Enough of the Blahs

On a much lighter note..... This song gets stuck in my head all the time... And I love it.

99.9% of the time, this is the song that I belt out in the shower.

Even though there are clowns in the video and they creep me out.... Enjoy.

<iframe width="560" height="345" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/owNv81KIvAQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

**UPDATED** It doesn't want to embed apparently, so here is the direct link: http://youtu.be/owNv81KIvAQ

Woe Is Me or Pity Party, Table for 1

 I will be the first to admit that my problems are really not big in the grand scheme of things. Especially compared to some things that other people have to go through and deal with... In fact, I can fully admit that most of my problems fall under the category of “First-World Problems” - meaning, they aren’t really problems. (Example: I really wanted to buy a couple of those HP Touchpads that were on super-cheap sale, but they were all sold out...)

Like I absolutely, 100%, with-the-heat-of-1000-suns mega-loathe someone I work with. And I really hate my title (which they promised me was being changed - I no longer believe anything they tell me until I see it). But I have a steady, secure job. And they pay me. So, really, I generally just suck it up and deal. And most of the time it works.

Lately, though? Not so much. I even proved that the jerk referenced above is actually bad for my health. I bought a heart rate monitor to wear when I’m working out and, as a joke, I put it on to see what happens when he comes near me... While sitting at my desk working away my heart rate hovered between 62 - 66 beats per minute. When jerkface walked over - before he even opened his stupid mouth - I glanced down and I was well over 90 beats per minute. Sooooo not ok.

I just am not happy at work. I like a lot of people I work with... I really like the company I work for (and have worked for for 12 years). I even used to really like what I do... Until they added so much extra work to it that it makes me want to scream. Almost every day one of my bosses will give me a new report or project or task that is now 100% my responsibility... And I am waiting for either the breaking point or, I don’t know, just maybe a little recognition or credit. It’s like I’m being punished for being awesome at my job...

They know that I’m not happy... It’s pretty much impossible to hide. Especially from the people that know the history of last time I had to work with jerkface. Long story short - he called me “witchy” with a “B” because I didn’t laugh at a stupid “joke” he made... The “joke” in question? (Because it wasn’t even a joke...) “I’m going to lunch and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” After this and repeated rude behavior to me, he was put in a different job and was pretty much told that he was not allowed to speak to me. Not even to say “Hello.” And now I have to work with him again. 

Thanks, Murphy’s Law! You’re awesome!

They are even really supportive of helping me keep an eye out for openings at our other offices in the area... And there was an opening at our closest one recently. It was a big step up and would be a really nice promotion, AND it would set me free from having to see jerkface, so of course I went for it. I kept my expectations down because it was a big step up and it’s been a few years since I had anything to do with that department at this office. But then I was surprised with a phone interview! And it seemed to go really well. A little spark of hope started whispering that I might actually be a contender... And I started wondering if I would be lucky enough to get a call back as one of the 2 people that would get an in-person interview....

But that was a week ago. Every day that has passed this week has snuffed that little spark out more and more. I mean, how long could it possibly take to do four phone interviews and narrow it down to the two final candidates? Not this long! Even knowing how slowly this company works sometimes... So now, that spark is hiding way in the back of my brain whispering “But it still says ‘open position’ on the org chart...........................” while at the front of my brain is a big fart noise and a big thumbs down.

I was telling a friend about it and she asked if I was bummed... I told her that it would have been really nice, but it was a big stretch and I was genuinely surprised to actually be seriously considered for it... But I’m already so unhappy with where I am at work that it’s not really making me any less happy... Because I can’t really go down much further from here. Her exact words were, “Wow. That’s really sad.” I laughed. I have to laugh because, unless I am able to find something else, this is where my paycheck comes from. And I truly do like working for this company... I don’t want to leave it completely... I have a lot of friends and history here.

There are other big companies in the area that I have heard are also good companies to work for that I have seen have openings... But I’m worried that it will be worse to leave. What if the grass only looks greener because there’s more dog crap fertilizing it over there?

So I’ll keep on being awesome at my stupid over-loaded job and wishing the days away so that I can have my weekends... And I’ll keep watching for my opportunity to get away from the people making me miserable. And I’ll keep pushing my boss about my title change. And I’ll keep being furiously happy in the rest of my day-to-day...

And even though I prefer to live my life as an optimist, I keep telling that dim little spark to shut up and stop being stupid....

Because to let it work its way back up and shine brightly would hurt even more when I finally get the definitive answer if it doesn’t go my way...

But it still says “open position” on the org chart.........................................................

I'm, like, Totally Rad.

We had 80's day at work last week, so I spent the weekend before it running from Goodwill to Costume Shops to Walmart to prepare for it... (Am I the only one that feels kinda weird going to Goodwill for clothes for a costume? "Excuse me, person shopping for their actual wardrobe... I need that horrible t-shirt to wear to be funny..." Just sayin'... I have seen other people able to find some really cute stuff at Goodwill - mine doesn't have any of that...) We were supposed to have brought in a picture of us from the 80's and then dress in our best 80's look.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.....

Mini-Me

Rockin' it.

My hair ended up crimped shortly after I went inside - a coworker had brought her crimping iron. I even had press-on nails that were like a french manicure, but with a difference fluorescent color on each nail. I rocked my 80's look with no shame - hot pink eye shadow and all.

I even went to the bank and the gas station... With my head held high and my purple skirt bouncing.

True Life: I’m a GENERAL Blogger.

I suppose that pretty much covers me... If there were a category of I’m a RANDOM Blogger, I would feel even more comfortable there...

For anyone new visitors stopping by from Fabulous But Evil or Mrs. Monologue’s blog hops, Welcome. A little about myself and this little hot mess of a blog I write...

I’m -

- 30-something

- married to a great man (J)

- horribly addicted to my best friend (I go through withdrawals if I don’t see her very regularly)

- weird

- entertained by inventing new words (“Is that even a word?” “It came out of my mouth, didn’t it?”)

- a sporadic writer - especially when I have a lot going on... I write to relieve stress, but when I have too much, I disappear a little...

- a lover of lists

- completely random

- a full-time worker, but dreaming of a day when I won’t have to go to an office ever again

- easily irritated

- hopelessly addicted to Diet Coke

- impatient

- funny (at least I make myself laugh)

- ridiculously entertained by watching British or Irish Parliament (or House of Lords) on CSPAN. It’s wonderful. Seriously - watch it. They yell at each other and call each other names... Even the Prime Minister!

- a bookworm - always have been, but having my Kindle has made it even worse because I can take it everywhere with me and when I finish a book, I just download another...

- working on losing weight and getting healthy

- silly

- a home-body

- outgoing and shy at the same time

- no longer embarrassed by pretty much anything (even falling down the stairs in front of my boss... true story...)

- an excellent shooter

- Definitely not normal, because Normal is Boring

So.... Yeah. That’s a bit about me. I started this blog because I’d always loved to write and it was a good way for me to vent or get weird thoughts out of my brain. If I don’t release my randomness or crankiness, it just builds until my brain feels like it’s going to burst... I figure it’s better to do a controlled release of crazy instead of just letting it explode and tear through the city like Godzilla on a rampage...

So please take a look around and enjoy!

Best. Pencil Sharpener. Ever.

That is all.

Our Grand Adventure in NOT Getting a New Couch...

Our couch.... Oh, our couch... It’s done its job for quite some time, but it’s getting progressively more and more horrible... I was never crazy about the light sagey-green color, but it was comfy enough... Until it started to sag. And the cushions lost their comfy smooshiness (it’s a word... I swear.). And the cats decided that the fabric made great scratchy-post-i-ness (also a word) and clawed it down to the wood in places.

I’ve been trying to talk J into getting a new couch, getting this one restuffed and reupholstered, or even just buying those stupid As Seen On TV furniture things to put under the cushions and a slipcover... But none of it has swayed him. He says that he doesn’t want to buy a new couch just to have the cats scratch that one apart too. I tell him that 1. I don’t think they will if we don’t buy one made of a fabric that is just so satisfying to dig their claws into and 2. I CANNOT KEEP SITTING ON THIS STUPID UNCOMFORTABLE COUCH!

I think it was the weekend before last that finally convinced him that it was time... It was a lazy day and we both ended up taking pretty long naps on the couch. And woke up in blinding agony... And then a commercial came on for Living Spaces (if you have one near you and have heard the commercials a million times, you know you just sang it...) all about their “Warehouse Consolidation Sale” with the guy talking with the creepily calm voice... It was all too perfect and J gave in to “if we can find one cheap enough, then we can get a new couch that hopefully the cats won’t claw.” So we made our plan of going and wandering Living Spaces (SING IT!) last Saturday morning after dropping off J’s truck for service.

Saying we were overwhelmed would be a drastic understatement. There are just SO MANY COUCHES! You’d think it would be simple to find a standard sectional without a triangle corner piece that makes it extra huge... But no....... Apparently the trend right now is to have the biggest sofa you can possibly find... Extra large cushions, giant triangle corner piece, a minimum of two recliners, arm rests, cup holders, a chaise, and an ottoman bigger than my dining room table! And as much as I would love a room FULL of sofa... It's just not logical. We looked at and sat on way too many couches... We felt fabric samples and J told me that I absolutely could not get the long-haired faux fur fabric... (Dream killer...)

We narrowed it down to two couches - his pick and mine: 

  Not exactly his couch, but similar enough...

 

My couch... In all its glory...

His was a dark brown leather two seat by two seat sectional with a recliner on each end. I pointed out quickly that if it went in the room the way the couch is now, we would both be sitting on one side of the couch squished together and I would be the only one that would get a recliner because that’s MY seat!

He proceeded to try to create various scenarios to make the couch fit and have both recliners be useful... We even went home for a while so that he could bust out his stuff from architecture classes and make a scale drawing of the room complete with cutouts of the current furniture in the room that he could move around... Because that’s what you do. Obviously.

He then took the drawing back to the store, measured the couch, and created a to-scale cutout of the couch he wanted. Believe me when I tell you that there is NO WAY that this couch was going to fit in our house, have both recliners usable comfortably for tv watching purposes, and not be totally annoyingly in the way somewhere... But he was determined. I am still catching him playing with his little faux room - trying to figure out a way to make it work.

Unfortunately our living is set up in the crappiest way possible with hallway access, an angled wall where the fireplace is (which we NEVER use... Seriously - we blocked it off. That’s how much we don’t use it), kitchen access, and where the front door is... It doesn’t leave many options...

 Vague representation of the room - using nothing but Word..... Pretty much guaranteed not to be to scale...

MY couch? It was so simple. Three seat by two seat dark brown leather sectional in the configuration it would need to be to fit where the current one is... AND it was $6 cheaper than his couch... Just sayin’... The only things? The arm is a bit high, so no more lounging with my arm propped on the arm of the couch... (Who cares?) and the “two” side is technically a chaise, so there is only a cushion on the back for one of the seats and no arm on that end. Now, I didn’t see this as such a big problem because that side would be up against a wall and we could just buy a really pretty comfy pillow to put there and BAM done. But no. J thought it was just too stupid for words that they would want it to be a chaise so badly that they couldn’t just put a back and a cushion for every seat on the couch.

So he immediately wrote mine off... And I did the same to his. So no new couch. After HOURS of looking and sitting and measuring and walking and sitting and lounging and measuring and..... SIGH. Same. Stupid. Green. Torn Up. Uncomfortable. Couch. Ugh.

Now we have to try other places...

All I want is a dark brown sectional!! Preferably made from soft leather!

I’m goin’ on Amazon....... They have everything........

Randomness...

- J has been working nights... Oh - and days too. It sucks. I get to see him for about an hour or two every night between when I get home and when he leaves again... And most of the time he gets back home before I leave for work in the morning... He doesn’t work full days at work - just enough time to get things prepped for the night jobs... It seriously sucks. The two worst things are: 1. He is pretty much incapable of sleeping during the day so he doesn’t get much sleep all week and 2. I stay up too late and sleep like crap when he’s not there and then I don’t get much sleep all week either.

Needless to say (which apparently means NOTHING because people always follow that up with what they were going to say anyway.... Yes, I just irritated myself...) that by the time the weekend rolls around we are both grumpy. At least it’s only going on until SEPTEMBER! I don’t know if we can take another month and a half of this... SIGH

And it's been making me slack off on all of my "social networking" because the last thing I want to do with my small amount of time with him is stare at my computer.... But I miss being up to date on everyone and updating my little blog here, so I'm trying to get back on top of it all...

- We went out on our friend’s boat and had a lovely time. I even jumped in open ocean... With sharks and creatures and not being able to see or touch the bottom or anything... It was super cold and I pretty much only did it for the picture and to say that I did...

 I may or may not vaguely be drowning J... It's hard to tread water while posing for a picture...

We found a Michael Jackson impersonator while we were in Long Beach for lunch... Dude had on so much makeup that everyone who saw the pictures thought it was a statue...

- My body hurts more from the first three days of my new workout than they did from the entire 9 weeks of my previous workout... I had been wanting to try P90X for a while, but didn’t want to shell out the money for it... J has been trying to get himself motivated to work out again and decided that he wanted to try it, so we got it. Unfortunately with him working weird hours, we can’t work out together like we had originally planned, but I didn’t want to keep putting it off. Now I will work out while he is taking his “before work nap” after I get home... And he can work out whenever he feels like it... haha

I don’t know how “ripped” I’m gonna get, but I am most definitely feeling it after three workouts... I like that it’s really your own pace... “Chest and Back” was basically a ton of pull-ups (I do a modified version using bands since we don’t have a pull-up bar in our living room...) and push-ups. Next was “Plyometrics” or “Jump Training” and then “Arms and Shoulders...” Today is going to be Yoga. And for each part of the exercises, you just do as many as you can... And then try to do more next time...

But I seriously can’t lift my arms right now.... And the stretching in yoga is either gonna feel really good or it’s going to really hurt. Or both.....

- Oh - and BTW - I had already lost 24 pounds from the previous 30-Day Shredding and EA Active-ing... I have found that there is not much that can instantly brighten my day as quickly as fitting into a smaller size of pants...

- But I felt REALLY lame when a guy in one of the workouts with a prosthetic half leg was doing WAY better than me on some of the exercises... Oh well... I’ll get there.

- Finally tried a frozen yogurt place by my bff’s house that may very well be a rival for Yogurtland and Cherry on Top for me... They have this amazingly delicious Black Cherry Tart... And their toppings are awesome... My favorites are the cut up Rice Krispie Treats and cut up Ho-hos... SO yummy. I can’t believe we didn’t go try it out sooner!

- True Blood is back and “lost little Eric” is cracking me up... I am definitely not upset to see an “Eric-heavy” season... Just sayin’... I love me some Eric Northman. Plus, Alexander Skarsgard might someday be my best friend...

- J and I bought Vibram FiveFingers... I got the women’s Bikila LS. I can’t remember what J’s are called. We have a lot of friends that swear by these shoes for running, walking, jogging, hiking... So we decided to give them a try. I was a lot more wary of them because I am generally disgusted by toe socks and feet... They are actually surprisingly comfortable.

I bought them at REI specifically because REI has such a good return policy. If I end up absolutely hating them, I can take them back... They seemed to be good during my workouts...

- I bought a cowboy hat... A second thing that I never thought I would purchase... But I am really pale and burn really easily, so I decided that I needed a nice hat with a wide brim to help protect my fragile skin... I like it; I think I picked a pretty good one...

- I finally met my new boss... He was in one day that I had taken a vacation day and then wasn’t in again for two weeks... Seems like a nice guy - although, I have only spoken to him for 10 seconds so far...

- I bought “Alice, The Madness Returns” for my PS3... It’s a creepy, twisted, and entertaining take on the old Alice in Wonderland story line... It’s a very pretty game and fun to play. And her costumes are AWESOME. I so want to go as her for Halloween, but I don’t think anyone would get it...

 Image from here.

- I’ve been entertaining myself by playing with the Zombiebooth app for my phone... You take a picture of yourself (or someone else) and it turns them into a zombie. I didn't even have to make an angry face - it did it for me... And it moves around and growls and screams... SUPER creepy. My bff has told me that I cannot send any more because they really scare her... Maybe I’ll do my makeup like one of the zombie pictures for Halloween instead...

 If I ever actually look like this, I fully expect J to put two bullets right between my eyes... I would do the same for him...

- I love my new Harvey’sSeatbelt Bag... They had a sale and a bag that I had been wanting (but not wanting to spend that much money on) was 50% off! I was legally REQUIRED to purchase it... Plus, I needed a new briefcase for work, and it is the perfect size... And look how pretty it looks with Lola...

 

- I found jellies at my grocery store! I feel like a little kid again when I put them on... They make me smile. I’m going to go get more colors! For $2, how can you not??

 

- I saw a little girl - couldn’t have been more than 8 years old - at the store the other day with her parents... She was wearing short shorts, an off-both-shoulders top with chain straps on her shoulders, and knee-high Converse... It was totally the uniform of the “Prostitot”. And TOTALLY not right... Why do parents let their young children dress like that? They are the ones that purchase the clothing and have the final say, right?

- I got a new water bottle that I think is really cool and I like it a lot... Kinda lame to get excited about a water bottle, but what can you do? Ha

 LifeFactory 22 Ounce Glass Water Bottle - I got mine on Amazon.

- I am both extremely excited and extremely sad about the last Harry Potter movie... It looks SO good, but it’s the last one!!!!!!! I get chills when I see certain parts of the previews for the last one. I’m not planning on going to the midnight premiere or even going this weekend... I like to wait until it calms down a little bit so that I don’t have to be crammed into a too-full movie theater with noisy, rude people... I want to be able to enjoy the movie...

- It’s rainy and cool today and it makes me wish I could have spent the whole day cuddling on my couch...

- I bring Lean Cuisines for lunch most days and they have this points rewards program thing right now... I ordered really cute salt and pepper shakers...

 Photo from here.

- I saw the pilot episode of a new show called “Alphas” on SyFy. As much as the way they chose to shorten their network name irritates me, the show looks like it’s going to be really good... It’s about a group of people that have special powers and how they deal with them and the repercussions while also solving crimes... 

So there I am... All of my current randomness rolled into one neat package... :-)