Sunny

I have found a need to create a new "label" : WTF?

This label is being borne from this discovery.

Oh. My. God. Have people no shame or sense of decency?

LOOK at this dog:



Is that not the saddest Please-Save-Me-Sweet-Jesus look you have ever seen? Torture!


Also, I went and saw 300 this weekend, which usually isn't my kind of movie flavor, but this video pretty much sums up what I thought about it:





Who doesn't love a man in nothing but skivvies and a cape?

Done with the April Showers

Wow.

It’s 9:30am, and I have nothing to do. This is not a promising situation here.

A few updates:

1. I did get stuck in a group with the annoying kid from yesterday’s post. And listen to how it happened: He came in late, so I didn’t have to talk to him, so I thought I was free and clear. So class started, the professor started talking about groups and he says “we have a group formed—it’s me, Brit, and the three Jennifers.” So I didn’t even get a chance to escape! The man is crazy! At that point, I figured there wasn’t much I could do, so looks like I’ll have to suck it up.

2. Recycling Guy: Haven’t mentioned him in a while—but there’s not much to update on. It’s still the usual witty banter, but that’s about it. He did come in the nick of time to get a wasp out of my office last week, though. It was stuck in the one window in my office that doesn’t open, and I’m allergic to bees (or at least I used to be…I haven’t been stung in years), so I was standing outside my office contemplating what to do when he came by to get my recycling. So he trapped it in a cup for me and let it outside. There’s something sexy about a guy that takes care of bugs for a girl, what can I say? I guess even I need to be rescued once in a while.

3. I am going to go buy myself a new digital camera this weekend! Mine sucks balls and takes horrible pictures, so it’s time to upgrade. I’m going to the camera store so I can be sure to try them all out, but I’m leaning toward this one. I had originally wanted this one but the lovely Madge suggested a Coolpix, and after cruising some pictures taken with Coolpix cameras on Flickr, I think it’s the way to go. I'll still check out the Kodak one, though. In a stroke of luck, my dad had about 60 bucks worth of gift cards for Ritz Cameras from when he bought a new digital last year, so I’ll be able to use them! Shweeeeet.


On this beautiful Friday, I would like to give you some entertainment. Another one of those "Funny Cat Videos" that are beyond silly, but always manage to make me laugh anyway:



PS: OH. MY. GOD.

I could use a milkshake right now.

I have this weird tingle above my right eyebrow, and I don’t know why…it kind of tickles. I wonder what the cause be?

I also have a pinching problem in my left thumb.
Maybe I’m not drinking enough H20 today. I’ll get right on that.

What is new in your world, dear reader?

I got a new cell phone yesterday (thank you Verizon New Every Two).

It’s a pretty red Samsung. It also has an LED screen on the front so I can see who’s calling without having to flip her open.



And is it no longer possible to get a phone without a built-in camera? I don’t mind the camera, but I think it’s weird that non-camera phones seem to have become extinct. I did use it last night to set my phone wallpaper—a picture of Jane scowling at me.

I downloaded a ringtone that threw me off guard—the actual song plays, not just notes from the chorus. So voices come out of it like the radio. Trippy.

I’ve got it set to play “You Shook Me All Night Long.”

In other news, I have two papers to write this weekend. If you could see me, you could tell that I am not enthused about this. Especially because it’s supposed to be sunny this weekend.

While I’m on the subject of school, let’s discuss group projects for a moment. There’s this thing in my program where all of my classes have group projects. No, really. Every class I’ve taken has had a group project.

I don’t mind working with people, but I can’t stand group projects. I always get stuck with people who don’t do their share, don’t contribute anything intelligent, or just downright annoy the crap out of me. Not to mention, when you work full time and go to school full time, it’s hard to schedule group meetings.

So one of my group projects this year is in my Adminstrative Theory class. And there’s this guy in my class who will not leave me alone. It’s really weird. I can’t tell if he’s just persistent or if he might actually be trying to hit on me. I can’t tell! I don’t want to sound like I think I’m all that or anything…guys never hit on me—which is probably why I can’t tell.

Anyway, this kid is also one of those annoying people who talk just to hear themselves, rarely have anything worthwhile to contribute, and also does this bizarre running commentary under his breath during class. He's also bogarts presentations and does the "one idea I had..." thing when it wasn't even his idea. It doesn’t help that he grew up in Pendleton, population 1500, mostly from incest (OK, that’s an exaggeration). But rumor has it that he was the president of the Young Republicans club in undergrad, so that’s not very promising.

But he has asked me on several occasions if I want to be in his group for this project. I really want to say, “no, you bug the crap out of me,” but I feel like that’s kind of mean. Rather, I say “I haven’t decided what I want to do my project on, so I’ll let you know.”

But he won’t let it go, people. He’s asked me three times now, and we’re forming groups tonight, so I need to figure out if I’m going to try and get out of it. What to do??

Sigh. Maybe I should get over it and realize that I’m always going to get stuck with people who bug me.

Yes, I’m a mean person.

But you have to love me anyway.

OK, I’m done bitching now.

Ganache is the devil's bait.

Wedding season has officially begun.



Wedding #1 of 5 was on Saturday, and it was nice. It was my first Catholic wedding, but there wasn’t a mass, so it was only about an hour—which is long as weddings go, really. Most I’ve been to or been in are like 15 minutes, tops. But the bride looked beautiful, and the church was quite lovely. It was a little tiny church in a random neighborhood in Wilsonville (south of Portland). I never would have known it was there, that’s for sure. Their reception was held at the Museum of the Oregon Territory, which sounds weird, but it was a great space. It had a ballroom at the top of the museum, with windows around the whole area. All in all, a good start to the season.





Wedding #2 of 5 is this weekend, but I’m forgoing this one. It’s about 3 hours away, and I have a lot of things to do this weekend. This one is more of an acquaintance, anyway, so I don’t feel guilty for skipping it. I haven’t seen the bride in the better part of a decade. I’ll send a gift and call it good!

Let’s discuss for a moment the idea of bringing a date to a wedding. I never really understood that. I mean, weddings are fun and all, but would you want to go to one if you didn’t know the couple getting married? Let me ask you—would you want to be a date to a wedding? The other strange thing is when you’re in the wedding and you bring a date. It’s not like you can sit with your date because you’re at the wedding party’s table. OK, that was kind of random, but you get the point.

In other news, I went to a fantastic restaurant on Friday. The restaurant is Lauro which is on Division. It’s a self-described “Mediterranean restaurant.” It was so damn good. Had a glass of Tempranillo, which was excellent. Then we shared a plate of tapas, which were also heavenly—great calamari! For my main course, I chose the Paella, which can never live up to the Paella I had in Spain, but it was still pretty damn good. All in all, the restaurant gets an A+.





Even though we were stuffed to the gills, we decided to hit the Pied Cow for some dessert. Ordered a lovely banana crepe a la flambé, which was pretty. They lit rum on fire on the plate. Pretty cool. A crepe accompanied by a café au lait, and I’m in heaven. They also have a selection of hookahs, so if you’re into that, this is the place to be.



So how was your weekend?

Optical Intercourse

What's that you say?

Read this fascinating story from March 2006's Chronicle of Higher Education.

A little excerpt for your enjoyment/amazement/disbelief:

Even couples who are not talking or touching can be reprimanded. Sabrina Poirier, a student at Pensacola who withdrew in 1997, was disciplined for what is known on the campus as "optical intercourse" — staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex. This is also referred to as "making eye babies." While the rule does not appear in written form, most students interviewed for this article were familiar with the concept.

Visit the school's website.



This picture from the website looks pretty questionable...doesn't it look like that guy and polka dots are making "eye babies"?? And you know he's thinking, Sweet, a threesome.

Now they are definitely sitting too close here. And I'm pretty sure he's staring at her boobs.

A look at their application is interesting (you can find a PDF link to get a good look).


DISCUSS.

Yikes.

This kind of thing just makes me sick inside.

The worst part is that we'll probably never know why.

To the left, to the left...

BLAH BLAH
BLAH
BLAH
BLAH
BLAH


I just felt it really necessary to type that.

Life has gotten away from me for a moment, but I’m getting back on track. I started classes last week, and this term is going to be an ass-kicker, I think.

My Tuesday class is good (Admin Ethics), but there’s a lot of writing involved. I have three 15-page papers to write for the class as well as a group project. That’s a lot for an 11-week term. Little did I know that it could get worse—my Thursday class (Admin Theory) has an 8-page paper, a 10-page paper, a group project, and get this: a 3-page reflection paper due EVERY WEEK. Like I have nothing better to do, people! Not only is there a lot of reading to get through, I have to “reflect” on it? What a bunch of hooey. It’s like she wants to make sure we do the readings, which is beyond stupid in my opinion. This is graduate school. We don’t need a babysitter to make sure we read. If we choose not to read that’s our own stupid fault.

Grr.

THEN, my weekend course (the one I have one weekend a month) has its first class this Friday. This is Strategic Planning in the Public Sector, taught by Professor O’Toole. So imagine my surprise when a Professor Krause sends out an email regarding our first weekend class for Strategic Planning for Non-Profits. Whoa, what?? I’m on the public sector track, hence my decision to sign up for public sector strategic planning. Needless to say, I have a mini panic attack and email the administrative assistant to the program. She informs me that O’Toole is sick and can’t teach this term. So they merged the public sector class with the non-profit class, and didn’t bother to tell anyone! And seriously, not five minutes after I sounded the alarm, they sent an email out to the MPA listserv to let everyone else know about the change.

Clearly they are not on top of things. So I went to get the book for this Krause person, and things are not looking promising because the book is titled “Strategic Planning for Non-Profits.” Hmm.

In other news, I had to make some big summer plan decisions. Originally I was planning to visit my friend in Alaska & do that leadership conference I blogged about a while ago. The timing was pretty tight, so I planned to go to Alaska from June 13-18, and then do the conference from the 21-26. WELL. My professor has decided to hold class during finals week (which is a major no-no by the way), and has completely messed up my schedule. After much consideration, I have decided to forgo the conference this summer. I was getting stressed out figuring out my schedule because the only time I could go to Alaska is during June. Not to mention, the conference is $500 and I would have to use unpaid leave from work because I don’t have enough vacation time for both Alaska and the conference, so its affordability was stressing. So now I will be visiting Alaska from June 20-25. I’m feeling better already.

BLAH. BLAH.
BLAH.
BLAH.
BLAH.

Ahhh. I needed to do that again. Sorry for the ultra-boring post, but I needed to vent for a moment.

Here’s a funny video to make it up to you:



Be sure to watch to the end—he starts to “drop it like it’s hot” and I about died.

Nap time, I think.

All I can really say about this is …whoa. Now we’re locking people up because they're sick? I mean, I understand him needing to wear a mask in public, but come on. Locking a man up for the rest of his life? Puleeze. Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking?

I mean, obviously something should be done to prevent him from infecting others, but incarcerating him in a prison-like cell indefinitely is a serious human rights violation.

Yikes.

In other news, I start my new term today. Tonight I have Administrative Ethics & Values. I like my program, I like my classes, but I am very upset because it means I have to miss House for the term. It's times like this that I wish I weren't too cheap for Tivo.

I also had to haul my butt downtown yesterday to pick up my parking permit because they didn’t mail it to me this time. So I got to wait in line for 45 minutes. It was such fun! I did get a good phone call into my friend in Indiana, though. So I was one of those annoying girls in line on a cell phone, but I don’t really care.

I had an eye appointment this morning, and I decided to consider contact lenses. I’m not very good about wearing my glasses. It’s not a vanity thing—glasses actually make me look smart (see? I have them all fooled!!). But I almost feel like they hinder my view, and I can’t wear them when I’m talking to people because I feel like there’s something in the way, and I can’t look them in the eye. My eyesight isn’t terrible, but it’s enough of an issue that I need to be able to see distances—to drive, recognize faces, see the presentations in class. One eye is worse than the other so I find myself often closing my right eye so I can see far way. Hence the need for contacts.

I have a trial pair in right now, and so far so good. They’re comfortable, but taking them out and putting them in is harder than it looks. They’re soft lenses, so I can’t really tell when I’ve grabbed them! Time to practice, I guess!

Good news for the day—I have a 3-day weekend coming up. That’s the good part about working at a Catholic-run institution. Even if I am a little Pagan.