Tool in the glasses, this is for you

Dear Loudmouth Kid in Muddy Waters,

Congratulations! You have officially made the notorious list of people that annoy me. Notice that everyone around you is speaking in a normal, conversational tone while you project across the coffee shop. I'm not sure if you're trying to impress the girl sitting across from you or if you interact with everyone like a big tool, but between your hearty guffaws and the flailing of your arms I can not get any work done. If I wasn't enjoying my cappuccino so much, I would pour it on your head.

I will give you thanks for this, though: hearing you throw around profanity makes me never want to use it ever again. If you want to do a real service to the community, though, just put down the caffeinated beverage and stop speaking.

Love,
Meg

Days, days, days

So I woke up this morning as Katy was getting ready for class and we both took care of the calendars because it's become quite a task each day. Last year, I had a "word of the day" tear-away calendar and in November, I was in a store on Main Street and bought one called "Forgotten English" for 2009 to replace the Merriam-Webster one. Then, for my birthday in December, Katy gave me an Urban Dictionary tear-away calendar and Margaret gave me a "daily origami" calendar. That makes three calendars. Then, when I returned to school last week, my trusty Merriam-Webster calendar had been resurrected on the windowsill--Katy's mom had seen it in some store and got it for me. So there are now four tear-away calendars in our room and I have to allot a good ten minutes to adjust them all. Next semester we'll be able to disperse them throughout the apartment--Forgotten English in the kitchen, Urban Dictionary in the bathroom, etc.--but for now, they are a commanding force on the windowsill, a paper collection of days.

What are the words of the day, you want to know?

Forgotten English says gizzen, to grin audibly.
Merriam-Webster says groundling, a spectator who stood in the pit of an Elizabethan theater, or a person of unsophisticated taste.
Urban Dictionary says pornfolio, the mass of porn that one has stored on their computer, generally in a separate folder.

I also constructed a Baby Penguin a la Origami Fold-a-Day. Precious.

I'll give you an edit or two

Call me Snoopy

My dad is trying to sell his old car and asked me to post an ad on craigslist for him; I did so and then started exploring the website, which I'd never visited before.

Two hours later, I am completely hooked on the "missed connections" and "strictly platonic" subcategories of the website . . . while quite a few posts end up being a bit off-color, the majority are so interesting to read: for example, the 21-year-old looking for a Scrabble partner and the Asian DDR player with a guilty conscience. Most come off as extremely lonely-sounding, yet while many of the posters admit the probable futility of their search there is some element of hope to each one that I just love.

I already have a collection of websites I've found like this bookmarked under the subcategory "People," including:

• Stuff That's Left Behind, a community blog about the objects remaining after a relationship has ended. I couldn't link it directly, but scroll down a bit to the monster stuffed animal post . . . it's probably my favorite from that site.
• OneSentence, a site where people post a story about themselves in a single sentence. Some are better than others, but the ones that are good are usually really good.
• Overheard In New York, which I've probably told you about if you don't already know what it is.
• Write In My Journal, a blog composed by a guy who encounters random people and asks them to write something about themselves in a journal he keeps with him.

So yeah, I like to snoop around the lives of people I don't know. Now you will, too, perhaps?

This is what happens when I leave the house

So after an almost entirely hermit-like existence for a good week or so, I dressed in something other than sweatpants yesterday morning and left my house. I had to work at noon, so before that I planned on running errands--one of which was a trip to Michaels to pick up more yarn. My latest crocheting project has caused me to clean out the one in Rocky Point, so I have been forced to get more at one further away. Anyways, after buying four more skeins at Michaels I ventured towards Port Jefferson and decided to stop at the thrift store on the way there. The store opened at 11 and it was ten minutes before that when I pulled into the parking lot, so I began balling a skein of yarn while waiting for it to open. 11 o'clock comes and goes, and I decide that I'll just finish the ball of yarn before going in. As I'm winding yarn, I look around and notice a big red Jeep parked across from me; it seemed like it was creeping closer towards me but largely disregarded it. A few moments later I looked back at it and saw that it was definitely moving towards me--the car was rolling backwards straight towards the hood of my car. So I threw the pile of yarn off my lap and started the car, then scooted out of the way as quickly as I could. I ran into the thrift store after that and told some guy working at the register, who announced the runaway car over the PA.

All I can say is THANK GOODNESS I was in no rush to get into the store because if I hadn't been sitting in my car, I would've had quite the surprise upon seeing it crunched.

Let "real" break commence

So the holidays are officially over and I honestly couldn't be gladder . . . I feel like now is the real beginning of vacation. The only bad thing about having my schedule cleared entirely is that I now have no excuse not to get working on the projects that need to be finished before I go back to Genny, i.e. the dramatic monologues. I think I'll start it . . . tomorrow. Today is dedicated to the excavation of the record collection in the basement and a trip to Michaels for more yarn. Maybe a trip to Starbucks thrown in there, too.

I have yet to make any resolutions for the new year, but I think that making a concerted effort to actually do the work in front of me rather than just think about doing it is a pretty good start.