Jane's ramblings

I'm Bringing Bloggy Back

2007-01-08T23:20:00.000-05:00

At least for now. Keeping up my blog isn't a serious 2007 resolution, but stay tuned.

My dad recently sent an email out a bunch of our family friends and relatives with pictures from Christmas and New Year's, including one of me standing next to a porta-potty with a ribbon on it and a caption saying to ask me for the story. (No, it wasn't my Christmas gift.) So instead of telling it everytime someone asks, I figured I'd just blog about it.

My dad picked me up from the airport Christmas Eve and as he pulled into our driveway I noticed a porta-potty peaking above the fence.
"Uhhh...why is there a porta-potty in our backyard?" I asked.
"Oh, you didn't hear? We don't have plumbing," he responded.
"Wtf, where do you shower?!" This struck me as a huge annoyance, but not at all surprising considering my parents are getting ready to renovate the house and we've never been able to run the dishwasher or washing machine while someone's showering or even take two showers at one. In fact, you can't take a shower longer than 10 minutes without losing hot water.
"At the Y."
"I knew I shouldn't have come home."

I walk inside, go up to my sister and say in distress "I hear we don't have plumbing."
"Umm...yes, we do," she says confused.
"But what about the porta-potty?"
My mom hears this and starts laughing uncontrollably. My dad had lied.

*IN MY DEFENSE* Christmas night our kitchen sink broke and we had to call the plumber.

So yeah, I am slightly gullible, but our house is in such crappy shape it was a believable story. My parents then found a big red bow and put it on top of the porta-potty as can be seen in the picture and is viewable to anyone walking by.

I made a few changed to my side bar. I have removed blogs that haven't been updated for a year (except for my dad's because I'm holding out hope) and I've added my friend LJ. Happy reading!

Question of the day

2006-08-07T21:39:00.000-05:00

Everytime I hear the song Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado I start to laugh. My question is am I laughing with or at it? It doesn't sound like they're joking in the song, but I can't imagine writing those lyrics and taking myself seriously. Promiscuous girl, wherever you are, I'm all alone, and it's you that I want....can't you at least get her name? Thoughts welcome. I have to admit it's a catchy song and I never switch the station on it.

I am currently suffering from cankersores and fleas. Hence eating isn't fun and I'm constantly itching my ankles. :-(

I suppose it's time for an update

2006-07-27T14:56:00.000-05:00

My softball team has discovered my blog and I finally feel compelled to write something.

Since I last blogged I have:

Been to Vegas with Ariel where I lost $90, but had fun doing it. I also drank yummy fruity drinks as I walked down the strip.
Went home for a week in CA where all I did was sit outside in the sun. I came back super tan with highlights in my hair. I considered my trip to be very productive. Though it would have been nice if my dad and sister had been around and also if my parents were actually going to remodel the house this year which was the purpose of making a trip then.
been injured playing kickball. Just a skinned knee, but a pretty nasty one. I tripped over the first baseman. Couldn't really bend or straighten my leg for a week. Luckily it was the last game (our record was 1-8) and I was in good enough shape to play flip-cup afterwards.
My softball team has faired much better record wise. We clinched our divison and the tournament is coming up next weekend. I'm hoping it won't be as miserable for me as it was last year...the fact that I don't have mono this time should help.
My Uncle Jerry passed away a few weeks ago from complications from a stroke he had in June. I made my way up to St. Mary's, PA for his funeral where I got to meet a lot of cousins (Jerry's grandchildren, who are around my age) and see my parents.
My cousin Lindsay (other side of the family) moved to Arlington a month ago so we've been hanging out and making fun of hippies. I even made her an honorary member of the softball team.
The biggest news in my life just happened today...I got a new job! I'll be at the same place I'm working now, but in a different position. More responsibility and more pay...yay! My first bigger paycheck will come just days before my birthday. :)

Easter, Lent, NYC

2006-04-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

I did it. I successfully gave up desserts/junk food for lent. And yesterday I ate about 40 days worth of dessert: 3 bowls of ice cream, a chocolate shake, angel food cake and a york mint. Yum! (I didn't feel too guilty about this because the elevator in Alisa and John's apartment was out most of the weekend and they live on the sixth floor.)

I was in NYC for the weekend staying with Alisa and John and visiting a few college friends. On Friday, my sophomore roommate Judy somehow ended up with two tickets to the Knicks game...3rd row courtside seats! Not only were the players, like, right there, but Mayor Bloomberg was two rows directly in front of us and I had a cheeseburger and beer delivered to my seat.

On Easter, I went to church with Alisa and John at 8am. It was an Episcopal service and thanks to my parents never exposing me to church, I managed to screw up communion. I was even nervous about it and made a point to watch others to make sure I got it right. But no, John was in front of me and he didn't eat his wafer right away. What I missed was that he dipped it instead. I ended up still having my wafer in my hand while I was drinking the wine and then the guy had to order me to consume. Ugh. No one else would mess something up like that.

Things that baffle me

2006-04-12T15:15:00.000-05:00

1. How do I know the words to songs I can't stand and always change the station on? I realized this when one of those Sarah McClouglin-like songs came on the internet radio where changing stations isn't convenient so I sucked it up and listened and seemed to know exactly what words were coming next. Not the kind of intelligence I want.

2. I've had a loaf of bread sitting in my car on the floor of the back seat for a few months now. There is absolutely no sign of mold on it. It's Arnold brand on which I've seen mold grow plenty of times. I'm thinking it's something about the back seat floor in my car. I'm keeping it there just to see what happens.

And for an update on my life:

I got a very unexpected and generous bonus at work which is allowing me to take the train to NYC this weekend and also to go to Las Vegas for a weekend in May. (Any gambling tips are welcome...I know to stay away from slot machines.) Kickball and softball seasons are starting up...I plan to kick butt in flip-cup.

Olympic observations

2006-02-14T16:06:00.000-05:00

I'm finally starting to see some wrinkles on Bob Costas in his gazillionth Olympic emergence from hibernation.
Shaun White would make a beautiful drag queen.
I mistakenly thought a female German pairs skater was black with fake blonde hair when in fact she had normal blonde hair and a very fake tan.
Spending over half an hour on long distance speed skating is not ok. Body condoms are not a good look.

Non-Olympic observations:

I've decided that Washington state has the coolest city names, such as Enumclaw, Puyallup and my favorite, Sammamish. Illinois comes in second with cute sounding cities like Skokie, Joliet and Peoria.
Hyphenating your kids' names is bad enough, but double hyphenation (such as Smith-Jones-Mitchell) should most certainly be considered child abuse. I came across a name like this at work, and I can't imagine he's ever filled out a form where there has been enough room. If I had a name like this, I would call my parents and bitch them out every time I had to write it.

Just a couple thoughts

2006-01-31T13:18:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while beacuse frankly, I can't think of anything to write about. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, in fact I've been very busy. But I haven't had much confidence in my blogging skills that I can make my life entertaining to read about. I have had a few random thoughts/rants though, that I thought I'd share.

The Olympics are coming up and I'm uber excited, but I'm also sad because I don't feel like there has been all that much hype surrounding them. I don't even know when the opening ceremonies are. Maybe this is because I'm not watching enough NBC shows though. Also, I can't stand it when they call the host city Turin instead of Torino. I realize we don't call Rome Roma or Florence Firenze, but come on, Turin is just ugly and doesn't sound remotely Italian.
On my commute to work there are a number of stop lights with no green left arrow. Therefore, people turning left have to wait for traffic. In many situations, this is very annoying, but on this particular street we have been blessed with a fat island in the middle giving left hand turners the opportunity to crawl forward and left a significant amount so as to let people going straight go around them safely. However, many left hand turners are not aware of this blessing and stay completely in the lane blocking people like me. Hence the lesson of this blog entry is to take advantage of fat ass islands when you're turning left to save the sanity of people like me. Thank you.

You know you're on a turbulent flight when...

2006-01-04T20:27:00.000-05:00

...the flight attendants aren't allowed to get up to do their last check up and down the aisle due to the rest of the flight being "too unpredictable". We were told that putting our tables and seats in their "upright and locked position" was on the honor code and to please comply because a 3.2 degree recline is the difference between life and death. I was listening to the cockpit channel and the pilot said after some mega jolts that we had just taken a few hits. The girl next to me and I speculated that he may have actually meant hit by lightening. Also, my cup fell off the table.

So it wasn't a great end to my vacation, but at least the rest of it was fun. I did the normal things like eat at Peninsula Creamery, go to dollar night at Baskin Robbins, drink my favorite egg nog and hang out with my hometown buddies. I also adopted some not so normal rituals such as eating a chocolate croissant every morning thanks to my dad's daily trips to Pete's Coffee. I'm reading over this paragraph and realizing I sound like a pig.

My New Year's resolutions aren't that interesting. They include typical things like flossing, going to the gym more and keeping my life organized. 2006 is the first year where I've had a real vision of what I want to have happen. I plan to finish my applications, wait for responses, hopefully get into a few places, visit those few places in the late winter/spring, make a decision, and enjoy the last few months before I go back to school and work my butt off. I also want to squeeze in trips to New York, Raleigh, Annapolis, Philadelphia and Central PA to visit relatives.

I can't believe I just said I want to visit Central PA.

Brickskeller and Ritz Carlton

2005-12-20T12:19:00.000-05:00

Jackie was visiting this weekend and on Saturday we met up with a couple of her friends at Brickskeller, which is a bar with over 500 beers from around the world. The menu sorts them by country. At first I played it safe and ordered some German beers. After two I was feeling more adventurous and decided I would pick a beer from a country that I could not point to on a map. I chose Trinidad. It was called Carib and it was a light beer. It wasn't the best but at least I cultured myself a little.

Walking back to the Metro (nanny nanny poo poo New York!), Jackie and I had to go to the bathroom. There was a Ritz Carlton on the way. For those who remember our adventures in Boston last year, you know what's coming up. They had quality towels and toilet paper. There were a few differences this time. For one, they didn't have paper towels, they had real cloth towels that you throw into a hamper. Sweet. Also, in Boston there was some sincere desperation since the managers of the place we were staying at couldn't afford to satisfy their need for pot and the customer's need for soap and paper towels. This time it was just for fun.

My computer at home is broken so I'm writing this entry from work (during lunch of course). I'll be home in three days where I'll need to jam a lot of work and play into my week. Call me if you'll be around!

Holy crap, it's December!

2005-12-03T19:36:00.000-05:00

My big project right now is applying to grad school. I've picked out my schools and I could end up in Norcal, Socal, Oregon, Colorado, Virginia, DC, Pennsylvania or North Carolina. I think one of the worst things that could happen to me is to get in to every school and then be forced to make a decision. Last week at Thanksgiving dinner, I realized how much I've enjoyed getting to know my extended family better and see them more often over the past five years. I know if I chose to go somewhere not on the east coast I'd miss this. On the other hand, this is an ideal time in my life to live somewhere totally different.

As for the rest of my Thanksgiving weekend, it was awesome. I'll just list the highlights:

Got to see Rina and and her super cute three month old baby Shira.
Went to the farm in Connecticut where there were 20 people for dinner. There were three turkeys all killed by way of brain-scrambling right on the farm.
Picked up my peacoat at Jackie's then did the Jersey thing and went to a diner.
Stayed with Alisa and John and their two super cute kittens in NYC.
Went to the Brooklyn Brewery where I got a "tour" and a free beer.
Went to the Brooklyn Museum where I got a free private lesson from Alisa, who's getting her Masters in Art History and Art Conservation, about a lot of the pieces.
Braved Macy's in NYC on Black Friday.
Ate at Friendly's twice.
Left a pair of shoes at Alisa's.
Left my toothbrush at the farm.
Put 760 miles on my car.

For those of you in Palo Alto, I'll be home from the 23rd to the 2nd. I will be keeping myself busy with shopping, hanging out with friends, going to the dentist and drinking Clover Stornetta Egg Nog, last years winner in my highly scientific egg nog taste test. Unfortunately it is only found in California so I have to settle for Southern Comfort out here. I'm still only on my first quart.

What else, what else...oh yeah. I'm planning to send out Christmas cards this year. If you're reading this, email me your address because chances are I don't have it. It sounds dumb, but I'm actually stressed about some of the etiquette involved. For instance, do I lump my uncle and his three sons (my cousins) into one card even though none of them live with him? One's married, one's living on his own and the other's in college, but goes to his mom's when he's home. And what about my uncle's step children who I saw frequently growing up and consider normal cousins? One's now married with a baby so should she get her own? Then what about the other who's still living at home? UGH!! And this is only ONE family out of so many with similar situations. It seems like if I send one cousin a separate card, I should send each one of his/her siblings a card too. But that ads up to so many! Suggestions are welcome.

No Joke

2005-11-11T16:30:00.000-05:00

I just came across this name at work: Hemraj. I don't see how it could be pronounced much differently than our instincts would tell us. Poor Hemraj.

A more extensive update will be coming soon. I'm a little bogged down with getting ready for the GREs on Monday and putting all my stuff back now that we are bug free.

More bad luck with planes

2005-10-12T13:16:00.000-05:00

So Air Tran is another airline to be wary of. First of all, I learned the hard way that it's not the same as ATA which meant concourse hopping at Logan. At both Logan and Baltimore, Air Tran is put in the crappy concourses. At BWI, the concourse had like, NO good restaurants. I had to settle for a mediocre cheeseburger at Roy Rogers which I had never even heard of. Of course, had I known my flight was delayed at this point, I could have hopped over to concourse A for some real food at McDonald's. At Logan, it was in a small, run down concourse with only four gates. Thanks to a late aircraft, late crew, deciding to do a maintenance check after we taxi out to the runway, shutting off the entire plane to reboot it, and waiting for a mechanic to sign off on the reboot, I didn't get in to Baltimore until 2am. A big thanks to my wonderful cousin Genelle for staying up to come get me!

My weekend in between flights was awesome thankfully! I went to my Great-Aunt Polly's 100th birthday party in Concord, NH. The pouring rain did not bring down our spirits. I got to see my parents and even my sister came all the way from St. Petersburg, Russia where she's studying abroad. I met some new cousins, one of whom works just blocks from where I live. And it turns out my friend's ex-girlfriend's sister is the president of a sorority that another cousin of mine is pledging. (Ok, so this is stretching it, but I still consider it to be a small world.) I think I set a record for most relatives seen in one weekend. On top of the 60+ that were at Polly's thing, I saw some more in Boston and then stayed in MD on Monday for cousin Maureen's surprise going away party.

I'm signed up to take the GREs next Thursday. Dunno if I'm gonna postpone it or not. I haven't studied as much as I'd have liked. I hate big words.

*Blogger doesn't recognize cheeseburger.

For those who are curious like me...

2005-09-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

....There are only four names left for hurricanes this season and if we run out, we start naming them after Greek letters.

Pathetic Katrina fund raiser: Last Friday I was at a bar for the end of the season softball party and I notice some posters up with pictures of various rainbow colored squares. Turns out someone is selling colored cubes for $5 and donating $2 of each sale to the Red Cross. Colored cubes?! Remember, just because it's for charity doesn't mean you have to buy it. Lame!

Important announcement: The Central Arlington Library has the most uncomfortable toilet seats in history. They are too narrow and hit your bones in just the wrong place. I know I'm not oddly shaped so I can't be alone in this. You'd think someone would test them before mass producing OR buying them! I suppose I should be glad they have toilet seats period. In some countries all you get is a hole and not even a curtain.

Faucets, Child Abuse, Grocery Stores

2005-09-14T11:22:00.000-05:00

1. Random thought: The company that makes the faucets in our apartment is called Price-Pfister. I find this so cute. It sounds like a dyslexic kid with a speech impediment trying to say Fisher-Price.

2. I'm having a moral dilemma at work. I've encountered a case of child abuse and I'm not sure what to do. I was entering in data for some exams when I came across a student born on Christmas Day 1980. The parents must've had a little too much egg nog, because they decided to name her Christmas Joy. No joke. And it doesn't help that her last named looks like it should be pronounced "Cunts", but starts with a K and ends with a Z. (I don't want her finding my blog if she googles herself.) Are people so elated when a child is born that they lose all sense of judgment?? Because that is not an optimal time for that to happen.

3. When we moved into to our current apartment in April, I was delighted to be right next to a Safeway. However, the delightfulness is hampered by the fact that it's always understaffed, the shelves are half empty, I have to search through ten cartons of eggs before I find one with no cracks, there's no Carnation Instant Breakfast, the workers all look sixteen, no one's ever at the Starbucks stand waiting to serve you, and the milk is bad on the sell-by date. Screw you, Safeway, I drive half a mile to Giant now!

Amish, Katrina, Mono, Numbering

2005-09-12T11:10:00.000-05:00

1. I had a dream last night that I married an amish guy. It was kind of an accident but not really. I never felt serious about him, but for some reason didn't break it off. During the engagement I told myself in the back of my mind that I could run away at anytime even after we're married because he's amish and would have no real means of finding me. Up to a couple hours after the wedding this is what I planned to do, but then all of a sudden I felt obligated to take the marriage seriously which freaked me out and I woke up.

2. I'm not gonna say how much I've donated to the Katrina relief, but I will admit it is a very, very unimpressive amount. Especially after hearing about how single celebrities are writing checks for a million dollars. I will say I do feel a bit noble because I gave my money at a doughnut selling fund raiser in my office building and even though I didn't like any of the donuts they had, I kept in mind that this wasn't the Katrina victims' fault and put in some cash.

3. Mono update: Feeling much better, but still need to go to the doctor for a follow up. I decided to start being a little active. Last week I was feeling so lazy, I'd be at work looking forward to going home, plopping on the futon, eating ice cream and watching Shepard Smith. After a while that feels really gross so this weekend I went walking and explored different parts of Arlington. I tried running, but after less than a fourth of a mile I wanted to collapse.

4. I like this numbering style Melinda uses. Hope you don't mind that I stole it!

And the verdict is...nothing surprising

2005-08-26T08:07:00.000-05:00

Got my blood test results the other day. It's mono. Duh. At least I have an excuse for having been a lump of laziness for the past few weeks. Haven't had much of an appetite for anything except ice cream and television. And since I ran out of my Ben and Jerry's the other day, all I had last night was a glass of oj. The doctor says my liver is swollen and my spleen is prone to rupturing so I can't drink or play contact sports which sucks because I just joined a kickball team. But I figure if I stay in the outfield and play flip cup with water (yes, I know, lame) I should be ok.

I don't like having to put my life on hold, but perhaps it's a blessing in disguise because I really need to study for the GREs. I just need some discipline. So after Sunday, the plan is to make it my new age (23) resolution to learn vocabulary words instead of the prime time TV schedule.

My friend Melinda has revived her blog after a one year leave of absence. Check her out on my side bar.

WTF: Blogger doesn't recognize the word "kickball"?!

Outside my box

2005-08-22T19:37:00.000-05:00

I bought a plant. It's from Target. Bye bye plant-ownership-virginity. It's simple and has basic green leaves. I'm quite proud of myself for buying a little something to decorate my room. The next day I was at Safeway and saw some more plants. I wanted to buy one for my cubicle, but all the ones in pretty pots were ugly and the ones in ugly basic reddish/orange pots were pretty. Those struck as plants that were meant to be taken out of the pot and put in gardens. Some of the ugly pots were wrapped in glossy green paper, but that just looked tacky. I was stumped on what to do plant-wise. So I bought a plug-in air freshener. (For my bedroom, not my cubicle.)

Not to sound like I'm always making excuses, but part of the reason I haven't blogged recently is I've been sick for the past few weeks. I've had a slew of symptoms like fever, sinus infection, itchy all over and general grogginess. I finally got my blood tested today and will have the results by Friday. Mono is my best guess at this point, but we'll see. Fun times.

Further thoughts on M&Ms

2005-08-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

After writing my last entry I did some math to come to some sort of conclusion. I won't bore you all with the equations, but it turns the maximum amount of area one circle can take up in a square is the same as four circles taking up maximum area in the same square. Therefore it doesn't really matter what size they are. Of course I'm discounting the fact that M&Ms are 3 dimensional and oval shaped. I think Jackie's right though, that the best would be a combo of big and mini M&Ms, assuming the mini M&Ms can fit in the big M&Ms' spaces. Happily, I was able to satisfy my craving Friday morning with a bag of normal M&Ms from 7-11.

This past weekend I came down with what was probably a sinus infection. I was visiting my cousins and not able to enjoy the bread my cousin's wife made for dinner Friday night as much as last time because the infection had reached down into my back teeth making them very sore. My other cousin let me sleep in her bed that night (thanks Maureen!) and I woke up with a completely dry mouth. I think I slept on my back and breathed heavily through my mouth all night because it took numerous tries of creating saliva to get it back to normal. Thankfully, I'm feeling better, but my teeth still hurt and I just had some trouble eating triscuits a few minutes ago.

In good news over the weekend, Rina and Mordy had a baby girl! Congratulations! You know you come from a good area when the first baby born to someone from your graduating class (especially a class that had a bad reputation) is born in wedlock. Rock on Gunn High.

*Spell check amusement: The first suggestion for "Jackie's" was jackass.

Biggy M&Ms!

2005-08-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

Check this out! M&Ms are getting big. As curious as I am to see them, I do have my skeptic side. I'm not sure how the logic works out, but it seems to me putting bigger circles together means bigger gaps and hence less chocolate for your money. However, there are also fewer M&Ms because of the bigger size and therefore a fewer number of gaps. So does it work out evenly or not? What if they filled in the gaps with Mini M&Ms? Come to think of it, I haven't had M&Ms of any size in a while.

I'm alive! And so is this blog

2005-07-31T19:14:00.000-05:00

I must admit I have been a sub-par blogger this month. I figured I should do an update before the end of July so that there's no gap in my archiving.

As for the rest of my trip home last month, it was great. Alisa's wedding was wonderful and it was good to see people from high school. I even caught the bouquet. Go me! I crammed about two weeks worth of Palo Alto things into four days and felt very fulfilled by the end.

This time I can say more honestly that I haven't been blogging because I haven't had time. I feel like I'm barely home and when I am, I'm sleeping. Hence you should be happy for me...I have more of a social life now.

Things since I've last blogged:

For Fourth of July, I went to the dress rehearsal performance of A Capitol Fourth which is on the lawn in front of the Capitol and we got to see the (fake) Beach Boys, Gloria Estefan, The O'Jays and some other random performers all for FREE!

I've been to three National's games since I last blogged and one was in Philly! (Cool stadium there.)

Went to Hershey Park last weekend with Jackie. 'Twas fabulous and the chocolate was plentiful and cheap! A squeezy thing of chocolate syrup was under $2. And they also carried stuff that you can't find in normal stores. Obviously, I stocked up. The main road through the town is called Chocolate Avenue and the street lights are all shaped like Hershey Kisses.

Got a new phone and it's from this century. For those of you who aren't familiar with my old phone, it looked like it was from 1990. I spent yesterday morning keying in over 50 phone numbers set up my contact list. I'll be sending out an email with my new number. I could have kept the old one, but I get calls about owing Bally's Total Fitness money everyday. Bastards.

Had my random/small world moment of the year. Four years ago when I was home for spring break with my friend Rachel freshman year, we were visiting Alisa at Stanford and we started talking to this girl in her dorm. We told her we were going to Bucknell and it turned out she was from Lewisburg. A couple weeks later was Houseparty and I saw her there since she was on spring break. Then she and Rachel both went abroad to London and ended up roommates. Then this past Thursday after softball, she was at the bar and saw our table full of people wearing Bucknell stuff and started talking to us. Bizarre!

My cousin Aaron has started a blog and written seven entries. Yay Aaron! I'm trying to make sure he doesn't become a communist, because nobody likes communists.

Ordeal at IAD

2005-06-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

***There will be a second entry about the rest of my trip coming shortly***

From the time I left my apartment to the time I walked my house in Palo Alto, nearly fourteen hours had gone by.

It started with my BlueVan ride to Dulles airport. The driver drove like there was a siren on top of us and complained about old people driving. Then it took him half an hour to find the third person we picked up. Granted this wasn't completely his fault, but I was getting worried. Little did I know, there was no need for worrying...

I arrive at the airport in plenty of time for my 7:15pm flight. I get my boarding pass and go through security with ease and walk to Concourse B where my gate is. The flight is now departing at 8:45 thanks to weather in Boston where the aircraft is coming from. Fabulous. I decide I need food. I'm not seeing much in Concourse B so I grab a Dining at Dulles guide that has a map of the concourses. According to the guide, there should be a Burger King right across from my gate, but there isn't. I ask someone who looks official, maybe a pilot and he tells me they closed some stuff down and are redoing things because there aren't enough food places in the concourse. No Kidding. Since I have so much damn time, I decide I want to explore Concourses C an D which are connected and have lots more to choose from. According to the map, it's just a short shuttle ride across the airplane road. I walk to the shuttle area and start to wait. Not so fast Jane. There's a sign saying the shuttles going from Concourse B to C are not running. This means I have to take the shuttle to Concourse A, and then another shuttle from there to C. If I had a picture of the map, you'd see this is extremely roundabout considering the net distance I needed to travel. After some Concourse C wandering I settle on McDonald's. I make my way back to my gate B22 only to discover that we have been moved to gate B24. Five minutes later we return to B22. At this point departure time is 9:30. We watch the 9:20 flight to SFO board and take-off. People with no checked luggage got to take that flight. That didn't include me. Not fair. Eventually the aircraft arrives, but then there are maintenance problems. Finally we board at 11:30. I spend the entire flight dead tired yet unable to sleep. In a nutshell, it was awful. We land at 2am Pacific time...in the international terminal. I'm in the third row so I made it to baggage claim fairly quickly and for some odd reason my suitcase is sitting on the belt which isn't moving. This makes me wonder if it was on the 9:20 flight. I notice it has an LAX tag on it, too. This makes me wonder if it went to LA first. I'm too tired to really care and I'm just happy my bag is there. Then I call my mom who unfortunately had just taken the split to the domestic terminal so she has to drive around and back onto the freeway to turn around. Eventually we do meet up, and all is well.

Palo Alto here I come

2005-06-20T14:12:00.000-05:00

Two days from now I'll be flying home for four full days of jam packed fun! One of the best parts is that packing for it will be really easy. I plan to fill only half my suitcase so I have room for everything I bring back. This means I can start last minute and just throw things in without caring about neatness since it'll get tossed around anyway.

So far my plans at home include dress shopping with Kristina and Dawn, dinner with the neighbors at Oasis, quality Peetie time, going to the Y with my sister, getting my hair cut and highlighted, British Bankers with Michelle and Becca, Alisa's wedding, developing pictures, and if not a whole meal then at least a super chocolate milkshake at Peninsula Creamery. Believe it or not, I still have some open time on Sunday.

Annoyance of the day: Instead of focusing my frustration on those who send out junk email advertising free Viagra, Cialis or some other sexual performance enhancing drug (which take up about half of the office email inbox), it goes to the handful of people who are stupid/desperate enough to click on the links thereby encouraging more of it. Same thing with Ashley Simpson. It doesn't do any good to blame her for her fame. The blame goes to the actual fans buying her stuff.

Wedding number one of the summer

2005-06-14T13:45:00.000-05:00

It was another family oriented weekend, this time my dad's side. I had Friday off so I left for Pittsburgh around noon. First I did my good deed for the day and returned a cell phone I found the night before outside a metro station to its owner. Then I proceeded to not figure out how to get on the GW Parkway and ended up in the district around where we play softball. After making some random turns, I finally busted out the map, made and illegal U-y and I was on my way.

Four and a half hours later I found myself at the Marriott in Cranberry Township, PA only to be whisked away to the rehearsal dinner which took place at an old Catholic Church that was turned into a brewery. I think they actually got our beer from the confessionals.

Saturday I amazingly got up at 7am on my own and went to the hotel gym. Then I drove over to Target to buy a last minute birthday card for my Aunt Linda and Starbucks to get some breakfast. For lunch, Linda and I went to visit my mom's friend who just moved to the Pittsburgh area from California. When we got back to the hotel, Brian the groom, his brother Aaron, the best man and another friend of his were all outside in jeans and t-shirts smoking and drinking to prepare for the wedding. Such guys.

The ceremony was nice and short and the reception was in the same room. In fact, we were seated at our tables for the ceremony. Dinner was buffet style and the bar was open. I ate steak for the second night in a row. No complaints. The music was great and I would have loved to dance, but I didn't know anyone else who was. Instead I caught up with my cousins who are guys and lame and don't dance. Not that I didn't like chatting with them, but it would have been amusing to see them try to bust a move.

After the reception we headed back to the hotel and a bunch of us hung out at the bar downstairs for a while. I didn't get much sleep that night and I was quite tired for the drive back. Over 130 miles on the turnpike which is a scary road is not very fun. Needless to say, I was glad to get back. It was a fun weekend and now I have my trip home and Alisa's wedding to look forward to next!

---------------------

Things I don't get:
-Why I see so many cars with Alaska plates.
-Why one ear gets more wax than the other.

Memorial Day Weekend 2005 - Part 2

2005-06-03T13:08:00.000-05:00

Saturday: Another lazy day. Friday night I got a room to myself and slept like a baby. I took a shower for the first time in two days. My mom and sister spent all day sorting through her clothes, deciding what she'd take home and what she'd store in NH. In order to feel a little productive I decided to unload the rest of Annie's stuff from the car. That was my exercise for the day. Make that the weekend. Before heading down to Connecticut, we all went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant my cousin Jaime (father of Braedon) cooks at. With my mom footing the bill I helped myself to a grande chicken quesadilla and a nice large margarita. Then it was time for the four hour drive down to the farm. I must admit I was a back seat driver Nazi. Luckily we got there alive, albeit late, and after a quick visit with my Aunt Susan and cousins Danni and Heather, drove to the cabin way out on the edge of the farm to sleeeeeeep.

Sunday: We took our time getting up in the morning. Breakfast got skipped and we went straight to cousin Corey and Annie's (different Annie) for lunch. Their four year old son, Dylan, decided to have his three week old pet chicken, whom he named Little Brown join us at the table. I was very impressed with how fearlessly he held that thing. That kid could survive in the wild better than me I'm sure. For the afternoon we went to the beach for a while, then Annie and I joined cousin Megan at her yoga class. I don't think I'm cut out for yoga. I'd like to say it's because I'm not spiritual enough, but then I remember my dad's into yoga. We had to chant "ohm" a couple times. I felt out of place. Ohms remind me of physics. At the end we got to lie on our backs for 5 to 10 minutes and I fell half asleep and started dreaming, though I don't remember what about.

Dinner was with everyone at Uncle David and Aunt Pauline's recently finished new house on the outskirts of the farm. We ate some colorful organic food then busted out David and Pauline's wedding album plus Megan's baby pictures and reminisced about family stories that have been told a hundred times. But since they are such good story tellers, it's always entertaining.

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Ok, it has now taken me about three days to finish this entry and I'm starting to forget details. I don't think anything that blog worthy happened the rest of the trip. Monday we woke up and did lunch at David and Pauline's again with everyone and then drove back up to Manchester so I could fly home. There were no mishaps at the airport or on the flight. I had my cell phone and only one boarding pass the whole time. And the people next to me knew how to breath properly. Let's hear it for smooth flying.

Memorial Day Weekend 2005 - Thursday night/Friday

2005-06-01T09:01:00.000-05:00

My mom and sister met a sweaty, exhausted, grateful-to-have-landed-with-no-more-problems-Jane (see below) at the Manchester airport. We headed to Concord and settled ourselves into a hotel for the night. Unfortunately I was not able to catch up on sleep because my mom was snoring and Annie had laryngitis which meant an infinite amount of phlegm was coughed up and sniffled all night. Friday morning we drove up to North Conway to my Uncle Paul and Aunt Vickie's place. I opted to be lazy and not go to Bates to help move my sister out of the dorms. Instead I stuck around with cousin Topher who took me with him to get gas so I could buy some ice cream (Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie in case you're wondering.) Then we came back and Topher taught me how to play cribbage. After some beginner's luck, he proceeded to demolish me. But I managed to even things out when we played gin rummy.

After that, my seven week old cousin, Braedon paid us a visit. Of course, being a relative of mine, he was very cute. He also had very big feet.

Uncle Paul made us some juicy red steak after my mom and Annie got back. Then we had family game time and played Outwageous which is a trivia game that invovles betting on whether you think the other teams of two will answer a question correctly. Now, there have been many moments, especially in the past year, when I've felt older than I am. But trivia games have a tendency of putting me in my place. I consider my general knowledge to be fairly decent, but trivia games are so darn frusterating because they assume you're at least 30. And I got paired with my sister which didn't help. The only category the Paul/Topher team ever bet we would get correctly was spelling. Luckily I surprised them a few times, like with my knowledge of Scott Baio being the star of Charles in Charge. But most of the time I sat there whining things like "But I was SIX when Pan Am flight 103 blew up!"

**Rest of the weekend coming shortly**

Ordeal at BWI

2005-05-27T18:03:00.000-05:00

I know I just blogged, but I feel my experience at the airport yesterday needs to be told.

I left work around 2:45 so I could go home and finish a few things before leaving. I finally headed out around 3:45 and hit some major traffic on 395 which I didn’t expect. At one point I got cut off by a lady with a sticker on her car said "Save the parrots!" Oh, please. Luckily traffic got better and I made it to my cousin Genelle’s with plenty of time.

Genelle gets me to the airport without any problems. I take my little luggage bag which I’ve had since I was 15 and my sister and I nicknamed R2D2 because of how the back wheels slide out and it leans back some. I get to the Southwest counter, excited to see that the line for ticketless customers (this just means you got them online) is much shorter. But just my luck, the computers for self check-in break down as I get in line. With only two people in front of me, it takes 20 minutes to get my whatever the pass was called so I could move on to security. I had to check in at the gate to get my boarding pass.

Security was the best part of the day...no line at all. Probably because everyone was stuck in line with the broken computers.

I get to the gate and check in and get my actual boarding pass. I’m wandering around and I hear over the speakers that they’re paging someone named "James Fulton". They say the name multiple times and I listen closely just to make sure. They were clearly saying James so I ignore it. I wander over to the Hudson news store and buy a snack. As I’m paying, the voice in the PA system comes on again calling my name for sure this time. They’re telling me to dial zero on a courtesy phone. I quickly pay for my stuff and search for a phone. I see one and it’s being used, then I see a second right next to the counter at my gate and it’s being used also. I ask the guy at the counter if there are any other courtesy phones and he says he doesn’t know. How helpful. I wait for the guy to hang up. Finally he does and I dial zero. The voice on the other line says "I’m sorry, but this is Sprint Customer service." Turns out it was just a regular pay phone. I ask the guy at the desk again if there are any courtesy phones at all here. He says he doesn’t know of any because it’s a new wing and they haven’t been put in yet and that I should ask some one "over there". I run down towards the beginning of the wing and ask another lady where I can find a phone. She informs me that there are instructions on the pay phones on how to use them as courtesy phones. I run back to the pay phone and that same damn guy is on it again. Luckily he gets off quickly this time and I see the 800 number to call. I call and get through, but they inform me that whoever was trying to reach me had hung up because it took me so long.

At this point I realize I’ve dropped my boarding pass somewhere the midst of running around. I get in line at the counter again so the Idiot Counter Guy who doesn’t know anything about courtesy phones can print another one out. Then the lady next to him who’s on the phone shouts out my name. "Yes, that’s me!" She tells me my cousin has been trying to page me because I left my cell phone in her car and that someone who works for Southwest named Roberta is going to meet me upstairs just inside of security in the B section. The guy next to me hears this and says "whoa, that’s a ways away." Fantastic. I run run run upstairs and find the area. I don’t see anyone in Southwest clothing so I ask some of the security people and they know nothing and lead me to more people who know nothing. At this point I’m worried because Idiot Counter Guy said if I wasn’t back in time that he’d give my seat away to stand by and also that if someone found my other boarding pass, they could just walk on since you don’t need ID after you pass security.

I’m about to give up and head back towards the gate when a lady calls out for me. It's Roberta she has my phone. Phew. I get to the gate in time. Double phew. As I was waiting to board, I’m holding my boarding pass and a lady comes up and hands me my first one. She tells me her husband saw me walk away from the Hudson news place leaving it on the counter. I guess I had been a little too flustered from hearing my name paged.

All that’s important is I made it on the plane with my phone (and an extra boarding pass). I was sweating and panting and had a middle seat next to a guy who exhaled really loudly through his nose, but I didn’t care. Although if I hadn’t had my mp3 player with me, he probably would not have survived.

I realize it’s my fault I left my phone in Genelle’s car and that it was careless to leave my boarding pass at the little store. BUT...if Idiot Counter Guy had known the pay phone right next to him could be used as a courtesy phone, or even better, had the PA people gotten my name right the first time, there would have been far less trouble.

Last thing...thanks again to Genelle for getting my phone back to me!

Goodbye soap, Hello allergies

2005-05-25T07:43:00.000-05:00

Alas, I have finally used up the Four Seasons soap that Jackie and I stole back in November. I will definitely keep the dispenser since it represents one of my wilder moments in life. Jackie tells me she still has the paper towels that we also took.

My allergies have decided to flare up. It started at Bucknell graduation this weekend. I thought maybe they'd subside when I got home. But no, they're here to stay. Yay.

I made brownies for the office pot luck yesterday and I was the only one to eat any! It was one of my best batches ever. I remembered the salt, but barely. Five seconds after I put them in the oven, I took the pan out and carefully added it. Since I was in a bit of a hurry, they were slightly underdone and hence very, very gooey. Silly dieters missed out!

Well I'm off to New England for the long weekend! I get to help Annie move out of the dorms with my mom. Then I'll be visiting relatives in New Hampshire and Connecticut. Unfortunately, there will be a lot of driving with my mom involved which means I won't be able to use the long car rides to catch up on some much needed sleep.

There's a first time for everything

2005-05-16T11:51:00.000-05:00

And this weekend it was being at a bar and walking straight into a bathroom stall while the men's room had a line out the door. What was the occasion you ask? Last week was Police Week here in DC. It's technically about honoring fallen officers, and cops from all over the country, even Canada, gather in the capital. And apparently there were no cops on duty anywhere in the nation Saturday night because they were all at this Irish bar. Drunk out of their minds singing patriotic songs. Although there was no line for the bathroom, it did take me ten minutes to nudge my way through all of them. Needless to say, I was amused.

I'm happy to announce I've added two guys to my sidebar. I have a disproportionately high number of girl friends with blogs. Anyway, you can check out Dave Barry's blog, he updates his throughout the day with links to amusing news stories and websites. One of my recent favorites is this society of well....really cool people *sarcasm*.

The other new blog is that of my buddy Erik who is unfortunately moving back to San Diego this weekend after finishing law school. I don't even get to go to his good-bye party where there's gonna be a moon bounce :(. But that's ok, because I'll be at Bucknell graduation hanging out with other cool people :).

Once again I'm overdue for a blog entry

2005-05-12T23:30:00.000-05:00

Random Observation: Not only is this area the capital of this nation, but it is also the capital of school trips. I find myself constantly running into large groups of middle school kids (ew) all wearing FBI and CIA hats.

Advice: When buying underwear at Victoria’s Secret, measure them against others of the same size and cut. I ended up buying what I thought were low-rise bikini panties that ended up looking like granny panties on me. Yuck.

Prize: Jackie has announced the winners of the Jackie the Greatest Blog Awards and I am the proud recipient of the Silver Blog Award! Congrats to AK for getting Platinum, Peetie and Brian who tied for Gold and my dad who edged out many others for the Bronze. I am so honored to know/be related to all of you.

Life Update: I got word from home last night that our dog Cocoa died. Although he could be a twerp and pee everywhere and bark all the time, I do have some heart and I feel really bad for my family, especially Annie. On a more positive note, I just bought my plane tickets to go up to New Hampshire Memorial Day weekend. My mom and I will be helping Annie move out of the dorms and then we’ll go down to the farm in Connecticut for a mini reunion.

Last but not least: I achieved a personal record of five comments on my last entry! That’s a Peetie-level number of comments! Congratulations to me :).

Over the last 4 days I:

2005-05-03T08:28:00.000-05:00

ate a cheeseburger at an Animal Right's bbq. Motto - There's room for all of God's creatures...next to the mashed potatoes.
embarrassed myself trying to sing Time of my Life and I Want it that Way at karaoke.
helped Jackie pick out a dress and shoes in under an hour. I like people who shop like me. (Don't worry Peetie...I'm still your friend.)
saw the Beach Boys perform at Chrysalis. Unfortunately California Girls was the first song they played and I wasn't there yet. There were a TON of old people there. I'd say half the crowd was over 50 thanks in part to the inauguration for the new prez the next day.
won a bottle of champagne in a raffle. The next morning my friend from jazz class got me a bottle of wine as a housewarming gift. I am now in need of some special occasions.
went to my second gymnastics class. I managed to do a front flip and land on my feet. Unfortunately my first few tries I did not end up on my feet and now I have a bruised tailbone so I will be walking and sitting funny for a day or two. Goals for next week: Kip and back flip.

Frustrated with nature

2005-04-25T08:19:00.000-05:00

Why? Well for one, it's cold again. Barely 40 this morning. And I continue to get electric shocks even from touching the plants at work.

But more importantly I've realized that by nature, guys like nurturing girls because they are trying to replace their mothers. This is totally natural and also quite subconscious. When you ask guys what they want in girls they often say "smart and funny".* This is bullshit. Ok, maybe not complete bullshit, but close. The point is, guys are weenies underneath it all and nurturing is at least a slightly more important quality to them than smart and funny. I don't necessarily expect the male gender to change, nor do I think they should, nor do I have anything against girls of the nurturing type. All I ask is that guys go through the humility of admitting this is true. It becomes extremely obvious in their choices, anyway.

Of course I complain because nature isn't working in my favor here. I tend to try to impress people, both guys and girls, by being smart and funny. This hasn't gotten me very far in the relationship department. And I believe this nurturing aspect is the reason. But being stubborn, I refuse to change. Perhaps I should try a unique approach to meeting guys: Go to middle aged women's events, find a woman who is a lot like me, ask if she has a son around my age.

Not that girls are off the hook in terms of saying they want one thing in a guy, and really being attracted to something else. But the whole "girls like bad guys" dealy has been beaten to death on talk shows, books, and conversations in general. So I feel it's redundant to say anything.

Side notes:

If I see that Old Navy tunic commercial one more time, I just may owe Denise a TV.
Looks like I'm headed to Bucknell this Thursday. I plan to attend Karaoke night in hoppin' Milton, PA.
Gymnastics starts tonight!

*I am referring to decent guys who are looking for something meaningful. In other words, I'm excluding those who might answer just "hot".

Sick, bad cheese and anchor sub

2005-04-13T22:42:00.000-05:00

I just ate the worst grilled cheese sandwich in history. Land-o-Lakes cheddar cheese should be banned by the FDA. This is what I get for trying to go cheap. That on top of being sick with a headache and sore throat and missing the first alumni softball game and happy hour has not made for a happy Janie today.

I came home early from work because I wasn't feeling well. I turned on the TV at 3 to watch Shepard Smith, my favorite news anchor. But no, they had some weenie guy subbing for him who was no where near as amusing.

Sigh. Better luck tomorrow.

Moved

2005-04-06T10:25:00.000-05:00

Sad news out of the way first: Illinois lost so I didn't win the office pool. It would have been $270. I was in first place out of 78 people going into the final game. I ended up finishing fourth because enough people had chosen UNC to pass me.

In happyland though, Denise and I have moved into our new apartment! It's clean and new looking and I love the area. I'm just so pleased in general. I've cut my commute down to five minutes. Still no bed, but I should be getting one tomorrow. I sold my IKEA bed (to a guy who went to Kansas, hee!) And I found my benadryl! Luckily posting a picture of the bed's mega-coolness on craigslist got a response in less than a day. So right now I'm sleeping on a full size futon Denise got from one of her friends covered with a twin size fitted sheet. The four corners of the mattress are popped up and it looks great!

For those of you in the area, I'm having a housewarming party on Saturday, the 23rd. Let me know if you want more information.

Only 3 more days with the roaches

2005-03-29T23:25:00.000-05:00

News:

Denise and I are moving this weekend! I just posted an ad on craigslist for my bed. I have to downsize to a full. I will be sad to see my IKEA bed go, but it was even too big for my room now.
I'm in second place out of 78 people in the office March Madness pool! If Illinois and UNC go to the final and Illinois wins, I get $270. Please root for teams accordingly!
I went up to Bucknell this weekend instead of going to NYC. It's an easier and cheaper trip and there was a BUCC "Make like the French and" retreat which I couldn't pass up. I think I laughed for two hours straight at one point. My favorite part was watching AK do a feminazi impression by holding a burning bra that Dominic! bought at Wal Mart and yelling "CUNT! I HATE MEN! VAGINA! I DON'T WANT SUPPORT FOR MY BREASTS!" as Nate took pictures for the Counterweight.
On Easter, Jackie made an Easter egg hunt for me. My first one in years!! It was actually more of a treasure hunt with the final prize being a LOT of candy. Then I drove over to State College for Easter dinner at my cousin's where I got ever more candy. I saw my aunt and uncle, plus met a cousin I had never met. I still have a boat load to go though.

Annoying gym moment: I had to wait for a treadmill. I finally get one, but it was the crappy one and it puts me next to this weird guy who hit on me a few months ago ("Hey, you look familiar, do you go to TC Williams High?" Nice try.) So I get on and notice he's been running for 34 minutes. The limit is clearly stated on signs as being 30 min. If this guy had followed the rules, I would have gotten a good treadmill and wouldn't have had to awkwardly run next to someone who thinks I look like I'm in highschool.

Bucknell Bison: Bracket Messers of 2005

2005-03-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

Wow, wow, wow. As you've probably heard by now, Bucknell was the victor in the biggest upset of the NCAA bball tournament. I proudly wore my Bucknell stuff today and a couple people even came up and congratulated me. I thanked them and told them I hoped it didn't mess up their brackets too much. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing "Bucknell" on the foxnews.com headlines and all over espn.com. I'll be rooting my heart out tomorrow at the Wisconsin game. We'll see if Bucknell can extend this 15 minutes of fame.

My favorite part of the whole thing:

"Alas, the Bucknell band wasn't part of the fun. They were off for spring break and couldn't be gathered in time to make it here, so the Northern Iowa crew filled in. They were faxed sheet music earlier Friday, received a box of orange Bucknell T-shirts when they got to the area and did a great job leading what grew to be a legion of fans."

Yes, that's right, they had to borrow a band.

Happy Ides of March!

2005-03-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot about Pi Day yesterday. Such a travesty. I was reminded when I woke up this morning to Peetie's IM about a Pi Day party she had. Pie eating and all. I missed out :(.

Denise and I are moving at the beginning of April! No more roaches! No more mice! Clean carpet! No more vacuum sitting in the kitchen ready to suck up those little twerps! And we'll be closer to downtown Arlington which means closer to work and the metro. Janie's excited.

For the first time ever I'm joining a March Madness pool at work. I have no idea what I'm doing so this is probably $5 down the shitter, but it'll be fun to have a reason to root for teams. Any tips are welcome.

Work has started to pick up a bit which is good because Bucknell is on Spring Break so I have fewer away messages and BUCC listserv emails to read. I came across someone named Junko who lives in Sammamish, WA and a Fan Fan. I brought in two boxes of fudge mint covered oreos to work today and they were gone by lunch! I felt so loved. Though I must admit I ate 7 of them.

I realize I've been a slacker when it comes to updating my blog and there is no excuse for this. It is my mid-march resolution to do better at this.

Too tired to title

2005-02-28T23:28:00.000-05:00

February 22, 2005 my life became complete. Amanda was on Blind Date and it was pure awesomeness. The guy got really drunk and told her she was “painful, like diarrhea.” To which she responded “Thank you for comparing me to excrement.” Classic! All in all, Amanda came off way better than the guy and the bubbles were perfection. If anyone missed it and would like to see this beautiful piece of television let me know because I have it on my computer.

In other news:

In addition to roaches, we now have a mouse. I first saw it from across the room. A few days later I got a closer look at it. It was tiny and quite cute. Then I told the hippie in me to can it and I went to get traps. But being the brilliant person I am, I mistakenly ended up with trays of poisonous pellets. I don’t want it eat these things and then go die in some hole I can’t get into and start smelling. Ew, ew ,ew. So now I have real traps sitting in some closets with peanut butter on them. Come hither little mouse, come hither…
If I get married, I’m doing so in feety pajamas. I was inspired over the weekend when I was visiting my cousin Genelle who was babysitting two adorable kids in them. So I went online and found this. Those poor models must be so embarrassed. But they look so fun!
I paper clipped a dryer sheet to the vent in my room. I consider this cleaning my room.
I got a new clothes hamper at Target. My old one was from IKEA and plastic and smelled. Yay for cloth!

Things I'm looking forward to:

Going home in June
Great-aunt Polly's 100th birthday party in october
Summer
NYC at the end of March (hopefully)

Time for bed...falling asleep to the smell of Bounce.

The Good and Bad

2005-02-22T12:10:00.000-05:00

Yays:

After some confusion it is set that Amanda Finkelstein will be on Blind Date tonight! Check your local listings...it's probably on sometimes between 11pm and 1am on WB or UPN. There's a promo online at www.blinddatetv.com. Inside peek->click on mirror->daily promos->tuesday. She's the second date. Quality line: "Thank you for comparing me to excrement."
There was a really good sale at United Colors of Benetton for President's Day. I found myself a nice black skirt and some shirts to wear to work.
I exchanged the sweater my mom got me for this one. (Click on the other color.) I was surprised I was able to find anything at anthropologie that was plain enough for me.
There's another pot-luck at work tomorrow so I get to make brownies tonight and eat left over batter!
I bought my tickets to go home in June for Alisa's wedding for only $188. Mark your calenders...I'm invading from June 22-27.

Nays:

I cancelled my trip to Bucknell since Amanda wasn't on Monday night like we originally thought. Hence I don't get to watch it with BUCCers.
My benadryl fell between my bed and the wall. Then I tried to use this plastic thing I found in the kitchen drawer and I dropped that down there too. Then I tried to use a spatula, but this proved futile. Both are gone until we move.
I was reading the description of my personality type from the Myers-Briggs test (ISTJ) and here's what it said: "You often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something you do without considerable energy loss." How do I have any friends?!?

My life from A to Z

2005-02-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

I’m hopping on the Alphabet Bandwagon along with Finklestein, AK and Dawn:

A: American Idol/Apprentice-the best reality shows on TV
B: Blind Date: Not the best reality show, but definitely not bad. Most importantly, Finklestein will be on it Monday night/Tuesday morning Feb 21st/22nd. Check your local listing for times. Even if you don't know her, I suggest checking it out. Should be very awesome. B is also for Bored which is why I’m doing this.
C: Chocolate Chip Cookies-though not as good as the Gunn salmonella snack bar cookies, the cafeteria here sells some pretty good ones that are loaded with chocolate chips. Me gusta.
D: Dry cleaning-something I’m going to have to face pretty soon.
E: Eldest-because I'm the eldest child (pretty obvious I couldn't think of anything, huh?)
F: Facebook-a fun little addiction.
G: Gas Mileage-mine is whack. For my commute to work and the gym, I only get 20 miles per gallon. I’m supposed to be getting 32. The drive is fairly hilly, but still…20??
H: Hard boiled eggs-my new favorite snack. Mmm…cholesterol.
I: Itchy-what I am because I have random hives popping up on my arms and legs.
J: Job-yay, I have one!
K: Kristina-because as kids we always fought over whether J or K was more common.
L: Listerine-what I’ve begun using because I had a sudden fear that I have bad breath. I can’t swish it for very long though because it starts to burn. But I’ll probably build up some endurance. Maybe it’ll help me take shots. J/K.
M: Meat-something I want to eat more of, but tends to be expensive. Especially that from a baby cow.
N: Numbers-because they never lie.
O: Oreos-mint oreos to be more precise. One of the more important food inventions of our time.
P: Pants-I don’t dread buying them anymore because I’ve found a style at Express that fits me very well and comes in lots of colors and materials.
Q: Qwerky-how I like to describe myself. It’s nicer than weird.
R: Reading-something I should do more of.
S: Sleep-something I need more of.
T: Triscuits-another new favorite snack. Good with cheese.
U: Umbrella-the always used "U" word.
V: Vacuuming-something my room needs.
W: Weekend-something I’m looking forward to.
X: Xerox-when I was little I thought it was pronounced "ekserox"
Y: YMCA-where I go after work almost everyday.
Z: ZiZZobuckley-cool name I came across on the database. I’m jealous.

Be grateful for your name

2005-02-01T23:52:00.001-05:00

Things have been chugging along in my life. I’ve established a nice routine during the week of going to work and gym. And then weekends come along and I have to improvise. But I guess that would be no fun if weekends were a routine too.

I have so many TV shows to watch now. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays are booked with American Idol, The Apprentice and Desperate Housewives and Lost. So please don’t recommend anymore shows to me. I could really use Tivo.

My coworker Patsy took me to Whole Foods today during lunch. Now that I know where it is, I might actually eat some fruit. Giant and Safeway just don’t cut it. Tomorrow I’m test-tasting a huge California naval orange and a tangerine I think it is. Pray for sweetness!

I am addicted to Pepperidge Farm’s double chocolate milanos. I’ve eaten two bags in the last four days. The problem is Denise has had a bag of them down there for quite sometime so I decided to eat them and then replace it. But then the replacement bag is there…tempting me…and I give in. And I replace it and so on and so on…

I'm a Working Girl!

2005-01-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

I am almost done with my second week of work. I still don't know what to make of it. Bascially I process exam registrations and orders that come in for study materials. This week I had to enter in all the FAILS for people who FAILED exams this fall. It may have been repetitive, but I felt a sense of power. Plus the names keep me entertained. Yay foreigners!

Today we got to wear jeans in honor of the inauguration. This is good because I basically have only two pairs of pants I wear to work. I doubt anyone will really notice, unlike at GEICO, but it's still nice to get to throw in a third pair this week.

We had a potluck last week on my third day and I made people like me by making my yummy brownies. And today I brought in a bag of mint oreos which went away very quickly! I broke down at the grocery store the other day when I saw them on sale, buy one get one free. At least I dimished my selfishness by sharing the transfat with others. But only the second bag.

I lost my driving-in-snow-viriginity yesterday and it was scary. I was so focused on the road that I almost ran a red light and had to break really hard. It probably would have been safer just to go through it since it had just turned, but oh well. It caused my overdrive to go off and I had to get the manual out to figure out how to fix it. Turns out there's just a button on the park/drive/reverse thing. I felt dumb, but relieved I didn't need maintenance.

For some reason I've been wanting to sleep with my head on my arms, but this causes my arms to fall asleep completely numb and wake me up in the middle of the night. Then, in my half awakedness, I let it tingle out and proceed to shift my head to a different part of my arm, thus repeating the whole process. I have no idea how I got myself into this unwanted ritual. But now I must go and try to stop it. Goodnight.

I got a job!

2005-01-11T01:08:00.000-05:00

Jackie came down to visit for the weekend so I got to celebrate getting a job with her! We did super cool things like go out with my now EX! coworkers from my last temp job, ice skating, and the Arlington National Cemetery where I managed to drop my cell phone as I was trying to turn it off at the very beginning of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. D'oh.

And next week Annie's coming down! Lucky girl gets to go to the inauguration thanks to Bates College Republicans. I'm trying to talk her in to staying Thursday night and skipping classes on Friday so we can hang out some because now that I've moved I don't get to see her anymore. *tear*

I can't believe I become like a real adult tomorrow. *tear tear*

Happy New Year!

2005-01-04T01:26:00.000-05:00

*Warning: This entry is a little random and has no real flow or order to it. But I guess that's usually the case.*

Hooray for 2005! I have two calendars this year: a Garfield wall calendar and a Book Lover's Page-a-Day that I got for free when I bought the Garfield one and the Outhouse one which was my dad's Christmas gift.

I can't think of any resolutions to make. This isn't to say I think I'm perfect. But I already workout, I don't smoke and I don't feel like changing my diet even though I probably should. Maybe I could quit playing hearts and spider solitaire on the computer. Or I could decide to be nicer. But I think I'm nice enough.

I got home last Wednesday and had a pretty nice break. I finally got to go ice skating on Tuesday! I did a couple decent spins and some half-assed jumps where I was only in the air for about 90 degrees. And I didn't fall! So many people fell and it was hilarious to watch. Especially when it was a father and son pair and they drag each other down.

For Christmas I got some shirts and books. My mom picked out the shirts and one I'm a little unsure about. So I'm getting as many opinions as I can. So far reviews are mixed. It's pink with pleats on the shoulders and has a big flower print on the bottom right. It's not as bad as it sounds, but not quite as good as it should be... I also got some comfy kerries (flip flops). I think they're great, but my sister got the same pair and thinks they're ugly. Oh well.

The weather here is completely baffling me. I never thought my first New Year's out east would be my warmest. It was nearly 70. And tonight as I was driving back from the gym it was still 64. I think what gets me about east coast whether the most is how drastically it can change. The standard deviation of temperature is much bigger. So for now...rock on global warming!

I have discovered one thing I like about driving in Virginia: The yellow lights are about twice as long as the ones in California.

Jackie's coming to visit this weekend and has a whole list of fun things she wants to do which is awesome because now I know I won't be sitting on my butt doing nothing...woohoo!

I had a low moment tonight and had to hand wash some socks and underwear. This should hold me over for a few days until I give up and realize I'm just gonna have to use the washers in the basement. Boo hoo.

I get presents in the morning...wheee!

2004-12-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

The other day Peetie, Sandra, Kristin and I decided to make gingerbread houses. I was very much looking forward to this and was especially pleased to see lots and lots of candies to decorate them. We had three kinds of Teddy Grahams, Christmas M&Ms, normal M&Ms, mint Hershey Kisses, Twizzlers, little red candies, sprinkles, pretzels, and a number of other things...you get the picture. But unfortunately for me, I never really got to use them. Why? Because I couldn't get stupid piece of crap graham crackers to stand up. The other three were off making beautiful mansion homes with balconies, multiple levels, snow covered walls, a waterbed, a teddy graham impaled by a Hershey Kiss, etc. And I was still stuck loading on the sugar paste trying to get my walls to stay up. Eventually I got so fed up, I pounded the whole thing into the ground with my fist. I call it Earthquaked House. Peetie even placed a Teddy Graham under the rubble so it had more of a story. Am I the only person who has trouble with gingerbread houses? If you have a story like this I would really appreciate hearing about it so I'm not the only incompetent one.

Annie, Sandra and I went to Memorial Church for a Christmas Eve service thingy and afterwards we had planned to watch a bunch of Christmas movies like Rudolph, and Charlie Brown Christmas. But when we got home, we couldn't find Rudolph and then it turned out our VCR wasn't even plugged in. So instead we watched South Park's "A Very Crappy Christmas" with Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo! We were so in the holiday spirit.

Another activity I associate with being home is reading the local police blotter, of which the best stuff comes from Atherton, though Palo Alto has it's moments, too. Here's a sample:

VANDALISM A 37-year-old man was arrested after allegedly smashing a front window at Stoa Restaurant, 632 Emerson St., with a bag containing protein powder and running off. Police caught up to him about 12:15 a.m. Friday on the 900 block of Emerson Street.
Atherton: someone fell out of bed and needed help getting up.
ATHERTON First block Melanie Lane, 5:16 p.m.: A resident called police after a golden cocker spaniel ran into her house and jumped on a guest.
ATHERTON 200 block Polhemus Ave., 3:51 p.m.: Vandals moved a large decorative rock. (A thank you to this site)

My eyes are droopy and I'm super excited to open presents in the morning. So Merry Christmas to all (except those who don't celebrate it), and to all (except those I don't like) a good night!

Too tired to come up with a title

2004-12-21T02:03:00.000-05:00

It's only 11 o'clock and I'm exhausted. I wonder if my ongoing jet lag is psychological since I'm not bothering to change the time on this computer which is telling me it's 2am.

Annie is home now and has had a couple great quotes already:

On Sex in the City: "Watching that show makes me morally nauseous."
On our neighbors' two kids who are 8 and 6: "Chris and Laura are coming over to help me decorate my little tree. I think they really like mini things. They're like little Japanese children."

Sandra is home now too! We got together today and dipped strawberries in melted Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips. I highly recommend this activity. It's one of my favorites.

I don't have much interesting news. I've been doing more of the same ol' Palo Alto stuff...I went to Piazza's twice again today and I went downtown and ate at Peninsula Creamery the other night. Ice skating is schedule for next Sunday the 26th so if you're in the area, come!

Oh! There is a winning brand in the egg nog taste contest! The prize (bragging rights that I chose it) goes to the Fully Fattening Clover Stornetta 100% Natural Egg Nog. I have only seen this brand at Piazza's so good luck to those of you who don't live in Palo Alto. So far I've drunk (drunken? dranken? Usually I know these things...) a quart.

Home Sweet Home

2004-12-18T01:53:00.000-05:00

Well I'm home and happy. This is so cool getting to write a blog entry from my own bed at home. I must say again that I heart my 4 lb lap top.

I have a suggestion for you all: Fly JetBlue. And when you get to choose which snack you want, get the chocolate chip cookies. They are the best packaged chocolate chip cookies I've ever had (and I'm an expert). If you don't like chocolate chip cookies, get them anyway and mail them to me.

I'll be spending my next two weeks doing as many Palo Alto things as possible. So far I've:

gone to Piazza's...twice. I had to fix the major lack of food in the house. Ok fine, I mean lack of Jane-foods such as tuna, trans-fat peanut butter, two kinds of egg nog and instant breakfast.
gone to Stanford Shopping Center...twice. Nothing drastically new there except for a Kate Spade store and Banana Republic redid their store and closed off the side entrance.
worked out at the Y. I am not letting those egg nog calories get the best of me!
watched a car changed lanes between two eighteen wheelers on the highway. It then proceeded to change lanes again just as a van on the other side of it was moving into that same lane. I thought for sure I was about to witness an accident, but it ended up ok. I got a look at this car and it had a bumper sticker that said "Palo Alto resident. I drive safely."

Still on the to-do list is ice skating at the Winter Lodge, walking downtown and spending at least an hour in Borders, eating at Peninsula Creamery, and making cookies and egg nog. Let me know if you want to partake in any of these activities with me.

I just solved a mystery! I believe in two spaces after periods, just like you're supposed to. And I type that way naturally. But for some reason with my blog, when I reread it, there's always only one space after periods. And now I've figured out that this happens when I spell check. Blogger doesn't even give me a choice and it doesn't warn me. Not only should people have the freedom to put however many spaces after periods as they like (being dumb isn't a crime), but Blogger automatically makes it the wrong number. Bastards. Well I'm not gonna spell check after writing this last paragraph. Take THAT Blogger!

It's about time!

2004-12-11T01:40:00.000-05:00

I'm finally updating! I know it's been a long time and to say I was too busy would be a lie. I just kept putting it off because I didn't know what to write about...there's just too much and I don't want to bore people. If you want a good recap of my trip to Boston, check out Jackie's blog. Most notable moments include:

-Stealing fancy paper towels and soap from the Four Seasons Hotel so we could be somewhat sanitary at our less than desirable Farrington Inn.
-The scary bedside doll lamp that we had to put in the closet so that peetie could sleep.
-A special lighted ice cube that was put into my drink at a karaoke place.

We also went to New York (which isn't covered in Jackie's blog). Moments include:

-seeing a horse with a cop on it fall in the middle of Times Square. (both horse and cop are OK)
-smelling mashed potato scented candles at a shop in the Palisades Mall.
-getting lost in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I spent this past weekend at Bucknell where I got to pretend I was in college once again. I went to the BUCC dodgeball game where I unfortunately didn't get to play, but the foamy mats right by the court made up for it because I could flip around. I learned that gymnastics uses very different muscles than what I've been using at my muscle fitness classes. Two days later and I was still sore. It brought back memories trying to get out of bed after the first day of gymnastics season.

For those of you who care, I get home (as in Palo Alto) next Wednesday night. I'll be around for two weeks so call me if you want to see me.

Somebody didn't pass first grade math

2004-11-15T01:47:00.000-05:00

A big WTF to McDonald's: Being a creature of habit, I have always ordered the same thing...6 piece nuggets, small fries and a small chocolate shake. As I waited in line today, I was looking at the menu and noticed that 6 nuggets cost $2.59 and that 4 nuggets cost $1. This means 8 nuggets cost $2 which is cheaper than getting 6! From now on it's 8 nuggets for Jane!

Another bargain buy today was my $8 hair straightener, but I better not say too much about this since I haven't tried it out yet. I really didn't understand the sale, but the lady scanned it and said it was $8. I didn't see a catch, so I carefully handed her a 10 making sure no extra money magically disappeared from my wallet.

It's Christmas season, which means stores have egg nog!!! Since egg nog is never around long enough for me to determine which brands are the best, I'm on a mission this time to try as many as I can. I really like the one my mom would buy when I was little, but it just came in a glass bottle with no lable. If I go to a store with a choice, I buy the one with the most fat. Nothing ticks me off more than low-fat egg nog. It only comes once a year and therefore I go all out, clogging my artieries and raising my cholesterol because by golly, it's worth it!

Bang Bang!

2004-11-11T01:37:00.000-05:00

I went to homecoming this weekend and in the middle of it I took a trip to the shooting range with some BUCC buddies and shot four different kinds of guns. One was so cool it had fire coming out of it! Even so, I've decided that gymnastics is WAY more dangerous then shooting.

Other recent events in my life include:
-Seeing a PA license plate that said "K". Just "K". There are only 36 single digit/letter plates per state. That totals to no more than 1836 in the country. Pretty darn rare.
-Finding Giant brand Andes ice cream. I had to go to THREE Giants to find it! A half gallon is only $2 with your bonus card. It's basically vanilla ice cream with chunks of Andes. But the chunks aren't cold and hard and tasteless like in some flavors...they're minty and huge!!
-Seeing a car with a Bush/Cheney sticker and another one that said "Trees are the answer!"
-Getting to visit the house we lived in in Gaithersburg, MD with my dad. We knocked on the door and it turned out the same woman who we rented it from still lives there. Much of it was still furnished the same since she had left all her stuff in it. I mostly recognized stuff through old videos and photos, since I had only been 3.

Thanks to my toothbrush I'm starting to realize how often I'm not at my apartment. I've had my Oral B toothbrush since July and the blue stripe is just starting to disappear now. (I have a travel toothbrush that I take with me when I spend the night elsewhere.) You're supposed to change your toothbrush every 3 months which is how long I would expect it to take the blue strips to disappear half way. It is only about a third gone and it has been 4 months.

Peetie and Phil get here in one week...YAHOO! We are going to have some funfilled times! I love visitors (hint hint wink wink).

Election Selection

2004-11-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

Well, we survived the Y2K of 2004. A day we knew was coming, but had no idea how it would end. I had great fun wearing my Electoral College sweatshirt, though I didn't wear it as much as I hoped because it's been quite warm.

My cousin Lindsay had an election party at her apartment/hotel. (She's there for a semester and is getting maid service once a week. But even better is that she has reliable hot water.) We won a couple games of beer pong on what was probably the world's shortest and most expensive beer pong table. But most of the time was spent glued to the TV watching foxnews or CNN like it was the superbowl. I finally went to bed when it was clear Bush would win, just not clear when this would be official. (A big thanks to Kerry for not dragging lawyers into this.) One thing I have learned from this election is that Ohio is a really fun word to type. ohiohiohiohiohiohio.

I've enjoyed reading people's away messages the last few days and realizing that they apparently think I'm "delusional" and "dumb". Ouch! It's a good thing I didn't know anything about politics in highschool and most of college because this gave people a chance to like me first, before sharing the shocking news. Sometimes I feel like being conservative and from the Bay Area is like being gay in Mississippi. "Huh? I never really met one of you people before. But how can you be like that having grown up in the environment you did? Maybe you'll come around in a few years."

All in all, this has been a pretty fantastic week. Bush wins, hippies cry, and my dad's here taking me out to dinner and buying me things and helping me with the job search. Plus, this weekend is homecoming so it's only gonna get better. And watch out...I'm going shooting on Saturday...

*Haha, spell checker's first suggestion for foxnews was "foxiness". (It had no suggestions for ohiohiohiohiohio.)

Halloween fun!

2004-11-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

I probably had one of the cheapest and most fun halloween costumes ever. I was a messed up ballot. On the front I wrote Nader/Cheney, Bush/Edwards and Kerry/Camejo with the little arrows at the side. And on the back I wrote Bush on one side, Kerry on the other and Other at the bottom. I brought a sharpie with me and had people vote on my back. Very interactive and it was fun taking it off afterwards and reading all the other things people wrote. For the record Kerry got 50-some votes (it was hard to tell whether some marks were tallies or not) and Bush got 44. Not surprising Kerry won, but Bush did better than expected. This is thanks in part to the pack of Packer fans I ran into who were in town for the game. It was hilarious. They were all over 50 and in Packer shirts at this bar full of young people.

Other than tallies, random things written on my shirt included:
-a guy's phone number
-"Canada, eh?"
-a penis
-I "heart" U, but the heart was poorly drawn and it looked like it said IOU. Hmmm....maybe this is what he meant.

Good costumes I saw:
-Mary-Kate Olsen....she was wearing a skeleton shirt.
-A group of guys were battleground states. They had large cutouts of Florida, Ohio, etc and were carrying shields.

My dad is here visiting for the week and I've already gotten him to take me out to dinner and by me groceries. Score!

Happy Happy Joy Joy Down in my Heart! Ack

2004-10-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy things in Janie's life:

I haven't yet lost my keys or wallet or purse. Knock on wood.
I got a coupon for a free gallon of milk!!
I got to spend time with Michelle and some of her other friends from palo alto and go into DC three days in a row.
I have managed to lose weight despite eating bag after bag of oreos.
Except for a flat tire, traffic ticket and towing, I haven't had any car troubles.
I checked out Peace Kills by PJ O'Rourke from the main library.
This isn't necessarily happy, but it's notable: I had a 20 minute conversation with one of Denise's friends about scurvy and how he eats limes to avoid it.
Quote from Allison: "What is this chicken dog crap? Jane, you might as well become a terrorist."

But otherwise, life sucks. The job search is in full gear this week, and if I don't get any interviews, I'm going to cry. Also, since I didn't take a trip anywhere this weekend, I have to resort to doing laundry here at the apartment tomorrow. I've put it off so long, I had to handwash three pair of underwear the other day.

Greetings from Greenbelt, MD!

2004-10-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

Toe update: Still a little black and blue and it's scabbing over nicely. My shoes hurt a lot less...on my toes that is. I have something on my heel/achillies that makes wearing shoes even more painful than it was on my toes. Dunno what it is, but it better not be infected! *Angry face*

For my fellow Palo Altans who have entered the trap of The Circles, if you've ever wondered how the streets are laid out, here ya go. I had no idea they were circles inside of circles. Like donuts, cool!

If you haven't checked out the link in my profile already, this video of John Edwards doing his hair is great. Makes me feel manly. No sound is necessary and it is quite long so after he puts on his glasses you can stop watching because nothing much happens.

I'm at a new temp job in Greenbelt, MD. That's right...I'm working out of state and the commute is quite something. I'm very underslept because I have to get up at 6:15am and those enticing baseballs games have kept me up at night....thanks a lot EDT. And as my luck would have it, I got a flat tire on the way home yesterday. Bastard construction nails.

On a brighter note, I have THREE friends coming this weekend!!! Charles, Allison and Michelle. It will be a nice little mixture of college and high school. And there are plans to go to karaoke in Alexandria, but don't count on me performing since the crowd will be bigger and full of people I don't know.

Along with my heel/achilles mystery and the flat tire, my boo list for this entry also includes this bus I took in the district last night to go from the metro station on I street to a restaurant on U street. It stopped at EVERY SINGLE BLOCK! I find this completely unnecessary. The blocks are not long at all and just going to every other one would be totally reasonable. Let the people have to walk a little!

My sister is on a field trip to Mt. Saint Helens for her volcano class. And no, you aren't mistaken, she does go to school in Maine. I think this is the coolest field trip ever. It was planned well before it started erupting and I'm totally jealous. Don't get lavaed Annie!!

Back inside the Beltway

2004-10-17T15:24:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my second weekend visit to Bucknell since I graduated. I don't remember what I said about my last visit and I might be repeating myself here, but I went into the C-Store to check out the candy and it has really gone downhill. No chocolate covered oreos, chocolate covered york mint bites or bite size kit kat balls. Shame on the C-Store. It used to have the best selection of candy I had ever seen and now it pretty much only consists of gummy crap.

I went to Karaoke with the BUCC crew Thursday night. Notable moments include:
-Adam asking Charles if he wants to make out.
-This picture of Charles and Matt.
-Allison and I singing We Didn't Start The Fire (my first karaoke song-go me!)
-Charles falling on his ass.

Boo moments of the weekend include:
-Opening to door to KP right on my two littlest toes. Somehow I managed to open it so it gouged out skin from IN BETWEEN my toes. NOT cool. It is also very bruised and closed toed shoes are painful. Please pray for quick toe recovery.
-My less than satisfying meal in the caf. I have missed eating in the caf, but now I'm convinced that my hot dogs with cheese wrapped in a slice of bread are fine dining in comparison.

Sign I'm getting old:
The fact the I clearly remember something that happened 15 years ago--The '89 earthquake. That's one and a half decades!!! There's something about this anniversary that's as much of a mark of my age as my birthday. I don't feel like I should be old enough to remember something from that long ago.

Way to make money, possibly?
Step 1: Pair up with someone voting for the opposite presidential candidate from you.
Step 2: The two of you register in a swing state (PA, OH and FL are your best bets, but in reality it's probably too late to do this so just lie).
Step 3: Separate to different parts of the state surrounding yourself by passionate radicals on the opposite side of you and tell them if they give you money that you won't vote. See how much you can make. This way your vote doesn't lose out and you make some dough. Too bad my next trip to Bucknell is right after the election.

Changes!

2004-10-13T13:38:00.000-05:00

I have made some dramatic changes on my side bar. I have added Amanda's, Genelle's, my dad's and Uncle Murphy's blogs and then put them in alphabetic order. I have also decided to archive by month instead of week. It has been wild in blogland.

I flew upto NH this past weekend for my grandmother's and great-aunt's birthday dinner. They are 93 and 99. I also went so I could see my parents. But they made a wrong turn and didn't make it to the dinner. Needless to say I was a little disappointed and racked up a nice bill for them by getting an appetizer, steak alfredo, wine and a dessert drink. They ended up meeting us afterwards at my grandmother's old folks home. My parents paid for the trip for me and considered changing my flight to the next day so I could spend more time with them. My mom's response to this in front of everyone was "How much is this going to cost us?" Caaaaan you feeeeeeel the loooooove toniiiiiiight. Cuz I can't. But due to other circumstances, I flew back that night.

To no surprise, the first thing my mom commented on was my weight. Since I joined the Y, I've been exercising everyday and my pants are getting loose. This is good, BUT, I can't afford new pants at this point so I'm having to counter this by eating loads of mint oreos. Golly gee, darn!

Message to the Arlington Fire Department: The beanie cap twirly things on the front of your trucks that spin and light up when the sirens are going do not make them look like important vehicles to which others should yield. They look like toys.

I can drink Pepsi guilt-free

2004-10-07T00:16:00.000-05:00

My stint at Coke is over Friday. They finally realized they don't need anybody. (Duh.) It was good while it lasted. Though I was running out of things to look at online. So many cool sites like theonion are blocked. I'm currently signed up on friendster, thefacebook and collegefacebook. This has allowed me to spend hours stalking random people. I highly recommend it. I do wish you could search people by high school on collegefacebook though. But I probably wouldn't find many people from Gunn since the Ivy League schools aren't on there.

I can't say I'm overly upset about this job ending. I didn't want to be there forever to begin with and it will give me some time to get things done next week. I have an interview Tuesday with Corporate Executive Board for a Sales Associate position. Ok, this is starting to sound like a normal person's blog. Done.

The toothbrush holder has been resurrected!! This is a glorious event. Denise must have the magic touch.

Survey question: I'm in the market for a new hair dryer. Does anybody have suggestions? My cousin Genelle has one I really like, it's Revlon, but it's old and I don't know if I'll be able to find it easily. I like hair dryers that are powerful, but don't feel like they're burning your hair. I wanna say from my experience that the louder and sharper the noise it makes, the more it seems like it's burning. Also, the straighter your hair comes out with it, the better. I realize these are hard things to balance, but I'd appreciate some input.

Bates, Tabasco, and Tongues!

2004-10-03T00:56:00.000-05:00

Time for a blog entry before I forget everything!

I flew up to Bates College on Thursday to surprise my sister for her birthday! It was so great to see her. The school is really perfect for her, and I'm really glad she's happy. So many people's jaws dropped because we look nothing alike. But they did say we walk and talk similarly.

I saw lots and lots of polo shirts. And there are buildings on the campus named Smith, Olin, Carnegie and Dana. I think I type for all Bucknellians when I type WTF?? I also must say I'm very grateful Bucknell didn't have sinks where you had to hold the knobs to keep the water running. This would have messed up my whole face washing routine that requires the use of two hands. And you know how Janie gets when her routines are messed up....

I flew this new airline called Independence Air. The seats are leather and bright blue! But they only recline like an inch. Did you know that you may get more room in an exit row, but there's a vent on the exit door that blows cold air right on you? And also, you can't recline seats that are in front of an exit row. This is because that inch of space is the difference between life and death. Duh.

On the flight back we had to sit at the terminal for a while so we got a free beer for it! This was actually exactly what I needed for the flight because it happened to be one of the most turbulent ones I've been on and the drink kept me from having a heart attack.

And of course I kept myself amused by looking through Skymall catalogue. Check out the 23 types of tabasco sauce gift basket for $100. And also the Humunga Toungue for dogs, which in the description they clarify that humunga is named after humungous which is slang for very large. Is there some correlation between people who fly and low IQs I don't know about that people who work for this catalogue do?

R.I.P. Toothbrush holder

2004-09-30T01:01:00.000-05:00

I'm minus a good thing in my life. The toothbrush holder I mentioned in that blog entry doesn't suction cup to the mirror anymore. I have one less thing to be grateful for. This will probably be replaced, but in the meantime, it makes me sad. And if IKEA doesn't have anymore, then I'll be mad.

BTW, my next entry should be a happy one if all goes as planned....

My dad has a blog

2004-09-28T22:55:00.000-05:00

So my dad has a blog now. www.blogbydick.blogspot.com. He'll probably get a lot of hits from people looking for porn. He's using the same template as me and has therefore gained points towards being a girly-man. (Though I doubt Arnold would ever accuse him of being an economic girly-man.)

I finally had to do laundry this weekend. I dread laundry because the machines here are sketchy and I'm not sure if I can trust the people. I drove around town looking for laundromats, but they were just as sketchy so I came back. Luckily I picked the right washer because the other one turned out to leak everywhere and flood the place. But I ended up with the crappy dryer and had to run my clothes through it twice. One load cost me $4.50 for all that. And I still have another load waiting.

Allison and Charles were here this weekend! Allison got her first fan mail for her radio show. The first funny part is that it was from an inmate at the penitentiary...Some right-wing convicted felon doing time for armed robbery praising her show. The second funny part is that he isn't bad looking.

Denise dog sat again while Allison was here. This dog, Raleigh, is so fun to watch because he's a puppy and dumb. I made it dance by circling an oreo around its head. It's so much cuter than Cocoa and doesn't bite my friends.

It's the little things

2004-09-23T00:04:00.000-05:00

When life is going rough, I think it's important to think about the little good things to keep yourself sane. So that's what I'm going to do with this entry.

Good things in Jane's Life:

My zip code, 22204, because it has three 2's in a row and I don't have to jump around on the keyboard as much as I did when I was living in good old 94306 (man that was annoying).
My 4 lb computer which is sitting on my lap as I type on my wonderful IKEA queen size bed.
I have a roll of film to look forward to developing.
The toothbrush holder Denise got for the bathroom. It suction cups to the mirror so the brushes don't clutter up the sink and we don't have to go into a cabinet.
I have at least two weekend trips planned for the month of October. Btw, for those in NYC, I think (but I'm not sure) that I'll be there the weekend of October 15. So if you want to see me, let me know!
Thursday night TV with Joey and The Apprentice!!

(I admit there was a lot of thinking time between coming up with each one of these.)

Ok, all fixed

2004-09-22T00:38:00.000-05:00

**I didn't realize the first entry about the Surreal Life got posted because when I tried to post it, it gave me an error message, but apparently it did get posted. Then when I posted the rewrite, I saw the first one, but the internet was so slow I didn't have the patience to fix it. So now I have gotten rid of the first one and added the Bad Advertising Strategy to the second one.**

I actually did something at work today and it wasn't data entry, it was color entry. I used Excel and color coordinated cells according to whether someone had a time sheet signed or not. I think I'm going to fool around with it some tomorrow, because I don't like the colors being used. There are four and they clash. Magenta, light pink, olive green and lime green. Even I have better taste than that. (They were chosen before I started working on it.)

I think the coffee at work was stronger than normal this morning. I had the normal one cup but was extra jittery. This was not good for the phone interview I had during my lunch. My voice was all choppy. I lacked suaveness. Sigh. Better luck next time.

Since I got a rave review from my sister about the chin hair piece, so I figure I should continue with bodily news. Apparently I have hives. At least that's what Denise thinks it is. It's either that or a lot of bug bites in which case I should be worried about blood loss. In any case, I have taken some Benadryl for the itchiness. Also, I'm realizing that I'm going to have to wear my bottom retainer for my whole life. If I go even one night without wearing it, I can start to see my one very crowded tooth get pushed back. Back to the hives...I hope I'm not allergic to my sheets. But they're jersey sheets so then I'd have to be allergic to t-shirts. (Wow that would suck.) Hmm...I've never really been allergic to anything...what a mystery.

I just did spell checker and I accidently spelled anything "anythiny" but it didn't even suggest "anything" as a correction. It did have "anytime", "Anthony", "antenna", and "Antaean" which has the never before seen "aea" combination, just to name a few. So when I typed in anything as the correction, it gave me a warning box saying my replacement "HAS NOT been validated". (Caps are theirs.) But it validates "Antaean"??? Since words don't have feelings, I'm going to feel insulted for "anything".

Reality TV makes me think

2004-09-20T21:43:00.000-05:00

I never thought I'd have a revelation while watching The Surreal Life, but alas, I did. For those of you who don't know, it's a show that takes I think 6 C-list Hollywood "stars" and has them live in a house together. This season has Joey from Full House and Ryan Starr from the first season of American Idol. There's also this short, ugly, obnoxious guy named Flavor Flav (I don't know what he's known for) who gets it on with this chick Brigitte. Flavor is one of those people who has no redeeming qualities and is hopeless in becoming what I consider to be a good person. Needless to say, I don't understand what Brigitte sees in him.

Which brings me to my revelation: It bothers me when people don't know when to be sketched out. This also occurred on Real World San Francisco with the horrendous Puck. I've talked to a bunch of people who really liked Rachel on that season, but if you ask me, the fact that she was attracted to Puck, instead of completely repulsed like one should have been, told me she had issues. Perhaps I'm being harsh and missing something big here, but I don't think so. (I just have to say that so people know it has occurred to me.)

Ok, enough ranting.

Denise and I are watching a show on the Discovery Health Channel about a 7 yr old boy who was pregnant with his own twin. He has this big bulge in his stomach but his parents didn't think he needed to see a doctor until years later when he complained of stomach pains. So basically there was a baby growing inside of a baby as a parasite. There was a South Park episode about this. Way too cool.

In other news:

I have a hair growing out of my chin. It is about an inch long and I haven't decided what to do about it. Tugging on it hurts so I don't want to do that. I could cut it, but it might just keep growing. Hmmph.

I continue to do nothing at work. I have finished my project of putting together nearly 100 orientation binders. I worked very slowly today so it would take up the whole time. This means one page at a time and only when someone is walking by. Otherwise I would chat online and do other fun things on the internet such as learning that Bush is ahead in the land of New Jersey. ::Insert McGreevy girly-man joke here::

For those of you who are interested, I signed up for Friendster. If you are also a member, you can find me by typing in "Bucknell, Gunn" under schools and invite me to be your friend! It's really cool...I've spent hours at work looking at the profiles of people I went to highschool with. It's like a reunion preview.

Bad Advertising Strategy: Airing a commercial for the Weeble Wobble city set-up during the movie Seven.

Experiementing with substances at "work"

2004-09-17T10:40:00.000-05:00

I continue to sit in my cubicle and do nothing. I was actually given a task this week: To put together about a hundred orientation binders. I sit with them at my desk and go back and forth between that and playing on the computer. That way it looks like I'm actually doing something when people walk by, but right now everyone's in a meeting so I'm saving the "work" for when they get out. I am so not worth $15/hr.

I have officially deemed Thursday night as TV Night. I'm very impressed with Joey, especially for a spin-off. And of course, The Apprentice is awesome. I will have to make sure I never have conflicts on Thursday nights.

Currently, I'm trying to see how much of a caffeine kick I can get. I'm not a huge fan of coffee, but it's something to do so I'm drinking pretty slowly and only on cup two. I drown it in cream and sugar.

I heard on the radio this morning that newly pregnant women are more likely to be murdered than die any other way. Wonderful. I'm assuming these women are murdered by the fathers and as bad as I feel for them, (I know I say this type of stuff a lot) shouldn't they at least see it coming in these men??

Crap. I just spilled coffee on me as I was finishing my second cup. It came out the little straw. It's all good though cuz it's almost lunch time. I'm on to cup number three, but first I gotta pee.

I don't have a job, but I do have an income

2004-09-14T12:25:00.000-05:00

I just got back from lunch. I am at "work". In case you haven't heard about my so-called "job", basically I do the same things I did before I had a "job" except I sit in a cubicle and I get paid. There is seriously nothing for me to do here. I don't feel like they need me at all and I'm embarrassingly overqualified. This morning all I did was put a few files in numerical order. Now I'm waiting for the checklist so I can check them off.

Things I have been pondering include whether I should worry about my cuticles or lack thereof. Eczema has eaten them away and I don't know if they are important. I feel like they had to be there for a reason. Also, my nails are wrinkly. I think I have a vitamin deficiency. Does anyone know what might cause this?

I finally found a gym I like. I will be joining the Alexandria YMCA. No down payment, and no contract. I went to a cardio class yesterday and went swimming after. I really like that it has a pool. The chlorine really made me tired, but I still didn't get to bed until after 1am. I DREAD mornings!

Belated Birthday fun!

2004-09-10T22:38:00.000-05:00

I got TWO belated birthday gifts today! It was such a great way to end the week. The first was a fudge brownie mix and frosting from Peetie and Phil. You fellow mathy people will appreciate this: They got me two candles...a 7 candle and a Pi candle. AHHHHAHAHAHA, I love dorks!

The other gift was a red Northface jacket form my parents. Now I have a reason to look forward to winter!

I was bored at work again today and so I decided to learn about how they name hurricanes. I learned a lot I didn't know. There are six sets of names A through W, skipping Q and U. So every six years they repeat. If a hurricane causes enough damage, then the name is retired. This is only for the Atlantic storms. You can find a list for all the names in all the areas of the world here: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/B2.html. I found it interesting that they used to only be women's names, but men's names got added in 1979 after women's rights groups protested.

Hopefully my weekend will be a little more fun than my week.

TGIF

2004-09-10T00:25:00.000-05:00

Things I did at work today:

Move files from one cabinet to another.
Organize an office supply cabinet that didn't need organizing.
Make a list of all my cousins (I have 95 if you include only first cousins and their offspring plus 3 unborn babies.)
Made tons of copies and got lots of paper cuts so that the new employees have huge packets of handouts they will never read.

I think I'm going to join the Y in Alexandria. There's no contract, no down payment and it's only $41/month. They have an indoor pool and a reasonably sized weight room. I don't even know if I'll bother visiting Gold's Gym now. I really don't feel like dealing with the membership sales guy who keeps calling me. His name is Mack. Gag me.

For some reason I'm having blogger's block. Usually I'm able to ramble on about anything, but I'm having a brain freeze on what's been happening in my life.

I need to pick a weekend go to to New York and visit everyone I know there. I also need to pick a weekend to fly up to Maine and see my sister and make sure she's doing ok. It turns out Denise and I are going to get some money back for the days we didn't have AC. I think I'll put it towards my plane ticket. Woohoo to the new and cheap Independence Air!

I am very very underslept and must get some sleep.

Life Inside the Beltway

2004-09-07T00:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging. The real world has thrown some punches and I didn't want to just whine on my blog.

I'll get the crappy stuff out of the way: The first night I had my car it got towed because I parked it in Denise's reserved spot thinking no one would care unless the owner of the spot called in, but no...they do care. And the Tard of the Week award goes to the cab driver who took me to the wrong towing place even though I gave him the business card WITH THE ADDRESS ON IT. Luckily the two young kids working at the wrong towing place were really nice and drove me over to the other one. Then two days later I got a traffic ticket. This whole having a car thing was not working out.

But now things are better and I drove to Bucknell and back on less than a tank of gas this weekend. It was nice to get away and see people. Jackie got me a Garfield birthday cake. I ate it straight off the tray which was really fun. It's over half gone now. I ate in the caf once and it really seems like the food has gone downhill. The M&M cookies were thin and weak and not very chewy. It's sad because M&M cookies are what made the caf worthwhile.

Saturday I went shopping with Mandy and Jackie. I start working tomorrow and needed some more work clothes. So we went to Gap and I tried on some pants that sit up around your belly button. For these pants, I was a size 8. Then I tried a different style that sat lower and the 8 was clearly too big, so I tried a 6 which was still too big so I tried a 4. Perfect. WTF.

I have no idea what I'm in for with this job tomorrow. It's with Coca Cola and I'm reporting to high level administrative people which intimidates me. I got it through a temp agency so I didn't interview and have never been to the place. I hope they don't care I don't drink Coke.

My sister is off at college now at Bates. I think about her a lot and really hope she has a good year. Freshman year is a lot of fun. I want to go visit her at some point. Woohoo to $108 round trips from Independence Air!

Denise and I are considering moving since we've been having a lot of problems with the apartment like roaches and the hot water goes off periodically and we've heard a story about someone getting stuff stolen from the laundry machines. The laundry machines really sketch me out here so I brought all my dirty clothes and sheets to Bucknell this weekend. It was nostalgic getting to use the the gateway washers.

If you read my AIM profile then you've already seen this, but I'll put it here anyway:

**NEVER, EVER, EVER JOIN A BALLY TOTAL FITNESS GYM**

(And pass the message along.)

More Olympic thoughts

2004-08-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

The Iraq soccer team is another reason I love the Olympics. They're in the semifinals and if they win their next game they go to the gold medal game. Talk about an underdog story. I find soccer so boring to watch, but I find this so exciting I'll be watching their game.

Favorite men's swimsuit: The leggings. Thank goodness there are no more speedos. No need to cover your upper bodies, but showing off legs is a girlie thing.

Overall I really like the summer games more than the winter. It's so much more pure. It has the events that don't require much equipment. Just man vs. land. Or man vs. water. The winter Olympic sports like skiing require so much equipment. You can't really measure the fastest man in snow. Of course I really enjoy the gymnastics, but the Olympics wouldn't be the Olympics without track and field and swimming.

I caught part of the walking race. Those guys look so strange. It looks like Special Olympics running. Their bodies don't look proportioned correctly. I saw that the highest an American placed was in the 20s. It obviously isn't dominated by America. Good. In fact, America should boycott this sport.

Another funny sport is the hammer throw. Those guys spin out of control and somehow let go at the right time so as not to kill anyone. I wanna spin like that. Though I don't understand why the Olympics needs shot put, discus AND hammer throw.

OMG, a white guy just won the 400 meters.

An Italian just won the high bar. I like Italy's anthem. They should win more stuff.

I'm still so amused by Greek names. Everytime I see a list of athletes competing in an event I scan the flags looking for Greece and then try to say the name. They're long and a mouthful, but also not impossible to pronounce like other languages.

I flew up to New Hampshire for my cousin's wedding this weekend. Of the three weddings I went to this summer, none were normal. This one was very "earthy". Some of their friends live in yurts which are dome tent thingys with no heating. Yes, no heating in New Hampshire. The groom got married barefoot. And the band consisted of a bagpipe and accordion among other random instruments. Everyone was wearing subdued tone dresses and skirts and I wore my verstile red dress that I wear to everything. I felt a little out of place. Everyone in earthy colors and I was wearing FIRE!

I also got eaten alive by bugs. I have at least a dozen bites around my calves and ankles and two days later they still itch like crazy. And I've been pretty lucky about not getting bites the last few years.

I stayed with my cousin Puffles (aka Heather) in her "hut" along with cousin Danni and Aunt Susan. After getting picked up from the airport, we stopped at the store and I couldn't resist buying a bag of mint oreos. I ate all of them before Sunday. Mint oreos are just an amazing invention. I like taking two and eating a chocolate side off of each and then mushing them together to make a double stuff mint oreo.

Last but not least...

I GOT A CAR. I have a Cactus Mint Corolla LE. There was so much paper work involved. I'm so glad the day is over so I never have to write 8/23/04 ever again. I plan to make a trip to Bucknell this weekend as it's first big drive.

Yeah Paul Hamm!

2004-08-19T15:11:00.000-05:00

Paul Hamm is the reason I love the Olympics. Last night's men's gymnastics competition was one of the biggest Olympic highs ever. There's nothing unamazing about being in 12th place with only 2 rotations left and ending up winning the gold. I had read a headline before it aired that a US Gymnast had won the gold, but when Hamm crashed on vault I figured the other guy had won. But no...somehow his one big mistake cost less than all the little mistakes of the Koreans who got silver and bronze.

GRRRR...I just saw the results of the women's all-around competition!! It is SO HARD to avoid these results!! I was surfing the web when I saw a picture of a girl gymnast flipping and I knew the headline was going to give the results so I immediately clicked away. Then I was watching some local news on TV and they were very nice and warned that some of the results they were about to show hadn't been aired, so once again I immediately clicked away to NBC which was finishing up afternoon coverage and I figured I'd be safe. But no, they were giving tonight's results. I bet I missed the warning. All of this happened within 5 minutes. It'll be even worse in 2008 when they're in Beijing. Once I finally watch one event, the next will have already happened so I'll be avoiding news for 2 weeks straight.

It turns the reusable ice cubes are poopy. They don't make your water cold at all because they don't melt into it. Oh well, it was worth a try. But they sure do make your water pretty!

I meant to put this in my blog a while ago, but kept forgetting. It's from my sister's livejournal and I thought it was a pretty funny incident:

Scene: My mom and I are going back to our car in the parking lot when she walks up to a car which is identical to ours except there is a bumper sticker that says "NOT FOR WAR"
Me: Mom, that's not our car, look at the sticker
Mom: *scoffs* I am SO for war!

Well I'm off to New Hampshire for the weekend for my cousin's wedding. More blogging later.

Olympic Ramblings

2004-08-18T01:22:00.000-05:00

Some might find it lame, but I like the leaf halos (I don't know what they're really called) all the medalists wear on the podium. In the future when we see clips, we'll know which Olympics it was. I also think it's funny how the US 800 relay swim team held them over their hearts during the anthem. That was the most exciting race ever. I'm so glad I got to watch it. (Now realizing I shouldn't post this for a few hours so my buddies in PDT don't get mad.)

I could amuse myself all day trying to say Greek names.

LOL-I'm about to watch the men's 200 fly final and they just showed a Japanese swimmer with the most major goggle tan. That's gotta suck.

Is it just me or does Bob Costas not age at all? I'll bet a lot of money he gets surgery every four years just to look the same age.

Female shot putters are not very attractive. In fact, it's hard to tell it's women's....Except for a Cuban and a Russian that I just saw. I also assume they are very lopsided. The qualifying rounds are being shown right now live from Olympia which they've made out to be as much like the ancient games were. The spectators have to stand and they aren't selling anything more than water.

I really like that Samsung commercial with the athlestes in the sky forming their bodies to the shape of the phone. The music is really peaceful. I wonder if there's a CD.

In other news:

My mom sent me a package with all sorts of goodies! Like my retainer and nail scissors even though I already had some. I also got an issue of World of Puzzles! This should give my brain a little workout which it needs since I sit in front of the TV all day with my lap top in my lap. Eyes going from screen to screen. My poor eyes.

Has anyone else been shocked by the sqeakiness of Amber Frey's voice on those tapes? Looking at her you'd think she'd have this deep husky voice. It reminds me of gymnasts. In fact, there was a brief interview with one of the male gymnasts and he had a really high voice too.

I went to Bed Bath and Beyond today and bought reusable ice cubes. A bag of them was only 3 dollars so I thought "why not". The colors are really cool too. Well see how this purchase goes.

I'm cool and have Gmail! My favorite qwerk is when you click on Trash, if it's empty, it says "No conversations in the trash. Who needs to delete when you have 1000 MB of storage?!" Just for the record, my Gmail is jane.fulton@gmail.com. But you can still use jfulton@alum.bucknell.edu.

Check out these pictures of my sister, Kristina and Will at the top of Half Dome in Yosemite.

Olympics time

2004-08-15T14:31:00.000-05:00

I have Olympic fever. I'm watching weightlifting right now. This little guy from Turkey just got the gold in the 56kg group. These guys were so tiny and lifting nearly 3 times their weight!! The Turkish guy who won made tons of funny faces and noises. I think that's what I'd be like too. I've decided this is a fun sport to watch. Now badminton is on.

I went to Sam's second wedding reception yesterday. It was weird to see her whole family and be on the other side of the country. It didn't feel like I was far from home. Trippy. I snacked heavily for a solid four hours on croissants, very filling chocolate chip cookies and grahm crackers.

I'm obsessed with the little countries. You can go to www.nbcolympics.com and look up every country participating. It gives you a world map and you roll your mouse of all the coutries. I found a country named Vanuatu and clicked on it for details. Under "Olympic Tradition" it says in their Olympic debut in 1988, their boxer ate a large breakfast and was disqulified at the weigh-in. Vanuatu has never won a medal. Poor Vanuatu.

Ok, I wasn't a fan of the badminton. You can't really see the birdie and the plays don't last very long. It's been an hour since I started writing this entry because I keep looking things up on the Olympics website. I just have to be careful not to look at any of the gymnastics results.

Another computer issue:

For some reason, when I write in Word, my i's get an accent on them when they come after an f. I'm hoping the employers that I've sent my resumes to don't notice it. I went to Format->Style and under the part that says "description", it says the font, size a few other things and then something called Widow/Orphan control. WEIRD. I just checked font and there's nothing unusual. It's a mystery.

Update

2004-08-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

Car update:

-I test drove a Corolla the other day, both an S and LE. I found the steering on the S to be too sensitive, but the LE was fine. I thought the seats were softer and more comfortable than the Civic and the gas and brake pedals were easier to use.
-The other big incentive for getting a Corolla over a Civic is that the insurance is $400/yr less.

Rest of my life update:

-I've sent out about 4 job applications in the last 24 hours and I better hear back from SOMEONE.

-My debit card expired and my parents sent me the new one, but didn't get me the pin number. I was supposed to go into the District today to deal with the car insurance, but couldn't because I didn't have enough cash to take the metro. Then I talked to my cousin after it was too late and told me I can use a credit card. So I'm going tomorrow I'm stopping there on my way to Maryland.

Current Pet Peeve:

I use Explorer and I really like it when I save a link to favorites and it has its own little icon. It makes it look more interesting and fun. But for some reason they only show up some of the time! Right now the only links that have personalized icons are CNN, Amazon, MapQuest and USPTO (US Patent Organization). I KNOW at least Google, FOXnews, and Blogger have their own icons, but they don't show up anymore. Anyone know anything about this?

I'm super duper excited about the Olympics starting tomorrow. I know I'll have the music stuck in my head all the whole time! Annie-if you read this make sure you record all the gymnastics!

Siamese twins and cars

2004-08-09T23:46:00.000-05:00

I was watching Dateline last night and they did a story about the siamese twins that were attached at the head and recently separated. They obviously had separate brains, but what if there were siamese twins conjoined at the head with ONE brain? It would be like a spider. It's like one person having two bodies to control. COOL! It/they would make millions! The possibilities for siamese twin types are endless.

I'm in the process of car shopping. I'm deciding between a Civic and a Corolla. I've got one friend saying go for a Civic ("Corollas are for old ladies"), and another that says Corolla all the way ("totally go for a corolla, they are more cute"). Input is welcome. I test drove a Civic today and tomorrow I try a Corolla and I might also try a Ford Focus.

As I write this I'm watching Blind Date and they set up two midgets. The girl has lots of tattoos and is completely sex crazed, and the guy is totally laid back. Sigh. Gotta love dating shows.

The Olympics start in 4 days!!!!!

Office whore, night in the District and brownies

2004-08-07T13:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a fun little blog to read through:

http://washingtoniennearchive.blogspot.com/

This woman was/is having affairs with at least 6 men at the same time, some of them paying her and this is the blog she wrote about it. Her company found out about it and got rid of the blog (and fired her), but this wonderful person has restored it uncensored so we can all enjoy :).

Last night I threw back some beers in Georgetown with Charles and the future Fox News military analyst Lt. Col. Scott Rutter. He led the invasion of Baghdad airport last year. Watch for him starting August 16...he'll be stationed in Iraq.

I wish I had something significant to say, but I didn't hear about the job yesterday like I was expecting. If I don't hear Monday I plan to swallow my wussiness and call.

I baked brownies this morning for my dad's friend from highschool who lives in Alexandria and is having me over for dinner. I ate the batter for breakfast. Mmmm....raw eggs...

2004-08-03T22:34:00.000-05:00

I just saw on the news that the Statue of Liberty opened up to the public for the first time since 9/11. But you can only go up to the pedestal. This makes me glad I had an opportunity to go to the top as a kid and that there are pictures of me with the twin towers in the background.

So far the lesson I've learned from being in the real world is to not let salespeople push you into things without reading the fine print and making sure you are clear on every little detail you're concerned about. I got a gym membership at Bally and the salespeople there are so phony and pushy. I'm on a 30 day trial so I might cancel if I'm not happy with the facility since so far I'm not happy with the people. Let's hear it for "learning experiences" *GAG*. The whole saga would take pages to explain and I've got better things to talk about.

There are all these jobs that are requiring writing samples even though from the job descriptions it doesn't sound like I'll be writing. The problem with this is I didn't really write in college. I took math classes. I'd gladly send in number crunching samples. Anyway, I'm thinking I should write something to send in, but what? I'm open to suggestions. Unfortunately it can't be something too offensive. I'm the most expressive when I'm offensive. Plus, it's more fun.

I checked out two GRE study books from the library. I really hate how the GRE is on the computer and you can only look at one question at a time. I'm determined to score over 700 on the math. And if I get a 450 on the verbal, watch for falling pig crap.

I cannot WAIT for the Olympics to start! I will be parked in front of the television for two weeks. I'm so excited I might forget my birthday.

Tomorrow is supposed to be over 90 and very humid. Bring on the sweat! We're also getting our cable fixed so that we get all the channels we're supposed to. We're missing all the important brainless ones like VH1 and comedy central. Gotta have I love the 90s and South Park.

A weekend of bowling, gum resting, crayons and fire

2004-08-02T00:26:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my weekend at Genelle's in Columbia, MD. It was a nice relaxing weekend. I got to see my cousin Jeff and his wife, who also live in Columbia, for the second time ever.

Last night I went bowling with her bible study group. I'm not a great bowler and it especially ticks me off when I lose to girls who make their three step approach. Stop. Bring their arm back and lob the ball 10 feet in the air so you end up praying you won't have to pay for a new bowling lane. Some how these balls end up staying right in the middle. I can do the approach and stuff, I just end up throwing the ball so it goes in the gutter about 5 inches before it gets to the pin.

I went with Genelle to the evening church service. Apparently it was a special "coffee house" night and there were tables for people to sit at instead of the chairs in rows. Very casual and laid back. There were crayons and paper table covers to draw on. I drew typical 8 year old things like grass, a sun, a tulip and stick figure with large hands. I'm not a creative person, but I have to say my idea to melt the crayons over the candles on the table and then make dots was pretty damn cool.

It probably sounds like I didn't pay very good attention. Well the general message for the service was about having more time to yourself in solitude and quite frankly, not having a job and using public transportation causes me to have way too much time to myself. The talked about how our lives get so busy and we need to step back and relax. Well once I have a busy life I'll worry about that.

I forgot to bring a toothbrush with me this weekend, so I immediately brushed my teeth when I got back. It turned out to be a good thing because it gave my gums a rest from the incredibly stiff bristles on my brush I got from the dentist. Sometimes I sing 'n sync style: It's tearin' up my gums when I use you.... Ok, I'm a dork. But yeah, it hurt a lot less this time.

Tomorrow is change the gym membership package I got at the local Bally's and find a library and call job places. I also need a car. Bah.

I have moved!

2004-07-23T03:44:00.000-05:00

I am now residing in Arlington, VA with Denise! I must say JetBlue is by far the best airline. I flew nonstop to Dulles for only $129 and had a TV on the seat in front of me with live cable TV. Not too shabby for Jane. I also had my brand new laptop with me so I watched Chicago. You can sure bet I'll be flying JetBlue again. If they keep expanding the airline, they'll kill the competition. The only reason not to fly JetBlue is because I need to go to cities it doesn't fly to.

Denise and I went on a gigantic shopping spree at IKEA. When I say gigantic, I mean gigantic in every way...amount of money spent, size of stuff bought and just size of the whole place. This was my first IKEA experience. We were there 45 minutes past closing.

I got the world's coolest bed:

http://www.ikea-usa.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=12&productId=11386&langId=-1&parentCats=10103*10144

It's hard to see from the picture, but the back part is cushy like a sofa and the three parts that are dark blue can be put down like arm rests. It's also a queen. I've decided I'm done with twins. I need to sprawl! The bed along with a table, desk, and dresser get here Saturday. It's going to be build, build, build!

There are a few job prospects in the works, but I won't go into details. Hopefully I'll have something within a week.

I must get to bed...I have a phone interview at 9am.

Title free

2004-07-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Poor Peetie has been reading my last blog entry every night for the past week. It's about time I update since a lot has happened and peetie deserves more varietied literature.

I went camping last weekend with Michelle and Gaelyn. It was really nice to get away and also nice to take a shower when I got back.

I'm moving to DC next wednesday! Denise found us an apartment in Arlington. I'm so excited. Charles and Allison will be around for another month and my cousin Genelle isn't too far away in Columbia, MD. As for the job search, I'm still looking at the nonprofits. I think everything will be easier once I'm there so I can interview.

It looks like I won't be bringing much with me to DC. Just a big suitcase and a little one. Even for me who has way less stuff than most people, this will be difficult and require a big trip to IKEA.

Peetie ask me yesterday if I had to get a tattoo what design would I get and where would I put it. I said I didn't know what design I'd want, but I'd put it at the bottom of my back so I could forget that I have it. She said she would put one on her ankle so that if she kicked someone they'd look down and see it and know who kicked them.

That is all for now. I'm getting my hair cut in an hour, but until then I'll be watching I Love the 90s!!

Harlow Family Reunion 2004

2004-07-09T00:12:00.000-05:00

Well I'm back from my vacation. It was a fun filled week...that is until the car ride to the airport yesterday. I'm not one to exaggerate stuff, but I think we came close to being goners. My mom was driving about 70 in the fast lane and was very drowsy. I noticed the road was curving and we weren't and the barrier was moving in on us. I yelled and my mom woke up and swerved away just in time, but we still went back and forth a few times very sharply (we may have even been on two wheels) and we ended up straightening out in the emergency lane. I was completely shaken up and burst into tears a few minutes later. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't been paying attention. I keep playing the what-if scenario in my head.

But on to happier things! The reunion was great. I think there were about 25 of us. We got to the farm Saturday and had a clam bake. Then a bunch of us went to see Spider-man 2. On Sunday I fed the alpacas. I had never heard of this animal before, but they basically look like mini llamas. We ate dinner out by the lake. Uncle Paul and I made grilled cheese sandwiches! Super American! Uncle David, whose bday was a few weeks earlier got this tequila called Hornitos, which isn't a very appropriate name if you ask me...especially for a family reunion. He also got fireworks and set them off next to the lake. Then this redneck guy with a tractor came and it had a small canon attatched to it. The canon got set off and it was the loudest thing I had ever heard. I even had my ears covered and it was loud.

On Monday I took the train to NJ to see Jackie. On the way to the train station, I saw this truck with three giant Hershey Kisses. It was awesome. I wish I had gotten a picture. I managed to get off at the right stop this time when I got to NJ! Go me! Tuesday I went into the city with Jackie, her sister, her cousin and her boyfriend for the day. We went to ground zero and did some shopping. We went to Toys backwards R Us and rode the ferris wheel. We got the playskool car...that red and yellow thing every kid had. Then I took the train up to Rina's and spent the night with her and Mordy. They're bathroom is all Sponge Bob! It was a fast day for them so Rina and I cooked dinner then waited until 9:12 to eat. I had to be the one to test the pasta...haha.

Now I'm home and I went to Sam's bridal shower this evening. Peetie and I were the only non-mormons. We got her Kama Sutra massage oil and chocolate mints. Apparently massage oil is a common bridal shower gift.

Denise and I are looking for (cheap) appartments in DC! I'm scared, but also really excited. Hopefully we'll be there within a few weeks. Yay!

Jane in Maine (and other various New England places)

2004-07-02T21:50:00.000-05:00

At the moment I'm in New Hampshire. Tomorrow we're off to the farm in Connecticut for the family reunion.

Yesterday we went up to Bates College where my sister's going this fall. Then we stopped in Freeport which is the cutest little town with LOTS of shopping, including the L.L. Bean headquarters. I can't wait to visit my sister so I can go back.

Then we met my sister's online friend Emma who's also going to Bates this fall. Her family was pleasantly normal. I look forward to my sister meeting more normal people next year. Emma was a good start. Annie describes Emma as like me, but nicer. (Annie also informed me today that her friend Jona (male) told her that she "got the good genes in the family." I find this very amusing. Annie says he's intimidated of me. This could be because I am more masculine than him.)

Today we visited my 92 year old grandmother who has no short term memory. My sister, mom and I had to reintroduce ourselves and tell her how old we are a dozen times. It was funny. She's a mega pack rat and saved the paper doily thing that came under her cupcake at lunch. Classic Grammy. Then we went off to visit my more coherent great aunt who's 98. She is very active for her age. I hear she can bowl a 128 and she walks as fast as the rest of us.

In other news...I got a job interview with a place in DC! Hopefully this means I'm one step closer to moving...

Pack pack pack!

2004-06-30T01:35:00.000-05:00

Peetie is here and I'm sick of packing for my trip. My family is going to Connecticut for a fourth of July family reunion. Then I plan to go the the NYC area to see Rina and Jackie.

I am NOT looking forward to getting myself back to Boston next Wednesday. I'm taking this 4 1/2 hour Chinatown bus from NYC to Boston then I have to take the L to the airport and then sit on a plane for 5 hours. Good thing Peetie and I went to the library the other day. I got myself Dave Barry's second novel Tricky Business. I hear it isn't as good as his first, but Big Trouble was so good I don't think it can be topped anyway.

I've been on a swimming kick. Swim, swim, swim. I'm getting a lot better. I think when I get back I'll try to do an entire lap of butterfly. I don't have the patience to do any one type of exercise for very long so it works running on a treadmill for a while, then swimming. I'm thinking of seeing if I can drop into a Stanford adult gymnastics class. I'd love to get some skills back and the Ford Center is so awesome.

Getting up tomorrow for an 8:20am flight is going to be painful. I usually can't fall asleep until 3. I better not have a middle seat.

Baby cow and bitter chocolate

2004-06-26T21:06:00.000-05:00

My dad just got back from Italy and he brought me home some Dutch chocolate. YUM.

Speaking of Italy, my mom and I went to a yummy Italian restaurant on California Ave last night. I had this amazing ravioli type pasta stuffed with chicken and veal. Mmmm...baby cow... :)

Michelle and I went swimming today at the Y. My endurance is pathetic. I tried a lap of butterfly and after 5 strokes I gave up. I've always had pretty good swimming form, but I just don't have the endurance to swim lap after lap. I'll probably try again though.

Gymnastics Olympic trials are on in half an hour. I am super-duper excited!

Blech! I just tried this 100% cocoa chocolate my dad got in Italy. It was pretty much like baker's chocolate, but marketed as a candy bar. I think I'm gonna be tasting that for a while.

Color Changes

2004-06-25T02:26:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Peetie's where we fooled around with some things on my blog as you can probably tell. It was so much fun! I got to use more html :) We spent so much time trying out different colors and getting rid of the stupid "I power blogger" thingy on the side bar. This probably won't be the end of changes...

We also went to Border's this evening to look at some Dummies books for computer stuff. There are SO MANY dummies books now. I looked online and there's even "Breastfeeding for dummies" and "Beekeeping for dummies". I have a $30 gift card there that I got for graduation from my neighbor/former piano teacher who is old and fairly proper. What I really want to get is the new Dave Barry book called "Boogers are my Beat", but I feel bad using the gift for a book with a title like that. It would be a pretty awkward thank you note... I still haven't decided what I'm going to get with it so if anyone has any appropriate suggestions, let me know!

I spell checked this entry and finally forced it to learn "Peetie", "blog" and also "boogers".

Daily Doings

2004-06-24T00:36:00.000-05:00

-I signed up for an online HTML class! I'm way excited :) I've spent so much time looking for jobs and many of them want people who know HTML so I thought I'd learn it. I had to get a geocities account for it so once I'm a little farther along in the class I'll give you the address. So far all it says is "BODY BODY BODY".

-I went to Peetie's today and made baked alaska with her and her sister and a few of her friends. I ate so much cookie batter in the baking process that I was too full to eat any of the finished product.

-I was still too sore today to go to the gym. Tomorrow for sure.

-Peetie has a blog!

Wushu me!

2004-06-21T21:28:00.000-05:00

I Wushued today! Wushu is a Chinese martial art. Kinda like graceful karate. Peetie and her sister have been taking a class at Stanford for a few quarters so I joined them today to give it a try. I am going to hurt A LOT tomorrow.

I baked again the other day! Peetie, Sandra and Nancy came over and we made yummy brownies from scratch. We even made them mint, my favorite! But unfortunately we forgot to put salt in. Oh well...the batter was still really good.

My family finally has tickets to go back east for the family reunion over 4th of July weekend. I'm hoping to figure out to get myself to the NYC area so I can see Rina and Jackie. If you're in the city, let me know! I plan to be there on Monday and/or Tuesday the 5th and 6th.

Quotes:
Peetie (looking at a picture of me when I was about 7): For some reason you remind me of Marilyn Monroe in that picture. No wait....Shirley Temple.

Peetie (after I've asked how she would describe my sister): Metrosexual.

Being a housedaughter

2004-06-17T22:49:00.000-05:00

Observation of the day: I saw a car at the gym today with a license plate that said "FATNIKI". There were also a bunch a bumper stickers saying things like "Peace is possible" and "Be green". Very cute.

I successfully cooked dinner!! I made chicken and potatoes. The chicken was a little dry, but I'll do better next time. This is a big accomplishment for me. All I've ever really cooked before are Toll House cookies and these brownies that I must say are quite amazing. But I usually end up eating most of the batter.

Can't think of a title

2004-06-16T16:24:00.000-05:00

My mom and I went to midtown video the other night to see what they have left and ran into my faaaaaaaaavorite person.....Scott. For those of you who aren't aware, Scott is this guy that my sister went out with for a year. He's majoring in underwater fisheries at Humboldt State which is basically a school where every smokes pot. He had dreads for a while and is a total tree-hugger. My mom being the nice and overly accepting person she is had to engage in conversation with him. I was standing there listening and could barely contain myself. I was eating ice cream and kept looking into the cup to keep from laughing. He gave way more details than anyone would care to hear about vertabrates and studying fetal pigs. He even mentioned wanting to find an extracurricular activity having to do with watershed maintenance. All this along with his nervous speaking just making him totally laughable. (You might think that I'm being a little hard on the kid, but he is not a good person. He's completely relationship needy, and broke up with my sister on her birthday. Once he stole $200 from his boss to buy pot. He comes off as polite and friendly, but really is only thinking of himself and is incredibly insecure.)

I can't decide what to do with myself for this year. I don't know whether I should keep looking for nonprofit jobs or find something related to stats which I don't know how to go about. Everytime I surf the web, I'll find a lead that just turns into a dead end 2 mintues later. Now back to eating ice cream and watching TV...

Wacky plum picking

2004-06-14T02:03:00.000-05:00

Michelle and I went to Stanford graduation today to cheer on some of our highschool friends. Unfortunately we couldn't find any of them during the wacky walk. Of what I did see, my favorites were the people who did Palm drive and the ones who ran around with pac man cut-outs.

Then we sat through the big ceremony part and listened to Sandra Day O'Connor who I thought was pretty good. After her speech, the president mentioned a woman wrote him a letter saying Sandra Day O'Connor spoke at her graduation at Stanford back in 1982 when she received her Doctorate and was pregnant with her daughter who is now graduating today. Michelle and I thought that was cool in itself and then we found out it was Alisa they were referring to! Craziness.

I don't think I'm going to enjoy this picking plum job. I went out there today and used the long stick thingy with a little cage at the top to shake the ripe ones into it. But I end up shaking the whole tree so other ones fall around me and almost on top of me. Meanwhile, nothing ends up in the cage. GRRR! I don't even like plums that much. I wish we had a peach tree.

I just spell checked this entry to and it didn't recognize the name "Michelle". But it did give me random names to replace it with like Miguel, Michel, Mikhail and Macaulay. WTF???

Pickiness

2004-06-13T00:22:00.000-05:00

I went to buy a new pair of athletic shoes and because of my rolling in, the guy told me to try shoes under "stability". So I tried 3 pairs and they were all really comfortable....which is really bad for my indecisiveness. So I tried each pair on at least twice, decided against one, then for the last two tried one on one foot and the other on the other, then switched and focused on every little detail. One pair was way cuter, but since they're athletic shoes I went with the pair that was just slightly more comfortable...I don't know if it even mattered though. Ok, this is why I called my blog Jane's ramblings...

My friend Bridget from abroad once told me about this exercise where you make a list of 10 things you absolutely have to have in a guy/girl and ten things you absolutely can't have. I've never really spent the time thinking out my lists, but I thought of one today...He has to not mind carpet in the house as opposed to hard wood floors. Carpet is more homey and you can sit on it.

I just spell checked this entry and I spelled indecisiveness right! Strangely it doesn't recognize the word "blog" or the name "Jane".

Ants on my tongue!! ACK!

2004-06-12T01:59:00.000-05:00

Peetie came over today to help me pick plums from the tree. I can't believe how many plums there are...the branches are getting weighed down. If anybody in the area wants plums, let me know.

After only about 15 minutes, I was plummed out. A piece of stem fell in my eye and I couldn't get it out so I just let it be. It dissolved into my eyeball eventually I guess. Then I felt something fall on my tongue as I was looking up to pick some plums up high. I turned my head and sorta spit on my sleeve and out came two ants....UGH! Even my own backyard is too naturey for me.

I'm on a peach kick. Piazza's has these amazing California yellow peaches that are kinda pricey but totally worth it. I recommend checking them out. I bought 8 today and I don't expect them to last more than a few days.

I'm also on a big band kick. I'm trying to make a playlist of good big band songs so if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

I told you I can't come up with titles

2004-06-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

I have applied to one job so far...go me! It's a nonprofit in DC and I BETTER hear from them. Omg, I'm so annoyed with not hearing back from places. Just tell me one way or the other!

Peetie came over yesterday and we hung out all afternoon and evening. I love being unproductive with other people. We did mail Rina and Mordy's gift to them. Then we bought strawberries and chocolate chips and made chocolate covered strawberries cuz I'm obsessed with them. I saw this cool random fact in a friend's profile:

"Chocolate contains phenyl ethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love."

And people say I'm missing out....HA! And at least I know I'll never act dumb if I'm in love since I've never done anything stupid when eating chocolate.

Tomorrow is Annie's graduation and it's supposed to rain and be cold. I will have to keep myself sane by remembering my graduation 4 years ago when it was 107 degrees and we had emergency crews on the side....

Too much food

2004-06-06T22:55:00.000-05:00

For the second night in a row we went out to eat at a nice place and ate fancy food. Unfortunately I had ice cream in the afternoon not realizing how early dinner was going to be so I wasn't hungry again. Oh well. I was hungry enough for dessert.

Stupid Tivo didn't record the finals of the US gymnastics championships. We so had a season pass set for anything with gymnastics! ARGH!!! Oh well we know someone who has it taped.

My mom was in the Palo Alto Daily today! She and my sister got stopped on the street downtown yesterday and was asked about what she thought of Reagan. Here's the quote:

"I appreciate him more now than I did then because I'm more conservative now than I was in the 80s. I was just talking with my daughter about his death, and she was saying her econ teacher thought he was the worst president ever for economics. Now that I think of it, was it worth going into debt for what he accomplished? We saw the end of the cold war."

My sister is in the other room with two of her friends going through their yearbook and listing all the ugliest people in the class. And I thought I was mean....

I'm not going to be very good at coming up with good titles

2004-06-05T21:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today I got to watch some of the Stanford product design major's projects. It was interesting. One girl made this thing to help girls learn to use tampons. A lot of other people made things to help the elderly. And of course Peetie and the arch supports that I tested at Rina's wedding :) The first girl I watched yesterday I went to middle school with and was a SPAJ member...haha. I wonder if she recognized me.

Afterwards Peetie and I walked around campus and I ordered some food. While I was waiting for it my dad called to inform me we had reservations at a steak place so I two dinners for me!

Summer update

2004-06-04T15:20:00.000-05:00

Here's what my summer has consisted of so far:

-4 trips to an airport (hitting san jose, SFO AND oakland)

-Rina's wedding which was one of the most fun and interesting things I have ever experienced. I hope it's not my last Jewish orthodox wedding (hint hint Sarita).

-Researching jobs. I'd really like to move back east since I'm sick of living at home or at least will be soon and I know so many people back there.

The next step now is to actually APPLY to jobs (cross fingers).

Janie's got a blog....

2004-06-04T02:14:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm giving this whole blog thing a try. I tend to enjoy reading other people's blogs so hopefully others care enough to read mine :)