Today is bad.
First off, I had to leave work early yesterday because I was feeling sick. I thought that resting yesterday afternoon would make me feel better, but instead I got sicker as the day progressed and now I can barely swallow my own saliva without shuddering.
I went to the Auburndale Shaw’s to get some tissues, throat lozenges, etc…and the stupid teenage cashier started yelling at me because when it says: “$XX.XX is your total. Is that correct?” I pressed YES, but apparently you’re supposed to press ENTER. (Apparently I forgot about that after a similar debacle at the same supermarket last October.) I swear, when interviewing at Shaw’s they must ask: “Are you surly, unfriendly, and kind of nasty?” And if you answer yes, they give you the job. I should have gone to Stop ‘n Shop — they tend to be nicer there. I would have gone to Trader Joe’s but I needed some NyQuil…which SHAW’S HAD RUN OUT OF, ANYWAY!!!!
So, I came home and I couldn’t find street parking by our house. (I usually park on the street because our driveway is really narrow) On top of that, some jerk was parked in front of my driveway so I couldn’t pull in there.
So, I parked at the end of the block which was no big deal, but when I carried the groceries back to the house, one of the bags got a hole in it and everything fell out. I had to chase bottled water down the street.
Filed under Greater Boston (General), My Life, New England, shopping | Comments (16)18 years!
I began keeping a journal - which would soon come to evolve into a blog - on August 28, 1988, when I was 6.
My first journal entry:
8/28/88
My firend Nikcy sat on Jenny’s bag. She had a water batel and she was wet.
I remember the incident quite clearly. It was at Lane Robbin’s Summer Camp. A girl named Jenny had a bag with a water bottle in it, and another girl named “Nikcy” accidentally sat on it and she got all wet.
I thought it was absolutely hilarious and told them, “I’m going to write this in my diary because it’s so funny!” I then realized that I didn’t have a diary…so when I accquired a blank diary book (pink with balloon animals on it), I documented the issue immediately.
So, 18 years later, here I am…only documenting things for the world to see!
Filed under My Life, nostalgia | Comments (4)Autumn in August
Well, I really do love fall…but I’m not ready for it yet! I had to close all the windows and find a sweater to wear today! And I’m still chilly! Come on, we’ve still got a few weeks left before equinox…I’m not ready for fall just yet!
Filed under New England, weather | Comment (0)Rocky Raccoon went into his room only to find Gideon’s Bible
I saw a raccoon after dropping my friend off in Nonantum. This isn’t unusual; I see raccoons all the time. But it made me think of something…raccoons REALLY freak me out. Something is just really creepy about raccoons.
Many years ago Matt once saw two raccoons viciously fighting from his third (or was it fourth?) floor apartment. They were up on a tree fighting, and then one fell off the tree…fell alllll 3 or 4 stories down. The raccoon jumped down and the raccoons continued to fight! Not a story someone freaked out by raccoons needs to hear, huh?
Looking at photos of raccoons, I see they’re really quite cute. I had two stuffed animals of raccoons (the type where the big one has velcro paws and holds a miniature version of itself) named Betsy and Bernie and they were cute too. Cuddly.
Nevertheless, raccoons just give me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe it’s their hunched way of walking. Maybe it’s because many are rabid. Maybe it’s because when we lived in Watertown we had to use bungee cords to keep our trash can lids down so the crazy raccoons wouldn’t eat our garbage.
Once I saw a raccoon running around in the North End! One of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen…and pretty sad too. It was under a car and then ran down the alley. Poor raccoon — wonder how he got to such a densely populated area.
Other animals that give me the creeps? All reptiles. (including Karl!) Ferrets. Most birds, namely barnyard fowl. Rats. Fully grown pigs (but not pot bellied ones). Snakes. Bats. Rhinos. Zebras used to freak me out but now I like them but I’m still freaked out by zebra-print items.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (12)MySpace Thoughts
1) NO, I don’t want to check out your band. Maybe if you send me a message that actually shows me that you read my profile, I’ll consider it…but just a “Hey, do you like rock music? If so, you’ll love me! Click here to add me as a friend.” No thanks!
1B) I know I listed that I like The Clash but that doesn’t mean I’m a huge punk fan in general, and I especially don’t want to hear your punk rock group composed of snot-faced 14 year olds screaming the f-word repeatedly into a microphone.
1C) Sending me the same message over and over again will not make me more likely to add you. Sorry.
2) If I do happen to add your band, I don’t need a generic “Thanks for the add!” message on my page. In fact, it’s likely that I’ll consider deleting it. Especially if it has an ugly graphic associated with it.
3) What’s with the people who have pictures of themselves not only in the photo section, but ALL OVER their page? I recently stumbled on a profile where this girl had tons of pictures plastered all over the place…and not pictures of her with friends, just pictures of her. And on top of that, she was the background image too. OK, we get it — we know what you look like!
4) Luckily these stopped, but for a while I was getting these messages from teenage boys saying, “My friend and I are having a contest on who is more of a hunk! Please vote here!” And a survey would be imbedded.
5) What’s with the guys who just take a picture of their abs? It just causes me to think that they must have a really unpleasant visage otherwise.
6) I have my profile set so you must either know my last name or email address to add me. I did this on purpose to keep strangers like you from trying to add me!
7) For the love of god, is it necessary to have a profile filled with dozens of glitter graphics? It’s even worse when you see someone over the age of 25 with profiles like that.
8) Girls, usually in their late teens/early twenties, who make all these histrionic blog posts: “OMGZ LIKE I AM TOTALLY DELETING MY MYSPACE.” And then they never do it…or they do, and then make another account.
10) Just because you know a little bit of CSS, it doesn’t mean you’re good at it. Bad CSS code can crash a browser. And don’t change the properties of my cursor, thankyouverymuch. I can’t stand when it turns into a plus-sign, especially.
11) Obnoxious backgrounds make pages almost impossible to read. Especially when they’re blinking or something. Maybe that was cool on a Geocities website circa 1998…but it’s not anymore.
12) Music videos embedded in someone’s comments…I’ll go to a profile and then all of a sudden I’ll hear some rap song filled with expletives blaring through my speakers and I have to scroll all the way down to find where to stop it.
13) People who contact me and obviously haven’t even read my profile. Last winter someone saw that I attended the Academy of Art College (and this was in 1998!!) and sent me a message, “Hello Academy of Art student! I was wondering if you would be interested in a holiday job at the Gap near the Powell Street BART Station.” Uh, are you joking? If you’d look at my profile, I think you’d see that I live in MASSACHUSETTS. That would be quite a commute for a seasonal retail job.
14) Strange girls from all over the country who think it’s appropriate to try to initiate an online friendship with Matt. Oftimes it’s blonde bikini-clad twenty year olds. Why do they want to strike up a friendship with some man who is ten years older than them who lives with his girlfriend 1,000 miles away and has an odd-looking beard?!
15) This is just an internet observation in general, but IT IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED POOR FORM TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS, ALL THE TIME.
On the flip side, MySpace certainly has its merits and none of my friends are perpetrators of those heinous MySpace faux-pas listed above. MySpace has helped me keep in touch with friends I have living in California, New Jersey, New York, etc. I’ve also found long-lost friends on MySpace; ones that I had been trying to get in touch with for many years but was unable to do so. I even found my cousin on there who I haven’t seen in fifteen years and we’ve reconnected, thanks to MySpace. I’ll continue to use it, but there are still things that drive me bonkers about it!!
Anyone else with a love/hate relationship with MySpace have anything to add to my list?
Filed under internet | Comments (9)Chop chop!
Looks like I don’t need to buy that Vidalia Chop Wizard after all…since I received a Progressive Onion Chopper as an early birthday present from the fam!
Hmmm…what do I make first? Chili? It might also be a great way to make applesauce next month after making our yearly excursion to Russell Orchards in Ipswich!
Filed under food | Comments (3)Fifty Nifty United States
create your own personalized map of the USA
Can you tell which route we took to get from California to Massachusetts? ;-) I nearly lost my mind going through Kansas…
Matt has me beat by a few states. I had him beat when I first moved here since I had the entire Northeast covered, because he had driven across the country twice (once when he moved here and once when I moved here)…but I visiting New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island threw him into first place. I might need to visit a few states without him to put me into first place! :-)
Filed under My Life, memes | Comments (4)Return from Cape Cod!
Hi all! Sorry for the lack of updates…I just returned from a week at the Cape. I had internet access and thought I might blog but I was too busy lounging at the beach. So, no real entry here now…just wanted to let everyone know that I haven’t disappeared and will begin blogging regularly again this week.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (2)Eyebrows again!!!
I’m sure you all remember the eyebrow debacle of earlier this year.
I hung out with my Little Sister today, and she suggested that we get our nails done. I’ve gotten manicures a few times, and although I’m not really a “get my nails done” type of person, I figured maybe it would be a fun thing to do. So, we found a spa place in Needham, the town she lives in.
First she got her nails done. Red, with little flowers on them. Afterwards, she went to the nail drying thingy while the manicurist lady did my nails. She kind of kept looking at me with this weird expression on her face, and she told me that I need to get my eyebrows “done”.
I was outraged!!! How dare this woman insult my appearance in that fashion. I don’t think that’s at all acceptable. Something like that would never happen to a man.
Well, IT HAPPENED AGAIN! I went to the same nail place with my “Little Sister”…and while she was doing my nails, the same woman told me, “You really need to get your eyebrows waxed. I’ll make them look very nice.”
I told her, “Maybe some other time, but not today,” although I had no plans to get my eyebrows waxed. She kept going on and on about it, and I kept telling her “no no no, not today”…I thought I made myself clear. After she was done doing my nails, she told me to follow her, so I did. Suddenly, I was in this weird room with a dentist-looking chair.
“Excuse me, what is this room for?” I asked.
“It’s the waxing room. I’m going to do your eyebrows,” she said.
Whoa! I beg your pardon?! No way, lady!!!! I politely told her, “I’m sorry, but not today. Maybe some other time.”
Man, was I livid. After I told her no, she TRICKED me into going into the waxing room! Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!! Maybe my eyebrows aren’t perfectly arched or shaped, but I can’t worry myself about that. If I concerned myself with perfecting every piece of hair on my body, I’d be in the bathroom all day long. I especially wouldn’t be comfortable with someone else waxing my eyebrows…I know lots of people do it, but they have no idea what I’d want, what I’d like…I’d probably come out with my eyebrows too arched and a perpetually surprised facial expression.
Filed under My Life, Uncategorized | Comments (10)Peace Rock
I had a lovely little rock in front of my house that said “Peace”. I’ve had it for years, bringing it with me wherever I moved…I kept it by our deceased azalea (some weeds killed it in the spring), and it was just something nice to look at.
But now, it’s gone! It’s nowhere to be found! Is it possible that someone stole my Peace Rock? :-( I can’t imagine why someone would do such a thing.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (8)