dear winter,

let’s consider this your last hurrah.

thanks much,

jessica

rumor has it the midwest is in for a bit of snow fall.

it’s officially spring.  almost april.  and we’ve got snow in the forecast.

i’m not happy with this news.

summer, come quickly!

in other news…i melted a junior mint on my crotch today.  not on purpose.

-jess

That’s what I’m experiencing right now.

Today has been quite the uneventful day here at work. 90% of the company (or what’s left of the company) is on vacation. The few that are here are off milling about in their respective areas.

So the only answer? Drown myself in pixie stix. It’s a fantastic replacement for lunch, and leaves me feeling jittery and creepy.

Creepy, jittery girl.

It’s my parents fault, really, for providing me with this bag of sugary goodness as a stocking stuffer. Alternatively they also stuffed in a toothbrush and a bag of those 1-time-use floss sticks. I dig the sticks, but the toothbrush lacks those squishy colorful fingers that claim to massage my gums. I do enjoy a good gum massage, and thus, the fingerless brush is less than desirable.

What else did I receive you may ask? Well, I have to say, I did quite well this year. I learned the secret to really getting what you want, and it is more simple than I ever could have imagined.

Ask for it. But don’t just ASK for it. SPELL IT OUT. Here is my list…here are the links. You may purchase them here with your credit card. Free shipping if you act now!

Be specific and be happy.

Ahh yes, though, you’ll still end up with the occasional random gift. Sometimes these can work out beautifully…sometimes you’ll find yourself in the refund/return line at Kohl’s for 2 hours.

Because of my line item Christmas list, I didn’t get a lot of random gifts this year. Though I did give a couple. I gifted Silly Putty, knit slippers (cute, I must admit), multiple packs of chewing gum, candy, candles, and other things just to fill the space. I even bought some of those little metal tubes with the foul-smelling liquid plastic bubbles for my sister. You know you would have enjoyed that present.

I didn’t put up a tree this year. Somehow the time got away from me. I started working with a designer to put together our company holiday card in October. OCTOBER! I started working with vendors to send our holiday gifts in November. I started shopping for my family in early December. And yet somehow, despite my obvious introduction to Christmas at an incredibly early date, I managed to put off, and put off, and put off my silly tree.

You would never even know it was Christmas by looking in my apartment.

Part of that sentence is sad. Because I do so love the holidays, but part of it is fantastic because I now do not have to worry about disassembling a winter wonderland that once was my living room. Last year my tree stayed erect until March. The year before it was April. It became the Easter tree.

So, now I have evaded that issue altogether. All I had to give in return was the lack of the holiday spirit in my humble abode. I ‘spose I can deal with that.

However, in order to make amends for my lack of holiday glee, I chose to adorn myself in Christmas colored apparel during my visit home. Yes, with my red hair, and my red and green holiday ensembles, I was a regular Kris Cringle groupie.

And you know? It felt good. Just spreadin’ the cheer.
Or something like that.
I have some resolutions, by the way.

I usually don’t make resolutions, nor do I keep them when I do. I am making one that might interest you though, reader. I intend to update this silly blog once a week in 2009.
Can I promise you captivating and exciting content each week? No. Probably not. But can I make you feel more exciting simply by the sad truth that I often lead a dull, uneventful existence? Why, surely.

So come back. Read about my life. Leave a comment if you so choose.
If you should somehow find me interesting, tell a friend.
However, please do not be creepy and steal my photos, songs, stories, videos and recreate my likeness on a gaming website. That is not okay.

I mean that in the nicest way, of course.

Creeper.

Have a wonderful New Year. 2008 was a step up from 2007, so I have even higher hopes for the 2009!

-jessica
OH yeah….I never eat the blue pixie stix. I have a pile on my desk if you want them.

“Oh Pancho, Oh! Vixen, Oh! Pedro, Oh! Blitzen,”
Ole! Ole! Ole! cha cha cha.
Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus?
Oh! Where is Santa Claus?
It’s Christmas Eve.

Guster ~ Donde Esta Santa Claus?

and it’s finally starting to feel like fall.

oh and i moved to st louis

so up until this point, i haven’t been involved in any automobile mishaps or wrecks. at least not my own…once i had a flat tire, and there was a rattling noise..but otherwise a clean record. however, this is no longer true.

on friday i was driving along, minding my own business on a 2 lane road near downtown st louis, just trying to get a hot dog or perhaps a chicken wrap from dairy queen, when all of the sudden the taurus (fitting) in the next lane decide it would like to be in my lane too. this would have been acceptable except that i was currently utilizing that lane.

so before i knew it there was a vehicle coming at me from the side. my first reaction–slam on the breaks, okay, good, fine. second reaction, turn the car away. this would have been fine, except that in soulard the median’s are quite large and very much solid. not exactly conducive to a comfortable exit from disaster. perhaps i should have let the car hit me. this seems to be the advice i have been receiving from insurance.

my front left tire rammed up against the median and exploded. but not only that, it jammed up against the curb hard enough to efffff up some other important parts, so a tire change wasn’t good enough. she’s out. locked up in a midas for at least a few days. oh and there is a dent. i was worried about the small door dings. now i have quite a large dent and area of paint scrape-age.

the best part? the taurus stopped about 100 feet up, looked back, and drove away. yes. they drove away. i cried for a few seconds, then climbed out my passenger side on a busy street. luckily a nice passbyer saw the event and stopped. he helped me put on a donut and get out of the street.

because i was so close to work, 2 of the girls were able to come to my rescue very quickly and stayed by my side until the police came, and then took me back to work, but not until they bought me some dairy queen.

work was followed by a beer with a bunch of folks from the office.
a necessary component to an awful day, it seems.

i have some very good friends, and a lot of people that care enough about me to listen, and drive me around, and make me feel better. i’m glad to know i can count on the people around me when i’m down and out, because i was certainly down this weekend. perhaps i still am.

i’m also glad to know that some strangers will stop and do a good deed while others will eff up your car and drive away with no remorse.

lucky for me, larry, a guy i work with is out of town this week, and has lent me his truck (yes truck!) to get to and from work. this is a huge lifesaver. i was completely worried about the commute and how i could make that happen without a vehicle.

when i get married and my husband and i are picking a car insurance, it will most definitely include a car rental component to the accident insurance. yes. we will get a nice car from enterprise or something–it will pick us up. or maybe i’ll just not get in any more wrecks.

speaking of trucks–there was one bright part of my weekend. my boss had some free monster truck challenge tickets last week that he was giving out. i took a few on the offchance that i could find someone willing to attend such an event with me.

without much hesitation my little sister, her fiance, 2 of her friends, and my cousin and i ended up with thousands of other excited monster truck fans at gateway on saturday night.

i have never attended a monster truck rally before–but, hey, first time for everything. it was actually more fun that i would have ever imagined. large trucks flying through the air, crushing things…how can you go wrong? unfortunately, none of them flipped over or caught on fire. they did put on a good show though.

additionally, there were motorcycles flying 80 feet through the air, doing flips and tricks. oh, and a stretch monster truck with lights and smoke.

as i said–how can you go wrong with all of these components. we each picked a truck to be “ours” and got into the competition. mine was awful and lost right away. just in case you ever do this, a little advice, the best ones are the ones that actually have a truck on top of the giant tires. for whatever reason, sticking the neon green body of a car onto 4 10 foot tall tires, doesn’t result in a winning monster “truck”. i should have considered this before picking–i was just distracted by it’s bright colors.

we even spotted several mullets–which always makes for a good night. i couldn’t possibly be down when witnessing all of these things in one action packed evening.

t minus 12 days.

-jessica

 

There’s no need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate, I’m yours

jason mraz ~ i’m yours

 

my guitar loves me right now. i play it all the time. i’m not sure what brought on this incessant need to play, but it has arrived and is taking over my life.

and i like it. i like that i’m trying not to suck. that’s really great news for me and everyone, i think.

my life is drastically different than it was 2 months ago. i do different things in my free time, i hang with different people, i go to different places, i eat different things, i ENJOY my job, i would have to say i’m generally happier.

i hope to move to st louis soon. for whatever reason i have this idea in my head that i should be living in the city in a loft with high ceilings and brick walls. i want to kill carpet cozy. i’m not sure what brought on this sudden for distaste intricate layouts, detached kitchens, and feeling safe at night, but i don’t want this anymore.

well, i want to feel safe at night, but i suppose i can bargain safety for style. haha. priorities.

mexico plans have been finalized, sort of. we won’t know where we are staying until the day we leave. this sort of uncertainty typically makes me feel rather uneasy, but right now i’m pretty chill about the whole thing. probably because i’m even going to mexico. i was a bit worried that the whole thing would fall through. it didn’t. let’s pray for good weather and minimal sunburns.

okay, i’m going to visit guitar center and visit my wish list.

i’d like to leave you with this piece of advice, however unsolicited it may be:

cheaters don’t deserve explanations.

-jessica

i’m way too high strung.

it is really starting to feel like summer now

i went to my first cardinals game of the year

shorts are now acceptable apparel without getting that weird look

we grilled some hotdogs tonight

it’s good stuff!

as far as the job is going, i feel much busier than I used to. it’s very different, but i really enjoy the environment, the people, the overall concept. it’s good stuff too.

so i don’t know if i told you, we’re going to mexico this summer. i’m super pumped. some of the details are still a little fuzzy, but we know the dates and place.

it’ll be so nice to just relax for a week–surely i’ll be in need of a vacation by august.

i’m also doing a short weekend trip to Chicago in july (i think) actually..for 4th of july. staying near navy pier, seeing the fireworks, shopping, very exciting!

things are good. they are busy, but good.

i’m sorry if you haven’t heard from me in awhile…hopefully i’ll soon become accustomed to this schedule that doesn’t allow for much sleep and even less free time.

i think i’m having a luau soon. i have lei’s, grass skirts, hawaiian music. yep. it’s gonna be a good time. when i finally get around to planning the silly thing, a facebook invitation will surely go out.

-jess

what if i stopped
just for a while
to see where the sun goes
still up the night
just for a while

the bird and the bee ~ spark

so after the initial guess of 5.4 “they” decided it was actually a 5.2.

still.

well, after a brief moment of terror came a period of fascination

it’s all the world (at least in the midwest) was talking about

“did you feel it?!” “my dog woke me up” “it felt like someone was shaking my bed violently” “my starch fell right off my ironing board” “does my insurance cover earthquakes!?”

yes, quite the talk of the town.

we all love a small natural disaster to gossip about.

on sunday night i was once again jolted from my sleep by a rattling earth.

this time, however, i wasn’t fully convinced. i actually thought i had imagined it. my ceiling fan is shaking. but perhaps it’s the old folks who live above me. they do move about at strange hours.

so i called a friend. no, i’m crazy. back to bed.

megan, however, informed me in the early morning that it was, indeed, another earthquake. 4.5. not nearly as strong, but enough to be felt. enough to make you wonder.

these 2 earthquakes and all of the tremors came from the same area by west salem, il (close to evansville, in)

not right on the new madrid, but there is speculation, could this smaller earthquakes possibly trigger something in the earth’s plates that could cause the new madrid to react? could the midwest see another disaster like that of 1811/1812?

or maybe the earth is just letting go of some frustration. it does that every 20 years or so.

1968…..1987…..2008

these are the ones we’ve felt. (well not me, i wasn’t alive in 1968)

i guess i’m fairly confident that it’s not time for the “big one” yet.

i suppose only time will show us when this prophesized earthquake will finally hit, but for now, let’s hope the earth is just letting off a little steam.
-jessica

she had an earthquake on her mind
apparently the kind that would bury us alive
by putting all this weight on us forever

the used ~ earthquake

 

woooooooooooooahhhhh

so a few minutes ago (like 30)

i woke up to my bed shaking

my walls trembling

my pictures rattling.

and i was terrified.

only a few seconds, but enough to scare the crap out of my roommate and i.

i called my mom, to see if i was crazy…

i’m not, at least not about this.

but anyway, i’m wide awake, and watching the news.

checking out the 5.4. waiting for the aftershock?

they just said people felt it in Chicago.

i guess we’re just not accustomed this this sorta thing here in the midwest…

crazy earthquakes.

goodnight.

-jessica