It's goin' on facebook!!

There are days when you just have the greatest, fantastical conversations with friends that you know you want to immortalize forever into your memory.  However, at least for me, my ability to retain any long term memories is hampered due to my ever failing short term memory.  I blame facebook. And smart phones, and television, and google chat, and...the internet.  Basically the ever growing use and dependency on technology has caused my brain to short, resulting in a complete lack of focus and attention deficiency.  People my age and younger may claim from time to time that we are excellent multi-taskers.  I have found that to be entirely...well, wrong.  I can switch from task to task, and in fact I often prefer it, getting bored easily of monotonous tasks that only access a certain portion of my brain at a time. 

That said, the best way for me to forever memorialize any event, conversation, moment is to record it to be read and reviewed at a later time.  If I'm at the computer, this of course is a simple task, often by referencing an inside joke on a friends' facebook wall.  However, I'm not always at a computer, conversations are not always via text or gchat, or facebook... So I tend to forget.  I forget a lot.  So much that sometimes I think there may be a good possibility of memory problems when I get much much older. 

My solution lately has been...It's goin on facebook! Therefore, when someone says something wildly hilarious, once I'm done rolling in laughter, holding my sides trying to inhale live saving oxygen, I try to make an effort to remember it.  Sometimes, its by taking out my iphone and leaving a "WILD BIRD!!" message on one of my closest friends wall.  And now I think about it, and smile...

I'm damaged.

I have felt like complete trash the last day and a half.  From now on I vow to never plan 2 nights in a row of late night debauchery.  I'm not old yet dammit, but my body is telling me something and its saying "woman you can't party the night away anymore".  Not that I even did that, having left a party on Saturday night at 12.

Having said that, I find I am no longer in the mood to finish this post. But I leave you with this: 
 

THE creepiest video I have ever come upon.  Thanks Aaron, now I can no longer control my upchuck reflex.

My obsession...

shoe girl wants...

shoe girl needs...

oh baby, ooh baby. 

I need shoe retail therapy. 

Am I Insane? I think not.

So I may or may not have been guilted into working out this afternoon but not nearly enough to continue Insanity.  I'm not insane. Even though the person responsible for this guilt is also an Insanity challenger, I know after failing completely to perform at any decent level during the first 2 workouts, I'm no where near fit enough to even attempt such madness.  But I did recently purchase Zumba for our Kinect. 

I must say...minus botching the moves in my front picture window (note to self: put up drapes...) where everyone and their brother can see me in my sweaty glory, I really do enjoy this as an exercise.  Now that my review class is complete and I've got several months yet to study for the big exam, I will have to increase my work out to 3-4 times a week.  The past 3 weeks has been 1-2 times a week depending on whether or not I decided to go out in the middle of the week.

Now after about 45 minutes of offbeat, tripping over my own two feet, I feel accomplished since I finally managed a work out this week.  Despite my oddly joyful demeanor for the last 4 days, I've been quite unproductive in terms of managing my dieting and exercise.  Perhaps that may be the root cause of my misplaced contentment?  Most likely not, since I do feel refreshed even now after I broke down, got my heart rate up, and peed from my pores.  After a good long hot shower, I was even more relaxed and the joyous week continues.  Now its time for a pasta dinner.  Feed my belly!! nom nom

Ok Spring, anytime now.

Officially, the first day of spring was the 20th.  She came to visit a few times but Winter kept kicking her out.  Bad Winter, bad! I'm over you winter, let's move on. Time for some sunshine! I'm much too pale...

bahahaha. obviously.

The Madness (and the non-diet) continues...

So, the heartbreak of Purdue losing to VCU has passed.  I really thought they'd at least get to see the Sweet 16.  Apparently not...and though my bracket has many many red lines, surprisingly I'm still in it. (at least, in the one bracket where I didn't have Purdue go all the way)  All of my Final 4 teams are still alive, all but one of my Elite 8 is still alive also.  However, obviously, that can change at any moment.

I wish the weekend wasn't over...

Friday night, the husband ditched me to watch Purdue play in Round "2" of March Madness. We had opera tickets for Carmen, so I took my friend Stephanie and we made a girl date out of it.  On a recommendation from a friend, we went to this fantastic Thai restaurant for dinner in the loop.  We splurged on dessert and got mango with sticky rice AND banana spring rolls with coconut ice cream.  This was the first time I'd ever watched Carmen and I was pleasantly entertained.  I loved it.  Although by the end, I started thinking about the Bugs Bunny opera episodes and wasn't quite as moved as a normal classy opera-faring individual should be.  Of course, it wasn't like Steph and I were being all that 'classy' to begin with.  At one of the intermissions our conversations drifted towards male ejaculations.  I certainly felt mature when I overheard the two gentlemen seated next to us talking about business models, and there we were talking about jizz. Yeah, we're real sophisticated..said in my snooty voice.

Saturday after being productive and finally getting my oil changed, and getting lectured by the auto specialists for the poor maintenance of our vehicles, I spent the rest of the day baking and cooking.  I tried these homemade funfetti cupcakes posted by Evan B on SwEEts by e.  They just looked so damn delicious and I had the opportunity to bake so I did.  It was also a beautiful day out so I had the dogs outside and the door open. 

Mmm..funfetti!

Yes, I have engraved spatulas. They were a wedding gift...came with an engraved cocktail shaker.  My Tita Judy knows what's gonna get used in my house! :-P

Pre-baked....

...and decorated with colored buttercream frosting

They are absolutely delicious!  I really should bake more often. I love to bake and cook...hubby is hardly allowed in my kitchen, although he is the grill master.  Here he goes prepping a rub for the pork butt he smoked yesterday:

"hmm, what do i need?"

There's not much room in the kitchen for the both of us, and then there's always the puppy who never leaves our sides even in a big roomy house...

i love to bask in the warm sun!

he used all my spices!

I did mention I let the dogs out to play right?

he's so photogenic..

mm breakfast...for lunch.

I was enjoying myself in my kitchen, so I continued the baking extravaganza...with the homemade thin mints I told myself I would attempt last month. 

I think maybe it's still worth it to buy the $4 box of crack thin mints every year.  This was much more complicated than I would normally be comfortable doing unless I was in a serious baking mood as I was over the weekend.

the hardest part...getting a thin coating of chocolate w/o breaking the cookie!

finally done.

OK...now I'm starving.  Time for left over pork butt. :-)  I haven't uploaded those pictures yet so I'll save that experience for a later post. That, and it was so delicious it deserves its own entry.  <3

And the world keeps on spinning...and spinning...and spinning...

I don't get drunk that often. I'm not much of a drinker...mostly because I can't 'hang' very long once the drinking commences. I've only gone black out once in my life and that was the first and only time I ever drank Jungle Juice.  Normally the world just gets a little fuzzy....and then I puke.  Bahaha. I even have certain stages that progress along as I continue to imbibe fermented liquids.

Stage One: The Asian Glow

The condition characterized by the subtle (or not so subtle in my case) flush to the face and/or body as alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream.  My ears get the worst of it, however the more I drink, the more it creeps along the rest of my body from head...to toe.  There have been numerous times sitting on the pisser, drunker than I should be, observing in awe the redness in my thighs.

Stage Two: The Happy Chill

me and hubby

me and brettkins

I become kind of an extrovert and talk to strangers.  The above pics are not strangers, however this is:

Yay Breakfast Club.

Stage Three:  The GiggleFits

At this point...I consider myself drunk. Still cognizant of my surroundings...but unable to filter and think about 90% of things said and done around me are hilarious.  Not quite able to walk a straight line, but not quite falling over...yet.  This stage also comes with dancing and the snarky betch version of me.  If I'm out with the girls...I am the cock blocking betch that will protect my friends from the horrors of grinding up against some strange man (of course, if they're ok with grinding up against some hornball then by all means...)

Stage Four:  The Spinning Room

Me, sitting on the bar floor...

This is when things start to get really fuzzy.  My eyes are barely open and I can't stand up without feeling like I'm going to fall over.  The Giggle Fits are over and people start to look at me like I'm going to barf all over the bar.  I may or may not admit to feeling queasy but regardless my companions typically cut me off at this point.  Rightfully so because what comes next isn't pretty...

Stage Five:  Oh yeah, I'm allergic.

(I'd rather not post pictures of me like this...:-P)

Tell tale sign I'm about to blow chunks:  Me sitting on whatever I find to sit on, half dazed staring out at the people getting drunk around me, SCRATCHING my face and chest. It's soon to get messy.  There was this one time that I got to this point and tried, unsuccessfully, to contain the projectile vomit in a plastic cup.  I still feel sorry for my friend who was serving us at the time.

PostPuke: Amazingly, after I expel all of the alcohol and food out of my stomach, I'm perfectly fine and go back to Stage 2 or 3.   In the morning I'm completely normal. No hangover, well rested, and annoyingly chipper to everyone else who had undoubtedly drank more than me.  The benefits of being me.

Most drinking events, I try not to get to Stage Five.  However...depending on the type of alcohol, I could go from Stage 2 to Stage 5 in a flash. This is why I avoid vodka at all costs.

Going out for St Patrick's Day last night was fun...but I'm still paying for it.  The irony of all this is that I know if I had thrown up last night, I probably would feel better than I do right now.  I wish I was in bed....

Let the Madness commence!

If you know me, you know I almost never watch sports, or go out of my way to watch a sports event unless there was something particularly special about it.  I will however, partake in the March Madness office pool.  What's $5/bracket if it ends up being anyone's game in the end?  Last year I came in 2nd place!   My champion got booted in the Final Four, but because I had a point advantage, I still ended up with the potential to win the whole pot.

This year, my Alma mater is ranked a 3 seed.  Yeah, Purdue! So, I had to do a second bracket, with Purdue winning the whole thing.  Of course, I'm pretty sure that won't happen, there are more consistent winning teams...but hey if they make it I'll be one happy camper.

Here are my brackets...I have no idea what I'm doing so I just picked teams that seemed to make sense.  There wasn't really any rhyme or reason as to why I picked certain teams to upset or win.  This year I spent too much time picking and re-picking teams...which means I spent too much time thinking about it...lol.  When that happens I lose.  Eep! Oh well. Take a looksie:

HAIL PURDUE!!

Oh and Happy St Patty's Day! Go drink some green beer!

I see *dumb* people.

I honestly don't know whether to bust out laughing, or go on a murdering rampage to tear this little snot bitch apart.  At the moment, I'm on the edge of laughing my ass off.

First off, I can't take her seriously when her boobs are slapping me in the face.  I had to watch the rant again just to hear the words I was so distracted. 

Secondly, one could easily assume a student studying Political Science intends to become a lawyer someday.  However, I'm pretty sure she can say good bye to that career now with this poorly worded, culturally insensitive so called rant gone viral.  I just have to laugh because of all the arguments she used she brought up the tsunami which was entirely uncalled for and she's going to have one hell of a time paying for it.

It's amusing to read some of the comments on the multitude of re-posts for this video.  If she had thought it through before she posted this, and made the rant solely about people talking on their phones in the library, even if it was a passing comment about asians being seemingly the only source of the problem, she probably would have been fine.  She had one valid point, that point being the library is a place for silence and studying...not for talking loudly and speaking on cell phones. 

I'm in awe of her ignorance and it makes me laugh.  I know I'm mean for laughing at her, but how can I not? This video is the epitome of all that is wrong with the world views of some so called "Americans".  And it shows that it's not just the older generations that are struggling with racism since its still seeping into the minds of the younger generations as well. Hopefully the backlash she's gotten has opened her eyes just a little more.

The girl has since apologized and the original video deleted but it's still out there, and will haunt her forever.  I almost feel sorry for the girl.  I said almost.... 

a grumpus kind of mood

i use the term grumpus loosely at the moment...simply because at any moment i could go from grumpus to full blown bitch mode.  which wouldn't help anyone in my general vicinity.  i could use the excuse that i'm just tired, but that would be just a slight fabrication of the truth.  in fact, i'm pretty well rested having gone to bed super early last night.  so much so that when the dog woke me up at quarter to 5 this morning i debated getting up and doing day 2 of insanity (more on that later).  but i was in a pissy mood and preferred the warmth of my bed to 45 mins of sweating my nonexistent balls off.

now we all know the reason behind my current state of mind, and one glance at my calendar will confirm it but i find no reason to state it so bluntly.  certainly doesn't help that it will be raining all day.  and perhaps a good portion of my grumpiness is residual from last night.  i refuse to air it all out for the world to see but essentially my evil alter ego got to me again.  unfortunately the one person who had helped me work through this before now has about a million of her own problems and i hate to lean on her, when she needs to lean on me.  logically, i know better. however, what i know conflicts with what i feel.  it's a work in progress that i thought was a disappearing issue, however it's become apparent in the last couple weeks that indeed is not the case. i think i need to meditate soon.

i blasted through this mornings routine since i pouted in bed much later than when i should have gotten up.  seemed like a good option at the time.

in other news yesterday i completed day one of:

click image to go to webpage

i should add as a disclaimer, i'm not doing the diet portion of the insanity challenge and in no way do i expect to have the kind of results that are posted on that page.  especially considering i won't be doing the continuous 60 day workout challenge either.  but i was able to copy it from my cousin (ssshhhhhh...) so i figure why not give it a shot.

OBLI..QUOI??

day one was just a fit test.  yes, just... but seeing as i don't have the upper body strength to  even do *one* push up, i couldn't even do the second to last 'exercise' which resembled something of a push up/jumping jack cross.  and since it was do as many reps you can in this small amount of time, i felt rather lame when the people in the video were doing like 80 reps. actually, the number of reps they did compared to the number of reps i struggled to do for the other exercises varied drastically  but came as no surprise since i haven't worked some of those muscles in months or even...ever.

i'm sore all over today...the kind of sore that tells me i just did something to confuse my body in all sorts of ways.  the kind of sore i was when i first went snowboarding, minus the bruises. the kind of sore that makes things fun.  i wont be able to do day 2 of shaun t's insanity challange today, but i will after work tomorrow.  at least, i intend to.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy #(@!

By name, I am catholic. By practice...I don't know what it is.  I'm a sucker for traditions however, and therefore still follow the 'no meat on Fridays' that somewhere along the line became some kind of homage to our fasting ancestors during Lent.  As lent approaches, I find I have no idea what I will "give up" for this period of 40 days and 40 nights. With exception to last year, I've not had any successful attempts at fasting from one of any number of my vices, which unsurprisingly have all been food related.  I routinely attempt to give up soda...and within a week, fail.  I once tried to give up dessert.  Again, fail. 

My only success has been giving up all meat save for seafood, just last year.  As I'm notoriously carnivorous, it seemed it would be a daunting 40 days only eating fish and shrimp. At the beginning, I struggled to find ways to make my meals interesting and flavorful.  By Easter, I found I had a surprisingly easy meat free month and a half.  In fact, I'd come to not crave meat at all, and although I did break my meat fast and partook in the Easter ham, I didn't have a "Hallelujah, AMEN" moment as the ham passed between my lips.  Not like the husband who gave up coffee last year and went straight back to multiple cups of the beverage the day after Easter was over. 

I still consider myself a carnivore.  I love meat.  Give me a nice juicy steak and I'm gonna eat it.  No regrets or sympathy for the bovine creature that gave its life to feed me.  However, I've been noticing an increased craving for fish the past year as well.  And I wasn't much of a fish person prior to last year's lent period.  True, my husband has gotten me to enjoy fish when we go to Florida, and I've always loved shellfish.  And true we finally had a place here smack dab in our neighborhood that sold good quality fish. (alas, our fish monger has had to close up shop due to the recession and relocated to Indianapolis so we no longer have him)  But, before last year, I would prefer to eat something with beef or chicken in it over fish.

...Now I'm craving me some steamed blue crab.  Oh man I'm hungry.

Back to the original dilemma...what to give up this year? If I was more of a 'devout' catholic I suppose I'd give up something really important.  However, since I'm not...I'll stick to my (unhealthy) food vices.  Actually I will probably give up meat again and add something else to try and reduce my intake of.  Perhaps I will finally succeed at giving up soda this year.  Maybe the 'fastfood' joints like McD's and Wendys won't be seeing me for the next 2 months.  All three? 

Angry Rant Time

Normally, I'm not a feminist.  Yes, I believe in equal rights for all men and women alike, but I don't necessarily think women deserve anything extra.  Times are changing, women are becoming more powerful in the work place and the majority of the time it's because they worked for it.  In an industry that has always been male dominated, I bow down in respect to those who get there.  I'm not gonna lie, if I eventually get work because some hardcore feminist made the government require a certain percentage of work to go to a minority and/or woman, I'll take it.  But where I'm at right now...and here's to hoping none of the upper management in this company find this blog...DAMN THIS BOYS CLUB OF A COMPANY.

Shortly after I started here, I realized how much of a 'boys club' it was.  It doesn't really bother me as I'm always going to be unaffected.  For some reason, our little engineering group stands outside of normal day-to-day production.  We even can hide ourselves away from the rest of the office by closing a door.  So fine, no big deal. It irks me a little though, to see how the rest of the office is structured.  Normally, I just don't say anything and move on with life.  If they don't do anything about it, and they can deal with working in that way, more power to them.  I just know I couldn't and wouldn't put up with it.

I know where I stand here, and thank god for my boss who has helped to manipulate the misguided perceptions of a certain individual who happens to be head honcho of this joint.  I get respect because of what I do, and even then it's because my boss has given credit to where its due.  Not that it's that much of a big deal for me to get credit for what I do, but the little credit the does come my way helps to keep my job from morphing into something 'other' in this place.  One of my reviews with the president very nearly caused me to quit.  Let's just say he tried to "promote" me to being my boss's 'assistant'.  He literally said that I would answer his phone calls.  Like fucking hell I would.  I don't mind doing the extra busy work that needs to get done for my boss, but there's no way anyone is going to get me to do dictation.   Luckily, my boss didn't go for it.  Not that he outright crossed the man but more like worked around his idea of my job description...

Over the past few days, I've been asked to print off an office organization chart.  Basically it says who does what and who manages whom.  Boy, it is all over the place.  Today, I finally noticed one additional tidbit.  A new name.  I knew we were hiring a new person for accounting.  The financial manager is pregnant and is going to be on maternity leave soon, we recently had someone quit and although we replaced the person who quit there's still too much work for accounting to handle.   So there were a few interviews, all of them interviewed by the financial manager because she needed the new hire to be able to help with some of her responsibilities when she goes on maternity leave.  I knew they had picked one of the guys, but I just didn't know when he'd be starting.  Apparently it won't be for another couple weeks, which would put it about a week or 2 before she goes on maternity leave. 

No big deal having a new hire to help out with some managerial duties, right?  At least, that has been the assumption around accounting, which for reference, are all women. Well, according to this organization chart, he's placed above her.  Now, maybe I don't know the whole story...maybe he was hired to be a financial manager manager...?  She's been the financial manager now for longer than I've been here, and finally got her own office a year and a half ago. But I know the reason she's that high up in the food chain is that she knows her shit, and worked for it.  (and is still working for it)

I asked about the new hire, when I gave the print back to the person who asked me to print it. She made a circling motion around the accounting bracket saying "yeah, that's going to cause a lot of problems. you didn't see this" shaking her head and covering the names.  Taken aback by that comment, I probed further...and basically, no one knows what the new guy was hired for.  I can bet you no one is expecting that particular adjustment in the chain of command. And the way things change around here, I'm not sure she will still have her office by the time she comes back from maternity leave. 

As previously stated, I'm not normally a feminist...but the way I'm seeing this situation? She has worked her ass off for these guys and they're essentially "demoting" her.  For what? Because she's pregnant?!  That is such bullshit, not to mention illegal in about a thousand different ways, yet I'm sure they'll find some legal work-around for an excuse.  I'm curious to see how they'll pull this one off.  It's infuriating, and I'm tempted to forward this chart to the financial manager.  Although I may be genetically predisposed for an addiction to drama, I try not to cause it.   Who knows, maybe she already knows what's going to happen....