Small Wonders

I wasn't in the best of moods today when I came to work. I dread the place and it always seems to put me in a bad mood just driving there. That, combined with sad news reports on NPR on the radio, the kids being a bit difficult before I left for work, and a minor spat with my honey, left me feeling quite a bit more down than usual when I came into the office. Luckily for me, though, I am easily brightened witnessing the beautiful miracles of nature...

A sweet, small, personal-sized rainbow was waiting to greet me on my desk. Granted, it was just a simple refraction of light coming from the window and bouncing off a CD on my desk, but still. It is gorgeous in it's simplicity and I was thankful. For if I'd arrived at work just a minute later, I'd have missed it altogether. I had just enough time to snap this picture and smile at it for a moment. Then I turned my back to see if anyone else had noticed my odd picture taking tendencies... and it was gone. But, I have it here now and I know it will brighten up many other days for me.

My Purse

Ok, it took me long enough to get all these photos loaded, but I've finally done it. When I first saw this meme on Katrina's blog, I was SO excited. My best friend, Joy!, and I used to do this practically every single day. We'd be sitting together before school and inevitably, one of us would reach over to grab a piece of gum, or perhaps a pen. The reason was irrelevant, we just wanted to see what the other person found important enough to drag around in her purse each day. Often, we'd find carefully folded notes from our respective boyfriends, and these were special finds. It was always fun to giggle together over what "THE LOVE OF MY/HER LIFE" had to say or what he deemed romantic or important. Naturally, we found notes of our own handwriting to each other, as this was a frequent occurrence. Empty gum wrappers, coins, notes, wallets with friends and/or boyfriends pictures, spare feminine products... all were fair game to be dragged out onto the floor for comment and examination. That's why I was so happy to see this meme. It brought back so many memories.

So, without further delay, here is my purse of today. Simple, casual, and fun. It has many extra pockets so everything has a special place.Let's see what's inside:


All the "important" things, of course.
Cortizone 10 for all those pesky mosquito bites (I swear, I am a mosquito magnet),
a 4 GB stick drive for transferring data from one computer to another (LOVE it!),
A "Red Ribbon Week" bracelet that my daughter gave me,
and the first digital camera I ever owned with its USB cable. See the Post-It note under it for size comparison? It's a "key chain" camera. Impulse buy, what can I say?
And here is a gym teachers whistle... because... you never know when you might... need to teach gym class? I dunno. Something my mom said about warding off attackers, but seriously? If I'm being attacked, the last thing on my mind will be digging to the bottom of my purse for a whistle.

And here is the most awesome girl wallet in the world. I use it for cards, mostly. Insurance cards, Winn Dixie card, appointment reminder cards, you get the drift...
I've had it for years, and even though the zipper gets stuck from time to time, I can't bring myself to get rid of it. Look how much stuff it holds!
And it's super-slim!
Here we have my checkbook and a notebook for list making...
Uh, I was planning on making that list a little bit later...
Here is my money wallet. It's where the green stuff goes...
For size comparison, again we have a Post-It:
Let's see what's in here...
Oh, look! It's a shirt dollar! Yes, I did that myself and you can, too!
Here are all the receipts that end up in my purse in a vain attempt to keep a handle on my finances.
Ooh! A paycheck!
A pre-stamped envelope, just in case...
My daughters broken reflector for her bicycle... I keep it with me so that when I go to Wal-Mart I'll have it for comparison so I get the same kind.
Here is my MP3 Player. I love this thing.
Look at the pretty display!
Oh, and what's this? It slides open to reveal an external speaker. Did you notice the display changes directions, too?
My rugged Nextel...
I honestly have no idea what this is. I mean, it's some kind of charm, but where it came from or why, I have no idea. My grandmother gave it to me, so I have to keep it. It's missing a leaf, though...
And here's the bottom of my purse... a couple of batteries, my seldom-used Winn Dixie key chain... thingy, a pocket knife (yet another thing my mother thinks I need in order to be safe... seriously? How am I supposed to be able to dig that thing out in time to protect myself? It just makes no sense...), and wait, what's this?
It's the missing leaf from that charm that my granny gave me!
Oh, I missed this pocket... keys, mostly...
Yes, I have three sets of keys.
This one is the biggest. I have another Winn Dixie card (which, by the way, I almost NEVER go there. Publix is much closer), a sharpie mini, spare car key, post office box key, mom's house key, my two house keys (front door and utility shed), and my old house key (because I'm too lazy to get rid of it yet).
The one on the right is the key chain that I use for my work keys. It so fits. The one on the left is for my car key, because somebody once told me that it's bad for the ignition to have heavy keys dangling from it, although come to think of it, I've never heard of anyone actually having that problem... oh, the key chain also says some derogatory things about men in general... I bought it during an immature phase...
Little teeny, tiny filing cabinet work keys...
An extra Sharpie mini, my super-cool-no-you-cannot-borrow-it pen, and doctors appointments scribbled onto an envelope...
extra stamps (price just went up to .41, can you believe it?)...
and some two-cent stamps to help me get rid of the old stamps...
a mini Post-it pad, a blue eyeglass-cleaning cloth, an orange pocket mirror, a credit-card-shaped floss dispenser, Max Factor 460 Cocoa Shimmer lipstick, and a navel ring that is missing the ball...

Well, that's about it. That's everything that I carry around on a daily basis. Sometimes the items vary, but for the most part, that's it. I think you can tell a lot about me by what I carry around with me. Some of it's weird, some of it's cool, some of it is DEFINATELY silly, but surprise! Some of it is responsible and practical. Yeah, I'm cool with that.

Tag! You're it! Amy, UC, and Joy!, it's your turn. I want to see what's in your bag.

Loltrek rox

I'm a big fan of lolcats. In case you don't know what they are, lolcats are just cute pictures of cats with funny captions. Like this:




Or this:





One of my favorite places to see lolcats is I Can Has Cheeseburger. I can always count on this site being updated multiple times a day, so no matter what, I can go there and get a good laugh. Today was no exception. In fact, one of today's posts was so funny that I had to share. They offered a link to this post (from Live Grandes), which is arguably one of the funniest things I've ever seen.




I'm a big fan of Star Trek; I can blame my mother for that one. She's had me watching it with her since before I can remember. She even went so far as to drag me to conventions on a couple of occasions. Anyway, not really sure where I was going with that except to say that The Trouble With Tribbles was my all-time favorite episode growing up, so this is an adorably funny tribute/hybrid of two of my favorite things.



I'm still giggling...

Yeaaahhhh, About That...

Ugh. Do I have to? Ok, fine. It's not that I don't want to blog. I LOVE blogging. I especially love it when I get awesome feedback from the half-dozen people that stick around. I just don't want to be that person that does... well, basically what I just did up there, giving excuses. But, since you insist, I'll make an explanatory list.

1) I'm tired.

2) I just moved into a new house. A fantastic house that was built in 1959 and happens to be right across the street From. The. Beach. AND it has a backyard WITH a fence. So, yeah, moving. It kinda feeds back into reason number one.

3) My job is nearing the completion date and I can no longer sucessfully blog at work. Reasons for that are:
a) Less time to do it. And,
b) I'm now sharing space with two other people.

4) My boyfriend is a complete tool moron ... uh, bless his sweet little heart, I love him so much, but he just CAN'T keep from screwing up the computer at home. He has less than a year of "tech" experience and can barely navigate email. Why, oh WHY on earth would he insist on playing in Windows Explorer and clicking on every little thing that catches his attention? I don't know. If you know, could you tell me? Anyway, I have GIVEN UP on being able to use the computer after he's done a complete system restore not once, not twice, but THREE times now. And, I'm not sure how, but he's even screwed that up. So, twice now (TWICE!!!) I have spent an hour or so, reinstalling all the proper drivers and programs that I like, getting it back to "functioning" order, only to have him screw it up so thoroughly that he's left with no choice (in his opinion) but to completely wipe it all out. Oh. And he's convinced that malicious hackers have hidden in his computer and are stealing his information. Nevermind that he doesn't have anything on there worth stealing and the fact that three different virus scanners say that there is nothing (NOTHING) wrong. So, all of that kinda goes into the next reason:

5) I want to get a new computer so bad. Just for me. I've got the money. I've been squirrling away the pennies for awhile now. Since I haven't had time to do anything recreational at work anymore, I had been using the one at home more often. At least, until... you know. It's too painful to speak of. So, I simply MUST get a new computer. I'm getting a Mac. Yes, I know Dell's are relatively inexpensive and I know that Vista's not that bad. But, I need more. I haven't heard One. Single. Thing. that is negative about a Mac. What I have heard is that they run faster. And that you can run both the Mac operating system AND Windows. And, all the programs and features that I have checked out are simply amazing. The few people that I know of that are familiar with Macs recommend them. One even went so far as to say, "Buy a Mac and don't look back." Hmmm.

So, that's pretty much it in a nutshell. That's why I barely blog. But, I promise. This is not the way it will be forever. I promise there will come a day when I sit down each evening and jot down my thoughts and share them. Hell, they might even be funny.

Has anyone said...streetlight, yet?

Oh, I'm still cracking up...days after I started reading this thread posted on Fark. I was originally compelled to run over there and read through it by none other than Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek fame)(I loves me some Wil Wheaton). If you've got some time to kill, you should definitely start to read it, but be warned: it could take awhile to finish. I was cracking up so much that I only got about a quarter of the way through before I had to give up and come back the next day. Might want to consider reading it in installments, or whenever you just need a good "pick me up".

I so want that design as a t-shirt. Wonder how many people would actually get it without an explaination?

Cool Update: Fark has posted the "Apology Thread" where much more hilarity has ensued, causing me to forgo getting anything done for the rest of the day. I wonder how long this thread will go? Too funny...

A new cliche is born: It's a streetlight! - something that is mysterious beyond comprehension for some, and mind numbingly obvious for others.

Happy Valen...Whatever. Love. Yada, Yada.

Chocolate, flowers, dinner...it's all so empty. Seriously, who really gets happy about these holidays anymore? What once was a time for people to come together and celebrate their love for each other is now just another day to groan and dread...

It should be said that I love my honey and appreciate every little thing he does for me...on any day OTHER than today...

My honey made me happy, I suppose. He played all the right cards, dinner, chocolate, lots of the requisite "I love you" floating about (and I gave him a card and chocolate), but deep down, I don't think either one of us was having a good time. I mean, we could have been eating the same dinner at home for about half the price. And we would've been comfortable in our jammies, laughing at each others silliness. Honestly? I feel more "Valentine-y" with my honey on just about any day that isn't today.

We didn't talk about it much, but we could both feel it. It's just such a forced feeling...that commercialization, that Hallmark-y feeling, that state of mind when something just isn't natural anymore. I'll be glad when today is over and we can just get back to loving each other with no pressure.

We called her UC

I surely hope that I'm wrong, but I think Undercover Celebrity pulled her blog. The url is now just advertisments for...spammy-type junk. I'm here to tell you that I think that stinks. In my opinion, she is a very funny blogger and I hope she's ok.

Life goes on, I guess, but practically all of the first dozen or so blogs I really got into were because of finding her blog. Truly one of my favorites.

Cheers, UC. You'll be missed.