Of books and hand sanitizer...

Well, I ordered two books from Amazon and they should be here today. I went with Prodigal Summer and Bound. Reading the description of Water for Elephants I knew I'd be bawling on the plane or grinding my teeth so I opted to save that one for later.

I didn't realize Prodigal Summer was by the same writer as The Poisonwood Bible so hey there ya go. And Bound is the new historical fiction from the writer of The Widow's War... it's a semi-sequel so yeah.

If I get to meet up with Olga before I leave she's going to loan me Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. She claims she laughed all the way through and she loves Austin as much as I do so I'm hoping it's my kind of funny.

I also bought my travel size stuff to take on the plane, and I found a pump spray hand sanitizer at Target. Score. I do tend to have an awesome immune system, but I just find airplane toilets beyond nasty (and I worked in a movie theater for a couple of years) so it's more to cover that gross out factor. My last time on Quantas they were above and beyond the best Continental plane I've been on so I'm hoping its more like that trip... but just in case.

I also picked up a new pair of workout/loungy pants and I plan on changing into them for the long flight, and yes I'm even gonna pack my house slippers... my older pair not the nice ones Mary gave me. I will be comfortable! Talked JP into getting two aisle seats, I'll sit behind him so we both can easily walk around too... last time my feet swelled for a bit and that wasn't fun.

Mary wasn't happy we wouldn't be sitting right next to each other, which made me laugh.

So what I have left to do it buy some snackies. I thought, to try and avoid some travel discomfort I typically have, I would take fruit to eat at the LAX airport before the flight, so I don't get in trouble for accidently having foreign fruit in Oz, and then see if I can find those smaller bags of like wheat thins and goldfish crackers for the flight itself. Last time they gave out like high fat granola and candy bars... not what I'm really wanting to eat ya know.

I also broke down and bought season 5 of LOST for my iPod. It comes out too late on Netflix for me to watch the last season on TV so I justified it as it only cost me $35... and I'll have something that really grabs me. I want to watch the last season on time and maybe Olga and I can catch a free showing at the Drafthouse at some point. Those always look like a blast.

And before I forget, STEVE INSKEEP is in Houston!!! *Swoon* NPR is doing a week long report on Houston and it's massive growth etc. Today he was out reporting at the construction point on Beltway 8. I believe he's supposed to take one of those bayou boat tours and of course he's going to The Breakfast Klub. HA!

At least it's quiet... like the begining of that Bjork video

It's very very quiet here again today. Yesterday the supervisors and the big boss were gone most of the day, and lots of people are out sick. I don't know what they're home with.

I'm not Chicken Little about the swine flu, but we do have this one person who ALWAYS gets sick, comes into the office for a couple of hours and walks around and basically infects everyone else before she heads home again. She does it every year and it's been everything from seasonal flu, to other lovely contagious illnesses. She just doesn't get it. At least she's on the other side of the half floor from me now.

Nothing else going on, just trying to fly low and not stumble into any major issues. One nearly came up, but turned out that well nobody listened to me months ago and it turns out to be a marketing issue NOT me having to come up with ownership outta the blue. Fun.

It was an overall quiet weekend too. JP met up with his former boss on Friday and I went shopping with my Mom and Aunt on Saturday. Trying to help Mom find a dress for two upcomming weddings. We had the sales ladies thinking we were nuts. Such a good time. I believe they are coming over on Sunday for some Indian at Mantra. Num!

Nothing else going on, just working... oh Smudge has finally forgiven JP for wrongfully blaming her regarding a spilled can of orange fanta. Smudge does not take the blame for a hairy humans mistake... and boy did she let him know it. For having a brain smaller than a walnut... that cat is freakish in what she seems to know and remember. I doubt she remember why she was angry with JP, she just knew she was shunning him (for 5 days!).

...gotta figure out when I have time to go buy some new pants. fun. And I still haven't bought any books!?! i see Amazon in my very near future.

Hormonal pity party....

Yeah I'm having one right now... I just need to vent a bit.



Not that I've ever been popular with oodles of friends, but I used to actually have more then a couple. It seems that some time in my mid to late twenties it was decided I wasn't worth being friends with. Those I was friends with in college stopped wanting to hang out with me... possibly because by then the migraines where so bad that I couldn't drink and they couldn't hang out with me sober or at least not in a non-bar setting.

new people that I've met through JP have been a disaster and I've learned these expaite girls don't like making new friends. You're ok to hang out with at the occasional bbq, or baby birthday party but that's it. It's a totally closed off world. Even the ones I thought were friends I've found out they never thought of me that way, and that has probably hurt the worst out of all of this.

I get it... really I'm a huge pain the ass and a killjoy of some sort. Too much of a geek and not in a hipster cool way.

I do treasure the few precious friends that I do have, and I hope they really do know that I would do anything for them because I would. This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened to me... junior year of high school, senior year of college, and now again as a supposed grown up.

Rejection just hurts. Big time.

oh well... I'm off today and got my hair cut early this morning. Came home to do laundry and haven't decided if I'm gonna take myself to see a movie or not. I don't think I'm really in the mood and the only new funny movie out is Extract.

I was supposed to go out to dinner with Olga but a family medical emergency popped up yesterday. If you pray, please keep Olga's Uncle Dicky in your prayers he's got kidney cancer and dealing with pneumonia as a complication at MD Anderson. I haven't heard an upday since yesterday so I don't know how he's doing.

So I'm a bit at loose ends, which didn't help the blow of what I found out this morning. Oh well. People suck... move on.

Laundry is buzzing so I better hop to, or I'll have to iron on top of all the washing.

Depeche Mode!

I totally forgot to post about seeing Depeche Mode on Sunday with Olga!?

OMG!

Anyway, it was a GREAT show. Considering what those guys have done to themselves Gahan & Gore have not ruined their voices at all. And Martin Gore is like the hardest working musican, he never took a break. When the band would take a break he'd do one of his solo songs either with no backing of just the guitar.

Gahan's performance was like a naughty Freddie Mercury, the only way I could describe him.

I never crushed on any of the band memebers, just loved their music ever since a girl played "Flys on the Windscreen" for me in 7th grade.

There was a massive cross section of people, and lots brought their little kids which was funny to see. I'm going to assume the tots had ear plugs 'cause it was hella loud. Sitting next to me was a boy who was 19 at best and he was belting out all the old school DM songs and The Policy of Truth seemed to hold deep impact for him because he was doing the finger pointing dance of emphasis during that one.

So yeah excellent concert, so so glad I went. Next show is U2 in October. Whoo-hoo! I'm gonna have to check out who else is coming.

Reading suggestions...

Okay to my small group of readers...

The loooooong trip to Australia is fast approaching and that means I need some book suggestions... paperback so they're easier to pack. Typically I like a little bit of everything, but I can't deal with that serious level of chick lit where it's all about the designer stuff they're buying etc. I have been on a memoir kick as well.

So if you please, drop me a line here or on FB with your suggestion so I can hit up the bookstores. Thank you!


It's nearly empty in the office. The Big Boss, who has been out since last Thursday came in today. Only that lady would come in on a Friday after vacation. So there goes any chance of early dismisal (or just plain-ol' sneekin' out). *sigh*

We aren't doing or going anywhere for the long weekend. It doesn't work when we're working on the Friday. So we are just home with the Netflix dvds.

Tonight we are off to dinner with the usual suspects, so I'll get to see little Eva and Cole. At least they aren't late nights anymore with the tots in tow.

Sunday I pick up my parents after their week in England. They went to visit some friends, our former Pastor who had to move back. Sounds like they have been having a great time and only one rained out day, so not bad.

I can not WAIT for my vacation. A week of nothing but Noodle Leggs and Coolum beach followed by shopping and the pokies in Brisbane for a week. Whoo-hoo! Not to shabby. We aren't doing a weekend trip anywhere which is a bummer. I would have like to visit Sydney or Melbourne but internal flights are too expensive so there went that.

Nothing new on the work front, nothing to add to the rumor front of the other DO group getting slashed.

I am hoping that when I get back from my vacation that I'll be more into my job. We'll see.

This ain't Mad Men up in here...

For some time now the three decanters of the office coffee have been spotty. Some times they leak, if they aren't under the drip just so nothing goes in... etc.

Multiple times, I a non-coffee drinker, have cleaned up or helped to clean up the messes as it goes everywhere and it's the "Floor's" kitchen so yeah, it's what a grown up should do.

Now... since the steady trickle of Land Negotiators have come to our floor (they are all men) there is more turn around in the coffee consumption and therefore more chances for a mishap.

Today I broke.

I walk into the kitchen to make my morning peppermint tea and it's about 8am. I am following my friend Theresa. We walk in to find a Land Negotiator filling up his coffee mug and telling us about the mess and laughing as we are left cleaning it up. Can you say WANKER. Can you say LOSER. Can you say ASSHAT. Yes the man witnessed the overflow and walked away from the mess with a merry heart that the women folk were cleaning up the mess for him so he could get back to that important work of our land negotiators... like drilling wells for other companies and causing lawsuits.


AND... while we were cleaning up another Land Negotiator came in and was just standing behind us waiting for a us to start a fresh pot of coffee since the last pot was all over the counter. I admit it, I glared at him over my shoulder and told he we were going to be a while... and we did NOT make a fresh pot. (There was no way of knowing which decanter was jacked up as they were empty)


It's not the first time this has happened either... it's just the last time it's happening to me. If it's good enough for the menfolk to ignore it's good enough for me to ignore.

One guy actually had the NERVE to go into Laura's office and tell her that she needed to get someone in the kitchen to clean up the mess. Really I'm surprised she didn't rip his face off because she usually is a tasmanian devil about lesser such things... I'm assuming her lack of maiming was a result of shock.

Romona sent out a memo but I know these men won't change as I'm sure that their behavior at work reflects how they behave at home. I am lucky enough to live with a man who more than cleans up after himself. Typically he has to remind me to pick up a magazine or whatnot I've left on the sofa instead of putting in the basket. And never has he left a huge mess in the kitchen for me to clean. At worst he doesn't put away the clean dishes and likes to float the dirty dishes in super hot soapy water. I can totally live with that.

But I am done... done.done.DONE. with these messy men. If they are married and their wives let them get away with acting like that, SHAME ON THEM. We aren't talking coffee rings on the counter but standing liquid covering a communal area.

SHEESH!

There are lots of other incidents but I'm not hashing them all out it'll just piss me off more.