"Gargyles! Psychics!"

If you didn't see that particular episode of Trading Spouses I'm referencing in my title, you need to watch it.

I was reminded of it after reading an e-mail forward my mom recently sent me. I don't subscribe to the beliefs of astrology, fortune telling, horoscopes, etc., but I did find some of the characteristics it listed for me interesting.

VIRGO
The Perfectionist (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Dominant in relationships. Conservative. Always wants the last word. Argumentative. Worries. Very smart. Dislikes noise and chaos. Eager. Hard-working. Loyal. Beautiful. Easy to talk to. Hard to please. Harsh. Practical and very fussy. Often shy. Pessimistic.

A lot of those things are very true. Especially the beautiful, very smart part.

;)

Excuse me – I have to forward the e-mail. I'll have seven years of bad luck if I don't.

Rainy day ramblings

It's been far too long since I've updated.

First and foremost, Twitter is the greatest thing since Facebook. I am constantly amazed by the interesting things I learn every day, and it's become so much more than I anticipated it would be when I signed up.

I thought, like Facebook, my interactions would be limited to the people I know IRL. Facebook might be "social networking," but it's limited to the people you already socially network with, for the most part.

Twitter's all that and more. It was designed to be a way to connect with people in your career field, people who have similar interests and people you want to learn more about. I guess Facebook is trying to faciliate that with their "Groups," but those groups, for the most part, are static entities that don't provide a lot of value to their members. Plus, you don't really interact with other members of the groups.

On Twitter, it's normal to reply to the "tweet" of someone you've never talked to before, either IRL or online. It's about a dialogue, people helping people, and I love every second of it. I'm friends with everyone from college buddies to PR professionals to Shaquille O'Neal to the CEO of Zappos.com. We share interesting links, talk about the mundane and make connections – all in 140-character increments.

In other news, I've had two people in the last two days tell me how lucky I am to have the job that I do. I work part time, from home, for an online-only publication. I get that working from home sounds appealing, but rarely have I considered myself lucky for having the job. It's part time, so, obviously, I'm not making the kind of money I need to be making, and it requires me to do reporting, which I haven't done in about 2 years and really had no desire to return to.

But I guess in the uncertainty that is the journalism industry, working for an online publication seems like a gateway to the future. Maybe I need to be a little more thankful.

Christmas is quickly approaching. I'm probably a little more ahead of the curve than I typically am in terms of shopping, but I'm still stressed about not only buying gifts for people, but making sure those gifts are things they want/need. I didn't realize how anal I was about this until I went shopping with my mom this weekend. Bless her heart, I turned down almost every suggestion she had for the people I need to buy for. I know it's so easy to return something if it doesn't fit or the person doesn't like it, but why not do all you can to get it right the first time?

I, of course, know exactly what I want for Christmas – a new phone. Specifically, the iPhone. But the rational side of my brain (the really small side) tells me that until I have a full-time job, I cannot afford to burden myself with an almost $100 monthly cell phone bill. That doesn't keep the fun side of my brain from wanting one, though. I mean, c'mon, I've had the phone I have now for three years – I've done my time, right?

I recently rediscovered my Xanga from God knows how long ago. My last blog post was "Peace, love and Pokemon." Most of the entries sounded about as high school as that, too. That's one of the downsides of having a blog – things sound so well written at the time, but when I go back and re-read things, I feel like I sound so immature. I've tried to be more careful about that this time around. I know I had a LiveJournal at one point, too, so maybe it's time to rediscover the skeletons in that closet.

Take your sock off

Socks.

The cornerstone of every fashionista's wardrobe.

OK, maybe that isn't exactly the case, but the cold winter weather is upon us, and the $5 Old Navy flip flops in every color of the rainbow now take a back seat to socks and boots.

For many years now, my absolute favorite socks in the world have come from Old Navy. They're soft. They're striped. They're polka-dotted. They're loud. Just how I want them.

I really love these ones:


Looking at them here, I can see how some might consider them ugly, but they're great.

The rest vary in color and pattern:


The dirty, dirty truth, though, and the point of this post, is that Old Navy has slowly but surely phased out my favorite winter staple, in favor of these:


Who do they think I am? Santa Claus? Where are the fun prints? The stripes? The pink?

They've gone from a wall of color and design to gym socks and glorified slippers. Frankly, I'm not impressed. My collection is dwindling as I wear my tried and true faves until they're worn through, and I have yet to find any suitable replacements.

So, if you're wracking your brain over what to get me for Christmas (and I know you are), consider a nice pair of Old Navy socks, circa 2002.

Snow day

The good news:

The bad news:

Winter is slowly creeping its way into Michigan, and it's safe to say that no one is particularly happy about it. I feel like I'm resisting more than most because last year's weather proved to be especially miserable for me.

Bear in mind I was driving around a 2005 Cobalt, so even the most cautious driver was bound to do some slipping and sliding in that "puddle jumper," as my mom would call it.

On one particularly dangerous morning, I was in the right-hand lane of 131 between Stadium and 94. I saw a police car up ahead on the right shoulder, no doubt helping some poor soul who had spun out on the icy highway. I prepared to move to the left lane to give these guys as much room as possible, and lightly tapped my brakes as I did to make the maneuver as slow and easy as possible.

Cut to 3 seconds later, when I found myself perpendicular to the highway, sitting with my driver's side door facing a steady onslaught of brave morning commuters. I stayed in my car and waited for the tow truck to make his way down to me, after helping at least three or four other cars who had found themselves on the side of the road. I thank my lucky stars that a) I didn't hit any other cars as I spun, and b) that I wasn't hit broadside while waiting for help.

In a separate incident, I was coming home at night to my apartment at the top of a fairly steep hill and didn't maintain enough momentum, and, apparently, neither did the cars in front of me. Most of us ended up stranded on the hill, unable to move forward, until a Good Samaritan with a Jeep attached a cable from his car to each of ours, one by one, pulling us to safety at the top.

Those two incidents were, of course, sandwiched between numerous other scary, annoying and just generally ugly experiences with Michigan roads.

Let's hope the new G6 is a better performer.

Stupid e-mail of the day

Hello, I am looking to send out a press release and need to know how to go about doing so.


Thank You,

Jennifer

-----

Do I respond with:

A) Jennifer, please attach a Word document to the e-mail.

- or -

B) Jennifer, thank you for the e-mail. Sending a press release is not necessary, as I am sure, based on the intelligence level of your message, our publication would not be interested in anything else you have to say.

Laundry list

As you get older, you learn to appreciate the simple things in life. Like friendships. And clean laundry.

In case you were wondering, this is what 10 clean loads of laundry looks like (six in a triple load washer):


Including the mattress pad they're sitting on, and a rug and about 6 or 7 pairs of jeans that aren't in this picture. The picture doesn't even do justice to the sheer volume of clothes that were washed. (We hadn't done laundry in awhile.)

Washing that many loads means I have three very empty laundry baskets, something I think I've encountered one other time in my life since leaving home.


I also recently cleaned out all of my drawers and closets, purging myself of things I don't want anymore and/or don't fit anymore. These are the fruits of my labor:


Three and three-quarters 13-gallon-size garbage bags. If I remember correctly that was 19 pairs of pants and God knows how many shirts. Crazy.

Also, a very important message brought to you by your local, friendly laundromat:


Helps. I need them.

Straight talk

I thought this was a really great post from Meghan McCain on her blog Tuesday.

I get that John McCain is her dad. I get that she has to support him and show a unified front for the campaign.

But what struck me about her post was her genuine and candid language, her recognition of how hard her dad's supporters have worked, often in an uphill battle, to get him elected. She recognizes how weary people are from the past eight years with President Bush, and makes it a point to distinguish her dad's campaign from the spending free-for-all we've seen in the current administration.

"Don't give up on him. He is never going to give up on you."

Definitely food for thought.