Haiku Tuesday

After reading Momentary Academic's haiku today, I thought I'd try my hand at it.

Day Not Going Well
New Necklace Broken Pieces
Dammit all to Hell.

There you have it. My day went to crap by 10 a.m. I stayed up late last night and strung a new necklace with one of my fused pieces. Sitting at my desk this morning, the necklace pulled out of the clasp. Fortunately, the fused piece did not break and I can re-string it again. Argh!

My favorite half of the "braintrust" has been on a personal phone call for the last HOUR! I shall end here and spare you the rant.

Hopefully, my day will turn around soon.

T.G.I.F.

In honor of Friday and the weekend, I thought I'd show you one of my latest fused glass creations. I have been having quite a bit of fun creating things in the kiln lately. I've even sold a few pieces with the help of a display in the salon where I get my hair cut.

Next weekend I'm taking a knotted bracelet class at Arts Afire here in lovely Old Town Alexandria. I'm really excited about this class. It is taught by Stephanie Sersich who is a well-known bead artist and jewelry designer. Follow the link in her name to see some of her really cool jewelry.

This weekend we might pack up the kiddies and head to the U.S. Botanic Gardens and its annual Orchid show. My husband has become quite successful at growing orchids much to the curiosity of our neighbor who once asked if we were growing pot because of the lighting set-up he'd seen through our window. (I think he may have wanted some if that was the case.) To complete the day, we might also check out the Washington Auto Show.

Sunday, I'm headed to the Dulles Expo Center for the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival. The Sugarloaf shows are some of the best in the country! They have very talented artisans with a great variety of work to offer. If you are local, I highly recommend going. The Dulles show runs today, Saturday, and Sunday. You can print out discount admission coupons from the Web site.

Have good weekend everyone!

Curmurring*

OK, so I’m a little grumpy today. After abnormal mild temps, it is windy and cold. I have a borderline cold with a potentially nasty sore throat.

Half of the “braintrust” for some reason, decided yesterday that it would be acceptable in an “open” office format to use hairspray in her cube, which is unfortunately right next to mine. It happened twice. At first, I wasn’t sure what was going on over there and let it slide, but the second time I decided to get up and see what she was doing. I asked her what she was spraying and she told me hairspray. I gave her my most convincing “you are a fucking idiot” look and told her that it was going everywhere in the office. She replied “Oh, sorry. I guess I’ll use it in the bathroom then.”

Brilliant!!!!

*A low rumbling sound; hence, the motion of the bowels, produced by flatulence, attended by such a sound; borborygmus; Scotch. (This calendar is hilarious!.)

Yeah Baby! The Steelers are Going to the Super Bowl!!

Yes, I’m pretty excited that the Steelers are headed to the big game. I might have to try to score a babysitter and find a party to attend.

It was sixteen years ago that I left Pittsburgh to come to DC. I was in love and that is what brought me to the nation’s capital. The love didn’t work out, but I decided to stay in DC anyway. I will always love Pittsburgh, but I’m no longer certain that I would ever go back.

I have a love/hate relationship with DC. There are certain aspects of living here that are great. The history, monuments and museums are superb. I have had many great opportunities to do things here that many Americans might not ever have a chance to do. There’s nothing like freezing your butt off in the middle of January to witness a Presidential Inauguration. The nation’s capital throws a 4th of July bash like no other. I would have gone to the Reagan funeral procession, but stayed with the kids and let my husband go to see it. I have been to an official Election Night party, had a private tour of the White House, and had dinner at the Supreme Court.

DC is a very competitive city. Mostly I’ve found it is about whom you know and what they can do for you. I’m not by nature a competitive person. I tend to stand back and watch what goes on around me. For me it isn’t about the politics, but more so the opportunity to have experiences that I might otherwise not have. Every time I fly out of National Airport or drive across the Woodrow Wilson bridge it is a privilege to see the Washington Monument.

The politics and the competitiveness can be a drag. I spent 10 years in dating hell in this city—more of the who you know and what can that get me. I have met plenty of people, but have a small core group of friends, very few of which are involved in politics. There is a lot of superficiality here. Living here is often like living in a bubble. It seems people sometimes get so wrapped up in themselves here they forget what life is like beyond the beltway. The stress level is high in this city. Hard-working people that are fighting for what they believe. It can wear you out over time.

The reasons why I wanted out of western Pennsylvania, however, have turned around and seem to be the reasons why I would leave DC now.

Can You Still Be Friends With Someone 20 Years Later?—Part 2

I first asked this question back in November. My reasons for asking the question had to do with a particular situation with someone I knew long ago.

I received sage advice from Jaded and Pobble, which I sincerely appreciate and for me, hit the nail on the head.

In thinking about this long-lost friend I have pretty much determined that resurecting a friendship 20 years later is no easy task. In this particular instance I have come to the conclusion that the answer is no, we are not going to pick-up where we left off over 20 years ago and resume our friendship. This is through no fault of my own, which until recently I did not accept.

She and I have essentially an e-mail relationship. She sends me innane forwarded e-mails almost on a daily basis. Other than forwarding crap to me, I do not get personal e-mails from her unless I reply to something that she has sent me. I have made a sincere effort to regain her friendship and so far this is all that I have received in return. When I was back home for our class reunion, I made an effort to see her, which she ignored. At first I was annoyed and then after a while, I decided that I have been doing all the work to reconnect and getting not so much in return, so I’m done .

It boils down to the fact that our lives have gone in completely different directions and we no longer have anything in common except that when we were little girls we were best friends.

I’m at the point where after many years, I have, as far as I am concerned, made my amends with her and I can finally be at peace with the situation. We are both in different places in our lives and I no longer harbor regrets about the friendship. We may or may not remain in touch with each other, but whatever happens I feel confident that can accept it.

I’m still not sure what motivates me to dig up people from my past. She is not the first person from my past who I have found/contacted. I have also had people find me through similar circumstances.

There are two guys from college that contacted me through our alumni organization. I am in regular contact with one of them and we were able to easily reconnect. We haven’t seen each other face-to-face since he graduated school and left Pittsburgh.

The other guy who contacted me told me that he loved me the night of our college graduation to which I replied “I know.” Classic! He was engaged to someone else at the time. To this day, I’m still not sure why once every five years or so he contacts me.

There are many people that have come and gone in my life. Some friends, some past loves. Sometimes I wonder where they are and what they are doing. I think that this experience, with this particular friend, has taught me that I should just let the past go and cherish the memories.

It doesn’t do much good to dwell on past relationships. I no longer feel the need to wonder “what if”. anymore. I have many good friends and relationships here in the present. Some older and some in their infancy. I am happy with where I am in my life and I can let things go more easily these days. It has taken me a very long time to get here.

On a More Positive Note...

Thanks to you all for your kind words and support. I'm much better this week. Things are settling down here in the office as much as possible. I thought I'd list some good things.

1. XM Radio--Just got it and I love it. Makes the demise of Z104 easier.

2. Noise-cancelling Headphones--Allows me to block out the "braintrust" without going deaf.

3. Rain and Warmer than Normal Temperatures--While probably not a good thing in the long run, I'll take the rain over snow and ice any day of the week.

4. Pittsburgh Steelers Are Still in the Playoffs--Scroggins!* Even though it was by the skin of our teeth, the Colts went down!

5. Subway Fresh Resolutions--I won a free soda in Subway's scratch-off game.

*Today's calendar word is Scroggins: Interjection used to express astonishment.

OK, So Far 2006 is Just Not Going Well

So, aside from Penn State winning the Orange Bowl in triple overtime on January 3rd, 2006 just isn't going all that well.

I can't remember a time when so many bad things have happened seemingly all at the same time.

I posted about some of the things earlier this week, but ended up for certain reasons, removing the post.

Basically, bad things are happening all around me to people that I really care about. A friend has lost her job. A baby was born with potential brain damage. Someone I know was viciously attacked and almost killed. This morning I found out that a dear former co-worker has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. My elderly neighbor was just taken out of his house by ambulance.

I talked with a college friend today with whom I used to work. I called to tell her about our former co-worker with the Alzheimers only to learn that my friends 2006 has been going about as well as mine. Her neighbor's brother was killed. Her aunt died yesterday and today she found out that her dog has cancer.

We are only 12 days into 2006. What the hell is going on here?

Scurryfunge

Each year I get a Page-A-Day style desk calendar. Last year’s was an instructive calligraphy model complete with a felt-tip calligraphy pen. Yes, I’m quite practiced in calligraphy now my friends.

This year, Santa neglected to bring me a new calendar so I had to pick my own. The pop-up calendar store at the mall had a mostly uninspiring collection of Page-A-Days. One did catch my eye and I ended up purchasing the “Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten English calendar of Vanishing Vocabulary and Folklore.” I’m not an academic type like some of my dear readers so I don’t have a clue who Jeffrey Kacirk is, but I’m pretty sure this calendar is going to be interesting.

The first word of the year is “Scurryfunge”. Forget the meaning. I just like saying “scurryfunge”. Scurryfunge! Scurryfunge! The meaning of scurryfunge is cited from John Gould’s Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, and Wazzats, 1975:

Scurryfunge--A hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbor and the time she knocks on the door.

I can’t tell you how many times I have scurryfunged. I just never knew doing so had such a hilarious word to describe it.

Today’s word is “aftertale”, which according to Herbert Coolidge’s Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Language, 1863, means postscript.

Oh the Beauty of it All*

*WARNING: This post mentions vomit

The boys traveled surprisingly well for the two-day drive to Florida.

There was a minor projectile vomiting incident in Jacksonville, FL, but we asked for it when we let Pup #2 eat Denny’s pancakes and finish the large quantity of chocolate milk the waitress served him. It is quite amazing what you can accomplish with a roll of paper towels and a container of “Wet Ones”. We were able to get him and the car cleaned up and continue on to Miami without too much trouble.

The visit with my friend was great. All the kids got along great and played and became fast friends, just like their mommas did over 20 years ago. We went to the beach on New Year’s Eve and hung around their pool on New Year’s Day. I know…I suck. The weather was great and it was SO nice to just get away from the craziness of our life for a few days.

Now let’s get down to Orange Bowl business. As you may or may not already know, the game was absolutely incredible. I can’t even begin to describe to you what it was like to attend this game. Penn State was ranked 3rd and Florida State ranked 22nd going into the game. Deep down, I think we PSU fans were hoping for a blowout given the rankings and Florida State’s cake schedule. Penn State hasn’t taken any games this season for granted though and the Seminoles gave our Lions a run for the money.

Penn State fans literally infiltrated south Florida for the game. We were everywhere. We saw fans at the beach, in every restaurant we went to and walking around in general. It was like a Penn State home game.

Our seats at the game were excellent thanks to my friends. They were however smack in the middle of the Florida State section. This was OK, because there were plenty of other PSU around us in the same predicament.

From the sound of the FSU fans you would have thought they were leading the game, but aside from a brief moment, Penn State led most of the game. The Penn State crowd was great but reserved even though we were leading because we knew we didn’t have enough points ahead in the game to be getting all silly and obnoxious. Florida State kept up the stupid annoying tomahawk chop thing even though they were behind, but we persevered, we would not be swayed. The FSU fans finally shut up and even a few started to leave just as Penn State missed a field goal for the win at the end of the 4th quarter.

The missed kick left the game tied and into the first of three overtimes. From there on into the third overtime it was neck and neck, point for point. I have never been to a more stressful game in my life. The FSU people settled down and none of us could believe that both teams kept missing kicks. The last FSU field goal attempt actually bounced off the goal post. The last PSU kick was however, GOOD and the Nittany Lions were victorious!!! What a win!

The drive home was fun in that we were on the road with a ton of Penn State vehicles headed back north. Everyone was honking and giving “thumbs up” going up I-95.

All in all a great experience for which we definitely got our money’s worth! Here’s to the 2006 season when half of the top DC area high school football players join Penn State.