Just a note

I am sitting at my lazy boy while watching the Olympics. Jeremy finally got a wireless browser for his laptop and I could not be happier.

So an update: I did go my requisite 33 minutes and it hurts. My body is tired and I cannot seem to eat enough right now. It's gonna really hurt tomorrow.

I am sad the Olympics are over but I must admit that they were ruining my life. So I guess it is back to normal for me, whatever that is.

I am going to San Francisco this week for pretty much a day. Can't wait to feel 55 degrees.

I just decided this blog is boring and I am going to end it immediately.

Goodnight.

Run, run, run

I have a training schedule that I am pretty much contractually obligated to follow. Day 1 was 3 miles (running or briskly walking). I did it with much less hurt than I thought I could.

The problem is today I am supposed to do 3.3 miles or 33 minutes, whichever comes first. I am totally procrastinating it as I am a bit sore and very tired. It might also rain.

This would explain why I am blogging today instead of waiting for my normal 16 day interval to pass.

My Restaurant is Classy

I work at a restaurant that has provided me with a lifetime of amusing stories (especially after I have had a few). So far, these are the Hall of Famers...not so much with the amusing part, but more of an ick-factor. I can't believe I have known these people!

Patron #1 was busted with the largest cache of privately owned kiddy porn EVER. As a successful lawyer, you have to wonder why he spent so many days at a family friendly joint on his laptop for hours at end. To his credit, he did always have his back to the windows where you could see children running around.

We did get to see Patron #1 planning his defense with a table full of lawyers after he had been bailed out. At that time, he remained shy and very careful to not show anyone his face. Quite creepy, as it is my job to always be nice to paying customers. I never followed up in the news, but I am quite positive he got sent away for a very long time.

My first run-in with Patron #2 happened the night he told me he wanted to use my body as a plate for his dessert. I vomited in my mouth. Since that evening, I have been very careful to only politely nod at him when he is drinking. He has always given me the creep vibe and it has been affirmed by his new M.O. Porn on his laptop. That is right, ladies and gentlemen, it has been reported that when he sees cute girls at the bar, he immediately turns his laptop (sound on!) to pornographic websites.

What gets me most about this situation is this: Does he really think girls in their late 20's are going to be impressed by a disgusting older man watching porn in a public place. I try to imagine if I were the girls and that happened when I was at happy hour. Would I really turn to my friend and comment on how hot the 40 something man is while listening to, "that's right, give me some more.."? Ooh, I thought he was okay looking, but now that he is watching porn, he is soooo hot! Uh, no. What is his display to accomplish?

I am not 100% sure, but I swear I saw his mug shot on the news the other day for arrest in connection with sexual assault. I can't tell because no one looks the same in flourescent lit prison orange as they do in the lovely lights at my work. We'll have to see if he is back soon or not. I really hope not, because as he has not yet been caught in the act by staff, there is no solid proof. I feel that I am too old to have the "Porn is for home" conversation with anyone, especially a creepy old customer.

Purple is the new Black

I have decided to train to run a 1/2 marathon for the Team in Training fundraiser the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society holds all over. 13.1 miles seems pretty steep right now, especially since currently I don't think I can run even 1/4 mile. It will be interesting! Thanks to all who voted about whether or not I should do it. 1 for yes and 1 for no.

I am sure all you in Blogville will hear about my ventures in running and if you are ever interested about my fundraising progress, you can visit
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/pfchangs09/jbracken

As the days go by, hopefully this website will get cooler and cooler, that is if I am not too busy running.

Wish me luck!

Update

If your local grocery store does not have any ripe bananas, under no circumstances should you instead purchase "bull" bananas next to the plaintains. Nothing you could purchase could substitute for taste in a blueberry banana muffin, especially when the only sweet part is the banana.

The muffins were not so good. Oh well.

Betty Crocker has nothing on me

Just so you know, I am currently baking. That is right. Unfortunately, I am a terrible baker. I cannot measure ingredients correctly due to spacial issues and impatience, but I love to bake just so my house smells warm and delicious.

It is my boss's birthday tomorrow and we sit in on a recurring Tuesday breakfast meeting, so I figured I would bake. Now that I think about it, it seems a little brown-nose-ish and totally not my style, but I like my boss and I hope he likes the blueberry banana muffins I baked in his honor.

The other day

I am a recovering beauty products junkie. As such, I try hard to stay away from stores specializing in the art of beauty. I rarely allow myself to walk by the area at grocery stores unless I need something.

The other day Jeremy and I went to Best Buy, both in the mood to spend some of our hard-earned money. I personally wanted a Wii (they were out) and Jeremy actually needed quite a few things. After about 20 minutes and no game console to speak of, I decided to get out of there and go next door to Ulta, a beauty store mecca. Jeremy was to meet me over there as soon as he was finished with his purchases.

Big mistake! I had what turned out to be an unlimited amount of time of unsupervised shopping. I went for shampoo and conditioner and ended up spending an embarrassing amount of money. The real zinger is they packed my objects into a teeny-tiny bag, making me feel all the more guilty about my total.

I vow to never go into that store without my sister, who is my spending conscience.

Grocery Store Drama!

...I left the store quite annoyed, as you have already read. But nothing was more annoying than the dill weed who honked at the very nice man who stood in front of me in line. Mr. Dill was impatient with Mr. Nice for walking across the pedestrian walk way and into the parking lot. I suppose Mr. Nice was using precious seconds of Mr. Dill's time. I assume most people drive into a grocery store parking lot expecting people to walk in the middle of the drive ways and practice the calming skills given to him at birth. Not Mr. Dill.

Honking was not enough for him, he had to have words with Mr. Nice (the pair happened to be parked next to one another). I watched, rooting Mr. Nice on. Mr. Nice was not having the fact that some jack ass was yelling at him for no reason and it was interesting to see his face go from a very pleasant expression to a reddening madness.

I thought for sure the incident would end in some punch or slap, but instead Mr. Dill started walking away at which time I jumped in my car, hoping for the opportunity to honk at him. That would have taught him, right? I didn't time it well, so I just honked. When he looked my way, I pointed at him and laughed.

The most amusing part of the parking lot drama is that Mr. Dill waited outside by the door and watched his car to make sure Mr. Nice didn't key it or slash his tires. I can only assume that has happened to him before. Quite honestly, he probably deserved it.

Why I hate to grocery shop

I have lived in the same place for about 5 years, and as a result, I know the aisles of all three grocery stores in my neighborhood by heart. I have the proven ability to zip in and out of these stores with no problems. I even use the three stores for different things-- the Randall's by my house is for quick stops, the HEB on my side of the highway is for big trips and the other HEB is for more refined meals as they have a larger variety.

Last week I had to work a considerable heavier schedule than normal. My brain was scrambled and my body was tired. All that was standing between my 12 hour shift and home was a bag of cat food. So I stopped at the Randall's, proceeded immediately to aisle 6 aka "Pet Place", walked the requisite 12 paces to get to Luckberts brand of food, and found evaporated milk. Huh?

It turns out that Randall's is doing a drastic remodel. Aisle 6 is still named "Pet Place" but not for long. This was too much for me to handle. I was too tired to figure it out--I actually stood in the middle of the grocery store for a good five minutes trying to figure out where I was going. I felt very stupid and disoriented, but it felt good to laugh at myself.

Today I needed just a few things for dinner and to do some light shopping, so I chose to drive the extra mile to grocery store #2, located smack-dab in the middle of a very established neighborhood. I can only imagine its patrons have shopped there for as long as it has been open, which I think is around 20 years. It was the rush hour for grocery stores (around 6pm) and there were more people than usual for this time of day. Everything seemed normal until I realized every other aisle was empty. Surely the recession hasn't gotten this bad, right? No, it is another remodel. This time I had much less patience for it because no one knew where to find anything. Everyone was pushing his cart in circles it seems. I couldn't even locate the bread aisle, lost my patience, so I got the heck out of there!