February, you are a dirty, dirty temptress

I know I am one of many when I say that I often get swept away in the doldrums of January-- the bleak, cold and mostly dreary weather that seems to seep into my bones and brain and leaves me practically pleading for a sunny beach. Any sunny beach.

Let's be honest... January can be miserable.

But isn't February a bit worse?

Let me explain a bit. I think most people expect January to be kind of crappy. If you live in the Beehive State you can expect some smogerific smog, with its subsequent hazy and toxic presence clouding even the sunniest of dispositions. You also get a lot of cold weather without the beauty of snow. (Granted, I don't even enjoy snow all that much... but if it's cold it should at least look pretty outside, no?) So you finally get through January, and in comes February, with its false signs of Spring. It gets warm enough so you keep your coat in the car... you start hearing the birds chirping... and the air begins to dampen with the fresh scent of Spring...

and then it SNOWS. A. LOT.

Then the snow subsides and temperature teases you into thinking that this time, it is truly almost Spring.

Then it snows again. A. LOT.

March comes and is typically more Winter than Spring, and this propensity creeps into April as well. With nary a temperature as pleasant as was present in February.

Which is why I think that February is a dirty, dirty temptress.
(It's making me crave Spring.)

Oh I'm sorry, did I get in your way/Listerine, really?

Yesterday was one of those glorious days where I got a few great laughs out of other people's actions. I don't mean this in a disrespectful way; rather in a "did they really just do that" way. And sometimes, it is better to laugh about things than to get angry about things. I've made a personal goal to laugh more and seethe less, and I think I did an ok job with this goal yesterday.

First up, is the "pusher." My friend and I decided to go out to lunch to celebrate the holiday season, and get out of the office for an hour. We're at a certain restaurant, patiently waiting to be sat, when all of the sudden, this lady full on runs into me. Not just an inadvertent graze, but a full-on, knock my purse off of my shoulder/significant body contact run-in. And she said NOTHING. Not even an "excuse me" or an "I'm so sorry" or anything. I was baffled. Apparently she knew the couple that was in front of us (who were paying for take out) and as she's chatting away, she successfully butts us, and buys some gift cards. SERIOUSLY. Then she takes FOREVER to pay for them. To my amazement, however, it didn't really make me mad. It just made me laugh. Really hard actually. Luckily, rude people who run into people and then butt them don't usually pay attention to such things. If they did, they most assuredly would not leave their house. Ever.

The other humorous event happened later in the afternoon, when yet another transient staggered up the illustrious stairs of my place of employment. Before I go on, I need to describe some of the structure of our building, so that you may create a mental picture. There are two sets of doors to the entrance of our building, creating a little vestibule between the outside doors and the inner doors. I can lock the inner doors with a key, so that if someone nefarious approaches our building, s/he is stopped in the vestibule and never enters the actual building. That being said, there is a corner of the vestibule that I can't see from my desk, a little blind spot, if you will. And sometimes transients or peeps waiting for the Wendover bus will try to sneak in and hide in the blind spot. So drunken transient does the same. I admit, I was distracted by the spreadsheet I was working on, and thought he perhaps changed his mind and exited the building. Not so. He was standing in the blind spot.

Normally, I would call the cops immediately, but we had two very important client meetings going on that I was afraid would get out at any time. Thus it would be bad if there were copious amounts of police officers and one inebriated transient waiting for them as they exited. A couple of co-workers came down for some backup (and don't you worry I had my mace handy... still want a taser though) and we locked the inner doors. Previous to this action, the man had gotten up, made a staggering attempt toward the inner door, and then abruptly shimmied to the side and fell down on his bottom. This is when we decided to call the police. They shouldn't even have to ask for my name anymore, I call so much. Oh well.

The cops show up, have to drag the guy out and whatnot, and then they come in to talk to us. They say we should probably spray the vestibule with Lysol or something because the dude was getting hopped up on LISTERINE. Seriously? The man was drinking straight Listerine. And man, was the smell pungent. Really stung the nostrils.

I hope my description of these events is not callous, and the reason I shared it in the first place is because it was the first time I have not been totally scared by an unwanted patron of the business. And honestly, who gets drunk off of Listerine when the liquor store is across the street?

P.S. I'm going to the Nutcracker ballet with the fam tonight. I've been every year since I was three, so that means tonight marks my 21st time. Yaya.

What is up with accessory pets?

As I was sitting at Greg's soccer game last night, I unwittingly became involved in the travesty I would like to call "the accessory pet." Perhaps I should elaborate a bit more... there I was, innocently sitting, cheering on my husband, when two girls came into my vicinity. Almost plowed over by one of them (I will call her girl #1), they didn't instill a very great first impression. But no matter, thought I, for they were sitting just far enough away from me as to not impinge upon my personal space.

To my dismay, girl #2 was holding a tiny little chihuahua clad in a little vest with a furry hood. For serious. And I thought to myself, "Why do people dress up their pets like children? Or to compliment their outfits?" I have never understood this phenomenon of accessory pets. I think little dogs are adorable (I am especially partial to those shih tzu/poodle mixes because they're seriously so little and cute and would be quite manageable in a small space) but I draw the line at dressing them up.

It's as if they serve as a replacement for children. In fact, I read about a woman who actually left her child in the car and asked a valet to watch him while she went into Saks with her DOG. You know, because her dog might get lonely? Or maybe she wanted to show off its new outfit. Are you kidding me? Priorities people!

After the game, as girl #2 placed her dog on the floor to reveal her super cute pink retractable leash, I couldn't help but giggle. It was just so dang precious... haha.

Shady people bother me

I'm probably not in the minority when I make such a claim. I doubt that any person likes being deceived or manipulated, however large or small the degree. It's pretty disconcerting how many people in this world exhibit shady tendencies, and how many of said people do not see themselves as doing anything wrong. Granted, no one is perfect, but in my mind, the very term "shady" is indicative of a constant and oft times conscious behavior.

Perhaps an example or two should be made to further substantiate my point. Say you have a coworker who consistently shows up an hour late, consistently takes a two hour lunch and consistently leaves early, all whilst managing to log in a full eight hours a day. Sure, in this business it's difficult to allocate every single minute to a client, but COME ON! I wish I could work a five hour day and get away with it. And not only get away with it, but get praised for the "great work" I do. I swear, if all the office shadiness (not only in my office, but in the corporate world) could desist, I would be so happy. I think peace on Earth would be a viable option after that. Think about it.

Another form of shadiness that I would so love to see eradicated is the interpersonal kind. Blessedly, I have the most incredible inner-circle of people who are thoroughly supportive and honest; recently however, I have distantly observed some of this type of shiftiness. (Not to mention my experience with dating life down at BYU, but that's material for MULTIPLE postings.) All I have to say to these people is this: seriously? The people who engage in this form of the shady are just kidding themselves. Hello, we're not stupid. Usually any type of educated person can tell if their significant other is messing around, if their best friend is not being entirely forthcoming or if said best friend is sneaking around with a less than desirable person, be it platonic or not. If you know someone well enough, it oft times can become innate. Especially as the behavior worsens, and others observe the same behavior.

So yeah, sorry this was another venting entry of sorts, but I seriously get dumbfounded when I think about how many dubious people are out there. That being said, there are also an incredible amount of people who restore my faith in mankind and inspire me to strive to be a little bit better each day. And I think that taking all of the shady people out with a tranquilizing blow dart gun isn't a bad idea either. But maybe that's just me.