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:

The Dawn and Dave Wedding

I've promised some of you that I'd post pics from Dawn and Dave's wedding and here they are. The wedding was great, btw. Best part - D and D's first dance. They danced to "For Me and My Gal" sung by the one and only Mary Lou (Dawn's Mom) with many of the guests singing along. You know I was singing because hello - Judy Garland!! Love this song! Unfortunately, I was in the process of changing my camera setting from pic to video and missed the first 20 seconds of the dance, so hopefully Dawn has video of the whole thing somewhere.


Here's D and D with the flower girls (super cute, except for the fact that Helen, the older one, told me "TO DIE!")

And here's the Edison Girls v1.2: Liz, Kate, Dawn, Courtney and Anne. Man did we have some good times. The Edison House was (and still is) famous. I'll blog about it some day when I'm feeling nostalgic. Anybody up for some red fabric on the ceiling?

Music Makes Me Happy :)

Ok - I couldn't pass up Rachel's soundtrack meme so I decided to do it for myself.

Here’s how it works:

1. open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. put it on shuffle
3. press play
4. for every question, type the song that’s playing
5. new question — press the next button
6. don’t lie

Unfortunately, I have to admit to having one song in my shuffle that I really did not want to include in this list. But I've got to follow the rules, so here goes. I also decided to add my favorite line from each song because it's often one line that pulls me in!

Opening Credits: "Sweetest Thing" - U2. This song makes me happy (it's in my top 5 love songs list). I know Rachel will be happy to see this as part of the soundtrack. Best line - "I wanted to run but she made me crawl."

Waking up: "Oh God Where Are You now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" - David Crowder. Appropriate. Calling on God first thing in the morning. Good idea. :) Don't really have a fav line from this song - it's more of a song I'd listen to for the instrumentation.

First Day of School: "Tell Him" - Lauryn Hill. I could try for a random first day of school connection but I don't really want to. Best lines - "Let me be patient, let me be kind. Make me unselfish without being blind. Though I may suffer I'll envy it not and endure what comes cause he's all that I got and tell him..."

Falling in Love: "Open Up" - Dispatch. First of all - you all need to download some Dispatch songs because they rock. It just so happens that a song by Dispatch is #1 on my top love songs list (it's called "Out Loud"), but I can't imagine anything about the song "Open Up" relating to falling in love since the song's about someone on death row who's about to die. Oh well. Fav line: "I said relax man get off my back. I said relax man get off my back." Yeah - I love that they say it twice.

Breaking up: "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." - Sufjan Stevens. Ok - you all are going to start to wonder about my music choices. This song happens to be about a serial killer. I guess I'd break up with him too if I knew his true nature. Actually - I have a thing for guys who I briefly suspect (but then later confirm are not) serial killers. Best line - "in my best behavior I am really just like him."

Prom: "Entering Bootytown" - from the Music and Lyrics soundtrack. I kid you not I had no idea this song was in my library. I admit that I did download the entire soundtrack so I should have known, but I have never listened to this song. I'm happy it found its way into the "Prom" category though!

Life’s okay: "Dreamworld" - Rilo Kiley. I tend to do a lot of dreaming when life's just ok, so this is pretty appropriate. Best line - "You exist, when you're living in a dreamworld."

Breakdown: "I Will Glory In My Redeemer" - Sovereign Grace Worship. Oh yes I will. Fav line - "I'm satisfied in Him alone."

Driving: "Good Things" - BoDeans. I drove to this song this weekend. Takes me back to high school days. Best line - "And I say no, no, no, don't pass me over, no, no, no, don't pass me by. See I can see good things for you and I. "

Flashback: "When Your Mind's Made Up" - Once soundtrack. Flashback to last summer when I was obsessed with this movie and flash forward to next month when I'll hear this song live in concert. Best line - "So, if you ever want something then you call, call, then I'll come running."

Getting back together: "Please" - U2. Please take me back!! The title could work for this scenario, but the lyrics - not so much. I think Bono is completely done with whoever he's singing to here. Best line - "So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace."

Wedding: "Out Loud" - Dispatch. Made the list without even trying! Will definitely play this song at my wedding (reception that is). Fav lines - "and if you were walking and heard the cold night coming would you call my name 'cause you know I'd come running... if you'd call my name out loud."

Birth of child: "My Minnesota Home" - from A Prairie Home Companion soundtrack. Maybe if the kid was born in Minnesota? Don't really have a favorite line, but I love that Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin are singing!

Final Battle: "The Way You Do The Things You Do" -The Temptations. Looks like I will be winning the final battle. Downloaded this one for Dawn and Dave's wedding soundtrack. Had to look up the lyrics but I think my fav line is "The way you swept me off my feet, you know, you could've been a broom." That's deep.

Death Scene: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings" - Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan. Best Christmas carol arrangement out there. I put it on repeat for most of the Christmas season. Love every minute of the entire song! I'd be ok with dying while listening to this although I'd always envisioned dying with Bolero playing in the background.

End Credits: "Material Girl" - Madonna. Guess that sums it up. I like stuff! (yeah - not really, but it's a fun song.) I might not be too much into stuff but I do know that "the boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right."

Awesomeness on the Internet

Can be found at Stuff Christians Like.

My favorites are:

#34 - Subtly finding out if you drink beer too.

#47 - Rooting for secret Christians on American Idol.

#95 - Fearing God will send you to Guam.

#105 - Wishing your testimony was more exciting.

#106 - The side hug

Another Edison Girl walks the aisle

Dawn is getting married this weekend! Huzzah! Here's the rockstar bride with her Diva bridesmaids.


We're off to NY for the wedding. Oh - and I am alive. Just forgot about the blog a little bit. As my brother would say "I blog your pardon." :)

The fun has already begun.

My birthday is tomorrow, but most of my coworkers seem to think it is today. Fine by me. Two days of fun. :)

When I came into my office this morning, I saw a card on my desk that said “Ann.” Crap. It had to be from someone who knows me well enough to know it’s my birthday, but who doesn’t know me well enough to have heard me complain about receiving emails cards, diplomas… that say “Ann.” Turns out the card was from Sharon who I love to death so I didn’t mention the name spelling thing, because I have already offended her too many times in our years of working together (but she still loves me) so I decided to just forgive her and be happy and thankful for the card.

Emma (aka “Emma-lu”, “Lulu”, “E-Lu” “E” “E.R.” and probably some other names I’ve called her that I can’t think of right now) got me a two month Netflix trial subscription. Holla! The first movie on my list will be The Sterile Cuckoo with the one and only Miss Liza Minnelli. No library or video store in the area carries this movie and I have been desperate to see it for years!

Mike (aka "McPhurse" – all of my coworkers are given nicknames) stopped by to wish me happy birthday and when he came around the corner he kind of popped into my doorway and clicked his heals together and struck a little pose because that’s what I always do when I show up in his doorway to ask a question. Then he said “So… Happy Birthday!” because according to him I start every question with “So.” And I probably do.

Tonight I’ll be enjoying some fried chicken at Flavors Soul Food, tomorrow the coworkers are taking me to lunch at Bangkok 54, then it’s off to the Continental Modern Pool Lounge for a few rounds of rotation if I can convince the friends to play the best billiards game evah! Good times.

Complete and utter randomness

In an effort to post something other than youtube videos, here are a few random moments of fun from my week:

I got into the training program I’d applied for which will eventually allow me to travel for work. I will be rollin into a city near you to shut yo bank down. Yeah, yeah! Read about it in this article on CNN.com.

Spending half of my Pilates class discussing the Alvin Ailey performance with my super cool Aerobix Inc teacher. She is obsessed too. I think the rest of the class was wishing we’d shut it.

Dreaming about guitar hero and seriously thinking of buying some type of game console to play it on. But then discovering that those things are freakin expensive!

Finding out from Rachel that Glen and Marketa (of Once fame) will be doing a show in Baltimore in May. If she emails me next week to tell me Band of Horses is coming to town I might just flip out.

Wishing my sister a happy birthday on the blog, although I did remember to call her this morning. Happy Birthday, sister freak!

Falling Slowly

My song won as Oscar last night! Thank goodness I turned the TV on when I did, because I had completely forgotten how obsessed I was with the Once soundtrack (and espcially the song "Falling Slowly") last summer. Go rent this movie if you haven't seen it. The music is awesome!

Last night's Oscar performance:



"When Your Mind's Made Up" (another great song)