Meat, meat, meat, meat, meat!

Same to You!!

I had forgotten how lovely it is to answer a business phone and have to wade through the boiler room scammers. I got a particuarly fun one this morning. A woman called and wanted to make sure she was sending me "the right copier catalog." I informed her that we owned our copier to which she replied, "Good for you!" in an uber sarcastic voice and then promptly hung up on me. Ha! My momma didn't raise no fool.

I was almost wishing for a more complicated call, the one where they ask for the owner. My dad has started a tradition, albeit messed up and amusing one, for getting rid of telemarketer scammers. Since my dad is listed as the owner of his company he gets a lot of people that call and want to talk to him. Once he gets on the phone and they start to spool out their crap, my dad informs them that he isn't really in charge, he is just a salesman. (Technically that is partially true as both my parents are equal partners and he does in fact do sales) When the telemarketer inquires about who makes the business decisions, he mentions that who they really want to talk to is Rastas Cloverleaf. When they ask when a good time to reach Rastas is, he states that Rastas only comes in occasionally for his mail. The person is therefore welcome to mail him something. Then comes the inevitable piece of mail addressed to Mr. Rastas Cloverleaf.

Since the charade has being going on for many a year, either my dad got bored or people were starting to not believe him so the story has been added upon. Rastas now has a brother named Rufus and they run the business together. A few years ago when I was answering phones and had a phone call like this I mentioned that Rastas was out of the country. The caller then inquired to where he had gone. I just couldn't help myself and proceeded to tell this guy that Rastas had gone back to Dubai to bring another one of his wives back to the states. He was of course astonished and asked me how many wives the guy had to which I replied that I wasn't really sure, but there were at least two that were already living here. That was the most fun I have ever had with a telemarketer. I feel slightly bad because I know they are just doing their job, but I thought it was pretty funny.

The fact that the woman this morning hung up on me does not offend me. In fact it kind of made my morning.

Beautiful and Bitterly Cold!

Only If it is an Even Numbered Tuesday

I am a foodie. I take great joy in eating and have to be very careful that I don't just eat because things taste good. I have been trying to train my brain to remember that this will not be the last time I will ever taste whatever it is I am eating and so it is okay to not finish everything in front of me. I blame part of this on being told as a child that I had to eat everything on my plate before I could get down from the table. I took everything literally and it just stuck. Like the time I buttered my dad's toast for him and he told me to make sure I got butter in all the corners and so I quite literally made sure that every millmeter of that toast had butter on it. From that day forward I have been diligent about toast buttering. I was an impressionable child apparently. So when someone asks me about my favorite restaurant or my favorite food, as a foodie this is a severly complicated question.

It all starts and ends with meat. As I often say, "A meal without meat just isn't complete." I categorize my favorites by what I will eat there and then by price. So as succinctly as possible here it is:

Burgers:
TGIF - Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger with a side of Jack Daniel's sauce
Five Guys - Bacon Cheese with mushrooms, pickles, and tomatoes
Carl's Jr. - Western Bacon Cheeseburger

Chinese Food:
Asian Star - Tangerine Beef, Pork and Snow peas, Pon pon chicken
Dragon Diner - Mongolian Beef, Shrimp with Lobster sauce
New Flavor - Sesame Chicken
Chinese Gourmet
Panda Express - Walnut Shrimp, Orange chicken

Greek:
Mad Greek - Gyro with white sauce and tomatoes
Crown Burger - ditto

Japanese:
Simply Sushi
Oh Sushi

Thai:
Sawadee - Massaman curry
Curry in a Hurry - ditto

Mexican (sort of):
Cafe Rio - Pork quesdilla
Taco Bell - Chicken burrito
Molcasalsa - Horchata

Miscellaneous:
Wingers - Wings with Ranch dip
Papa Murphy's - Thin crust Chicken bacon artichoke
Red Lobster - seafood is delicious, cheese biscuits
Olive Garden - Steak Gorgonzola pasta

Ugh. I am making myself sick just thinking about all this food. So in response to someone's question about favorite food it will depend on what mood I am in. Unless it is an even numbered Tuesday and then the answer will always be roadkill.

Boils, Blankets and Burns

Let's face it some days or weeks are better than others and apparently I was due a bad one.

I will start off by admitting something that people are usually jealous of me for. I don't get zits. Never have and I don't even notice when other people do because it doesn't occur to me that it is a big deal. Right now however, it is a BIG deal. I have a gigantic "thing" on my chin. One of my students asked me what was wrong with my face and then proceeded to tell me (quite innocently) that he thought I may have a spider bite or a hornet sting, but either way there was something wrong with my face. (sigh) From the mouths of babes or autistic children. So not only am I appalled that this is happening to me just shy of the big 30, but my whole face hurts. This sucks big time! I have a whole newly found sympathy for people who have/will/do deal with acne. Ouch. It hurts to talk and eat. I am super self-conscious about it. I almost wish it was a boil so I could at least say it was something cool.

I also started off this week with a developing cold. I am prone to sinus infections and so of course that is how it has started. Gradually as the week as gone on it has progressed and right now I could sing bass in the MoTab. I'm exhausted. That kind where you feel like there is a weight on your chest and you just want to curl up in your blankets and sleep. Too bad life won't allow me that luxury.

I have a new favorite soup recipe that I got from a magazine and it doesn't take very long to make so before work one day I made some to take for lunch. When it came time to eat at work I heated it up too long and of course burned my tongue. So not only can I not smell a lot right now, I also can't taste anything due to scorched taste buds.

To top it off this week I was: bitten by a student, yelled at by a parent, scratched by another student, told I was having a bad hair day by a student, ruined the SD card for my phone, forgot a friend's birthday, guilt tripped by a co-worker, broke a pair of shoes, and lost my favorite ring.

Now that I have ranted, the week is over and it's time to move on. Pessimism won't help so I am banishing it into my ruined shoes and throwing it away.

Happy Birthday Opa!!

This is what we would call an "Opa sunset"

What Just Happened?

I have been stewing over a date I went on for over a week now. I thought it went pretty well until the end when he wasn't even going to get out of the car and walk me to the door. I might have offended him by basically ordering him to get out of the car. He did get out but only to stand by the car and watch me climb over some snow drifts to get to the door. The thing that frustrates me the most is I really thought it was going pretty good until then. And as a reference, I don't often feel like I qualify as "hot," but on our date I looked totally smokin'. Three days later I got a very succinct email saying that he just didn't feel a connection and wishing me luck. That's fine, I'm not going to try and change his mind. I am just left feeling confused because for almost 18 months now we have been emailing and texting on a somewhat infrequent basis. The last three months have seen an increase in our communication to a daily basis at which point I suggested that perhaps it was time to meet. Every attempt to meet before this had been canceled for one reason or another and I was determined that if we didn't meet this time I was going to give up on the possibility of a romantic relationship. How well can you really know someone that you have never seen? I thought perhaps it was well enough that even if things didn't work out we could still be friends, but apparently not. The email I got was pretty clear that there would never be any further contact. A part of me wants to respond back and tell him that he is missing out on a great thing because I am awesome. That is the slightly angry part. The other part of me just wants to know why. Is it because I drank 4 glasses of Diet Coke at dinner? Is it because I ordered my burger without lettuce? Obviously asking myself these questions don't help. And do I really want to know the answer? I guess I am just perplexed because for some reason, even though our correspondence was somewhat spotty, I couldn't stop thinking about this guy. I thought it was a sign or fate trying to tell me that I had a future with him in it. I know it sounds silly and most of it was probably because I have not had any prospects lately and having this one gave me some hope. This latest experience isn't going to make me give up. Sure this didn't turn out how I expected, but I know that someday I will meet someone. I hope that day is sooner rather than later, but if it isn't I will just continue to remember that eventually my time will come. I just may have to remind myself more often than I would like.