A Blustery Day in the Neighborhood

I was on my lunch break this afternoon and I decided to just sit in my car and watch the wind and rain. It was kind of relaxing, if my phone would allow me to send recordings longer than 30 seconds I would have recorded a lot more. But I guess you get the point. I actually fell asleep in my car. Weird I know. I actually woke up when I heard someone's car door slam shut. Thankfully that happened or I would have kept right on sleeping!

Now, most of you know how much I hate winter. But I actually really like this time of year. Yeah, it gets a little rainy and blustery like today. I just like the crisp air and cool nights, I don't even mind the overcast skies. I usually don't start hating the weather until about December, possibly November. Depends on the snow load.

Until next time-keep on keepin' on!

Miranda...oops! I mean Melinda

I'm sitting up late and waiting for my laundry to get done. I've considered leaving it in the laundry room overnight and going to bed. But I've had my skivvies stolen (no joke!) on more than one occasion so I don't really feel like taking that risk tonight. For a funny true story about stolen underwear go here.

So here I am, googling aimlessly and checking my Facebook (add me!) every ten minutes. I'm on my fourth second cup of coffee (of course) and I am getting rather bored.

Tim's still up with me, he's sitting over there in the living room watching CNN. Naturally I've heard the same 3 stories now two or three times. You know how CNN is right? It's all on rotation. Currently I'm listening to one story that I am so sick of hearing about. You've probably already guessed, but that story I'm referring to is the Michael Jackson's death investigation story. Man. That Larry King is sure eating it up too. You'd think that Larry, being as old and (seemingly) distinguished as he is, would have better things to talk about. Like oh I don't know, the war in Iraq/Afghanistan?...maybe the 3 hikers being held in Iran or even the reality show murderer guy... at least Anderson Cooper talked about those stories right before this. But nope. Instead Larry, looking meticulously fastidious in his usual suspenders and colorful tie, is questioning some unheard of dude about one of Michael's many doctors that may or may not have had something to do with his death. ugh!

*stepping off my soap box*

Guess what I'm listening to? Apparently Third Eye Blind has a new album. Didn't know this until about 20 minutes ago. It's called Ursa Major, it's pretty good, as far as Third Eye Blind goes. I used to listen to them a lot, so this brings me back to my "college days". One thing is for sure, you can definitely tell who you're listening to. Stephan Jenkins has a distinctive voice, and Third Eye Blind in general has a pretty distinctive sound. The song Summer Town on Ursa Major, definitely has a beat that is reminiscent of Semi-Charmed Life. Which I don't really mind so much because that song rocks my socks! OK........

...crickets chirping...

I left for a moment but I am back. I've gone and found Semi-Charmed Life to rock out to. I can't sit here and talk about that song without hearing it! This song definitely strikes the memory nerve. When I moved to Seattle for school, I encountered many things for the first time. One thing that is odd, but I think is cool, is my first experience with REAL radio stations. Good ones compared to Juneau's offerings. I found a station that played top hits (of course) and I listened to that station a lot. This song was on a seriously heavy rotation at the time...

*cue the dream sequence*

In college I shared an apartment with two girls from Moses Lake, Washington. I wasn't arriving in Seattle until 2 days before orientation. But their parents were driving them in a week early to set up the apartment. (side note: AIS didn't really have dorms, they leased apartments around town. I got placed in some apartments about 20 minutes from the school. The funny part? My particular place happened to be one of about 15-20 apartments leased by AIS in a complex made up mostly of retirees and middle aged professionals. haha those poor old people) My two future roommates called me one day before I left Juneau to ask what things I'd be contributing to the new digs. My answer? pretty much nothing, I had a microwave. This didn't seem to upset them. Apparently their parents were providing the essentials.

Actual apartments people!! I googled them!

Now, I'm not sure you can tell from my previous history lessons on me. This information will be needed at a later point in the story so pay attention: I might have been what you would have called "preppy" or maybe even "girlie". My personal tastes at the time included the colors purple, pink, blue and white. So when I'd gone to Bed Bath & Beyond with my aunt to pick out my new bedroom supplies these are the colors I went with.

Finally the big day arrived and I walked into my very first apartment. I opened the door and met my new roommates. Melinda and Megan....and their parents....and their siblings...and their boyfriends. I only got a few moments to drop off my stuff in the entry way and then we ALL went out to dinner. (It's funny. Now knowing Seattle the way I do, it turns out that we couldn't have picked one further away. I didn't realize how absurd this was at the time, but we went to dinner about 40 minutes away...because we just drove until something looked good. It's a wonder we found our way back.)

After the families dropped us off and left for their hotel, I finally walk into my new place and get my the tour. They kindly let me have the second, smaller bedroom for myself. Being the best friends that they were, they decided to share the master bedroom with 2 beds in it. Awesome. Sort of. I really liked that I got my own room but for some reason my room had a weird wall. Let me explain: this wall wasn't really a wall, it was an accordion style door that ran the entire length of the wall against the living room. I am not really sure why this door existed but it did.

Speaking of the living room. As soon as entered it I got a taste of my new roomies' preferences. On the wall above the fireplace was what would be Halloween decorations in any other person's home. However we were a month away from said holiday, and just to clear things up? The plastic spider and web were still up when I left for Christmas vacay. Our couch was a chaise style (kinda cool actually) black and I think beige...but the actual color escapes me now. I was able to deal thankfully I didn't have to live with the rest of the decor that clued me into their "goth" style. Most of the skulls and other nonsense was in their room.

Megan dated a nice guy named Lloyd. He was kinda quiet like Megan, and compared to Melinda they hardly made a sound. She was loud and obnoxious (nice most of the time, but obnoxious). Melinda's boyfriend I never saw after the first night because he went back to Moses Lake.

I remember I'd begun to get settled in and Melinda apparently had a problem with my "perkiness" and the brightness of my belongings. I couldn't help but overhear her complaining to Megan outside of my open bedroom door (hard to miss, which I think was her point). "She's just so bright! I mean look at her room it's like rainbows and sunshine! blah blah blah!" haha it's kind of funny now but at the time I was offended. It wasn't like I was imposing my style on them (cough cough), it was all confined to my room. Thankfully, Megan felt the same way as me and told Melinda to cool off.

We got along fairly well, I don't want to decieve you with such a silly story. That was just one of my funny anecdotes about Melinda.

Megan wasn't my roommate for long. She got "sick" after breaking up with Lloyd and decided she missed Moses Lake. She dropped out and it was just me and Melinda. and.... Lloyd. Apparently in Moses Lake, it's OK to share your bff's bf. Because Melinda and Lloyd hooked up and he practically moved in. We didn't get a new roommate since we were still only about 2 or 3 weeks into school and no one new was enrolling at that point.

Which leads me to story number 2:

I began to get comfy in my surroundings. Lloyd, as I mentioned, was thuper nice. He always made a point to include me in what ever. I'm not sure Melinda appreciated that. Lloyd hung out a lot and the two of us would play Nintendo together while Melinda was at work or even if she was there. I usually tried to give them some space....

So one evening I was playing video games with him and we were having friendly conversation when Melinda came home. I decided to leave them alone and head off to my room. He told me there was no reason to leave, but I never liked the whole "third wheel" feeling, so I declined. A few moments later I was lying in my bed about to put my headphones on when I hear the two of them talking. I missed the first part of the conversation, but came in somewhere around Lloyd saying "she's not so bad"....silence....and then Melinda shrieking/laughing "You like her don't you?!?!" followed by a hissing shh sound. Lloyd didn't appear to like her tormenting teasing him about this considering the short proximity (remember, weird wall/door folks?). This convo piqued my interest so I perked up, but alas, her shriek had all but ended it. All I heard after that was "you do don't you?" and "shut up".

Just to make another thing clear, she was teasing him because she found this hilarious. She wasn't threatened, or at least didn't sound it at that moment...

Alas, my friendship/roomateship with Melinda ended not too long after that. I went home in December for winter break and came home to a new girl, Andrea. I walked into my apartment to find that Andrea was moving my things into the big bedroom, in fact she was just about finished when I walked in. She appeared normal in the looks department, and it didn't look like I'd be hearing any complaints about my color choices... however, the bitch was touching my stuff! I asked her what was going on, and where Melinda was.

Apparently Melinda dropped out over break, and being the beginning of a new semester the school was moving her in. Andrea had actually moved in over the break as Melinda was moving out. Maybe as one last dig at me (or maybe she was jealous after all!) Melinda told Andrea I'd wanted the big room all along so to go ahead and move my stuff.

Really I didn't mind too much. I got over the initial shock of it all, and it didn't look like we'd be getting a third roommate so I got the big room to myself (whew!). Plus I was actually excited to meet her because she seemed more like me.

Little did I know that I'd soon really miss Melinda...

But that my friends is a whole other story.

*side note*

About 4 years ago I walked into Pagliacci Pizza on Mercer Ave in Seattle. I was pushing my baby boy in his stroller, he must have been just a couple months old at the time. I walk up to pay for my order, and who should be the cashier??? MELINDA! Of course, I couldn't quite remember her name (I called her Miranda...oops!) in fact I started typing Miranda several times in this post before I realized my mistake. haha. She recognized me, but couldn't recall my name, so I reminded her. She actually came over to my table shortly after. We caught up for a minute or two. Turns out after she'd dropped out she'd never gone home to Moses Lake. She got married to someone a few years before our encounter and she also had one or two kids. And yes, I asked whatever happened to Lloyd (I couldn't resist!)...she looked at me weirdly "Lloyd? Wow I haven't thought about him in years!" She didn't know what had become of him.

*end side note*

I mentioned to Tim earlier that it is sad I have no pictures to document this short time in my life. I moved to Seattle in early October and was gone by the following February. And even though this was a rough period in my life emotionally, I still have some fond memories. I didn't make life long friends with my first roommates, but I will always remember them. I have only one picture of my dear roomie Melinda. It is her senior picture that for some reason she felt the need to give to me shortly after we'd met. Sorry folks, outta respect for her I won't post it. Since I don't speak with her I can't get her permission. Too bad for you, cuz it's a doozy!

Night y'all!

I Love Christina

And here's why:

Christina Aguilera - New Music - More Music Videos

My list of totally unrelated topics that I happen to love at the moment

I feel like listing everything that I'm totally feeling (ie: into. digging. want to cover in kisses) these days. For whatever reason, I'm not really feeling up to the seriousness of a meatier topic. Bare (or is it bear? eh. evs) with me all you carnivores, those posts that you used to savor will return! You have my word!

Without further adieu, I present to you MY LIST of totally unrelated topics that I happen to love at the moment:

1. OK, apparently lists are something I can't get enough of. My last post was a list. This is a list. I've been known to make a list or two. Could there be more in the future? Stay tuned!

2. Is it weird that I am totally infatuated with Kim Kardashian and her sisters Kourtney and Kloe? I can't help it! Their just so gosh darn pretty (aw shucks!). I am obsessed with Keeping Up With the Kardashians (for you slow pokes, that is their reality show on E!), I've seen just about every episode and I am now patiently waiting for the new season to start. Not only that, but Kourtney and Kloe Take Miami also premieres soon! woot woot! Double the Kardashian silliness!

Today I was looking at the gossip websites working diligently and I came across the fact that Kourt is preggers! Didn't know this, but apparently she is about five months. So that will add some fun drama and extra craziness! Looking forward to it!

um also, I totally love Kimmy's (yes. I like to refer to her as if I personally know her. You got a problem?) blond hair! That's the hotness! meow! (over compensating for my jealousy)
3. Beyonce's HALO. Love that song. Can't get enough of it. Well. That's not entirely true. I play it on repeat about 100 a few times and then I have to change it...you get what I'm telling you son!?!

4. Tiger Week. (see previous post or go VISIT MAXIE after you're done here of course) Damn cuddly ass tigers and their obvious bad assery!

5. My Timmy Tim Tim. He's just so gosh darn cute. Right now he's playing his gey-tar and that makes him kinda sexy too. Have you heard his music yet? No? Well WTF are you waiting for? Get the hell outta here and go listen to his MySpace page! The linky is up in the top left of my pagey-poo. Oh. wait. don't go. I'm sorry if I was rude. I just get so worked up over these things, I didn't mean to yell. I promise.

6. Coffee! Late night coffee is great!!! Well it's great anytime...But that's not really a surprise now is it? I'm drinking it right now if you must know. Got the hazelnut creamer in it. Want some? Too bad, I drank it all.

7. Really digging this whole blogging scene. Meeting new bloggers and reading what they have to say. or. not to say. It really depends on the person.

8. Ice Cream. Not just any ice cream but MINTCHOCOLATECHIP!! Is there any other? Tim's been on the same kick as me. We've gone through like 3 tubs in the last 2 weeks. Now that is cray-zay!

oh hello 10 pounds! where'd you come from? I'd like you to meet the other 40 I gained in the last 3 years. (hey! don't judge. I have 2 kids dammit)

9. Friends re-runs. I love this show (Chandler's such a cutie puh-toot-ie) and after it ended I went for a few years without watching it. Recently I came across an episode (you know the one with the chick and the duck? classic) and I've been hooked on them. again. ever since. I really need to pick these up on dvd.

10. Kung Pao Chicken. Only the best Chinese dish ever. There's a place in town that makes an awesome version of it... trust me, I know better than to eat this all the time. But a girl can dream can't she? I happened to eat it for lunch today with one of the cuz's. I'd been wanting it for weeks! finally I succumbed to temptation.

11. Princess tails. My daughter's version of pig tails or pony tails. Her hair is getting long and plum ripe for the tails. Only problem is she wasn't having any of it...until mommy got crafty and called them by her alltimefavorite name (princess. duh.). Now she wears them with no fussing/tearing them out by the root. And she looks so gosh darn cute in them. See? (look down)
12. Alvin and the Chipmunks. There I said it. My kids have played the damn cd incessantly until the cover of Livin' on a Prayer is burned in my brain!

Now it is just plain adorable to hear my little tots sing along to the 'munks version of Journey's Don't Stop Believing. They're counting the days til the Chipmunks Squeakual I might add. *squeeze*

13. ANYTHING cooking and/or food related. (are you surprised? no? me either) My personal faves? Chopped, Iron Chef America, Throwdown With Bobby Flay, The Next Food Network Star (over. BTW.), 30 Minute Meals, Unwrapped, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives....just to name a few.
Can I make it to fifteen?? We'll see!

14. Facebook and more specifically. the Sorority Life app on FB (GD to H-E-double hockey sticks...I need a life!!). What is it about social networking sites that draw me in? And I normally hate. HATE! adding apps to my shiz-nit. But the Sorority Life is so flippin' addictive and I can't help myself. I need help. Follow me on Facebook? Please? Go there. Now. or later. whichever. it's up to you, I'm not forcing it. BTW you can click on my face over there up and to the right---> just in case you needed assistance in finding me.

I am proud to say that I have YET to sign up for Twitter. *no applause necessary* thank-yooou.

15. The FUTURE! I've been obsessed over a number of things future related lately. No details yet. But things are totally looking up in a number of areas. Go ME! Trust me, you'll hear about them when the time is right.

16. Colored eyeliner. Specifically violet and blue. I think the violet suits me better, but the blue is kinda tacky funky. Me likey.

YEEESSSSS! I made it past the glorious fifteen!!! woooooo hooooooo! 16. I so rock. So did this captivate you long enough? No? Well I believe I gave you numerous options to look into. So go do those things now, okay?

LOVE YOU all.
And I really have no idea why I uncapped the word "all" but now that I've mentioned it, I'll leave it that way. OK? OK. *waves*

Good bye.

See ya!

Get outta here!

Oh! PS. Maybe I'll make a list about things I totally AM NOT digging on soon. We'll see. Or maybe I'll get started on that meat... To meat or not to meat...? You tell me. Please weigh in on your opinions. I live to entertain YOU. *hugs*

Tigers 10, Sharks 0

What I am going to love most about this post is the fact that random people will stumble upon it and say "WTF??"

The top ten list that proves Tigers are better than Sharks is as follows:

10. The Tiger is chosen as mascot 100x (no joke!!) over the shark. The list is so long that I will not repeat it, but wikipedia does a nice job for me. Google says the shark has one. Just one. The San Jose Sharks. It's an NHL team. Go figure.
9. While much is unknown about the mating habits of sharks, there is some information regarding the rituals of the tiger shark (what a co-inki-dink!). Wikipedia says: "The male uses its teeth to hold the female still during the procedure, often causing the female considerable discomfort." ouch!

Whereas the mating gestures of a Tiger are much gentler. Tigers have been known to use different positions as well as experiment with location, OK experiment is a stretch... but! Tigers have been known to do it anywhere the mood strikes, whether in a tree or on a rock or behind the bush... Both genders actually vocalize (moans and roars) during mating, in fact it's been documented that a female has roared 69 times in less than 15 minutes.

Now you tell me, which sounds like more fun? Sounds like a night at my place... what?

8. Sharks have gills. Gills are ugly. Tigers have a cute breathing apparatus called a nose.

7. Tigers have the ability to look scary or as cute as a button whenever they feel like it. Sharks on the other hand always look scary. See? Nothing cuddly about the guy on the left. He's butt-ugly!

6. In the 1983 film Scarface, the protagonist, Tony Montana, aspires to obtaining all the exterior trappings of the American Dream, which in the character's opinion included keeping a pet tiger on his property. Did he want a shark? Hells to the no!

5. Tigger, Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes), and Tony the Tiger ... nuf said. Umm sharks, well, all I could find was Sherman from Sherman's Lagoon.

4. Can you think of any famous people, let alone normal people, with the name Shark? I didn't think so. Boo-ya!

3. Tiger cubs are totally dependent on their mommas until about 18 months of age. Baby sharks are on their own from day one. Tigers know that mommy knows best! Leave it to the shark to abandon their babies...sheesh!

2. Tigers are open minded and don't discriminate. They'll cross breed with other big cats. Ever heard of a Liger or Tigon? Gotta give props to the Tiger for lovin' on the Lions cuz these big buggers are cute!

(also, and this could be it's own spot on the list however, I don't want people to think I'm weird cuz I focus too much on Tiger sexual habits. But Tigers are known to masturbate and females can have orgasms by themselves!! I mean come on right?!? Speaking from experience...that's just awesome.)

And last but not least, the number ONE reason the Tiger rocks over a shark:

1. You can't cuddle with a shark. You can try, but I wouldn't recommend it. Yeah sure, Tigers aren't always friendly towards man...but they have been known to be kept as pets. So there is potential.

Ok, if you really MUST know WTF this was all about. Go say hi to Maxie and check out Tiger Week. You can learn a whole bunch of reasons why Tigers deserve more love than Sharks.
DOOO IT!!!!

And remember: "He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount." ~Ancient Chinese Proverb

The Break Room (another TAT adventure)

Keeping in tune with my last Totally Awkward Tuesday post I am going to talk to you about another awkward moment from my days at the movie theater. Today is a two-for you lucky ducks you! I've decided that since I have TWO fantastical moments pertaining to the same room (read on, I'll get to explaining soon), I will go ahead and share them both with you today. This is actually more for me. I'd like to spare myself the agony of rehashing old memories that quite frankly, aren't looked upon fondly (I say that, but really, they do make me chuckle...now).

As you know, well you WOULD know if you read my blog regularly. ahem.

As I was saying, as you know I worked at one of Juneau's two movie theaters. From about the age of 15 until I was 18 (with a brief stint at 19 when I came home from college, but I digress. I do that often in case you haven't noticed.).

I started out working at the theater in the concession stand. Later I was promoted to usher duties and then I got to work the coveted box office. These were not monetary promotions, the only raise I got was in my pride. We hated working in concession, for obvious reasons (the smell of popcorn was permanently scorched into my nostrils, for one).

My first supervisor (I won't name names. You never know who'll come across this blog!) was rather creepy, OK maybe creepy isn't very nice. Well, yeah, creepy. There's no mincing words here. I'll explain: He was a dork, to put it bluntly. He was tall and lanky, had big square framed glasses and held his too tight black jeans up with big belt buckles while tucking in whatever polo shirt he was wearing for the day. On top of that his jeans were tapered...ew. He was older, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s. Think: D&D, Magic and trench coats. This supervisor tried desperately to fit in with his employees which only served to drive him further away from us.

To make a weird situation worse, he appeared to have a crush on each of the girls at one point in time. So occasionally we'd catch him staring. Once while I was washing the nacho cheese cooker in the back he rubbed up a little to close for my personal comfort as he passed behind me to get by. *shudder*

Eventually he was transferred out to the larger theater in the valley (we all had a huge sigh of relief!) and my buddy Sky became the new supe.

*Side note* I hear he married one of his employees from the valley theater. She is a girl I went to high school with. No joke!

None of us actually came into work already dressed for work. The uniform was black pants, button up white shirt and a maroon vest (later they added bow ties, THANK GOODNESS that was after I was outta there!). Most of my cohorts were like me, we kept our uniforms in our lockers upstairs in the break room and brought them home every couple days for a washing. We would lock the door and change there.

The break room was dingy and at the top of the stairs right next to the entrance of the 2nd story theater. The door to the break room had those hinges that automatically swing shut behind you, so if we weren't careful the door would slam loudly behind us (we were constantly being told never to forget this while a movie was showing in the upstairs theater, apparently movie goers found the loud BANG disturbing). The room consisted of decades old recliners, a wall of small lockers and an old desk. The walls were lined with old movie posters and the carpet hadn't been changed since the 1960s (my guess, but really it could have been longer). At one end of the room was the "cup room." A door that usually stayed locked until we needed to get more cups for the concession stand.

It was in this room that my two stories take place.

Awkward Story Number One:
I bounded up the stairs in my usual happy-go-lucky way. It was a great day to be alive, I was 15 and it was summer time. The fact that I had a crush on one of my co-workers made me LOVE coming to work, well at least on the days we worked together. Today was one of those days and I was on top of the world. I was humming some song to myself as I let myself into the break room. As usual I locked the door behind me and walked to my locker. I noticed the cup room door was open but didn't think anything of it because we'd been doing monthly inventory the night before.
I pulled out the usual pieces of clothing needed for a night on the job and tore off the summer frock I had on. I proceeded to sing to myself (it was roughly 1995, I'm guessing it was either a Salt N Peppa tune or maybe Boyz II Men, I really dunno, this is purely speculation at this point). I got dressed and headed back downstairs to flirt with my crush before the shift started.
I had just arrived at the bottom of the stairs when I realized I needed to talk to my supervisor about a shift swap but no one knew where he was. Oh well, I'll talk to him later I thought to myself. About 30 seconds later we hear the break room door slam shut and said supe starts walking down the stairs carrying a stack of....cups.
Wait wuh?
That's when it hit me. Crap! I'd just gotten dressed while creepy guy here was in the next room with the door wide open! He never admitted that he saw me. But I swear later on that night I heard him humming the same tune I'd been singing to myself earlier.

OK, so that was more "freaky deeky" than awkward. But my face was burning as my coworkers figured it out for themselves what had happened.


Awkward Story Number Two:
I had just opened the door to the break room to get dressed for my shift. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, a moon of a guy which was really his rear!
"Holy crap!! Get outta here!" Is along the lines of what I heard.
It took only seconds to realize I'd walked in on my coworker (Dumb, from my previous TAT post. Look it up.) getting dressed. He had his pants down around his ankles and as he screamed (like a girl I might add) he yanked them back up.
I quickly made haste and retreated to the safety of the hallway. Shutting the door tightly behind me as I quickly burst into a fit of laughter.
Of course it was slightly embarrassing to walk in on him that way, but I was no where near as embarrASSed (couldn't resist) as he was at that moment. Being the teenager I was, I quickly ran down to share with my coworkers the f*n funny moment I'd just witnessed.
The one thing none of us could figure out was why did he have his underwear down too? Did he change those with each shift, or was there another reason? We decided we didn't need to know.

I've just decided that the latter of these two stories makes up for Dumb calling me Wrecking Ball. He got his in the end. hehe

I totally want a gnome like this!

My pal over at Secret Life of Tova Darling talked about one of her awkward school girl crushes this time, it's a hoot so you should check her out! If you would like to partake in this weeks installment of Totally Awkward Tuesday, leave me a comment with a link back to your post. I'll put it at the bottom of this one so everyone can see!

Until next time. Peace out yo!

Flowers and sleep

My baby picked me flowers...and then fell asleep holding them. Ain't he sweet? *squeeze*