Why would you...?

I should stop being surprised at people and how they behave, but sometimes, there are just so many things happening that I feel the need to share. So here then, are a few observations from last night's Sharks game, with a few tidbits from a couple of other games too. I can really only shake my head...

Why would you...

...not take a shower for several days then sit next to us after eating a meal composed, apparently, of only onions? Why would you knowingly sit in the middle of a crowd and make us all hold our noses? Do you seriously not smell it? Seriously?

Why would you...

...not lean back even after you were asked more than once by fans behind you and the usher and the announcement on the big screen? Why is it hard? Do you just not care that those behind you can't see? Are you so much more important than the rest of us? Oh you are? Sorry. My bad.

Why would you...

...pull your exhausted child into your arms and rock him back and forth, hitting my arm every time you move and distracting me from the game? Why not just take the child home or move into his seat so the mere presence of me next to you doesn't invade your space? Did you even see one play in the game?

Why would you...

...bring your child who has no interest in being there but every interest in annoying those around him or her by kicking their seat, pulling their hair and just being generally bothersome? How is this fun for you?

Also, don't think we didn't hear you when you said, after we asked you to have your child stop kicking the seats and jarring us all to our core, "Some people just don't like kids..." with a stupidly snarky tone. We heard. Trust me though, it's you we don't like. Not your kid. Your kid is four. You're, in theory, a grown up. You should know what isn't appropriate. But I guess some people are just...never mind...

Why would you...

...get so drunk before you got to the game that you could barely walk up the stairs, come close to flashing your boob at the crowd and get irritated when people want to come and go from your row? There's no way on the planet that you have any interest in the game so why bother?

Oh wait. You like this don't you? You like the attention and you nearly flashed us on purpose didn't you? I wonder, skanky wannabe flasher, if you even realized there was a game going on that people were trying to watch when you nearly knocked over their child. I also wonder if you know that whole ripped jeans look was never really in style.

Why would you...

...sit behind us and loudly talk about everything BUT the game? If you just want to chat with your pal, why not just go to dinner? What is the point of doing that during a game?

We notice that it's only you talking and that we don't hear your friend's voice much. We wonder if they really are your friend or if they are now regretting offering you that ticket at the office earlier in the day. Oh wait, now you're talking about the game. Cool. Oh good. You're an expert. We were looking for one of those. We're sure your friend was too. When she asked you what icing was, we're so glad you quoted, word for word, the hockey rule book. Thank you. Really.

Why would you...

...f'ing stay with a guy who'd f'ing left you more than once in a f'ing public venue? And why would you f'ing make us listen to this one-sided f'ing phone conversation while we waited for the f'ing light rail to show up? Look, now you've got me doing it. Are you trying to prove how many times you can say f'ing in front of people? Are you trying to prove you're an idiot?

Mission accomplished.

We totally think you're an idiot, because if someone left us at f'ing Disneyland, we would have left their sorry f'ing butt for good.

Oh wait. You're wearing a Boston Red Sox sweatshirt. And that guy that just stumbled by is wearing a Boston Bruins shirt. That pretty much says it all. Do you even know you're in San Jose? I wonder. It's cute how you're sitting on separate benches pretending you don't know each other. It's not cute that your boy mooned us after he dropped his phone and leaned over to pick it up. Eww.

Oh yeah. Downtown San Jose and random people in the Shark Tank are a treat. But hey, the Sharks won...fourth in a row. And that made the night great.

Sometimes, you just have to be a little hare-brained

So, if you read my last post you know that I was having an all-out war with the first week of January. In case you missed it, let's recap:

Monday, January 3 - First day back at work after being off for 10 days. Right away you know it's just going to be a hot mess. What I didn't expect was to have my first call be to HR. That's never a good way to start the day. I certainly didn't expect to encounter a software problem that impacted literally every employee on campus, and I really didn't expect the cause of it be related to people not doing their jobs. Finally, as if that weren't enough, and this is really what sent Monday straight downhill, one of my employees resigned. And it was completely unexpected; a great opportunity for him, a crappy moment for me. And at the end of the night the Sharks lost, so it was really just a day I wanted to forget. And then came Tuesday.

Tuesday, January 4 - Well, that started off by me oversleeping, which I NEVER do. So I drove out of my neighborhood at 7:50 knowing I had an 8:30 meeting...32 miles north. Awesome. Do I really need to tell you that the drive, which on a good take takes 35-45 minutes took an hour? Yes. An hour. Lots of traffic, multiple accidents, not good. I was 30 minutes late to the meeting. Oh, did I mention it was our bi-weekly staff meeting with our VP? Yeah. That was great. The best part though was that in my mad rush to leave the house, I forgot my purse. That's right. No purse. No ID. No money. Nothing. I was pretty done with the week, January and even 2011 at that point. I wanted to go back.

Wednesday, January 5 - When I got up Wednesday morning I blogged everything out and made myself have a truce with January. And I was feeling good about it too. And then, I fell down my stairs. Seriously. It was like a joke. And yet not, because I have a giant bruise as evidence that it actually happened. I'm lucky I didn't hurt myself worse, but needless to say, I wasn't very excited about Wednesday either. When I got to work, I had just had it and decided a hare-brained scheme needed to ensue. So, I called my friend in Chicago and asked her what she was up to over the weekend, and after a few minutes I decided I would go. And so, I used a free ticket, rescheduled a few meetings and had a plan. Wednesday definitely improved after that point.

Thursday, January 6 - Thursday actually started off great. I was excited about my scheme and for most of the day, Thursday behaved. But then, as I was getting things ready to leave, the most bizarre thing ever happened. I actually got my bracelet stuck on my purse and couldn't get it off. I sat under a light for nearly 20 minutes to attempt an extraction but it just wasn't happening. It's still on there now, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to take it to a jeweler to get it off. Seriously. Ridiculous. But you know, it wasn't horrible. So I went home, changed purses and went to the Sharks game. And that turned Thursday into crap. Another loss that left everyone wondering if we'd even make the playoffs.

Friday, January 7 - Friday was mostly good, though it was the last day for one of my employees who had resigned in December, so that was a bit of a downer. Great opportunity for her though, and we had a nice lunch to celebrate. We also left early and went to a signing with Dany Heatley from the San Jose Sharks. It was fun to see him and get his autograph, but I was really happy to just get home and get ready for my trip.

Saturday, January 8 - Hare-brained scheme put into action...nearly perfect flight to Chicago, where I actually landed 25 minutes early. When does that ever happen? Uh, never. I knew I was off to a good start.

Most of the weekend was spent relaxing and eating...neither of which are a bad thing. Saw some movies, laughed and talked a lot and saw some wonderful people.

In the end, I had an absolutely divine weekend, which was topped off by seeing Todd Carey at Schubas Tavern. When I planned my scheme earlier in the week I remembered that he was starting his month-long residency (playing every Monday in January!) last night, and I honestly couldn't believe I'd figured out a way to see him in Chicago. Of course, he did not disappoint and my friends that joined me had a great time too.

I hate that I have to leave this morning, but it's been a perfect getaway, and I think now I'll be able to handle the rest of January. So, until next time...

I just hate January

There are no pictures accompanying this blog today because frankly, I'm not in the mood. You see, it's January, and only the 5th day, but I'm already completely over it. New Year, Shmew Year. I want out.

I was driving home yesterday after two unbelievably bad days and I started thinking about what the rest of the month was going to be like when I remembered how much I just hate January, and it's a combination of multiple things really. 

One: It's winter.  

And I don't care where you are, it's not the fun kind of winter. Yes, there is fun in winter. When a chill is in the air and you need to wear a scarf, but the sun's still out and the leaves are falling...and it's still like fall, just a little colder...that's good winter. When you live in snow country and the snow is falling lightly and frosting the trees...that's good winter. January winter is crap. It's cold, it's gray, there's very little sun and here in California, it's rainy. Yuck. 

Two: It's after the holidays and usually after some time off work.  

For me this year, I was off for about a week and a half and enjoyed not even thinking about work during that time. Going back to work after time off is always hard, but when it's also after celebrating Christmas and ringing in the New Year, probably seeing friends and family and catching up on your life, it's even worse. In fact, it's depressing. Christmas decorations are coming down, de-festive-izing everything, and the bills are coming in for all the gifts you gave. And you were happy to give the gifts of course, but paying the bills is crap. Maybe this is why I leave my trees up a long time. I can't stand for my house to suddenly go back to its normal state. I need some of the joy to linger.

Three: It's the month leading up to my birthday.  

And don't get me wrong, I truly have no issue with my age and am more than happy to tell you what I'm turning if you ask me nicely, but there's just something about birthdays, at least for me, that make me think about everythng I'm doing in my life and wonder if I'm on the right path. This can naturally be a bit melancholy and just adds to the blah that is January.

Also, January is a long month and most people don't get Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off. I'm one of the lucky ones that does, but even that isn't enough to make me like January. I hadn't really put this all together until yesterday but that's really what's going on here. Bottom line: I just hate January. I just didn't realize it was going to knock me over so badly this year...staffing issues, bad traffic, forgot my purse at home, overslept, Sharks lost, Stanford and Ohio State won...I could go on, but I have to stop listing the things that happened in the last two days or I'll actually hurt someone.

I'm trying to figure out how to have a truce with January since there are so many days left in it, but so far, I've come up empty. It's possible that a trip to the mall will help, and Yahoo tells me it's supposed to be 60 degrees and sunny today. I'm certain that will help. My bills are all paid, and my trees are still twinkling, so I'm going to hang in there, but if I had the choice, I'd punch January right in the face and move right on to February.

Do You Know What Your Dreams Are?

“Maybe no one can make your dreams come true because you don’t know what they are.”

I heard this line in a Lifetime movie recently and it keeps coming back to me. What are my dreams? What do I really want out of this life? If someone asked me those questions and honestly wanted to know, I really don’t think I could answer them. Could you?

As we start the new year, I keep coming back to this and I realize that I've never really set goals or said "this is where I want to be in so many years". I was never one of those people that said when/if I wanted to be married by a certain year, or do this by a certain age, so when I get to a certain age I'm not sure if I've reached what I should be reaching or not.

In some ways I think this is a good thing because I don't fail at not reaching something, but then I wonder if I'm just wandering around this life aimlessly because I've not put something out in front to strive for.

But even now, as I think about this and contemplate setting goals or defining what my dreams are, I really can't do it. I don't have a big birthday coming up this year, but I have one in two years and it seems like I should be able to say what I'd like to be doing or where I'd like to be by the time it comes along, but I just can't. There's absolutely nothing in me that points to some ideal place I want to be when that time comes. 

Is this normal? Have I gone insane? 

Television and movies and books seem to tell us that we should have these kinds of goals, that we should define what our dreams are and go after them. Magazine articles list for us the things we should do before a certain age - "30 Things You Must Do Before You're 30", that sort of thing. And should we just assume we're failures if we haven't done those things by the time we're 30? Or even 40?

I'm not sure most of my friends have goals and lists they're striving for. I don't know if they have dreams of who they want to be. If they have, it's never something we've talked about. Sure, a lot of them have said they want to be married by such-and-such an age, but for most of them, they aren't defined by that and I don't think they feel like they've failed if they aren't married by that age. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they all do have these kinds of goals and dreams and it's just something they keep private and work toward on their own.

I don't know that this is actually bothering me, but it's certainly making me think. And that's always a dangerous thing...

Happy New Year everyone. If you have these sorts of dreams, I truly do hope they all come true.