The Myth & The Majesty

Crazy Friday ... And it's almost over! I get to go home soon! Wine & Cheese tonight. Pictures to come, I imagine. Or at least a report on the evening. For now, have a great weekend, folks!

Well. That was fun. Came back from a meeting and had a message on my desk phone (that never happens), a message on my cell phone, a text message, and a handful of emails. It's humorous because I can go for a week without phone messages of any kind ... or a full day without getting that many work-relevant, non-mass emails. For some reason today I seem to be in high demand. I'm tired, and I want to go home.

That was, hands down, the WEIRDEST video I've seen in years.

Tuesdays are ... My most hectic days at work. My only free evenings most weeks. An improvement over Mondays. Not nearly as good as Fridays. Tonight, I need to take that time to do some shopping and then clean. Again. I really need to get better at keeping up with my housework. Egads.

I called in sick this morning. I had a migraine. Most of our end of the building, however, spent the morning in a meeting. Missed opportunity to get a lot of work done in peace. If I hadn't been so dizzy ... _____________________________________________ From:   Moonie Sent:   Monday, January 26, 2009 1:23 PM To:     Ashley Subject:        RE: He was gone in that meeting all morning.  Like I said, it was very eerily quiet all morning until around lunch. _____________________________________________ From:   Ashley Sent:   Monday, January 26, 2009 1:25 PM To:     Moonie Subject:        RE: Wow, the designers too? Okay. Eerily quiet. Yes. Maybe I should have come after all. I could have worn sunglasses and dealt with the light. Noise wouldn't have been an issue. _____________________________________________ From:   Moonie Sent:   Monday, January 26, 2009 1:27 PM To:     Ashley Subject:        RE: And then you could have

This was my most surprising list yet. I didn't think I could come up with twelve things, but sure enough -- there they were. All of them, in plain sight, at least to me. Twelve Things I Collect 1. Wine bottles. I don't honestly know how many I have, but I freqeuntly buy wine for the bottle. 2. Temporary hobbies. They serve their purpose and then melt away until I need them again. I think the next one I need to pick up is wine label removal. 3. Maps. (And, slowly but surely, globes.) 4. Shot glasses. Did you realize that almost anywhere you go, you can buy either shot glasses or coffee mugs? One of those options travels a lot better than the other. 5. "Just friends." 6. Black and white photos and posters of bridges. I blame my father. 7. Magazines. More the result of not liking to just throw things away than anything. 8. Bad habits. 9. Quotes and stories. My own and those of others. 10. Foot pictures. 11. Books Coffee table, cook, novel, text ... 12. Ticket stubs. I

Well, the revamp is slowly coming along. "Slowly" because I keep getting distracted by things I should be doing instead. And because I can't make up my mind. It's not going to be much of a change, I have to admit. A little more colorful. A little more me. Spent yesterday in Minneapolis with Matt -- great fun! Pictures will be posted when I can get them off my phone ... which I can't do until I find my mp3 player. It's more complicated than it should be. The story will come then, too. Today ... Today I have a lot of work to do, including hanging the picture I got at Ikea. Just wait till you see this thing (and you will) -- it fills the wall nicely. Anyway, back to it. Have a good day, all!

I came home right after dinner tonight because I knew how many things I needed to get done. What am I doing instead? Toying with my blog. Of course. I'm ready for another new look. Think it's about time for a revamp. Alas, I haven't figured out just yet what to do ... I'll get there, however. Tonight, at the rate I'm going. Oh yeah. Super productive over here.

Plans for my English holiday are coming together. Woot. My project here is starting to fully take shape. Hopefully it can be enough in order so I can enjoy said holiday. This has been a disjointed, unfocused week, but on the bright side things have been fairly flexible. Starting today, though, focus must persist. Tango tonight, dinner tomorrow, Friday to catch up on house stuff, and Saturday I'm headed to Minneapolis for the day, weather permitting. The Admiral said something about learning to make bread on Sunday, which means I need to have my place in order before then so he doesn't laugh maniacally at me (which he'll do anyway, but I'd rather it not be because of the state of my apartment). Busy, busy, busy ...

I make a lot of "Soundtrack Of The Moment" CDs. Sometimes they're specific to occasions or made for a particular road trip. Most of the time they're just compilations of the songs I'm putting on repeat. This month's soundtrack: 1. "A Mad Russian's Christmas" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra 2. "The Blues" by Switchfoot 3. "We Are Going To Be Friends" by The White Stripes 4. "Orange Sky" by Alexi Murdoch. 5. "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" by The Muppets (featuring Gonzo) 6. "The Lining Is Silver" by Relient K 7. "Barrowland Ballroom" by Amy MacDonald 8. "Watch Over Me" by Hanson 9. "On Fire" by Switchfoot 10. "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox 20 11. "Fair" by Remy Zero 12. "Macy's Day Parade" by Green Day 13. "Songs About Rain" by Gary Allen 14. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A

I saw a ghost today. Well, no, not really. I did, however, maybe possibly see an old acquaintance from Tech. I'm pretty sure it was a case of mistaken identity (I'm long overdue to the optometrist, after all) but there's still that nagging feeling that perhaps it might've been him. But since I didn't catch on fast enough, now I may never know. In other news, it snowed today. I then realized I was in a great mood because it was finally warm enough to snow. Then I was mildly amused that all it took to put me in a good mood was weather that wouldn't cause frostbite in ten minutes or less. Went shopping with a couple of the girls yesterday, which was fabulous. (Yeah, you heard me. Fabulous.) I'm now slightly more ready for my English trek in a month -- and I have shoes for tango. Woot. (I also have a French press, which was almost the most exciting.) Oh! And on Friday I managed to acquire the first three seasons of "The Muppet Show" for a truly unbeata

To be perfectly honest, I've hit that point in the week where I'm really doing little more than counting down to the weekend. Shopping in Appleton with the girls tomorrow. That should be fun. After that ... Well, I have a lot of work to do around the house, so I should really get into that. Note the "should" in that sentence instead of a "will." I'm at least that much in touch with reality. I don’t know yet what I'll find to do instead, but I'm sure there's something. But hey, it shouldn't be quite so cold. So that's cool. Okay. Time to finish things here so I can leave quickly later. Have a good weekend, all.

Current conditions: We've hit -7°F. Feels like -32°F. (Anyone stumbling across this thing from Europe, that's -22°C, feels like -36°C.) High in the 20s all next week. I can't wait. [I promise. The posts will get more interesting. Right now, the weather is the most interesting thing to talk about.]

The weather right now: High of -4°F today. Egads. Which is why I'm posting right now instead of driving to work. Sophie needed some extra time to warm up. And I wanted to regain feeling in my nose ... It only took about a minute outside to lose it.

Tell me, o Rapid Citians -- is Yahoo! Weather accurate? Was it really a high of 52° today with a projected high of 15° tomorrow? Because if that's the case, I don't miss RC quite as much right now. At least the weather is a bit more predictable out here. Also tell me: When you read "Rapid Citians" do you read it as "City-ans" or "Sea-shuns?" Until now I only saw it the first way ... Now I'll forever hear "Sea-shuns." Weird.

Only three short years ago, a day in my life consisted of getting up earlier than I wanted, going to class earlier than I wanted, attending meetings, doing homework, probably taking a quiz or a test, eating dinner with my guys or at least hanging out at their house for awhile, spending a minimum of half an hour on the phone -- and then crashing for a few hours so I could do it all over again. My life was hectic, but perfect. Two years ago, I was sleeping in as late as I felt, watching cable TV, painting the kitchen at my parents' house, and waiting for that phone call that told me what I would be doing for the rest of my life. This was my time in limbo, my time to adjust to no longer being in college, my time to sort through things -- physically and mentally. My life was relaxed and maybe a little strangely stressful -- but perfect. Eighteen months ago, I was getting up moderately early, putting in my solid eight hours, and then trying to find things to do for the rest of

More snow. And now it's cold. And won't be getting warmer till the weekend at least. Wouldn't you know -- I moved here by choice. *Whimper.*

In what is quickly becoming a quest for identity in this new year, I give you ... Twelve Things I Am 1. Nerdy. 2. Fiercely independent. 3. A decent baker. 4. One of the guys. 5. In touch with my feminine side. 6. Perpetually on time. 7. Outgoing. 8. Interested in several different things at once. 9. Addicted to the written word. 10. Terminally afflicted with wanderlust. 11. Generally understanding of people's mistakes. 12. [Good at] Making people laugh ... even if it's just at me. ----- Twelve Things I Am Not 1. Patient. 2. Organized. 3. Overly open. 4. Focused. 5. A shopper. 6. A bar person. 7. Generally understanding of people's faults. 8. Good at taking compliments. 9. Good at taking criticism (particularly from certain people). 10. Content to stay in one place, physically or metaphorically. 11. Terribly romantic. 12. Comfortable in a room full of strangers and no one I know. ----- And so the quest continues ...

So! Last night, in an attempt to a) get out of the I-don't-know-many-non-coworkers rut, b) try something new, and c) challenge myself, I went to a tango class with the Admiral. You heard me. Tango. Let me just say ... It. Was. Awesome. It was also tough, and a bit tiring (would have been much worse, but I think they were going rather easy on me), and way outside my usual box ... but that all made it all the more fun. Next week, the Admiral will be in Houston and I'll have to brave it alone. But that's okay -- I'm pretty sure I'm hooked. Plus I won't feel like I'm holding him back the whole time. In the meantime, I'm taking a forced break from my hectic day here. Gotta love the launch of a new project. Keeps the job interesting and the blood pumping. Tonight's a Cool Table dinner night (the first of the year) and then I have some work to do at home. Tomorrow, I'm staying home and knitting, dangnabbit.

BOOM!! *Ahem.* That's better.

I'm reading an interesting new book that the Admiral lent me. It's called Einstein’s Dreams . The end result is that it will be much, much harder to get back to work when lunch is over. Only problematic because, well, this has already been a crazy day. Much more accomplished than yesterday, although it doesn't take much. Here's hoping I can keep up the momentum when I leave tonight.

What a completely unshocking start to the week. Not a productive day. Not an unproductive day. I mean, I made it to work. But I left work almost four hours ago and still haven't accomplished anything I intended. Days like these that feel like total wastes. Last week I stayed busy from beginning to end. If I wasn't busy, I was at least entertained. [Speaking of which, last week I rented "The Women." Not a great movie, but not a bad one either. It is, however, quite possibly the chick flickiest chick flick of them all. As soon as it was over I turned on "Sum of All Fears" just so I could feel a little more normal. Even now that I'm just thinking about it I almost want to turn on another violent guy movie to bring things back into balance. Maybe "Vantage Point" this time.] I accomplished things. I was useful. This week has not gotten off on the right foot, though. Yesterday was ... we'll call it leisurely. I did things, but nothing "usefu

Can I tell you a secret? It's not a "real" secret. A "real" secret would be something that no one else knows, and I'm not terribly likely to spill something like that on the Internets any time soon. (Ha! I'm babbling.) My secret is this: I am a Mensan. A few of my dear readers out there know this already. Someone probably just thought, "A what?" And someone else thought, "You?!" From the Mensa International website: Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr. Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, with the objective of enjoying each other's company and

Lots of activity this week. The Engineer is celebrating his 35th year as a Zimproid today, which means drinks at a nearby bar right after work. Then there are a few of us going tubing at a hill in town with a night session (woot!) ... Tomorrow I have a lot of cleaning and cooking to do before having dinner with a few friends, and on Sunday it's church, a jewelry party, and possibly Chinese food and girl talk that evening. Ooh ... I want sushi. Hm. Somewhere in there, I want to end up at the coffee shop for a little while. Relax a bit and drink some decent coffee -- my week at home spoiled me. Perhaps if I can get my rear end out of bed tomorrow ... Just like that, 2009 is off and running. I don't really have any breathers coming up, but that's how I like it. For awhile, anyway -- in about a week I'll be slamming on the brakes and calling for a time out. That's okay, though. Back to work for me. Have a great weekend, all!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both ... I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence Two roads diverged in a wood And I took the one less traveled by And that has made all the difference. - Excerpt from "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost Happy New Year! 2009 began with a bang. And about a ton of falling balloons. I was at the Grand in downtown Wausau, and that was exactly where I wanted to be. Now that's a good feeling. It's funny. Two years ago I rang in the new year in St. Louis while at Urbana. I had no idea where I would be six months later. Now, I find myself in Wausau, still happy to be here most of the time, and still a little baffled over my path here and where I might be by this point next year. I have a lot of things to look forward to this year. Two trips to the Hills, one to England. Two weddings for two very dear friends. There are things I'm not looking forward to as well, but they will be deal