Failure

In this 1 pumpkin carving season I have completely destroyed 2 pumpkins. I made excuses about the first and I even have a good reason for the second but come on.. 2 hideous pumpkins from me?! Really? Me.. the carver of the stunning dolphin pumpkin, the girl that drempt up the funniest pumpkin at the largest pumpkin walk in town. Yes, sadly it's true. My carving sucked it up this year royally. I'm sorry world. All I can do now is hope for next year to be better.

Dance Class

Yesterday was my final belly dancing class. The past 6 weeks have been fun and educational. I will miss my anorexic teacher and the Egyptian music.

Cookies

How do the people of the world feel about cookies? There is no way to know… but my guess is that most people like cookies. They aren’t just a fad because people are still producing them after all these years. They are the sole reason for girl scouts and a grandma without a cookie jar is just a creepy, smelly person that could die at any moment.
Depending on the variety, I like cookies quite a bit. Sure I would rather have Tiramisu or even a snow cone but if the option is cookie or nothing I’ll take the cookie and thoroughly enjoy it.
Sometimes when I have a manageable day at work I will go to the cafeteria and buy lunch. Then I take it back to my office and continue working. Every now and then I will buy a cookie with my meal. I don’t really keep track but I’m guessing I eat about 3 cookies a month. Without fail my co-worker will comment on my cookie consumption.
“I wish I could eat cookies but I’m on this strict diet Bla Bla Bla Bla Blaaaaaa”
“Another cookie hu? How does your body handle the sugar?”
“When I first decided to give up cookies it was really hard but so worth it”
“Cookies have so much sugar in them. No wonder so many people have diabetes in this country.”
“My daughter-in-law allows her kids to eat cookies like that can you believe?”

I think the funniest part is that she is morally opposed to me eating cookies! Cookies of all things.

Could be bad for my face

My job is weird for so many reasons. Today’s reason is that strange people work at hospitals. They love me and they hate me. It changes daily. When I get people what they want they act like I’m the cure for cancer. When I tell them it will be 6-8 weeks before they get what they want, they get in my face and yell to my face. From their face to my face!! Maybe they are jealous of me because they all have to wear frumpy scrubs and I get to wear classy outfits and heals. Maybe they love me because I try really hard. Or maybe they hate me because I’m a Bitch (right Jill?).

Last week I told Jason, from the “in-house” construction crew, that he needed to redo all the modular furniture in one of the projects he has been working on for months. (I want to feel bad about making him do this but I don’t because it looked like poo.) He looked at me with a glare that would make a weaker woman cry. He was very annoyed. Unfortunately many people at work get annoyed with my antics. Tough cookies people at work! I’m just doing my job.

Jason has been calling me every day this week with questions, which I assume are to make me decide not to have him do this work. Today at 8:15 a.m. I get a phone call from Jason.

“Hey Melissa,” He said, “Will you be at the hospital today at noon?”

“Yes” I said. Great, I’m thinking, I’ve just signed up to get yelled at latter.

“Good. Can I buy you lunch?”

“Umm..…sure.”

How did that even happen?!? From annoyed to asking me on a lunch date in less than a day. Does that make any sense to anyone?

One Of The Good Reasons

Today I was asked, "Do you still Blog?" And so I'm blogging so that I can say, "Yes."
I like living in Salt Lake for many reasons. Some of them I expected, and some of them were surprises. One of the reasons I didn't plan on is this: I don't know anyone here. Now at first glance this seems like a negative because it means I'll spend some Friday nights all alone, there are few people to lend a hand if I'm in a bind, and I'll miss a lot of people that I have grown to love. Although these points make me sad sometimes I believe the perks of not knowing anyone in SLC are there.
I love going to the store in my pajama pants and not recognizing anyone. There are no familiar faces anywhere and so there are no awkward moments on the frozen food isle where I'm pretty sure I should know the name of the girl buying Bacardi daiquiri mix but I'm just not sure if it's Julie or Jessica and so I try to pretend that I don't see her even though I'm too close to not. The chances of running into the small number of people I know here are very slim. The area is greater and the number of people I am acquainted with is smaller.
Nobody knows anything about me. If I want to I can leave the whole "worked at Jamba for 4 years" completely out of my life story and that is a good feeling.
I'm bugged by less people. Because I only just know the people I do know I'm able to go places without seeing someone that annoys me. I can go out do dinner without being waited on by an idiot jerk face that I had an art class with freshman year. It's nice to have such a clean slate with the general public.
And so, even though some days I'm saddened by the fact that I don't know anyone, I choose to see this as a great reason to love my newish home.

Suprise! a cute thing

Let me set the stage a little:

I work for a large healthcare company. I will be traveling around to hospitals frequently, but for now I’m mostly working from one hospital. My office there is in a house across the street from the hospital and about ½ block down the street. The house used to be the office for 5 people, but now it is just for me with the occasional afternoon when my boss works form the house. Sometimes it gets very lonely. The house is moderately sized and has a pretty yard. To get to the hospital to attend meetings and such, I take a little stone path through the back yard.

The story:

On Tuesday I walk out the back door to find a mother and father quail with about 20 quail babies. Have you ever been surprised by something so terribly cute that it breaks your heart a little? Don’t be sad if you haven’t. I doubt it is a common or useful emotional experience. The quail babies are about the size of a quarter. Soooo tiny! If I was one of those people that said to cute new babies, “you are so cute I could just eat you up.” Then I could probably make that statement and then eat all of these quail babies in one bite. I brought them some chicken starter the next day, but they were not interested. What do quail babies eat?

NEW

I need to tell about two things that are new and going on in my life.

#1: I put my hands in my front pockets now. What is up with that?

#2: I have fallen in love. This man is a construction worker at my job, missing half of his front tooth, devastatingly attractive, and married. Last week I was waiting for the elevator and when the door opened he was standing there in his hard hat and filthy clothes holding a bucket. Gross right? Wrong. He said, “Hi Melissa” and I almost fell over. This is a breakthrough for me because I have never before found an intense “man’s man” attractive. I guess I’m growing up.

Even though I have a real job now I still spend time at my parents house eating cold cereal and playing cooking mama. It’s great, but rather boring. Because I have nothing else going on in my life I have turned into a bit of a workaholic. I make work phone calls during my commute and then during the 3 hours that I’m home and not asleep I check my work emails or think about how to resolve work problems. I run through names of co-workers and building floor plans before I fall asleep. I defiantly don’t want to live like this all of my life. I just need to get caught up because I’m the new girl.