30% More Unpredictable

It's almost that time again: Fall. And that means most of our favorite shows are back. This one, especially:



Let the countdown begin!!


They finally made one of my favorite Stephen King short stories into a movie. The Mist is King's homage to H.P. Lovecraft, and is totally creepy, the kind of tale that stays with you for a long, long time. I've been waiting for the release of the trailer. It made my skin crawl, which is a good sign, since when I read the story the first time I couldn't sleep for days. Admittedly, I have a very active imagination and scary movies freak me out (this from someone with an inexplicable affection for zombies...), but I remember going out with my husband and son about a week after I'd read the story, and as we came out of the store we'd been in I noticed it had gotten dark and fog had started rolling in. I got a little nervous and quickly buckled my son into his car seat and got in the truck in a hurry. It's really dumb, I know, and that's why I don't go out my way to watch scary movies very often. I don't know if the movie will be quite as creepy as the short-story, but you have to remember that the real terrifying aspect of the story is the subtext - how quickly people can dissolve into madness in the face of overwhelming horror and turn on one another. If you took the "monsters" out of the equation, it would still be a tense psychological drama with some very well developed characters. But, it does have monsters. And mist. And monsters coming out of the mist! So...yeah. I will not be seeing that in the theater on a dark and foggy night. *shiver*

"I'm not asleep... but that doesn't mean I'm awake."

I screwed up a project today and ended up staying at work tonight until 9:00. I haven't been sleeping well, and now I'm stressed out and exhausted at the same time. NOT a good feeling.

Edit: I have another cold. Another. Freaking. Cold! I need this three-day Labor Day weekend to recover. So I doubt I'll be doing anything fun like eating burnt food poolside or drinking myself into oblivion...unless it involves my friend Mr. Nyquil.

By lose I mean "run it over with my own car"...

I have a co-worker who has been moved to my office who swears she never loses anything. Today, when discussing how they'd moved the furniture the night before, she said she couldn't find her glasses, and wanted to look in the filing cabinet they'd moved from her office into mine (I have a metric ton of files, and needed more storage - paper free office MY ASS!). Then, later while she was sitting in my office talking to me while I pretended to listen and be concerned, someone from upstairs brought her keys that she'd left in their office. She's come looking for her keys in my office countless times since her first day. Don't even get me started on all of the paperwork that gets swallowed by the black hole that is her department's filing system (I'm starting to wonder if their former secretary filed everything under "circular", if you get what I mean). My departing colleague thinks that there is something wrong with this co-worker now sharing my space. He alluded to someone mentioning something about medication. I have noticed that her thought processes are all over the place and she's very easily distracted. Whatever the cause, it's none of my business, and honestly I don't really care, I just wish she'd stop freaking losing everything and then bragging about how organized she is. It's like she lives in bizarro-world, where in order to be efficient and professional you need to be careless and flighty.

Oh, and I'm suffering from a bout of insomnia - AGAIN!

So, if you see me today and I look like I want to curl up on the spot and sleep like the dead...it's because I do.

Maybe I need to sop staying up so late...ZZZZzzzzzzz...

Today's secret Idle Blog ingredient is:

Fame! A fickle food upon a shifting plate.

Tick...Tick...Tick. Just when you thought it was safe to turn on the local news. I submit for your approval: the infamous Hiccup Girl. She's baaaack. I really hope this is the winding down of her fifteen minutes. My favorite part of the story is how she's making her second visit to the Today Show, and "NBC is paying the family's travel and lodging expenses". Of course they are! What a lesson her parents are allowing to be imparted on their daughter: having something wrong with you gets you perks that just being "normal" doesn't, and is the only way to get noticed if you're not particulary pretty or very smart (i.e - to be mildly interesting enough to get on tv, on the radio, and in the newspaper). And yet, the parents called out a local radio show for "exploiting" her during the height of her "affliction". Right. Dollars to doughnuts she suffers from Munchausen By Proxy as an adult, and we read about her purposely making her own kids sick to gain attention. So what malady can I come up with to get a free trip to New York City?

And speaking of the idiocy of America's youth - from the recent Miss Teen USA pageant, may I present Miss South Carolina, ya'll!! She talks reaaaal good! Like. Such as.

Forget locating the United States on a map. Can she locate a map?

End, begin, all the same. Big change. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad.

I was grocery shopping tonight and happened to wander down the soda isle - which I normally don't do, since we try to really limit our calorie-laden soda consumption these days...unless I'm buying M her favorite exam-cramming-all-nighter-pulling energy drink with the almost risque name - when I spotted something that caught my eye. It was just above the funky store brand 2 liters - coconut flavored soda. Now I've seen pineapple soda (which is good, in an overly sweet kind of way), but never coconut before. Then I saw, to the left of the "coco" flavor...SANGRIA. Yes M - sangria carbonated soda beverage. I don't know how it would taste, but I do believe we may need to pick some up next time you are planning an extended visit to mi casa. I wonder how it might fare with a wee hit of spiced rum?

Have you ever wondered just how many types of beverages the Coca-Cola company produces, and what drinks are popular outside of the United States? I have your answer: a lot, and some very weird flavors and ingredients. A lot more than Pepsi, which is totally lame. Still nothing compares to Cherokee Red, my favorite drink from childhood that is still in limited availability in Pittsburgh (I know the Sav-Mor on Brown's Hill Road has it for sale). It's just a shame I don't live there and haven't had any in years. And I'd be calling it "pop". The closest I've been able to find is a brand called Cool Mountain, in the strawberry flavor. One of the little farmer's markets locally sells it, so I make a trip way out of my way every once in a while to buy a single bottle of soda. I don't even buy any produce - just one bottle of soda. The Korean lady that runs the market probably thinks I'm nuts. Not to mention the Cool Mountain company supports the American Indian College Fund, so that's another reason I buy it. If I could find a distributor here that sells six-packs or cases I'd buy more than a bottle at a time. My second favorite novelty soda is probably Jones, although I've never been brave enough to try any of the holiday variations. I do enjoy a bottle of green apple flavor every now and then.

Since I'm on the topic of soda, I recently tried the new Mountain Dew "Game Fuel" flavor, and I actually like it better than Code Red, which is my husband's favorite. It's less syrupy-sweet than Code Red, I think, with a nice hint of strawberry. See, I like strawberry flavor. Can you tell?

There's a new magazine out that I discovered while out feigning interest in my husband's purchase of a laptop. It's so new the issue I bought is #3. As in the third published, EVAR. Ahem...I mean ever. It's called Geek Monthly, and although I think it is probably geared more towards geeky men (gamers and fanboys and hipsters, oh my!!) I still found that I enjoyed it. Enough to buy it again if I happen to see it. Of course, I subscribe to Wired, so it's kind of up my alley as far as subject matter. It was in this magazine that I discovered what I really, really want for Christmas this year: the plush Fizzgig. If you love me, any of you, you will buy this for me. If you don't, I'll be forced to buy it for myself. And, really, what's more sad than a grown woman buying herself movie plushies (which are only slightly less pathetic than normal "stuffed animals", but just barely)?

I almost forgot - I got new glasses and dyed my hair. Surprise!

M, I'll see you Thursday. I have to call Neena and make sure that the thoughtless bastages planning this soiree didn't neglect to invite her! The Doc keeps asking me if I'm doing okay. He says his wife asked him about me this morning. I appreciate their concern, and I feel badly that I didn't really try harder to get to know him better. You know I'm no good at interpersonal interaction. I have his new contact info, and I plan on checking up on him in his new role as high chief and big-wig out west. I was so insanely busy today, and for whatever reason I'm not worn out by it. Maybe because it's exciting to have a challenge again, or to feel like I'm making strides in accomplishing what I set out to do this year. Or it could be that by appearing extremely busy I am keeping a certain someone from making my office her second home and monopolizing my time. I still haven't seen the old boss around. That's probably a good thing - I'm not sure how civil I'm going to be able to remain in his presence. Seeing as I'm not a "team player" and all, and I really need to learn to play politics. You know what I say to that. Which can't be reproduced here due to self-imposed decency regulations.

I just looked at a calendar. It's almost Labor Day. It's...almost Labor Day? Eff, man. Where did the time go?