Tommy Bahama - Very Cool

I went perfume shopping yesterday. This is sometimes a frustrating task, because once you have smelled two you have smelled them all. If you're lucky, like I was yesterday, one of the first two will smell so good that it becomes your final choice.

It did come down to two scents for me: Tommy Bahama and Tommy Bahama Very Cool. The regular Tommy Bahama in the pink bottle was more floral and flirty while the blue bottle of citrusy Very Cool caught my nose coming back for more with a clean crisp scent of tangerine, clementine, pink pomelo and cactus flower. Kim and Dave both initially thought that the Very Cool disappeared when they smelled it. I thought perhaps the first scent was just overpowering the cooler scent. So we went back and forth: left wrist, right wrist, which do you like better, smell this one again, now look at me and smell it, close your eyes and smell it, smell fresh air and then smell it again, compare it to this one -- it was really quite ridiculous! But it helped me make a final decision: I just ignored everything they said and bought the one I liked. 

Tommy Bahama Very Cool is going to be my new signature summer scent (I used to wear Clinique Happy).  It is clean and calm, summery and citrusy.  The scent doesn't call attention to itself -- it is subtly intriguing. (It made me want to smell my own arm every ten minutes after I sprayed myself at the fragrance counter.) The bonus was that the 6 pm spritz on my wrist was still lingering when I woke up the next morning at 6 am. I am Very Happy with my choice.

Water Cooler Moments...

Water Cooler Moments...

with Dave and Anne 

Because, isn't the internet just a big water cooler, anyway?

 

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Moment 1

Dave: "My you sure are tan!"

Anne: "I've been tanning in the beds a bit."

Dave: "Oh yeah, how much does that cost?"

Anne: "$7.00."

Dave: "Seven dollars!!  I could buy a tanning bed for that much!!"

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Moment 2

Dave: "Hey Anne, what's the difference between a trampoline and a pile of dead babies?"

Anne: "That you're a Nazi?"

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Moment 3 

Dave: "What were we just talking about?"

Anne: "Jeez, I can't remember...Don't you wish you could have a camera recording everything so you could just rewind?"

Dave: "Yeah! I'd call it KonstaKam, with two K's!"

Anne: "Um, that sounds like a laxative."

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Moment 4

Dave: "I'm hungry, do you have any snacks?'

Anne: "There's something in my desk with your name on it!"

Dave: (finds 'David' sunflower kernels) (laughter ensues)

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Moment 5

Anne: "Hey Dave, listen to this song, you'll love it!" (hands him headphones)

(Anne starts dancing that little finger dance boogy)

Dave: "It's not on."

Anne:  "Oh, oops."

 stay tuned for more ...

Water Cooler Moments

Top Ten Things That Annoy Me

Although I have been insanely happy for the last few weeks, I am still a normal person with normal mood swings.  I have been racking up this list of things that just drive me insane, and I'd like to be an annoying blogger and annoy you with them.  Maybe I'll make your top ten list of things you hate!

10.  Slow computers - Whether it is my Frankenstein computer attempting to make me tap my foot until it falls off or computers at school taking *just* enough time to boot up that I go to another one, only to be locked out because the other one finally logged in.  I am an impatient person, and it's 2007 -- computers are supposed to be fast!  Don't get me started on dialup.  Or the web browser on my Treo, ironically named "Blazer".  Shyeah.  Right.

9.  Microsoft Word Formatting - If I wanted to make a list, I would click the number button myself.  Can't I just hit enter and not have the entire text moved into next week?  And, no, I don't need your help, 'Annoying PaperClip'.  I'll figure out how to change the settings on my own.

8.  Bumper Stickers on New Cars - This one beat out black sneakers for a place on the list.  Basically, if you have a nice new shiny car -- do not ruin the back of it with STICKERS!!!

7.  Getting the car keys out of my purse - Mostly because I cram too much stuff into my purse because I refuse to carry a ginormo hobo bag everywhere.  Picture this: I'm holding like seven things (my phone, a coffee mug, ipod, purse, rubber chicken, kitchen sink)  and I'm approaching the car and I still haven't unzipped the bag to retrieve the keys.  Now comes the annoying part.  More than likely, I will need to systematically remove items from my bag until the keys are reachable.  Usually, they will still manage to snag on something that will fly out of my purse at the same time as the keys, forcing me to put everything down anyways and pick up the thing that fell on the ground.

6.  Radio Commercials - These only come on right after I have tuned in and turned up the volume on a station that I want to listen to while I am in the shower.  Therefore, the entire shower, I will be listening to people shout about things I need to buy tickets for next weekend.  I have had a cd skip while I was in there too, and I can't decide what's worse.

5.  Shopping, in general- Tangled hangers usually torment me at home, but they also find me when I'm racing through the clearance rack.  I just want to look at one thing and then that hanger is stuck on another one and items start to fall to the floor and then I just want to give up and go home.  But what do I do?  I carry six items into the dressing room and get all sweaty trying on things that look great under the store lighting and then need to be returned because they look more red in the natural light.  ARGH

4.  VoiceMail Instructions - Okay, I don't know who, in this day and age, really needs 'the voice' to tell them how to leave a message.  "You have reached the automated voice messaging system for _____.  The party is unavailable right now, so please leave a message after the beep.  The beep will sound like a beep.  If you do not want to leave a message, you may leave a number to be called at by pressing 0.  Okay, are you ready for the beep?  Here it comes, okay, are you ready, because this is the part where you have to speak into the receiver.  When you are finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options.  Then after that, you will be done with the phone call completely and you can go on living life, or you can finally shoot yourself."

3.  Every Other Driver on the Road - Does this one need an explanation, at all?  I mean, this is you.  You cut me off, you turn in the wrong lane, you don't use your blinker, you drive too slow, you drive too fast, you eat while you drive, you are on the phone, your kids are staring at me out the back of your minivan, you lucky bastard, you can get in the carpool lane, I hate YOU.

2.  Pulling Sleeves/ Pant Legs Right Side Out - Again, with the laundry.  I just hate reaching in there to pull the sleeve out.  It's time consuming and irritating.  I usually try on like 6 different outfits before I leave the house, so this happens all the time.  Inside-out-things, I hate you!  I'm getting dressed, I don't have time for you.  Or when you take your pants off and they are like all stuck at your calf.  Or when you are putting pants on and you go to step down and you have bad balance and you step on the pant leg and you stumble around and eventually almost fall.  Yeah, that's me. I'm awkward and uncoordinated and clumsy.  (But it's the laundry's fault.)

1.  The Shower Surprise - This is when you reach in the tub to get the water ready and someone left the shower on.  Then you get a nice cold drenching.  Good for waking up, Bad for the attitude.  This only made number one because it happened to me the other day, but I was the one who left the shower on so I couldn't even get mad!!! 

Actually, making this list was pretty fun.  A lot of the things are things I could just avoid or do something differently and I'd never be annoyed again.

Shyeah, right!!

I look like crap for a good reason...

I look like crap.  My hair is in an 80's ponytail and it's all greasy and out of place .  I'm wearing a dingy tshirt and sweatpants.  My face is red and oily and I'm not wearing any makeup.  Oh, and I stink.

But these are all good things!

Because I just came from the gym.  I have been working out for the last three days in a row.  Go me!  I joined Cardinal Fitness, which is one of those no contract, no frills, $20 per month gyms.  Cuz hey, what do I need frills for?  Some of the gyms we visited had a mini spa in the locker room and complimentary laundry service and padded benches in the locker rooms.  I don't need all that-- I just come in, work out, then go home.  Bam.  Twenty bucks.  No biggie. 

It feels so great to jump right back in to this whole exercise thing.  I am tempted to overdo it, though.  I'm walking on the treadmill and a great song comes on and I'm like, "I could so run right now, for like at least 15 minutes."  But I know I have to work my way back up to running.  I hate that, when you try to pump it up and then you have to stop maybe 5 minutes into it because you bit off more than you could chew....

For now I just did 35 minutes on the cross trainer thingee and 30 minutes on the treadmill (on an incline!) 

I don't know if I'm really trying to lose weight or not.  I just want to be in better shape.  Or have the option to blow off steam with a workout if I need to.  I haven't weighed myself because I haven't weighed myself in more than a year.  The number, I think, would haunt me.  It did haunt me pretty badly right after I lost all the weight.  But once I stopped caring what the number was, and just focused on how I felt and how my clothes fit, I was a lot better-- well, that and Overeaters Anonymous and several counseling sessions.

But anyways my point is, I'm working out.  I'm not expecting to be a size 6 by June or anything.  I just think I can feel better by doing this. 

I'm going to take a shower now.

Death by Dyeing...

Have you ever heard of painted glass fish?  They look like this:

Very pretty, right?  Well, the name implies that they were painted, but the store assured us that it was a naturally occurring color.  So we bought three, and put them in our new fish tank (we have three tanks now).  A few hours later one of the fish began to show signs of ich (small whitish dots on its fins which are a sign of disease).  We still had the receipt so we took it back and they said that they would refund the money and treat the rest of the fish in that tank.

We came home and did a little research about them and it turns out that this is a horrible, horrible thing that is happening to tons and tons of fish.  The fish are injected with brightly neon colored paint.  This is not just one injection, but many injections with a large gauge needle.  On top of that, the fish need to be dunked in some sort of chemical which strips them of their protective outer slime coating and then after they are injected they are dunked in another chemical that stimulates their bodies to reslime themselves. 

This process is so shocking for the fish that there is an 80% mortality rate.  Even the fish that do survive will be prone to disease and will most likely die within a few months after purchase.  And if they do survive, the paint will fade off of their bodies in a matter of time.  It just stays long enough for the unsuspecting customer to be fooled into purchasing them!

Doesn't this sound like cruelty to animals?  Well, it is not technically classified as cruelty to animals because those laws only apply to mammals.  The dyeing process occurs in places like Malaysia and Thailand where unskilled, low wage workers are injecting the fish.  Any shop that sells these kind of fish should be boycotted, and we are abandoning our favorite fish shop because of this as well.  We were going to the small mom and pop fish store, because we like to patronize small businesses whenever possible.  But just the fact that either the help has been instructed to lie, or they do not know what they are talking about at all, makes us not want to go back there.

I feel so stupid for not having thought about the fact that a freshwater fish probably does not have a naturally occurring blue, green, yellow, orange, or purple stripe in it.  Fish are so beautiful in their own natural state, there is no reason we need to torture them for our own sick purposes.

If we wouldn't have been lied to (or if we would have done some reasearch first) this would never have happened.

Grand Ball

I went to the MATC Grand Ball on Saturday night.  (It's like a prom for adults)  My sister was my date.  I was joking around like, I hope when we walk in, we look enough like sisters that nobody thinks we are lesbians.  Somebody was like, "They will probably just think you are friends."  I'm like, "Oh yeah."  And it was too funny, when our cousin was helping us get ready, somebody said something like, "Dont flirt with any boys"  And I'm like, "Why are we going, then?"  Tom would be upset at this but I was kidding of course...

Jesse did my hair up all cute.  She hooked me up with the huge hot-roller springy 50's style curls with tons of body.  I pinned a little flower clip in my hair and it was stunning until about five minutes on the dance floor....

My dress was a black halter cocktail dress that came just below the knee.  My shoes were hot (for Payless shoes).  And I had ear bling, arm bling, and ring bling.  I just felt downright hot.  I also got to walk in the court because my friend Chris was up for King and I escorted him.  Damn that spotlight was bright!

After a few drinks, I just danced and danced.  I was instructed to 'save a dance' for like six different people (I'm probably exaggerating but at least three).  I felt so popular because I actually knew a lot of people there from the Senate, so there was always someone to go and talk to.  None of this awkward looking around bullshit that makes me usually hate shit like that. 

Anyways my feet were killing me by the end of the night.  I really had a great time.  And I don't usually do things like this so I am very proud of myself.  The other thing I am very proud of is that I did not tell a bunch of people that I don't dance, because then they MAKE you dance when you don't want to.  I learned that if you just keep your mouth shut, the chances of being pulled onto the dance floor decrease tenfold.  But still, my sister pulled me up there, and by that time, I was glad someone did, because I was ready to have a good old time!

We did the mandatory 2 a.m. breakfast at 1 a.m., and then went home and crashed. 

You know what?  I kind of told myself that I was going to start attending more social stuff even if I am scared and nervous most of the time.  Because with each new thing that I do I'm learning that it really does make me feel better and not worse.  So yes, I am patting myself on the back.

Looking For An Excuse

I got a C on the exam I took the day that I went through all that hell with the tow lot.  I used that as an excuse.  I did poorly because I was tired and cranky and I hadn't eaten.  I hadn't cracked a book all week either. 

But only one person in our class and one person in the other section of the same class got anything higher than a C.  And the prof is sitting here letting us all have it about how we need to know this stuff. 

I think a lot of the questions were ambiguous and poorly worded.  I also know from experience that this prof comes to expect things that she hasn't made perfectly clear.  She want us to read her mind when it comes to formatting, etc.  And then she swears up and down that she told us exactly what she wanted.  Lady, there are at least fifteen people adamantly saying that, No, you did not tell us this. 

So back to the original subject.  The test.

Doesn't that tell you something when the majority of your students did quite poorly on your exam?  Half of the class got D's and three people failed!  These are all students who have received nothing but A's and B's their entire college career.  I know this isn't the kind of test that would be graded on a curve, because a lot of the answers were essay and such.  However, I think that most profs (and maybe they have been too easy on us) would look into it and perhaps take some fault of their own, or maybe offer some extra credit.

This was enough to make a few people get quite upset.  One girl was in tears and was about to walk away from her entire college career over this.  Granted, she's going to need a bit tougher skin than that, but this goes to show you how important it is to students in this program to perform well.  This is a program where a D as a final grade is considered not passing.  And this is the last required course before students enter their internships!

I've probably lost you by now, dear reader.  You've been to college, you know it's tough.  At the university this may happen all the time.  I have a feeling that they have a great deal more slackers and less time to grade and sit down with individual students.  This is a class of less than 15 that I am in.

There are better things to get worked up over than a C, I just needed to rant and rave about this.  What do you think: If everyone does poorly on an exam, do you think it is through some fault of the professor?

I just need someone else to blame I think.  Wait, don't answer that.  Unless you totally agree with me.  Or if you wanna set me straight, now is the time to do so.