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.