March 4, 2003Crappy to productive
For a day that started out as bad as it did, it sure did end up productive. I felt horrible when I woke up this morning. I was having a lot of pain yesterday so when I came home I took the "stronger" pain pills. I slept on the couch until I finally dragged myself up the stairs to bed at midnight where I promptly fell back asleep. This morning I was shaky and jittery and just about passed out in the shower.
When I got to work I didn't figure I would stay all day because my brain was so fuzzy. But around 1 all the pills started wearing off (without bringing more pain!) so I was able to accomplish a lot. I got on a roll after lunch and ended up working until 7.
No dancing for me tonight. I decided early this afternoon that I just didn't feel up to jumping around much. Not that we actually jump around, but you know. Nothing else on the agenda for tonight, just going to sit around and relax.
Posted by Olivia at 7:48 PM | Comments (3)
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March 7, 2003Drive at Five
This is twice now that I've tried to call in to B103 to answer their Drive at Five question. But I can never get through. And today I actually had the right answer! So now I pose the question to you all:
What TV show did the following actors have guest appearances on: Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Agnes Morehead, William Shatner and James Doohan?
Does anyone know without doing a little research?
Posted by Olivia at 5:23 PM | Comments (19)
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March 11, 2003A random collection
I had my follow up with the oral surgeon yesterday. You all should be glad to know I have a clean bill of health..oh wait, clean teeth..umm, no, that's wrong too. I've got it! "Yup, your teeth are gone. And you've got a big gaping hole in your gum. Now go home." Yeh, that's more like.
But realistically, she said it's looking good. The bottom one should be closed up in another couple of weeks (The top ones are almost there already). Yesterday was my first relatively pain-free day I've had. (IE: I didn't have to take ANY drugs! Yay me!)
I've had a really good week so far. Yesterday I actually got up and made it to work early (meeting), but then I stayed LATE! I was on such a roll and had so much to do I figured why not. I had no where else to be, nothing else to do. Turns out Jeff was late getting home too because VDOT is trying to patch all the potholes the snowplows made, therefore backing up traffic on the interstates.
I actually got to eat a sub yesterday! Besides the pizza last Thursday this is really the first hard food I've tried to eat since the surgery. And it was so yummy!! Mmm...lunch.
So here's my South Park version of me. I'm sticking my tongue out at the world saying "Pppttthhhh. You can't stop me!"*
*Don't ask me what that was all about
Pet peeve: small talk
Super pet peeve: small talk about the weather. ARG!!!
Anyone else hear it's supposed to be close to 70 tomorrow? That's crazy! It's COLD outside today! (And slightly drizzly) (Is that a word?) (Why am I talking like this?) (I don't know, maybe because you're delirious from lack of food). It's lunchtime! Yay!
**Edit 1:23pm I just realized I talked about the weather after mentioning it was a pet peeve. Wow, I'm really wacky today. It's not so much talking about the weather that bugs me, it's talking about the weather with people you might as well not even talk to if that's the ONLY thing the two of you have to say to each other. See? Oh, and drizzly IS a word.
Posted by Olivia at 1:08 PM | Comments (4)
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March 11, 2003A little overboard?
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March 11, 2003Fun and games
I know most of you probably saw this on Fark, but I think it's pretty cool. I went through their entire "bank" of questions. Only got 2 right the first time around. The rest were repeats. You'll see what I mean. Trivial Pursuit >>
Posted by Olivia at 2:11 PM | Comments (1)
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March 13, 2003It's a sunshine day!
I should have done this entry yesterday when I had more energy and was in a better mood. But oh well. I've just been tired today. I guess I used up all that excess energy I had at the beginning of the week.
Tuesday was another night of line dancing. Had a GREAT time! We did a couple of dances I really enjoyed and could get into. (As much as I get into them anyway.) But I was feeling good, getting the heart rate up, drinking 32 oz of water.
And then I couldn't sleep. And that started the downward spiral. So I woke up late Wednesday and was late to work. It was ok though cause I had extra time saved from Monday. But then I couldn't sleep last night. I don't know what my problem was. Maybe tonight will be better.
Jeff obliged (and put up with) me last night by going shopping with me. It was a dual, well triple, really, purpose shopping trip and I actually accomplished everything! Bought food for today's work lunch thingy. Once a month we bring in food to share. I was going to make these little pita sandwich thingies but couldn't find the right size pita bread. Since I didn't have a back up plan I made the cop-out purchase of a pre-made fruit tray. There were so many good foods here today, I had to restrain myself. :)
We also made some gift purchases for some unmentionable people. And I spent way to much money but bought some much needed clothes. I haven't been on a clothes shopping spree in a while, so I don't feel so bad. I did skip over the shorts sections though; couldn't bring myself to try any of those on yet!
Tonight I have to do some laundry and clean up the house some, it could use a spring cleaning. Or I might just sit on my ass and watch Must See TV!
Posted by Olivia at 5:51 PM | Comments (4)
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March 14, 2003Bye Purchasing Pete!
Well, Purchasing Pete is gone.
I don't think I've ever mentioned him before but Purchasing Pete, "came on board" (one of his favorite sayings) last May. We waited almost 2 months for him to be able to leave his last job and move to Virginia to start working here. From the beginning he never really did do his job; acted like he'd never even done purchasing before. He was a pain in the ass to work with most of the time; tried to put the workload/blame/responsibility on everyone else but himself. I found out last week that he had put in his 2 week notice. Never would say where he's going, only that he's got some offers to choose from..uh huh, ok.
So bye-bye Purchasing Pete!
Posted by Olivia at 12:59 PM | Comments (5)
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March 14, 2003An early birthday gift
You guys officially suck.
I can't think of much I hate worse than secrets. Especially secrets that involve me.
For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, I'm sorry, this doesn't include you :) But the rest of you...grrr.
Posted by Olivia at 10:45 PM | Comments (4)
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March 17, 2003Friday Fun
What a busy-crazy weekend. By Sunday morning the days had just blended into one; I wasn't sure when one ended and the other began.
Friday I woke up late, was late to work. Did all my work in the morning, before lunch. By mid-late afternoon I was so restless and ready to go. I spent much of the afternoon looking at cameras and various other things. I've been wanting to get a digital camera for a while now, just never had the money. Well Friday I found out my credit limit had been raised, plus it was payday, so I was feeling especially rich. (As rich as I can get) I was just about convinced to go to Best Buy later that night and buy one.
Then I asked Chris and Jeff for advice on which model to get. I'd been heavily leaning towards the Sony P7, but then Jeff told me they just came out with the P8 and maybe I should wait. I didn't see anything different between the two, but thought I'd consider it. The boys were supposed to leave Richmond around 5:30-6, but then we found out Brian was running behind and wouldn't even be here until then. I decided to leave work early anyway because I was so tired of being there. Jeff and I ended up napping until the phones started ringing.
I think it was after 7 before Brian and Mike ever showed up. Jeff was on the phone (supposedly) with Circuit City and Best Buy to find out if they had the new model. After being on hold forever I told him just to forget it. So he packed his stuff in the car and walked back in with this box in his hand. I immediately new what it was. And I almost didn't open it. Yeh, it was the camera. But you all knew that.
They leave and I headed to Food Lion. Gizmo and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV/movies. I ordered the Banger Sisters at 11:30 knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway (even though I had to get up early). It was ok; entertaining, but was definitely lacking something. Oh well. So then I went to bed.
Posted by Olivia at 9:55 AM | Comments (5)
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March 17, 2003Screwy Saturday
I was rudely awakened at 6am by Gizmo pawing at the blinds. Our internal clocks are definitely NOT on the same schedule! Even though my alarm was set for 6:30, I put him out and went back to sleep. 6:45 I finally got out of bed and got ready for the day. I met Lauren, Kelly and Natalie at Malvern and we set out for Farmville. It was probably 10:15 or so when we got to Esther May and the place was already getting busy. But we managed to snag some dressing rooms so the three of us tried our dresses on and got the alterations pinned. Spent another 20 minutes in line waiting to pay.
Meanwhile Lauren is trying to find her dress. It wasn't lost, just misplaced. And they were so busy that the people we though were helping us didn't even know they were supposed to be. So we waited for a good 40 minutes before Lauren finally got to try it on. I would put pictures up but I can't do that yet :)
By then the place was an absolute madhouse. It's prom season so all these teeny-boppers were in there trying to find the perfect dress. As soon as Lauren's dress was safely stowed away we made a mad dash for the door...to Macados. Surprisingly it wasn't all that busy and we got a table right away. After some much needed nourishment we headed back to Richmond.
On the way, Natalie and I volunteered to come help Kelly set up for the bridal shower. We ditched Lauren (sorry!) at Malvern and went to Kelly's to pick up the stuff. The party was to be held at Kelly's parents place. I wasn't quite sure why until I found out the guest list was about 30 people! We started out fixing the food. Natalie was doing the hot dog thingies while I worked on the fruit. We got the bright idea to use half a cantaloupe, turned upside down, to stick the fruit kabobs into. It ended up looking like a porcupine and being a lot of work, but it was fun. Kelly was all over the place making cakes and decorating. We gave her a hand with the decorating and then decided that was about all we could do for the day. It was after 8 before we left there. Exhausted, we drove back to Malvern were I promptly fell asleep on the couch. Around 11 I figured Gizmo was probably pretty upset with me so I came on home. Fed him and went to bed.
Posted by Olivia at 1:32 PM | Comments (2)
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March 17, 2003Sunday Shower
Had much to do, intended on getting up at 8:30. Was once again rudely awakened at 6am by Gizmo pawing at the blinds. Lured him out and crashed. Turned both alarms off at 8:30 and went right back to sleep. Whoops! Woke up at 9:50. Double whoops! I decided I would go ahead and run my errands then come back and get dressed. So I drive all the way out to Short Pump (so far, I know), getting there at 10:30, only to find Best Buy does not open until 11. Doh! So I went to Target then decided to try Circuit City. On the way, I remembered CompUSA was right there so I whipped over 4 lanes of traffic to turn at the light. 11am. Grr..drove up to Circuit City. 11am. GRR..what's the deal?? I wasted a couple of minutes in Michaels, but obviously not enough. So I just drove back down to Best Buy and by the time I got there they were open. And then I waited in line for 15 minutes. And I'm sorry to whoever already purchased a card for me, how was I to know? Plus, I needed it Sunday. Just like I needed the camera Friday. I hate birthdays.
So ok, after making all the necessary purchases I rushed home to shower, wrap packages and drive to Chesterfield. In the middle of getting ready I had a clothes crises. What I was planning to wear didn't fit so I had to quick think of something else. I just don't have "nice" clothes for parties and things like this. I finally came up with something and ran out the door an hour late. I was planning on being there early, so I wasn't late for the party, just later than I wanted to be.
I ended up getting kitchen duty, rotating the hot dog thingies in and out of the oven. After most everyone showed up we ate. I was so hungry by then; I hadn't had time to eat all morning. After food Kelly had some games planned. Most of the time I'm really nervous about party games like this, but hers were ok. The first one was a quiz to see how much we all knew about Mike and Lauren. Lauren's mom and I ended up in a tie on that one. Lauren then got to play a Price Is Right game. It was the High/Low game-she had to pick the three highest priced items on the trays. After a little assistance from Kelly she got them all right and was awarded the prize. :)
In the meantime, we all had to write down one piece of marriage advice for Lauren. She read them all and chose the best one. Kelly Hurd won that with -If you want him to help with housework, you have to unplug all of his computers- Right on! After the games came the presents; and boy, were there a lot!! At this rate they'll have no problem filling up that new house! Cake followed the gifts and then the party disbanded. Between mine and Lauren's car we managed to fit all the gifts in to travel back to Malvern.
Once there we made plans for dinner; since it was Brian's birthday he chose the Grapevine restaurant (second choice, but Trak's was closed). I'd never heard of it, but it's greek-italian food and come to find out, run by the same family who owns Traks. I wasn't too hungry, but Eric, Lauren and I split a pizza anyway. Wow. That was good pizza. We may have to visit this place again. We got sneaky and had the waiters bring Brian cake and we all got to sing. The Sostes and Mike's grandparents headed back to Malvern after eating and the rest of us came back to our place.
Brian still had a couple of (not so surprise) birthday presents to open and then it was midnight and time for him to hit the road. For some reason, even after all the activities this weekend, I was not tired at all. I laid there looking at the fan; couldn't even close my eyes. I think th last time I looked at the clock it was 3:30. But surprisingly, I'm not tired today. Don't feel like working, but I'm not tired.
Posted by Olivia at 4:01 PM | Comments (3)
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March 18, 2003Here comes spring
As I was walking in the house last night I realized that just about all of the tulip bulbs I planted back in November are peeking up from the mulch. Yay! I was afraid they wouldn't come up so I only planted 12 to see what would happen. Pretty exciting, now I just hope they bloom.
About 2:30 this afternoon I decided I was going to go to the DMV to get my license renewed. I had planned to do it tomorrow, but then found out they're closed on Wednesday. And yes, I could have done it online, but I didn't want to keep the sideways pic. So I left here (work) at 2:45 and got back here at 3:20. Nice. It wasn't all that crowded and I actually had to wait the longest just to get my picture taken. But it's done now and I don't have to renew again until 2008.
Posted by Olivia at 4:19 PM | Comments (4)
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March 19, 2003Another birthday surprise
Jeff and I have had a slight change of plans for the weekend. (Don't worry, we're still going to be here Saturday to help you guys move) The Pollards were planning on coming down Sunday, but after a phone call I received yesterday from Jeff, we had to cancel those plans.
Dramatic reinactment, may or may not represent actual conversation:
Jeff: What would you say to going to Bristol on Sunday?
Me: You're kidding, right? Don't kid me.
Jeff: Nope, I'm not kidding.
Me: *giggling* Ok!
Jeff: I've got the tickets right here in front of me.
For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, we're heading to Bristol for the Winston Cup race. Jeff managed to snag 2 (of 4) free tickets that UPS gave to Martin. How cool is that? This race has been sold out since before the season started. Yay us!!
Posted by Olivia at 1:23 PM | Comments (4)
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March 20, 2003A Real Cat!
Wow!
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March 20, 2003When it rains, it pours
When I finally turned off the light last night at 2, it had been raining for at least and hour and a half. I guess it continued on through the night. And it doesn't look like it's let up today at all.
I know when people got to work this morning this bridge was not covered. I took this picture around 12:30. Normally we cross this bridge and there's a jogging trail back in those woods. The water is hardly deep enough for minnow-sized fish (not that we ever see any). But today? Bring on the canoes! And the rafts! Oo, we could go tubing!
I hope it doesn't continue to rain this weekend. Mike & Lauren, at least you guys have a while to get out of the apartment if it doesn't happen this weekend! It better not rain in Bristol Sunday. I'm going to be very upset if it does.
Not to be boring and talk about the weather, but between this rain and the snow in Colorado, it's kinda weird today. They say it's the worst storm the state has seen in at least a century.
Posted by Olivia at 1:16 PM | Comments (3)
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March 20, 20032 Hours Later
2 Hours later:
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March 21, 2003It's Friday! It's Friday!
I was bad. Very bad. My plan last night was to go shopping for some "yoga" pants since the ones I had didn't fit. Well, I found what I was looking for...along with 3 other pairs of pants and 2 shirts. *ducking*
I don't feel bad about it though. That money was slated for my camera and since I don't need it for that..
And for clarification, no, I'm not doing yoga, that's just what they're calling those knit pants people wear to exercise in. I went with Kelly Z on Wednesday to the Jazzercise class she's been taking. I found that the pants I had just weren't going to work. The class was very similar to the aerobics classes I did at Radford. The moves were bouncier and more dance-like, but it was the same basic stuff. The one thing I didn't enjoy was that it was in a carpeted room. Rubber soled shoes stick. Oh well. I was thinking I might go back at give it another chance before saying no. I'd really like to find an aerobics, tae-bo or yoga class, but gyms are so expensive.
I got my workout last night though running up and down the stairs cleaning, vacuuming and doing laundry. Why didn't they put the washer and dryer on the second floor?? I can't imagine having the basement unit, with the laundry room on the bottom floor. Yikes!
Tonight I need to finish cleaning our bedroom and do the downstairs. We've been so busy lately I haven't even had time to unload the dishwasher. And this weekend is no different. Tomorrow I'm helping out the college in a "Campus Beautification" project, then joining the rest of the gang to help Mike & Lauren move. And Sunday, well, you guys know what I'm doing Sunday. :)
Today has been fairly uneventful. As usual, my coworkers decorated my office today. (It's done for everyone in the department) I had completely forgotten about it until I walked around the corner this morning.
Posted by Olivia at 5:45 PM | Comments (3)
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March 22, 2003A birthday weekend
This was a great weekend.
Friday I finished cleaning up the house while waiting for Brian & Paul to show up. Shortly after they arrived Chris showed up. And not too much later the guys decided to play Vice City. Wow! Amazing! I never would have guessed! So I just relaxed and read a book while laughing at their antics. I'm really not sure what time we went to be..probably between 1 and 2.
Posted by Olivia at 12:49 PM | Comments (2)
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March 22, 2003Gray paint..how boring
My alarm went off at 7:45 Saturday morning and it only took me 15 minutes to get out of bed. I was showered, dressed and out the door by 8:40 and to campus a little before 9. Our facilities department did a great job organizing this event. We were already split up into teams of 2-3 per classroom, 5-7 for larger areas such as hallways.
My coworker Kim was supposed to be in the room next to mine, but someone goofed because there was a class in there. So she became the 3rd person in my group. (that's not her in the picture) We had a small classroom to do and it didn't take much time at all. We finished painting and decided to clean the desks. You'd think college students would be more mature than to draw all over the desks. Yeh, right.
So by 11 we had completely finished and cleaned up. Kim and I went across the building to help in the hallway. And that's where I stayed until 12:30. I had a lot of fun; I love to paint and this was so easy. Grab a roller and slap it on. So I left there at 12:30 and headed for Malvern.
Posted by Olivia at 2:47 PM | Comments (0)
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March 22, 2003Sostes Move to Malvern
The boys & Kelly already had all the furniture loaded up when I got there so it was just a matter of getting the boxes and other random items in the truck (and cars). I guess we were there for maybe an hour (after I arrived) before we called it quits and headed for Birkdale.
An hour or two later the truck and all the cars were unloaded. It really wasn't too bad, but I didn't have to move any furniture. :) Lauren's mom was nice enough to fix us all lunch so we took a break and fueled up. I think it made us all sleepy because we really didn't do anything after that. Chris, Paul, Jeff & I headed back to the city to de-stanktify before meeting back up for dinner.
Some pizza, cookies, more Vice City, and birthday presents later Jeff and I had to call it a night. It was after 1 before we got in bed and knowing we'd have to get up in 3-4 hours wasn't a pleasant thought. But we made it.
Posted by Olivia at 2:49 PM | Comments (1)
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March 24, 2003Food City 500 - Bristol, TN
[My galleries are hosted on imagestation, so if you're not registered there, I'm sure Brian won't mind if you use the login he's set up for his gallery visitors: Username-tourist, Password-peer2all. Thanks Brian! (Maybe one day I'll do my own)]
After finding out the race started at 1pm we decided to sleep and leave an hour later than planned and I'm sure glad we did! We left Richmond at 6:15 with me driving the first shift. I did ok until we hit Roanoke and I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Jeff took over and I got to nap for a bit.
We reached Bristol around 11 and decided to grab some lunch first. Taco Bell and Sonic..mmm. By the time we parked and walked the 1.3 miles to the track it was 12:30. The gate nearest to our seats wasn't open so us (along with several hundred other people) had to find somewhere else to get in. We waited in line for 15 minutes until someone decided to try the other gate again. And hallelujah they opened up and let us in!!
We made it to out seats well before the National Anthem (which is unusual for us). I took some cool videos and pictures at the start of the race. And of course made use of my camera during the race. I think it's already paid for itself. Well, maybe not, but close. :)
I couldn't believe how small the track is; TV coverage just doesn't show it. And the seating is very high, much higher (and with a higher capacity) than Richmond. It truly was like sitting in a bowl. And that of course made the sound that much louder. I couldn't get my radio to pick up the channel, but I probably couldn't have heard it anyway. Except during cautions there was never a break in the sound like there is with a larger track.
And watching this race on TV doesn't show you how badly the cars are beat up. I bet there were only 3-4 cars that weren't missing major parts of the body by the end of the race. It's so funny to see a car with no nose going around the track. Overall it was a pretty good race; there were only 6 cars on the lead lap at the end. Kurt Busch won just like last year.
The race was over 4:30-5ish? We hoofed it back the 1.3 miles to the car and were able to slip right into traffic. We parked so far away that by the time the traffic from the closer parking lots reached us, it was slowly pretty quick. But then 81 was like a parking lot. But thanks to Jeff's excellent driving we still made it to Radford in 2 hours were we partook in the fine dining experience that is Macado's.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We were both exhausted and trying really hard to keep each other awake. But we made it to Richmond by midnight and promptly fell into bed, asleep before 1. I figured I would be exhausted today, but I'm not. Yet. I am sore though, my legs got a good workout this weekend with the painting, moving and walking.
Posted by Olivia at 3:54 PM | Comments (4)
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March 25, 20031 Year at JSRCC
Well today makes it a year that I've been an official employee of the State. Where did the time go? It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. Hmm..
Posted by Olivia at 1:59 PM | Comments (1)
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March 27, 2003The longest day
Holy geez I'm bored. The only work I have to do is "piddly" stuff that's just a pain in the ass to have to deal with. You know, those random loose things that don't get taken care of until you're really bored or really motivated? Yeh, those.
And it's only 3 o'clock. I had to come in early for a staff meeting but I still have to stay till my normal time cause I keep coming in late and leaving early. So I need to make up my hours. What am I gonna do????
Posted by Olivia at 3:12 PM | Comments (4)
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