Enjablog

Back when I started my first job after college, I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork to get my clearance. There are dozens of forms and hundreds of blanks to fill, one of which was my middle name. A name which I do not possess. Someone told me it was so I could use my last name as my middle name when I got married. Little good that does me now.

I was on base yesterday and they looked up my info when I filled out the form for a visitor badge and they read out some information from my previous job. They asked me to confirm, I gave them the updated info, and all was well. Then the guy compared my ID to what was shown on the computer and he asked me how I pronounced my name. I told him and he clarified his question.

“No, your middle name.”
“I don’t have a middle name.” *pointing to my driver’s license*
“[Enjanerd] nn-man [last name]”
“Ohhh. N-M-N. No Middle Name.”

Enjanerd NMN Petouie.

For the first time ever, I looked up a dentist and made an appointment all by myself. Does this make me an adult now?

It has been over 3 years since my last dental checkup and I really felt it was time. I checked the website through my dental coverage and found 3 dentists within a 2-block range of my home. That seemed reasonable. According to the website, they were all accepting new patients with my insurance. So, I wrote two of the numbers down on my to-do list and made plans to call.

*Fast-forward 3 weeks*

I should really get around to this. So, I call and each of the dentists on my list is on vacation. All the ones listed on the same street were on vacation for a two-week block ranging from August 11-September 4. Awesome.

So, I made a decision. I had put this off long enough. If I wait for these people to come back from vacation, I would likely just procrastinate more and end up calling in 3 months when they were, again, on vacation. Seem like a long time to be putting things off? Did I mention I haven’t seen a dentist in over 3 years?

I went back to the website to pick a new number. I weeded out all the dentists on my street and was left with 6 options within a half-mile radius. I chose the one who was listed as speaking Chinese. Why? I have no idea. Seemed like a good enough reason at the time. My parents were excited though. Why? Again, I have no idea.

I got there at 8am today, did the insurance/form thing for 15 minutes, he did X-rays for another 10 minutes, and then started the cleaning thing. I was out of there in 45 minutes! I haven’t had any problems with my teeth, he said they looked good, and he’ll see me in a year. I even got to work in time to get papers together before catching the 9:30 shuttle for my meeting this morning.

Up next: Invisalign. I asked him if he did orthodontia and he said no, but gave me a pamphlet on Invisalign. I had heard of it, but never really looked into it. Looks very cool. I hope my insurance will cover it.

Highlight of the day:
“I don’t have the right ID, but will you let me on base anyway?”
“Hm…”
*looks closely at my driver’s license*
“Ok.”

QOTD: “I just tried to think if I knew what either of your breasts looked like and I had no idea.”

My sister and I have been talking for weeks about going to see the destruction of the Wilson Bridge. We ended up deciding last night not to go though. The weather was kind of muggy and the viewing point was only intended to hold about a hundred people, so it was suggested we get there around 9pm. Explosions are cool and all, but waiting 3 hours, potentially in rain, for a not that awesome view of events didn’t seem worth it.

I was, however, awake around 12:30 last night when I heard a really loud noise outside. It was different from the highway noises we usually hear, but I didn’t know what it was. At first, I thought it was the bridge explosion, but it looked at the time and it was half an hour later than scheduled. But I just read in the Post that the demolition didn’t happen until 12:30. I’m pretty sure the noise I heard was the explosion. Too bad I don’t live on a higher floor. We might have been able to see it from here.

Man, this weekend totally wore me out. I ended up taking a “nap” around 6pm last night and then getting up at 11 to get a drink of water before heading back to sleep for the night. Dehydration woke me up or something.

Brunch was so good. We went to Oriental East and somehow fit 14 of us around a table. It’s all the way in Maryland, but was the best dim-sum I’ve had in this area, so I might have to go back at some point.

After that, Ian and I went over to Mary and Adam’s place to help them get rid of some stuff before they move. And by get rid of, I mean they let us walk around and take whatever we wanted. ;) Picked up a few lamps, vases, bottles of booze, and their pretty set of Crate & Barrel bowls.

From there we went to the scotch tasting, which included handouts, home-made sushi with yellow tomatoes grown expressly for this party, and home-made shortbread cookies. After that, there was the karaoke jam turned Taboo party. There was a bit of drama after we arrived, but things settled down a little later.

Yesterday, the sibs came over for some will-writing. We discussed our stuff, had some pizza, and then began a preliminary list of our relatives for wedding purposes. Turns out renting a tent and generator comes out to about $1k. That on top of finding a location and having to rent chairs, tables, etc. We’ll see how it goes…

LOTD: Friends

Action-packed weekend scheduled… Highlights include brunch for my cousin and her husband who are moving out of the area, a scotch tasting, karaoke jam, and our annual family will-writing party. I’m going to eat too much food this weekend.

I baked cookies on Thursday night and used some of those peanut butter chocolate swirl chips. They’re very cool, but they have a lower melting point than regular chocolate chips and they are also dough-colored. So, I couldn’t be certain that the chips were distributed evenly. But it all worked out. The chips were all very melty/smooshed, but still tasted good. I think next time I would try these in a peanut butter cookie recipe.

QOTD: “I’m sorry to hear that you have neither a fiance or enough finger-fat”

Couldn’t get a clear picture of it in the box, but this is the best I could do:

Went out to Rustico last night with Ian, NewGirl, and NewGirl’s brother. Loads of fun and they were doing a special “Dogfish Head Days of Summer” beer night. They had their usual menu of beer, but they also had some special ones from the brewery. And they were giving out Dogfish Head pint glasses with each beer, so Ian is well on his way to collecting an 8-glass set. Yeah, it was a fun night. :)

Wow, just finished an hour and a half cleaning spree. I bought groceries today and they wouldn’t all fit in the cabinets as I would like. And I had been thinking about rearranging the stuff in the cabinets to be more efficient and utilize the space better. So, I figured today would be a good day.

I moved stuff around and put things away… And then it all looked so neat and organized, but there were still dirty dishes out. So, I put the dishes away. And then the counters were all bare and dirty. So, I wiped down the counters. And then the kitchen table looked messy, so I gathered up all the newspapers for recycling. And then the living room looked sloppy. So, I gathered up a bunch of miscellaneous stuff and put them away. And then I was putting extra detergent and shampoo away in our closet shelving unit thing and that was all messy, so I rearranged the shelves and stocked it like a grocery store. All the deodorants on one shelf, shampoo on another, hair things, medicine, contact stuff, etc.

Now my room looks messy because my clothes are all out. I need to go to bed…

So, I got no work done yesterday because I was so engrossed in this breaking news: Manhunt in Blacksburg. Synopsis: Guy attempts to rob deli, goes to jail awaiting trial. Gets hurt and is brought to the hospital. Overpowers deputy, fatally shoots a hospital security guard. Shoots another officer while on the run. Gets caught.

I followed the story on Fark, thanks to Ian, because there were so many people in lockdown on campus with nothing to do. So, of course they read Fark and update Wikipedia — *gasp* which has been taken down! Someone wrote up an entry for the convict and it was more up to date than the news sites.

In any case, the reason they thought he was in Squires and had to shut that down and have police snipers on the roof of the library?

A GIRL WHO WAS IN SQUIRES CALLED HER MOTHER AND SAID “I FEEL LIKE I’M A HOSTAGE”. MOTHER FREAKED AND CALLED POLICE.

Lady, what kind of stupid daughter do you think you raised? In a hostage situation, when given a cell phone, you think she would call you instead of the police!? And then you call the police diverting dozens of officers for over 3 hours? You couldn’t figure it out any faster than that?

Sure, I don’t know how accurate that story is, but he was never spotted on campus and Squires was still evacuated. Also, exciting news yesterday, some girl got locked out of her car and some guy ODed on drugs. Yes, I listened to the police scanner online. The capture was *awesome*.

EDIT: Wikipedia entry still there, just can’t search for him yet, I guess. William Morva.

Finally got around to watching March of the Penguins last night and it was great! I had no idea that penguins’ lives were so hard.

Before watching this movie, I had heard about this movie being promoted by religious groups and whatnot. I think that’s ridiculous. The idea that this is “proof” of intelligent design and that penguins demonstrate conservative family values is just wrong. I mean, unless “conservative family values” includes trading spouses each time you procreate or trying to steal someone else’s young if something unfortunate happens to yours. And intelligent design? If they were designed intelligently, wouldn’t they have chosen a place to breed that wasn’t -80°F, destroying an egg seconds after contacting the ground?

Anyway, it was cool. The penguins were adorable and the peek into their lives was amazing.

I read Hax Chat every week. I think it’s because I’m nosy, but for whatever reason, I love reading advice columns. An on-going theme in her chats and her weekly columns are bridezillas or their horrible friends. Women who demand a princess wedding or friends who assume they’re invited and make a scene when they’re not.

Every now and then, people write in saying they were invited to some shower or received a “Save the Date” card, but never got an invitation. Then there’s some huge rift in the friendship/family and people are never the same again. Or, a couple sends out invitations and never receive a response card back, their good friends don’t show up, and are forever angry with each other.

So, I know JL2 is getting married. I’ve talked to him a handful of times in the past year and see him about once or twice a year. I knew they set a date “in the fall” and were doing it out of town… So, when I didn’t receive an invitation, I figured it wasn’t happening yet or maybe they needed to pare down the guest list and I got cut. Disappointing, but understandable. I haven’t talked to him in a while… maybe I’m not an A-list friend anymore. I can handle that.

I received a phone call last night from JL2 saying they haven’t received a response card from me yet. But… but… I haven’t received an invitation yet! Did he send it to my parents’ house? I always forget to check my mail there. Or maybe Sonny’s house… Is anyone checking mail at that address now?

Turns out they forgot to put our apartment number on the invitation. I’m surprised it didn’t get returned to them, but maybe the postal service left it with the building and the building people didn’t finish the job. In any case, that all got straightened out. I received a pdf of the invitation in my email last night. Very classy.

Making reservations today. It’s kind of a good thing my sister’s going out of town because the wedding’s on her birthday (She’s turning *30*! Shh… don’t tell her I told.) and I’d feel bad about missing that. Not bad enough to miss a friend’s wedding, but still a consideration.

So, the lesson learned here is that I should be pushier when I know a friend is getting married and I don’t receive an invitation. ;) Ok, no. But JL2 did laugh at me when I suggested that I had gotten bumped from the list and didn’t want to be rude about it. Of course Ian and I were invited. How could I be so silly?

I was reading this entry on waiterrant and was just curious what kind of responses people give. I guess I don’t have a very big sample size for the people reading my blog, but it’s interesting that half the people picked 3 and no one picked 1.

Anyway, if you’re too lazy to click:

“ALL SEX MANIACS PICK 3. ALL OTHERS ARE NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS.”

Yeah, it doesn’t actually mean anything. I could’ve said all people who like cookies pick 3 and everyone else hates babies. But I thought it’d be fun anyway.

Tonight was my family’s fantasy football draft. It was… just as exciting as I expected it to be. Took much longer than I expected though. Next year, everybody better show up on time! It’ll be like family dinner: No waiting!

Explanation tomorrow. Just play along. (Remember what you voted for.)

I finally got sized for a ring today. Apparently there are quarter sizes, but most places have the ring measuring things for half sizes. I think my right ring finger (the one on which I wear my class ring) is like a half size bigger than my left ring finger. Weird.

Met with my BeFriend mentee this evening after that, so got home kind of late. Then got a reminder email telling me my July report is 2 weeks overdue. Oops… Spent about a half-hour writing that up, watched some tv, and now I’m off to bed. That’s about it for tonight.

I think I’ve been blogging too much because I’m out of non-work stories. Instead, you can read about the guy at work who is pissing me off.

New guy: I need to add this compartment.
me: It’s already in the file, but you would add it like the other compartments I just showed you.
New guy: It’s not in there.
me: It should be… It would be listed under [this general area].
New guy: No, I looked.

Ok, are we in kindergarten now? “Yes it is.” “No it isn’t.” “Yah huh.” “Nuh uh!”
I’m absolutely certain it’s already in there because I edited it the day before.

me: Yes it is.
*tell him exactly which line it’s on*

New guy: Well, I didn’t see it.

Clearly. But why argue about it? “I looked, but didn’t see it. Would you show me where it is?” Arguing and telling me that you looked isn’t telling me that you tried. It shows me that you’re really bad at reading or that you didn’t actually look in the first place and you’re now just trying to convince me that you were working instead of goofing off.

Like I said last time, I don’t care if you’re goofing off. Just don’t question my memory.