Books for Dummies

I know everyone has seen these books in the library, bookstore and at people's houses. Well today I went to go see the Project Manager for one of the projects that I'm working on. I had never met him before, nor gone to his office. I told him who I was and he asked me to have a seat while he completes his phone call. Since I have nothing to do while I'm sitting there, I'm checking out his bookshelves. I see a book called "Customer Service for Dummies." Now, as a project manager he is supposed to contact the clients all the time, and discuss projects and deadlines etc... I just thought it was hilarious that he has that book in plain view. He could at least pretend like he is the most diplomatic, easy-going manager that has the natural ability to smooth over any type of problem with the client and make them feel at ease. I am not sure if the clients ever come to our company to visit us, but if they do, I will have to send a note to the project manager that it might be a good idea to hide that book for a few hours.

Lite?

The only thing that has the word Lite in it that I enjoy is Miller Lite. I like Rusty Wallace when I'm watching Nascar, although I don't do that often, but I root for him because he drives the #2 car, or the Miller Lite car.
I was in the store last week and I was rushing through the store buying all 5 things that I needed. I wanted to get some bagels, so when I saw plain ones, I reached up, grabbed them and threw them in my basket. I didn't realize until I got home that I had grabbed the plain bagel lites. Ugh! They were horrible. They were soft, which was good, but I think because they took out some of the carbohydrates or whatever makes bread a little hard, these were extra gooey. Fine, I'll still eat them. I put some cream cheese on it, and ate it, and it was disgusting. I don't know who buys that stuff on purpose. I can't stand anything light or diet or "good for you." Well, that's a lie because I do eat fruits and vegetables, but if it is advertised as "low cal, low carb, low anything", I'm not buying it. It never tastes the same and the manufacturers usually try to overcompensate with something else. If it's light lemonade, they make it way to sweet. If it's light soda, they add that saccharine or aspartame which has a horrible taste to me.
I don't understand why people can't eat in moderation. If you did, you could eat all the fat, chocolate, pasta you want. You just can't be a pig about it. Every now and again it's fun to be a pig about eating and it makes it so much more worthwhile than being a pig ALL the time, but I guess if you enjoy being a pig, you're stuck eating those disgusting lite bagels when you're ready to change your eating habits. From now on, I will be a little less hasty in my shopping and look at what I throw in my basket. Those bagels still leave a bad taste in my mouth. Blech!

Money-what more is there to say?

I love Judge Judy. I don't sit down and watch tv for specified amounts of time often except Monday through Friday, 5-6pm. A new season just started with new cases, new people and new music. The music isn't that great, but I'm still going to show support for my girl.
Yesterday after watching the first episode, I got to thinking about money and relationships. I would have to say 75% of the cases on the show have to do with a relationship gone bad and people are claiming to have lent money to the other person. The other person always says it's a gift and JJ has to determine who is being honest and who is lying. Everyone understands that...moving on.
I am in a fairly new relationship (10 months or so), and I have only asked to borrow money from my boyfriend one time. It was last week and my bank account had literally 0 dollars and 0 cents. I think I was getting paid on a Wednesday and I just needed a few bucks to tide me over. I told him that I would like to borrow 10 dollars. He gave me 20 and said not to worry about it. I did worry about it. When I got paid I told him that I had his 20 dollars to repay him. He said my money was pink and frilly and he wouldn't accept it. So, I went on with my life. He has never asked me to borrow money, and I can't believe it. I'm happy he hasn't asked, but compared to the last boyfriend it's like a breath of fresh air. I can't understand the people on the show that borrow 200 dollars to have their car fixed, then turn around the next month or week and ask for 150 dollars to pay for their gym membership. I said I couldn't understand them, but what about the girlfriend or boyfriend that keeps loaning the money even though the person never even paid one dime back? What don't they understand. Overall, I like when Judge Judy just makes them look stupid even though I'm hoping they learned their lesson long before they went on the show.
I like the fact that I don't have to ask for money. I like keeping my money organized and at any time I know how much money I can spend and when I can splurge and when I can't. Money isn't everything they say, but it's pretty important to me.

Ravens win, Chiefs lose

YAY RAVENS!!!
They beat the Cincinnatti Bengals 23-9 yesterday. The game was pretty good. The Ravens definitely could have played better, and we're just lucky the Bengals weren't playing well at all. We got off to a good start. By the end of the game, I think Brian Billick was letting the team coast, and the Bengals started to come back. I'm just lucky they didn't come back and beat us. Kyle Boller, a new quarterback, was playing pretty well, but I think he was getting too excited during the game, and he fumbled a couple times. I'm not sure how he was feeling, but it's ok, Kyle. We still support you and want you as our #1 quarterback.
The Chiefs, my other favorite team, are now 0-3. I don't know what to say. The games have all been really close, but they just keep losing in the end. Poor Chiefs. Luckily I'm not a fair-weather friend. Next week, Chiefs/Ravens battle it out on Monday night!!

What a day!

There are some days when everything just makes me angry. It's not even good things. It's just totally stupid things. For example, a lady just came over to our work area to use the copier. The copier is right in front of my desk. She stood there for about 10 minutes and 9.5 out of 10 minutes she was sitting there babbling to herself about how slow the copier is, and how to get it to work, etc.. She basically just sat there talking to herself. I thought for a minute that maybe she was talking to me, but I don't like her and don't want to talk to her so I pretended I was focused on work. I should have sent a printout to the printer (next to the copier) saying something like 'stop talking to yourself!' or 'shhhhh...people around you are trying to work!' That would have been hilarious and brightened my day, but I didn't think of it in time.

Another thing that's stupid that made me mad is the fact that people just blindly accept what they read and/or are told. Doesn't anyone care enough to do a little research to figure out if what the author is telling them is true?

One last thing, and then I'm off to lunch. Lazy people REALLY BOTHER ME. I asked one person if they could do something. They were sitting there checking the internet or whatever, and he said 'ok. I'll have someone do it.' I wanted to yell out 'WHY DON"T YOU DO IT? You're right here and you can see that I need to get this done.' But, it's easier (and a lot more fun, apparently) to sit and watch grass grow on your work computer. I hope I'm in a better mood after lunch.

Ravens Win Again

The Ravens won on Sunday. I'm so happy. They beat the Steelers, so now we are 1-1 in our division and back on the plus side of things with our rivals from Pittsburgh. The game was pretty good. The Ravens had a lot of penalties, and they probably shouldn't have won based on that, but the Steelers certainly weren't playing their best. Deion Sanders took off his helmet after he made a great catch, and he was running to the sidelines celebrating, and no one was sharing in his joy. I wonder why. BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE OFF YOUR HELMET WHILE ON THE FIELD!!!! I will give Deion the benefit of the doubt this time because he hasn't played for a while, and back in his heyday, you could do anything you wanted. The funny thing is that the reason they started those rules about excessive celebration, and unsportsmanlike conduct was because of Deion. I guess some things come around full circle.
Ed Reed also took off his helmet after the Steelers scored a touchdown. There is no excuse for that.
Todd Heap got hurt in the 3rd or 4th quarter. Someone fell on Todd's ankle on one of the plays, but Todd, being the champion that he is, lined up on the line of scrimmage to complete the next play knowing that the quarterback would spike the ball and give him time to get off the field without using a time out. Joey Porter from the Steelers knew that Todd was hurt, and when the ball was snapped, pushed Todd down on the ground. It wasn't a gentle push either. That made me pretty angry, and the Ravens talked about Joey Porter on the news later. I hope the next time these teams meet, they somehow get Joey back. Of course, another win wouldn't hurt anything. :)

My Best Friends Are...

Today brings me to a topic that many hate discussing. That topic would be racism. I don't consider myself racist, and I don't think that any of my friends are racists. I'm not sure, but I don't think they are. Perhaps I put on blinders, but I think I'm good at picking friends.
One statement that gives away racism, sexism, agism (is that a word) is when people say 'Some of my best friends are (fill in appropriate word here, black, Jewish, gay).' As soon as they say that phrase, they have already told the world that they are racists (I'll use the term broadly). I don't care how true it is, but if it is true, why do you have to broadcast it. I don't run around saying I have friends that are Black, Asian, women, men, dogs. It doesn't matter. My friends are my friends no matter what.
The worse thing about people that are racists is that they think they do a good job covering it up. For example, I was reading something about Oprah giving away cars to everyone on her show last week or the week before. One man wrote in saying that 'he couldn't believe what that heifer did.' Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but why would someone write that? Hmm...of course I had to look and see where this person lived. Oh, Louisiana. Well, I don't know that particular state to be a well-known, racist state, but it is the south. A simple thing like that causes me to think that he's racist. He should have just been happy to see Oprah giving something away, but he wasn't. Strange.
It's too bad there are still racists running around. America is filled with so many people of all different shapes, sizes, nationalities, that those people have some nerve to stereotype and lump everyone into one category. I guess I lumped all the racists together, but at least I don't broadcast that "some of my best friends are racists." Hmph..that made me laugh.

The Pregnant Lady

There is a girl (lady) in my neighborhood that goes running every morning, and she passes my driveway between 5 and 6am every weekday (on the weekends I'm sleeping at that hour, so I'm not sure if she runs then). She has two dogs. One is a Siberian Husky and the other one is some sort of yellow lab mix. I hadn't seen her for a long time and I wasn't sure if she moved, or just stopped running. This past Saturday I saw her walking her two dogs and a man was with her. Of course, I have no idea if this is her husband or boyfriend or a neighbor that offered to walk with her, but that doesn't matter. Then, this morning when I left for work I saw her again. Only this time, she's walking with the two dogs, and I realize that she's pregnant. I'm no judge of pregnancy and what you look like at different stages, but she had enough of a belly for me to notice, so maybe she's almost ready to have the baby.
It's funny that I have no idea who this lady is, or anything about her, but I'm concerned about her and her life. I hadn't seen her for the longest time and then I find out that she's pregnant and about to have a baby. I'm kind of happy for her in a stalker kind of way. It's really weird when I think too hard about it, but it makes you think about how life goes right on past you if you don't stop to notice. Everybody-stop and notice something today. It may just put a smile on your face. :)

Truck Drivers

Yesterday I was driving to happy hour when I noticed a truck in the next lane was driving the same speed as I was. After 20 seconds I looked over at the driver and he was straining to look at me. Well, this isn't the first time this has happened, so I just slowed down and was in his blind spot so he wouldn't look at me. I changed lanes and pretended I didn't even see him, and I notice he's still driving the same speed as me, just two lanes over. Finally, I got off on my exit, and I took one last glance at him and there's a big piece of paper with the words 'You're Beautiful' written on it. I started laughing and kind of waved to him. That was SO funny. That poor truck driver. He is probably on the road all day and night, and uses that piece of paper to talk to girls all the time. I don't know if he intends to make people's days or wants to scare them, but I guess if you have nothing better to do, it's a fun game for him. I wonder how many times a day he uses that sign. :)

The view from Reading PA

Some people from my Southern Cruisers group met yesterday morning to go to Centralia, PA (the smallest town in Pennsylvania). It was about 65 degrees when we left at 8:30a to meet some others near Conowingo Dam. Brr..
The ride started out great. The sun came out, and we were all happily riding along. Around 12, we stopped at the Queen City Family Restaurant (in Reading, PA, right off of 222), and had an awesome lunch.
As we left the restaurant, we had to get onto Hwy. 422. It was a right hand merge into the fast lane, and I was leading the group. I was looking to my right to merge, and then I looked forward. As soon as I looked forward, two cars were STOPPED in front of me. I put on my brakes, the woman on the bike behind me put on her brakes. I looked in the mirror (that's always my first instinct when I brake hard), and I saw a guy in my group (Dutch) go down. Immediately, everyone went into action. Ed went on traffic duty, a nice woman in a car jumped out and called 911. An EMT that was driving, stopped to help before the police and other EMT's got there. Dutch ended up breaking his right ankle, and fractured his left wrist. A tow truck picked up his bike, and the ambulance took him to Reading General Hospital. Luckily, the hospital was only about 2 miles down the road. Once we got his bike on the tow truck, we were able to get down to the hospital to see him. He's staying overnight at the hospital but he'll be home tomorrow. Just say a little prayer that he wasn't hurt worse. The worst part of all of this is that I was leading, and we were in PA, so it was a LONG ride home. I know it's not my fault, but it was scary nonetheless. Just wanted to share.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

I'll admit that I'm not the nicest, greatest, easiest to get along with, prettiest, smartest person in town. Fine. I'm ok with that. My problem is that I do tend to think that I'm better than a lot of people. My mother just happened to instill a lot of confidence in me, and I'm not complaining. I have a great mom. She's very similar to me, except she's nicer, and shorter than I am.

My problem today is with people that are just plain stupid. I can't stand them. Here's an example: My coworker, Julie*, is thinking about going to another country where marijuana is legal. She has been asking everyone if she comes back to the states, gets called for a drug test and fails, will she lose her job. Well, JULIE, considering we have a zero tolerance drug policy at this job, YES YOU WILL GET FIRED. I hope she asks Human Resources so that as soon as she gets back, they will call her for the test and she'll get fired. I won't be shy about laughing.

Here is another example if that one doesn't make you smile. I frequent a website where there is a section for meets. One person, Buck*, is always writing that he will go to the various meets and then never shows up. Then he posts a meet that he is having and doesn't bother telling anyone the date or the time. All Buck wrote was 'hey, if anyone's around on the weekend, swing by one of my beach houses.' Well BUCK, if we knew where the freak your beach house was, or what weekend you're going to be there, maybe you would get a person or two to show up!

OK. I'm getting annoyed just typing this. Gotta go.
*all names have been changed to protect the dumba$$es.

Mr. Dramatic

I went to drop off my disposable camera at CVS on Monday. In order to drop off the film, you fill out the paperwork and specify what size prints you want, whether you want the picture disc, etc..Well, there wasn't a pen at the station when I got there. I asked the cashier if he had a pen I could use. He yells out 'SOMEBODY STOLE THE PEN!' I almost started laughing because that man really needed to relax. Maybe the pen fell off the counter. Perhaps someone accidentally took it (my best friend used to do that all the time), or maybe he misplaced it. It just seemed that he jumped to his conclusion a little fast. Some people are like that. My pictures are due back Thursday.

Hopefully this will be the last time I drop off film at CVS because I have ordered a digital camera from and electronics website. I'm getting the Kodak CX7430. It's 4 megapixels, and it is supposed to be VERY user friendly. Moving into the 2000s with my picture taking is a big step for me, but I'm looking forward to it. I think my camera will be here tomorrow or Thursday. Pictures and a new camera, all on the same day. I think I'll be on excitement overload. Maybe I'll yell at the man at CVS. It will be a happy yell. :)