Just a little bit of randomness for a dreary Thursday.

Last night I had a dream that was turning into a murder mystery. It was a lot like watching an episode of Murder, She Wrote. I knew I was dreaming and I knew who the killer was but I figured I’d hang in there until the end to see if my assumptions were correct. Unfortunately, the alarm went off and I’ll never know if I was right or not.

Planning a vacation can be stressful. For someone like me (who enjoys lists, organization and planning every minute detail ahead of time) it can be a complete nightmare. Not the vacation itself, but the lead up to departure. There are just so many little things to worry about. Is the pet sitter scheduled? Is there enough catfood? Is there enough litter? Did we leave enough this? Did we take enough that? Did I remember to pack such and such? The horrible part is when you’re about 6 hours into the trip and you remember that you forgot to pack the charger for the camera.

This year though I’m trying not to panic. To my credit (and people will attest to how I plan for things in advance… like starting to think about Christmas 09 in December of 08) I haven’t even written up a list of all the things I need to make sure I pack with me. This year I’m hoping to travel light. Everything will fit into one suitcase and a little bag I pack full of tissues, asprin and stuff like that to keep in the front seat with me. I think my kindle is definately going to get a good exercise on this trip.

Now if I could just get a tan as easily as I can vow not to over plan..

I really don’t know why people fuss so much about nice weekends or long weekends. We just had what I can only describe as the most beautiful long weekend in the history of long beautiful weekends and it feels like it was gone before it even started.

I think it was the most social I’ve been in a very long time and it just felt so nice to say fuck it and go with the flow of events and make impromtu plans for a gathering and to just fill every moment with as much happiness as is humanly possible.

Friday night we went out for dinner to what was supposed to be a brief evening and ended up being an all night event. It was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with some great friends and talk to some new people and just generally have a good time. I was home by midnight and then proceeded to stay up until around 4.

The next day Jason and I were off to Lowes to solidify some sort of decision about our flooring needs. When we bought our house the couple who owned it before us were offering to toss some money toward replacing the carpet in the upstairs because it was old, dingy and their dog has ripped it up in spots. In short, it was disgustingly ugly. And it still is because we turned that offer down in place of other things we were requesting. And we really didn’t want carpet.

I’ve looked at it every day for the past two years and it’s both embarassing when we have company over and depressing to look at. I stare at those bare spots where the berber is worn or torn. It’s awful and I’m so glad we’re finally in a place to do something about it.

On Sunday we went out for the evening and I don’t think I’ve ever danced so much in my entire life. It was such a fun night. We also made plans to have a bbq the following day.

Monday I woke up rather late as I pulled another 4am evening and I set about the task of making shortcake. I misplaced my recipe card so I was eternally thankful to myself and my forward thinking that last year I blogged about the awesomeness that is shortcake here, here and here and even included the recipe. I quickly jotted it down and whipped one up and looked at it in dismay. It didn’t look right to me. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it just didn’t look… right. So I paniced a bit and bought some of those premade “shortcake” cups that really aren’t all that great but people still buy them just in case the shortcake turned out to be inedible.

The day turned out to be so completely beautiful that I can hardly put into words how nice it was to sit around with friends, pick at food, sip drinks, and play frisbee. It was exactly what was needed and exactly what a bbq is supposed to be like.

After everyone had eaten way more than they should we broke out the dessert and much to my relief it was edible. Not to be outdone though a friend who is an amazing bartender on and off the field whipped up some pineapple upside down cake.

I and the weather are now back into the grind of normalacy. The weather is rainy and gray and I’m back at work. I didn’t get a thing done around the house and I even had an extra day to throw at it and I wouldn’t have spent it any other way. This was definately an amazing way to spend a long holiday weekend.

It isn’t often that I get to interact with the general public. Normally I’m squirrelled away in my little cube going about my daily routine, putting out fires where they arise. I am the cogs in the back of the watch that make the hands go around. The things you never look at until they break.

Recenty the university has begun its yearly program for freshmen who are coming to college but mostly it’s for their parents who at times can be overly protective, overly cautious and overly stupid. Somehow, and I’m not sure if it’s a compliment to my shining personallity or a test to see if I’ll sink or swim, I was chosen to help man a table for our office to answer parent’s questions. And do they ever have questions.

All was going smoothly. I was at least able to sound like I knew what I was talking about and if I didn’t know the answer I was able to make up something that sounded reasonable and confident. They bought it. I knew they’d forget what I told them by the time they walked back in the auditorium so I wasn’t too concerned with being 100% correct 100% of the time. I figured if I hit the majority of high notes, threw in some buzz words and told them to check our website that would suffice. And it did.

Then a mother from New Jersey came to my table. I could tell right away that this was going to be a problem mother. This was a mother who was used to getting what she wanted when she wanted it and in no uncertain terms would the person giving her what she wanted be unhappy about it. If she wasn’t satisfied, nobody was satisified.

She comes at me with a look on her face similiar to when a cat sizes up a mouse and says “What would you tell me if I told you (insert her very broad inquiry here)?” and before I could stop myself the words were out of my mouth. I point blank answered her generalized broad and vague question with an equally generalized, broad and vague answer. Because I am apparently nothing if not a smartass.

At which point she informed me that that was not what she had asked. She scooped up a business card we had laying out for parents to take that listed our office, contact and website information and turned it around so I could see it as if I weren’t the one who had placed them there. She began to thump the card, puncutating every word out of her mout has she spat at me “THAT IS NOT WHAT I ASKED! ISN’T THIS WHO YOU ARE? ISN’T THIS WHAT YOU DO?”

I smiled at her and chastised myself internally before also internally answering her with yet another smart ass comment. “No, actually, that is not what I do. What I do is put up with the people who DO do that so why don’t you shut the hell up and go back into the auditorium with the rest of the parents.” Instead I chose to repeat her question back to her and then I again repeated my answer explaning that what she was asking was very broad and she needed to focus her question down a bit. After that she settled down a bit. Only a bit. She continued to be loud and abrasively in my face.  When all was said and done, she was satisfied with the answers I was able to provide her (which I didn’t feel were very helpful) and I was satisfied that she’d get out of my face and leave me alone.

As she left and the session in the auditorum got underway again, I sat down at the table and breathed a sigh of relief before turning my attention back to watching the concerned parents who were in the sitting area directly across from my tables.

A group of about 5 fathers were in there. All of them were asleep.