The Four Day Work Week

Today we received an e-mail from our HR department telling us they are toying with the idea of moving to a four day work week this fall and that they would like our "feedback" aka they're trying to gauge how much people will flip out if they do this. They tried to make it sound like it was our idea. "we've heard your concerns about rising electricity and travel costs."

I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but the stupid thing is that we'd be closed Monday and work Tuesday through Friday. Doesn't it make more sense to be closed Friday? Well, whatever. I like the idea of an extra day off, but 8:30 am - 7 pm seems like such a long day when I can barely make it past 4:30 now. The other stupid thing about the e-mail was that it said in some busy times of the year it might be necessary for some departments to work 5 days a week, Tuesday - Saturday from 8:30 - 5....um...why would they work Saturday and not Monday? I don't get that at all. That just seems stupid.

Classical Music and Chocolate

So today, I took the GMATs (aka the test that graduate business schools request). I wasn't completely sure that I wanted to get my MBA, but am not really sure what I want to do, so this was my best guess. The scores are good for five years, so I figured sometime within five years, I may decide that I do want to get an MBA.

When I was in high school, I had read something about chocolate and classical music stimulating the brain (I think two separate things actually), so before I took the SAT's I ate a handful of Hershey's miniatures and put my classical piano CD in my car. Well, I'm not sure whether it worked or not, but I did really well on my SAT's.

Now came the GMAT's. From studying, I learned that I now suck at math. How this happened, I'm not really sure, but data sufficiency questions are the DEVIL. I had done two practice test and then practice tests for the two sections I struggle with two more times and scored the same thing all four times. It wasn't too bad of a score (the quantitative score was pretty embarrassing though), but it wasn't great either...let's go with satisfactory.

This morning, either because I believe it worked the first time or because I'm really superstitious, I did the chocolate and classical music thing again (this time with Dove chocolate because that was what I had on hand), and again I totally rocked the GMAT. Even though I didn't feel well, the computer was buzzing so loudly that the facilitator hit it to try and make it stop and then when it wouldn't she offered me earplugs, the room was freezing, and the guy beside me kept sighing heavily, I ROCKED IT. When they gave me my "unofficial scores", I had to do a double take.

My daddy (because all spoiled girls refer to their father as daddy) was so proud of me that he bought me a pedicure today. See. The color is "My Big Break."

At first, I was really excited for having done so well. Then I realized that I pretty much screwed myself over because now my parents are expecting me to go to a really good MBA program and actually do something with my life which with my lack of ambition right now, is just so not good.

I Have Scent Issues

Normally for my laundry I use plain no dyes/perfumes Arm and Hammer laundry detergent and the same no dyes/perfumes Downy for fabric softener. (every once in a while I spice it up with the lavender/vanilla Downy...or whatever the purple kind is). This blandness stems from my mom who is allergic to everything. Once I bought her unscented lotion, but she couldn't wear it because it "smelled unscented." Crazy lady!

Anyway, I got a free sample of Tide in the mail and since I'm all for free samples, I used it. The Tide smell on my clothes is driving me INSANE!!! I've seriously thought of rewashing my clothes just to get the smell off, but I won't for two reasons. 1) It's not "green"...aka waste of water and electricity to rewash clean clothes. 2) My clothes have already been put away...shocking...and I don't want to sniff my way through all my drawers and closet.

An Excerpt from Notre Dame the Magazine

Normally I just read the class notes and skim the rest of Notre Dame the Magazine, but in the latest edition something caught my eye. I feel I need to share this excerpt with those of you that don't receive (or do receive and just don't read) Notre Dame Magazine. My sarcastic remarks will be in parenthesis.

"Generous scoops of enthusiasm (oh, what clever wording...you'll see) contributed to what organizers claim was a record-breaking spoon train on South Quad (because North Quad was completely flooded...though I'm really shocked that Zahm didn't have some part in this) during the light last days of spring semester. Some 127 fully-clothed (don't get your plaid pants in a bunch elderly alumni) undergraduates lay on their sides front-to-back like spoons in a drawer. (I'm not sure that exactly what they had in mind, but ok) The previous mark was set by 98 human spoons according to The Observer, but no word yet on whether the Guinness World Records book (man, I used to check that book out every week from the elementary school library) has confirmed the achievement. (yeah, I'm sure they're getting right on that)"

I'm really shocked that Reslife or some 90 year old priest didn't break this up. I guess since Father Jenkins took over as president the whole campus has gone to hell. I mean first we have co-eds spooning on the quad. What's next? Co-ed dorms! ::gasp::

Hersheypark Happy

Yesterday Danielle and I decided to go to Hersheypark because we were both bored. We didn't go till 4pm, so it was only ungodly hot for about an hour or so. Even though it was a Saturday, it wasn't very crowded at all. We ended up riding only roller coasters though we hadn't planned it that way. I rode the new Fahrenheit roller coaster and was a little disappointed (especially after a long wait). The weirdest part of the ride was the lift up the hill. It goes up at 90 degrees and more swiftly than normal roller coasters. It's weird laying on your back going up and feels like you are going to be dumped out on your head.

The most entertaining part though was when we decided to wander through the water part and started to watch people on the Waverider, a body surfing type ride. It was most enjoyable to watch people completely wipe out. Then we noticed that each of the ride attendants/lifeguards had a blanket near them. Bizarre...wonder what the blanket is for. Then we saw a woman and a bikini ride and discovered what they were for. Apparently topless shows are frowned on at family friendly theme parks. The one woman who was blanketed my a lifeguard threw off the blanket and basically walked off the ride with her boob still hanging out. We also discovered that the blankets are not always needed just for women. We must have watched for at least a half hour, alternating between people getting thrown crazy by the waves and panic looks when their tops came off.

The Concert

I guess this story actually all starts back in January at the NAMM (National Association of Music Manufacturer's) in California where I befriended, John Fred Young, the drummer for Black Stone Cherry. Since then, we've been shooting e-mails back and forth and when I saw that they were doing a concert in Philly, I had to go. And so, yesterday's adventure began. I'm just bummed that there are no pictures to go with this post because cameras weren't allowed in. :-(

Danielle went with me to navigate (though that turned out to be not such a wise selection as you will see later). We took her Garmin just in case (again not such a wise selection) and set off on our adventure. Danielle was a little nervous because "she always gets lost going to Philly" and she has a moderate fear of being lost. The first problem arose when the Garmin disagreed with our printed direction and told us to get off the turnpike about 40 miles early. Upon inspecting the Garmin directions, we also saw that it told us to not only get off the turnpike, but get back on going the opposite direction (the way we had just come). We concluded that something was not right, so we turned it off and turned it back on and it told us to continue the way we were going. Then about 30 minutes later, it turned off completely which was honestly the best thing it did the whole trip. I was worried about traffic, but we only hit it at one spot where and accident seemed to have recently occurred judging by the upside down van and the police just arriving. Also, when the one lane inched around the overturned vehicle, there was still a women inside (also upside down) , blood and no ambulance in sight.

We arrived at the Electric Factory safely and appeared to not be in the ghetto as was once feared. Parking was also easy. There was already a long line, so we got in it and I called John Fred (who had told me to ring his cell when we arrived) and inadvertently interrupted sound checks...oops. I went to will call and felt slightly superior when I announced that the band had left tickets for me as loudly as tactfully possible. There was quite an eclectic group in line for the concert (which also included the bands Theory of a Deadman and Shinedown). There was everyone from older women that looked liked my childhood piano teacher, to scary pierced/tattooed/shirt with flaming skulls wearing guys to preppie guys in Callaway golf shirts.

Once inside and out of the scorching heat, we found stools up on the balcony. A little bit out of the way, but also out of scary mosh pit range which did break out during the concert. Black Stone Cherry was the first band on, and they were awesome! I loved it! Danielle was fairly low key until she learned that screwdrivers were actually cheaper than beer (and far cheaper than the $11 Long Island that she had been considering). At one point, she forgot that a concert was still going on because she was so involved in her own inebriation. She also thought it was funny to belch and then blow it in my face. The first time it was actually hysterical, the second time still drunkingly cute, by about the fifth time, I was pretty annoyed. She also befriended a scary camo wearing/possible serial killer name Gary (or possibly Darryl) who offered to give her a tour of Philly.

After the concert, we went to meet John Fred out in the lobby area at their meet and greet. We didn't talk long because of all the other people around and because of Danielle's drunken state. L In fact, her introduction went something like this.

Me: This is my friend, Danielle.
John Fred: Hi, how are you?
Danielle: Not too good. I'm drunk.
John Fred: I'm John Fred.

Luckily she did not do anything too embarrassing as she had been previously considering, such as asking to feel his hair.

We managed to make it home safely despite Danielle screaming that we were going to die as I was maneuvering my way through the parking lot, drunk texting/calling people, bitching about needing to pee/being alternating too hot or too cold while we were stuck in dead stop traffic (thank you, night time construction), and eventually falling asleep....thanks for the navigation skillz.

Quote of the Day

Actually it was said on Monday, but I've been to lazy to post, so here it is on Thursday.

"I think people today are just of a lesser quality." --Kate, my coworker

So true...and very well put.

Cut and Paste Kangaroo = Trouble

I thought I had made it out of "Australia Week" without any further problems except for the Polar Bear/Baby conversation. I was wrong. Last Friday, I had to cover a site for Charlene who was out because her daughter was sick. Charlene was doing Australia last week. So I pulled out the cut and paste simple kangaroo activity without giving it a second thought. Luckily this conversation was between the counselor at the site and a little girl. I was not involved except to overhear. For a little background, the counselor was bored and decided to make a kangaroo herself. The kangaroo that is being cut and pasted has a little baby kangaroo peeking out its pouch.

Counselor: What color should I make the baby kangaroo?
Girl: Red (that would seem like a very unusual color for a baby kangaroo except the that counselor's big kangaroo was blue)
Counselor: Ok
[Counselor picks up a red crayon]
Girl: Do kangaroos get married, have babies and then split up or do they just have babies?
Counselor: Um...I don't know. How about I find out and let you know on Monday?
Girl: Ok

Very quick thinking on the counselor's part unless this is the type of girl that will come on Monday expecting an answer.

A Very Ambitious Cooking Weekend

I'm not sure what possessed me since i'm stressed out about a whole bunch of other stuff, but I decided to cook two family cherished items a lasagna and a black raspberry pie. Actually I know what possessed me to bake the pie: black raspberries are in season for two weeks or whatever right now. On a related note, I have an unbelievable, ridiculous amount of fruit in my refrigerator right now. YEAH SUMMER!

The pie (which is black raspberry) turned out a little browner than desired even though I took it out 10 minutes early. Oh well, it still tasted yummy. The lasagna turned out great and even more shocking is the fact that I actually did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen after all my cooking.

The Polar Bear Conversation

When you work with children, sometimes you have no idea where the conversation is going to end up. I was at a program with mostly 2nd-4th grade girls. We were making a color, cut, paste kangaroo.

Girl 1: Are kangaroos endangered?
Me: I don't know. {Footnote: certain species of kangaroo are}
Girl 1: Polar Bears are endangered.
Girl 2: No they aren't
Girl 1: Yes they are. The ice the live on is melting, so they have no where to live.
Girl 3: That's called global warming.
Girl 4: Well maybe only the boy polar bears are dying.
(Everyone looks puzzles except Girl 4)
Girl 4: Because if there are still girl polar bears, they can have babies and make more polar bears.
Girl 3: But they still need the boy polar bears to have babies, it's just like people.
Me: Ok, and this is where this conversation is going to end.

And to think all that started with an innocent question about kangaroos.

Savannah Day 5: Pigtail Friday

Ok, folks, it's time for me to wrap up my Savannah trip synopsis because I have other things that I must blog about. The last day of our trip. I had mentioned before that my office had thought about doing "pigtail Friday", but no one really went through with it. (Since then we have also had suggestions of other theme days --topless Tuesday, inappropriate dessert Monday-- which ended with simlarly lack of follow through.) Luckily, teenagers are much more easily influenced and Pigtail Friday was in full swing on the trip home from Savannah.

That morning we had free time after packing up and checking out of our room. Some of us decided to check out the First Girl Scout National Headquarters, which I was unimpressed with, but it gave us the opportunity to view "The Golden Eaglet." This VHS tape has been sitting in my office for two years, but I never had motivation nor reason to view it. BIG MISTAKE. I was hoping this would be posted on someone's website, so that all of you could enjoy, but it's not. The Golden Eaglet is a 20 minute silent movie made in 1918 to promote Girl Scouting. Basically this girl is bored and decides to join Girl Scouts and becomes Super Girl Scout. My favorite part is after she swims across the river, she arrives at the railroad station only to find out that the station master has been robbed and knocked unconscious. She performs First Aid and then telegraphs for help. HILARITY.

Then it was off to the airport for our trip home. When we were checking in at the airlines, I'm holding my driver's license up waiting for the guy to look at it. Finally he says "you're all set." and I kinda look at him funny and he says "I don't need to see your ID because you're under 18." Um...wrongo. Anyway, other than that and them changing our gate number a billion times nothing much happened. We arrived home safe and sound. The End.