Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thursday apparently is the day to post about Bush and Harry Potter


This is what the new book cover is going to look like. It is due out July 21st @ midnight. I think it is important to note that both Calvin and I have a copy reserved and we will be in line @ midnight waiting. The only bad thing about that is that Calvin is like the slowest turtle reader ever (sorry Calvin), so I won't be able to discuss things with him as events occur (since these events are actually happening in real time as I am reading them). If I am still blogging in July, I hope you guys are fast readers so we can discuss.

Should politics be discussed in blogs?

I have hesitated for a while posting about politics because I feel the topic is just annoying in general and it makes people angry. I don't want my blog readers to be angry. But, I do have to vent about just one thing... When the Bush Administration is accused of wrong-doing, they blame one of two things: #1 bias in the press #2 crazy democrats on a witch hunt. And this explanation always seems to rally people on their side. Now, I'm no expert in politics, BUT, isn't it obvious to people that they place the blame where they do because they have nowhere else to put it? They have nothing else better to say so they blame the people who caught them. Haven't we been doing the same thing to our siblings for years? Why don't people see this? Is everyone delusional? I just don't get it. This simple fact seems to slip past so many people whose views and opinions I value on almost any other topic. It bafounds me (baffles and confounds combined). It's a whole new level of confusion.

Monday, March 26, 2007

10 Awkward Things that can happen when dealing with strangers...

10. The eye contact you, as the driver of a car, receive from a pedestrian as they are crossing a crosswalk and you are stopping at the stop sign to let them cross. I feel I am usually the receipt of a questionably "I dare you" type look, like I am going to blow through the stop sign and run them over.

9. When a new line at the grocery store opens up and everyone swarms over to the new lane. Either you get some butthead who was at the end of the original line, but becomes the 1st person in the new line (so everyone is pissed off). Or you get a "You go ahead." "No you go ahead." type situation. "Fine. I'll go then. Bye"

8. The pressure you feel to check out as efficiently and error free as possible in a Self Check-Out lane with people waiting behind you. I find this especially stressing in a place like Home Depot where you have to manage a bunch of oddly shaped objects that never seem to scan correctly.

7. I don't feel this way but apparently others feel compelled to leave a voicemail when they dial the wrong number. Obviously the person on the message isn't who they want to talk to, but they leave a message saying "Sorry I have the wrong number." Why do people do this? It baffles me. I don't know if this counts as an awkward social situation, but I'm thinking the caller of the wrong number must be at least somewhat awkward if he/she is leaving this type of message.

6. Being followed by another car back to your parking spot in a crowded lot. I absolutely hate that. I'm always paranoid that person is going to hit the gas a bit too much and accidentally run me over. Is it that serious to find a spot? How do they know my spot isn't the absolute last spot in the aisle? One time this actually happened and my spot was not only the last spot in the aisle, but it was the last spot in a satellite parking lot across the main parking lot road. The people followed me the whole way and then didn't take the spot. Then sped off like they were mad. Now that I think about it, maybe they were going to try and rob me or something and decided against it at the last minute. Whew!

5. When people I don't know tell me "Awwww your dog is so cute" or "You have a beautiful dog." I always say "Thanks" But, this is really a stupid response because I have nothing to do with how fabulous Chloe is. But, I can't think of anything better to say. And if I said "I know" I would sound conceited even though I'm not talking about myself.

4. Waiting for people to move out of the way in card stores. I just really hate that. There is never anywhere else to really "be" when your waiting for someone to move away from the cards you want, so then I always end up flipping through the "Mahogany Happy Birthday to my Daughter" cards, or some such other card type that does not relate to me in any way.

3. The feeling of someone directly behind you pushing a shopping cart. Can't you just feel the pain of that cart running into the back of your ankles??!!!??

2. Waiting in bathroom lines and trying to judge who you think looks the cleanest, so given the option you'd go into the bathroom stall recently vacated by them. As opposed to Donna Disgusto right in front of you.

1. Riding in an elevator for a substantial amount of floors with one other person that works for your company, but you don't actually know who that person is. You only know they work for your company because one of your company's floor buttons is depressed. Then when the first person leaves some sort of vacant pleasantry is exchanged, like "Have a good one" (I hate that saying) or some such. To me, I just think this confirms that both people are sitting there right next to eachother thinking "This is awkward" "What can I say?" "I'll be damned if I talk about the weather." Then this pressure is relived somewhat when the person exits and comes up with a witty comment like "Have a Nice Day."

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Lunch Meetings

I just came up with a great idea. Wouldn't it be great if the next time you found yourself in a lunch meeting, complete with cold cut sammiches and whatever other wonderful delicacy your company serves up to you at those meetings, you could just toss a peice of your sandwich at people who made you angry?

I'm envisioning an instance where Norman(of previous post) decides it's nessasary to pipe up at a meeting and repeat something that's already been said about three times already. He has to make himself known you see. So, he pipes up and of course I'm disgusted, so I proceed to open up my sandwich, take out a choice slice of ham or turkey complete with mayo, and fling it across the boardroom table at him. What do you think people would do? You know everyone would want to laugh. I would be a character of legend! You wouldn't necessary have to use the meaty portion of your sandwich either. I think a tomato would make a very satisfying sound, and the residual mess would be quite nice also. A pickle might be less messy, but possibly more accurate if you threw it paper airplane style.

I swear if I had some sort of 'back-up' money and didn't really have to work for a living, I would sooo do that. Even just writing about it makes me happy. Maybe I wouldn't even get fired and then before each lunch meeting people would be like "Don't make Jeanine mad, she'll toss a tomato slice at you."

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Oh it's ON Now!!!!!!

Boy oh Boy is today a day for Jeanine. Sometimes it helps for someone to make me MAD MAD MAD. I came into work today and found out that they are putting this guy I call Norman (a.k.a Norman Bates), on an account with me and nobody saw fit to tell me about it. This guy is a shady, condescending, know nothing, do nothing, type individual who has consistently tried to screw myself and others over on a daily basis. He is the one person I know around here who has ZERO friends. I could go on and on about this guy and the politics surrounding him, but suffice to say, I heard this news today and instantly turned around and called Mr. Head Hunter Extraordinaire. I said "Hi Mr. Head Hunter, please find me a job in NYC by July. I non-renewed my lease for July anyway, so it's either that, or a cardboard box." Then we went through the whole question and answer thing and we got to my salary and do you know what he said then???? "HA HA HA WOW....You know you could be making much more than that, right?!!"
DAMN SKIPPY!!!!! I will be outta here by MAY. Mark my words friends. I am on a mission. (Rocky theme playing in the background)

Monday, March 19, 2007

Yipes!!!



This is what the guy sitting next to me on the trolley this morning looked like.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I'm back!!

Hello all,

I hope I haven't lost you. Please forgive my absence but it's been an eventful past week or so. A lot has happened so I will clue you all in on the highlights (or at least the things I have a sense of humor about).

First, I would like to say that my "Puffy Face Syndrome" has been resolved, replaced by the worst cold I've had in about 5 years. Nothing works. I've tried: Theraflu, DayQuil, NightQuil and inhaling a pot full of steamy water. This was Calvin's suggestion-it did work, as long as I kept my face right over the pot of boiling water... obviously this didn't last long. I even made myself some kind of alcohol shot with what had in the house (rum, kahula and tequila) - I always see Grandmother's (on TV Grandmothers) supply some type of alcoholic concoction to their loved ones so I figured I'd try it. No luck, but I did sleep for about 2 hours after that. "WaaaaaaChoooo!!!" that was me sneezing again. Enough of this cold talk. Oh and just as an FYI, that concocotion...not so bad really.

So, I went to the Bahamas, Atlantis, to be exact for a business trip. Under normal circumstances, going to the Bahamas would be great, but I went there to work, so it sucked. I had absolutely no free time. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than riding down in an elevator jam packed with people on their way to the beach, smelling like suntan lotion, while you're dressed up in a suit. No. Nothing worse.

I had the lucky pleasure of being on a floor jam packed with Springbreakers. Obviously weathly ones, since they could afford Atlantis, but incredibly out of control and ridiculous. I know for a fact I never acted like these kids. I'm calling them kids; I'm old. I spent the first night from about 1:30 am-5:30 am listening to kids run up and down halls, slam doors, yell, break stuff, and talk back to and later on engage in fisticuffs with the security guards. I could maybe rationalize this behavior somewhat if they were in a hotel full of Springbreakers, but as this is a family resort, that was clearly not the case. At some point, they must have been sober enough to realize this. I hate them. All of them.

Luckily, I got some of their friends back on the plane ride home. The flight wasn't very full and I had a whole row of seats to myself. Unfortunately, there were three yapping fluttery skirt girls behind me. "Like he was totally hot" " I know right" "Oh my god did I actually say that!?!!" "I was sooo drunk." ...... Kill me...Just kill me now. Prior to take-off and about 20 minutes into their conversation, the pilot got on the intercom and said we were free to move around and change seats as the flight was finished boarding. Now, even though I technically had no reason to move as I had a whole row to myself, I promptly uprooted myself and proceeded to move one row up and one row over figuring that was a good enough distance to put between me and the girls from hell. When I went back to move my luggage from the overhead, I was rewarded with a "tsk." and a dirty look from said girls. I know it's not much, but the knowledge that I managed to annoy at least someone on this trip was very rewarding.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Satisfying Gossip

I will not have time to write a good blog today, so as I substitute I offer this gem of an article I read from the NY Daily News. It offers all the satisfying gossip you should need for one day...or at least for the morning. Enjoy!

To all the poor college grads I have to interview today. "I IMPLORE you to realize that this is not where you want to be!!!!" I feel like the Captain of the Titanic welcoming people aboard after the ship hit the iceburg.....

Too bad none of them will actually read this, but at least I'm warning somebody.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

All Puffed Up




My eyes seem to be a bit puffy this morning. One might say I look something like our friend Buttercup Powerpuff over here. She's angry on purpose; she's angry cause she's a big puff face.

You know what I think it was? I got totally sucked into Dove Soap's marketing campaign and thought that I needed to have younger looking more moisturized skin, so I tried a new kind of soap (Dove Pro Age). Well, the Dove people have something to answer for, cause their soap that was supposed to make me youthful and luminous made my eyes puff out of my head and now I look ridiculous. Thanks.

Sincerely, Puff Eyed and Pissed Off

F the Flippity Flappin Floppers!!!


Nothing would make me happier than if this happens. I cannot STAND when people do this and it's part of what is ruining the game. What bothers me most of all is that
Mr. Noah to our left is the king of the college flop and everyone keeps talking about how great he is. I think in this pic he's probably saying "Ooo ah ow my ass hurts from taking so many falls...OOOOOUCH!!!"

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Something to Brighten Everyone's Day

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Check out homie in the yellow shirt. Ha!!!

Monday, March 5, 2007

Door Holding Etiquette

How far does a person have to be behind you before it's acceptable to not hold the door and let it close behind you? How long are you expected to hold it open while the person does that weird run/walk thing to hurry and catch up to you so you don't have to stand there forever? If someone does hold the door open for you, especially for an extended period, wouldn't it be appropriate to say thank you or at the bare minimum give the typical "white people" grimace smile (the kind that is given when two white people are passing each other and there is no one else in the vicinity so a toothless half smile that says "I'm kind of uncomfortable about this, but I need to acknowledge you in some way" type face)...Black people are much cooler in this regard and provide each other with a head nod of sorts; this is also better because a smile should only be given when there is something to smile about, the strangers we smile at could be serial killers for all we know. Anyway I digress...

The "thank you" is obvious. People should always say thank you if the door is held for them. If a thank you is not received, the door holder has every right to shout "Your welcome!" or heave a big loud sigh, or a provide the offender with a "tsk ahhhhhh!" The other situations are not so obvious and I find myself faced with these questions daily. Either I hold the door open for a super extra long time because I am trying to be kind, but then I just seem weird for extending myself in this manner for a complete stranger. Or I judge that the person is a reasonable enough distance behind me and let the door close. Then that person catches up to me at the elevator or something and I feel they must be thinking, "thanks for holding the door asshole." I don't know, what the answers are. Maybe someone out there does.

One would think this problem could be resolved if revolving doors were installed everywhere, but trust me when I say, there are complications there as well. Like if you're going out and someone is coming in, you see that person, but do you stand there and let that person get in even if there is not a full door available to him or her (it's like half of one door and half of the other)...? Or do you start to push thus giving him or her the opportunity to step into a full door situation, but possibly chopping their arm off in the process if they don't time things the same way you do? I think I would find myself a much happier person in the mornings if I didn't have to deal with these issues. I think I am happier when I find myself either walking alone so I don't have to deal with pedestrian traffic, or in the middle of a big crowd so someone else has to ponder these issues.

Apologies

I would like to apologize to anyone that has had their comments deleted from my posts (I just did it again). Please know that when they are deleted it is because I think they are funny and I try to respond. Then something happens and I delete everything. I don't know how this happens exactly because if I actually wanted to intentionally delete something, the process seems quite complicated. I think there might even be a way to get them back, but it has proven unsucessful. So, I'm just going to stop trying to comment on things from now on. I guess you hear enough about my opinions from the blog itself anyways.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Sarah and Rob Start Practicing!!!!

I would like to have been in the room when everyone was learning this dance.

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For those of you who might not know, this is the exact dance from Dirty Dancing. Lift and all. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!!!"

Thursday, March 1, 2007

And tonight on the 11 o'clock News...

"If you thought a Vice Principle selling crystal meth was bad....Well, wait to you hear about the gay porn, sex toys and nudity!"

This was the attention grabbing headline of the evening, used to advertise the NBC10 News @ 11, after The Office tonight. Please note that the news anchor actually sounded excited about delivering this news. "Please join us tonight for the full story, graphic pictures, and an interview with the ugliest, dumbest person we can find. Let us help you make Philadelphia a better place to live. Yay!"

I couldn't have said it better myself...

My Mom sent me this forward. It's hilarious and gives you guys something funny to read since I've been slacking this week. Sorry you guys! I have to do better because I do not want to loose my readers. I'm going bridesmaid dress shopping this weekend, so I'm sure to have something funny to say about that.
.......
When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied.

Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.

You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone’s Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume "The Stance."

In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance."

To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your thighs shake more.

You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail. Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your
chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late.

Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too. At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.

You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."

As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?"

This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restrooms (rest??? you've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and
hand you Kleenex under the door!