Typical meetings mocked

Okay, not every meeting is this bad, but these are stereotypes for a reason. Anyone who has worked in a professional capacity can appreciate this, and anyone who hasn't may still find it funny!


For the record: I'm the (unrepresented) girl in the second-to-last row chewing gum in the hopes it will help her stay awake.

Happy Friday!

Tybbling rant: things driving me crazy this week

My mom bought me a blender for Christmas. Can you believe I've lived alone for nearly 5 years and never had one? Well, I decided I want to make more fruit smoothies, so put a smoothie-recommended one on my wish list on Amazon.

Last Friday, I finally opened the blender, washed it, and put some frozen strawberries, orange juice, and yogurt in it.

The blender immediately broke. The blades moved maybe three or four times before a piece on the underside (the part connecting the blades to the motor) broke off.

I can hear the motor whirring, but the blades won't budge (unless the cup is empty, which is flat-out useless and ridiculous). I have the piece that broke off. I guess the piece below the blade is just too weak to move without it.

Really? I didn't even get to make ONE smoothie before this happened?!!!
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It's bad enough to be stuck in traffic.

It's worse when I'm stopped behind an SUV or other large car and can't see what's ahead of me (like whether we're merging into another lane because there was an accident).

It's the very WORST when another SUV is behind me and keeps RIDING MY BUMPER so I can't see behind me either; I'd love to move into another lane, but I can't see what traffic is coming and I don't want to risk getting creamed. Also, I'm afraid that if I break too quickly -- as is sometimes necessary depending on the traffic -- you'll hit me from behind, and I really don't need that.

Please, people, stay half-a-suburban's length behind me!
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My dreams have been really disturbing of late. Dark, violent, unsettling. I must be stressed about something and I don't know what it is. It's horrible when I can't look forward to sleeping, and I wake up even more tired than when I lay down.

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I generally don't like to share my bad choices, because it seems like whenever I do someone (who usually means well) feels the need to point out what I did wrong and offer unsolicited advice. Guess what? I know what my issues are! Your "help" only makes me feel worse about myself, when all I was looking for was an, "Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry, my friend." Even though your intentions were (most likely) good, your "advice" feels like judgment and makes me want to yell at you.

Do I really have to censor everything I say, even with people I trust? Doing that just gives the impression that nothing bad ever happens to me, and not only is that not true, it's unfair to expect me to be "bright and shiny all the time!!!

Next time, skip the lecture. Can't I just vent and move on?

(No, this is not for anyone specific.)
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I want Tina's polka-dot dress and blue tie (bottom left)

I just learned that Lea Michele will NOT be leaving Glee at the end of this season, even though her character should be graduating.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!!

I apologize to everyone who loves her and I admit that she has a nice voice, but her character drives me nuts, and I am sick and tired of her singing half of the songs in every episode, especially because she's incapable of singing anything sincerely and non-belty, and there are other singers I like a lot more (glad Tina got to sing lead at Sectionals... even if it was only because Rachel was suspended and the other girls defected to another club). Every time I see Rachel on screen I count the seconds until they cut to someone less obnoxious and more interesting. I stopped caring about her storyline a long time ago.

I was sooo looking forward to Glee becoming more of a true ensemble show, but with her (and Corey Monteith and Chris Colfer) still in the picture, that won't be happening anytime soon. The writers and fans apparently love them too much. Ugh.

She's really not leaving?!! I may finally have to stop watching this show, or at the very least just fast-forward through her scenes. It'll cut the watching-time down considerably!

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I'll stop now. I promise I'm fine and actually having a good week.  These are such little things, and yet they irritate me!!

Is anything bugging you lately? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

(I probably should have made this into 5 separate blogs. Oh, well...)

Zounds! "B" or not a "B?"

I don't remember Sesame Street being this cool when I was a kid. Have you checked out the list of guest stars they've had in the last few years? I might have to see if I can put it on my Hulu favorites, just to catch these kind of clips. LOVE!!!


(I am now subscribed to Sesame Street's Youtube channel. I may be an adult, but I hope I'm never too old to be entertained while learning!)

Another blog?!!

So, just for fun, I decided to start another blog.

I've seen quite a few folks do a "photo a day" blog where they take and post one photo per day. I thought I'd give it a shot for 2012 (no pun intended!).

Here's the link for 2012 in Pictures (the title isn't set in stone; if you think of something more creative I'll take it into consideration).

I have no pretensions of being an amazing photographer. My camera is a good old low-key point-and-shoot. Nothing fancy. I thought it might be interesting to try something creative and a little challenging (challenging in that it means I need to remember to carry my camera around with me). Hopefully, as the year progresses my skill will grow, and some of the shots will be interesting.

If I miss a day here or there I'm not going to beat myself up about it. And if it gets too cumbersome or I go on vacation I may end up posting in batches, but the one-shot-a-day project is the goal.

If you are so inclined, and you won't be too bugged by my very amateur photography, go take a look. To be honest, two that I've posted so far were taken by my nephew, but since he used my camera and I seem to be his patron, I think they're fair game. Then again, if I didn't give him my camera once in awhile, I'd never be in any photos 'cept my self-shot ones...

1-4-2012 at Fat Cat's

Oh, and if you aren't a fan, that's okay. Just don't tell me ;-D

Happy New Year!

Last year, I spent New Year's Eve and Day at Disneyland. It was pretty awesome. The moment of the New Year was fairly standard, but any time spent at Disneyland is usually pretty darn awesome!

Anyway, I knew I wanted to do something fun and different again this year. No going-to-the-movies-and-skipping, and I couldn't get excited about the various dances.

Heather and Ann are on the right

Imagine my delight, then, when my friend Ann invited me to spend New Year's Eve with her friends at the Hale Centre Theater - West Valley New Year's Eve party! I've been hearing about it for years now and I've been curious. Not only that, but I was excited to hang out with Ann and my friend Sylinda!

A group of us got together beforehand for dinner at the Cracker Barrel. I only knew a couple people. Fortunately, Ann has good taste in friends, and I was in a socializing mood :)

Sylinda and the rest of our friends met us at the theater. We were treated like royalty! We were each given a tiara or hat, two different kinds of noisemakers, and streamers to throw at the big moment.

We found our seat and enjoyed the pre-performance band. I should have volunteered to play name that "musical" tune -- I would have kicked heiney!! Theater co-owner Sally Dietlein cracked me up with her MC-ing. I think there's a requirement somewhere that the owner of a theater have massive amounts of energy, and a healthy dose of wackiness, 'cause everyone I've met has that same unpredictable, lovable personality ;-) I love that lady (anyone who says I remind her of Bernadette Peters is okay in my book).

Sylinda's on the right behind me :)

We watched the first act of the play, Games Afoot. At the beginning of intermission, Sally designated a volunteer to watch his clock and give us a countdown when ten seconds away from midnight. Then we got to stuff our faces with a terrific late-night buffet!

About twenty minutes into the second act, the kid with the watch jumped up and shouted, "TEN, NINE, EIGHT...!" It was funny to see the look on the actor's faces, especially Kylee Bird, who had just barely entered the stage. The rest all ran out to finish the countdown with the rest of us, and when we all shouted, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" pandemonium broke out! People were cheering and singing and throwing streamers and using the noisemakers, and someone dropped a bajillion balloons onto the audience and stage. I spotted one of the women in the cast seeking out her husband in the audience; he climbed over half his row to kiss her (so cute!)! Unfortunately, it was my first time with streamers, and since I was near the back I probably hit someone in the front rows with a clump of not-unravelled streamers! Oh, well.

It took a bit of doing for the cast to quiet us down again :-D

My favorite part was that nobody bothered to clean up the balloons, so the cast just waded through them for the rest of the show. The dead body showed up at one point, head rested on one of them -- the audience about died! Another guy kept accidentally stepping on them someone else made a flatulence joke. The best was the inspector, who kept referring to the balloons as symbolic of the utter craziness going on in the mansion (it IS a murder mystery, after all). Totally good times.

The play itself was quite entertaining, though not as hilarious as I'd expected. The script was not great, but the actors and costumes MORE than made up for it (seriously, I want the blue velvet dress in this photo; it is stunning).

Photo taken by Doug Carter

I have tickets to go again in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to it!

This was definitely one of my favorite New Year's celebrations... I'm already planning to do it again either next year or the next.

Hope you all enjoyed yourself, whatever you were doing!

What happens matters

Your story? It's not boring and ordinary, by the way. We just get the one life, you know? Just one. You can't live someone else's or think it's more important just because it's more dramatic. What happens matters. Maybe only to us, but it matters.

- Ghost Town

Happy New Year, my friends! I can't wait to see what your story is this year!