I like that I'll remember....

...that while the rest of the world was watching one more horrific, barbaric event in a situation that's been stupidly and sloppily handled, I was laying underneath my sister's Christmas tree with this guy, looking at ornaments and twinkling lights. He doesn't know how much his innocence comforted me.

There still is some goodness in this world.

I don't know what else to say, so I'll end this entry by using quotes from two men who did.

"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." - Robert F. Kennedy

"I have always found that mercy bears far richer fruits than strict justice." - Abraham Lincoln

Karma.

In gleeful defiance of the hospital's rules of "staying on the pedestrian walkways," I decided today to walk across the lawn, since I have to walk to and from the hospital everyday to get our office's mail, which I feel is a big pain in the ass.

I promptly stepped into a big old pile of dog shit.

Somewhere, a Buildings and Grounds Employee was pumping his fist in triumph.

But seriously folks, not picking up after your dog when he craps on a Catholic hospital's lawn? I'll say the rosary for you tonight....you need it.

Nothing makes me feel more disorganized.....

...then losing something. I can’t find my work keys. This is driving me absolutely bat-shit insane. But on the plus side, I have cleaned my desk at work and my desk at home looking for them. I have a sneaky suspicion I might have given them to an attorney that came to audit our files last week. I was too busy being in pre-Christmas Excitement Mode that I didn’t even notice what I was doing at work. I hate it when I get giddy and irresponsible.

In other news, all I did last night was play “Cooking Mama” on my DS.



All you do is make adorable little Japanese recipes! You sauté, you chop, you fold up spring rolls. Then you get graded on how well you do. It all happens so fast, which is what I like, too. I’m not one for epic video games, I’m more of the Short Attention Span School of Gaming. Which is probably why “Cooking Mama” is the greatest thing to come to my handheld gaming device since Super Puzzle Fighter and WarioWare for the Gameboy Advance.

Some other things:

1) I walked to work yesterday so I could use my new iPod Shuffle. Felt like even more of a goober for driving to work most days, since it probably only took me about 15 minutes to get from my front door to my office building. But that's besides the point. I’m enjoying this Shuffle immensely. Word to the wise, though: Joanna Newsom's repertoire is not exactly “brisk walking music.” I should have known, with the harp and all.

2) I have been totally struggling with trying to come up with a cable pattern for the scarf that I need to make for myself to replace this one. I think I might have decided on this pattern, but I’m not sure. I am totally indecisive about such things.

And finally:

3) I was reflecting a bit yesterday.....remember when Weezer was cool? When Rivers & Co. really spoke to you? Remember how great “Pinkerton” was? Now I just think that Rivers is a little whiny bitch that should really get over his high school trauma. Isn’t he like 50 years old or something? For Chrissakes, move on!

The entry in which we re-cap the holidays, and bow down to the awesomeness of current technology.

I hope everyone had a joyful and merry holiday.

I haven’t been able to write much, mostly because I decided to make my pre-holiday preparation that much more difficult by making most of my gifts. I always make my own Christmas cards, but this year I decided to use the skills I learned in the beading class I took this fall and also make necklaces and bracelets for the women I know. Just call me a glutton for punishment.

Production on the cards was delayed a week due to a vicious stomach flu my nephew gave my whole family, that was far worse than any I’ve ever had in my entire life. My sister, her husband and my father all had it at the same time as me. The only two spared were my mother and Steve; my mother because she’s been a preschool teacher since 1984, and has built up a tolerance for freakish flu strains, and Steve because he enjoys my nephew, but doesn’t necessarily ever touch him. Since my mother was busy nursing her husband and grandson, Steve’s mom had to come to my apartment and save me, with a combination of homemade chicken soup and sage words.

Anyhow, we all recovered well before the holidays, which ended up being quite restful. Steve’s family had their party on Christmas Eve, and mine had theirs on Christmas Day, so there wasn’t any running around between the two homes and having to cut any party time short. I got very nice gifts, too, but not too many, which was nice because lately I’ve been trying to de-clutter my life by trying to have less stuff. It seemed like even less because my parents and sister started my Christmas village for me this year, but unfortunately I don’t have any place to put them, so they are headed up to my parents’ attic until I live in a place that would have enough room for me to put them out. It was sort of sad, really, to just take the houses out of their packages and then put them right away again, so I took a photo with one of them just for kicks. Please ignore my super-hot pajamas and bedhead.



The best gift I received, though, was probably my iPod Shuffle. I already have an iPod Mini.

This photo makes me sad, since it makes the Mini look ginormous and totally archaic. I still use the Mini when I’m in the car, though, and there’s really nothing wrong with it that would warrant upgrading to a Nano. I just wanted something that’s small and compact to (hopefully) kick-start me into walking more, and (maybe) working out.

But the best part of the Shuffle is just how damn cute it is. It’s so small! And even though it’s small, it’s still so stylish! I feel like I’m holding the future of technology, and folks, it is beautiful.

Some other things:

1) I honestly wouldn't have even known that Gerald Ford was alive, if I hadn't seen that he died.

2) Since I gave Steve a DS Lite for Christmas, I inherited his older DS, and so far, Cooking Mama has totally enraptured me. So cute! So Japanese! So engaging! Ingenious!

3) Having Christmas Day on a Monday is awesome. Four-day work week (or five, if you're me and took yesterday off to recouperate), and then ANOTHER four-day work week next week! Spectacular!

4) I turn 26 next Tuesday. Where did 25 go? And where are these alleged "carefree twenties" that everyone talks about? I feel jipped.

Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy

My sister was emailing with my cousin's wife, and asked her how her three-year-old son is coping with the the recent news of Greg Page of the Wiggles leaving the band. She replied:

"We're not going to tell Kyle about Greg unless he asks. Oh, and as far as all three of my kids know, Steve Irwin is alive and well, and everyone is happy in Australia."

Made me wish I was a kid again.

Gah!

Whoa - I just read this news story, and it made me remember a recurring dream that I've had, that involves having to try and save myself from rogue killer whales at SeaWorld.

Have I ever been to SeaWorld? Nope.

Is my fear of Large Mammals That Swim totally unfounded? Probably.

But this article still made me want to pee my pants.

Thanksgiving Re-cap.

It’s disgusting and rainy outside. Apparently our 60-degree weather is going to be leaving us after this rain, and is being replaced with snow and sleet. It’s sad to see this strangely nice weather leave, but I’m sort of excited about this, because I think it will make me feel more in the holiday spirit.

Speaking of holidays, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I was watching my boss’ dog from Wednesday to Sunday:



Don’t let that sweet little face fool you. This little lady is 5 ½ pounds of utter insanity. She’s adorable while she’s doing it, but she commands your attention. Puppies are an awful lot of work. As a result of this experience, I have concluded that I:

1) Am incredibly lucky to have Moj, who I got in July when he'd just turned 3, and thankfully had been taught proper Poo/Pee Etiquette by his former owner; and,

2) I should probably only consider getting adult dogs in the future, because I’m a softie (read: “wimp”) when it comes to disciplining puppies.

Every time the little girl would start to whimper in her cage or behind the baby gate in the kitchen, I’d eventually give in and let her out. She caught on that I was a softie pretty quick, and proceeded to spend the rest of the weekend walking all over me (figuratively and literally).

As long as we’re talking about dogs, I dropped Mojo off at the vet this morning to get neutered. Between my emotions at leaving my little guy there, and getting an estimate of about $375 dollars minimum for the procedure (!!!), I was a bit of a wreck when I left. Word on the street, though (“street” being the "vet") is that he’s doing great, walking around and such, and I can go pick him up as soon as his temperature is back to normal. Hooray! Hopefully this procedure will cure his incessant need to mark everything outside and inside my apartment, and the next time he goes to my parents’ house he won’t make sweetsweetlove to my parents’ dog.

I feel like I have 1,000,000 things to do, and no time to do them. This happens to me every December. I don’t think there’s one weekend this coming month where I don’t have something going on. Plus, I’m not sleeping well. Last night I was so exhausted that I snoozed during “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which I’d been waiting ALL YEAR TO SEE. I think the sweet sounds of the Vince Guaraldi Trio lulled me right to sleep. And though I could just buy the DVD, or probably even watch the whole thing on YouTube, I sort of enjoy watching it on primetime television, because you get to see all the holiday commercials.

Last but certainly not least, how can I get a job like this guy’s? Or, more realistically, where can I land a sweet job making a pile of money so I could afford to buy one of his houses?

Sigh.

cute story, cool things, and melakalikimaka

Cute story: just now on my way back up to my office's floor, an older woman asked me what floor I was going to. I told her two, and she looked downtrodden. Then she said, "I'm going up to three, but I got trapped on this elevator once and I'm afraid to go by myself." Knowing that the third floor is home to our hospital's outpatient psych unit, which gets visits from a lot of lost souls who are good people but just have some trouble gettin' on in the world, I figured she was probably legitimately freaked out. So! We rode up to the third floor together, then I went back down to two, and that's why I'm a little late from lunch. Best reason ever!

The week of a holiday is so great around an office. The lack of work ethic in pretty much everyone practically matches the lack of work ethic I exhibit every day. I love that.

I’m taking off tomorrow because I’m watching my boss’ little Yorkshire Terrier for the weekend. I think Lucy’s about 6 months old, and I can’t even tell you what she really looks like because she really doesn’t stop long enough for me to get a good look at her. She desperately wants to be friends with Mojo, but unfortunately Moj isn’t too hip to the doggie-friend scene, and especially not with a three-pound poof ball of utter insanity. Needless to say, this weekend might be sort of exhausting.

And now, without further ado, my Cool and Un-Cool List for this week.

Cool things:
1. Online Christmas shopping. This is the third year in a row where the majority of my Christmas shopping has been done on the computer. This is fantastic for me because I absolutely hate shopping when there are a lot of people around. Which is pretty much unavoidable this time of year. Also, I need a lot of thinking time to brainstorm what I want to get people, because I’m very obsessive/compulsive about gift giving. So I would rather do that in pajama pants at my apartment rather than in a mall, where the smell of Auntie Anne Pretzels combine with that general Nameless Preppy Cologne Stink from Abercrombie and Fitch and undoubtedly make me feel nauseous.

2. My nephew’s first turkey handprint, which I got with a card in the mail yesterday!


3. Mojo’s new collar bling. It's hard to tell in this shot, but it's blue and orange, colors that do double-duty representing the Bears and my alma mater. The M not only stands for "Mojo," but also for "Menace," and "Maniacal Eater of Cat Poo."


4. Heroes! It's the only show lately that I've been able to get into, aside from watching "Scrubs" reruns and anything PBS might have on (History Detectives! Secrets of the Dead! Antiques Road Show!). I've been able to catch all of "Heroes" because NBC.com streams whole episodes online, so you can catch any you missed after the show airs on Monday night. Which I love, because of the occasions where I'm out somewhere and not at home on Monday, which happens more than I care to admit. Anyways.....woo! Hooray for Heroes! Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!

5. The Nintendo Wii! Forget all that PS3 B.S., the Wii is The System of the Future. The "Wiimote" is magical, the sports games that come with it are rad (BOXING! AND BOWLING!), too, and even though Link in The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess looks close-up like he’s wearing a very meticulously-applied mix of eyeshadows, it’s still an amazing game.

Un-Cool Things:
1. Another flippin' flat tire on my Jeep. I JUST HAD ONE about three weeks ago. Luckily last time it turned out the valve cap was just old and leaking air, and once it was replaced, all was well, and it only cost about fifty bucks. What are the odds that I could get that lucky again? Slim to none, I'd say?

2. This station starting their 24-hours-a-day Christmas music format THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. It’s not even December yet, and I’m already hating Bing Crosby’s “Melikalikimaka!” I usually don’t start to hate it until at least mid-December. Those bastards!

3. The gray shirt of mine that just mysteriously disappeared while I was doing laundry Sunday afternoon. It wouldn’t have bothered me so much if I hadn’t made quite the cute ensemble with that shirt just the night before. I hate losing things. The only good that comes out of losing things is that I usually whip around the house, cleaning up everything while I try to look for the missing item. I would like to say that frustration over losing something isn’t the only thing that compels me to clean, but alas, if I did, I would be lying to you and myself.

Well kids, have a great Thanksgiving! May you wear comfy pants that will stretch out, and eat more than you need to! Steve and I have to rush about between his family and mine, and then get home to the puppy, so it won’t be the most relaxing holiday this year, but whatever. We get two free dinners out of it!

almost deleted.

So after posting my first post yesterday afternoon, I totally freaked out and decided that starting up a blog was a really bad idea. Here were my reasons:

1. I’m pretty sure that I may think way, way too much than what’s good for me. And half the time the stuff that I’m thinking about is so boring that I myself get bored, I can’t imagine what it’s doing to you fine folks out there on the Internet. Or it’s Emily-Specific, and for those of you who aren’t Emily, you’d be all like, “Wha?”

2. Every time I sit down to write anything, whether it’s on a computer or on paper, every hint of an idea I might have had goes directly out the window. Which I was afraid would lead to a lot nonsensical jabbering as I tried to remember what the hell I really wanted to write about.

3. I am on my period, and I am completely and totally irrational. If you don’t think that’s a viable reason, send me an email and I’ll put you in contact with my boyfriend Steve, and he can tell you how his evening went last night, around the time I was deciding to delete this blog, and you will then most likely shut up.

But then I spent a good chunk of my workday today not doing what I should, and read my daily reads, many of whom I’ve been reading since I got a computer sophomore year of college (2000) and needed something to do other than work on schoolwork that actually needed to be done. That’s pretty much what college was for me, by the way – honing my fine art of Misguided Priority Management.

Well, when I was reading these daily reads I realized that I do love reading about other peoples’ lives, because it’s nice to know that there are people out there who are going through the same hills and valleys that day-to-day life throws at us. It makes me realize that I’m not just a Crazy who sometimes screams things to herself like “OH MY GOD, IF I HAVE TO WASH ONE MORE F’ING DISH OR CLEAN THE BATHROOM ONE MORE F’ING TIME, I SWEAR TO GOD I’M GOING TO LOSE IT.” We’re all dealing with stuff like this, I like to think, and for many people one way to deal with it is to make something interesting out of these activities, like posting a blog about That Particular Time The Dishes Were Washed (although I promise to keep my Dishwashing Posts to a minimum). That, then, makes the times when something actually awesome happens that much more awesome, you know?

Today though, there is not much that is very exciting going on. I am counting down the minutes until this work week is over, and then I’m going to relax most of the weekend, aside from 2 parties on Saturday night, and the Bears game on Sunday morning. Oh, and having to take my dog to the vet to begin the hopefully short and sweet process leading up to Snipping Off His Balls. For effect, I should probably add an adorable photo of him here, so I will.



Lately he’s been Struttin’ His Stuff, and acting like Mr. Cool, Suave and Confident, mixed with a little Mr. Ferocious if you get on his nerves. Being that he’s a 10 pound Dachshund, it’s hard to not laugh at all this, and instead try to focus on the fact that perhaps he’s turning into a bit of a Pain in the Ass. I’m not entirely sure why the owner that he came from didn’t take care of this problem long ago, because he’s already 3. I don't know about you, but I watched my Humane Society commercials as a kid and knew to turn your pets into Its when they were relatively young, but To Each Their Own, I guess. Maybe she enjoyed the sight of his wee little nuts when he rolled over on his back. I didn’t know her personally, so that’s a question that will, sadly, go forever unanswered.

Have a good weekend, any of you reading this, and we will catch up soon, eh?

first post! first post!

because i've decided that i do enjoy blogging, and that myspace just isn't the place for me, i've decided to start a blog. again. we'll see how it goes.