I'm up in the Air

If you look out your plane window, and see labels on the wing, written in what appears to be Brother P-Touch, is that bad?

This one on the right says "Boost Pump" -- good to know. I wondered where I'd left that thing.


Conversely, the one to the left says "No Step Aft", and has a line that one can only assume you should not step aft of. All good, but if you were not supposed to, oh, step aft of a particular line on a 737 wing, wouldn't you want the label to be a skosh more permanent?

Up For Breakfast So Early In The Morning

Seen at one of my local Mickey D's. What happened to quality control here, folks? Times must change, but standards must remain.

I Know Where You've Been, I Saw You Walk in Your Door

I was at BFE's holiday party Tuesday night -- the annual hilarity of the Grab Bag Gift Exchange was up to its usual high standards (with a room full of improvisers, it was every bit the bit-fest one would expect). I walked away with a $15 iTunes gift card, which I traded to get (the original recipient does not have an iPod, so I gave her my girly bath stuff that I received).

The problem is, I am not an Improviser. I am not a Company Member. I am the Wife of a Company Member (okay, the Fiancée of a Company Member) -- as such, I go to a fair amount of shows and events related to The Company, and have seen all of these people Perform. So I know all their names, and have zero clue which of them know mine, or even know why I am there. Under normal circumstances, I find it hard to not act overly familiar with them -- I've seen them a million times, but as Random Audience Member.

Not surprisingly, many of them are also bloggers. And I have been known on occasion to read said blogs, and have learned all kinds of personal information about them as a result. So now, what was an already weird moment for me (being overly familiar with them just because I saw them in a bunch of shows) has become a Super Weird Moment because of all the personal details I'm now privy to. I know their kids names, where their parents live, what they ate this week, that their uncle/cousin/cat/career is dying, and other esoteric info... and the desire to comment on it when I see the bloggers in question becomes overwhelming. I want to make Overt Reader statements ("I loved what you wrote about peanut butter sandwiches - it really spoke to me") and Processed Information statements ("If it helps, our vet put the cat on the Waltham SO dry food, and it really seems to help with the seizures"). Either way, I am afraid they're going to get weirded out by the fact that I read their blogs, which is either insane of me to think or insane of them to do. Insane of me because their blog is public, and why make it public if you don't want it read? Insane of them for, well, the same reason.

It's not just BFE's co-workers blogs, though -- I have friends with blogs, friends who know I read their blogs, and I still blanche when I catch myself starting a reference to something I've read there. Why? I think it's something like getting caught in a lie -- if I say "Miette is so cute" and the blogger in question all of a sudden thinks "Wait... I never told her about Miette" then I come off as a stalker (which I'm not) rather than an information whore (which I am).

I think the answer may be Gratiuitous Comments. From now on, I am going to write comments on every post of every blog I read. They'll probably be more of Type 2 than Type 1, but even if it's just me commenting "Werd" on each & every post, at least that way the blogger in question will know that I read their shit. And THEN the conversation we'll have will be less "Wait, how did she know about my boob itch?" and more "Hey there, Inanegirl McCommentsmuch... back off a lits. Just a skosh."

Down Along Division Street

So we had our company's holiday luncheon Thursday the 14th -- traditionally, it takes place on a Thursday because the post-party is at Butch's, and many have a hard time making it in to work the next day. This is the ceiling of one of the rooms at Butch's -- I fell instantly in love with the place because of this ceiling. It reminds me of Indian restaurants in New York City, with all the lights and lanterns and crap? The first time I experienced same, I was delighted -- arriving at Butch's, I felt much the same way, despite the substitution of Xmas-y stuffed animals for the lanterns. It's a particularly fun choice for a bar, with the sense of play it creates. They tell me the lights are only seasonal, though, which makes me a little sad.


Last year was my first holiday luncheon, and I was feeling puny so bowed out before the post-party. This year I had to therefore help make up for lost time... and I would say I did. Feeling shockingly fine today, so either I drank the right combination of things (mostly Harp and Irish Car Bombs -- thanks, Juice), or just got lucky. Could just be that because I am an extremely lucid drunk, and am not prone to drunken sloppiness.

This brings to mind the recent conversations I have had about Corporate Policy -- I've read any number of news blurbs about people getting fired for blog content, and now when I read or write blog entries, I think "Is this sentence actionable?" It's effed, but it's true. So do I blog about this post-party? Do I blog about which co-workers fell down, or peed themselves, or made out in the basement (sorry, Ho-larm)? No. Because it would be wrong. Narf.

Mama's Pearl

So I broke down tonight and bought the new Blackberry Pearl. Was tired of weird glitchy things with my old 7100T, most of which may be attributable to several recent droppings thereof -- one, awkwardly, during an already strained call with my mother, caused the device to hang for about 10 mins, and even then it would not allow me to call out for another 5. I'm sure she thought I had hung up on her, and am surprised she spoke with me at all when I finally got her on the phone.

The major perk is the long-awaited addition of a camera feature -- love it. Loving this device in general so far -- set-up was incredibly easy, and now it's just about tweaking things to get them the way I like them.

And now I can finally take part in Project 365 if I want. :)

Oooh, and notice the sad glow of the cast-off 7100T in the background... that thing is so going to murder me in my sleep. In the horror version movie of my life, that is -- every pic I take with Pearl will be fine and normal, but then when I look at the image, the 7100T is looming somewhere in the background, perhaps ever closer in each image. Spooky.