When It's On, It's On

Today I had to introduce myself at the All Staff meeting and give a little speech with a personal fun fact of my choosing. I told everyone I had double jointed elbows?

I also received email today telling me my former advisor in college is leaving for another university and the department is compiling notes from current and former students to bind into a departure gift. I sat down to write something and everything that came out was complete drivel. I think all my creative juices have flown the coop for the day, possibly the week.

My one steady blog-viewer has informed she herself has started a blog. Any comments you find on my posts will lead you to her blog. She had this to say about it when announcing her blogging endeavors:

"I blogged this morning as I was eating my breakfast! It felt really really weird to be writing something that NO ONE will read. Even less people will read my blog than my senior econ thesis."

I feel a little blogging insecurity in this statement and I encourage everyone to check out her blog in the future. It's my goal for more people to see her blog than her thesis. We'll call it the Angelus movement. Check it: http://luspice.blogspot.com

Dream Analysis and Robert Stack

The past couple of nights I have had some vivid (if not too exciting) dreams. I was in both of them along with other people, but they both featured one other person who will remain nameless to protect the innocent. So the first dream, this person got drunk and got sick. And in the second dream, I got drunk and slept in someone else's bed (the bed was empty, just me). In both dreams there were big groups of people I know (family the first night and friends the second), but at the point of inebriation it was just me and this other person. And in both dreams I was out of town - the first dream might have been in the French countryside a la The Grand Illusion and the second felt like a ranch house. I decided to reference a dream dictionary to find out what all this means. This other person getting drunk could mean I harbor negative feelings or disapprove in some way. I dunno. Myself getting drunk means alienation and escape from reality, especially since on the second night I was the only one getting drunk. Sleeping in someone else's bed apparently means moderate business success is on the horizon? Would never have guessed that. Oh, and in the second dream, this other person was talking about me with someone I didn't want to be talking about me standing over the bed thinking I was passed out but I was really awake. Apparently I'm sneaky in my dreams. I don't know what any of this means, but I'm not eating chocolate before bed anymore.

ROBERT STACK! The man passed, but his memory lives on in my head. Last night on Lost there was a faith healer trying to fix Rose. He was describing the ground he lived on and it's healing powers by saying "Perhaps it has something do with the geology. Perhaps it is something else." Unsolved Mysteries immediately came into my head because at the end of story segments that were true "mysteries", Stack would always say "perhaps" to offer a theory. As much as I love this show from my childhood, whenever I think of Robert Stack I think of the film Written on the Wind. In it, he plays a rich oil tycoon who is sterile or impotent or both (I forget which). We had to do analysis of him in one of my film classes three years ago. There's this scene where he's just found out he can't bear children because of his problem, and he looks at this kid bouncing up and down on one of those bouncy plastic horses that move outside a grocery store (or in this case a small town cafe). I recommend the movie just for this scene. Robert Stack almost looks jealous of this boy's energy.

My First Week

Today is Friday and I have finished my first official work week at my new job. Since I have been at the company since August, but not in official capacity, I didn't get to partake in important company decisions before. This week changed all that. Yesterday, I had my first official business lunch to meet vendors that send our mass email. Topics on the table during the lunch included: where everybody lives and how they commute to work, the tv show Lost (to which I told everyone about the Lost podcast which rocks), New York and the different ways to get there. My favorite part of the 1.5 hour lunch where about 5 minutes of business was discussed was when Patrick, one of the vendors, explained how he considered Lost an event and "likes to make a nice dinner" in preparation for it. Oh, Patrick.

Today a survey was sent out to all employees to vote on the All Staff Summer Outing. I didn't get to partake in the survey of what people randomly thought we should do a couple of weeks ago because I wasn't a full time employee. But now, after they've narrowed down the choices to six, I'm all over it. The choices all included lunch and the main activity. These activities are the National Zoo, the Smithsonian, bowling, going to a park, something else, and a river cruise on the Potomac. I chose the latter mostly because that's what they did on The Office. Plus I think it would be funny if everyone was trapped in one place and couldn't leave. I would love to see my boss wear a captain's hat and take control of the helm.

"Mother Tongue. That was the name of my band in high school." Damon Lindeloff, Writer and Executive Producer of Lost (on this week's podcast in reference to a Russian speaker's email describing his language)

What's Dark is Dark

So tonight at Neuhaus, this Italian couple came in. Two very short men that looked alike, but were clearly not related. They were talking in Italian and didn't really understand English. Clementine, who I am now secretly calling "The General" just cause, started to speak a little Italian to them explaining the price of the chocolate. She knows a little Italian because she was married to an Italian man for many years - her "great love" or "love of her life" - I forget which. This is how I know these guys didn't understand the Belgian speaking half English/half Italian. The guy on the left had his face furrowed and possessed the most confused look I think I have ever seen. This alone probably wouldn't make it funny, but to top it off, his head was shaped like Stewie Griffin's. It was the Italian Stewie with his Italian accent looking very confused. So good I had to hide in the back to laugh out loud.

In reference to this week's title, "what's dark is dark," a woman came into the store asking where the dark chocolate was to which I always give this reply. I say it respectfully, but this time these two teenagers who are among the hundreds of touristy teens I've seen at Neuhaus with name badges laughed and gave a noise like I completely dissed this woman for not knowing what dark chocolate looked like. (And to myself I was.) However, while this remark can sound very flip if said in a certain way, I always say it with respect because let's face it. If you're stupid enough not to know what dark chocolate looks like when it's right next to milk chocolate, you don't want the person selling it to you to make you feel that stupid. I'm clearly not built for customer service.

My new job orientation was today. They gave me this huge binder with lots of papers and I've had to sign about ten different forms. I will bequeath my life's worth ($20,000 in insurance) to my brother should I kick it. They gave me this pamphlet to give to my beneficiary explaining how it all works. There's this woman in a sweater on a blueish beach standing looking out at the water. I guess this defines "grief". I'm going to show this to people. Wow, I feel like this entry should just be called "Quotation Marks" because I've used a lot of them tonight.