Thursday, March 30, 2006

Conversation at work

"You think thats weird, Cub had a paper towel stuck in his ear for 2 years!"
"What? A whole peper towel or a part of it?"
"It was just a peice of one. He was on a camping trip with his dad and he was snoring so loudly that Cub couldn't sleep so he stuck paper towels in his ears. Two years later his ear is really hurting so he asks his friend to look in it 'cause he feels like there's something stuck in there. His friend gets a flashlight and see's something so he gets tweezers and pulls out a gnarly looking piece of paper towel. Said he could hear better after that."
"Dear God, thats disgusting."

Monday, March 20, 2006

It was a slow day at work, so we spent most of the day talking to each other, telling stories and asking rhetorical questions when my manager suddenly smiled. He had a good one:
"what would you rather give up, Cheese or sex?"

I snorted "thats not a good question! Everyone would give up cheese!"
"But cheese is so good, think about how much you eat it"
"Actually, dairy usually makes me sick so I hardly ever eat cheese"
"oh"
"That doesn't matter though because sex is better than cheese and you should know that"

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Frown-Mouth

I was working yesterday, making batches. Making batches means that you stand in the back room, the "batch room" as it's called, listen to cd's of your choosing at whatever volume you prefer and bake cookie dough for hours.
I usually welcome a batch day because it's an easy self-paced job that creates little stress. It can be a little lonely, however. They keep the batch makers somewhat isolated so that they won't make mistakes on measuring or lose track of how much of something you've added to the dough. If you work a 6-8 hour shift it can be a little too much time alone. Usually, though, I enjoy my time in the batch room and can expect a few drop-ins from my fellow employees depending on the music I've selected.
Yesterday though, after only being there for an hour I began to have glum thoughts. "Glum thoughts!" you might say. "I didn't think you had those!" Well it's true that I rarely do but lately I've been a little overwhelmed with unhappy things that are beyond my control. A few examples:

1)Dan leaving the country
2)Today, recieving a utility bill for $244.oo, 200 of that for deposit.
3)Never having as much money as I need
4)My bike tire busting for the 3rd time in a month and the breaks on that bike screeching all the time
5)Owing money to a friend(never having the money I need)
6)Owing money to my parents(never having the money I need)

As well as those things I've been without a phone since I moved here and it's become a huge inconvenience. No, Chris, I don't need advice about that. I'm waiting for the phone Dan sent me to get here so that I can be in the loop and stop spending so much unnecessary time alone.

I also started thinking about Chez, a friend who commited a rather dramatic suicide 6 months ago. I don't think about it very often but when I do it's often at an unusual time and I always have an image in my head. I'll write about her later.

I'll be waving bye bye to my frown-mouth within a week and from then on, my best friend is coming in town for 4 days, I'm getting my paycheck, I'm going camping...Yeah things are gonna perk up.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Win-Win

"So, Dan doesn't say 'I love you'" I told Colleen.

"You guys haven't said 'I love you'? You've been going out for a year!"

"Actually, we've each said it once, at different times. But he tried to take his back and mine was kind of an 'I care for you'. Nothing momentous. So, no, we haven't really."

"Any particular reason?" she wondered

"Well, for the first 8 months we didn't take it very seriously since we didn't really know where it was headed and we both didn't think we had much in common. I mean we always got along well but it's hard to really get into a relationship that seems likely to end at a specific time. But then he was able to visit before he went to Mexico, and when he got the visa to work here for 3 months the mood of the relationship shifted a little. Basically, no one wanted to say it at all for the first the months, it didn't occur to either of us to want to. Actually I've heard it so many times, too soon that I was afraid he'd say it and I'd have to push him in a ditch and never talk to him again. But he didn't and here we are at 14 months feeling pretty good about where we are with each other." I sat back feeling sweet as a sunflower about the whole thing.

"But why don't you say it now?"

"Oh, well actually I wondered about that myself. I didn't say it because it didn't really seem necessary. I know I like him a lot and if I'm willing to even think of moving to another country then he knows it too. I like that we're not dramatic or serious and I sort of think saying it at this stage would ruin things a bit. But I know he's never said it to anyone so I asked him about it before he left. Actually his answer really got me thinking, I've been meaning to run it by you"

"Oh yeah?" she sat up, interested.

"Well he said he won't say 'I love you' to a girlfriend until he's engaged. It's like saving it for marriage. What do you think?" I asked

"Wow, what a novel idea. I've never heard of anyone doing that before, but it seems so obvious!"

"Yeah that's what I thought. I really liked his reasoning actually. People are often saying that the word love is bandied about too often, this seems like such a perfect solution. I tell you, if I ever get into another relationship I'm sticking to that ideal, I think it's great."

"I don't know how well some people would take it" she laughed, looking doubtful

"Well I'll know the guys that can't take it are not worth it, so it'll double as a sort of weeder. I like a level head in a companion and I don't want to say love to anyone and regret it later. It's win-win."

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Did you know:

Before prohibition in America there were no mixed drinks, people typically drank liquor straight.
During prohibition in the 1920's homemade alchohol was so strong and terrible tasting that people began using mixers so soften the burn.
Just think without prohibition there would be no Fuzzy navel, no Cuba Libre, no Sex on the beach. No outrageously expensive bar cocktails!