you remember me mentioning the twenty-something guy in my building that no one ever sees hide nor hair of?? well I saw him down in the basement tonight, just as I was getting into the laundry room, he was leaving. I doubt he saw me, so it was nearly impossible to utter a ‘hello’ to him unless I walked out of my way to bump into him. I had to wash three huge loads of clothes tonight, always one of colors, one of darks, and one of whites. Lucky for me, I was able to do all the sorting, loading, and running back and forth to change loads between commercials while watching t.v. tonight. I DID watch NBC’s coverage of Golden Globes, and pre-show. I don’t ordinarily care for this type of ‘entertainment’ but I insist on keeping abreast of this sort of stuff. I was not surprised at all to see HBO’s The Sopranos get the award for best drama, nor was I shocked to see that American Beauty got Best Picture in the Drama category. I have heard nothing but good things about both of these from people I know who have good taste in movies and t.v. and was so glad to see Denzel Washington win for his potrayal of Rubin Carter in The Hurricane that I whooped out loud. I did, I did. I guess I just love me some Denzel. this book I picked up from the library is slow going. I don’t know why. The story is hard to follow. I like the stories and flashbacks but it’s not really gripping me enough to the point where I can keep track of all the characters and whatnot. Maybe it’s not as great a book as I had hoped. I did, after all, pick it up at a discount store. maybe it’s just me. more than likely, it’s the latter. sometimes I just don’t give books the chance they deserve. Like years ago, I gave up reading Tom Clancy’s The Hunt For Red October (which people say was a great book) because there was just too much submarine terminology and military references that baffled me, I couldn’t understand how laymen could even keep up. If there is a story to be told, I would prefer the author just gets down to business and tell it. I am less likely to dismiss a book because it’s not ‘believeable enough’ to read, like so many people who stop reading it or get disappointed because they know for a fact that the safety door on a military submarine is blue and is located at the rear, not the front of the sub. I can and DO appreciate the author who does her research and gets enough info or else has EXPERIENCED the story, in order to let the reader know about where the story takes place but I am way more interested in the story and the characters than I am of their geographical and material surroundings. anyway!
is a list of the supposed ‘100 Worst Songs of All Time’ (that were on the music charts). well I suppose SOME of those, I could’ve done without, but there are alot of songs on there that I happen to like!! does that mean I have bad taste or perhaps that I just like to reminisce a little?? some people.
well, I have lots more to talk about but alas, my eyelids are getting heavy and I really shant delay my beauty sleep any further or I’ll turn into a monster by morning.
Posted by dayleeblog | 
Everyone knows I like to observe people, and imagine my delight when I moved this summer to a different town, and into a turn-of-the century (20th) apartment building chock full of very DIFFERENT people. The lady downstairs vacuums every day, I dunno if she’s got a big dog or what…there’s always weird cooking smells at dinner time and she didn’t take her Christmas wreath down from her door until today. The guy next door to me is always clearing his throat and then hums as if he’s checking to see if his voice is raspy or something, and very loudly, too. I hadn’t had him figured out until just the other day. He is either very forgetful or suffers from a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder, & I think this is so because once he’s ready for work every day (which I think he gets ready very early, when I’m still sleeping), it takes him 40 minutes to get out the door in the morning. He goes out and scrapes the snow off his car (which most Minnesotans do in the wintertime, so I have dismissed this–it’s normal), then he goes back upstairs, where he makes a whole lot of rattling noises and more throat-clearing. He comes out into the hall with his coat, hat, briefcase and his cooler, I think one of those Igloo Playmate ones, puts them down on the floor in the hallway and then goes back inside to fuss around some more. This is all going on from the time I get out of bed at 6:30 until the time I am out of the shower at 6:45, and the only reason I know about all this going on is because this building’s walls aren’t very thick and in the a.m. it’s very still and quiet around here except for him. By 7:10 I am dressed, the coffee is made, my hair blow-dried and I’m getting my shoes on when I hear him still checking things around his apartment. I know this because he goes out the door about 5 or 6 times muttering to himself to check the lights again, check etc., etc., and finally he gets his coat and hat on and goes down to start the car. He comes back up to grab his stuff and I hear him tell himself to double check that the space heater is off; etc. I am going out the door a couple minutes later and he is just finalizing everything and is usually coming out behind me. I may be wrong about him, perhaps he is just used to a certain routine in the morning. Nontheless, I find it strange, and sort of amusing. The twenty-something guy w/the receding hairline and entire wardrobe consisting of flannel shirts and sweatpants goes unseen for days and even a week at a time, only known to go out into the world when the weather is nice. Perhaps he’s a writer with either a block or a hot story in his head or his pc and he cannot escape from the bowels of his apartment. Perhaps its none of my business… The guy in the apartment whose windows are right across mine has a variety of home exercise equipment and books in his front room and he goes to bed very early because I once was playing an mp3 on my computer speakers (my computer desk is in my bedroom) and it wasn’t yet 9:00 and he knocked on the one wall that we share (I presume that is his bedroom) and lately I see his lights off early too. I have never seen this person in the laundry room or getting the mail, but he could work evenings or something like that. The lady on the same floor, down two units from me lives with her daughter who’s about fourteen and they are always doing laundry. I have alot of clothing and towels/linens but these people, for just two of them, are REALLY laundry monsters. Then there’s this guy (who I know but have not met yet, he is buddies w/my brother in-law) that lives across the other side of my unit in the adjoining building, is a front man for a band that always plays at a certain local live music hangout (which I’m not naming because that would be rude) and just moved to the complex in November. He has his keyboard in the dining room and is NEVER home unless it is late late late on a weeknight. I think they have nightly gigs at that place ’cause when he is home he’s on the computer or is probably gone to bed.
NOTE: I am by no means, a voyeur or peep freak. I just see these things going on (very easily I might add) and I am simply observing the things I see and sharing them. Also, I understand how people w/obsessive-compulsive disorder live and have to deal w/this, and I am not making fun, so please do not email and tell me what a horrible person you think I am.
Posted by dayleeblog |
Friday: Just because it’s the last day of the week that I have to work doesn’t mean it’s gonna ba a good one… Saturday: Bye, bye, Miss American Pie I love Saturdays, yes I do! too bad they don’t last too long. Got out of bed late today, because I was up until 3 a.m. editing a site that I maintain for a non-profit organization. I am sooooo bad at javascript. Let me tell you…I’m gonna have to take a course or something. I thought I mastered it last summer on my own by reading up on it, but I proved myself wrong that night. So much technology to master, so little time. Technology doesn’t seem to phaze todays kids, have you noticed? I bet some have never even used a record player or better yet, an eight track or one of those console RCA tv’s without a remote control. Today I wish I was a kid again, playing outside forever, even in the snow, in summers riding my bike, doing things my parents wished I hadn’t, like helping some older kids build tree forts in the woods beyond our backyard. Kids these days have no imagination when it comes to playing. They have all these video games, and the internet. The internet isn’t meant for kids, anyway, I think. We had such fun when I was a kid, even when we were with our parents. Back then we went to drive-in movies, roller rinks, garage sales and flea markets. I loved the flea markets the most, because here were all these people, putting out their personal stuff, for people to rummage through. Their most precious junk….Elvis paintings, Roy Rogers lunchboxes, movie posters, mason jars and china and kewpie dolls, and my sister and I took it all in, eyes big as plates, wondering how people could just toss their treasures to the wind and wondering how much further to walk through these roads and fields in the blazing August sun before we could get to the next port-a-potty or soda wagon. Sometimes we had fun just staring in wonder and amazement at the people who decided to entertain the crowds with their talents. I can still see and hear the man playing the guitar with the Willie Nelson-inspired straps, singing that song by Don McLean. You know the one…It’s like, eleven minutes long and I think when they play it on the radio it means the DJ is sitting on ‘the throne’ or else the next one hasn’t shown up yet for his shift. Sunday:
I got an ad in the mail yesterday for the Literary Guild and was leafing through it today when I realized I’m way behind the times when it comes to books. The last new one I read was one by J. Grisham, who I like but I notice today he’s got two hardcovers already out that I missed. I’m gonna have to update my collection. Here are the books I’ve read in 1999
Time for me to hit the sack.
Posted by dayleeblog |
Considering a career as a stuntwoman? Nay. Note to self: best way to start a week is by NOT running to the bus stop in such a manner that you slip on the ice and fall right on your hands and knees, to result in scraped and hacked up & bleeding kneecaps and skinned palms and a re-twisted ankle (yes, that’s right…third time’s the charm) Twisted it the 1st time back in ’91 while I was in tech school. It happened when I walked down a flight of stone steps outside of the campus security building, and I figured the second to last step as the last. Hey, as a child, I was always told to carry my head high. The second time was just this last spring, again, walking to the bus stop, only the sidewalk crack was to blame. This time was the kicker though, ’cause my reason for skipping into a jog around the corner was because in the dark not-quite light of the a.m. I saw the lights of a bus as it barreled toward the end of the block. Now you’d think I’d have taken a better look, but no…ran anyway. When I fell, I had the wind knocked out of me literally. And I didn’t just fall down on the sidewalk, it was that awful old black asphalt pavement that sort of falling apart and all gravely (which added to the fun of cleaning up my hands and knees when I arrived at work). That bus, by golly, was not a metro transit one, but a *gulp* school bus. God, I don’t think I ever knew a bigger klutz, let alone a blinder one. When I get home tonite I can’t find the darned air cast I used last time, so right now I’m all ace-bandaged up and have my leg propped up on a stool, my ankle resting on top of a package of frozen peas. I don’t have a fancy ice pack to use, but now I’m gonna invest in one. Never know when the klutz in me is gonna come out again (o: Remember When? Of course you do. Back in the late 70’s when I was in grade school (and some of you were, too) we HAD to wear the collars on our polo shirts UP, HAD to have the beaded safety pins on our shoelaces, HAD to have that ‘Simon’ game. Of course we also had to have the big ol ‘Unbreakable’ comb w/the large handle in our back jeans pocket to feather our hair with, & those jeans had better have some kind of roller disco or rainbow embroidery on the pocket. We HAD to play the ‘Mickey Mouse Disco’ and ‘Free to Be, You And Me’ records, and speaking of records, as a kid, one of our favorite things was to have a vast collection of 45’s that my sis & I hoarded from garage sales…we were just happy to play records on our Smurf record player so we had cool music to rollerskate to in our basement. Everything from ‘Queen’ to Sean Cassidy and lest we forget the Beach Boys. We also had that song ‘Popcorn’ by Hot Butter and a few choice oldies including ‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies. Oh, and my sister had the Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Brite doll-inspired rollerskates and mine were silver and had the stripes that resembled ‘Tiger’ brand tennis shoes. You guys remember the old Tiger’s tennies? They were big w/us ten year olds before Adidas and Nike. haha…we were big dorks. I’m an avid ICQ-er and I can tell you that over the last couple years I have had some very interesting chats, but none as funny as the one I’m about to relay here. The person I’m chatting with is a buddy of mine who likes to look through the online personals ads at mostly reading them for entertainment value. Tonight he found one of them pretty intriguing and I told him to go for it, and he said he thought she was a hooker, the way she sounded! So now he wonders if women really do have intuition and thinks now I’m a bad judge of character.
TTFN
Posted by dayleeblog |
Happy New Year–hmmmpff! This weekend started out about as unpredictable as ever, with me at work on Friday, feeling the heat–yes, Friday, the day NO ONE ELSE seemed to be working and NO vendor or outside client could be reached by phone, making things all the more fun for me, in the office, doin’ tha job thang. When year end comes to our office, we have only until noon to get whatever purchases made by the company processed and into accounting. Which means every buyer and manager is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and everything is urgent. My job this day was to match that urgency and help put out whatever little fire has started by tossing my whole schedule out the window, along with my hopes of going to use the restroom and going to the cafeteria to obtain some caffeine and sugar before eight o’clock. This day, I knew, would have required LOTS of coffee and at least some apple jacks or a donut or two. Nope. Barely got my coat hung and my boots off before someone’s pecking at my cubicle like a bird looking for worms, requesting I log onto the network to see if our team’s purchasing software application will work for me, since no one else could get it up and running. I log on, and nay, I have no access due to a loading error. So guess what I get to do? Type up the last page of a rush P.O. in Word, and RIGHT NOW. Then there were multiples of other tasks to be performed, not scheduled by me, and ON THE DOUBLE. Repeat above until lunch–oops, no lunch break for me! Finally at 4:45 it’s time to put the ‘ol boots and coat back on and go home. Somehow I figured I’d just as soon never showed up. Not just because I was busier than a one-armed paper hanger, but because I’ve come to realize that in all my career as an office worker, I have NEVER worked with the biggest bunch of snots as I have at Company X. No one said I have to accept it, nor do I feel like I ever will. Right now I just have to stick it out until something better comes along. I don’t have the courage to get a new job just yet because I am considering a career change. I’ll go more into detail about this later… Millenium Compliant, Indeed After the BALL dropped last night, did you all notice the tv news anchors making the announcements about how everything went without a glitch, as far as the year 2000 rollover was concerned? Well, DUH…we’ve expected this for simply weeks, now, haven’t we? I mean, come on..our local phone, gas, electric companies, what-have-you all did their press release ditties about how everything was to go as planned, and there was nary a thing to worry about. Ya didn’t see me going home from my New Year’s Eve party checking the VCR and the toilet and water taps when I walked in the door, didja? No. Everthing here is y2-OK. So just shut up about it already, will ya? Christmas Reflections Not that I ever have been or will be a religious freak of any sort, my parents have, every year put a lighted nativity scene in their front yard in addition to lighting the house and yard with strings of lights. This is their contribution to the community and is plenty festive. Ever since they’ve had an empty nest, they’ve lighted up the house and yard even more elaborately each year. This year, sometime right before Christmas Eve, someone hijacked the manger and stole the baby Jesus right out from underneath Mary and Joseph’s noses. I was outside after dinner enjoying the unseasonably balmy evening when I noticed it was missing. Whoever he/she/they were, they reached up under the cradle and plucked the bulb and string right out of Jesus’s backside and made off with him, leaving the bare lit bulb lying in the snow. What a shame that someone would do something so low. Well, whatever intentions they had to try and ruin our Christmas, it’s too bad for them that our family had a great holiday in spite of this petty crime.
I have lots more to talk about, but I need to go to bed soon.
Posted by dayleeblog |