If You Can't Say Something Nice...
Say Something Vague

So...Yeah. Save The Date, 'kay?

You may have noticed the new addition to the top of my menu bar. Yep, The Boy and I have set a date: we will be getting married on Saturday, June 10, 2006. Most probably at 1 p.m. And it's only 620 days away. However will I get everything done in time??

Not Much Time...

Thank you to Jenny and Jen for your kind words re: my last post. Friday was just a blue, blue, blue day for some reason. Friday night was better because I left work a little early and went to Lunatic Fringe (yes, that's what it's called) at my yarn store. I know that this discusses knitting and thus should be on the other blog, but it goes to explain how my Friday was redeemed. LF consists of good food, knitting and friends chatting. Very therapeutic. Friday we had homemade Mexican food (cheese enchiladas! how I love thee!), knitting and girl talk for three hours. I was a much happier girl afterward.

After that I went home and knitted some more while I caught up on the shows I taped during the week. Welcome back, Joan! I have high hopes that you will even surpass the goodness of last season (and that'll be tough!). I watched the first episode of Lost--Holy Moly, was that intense! I just hope they can sustain it. I watched the series premier of Veronica Mars--could be good, could be iffy. We'll see. And I watched Two and A Half Men from Monday night. So I was up till about 12:30, but I got to sleep in on Saturday. Yay!

Saturday: slept in, yummy brunch at Hof's Hut. Knitting. Finally got around to watching a video my mom lent me last year, Riding in Cars With Boys. (Er, sorry mom! I forgot I had it!) It was pretty good.

Sunday: The Fair! I ate sooooooo much that I have elected that tonight I will use my one-time pass on weighing in at Weight Watchers. Now I just have to be good all week so that next week is not a horrible nightmare. I had a cheese on a stick at the Hot Dog On A Stick booth, a ginormous Strawberry Lemonade (yum!), a giant Diet Coke, battered (and fried--eek!) potato slices dipped in ranch dressing and a caramel apple. This was spread out throughout the day, you understand. We also walked and walked and walked for about 9 hours (minus the 15 minutes spent on rides and the 30 minutes or so both times we sat down to eat). This should balance out the bad food, right? Right???

The Fair was also nice because this year they wised up and you could pay different prices for different parking: Good, Better, Best. We shelled out $10 for 'Better'. This was a marked improvement over last year when we parked in 'Way the hell too far away from the entrance' and had to pay a guy on a bicycle-cart-thing to trek us back out to the car. Today my feet feel bruised and my legs are realllllllly tired, but it was a lot of fun!

Now I must go work. I got bad news today re: my team (someone's leaving, and it's not someone I want to leave), and that guy is being nice to me (which you would think would be a nice change but instead is just suspicious and creepy). Ta ta for now, kiddies!

P.S. There was no Xanax taken, per Jen's Rx, but there's always a next time! ;)

Ignorance

Overheard conversation: (gist) Kofi Annan supports terrorists. He is anti-America because he criticized Bush's actions and decisions and was not swayed by the list of reasons that the U.S. invaded Iraq. How dare he?

I guess this is who is planning to vote for Dumbya in November. Great.

Angels In America

I know I'm really late getting on the bandwagon with this one (I don't have cable, sue me), but The Boy and I rented Angels in America and watched the first of the two discs last night. All I can say is WOW. I had no idea what it was about, just that there was a lot of buzz around it. Have you seen it? I love it.

Based on the play of the same name, and set in 1985 NY, AIA explores a series of themes like individuality, friendship, love, fear, death, life, evil, and God. For the squeamish, I should note that it deals very openly with homosexuality, the cultural response to homosexuality, and the beginning of the AIDS crisis of the '80s. It's a series of overlapping, interconnected vignettes, looking at race, politics, power. The movie manages to tackle these concepts without too much prejudice; it really only gets judgmental when dealing with wilfull ignorance and the abuse of power. For the most part it is extremely open.

In turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, AIA is an amazing film. It is clearly based on a play--in fact the teleplay was written by Tony Kushner, the original playwright. If you're familiar with stage drama, you know what I mean: there is a way of speaking, a type of dialogue (witty, snappy) that is common to stage plays, and is also a key element of the movie version. But after the first few minutes, I stopped consciously noting that, and really got into the stories. It doesn't hurt any, either, that it has an awesome list of actors including Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and (my personal, all-time favorite) Emma Thompson.

Anyway, I guess I've gushed enough. I'll just refer you here if you are interested in reading short synopses of how the play unfolds. It really is great. I'm really looking forward to finishing the film tonight!

**btw: it is something of an "iron butt" movie at about 6 hours, all told

These Are So Cute!

Meh

Nothing really to report, I'm just bored.

My faithful readers will notice that I've been dedicating far less time to the noble art of politics ranting. That's mainly because I reached critical mass. I was so angry on such a constant basis, that I forced myself to step back. Initially, it was a healthy choice for me. I had some time to listen to music instead of NPR, and to read other things besides political blogs (how do you think I got so obsessed with knitting blogs?). The downside of this is that I now have no desire whatsoever to re-engage. It's not that I care any less; believe me, that is not my problem. My problem is that I care too much--I was crying and ranting at the news. That is not a good thing (I am the anti-Martha Stewart. heh.) I'm so afraid of becoming overwhelmed again, that I have backed off entirely. Somehow I need to find a healthy balance.

The real reason I'm concerned with this feeling of ennui where politics are concerned, is that I've really begun to think W is going to win, and it makes me want to hyperventilate, cry and throw things all at the same time. I don't think he'll win through any merit on his part, but through the dirty tricks and machinations of 'his people'. And it makes me so damn sad for America. That a majority of people are either stupid enough to believe in this guy, or dis-engaged enough to think that their vote won't matter anyway, so they will stay home and this guy will win through the sheer lameness of the voting public.

At any rate, I really need to get back to work, but let me leave you with some words of wisdom from W:

"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."

Aren't you proud? I know I am (not).

Drama

Folks, I think I'm going to have to move my blog. Well, dissociate it from my name, anyway. I'm just too worried about being googled by that guy and him busting me. And he would, too. I'm going to have to think on it--advice is welcome from others who have had similar situations arise!

I was directed via one of my favorite knitblogs to the Garden State blog (Have you seen the movie?! You should!). This pondering from Zach Braff had me laughing till tears rolled down my face (of course, I've been having a crap day, so maybe it was a little crying too):

Now onto Women's Beach Volleyball:How come no one has told me about this sport before?! This is amazing! I'm not very into sports, but this is a sport I could get into. I mean like I would tailgate and shit. I would make signs on poster board and buy a giant foam hand for this sport. Don't tell NBC, let's just keep it between us, but: These women aren't wearing any clothes! And as if that wasn't enough, they added cheerleaders! It's like watching Olympic Pole Dancing. I kept feeling like I should be feeding singles into my cable box.

It don't hurt none that Zach Braff's a cutie, too.

Also, The Boy didn't respond to my post about our engagement till the rest of us had moved on, so in case you didn't see his comments (because they are [sorta] directed at you, dear readers), I'm copying them here:

Yeah, Congrats Stephanie. What a wonderful surprise! I am so happy for you. You must have a wonderful boyfriend. Wait, I now distinctly remember that I was the one to give you the ring in the first place. I must be getting old. Heck, I am going to be 30 next month. Stephanie, I love you. You are so wonderful. Thanks to everybody for the great comments. I am so glad that everything went so well.

It don't hurt none that The Boy's a cutie, too.

Have you seen this trailer? Well, you probably have if you've seen Garden State (see above), but it looks excellent: a) it's Johnny Depp b) with a Scottish accent, people! Hel-lo! It also looks like a great story. I, for one, am in. :)

I Have A Knit Blog!

Woohoo! So, dear readers, if you are tired of reading my rollicking tales of knit adventure, fear not--I now have an outlet specific to that need. This site will remain my spot for general gabbery & political analysis, but I am migrating my knit needs to Knit Picky. Huzzah!

Call Me Ms. Grumpypants

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I jhad ust about finished this post when it up and disappeared, never to be seen again. This is not helping my attitude and my sense of well-being today.

I am not pleasant today. Although, I am far more pleasant than I was about two hours ago. Lunch and a spot of knitting have helped to restore some of my equilibrium. That and the White Stripes' Elephant with the volume up fairly loud for an office setting, are serving to drown out some of the people that are on my last nerve and have led to THE MOOD.

My biggest issue is this guy I work with. Let's call him that guy. That guy is extraordinarily lazy. And he lies. Not my favorite combination for someone I have to rely on to get stuff done. That guy likes to have long drawn-out conversations on the phone and then deny the substance of those conversations later if they pertained to him actually doing any meaningful work. That guy looooves to call and talk for over an hour about absolutely nothing. I think just so that he can taunt me later by pretending that I never asked him to do anything, or more to the point, that I said I would. This is why I prefer to communicate solely through email whenever possible: a 'paper trail', so to speak.

About two weeks ago I asked that guy to do the heavy-lifting on one major project. Since I sort of have to supervise this guy, I do most of the work on our projects, but I thought it was something that he could easily handle. That was mistake #1. Naturally we had this conversation on the phone. That was mistake #2. So today when we're on a call with our boss, he denies flat out that we had this conversation, and then goes so far as to tell me (in an email, of course, because he wouldn't want the boss to know this part), that he's stopped work on the project altogether (due 9/20!) because he was waiting for me to do the big part of the project. Now, considering that that guy has ONE function within the department, and I have eleventy bazillion, I really didn't think it was asking too much to request that he please do some basic research and make some suggestions to me that I could then veto or accept!!! This was so that I could work on 1,000 other projects also due on the 20th. But has he done any of them? No. Instead he presents it in such a way that the boss asks ME to do it today.

So now I've spent all day on this comprehensive spreadsheet, GUESSING at some stats and things that that guy has access to and would be able to quote accurately. And since he has NOTHING ELSE to do, that guy would have been able to focus on it without thinking of the 9 million other things that should have been done today (but won't be). I so hate that guy. I'm sorry; I know I shouldn't say that, but I really think I do. There are few people in this world who I actively dislike on a visceral level, but he's right there at the top of the list. Enemy #1.

So I'm already irritated, and then we have these auditors in for about a month. Now, under the best of circumstances I find our Accounting department pretty annoying. I don't see how they can possibly ever get any work done since they spend all their time talking, giggling and fighting with each other. But now on top of them there are 5,000 auditors (approximately) sitting right in my area. It started out with two or three of them, and they were polite and quiet. Then they got this one girl who joined them; a teeny little blonde who spends all her time shouting into her cellphone or talking to the girl in the cubicle next to mine. Then, mysteriously, about 4 or 5 more show up. Including Mr. Cocky sitting in the cube in front of me. When he's not having noisy 'guy' conversations with one of the other auditors, he's on the phone with someone complaining about these auditors and how he doesn't like them, they're unqualified, etc. Oh, did I mention that none of them could possibly be older than 27? I'm so glad that my company's economic future is in the hands of people who have literally been with their company for three months (a major Accounting firm, you'd know the name if I mentioned it)!

They also do the bulk of their work in the conference room right by my cubicle. And they are LOUD. Between the laughing and shouting, the personal phone calls and the 3-hour lunches, I don't see how they can perform a good audit. BTW, you would think a 3-hour lunch would be good because it would mean a nice block of quiet for me, right? Well, it might if they didn't order their lunches in and sit at a table NEXT TO ME. Ach. They also steal my chair, use my stapler and don't put it back and give me dirty looks when I have to walk through their giggly group to get a glass of water or go to the restroom.

Having all of that going on, I was already not in a good mood, when I went to get lunch and found that every single car in Orange County was traveling on Harbor Blvd. I say 'traveling' loosely, since most of them were sitting still or going about 10 miles/hour. I was yelling, and it was not PG-13. The only thing that saved me was the verboten guacamole on my Chipotle burrito bol (I think guacamole is about 6 zillion points on the Weight Watchers scale) and knitting on the hat I'm making for The Boy's dad.
I'm doing the hat in this great Silky Wool (Elsebeth Lavold, colors #3 and #24). This is the first pattern where I've branched out on my own a bit. I disregarded the yarn suggestion with the pattern, picked out the Silky Wool, did some knitter's math (head...hurts) and figured out how to do it so that it would still work out to the same size. I think. It actually remains to be seen whether my changes are going to work or not, but so far it looks pretty good (about 2" knitted, 20" around). I had to go from 70 stitches around to 110 to make it anything bigger than a yarmulke, but I think it should suffice. It's very nice looking: grey with the rust as a stripe--quite handsome, I think.

Urgh, annoying blonde auditor girl is at it again. SHUT UP!!!!!! I don't care about your hair and how many calories are in the licorice you can't stop eating. I dislike you almost as much as that guy!

Well, I've got to go finish that spreadsheet so that guy doesn't tell my boss that I'm not doing my job. HATE. HIM. Must breathe. Breathe. Aw, @#$%^ it. I'm leaving early today.

I'm Totally Getting This Bumper Sticker When I Have Kids

(bottom right)

A Propos of Nothing

My parents sent me this. Too funny. Heh.

"It is tough being a Republican in 2004, because somehow, you have to believe concurrently that:

1. Jesus loves you, but shares your deep hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, but our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
3."Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
4. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation.
5. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
7. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins, unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.
8. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
9. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
10. HMOs and insurance companies make profits and have the interest of the public at heart.
11. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
12. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
13. It is okay that the Bush family's "Carlisle Group" has done millions of dollars in business with the Bin Laden family.
14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him and Rumsfeld reassured him he was our buddy. A bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him. A good guy when Cheney did business with him. But, a bad guy again when Bush Jr. needed a prop for his re-election campaign as the "war president."
15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying about WMD existence to enlist support for an unprovoked, undeclared war and occupation, in which thousands of soldiers and civilians die is, somehow, solid "defense" policy in a "War against Terrorism."
16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which should include "banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet."
17. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's Harken Oil stock trade should be sealed in his Daddy's library, and is none of our business.
18. What Bill Clinton or John Kerry did in the 1960s was of vital national interest but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
19. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a "spirit of international harmony."
20. Affirmative Action is wrong, but it is OK for your Daddy and his friends (here and in Saudi Arabia) to get you to graduate from Yale without studying much; to dodge the draft in the Texas Air National Guard; to bail out your company Harken Oil and the Texas Rangers; to get the Governorship of Texas and then to have the Supreme Court appoint you President of the USA.
21. You are a conservative, but it is OK to spend like there is no tomorrow and run up deficits that your grandchildren will have to pay, while at the same time refunding as much tax money as possible to rich people who do not need it.

This illogical behavior can take a toll on a healthy mind. So if a friend of yours has been acting a bit dazed and confused lately, be nice: he or she may be a Republican!"

I AM ENGAGED!

So, friends of mine, in only 21 months or so, I'll be getting married to the greatest Boy ever. Save the date! Heh.

I Think They're On To Me

Did ya ever sign up for something just for the free gift? Sure you have! Who hasn't, right? You sign up for an orientation or web broadcast or drawing for the giveaway. That's how The Boy and I ended up spending 1/2 a day last year talking about timeshares, or why I have 8 shot glasses from Red Dress Ink. It's all about the freebies. Well, I think that the companies that do these things are getting smarter.

I received a call after I got my new Victoria's Secret credit card. Did I want to join their pay protection thing in case I lose my job, blah, blah, blah? Well, the answer was a flat out no. Until, that is, they enticed me with a free paper shredder for doing a free 30-day trial. The Boy and I have been talking about getting a paper shredder, and here was one for FREE, and all I had to do was feign interest in their stupid little program. Sign me up, baby!

Then I get the paperwork. They won't send me the paper shredder until I actually send them my filled out registration!! I thought they were registering me on the phone and just sending me the gift, but NOOOOO. Instead I have to actually sign up for their dumb service or no paper shredder for Stephanie. Harumph! Somehow they have regained all the power. Stupid telemarketers.

Bye, bye future paper shredder of mine! You would have gone to a nice, loving home and been fed plenty of old bills and stuff to keep you happy and full. Now you'll probably sit in a warehouse somewhere because who IS going to register once they find out that the company is holding back the gifts?!?!

An Open Letter to Children Everywhere

Do yourself a favor, and don't be too eager to grow up. Enjoy your youth. Get a hobby and spend hours and hours doing it. Watch TV and movies. Spend time with your friends. Go on all those boring family vacations and enjoy the world beyond your immediate surroundings.

Why, you ask, am I enouraging you to make the most of your youth? Because it will all be over soon enough.

I'm telling you right now, adulthood is not all it's cracked up to be. Most days I see my cubicle for more time than I see my apartment, and spend more quality time with my computer monitor than my boyfriend (although, my monitor is a 21" LCD flat panel, so we have our good times...). There are the bills, and the responsibilities and the jobs that you can't just up and leave because of those same bills and responsibilities. Then there are the good jobs with the impossible people. Sometimes you're even lucky enough to get one that's good in all these categories, but you still don't want to spend 2/3 of your life there; you want to see your friends or family or cat. You want to knit, read, play games, or sleep. And you can't.

Sometimes you spend hours and hours on a project that gets thrown out two days later. Sometimes you spend practically no time at all on the project that gets the most recognition. But regardless of which of these you wind up with, nobody is going to put a gold star on your work and send you home early. There are days when you intensely dislike everyone around you and want nothing more than to sleep the day away in solitude. But you can't forge your mother's signature on a note to get you out of work.

Even though they pay you to do these jobs, it never feels like enough, even when it is. It's really easy to get caught up in the negativity and nit-pickiness of the few and miss out on the kind-heartedness and the consideration of the many. So then you have to work even harder still to remind yourself that you are blessed with work and a valuable, functioning member of society.

Yeah....so....enjoy being a kid. Have fun! Make the most of your summer breaks and school holidays 'cause (unless you're a teacher) you don't get any after graduation. Stop rushing to grow up so fast. Don't worry about makeup and fashion statements and plastic surgery (for God's sake!). Bask in the sun, play in the snow, nap on the grass. Play with your dolls or cars or legos. BE A KID. It's the most fun you'll ever have.

Sincerely,
Stephanie

In Brief

1) STRESS! 2) Sad, sad, sad 3) Aggravation

***

1) I am so unbelievably busy at work. Oh my gosh! I think I may go crazy. I'm actually feeling incredibly overwhelmed. I should really be glad, because it is job security and everything. But I really just feel stressed out and like everybody wants a piece of me. I'm also feeling homicidal, so people better stop pestering me soon!

***

2) I stopped at Rite Aid on my way back from lunch and I saw the saddest thing ever. The cashier who was helping me had a comb-over! A woman with a comb-over. So unbelievably sad. I hope this doesn't doom me to losing my hair, like when you point out that no matter what people say about all babies being beautiful, deep down you know that there are ugly babies out there--and then may as well resign yourself to the fact that you will probably have an ugly baby as the cosmos' way of paying you back for your wickedness. I hope I would have the good sense to get one of those nice Dolly Parton wigs instead of doing the pathetic--and OBVIOUS--comb-over!

***

3) This is much like the rant about it being unacceptable to Republicans that Bill Clinton didn't go to Vietnam, while perfectly okay that W skipped out on his 'patriotic duty' as well. If the Democrats were to have a man like Arnold Shwarzenegger as a keynote speaker at the DNC, we would be tortured and demonized by the Republicans. A maker of violent films (not PC with the right wing 'family' groups), whose been accused of several cases of sexual harassment, with no actual political experience... Just makes me so unbelievably annoyed.