napkins that I gave him for a wedding gift. He seemed a little surprised that I would go to the trouble to do it. He kept saying thank you and looking embarrassed. I wasn't aware that napkins could do that to anyone. Good thing I didn't get them anything tacky. His head might have exploded. ; )

I should really probably finish cleaning. GROAN.

Oh! Gratuitous Picture!
Now THAT was a long time ago.
Tawney Kittain hasn't got anything on me! Heeheehee.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

* Sarah Silverman is not now, nor has she ever been, funny. Any adult who needs to resort to potty humor and inappropriate jokes to be funny has issues. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I can't for the life of me understand how people who are obviously nothing more than infantile minded tellers of poop, fart, and sex jokes become celebrities. Case in point, Howard Stern. He's a multi-millionaire just for being a mysogonistic pig. Wow. Welcome to America. /rant

*So, Steve and I were not on American Idol last night. Well, we were, but we were in a crowd of 11,000 other people screaming and waving our arms, so unless you have a pretty sharply honed "Kelly Sensor", you couldn't tell where we were. I can't believe how little of the actual crowd footage that was actually used. We stood out there on the steps of the civic center for over an hour waving at the camera and screaming, and then we spent another hour or more singing Sweet Home Alabama, screaming, and waving our arms at the camera. Oh well, as they say, that's showbiz. : ) I'm sort of glad I didn't make it past the first round of auditions after watching the show last night. Simon Cowell is MEAN! I understand why he has to kind of be that way, I guess, but geez. He's a very damaged little man. I remembered seeing a couple of the people who were on the show while I was at the auditions. The girl with long hair especially. I felt so sorry for the people who cried when they were rejected, because I probably would have done the same thing! However, and I say this with no false modesty at all, I know I was better than some of the people they let go to the next round! Of course, maybe I didn't look as if I would make enough of a scene if they were mean to me. They sure didn't judge me right, did they? Heeheehee : )

*I had so much fun in my Theater history class yesterday. We were reading a Greek comedy called (and I don't know if I'm spelling this right) Lysistrata. I got to read the part of Lysistrata for the first act, and I actually enjoyed it. I probably would have liked to have done theater if I had the chance. Maybe I'll audition for the next community theater play and be second sunflower to the left, or something! You'd come and watch, right?

*I have big hair today. Not Trailer-Park big, but big enough for a guy I work with to make a comment. My hair has gotten so long that I don't know what to do with it anymore. I can finally put it in a ponytail for the first time in many years, but I don't like to because it makes my head hurt when I take it out! Clippies! Must get more CLIPPIES!

*The other night one of our dogs got mad at me for not having his food in his bowl on time and he took a poo on the carpet in our bedroom. The sad thing is, we didn't know about it for an hour or so. : ( Neither one of them would own up to it, but I think I know who did it. He was the one who looked the most ashamed of himself when I asked them about it. That has to be the worst thing about owning any kind of animal. Yuck. I'm just glad that Steve doesn't do that when I don't have dinner ready on time!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

*There is a whole new crop of Camp counselors who have recently been hired. It's a lovely sight to see all of the fresh faced, excited, space-geeky folks who come in every year. Of course, in about 2 weeks 80% of them will have quit because they will find out what kind of children they will have to deal with on a regular basis. Uck. However, I do give them props for attempting it. I'm certainly not that brave. Steve was a camp counselor very briefly before he got smart. The only proof I have of it is his "Certificate of Achievment" that he got by passing the training and a picture of his training group. I think only one person that trained with him still works here.

*Speaking of counselors, there is a guy downstairs who I went to high school with. Either he doesn't recognize me or he's purposfully avoiding me. I can't completely blame him, because he was one of the few people I knew that I didn't like, and I knew he didn't like me. We were in the band together for a while. Sure, I could say hello, but if he's avoiding me on purpose it will be awkward. If he has completely forgotten we knew each other, he'll think I'm crazy. Either way, I don't think I'm going to worry about it. :)

*I got invited to a wedding in France! My friend Paul and his finace, Carine, are getting married in April. Unfortunately, their wedding is going to be during my finals, so I can't go. :( Paul was an exchange student at UAH and he worked at the SpRocket when I was in the museum. Josh and I got to know him pretty well (since Josh is fluent in French and could translate what Paul couldn't say in English.) He came to visit in 2001 and when we picked him up at the airport, we asked what he wanted to do while he was here. The only thing he said for sure was that he wanted to watch the Super Bowl and go to Hooters! I suppose that sort of thing is international! Heeheehee. At any rate, Félicitations, Paul and Carine!

* Have I ever talked about the "Speed Bump Kids" who live on my street? In the last few years, we have had a lot of families with small children move into our neighborhood. Normally I'd be fine with that, but for some reason, the parents of these children feel compelled to let their children play in the street. It would be one thing if we were on a cul-de-sac or on one of those streets where there was never any traffic, but that isn't the case. The children have no clue how to get out of the way when cars are coming, either. In fact, I've gotten dirty looks from the parents who have seen me drive down the street because I apparenetly have no right to drive when their children are playing there. They could, oh, I don't know, tell their kids to get into someone's yard until I pass, but no. So I have to dodge these little kids every time I come home from work. It's been even worse since our street got repaved. They take all of their scooters, bikes, skates, big wheels, etc. and drag them to the foot of our driveway (I'm not kidding) and ride them down the hill. They also apparently don't realize that the big black truck and silver convertable that drive past them every day, need to turn into that driveway, so they stand there IN our driveway until we stop cold. Then the seem to get it. I wouldn't care about this at all if I thought that they had the sense to move when they see a car coming, but I'm scared I'm going to flatten one of them.

* I was sitting in my office yesterday and out of nowhere, I heard a choir start singing "God Bless America" in the museum. Well, actually, it was an Asian children's choir, so it was more like "Gah Bress Amelica". It was cute, and they were really very good. Why was an Asian Children's Choir in our museum singing "God Bless America?" You got me.

*Valentine's day is coming up. I walked into Target last night and was assaulted by hearts and kissy-fase stuff. I realized while walking down those aisles, that I wasn't the least bit tempted by anything there. Can you believe it? I've finally found something that can make me lose my appetite for chocolate! Oh the humanity.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I haven't said it yet, but congratulations to my cousin Amy for successfully completing NaNoWriMo! No, that isn't some kind of strange Japanese pilgrimage to the outer rim of the univerise, it is National Novel Writing Month, which was November. She wrote a 50,000 word novel in one month. She even used my name, well, my old name, in it! Yay! GOOOOOOO AMY! Woo-Hoo!

2) When you have to run out of your bathroom screaming "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU! I NEED AN OLD PRIEST AND A YOUNG PRIEST!" to the toilet, that isn't a good thing. Apparently the water had been turned off and there was air in the pipes, so when the toilet flushed, it sounded like it was laughing and growling. Now, most of the time, I am quite sensible about knowing that the toilet is not alive, however that caught me off guard. I'm okay now, though.

3) I'm just letting you know, but I am going to poison the next person who takes me for granted. Just FYI.

4) Should I be worried that Steve knows the words to "My Humps?" Not just knows them, but sings it while walking around the house getting ready for work? Also, when he uses the word "Fergalicious" in conversation...should I be scared?

5) I don't like Justin Timberlake's music as a rule, but the song "Sexyback" is pretty darn catchy. It's a bad song to hear right before you get out of the car, because you will walk around singing bits and pieces of it all day and people look at you strangely.

6) I'm gonna make cookies!

7) I'm thinking about getting contacts so that I don't have to wear my glasses everywhere I go. Any advice?

I'll be back...