( work whine )

disbandedtoastr and sarahtoalaska did a meme so I'm trying it, too. but really I should just repost Toast's because many of her answers apply to me anyway and the ones that don't are just beyond hysterical.



1.) If I were a doll, the accessories packaged with me would be:
paper products, a Beatles CD, a library card, 23 pairs of converse high tops

2.) I have an irrational fear of:
phones! i'm with Sarah. there would be NO cell phone packaged with my doll

3.) What type of food do you eat at your grandparents house?
none! she would time our visits to our other relatives to somehow correspond to lunchtime and dinnertime.

4.) What weight were you when you were born?
6 something? oddly enough, so was my husband. thankfully we aren't the same weight now.

5.) What would you do if you were stranded on an island with the person you hate most?
i have no idea who i hate most. probably register them for classes. that appears to be where most of my animosity is being directed right now.

6.) What would you do if you found out you had been cheated on?
Leave. and probably cry. a lot.

7.) Do you stalk anyone on myspace?
me? stalk someone?!?! come on!! (love you Andrew! love you Marc!)

8.) I find the thought of childbirth:
ticking

9.) Next door to my house is:
really high grass. and several houses for sale. come on people, move next door!!

10.) My feet are:
magical! and hardly used. make me an offer!

11.) My preferred style of jeans is:
apparently toaster's. because i've taken several pairs from her.

12.) Why is your #1 on My Space?
i don't know! i think it's my nephew.

13.) Know how to cook?
i used to! then i married a man who loves to cook and am a bit intimidated.

14.) I am annoyed with:
selfishness is the root of nearly all our problems today. thinking that you are more important than other people so you should have your way and the rules shouldn't apply to you.

15.) What is the worst way you were dumped?
i think i was dumped, it was weird. he said his ex-girlfriend was crazy and found out he was dating me and had started hanging out on our dates watching so he wanted to break up for my safety! how INSANE is that? it's practially Springer. i shouldn't even share that.

16.) What child-related smell do you not like?
diapers? or do you mean bad smells from my childhood? in that case cauliflower.

17.) Insert random question here.
a tomato and possibly his left shoe

18.) What color hair do most of the people you are around have?
Brown. but i appreciate toaster making sure to include red in there somewhere :)

19.) What object have you broken recently?
various office policies... (kidding!!)

20.) Name one of the Spice Girls.
yeah, i could name a few. there was one on Nevermind the Buzzcocks - i liked her

21.) What was the last thing to make you cry?
i don't remember. i block those things out relatively quickly. but they come back with triggers.

22.) What are the stems on wine glasses for?
what's a wine blossom?

23.) My favorite shoes are:
converse!! because they are the coolest YES.

24.) Do you use chopsticks?
great. now i want sushi.

25.) Do you prefer beaches or forests?
forests, love forests. but beaches are very nice on lovely windy days with a good book.

26.) What serial killer do you find most disturbing?
The Lobster Killer!!

27.) Who knows a secret or two about you?
Reddheaded and Disbandedtoastr. love you, yes!

28.) Have you ever burned yourself?
I once branded myself with a hairdryer, does that count?

29.) Who is probably talking a load of crap about you right now?
LOL - some students and some student's moms?

30.) Who is/are your hero[es]?
My parents, my family, and my friends. (lifted directly from toaster)

31.) Do you believe in things that last forever?
Yes. God, love, human spirit

32.) What are you listening to?
So You Think You Can Dance! Go Neil!!

33.) What do you smell like?
now i smell like apathy. but sometimes i smell like lavender and sometimes i smell like amber!

34.) Are you married?
yes!!! yay!!!

35.) Does anyone regularly tell you they love you?
yes!!! yay!! lots of people. and i say it lots of times to all of them as well.

36.) What's the most confusing to you?
wow. lots of stuff. i'm bad with superlatives. if i sat here and tried to quantify I'd never finish. life, the university and everything, i guess.

37.) Do you have any bad habits?
do i have to list them? i want people to still like me.

38.) Have you ever wanted to be a teacher?
yes! i was trained to do elementary ed and i do miss it a little bit - i really liked it but was a coward over the discipline, stupid lawsuit issues, and paperwork. love the lesson planning, teaching, creativity, interaction, and the kids, though. oddly enough - i feel the same way about the college classes but i'm MAKING myself teach occastionally just to try to get over that.

39.) What is one thing you've learned about life?
naptime shouldn't stop in kindergarten?

40.) What's your favorite color?
greens, blues, teals...and for clothes toss in browns as well.

41.) Have you ever been stuck in an elevator?
I got kinda stuck in the capital building in Tallahassee when I was 20. it wasn't stuck IN the elevator, it was stuck on the 20th floor after they'd shut down the elevators. so we ran down 17 flights of stairs, pausing at each level to try to open a door only to discover it locked. by the time we got to the third floor we were so desparate and upset we almost didn't notice it opened for us.

42.) What does your dad call you?
chickie! or sometimes chickie number two. sometimes my little colleen. sometimes frauline (cuz i married a germanish guy)

43.) Have you ever sang in front of people?
yes. not that i sing well. i just like to sing. i sing in the Walmart.

44.) What are you looking forward to?
Dragon*Con!

I had such a great time last Sunday. Mom and I went shopping. There were sales! I can't wait to wear some of the stuff I got to work. I wanted some new clothes in case I was teaching but MOSTLY because I've lost 14 pounds so far at the WW thing and while my current clothes still loosely fit I can now get into a size smaller. So much yay! It was nice not getting depressed looking in a mirror for a change. And my current clothes are a bit warn so I'm totally justified. Swear! The ones that are still wearable are going to be donated in two months if I do not gain. (Just in case...)

Anyway, I'm not artistic tonight but I really wanted to make some Life on Mars icons. We just finished watching Series One on Saturday. Can't wait to get started on Series 2. So I could not think of a thing to put on them. They can be bases if anyone wants them. I did try to do some filters and such for a few. Blah blah blah.


1) 2) 3) 4)


5) 6) 7) 8)


9) 10) 11) 12)


13) 14) 15)




Look out! He's got stabber! He's got a stabber and a shooter!
Not clever. Not great. It was hard finding pictures. I need to learn how to screen capture.

i want to post, but i think it'll be all ( whiney. )

but who wants to hear that?
So instead, read ( how smart George was... )

And did you know that American's are shorter than other peoples of the industrialized word. The average man's height in the Netherlands is 6'1" and American men average 5'10". Heard it on the Daily Show. We do; however, lead the world in girth. Go USA!

tonight went suprisingly well!

life has been very busy of late:

GARF!! left immediately after work on Friday (or close to it...) and got back a bit before midnight Sunday night. The trip was FANTASTIC as usual and I will try to post some happy memories tomorrow when it's not so late and I have time to reflect.

Monday our reading group finally met again after months and we actually remembered where we were in the story and how to read out loud. Tuesday was movie night - wheeeee! Got to see part two of Human Nature. Tonight we had people over as well. Tomorrow I'm going over to droidgirl's house for one of reddheaded's jewelry parties.

I joined Weight Watchers and man - how do you calculate points for a Renn Festival? And how do you handle dinner parties? Or social gatherings? This is hard. And I'm hungry!

Missed you guys, though! Toast - hope you had flan on my behalf ;)

OH OH OH!! And after Mass the other Sunday Toaster & I went to the Cracker Barryl for breakfast and I bought a Chinese Jumprope and make her and Monkeys play with me!!! YAY!!

Haven't done that since Elementary School!!! And I still remembered the steps!! Sadly, I forgot how to jump. One round and i was panting and having to sit for a little bit.

They started it a little high on their ankles, though!!! you start with it really low and raise it up as you successfully complete all the jumps. so it wasn't as bad as...

okay, it was bad. i'm old and out of shape.


so now I'm hoping to find a set of chinese jacks. :)

Did I post about applying for a new job at work? I applied for the Coordinator of Student Activities. I thought it would be really cool as i would be in charge of all the clubs, the Brain Bowl team, SGA - all the stuff I participated in back in high school I would see from the other side. Seemed like that would be a good thing. Plus, I would help the students run the Spring Fling & Fall Festival, the Blood Drive - stuff like that. And also advisor to students on the Brain Bowl team plus some other stuff that really did sound like fun. What they did not say in the job description flier and what I did not find out until AFTER i'd applied was that it required a lot of traveling. I mean, a lot - like every couple of weeks, working during spring break, lots of evenings, all over the state, too. And driving the students in the school van. I haven't driven anything bigger than my VW Beatle. I'm not describing how much traveling/watching the students on the road & hotels is actually involved. I couldn't talk to the guy who used to do the job because everytime I called he was on the road in another city. Had I known, I would NOT have applied - because we do a lot of friend stuff and a lot of evening stuff plus it would mean giving up teaching on the side.

I couldn't pull my application because of two other instances when I pulled (once because at the very last minute they changed it from a full time position to a grant position w/no sick leave and the other time because someone I trust told me I did not want to go to that campus although I said it was because of travel issues)...I thought it would look bad to pull again and who knows, maybe I would like traveling once i got used to it. I needed to get over my fear of driving big vehciles anyway - it would let me pull my share of the load on DragonCon trips. Besides, I knew some good people had also put in for it so who knows I would get it anyway and if i did i could always turn it down. it's good to get my name out there even if I didn't want that job.

But I really thought I would get an interview :(

It's really the answer to my prayers. I don't have to give up my summer class I'm supposed to teach, I don't have to worry about Dragoncon conflicts, I don't have to worry about GARF conflicts, I still get spring break, I don't have to give up the reading group, Tuesday Night Movie Club, yogo, voice lessons and the stuff about my life that i love. So it's a good thing.

But I'm sad I didn't get an interview - even if I was trying to figure out how to not get the job.

And, it was twice the money.

but what's the point of money if you can't spend it at Dragoncon & GARF & on popcorn & yoga/voice lessons?

anyway - there are lots of other things going on at work keeping me rather busy AND i've been sick. so this is probably a rambly post. i haven't posted a real message in a while and am overdue so i'm submitting it anyway. so there!

NEXT post will be pictures of the soup can. it's brilliant, i tell you.

loves!

1) i'm going to my home town tomorrow for an engagement party. one of the kids i used to babysit is getting married!! i can't wait to see the family again, they were our neighbors since I was four years old and he was 2 until I moved at the age of 13. it wasn't so much baby-sitting as it was putting his younger sisters to bed and playing cards and eating soup until his parents came home.

2) we'll be staying with my best friend who is redoing her house for her daughter's upcoming high school graduation party in May. she's painting every wall in her house and has been sending me daily updates which is making me really crave doing house stuff ourselves. we're going to Lowe's and other stores to look at tile and bathroom fixtures. yay!

3) i finished our tax stuff today!!

4) my husband is getting a pay raise!! so we'll be able to pay for the new tile and fixtures... :)

5) i have applied for a new job BUT they did not put in the announcement flier that it will require a lot of traveling which is not cool. on the bright side, the results from the recent study on job responsibility level and task complexity level (it was an insanely complex survey, really interesting to fill out) should be back soon and there is hope they will change some things based on the study :) I'm actually a little hopeful.

6) we got a new tv!! after 7+ years of an old tv set he got for $25 at the waterfront mission it was time. that tv was ancient. and while the case was big the tv screen was kinda small. i would describe the new one but i have no idea. in fact, when i came home from work the day he hooked it up i didn't even notice it. i launched into a story from work while he kept nodding and pointing to the living room. i turned and looked and said "yeah, it's Black Books" (the show on the screen at the time) and turned back to finish my story when he interrupted me to exclaim in a very disappointed voice "it's a new tv and you didn't even notice!". it was supposed to be a neat surprise for me. silly boy. i'm not very techno. yesterday i couldn't even turn it on. and we now have EIGHT remote control devices in the living room. it's got to stop!!

crazy post, huh? it could be worse. i could be describing the nastiness that is my husband's toe right now. eeek! not pretty.

Tonight was yoga and I managed to talk disbandedtoastr and one of my coworkers into coming to class with me to try it out. I think they liked it! I'm really happy. My wisdom tooth is feeling much better - it appears to have decided to give up for a while. Tomorrow I get to attend a lecture on some crazy dinosaur during my lunch (one of our biology instructors discovered it's fossil and we have a replica of the mesosauras hanging in our new science building) plus an office share dish - huzzah! I made brownies. I am going to be a guest lecturor in a College Success class next Monday; i really should be working on that but i'm playing on-line and watching TV. I'm a good role model! Tuesday we watched a crazy movie and YouTube will not post a video for it...STILL... Monday was a holiday and I read some books magnet5 lent me (two in one day! 420 pages! Patricia Wrede's Mairelon the Magician and Magician's Ward. they were lovely, they reminded me of the Madeleine Brent books I read as a teenager.) Sunday we had a tea party that I really ought to write about and we watched Free Enterprise (thanks herzograven!). It's been a good week! Hard to believe last Friday I was running around trying to get my tooth settled and Thursday was the end of registration.

( what i learned in voice this week )

pain pain ow
ow ow pain
my tooth hurts
my mouth hurts
my bottom jaw hurts
my ear hurts

my wisdom tooth decided to try to come in thursday night. BECAUSE IT HATES ME. my dentist likes me, though. as does my boss. so i got to take a three hour lunch friday and get in for some penicillin (sp) for the infection and lorotab (sp?) for the pain which i'm under orders not to take unless it becomes unbareable and i cannot sleep. (i.e. last thursday night.) so now advil is my friend.

but i'm still not happy.

we've been cleaning and doing food prep for a tea party we are throwing tomorrow. monkeys put in a ladder to our attic and it's really cool except i'm afraid of heights so when i climbed up there i got a little bit hyperventalatey with flash backs to the time i got stuck in my uncles barn's hay loft. but that only lasted a minute or two and i climbed back down. my husband is amazingly sweet. he promised that had i refused to come down and just stayed up there he would have brought me food and drink everyday. but it's okay cuz i am down now. then he put up a bunch of plywood so we have twice as much storage space now and it looks great. (i climbed back up to check out the changes - see, i'm not a total coward...) and he rearranged all the arcade games to make sure we could get the ladder up and down. anyway, in the near future he is going to put up more wood, some rails (for me!) and a light so in the very near future i can say we have a light in the attic. that makes me happy.

now we are off to get some food. except i can't chew! maybe i'll lose some weight?

note for monkeys:
dark counters blonde cabenits

swiped from dracothelizard




My real resolutions which I don't think I will start until after registration ends are not as fun as some of those - but also a bit appropriate to my intentions. And as I haven't been successful in previous years I feel quite hypocritical. Maybe I should list five now and five in July.
1) eat healthier (more water/less junk food)
2) exercise three times a week for at least 1 hour
3) read 50 books (last year I made it to 39),
4) write at least one card or letter a month (the first to my grandmother),
5) get organized around the house.

Those are the first I can think up at least. I also want to go to Mass every Sunday with Toaster as I was lax in 2006 and to do more good deeds. Toaster and I were thinking maybe after Mass we could spend Sunday afternoon "jamming" so perhaps I will become a better mandolin, as well.

Oh. And Marc Gunn, I love you ;)

good golly. i was sitting here catching up on reading my flist and thinking about posting when i suddenly realized i brought home a big project from work and should be doing that. yuck! i even worked through lunch and went to work early and still didn't finish all of it. registration has started up and i'm getting pulled in every direction but don't seem to be getting anything done :(

congratulate me - i can hook my laptop up to the presenation equipment and run powerpoint in my class. yeah, i know - "so what, lots of people can do that" but how many technophopic neo-luddites can do that?!?!? ME!!! it's gonna save me a zillion dollars (okay, about $180) on having to print out overhead slides like i had to do for my first two classes. you'd think the school would pay for that kind of stuff. nope. i even buy my own paper for copies.

but i need to get off this computer. i even cut class tonight (i was sick and we were under a tornado warning) with the idea of getting this project done but something happened to a close friend of ours and worrying about her and getting home to Monkeys and letting him know what was going on derailed my thoughts.

it's so wierd because there is a lot of sadness and bad stuff and pressure at work and worrying for my friends going in right now but despite that and being sick and feverish i'm pretty upbeat at this moment. monkeys made some excellent chili and i had a big bowl of it a few minutes ago. maybe that's it. or maybe it'st he fever. okay, off to work.

Okay, my husband freemonkeys has made his first post to LJ :)

I have frequently told people that I married him for his arcade games. That usually gets a laugh. Sadly, I wasn't joking. He's got a working PacMan, Ms Pacman, Gyrus, cocktail Donkey Kong (the end table my laptop is currently sitting on), BurgerTime, Rastan, Armor Attack, Zaxxon, and my favorite Centipede. Also, a working Paragon Pinball machine and two pachinko machines.

In addtition to those, he has some non-working machines Galaga, Discs of Tron, Q-Bert, Star Wars, and a coctail Defender (our other end table). The Q-Bert and Tron were working when I married him so I expect they are farily fixable. The Galaga just needs parts.

it's awesome.

go read his post! (and i'm not saying that just because it's really complimentary toward me...)

quick post, stolen from sp4z26
Toaster, you have some explaining to do. I know your dad's a rocket scientist and very special, but this is a bit extreme.

my maden name


my married name


there aren't that many of me out there! Before I got married, this was reversed.

Cuz i got tagged by disbandedtoastr

The player of this game starts with the "6 weird things or habits about yourself." People who get tagged will have to post a blog telling their 6 weird things or habits as well. Make sure to post this rule clearly! At the end of your 6 weird/things/habits, you need to choose 6 people that you would like to be tagged and write their names down.


ummmmmm

1) i had amnesia - both short and long term. the short term only lasted a day and a half but i lost a week of long term memory which slowly came back over the course of the month. now i got it all back except for two days which i've been told will never return.

2) my car is named VIN Diesel because it's a diesel and VIN for Vehicle Identification Name instead of Number. I really want a pair of Riddick glasses to hang from my rear view mirror.

3) every room in my house is painted a different color.

4) i've had a poem published! way way way back in college and quite possibly because my friend was one of the editors but still, i'm really happy about it. it's about a parrot.

5) i cannot stand to have clutter on a table in a restaurant. i must clear away empty sugar packets and stack dishes. Toaster once ripped up a napkin into fifty or so little pieces and scattered them all over a table while i was in the bathroom just to see my reaction when i returned.

6) i have "performance anxiety" in public bathrooms - so much so that i compose poems and songs about water and peeing in an effort to get my mind off my anxiety and get my mind on liquids. some day i will record my version of the Beatles song "Dear Prudence" called "Dear Bladder"

Okay, to tag or not to tag...
who hasn't Toaster tagged ? feel no pressure but...
herzograven
magnet5
sarahtoalaska
soberchef
freemonkeys
libras_art

Swiped from supergoober and marcgunn

Go to Wikipedia.com and enter your birth month and date, without the year. Post in your journal three events that happened on that date, two notable births, and one notable death.

3 EVENTS:
1867 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1991 - Apple release the first version of QuickTime.
1993 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

2 BIRTHS
1859 - Georges Seurat, French painter (d. 1891)
1863 - Charles Ringling, American circus owner (d. 1926)

1 DEATH
1814 - Marquis de Sade, French writer (b. 1740)


If I could have picked more deaths (horrible as that sounds) Marty Feldman, Desi Arnez, and an actor from the 1880's named Harrison Ford. i had to read that one twice... And I picked the Apple news despite there being others more appealing to me. See how much I love my husband?!??!

Who probably got it from either magnet5 or satharn

( meme! everyone's doing it... )

Okay, i saw this on someone else's journal (ladychevalier) and thought it was neat. I don't expect everyone to do it, espeically if you don't really know me! But if you get tht chance fill in my Johari Windo at http://kevan.org/johari?name=madladyred

OH - did you know that the girl in King Ralph is Rose's mom in the new Doctor Who?!?!?! How cool is that. She was really pretty in it, too :)

What, you may ask, is a Frantic Pansy? It's a state of extreme agitation caused by having a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. So my friend DisbandedToastr is getting married. We thought we'd gotten up in plenty of time for our to do list. Not so much. Pick up the dress - nope, didn't fit right. Had to be altered the day of the wedding. So we picked up the boys tuxes. Then we ran into town (30 minute drive) to pick up a feather pen, guest book, hose, garter, and stuff we probably should have already had but realized at the last minute we didn't. Oh, dropped off the tuxedos. Back to pick up the wedding license and rings. Then a 2:00 nail appointment that went LONG. Ran out of time before all of us got our nails done, but the bride's got done and that was the important thing. To the hairdressers! Which went LONG. Only the bride got done. We bridesmaids ran out to buy some lunch. I have an awesome picture of Toaster under one of those giant hairdryers eating a burger. Okay, so we still had to get back to the house and get into our dresses and set up the church. We did make it back to get dressed but we were about five minutes late to the wedding and we didn't have time to set up the church. But we had a lot of fun anyway. And in the middle of it all as we were running around like mad women Toaster stopped and exclaimed "I'm in a frantic pansy! No, wait, I mean a panicked frenzy!" But it was too late. A phrase was born. And most days I feel as if I"m in a frantic pansy.

Nice to meet everyone!

MadLadyRed