Monday I had to have two wee fillings. I'm incredibly lucky in that I have excellent teeth (one dentist said they are as hard as rocks, which I gathered from his tone was a good thing) so fortunately this is not a common event.
Of course, I tried to use humor as a defense mechanism against the panic I was feeling. "C'mon, Doc, is this really necessary?" He replied that we could wait till the cavities grew up - I suppose that's dentist humor, because he continued with the proceedings.
He did ask me if I had been chewing gum lately. I replied no, but as an afterthought added that lately I had been enjoying cinnamon Altoids. "Altoids?!? Putting those in your mouth is liking sucking on sugar cubes!" I patiently explained that I didn't suck on them, I ate them rather quickly, due to their piquant properties. Apparently even eating them causes toth decay, in Dr. Smiley's opinion, and he urged me to investigate sugar-free options. So, goodbye, tasty breath-freshening treats.
And, no, that's no pseudonym, my dentist's name really is Dr. Smiley. His partners' names? Dr. Friend and Dr. Love. I'm not making this up.
I'd like to thank all the visitors to this site who came here to check out the Rush / McNabb debacle debacle for not mocking my love of the 1-3 Browns. True football fans understand.
On a semi-related note: To get my attention the other day, one of my cubicle neighbors started calling them the Clowns. I suppose I'm man enough to be able to withstand that sort of stuff. Or else I would be another team's fan by now.
Did you ever get the feeling that decisions you'd made 15+ years ago were impacting you in the present? And that you can't recover? Sure, you can learn from your mistakes, as Dr. Phil and others of his ilk will tell you, but did you ever come to the conclusion that now there's no way you can get things going in the right direction?
I think I'm wearing navy stockings with my black outfit. Not on purpose, I assure you.
"Now, sit on the sofa, look sad, and say 'd'oh'."
"D'oh."
Hey, look at me go, doing GreyDuck's PPF meme on a Friday!
PAST: Describe the best breakfast you've ever had.
I remember helping my aunt make breakfast for a bunch of family members one summer. Every year we would all get together in a couple of rented condos on the beach. We had omlets with leftover ham from the night before - yum! And it was actually a fun family experience.
PRESENT: What did you have for breakfast today?
A small hamburger and a bit of pasta salad.
FUTURE: You have the means, the motive and the opportunity. Create for us... the ultimate breakfast!
I would enlist the breakfast geniuses at Cracker Barrel, hold the grits and the weird gravy, but bring on all the meats and especially the hash brown casserole. Add a variety of the Stouffer's French bread pizzas, loads of fluffy scrambled eggs and a few sunny side up, some of Sid's apple butter, biscuits...damn, now I'm hungry! We're talking breakfast buffet of champions!
I'm having deja vu about posting this quiz...
And here's another one -
Cool, this is one of my favorites.
The topic of horeseback riding came up the other day, while corresponding with Lisa. It reminded me of a place in Colorado - specifically, in the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, where you can go on an incredible trail ride. Check it out here.
Travelling alone on business for the world's cheapest company sucked, but I made the best of it. I don't have anything deep or insightful, just wanted to share one of my favorite places.
The die is cast - I just signed up to take the GRE on Halloween.
Comedian Margaret Cho has a blog, very foul mouthed, political, and funny. Found by the grace of one of my Live Journal buds, anotheranon.
I'm in one of those moods where I want to eat a big bag of m&m's and wash it down with a Diet Coke. I want to put on my family tiara (yes, it's a cherished family heirloom, from the 50's when expensive jewelry stores sold that sort of thing, that dad bought mum when they were in the broke grad school portion of the relationship), wrap myself in a fur blanket, and demand that someone bring me the head of the director of a certain English department graduate program on a silver platter. I want to go to the mall and buy a new purse and some perfume, even though I'm trying to pay off the credit cards. I want two orders of those evil cream cheese-filled crab rangoons from the corner Chinese restaurant. Somebody give me a fancy pedicure and an hour long massage, followed by a platter of sushi and some nice white wine. So there.
"I'll have a steak sandwich, a bloody mary, and...a steak sandwich."
Doing pretty well, for a Monday. Having a good birthday celebration always helps. It was yesterday, the REAL Columbus day.
Godfrey got me a neat little digital camera and gave it to me Friday. (I have noticed a pattern, if I mention I'm interested in any little technological thing, he buys it for me - not that I'm complaining, mind you. I just hope he doesn't spend too much. But that's a silly thing to worry about.) Anyway, Saturday there was a local SCA event and we headed over there for a while, I came home early as I wasn't feeling well. Sunday the crew went to our very-most-favorite Thai restaurant for lunch. Then we went bowling. Bowling is fun, but I'm not too good at it. I seem to get the best results by hurling the ball from about waist-height. Afterwards it was back to Casa Sinister for coffee and movies - I had forgotten how strange the movie "Rushmore" is. There are several funny scenes - but it's not exactly a funny show. It's a good flick, just difficult to describe.
Geometry lessons with Godfrey are progressing, not very quickly, but some glacial progress is being made. It's a real struggle for me to understand. I get frustrated, and then my brain shuts down. Meanwhile, last night I had my first nightmare about my dissertation. My subconscious jumped the gun on that one, but at least it wasn't a nightmare about not getting accepted to any school.
Watch this space for pictures from the weekend. The bowling alley had flourescent shoes!
My answers to GreyDuck's meme, only four days late this time!
PAST: What was the first book you can recall reading?
Richard Scary, Dr. Seuss - not sure which was first though.
PRESENT: What are you reading now, or if applicable what's the most recent book you read?
The GRE For Dummies and Virgins of Venice, which is about Renaissance nuns. It's much more interesting than the Dummies book, I can't believe I got a Dummies book but the math in the other GRE prep books was frightening.
FUTURE: Name some books you'll be adding to your personal library when time and finances permit.
Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis; Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan; Corsets and Crinolines. Just three entries from my four page (and growing) Amazon.com wish list.
Went for a massage from Renee the Amazing LMT on Monday. Renee has new digs in South Tampa, an adorable bungalow with wood floors throughout. And for no extra charge, I get to pet her dog Emma, a black, docile lab mix with no tail, so she wags her butt when she's happy.
I think a massage is almost spiritual, it's certainly beneficial, and it makes me feel slightly tipsy afterwards. For some reason, I crave sushi and/or hot food after a massage. Now that Renee has moved, I can hit one of my favorite sushi places afterwards for extra indulgent-yet-beneficial goodness.
I've decided the expense is well worth it, a massage is much better than a therapy session where I'm told to go to Barnes & Noble and look up a book (I'll bet).
Last night the crew went to see "Gigantic", the epic TMBG documentary. It was showing at the Tampa Theatre. Going to the Tampa Theatre would be great even if you just went to see the 1920's "Florida Mediterranean" architecture. I suggest you see it for yourself here (pick view photos and you will enjoy a visual treat). Not only that, they usually have a pre-movie concert on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
Other observations I have on the Tampa Theatre:
1. Men have a Room; Ladies have a Lounge.
2. In the Ladies' Lounge, one of the stalls has a child-size toilet - the miniatureness of it is strangely compelling.
3. I get vertigo in the theatre, something about all the high, narrow stairs. I almost got sick when we went to see "The Blair Witch Project" there.
Pissed off at some anonymous rat bastards - here's why. Another log on the worry bonfire. No wonder I am still craving a 1 lb. bag of M&Ms.
Wednesday the usual suspects met at the local German restaurant to celebrate Oktoberfest. Very yummy. Lots of carbs. Beer good.
My new cubicle neighbor, Jovial Bob, gave me two tickets to see the Lightning game tonight. Great game, they beat Phoenix 5-1. I love hockey - it's graceful, athletic, and violent. I don't know very much about the game, though I do know about icing. LunchBox says you aren't supposed to enjoy it when there's a fight - I suppose that's my guilty hockey pleasure. They apparently will be having a "hockey and heels" clinic in November to help women learn about the game, could be interesting.
Okay, this graphic doesn't exactly scream "Hamlet" to me...
In "Better Off Dead", you don't cheer for the rich blond antagonist, you cheer for John Cusack's character. Sure, he has some issues (obsession with his girlfriend, for example) but he's likeable, and you want him to succeed. And in the end, he winds up with a cute French girlfriend who loves baseball and classic cars. Not too shabby.
The Yankees and the Marlins are the equivalent of the aforementioned antagonist (with the apt name of Stalin). They're jerks, they're rich, all the popular girls love them, they get whatever they want, and they're mean. You don't want them to win, you want the unlucky, slightly scruffy teams to win. But nooooooo - baseball is all about fat overpaid guys in weird polyester pants. It's all about who has the most money. Baseball, my friends, sucks. It's boring, it lets fan interference affect play, it has stupid fans interfering just so they can get a souvenir to sell on eBay, it's boring, it's slow, it's about statistics and numbers, it's boring...and now we have proof positive that baseball has no soul. Yankees and Marlins, who cares?
Tune in for a real post soon...
Friday we finally had a retirement party for Fearless Leader, he who headed up Marketing until June of this year. Fearless Leader was going to retire within the next year anyway, but you know how that goes. So a select few got together and surprised him at an overpriced-but-tasty Italian restaurant. You know the place - artsy decor, and they tend to do a lot of tableside fun and games with Caesar salad and bananas Foster. (Who knew flaming bananas could taste so good?) Godfrey accompanied me, I tried to pass him off as a handsome stranger I had picked up at the bar, but too many people had seen his picture on my desk. He finally got to meet some of the assorted personalities with whom I work.
Fearless Leader was always very good about complimenting my work. He was very supportive of my grad school plan and said that I had better go through with it. I told him the only big thing that might stop me at this point was if no school wanted me. Sidebar: Everyone says, "Oh, you'd be so good at that!" when I tell them I want to teach college English. Hopefully they're not all B.S.ing me.
Did the Arts and Sciences fair Saturday. Lots of nice projects, if you're curious you can see what people entered here. I had wanted to enter something, but getting back to school is somewhat of a distraction these days. That's okay, the project will be there, waiting for me, once the course of my destiny has been determined by anonymous admissions panels at various graduate English programs.
Wow, what a social butterfly I've been since my birthday! Not that I'm complaining, but I did have a lot of laundry waiting for me on Sunday. This week = lots of studying.
Today is our anniversary! The date was cleverly chosen to be right in-between our two birthdays; it's also the opposite (inverse?) of my birthdate, the 12th. We also chose a date that we thought wouldn't conflict with an SCA event, and then they went and scheduled a big event that weekend. *sigh* That's okay, it was as near a perfect day as one could hope for.
Godfrey is to be commended; I'm not that easy to live with, though he tells me he's dealt with worse. We have a lot in common, and we also tend to balance each other out - I'm more outgoing and have taught him an appreciation for football, for example. He's logical and polite (he chided me for shouting "Shoot me a t-shirt, bitch!" at the hockey game last week).
So, should we celebrate by going to the Indian restaurant, or the Spanish tapas place?
Just a quick note to tell you that the event formerly known as Chuck-a-Palooza begins Sunday. This is a week-long seminar for engineers sponsored by my company. You can read up on last year's fun fest here, here, or just check out the October 2002 archives for all the gory details. The bad news is that the event means a lot of thankless grunt work. The good news is that it means overtime, which is great as I am quite broke.
Chuck-a-Palooza will henceforth be known as EngineerFest '03. Now that Uncle Chuckie (the crusty, quirkly, egotistical engineer that I used to do lots of work for) has been reduced to contract status, he's only appearing one day. There's been lots of ego clashes over this between him and Wayniac, the new marketing chief. Meanwhile, since Chuck is one of those people who can't say "please", "thanks", or "I'm sorry", he's really worn out his welcome with the GLOM (Gorgeous Ladies of Marketing). Well, I still talk to him, because he's promised me two beers as payment for me helping him over the phone with PowerPoint. And next week I will definitely need those beers. He better come through, or I will write a strongly-worded blog entry. That'll show him.
Now I'm off to my 7 AM appointment at the dentists' - I need to have a filing filed.
For the past two nights, I have become incredibly exhausted after my math tutorial sessions with Godfrey. (And I assure you, nothing more exciting than geometry is happening.) I have crashed into a deep sleep after each one, and we're talking 9 pm here! Another symptom of math anxiety? The area of a triangle is 1/2 base x height, by the way.
I have to get back to work (EngineerFest and Power Point never sleep, apparently) but I talked to two English department graduate coordinators this morning. One was extra nice; the other was almost as nice, but, better than that, she assured me that I am not older then the traditional applicant. That made me feel better, since I read earlier this morning in "Getting What You Came For, The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or Ph.D" that "most English departments would be unlikely to take someone who was applying ten years after receiving a bachelor's degree." She said that was wrong. Let's hear it for misinformation being corrected! Now to call my alma mater and see if there's any alumni love happening there.
Time for my semiannual rant against our ridiculous clock system. Why can't we just pick a time, say a half hour in between, and leave our clocks alone? Sure, it's great to gain an hour, but at what cost? Remember how exhausted you were when we "sprung ahead"? It's nuts! I'm positive that our politicians continue this antiquated time system just to keep us sleepy and therefore too tired to protest all the other stupid crap they do.
EngineerFest is sapping my strength. I worked almost 14 hours yesterday. I had a nice chat with Uncle Chuckie at dinner last night. He was supportive of my decision to go to grad school. Chuck lives in a very Chuck-centric universe, so he viewed my decision through the Chuckie glass and started once again talking about his son, "Mr. Wonderful". That's really how he refers to him. Mr. Wonderful is getting a Ph.D. at Harvard, so we wound up talking about him some more. That's okay, I had a big beer so I wasn't irritated at the time. At least he thinks that I should get accepted to grad school somewhere decent. Now Chuckie tells me he owes me lunch, which I suppose could be accompanied with two beers, but he's been promising me the lunch thing for months. And for some reason I've been awake since 4:30 AM, so I'm too tired to rant right now. Why am I up so damn early? I've been having problems waking up at 7, but this is nuts.
This weekend I attended Guavaween for the first time ever. This is a drunken costume party at the area's party district, Ybor City. I've wanted to go for a while now, but for a variety of reasons, haven't. So Godfrey decided to escort me to the event. I threw together a last-minute costume for the affair. I took an "interesting" dress I made circa 1990 out of what looks like tie-dyed green taffeta, hot-glued cheap flowers all over it, and then the G Man painted me green.
Now, most women attend this event as a "naughty something" - naughty lady cop, naughty school girl, naughty nurse, naughty woman in a corset - you get the idea. So I was pleasantly surprised to get some genuine compliments on my little ensemble. I suppose not showing my cleavage was more attention-getting at a certain level. Not that I'm a prude, mind you, my Renaissance costumes usually feature a bit of decolletage (Godfrey, please feel free to fix the spelling on that, it's still before 6 AM as I write this). I observed that there were two classes of young ladies in revealing dress: those who were comfortable revealing lots of flesh, and those who weren't. As for the guys, i can't count how many gynecologist costumes or "free breast exam" outfits I saw. And I think they really believe someone's going to take them up on the offer, as we walked past one guy who was trying quite hard to convince a young lady to accept an exam. Oh, I saw a local celebrity of sorts-the guy who dresses like Peter Pan all the time. I also saw some boobies.
Pictures to follow, I can't seem to find them on Godfrey's computer at the moment. And, as mentioned before, it's still stupid early.
A guava is a tropical fruit, if you're wondering.
After the madness of EngineerFest and the GRE takes its toll, I will have about 11 days to work up a draft of an analytical paper for potential grad school reps to peruse.
Jud is a weird name. It's not Jed, it's not JEB!, it's...Jud. It rhymes with stud, true, but it also rhymes with dud. Would you want to be nicknamed Jud?
Okay, this algebra/geometry thing is causing me some serious mental trauma. Is there anyone out there who can do some sort of Vulcan Mind Meld technique that will transfer years of math knowledge into my skull? It only needs to last a few days. You guys think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Seriously. HELP!!!
Meanwhile, to try to laugh at the situation, I've discoved a guide to math on The Simpsons; this was especially helpful as I keep thinking of the time Bart struggled with math in the episode "Bart the Genius". Hey kids! Check out Simpsonsmath.com for tips on learning math with The Simpsons! I'll have to check this out myself if there's any time during today's episode of EngineerFest.
I have some hilarious observations on EngineerFest; unfortunately, I can't share them on this forum at this particular time. If you run into me in person, be sure to ask, if you're so inclined. If not - well, perhaps I'll be able to reveal all one day. Meanwhile, on its last day, here are some memories from EngineerFest -
*Someone using the phrase "concrete a business relationship". Several times on different cell phone conversations.
*People facing a giant plate glass window as they shout on their cell phones, in the vain hope that somehow said window will absorb the sound.
*More souless "jazz" muzak than ever before endured by a hapless employee.
*Ranch chip dip that hurt the left side of my tongue.
*EngineerFest participants shamelessly asking for free t-shirts.
I've been taking my GRE study guide with me everywhere. Yesterday I got a massage and had sushi and wine for dinner. The nice people who make up the GRE sent me a study guide on cd - I've been working on that. In fact, I've been up since about 5 this morning working on it. I get mad when I miss a verbal question. Sometimes I guess well on the math - other times, I freak out at the complexity of the cruel questions that are designed to trick my brain.
I take the test today at noon.
Before I get back to my last-minute studying, let me wish all of you a Happy Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. Sure, you can get some nifty gifts on Christmas, but you don't get to dress up in costume. (Perhaps that's why I like the SCA so much.) Yesterday I saw a sign on a church for a "Hallejulah Festival" (sorry if that's not spelled right, I'm on a mission right now). The sign promised all sorts of "safe" fun, but then it said - "No costumes - casual dress please". What's up with that? Where in the Bible does it say "thou shalt not dress up in costumes once a year"? I mean, if you think the holiday is unwholesome or evil or pagan or whatever, that's one thing (one thing = misguided, wrong, goofy, etc.), but I think it's rotten for kids to miss out on dressing up.
