things are looking up

starting with the workfront. today we had a meeting about how busy things have been, and get this: the bosses understand that the past few months have sucked and they not only want to compensate us but they want to make improvements in our work-flow processes. yeah, proactive owners. who knew? we also move into our brand spanking new, custom-built, permanant office tomorrow, so that's sweet. and i get to take home a free extra black leather computer chair to replace my current computer chair*.

on the homefront, i just got off the phone with a travel agent and we're starting to plan our honeymoon** in hawaii. i also went out to lunch with my mom today which was very nice and fun--not to mention we had delicious thai food. spring seems to have officially sprung, which is awesome. plus, i get to hang out with my great friend in GI this weekend.

ahhhh... i'm beginning to see a light--not the one you see when you die, but more like the one you see when you're on the last 100 meters of an excruciating 2-mile run. all in all, i'm feeling pretty good.



*a 1980s kitchen table chair

**2 years late

headlines never clear host of blog says

the more i read the news, the more confused i get by the way headlines are written. i understand that they're trying to sum up an entire news story in as few words as possible, but seriously: Bomb near town praised by Bush? i read that and thought, "holy shit, the president praised a bombing? that can't be good." oh, no, the TOWN was praised by bush. couldn't that have been written a little more clearly? it seriously had to read it a couple of times before it made sense.

and that wasn't the first time i've had to re-read a headline.

here's another one. Man Found Shot Near 30th, Martin
does that mean the man's name is martin? is martin the other cross street? and if that's the case, how hard is it to write "Man Found Shot Near 30th & Martin"?

and Tax benefit biggest for poor, rich
wtf? is that poor AND rich? poor OR rich? apparently anytime journalists want to eliminate a word they just replace it with a comma. and really, words like "and" and "or" should be replaced with a comma because they take up so much space. please.

Report: Sleep 'divorce' counts
i can't even figure out what this means.

and those headlines where they try to be cute.
Me-yowzah! That's one fat cat
or
Oink! Oink! Cloned pork could perk up heart health

unnecessary.

ugh, do i have to read my email?

i've noticed that when i'm really busy like this and i work on a computer all day, it's hard to associate a computer with leisure activities. checking my hotmail even seems like "work" to me. most people love to surf the net for hours and almost die without it (ehem, amg) but when i get home, the last thing i want to do is anything with a computer.

when my work schedule is ideal*, i normally have time throughout the day to check on my favorite bloggers, read some news and make sure my bank account isn't in the red, so lately i've been feeling way out of the loop. and broke. but it seems like i'm catching a glimpse of light at the end of this tunnel of work. and i did manage to spend $150 at target** monday night, so things are looking up.



*by "ideal" i mean enough to keep me busy, but not enough to make me stay late and work through lunches

**$20 of it went to a cute new lamp for my living room. and as i was walking by it, i said outloud (of course) "i love this lamp!" which made me laugh because that's basically like saying "i love lamp." good stuff.

i just have to say

it's 7:15.

on a friday night.

saint patrick's day to be exact.

and guess where i'm not.

a) at a bar, drinking
b) work

if you guessed a, you are correct.

and by process of elimination, i bet you can guess where i AM.

what i wouldn't give to be bored

the last month has reminded me very much of why i left my old job--not having a life outside of work. i can't handle it. it's so depressing getting to work at 8:00 am (ok, usually 8:15) but then working through lunch, watching 5:00 roll by, still working at 7, deciding you want to leave but having to take work home with you, working till 11:30 or so, going to bed and doing it again the next day. i might feel differently about it if a) i got paid overtime or b) i got paid a better salary. and i would be happy with my salary IF i only had to work from 8:00 to 5:00 like i'm supposed to.

what's worse is that everyone in my office is this busy and they all seem to be ok with it. they just bite the bullet. which makes me feel even more terrible because i'm thinking to myself "how is it ethical to expect somebody to work this much without pay?" meanwhile even the owners are putting in overtime. to me, life's too short to spend every waking hour working. it makes me tired, it makes me unhappy, it really brings down my whole self esteem. not to mention that i'm in a creative field and my mind needs a freaking rest every once in awhile.

i guess the conclusion i have drawn about this industry is that it's always going to be like this. no matter who you work for. so even though i LOVE what i do, i might have to find something else because i just don't think i'm cut out for this.

i swear i've seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that... was... AWESOME

last night i had the privilege of experiencing my very first ben fold's concert. had i seen this in 7th grade, i never would have quit piano lessons. what a show. it's going down as one of my favorite concerts ever. i love when you've been listening to an artist, and you like their music but then you go to a show of theirs and you immediately have this newfound admiration and respect for them. from that moment on it changes your whole point of view. it makes the albums you've been listening to that much better. it makes you want to purchase their entire music collection. it reminds you that there is REAL talent out there.

ben definitely seems like one of the coolest people ever. he didn't come off as cocky or bored or too good for omaha. he rocked his heart out and damn is he talented. his drummer and bassist are awesome, too. one of my very favorite things in the world is vocal harmony, and those three were amazing.

the thing i will always remember is a moment that will go down as one of my favorite concert experiences ever. it's when he played "army." if you know the song, there's that big horn part throughout the song but since there weren't any horns with him he actually directed the crowd to sing it--all the different parts and everything. it was so very very cool.

thanks for the excellent show.

how you know when it's time to lose weight.

so a good friend of mine is planning a quick wedding for may 12th and i just found out yesterday. because of the rush we had to try on bridesmaid dresses last night in order to get them shipped in time. i met up with the bride and another bridesmaid to try on 2 dresses the bride liked. both were very nice and simple--thank goodness. the other bridesmaid went first and looked fantastic in both dresses. i went second and could barely zip them up. the other bridesmaid got measured and her waist is smaller than mine. i refused to get measured because i already know what size of dress i need and didn't want to be reminded of the numbers. you might be thinking, "what's the big deal? people come in all different sizes." well, let me just put it this way: the other bridesmaid is 5 months pregnant.


now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go eat some chocolate-covered, chocolate chip chocolate ice cream.