Office Pet

I know the weather is getting colder when the flies start to linger inside and chill in office cubicles like it’s no big deal. This little guy looked at me like, “whatchoo lookin’ at” while I took his picture. Um, I’m looking at the fly who thinks he deserves a rolly chair…

Mean Girls

I recently switched to a new office within the company I work for and the social dynamic is entirely different than any location I’ve been in. I noticed the first day that the staff is heavily weighted on the women’s side, which I knew could either go amazingly well or terribly wrong. Thus far, it’s been split down the middle. Some of the women are incredibly friendly – including the bosses, who are the ones that really matter to me. But the ones closer to my age are anything but nice. I honestly feel like I’ve gone back to high school where the new girl deserves to be picked on and put in place among the mean girls.
I tried, and failed, for the first couple weeks to relate to their conversations about reality TV and fashion. Rolled eyes and snickers quickly informed me that these would not be my life-long, work friends.
Now, I react to these women the same way I did in high school: brush it off. Mean girls have never been worth my effort. I’m not looking for “popularity” in the office and if being mean is the way to get attention, I’d rather quietly sit and do my job. But it is rather intriguing how catty women in the 20’s and 30’s can still be. When do women outgrow this phase? Doesn’t there come a point when a woman realizes bringing someone else down won't actually make herself feel better? Apparently, these ones haven’t. Thus, I stay out of their celebrity gossip conversation and stifle my opinions until I leave the building.
This battle simply doesn’t deserve my worry.

CandyAllDay

.I.Love.Candy.

There are days that I only eat candy.
Remember my Favorite/”lovelovelove it” obsessions?
Candy is one of them – depending on the day and depending on the chew. Only certain kinds of “chewy” really do it for me. Dots, sour patch kids… that type of chew that sticks to your teeth. Gummy bears? No. No. No. It’s all about that lock-jaw feeling I get when the chewy goodness is attempting to glue the back of my mouth together. Yum.

Beatnik Techies

My grandparents are incredibly technologically advanced. They had a flat screen TV before anyone else I knew had one and they both have smartphones – Grandma: iPhone & Grandpa: Droid.
(I’m partial to Droids in case anyone is wondering.)
I was chitchatting on the phone with my grandma while she rode her Terra Trike down the country roads around their home.

Gma: “I shouldn’t look at Facebook anymore. Everytime I want to look at Facebook, I’ll have a cigarette.”

Me: “So, you’re gonna take up smoking in your 70’s?”

Gma: “Yeah… but every time I want a cigarette, I’ll go for a bike ride.”

Me: “Well, I’m glad you quit smoking so quickly&easily.”

Painted Pussy

A friend once told me that “the condition of a woman’s nails directly reflects the condition of her pussy.”
i.e. pretty nails = pretty vagina

I avoid painting my nails for as long as humanly possible. Yes, I love having painted nails, but I hate the work that goes into it. I hate even more that they get destroyed so quickly. For someone who sits at a computer in a cushy cubicle all day, my polish looks like I spend all spare-time in construction zones.
Lucky for me: I was blessed with naturally nice nails.
All I really need to do is maintain their length – since they grow like weeds – and they look fine without polish. I must admit, though, that the addition of color&shine puts a little pep in my step and makes me feel a teeny bit sexier. So when I’m really in the mood – or bored out of my mind – it’s worth the effort.

Instant Gratification

I don’t think I could ever work in customer service – mostly because of people like myself. I’m an immediate gratification kind of person, so when something isn’t going well and I have to call customer service, I’m not always in the nicest mood.
I’m a member of a movie club – the Disney Movie Club, to be precise – and, though I’d never ever want to knock the Disney Company, I must admit to having so much trouble with their online service. I swear, every single time I attempt to sign-on I have to re-set my password. That wouldn’t be so annoying if the re-set e-mail didn’t take 24-hours to send. I want to order Halloween movies right now, not tomorrow.
Even more irritating: the “call 1-800-blablabla for quicker service” note on the re-set page.
When I called, the nice, ethnically-diverse cast-member “re-set my password” and informed me that I’d receive an e-mail within 24-hours.
Don’t tell me something will be faster when it won’t be, people. Thus, I got a little snippy with him when he tried to rattle off the current movie deals. If I can’t log-in then I’m not going movie shopping. DUH.
I would hate to deal with myself.

Telephone Giggles

I had a dream about my bunni last night.
It was my birthday. All of our friends were throwing me a party and I really wanted her to be there. So I called her – cause she was in Europe, of course. I begged her to come back for my party and she giggled with satisfaction through the phone about my needy pleas. Then, in the end, she showed up to surprise me with tearful kisses&smiles.
It’s kind of wild how even the subconscious knows that she isn’t here anymore. Obviously I still dream of sitting next to her like normal. But I find myself more&more often dreaming that she isn’t there – for a reason besides having passed on, though.
I like to think she’s just letting me know that she’s still around for me in one way or another.

Breakfast Magic

I truly miss serving breakfast in Disney World. Watching excited guests (ready to conquer the day) wander into the resort food court in search of eggs and MickeyMouse waffles was worth the early morning wake up.
(not that I'd ever complain - I'm definitely a morning person)

But, even while I explained the breakfast options over&over, I smiled, because I sincerely loved my job and felt happy everyday.

Honestly, though, I probably miss breakfast in the bakery more. All I did was stand&relax - make sure the bagels&cupcakes were in order - answer questions for sleepy guests. People in the "Grab&Go" area don't want to be obsessed over... they just want a smiling face, a potentially helpful hand, and -mostly- somethin' to munch on.

I can't wait to go back - both for work&play.

Guilt Trip

Something that drives me crazy: when people make me feel guilty for not “hanging out.” Yeah, I’m kind of an old lady and sometimes I like to go to bed early. But in general – when it's waking hours – I bend over backwards and go out of my way to make sure I spend time with my friends… honestly, whether I want to or not. So, when people make me feel guilty, I just want to say: screw you. I’m not in the mood. You know I will be soon enough. Just let me be. Making me feel guilty just makes me want to try less, cause clearly all the efforts I’ve put forth already haven’t been worth it.
Rar. I just want to snuggle down and watch the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Building Memories

It’s amazing: the memories a building can hold and the power those memories have.

It was about this time 5 years ago that I was itching to leave the college I had just started attending. I didn’t feel like I fit in, the campus didn’t inspire me, and the people in my freshmen dorm were lame&quiet. My grandparents, though, had met, fallen in love, and gotten married at my new university almost 50 years earlier. They weren’t about to let me give up so easily. Thus, we spent one beautiful fall day wandering around our classic (and severely neglected) East Campus. Their memories changed my mind entirely and introduced me to a love still lingering in my spirit.

Magnolia Street

"I knew that I loved you the first time you got into my car."
Magnolia Street - Catie Curtis

"From the moment I met her, I wanted to make her smile. Even when I didn’t know anything about her - besides that she was running for Vice President of our sorority - I thought she was intriguing&enticing. When she became our 2nd in command and my future roommate, the ability to fulfill my desire to make her happy was right at my fingertips.
After move-in, though, I felt a sense of sadness hovering over our unknowingly dark bedroom. At the time, I always thought that it was because we both had "significant-other" issues. We’d lay on our floor for hours listening to our “Chill Out Now” playlist, bitching about the people who’d most recently hurt us. And when our relationship turned into the crazy whirlwind it so quickly became, happiness poured from our beings. Our door may have been removed to prevent “sisters from having sexual relations," but her&I lived in Utopia at the top of the stairs of a 3-story sorority house in the coveted balcony room.
For 11 months the love bubble we floated carelessly in kept us kissing, traveling, and shedding tears whenever we had to separate. The beauty of an unexplainable love affair with no rhyme or reason, just perfection instantaneously burnt into both of our hearts. My parents didn’t get it. Her dad didn’t even know. Our sisters thought we were “ruining the Greek community.” Us? We didn’t care. We partied in the parking lot, pulled our mattresses from our lofts to the lie next to each other on the floor, held hands and wandered through campus in our own little world."
-Excerpt from the book I'll someday finish