Why cars are bad

Yesterday it snowed all of 2 inches. They don't know what snow plows or salt are in the Maryland-D.C-Virgina area. Recall last years multiple blizzards. Totally unprepared. 2 inches should be easy to clean. And really, this morning the roads were ok so I should not complain too much. Yesterday though, they were a mess. And people completely freaked out. Luckily my car and I made it home without incident. Other cars, not so lucky.

Then this morning my car wouldn't start. Not what I needed. But I got my brain on straight and realized I probably just needed a new battery. So my roommate's man friend gave me a jump and I went to the auto parts store. My battery was indeed dead. So the guy puts in the new battery. Nothing. Not even a hint of power. At this point I start to panic a little and want to cry. Oddly I just want to go to work! But silly auto man tries again and the car then works. Apparently he just hooked something up wrong. So far the car is still running. Thank goodness that was easy.

In other news, my roommate is having the week from hell. He got bit by a dog, scratched his friend's car, Joey got kennel cough, and today he wound up in the ER with atrial fibrillation and had to get his hear shocked back into a proper rhythm. And I thought I was having a bad day!

In happy news, my boss and immediate manager took me out to lunch today as a thank you for the two weeks were I worked crazy overtime (while sick with pneumonia/bronchitis/whatever the antibiotics cured). It was a nice 2 hours of yummy food and actually sitting and chatting with them. I was told (short versions) 1) Don't ever leave me, I need you! 2)I hope you and John work out but either way you're crazy strong for fighting through all this and 3) John = so hot!

Holiday Party

Friday night was our company holiday party at the Air and Space Museum. One of the perks of working in the DC area. But I request next year we go somewhere like the Native American History museum which is more up my alley. I can only handle so much aircraft.

John and I all fancied up.



Coworker's boyfriend and John with their wine glasses full of scotch. Kyle really wanted to drink scotch in Apollo but they kind of frown on people climbing into the exhibits.

Sick and busy

I've had this crazy cough all week. I may actually have to go to the doctor tomorrow to make sure I don't have anything antibiotics-worthy. I have given it to a coworker and to John. I think Gabe gave it to me so I'll blame him for giving it to Kelly. Started with a raging fever and now just needs to go away.

Also I worked 50 hours last week and this week may be the same. But if I get through Friday without dying, I'll be happy. Cause then it's our holiday party!! And it should be slow then until after the New Year.

Not much else to report.

Bowels and Broken Bones

Sometimes I wonder how my mom handles everything that's thrown at her. Cause I'm all the way over here only dealing with the emotions and I am ready to loose it. Of course I always just want to fix everything that there's nothing I can do from across the country.

Anyway, #1, Connor broke his arm a few weeks ago. He fell playing volleyball. Well at his checkup the other day they decided he needed surgery. It's still not apparent how intensive the surgery will be, but he's going in tomorrow.

Then there's Rocky, who has been really sick for awhile. Had major surgery for a bowel obstruction and almost died. But made it through and came home the other night. He seemed to be doing just fine. But yesterday he couldn't stand up and then had a seizure. So he's back at the hospital and they don't know what's wrong with him. He's on oxygen and not hardly able to move his front paws. Blood clot and brain tumor are the top ideas right now.

And of course when I got a call from Mom at 1:30 in the morning the first person I called after was John. But he's in Australia and his phone doesn't work. Plus I need to get to a point where I don't rely on him for stuff like this.

Just sad and worried right now, though hopefully everything will be ok.

Sexual Sorbet!

Grey's Anatomy is really not a great show. But I keep watching b/c I have no life during the week. And sometimes there are great things like this.

Girl is going through a break-up. Advice from friend-get a sexual palette cleanser. Aka "sexual sorbet". Maybe Callie and I have the same problem and I just need to get some sorbet. Also, scary, Callie and I may be the same person. She was also the one that almost lost her partner b/c of the kids dilemma.

Great Falls in November

Went out and did a 3 hour hike at Great Falls today. The trees were excellent colors still so I was pleased.

Red Maple

Friday night I was in Baltimore celebrating Kathy's 30th. (It's the year of turning 30. I know 4 ppl, 3 of whom are this month!) After a fancy dinner we went dancing at Red Maple. I stole a fedora for a bit.

Work Sucks

Today I just want to say that my job is so frustrating. A company that goes on and on about promoting a work/life balance should not make working the weekends and holidays and having no life over the summer it's norm.

Maybe more later. I'm pretty mad.

I do have a phone interview tomorrow though so maybe KCO was not meant to be.

More thoughts

Because I can't seem to form a real post, more random tidbits.

I was the Trix bunny for Halloween. This was the case b/c it was really easy to throw together and I needed that seeing as I decided 2 days before the party to go. And the theme was "advertising characters". I wanted the seemingly easy Native American costume that I could have turned into the Land O Lakes butter girl, but sadly could not find this in 2 days. In an area where I don't know the costume stores well. Also nixed due to bad stores: Tinker Bell Fruit Snacks, St. Paulie Girl. Gabe was Mr. T (he had a cereal!) and it was hilarious.

Rally to Restore Sanity Restored my Fear of crowds. It was massively crazy in DC on Saturday. I guess one place said 150,000 but then yesterday I saw 215,000 people. Whatever the number it was a freakin lot. Which is so awesome. (Except the Republicans still managed to get some wins yesterday...) I only heard about 3/4 of what I was there for, and I left early. If the weekend hadn't been so insane I would have made a huge DC day out of it and enjoyed myself more. Not that I didn't enjoy myself, but I really would have liked to get arrested for climbing a tree. Or something fun like that. I think if I'm ever going to get arrested it should be at a rally like this. Goals, right?

Do NOT babysit an adorable 6 month old with the man who broke up with you because he doesn't want babies. There's something very confusing about you rocking a baby at 1:30am and said man coming in to check on you and then sitting on the floor to keep you company. This is the short version of the story.

I may be experiencing a small bit of jealous rage since I am not on my way to New Zealand right now. Nor will I be next week.

I want to do NaNoWriMo. Seemed like it'd be a good distraction over the next few weeks. But I have felt like crap all week. I managed to get a bit of something written today but starting off behind sucks. I so far have no idea what my novel is about other than "this swinger guy". Hopefully my weekend of no plans means I'll get something rolling.

If the proposal from hell does not get extended and I have to work next weekend I'm going to lose it. I'm supposed to be in Baltimore having fun. I do not want to spend 20 hours of my weekend working. Yeah, the thing is 110 pgs plus the price volume. It's going to take forever. Come on extension! *fingers crossed*

Boys, if you want to kiss me, do not hug me, pull away, and say "Want to?". Cause even if I did before (I didn't in this case, but...) I really would not want to then. Just freakin go for it!

Also, if you break up with me, do not send me a song that says "It was not your fault but mine. And it was your heart on the line. I really fucked it up this time...". No, actually, thanks for the song, it's awesome. But stop sending conflicting messages! For everyone else, Fall. In. Love. with this song.

Orienteering

Last weekend I went orienteering! It's probably wise for me to advise other women not to go off into the woods with a guy you barely know and wander around with a compass and no trail. That just sounds like the setup for a horror movie. But this guy and I had been on a few dates and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to kill me. So we went off to Prince William Forest Park, got a compass and a map, and headed out.

Let's just say I should brush up on my compass skills. I made Chris do all the work cause 1) He said he knew what he was doing and 2) I was forcing him to take charge (more on that later). Well we ended up starting off going the wrong way but figured that out and started over. We only found I think 2 of the 4 markers we tried to find, but we did make it out alive. The one I swear had to be somewhere really close because everything on the map matched, but we just didn't see a marker. We pretended it was where we were standing and still made it to the next marker so obviously we weren't far off. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I hadn't hiked in awhile and this was a good 3 hour journey.

As far as the boy, I think that Chris and I will just be friends. That always opens itself up to possibility, but I'm not really in any rush to, well, rush things. He's a really nice guy, we had fun, we enjoy a lot of the same things. He just doesn't seem that interested and with everything that's been going on the last few months I may not be either. Or I am just really bothered by the fact that he can't take charge and I'm letting that get in the way of figuring out if he's actually interested.

Email "I'll call you later to finalize plans."
Phone *chit-chat* *pause......*
Me "So Saturday. Hiking?"
C "Yeah." *pause....*
Me "Anytime better for you?"
C "Maybe afternoon?"
Me "Ok, I'm free whenever so pick a time"

Really, he was calling to set up plans but I had to keep nudging him along. Guys, if you want to ask someone out try something like "Hey, how's Saturday at 2?" and see what happens. Do not make me basically ask you out. Especially since we had already established we were going, just needed a time.

I may be overreacting a bit, but at some point I need a guy who's going to take charge. That's just the way I am. Sure, I am plenty willing to be the planner every once in awhile, but I've tried the shy-guy thing and it doesn't work for me. This is just the most recent example from him.