Backpedal

TODAY (Thursday)
Today I almost got stuck on the elevator between the 5th and 6th floors. Our elevators do this quite often - everyone knows it. When this almost happened to me, I remembered the story of our VP getting stuck in the elevator for 30 minutes once. Everyone made fun of him, but then it got me thinking how that is probably the only place he has ever actually stood still. That made me think of a story someone told me about him (actually, he told it himself to the person that told me). This VP, who is really awesome, I'm not just dogging him, said that he hadn't seen his kids in weeks because he got home from work too late and left too early. One day he was at Sonic grabbing some food and he just happened to run into them and that's how he finally saw them. This all brings me back to the topic of workaholism which I'm doing a research project on for Critical Evaluation of Research (it's a class). Until I really looked around and noticed it (thanks to a certain someone) I didn't realize how bad it was. I've done it out of necessity, but never for years or months at a time. And I don't have kids; I didn't even have a dog back then. So I wanted to share a quote from a book I'm reading called Married to the Job by Ilene Philipson, PH.D. This quote is long but extremely profound. Always remember this because you can't go back and re-do. Work to live, don't live to work. She says:

Unlimited emotional investment in the workplace hampers that autonomy and reduces our ability to participate in civil society. When we give it all to our jobs, there simply is little left over. Our emotional reserves to care for each other--within families and within society in general--are depleted and impoverished. Living to work impedes our capacity to develop a vision of life and of how it should be lived. When we tether ourselves to the workplace and cannot see beyond the next deadline, the next promotion, the next company event, we lose sight of ourselves and our place in the world

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday I said good-bye to my love. It was Charlie Gibson's last day on Good Morning America. I want to say that I hate him for leaving, but I couldn't hate Charlie. He really belongs on GMA though. He can be himself there -funny, caring, mathematical, support women's soccer, playful, and eat all of Emeril's cooking during commercial breaks. They had a final show in honor of him being simply the best! I watched the first hour...crying. I taped the second hour when I had to go to work. I have yet to watch the tape because I know I'll cry. Who wants to make themselves cry? But I want to honor Charlie. This morning seeing Diane and Robin sitting there was only not so bad because they haven't replaced Charlie yet. I don't want a replacement - nobody can fill his shoes. I heart you Charlie!

SUNDAY
We got back from the beach on Sunday. And my pleasant souvenir is the skin peeling on my back, which I know is no one's fault but my own. If I could reach it to lotion it maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I really did have a good time at the beach. From what I hear it sounds like I had fun on Friday night. And...all you who were there had to know I was going to tell the story - imortalize it in the blog so I can remember it in 40 years when blogs are like snail mail is today. It was 11ish in the morning and I was standing in the water with September. It was totally flat and she said "it's like something is about to happen." Her sister and cousin shortly joined us and we were talking when September pointed behind me and said "Oh My God!" I turn around, and just like in the movies, there was a fin about 3 yards away. I turned around and tried to get some words out, but I think all I said was "is that a....I didn't think those..." when September said "come on!" We started running, which in water is hard, but when you're trying to avoid being a nub it's even harder. I was in the back, and I swear it feels like in the movies when people are pushing to get out of the way. The fin was gone so the shark was somewhere under the murky water and we had no idea where. We made it out though, no nubbings among us. Now, I know there will be skeptics, but I was in the water with three other girls and they thought the same thing, and the fisherman and his kids next to us ran out of the water and I heard him say "I saw a fin" so it wasn't just us. I think he actually lured the shark in with his fishing. I'm not saying we were attacked in any way, but because of the environmental pollution there are "dead zones" around the coasts that drives most small food away, but the larger things stay out there. Thus, hungry shark smelling fishing lure, you get the idea. September's sister was also wearing shiny bracelets. There was a shark attack at Crystal Beach last year in knee high water, and a co-worker was just there and said the hotel concierge told them that there were many sharks and attacks were pretty common. He even said that the baby sharks will nip at you while you swim. Yum. You might not want to believe us, but I swear that's what I saw. Go to this site to see how to avoid shark attacks.

Everybody's Doing It

OK, so on the same note as Danielle, Barbara, and Rachel this looked like fun. The rules are: google your answers to the questions/topics! choose a picture from the first page and post it. And since I research photos all day I thought I'd see how I can do. It's all about the wording. Without using stock photos because you can get in trouble for that. And the quality of a blog doesn't matter if you're in jail!

Where You Were Born
and this one was just TOO good to not use

Where You Live Now

Your Name

Favorite Food

Favorite Drink

Favorite Super Hero
(close enough)

Favorite Smell
(on me)


(anywhere near me)
I found him on Google, really I did, isn't he cute?


Favorite TV Show
(it's a tie)
My dreamboat is wearing my favorite tie

Favorite Sport
(ha ha ha - I knew y'all would laugh)

Pet's Name

Favorite Color

Current Job

Favorite Holiday

Favorite Vacation
(pre hurricane and hopefully soon again)
(pre shark)

Summer Sips

I was just sitting here at work spinning in my chair when I decided I needed to look like I was doing something. Not that writing a blog looks like work, but it’s better than spinning in my chair. A teensy bit less conspicuous. I really don’t have much going on to write about, so I'm just going to give you my new drink recipes.

Summer Beer/Summer Brew
Equal parts beer and lemonade (or pink lemonade)
vodka to taste

The beer provides a slight carbonation to make the lemonade light and bubbly. The vodka is the key ingredient – without it the drink tastes horrible. Some people use equal parts vodka, but its Summer BEER for a reason. Not recommended for beer bongs.

What people are saying about Summer Beer: “Oh my god, that is SO good” “Surprisingly good” “Make sure we take this to the beach” and “I want some!”

CranVeachy
Cranberry juice
Peach vodka

A bright summer taste; this fruity concoction is dangerous because you forget that it has vodka in it.

What people are saying about CranVeachy: “oooh, good” “I’m wasted” and “I’m a convert!”

Stephanie reminds you to drink responsibly and designate a driver.

It's Friday; you ain't got no job...you ain't got shit to do!

I am making an official unoffical announcement. Or would it be an unofficial official announcement? I will be retiring on August 25th. Retiring from media researching at least. I think I'll have a happy hour or a party to celebrate - no gifts required - just retirement cards. You can even make them by hand. Oh, and maybe balloons. How hilarious would it be for me to have retirement balloons? ha! I'm not sure I'll get to have a retirement party later (you know, when I'm old), and when we're all 70 who's really going to feel like partying it up with me? So if you're trying to pick between now and 50 years from now, I think this one will be more fun. No, there's no pension in my version of retirement and that sucks, but not working has to top it all. And techinically, I'll get to relax a lot so it will be like a quarter life retirement for me. Mark your calendar right now to leave that afternoon free to celebrate. I'll think of something fun to do, you just have to be there.

Happy B-Day Mistaramalama

Today is the birthday of one of my best friends so I just wanted to say Happy Birthday Misty!!! I first met Misty when I was watching her move her shoes into our freshman dorm in college. Now seriously, for most people this wouldn't take long, but I think her entire family was carrying in shoes for about 30 minutes. And her Dad being the genius he is figured out a way to tie the door open so they didn't have to keep opening it (I think it locked if I remember right). I can't remember if I just talked to her or if I helped her carry in shoes, but after that I saw "Shoe Girl" again at rush (I mean recruitment) and then on bid day she was in my sorority. We became fast friends and were suitemates the next year. And as they say, the rest is history. And really, Misty is one of the most fun, intelligent, beautiful, and giving people I know. And she's quirky too in a really funny way. Like not knowing that tents have bottoms. Which we will never stop teasing you about Misty. But it's only because we love you! So have a birthday as wonderful as you are!

This guy does windows!

Anyone who knows my obsession with window washers will appreciate this. I was just in the elevator with one!!! OH MY GOD!! To see one up close right next to me - that was too much! I mean, seriously...if there hadn't been about 10 other people on the elevator I had a million questions to ask him. Things like, is it scary? What's the weirdest thing you've seen through a window? Do you care when people watch you? Ever thought about how funny it would be if you put on a Spiderman costume before you repelled down the building? and why are you inside? Before it was sort of like seeing someone on tv. Now, it's like when you see your teachers outside of school and realize that they're actually real. They do things besides hang outside your building (window washers, not teachers). Now that I know they're real, I looked up salary in case I ever decide to be one. Do you realize that the median on salary.com is $19,247 for dangling from a freaking building? The high range was $23,292. These guys work in the heat, they can't just get up and walk to the bathroom, and they clean your windows which most housekeepers (who make slightly more at a mean of $19,572 a year) don't do. Window washers need a raise - or at least hazard pay. But, back to the main attraction - elevator window washer man - he looked all rugged and tough with his dangling gear and his big bucket of soapy water. He looked like he was our age and he was even kind of cute. I almost had the urge to follow him up to 7 just to see what he was up to. Seriously, his life has to be so much more exciting than mine. He lives it and I just sit here and watch it from the inside. Watch out Charlie Gibson because this guy might be my new la la land crush. Swoon.

Party Like Rock Stars!

I have to say that this is the funniest picture ever. We went to Vicci Saturday night to celebrate Misty's birthday. Vicci is a lot more fun than I had expected, and being the random single wheel wasn't bad because the couples did a good job of doing more group dancing than couples dancing. It's always awkward to have to dance by yourself if the boy you date doesn't go out, which happens to be a regular thing for me. Work-a-holism doesn't get you anywhere kids, except for old and alone, so work to live - don't live to work! Was that a random tangent or what? Anyhow, we discovered the tasty mixture of peach vodka and cranberry juice as well. It was a fun experiment that we'll have to do more often. Happy Birthday Misty (a week early)!!!

The mystery of the soap

This morning in the shower I used my Lush Karma soap. I only have a little left, about 1.5 x 1.5 inches maybe. I used it and then set it back on the soap holder. At the end of my shower I looked down and it was gone. Now, of course it could have gotten knocked off, but I never noticed it, and I could have set it somewhere weird but I couldn't find it, and maybe the water dissolved it all? Or maybe it's stuck to the back of my arm or something and I just don't know. None of those seem logical at all. My next round of thoughts was that someone was in my apartment and snuck in and stole it when I wasn't paying attention. No, I don't do drugs in the morning if that's what you're wondering. I just seriously have no idea where my soap went. And now I have none left and I want more! If anyone has a more scientific theory I'd love to hear it because this totally baffles me.

My Elixir

So a lot of you know that I don’t really get sick that much anymore. I remember getting food poisoning and horrible sinus infections the year after we graduated. And I remember getting pink-eye in both eyes the year we lived on Trotwood. Of course, all of us that lived in that house were totally sick with allergies. I had snot coming out of my eyes. They call it conjunctivitis to sound nice, but really it’s snot in your eyes. Disgusting. Anyhow, so I have a theory as to why I don’t get sick now. I have this cup that I drink water out of at work every day. So, proving that I can get dirty like my counselor told me to do (and I’ll admit it, even for a year before that) I have abstained from washing my cup. I mean, it’s just water, right? OK, I know it’s disgusting, but my theory is that there’s mold growing in the cup, which is where penicillin comes from, so I have my own antibiotic water. I think that is a totally logical theory. So a glass of mold-water a day keeps the doctor away. Wow – why didn’t I go to med school?

ARRRRRR

This weekend I had another alumni council meeting. The first thing on the Saturday morning agenda was "training." So, we're sitting there being all official when the president asks one of the guys to lead the training session and to demonstrate what it is that he does so well. So the guy, Mike, stands up, takes a deep breath, and lets out a loud ARRRRRGH. We all laugh but he actually has a top 5 list of things to remember while doing your ARGH, one of which says that it is actually ARRRRR - and there's no "g" sound at the end. He also says that you shouldn't cover one eye because it distracts you from your ARRRR. Then, one by one we have to around the room and stand up and do it until the council approves our ARRRRR - then the president gave us our eye-patch and Mike gave us a paper pirate hat. Our rep from the board of trustees jumped up on his chair and put his foot on his table to do his - very dramatic but it was good. Me - I'm not so loud or mean at 8:30 in the morning, but after about 3 tries I got the approval and my eye-patch and hat. The other funny thing was sitting in a meeting with these people wearing these things. At one point a lost lady walked up to the door and we all turned around and shouted ARRRR at her and then the president was like, "come on!" and ran to the window that she was about to walk past and got a group to once again shout ARRRR at her through the glass. We have pictures, and I'm sure they'll show up somewhere at some point so if you see them, that's what they are. It was a good way to start the morning if nothing else. The alumni council is one rough group of skaliwags to be sure. ARRRRRR!