The Lesson Learned

Ways to Piss Me Off #101

What's one of the easiest ways to piss me off? Something you can do to make my blood reach the boiling point within 5.2 seconds?

Look me in the eyes and tell me a condescending and bold face lie.

Make sure you say it with conviction.

Make it as convincing as possible.

Make me almost doubt myself.

Make me question my version of reality.

Make your bold face and almost convincing statement and refuse to waiver, all the time knowing it is, in fact, a bold face lie.

Make me verify the facts and discover that it was in fact a lie.

Make me feel stupid for almost believing you.

Then make yourself disappear.

I have no time for you.

The Best Laid Plans

“We don’t have any errands, dinners, or parties planned…....I plan to do a little cleaning and a lot of blogging, reading, and knitting.”—Me

That was my plan for the weekend and I fear my weekend is slowing going the way most have gone lately. So much for my famous last words.

Let’s just say that so far things have not gone as planned.

I’ve been running errands. I’ve only posted one entry. I have not gotten any of the cleaning or reading accomplished. And I can’t knit because somehow my sweater pattern has disappeared from the face of the planet. I’ve only been slaving over this project for the last two months. I have way too much time invested to stop now, besides it’s turning out really soft and cute. I have no choice but to face the cold facts and the cold weather and scour the local craft and yarn stores in hopes of finding the pattern again.

But on the up side, it’s still early on in the weekend.

The Spark

I was in a sparkling mood yesterday morning. It was finally Friday. I bounced around the house getting ready for work warm and happy with the knowledge that a weekend of rest and relaxation had been declared.

I was in a spar-kel-ling, super-good mood in spite of the fact that I had to break into my garage to push the button and race to the door to manually help the frozen garage door along in order to free my car from captivity.

I happily sang along to the radio in spite of the fact that I was embarking on a very long commute to work because traffic was at a crawl due to the snow-covered roads. I hummed and tapped along to the music as I admired the snowy landscape.

I was in an excellent mood in spite of the fact that everyone else in the office was not in a good mood at all. And the tone of the day quickly spiraled into the day from hell with an abundance of stress inducing deadlines.

And somewhere along the way the sparkle left and not even one spark remained behind.

Such is life.

Super-Big

It’s the super-big weekend. What do you have planned for the weekend?

I’ll tell you what we have planned for the super-big weekend—a whole lot of nothing. We don’t have any errands, dinners, or parties planned. And I couldn’t be more thrilled at the idea of doing nothing all weekend.

I plan to do a little cleaning and a lot of blogging, reading, and knitting. I’m sure we’ll watch the big game on Sunday. But we plan to keep it very low-key.

Sounds like heaven to me.

I'm Back

Our Internet connection has been persnickety lately. But I’m back now.

It's Not You--It's Me

If you reached my site by searching for “how to break up with someone gently,” I’m very sorry, but I can’t help you. Sure, you can try my tried, tested, and true, favorite breakup line back from my single days. Oh yeah, I had a breakup line. And it was basically the same for everyone. Not that I used it all that often or anything. And, of course, there’s no guarantee that it will work for you.

But for what it’s worth this is how it went: “You’re a really (great, nice, wonderful) person, but I’m just not ready for a relationship at this time. I just don’t know what I want right now and I think it’s best if I spend some alone time. It’s not you—it’s me.”

This is what I really meant: ”You’re a nice person or I wouldn’t have been interested in you in the first place and I really don’t want to hurt you, but you are not the right person for me. I know what I want and it’s not you. I want to date other people because you’re not for me.”

That, or some variation of it, was my line. And it worked for me because I used it pretty early in the relationship. I always took things slow and tested the waters before really committing so I could get away with the line.

Did the guys know what I really meant? Probably.

Did it crush them? No.

However, I don’t think you could get away with using my favorite breakup line for ending a long-term relationship. Because with most long-term relationships there’s no such thing as a gentle breakup unless it’s mutually decided.

Feel like sharing your favorite breakup line? Maybe you can help someone make that gentle break. Let's hear it.

The Year of the Party

The good times are rolling along this year. Or so it seems. This year, being the social people that we are, we’ve participated in one jam-packed, fun-filled weekend after the next.

Okay, I realize that it’s only the first month of the year and the first month isn’t even over yet for that matter, but I still can’t help but notice the anomaly. We usually hibernate in the wintertime. While we may not be bears, we do enjoy staying inside and snuggling up in blankets and taking in a few movies. Typically, we party in the summertime and rest in the winter.

And we haven’t actually planned to be the party-animals that we’ve turned into of late it just seems to happen. The phone rings and it’s a friend extending an invitation that we can’t resist.

Sure, we could turn down the invite and hole up inside in our typical winter fashion. The choice is ours. And we choose to party.

We’ll hibernate next weekend. Maybe.

And You Wrote All the Best Entries Too

I expected to have something to say as I’ve been pretty chatty this week, but tonight I’m coming up blank. White screen blank. Start-to-type-disjointed-thoughts-and-back-up-and-delete-text-blank. Stare at the screen and pray for words to suddenly appear from thin air-blank.

I’m attributing it to the fact that it is so cold here that even my brain is frozen.

And this distresses me to no end for some reason. Just the thought of a gazillion dollar piece of equipment shorted out and stranded on Mars causes me stress. I liken it to throwing a gazillion dollars out on the street. You would think they were spending my money. Oh, wait a minute…they are. Very distressing, indeed.

Had to race to the animal hospital before they closed to return the 20 pound bag of newly prescribed cat food that Princess refuses to eat. The poor thing has been starving herself. So she's back on the short-term prescription, which we now have to mix with some prescription canned food. Everyday. Her new diet is the same as a "people" diet. Expensive and time-consuming. But if it will prevent her from getting sick again, it's worth it. And the King is a real trooper throughout the entire ordeal. He eats whatever we pour into his bowl, though he may wonder why we keep changing his food. Or not.

Oy. No wonder the words didn’t come easily tonight--I have nothing nice to say. Better to say nothing more.

Will be back tomorrow.

Because You Used All the Clever Titles

Beginning Thought: This entry is about as interesting as an argument about which OS is better. Consider yourself warned.

Last night I spent several hours setting new play lists for my new Dell DJ. I’ve been taking it with me to the gym and I’ve grown tired of the only play list I had previously set. Listening to the same old songs over and over was bor-ring. And with nearly 15 GB of available space it was downright insane.

I really wanted an iPod.

I settled for the Dell DJ.

It is not an iPod ( I’m in love with the iPod!), but I’m a PC user, so the DJ makes more sense for me. But I’m not a PC user because I despise any other operating systems. It’s not that at all. My choice really has nothing to do with the OS. I don’t care which OS is better than which. I don’t care to read or hear someone try to convince me why their OS is better than my OS. Maybe they are right, but I really don’t care.

I’m a PC user because I am. It’s that simple. Most of my computer experience, or at least the beginnings, were learned through work and I’ve always worked at a PC shop. My only exposure to a Mac has occurred during training sessions or seminars and I must say that I was a maniac Mac user. It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to close a window because the “X” was on the “wrong” side.

I’m sure I could learn to use a Mac if I had to. But it would likely take a court order or gunpoint to convert me. I’ve decided to stick with PCs because that’s what I know. That doesn’t mean that I have never drooled over a shiny, Power Mac or an iPod. And that doesn’t mean that I won’t someday change my mind. But, for now, I’ve just decided to stay with what I know.

So, I’m settling down with my Dell DJ. And I must say that is a pretty cool device. And when I have more time, I plan to take a stab at writing a product review on it. Just for the heck of it. That sounds like fun to me. Yes, I know I’m sick. Very. Sick.

Ending Thought: See, I warned you. Borr-rring!

Discouraging Thoughts at the Gym

I’ve been going to my gym for about a year and a half now off and on. Sometimes my attendance is more on and usually sometimes it’s more off. I like to hit the gym first thing in the morning--before dawn. It’s normally dark when I leave the house and it’s still dark when I leave the gym, ready to begin my day.

I don’t particularly enjoy working out, but I do love the way I feel after a workout. I love that getting my workout in first thing in the morning gets it out of the way for the day. And because I’m getting up earlier and do not have to hit the gym after work, it makes me feel as though I’m gaining a couple of hours in my day. And I’m all about having more time in my day.

Since I discovered the joy of early morning workouts, I stumbled upon the biggest advantage of all: the gym is a better place early in the morning. I can use any machine I want and I never have to wait in line. It’s less crowded than after work, even with all the New Year’s Resolution people.

In fact, I’ve only noticed a couple of new faces in the morning. For the most part, the regular morning crowd rules the gym in the pre-dawn hours. And in some ways this is not a good thing.

Going every morning and seeing the same people day in and day out can be disheartening and discouraging. What do I mean by this? Well, how do I say this politely? Some of the regulars are really fit people who are just as fit, if not more so, than they were one year ago. And some of the regulars are out of shape people who are just as out of shape now, if not more so, than they were one year ago. Some of them have butts that are, well, chunky. It’s not nice to say that, but the truth does hurt.

And I don’t know what their habits are after they workout. Maybe some of them go home and eat an entire chocolate cake after their workouts. I don’t know. And maybe they’re not as regular at the gym as I think they are, since I wasn’t all that regular last year. I just don’t know. Maybe they notice that I am just as out of shape, if not more so, than I was last year. I don’t know. Maybe the chunky butt is a genetic trait they can't help. I do not know.

What I do know is that I want to see equal results for my effort. And since I am a very regular, regular I want to become a really fit, fit person.

I do not want to end up with a chunky butt.