good news

called the neurologist today, and he said no driving for only three months. :) happy cuz that means i don't have to drive in the winter, sad cuz that means i have to walk places in the winter.

dating dilemma

i signed up for online dating last night. small problem. i didn't think about the fact that a couple hours before i signed up i had done the floppy croppy (for the first time in almost seven years), which means i'm not supposed to drive for six months. so now how i'm supposed to get to these dates, i don't know, since i don't want some creepy guy knowing where i live, so i don't want them picking me up.
pretty sure i'm destined to be single forever.

thanksgiving sale at the meat market

so here's the question: do i or don't i sign up for online dating?

that's my boy (well, one of 'em)

Denard Span on a local late night talk show in Tampa:

Motown Maurice: "What else do you do, outside of baseball? Do you have any hobbies?"

Denard: "Psh, I wish. I wish, man."
MM: "So baseball is your life?"

Denard: "Pretty much, I mean, aside from God. God's number One. Then my family, then baseball."

sound like anyone we know?

"But Philip was obsessed with mundane matters and therefore overwhelmed by the impossibility of the immediate problem. He knew too much arithmetic to be adventurous. The reality of the raw facts clouded his faith. He was so obsessed with this temporal predicament that he was oblivious to the transcendental possibilities that lay in  Jesus' power. He was so enthralled with common-sense calculations that he didn't see the opportunity the situation presented...The limitless supernatural power of Christ had completely escaped his thinking...He needed to set aside his materialistic, pragmatic, common-sense concerns and learn to lay hold of the supernatural potential of faith." - Twelve Ordinary Men, by John MacArthur

welcome to your first sunday serving in this nursery

and welcome to your first time getting puked on

from "Les Miserables"

"God makes visible to men his will in events, an obscure text written in a mysterious language. Men make their translations forthwith; hasty translations, incorrect, full of faults, omissions, and misreadings. Very few minds comprehend the divine tongue."

i'm flattered

last night someone tried to chat at me on the dating website, but i don't have a paid-for account, so i can't respond. he was fairly cute, though, and...21. and looking for someone 18-25. but he viewed my profile and tried to chat anyway. apparently i'm just that wonderful and young-looking. :)

alright girls

the women at work (myself included) are in disagreement with 'people.' we do not believe that channing tatum is the sexiest man alive. so, because i am me, i am now taking a poll. who's the sexiest man alive, ladies?

but here's something happy

this is my friend flula. he doesn't know he's my friend, and i just met him (thank you hobsis, et. al), but i enjoy him very much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsXyRVQN70U&feature=relmfu

i miss the cook at work

he may have been an x-rated peter pan (as they once called tony on 'ncis'), but underneath it all was a really decent guy who would listen and tell you yes, everything sucks, and yes, everything will be okay. once amanda left we were probably each other's best friends at work, and we just had this odd 'holy crap they're so different' friendship that was so bizarre. at least twice, when no one else caught on that i was having a tough day, he caught it. (in march, when everything came crashing down with mirabelle and my brother-in-law and whatnot, and i was aching that no one noticed i was off, 'you're too quiet mel. what's wrong?' and then at the end of may when i had been up crying late into the night because i would soon have to be receptionist, 'you look like shit. what's wrong?' [and yes, he meant that lovingly.]) (see? guys aren't as obtuse as we think they are.) and now i think i want him around, too, because he reminds me of my brother who's going through crap, to say the least (which is all i'm allowed to say, but please pray for him). the cook would have been a perfect listening ear, and he would have said just the right things. i miss him.

but...

i am thankful i have a job and a house and blankets and warm clothes and food

imagine that - i jinxed it [pg-13]

apparently douchebag offered that receptionist every weekend. it shows that not only does he not want to hire her (because who wants to work every weekend - she sure doesn't), but also that he wants me out of there. we specifically discussed my need for help during the week, he specifically said 'yeah, that's a great idea,' and now the coward has specifically not told me any of this. i only know because this receptionist knows my mom and complained about this to her (but she has to take it because of those programs). my guess is that after the receptionist comes in tomorrow to fill out her paperwork (if i bring it up to prove a point), he'll tell me, 'i talked to her about the possibility of a weekday, but she said weekends work best for her. and i think it'll be nice to have someone here on saturdays, and then the resident's daughter who volunteers on sundays won't have to anymore.' after he gets past the shock of her actually taking it, of course.
what an asshole.

dating update

i never heard from my college friend

last night was not so good

i was walking through the desert with my [male] jewish friend, apparently on the run from nazis. suddenly, though i couldn't see them, i knew they were closing in, so we started to run (hard to do when you're sinking in sand dunes, btw). there were huge gusts of wind (probably from helicopters) so we could hardly see and of course, with nowhere to go anyway, the nazis captured us. they brought us to some army outpost where they were holding about 20-30 other people (though i think this friend of mine was the only actual jew). as they lined all of us up, i debated telling my friend that his yarmulke had blown off, but decided that if he hadn't noticed i shouldn't mention it. he didn't need one more thing to worry about.
the nazis then went down the line branding our right forearms with stars of david. they snatched my friend's prayer shawl, then shoved us all into a gym. they then put us through a bunch of physical competitions, and those having the lowest score at the end would be the ones executed that day. of course with one task left i had one of the lowest scores, along with a friend of mine from church, and a friend from high school. the final task was a car race around a track.
i was in the process of deciding whether or not to intentionally fatally crash myself when i woke up.

oh my gosh, i have decided what i want to be when i grow up

i want to the nurse who's there when people are waking up from having their wisdom teeth removed. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7mcHO0lB1c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFhmr47RkYU&feature=related

chelley and auto might appreciate this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPQjIOZhK8E&feature=related

this one is long, but she's hilarious. i actually watched the whole thing. my mother even did. i'd say at least watch til she leaves the office (about 5:30 or so).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkka0W2OHSY&NR=1&feature=endscreen

darn you, blogger

(though i better be careful saying that or they might delete me, too.)
i hate that chelleybutton can't comment and that her blog is gone!

so last night

there was a terrible storm in minneapolis. chelleybutton, auto, hobbitsister, and i were at the mall of america, and they made an announcement telling everyone to stop where they were and listen to instructions. apparently no one was sure if this was a tornado or a blizzard, so we had to be very careful to do what they said. the basement of moa is only so big, so only the people who were already near the elevators could go there. everyone else was to go into the store they were closest to, and hunker down there, because, after all, the roof over the concourse is made of glass [since there was no camp snoopy, apparently the glass roof was over everything]. we were to go into the stores to be safe from the tornado, but we were going to be locked into the stores because we were going to be snowed in and they had to keep order somehow.
thankfully we were by the sleep number store, so we had beds and blankets. at least that's what we thought. but no, the snooty lady working there wouldn't let us use them, and then the next thing i knew there were no beds and it was a snooty shop with jewelry and scarves and handbags because they were too snooty to call them purses. we were not even allowed to use the scarves to keep us warm in the blizzard. 'not unless you buy them.' 'i think these are extreme circumstances and the company would let you give scarves to the six of us who are in here.' [because there were two other people stuck in there with us.] 'i can't give them to you.' 'ma'am these are different circumstances.' 'fine, i'll give you 50% off.' that still left them around $60. so we just hunkered down close to each other against a wall.
finally the next day came and we were allowed to go to the bathrooms to clean up. [apparently there are a few showers there - but it was like 4 showers to thousands of women, so we all just decided to skip it.] on our way back to the store to get our purses [the snooty handbag lady had let us leave them behind the counter - so gracious of her] i stopped at the store of everything across the concourse, because i saw craig, the guy who apparently i knew was the one [whether or not we knew each other at that point i can't quite figure out]. he was tall with slightly messy dirty blond hair, widowed, and carrying his beautiful daughter, a chubby cheeked little blonde thing with big blue eyes and her hair in sprigs. she was about 1 1/2 and her name may have been lily. they came back across to the snooty shop with me, then i moa-ed with them for a bit before going back to join my girls. hobbitsister immediately started saying she knew craig first so she had a claim on him. 'um...you're married. you gave up all claims to other guys when you claimed your husband. besides, all it was was that you just happened to meet him first.' then i added [not snottily, more in wonder sounding], 'i'm marrying him, and that's my baby girl.' and i felt this great peace knowing we'd be a happy family and all was as it should be.
and then the alarm went off.

i don't even want to post it cuz i'll jinx it

but there's a chance there might be a change for the better at work. someone who used to work at the front desk part-time called and asked my boss today if there was any chance she could work part-time. apparently she's in some program (she's a little slow) where if she doesn't have a job, she'll lose $600 a month. but she'll also lose out on a different program if she makes more that $60 a week. (i know that part because she called my mom before she called my boss to see if she could call him. my mom told her it wouldn't hurt to try.) my boss asked me if she'd be able to help me with stuff if she worked saturdays. i said, 'really, there's not much she could do to help me because she would be stuck at the desk, too. but i have been thinking for awhile that it would be helpful if someone were to be at the front desk even one day a week so i could get away from here and focus solely on medical records for a day. it feels very backed up right now.' to which he replied, 'oh. we could see if that would work. my understanding is that she wants very part time, but yeah, maybe that, or if she would want to relieve you two afternoons a week or something.' 'that would be fine, too. i'd rather it not be fridays because i'm already busy that day, but really anything would help.' 'okay, i'll call her.'
!!!

this is so mean!

yet amusing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbKGrtpgBtA

this made me exceedingly happy (thank you, didder)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc

plus also, i want to go here [which i just typed with a new zealand accent]:
https://twitter.com/BradBirdA113/status/263733436857077760/photo/1

facebook friends

i always wonder when i post something positive or say i'm thankful for something why no one then asks me what's wrong. a good deal of the time i only post something like that to try to talk myself into it.

trying to think positively, but it sucks

after talking with my diana last night, i was feeling pretty good about this interview on friday and the possibility of this job. at work today, i was thinking about it, and at one point, when i left my desk i was feeling really excited. i decided it sounded perfect. working in the schools and having 4 weeks off in the summer, i could maybe even think about mission trips or something. i was pumped.
then i got back to my desk and checked my email. the interview's been cancelled. the job is "on hold due to unforeseen events," which means, of course, that it's no longer available, and if it becomes available again, they'll have forgotten about me and i won't hear about it to re-apply.
serves me right. i should know better than to ever be excited about anything. yeah, yeah, sweden, dayenu. i know i've been far more blessed than i can even imagine, and getting to go to Bible school in sweden was a huge dream of mine and it came true and it was wonderful. i'm so thankful for that. i know i shouldn't be greedy. but i'm tired of dreaming and not attaining, i'm tired of getting my hopes up only to have them dashed. gotta get back to shut-down mode. life's a helluva lot easier there. damn it, why did i ever leave the kitchen?

"The Voice" has no talent

but it does have adam levine :)

also this week

I watched "It Happened One Night" and "Arsenic and Old Lace." How dreamy these men were.

 

Movie Review: Gentleman's Agreement

I had been wanting to see this for a long time. I finally got around to it last night with my mother.

Gregory Peck is a reporter who has to write an article on anti-Semitism. Looking for an angle, he finally decides the best way to make the article sound personal is to start telling people he's Jewish and see how he's treated. It's a good movie, and I'm sure at the time the way it confronted prejudice was somewhat revolutionary.

One more thought - Gregory Peck was only 31, but what a hottie. Of course, part of me can't help but wonder if his woo-woo factor went up because he was saying he was Jewish, but still. He was woo-woo.

i do like this commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G2Gpg0BVLA

i know me so well

my mom had a booth at a craft show yesterday and i went to relieve her for a lunch break. after she came back, i looked around. as i passed one booth someone stopped me. "did you go to [that] junior high?" "yes." "i thought so! i was the volunteer and student council coordinator." "oh, yes!" (she looked familiar anyway - though she has one of those faces that just looks familiar whether you know her or not, i think. i never would've been able to place her.) "who was the principal when you were there?" "the closet monster." (except i didn't actually say that - that's just what we called him at the time.) "of course. what was your name again? i'm great with faces, but not with names." "understandable. you've had a lot of kids come through. i'm melilot brandybuck." "that's right!"
yes. that is right. i rock.

must. stop. lusting. over modcloth dresses and skirts.
close the window, mel, close the window!

i'm not a fan

of those days when i get home from work and have to decide between caffeine cuz i'm tired and booze cuz the day stunk. darn epilepsy.

ack!

just messaged that guy from college!