I stand alone

The following is a list of 10 reasons why working with almost all men is definitely NOT one of the "perks" of my job:

1. When I go out to lunch with them, they never want to go somewhere for a nice light salad or sandwich. No, they want to hit up the Chinese buffet, Taco Bell, Arby's (today's de'jour), or most of the time, the dive down the street with 7 TV's on different sports channels that has a menu consisting of burgers, burgers with cheese, burgers with bacon, and burgers with cheese AND bacon. How on earth is a girl supposed to stay trim on a diet consisting of all that greasy crap!

2. Because of their choices of lunch destinations, I am usually forced to refuse their invitation and sit in my cube, alone, eating cottage cheese and salad from the cafeteria.

3. Fantasy Football.

4. The fact that they all got to spend three paid working hours in the conference room for the Fantasy Football draft, whilst enjoying pizza on the company's dime. It is my feeling that I should have been encouraged to spend those same three hours shopping at the mall and/or getting a manicure/pedicure whilst enjoying a yummy mall pretzel and smoothie on the company's dime.

5. When I am hanging with the guys, and one of them says something inappropriate, or tells a dirty joke, I can tell they all get nervous and are all secretly thinking about losing their job when I run to Mr. Boss Man with some sort of sexual-harassment complaint. Come on guys! I love to talk about inappropriate things, and I enjoy hearing a good dirty joke once and while... please don't censor yourselves around me, I promise I'm very easy-going!

6. March Madness

7. I am the only woman in my entire department who doesn't have a mom hair-cut and doesn't wear tapered jeans on casual Fridays. That means there is definitely no one to talk with about my new tweed purse or amazing new pair of black mules.

8. While they all feel the need to eat fast food every day for lunch, no one ever has any chocolate on the days when I really need chocolate!

9. They were talking about their old TV and movie crushes today at lunch (yes, against better judgment, I did agree to accompany them to Arby's) and they were people like Beverly D'Angelo and Night Court's very own Markie Post! I couldn't relate at all. My TV crushes back in the day were Kirk Cameron and Mark Paul Gosselaar. So not only are all of my co-workers guys, but they're all old. I mean seriously, I've seen those old re-runs of Night Court, and if I remember correctly, I think Markie Post had an almost-mullet at one point in the show.

10. I have no balls with these guys. They are all die-hard republicans (not surprising considering the industry I'm in), talking smack constantly about Kerry supporters. And while I am definitely voting Kerry come November 2nd, I become mute-girl when they talk politics. So yes, I am ashamed to say that they all think I love Bush as much as they do. I am the biggest wimp, a sad-sad girl who can't even stand by her own convictions.

So I sort of feel bad about all this complaining, because I really do like the guys I work with, so here's an accompanying list of reasons why I love working with all guys:

1. No bitchy office-gossip.

2. No PMS (the only women here have probably gone through menopause already).

3. No bitchy office-gossip.

4. None of them will criticize what I'm wearing, or look down on me when I'm having a bad hair day. Because seriously, women are the only ones who really notice or care about that stuff.

5. No bitchy office-gossip.

6. They hold the door for me all the time. I'm all about being on the receiving end of male chivalry once in a while!

7. No bitchy office-gossip.

8. My cube is decorated the cutest! And I can leave little notes for people and I don't even have to sign my name because I am the only one with multi-color pastel post-its!

9. No bitchy office-gossip.

10. I actually started crying one day when I went to my boss just after getting sick and throwing up in the bathroom. There was no way he wasn't going to let me go home for the day! When I told him I would come back in the afternoon if I was feeling better he convinced me that that was entirely unnecessary, and if I needed to stay home the next day, that was completely fine as well. I'm telling you, these men can not resist a crying woman. It's a source of power for women that I don't think is always used to it's full advantage.

Ramblings

I am severely lacking in the motivation department today. I've been so busy at work for the past week and a half, that I think I've hit rock bottom. I had a big project that had this morning as a deadline. Of course I finished it, but now that that huge feeling of relief has washed over me, I am absolutely dreading the thought of starting on the rest of my "To Do List". So while I should be working, instead, since my meeting this morning ended, I have been finding less constructive things to pass the time here at work. Wow, I wish it was a 4 day week, then I could at least pretend it was Thursday and the week was almost over. Oh well.

The fall weather has been so beautiful, I am trying very hard to take every opportunity I have to enjoy it! I have lived in Minnesota too long (my entire life) to know that it won't last long.

So D. and I have been thinking about getting a dog lately. As a sort of "trial-run" we dog-sat for my Aunt and Uncle's sheltie puppy while they were in California for a week. I'm proud to say that I think it went very well! My biggest challenge over the past couple months with D. has been what kind of dog to get. I have wanted to have my own sheltie for as long as I remember, as my parents have had our 12 year old sheltie since she was 4 years old, and she is just the sweetest thing ever. Well, wouldn't you know, D. has been bit by one dog in his life, and it just had to be a sheltie, so it is safe to say that he has taken a pretty resistant stance on bringing that specific breed into our family! Well, I'm hoping and guessing his disposition has changed in the past week, because I saw how much he loved our little house guest Tia. And now that we have been dog-less for two days, I think it is safe to say that it feels like there's something missing in our home!

I mean how could anyone resist this adorable face?

And I promise they're just as cute when they're older!

My struggle for a sheltie is definitely not over yet!

Hmm...

Man, that's a big picture. I wonder how you shrink it a little, it's quite overwhelming.... I'll work on it.

I'm not sure if I know what I'm doing...

I'm trying to post a picture, so we'll see if this works! If you see something, then you are seeing myself and my new husband on our wedding day. This is my favorite picture. It really seems honest and real, and to me captures the happiness of the day. I am so infatuated with this man...

The women in my life...

Tonight I'm going to Liz's house for a homemade dinner, lots of wine, and numerous episodes of Sex and the City. I'm so excited to see the girls, it just feels like it's been ages since we've all been together! I really wish I would have cherished my time with them in college when all of us were living under the same roof. There was always someone to watch TLC shows with, there was always someone to ditch classes with, and there was always someone to help you pick out a "knock 'em dead" outfit for the bars. I could never really run out of tampons, because there was always a stock of about 10 boxes throughout the apartment (usually none of them were mine, hence the reason why now I seem to run into the same problem repeatedly month-after-month). And there was always someone in the room right next door willing to drop whatever they're doing just to talk, whether it was about the guys in our lives, someone's disastrous hair coloring incident, or our Halloween costume plans involving Ninja Turtles and Splinter (and subsequently Angela being wrapped in brown carpet). Really, talking is what we did best, and it almost always involved laughing.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about my present living situation, not at all. I love living with D., I love decorating our darling home, I love that he sometimes has a dinner of Hamburger Helper ready for me when I get home from work, and I love going to bed with him every night. But it's strange to think about my girls, and how our relationships with each other have had to morph into completely different ones. I guess it's just inevitable, goes back to that whole "growing up" thing. I just hope and pray that no matter what changes come into our lives, that we don't forget, and we don't lose the sense of comfort we had with each other. Even though now we have to try a little harder to see each other, and it might not be as often as we would like, I really hope we continue to be there for each other, and we don't' lose the laughter and the familiarity.

I'm so blessed to have spent my 4 years in college with such amazing friends, and I'm so happy that each one of them stood up for me on my wedding day 5 months ago. I love these women, I just miss them, which I guess is pretty obvious.

Really?.... Yoga?

So last night I bought two yoga mats, a pinkish red one for me, and a blue one for D. And we did yoga together. Ok, that makes me laugh. Are we really the kind of people that do yoga? I've been wanting to try it for a while now, and my recent lack of motivation for anything that resembles the eliptical trainers and tread-mills that I normally frequent at our local gym gave me that final push. (It didn't help that I have convinced myself over the past week or so that my belly is protruding excessively, and it needs to be stopped.) At first I felt awkward, because I just don't feel like I'm cool enough to do yoga... it seems way to trendy, way to "hollywood". However, after doing the 35 minute instructional portion of the video, and then the 20 minute session, I have decided that I do like yoga!!

We'll just have to wait and see if this will end up like the yoga incident of my college sophmore year with my roommate Betsy. We bought a tape during one of our boredom-induced visits to target and popped it into that ole' VCR as soon as we got home. While our two other roommates sat on the couch behind us, amused by the whole situation, we struggled to follow allong with the crazy poses that crazy woman on the TV did. That was the first and last time I did yoga (well... until now!). It was just too much of a hassle, we actually had to remove the majority of the furniture from our tiny living room to the kitchen so we had room to do the poses properly. Yoga should not be that much work!

So anyways, I'll have to do my very best to use my new yoga DVD and mat more than once. Wish me luck. I have to give props though to D., my sweet husband who I can't believe agreed to try it out with me. What a good sport. And I know he would have much rather been laying on the couch watching the Red Sox/Yankees game than perfecting the "Downward-Facing Dog" pose on his very own blue yoga mat. I'm a lucky girl. ;)

My very own blog!

It's amazing how a girl can be so excited about creating an outlet for her thoughts and ramblings that as soon as it is available to her, her mind goes blank. I have nothing. Let's hope I can find my voice soon. For some reason I feel like there is too much pressure, this being my very first entry! I'm still just not sure that I am a very interesting person, who would want to read my incessant ramblings day after day? I know, how self-deprecating can I be!

Alright, so I'm just going to leave it at that for now, and we'll see what this disaster of a mind produces next time!

Cheers, and welcome to my life!