Yesterday at work wasn't too bad. While not huge on conversation, my coworker was doing a lot better and we did talk some.
However, I have no huge hopes for today. My head hurts like hell this morning. But I'm still up and going! It's Halloween and I have cupcakes for the guys at work, and Jan if she wants one....

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

I promise not to sing myself a song. But I'm happy it's my birthday. And I'm almost happy to be sitting at work this morning. Even if it is a rainy day. At least I hadn't taken off. I wouldn't want to do anything! As much fun as it is to lay around the house, I don't want to have a lazy birthday.

I spent half the money from Momma on the cookbook I bought last night. The Pink Palate The proceeds go to Waiting for the Cure. I figure it's a great charity. And I LOVE cookbooks. Even if I'm not really allowed to by anymore. This one was a special case. :)

Josh gave me a copy of Kinetic for the PS2. It's an exercise game that utilizes the Eye Toy. I'll try it out either tonight or tomorrow.

And I've had people at work wish me a happy birthday this morning. That makes me feel good. They thought of me. I just can't wait to see what the rest of the day holds!!!

Spirit Girls' Night Out

I had so much fun at the Spirit of Women event last night. Got a hand massage, and a scalp massage. AND I got a chair massage. All things that I think I really needed. :)
I also got a bone density scan done. I scored a -0.6. That's in the normal range, but it's not very far from not good. So I'm going to have to work on that.

I also won a door prize. It's a really pretty hanging candle holder thingie. I would post a picture of it, but I haven't gotten my new laptop to recognize my camera yet. Meanie computer!!!

We also got a night shirt for attending the event. I was surprised that it actually fit me. They ordered them for REAL people!!!!! And I bought a copy of The Pink Palate. It's a neat cookbook so far.

Feast One Hundred & Seventeen

Appetizer
Create a new candle scent.
Hazelnut Rain. Just because I love hazelnut and it's raining today.

Soup
Name one way you show affection to others.
I honestly pick on most of my friends. If I don't like you, I won't bother with trying to come up with something mean to say.

Salad
What is your favorite writing instrument?
I LOVE the Pilot Precise Zing. Unfortunately, you can't buy them in Hattiesburg. Anywhere. I have looked.

Main Course
If you were given $25 to spend anywhere online, from which site would you buy?
Probably Amazon.Com. I could get two or three books for that.

Dessert
Are you dressing up for Halloween? If so, what are you going to be?
I REALLY wanted to get this goth costume, but I can't afford it. I also REALLY wanted to make a Tavern Wench costume, but couldn't justify the expense. Since I'm losing weight, it wouldn't fit next year. So I think I'll just be Mrs. Unsociable. That should be fairly easy. :)

You can say all day long that you aren't going to let something get to you. Or somebody. But, when you are actually faced with it, it's a lot harder.

I keep saying that I won't let my coworker get to me. But when I actually sit next to her for my ENTIRE work day, it does affect me. She is the only person that I see all day. Everyone else is just in and out. A minute here and a minute there. And she won't talk to me. I'll admit to being a less than social person by nature. But even I have trouble working all day in silence.

I actually tried to draw her out today. She didn't really respond.

I love my job, really I do. It's great to be able to help people out. But maybe I've been here to long and need to try and find something else. It might save my sanity if nothing esle...

Lots of Stuff

It's time to work on the Christmas list. That's not really easy since I still don't know what to ask for when it comes to my birthday! I'm kinda thinking clothes, a set of Billy Bands, and something else. I'm lucky in that Momma doesn't ask me (for the most part). She always manages to find cool stuff for me without much instruction.

We're having company over tonight. It was requested that I do roast beef sandwiches again. I SOOO did not want to get up this morning and put on the roast.

Walk For Life

The Walk was great this evening. I walked around with Ms. Sumrall and some other ladies. We were so proud to make it through. And SOOO tempted by the Mugshots burgers at the end! :)

Ms. Sumrall said that she thought there were more people there this year. I can't wait to hear a count of how many! I know we managed to raise a lot of money for the Hope Foundation.

I walked in memory of my grandmother, Ms. Josie Smith. It was nice to walk around with that sign on my back. I'm very happy to say that she was represented among the walkers. I wish that it could have been a sign that said 'In Honor Of', but I know that she is much better off now.

Second Annual Walk for Life

And I'm REALLY looking forward to the Walk for Life this afternoon. The proceeds go to the Deanna Favre Hope Foundation. If anyone in the area is interested, the entry fee is $10 and registration starts at 4 pm at The Dome on the USM Hattiesburg campus. The walk itself starts at 5:30.

The foundation supports breast cancer awareness programs. Even if you don't have breasts, you know and love someone who does!

20 minutes...

Til I get off work. And the day is going alright. It's not wonderful, but not bad. I've just decided to not let her bother me. Although it was a bit difficult this morning after the DIRTY look she gave me. And it was certianly worthy of all-caps.

The boss lady and Brandi came by the office this morning for some work stuff. They chatted with me and Jan for a while. Jan was on decent behavior, but I think it might have been noticable that she wasn't participating it the conversations that I was. I didn't participate in some of the conversation because it was about the iTech Fiesta this evening. I didn't see much a point in participating since I won't even be in this part of the state!

Josh just called to say that he's still out on a call so he'll be late. But that's ok. We'll be ok as long as we leave by 1:30 or 2. That would get us there in time for supper. But if for some reason we can't do that, well, we'll just be later!

Feast One Hundred & Sixteen

These are leftovers from the 10/15/2004 Feast. The Chef is busy and tired. Thanks for playing!

Appetizer
What is your favorite beverage?
I would say tea.

Soup
Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work.
Bunzie, a cure little bunny that Josh gave me.
My farris wheel picture frame. It's full of old pictures. I HAVE to update it with some wedding pics.

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how honest do you think you are?
I would say 9. I do occassionally not tell people just how much I hate them. At least, not to theit face.

Main Course
If you could change the name of one city in the world, what would you rename it and why?
I would change the name of Enterprise, Mississippi. I'm not sure what I would change it to, or which town with the name I would change. I would just change one of them though, because North Mississippi and Central Mississippi both have a community called Enterprise.

Dessert
What stresses you out? What calms you down?
Right now I would simply say that my coworker stresses me. But otherwise, I have a tendency to get stressed when I'm in a large group. I don't like crowds.
I'm usually calmed down by a good book or some good exercise. Or a very large margarita!


Get the Friday's Feast code here!

I will not let her ruin my day.
I will not let her ruin my day.
I will not let her ruin my day.

I will not strangle her.
I will not strangle her.
I will not strangle her.

Ok, now if anyone needs more than one guess at who is trying to ruin my day, you need to read some history. I'm going to see my parents to celebrate my birthday this weekend, and I'll be seeing some family I haven't seen since the wedding, and hopefully some that I haven't seen since before then. And I can't let her make that start out on a bad note. I can't!

Am I the only one that has disturbing dreams when I sleep in? I decided to sleep in a little this morning. Not incrediblly late, nothing like yesterday!!! But I went back to sleep after resetting my alarm clock.
And dreamed that I woke up at 7. And that there were a couple of new people in the apartment and because of them I couldn't take a shower. One was a guy from work, I don't remember who, and he was washing out our coffee pot in the bathroom. I don't know how the other guy was, but he was washing something in a sink that was in the bedroom.
Needless to say this was a little distrubing.
When my alarm went off again I didn't decide to stay in bed any longer!

Tae Bo

I did my first Tae Bo work out last night. It was the Fat Blasting DVD. I actually enjoyed it. I couldn't do everything in it though. I think I managed to actually do 30 out of 50 minutes. I think that's pretty good considering I'm not in good shape. I might even try it again tonight!

Brad's Good Luck

Now that I have finished my tirade about my coworker, now time to spread the good news about another one.
Brad is one of our PC Techs in the office, at least, he is until 5. He has received a position with our systems team and today is his last day with us. I'm really happy for him to be moving up. If you include his working 4 years for us as a student worker he has the longest work history here. He really deserves the position.

Of course, something really amusing happened when he got back from lunch. We have to punch a time clock here. And he clocked out perfectly fine when he left for lunch. When he came back and tried to clock in it told him he had been terminated. We all thought that was amusing.

So, Brad, even though you don't read my blog (or know that I have one probably) good luck in your new position.!

Coworkers....

I'm finding it hard to stay upbeat this afternoon. And it's not even 1 yet. I WANT to be happy. But it's pretty hard when the person who sits next to you hates you and is being bitchy with you the entire time.
I've tried to be nice and friendly, because I'm a friendly person. I ask her how her evening was, wish her a good lunch when she leaves for that, wish her a good evening at the end of the day. I try to ask her questions during the day. I try to get her involve in anything major I do in the office. But she barely responds to me. Most of the time I don't even know WHAT she says in response because she says it so low.
I see her interacting perfectly normally with other people in the office, assuming I'm not involved, so I know it has something to do with me. It can't just be her if she's fine with everyone else. I keep trying to think of anything I have done to her to make her act this way, but I simply can't think of anything.

Before she left for lunch I asked her if she had not gotten a chance to do some of the ATGs this morning. And she says, "I did like 12 this morning" in this defensive voice. I wasn't even accusing her of anything. The system was down this morning until just before I had to leave for a meeting. I did as many of them as I could before I left, but I didn't have time to do them all. I do that 8-9, and then not again until 12:30. She sits beside me and does them at 10. It was a simple question to ask if she had just NOT HAD TIME. I understand that. It happens. When I asked I didn't really realize that one of the guys in the office was out. And he is supposed to do this 9-10 and 11-12. Had I realized that, I would have been working on it before lunch. This is a question she has asked me a hundred times since we've been working in the same office. I've always answered truthfully and not taken offense at it. Things can get busy and you don't have time to do it. Sometimes you just forget. It happens. It's no reason to get pissy with me. I'm not going to judge you. Every once in a while when you update ATGs the updates don't take. But she didn't want to hear about that. I even told her I was just asking in case that had happened. But NOOOO she's not hearing anything about that.

Anyway she is beginning to really PISS ME OFF! My perfectly good day is going to shit because of her. I'm having trouble dealing with it. I can be perfectly professional and work fine with people I don't like and them think I like them just fine. She needs to learn how to be a professional and leave that attitude of hers in the lobby, or better yet AT HOME!

How bad can it Get?

I think my character in the current DnD game just got screwed. She's a 7th level gestalted warmage/fighter elf. She rocks.
Well, when we played Saturday night we were invited to a masquerade ball. Well, I decided to have a little fun. she went as a belly dancer. She danced the night away with lots of guys, then the group was invited to a private audience with the head dude. She pulled two cards from the Deck of Many Things. This didn't go nearly as bad as it could have. She ended up with a -1 to her saves, and the answer to her next delima. All she has to do is HAVE a real delima to get a solution too.
And then the group was sent straight to Ravenloft. With her weapons and a belly dancer costume. For those of you who don't know, Ravenloft is an Evil plane. This will be FUN.

I found this article on the Student Printz website this evening. It's kinda neat to know I could take Belly Dancing at the payne Center if I joined. I would love to take the class, I just don't know about joining the Payne Center. I have been a member in the past and not worked out. Of course, this would be kinda fun.
Of course, I'm also a bit scared. Most of the people there have probably been coming to the class since it started. And I would be coming in half-way through the semester. I might wait and see how it is after Christmas. There would be more new people there then. And there wouldn't be quite as big a possibility of me taking someone else's place. I would hate to start going now and cause someone who has been going to miss. And I would be in better shape (I hope) by then.

Are you a Rebel or a Yankee?

100% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?!

My sister sent me this quiz this afternoon. It only takes a few minutes, and it's a TRIP! Take it and post how you do in a comment!

There is also an Advanced test that you can take. I scored 100% on it too!

Man of the Year

I went to see Man of the Year with some friends tonight. It was a very good movie and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't what I expected though.

I went with the hubbie, a couple of our firends, the owner of our local gaming store and his lady, and someone else from there. While everyone seemed to enjoy the movie, everyone did have problems with it.

I don't want to go much into the movie and spoil it for anyone else. But, I will say that while funny it was a serious film. Robin Williams' serious films have never been his best. However, I think he found a great median this time. He was able to be successfully serious in a film because he was also allowed to be funny. This was a very real film in my opinion.\


There were also a couple of good previews tonight too. We saw the preview for the new CIA movie. It looks pretty good, but I will wait for it to come out on DVD. I will possibly go see Children of Men in the theatre though. I'm just not one hundred percent sure that I want to spend that kind of money on the movie. I think it will be a perfectly fine rental movie. But I have a feeling all of our friends are going to want us to go see it with them. We'll see what happens!

Not So Great Day

Today hasn't been too great. It started out decently. I didn't want to get out of bed, but I did. I even ate breakfast this morning. Joe sent me some suggestions on my program. With a little more work (just syntax) we got it done and I submitted it. So I should soon be back to an A average in my programming course.
Unfortunately, I got sick after lunch and had to come home. That sucked. And I didn't do very well on my accounting test tonight. I felt fairly confident when I left the apartment. But I guess since I was feeling bad my brain just refused to process everything properly.
At least I'm starting to feel better now! Even if I still don't feel great....

The Day I Almost Committed Seppeku

Yesterday morning SUCKED! I didn't sleep well the night before and had to get up early.
Josh and I had to report to the apt. people that our AC had leaked, and probably had for a couple of weeks. They guy wanted to know why we hadn't reported it sooner. Well, the honest answer, and the one we gave him, is that it has leaked into the carpet of a closet that we only use of storage. We didn't realize it was leaking until it got on out into the bedroom where we stepped into very wet carpet. I wanted to tell him that I don't ordinarily step into tiny closets to see if the carpet is wet for any reason. Should I start checking every square inch of carpet daily for water? But I was a good girl and kept my mouth shut!
We went and dropped my car off at the bod shop. That went really well. We didn't have any trouble getting there, and it took all of two minutes for the guy to write my name on a tag and put it on my keyring. He even remembered my name (it was over a month ago that I got the estimate done!).
Josh dropped me off at work, no trouble getting back across town in time, and I left a message for the guy at Shelter Insurance to set up my rental car with Enterprise. I know I should have done that last week, but, well....I didn't! he called me back about 30 minutes later and told me to call Enterprise and they would take care of anything. Well, he gave me the wrong phone number. 40 minutes later I get in touch with Enterprise and we do all the paperwork over the phone. We set up for them to deliver the car to me a work. They told me it would be an hour. Of course, they also had to have a copy of the proof of insurance on my car (not stuff from the insurance company that is paying for the rental car). Well, since I've already dropped my car off at the shop I don't exactly have that!!! So I walk to my apartment to see if I can find a copy. Well I didn't find a copy of mine, but I did find a copy of Josh's proof. On my way back to work I call and the guy at our insurance company takes my name and fax number and says he will fax me the proof of insurance.
Well, once I get back to the office I discover that the fax machine is having problems. After about ten minutes of frustrating work, I manage to get it to print out the waiting fax. Which says that they couldn't find the account and they need me to call them with a policy number. Well, their phone was busy for the next 15 minutes. So I fax them the info. Then manage to get them on the phone ten minutes later. They find the policy (it was in my husband's name) and fax me the proof. Then I sit on pins and needles for another hour waiting through my lunch break for the damn rental to show up.

Needless to say yesterday was NOT my day. But today will be better!

Are you a Werewolf?

We went to the Gamer Sanctuary last night and the game of choice was Are you aWerewolf. It requires at least 9 people. Everyone sits in a circle and everyone gets a card. The card tells you your role in the game. The possibilities are Moderator, Werewolf, Seer, and Villager.
The Moderator does the obvious. He is the narrator of the story. He sets the scene, then tells the major events.
The Werewolves get to kill one villager every night. While everyone is asleep they point out who they will kill to the moderator.
The Seer gets a vision after the werewolves have chosen their kill. They get to silently ask the moderator if one person is a werewolf each turn.
Each morning the moderator tells who has died during the night. Then everyone discusses who they will lynch for the killing. A majority vote is required to lynch anyone. Then the moderator tells if a villager, the seer, or a werewolf was lynched. This continues until either the villagers all die or the werewolves are all lynched.

I was narrator for one game, but I was a villager for the rest. I think I freaked out Thomasina during one of the games. I was sitting next to Greg, her honey and the store owner. I forget how it started, but I said something about sleeping beside him. That was a fun game because she freaked out!!! I ended up getting her lynched. It was great fun though. She moved across the circle after that and sat next to him for the rest of the evening. I do hope she was just playing around too and didn't take that too seriously. I don't know her well enough to tell. But I was very surprised by her reaction. I had a lot of fun playing moderator too. I made everyone sleep in the tavern the first night. And someone died in their midst. I will play again sometime, but I hope I get a chance at playing the werewolf. I think that would be great fun!

Work Stuff

Ok, I'm only gonna talk about one work stuff, that that's ok. I'm getting a newer laptop!!! I kinda wish I were getting a NEW one, but this will have to do. It's an IBM R51. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, or how long the warranty has left. But that's ok too.
There are two sucky things about this laptop. The first is that I don't have a docking station for it, and I won't. but that's the worst of it. The other thing is that I will only have one power cord. But that's ok too. It was a nice luxury having a power cord for work AND one for home will it lasted with the dell. But that's ok. I can live without that.
There are a couple of good things. The first is that this laptop has a slightly faster processor. The other is that it has a nicer graphics card. I've been wanting to go to 1400x1050 for my resolution, but the Dell couldn't support that. AND this laptop has an 802.11G wireless card. That won't necessarily make for a faster wireless connection at work (although it is right now) but it will make a major difference at home.
When one of my coworkers has time I'm going to get him to check out the warranty for me. I would like to know the details on it. I know the warranty on the Dell goes out in February.
So, I just wanted to let the world know that I am now on my 8th, I think although I might have forgotten one and it could be 9th, used work computer. One day I might even be lucky enough to get a brand new one. But I'll probably have to work here for a little longer before that happens.

Foot Doctor

Ok, Dr. Suyon Rhee, the foot doctor, was kinda cool. She's a cute doctor. After the trouble with no one else being able to decide anything she was a decided relief. Her nurse had inspected the spot on my foot and decided it was a callus. So, I sit around waiting for Dr. Rhee to come in. and she takes a quick look and tells me that it is a blister. I have a couple of prescriptions to get filled today and hopefully in a few weeks my trouble will be completely gone!!!

Coworkers Concern

One of my coworkers sent me an IM earlier today to make sure everything was ok. He said I hadn't seemed happy the last few weeks. I didn't realize I had let Jan have that much of an effect on me. I told him that there wasn't anything really wrong. Other than her attitude. He said ok.

I was kinda glad he asked. It was really sweet and made my day! Thanks Nicholas!

Coworkers, Sinus Infections, and Crushes

You know, I'm not sure I would think of these having mush to do with one another on a regular day. However, that seems to encapsulate my day fairly well.
My coworker isn't much better today. I've decided that her problem with me has nothing whatsoever to do with me at all. (Ok, maybe a little...) She generally doesn't speak up, so when the lobby of our office is full it's hard for people to hear her. Since she just repeats herself without getting much louder people have a tendancy to ignore her and wait for me to help them. (O-kay, that and the fact that I probably have a smile on my face.)
I have decided that my sickness over the weekend can be attributed to the start of a sinus infection. I've paid more attention to my symptoms today. I'm sneezing a lot, my headache is focused around my sinuses, and my few coughing spells feel like they are caused more by sinus drainage that anything else. I finally went and picked up some cheapo sinus meds from the university pharmacy about an hour ago. I'm not feeling much better though. (And yes, I did take a dose!)
As for crushes, it appears that a university student might have a crush on me. He had previously asked me to put my e-mail and phone number into his treo so he could call me later for some help with a computer issue. I only put in my gmail account. I'm not giving my phone number out to random guys (especially not assholes). So he comes into the office today for something that is actually related to my job, and asked why I never replied to his e-mail. I said I never received one from him. To be honest, I might have and deleted it thinking it was some of the spam that has started getting through the filter. But I didn't purposefully delete one to avoid him or anything. Anyway, he gave me his business card (manager of a liquor store I've NEVER heard of) and both of his e-mail addresses. Told me to e-mail him when I would be available for lunch. When I asked him what he needed help with, and he just told me to e-mail him. I would be amused and flattered, but he's an asshole. And I know because I took a class with him. NO ONE in the class liked him...