To Miami I went

Ah home.  Much like hobbits, I love being home and there's nothing quite like leaving home to remind me how much I my own bed, my kitties and my Wes.   It's boarderline pathetic I know, to become minimally homesick over the course of barely two days, yet there I was, hour 45 and just desperate to be home.  Still, being sent to Miami for work to learn something new is hard to complain about and there were definitely fun parts, so for your reading pleasure, I'll hit the high points:

2/3 of Club Fun had delicious Greek lunch.  Ashleigh put it best and so I quote:
    "that time we were both in Miami and got together for lunch but I got lost
     and you had to stand on a corner like a homing beacon and I paid a toll
     in pennies and we ate Greek food and drank Starbucks and I paid $15 to park
    in the scariest parking garage ever? That was awesome! :)"

Then I went to a conference where we talked about herpes and the impact of the latter on immunocompromised patients for TWO DAYS.  Seriously, two days of looking at pictures of and discussing herpes.  Varisella Zoster, HSV, Cytomegalovirus, Esptein Barr and that one with the insanely long name that I have no shot in hell of remembering. You get where I am going?  Lots and lots and looooooots of herpes, which brings us to high points numbers two, three and four:

Lots of coffee:

lots of coke can-bottles (which I find to be odd in a less than pleasant way):

and a little bit of happy hour while waiting for my flight home:

It was an interesting couple of days and when I got home I realized that this is where I love to be.  So I snuggled down in my bed and sent up a prayer of gratitude to the Universe for the fact that home equals happy.   Can't fight it and wouldn't if I could.

Meatless Monday Success!

The past few weeks I have tried to participate in Meatless Mondays (hence forth to be referred to as MM) not because I want to be a vegetarian (I'm not sure that I want to live in a world without cheeseburgers and steak) but because I see the health and environmental benefit to eating juuust a little bit less meat and a few more veggie.  I also think that it'll help me expand my veggie repertoire from the same old veggies that I prepare each week, perhaps encouraging me to eat more veggies, more often. My ass is displeased with this plan as it fears that it may, as a result of MM have a smaller role to play in upcoming years. Fear not ass-of-mine, I suspect that you are here to stay regardless of MM.

My previous attempts at MM have only been partially successful as I've ended up with turkey on a sandwich or bacon bits on a salad each time I've tried. This past Monday marks my first, 100% successful MM!

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

I'll admit that breakfast and lunch weren't too terribly impressive but I was quite pleased and satisfied with my Naan bread pizza with pesto, zucchini, tomatoes and goat cheese. This particular MM was both adherent to the concept and (far more importantly) tasty and satisfying.

ah to be cool someday...

Some day, I think that I'd like to be cool. Full of pith, wit and bite, I'd be mysterious and intriguing as I lurked in corners sipping on a cool glass of something. My friend Nicole is in fact cool.  Not only does she have amazing and impeccable personal style, she also just flew to Miami a few weekends ago to style a celebrities hair.  While Nicole also does my hair, that doesn't really make me cool, it's just her lending me an iota of her coolness every 6 to 8 weeks.

Recent events has brought it to my attention the past few weeks that despite my most fervent hopes to be cool, it's probably not going to happen. 

Cool girls have Bitch Face and I do not have Bitch Face.  Instead of Bitch Face I have Let Me Feed and Snuggle You Face.  While it's fail proof in seducing parents, cops, teachers and puppies, it is most assuredly not cool. 

Cool people manage to take things in stride and keep their shit in check, they're...for lack of a better descriptor...coooool.  I on the other hand tend to get inordinately excited over common place or even mundane happenings.  The little old lady who waved and gave me the thumbs up from the passenger seat of her car while I was running?  Yup, completely made my run and to be honest, the rest of my day.

I'm not particularly graceful, I have a penchant for attempting maneuvers far above my skill level and then masterfully landing on my butt or hurting myself in front of lots of people.  Its one of many reasons that I can most often be found in flip-flops.  I can't hold my liquor and I can't take shots, two must have skills for the cool girl set so I'm told.  I still love the Anne of Green Gables books series, and while I've admitted that I might as well cop to the Twilight series and the Little House on the Prairie books.  I like museums and libraries and would rather spend a day at either one rather than attend the Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party for even one more minute of my life. I think that someday I'd really like to learn to knit, it seems like a productive and useful skill to have.

So yeah, I think that maybe it's time to give up on chasing the ghost known Coolness. I think that I'm pretty well okay with that too.

Quote of the Day

"The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life".

-          The Dali Lama

To clear up the confusion

There's been some confusion as to why I posted a YouTube clip of Grover, espousing the benefits of smelling like a monster.  Sheesh, you people must live under rocks!  Grover is spoofing Old Spice.  Below is the original commercial, and below that, I've reposted Grover. :)

Quote of the Day

"Hell's just another word for far from home, without your mittens on."

thinking longingly of that time when I was consumed with forming naive yet profound world views

This past weekend the Gators played LSU at home.  It was an ugly, ugly, ugly game and in lieu of dwelling on the ugliness that was the game, we will more on to more important topics, like tailgating.  A weekend of tailgating is good for my soul in that it reminds me of that oh so sweet period of life when I lived on bagels and didn't gain weight from it. I have several friends who attended colleges that didn't have football teams and will argue the superiority of such schools.  While I'm sure in some ways they're right, I went to college in the SEC which is just one step away from the fanaticism of Texas and college without football just doesn't make sense to me.

This past Friday and Saturday, I celebrated the upcoming game in true college fashion: downtown on Friday night, tailgating on Saturday afternoon.  Granted, the vacuuming and dusting that occurred early Saturday morning are less reminiscent of college, but they needed to be done and I can only suspend reality so far. 

The first and by far most life altering discovery this past weekend was that Ichiban Sushi serves curry.  Not just curry, but delicious and amazing curry.  Having previously assumed that my best options in Gainesville for curry were Chopstix and Amarit Palace, this is nothing less than huge. Chopstix is tasty but only if you have at least an hour to wait and don't particularly fancy water with your food.  Amarit Palace is much better known around these parts as Armpit Palace and well, I think that really speaks for itself.  So to find out that delicious curry can be had in conjunction with drinks and without a funky smell...well that's a win win. I hope you had a tight hold on your nipples, they might have flown off with the enormity of this news.

 A little less life altering (but not by much) is the discovery that LSU fans apparently smell like corn dogs. Strange, I know, but according to the rumor the drunk and anti-LSU bar cohort, true!  This was confirmed by the greater population of Durty Nelly's who took to yelling "I SMELL CORN DOGS" any time some LSU fans walked in the door. I'm not sure how I missed this stellar form of psychological warfare for the past ten years but I like it!

I also learned that I still have it.  Infer what you like, Sisters #1 and #2 (who probably don't read this blog) know what I'm talking about.

Saturday was beautiful out and so the last minute call to go tailgating was made. My favorite thing about tailgating is that it's perfect for wandering.  During my wanderings I had to make my way down Frat Row.  There have been times that I've looked back on college and thought: maybe I should have done that.  Walking down Frat Row on Saturday, I have never been more confident in my decision NOT to join a sorority. I find comfort in that I'll never wonder about that ever again.  Past Frat Row I bumped into some high school friends (one turned co-worker recently) and, as was appropriate given they were the last people I did such a thing with, shotgunned a beer.  (Sorry Mama.) I now remember why I don't shotgun beers - they make me burp like Homer Simpson.  Super klassy.

Moving on my way, I joined the Gainesville branch of my fam at their Tailgate for the rest of the afternoon.  I don't know why it's so satisfying to sit in a field, drink and joke but it is.  There's nothing like mid fall tailgating in Florida

And so here I find myself, thinking longingly of that time when I formed naive and profound world views that were immediately proven to be wrong the minute I stepped out into the real world. Ahh college, I don't really miss you but I do remember you fondly.

Fall...how do I love thee

We have officially entered my favorite time of year: Fall. Even living in a place where there isn't actually an Autumn but rather (as my Mama would call it) a Not Quite So Hot season, I still love it. 

I love that during the entirety of Fall, I barely work a full week of work.   Living in a Commie Socialist Marxist stronghold of Gainesville, we enjoy holidays such as Labor Day, Veterans Day and Homecoming.  Columbus be damned, we celebrate the Gators around here. 

Fall also notes the decline of humidity from the triple digits into the double digits.  This past week we've gotten to open the windows, take the top off the Jeep and reduce the amount of anti-frizz serum that I shelack into my hair each morning from buckets full to juuuust a palm full.  Dehydration has become less of a daily risk and my morning coffee tastes SO MUCH BETTER when I'm not sweating. I can also burning my pumpkin pie and mulled apple cider candles without shame. 

Fall means football.  Now, if you've ever met me you know that I couldn't give an emu's patootie about football.  I confess that I spent every Monday night of middle school and most of high school in the comfy blue chair reading a book while my family watched Christ Berhman and Monday night football.  It's fall damnit and this counts as family time.  Never the less, once I got to college, football took on a whole new meaning: beer. Just kidding. It came to mean friends, consistant part-ay-ing and (depending on the time of the game) screwdrivers and beer. One requires variety after all. 

While in Gainesville am a lackluster Gator fan at best, the minute I leave Alachua County I apparently become a RABID Gator fan. I have been lucky the past few years to have the opportuinty to travel quite a bit for work and these travels have, at times, required that I watch the Gators from hotel and airport bar.  It's strange that I actually seek a bar that's playing the game and even more bizzare that watch it in it's entirely, alone.  I've made several friends this way, more than I would have thought but apparenlty there's something about a girl, in a bar, yelling at the football game that attracts company. :)

Fall means soup and halloween.  It means Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Cool(ish) nights and the potential for a fire or two in the fireplace.  It means pumpkin spice lattes and open-air arts festivals. 

Sigh...I love Fall.

QotD: West Wing :)

"You can throw me in a vat of custard with a chocolate covered snorkel, it's gonna be you and me this weekend baby and YOU will be wearing a floppy hat!"

- Josh Lyman

The West Wing; Season 5

Quote of the Day

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;  an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty"

- Winston Churchill

Finally, an intelligent blog post

Seriously cannot stop giggling: The Fart Soundboard

fart    (färt) Vulgar Slang 

intr.v. fart·ed, fart·ing, farts

1. To expel intestinal gas through the anus; break wind.
2. To fool around; fritter time away.
3. The act of farting.

n.

1. An often audible discharge of intestinal gas.
2. An annoying or foolish person.
   
   
   
   

We like to say that we come to work each day to make a difference in the fight to cure cancer.  Really, we just love working with people who are completely okay with bodily functions.  And we like to giggle.

Thank's Dave for the link!