2/28/2006

Upon some random Googling, I found this...

BadBlogs

I found it because I was trying to find my sister's old blog by typing in her username. Well, in the search results I found that her blog was in the BadBlog archives. Awesome! It is kind of cool to see that someone is looking at your blog. Granted, they are posting it to make fun of you, but still. One thing I wish that the site would do, is to make a List of Rules, stating how blogs get into BadBlogs. I was reading some of them, not understanding what was wrong with them. Then again, look at what I write...Boring. Cuteoverload, makes a list of rules of what makes certain images cute. BadBlogs should follow suit. If they make a list of rules, they can post a blog, and then ask the readers, list the rules that make this blog bad. Then, it would give the readers something fun to do.

Now, I eagerly anticipate the day that my blog will be posted.

2/27/2006

I am nerdly even in my adult years

I didn't get invited to lunch with the co-workers. It's like high school except this time, instead of driving myself around during my lunch hour, I eat in my office with the door closed. Oh, the pain of young adulthood.
Then:
who didn't invite me: people I tried to make my friends
what i did: lunch sitting in lap as I drove down the lakeside drive
who occasionally would talk and/or hang out with me: my stoner friends
attire: jeans and a t-shirt
hair: straight, barely shoulder length, parted down middle when not always in a ponytail
car: Grey Ford Taurus Wagon late 80's, I believe
relationship status: single, not so ok with it.

Now:
who didn't invite me: co-workers
what I did: lunch on desk while looking at stuff on myspace
who occasionally would talk and/or hang out with me: maintenance guys
attire: long sleeved shirt and khakis
hair: long, straight, parted to side, not in a ponytail that often
car: '95 Red Mercury Sable...that works now! Yippee, I say with empty pockets.
relationship status: Single, and ok with it.

x5GDm14

2/23/2006

This week has been weird

Tuesday I got my car to a mechanic because apparently a head gasket needed to be replaced. Boooo. They told me that it would be ready by Wednesday afternoon. They lied. The car is still in the shop for additional crap that is, as of right now, undiagnosed. Screw mechanics. I've never met an honest one.

Sometime last week I lost my mitten. I thought maybe I lost it at a coffee shop I was at. I didn't. As I was crossing the street to get to my apartment today, I looked down at the street at a flattened mitten. It was mine! I picked it up. Perhaps it is salvageable.

I have been taking the bus to get to and from work. It is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Granted, it takes an hour to travel to or from, but still easy. I am used to small town buses, which there is one bus transfer point. Not this transfer where you may stuff. Even writing it now I hate how much I sound like a hick. Anyway, Wednesday after work I was standing there waiting with everyone else for the bus. This one man was standing there with his daughter who looks about 2 years-old. She was spinning around and running in circles around he dad. She stopped in front of me, and said something I couldn't quite understand, ran up to me and wrapped her arms around my legs. I just smiled and bent over and patted her on her back. Her dad apologized and called her back to him.

The only thing I hate about busing it, is running across busy streets and climbing over snow banks because there are no sidewalks by the building I work at.

The sound on my computer was off for five days, and then I downloaded a new version of win-amp. As I pressed play, the music blared out of the speakers. Weird how this stuff works out. I didn't even try to fix it, and it fixed itself, I guess.

Even though I signed a sheet declaring my self a new costumer of the electrical company months ago, I JUST got a notice stating that I am a new costumer and being billed effective mid February. Whatever, as long as I had those few months free.

I handed out flyers to each unit at the development I work at. There is 358 units. I put the flyers under the doors of the units. 358 times bending over and standing up. Afterward, I felt like I spent the day at the amusement park You must know what I mean. Like your body is still experiencing that up and down movement. It isn't as pleasant as the rides themselves. I kind of felt nauseous.

All this walking and moving around is making me realize that: I am out of shape, I am lazy and I miss walking everywhere, like in Madison.

2/20/2006

Dancing is not my specialty

Friday

Free Beer! It was some kind of special a bar was having for Lakefront Brewery. Of course, I only had one cup at which I drank at a leisurely pace. Watched everyone else drink it up. Once again, not annoying and extremely funny. I always feel much more relaxed when everyone else is drunk and having fun. I feel like, when I am drunk myself, I need to show how NOT drunk I am, but when I am sober and around drunk people that are having fun, it allows me to loosen up a bit. Besides the free beer, I also partook in the Guinness Toast. I have never heard of this before, but apparently it is a worldwide thing. I am starting to warm up to the Guinness, it isn't that bad.

I did my usual dancing while sitting in my chair. I was working it out, robot style. I rarely dance but I love to bop to the music. Then one of my co-workers tried to teach me the rock-with-it-lean-with-it dance. That was a disaster. Basically, I should not be allowed to dance at all. Not even slow dance. I remember a slow dance I had at one of my high school proms (yes, I actually went to some). A guy friend of one of my friends was nice enough to ask me to dance. It was awkward and very typical of an awkward high school slow dance. Arm width apart, dancing in a circle really fast. I was just praying for it to be over, because the guy was kind of creepy.

Unfortunately, my dancing is not even funny/goofy. It is just sad.

Phat-Ass! vs. Flat-Ass! - Big Booty Hoes! Hop Wit-it!

Saturday

Bowling with Team Spare-it (say it out loud and fast and yes we are making t-shirts). Scores: 68-86-145. A lot of high-fiving. Good times.

Danielle's Birthday party. A bunch of dental students. My friend Carrie sat at the dining room table watching everyone else play drinking games around the living room coffee table. We talked about how we felt inferior because we weren't in dental school. Then Danielle was facing away from me and I noticed her butt. I said to Carrie, "Danielle's got an ass on her. I never really noticed before." Carrie proceeded to tell Danielle, I said she had a big butt. So in retaliation she slapped me on my butt (ow!) and said, "Yeah, that went right to the bone, flat-ass." Ah, good times.

When I finally did start talking to some dental students, I found that they were funny and nice. It was brought up again that I supposedly told Danielle that she had a "fat-ass," and one of the guys said, "She mean p-h phat-ass." I sure did. Another girl said that she once called Danielle a slut, because she was wearing a knee-length skirt. Hee, my type of people. When you make fun of people, it means you like them.

Look at us, we're so PRETTY!!!! *Girly Squeal*

Sunday:

I got up at 8:30, thinking that it would only take me 30 minutes to shower, dress and leave for my hometown to meet with my sister, mom and the rest of the bridesmaids to go dress shopping. I was wrong. I turned the shower on to warm up while I got undressed and put my contacts in (I know you aren't suppose to but I like to be able to SEE while I shower). As I was about to get in the shower, I noticed that the bathroom floor was wet, soaking wet. I forgot to tuck in the shower curtain. Frustrated I quickly took my shower, and then mopped up the floor and squeezed the excess water out of my shower mat. The cleaning of my floor took an extra 15 minutes, so I didn't leave Milwaukee until 9:15. As I was on the highway, I noticed that I needed gas, so I pulled off the next exit, only to find that the nearest gas station was, what felt like, 2 miles off the exit. There is an extra 15 minutes. Luckily, I planned on getting to my mom's an hour earlier so I was only 30 minutes early. See, planning for crap to go down is a good thing.

Anyway, we went to a bridal store that was a little over an hour away. I had a lot of driving to do yesterday. When we got to the store, we were sent of immediately to pick out what dresses we liked and hang them on the designated clothes rack. I felt completely lost. I didn't know if there was a specific color or style, plus I am just not a girly girl. I don't know what looks good. It must of been funny to look at me because I was barely even touching the clothes. I just kept on walking back and forth through the aisles. By the time I picked out 2 dresses the rack was filled with dresses all the other girls had picked out. My sister made me try on one that I knew would look bad, and I quickly picked out one more, just to see how the halter style would look. Next was the dressing rooms.

The lady in charge of helping us out, asked our bra sizes so we could wear a strapless corset while trying the dresses on. Holy Constriction! I was laughing at myself while I was putting it on. You had to hook it on backwards and then twist it around. I was jumping so that it could twist around but it made my boobs look fantastic. Here is a summary of the dresses and how they looked:

Dress 1: calf-length, pink, with sheer, triangles shaped straps and a ribbon belt. Looked awkward.
Dress 2: looked like a maroon version of a prom dress I had. No!
Dress 3: body hugging chocolate brown, silky fabric. Two words: spare tire!
Dress 4: calf-length, lavender halter with a flower/belt. A very poor man's version of Marilyn Monroe.

My cousin, who is seven, came out with this full length champagne colored dressed, that had little straps and looked gathered/cinched on one side. Everyone "awwwed" and wanted a big girl version of the dress. They found one that was similar, except strapless and with a brooch on the ruched part. I dreaded even looking at it, because of the strapless part. I have an odd shaped body. My appendages are skinny, but I have a rounder midsection. I was afraid of some fat hanging over the edges. There were no mirrors in the dressing room so I had no idea coming out of the room.

I have to admit though, once I saw my reflection, I was really hoping that this would be the dress, because it was very pleasing to all figures. The size ranges of the bridesmaids range from a 4 to 18 and everyone looked pretty in there dresses, and everyone felt pretty. You could tell. My sister had to try her dress on too, so her friend said, "Do you want us to keep our dresses on so we can stand next to you." Heh. My other cousin, who is 15, wanted to take her dress home right away, which of course none of us did because we wanted to have clean new dresses, so we ordered them. There was a lot of girliness going on, which is funny because none of the bridesmaids, is really a" girly girl."

When we first had the dresses on, I was standing with my seven year old cousin looking into the mirror with her, when all of the sudden I said, "FLEX!" At the same time, we showed off our guns, making tough grrl! faces. That's how my family rolls.

2/16/2006

I know what I want to be when I grow up

I want to be a forever student. I miss school. Lately, I have noticed that I miss school a lot. There are a lot of times, I wonder if my major (Sociology) was a wrong choice. It's too broad, and it didn't train me to do really anything. But at the same time, I loved what I was studying. To me it was fascinating. Studying human behavior and theorizing why people are so stupid. It's just awesome. Still to this day, I talk a lot about what I studied while in school. Particularly, I always seem to bring up my Human Sexuality course I took sophomore year. Who wouldn't want to know about masturbatory practices and nicknames for it?

The reason I bring this up, is because some fellow co-workers and I are in charge of leading a segment of Friday training. The topic we decided to present was Body Image and Media. I took a Woman's Studies course and always found the work of Jean Kilbourne to be fascinating so I was super pumped about doing this.

While doing some initial research on the internet, I found nothing. So I decided to look at the UW-Madison library website for some inspiration. I was looking at all the listing of journal entries on Body Image and Media, Gender and Sex Image in the Media etc., and found myself jealous of all the students who were able to check out that material and read it. I actually found myself desiring to check out the material to read FOR FUN! Such a nerd, I am. Luckily I found some awesome websites that showcase some examples of offensive body image usage.

I am also planning on using a book, I read for my Comics Literature class called Ways of Seeing by John Berger. Part of the book comments on art and advertisement and how women are "surveyed." According to this book, both men and women are taught to look at women as objects (the surveyed or the object of the "gaze") and not actors (the surveyor or the "gazer"). Also, a woman's presence, or how she is portrayed, is how she WANTS to be treated. A man's presence is a outward expression of his emotions, and is not indicative of how he wants to be treated. A kind of modern way to look at this is if a woman is dressed "slutty", she wants people to treat her as a "slut." Summed up: Traditionally men are not concerned, or don't have to be concerned with what others think. Woman need or should be concerned with what others think. I could go on and on about this book, but you should read it if you have the chance. It's only 154 pages (with A LOT of pictures).

If you want to do your own little investigation, first take a look at the links I connected to and read about the ways women, and men, are objectified (ex. focusing on body parts and not faces, the positioning of the bodies in sexual positions, the use of the mouth, as dolls/not humans at all, violence, etc.) pick up a magazine: whether it be Cosmo, Maxim, Essence or whatever, and take a look at the ads. Particularly, the liqueur, tobacco, perfume and clothing ads. This is fascinating stuff here people!

Ok, enough with my dorkiness. Later.

2/14/2006

Last Minute Bombardment of Valentine's Day...

Valentine's Day for me, is like Christmas for many naysayers: extremely over commercialized. Every year it is torturous for me. How could there be one day out of the year (two for people who celebrate Sweetest Day, or Sweatiest Day as my dad so famously wrote on a card for my mom when they first started dating) that you are expected to show your love one that you love them with candy, cards and lingerie. Don't forget the never ending advertising that goes on a month, sometimes earlier, beforehand. Apparently, they are even commercializing on anti-valentine's sentiments. Hey, step off my sub-culture, man.

Last year, living with two females that were either in an established relationship or starting a new one, I felt like I was in hell. The cutesy-ness of it all is enough to make my skin crawl even now.

I thought this year was going well. I do not have any roommates to make me gag at all the stories about the "cute" things their boyfriends did for them (Rianna if you are reading this, I am only half-kidding, heh). The advertising for Valentine's didn't seem so aggressive. Then the day came and all bets were off. I am seeing so many ads for gift ideas for your loved ones. I am getting a "Happy Valentine's" here, and e-mail there and of course the dreaded question, "So what are your plans?" ARGH! I don't mind the well wishings for the day (there should be more "Happy Day"s going on, instead of the few days we get to say it, based off what the US calendar tells us), I don't mind the e-mails (these in fact are more amusing than anything else). What I hate is that question. My reply is always snarky, "I am spending the night with my TV," or something equally sad and embittered. Ads, I can do without also. Perhaps if they didn't make everyone looks so materialistic.

In reality, I don't want to feel bitter. Single people are expected to feel this way on a day to celebrate couples and love. And for those who know me, I am such a rebel to expectations.

For those of you who are equally as nerdy as me, here is the History of Valentine's Day. I don't think the idea about putting names into an urn is that bad. At least then someone would be forced to get to know me and I would get a few dates out of the situation, muhahaha. But knowing my luck I would be stuck with someone I didn't find attractive, intelligent or interesting.

I am not bitter, superficial or picky so you all can shut it.

2/13/2006

Because I am bored

Here is my new pet. His name is puppy and he is black. If I were to get a real cat, I probably would not name him/her puppy, but i would hope that he/she would be black. I would most likely get a boy, because as I understand it, boy cats are friendlier and more affectionate. I need all the attention I can get.

my pet!

2/09/2006

Another quiz result so very fitting to me...

How is this possible when I am wearing old fashion undies?

Your Stripper Song Is

Closer by Nine Inch Nails

"You let me violate you, you let me desecrate you
You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you
Help me I broke apart my insides, help me I�ve got no
Soul to tell"

When you dance, it's a little scary - and a lot sexy.


Trent Reznor is a sexy little man.

That's morbid, and kind of funny

I have the workshops I hold for my job at this senior housing pavilion/recreation center deal. As I was waiting for the most recent workshop to start, and for no one to come, I was reading the newspaper that was on the table next to me. It was called 50 plus. On the front cover, they had a picture of the oldest and youngest graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The youngest 19 (started college at 16. This angers me. Not only is she able to start school at 16, but she manages to finish in less than 4 years. I hope she dies a firey death. Ok, not really but she still sucks.) and the oldest was 67. Holla! I love education, and I love to see people finish off their schooling. And that last statement was not sarcatic, Finger Up! (For those of you not knowing the inside joke, go here and watch the performance of the one and only Girls Guitar Club, now defunct. I wish they were still together. You can also go here to find a short they made staring E (Mark Evertt) of the Eels).

Anyway, to the morbid part. I was flipping through the pages, when I noticed something funny. They had an ad for those who were interested in selling their homes, right next to senior living facilities. Then, right next to that, a FUNERAL HOME ad. The ad had some happy faces of senior citizens on it. How fitting. It's like the cycle of life: you sell your house, you live in some crappy nursing home, you go to the funeral home. I wish I would have taken the newspaper and scanned the ad, because the pictures were the funniest part.

Although I found it humorous I was still disturbed by it. I will always be disturbed by death and the marketing of the products surrounding it. Yet that ad was not as disturbing as the commercial I saw for a funeral home staring the funeral home owner's children basically saying, "My parents work at a funeral home. Look at how cool they are. I am cool because I am their offspring. We are cool together." Ew. Just gross.

I always thought I was, but now I know for sure

BECAUSE BLOGTHINGS QUIZ TOLD ME SO!!!




You are Agnostic



You're not sure if God exists, and you don't care.

For you, there's no true way to figure out the divine.

You rather focus on what you can control - your own life.

And you tend to resent when others "sell" religion to you.

2/06/2006

Job offer...maybe, kind of

So the placement that I am at now is only temporary. I am basically an intern. After my Public Allies stint at my placement, I am free to roam off on my own. As far as I know, my placement could offer me the job full-time. I went into this thinking that may be a possibility. However, the more I got into my job, the more unrealistic it became. Not necessarily because I didn't want it, but because I thought I was sucking some major ass in position I was in. Then I got a call today...

It was from an intern at the national offices. She works below the woman who initially hired me. Anyway, the intern was talking to me, critiquing the way I filled out my monthly report, and she mentioned how she was going to be sad to see me go after my 10 months were up. I wish I could transcribe the entire conversation so that you, the reader, could help in giving me your opinion in what was really being said but I don't remember what she said word for word. Since I don't remember I am just going to have to tell you what I took from the conversation.

What I got was that they were interested in having me stay after my Public Allies time, but they didn't think that it was possible, based off policies that PA and/or they have. I told her that I thought I remembered other Allies in the past being hired on to their placements. This information seemed to both surprise and intrigue her. She did tell me at the end of our conversation, to keep them in mind when the 10 months are up. Hmm. Maybe I am reading too much into it. It would be nice to have a solid job offer after this is all done.

Is it just me or are my blogs boring, horrible written, and/or stupid? Wait a minute...Don't answer that.

2/05/2006

A bizarre Dream and a Barrel of Fun

I had a very weird dream last night. Of course I don't remember the whole thing, but there is a certain segment that I do remember. It involved me being with a group of friends (these were made up friends because no one looked familiar) at what seemed to be ski resort. Some of us decided to go on the ski lift, just for fun. Well it ended up going really high. Once it hit the peak of the mountain, the ski lift accelerated even faster and continued to climb into the sky. The altitude was so high that I couldn't breathe. But the weirdest thing of all was that I was enjoying it. It was like an amusement park ride. Then without explanation, the ski lift dropped really fast, sort of like the Raging Bull from Six Flags. You think that people would be scared of a ski lift suddenly dropping, but no I was still screaming with glee. The sensations of dropping and the snow hitting my face, felt so real. I don't remember the rest of the dream from this point on.

Recently I was having this conversation with a Public Allies friend about Peter, the blow up doll that I inherited from Dawn. We decided that it would be a funny idea to bring it over to a get together that another Public Allies friend was having. A sort of house warming gift if you will. Well, it went over extremely well. I think Peter will have some good times with his new family. (The funniest thing about bringing Peter over was that I had my friend Carrie blow him up while we were driving over there. It must have been a sight for people who were standing in the streets and saw us at stop sights. We also stopped to get some fries at this restaurant, so we left Peter sitting in the backseat. When we finished eating and started to drive again Peter scared me when I would look in the rearview mirror It is so creepy).

My scores for Saturday nights bowling league...83, 98 and 137. Yes, I realize that I kick some major ass.

2/01/2006

Starting to hate politics in general

President Bush's State of the Union was on last night. It was suppose to be a speech of optimism, instead I felt even worse about the future of my country. I literally felt sick to my stomach hearing the future plans. Since I don't remember exactly what got to me, here is a run down of what I found amusing/disturbing:

-At the beginning Bush gave a quick tribute to Coretta Scott King. It is very sad to see such a prominent figure of Civil Rights leave us. When he was speaking, the camera scanned the audience, and who else did they show but... Yes you guessed it, Black people. Oh look how diverse the audience is...First Lady Bush even had, what appeared to be a Muslim woman and a Black man, sitting next to her. Yes, I don't know much about politics, so these people could be related to the subject matter, or some big political figure, but still...To me it was such a publicity ploy. And later when Bush was talking about education and children, the cameraman found...Yes, a child. Way to keep our attention. (Back to the Coretta Scott King thing. I don't know where I heard it, I think it was Good Morning America or something, but when they were talking about her, they said something to the effect as, "Behind every Great Man there is a Great Woman." God, as a feminist, this saying irks me like no other. How about, "Beside every Great Man there is a even Greater Woman." Yeah, that is much better.) Ok, back to the State of the Union.

-Whenever the Republican half would go into ruckus applause, Bush would give this very self-pleasing smirk. Yes, your speech writers did an ok job. But here's a thought, perhaps they weren't applauding in approval, but just to piss off the Democrats.

-Bush started the section talking about Social Security, and he talked about how his two of his fathers favorite people were approaching retirement age, himself and President Clinton. They flashed to Hillary Clinton you had this pursed lips/furrowed brow look going on. Don't worry Hill, I had the same look on my face. The Bush administration is really playing up this Bush Sr./Clinton friendship.

-Hey look. It's Senator Kohl.

-I was so embarrassed with the Dem vs. Rep applauding/booing. Yes this is our government. You could easily mistake this audience for an audience at a rival high schools basketball game.

-Ahhhhhhh. I hate the Patriot Act. But hey, it doesn't affect me because I'm American, I look white bread. Wooo hooo America.

I could go on and on about this but I won't since I need to get going. If you want to comment about how little I know about politics go ahead, but be aware, I already know.