Boring Updates

A friend gave me a stern talkin' to for not writing recently. So here are some updates on my boring life. 

The internet is fixed, thank goodness. It was the cable company's fault. They came out, after canceling at least 3 appointments because there was an "outage" (not the case) only to find out that our cable line was disconnected accidentally...when someone else's was supposed to be disconnected. Oh well. We got a credit for the month we didn't have internet. 

We are still battling the roaches. An exterminator came, but we're not sure if he did anything. Had we done our research before we moved in,  we would have learned that this apartment complex has a roach problem. I'm concerned for Roommate's sanity. He encounters them more often than I do. He stumbled across a hatching of them...he killed about 30 baby roaches. He gets in roach killing mode. I think he'll get armor soon. He told me this evening he started seeing random flies, big ones, but he doesn't know where they are coming from. "I swear, someone is injecting flies into our house." I doubt we'll be renewing our lease. 

Saw The Dark Knight. Twice. Will see it again on IMAX. 

Roommate is singing along to the theme song of So You Think You Can Dance right now. I turned it on once because a friend of mine went to one of the tapings so I saw him on TV. Then I learned that the next week, Roommate watched it on his own. I turned the results show on tonight just for something to have on in the background, so he's watching. Oh, now he's telling me about who is the most technically trained of all the guys... Believe it or not, Roommate is actually one of my few heterosexual friends.

Yesterday was my last day at Apple. I couldn't have been happier. A lot of drama went down. My best friend, the senior manager, was fired for a made up, bullshit reason. The evil people in the store (who happen to also be the people that never did their jobs didn't like being told that they weren't doing their jobs by a manager brought in to fix the problems in the store) conspired to get him fired for being "intoxicated" at work. He had one glass of wine at lunch in October. PS -- this was in October, and it was brought to HR's attention in April. Yeah. Shady. Also, the iPhone was a pain in the butt, and I'm starting school soon. So I'm finished with Apple...for now...not opposed to going back if I go broke and I go to a different store where the evil people are not. 

One more week with the "real" job. Trying to finish the last podcast, but my co-editors are making it very difficult for me. Do this, then change that, no maybe this will work better, try this instead, what if....the previous podcasts have not been this difficult. But actually, their direction is less clear than that. I said, okay, so basically you just want me to make it better. I gotta figure out what it is that isn't clicking. Quickly. I must do this quickly. 

California from August 2-11. Giddy. Plans are close to being locked down. Giddy. 

Comfort and Will were eliminated from SYTYCD. 

This is all for now. I'm sleepy. 

Apartment Living

In an email from my roomie on the 3rd:

"By the way...there was an MIB sized cockroach in our dishwasher this morning...ewwww..."

Pest control is coming on the 9th. Delicious. 

In the meantime, we haven't had cable or internet since May 19. We called on the 21st, they set up an appointment for the 23rd, then called back 15 minutes later to tell us there was an outage and our appointment was cancelled. 

They hadn't fixed it by the 27th, so Roomie called again, and they told us there was still an outage and they didn't know what was wrong. They didn't know whether they'd be able to give us a discount for the week + we had gone without cable and internet. WHAT WHAT?? Oh yes, you WILL be giving us a discount!

I was out of town this past weekend, but I got an email from Roomie saying he had set up an appointment for them to come take a look at it on the evening of the 3rd. When I got home late that night, he was sitting playing MarioKart. I got excited, hoping he was racing his brothers online, but alas, he was just racing the computer. Cox had called again, canceling the appointment again, because there was "still an outage." 

I need my internet.

Eating Instructions

I was in a wedding this past weekend in Ohio. This post is not about the wedding. It's about the pretzels I received on my flight back yesterday. I wasn't hungry at the time, so I stuck the pretzels in my purse.

As I was sitting at my desk today at work, I remembered the pretzels and pulled them out. As I was opening the package, this is what I read:

HOW TO EAT
GOURMET
PRETZELS
ON A LOW-FARE AIRLINE.
(SEE BACK FOR COMPLETE DETAILS)

EATING INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Think about our wonderful low fairs at airtran.com as you open packet.
2. Place a pretzel in mouth. With each crunch, be reminded of our low fares.
3. As you swallow, remember again just how low the fares are.
4. Repeat until pretzel packet is empty.
5. Keep empty packet to remind yourself to book at airtran.com for our lowest fares and no booking fees.

Wow. I think their attempt at being quirky and funny to keep customers loyal fell a little short, but I give 'em props. And if their pretzel packages and low fares don't keep customers coming back, maybe the pretzels themselves will. They were pretty tasty.

Blog in Bullets

I always come up with ideas for blog topics while I'm at work or driving or at work #2 or playing soccer or playing MarioKart Wii....wait, no, not while playing MarioKart...that's pure focus. 

But lately I haven't had the energy or the desire to sit down and write, and I have an anal obsession with order and chronology, so these posts tend to stay in my brain or deleted as drafts as I decide it's "too late" to post. 

Here are topics I've started or thought of starting:

• Pulling off two surprise parties in one month. (That would have been a good one too... expression pictures and all)
• Trip to NYC for some Broadway with the boyfriends (and the relevance of the show we saw with the class I was teaching)
• My love for pesto and pondering of the ingredients only to be disappointed at how easy it is to learn these things. Wikipedia takes away the magical creative thoughts as to what the deliciousness of pesto could possibly be. 
• Sister's visit to DC with the new boyfriend.
• My stellar ability of not letting guys that I'm interested in know that I'm interested in them. Rather, I go to such lengths to make them think I'm not interested so as to protect myself.
• My excitement about grad school and my amazingly cool future classmates. (And the ridiculousness that some of them have already started calling me the social chair. Okay, maybe I sort of helped organize a happy hour, and set up the facebook group, and have been emailing people to figure out where they live...and have gotten an email from the current social chair...whatever...)
• The bittersweet feeling about leaving my current job....oh wait, I think I already wrote that one...
• Booking a flight to California for a vacation between the end of work and the start of school for one last hurrah (definitely potential for a future post)
• My bridesmaid's dress saga

Actually that last one will be written. The post hasn't been written yet because it is not yet finished (I'm actually talking about the saga *and* the dress), and I did not want to scare the bride...I hope she doesn't read this.... the wedding is Saturday...

Maybe some of those could eventually be posts...I just need to get over my brain and convince myself that it's *okay* to write and post things out of order...

breathe...it's okay....*shakes...twitches...*

In Creeps the Doubt...

As I'm about to have my two-year review at my current job, I'm starting to doubt my decision to go for my MBA. Now, the deposit has already been sent -- I'm going -- but I'm starting to worry. 

For starters, I'm just beginning to come into my own at my job. I have sooo much respect from my supervisors, I'm taking on more responsibility, and I've gotten a lot of confidence. The company just moved to a beautiful new office, is taking on all these new initiatives to grow and help employees grow, and the commute is now a tolerable 30 minutes instead of a retched hour + commute. 

But most of my doubt comes with my confusion and worry about a major or specialty. The original reason I decided to apply to this school, let alone an MBA program, was because it has a major called Organizational Behavior & Development. This field includes group dynamics and teamwork, leadership, conflict resolution...all the stuff I find really interesting. 

At the visit day for this school, one of the professors did a presentation on leadership -- sort of a snippet of a class he teaches. Afterwards, I went up to him and said, "Wow, I really enjoyed your presentation...I applied to this school because of the OBD major...I'd love to sit and talk with you about it sometime...blah blah blah." This is what he said to me, and I quote: "Oh that's great, but I typically don't encourage students to major in OBD." 

Gulp. 

He assured me that there were definitely routes to take if I were really interested, but he planted the seed of doubt. 

In the meantime, one of my part-time job co-workers is/was an OBD specialist/consultant for several years before he started the part-time gig....which actually just turned to a full-time gig because the work for OBD specialists is not so hot right now. I was talking to him last night and he said his friends and mentors, who have freakin' Ph.Ds, are charging the same rates as they did 10 years ago, and just all around having trouble finding work.

And it makes sense. OBD is the fluff of business. It's important, and I know I would have a blast with it, but with the economy in the crap hole right now, executive officers are not going to be hiring people to come in and do team building games. I could go the HR route, but really, that just makes my skin crawl. 

Even if there was work available...do I really want to be the overly cheery person that all the negative grumpy people hate as I try to get them to do fun activities? oy...

And of course I'm extra nervous because....I already screwed up. I already started grad school for audiology and hated that and withdrew after a semester. I can't do that again. I don't think I will, but that's still pretty scary. 

So I need to meet with the career folks. I'm good with people. I'm really good with people. According to the Gallup strengths finder test I took for my current job, my top two strengths are Positivity and Empathy. WHAT WHAT?! Okay, great, awesome, fine, thanks for telling me something I already know. But what the hell do I do with that?! I think I have strong management skills and intuition, but I don't know if I have the background or experience to be a marketable employee. 

I need to meet with the career folks...

Oh by the way...

I got my rejection letter from the impossible-to-get-into grad school last week so I'm staying local...and I couldn't be happier! I've already started organizing the other members of the upcoming Class of 2010, and everyone seems as excited as I am. We start August 18. Woohoo!

Now the question is...is it the Class of "Two thousand ten" or "Twenty ten" .... ??

Pure Fashion

There's this stupid fashion out right now that involves wearing boots over jeans. Yeah I said it. I don't like that style. 

There's an even stupider fashion that involves thinking sweatpants are fashionable. 

(Don't get me wrong. I have a profound love for sweatpants, and I have a special place for them in my heart.... because they are *not* fashionable. That's the beauty of them. Wearing them around campus and to class when you are in college. Lounging all day in them at home. That satisfying feeling of putting them on after a long day in uncomfortable work clothes. You don't wear them to the mall with a "cute" top. Ruins the beauty of the sweatpant). 

Combine these two stupid fashions and you get something absolutely ridiculous. Sweatpants tucked into Uggs? Really?

Combine this ridiculousness with University of Virginia sweatpants that say

V

I

R

G

I

N

I

A

down the pant leg...

(but remember...the pants are tucked into the boots)...

And you get something utterly hilarious.