Adventures in Awkwardness

Well good new everyone-my car is working fine (despite the engine manifold leak that has yet to be fixed) and after only two more freezing showers the hot water in our apartment was finally fixed (and it was really only bad until the second to the last since my rage kept me warm for the last one).

However, I realized that I forgot to relay one last story from my car trouble week: the story about hitching a ride with one of my kind co-workers/new friend. In retrospect I feel really bad for the guy because I was the most awkward, boring lump for the hour ride to work and the hour ride back. He was really very nice to put up with my monosyllabic answers to questions and awkward mumblings that I tried to chip in to the comversation.

It's times like these that make me really question my social skills-why do I air on the side of slug whenever I feel a tad nervous?! I honestly wish I was the type of person who rambles crazy fun stories when they are nervous because at least they're interesting, dynamic, and funny. I on the other hand get very quiet and avoid eye contact. And of course, I always think of funny things to say 5 minutes after the moment has passed and use up half my brain power that should be put towards social functioning and instead use it to mentally kick myself for not having a quicker wit.

Like when said co-worker was telling me interesting information about DC real estate and how my husband and I should look into buying rather than renting a funny thing to say might have been "Oh, I don't expect our marriage to last that long...". Sort of funny...right? At least better than "hmmmmm...yeah...........". Or when he inquired about the car troubled couldn't I have gone into one of my favorite childhood stories about the time that I skipped school to drive to the mall to buy a homecomming dress and ended up having to hitchhike my way home in a blizzard because my truck broke down. That's a pretty good story. Or when, while passing a lawn in rural Maryland that was filled with plastic lawn crap, we laughed about how you can tell a person from the lawn decorations, I should have said, "Yeah, I can't wait until I can have one of those Marys in a bathtub and so many cats littering the yard that walking up to my porch will be reminicent of the last scene of The Birds."
Wait....know that I read these things in print, they're really not that funny. Maybe it's actually a good thing that I kept my mouth shut. Ugh. I'm so bad at this!! I need social and/or electroshock therapy. Hey, I bet that would make a good story.

From Bad to Worse

Beware, this is a post of just complete bitching...

It's been a rouch couple of weeks in Lynnville. Especially with anything mechanical.
First, on the way home from work last week the check engine light came on...so I take it into the shop and luckily it's just a computer problem that, even though still expensive, is easily fixed. However, while they're fixing that problem they find a crack in the lower intake manifold (wow, I kind of sound like I know what I'm talking about even though I don't) and it's going to cost about $1300 to fix. That's about half of what the car is actually worth.

Luckily, I talk to my dad and he says he can fix it no problem and just bring it back to Michigan when I get the chance. Problem solved, right? Or so I thought. On Tuesday I go grocery shopping (and of course stock up on frozen foods and a large chicken) and the stupid car won't start. So I'm stuck in the Giant parking lot with a trunk full of food. So I hoof it to the shop, again, and find out they have to tow the friggin car. The guy was nice enough to drive my to my car to get some of my groceris so I could metro them home...I remembered the frozen stuff but accidently left the chicken.

So here, I'm thinking, fine, I'll just have to pay the whopping amount to fix the manifold but atleast it will be done and I'll save both my dad and me the trouble having him fix it in Michigan...wrongo! It's something totally different, that costs an additional $500 plus towing costs plus the cost of the stupid chicken I left to stink up my trunk.

So now, I still have to take the car home to fix the manifold problem and pray that it doesn't break down on the 12 hour trip.

And to make matters even worse, we haven't had hot water in our apartment for two days. yup-cold showers for two friggin days. Today was esepcially bad. I went for a nice run to get myself all hot and sweaty so the shock of the cold water would actually be refreshing rather than murderous but it backfired. It was actually cold and windy today for my run so instead of the cold shower being a blessing it was horrible. Plus, the longer the water ran the colder it got-it was so bad that my finger nails were actually turning blue and it made me feel physically ill. Especially when the water hit my back. For some reason it was okay for all the other body parts but when my frozen hair hit the small of my back I swear I almost passed out.

Whew...that's it, enough bitching. Thanks for listning.

Brokeback Mountain +++++

I finally saw Brokeback Mountain and I have to say I enjoyed it. It was really sad though, which is usually not my kind of movie.

Now I really don't know what to vote for in my usual Oscar competition with my sister and her husband. Normally there's one movie that I totally love over all the rest but not this year. And now I cna't even fall back on voting for the cutest. Do I vote for the eye cnady of Heath Leger and Jake Gyllenhall? Or my new celebrity crush Eric Bana?

Yet Another Addiciton...

Oh which I forgot to mention in the last post-I've recently become addicted to the TLC show Miami Ink. And it reminds of the fact that I really want a tatoo but I'm such a wimp that I don't think I could ever go through with it. It's not that I'm worried about the pain, but more the fact that I'd probebly get sick of the thing but I'd be stuck with it the rest of my life.

Plus, getting a tatoo seems like a complicated process...first what to get? I don't think I'm bad ass enough to get anything with barb wire or a naked chic, which seems to be the typical choice. And I'm not girly enough to go with butterflies, flowers, or a chinese symbol for inner peace. Hmmmm...I could choose something that is associated with my hobbies or career but for some reason I think a portrait of Harry Potter or the Mona Lisa could get really old really quick.

And most importantly, where to get it? The lower back area seems to be popular but I'm not really pleased with the way my upper butt looks plus I don't wear low rise anything (and the world breaths a sigh of relief) so I wouldn't be able to show it off. There's the ankle, but that seems so early 90s. And the butt and boob are totally off limits-too tender. And the shoulder blade seems a bit manish...

Alas, I guess a tatoo is not in my future. How sad, because the thought of a huge dragon circling a heart with the name of my cat in the middle tattoed across my ass seems fun in theory.

New Addictions

I know you all really care about what I do on a daily basis (your sarcasm meter should be off the charts right now) so here's a list of some of my new addictions. Maybe you'll get addicted too and then we can start a support group...

1. The Travel Chanel's Most Haunted. It's hilarious. I usually catch in on Sunday mornings when there's nothing else on and laugh and laugh. They have this crazy psychic guy that's totally full of shit but is so entertaining to watch. And then the host and one of the minions (I think Stuart is his name) are such lose canons that you just pray they make them go sit in one of the dark "haunted" rooms by themselves because within 10 minutes they've already wet themselves and/or started to tear up. It's awesome, really.

2. The No-Contact Jacket. I totally want one. Not only would it be great for running (so I could actually go at night) but also for practical jokes. Just imagine the hilarity that would insue if you wore this on a crowded metro sometime. Ah...the temptation to missuse this little gem would be unbareable. I'd better stay away.

3. TLC's What Not to Wear. Becuase I always knew I needed fashion help and this show confirms it. It pisses me off that the people on there are always so cranky and don't appreciate the fact that they look bad and now they get $5000 bucks to spend in NYC. Cripes, I wish I had that kind of bad luck. You people who call yourselves my friends...why haven't you signed me up for this show yet!?

4. Aveda's Madder Root Shampoo. As mentioned before it heightens the red tones in my hair and I love it. Except sometimes it gets a little streaky because I have a problem applying color to my hair evenly. I tried to color my hair once, it was a disaster. This allows me to do it slightly, and safely.

5. Tootsie Pops. An old favorite that I always forget how much I love. Except the chocolate ones (even though they're growing on me) and the new flavor they've introduced. It's in a green wrapper and I can't tell if it's supposed to be green apple or watermelon. Either way it sucks...what is Tootsie trying to pull here? While chocolate is wonderful it doesn't go with everything...such as green apple, watermelon, and hmmmmm...steak. Had to learn those the hard way.

Red Hair-not so interesting after all...

For some reason I've always had a weird preoccupation with my red hair-it always made me feel somewhat unique since there aren't a lot of them out there. So when I saw a book at Barnes and Noble entitled Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair I had to have it. I've recently finished reading it and it kind of sucked. I thought it was going to be at least slightly scientfic and examine some of the gene basics that surround red hair and the characteristics that come with it but it mostly just discussed the the regular crap about red heads...that we're ubersexual, we have bad tempers, we're bad luck, we turn into vampires after death...you know, the usual.

The only new thing I did learn was about a line of shampoo/conditioner sold by Aveda called Madder Root that hightens the red in your hair. So I, of course, bought some and it's pretty cool.

Now, I've moved on to a much better book: The Historian. It's about, what else, vampires, seemingly another one of my obsessions. Must be the red hair. I'm weirder than I thought....

Munich +++++

Good news...I fianlly got to go see Munich and it was excellent. So excellent that I decided to use Stacy's movie rating system and gave it 5 plus signs.

Though it was very good I have to confess that I had a twinge of guilt the entire time I was watching it because I was thinking dirty thoughts about Eric Bana-boy was he hot!!! So there I was, watching this compelling, serious movie about a tragic time in recent history and the part that moved me the most was when they showed Mr. Bana without his shirt. I'm going straight to hell...

And then it remineded me about a time in grad school that one of my classmates was talking about a trip to Munich and I, genius that I am, blurt out "Oooo...I've always wanted to go to Switzerland!" She just stared at me for a moment and turned away in disgust...since Munich is in Germany...

But really, see this movie 'cause it was great and now when you do, it'll remind you of what an idiot your blogger friend, Lynne, is.