i'm lazy

It used to be that I didn't much care for blogging. I'd always forget to read people's blogs and then those people would get shirty with me because I didn't know something going on in their life that was on their blog. In times past, I would think, "You are being ridiculous. We are friends. If you want me to know something about you, just tell me. Don't expect me to have read something you have posted for the whole world."

Lately, however, my views have changed. I realized that blogs allow me to further indulge my laziness. I mean, these days I can buy books and shoes, rent movies, get directions, renew library items and even order pizza all on the Internet. Now with the great number of blogs popping up all over the place, I can know what is going on with all my friends without the disadvantage of having to talk to anyone. It's a win-win situation! True, sometimes I do enjoy talking to people (if it's not oh the phone), but more often than not I get caught up in my daily life and I just don't end up keeping up like I could.

Plus, people blog about what they think about and I find this really interesting. I learn a lot about people from their blogs. I like learning things that don't necessarily come up in normal conversation. Sure, we get the normal things like how you are the same as every other parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle on the planet and think the kid related to you is the cutest/smartest/best ever. Or how much your job sucks (or not having a job). Or your vacation adventures. I expect those. I write them myself. It's the unexpected things that I really enjoy. Like all the 80s shows you love. Or the time you found a strawberry in your peach yogurt. Or how your neighbors smoke and it leaks in through your shower.

That's why I am always telling you to update your blog, even when you think you have nothing to say. Come on - you've got to have some random thought passing through your head. Stop being a pansy and write something! I mean, look at this blog - I don't think it's all that amazing, and yet you continue to read it. Of course, maybe you are like Scout and you just read certain people's blogs to remind yourself how dumb they are and to find things to make fun of. And that's okay with me too.

i'm older than i think i am

You know how people who are older than us are always saying things like "Wow, I must be getting old?" And remember how you always laughed at them into your sleeve because you know they really are old? Well, I guess I've decided I must be getting old too. You may not believe me because I look like I'm about 22. Coraline told me that she thinks all Mormons are deceitful in that most of us look younger than we really are, but I don't think that is true. I know plenty of Mormons who definitely look their age (or older).

Anyway, my "I must be getting old" story is as follows. Last weekend I went to Cleveland with Legolas. We were listening to music from my iPod, and I could tell that Legolas wasn't really into it. We do have different music tastes. I was playing mostly rock that was pretty new and that he didn't recognize. I told him I would play something he would for sure know and I put on "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" by R.E.M. I thought everyone knew that song. I thought it was a classic. But Legolas didn't know it! He said it sounded kind of familar, but it wasn't something he really remembered. I was completely shocked. So then a few days later, I asked the Librarian if she knew the song and she didn't either. She said she might recognize it if she heard it, but she didn't know it off hand.

And, well, I am a few years older than both Legolas and the Librarian, and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" did come out when I was in Jr. High. So, I guess I really am getting old. So, will you kids turn your music down? And for pete's sake - get off my lawn!

how about it science?

This week at my new job as I was en route to the restroom, I was passing by the conference room and I noticed a ladder leading up to a missing panel. There were no people around. If you were me, you would have thought it would have been funny to move the ladder - perhaps a few panels down so that when the maintenance person came back from whatever ceiling related maintaining he (let's assume it was a he) was performing, he would look down the hole and discover his ladder missing. He would then see it a little ways away from him, or perhaps he would see a note stating the location of the ladder, and he would then have to crawl along the inside of the ceiling opening and closing panels, trying to figure out how he could get down from there, while you were sniggering inconspicuously in the corner. But then you would remember that you were the new employee in town and perhaps it was still a bit soon for practical jokes.

I proceeded to the little girls' room, only to find it closed, presumably by the same maintenance man who was wandering around in the ceiling. Why he couldn't go in another way - say, through the door - I don't know. Perhaps he was embarrassed by the prospect of having to go into the women's room when he was a man and so he opted to go in through the ceiling Mission Impossible style. I know nothing about maintenance, which is why I am just a lowly computer programmer.

Later in the day I found out the reason for the closure: an automatic hand dryer was being installed. It is one of those atomic ones that sounds like a jet engine and dries your hands in about three seconds. It's pretty cool.

I was thinking about this hand dryer and I realized something. Our bathrooms have automatic flush toilets, automatic facets and automatic soap dispensers. Even the door to the bathroom has one of those handicap buttons that I could conceivably hit with my knee or elbow. And now automatic hand dryers. The only thing left that I actually have to do myself is the locking and unlocking of the stall door. I'm not particularly germ-phobic, but I am kind of lazy so I was wondering if we couldn't make this an automatic process too somehow. Of course, I can see the potential problem of the door automatically opening on you while you were still doing your business. But, I think we have some pretty amazing technology out there right now, surely we should be able to overcome this problem.

Necessity, as you know, is the mother of inventions, so what I really need to find right now is an engineer with an extreme aversion to public restrooms, because all this manual opening and closing of stall doors is exhausting!

online bookclub

My friend The Other Erin (the one who isn't my roommate) and I started an online bookclub. Please feel free to join us.

kristin-and-erin-bookclub.blogspot.com

home sick and job update

I came home from church after sacrament meeting today because I was feeling ill. It was kind of annoying because 1. I never get sick, so what's going on? and 2. I don't feel good. I probably would have toughed it out except it's a rather severe sore throat and I was worried about getting other people sick. I'm not sure what I'll do if I still feel this way tomorrow, because I would really rather not call in sick.

But on the other hand, being sick has gotten me out of hanging out with people today, which I really didn't feel like doing. (I know what you're thinking - maybe I don't feel like hanging out with people because I feel sick, to which I tell you to shut up.) Also, it gave me time to do things I've been putting off like cleaning my room doing my laundry and opening my bills. And updating my blog. (But I wasn't really putting that off.)

So, I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath for an update on my new job. (SURE you have, but you have to read about it anyway. Or just stop reading. One of the two.)

Monday I started my new job at the Department of Legistative Information Systems (or LIS for short). And you know what - so far I really like it. I work downtown on the 22nd floor of an office tower and it's really neat. I've never worked downtown anywhere before. I like walking around at lunch. I like riding the elevator up to the 22nd floor and looking out the windows at the city. (I don't have a window in my cubicle, but there are windows available to me.) It's a way smaller office than the one I just came from. There are maybe 20 to 25 people in the whole department and 3 people on the project I myself am working on. My old project had 120 people on it and probably a thousand in the department or more. So the dynamics are very different. It's usually pretty quiet during the day - there's not people constantly walking around everywhere. And everyone knows each other pretty well, of course, so there's often friendly banter going around. Plus, I'm not allowed to work overtime. Do you have any idea how exciting that is to me? (Answer: very exciting.) My old job had manditory overtime and I hated it. I felt like I was always at work. At this place I'm in at 7:30 and out by 4 or 4:30. Plus, they have no problem with people leaving before 4 if you come in earlier. I love it. I guess the only complaint I have about this place really is that almost everyone is white. (You know how I feel about whilte people.) But so far they have been very nice to me, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

yes, yes i would

I was doing research online today at work. (Really doing research, not "research online".) I was looking up some stuff on AJAX, which is a pretty neat technology. (I can't really call it "new" since it's been around for five or so years.) Anyway, a lot of technology websites, especially if they are not Microsoft or Oracle or IBM or big companies like that, sell ads so they can offer advice and tips for free. Usually I don't pay much attention to the ads because they are for technology books or software packages - things like that. As I was reading up on this stuff, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked again and it was an ad for a free copy of the Book of Mormon. I have never seen that before. It was neat. It was ligit too - I clicked the ad and it took me to the official church web site for requesting copies of the Book of Mormon. I thought about requesting one, but I actually already have a few. (Actually, I felt kind of bad that the ad was wasted on me. ) And, well, that's the end of the story. Then I found $20.

happy mothers day

I went to Pittsburgh for Mothers' Day because my grandma lives there and because that's where my own mother was going to be. There were quite a few other relatives running around. I like being with this family because 1. they are fun and 2. they make me glad I don't have kids yet. Seriously - my cousins are crazy! (The ones still at home are ranging in ages from 10 to 17.) (And there are 6 of them.) I really don't know how my aunt does it. I would have killed at least one of them long ago. But it's fun being with them because I can rile them up and then go home. (Which is what I did.)

last day

Today was my last day with my job at the Department of Taxation. Even though I'm really happy to be starting something new and to be off this project, it's still always just a little bit sad to leave the people you've become friends with. So I said my good-byes along with the false promises of keeping in touch that everyone knows we won't keep and I headed out the door.

Here is a list of things I won't miss:
- The horrible horrible project with it's insane deadlines and mismanagement.
- Working on stuff I really didn't understand at all.
- Construction on the way home, adding 20 minutes to my commute time.
- The pettiness of some of the people.
- Being leered at by creepy old men.

Here is a list of the things I will miss:
- India club: Seriously, I think that people from India are some of the nicest in the world. And for some reason, this project had a lot of Indians that were awfully nice to me. For some reason, they all seemed to know my name - even the ones I didn't work directly with.
- Free parking.
- My cube with easy access to sneaking out without anyone noticing.
- The people that weren't petty and backbiting.

On Monday I will start my new gig with the Department of Legislative Information Systems. The next adventure.

Hopefully there will be some Indians working there.

i vant to suck your blood

Last night at FHE, after an extremely long lesson, the activity was announced as taking personality tests. I was going to leave because it sounded dumb and because I already know what my personality is (angry), but Legolas persuaded me to stay.

In one of the "tests" we had to write down our three favorite animals, in order that we liked them, along with three traits of that animal that we admired. Here are the three animals I chose:

1. lizard: sneaky, regenerative, can walk on walls
2. tiger: strong, cuddly, hard to kill
3. bat: sonar, sucks blood, sleeps upside down.

Of course, once we wrote down our animals, they were interpreted for us.

Animal 1 is how we see ourselves. Yeah, okay - I can see that. I'm definately sneaky and usually my limbs grow back when I accidently hack one off. And I've been doing a lot of wall walking. So that one was spot on.

Animal 2 is what we seek in a member of the opposite sex. I can see how being strong and cuddly would be attractive to me in a guy. Also hard to kill is good, as there inevitably comes a point in most of my relationships where I will I try to do you in.

Animal 3 is how others see us. When Legolas saw my paper he couldn't stop laughing. I guess now that I know how you guys see me it explains a lot. (I know, I know - I'm sure everyone wants to make a comment on my biting.) I'm not really sure why you think I sleep upside down, unless the whole walking on walls thing has gotten you confused.

I'm no psychologist, but I'm not sure this test was 100% accurate. (Maybe accurate in the same way the M.A.S.H. game is able to predict your future.) All the same, if I were you I'd guard your necks while I'm around, just in case.

indian wedding

When I was in high school, one of my dearest friends was Monica, a lovely girl whose parents immegrated here from India. Yesterday she got married and I attended. I can only remember attending one wedding outside the temple and that was my cousin's when I was about 11. So, this was a new experience for me. And I was especially unprepared because I haven't even seen any movies with Hindu wedding ceremonies. Everything I've ever seen has been with American weddings, and usually these involve someone barging in mid-ceremony trying to tell the bride/groom why they should marry the barger instead.

Anyway, it was a highly entertaining experience. The wedding started with a "Barat", which was basically the groom dancing around outside with his relatives. (If you have seen Slumdog Millionaire or Bride and Prejudice, it was a lot like those dancing scences, only less choreographed.) (Also, please note: this is only what happened at their wedding - I'm not sure if they followed all the traditional Hindu wedding rituals.)

Then the ceremony itself actually starts. It was a bit on the long side (over two hours). Mostly I didn't understand what was going on, despite the program we got with the steps outlined. It was just funny because people weren't expected to stay in their seats. People came and went and chatted amongst themselves. The brides maids passed out treats in the middle. A couple of times some old Indian ladies just started singing from the audience while the priest went on talking about something. Another interesting thing is that the bride's parents were a big part of the ceremony. They had to recited a bunch of lines - thanking the groom for taking their daughter (I think) and stuff like that. The bride herself didn't show up until about 45 minutes after the ceremony started. But it was lovely and symbolic and a neat experience.

And after the wedding was the reception. This was one of the best receptions I've been to for the following reasons:
1. Being a non-Mormon wedding, they actually served dinner. We had tables that we sat at and even though I was assigned to the nerdy white people table with people from high school who I hadn't kept in contact with, at least I didn't have to try to make small talk with people I didn't know. And it was Very Good Indian Food.
2. The bride and groom didn't feel the need to kiss every other second. They kissed once when they were cutting the cake and that's it. I mean - I'm all for kissing, I just don't need you rubbing it in my face that it's been a while since I've actually done it myself.
3. No line. Since this was pretty much an all day event with the ceremony and the reception and all, they bride and groom were able to go around during dinner and the course of the evening and talk to everyone. If you wanted to say hi, you could just go say hi. I don't know why we still have the "line" tradition. It's silly.
4. Dancing. Usually when I hear there will be dancing at a reception, I groan internally. But there was some good dancing here. Apparently Indians just really love dancing. There was some fun times on the dance floor last night. (Helped, no doubt, by the open bar.)

Mostly I just liked it because it was different from most wedding receptions I force myself to go to - it was actually fun. And the traditional Indian clothes were fun to see. And I wore my four inch heals and when I was talking to Monica's mother and sister I actually felt like I giant. ("I will eat you!") How often does that happen? (Answer: never.)

So, in conclusion and in summary, I had a lovely time at Monica's wedding yesterday and best wishes with your new husband!