Ring-ring

This is a little anecdote from driving to work this morning. You will probably find it a little entertaining.

I have had my "new" car since November of last year. Like most luxury cars, my car has a built in cell phone, however seeing I already have one phone, I saw no need to activate another. I don't need to pay for two. Logical right? On my way to work, nice and early mind you, I am cruising along listening to music, and the phone in my car starts ringing. It stopped my music, and kept ringing, thrown off, I couldn't figure out why it was ringing. As far as I know, it is NOT activated. I pressed the radio on/off switch, which didn't do anything. Fully knowing that my computer in the car is NOT a touch screen, I touched it anyway, trying to get the annoying thing to stop. Finally I hit the talk button on the steering wheel to find that no one was there. Perplexed by the situation, but relieved the ringing stopped, I kept on my way to work. Again, the phone started ringing! This time a little more calm, I turned the dial and hit answer. It was some dude from Nextel looking for someone else... I politely told him he had the wrong number then he asked if I was some hospital. Does it sound like I am at some hospital?? How strange. Needless to say, I was very confused. I don't think I even have buttons to dial a number, although after thinking about it, I just may. I will be checking this out after work. I should have asked him what number he called. HAHA. Anyhow, just thought that might give you a laugh, I was definitely laughing at myself! =o)

Birthdays

Birthdays are a weird thing - it is the one day that is "ours", although we probably share it with more than a thousand other people. It is rare to have more than one friend that shares that special day, that is if you have even one friend that shares it. We build this one day a year up in our minds every year. Planning for that big blow out! Hoping that even if we don't say anything, everyone around us remembers. It is like that big test of who cares and who doesn't. The day we get random calls from people who we thought would never recall it, and those close to us forget to remember.

Getting caught up in my own world and the weekend, I failed to check the date today. It is April 3rd - my good friend Jessica's 23rd birthday. She is a couple hundred miles away in sunny Arizona and I couldn't be there to celebrate with her, although I did one more wrong, I didn't realize what day it was until 10 pm tonight. I am typically good about these things, I keep a book with all my friend's known birthdays. I think birthdays are great! They give us a reason to celebrate and they give people their own special day. A day when they can feel like King/Queen. However it seems more often than not, this 'special' day is one that we would like to forget every year. Hoping that the next will be that much better than the last.

I know this far too well, for many consecutive years, I had this habit of crying or getting disappointed on my birthday. I have been to Vegas the last 2 years and this coming year will be the 3rd. Each year is better than the last, and yet, every year I hope the next will be perfection. It is funny how you can have some of your closest friends in Vegas for the one reason being your birthday and still have people forget to wish you Happy Birthday, on that very day. So I am apologizing to Jess. We are human and make mistakes, but here is the birthday song...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you! Happy birthday to you!! HAppy Birthday dear Jessica! Happy Birthday to you!!! LOVE YOU CHICA!

Le petit déjeuner

Le petit déjeuner translated means breakfast. They say it is the most important meal of the day, coming from the thought that you are breaking the fast with this meal. It is typically eaten in the morning, however I guess logically if you got up at noon, your first meal would still be breakfast. This is the meal that is supposed to "provide important norishment and energy for the day" according to most nutritionalists. It is also thought that food eaten early in the day is less likely to contribute to fat gain than food eaten in the evening. Perhaps we should be eating dessert after breakfast instead after dinner.

Marketing breakfast is another story, in a $23 billion industry, every company is looking for the next "hot" breakfast food. With $9 billion of that in breakfast cereals alone, maybe companies are even more importantly looking for the next hot character. These characters define breakfast cereals as we know them. Think about it, what you think of when you hear Snap, Crackle, Pop - Rice Krispies, what about "they're great!" - none other than Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes. How about "silly rabbit trix are for kids" - The Trix rabbit. Granted I am also pointing out slogans that go with these boxes of cereal, but these slogans have been so carefully associated with their cereal box characters. I know most of us don't eat much cereal anymore, heck I started off my day at 6:40 am with a chocolate chip cookie. And it was GREAT! Of course that also would not be considered a balanced meal, but just in case you were worried, I did have so real food once I got to work.

In the dorms in college, I lived on cereal. The dorm food was nasty and you couldn't really mess up cereal so it worked out well. I have never been a breakfast person. I was always the type of person that would be up for hours until I finally decided to eat. As the years have gone on, I have become more accustomed to eating breakfast (at least during the week). In college, we did breakfast every weekend sometimes both Saturday and Sunday. Of course our idea of breakfast was still hungover at 1 pm, but it was fun nonetheless. This is what got me thinking about breakfast. My senior year (after I detached from my significant other) my girls and I were going out every night starting Thursday through Saturday. If you have ever gone out with a group of 5-7 crazy girls, you will find that you don't always stay together. Typically most of us ended up back at my house for table dancing and whatever else we could come up with, but breakfast, that was the key. Not only was that the best way to start a hangover cure, but it was always the best way to figure out what exactly happened the night before. I don't go out to breakfast anymore on the weekends. I tend to end up cooking myself pancakes, which is what I always have if I go out anyhow, but I do miss the company at breakfast. It is a good time to relax, talk, and catch up on anything you have missed. Even in my past 3 visits to Colorado, I haven't made it to my favorite breakfast place, Le Peep.

I definitely need to start going out to breakfast more. And it isn't because I don't enjoy cooking. But in order to make breakfast successful, I need great company. Anyone want to go to breakfast?

The Concept of the Toilet Seat

Through the years, we have taught men how to lift up and replace the toilet seat at home. It is only polite. But somehow, we seemed to have missed the concept all together. The point to this is so that the toilet seat is clean for the next person that uses it. I live in the glorious state of California where it is required for all public restrooms to have toilet seat covers. I don't really care if you use them or not, that is your prerogative. But please don't ruin it for the rest of us. SIT DOWN! Don't hover, squat or whatever it is you do, it causes a mess. Use the toilet seat cover or put toilet paper down. It is DISGUSTING to walk into a stall that is dirtied from the last person that was in there. Do you do that at home? If you're going to hover, lift up the toilet seat like the guys do, so the rest of us don't have to deal with it. We have taught men how to use the toilet seat, let's now teach women how to use the toilet seat cover. It isn't as complicated as it looks.

Sleep?

Like clockwork, 5:30 am the alarm goes off signaling another work day is about to begin. And like every other day, I hit snooze for about 15 minutes praying that it be Saturday, Sunday, or whatever other day I have off. The Sleep Foundation says that the average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep. I didn't get that last night and on most nights I get closer to the minimum than the max. On a good day, I will be in bed asleep by 10 pm. When I first started working these slightly awkward hours, I had a lot of good days, as time has passed, the good days are few and far between. I am lucky to be in bed by 11 pm, and more often than not, I am still awake at 12 am. This means if I sleep soundly through the night, I may get 5-7 hours of sleep.

Then there are the weekends. Every weekend I manage to mess my sleeping schedule up more than I did during the week. It is also recommended that you get up and go to bed at the same time, come Friday, I am going to sleep at the time I normally get up. How's that for regularity? Then I continue to sleep until one of my friends calls me enough times to convince me to get up.

We always say 24 hours in a day is not enough time, but if you think about it, what would we do with 36 hours? We wouldn't rest more, we wouldn't sleep more, we wouldn't have more time to enjoy ourselves, most likely we would work more, sleep less, and continue being tired. Of course you wonder how someone with a fulltime job has enough time for 8 hours of sleep, the recommended daily amount. We spend no less than 8 hours at work, an hour or two in commute time, a couple hours at the gym, an hour for eating (preparation and eating time), get ready time is about another hour if not longer. So overall you are left with 2 - 3 hours of "you" time if you get a solid 8 hours of sleep. That is enough time for one phone call and a movie.

There are many reasons that we don't sleep well through the night and I wish I could pinpoint one because it would make my life a lot easier. Every time I wake up, I have to look at the clock. If I don't, I worry about what time it is and if I am actually supposed to be getting up soon. I did that this morning, 5 minutes before the scheduled time of my alarm, I woke up, only to find that going back to sleep would be worthless. A tip on better sleep suggests that you should never look at the clock in the middle of the night because it causes anxiety. Of course, being that I work very early hours, it is always dark out when I get up, so there is no way of telling how close or far from waking up I am. I feel the utter need to know what time it is, but I guess everything is worth a try.

Maybe if I got on some sort of sleep schedule I would be more attentive during the day. Of course, being young and the word sleep schedule don't exactly go hand in hand. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight!

Friends

Friends - we all have them, we all need them. They are the people that listen to the drama in our lives. They are the people that put smiles on our faces. They are the people that give us a reason to go out on Friday night. They are the people that make tomorrow better and yesterday a good memory. But how well do you know your friends? To say I have known someone for 5 years has a new meaning to me. Granted there is something different about a friend versus a significant other, but why is it we feel those significant others may know more about us than our friends ever will. Is it because they cared more to pay attention? Is it because they spent more time with us? Don't get me wrong, I have spent 10 days straight with a person, yet by the end of that time, you are annoyed with a friend and you feel comforted to have spent that time with your significant other. Does that make any sense? Because in all logic, a significant other is just a friend.

If you asked me how many of my friends keep journals, I could make a random guess, but I wouldn't have a clue how to answer that. I write. Mainly when I have things on my mind, but I also write nonsense. I write about the rain, the sun, passion, love, smiles, sadness, I write about anything I can think of. But I bet most of my friends don't know that. To say you know someone well is a funny thing. In these days where people can lead double lives very easily. Just because a phone rings, doesn't mean you have to answer it. And some people don't. The Internet is another story. Ever try to search for yourself on Google and see what comes up. Maybe nothing will, but there again, maybe there is something there. Funny thing is, you would never know unless you tried. We post information about ourselves on the Internet. Sometimes with our real names connected and other times with an alias so that no one really knows who we are. Is this in a way a double life? How do you really get to know a person? At what point do they become more a friend than an acquaintance?

I have a known a guy for almost 2 years now and about a week and a half ago I was told that we shouldn't talk at all anymore. I would have counted him as a friend, however his comment was acquaintances or whatever we are. Where is that line drawn? Granted we all do the how-do-you-dos? What is your name, where are you from, where did you grow up, what do you like to do, what type of music do you listen to, but isn't that all basic information. You could read that off a post and make a judgment if you so desired. Again I come back to what constitutes KNOWING someone? Do you only truly get to know someone by the experiences you have with them? Or is what they tell you enough? Then comes the question if you don't know them at all, they could logically tell you anything and you would just have to take it for the truth. Is that part of the get to know you game? You have to take everything someone says as real until you can make your own judgments.

It is funny when you talk to people you haven't talked to for a while. These "friends" only get to know the big things that happen in your life. Those people that you talk to every day get to hear the nonsense that goes on in your life. Is one better off than the other? I am 22 years old and I have lived for over 8000 days. Kind of funny when you put it into perspective like that. Most of the time when someone asks me what's going on, I say nothing. Perhaps I should just start giving them random facts about my life. Granted it isn't everyday that something "exciting" happens, but typically we learn something new every day and we share moments with people. Is that enough to be news worthy? Or is this the boring grind that people don't really want to hear about?

To my big question, how do you really get to know someone? What is it about a person that makes them more desirable to spend time with than another? What makes your best friends, best friends? Is it because you have known them the longest, share the most in common, or is it more than that? Do you share the same beliefs? Do you enjoy the same things? Do you have the same goals? Think about it.

Postivie Side of Life

Living on Earth may be expensive,
but it does include a free trip
around the sun every year.


How long a minute is
depends on what side of the
bathroom door you're on.

Birthdays are good for you;
the more you have,
the longer you live.

Happiness comes through doors you
didn't even know you left open.

Ever notice that the people who are late
are often much jollier
than the people who have to wait for them?

Most of us go to our grave
with our music still inside of us.

If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day,
how come nothing is free yet?

You may be only one person in the world,
but you may also be the world to one person.

Some mistakes are too much fun
to only make once.

Don't cry because it's over;
smile because it happened.

We could learn a lot from crayons:
some are sharp, some are pretty,
some are dull, some have weird names,
and all are different colors....but
they all exist very nicely in the same box.

A truly happy person is one who
can enjoy the scenery on a detour.