new year's resolution

i have finally figured out what i resolve to do in 2008, or more accurately, what i resolve to not do. i will no longer download mp3s in a way that is considered "illegal." i used to download one or two songs from an album, with the intent to purchase the album if the songs were decent. then i got really cheap, and bit torrent software made it way too easy to download entire albums. andy gave me grief about "stealing," and i kept reading how people were getting busted, so i stopped. i guess the bit torrent thing had become a habit more than anything else. so far i'm on the right track, having purchased a cd and having received an itunes gift card. usually amazon has used cds for cheap so i'm going that route if i can't justify spending $14. hopefully i will not fall off the wagon. words of encouragement may be needed.

junk mail

for some bizarre reason i get mailers from lane bryant. you know, the store for "plus size" women. the last time i checked, i wasn't a plus-size. but perhaps size 8 is the new size 14. oh , but wait, recently i did have to buy a size 10 in something (i swear the sizes are shrinking). anyway, the mailers. i really don't want to get these mailers. the company is wasting resources by sending them, and the postmaster or whoever sorts mail probably thinks i'm fat (which totally doesn't matter, but i gotta admit that the thought does cross my mind). i have no idea how i got on the mailing list, as i have never even set foot in that store. i just spent about 10 minutes trying to remove myself from the mailing list - i called a retail store asking them to remove me, but they weren't able to do that so they gave me the customer service phone number (which wasn't toll free, by the way). i tried to find a customer service number on the website, but no luck. i found a few links buried deep within the page about how to remove yourself from the mailing list but that involved logging in to your lane bryant account. no thanks. but just in case i had an online account that i was unaware of, i entered my email address to see if it was in the database. it was not, as i expected. finally i saw a contact form link, and sent them an email saying that i do not wish to receive their mailers. and just for good measure i wrote that i have no idea how i got on the list because i am not fat and neither are any of my friends or family members. and then i found one hundred dollars.

thursdays with the donald...

...are much more enjoyable than tuesdays with morrie.

i reserve thursday night for watching the apprentice. this season it's called "the celebrity apprentice," and instead of vying for a job, the prize has to do with winning a ton of money and donating it to a favorite charity. i like that. despite what you may think, this show is not total crap, although, i wouldn't advise tuning in if you're not already a fan of the show, because this season seems a little bit forced. ha. you like what i just did? i'm calling a reality show fake - such blasphemy - but i still watch it and enjoy it. anyway, i didn't really get into the apprentice shows until martha stewart had her own version, which *was* in fact, total crap. shocking, i know. i'm a huge fan of the donald. i think he and i would get along pretty well, you know, since i'm not an idiot. speaking of idiot, gene simmons managed to get himself fired from the show, which i'm sure will cause the show to lose half of its viewing audience. as for me, i'll be watching until the bitter end. which reminds me - i still haven't watched the finale of kid nation, damn it all...

super-size idol

if you're wondering whether i watched the premiere of american idol last night, you're retarded. of course i watched it. it was actually pretty crappy. i don't really enjoy the first few episodes where they show all the ridiculous people. a lot of people i know *only* watch the first few episodes where ugly talentless people make fools of themselves but i am so sick of....well, ugly and talentless people. and lets go ahead and add "obese" into the mix - perhaps you saw this girl called temptress brown. for real. 16 years old, plays middle linebacker on a football team, looks like hell and sounds like it too. and then she reveals that her mom is ill and she's trying out for the show just for her mom. just when you start to feel sorry for her (mainly because she's so unfortunate looking), the cameras show a shot of her mom. who is 700 pounds. not exaggerating. and temptress isn't too far behind. anyway, randy, paula, & simon feel badly for the girl after her audition, so they give her a group hug and even go out of the audition room to see her mom. now, maybe if her mom had cancer or something then i wouldn't have a problem with their over-the-top sympathy and gentleness, but damn, someone's gotta get real with this woman (and temptress, too). see, that is what i think is wrong with america. the whole enabling thing. i'm not even gonna go into it right now...basically if everyone was mean like me, then all of our problems would magically go away. whee!

the end of a busy weekend

and here begins the last post of my 3-day blog assignment.

met my mom in cartersville at my grandma's house so that she could alter the dress i'm wearing in kristen's wedding. fortunately for her the dress fit pretty well to begin with and nothing drastic needed to be done. but i must say that my mom is a genius with a sewing machine. and she's genius at tons of other stuff too. it's pretty cool having a mom that can do awesome mom stuff, but she kinda screwed me out of learning how to do stuff for myself - when i was a kid she was always cooking, ironing, sewing, gardening, etc. i think i tried sewing once but i was pretty bad. plus, it was always easier for her to sew buttons on and hem my pants so i would always ask her to do it for me. i remember her trying to teach me some baking techniques a few times. i didn't really want to learn so i'd just spill stuff everywhere and act goofy on purpose so that she'd relieve me of my duties. and she did. i think i pulled that crap with doing the laundry as well. so these days i really suck at domestic stuff, but i totally don't care. i've got better things to do than stand around baking casseroles. the cool thing is that andy doesn't seem to mind. poor guy. anyway, i still make my mom hem my pants. but at least i can sew on a button.

oh, i'm not done. i went to kristen's bridal shower luncheon thingy at her parents house at 3pm. and then i went shopping at marshall's for some pants to wear to work, because all the work-appropriate pants i have don't really fit that great and i hate wearing them. plus, they are boring and conservative and i'm really trying to ditch that look. i found some cute pants on the clearance rack (as if i'd shop anywhere else) and i *just* noticed that there is a little embroidered skull and crossbones thingy near the front pocket. pretty rad. and i found a funky skirt on clearance from the "laundry" line by shelli segal so i got that too. i've kinda turned into a brand whore. like, i'll troll through the clearance rack and if its got a "roxy" or "volcom" or similar label then i'm totally game, even if the item isn't that awesome. but yeah, i can get some totally high-quality stuff for cheap. my best pair of ski gloves - patagonia brand - i got at ross in august for 5 bucks. i think those things retailed for $80. aight this is getting boring...

maybe if you're lucky i'll post something before next week. ;-)

saturday

this post about saturday begins where friday's left off - at the stroke of midnight, i was playing ice hockey at the cooler. the game went until about 1:30am and then there was some drinking & grilling. i am very excited about my team this season, mainly because our jerseys are black, which is really kick-ass. i am also pumped because some people told me i have improved about 100% from last season. i also like the fact that there are four girls on the team.

saturday afternoon andy went with me to target to exchange some shoes. immediately we noticed that it was "bring your baby to target day." ugh. there were babies everywhere. babies in carriers, babies in the shopping carts, babies strapped to their parents' chests...you seriously could not escape them. one of them looked at me and i got nervous. anyway, once we got out of baby-fest 2008 we went to tjmaxx. navigating through the parking lot was a complete disaster. we ended up parking on the side of some building waaaay far away, due to the chaos. there was a big q100 banner and then i remembered what the madness was about - q100 was sponsoring free self defense seminars for women all over the metro area as a response to the situation with meredith emerson, the lone north georgia hiker who went missing and was found dead three days later. anyway, i think these seminars are a pretty good idea, because like, even people that have martial arts training don't know what techniques to use when someone is actually trying to hurt them. i mean, a spin-stomp-kick wheel-kick combo might look pretty cool, but you're better off just kicking the guy in the balls.

and of course, i must mention the events of saturday evening - kristen's bachelorette party. met some new people, chatted with some old georgia tech band acquaintances, ate lots of gluten-free food, and talked about girl stuff. i was definitely the drunkest one there, which was the role i had planned on assuming. anyway, it was not your typical penis-themed party, which i was thankful for.

kiss my ass-ignment

i have been given a blog assignment after my pathetic blog entry from yesterday:
"Blog about your weekend, today through Sunday. Three posts about what you did with your days. Even if you're living a boring-ass life."

this isn't so bad on my end, mainly b/c i have quite an eventful weekend. could be bad for the readers, because this could get lengthy...

i'm not gonna mention specifics of friday morning and afternoon at work, but i'll just say that some sh*t hit the proverbial fan. or maybe reverse that, so that it's the proverbial sh*t hitting the fan...heh. i wasn't really involved, but i was quite entertained by the drama. i had lunch with andy and ran into linde bors. many of you may remember her from dalton. we grew up in the same church and her dad is a chiropractor and used to treat my mom, so at least it wasn't a completely awkward meeting. see, sometimes i recognize people from high school in the grocery store or something and i go to great lengths to avoid them because the resulting interaction would be, well, really uncool. i know i'm not the only one who does this.

on tap for later tonite: 1st hockey game of the new season. andy and i have been traded from the bruins to the stars, and our game is at 11:15. as in, 45 minutes from midnight. so with it being almost 8pm i shall settle down for nap...

look what i found on the can of compressed air in my office -



lately i haven't really had anything to blog about. like, i'll go about my day and something amusing/noteworthy will occur, and i'll think to myself that i should mention it here. and then i'll forget. i'll forget that i was going to write in my blog, and i'll also forget what i was going to mention. so when i finally get around to posting, i'm at a complete loss. actually, i guess that in itself is something worth blogging about, so, score.

just a few things

annoyances:

1. the fact that my office's phone number is one digit different from the atlanta housing authority's main line. i mean, think about the kinds of people who might call the aaha. hm. i've also taken it upon myself to give out the *correct* number for the housing authority to confused people. the other day i answered the phone to some lady yelling at me how she faxed in her form but hadn't heard back from anyone. i was entertaining her complaints because, sadly, we often get phone calls from angry people who haven't received responses, but then she started yelling about random stuff not relating to a civil case. i told her she had the wrong number but i guess she thought that was a diversion tactic since she kept ranting. just an annoyance, that's all.

2. people who create problems out of nothing. for example, one of my coworkers told me how she was under a huge amount of stress because she has to find a new nanny for her kids. she said that she was going to fire her current nanny, who the kids adore, because she's had a bad attitude lately. i'm like, well, you could save yourself a lot of stress by, uh, let's see...NOT FIRING HER. hey, at least she doesn't steal from you.

3. wendy's french fries are thinner than they were a while back

4. all the people ahead of me in line at the post office who could totally use the automatic postage machine but don't, because they're old and/or retarded.