It appears that I have gone missing

Hey there,

Listen I'm just going through a prolonged period of illness right now. Things seemed to be getting better and then they got worse. So what does this have to do with you? Well mostly I just wanted to let you know what was up since I disappeared rather suddenly. It's hard to get to a computer when you're not feeling well, even though I have two of them. So I really do apologize if anyone actually kept checking to see if I'd written something new.

So thank you for supporting my blogging addiction. I promise I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

Lots of Love,

Janalee

Wine-ing, Dining and nearly getting electrocuted

I've been driving for nearly 10 years, more than that if you count illegally hitting up the back roads back home, so you'd think that I would know well enough not to leave my lights on. Well then you would think wrong.

I went out for dinner with an old friend that I hadn't seen in more than 2 years. We went to the Olive Garden which is my all time favorite restaurant. I don't much like driving in the city to begin with and we went to the one that's on the opposite side of the city so I had to meet her there. I was a little nervous but it turned out that it wasn't a problem.

We had a nice dinner and tasted some wine. I couldn't finish my meal though since I filled up on soup, breadsticks and appetizers, so I've got left overs for tomorrow.

Then after our meal we walked outside to the over-flow parking where incidentally we had both parked when I realized I had left my lights on. So I sort of panicked. Well on the inside anyway outwardly I was pretty calm. But I have no clue about cars so I didn't know what to do. So I asked my friend and she thought we could probably boost it.

In my nearly 10 years of driving I've had my car boosted probably half a dozen times but I've never done it myself. I have a general idea of what to do but I'm certainly not confident enough to do it myself. Did I mention it was dark because that's probably an important part of the story. So anyway we connected the cables red first to her car and then mine. Then we tried the black cables in the same order. And let's just say the sparks flew. Luckily no one was hurt.

Anyway we were just about to give up when I decided to try my car one more time and by some fluke of nature it started and I was on my way.

This would only happen to me

So now that I've started a travel blog I wasn't sure if this would fall under my regular everyday blog or that one. But since this is strictly a shopping trip and not a sightseeing adventure it's going here.

Anyway my brother and I had a fairly uneventful trip to Fargo. The first thing we did after we checked into the hotel was check out the pool facilities. This included a fairly decent sized pool, a rather luke-warm hot tub and a sauna.

After my initial disappoint at the hot tub we tried out the sauna. And I managed to blister my back by laying down on the hot bench. Yup, this could only happen to me.

Bracket Update

For those of you have been living under a rock for the last week it's NCAA tourney time. Which means I have put together some bracket-y goodness. This year I decided not to do a hotness bracket. And the later decided to do one. I also did a serious bracket, for bragging rights at work. So here's your Janalee bracket update as of this moment with 2 games left to come tonight:

Hotness bracket - The only reason I still have teams in the hotness bracket is because only half of the Sweet 16 games are played tonight. Teams left: Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Kansas and Louisville.

Actual Bracket - This one looks a little better. Mostly because I didn't have any crazy upsets picked in the first couple of rounds. Teams left: Louisville, Kansas, Michigan State, U Conn, Missouri, Memphis, UNC, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Pitt, Villanova, Duke.

I'm currently 3rd and 6th on 8 in our office pool.

New Purse Store May Cause Brokeness

So there is a new store near my work. There are actually a lot of random indie clothing stores and stuff near where I work. Which is kind of cool. But they've opened a purse store about half a block away. Now normally I'm not exactly a girly girl kind of girl but every once in a while I like to pamper myself a bit. So today I bought myself a new purse. Frankly there are about 5 others there that I also liked.

So yeah I can see this ending badly. Although KEG has said that now we can't go back until at least April. It's 2 weeks into March so that's not so bad. Let's just hope I can stick to it.

Well that sucked

So for the last couple of weeks I've been spending my Friday nights watching Miss America: Countdown to the Crown on TLC. The actual Miss America pageant was last night and I watched it while flipping back to the NHL All-Star Skills competition. 

I found that after watching these girls for 4 weeks I started to pick out some favorites. The same thing happened last year when they did a reality show for last year's pageant. Last year I really wanted Miss Indiana to win, this year I wanted anyone but Miss Indiana to win. And who do you think won? Oh right Indiana. But then I knew after the talent portion that she was going to win. I just found her a little annoying and kind of odd looking. I mean I guess she was pretty but in a non-traditional way. Also every time her name was called she looked like she was going to fall over. I mean okay you can be surprised but really this was a little over the top. 

My real life as described in movies

So you know that scene in Love, Actually where Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister and he's just met his staff for the first time and he closes the door behind him and says "that's unfortunate"? Well I think I had that moment today. 

I was in a meeting today with my boss's boss's boss along with a group of my co-workers to discuss new corporate strategy so as you can imagine it was a little dry. So I started looking out the glass windows of the meeting room that look out onto the rest of the floor when I see this headless body walk by. Okay not entirely headless but there's this frosted decal about 3/4 of the way up so it seemed like he was headless. Anyways headless body was clearly male and looked pretty good. Until I got out of the meeting and realized who it was. 

Without going into too much detail let's just say it was a bad sign, especially given all of the weird dreams I've been having. Can some body please help me? Maybe something like Chinese water torture or needles in the eye? Partial lobotomy? Full lobotomy? I'll take anything at this point. 

Why October 14 will determine my life path

First a little public service announcement. As most of you are now aware there is a Federal election going on. If you haven't gone to vote in the advanced polls make sure you get out on Tuesday. Same goes for Americans though you still have some time to decide.

Okay on with the show. Has anyone noticed this "global economic crisis" that's going on? Can you name me one place that it has yet to really hit hard? If you guessed Canada well that *ding,ding,ding,ding*.

This is likely to change if the Liberals are able to implement their Green Shift plan. In a time where there are very few world economies that are still managing to hold their own Canada has. There is one sector in particular which is showing growth, the oil industry. Taxing oil companies (which are the big target of the Green Shift) is one sure fire way to limit future growth, tax them too much and they might leave all together.

If we were in a booming economy and not heading toward an imminent recession I would say vote however the hell you want, seriously vote communist if you want. But if you vote Liberal to stop a Conservative majority (which quite obviously not going to happen at this point anyway) you're being dumb. If the Liberals win this election it will prove to me that the Canadian public is full of dumb people. Now I believe in democracy so if more Liberals are elected to government than Conservative that's the will of the people. But I don't want to live in a country full of stupid people.

A couple of notes before I end here:
1) I was probably always going to leave Canada, I just never really thought it would be this soon
2) If someone is willing to take my bet I'm willing to bet $10 that the Green Shift will not be implemented in it's entirety (or likely at all) before the next election.

Cake for supper one day? Brilliant. 2 Days is a row? STUPID!

I think that title is self explanatory. It doesn't really help that I had left the two largest pieces of cake for today and ate the smaller one yesterday. It also doesn't help that I didn't feel so hot at the end of the day at work today either. Maybe I just need to sleep it off.

I should mention that this cake is pretty awesome. It's chocolate with chocolate icing and a layer of custard. But seriously if I even see another piece in the next week I'm going to hurl.

I take it back

Yesterday I was talking about the Men's gymnastics competition and a certain German Gymnast who I discovered will not be 21 until October, which makes him just a little too young for me. This fact didn't stop me from staying up until almost 1 am to watch the men's all-around final though.

In case you weren't crazy enough to stay up to watch it Yang Wei of China won the gold medal. He was 2.6 points ahead of the silver medalist. The Canadians finished 15th and 17th which is pretty awesome given that it's the first time since 1992 that a Canadian has even been in the Men's all-around final. Hambuechen fell off the high bar which is apparently his best event even though both times that I've seen him on it at these Olympics he has fallen off the bar. But again he's cute so I'll look past it, though it does make me wonder about my power of jinx .

Oh yeah and since I'm on the subject of Olympics still no medals for Canada.

You'd think I could at least walk by now

At some point in the life of every twenty-something the phrase "and I fell down outside of the bar" has occasion to be used. I never thought my moment would be within 5 minutes of leaving work. Almost right across the street from where I work there is a bar. The thing is instead of stepping up onto the curb I kind of kicked it with my right foot and just fell down all over the sidewalk. I'm generally unscathed by this event just a tiny bit of sidewalk stuck to my elbow and knee and even my white pants didn't get dirty.

Living by myself can't be good for me.

As most of you know I have been roommate-less since March. Not only has this not been good for my pocketbook but it's starting to effect other part of my life. I've always been of the opinion that talking to yourself is necessarily a bad thing. Occasionally when I face a difficult problem I just need to talk it out. I used to just mumble under my breath and not really think much of it. No one heard and no one cared.

Lately I've been talking stuff out in my apartment at normal talking volume. This isn't so bad as still no one can hear me. But yesterday I caught myself doing it on the street while I was walking home. Additionally I've started saying things out loud that are best left in the deep recesses of my mind and not put out there for the general public.

The worst is when I do it at work. It's not good.

I'm going to be so useless today

First and foremost let me apologize for being a terrible blogger as of late. I promised one of my favorite co-workers who is off sick for the next little while (actually starting about a week and a half ago) that I would update my blog more frequently in her absence and not less. Oops.

But here's my problem. I don't know how many of you have seen me in the beginning stages of a crush. I'm not going to go into details because it's pretty ugly but I basically wrap myself into this little fantasy world where everything is connected to the current crush. I get so entirely distracted that I have difficulty concentrating and am constantly distracted.

Take this morning for example. I went into Starbucks like I normally do but I didn't realize until I was halfway between Starbucks and work that they had only made a regular instead of my usual double. First of all I usually watch the Baristas fairly closely to make sure that they don't screw it up. Secondly I can't believe it took me so long to realize that something was wrong.

Anyway so that's the excuse that I'm running with for not posting more. I'll try to pass some of my focus on to something else and perhaps get another post in sometime today.

Do I love my new computer? Why, yes I do thanks for asking.

I’ve started this particular entry about 3 times now. Once on my computer at work, once on my desktop computer and now finally on my notebook. Which brings me to what was generally the start of this entry. As most of you know by now I just purchased a new notebook computer. I’ve wanted a laptop since the day I graduated from University. I am aware that normal people purchase laptops when they start University to facilitate in class note taking. However I had a computer when I started University and then after going the three used computers I finally bought a desktop, or rather mommy bought me a desktop. The reason that I went with the desktop was because at the time I didn’t see the need for a laptop.

Once I graduated and started working in an office I realized that the last thing I want to do when I come home is to sit at a desk and use a computer. I also realized that I DO spend a good portion of my time at the computer, either chatting online, doing coursework, playing games and yes occasionally, blogging. As a result I decided to buy myself a new computer that I could use while I do all sorts of ridiculous stuff like watching sports. It will also come in handy when it comes to going out to the farm for the weekend as I will be able to bring whatever I happen to be working on with me. God I love this thing.

On my irrational hatred of people

I've always had a dream of living alone in a small cabin out in the middle of a field somewhere. I have had this dream since I was a little girl and despite my loneliness after my roommate/brother moved out of my apartment I still believe that this is a good idea.

Perhaps it is my eternal pessimism that creates my irrational hatred of people. The belief that people are unable to change or adapt. Sure science and evolution will tell me the opposite and in fact my anthropologist friend will likely tell me that evidence of such exists but this is one of those times that empirical fact simply won't sway me.

I suspect that one of my issues is close proximity to people at all times with the exception of being at home. At work we work in tiny cubicles, have conversations during accidental meetings in the washroom and eat lunch with co-workers to avoid being labelled as anti-social (okay perhaps that last one is just me). Going to and from work I usually take the bus which of course is crowded with people. Occasionally I choose to walk home which you would think would be generally a pretty solitary event. However you are faced with other people who you met or pass and still have to be somewhat social.

I suppose living along has become much easier in our age of technology. In fact there are people that I consider "friends" on the other side of the world, even though I've never technically met them. One can still interact with other people without ever leaving the comfort of their own home or having someone else invade your private space.

Yes there are alot of problems with my single-living anti-social plan. For example, where would I get my food? I'm not about to turn vegan and yet I couldn't bring myself to actually slaughter and animal. So I would obviously have to buy groceries which would of course lead to human interaction. But if I could reduce actual face to face interaction to one day a week, I think that would be alright.

I think I need a t-shirt

Today is my one year anniversary at my job. I expect it to come and go without much fanfare. The truth of the matter is that this is a major accomplishment for me. Back in September I didn't think I'd be able to make it until Christmas. Of course this was before the department switch and all that. Now with my term ending it looks like I'll be back to my old job. Either that or I venture off to some other company. Or potentially to grad school. Or some other sort of education.

Yeah there are a lot of options but I'm just not a decision maker. The best recent example of this was last week when I was in Safeway. I walked past the bacon, turned around look at the bacon, picked up the package of bacon and then discovered that turkey bacon was on sale. In the end I bought both.

The other thing that stopping me from packing up is that I want to go traveling next summer which will require large sums of money which will likely prevent me from going back to school but a different job is not out of the question if the current one becomes unbearable.

Series Hotties: Montreal - Philadelphia

As with most of these I have to first post a disclaimer. I share a special bond with Braydon Coburn of the Flyers. You see he is exactly 6 months younger than me (no to the hour or anything). In order to properly celebrate my un-birthday in rez I went out and got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and had them do lettering that said "Happy un/birthday Janalee and Braydon. I think I took pictures but I'm pretty sure I didn't have them developed. Anyway I just wanted to get that out before I start.

Oh wait I have slightly more disclosure to add. I once voted for a guy for president of university's student union because he looked like Scottie Upshall. Everytime I think about that I'm reminded of an episode of Clone High where JFK is running for student body president against Abe, and during one of his speeches he say "ask not what your student body president can do for you, but what you can do to you student body president's body".

3) Braydon Coburn - Philly


2) Mike Richards - Philly



1) Scottie Upshall - Philly

Sometimes I wonder if I've got brain damage

As I'm working on my playoff hotties series I'm finding that I have to go through every teams roster to figure out who's hot and who's not. There was a time when I would have been able to go team by team and name these players from memory. What happened? But that is not the point of this particular post.

The point here is actually that as I go through them I certainly recognize names. It's hard not to when you've been doing this for eight years. As I recognize names I recall things like "oh he's hot" or "no definatly not hot" before I actually pull up the pictures. Then when the page acutally loads I find myself thinking that most of the guys that I remember as being hot actually aren't.

Is it just that they're getting old and I'm getting older and my tastes have changed? Probably not. When I reflect on all of the people that I've ever had crushes on I almost always think "what was I thinking?" Maybe it's just me trying to make myself feel better when things don't work out with a particular crush but the way I go through them I don't think I've really got time to have become attached in the first place.

I knew I shouldn't have given this URL to people

People always bug me about how no one reads my blog. So of course in an effort to increase readership (to more than one) I give the URL to people that I know who might want to hear what I have to say. Everytime I do it, I start to feel like I have to censor what I plan to say so as not to offend anyone or to do harm to whatever sort of career it is that I have.

The fact of the matter is that the thing that I've spent more time thinking about lately than anything else is something that I would have no problem telling an absolute stranger but something that I can't tell people that I consider friends.

Just so no one feels upset or left out here let me just say it has to deal with new office crush. And by new I mean new, new. It's not that I've necessarily given up on old office crush it's just that I have exactly no attention span so when something new comes up I get really excited about it and leave the old stuff. This easily explains things like the seasonal athlete boyfriends. Out of sight out of mind. Actually I think I tend to overanalyze stuff until it gets to the point where I almost have to leave it alone otherwise it gets far too awkward. Focus is a good thing. Becoming obsessed on a singular focus probably not so much of a good thing.

Anyway I just wanted to get that off my chest and hopefully it explains some of why I haven't posted anything lately. I'm not trying to say don't read my blog. I'm just trying to shed some light on why I probably shouldn't have a blog in the first place.

Christmas in March

Yesterday my brother and I went to RiverCity sports where I purchased some Indianapolis Colts christmas ornaments. Some of you will remember that I attempted to purchase something of this sort online, only to find out my package had been returned to sender.

Anyway, I was so excited about my purchase that I didn't want them to just sit in my closet for nearly a year waiting to be used. When I came upon the brilliant idea that all I have to do it put up my fake tree again. It'll be like Christmas all over again, without the presents. My brother's reaction when I told him this was "that is something you would do". I'm not going to though because my laziness is outweighing my excitement over the oroments.