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Yes you read that correctly. Last night marked the midnight excursion for the over three hour viewing of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - and I'm at work the next morning! I'll save you the calculation troubles and say that I only slept two and a half hours last night (4am-6:30) but it was well worth it. This ranks as the third most fun movie going outing in recent memory (Numbers two and one being The Fellowship of the Ring last year and seeing Goonies at the Beverly when the whole theater sang Happy Birthday to me for my 21st - there's no topping that)
Anyhoo, the movie (although perhaps not as excellent as the first) was supreme and the company sharing it was hilariously awesome. Combining the fact that I was on drugs (caffeine, Aleve, Amoxicillin, and a Cherry/Cola ICEE) and Emily brought action figures plus we were all slap happy - it was totally nuts. (Shoutouts to "my twin", "Snood Froggy Frogg of Elandel", "Bob Marie Lupin", and "the Monkeyboy Princess of the Fu Dogs" who would be the only ones clued in on the jokes I could start spewing out right now that came up during the movie - and are the only ones who understand their own nicknames.)
In other news we're having a pizza party at work today. We got a Giordano's gift certificate for ordering a bunch of lab supplies from some company - they like to bribe us...and we're pretty easily bought.
Oh and I just earned a taco.
That's not as random as it seems. (Well it is, but I'll explain...) One of my coworkers pointed out that the time it takes to check one's e-mail is equivalent in salary to the approximate cost of a taco. So I guess my the time I write a whole LoL I've earned myself a combo meal! And the other randomness from the people on my floor at work is that in the middle of preparing glycerol stocks yesterday I was interrupted with the message of "All your base are belong to us".
Needless to say I couldn't think up the next Zero Wing response so all I could say was something to the effect of "that was sooooo five minutes ago!" So now I have shocked the Cancer Center with my knowledge of poorly translated Sega video games. I don't know why I know these things, I JUST DO!!!! Kind of like if someone randomly came up to me with the phrase "You fight like a dairy farmer" I would have no choice but to respond with "How appropriate, you fight like a cow!" Not that either of those phrases would appear in any sane or normal civilized conversation but, hey, you never know who's a Guybrush Threepwood fan these days. ("Look! Behind you! It's a three headed monkey!!!!" .....no?)
Alright it's settled. Lab Technichian, Lord of the Rings fan, elite knowledge of video games.... I'm officially a geek! No, it's not an insult. I'll accept my fate and be proud that my intelligence and odd taste for bizzarre pop culture items with cult-like followings have earned me such a title. Blame my brother or my cousin who first lent me Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels or Kristin and Lauren who even before that share my memories of "Science Camp". But as I cling wholeheartedly to my love of shopping (especially for shoes) and my occasional high maintenence primping sessions, I refuse the stereotype and officially deem myself a new breed of Geek that can be nerdy and stylish and witty and smart and fun all at the same time!!! (And I know that many of you on this list are equally qualified for my new genre of NeoGeek and your credentials are noted - all I can say is welcome to the club!)
On that note I think I'll write this entire e-mail off as sleep-deprivation induced insanity (oh wait...that's ALL my e-mails!!!)
NeoGeekfully Yours,
lisa :)
p.s. I came up with NeoGeek as in "Neo" meaning "new" but I guess it also works as a play off of Neo from The Matrix who was 100% Geek but also 100% Cool.
p.p.s. The whole dairy farmer, Guybrush Threepwood, Three-headed monkey deal was a reference to the series of "Monkey Island" video games - hilarious, addictive, challenging, and all out awesome! Let me know if any of y'all knew what I was talking about there and shoutouts to all y'all that can place Gabriel Knight and Tex Murphy too.
I couldn't decide if the subject of this e-mail should be Almost There or Almost Here, hence the weird parenthetical T. I think either phrase applies about now though, and I guess it's just a matter of perspective anyway - Are you waiting for something or is something waiting for you? For some/most of you it's approaching the wonderfully interesting finals week (best of luck!!); for others it's eager anticipation for LoTR: The Two Towers (BTW, 6 DAYS LEFT!!!); or maybe it's just the time of year to get excited about the holidays.
Before I get too far off my original point (if I actually have one...) a couple shoutouts: Big super fun birthday shoutouts to one of the sweetest cheeseheads in WI, Jacklyn D (she turned the big 21 on Sunday!!!) and also to the always super spiffy Natalie U (she celebrated her 22nd Yesterday!!!) And also another shoutout to Beth who commented on my previous use of Bcc "to protect the innocent" I purposely left all recipients visible just this once, for you! :)
So anyhoo, life is pretty routine these days aside from the fact that I might possibly be potentially coming down with a cold and/or sinus infection. I hate getting sick. Not that I think there's anyone out there who actually enjoys it (the exception being playing hooky, but that doesn't really count as sick and besides, at one time or another we all wanted to be Ferris Bueller or even Cameron Frye...) but I have this tendency towards denial anytime I'm coming down with something so I'm just going to make NyQuil my new best friend for the week and be back to my hyper chipper self soon. (Yes, I did just use "chipper" to describe myself....blame the NyQuil...)
The good news from work is that Jim got a new job. (For those of you who missed the schpiel Jim's the guy who's job I sort of unintentionally stole) He's got some management type job helping fund new Biotech companies. And of course this prompted Alex (the doctor I work with) to want to start his own company cause "zat is vere all zee real money is at" (with Russian accent). But there's this whole joke in the lab that Helen (the lab manager) always calls Alex "Sparky" after the protein SPARC (my new best friend...next to NyQuil) so she said that if he started a company it would have to be "Sparky's Biotech". To which of course I had to add in the suggestion that it sounded better as "Sparky's Biotech & Pet Supplies" Of course after that it all turned into jokes involving radioactive dogs.
So yeah, back to my original intended subject of "Almost (T)here" [with the weird parenthetical T...and no I'm not even going to question if parenthetical is a word or not....it is now.] Hard to believe that Christmas is just two weeks away. I certainly don't have all my shopping done let alone, Christmas cards, Christmas cookies, etc. etc. But my family was over and we trimmed our Christmas tree tonight.
It's three inches shorter. :) hee hee...get it... "Trimmed" the tree... it's shorter....okay. That was lame. sorry. We did DECORATE our tree though and it looks quite awesome. We've never had a theme to our tree, it's pretty chaotic - like my family - but each year my siblings and I always got a new ornament so now I have a box full of 22+ ornaments made of memories (plus wood, plastic, metal, glass, yarn, or even macaroni).
That's a pretty warm and fuzzy note to end on.
Sentimentfully Yours,
lisa :)
p.s. and yes that's "Sentimentfully" not to be confused with "Sedimentfully". I'm full of warm happy thoughts, not sand and silt. ;)
p.p.s. This is the more serious note that just wouldn't fit with the rest of where this e-mail went but should still be said about now, call it a PR since some of you were asking about that. I had a really cool time at church on Sunday. First, I ended up sitting with a friend from Illinilife that I didn't even know went to my church (Georgie T!! Nat, Slovett and some other folks may remember her from the pillow-fighting days of the "One Holy Passion" conference in 2000) Second, there was a really cool message about Salt & Light and I was really challenged to start thinking/praying about doing something big for God in my life. If anyone has any insights/prayers for me along that line of thought, I'll be forever greatful. Otherwise I guess I'll keep ya'll posted. :)
I'm assuming this is the first time you've all gotten a little hello from someone on the INSIDE of a giant Snowglobe.
Yes, Chicago has become an amazing winter wonderland which would be great except that traffic delays are now being counted in days instead of minutes. Not that it effects me too much, I'm Metra Girl - that's my wannabe Superhero name. It's cool though because all the buildings where I work are connected by skyways so when I walk to lunch and there's snow blowing all around I feel like I'm actually in a Snowglobe...minus the weird shaking upside down part. And actually if I was in a snowglobe scene I'd be the little snowman out in front of the house with my stick arms waving and my coal mouth smiling... no particular reason there, I just think snowmen are cool. I have this idea for a cartoon that my sister Laura's gonna draw for me: There's a snowman out in the snow (cause that's where snowmen go!) and he's saying "Two roads diverged in the snow and I took the road less traveled..." and then the caption is "Robert Frosty the Snowman".
hee hee.... ummmm.... or not....
By the way, hi to Beth for just now being added to my list. (This is my weekly random e-mail list LoL=Lisa on Life) Beth is another one of my super spiffy crazy cousins and is the second actual relative of mine on this list (her sister Jenny was the first) I'm asssuming she won't mind me spamming her once a week or so, right?? :)
I'm also assuming that by now you've all noticed and laughed at my awful misspelling of the word "Greetings" in the subject line. What the heck is a "gretting"?!?? Oh well, I guess grettings to everyone who can't speel. ;)
But back to snow... (cue Bing, Danny, Rosemary and that other girl in four part harmony: "SNOW")... it's semi-blizzardy outside. And I'm not talking about the Dairy Queen dessert. Although that would be much more enjoyable. Snow should be flavored like DQ soft serve ice cream. That would rock. And for everyone who thinks that's crazy please note that this is a slightly more sane suggestion than my quote last night on the fact that I would enjoy snow more if it weren't so wet which spawned the idea that snow should be cold fluffy cotton falling from the sky (instead of building snowmen we'd all just go outside and stuff pillows....or not...).
Change of subject time: I have a feeling that I've missed, am missing or am going to miss a whole heap of birthday shoutouts. So along with my apologies let me know when y'alls birthdays are. In fact for everyone actually reading this, drop me a reply with when your birthday is and your current address and/or phone number. I'll try to be more organized about these things and I would love some help from y'all to update my address book. On the one hand I think I've done a pretty decent job of keeping up with most of you, on the other hand I have five different fingers.
[Kudos to Sean S. too for a hilarious e-mail of random silly quips like the one I just used. Totally funny stuff!!!]
Oh and for everyone who was curious about my Thanksgiving, it rocked. We had way too much turkey (yes, I had a turkey sandwich for lunch today..) but it was very fun to spend time with family and stuff. It was cool to see some of y'all over break and I wish we all could have hung out a ton more. And shopping on Friday was supreme! Kudos to Karrie for braving the early morning with us too. Kohl's, Target, and most of the major stores in the Fox Valley Mall all before noon! Actually the coolest thing was the freebie radios at Target (at least we HOPE they were free...they were free, right??? RIGHT?!?!???). Don't worry I'm not adding shoplifting to the unseen list of lisa's worst deeds that will permanently remain unseen [wouldn't you all just have a field day with THAT!]. The radios were free but they're really cool pocket size FM scanner radios with earphones. I think they even surpass Rudolph watches as coolest early bird giveaway! Mine is my new best friend for the train commute. Go Mix 101.9!! Down with the evilness of WINDY 100.3!!!!! heh heh.....
Snowglobefully Yours,
lisa :)
p.s. So just in case anyone didn't get some of my random references:
Metra Girl is because "Metra" is the name of the trains from the suburbs to Chicago. Plus I want a superhero nickname so that I can go be on the WB show "Birds of Prey". Yes, I watch that show. Yes, I think my mom and I are the only two people on the planet that actually do. No, my haircut is not an attempt to look like Huntress...that was just an added after the fact bonus ;)
Robert Frost is a poet. He wrote the poem about the road less traveled. He's also famous for the great quote "Something there is, that doesn't love a wall" (but that's another story...) Hence, I thought it would be clever to have a cartoon combining Robert Frost and Frosty the Snowman. Of course, the last time I thought something like this was funny, Lauren and I ended up with "Defrosty the Fridgeman"...
Rudolph watches were the day after Thanksgiving freebie at Montgomery Wards awhile back. They were kind of cheesy but my cousins, sisters and I all thought that they were the coolest things in the world. Of course that's before Wards went bankrupt. Hey, free watches.... bankrupt store.... I wonder.....
Oh and "Bing, Danny, Rosemary, and that other girl" is a reference to the movie White Christmas. (Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney....and that other girl...I NEVER remember her name!) Anyhoo one of the songs in there is all about snow and there's even some bizzarre line about washing your hair in snow or something. I think they were really desperate for a rhyme... but nevertheless it's a great movie.
(hee hee...kudos to everyone who knows why "nevertheless" is funny...)
:)
