Time of the Seasons

Today is the first day in three that I won't be in the car for three hours. I suppose that is what happens when you live three hours from home and your home is three hours from Grandma's. It's a good thing that I don't mind road trips, but being in the car again for three hours tomorrow really doesn't sound appealing.

Now that Thanksgiving is over though, it is time to think about all the crazy wonderfulness that is Christmas. I love this season. There is a warmth to people even when it is so crazy cold outside. Not to mention 24/7 Christmas music! Nothing excites me more than a good rousing carol. That is probably why I good chunk of my iTunes is solely of the yuletide genre (Yes. I am that person who listens to Christmas music all year long).

It is just such a great time to reflect on the wonders of God and his love for us.

I love this season.

Pipe Dreams

There are a lot of things I really like about this colder time of year.

I love bundling up in warm blankets with a hot cup of water with lemon and honey in my comfy ghetto chair. I love the warm, bulky sweaters. I love seeing snow swirling outside of my window. I love wearing my red gloves, my Superman beanie, and my wool scarf from Scotland (thanks Lizzie). I love how awake I feel when I ride my bike or walk outside in the brisk air. I love wearing tights and leggings. I love that red is in season so it is everywhere. I love eating a steaming bowl of home made chicken noodle soup. I love turning down the thermostat at night and climbing under a mountain of covers and pulling them over my head until morning. I love the sound of the Salvation Army bells outside of the grocery store.

But there is absolutely nothing that I hate more in the world than going to the bathroom and having the toilet seat being as cold as ice.

I absolutely hate that.

Maybe Sharper Image or something has a heated toilet seat.

So Long Old Friend

My childhood cat died a few days back. It wasn't unexpected (she was 17 and fairly sick) but that doesn't mean that it sucks any less. Perhaps what makes it harder is that I haven't been home all fall and I've missed my kitty. Now when I am about to go home for Thanksgiving and anticipating some serious kitty-cuddle-time, that isn't going to happen.

Another thing is that now all my childhood pets are gone. My dog died about four years ago and now my cat. I suppose it works out all right since we named them as sort of a pair. The dog's name was Caber and the cat's name was Toss(ie) as in the game of Caber Toss (My family is painfully Scottish). Now they are both gone.

I'd like to say that I was a big girl about this - but I really wasn't.
I volunteered to cut the onions at work so that I would have an excuse to cry on the clock.

Seasoned or Waffle fries?

It has been an eventful past few days.

I have had the privilege of helping open a brand new Backyard Burger store. This included a few weeks of in-store training at an already open location and then three days of intensive corporate training at our actual location. We opened our doors on Monday and, I won't lie, it was stressful. Tensions were really running high between corporate trainers being there still making sure that we didn't screw up, the owner making sure everything was done up to his standards, and just the other craziness that accompanies the opening of a new store.

I put in a nine hour shift that day and no matter how rewarding it was to be on the ground floor of this operation - my feet still killed. Tomorrow I am going in for a short (seven hour) shift starting at eight - so I'd better get to bed. The food industry is demanding.

Anomaly

There are a lot of things in this world that I just don't understand. One of those things is a phenomenon I like to call "shorts-and-sandals-dude". This is the guy that, no matter how freaking cold it is outside, is always wearing shorts and sandals.

It has been consistently below 60 degrees now for about a week, most days under 50, and still I see these shorts and sandals dudes. I see them at work, I see them on campus, I see them in the store... Seriously! Has someone not told them that it isn't summer anymore?

I can't wrap my mind around why anyone would do that.

Then again - it typically needs to get to be about 90 degrees outside before I put on shorts.

Ah well. The "shorts-and-sandals-dude" isn't as bad as "shorts-with-shoes-and-tube-socks-pulled-up-to-his-knees-man".

Oy.

What's My Age Again?

I am very passionate about bike safety.

Blame it on watching too much Rescue 911 as a kid (they never die, but they always almost die) but I am. I insist on wearing a helmet at all times while I am riding my bike even when I am biking across campus (typically I've just biked 5 miles from my apartment). This brings some people to say that I am overly cautious, but their arguments against wearing a helmet are always less convincing than the ones to wear a helmet.

The main protests to my health conscious habit is that it "looks stupid" and that "no one else does it". Now mind you - this argument is coming mainly from people with college educations who are well spoken and, typically, quite reasonable. If they were of any other standard I would, perhaps, not be as put off by this. However, this rebuttal to my helmet-wearing is remarkably lame.

Telling someone that they "look stupid" or that "no one else does" as justifiable reason to stop doing something, last time I checked, that logic went out in 5th grade. It seriously disturbs me that my peers honestly allow themselves to be so controlled by appearances that they put that before their safety.

It's Hip to be a Square

I have realized lately what a complete and total nerd I am.

Perhaps I have been in a blissful state of denial even though the evidence was obvious, but I can't ignore it any longer. As I was picking out my classes for next semester I looked at what was available and what I needed to take in the future and I was overwhelmed. Forensic Accounting? Strategic Management and Planning? Government and Non-Profit Accounting? If my mom reads this she will be half asleep just reading the names of the courses, and I don't blame her. Nothing about those classes sounds exciting - yet I am kind of excited to take them.

Another nail in the coffin of nerd-dom is that one of my favorite board game is "Star Wars Trivial Pursuit". Blame it on the fact that people have called me Princess Leia for years or that my boy friend has a strange affinity for Han Solo (appropriate, right?) but there is just something about being a Star Wars fan that seals your fate as a die-hard nerd.

Did I mention that I own six out of the seven available series of Smallville and that those are the only DVDs in my apartment right now?

I guess it could be worse, though.
I could be a Treky.