The T-Shirt Reader

Perhaps I should be willing to accept this when putting on a t-shirt with writing and/or pictures on it, but nonetheless the following bothers me; I do not like it when people make dorky/stupid remarks about the t-shirts I wear or really acknowledge the shirt in general. This also applies to sweatshirts. For example, I have a sweatshirt that says "Mary Jane" down the sleeve because that is the name of one of the ski resorts in Winter Park, CO (where my family currently resides) and was also the location of my wedding. However, whenever I wear this sweatshirt to work, someone (usually the same person) makes some dorky remark about wanting to "hang out with Mary Jane." Other comments (all by the same person on different occasions) include: "You should give Mary Jane her sweatshirt back," or similarly, "Your name isn't Mary Jane. Why do you have someone else's name on your sleeve?" Seriously, where do these people come up with these things?

T-shirts can be the catalyst to conversation; that is fine with me. It's specific references to the shirt itself that I find irritating and weird. Like if someone saw me wearing the sweatshirt and said "I love skiing/boarding in Winter Park," I would be okay with that. If however, they said "who's Mary Jane and why are you wearing her sweatshirt?" I would secretly loathe them for the rest of my life for saying such stupid things.

So if I'm ever wearing a t-shirt or other article of clothing and you feel inclined to make some comment about it, think twice. I may secretly hate you forever because of it.

The Nap

One of Matt's favorite Seinfeld quotes is this:
"I love a good nap. Sometimes it's the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning." - George

This is how I feel today. I am really looking forward to coming home tonight and taking a snoozer on the couch (futon). School is getting down to the wire, and so of course all my professors are trying to get as many assignments/tests/projects in as possible. The light at the end of my tunnel is Disney World.

Offices should have nap stations. Smokers get 15 minute cigarette breaks, so nappers should be allowed a place to sleep for 15 minutes. I feel like this might already be happening in some offices. Those offices are awesome (if they exist). I am running on coffee today, so my thoughts are a little disheveled.

The week is half-way over! Enjoy it. Time to study for a class I don't really care about.

Walgreens

If you are too lazy/afraid to make left turns, Walgreens is there for you. On my way to work this morning, I noticed a sign that said, coming soon-Walgreens, on the corner of US1 and Bird Rd (for those not familiar with the Miami area, I have beautifully used my paint with print screen skills to construct a map of proposed new Walgreens-it's the purple blob without a number) from which you can look across the street diagonally and see guess what-a Walgreens. Not to mention the one that exists about a quarter mile down the road on the same side of the street. What is happening to our society? Do we really need three Walgreens within a half mile radius?
If you answer, "yes!" then I say Orlando is the city for you. I have never seen so many strip malls filled with chains in my entire life. INSANE! I would be constantly lost/confused in Orlando, as everything looks the same and I would constantly be wondering, "wait, didn't I just pass a Walgreens, Chili's, Gap, and Chipolte strip mall? Oh wait, I didn't? What's going on? Where am I?" As that is how I felt when I was last in Orlando. Orlando's saving grace-obviously Disney. I would post more Disney sing-alongs, but as I already have one up, I don't want to go overboard.
Happy Monday. It's a new week. Make the most of it!

Keep on the Sunny Side

My family recently received some disheartening news. However, instead of asking why me? and drowning in a sea of sorrow and despair, everyone has been very positive. And it got me thinking, why does it take something life changing for us to realize that we need to be more positive about the outlook of life? We are never guaranteed tomorrow, so why should we spend today worrying about it? (I feel like that is most likely some paraphrase of something I've read before...) I feel like we live in a society that focuses on downfalls and negativity. We focus on our shortcomings instead of our accomplishments. Do we enjoy being stressed out? Do we like the rush of panic and then the brief calm after the storm? If not, why do we put ourselves through it? Is it because we think we are supposed to follow certain paths because that is what society tells us to do? I feel like I waste a lot of my thoughts and words on complaining. I'd like to change that. There's a lot of shit in this world, so why should I try and add to it unnecessarily? Perhaps I'm being unrealistically optimistic, but is it wrong to want to have a happy life? I'm not saying I want to live in some weird little bubble and pretend that life is all wonderful and everything is perfect, but I just don't want to spend anymore time thinking about the negative things in life. Is that bad? I don't know. I am not longing for naivete; I just like getting the most out of things. So today I leave you with a small challenge-the next time you start to freak out over something, ask yourself how much of a difference it's going to make in your big picture and if it's really worth spending so much precious time dwelling on it and then either do something to change/fix it or stop complaining-it only brings you and others down.

Big Cars + No Parking = Shitty

My office is pretty terrible for parking. There are ten spaces for about twenty people, not including customers and reps who come to visit. My office also happens to be in a pretty shady area -it is surrounded by tow lots (as in where they take your car when it gets towed) and body work (for cars, not people) shops. Recently a GINORMOUS new office building has gone under construction directly behind our small, one story building, creating even further parking dilemmas since the alley way behind our building was a favorite place to cram a lot of cars but is now no longer available b/c concrete chunks could fall on you or your vehicle. My office's solution to this incredibly irritating problem? Double park. However, that only works for the "front spots" which are reserved for those who own either a Lexus, BMW, or Mercedes, but sometimes lesser cars (Chrysler 300's for example) can go there too (...technically the spots are reserved for the outside sales people, but I think it's just because they have nice cars). So obviously I park in the back, which only has five spots and risks destruction from the office being built behind us daily (they actually put these stupid cloth covers on our cars each day to protect them although honestly they are more of a hassle to remove than getting another scratch/dent to add the collection on the Lancer).

So now that I have bored you with the background of my company's parking problems, I want to discuss my opinions of them. Recently a couple (as in husband and wife) have started working here. The wife has worked here for over ten years, but in the last few months, her husband has jumped on the lighting bandwagon, mainly doing the same job I did when I started working here. For those that don't remember/never knew, I packaged light bulbs. Yes. A 30 something year old man is packaging light bulbs. Despite this and his overwhelming use of cheap aftershave/cologne, they both drive to work. And they both drive Nissan trucks, possibly some of the biggest vehicles out there besides those heavy duty trucks. This pisses me off. Environmental issues aside, they are taking up too much space. If small cars (like mine, good ole Lancer) parked in the back, double parking would be possible without blocking the remnants of the alley or risk of concrete destruction. However, this is not possible because of their monstrosities which they also don't park next to one another, making impossible for even two small cars to park next to each other. That is stupid and inefficient. That's the Miami way.

Well I don't want to end on a bitter, whining note, so I will try and leave you with something uplifting. Okay this isn't uplifting but hilarious as it just happened as I was trying to find pictures of puppies to post or something. Said husband's cell phone ring? THE CIRCLE OF LIFE FROM THE LION KING. And not just any part...it's the very beginning...the part where it's just African (?) words being yelled. I am not making this up. These are the people I work with. So I'll end with the Circle of Life. I suppose that can be either uplifting or depressing, depending on your outlook.

Should Be Sleeping...

...or finishing some school project that I left until the night before it's due to work on.  However, blogging seems like a much better use of my time.  At least I'm not stalking people on facebook (that was the alternative to blogging).  I never really understand why I put stuff off till the last minute.  I seriously cannot start something until it's almost due.  It's like I cannot function without the pressure of knowing I HAVE to get it done.  And every time I say to myself, "next time I'll do better and be on top of things."  But of course that doesn't happen.  It's like after a terrible night of drinking and you swear off alcohol.  Never really happens, but it feels good to say it at the time.  I guess I don't change because I really don't have a problem with staying up all night once a month.  Otherwise I really would change.  Also kind of like how I'll complain about wanting to lose weight but never really take any measures to do so.  When it comes down to it, if I REALLY wanted to change, I would.  But the fact is, the effort to change is not worth it to me,  so like so many other lame people, I merely complain about my current situation and pretend to want to do something about it.  ASIDE: For those grammar freaks reading, I apologize for the choppy and incomplete sentences and most likely incorrect punctuation usage, but it's late, and I don't care right now (although I'm sure that if I read this over tomorrow I will want to shoot myself).  

Completely unrelated but something I feel the need to discuss: gchat etiquette.  Particularly the use of the "busy" sign.  Some people have it up almost all the time, and yet, sometimes, (lots of unnecessary commas there but not changing them) that person will start chatting with me.  WTF?  It says you are busy.  Stop confusing me.  Can I chat with you or not?  Because if I can chat with you even though your status says you are busy, then what happens when you actually ARE busy and I start trying to shoot the shit with you?  It totally defeats the purpose of the system.  

Wow.  Feels good to get that off my chest.  Well I suppose I should get back to pretending to care about school.

Here I Go

I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon.  A little late in the game, yes, but I have been enjoying reading others' thoughts, so I thought I should share some of mine too.  

Everyone I know is having children.  Sometimes it scares me because it makes me realize that I'm getting older.  Granted I am on the younger end of my friend circle but not by very much.  I am so happy for them and the additions to their families, and whenever I look at pictures or hold one of their children, a part of me wants to experience that soon.  But then I realize I'm still in school and have so much I want to do before I reach that stage in my life.  

I find it hard at times to balance all the things I want.  I'm starting to realize how short life is and that I'm probably over 25% done with it.  The other day I couldn't remember my own age!  Is that supposed to happen at 23?  On so many levels 23 seems so young, but on the other hand, I'm still in college and now sometimes five years older than some of my classmates!  It's all relative I suppose.  In some situations I'm the old person and in others the baby.

I guess all you can do in life is remember to stop and smell the roses.  Lame phrase, but it's got a good point.  If this life is all I've got, then I should make the most of it and just enjoy living.  It's so easy in theory but so hard to execute.  I get so caught up in deadlines and what I think I "should" be doing that I forget that in the end, I really should just be doing the things that make me happy.  A little narcissistic perhaps...but I won't go there.  Don't get me wrong, I still have this desire to leave some kind of mark behind, something that can help others in the future, but I haven't figured out what that is yet.  Maybe I'll buy some reusable grocery bags to help the environment today as a start:)