suggestions?

So I've found myself with a little time on my hands lately To fill this time, I've joined two things. The more productive of the two being the gym. I hope to be there about three times a week and actually get myself into shape. So far I'm really enjoying it and have been a faithful attender. I haven't been good with using previous gym memberships in the past but I hope to be more disciplined this time around. I have great intentions of six-pack abs, so we'll just have to see when that will come about.

The less productive, though more entertaining, of the two is Netflix. How great are movies delivered right to your house!!?? I am already a big fan, and I think my trail period is just ending. But there have been so many movies recommended to me over the years that I can't even keep track of them all. I'm beginning to take mental notes of movie suggestions, but would love to hear from you. So, does anyone have any movie recommendations? Anything... new movies, all-time favorites? Anything I may have missed that is inexcusable (most likely lots of those)? Bring on the suggestions - I'm looking forward to this.

Skinny... Really?

I went to the mall I (not-so) affectionately call Ghetto-Dale today. I don't like going there, but it's the "Dale" closest to my house. I went because I have a gift certificate to use at one of the few good stores left there, The Limited.

I went there thinking I could find a cute new top to wear for a girls night tonight. I tried on several clearance tops, but they were all XS (the joys of shopping clearance) and just didn't fit properly enough to be worn in public. But when I came across the bargain of "skinny" jeans for $9.99, I had to try on a pair. This is one of my favorite stores, so I know exactly what size pants I wear there. This is also the reason I wasn't surprised that the XS tops didn't fit. But it was worth a try! So I grabbed my size and headed for the dressing room. I was able to wiggle into the pants, but just because a girl can get INTO a pair of pants, it definitely does NOT mean they fit and she should buy them. So I had to go up a size. For "skinny" jeans. Hmm.

Stuff like sizes doesn't bother me because it's just a number sewn into the inside of a garment, but it seems to me like there's something wrong with implying the feeling of skinny-ness when you're only gonna make a girl go up a size.

happy belated blog-day to me

In all the craziness of getting ready for the holidays and just life in general, I failed to notice that the day has come and gone (December 8) to celebrate my one year of blog-day.

I haven't been very good lately with new posts. I haven't forgotten, I've just been quite distracted lately. Thanks to those friends who have called and left voicemails for me lately. You're nice. I appreciate you, and I like you.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to those both far and near. I hope that this holiday season finds you with joy and peace in your hearts as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

I thought it would be a bigger deal. I've had student loans looming over my head for 12 years. Not the giant kind that require payments of $500+ a month (thanks mom and dad), but those pesky Stafford loans. I've been out of school for 10 years, which means I've been sending money each one of those 120 months. Well, no more. I had a balance of a mere $300 left and I just made an online bank transfer to pay off my loans. But where is the hype? There are no sounds of noisemakers and no streamers flying through the air. My house is completely silent right now. I guess I'll have to settle for the loud motorcycle engine being revved repeatedly by some distant neighbor. The funny thing is that I know that this is actually BAD for my credit. With no car payments, this is my only installment loan. Hmmm... maybe I should have kept the loan? Anyway, now that my two years of school are paid off, all I need now is to get myself a degree!

good day, sunshine

So let's skip the part of me sitting at home on a Friday night and checking the weather online and get to the good part.

I did just check the 10 day forecast and liked what I saw. Despite the falling temperatures, I am happy. I am happy because there is at least a little sun in the forecast for every one of the next 10 days. Often it will be partially obstructed by some clouds but we're gonna see the sun. And I am happy about the prospect of some sunshine in the days ahead.

and i thought it was obvious

After walking home from the bus stop yesterday, I stepped through the front door of my house to see my husband completely dressed in his Halloween costume for the party we were going to. And what a sight to behold, the Muffin Man! He had taken the song we all know about the muffin man who lives on Drury Lane and turned the character from a baker of sorts to a super hero! Black tights, a black wrestler's unitard thingy, a muffin man logo on his chest, a muffin tin as protection on his forearm, red gloves and boots and black goggle-like glasses; it was absolutely hilarious! And then the theme music started from the tape player fastened to his waist. I got a good, long laugh.

With no time to waste, I quickly changed into my costume. Pink shiny dress with a tattered bottom, a purple wig, obnoxious silver lashes, lots of white eye shadow, shimmery body creme, sparkly wand and big wings fastened to by back. I was a fairy!

As we gathered the many items we needed to bring to the party, I realized that we still needed to buy bread to go with the artichoke dip I'd made. So, in costume, we stopped at the SuperValu on the way. We grabbed a few things we needed and walked up the register together, each of us with items in hand, getting funny looks and smiles from everyone. So then the cashier took the items from Matt and gave him his total, paying absolutely no attention to me (in a purple wig, shiny pink dress and wings, mind you) standing right behind him. So even though we were the only ones in the store with costumes on and we were standing together, I had to tell the cashier that, um..... We're together! Maybe some things aren't as obvious to other people as you might think.

could this be the end?

While I can't say it's been for all of my life, it's been for a very significant part of it. It's something that's plagued me for a long time. It's nylons. Pantyhose. Whatever you want to call them, we all know them and we all hate them. They are, however, a necessary evil. At least in the business world. It was such a joy to be able to count on one hand the number of times I had to wear them during my year in Slovakia. But now that I'm back in a professional work environment, the nylons are back too. But it's not necessarily nylons as a whole that are entirely bad. Specifically, it's the fact that even though I purchase the appropriate size, I put them on and can pull them all the way up to my armpits. Now who needs that? Not me, I say. So I always have to fold them down and hope that they don't decide to unroll themselves at any inopportune moments. But they sometimes do, so I have found myself sitting in meetings having to pretend that the silly little things aren't acting as though they have a mind of their own.

I often avoid the armpit-high curse by only wearing the knee-high style (which almost always go up past my knees, but that's another story...). But today I wore a skirt to work (yup, a skirt. It actually happens sometimes.) so I pulled out a brand new pair of the normal kind. I had just bought them a few days ago, noticing that they were labeled as having no waistband. Even with this label, my hopes were low and I fully expected to have to fold them over and hope for no unrolling. Then it happened. As I was pulling them on this morning, it happened. I couldn't believe it when they actually stopped - and just under my belly button at that! Now it was still a bit higher than what I would consider optimal, we have made definite progress here. There was actually no folding today!! And that, is an accomplishment.

An accomplishment that kept my spirits high throughout the work day. But then the sense of accomplishment was abruptly brought to a halt as I tried to start my van at the park and ride today. Battery = good. Van = broken. Don't know what or how, but broken. Maybe that's what I get for feeling accomplishment for nylons I didn't design?

the job

I've been hearing the "So how's the new job going?" question a lot lately, so I thought I'd check in now that I've been there for two weeks. In a nutshell, it's going really well.

I am an Executive Assistant in the tax department of a Big 4 company in Downtown Minneapolis. I do park and ride and take an express bus since I'm right in the heart of the downtown area. I work in a cube on the 5th floor of our building, but I have an office with a window directly in my line of vision. The view from this office isn't an incredible one, but enough to allow me to watch the white stuff flying around last week.

Having worked in extremely small companies, I am finding this place quite different. My previous company was fewer than 20 people vs. the current company with about 135,000 global employees. I am still learning my way around my floor and the building. The place is like a maze and I'm discovering new things each day. OK, so sense of direction isn't one of my strengths, but I'm used to knowing where everything is on the first day of a job. I didn't even see my desk until day 2! And then there are the social things we get paid for... like the American Idol inspired karaoke time we had the other day. At 3 in the afternoon, about 50 people went to a multi-purpose room and had appetizers, beverages (sodas, beer, margaritas, etc.) and put on wigs and sang some awful karaoke songs. I was forced onto the stage when the EAs from my department all got up to sing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Turns out that nobody really knows the words to most of that song. The two women who are my new supervisors dressed (wigs, mustache and all) up like Sonny and Cher and did I Got You Babe. Huh.

So I support 4 men and 2 women, ranging from Tax Managers to a Tax Partner. Everyone there so far has been incredibly nice. In an office this size (somewhere around 850 people) there are bound to be some bad apples personality wise, but have yet to encounter them. Even though my fist week found them in the crazy time of deadlines, everyone was still remarkably friendly and helpful. I'm learning a lot and am told that I'm doing well. The woman training me in sometimes seems surprised at my competency, but I would think that a firm like this would expect nothing less, so I'm doing the best I can to learn the programs and the lingo. This place is a big fan of acronyms... it's like nobody wants to use full words in their sentences!

Yup, surrounded by accountants all day. And they're accountants in all they do. Every day there's a fun little thing called a pop flip. A small group of people, ranging from staff people to Senior Managers, in my area get together and flip a quarter. The majority (of the heads and tails) is in, and the rest keep flipping until there's only one person left as the loser. The loser then is required to buy everyone a soda (thus the name of pop flip). I found out the other day that they actually keep track of people's winnings and losings through the years and have kept track of their performances with an Excel spreadsheet and line graphs. Only accountants!

ABD...

My omputer keyboard had randomly deided to have one letter not work. Although my smart husband has put a keyboard viewer (that lets you lik any keyboard button onsreen with a mouse) I am opting not to use it to show the slight frustration this provides. Espeially sine this letter is in my name. Without this all-so-important little button, my name quikly beomes Diane Patrik. Now mind you that it is a habit when typing to still hit this button in eah of its instanes, though I have full knowledge that it won't have any reation to being pressed.

It is a little amusing, though, to see what words missing this partiular letter (I'd tell you whih one it is, but I an't type it for you...) get the red underline to show a misspelling and whih ones don't. For instane, the word "bak" did not ome up as a misspelling. However, this word is not in my personal mental ditionary. I looked it up on ditionary.om and it didn't provide anything helpful, though there are several aronyms that were provided. Whih leads me to the worst part. Typing in web addresses. Though websites an be found at a .org or .net for instane, there is absolutely nothing found at a .om!