on this day in 1982

anne's birthday. also known as:

• international anne day - courtesy of blake hennon

• national anne day of sweetness (or NADS) - from matt weeks

as of right now i have gotten 24 birthday wall posts on facebook. the mix of people who wish me a happy birthday is a little weird. some of these people probably couldn't even pinpoint the month of my birthday, but whatever, i appreciate the sentiment. i do.

the collection of people who posted on my wall includes 3 distinct sub-groups:

1. people i know really well: boyfriend, mother, aunt, cousin. these people no doubt felt obligated to post, even though they sent me a card and/or called me, or even saw me that day. so, that's fine.

2. people who i'd definitely consider my friends, but with whom i don't communicate regularly: these people probably saw that a mutual friend (most likely in this same group) sent me a message and they wanted to do the same. unlike members of group 1, these people did not post out of obligation. i'd like to think that people in this group genuinely wanted to wish me a happy birthday. that's pretty awesome.

3. a few random outliers: some creepy guy i met at a party, someone i wasn't really ever friends with in high school but for some reason is my "friend," my boyfriend's coworker, etc.

as for the people that didn't wish me a happy birthday on facebook: you guys are probably the coolest, because you're not addicted to facebook.

dvr is my bff

a bunch of people who know me have been wondering what i'm gonna watch now that a lot of my favorite reality series have wrapped. actually, they probably weren't wondering so much as bringing to my attention the fact that the "good" reality shows are over. smug bastards can suck it, because i've found a ton of crap to watch:

• so you think you can dance - i think i've said this before, maybe even on this very blog, but i like this show more than idol. reason: i can sing. pretty well, actually, so i don't go completely ape shit over talented vocalists. dancing is a different story. me not so good, so i really like watching it. the contestants on this show are freaks of nature, in a good way.

• the bachelorette - i can't *not* watch this show. this season's girl, jillian, is a cast-off from the previous season of the bachelor. she's petite, tan, successful...surprise.
  

• the fashion show - project runway's replacement. instead of "you're out," it's "we're just not buying it." hilarious. i miss tim gunn.

• real housewives of new jersey - italian. botox. bubbies. not sure about that last one? check it out on hulu

• john & kate + 8 - i've been aware of this show for quite some time since i watch a bunch of stuff on tlc, but i never tuned in because i don't really like watching shows about parents with babies. i probably caught 5 minutes here and there, most of it was kate barking at john, being a total bitch. no wonder this guy went elsewhere looking for affection. anyway, after all the drama surrounding john & kate's relationship, i *had* to watch. i love train wrecks.
  

• paris hilton's my new bff - so i wonder what happened to her old bff, brittany? new season starts june 2 (andy, please don't dump me for watching this).

• hitched or ditched - new show on the cw. this is on the dvr. haven't watched yet.

CS 2130: languages & translation

it's been four years since i graduated from tech. which means it's almost been long enough for me to forget the bullshit i had to put up with. almost, but not quite. tonite i was digging through some old saved aol im conversations and was quickly reminded of said bullshit:

---------------------------------------------------------
GTSkyFlyer: Anne if you calculated your average right now what would it be?
Lenina Crowne: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm not good. like 30?
GTSkyFlyer: without the projects then? which you did well on prj1
Lenina Crowne: no not that low. actually the damned thing didnt splint totally and the hashtable was off
Lenina Crowne: i got some stupid pslint errors'
GTSkyFlyer: but they've been fixed since then?
Lenina Crowne: well not the splint errors, i actually forgot about those until i just mentioned them
Lenina Crowne: somethign about not checking return values of ungetc and fclose?
GTSkyFlyer: ok those are easy to fix.
GTSkyFlyer: anyways with the final and the prjects grades
Lenina Crowne: i am kinda nervous, i totally deserve to pass
GTSkyFlyer: that will put you over the 40 % mark
GTSkyFlyer: and honestly a 40 is all you will need to get a C
Lenina Crowne: mmmm C
--------------------------------------

btw i did pass that class. i got a C. that was after getting an F the semester before. good times. what the hell is splint? ungetc? fclose? hooray for knowledge!

just a regular day at the office

today our office building management company put on a tenant appreciation luau. it was ridiculous. you should have seen all the *real* professionals who work in the building - they came down for the food and immediately went back up to their offices. these kind of things are always really weird but this was pretty good. good job 5th street management.

the dancers drew a large crowd

i sucked pretty bad at this.

was even worse at hula hoop contest

(the guy back there on the robo-wave stayed on for like 5 minutes, it was insane)

mother's day fail

this past weekend i went to dalton to spend the weekend with mary ellen since sunday was, duh, mother's day. i'm not a huge fan of giving people tangible gifts so i thought it would be nice to clean out her car & have it detailed. as in, major interior de-scumming. sounds easy enough, but i wanted to do this on the sly so it'd be a huge surprise. fortunately she was busy with dance recitals all day on saturday so i knew i'd have access to the car. i rolled into dalton around 4:00, found her spare key, dug through her email and found out where the recital was (the wink theater) and when it started (4:00). i figured the thing would last about an hour and a half, which would give me plenty of time to get it cleaned & have it back in the lot. i knew that bad things could happen if i didn't make it back before the show ended, but that was a risk i was willing to take. because who wouldn't *love* the inside of their car being spotless?! if i didn't make it back in time, i was praying she'd check her voice mail before noticing her car was missing, as i left her a message saying that i was driving her car. hoping she'd check the voice mail and not go into a panic thinking someone jacked her car. oh, and really, really hoping that she wouldn't call the cops.

i could make this a really long narrative about how almost everything that could go wrong actually went wrong, but i won't. i'll just list the highlights, and hopefully you'll get the idea.

• found her car, parked mine across street. ran across street, drove her car & parked next to mine. drove my car with the intent to park in her empty space (i even had a giant note on the dash that said "mary ellen: i have your car. call me!") but somebody scored it first. parking my car in that same spot was probably the most crucial part of the plan, and since i couldn't pull that off, i probably should have abandoned plan right then.
  
• no way would anyone be able to clean inside her car unless i took everything out first. so i frantically removed every blasted thing out of that car & put it in my trunk. took way too long. i was cursing & working up quite a sweat. people started to notice. they probably thought i was stealing her... oh wait, i *was* stealing.
  
• started cruising around for a car detailing place. in atlanta there are two on every corner. in dalton, not so much. and it was saturday. apparently these types of businesses aren't open on saturday, or if they are, they close before 4:00. again, probably should have bailed out and returned the car at this point.
• noticed my cell phone battery very low.
  
• after driving around for much too long i stopped at a car audio place to ask if they knew of a detail shop that would be open. a most helpful girl told me "julians" downtown. oh good, i'm not screwed, and fortunately it's down the street from the theater.
  
• julian's was closed. at this point i tried to return the car. *tried.* but the streets were blocked off for some hot rod parade thing.
  
• starting to panic because cell phone battery dangerously low.
  
• drove her car back to her house. planned to get down and dirty and clean it myself. couldn't find an extension cord for the vacuum. grabbed some clean-up wipe things and went to the self-service car care place.
  
• whilst vacuuming mats, it started raining. now i was wet, on top of being dirty, smelly, and extremely frustrated.
• thankfully my cell phone still on. but oops, i missed a call from mary ellen. couldn't hear it ring over the vacuum.
  
• called her back. "yes i have your car, no i haven't been kidnapped. see you at home."

the good news is that she was laughing at me when i got home rather than being totally pissed. i can't decide if the worst part was that i had to spoil the surprise or that i had to admit that my plan was completely bush league.