One Of The Many Ways I Avoid Homework

Several years ago there was a show on TV called Wonderfalls, which was random and funny and I liked it, but after a couple of episodes I lost track of it and it was shortly thereafter cancelled. Turns out Fox only aired the first 3 episodes of the 13 made. Due to the miracle of Netflix, I found the DVDs for the entire 13. I love this show. I bought the DVDs with the Amazon.com gift card I got for my birthday. (thanks, Heather!) Toward the end of the season, there is a truly heartbreaking scene that was accompanied by a haunting song I hadn't heard before. So I have spent quite a few hours obsessively hunting the song and the artist down on the internet. And now, thanks to the iTunes gift card I got for my birthday (thanks, E!), the song is now mine. Which I have listened to a billion times now and see no tiring of it in sight. So I thought I would share it with all of you. And subsequently spent another few hours hunting it down on YouTube. My readers are way more important than Econ 446. Hope you enjoy! 

P.S. Wonderfalls was created by the same guy behind Pushing Daisies. If you like Pushing Daisies, I highly recommend checking out Wonderfalls. Or vice versa. And Lee Pace (the adorable Ned the Piemaker) is in both.

P.P.S. I am also completely obsessed with this song, although it has absolutely nothing to do with anything. And since the actually music video for the song gives me a migraine, I thought I would include a little Doctor Who video. So sad David Tennant is leaving!

Ten Quirks

Lovely ZB outlined her ten(ish) quirks on her blog today and since I can't think of anything good to write about except how excited/sad I am about The Office season finale tonight I thought I would accept her invitation to do the same. So here are ten quirks you may or may not know about me.

1. I like it when people's names are symmetrical, as in the first and last names have the same, or nearly the same, amount of letters in them. For instance, I find the names George Clooney or Michael Vartan infinitely more aesthetically pleasing than John Krasinski. I find the balance soothing, I guess.

2. I am normally find country music grating and not a little annoying. However, when I am sad or depressed or sick, I watch CMT. I have no idea why, but it makes me feel better.

3. When I eat candies like M&Ms or Skittles, I organize them in a pyramid according to color. Like the bottom row is purple, the next red, the next green etc. The order depends on how many of each color I get in a handful.

4. I hate using other people's bathrooms. Whether they be at work, at someone's home, or a public facility I absolutely hate it. Maybe it is a fear of being walked in on at my most vulnerable, maybe it is my latent germaphobia, I don't know. But I hate using them.

5. The smell of hospitals makes me nauseous.

6. I believe that someday soon one of my TV boyfriends will sweep me off my feet after falling madly in love with me, thus solving all my problems. Really.

7. I don't like red meat, but the smell of pot roast makes my mouth water.

8. For someone who has wonderful parents, great friends, and in general a good life, I have a lot of rage issues.

9. All I did for the first couple of years I lived in Salt Lake was complain about living there. And now that I don't, I miss it.

10. I still have dreams about people I knew in high school and about boys I crushed on over seven years ago.

White Out

Last night Miss Parker and I went to Z & Mr. Conservative's house so Parker could take their Christmas card photo and for dinner. As we were driving the rain turned into the biggest snowflakes I had seen in my life. Luckily we were just a few minutes from their home, but when we left several hours later, everything had a layer of white concealing it and the clouds and fog were so thick that you couldn't see very far in any direction. Luckily it hadn't frozen and the drive home was fine, but I did begin to feel a little claustrophobic. I like to see where I'm going and I like to be able to see the horizon but it usually takes a few days of this kind of weather for it to bug me. Today I realized why it was bothering me so much, so soon. This entire fall, I have felt hemmed in by life. I'm exhausted by the never-ending circle of logic my head goes through when I think about the future. I'm exhausted by the infinite number of 'what-ifs' and the general trend of reality being worse than I could possibly imagine. I'm exhausted by the cheery facade I keep up so that no one has to worry about me and can cross me of their list of people for whom they are concerned. I'm exhausted by the fact that I still think about a job I hated and haven't had for three months. I'm exhausted by the insomnia I can't conquer. I'm exhausted by the job search, when I apparently have no skills anyone needs or wants. And I'm really, really exhausted by a future that appears to hold nothing good in store. What I need right now is to be able to see some sort of light through the fog, but so far, no such luck.

Singletons Unite!

Or at least don't abandon one another to the land of Smug Marrieds. Saturday I attended a birthday party thrown by a friend for her husband. As everyone arrived, I came to the startling conclusion that I was the only single person there. Let me repeat, the only single person at the party. Combine that with the fact we were bowling (not a favorite activity of mine because it involves wearing someone else's shoes) with the fact that in addition to being the only single person, I knew only four people there (2 couples, naturally) including the hosts. Throw in several children, all under the age of 5, greasy pizza, and Hawaiian Punch and you pretty much have the longest 2 hours of my life. All the while being reminded that I somehow don't fit. At least not with some of my oldest friends.

OCD Like That

Recently, I became disenchanted with the radio station I usually listen to at work. There are already a limited amount of ‘work-appropriate’ non-country radio stations to choose from. And I absolutely hate shuffling between radio stations on the manual tuner alarm clock that sits on my desk. So I registered for LAUNCHcast streaming radio from Yahoo. It is free and allows one to create a personalized station. I thought it was the answer to my work-time music woes.

In adding variety and personal choice to my music options, it is a dream. But there is also a dark side. See, the program allows you to rate songs, artists, and the albums from which the songs come. Which is great for crafting my own personal play list, but it really exacerbates my OCD tendencies. There is such pressure in deciding which rating, from ‘Do Not Play Again’ through ‘Can’t Get Enough’ applies to each song. Is it too harsh to judge an artist by one song? If I hate the song, should I still give an unknown artist an ‘It’s OK’ just in case they might have another song I could love? Will the unknown Powers That Be laugh when I profess my love for Bowling For Soup, while giving a classic Eric Clapton song an ‘It’s OK?’ Can I really 'Not Get Enough' of any song or artist, or does that just mean it becomes part of the permanent rotation? Some days, I just can’t deal with the pressure and have to resort to the listening to the old radio station while I alphabetize my Post-It notes and organize my M&Ms into color-coded pyramids before I eat them.