Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Let him out of the damn closet!

I have never understood how R Kelly ever got popular. I think he's horrible. And THIS just underscores why. Did people honestly enjoy this? Do people actually like this song!?! It's atrocious! I was literally feeling sick to my stomach just watching this performance. How is this man a multi-millionaire singer? I mean, where is the creativity in this song? Where is the SONG in this song?? I can't fathom how people can listen to this on the radio - I had enough problems with it when there was visual AND oral stimuli. I wanted to shut it off, but I thought maybe (just maybe!) there would be some sort of redeeming quality to it that came in at the very end.

Oh but I was wrong.

So very wrong.

If you plan on clicking that link, don't say I didn't warn you.

In a pickle...

I passed a man on the way to lunch carrying what looked to be a bowl filled with pickles. Now I love pickles just as much as the next guy - perhaps a bit more, in fact - but I can't see myself getting a bowlful of them just to snack on. And these weren't the little round ones you get on your McDonalds hamburger, either. These were the large, freshly-cut pickles - a quarter wedge of a full-size pickle. I think he had about eight of them in his bowl - that's two whole pickles!

Ok... I'm going to stop writing about pickles now, the word is starting to sound weird in my head.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Isn't that Curious George?

I love the title of this article.

File this under: Awkward

So a couple of minutes ago, I had to take a quick jaunt to the lav. As I approach the door, a woman I work with (let's call her Jill) is walking in right ahead of me. Now this was a problem for two reasons:

1. I hate walking into the bathroom at the same time as someone else because that means I can put a face with the gross noises I'm inevitably going to hear especially if it's only the two of us. Furthermore, I get a shy bladder (or other things) when I know the other person knows its me in the stall - I've even left the bathroom without even going at all. It's especially bad if I know the person personally. But as long as I don't see the other person, I really couldn't care less.

2. I hate talking in the bathroom. But seeing as I work rather closely with Jill she starts talking to me about a project we're working on and asking whether things were going ok. I answered quickly in the affirmative and then headed into my personal potty space.

Now it could have ended there, but then this is where it got really awkward. Jill continues talking about the project! WHILE SHE'S PEEING!!! IN THE STALL RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!! Auuuggghh! It was horrible! I honestly could not have been more uncomfortable. I don't think I even responded to her when she asked me a question, I think just sort of said an unintelligible "huh" and left it at that. Then I waited a little while longer than necessary just so she would leave the bathroom before I left my stall.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this was weird and distressing.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Black Thumb

I don't think I'm ever going to have a garden at my house. I have no luck with plants whatsoever. Currently in my cube I have one of those large leafy green plants that thrive on artificial light and little to no attention. Ostensibly I should be able to water it once a week and just let it thrive. Yeah, not so much. The damn thing loses leaves every day. Invariably, I come in in the morning and have to pull off two or three yellow leaves. On the other hand, it definitely hasn't stopped growing. Over the course of a week, I can watch the development of a tiny bud into a full- grown, brand-new leaf at the end of one of the plant's many vines. I don't get it. I think I'll just maintain a garden like my mother's - more cute garden gnomes and other such knick-knacks than flowers. I'm fine with that.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Afternoon Delight

Today really could not have been a more perfect late summer day. I spent last night at the BFs and I woke him up this morning around 930ish. He wasn't too happy about the relatively early hour, but he got to sleep in a few mornings this week so I didn't allow him to be too cranky. We walked down the street to have breakfast at this diner located right on the beach. We got a table right next to a window facing the water, so it was a beautiful way to start our day. After we finished eating our omelettes, we went to Beardsley Zoo. Compared to the more famous zoos in the area (like the Bronx Zoo or isn't there a zoo in D.C.?) the Beardsley Zoo isn't really that great. It's in the middle of a park in Bridgeport. It's pretty small with a limited number of animals. I felt bad for the wolves; their enclosures were all smaller than my backyard. But I wanted to go for one reason - well, three reasons - tiger cubs!!
There is a billboard next to the highway advertising the newborn cubs who were born in April and the picture they have displayed is just painfully adorable. So I decided yesterday that since we had the time today, I was going to drag the BF to see them. He did his best to play the tough guy and complain about it, but I could tell he was excited. The tiger cage was one of the first large exhibits in the park and I literally skipped toward it like a little girl when I saw it. The cubs were bigger than I expected, but then again, they are four months old and I remember how fast my kitten grew when we first got her, so I shouldn't have been too surprised. We did get pretty lucky, though. There was a sign warning visitors that the tiger and her three cubs are sometimes kept inside to rest so they may not be visible, but they were out and about today and the cubs were very frisky! They kept pouncing on one another and wrestling and bothering their mother - it was so cute! We stood at the cage for quite a while and the BF was enjoying watching them just as much as I was.
The rest of the zoo was very nice and it really was the perfect day to walk around. We took our time, watched a zoo volunteer feed some otters, watched another guy feed fetal mice to a garter snake and salads topped with squirmy grubs to the turtles. All in all I had a very relaxing and interesting time. I love stuff like that.
After the zoo, we had lunch at a great restaurant near the BFs house. Again, we got a table facing the water and the view was gorgeous. We were both a little beat from walking around so much, so we went back to his house afterward and took it easy before he had to go to work.
I saw a great friend this evening after I got home and we had some time to catch up - so that wrapped up my day very nicely.
I really can't think of anything I love better than a day complete with interesting adventure, good friends, beautiful weather and being with the one you love. Tomorrow should be just as wonderful.

Friday, August 26, 2005

A new beginning

This is my second attempt at blog writing. I didn't really get into it the first time and wrote only a couple mediocre posts at irregular intervals. I guess I just didn't really believe that I had that much to say, or that what I did have to say wasn't that interesting to the outside reader. But now, I feel like my life is headed into a relatively new direction and now maybe (just maybe!) I'll be interesting enough to share my life with you. Well, at least I'll find myself interesting enough to share with you! :) So here goes nothing.

The most exciting news in my life right now is that I've finally made some concrete steps toward buying myself a condo. I went to a first-time home buyers' seminar a month or two ago and got some really great information, but didn't really do anything with it because, quite honestly, I was scared shitless. Buying property of any kind is a really giant decision with some pretty scary consequences if you screw it up. I didn't know if I'd be able to handle the financial aspect of it, and frankly part of me just wanted to stay as far away from being a grown-up as I could. However, in the past month or so I've been leaning more toward finally just jumping into it mostly because I just cannot handle sleeping at home anymore. I'm pretty lucky because I don't really mind living with my parents at all. They're relatively laid-back people and let me come and go as I please. They are even fine with letting the BF stay over whenever he wants. However, I have three younger sisters, one of whom has an eighteen-month old daughter. My niece is a total doll and I love her to death, but she has a problem with sleeping through the night - she doesn't. More often times than not, she's up at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning screaming. I realize that that's just part of being a baby, but because she's not actually my baby and I have to get up early in the morning for work, it's a pretty big pain in the ass. I decided that I finally just needed to get my own space. Because I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country, though, I figured renting would just be a big, fat, nasty waste of money so why not just go ahead and buy? So tada! That's what I'm doing. I'll most likely end up in a small one bedroom condo in a slightly-lower-than-average neighborhood, but hey, you gotta start somewhere right?

On a totally unrelated note, something really interesting happened to me a couple weeks ago and I wanted to post it here, mostly so I would never forget it. I was walking down the hallway at work kind of staring at the floor in front of me, minding my own business when I glanced up and made eye contact with a guy walking toward me on the other side of the hall. I did what you normally do in that situation and said a quick, awkward hi then just as quickly averted my eyes and kept on walking. Now here's where the interesting part comes in... this guy responded with a "hi" but cut himself off with "wow." Now, there was no one around us and there was nothing to "wow" about in the beige, empty hallway so I assume he was wow-ing at me. After he walked past me, I glanced back but he seemed to be beating a hasty retreat around the corner. If he was wow-ing at me (and I say "if" because he really could have been amazed by the cube walls he was nearing) that's a pretty awesome thing, is it not? It was the first and only time I elicited that kind of response out of anyone beside the BF - and he's sort of required to do that. :)