My office

So today from basically 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. I was filling out a funding application packet for a program I work with. I was going a little batty around noon/fifteen so I decided to take pictures and show you all my wonderful, beautiful (a little messy right now) office.

The messiness shows the complexity of the packet I'm filling out. They're not the best pictures in the world b/c my office is vaguely L shaped and awkward to photograph.

We begin the grand tour with my French message board I made. It displays the materials we've made the current year. Also in this shot is my collage frame with pictures from our San Francisco trip.

Next is the long part of my desk, along my wall of windows, yes five windows, from mid-wall to the ceiling. My view is a field and the highway, but hey, I get natural light so there's no complaining. Here you'll see a box of payroll stuffers I need to deliver, my campaign folders (yes, plural) my coffee pot (essential) and the Target Puppy! I worked hard for him, he deserves a place of honor.


So now we have a look at the rest of my desk. I have my back to the door, which isn't a good fung shui, but not much i can do about it. I have three bulletin boards in my office, a scanner, and plenty of space to spread out and work.

I also have a lot of drawer space for my files. On my right hand side I have the year-round work files and the in-depth campaign planning files. On my left I have inactive files and samples of other work. My bottom drawer I would like to have my picture archive, but the pics need to be organized ... anyone want to be my Intern to do it?


Here's a close up look at my computer and work area. Notice the ducky (from Jenny) and note holder (from Viki). Also my post-it box (from Dawn), starfish (from Michelle) and various inspirational things in my line of vision.

It's an awesome desk, but the tower is under the monitor in a weird compartment thing, and since it's in a corner, the only way to get at the tower is to craw under and pull yourself behind the desk. Unfortunately, my computer is touch, so I'm always losing my mouse or keyboard for no reason. Not to mention it doesn't always pick up my camera when I plug it in. It gets me very dirty and furstrated.


Next is a look at the top of my desk ... which I need to dust sometime. The graduation frame Kerry gave me with our pics from UWGB in. Pictures of my two oldest nieces, a glass with candy in it and my coffee. Above this is the second French memo board I made. This has pictures of my friends and family. It's hard to get at this. But I really should put a couple more pictures in it.

You can see my binders, directories and portfolios. I have a ton of binders that I use frequently. But those three are used almost daily.

The last wall of my office (not pictured) has my printer, a box of stuff I need to go through, a bookcase of binders, cameras and files with newspaper clippings and materials. I have my UWGB banner and the awads I received for journalism and/or leadership from high school throughout college.

So that's my little home. Much more beautiful and wonderful then the hole in the wall I had when I started.

Big Names and Swinging Doors

The trend of the 470 free agent offseason is Big Names trading jerseys. Put away your green No. 8 jersey. Shed a tear and shake your head. Buy your half off Eagles TO jersey for your sarcastic history kicks ... think twice before you invest in his Dallas' blues. Bucs fans rejoin! For you can knock off the dust bunnies and don your best Alstott jersey once again.

Arizona Cardinals sign
Colts RB-Edgerrin James

Baltimore Ravens sign
Denver's RB-Mike Anderson
Resign RB-Jamal Lewis

Carolina Panthers sign
Dallas WR-Keyshawn Johnson (apparently the Big D isn't big enough for the two biggest overinflated egos in the NFL)

Chicago Bears sign
Bucs QB-Brian Griese

Cleveland Browns sign
Seattle's WR-Joe Jurvicus to a four year $10 million deal

Dallas Cowboys
WR-Terrell Owens
Colts' K-Mike Vanderjagt

Detroit Lions
Houston WR-Corey Bradford
QB-Jon Kitna
Packers' LB-Paris Lenon
Cards QB-Josh McCown
Falcons OT-Barry Stokes

Green Bay Packers Sign
Seattle S-Marquand Manuel-- five years, $10 million, $2 million signing bonus
Chiefs WR-Marc Boerigter and DT-Ryan Picket
Tampa Bay's K-Billy Cundiff
Resign
LB-Aaron Kampman
FB-William Henderson
OT-Kevin Barry
DE-Kenny Peterson

Miami Dolphins sign
Vikings QB-Dante Culpepper

Minnesota Vikings sign
K-Ryan Longwell
Philly's QB-Mike McMahon

New Orleans Saints sign
Chargers QB-Drew Brees
Vikings RB-Michael Bennett

New York Giants sign
Redskin's QB-Tim Hasselbeck
Miami's CB-Sam Madison
Detriot's CB-RW McQuarters

New York Jets sign
New England's WR-Tim Dwight
trade for Washington's QB-Patrick Ramsey

Oakland Raiders sign
New Orleans' QB-Aaron Brooks
Pats' CB-Tyrone Poole

Philadelphia Eagles sign
Detriot's QB-Jeff Garcia

Pittsburgh Steelers Sign
Browns' WR-Quincy Morgan
Resign Charlie Batch

St. Louis Rams Sign
Minnesota Vikings S-Corey Chavous
Packers' RB-Tony Fisher
Miami QB-Gus Ferotte

Tampa Bay Buccanneers
Resign FB-Mike Alstott

Tennessee Titans sign
Pats' WR-David Givens

Washington Redskins
New England TE-Christian Feuria
World Champion Steelers' WR-Antuan Randel El

This makes me smile and have some hope

Dear Red States

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Elliot Spitzer.
You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty.
You get OpryLand.
We get Intel and Microsoft.
You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard.
You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and antiwar, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.

We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, CalTech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health carecosts), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood, Broadway and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirtweed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,

Author Unknown in New California

Bleeding Feet, Beads, Sweet Potato fries ...

I am totally bummed out. Last year at this time, it was Spring Break. And Kerry and I were in San Francisco.

We walked up the lovely bleeding feet hill to Buena Vista Park. Then Kerry wandered further into the park while I enjoyed the view from where I was posted, enjoying my bleeding feet.

Then we wandered to Golden Gate park where we saw people playing soccer, riding bikes, buying drugs, having picnics. We checked out this Art area/studio/Japanese tea house in the middle of the park and Kerry rode the inside merry-go-round.

We killed some time by exploring Haight Street, going into stores, coughing our ways out of others. We couldn't decide on anything to buy Jenny from Postively Haight Street. (And now I wish I bought the lavendar eyemask from another one of the stores closer to the 555 Haight Guesthouse).

At about noon or so was time for the St. Patrick's Day parade! We sat down on Market Street, across from the Opheum theatre. We had our snacks, water and sunblock on hand ... and watch a three or so hour parade. And ... it was awesome.

Except ... I realized the cute little kids beside us were getting all the attention, toys and candy. So then as one "hot" firefighter passed by with beads, I stuck out my hands ... and he motioned me into the street to get them. Score!

After being beaded, and the parade was over we went to the Museum of Modern Art. It was interesting and sometimes fun, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the Asian Art Museum. We were both had a little touch of heat exhaustion, so we didn't stay too long.

We ate at Minnie's BBQ (on the Haight) ... where I had the best Texas Ribeye sandwich and most awesome sweet potato fries.


*Sighs*

1.) View from cool gallery thing in the middle of the Park.
2.) Gallery from the ground
3.) Haight-Ashbury
4.) Fire engine from Parade
5.) Clown flashing us
6.) Ghiradelli ... okay, we didn't go there this day ... but I probably gave them over $100 ... we thought a good tagline would be "Heaven on Earth"

*sighs*

What's in a name?

Okay ... I'm going to do some amending on the previous blog, in response to Kevin's comment.

I don't like it when specific people use my name. Weird No. 3 for example. Opens every conversation with "Hey Stacey" it can't be hi, yo, hola, whatcha doing? It's always "Hi Stacey" And when he spells it wrong ... its all I can do not to growl.

My friends tend not to use my name at the drop of the hat--is it that we're so comfortable with each other already? But when they do, it's very special to me. I won't name names (haha) but one friend only says "Good night Stacey" after we've talked from like 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. -- in those hours we bond, laugh and have a good time. Then he ends the convo with that. It makes the conversation and my friendship with him that much more meaningful. It always makes me smile.

Another friend will only use my name when we're arguing. Or he'll use it when I'm really down. Both of these always makes me smile.

This other friend of mine will only use my name when he thanks me ... for helping with homework, listening, etc. And everytime he does it ... it makes me smile.

And a couple of days ago, Kevin said (in away message): Dmx1C: stacey, if you read this, im me or call me immediately, it is a matter of life and death.

And that made me smile ... it was life and death matter after all :-)

Then the next day he said : Dmx1C: hey stacey, i'm gonna go to bed, so have a good day at work. thanks for being a good friend, you always seem to be there when i need you ...

And that made me smile.

But about ten minutes later I got ... "Hey Stacey." And my teeth clenched. Maybe because I don't like this person is the reason it pisses me off so much when he uses my name.

I also don't like when people are trying to get something from me ... "Hi Stacey, what's up?" five seconds later .. by the way, can I ask you a favor? Rar.

So anyway. If you're a friend. Use it. If you're not sure, use Goo ... that's cool too. If you get one word answers from me when you're talking at me ... well you're not smart enough to know I roll my eyes every time you beep at me.

And Kevin ... Change the link back to STACEYS BLOG!!!!!! :-D

Discombobulated Moments

The different brands of weird in this world perplex me, scare me and make in shake my head in one discombobulated moment.

Take weird No. 1:

40+ male who dresses like a 13-year-old and acts like your number one source for information. He is your expert at anything you might want to know.

And by golly aren't you lucky to be in his presence? Hopefully you have time though, he talks INCREDIBLY SLOW. So slow that instead of wanting to kill him to make it end, you would rather take your own life. He gets the simplest things wrong--even after you correct him a million times. He stares at you when you talk and looks like he's going through a dictionary looking for the right thing to say when he's talking.

Oh yeah. He returned to college at 40 + but couldn't finish his second year. He's in the same job that he was in 10 years ago -- and thinks he's king because of it.

Weird No. 2

This 40+ male is a cancer survivor (awe, warm gooey feelings), but he also regularly uses a tanning bed. He has a decent job, probably was once pretty good at it. He has ken-doll hair (read: it never moves, and is styled like Mr. Barbie's hair). He's monotone and expression doesn't change. He's creepiness factor is how needy he is. He finds nice women who won't push him away or tell him off, and latches on as a friend. He's the type of friend who asks why you didn't call, or why when you called you only talked five minutes instead of ten. You have to sit by him when you're in a group setting and god forbid you even talk to anyone else -- or heaven forbid, another man! He's possessive of you and makes you feel guilty if you don't give him 110 percent of your attention. When he doesn't get his way--he pouts--or worse, he uses the power he has in his job and lords it over you ... threatening to do something until you give in.

You've never seen his wife or kids. You have his work phone, cell phone, home phone, cabin phone. He's emailed you at all times of day and night -- so much in fact you wonder how he gets any work done at all. He takes interest in anything you are interested. He sends you cards, flowers, brings you lunch .. and then is offended when you ask him to stop because people might start talking.

Weird No. 3

This one isn't so much weird as annoying. This one is a male, not as old but just as needy. He always wants to talk, but it's never a conversation. It's him saying he doesn't like his life or he's bored or he misses his precious girlfriend who left him. Not once does he ask about you or pick up when you're not feeling happy. He makes irrelevant statements and talks "up" trying to sound smart. The problem is he's not smart enough to know you don't care or to pick up that you're kidding or are bored.

Since I'm randoming ranting ... I'll continue with recent pet peeves.

Don't constantly use my name in conversation. Especially online ... you don't need to say "Hi Stacey" every time we start talking. It's my dialog box, I know you're talking to me. "Real" conversations are okay to use names ... just not at every sentence--it should be a natural flow.

For some reason when online, names are more sacred ... you can open up the convo w/ a screen name: if it's just something you do or if you haven't talked to a person in forever--but not their name.

It always gets my attention when someone uses my name online ... and if they're just doing it ... it kinda ticks me off.