I felt a little Martha Stewart-y yesterday, or at least someone capable of making a decent meal and keeping a clean house. While searching through my home church’s cookbook for a Ginger Snaps cookie recipe, I found a crockpot recipe for cheesy chicken that had ’s name under it, which surprised me because it didn’t sound familiar at all (in fact, when I asked her about it, she said it was only a recipe she’d had within the last two years, so yes, it was new).

So after a trip to the co-op and Cub, I made Cheesy Crockpot Chicken (which had to cook for 5 hours). I also made jasmine rice, attempted to clean the kitchen up a little bit, and totally reorganized the storage in the top of my closet. Throwing stuff away is fun. Some day I might own a reasonable amount of crap, instead of the plethora (veritable cornucopia?) that I do now.

Holiday plans just aren’t coming together, and ’s keep getting more complicated. Trying to help her with in-law issues, but not having any of my own I’m at a little bit of a loss. Compromise is the name of the game, I think.

Way past time that I can leave for work, so I’m going to skedaddle (is that how you spell that?).

popularity: 11%

[Deep sigh. Have completed horrible awful task that kept me busy all day and have actually been able to write an email or two.]

So today was fun. Didja catch the sarcasm there? I get into work at 9, move my mouse to flip on my monitor, and immediately someone is in my cube with a HUGE project that consumed the rest of my day. And I can complain about it (even though I normally complain about a lack of work) because it was similar to work that I did when I worked for the city in high school (at least now I’m getting paid $15/hour instead of $6). I’m quite sure in high school I didn’t think it was beneath me, though. How arrogant am I? But seriously, great waste of my time and that college degree.

Mailing for 700 people. That was it. But a merged form letter and labels and return envelopes and just… too much. I managed to get 349 of the 700 stuffed myself, and two other co-workers took on the other half. I found out I could get 30 done in 15 minutes. And I got a huge paper cut while trying to multi-task (talking on the phone with and folding at the same time - apparently a bad combination). I stuffed envelopes from 11:30 until 4:00, with a 20 minute break to find food and coffee and get some fresh air.

My back hurts from the bending over and my elbow hurts from the repetitive motion (and my over-zealousness at both the co-op and Cub yesterday) and I’ve had a headache since noon, none of which have been solved by Advil, and I’d take more but would like to keep my liver or kidneys or stomach lining or whatever it is that’s harmed by taking too much pain medication.

In the middle of this, several co-workers attempted to get me to do work for them. Ha! Thanks for adding stress to my life. One of them needed a purchase order for a hotel room for today, for a trip that has probably been planned for months. Do all grown-ups act this irresponsibly? One wanted me to print some files for her since when she tried her computer crashed and she was running off to a meeting where she wanted to use them. In college, professors wouldn’t have taken any of those excuses. Should have planned ahead, they would have told us, and promptly given a zero. And then lectured us on how in the “real world” excuses like that wouldn’t fly. Um… yeah.

It’s hot in here today. Horrible complaint, since normally it’s freezing. But today I wore my cute orange sweater (happy Halloween!) that’s wool, and my lovely “Here’s A Hug” plaid shirt underneath, and within being here 20 minutes the sweater came off and my sleeves were rolled up. Goodbye cute outfit, hello sloppiness.

I asked my co-worker to see if he could get Sven to come over, but sadly he was unavailable. Sven is my [imaginary] Swedish masseuse. Unfortunately, he’s frequently out of the country and unable to provide services. This particular co-worker said that I should be flogged (or something perhaps a bit less severe) for asking for Sven when exists, that I should ask him to come over and make me feel better. At which point I had to explain what a bad idea that was, because I’m only going to be grumpy and crabby the rest of the day, not fun at all, and most likely eat dinner and go to bed. And really, doesn’t need to be subjected to that. Said co-worker then said, “well, he doesn’t know the real you, does he.” Funny. I’m not overly crabby and frustrated about much other than work though, and I try to keep work at work. Occasionally I’ll have a nice gripe session with , because she’s also clerical/office support and knows exactly what I’m talking about and can chime in with her own peeves. I complain about work… at work, and usually to this one co-worker and that’s about it (except for on the blog and occasionally over e-mail and at times little tidbits slip out when I’m not at work and making conversation). I try to repeat the mantra to myself, “it’s just work, it’s just work,” which is fairly helpful most of the time.

It’s totally OK for me to not like current job and I can still be content with my life, unlike when I was working at the and completely unhappy in that job. It’s different in a job like that. I certainly wasn’t working it to pay rent. I was doing it because it was something I was called to do, something I enjoyed doing. So when it totally sucked and everything was in the crapper, that was pretty hard to deal with. The “it’s just work” mantra doesn’t work, because it was so much more than that, and so much more significant than a little mailing, but we’re talking about the spiritual growth and health of other people here. (See this post from Friday for more on the whole church job and happiness thing.)

So now I’m done, sitting here with 50 minutes left to go, a smattering of work left, a headache, and back pains. But my hair looks good today.

popularity: 11%

1. Name 1 comedy movie you’ve seen. Office Space
2. Name 2 black and white films you remember seeing. Desk Set, Rear Window
3. Name 3 dramas you thought were worth watching. Life As A House, House of Sand and Fog, (both of which are just gut-wrenching) Hotel Rwanda (arguably, I haven’t actually watched this, but I still think it’s worth watching)
4. Name 4 television shows you watch on a regular (or semi-regular) basis. NCIS, Law & Order, CSI, House (season premiere tomorrow!)
5. Name 5 things that, in your opinion, are advertised on television too frequently. Sex, alcohol, half-naked women, cars, any sort of re-financing/mortgage crap.

popularity: 21%

Which is more important– the actual experience, or the memory that remains of the experience after it is over?

I’m torn on this one. I think the memory is what remains and sticks with us, so ultimately that’s more important. But sometimes our memories can trick us, because I know that my childhood was good, but my memories don’t always reflect that, so I have to remind myself of that. And as time goes on, horrible experiences are significantly dulled, which is good but also makes it harder to explain them to others. The good times also fade a bit, which is just sad.

The actual experience is when we learn and grow and change. The memory is what stays and affects us, albeit on a much smaller scale, for a long time.

popularity: 15%

1. Unbreakable:: Bruce Willis
2. Have mercy:: John Stamos
3. Do it better:: I can
4. Settle scores:: get even
5. Comments:: aren’t always welcome
6. Craziest thing:: I’ve ever done was…
7. Apple:: a day
8. Halloween:: party
9. Manageable:: task
10. Trick:: or Treat

popularity: 9%

Well, this afternoon has gone much slower than I wanted it to. Oh well. Half an hour left, now.

Memo
To: Mayor Randy Kelly’s re-election campaign team
Re: Phone Calls and my vote

I might consider voting based on the issues if at least one night in the next week I don’t get a phone call (or five) from someone who wants me to vote for you. At this rate, I’m voting for the other guy just so that in four years I don’t have to go through this again. Stop calling! My cell, the house phone - all unlisted, all do-not-call, all unwanted. Leave us alone! I realize that you’re worried because the other guy’s percentage rating is twice what yours is. Tough cookies. Stop calling me.

Read in the paper that yesterday the airport started flying plans over ’s house (OK, the southeast suburbs in general). Wonder how that’s going. Any interrupted sleep yet?

See, now I’m just passing time. But I totally had something to blog about, one final thing before the weekend started.

Hmm. Not a clue.

Ah, yes, now I remember what it was. I have further proof that I am old. This is quite hard to say (but even worse to recognize when I saw it in the mirror) - I have wrinkles. OK, really I have laugh lines around my eyes. I never noticed this before. I’m blaming (and that whole leaving the church thing, more on that in a minute), since he makes me laugh and smile way too much apparently, and now I will look old, old, old. At least I don’t have grey hairs like some people I know (*cough* *cough*), not that you’d be able to tell if I did (there’s natural hair color in there somewhere, honest).

Talking to a co-worker today (who normally complains about me being happy), who, instead of complaining, said that they (coworkers) like it when I’m happy, I’m much easier to work with (duh). And then he said that there was a while not so recently when I was very unhappy, and I had to think really hard about what he might be referring to. Then we decided that it was all last spring, when I was totally stressed about still working at the church and leaving the church and everything that was going on there. I was very not happy, and apparently not much fun to work with. (I think we were kinda busy at work, too, which didn’t help). Just further proof that I did the right thing in leaving (plus, if I was still working there, when ever would I find time to spend with ?). Validation of big decisions like that is good.

Have a splendid weekend - more treating, less tricking!

popularity: 11%

I’m done answering phones. OK, not in terms of it being my responsibility any longer, but emotionally, I’m done. I’m tired of people calling and asking for phone numbers when they could easily look them up themselves (I’m not talking about potential clients here, but co-workers at other locations or other state employees). If a certain employee had called back a ninth time, I was going to have a hard time not being snotty and telling her to pull out her own staff directory to find the number, since that’s all I was doing. Really. (File under Reason #573 that I make a bad secretary.)

I woke up this morning singing Jo Dee Messina’s “My Give A Damn’s Busted” [link removed]. What a great way to start the day (an omen, perhaps?).

Conveniently, I’d been busy enough (or away from the office enough) all week that I had four days worth of blogs to catch up on my reading, and seven days worth of Cryptogram and Sudoku. Entertainment is good. Three and a half hours, joy of joys. I can do that. Maybe the phones won’t ring the rest of the day.

popularity: 10%

I know, I’m a horrible person. But I haven’t had this much fun with a Halloween costume since I went as Titania in 2000.

So, as promised, here’s the last teaser for tonight’s costume:

While searching through old photos to come up with the Halloween one, I found these that I thought I’d share today:

My cat Montgomery, the first one I had in Michigan, rescued while on a youth group camping trip from the forest.

My next cat, Dallas, who found me in the parking lot of my apartment. He and Montgomery got along pretty well. I was sad to leave them in Michigan, but couldn’t bring them with me to Minnesota.

Ah, moving to Michigan. Always nice to see all of your worldly belongings fit inside a trailer. (And that included a couch and love seat and several other pieces of furniture that had just been given to me by ’s then-girlfriend , since he’d just moved in with her, and I got the old furniture that morning before driving up to Michigan with and .)

Just before the moving, here’s me and at my college graduation. It’s been pointed out to me by a co-worker that I look exceptionally pale. Yeah, God made me white. Deal with it. (Also, this is why I don’t wear black.)

popularity: 11%

1. What’s the last item you mailed? A letter to my sponsored child in Columbia.
2. Who has made you smile recently? Can’t you guess my answer by now?
3. What’s the weather like outside? Kinda grey and there’s a chill in the air. Great coffee-drinking weather (see last meme).
4. Do you consider yourself a good judge of character? I used to, but after having gotten burned multiple times (a college friend and two churches, to name a few), I dare not think I am anymore.
5. What’s your favorite photograph? Favorite? Of what? Of me, I’ve got to go with my bridesmaid picture from ’s wedding. Of scenery, one from any number of trips I’ve taken to a waterfront. Of people, what comes to mind first is the one of and and me all in the hammock outside our house on Asbury, particularly the one where is trying to get out of the hammock and her mouth is hanging open, because it’s funny.

popularity: 16%

1. Are you a coffee or tea hound? If so, what is your favorite everyday poison? Grande White Chocolate Mocha, only from Starbucks.
2. Are you a Starbucks fan, or another brand?
3. If you are a coffee drinker, brewed or instant? If you prefer tea, loose or bagged? Not really a tea person, as much as I may have tried. has become quite the tea snob, though, and prefers loose tea (there are some other stipulations - perhaps she’ll throw them into the comments for you).
4. What is your average daily intake? One from Q1. That’s it. Occasionally a can of Coca-Cola on the side, but that’s pushing it.

popularity: 15%

1. What are the directions for making a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich? You’re gonna need bread, two slices, preferably of the really crappy worthless white kind, unless you want to go all gourmet. Take the peanut butter (creamy, preferably) and apply to one slice of bread. Try to make sure you go all the way out to the edges. Don’t spread it on too thick, or once you take a bite you’ll never again be able to open your mouth. Place second slice of bread on top. I suppose if you like jelly you should apply some of that, but really it belongs nowhere near my sandwich.
2. How many weddings have you been to, and what is your most memorable wedding-related moment? Let’s see, of weddings in my memory, there are:
   
   • Cousin Julie sometime during high school - I was in charge of the guest book, and and I got these grapevine hearts they’d used to decorate the church with, and we both still have ours.
   • Cousin Vern in California my junior year of high school (fabulous trip to San Jose in the middle of February).
   • Nate & Danyel at the end of sophomore year of college (trip up to Wisconsin, weekend at the cabin with friends).
   • Cousin Mark Christmas 1997 right after my parents’ divorce (yeah, that was fun).
   • Angie & Noah, and Stef & Jon at end of senior year of college (one right before moving to Michigan, one a few weeks later that I came back for).
   • & Christian, summer of 2001 (?)
   • , July 2002 - scripture reading, made special trip home from Arizona for the weekend (and enjoyed hot showers since the water heater had broke down in Arizona and wasn’t fixed until after we left at the end of the summer)
   • My cousin Katie, August 2002
   • , July 2003 - maid of honor
   • & Chuck in Boston, May 2004 - scripture reading
   • & Mike in Illinois, July 2004 - bridesmaid
   • That’s… twelve, a nice even dozen. Most memorable moment was probably ’s wedding, watching her walk down the aisle and I was trying so hard not to cry (though really it’s unlikely that any sister would succeed in that).
3. Would you rather spend money on good times and nice things now or invest it for the future? I think that anyone who looked at my bank statement would know that I far too often spend money now and don’t look to the future. Also, I have no self-control where I’m involved (really, I have no problem saying “no” to others, but to myself? now that’s nearly impossible).
4. Earlier this week, while acknowledging that there’s an acute shortage of priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops from around the world reaffirmed the Church’s stance on celibacy for its clergy. In your opinion, should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? I think that the Catholic Church can go wherever it wants to with that, since it really doesn’t affect my life, as a non-Catholic. Protestant pastors are allowed to marry all the time, and to me it makes them more human, and that’s a good thing. I’d rather take advice and guidance from someone who’s been through it and can ‘fess up. I take much more issue with their stance that women can’t be clergy, but that’s a whole other rant.

popularity: 21%

Well, the second part of my day has gone much better than my first. Now if I can manage to get to bed early tonight (though TV schedules will tempt me, it being Thursday and all), tomorrow shouldn’t be that bad. The plan (for those of you who care, which should be none of you, but I need to keep busy for the next 25 minutes and plan on blabbing about nothing ad nauseum) is to wake up early enough so that I can get downtown, get cash, stop for a bagel and coffee, and arrive in my cube before 8 am to start answering phones. Overly optimistic? Yes. Perhaps it will be enough motivation to know that once I arrive in my cube the chances of me leaving again are slim, and at that probably only for a brief lunch. I’m not sure exactly who’s here to be my backup (or if anyone is), so I must plan ahead accordingly. Perhaps I should bring a book. isn’t coming in (weather’s too nice) and is still out until Tuesday afternoon. Granted there’s work sitting around me here, but only some of it can get done. Plus, there’s this pesky little problem that I keep forgetting when it’s my turn to answer phones, and they ring several times before I nearly jump out of my chair remembering that it’s my job. It’s quite humorous to my co-workers.

Let’s see if I can provide some hints (teasers, if you will) of my Halloween costume.

One more teaser tomorrow (if I remember), just because I know you’re all on the edge of your seats. I think I’ve wasted a sufficient amount of time. 8 minutes left.

popularity: 11%

.. but they can’t keep me quiet forever!!!

j/k

Major computer problems here at work. I actually blogged about them Tuesday before leaving. But couldn’t publish. Out of the office yesterday and this morning. Spent the hour and a half that I’ve been here today attempting to fix my computer. Firefox works (temporarily at least) and I can post and check email, so I’m going to accept that and move on.

I was very bad yesterday and today. Do you know how hard it is, though, to stay awake at a meeting that bores you to tears, even if you have to take minutes? Really, I need to be active in the a.m. else I’ll revert to previous state of sleep.

Last night I went to bed at 9 (which may officially make me an old woman). I was actually in bed by 8, but decided to do some reading for a while. Pj’s at 7, mind you. I did wake up at 4:30 to turn off the TV, which was then airing some infomercial that was loud enough to wake me. Yet in spite of all this sleep, I woke up tired and still wanted to nap all morning long. Probably due mostly to the boredom of it all, though.

Yes, what a horrible thing to complain about. Let me try something else. I wore my new heels this morning, figuring I needed to break them in (or break in my feet, depending on how you look at it) before wearing them to tomorrow night’s party. Oh yes, I was right. Thankfully I stopped at home between the meeting and arriving at my office, so in addition to making myself lunch, I changed into much more sensible shoes. I do think some Band-Aids will do the trick, though, since it was just some minor toe pain and not actually pain in my arches (which is not fixable by Band-Aids).

Halloween costume all set. I’m going, officially, as alter-ego Kelly, also known as Keli (there’s a little heart over that “i” fyi). The outfit is slightly confused, so neither schoolgirl nor librarian seemed to fit exactly. So we’ll just go as “not me.” Thankfully, is picking me up from the party, since it would be… less than desirable to take the 21 home at 11pm in costume. wants to party a bit after my volunteer duties are completed - “cash bar,” she says, thinking that getting me drunk while in costume and then letting take me home is somehow a good idea. Again let me reiterate, drunk Kelly is really the same thing as sleeping Kelly (though I’ve never actually been drunk, but I’m not looking to do that anytime soon, or in my lifetime).

called me yesterday afternoon from work. Surprised to hear me answer my phone, I let her know I’d taken the rest of the afternoon off and was now at home waiting for my package from Old Navy (no, it didn’t get delivered between 2 and 5 like they said, but at about 6:15). She called because she was really craving a cigarette, and being the only person that she engages in that particular behavior with, she thought she’d call me and let me know. We can laugh about this because right after we moved into our old apartment (so September-ish 2003) we purchased one (1) pack of cigarettes that we jointly own, and in the two years since, there are now approximately six cigarettes missing from the pack. It’s really more for the illicit humor of it than anything else (though yesterday she threatened to inhale, which is more than I can say, having not actually been able to accomplish that small little detail of smoking). No, if I die of lung cancer, it’s going to be because of all the people I work with and the one roommate who smoke.

So we de-stressed until we were both ready to continue on with life. I wandered around my house in the glasses for my costume, watching the window in vain for the UPS truck, and was generally probably annoying to my roommate. The cats were happy I was home though. Then I made dinner. And fell asleep. Such an exciting life, I tell ya.

Tomorrow I might just end up blogging up a storm, seeing as how I’m supposed to be here around 8 until 4:30, and have to answer phones all day, which means that I can’t really leave my cube unless it’s somewhere nearby where I can still hear it ring, like the copier. Won’t I be fun tomorrow. Feel free to send my way any ideas of entertaining myself while in a 5×6 cube (and still able to answer the phone).

popularity: 10%

Sometimes people really aren’t my friends. You know, if you’re not willing to work with me, I can’t help you.

So not like anyone cares but me, but… We had a problem getting hotel reservations for our council members this month. Granted I called them today, but I only was notified on Friday and then again this morning that two of our members needed rooms, and one never called at all, and considering how overbooked they were, I don’t think it would have mattered if I’d called two weeks ago. The hotel was way overbooked, and by today at 4 when they would have canceled all rooms not being held by a credit card, they still had negative five rooms available. So this didn’t make someone happy, and as much as I understand why it didn’t make her happy and would like to fix it, I couldn’t. I offered to help out in any way that I could, offered apology on top of apology, and got hung up on.

This greatly ticks me off. Especially because this person is normally very sweet and I like her a lot - most people do, actually. The people at the hotel know her by name and always refer to her fondly.

So I sent a quick email to my co-worker who runs this meeting, even though she won’t get it until after tomorrow, detailing what went down. Everyone raves about me all day long and tells me how wonderful I am, and then this. What a way to end the work day.

How about some retail therapy (read: cat food and kitty litter), comfort food (Chef Boyardee ravioli), and a movie with a cute boy? That’s a combination that should cure any funk. And maybe some chocolate, just for good measure.

I’m going home.

popularity: 11%

So most of the stress at work today is over with. The people who are running tomorrow’s meeting have left for the day already, so nothing more there (other than a quick phone call to a hotel to check on reservations). The meeting this afternoon is over with and I’m avoiding all that was proposed until Thursday. Performance review is done (”satisfactory-plus”). Lovely to hear people sing my praises literally all day. And an extra bonus - retroactive pay actually appears on this Friday’s paycheck - the 2% raise we all got, retroactive to July 1, and the raise I got with my promotion, retroactive to the effective date (so like a few weeks). That’s a nice little present.

Tomorrow after the meeting I’m not coming back in to work. A co-worker is giving me a ride back to the mall where I transfer buses, but I’m going to stop in first since I never make it up that way anymore except to meet , and then it’s a simple transfer to her car from the bus, no shopping. So no blogging tomorrow. No email tomorrow. A day unplugged, so to speak.

Finally got around to reading a Bible passage had sent me in response to a post last week. It’s pretty good (as most of them are), and I think could be a contender for a new “life verse” (because I no longer feel that the prophet verse applies to my life). Check it out: Isaiah 58:6-12

In other news… I watched part of The Piano last night (I’ve seen it before). It’s quite strange to watch Holly Hunter in a movie where she doesn’t talk, simply because I find her voice so distinctive. Also… my room is quite messy. I tried to get/keep the kitchen clean yesterday, because was coming home after midnight and I know how aggravated I get when I come home from a trip to a messy kitchen (or really any messy communal area - my room I can only blame on me, or perhaps a mischievous cat). Not that anyone ever cleans the kitchen for my return, but at least I can live with myself and not feel like a hypocrite.

I’m leaving early today, a whole 1/2 hour. For shame, for shame. But no more phones to answer after 4:30, no bosses, and generally no work (at least, no work that’s really going to get accomplished in 30 minutes). What should I have for dinner?

Firefox is still broken. I could cry. I’m using Netscape - at least it’s not IE.

popularity: 11%