pixiecrinkle | Entries tagged with weird

This was the ad on the top of my gmail this morning:

The Original Fecalgram - fecalgram.com - Anonymously send them a box of poop and see their reaction online.

Huh?? I can't even figure out what it was picking up from my mail that made it post that. I had four messages in my inbox, 3 about knitting, and one a comment to my fish heads lj post from last night.

I keep coming across news stories that use the word "ancient" in a way that I didn't think was correct.

For instance, in this story about trying to identify a skull that may or may not be Mozart's, the following phrase appears:

forensics experts admitted Sunday on national television that they still can't say with certainty whether an ancient skull belonged to the composer, as some believe.

My first gut reaction was "Well, if it's 'ancient' it couldn't be Mozart's because it wasn't quite that long ago that he was around."

So I looked up the definition of "ancient" and it seems that it is acceptable to use it to mean "something really old" whereas I thought it was meant to be used to indicate something specifically at or before what we refer to as Ancient Greece or Rome.

Opinions?? Do I need to let go of this particular grammatical pet peeve?

OK. This is just weird.

After having seen the arch-rival last night (and honestly, that's not a good description of our relationship, just the easiest way to encapsulate it in two words) I decided to look up her blog this afternoon. I found it a few months ago, and have been reading it sporadically.

A post from a few weeks ago indicated she'd gotten work accepted into a literary magazine. My favorite literary magazine. The one that I've subscribed to forever, and then one day, opened it up to find a familar name in the masthead. Coincidentally, the name of the boy we both dated, who works there now as an associate editor.

What on earth is the universe trying to tell me???

I have finally made it to the end of my ordeal.

See, since the dresses for my sister's wedding are strapless, and I tend to have 5 o'clock shadow under my arms by about 2 pm, I decided to try getting my pits waxed.

In general, I don't buy into most culturally mandated hair removal rules for women. I really don't usually care if my legs are shaved or not, for instance. But I'm not a fan of pit hair. After several years of forcing myself to get over it, I can deal with other people's. But I can't stand my own.

So, I dutifully stopped shaving for a week, then went in two weeks ago to our local Aveda Institute to give it a go. At one point, I had two women inspecting my hairy pits from a distance of about 2 inches. It was weird. And weirder still, they deemed my hair not long enough to wax. We tried a few strips, and I found out it's not as painful as I expected, but it was a no go. They told me to keep growing and return in a week.

Unfortunately, I was booked last weekend with shower stuff, so I had to wait until today. I walked in with three weeks growth and felt grotesque. I felt even more so when it turned out that a young man would be my waxer--no reason for that, but yet, that was my gut reaction. However, he immediately put me at ease when he told me he'd had his armpits waxed and he didn't think it was as bad on the pain scale as getting his chest done.

OK, I thought, I can deal with someone who's done this before.

And so he waxed and pulled, waxed and pulled. We chatted about our common neighborhood and ridiculous real estate prices and he told me he and his boyfriend are buying a condo in a building I've been considering. Wax and pull, wax and pull. It's beginning to seem a bit like a weird variation of the Karate Kid. The first pit, which was the one they'd started two weeks ago, took about 15 minutes. The second took about 5, and a mere three strips. My waxer and I bonded over our newfound siblinghood--we both have resistant right pits, and easy left ones. He soothed me with hot towels and baby powder, and I went on my merry way, with sticky, slightly swollen armpits. Slightly swollen, utterly hairless armpits. Hooray.

I'm now off to my stitch n' bitch, wearing a tank top for the first time in three weeks. Life is good. :-)

Some time ago,

automat76 expressed an interest in collecting religious artwork. Specifically versions of The Last Supper, and holographic art in particular.

So imagine my surprise when I was digging through what I thought was just a box lot of picture frames and purse handles to find these at the bottom.

( Behold! )

Wow. The weird thing, is that she already has a much larger framed copy of the first one, in a frame with a light. The second two are something referred to on the back of them as "3-D Lentographs." They're really impressive in their depth. Really.

So now, she has been inducted into the weird thing my family likes to call the "auction gift." :-)

A few weeks back, I noticed a "Found cat" sign on a pole near my house.
( Here is the first one I saw )

Then I saw this corrected version(I had to photoshop this to "reenact" it, as the sign was gone when I got my camera out:

( out come the grammar police )

What makes me giggle is not so much the fact that the original sign noted a *tiger* had been found, but that the corrected version had to go so far as to indicate the cat was "large," thereby justifying why the original sign mistook it for a tiger.

This probably isn't as funny anymore in the explanation. But for more fun photos of my neighborhood, go here. The turtle is my favorite.

Work=crazy, so not much posting from me lately, and probably not much for at least a few more weeks.

Easter was uneventful with the fam, which is good.

A tidbit: Saturday I got one of the weirdest compliments ever (and I'm choosing to take it as such). The nice young man who was my cashier at Target said, "My girlfriend kind of dresses like you." Wha? He went on to explain that this meant "with lots of crazy colors." I was wearing my Kureyon scarf, and a striped t-shirt of

automat76's. And my hair was still that electric burgundy-purple which it is right after I dye it. Too-funny.

Overheard passing two suit-clad men in the mall:

Suit-clad man #1: See you at the clubhouse.
Suit-clad man #2:I'll see you in court....the ultimate clubhouse.

Put this on 2005's list of dumb things Amy has done:

This morning, about 11:30,

automat76 and I went to Betty's to grab brunch. I dropped her off in front, then went over to the Mac's parking lot and parked the car. We had lunch, and as we were leaving around 12:45, I couldn't find my keys. Not in my purse, not in my pants or coat pockets, not inside at the table. I keep the valet key in my wallet, so I said "Let's see if they are in the car."

Which they were. BECAUSE THE CAR WAS STILL RUNNING! With the passenger side door unlocked no less.

I guess it proves how quiet my little civic still is, because neither of us heard it running when we walked up--I noticed it was running when I saw the fasten seatbelt light lit up.

And I also have to say that sometimes I worry that I rely on "intuition" (or whatever one might call it) a bit much. I never worry about things like lost keys, missing cell phones, waking up late, etc. unless I get a very particular tingle in the middle of my stomach. And I didn't get it today, which is why I suggested looking in the car for the keys. I've done this all my life, and wonder what I'll miss when it's finally wrong.

Okay. It's spring. That means, well, you know....

( So there's a back story on this one (aka 'Why the boy I have a crush on thinks I don't like boys.') )

Then....last month, I was in the downtown library, between work and class, when I caught sight of JM in the lobby, near the JavaMaster kiosk there. Not having any time to chat, I didn't get a chance to say "hi" but figured he might be working there, so I checked back a few times after work, but never caught him. Then, about 3 weeks ago, I went to pick up a book during lunchtime (the library is less than a block from my office) and there he was. So I got lunch there and talked to him briefly, found out he works there days, then at the restaurant nights. And re-established that he is a stellar specimen of my perfect guy in the looks department not to mention that he's got an incredible personality (the order of these things is probably having a lot to do with the season again there).

For the next week or so, I drove everyone I know crazy with babble about my crush on JM, finally being returned, a mere 3 years later. So everyone's response is, "Ask him to have a drink with you." My response being, "OK fine, but at what point do I drop in the part about 'oh, by the way, I know you think I'm a lesbian, but I'm not?"

So, last night, STS and his partner and I decided to go out for dinner at the restaurant where JM works. But, said partner got sidetracked and didn't come, so it was just the two of us. We were seated on the patio (did I mention that the place was voted "Most Romantic Dinner Spot" 3 years in a row?") and JM was working. Not our section, but nearby. By this point I've gotten STS's full approval that he is indeed perfect for me (not that he's biased or anything.) But JM was really busy and (with good reason) not even noticing us.

Until he brought out our dessert. Which we were sharing. Doh!!!

So, we said a quick "Hi, how are you." and he apologized for not noticing me earlier. I swooned like a school girl over the ice cream after he left. STS gagged a little more at my seemingly 14 year old state. We were both pretty much convinced that I'd convinced him that I was interested in boys, but unfortunately now I'm positive he thinks I'm dating STS. I can't win!

(If a romantic comedy were to be made of my life right now, JM would be played by Jimmy Fallon. Would I be Janeane Garafalo (yay!) or (horror of all horrors) someone perky and cheerful like Meg Ryan?)

So this morning, I had an email from the library that a book I'd requested was in. I took this as fate. I went over around lunchtime to pick it up, then got in line at the JavaMaster. JM was working, and again super-busy. But, strangely enough, I ended up being the last person in the rush. So we got to chat a minute, which was cool, about how busy the restaurant was last night, etc. etc. I am sooooooo bad at small talk, so this is a very very huge step for me. I didn't even feel my face turn pink until I'd left. We really babbled about nothing, but I didn't manage to slip in the "single girl" thing because I couldn't figure out how to do it without seeming desperate. So I left with my latte (which he wouldn't let me pay for--good sign? or just like old times?) and possibly my dignity and went back to work in a giddy mood with a big grin on my face.

I figure, if nothing else, it's good to have a crush again. And this one is even fairly healthy, though it may not sound like it here, because he is:
a. smart, sensitive and exceedingly sexy
b. non-threatening (yes, I'm Lisa Simpson) and
c. not a project boy, of which I need no more.

And, I have a few more books on reserve that aren't in yet, so I have an excuse to go over the library more during the day. I may take our admin with me, as she has been designated the dept. relationship counselor as of late.

This concludes the hormonal/spring-induces panting over cute-boy for today. I now return you to the rest of my overanalyzing, self-obsessed journal.

Current Mood: amused with myself
Current Music: some song I don't recognize which sounds like Tonya Donnelly

I got a little out of habit in posting here, but I'll try to do some major updates in this post.

First thing, boy and I called it quits, and surprisingly to me, it was mutual. After playing phone tag for *two weeks* we finally got on the phone and he brought the topic up. We both agreed it wasn't working and have gone back to friends. I think we've each emailed each other once since then (this was about 5 weeks ago) which just reemphasizes that point that we are both too busy for such a relationship right now. So far, so good.

I still have the unexplainable, unrequited crush on HotGuy. Hmmmph. Have only seen him a few times, but never with the same degree of connection as the night of the haircut. He moves to Seattle in less than two weeks, and though I'll see him several times before then, I don't think I'll even bother thinking about it much anymore. Oh well.

I did find out that a guy at work has had a crush on me for approximately 2 years (the whole time I've worked there). It's nice to have something good at work, since the boss' boss is getting absurdly intolerable for our whole department. The strange thing is, I guess the boy with the crush is so smitten with me, he is too nervous to talk to me. I find this terribly adorable in it's own way. The funny thing is, I had always referred to him in my head as "The Cute Boy in Health Care" despite the fact that he was, until January, the only boy in Health Care. I do think I'd probably go out with him if he asked, but I can't ask him, or else he'll realize that my co-worker let out his secret. It's kind of like high school, but much more endearing.

I leave for Seattle tomorrow morning. I'm both looking forward to it and kind of wary about it. I've never traveled for such a long time (5 days) and such a long distance by myself before. But, I have been there once before and am familiar with the area I'm staying in. I have several activities planned for myself, so that I don't stay in the hotel all evening. I plan to visit at least one yoga studio, and to go to the Archie McPhee store (to do some bday shopping for friends). The conference I'm going to should also be good, and it's not such a terribly hectic schedule that I'll be over there all the time. Then again, I got to take a laptop from work with me, and I'd better churn out some work while I'm there, or there may be some grousing about why I really needed it in the first place. It really started as a just in case kind of thing, but I ended up taking on a couple projects to work on while there, so I'd better produce results. I'll probably be able to get the bulk on one done on the flight there anyway.

I'd probably better go finish packing. I got the suitcase done this morning, but the carry on is still sprawled on the bed. Must check the laptop battery as well. And it might be nice to clean up the downstairs a bit so that when BestFriend comes to water the flowers, she doesn't trip over everything. And then I get to come back to a clean apartment too. Yay.

Just realized that I'd fully intended to go on a bike ride this evening and I've waited until far too late. I've only had the bike a week, so I'm not up for nighttime riding yet. And now it will be a week before I can do it again. I'll have to go through all the soreness and such again. It's my own fault though.

Off to tackle the carry on and then to bed early so I can get up before STS comes to pick me up for the airport!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Beth Orton - Central Reservation