Somehow I walked into McDonald's for lunch today. I don't know why I did that. Oh well ... I had the Chicken McNuggets so hopefully it wasn't as bad as a greasy cheeseburger but somehow I doubt that. And, they're advertising that they're now made with white meat. Yeah, OK, tasted the same to me. I wanted to walk around a little bit at lunch but it is just so cold out so I didn't make it far. Not sure how I'll get home tonight. I want to try and walk because its good exercise but its just so cold. Well, I do get to leave at 3:30 today because I worked the early shift so maybe it won't be as cold then as it is at 5 pm these days.

It was fairly nuts here at work this morning. We had a ton of calls coming in - not sure why. Anyway I think I got everything handled pretty well so that is good.

I'm thinking about working more on my family tree project but I don't know how or when. Its just so time consuming. I was all gungho on it last year because I was trying to get it completed for my dad but now I'm just sort of lagging. I also would like some new software - something fancier - but I'm not sure what. If anyone works with genealogy and has any ideas, let me know. I specifically want something that will make its own website. When I think of all the updates I need to do, I just don't want to think about it.

I think I finally have all of my Christmas cards done, now all I need to do is mail them. I'll have to do that tonight. I haven't stopped by my own mail box in a long time so I need to do that, plus I have some packages that have been sitting at the cleaner's for a long time that I need to pick up. Yeah, I really need to do that, hope they're still there. You would think it would be so easy just to stop by and get them but when I get home I'm just in the mood to run upstairs and chill so I don't think about it much. That is something I most definitely HAVE to do today.

I think that is about it for now. Think of me freezing my butt off on my walk home around 3:30 this afternoon - a whole 2 miles! I don't know, maybe I'll give in and just take the bus, although, at that time, there is not one with a decent schedule running for me.

Just stopping by in an attempt to place some kind of entry. Lets see... what do I have to tell you?

So last night I went home and worked out right away which was something I hadn't done in forever. I have been so lazy lately.

Yeah so then I probably negated the workout by partaking in some yummy Thanksgiving leftovers. Hey - its Thanksgiving, what else are you supposed to do? They were good though!

Work today was pretty good. Sort of slow, sort of not. Those days aren't so bad. I was on an email shift here this afternoon like I was yesterday. I like those - I get a lot accomplished!

I think that is all I can tell you right now. Its getting pretty cold out. I got an email from my friend Adrienne in Boston earlier today and I guess the weather is really crappy out there with snow and ice. We haven't had much of that yet but it has been cold. I had the heat on for several hours last night and thats not like me. I'm the sort of girl who keeps the window open when its 10 below.

I figured I better get my entry for today taken care of before I have to take off here. Rumor is they are letting us leave early today. I got here sort of early so I'm planning on leaving anyway.

So.... I got most of the things accomplished last night which I had planned on. I went to the store and bought my makings for the things I plan to make tonight and I did my laundry. I do still need to go back to the store and pick up a couple of things. I'm making a spinach dip appetizer so I need some dipping bread. And I'm also making muffins for breakfast on Friday so I need some of those paper liners to make them in. All they had was foil and I think they turn out differently in paper but maybe thats just me. The store didn't have paper so now I need to go to the other store. The only thing is is that I hope I make it back to the store in time tonight after I get my hair done and before they close. Don't stores usually stay open a little later the night before Thanksgiving? Down home they do. I'm not sure if they do here or not. Well, worst case I think I can make the muffins without the liners and I pick up a box of crackers or something from a convenience store for the spinach dip. I would prefer not doing either one of these but if thats how it turns out, oh well. I keep thinking that I should have my hair completed by then but those highlights take a long time especially when they do a whole head which I'm getting done tonight because I haven't had a whole in months.

So they're letting us go here in a half hour which is good. I think I will have time to walk home, take care of everything I need to do there and then head off to get my hair done. You know I've been thinking about getting my ears pierced. Really. I want diamond earrings. How stupid is that? I just want to get my ears pierced so I can wear diamond earrings.

So I think that is what it will be... walk home, run errands, walk to the hair place. What else am I forgetting, there has to be something??

After hair tonight I'll probably try to finish up the apartment... Went to the bank today so I think I have enough money for my hair and all of the stuff I'm doing this weekend. Actually, I can't really think of much of anything I'll need to pay for this weekend but we might go out with my cousins so we shall see. It will be interesting to see everyone. I need this little vacation. I still have a half vacation day I need to take before the year is out, I guess I'll do that sometime in December. I don't have anything in particular planned but its one of those "use it or lose it" types of vacation plans here.

I've realized I'm just rambling and as I cannot think of anything else of much substance to tell you about I guess I will now say goodbye.

Well, just got back from getting my nails done during my lunch hour. I thought I was just going to get a fill but I guess they were in pretty bad shape so he yanked them all and started new. My nails were long though so he only had to put a tip on one. Anyway, that is much better. I got like a deep red color on them. They look pretty good. Tomorrow I have highlights, a hair cut and an eyebrow wax at Mario Tricoci. I'm so busy these days! Tonight I finally need to pick up my ingrediants for what I am planning to make for Thanksgiving and also do some laundry. I hope I can get all of this done. I'm running a little low on funds right now, I'll definitely need to go to the bank tomorrow.

So the big event last night was watching the series finale of Joe Millionaire on TV. I guess this one just wasn't as popular as the last one but nevertheless I caught every episode.

I've totally blown off Average Joe. That show sucks more than Joe Millionaire. How predictable that they now bring in the "good looking" guys. Gag - what a twist. Who spent hours coming up with this concept? I heard they shot two series of this show at the same time so this thing isn't going to end up just going away after this time around.

So what else ... had Subway for dinner last night and it looks like that is what is in store for dinner for me tonight as I went off and left the other half of my sub at home again. Thats fine with me, I didn't really eat lunch today because I went out for the nails and I get off early today because I worked the 7 am shift. So I guess I'll just have an early dinner/late lunch. We'll see how all of this fits in with everything else I need to do.

Still getting my plans together with my sister for Thanksgiving. We're also trying to share our "Christmas lists". I have no idea what I'm going to get her.

I don't know, maybe I need to get a snack or something because I'm a little hungry. Maybe Starbucks...

Yes, I am back! No, I am not going to give you an update on the last week and a half of my life. I guess we can start at the weekend but the weekend was very very low key for some reason.

Anyway, back to Wednesday, went out for drinks with my co-workers. I hadn't planned on staying very long but 5 margaritas into the night ... you know what I mean. It was a fun time. I walked home after and called all of these people on my cell phone that I hadn't talked to in a long time. I talked to my friend Jennifer in Texas for 20 minutes. Thats what cell phones will get you - drunk dials on walks home. I also called my friend Adrienne and left here a message but I haven't heard back from her yet. I would like to. Just sent her an email!

OK, well Thursday after work I went over to my sister's place because we wanted to stop by Trader Joe's which is a neat grocery store place that we had never been to before. We picked up a few food items and stuff like wine for Thanksgiving. Its a pretty cool place. After that we stopped by Quiznos to pick up some sandwiches for dinner and then went back to her apartment and hung out and watched Friends. It was pretty fun.

Sunday had pizza for brunch - yum!! ; ) And then even more hanging out.

Just stopping by momentarily. I promise to get back to writing sometime soon, not sure when though. I just need to take a break from this. Its not like I'm into it all that much like some people, but I need a break nonetheless. Thinking of starting a second blog with drama and controversy but we shall see ... ; )

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still around. I had a horrible day yesterday and I'm not really sure I want to talk about it so I won't get into it now. I'm doing better today but probably not in the mood to be all cheerful and write much. So I just wanted to stop by and say hello. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I hope I do too!

- Melissa

Here I am again. Going to try to go over the "ever so exciting" events of the past two days. Anyway, last night I walked home from work and stopped by the grocery store. Ended up picking up some yummy Tyson Chicken Chunks and cottege cheese for dinner - I'm such a creative cook.

So I ate my dinner and pretty much did nothing all evening. Checked out the X-Files reruns on SciFi again and mostly just flipped around the channels. I was so not tired when it was time for bed and kept avoiding going to bed. I sort of just roamed around the apartment looking for something to do. I don't know what I was looking for because I don't really have anything "to do" in the apartment. I guess I could always clean my closet but then that would be a little too productive for Melissa.

So it seems like the guy my sister has been dating will be coming with us for Thanksgiving.

So here I am at work today. I have my online shift between 12-4 which is in another few minutes. I'm still trying to learn about the Macintosh. I really have a lot to learn. There are so many things I can't figure out at this point and I'm busy bothering the Mac people about it. Well, I have to learn somehow and I guess thats the only way its going to happen. I just hope I don't become too overwhelmed with all of this.

So (do I start every paragraph with 'so'?), the big topic of conversation today is the Paris Hilton sex tape. Thats all they were talking about on the radio this morning. I hear its pretty bad. And then they were talking about how Larry Flynt supposedly had topless pictures of Jessica Lynch which he was going to publish and now is not. That is horrible! After all that girl went thru to have to potentially go thru that as well. Not sure why she would have behaved that way but whatever. I hope that stuff doesn't come out. I was watching her interview with Diane Sawyer last night and it was pretty interesting but at this time she seems to be a little overexposed (no pun intended).

Anyway, thats really about all I can think of for now. Probably go home and have some leftovers for dinner and then watch my traditional Wednesday night TV shows of Ed and The West Wing.

OK, enough rambling for now. I think I'm done.

One more thing... Lets remember all of our veterans today and everyone who is currently serving in the military.

My dad is Vietnam veteran and my grandfather is a veteran of WWII.

Thank you.

- Melissa

Here I am back again. Thought I would go ahead and make my entry for today. Trying to avoid eating lunch because I totally pigged out last night. I've determined that my "triggers" are boredom and loneliness, probably more boredom. Ha-ha! Like I've been thinking about this so much. Actually, I have thought about it. I think I need a hobby of some sort to break up the evenings a bit.

And then my little email faux pas of yesterday. Well, I talked to the person I accidentally sent the email to back and forth on email several times yesterday. It doesn't seem like he's mad but I guess I don't know. And, at this point, I don't really care.

Oh, here is one random thought. My sister might bring the guy she has been seeing to our Thanksgiving this year. That will be interesting. I'm not sure she's certain what she wants to do yet. She's mentioned it to him and he seems interested but ... I don't know. I think she might be nervous about him meeting the whole fam at once and I definitely do not blame her. I mean, they haven't been seeing eachother all that long. But they have been friends for a while so... Well, I don't know. Thanksgiving Friday is our traditional pizza dinner the day after Thanksgiving. My dad who is an awesome cook - especially with pizza - always makes pizzas the day after Thanksgiving.

Thats about it for now. Its been pretty slow this morning. I'm on an email shift this afternoon so that will be good.

I made a major internet faux pas earlier today. I was writing my sister a message about a certain person and instead of mailing it to her I sent it to that person. As I was thinking of that person when I was looking in my email address book. Anyway, I didn't really say anything bad but this person could have easily misconstrued what I said. I've apologized to him and I've heard back from him but have no indication if he's mad or not. Oh well, not a whole lot I can do about it now. Anyway, I promised to stay away from drama in my journal so thats about as far as I'm going with this. I just had to say something because it was bugging me and I guess ultimately that is what journals are for.

Once again I put off everything that I should have been doing last night in favor of doing nothing. Are you seeing a pattern developing here? I watched Friends and then I planned to work on th apartment between that and ER. Well, I just hung and did nothing. Oh well, I get off work early tonight because I worked the early shift and I have all day tomorrow to work on the apartment so I think I should have everything together in time for the party. I also really need to do some laundry tonight. I must work that in because I am running out of clothes!!

I think I have almost everything done here at work that I needed to do. I'm updated on all of my cases and I'm wrapping up two other projects which I should be able to turn in before we leave today so its looking pretty good. Can't think of much else to tell you on that end.

Back again. And as usual, not a heck of a lot to talk about. Walked home last night and ended up taking a different route so I walked past the new Jewel on State Street and ended up stopping by to pick up a few things - cleaning items mostly to get ready for this weekend. Then I had to lug it all home. Oh well, so much cheaper over there than the Treasure Island and small grocery stores in my neighborhood.

So I watched the CMA's last night. Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett opened the show and that was pretty cool and then they won their award. I watched that on and off sort of flipping back and forth between that, Ed and The West Wing. A typical Wednesday evening for Melissa! And tonight will be a typical Thursday evening - Friends and ER. I am going to promise myself to work on the apartment between those two shows as those are the only ones I pay attention to on Thursdays.

Back again for another entry and I really have nothing much to write about. Last night I went home and stopped at the store for makings for taco salad which I love and never get to eat!

We had a fairly bad storm last night. I didn't even know it was supposed to rain and I started hearing thunder and then flashes of lightening and it was really weird because the lightening was so close. It was like up in the air between the apartment and the river which made is super close. Pretty freaky. And then it started pouring about as hard as I've ever seen it. It was a roar of water and as you looked out it was coming down in sheets and standing on the roads instantly. It seemed like someone turned on one of those power hoses or something, pretty nuts.

That was pretty much it for last night. I woke up this morning and it was totally freezing. That rain coming thru must have done something to the weather here. I think it fall officially fell or something. It was like 70+ degrees yesterday and then the rain came thru and must have blown every bit of humidity out of here because this morning I woke up and it was like 34 degrees. How weird is that? I froze on my way to work. I wore a sweater and a jacket. I'm just not ready for the winter coat yet. Last night was the first time since I don't know when that I considered turning on the heat but I decided against it. Hopefully we'll be able to hold off on that a little while longer. I like my low electric bills!!

I'm going to try to take off a bit early here today. Probably between 4:30-4:45 because I did get in here a little earlier. My shift is over at 4pm.

Well I think that is about it. Having my yummy leftover taco salad for dinner tonight.

Day 2 back from vacation and let me tell you, I am less than motivated! There are so many little projects I should be working on and I just cannot do it right now. My mind is like spinning or something and I'm not even thinking about work. I wish I could go home. I'm sure it will be better this afternoon when I have something real to work on. We shall see.

Trying to think of anything interesting I can tell you here. Went home last night and basically just hung out and did nothing. I did watch Joe Millionaire and Average Joe. I don't know about either one of those shows. I have been watching Joe Millionaire since the beginning. The guy is a complete dufus but whatever. I actually did think that of all the girls that Linda girl was the best one. She seemed the most normal. And then, of course, last night the other girls intimidated her into leaving because they were jealous there was something there with her and the guy. There really might have been. Too bad. I don't think he'll end up with any of these chicks because they definitely seem more interested in the money than in the first one. I don't see any of these European girls moving to Texas. I mean, come on! Average Joe was alright, kind of boring I guess. I was surprised at the guys she cut. There aren't that many decent looking guys on that show and a few that she did cut were some of the better looking ones. Well, whatever. Reality TV has to go out of fashion sometime I suppose. Right? I wonder what will be next.

So other than that I pretty much just hung out and surfed the web and stuff. I did sort of pick up the apartment a little bit. I really need to get on that because we're having that party this weekend. I need to get some cleaning fluids and stuff. I can't remember what I have already. Maybe I'll go pick some up after work and try to get started. I really need to get the bathroom done. We need someone to come work on the sink before this weekend, there's something weird going on with it.

And so now here I am just typing away. Don't have much more to tell you right now.

One big thing that happened yesterday was Ozzie Guillen was hired as the new manager for the White Sox. Not really sure what I think about that yet. I guess we'll see what happens. Anyone has to be better than the last one I think!

OK thats about it for now.

Well I'm back finally - or unfortunately - however you want to look at it. Sort of glad to be back home but not happy to be back to work. I don't mind work so much but vacation is just so nice. Its good to be away. Oh well, the holidays and more time off will be here before we know it and then I'll get to be away again! ; )

Saturday 11/01 was my mom's birthday so that was another good reason to be in Sullivan. Once again didn't do much of anything. Played with my cat who has turned ultra-annoying in the last year or so. She's still sweet though. Visited with my dog ; )

So now I'm back at work just typing up my thoughts here between actual work. It was a great vacation, great to get away. Just wish it could be longer, you know? I suppose its the same with any vacation. So thats about it for now.

Here I am. Ate entirely too much for lunch today. I don't know why I did that. Oh well, guess I won't need to eat dinner tonight which is just as well because I have a million things I need to take care of tonight.

First off I didn't get too much sleep last night. I'm not sure why. I was watching the World Series and all and then I just sort of hung out afterwards when I should have gone to bed, especially since I was on the 7 am shift this morning. Fortunately I get to leave here at 3:30pm. Gonna try to walk home if I can drag my butt the two miles from here to there. As soon as I get home I'm going to take a nap. Then I'm going to try to clean the place up and finish doing laundry and get mostly packed.

I did laundry last night but then I realized that I had forgotten to bring down certain things and I didn't want to keep going back and forth down to the basement so I decided to do a second set tonight.

So basically I went home right after work and did laundry right away. As I mentioned I have misplaced my access card to the laundry room so I got someone to let me in and then I just sort of hung out down there during the wash cycle reading a book. I was hoping that I could get everything dried in time for Friends but that wasn't the case. So I waited down there for a while and then came up and watch friends and then went back down to get all of my stuff. It worked out. Fortunately there was someone to let me in. That card is around somewhere, I just don't know where right now.

So did that and then had dinner and once again I ate too much. I need like a dietician and a personal trainer or something. I don't know what my problem is. One day I'm eating my healthy veggie soy burgers and the next I'm chowing down on pizza. I have a problem!! I need some structure!

Switched around the TV during dinner because I really only watch Friends and ER anymore on Thursday nights. Watched part of that movie "Unfaithful". I had seen it in theater when it was out. It seemed so much better then. On HBO it seemed like a sort of stupid cheap HBO soft porn movie or something. I don't know why everyone liked that movie so much or Diane Lane was nominated for an Oscar. How much acting ability does that take really? But I digress...

Watched ER - great episode. I love ER! And then I finally switched over to the World Series and the Marlins won and I was happy. I'm beginning to think that they might actually pull it off and I hope they do. I think that team was vastly underrated, the team as well as their fans. I think they do have fans and they're really coming into their own now as last night I could hear the chants of "Yankees suck" over and over on TV. Well thats always a good thing ; )

After that I just kind of stalled out and could not make myself go to bed. I just hung out and did nothing, how weird.

Work went OK today. I did have one cranky customer that I had to take care of and that never makes me happy but it seems to have worked out. Around lunch I just needed to get out of here so I ran to Walgreens to pick up some supplies I needed and then just sort or roamed aimlessly around the South Loop before I got lunch. I suppose its just one of those days.

So that was my day yesterday and part of my day today.

OK thats about it for now. I have to wrap up some loose ends here at work and then I'll be able to call it a day.

Hey here I am! I wasn't sure if I would have the opportunity to write today or not. Anyway... more of the same here. Last night I went to get my eyebrows waxed at Tricoci - thats always so much fun. Got home had my "yummy" dinner of a veggie burger and cottage cheese and BEER! Then I watched Ed and The West Wing which are my Wednesday night shows. After that we caught the 1985 episode of I Love the 80s Strikes Back.

Slept in this morning - yet again! Today I'm wearing my new Old Navy sweatshirt that I bought yesterday. Well I guess that is something that I did yesterday too. I walked over there during my lunch and bought this zip up hooded sweatshirt and a hooded black fleece. All Old Navy clothes are the same but I love them.

I was in need of a zip up hooded sweatshirt because I'm not sure if I've told you this before but I lost my last Old Navy hooded sweatshirt in an "unfortunate canoeing incident" this past spring.

Work today has been busy on and off.

A half hour left of work and then I can go home. I guess I'll probably walk. It is getting cooler out there again.

A couple of things of note ... One of the IRL drivers, Tony Renna died yesterday while he was testing tires at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Really weird to think of a driver dying there in October. I wasn't particularly a fan or knew anything about him but its always sad for a race fan when something happens to a driver. I'll never forget when Scott Brayton died and my friend Katie called to tell me about it. And then when Earnhardt died I called her because there wasn't really anyone around here who would have understood. Just a race fan kind of thing I suppose. Very sad. And also on an Indiana sports note, basketball season - college basketball season - is gearing up and there are a lot more articles out there. I'll link to this one about IU!

Not sure what I'm doing tonight.

Back here to report another evening of hanging out and TV watching. You're wondering why you're even bothering to read this anymore, right?

Anyway, had my leftover Subway for dinner last night because I had forgotten to bring it for lunch yesterday. A day and a half is about the lifetime limit for the other half of a 12 inch sub.

Slept in late again this morning. I'm not sure what my problem is anymore. I think I just need a vacation and its so great that I'm finally getting one next week! I'll be very happy to get out of here.

I ended up with an offline day at work today which is just fine with me. I have a few cases and issues I need to work on, one in particular, I just need to get off my lazy butt and get to it. I'm pretty much caught up on everything else though. I'm finally trying to train myself on the Mac product. I used to work with Macs way back when but I haven't done anything with them lately so I'm very very rusty. Oh well, its something I need to add to my skill set so at this point I might as well go for it I suppose.

Slept in again this morning and had to jump in the shower and then run off to work. Oh well, don't need to look beautiful for work anyway. I love my casual work environment! I think I've mentioned that before. Its been busy on and off here today. Obviously I like it when its less busy.

Got an email from my former co-worker Stacey who said that our friend Sue was no longer working there but she didn't know why. So I called Sue and found out she got laid off. Bummer. I talked to her for about 20 minutes or so. She seems to be doing OK. At least she'll be able to spend more time with her daughter for a while.

I'm trying to decide what I want to do today and this evening. I'm trying to decide if I should get lunch or not or maybe if I just want a snack. And I also really really need to work out so ick ... as much as I don't want to I guess I sort of have to. I don't know why I have no motivation to do much of anything recently. I feel so lazy!!! What to do, what to do ........... I also need to do laundry and start getting ready for our trip but I'm guessing that, as usual, I'll probably put that off until the last possible second. Additionally I have some things here at work I need to take care of. Don't want to think of that either. Yuck - I need to make some changes.

Well, I'm sure we all know now that the Cubs blew it in Game 7 so once again no World Series in Chicago. I'm sad for my dad because I know he really wanted them to win but if you want me to say that I'm sad about it for anyone else, I'm not.

So now baseball is over and I'm glad. I'm glad I won't have to think about it until March or April of next year. I'm sure during the offseason the Sox will do something stupid like get a mid-level former high school coach as a manager or get rid of Mags and some other good player and start rebuilding for "The Kids Can Play: The Sequel" and we'll all suffer thru it again like we do every year.

The Bartman game

Hello all! Well I don't usually log in so early in the day but there is so much going on at the moment that I can't help myself. So the Cubs actually ended up blowing the game last night, yes they did. I can hardly believe it this morning myself. They pretty much led the whole thing 3-0 and seemed to be cruising to a win. Then with one out and one man on a Marlins player hit a foul ball to the left, the Cubs left fielder, Moises Alou, ran for it to the wall and apparently a fan may have or may not have interfered with the catch. I suppose it depends on what you want to consider fan interference. It wasn't technically fan interference because the fielder had to reach into the stands area to try for the grab but the fan did sort of interfere in being in the way of a ball that could have gotten caught. So at this point still no big deal, there are now two people on base. At this point super star Mark Prior seemingly self-destructs with the later help of Kyle Farnsworth. Somehow in a sad combination which included hits, intentional walks and a blown double play by Alex Gonzalez the Cubs ended up losing this game 8-3. Can you believe it? So now everyone blames the fan who got in the way of the foul ball because that could have been the second out of the inning and then there are those who theorize that moment was a shift in the game and momentun and thats what screwed it up for the Cubs.

I personally didn't know that goats could be reincarnated as people but whatever. I wonder what my dad thinks about all of this. Well I suppose I know what he thinks about all of it. I venture to say that my dad is not surprised and even expected something like this to happen. After 50 some years of being a Cubs fan, who can be surprised? Well its not over yet, they still have one more game tonight and I think they'll probably pull it out. For the health and wellbeing of the guy who interfered with that catch, I would hope they do or his life will never be the same. I heard on the radio this morning that the person who was sitting beside him, who didn't even know him, was getting death threats because he had not prevented the guy from getting in the way. Isn't that the most idiotic thing you have ever heard? Who are these freaks?!

So back to the mayhem of everything that has happened since that game. So after the game Dusty Baker has his press conference and says well, it must have been a Marlins fan. Yeah, right, like there was even one Marlins fan in there last night. Who is a Marlins fan, really? So I'm sure ol' Dusty has now checked out the picture and its very apparent this guy was a Cubs fan. My next favorite thing that happened was Mark Suppelsa on FOX held up the National League Championship T-shirts that were already being sold on the street (obviously un-authorized versions). Talk about bad karma! I later heard the story about the black cat and the 1969 team. As many times as my dad has told me about that team and let me tell you, I've heard this story a million times in my life, he had never told me the story about the black cat. So I checked it out, and found this link. That is hilarious! You know, I used to have a black cat. I love black cats!

Today has been kind of fun in that this is all anyone is talking about. I keep remembering things I wanted to write about. First off, as I said, this guy's picture is everywhere. It is on the cover of every newspaper in town, the cover of USAToday, the lead story on every sports website. He is everywhere. OK, can I just say that I find this very irresponsible from a journalistic view point? I just needed to get that out of the way. I don't think that papers should be making money off of this. And speaking of which I was just informed the the Sun-Times has now published his name, where he works and where he lives. I'm not linking to it here. Rumor has it his company is getting inundated with calls and emails.

I was going to attempt to link to a few stories in the Tribune today but there is just so much there today. If you're interested, go check it out. I'm going to be updating this periodically today because my internet connection seems to keep freaking out.

Checked email for one last time before I went to bed and got a fairly interesting email from my friend Eric. I'm not going to get into it here because if you remember, we attempt to avoid controversy and drama in this journal. Basically Eric was informing me about a fight that he heard about at a party the other night which involved a common 'friend'.

Now supposedly the weather is going to clear in time for the Cubs-Marlins game tonight. This could be the night the Cubs win the pennant. Yowza! When did I ever think that I would write that statement in my life. Still not on the bandwagon but its going to be difficult to hold off if they do make it. My dad, I know, has to be thrilled beyond belief. And then I think of my uncle and grandfather who are no longer with us.

Just so you think I haven't gone completely sentimental on this, any Sox fans out there, check out this story.

I feel so bothered right now. I've sort of felt that same way all day today. I was even a little late for work today. Didn't write in the journal yesterday but thought I'd leave a message today.

Well, what is the latest here? Didn't do much of anything last night except go to watch TV and go to bed. What a thrilling life I lead, right?! Ummm... watched Ed and The West Wing.

The garbage haulers strike is finally over in Chicago. I am so glad. It was really beginning to pile up.

For those Red Sox fans out there, check out this link. Talk about bitterness. I don't think the Cubs-White Sox rivalry is this bitter. Of course its not like the Cubs and White Sox have to play eachother as much as the Yankees and the Red Sox. One of my co-workers from Boston loved this!

What else, what else? I know there has to be more things to write about. The more I write the better I feel. Its weird but I've always been that way, even though I sort of leave out certain issues in this journal. I know I'm forgetting something here but what is it??

Anyway, not going to sweat trying to remember what I wanted to write about. If it was so important then I would have remembered.

What a super boring day! I guess I should not complain. I'm offline today and have very little to work on. I know thats a good thing but it just draws the day out. If I would have known how slow it would be today I would have come in earlier so I could leave earlier. As it is I guess I'll be taking off around 4:30pm.

So I tried to break up the day here a little bit by taking sort of a long walk. Went over to the State of Illinois Building or the Thompson Center or whatever they're calling it these days and had some Taco Bell for lunch which was a huge mistake. Now I feel icky. Oh well I'm not really planning a large dinner tonight.

I'm tired, I just realized this. I'm not sure what is going on with me. I didn't sleep too well last night. My mind kept spinning. Then today I had to be here for the 7 am shift and it was sort of nuts. I had a new employee sit in with me which is slightly stressful and now as I look at the computer screen I find myself squinting. I'm tired, more tired than staring at a computer screen normally makes me. But whatever...

So what did I do last night? OK, went home and cooked some biscuits! Ha-ha! Yes I did!

So today just sort of hanging at work on my offline day. I had a couple of meetings and have been trying to help this user with a printing problem, nothing all that thrilling. Will probably take off a little before 5 and go home. I have some laundry to do - I must because I'm pretty much out of clothes - and then Must See TV. Another typical boring night!

Wednesday night after work I met up with my friend Alana who I have not seen in several years. She moved off to France for a while to work and now she and her husband are back in Chicago. It was so good to see her. We went to Alumni Club and just had a few drinks and talked, caught up and everything, told our stories of what we've been up to for the last few years. It was fun. Also updated eachother on gossip concerning our sorority sisters. We both really do not keep in touch with very many of them so it was mostly repeating old stories or stories we'd heard from others. Very interesting stuff. She's great and I hope we can get together more and hang out. I was thinking though, after hearing all of that, that I'm so glad that most of the people I'm close to now were people that I've known for a million hears (pre-IU) or people that I've met here. There's so much college crap that I can do without and would love to forget. She still has to deal with her husband's old frat brothers and all of that mess.

So Thursday night I didn't do anything all that thrilling except for go home and watch Must See TV! I'm so glad the new TV season is out because I was getting sick of watching re-runs or Discovery Channel documentaries.

Today I had to get up super early to get to work for the 7 am shift. It was just one of those mornings. So ... got up, combed the hair, threw on some clothes and tried to remember everything that I needed to pack to take down to Indy and Sullivan this weekend. I was such a mess. First off, I really did not want to get out of bed. Last night was really bizarre and I had some difficulty sleeping. Strange things happen in Chicago in the middle of the night even though I live in a nice neighborhood. At some point in the middle of the night I was awoken by a woman screaming and then heard a crash of some kind. It seemed like it happened outside. A few minutes later - but not as soon as I had thought - I heard sirens so I got out of bed thinking I was going to see some big disaster down below like someone having fallen from a balcony or something. Anyway, I'm not sure what was going on but there were like 5 cop cars and a fire engine like a block away. And being the spy that I am, I had the binoculars out. I'm not sure what was happening because I didn't see a wrecked car or a body or anything. Maybe it was just a car wreck and someone screamed when they saw it happen. I probably fell asleep right after it happened and lost track of time and they may have had it cleaned up before I got up to look.

So then when the alarm went off I was in the middle of an awesome dream and it totally ticked me off to miss the rest of it so I laid in bed for a little while listening to the radio realizing that I really needed to get out of bed and get to work. Finally did, got ready a little and just started throwing junk in my bag to take. I think I remembered everything, hopefully. I figure as long as I have money and the tickets and clothes there is no problem.

Still tinkering around with the blog, tried it with the title, decided I didn't like it so I'm dumping that. Anyway, yet again nothing too thrilling going on with me. Went home after work last night, made some taco salad, ate entirely too much - fun, fun! I really need to go on a freaking diet!

One thing I do need to do is call Alana and see if we're still on for tomorrow. We're supposed to be getting a drink somewhere after work.

Work was a little nuts yesterday and I ended up getting stuck with a bunch of cases, I'm making my way thru them slowly but surely. There only seems to be one real outstanding issue at this point that I'm not certain about. Today I am thankfully offline. I was actually on the backup shift but no one called in sick so I didn't have to take calls! Yea!!

Just got back from Walgreens where I wanted to pick up my pictures that I took over the Corn Fest weekend. They were supposed to be in yesterday but they still aren't in yet. So... they said probably this afternoon so I guess I'll have to go back over there. I have a bunch of pics that I still need to get on the internet, maybe thats something I can work on later in the afternoon.

Lots of people have been contacting me about my family tree info lately and thats pretty cool. Sometimes I can help them, sometimes not but its cool to know that people are looking at it. What I really need to do is get a really nice program together and basically do a lot of that stuff over again. That site could be so much better than it is presently. Maybe this winter that will be a little project for me.

So I was on the super early shift at work this morning and I was running sort of late. I think I got to my desk at 7:03 and I should have been logged on before that. Oh well, no one called. We're having our 35th anniversary party for the company this afternoon. Nothing too fancy just cake and a toast I believe. After that we are having our monthly party. Actually as I look at it, I'm supposed to go help them set up for all of that here in about 5 minutes so I may go ahead and post this and then come back to write more!

Well here I am again. I was debating about writing today but it seems like its pretty slow here at work at the moment and I hope it will remain so. Hopefully I'll get this entry completed, I keep seeming to get wrapped up in things here. The lines are ringing but not with anything I work with.

So last night I went to get my hair done right after work at Mario Tricoci. It turned out pretty well. I got some low lights in it and usually I don't like them but I really needed a change. The other color in it sort of breaks it up a little bit so I don't look as intensely blonde. Sort of a change for me.

Anyway, after that I was walking down Michigan Avenue and I was crossing the street and all of a sudden I looked up and saw someone that I knew that I knew. Anyway, it was my friend Alana from college. So we were all typically girly, etc. about running into eachother. Actually I shouldn't be too surprised to run into her. I knew she had moved to France for a job for a couple of years. I had sort of lost touch with her a little before that even though she was in Chicago during the time. Our schedules were just not matching up. So she moved to France and now is back in Chicago with her husband Dave (Shaggy) who she dated in college and forever. It was very cool to run into her and we're planning on getting together in another couple of weeks. Alana was one of my sorority sisters and my roommate second semester sophomore year. Can't tell you how many fraternity parties we went to and underage drinking we did back then! ; ) We also went to Florida on Spring Break that year. We had some really good times - along with some of our other sorority sisters - and she's someone I have wanted to get back in touch with. I did see her a few times when she lived here before. Hopefully now we can all get together and get the guys together. It would be a good time!!

After that I went into Filene's Basement for a quick look around but didn't see anything too interesting so I went on my merry way. Got back to the apartment and watched the Sox game which, fortunately, they won. I'm still sort of thinking about going down there tonight by myself. Well, I probably won't. I went shopping today during my lunch hour and bought a bunch of stuff so I sort of want to take that home and then I'm trying to save a little money for this weekend so if I don't go then I'll have more money saved. Also, I'm not big on going to a game alone.

As I was saying earlier I went and did some shopping on my lunch hour. First stopped at Old Navy where I got this salmon colored sweatshirt which is pretty cool and some cargo khakis. Then went to Filene's Basement where I got a couple of shirts. I never go shopping so this is rare for me. There are a couple of other "fall" items I'd like to get such as some leather shoes and maybe some kind of skirt outfit or something like that. I'm trying to think of where else I could look around me that isn't super expensive. Had planned on stopping by TJ Maxx too but I didn't really have much more time before I had to get back to work here. Sooo... I might try to run over there tomorrow or look around on Michigan Ave. or something or just do nothing. I have skirts and stuff, I was just looking for something new. Shoes are an absolute must though. I love casual leather shoes and I've worn out the pair that I liked to wear so I definitely need something new. I'd also like to get like a leather jacket or something but I think I will hold off on that because that will be a little more money.

So I'm still just sitting here at work at its surprisingly quiet. I'm going to have to freak out and start jumping on some calls soon or its going to look like I have done nothing today!! OK, finally took one so its not a completely wasted day.

What else?? Can't think of much at the moment. Tomorrow we are having a 35th anniversary party here at work and I think we're all getting T-shirts and since I'm on the organizing committee (although I haven't had too much time lately to help organize), I'm supposed to pick up my T-shirt tonight and wear it tomorrow so I must remember to do that. Don't know what I'm going to do for dinner at all but I guarantee it will be none too thrilling.

One other thing I wanted to mention today was an update on the governor of Indiana. Apparently it seems like he suffered a massive stroke and they're not sure if he's going to make it and if he does it could be weeks or months before he's OK again. On my walk home I walked by Northwestern Hospital where he is and every news van in the Midwest must have been parked out there. This is very sad. As I said before I met the governor, Frank O'Bannon, several times when I was working in the Indiana Senate and even before. He's a really nice guy. I remember when he got elected the first time we were so happy down at IU. I got to go to his inauguration and everything at the State House in Indy. I was just thinking about that today for like the first time in forever. I have a nice printed invitation for it somewhere waiting to be put in a scrapbook. I'll never forget that day because they had the inauguration outside and it must have been like 20 degrees below zero. It was one of the coldest days I can remember from that year but a beautiful day outside. So we all stood around in our layers of clothing shivering but it was a nice event to go to. I also met the Lt. Governor, Joe Kernan, on several occasions who is just as much as a nice guy. As the Lt. Gov. is the leader of the Senate, I saw him a lot. I mean really, for politicians, they are both very approachable, just nice people. I'm attaching a couple of stories here from the Indianapolis Star (who knew Kernan was a Sox fan!) in case you're interested.

So Saturday morning I got up and went to go work out. It was really a completely uneventful day. Just worked out, watched TV, cleaned up the kitchen, etc. Boring boring boring. Watched the Sox game, ate some dinner and even went and worked out again. Stayed up sort of late not doing anything in particular except for surfing the net.

Sunday was pretty much the same. Went to work out early on but when I got down there like nothing was working. So I did what I could on some of the weight machines and then went for a power walk along the lake. That ended up being a pretty good workout. Came back, watched the Sox game, and other mindless TV, cooked dinner. Pretty much the same crap. I stayed up sort of later than I would have wanted watching "Sweet Home Alabama" - a very cute movie and Reese has perfect hair in it. So after that I went to bed but I could not sleep, just tossed and turned the whole night. My mind was reeling and I have no idea why. Well, I'm thinking maybe these green tea tablets I've been taking might have something to do with it, probably too much caffeine. Oh well...

Got up this morning, don't really feel too rested but what can you do? On the other hand, I don't exactly feel tired either. So took the shower and all and actually had a piece of toast for breakfast. Sort of meant to do my makeup but I just sort of brushed my hair out, put on some lipstick and took off. Its work, who cares what you look like!? Besides, I'm getting my hair done tonight and my eyebrows waxed so all of the makeup will end up rubbing off in the process anyway. I've decided to only get my highlights done tonight and I'm letting my hair grow out longer and will cut it another time. Remember how I said how I hated my hair so much after I got it cut the last time. Well, its much better now but I still want to give the bangs more time to grow out. I just hope it doesn't end up looking like crap. Still trying to decide what I want to do with the highlights. I would like the blonde blonde color to remain but I need to break it up a little bit I think, like maybe get some streaks of another color or lowlights or something added to it. I sort of like how my sister got her's the last time. She had it sort of streaky with a couple of other shades of blonde. I was also thinking about maybe adding some reddish steaks to it. I wonder what that would look like. I just don't want too much of the lowlight look because I've had them before and they just seem to take over as the dominant color I see in the mirror so whatever it is, its going to have to be thin. I don't want brown hair!!!

One more thing to add here. Just read where Frank O'Bannon, the governor of Indiana, was hospitalized with some sort of cerebral hemorrhage. I met him on several occasions when I worked in the Indiana Senate when I was in college. He's one of the nicest politicians I've ever met and a totally normal person (I often saw him eating lunch in the State House foodcourt). This is very sad, I hope everything will turn out well. He was supposed to be the Grand Marshall of the Corn Festival parade in Sullivan this coming weekend as well.

So this morning I get up bright and early at 6 am to get ready for my early shift at work. I go into the bathroom to turn on the shower and notice its coming out completely cold. So I turn it all the way to hot and let it run, same thing. I tried the sink in the bathroom, same thing. So I'm like, crap, what is going no. So I go into the kitchen thinking that maybe the water there is good and if anything I can just wash my hair in the sink. No dice. So I call down to the doorman and he knew right away what I was calling about. Apparently there was some sort of power outage in the building last night for about an hour. I guess whomever assumed that when the power came back that the boiler would come back up but it did not and they were having to power it back up for hot water. Well that sucks. Not sure about the whole power outage thing because my alarm went off and my clock wasn't flashing 12:00 or anything. Who knows, maybe it was only certain parts of the building. So there was no way I was going to take a cold shower so I just sort of tried to comb my hair and throw on some makeup so I didn't end up looking like total crap. That really stinks though - I was not happy!!

Wednesday I didn't do anything too thrilling. Really, as I think of it now, it was sort of dull. Well I did go get my ugly acrylic nails removed. I had had them on forever and they were looking pretty bad. I'm giving my fingers a rest by going with my real nails and just a simple manicure. Watched part of the Sox loss to the Red Sox. I don't know what I think about this team. I mean, they're still technically in first but its just getting sort of idiotic now. It will be interesting to see what happens. After that ended I stumbled upon the movie "Tuck Everlasting". Anyway, I was surprised by how good it was and I ended up crying at the end. It was pretty sad!!

Was able to drag myself out of bed a little earlier this morning and got to work early. So lucky me gets to leave around 4:30. Its been a pretty slow day today and thats just fine with me.

Hey well I'm back. I'm not in the happiest of moods right now for a certain reason that I'll not go into. Its sort of a long story. Well, not really, nothing really has happened to upset me but I've sort of put myself into a mood because of some pieces of a puzzle I am seeing start to fit together. So I emailed my mom about it, not that she can really do anything, and I'll see what she has to say. I'm one of those people that when upset I have to tell someone about it or I just stew over it more.

Saturday my parents came into town. They were supposed to get in around noon but I think they made it there sometime between 1 and 2. They ran into a lot of traffic on the way up. So they got there and we just sort of relaxed. Started teaching them how to play various games on the dart board and they really had a good time with it and my mom ended up getting really good at it. I think they might get one now. After that we took a walk to the train and went out to visit my sister and see her new apartment. Stopped and got some beer on the way and then just hung out at Steph's for a while and sort of watched the Cubs game. We then headed off to Pizano's in Wrigleyville for pizza. It was pretty good stuff. Had some appetizers, beer, pizza, just hung out and talked. Fortunately we got there early enough and right before the Cubs game got out because after the game finally ended the place was packed. We then headed back to Steph's apartment and hung out for a little while. Mom got stuck watching the movie "Serendipity" and Steph loves that movie. Its OK I suppose but a little contrived. After that Steph drove us back downtown.

Sunday was a pretty rainy day so we pretty much just stayed around the apartment. We did walk over to Navy Pier for a little while but it was pretty crowded indoors and the rain was sort of sporadic outdoors. You really couldn't do much so we didn't stay long. Afterwards we briefly went back to the apartment and then walked to the train to go to China Town to hang out and have dinner. My parents had never been there before so it was nice to walk around and look in the stores and bakeries. The stores are nothing special - a bunch of trinkets and junk mostly.

Just stopping by here after another day away. Its pretty slow this afternoon so I thought I'd write a little bit. Had to get up bright and early this morning to head in for the 7 am shift. Those are always fun!

Lets see... what is going on. Well Sox blew it yesterday against the Yankees. They put in that rookie pitcher again. I'm not sure why they did that on what seemed like an important game. So they are now tied back up with Kansas City for first place. We shall see what happens.

So I'm pretty tired now. Like I said got up at 6 am right as I was having a dream that my cat (my cat at my parents') was actually speaking to me. She's squeaky enough, she doesn't need to actually start using speech!! Took a shower, dried my hair and was out the door to a cab to work by 6:45 or so. Got here a few minutes before the shift started. Now I must go home and try to look a little more decent for company. Will 3:30 ever get here?

Tuesday, August 19 my sister took me out for my birthday which was the next day. Actually the afternoon started kind of weird when she called me to tell me she had gotten rear-ended on the way home from work. She has like a brand new Jeep Liberty so I was thinking the worst but I guess it did nothing other than put some smears on her spare tire which is actually the tire and not a cover so those now appear to be gone. She was sort of shaken up too and had had sort of a hard time of it when it happened because the people who bumped her did not speak English. Fortunately she didn't have to deal with insurance or the police or anything. I asked her if she still wanted to go out and she did which was probably good for her. So we went to Mambo Grill which was awesome as usual. They have great chips and salsa there, good drinks and the food is the best. I had the chile rellenos which is one of my favorites and Steph had the guava glazed chicken which she said was also really good. We split a piece of coconut creme pie for dessert. She got me a few small things which included bath gel and splash from Bath & Body Works which is like my favorite stuff!!

In the process of this busy week I somehow forgot that my parents' anniversary was August 23 so I had to end up calling them the next day! Oops! I think Steph may have forgotten too. She and her friends had gone camping over near the Indiana Dunes for a day. Sounds like they had a good time. She borrowed my tent and sleeping bag and stuff. Guess all those girls ended up surviving because I've talked to Steph since! ; )

Trying to think of other things I could have missed. I think I'm remembering all of the highlights here. Still watching Sox games and they're still doing well and in first place. The game last night against the Yankees was so awesome. All of those homeruns and a grand slam by Frank Thomas!! It was so great.

Lots of random thoughts for the day. Yesterday I went to Walgreens and bought that Frizz-Ease hair stuff. My hair is supposedly straight but it would like to be curly and I'm constantly fighting against it. So I thought I'd try the shampoo and conditioner. I've tried the "straightener" in the past which was totally pointless and have recently been using the gel which has helped some. Anyway, I don't think the shampoo and conditioner made much of a difference. I don't know what to do with my hair. Its finally grown out to the point where I like it better but I just don't know how to keep it up. Also for some reason it always looks yellow to me. I prefer it sort of whiter. Anyway maybe that is just my preception. I'm thinking of trying something different next time maybe sort of what my sister has which is like a streaky 3 shades of blonde look. We shall see. Going into Tricoci tomorrow anyway for an eyebrow wax - fun, fun. I feel like I look like such a freak right now.

I'm supposedly going to lunch with my friend Stacey tomorrow. I'm not sure what will come of that because she hasn't gotten back with me yet. Oh well.... Back on the hair thing, my life would be so much easier if 80s big hair was back in style, I could just get a perm and go! ; ) Actually I sort of fear for the day this happens because you just know that look will come back, just like every other look.

Well I'm back. I had various problems with my page yesterday but I think I have fixed them. I didn't get a chance to write yesterday because I was super busy at work. I had like two meetings, plus my phone shift and then the servers were down with the virus that was going around yesterday and so I had to catch up later on a bunch of stuff when the servers came back up. It was a huge pain. I had come into work early, starting at 8 am so I could leave at 4:30 and I ended up not leaving until 4:45 and I didn't even get a lunch hour. I ate my lunch during one of my meetings. It was totally insane! I don't think I've had a day like that since I started here. Today is looking much better!!

So I'm just sitting here on my lunch hour with thankfully not too much to do. I do have a few issues to handle this afternoon and then I'm taking off at 4:30 because I came in at 8:00 am again. Its nice to have those options.

Well back again! The Sox won last night - swept the Kansas City Royals! I am so excited! It was such a great game. I really thought they were going to blow it there in the end but it ended up going 11 innings and had such a great finish. I really didn't need to be staying up that late either as this morning I had my early shift so I wanted to go to bed early. Oh well, it was definitely worth staying up to watch.

I can't even think of what I wanted to write next. Well so I was on the 7 am shift at work today. Was actually able to drag my butt out of bed at 6 am, take a shower, throw on some clothes and then get a cab to work. Thats the only way its going to work for me on these 7 am shifts. 6 am is about the earliest you'll get me awake. I made one attempt of showering the night before and just getting up and hiking it to work (my bus isn't running at this time and walking to the el is just a waste of time) and it worked out but I really almost cut it too close. I don't know, maybe I need to re-think my scheduling issues. I like the 7 am shift though. Its sort of nice to get here, get your work done and then go home early.

Random thoughts of the moment, I really need to go pick up some cash for this weekend and remember to pay my rent!! Also, going over my blog here, do you think I need to add more links? I like my links ... maybe a few more would add something to it.

What else? Oh ... so then the big huge event of this weekend is the Brickyard 400 and I cannot wait to go. I have wanted to go ever since it started and we were just never able to get tickets. It better not rain!!! Looking at the weather sites on the net, they don't seem to optimistic about the weather in Indy this weekend but talking to Mom and Dad the weather guys down there seem more optimistic. We shall see. If it does rain I suppose I can stay over one more day but more than that, I really cannot. I just hate having to drive directly back from Indy to Chicago after races.

So work is going pretty well today. I think I'm all caught up on all of my cases, just waiting to hear back from a few of them.

Well, I think Steph and Katie finally got moved into their condo. I'll have to go over there sometime next week. They're supposed to have a party sometime soon so I guess thats another upcoming social event for me to look forward to.

Well I'm back, here another day, and I still hate my hair. I think I'm right about it this time. Oh well... what to do. There are bigger problems in the world than my hair and I have to keep reminding myself how fast my hair actually grows. Well, whatever.... It does sort of put me in a mood though.

I am in such a good mood today! Without getting into it I am just very very very happy! Whoo-hoo!!! So let me just get that out there first. I'm so happy that I actually treated myself to a caramel macciato and a muffin at Starbucks - have to celebrate my happiness!!! Now I'm like in one of those moods where I just don't want to do anything for the rest of the day. Hmmmm... well thats not good. I wonder how much work I can put off. We'll see, I have to get into it.

So this morning I worked the early shift. I ended up taking 10 calls between 7 and 9 am?! Don't these people have anything better to do than call tech support at these ungodly times?! I mean come on!!?? Well, it wasn't too bad, mostly stuff I could answer. I ended up taking 15 calls on my phone shift. Thats a pretty busy shift.

Finally Friday! I am so happy this week is over. It just seems to have gone on and on and on. Didn't do too much all that spectacular last night, sort of just hung out, watched TV, talked to with my mom and surfed the net. I've been corresponding recently with a few people on genealogy issues recently so we passed some email back and forth last night. Its so nice that so many people want to help! So other than that I ended up making pizza last night. I'm such a generic cook. I made the crust by taking a Bisquick biscuit mix and adding some extra flour then I just topped it with sausage and cheese. It turned out pretty well though so I was happy.

So I ended up staying up much to last last night "doing nothing" and then I had to drag myself out of bed at 6 am to go to work because I was working the 7 am shift today. I like the 7 am shift because its quiet and usually pretty slow. Well, maybe not so slow today as I ended up taking 17 calls on my four hour phone shift. So last night I had taken a shower right before I went to bed so when I woke up this morning my hair was totally freaking out. I usually don't take showers before I go to bed because my hair does such weird things. However, its just easier to do it the night before when I have these super early shifts. So I ended up having to put a bunch of gel thru it to get it to calm down and then I just put it back in a ponytail. So, I'm not looking too cute today but who really cares. I took a cab to work and got here about 5 minutes til 7. You'd think I was crazy for volunteering to work these hours but I like the days I do this because then I have so much more time to hang out in the afternoons.

So, I got home last night and started to go thru the box of genealogy information that my uncle sent me and it is full of some great stuff. There are some things in there that I don't even think my mom has seen so I plan on making some copies and sending it to her. I don't know when I'm ever going to get back started on this project. I have so much information to still cover. Its more of a fall and winter type project for when the weather is not too good. I really need to become better organized. So then today I was looking at my gedcom file that I had saved on rootsweb. Anyway, its a blessing that I saved it there because my hard drive died and took my copy with it. So I was able to download it again and import it into the program that I use. Well, thats all and good but then I was comparing the gedcom file to my html file and realized that when I created the original gedcom file I did not choose to save every aspect of it. So.... What this means is when I want to regenerate my html its going to blow out those things that are now in the html file and they will be deleted from my website. So what I'm going to have to do is go back thru the gedcom and find what is missing and copy and paste that information from my website back into the family tree software. Its going to be sort of a pain. However, I have a lot of data cleanup I need to do anyway. Additionally, it could be worse. I could have lost everything and in that case would have had to set up another one for the individuals I don't have in. That would be OK but I prefer to have one database. So that is an upcoming project for me. I just have no idea when I will have the time to work it in. But back to the information my uncle sent me, its great; so far I've loved going thru it and I look forward to compiling everything to make my information more complete.

Last night was fairly uneventful for me, I went home and did that and then I glanced at the game and saw that the Sox were losing yet again and to a last place team, yet again. So I spared myself the misery and didn't watch the rest of the game. When last I looked at the score today they were losing to the same team AGAIN! I don't even want to look at the score. I really thought they had a chance to come around this year but now I don't know.

This day seems like it has taken forever. I swear, I feel like I should have been home two hours ago and its only 2:30. I had the last of this week's meetings this morning. I rarely have meetings and I think I've had like 5 in the last three days. I've contacted all of my customers that I have cases with but no one has gotten back to me - oh well - no news is good news. But now the day is just sort of dragging. I should probably be working on a couple of things - learning some more about the Macintosh and this new CRM system that we're implementing. I don't know but I don't do well on days where I have little to do. When I'm busy I'm more likely to fit more and more things into my schedule than when I have a completely open day. That doesn't make any sense.

I received a package slip in my mailbox yesterday but I forgot to go down and pick it up so I went this morning. I was expecting it to be just a sample of something. I'm on a lot of those free sample email lists and I often receive things that don't fit in my mailbox. So I figured I'd go pick up whatever it was this morning. Well, it ended up being this huge box from my Great Uncle with a bunch of genealogy information in it. He had told me he would be sending it but I didn't think I would be getting it so soon. So now I'm looking forward into checking all of that out when I get home. I've been doing a lot of genealogy research in the last year. I've been away from it for a while but I need to get back into it. I have several more family branches and a lot more information to add! I really need a new laptop because it would make it so much more convenient to work with!

I'm just not in a very happy mood today for a lot of reasons but I'm not sure I want to get into it right now. Hopefully this afternoon will be better. I'm stuck working with this customer on a product I know absolutely nothing about. I have no idea why this was assigned to me but oh well. Guess I'll go look for some help from one of my co-workers and see what I can do for the user.

Back again today during my lunch hour! I keep messing with this site and trying to make a few changes to it. This seems to have a lot of little quirks to it so I suggest if you're reading this and it looks weird to resize your browser screen - that tends to take care of a lot of the problems. Hopefully I'll dress this site up a little more in the future but we'll see if I ever have time.

Yesterday was sort of strange day weather-wise. When I left work the temperature was showing as 98 degrees and I believe it actually was that hot. It was horrible. I decided to walk home anyway; bet I lost three pounds on the walk home. Thats always good! Then it finally cooled off some and we had a horrible lightening storm - I couldn't sleep. It was pretty freaky!

Hello all! This is the first journal posting I am making. I hope to be able to update it almost daily. I won't be posting anything too controversial so if you're looking for some juicy gossip, its best to go elsewhere!

It was totally nuts at work today. I got completely inundated as soon as I picked up the phone and ended up taking like 16 customer calls in 4 hours. I guess it was because of the holiday and backed up work but it drove me crazy. The only good thing about those shifts is that they tend to go really fast. So now I have some work I should be doing and some customers I should be contacting but I'm just not up for it right now so I've been wasting some time working on my homepage, etc.