I first met Target in an area so unclassy we didn’t even know to call it Tar-jay

Today I went to Target over lunchtime hoping to pick up a few necessities.  And by necessities, I mean, I’m an adventurous gal and all, but I was really starting to feel like I was taking my life into my own unsteady, under-caffinated hands every morning using that 8-year-old hair dryer.

I’d never been to this particular Target before, this uber-suburban Target (uber-uber-suburban?  I mean, can Target not be uber-suburban? sufice to say, this one was in a mall!).  This Target had TWO FLOORS!

The whole two floors things means I spent a goodly amount of time investigating the mens underpants section to the nth degree and wondering why in god’s name there wasn’t a hair dryer section.

This Target also had..  booze?  Yeah, that’s right.  Target’s stepping it up.  No longer shall Super Wal-Mart be the only place one can purchase bed sheets, wiper blades, and a bottle of vino all in one stop!

Um, or is that competition one giant step down?   Yeeaahh….

6 Weird Things Meme

Dear Amy has tagged me for a meme, a meme of 6 odd things or habits about me.  This is rather similar to a meme I did recently and tagged her for, but I’ll let that slide.  Especially since when I tagged her I inadvertently said she was coalescing, rather than convelescing. 

Y’all?  I’m finding that hysterical, and I’m more than a little sad someone didn’t point it out earlier….

So, weird things.

1.  I love brushing my teeth.  Love it.  Once in college, while rather drunk, I proclaimed tooth brushing to be better than sex.  Which, I suppose, indicates that I am either doing one very poorly or the other extremely well.

2.  I cannot bear typos in published books or articles.  It sets my teeth on edge and immediately makes me discount the credibility of the author.

3.  Tonight I am going to a Mardi Gras party after work.  Apparently in a TURTLENECK because I am lacking in the arena of planning ahead…  I am the most chaste of the chaste Mardi Gras partiers.

4.  I used to be wildly addicted to caffiene and felt the hands of Death around my aching, aching head if I hadn’t had a good 20 ounces or more of strong black coffee by 10:00 or 11:00 am.  The combined efforts of the horrendous coffee served in my office and my lazy, lazy ass preferring to just use my one-cup maker at home rather than get up early enough to go to Starbucks has whittled this down to a manageable one cup addiction.   And then tea in the afternoon.

5.  We eat a lot at my office.  In a New Year’s Resolution-type fit, I proclaimed that I would no longer eat things people brought in that were not homemade.  Then someone brought cupcakes from a boutique bakery.  And the Girl Scout cookies arrived.  Well, shit.

6.  I fantasize about what I would name certain pets if I had them.  Every time I hear a name (or a phrase that could be molded into a name), I think about the pet I could name that.  Current favorites include Sgt. Pickles for a petite grey cat and Thelonius for my fantasy French bulldog. 

I DO like it!

Lately I’ve been very stressed out about everything.  Stressed about work, stressed about school, stressed about money, stressed about my best friend who keeps getting shit on by life, stressed about another friend who keeps shitting on my life, stressed about both of my fish trying to die, stressed about my mom being unhappy about her job, stressed about visiting my great aunt in the nursing home over the weekend, stressed, stressed, stressed.

All this stress makes me very sad.  And when I’m sad, I don’t tend to talk about it much.  Also when I’m sad, the Boy doesn’t tend to ask about it very much because he doesn’t believe there is anything he can do.

This makes me MAD.  And then he definitely doesn’t ask me about it, because me MAD and sad is not a pretty sight.  So obviously this is a bad cycle to get into.  This morning everything sort of blew up/dissolved into tears and we had a good talk and I think everything is good and I have my supportive boyfriend back now. 

However, what is not good is that I caught myself saying, “I want you to WANT to listen to my problems…”  Which is ridiculous!  So I followed quickly with, “I want you to WANT to do the dishes!“

Confused, he looked toward the kitchen where the dishwasher was running, “But I just DID the dishes…”

Valentine’s Reflections

I’ve been bombarded with Valentine’s talk from all directions lately, something I’m sure is not unusual.  How are y’all holding up with it?  I have to say, I first noticed all this lovey-dovey malaise kicking in as much as a week ago, and I thought, “Oh, yes, it’s time for the single folk to be bitter!”  And they did not disappoint!

However, over the weekend, I’ve been hit with the sheer JOY some of my non-single friends feel over the upcoming holiday.  Whoo!

I, um, don’t get it.  I love the Boy.  The Boy loves me.  I hope it’s ok if we go on with our regularly scheduled Wednesday evenings this week, because I really can’t miss class and things would wildly awry if he weren’t at work…  And I really hope it’s ok if I’m still sure the Boy loves me even if he doesn’t buy me some hot house roses and take me out to dinner.  The last thing I need is him convincing of his undying love by giving me something that will keep the cats up all night vomiting.

Here are my thoughts on Valentine’s Day, as they have occurred to me over the weekend:

• Did you know that the Hallmark Channel is showing a made-for-tv romantic movie every nioght at 9:00 for the entire month of February??  Clear out the DVR, here comes some serious therapy!
• I have a friend scheduled for an unpleasant and scary medical diagnostic test this Wednesday.  All you people mailing your fucking chocolates and such across the country are gonna slow down the mail and my care package might not get there in time.  Perhaps I should have mentioned this sooner, but she is more important.
• President’s Day is next Monday!
• All love songs, all weekend?  Oh, I am mad about you, Belinda Carlisle!
• Broke + PMS = very bad any other time of year.  But hey!  All the chocolate will be half off on Thursday.
• And finally, this one I just realized, must make sure not to wear typical bsuiness casual uniform of all black on Wednesday…

Clearly, I am quite normal.

Is it weird that I’m eating an Amy’s Bean and Cheese burrito for breakfast?  Because I thought it was a weird thing to be craving for breakfast, but my god was I hungry driving into work…  Then I got here and the lobby smelled like greasy, greasy deliciousness of some sort.  I checked out the staff lounge to discover my co-worker chowing down on some Totino’s Pizza Rolls.

At least breakfast burritos are a thing.  Who’s ever heard of Breakfast Totino’s Pizza Rolls?

Ways in which the first hour and a half of work have made me insane today

The meetings department at work messed up the time for a very large, very tied to the 2007 priorities for the ENTIRE ORGANIZATION meeting I’m moderating this afternoon and told everyone in the building it was at 9:00, not 1:30.

 My Wednesday class is normally supposed to meet at 4:30, but last week the professor said we’d be meeting at 4:00 this week.  Then this morning he sent out an e-mail to say, “No, actually, 4:30.”

I have a dentist appointment at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, but the office just called to confirm my 9:30 am appointment.

This is not how the obsessive compulsive planner should be treated!  Just looking at those pages in my date book is starting to make me twitch….

Shockingly, she’s still walking this earth

So thye lovely Copasetic Fish has tagged me for a meme.  I’m going to take this opportunity to pretend I never really disappeared.  And maybe I’ll even stick around this time, who knows?

Five things you may not know about me…

1.  After drifting through my academic and professional life for years, in the past 6 months I have become a firm believer in Long Term Plans.  My LTP chanages almost weekly, but recently those changes have been more like shifts, not radical 180s.  I may actually be forming what I want to do for the rest of my life.

2.  I love indie coffeeshops.  Love the smell, love the atmosphere, love the people.   I worked in one for a couple years in college.  I just started working at one in Arlington (part of my current LTP; also, 1/2 lb of sweet, sweet Sumatra every week!), and every moment I am there I am startled by how extremely happy and comfortable I am with that atmosphere.  I hope I never have to wait tables again, but I think I’d be a happy career barista.

3.  I cry nearly every day.  NPR never fails to move me to tears, sometimes body wracking sobs, with their approach of covering stories in the particulars rather than focusing on the overview like the networks.  I weep over Iraq four or five times a week.  Iams dog food commercials and the website petfinder.com also make me cry.

4.  I’m a bit of a Lennie when it comes to my pets.  Luckily I have the most patient cat in the entire world, because I am forever dragging him across the room to sit with me so I can pet him.  I compulsively check on my fish and have a wee chat at least every 30 minutes.

5.  I cannot be made to like eggplant.

I don’t feel particularly compelled to tag anyone, but if I were to…  I would pick Claire, since I’ve met her now and actually know everything about her so it should be interesting to see what she think she hid over our luncheon date, and Amy, becacuse it will give her something think about as she coalesces.  But I also wouldn’t be the least bit offended if y’all didn’t jump at the chance!

PS - Sorry I sent you to Claire’s blog!!  I didn’t realize she had chosen to adorn it with the statue that absolutely gives me night terrors!!!  Thanks, Claire.  Meh.

Dreams

Preface:  None of my friends or family read or know about my blog.  At least to the best of my knowledge…  if they stumbled upon it they’d know it was me in a second.  Sometimes my posts are straight copy and paste from e-mails I send them (thus, they need not bother with the blog).

So last night I had a dream that involved a conversation with the Boy about my blog.  It went thusly…

B:  Oh yeah, that blog, Stories About Wolves, my co-worker used to read it all the time.

M:  <thinking, “That’s me!!” but not wanting to reveal myself at this point, b/c who hides a blog from their live-in lover for 7 months?>  Huh…

B:  Yeah, he stopped reading it, though, said it just got boring.

M:  <righteous indignation!>  Huh..

B:  And what’s with that stupid name anyways?

Me:  <shouty, shouty all up in my head.  “You know!  Margaret Atwood, oh my god!  You KNOW that’s my favorite book and my favorite quote!  Oh, HATE.”>  Huh…

So….  was my subconscious more concerned with the fact that I’ve never told my friends I blog?  Or the fact that my blog has been a little dull of late?

Or was it all just random nuerons firing in a different way than usual since one extremely hefty feline had stolen my entire pillow?