Shoes Part III

Or, another title for this post: I Have a Problem.

Shoes Part II

Shoes Part I

I bought these when I was out shopping with Breezy. I love the white and the cork.

I went shoe shopping with my friend Hilary, who wears a size five and can't ever find shoes for her hooves (I mean, feet). I wasn't even supposed to be shopping for myself. Let the support group begin.

She is always lurking.

I was out with Dano and Breezy, looking for shoes for Dano's boyfriend Andrew. Come on, they were on sale! They are pointy and red! They pretty much have my name written on them.

I've been wanting Chucks. J got these for me for Christmas.

Dano got me these for Christmas.

We were at TJ Maxx, heading back to the housewares section to check out the picture frames. these were on an end cap, and caught my eye. In my defense, I stopped, touched them lovingly, and was going to continue on, but J pretty much forced me (completely against my will!) to find my size and welcome them into my family. I got a lot of compliments at work.

I no longer have room on my side of the closet for my shoes. Luckily J has man eyes. While it does bug me that he doesn't notice the dishes in the sink or the pile of clothes on the floor, it works in my favor that he hasn't noticed what I refer to (quietly to myself) as the Shoe Creep.

Oh yes. They're coming for your side of the closet J. And there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Giving a Popcorn Tin a Makeover

I saw a cat food tin at TJ Maxx. It was $16. I thought about buying it, but didn't want to spend $16. Then I realized that it looked like a popcorn tin with a coat of paint.

My sister Kristi found a popcorn tin for me. First I had to eat the popcorn. Small sacrifices must be made.

Spray painted part of it white, let it dry.

I cut out words with my Silhouette Cameo that I got for Christmas. That's contact paper you put on shelves that I picked up for Lowe's. You can see where my spray paint dripped; my coat was much too thick.

Once the words were stuck on, then it was time to spray-paint it black. Joseph offered to help.

I told you Lilly is always up in my business. Look back at my previous project posts and you can see her lurking. Checking out the shed, checking out my toy box. For once she actually belonged in the photo.

I need a vacation

This last weekend was busy. I got up to take my truck in at 7:30 in the morning to get the clutch replaced. Joseph picked me up and we took the cats to the vet. He then had an appointment with the dermatologist (warts, gross). After that we had some time to clean house, pick up my truck, and then go to a baby shower. We left the baby shower to meet an old friend, Meghan, and her new boyfriend Rich.

We ended up going to this restaurant that everyone had raved about. I expected it to be a fancy sit-down.

Well, you definitely sit down.

Joseph had called ahead to try and make some reservations. He got laughed at. Our puzzlement vanished as soon as we walked in.

Imagine a very dirty cafeteria. It was a shocking experience, but the food was good and the company was great, so we couldn't complain much.

The bathroom was interesting. One stall was out of order, so the only one that could be used was the large handicap stall. I was surprised to see a door to the outside in the stall. I was so busy pondering the door that I didn't notice the mirror until I sat down. Yes, I had a full view of myself. On the toilet. It was awkward. I couldn't meet my own eyes.

This week has been a little crazy too. At work I have a project that's taking a lot of time and I'm training someone who transferred into the department. I also had a run-in with a coworker who is a stranger. I was going down the escalator to lunch and he yelled at me, "Hey! I saw you at Home Depot!" I just started at him, not knowing how to respond and trying to figure out if I should know him. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that monstrous mustache. He then went on to say, "I'm surprised you guys have a life outside of work!" I had no response. I continued to stare as the escalator took me down very slowly.

My department is fairly small, and we have a pretty good visibility to certain areas. I've given presentations to large groups and I can be seen regularly with people from my department. I joke that we are celebrities. (I do not mean that in a vain way. It's just that a lot of people know who we are, but we have no clue who they are. Or they remember when we last interacted with them when we have a hard time placing them. Not because we're arrogant, but because we can't remember one person from the other 500.) But being spotted outside of work and then yelled at on the escalator was a new experience for me.

Outside of work I've started going to the gym. I read in Reader's Digest (after Meghan told me about it, I'm not the only one who reads Reader's Digest and it is not an old woman magazine!) that you start to lose 2% of your memory functionality every year, but aerobic exercise halts the loss. One of these days I just might not tell the same story to the same person three times. I don't know if I appreciate it when they just smile and nod or if I should be indignant, because they probably didn't remember the story. (Memory loss or no, I'm still pretty sure I should have recognized that mustache.)

Last night we were leaving the store around 8:00 when Joseph mentioned that he would just be getting off work with his old job. I thought about everything I had already done after getting off work. I went to the gym, came home and checked my Facebook, had dinner while watching The Office with Joseph. Took a shower, practiced my violin, kicked myself for slacking on my Spanish, and then told Joseph we needed to to go to the store to pick up fruit. I am so glad he doesn't have that job anymore.

Very productive, very tiring. Maybe I should hope to get picked for jury duty so I can just sit for awhile and not do much. Maybe it will turn out to be a gift, considering I got the summons in the mail on Christmas Eve. Nice timing.

Put it into perspective

A few coworkers and I were out to lunch and two of them started complaining about some changes that were being made to our benefits.

Our health benefits are still better than most companies. Our retirement benefits freaking rock. Our Paid Time Off is rocking awesome. We get bonuses. But they were irritated that our health benefits were changing slightly and they would have to pay more.

These are two people who have very nice cars and cell phones and go out to eat at nice restaurants without batting an eye.

And they started talking about decreasing their donation to United Way, which our company supports.

Because apparently the reduction in benefits was negatively affecting them. So they are going to take it out on people less fortunate than them.

Of course I said something. You know me. I tend to offend people by saying what I think. About how there are people out there in need and we need to appreciate what we have and it's our job to help those people and shut up about the benefit changes already.

One coworker turned to me and said, "Yeah, but you're Mormon, so you're happier than most people."