All Cluttered Up
First off, I apologize for my very notable absence on this blog lately. I vowed to write every few days, and now I've gone and skipped a bunch. But, I have an excuse. My excuse....... (drum roll)........ is
CLUTTER. Yes, the word "clutter" has the privilege of being red in bold-faced courier font because it is simply such an alarming word...and an alarming state to be in. For the past week or so, I have been in a constant state of clutter. My apartment is a mess...clothes everywhere, shoes all over the floor of the entranceway, things sitting around on tables. Ugh.
Also, I have not opened my mail in a few days. Bills are sitting around just waiting for me. It gives me this feeling of anxiety knowing that all of these things are not in their proper places. I, in fact, am very inclined to clutter my life up. I often don't bother to put things away. Actually, you would be surprised to know that I am a very organized person. I just easily fall into lapses of disorganization. As Abu on Seinfeld would say, "This is verrrrry bad. Verrrrry verrrry bad."
It feels icky.
Bad luck or bad habits?
Maybe this is silly, but I get this feeling I am about to have some bad luck. This is mostly due to the fact that I keep breaking
things, which is never a good sign.
Breaking episode #1 occurred the day before yesterday as I was cleaning my mouse cage. I have this cute little bathroom cup that matches my shower curtain, and I put in on the edge of the toilet seat for a moment...I then turned away, and in the next second heard an awful noise behind me...the shattering of procelain on the hard floor. I experienced a moment of startled sadness as I realized my cute matching cup (that my mother bought for me) had ceased to exist.
Episode #2 occurred only minutes later after I began cleaning the cage, which is made out of glass. Annoyed that I couldn't get some shavings off the cage bottom, I began smacking the cage with my hand. Then, when that didn't work, I stupidly hit the entire cage against the carpet...aaaaand CRAAAACK. Another horrible noise. I idiotically had caused a large crack in the glass, rendering the cage useless. So poor mousie is now in his much smaller plastic cage, with no wheel and a very small water bottle, all thanks to my rash behavior.
The final episode occurred yesterday as I carried a few glasses into the kitchen. Somehow one of them jerked out of my hand and landed on the hard floor, again making that sad sad shattering noise. By this point, I'd had enough of cleaning broken glass, so I simply swept it into a pile and left it there. And there it remains.
What can I learn from all this? I have
bad habits. Maybe I wouldn't be having so much "bad luck" if I (a) stopped being
so impatient (b) took time to
secure fragile things before leaving them precariously teetering on toilets or barely clasped in my hands, and (c)
thought before I acted once in a while. Maybe then I would stop breaking things left and right. I shudder at what bad luck may befall me after these three omens. On that note, (d) maybe I should
stop being so superstitious. I'm beginning to scare myself. But...as long as I don't break any mirrors, I'll be just fine.
The sweetest thing...isn't flowers!
Alright y'all, I know people hate reading about other people's mushy love lives, but you'll have to stomach mine for a minute. I was just going through my older e-mails, and I found a cute one from my boyfriend. It is in fact
so cute that I must share it with you:
Lauren, I thought this was a nice quote…………. I am that guy for
you!
"Wait for the guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot. Wait
for the guy who kisses your forehead, who thinks you are the prettiest when you have no make up on. Wait for the guy who would do anything just to spend time with you, and who truly believes he is the Lucky one!"
Love,KPretty cute, huh? He does these cute things for no reason quite a lot. Example: I arrived at work yesterday morning to find my phone blinking. I thought it was odd that someone called over the weekend...until I checked the message and heard K's voice. He left the message last Friday after I left work. It went something like this: "Hi honey. I hope you had a great weekend with me. I'm leaving this message on Friday so you'll have something to cheer you up on Monday." And...swoon.
So, I've realized something. I always get on K for not buying me flowers often enough, etc., etc. But I have been ignoring all these other cute things he does on a regular (well, semi-regular) basis. And these things are much more ingenious than boring old flowers. They mean much more. So my resolution from now on is to quit my whining and appreciate what I have.
But, on the other hand, as any girl will tell you...a woman can never have enough flowers. Men at large, remember this: Make sure to surprise your girl/woman with the little things that count, but also don't forget that flowers really do the trick once in a while!
Anyone else out there?
In the past month, I've become quite interested in blogging, as you may have noticed because of the plethora of recent entries compared to the complete paucity of posts (ohhh, SAT words and alliteration there) over the past year. Now, I never do anything witthout researching first. So, obviously, I've been obsessively reading other blogs. I somehow came across another DC-area blogger and, to my surprise, found an entire community of them out there in the blogosphere! I never knew that people actually formed communities, friendships and accquaintances entirely based on the fact that they are sharing the same blogging hometown. This blows my mind, really...because it is so totally cool!
But suddenly I am feeling very left out. How did this community get started? How did these people find each other? Did they all know each other before they started blogging? And most importantly, how can I be a part of this? I could easily start putting my fellow DC-ers' blogs on my links menu, but that would be cheating (since I don't actually know these people, either on- or off-line).
The only thing I can do is put out an open invitation:
DC Bloggers,If you somehow stumble across me, please read my blog and drop me a comment or two. Let me know how I can get in on the action. I desperately want to be your friend.
Yours truly,
A lonely DC blogger
So many ways to say g'bye
I often have pseudo-interesting thoughts as I sit at work listening to the drone of office noise. And I often think, I should really write this down! Had I done so, by now I would have a whole book of useless thoughts. But anyway, my point is, I'm writing one down now. Here goes...
Did you ever notice that every person has a different way of saying goodbye on the phone? And some of these forms are more annoying than others? For example, a certain person in my office always puts the emphasis on BUH in buh-bye. So it takes on this sing-song tone...BUH!
bye. She does this with other phrases too, like YOU'RE WEL!come. Then we've got another individual, who uses the phrase "bah" in lieu of the regular goodbye. It's not "bye." It's BAH, like a sheep. But she says it really fast, so that it is barely even a syllable. I tend to use the "k-bye" sort of thing...or simply just "bye." Or even "thanksbye" as one long word. My question is this: How do these different forms evolve? How do they come to be? Why do certain people have certain ways of saying goodbye? And what happened to the good old "good. bye." Two words. Two syllables. Pronounced with no upward inflections. A linguist should study this phenomenon. Come to think of it, one already may have. Must research. Good bye.
Senseless Acts
I'm sure everyone in the world by now has heard about the terrorist attacks in London. I actually didn't hear about this horrible turn of events until I got into work, turned on my computer, and pulled up the Yahoo main page. It is such an odd feeling knowing that something so horrible was occurring as I went through my mundane routine this morning. There I was, watching Problem Child 2 on TV and eating Frosted Flakes...as hundreds of innocent people suffered. I just cannot fathom how people can commit these senseless acts. We are all trying to live on this Earth, each with our own wants and needs...why do some of these wants have to entail killing one another?
This makes me think all over again about 9/11. That experience changed all of us... and made us fearful. That was almost four years ago, and the fear has stuck with me. But I now realize I had fallen into a state of comfort. I wasn't always thinking about attacks anymore...until this morning. It's all back now...that feeling of panic, of not knowing what may happen, of wondering if today is the last time I'll see my family. It's amazing how afraid I am of death.
My heart goes out to everyone affected by today's tragedy.
Just a little bit OCD
Lately, I've been noticing my behavior more than usual. More specifically, I've been noticing a few tendencies I have to, well, for lack of a better phrase,
do certain things over and over, or
think about certain things far too often. I have discovered that I have a real knack for
obsessing. Here are just a few pieces of evidence:
- I think/worry about my hair and weight/body almost every minute of every day (and that is not an exaggeration).
- I completely stress out over anything coming up that is not part of my daily routine (going on trips, important meetings, social gatherings, etc.).
- I must sleep on a specific side of the bed (the right, by the lamp) or I can't sleep well.
- I must wash all dishes before going to bed. They cannot be left in the sink.
- I must watch Golden Girls and Designing Women in the morning before going to work.
- I check my e-mail (work and personal) about every five minutes throughout the day and even check my work e-mail repeatedly at night.
- I must knock on wood, or in its absence, my head...or both...whenever I have a bad thought about something.
- I am obsessed with reading my own writing. Yes, I read it over and over. This may be just a narcissistic or over-meticulous part of being a writer, but it still seems to fall within our category of discussion. Hell, I guarantee you I'll read this post about five more times today after I finish it.
So, I decided to really find out if I am, indeed, an obsessive compulsive personality...by taking an online quiz, of course. Here are my results:
Score: 50
While you don't appear to be completely obsessive, you do have some hang-ups about certain things. These idiosyncrasies could be about cleanliness or a specific area of your life, like work or relationships. Or they may simply be those little obsessive habits that most of us have, even though we know they are silly - like checking the mailbox twice…just to make sure! As long as these quirks are not preventing you from doing things or disturbing your life in any way - or the lives of those close to you - then there is probably no harm in them. Just keep them in check and you shouldn't run into any trouble.
In summary, I think I am a little OCD. Some of my "quirks" DO disturb my life, but I suppose those may be another issue altogether. And I know lots of people deal with similar issues (the knocking on wood, not so much, but the hair/weight, definitely). I know this is a real disease and it can really disrupt lives for those that have severe cases, but now I'm thinking... Maybe everyone is just a little bit OCD...or at least has obsessive facets of their personalities.
Dear Sun, Please bleach me. Love, Lauren
Sorry about the abrupt ending to that last post. I got angry at the computer and because it wouldn't let me post more pics. Anyway, do you see how dark my hair is in that picture below? I'm the one third from the left. Yeah, well, as many people know, I do not like my hair dark, especially
in the summer. I have chosen to have it professionally highlighted to perfection in the past (see picture to right), but that is just not in my budget anymore. Plus, I'd like a more natural look.
What is a girl to do? I tried Sun-In over the weekend, which did absolutely nothing. I'll just have to keep drenching my poor abused hair in Sun-In (aka lemon juice and peroxide) until I see a color change. I don't even care if it turns orange, I need a change! I want to be sun-kissed! Trend or not, I've always liked my hair better with a few blonde streaks. I was meant to be a blonde, and this is one of the first summers that I haven't changed my hair color. I know natural is the big thing now, but I tried that and it ain't feelin' so good.
In the beginning there was Blurty...
Well, I have switched over to Blogger from my Blurty journal. I've been a loyal poster to Blurty for over two years now, but was swayed by Blogger's picture capabilities. I often have the urge to post pictures with my entries, and now...for your viewing pleasure... I can! If you're interested in my prior blogging history, please see my
previous blog. In the meantime, I'll quickly re-hash my most recent Blurty post...in pictures, of course. The post mentioned a recent Canada Day party my boyfriend and I hosted. Here is some of the debauchery that went on:
