Random Old Faces
During a recent night out with some of my girlfriends, I ran into someone I haven't seen in a long, long time. This particular person was someone that I'd had a heck of a falling out with in college, and someone I never thought I'd see again. It was my old roommate, Nancy (this is a fake name, but is a person who some of you will know, and will know why it is so interesting that I ran into her). Nancy and I lived together for two years in college, and she treated me pretty poorly. She was the type of person you end up walking on eggshells around because the most mundane, random things will turn her into a raging bitchy lunatic. At the end of our first semester of senior year, my other roommate and I got together and decided we couldn't take living with her anymore. We kicked her out after finals of the fall semester, and when she left she trashed our place. I ran into her a couple times after that, and things were fine. We had a long talk and exchanged numbers, but when it became obvious that she was trying to renew the friendship, I began to ignore her phone calls. When we talked, I had been very clear that things were cool, but I wasn't interested in being friends again. She is a toxic person, and I didn't want her in my life.
A year or so after I last spoke to her, I ran into her ex-boyfriend at Blockbuster. She had dated and screwed over this guy while we were roommates. I had always thought he was such a great guy, so I started hanging out with him. That person is...can you guess?...Shanshu.
It's been four years since my last encounter with Nancy. I went to an old friend's record release party at a jazz club a couple of nights ago, and Nancy was there. For the few interested parties, here is an update: professionally, she seems to be doing pretty well. She's in grad school for hospital management, and is currently working at KU Med in research. Socially, though, she seems as messed up as ever. Apparently she doesn't really speak to her family much anymore. She said to me, "This last year has been so awful. You have no idea." I didn't press for details, because I wasn't interested in the drama. She has been married, but is no longer. Again, I didn't press for details. Being married and divorced/annulled/whatever within the span of four years is more drama that I'm not interested in. She had that very day, unluckily, moved into a new home about four blocks from where Shan and I live. I have my fingers crossed that we won't run into her at the local grocery store or something.
The one positive thing that came from that conversation was the apology and taking of responsibility I felt I deserved from her. She admitted, quite uncharacteristically, that she had indeed been a bitch, her behaviors during our time living together were inexcusable, and she was sorry. I suppose everyone grows up at some point, and while I don't really care anymore I was glad to hear it. She also apologized to Shanshu through me. She admitted that she had "fucked up" with him and that he didn't deserve to be treated the way he had. When I later told Shan, however, it was obvious he could give a rat's behind about her at all. Nancy had heard through the grapevine that I was dating Shan, and told me that she thinks this is wonderful. She said that we always had a connection that she could see, and that we were both nice people who deserved each other.
I have to say, this conversation was well done on her part. I still have no interest in her, and maybe a little part of me still wanted to see her fallen on her face. But I'm glad that she's grown up a little, and I'm glad that she has begun to recognize the toxic parts of herself. Hopefully in the future the drama will cease to exist and she'll find happiness.
MovieTickets.Com Are Scamming Sons of Bitches
Never buy movie tickets online through hollywood.com or amctheatres.com or movietickets.com. Both hollywood.com and amctheatres.com have you go through movietickets.com, and they are assholes. Stupid, fat fuckheads. To purchase tickets, you have to click on that little agreement box for the terms and conditions. Those ugly fart heads put a little diddy in there that authorizes them to take a $9 monthly membership fee to reservationrewards.com. I mean, who puts that in their terms of conditions? I thought I was going through a reputable site. God dammit. Spam is getting to the point where you can't even buy from major businesses anymore without getting fucked up the asshole with a big burly brush. Stupid cocksuckers. Imagine my surprise when, a month after purchasing Harry Potter tickets on the theatre web site, I find a random $9 charge on my bank statement. I call the 800-number my bank provides me and find out that they had stuck that in the terms. Who reads that shit, anyway? I mean, I'd read it if I was buying something off of pornwhores.com, but not AMC Theatres! Shit fuck motherfucker! Obviously it's not the money that's pissing me off, but rather the principle. Can't trust anyone these days.
That is my trashy rant for the year.
Apparently I'm not very logical.
| Your IQ Is 130 |
 Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Genius |
A Quick and Dirty IQ Test
Crying Like A Girl
Why can't women argue with their loved ones without crying?
I thought for a while that it was just me. On the rare occasion I fight with Shan, I end up a teary mess, and get so flustered from tears that I don't even make sense anymore. I had a fight with my dad once when I was 19, and the same thing happened. And, every other boyfriend I've ever had, it's the same story. If I'd ever had a fight with a friend, I imagine there would have been tears involved. I was sitting in my office yesterday and happened to overhear a coworker arguing with who I can only assume to be her husband. It was one of those quiet work arguments, where you don't want anyone around you to hear, so there is no yelling involved. There are only strained tones of voices and whisper yelling. Anyway, like me, she began to lose it toward the end of the conversation. She was doing that thing girls do where they are trying to pretend like they're not crying, but just end up choking up while they talk. Her husband, like boyfriends I've known, was getting angry with her for crying. I heard her try to tell him that she wasn't crying. This made me think. Why don't husbands and boyfriends just accept the fact that women cry? I've had a boyfriend who would get mad at me for crying, like my coworker's husband did. Mad because I'm crying? What kind of sense does that make? It's not like crying is voluntary. It just happens. Getting mad at your wife or girlfriend for crying is like getting mad at someone for saying, "Ouch!" when they've been hurt. Besides, every girl does it. Get used to it. It's a fact of life. Fight with your girlfriend or wife, and she will cry. I think that women cry during arguments for a very good reason: release. Men get angry and punch walls. Women cry. It's the same emotion, but it's being expressed in a different way. Just like guys get mad and release their feelings with aggression, doing it before they can think about it, women get mad and release by crying. Really, it's a very constructive thing. If I cry during a fight, I feel much more closure after the fight because I'm not penning up my feelings. I'm a lot less likely to retain anger and harbor resentment. Men should encourage their women to cry during arguments; or, at the very least, they should not exacerbate the situation by getting mad about it.
My Clients are Hilarious
So I was just contacted by the Lawrence police department. One of my parents had robbed a store and used me as an alibi. Okay, seriously. Why would you do that? Do you not think that the police are going to check your alibi? Do you not think that they would call me to find out if I was with you during the time of the robbery? Do you not think that it would be bad for your social worker to be involved in your robbery case, when you're supposed to be trying to get your children back? Not to mention the stupidity of robbing a store while you're trying to get your kids back. Jeez. This is all going to look SO GOOD in court. Can't wait to testify on this one!
Preparation
We have begun to prepare for our holiday party. What used to be "let's have a few friends over and have a little party" has turned into "can we fit all these people in our home?" This has left new decisions to be made, such as how to come up with more seating and where to place the large amounts of food and beverage we must prepare. Shanshu and I are differing a little in our interpretation of how to throw the party, but in general we seem to be planning together okay. One thing that I'm very excited about is that we got his mother's ham sandwich spread recipe, and those little sandwiches pretty much kick the crap out of everyone else's ham sandwiches. Tonight begins the cooking, since I would like to have most of everything finished before Saturday. There's nothing worse than spending the day of one's party racing around, stressed out. Hopefully, I can make it so that there are only a couple of last-minute things to take care of that day, and Saturday can be generally stress-free.
Speaking of stress, I have not started holiday shopping yet. I've decided what I'm getting most everyone (which in my book is half the battle), but I have not yet purchased said items. My plan is to take a half day off of work next week and get these things done when everyone else is working. Wish me luck!
Beliefs
I have been inspired by Shanshu's post, and I'm going to create my own list of beliefs.
10 Things I Believe In:
-The blindness, stupidity and deceitfulness of the Bush administration
-A ban on driving while on mobile phones
-Psychology
-Non-Centralized government
-Traditional church services
-The importance of family
-Premarital sex
-Aliens
-Spanking
-Tolerance
10 Things I Do Not Believe In:
-The continued illegality of marijuana
-The validity of one religion over another
-Missionaries and Evangelicals
-That college gets you a better job
-Educating, giving amnesty to and giving social services to illegal immigrants
-Divorce because of Irreconsilable Differences
-People who don't immunize their kids
-Vegans and being granola in general
-Mormonism and Scientology (but according to myself, who am I to say?)
-Teaching anything but science in science class
Things I'm Still on the Fence About:
-The death penalty
-Michael Jackson's innocence
-Ritalin and ADD/ADHD in general...in fact, medicating children at all
Abusive Boyfriend
My boyfriend is abusive. He doesn't do it on purpose, I swear. He loves me, and would never hurt me on purpose. When he hits me, it's an accident. And he always apologizes immediately and makes me feel better!
Here is a list of times he has hit me recently:
1. This started it. This is the first time he hit me. I was asleep, and woke up to being punched in the ribs. I looked up at him, and he was laying propped up next to me with his fist in the air.
2. We were on the couch doing what I thought was a fun time play wrestling, when all of sudden I get back handed in the head for no reason whatsoever.
3. I had done something he didn't like, and he kept telling me not to do it. I don't know why, but I kept doing it over and over again. What I got for my insolence was a punch in the knee bone. Now he threatens to punch me in the bone, and it shuts me up for sure.
4.This morning I woke up after him and went out to find him laying on the couch watching TV. I sat down next to him to give him a hug. Before I know it, he kicked me in the forehead so hard tears came to my eyes.
Of course, everyone knows Shanshu isn't the abusive type. It is funny to me how lately he has been genuinely accidentally hitting me...#1 was a dream. We both woke up in the middle of the night because he'd had a dream that he was in a fight, and had punched me in his sleep. #2 was a coincidence...he was moving his hand as I was sitting up, and my head collided with his hand. #3 was when I was play trying to do something that annoys him, and he kept stopping me by very lightly and playfully pretending to punch me. Somehow one time he hit that just-right spot on my bone that hurt like nothing helse. #4, we were rolling around wrestling (kind of) and his leg went out of control, causing his foot to hit my forehead.
I wonder if underneath the layers he has some sort of latent anger toward me that he's trying to express!
Snow Day!
I can't believe it, but I'm having a snow day. My office shut down at 2 yesterday, and is closed today. I feel like a little kid! We got a very decent amount of snow for KC (10-12 inches), and I really want to go out in it. Like, sledding or something. Sledding with hot chocolate. That would be great! I'm glad I work for a nonprofit, because most businesses don't care as much for their employees' safety as they do about a day's profit loss.
Last night we figured out pretty early that work wasn't happening today. The news kept talking about how much more snow we were going to get before morning, and the roads were getting worse and worse. It was too cold for the ice trucks, and my car was beginning to get buried. A couple of our friends figured this out too, and suggested that they come over for drinks. That was fine, since all 4 of us were positive we wouldn't be working the next day. Now, I was not willing to go out in a snow storm to drive to a friend's house to drink, but our friends were and they came over. It was nice, kind of like an extra weekend night. We played games and had drinks and talked about the weather.
In fact, this week is shaping up quite nicely altogether. I played hooky on Monday, worked Tuesday and half of Wednesday, didn't work on Thursday, and have an easy day on Friday.
Long Time No Blog
What can I say...sometimes I just get bored with it and have nothing to say. If I wait long enough to blog, I can come up with a bunch of small random stuff that is worth typing out.
1. A moment of mourning for Shanshu's computer. It was only five days old when it was murdered by Spy Axe. It's probably my fault, because I'm not what one would call competent with computers. I learned from this experience, however, that you should never go to any site that isn't well known and reputable.
2. Another moment of mourning for the $50 that Spy Axe stole from Shanshu, through a nasty little scam.
3. This has been the best December in years. We're on our fourth snow, and this one is actually supposed to be decent. It's supposed to snow until tomorrow and drop several inches. I LOVE SNOW! Unfortunately it's not good sledding snow, and plus with the temps the way they are (which I'm sure is tropical for Canada, but around here 2F is COLD) I wouldn't want to be outside for too long anyway.
4. A third moment of mourning for the KU Basketball program. From championship game to worst season opener in 30 years. Why, God, why?
5. Our Xmas party is shaping up nicely. We've got a small group of people coming (a dozen or so), which is just enough to fill our apartment but not so many as to feel crushed. I'm excited about trying out a new drink recipe that Shan found. Godiva white chocolate liquer, Stoli Vanil, Peppermint Schnapps. Fabulous!
6. A few of our kids are being sent to our office for visits from their foster homes without proper outerwear on. A couple of weeks ago, when it was in the 20s, I had an infant who was dressed warmly but had no coat, hat or mittens on. She only had a thick blanket over her carrier. I wonder if this is normal? It made me nervous. On Saturday I was with a group of kids, and two of them only had on fall jackets. No lining, no thickness. I made one wear my hat and the other my scarf. I think I might just start keeping extra hats, scarves and gloves in my car just in case.
7. We put our tree up on Sunday, and decorated it on Monday. I know I'm biased, but I think it's beautiful. I think it's either the prettiest or the second prettiest tree I've ever done. Monday morning (yes, we both played hooky from work on Monday) we decorated with the ornaments and stuffola that I already had. I decided that the tree looked too bare, so we headed to the store and purchased a few new ornamaments, a few more strands of beads, and tinsel. I've never used tinsel before. Now I love our tree! I fancy that it looks like a Victorian style tree. Now it's time to put presents under that tree!
8. Science City on a Saturday afternoon with 9 8-year-olds is the worst experience a sane adult can have. I know, I did this past weekend. I almost cried at one point because I had lost all 9 of them. When I say lost, I mean that every single one of them ran away from me. Remind me not to have 9 kids.
9. I'm going to a jewelry party tonight. It's one of those things where one of your friends sucks you into coming and watching another person give a sales speech. Then you're supposed to buy stuff from the salesperson so that your friend can get free gifts for being the hostess. I hate these things, but I am going so that my friend can put on a good show for the salesperson. I'll probably get sucked into buying something, too. Who wants overpriced, crappy jewelry for Christmas?
10. I like to end lists on certain numbers. It's a little bit OCD, but I couldn't possibly have ended on 9. It had to be 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, etc..
