Monday, February 20, 2006

Forever Lost

I had to laugh at my friend Dave's comments in my three previous posts. He has offered to help me with my gaydar which I will admit sometimes needs a little help. I remember when my friend Sal started working at the SF consulting firm aka Hell on Earth. I thought he was cute as did my gay teammate. Gay Teammate aka Bane of My Existence (BME) was positive Sal was gay, I had only seen Sal for the briefest of moments, so my gaydar hadn't had time to kick in. He turned out to be my best friend in SF and yes, he is gay, although I wouldn't say he exudes homosexuality out of every pore or anything. In fact, he was not in the least bit fond of the "extreme" homosexual. One guy in our office was Isaac Mizrahi-gay and he just made Sal nuts. Sal is out and very comfortable with himself, but the whole in your face gayness doesn't sit well with him.

I've been gone from SF for almost six years now and although the first few years we would call each other regularly, the time between phone calls is definitely longer. I find the three hour time difference to be an incredible deterrent as he's usually just getting home from work when I'm going to bed. I miss him. When working at Hell on Earth he would get to work around 8:30 and then he'd come and get me and we'd go out to get breakfast from the two nice Korean ladies just down the street. We'd walk in and they'd hand Sal his breakfast sandwich and say to me, "The usual?" And they'd whip up an egg and cheese sandwich on an English muffin. We'd then go back to work and hide out in the serving kitchen and chat about whatever life had presented as a topic that day. It was in February that I had determined that I was completely miserable and wanted to come home. I remember sitting at an All Hands meeting and looking out the window at the Transamerica Pyramid building and thinking "I'm going home." I tried to send the message to Sal telepathically as we ate our overpriced muffin and listened to the presentation which was all about how we were helping other companies do things that would help their employees be happier at work – none of these ideas were ever incorporated at Hell on Earth – which is one of the reasons I call it that. For the record, Sal didn't get my telepathic message, I had to tell him the old-fashioned way – whispering as we walked back to the office amidst our fellow "associates."

Ah, a pet peeve of mine. When did employees become "associates?" Or Target customers become "guests?" Give me a freaking break! I was at Target last week and needed to find out why they still didn't have my contact solution on their shelves, so I waited at Customer (or maybe it says Guest) Service for a dog's year. At one point, the lone customer service representative answered the phone and said, "I'm with a guest right now, may I put you on a hold for a moment?" I turned to the lady behind me and rolled my eyes and said, "Guests?" She rolled her eyes back and agreed. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE WORD "customer?" Please someone tell me!!! I'm not a friggin' guest of Target or Sears or even Nordstrom. I'm a bloody customer!

Oh yeah, my contact solution? They've stopped carrying it. I guess that single row on the first bottom shelf was just too important to stock my solution. The funny thing (peculiar funny, not ha ha funny) is that my solution is to used in conjunction with this particular case…they still carry the case which is no good with the solution. Bloody idiots.

I'm in the middle of celebrating Fat Fortnight. Next Tuesday is Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras, but I decided that since I'm going to go whole hog and give up everything this Lent that I was going to partake for longer than one silly day! By everything I mean alcoholic beverages, snacks, sweets, and nachos at Cheli's. Sometime before next Wednesday I need to get some Cheetoh's or I'll spend the entire 40 days pining for their dyed orange cheesy goodness. There is beer in my house and chocolate bars. I might need to pick up some ice cream to indulge in before Ash Wednesday.

And going to the gym more than once a week (my present rate of gym-going) is definitely on the docket, too. In fact, I'm going to try for everyday (M-F). My goal last week was to go every day. Yeah, right. I went on Monday and that was it. Pathetic! I've been absolutely pathetic.

And at the end of Lent is Good Friday which usually ends up being the day I go for my annual physical (read: blood test, read: cholesterol test) and I want to kick butt so I can go off the cholesterol medication.

I'm so officially throttled by Netflix it's not even funny. I've watched SIX Netflix movies this month and it hasn't been because I'm slacking!!!! Ah well, thank goodness for my very own Hitchcock collection. Tonight just to piss them off I'm watching both of the movies I have at home right now and mailing them back tomorrow. We'll see how long it takes until that little red envelope shows up in my mailbox.

I had a very good weekend, considering how bloody cold it's been. Friday was the symphony with my cousin and it was as fabulous as we had expected. We went to TJ's for dinner beforehand and back afterwards for dessert. They had this incredibly yummy peanut butter ice cream brownie pie that I had had the week before and needed to have again.

Saturday I slept in and then ventured out into the freezing butt coldness that is February in Detroit. The sky was blue and cloudless and the wind chill was a -14˚F (-25.5˚˚C). Ah, lovely. I drove out to Ann Arbor as I was desperate for a new pair of all Black Chucks. The pair I had bought in downtown Detroit last summer are the only pair of Chucks I've ever had that hurt my feet. I have no idea why that is, but if someone wants a pair of size 5 Chucks (that's men's size, it's a size 7 womens, and I could even tell you the European and Japanese sizes if I wanted to take them off my feet), let me know and I'll put them in the mail. Besides the monochrome black ones (aka work shoes), I bought these orange ones and these charcoal monochromes. I really need a pair to wear when I wear blue, but the charcoal ones will have to do for now. And trust me, I did not pay the amount they're asking! Those are absolutely ridiculous prices!!!

It's now time to go home, put on workout clothes and get my sorry ass to the gym!!! If it put this off any longer I won't go – because I'm a pathetic lame-ass!! ;-) Hope you all had a good weekend!

5 Comments:

At Monday, 20 February, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ever since they stopped being 'Touch Key Professionals' at Target, I've heard them referenced as 'associates' - which I think is cool. Anyway, I notice things like that - mainly because I need a life.

 
At Monday, 20 February, 2006, Blogger fakies said...

I'm getting sick of this Netflix thing too. Criminy, I can't get a new movie within a month or two of it being released. I never watch more than about 7 movies a month in the first place!

 
At Monday, 20 February, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, those grey ones are incredibly cool! At the same time as being a bit odd, they are cool becasue they are odd... they remind me of something I can't quite put my foot on!

Maybe it's cat's paws....

 
At Tuesday, 21 February, 2006, Blogger Jason said...

I'll make sure to plan the dinner for some time after Lent. Just letting you know that we now have Haagen-Dazs Banana Split ice cream to help you with your Fat Fortnight scheme. Luckily I haven't been throttled by Netflix yet as I've been averaging a film a day in the mail (on the $17.99 plan).

 
At Tuesday, 21 February, 2006, Blogger Kathleen said...

Smed - What is wrong with the word "employee?"

Trina - Trust me, I've worked myself into a lather over this!

Yelayna - I know! I just had to have them. I've worried about what I'm going to wear them with, but they were so cool. I was very proud of myself for not buying the all khaki green ones!

Jason - I'm afraid that Banana Split doesn't sound in the least bit yummy. You need to watch 17 movies in one month to get throttled. ;-)

 

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