Random Things Amuse Me

Take for example a lady in the car next to me at the red light while I was driving to the bank this afternoon: she had her right hand at about 10 o’clock on the steering wheel.  I found this odd.  Then I thought that maybe she was preparing to turn right at the light so she had “assumed the position” but then I thought it was silly that she’d be sitting like that three cars back from the crosswalk line.  Turns out, she didn’t turn when the light turned green.  She just drives that way!  I would think that her shoulder would get sore or tired.  Hopefully she has a short commute.

Last night I was thinking about answering machine messages.  Not the ones that people leave for you, requesting you to call back, but the ones you leave asking people to leave said message.  Follow?  ;)  It seems that fewer people are leaving fun prompts, there’s lots of “hey, I’m at work or school so leave me a message…” or the automated “no one is available to take your call…” and I miss enjoying silly little ditties when my call goes unanswered.  We used to have some really, really good ones at Christmas.  One year Dad sang his version of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) which was hilarious and a fan favorite.  I’m pretty sure we got an unusually large number of phone calls that year once word got out of the genius lyrics such as: “Jack Frost roasting on an open fire”.

Then there was the time that I was house sitting for some of our friends in the Sacramento area and I changed their answering machine message.  They had a cool machine that allows the caller to press ‘1’ for one person, ‘2’ for another, etc.  So I re-recorded the prompts for the first two people as they were previously worded then for person three I changed it from his name to something special.  I changed it so the machine said that the caller should press ‘3’ to leave a message for “the northern California chapter of the Los Angeles Lakers ultimate fan club”.  Muhahahahahaha.  See Sacramento is home to the Kings and they are not fans of the Lakers up there, at all.

So I was thinking, what would I put on my answering machine if I were to change it?  I currently have the standard computer voice playing role of receptionist.  Late last night I came up with this one:

“Knock knock…

River…

Reversing truck goes”

*BEEP*

Hehehehehehe!  Get it?  They beep and you leave the message after the beep so I just let the answering machine beep finish the punch line!  And I’m sure you all want to use this now, go right ahead, it’s cool.  It’s too good not to share.  :)

What’s your favorite fun answering machine message?

Loves.

One Down, Nine to Go

I’ve survived the first week of winter quarter and was offered an applied experience position at my top choice organization!  Yeah!!  I’m not going to name the organization at this time because it’s not always smart to blog about work.  That’s also why I don’t share fun stories from work on here anymore.  You never know when one funny story turns into a firing.

The first day of school I had my Philosophy and Sociology classes.  Nothing too exciting there, the usual going over of the syllabus and brief summaries of chapter 1.  Though one of my professors must have been a middle-school teacher in a past life because she had us all write our name, major and a couple fun facts about ourselves on an index card so she could learn our names.  She spent about half of our class time learning our names.  While it’s nice that she is putting in the effort I’d rather just get down to business.  Yet it is fun hearing what fun facts people chose to share about themselves.  I shared that I like photography and know American Sign Language.

One of the fraternities had a table outside of the building that both of my classes were in and they were giving away free hot chocolate!  That’s right, free hot chocolate!  That sure did make for a good start to my morning.  I don’t drink coffee or tea so this is my hot drink of choice.  And it’s been rather cold here recently (seriously, it’s only been in the 40s) so my cold hands needed it.  And it was good.

My final class, Psychology, was the next day and it looks like it will be a really good one (and not just because Dina’s in class with me).  The only thing that is giving me pause at this point is the fact that there is a guy in this class that’s a giant (think Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloon size) slacker and is really annoying.  I’ve had quite a few classes with him before and he seriously does nothing.  I don’t know if or how he manages to pass any classes he’s in.

Turns out that my predictions about my Philosophy class being a bit more of a breeze may not be so accurate.  I don’t think that it will be difficult so much as time consuming because there are a lot of assignments.  The lecture today reinforced the idea that it won’t be hard material.  With all three classes I will have a lot of outside work.  So I’m going to enjoy all the free time I can get, starting right now!

Loves.

Fancy Fingers

I got fake nails with a fun design just before Christmas and I keep getting compliments on them.  I wanted to get them because they’re pretty and I always rip my nails so it’s nice to have nails for a while.  Even if they are thicker than real nails and make it impossible for me to open a can of soda.  Which I suppose can be considered a bonus.  I’m hoping that I will get out of the habit of trying to tear my nails so that when I remove the fake nails I can maintain my nails at a “normal” length.

The design that I got was inspired by candy canes.  With diagonal red stripes on the white tips.  Then there was the addition of silver glitters on top of the remaining white.  Very festive!  When I get my nails re-done and trimmed I will be doing a new design but I don’t know what I want to do!  Suggestions?

My Next Life

I want to be a cat.  But not one of those cats that are featured on the ASPCA commercials that make me cry.  I want to be a loved cat in a wonderful home.  Really, who wouldn’t?

You get to sleep all day!

You fit into the best hiding spaces for hide and go seek!

Playing is encouraged!

You get rewarded for taking out frustrations on your scratcher!

Yep, next life I want to come back as a cat.

Loves.

Still Enjoying Winter Break

I am keeping my Christmas lights up.  Not forever since I will be moving in June and I’ll need to pack them.  Haha!  I’m just going to keep them up for another week or so because I like them and think that they’re pretty.  None of my neighbors will know though since they’re hanging inside my apartment.  I still didn’t buy that odd adapter to power my lights through the porch light.  My outdoor decorations consisted of one of those window gels that is Snoopy ice skating.  Ok, so technically it’s inside but you can totally see if from outside since it’s stuck to my front window.  I figure that I can leave the window cling up as long as it’s cold outside.  And by cold I mean, Bakersfield cold conditions with highs in the 50s, which would be considered warm anywhere that it snows in winter.

On Wednesday winter quarter starts up so I’ll have to get back in school brain mode.  I have one class (Philosophy: Logical Reasoning) that is making up for a class that didn’t count as a transfer from community college so it’s a super low level class.  Which means two things, it’ll be filled with freshmen and probably will have lower expectations.  So possibly good since it’s my morning class and I’ll most likely only be half awake.  I’m also taking a class for my minor (Sociology: Social Services and Social Problems) and then an elective for my major (Psychology: Family Psychology and Development).  I was trying to get my applied experience lined up this quarter but nothing has panned out so far.  I’m hoping to get an internship with one of three organizations but if that doesn’t work then I may T.A. or be a research assistant.  But I would much rather have an internship because it would 1) be fun and 2) be better for applying for graduate programs.  I’ll keep you updated if I get one.

Loves.

Santa Came To Town

Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa treated you well this year.  I know he treated us all well.  Mom scored with a Kindle, Becca got lots of gift cards, Dad was super excited about chili verde that was brought to him from Dos Carlitos, and I got a new iPod!  Of course we all got other really good loot but those were kind of the star gifts this year.

After breakfast, stockings, and gifties we played some fun games as a family.  We started with regular Trivial Pursuit (made in the 80s) but I was doing so bad that we had to bust out the easy Disney edition questions.  I was then able to get two wedges but Dad won that game.  Next we played Apples to Apples, one of my new favorites.  I ended with the most cards (the goal) but Dad did get to the goal number of cards first.  So I figure that I won, Dad’s just the first loser.  Hehe.

Then last night we played Wits and Wagers, another fun one.  Mom and Becca we doing so good that we ran out of chips to pay them out just before we finished the game.  Dad and I finished at 8 and 4 chips respectfully.  Mom and Becca were close to each other as well but Mom came out the victor on that one.

I also brought my Wii down so we’ve been playing Wii Sports a bit and I even got Dad to play MarioKart with me.  He did surprisingly well considering he’s not one to play video games.  Though I did take off the items so he wouldn’t get attacked or have to worry about throwing items at others or me.

Tomorrow night I’ll be hanging out with Mike, Lauren, and Lindsay and we’ll be trying out two new games.  After going to Tom’s Burger for dinner that is.  I’m excited for tomorrow!

Hope you all have a great end to 2010!

Loves.

Super My Butt…

For those of you who don’t work retail I’ll update you on what today is.  It’s “Super Saturday”, the last Saturday before Christmas, when people that are not quite waiting until the ultimate last minute (I’m talking about men that shop on Christmas Eve) will go crazy shopping.  Both crazy while shopping and shopping like crazy.  It’s super for businesses that want to make lots of money but very not super for people who are trying to get to the mall or find parking.

It usually only takes me 15-20 minutes to get to work but I knew that today was going to be a hard day to find parking.  So I gave myself 40 minutes.  I was 15 minutes late.

It took me 30 minutes to go the 3 blocks closest to the mall.  Then I still had to find parking!  /faceplam

I finally found parking behind the mall in the tiny parking structure on the top level.  Oh, did I mention that it was raining today?  I love the rain, but not when I have to park on the top level then walk slightly far to get into work.  I almost was one of those really rude people that ninja a parking spot from someone else but the car way behind me was waiting for someone else.  So as I was sitting, plotting my next move to find a vacant spot I see a man walking up the ramp with his shopping bags in his hands.  I give him the “Are you leaving? Can I have your spot?” face and he points at the truck that I’m idling next to.  Jackpot!  So I back out of his way (told you the guy behind me was far back) and wait for my spot to become available.

Recently Penn State did a study about how as primal, and thus territorial, beings we tend to take longer to pull out of a parking spot if someone is waiting for it compared to if nobody is waiting.  Well, this guy was quick so I appreciated his not hesitating to relinquish his claim on that temporary territory.  (If you were wondering it’s about a seven second difference.)

After work it was pouring.  That’s right, it upgraded from raining to pouring.  I managed to cut through one of the bigger stores to save from walking in the rain for as long (though wet is wet so it didn’t matter all that much) and made my way towards the parking structure.  I also unintentionally made my way through quite a few puddles…not as much fun when you’re wearing cute slip-on shoes.  When I got to the stairs that I used earlier this afternoon I found a waterfall!

Like this, only on a much larger scale.  I was not going to be using those stairs.  Turns out that the genius who designed this particular parking structure decided that all the stairs should be located on the lower end of any given parking level.  Because it never rains in California, right?  So I had to walk to JC Penney and use their escalator to get to the top level since it had a connection from their store to the upper level of parking.  And then I found yet another giant puddle to step in.  Sigh.  I got home and I was wet up to my calves.  But at least my jacket’s hood is nice and big so my head was dry!

Here’s hoping your rainy days are filled with hot chocolate and fun movies!

Loves.