The Funny Thing About the Flu

The flu does a lot of things to a person. There are the obvious symptoms: congestion, cough, sore throat, all over body aches, fatigue, etc.

But beyond the less than pleasurable symptoms of the flu, you may find yourself deliriously hopeful of doing two things: 1) being outrageously productive in the downtime you now find yourself with since you have missed all of your classes for the day or 2) wanting to sleep the day away, turn off your phone and become a complete recluse.

Well I have found myself feeling both extremes in the now three days that I have been sick. Sleeping has, of course, gotten quite old and I daresay I will most likely avoid sleep at all costs for the first week of my improved health. Perhaps two weeks. I also have fluctuated through the cycle of wanting to be productive and rationalizing that I needn't be, because, well, I am sick after all. I have work to do for all four of my classes and I feel that it would be advantageous to my mental health (though maybe not my physical health) to get it done. Advantageous or not, I predict that I will get very little done in the coming hours of illness and I probably also will not sleep.

A third symptom of sickness has suddenly become apparent. The desire to watch endless hours of television while snuggled comfortably in my bed drinking ginger ale and texting all of the exciting folks who are out living their exciting lives on a Saturday night.

The third will reign victorious tonight.

Bizzwords

I got an e-mail from my dad that contained a little snippet from a review of a book by "Mr. Bergman." In it, he mentions a few words that I definitely think should become a part of everyone's daily life when they become part of the workplace.

chainsaw consultant, "an outside consultant brought in to fire employees"
brightsizing, "downsizing by laying off the brightest workers"
layoff lust, "the desire to be fired from one's job"
to Nasdaq, meaning "to sharply decline in value or quantity."
bozo explosion, "a rapid increase of incompetent employees at a particular company" mucus trooper, "an employee with a cold or the flu who insists on showing up for work"
prairie-dogging, "the sudden appearance of people's heads over the top of the cubicle walls when something interesting or noisy happens."
jetiquette, the flyers' code of polite behavior.
clickstream, "the virtual path a person takes while surfing the Web"
Zen mail, "an e-mail message without text or attachments"
Dorito syndrome, dissatisfaction felt after wasting time surfing the Net and accomplishing nothing

"There are also a number of entries whose business connections are tenuous. For example, negative patient outcome (the patient died) is medical jargon. Voluntary simplicity (avoiding luxury and pretense) smacks of New Age patois. And ohnosecond -- "the little bit of time it takes you to realize that you've just made a huge mistake" -- has far too much potential to be confined to the workplace."

My favorites are bozo explosion and mucus trooper. C'mon, you know we've all tried to think of what to call those people that make you gag day after day with their constant sniffing and hocking. Ta-da! Now if we could only introduce these people to another highly used bit of necessary jargon. Antibiotics.

Twilight

I am finally getting around to reading the first book in the Twilight series! I read the second one in the beginning of my senior year but I just now got around to reading the first. My inspiration? I want to have all the books read before the movie comes out (and also because I saw it on display at my school's bookstore for 20% off the display price... only SEVEN dollars!). I really can't stand it when a movie ruins the essence of a book. I find that if you've read the book first and the movie is awful, at least you know that you can always return to the beloved text version of the story. But if you see the movie and THEN read the books, you are often forced to think of all the characters in terms of how they are portrayed in the movies and these depictions more often than not are different from how your imagination would create them to be.

So I am reading the book first! Unfortunately, I know who is going to be playing Edward (the really gorgeous guy who plays Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!) so I already am starting to envision him in the role. Sad.

Springtime!

It is officially Spring! I realize that technically it has been Spring since whenever the hedgehog... wait no, it's a groundhog, so since whenever the groundhog poked his little head out to announce the arrival of springtime. Not really sure when that was to tell you the truth. What's the difference between a groundhog and a hedgehog anyway? As far as I know hedgehogs do not live in hedges (the only ones I have ever known of lived in Alli's house actually) and I have never seen a hog in the ground. Who names these animals??

Anyway, the first day of Spring Quarter is tomorrow and I am stoked. Why am I stoked you ask? Because I am determined to be SO organized and SO on top of things this quarter that I cannot help but get ALL A's! Yes, that's right. I'm aiming high.

I'll keep you posted on the likelihood of me actually achieving my goal.

HAPPY SPRING!

Cheerful post!

I didn't like having a negative post as my last post... so I decided to write a cheerful one to top it off!

I'm in a good mood! I have Fruit Punch Gatorade and I'm having a wonderful week with Boyfriend and I went to Disneyland and Malibu and Balboa and I'm going to a Ducks game tonight and the super secret Valentine's Day date is in THREE DAYS and basically... everything is wonderful!

Yay for happiness!! Eat your heart out negative blog post.

P.S. There will be a post about Malibu, with some of the wonderful pictures that we took that day :)

I cannot describe...

...how awful the past week has felt.

Porgy and Bess

Back in the day when I would hear mention of "Porgy and Bess" I had no idea what people were talking about. Not only did I not know what they were talking about, but I actually suspected that it had something to do with a pig and a cow (I heard "Porky" and Bess, not Porgy). Turns out the story doesn't have anything to do with farm animals! I just thought this was an interesting fact. I now know that it is a folk opera (not to be confused with an "opera") written by the infamous George Gershwin. I feel very enlightened!

Off topic. I think I am going to begin another blog. The subject is yet to be determined. I'll keep you... blogged? Haha ♥

15 Minutes Means So Much.

I have found myself with 15 minutes of free time. This has not happened in I don't know HOW long! I'm sitting outside my lecture hall, having finished the assignment that isn't due until 4pm! That's pretty good for me, as I usually wait until the last possible moment to start such things. But I'm done! I just got a chance to catch up some e-mails and my dad sent me the link to this really great website! So I'm sharing it with you.

Check it out!

Basically you just put in your birth date and it tells you a world of information about yourself! Including the approximate day of the week you were conceived and how old you are in dog years! (I am still but a negative exponent)

It's fun. I recommend that you check it out.

Off to class! What a wonderful 15 minutes it has been :)

Myspace Is Your Space

So today I got to work, after having a particularly stressful morning taking care of my sick mother. I say it was stressful because I would have much rather stayed to take care of my mother than go to work, but my dad and aunt were able to stay with her so she was well taken care of. My amazing manager Kris (28, successful, blonde hair, blue eyes, 68" High Def television) allowed me to come in 45 minutes late to work until someone could be with my mom. When I got there Kris had already done all of my opening sidework (thank you Kris!) and all I had to do was cut bread and put out butter. How nice!

There was no host today, so we servers seated customers ourselves in our sections. A man walked in by himself and most servers do not like to take single parties (smaller checks I suppose...) but I like solos, so I greeted him and sat him in my section. Little did I know that this man was the founder of myspace! (No, he's not Tom or Chris, the two guys who came up with the idea and were the essential brains of the operation.) This man owns and operates the media company under which myspace was run. HOW EXCITING! I didn't know that he was who he was, but he looked familiar so I made a point of looking at the name on his credit card. B_____ B_____. I assumed he was a football player because he looked like he could have been and the name fer sure seemed like a pro athlete. So I got home and googled him and found out who he was... so so SO exciting! And for the record, he tipped me very well. Hope he comes back!