Open message to Justices Rehnquist and O'Connor
Please don't retire, please don't retire, please don't retire. Hang in there for a few more years. Please?! I can't deal with the possibility of the Supreme Court having Shrub-appointed Justices.
More excitement!!!
On a whim, I decided to retire an e-mail address I've had since I was a freshman in college (Fall 1994). In the almost 9 years since then (holy crap!), it's become inundated with spam. We're talking about hundreds of spam messages per week, and I don't have the time or the inclination to see which ones are legit - as in ones that I've supposedly subscribed to over the years - and unsubscribe, so I'm deleting upwards of 750 messages per week after carefully scanning the list to see if any of them happen to be from friends, rather than someone wanting me to view photos of singles in my area or enlarge my penis.
I really wish some one would have told me a long tme ago that I had a penis. I might have taken better care of it.
So, I got myself a handy-dandy new address, complete with updated name (the old one was my first initial and my last name, meanwhile I've been "an honest woman" with a different name for 9 months now - I haven't disabled the old address, I just won't be checking it much). I checked the old address book and got quite a few blasts from the past, including some people who I can't remember how I met them or why they were in my address book. I e-mailed some of the people about the address change and had a response back within 10 minutes! And from a person whom I remember exactly how I met her and why she was in my address book! Whom I haven't spoken to in a couple of years! And she said she'd been thinking of me recently and thinking of trying to find me! :)
When I met her, she was the girlfriend of a guy I met through a girl I sang with in college. Now she's his ex-GF (and probably all the better for it, too, if things are still the same as they were the last time we spoke). Wait, let me rephrase that. She was his girlfriend when I met her, and she was his ex-girlfriend as of the last time I spoke with her, which is a good thing for her b/c that turned into a nasty situation. There. Much better explanation. Carry on. She's uber-cool, a great person, and kept an online journal before blogging was all the rage. I'm SO looking forward to getting caught up! (And if you're reading, you know who you are - hello!)
Yay!!
Lazy day
Well, we didn't get to bed until after 4:00 AM. Woke up around noon to the sound of the phone ringing. Bank One wants money (god I hate banks. Credit Unions all the way!). Of course they do, our payment is 2 weeks late. Note to the not-so-nice people at Bank One: Lemme worry about the rent first, then you'll get yours. Those people can be downright mean. I even complained about them on PlanetFeedback once, after a rep dropped the f-bomb on me over the phone.
Anyway, so this has been a pretty lazy day. I've been up since noon, it's now 5:00 and I've done a grand total of Jack and Shite. Oh, wait. I watched Not Without My Daughter on Bravo from 1:00-3:00 while Bryan's mom was over. She brought us breakfast (cheese-filled breadsticks and donuts from Kwik-Trip - not the healthiest, but oh-so-yummy) and Bryan burned her a CD.
I've been craving NY pizza a lot lately, so Carrie and Shawn are stopping over around 7, then we're heading to State St. in Madison - there's a little pizzeria that claims to have genuine NY pizza. It had been there as a NY pizzeria before, but came under new ownership a while ago and I haven't been there since. We'll see. But at any rate, I'll be eating something that may closely resemble a comfort food of my childhood, and I'm excited.
Ummmm, yeah
It's 3:00 AM and I'm still up. Almost unheard of for me. Maybe it's time for bed.
So now my JOB has to be a soap, too?
With as much of a soap opera as my life is sometimes, you'd think I could have ONE drama-free place I could go. It USED to be work. Not anymore. There's this 21-year-old chickie in my department named Laura who doesn't seem to be able to keep her trap shut. Well, it finally got her in trouble, and it's my fault.
And I'm shamelessly devoid of remorse.
I've probably talked about her before, but I can't find the post. She's the alcoholic who got two drinking and driving tickets before she turned 21 and worked maybe a grand total of twice a week for two months and didn't get fired b/c she kisses up to management. I swear, she acts all professional and behaves as though she's a team lead or supervisor or something in front of management, then turns around and acts like she belongs at the high school across the street when management's not around.
Well, anyway, so it's my fault that she got busted for running her mouth, because after listening to her whine and moan and bitch and complain and just be generally snarky toward a fellow employee (behind that person's back, BTW), I'd had enough. The last straw was when she pulled up that employee's criminal history on the state's court access website and went from person-to-person asking them if they thought it was right that this particular employee works here. That was it, I'd had enough. That totally went over the line. I'm not usually one to do this, but I went to her supervisor. That was completely inappropriate.
She's had two or three meetings with management since then, and I know they addressed the court access website issue. She hasn't said anything directly to me, but she makes these little random snide comments about how people need to mind their own business (yeah, and she's the perfect model of minding her own business, right?). And she's started whispering with other coworkers and giggling about Dungeons & Dragons, which I'm quite sure indicates that she's now ripping on my husband of all people, since she wouldn't be caught dead with anyone who admitted to being a gamer, and she didn't have the slightest clue what D&D was until I explained it to her.
Stupid bitch.
UPDATE!!! She's sitting not more than 5 feet away from me and just said the following to a frazzled coworker: "Next think you know, you'll be playing Dungeons & Dragons and Magic in your basement. That shit's so bizarre." To quote her vastly intelligent self: "Whatevz dude, whatevz."
Under construction
Just fiddling. Won't finish before bedtime though, so please excuse the mess.
More perspective
Also while my friend was dealing with the miscarriage, a woman was being arrested for putting her two-year-old daughter in a washing machine. People who don't deserve to reproduce are able to have a child to put in a freaking washing machine, and a woman who would make an excellent mother loses a baby. It's not fair.
Perspective
I just found out that while I was sitting here with a towel on my head fretting over what my new hair color was going to look like once I took the towel off and dried it, a friend of mine was dealing with the miscarriage she had this weekend. Suddenly, I don't give a rat's ass what my hair looks like anymore.
Still sensitive
Okay, so in my "I slept too much" grumpiness, I almost snapped at Bryan. Last thing I need after Sunday's blowout, especially after Bryan apologized for squarely putting all of the blame on me (which was very much appreciated). Our friend Bob called because a few of them are having a LAN party tonight and he wanted to know if Bryan wanted to go over and play. He said that he couldn't because he's "supposed to do something with Kat," but later added that he'd "see what he could work out." He didn't mention that we also have plans with Dave and Heather to go to the park and grill out tonight. I got pissy about that because with some of the boys that will undoubtedly be at said LAN party, they'll be thinking "ol' ball and chain's got a pretty tight hold on him" rather than "oh, he's got other plans, that's cool." Ugh. I know why my brain makes that leap, but I don't know why I care so much.
Yawn
Today we got up at around 11:00, had something to eat, watched part of The Color Purple, then went back to snuggle when it was over around 1:00. Fell asleep, slept until 5:00. Now I have the "I slept too much" grumpies. Shit.
And I thought I had problems...
Okay, I just have to say, my self-esteem was never this bad. You know you've got issues when you insure your face for $500,000 because you're afraid your husband would leave you if you got fat or ugly. She makes her husband sound like a real winner, too: "I can honestly say that I don't think Richard would love me if I weighed 95kg." Ummm, 95kg. is just over 200lbs. More brilliance: The couple – who have a 20-month-old daughter Lily – met on holiday in Turkey eight years ago, when Richard fell for her slim figure, tanned legs and blonde hair. "He hated it when I was pregnant and my figure was changing and it was out of our control." Ummm, you were pregnant. What did he think was going to happen?
I'm so glad my husband loves me for who I am and I don't have to worry about this kind of bullshit.
Woke up this mornin'How to sing the blues.
Not too shabby for bronchitis
Bryan and I at T and Val's wedding, courtesy of Shopko's One-Hour (turned overnight because they were way behind) Photo.
The fairies should have tipped me off
When it rains, it pours. Got a nifty little notice in the mail today. Or rather, Bryan did. Apparently my brain was in traffic fine fantasyland when I thought I wrote out the check to pay for his speeding ticket. Apparently I never wrote it. Apparently I use the word "apparently" too much. The thought crossed my mind that maybe it got lost in the mail, or even worse that it's been sitting in an envelope waiting to be mailed. Nope. After thoroughly checking all three check ledgers, I've come to realize that I never wrote the damn thing out, much less put it an envelope or mailed it.
His license has been suspended for 2 years. Or it was suspended for two years as of May 8th. He still hasn't changed his address with the DOT, so the notice originally went to his mom's house. Suspended for a week and a half already and we only found out today. The fact that it wasn't actually postmarked until the 14th (despite the suspension effective date being the 8th) doesn't make me feel as much better as one might think, either. The doctor wants me to stay home tomorrow as well to give the anitbiotics a chance to start working before I go back to work (I have bronchitis), so I guess I'll see what I can do about getting it taken care of tomorrow. Oh, and not like we need this like a hole in the head, but it's going to be an extra 50 bucks to have it reinstated - if they'll even do it. The letter says "If you pay the fine, you may be eligible to reinstate on the date of payment. If you have other revocations or suspensions, your actual reinstatement date may be later"). As far as I know, he's never had another revocation or suspension, so it should be okay (keeping my fingers crossed).
I feel icky... oh so icky...
I hate being sick. I especially hate being sick over the weekend. And I especially hate the fact that to my supervisors, I probably look like I just wanted a long weekend, given the fact that I was originally told I couldn't have last Friday off b/c other people were out and then I stayed home anyway.
I almost made it through T and Val's wedding ceremony without coughing, thanks to the tessalon perles I had from the last time I was sick. I remembered I had a refill that I never called in, so I called it in before I had my hair done on Saturday morning. I walked down the aisle with two cough drops (cherry, of course) in my mouth after taking 2 perles 30 minutes before the ceremony (they take 20 minutes to kick in), and only coughed twice. It would have been more but I managed to hold it in, thank goodness. The rest of the day wasn't too bad, but probably because I wasn't overly concerned about going into a coughing fit once the ceremony was over. It was a beautiful wedding though. They had Bryan do a reading from the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1-14), which of course got many many comments from people coming through the receiving line (Bryan? Doing a reading from the Bible? Does.Not.Compute for some people). I managed not to cry at all.
They allowed a little too much time between the ceremony and dinner, considering the pictures didn't seem to take very long (unless I missed something), but it was a lot of fun. And I wasn't even overly self-conscious about the sleeveless gown I was in (pictures to follow, I'll probably drop them off to be developed on the way to the doctor). I guess at some point it just occurred to me, "hey Kat, you're fat, you can't hide it, you look great anyway, these people are your friends, just shut up and wear the dress and nobody gives a hoot about the size of your upper arms in all their jiggly glory." We partied until the whole shebang was over, then went home and crashed. Bryan looked so damn good in his tux. I was so disappointed I was sick, because as good as he looked IN the tux, I totally wanted to take him home and relieve him of it, to put it mildly (big evil grin). Yum. :) Alas, all my body wanted to do was go home and sleep.
Sunday did NOT go very well at all. Huge fight (with two of his gamers in the house), Bryan called off gaming, general malaise and unpleasantness abounded for the rest of the day. More fighting, depression, much crying (on my part), overreacting (on both sides) and more general malaise. We managed a bit of couch snuggling with popcorn before bed, but we're both still very bummed and feeling out of sorts today. Top it all off with the fact that I'm still sick and Bryan's probably going to work until 8:00 tonight because he has time to make up from being sick last week, and it isn't a very pleasant day.
Healthy food... tastes so good...
Does anyone remember that Cookie Monster song? Apparently some parents complained once uopn a time that the Cookie Monster was setting a bad example by always eating sweets. In response, Sesame Street did a skit with CM dancing with a bunch of Muppet veggies and they were singing this song that kind of goes "healthy fooooood, tastes so gooood, healthy foood, heeealthyyy fooo-ooo-oood.
Nevermind.
Anyway, so I'm sitting here eating a delicious plate of chicken chunks sauteed in garlic, oregano white wine and just a smidge of olive oil (my favortie way to cook pork, but it works well for chicken as well) and steamed yellow squash and baby carrots. Very healthy. I wonder if that cancels out the brownie and half a jar of Nutella I had for breakfast?
Prom is more important
You've got to be kidding me. There's an article on cnn.com regarding some of the Glenbrook students being expelled for the hazing incident that sent girls to the hospital. This quote takes the cake:
"...suspended senior Marnie Holz, 18, filed a lawsuit against the school district in Cook County Circuit Court seeking a temporary restraining order. Holz wants to keep the district from enforcing her 10-day penalty, claiming it would damage her academic standing, bar her from attending Saturday's prom, and possibly prohibit her from graduating with her class."
Too fucking bad! When you break the rules, what the hell do you think is going to happen? You should be in jail you stupid bitch, not going to the fucking PROM!!!!!
UPDATE!!! The judge refused to block the board from suspending poor Marnie. She'll be going back to court on Friday to fight it though. Fucking Wah.
Grumble grumble bitch grumble
My company decided that internet customer service can't have free dialup anymore. I've got a bunch of e-mails on my free dialup account that I can't use anymore because my account either has to be closed or I have to start paying for it. Since I'm out of my company's service territory, I get a whopping $5.00. And that $5.00 discount is only applicable to out unlimited service plan, so I can't even set myself up on our cheapest plan with my $5.00 discount to keep my e-mail addresses active. If I want to keep my e-mail addresses active, I have to pay $15.77 ($14.95 plus tax, our base price is $19.95) a month. Considering that the internet discount is the ONLY discount I get for working here, I think that's freaking ridiculous.
I don't get the $50 toward phone service that employees with my company's phone service get.
I don't get the $20 toward phone and $20 toward internet that employees with our sister company's phone service get.
I suppose I should be thankful that I get 5 bucks toward internet service, but it's useless to me. I have no local dialup number, so I can't even use it as a backup to my cable internet. I'm not paying $15.77 to keep a few e-mails open. And of course the ISP we have at home charges $2.00 per month for any e-mail adresses over 3, so I'm stuck there as well. I work for a freaking internet company, fer chrissakes! You'd think I'd get SOMETHING besides $5.00. They won't even cut a check applicable to phone service or internet service to employees who live outside service territory.
NOTE TO COMPANIES: If you're going to offer a perk, make it available to ALL employees, not just ones who live in a certain area.
Freaking out
So, one of my best girlfriends e-mailed me about a job that's opening up at our sister company. She thinks I'd be great at it (I believe "I think you would be a rocking {insert job title here}" were her exact words) and really thinks I should go for it. According to the job postings I'm extremely UNqualified. They want a degree and 5 years telecommunications experience. I have no degree (despite $20K in student loan debt) and almost 18 months of telecommunications experience.
One of my coworkers used to be a big-wig at said sister company though and I asked him about it. He told me to go for it. After all, what do I have to lose? He reminded me that this company loves to promote from within, and told me that they'd probably love to have me - who they'd have to train - than some person coming in from a different company who thinks they know everything about everything. He also told me, unsolicited, to use him as a reference. Having his name as a reference on my resume certainly can't hurt. That was his area when he was over there, and he knows everyone.
It's a significant amount more than I make now, about which I'm completely intimidated. I'd still be making quite a bit less than some of my friends have made in the past and are capable of making, but it's a little over 30% higher than I currently make, and freaking double what I made at my last job. I just can't imagine that kind of money, and it's completely irrational considering if I said what it was, you'd all laugh at me for being intimidated.
Being poor sucks
T and Val's bachelor/bachelorette festivities are today, so Bryan took my car to join in the bachelor party caravan. His car isn't the greatest, and there's the possibility he may also be carting people around who otherwise would have no transportation. Plus, his car is pretty much a one-person vehicle at this point. Let's face it, no matter how messy my car is, the messiness factor as it relates to his car is worse. A LOT worse as I found. Not to mention that some of the people he'll probably be carting around aren't quite 21 yet, so they'll have to get home somehow once the bar-hopping starts. Plus he needs to get home a little early anyway, since he has a lot to do for tomorrow's game, otherwise he will be one completely unprepared DM.
So anyway, before he left he warned me that his car is a real POS and to be careful if I need to drive (in other words, "you may want to get a ride to Val's"). Now, I knew the car wasn't the greatest, but I haven't driven it or ridden in it for probably close to a year, since we use my car when we go out on weekends. I had to go out for eggs since I'm bringing dessert and we had a grand total of two eggs in the house (brownies, mint chocolate chip muffins, Rice Krispie treats and crack muffins), and holy crap! The car doesn't run horribly, but it's definitely not in the greatest shape. And lemme tell you how hard it is to drive a car with no power steering that was meant to have it. The car has a power steering fluid leak. Had it for a while now. Rather than continuing to put fluid in on a daily-to-weekly basis, apparently my husband would rather go without. I got home from a 10-minute trip to Kwik Trip to get freaking eggs and made up my mind that I'd rather call one of my friends to give me a ride than try to maneuver that thing again.
I'm so sorry he has to drive that car. She's a workhorse though. 219,000 miles and still going. One of the used car dealers in town has another Corsica, a '92 (Bryan's is a '91) with half the miles for about $2,000, but it would mean cashing in half the "house downpayment fund" that my grandmother gave me for the wedding, because heaven knows no bank/credit union/financial institution of any kind will give that to us right now. I already have a forbearance on my student loan so we can make ends meet - no way can we afford another monthly payment right now. And we refuse to touch the "house downpayment fund" - and he's more adamant about that than I am. We just have to have faith that Ophelia will last until we can pay off some more of our debt.
All byyyyy myyyseeeeelllllffff, don't wanna be...
I feel so loved. Jona's on a business trip, Nelson and Gary are having lunch with some of their students, and none of the rest of my Friday lunch group is around. I'm on my own for lunch today, which hasn't happened in many a Friday. Bummer.
The upside is that I get to have whatever I want and not have to compromise. I wonder if Maharaja does takeout - I could totally go for some Chicken Tikka Masala and nan right now. We haven't gone there in so long - Gary declared a moratorium on it after we went several times in a short period of time (probably my fault, LOL - I can't get enough of the chicken tikka masala!).
UPDATE!!! They do takeout! I just placed my order for chicken tikka masala and nan. Mmmmmm! :9 Can't wait.
UPDATE TWO!!! Okay, so this is my fault, but I still have to bitch. I placed this order thinking that they had a lunch take out menu. They don't. I just paid $15 for what would have been $5.95 on the buffet. It's sooooooo good though.
Breakfast
I'm not a breakfast food person. Sure, I like waffles and pancakes and bacon and an occasional egg, I LOVE breakfast cereal, but I don't crave these things often. And I can only eat them when I'm craving them. If I even smell eggs cooking when I'm not craving them, there's a possibility that nausea will ensue. Cereal and milk is a snack - too many carbs and not enough protein - I'm hungry again in an hour. I could down an entire box of Pebbles in one sitting (Cocoa or Fruity, it doesn't matter, I love them both - I think it's a texture thing).
I love to eat leftovers for breakfast. If I make meatloaf and mashed potatoes, I'll eat the leftovers for breakfast for the next few days. I had macaroni and cheese this morning. Occasionally we'll stock up on low-fat hot dogs and eat them for breakfast for a while (especially when the Healthy Choice hot dogs are on sale - they're only 2.5 grams of fat each and oh-so-yummy).
Some people think I'm a freak. They hear what I've eaten for breakfast and look at me like I am the proud owner of 50 heads and am wearing each and every one. They've just never "thought outside the (cereal) box" when it comes to breakfast. They've never realized that you don't HAVE to have "breakfast food" for breakfast. To them, sauteeing a pork chop with garlic and oregano at 6:00 AM is sacrilege. Sounds like a yummy breakfast to me!
As it turns out, much to my relief, I'm not alone!
More humor, not at work
The Onion is cracking me up. Beware the meatwave!
Humor at work
At my company, we have a garage-sale-type e-mail bulletin board where people can post things they're either looking to sell or looking to buy. A woman is selling some home-grown morel mushrooms, but apparently can't spell (DISCLAIMER: the link to the morel site is NOT affiliated with the ad at my job). Here's the ad:
***Morals for Sale***
Moral Mushrooms For Sale
$25/lb.
Quantity limited --- more to come soon!
Please email me if you are interested.
Oh. My. God. So many ways to go with this one...
Quote of the random interval
I used to think it was a terrible thing that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'what if life *were* fair, and all of the terrible things that happen to us came because we really deserved them?' Now I take great comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe. ~ Marcus Cole, 'Babylon 5'
Stupidity
I'm in the middle of dealing with a rep from our sister company regarding a new customer. She needed to know if a few potential e-mail addresses were available. They had dots in them, which aren't allowed. The system will accept them, btu they wreak some kind of havoc with accounts, so we've been told to make all logins and e-mail addresses alphanumeric only (in case you can't tell, I work for an ISP). I e-mailed her the following: "(blah blah blah, boring work crap)...we have been instructed that all usernames and e-mail addresses should be alphanumeric only." Okay, fine. Then she writes back "What characters can be used? The customer has a concern with 'Abcde' looking like 'AbCde.'*** Is there any character we could use to separate the letters?" Ummm, no. Didja READ the e-mail?
**Made anonymous to protect the innocent.
80s flashback!
Go tell Yvonne what your favorite NKOTB song is...
You're pregnant, not dead, you freaking cow
We've always known that our apartment manager was a complete flake (not to mention a busybody), but this last Sunday takes the cake!
A friend of ours is looking for a new apartment, and despite the flaky manager we really do love our place. We recommended that he call the manager and set up an appointment to look at an apartment. He called and left her a message Thursday afternoon (she never answers the phone), and she didn't call him back until late Friday night. She couldn't/wouldn't meet with him until Sunday at 11:00 AM. She called him at 9:00 Sunday morning and told him she wasn't able to meet with him, and that she will now only be taking appointments Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. He asked if she could make an exception since he WORKS during the week and currently lives an hour away. She refused to budge and advised him to ask for some time off work if he'd really like to see a unit.
Normally that would be slightly understandable, but there are over 20 vacant apartments (complex has a total of 96 - 16 units in each of 6 buildings) since they did a "housecleaning" a while back (apartments are decently priced and have heat included, so the complex occasionally attracts the less-than-savory). You'd think they'd be pushing hard-core to get new tenants. I asked our friend if she gave him a reason for cancelling on him and only working during the week. Head-explosion time. She's PREGNANT!!! That's it. Not sick, not injured, feeling perfectly fine (I know, because she's been seen powerwalking through the complex since then). Pregnant.
As a result, he is completely disgusted with her behavior and will not be rescheduling his appointment. Of course, they have a policy where if you refer a new tenant you get $100 off your next month's rent. SO not only did she disgust one of our friends, she also cost us $100. I think I might be complaining to the management company. Not too sure how much good it will do though - she's quite "buddy buddy" with the woman that opens the mail there. Shit.
My subconscious has a sense of humor
I dreamt of coworkers this morning. I had a dream that Nelson forwarded me an e-mail Gary had sent him, stating "I'd like to thank whoever forgot to set the alarm." I woke up, looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:00 AM. My alarm goes off at 4:45. I forgot to set the alarm.
The REAL reason people are so against office romance
I put in for May 16th off because I'm standing up in a wedding on the 17th and was going to help with the rehearsal. When I went to submit my request, I saw that the engaged couple in the office is on vacation next week, and one other person is in class. So that means three people are gone from the office that day. But stupid me still put in my request anyway, I let my supervisor know the reason I needed it off and was still denied because "We've already got three people out this day so I've got to decline this request. Sorry!" I can understand that they want to make sure they have enough coverage in case someone calls in sick, but I thought maybe with the special circumstances she'd make an exception. No dice. I should have gone with my first instinct and just waited until the 16th and called in sick. Of course I can't do that now - that would look pretty bad. Shit. I want a job where I can ask for a day off and not have my absence affect anyone. Guess that means I have to get out of the call center, huh?
Cool Story
26-year-old goes back to the prom.
See what happens when you piss off a bunch of smokers?
It seems some NYers are running up a tab at their favorite watering holes, "going out for a smoke" and not coming back.
Did I hear what I think I heard?
If I never hear Macaulay Culkin say these words again, it'll be too soon: "Go get a bikini wax - I like a clean workspace."
WTF?!?!
So far, I've refrained from talking about American Idol, but I cannot let last night's show pass without comment.
WHAT exactly happened last night? I have a couple of theories:
1. It was rigged to get more people to watch/vote next week - every week, the show is #1 and #2 in the ratings, and they say "18 million votes" or "21 million votes," but last week it was #4 and #5 in the ratings and they just said "millions of votes."
2. People voted for Clay and Kimberly to keep them in, thinking that everyone else would vote for Ruben.
3. There are a lot of country music fans voting to keep Josh in because he'd be great as a country singer and they feel that country is more "America's music" than pop.
4. People just think Josh is better than Ruben (?!?!?!?!?!?!)
I just couldn't believe it came out that way - I thought for sure Josh would be out last night, then Trenyce next week. I literally yelled at my TV when Ryan said Ruben was in the bottom two.