Emo Belt

I went shopping this weekend to pick up a few things, like pants. I needed a new pair for work you know, so I drove up to P-burg to hit a couple of shops (I also needed a pair of shoes for work that don't kill my feet). I ran into my boss and her son in the meijer parking lot, almost literally (neither one looked before walking out into the street). Then it was off to grab some shoes, temptation was resisted and I didn't buy any except the one pair I needed. Iron will power.

Then I quickly succeded in finding a pair of pants I liked that fit, much to my delight. Having completed my mission in record time, I picked up a couple other things and returned to the apartment. I was pulling my purchases out of the bag when I notice an odd look on my roommate's face. When I inquired he said, "That belt's kind of...emo." What?! It doesn't have spikes, it didn't come from HotTopic, It doesn't say "I *heart* livejournal" (although, if you were really emo wouldn't you say "I *whatever* livejournal"?).

So I gotta ask you, is it really, truly and emo belt?

How Not to Be a Jerk #2

Life lessons inspired by true events. Here is today's How Not to be a Jerk.

#2 Know when your welcome is worn out.

If nobody answers you when you say good-bye it is because we are busy or more likely, we don't care. There is no need for you to wander all over the building calling out "good-bye everyone", "have a good night everybody" etc, etc, etc. Frankly we're happy to see the back of you. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out either. When one of our bosses, the bubbly, good natured one, is dropping f-bombs in regards to your annoyingness then you've got a real problem.

Finally

Well, it's not much, but it's the most snow we've had this year. Pretty poor showing for the middle of January. Usually we would have had a lot more snow by now, but it seems it's an El Nino year. Or maybe it's just global warming. What was it a week and a half or two ago that it was 70 degrees in New York City. I heard they were saying that the cherry trees had started to blossom. Does this freak anybody else out?

I threw the second picture in because if you look in the lower right hand corner you can see where somebody traced a big spiral on the ground in the snow. I thought that was kind of weird. Also the

building you're looking at in the picture is the building I lived in

last year. Middle row, second from the right, that was me. Okay, so I didn't move very far this last time.

There's this drinking game that some of us play sometimes (sorry no transitional material), it's called Circle of Death. Or as I prefer, Circle of Doom. You spread a deck of cards in a circle, draw a card, and do what ever activity is assigned to that card. Pretty basic. Well nines (I think) are Rhyme. Ususally some one picks and easy word, like cat or cow. I picked platypus. The reasoning? There's only one word that rhymes with it, octopus, so somebody is going to get hosed pretty soon. I just realized yesterday that there are a ton of words that rhyme with playtpus: octopus, litmus, famous, delirious, bus, plus, cuss, etc. I mean, Jeez! That was obviously some drunk logic.

Also, I'm being plagued by strange dreams. Okay, okay, stranger than the normal strangeness, and with greater frequency. Is this going around or did I just draw lucky on the dream lottery?

around town today

I recently got the whole internet/instore movie pass bandwagon. It is sweet. Mostly because of the seventy-odd channels I have available to me I watch about 3. So the movie pass is awesome because I can get all sorts of crap through the internet and then go to the store and get more crap whenever I want.

While driving around today I saw a license plate that said "EEEMALE". I'm going to wonder about that.

In the same plaza as the movie rental store there is a place that does tax preparations. It's name has 'Liberty' somewhere in the title. I have to say that when I think of getting my taxes done I don't usually think of liberty. Anyway, their gimmick is to have somebody stand out by the street in a green toga and crown and wave at the passing cars. In the coldest months of the year. Oh, and did I mention that this particular street, Main Street, has a tendency towards large puddles with even the smallest amount of rain (possibly because we live in a freaking swamp). Sounds like the best job ever. Now I need to find out why one of my friends is working there.

My mother finally called me back on Sunday. That's right, a week after she first called me. She was in Texas on business. If she hadn't called me to chat while she was down there a few weeks ago I might believe that they don't have phones in Texas. She related to me, using unnecessary suspense, that my brother is fine.

Also in the same plaza as the movie store and the Liberty Tax place is a Big Lots. I scored a jewelry armoire on clearance for 25 bucks that I had spotted two days ago. Now all my stuff has a home instead of being scattered between a jewelry box, a jar, several dishes, and a repurposed toolbox.

13 Secrets

::::OR "Things you may or may not know about me."


1. The best decisions I make, the ones that turn out the best and I don't regret, are the ones I make on the fly.

2. When I was eleven I decided to keep on believing even if that meant I was crazy.

3. My dreams make me question the nature of reality. Sometimes I wonder if I’m seeing my life in some parallel universe.

4. My left hand is ever so slightly longer than my right.


5. I find the idea of being a vegetarian to avoid being cruel to animals kind of silly. Plants can feel pain too. Where do you draw the line? When I see a tree being cut down simply because it’s in the way I can’t help but think of it as murder.



6. I’ve never shoplifted, toilet papered someone’s house, make a crank call, or done karaoke.


7. I really don’t think that I am unattractive.

8. If I could go back in my life with all the knowledge I have now I wouldn’t change a thing.

9. I hate green beans. I can’t even eat them anymore in spite of the fact I apparently loved thems so much when I was very little that I named my doll Green Bean.


10. I play role-playing games, including Dungeons and Dragons. I do it because of how much fun my friends and I have doing it. And I don’t care how dorky that makes me.

11. I’ve never slept with anyone. It’s not that I’m repressed, waiting for ‘the one’, because of religious reasons, or not had the opportunity; it just hasn’t happened. I don’t think anyone should have to ashamed by such a thing.


12. I love to read, but some of the works of the ‘literary greats’ bore the crap out of me. Ditto for some of poetry’s.


13. Thirteen is my lucky number.

Domestic Affairs

The landlord's office called the other day about renewing our lease, and we decided to go ahead and do it. I'm stoked because this means I don't have to move again this August. Although, I think that I have to help Le. And La. Move this summer to repay them for helping us to move in here. It won't be bad because they're only moving across the hall in their building. The doorways are only about five and a half feet apart.



I took my last roll of film in to be developed. I forgot how long ago I took some of those pictures. Since I'm impatient and lazy I not only did one-hour developing, but wandered around the store whilst I was waiting. I picked up some new loot including the notebook because it's cute (even it is pink, don't normally do pink...but c'mon it says 'I *heart* nerds'!) and two new plants. The pink one is a kalanchoe (I have no idea what it is but it's pretty) and the other is an Arabian coffee plant. It's supposed to actually produce coffee beans eventually. Not that I drink coffee or that I would drink coffee made from beans grown on a plant I bought at Wal-Mart. The rest of my plants are actually doing well, by which I mean still alive and growing. I read that the most common problem with house is over watering. Not my plants. My geraniums aren't happy unless they're getting water at least every other day.

Then I got my pictures back and found something miraculous. Not like seeing the virgin Mary in your ramen miraculous. Just miraculous lite - I found a decent picture of myself. I don't know why it's always such a problem. I've seen what I look like - okay. And then I see pictures of myself - not okay. But this one is passsing fair. Although I forgot exactly how red my hair was last summer. So perhaps it is the exception that proves the non-photogenic rule.

Oh, and my mother still hasn't called me to tell me what's going on...four days and counting...

How Not to be a Jerk, Part 1

Sure we all can be jerks from time to time, but let's face it, there are some people out there who are abusing their jerk privileges. So in order to do my part in making the world a better place I give you Winter's Guide on How Not to be a Jerk. Life lessons inspired by true events. Considering the average amount of jerkitude in an average day for me, this will probably become a regular segement on the blog. So without anything further here is today's How Not to be a Jerk.

#1 Do not invite yourself to other people's stuff.

For this example conversation, based on actual events
Let me = me
Let Bert = a coworker whom I was speaking with and who is a friend
Let Jerk = someone whom I am not friends with and is a complete teabag


Bert: If you bring in the patterns tomorrow I can get my thread and be ready to sew by this weekend.
Jerk: What are you guys talking about?
Me: Nevermind, nothing important.
Jerk: Are you guys talking about sewing, like, in a quilting circle?
Me: What does it matter if we are?
Jerk: Seriously, is it a quilting circle???
Me: Look, what if I say it is?
Jerk: Dude, I love quilting!!!!! You HAVE to let me join your circle.
Me: That's not how it works. We're a small group.
Jerk: Dude, that is so not cool.
Me: No, it's not 'not cool'. There are other people involved who have to be taken into account
*Jerk goes off in a huff, muttering things like "not fair"*

Ok, we obviously weren't talking about quilting, but the analogy is sound.
It's one thing to ask if you can join something, but another to just invite yourself along. And then to get mad when you're turned down? Dick move.
On a personal note, nothing turns my pissed off dial to eleven quicker and more completely than being told I 'have' to do something.

Hello once again

Ok, it's been a while since I last posted. Well the "when are you going to update your shit, beyotch?" harassment has begun so I guess I had better write something. It's not that interesting things haven't been happening in my life, but like nudity, Twister, and digital cameras somethings are best when not used in combination.

My mother called me today at 4:40 "Hey I just wanteed to let you know about what was going on. I'm on my way to the airport. If you get this by quarter to six give me a call otherwise I'll talk to you tomorrow. I just wanted to tell you about what's going on with your brother" And that was it. Gee, mom, you didn't really need a teaser trailer for the conversation. How about telling me if something Freaking IMPORTANT was going on!? I've decided, in lieu of persuing the matter and making phone calls to that effect, to completely ignore whatever's going on until she calls me tomorrow. Steve said if it was important she would have said so. Oh, hilarious laughter at that, that's not how we play our mind games in my family.

Let's see what else, I wrote out the framework for a story idea I've had kicking around for quite a while. I know that the purists will say that it's better to write the story as it comes to you and not make an outline. That's what I did though, just sat down for an hour or two and wrote it out as it came to me. I've found it easier to write when I have things plotted out. So we'll see.

It's not like I don't have a bzillion other projects I'm trying to work on. It's been a month since I posted anything for the comic, yeah, I suck. I did get the apartment into awesome order. Cleaned, decluttered, furniture moved around, feels more open, very neat, very relaxing, awesome. Oh, but my bedroom's a mess now because all my extra crap is in there. My desk is the main repository for all the crap that hasn't found a home, and there's a filing cabinet in the middle of the floor. Well, I'm a pack rat, it's in my blood, that and compulsive grocery buying.

...

Oh, and can please stop having hip-hop dancing, underprivledged kids dancing/learning/whatever, wrong side of the tracks sports teams movies?