November 1 Q & A - Favorite Quote

I'm randomly back again. I have a lot to share from the past few months, but I don't feel like writing about any of that just yet. Rather, I came across writing prompts for the month of November, and it looks like fun! Yay, fun!

Before I get too much into it, though, it was brought to my attention that my blog has compatibility issues with Internet Explorer. Being that I only use Safari, I had no idea! And I have no idea how to fix it. I had been wanting to switch over to WordPress, so it seems like now is the perfect time. Or maybe not if I can fix this compatibility thing. I'm so indecisive. I guess my point is, if you read my blog on IE then I'm sorry everything has looked a mess. You have been so very polite for playing along this whole time; hopefully it will be fixed soon in one way or another.

But back to the point of this post. Here is the prompt for today:

Tell us your favorite quotation and why.

This kind of feels like deja vu. I might have written about this before, but I'm too lazy to check. In any case, what may have been my favorite quote before might not be my favorite quote now. That's the cool thing about quotes. Quotes have different meanings based on what you're going through at the moment. One of my all time favorite quotes is:

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacle were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one. Happiness is a journey, not a destination." - Souza

(my Souza magnet)

There have been so many times in my life that I told myself my life would really start after this or after that. I think school is a perfect example. When I was in school, both times, I told myself how much greater things would be when I finished. Instead of enjoying my time learning, I looked forward to what was to come. But in reality, what came after was working full time and not using my degrees. Fun! And then there's the thought that when Nick and I have kids, as if that will ever happen, our life will really start. Which is just a stupid way to think.

This quote is a favorite because it's a constant reminder not to think like an idiot. I'm getting better, but I'm by no means there yet. Because wherever you go, there you are, right?

PS - Go Giants!

My Life in Sticky Notes

Perhaps this is a completely idiotic post, but idiotic posts seem to be the most fun. I have a sticky note app for my phone, and I make very good use of it. I write lots of things down: randoms, reminders, instructions, names, books... you name it, I sticky note it. 

Sometimes I will look something up over and over again, and I will finally decide to put it in my sticky note app for easy reference. Take my caffeine sticky, for example. I found myself repeatedly looking up caffeine levels in tea. I try to avoid caffeine. It's purely because I am a freak and for no other reason.  When I can't have herbal or red tea, with no caffeine, I can look at my trusty sticky note and see that black tea has the most caffeine and should be avoided. Yay! How easy is that?   

Digital sticky notes are also great when you're at the vet. Our vet recommended giving Moose Benadryl to ease his itchy skin when he needs it. It would be nearly impossible for me to remember this dosage without writing it down.  

I kept dreaming of snakes, and the dreams were quite disturbing. I jotted them down so I could look up the meaning. One night, I had a dream that Doug and Moose had been bitten by a snake and were bleeding to death. It was fucking horrible. The next night I dreamed about a snake in my pillow case. You're dying to know what the snake in my dreams symbolized, huh? This site suggests that it is an, "expression of a strong discomfort, worry or... fear as you are being confronted with a challenging situation." That one seems appropriate, so I'm just going to go with it. 

I occasionally hear names that I'd like for our pretend, completely hypothetical daughter. We've had our pretend son's name picked out for a long time, but we're undecided on a girl's name. Among many other names, I think Eleanor is cute. 

Oh, dog shit! These little gems all happened to find their way out of my dad's mouth on a lovely Saturday morning this last May. My parents and I went to a community garage sale event in El Dorado Hills, and garage sales seem to wear out my dad's patience in a perfectly delightful and comedic way. If my dad didn't like what someone was selling? Dog shit! If someone's prices were too high? Rotten bastard! If someone was a complete douche bag? My dad didn't want his junk anyways!  

I am a sucker for flowers. I love me some flowers. So it's no surprise that I write down flowers that I like. One day I will have a garden of pretty flowers. Or at least a few pots here and there filled with beautiful azaleas and black eyed susans. 

That's a small sample of the sticky notes that I have. I like going through them for some weird reason, so thanks for listening. I'm sure I'll share more later.. whether you like it or not :)

Sunflower Inspiration

To add to the list of things I love about my husband: he stopped to take a photo of a sunflower field on his way to work the other day. I hope he doesn't kill me for sharing that with the thousands of people who follow my blog. I think what I like most about this is that he really savored the moment. I can't count all the times I've driven past something thinking I should stop and take a picture of it. Nick actually had the balls to do it, and that inspires me.    

Alcatraz

I work for the state, and part of my job is to work the public information line for half a day once a week. I get to answer people's questions, listen to their frustrations, and act as a personal punching bag. And so today I was reminded of my all-time favorite incident working in customer service.



Photo: Source
When I was twenty-ish, I very briefly worked for a computer store as a customer service representative. My job was to greet customers as they came into the store, answer the phone, and, had I stayed long enough, input orders into the store's archaic point-of-sale system. Now, this software was not intuitive at all. Go figure for being a computer store, right? It wasn't like 'use the clearly labeled drop down menu and then double click here to place an order.' It was more like 'if you're lucky and accidentally press F4 you might be able to access the menu to the menu wherein you'll be asked to choose between pressing alt + shift and control + enter, but if you guess incorrectly the computer will freeze, make a sound like it's going to take off in flight, and then literally drop a deuce onto your shoes.'

And if you had only worked there a week and lacked any sort of introduction to the system, any sort of training on this software that was so lovingly named after an old-timey California prison, you were fucked. And so I was; I was thrown to the wolves.

One Saturday afternoon, the store was swamped. All the sales associates were busy with in-store customers when I received a phone call from a kind gentleman. He wanted to place a very large order. I very politely put him on hold and ran around begging and pleading with the sales associates to take five and assist this man. He was a sure thing! With money to spend! But no one wanted to take the time to help this very new employee place an order in which they were guaranteed a commission. I got back on the phone and kindly asked this sweet, sweet man if I could possibly take his name and number and someone would call him back. He assured me that if I did not take his order right then and there, the company I worked for would miss out on his very large, very profitable order.

With sweaty palms, I stood in front of that black screen and tried to maneuver my way around the system. There was a lot of awkward silence on the phone while I fumbled through the various screens. There was a lot of "thank you for your patience" and "did you say 5 3200 series with 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 505 processor, 256MB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive or was that 3 5200 series with 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 530, a sack of potatoes, and a lighter?" I made no significant process with this man's order whatsoever because I did not know what the fuck I was doing. He, of course, took it as a personal insult. And so he asked me, and I will never forget, he asked, "what are you, a retard or something?" I'm not sure how the call ended. I truly have no recollection of how I was able to get this complete douchebag off the phone, but I remember going into the bathroom and crying my eyes out.

And I also remember quitting shortly thereafter.

Our Hairy Seamster

Moose (not pictured) is so resourceful that he was able to update our boring, straight-edged bedspread with a delightful scalloped finish. He has such an eye for textiles!

Red Velvet, Schmed Schmelvet

I have a confession. I hope you don't hold it against me.

Red velvet? Yeah, I just don't get it. It doesn't really taste like anything. 
We had a BBQ today at work and someone brought red velvet cake. Everyone was like "ooooohhhh" and "yum" and "red velvet cake is so good." I gave it a go to be a good sport. Just like every other time before, though - nothing. I think my taste buds are deficient in being able to recognize what everyone else so lovingly lusts after. What is this flavor that we call red velvet?!?

Photo: Source
I know people think I am weird for loving such exotic flavors as banana, coconut and lemon. But I believe in equal opportunity. So, people, please tell me: what is it about red velvet?