So, I just had to drive halfway across town to my friend Rae's place so I could just happen to watch this horrendous Lifetime Original Movie, so I can use it to mock someone later. We ate popcorn and cookies and Easy Mac. Ah, the glories of a Sunday dinner!
Anyway, we have a great quote and a new low from this evening:
Guy on TV: Las Vegas, its the romance capital of the world.
Rae: Yeah, for pimps and hookers!
and
The new creepiest thing I've ever seen: actors portraying people I
know, um, let's say, making out.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
How Did I Not Know About This Movie?!
Steve Carell as Agent Smart? I can't imagine a better role for him! I watched this show (in reruns) all the time when I was a kid. I'm sooo going to go see it when it comes out :)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
On a Happier Note...
Rather than the interesting but rather depressing observation I was going to post here, I'll say this:
It is the small things that make me happy. I love having a job where I can just swipe my debit card at the end of my impulse driven, comfort-food buying binge at the grocery store without even having to check the total, because I know there is money in the bank. (At this point in the month, anyway ;) Making more than $9,000 a year rocks!!!
Of course, I may sing a different tune, later, when Matt finishes my tax return, and, for the first time, the government actually keeps at least most of the money I gave them, but, for now, it's making me happy.
It is the small things that make me happy. I love having a job where I can just swipe my debit card at the end of my impulse driven, comfort-food buying binge at the grocery store without even having to check the total, because I know there is money in the bank. (At this point in the month, anyway ;) Making more than $9,000 a year rocks!!!
Of course, I may sing a different tune, later, when Matt finishes my tax return, and, for the first time, the government actually keeps at least most of the money I gave them, but, for now, it's making me happy.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
I Hate People.
Give me most any person, and, I can at least find something to like about them, but people roaming anonymously in public get on my nerves. I had to deal with a lot of strangers, yesterday.
As I was sitting in my middle seat on my flight from Chicago to Seattle (the middle leg of a three leg journey out to visit my dad) and trying to pretend I was anywhere else, the thought struck me that something had changed. I used to love flying. It was exciting and adventurous and fun. Now it is this thing to be endured in order to get where I want to go. It is still worth it because I really like going to those other places, but it sure isn't fun, anymore.
I'll go on a tangent, here, to add the caveat that I do like to fly on Jet Blue. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say I get excited about it, but it is a far more pleasant experience. Actually kind of nice. Worth going all the way out to Dulles for. (And I hate Dulles more than I hate people.) Somehow, and I don't really understand how they do this given how much of it is out of their control, they make the experience not stressful and... polite isn't quite the right word, but close.
Anyway, I think my main problem with flying is that there are too many people who don't know each other and are under too much stress in too small an area. They all get too self-centered. I mention that they don't know each other because, in my experience, the more detached you are from someone, the easier it is to be mean to them. (You'll take much more abuse working at a call center than in a grocery store and more there than in a place where you just have a few regular clients.) So the airlines cram as many of us as possible into a small, noisy spaces like cattle and make us pay for tiny bags of stale peanuts. It's really a wonder there isn't more violence in air travel!
For example, some guy had a weird shaped carry-on that occupied an entire overhead bin (that should have held 3 people's bags). I wasn't seeing any place to put mine, so I was trying to re-angle his so mine would fit in some weird way, and the guy snaps at me that it isn't going to turn (instead of maybe apologizing for taking up so much space or explaining why it needed to be in that position) and I snapped back that they shouldn't have let him take it on the plane (instead of maybe apologizing for messing with his stuff or explaining what I was doing). Of course, it didn't help that I had been talking on the phone to financial institutions before getting on the plane. There isn't much to make a person crankier than that :( Sometimes it is such a pain to have a life! Anyway, I was super grumpy all day.
Now, this has all been true during the entire time I've been flying. I think the big change is that flying is no longer new and novel and it is no longer associated with such good things. Before the last year, I flew maybe once a year on my way to my big, fun, relaxing, exciting vacation. Now I fly more to visit family and for business - which I enjoy, don't get me wrong, but it isn't exactly fun vacations - so it has less of the happy glow about it. Sad. One more thing growing up has ruined for me.
On that note, I'm going to sign off and contemplate getting behind Ep's plan to indiscriminately kill half the population of the world...
My Favorite Quote from Today
"No, I'm not going to play with your eyeless, brainless, Christmas present!"
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Oh, yeah, I have this blog...
Yeah, I guess I've just been really tired, lately. I've thought about blogging a few times, but just gone to bed instead. I think I may have been sick for a while, but it could have just been stress. What an exciting life I lead! Well, I do have a couple of tidbits for you:
I stopped trains in L'Enfant Plaza.
I was really late to work and I pulled out my BlackBerry (bb) to see what time it was and it slipped out of my hands with enough momentum to make it all the way on to the train tracks. For about half a second, I thought about jumping down there to get it. Then my survival instinct kicked in and I realized I didn't know which one was the third rail and that I wasn't sure I was in shape enough to jump down there and hoist myself back up in the 3 minutes before the next train ;)
Luckily, it fell all the way to the bottom where no part of the train ever goes, so it didn't actually get crushed and I found a really nice Metro supervisor to retrieve it for me. They have these long grabby stick things for exactly this purpose, but the bb was too small and slippery, so he had to wait a while for a break in the trains (I think he probably just gave up after a while, because there is a Blue or Orange train coming through there every 3 minutes all day) and then stopped trains and walked down on the tracks to get it for me. Then he teased me about there being a fine for dropping things on the tracks while I begged the bb to come back to life, which it finally did. Sadly, my biggest concern was not the loss of the bb, but that, if I lost/destroyed another one, I would never hear the end of the teasing from my co-workers.
So, for all you Metroers, the next time you are sitting in the train in the tunnel for no apparent reason, you can just think, "Oh, Pache must have dropped her bb, again." :)
I'm becoming an English Mentor
They have just started this program in my ward - a partnership between us and the Spanish ward in our stake - to pair us with a Spanish speaker to help them with their English. I am not required to speak Spanish to do this (which is good because I still only remember Donde esta el girafe?). I really have no idea what I'm doing, but I thought, since I really have no commitments outside of work and need to infuse some service into my life, I'd give it a shot. They started it off with a pot luck last Monday so we could all meet each other. The person I'll be mentoring wasn't able to come that night, so I just hung out with the other people at my table and soaked up the experience. I got some really interesting thoughts from it.
Someone mentioned at the beginning that it was a good pairing of wards, because we both feel kind of left out in the stake. The singles because everything seems to be oriented towards a family we don't have, and the Spanish ward because everything has to go through a translator. I felt a real kinsmanship with them after just that thought. Beyond being my brothers and sisters in the gospel, we shared the bond of feeling out of place at stake functions. And, now, we were doing something about that. At least we would know each other.
All future activities with this program will be conducted in English, since we are teaching English, but this one was conducted in Spanish. As usual, I was able to pick up about every third word of Spanish, so I was very greatful that my Home Teacher was at my table to translate for us. It was interesting, though, to get a taste of what everything must be like for the Spanish speakers.
The other interesting thing I learned from the people at my table, and, by far, the most comforting thought in my inadequacy as an English teacher, was that they have a hard time getting people to speak English to them. They said that whenever someone offered to help them with their English in exchange for help with their Spanish, they usually wound up teaching Spanish and not learning English. And church is in Spanish, and work is in Spanish, and everyone at home speaks Spanish, so what they really wanted was just someone to speak English with them. Well, I can do that! That's about all I can do. I could throw in a little German, but I don't think that would be helpful, either...
I discovered a direct flight from DCA to SLC
Okay, so my roommate tells me it has existed for quite a while and it is the only flight she ever takes, but I just discovered it. DCA (the airport ten minutes from my house) to Salt Lake on Delta round trip for $248! And it is a direct flight! I'm so used to everything having at least one connection that direct flights still kind of freak me out. I think that my trip to Orlando last fall was the first time I had ever flown directly to somewhere. Come to think of it, all of my government flights have been direct (Orlando, San Fran and Dallas) but it had never occurred to me that I could get a direct flight to somewhere and be able to pay for it myself. This could be revolutionary...
BTW, this brings up that I am planning to come to Utah - SLC and CV - this summer. Some time between the beginning of May and September. I'm leaning towards Memorial Day weekend. Any of you Utahans have comments on that?
I finally have a calling!
(Um... I think everyone reading this will know what a calling is. If not, ask.) Today, I was finally set apart for my first calling since moving to DC. :) I am the co-ward-bulletin-person. It is funny how good it feels to just have an assigned task for the ward. I feel a lot more connected now, even though it sounds like a really minor calling. I'm going to magnify it like crazy! :)
Grr. Stupid rules.
So, I have all these funny stories, but they all happened at work, so I have forbidden them from this blog. I guess I need to work on spending more time with people outside of work. I did go out with some friends on Friday night, but, by the time they showed up I was soooo tired that I might as well have been drunk. (Seriously, I was dancing to the music at Baja Fresh!)
I went to Eastern Market the last three Saturdays with various people. Last week, with Rae, I was introduced to this crazy little book store which will probably prove to be a very expensive discovery, over time. And, we decided that we should take a road trip to PA. So, if anyone has suggestions for things to see in western PA, or wants to come along, we're headed there sometime soon.
Yep. I guess that's about it, for now. I will endeavor to be more interesting in the future.
Chama a isso uma sanduíche de fiambre? Leve já isso daqui!
I stopped trains in L'Enfant Plaza.
I was really late to work and I pulled out my BlackBerry (bb) to see what time it was and it slipped out of my hands with enough momentum to make it all the way on to the train tracks. For about half a second, I thought about jumping down there to get it. Then my survival instinct kicked in and I realized I didn't know which one was the third rail and that I wasn't sure I was in shape enough to jump down there and hoist myself back up in the 3 minutes before the next train ;)
Luckily, it fell all the way to the bottom where no part of the train ever goes, so it didn't actually get crushed and I found a really nice Metro supervisor to retrieve it for me. They have these long grabby stick things for exactly this purpose, but the bb was too small and slippery, so he had to wait a while for a break in the trains (I think he probably just gave up after a while, because there is a Blue or Orange train coming through there every 3 minutes all day) and then stopped trains and walked down on the tracks to get it for me. Then he teased me about there being a fine for dropping things on the tracks while I begged the bb to come back to life, which it finally did. Sadly, my biggest concern was not the loss of the bb, but that, if I lost/destroyed another one, I would never hear the end of the teasing from my co-workers.
So, for all you Metroers, the next time you are sitting in the train in the tunnel for no apparent reason, you can just think, "Oh, Pache must have dropped her bb, again." :)
I'm becoming an English Mentor
They have just started this program in my ward - a partnership between us and the Spanish ward in our stake - to pair us with a Spanish speaker to help them with their English. I am not required to speak Spanish to do this (which is good because I still only remember Donde esta el girafe?). I really have no idea what I'm doing, but I thought, since I really have no commitments outside of work and need to infuse some service into my life, I'd give it a shot. They started it off with a pot luck last Monday so we could all meet each other. The person I'll be mentoring wasn't able to come that night, so I just hung out with the other people at my table and soaked up the experience. I got some really interesting thoughts from it.
Someone mentioned at the beginning that it was a good pairing of wards, because we both feel kind of left out in the stake. The singles because everything seems to be oriented towards a family we don't have, and the Spanish ward because everything has to go through a translator. I felt a real kinsmanship with them after just that thought. Beyond being my brothers and sisters in the gospel, we shared the bond of feeling out of place at stake functions. And, now, we were doing something about that. At least we would know each other.
All future activities with this program will be conducted in English, since we are teaching English, but this one was conducted in Spanish. As usual, I was able to pick up about every third word of Spanish, so I was very greatful that my Home Teacher was at my table to translate for us. It was interesting, though, to get a taste of what everything must be like for the Spanish speakers.
The other interesting thing I learned from the people at my table, and, by far, the most comforting thought in my inadequacy as an English teacher, was that they have a hard time getting people to speak English to them. They said that whenever someone offered to help them with their English in exchange for help with their Spanish, they usually wound up teaching Spanish and not learning English. And church is in Spanish, and work is in Spanish, and everyone at home speaks Spanish, so what they really wanted was just someone to speak English with them. Well, I can do that! That's about all I can do. I could throw in a little German, but I don't think that would be helpful, either...
I discovered a direct flight from DCA to SLC
Okay, so my roommate tells me it has existed for quite a while and it is the only flight she ever takes, but I just discovered it. DCA (the airport ten minutes from my house) to Salt Lake on Delta round trip for $248! And it is a direct flight! I'm so used to everything having at least one connection that direct flights still kind of freak me out. I think that my trip to Orlando last fall was the first time I had ever flown directly to somewhere. Come to think of it, all of my government flights have been direct (Orlando, San Fran and Dallas) but it had never occurred to me that I could get a direct flight to somewhere and be able to pay for it myself. This could be revolutionary...
BTW, this brings up that I am planning to come to Utah - SLC and CV - this summer. Some time between the beginning of May and September. I'm leaning towards Memorial Day weekend. Any of you Utahans have comments on that?
I finally have a calling!
(Um... I think everyone reading this will know what a calling is. If not, ask.) Today, I was finally set apart for my first calling since moving to DC. :) I am the co-ward-bulletin-person. It is funny how good it feels to just have an assigned task for the ward. I feel a lot more connected now, even though it sounds like a really minor calling. I'm going to magnify it like crazy! :)
Grr. Stupid rules.
So, I have all these funny stories, but they all happened at work, so I have forbidden them from this blog. I guess I need to work on spending more time with people outside of work. I did go out with some friends on Friday night, but, by the time they showed up I was soooo tired that I might as well have been drunk. (Seriously, I was dancing to the music at Baja Fresh!)
I went to Eastern Market the last three Saturdays with various people. Last week, with Rae, I was introduced to this crazy little book store which will probably prove to be a very expensive discovery, over time. And, we decided that we should take a road trip to PA. So, if anyone has suggestions for things to see in western PA, or wants to come along, we're headed there sometime soon.
Yep. I guess that's about it, for now. I will endeavor to be more interesting in the future.
Chama a isso uma sanduíche de fiambre? Leve já isso daqui!
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