Never a Dull Moment, #47

Our plans for Christmas included a marathon trip around the Midwest, visiting family in Indiana and Michigan, and being in a wedding in Ohio. We have completed leg 2 of the trip, but not without a setback or two.

After last night's incident, my brother's first question was, "So, did you kill Bambi or his mom?" Yes, that's right, we hit a deer with our car. We had just had the brakes fixed, or we might have ended up hitting all 4 of them that crossed our path. Scary, and we just found out that the damage is roughly $3,000. Ouch! Glad we have insurance.

I really want my life to be boring for a while. REALLY boring.

Affy Tapples

I was in the convenience store near my office, and I saw the funniest thing on a package of Affy Tapples: a big warning that says "May Contain Tree Nuts." You think?

flu shot

So, I just got a flu shot. Our office building's landlord hooked us up with a health provider that had tons of leftover vaccine. We'll see if I get sick because of this. Hopefully not, though going home early on a Friday wouldn't be a terrible thing.

Ewwww

A coworker just coughed in my face as I was trying to help with a computer question. Ewwww!!! Looks like I'll need to start taking Airborne again. Great.

Add that to the nasty film of food residue on his keyboard and mouse, and I'm thoroughly grossed out right now. Sorry if you are, too.

A "Nick Burns" moment...

If you've ever seen the "Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy" sketches on Saturday Night Live, that's what I'm talking about. There are a lot of times when I want to respond to a computer question with, "Are you serious?" I realize that lots of people are intimiated by computers, or forget things, etc., but today when someone held up a blank CD-ROM and asked, "How do I use this?" I didn't know what to say. "Do I have to format it or something first?" This coming from a person who works in an office every day, and has for years. And spends all day in front of a computer. Yikes.

The weather in Chicagoland...

This is why people get annoyed at the weather around here (not that it was 63 degrees only 5 days ago):

the Census picked me!

So, our address was randomly chosen to receive the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census. As one of the few people I know who actually uses Census data on a regular basis, I figured it was important to fill it out. It was unbelievably long...and gave me a clue as to how accurate Census data really is. For example, when it asked how much we pay in real estate taxes each year, I guessed rather than go look it up. Whoops. So much for data integrity.

The Weather! (November in Chicago?!?)

Double fortune?

The fortune cookie that came with my lunch had 2 fortunes inside. I wonder if that means I'm going to be particularly lucky? Both of them sound pretty good to me--I could definitely live with a promotion at work, and it would be even better if I could leave work right now to go read a book or spend time with a friend.

Retail Madness

I always scoffed at those who got up at 4 in the morning to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. I have become one of them. This is the second year that we got up to find some good deals on electronics. We scored big time, too. We got 1GB memory cards for $3, a 250GB external hard drive for $50, and more things that will remain unmentioned here, just in case one of those gift recipients happens to be reading this. We got there half an hour before stores opened, and the line was all the way around the strip mall...in the freezing cold. But no matter, our trip was worth it. Too bad I didn't have the $700 to buy the 42" plasma TV that was on sale!! Not that our little living room could accommodate something that big. But it would be fun to own one.

Now the question is, should I go back to sleep for a couple hours, and potentially feel awful when I wake up, or just stay awake and crash around mid-day? Hmm. I don't care--at least I'm not at work today!

You know it's winter in Chicago when...

I'm totally stealing this idea from my friend Missy, who lives overseas and often sends funny "top 5" lists about various things.

You know it's winter in Chicago when...

1. The menu boards and cups at Starbucks change to red
2. It gets dark at 4:30 and feels like the middle of the night by the time you get home from work
3. The lunch line at the soup place is longer than the line at Subway
4. You figure out how many buildings you can cut through to get to your destination rather than walk outdoors
   
5. You turn a corner downtown and are nearly knocked over by an icy blast of wind and...
6. You completely stop caring about what your hair looks like--you need that hat.

Free coffee

It's nice that my Starbucks is across the street from the Starbucks regional corporate office...if they screw up your order (or make you wait forever, as happened to me today), they take it very seriously and give you a coupon for a free drink of your choice. So next time I'm going to order a venti-something-very-complicated with my coupon. Fun. Though it takes away my opportunity to rant about the poor state of customer service in America today.

Weird Heckler

I've had some passersby make some odd (or sometimes, inappropriate) comments before--after all, this is a large city with its share of strange people--but this latest incident takes the cake. I was crossing the street from the train station, and a guy on a bike, wearing some type of uniform, road past. He looked directly at me, grinned, and said, in a loud voice, "DING DING DING DING DING!!!"

Blacksmith emergency?

While on the train, I looked out the window and saw a large box truck with "Emergency Blacksmith Services" on the side. I've never had an emergency that would require the assistance of a blacksmith, and I hope I never do. A quick Google search didn't turn up the company/agency, but I did find a few other bloggers who've seen it. Anyway, it gave me a laugh.

The Wasabi Cure

I've had a cold for almost 2 weeks now...started out really bad and then downgraded to just annoying this week. Then I had some wasabi with my lunch (sushi/maki). I've had it before, and I normally like spicy things, but it was apparently too much, because I started feeling a burning sensation in my nose and sinuses. I started sneezing and coughing, and then---my sinuses became completely clear, more clear than they've been in 2 weeks! Amazing. I wish I'd tried that a long time ago.

Wienermobile!

I was so excited to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile the other night. I'd always wanted to ride in it when I was a kid. I actually know someone who got a job in college, driving the Wienermobile around the country. Pretty cool. Or maybe I'm just a little odd.

still sick...

So it's been more than a week and I'm still sick. Ugh. I guess this is just one of those colds that I'll have to wait out. The biggest bummer is that I'd planned to be on vacation right now--made it a 4-day weekend to go camping. Having Monday off will still be nice, though. I thought I'd send a photo of the not-so-scenic view I'd been seeing for much of the week. Enjoy.

Geeks

Another funny overheard conversation on the train this morning...I don't know nearly enough about Star Wars to quote them, but two apparently college-age individuals (a guy and a girl), were debating the finer points of the training process for Jedi knights. It was hilarious because they were talking about it as if it were the subject of one of their classes, or something that was actually real--not an inane trivial aspect of a fictional story. (Apologies to all of the die-hard Star Wars fans out there--but it is fiction.)

Disaster

When I got home yesterday evening, I had been there for a while before I walked into the kitchen...and saw that the freezer door was open. A quick check confirmed that it had apparently been open all day, and everything was completely thawed. Adding to the tragedy was the fact that we still had some Omaha Steaks left. Plus a bunch of salmon, chicken, pork chops, burgers...the popsicles are not a big loss, but my yummy frozen pasta dinners are. My best guess is that it's between $100 and $200 worth of food. I guess this is yet another hazard of shopping at Sam's Club.

There was "meat juice" running all over the floor, too. I was hoping it was a melted fruit bar, but it didn't smell like fruit. Yuck. The liquid had made it all the way across the kitchen floor (8 feet away), via the grout between the ceramic tiles. Eww... A rather unpleasant cleanup job. Oh, well...at least now the floor and the inside of the freezer are clean.

Ugh.

Never a dull moment, take 4

Usually when I hear sirens near my office, it's no big deal--I think we're near a fire station. But when I start to hear helicopters hovering overhead and the sheer number of sirens keeps increasing, I start to wonder what's going on. Today there was a subway train that derailed just blocks from my office, then a fire. There were hundreds of people who had to be pulled from an underground tunnel. Fortunately, I ride an entirely different kind of train. And apparently I was one of the lucky few who were able to get out of the area after the accident. The whole thing is pretty scary--they had the multi-colored triage tarps on the ground, with soot-covered passengers grouped by their injuries. It sort of makes me feel a little better about the city's ability to respond to a major catastrophe, though.

Never a dull moment, take 3

Last night after 10 p.m. I heard the sound of a truck engine idling in our alley, so, being the curious type, I went to see what it was. It was a tow truck that pulled in and out of our parking lot twice, then the parking lot next door, then proceeded to back all the way down the alley and around the right-angle turn to get back to the street. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that he left after seeing me in the kitchen window. Not a minute later, when I heard the truck again, I left the light off and watched again. This time he backed into the lot of the apartment building next door, and attempted to tow a bright red Camaro parked there. He lifted it 4 feet off the ground, then set it back down. He got out, adjusted something, and then drove off with the car.

The owner of the car is one of those guys who appears to love his car more than life itself, and carefully cleans it after every rain, or every time he drives it. But there was no one around when the car was towed, and the whole thing seemed suspicious. So we called the police, who responded and took our statement. According to a neighbor, the car's owner was out of town, but it could have been repossessed since he was leasing it. So that was my excitement for the evening.

Thank You Ma'am

How old does one have to be in order to be referred to as "ma'am?" Someone on the street just called me that, and it made me wonder. I don't really feel old enough for that. Though I'm sure he was just being polite, and I really do still look much younger than my age.

Does anyone read this?

I recently enabled comments, and I don't have any yet. So go ahead and leave me a comment if you stop by. I will still post even if no one reads this, though, because I need an outlet for the random thoughts that constantly swirl in my head. Have a great day.

Oh, the irony...

I saw a guy today whose arms were totally covered in tattoos. Not that unusual. Featured prominently were communist images, including a large portrait of Chairman Mao. This is probably not that rare, either. But the great part of the story is where I saw him--in Starbucks, a chain that's a huge capitalist success story. How ironic that this guy who idealizes marxist and communist ideology enough to have them tattooed all over his body likes to enjoy the simple pleasure of sipping an iced coffee beverage in a corporate-run coffee shop in downtown Chicago.

I love America. You can think whatever you want and live however you want, no matter how inconsistent or illogical.



(Bad picture, I know...I wasn't going to pull out my real camera.)

Creepy Guy

So I sat next to Creepy Guy on the train. I don't usually expect to get a seat by myself, so the challenge is finding a seat where someone isn't either hogging the seat with their bags, or yelling into a cell phone, or eating fast food, or emitting a strange odor. If they're sleeping, that much better. So I wasn't expecting the otherwise-normal-looking guy next to me to stare at me half the ride home. Every so often, he would turn his head and stare directly at me for waaaay too long, then look away. Then again. And again. People on the Metra train, which is the suburban commuter railroad, are usually very normal. This was the exception. No big deal, of course, just rather uncomfortable. It was daylight, I had something to read, and I got off before he did. Still, it really made me wonder what his deal is. I love the city.

Never a dull moment, take 2

Imagine my surprise when I saw this out my kitchen window as I was preparing dinner last night:

I called 911, but the fire department was already on the way.

 

I broke my snooze button.

As someone who hits the snooze button 5 to 10 times each morning, it stands to reason that the button would stop working at some point. It used to light up when I hit the button, but now it doesn't. And I don't think it's "snoozing" properly, either. At least I haven't slept through work yet, but I think I will have to go out and buy a new one tonight, just in case. This is why I buy cheap alarm clocks--I would be really mad if I'd spent $20 on the thing and it quit after less than a year. This might seem like a fluke, but...

I have done this before.

I have gone through a number of alarm clocks in recent years. I am NOT a morning person, and I tend to take it out on whatever it is that brings me out of my slumber. When I use a folding travel alarm, they tend to get smashed and lose pieces. This latest one was larger and presumably more durable, but now I guess it wasn't.

Never a Dull Moment

Sometimes I really love the city; you never know what you're going to see on any given day. This morning there was a guy in a business suit on my train who started putting on makeup during the trip into downtown--clown makeup. Then when we arrived at the station, he calmly walked off the train like everyone else. The expressions on people's faces were priceless. He had the makeup, a wig, and a hat, but other than that looked like any other commuter. One can only wonder who his employer might be.

Hassles

I have a love/hate relationship with my bank. Actually, it's mostly hate, and I get the impression that the feeling is mutual. Bank One got taken over by JPMorgan/Chase a long time ago, but it was only recently that the website switched over. And apparently, didn't take my automatic payments with it. It's a good thing I noticed this, because missing payments could really screw up my credit report. But the website just asked me if I'd like to "activate online bill payment." Yikes. I proceeded to re-establish the most important of my automatic payments, but I have a feeling that it's going to be deducted twice next month.

I can't believe how non-user-friendly the new website is. Even the list of recent transactions is awful--it's hard to read when printed, and I frankly don't care to have the list cluttered up by an "end of day balance" for every day.

Just because it has a pretty color scheme, I'm sure they think it's a vast improvement. But so far, everything I've tried to do has been thwarted by the evil ChaseOnline gnomes. I'm going to call the customer service phone number now...wish me luck.

Starbucks

I got another free Starbucks mug on my way into the train station this evening. Partly a function of being across from both a Starbucks and their regional offices, I'm sure. I thought the girl said, "Happy birthday from Starbucks," but while thinking about it later, I realized she probably said, "Happy EARTH DAY." (Which is 2 days from now.) Whoops. I guess the green-colored mugs should have tipped me off. They're very nice, though--I really like having travel mugs that actually close all the way. Most of mine have little vent holes that allow my coffee to splash out while I'm walking. But I digress. Happy Earth Day, a little early. And if today is your birthday--Happy Birthday!!

I'm no electrician, but...

I'm beginning to think we have an electrical problem. When I got home today, I flipped on the light switch in the hallway, saw a bright flash of light, and the lights went out. It turned out that a light bulb burning out actually flipped the circuit breaker. Unbelievable. Either those are some seriously high-powered track lights, or we need to do some rewiring. I wonder if it's a problem that the whole condo is on 2 circuits?? We've known about this since shortly after moving in, but we've only had problems when trying to run the washer and jacuzzi tub at the same time. Or a bathroom fan and a vacuum cleaner. I think I'll put this on my "think about fixing it eventually" list. Along with about a thousand other things.

Air conditioning

Today I had to turn the air conditioning on at the office for the first time this year. It makes it seem like summer, except it's only April and I'm sure the weather is going to disappoint me again next week. Or tomorrow.

Actually, I could have opened the windows, but the building maintenance guys are staining the deck and there are both noxious odors and lots of noise coming in here as it is. Some days I love that I work in an office building that can be described as "eclectic," "unique" and "eccentric." Other days, I think it would be a lot less annoying to work somewhere a little more normal. Then again, how many people have a view of a roof garden from their desk?

Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this, my mama said...

Okay, but I HATE days like this--a thousand emails and phone calls and questions and tasks. Ugh! Things due "yesterday," things I had to re-do multiple times, things that went wrong...and it's a beautiful sunny day outside, to top it all off. While I love having this beautiful roof garden right outside my window, it makes it that much more depressing to have to be indoors on such a nice spring day.

And it's only Wednesday. Great.

I hate Mondays.

I really do. I'm never in the mood to do anything involving getting out of bed. It seems like Mondays are always way too full of stuff to do, things to organize, and emails to answer. By midafternoon I am in serious need of a coffee break--partly for the caffeine, and partly for the fresh air I get while walking to the coffee shop.

Ugh. Wake me up when it's Tuesday. Or better yet, Saturday.

Doppelganger!
Someone I just met told me that I look like Kristin Davis. No one has said that before...but it's a nice compliment. Come to think of it, I don't really get many "hey, you look like _____" comments. From anyone. That's ok, though...I really like looking like myself, anyway.

Actually, someone did recently tell me that I look exactly how I did in high school. I think she meant it as a compliment--i.e., "you aren't aging at all." But I still don't think I'm quite at the age where that's a good thing. Looking way younger than my age will come in very handy when I'm 40, however. Anyway, I'm thinking that at the very least, I need a new haircut so I'll look a little less "high school."

Oh, and yes, I am writing this at almost 2 a.m. Long story. Ok, not really. I don't sleep. End of story.

Enough already.

I'm so ready for summer to arrive. One irritating thing about the Midwest is the "teaser" warm weather, followed by cold days, rainy days, and occasionally even some snow. I guess I shouldn't complain--I should enjoy the nice weather whenever it's here. It's unfortunate, though, that it was warm and sunny this morning, but by the time I left work it was cool, wet and extremely windy. I literally almost got knocked off my feet when I came around a corner and was hit by a gust of wind.

I shouldn't wish away the time that I have, but I am looking forward to summer!

There was a Department of Homeland Security SUV parked outside my train station this morning. I wonder what that was about? It looked like 2 guys just sitting there in the vehicle, chatting over coffee. Hmm. Oh, in case the DHS guys are reading this--having an unmarked vehicle doesn't do you any good if the license plate gives away who you are. Just trying to be helpful.

Going into Starbucks in the morning cracks me up. There's a huge crowd, and listening to the drink orders is entertaining. People are actually very creative--someone ordered something the Starbucks employees had never heard of. "We've got a new one!" someone shouted, and the other staff cheered. I used to find the complicated ordering thing annoying --"venti double-shot cinnamon dolce nonfat latte"--but now it just makes me laugh.

To round out my ever-interesting journey to work, I was in the elevator with too-much-cologne- guy this morning. Granted, I'm more sensitive to strong smells than most, but I wonder why people think spraying the stuff a half-dozen times is ok.

Ok, I'm back, after a VERY long hiatus.