Thoughts on life...

On average, if you live to be 80 years old, you get approximately 29,000 days enjoy here on earth. This was the final thought from the instructor last night, after sweating my ass through 30 mins on the treadmill and an hour of aerobics. At the time, I was trying to keep from melting into the floor of the gym.

Last night, after I went home, showered, and was sitting around in clean pj's, chilling out before bed, the thought crept back into my head. When I hit 29 in a few months, I'll have already used up about 10,500 of those days. Sobering thought!

How many of my 29,000 days have I wasted? How many of those days did I put off doing something I really wanted to do, but was afraid to because I wanted to wait until I was thinner, smarter, prettier? How much of my life will I regret in another 10 or 20 years?

I've always tried to live life without regrets. I never wanted to be one of those people who look back at their lives and wonder what coulda, shoulda been. And so far, I've been pretty successfull. I can only think of one regret right now, and that's not having taken the chance to drive the Weinermobile when it was offered to me.

Now I wonder, though, if there's more...better...greater things for me to have accomplished by this point in my life. I guess I only have about 19,000 more days to find out.

Fridays...

I am so looking forward to tomorrow. It's been a loooooong week. I'm tired, I'm traveling home to the 'rents for the weekend, and I need about 4 days of straight sleep.

I actually got the gym twice this week (yay me!) but then sabotaged my 1.5 hour workout tonight by stuffing myself with Toxic Hell. Meh, I don't care...it was worth it.

Hope you all have safe and happy holiday weekends!

disappointment...

Saturday was a beautiful day, yet I feel an inordinate amount of disappointment in my letterboxing. Waking up Saturday morning, I realized it was a great day, and in deciding such, I went out to Three Lakes Park to look for the "heron and the turtle" boxes. I had to take the freeway to get there, paid tolls, and then fought for parking. It seems that everyone heads to the park on nice days in Richmond, which is admirable, but really puts a kink when you're trying to be unobserved. I hiked the path for the heron box, and followed the directions. The box should have been under the third bridge--no box..i checked under the 4th bridge, and the 2nd bridge to no avail. Ok, not a big deal. It was probably washed away in flooding. I went in pursuit of the second box. I found the only pine tree even close to the clue sheet, and again, no stamp. Needless to say, I was rather disappointed.

After my visit to Three Lakes park, I thought, "hey, it's still beautiful, and it's not late yet..I'll go look for another box!". And so I headed out to Short Pump, and to Pouncy Tract Park. Very nice park, situated between the middle school and a soccer complex. There wasn't anyone there! I parked, found the trail, and then spent the next 30 mins looking in vain for the first box of the clue, to no avail. Finally, I gave up on box one, and tried box two, and still no results.

Although I'm disappointed in not being able to find anything yesterday, I still had the opportunity to get out of the house, enjoy the day, and get some much needed exercise. I also had a mini-sized jamocha shake from Arby's on the way home, and it was delicious! :)

On another note, I have bitten my nails down to the quick, and that really bugs me. I used to bite my nails alot when I was a kid, but when I got into college, I got pretty good about not doing it. Pretty much since I moved to Richmond, I've been biting them non-stop, which really sucks. I got used to having some nails to scratch errant itches, to peel stickers off of things, to part my hair w/o needed an pick...now I can't do any of that! Anyone have any good suggestions on how to stop it?

Status: KEWLEST BEST FRIEND EVER!

So, can I name myself the kewlest best friend ever, or does that actually need to come from my best friend? JoDee--any comments? :)

My dad isn't happy about my letterboxing endeavors. Apparently, he's afraid that the 'crazies' in the woods are going to attack me. Of course, he didn't actually say as much to me--my mom did that. I told her I could take care of myself, and did he really fear for my safety? She just said that dad's worry. Meh, it's sweet and all, and I'm glad my parents love me enough to fear for my safety wandering around the woods of Richmond, but, um, hello? I lived in Michigan, in the 'burbs of Detroit ( I know, that makes me sound sooooo ghetto. Rochester Hills is FAR from ghetto-though Pontiac isn't, and there was a murder at the apt. complex in Utica a few months before I moved to Belleville, which was a snoozer of a little town, but which, oddly enough, grew one me after a while) for 8 years. I think I can handle myself in Richmond.

Anyways, since my boss abruptly quit, and since the interim payroll supervisor took two weeks of vacation the following week, I've been swamped at work. Minimum of 11 hours a day for the past week. I'm beat. I'm going out letterboxing tomorrow--i need to be outside, away from indoor air, indoor lights, and indoor walls...anyone wanna come with?

busy saturday...

Wow, I love busy weekends. i feel like so much less of a loser when I have things to do.

Today, I went letterboxing. Yeah, I can tell you're shocked. I went out with a handfull of different boxes to look for, since I was trying to make of for my lack of dedicated exercise this week. I ended up only doing one, since I couldn't seem to find the other two possibilities I wanted to find. I went out to the James River park system and looked for/found the Pony Pasture box. It wasn't too terribly long of a hike--maybe 1.5 miles (i think i need to invest in a pedometer so i'll know how much exercise i'm really getting). It was kind of HOT today, but I still wore my standard letterboxing clothes--jeans, tshirt, hat (to protect me from the sun), and my very new and sensible waterproof hiking shoes. I know it seems weird to have to buy special shoes, but letterboxers in Virginia aren't shy about trekking through 2 miles of marshy land to hide a box, so I'm just being prepared. Anyways, at one point, you have to cross this pipe bridge (ie-big pipe used as an access bridge for maintenance and not actually suggested for public use). It was a little intimidating--but I did it, and didn't fall! :)

After the Pony Pasture box, I though of looking for Reedy Creek, but after wandering around Riverside drive for about an hour, I found out that Reedy Creek is on another section of the road closer to downtown Richmond, so I then went in search of the Forest Hill Park boxes. I got all the way to Forest Hill park, but changed my mind, and went shoe shopping instead. I returned victorious with two new pairs of sandals--a pair of black strappy heels, for in case I ever get asked somewhere nice and need a strappy black heel, and a pair of taupe slide heels to wear to work with some neutral skirts.

Nellie (a girl I work with who moved here from NY City) and I hung out tonight for dinner. She needed a night away from the husband and kids, and I just needed to go anywhere with a friend. I have lived here since the beginning of September, and this is the FIRST Saturday night that I've actually gone out and did something. We went to TGI Fridays, and talked for about 2 hours, and then we drove around for a while before heading to Wallyworld. What is there to do in Richmond? I think I would KILL for a Dave and Busters, or a Snookers to hang out. We couldn't find a pool hall, there aren't any arcades 'cept for Chuck-E-Cheeses, and neither of us know Richmond enough to venture downtown.

When I got home tonight, I walked through the door, and when I turned around to close it, a huge spider was scurrying down the wall. Stupid spiders-- I HATE them! I picked up one of my hiking shoes (yes, now it's up to like, 16 pairs of shoes in front of the door), and tried to kill it. Unfortunately, the grippy treads good for hiking trecharous terrain don't do well killing spiders. The icky thing was jumping all around, hiding in the crevice between the door frame and the point where the carpet is attached under the wall molding. I finally had to use one of the dressy sandals for work to accomplish the task. Right now, the carcass is serving as a warning to other spiders who may see it. My question to you now is, "is it better to see the spider, and have it get away? or to not know it's there at all?".

on being single...

Sometimes, being a single girl isn't such a bad thing. Here some reasons why.

1. Noone cares that I have 14 pairs of shoes piled in front of my door
2. I can eat icecream out of the carton. Or drink milk out of the jug (though I would never do that--the crusty milk factor scares me). And if I feel like eating Raisin Bran and Ruffles chips for dinner 3 nights in a row, well, that just makes me weird.
3. My car is a giant purse on wheels...and that's just the way I like it.
4. I can own all the lipgloss that I want. (and sunglasses and purses).
5. Sephora doesn't scare me!
6. I can keep my nail polish in the fridge, and noone thinks I'm crazy.
7. Even though I am perfectly capable of killing a spider on my own, if a guy is in the room, he'll do it for me.
8. I don't have to shave my legs every day.
9. I can blame ALOT of things on PMS, and noones the wiser.

So, maybe this isn't a complete listing, but it's a start. As more things occur to me,I'll add them to future posts.

for the love of cookies...

I have been obsessed with cookies lately. My favorite seem to the chocolate chip ones with M&Ms on top. Of course, this wreaks total havoc on my perpetual diet, but hey, life's too short to not eat one (or two, or four), right?

Nothing too exciting has been happening to me lately. I spent the weekend with my 'rents for Mothers day. I made my famous lasagna for her (and which I'm still eating, since for some reason, the concept of cooking for only a few people is outside of my comprehension--i still have two more days of lasagna to go!). She loved all the junk I got for her (random assorted items that I KNEW she would HAVE to have if she saw them for herself in the store). I saw my brother and his wife at a cookout they had Sunday, and I tried my best to be nice to her, though she still tends to ignore me.

My boss resigned last week, and honestly, life has gotten easier since he left. I never realized how much drama was attributable to him. We also lost Nellie (our temp) to a permanent position at our plant, so the department is down to 4 people. After Friday, it will be 3 for the next two weeks while Cathy is in Puerto Rico for her sons high school graduation. That means for TWO WEEKS I'll have to eat lunch by myself *sigh*. I am a very independent person, but I hate doing some things solo--movies, lunchs, and shoe shopping come to mind. These chicas have been my replacement JoDee's, though JoDee hasn't rushed out looking for a replacement Ruth, yet.

I've decided to put out my own letterbox for the masses to find, and I'm thinking of making it a 'mystery box'. I've started the poem for the clue, but I've hit a snag about how much information the clue should reveal, and I'm unsure of how to proceed with instructions until I actually go and find the hiding place for it. More on that later!

My life for a phone...

Verizon Wireless sucks ass.

Last week, I attempted to order my new phone. Since I have had a Verizon phone since approximately 1998, I get a new phone every two years. No big deal, except that my phone is on a midwestern plan, and I currently live on the east coast. Still, not an issue, as I was told that I could do the order by telephone or internet.

I accessed my online account, and no phones were listed as free. I spent about 1.5 hours on the phone trying to find out why. Finally, I got someone to help me (thank you James). Everything went smoothly until the checkout. I was unable to enter two separate addresses for billing and shipping. I called back to Verizon and spent nearly an hour on hold waiting for help. The girl (Christine-the b1tch)said that she would call me back when she was able to resolve my problem. She never called back.

On Monday morning, I called Verizon AGAIN, and spoke to Kenny, who listened to my problem, and said that he could place the order for me, while assuring me that my online pricing for my phone (free phone, 34.97 for accessories bundle) would be kept in place, along with free shipping. He assured me of a delivery by 05/05/05. At 3pm today, with no phone in hand, I called Verizon AGAIN, and spent 40 minutes trying to figure out why I had no phone. Another girl (whose name I forgot to write down) said that the order was not placed, and that there were no notations that I even spoke to someone named Kenny.

At this point, I asked to speak to a supervisor. Stephanie (the supervisor) said that she understood in the 4 hours that I had been on hold with Verizon could cause me frustration. She said that she could help me. She says that she can send me a new phone for free. I said, the phone was already free. She says that she can give me free shipping. I said, free shipping was included already. She says that she can mark down the accessories bundle from $49.00 to the online promotion price of $34.97. I said, I think you should give me that for FREE for the time I've spent on hold trying to do a simple order. She refused, and said that normally I'd be charged full price. I said, no I wouldn't, b/c my order says it should cost $34.97. What kind of favors does she think she's doing me by giving me a phone for free? or shipping, either? Helping me out would have been reducing the charge for the accessories bundle by half, or free, but half would have been nice.


ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! Why, oh WHY, are people so stupid? Why do people not take pride in their jobs, and in helping the customer? Why do I always seem to get screwed over by these people? If not for Verizon offering the best nationwide coverage and calling plans, I would drop them in a heartbeat. I would go with a lower priced carrier with more minutes. Give me two years, and Verizon will probably be history with me. Its about that time that my phone (if i ever get it--now it's supossed to be overnighted for Monday delivery) will be on its final legs after numerous drops and tumbles. I just hope that I last that long...

blogs I read...

There are a number of blogs that I read on a daily basis. Well, not a HUGE number, but a number, nonetheless. Feel free to check them out.

JoDee is my best friend, and though she doens't update alot, I check it every day anyways.
www.saganfan.com

Craig is JoDee's hubby, and an awesome friend as well. He came as part of the package deal.
www.decafbad.net

Tee is someone whose blog I read daily, and now she reads me. She makes me laugh and cry (usually in the same post).
www.spiltmilkblog.blogspot.com

I plan on adding some more pages to the little toolbar on the right, but I always forget how to do that html stuff.