Well, Internet, another week has soared past me like a giant pelican with a half-eaten salmon in its beak.
And honestly? I don’t even know if pelicans exist in the same geographic regions as salmon. But I’m not going to look it up because that’s what kind of week it’s been.
BUT there is a beautiful tree directly outside my window that has made the slow transformation from green to yellow to orange… and now the top half is scarlet… and it looks so beautiful against the bright blue sky that I can’t help but smile.
In other words, it’s time for some randomosity!
* First up – the Asheville post is COMING. I know it is tops on your mind. It’s actually completely written and set up in Word Press, complete with over 40 photos and over 2,500 words. (Yes, now you REALLY want to read it!) But when I was getting ready to post it, my husband looked over my shoulder and noticed that I was using a bunch of his photos… which, DUH, he takes much better photos than I do… And he wants to make sure that photo-stealing-type people (which obviously, does not mean YOU! But he doesn’t know you like I do) can’t copy his photos. So he wants to install some html code on my blog and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. That is me falling asleep. Because once you get beyond basic computer-type things like typing and Googling, well, I turn into a drooling, eye-glazed idiot. I mean, we’re all very lucky I know how to post a photo to my blog. Or post a blog ENTRY for that matter.
Which is a long way of saying, I have to wait until my husband – who is now back at work BOOOOOOOOO – has a few minutes to find and install the appropriate anti-photo-stealing code on my blog. And THEN finally, after much fanfare, you will get to read my super-exciting vacation recap. And zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. That is YOU falling asleep because I’m pretty sure my vacation is of interest purely to me and possibly my mother-in-law who is adorably fascinated by everything remotely related to my husband and his life.
* My three favorite fall dramas are The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, and Parenthood. I am kind of obsessed with Parenthood and I managed to get my husband obsessed with it as well. I am more than a little bit in love with Crosby and Jasmine. The big problem with the show? It simultaneously makes me want kids and makes me NEVER want kids in a billion years. Although, to be honest, everything these days makes me feel that way. Which is a big difference from how I felt two years ago, which is: No kids, ever. Period. But now? Now, my ovaries are deeply conflicted.
* How did a lighthearted bullet about TV become so suddenly serious? Let us avoid any more discussion about the state of my ovaries.
* In good news, my husband got Christmas off! Which means we get to go to my parents’ house for the holiday. Yay! And my parents have kindly and generously offered to pay for our airline tickets as our Christmas gift, which is WONDERFUL. But now my husband and I are looking for plane tickets… And there are only a few flights to the airport near my parents (which is two hours from their house) and only a few seats left on each of those flights… And my husband hates flying – not that I like it AT ALL – so he’s very picky about number of connections and seat placement, which narrows our choices even further… And my mom mentioned that an airport in their town just opened up flights, which is GOOD… But those flights are on teeny tiny prop planes, which is BAD and also TERRIFYING… So now instead of being EXCITED and GRATEFUL, I am feeling ANXIOUS and OBLIGATED to find the cheapest flight even though that may mean making ten connecting flights and flying on a teeny tiny terrifying prop plane.
* Something has been stuck in my craw for a few weeks now… I went out – as in, to a bar – with a friend and her friend. Both girls are about 5 years younger than I am, 20 pounds lighter, and blond. While we were chatting, some Random Dude came up to Friend 2 and said, “Hey, you and your friend are so beautiful. Blah blah blah.” And he was talking about Friend 1. Who, admittedly, IS beautiful. But COME ON. I’m not saying I have any illusions that I am beautiful – only my husband and my dad think that. But I’m not horrifically ugly. And even if I WERE, what the hell, Random Dude? I know you are thinking with your Little Random Dude and not whatever fragments of a brain you may have… But in no way is it cool to approach three girls and say – within earshot of ALL of them – that only two are beautiful.
I think this is bugging me anew because I went out with Friend 1 again recently (who, by the way, is ALSO MARRIED and wears a giant diamond engagement ring and a wedding band) and it happened AGAIN. TWICE. Poor Friend 1… I mean, she was hideously embarrassed. It’s not her fault she’s beautiful. And clearly I am envious of her for her beauty… and my self esteem isn’t enough that I can laugh off these stupid Random Dudes. But I just think it’s poor form for people to do that. I would NEVER do that to someone. It’s hurtful. Even if the person is old and overweight and – god forbid – BRUNETTE, I would never point it out by way of complimenting the person right next to her for being NOT old or overweight or brunette. It’s enough to make me not want to go out with Friend 1, which is stupid. Because I should be able to get BEYOND that. I mean, you can’t go around comparing yourself to other people. You’ll usually come up short in some way. But really. It’s enough to give a gal a complex.
And now that I’ve got THAT off my chest, I am moving on.
* I had gravy for the first time in my life this past weekend. At IKEA. In the food court. It was surprisingly delicious. Especially when used as a dip for fries. Now I am not quite so apprehensive about making gravy for Thanksgiving. However, I still have yet to eat stuffing… I’m not looking forward to that.
* Speaking of Thanksgiving… With liberal help from you, The Pioneer Woman, and an episode of America’s Test Kitchen, I think I am going to try my hand at making some of Thanksgiving eats this weekend! I will report my findings slash failings slash successes.
* Something I have very little tolerance for is disorganization. I’m not talking about, like, a messy home. Lord knows I’m the master of the messy home. I have a pile of unfolded clean laundry sitting on the couch right this second in fact. But when it comes to work matters? Organization should be part of the job description, right? I mean, if you email me because you need me to find an email I sent you a few weeks ago or an email YOU sent ME a few weeks ago… Well, that drives me batty. Because clearly a) the item was not important enough for you to keep track of and b) your time is much more important than mine. That is all I will say about that, although I have many more thoughts on the subject. Many. More. Thoughts.
Instead of going on and on about it, I will direct you to this awesome comic by The Oatmeal.
* I have an IM addiction. I leave my instant messenger on from 9:00 to 5:00 so I can interact with graphic designers and clients and other people. And I am constantly hearing the little message notification noise… Even when no one is IMing me.
* What do you do when you buy some wine and it sucks? I’m not talking about a bottle being corked – which is undrinkable. I’m just talking about a wine that’s gross. Do you dump the bottle? Or do you do what I do, and drink it anyway?
It’s really weird. I’m so not the same way about food. If something tastes gross, I will throw it away with no compunctions. I mean, I’ll whine a little. But I’m not going to eat something yucky.
Yet with wine… It’s somehow different. I brought a bottle of a white blend back from my trip to Napa this summer and just opened it last night. And it was gross. I don’t know if it got old (in which case, that does not bode well for the winery I got it from)… Or if it is on the verge of corking… (Is that even the correct use of that term?) Or if I just thought it was better than it was. But… Yuck. And yet, I drank a whole glass. Now, the nearly-full bottle is still sitting on my counter, waiting for me to drink the rest.
* Do you do anything for Halloween? I think my husband is off that day, but my guess is we’ll just make dinner and watch TV shows off our DVR all night as per usual. I don’t think I’ve actually EVER gotten a trick-or-treater. This is what happens when you grow up in the boonies and then live in dorm rooms or apartments for 11 years. Of course, our lack of Halloween experience has not prevented us from buying plenty of candy. And eating it. By ourselves.
* I am going to a surprise party tonight. It’s filled me with anxiety ever since I first found out about it, even though the person whom we’re surprising is a person I see roughly once every six to eight weeks. When I went out for dinner with him and his wife a few weeks ago, I was so worried that I would blurt out the surprise somehow. (I didn’t.) And now I’m fretting over the actual party. What if we park in the wrong spot and ruin the surprise? What if my husband doesn’t get out of work early enough for us to make it on time, and we get there just at the wrong time and ruin the surprise? What if I accidentally email the surprisee and ruin the surprise? (I don’t know if I even have his email address, so this is unlikely, and yet I’m still fretting about it.) What if he is reading this blog and I’ve ruined the surprise?
* I had a dream last night that I was eating candy corn. And the kernels (is that what you call them?) were made up of just the orange part. (The yellow part happens to be my favorite part of the candy corn.) (I know this is probably the equivalent of liking green M&Ms better than brown M&Ms.) It was terribly disturbing in the dream, like the world was irreparably flawed.
Now what the hell was my subconscious trying to tell me with THAT one?
* My husband likes to use the phrase, “Move it or lose it.” He’ll say this when I’m standing in front of the silverware drawer, chopping onions, and he needs to get a spoon. He’ll say it when I’m standing in front of the sink, brushing my teeth, and he wants to brush his teeth.
I GUESS I get what it means, in certain situations. Like, if you have your foot under one of those guillotine choppy things and someone wants to see the guillotine’s slicing action, you’d say “Move it [the foot] or lose it [the foot].” Because if you didn’t move your foot, it would get chopped clean off. But I don’t get that phrase otherwise. Certainly not in the context my husband uses it. (Although I suspect he uses it out of context purely to bother me.)
Likewise with “see you on the flip side.” The flip side? Does that mean “the other side of the day”?
Or “it just dawned on me.” I think of this as meaning something like, “the situation was just illuminated.” As when the sun rises and sheds light on a situation.
Or “as easy as pie.” What the hell does that mean? I’ve made pie before, and let me tell you: NOT EASY.
Sigh. English is full of weirdness. I love it, don’t get me wrong… But sometimes I just have to shake my head at all the common phrases I use that I don’t really understand.
What common phrases or sayings just don’t make sense to you?
* I’m thinking of getting my clients holiday gifts this year. My initial thought was to send them each a nice box of Godiva chocolates. But I’m not sure. Is that appropriate? Is it enough? I don’t want to be extravagant or anything, but I do want to thank them for their business. (Seriously. My clients are AWESOME.)
Do you have any thoughts on getting gifts for clients/boss-type people? Any gifts you’ve received from a colleague or business associate that you loved? Or hated, I suppose? Suggestions welcome.
And that, my friends, is all the randomosity I can handle for today. Unless you have some randomosity you’d like to share with me! I always enjoy OTHER PEOPLE’S randomosity.
Have a super weekend Internet! See you on the flip side. Whatever that means.
Hi! I don’t think I’ve ever commented but I really enjoy reading your posts! I just had to say that I love Godiva chocolates and I would love to receive that as a gift. Unfortunately I can’t comment on whether it’s appropriate or not.
Actually I was thinking yesterday whether I should give a small gift to my professors who are writing me letters of recommendation for grad school. Is that typical in the US? I’m from Europe so…
Thanks for commenting!
I wrote exactly one letter of recommendation when I was a teacher, and I didn’t expect anything in return. It kind of goes with the territory. That said, I DID write thank you notes to my professors for letters of recommendation to grad school… And my husband wrote thank yous to his recommenders for residency. So I think a thank you note is fully appropriate and enough. A gift would be nice… And I don’t THINK it’s inappropriate… But it’s not NECESSARY. Maybe other commenters will have other thoughts?
Bar sitch is RUDE. If I were one of the girls he was trying to hit on, I’d be totally uninterested in the guy: who wants to date someone so clueless and thoughtless?
And this is why I adore you and your blog!!!! Love the randomosity!!
You’ve never eaten stuffing????
Get thee to a supermarket and make some Stovetop Stuffing. Impossible to screw up (literally, boil water, add butter, spice packet and stuffing mix, turn off the heat and wait five minutes.) Delicious. Although not exactly healthy. But I only eat it once a year.
My mother in law makes to die for sausage-rice-mushroom stuffing, which is out of this world, but so labor intensive and uses every cooking dish in the house.
Life is too short for bad wine. Throw it out.
Do pelicans actually fly? Am I thinking of dodo birds?
Love the randomness of your blog!
I also love Parenthood. I love the drama and the kids and the older kids. It’s hilarious. It gives me major baby fever, but I had that before I started watching.
A bit of random answering from me: Parenthood is a fantastic show. I look forward to it every week! I also hear the IM noise even if it isn’t there. Also the new text message noise. I make T drink the gross wine. I eat candy and sit on my couch for halloween too. Do not make me have to dress up. Surprise parties stress me out. I more than often give them away. People stop telling me and instead they tell T. I would have hit that guy at the bar. Or gone to cry in the bathroom. Team Brunette all the way. A box of chocolates is nice as a gift. At my office, our favourite gift every year is the guy who brings a box of mandarin oranges. We get so many chocolates and cookies and baked goods, that we love having the oranges as something to break up the sugar! 🙂
Happy friday!
I did not come from a stuffing eating family and the idea of SOGGY bread made me want to vomit, but actually. . .I love it now. Oh my word, it’s so good.
I love both Parenthood and The Good Wife. I haven’t even watched Blue Bloods, but maybe I need to!
Bar guys were classless jerks and hopefully your friends didn’t even give them the time of day.
Stuffing is delicious. It’s not gross like it sounds it might be because like the previous commenter, soggy bread would make me puke. Make it into stuffing with delicious other things added to it, along with spices, and it’s awesome.
Lastly, good luck finding tickets to home!
First of all, you had 15 bullets. More than 10, but not an even number. Proud you’re working through your issues. haha
Also, the thing about going out with friend 1 and 2: I could completely understand. In college, I had a guy tell my friend she should have left me at home because I wasn’t as cute as the other girls. Yeah. Some people have no class or feelings for others. I hope you don’t let it ruin your friendship with your friend. It sounds like she is just as embarrassed and doesn’t like what’s happening either. You are gorgeous and you have a great husband and forget about the rude people.
As for gifts for clients: my dad does this every year. And yes, his company I think reimburses him for his or at least part, so I have no clue how much it costs, but he will do like popcorn tubs, and not the ones from walmart, but a local place that is truly delicious. I think the godiva chocolates would be great or some little gift basket (again, depending on number of clients and cost) that had a small thing of chocolates, a small thing of popcorn or even an individual thing of a nice coffee (like you might see at a hotel) and little thank you note. Might be something slightly different and if done right, shouldn’t cost too much!
I KNEW you would notice! I’m okay with multiples of 5. But no way could I do 14 or 16.
Yay on the hubs being off for Christmas! My husband’s extended family has some doctors in it and they always end up working on the holidays.
Boo on the lame-os in bars. But guess what? They’re lame-os in bars — not the most intelligent demographic because you are clearly a sassy, fabulous, brunette broad. They probably saw your ring and knew you were off the market and didn’t need to be wooed. Yes, lame-o guys think like that.
Happy Friday!
Yay for Christmas off – granted, I’ve told my husband that he should just take call every Christmas so that we have to stay in town and celebrate together (maybe convince fam to come see us) since it’s always such drama deciding where to go even though we alternate each year, some family member always tries to switch us up … but with call we stay home and enjoy it to ourselves (selfish, yes, but I’m all about little drama!) ha.
Oh, and I definitely throw wine away if it’s yuck. I try random bottles though so I can find ones I love, so I figure I have to go through bad ones to get to the good ones at times … no shame in pouring it down the sink 🙂
Another huge fan of Parenthood. For my next husband, I’d like him to be a combination of Adam Braverman and Jim Halpert. Surely someone like that exists, right? Yeah, I’m not holding my breath.
The idiotic, clueless guys? Don’t give them another thought. They were obviously raised by wolves.
Oh Adam Braverman… Such a great guy! Although I think he needs to draw some serious boundaries with his family members!
Is it possible that the jerky bar guys saw your wedding ring and opted to just hit on your single friends? I can still see why it’s upsetting though.
Alas, Friend 1 is also married, and has a giant diamond on her finger.
But I know they’re just jerks. It doesn’t REALLY bother me, except in the moment. In fact, once I wrote about it I felt much better. Doesn’t hurt that y’all are so nice either!
Give your parents the pertinent info and have them make the reservations. You’ll probably get better flights than if you make them with guilt and they’ll decide how much they are spending.
Good stuffing is good. Bad stuffing is gross. Keep that in mind when you eat your first stuffing. I used to hate stuffing until I got good stuffing and then I was like, oh, it doesn’t actually suck.
Doesn’t it suck to be friends with gorgeous blondes? Such is my fate as well. ALAS!
I hate stuffing. In my family they call it dressing. I won’t eat it no matter what they call it. And I wonder why my child is such a picky eater.
I used to like Parenthood a lot more – now I just want it to be the Lorelai Gilmore and Amber Show.
Can I get a hells yes to the Ashville post coming soon? My friend and I are considering it for a fun girls getaway and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and see your pictures!
Gravy = my guilty pleasure. I could eat the stuff every day (although I have to admit I prefer breakfast gravy…with sausage…omg yummmmm). I’m glad you finally gave it a try.
I went back home this weekend and Fall has NOT been good to Missouri. As sad as I was to leave home I was happy to come back to beautiful leaves! Weird, I know 😉
Love your blog! Have been reading for a few months now… not sure if I’ve commented.
YAY for Christmas off! I understand how this feels as my mom has been in retail all of my life and might not get Christmas off. BOO!!! My husband is also in sales and is lucky to get Thanksgiving off and Christmas, but has to get up at 3 a.m. to open early for all of the crazy Black Friday shoppers. BOO! 🙂
I have a question– if your husband says “move it or loose it” to you… does he say it to his nurses/staff? 🙂
I love Halloween and have two little girls who I get to dress up with *almost* whatever I want. We live in an apartment and have some kids around and I have bought 5 bags of candy. WHY?!?! So we can eat it too. 🙂
Holy frickness I feel like I have so much to comment on with this post! First of all, super excited for the new post coming up. Except I’m not sure what the secret coding is and I had the weirdest/most unpleasant experience today, which I’m going to force you to read about. I followed a link to this girl’s blog. And I liked it. A lot. So I was all excited and ready to become fake Internet friends with her. And then as I was writing my comment I noticed her “next post is” link which sounded good so I clicked on it to make it open in a new tab. Because I have a bad tab addiction. (Really, it gets quite overwhelming.) Then this box popped up that accused me of stealing. Really! And I thought I must have hit something wrong, so I tried once more and it did it again! And it was all threatening about tracking me down and about how it saved my IP address. Which just made me kinda freak out inside. ‘Cause I wasn’t stealing. I wasn’t even trying to highlight anything! So I wrote about it in my comment, as an I’m-really-not-stealing-honestly aside and I misspelled accompaniment which my computer informed me about because it’s awesome so I went to replace with the right spelling and it threatened me/told me my IP address is in some creepy stealers list AGAIN. At which point I had a heart attack and swore I’d never ever ever visit that blog ever again. So please, please don’t make your blog do that. Because I love you enough that I’d still come back. But I’m just not sure my heart could take it.
Also? Gravy is delicious. 90% of guys in bars are jerks. Surprise parties are awesome. As long as I’m not the person being surprised.
So, I feel you on the conflicted ovaries, as mine are very conflicted as well (kids? no kids? adopt? contribute to overpopulation? no kids? baaaaaa-bbbbbbbiiiiieeees!!! no. no babies. like that).
Congrats on the good Christmas news!
All the trick or treaters in my neighborhood are actually like 18 and drive themselves to my house in their cars. And they just wear their jeans and t-shirts or whatever. It’s really more like being mugged for candy than having trick or treaters. So we pretend not to be home and watch favorite scary movies or ghost hunter shows.