SYMIHC: The History of Underwear

I think I've mentioned before that I listen to the Stuff You Missed In History Class podcast. The subjects are fun and interesting, and I like the easy-going, conversational style of the hosts and guest hosts. The subjects vary quite a lot (sports, wars, people, and so forth for quite a few different countries and time periods) and they love getting requests from their listeners. I have learned a lot while the show helped keep me awake through many a work day and road trip!!

Since I just did two plays where I was required to wear a corset, I found this recent podcast fascinating. Funny how the history of underwear can be so fascinating!
(I should warn you that this podcast is quite a bit longer than usual. It's about 50 minutes long, but most are between 20 and 30 minutes.)

If you're at all interested in other historical topics, here are some of my favorite podcasts, many of which can be downloaded for free on iTunes:

• How the Underground Railroad Worked
• How the 1916 Shark Attacks Worked
• The Birth of Frankenstein and the Vampyre
• Rival Queens: Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I
• Victoria and Albert
• Who was Rosie the Riveter?
• How the Great Wall of China Works
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• Was Satchel Paige the greatest pitcher in history?

Now, go learn something!

Facebook Fast

I have been taking a much-needed break from the Facebook online social-networking site.

The reasons for the break were threefold:

1. I spend way too much time on there at work. I was really good the first few months at this job at not checking FB during work hours EVER, but after Seven Brides while everyone was tagging photos I deteriorated into a FB photo-checking fiend, and I have a hard time limiting my jaunts to "just 5 minutes." So, to punish myself, I deactivated my account so that not only did I hypothetically not have access to anything on the site (presumably when I log in again I'll have everything just the way it was), I didn't receive any tempting "You have been tagged in a photo" e-mail notifications about it either.

2. I was starting to feel bad about my awesome life, because summertime is the time for engagements and weddings, and so many people have adorable kids, and/or are going on fun vacations. I was starting to feel jealous and depressed and I wanted a break from those taunting/smiling faces so that I can just do what I'm doing and love it and feel free and happy. (Please don't post comments saying "of course you'll get married and have kids" or "I'm jealous of your life!" I'm just venting. As I've said, I know my life is awesome. It's just hard to remember that when I am so darn tired all the time.)

3. Due to my rehearsal schedule, I haven't had a chance in months to see a lot of people that I want to see. I was getting tired of the old "let's get together sometime" messages that I knew I can't do anything about for at least 3 more weeks. It was creating no small amount of stress and frustration for me. Along the same vein, I keep getting invitations to things from people that I don't really talk to otherwise and it was starting to really annoy me. I've been involved in 5 plays in the last year and these people completely ignore my invitations (I admit I don't like when people say "No", but at least I can pretend they took the time to consider it and were honest about their intentions), but as soon as THEY are involved in something they shoot me an invitation. It seriously, seriously bugs me. After the fifth such invitation in one day, I rashly deactivated my account. It has been bliss.

Being away from Facebook for the last ten days has given me some time to think about what I really want to get out of the site. I have made several resolutions:

1. I've decided I'm sick of the surface friendships and I need to delete people I don't really have a relationship with and will probably never see again (I never accept Friend invitations from people I have not met). BE STRONG!

2. I also need to delete the boys that I hoped would ask me out who Friended me more than a year ago and haven't made any effort to contact me since. It depresses me to see everything they're doing, and devastates me when they get engaged which they inevitably will.

3. I am going to adjust my FB account settings so that, except for e-mail-type messages I don't get any FB-related e-mails in my google inbox. No "you've been tagged in a photo," "so-and-so responded to your Wall post," or "you've been invited to such-and-such event." I'll wait to see those until I log into FB. That should help curb the temptation to log in at work. Should.

4. I need to make more of an effort to actually make plans with some of those people I really want to see. I don't want to rely on Facebook as my primary source of what is going on in people's lives. Knowing how little I post on there, I am very aware that I'm getting a skewed version of things. This resolution includes going to events I might not really want to attend but involve people I haven't seen in a long time, or at least acknowledging that they sent me the invite. If I want others to be supportive of me, I should try harder to be supportive of them. For all I know they have the same rant about me.

5. At the same time, I need to be less critical of myself and realize that I can't do everything all the time. I felt terribly guilty when, during the last three weeks of Seven Brides , I missed at least six plays or other events that friends were in. I can't do it all. Nor do I really want to. I need time for me, too, and I haven't had that much lately, either.

I honestly don't know when I'll actually reactivate my account. It will probably be in the next couple of days. I would consider extending this Facebook fast for the rest of the summer, but there are several people I miss terribly who I can't reach otherwise. Also, my latest show opens soon, and I want to start letting people know about it!

I'm excited to return...and that disappoints me just a bit. When I signed up last year I knew I'd be one of those people who could spend all day every day on it, and I was right. So, I need to exercise more self-control at work, and create more opportunities to strengthen the relationships I want to keep. That's all there is to it.

A Challenge

I thought I'd take up the challenge that Kate offered, to post every day from October 1 through December 31, just to try something different. Why not?

She said that as long as I write somewhere, my blog or my journal, it counts. So, I may not post here every day but I will be writing.

So, starting tomorrow, be prepared for more from the mind of Megan. Lucky you!

Monday, Monday

Did anyone else forget about Daylight Savings yesterday? I did. Managed to make it to church on time anyway, but missed choir practice. Pretty proud of myself being able to sing the song in Sacrament without any prior run-through (I had heard it before). Thank you musical theatre training!

Planned to work from home this morning since the electrician is coming to install the electrical part of washer/dryer (well, just washer) hookups. Remember how yesterday was daylight savings? Oh, and the power must have gone out sometime during the night, because when I woke up I found it was 9:40... and I had 20 minutes to finish readying myself and my apartment for the electrician's arrival. I made it, but Ack!

Apparently the people downstairs moved out and took their wireless internet connection with them. And I need a separate part to set up my own. And I didn't know that Circuit City on Ft. Union was closing until Friday, so I completely missed on all the great electronics deals. Meanwhile, no wireless internet means I have to sit at my desk, or possibly on my comfy couch while working. The problem with sitting on my couch is that my brain automatically goes "I wonder what's on t.v." or "I sure would like to take a nap right now." The only problem with sitting at the desk is that I've got my globe on there, and it's currently rotated to Hawaii. Maybe I should put my globe on the ground for awhile...or just rotate it to Siberia. Done.

The electrician has so far drilled three holes into my ceiling. *Sigh.* Luckily, they're small so they shouldn't be too difficult to patch up.

No headache so far today!

Victory!

I am finally caught up on my posts from my birthday week. Check out "Family and Dinner" and "Spoiled by my Girlfriends". I apologize for not having them up sooner, and hope you enjoy reading my rambling happy memories from a great week!

This last week was not a good one. Work has been stressful, and although I am living in my condo there is still much to be done to get it liveable, and I'm not used to sleeping in my bed, and a few of my neighbors are noisy. Change is good but hard!

Thursday was by far the worst day at work. I missed a meeting and then through a misunderstanding missed a lunch out with the entire office. I was frustrated and angry and tired.

No doubt that's why my Heavenly Father sent me a blessing: my Comcast bill. If you'll recall, after 8 hours and two technicians, I was told I would not be charged the $50 fee for the internet and cable hook-up. Alas, when I opened the bill, the charge was there. I was so mad! Are you kidding me? I've already been through so much aggravation with the company I was somwhat ready to chuck Comcast and find a new cable/internet company.

On Thursday I called Comcast, and calmly explained to Latonya in Billing that I'd been promised I wouldn't have to pay the $50 fee because it had taken 8 hours to finish the installation. I could have been Angry Megan and yelled and taken my frustration out on this girl who was trying to help me, but I don't really like Angry Megan. She's mean and scares people, and she's always followed by those obnoxious cronies Remorseful Megan and Guilty Megan. I will do my best never to introduce any of you to Angry Megan. I chose to be calm and pleasant because I was grateful just to be heard and have the charge removed. Latonya said to pay my bill, and they'll credit the $50 to the next month. Because the whole 8 hour experience had been so bad, I asked if I could have a month free. She said No, but then said she'd see what else she could do and put me on hold for a few minutes. When she came back, she said she could give me three coupons for free Pay-Per-View! Admittely, that's not a huge deal, but it felt like a victory anyway! I felt so good when I hung up the phone! I complained; I was nice; I got what I wanted!

I think Heavenly Father knew I'd need something to feel good about this week -- something to boost my self-esteem. It came in an odd way, and I am thankful for it! I was bold! Hooray!

Saved by Michelle

I took Friday off work for several reasons:

1. I wanted to work a bit on my condo.

2. I needed to be there when the cable guy showed up.

3. My birthday is on Sunday and even though I didn't go out of town I wanted a vacation.

It was a rather busy day! I vacuumed and cleaned and painted with my mom. We arrived at the condo after lunch just in time to keep the cable guy from leaving (has anyone else had the people say "I'll be there between 1 and 5pm", and actually have him arrive at 1:10? No? Me neither. But of course, if I'm not there right on time... Silly Murphy's Law).

So, the Comcast cable guy, Eric, starts working, and checking my three cable outlets. I wanted cable, internet, and DVR. According to Eric's reader, non of the three cable outlets in my condo were active. Bad news: he isn't authorized to string cable in a 6-plex. Good news: he might be able to work around it to achieve an active connection. Bad news: he needs his reader to do it properly, but not only is it running out of batteries, the charger is at his house in West Valley. Bah! So, he had to leave for about an hour to get it and come back.

He was back by 3 and finished setting up the cable and DVR. We ran into a snag with the computer, though. My laptop wouldn't recognize that it was hooked up to the internet. Eric fiddled with it for quite awhile before admitting he was new and didn't have much experience with my type of computer. At 4:30 my mom left. About that same time, Eric decided there was nothing more he could do, so he called his supervisor, Jay, and asked me if I'd be willing to wait an hour or so for Jay to come and finish up. I said Fine. Whatever. I just wanted it done (maybe that wasn't the best attitude to have). I was fairly polite about the whole thing up to that point. After all, he was doing his best.

Eric left and I took a nap and then watched some t.v, and then read a little. Man, I was bored. About 6 o'clock, Eric shows up again, and says Jay is stuck at another job so Eric's going to give it another go, but has no more success than he did before. Now, also, he's complaining that he wants to go home, and is frustrated that he doesn't know what to do (hadn't he said that before he left the second time?). Yeah, this is not helping my confidence in him. At that point, I was glad that I didn't have a date that night, because I probably would have had to cancel.

I did have plans to hang out with my best friend, Michelle, who I hadn't seen in months. I called Michelle and told her I didn't know how long it would be, so she offered to bring dinner to me. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! She and her daughter Abbie brought some Little Caesar's Hot and Ready pizza, which we shared with Eric while we waited for Jay to show up. Jay finally did, and about 8 o'clock sent Eric home.

Are you paying attention? I have now been waiting for 7 hours.

I am so glad Michelle was there to get me through it. She and I chatted and I showed her around. I felt badly that there wasn't much for Abbie to do. She watched some Handy Manny for awhile, but she was obviously bored. She is such a good sport. Michelle is a terrific mom; I'm always impressed and a little jealous when I see them together.

Jay kept trying different methods, and finally told me I might have to reset my laptop in order to get the ethernet working. Then he decided it was something else, then thought of another something else. Bah!

At 9:20 he said, "it's 9:20, it's time I go home". He thought he knew what would get the connection working on my laptop, and so we scheduled ANOTHER appointment for Saturday afternoon. Oh joy, I get to spend even more time dealing with this. Jay did say since it's been such a hassle he was going to wave the installation fee. You bet he was! Doesn't he know I'm not getting any younger?

I can't help but think it may have taken less time if either one of these cable dudes had not have to leave the building every half hour for ten minutes to smoke a cigarette. Yeah, they're entitled to breaks and this was frustrating for all of us, but 8 hours? Seriously? And it's still not finished?! Grrr!

Michelle and I went to Cold Stone for the ice cream we'd promised Abbie for being so good (and also, I adore Cold Stone). We then went back to their house and put Abbie to bed. Michelle and I sang to her in harmony -- I haven't sung with her in so long! -- we said bedtime prayers, and then I left them alone while Michelle finished the routine. Then my best friend and I laughed more than we expected while watching What Happens in Vegas.

And, of course, we had to stay up and talk until a mildly ridiculous hour, which is what we do every time we get together. Michelle and I have been friends for 14 years. We understand each other and have been through a lot together. I love her. I'm so grateful she rescued me today! I don't know what I would have done if it had just been me and the chain-smoking cable guys all night!!