tales of an ordinary girl

Matt surprised me on Friday with a new stereo for my car when he picked me up from work. He was off and his brother still had his car on loan, so he told me he didn't want to be stuck home all day without a car. Sneaky!

I've been listening to my IPod through a cassette adapter and the sound was pretty horrid. I made the mistake of buying a cheap adapter this time after wearing out the previous three adapters. I didn't think there would be a difference, but there certainly was.

My weekend was eventful in a fun way. Friday night we played Dawn of War: Dark Crusades until late. We didn't start until 11:00 or so though. Sorry, Dogic, I didn't know if it would be too late to call you.

Saturday we got up early somehow, even with the late night. We were taking Matt's mom to dinner and also trying to arrange to have her car cleaned as a gift. So I ran out to get breakfast while Matt showered. Chick Fil-A definitely makes a good breakfast. I'm glad to see them showing up around here. I've missed them, but this is the first time I've had breakfast there.

There was no mandatory shopping. We arranged to have everyone meet at our house, so there was scrambled cleaning. It's amazing how fast we can get the apartment cleaned under a deadline (with a bedroom to throw all the miscellaneous crap into.. I really need to get that sorted through soon). And, of course, games of Dawn of War thrown in (just me, single player this time).

Everyone met up pretty much on time and my mother-in-law brought me a cake for my birthday last week. I even got some gifts, which were great.

We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which was good, but way too crowded. It was almost painful to get in the door and past the people to our seat. But the food was good and we had time to kill before the movie, which was Reno 911: Miami. It was funny and more of a tv episode than a movie, but Matt's mom really liked it and that was what was important.

Afterwards there was more late night DOW, this time with Dogic and then sleep. Sunday was a lot of running around with a little DOW thrown in throughout the day (mostly me playing single-player). Do you sense a trend?

I haven't read much more of Excession. I'm having a hard time staying interested. It has a lot of good ideas, but it's just not flowing for me. I have started (and almost finished) reading The Sagan Diary just for a break. It's different, not so much a story, but a book of thoughts. It's interesting in that vein. I loved the part of her talking about language, specifically losing her language.

I have three doctor's appointments this week and next. After finally having good insurance again it's time for those yearly appointments I don't bother with when I'm poor and unemployed or just don't have good insurance.

Yep, not much of interst really going on at the moment, but I'm sure something exciting will happen eventually.

I have the worst headache today.

Well, I'm finally caught up from the weekend. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on V-Day and on my birthday.

I had a good weekend. We went out to dinner with my brother-in-law and a friend on Friday. The place is small and it was very crowded. It took forever to get our food and there was a table that was loud, rowdy, and picture happy. It was like a strobe light for a bit. I was glad when we left. By the end I was feeling a little claustrophobic (which I generally only feel if the air is too hot to breathe).

It snowed on Friday, so it was cold outside, but it felt great for a few minutes anyway. We're finally just about all melted today. It's supposed to be 60! I'm so excited I haven't worn a coat in 2 day even though it's below freezing in the mornings.

The weekend went by too fast. We did have some fun playing Dawn of War multiplayer on Sunday night with various people. So much so that I missed BSG. Hurray for PVR!



Monday I took off work for my birthday and it was nice to have a completely unstructured day. For such an unstructured day I sure got a lot done. I did dishes, installed and patched the LotR Online preorder, took a nap on the couch with the cat, talked to my mom and sister on the phone, went out to lunch, got my car washed, got a gift for my mother-in-law, did 3 loads of laundry, put air in my tires, took out the trash, watched my missed episode of BSG, played Dawn of War, went by the bank and post office, went for a walk in the park, and changed the linens/straighted up the bedroom all before Matt got home at 4:30.

He took me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant, which unfortunately wasn't quite as good as usual. But the cake was fabulous as always and then we went book hunting and got coffee. When we got home we watched some shows saved on the PVR to try to get down to less than 88% capacity (too much boxing, but they're all great, historical matches and recent decent matches). I fell asleep feeling happy about having a day off and not dreading work the next day too much.

Yesterday I worked on catching up in the morning and catching up on blog posts. I still have a document I have to update by the end of the week, but I'm not sure how exactly to do what needs to be done in the existing framework. I've thought of a few ways to do it, but I don't know yet which one is best. So I'm procrastinating while I mull it over.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I hope today is filled with thoughts of those you love and that it's a wonderful one at that.

Matt got sent out of town this morning by his company. They gave him some notice this time -- they told him Monday evening. So I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing tonight. I'll probably stop at the grocery store on the way home and make myself dinner.

He felt bad about it. It's not his fault. And I know he felt bad because he knew I was looking forward to it. But it's not a big deal if we celebrate today or tomorrow or Friday or not at all. The thing I like about Valentine's Day is that I get to look forward to doing something special for him and look forward to being surprised by him. It's like another birthday for the both of us, I guess.

The only bad thing really is that he doesn't know when he'll be back. By the weekend, I'm sure. Everyone here has plans with their husband or wife tonight. I don't begrudge it, I just don't feel all that sunshiney today. I guess it all just makes me feel a little lonely about tonight. Blah, now I'm getting depressed.

My car is in the shop. There's a problem with the elecronic control module. Yeah, whatever that is. They don't have the part for it in. I'm going to pick it up and drive it until they are able to fix it. Hopefully it'll be ok. It won't damage the car. It'll just stop being able to accelerate if the voltage generated is too low. Or something like that.

The good news is that it's covered by the warranty, so it'll get fixed for free. And I was also able to get some maintenance items worked on while I had it there today.

This weekend the weather is supposed to finally get a little warmer and stay that way. Hello 50's! Maybe it'll even be warm for my birthday.

Your results:
You are Poison Ivy

You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination.

Last week I was driving to meet some friends for lunch. As I got off the highway there was a man there with a sign. I can't remember exactly what the sign said, but it was something along the lines of, "Will work for food." I immediately dismissed him as a scammer.



But then as I was driving by I started to rethink my initial dismissal and I began wondering when I became so cynical. My husband and I visited my family a few years ago. We were in t he parking lot of a Wal-Mart when a lady stopped my father, my husband, and I. I can't remember what she said exactly (see a trend here?), but it could have been that her car was broken down and she didn't have any way to get her and her children home or they were living out of their car and didn't have money for food. My father reached into his pocket and gave her money. I don't know how much.

At the time I was a little angry, thinking that my father was being taken advantage of. I found the lady's story unbelievable. I think about it now and I wonder if I even really listened. I usually tune people out immediately in situations like this.

I think it started when I was living in San Diego. I remember getting the same line from people begging on the same night three times in a row walking home from a restaurant. It made me feel justified in my refusal of help. They're all just scam-artists right?

But as I started thinking about it last week I started thinking about it differently. I thought about my dad giving that lady money. I'm sure he probably thought that she might not be telling the truth. But he didn't really know and he boiled it down to a person needing help, asking for his help. And so he helped.

If I had given that man $20 that day I wouldn't have noticed the missing money. And even if he wasn't really bad off for money or was planning to use it for alcohol or drugs, my intentions would have still been good. I've cut myself off from helping people except in the most sanitized, impersonal of ways. I'll give to charities that I find respectable. But I rarely do anything myself when I see people like this man.

I still used the excuse that I was running late and didn't have time to stop at an ATM -- I rarely carry cash. And I still wonder how much of my judgment is right and how much was built up over bias, or how much I justify to myself in order to feel good.

But I still think it's better to give the benefit of the doubt and help when I can than to dismiss people because I would rather not.

I'm speechless.*

*Edit, updated the link as it was replaced by something else.

Cartoon Network scares Bostonians.

Snow, snow, go away
Come back in June maybe?

I'm sick of the snow. We haven't really had tons at a time.. 8 inches at the most maybe and only about an inch yesterday. But I'm sick of it constantly be cold and constantly having to scrape my windows and constantly having muddy brown puddles of slush on the ground.