we got nine inches of snow last night. i was late getting to work because i had to dig my car out of the snow - the piles on the street side where the snow plows pushed it, and the piles on the top of my car where the snow just fell from the sky. i was so glad, the whole time i was shovelling, that my carpal tunnel seems to not be bothering me for the last day or so. shovelling would have been impossible, otherwise.
and i heard we're supposed to get another nine inches tonight. don't ask me where we're going to put it all. i'm considering getting up early tomorrow morning and shovelling first. that way i can take a shower afterwards, and only do my hair once! this morning, it was snowing such huge, wet flakes, my hair got soaked through, and i had to go back into the house and blow dry it again.
some aspects of work have been sort of sucky lately. i sort of struggle with the part of my job that deals with answering customer claims. sometimes they're easy questions, and i can zip through the answers. i've been doing this for so long, i have wordings memorized, so that it is barely any effort to type them out. but then, there are customers who couldn't do things the easy way if they tried. their orders and claims are always as complicated as possible. it's at these times that i open an email and stare at it for a long time, hoping my manager believes i'm working. meanwhile, i'm racking my brain to figure out where to even start. i don't know why i have these blocks. i know it's only tuesday night, but this week has been full of these complicated claims. other, smaller claims are being delayed because it's taken me so long to figure out these other ones. i know this sometimes happens, and (hopefully) i'm not the only person who does this. but man, it sure feels crappy. especially since we have to keep stats of everything we do in a day so that our manager can compare us (my 2 co-CSRs and me) and point out how we're (I'm) not measuring up to the others.
...sometimes i wonder what it would be like to actually be good at your job, and to work for someone who didn't criticize everything you do. i don't think i even know what it's like to not dread my job and think i don't suck at it.
only love
can make it rain
the way the beach is kissed by the sea
only love
can make it rain
like the sweat of lovers
lying in the field.
only love
can bring the rain
that makes you yearn to the sky
only love
can bring the rain
that falls like tears from on high
love, reign on me
i give you - punky.
i would like to make my American Idol predictions now. i wasn't able to watch the hollywood auditions (ahem, forgot to record them), but they do show clips now and then. anyway, i've just finised watching the men perform, and these are the top three: david archuleta, jason castro, and michael johns. i don't know who will win, and even if none of them win, i still think they'll be the ones that are glad they don't win, but will enjoy the benefits of auditioning. like chris daughtry, whom, as i like to point out, i predicted from the first audition. i also predicted reuben from the beginning; and sure, he's lost his contract now, but the correctness of my prediction stands. i also chose melinda from the beginning, and she got pretty far (top 3, if i remember).
i think this season might be pretty good. i hope the cheesy ones get voted out soon. there's a great indie spirit going on this time around, i think, so i'm looking forward to that bit. i don't live and die and fan-girl for american idol, but i do like to keep my finger on its pulse so i can tell everyone what i think and then gloat later about how right i was all along. ;o)
i'll watch the girls later, and then post my predictions. i won't make this a regular thing, i'm just making my predictions as early as possible, and documenting them for proof. so far, simon and i have been saying the same things. (yes, i do critique the performers aloud, even though i am in my house by myself. i also cheer and give standing ovations when appropriate.)
i just did a little dream analysis on my mom. that makes me giggle. i'm like my mom in a lot of ways, but i know she's always considered some of my interests and views on things to be a bit whacky and unconventional. (that's her german heritage, i think.)
but tonight, she was talking about how she's been having lots of dreams lately, and how they've been pretty intense. i started asking her questions, and she answered them with interest. i told her to look for water in her dreams, because she said that the stress she's been going through in her waking life has a lot to do with her emotions. when i said that water signified emotions in dreams, she was fascinated and said she would watch for it.
parents go soft as they age.
i'd like to make this public service announcement:
not all customer service representatives are stupid, and customers are not always right.
hmph.
i have friends who have four children. three were adopted, and one is biological. they all have birthdays, and three have "gotcha days", which are the anniversaries of the days their adoptions were finalized. to be fair, the biological child has an "oh my goodness!" day, and that's celebrated on the anniversary of the day they found out about her. she was a surprise. :o)
so, there's always something to celebrate, and i get invited to most of the parties. i can't always make it because of schedules, but i go when i can. all the parties look alike, basically, but i thought i'd post some photos. saturday was melissa's birthday, and the them was centered on valentine's day. everyone had little plastic heart guys (with arms and legs) standing next to their plates, balloons tied to their chairs, and pink & red plates with hearts on them. there was even heart-shaped finger jello.
melissa had christmas songs on her mind, and kept singing through the meal. she performs with such gusto! i happened to be able to catch her performance of rudolph the red-nosed reindeer on video. i'll post the actual video later, but i don't think it's fully synched on youtube yet, or something. for now, if you are dying to watch it, you can go here.
i don't understand the bottom box - the one with the ambulance in it. i hate it when things have to be explained, and thus lose their poignancy, but would anybody be willing to share whether this particularly strikes them?
i just had a really intense snuggle session with stanford. i have two cats: punky, who is half my soul in another body (is that why he pukes all the time??), and stanford, who is a free soul. i tell stanford all the time that punky is my favorite. it doesn't stop him from occasionally seeking me out and curling up somewhere on me. he also has this thing he does when he needs attention: he finds where my hand is resting, and he nuzzles it. he wiggles his nose under it until it moves and eventually pets him. sometimes it swats him if i'm annoyed, but usually it at least gives him a playful scratch.
it struck me, though, one day how odd it seemed that cats would do that. cats have a bad reputation for being aloof and anti-social. but i've known enough cats to have experienced differently. every once in awhile, they seek humans out, at great risk to themselves, sometimes, just to get a little loving. and i thought, you know, sometimes, we as humans need to do that, too. sometimes i want love and attention. sometimes i want to be cuddled and coddled and cared for. but i'm too afraid to go looking. what would it be like if i just walked up to someone, got really close, and waited for them to put their arms around me? maybe i need to do that sometime. there are times when there are no substitutes for a good dose of physical contact. it's healing. if i could purr, i would. ;)
and an update for any out-of-towners reading this *coughdeborahcough*:
it started snowing again this afternoon. i really do love snow. i am not quite so fond of the sheer cold we've been having, though. i told a co-worker that i would rather have lots and lots of snow if it meant the temperature could be a little warmer, instead of having no snow and low, low temperatures. i can't afford all that wind coming in through the cracks in my house (i almost said that i can't afford all the wind coming in through my cracks. hehe.)
this would be a great house for ceiling fans, though, if they hadn't put the drop ceiling in 40 years ago. this weekend, i happened to put my arm up in the air for something, probably to stretch, and i swear, the air above my head was a good 10 degrees warmer. maybe more. the air i am living in is cold and drafty, but right above my head, it is a tropical dessert of warmth. i need to get me whatever that dude in Mary Poppins had to get him up on the ceiling.
i took a dream interpretation test on one of those test/quiz sites. they're fun sometimes. anyways, here are my results:
the recurrent theme of your dream life is Self-Reliance
you're dreaming about situations in which you don't feel ready to take full advantage of life's opportunities. this means that in some area of your life, you're searching for ways to better prepare and protect yourself on your road to success.
how fun. that seems about right. funny, they didn't ask about falling, failure to turn on lights, using toilets, or exploring old houses with an infinite number of rooms. i will have to look those up myself.
for reference: a dream dictionary. how does anyone not find this utterly fascinating?
