Its a ghost town in the office today. Attendance was sparce this morning, but is practically non-existent now after 3pm. We have two interns that couldn't believe it was so empty, and I love the analogy I came up with to explain it.
The office on a Friday is the equivalent to having a substitute teacher for studyhall. Attendance is optional, and even if you show up, you don't have to do anything....
Random, I know.... just thought I'd share.
What's the best text message you've ever gotten?
By far the funniest text I have ever received came from this guy I work with who wanted to give all of us his new cell phone number: "This message is brought to you by Brian who reminds you to change your number every so often to avoid getting late night calls from ex girls while you are spening the night at the next girls place"
Pretty funny!
Today is the birthday of our new Research Associate (RA), D. He mentioned this to me yesterday I told him that if I had known earlier I would bake him some brownies. An former RA used to do this for the guys in the dept that she was friends with and I decided to keep the tradition going when she left.
Now, before you think this odd, let me share some corporate background. Our department used to collect money for each birthday and do the whole "sing happy birthday and have cake" routine - it got pretty tiring constantly being hit up for a couple of bucks, so we switched to a policy of, just having people bring something in to celebrate their own birthday.... The women in the department would do this, and then men would ignore it, usually a female RA or an Admin would do something in their honor.... My late boss, would do it for me and others.... he used to also bring in treats on random days for the department. Part of the reason I like doing the brownies is to continue his tradition....
I was too lazy (and stressed, but that's another story!) last night to make brownies so I stopped at Dunkin Donuts this morning and brought in a box of munchkins.... I only walk 1 block to work, so this trip was out of my way (by about 6 blocks). I got in to work, sent an email to the department wishing D a happy birthday and letting everyone know there are donuts in the library - standard protocol. I sent the email out at 7:50 - our whole dept is here by 7:30am, except for D, who rolls in sometime around 8am. We don't keep tabs on people too much - as long as your boss doesn't care, there isn't a set time when you should be in. But, D easily comes in more than 30min after everyone else does, but also stays considerably later.
This is how he thanks me: Thanks, good to know everyone now knows how late I got in!
What an asshole! My response: "I won't go through the trouble next time then". I saw him afterwards and he attempted to make nice, but he found a way to negate that apology during the course of our chat and be a jerk a all over again. Later he sent a more appreciative email, but in my opinion, it was too little, too late and I felt the whole thing felt forced and more like damage control than anything else.
I've been on the fence about this guy since I met him. He seems to be a bit pompos-like and awfully full of himself considering he hasn't even been here a month yet and barely knows the lay of the land. Yesterday, he told me he thought is boss was the C-word. Not a big fan of that word. Today pretty much solidified my feelings toward him....
I spent Fathers Day biking along the Lambertville D&E canal with my dad & Margit, and of course, Barney, their adorable yorkie puppy, who they seem to take everywhere with them. I wouldn't mind them bringing the dog with them, except that they have turned into "THOSE" people, (you know the type)... they call themselves "Mom" and "Papa" to the dog, and actually made reference to Barney being my brother (GAG ME). Its especially unusual to hear coming from my dad.
Anyway... we biked a few miles along the canal and then enjoyed a tasty lunch on the back porch of the Lambertville Station Restaurant.
It took me much longer than normal to upload photos and I had been waiting for thew photos to comment on the wedding..... On Saturday afternoon I went to a wedding as the "And Guest" for an old high school friend. I had a nice time because the families of Dave, my date, and the other groomsmen were also invited to the wedding, so I knew more people at the event than I had been expecting to... It's a little odd drinking so early in the afternoon (the wedding was at 12:15 and the reception ended at 4:30pm), but the weather was PERFECT for the wedding... The wedding was held in an old mansion along the Delaware River, just north of Philly. The cocktail hour and lunch buffet were indoors and then there was some brief time for cake cutting and a little bit of dancing in the enclosed back porch. Not quite sure why all of the eating didn't take place there. By the time everyone was done eating there barely an hour for the dancing and cake cutting - felt a little rushed to me...
I had been worried about the fact that the wedding was supposed to be Black Tie, but that ended up being completely thrown out the window. None of the male guests were in tuxs outside of the immediate family and the groomsmen. My dress was perfect for the occasion.... it was nice to recycle this dress, since I have worn it two college weddings and figured I wouldn't be able to wear it again. Not the best photo of me, but here it is anyway. Dave my date is on the right. Kevin is also a buddy from high school - actually, he had a crush on my sister for a long time....
I spent $30 at the produce stand!!! We buy all of our produce at a little bodego here in Philly that is run by a Korean family, called Sue's. The produce is always extremely fresh and much cheaper than the grocery store. I'm in there at least 3 times a week!I bought fixin's for german potato salad, lunch salad fixin's for the week, plenty of fruit for a big fruit salad and ingredigents to make some more pesto. YUMMY!!!
We enjoyed a delightful, spur-of the moment trip to Jersey on Sunday. As Adam and I were sitting on the couch enjoying the NYTimes debating how we would spend the day, my mom called to say that her "Germany company" had cancelled last-minute and she had food for 5 and noone to eat it with her. Adam hasn't seen my mom since February and I haven't seen her much either, so we hopped in the car for a visit. The weather was perfect for a leasurely drive.
We enjoyed sitting on the porch, taking in some nature, while drinking Fuzzy Navels. Then we had a tasty dinner of pork tenderloin, potato salad, broccoli salad, and tomato/basil salad -- I love sald-centric dinners! So summery! We also got a big kick out of answering questions from one of my mom's coffee table books.
If you had to pick one person you knew to become President of the USA, who would you select?: My answer: Wild Willy, of course!
If you could be a circus performer, what would you be? My answer: Lion tamer and/or high wire walker. Adam picked trapezee artist, which I thought was fun too!
If you could pick one crime in history to find the answer to, which would it be?: My answer: Who shot JFK.
The book was tons of fun and apparently there are three in the series. I think I'm going to get one since it was such a great conversation starter... lots of the questions were so vague that we had to discuss the parameters before we could answer.
Today I registered for the first level of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam. The test is on December 1st and between now and then I will need to study at least 15hours a week to pass. I've already failed once (back in June 04) and I remember how un-fun the studying is. My company is now willing to pay for weekly study session, hopefully they will be a lot of help. Classes start in mid-July, so I need to squeeze in all the fun while I still can.
Unfortunately, early December isn't when the pain ends. The level 2 exam is the first Saturday in June, so I will have to start studying again right after New Years. Hopefully, I'm sitting for level 2 in June and not retaking Level 1.
Update: Only going to refer to this as "the exam" going forward to keep myself out of trouble.... You can never be too careful in this very internet-savy world we live in... wouldn't want something inadvertantly coming back to bite me in the ass.
What was your worst hairstyle decision ever?
In fifth grade my mom convinced me to "get a haircut like hers". While this sounded like a good idea, it didn't turn out that great. My mom used a curling iron to make her hair have some volume, I just ended up with a super-short boys haircut. I was already the new kid in school with a funny name, and the haircut didn't exactly help my popularity status.
The worst moment of this haircut came when I was standing in the ladies room at a ski resort. As I was washing my hands at the sink, I woman who was in the stall behind me hollered "this is the ladies room, get out of here!" Very embarassing!
Before I got that haircut, I opted for a side-ponytail for my first middle-school dance -- I can't say that decision was all that great either... I'll post photos of both tonight. I'm sure everyone will get a good chuckle out of them....
What do you absolutely refuse to eat?
Curry, capers, anchovies, & olives..... I'll eat pretty much anything else, just not a big fan of spicy food.
