focus is key...

I was having trouble coming up with a new topic to blog about, so my dear friend Shanda suggested that I blog about fireplaces.
Uh... no thanks.

Today I was reminded of a GREAT topic, one that I know a LOT about- locking your keys in your car.

This is something I used to do often. In fact, I did it so often that AAA told me that if I called them again that year, they would charge me $50 to come break into my car for me (that was in March). I wisely decided to have a few spares made for just such an occasion and handed them out to the people closest/nearest to me. One went to my roommate, one to a close friend and one to my parents.
This was probably the smartest thing I ever did.
I've locked my keys in my car at least 20 times. At least. I remember once sitting outside of Alberto's in Riverside (the clean one) for three hours waiting for my friend to get off work...

That was four years ago. It's been over a year since I've locked my in my car... until today. Today was a crazy day at work and I was really looking forward to going home and enjoying a nice relaxing evening. I was going to watch Waiting for Guffman (it came in the mail yesterday!!! I found it online for A PENNY!) while I did some laundry and cleaned up a little bit while I waited to watch Lost.
Key words: going to.
On my way home I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll grab a kids bowl at Wahoo's for dinner" and as I was sitting in the parking lot listening to Coldplay's "Yellow" for the third time on my way home, my mind totally wandered.
When the song was over I grabbed my cell, my wallet and was fiddling with my hands free device as I got out of the car. It was then that I changed my mind- I really wasn't all that hungry so opted for an iced coffee from the Starbucks that was in the same shopping center. A little boy chatted with me while I was in line- there was a dog in the car outside and he wanted to know if it was mine. He wanted to pet it.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'm afraid of most dogs (I am) so I just told him no, it wasn't mine and he then showed me how he could hop in a circle backwards without falling down.
He fell down.

It wasn't until after my drink was up and I was headed for the door that I realized that I didn't have my car keys.
The girl at the counter SWORE she saw them in my hands and accused me of flushing them down the toilet I didn't use.
Whatever lady. I think I'd REMEMBER using your nasty bathroom...

I went out to my car and sure enough- there they were. My keys.
Car key in the ignition, hanging on my super cool key chain (ask me to show you sometime- it really is pretty nifty) with my house key, key to my parent's house, key to my Aunt's house, work key, heart thingy my cousin gave me with my name on it from when I was in her wedding, fob to get into the church office, LA Fitness barcode, church barcode, cool little keychain thing that has my brother's airforce photo on it, and a skeleton key from the house I grew up in...

Yup. There they were, just "hanging out" if you will... taunting me from inside my vehicle.

So I hung out at Starbucks until my mom brought me my spare.
I kind of felt like I was in highschool, waiting to be picked up.
While I was waiting for her to meet me, I thought about how lucky I am that I've never given my key to someone who's big on practical jokes....

What made my heart smile today...

Man-tastic man magnet...

A friend of mine has the CUTEST little brother who loves to give high fives and gives you the most gigantic RUNNING HUGS and has the sweetest most infectious smile... yup. That kid is his CHICK. MAGNET. (Hi Jon)
Well, I've discovered the female equivalent of a guy having an adorable younger sibling/small puppy/tray of delicious cupcakes... and I found it at Costco.
Someone wonderful (my grandma) gave me a Costco gift card a few months ago, and I've been saving it for something "really good." After much thought and consideration, I decided this last weekend what to use it for.
Yesterday I decided to go to Costco for lunch. After grabbing lunch for less than $3 (heck YES!) I headed inside and made a bee-line for the DVD table. After grabbing the boxed sets of Star Wars Episodes I, II, III and IV, V, VI, I headed to the check-out line.
Let me just say that 3 separate men stopped me on my way out of Costco.
First, the "boxer" (Costco equivalent of a supermarket "bagger") who, since I was only purchasing two items, had nothing to do but stand there and chatter on about how excited he was for me to be "finally" buying these- he wasn't sure how I lived until now. (I honestly don't know how I've made it this long without owning these incredible films... Especially 4,5,6)
We chit-chatted about nerd stuff- about The Hobbit that's expected to be released sometime in 2012 and how (at this point his eyes got as big as saucers, as if to say "you're in luck. there's a cure for you") Clone Wars was already out on DVD "You really need to pick that up, too."
I promised him it was on my "list" and we parted ways.
I had my handbag on my arm and was holding my drink and in my other arm I was holding the movies and as I walked out the door, a man standing in line to return something got VERY excited for me. He pumped his fist in the air and exictedly said "Oh, wow! Today's a big day for you!" I told him it was and that I was looking forward to enjoying my new purchases.
I went back to the food court to grab a napkin for my drippy drink and a man grabbing a straw saw the movies in my hand and said (in the least creepy way possible- he actually looked surprised and proud of himself at the same time) "Are you going home to watch those? Do you want some company?" I smiled and said "No, I'm going back to work now, but thanks for offering to protect me from Darth Vader!"

Yup. This is MUCH more effective than smelling like bacon all day...

Do you smell... bacon?

At work, my department (IT) is "buddies" with the Business Services Department. We're like the black sheep of Vanguard- no one really cares when things go well, but if stuff goes wrong, it's always our fault. One of the girls in the BSO, Miss Kristi, is expecting a baby and we bet if she was having a boy or a girl. I honestly thought she was having a boy. I still believe she's having a boy. Sonograms lie all the time. But that doesn't matter.
Four other guys (and two girl student workers) and I signed up that she was having a boy and EVERYONE else (all 20 of them) thought she'd be having a girl. Well, the doctor says it's going to be a girl, so the six of us got to make breakfast on Monday for everyone.
When I say "breakfast" I mean bacon, eggs, saussage, pancakes, waffles and mini-muffins (okay, those were store-bought). So guess who got to make saussage and bacon on a hot plate in the other office? ME!!
I had a TON of fun cooking with the boys (even if one of them did whine like a little girl the whole time... I told him to knock it off and threatened to cut him with my serrated spatula) and the girls were all so gracious- it was a really great morning!
When I got back to my desk, one of my IT co-workers walked by my desk and stopped, turned around, walked back to my desk, inhaled deeply and said "I smell bacon..." and floated off to his desk.This happened several times in a five minute period...
I then smelled my clothes. Bacon.
I smelled my arm. Bacon.
I smelled my hair. Bacon.
Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

A friend of mine stopped by my desk that afternoon. He smiled and said "You smell amazing."
... to which I replied, "Get away from me."

I posted as my status on monday that I smelled like bacon- Lisa insisted that every man reading my facebook status that day would want to make-out with me.
My friend Rick posted this awesome link to a Taco Bell commercial that perfectly depicts the reaction I got from the guys in my office on Monday.

tweet! tweet!

About two years ago, a guy I "kind of knew" (we'll get to that part later) told me about this company called Despair, Inc. They make demotivational tee shirts, posters and other funny products. They always joke that if you have bad service, they don't want to hear it. They actually call their customer service department "disservice" and they have three really great Twitters that I follow- they make fun of stupid customers and tease each other about whatever they feel like and they're super sarcastic... My kind of company. Anyways. You can build your own calendar on their website out of their extensive line of Demotivators. What's a Demotivator? Here's two of my favorites. If you still don't get it, then stop reading this immediately.

You can see them all here.

This was the second year in a row that I've made a demotivational calendar for my Dad as a Christmas gift, and this year I decided to make one for my Mom and brother as well (one stop shopping, what can I say?). I wanted to make one for myself as well, (I'd had one for 2008) but at the time I didn't want to spend the money.

So today as I was laying in bed staring at the picture I chose for December 2008 trying to find the motivation (ha) to get out of bed, I decided: Today's the day.

So I made my calendar and I was SO excited about it. I even got free shipping!

When you purchase something from Despair, Inc. they ask you if you want to join their Wailing List (which I already receive- I also subscribe to their Twitter) and they also ask how you heard about their company.

Whenever I've ordered from them in the past, I've left that field blank. But not today. Today, I told the truth.

Q: How did you hear about Despair?

A: A stupid guy I went out on two dates with. Telling me about Despair was the only half way interesting thing he ever said.

(True story. I went out with this poor guy twice about two years ago and they were two of the most painfully awkward dates in the history of dating. It was so bad, I can't even remember the guy's name because I blocked it from my memory. Seriously. If you think you have me beat, we should talk.)

So back to me.

About an hour after I placed my order, I logged into my twitter and squealed with excitement.

They twittered my response!!

See that?? @disservice said my response was AWESOME (emphasis NOT mine!)

This is a two-fold accomplishment because a) I didn't get made fun of and b) I made them laugh enough for them to Twitter it!!

BOOYA!!

No, thank YOU

Okay.
Here's the thing.

There's something that irks me like no other. I really can't figure out why it bothers me so much, except for the fact that it happens a lot and every single time I think to myself "Why is this a big deal??"

It just is.

I email a LOT at my job. People email me requests, I make tasks for them and then I send them work order numbers or tell them what they need to do to fix the problem themselves, etc. I do Helpdesk. It's what I do. I email a lot. So what.
So what?
So what is the fact that 9 out of 10 times, people respond with one of two phrases "Thank you" or "Thanks."
Now, this might not seem like a big deal, except for the fact that I send out close to 200 emails a day. A DAY! (You do the math, I don't feel like it.)

"Thanks."

Really? You sent a whole email just for that? That's all I get? I got excited when I saw that I had an email from you (okay, that's usually not true) and I opened it and all I get is "Thanks"?? Not even a "Wow, thanks so much, I really appreciate that/you etc." I mean, come on. That took ten extra seconds and it's so much more genuine than "thanks."

Oh, and don't even get me started on "thank you" text messages.
The other day I got a text from someone and all it said was "tks" (and I'm not even gonna START with text messages that just say "okay" or worse "k")
UGH!!
It's not that I don't like to be thanked. I do. It's nice to know I'm appreciated and that other people are grateful for something I said, did, gave, information I sent, etc.
But please. Do me a favor...

Don't waste the cyber space.

prayer... and why we're not as important as we think we are

"Prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them."
-C.S. Lewis "The Screwtape Letters"

"The infinite value of each human soul is not a christian doctrine. God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him. The value of each human sould considered simply in itself out of relation to God is zero. As St Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would have been not divine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love."
-C.S. Lewis