I'm a fan of...

My roommate from senior year (I can't bring myself to call her my "ex-roommate". It's so much more.) and current facebook wife is a high school Spanish teacher. Naturally, she has some good stories filled with drama and angst an oh boy I don't miss high school.

For Spirit Week, the week leading up to Homecoming, one of the dress up days was "I'm a fan of....". Pretty much, you dress up in/as whatever you like best. My dearest roomie dressed as a fan of leopard print. Black dress, leopard belt, leopard shoes, leopard hairclip, leopard bangle, I don't even remember what all. For she is, afterall, a big fan of leopard print. (aren't we all?) And one of her students that morning, in all sincerity, goes, "Seniorita-- What are YOU a fan of?"

But seriously. Every morning since I heard that one, I look in my closet and dearly wish that we had "I'm a fan of..." day at work. Because I could really rock an all-argyle, all the time look.

City Living...

I realized to day, as I drove to work, how many stupid little electronic things run my life.

I have a little gray key fob that lets me in to our building.

I have my work ID that has a chip that gets me in the door and into my suite.

Then there's the garage door opener for the garage under our condo building. And the "puck," an unnecessairly large black plastic thing that lets me in and out of the garage I park in by the train station. And let's not forget the plastic card I have to swipe to get in and out of the garage at school.

That's in addition to the four, count them, FOUR decals/hangtags I have to have to park all these places. (Who needs bumper stickers anymore?)

And those are all beyond my cell phone/iPod/debit card/keys combo, which is on my person at pretty much all times. And my train ticket. and SmarTrip (just in case).

I guess I'm thankful I'm not a guy. No way would all that fit in my pants pocket.

Now is the autumn of our discontent...

I'm particularly listless today.

I think it is some combination of daylight savings (it is dark ALL the time now. how did this happen?) and a very nasty group project situation for my Thursday class stressing me out.

Plus, my friends all live too far away.

And my boyfriend lives too far away.

And I'm tethered to my desk on phone duty for another hour. My favorite coworker is out today, so I can't even bug him.

Woe is me.

And I can't help feeling like everything would be better if I had a horse. I know, right? What am I, six years old? But there is something so comforting about the solidness of a horse and its so absorbing to go to the barn and groom and tack and ride. It consumes my attention, looking out for my safety and the horse's, setting goals for us to work towards that day. And I haven't been riding since graduating, I think, so... about 10 months now. Which feels like forever.

I'm very excited to go down to Williamsburg this weekend to watch the W&M Equestrian Team's home show and see old friends. But I know I am going to be raging with jealousy the whole time.

oof.

Work Revelations...

So, I interviewed with NUMEROUS supervisors at my current place of employment and ultimately was offered seven positions. Some of the people I connected with better than others, but I took the job I did because I thought the material was the most interesting and would give me the most applicable skills for possible future jobs.

One gentleman in particular was very nice and I really felt bad turning down his offer. I was horrified when I showed up the first day and discovered that he and his branch were in the SAME SUITE as my new branch. Ever since, I've been passing him sheepishly in the hallways, saying a timid "hello" when trapped in an elevator with him, etc etc. He never really returns the greeting, which I tend to interpret as "Stupid girl. shut up. its your fault I am still interviewing people."

Today someone introduced me to the man. Turns out, he is not the guy I interviewed with at all. That man is in an office on the opposite side of the building. And I've been awkwardly avoiding this man for no reason for the last four months. And yet, that is a *huge* relief.

Kids these days...

I have a love/hate relationship with my sattelite radio. Just as I think "meh, I'm just not in the car as much any more, and they really overplay some songs... it's not worth it," they go and introduce some really great new song or have a really funny morning broadcast, or some other thing that makes me feel like I'll be missing out if I cancel my subscription.

The most irritating phenomenon, though, is when a song is playing on more than one station at the same time. I'll maybe not think too much of it if it's "Hits 1" (the Top 40 type station) and The Pulse (the 90s-today type station), but when it is simultaneously on AltNation (my #1 preset, alternitve rock and snarky DJs) and RadioDisney? There's just something wrong with that.


(For the record, I've heard the song, "Fireflies" by Owl City, on all four channels. And first heard it on a friend's Pandora station. It's excellent.)

A few things...

- The other day at lunch, the gentlemen at my table were discussing laundry (and how they don't really know how to do it). This seuged into the mystery of "where do socks go, anyway?" (Fascinating, aren't we? Give me a break, it's a table of economists.) Then the difficulties of matching socks. D then confessed that his socks we're even matched that day, they were the same color, but "one's Polo... one's Costco."

- I am completely in love with VRE and I am never never going back to Metro if I can help it.

- I think Pandora just cried a little when I made a "Jonas Brothers" station. But hey, it's Friday.

- I also just hit the pause button on my iPod, and wondered why Pandora didn't pause.

Can't put longer sentences together until I go get coffee.

I hate discovering paper cuts by putting Purell on my hands.
I hope it isn't that kind of week.

Our state and region people are coming in for training this week. It's weird because everyone is A) at work on time and B) looking respectable.