Friday, March 03, 2006

Clothing Crisis

It’s Friday. I’ve been at work since 9:00. Everything I’m working on right now is at a stand still because I’m waiting on someone else to do their part so I can finish. I’m bored and all I can think about is what on earth I’m going to wear tonight. I’ve got a date with a boy that is in mid-transition from “just a friend” to “possibly more than friend” status. This kid has seen me in a bathing suit (gross! but points for him for wanting to take me out anyway), but you always want to look your best for the first official mid-transition date, right? Here is the challenge I'm facing.

Two of my favorite (read “sexy and comfortable”) pairs of shoes are being re-soled right now and won’t be ready until tomorrow and I think tonight’s main activity will include a lot of standing. Thus, I’m left with the “sexy heels or comfortable flats” decision. It is really cold outside and everyone knows that layers are very unattractive, but I really don’t want to freeze because I’m trying not to look like a stay-puff marshmallow. Someone scheduled a late afternoon meeting (6:00 on a FRIDAY!!!!!) which I have to attend. This sucks because obviously no one wants to meet that late on a Friday. But more importantly, I really need to have my eyebrows done, as I just realized I’m starting to look a little bit like Oscar the Grouch. Finally, I hate everything in my closet. There are items from which I've yet to remove the tags that I’m sick of because I’m just tired of looking at them. So all I can do now is sit and wait for the 6:00 meeting and think about how I’m going to solve these problems before 8:00 this evening.

The only good thing I've got going for me right now is my hair looks really good today.

Friday, February 24, 2006

It's been a few weeks but...

I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been swamped at work and my social calendar has been booked. I’m glad it is Friday. It’s been a hell of a week. I haven’t eaten a real meal since Wednesday and I’m so hung over from last night’s social outing that I can barely hold up my own head. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to stay out past 3 AM on a school night. But, somewhere between work and home yesterday, I signed up for a big night out on the town. Anyway, here’s the latest HOT LIST.

Highlights:
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, getting new curtains in my bedroom, and all of the things “Either/Or” said or did that made me laugh

Lowlights:
My dad had surgery, my nana broke her leg, and all of the things that “Either/Or” said or did that made me cry

Spotlight:
Starring as guest DJ at Epsteins last night – in other words, I made a great play-list on my iPod, we shut the jukebox off, and listened to my music all night. I really felt like I owned the place. I’ve been told that I actually went behind the bar and made myself a drink at one point. Being cute and fearless has its privileges.

Crazy work story:
This isn’t really crazy, but we got a sneak peak at the new products for 2007 at Toy Fair last week. Attention Kids: don’t get your hopes up – there’s nothing coming worth getting excited about.

What I’m listening to:
I’m constantly playing either the Death Cab or the Bright Eyes albums with a short break for Gold Digger every once in a while.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

randomness...

...is how I would describe my day so far. I can’t seem to concentrate at all and have no drive to get any work done. So, to be consistent with the day, I’ll just rattle off the randomness that is running around in my brain.

- Pink is the new Blog (http://trent.blogspot.com/) has some great material. It is a super way to waste time at work.
- Tina Fey is writing a pilot for a new show starring…you guessed it – Tina Fey. Unfortunately, rumor has it Rachel Dratch will be in the cast for the pilot. Love Tina Fey! Rachel Dratch totally creeps me out.
- I officially have a crush on Kanye West.
- I am pleasantly surprised that I can make it to the Whole Foods at Columbus circle and back with lunch (to go) in 30 minutes.
- Reading about my friend dennis’s crazy life - http://www.teendrama.com/dens/index.php- can also help pass the time at work

That’s all I got. It is finally time to go home.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Hot List - week of Jan. 30

Last week was pretty dull - which I can attribute to a scaled back social calendar due to all of the new year's resolutioning (yes, I just made that word up.) So, the hot list is mildly warm at best.

Highlights:
The STEELERS winning the SuperBowl XL is a highlight that must stand alone.

Lowlights:
Hines Ward being named MVP and using incorrect grammar within two seconds of receiving the trophy, Bettis announcing his retirement (which we all knew was coming, but made me sad to hear out loud), and all of the ad dollars wasted on lame commercials.

Spotlight:
Getting into a verbal battle with some old, balding, overweight dude at the movies on Saturday night was the funniest thing that happened this week. I wrote it out exactly as it happened only to realize that you had to be there to appreciate it. Trust me - it was a classic.

Crazy work story:
Here is some work nonsense for you. I've been working (for weeks) on a long, detailed contract for a deal that needed to close last week. I finally got everything resolved between the vendor's legal department and our legal department. The one sticking point that took me forever (read: five hours) to resolve was the line in the contract that would force us to go to Minnesota if, for some reason (non-payment, breach of contract, etc.), we had to go to court. My legal counsel wasn't worried about all the reasons we could end up in court, she simply didn't want to go to Minnesota. I thought it was because the laws were different, there were jurisdiction issues, or she just wanted to play legal power struggle. Nope - she just thought Minnesota was a cold and awful place and if they had the nerve to sue us or, even worse, had the nerve to do something so horrible that we would sue them, the least they could do was go to court in California where the weather is nice and there are lots of good restaurants. I'm not even kidding. That was the reason she gave me. The contract isn't final yet because we haven't heard back from the vendor's lawyers. They are probably too exhausted from laughing at us.

What I’m listening to:
The new Belle and Sebastian album that was released today, but I got a digital copy when I pre-ordered it from Amazon. I haven't listened to it enough to give it a fair review. I'll let you know next week.

Monday, February 06, 2006

The Colbert Report

If SNL’s weekend update and Meet the Press got married and had a kid, it would come out as The Colbert Report. This is my new favorite show. High five to "Either/Or" for telling me about it. For The Daily Show fans out there, you all know Stephen Colbert. I’d seen him a few times when he was reporting for Jon Stewart and thought he was mildly funny. I was wrong – he is hilarious and I love his show. This man is a southerner (from Charleston – the greatest southern town EVER) and makes a living by making fun of democrats, republicans, and anyone who he finds irritating. Needless to say, he has my dream job.

When something or someone get under his skin, he puts them “on notice” and if they really make him mad then they are “dead to him.” Well, that’s really funny. So, I’ve stolen part of his concept. Isn’t imitation the best form of flattery? Anyway, since I can’t fathom someone making me so irate that they become dead to me, I’m going with the first half and from now on, I’m starting my own “on notice” list. Check it out to the right.

I can’t do the rest of it justice so I suggest you check it out for yourself. Start off with a sneak peak at http://www.colbertnation.com/colbertnatiownon/index.jhtml and then tune your DVR to Comedy Central at 11:30 P.M.

Friday, February 03, 2006

New Year's Resolutions

Everyone makes them and no one sticks to them.

I spent a lot of time working on my resolutions back in December. They included:
- Making time for myself
- Learning something new each month…january’s subject was Economics
- Reconnecting with an old friend each month
- Getting on (and sticking to) a workout schedule
- Not eating chicken fingers more than once a week
- Practicing the 7 habits…
- Becoming more fiscally responsible

It’s a good list, right? I was pretty excited about it. However when 2006 came along, I wasn’t ready to make the move to changing my entire life. So, instead of beating myself up about it, I developed a genius strategy. I’ve decided from here on out, all New Year’s resolutions will go into implementation with the Chinese New Year. That gives me time to detox from the holidays and adjust to January (which is the worst month) in NYC before I begin making big changes in my life. Since the Chinese New Year kicked off last weekend, I’m five days into the 2006 resolutions and I must say that I’m doing quite well…except the workout schedule makes me tired because I have to get up early and learning about Economics makes me feel stupid and reminds me of why I didn’t pay attention in class when I paid to take it. The rest of them are pretty easy to stick with…well, until I spot a super pair of shoes I can’t resist and then the fiscal responsibility resolution will fall by the wayside.

Monday, January 30, 2006

The Hot List

When I play catch up with most of my friends they are interested in three things – my social agenda (most of them are married which leaves them without one and therefore, are living vicariously through me), my latest crazy work story, and what music (new or old) I’m listening to. So, I’ve decided on a weekly basis, I’ll devote one post to these three topics – breezing through the social stuff with a list of highlights/lowlights and one spotlight on something fabulous, ridiculous, spectacular, and/or embarrassing that happened to me or someone I know…yes – this means if you spend any amount of time with me, there is a chance you’ll end up on my blog…although I’ll try my best to keep your identity anonymous.

So, in its first installment, here are the picks of last week:

Social Highlights:
“Business” trip to Atlanta that ended up being more drinking than business. Activities included cocktails at Turner field, drinks at my favorite bar, dinners at my favorite restaurants, a trip to the GA aquarium, listening to great music (more on that later), dancing (see lowlights), catching up with old friends, and laughing harder than I have in weeks.

Social Lowlights:
The lack of sleep acquired from Atlanta trip, getting stuck in verbal prison (more on that later) at the GA aquarium, dancing (realizing I have a serious control issue and am unable to let someone lead…I might have been more apt to let my dance partner lead had he not almost dropped me once), and having to speak in public in front of many people after three nights with no sleep and four nights of serious drinking.

Social Spotlight:
Alright, verbal prison is a term coined by M.D. Everyone has been there – stuck in a conversation with someone while you’re missing out on a great party with no escape in sight. This, my friend, has defined as “verbal prison.” At a party at the GA aquarium, I found myself repeatedly in verbal prison, which I turned into a fun game. Basically, each time I got trapped, I began making up a new story. It was much more fun than one would think. I was in sales for Google, the person who had developed eBay’s bid engine in my dorm room, a reporter for “Wired” magazine, and at least two more identities that I can’t remember. I know – I’m a total dork and this isn’t even a story worthy of the spotlight, but most of the ones that are can’t be repeated…so, at least you learned a new phrase.

Crazy work story:
This week the craziest story I’ve got involves a conversation with a customer and her 5 year old. It lasted 30 minutes longer than it should have. It is nice to know we still have fans out there that are crazy for Pokemon…or maybe they are just crazy. Speaking of crazy fans, the kid in the first link of my last post made it on VH1’s “Best Week Ever” that week. Sweet!


What I’m listening to:
Right now my favorite “real” albums are the Death Cab’s “Plans” and Rogue Wave’s “Descended Like Vultures.” Also getting a lot of play is my homemade, two-disc compilation, made for M.D. and inspired by the best New Year’s trip I can remember, titled “Late Night Indie favorites Disc One and Two” which we probably listened to 100 times last week and if I could take credit for the "Plans" album, I'd make it Disc Three and would be able to claim that I developed the best musical trilogy ever made!

Thursday, January 12, 2006

It's that time...

At the beginning of every quarter there are two days in particular I dread. Dreadful Day One (DD1) is the day I have to review my division’s quarterly presentation with the EVP before our quarterly meeting. Dreadful Day Two (DD2) is the day of the meeting and I have to deliver the quarterly presentation to the company.

DD1 is the worst day because I get yelled at (read: berated, humiliated, reamed, threatened, and shamed…Japanese style) for missing my financial targets for the quarter. No matter what we do right, I always get hammered for missing the sales targets (which are unrealistic and were not set by me…or anyone who understands ecommerce) and I walk away feeling like a total failure…even though I know there is no way we could meet these goals on the budget I’ve been given. This quarter’s DD1 was yesterday and went surprisingly well (read: only slightly berated, humiliated, reamed, threatened, and shamed…Japanese style). Maybe it was because I came to the meeting prepared with an argument as to why we were meeting our goals. My number one reason focused on our lack of understanding of our target audience. I simply shared these two links (please copy and paste):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1976314898516214440&q=pokemon

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7846903799728311485&q=pokemon with Mr. EVP and stated that “we (meaning me) can’t properly market to our target audience because these folks are just too weird for any of us (me) to understand them.” He laughed so hard, I think he forgot about the yelling part.

This quarter’s DD2 is today at 3:00. It isn’t as humiliating as DD1, mainly because no one else really cares and/or listens. It just stinks because it’s a really LONG meeting and the majority of it is super boring…my part in particular. I think I rank up there right behind accounting in terms of “most boring material.” Last quarter, I was lucky enough to go first when people can find it in them to act like they are paying attention. Accounting wasn’t so lucky. During their presentation, I counted five people sleeping – including the CEO who only awakened himself to stop his own head from hitting the conference room table. I’m not even kidding! It was classic. I’m hoping for something even more spectacular today. I’ll keep you posted.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Weekend Dilemma

It’s a good sign when my number one life decision at the moment concerns my weekend plans. I haven’t been in the city (without company or 25 things scheduled) since November – so the party ME wants to hit the town. And there are a bunch of fun things going on where I’d get to see some folks I haven’t hung out with in a while…like months. But, the other part of me is STILL tired from my debaucherous New Years trip and wants to be lazy and rest. The lazy ME wants to finish getting my apartment back into shape and try to see at least two (maybe three) of the movies on my “must see before the Oscars” list. There were 18 movies on the list and I’d planned to see at least ten of them while I was home for Thanksgiving and Christmas (just like I planned to update my blog), but I only managed to knock two off the list and one of them really sucked. So, this leaves me with 16 movies to see in two months – which could be feasible because New York is cold and gross in January and February and I’m not usually up for schlepping around in the cold/wet/snow wearing my good shoes.

I’m too hungry to think about it anymore. So, I’m off to grab lunch. Which leaves me with my number two life decision at the moment – what am I going to eat???

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Congrats UT!

I can’t help but be a little melancholy today, since college football season officially ended last night. At least Texas won which will stop all that talk about Mack Brown not being able to win the big games that count. Now that conversation will more than likely involve Mark Richt…and I might have to jump in and agree. I was unfortunate enough to witness the Sugar Bowl debacle live on Monday night. It was disgusting. We were out-coached, out-played, out-cheered…WVU’s band was even better than ours.

Not only am I coping with this piece of reality, but I woke up after only three hours of sleep to a cold, rainy day. I still dread coming into work and can’t seem to get myself excited about my job. It doesn't help that the entire office is in chaos because we are moving into a new space across town tomorrow. Right now this move is a total pain in the neck. However, having just returned from the new space, I’m feeling less grouchy and sad because:
- my new office (with a door that shuts) is much bigger than I’d realized
- cute boys in black wearing secret service earpieces work in the lobby
- there is a salon and a starbucks in the new building
- we get to leave tomorrow at 2:00 so the movers can relocate our stuff
- the sun was shining when I walked back which always makes things better.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

I need a vacation from my vacation.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Again…it’s been forever since I’ve posted anything to my blog. I’ve seriously been working non-stop since Thanksgiving. When I wasn’t working through the night, I was hosting or attending some sort of holiday celebration which generated some great material, yet left no time to actually document any of it. I thought for sure I’d make good use of my Christmas vacation to update you all on the past few months and yet I couldn’t even bring myself to turn on my laptop. Unfortunately, I’m back in the office for the first time in two weeks and, therefore, can no longer avoid the connection to that crazy thing we call the Internet. However, I’m still not in “working condition” which is obvious from:
  • the lack of excitement, creativity, or (quite frankly) interest this post possesses. I, myself, am even bored by it.
  • the fact that I’ve been here for six hours and have yet to bring myself to read more than 100 of my 786 emails or check any of my 19 voicemails…not even the three that are urgent.

I am certain after a few days of detox and a week of good sleep, I'll be back to normal with lots of stories to share.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Questions that need to be answered

1. Has anyone seen Reese Witherspoon's bangs lately? Whaaattttt????? My personal opinion = if the long, feathered bangs are a trend on the rebound, then I'm gonna have to settle for being out-of-style. I caught her on Ellen this week and I couldn't get over it. I can't even remember a word she said because I was too busy gawking at her hair.

2. Does anyone watch Ellen? That show is so freakin' funny. It doesn't matter who she has on the show (minus little miss feather bangs)...I am always entertained. I've been working through the night for two weeks, which has given me a chance to catch up on all everything in my DVR and the problem I've found is I can only watch so much Ellen in one sitting. So, I need some recommendations. If you were me, what would you record. So far, I'm catching:
  • The Ellen Show...obviously
  • The West Wing...should win "best writing" Emmy every year
  • Best Week Ever...duh
  • Two and a Half Men...tie for funniest show on TV
  • Arrested Development...other half of tie for funniest show on TV
  • The Apprentice...both Trump and Martha
  • Pokemon...obligation
  • The OC...guilty pleasure



  • 3. Despite the above comment about her bangs, who wants to see Reese in Walk the Line this weekend?

    Thursday, November 17, 2005

    It has been a long time (exactly two months)

    Since my last post I’ve:

    • been in Hawaii, LA (twice), San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Atlanta (twice), Columbia (SC), Chicago, Boston, and Macon (GA)
    • only had 5 days off of work (including the weekends), but launched 12 of 15 “high priority” projects
    • spent more time alone than I thought was humanly possible, realizing that although I missed my friends terribly – there is something rewarding about being comfortable spending time with yourself
    • made good use of the phrase “I’ll cut you” until I actually cut myself and ended up with stitches and two weeks without the use of my left hand
    • let go of a friendship that became a burden and ended a relationship that broke my heart
    • cried and prayed and yelled and cursed more times than I can remember
    • finished the short stories I’ve been working on for months two weeks before my computer had a meltdown that I'd been trying to have for weeks
    • written all of my very personal hopes and thoughts and fears and concerns and prayers in a journal only to leave it in the front seat pocket of an airplane
    • learned that at the end of the day - even if you have the best friends in the world - you can only truly count on yourself, God, and your mama…and most of the time that is all you need


    Thanks for all of the notes and comments since I took my sabbatical. It is nice to know people actually read this thing. So, I’m back with a smile on my face and a lot to say about nothing.

    Wednesday, August 17, 2005

    P. Weezie

    I'm sure everyone has seen/heard/read that P. Diddy is changing his name. Yup, for the 17th time, he wants to be called something different. At first, I thought it was lame, but then I remembered that I, myself, have about seven or eight nicknames and people in glass houses...blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I kind of liked the sound of P. Diddy. But, now he has dropped the "P" and he is just Diddy.

    OK - Diddy, I'll take that "P" you just tossed away and put it to good use...from now on I'll be P. Weezie.

    Friday, July 29, 2005

    Vacation: Day Two, Day Three

    The first two days of my vacation have flown by. In the past 48 hours, I’ve done nothing but eat, sun, and shop. The first day, we just hung out at the pool. I got my first real sun for the season and then we went shopping. My sister and I had a very late lunch (where I couldn’t enjoy a nice, tall Anchor Steam, my favorite beer, because I’d left my ID in our room. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or annoyed, but I was on vacation and was relaxed enough sans beer) and then spent the rest of the day shopping.

    Having not adjusted to the time change, sister was ready for bed at 7:00, which left me the rest of the evening to read and do some writing. I finished a short story that I’ve been working on for seven months and tried to get past the point of no completion in the novel I’m certain I will never finish. Regardless, I had some time to get some writing done which is always a good thing.

    The second day we went to the beach. I have to admit, I like staying in a place where someone carried your stuff to the beach and sets up your chair and umbrella. I read my book and napped until my sister got bored and insisted we get in the water. We rented boogie boards and tried to ride the waves, but the current was too strong to stay on. I decided to give it up when I ended up getting thrown onto the shore, face first with the world’s largest wedgie…good thing all of my falling down has kept me from being easily embarrassed.

    Wedgie aside, nothing too exciting has happened since I’ve arrived. I am totally relaxed and have barely given all of the stress that as been wearing me down a second thought. It all seems to be so far away…I guess it takes four time zones and a large stretch of the pacific to get away from your troubles. Next year – I’ll go to Fiji!

    Tuesday, July 26, 2005

    Vacation Day One

    I began my vacation today. I’ve been looking forward to it and dreading it all in the same breath for a number of weeks. I’ve been dreading it because I have too much work to do to leave town for a tropical island for a week…looking forward to it because if my brain doesn’t get a chance to relax, it may sprout legs and take off for good…which would leave me crazy or crazier than usual and we all know that isn’t a good thing.

    So, I’m off in vacation. Just to make sure things would be “normal” upon my return, I left the city this morning with seven outstanding items on my professional “to do” list and two items on my personal “to figure out” list or better said, both situations with NB and Either/Or as complicated as possible. However, I’ve made an agreement with myself that I’ll try to think of all of these things as little as possible over the next nine days. So far, it’s going ok…although I’ve yet to leave the mainland US.

    I managed to leave my apartment and NYC without any cab, train, or airport delays. The flight from NYC to Atlanta was quick and very easy thanks to my first class upgrade. I was totally bummed when I checked my itinerary yesterday to find that of the 12 hours of travel time I was facing today, I’d only gotten an upgrade for the first leg, all of two hours, from the city to Atlanta. But I took advantage of the upgrade regardless and in order to truly kick-off my vacation; I ordered my first cocktail at exactly one minute after noon on the first leg of the trip. Actually, we got into Atlanta early enough for me to grab Chick-Fil-A before the ridiculously long flight to Hawaii, with a short stop in San Fran. With an order of chicken nuggets in hand, I said a small prayer about safe flights and nice travel neighbors for the long ride in coach and boarded the plane.

    After settling in my tiny aisle seat in an exit row (thank goodness), I decided this trip wouldn’t be anything I couldn’t bear even though this exit row seat was one of those tricky ones that don’t recline. Just when I’d gotten everything settled and was heading to the restroom for one last time before take off, a couple walked up and began their attempt to shove their carry-ons into the overhead bins. The lady was sitting in the window seat next to me. Her male companion, to whom I am now referring to as SANTA, was sitting in an aisle seat four rows back. Santa began his sales process about how I may enjoy the seat four rows back and before he could even get into his pitch about the seats that do and don’t recline and whatnot, I told him I’d be happy to trade seats with him. Although I’m finding myself a little bitter towards romance today, I know I would hate to be traveling on a flight across the United States, stuck next to some stranger, with my husband four seats away.

    It reminded me of the time Either/Or and I were both traveling back from the west coast on business and although we booked our travel without knowing one another would be in the same place at the same time, we ended up on the same flight in seats next to each other. It was the first time I remember feeling that I odd feeling that resembled something like love for him. I say this because on that trip I was number one on the upgrade list with nine seats unassigned (in frequent flyer speak, that equals guaranteed upgrade) and I gave the upgrade up because I’d rather be miserable in coach for six hours next to him than be semi-comfortable in first class knowing he was less than ten rows back and I wasn’t with him.

    Anyways (again I digress), I had just settled into my second seat when the stewardess came back looking for the gentleman, or should I say, Santa. I told her that he was seated in my seat and she could find him in 12B. As I began reading my new book, Santa came back to my seat to thank me again for switching seats and to tell me that some good deeds are quickly rewarded because he had been upgraded to first class and his wife had not, so my new seat was 1C. That, my friends, is a perfect example of karma. The sweet couple got to sit together and I got to drown away my romantic bitterness with the Napa wine tasting they just finished serving after three hours...I’m surprised I can still type. This trip may be just what the doctor ordered.

    Wednesday, July 20, 2005

    Dear Larry,

    Since I think you read my blog more often than you check email, I figured I'd write you a note. I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks. I'm still trapped in this freezing conference room working on really boring stuff.

    How are things up your way? Anything new and exciting going on? Please come visit soon. I need to be entertained.

    Your friend,
    Weezie

    PS - MUPP is back in town. We really should have toilet papered his space when we had the chance. Be nice to him - he can't help the fact that he is only slightly smarter than a cocker spaniel.

    Wednesday, July 13, 2005

    Celeb Spotting

    Since I moved to NYC, I've been pretty lucky on the celebrity spotting front. I've bumped into (literally) Matt Damon at the gym and had conversations with (as in more than 5 minutes of) Stephen Malkmus, Tina Fey, and Drew Barrymore. But only the Malkmus encounter comes close to this morning's celebrity spotting. I passed Vince Vaughn on the sidewalk. I didn't bump into him and I didn't talk to him, but he was very close. If I could adore him more (he is already number one on my top five celebrity crush list), I would now because he is MUCH cuter in person. I'm taking it as a sign that today won't suck, because yesterday sucked and Monday REALLY sucked.

    Monday, July 11, 2005

    The Big Picture

    This weekend was on of the all-time worst. It kicked into low-gear on Friday with a company picnic. I have some of the world’s coolest co-workers. But as much as I like to hang with most of them, I’m extremely overworked and I’ve got too much to do to spend the day out of the office at a company picnic. But, it wasn’t an opt-out situation and there were decent activities and fried chicken involved, so I decided to make the best of it. However, making the best of it became impossible when I woke up Friday morning to a forecast calling for 100 percent chance of rain, with a flood-warning in effect, and a temperature that wasn’t supposed to reach 65. We still went and there were no indoor facilities at the picnic site.

    However, there was a covered pavilion with picnic tables and a slue of board games provided by HR for entertainment. Most of the crew played games, while myself and three others decided to entertain ourselves by attempting to trump one another’s complaints. At one point, I offered one of them everything in my messenger bag if she would kindly put me out of my misery by holding the plastic poncho I was wearing around my head as I attempted to breathe deeply. She didn’t take me up on it. It wasn’t because she was avoiding a possible murder charge. She declined my offer because she wasn’t interested in anything in my bag. I don’t know why. The contents included: a new pack of Orbit gum (the new citrus flavor…quite tasty!) a gameboy, the latest copy of Internet Retailer magazine, my cell phone, my sidekick, my wallet and the keys to my apartment. Her loss - she wasn’t thinking big picture. Taking the bag would’ve given her access to all of my belongings and she could have held one hell of a yard sale. Lesson learned: always think about the big picture when making an important decision.

    This leads me to the next part of my weekend that sucked…I had my final falling out with Either/Or. I know I said this weeks ago, but things are finally finished with him. D-O-N-E! I’ve been dragging out the “cutting the ties” conversation, because since we had our last “d-o-n-e” conversation, things have been really great between us. However, in looking at the big picture, I realized by letting things continue as is, I’d never move on and would quite possibly miss my chance to see where things would go with NB. The last time this happened, I wasn’t thinking about the big picture and I let Either/Or worm his way back into my life. But, now I’m all about the big picture…what hurts in the short term will pay off on the long run.

    For once, I’m glad the weekend is over.

    Tuesday, July 05, 2005

    R&R

    This weekend was just what the doctor ordered…lots of quality time with my friends and the new boy (NB). Needing some long awaited rest and relaxation, we spent three days sleeping, eating, drinking, shopping, and sunning. The holiday weekend culminated yesterday with activities involving a picnic in the park with a view of one of my all-time favorite bands, corndogs, margaritas, and a roof-top view of the fireworks.