My favorite holiday...

... is my Birthday!!! Which is coincidentally approaching!

I love love love birthdays. Many don't make big deals out of birthdays once they pass the age of getting Barbies from grandma... but me and my family go all out. Everyone gets a card from everyone... presents/$$$ is flowin' like wine, dinner, excitement, attention all on that person!

I am a Scorpio, so you know i love being the center of attention. I don't understand the need or inclination to ignore one's b-day. For women (and some men) many don't want to reveal how old they are, so they decide to not mention their b-day to anyone, hoping it just won't come. I don't understand a society where growing older (and wiser I might add) is looked on by the masses as shameful. All should be celebratory that they made it another year here on earth... here are the wrinkle/laugh marks and battle scars to prove it. Aging is a part of life, why not enjoy it. Banana Clips has already embraced her mismatched place on this Earth... you should too!

Just to you know... November 3rd I will be embarking on my 23rd year of existence... if you want to wish me well on this journey, all gifts are accepted, especially ones from my Amazon.com wishlist ;-) Hee Hee

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/3H19YW1OQKUPK

Follow Up...

My family and I went to Alcatraz to take an audio tour. It is pretty funny to take a tour in that matter, especially when you don't start your tape at the same time as your group. All of a sudden you are standing there all together, then one of you just up and walk away. It is pretty funny, pondering why they just left, then your tape says, "Now walk down the hall and turn left." Then it all makes sense.

My sister took some pretty cool pictures in the cell house. There is one that turned out to look like there is a ghostly face in the corner of it. The scary part about it is that there was nothing near her (no lights, nothing to cause the foggy apparition).

Sunday I said goodbye to my sister, Dave (her fiance) and Sadie... the crazy puppy. It was sad to leave, I didn't even get to go in the pool (we did go see the Full House house... it was pretty surreal).

I got on the plane at around 10:30pm PST and was crammed into my seat. Immediately after take off, the lady in front of me leans her chair back, making it impossible to but the screen of my laptop up enough to watch the rest of "Felicity" without being very uncomfortable. After my laptop battery ran out (2 hours...) I decided to turn off my light (like the rest of the plane who was sleeping) and listen to my iPod (Jimmy) and try to doze off for the rest of the 5 hour flight. No such luck. It was the most uncomfortable plane ride I've ever been on. First of all, the chick sitting next to me kept silently burping, so I'd get a surprise whiff of a unidentified hot dog smell every ten mins. Then, to make the flight even THAT more enjoyable, instead of having the air blowing out the teeny tiny vents, they decided to blow the heat on full blast. Not only could I NOT sleep... I was sweating and trying to breathe through my mouth as as not to have to use my vomit bag... damn chick next to me!!!

When we arrived, I was the first person to jump up and grab my bag to get the hell off the plane. By this time it was 6:45am EST. I paid the $60 for the long term parking... ouch, and headed out on my way. Luckily I was not going to work, but I still got stuck in rush hour heading home. When I arrived to my bedroom door at 7:30am EST... I promptly took a nose-dive into my nice cool bed and drifted off to a wondrous sleep... until 4:30pm.

Now I'm back at work, tired, but anxious to start my new job. I'll be starting that new position one week from today. I'm nervous, but I am welcoming the change. Finally I will have a job where I won't have to literally run all over the damn building. I don't even think I'll be running into Banana Clips anytime soon!

I'll catch ya lata!

San Francisco

So I'm here... sitting in my sister's new apartment with her dog going crazy.

It is weird, having her live here and not back in Michigan. I wish I'd be able to come out here more often, but I fear my financial situation won't allow that but once a year. Luckily this year it was on my parents.

The flight out here was uneventful. I expected to get bumped up to first class, but alas there were too many people that showed up. Damn. Luckily my mom switched seats with me because there was no one seated between her and my dad. The plane was chocked full of dip-shits who put their coats and small bags in the overhead compartment instead of under their seats, which forced my mom, dad, and I to check out carry on bags which we so carefully pack so as to avoid this exact request. We got our bags back ok... but I feared it would be a repeat of the famous "Wait For My Luggage For 10 Hours Disaster" of 2004.

On the plane, the flight attendant approached a middle eastern looking man who had shoulder-length curly hair and said, "Have you ever seen the show LOST? You look like Saieed... don't worry, it's a complement." What? He looked like Saieed because he was middle eastern? I was just surprised by the comment in this day an age with all our awareness of political correctness. The ironic part is, I felt myself judging her for saying something like that, but remembered before we got on the plane saying to myself, "Damn... that guy looks like Saieed."

We arrived at my sister's apartment at 10:30pm PST (1:30am EST) and we were promptly greeted by her crazy dog Sadie.

I don't even know how to begin describing this cute dog. She is a Labrodoodle (Her mom was a full sized poodle and her dad was a golden lab). This new designer breed was created to bring the non-shedding-ness (hahaha not a word) of a poodle and the cute looks of a golden lab together to create this wild-haired cute mess of a dog! She looks like a golden lab who stuck her paw in a socket. Her hair on her back is a crazy wild mohawk, her ears are floppy and adorable... and her face, I can't describe it. There is one drawback to this adorable animal...

See, Sadie has two settings... Off and Crazy. There is no in between for her. She either is running around trying to jump on you and lick you, or she is dead asleep. It is hilarious because she goes between these two setting with a moments notice. Right now, she is Off... a second ago, I could barely type because she was jumping on me. I'm going to blame all my misspelled words and typos on her today ;-)

Today we will all be going to San Francisco (my sister lives just outside the city) to go to Alcatraz (the old prison) and to go to dinner and a comedy show. I'm excited because I haven't been to San Fran in a while. I will be enjoying the food, wine, atmosphere... for another day and a half...then it's back to my life in Mich... boring as usual.

Hope all is well with everyone... and I'll see ya on the flip side!

~Peace~

p.s~ There was a girl at the airport (in her 20s) wearing a SCRUNCHY!!! I a scrunchy folks... isn't California supposed to be somewhat of a fashion capital? Hahahaha! If I see any Banana Clips, I'll let you know!

Drum roll please...

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok... back up a sec... I interviewed for a job at my company. It is in the broadcast department (similar to the job I interviewed for but didn't get a few months ago). I will no longer be known to the world as a lowly Account Coordinator (aka Gopher). I am now a Talent Specialist. Fancy huh?

Basically I will be dealing with the Talent (duh!) (actors). I will be dealing with them, their managers, and their contracts. I LOVE knowing what people get paid... and gosh darn it... that is my new job! hahaha

Sorry to keep y'all on the edge of your pretty little seats... but I felt that if I told anyone I was even interviewing, I'd jinx it. The only one who knew I interviewed was my sis (shout out Steff). I'm very excited to start my new position... I will start on Nov. 2nd (day before my 23rd b-day... yay!).

So, there you have it. Nothing to get your panties in a twist about, but it is damn sure exciting to me!

PEACE!

p.s... yes there was a slight pay increase... no, I'm NOT gonna tell you how much I make!! hee hee ;-)

Nervous

Waiting around sucks. I'm sitting around today waiting for something to happen that many are telling me will happen, yet I haven't heard anything yet. The anticipation is killing me. I'm getting the pains in the stomach, sweaty palms, can't-sit-still attitude. I'm a mess.

But I don't want to get my hopes up for nothing... that's what I did last time. I don't want to be let down again...

Nerves... what a bitch!

Ummm... yeah

Today I witnessed some weird shit. This morning at the gas station I was going inside to pay and was standing in line (sorry.. I hate saying "on line"... it just sounds weird to me). The guy in front of me was twitching and muttering weird phrases to himself. The lady behind me was swaying to the music (and by swaying, I mean clapping and snapping, the whole Four Tops routine). It was like these two were Siamese twins joined at the crazy.

Runnin' into walls...

I think my depth perception is off. I swear, every time (no really... every time) I turn a corner, I run into the wall. It is ridiculous, especially since I do it constantly at the office. It is mainly when I'm turning right (then an immediate left). My vision is a normal 20/20. No need for glasses, contacts, or lasik. I guess I just don't have what it takes to turn a corner in a normal fashion.

Another odd quirk of mine I guess...

Sometimes I feel like this happens to me not only in a literal sense, but in a figurative one as well. In my life, I know how I want things to go, and I know how to get them done, but I just keep runnin' into walls. Example: my career. I know that advertising is not where I want to be. I know that I want to write a book and get published. I know how to go about doing so, but something is stopping me. I am making a right turn (then an immediate left) and am smacking my arm on the corner of the wall (looking like I'm drunk). Getting your bearings enough to walk like a sober individual as well as getting your bearings to sit and write a book are essentially the same. You need concentration and motivation. Motivation you say? To try not to walk into a wall? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Part of my laziness to make the full right turn is what is causing me to slam into the wall. If I were to just concentrate and motivate myself not to take short cuts, things would be different. My shoulder wouldn't be sore, that's for sure. Same goes for the book. My laziness is contributing to me not getting it done. I have hundreds of ideas on how it should go, new titles, characters, story arcs and twists... but coming home from work and my workouts just leave me drained to the point where all I want to do is take a shower, eat some dinner, and curl up on my bed and watch the LOST season one DVDs (new favorite show). If I really want to leave this job and get my dream... motivation and concentration need to be in the forefront of my mind.

If today I don't run into any walls, I will take it as a sign to get moving on the book.

OR I should just get started anyways... I think I'll just DO it.

Sometimes a nap can fix anything

It's true. When you feel as if every single person on this planet it annoying the bejesus out of you and you have no where to turn, sleep is my answer. When your muscles are so sore from working out 2 hours a day 6 days a week to where your calves feel like someone severed every nerve and fiber and you have to walk with a slight limp... a quick 3 hours can do the trick. When PMS strikes (no embellishment necessary), a nap can be better than chocolate.

I've always been a strong advocate for naps. Ever since the days of coming home from play/musical practice in high school, I'd zonk out on the couch for a solid 2 hours before being woken up by my dad telling me I would never get to sleep at night if I kept napping. In a weird way, he's right. I believe that is how I became the bizarre night creature I am today (staying up until at least 2am every night of the week, even if I don't take a nap). I perfected my napping techniques in college though. I was spoiled by having my dorm right on central campus of U of M, so in between classes I could easily walk across the street for lunch and a quick power nap. I'm proud to say that I scheduled classes around my prime napping hours. Classes from approx 11am-1 or 2pm... block of time... more classes around 5pm-6:30pm. It was perfect.

When I moved into my apartment on north campus for junior and senior year, napping was a little more difficult to maneuver, since I had to either take a bus or drive back and forth to the main campus. But the nap prevailed. I worked it in. I always did.

Now, sadly, naps have been scarce for me. Much to my dismay, I haven't had the time. Usually if I was stressed from work, deadlines, family, friends, etc... I could always turn to my queen-sized friend dressed in a white duvet. Since I've started working out, I go directly from work to the gym to do my 45 mins of cardio and 45 min sessions with the trainer. While, yes, I am working out my stress, which most health care professionals believe is the best cure for stress. But I still miss my naps.

I try on the weekends to squeeze them in between my workouts and hanging out w/ friends and reading at Starbucks and my freelance work... but it's been more difficult.

I just miss my old friend. Come back to me... I want just a taste of what my napping life was like. Just a taste...

I think I will nap today after work. Every girl needs a treat now and again.

Nicknames... I'll answer to anything

I've grown up in a family where no one was called by their real name (or at least... hardly ever). Since I was born, I've had a nickname assigned to me and have accumulated much more through the years from family and friends alike. There is almost no instance where two people call me by the same name. It's odd... and I will share them all with you now:

Red Fraggle: Pretty self explanatory. I enjoyed the crazy adventures of Gobo Fraggle and his gang on the coveted 80s TV series Fraggle Rock as a kid (and probably would now if it were still on). Calling me "Red" was only natural since that was one of the characters' names as well as my hair color. In recent years, it only seems to be my Dad calling me this, but it is still present.

Pook: derived from "Pookie". When I was younger I had a small bear known as Pookie Bear... apparently the name stuck to me as well, for some god-forsaken reason, and my sister used to call me that when we were kids, especially when she was mad at me. My parents' favorite quote from Steff was. "Pookie, you piss me off" when she was 5 or 6 years old. Way to watch the "profanities" around the youngsters mom and pop! Now my sister calls me "Pook"... She is 24, and I'm 22...

Yeba: Now this is an interesting story... or at least to me it is. When I was in 10th grade, I had Spanish class with 2 of my closest friends. We all had to choose our Spanish names from a list. We were to be referred to as those names while in that class. I picked "Eva" because of my fascination with Eva Peron (lead character in "Evita"... historical figure in Argentina). In Spanish, the "V" is pronounced like a "B", so really my name was pronounced "Eba" (A-ba). My friend Candi decided that she would add a "Y" for the hell of it and call me "Yeba" (Yay-ba). It began to catch on in class, and by week 2 my teacher was calling me "Yeba". Marvelous! I am still called that by Candi to this day... 5 years after leaving high school.

G: The letter standing for "Geek". My friend Rachel and I were not dorks. We weren't the most popular kids in school, but we were pretty high up there, as was all of our friends. However, we decided to join the plays/musicals at school. Like in most schools, ours had a connotation that went along with the actors... Drama Geeks. We were afraid we would be thought of as geeks, but decided to join despite our fears. Luckily the "geek" term was not associated to us, but we became closer and saw each other's inner geek, therefore we decided to call each other "G" for short, in reference to our true selves. Many sub-forms of this name have arose: G-dawg, G1 (me) and G2 (her), G-dizzle, etc... You get the picture. I am still only known as G in Rachel's eyes. In fact, she called me the other day and left me a message: "Hi Lisa, it's me... whoa, that was weird. I don't think I've said your real name in a while. I won't do it again... G, what's up..."

Chill: I am called this by my BFF Julie. I call her this as well. It all started around Halloween time Junior year of college when she came up to visit me at U of M. We went to a random house party with Rachel and Lindsay (the one who always comments on here). While drunk, Rachel begins describing some guy she knows and likes, saying: "Oh you have to meet him, he's so chill." Me and Julie stopped, turned toward one another, and burst out laughing. It sounded like she was some fraternity guy using that lingo. So after the mocking of Rachel ended (which took a while) we landed on a decision: we would now be known to each other as "Chill". Sort of weird I know, but it works for us, right Chill?

Bear: My ex boyfriend's name for me. It has a reference to the Nickelodeon show, "Little Bear", but I still don't know how we landed on this as a nickname for me. He has plenty for me... I'll just list a few and spare you the explanation (but after you read a few, you may want one): Goat, Nick Papageorgio, Crabgrass, Snorlocks (from PokeMon), etc...

Little Kitty: My close friend Charisse calls me this. Of course it is because I have a distinct love of cats, especially her cats (see post called "Javier"). She uses this high pitch squeak to say: "Hello Kitty" sometimes when she calls. We also use this voice when speaking to the cats...

LD: Known as this around the agency. My initials... duh!


The funny thing is... I have nicknames for everyone else. In high school especially, we gave everyone nicknames, whether they knew it or not. We named the whole Pom team in fact, so that we could talk about them and no one but our small group would know who were were talking about (Examples: Sheriff (my sister), Deputy (her best friend), kindergarten Pom, Red-faced pom, Pillsbury-dough pom (hahahaha), etc) Some of them weren't the most creative, but they sure did entertain us.

Newlyweds... dunzo!

If Nick Lachy and Jessic Simpson can't make it... there isn't hope for the rest of us...j/k

Well, at least about us not being able to make it...

I don't have anything good to say...

...so maybe I shouldn't say anything at all...

Eh... I never liked that saying. It is true that I don't have much to say at the moment... my life is a little on the dull side this week. No snarky comments to be made, no mean observations of my work place surfacing. I guess I've just been feeling under the weather. I don't even know what that saying means... but the point is I feel like shit. I'll be better in a few days.

So what's new with you? Nothing? Bored at work without my blog to read? Just kidding. I've actually been busy at work. This is the first chance to sit down and type something... and I have nothing to say.

Ohh... I got an iPod Mini the other day. A cute green one. Since you all know how fond I am of naming my new electronic devices... His name is Jimmy. Jimmy the Mini. Sorry, it was 3am when I was loading his software onto my computer (Bob) so I had to think of something remotely clever to register him as. I like to think of my possessions as male. I don't know why, I just do. For example: I want a male cat and I only want boys (children). I have their names all picked out... but I don't know if I should tell you for fear you will steal my wondrously unique names. I guess, you tell me a secret, then I'll tell you mine. So yeah, not that I'm even close to having a kid, or a kitten for that matter, planning on having boys is the only thing keeping me from swearing off kids all together (please read the Kids Day At The Office post). Nothing against all you females out there (hell.. I am one, if you can't tell...) but I think little girls are just too much work. I know what a little devil I was growing up, and how much I cost (dance, costumes, tickets to plays, clothes, hair products, makeup, etc). Big $$$$$ if ya ask me.

Again, not even close to having kids, but this is where my tangent landed me. So there ya go!