Just Some Stuff to Say Real Quick

I've been sitting here at my computer since quarter 'til 5am doing a hodge podge of Internetty things (browsing, social mediaing, paying bills, etc.) and am finally tired enough I might just fall asleep at the computer! Hopefully I make it to a comfy location before my body decides to shut down.

Anyway, today is 10/10/10 and I felt it was only appropriate to point that out (because no one else will today)! It's a busy day for a lot of people. Emily, Andy, and Tim are running in the Chicago Marathon today; Amanda is patiently "watching" the race. Today would have been my dad's 56th birthday. There are a whole horde of parties happening today for a variety of reasons. That's just to name a few things that are going on this fine October day.

I myself will be going to a party, blogging, shopping, writing out Thank You cards, addressing invitations to Eva's shower, and hopefully getting together with a friend for dinner who surprised me by coming home for my shower before she has to head back!

With that said, I'm off to hopefully catch at least an hour of sleep. I hope to blog later over at Baby-Blog about the amazing baby shower I had yesterday. As a baby-blog reminder, I need to make a post about all of the anxiety dreams I had been having (and some still to continue I'm sure); the shower of course with some highlights that include many a sheepy things and Chris' Infant Relief drops.

A few things to specific peoples

To Seth, I am sorry I didn't make it out to your birthday party, I didn't have it in me. To all that attended my shower, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, I honestly have been in tears worrying about how to work in getting items for the baby (with considerations to both time and money). You not only made it fun, but more helpful than you will ever know. To DMA and Marc, thank you for giving Chris work this week. You not only helped with our financial situation, but his mood/stress as well. Rachel, thank you for traveling all the way here, it was a wonderful surprise. To those ladies that helped plan and do stuff at my shower, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! It seems to me that everyone had a great time first of all, and secondly, I think everyone was very happy with the food and treats. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know such amazing girls like Eva, Becky, Amanda, Marie, and Brandy who would be willing to take time out of their own lives to help me. It takes a lot of stress off of me, and while you may think you know how much you've helped me, you will never know how much you've helped my sanity (which as you know is questionable at best). To Mike, congrats bud, 6 months is amazing, I tear up just thinking about it! To Aunt Pat and Aunt JoAnne hang in there ladies, your babies will be okay, we've got to tell ourselves that.

Too Many Words Sound Alike!

"I'm jealous, Becky is going to see Grease tonight" he says. I look confused and disgusted all at the same exact moment. I wonder aloud, "really, I want to go to Greece, how did I not know about this"? I get that blank confused expression in return while he replies, "well, you know, working at the Fox, she gets so many tickets, so she's going to see it tonight". Damn it, I did it again, the other Greece!

While I won't be going to Greece anytime soon, I will be going with Amanda to New York this weekend for the Tim Burton exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. I am supposed to give my flight info to my brother so that some one can "track" me for my mom. So, here it is:

sat jan 16 2010 AA1030 STL 10:55-LGA 14:15
mon jan 18 2010 AA2223 LGA 16:15-STL 18:10

Since that's cleared up, my only worry is about poor Haiti. They needed better buildings.

SMART ASS

WHO AM I?

I am a TV character.

Carroll Spinney plays me.

My voice was based on a Bronx cabbie’s.

I am green.

My pet peeve is cheerful people.

My favorite vacation spot is the Mudville City Dump.

I love trash.

I live on Sesame Street.

WORD

advertent: giving attention; heedful

No No, The Other Chicago!

She told me three or four times about how she went with Mama Skweak, Becky, and Skweak to see Chicago (the musical) at the Fox Theater. She wasn't doing it as if to "rub it in" that she got to go, she was merely excited at having had the opportunity. She really enjoyed herself.

This time though she told the story as if confused and irritated that she had to reiterate that she had gone. It came up because she was mentioning something or other about seeing Chicago. My first thoughts were of sadness of being replaced. I had for a moment thought that she found cooler people to hang out with; people that liked Chicago. My second thoughts were that of not really liking Chicago. My next thoughts were that Eva didn't like Chicago either, why would she be doing that? So I had to ask, "You went to see Chicago"? She shot a crooked glance at me. One of those unsure glances; "is she loosing her mind?" type glances. As she retold the story it all came back, "OH, THAT Chicago, thank god, I thought you were talking about the band"!

All's good now!

I Spare Your Fingers of My Vellum Wrath

It's funny that anyone would beg to avoid my wrath! It is especially funny to me that anyone would think I was an imposing threat of any kind! Well, there's always a first!

Two friends go on vacation. As vacations go, there's some bickering along the way. [You know what I'm talking about!]. Said friends come back from vacation choosing to disagree, but maintaining a mended friendship. Knowing that one of the friends would tell me all about the vacation (including the bickering), the other friend asks that when speaking to me, to ask that I spare him my wrath that is from being an overprotective friend. [Yea, that sounded confusing, sorry]. He didn't want me to hunt him down and slice the insides of his fingers with vellum. [You know that webby part where the fingers join, yea, that hurts when paper cut with vellum, so I use it as a threat]. So, Friend, You know who you are, I spare you this time, only because I now know after stories of this trip, that you truly are married to my dear friend!

In other subjects, I must send may thanks to my friend Becky for her donation! Thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks! I really appreciate it and as you know, there was no need to do so; which makes it mean so much more that you actually did make a donation! Next time you fund raise, call me first!!

I Always Say Too Much!

Okay, I have an agenda of topics, so pardon my "bulleting"...I've had a magners, some chocolate, and a long effing week...buckle in and hold on to your britches!

ONE...I've decided to be Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween. I'd love to have the whole berry gang too, so if you feel compelled to dress up, and if you feel compelled to hang out with me [for plans yet undecided], then please, by all means, pick one of the gang and dress up with me! I plan on making my costume, but if I fall short on time I'll be dressing up in a premade sleazy Shortcake costume. Mike, you'd make a cute Huckleberry Pie. If we were talking in person I'd use my smirk to charm you into to it! ;)

TWO...this story was boring, I deleted it...I will assume you are grateful. Please save your thanks for later! [Had to do with me using power tools is all]

THREE...I was going to complain about going to the girly doctor. I even had it all written out. But, then I felt like it revealed too much medical information that I shouldn't share. I will assume you are grateful. Please save your thanks for later!

FOUR...So yesterday I got home from a really long day of work. I walk in to find out that my beautiful bully Bella was grey. You may not see the alarm in this, but you should know that she is a white furred doggie....covered in ashes from rolling in the burn pile. To say the least, I was not pleased, but this did mean that she and I had to shower together [the only real productive way to bathe a dog]. Here are some snapshots!

the bait	the beast	smile!

FIVE...Just a few things to some people who may or may not read any of this...Shane posted on Facebook today, he IS alive, I am completely elated with this knowledge, I hope to hear more! I am hoping @ibificus is enjoying his Friday that is leading to a hangover for Saturday...which is sure to be "impressive". Those boys in Ireland worry me sometimes! Speaking of boys in Ireland, another I'm sure I should worry about is @FrankieP. If there were ever a human that enjoyed scaring themselves, it would be him. I could see him dressing up in frightening costumes and then jumping in front of the mirror for the simple pleasure of the heart racing fright he might get! He inspired a nightmare I had about a masked person. To @sheehanpaul, I hope you are enjoying your trip to the west coast of the US. You inspired a dream I had about a Tommy Gun [see nightmare link above]! To my sis Holly, I've not heard from you in days. Yes I am aware I should sign into MySpace more often, the phone works both ways, etc; anyway I hope you are well. Becky, I got the invite, I plan on attending the shower. Brandy, I got the invite, I plan on attending the party. Mike C., your birthday is approaching, what would you like to do? Kelly G., your birthday is approaching, I have some gift ideas! Kelly P.-F., we need to get together sometime for tea, popcorn, and board games!

Phew, that was a lot...now, your words...
peep this: similar to "check this out".
anysexual: One whose sexual preference is not limited to man or woman or both. Targets include dinosaurs, rocks, fish, plankton, and balloons. To see an anysexual, please peep this!

Cartoon Steph

I am super bitchy today, I almost feel as though the wind has been knocked out of me, as if I’ve been shoved to the floor and kicked around a bit. I want to talk about most of it so you’ll have to bear with me and endure a long and possibly boring blog. I will alternate the goods and bads.

I’ll start with bad…yesterday a coworker who shall remain nameless got some really bad news. I refuse to mention specifics of the news [I don’t gossip here] because it’s horrible and I can’t even imagine the sorrow. All you need to know is that when you hear your coworker that upset; you should realize how important people are.

A good thing, also relating to a coworker, is that Justin, my blog crush, recommended some bands I might like. One of these bands, Billy Talent, is coming to St. Louis in October. He sent the recommendation based on the fact that they play shows with a band I like Alexisonfire. Nice suggestion Justin, I thank you sincerely!

A crappy thing is that I glooped mustard all over my shirt at work, then proceeded to open my soda to have it explode all over my desk and pants. This of course is all part of the day where nothing seems to work. I can’t get my building model to behave how I would expect; it won’t mesh right for a finite element analysis, among other crappy ass things!

A good thing…for those of you that think I am too prepared [looking at you Christine], I managed to dig up another decent shirt to wear at work that is mustard-less and cola-less.

Now, I'm tired of crappy ass stuff so I am going to ignore how crabby and pissed off I am. I am going to ignore my rant on media. I am going to ignore my rant on people who think they are better than me. I am going to ignore my rant on people who ignore me. Instead I am going to show you a cartoonized version of myself that I think is adorable. It is a work in progress by Mike C. Should you feel compelled to make your very own cartoon version of me, please do so. I am very amused by the thought!


Before I go I want to send a quick thanks to Ironstef and Mike C. for dinner and a wonderful discussion of Skank Ham. I want to thank Becky for allowing us to come hang out in the pub (there really are few options in GC). I want to thank those people on Twitter to which I randomly/seldomly communicate; you all always seem to have a way to make me laugh or smile (though you probably don't know it you certainly deserve a thanks). You would be surprised how a quick step away from work and into some silly video, or even some smart article/blog can really just wake me up, clear my head, and get me back on course. If there is ever a way I could help you, I certainly hope you'd ask!

Word...
cubular: Anything that is "cool" in a "business-geek" office context; often used ironically. This is a term derived from "cubicle" and the surf-slang "tubular".

I Feel Like Crap

I feel like crap today because I'm sick. Not pretend sick either, I've got the high fever, sore throat, achy body, pounding head, etc.

I shouldn't be at work, but I had to finish a few things up, so I came in today.

Good news is that on my way in, I ran into Amanda at Metrolink (or rather she stalked me to the Metrolink, which was lovely). Plus I'm leaving early anyway, so the day can't be all bad, right?

Thank you to those people that responded yesterday to tell me how they were doing! It's hard to keep up with people, so by you reading, and commenting, I got to see that everyone is surviving. Lots of ups and downs these days, the only thing we can do is keep our chins up! [Thanks to Becky J., Holly, Nicole, Mike P., Kelly, Amanda, Jen S.]

Since I'm not feeling well, I'm done writing for the day.

Word...
roll deep: Going somewhere with a large amount of people. Also "roll thick".
In Use: We rollin' twenty deep in da club.

Crunk On Gatorade

I started my morning off great! Rode my bike into work, drank Gatorade, and really, does anything get better than Gatorade? I think not!



Anyway, I have two really cool gifts to mail out today. I would post what those are, but the recipients read this so it will just have to be a surprise! I did take photos so that once the recipients receive their gifts, I can share with you!

I posted online for the HOK Life blog, I think you should go check it out! (I of course always think you should check out the HOK Life blog)!

I am a traitor. I went yesterday and bought a lime green iPod Nano to replace my stinking bastard of a music player I once called my beloved Zune. The Zune won't work, and it pissed me off, so I traded sides! The blasted Zune still doesn't work, so I am contemplating driving over it tonight just to get some aggression out of my angtsy bones!

For Drew, here is the Chet the Jet link!

Word-
crunk: Highly intoxicated. Combination of "crazy" and "drunk". Made popular by hip-hop artist Lil Jon.

If You Know, Please Tell Me

I never understand how people can just let their heart be out there open to the attack of the world. It's like slaughtering oneself. I can't do it. Perhaps I've learned that all will end in broken pieces so just don't put yourself there for the torment. If you know, please tell me. How is it that people have carefree hearts?

On another topic, this week is surreal to me (4 famous ppl dead, 1 dog put to sleep, 1 dog with bad hives, 1 concussion, 1 indescribable mood). So much has happened that I'm beginning to believe this week was really an entire month and I've just lost track of time. If you know, please tell me. Have I really lost time?

I am getting tix for three shows (Eng. Beat, TMBG, Rev. H. Heat). I think they'll be good shows to catch. Did you want to tag along? If you know, please tell me. Are you going?

I had a nightmare last night about a friend's former ex-fiance. I had dreamed that he was "stalking" me. By "stalking me", I mean that he was stalking my friend through me and my blog. He went through and favorite'd any post she was mentioned in and I found out he was a friend of mine through myspace through a fake name. It was creepy, I woke up sweating. If you know, please tell me. Are you really following me?

Word-
digitard: Anyone who has difficulty using technology for even the most basic of tasks, such as making a call on a cell phone.

Cynicism Shined Through

Friday, Friday, Friday . . . oh how I love thee!

Went to the game last night (with the Sutter clan), the last against the Cubs series . . . and it was a glorious sweep! We had bleacher seats, and they were awesome! On a side note, I better see my hat again . . . in ONE piece and alive!

My cynicism shined through as I tried to convince Emily to stay away from the nice boy who is way too nice for his own good. My argument is that the nice guy is just a front. Everybody is mean . . . so I'd rather know your degree of meanness when I meet you up front rather than have you break my heart later. See, the nice guy is the lure, and eventually the nice guy will have you chained to the basement wall. Stop rolling your eyes at me! If you think about it, you know it's true!

I rode my bike into work today so I could go to lunch with others to the Crown Candy Kitchen! This is going to be so fun! Yippee Skippee!

Now . . . I have something very exciting to show you. If you know me at all, you will know that my favorite architect (despite his poor ability to provide quality construction) is Frank Lloyd Wright. One of my favorite toys are Legos (click here for cool Lego dude). So what could be better than FLLW Legos?



Sweetness pours over me! Okay, seriously, keep your head out of the gutter please!

Now, to Drew and Becky, THANK YOU for being awesome peoples that also use made up wordifiles. I had started to wonder if I was the only person to have a unique vocabulary. It's not that I like to brag or anything, but this obviously means we are quite brilliant!

To Chris, THANK YOU for finding me cheap junk yard glass for my car! And thank for saying you will put my car back together. You don't have to do that. But I'm not going to turn down the help either! I'll get you a check when I get home. We need to remember to go to the bank so I can put my ASCE reimbursement check in there this weekend!

To Jeremy, THANK YOU for the recommendation for T-Shirts @ T-shirthell.com. Deadly stuff . . . wrong and deadly stuff!

To Amanda, I believe I have thought of a solution to your problem of having too much on your plate . . . either A) get a bigger plate (but the not the ideal solution) OR B) find another plate to shove some of your "food" onto (seems enough people are doing it to you) OR C) Get that dog Emily wants and shove some of the "food" onto the floor, most dogs will eat anything!

. . . this brilliant mind needs to get to work, so onward I shall go . . .

Word-
purse out: To not do something because of a girly reason, to wuss out. Generally used from one male to another.

Shitty in General

Quickly bringing you up to speed:

Saturday Eva threw me a birthday party. We went bowling at Pin-Up Bowl. Then we went to her house for a bonfire. I got way too drunk to know what I was doing, but tried opening gifts. Opened an embarrassing box of sheep (thanks Rob and Brandy, it was cute, and very thoughtful), told people they could eff off (lol, it's like my new thing to do these days), dragged my brother into things he didn't want to be involved in (no wonder he doesn't really like me). I was crying because I'm old and I feel like an idiot and the anxiety I have these days is beyond overwhelming. I made myself throw up because the amount of alcohol I had in my system was too much for me to manage. Glad that is over with! I did get some really great gifts though.

Sunday morning, a knock on the door, I answer to see our neighbor Jim. He looks alarmed, proceeds to tell me that someone busted out my car window. I was so confused I just nodded and looked from him to the car several times. I dressed and looked. I lost all faith in humanity. I am angry and hateful. I slept all day Sunday since no one would help me become totally obliterated. Someone threw a fist sized rock so hard through my window that it bounced off the opposite side door panel and broke that as well. Still waiting to hear from the insurance company.

Among other things about last week, which was shitty in general (turned 30, heartbreak, I was annoyed by coworkers, had too much anxiety about the party, had jobs creep up on me causing lots of stress, wanted to cry most nights, did cry a few nights, told that our structures group is moving in the office thus loosing space, Ruben is officially out of our department, Andrew is now part time in our department) work was more stressful than I'd ever like it to be for me.

Finished reading You Suck by Christopher Moore, brilliant stuff.

Started reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. 33 pages in and I'm already crying and thinking of the people I should call to tell them that I love them, just in case I should die tomorrow, today even.

. . . to Kelly if you are reading this, we both know Mike wants to keep you, and I would venture to guess you know I think we should get to keep you too, but in all seriousness, you are awesome and I haven't seen Mike this alive in many years. So even if we can't keep you (which I think we should get to) thanks. It's good to see friends happy!

. . . to Becky, dude, I am sorry for laying on your boyfriend. He's like a teddy Bear and he was laying on the couch where I wanted to be . . . sorry dude. It won't happen again; and you were looking totally cute on Saturday, don't know if I told you that or not!

. . . to my sister who so awesomely gave me a link for T-Shirts that I've been wanting to get; 80stees.com . . . I'm thinking for sure a Ghostbuster's T-shirt.

So onto today:

Read Janet's blog, and saw these posters . . . done by graphic designer Stephan Massed-Bidal. He takes odd, and old images and then pairs them with a quote. Different, which is exactly what I was looking for this morning.

Words that I have not given you:

eco porn: A corporate advertisement that extols the company's environmental record or policies, usually by a company known to rape and pillage the environment as often as possible.

prevert: A softcore pervert. Someone who is in early stages of perversion.

effed in the a: A different way of saying, "Dude, we're screwed".

Clark Kent job: Your day job that pays the bills but is not what you really want to do.

Cupcakes!

I have always suggested to my readers (all three of you), that if you see a website or blog I should check out, send it my way! I love to browse through the Internets to see who and what is out there. So, yesterday, someone actually suggested a site! Thank you Becky! [Becky has saved my faith in humanity (or at least readers)]

Cupcakes! Yes, it is that simple. She commented on my blog and left the website http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/, that prompted me to check it out. It was cute! I am always amazed at the ability of others. These edible delights are gorgeous. My favorite picture though, is the one with the doggy!

This picture is not mine, but I love it

So other than that, it's been quiet. Not too many people blogging. So, get to it so I have something to look at today! Later readers!

Word of the day-
nuts and a half: Something very extraordinary, mind-blowing, interesting, extreme, and often death-defying or someone willing to do something dangerous.

[POST SCRIPT-I want this book]

They Were Going to Take My Shoes

Wow, it's a quiet day. No special blogs to speak of, no people around to tell stories about, just quiet. This is surreal, am I dreaming? No probably not.

I recall a dream last night about having to go to a facility to take a class about handling radioactive material. Amanda had to go with me, but once we got through the doors, I lost her. Terry M. and Karen C. from HOK were there. We were in a building that kept shaking (imagine being inside a trailer while it's traveling at say, 65 miles per hour). I was really nauseated in this dream. They confiscated my cameras, my cell phone, all of my loose change in my purse, and even my barrettes. I was upset about them taking my belongings, but mostly upset because they ruined the film in one of my cameras, and they took my cell phone (and I was texting Mike and Shane). I woke up while I was in this shaking room just before they were going to take my shoes, I honestly did not want to fall back asleep for fear of continuing my dream so I just let myself doze in and out of rest for about 2 hours this morning. Therefore, I am still rather exhausted.

I suppose I will take this opportunity to ask what is going on these days with you? I haven't heard from Becky much at all on the Internets, I hope I didn't upset her about my comments on the photos. It was the last correspondence we've had. I know how Mike is doing, and well, I worry about him. I suppose more than I should, but I worry a lot about people some times. I haven't heard anything from Maureen, and from her few status updates, she appears to be wildly busy with brain work stuff. I saw Holly just recently and am wondering how close to being done she is with her stack of paper work. I've only vaguely corresponded with Drew, enough to know he is a ray of sunshine.

Okay, well that wraps up this morning. If you were looking for something interesting, check out this blog about art in dirty cars!

Word of the day-
badinkadink: A small, usually cute rear end on a female. As opposed to badonkadonk or badunkadunk, which is an extremely curvaceous female behind with moderately wide hips and a large amount of booty cleavage.

I Wrote About YOU

I'm fairly certain that no one reads this. Sure, I might average about 8 views a blog, but that's just a view, not a read. And that's just MySpace, no one dare travel into the realm of my Blogosphere!

I can visualize how this happens: The reader (whom I will call You), opens up the blog, skims through to see the length. Short=read; long=skim through for Your name, a silly link, a picture/video, a punchline, or just the word of the day. It's okay, I'm a blog reader, I can relate! Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to read blogs, You have to be choosy! [Christine, Grace, Eva]

So with that said, I'm going to trick You into reading this by randomly placing images, videos, or Your name in this blog (click on links titled "You", maybe You show up?!). I find that what I have to say is meaningful to me, and I want it to be meaningful to You as well! [Papa Skweak, Becky, Skweak, Mike, Badger]

Have You ever met some one that is all wrapped up in something You don't understand or that perhaps You think is too radical? Maybe she's just too wrapped up in anything for You? Perhaps You are thinking this about me and my blogs? Or sheep? [Elvis, Kim, Emily, Amanda, Shane]

That's okay, it's understandable. We all go through life with this social understanding of things. Depending on the society in which we learned, these behaviours may vary widely.

Well now to my point.

Stop caring what other people might think. If You believe in something, stand up for it. Don't wait for some one else to stand up for it, that may never happen friend! [Jami]

I care about the waste that we as humans produce (as Americans, "land of plenty" mentality, we are huge wasters, for this I am ashamed of US). Tomorrow is Earth Day and I challenge You, I challenge EVERYONE to reduce waste. Try to not throw anything away. Try to reuse everything that can be reused. Try to buy products with less packaging. Try to recycle anything that can be recycled (and in fact try to have nothing that needs to be recycled). Try composting! Just TRY! Please! Trying makes up so much of what we should accomplish in this world. Trying is usually what we give up on. Please just try! [Drew]

I know You will do the right thing! [Holly]


Word of the day (thanks for scrolling here!):
porn storm: Surfing for porn and getting bombarded with pop-up windows.

Yep, Busy Busy Busy!

I'm going to start this blog off by tracking back in time. A time I call . . . "yesterday"!

I left work late to get a couple of extra hours in since I won't be at work on Friday (going to KC Fri-Sun). As it usually goes on evenings that I don't have an automobile, I took the Metrolink to the 5th & Missouri East St. Louis station. The bus to Collinsville shows up about quarter to the hour. I get there a bit early to ensure I don't miss it. While sitting there, Eva calls to tell me there is a major drug bust at the meth house just a few houses over from her house. We are talking about the SWAT truck, SWAT team with guns aimed, and PERCUSSION GRENADES! PERCUSSION GRENADES!! Damn the luck of my profession; I want to use percussion grenades!

Anyway, for those of you who may not really know who I am (and even for those people that do); I used to live at Eva and Jami's place in West Granite. That is West Granite City, Illinois. Now, it's not the best part of town. It's considered "the other side of the tracks", literally it is the other side of the tracks. But I liked it well enough, still do. It's the same atmosphere as any town/city. You have the wealthy, you have the poor, and you have everything in between. West Granite just seems to house most of the drug producers. Meth makers. Duane. Duane got his ass some percussion grenades yesterday!

Now, back to the bus . . . I was waiting with a large group of people for the bus. I've done this often. I've never felt scared, awkward, or in danger. Yesterday changed that!

The bus arrives, we all stand to get on, one by one filing onto the bus offering our tokens for a ride. I offered the fellow by me the "next in line" spot, he declined and said, "after you". I thought it was polite, thought nothing else of it. I got on and went to my well chosen seat. I put a lot of thought into the seat I choose (shown below).

This particular seat has a plastic thingy behind it so that no one can reach over the seat. I can sit in the aisle seat and set my belongings in the window seat. The only major downfall to this seat is that the seat across the aisle faces my seat. This is where the "polite guy" sat (see below). From now on, "polite guy" is now "weird guy".

I had headphones on, which I thought was the universal signal to say "I do not want to speak". I guess he took it as "I am just listening to music until someone bothers me, please come bother me". He started his line of questioning, "how was your day", "how was work", "what do you do", "what does that mean", "how long have you been doing it", "does it pay well", "do you like it", "where did you go to school", "where did you grow up" . . . etc. I seriously started to feel as though this were the East St. Inquisition. There was finally a break in speech. I turned my head, put the headphones on, turned my body so it's language said "leave me alone", and pretended to be busy with my cell phone. Yep, busy busy busy.

Then he lightly touches my arm which scared the crap out of me. What is much more scary is that when I turned to see what it was that he wanted, he was standing, rather haunched next to me watching my every move with the cell phone. I think he got close to smell me or something of that nature. He kept touching my arm despite my uncomfortable inching away from him. This is a major violation of my personal space for sure! Thankfully he got off at the horse racing track which he referred to as his "second home". Before exiting the bus he grabbed my shoulder, held it for what felt like hours, and told me how great it was to talk to me.

Ugh!

Anyway . . . so now fast forward to this morning. I took Metrolink today, but completely bypassed the bus option (imagine that)! I had to run to catch my train; that's okay. Nothing like a brisk run to get your heart rate up in the morning! And alas, here I am, at work, blogging. Yep, busy busy busy!

But tonight I will be taking a tour of St. Louis' largest recycling plant. I am very excited. I would take some photos to share, but that's not allowed.

I have a few things I wanted to comment on this morning. 1) Yes Drew, magnets would be a good idea, and surprisingly some one else mentioned it yesterday, jokingly though. It would be great if we embraced what is natural to make structures, roadways, etc. In this case, no chance of magnets. I will have to come up with something much more clever to make my stair float, yet withstand gravity and lateral loading. This is going to take some Voodoo, if anyone has any suggestions, I am totally open! 2) Fuck, Becky, warn me by saying "These images are not suitable for Stephy's eyes". Ugh! 3) Mike, you shall be amazed by what I will learn about soccer. I'll make you proud! Oh, and from Chris, "soccer's for girls". 4) Watch Amélie, it's one of my favorite movies, and I watched it yesterday. 5) I will be in Kansas City Friday through Sunday to visit Erika and family as well as to catch the English Beat. I will try to blog, but I might have to disappoint Mike by not blogging more than once. Sorry friend!

I will leave you now with the word of the day . . .

downchuck: the opposite of upchucking. When you vomit a bit, and you accidentally swallow it. Leaves a nasty taste in your mouth and can often happen many times if you are hungover. [Editor's note: gross]

BFF

So let me start this blog by saying I had a great weekend, that promptly ended on Sunday when I saw the e-mail from co-worker Ruben that informed me of the rough week ahead. Yea, always a good thing to see!

So to say the least, I'll be writing this blog in between splitting columns in the REVIT model. I'm drafting at least, a task I enjoy. Also, having known this week was going to be long, I chose to wear jeans today, so shove that in your pipe and smoke it Corporate America! I also asked to postpone my guest speaker/teacher gig. I was supposed to teach at SIUE on Tuesday about sustainability to the senior design class. With this impending deadline that I still don't think is feasible, I need all the time I can get. Why am I blogging then, oh right, my therapy because if I don't get this all out, I will literally explode and spew guts, blood, and diet pepsi in every direction.

So I'll rewind and tell you all about Mardi Gras. For those of you that are unaware, St. Louis Mardi Gras is the second largest MG celebration in the US, second only of course to New Orleans. That being said, I threw on the long johns, two pair of socks, hefty boots, and my coat; and brave the cold with some friends and my sister. Good old Tim organized the whole ordeal and got a bus! We piled on after tying on a few at the Pub, headed west and got dropped off into the freezing wind and crowded streets of Soulard!

Once there, we promptly found our heated tent at Joanies's Pizza. I danced a lot, shouted a lot, and drank a lot of hurricanes. It was a great time. Holly and I walked around a bit. We even saw her friend's band play, and they rocked! Before the day was over, I had a scary guy give me beads and want to dance with me, and I was ever so thankful my sister stepped in to save me. There was another fella who claimed he was waiting all day to dance with me, that was nice of him. I left though, without even saying good bye because I was being called to grab Shawna, my new BFF and dancing buddy, to go to the bus!

So that was the weekend! Today though has been rough, like a shaken soda can waiting to be opened. I don't think there are enough tears for me today. It's one of those, "I'm going to throw up" sort of days. I'm at the point of just giving up, so I'm not even going to write anymore.

Here are you words:
geotard: A person who is incapable of figuring out how to get from point A to B without instructions like "turn at the pretty blue house", does not know which direction in north, and/or points in the wrong direction when talking about a place. Combination of geography and retard.

nice ups: A way of throwing props to some one, saying thank you, or showing respect. Similar to Big Ups.

How Will the Pub Pull This Off?

I have to admit that I am rather enjoying this lyrics game. For starters, I’m always the person with her headphones in her ears, so it’s not like I even have to think twice about listening to music. My second point is that I have some lyrics that I absolutely love, and some lyrics I’ve always wanted to look up because I can’t understand them. I find that it’s rather fun in general; the problem is that no one has really tried to guess any of the songs. Maybe they have and don’t know the songs, which makes sense because even after looking them I have to think about what the song could be, and I wrote them! I am starting a new list that is the couple lines of lyrics that I love about a particular song rather than the first lines of the song. I’m being a little more selective about the song this time too. Perhaps some one will know these lyrics a little better!

I recently noticed a bulletin in MySpace about the Pub having their first live music ever. This will be good, for many a year I have thought it would be a great space for a small band. Of course now that it is reality I am wondering where and how the Pub will pull this off. I’m hoping Becky, my faithful reader, will comment to let me know in what exact space the Dynamos will be playing. A three dollar cover charge is about the right amount of money to charge too! I make no promises to show up though, I am a total slacker, just so everyone one knows up front! I do good anymore to know what day it is!

I believe that since I am in a relatively crabby mood, I will cheer myself up with a continuation of my list of small things that make me happy!

The sound of the white out pen being shaken on the other side of the cube wall
Blogging, both reading and writing (stephysite.blogspot.com, stephysite-picaday.blogspot.com, hoklife.com)
People confused about what blogging is . . . it’s a vast array of things too large to narrow down
Taking a really great photograph
Getting complimented on that really great photograph by others that take really great photographs
Writing out my favorite lyrics like they are poetry to share with others
Successfully multi-tasking
The beady eyes of my surely Canadian American Bulldog Bella
The look Riley gets on his face the moment just before he barks, a seriously look that says, “Oh no, don’t make me talk back!”
My pink TI-84 Plus Silver Edition Calculator, it was my screen shot for HS:MS:HS
A good night’s sleep, especially when it’s storming outside and you can hear the rain hitting the roof/window

OKAY, so enough of that for the day, I’ll move onto the word of the day.

Phone grope: Grabbing at pockets, patting one’s self down to make sure you have your cell phone and don’t need to turn around and go back home for it.

In Use:
Dude 1: Dude, stop that!
Dude 2: Stop what?
Dude 1: Quit the phone grope, you’re always grabbing at your pockets as soon as we’re on the road, did you remember your cell phone?

I Don't Think I Blog Too Much

I told you I'd be blogging more, but really, for those of you that think I blog too much, well too bad! I'm bloggy these days!

Okay, so for my slang word of the day...
hella: 1. Very, totally. 2. Lots of. Short for "a hell of a lot of".

I'll be using it this blog...keep your eyes peeled and ready! By the way, the "Urban Dictionary" street slang is courtesy of Andrew McMeel Publishing, LLC, Kansas City, Mo.

So I think it would benefit everyone to blog, as I've mentioned before, so why aren't you? No one has to read it (or at least I will be, I need reading material). Badger and Becky could have home improvement blogs. Mike could do alcohol! Eva could do gross body stuff! Maureen could be writing about brain disections and psychology! Shane could write about Ireland. Tyler could blog about skateboarding and his journeys in Japan! Oh well, I don't want to force you to write, it's not fair; I'll just be hopeful.

So I am at work today and tired. I couldn't fall asleep so I dozed off at about 2:30, got up at 6. I feel dead, soda and music are helping. I caught the bus in today instead of catching a ride with Chris; all the regulars were there, nice to see them. New bus driver though. I have hella work to do today with deadline on Monday. It won't all get done, which I am sad to say is expected!

Anyway, on to my list of little things that get me by everyday...
-Diet Cola
-Internet access at basically any time I want it
-Pulling the wire on the bus that indates a stop is needed by a passenger