Happy Birthday Erin!

I've know Erin for about 13 years. We have been friends for about 11. If I was at home I would dig out some awesome pictures of us dressed as a goose and a lamb or maybe "whacking the bush" or that time we almost won the talent show where we sang Galileo.

We have had some serious ups and even one sad, serious down, but all-in-all, she's one of the most loyal, generous, caring friends I've ever had, and I can't imagine my life without her.

Happy Birthday Erin!!! I love you!

And the collective IQ of America is?? Threeve.

So, when we're setting up a show, we have "empty stickers" that the exhibitors can use to label their empty boxes once they're done unpacking, and then we store them all and bring them back to the appropriate booth once the show is over so they can pack back up. This particular show is on two floors, so I have two colors of empty stickers: blue for the 5th floor and orange for the 6th floor.

So, both rolls are on my desk- and labeled. I actually wrote "5th Floor" on a blue sticker and stuck it to the table next the roll of blue stickers, and "6th Floor" on an orange sticker and stuck it on the table next the roll of orange stickers. It's not rocket science, right?

Not once, not twice, but THREE times today, I had something similar to this happen:

Exhibitor: Can I get some empty stickers?
Jamie: Sure, what's your booth number?
Exhibitor: 5431.
Jamie: OK, 5th floor is blue. Here ya go- take as many as you need and we'll come pick them up.
Exhibitor: So, what's the difference between the orange stickers and the blue stickers?
Jamie: The blue stickers are for the 5000-booths and the orange stickers are for the 6000-booths. *physically indicate stellar visual aid here*
Exhibitor: Oh, ok, so if my booth is on the 5th floor then I need the blue ones?
Jamie: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YES.

Seriously. Three times.

second breakfast

You know what the downside to going to work at 6am is? Well, besides the obvious going to work at 6am... it's that I have to eat breakfast twice. It's almost 10am and I've been working my ass off for almost 4 hours now. My normal healthy breakfast of soy latte, dried apricots, and a Luna bar is just not going to last me until lunch. I'm about to die of starvation right here at the service desk.

My Thursday and Friday were both kind of crappy. So far Saturday is better, despite being up for 5 hours already. I came in super-early before my workers started, and knocked out a HUGE load of paperwork. I feel so much better about the day now (or I will, as soon as I eat again).

I've been super emotionally needy this week, for some reason, and I want the three of you who have dealt with it (and quite adeptly, I might add) to know that I appreciate it! One of you will probably walk over here after you read this and give me a hard time. :) Which is cool; I deserve it. If you do, will you bring me something to eat?

Edited to add: I didn't get to eat until 1:30pm. And it was a sandwich from Starbuck's that an exhibitor brought to me because she felt sorry for me. Bah! Plus, it was chicken salad, and I haven't had much meat lately, so now my tummy hurts. *sad face*

snow snow snow ....

Jule is probably the only one singing along with me right now. But Jule, today I actually washed my hair in snow. It was unintentional, I assure you. And not at all as pleasant as Rosemary and Bing made it sound.

I also finally bought my ugly yet functional Uggs. Quite honestly, I'm not sure how I lived here without them before. They are extremely warm and very comfortable and kept my feet completely DRY. You know what aren't? And didn't? Chuck Taylors. I opted for the ones with the more rugged/durable sole and am quite pleased with my purchase.

So, basically, it snowed all damn day, and I was walking around in it like a moron. A moron who didn't wear the proper shoes or bring her "big" coat, even though she lived here for two Februarys and visited during at least two others. First stop, the Ugg store. My feet, both pair of socks, and my sneakers were completely soaked by the time I got there, so I bought them right off the shelf and wore them out of the store like when I was little and I got my back-to-school shoes. I went to my friend Melanie's, where I sat down and dried my socks with a hair dryer. My pants were too far gone; they just had to stay wet. We had Indian food ("look at me... I'm growing") and then went to the Angelika to see The Queen. It was very good but I still stand that my personal favorite movie of 2006 was Pan's Labyrinth.

Now I'm back at the hotel, drying my pants over the radiator and waiting on my Valentine, Brittny, to get done with work. We are going out for Greek food and then we're going to cuddle. Ibym "cuddle"... "wrap up in our separate double beds and talk." Tomorrow I'm going to get some schoolwork done and go poach Britt's show, which is an art show, and see if I can get some new brushes and things. Maybe hit the AMNH and if it's not snowing, the Park. Also, tomorrow is my friend Liza B's 30th birthday, and if tradition teaches us anything at all, there just may have to be a little trip down to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

I also have to leave Britt's nice, cushy room here at The Park Central tomorrow, and move into my own room down at The Super 8. Yeah. The Super 8. *sigh*

it's up to you, New York

I was walking to meet Tom for dinner last night at Da Marino, and I was listening to my "I heart NY" playlist on my iPod, and it started to snow. The city is magic!

Happy Valentine's Day. I have a date with New York City.

my weekend

My weekend was a fun one, for the most part. Friday I went to Madison & Dave's and we made chili and just sat around and caught up. It's nice to do normal things with my friends, and not feel like it's been so long since I've seen them that every meeting has to be a special event. Sandy came down Saturday morning and we met Madge for 90 minutes of excruciating yoga, and we saw a giant!! Seriously, he was at least, no embellishing, 7' tall. We took Madge home and had brunch at Dream Cafe where I swear, that giant followed us! I thought it might have been a different giant, but Sandy wisely stated that it was a 2-block radius: how many giants could there be?

We watched a horrible, horrible movie (as Tom would say, I could have written that script in my sleep) and the entire first season of Entourage, a Christmas present from Sir Justin, and I have to say... it kind of made me hate Hollywood. And men. After she left I caught up on 3 hours of Jack Bauer and 3 hours of Jack Daniels... oops. That's a lot of Jack. BOTH Jacks. I also got to catch up with an old friend on the phone who I haven't talked to in a while, so that part was great.

Sunday, the remains of Jack, the latter, caught up with me and I was sick ALL DAY. Seriously, I'm getting old because I didn't drink that much, but I know it wasn't the food because Sandy was fine. Man oh MAN, it was bad. Bill brought me some ginger ale and after a grand total of 1 sick session and 2 dry-heaving sessions, I finally got it all out and passed out on the couch. I did manage to watch BSG though and it was a nice stand-alone Helo-centric episode. I love Helo. He's 10 feet tall and bulletproof, but a big ole softie underneath his armor, and seriously, he can just never catch a break.

Today is my last day at home. *sigh* I have to go to the bank and to Best Buy, and pay some bills and do some laundry, and pack, for tomorrow I leave. I have a lab test at school and then straight to the airport for New York City. Yay!

Go productivity! Choose productivity!

Kiddo often lauds me for getting a great number of tasks accomplished in any given time period. I don't know if that's true- I think it's easier for me to attack small projects and that gives me the false feeling that I've accomplished more than I actually have, thus boosting my self-esteem and drive to keep going, but I will say this: I have been extraordinarily productive in the past 48 hours.

Yesterday, bolstered by a full 9 hours of awesome sleep, I cleaned the back half of my apartment (bedroom and bathroom), ran a full afternoon of errands (Target, mall, tailor, cobbler, and liquor store to pick up a little gift for Flaskie), went to yoga, and watched about a third of the stuff on my DVR. Today I did all my schoolwork (for now), cleaned the front half of my apartment (living room and kitchen- even scrubbed the sink and stove!), and went to the gym. I still have TV to watch and work reports to tend to, but I feel about a million times better about life in general than I did on Wednesday.

home

So, after 2 back-to-back shows of 100-miles-a-minute, I finally got home yesterday. My travel day brought its own set of stresses, including a cab driver without a credit card machine who held my luggage hostage while I ran all over SFO looking for an ATM, a rooster on my airplane (yes, seriously), hairspray leaking all over my leather boots in my suitcase, and a unit exam over the endocrine system. I was in my pj's by 5pm with a bowl of homemade vegetable soup and a glass several glasses of wine. I caught up on some TV and decided to hit today with renewed vigor.

I had a conference call at 10, and that went fine, and then I was going to go to yoga at 12:15, but lo and behold, my only clean work-out pants were also soaked with hairspray from the aforementioned suitcase spill. Since I had so much laundry, I decided to take it to the laundromat instead of making 6 rounds in the apartment courtyard. I thought that would be less stressful but it wasn't. There was a machine malfunction and a broken hanger and a pair of clean wet pants dropped on the dirty floor. I think the real problem with today is that I didn't give myself enough R&R before jumping in. After the last week and a half, I should have allowed myself a full 24 hours of sloth before trying to be productive.

I was trying to study in the laundromat, but my mind kept wandering (ibym "wandering"... "fleeing off topic"). There was a girl about my age in there with 2 small children, and I found myself wondering about her life. Was she married? Did she love her husband? Did they plan their family? She had a nice face, like we could be friendly if we spoke the same language. We're neighbors but we live in different worlds.

In other news, my basil plant, Shady Spice, finally decided to give up. It wasn't her fault she had to live on my shady windowsill and never get watered. It wasn't her fault that my travel schedule keeps me from fully committing to a relationship. She finally understood that I was never going to be for her what she needed me to be, and she went on to a better place (that big spice garden in the sky). RIP, Shady Spice.

I thought I would get more done today. I have schoolwork but I need to go get an ink cartridge for my printer. I need to pick up my coat from the tailor so I can take it to NYC (another stress: I leave next Tuesday and don't yet have a hotel room; long story). I need a new power cord for my Nextel. I need to do 2 expense reports, 2 time sheets, and 2 post-show reports. I need to test my next show. I need to watch everything on my DVR so I can leave again. I need to put clean sheets on my bed and mop the bathroom and go through the stack of mail on my coffee table. Which reminds me, I need to pay my renter's insurance and I need to make an appointment to get my taxes done. I need a haircut.

And apparently, I need to go to the gym before I have a heart attack. But not today.

remember me?

It's been a long time since I've updated. I have worked about 15 hours a day for the last 9 days. It's 5:45am and I slept longer than I have all week, and I actually got up a little early so I could do some work before I go to work. The best word to describe me today is bleary. I'm having to reword every sentence because I'm not even making sense. Next time you're jealous that I sometimes get to stay home for a week and watch TV while I collect a paycheck, remember that sometimes I make about 17 cents an hour.

So, my Ugg project didn't work out very well, which totally blows my whole plan to pay for college relying solely on blog donations. Curses, foiled again! In good news, my friend Nathaniel sent me this link where you can build your own South Park character. Wicked fun.

Did I tell you how I get to wake up at 5 tomorrow to make an 8am flight, and when I get to the airport in Dallas, go straight to school for a test for which I am spectacularly unprepared? Yeah. Good times. But as soon as that's over I get to beeline to the couch and the remote, where I plan to stay for a good 24 hours. One week at home before I hit NYC for the 2nd time in a month! Whee!

OK, I have to get in the shower and go put in another day. Kisses!!

material-girl

I know I'm about 5 years late on the trend-bandwagon, but I really really really really want these boots. I think they're so ugly and hippie they're rad. Plus, warm! Also, I really really really really REALLY want them before I go to NYC for work in 2 weeks. I have spent so much time at freezing service desks next to open dock doors this winter I think I'm going to die. (This brought to you while wearing 3 shirts, a scarf, 2 pair of socks, and sitting about 6" from a space heater. If you'd like to donate to Jamie's Warm Feet Fund, please click on the icon below. Your $5 could help keep me from getting frostbite on my piggies. Seriously.