Sometimes You Just Gotta Vent

The song lyrics I'm posting here pretty much sum up how I've been feeling lately. The lyrics say it so much better than I ever could. Before you start reading into it too deeply though, please realize that this is not meant to be any sort of comment on my personal social relationships. This song is actually about a romantic relationship, but... whatever. This is school I'm talking about here, and some of the people I have to deal with there, which has become an on-going source of super-stress and frustration for me...

"Don't Cry"*

This is anything but fair

Don't say that it's not 'cuz

You get what you want

And I

Well I don't want this situation

Don't tell anyone that

This is

This

This is

What I've found

I'm surrounded

Don't tell anyone that

This is

This

This is

Where I'm found

I'm so surrounded

And I

Oh I believe

It's never to late

To be what you might have been

And I think we

We are meant to be

I've been here somewhere before

Covered in frustration

But still I've lost me somewhere

And I don't want this situation

Can't fight the situation, losing your inspiration

There's no way home, you're all alone

Can't fight the situation, feeling your desperation

No more time to give, it's your time to live

Thereby hangs a tail, but that's another story

Men are a bundle of relations, a knot of roots

The heart feeling on, the heart sinking within one

The bubble has burst and the game's up

* Performed by "Jakalope", written by Dave Ogilvie, Katie B, Anthony Valcic, Jamey Koch

And We Winked at One Another

Irish Coffee a la Nancy's boss:

1 oz. Jameson whiskey
1 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream
2 oz. coffee
2 oz. whipped cream
1 tsp. green sprinkles

1) pour Jameson whiskey and Bailey's into a mug, add in coffee and stir.
2) add whipped cream on top and garnish with sprinkles
3) drink up in the department kitchen and then persuade the staff to finish off the bottom of the whiskey bottle
4) send the staff and faculty back to their offices with rosier cheeks, goofier smiles and fuzzier brain functions

**Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!**

When You're Done Whining and Taking Things Back

When our department moved to the Hall building in October, there was a general hubbub concerning the poor state of the Seminar Room's new whiteborads: once they were written on, the markings on the board would not erase. People tried different brands of markers, different products to clean the boards... nothing worked. Eventually, the boards became full of illegible markings of various colours. Complaints accumulated and the factulty and staff exchanged over 100 e-mails about the whiteboards.

So today I was sitting at my desk (where I have a nice window looking out into the hallway) and I saw these two guys carrying a big whiteboard to the Seminar Room. Wow, finally! I thought, They're replacing the whiteboards! At this point, it was about noon and my coworker (who's in charge right now because our boss in on vacation) was just leaving for lunch. About ten minutes later, the guy that was installing the whiteboards came to my desk.
"I am looking for the administrator." he said.
"I'm sorry, she's gone for lunch," I answered. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Sure. I'm here to replace the whiteboards, and we're an honest company, so I want to show you something." He gestured to the Seminar Room. "Would you mind following me?" So I left my office and follwed him down the hallway. As we entered the Seminar Room he said "I can show you why the boards weren't working." And he proceded to rip the protective plastic coasting off the the board.

Mary Jane and my Wallet

Yesterday I decided it was finally time for me to bite the bullet and buy myself a new wallet (of course, I only decided this when I found a really cute wallet that I decided I had to have). Actually, my old one was starting to have some issues: the zipper on the change purse wouldn't always close so I'd end up with all of my change at the bottome of my bag, and the stitching was starting to come undone. So: time for a new wallet. When I was paying for my wallet the girl that was ringing up my purchases gestured to the wallet and asked me, "Did you smell it?" Not sure what she was getting at I laughed and said "No!... should I?" She continued "It smells like pot!" She handed me my new wallet, I opened it up and took a whiff. Sure enough, it had a pungent, rotten plant kind of smell. "Smells kinda funky!" I said, and she started to laugh.

Let's just pretend that I don't know what marijuana smells like. But I went to high school, so how could I not know what it smells like?

Anyway, today when I opened my wallet to pay for something, there was an unmistakable pot-like smell emanatinhg from my wallet. Uh-oh! I thought Can everyone around me smell that too? How embarrassing! So I decided to air the thing out: I opened it up at my workstation to hopefully get rid of some of the smell. It was an okay idea until I left the lab without it. But that's another stupid story for another stupid day. No worries though, I got it back!

The Wonders of Technology

Yesterday I downloaded Skype, a free program that has many resemblances to MSN Messenger. It's a program you can use to make phone calls through your computer. You can pay extra to make calls to real telephones, but you can speak to people on your member list from computer to computer for free. I originally downloaded the program so my project group from school could have conference telephone calls from the comfort of our own homes. That's the cool thing about Skype: conference calling! Anyway, turns out that half of my group can't use it because they don't have microphones or headsets, so I was left with Skype on my desktop and no one to talk to... or so I thought! Out of pure chance Kim told me she was talking to an overseas friend with Skype and I got all excited: someone to talk to! So we chatted for a few minutes. I have to say, it was a pretty weird experience, talking to my computer. Can't say I'd ever done it before and it was made a little stranger that Kim's microphone wasn't working and she was typing everything out on Messenger. So then I really felt like I was talking to myself! Was kinda fun that Kim has a webcam, though.

Kim, you really gotta learn that sign language! Or get a working mic, whatever!

Anyway, if anyone else wants to join us on Skype, you can add me to your list by typing in my user name: it's the same as my Hotmail address, or the same as my Yahoo! address, minus the 2000.

Sidebar

Oops!

It just occured to me that maybe I should put in here that my Mom got home safely from the Rockies!

It was fun to keep everyone wondering for a couple of days, but yeah, the helicopter came in and brought her safely back to civilization! She arrived back home on Thursday. Bearing gifts. Yay!

Other than that, there's not much to tell!

There Ain't Nothing on the Roll

Last night I got news that my Mom is stranded in the Rockies. She went on a skiing trip with some people from her office and I'm told that on the day they were supposed to come back home they got 1 meter of snow in 24 hours! I figure the helicopter that's supposed to come and pick them up couldn't get in. And the airport was probably closed too, come to think of it. Anyway, she's stuck in the mountains.

Give me my Mom back!