Mind Vomit by the ikss

high school meme-ical

There is a high school-related meme going around…I don’t remember at whose blog I found it but if I stole it from you, give yourself a plug in my comments section and please accept my apologies.

1. Did you date someone from your school senior year? Nope. Oddly, I didn’t really date guys from my school until after I graduated. Except that time I went to see Splash with that guy Jim, from whom I never even got a goodnight kiss and who turned out to be gay so I don’t even think he counts. I didn’t date much at all before the age of 19, but if/when I did they were guys who were older than I and did not attend my school. For many years, my substantial charms seemed lost on guys my own age.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? While I would love to think that somewhere on this planet, a lonely and unfulfilled John Vitale is sitting, drinking and smoking in an under-lit room, regretting the day he spurned my eighth-grade crush, I feel somewhat certain that the guys I went to school with would laugh hysterically at the thought of being married to me.

3. Did you carpool to school? I usually walked to school. For about a year (when I lived with my brunette sister and her kids and they lived farther away from my school) my friend Patty would pick me up in her old, green Ford Granada.

4. What kind of car did you drive? I didn’t drive while in school…at least not legally. I got my license at 18 (I was out of high school at 16). At that time, I drove a Toyota Tercel. Although it belonged to my Dad. I didn’t own my first car until a few years later.

5. What kind of car do you have now? A 2009 VW Jetta TDI

6. It's Friday night - where were you (in high school)? Maybe going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show or to a party…but probably just hanging out at my house listening to music, since I did that most nights.

7. It is Friday night - where are you (now)? I tend to stay at home on Friday nights. Because I’m old and I work all week and by Friday I can only think of sleep…heavenly, precious sleep. But sometimes, certain people will drag me out to a bar…

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? My first job, at 16, was at Round Table Pizza. That was followed up by a stint at the old Retail Giant Gemco before I landed at Tower Records.

9. What kind of job do you do now? I run the Credit and Collections department for a horticultural business (The Friendly Flower Place). You know those plants you are buying at The Home Depot now that Spring has Sprung? Yeah, somebody had to sell those to Home Depot before they got to you.

10. Were you a party animal? In spite of my teen-aged struggles, I managed to have a lot of fun. I would not say I was a “party animal” in the traditional sense, though. I didn’t do any drugs (I didn’t even smoke the mota until I was 30 years old) and I rarely drank alcohol (I know - hard to believe, ain’t it?). I hung out with the drama and band geeks and we sang show tunes and my friend Patty and I would impersonate the Solid Gold Dancers at our parties. It was geeky fun, but fun was had.

11. Were you considered a flirt? Not then. I barely spoke to anybody then and when I did it was most likely with a grimace on my face. Now is an entirely different story. I still have the grimace, of course, but I have a horrible tendency to flirt. With everyone. Not even just with men I find attractive, either. Old people, women, dogs…I don’t even know when it’s happening. It’s completely beyond my control.

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir, yes.

13. Were you a nerd? Not in the sense that I got good grades and studied all the time. I also had very clear skin at that age. I was a social outcast and hung out with other social outcasts, so in that sense I was. However, I like to think I was the coolest of the nerds…

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? I suspended myself enough. I got in trouble for just not showing up to school, so I think suspending me would have been punishment which did not actually suit the crime.

15. Can you sing the fight song? Um…no. I doubt I even knew it then.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? I don’t even remember their names…Oh, OK, Mr. Lapp was my choir teacher and I did learn a lot from him, actually. More than I did in the actual voice lessons I took subsequently.

17. Where did you sit during lunch? I wasn’t usually on school property, but when I was I would hang outside of the arts buildings, with all of the other punks, geeks and misfits.

18. If you could go back and do it again, would you? That’s an interesting question for me…I would never want to go back to that time in my life, because I was miserable and high school for me was not at all fun. However, I wish I could have actually done the work I needed to do to get good grades and go on to a good university. I kick myself daily for being so stubborn and arrogant and short-sighted and undisciplined…but I’m still stubborn, arrogant and undisciplined so even were I go to back to that time, I would probably do the exact same, stupid things I did then.

19. Did you have fun at Prom? I never went to Prom.

20. Do you still talk to your prom date? See above. But even had I gone, I doubt I’d still talk to my date. I do not talk to anybody from that time in my life (although there are actually three people I would like to re-connect with).

21. What did you want to be when you grew up? A songwriter.

22. Biggest fashion mistake? It was the eighties, people. Take your pick.

23. Favorite fashion trend? Shoulder pads.

24. Are you going to your next reunion? I doubt it. I haven’t been to one yet.

the old man and our meme

I stole this meme from Dooce because, unlike Ms. Armstrong (the authoress of that site), I like memes. They are a perfect fit for the lazy side of me who doesn’t want to have to constantly think of things about which to write.

What are your middle names?
Mine is Sue (or Sioux, if you prefer)…The Old Man’s is David.

How long have you been together?
This time? Three years…but we actually got together 13 ½ years ago. We were together for five years, then broke up for several before he realized his undying love for me and that he just could not possibly live without me for one second longer.

At least, that’s how I tell the story.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
About thirty seconds.

Who asked whom out?
Actually, the proper question, grammatically-speaking, would be “Who asked out whom?” I mean, if you’re going to go to the trouble of using “whom” why not use correct grammar for the entire sentence?

But I digress...the question, after all, was not “Who is more anal-retentive?”

Officially, he asked me out; but since I essentially threw myself at his crotchal area when first we met, it’s pretty much a tie.

How old are each of you?
I am 42, he is 49. Gonna be fifty-friggin’-years-old in November! Ha! I guess I shouldn’t give him much grief, seeing as it will then be payback time in but a few years…but I make no promises.

As a side note, for some reason he has been receiving information in the mail from the AARP for like two years now. He swears it is an error on their part, but I have the feeling he may have lied to me about his age.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
Mine. Because I am absurdly close to my family.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Generally, when considering the entire breadth and width of our years together, money woes; but I will say that we have gotten much better at dealing with that stress over the years. A) Neither one of us (aside from the occasional splurge) is especially irresponsible when it comes to money, so it’s not like either of us can legitimately point any fingers when we come up short financially. B) I think we both finally figured out that we’re in this together and if one suffers the other does, as well and 3) I make a helluva lot more dough than I used to.

While it has not come up as often as money-woes, I think these days the more challenging situation is dealing with my tendency toward depression. In a nutshell, The Old Man doesn’t get it and so he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Since I don’t always understand it myself it is difficult for me to express it to him and I certainly have no quick fix (but can you imagine the money I could make if I came up with one?).

After the Halloween Incident, 2008, there was an obvious reason for my depression and the Old Man was therefore much more understanding and tolerant of it than he has been in the past. Being a man, though, if he can’t identify and quantify a problem and then fix it with tools and/or logic, he becomes overwhelmed. So then I have to deal not only with my depression, but with a man who has little patience for it.

Did you go to the same school?
Nope.

Are you from the same home town?
Not really. I was born in Appleton, Wisconsin and raised in a suburb of Los Angeles. The Old Man was born and raised in a suburb of LA, but one which is about fifteen - twenty miles away from mine.

Who is smarter?
One of the main things I love about our relationship is that we are each smart, but in very different ways. The Old Man has an engineer’s mind; a mechanic’s mind. He can fix things easily and can explain why planes don’t fall out of the sky and why bullets in that small gun over there will actually do more damage to the human body than bullets from that huge gun over there. He can dismantle your computer and put it back together again. I have little doubt that, if the opportunity arose, he would be able to break out of prison using only two sheets of notebook paper and a ball point pen.

I can tell you how to correctly spell large words.

I can also tell you exactly how the Gunfight went down at the OK Corral. I have yet to determine just why that is useful in life, but I feel certain that it will come in handy some day.

Who is the most sensitive?
Um...That would be me. I go nowhere without a box of tissues.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Wow. We eat out like twice each week (one night and usually on Sunday mornings) and we have a lot of favorites. I will say, though, that since we moved to the OC we haven’t really found “favorite” places in town. There were lots of places in Long Beach: Utopia, La Creperie, Azteca (yummy Chicken Machaca and Eggs!)…

For special occasions (or when we are in the neighborhood for some reason), we like to go to Gladstones 4 Fish in Malibu.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
New Mexico. All of the far-away places I have been have been sans Old Man.

Who has the craziest exes?
Definitely The Old Man, but really that’s only because I don’t really have any exes. Not in any real sense of that word. My twenties were spent sifting through a series of idiots, alcoholics, numb-nuts, low-lifes and drummers (I know – that’s redundant) who were really just a way of passing time. I called myself “The Three-Month Queen”. Those were not really relationships, per se.

Conversely, I can not believe The Old Man was ever married to the mother of his children. And the fact that he then ended up with me is disturbing. You know, I try to tell myself it’s because he learned his lesson and knew, after his divorce, exactly what he did not want in a woman and so found me. But still…

Who has the worst temper?
I tend to blow more often (I blame the red hair); but when he blows, man he really blows. And you don’t want to be anywhere within a three mile radius.

Who does the cooking?
I do. Aside from warming up some chicken broth for me after The Halloween Incident, 2008, The Old Man has never made a meal for me (a fact about which I reminded him last night, after he made himself a most delicious-looking grilled chicken breast and swiss cheese sandwich on grilled sourdough).

I enjoy cooking for us, but I am not all that great at it. I constantly look for new recipes (I have to use recipes) and solicit feedback, but the frustrating thing is that I never get much feedback, regardless. It is infuriating cooking for somebody who never tells you what he likes and doesn’t like and gives you the same, patented, “uh-huh” every time you ask if he likes what you have made.

Who is the neat-freak?
I used to be a neat freak. Now I just don’t have the energy to care that much. I like things to be clean. Things can be messy or a tad cluttered (I won’t throw a hissy fit if you leave your jeans laying across the chair in the bedroom), but they must be clean. In fact, I am a tad germophobic. The Old Man, however, has little tolerance for mess, but I wouldn’t sit on his toilet right now if you told me that every drop of my pee which hits the bowl would turn to gold.

And yes, we use separate toilets. See definition of germophobe.

Who is more stubborn?
Um...that is quite a contest, I assure you. And I stubbornly refuse to admit that I often win.

Who hogs the bed?
Definitely The Old Man. But, you know – he is 6’4” tall and I am a mere 5’1 ¾” (but I say I’m five-foot-two).

Who wakes up earlier?
We both wake up at the same time, but it takes me far longer to actually get moving.

Where was your first date?
We went to see Phenomenon starring John Travolta. Bad movie, but I still remember the feeling of The Old Man’s hand on my back as we walked to a restaurant for coffee afterward. I know that sounds like an overly-dramatic line from one of those stupid Twilight books, but it’s true.

Who is more jealous?
The Old Man. I don’t get jealous at all, but I sometimes pretend I do just to make him feel good.

How long did it take to get serious?
About thirty seconds.

Who eats more?
I eat more often throughout the day, but there is no way in hell I could eat as much at one time as he can. Again – he is 6’4” tall and I am a mere 5’1 ¾” (but I say I’m five-foot-two).

Who does the laundry?
Each of us does our own laundry. I know that’s weird, but A) I have a lot of delicates which I will not let him wash because I learned my lesson long ago when he tried to “help” me out and everything shrunk to half it’s size and B) He is extremely picky about how his undershirts get folded.

We usually wash our whites together (although he folds his and I mine) and whoever runs out of undies first is the one who throws them all in the washer.

Who's better with the computer?
That would be The Old Man. I don’t know and I don’t care to know. I just want to turn it on and have it do what I need it to do.

Who drives when you are together?
We are usually in my car and so I am usually the one driving because The Old Man hates my car. These days, The Old Man’s son is “borrowing” his car (although after a year I don’t really consider it “borrowing” anymore) and so The Old Man’s only transportation is his motorcycle.

However, do not think that the fact that it’s my car and he hates to drive it will keep The Old Man from lecturing me every single time we go somewhere about my supposed lack of driving skills. Actually, that should have been my answer to the question about difficult situations as a couple. We argue almost every time we get in the car. Because I am actually a great driver, but he refuses to admit that fact.

bizarro-nathan’s pippi longstocking memorial survey

I don't know who "Bizarro-Nathan" is or what this survey has to do with Pippi Longstocking, but it's fun...and actually a new one! :)

1. If you could have any historical figure resurrected to guard your residence nightly, who would you choose? ~ Crazy Horse

2. What would the title of your autobiography be? ~ Too Much Booze, Too Little Sleep

3. Name a place that you haven't visited that you would like to. ~ Spain

4. Do you have psychic ability(ies)? If so, please elaborate. ~ I see dead people…

5. When you were a kid, what were your sources of spending money? ~ Allowance money and occasionally thievery (I’m joking…kinda…)

6. If you could have a bumper sticker custom made for you, what would it say? ~ Don’t follow me, cuz whatever lane I end up in will be the slowest

7. Honorary membership in which: PETA, NRA, Super Adventurers Club? Uh…if I have to pick one of these - Super Adventurers Club, I guess.

8. If you could clone any deceased person regardless of how long gone, who would you choose? ~ Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln. Sorry, I spent like five minutes trying to decide which one. Although either one of them would probably just commit suicide after seeing the state out country is in now.

Hey, I guess I should have said Jesus. But I don’t know what Jesus would think about arbitrary cloning, frankly, so maybe we’d better not ask Him. He might not want to come back before His time. And you don't want to piss Him off. Remember the money-changers?

9. Who was the first celebrity you can remember having a crush on? ~ Donny Osmond...or Mickey Dolenz. I'm not sure who came first (the proverbial chicken and the egg).

10. If you could have your car horn changed to honk the first few recognizable notes of any tune, what tune would that be? ~ "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones

11. If you were given the ability to perfectly mimic one person's voice, whose would you choose? ~ Suzanne Pleshette

12. What in your opinion is the greatest science fiction movie ever made? ~ Science Fiction? Huh?

13. You are allowed to suggest to Baskin and Robbins a new ice cream flavor. What would be your idea? ~ Baileys and Chocolate Brownie

14. If you had the power to direct the presidential candidates to choose a certain running mate, who would you demand? ~ For Obama, I’d pick Bill Richardson (my personal choice) or Hillary Clinton (so as to keep the peace in the party). I still like John Edwards, but I know his recent sex scandal would just be fodder on which to feed and may cost them the election. For McCain, I'd choose Ed McMahon, who needs a job right now.

15. Tell us about a childhood incident where your gag reflex got the best of you. ~ That time they made me eat a tomato at camp.

survey du jour

Because I’m lazy and do not want to think up a blog entry today, I stole this from Andrea, who stole it from someone else.

What happened at 9:00 am today?
I lied to a co-worker, so I could postpone our meeting until Monday.
What do you want in your life right now?
A good band who can write and enjoys playing in more than one genre.
Are you wearing anything you borrowed from someone?
Nope.
What is the last thing someone bought you?
Flowers. The Old Man brought me some flowers when I’d had a bad day.

wednesday wandomness

I stole this from a blog I like to read. For some reason, I felt inclined…

wednesday wandomness

What is the most random object around you? Lip gloss

When is your birthday? October 8th

What were you doing at 8:00 this morning? Sending an email to my team, letting them know I am leaving at 2:30 so I can go wait for the cable guy, but that I will be working from home.

What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Looking for an email wherein I explained the EDI issues we’re having which caused the 31-60 bucket on our Aging to jump dramatically for June, because my boss wants me to again explain this to the CFO when we have a meeting with her later today.

unconscious mutterings, week 283

Week 283
I say ... and you think ... ?
1. Loneliness :: lost
2. Traffic :: annoyance
3. Chaos :: clamor
4. Burp :: yep
5. 500 :: 1300
6. Movie :: Dracula (that’s just what came to mind…maybe cuz I have a version on DVD that I need to watch and send back to Netflix)
7. Coma :: dreams
8. Bark :: bite
9. Stare :: stone
10. Angelina :: veins in the forehead!