Conversations With My Boss Today

#1-2:30 pm

PlanB: You are aware I am out tomorrow and Monday, right?

Boss: Yeah. Why didn't you take those days while I was in Scotland?

P: Because I was supposed to be going to CA.

B: You aren't now? So you'll be here.

P: No. I am still taking the time off.

B: Are you sure you want to use the days? How about just one?

P: I have over 20 days. I am pretty sure I can spare them. I am going to take them.

B: *Blank stare*

#2-5:45 pm

B: (walking into my office) You sure you want to take both days? I was just gone for a week. Wasn't that enough vacation?

P: No because I was actually working while you were gone.

B: How about just Monday?

P: How about both? That sounds much better. Go away and let me work.

These types of conversations are not unusual people.

Sweet Sweet Vacation

I am heading home from a long day at the office to start enjoying my long weekend. You see, I was supposed to be flying home tomorrow for Coachella but because I am a complete idiot at times I forgot to book my flight and with last minute flight prices being what they are I am not going and I have no one to blame but myself. Sigh.

Up until yesterday afternoon I was just going to work instead of taking the scheduled days off. Then my boss was a tremendous ass. So I decided to do something I have never done - take days off with nothing scheduled. Crazy, I know.

Song of the Day

Take This Job and Shove It. Artist doesn't matter. Brazil better be worth this.

Song of the Night (Morning?)

All at Once - The Fray

"Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. Maybe you want it, maybe you need it, maybe it's all you're running from. Perfection will not come".

-Plan B has been very introspective as of late and evidently has had one too many serious talks with friends recently :) She apologizes for late night/early morning seriousness and promises to return to scheduled levity just as soon as she can fall asleep and get some rest.

Part Deux

April 5 a big group of us went to a Caps game. Good times. A few in the group had never been to a hockey game before (I know...I know...)so we spent a good part of the game explaining things like icing and sending people to the good beer stand. Agie and I left after the second period and I still have no idea who won. Oops.

The next night, Thursday, I met up with Matt and others including XMs ex for a happy hour at Busboys and Poets. I wanted to stop in (I walk right by it on my way home) and have one drink. Four hours later I found myself at a club in Adams Morgan listening to a Bulgarian band surrounded by Eastern European mafia. Very strange evening indeed. I was luckily sober and sane enough to extract myself from the night before it got out of hand. Others were not so lucky and there were some emails sent from dark rooms the next day. LOL

Friday Agie and I met Melissa at the State Theater way out in Virginia for a concert featuring The Getaway Car and Emmet Swimming. I have been a huge fan of GC since my friend Jim had them at his Live on Penn concert series and I fall a bit more in love with Todd the lead singer every time I see them. Sigh. He's so dreamy and just my type. A moment please..... Okay. So then Emmet Swimming came on. I knew nothing about them, but Melissa raved and they deserve it. They were fantastic. Kind of a cross between Dave Matthews and Bare Naked Ladies but so much better than that sounds :) Good clean fun had by all - except us snarky girls in the corner making fun of the three (four?) girls in tiaras and bad outfits.

Saturday and Sunday I have no idea what I did. Bad notetaking on the part of Plan B. Drat.

Dear God I'm Behind

Today and tomorrow are catch up (so much more for me and my fading memory {damn you old age} than you gentle readers)! Here goes...

Weekend of March 31st.
That Friday was the first game for our season seats. It was a preseason game against Baltimore. Agie and I went out to dinner first and had some leftovers so we had the waitress wrap them up (she was nice enough to include plastic ware) and we went looking for a homeless person to feed for the evening. No luck as evidenced by the quotes from that night. We ended up leaving it on a low wall where drug dealers and homeless people usually hang out and metroed to the game. We had a great time sitting with Ryan and his wife Stephanie. I really like the way we divied up the tickets this year - all of us will be sitting with each other at some point - makes it much more social. Somewhere around the 7th inning they find the Fan of the Game and it almost always is some kid. We complained a bit about it (not because we were anything near fan of the game, just for the sheer lack of creativity) and Ryan told us this little gem of a story about last year.

He and Stephanie were at the game one night and the Fan of the Game came up as a man sitting in Nats gear, not really cheering all that much. Stephanie starts taunting the screen loudly saying things like "HE'S THE FAN OF THE GAME?!?!" and "He's not even waving or clapping. HE'S NOT EVEN STANDING!!!!". Just then the camera pans back and shows the wheelchair said Fan of the Game is sitting in.

Saturday was spent doing things around the house as is my routine these days. That night XM and I met up for dinner and NCAA playoff watching. Turns out third is the charm - we went to my fav sports bar - it was packed. Went across to Cap City - it was packed. Went to my NEW fav sports bar (the new Bobby Van's) and it was perfect except for the obnoxious Florida fans. Very fun. Good times. During the evening I somehow figured out that if you hit the bar just right in a certain spot the Heineken tap light would go off and on. It is now dubbed the Fonzie bar. I refrained from "hey" ing.

Sunday was brunch at Katie's which was super great. She always has a fantastic array of food and beverages and the people are always fun. I guess that could be chalked up to the fact that we're all friends with each other....anyways after brunch Heather and I stopped to check out a one bedroom on Logan Circle that was for sale. $450,000 for a smaller apartment than mine. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Song of the Interminably Long Afternoon

Sing Me Sweet - Matt Nathanson

Lovely melody and lyrics. You can't help but smile when you hear this song.

Song of the Afternoon

Good Intentions - Toad the Wet Sprocket

The road to Hell is paved with them, no?

Tennis Shoes or Sneakers?

I came across this nifty survey a couple days ago and have just now spent the time to look through it. I was definitely raised in California. It's a pretty interesting study in how certain areas of the country pronounce things and different names we all have for the same things (i.e. soda v. pop v. coke v.....). All fun and games until you hit number 59. Do any of you know of this "game"? And my mom thought us playing capture the flag in the cul-de-sac after the street lights came on was dangerous.

Olhe de Brasil!

Looks like I need to start learning some Portuguese. I have received official word that I am going to Brazil in August for work. I am so completely excited!!!!

Roasted

What in the world happened to Kenny Rogers' face?!? Dear God it is frightening.

Weekend Roundup

Yikes! I am really behind which is a shame since I have been having a lot of fun since getting over the wp as Matt called it. Here's this weekend now that it is over and as soon as I put my boss on his plane to Scotland later this week I plan to catch up (I've been keeping notes so I don't forget anything. Sad, I know).

This weekend started Thursday night. My boss decided someone - me - needed to go to a kick-off party at XM radio's studio for a new sports show hosted by James Carville and Luke Russert (Tim's son). So I dragged Heather with me. For 2 ladies who really didn't want to be social we ended up having a blast. For the first time I actually walked up to people and introduced myself, and even networked a bit. I usually hang back and let myself be introduced but not this time and it payed off in a funny, unexpected way. Not only did we chat with Carville but also with Tim Russert who had the photographer take a shot of he, Heather and I which ended up on Wonkette of all places. I got an email from an old friend informing me that it was up, told Heather and we haven't stopped laughing since. After the festivities we met up with some folks and headed to one of our fav restaurants (El Tam) for some food and unneeded margaritas. Oy. Ended up staying at XM's place and somehow managed to get to work on time feeling too well for what the evening before was. Heather was the same way.

Friday was a short day at work thankfully. Came home, took a nap and had dinner with a friend before heading home early. It was also my cousin's 20th birthday which he spent in Iraq....

XM and I had made plans early in the week to do dinner and a movie Saturday night. We changed plans and ended up going to the DC United game. So much fun! I had forgotten how much I love watching soccer games. One of the things I can thank my ex Jake for - the love, not the forgetting. (For his birthday one year I surprised him with 3rd row center field tickets to the men's game where USA beat Brazil for the first time. Pretty awesome.). We ran into a coworker and her husband who gave us a ride part way home. We had a late dinner at a great Ethiopian place I hadn't been to and parted ways at the corner of my street since we were both kinda worn out.

Today I went to Easter service at a new church and then met Jim for brunch. It was a beautiful day so I didn't mind walking to Woodley (probably around a mile and a half) until I took a wrong turn and ended up hearing things in Spanish about gringa and boobs. Ew. Moving on, brunch was fantastic. Great new place called Open City. Came home, took a nap, threw some laundry in and caught up on some dvds I've had forever.

All in all a very relaxing, fun virtually peep free weekend (thanks for the photo Katie).

Slide Away

Does the world really need another Goo Goo Dolls album? Please don't get me wrong, I don't completely hate the Goo. Slide is a near-perfect example of what a pop song should be. It is catchy, damn near infectious actually, upbeat, guy proclaims undying love for girl (and unless you are dead inside we all love those lyrics and hope to someday meet someone that feels that way about us), complete froth and nowhere close to being offensive in any way. It's just that pretty much all of their other songs are the poor man's Slide and the few that aren't are really bad. It is good to know the album cover is a photo of a girl with eyes as dead and lifeless as their talent.

It Wouldn't Be Easter Without Peeps

Ugh. Why won't those disgusting candies go away already? Click above for a combination of my three least favorite Easter treats. All it needs is a black jellybean garnish and it will be complete. Blech.

Christmas in April

I just found a completely kick ass (what am I a 14 year old skater?)site full of free concert recordings (of bands that allow recording and free sharing of course) including, but not limited to, Jack Johnson, Matt Nathanson, Glen Phillips, Carbon Leaf (a local band here that I adore), Death Cab for Cutie, Guster, Matt Costa, Ben Kweller, I could go on and on. OOOOOh...It also has Emmet Swimming, another local band that has been around forever that I was just introduced to this past weekend at a Getaway Car (also on the site) concert - more on that later. I'm stoked.

Song of the Moment

Big Time Lullabye - The Getaway Car.

Caged Like... Well, Animals

thegumbynator: The pretty pets remain safe. But for how long? Are you ready to play the game?

The maniac(s) have struck again. I want it noted that they were never this dirty and disheveled while in my care. Nor were they ever caged!

Ransom

I feel like I'm in a bad Mel Gibson movie. My Gumby and Pokey figures that Jim got me for my birthday last year have been missing for a couple weeks. I received the following im message this afternoon:

thegumbynator: It is time again to initiate contact. The pretty pets have not been harmed. Your cooperation will determine if that remains true. Please see (Link:http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/thegumbynator/516b144b.jpg)

I've got my people working on finding the perps. I will keep you updated on their situation....

All I Wanted Was a Pepsi

Song of the night. Oldie but goodie from 1983. Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies. I'm not crazy. Institutionalized. You're the one that's crazy. Institutionalized. This one's for Tam and Michelle.

Paul Part 2

He is amazing. He gives so much back to not just his community but towards the betterment of the world. He and his wife (Joanne Woodward) fund camps for sick poor children in more than 15 countries. He also ate his dog food for $10. He is one of the biggest most recognizable celebrities ever and so humble and gracious. Lindsay Lohan et al should take lessons.

Newman's Own

Juat got home and Paul Newman is on the Tonight Show. He looks like he just rolled off the schooner.  He has on a sweatshirt and his sunglasses are around his neck on those foam glass holders. They don't make em like they used to.

Quote of the Game

Tom: "In the periodic chart of musical instruments they are on the same side."

The Office PSAs

These are fantastic. Link above to the spoofs of those "The More You Know" PSAs that run on NBC.