Newbie

SuperNiceLady followed me into my office a couple of days ago when I got to work because she was going to listen in on a call. I sat down and she practically yelled, "I LOVE your shoes!" I'm not a huge shoe person, so to hear that was both awesome and hilarious. Then she said, "Are they Coach?"

Now THAT's hilarious.




(they are $25 American Eagle sandals from years ago)

Seriously?! Seriously!

Given my earthy crunchy-ness, it probably doesn't surprise anyone that we have not just one water filtration system, but two! An RO and an ionizer on our drinking water. When the filter for the ionizer was messed up last week, we were drinking water thanks to the Brita, but my mom HATED it.

I usually give Kobe water from the Brita because the two systems don't give us quite enough water for the three of us, but after this little episode with our drinking water from the Brita, my mom decided BritaWater isn't good enough for Kobe. I now have to give him only the ionized water, or a mix of the two. Gotta love my mom!

Why I Love My Job

Aside from the food, I love my job for many reasons. One of the reasons became crystal clear yesterday. We just hired a CPA to be our controller and she's SUPER nice. Yesterday was her second day, and I walked by her office on my way out to say goodbye and ask if her second day was as good as her first. I saw our CEO scrunched under her desk, setting up SuperNiceLady's computer speakers.

We have three tech guys, and we have another person who's excellent with computers and could also do this. But that's the kind of person and boss our CEO is--he's fantastic!

Food XVII

Okay, so I have no idea how many times I've really blogged about food, but y'all know it's pretty much my favorite thing ever. In my last six work days, the company has taken us out four times: The Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang's, On The Border, and Javier's, this amazing new Mexican Place in Crystal Cove (part of Newport, but even snottier--who knew it was possible?). It's a good gig. A REALLY good gig.

Smart and Sassy

On Friday night we had a GNO/GNI; after catching some awesome BBQ, we went back to the Leavitt's and watched Veronica Mars. I'm not talking just one episode, either. We started at, what, 8-ish? I left about 10:30 when my grandma-ness kicked in, and then I saw Christa's status the next morning as, "Christa is grateful for amazing friends who stay up to 1:30 am watching Veronica Mars. . ." or something along those lines. Holy cow! I LOVE the show, so I'm thrilled other folks are as hooked as I was last summer when I whipped through three seasons in probably two weeks. In honor of some friends discovering the awesomeness that is Veronica Mars, I give you some of my favorite quotes from the show:

Meg: You believe me, right?
Veronica: You are the last good person here at Neptune High. I believe cartoon birds braided your hair this morning.

Weevil: I need your help.
Veronica: Ah, if I had fifty bucks every time someone said that.
Weevil: Look, I know it's a drag being you, and...
Veronica: No, seriously. I'm gonna need fifty bucks if you expect me to keep listening.

Veronica: Well, does this towel make me look fat?
Meg: You need something to wear? [they walk out of school with Veronica wearing a cheerleading uniform] I usually have sweats in my locker. Sorry.
Veronica: No, this is perfect. I just have to resist the urge to do a cartwheel.

Me? Hot Pink?

The girls in the office found out I'd never had a pedicure, so on Tuesday when I got in, they came to my office and said, "We're heading out for manicures during lunch, and you're coming!"

I survived! And I even kinda liked it! There was one part where I was dying of ticklishness, but luckily that was over after about a minute. The girls were laughing at my laughing, though, so at least someone was entertained.

And I got HOT PINK. Holy cow it's bright. It's like my toes are their own light source. It's fun!

I Pulled A Holly

Last week I was putting together my desk. I hadn't really needed it or cared all that much until I started realizing it isn't super fun working on a laptop on the couch or in bed all the time. It's a pretty simple metal-and-glass desk, but I haven't fully unpacked and I couldn't find all the pieces. The lacking piece was a five-inch long, curved piece of metal that attached the two rectangular pieces of the desk into an L-shape, and held up the glass for the attaching L.

I looked everywhere and couldn't find the stupid piece of metal. I called OfficeMax to see if they still had the desk or the pieces or anything, and then I realized I ordered the desk from OfficeDEPOT four years ago. Like I'm going to remember details like that.

I took a break from being peeved and was playing with Kobe outside when Mom came out and showed me the missing piece! I pulled a Holly--I totally screamed.

Maggie, I wish you were here to say your classic line: "Maybe there's a pillow you could scream into."

Taylor Heaven

Nothing funny or interesting here, except that I was in guitar heaven for hours on Friday. My mom and I drove down east of San Diego on Friday and went on the Taylor Guitars factory tour. Taylors are my FAVORITE guitars ever; I have two of their acoustics. We've talked about going on this factory tour for years now, so to finally go was a blast. We saw the whole process of making a guitar, and we couldn't believe how automated it all was--there were machines doing so much that it was amazing! Very high-tech, very good quality control, and yet, at the end, there are two guys who play them and check over everything to make sure they meet the Taylor "name." Then at the end of the tour, there's a room where you can play several of them, with two mini-rooms off that, complete with acoustic amps. TOO MUCH FUN. I love playing a $4000 guitar in a small, 4'x6' wood-walled room: the sound is unbelievable.

The Chang

LittleSister and I went with our moms (who are really good friends) to PF Chang's on Thursday night. Our moms are really easy about what we order, and they essentially told LittleSister and me to take care of the ordering. That wasn't a problem for us! We also ordered the Great Wall of Chocolate (extra sauce!) and downed it. When the waitress brought the bill, she put it in front of LittleSister and me! I laughed so hard! Our moms are in their 50s and are classy as all get out--and LittleSister and I, in our jeans and t-shirts, got the bill? I thought it was hilarious.

Heh. Like THAT's Gonna Happen.

Yesterday my mom and I took a tour of the Taylor Guitar factory. I LOVE my Taylors, and I was thinking it might be a cool place to work. Yesterday on the tour, I overheard some workers say, "Hey, we're all going to Village Inn after work to eat!"

Yeah. Nevermind. I have no desire to work there.

(yes, I pick where I work based on the restaurants the employees select. It's working out great for me right now.)

Create-A-Word

I do like my Amishing word, and I'm glad Liz likes it, too. My other favorite new create-a-word? Typoing. Typo needs to be both a noun and a verb, especially in my current line of work, so I'm turning it into a verb.

What're your favorite words you've created?

We're Amishing It

We've felt a little Amish lately. We're having a sprinkler valve leak, and instead of letting it leak all night, we turn off our water about 8 or 9 pm, and then turn it back on about 9 am. So that means we have to get ready for bed SUPER early, and if we have to wash our hands again (which I do often since I'm with Kobe), we pull out a pitcher we've set aside to do such hand-washing. My favorite, though, is how we've filled the tub with water so we can use a bucket to flush the toilet manually if we have to go sometime between 9 pm and 9 am. It's hilarious. And totally reminds me of hurricane season when we lived in Connecticut and we'd be without power or water for a week at a time. Craziness! You don't realize how much you use running water until you don't have it anymore . . . holy cow.

My other favorite thing was watching Mom move around the house last night in the dark with a flashlight. I said, "Oh my gosh, did our electricity go out, too?" Luckily, no. But now I'm almost tempted to turn off the electricity just for a few nights and see how it goes. It'd be such a pain to set all the clocks again. That might be enough to keep me from trying it.

So, how long can you . . .

. . . drag out a celebration/reminiscing fest? Yesterday I received my official photo from graduation, the one where I'm up on the stage shaking hands with Dean Hill. And this weekend I finally got all my pictures printed from the last year and filled in my graduation frame with "Class of 2008" and a spot for the tassle. I got my diploma a couple of weeks ago, and already had a frame picked out for that; I picked out a frame for my Marketing Student of the Year award (2008 version, 2007 version wasn't nearly as pretty) and got that all situated.

And THEN . . . anyone remember that awesome Carl Bloch print I've had in my room for the last four years? My first roommate at TG, Marla, gave me that for my birthday four years ago. As my graduation present, my mom and sister offered to have it framed. I finally got to pick it up this week and it looks AWESOME. But seriously, it's been live-in-the-past heaven for me the last couple of weeks. And can you blame me? This last year was the best year of my life: the best friends I've ever had, my favorite religion teachers one more time, my favorite/best groups ever (love you, Mo!), Dr. DeRosia and Dr. Bone, Ohio State, MSotY, graduation, birthday/going-away party . . . I could go on and on. Seriously, though. Can I just stay in this reminiscing phase forever?

Oh wait. It's not the healthy thing to do? Boo.