Monday, December 3, 2012

More Ways I Drive Myself Crazy....

But first....let's start with Menu of the Day:

Last purchase on iTunes: O Susannah by Neil Young.

Last Book Read: This is weird, but i can't remember. I think it's because i'm reading three different ones right now and haven't finished one since The Middlesteins. One I'm still reading is Ann Patchett's Run.

Mission Accomplished: Christmas tree and house decorated! It's so early this year it seems, but everyone everywhere seems to be done. It's why i feel behind in my shopping again.

The Best Thing this Week:   Today louielouie and I went to a reunion lunch with some really great people that we both worked with at Mann Junior High back in the early to mid 1980's. And nearly everyone looked pretty good! Though I think louie and i looked the best, (but then we were two of the youngest staff members back then). You know what? .... i think louie and I actually look better NOW than we did back then. That would be partly due to our terrible 1980's hair. (Ask louie about her Rosanne Rosanna Dana perm.... hahaha... And I had a terrible variation of that short perm that the Let's Get Physical chick wore, only mine was worse -  i never wore the headband though!...but it might have been an improvement.)

What a great time - louie and i took a half day of vacation to do this and it was so worth it!

Shout Out: Jennifer.... Are you still around? And Amanda, where you be?

On with the Ways......

1. Have i mentioned this before? Stop me if i did.... i keep all of these recyclable grocery bags in the trunk of my car with good intentions. But I still keep forgetting to grab them before going to the store. So i moved them out of the trunk of my car to the backseat. And i STILL forget them. (I am a terrible environmentalist!)

2. I keep moving ornaments around on my tree when i see two of the same colored balls too close to each other. While i did break records for finding my tree AND for putting on the lights, i still obsess over the ornaments. They have to perfectly spaced. I can't stop noticing them once i do.

3. I am trying to grow out my eyebrows, but i can't seem to leave them alone. i need to put away that 7x magnifying mirror- you can see the hair on a flea with that thing! No woman over 30 should own one.  I  think i am addicted to tweezing! (It's why i am trying to grow them out!)

4. Back to grocery shopping for a moment. I get these great receipts that are coupons from Albertson's that give you $10 off or $20 off on your next visit to the store if you spend more than $70 and i ALWAYS forget to use that damn coupon. I think when i am retired i might try to be more vigilant to shop with coupons and venture out to sales. I hate big advertised sales. Because i hate crowds as much as i hate shopping. But when i have less money i may need to change my attitude. And i will have more time!

5. I am very assertive about my wants and needs and opinions. However i have a hard time telling my hair stylist when i don't like my haircut. (I had no problem telling her about that too dark color she did because that was too much and too obvious and definitely needed a fix.)  But normally I get in her chair and i let her be the boss all over me when it comes to my hair. I don't even do that with my REAL boss! Sometimes i find myself doing it with my doctors too. I become this passive person i don't even recognize.

6. For the life of me i keep trying to edit myself and stop writing such lengthy blogs, emails, letters, etc.  I can't seem to do it. (I call it the Ferocity of my Verbosity. or Verocity of the same.) I want to enter that Reader Writer Columnist thingie the News Tribune has lately been requesting, they put it up each year about this time and each year i think I want to go for it and try to get picked. However,  aside from even having an appropriate topic that is readable by the general public, the real problem lies more with the   word limit of the column. Maybe when i'm retired I'll work on it.

hmmm... maybe calling it a 'thingie' disqualifies me already.

7. Speaking of retirement. (I know, i know, y'all are probably rolling your eyes, there she goes again, talking about her retirement.....!)  But yeah, I drive myself crazy thinking/worrying about what i'm going to do or not do next year. I am somewhat mollified by the news that louie may be able to join me. I think our next blog post should be Things We Will Do When We Retire. (Everyone has something to add even if it's a few years down the road.)

8. A way i drive myself crazy is not being sure of my vocabulary. For example after i typed the above i had to look up the word mollified to see if that's what i meant. (I did.)


Notes to Self: 
All time blog views: 36,800
Blog views last month: 1202
Today's high temperature: 50 degrees
Sunset: 4:21 pm (doesn't this start going the other way on Dec. 21?)

12 comments:

jojo cucina cucina said...

I just remembered her name. It was Olivia Newton John, right? She did that stupid song "Let's Get Physical" .....

jojo cucina cucina said...

Another way i drive myself crazy. Not remembering super important stuff like that.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Editing on a kindlefire is torture. I meant VELOCITY...see what i mean about vocabulary?....

Amanda said...

Jo, we have so much in common!

I have OCD about the ornaments, too. I move them around constantly as long as the tree is up. I get obsessed with the spacing, the arrangement of colors, how they hang on the branches…it's ridiculous. I don't know that I'll get a tree this year. I'm getting easily discouraged about the amount of work nonessential things are. Living alone with two dogs means no one sees my tree anyway. I can be Scrooge McDuck if I want.

I forget coupons and the damn recyclable grocery bags. If I do happen to remember them (once a year!), I feel an amazing sense of accomplishment. Then, they start adding up again. I also can't remember birthday cards. I will remember either to buy them or to mail them, never both.

And, I'm a wimp about hair stylists and doctors. I do whatever they want me to do. It's dumb! I had one hair gal who was so insulting. She told me I had a weird shaped head and any time I suggested doing something different, she'd say my hair wouldn't do that. She also insisted the hair at the back of my head was as curly as the hair on the top, which it absolutely is not. She said I just wasn't styling it right. The last time I went to her, I asked her to lighten it up for summer and she turned my hair purple-black. She said that's what I asked for and I didn't fight her on it. It was an exercise in self-loathing. I kept going to her until I moved away. Maybe that's why I moved away. She was mean! Plus, she worked at a place called Malissa & Co. That alone should have been a red flag. I don't want to deal with anyone named Malissa. Melissa, sure. Malissa, no way.

louielouie said...

I absolutely LOVE my reusable grocery bags. I swear I use them every time. I even re-use the brown paper sacks from the produce department. Until they wear out or I need one to put my shredded bills in to put in the recycle. I also wash my bags so I don’t get what ever food borne illness you hear about. I even mend them if they tear at the top. And sometimes put in new cardboard bottoms. I am actually making my nieces grocery totes for Christmas. Well, I bought the fabric anyway, haven’t actually started any cutting or sewing.

I am glad to be all self righteous about my grocery bags because I’m not that good about other stuff. Like exercising. I’m posting here instead of working out, but only because I misunderstood and thought this post is about what I will do when I retire. I can wait for that though.

I am behind for Christmas. No tree yet, and it’s only in the garage. Em is coming home next weekend so I’ll get her to help. I haven’t done my shopping either. I ordered a few things on line (plus some black boots that only did not fit but were ugly. I told myself if they fit I would keep them anyway, but they’re going back) but not much. Went to a great PLU Christmas Program last night in Seattle and was in the holiday mood for the evening. Once I got the stocking for the wine exchange at my work party, the holiday spirit was over.

Am going to try to exercise while I watch Say Yes to the Dress. That always cheers me up.

Why is there no Z in exercise?

jojo cucina cucina said...

Yay Amanda is here. I love that i am not the only one with OCD on the ornaments. hahaha MALISSA.... With the exception of Jeff spelled as Geoff (only because i used to have this mad crush on a Geoff back in 1972) I do hate when normal names are spelled weird. We have an Angella as a member and an Ant'juan. (antwon).....

I put a second reusable grocery bag (this one is RED) in my front passenger seat, so we'll see if that works next time i am at the grocery store. Probably because i have blogged about this, i will be better.

I am posting here instead of exerciZing...too. Actually it should be spelled ExerSIZING because it's all about getting to a smaller size, right? Mostly. I mean, yeah, the health benefits are great too but if i am being honest with myself... for the most part, running is all vanity. I don't want to gain weight. Not only that i would hate to shop for new clothes, being as a i hate shopping.

jojo cucina cucina said...

i am VERY proud of myself. This is how my blog helps me. When i write in my Menu about what i have been procrastinating about i go out and fix it and get it done. And today when i went grocery shopping i not only brought both of my recycle bags in i also remembered my Albertson's coupon too!

Here's something cool for my menu for the week. It's would fall under The Best Thing That Happened. I have been at a two day meeting with my union employer about how we need to fix ourselves. We have done this maybe three times since my employment. And in some, no not some....MANY ways the two days were a deja vu. However, i felt light. I didn't hate it. I was happy. Part of it was because i was surrounded around some people who were happy to see me. And i was happy to see them. All of us across the state were there. And i forget how, while they are not in my own office, there are some terrific people who work for this organization. And i felt good all week.

also part of it is knowing i will not be there next year to have to make this happen. Been there, done that.

But i do hope that this time it might be different. Unions need to survive and we need good people to make it so. And i was reminded about who those people are. Even if i don't get to work directly with them.

jojo cucina cucina said...

dammit, my iMac mouse lost my post. in a nutshell: allright allof yall who are reading and not posting. please post. i keep trying to make it participatory and not talk all about myself even as i do talk about myself...i leave it open for you to respond to the same questions.

There is no way my friend louielouie is responsible for all 1000+ view on my blog. She is too busy with her job.

If you have ideas about how to make this blog better, i am open to that too. I hate coming here and not seeing anybody else's thoughts.

louielouie said...

I do check 100 times

Still love your blog but don’t have much to say. Lost my wittiness.

louielouie said...

I mean 1000 times

or is that 10000 times

Amy said...

Hi Jo! I have those reusable grocery bags that fold up real small and fit in your purse that I carry with me everywhere. I've only remembered to use them once and the poor bagger lady was struggling with them. They have such a system with their plastic bags. I feel bad for disrupting their workflow.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Amy! Louie! Hey there! i would imagine those fold up bags could be a nightmare for grocery clerks. I bet these environmental bags do slow them down. They probably go home at night and say f*ck it and throw their newspapers and cans in the garbage !