babbling blue

I survived Christmas. . . barely!

I decided to drive up to Wisconsin to see the family on Sunday. Now, I checked the weather beforehand, and I realized it was supposed to snow a bit. But I figured, a little snow isn’t a big deal. I’ll be fine. And for a long time, I was fine. It was very, very windy, but the snow was intermittent and fairly light. It just blew across the highway. Then as I got farther north the snow became constant, and heavier and visibility got worse. Still, it was just blowing across the road. But as I neared Green Bay, the snow started to stick. So I was dealing with poor visibility and a poor surface as well. Finally conditions detoriated to the point that I realized I wasn’t going to make it to my final destination. I got off the highway at the next exit. Luckily I have family everywhere up there, so I was not far from an aunt & uncle’s house. They let me seek shelter there for the night. They happened to be having their family Christmas with my three cousins, their spouses and kids. And three dogs. It was a full house!

The next day the weather cleared up and driving was fine. I made it to my final destination and got in some Christmas eve visiting with a Grandma and aunt. Christmas day was a full day of visiting various (3) families. My bio-dad was there which is always. . . uncomfortable. I have nothing to talk to him about. My gay cousin was not there, which was disappointing.

I ate too much, of course. I’m so fat!

The drive home was delightfully uneventful. The weather was nice, traffic was fine until just before Chicago (where it’s always bad). When I got home, I took a nap. The futon I slept on the night before wasn’t exactly comfy.

All in all, my Christmas was OK. I didn’t get to see my mom or siblings, since they were up in bumblefuck and didn’t come down to see the rest of the family in the Home Town. I saw my grandparents and various aunts & uncles, cousins and their spouses and kids. The drive up sucked. Food was good. Visiting was fine.

In general, I’m over Christmas. It used to be a lot of fun, but now it’s meh. I go because I get to see people I only see once a year. It’s not really fun any more, it’s just a lot of stress and running around. I didn’t even get to spend Christmas with my close family this year, since they didn’t bother to come down with most of the rest of the family. Unfortunately, there are people I only see at Christmas. If I want to see them, I have no choice. Blah! Well I have another year before I need to worry about that. Coming up first, New Years trip to London and Berlin!

Happy Holidays to all! Have fun, be safe.

There are a group of words that I sometimes get confused by. They all seem to look similar . . . well they all start with the same letter anyway. And that is good enough to confuse me. I assume that if I have a problem with something then surely someone else does as well. So as a service to others, I am posting these words and what they mean. You can thank me later.

ethereal 1. of or relating to the regions beyond the earth 2. lacking material substance (and some others I find less interesting)

If you encounter this word, you probably play computer games or read fantasy books or work on computer networks. . . or read blogs written by geeks. Regardless, you’re probably a big nerd.

ersatz being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation

Like the ersatz Coach bag you got from that shop located in a back alley. . .

ephemeral 1. lasting one day only 2. lasting a very short time

A team may manage to take the lead over the New England Patriots, but the lead is destined to be ephemeral. (That sounds like something Dennis Miller would have said.)

eldritch strange; unearthly; weird; eerie

This is the trickiest one for me. I always know it when I see it, but I can’t usually pull it out of my brain on demand. In fact I started writing this post and then couldn’t come up with this last word. So I saved the post as a draft and moved on. And then the next day, I encountered the word in a book I was reading. A ha! This is another word you’re probably encountering in fantasy books.

Bonus Word (not starting with e):
funereal 1. of or relating to a funeral 2. befitting or suggesting a funeral (as in solemnity)

Basically, it’s taking “funeral” and making it into an adjective. Now you know!

This has been your vocabulary lesson for the day. You’re welcome!

I woke up this morning, and groggily looked at the alarm clock. My vision was still blurry, but it looked like it said 10:30-something. Holy shit! I had way overslept. I was supposed to be up 4 hours ago! I frantically get up and start looking for my phone, so I can call my boss and let him know that I’d be in soon. I’m freaking out. . . oh my god, 10:30! But I can’t find my phone, and I can’t really focus on the alarm clock for some reason. I’m trying to verify the time and call my boss. All I can find is this one phone that I used temporarily but I can’t get it to show the time. Where the hell is my phone? I know it was on my night stand. I was sure of it, but I can’t find it. I look in pockets and my backpack. Something is not right here. Things are here that shouldn’t be. This can’t be happening! Then I realize what is happening, and I calmly lay back down in bed, concentrate . . .

And then I wake up. For real. It’s 5:19am and my room is dark. I was merely dreaming that I woke up late. Some how in the dream I knew I was dreaming and was able to force myself to wake up without any external stimulus. And this sort of thing has happened before. It’s not common for me, but it’s not exactly rare. Is this normal? Do other people realize they’re dreaming and force themselves into waking up? It comes in rather handy, especially when having a bad dream.

In an interesting twist, I went back to sleep after that (and a trip to the W.C.) and then I did oversleep for real, though only by about 20 minutes. I screwed up setting the alarm on my phone. I wonder if I subconsciously realized the mistake and the dream was a warning that went unheeded…

I’ve been rather derelict in my blogging duties, but at least I’ve kept true to my word in not posting when I don’t have something to say. This will be a post of brief mini-updates just to keep all 2-3 of your readers apprised of the exciting goings on in my life!

First, how do I love gmail? Let me count the ways… No there are too many. But in addition to the constantly growing mailbox size limit (I’m using 6% and I have “thousands” of emails), they keep adding cool new shit. For one, I think the new color tagging is nifty. But it is nothing compared to the ability to sign on to AIM through gmail! How cool is that. For those of us “secured” behind overzealous corporate firewalls during much of our day, gmail’s chat can be our only communication with the outside world. . . and link to sanity. But I didn’t know many people who used gtalk/gmail chat. However, that’s rather moot now since I can chat on AIM right in the gmail web client, firewalls be damned. Thanks, Google.

Second, we got our second real snow of the season last night. It was pretty but a minor pain to trudge through this morning before many sidewalks were shoveled. I’m sure I’ll be tired of the snow in . . . 8 minutes.

Third, I went to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico over the Thanksgiving holiday. My Thanksgiving dinner was fajitas, and much of the day was spent at the pool or beach. I had a freakin’ blast! I love it there. All I have to say is: Pinga, pinga, pinga!

Finally, I knew it was only a matter of time before I did it. Yesterday I was trying to call my cell phone from my desk phone so I could check my voicemail (terrible cell reception in this high rise) and I dialed 911 by mistake. As soon as I saw the number on my display I hung up, thinking I had been fast enough and the call hadn’t gone through yet. But I was mistaken. The 911 Center called me back immediately, and I sheepishly told the operator it was a mis-dial. At least she seemed friendly.

Have you heard about NaBloPoMo? It’s National Blog Posting Month, which asserts that bloggers should post to their blog every single day in the month of November.

Why? Who the hell knows! Don’t worry, I’m not participating. First of all, I don’t have the time. Second of all, I am not nearly interesting enough to find something to post every day. There’s just not that much going on in my life. Oh, but the folks at NaBloPoMo have some ideas…

This year, for those of you who suspect you might run out of gas, maybe you’d like to try blogging on a theme. Follow a news story for the month; get deeper into an issue that you want to educate yourself about; keep us abreast of how your yoga practice / daily muffin-eating regime / matchstick Eiffel Tower is progressing.

Umm… daily muffin-eating regime? I think they have just given a strong argument for why you shouldn’t participate in this silliness. If you are going to inundate the blogosphere with such inane drivel just for the sake of having posts, you are going to dilute the effectiveness of blogging in general. Now I know that there are indeed bloggers who do that sort of thing anyway; they either think people out there actually care about all the vapid details of their mundane lives or they are just blogging more as an open diary for themselves than for other people to consume. And don’t even get me started on Twitter.

Regardless, I don’t think posting blog entries for the sake of posting blog entries should be encouraged. By no means do I claim that every (or any) post in this blog is some sort of masterpiece of journalism or satire or . . . anything. But with few exceptions I only post when I have something to say. Not that what I have to say is always interesting, but that’s another matter. . . .

I don’t think NaBloPoMo (what a stupid friggin’ name!) folks realize they are contributing to the poor signal-to-noise ratio that leads many people to feel disdain for blogs and bloggers. Another example of good intentions gone awry.

… that all managers of white collar workers get 1 day off a week, so their employees get one day free of interruptions for stupid questions, requests for status reports, and the need to stop whatever they are working on to do this thing the manager has had on their desk for three weeks which is now due tomorrow.

… that any man 5′6″ or under be required to use the shorty urinals if there are any.

… that all Illinois lawmakers and the Governor be forced to commute on the CTA every day for a week.

… that charging a dollar or more for a bottle of filtered tap water be considered price gouging.

… that the former smoking sections in restaurants be converted into family sections; anyone who has children with them will have to sit in those sections.

… that we “fall back” a day later so I can actually get an extra hour of sleep when I need it.

… that if Americans actually got enough sleep we wouldn’t be so dependent on coffee & Coke.

… that you should play World of Warcraft.

… that you really shouldn’t buy Britney’s album.

I hope I’m not related to Dick Cheney. I mean, if he and Barack Obama can be cousins, anyone can be related to him. I’m trying not to hold this against Obama, but it’s hard. Family ties can be strong ones, even for eighth cousins.

This makes you wonder (well it makes me wonder, and it should make you wonder too) what other famous people could be related. Maybe Mel Gibson is a distant cousin of Mel Brooks. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump have some common ancestors. Getting back to presidential candidates, wouldn’t it be fun to discover that Hilary Clinton and Rush Limbaugh are related? Yes, it would.

This all gives me hope that I might have a distant celebrity relative. Now all I have to do is find out who it is and get in their good graces. Or at least in their will. Of course with my luck, I’ll probably find out I’m related to Karl Rove.

One of the things I don’t like about fall is the bipolar weather. There are really only two seasons around this part of the country: winter and summer. Fall and spring are merely extended transitions between the two.

One of the things I do like about fall is the proliferation of pumpkin products. I am a big fan of all things pumpkin, especially pumpkin pie. I have noticed the various coffee places advertising their pumpkin drinks. So far I’ve tried a pumpkin latte from Dunkin’ Donuts and a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks. To my surprise, I liked the DD version better. The Starbucks latte didn’t have enough pumpkin (or spice) flavor and was just rather bland overall. The DD latte was sweet but not too sweet with a noticeable pumpkin flavor. My plan is to try Au Bon Pain’s pumpkin spice latte next, when I have the patience (the ABP near my office doesn’t sell many espresso beverages and they are always very slow when they have to make one, if you can even find the person to order from).

I had a pumpkin muffin from ABP this morning. It was OK, but not quite pumpkiny enough for my tastes. The quest for the best pumpkin breakfast pastry is only beginning. I’ll keep you posted on it as well as any new developments on the pumpkin coffee drink front. I know you want to know.

Last week at work, everyone got an email from the company about accidental calls to 911. Apparently the city’s 911 center has complained that they are getting 911 calls from us, and people frequently hang up when they realize they’ve dialed the wrong number. This results in them having to call back and–if they receive no response or voice mail–dispatch someone here to make sure everything is OK (or so they claim). The email asks us to be careful when dialing and to stay on the line and explain that we mis-dialed if we do call 911 by mistake.

What I want to know is, what genius decided it would be a good idea for most corporate phone systems to require users to dial 9-1 to get an outside line and make a long distance call?! After that, it’s a simple slip of the finger to hit another 1 by mistake. I’m sure there was a reason for this choice–and I’m too lazy/busy to research it–but honestly, what do they expect? It’s going to happen.

Also what makes people think it’s ok to hit/bang on my cubicle wall when they walk past? For my first 10 months or so here, I had a window seat. It was nice! Now I am in a terrible location; I’m on an aisle outside the print/copy room and across from the drinking fountain (the water from which tastes like it came out of a rusty bucket, so I use a different one). And people walk past and tap on my wall. I guess they think it’s a friendly greeting or something, but it annoys the shit out of me (and often startles me too). Knock it off!

Oh and I got a promotion.