Dear Drivers of East and West Bound Highway 40

This letter is to inform you that I am really sick of spending close to 15 hours per week on the highway. Why am I spending so much time on the road you ask? Well, I.ll tell you. It.s because of you. First, let me address all the eastbound drivers. Yes, the sun is bright. You may be familiar with the sun; you.ve known it all your life. Is it too much to ask that you flip down your sun visor, throw on a stylish looking pair of sunglasses, and step on the gas? There.s no reason why the sun should hamper my ability to get to work at a reasonable hour.

Also, when there is an accident (that your reckless driving probably caused) or someone.s car breaks down, I would very much appreciate it if you could look and drive at the same time. It makes no sense to me why you have to stop/slow down to look anyway. The last thing I.d like to talk to you about is why you feel you must get in the fast lane, only to go 40 MPH and leave 10 car lengths in front of you.

I realize that some of you are in no hurry to get to work because you hate your jobs. That.s fine, however I don.t hate my job, and I.d like to get there on time. If you aren.t in a hurry, get in the slow lane and stay there. Just stay the hell out of my way. That will make my commute, as well as yours, much more enjoyable.

Next, I.d like to address all you west bound drivers in the pm. Yes, I realize that most of you were addressed with the east bounder drivers. Just shut up and keep reading. When I leave work for the day, after a long, sometimes-stressful day, I.d like to get home at a decent hour. For reasons unknown to me, you sometimes make this difficult for me. Again, the same slowness occurs when there are accidents and/or breakdowns. Stop it. Just drive. You don.t have to stop and stare. Really. Also, when someone is trying to get on via an on-ramp, do not.I repeat, DO NOT speed up and try to cut them off before they can get on the highway. It.s rude and uncalled for. If you don.t want anyone to .get in front of you., get in the fast lane and step on it.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that most of you are nice, loving, kind human beings. Some of you flip other drives the bird, shake your fists, cut people off, and all other sorts of stupid things. Knock it off. If we all worked together to drive home in a quick, efficient manner, we could all get home in time for Brian Williams and the NBC Night News.

I.ll close this letter by saying that I would appreciate your cooperation in this matter. I.m not a morning person, so if this comes off as bitchy, well.it probably is and I mean every word of it. You.ll all be sorry when construction starts on 40, and you.re forced to take the deathtrap they call highway 70. You.ll be really sorry then. People on 70 don.t play that shit. You.ll get ran over and I.ll laugh. But don.t worry, I.ll call *55 for you.

Love & Kisses

Dana

Today...

I saw a grown man cry. No, not kinda cry with a few tears, but cry like...break down, sobbing, hyperventilating, red face, can't control himself. All of this took place, at work. Now, I don't really like to talk about my work, but I will say this. Apparently, this guy and his manager and another employee who the crier doesn't get along with got into a big fight in their team meeting. Apparently it almost came to blows and the crier started crying and left the meeting. Well, at the time all of this was going on, I was the only one in my area that was in my area. All the other managers were in different meetings. So, this guy comes barreling my way and I'm freaking out. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with crying, but I've never experienced a grown man sobbing. It was uncomfortable. I gave him a few tissues and took him in my boss's office. I was just like "uh..hold on...it'll be ok, I'll be right back." With that, I went out to call my boss. It was just insane. This whole episode lasted pretty much all day. I had to get HR to come up to our area to talk to the guy because he was so upset that he didn't want to have to walk down the hall and have people see him crying. I work at a strict "business" type company. Suits, ties, etc etc. This kind of shit doesn't happen. It was just crazy. I later told my boss that she doesn't pay me enough to deal with this psychological kind of bullshit. IT people can be so weird. I'd thought I'd seen it all, until today. I shudder to think what else I haven't seen that people are capable of. Today sucked. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday.

Chris is going to a convention with Jason this weekend. Saturday morning I'm heading over to Eckherts to pick some apples with Nicole. Saturday evening, I think I'm going to bake an apple pie and drink a bottle (or 3) of wine. It will be a festive occasion. Picking apples & baking a pie is the perfect reason to drink. Then, on Sunday night we're going with some friends to see the "Capital Steps" at the Sheldon. Now, I've just got to figure out what to do tomorrow.

10,011

Today I hit and surpassed 10,000 hits. I want to thank boeing.com for being my 10,000th visitor. Whoever you are, thanks! I personally think my blog isn't all that interesting. However, 10,000 of you must find it somewhat stimulating, so thanks!

I'm trying to decide what to do tonight after I get my hair cut. I really want to go out and have a drink, but all my friends are busy and it's rainy. Odd how nobody wants to come to St. Chaz when it's raining. Losers! So, I think I may just go to the mall and look for some new shoes. If I can't get drunk on mojitos, I might as well get high on shopping.

Oh Beautiful Day

I took the day off today. That makes today beautiful. So far, I've been woke up by the jackhammer working on my neighbor's driveway, and I've written a paper that is due tomorrow. Doesn't sound like that much a beautiful day, but it is because I'm not working. Coincidentally, Chris took the day off too to take care of some business. Trash day is today. We were looking out the front door when the garbage truck came to collect our trash. We had an empty Corona box and another small empty box. The trashman looked in the boxes, took out the trash (newspapers) then left the boxes. Well, this pissed Chris off. So, he takes off out the front door, minus his shirt to chase down the trashman. I could hear him yelling all the way down the street. I was cracking up, but at the same time, all I could think was that he wasn't wearing a shirt, and you know what happens on COPS when people don't have their shirts on....anyway, he had a little altercation with the trashman and the boxes didn't get taken. So, Chris called the trash company. Which one you ask? Allied Waste, formerly known as Waste Management. They told him that they don't take boxes because it could rain and when the trashman picks up the box, it could break. That explanation didn't really fly with us because 1. it wasn't raining and 2. the boxes were empty. It's funny that this particular guy wouldn't take our boxes. It's never been a problem before. Sometimes I really can't stand people.

This evening I'm getting my hair cut and colored. I've had highlights before, but never had all of my hair colored. I'm kind of nervous. I'm not getting a drastic color like purple, or even bleach blonde. I'm just going with a deeper brown that what my hair is. Hopefully it'll turn out a-ok.

Other than that, not much else on my agenda for today. I was talking to my SIL, Mandy last night and she was telling me that she was thinking about going to this bar tonight that had 'free everything' for ladies on Wednesdays. I may go with her to check it out, but I'm not sure yet. We'll see how I feel after I get my hair did. :P

Frickin' Lasers

Today is Tuesday. That means it's Nip/Tuck night. This season is pretty good so far. Matt finally found out that Ava was a man and now he's freaking out because he's gay. So, he went to a tranny club, hooked up with an ugly he/she and when he found out he/she had a ding-a-ling, he kicked he/she's ass. Then he went home and shaved his head. I can't help but think shit like this happens in real life. Just so you know, this paragraph really isn't relevant to anything else I'm going to say.

Today I had my "fit check" at work for our new gym that's opening next week. I'm so excited about that I could just spit! My "fit check" checked out fine. So, starting next week, I'll be back in workout mode. When I'm in workout mode, that usually means I eat turkey sandwiches & chicken noodle soup for lunch every. single. day. I can't explain it, that's just the way it works out. This weekend, I'm going to have to go buy a new pair of running shoes. My Adidas & Nike's just won't cut it in the brand new gym! I need something new & shiny; not old & busted.

I was talking to a co-worker today about school. She is going to school right now for MIS. I asked her what she wanted to do when she got out of school, as in what she wanted to be, and she told me she didn't know. I thought that was kind of odd, considering she's doing MIS. That's pretty job specific I think. Anyway, it got me thinking about what I want to do when I'm done with school. I didn't have to think too hard because I already knew. I want to be your boss. Specifically, I want to be the CEO of a huge company, preferably a company with ties to finance. There's a really annoying contractor I work with and he once overheard me talking to someone about wanting to be the CEO. He sent me the following email:

I for one think you would make an excellent CEO some day.
States supporting Statement:
1. highly organized.
2. highly resourceful.
3. quality interpersonal skills.
4. positive attitude.
5. goal oriented.
Keep your goals in mind and stay positive.
When the time is right, you'll have all the luck you need. My dad used to say that luck was when preparation meets opportunity. I think that with the qualifications your are mounting, and the education you already possess. Luck will be on your side.

Even though I find the guy completely annoying, I thought it was nice of him to send me the email, considering he eavesdropped on a conversation to know this information about it. I try to keep the CEO thing on the DL at work. You know, in case the current CEO at my company gets wind of it. ha!

Well, for some unknown reason, my iPod started acting screwy today. In the car too. I almost crashed like 100 times trying to get the damn thing working. They really need to stop making all these damn gadgets that we can play with in the car. I mean: radios, cell phones, PDA's, iPods, newspapers, vibrators...oh wait. Seriously though. I hope I get little Celeste Pinkerton working before the morning commute. Otherwise, look out for the crazy girl driving the Volvo, almost hitting your rear bumper.

Firstly,

Today someone searched for "Dana is such a loser" and found my blog. I just want to clarify that I am, in fact Dana, however I am not a loser. I am a winner, damnit. A WINNER. So don't you forget it, google searchers.

For those of you who follow my dining out thing, our next outing will be at Brio Tuscan Grille. I don't remember if I already told you that or not. So, look for a review in mid-October.

It's sort of funny how things you prefer sometimes get lost in the background and then someone points it out. I say this because in our kitchen, we have empty wine bottles that line the top of the cabinets for decoration. We love wine. You can call me a wine-o. That's okay. Anyway, a while back, my uncle came for a visit and pointed out the fact that we have a lot of Yellow Tail bottles. We thought about it and realized that yes, we do have a lot of Yellow Tail because we like drinking it. This weekend at the party, someone pointed this fact out again. I don't think about buying Yellow Tail before I buy it, I just buy it. It's just something I instinctively reach for. It's the clever label design, I think. Either way, I just want to stress the fact that I do like other brands of wine. I'm just not sure why the majority of bottles that line my cabinets are Yellow Tail.

I don't remember if I have discussed this here or not, but I have this really unhealthy addiction to Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County on MTV. It's like water. I need it to survive. I can't even explain why. It's seriously the most horrible show on TV right now. For some reason, rich teenagers living like adults, but suffering through crazy high school drama draws me in like nothing I can explain. It just amazes me that there are actually children who drive Mercedes, carry $10,000 purses, and jet off to exotic destinations (without parental supervision) for the weekend. It's just nuts and I can't stop watching it. So, make fun of me if you wish, but at least I have the balls to admit it.

Well, after that confession, I've got nothing. At least I updated again. Two days in a row. You've gotta give me props for that.

Hurricane Headquarters

So, I know I may take a lot of flack for this post, but I'm prepared for the consequences.

I am so tired of all the news outlets (CNN specifically) pushing the hurricane coverage. It's amazing how all of the sudden, THERE IS NO OTHER NEWS. All of the sudden, nothing else is important. Katrina was total devastation, I understand that. I appreciated the coverage. Rita, it was a hurricane. Hurricanes happen. Kind of like shit. Is it a disaster? Yes, a big disaster. Do I feel for the people who lost everything they own? Yes, I do. Am I tired of hearing Miles O'Brien talk about it? Yes. Anderson Cooper too. I'm sick of it. I'm making a plea to Ted Turner. Please Ted, please report some news other than hurricane updates. I'm desperate to hear what else is going on in the US and the World.

Hey, I can only ask once, right?

It's Been A While....

It's funny how life can consume every second of time from you so that you aren't even able to breathe? That's how I've felt the past few weeks. I think part of the problem is that I take on too much. Between work, school, social life and volunteering I just don't have time to even sit back and relax, so forget blog updates.

So, please forgive my absence.

Stephanie & Tyler got married last weekend. It was a beautiful wedding. The ceremony was at the Japanese Garden and the reception was at Windows Off Washington. We had a great time and Steph. looked amazing. They went to Jamaica for their honeymoon and should be back this week. This coming weekend, we have Dana & Rodney's wedding, too.

On a side note, isn't it crazy when you have to look at your calendar to remember what you've done?

Last night, we have our annual (end of) summer party. It was a success and I had a great time. Corona seems to taste better with friends. The only bad thing was the fact that because there were so many people here, I didn't get a chance to converse with ever single one of them. I did meet one of Chris's co-workers though, who was very nice. I think I'd like to invite him over again to get to know his "friend" potential. Last night, Steve sorta dominated the conversation so I didn't get a chance to know him. Chris says he's a good guy though. Jason & Nicole came over early and I really enjoyed the time with them before everyone got here. One of Chris, Jason & RJ's old college buddies came by too. We hadn't seen him in a few years so it was nice to see him. Anyway, we were up way late and Chris got up this morning to clean the majority of stuff up. I was so glad.

Today, I'm just being lazy in my pj's. I need to read a few chapters for class this week and I also have a paper to write. It shouldn't take long though. I have a headache. The kind that is sneaky. I take Advil, it goes away; then 30 minutes later BOOM, there it is again.

This coming week is going to be busy at work. I'm not really looking forward to it. I have meetings all week and so does my boss. That means instead of one set of meetings, I'll actually have two. This is also United Way Week. It's good and bad. The good part is it's finally United Way Week. The bad part is that it's United Way Week and I'm a UW Coordinator. So, one more week to go and I'll have at least one less thing to worry about.

My Mom & Grandma bought a brand new house last week. I'm happy because now they won't be so far away. Instead of 4 hours away, they'll only be 1 hour 45 minutes. Less drive time makes me very happy.

This is my update. Are you happy now Chris?

Week(end) Update with Dana B!

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a week. I have no excuse other than the fact that I've been busy.

This week went by rather quickly. Chris was sick all week with strep though, so he ended up staying home from work most of the week. I finished my last class on Thursday, making it 2 classes down, 15 more to go! I also organized a study group coup. See, in my group (of 3) there was a this guy, an ex-Marine, who as it turned out, was a worthless piece of shit. He never did his homework, never had his pre-work done for study group, and turned in most of his papers late. Considering that I'm an organized freak, this did not sit well with me. So, after putting up with it for 10 weeks, I decided to find a new group on the DL. So, Thursday night I found a new group. I called the Marine to tell him I was leaving, and of course he was a big jerk to me. I didn't really care though, I just told him I couldn't deal with him not doing his work anymore. I'm paying a lot of money to go to school and damnit, I'm not going to let some fucking idiot get me off track. So, anyway, the girl who was in my group, ended up joining my new group also, leaving the Marine all alone. I guess she didn't want to deal with him either. Too bad for him.

Friday night, Chris had a "guys" night and they went to see Transporter 2. He said it sucked major ass, but they had fun anyway. I, on the other hand, went to Crate & Barrel to purchase an engagement gift, then I went to the Galleria and bought a dress to wear to the gazillion weddings we're going to this fall. The dress is nice. I got it at Banana Republic and it's a silver color. I ended up getting it for like $9 because I have a $50 gift certificate, and a $25 reward certificate from my Luxe card. Nice! After that, I came home and watched some TV and hung out.

Saturday, we went to Chris's dad's, new wifes, daughter's engagement party. Did that make sense? We'll just call her my sister-in-law. It was a blast! We had a really good time. I apparently had a really really good time, because when I got home, I purged. Ew.

So anyway, today I'm just doing homework, laundry and hanging out. That's about it. We were supposed to go to my friend's son's 1st birthday party, but Chris is still sick so we're going to skip this one so he doesn't infect all the kids. We'll probably just end up vegging out and watching the Ram's game. However, I do need to finish reading so I can do my homework. Blah.

Ugghhhh.

Why are furniture salesmen/women so flippin' annoying?? They're worse than used car sales people. We've been looking for a new dining room table. We found the one we liked, got the specs and decided we'd get that one. That was about 3 weeks ago. Today, we decided to go get it. First of all, don't be fooled by the false advertising of the Value City Furniture 'sale'. Nothing is on sale there, ever. If you don't believe me, shop there on a regular basis and you'll see. They have the Kohl's syndrome. Where everything is on 'sale', but not really on 'sale'. They put an absurd amount as the 'regular' price, and then put the real price as the 'sale' price. Anyway, we knew this going in because we bought our living room & bedroom furniture from there about a year ago. So, when we got there, we get annoying saleslady from hell. She starts trying to schmooze us and we tell her what we want. She was so annoying. She told us the set we picked they just got in 'a few days ago'. Funny. The set we picked was there 3 weeks ago and they told us the same thing then. I guess 'a few days ago' means different things to different people. Anyway, we finally got to the point where we pay, but not before she made some comment about how we were so lucky because we picked different chairs and we got a 'better deal'. Don't tell me about a 'better deal.' Actually, on the way into the store, I asked Chris if we should try to negotiate with them on the price. When we got in the store, we heard our saleslady talking to this other couple about how she couldn't give them ANY deals and just because you're spending thousands of dollars doesn't entitle you to a discount, because TR Hughes buys millions of dollars in furniture from there and doesn't get a discount. Now. I'm going to call bullshit on that. I highly doubt a company like TR Hughes would be buying 'millions' in furniture from Value City WITHOUT getting a discount. I just don't understand why furniture salespeople treat the consumer like they're stupid. Do people not do any sort of research on the purchase they are making? I mean, we do. Most of the people we know do, I just figured everyone else did too. Please don't treat me like I'm stupid. Thanks. I wish I could just walk up to the cashier and tell them, "This is what I want, and I don't need a salesmen." I wonder if the price would be cheaper since you wouldn't be paying someone's commission....

Regardless, we bought the table & 6 chairs and it won't be in until Oct. 4th. So much for instant gratification. I'm excited about the table though. It's huge. HUGE. It will seat about 12, with both leaves in the table. It's also from the same collection as our living room & bed room furniture. I'm really hoping we can match the dark wood color to new kitchen cabinets. It will look sweet when it's all done, with our stainless steel appliances.

We went to the baseball game today, but left early because it was freaking hot. There were lots of Cubbie fans there. That's about it. I'm going to take a nap.

Dine Out for Relief

http://www.stlkatrinarelief.com/

Attack of the Chiggers

Yesterday, Chris and I decided to go out and trim the bushes in the yard. I started with the juniper bushes. Since I'm only 5'6, I had problems reaching the back of the bushes, so I had to lean in to get to them. Meanwhile, I kept feeling something bite my legs. I thought it was a fly because I had seen a bunch of flies around a few minutes before. We finished with the yard work and I went in to take a shower. That's when I realized I had been eaten by chiggers. I have about 15 bites on both of my legs. They itch and I look like a freak in shorts. Did I mention that I hate chiggers?

We're going to the baseball game tomorrow. What a great way to spend Labor Day! Hopefully we'll be the Cubbies.

Next week is the end of my 2nd class. 16 more to go! The good thing is in my next class, I won't have to write any papers. Hip Hip Hooray!

Before I go, I just want to say that if you haven't donated to the Red Cross, or any other charity regarding the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I urge you to do so right away. Habitat for Humanity is a good organization to donate to also. It's such a shame that all these people have lost everything they have. I pray for them and hope you will also.