File Under: Things I Don't Get

So this post has been writing itself in my head for a couple of months now. And then this morning I inexplicably woke up at 6:00, done sleeping and ready to get up. Weird. That has happened since . . . well, never. And the last time I got up at 6:00 not done sleeping was going on two years ago now. Crazy. Anyway, that means that the things I'm usually doing this time of day are all done, and I just might have time to articulate all the semi-worded thoughts that I've been thinking for . . . well, years, to be perfectly honest. (And believe you me, what is about to take you five or ten minutes to read I'm expecting to take me a couple of hours to write. Even then I'm thinking not everything is going to say exactly what I mean it to say but I'll have given up, said to myself "screw it, let people get mad at me if they want to that badly" and just hit publish. Good times.)

(editing note, so if you’re wondering a little about the time this post popped up . . . yeah . . . stupid internet would crash whilst I was writing it . . grrr. Stupid internet would crash and refuse to uncrash right when I need to get ready for work . . . GRRRRRRR!! Stupid internet!!!!!)

So. Thing Lacey Doesn't Get. Volume One.

Ticks. And for those to whom it isn't immediately obvious, I'm referring to my Grandpa's version. (And if you're ever looking for a silly sense of humor and some good puns . . . there you go. Good times. Laughs a minute. Or at least half the time. Love you Grandpa!)

Anyway . . . I've never really understood politics. Granted, I've only really been paying attention to them for a minutely small number of years. So small, in fact, that I'm not even going give a number because I know at least one person would be horrified and I really don't want to get kicked out of book club. :-P Suffice it to say that it is more than two. On the other hand, I am going to confess to something that is perhaps more shameful and horrifying - I scarcely understand a word. Everything's so jargon-y with their "tariffs this" and "lobbyists that" and then there's Sb 85 and HR 34 and QZ562. And don't get me started on all the legalese everything is written in. I sometimes doubt anybody actually understands what it says. I try to be well informed. I really do. But when I'm watching the news or reading articles online sooner or later my eyes glaze over and I lose track of what they were talking about to begin with. Which is, of course, one of the reasons why I love and adore The Daily Show. Now there are some reporters who know how to put things in layman's terms! Sure, it's a fake news show, but the news itself is real . . . that's close enough . . . right?

Also: I'm not usually an indecisive person, but when it comes to issues I actually do understand, I have a hard time picking a side.

I suppose this problem goes back to elementary school. When I was in third or fourth grade our school introduced "conflict managers" to recess. Basically they picked a dozen or so kids with good reputations, gave them some business-retreat style conflict resolution training (dumbed down a little of course), and sent them out on patrol in pairs. Every couple of weeks or so you would be on duty with a partner during recess, and instead of playing you'd be walking around looking for trouble. Looking back, we had kind of a surprising amount of authority to make decisions other kids were expected to accept. I imagine the theory was we would take care of the little arguments, leaving the teacher free for more pressing matters. You know, fights . . . gushing blood . . . someone slipping on the hill right where the asphalt met the grass and hitting their head on said asphalt. And yes, that last one was me. I went to the nurse's office, had a little headache, got sent home - which really ticked me off because I loved school - and was pretty much fine, except for my mom didn't let me sleep for, like, five days because she was sure I had a massive concussion and was going to die. Of course, I might be remembering that last bit a little inaccurately, but in my defense it's been nearly 20 years (whoa . . . trippy . . . ). :-)

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway. I, naturally, was one of the kids chosen to be on the conflict managers team. I was kind of a golden child at that school. Facts: I was the only kid in the whole school enrolled in the district's gifted and talented program. My grades were consistently in the top five for my entire grade. I won multiple academic competitions, mostly in reading. I imagine this is why I got away with a few things other kids didn't. And when I did do something wrong I often didn't get in as much trouble. (at school, anyway) It also probably explains why I didn't have a lot of friends. Because until about seventh grade, I out-Hermione'd Hermione. By a lot.

Anyway, double digression over - I was taught as a ten(ish)-year-old that when people disagreed you were supposed to listen to both sides of the story and make a decision that would best satisfy both parties. And that's stuck with me ever since. I mean, it's gotta be the right thing to do, you know? How else can you make an informed decision?

And herein lies the problem - to much information. Maybe. I don't know. An uninformed decision seems just plain wrong. A decision with only one half of the information would be misguided. But once you get the details from both (or all) sides, I'm left wondering what the heck is going on.

(At this point I would just like to point out that I am not going to illustrate any of my own opinions or conclusions due to an absolute certainty that I would be the moral of that old fable where the rabbit or turtle or fox or whatever tries to please everybody and ends up with everybody mad at them. Yeah. Sooooo not going there.)

My Shakespearean flaw, I suppose, is my ability to see where both sides are coming from. Now how's that for an awesome answer to that stupid job interview question? :-) I listen to both arguments. I see where Side A is right, and I agree that Side B is wrong. BUT - life is complicated, and these things are multi-faceted. So when it comes to this other facet of issue X I find myself agreeing with Side B that Side A is wrong. Clearly this means that neither of the solutions proposed by either side is likely to work and what's needed is either a composite of the two solutions, or a completely different third option. (I've thought of a few of those myself, and I find them pretty genius. I also expect to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail if I suggest them to the wrong people. That would not be fun, although I do think it would be kind of cool if I were to be burned in effigy. Guy Fawkes Night = coolest holiday ever. We should totally start celebrating it on this side of the pond. Penny for the old Guy?) Of course, there are often more than two sides and more than two aspects to a debate, which just makes the whole thing even more complicated and my "agreeing with both sides . . . sort of . . . " opinions more complex and indecipherable even to me. Well, no, I know what I think . . . I think.

What I really don't get is the way people on all sides refuse to accept the idea that a compromise might be acceptable, and the venom some of them have for their "enemies." Especially all those political "talking heads," most of whom as I understand it have little to no actual experience in politics and for whom (in a gross generalization) I have very little respect. Where along the way did people forget that their way of doing things is not the only way? That just because something worked for them doesn't mean it is right for everyone? That just because you think or believe one way does not mean that I have to act in accordance with those thoughts or beliefs? And how is someone like me, the "next generation of leaders" or whatever it is you want to call us supposed to pick a side when both sides are right AND both sides are wrong? Can't we all just get along? Live and let live? Am I the only one who's figured this out? And if so, am I a genius for doing so, or an idiot for thinking I might have something here?

Luke and I don't talk about politics much. Not because we disagree, but because we mostly agree actually - it's too complex, too confusing, and there's too much right and wrong on both sides. So there's not much to talk about, you know? "I don't get it." "Yep, me neither."

I also take a sort of quasi-religious view to things too. The world's going to end anyway, you know? Last time I checked there's nothing any of us can do to change that. So I just figure that between now and then God's not up there saying "Oops! Wasn't expecting that to happen . . . better go rewrite that Apocalyptic game plan!" What's supposed to happen will happen. If I can figure out what that is and help it along, great. If I can't, I'll just watch instead of fighting it.

Disclaimer: I've tried to be as neutral as possible, but allow me to here and now accept the fact that I've offended at least five of you. Go ahead, comment, debate, have at it. Here's hoping you have fun. I'll watch, but I'm not touching it with a thirty-nine-and-half-foot pole.

P. ost S. cript

I think I might have posted this one before . . . but it's still awesome. And my first choice video had embeding disabled . . . grrrrr. You should totally check it out though!

Ka-Boom!

Too, too true.



So I may have mentioned (well, actually I haven't . . . and I know I haven't . . . but the phrase sounds good, so I'm gonna use it, dangit!) that our apartment is right next to a canal. The canal, I believe actually. As in, when anyone in Logan talks about "the canal" they might not mean the stretch in front of our apartment, but it's connected to it.

Now, our parking lot is literally right next to said canal. As in, there is a large retaining wall and that is all that marks where the asphalt ends and water begins.

Well . . . there was a retaining wall. (okay, okay, technically there still is. Just roll with me, k?)

So anyway, there's been a section of the wall that's been . . . leaning . . . for a while. They did some patch up working on the parking lot last summer and I imagine that didn't help what was probably a pre-existing condition. (Good thing the wall didn't need insurance, eh?) And then this winter with the snow and the cars and the stupid-people-who-pull-forward-until-their-car-hits-the-wall - well, you know, that all just didn't help. And the wall started leaning rather noticeably. So Luke and I quit parking on that side a couple of months ago. And notes were sent out telling people not to park right up against the wall. And the wall kept leaning. And some of last summer's patch-up job started to sag much, much lower than the rest of the lot. Then, this past Monday when we were meeting with the manager to discuss becoming the new full-time maintenance peeps because the other couple moved, we find out that the problem is being worked on. At least, as much as the whole "getting bids on the work and trying to get the canal company to shut off the water so we can do it now instead of in the fall" thing counts toward working on it. Good times.

So. Yesterday I put out notes saying "hey, we're getting those concrete barrier things they put in parking lots on Tuesday as a temporary fix so don't park on that side Tuesday morning." Seriously. Yesterday. As in, like, thirty hours ago.

So. Today. Luke goes to work at nine this morning. (yeah . . . they changed his schedule again . . . for, like, the tenth time this year . . . grrrrrrr.) He walks to work since it's so close. All was well, apparently. About an hour later I hear this rumble and the place kind of jerks a little. And Lacey thinks "dude, another earthquake?!", considers posting something to that effect on facebook, decides not to, and hops in the shower. Hopping out of the shower, I am shortly thereafter confronted by a knock on the door. And, well, boom went the dynamite. And I missed it!!!! GRRRR!!!!! I call the manager, turns out she's in Provo, she's already called the owners and they're in church. So - quick recap of the "in charge hierarchy" - owners: not available. Manager: not in the freaking county. Old maintenance people: conveniently moved out just two weeks ago. Luke: at work. That leaves: me. Great. So I go out, find out that everybody else decided to investigate, so pretty much everybody who lives here is out there. Which is good, because one car was about to follow the wall into the canal and they couldn't find the owner (of the car, I mean) but somebody had a chain and a truck and they hauled it back. It's still there too, totally blocking half the remaining, in tact parking lot. Obnoxious! There wasn't really much for me to do though. Just grab the construction barrier thingy from the shed, discover that the rope is missing from the shed and wonder how I'm supposed to rope the place off like I've been instructed. However, the police showed up - I'm hoping somebody called them, because if they just randomly decided to check on things that would be a little weird. Especially considering that at one point there were, like, five cop cars out here. I mean, I know this is Logan on a Sunday but come on!! Anyway, they had caution tape, so now we've got that strung across half the parking lot. The place totally looks like a crime scene out of a really low-budget disaster movie (kind of like the ones my mom's been putting on their Netflix instant queue lately - just ask her, she'll admit it!). Good times. Allow me to refer you to the awesome album of pics I just uploaded to facebook. :-) I'm totally behind on the uptake of that whole thing too - as we were all standing around gaping at the whole in the wall (because really, what else was there to do? Pretty much nothing.) a bunch of people were laughing about how they'd already put their pictures up there. Of course, as we all know nothing's official until it's on facebook. So it's official: the wall fell down. And Luke and I are both ticked that we missed it. Seriously, how cool would it have been if it had fallen right as Luke was walking to work? Well, I don't think it would have been that cool, because I still would have missed it. But still . . . you get what I'm sayin', right?

I have no idea who's going to do what. Or when. All I know is, we only have half a parking lot. And that I did not get a picture of the cars on the other side of the canal that got epically splashed and so mud covered you'd think they gone off-roading in Moab or something. Well, except for the dirt not being red. Seriously, epic muddiness. How dare those people drive their cars away before I got a picture!!

So all in all, good times were had by all. Except maybe Luke, since he just got the play-by-play via text until he came home a little bit ago. Here's to more catastrophes (and non-catastrophic events) that keep us busy around here and make our rent cheap as free! :-)

P. ost S. cript

OH-EM-GEE CUTENESS EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Realms of the Exotic

So for our anniversary we went to lunch at Tandoori Oven. It's only a block away from our apartment and we've been wanting to try it for . . . well, about a year now. I'd seriously been looking forward to this for, like, a month. Trying new food = awesome.

We walked over there - and that was definitely a good thing since it was a buffet! I have to admit I was a little nervous since I've only had the tiniest of tastes of Indian food at the Food & Wine Festival. (unrelated note: food & wine is also so the only place/time I've ever gone to a concert that was not orchestral/symphonic in nature . . . Shay's still jealous that I went to a Beach Boys concert, lol.) But it was good!! I was hoping to like everything, but fully prepared to not eat very much at the same time. It was a really weird feeling.

Verdict: YUMMY!!! Okay, I have to admit that I discovered (well, reaffirmed really) that I have a very American palate - I'm totally used pretty bland tasting food compared to pretty much every other ethnic food ever. So some of it was totally delicious - the tandoori chicken, the super spicy chicken tikkla . . . something or other . . . The biyami. The breads. Yum. Major yum.

Some of the other things were a bit much, but I think I could acquire a taste for them - the spicy coconut rice topping thingy for instance. The combination of coconut and spiciness was tasty, but just a little too odd for me - but maybe next time.

Then there were a couple of things that were just plain . . . anti-yummy. For example, saffron may smell good (I really wouldn't know) but it tastes pretty nasty. The saffron pastry square things totally reminded me of these cookies my friend Cyd (who lives in Logan now, yay!!!!) made back in college. She bought this Shakespearean cookbook from the Shakespeare Festival (soooooooo have to get down there some summer soon . . . ) and made cookies flavored with rose petals and (I think) orange peel. Because apparently that's what they flavored things with back in the day. They smelled really good. They tasted like soap. They smelled like soap too actually, but soap smells good. I've never eaten soap, but I imagine it would not taste good. I imagine that they would taste a lot like the soap-scented cookies. Or the Indian saffron pastry thingy.

Best part: the drink. By far. I had a strawberry lessi, which is a strawberry/yogurt drink. Sooooooooooooo good!!! Tasted more strawberry-y than pretty much any strawberry flavored anything I've ever had and super smooth and creamy. YUM!! (side note - there's also a sweet lessi made with rose petals . . . and rose petal ice cream. The ignorant American in me wants to go around telling people that Indians eat soap.)

I think I love Indian food. And my future book club restaurant picks have probably been influenced. Heck - my future any restaurant picks have been influenced. :-) Also - best anniversary ever. Not there was a lot of competition . . . yet. :-)

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So, as many of you know our song was "So Close" from Enchanted. The plan was to actually do the dance they did in the movie - how awesome would that have been?! - but that kinda didn't happen. The whole "Luke not knowing how to dance" thing coupled with the whole "we kinda gotta find a couple of jobs" thing combined with the "my mom never believed me when I said I didn't care about tiny reception detail x so I spent more time shopping than I'd expected" thing combined with the "it's a half hour drive back to my bed no matter what time of night I leave" thing and . . . well, life in general it just didn't happen. Sad. :-( Anyway, here's a totally cool version of one of my favorite songs ever.

Just How Did I End Up Teaching?

I really have no idea. But it pays. That's all I really care about. I suppose I should really say "teaching" because I'm not sure I've taught anybody anything . . . whatever. Anyway, a few happenings -

1 ~ About a month ago my schedule was switched. Instead of going to the fourth grade homework room, I stay in the second grade classroom I'm already in and work with three kids who need a little extra help. (Hannah) doesn't seem to need a lot of help, she just needs a quieter room than one full of a couple dozen chatty 8-year-olds. (Peter) . . . well, it's almost the end of the school year and I think his reading level is about the equivalent of a kindergartner. Toward the beginning of the year. And then we have the adorable little girl who needs someone who knows she can do the work and is not the helpless little damsel in distress she'll sometimes pretend to be and makes her actually do the work herself. Good times.

2 ~ Fourth graders are a lot easier to converse with than second graders. As in, it is possible to converse with fourth graders. You might not be discussing Sartre or politics or pop culture and its effect on society, but at least the talking you do can be considered "conversation" as opposed to just "talking to." After two and a half hours, I am sooooo done. Ashli - you are officially nuts.

3 ~ I would have to seriously reconsider my current occupational path after my "making kids cry" total hit two today. Good thing it was the same kid a second time, not a second kid. She didn't want to finish her spelling since everyone else went out to recess whilst we were in the middle of the list. So she threw her little "I can't do it" fit and cried a bit. Then, when she realized I seriously wasn't letting her go outside until we finished . . . well, it was amazing how quickly she remembered how to spell the rest of the words. That said, when she finished she did apologize before going out to recess, and after school she was - well, not perfect but very good. She's really a sweet girl when she's not trying to get you to do her work for her.

4 ~ So I'm doing spelling with (Sam) at the end of the day, and he sneezes right as a couple of fourth grade girls walk by. He says "I'm allergic to girls." I give him a silly/hurt/offended look. He smiles a little and says "Except for teachers." Awwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!! . . . I think . . . ??

5 ~ My job officially ends with the school year, and at the moment there's no guarantee that I'll be back next year. I hope they can find room in the budget for me.

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One should not laugh at these. I fully admit to feeling a little guilty. But they are sooooooooooooo funny!!!

*SQUEALS*

So we had our first anniversary present delivered today. (to clarify, first present for the anniversary, which is also the first anniversary. Confused yet, lol?) The first, and only one we're expecting to see. We weren't really expecting this one either, actually. I mean - do people do that? I thought it was all "oh, yay, you're getting married, here's a big old pile of stuff" . . . " anniversary? Whatever, suck it up and get your own stuff!"

So imagine how much I was not complaining when my mother asked what we would like for our anniversary. Lacey's answer: we get anniversary presents?! SWEET!!!! *happy dance*

And as long as I'm pickin' what we get . . . well, there was one thing on our registry last year that I was really hoping to see in that big old pile . . . and it did not materialize . . . and it was just a little to much on the frivolous side to justify using our pile of gift cards on it. But when it's a present it's okay to be a little frivolous. And now - WE'VE GOT ONE!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

I remember when I first discovered the awesomeness that is the ice cream ball . . . I was still a CP, and when I saw it at Walmart I immediately wanted it. However, it was during the time of my first set of roommates, and I was aware that to purchase it then was a bad idea. (One of them walked off with my fantabulous-ginormous-road-trip-sized mug - still sad about that one. *sniffle*) And then . . . I never saw it again. Every time I went back to Walmart it was gone. Sad day! Especially considering how much I adored making paper bag homemade ice cream at girls' camp - I was dying to make some again. So naturally when we were registering a BB&B and I saw it there wasn't even the slightest question as to whether it was going on the list or not. Luke didn't even know what it was. And then he laughed at how excited I got explaining it. But now he's totally on board with the awesomeness.

And now . . . we have one, dangit!!!! And I'm sooooooo glad Luke's back on day shift (even if his days off are still up in the air at the moment) because that means I'm picking him up from work in a couple of hours, we're going out for the ingredients we don't already have, and we're having homemade strawberry ice cream tonight!!!!!! With real strawberries!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Admit it. You're jealous. :-)

P. ost S. cript
Oh, the giggles. Nothing special, this one's just silly. But silly is good.

Have You Heard?

There's a rumor in St. Petersburg! But apparently only in Polish . . . grrr.

Seriously though, Walmart has strawberries for a dollar a pound!!!!! Sweet!!!!!

It was really quite fortuitous that we even discovered this fabulous factoid. So we decided to have tacos for dinner Monday . . . and then discovered we only had three tortillas left. Blargh. Rather than changing the dinner plans, we decided to make an emergency tortilla trip. And to get onions too, because we were out of those. But we knew that going in. Anyway, what to our wondering eyes should appear but a massive display of ginormous strawberries!!!! So we bought three of them too. Three little plastic cases, I mean. Not three strawberries. That would be lame.

Straaaaaaaaaaaaaawberries . . . . MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! So big! So juicy!! So lucious!!! Totally reminded me of our reception too, because we had giant strawberries for the chocolate fountain. We also had a thoroughly nasty chocolate fountain lady who, when I meandered over and chocolate-d up a pretzel for myself, lectured me on how she doesn't allow the bridal couple to partake of the chocolate delights they procured for their own wedding reception because she doesn't want to get sued when they spill chocolate on their fancy clothes. Umm, seriously? 1) Dresses can be cleaned. 2) Let's be realistic here, this dress is most likely never going to be worn again, so does it really matter if it gets stained? 3) Excuse me, but I am the reason you are getting paid to be here, and now you're saying I can't have any? I don't think so! Naturally, I was only able to articulate these perfect rebuttals a couple of days later - don't you hate how that always works? - so the nasty chocolate fountain lady did not get the piece of my mind she deserved. At the time, I must admit, I was really rather stunned by the fact that she actually lectured me. I mean, is that even allowed? Surely there's some law that says you can't lecture/chew out/insult/etc./etc./etc. a bride on her wedding day - especially not at her reception. I mean come on, surely some bridezilla somewhere has clawed her way into Congress and gotten it passed . . . and Utah's certainly the most likely place. :-)

Anyway. Back to this year's strawberries. YUMMY!!!!!!! And so very healthy too. Of course, it probably somewhat negates the health aspect when you put half a pound of chopped strawberries on top of a dish of ice cream as we did Monday. Or use a pound of strawberries to make two large milkshakes as we did yesterday. But hey, at least we didn't use strawberry syrup or something, you know. Also: totally need to go back and get more strawberries, as well as the rest of the ingredients to make this. I still dream about this divine little concoction, even though I've only had it once and that was more than two years ago now. Also, an old friend gave me a recipe for strawberry banana cookies - totally need to try that one out too.

Most importantly, there has been no sign of food poisoning. And considering Luke and I have both eaten three dozen (at least) deviled eggs and two pounds of strawberries a piece in the last three days . . . well, I'm a little surprised that we aren't sick.

(And yup, we did boil and dye 3 dozen eggs for Easter . . . meaning we had six dozen deviled eggs. Deviled 'em on Sunday, and they were gone by the end of Monday. We like our deviled eggs around here!)

If the strawberries are gone next time I go shopping, I think I will cry. Make sure you save me some when you shop!

P. ost S. cript
Here's a new one. You saw it here first kids! Not even a million hits yet!

It's International Become a Plurker Day!

But first: Lacey's Completely Non-related Picture!


And believe you me, I tried. And we didn't even have Nintendo!



So. International Become a Plurker Day. And just what is a plurker, you may ask? (If you already know, you're more of a geek than I am. Just sayin' . . . ) Well, sit back and get ready for story time.

*insert cheesy sitcom dream sequence wavy thing here*

My freshman year of college was . . . well, rough . . . in multiple ways. Particularly the roommate way. We got along (except for the one that hated all of the rest of us) but I didn't really "click" with them. And being the horribly, paralyzingly shy person that I am the thought of going to some campus event to meet people by myself - well, it did actually occur to me (believe it or not) but my shy self always talked my lonely self out of it. I think my record was about 2.8 seconds - and that's the record for the time it took the longest! So, yeah, I got pretty lonely sometimes. Luckily, I finally had my own computer, a laptop I semi-affectionately dubbed the Craptop. Because it was. Whenever I actually needed to do something important for school I typically went to a lab because those computers were far less likely to crash. But I digress . . .

Anyway, since I now had constant high-speed internet access as opposed to the constantly-disconnecting-itself-dial-up I discovered that - wonder of wonders! - there was a whole lot more to do on the internet than just check one's email. Woot! First there was the amazingness of MSNMessenger. Then I signed up for hotsaints.com (which after a quick search appears to not exist anymore . . . sad!), my very first (and only) internet dating profile, AWWWWWW!! Two reasons for that: 1) I was chatting with a friend from high school and it seemed like a fun/funny thing to do to both of us at the time and 2) to freak out my mother when I told her I'd done it. It worked. :-) I only logged in again once or twice, and there was absolutely nothing resulting from it in the form of male contact. Story of my life, y'all. Well, most of it. But I digress again . . .

Okay, coming to the point now. Remember, this was 2002. Attack of the Clones had just come out that sumer. Everyone was still holding onto hope that Revenge of the Sith would redeem the prequels, even though we didn't know what it was called yet. So naturally I wandered over to starwars.com before long. And since it was free to register I did - even though that didn't really get you anything at the time. BUT - that meant that you could post on the forum message boards. Now I'd done the random chat room thing once or twice, and of course I was on msnmessenger pretty much all the time at this point in time, but this message board thing was new to me. So at first I spent most of my time reading what everyone else was saying, only posting a little bit. Over time I started posting in a couple of threads pretty regularly, and I actually made some good friends . . . who's real names I couldn't tell you if my life depended on it. :-) Sadly, upon my return to the land of dial-up for the summer I didn't spend much time on the boards, and my sophomore year was drastically different from my freshman year so even though I meant to start hanging out there again I never really did, and I'm betting if I were to go back now no one would even remember me. Assuming, of course, that anyone I knew is even still there. It has, after all, been almost ten years. (And it weirds me out profoundly to say that!) I miss the boards and the people I met there sometimes, but it's more in a nostalgic than sad way. It was the perfect situation for me for that one year - I'd even go so far as to say I needed it. But then I got some awesome, social, friends for roommates and I didn't need the (sort of) virtual friends I'd hung on to the year before.

So anyway, plurker. If you haven't figured it out already, in message board-ese a poster is someone who posts a lot. A lurker is someone who never posts, but is always reading what everyone else posts. Which can be a little creepy because there's no way to know they're there. (Now I want to use "their" in a sentence just to prove I can use all three correctly. Holy biggest pet peeve!!) And which is also why you have to be especially not stupid (also known as careful) with what you say on message boards. Good thing I knew that going in, eh? Anyway, obviously, plurker is a combination of the two, and is exactly what I was when I first started hanging out on the boards. Actually, I never really fully overcame my plurker-ish tendencies. I'm even shy online!! Grrrrrr.

So. Today. International Become a Plurker Day. I'm really hoping you've guessed by now that I totally made it up. But if someone else can declare today Teflon Day, then I can make up my own holiday too, dangit!!! (btw, how's that for a totally circa 2002 looking website? Holy retro, lol!!) So - have you been watching the insanity that is my blog and not commenting? Comment!! Has it been so long since you commented that it up for debate whether you're still reading or not? Comment!! Do you comment on every single post? Comment!! It makes me feel popular, and everybody deserves to feel popular sometimes. :-) Also, it tells my shy self that not everyone is laughing at me and thinks everything I say is utterly ridiculous and dumb. Post with no comments = big box office blockbuster that flopped. Epically flopped. It's illogical. It's irrational. It's silly. It's me.

To be completely honest, while I have had this post simmering in the back of my head for a while now, I posted it today because it's spring break so I have no work to go to all week. It's been two days and I'm already bored out of my mind. I am sooooooo not looking forward to summer.

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A friend of mine sent me this one. I've seen a couple of others done this way, but I think this one is my favorite. Long live books!!!!!