Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

LOVE IT!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Thanks Ri

The Best Things in Life Are Free

. . .like a week's worth of your coffee habit supported by your interim boss. . .because they "made" you come in even though the rest of campus isn't here. . .including the janitorial & food staff. . .thus the need for a coffee card to Starbucks. . .to get your brain going for a very intense game of "Name That Tune"

Today's life lesson: never underestimate even the smallest of gestures.

That's all.

OK, I am a bit freaked right now. But being a person who does not believe in coincidences, I'm pretty freakin' excited. So here's the set-up. . .

I thought it would be funny to buy everyone in my department a gag gift this year. Luckily everyone has pretty distinct personalities or is the butt of a daily recurring joke so it was easy to pick things out at the dollar stores or certain Internet auction sites. One person in our office, I'll call him Pete - which works out nicely because that's his real name - thinks for some wacky reason that I am his secretary. Several times a day I am asked to take dictation or file for him ("Take this down!") and several times a day I politefully & respectfully decline. ("Are you on crack?")

So what would be a perfect gift for a very demanding "boss" than the movie The Devil Wears Prada? I saw and loved the moview in the theater when it came out. And I loved it so much that when it arrived at my house I watched a large chunk of the movie (like almost all of it) every night. For a week. It's the kind of movie you can throw on and watch a bazillion times and never get tired of. (I also do this with Pride & Prejudice and The Office - season 2.) I like TDWP so much that I wanted to keep it for myself. I didn't want to give it up. So I started looking for a new gift for Pete. But I couldn't come up with anything. So I wrapped it up and bid a tearfully good-bye to Anne & Meryl on Wednesday.

It is now Friday morning. The place: Shilo Inn on Canyon. The event: Retail Admin holiday breakfast. We're halfway through the gift exchange when it's my turn to pick or steal. Nothing seems steal-worthy so I head for the table of wrapped gifts. There is one that is clearly a DVD by the size and weight of the package. All right, I can always use another movie I thought. I unwrapped the top & there is Miranda Priestly's face. I let out a sound that can only be best described as a shriek that only dolphins can hear. I pretty sure I jumped too. (Did I mention I'm cool?) So of course I told everyone the background story that you just read and ended with "If anyone takes this, I really will cry." They already feel sorry for me because I'm the only ETW and won't be getting paid for 7 days, so the threat of tears should have sealed the deal.

Sorry to say, but this is WAY more than a coincidence. So now I am the proud owner of The Devil Wears Prada. This is the best Christmas ever!!! OK, maybe the year I got the David Duchovney action figure takes the cake. But this is a close runner up!

I said "HEY. . .what's going on?"

Did the world turn upside-down while I was asleep last night? Here are some things I learned this morning that have me asking, "Really?" and "Seriously". . .even more than normal:

**Vladmir Putin is Time's Person of the Year. (I would love to insert a joke or humerous comment but I will refrain.)
**Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's sister, is pregnant at 16. At least the baby's father is her "long-time boyfriend."
**My Thursday evening & Saturday will be exactly like this past Sunday's evening. (This cryptic message is intended only for Bacon, Tomato, Cheese & Mayo. From Lettuce. I just love inside info!)
**President Bush signed an energy bill. While the White House is on fire. (but thanks to the teasers on the radio this morning, you would have thought the whole thing was burning to the ground.)
**Driving to work I heard not only one of the best workout songs but one of the best songs ever on the radio. Anyone else flashing back to December 1999?

Now back to work where we get wine with breakfast. . .nope. . .still upside-down.

. . . . .And champagne to celebrate, um. . .Wednesday afternoon???

It's officially Christmas!!!

So I FINALLY heard my favorite Christmas song on the radio today at 9:31am. It's playing right now: "Celebrate Me Home" by Kenny Loggins. Sure it conjures images of Fred Meyer ads of yesteryear but I also have very vivid memories of Greece & Spain attached to it also. How is it that I've been listening to Christmas music since the day after Thanksgiving and I'm just now hearing it?? That means I can now listen to it on iTunes. (I refused to cheat and listen to it before I heard it on the radio.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Because I know you care. . .

December 10th 2007 will not go down in history as a great day.

Walk-thru: not so good (But hey, at least I got a delicious meal afterwards. AND I'm officially Pete's boss - at least that's what my nametag says.)

Finals: worse than the walk-thru (But hey, at least I got TCBY and wine afterwards.)

If the whole nursing thing doesn't work out, this may be my new back-up plan. (Screen name: Morphine)

http://laist.com/2007/08/23/malibu_v_20.php

Gali the alligator

Coming to a Treehouse near you. . .

I just got Elf'd!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1228320477

Thanks Mare!

Online suitor who e-mailed me but has a better chance of walking into a room and meeting Elvis & Puff the Magic Dragon than a date with me - take 3

Stats: 5'5", 43-year-old man
Job status: ???
He seeks: women 18-35
Picture: profile shot, hat on backwards with his head looking completely down
All the info he lists: I'm really into this World of Warcraft thing. Just curious to see if there are any ladies out there, like I've read about in online stories. I've never met a female WoW player in real life! Do you gals look normal and everything? Got 10 fingers, and normal ears?

I can't make this stuff up people.

Today has been brought to you by the letters: C-O-N-T-E-N-T

This post was meant for Thursday, December 6.

Is there something freakishly wrong about sitting on the floor, at 9 in the evening, folding running tights for a pant table and actually enjoying yourself???

OK - let me entice you some more. There is Christmas music being alternated with the latest Michael Buble CD and the '10 Things I Hate About You' soundtrack. Your third beer is within an arm's reach. Oh, and you had fajitas for lunch.

To borrow a phrase from Lance Armstrong, "It's not about the free stuff."

PS I FORGOT ABOUT THE ALL-GIRL DANCE PARTY IN THE DRESSING ROOM TOO!!! Who know the Roger Rabbit and the Running Man would come back to me so quickly???

let's hear it for the little things

It’s the little things that get you through the day:

*No traffic
*Free, unlimited Starbucks
*Laughing until you cry
*Being thankful that it’s laughter making you cry
*Finding THE perfect Christmas gift for someone
*Free food ALL week
*Laughing until you cry more than once
*Not worrying about a quiz because it's your dropped one anyway
*Watching people try to read my "Portland Marathon Finisher" shirt
*Having THE best seat in the office
*Wine
*The most important decision you have to make all day is lasagna or cannelloni
*Having the best desk buddy, even though he fails to publicly agree
*Leaving some place I love to go somewhere else I love

You know you're over-stressed, over-tired & over-hormonal when. . .

During your 15 minute evening study break you:

1. Actually sit down to watch "Ice Princess" on the Disney Channel and
2. Start crying because it's so dang moving.

Sniff. . .pass the fudge. . .sniff. . .

US WINS THE DAVIS CUP!!!

Trust me, this is a HUGE deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/tennis/12/01/bc.na.spt.ten.daviscupf.ap/index.html

I can count on one hand how many sporting events I've jumped up and down in front of the TV while watching - this was #4 or #5. (Blazers making the finals back in the day, Linfield football winning the national championship, Clint Dempsey scoring a goal in last year's World Cup are the only ones I can recall.)

AND the fact that it was in PORTLAND - almost an even huger deal.

Snow Day

I don't care how old you are - a snow day is still a snow day. And in Oregon, the possibility of a snow day is just exciting. It's the anticipation of it all. You lay in bed the night before thinking about tomorrow with all the burning questions running through your head, making it oh-so-difficult to fall asleep. Are the weathermen totally wrong and there won't even get slush? What if they were too conservative and we get even more? How am I going to keep focused on studying when all I want to do is look out the window? What if I'm not able to make it to my lunch date? What if no one else wants to make a snowman with me? What if I miss the thought of my dog playing in the snow so much that I can't stop crying and can't finish my snowman? Do we have the recommended amounts of bottled water and top roman stashed away? Will the phone be ringing off the hook because I live with the only snow plower in the yellow pages?

And then I'm so exhausted because I haven't thought so hard or long all day that I fall asleep.

So I wake up this morning and the first thing I do - you know, besides the first thing everyone does in the morning - is look out the window.
OK, so there's no snow on the roof, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Check the other window.
No snow in the backyard either.
This is still OK because look at the sky - it's totally a snow sky.
Oh yeah, it's definitely going to snow sometime today.

And when it does, that innate reaction will kick in and, without fully realzing what I'm doing, I will heat up water to the point when it boils and I will pour it in a festive Christmas mug filled with hot chocolate powder. Then I will forget about the 1200 page book weighing in a 20 pounds in front of me and in it's place be thankful that I live somewhere that I don't take snow for granted or only see once every 10 years during a freak storm. I'll also be thankful (PATHETIC NERD ALERT) that I am right where I am and NOT celebrating a would be, could be, should be anniversary. "You can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose provails." (Prov 19:21) Let's be thankful that purpose includes SNOW!!!