Hey Ya!

Everyone seems to be making 2006 Wrap Up posts and "Best of..." lists, but I'm just not feeling it yet. Maybe it's the nerd in me, but I tend to consider later August/early September to be the 'new year'. And I can never remember what albums came out in a particular year or what movies I saw so lists are quite difficult. How was 2006 for me? I dunno, I aged a year and had a spring, summer, and winter...big whoop! Nothing out of the ordinary to report. Just the same ol' stuff-not that it's bad, it's just the same, right? No babies, engagements, new cars, or new addresses for me. When I think back to what 2006 meant to me, all I can come up with is, "Oh yeah, I turned 26." I'm not complaining...no news is good news, eh?

A Classic Arts Showcase

What I need to do is stop looking up composers on Wikipedia.


And despite homosexuality and the fact that he is so not alive, I have such a music-crush on this man. And seriously, don't get all gross on me...I said MUSIC-crush.


I want to go to Russia like whoa.

And the Czech Republic, but I will not speak Russian there. My friend told me that is a bad idea. Not that I know Russian (or do I...).


XO,
SVR(spy)

Sleepyhead

I began this week with a miserable (yet awesome in another way) schedule of only two shifts for the week. I was to work Sunday and then not again until Saturday. Well, somehow I am now working five out of the seven days with Monday (Christmas, of course) and today being my days off. I'm wondering if I'm so sleepy because I was in the mindset of having all week off...See, last night, on my drive home from dinner with Ali and Allie, I was seriously struggling to stay awake. I even fell asleep while watching Cars once I got home at about 9:30ish. That is VERY weird for me because I usually get my second wind around 9pm. I did end up waking up about an hour later and watched 90210 for awhile (Dylan-be still my heart!), but this morning I could not get up. This is partly to be blamed on my cell phone that died and therefore never woke me up for the set time, but who am I kidding, I woke up and put the TV on so I knew what time it was. I don't know why I was so sleepy this morning, it's like I'm a highschooler again.


Not much going on other than my weird sleep habits. Steven and Serena are still away and Ali is working a lot this week. I'll make a Christmas update post soon, I promise.


XO,
SVR

Airplane

I'm not a big Godfather of Soul fan so when I did my routine check of cnn.com, I gasped more when I saw this link:

"British PM Tony Blair in plane scare"



I'd like to thank the baby Jesus* it was just a scare and not a crash. Besides, I still have to take a moment and think "Is it James BROWN or James TAYLOR?" It can get a tad embarassing to head towards the wrong section when working in the music department. Ooops!


XO,
SVR



*Thank you, Will Ferrell.

Xmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

Merry Christmas!!!!


I'm online downloading iTunes 7 for my new iPod. I only have dial up so I'll be here for awhile, unfortunately. Headed out at about 2pm for Ashburn. Not much else to report...will be back later.



XO,
Scarletbear


P.S. I gave Ali Nintendogz and it is The cutest thing ever.

None But Shining Hours

First of all, I haven't done anything with the most recent Photo Contest because well, I just haven't had time. And when working with dial up and photos, time is needed. I'll get to it ASAP, I promise.


Second of all, I apologize for my lack of commenting out there. I'm still on the old blogger and it's making it a biatch to comment on places with the new blogger. Add that to DIAL UP and you can see why I give up when waiting for comment boxes to load.

Third of all (because two seems too short), bitches and hoes at work were pissing me off today. Mofos better not try to tell me what to do tomorrow...



XO,
SVR

A List Actress

Since this is my blog and I can blatantly brag as much as I want to, I thought I would go ahead and present the following:

That's right...I'm awesome. And smrt. Go ahead and tell me so in the comments.


XO,
SVR

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALI. THE BEST SISTER A GIRL COULD HAVE!


Top 7.5 Reasons Why Ali Is The Coolest:

7.5. She loves din...
7. She isn't afraid to say what she's thinking...ever.
6. She's as good a "big sister" and she is a "little sister".
5. She has great taste in clothes.
4. She's the absolute best road trip buddy ever.
3. She gets all of my obscure references in conversation.
2. She's smarter than you.
1. She's hott!!

But really, Ali is the best sister ever and I'm so glad she's mine. Happiest of birthdays to her and welcome to your 20s;)



XO,
SVR

Sexyback

Happy Birthday, Brad Pitt, Ant, Katie Holmes, and Christina Aguilera!


And also...happy day to me:

Gone

I'm about to head out to my 5th day at Barnes and Noble and while five days in a row at any other job is normal, five at The Barn just kinda sucks. Luckily (!?*), it's been hella busy so the time goes by a bit more quickly, but that doesn't help when my feet and legs hurt** and my tired self can't control the snarkiness and inappropriate facial expressions***.

However, I am facing the day with excitement brought my two new items. Christmas gifts were exchanged last night and while I was stupid and forgot part of mine, I got some pretty cool stuff from my boos****. Today I'm wearing a Scottish charm bracelet from Allie that not only jingles, but has tons of shiny things for people to make comments on and from Serena-a book that says "cunt" on the front. OMG, so excited. The parts of the gift that I wish I could take to work with me are the ones containing alcohol percentages. *sigh*


Oh! I'm late. Have a good Monday and email me so I'm not totally bored and cut off from the world while there:)



XO,
SVR



*interrobang
**old
***Seriously-my nemisis. I tend to make disgusting looks when people start talking about "Plan" and how much we've sold. I'm sorry, but when we've sold more in one day than I make in an entire year, it's difficult to be excited. And these people who get excited over selling a lot of memberships? It kind of scares me. I've been taking Barnes and Noble down from the inside for years now.
****The Clopen messed me up. I should have the part I forgot ready after Tuesday.

How Do You Slow This Thing Down?

WEIRD dream last night and it's one I could have sworn I've had before. When I was little I was freaked out by the claim that if a person had a dream more than once, it would come true. You can imagine my mindset after dreaming twice about a tornado that caused my family to have to evacuate and I had to pack everything I needed in a small white suitcase*. Last night, though, I'm pretty sure I dreamt for the second time about having to board a yellow school bus that then began its journey underwater. On my second journey into the murky, shrimp-filled water** I remembered to shut my window all the way and even questioned about our navigational abilities. I was told we had nothing special on the cheese-wagon and they were pretty much just winging it to get us to our destination safely. I woke up before the dream was over, I guess, but I know I was looking forward to reaching some magical place under water. Weird...maybe Spongebob was going to be there. I'm not even going to try to look this up in the ol' dream dictionary.


XO,
SVR



*Which was more terrifying? Having to escape a tornado or having to pack lightly?
**Gross, I know! I pointed this out to the other passengers.

Quicksand

Even though I'm bordering on exhaustion*, I was a little disappointed at my lack of plans for the evening. I hesitate to say that since it's partly my own damn fault and I also don't want to make the sick or the relaxing feel badly about it**. I guess I feel like I'm wasting one of the rare weekend nights when I don't have to open the next morning at BN. I always have to leave the parties or nights out to make my long drive home in order to be coherent for the next day. It sucks being an old woman=/ A boring, lame, poor-as-fuck old woman.


OK, Now...something funny. Come on, I can do it. Did anything funny happen today? Today I spent 8 hours saying and doing the same thing over and no it had nothing to do with Sting and tantric anything. Ew! There was one funny moment when a little girl who was maybe 5 years old pointed to a CD and said to her mom, "There's your boyfriend, mommy!" The mom looked at the CD and said, "Um, no, honey. That's Rod Stewart." Things to wonder here:

+Does mom indeed have a boyfriend and does the dad know?
+Does mom's boyfriend look like Rod Stewart? Yabbo.


That's all I've got. I'll try to do better tomorrow.


XO,
SVR


*It's my blog and I'll exaggerate if I want to!
**Not that they would or should. I'm just covering my bases here. You know how sometimes things written online can be read way wrong? Yeah, exactly.

Californication

I hope I'm not alone in this, but I think the OC(k) effing rules tonight. I was worried about the weird "What If..." episode, but I think they're doing a nice job with it. And where continuity is concerned, they get an A+.

+Jimmy Cooper (love)
+Tijuana
+Summer's a biatch...and kinda dumb.


Also:

+Slutty McSlutermom (mon?)
+"In Alt World I'm a boy!"
+"How very Agent Bauer of you."
+No Pancakes:(
+"The Homeless Of Newport...Go. Or Something"
+"I'm starting to get suspicious."
+"Whatever It is."


Happy Chrismukkah!

***Update After Scenes From Next Week***

AHHHHHH!!!!!!

In Concert

My little middle school band boos did so well on their concert tonight! I guess I'm not able to write too much about it all since I don't want to write about work stuff like that. I will say two things, though:


1. The entire auditorium applauded for me. OMG. And I didn't know what to do because I hate it when people stand when they're not supposed to. So I just sat straighter and smiled in an appreciative way.



2. Some kids suck at life. I won't name names, though, but I can't stand the ones who do something mischievous and then look around for their peers' reactions. LAME! I was thisclose to taking a kid's sticks away until I reminded myself that I'm not their teacher anymore.


XO,
SVR

Time Is Running Out

Who's bright idea was it to turn my final exam in just under the wire? To hit send just minutes before the due date. Was that my idea? Well, yes and no. I had every intention of completing the cunting thing last week when I had a few days off, but really, when you have an entire day ahead of you do you often think, "Ooooh, maybe I'll write that big final exam!" So yeah, last week passed and then the weekend passed (although, I worked so that's a good excuse, right?) and then it was Monday and I had the day off. Perfect time to work on my assignment. Oh wait, what mom? You want to go shopping? OK, sure. And then, of course, shopping turned into my day of driving all over creation. So then it was Tuesday and I was working at Barnes and Noble all day. I did think about working on my final while at work, but once I got home all I wanted to do was check my email and watch TiVoed Gilmore Girls from ABC Family. And then it was 8pm and I decided that watched the rerun of Gilmore Girls on CW was essential. And then it was 9pm and I don't remember what I did, but there's a slight chance I wrote my cover page then. 10pm came and went as I was wiping up all the drool from seeing Brad Pitt on Barbara Walters' special. Holy hell is he hott! 11pm and my brother stopped by so I took the opportunity to take a break from my work. And then Gwen Stefani was on Letterman so I had to watch that. Part of me wanted to just go to sleep and get up and write the entire thing, but I felt like that was pushing the ol' luck a little bit. I decided that I needed to get at least half done before I went to sleep. Then, of course, I rationalized that I was too sleepy to get any good work done anyway so I fudged my math a little to decide that I was 2/5 done which is almost half and good enough reason for me to go to sleep.

Anyway, the point is, I didn't get up as early as I planned to this morning and even then spent some of my morning emailing and watching Today while rereading the exam questions. It's a wonder I finished the damn thing, but I did. I finished and emailed that bitch off plenty of minutes before the due date.

Rock on.

Thanks For All The Pepperoni

In the past couple of months I've gotten into this weird trend of being dared to eat strange and random things. While this sort of gives me flashbacks to elementary school when the mean girl said I had to put taco sauce on my salad and then eat it, it is also leaving me confused because today I realized, "Wait a second, I am the one daring myself to eat these weird things." Am I just bored or am I trying to entertain my friends by becoming a freak show?

At Serena's birthday party in November, I was setting up my cheese/pepperoni platter and marshmallow platter* when I got the bright idea to make a marshmallow and pepperoni sandwich. Steven was there and, per his usual role, encouraged me to eat this interesting** concoction while he took pictures.

Now that I think about it, pepperoni and Steven were involved one other time when he and I went to Charlottesville to see Rogue Wave. We went to some restaurant where I convinced him that we needed to order everything so when I realized we had both pepperoni and honey mustard on our table, I knew it was a mixture to be tasted. He again took pictures. Actually, I lied. I guess he didn't capture the actual eating of the honey mustardoni, but that photo does show the "after" part of dinner.

Probably the instance I am least proud of occurred Saturday at work when I was on my lunch break. Steven*** was just getting off of work and sat down at the table with me as he regrouped before heading home. Lately the managers have been bringing in candy for us and leaving it in big glass bowls in the breakroom. It's nice of them, but if it's their effort to make me not hate the place, it wont work. Anyway, while helping ourselves to some kisses****, I noticed there was one in there without a wrapper. Immediately I thought back to the Halloweens of yore when my mom would remind me over and over about not eating any of the suspicious candy especially those pieces without wrappers. Well, for some reason, I decided that eating the unwrapped piece of candy would make for great entertainment and once I said the idea outloud, Steven encouraged me to do it. So, I did. This was a few days ago, though, and I'm still alive so I'm feeling okay about it. Except that it was kind of gross. Not the taste-it tasted great.

This weird freak eating is not a trend I want to continue. I don't want it to become my "thing." I guess I just need to be extra careful when Steven and pepperoni are around.

XO,
SVR




*Seperate platters. And shut up about my choice of platters, ok? I also made MINIBAGELPIZZAS!
**I'm not going to say disgusting because in theory marshmallows-GOOD....pepperoni-GOOD, so together? Should be good, right?
***Seriously, I am now going to blame him for any future tastings or cases of food poisoning. He is a bad influence.
****HERSHEYS! Jeez, that's how rumors get started, people.

Overdrive

When I was little, and my mom would take us out shopping or out to do some other activity, my dad would always comment that we had "gone from one end of Virginia to the other."* Bless his heart, but at the time he didn't understand our need to get out of the small area we lived in. Shopping primarily at Peebles and KMart** just was NOT going to cut it and now, like 15 years later, I'm so glad my mom always took us all over the place. For someone who really hasn't been to many places***, I would consider myself pretty worldly as a result of my mom being so cool when I was younger...not that she isn't still cool. Because she is. She's cooler than your mom.

Anyway, today I feel like I relived the idea of going "from one end of Virginia to the other." I drove about 150 miles today yet was never more than 1 hour from my house. Without giving away my exact location (even though the map I had planned would have been really cool), here are some of the things I saw today:

-The big skate.
-Sonic
-Legal Sea Food
-Dolly Madison Highway
-Barnes and Noble in Fairfax
-My alma mater
-My current mater (hahahahaha)
-The Flying Circus
-Sign that indicated how close I was to Richmond, VA.
-Sign that indicated how close I was to Washington, DC.
-A Senator
-An ultimate frisbee player (vomit)
-A Civil War site

XO,
SVR


*Direct quote.
**This is even pre-WalMart!
***I've been from Puerto Rico up to Montreal, but only as far West as Pittsburgh and as far East as I've swam out in the Atlantic, which really isn't far because I get scared when I can't feel the bottom of the ocean. Although, I also get scared when I can feel the bottom because ew.

Amazin'

Damn TV Show making me stressed and then relieved and then about to cry.


Let's blame it on me being tired, but HOLY HELL I love The Amazing Race and I'm so happy with who won. Ali, we need to apply ASAP.


NOW...PHOTO CONTEST- you effers better get those entries in by tomorrow afternoon!


XO,
SVR

Long Way To Go

I have to leave for work in about 10 minutes. 330 to midnight- quite possibly the worst shift available. Goodbye, Saturday night. What makes it even better (/sarcasm/) is that I get to go back tomorrow morning at 9am. Thanks, guys!

Meanwhile, I'm watching Mission Impossible: 3, which is confirming the fact that one day I will climb out the top of an elevator.

XO,
SVR


P.S. Yes, this is a pity blog. Please leave some.

English Fire

POLITICS ASIDE*...

My crush on Tony Blair is slightly out of control. I just clapped when The View was interrupted for an ABC News Special Report. So what if my just-washed hair is going to end up frizzy because I'm waiting too long to dry it...so what if I need to get a start on all of that work due tonight in class. Tony Blair is on TV! Press conferences with Tony Blair are second only to watching British Parliament on those boring news channels. Oh, but Tony Blair? Not boring. He's hilarious. I'm sure he won't be funny today as that would be inappropriate, but I'm still going to be glued to my TV until this thing is over. And before you slam me or make fun of me for this, hey, at least I'm watching, right?


XO,
SVR




*Ladies don't discuss politics and I also don't want to see it in the comments!

Subbacultcha

It's weird to substitute teach. For many reasons. Mostly because you never know what you are getting into. I was lucky enough to book a 9 week sub job at the beginning of the school year so after about two days I knew what I was getting into each day. I learned names, which helps immensely. A couple weeks ago I subbed for an elementary school music class and when those wiggly Kindergartners came in, I was praying to God for some enlightenment of names. "Boys and girls!" doesn't get the attention you would like when three of them are sliding across the floor. And I wasn't ready for the tearful "I miss my mommy!" to which I responded, "I do, too."

It is also weird to sub because I am in control of my own schedule for the most part and when those jobs pop up and you see "Accept" or "Decline", the thought of the unknown can sometimes take over and force my hand to click "Decline." Yesterday one of the jobs that popped up included a description that included "changing diapers"..."Decline." More props to the ones who would take that job, but I couldn't handle it. I would probably end the day wiggling on the floor crying, "I miss my mommy!"

And the sub anxiety is fierce. Showing up to work where you have no idea what the day will hold for you is slightly terrifying. And maybe my recent education classes are not helping that cause. Not so much that I know more about the classes I'm going into, but that I feel like I should be doing more than the 19-year old Scarlet did as a sub. Yes, that's right...I subbed when I was 19 and in one of my favorite stories, my first day subbing they had me take a class on a field trip. It was like a kid leading the kids. I'm still not sure how or why they let me do that.

Tomorrow I'm subbing at my old high school for my 10th grade english teacher. I wonder if they'll treat me like a student when I go into the office. It never fails to happen whenever I have gone in there since graduating. Maybe I'll wear my "Class of '98" shirt tomorrow.

But really, wish me luck. I hope I don't need it, but as a sub, I need to be prepared.

Mr(s). Clarinet

I have signed up to participate in Neil's First Annual Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert. I will be recording a klezmer*-type piece on clarinet. Now, my goal** is to integrate a traditional holiday song and a klezmer piece from a book I have. I don't want to just do the overdone Dreidel, Dreidel. BORING! I have until 20 December*** at the latest to have this done. Please remind me to get this done. I really want to turn in a stellar performance.

XO,
SVR



*No, I'm not Jewish.
**Famous last words.
***ALI'S BIRTHDAY!

Bang Out

Warning: This post is about my hair. If you want to read something exciting, I suggest leaving now. With that said, I'd love some feedback.


I get bored with my hair often. I like to change it up as much as I can even though it probably doesn't seem that way since I tend to just wear it the same way. Right now I'm trying to grow it out after having it relatively short for the past couple of years. But in the meantime I'm getting antsy and keep remembering one of my favorite haircuts:Kidding! But really, this is one of my favorites:That's me on the right, of course. That's my sister Ali on the left and she hadn't slept in about 36 hours in this shot. That made for a funny time:) But anyway, it's fun to have cute, flippy hair and it's also a lot easier when it comes to drying it every day. Oh yes, every day because I, despite what you will see in 99% of the pictures of me, have naturally curly hair. Not as curly as Ali's (although the picture above is a bad representation of her hair bc she straightened it that day. She has hott hair. It's super curly and pretty.) ANYWAY...

So, part of me wants to go and get my hair cut shorter and flippy again, but then the other part of me says, "No! Don't do it! You've let it grow out for a year now! Keep it up, sista!" But I'm borrrreeddd with it. So....recently I have been considering getting bangs again.

I can already hear Steve, my hair dude, saying to me gently, "Scarlet, you know you don't have straight hair, right?" But besides that, I have another reason that keeps me from getting bangs sometimes: my forehead is not that big. Tyra Banks right now is thinking, "Girl! You should be glad you don't have a big forehead!" and I am, but if you think about it (and I obviously have), the length of bangs I would get would be shorter than those someone with a larger forehead would get. And the shorter hair is, the more likely it is to curl when faced with the elements (rain, snow, humidity, etc.) I don't want to end up looking like this:
Because, as ADORABLE as I am in this picture, I don't think curly-q bangs are quite the look I'm going for. (Although, please note the coffee cup in front of me. Loves it. This is my 4th birthday when I crawled under the table when they started singing to me.)

Now, I've given the cons to getting bangs so it's time for the pros. Naturally, the hair that would be cut as bangs naturally falls foreward. Right now those pieces are about as long as to my mouth so the chopping wouldn't be too incredibly drastic or upsetting. Another pro is that I tend to bobby pin those pieces to the side anyway so what difference does it make if they're shorter or not? It might be fun to have the option of wearing them as bangs sometimes. Also, my hair grows pretty fast, I think. Those front pieces were cut to the tip of my nose about a month or so ago and have seemed to grow about 1.5 inches already. This is my hair today:
Maybe not the best picture to choose, but that's me second from the right. I think it shows both the length of my hair and my tendency to pin the front to the side. Also, we're all really hott here (Halloween 2006.)


SO, WHAT SHOULD I DO? I'm afraid if I go to just get a trim I'll end up getting it cut much shorter, but are bangs too risky?

XO,
SVR

P.S. Anyone who actually read this? Thanks.

The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth

Oh

I usually just keep Studio 60 on after watching Heroes. I loved it the first few weeks, but since then my attention has started to wander. Tonight, though, I used the "rewind" button on my TiVo to catch that kiss again and then gave full attention to the New Orleans brass version of my favorite Christmas carol, Oh Holy Night. And the declaration? OMG. Good job, guys.



And Heroes? We have to wait until the end of January? That's just cruel. I hope they show Home Alone 2 each week in its place since that's the only acceptable replacement.

And while we're at it...

Real World: Denver- SUCK. These hoes are so boring and done already. (In more ways than one.)

Desperate Housewives- Did that one mom really die? I got confused on Sunday because it was a rerun.

Grey's Anatomy- Still amazing. Meredith doesn't annoy me although I might be the only one to say that.

Gilmore Girls- Still the best thing ever, but if I don't get some Luke/Lorelai interaction soon I'm going to be pissed. If the writers are keeping Lorelai and Christopher together, that's fine, but you can't just cut out these important interactions and again, the coffee! There needs to be more of it. And Marty? Interesting. Very interesting.

What else do I watch?

Why Do I Keep Counting?

I'm going to be honest with you. Voting got cunted up. First, some voters were only seeing 7 of the 8 pictures. But then, once I fixed that for them, it meant that some people were seeing a different photo as #1. I'm 80% sure I got everyone's votes noted correctly, but since I can't be certain, I'm not giving totals here. Oh and second, people ended up voting in different ways. Some people gave each photo a score, some people gave duplicate scores on different photos, and some people just gave scores for their top choices. Needless to say, it's a bit confusing. Not that this takes anything away from the winners. I'll have a better system for the next contest (see below).

1st Place:
By Ali

2nd Place:By Kristabella

3rd Place (Tied):By StevenBy Ali

The other ones can be seen in the Flickr group. Now on to more organized news...this week's contest theme. Let's see...I haven't really thought about this yet. How about the theme be:

December

Just get your photos to me before Monday 11 December 2006. Email them to me.

Fake Plastic Trees

All entries are in for this past week's Photo Contest. They are all posted in the Flickr group I created. I invite you all to go check them out and then email me your votes. In an effort to not have ties, please give each photo a score from 1 to 8. Therefore, your email to me will look like the following:

Photo 1: 4
Photo 2: 8
Photo 3: 1
Photo 4: 7
etc.

8 WILL BE FOR THE PHOTO YOU THINK IS THE BEST! I will add up the scores and the HIGHEST score will be the winner and so on from there.

Anyone can vote on the photos. You did not have to enter the contest in order to vote. Also, if you entered you CAN vote and you must also include your own photo(s) in the voting. And don't feel bad about pulling a Tracy Flick and voting for your own photo for the top spot...I would!

The photos on the page are the order in which you should rank them for the email. I can't rename other people's photos to title them as numbers so you're just going to have to concentrate on this:) The photo on the farthest left of the screen is "Photo #1" and then going from left to right will be Photo #2, Photo #3, etc.

Only one vote per email address will be counted. Cheat if you want to, I don't care.

Oh, just because many of the photos say they're by "scarls17" (that's me) does not mean they are. I just added them to the flickr group myself from my own page.

Any other questions?

Oh, and try to have your votes in by 5ish this afternoon, but if I have no votes by then, I'll extend the deadline;)


XO,
SVR

Pretty Pink Rose

Someone said to me today, "Scarlet is a weird name, but when it's with Rose it's at least rock and roll."


"Um, thanks?"

An Honest Mistake

who was the last person you..

1. Hung out with? Serena, Ali, Allie, Brendan, Serena, Allie, Conor, Tice for like a minute.

2. Rode in a car with? The last time someone drove me was the Enterprise guy

3. Went to the movies with? Steven

4. Went to the mall with? Ali maybe

5. Talked on the phone to? My mom

8. Kissed you? Ummmm, kissing? What's that?

WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER??

1. Pierce your nose or tongue? nose, the tiny ones. the tongue one scares me now

2. Be serious or be funny? funny

3. Drink whole or skim milk? skim

4. Die in a fire or get shot? get shot

5. Spend time with your parents or enemies? parents


A N S W E R. T R U T H F U L L Y.


1. Do you like anyone? not sure

2. Sun or moon? moon

3. Winter or Fall? WINTER!!

4. right or left? right

5. 10 acquaintances or two best friends? 2 best friends

6. Sunny or rainy? sunny ((in winter)

7. Vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream? Vanilla


A B O U T . Y O U.
-----------------------------

1. What time is it? 6:13

2. Whats your first name? Scarlet

3. Where do you wanna live? Conn.

4. How many kids do you want? 2-4

5. Do you want to get married? Yes

6. where do you want to get married? Scotland

7. Current mood? sleeepy


--------------------------------------------------------------
IN . THE. LAST. 48 HOURS. HAVE. YOU.
-----------------------------------------------------

1. Sang? yes

2. been hugged? yeah

3. Felt stupid? almost

4. missed someone? yeah

5. Danced Crazy? soul train

6. Gotten your hair cut? no, but I'm itching for bangs again

7. Cried? no

--------------------------
. S T U F F .
------------------

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops? nope

2. Do you have a Dog? no:{

3. When's the last time you've been sledding? years ago

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone? not just anyone...so maybe alone

5. Do you believe in ghosts? no

6. do you consider yourself creative? yeah

7. Who do you want to be with right now? Ed McMahon

Oh Mother

Dear Mother Nature,


Quit being a psycho woman with hot flashes and give us season-appropriate weather.



Thank you,

SVR

A Picture You'd Hate To Miss

26 Things is a photographic scavenger hunt that was started at sh1ft.org where 26 things are listed and each 'player' sets out to take pictures that reprsent each thing. Then everyone posts their shots up on the flickr group and you get to have that awesome feeling of completing something.

I participated over the summer and while it can be maddening as you try to find the perfect shots to enter, it's also a lot of fun. My goal today is to complete the November 26 things. This will be quite the endeaver since I have not started and will need to finish by about 5pm which is when I leave for class. That's less than 6 hours for 26 things. Sounds easy enough, but check out this list:

November's 26 things

1. glee
2. village
3. reality
4. accident
5. anxiety
6. low
7. copy
8. kindness
9. bad taste
10. stairwell
11. public transport
12. art
13. shoes
14. Friday
15. alley
16. 7pm
17. telephone
18. ant's eye view
19. words
20. odd
21. a stop sign
22. traditional
23. the sea
24. stripes
25. tangled
26. a night shot

Better Version Of Me

I hate errand-type things. I hate the phone. I hate situations with an unknown factor.


I have to call Enterprise to let them know I'll need a ride home after dropping off the car. I am dreading this. Partly because I don't want to need that ride It sucks, but there's noone else around
who can do it. And damn this area and its severe lack of public transportation!

And calls at 730am? Those will be ignored. Although, I did realize that had I said yes in my drowsy state I would then have been screwed for getting the rental car back. So there is a positive side to all of this.

Having days off always reminds me of Richmond and that is not good because the parts I'm reminded of are the semi-crappy ones. I do realize I'm not giving details here. I'm using vacation time this week so it should be okay. I have to thinkabout Christmas presents soon, though. I love this time of the year...I really do.

(It does need to get A LOT colder, though.)

Give Me Novacaine

I was so angry in class last night. I started off in a good mood as I got there early to use the wireless and create a flickr group for my photo contest. I was still in a good mood as class started and we did evaluations. I EVEN was doing okay while waiting in the hall to be moved into our small groups.

The beginning of the end was waiting for twenty minutes to get our assignment. And then realizing that my group's number one priority was not to get out early like mine was. I can't comprehend these people who are not always looking to get out of class early. Can anyone explain it? In what situations is class better than not-class? I even tried to gently steer our group towards a speedy solution and used what I thought was the perfect reason: "so we can get out of here early!:)"

And I thought they were with me. I really did. We should have been done in 30 minutes. By 8pm I was ready to go ape-shit on them both and cut them*. What really concerned me was when 20 minutes into our work the one group member realized what exactly we were doing. I wanted to ask, "What exactly were you trying to wor on these past 20 minutes?"

Soon after that she said, "Do you have somewhere to be?" And I said, "ME?" and she said "Yeah, you keep looking at your watch." My mouth spoke faster than I meant it to and said, "No, I just don't like being here." Oooops!

And when we finally left at 8:15pm I realized we hadn't really accomplished much of anything. I'm not concerned about it. Part of me just doesn't care because the stupid project wasted 2 hours of my life that I will never get back. OH and the woman "accused" me of being "just 22" and straight out of college. Um, step back, bitch. I'm 26 and I have better things going on than a 2.5 hour class.


XO,
SVR


*If either of my group members read this...um...I wouldn't really cut you. I just don't understand why you wanted to lollygag so much!

Closer

Thank you to everyone who entered my photo contest! I'm going to make it a weekly thing, so I hope the same people AND MORE enter next time.


Big thanks to my four anonymous judges! And now...


Grand Prize:



By Ant. With a score of 24.

2nd Place:




By Ali. With a score of 22.

3rd Place:



By Serena. With a score of 17.


The other four entries can be seen on my Fotki. Please leave any feedback both here and there.

NOW: New contest for the week. The theme is...TREE.

Each person may enter two photos. If you want, you can upload your pics to the flickr group I created. If you need to know how, ask.

Deadline: Sunday 3 December 2006 3pm. Questions???

Cunt London

I was told today not to put "cuntbear" on my special orders at the [Unamed, But Largest In The Country] bookstore I work at.

To explain: A few months ago, Serena and I needed to order our books for bookclub. We're there all the freaking time so it's not necessary to have our real names on there and we thought it would be funny to put something else. And since I love the word cunt, we put it in as "Cuntbear" because it's awesome. "Hello, may I speak to....cuntbear? Your order is in." And really, as my good friend A said, "Once you say cuntbear a few times, it totally takes away the stigma of cunt." (I totally paraphrased what she may or may not have said. But it's the general idea that matters.)

So today the woman who MAY or may not be the manager came up and said, "You have a minute?" Now, she and I have only ever shared about two sentences of conversation so I figured something was up. She was holding the order form and asked if I knew anything about it. I can't remember if I laughed out loud or if it was just in my head, but I said "Yeah, why?" She went on to say how it was inappropriate and while it was before her time there (the order is a few months old which is really what I should have been "scolded" about), those things go to Corporate and it would be linked with my name.

So?

Like they're going to try to fire me because I put cuntbear on my order form? Or because Steve Riggio will shake his head in disappointment because I used a word his mother doesn't like? Bitch, please!

She was inquiring like it was this big deal: "Who wrote it?" "Why?" "Who else was involved?" I protected my partner in 'crime' until I honestly couldn't remember if we needed the books still or not and said that Serena would know. Then I said how a future book club book is named Cunt* so I didn't think it was a big deal. She wouldn't even say the word. It was funny. I'm wondering if she will try to get our bookclub to change our January selection. She even said how we don't censor, but it's not appropriate. Well, that's her opinion and someone (<-----) needs to lighten up.

BECAUSE IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL! It's a word. It's not like I've been wearing a nametage at work that says, "Fuck You" or "Scarlet Love Hitler 4 Eva!" And besides, it's not considered to be inappropriate by everyone. Good ol' Wikipedia has brought it to my attention that in Australia it's a complimentary term and is also perfectly acceptable in other countries.

And this whole "derogatory to women" thing is ridiculous. It's only derogatory if you think it is. Use it all the cunting time and it won't be anything but a slang word. It's taboo to some only because they're afraid of it. And it's just a cunting word!

Serena is going to make t-shirts: "Call me cunt. I like it."

And I've decided to name my second dog Cuntbear.

Oh and if you make any orders at bookstores in the future, please use the name Cuntbear or any other combination using cunt.

Thanks!

XO,
SVR


*Can't believe I have to buy a book from the Womens Studies section-ugh! But I will carry the book with pride and shove it in people's faces.

Time To Waste

I was literally running around trying to get ready on time. I finally found an outfit I wanted to wear and had dried my hair. I ran around gathering my other things I need for the day like my wallet and a book to read. Then I ran out to the car to speed off to work.


9:15am


What?


I work at 11am today. It only takes 45 minutes to get there. Hmmmmm! How did I make this mistake that cost me an hour of sleep? Although, had I slept another hour I would still have been running around and jumping in the car 15 minutes late. What I really should have done when I realized I was wicked early was to leave anyway. I think I'll go now and get a bagel at Pantera for breakfast.


XO,
SVR

Scattered Pictures

THIS IS A REMINDER ABOUT MY PHOTO CONTEST!!!!


As a quick reminder, in case you're too bloody lazy to click a link, the theme is "close," which you should interpret in any way you see fit. Each person may enter two (2) photos. The photos are due (and this is a change) Sunday 26 November 2006 at 630pm.

I have changed the date to not only allow more time, but also because I won't even be home until then so it makes no sense to have the due date be earlier than it needs to be. I've gotten a few entries already and hope for a few more at least!

ENTER ENTER ENTER!

Oh and as for a prize? Not only do you get the glory and praise on this site, but I could make and sense something to you. Or, if you're address-private, I could do something else. Suggestions welcome:)


XO,
SVR

P.S. If you don't hear from me again it's because I'm working at Barnes and Noble today...Black Friday. Yabbo! Beep boop!

Here Comes The Sun

Not being a fan of the AM, I don't often get to see the sunrise. I try every time I go to the beach to get up early at least one day to see it, but without fail, it never happens. This past year I set my alarm and even got out of the hotel bed (more effort than had been made in previous years), but when I looked out the window and saw how dark it was, I decided it wasn't worth it...and it was also a little creepy. That early in the morning is only good for one thing-sleeping.

So this morning, when I was headed back to Fairfax from BWI at 4am, it occurred to me that I would be awake for the sunrise and maybe I should think of a good place to go for photographing it. What I ended up doing instead was sleeping in my car outside of my sister's apartment until she was awake. Then, once she was up and let me in, I proceeded to sleep some more. Sunrise? What sunrise? I'm beginning to doubt it even happens anymore.

Open Your Eyes

Ok, maybe I'm too hung up on details, but I think I would realize if my mom, who didn't normally wear a wedding ring*, was wearing one the next time I saw her. Some people really notice these things and ever since my college roommate pointed out that Dave Grohl was wearing a wedding ring in my Nirvana poster, I have been one of those people. I mean, I LOVE Dave Grohl and I had been planning on being his first wife so my world was turned a little upside down that day. I couldn't believe I had not noticed that little detail and quickly researched and found out about her. I'm over it now...mostly because he's now married to someone else and do I really want to be his third wife?**

So Lorelai invites Rory over so she and Christopher can tell her they got married in France. My first thought was, "I wonder if she'll have taken the ring off?" and that's such a classic drama move: taking the ring off. Once a character takes their ring off and hides the fact that they're married, confusion and problems arise. "Why are you hiding our marriage?" "Are you ashamed of being with me?" blah blah blah. So, in a way, I'm glad Lorelai had the ring on, but on the other hand, I would think Rory would notice it. Call me a detail nerd.

And April? How long is she staying with Luke? And, more importantly, will she be off the show once this little sleeping arrangement is over? She just doesn't add much to the show and after serving her purpose of helping to break up Luke and Lorelai, I'm done with her and am left wondering why she's still there. I miss Luke and Lorelai interactions! Where is she getting her coffee from!? Speaking of coffee, I had a 24 ouncer tonight during class and pretty much wanted to jump into my cup to wade around. It was some good coffee, BUT apparently caffeineless because I was yawning by 8pm.

Wow, I have powers stronger than I ever believed because just as I write about wanting more Luke/Lorelai time, he calls her and she shows up at the hospital. And he notices the ring?? Not that she wasn't playing with her hair for about five minutes there before he notices the shine from the gold. Wedding bands are quite noticeable. My mom used to tell me not to wear rings that look like wedding bands on my left hand. Haha...sometimes now I make sure to wear one so I'm not run over by the masses when I go out;) (Joke. I hope you laughed.)

"I'm Lorelai Gilmore!" That was super cute because hey, I'm Scarlet Rose! That ain't changin'! You would be amazed at how many names rhyme with Scarlet. Not cool, but also good for adding to the reasons why I need to keep my name as it is.

All in all a good episode! I still think there needs to be more coffee drinking, more food eating, and way more random references in upcoming episodes though.

Thanksgiving time reminds me of one of my all-time favorite episodes when Rory and Lorelai eat four Thanksgivings. We're doing buffet*** style this year which can have the same results, but doesn't come with the same glory. Maybe next year.

XO,
SVR


*This is just for the example's purposes. My mom is in fact married to my dad and always wears a wedding ring.
**The answer is yes. Yes I do.
***Yes, we're going out for Turkey Day. I'm actually pretty excited about it.

Working Class Hero

In an effort to better understand 20% of the things my sister says, I got The Office* from Netflix. I just finished watching the first few episodes and, of course, I liked it. I already knew I liked it though. I've seen the British version and like Steve Carell, so it was inevitable I would like this one. I've never worked in an Office Space-like place with cubes and such, but some of the parts definitely made me laugh while remembering my old job.

The time we decorated for the second baby shower of the week and it took 20 minutes to decide how to put the streamers up.

Weekly meetings that were about building team morale, but really were exercises in staying awake.

"I'm bored." which was uttered A LOT.

Sometimes I miss working in an office. It has it's pros like the internet and being able to get to work late without the world stopping. What I don't miss are sitting all day long, having to deal with office politics, and dealing with stupid officemates who's sole purpose in life is to annoy me.

Oh wait...I also miss the paycheck. GAH!





*American version

Cold Contagious

We all know I love cold weather. I think we also all know by now that I get cold* really easily. So it's like, 40 degrees out? And I am so cold I just put a sweater on over my sweater. And I have a scarf on.

Haha!






*and hot. I'm cold-blooded;)

Paid Vacation Time

It's about time we have another photo contest! It has been way too long.

Rules/Info:

1. Each person may submit one or two photos
2. Photos must be received by Saturday 25 November 2006 1pm.
3. Photos must be emailed to me. sendmemail at gmail dot com.
4. Photos will be posted both here and on my Fotki.
5. The winner will be determined by myself and two others not in the contest.
   

Theme:

1. The theme of the contest is...Close.

Explanation For Photo Included:

1. I was going to post a picture of how I would interpret the theme, but I don't want to sway anyone's thoughts.
2. Then I was going to just post one I took that I like, but still, didn't want to sway anyone's thoughts.
3. So I figured I'd just post one of me that I like. With a caption.

XO,
SVR

Stupid Girl

I was reading my magazine last night while waiting for class to start like I always do. Everyone else leafs through their textbooks or reviews their notes, but not me...I read Lucky or Premiere or something else more entertaining. And then, when they're all discussing their latest assignments and discussing topics, I'm texting on my phone. Sometimes I roll my eyes or throw in something funny, but I usually just sit and wait. And read my magazine.

Last night, though, I got there about 20 minutes early (gotta get that seat in the back) and two of my classmates were talking about rubrics. I quickly realized they were talking about rubrics they had designed themselves. Hmmm...that seemed odd since we had been talking about rubrics in the last class. Then one of them asked me what I included with mine and as I sat there like a doe in headlights I realized that I had forgotten to do our assignment. Contrary to the attitude I usually have regarding school, I do not forget to do assignments. I may do them an hour before I have to leave for class, but I have never been the type of student to just not do something.

I did some pretty quick thinking when I accepted the fact that I had nothing to turn in and once I realized I had about twelve minutes before class was to begin, I speed-walked to a computer in the library so I could make something to turn in. In the 2.1 seconds it took me to get there, I remembered thinking at the end of the class how I had an already made rubric I could tweak to turn in and how exciting that I wouldn't have to stress about the assignment. Of course, said rubric was not saved on my pin drive so with the 10 minutes I had left, I began to design one.

Holy hell did my quick typing skills come in handy! I did later see one mistake where I had "player" instead of "played," but bitch please, don't hate the playa, hate the game! There are a couple of other things she could probably take points off for, but my 8 minute effort (gotta leave time to print and run back to class) was pretty good if I do say so myself! This, unfortunately, might break my streak of perfect scores, but having never asked for an extension, I wasn't about to start then! I'm hoping that the musical jargon throws her and she decides she can't take off points for missing content since she won't understand what it's about anyway. (I did this on purpose, of course.)

It was a stressful way to begin the 2.5 hour long class, but things did improve later on. We got in small groups (HATE) to talk about some strategy for an assignment and my group voted my handwriting the best so I got to write on the dry erase board! (It's the little things...really.)

Oh, and in my defense, I had check the ASSIGNMENTS folder before class to make sure I had not forgotten any assignments and saw nothing. Go figure that the rubric assignment was imbedded in the last powerpoint from class. Not cool! And what's kind of funny is that already, just 12 hours since leaving class, I can't remember if I have anything due next time...

November Rain

I'm working on a November mix CD. I've been listening to the same stuff over and over in my car, and while I like it, I need to get a different variety going.

So far I have:

• The Decemberists*- "The Island:.."
• Muse- "Exo-Politics
• Foo Fighters- "Skin And Bones"
• Arab Strap- "Stink"
• Ben Gibbard- "Carolina"

Any other suggestions? I like to listen to things I can sing along with. Oh, and Trail of Dead's new album was supposed to come out on Tueday, but after checking Best Buy and Barnes and Noble I finally looked it up and saw that it's not published yet! Does anyone know what's up with that?

XO,
SVR

*So I was working in the music dept at Barnes and Noble last night when this newish employee comes back (I've never actually met her so my sunny, yet bitter work attitude is one she isn't used to) and asks what is playing. "The Decemberists!" I said. She replied with, "I thought so. Well, can you change it?" and I said, "No.... Why?" and she told me that some customer complained about it. What the hell, why do people have nothing better to do than complain about the music in stores? I maintain that if you notice the music and it bothers you then it's a sign you have been in the store for too long. I told the employee to go tell the woman no and that it would change after that track anyway. I almost said, "Tell her she can come kiss my ass!" but figured I should play nice since the girl is newish. Allie can attest to the scene. I was pissed and couldn't believe someone would complain about The Decemberists being played! It was seriously the only thing keeping me from crying**. What a cunt!
**I started off yesterday being in a really good mood as I headed to my part-time job. I was expecting the worst (cash registers), but saw once I got there that I got a really good task assigned. Well, the joy*** was short-lived as my schedule got changed and it sort of put me in a bad mood. Then a bunch of little things added to the bad mood so eventually it was full-fledged and I was listening to The Decemberists trying to be happy.
***As much joy as can be had when talking about a job.

Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep

I think it's a gift, talent, and curse to find humor in the mundane. How lucky for those of us who can be sitting in a boring meeting and holding back the laughter because of something we find funny. Not traditionally funny like the Vice President of the company sleeping, but maybe the fact that noone realizes that the IT guy's email alerts are going off a mile-a-minute and you can he's trying to covertly close his Outlook.

Or when you're stuck in traffic and need something more entertaining than watching the bumper in front of you. I like to watch people from my rear and side view mirrors. Facial expressions on someone who doesn't know he's being watched are often all that is needed for a chuckle or two.

And the curse part? Do you know how many times something has made me laugh yet I know that if I try to explain why I'll just come across as being insane? So many things remind me of inside jokes, past occurances, movies and TV shows so I am constantly thinking things are amusing and funny. Sometimes I feel like my mind is really a database of funny things and when my brain takes in something new it quickly cross-references and narrows it down to something relatable that makes me laugh. About 58.7% of the time I say what I'm thinking in these situations. 30.2% of the time I just laugh and then have to say "nothing" when someone says, "What?" because the connection is too difficult to explain and 11.1% of the time I keep it to myself and just crack up inside.

I'm glad life is funny:) I'd be so bored without that.

Worth The Wait

Normally, 9pm on a Tuesday would mean I would write my Gilmore Girls review, but not tonight. I am waiting until tomorrow because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who had to TiVo it for later.

I will say:




!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She Looks To Me

Sunday evening I was working at Barnes and Noble when this one middle-aged customer came back up to me and asked if I watch Grey's Anatomy. "YES!" I exclaimed, wondering why she cared. She said, "Has anyone ever told you that you look just like that one girl on there?" Hmmmm, "No," I said. "Which one? Although I think you just made my day!" I guess she didn't know the name of which one, but just said for me to "look and I'll see how much we look alike."

By process of default:

+I am not waifish with long, light hair. (Meredith Grey)
+I am not Korean. (Christina Yang)
+I am not black. (Miranda Bailey)
+I am not male. (Dr. McDreamy, Dr. McSteamy, Dr. McBurkey, Dr. McAlexy, Dr. McGeorgey, or Dr. McChiefy)
+I am not tall, hott, and blonde*. (Izzie Stevens)


So now we're left with:

Callie:





and




Addison:


My first questions are:

Do you think Callie is hott? Yes or No

Do you think Addison is hott? Yes or No

Now, do you think I look like either of them?




Note: If you answered No to the above questions about their hottness, then you better not say I look like one of them.

Also, it must be noted that my hair is now a bit longer and my eyes are not as glassy as they are in that picture seen above. It was taken on my last birthday.

So, I'm not sure yet if I should be flattered by this alleged likeness or not. Maybe what she meant is that I look very SMART because Grey's Anatomy is a show about smart surgeons. Maybe!

And I know that at first glance there is definitely the likeness to Callie because of the dark hair, but I still don't know. And it's not like I was at Barnes and Noble dancing in my underwear and the customer then saw a similarity between us. I also was not setting any bones, sleeping with Dr. McSteamy, or declaring my love for anyone named George. Without those things, I see no likeness.




*OK, I am the first two;)

Me And Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story)

Best News I've Heard All Day!



Sign me up and get me a button!!!


Thanks to Velvet* for the heads up.


*We're going to make shirts! I hope you'll want one.

Money Is My Bitch

Every year for our birthdays, my mom sends each of us kids* a card filled with the number of ones for how old we are turning. We all look forward to this little tradition and it (obviously) gets better and better every year.

Well, I've been going through some things this past week since I finally had some time at home and I found my card from my last birthday...with $15 in it! NO, I did not turn 15 on my last birthday, but I probably used some for Starbucks or something and then saved the rest to buy something special. That's so like me, too. To save designated money so I can use it to buy the perfect thing. And now, nine months later, I have it:) Happy Birthday to me!


*Nevermind that we're all adults now:)

With A Little Help From My Friends

Now that we finally have 90210 on DVD, can we please work on getting The Wonder Years out? I haven't seen this show in years and I desperately miss it. I remember watching the final episode and having one of my classic "A-ha!" moments when I realized that those voice overs were the adult Kevin Arnold telling his story. (I didn't NOT know this all those years, but I thought it was more an inner thoughts type thing as opposed to a looking back type thing.) It made me happy to realize because one of my TVLand pet peeves is when the thought-process voiceovers take more time than would be appropriate in normal conversation. You know what I mean, right?

Character 1: So*, do you want to go to the movies?

Character 2: Um (voiceover: I want to go, but I also told Dylan I'd go with him. Should I say anything now or wait until later? I don't want anyone to be angry with me..like that other time I got caught in a lie.) sure, I'd love to.

The time between "Um" and "sure, I'd love to" is way too long and in normal conversation Character 1 would be tapping character 2 on the shoulder asking if everything was ok. "Hey, buddy, you look catatonic**."

Anyway, as much as I love The Wonder Years, the length of the voiceover/narration/thoughts kind of drive me bonkers. Many shows annoy me with this, but I still love them. I can't let my pet peeve keep me from enjoying good things. Like Dead Like Me where Georgia always takes too long to answer Dolores Herbig(brown eyes) or Ally McBeal which was even worse for me because not only would she think, but she'd also see things and I would be sitting there watching and think, "Doesn't she need to answer the judge at some point?"

So, to whomever is in charge of getting The Wonder Years out on DVD: Get those music rights and get us our Kevin, Winnie, Paul, etc.!!!!



*HAHAHAHHA!
**"Anyone? Anyone? Voodoo economics."

The Collector

Gotta love Veteran's Day and the fact that I couldn't sub even if I wanted to. And would I have wanted to? Haha, not really.


I'm still organizing. I would like to both applaud and damn to hell anything with "Collector's," "Anniversary," "Premiere," or "For A Limited Time Only" on it. It's like advertising aimed to just me and why I still have my "Collector's Anniversary" issue of Interview magazine is beyond me. But did I throw it away? NO. Maybe on the next organizing/cleaning day.

And I have realized I own A LOT of music-related books. Scores, sheet music, college textbooks, music history books, composer biographies, random books I've picked up from used bookstores, etc. I need to get on reading them all now:)


XO,
SVR

How To Handle A Rope

It's amazing how something so stupid could lift my mood!

With Teeth

Um, I hate going to the dentist. It's not on a phobia level or even on an Ali level*, but I really do hate it. And the effed up part is that what makes me nervous are the cleanings and NOT potential work that would be done. The last time I went for a cleaning (a little over six months ago because I couldn't take off from the sub gig when the real six months would have been), I was at my office job. My coworkers noticed my nerves and made fun of me as I tried to explain why.

My mom, on the other hand, LOVES going to the dentist. She goes for a cleaning and is ecstatic for the rest of the day. She will refuse to eat or drink anything until at least the next day.

And it's not like I've had a bad dental experience...well...maybe I have. I remember being in 6th grade or so and going to a new dentist where, I guess, they were removing an old filling and putting a new one in? Whatever the procedure was, it wasn't a big deal or painful, but I remember screaming in the office. I cried. I was in 6th grade and crying at the dentist. (Why am I telling this story?)

Anyway, my current dental office is awesome, they really are. I think what makes me nervous to go now is that I'm always aware of the slight chance that I will get The Nazi Lady. Nazi Lady is old skool in her dental hygiene and likes to "toughen up gums." (Her words, NOT mine.) She holds your head close to her belly as she picks out the most disgusting toothpaste there is. Blech, I hate that toothpaste. The consistancy makes me want to vomit.

I used to set up an appointment and then make myself forget about it until the day before. If I didn't do that then I would inevitably get a cold or bite my lip so it hurt to go and they would say I could come another day. Weird, I know.

I'm 26 and don't want to go to the dentist! I know it will be fine, but I wish I hadn't remembered I had an appointment until tomorrow;)


XO,
SVR



*I'll let her explain. If she wants.

Daddy

Gilmore Girls Thoughts (Spoilers? I dunno. Maybe.)

Just a few for tonight because it's only my first viewing.

1. April calling Luke "dad" was really annoying. I can't stand April. Call him Luke, please.

2. OMG, <3 Yale!!!!!

3. Scenes from next week! "The Proposal" Holy Hell.

4. Is Lane still preggers? Because I'd rather have more of that story than of the April one.

5. Sookie soooooo cheated on Jackson! Whore.

6. "Your creme brule virginity?"

7. One of my favorite episodes of Gilmore Girls is the one where they have four Thanksgivings. I hope they have some good ol' T-Day fun this year.

8. Eight is great!

9. So Luke and Lorelai haven't run into each other at all since the crosswalk incident? They need to. Soon. I bet Lorelai gets engaged to Christopher and then Luke will see the ring and that will be the start of them getting back together. But...do I want them back together? Hmm.

10. Oh, and SCD. You were Christopher-Pre Season 7 because in season 7 he and Lorelai are sleeping together...

Politik

We have a big decision to make today. A day not to be taken lightly. A day that has been on its way for weeks, months, even years. The decisions we make today could influence us in ways we never imagined. You must be informed. You must be smart. You must follow your gut instincts. We have decisions to make:


90210 or Melrose Place!?


Who will you choose if you can only choose one? Dylan or Billy? Brenda or Allison? Are you choosing the lesser of two evils or the one you truly like? Even though they all have faults, I like to focus on the positives. Dylan is hott and rich and kind of a bad boy. (Wait, is bad boy a good thing? Haha!) I like some of the things that go on in Melrose Place, but overall, I gravitate more towards 90210. My mom loves 90210, too, and not that I'm one to like things just because of what a parent likes, but the apple doesn't fall far from this tree where 90210 is concerned.

So get out there, kids. Read up on your choices and make your way to the closest Best Buy to make your decision: 90210 or Melrose Place!

Oh Sweet Woods

Today has been an odd kind of day. I didn't work, but have felt sort of busy all day still. I got up relatively early and went to breakfast with my mom, then headed to IKEA in Woodbridge. I own a lot of things so I require many shelves to put them on. So today I headed out with the mission of buying shelves to put my things on. The part I had not thought out very well is that my car is kind of small while many of the shelves I wanted are not. I went through the showroom and wrote down the aisles of where to find the things I wanted, but once I got down there and saw the actual length of some of those boxes I realized I had to change my tactics. I ended up with 5 different kinds of shelves. Now, I know that sounds like a lot of shelves and also like a lot of money, but it's not. Some are ones I will be using in my new "walk-in closet" and others are shorter type shelves. It should help with getting things organized, though.

What I also had not thought about was how much some of these shelves weigh. One style was vetoed merely because I could not lift the box. I got two of this one kind, but they were stacked kind of high and I couldn't help but imagine them falling on me and me having to yell out, "I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP!"

Detour

That damn detour in DC effed me up last night. I was starving and just trying to get to a restaurant that passed the following pre-set qualifications set by me and SCD:

- not new
- not weird
- probably not Italian or Mexican;)
- not expensive

But then, on the way, we were detoured and a few one way streets later, I was a little turned around. I didn't want to admit that since I like to think I'm a navigational whizz. Actually, that's not true because if someone is with me in the car then I lose all sense of direction and knowledge of roads and then have to ask them how to get to the simplest of places. But when I'm alone (or with Ali), I think I'm pretty good at getting around. Anyway, the point is, I started off knowing right where to go, but after the detour and one way streets I wouldn't have bet Connecticut on it. Then, a few state streets later and I had to admit defeat. It wasn't so much of an "I'm lost" type of defeat because I knew where we were, I just didn't know the best way to get to where we were going and by this time it was getting kind of late and I think we were both starving.

We did get there, though, of course. Although I said, "I'm trying something. I think it will work, but if not, it's going to be the road that takes us home." Since I, by then, just wanted food in my belly, we parked in a garage. What I did not see was the sign that said, "Most Effed Up Parking Garage You Can Go To." The little ticket-giving machine was not giving out tickets and I didn't know what to do. So I drove around to tell the lady* about the situation. Well, by this time there was a back up of people who could not get tickets and finally the manager had come out to remedy the situation. Well, the "lady" at the window, even though there was a line of people who could not get tickets 5 feet away from us, could not understand what I was saying. Luckily, the manager WAS right there and he believed me and said to park and he would give me a ticket.

But, but...I'm in the Out Lane with nowhere to go! That, my friends, is when I had to back that thing up and get out of the curvy exit lane in reverse. By this time I was super pissed, but even more than that I was super hungry so I was just glad to be parking my car and exiting.

Then we went to the first restaurant we were familiar with and proceeded to knock back a few while waiting for our table. It was a good meal:)


*Lady is too nice of a word, but apparently some of you think the word cunt is degrading.

November Has Come

I am NOT doing this. I admire those who are, I guess, but I don't need something else on my plate that I need to be disciplined about. That and the fact that I'd already be behind since it's the 3rd day of November. But really, I have no desire to do the big 50,000 word thing. Sure, I'd like to write a book someday, but I'm in no rush.

Instead, I am going to do another form of "Write A Hell Of A Lot In November" and you know what? I think that might just be the official name of it. So, for "Write A Hell Of A Lot In November" I am going to blog whenever the hell I want to and about anything I want to. Lately I just havn't been feeling it and don't think my regular self is coming across very well in the things I write here. So instead of waiting until one time in the day to report on one thing, I'm just going to blog a lot. It's going to be a little like the good ol' days on Livejournal. That is probably a bad example because I started that thing when I was living in Richmond and had no job. What the hell else was I going to do all day, but write there? ;)


Before "Write A Hell Of A Lot In November" really gets started, I leave you with this:

Today I subbed for middle school and was instructed to show a video on glass blowing. You'd be amazed at how many times a preteen can snicker when they hear "blow".

XO,
SVR

Motown Answer

I promised to post the answers to the Quiz On Me 4 eva ago and have been lazy about it. So what better time to do it than 10 minutes before I have to leave for "Disneyworld*." In an effort to make this easy to read, I will enlarge the correct answer for each and in parentheses I will say who guessed what. If there's a winner, then I'll decide what they win later.

1. Which of the following was a horoscope of mine from this week?

a. While others prefer to date strangers, you'd rather take a solid friendship to the next level. (PinkIsNeat, Serena, Ant)

b. Your noisy feelings could distract you from the right moment with the right person. (Cindy)

c. The success you have been dreaming of is virtually guaranteed as long as you maintain your sense of purpose. (Pam, CBK)

Yes, this was the trick question. They were all horoscopes of mine that week.


2. Which of the following is NOT a class I am taking right now?

a. Educational Goals and Practices I: Elementary (Cindy, Pam, CBK)

b. Foundations of American Education (Serena, Ant)

c. Characteristics and Education of Gifted Students (PinkIsNeat)

3. What is my preferred Blizzard flavor?

a. Caramel CheeseQUAKE (Pam, Ant)

b. Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (Cindy, PinkIsNeat, CBK)

c. Heath Bar (Serena)

4. When in class, what role do I most often take?

a. I don't begin the discussions, but I often have an opinion that I share. (Cindy, PinkIsNeat, Pam, CBK)

b. I'm usually not prepared for the discussion and spend my time trying not to make it obvious with my expressions that I want everyone speaking to implode. (Serena, Ant)

c. I never speak in class.

5. Which of the following is a song lyric from one of my Top 3 Favorites songs ever?

a. " I fear that you would never be every song in the world for me." (Serena, CBK and yes, Another Morning Stoner by Trail of Dead)

b. " and that's why i'm wondering why you had to tell me what's going on in your head" (Pam, This is She Says by Howie Day)

c. " every now and every then i tend to pretend i'm not alone" (Cindy, PinkIsNeat, Ant, This is from A Dozen Roses by Braid)

Scores (1 point for each correct answer):

Serena: 2
PinkIsNeat:2
CBK: 2
Ant: 1
Cindy: 1
Pam: 0

I gave no points for number 1 because it was the trick question. Good job, guys! I enjoyed this so do not be surprised if I post another one:)



*I hate calling class class...or school. I usually make people refer to it as Disneyworld. I know I'm crazy, you don't need to tell me. And I know it's weird for someone in the education department to hate school.

Summer Dress 1 (All Her Winter Clothes)

If there's one thing I have a lot of, it's clothes.

Unfortunately, that statement is a bit misleading because clothes are not the only thing I own a lot of. Adding to the list would be CDs, DVDs, and books. And all four of those things I can not bring myself to get rid of. OK, so I own a Dave Matthews CD I haven't listened to for 10 years and I hate that band now. But give it away? I think not! And books? Why would I have purchased it if I didn't want to own it? I own so many Sweet Valley University books and there is NO way I'm giving those babies up.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that, in my new unemployed* status, I have taken to getting some things organized. I had planned on heading to Ikea this morning for shelves and clothes racks, but since I have class tonight**, I decided not to 'waste' my day in the car (it takes about an hour to get there for me.) So I won't finish my big overhaul plan today, but I, at least, am starting on it. Basically, when I am done I'll have made a room into a walk-in closet. I'm excited! If there's one thing I love*** it's organizing. My Richmond apartment closets were immaculate:

What's kind of funny, is that this photo**** is not indicative of what the clothes I wear look like. That's from 2003 and even in the past three years I think my style as evolved. And I must have been doing a load of dark-clothing laundry because 70% of my clothes are dark and it's not apparent from that photo.

Just a few things about how I organize my clothes. I like to have everything hanging up. I HATE folding clothes (maybe blame my short stint of working at Old Navy one Christmas season) and hate ironing clothes even more. I like to organize my shirts in this order: sleeveless, short sleeved, button-up (going from sleeveless, to short, to long-sleeved), long-sleeved, sweaters, cardigans, sweatshirts, and then jackets. If I get really bored then I also put them in color order, but that was more something I did when I really was unemployed in RVA;)

So that's what I'm up to for some of today before headed to class later (*vomit*). I'm headed out to Wal Mart in a minute for more clothes-hangers***** and a mirror.

XO,
SVR


*I'm not really unemployed. I technically still have two jobs. It's just that neither are making me feel very comfortable about the near future...
**I shouldn't complain since the other two were cancelled this week, but I'm going to anyway. I hate class.
***I always fear this is hard to believe for people who are close to me. My car doesn't count. That's often a shit-hole of clothes I've shed while driving (it's called layers, people, not nekkid) and a gazillion water bottles in the back. I am also not organized when it comes to my bags or school, but that's bc off **.
****You can totally see my knickers in this photo!
*****Wish I could afford nice hangers, but I so can't.

Oh, George

My mom and I went out for the day today to hang out, relax, and have fun. We headed to Old Town Alexandria which is where she and my sister had gone a few weeks ago. Without getting all detail-y on you, I got some Scottish shortbread*, two pairs of jeans, and a crabcake sandwich and fries at the Fish Market. I was extremely irritated with Mother Nature today as she somehow got the wrong memo about November 1st and began one of my favorite months with weather in the 70s. My body has already winterized so I felt hot all day long which was NOT fun. I brought my scarf and didn't get to wear it until the sun went down. Tragic I tell you!

We also visited my dad at his office and he surprised us with a pass to Mount Vernon to get in for free. His electrical company did all of the wiring there so we got to feel like celebrities as we bypassed lines and didn't pay for anything. I had not been there since I was a wee lil' one so it was fun to take it all in as an adult. I LOVE to go through places like that where you get to see restored rooms that famous people actually lived in. We saw the bed George Washington died in! That's crazy! It was also gorgeous with the leaves still in their peak so I got some good pictures**. It was also interesting to realize that my junior year college dorm (Custis Hall)) was named for Martha Washington's maiden/first husband's*** name.

Fun-filled day:) Beats working...


*Because who doesn't like things with "pure butter" on the packaging?
**Will be posted later. Dial-up sucks!
***Now I can't remember which.

Temporary

Despite all of my school-inspired stories, my job was merely temporary and now, nine weeks after it started, I'm done. Today was my last day as the band substitute for [Insert Name Here] middlle school in [Town], VA.

I had really been looking forward to and counting down to my last day for a few weeks. I've been really tired and, as a long-term sub, I couldn't take a day off or I would lose my higher rate of pay which was NOT an option. And also, with an end in sight, it was hard to keep the momentum going. I was working in an arc* that ended October 31st which, yes, was the end of their 9 weeks, but in band class, with a concert coming up, is not a time to be ending and winding down. And kids aren't stupid. They treat subs differently and after a week or two we all got over that, but once my time was coming to a close a month and a half later, they resorted to their past behavior. I expected it so I was not taken by surprise. But knowing that I would be (ready?) handing over the baton today/tomorrow to their regular teacher, the last week or so was trying as my momentum was waning. What I'm trying to say is that while the past two months have been great and I've learned a lot, I was ready for it all to be over.

But then all those stupid kids were really adorable and gave me gifts and cards and hugs and some even made me pinky swear I would visit. Those 6th graders don't know any other band teacher so for them, it's a big change to get the 'regular' teacher back tomorrow. I'm going to miss a lot of those little boos.

I'm also going to miss my paycheck because now I feel semi-unemployed and am going to be freaking out soon once my bills start coming. I'm pissed at Barnes and Noble for being complete wankers who aren't giving me what I need.

Things I will not miss:

+Being at work by 715am.
+Announcements which make me deaf. (Does one really need to yell into the intercom system??)
+Drills (fires, bomb threats, intruder threats, tornado threats, etc. They're good bc they take up class time, but bad because it's like, "DO NOT TALK!!!!!!!" which is like fighting a war with a rubber gun.)
+Having no windows in my room/office.
+Axe
+7th graders who have boyfriends in high school. (That's just wrong.)
+The crappy copy machines and the Copy Nazi
+Not being able to use sarcasm as much as I would like to.
+Not being able to say crap.





*When I was in Mr. Gredler's 9th grade World History honors class, I told him that the word "arch" is stupid and I would never use it. Just a side story for today.

I Was Meant For The Stage

Apparently, my last blog on concerts did not reach the mass audience I expected it to because last night at The Decemberists' concert at the 930 Club, I witnessed way too much annoying behavior. And somehow, this annoying behavior was happening all around me.

1. High Schoolers: Do yourself and everyone around you a favor and try not to act like you are still in high school. This includes not talking about english class, what you are going to wear to school tomorrow, as well as if your dad will know which side of the club to pick you up from*. I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to go to shows, but just try to act mature about it, okay? I took my younger sister to plenty of shows when she was in high school and she never acted immature.

2. Dancers: *sigh* I feel bad that I'm picking on the high schoolers again, but Lack-Of-Rhythm Girl was practically asking for it! She was doing that ridiculous 'dance' of shaking her head back and forth so her hair would swing across her face. And anytime she tried to some other sort of dance, she would flail so badly I wasn't sure she could even hear the beat anymore. I mean...just don't. Okay? Don't dance. It will be okay.

3. Copy-Cats: The band claps-they clap. The band jumps up and down- they jump up and down. The band laughs- they laugh. The band jumps off a bridge- Well...you get the idea.

4. Requesters: "I WAS MEANT FOR THE STAGE!" "PLAY THE CRANE WIFE!" The only person I like during this time of requesting songs while the band is tuning or something is the one who yells out, "PLAY SOMETHING FROM THE SETLIST!" Haha, makes me laugh every time. It's like the new Freebird. Because really, if you think about it for one second you will realize that they're changing guitars in between every song and doing other intricate instrument changes so the likelihood of them playing the song you're asking for right then is low. Now, if they ask for requests then go for it, but until then shut up, please.

5. "I just got a t-shirt!"- I know, you're wearing it. At. The. Show.

6. "This is my favorite song!"- That should only be said ONCE. Not for every song you recognize.

7. Hand-holder/puller- Every once and awhile the singer will step up onto the ledge of the stage and will often use an audience member's hand for support. When this happens do not try to pull him/her off the stage. Why would you do that? Do you think you're going to pull him/her off the stage and back home with you? Just be the support he/she needs and then LET GO.

That is all I have for now. Don't let my negativity fool you, it was an awesome show! The band play for what must have been two hours and I don't even have bad things to say about the opening band who were entertaining and only lasted 30 minutes. I will say that my feet were ready to go on strike by the end of the night since I had already put in 8 hours of standing at the bookstore earlier that day. OUCH!

XO,

SVR

*Get over it. I'm not changing my sentence to not end with "from." That's a stupid rule anyway!