Nostalgia

Before I had this blog, I had another blog over at livejournal.com. A couple of weeks ago I found the old blog and had quite a laugh reading my old posts. I thought I'd share a few (or maybe just one) with you all since most of my current readers did not read the old blog.

This post was written on September 29th, 2005. I was a wee lass of just 26. I think Paige tagged me to do this one. I've added some commentary in red to see how the responses have changed.

Title: Fun things to do while on a conference call:

Three Names You Go By
1. Anne (yep)
2. Annie Beepers (yep)
3. beeps (sometimes)

Three Parts of Your Heritage
1. English (yep)
2. English (yep)
3. More English (yep)

Three Things That Scare You
1. Sushi (eh - kinda)
2. Relationships (Not so much. But marriage? That's another story)
3. Elephants (Of course. Just try to get me to come outside when the elephants go by at Apple Blossom - not gonna happen.)

Three of Your Everyday Essentials
1. Cornflakes (http://members.aol.com/EllenRigbe/flake.html) (oh yes!)
2. Chap stick (now it's Burt's. And I can survive a whole day without it!)
3. Brownie mix (everyday?? well, on average only every 5th day)

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now
1. Red shirt (green shirt)
2. Dark Grey pants (black pants)
3. watch (no watch, but now earrings)

Three of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists (at the moment)
1. Liza Minnelli (now and forever my favorite) (eh - I'm in an off-Liza season right now.)
2. Dave Crowder (hmm...how about Mutemath?)
3. Elton John (digging JET at the moment.)


Three Things You Want in a Relationship (other than Real Love)
1. Humor (one half smart/clever, one half silly) (yep)
2. Bi-weekly watching of musicals (DVDs or live on stage) (I'm doing ok without this actually)
3. Inside jokes (yep)

Two Truths and a Lie (I'm confused because all three of these were true back in 2005. Oh well!)
1. I’m related to George Bush (and about 20 other presidents)
2. I have never eaten at Taco Bell (had my first Taco Bell experience about 6 months ago and I rather enjoyed it!)
3. I have a mad crush on Snoop Dogg (it's probably still there somewhere deep inside.)

Things about the Opposite Sex that Appeal to You (in order)
1. Smile (yep, along with a love for Arrested Development)
2. Jesus like-ness (yep, especially when you add to that a love for Arrested Development)
3. Hottness (always nice, but a person becomes much hotter in my eyes when they love Arrested Development)

Three of Your Favorite Hobbies
1. Tap dancing/fantasizing about tap dancing on Broadway (Pilates - tap teacher moved away)
2. Watching old movies (watching any movies)
3. Going to the Library (taking walks)

Three Things You want to do really badly right now
1. Make out (should the right guy come along.) (I will forever want to do this.)
2. Buy a BMW (Over it.)
3. Go to Ann Taylor loft (I do have a coupon...)

Three Places You Want to Go
1. Greece (yep)
2. Africa (yep)
3. Florida (been there -now maybe the Great Wall of China?)

Three Things You Want to Do Before You Die
1. Have a husband and kids (yep)
2. Visit all 50 states and all 7 continents (I'll do the 50 but not so sure about the continents)
3. tell tons of people how great Jesus is (yep)

Three Ways that you are stereotypically a Chick/Guy
1. I want to have babies (not as sure about the babies but I told my SG a couple of weeks ago that I felt ready to look cool pushing around a stroller.)
2. I like to buy clothes (yep)
3. I say too much before I get to the point (most definitely still true.)

Three people I would like to see take this quiz
1. Paige (except she already did) (Rachel)
2. Dawn (Michael)
3. Alan (Christine)

Well there you have it. It seems like not a lot has changed, but then again, so much has changed!! I'll have to re-post this in 2011 and see what's going on in my life when I'm 32!

This is what happens when you take the map off your wall.*

I tried to look up where a bank was located and when the results came up, I stared at the letters "NE" for a good 60 seconds trying to figure out what they meant. My brain kept telling me "New England is not a state!" I was seriously about to report an issue in our issues database explaining that the "State" field should only return results for real, live states (because "New England is not a state!") but then the words "Cornhusker" and "Osborne" popped into my head and it was all better.

*I took the map off the wall in my office so I could teach Emma to do a headstand after she made the following statement about what she wanted out of life: "Not a husband, just a headstand."

The Best Feeling

Driving away from the reception site as fast as you want because your car is filled with empty cake boxes. Congrats Seth and Lyndsay!!

I'm a bad blogger

Like you haven't noticed. I've been meaning to blog about the awesomeness that was Martin and Jesse's wedding a few weeks ago in Pittsburgh. Wedding at the Phipps Conservatory, reception at the PPG aquarium (now I understand why my friends Laura and Eben are obsessed with the octopus), caricature artist on hand at the reception (don't ask to look at his drawing of Mike and I - we look about 50!), and some of the best wedding reception dance music I've experienced.

I've been meaning to blog about all the fun that is going on at work. The conference I went to with Bernanke, Paulson and Chair Bair, the great line that came out of that conference "your home is not an ATM," the fun we've been having with IndyMac and the fun that is to come in the future, the lunch today with my coworkers where Sharon and Ed spent the entire car ride to Ben's Chili Bowl shouting expletives at the other drivers on the road, and then when it's time to eat, they both are staring at me and Ed says "Aren't you going to ask the Lord to bless our food??" Crazies.

I've been meaning to blog about my 349 note streak on Guitar Hero the other night. And this was not on the easy level - this was on medium!

I've been meaning to blog about the great stuff I've been reading lately. This article on John McCain was super interesting. He wrote it after he returned from his captivity in North Vietnam. And this article from today's Washington Post. Read it if you're wondering who Obama's greatest admirer is. Made me chuckle.

And finally, I've been meaning to blog about these ladies from America's Got Talent. I've watched them soo many times I can't even tell you!

Have I mentioned that I love my coworkers?

Well if I haven't, I do. Only Mark could pull off the great thing that happened today in the PDD meeting. Agenda item 3 looked like this:

3. Quarterly Financial Data

• Call Reportz – all bankz – This is the schnizzle.
• Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Past Due loanz.
• UBPR all bankz.
• UBPR single bank, fo sho.

Call Reports are the schnizzle, by the way.

Girl breaks nose while watching Full House

Most of you readers know exactly what the title of this post is referring to, but for those of you who don't, it's time that I fill you in on my unfortunate nose breaking incident of 1995. This moment in my life has come up many times in the last several months, so it may as well be out there for the world to read about on the interweb.

Obviously you all know I love to dance. And a lot of you know that I spent a great deal of my childhood and teen years watching musicals and memorizing the dances. Then I would perform them for my sister and her boyfriends. One boyfriend at a time, of course. Don't go getting the wrong idea about my sister.

Anyway, I loved the show Full House and there happens to be an episode all about Stephanie and her dreams of becoming a dancer. The final scene is Stephanie's dance recital where she dances to the song "Motown Philly" (loved this song, btw). One afternoon (I'm pretty sure it was a Wednesday - why do I remember that?) I'm at home watching TV and this episode of Full House comes on. Of course I jump up off the couch and start dancing along with Stephanie and her "advanced modern" class. :) At some point (probably during the line "kickin' it just for you...") I kick my leg up while simultaneously flinging my head down. And this is when my knee slams into the bottom of my nose and Ahhhh!!! I can still hear the crack. So much pain!!! Ever since that day I've had a deviated septum which I affectionately refer to as my blood clot, because that's what it looks like to me. Don't ask.

Flash forward to today and me sitting at my desk eating lunch and trying to think of something on the Internet that might entertain me. Then it hit me - "I wonder if Stephanie Tanner's dance recital is on Youtube?" And guess what?? It is!!

There are actually quite a few people who are obsessed with the dance stylings of Stephanie Tanner which was a pleasant surprise! Unfortunately, I was only able to find one video that shows the entire "Motown Philly" dance routine and it's not the greatest (the sound is off from the picture) but it will have to do. So here you have it. My life and my nose will never be the same because of this moment in television history.



One more thing - Rachel and I just signed up for an intro to modern dance class! Watch out Stephanie!

Home again home again jiggity jig

Just got back from Idaho and Oregon. The trip was fun but it totally wore me out! I told Liz I was giving up the whole 50 by 30 thing and not going to Hawaii. Seriously. Long plane rides are no fun and 49 states is plenty!!

Whenever I get back from a trip I put a pin in each of the states I’ve visited on the map on the wall in my office. I started to put the ID and OR pins in today, but then I realized I’m moving to a new office next week. I’ve messed up many an FDIC wall over the years with my pin holes, so I decided I’d wait and leave my old office wall with two fewer holes in it.

I was informed by an 11 year old that I need to be more organized so hopefully this move will help. One of the girls I sit for must have come to work with her mom sometime last week because when I got into the office this morning, my computer looked like this:

There were about 10 more post-it notes on my desk (on top of all the piles which I'm not posting a picture of) and one note that said: "I hope you move into your new office soon and love it. Don't forget to organize!!!! :) Love, Maddy."

I will try my best. :)

MTM and Comp Time

How much do I love Kandi right now? You’ll find out when I tell you about my day yesterday.

7:45-3:00: BORING!!

3:01: Kandi sends text: “Oprah today is the cast of Mary Tyler Moore.”

3:16: Something in me tells me to check my cell for messages. See text from Kandi. Sad because I am not home to see MTM.

3:18: Realize I have comp time left over from my training course. Visit wmata.com to check bus schedule. Bus leaves Rosslyn at 3:45. Perfect!

3:20: Tell Alan I am rollin out. Submit leave request and pack up junk.

3:23: Walking out of FDIC.

3:30: On platform at Farragut West. Train arriving in two minutes.

3:38: Climbing the fourth longest escalator in the world (I made that up) at Rosslyn.

3:39: Out of breath and riding the rest of the way up.

3:40: Bus waiting outside of station.

3:45: Bus leaves Rosslyn with me on it.

3:57: Sitting in front of TV waiting for Oprah and MTM.

4:00: Oh Happy Day!!

4:59: Off to grocery store to buy brownie mix. What better way to wrap up an hour with the cast of the MTM show!

I think I’ll never blog again.

Well not really – I just haven’t been in the typing mood lately. I’ve had lots of fun things going on and I’ve written some funny posts in my head, but up until now, I haven’t been able to find the time to sit down and update this darn blog.

So let’s see – what’s happened in the last month?

1. A couple of weekends ago I kid-sat for my coworkers 3 girls. We’ve had many a crazy weekend together over the years, and this one was by far the best. I think age is a great thing! They don’t whine nearly as much. We made it to every event basically on time - soccer practice (Jilly), soccer game (Maddy was the MVP!), crew practice (Becca), crew regatta (Becca), girl scouts (Maddy), slumber party (Becca) choir practice (Jilly), church (M&J) and softball game (M&J). And somewhere in the middle of all that I was able to take a shower and walk the dog. We had a little downtime on Saturday afternoon so I put two of the girls to work washing my car. That’s what any good sitter would do, right?



My car has made its blog debut! Maddy was very excited about the new car. When she saw it she yelled out “no more cranky windows!” (they were fascinated by the manual windows on my old car because they had never seen them before).

2. My friends Eboni and Anthony celebrated their one year anniversary last week, and they reported back that their wedding cake was mighty tasty after spending a year in the freezer. Actually, Eboni told me that Anthony was not at all happy when he found out they were having old wedding cake for dessert, but after they’d each had a piece and Eboni was about to throw the rest away, Anthony said “What you doin, woman? I want to eat more of that cake!”

3. I think my coworker JJ might actually be human and not a robot. In our staff meeting this week he ate some M&M’s. Trust me, this is a big deal!

4. I’ve had many funny interactions with my coworkers lately. The first is with Ed:

Ed: Have you updated the database with the latest failure?

Me: No. I’ll get it done by Friday.

Ed: Well, I don’t really care. Who uses this data anyway?

Me: Your Mom.

Ed: Oh right - she was really mad that you didn’t have the database updated for Mother’s Day.

And this one with my boss Alan:

Me: You rejected me!

Alan: Hahaha…you should’ve seen it coming!

Me: I like to hope…

Alan: It’s hopeless.

And conversations with Emma always make for a good time (English is her second language). We love to keep track of Emma-isms around here.

Me: I think I look fat in that picture.

Emma (completely serious): No, I think your computer has fat resolution.

Me (cracking up): Uh…what??

Emma: It’s true!! Some computers have fat resolution and some have long skinny resolution! Fat resolution is common one!

5. I’ve listened to Weezer’s new song The Greatest Man That Ever Lived about 19 times this morning. If I wrote a song, I’d want it to be just like this – a little mix of hymn, rap, rock, alternative, and spoken word. And then I'd want the Liza of 1974 (when her voice was awesome) to sing it.

6. I’ve had a really good time with my banks this quarter, but I’ve obviously made it very clear to all of the section chiefs in our division that I do not want to do any extra work related to banks and their call reports. This email went out from another Ed (the call report chief) this morning and it made me happy, even though it probably makes me look like a slacker:

“I would expect that there will be sufficient downtime during the conference for you to be able to check messages and respond to urgent matters during the week so that nothing falls through the cracks. If you REALLY need someone to call a banker back and handle something for you, you can call Anne and ask her to follow-up for you. Please do NOT leave Anne’s name or number on your voicemail message.”

Yeah – that’s about it for now. Check ya later!

I kid you not.

Tambourine girl (Neko Case) for the New Pornographer's was sick tonight and did not perform at the concert! I think I've mentioned before that one of my life goals is to be tambourine girl for the NP's. It was like a sign from God that I should go up on the stage and fill in for her. Unfortunately, I'm all talk and I just stood in the crowd fake playing my fake tambourine.

Since Neko wasn't there, they didn't sing a lot of my fav songs ("Go Places", "Myriad Harbor", "Mutiny, I Promise You") but they did sing "Challengers" which just about killed me. I love that song, and lately I haven't been able to move past that song on my NP's CD. Best line: "Whatever the mess you are, you're mine, okay." (Thanks Rachel for pointing that one out to me!)

Here it is: