Round-up!

I haven't done this in a while - here's what I'm up to.

Listening - Just bought the newest Okkervil River cd on a whim after seeing in on someone's list of the best of 2007. I'm really loving it - it's a lot more upbeat than I was expecting and doesn't make you want to stick your head in the oven as much as Black Sheep Boy.

Reading - After a two year hiatus I picked up Spook again. I had gotten completely bogged down in the discussion of measuring and detecting souls so I ended up skipping to the end of that section and starting with the chapter on ectoplasm. Much more enjoyable this time around. I'm also working on Bridge of Sighs but it's pretty slow going now. I just haven't had a whole lot of time for reading lately.

Watching - I can't remember who recommended Cache to me but they must have only watched the first half of the movie. (spoiler ahead!) The concept is really intriguing and there is a perfectly creepy amount of suspense, especially when you're not sure if you're watching real-time action or a videotape. The end of the movie is a huge let-down, all the drama is created by a man with a 40 year old grudge against a six year old. Seriously? So disappointing.

Waiting

I've had a case of Severe Crankypants lately and it's been like a case of high school senioritis with a heaping dose of apathy. I can't yet start making plans for grad school because I have another month before I hear back from schools. It's also hard to be enthusiastic about work when I know I won't be seeing any of my current projects to completion. I'm really ready to have a new direction to focus my energy - nervous energy with no outlet equals crankypants.

Changing the topic to good things! After a two month break from running I finally got new shoes and got back on the treadmill. Thank goodness for the fantastic people at Fleet Feet - it took me about a month and four returns to get the right pair of shoes and they never rolled their eyes (at least to my face). It was really encouraging to be able to pick up where I left off without losing much in the way of endurance. Good to know the hours spent on the elliptical reading Us Weekely weren't wasted. Also, can we talk about how much I love Body Pump? It's enough to get me to a 6:30 am class. Please try not to fall out of your chair in shock. I got your gun show right here, baby.

Cringe

I've become friends with a group of women who meet once a month to hang out and drink wine (seriously the best kind of friends). There is usually a theme, where the host picks the type of wine that people bring, and the host provides snacky foods. This past month the woman hosting it decided to have a Cringe night and we all brought old journals and notes from middle and high school. I have not laughed that hard in the longest time. It's always so nice to be reminded that you were not the only neurotic high school freshman. I read parts of the letter to a boy that I referenced in my very first blog post - there were some parts where I couldn't read I was laughing so hard at my heartfelt agony.

Christmas Gifts, Reviewed

Electric mattress pad - wow. I cannot adequately describe my love for this. I turn it on high while I brush my teeth and it is nice and toasty when I get into bed, eliminating the need for multiple pairs of socks, fleece pants, and bulky sweaters. I told my officemate how much I loved it and she said it sounded like "pigs in a blanket." Exactly.

Envirosax. I have the flora set and I bought my sister the amazonia set. While the website describes the environmental and waste-reducing benefits of bringing your own shopping bags to the grocery it fails to mention one of the main reasons these bags are so great - feelings of smugness and vast superiority over people using plastic bags at the grocery.

Garth Pig and the Ice Cream Lady. I loved this book growing up but we never owned it. I put it on my amazon wish list just to remind myself that I would like to have it someday but mom went ahead and got it for me this Christmas. It is as wonderful as I remember it. I have been known to whimper "Don't want a Whoosh" to myself when I don't get my way.

Oh, hi!

So I have this blog...What can I say - things have been pretty busy since I last posted. From Thanksgiving through the first week of January I took 15 flights through 7 different airports (that's 23 total airport visits for those of you counting), including the always exciting Evansville Regional Airport. Anyway, I am here for the foreseeable future so posting should maybe be somewhat regular (note use of qualifiers). How about a story?

My house has a wooded area behind it that is large enough to attract the occasional deer but not so large that it filters the noise from the neighbors' 4-wheeler course. I generally dump my yard waste (failed potted plants, weeds, etc) at the edge and usually drag my Christmas tree a bit deeper in. Earlier this week I was getting ready for work and saw a woman in my backyard hauling my tree out of the woods. I moved to the kitchen window and looked for some type of municipal vehicle (maybe yard waste collectors were really going the extra mile?) but just saw another woman standing beside a pickup truck with a trailer labeled with the name of a landscaping/gardening business (that I had never heard of).

The first woman drags the tree around the house and the two of them toss it into the already full (with other Christmas trees) truck bed. Then she climbs into the bed to pack the tree down and ends up laying down on the pile of trees like she is going to take a nap. Woman number two stands beside the truck and they have a full conversation while woman number one continues to lie in the bed. Um, what? First off, my tree was not visible from the road. They must have been doing some serious scouting to find it and the other trees they had collected. Second, why do they need it? I'm guessing maybe for pine needles but I can't imagine they would be so expensive that it would be cheaper for two people to spend a morning searching backyards for used Christmas trees.

I kind of wanted to go out and accuse them of stealing my tree, but thought better of it when I remembered my own leaf stealing experiences. Growing up, my family had a garden and compost pile and the trees in our neighborhood didn't produce enough leaves to keep them covered/fed in the winter. Mom would drive the van through nearby neighborhoods on yard waste pick up days and we would haul bags of leaves into the back of the van. As a teenager this was incredibly embarrassing - what if I see someone I know! We're stealing people's leaves! I'm sure we only did this once or twice but I still remember being absolutely mortified.

By Popular Request

My friend Ben left a comment on an earlier post asking me to talk about a series of commercials that have been running in the Raleigh area. I'm not going to look it up, but he said they are produced by the same people who do the Geico ads so it's a pretty big deal for a local dealership. They're all great but here are some of the best:

And the sexist badger:


Finally, here's a commercial that will probably haunt me until my dying day. This came on last year at a friend's Super Bowl party and we must have watched it five or six times, repeating it every time someone new walked into the room. I saw it just last week and was reminded of how much it grosses me out. Those last five seconds are just indescribably creepy.

Stress and Blood

I've completed two of four grad school applications.* Everything came together pretty well except for my UNC transcript. I had ordered it express delivered to my house so I could scan it and upload it to my applications, and I started to get really stressed out (rapid heartbeat, inability to sleep, constantly clenched jaws) when applications were due in less than 18 hours and it hadn't shown up. I got the idea to look around the back of the house in case the FedEx guy had dropped off the envelope there - it wasn't there but I did find it completely hidden under the doormat, where it'd been for the past week. Way to go FedEx! Maybe next time you could just prop that envelope against the door or leave a corner peeking out from under the mat? Just a suggestion.

(Insert transition)

Last night I stabbed myself in the hand while working on a Christmas present. I'm talking "blood all over the kitchen floor and a makeshift bandage involving half a roll of scotch tape" stabbed myself. While it's no wooden pickle, the recipient better love and cherish this gift in an amount commensurate with my suffering.

*There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth if I have to do additional applications in the spring. This Christmas I just want Santa to put in a good word with admission committees.