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Why Michelle Obama is my hero
Feb 11th
This quote by Michelle Obama, speaking to students at Harvard today, is exactly what I love about her. She’s a real person! She’s like me! I don’t know what to do with my life either.
“The question that I hate most that we ask of young people is, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ And the truth is, I still don’t know, and I’m 45 years old,” she said. “All I know is that it’s important for you to be true to yourselves, not to worry too much about what other people are going to think or make of your choices, because everyone will question what you do and tell you you should’ve done it the other way.”
Amen to that.
Drowning in work! Send chocolate!
Jan 29th
It’s the end of the month so work is a little busier than usual anyway, but these past couple days I have gotten just buried. Coming in at 6am on a Friday is just wrong, but it looks like that’s what I’ll be doing.
Remind me please that I should be thankful to have a job at all. I know that’s the truth, but it’s hard to remember sometimes.
Untitled because I’m uncreative
Jan 27th
So you know how I said it was my goal to clean my desk last week? Yah…that didn’t happen. I should take a picture of it just to show you how awful it is. Except the camera is at home (on Ryan’s messy desk – we have things in common!). The camera also still has pictures from Christmas waiting to be loaded onto the computer, so even if I did take a picture it probably wouldn’t get uploaded until about March. Although at this rate my desk will still be a giant mess then too, so who would know the difference?
Ryan and I had a really fun weekend. Friday we went out with some friends to a “newish” restaurant in town. It had really great food, and it was fun to sit around visiting. Saturday we spent pretty much the whole day with friends – one of them was having a birthday, so we went out for Breakfast with them, then hung out at their house and played Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band, and then went out to dinner with more people, and back to their house for more GHWT and RB. It was really a lot of fun, and funny to see all these guys who work for a tech company playing in a band.
Sunday we made it to church and then did some mega grocery shopping. And then we made salsa and 2 veggie lasagnas – we had one of them last night and put the other one in the freezer for next week (or whenever we are feeling lazy next). It turned out really well, I thought. There are a couple things to improve upon (sauce should go above the last layer of noodles, otherwise they get kind of rubbery, and don’t skimp on the cheese!), but overall it was really good. Our first try had broccoli, carrots, green beans and a bit of green pepper in it. We want to try it with zucchini next time. Yum. And healthy!
This week is already dragging for me – I had a monster headache that was impervious to painkillers and caffeine yesterday. It finally went away in the evening, and I feel much better today. But yesterday dragged by, and today isn’t much better. Probably my attitude is part of the problem, huh? I’ll work on it.
Back to work. Keep warm – spring will be on the way in a month or 2! Isn’t that the most depressing thought you’ve ever had!?
I have no idea what to title this
Dec 11th
I’m laying around at home watching HGTV while Ryan is at Sam’s place watching The Dark Knight. I keep thinking that I should update the site, but I don’t know what to talk about. Ryan and I have been busy, but not with anything interesting (I assume that your eyes would glaze over faster than Ryan’s do if I told you about all the non-fiction books I was reshelving at the library). We did join a bowling league with some of my coworkers, so we’ve been making it to that about every-other week, and that’s been fun. Neither of us are great bowlers, but neither is anyone else on the team, so that’s ok. It’s more about getting out and hanging out with people.
We went to Ryan’s company Christmas party last weekend in Grand Rapids. It was pretty fun – since it was out of town, we stayed over night at the hotel they had it at (at a reduced rate! Score!). They had great food, and it was fun to hang out and visit with some of his coworkers. They are some pretty neat people. And the after-party is always a good time!
My work party is next Friday, and should also be fun. Spouses aren’t invited, but we take a half day off work for the actual party, and then spouses join us for the “after party” at one of the bars in town. It is a good time every year.
I am mostly done with my Christmas shopping for this year, which is really unusual for me. But for some reason this year I had some decent ideas of what I wanted to do early on. That and some of it is a lot easier. My sisters and I are doing a white elephant type of exchange rather than buying gifts, which should be fun. And it meant I didn’t have to buy anything, which made it a lot easier.
My train of thought process isn’t really working today, so none of this is really connected, and I don’t really know where to go from here. It’s interesting that now that I have more things technically going on, I have less to say about it. I think I’m going to be ringing a Salvation Army bell with some coworkers next week. Maybe that will provide some good stories of interesting people. Also, don’t ask me why I’ve suddenly decided to donate half of my free time to random stuff. Ryan told me I needed a hobby, and I figure that since we don’t have money to donate to causes I should donate my time instead. Or something like that. Anyway, it makes the weeks go by really quickly…so summer should be back before I know it, right?!
Oh, and I’m getting highlights for the first time ever professionally next week. I’m kind of excited, but nervous too. I’ll try to post a photo afterward. If I can remember how to do that. This is all a little too complicated for me.
Tell me how scatterbrained you are this holiday season. It will make me feel better about the randomness of this entry!
Another RNC question…
Sep 3rd
Why do the Republicans insist on using fear mongering as a campaign tactic? It seems that they want us to be afraid of our shadows so they can try to convince us that they can protect us.
Maybe I take myself too seriously sometimes…
Jun 20th
Do you ever have times where you think that you must not be very good at your job? Maybe a customer yells at you and hangs up on you, and then out of nowhere (as far as you can tell) another customer suddenly decides to go with another agent with no explanation of why they left. And it’s just the latest in a recent string of accounts either leaving or just closing up shop. On the one hand, I know that most of this is not in my control – what I was being yelled at about wasn’t my fault (seriously), and I can’t help someone stay in business if they want to close. But it’s hard not to take it personally when you spend all day working on accounts and you talk to these people on a regular basis.
I know that I’m just a little overemotional right now, and that’s part of it, but I feel like I must not be doing a good enough job if these people aren’t happy. I must be able to do something better. And yet…I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t know that I see myself here permanently…I like my workplace – the people are great, and I like working downtown. But I don’t know if insurance is what I want to do the rest of my life. But then, I don’t know what else I would do. I know, in theory, that I’m young and that I could do pretty much anything. But anything is too broad of a category for me to choose from. I want someone to just sit me down and tell me what I would be good at, what I would like doing, and how to get started doing that. Any takers? ;-)
Edit:
Alyson (my college roommate) was here this weekend. We were talking about how we were both in this boat – not happy with our current work status, but not sure what to do about it. She shared something someone else had said to her, and we thought it summed up our work wishes quite well. “I’m not f***ing cut out for customer service.” Give me a job that I don’t have to talk to customers. In fact, I would prefer a job without a phone at all, but I understand that’s not really realistic. So one only other people I work with or other people in my industry call, please. Thanks.
It’s Friday! *doing the happy dance*
Mar 28th
I love Fridays.
I am reminded of a Douglas Adams quote. “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” hehehehe
Totally random, I know. But I love Douglas Adams too. Can you see a theme? I love EVERYTHING!
We are getting company this weekend to celebrate Sam’s birthday. He’s going to be a quarter-century old on Monday! Woo hoo! It should be good times.
In other news…I don’t really have other news. I talked to my mom and my maid of honor last night, which was fun. It had been a while since I’ve talked to Mom, so it was good to chat about stuff while she was waiting for her flight at the airport in Minneapolis. PS – you know the state is big when your company will fly you to a different part of it rather than having you drive. Or you are very important. I think my mom is important AND the state is big. ;-)
I got an email from my aunt Marcia (Hi, Aunt Marcia!) today detailing the plans for “Ladies Culture Day 2008″ and I am so excited! Jesus Christ Superstar at the Orpheum, with dinner afterward and a shower (bridal, not wet)! It shall be swell. I love my family.
Anyway, I should get going. Work is short-staffed today because Dinny the plague-monkey* got sent home (she really is a plague-monkey – she’s been hacking a lung up since Wednesday and she looked and sounded awful when she came in this morning). I’m sure she was relieved to go home, but she’s such a worrier. It’s cute, but sometimes you just need to let it go and take care of yourself!
*Plague-monkey is a term Ryan came up with for people who are obviously sick, although not necessarily with the plague. But maybe.
Am I that boring?
Mar 25th
Every day I read blogs. There are a few that I read every day (mostly because they update almost daily), and some that I check once in a while (usually because I like them but they don’t update regularly…like me!), and once in a while I will click on a new blog that has been listed by one of my “regulars” as one they read. I figure that if I like what they write about I will probably enjoy what they like reading, right?
My point with all of this is that every time I read these blogs I am struck with how much I like what they have to say. Even if it’s nothing super-exciting, they write it well. And they write like they talk (at least, how I imagine they talk). So my question becomes, how is it that all of these people are so interesting, and I feel as though I am totally boring? I’m not complaining about my life – I have a pretty great life right now, what with the getting married in 2 months and such (2 MONTHS!!! EEK!!!). But I’m never sure what to write about. I don’t know what people want to hear about, and most of the time I feel my life is pretty ordinary.
So yah. That’s where I’m at today. Trying to get the hang of this whole blogging thing (even though I’ve technically been doing it for a couple of years).
On a side-note, I thought I was going to die this morning when I went to get in the shower, my stomach hurt so badly. I took a couple of pills and am feeling a little better now, but how’s that for bizarre? I have no idea what was wrong. Ryan told me to call in sick, but I don’t want to get behind at work so I’m here…obviously working hard (I don’t take smoke breaks, so suck it).
Also, I like Easter candy. In case you missed that memo.
I <3 Easter Candy
Mar 22nd
I’ve been holding back, but Easter morning is tomorrow, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself around all they yummy, sugary goodness that is Easter candy. mmm….
Ryan and I are down at his parents’ house for the weekend. We are hanging out, playing games, watching the UMD Women’s Hockey team win the championship game vs Wisconsin (GO BULLDOGS!), etc. Good times. They got about 4-5 inches of snow down here yesterday, though. That was definitely not fun to come down to (there was hardly any snow left in Duluth when we left town). But the 40 degree temps tomorrow should take care of it, hopefully.
I (obviously) don’t have much to say today. I’m really enjoying relaxing and visiting with Ryan’s family, since we haven’t seen them in about a month. So I’ll keep it short. I did want to point out that the links on the left (under my name) are some sites that I like reading. And if I like reading them, it must be good stuff, right? So go check ‘em out if you get a chance. I’ll probably be adding to the list (I actually read A LOT of blogs…it’s like a hobby or something), but those were my favorites so far.
Well, back to watching old movies. We got The Wizard of Oz down, and The Bad and The Beautiful is in progress. And no, I don’t know what it’s about. I’ve been typing on the blog. Obviously.
Happy Easter, everyone. Oh, and because I liked this feature on xanga, I’m carrying it over here.
Currently reading: For Women Only, by Shaunti Feldhahn. It was recommended (with the sister (or is it brother?) book, For Men Only) by the people at the engaged couples retreat we attended at church. Interesting stuff. I’ll elaborate once I’m done.
Something new and different
Mar 19th
So Ryan and I decided that since we are “starting our life together” in a couple of months we should consider starting a joint blog. I have had my xanga blog for years now, and I have to admit that the idea of moving somewhere else was both frightening (how will people find me?! Will I have things to say?! (HA! Like that’s ever a problem.)), and exhilarating. I’m excited to start something new, and I think this will be good for us. Based on past blogging activity I think I can say confidently that there will be a lot more “Becky content” on here than “Ryan content.” But he has important things to say too, and putting it on a blog that people will keep reading (hopefully) because we keep it updated (hopefully) will help make sure that it gets seen (hopefully).
I’m sure that as time goes by this blog will develop. Maybe we will get ambitious and do some awesome formatting. Maybe it will become popular (but probably not). Who knows.
For those that are wondering, the totally serial name is kind of an inside joke around our house (although it was a very public show that first used the phrase). To keep the explanation simple and short, let’s just say that we are fans of South Park, and Al Gore was parodied on the show and kept saying “totally serial” instead of “totally serious.” For some reason, Ryan, Sam and I have picked it up as a joking way to say that we are telling the truth or are serious about something. When Ryan and I were thinking about titles for a website (we are hoping to have more than just the blog, eventually), the phrase occurred to us. We liked the double-meaning (get it; “serial” – like blog entries?? We are dorks, we know.), and we like the funny aspect. Plus it was available (no small thing, that is).
So, that is the story of the site. And now, here we are.
And after all that, I need some ice cream. Doesn’t DQ deliver? ;-)
