Official name change announcement

Ok so this has taken much convincing from Jimmy, but I think based on his reasoning in our discussion this afternoon, I'm ready to make it official.

My wonderful weiner dogs, which I first presented to the world on my 2008 Christmas Card as Millie and Willie Bruns, will be changing the spelling of their names to Milly and Willy. I have thought long and hard about this and really wanted to stick to their original owners spelling (based on the shelter and their adoption papers...so I guess who really knows?), but Jimmy has convinced me it will be best to make the change official.

Therefore, I want to let everyone know that my little weiners will now have Ys on the end of their names and not -IE. Jimmy thoroughly believes that eventually if Toby and himself and myself and my 2 weiners merge....they will end up feeling left out because the other 3 folks (Jimmy, Brittany, Toby) have names that end in Y. Let me tell you, he feels strongly about this. I'm not sure it's because he really cares or he just had very little to do at work this week....but it has been an ongoing topic of conversation. So I finally caved.

In future communication, you will see their names spelled accordingly. I wanted to make sure there was not confusion or anyone had a doubt that I was a negligent/forgetful parent and just didn't remember. I'll let you know if they show an adverse reactions. It's not likely, but you never know with these crazy weiners.

Oh Chenise...

So for the past two week at my work phone I have been coming to work each morning with a missed call on my phone. Every time I look to see who it is...it's the same 800 number with no message. No big deal because they call at night, so I just go about my work days. Well then, they start calling during the day and I would pick up and say my usual greeting when it's from an outside caller.......and they would hang up on me. That's when I started getting angry and would end each phone call with a big "SIGH" in frustration. My cube mate would laugh and say "Prank callers again?". I did not laugh.

Last Thursday they called and I answered, secretly crossing my fingers under my desk someone on the other line would talk. They finally did. They said they were looking for Chenise M (we'll leave this semi-anonymous)...I said, "Sorry dude, this isn't her number, I don't know who she is and please take me off your list to call." He quickly muttered under his breath "Sorry for taking your time"..and hung up.

FIVE DAYS LATER (aka Monday)

Mid-afternoon on a slow Monday, I look over at my phone and to my surprise my message light is beeping. It turns out it's from a nice lady name Collette at a check processing firm looking for Chenise regarding a check she wrote to Surplus Super Center LLC. So obviously not me. I kind of forget about it thinking "Wow that sucks for this Chenise person".

To my surprise, when I return from a meeting I have another message. Although this one is not so friendly. It goes like this...(please say the following in an angry woman's voice):

"I'M CALLING FOR CHENISE M AND I KNOW SHE'S THERE BECAUSE THIS IS THE NUMBER ON HER CHECKS. MAKE SURE YOU TELL HER THAT HER CHECKS ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTED AT SURPLUS SUPER CENTER. WE KNOW WHAT SHE'S UP TO. AND YOU BETTER PASS THIS MESSAGE ONTO HER BECAUSE I KNOW SHE'S THERE."

Yeah, so I obviously start cracking up because I am being threatened at work about someone I don't know. So I go with returning phone call number one and simply disregard the rude message you see above. I call the check processing lady back and explain to her that this is my work phone, I do not know Chenise M and it'd be great if they would stop calling me because she's never going to get the message. The lady actually starts laughing when I tell her that and says this lady has my office number listed on her checks, but she'll mark that down and thanks for calling her back. I also let her know that the store called and left a mean message, and she said "yeah that is typical". So apparently, everyone should shop at Surplus Super Center. It looks really nice: http://surplussupercenter.tripod.com/. I wasn't aware that "gotrdone" was a phrase that was allowed to be posted on public websites. I will let Erica, the PR lady who is good with words, be the judge on that one.

What can I say, just another Monday in the card making business :)

Give it a try...

For those of you who don't know, Jimmy is catholic and I am methodist and we are actively trying to support each other in our own demoniations and figure out what would work for us. We have been going to my church way far out south in KC the past few weeks, and for Valentine's Day he asked if we could go and try out this new cute Catholic church right by my condo downtown. I said sure why not!?

So 7:30 Sunday morning rolls around and we are up and ready to walk over to the church that starts at 8AM. We walk in, I grab a bulletin and sit down. As I'm scanning the bulletin, I notice that I cannot understand any of the words on the page...oh yeah because they are in LATIN. And I start looking around and every woman has something covering her head (mainly a lace shall thing)...which I would completely expect if we were going to an Islam service (because Jimmy and I have done that before, but I was prepared). I immediately realized this was not like St. Joe where Jimmy usually goes. 8:00 on the dot, the priest walks out with 2 alter boys, faces the alter and starts talking. Again, I cannot understand because he's speaking in Latin. I'm sitting there thinking "Hm, does Jimmy think this is normal, because I cannot understand anything." After we stand for the 3rd time, Jimmy leans over and says..."Next time everyone sit downs, we are leaving." I actually kind of want to stay just to see what happens because I have never seen anything like this before.

After we make our escape out, Jimmy proceeds to let me into something he learned in his Catholic eduation. This was a part of the Catholic church that did not follow most after the reformation in becoming a more liberal church (i.e. speak in English, face the congregation, etc.). So that is why the priest spoke in Latin the whole time facing the crucifix. Now I get it, but am glad that we snuck out a little early. Needless to say, I don't think we'll be going back. I'll stick to sermons that I can understand and relate to.

One last thing, after we left we headed over to Einstein Brothers at Crown Center to grab breakfast with my 25% coupon I found in Sunday morning paper :) The guy in front of us ordered a plain bagel toasted with butter on one side and cream chees on the other. Seemed like an odd order to me, but overall was pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, the lady making the bagels didn't understand. So five minutes later we are still standing there, while I have not had my morning coffee and I'm about to scream. Sunday mornings like this are priceless if you ask me.....

Let's go to Chicago

Logically, anyone who hears the statement "let's go to Chicago" thinks of the following things in this order:
1) Decide a date
2) Book a flight
3) Book a hotel
4) Wait until the day arrives!

But when my boyfriend Jimmy and I say that....it just turns into a debacle. Let me share.

Friday around 11AM I sent Jimmy a text message saying that we should plan a trip to Chicago so I can use my Southwest airlines free flight I earned before it expires and use some hotel points I have for a fun/semi-free trip to a fun city. He agrees and says that the weekend of May 15-17 works for him. So I start looking at flights and tell him when to book a flight via text saying "7PM Friday depart from KC and 8PM Sunday from Chicago". Through multiple text messages following that, I'm half paying attention to what he's saying and half focusing on work. Apparently he actually booked the flight. I actually hadn't even taken the time to look to see if I could use my free voucher at those times--oops.

So the evening comes and we have something at church at 6:30- he comes and picks me up and says "I can't believe I just booked a flight to Chicago today, so weird". And me- not realizing or remembering he actually booked it say "Oh, you actually booked it?". Yeah, if you can guess...that is where he kind of got angry. So I call my mom while we're driving to church to try to book it for me because JC is freaking out that it will all be booked. So he pulls up his confirmation itinerary on the phone.....and we realize he booked a flight for 8AM Sunday morning. So essentially we'd be in Chicago for about 36 hours if we did that. That was when we looked at each other and said, "Yes, we are both complete idiots".

We arrive at church and get on the computers there trying to book it before our class starts, that doesn't work because I realize that I can't use my reward for the time we wanted to come home that Sunday. Jimmy gets a little irritated and I'm just laughing really hard because we have to give up for now and sit through class. I seriously laugh probably once every 15 min during the 3 hour time we were in class thinking about it. He gives me a bad glare every time I laugh.

By the time we got home I was so tired I just passed out in bed and forgot about our problem: Jimmy currently had a flight to Chicago (wrong times) but I didn't. I wake up the next morning in time to just throw some clothes on a book the flight. So in between me trying to get ready and book a flight and find a time that I can use my reward (blackout's are stupid), Jimmy trying to get ready and change his flights......at 8AM I think I have booked a flight for myself the same as his and am scurrying to get ready because we have to be back at church at 8:30. So right as I'm getting ready to step away from the computer and get ready as fast as I can, I double check one more time to make sure we have the same flights. And guess what? We don't. Mine is at 6:40 on Sunday night and his is at 6:05 on Sunday night. I yell "Are you freaking kidding me??! JC you have to fix this. I have to get ready." He goes to the computer to try to see what happened. Turns out I booked my "return" flight from Chicago actually from KC. I'm really smart, if you can't tell. No wonder I am so good at finance, my attention to detail is impeccable (obviously sarcasm).

As you guessed, I crack up and laugh hysterically while I'm trying to get ready because I think it's funny. Jimmy does not. Oh well. So I fix it really fast (thank god for Southwest airlines no change fee policy) and we head off to church...inevitably late.

Then right as we get in the car Jimmy goes "Did you even book the hotel?". My smile indicates that of course did not happen........how in the world did I ever travel for a career? Hopefully our actual trip there will not be as bad as the episode of planning it.

The beginning...

I have been thinking about starting a blog for awhile and my little friend Erica's post to hers that she made this afternoon documenting just what a crazy email chain our friends sent inspired me. What can I say, it doesn't take much for me to feel some inspiration.

Anyways--there seem to be weird and funny things that happen to me on a daily/weekly/monthly basis and I would love to share them here so the people that I'm around all the time don't have to listen to the same stories 3, 4, or even 5 times. (Yes it's that bad---Emily can attest to that. Although, she has a 3 time limit and then she tells me she's heard it..so nice!). So here's to a blog full of fun stories that will make you laugh, question my weirdness and just smile knowing what a great place this world is because of everyone that is in it!

And cheers to Friday afternoons!!!