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Archive for the ‘Work’ Category

I cannot believe the amount of time that passed between Michael Jackson’s death and his burial, nor can I believe the commotion they both caused. I’m not going to deny the incredible amount of musical talent he possessed, nor am I going to comment on his questionable personal life. I am going to comment, however, on the amount of time American people spend gossiping about celebrities and discussing the intimate details of their private lives. Why are so many Americans content knowing so little about world affairs, and yet crave ever more celeb gossip? If people were as willing to learn about other cultures as they are to absorb more celeb gossip, then I believe people around the world would be better equipped to understand each other. I hate how people are not interested in discussing the recent death of say, Robert McNamara (the architect of the Vietnam War), but can spend 10 days discussing the tiniest details of the controversial life and death of Michael Jackson. And again, I don’t mean to discredit him, I think he was incredibly talented and deserved the beautiful memorial service he received yesterday. I just think more people should be as passionate about other pressing issues in the world, too. Anyways, that’s my rant for the day. Moving on…

Julie and I decided to go golfing last night…FUN! It was the first time I had picked up my clubs in over a year, so I had no idea how it would turn out. We got lucky and got a couple of tokens for free because we went so late, and were pretty much the only two knuckleheads on the driving range. I fell right back into the groove and hit a few really nice shots, and I know if I keep up with it for the rest of the summer I’ll have my A-game back in no time. Aside from feeling good about that, I managed to pick up a few lovely bugbites on my legs, arms and one right below my eyebrow (fabulous). Spook Rock is so damn buggy at night!

I’ve been working a lot lately, and I still love my job! I really think I should go into something that allows me to interact with and talk to people. I love meeting new people and talking about them because I feel like there is always something to learn. And I never really thought about it before, but the hotel business is actually a great way to do that and can be very profitable if you make your way into the upper echelon and/or are wealthy enough to own your own hotels. So maybe I can do something with that…internationally?

Hmm, am I a dork if I sit here memorizing French vocabulary for when I go abroad to Paris? I’ve been learning my fruits and veggies, and I’m moving onto meats later on today. In my eight years of French classes, I have always felt that too much time was spent on grammar and not enough on vocabulary. I can conjugate verbs and change tenses pretty well at this point, but if you ask me to describe what I’m wearing, what’s for dinner, or what’s going on in the world, I’m pretty much at a loss. I figure these are the things that are important, so for the rest of the summer I”m going to work on increasing my vocab. I know, I know, I’m a nerd, and I’m pretty sure I can hear my brother chanting “Nerd!” from his office in Hackensack…

Also, I’ve been thinking about how I want to organize my pictures here on spazzle. I can put them on individual pages as I had them before I transfered my blog to Wordpress, or I can create albums much like my photograph albums found at the top of the page. What do you guys think? Any opinions/suggestions/preferences?

I’m hooooome…unfortunately.  I really would give anything (well, maybe not an arm or leg, but perhaps an eyebrow?) to be back up in Boston for the rest of the summer.  Ashley and I drove up Friday afternoon and actually didn’t hit too much traffic.  As soon as we got off the good ole Mass Pike at Newton, I started to get incredibly giddy to be back in pretty much my favorite place in the world.  As in, my head was bobbing, my arms were flailing, and I was bouncing around my seat (Ash may or may not have feared for her life, as I was still behind the wheel…), and let it be known that the feeling lasted the entire weekend until I got back on the Mass Pike to come home (boooo).  Anyways, so we picked up Steve and Shwin, and headed directly toward Cafénation (wooooo).  For those of you who know me, I have a difficult time picking what to eat, but I eventually decided on the BBQ Chicken Crepe, and it was delightful (although Ash deemed it too sweet for her spice-craving taste-buds).  We went back to Steve’s after to hang for a bit, and ended up getting dinner at Wagamama with Pete and Nadia.  Aliya and Sofia got to Steve’s pretty late, but we had such a fun time.  I was pretty much dead to the world on Saturday, but we managed to go to the Museum of Science (SO MUCH FUN).  I wanna go back there when the kiddies are in school; they were hogging all the fun toys and gadgets (bastards).  We had an excellent dinner at Giacomo’s Saturday evening, where I chose the usual linguine with shrimp and scallops, doused in fracomo sauce.  We also took Aliya and Sofia to Mike’s so they could have the ultimate pastry experience.  And Sunday was nice, too; I met up with Alicia, Ash and Swhin at Panera and saw Alicia’s place afterward.  It’s such a cute apartment, and it’s exactly the kind of place I’d love to reside next summer.  We ended up going to UBurger (oh man, Big Papi with extra chipotle sauce = my favorite thing ever) and Angora (okay, vanilla frozen yogurt with fudge brownie, caramel, and Oreo crumbled on top is equally my favorite thing ever).  And then I got a coffee that was entirely too big for my own good, picked up Ashley, and started driving home.

SLASH, re-reading the above paragraph made me realize I get entirely too excited when I talk about food.  Mmm, food.

I had my first day of work yesterday, and I’m thinking I should consider it a success; only one guest wanted to murder me.  In case you haven’t been keeping up with my blog (shame on you), I’m working the front desk at a nearby hotel.  I’m very good at making key cards, scheduling wake up calls, and baking cookies (which, believe it or not, is part of my job description).  Hotel software?  Not so much.  At least, not yet.  The guy who probably wanted to kill me was supposed to have a reservation, but he wasn’t listed in my arrivals, and I couldn’t find his reservation.  And of course my boss had stepped out to lunch, so it was literally me, alone in the hotel.  Sad.  So anyways, I fumbled around for a good 10 minutes trying to find his reservation, and then once I found it (it had been mischeduled) I fumbled around with the payment process.  Disastrous.  But like I said, the rest of the day went smoothly, and I kinda had fun.  I’m somewhat looking forward to working again tomorrow and Friday (even though I have a shitty shift, from 5pm-11pm).

Can you believe all the stuff that has been going on in the world the past week or so?  I was watching the news at the gym this morning and realized just how much has been happening.  I don’t really know what to make of the ousted president of Honduras.  I had never even heard of him prior to the recent coup (if it can even be called a coup), but he’s kinda been launched to international fame as a result.  Critics claimed he was trying to change the constitution to end the one-term limit for presidents, and was thus abusing his power.  But I mean, FDR was elected to office for four terms, and we didn’t exactly give him the boot.  Then there’s Iraq, and the American troop withdrawal.  I never thought I’d see the day.  I’m glad that our troops are finally starting to get out of that mess, but I dont know if Iraq’s strong enough to stand on its own two feet to quell the uprisings.  There have already been bombings amidst the Iraqi celebrations.  I guess we’ll see.  Oh, and the recent Iranian election.  I know it’s somewhat old news, but hey, it’s still a mess over there, and from what I understand the U.S. still hasn’t recognized Ahmadinejad as the country’s President.  It’s just really fishy considering in some districts there were more votes than there were people (really, Iran?), and that the recount claimed that Ahmadinejad received more votes than originally thought.  What a mess.  And I watched a really disturbing video of an Iranian singer who was shot and killed during the protests.

SUN!  Finally!  Too bad I spent the first 6 hours of this sunny day inside, training for my new front desk job at a local hotel.  So yes, I finally have a job, I will finally be making money, and I will finally stop bitching to you guys about being unemployed.  But rest assured, I will find other things to bitch about soon enough.  So, sun!  As soon as I got home, I sat outside, smiling gleefully as the sun beat down on my pasty, Irish/Norwegian skin.  It was the best.  Like, actually the best.

I’m reeeally looking forward to this weekend, which for me is going to start Thursday evening.  I’m going into the city to meet up with Adam, we’re going to his company outing.  Which, might I mention, is a 311/Ziggy Marley concert.  Which, of course, will be quite fun.  And then early Friday morning, Ashley and myself (and maybe/hopefully Aliya?!) are driving up to Boston.  And I just have to get this out of my system…WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  Okay, so in case you couldn’t tell, REALLY excited.  I miss the good ole’ T and my favorite restaurants and just the city itself.

Anyways, dinner time!  My mom’s making burgers, so I’m crumbling mine up and putting it on a salad with yogurt ranch dressing (delicious, surprisingly somewhat healthy, and I highly recommend it).

I did it.  I finally purchased the new Dave Matthews Band CD, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King!  I’ve been listening to it all day, and it’s amazing!  I’m in love with Funny The Way It Is,  Dive In, and You & Me.  I love the artwork, too; Dave drew everything and apparently had some kiddies color it in (which he discussed on an interview for the Today show).  The concert up in Saratoga is going to be awesome this weekend, and I’m trying to convince my brother to see the Friday night show with me, too.  So yeah, invest!  It’s good.  Anyways, I’m putting the lyrics to “Funny The Way It Is” at the end of the post; they’re definitely worth mulling over.

Moving on.  I’m super burnt because I’m an idiot and sat outside all afternoon without sunblock.  You would think that doing Relay For Life for 5 years would have cured me of that, but nope.  I’m still dumb.  The only good thing that will come out of this is not being milky white (as my brother described me, although he’s pretty Casper-y himself).  Teehee.

Anyways, nothing new to report, really.  Oh, I’m not gonna be working this week because my boss ran out of things for me to do.  Which means I’m actually unemployed at this point.  I’ll be tutoring for another couple weeks, but other than that, I have no idea how I’m going to make money.  My brother suggested I collect cans (fabulous?) or work as scorekeeper at the hockey rinks he plays at.  He thinks they’re looking for people, and apparently pay $20 per game.  Any other ideas?  Keep me posted, please.

Lying in the park on a beautiful day
Sunshine in the grass and the children play
Sirens pass in fire engine red
Someone’s house is burning down on a day like this

The evening comes and we’re hanging out
On the front step and a car goes by with the windows rolled down
And that War song is playing
“Why can’t we be friends?”
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs

Funny the way it is
If you think about it
Somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is
Not right or wrong
Somebody’s heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song

The way your mouth feels in your lover’s kiss
Like a pretty bird on the breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings the building crashing to the floor
Hear the laughter while the children play war

Funny the way it is
If you think about it
One kid walks ten miles to school, another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is
Not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath, his baby’s being born

Standing on a bridge
Watch the water passing underneath
It must have been much harder when there was no bridge, just water
Now the world is small
Remember how it used to be
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars?

Watch the sky, a jet plane so far out of my reach
Is there someone up there looking down on me?
A boy sees a bird, so close but every time
He’ll never catch her but he can’t stop trying.

It was recently brought to my attention by Shwin that I’ve been neglecting my poor little blog, and I have received several demands that I continue writing…so here I am. I’m actually sitting at work, but am taking a wee break to fill y’all in on my life thus far this summer.

FIRST: Sheila recommended doing a few “would you rathers.” So, would you rather be ugly or stupid? Post your answer and why in the comments section!

Basically, I’ve been in hibernation. It’s kinda my post-school year thing that I’ve adopted, where I sleep, workout, work, and do absolutely nothing else in my spare time. It’s kinda like a much-needed recovery period from the hustle and bustle of the school year, and after a few weeks of it, I’m ready to re-enter the civilized world. Maybe this will happen soon enough?

Anyhoo, so I’ve been working at Montvale Mortgage (anyone need a loan?) for my dad’s business partner. I’ve actually been doing some pretty interesting stuff. My objective for the next couple of weeks is to increase the company’s web presence via social networking sites. Sooo, much to my chagrin, I had to learn how to use Twitter (I tweet now), Wordpress (check out Montvale Mortgage’s blog), Twellow, Ping.fm, HootSuite, yada yada yada. I hate to admit it, but web marketing is actually pretty fun.

WORK-ISMS:
- I am glad my dad finally learned thevalue in not writing in all capital letters (took him a couple of years). He does still hunt and peck. Type2learn, anyone?
- My brother’s coffee does indeed taste like melted hockey puck.
- Throwing bouncy balls above the cubicles from my office into my brother’s office is completely (un)acceptable.
- Bathroom keys suck. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked all the way to the bathroom, only to get there and realize I forgot the key.
- The highlight of my day is refilling my coffee mug.

I finally put up some more photography on facebook…check out the album here.

Okay, anyways, I actually have to get back to work. BUT, don’t forget to answer the WOULD YOU RATHER posted above in the comments below, aaaand check out my photos! :)

PS…anyone want to employ me? The mortgage company only has a few weeks of work for me. Ugh.