Cry Me A River

Tonight my lack of sleep and the stress of my current work situation finally got the best of me. It was a little like when Liz Lemon yells at her staff after being up all night and then starts crying out of exhaustion. Except I didn't yell at my staff. But I did, in spite of every tactic I tried to keep it in, start crying out of exhaustion. And that made me so angry because I refuse to cry over a job. But cry I did, and poor Anthony, my new ponytail-clad friend at the Kinko's counter, got the brunt of it. He's fantastic, and this post will be an open letter to him ... just in case he ever googles "Anthony ... Kinko's ... ponytail."

Anthony, thank you for trying to help me format a ten-year results analysis spreadsheet onto an 18x24 poster. We both thought the readability/functionality was a long shot, and we were right. But I had to be able to tell my team I gave it my best shot. And after an hour of both of us manipulating the spreadsheet, I think it's safe to say we did our best. And it will be just fine on our standard 11x17 sheets at the office ... which is why I'm pretty sure I started to tear up around 7:30 tonight ... and then again at 8:45 ... because the errand itself was ridiculous, and I knew my work day was far from over. I'm sorry if I was impatient. You did a great job. -LC

P.S. How do you get your ponytail to look so bouncy? It's glorious.

I hate getting worked up about work because I feel like it's such wasted energy. And it's a blessing to even have a job, and I'm reminded of that every day. Usually it's easier to keep things in perspective. Tonight it just felt like there was no end in sight, but that kind of thinking will drive you crazy. For the most part I've been able to keep the work in perspective, or at least I've really tried to, but this week has just been tricky. By Friday afternoon so much of the stress will be gone because the big January push will be over. And there will be a nice week or two of calm before the next push. 

For now I can go to bed calm and relaxed. I've jogged away the anxiety about tomorrow's meeting, I've had my Sleepy Time tea, I've watched my 30 Rock episodes, and I've had a mini Amos Lee music marathon. (Thank you to Ale for getting me hooked on "Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight.")

So goodnight to you all. The next post will be a tribute to Jon Hamm. Get ready.

Let's Hear It For The Boy

I have a lot to say, but I don't feel like writing a lot today. So here's the bulleted gist ...

1) I think Inauguration week is fascinating.

2) President Bush is on my mind as he transitions away from the White House, and my heart goes out to him. I can't imagine how emotionally exhausted a President would be after eight years of service. 

3) I'm very excited about President Obama, and I'm intrigued to see what is accomplished in his first 100 days.

4) I have a lot of thoughts about the Inaugural address, but for the most part I'd rather keep them to myself. I will say, though, that I wish I could have read every draft ... and I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the overall tone was discussed. Because the tone was decidedly grounded, and I was expecting something loftier. I'll just say that the speech took me by surprise. 

 

5) I watched some of Robert Gibbs' press briefing tonight on C-SPAN (and I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've ever stayed on C-SPAN for more than two seconds), and I'm interested to see how his style changes throughout the course of his term. Right now most of his answers are like mini filibusters, but I can't tell if it's due to cautious phrasing or a desire to run out the clock. Or maybe that's just his style given the nature of the questions. Either way, I wish him well. He has one of my dream jobs ... a dream job that I think I would find both thrilling and absolutely terrifying. My other dream job would be speechwriter, which is why I really can't stop thinking about #4 above. 

6) I saw Frost/Nixon last night, and it made me want to read up on Watergate. And even though what he did was wrong, it also made me feel sorry for Richard Nixon. I think many people would disagree with me, and that's fine. It still made me sad. (Although, part of that could have been more about Frank Langella's performance as Nixon. Hmmm, and I just googled him to make sure I spelled his name right, and I just realized that he is not the guy who played Saul in Ocean's Eleven. Because that's definitely Carl Reiner.)

7) I'm excited for the Academy Awards, and for the most part I'm pleased with the nominations.

8) I'm thinking about giving up Mexican food for Lent. This might prove to be a disastrous idea.

9) Found out today that I have a client meeting on my birthday. Will need to be at the airport at 6 a.m., and will land that night around 10 p.m. I'm a little bit heartbroken.

I think that's all I've got for now.

New Year's Day

Happy New Year!

January in Dallas makes me laugh for a few reasons. First of all, the weather is crazy. I love that last night it was warm enough for me to go swimming, but tonight it's 40 degrees and I have to wear long sleeves. "You're hot and you're cold,  you're yes and you're no ..."

January also makes me laugh because never again (until next January) will the gyms be quite as unbearably packed. I went to the gym on Friday at 11:30. I normally go at 6:30 in the morning, so I always see the same group of people. I know who will be taking a spinning class, I know who will only lift weights, and I know who will do the elliptical for a few seconds only to transfer over to the bike where they can sit down. But I know nothing about what goes on there during the day, and I'm discovering that there are so many great characters. I encountered one of these characters in the sauna. 

I love going to the sauna after workouts, but I usually don't get to because I'm rushing to get ready for work. I got to go on Friday, though, and there was only one other person in there with me. My routine (when I go) is to listen to "Champagne Supernova" on my iPod because it's the perfect song length for a sauna visit. Any longer than that and I'll likely pass out. The guy that was in the sauna apparently also has a routine. He reads the newspaper. I don't know why this threw me off so much, but for some reason it drove me crazy that he had a newspaper. When reading a newspaper on a good day -- with completely dry hands -- I will absolutely get newsprint smudges all over my hands. And then later on my face. But if I were to try and read it in a 180 degree room -- where everyone is sweating -- I might as well pour water on the paper and rub the newspaper/newsprint all over my hands and face. Because it would absolutely end up there. I would be like a paper mache project.

I was so distracted during my sauna visit that I didn't even realize until it was too late that there was a fantastic water aerobics boot camp going on right in front of us. And then I couldn't stop thinking about Cocoon and wishing Steve Guttenberg would make another comeback (I'm excluding his stint on DWTS).

Today I went back to yoga and there was a new instructor. We'll call her Shorty (on account of her hair, not her height ... she's actually quite tall). I'll give her two more chances, but I'm pretty sure she's mean. What's interesting about her is that she has a very heavy country accent, so it's kind of like Holly Hunter is teaching the class. My favorite part of the class was when Shorty told us to face all our headlights toward the front of the room (which made me laugh until I realized she literally meant pretend you have a light on your forehead), and then she said "now turn on your x-ray vision." Um, WHAT? But she continues ... "use your x-ray vision to pinpoint the pain you're feeling and then imagine yourself zapping it away." She then had us bend forward with our arms wrapped around our knees, and she told us to pretend we were grilled cheese sandwiches. Our arms and legs were the bread. Again I say ... um, what? Man, I would LOVE to be a yoga instructor because I would try to make up the craziest analogies when instructing the class. Nothing would make me happier than if my crazy class techniques were made fun of on someone's blog. Shorty also said the word cacophony during class, so a good 10 minutes or so after that consisted of me spelling/saying "cacophony" over and over again in my head.

One last thing. It's completely off topic, but it's funny. I was at Chipotle this weekend and had the best encounter when I was in line. I was paying when the woman behind me in line finally started to order. The exchange went something like this ...

Employee: Good afternoon, what can we get you today?

Lady (seeming very frazzled): Oh gosh, what do you have? Just tacos and burritos?

Employee: Yes ma'am ... and burrito bowls, which are kind of like salads.

Lady: Ok ... I guess just get me the vegetarian tacos.

Employee: Sure. What would you like on them?

Lady: Whatever normally comes on them.

Employee: You actually get to build your own ...

Lady (now seeming exasperated): Oh, ok, um ... let's see ... how about chicken, pico ...

Employee: Sure ... now if we put chicken on there it won't be vegetarian, is that ok?

Lady: Hmmm. Ok .... no, that's fine, we want the vegetarian. I ... guess ... let's ... do ...... barbacoa, pico ...

Employee: That actually wouldn't be vegetarian either ...

Lady: Well, fine, you know what I mean. Please just give me whatever comes on the vegetarian taco. 

Employee (still patient but looking a little baffled): Absolutely. Well, these four things here are our meats, so we'll want to just skip these if we're going to keep it vegetarian. Let's just say everything to your left of the meats is vegetarian. You can pick from any of that.

Lady: Great, I'll take everything to the left then.

Now see, THAT'S how you order a taco.

Money, Money, Money, Money

I'm horrible about making/remembering New Year's resolutions. I do much better with smaller amounts of time ... like Lent. But two of my resolutions this year are 1) to be more organized and 2) to be a better steward of my money. So about a week and a half ago I made my best purchase of the year. And I could not feel like a bigger dork for buying it ... but at the same time, I could care less. (Or couldn't care less ... I think I usually say that expression the wrong way ... but again, to that I say, I couldn't care less. Yea, I think it's couldn't.) Regardless, I could/couldn't care less because my new coupon/gift card organizer (below) is going to help me save oodles and retire at 35. That's right ... 35. At the very least, it will keep me from paying full price at Borders. And in just one purchase, it will help me win at both of my resolutions.

I've noticed that people in the checkout line are not always happy to see coupons. Come to think of it, the people behind the register don't look thrilled either. But until technology wins over people, moving every grocery store into only self-checkout lanes, I'm going to defend my right to hold up the line in order to get $.10 cans of soup. Even if I don't like soup. (Which would be crazy because who doesn't like soup?) When technology does win out, I'm going to stop going to the grocery store and will instead enlist in some kind of grocery pyramid scheme that I can participate in online.

You too can have this fantastic coupon organizer for the low, low price of $3.99 at the Container Store!!! (I could dedicate multiple posts to my love for the Container Store. I love any store that's color coded.) If you're thrown off by the fact that this organizer is set up by month, no worries -- you can also set it up alphabetically, as I have.

This is the point in my post where I've probably talked about coupon organizers longer than anyone really needs to, so I'll move on.
Last thing ... in looking up the picture/price for the coupon organizer (so I guess I wasn't really done talking about it), I came across this picture on the Container Store's homepage. I swear I was on drill team with this girl. If it is in fact "JJ" then congrats! If not, then she has a doppleganger. ("That bird better pray he don't mess up my credit.")

That's about it for today. I'm off to the Melting Pot tonight to use my gift card that, amazingly, expires in two days. I say "amazingly" because I just got this gift card about two months ago. I never would have realized it was about to expire if I hadn't filed it in my wonderful coupon organizer. With the money I'll save, I'm now one step closer to retiring at 35. (And I'm infinitely closer to sounding like a 50-year-old soccer mom.)

Angels We Have Heard On High

I'm watching the West Wing season 1 Christmas episode ("In Excelsis Deo") as I pack for Vegas. Apparently we're to expect rain/snow showers in Vegas this week. Crazy.

I'll probably watch this episode at least one more time between now and Christmas. I love it. And I love the Christmas episodes for seasons 2, 3 and 4 ... in that order.

My goal this December was to watch something Christmas-ish every day. It's been rather hit or miss, but there are plenty of great Friends, Scrubs and OC Christmas episodes to keep me busy. And I've watched some part of Elf almost every day for the past week. 

I love Christmas ... and Christmas TV.

Forgot to mention a movie review ... go see Slumdog Millionaire. It's fantastic.

Faces

This is the current view from my balcony ... a cartoon woman with crazy eyes who is "experiencing overjoyment: priceless." Nice.

Last Christmas the ad was for Starbucks, and there was a huge scarf that started at one end of the shopping center and ended with another ad a few stores down. I was really hoping this year the ad would be for GAP and would feature the four SNL guys.

No such luck.

It's a great afternoon for resting and cleaning, while watching Titanic ("Listen to your friend Billy Zane ...") and Love Actually. Which means I'm not going to have time to write about Snuggies today. But soon.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Part 2)

Hello again! So, Thanksgiving has come and gone (thank goodness), and we're breezing through December. Today was our "festive holiday attire" contest ... pretty hard to have a bad day when your coworkers are wearing reindeer sweaters and jingle bell earrings.

I made my shirt myself. And I love it.

Tomorrow I plan to talk about the best, but most ridiculous, invention ever ... Snuggies!!! Anyone who says those commercials don't make their day is lying.

(Unrelated, but FYI -- here's why the Tropic Thunder commentary is awesome: 1) it's with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black and 2) Robert Downey Jr. is in character the entire time. Hilarious. I'm still of the opinion that Tom Cruise has gone 'round the bend, but I have to admit I thought he was great in this movie. And his dancing made my day.)