Outed, on a Conference Call

File Under: That came out wrong

I just completed a conference call with my CEO. Nothing exciting, just Affirmative Action review with a representative from our corporate office. Corporate called us, i was in my CEO's office. Corporate asked if we were both present. Diane said "I'm here, but Jim's not. I've locked him in a closet." We then all laughed and I said "no, I'm here. I escaped!" Diane, without really thinking about her words said "Oh look, Jim's out of the closet!" At that point, her eyes got really wide, she hit the mute button on her phone and said "oh my gosh, I'm sorry for the way that sounded! I didn't mean..." at which point I said "Diane, it's just fine. I'm not offended one bit, I thought it was funny." She reiterated that she was sorry and I assured her that it was okay. The people at corporate don't know me and probably didn't even get it.

First CD Purchase of 2009

File Under: Music

I've just purchased my first CD of 2009. Well, I didn't exactly purchase a CD, I downloaded the tracks off of iTunes. And that CD is "Coco" - Colbie Caillat.

Okay, I'm kinda late to the game. It was released in 2007. I've been hearing her a lot lately and I'm enjoying her voice and her music. I decided to check out her website and was impressed with what I read. Every track on her album was co-written by her. She got her start by posting her songs on MySpace and her following grew from there. She's not an artist who came from some talent show, she's not at the mercy of some producer to deliver songs that she doesn't want to sing. This is what music should be about and I am all about supporting an artist who does their own thing.

Her song "Something Special" was featured at the beginning of the movie "Bride Wars." I recognized her voice when I heard the track and it has fast become a song that I'm listening to a lot, these days.

I hope you'll check her out and join me in supporting this talented young artist.

Here's video of Colbie performing her song "Something Special" at a holiday concert in December 2008. Quality isn't fantastic but she sounds good and has a nice stage presence.





Enjoy!

Kelly is BACK!

File Under: Happy Music



Kelly Clarkson has a new single out, it's called "My Life Would Suck Without You." It's reminiscent of her song "Since U Been Gone" but has some quirky guitar rifs and a really catchy chorus. Her vocals are bright and fun and it's just a great song to play loud and enjoy. The album comes out in March. I can't wait. Welcome back, Kelly!

The single is available on iTunes. Check it out!

note: this post is completely unrelated to my previous post. I promise! :-)

Confession Time

File Under: Emotional conflict

Yesterday was a really happy day for so many of us. Inauguration day, a new president, a fresh start. It was all very exciting to watch everything unfold. Last night as I was watching our Preident and First Lady attend all the parties, I started to feel a bit sad.

I got to thinking back to November 4, election night. It was a date night with Matthew and he cooked dinner for us and we drank wine and watched the results. It was a really happy night for a number of reasons, the biggest reason was Obama's win. It was a really good night. The Inauguration and all of the pagentry surrounding it just had me reminiscing about some of the happy times, and I found myself missing him.

Then Cher walked in, stared me down, slapped me, then slapped me again and said "Snap out of it." Well, not exactly, but I managed to remind myself of some of the less pleasant times that followed and the mood passed.

So there you have it.

A New Beginning

File Under: The Day Has Come

Barack Obama is finally the President of The United States. What an historic day for our Country, what a beautiful day. I was fortunate to be able to view the swearing in from the conference room at work. I watched it with a couple coworkers with not much talk. We just watched and listened and took it all in. We clapped when the crowd clapped. It was nice.

I feel great about this day. I know it doesn't mean that all of a sudden everything changes, all of the gloom caused by the previous administration doesn't just go away, but we have someone with a fresh vision and the will to try to make things right.

President Obama's speech was moving and beautiful and it made me feel hopeful again. Seeing the millions of people there, witnessing history and waving American Flags, it made me proud of our country.

Here's to a new beginning! Cheers!

Brr...

File Under: Baby it's cold outside

Current temperature is -4. The sun is shining. Looks sometimes deceive. ;)

Apparently the boilers at work went down for a while yesterday and while the vital areas were kept warm, some parts of the building got pretty cold. Either we're still down one boiler or one has failed again because my office is bordering on cold. While I don't have a thermometer in here, I would estimate that it's about 67 degrees in my office. I'll let you know when it's so cold in here that I could cut glass with my nipples.

Scruffy!

File under: The beard



This is after 3 weeks. It's been trimmed a couple times so I'm pleased with the shape of it. My hair is long and needs to be cut, badly. I'm about 2 weeks overdue for a fresh buzz.

Today my boss stopped to chat and said "I really like the beard. It looks good. Maybe I'm biased because I have one too." We talked about the decisions involved with shaping it, how far up the neck to shave, etc.

The itching has stopped, I'm not costantly scratching my face. Sometimes I'm still surprised when I touch my face and feel it. I think I'll keep it for a while.

What do you think?

Flowers

File Under: Things received at work

This morning when I showed up at Lakeshore, there was an email from our AA at Central telling me that I have received a bouquet of flowers. She put them in my office. She said "how does this happen? I never receive flowers!"

More later, when I know who they are from.

**Update - 12:35 pm**

The flowers were sent by the nurse at Lakeshore who hit my car on Monday. We had a minor meeting of the vehicles in the parking lot as we were leaving work. She backed into me. She literally left one scuff, about an inch long, on my right-front bumper. It will buff out if I even cared. She felt horrible about it when it happened and even the next day she came in to ask if she should call her insurance company. I told her it wasn't necessary. So, she sent flowers. They're GORGEOUS. I'll post a picture later.

I had a hunch they were from her, but you never know.

**Update - 4:50 pm**

Here's a picture of the arrangement:

Random Picture

File Under: Snap and post

Funky Monkey is watching!

Today, at my desk.

No Blizzard...yet

File Under: Weather

The weather word of the day yesterday was "blizzard."

We were supposed to get some snow last night. We did, about an inch or two, depending upon where in the city or surrounding areas you live. It was supposed to be dry and powdery because it was supposed to be much colder than it actually got. Then the winds were supposed to kick in and gust at 35 - 40 mph and blow around all the snow that fell, creating low visibility. That part didn't happen, yet. Now they're telling us that may happen tonight and tomorrow.

In honor of this weather, I wore my winter snowman underwear today. They're dark grey and have drawings of snowmen and snowflakes all over them. Yes, that is a winter wonderland in my pants.

Yes, this post was pointless.

Done!

File Under: iTunes "Shuffle"

I bring my iPod to work with me and listen to it in a speaker dock.

Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" just finished playing. You know, that's the song that I was told "you'll understand" once I listen to it.

Well, I didn't skip the song today. I decided it was time to hear it and deal with it. It's a gorgeous song on an great CD and that shouldn't be taken from me.

Listening to the words just now, I just shook my head. "...I know you haven't made your mind up yet, but I will never do you wrong... No doubt in my mind where you belong..."

I'm fine. I'm glad I listened to it. I missed it. I just don't understand how someone can "give" a song to someone with such deep lyrics and then act in such a way to completely invalidate their sentiment. Oh well...another great mystery.

Ha! How's this for irony. iTunes just started playing "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks! GENIUS!

Dancing With The Stars - The Musicians

File Under: Dancers Making Music

I got wind of the fact that Mark Ballas and Derek Hough, two of the dancers on "Dancing With the Stars" have formed a band, aptly named the Ballas Hough Band. I talked to my friend Jim who happens to also be a DWTS fan and we decided it would be fun to go.

Weather was not on our side. We had a bunch of snow yesterday. Undaunted, we decided to go anyway so we hopped in a cab and and headed to the Abbey Pub.

The Ballas Hough Band was in town because the DWTS live tour was also in town. Once we were there, it dawned on us that some of the other dancers may show up.

They did!

All's Quiet

File Under: Checking In

Sorry I haven't blogged this week. All is well, just haven't had much to report.

I'm thinking about starting a Picture of the Day post, I just have to take my camera with me each day and take a picture of something, and then remember to post it. We'll see how well I do with that. :)

How are you doing? How's your January going so far?

In My Dreams

File Under: Sleeping to dream

I don't remember many of my dreams, probably 20 percent of them. This morning I had one that woke me out of my sound sleep.

I heard a chime that was apparently my cell phone telling me I had a text message. I looked at it, it was from Matthew. He said "Wishing an old friend a Good Afternoon. Hope you are well. I miss you." I read the message and slammed the phone back down on my table, contemplating how to answer it. Then another chime rang and that's where I actually woke up and was wide awake. Luckily it was at 5:20 this morning, close to when my alarm normally goes off so I wasn't too mad about missing any sleep.

This week is the last I know of Matthew's schedule. I knew he had a work trip to Munich, for which he left on Sunday. The text of the dream message made sense as it would have been afternoon in Munich when it was received. And it was just like the text messages that he would often send to me (well, not the "old friend" part, but the "I miss you") when he was traveling.

After a couple minutes, I actually picked up the phone to see if it had been a dream. It was.

I guess I still have questions about why things happened the way they did. From time to time, I wonder if he has regrets. I wonder if he thinks of me. I'm fully confident in saying that if he were to call or send a note asking me to see him again, I wouldn't. But, given the opportunity to talk to him, I would. I think I would hope that he would ask me to forgive him and give him another chance. There's a certain amount of pleasure I would get from hearing him out, then looking at him and saying "No, I don't think so. Sorry."

Anyway, it will never happen, but I would be lying if I said I didn't think about it.

I know...let it go. I have, really.

Movies

File Under: Recommended

I'll be the first to admit that I enjoy the big budget films put out by the major studios. Considering I see maybe 3 movies a year (in a GOOD year), I usually see the blockbusters and not the independents. Not that I don't enjoy a good independent film every so often. Point being, I saw a movie last night. I went to see "Marley and Me." I recommend this film, especially if you are an animal lover. Or love Jennifer Aniston. Or love Owen Wilson. Or love Golden Retrievers. Be warned, take tissues with you. I saw the movie with someone and we both cried.

Funny Books

File Under: Joined at the brain

Vahona gets me. From the time we first met, we have said that we are joined at the brain. We laugh at each other's jokes and finish each other's sentences.

Yesterday she joined us for dinner and we exchanged Christmas gifts. We both bought each other the same calendar: (yes, I "borrowed" the image from Amazon.com)

Vahona and I like to look at pictures of cute animals but have our limits. I thought of her when I saw it at the store. She thought the same thing. We're going to keep them at work so when we need some "cute overload" we can share our thoughts about the pictures.

BUT...the best is the gift she got me. It's a book of postcards:

Sick...yes. But we could not stop laughing over the cover. That is until we started paging through the different cards.

My favorite:












At this point, we were laughing so hard we were crying. I revisited the book later in the evening and was back laughing as hard as I was when I first opened it. Yup, Vahona gets me.