wThe Whine Column
I'll try to keep the actual whining to a minimum, I promise. But this is where I'll rant about work, stupid people and the like, plus make mention of the random interesting things in my life. Email me at quizbabe at yahoo dot com if you want to whine back.


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wMonday, April 12, 2004


Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

OK, it's been a while, so I figured it was time for an update -- in particular because if I don't, I'll get asked several times at TRASHionals this weekend when I plan to write again. Even though the last two people who asked don't even link to my site from theirs. (I have no actual links because I am too Polish to learn how to do it. :)

At any rate, there is actual news to report: Today I joined the rat race.

Yes, I started a new job as a library assistant at an intellectual property law firm called Fish & Richardson in Boston. Which meant that instead of getting up around 10 a.m. or so like I was used to after seven-plus years of working a 3 to 10:30-11 p.m. shift, my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. and by 8 I was riding the train in to the city.

I'm sure I'll have more to report as the weeks progress, and those of you who I'll see this weekend will likely get an earful (in particular, my carmates for the ride from Atlanta to Chattanooga). Suffice it to say that for someone who grew up in an area where the tallest building in a 20-mile radius was only 10 stories high, working on the 32nd floor of a building where the view out the window includes the Citgo sign is a big change of pace. Oh, and I'm tired. Bedtime for me tonight may be in an hour or so.

One last thing for those of you trying to find me at the Atlanta airport on Friday: Don't look for a blonde woman.

posted by Allyson at 7:56 PM


wFriday, February 06, 2004


Blasts from my past

Heard two songs in a row the other night that brought me back to 1995.

First was "Cure for Pain" by Morphine, which was a staple of the music rotation on Tuesday NTN nights at the Crimson Postwar Leaders Grille in Harvard Square. Had some good times with that -- a standing bet, hearing about J.J.'s random encounters with Eastern European women, and bar munchies. Wasn't old enough for adult beverages, though.

(Yeah, I know it was the Crimson Sports Grille, but here's the story for those of you who don't know it. One of the NTN games lets players choose the topic of the questions, and the choice came up between sports and postwar leaders. One of the folks in the BU/Harvard group of players -- Patrick Burns, I think -- noted that we had to choose sports because the name of the place wasn't the Crimson Postwar Leaders Grille.)

The second was the Thorns' cover of the Jayhawks' "Blue," which was a minor hit for the Jayhawks in '95. But what it really reminds me of is the Tom Petty concert, with the Jayhawks as the opening act, that I went to at the Boston Garden that spring. Those of you who've been to the old place know of its low ceiling and lack of air circulation. I could have smoked my clothes (plaid flannel shirt, jeans frayed at the knees -- hey, it was the mid-90s) when I got home and probably gotten a pretty good high.

Yeah, 1995. Glad that's over.

posted by Allyson at 10:56 PM


wSaturday, January 17, 2004


Observations

A few observations from the world around me of late:

--- What is it about smoking that makes people want to do it even if it means standing outside in temperatures below zero, with wind chills so frigid that the state health department has warned people that frostbite could happen in about 10 minutes of exposure? Then again, if the possibility of getting emphysema and lung cancer don't stop you, I guess nothing will.

--- Went to Target today to look for long underwear and a new collapsible snow shovel for my car (the one I had splintered last time I used it). Apparently the fine folks at the Target corporate office think that January in Massachusetts is a fine time to hide the snow shovels, de-icer and windshield scrapers and to promote patio furniture -- heavily -- in about six aisles. Yeah, we'll get new seats for our deck chairs -- once the ground thaws out around April.

--- Speaking of de-icer, Target had windshield washer fluid/de-icer that was apple cinnamon scented. Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one? Why does washer fluid need to smell nice? Is anyone really smelling their windshield? Didn't anyone stop to think that making it smell like something kids like to eat and making it the shade of fruit punch might make some unsuspecting 4-year-old take a big ol' swig and get really sick or possibly die? Yeah, they put "child-proof" caps on them, but kids are crafty.

--- Anyone else out there watch Days of Our Lives? I stopped watching it for a while, but then they started killing off people left and right. Longtime characters too, not just random new people. I'm getting tired of the saga of finding the "Salem Stalker," though, and it was all I could do to stop myself from reading the soap opera magazines at the supermarket checkout counter that promoted interviews with one of the fired cast members who named the killer out of spite.

--- Spent the weekend watching my alma mater's hockey team stink up two different arenas on Comm Ave. They're now 6-8-6. Yeah. Six ties. They've progressed from kissing their sisters to kissing their grandmas, I think.

--- Think back to your first full-time job out of college. If you didn't go straight to grad school, you were probably about 21 or 22 years old. Did you act in a professional manner, taking a minimal number of sick days even when you were feeling crappy, and treating people with respect? Well, that would put you several steps above a co-worker of mine who just left to go back to school to get the most useless degree in the world when you have a bachelor's degree in communications -- a master's degree in communications (and at the same school, to boot).

To make a long story short, she was hired in August 2002, was out on sick leave from mid-November 2002 to mid-February 2003 with a foot injury, then took "sick time" on just about every holiday weekend (like the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the entire weeks of Christmas and New Year's). In particular, she would ask for time off, be denied the time off because of lack of vacation days due to lack of time worked for the company, and then call in sick.

Well, the week of New Year's she called in sick and gave her notice, arranging for her last day to be Jan. 16. Wanna guess what happened? Her schedule was Tuesday-Saturday, but she was only going to work until Friday her last week. Well, she came in Tuesday, did some work, cleared out her desk and didn't come in again. Didn't even call. What a bitch.

Apparently the boss-types were making excuses because she's young. I was young when I started there too, and I never pulled this bullshit. I hope she's stupid enough to leave this job on her resume and someone calls the office to get a reference on her.

Yeah, that should do it for now.

posted by Allyson at 11:35 PM


wWednesday, December 31, 2003


Auld forgotten acquaintances

My 10-year high school reunion was this past weekend and while I was not all that excited about going given my current state of employment lameness and unhappiness, I was curious to see who would be there and how they're doing.

I'm really glad I went.

At first we all seemed to group together like we did in high school, either arriving together or sitting together at dinner. Then, somehow, it turned out that I talked more to people I didn't really hang out with in high school than the people I did hang out with. I had a 15-minute conversation with the girl who lived next door to me and who sat behind me in homeroom. While this may not seem that odd, we really didn't hang out together at all in school because she was in the cool crowd and I was not (and it often came back to haunt me as she would have drinking parties while her parents weren't home, keeping my parents up, and then my parents would call her parents to rat her out, and she knew it).

Most of us look very similar to what we looked like in high school -- it's only been 10 years, after all -- but for the most part, the few people who did look different looked better.

I was glad to discover that working at the paper and being married for more than two years puts me at least slightly ahead of some of my classmates, who have either not yet moved out of their parents' house, moved back home to go back to school, just gotten married this year, or have moved out and/or gotten married but are working as bartenders. Not that still living with your parents is necessarily a bad thing ... but it's getting close to the point where if you haven't moved out at all yet you should really start thinking about it.

I think the real reason I'm glad I went, though, is so that people wouldn't wonder what had happened to me. A friend of mine who makes films for a living (documentaries, a few original features, and wedding/event videos to pay the bills) had made a documentary of our senior year of high school, which made the film festival rounds to good reviews. He put together an edited version of it to show at the reunion, in part to show it to people who had never seen it and in part to drum up business. And as we were sitting there watching it during dinner, I could hear people at other tables doing the same thing I was doing: when someone was on the screen who wasn't at the reunion, we would ask, "Whatever happened to ...?" Some people had answers because they had seen the missing folks since high school, but for others, no one really seemed to know for sure.

Of course there were people at the reunion who I had seen since 1993 and who could have answered if anyone asked, but it was good to be there in person so no one had to ask anyone else. If they wanted to know, they could just ask me directly.

The downside of the reunion, however, was that I discovered that either I have no social skills or I'm still very shy. I didn't talk to a lot of people I wanted to at least say hello to because I didn't want to intrude on other people's conversations, but at the same time that seemed like what everyone else was doing so why couldn't I manage to do it? I guess I still have a long way to go from my high school persona.

posted by Allyson at 3:33 PM


wSunday, December 07, 2003


It's snowing, it's snowing, God I hate this weather
More TMBG

So it's snowing like mad here. It's the first weekend in December, for cryin' out loud -- it's not supposed to snow this much yet. They say this is going to be a bad winter, possibly worse than last year (whoever "they" are), and if this storm is any indication I may need to take an emergency trip to Florida in February just to keep my sanity.

I know, I've lived up here all my life, but I really hate blizzards.

Going to the market Friday was a pain in the butt because everyone was getting their emergency supplies, whereas I was just doing my regular weekly shopping because Friday is my day off. To make matters worse, the market closest to my apartment (three-tenths of a mile) is kind of small and has a tight parking lot, which was full to bursting as I drove by it. So I had to go to the market on the other side of town (yeah, I admit, it was only about another mile, but it's the principle of the thing). Plus New England Cable News decided to use this market as the backdrop for their "panic shopping before the storm" piece and had the big remote truck taking up a lot of space in the lot. The market was a bit cramped when I first got there but thinned out by the time I was checking out.

On the plus side, clementines were on sale for $5 a box, so if we do get snowed in here for a while at least we won't get scurvy. ;) If you do not know of the joy of clementines, do yourself a favor and purchase a box if they're on sale at your local grocery store. They're basically a Spanish variety of orange that is about the size of a tangerine but incredibly easy to peel. I could easily eat about six in one sitting. They don't need to be refrigerated either. So get a box, keep them on your counter or in your office, somewhere that it doesn't get too warm (not under a heating vent, that would make them go bad pretty quick), and when you want a quick snack, grab a couple. Trust me on this; you won't be disappointed.

I am dreading having to drive to work on Sunday. I'm also not looking forward to having to dig out my car. Matt dug it out at about 10 a.m., or about 10 inches of snow ago, and the plow guys plowed out our space because there was only one other car parked in the row so the plow had room to maneuver. So at least I have a head start on most of the folks in the lot. But by the time I get out there in the morning it's really going to be buried again and all we have is one of those collapsible shovels that people keep in their cars for emergencies. After this storm blows through it might be wise for us to get a better shovel.

Another downside to this storm is that it has been incredibly windy (though apparently not enough wind speed to make it officially a blizzard, according to the weather guys). If it was just snowing we would have gone up the hill to go sledding at the big hill at the high school here in town. But the wind was really making it too blustery for it to be much fun.

Anyway, I should probably get some sleep since Sunday is going to be a long day.

posted by Allyson at 1:49 AM


wSaturday, November 15, 2003


I'm older than I've ever been ... and now I'm even older (with apologies to They Might Be Giants)

As promised, I have returned. I recently had a birthday and I'm feeling the need to write again. Thanks to those of you who have noted my absence to me. I wonder if you actually enjoy what I write or just need another distraction at work, though as long as you're reading it doesn't matter that much. (Who am I kidding -- it matters a great deal to me. I desperately need the approval of others.)

Anyway, I don't really want to write a lot at the moment, but I have two observations to make:

1. Apparently I look young/good for my age. There's a commercial for some sort of new wrinkle reducing/preventing/age-defying cream where a woman is taking a lie detector test and when asked her age, she says she's 28 and is able to fool the mechanism because she uses the product and looks 28 rather than the mid-30s age she likely is.

Well, if that's what 28 is supposed to look like then I'm all set for a few years. Of course, it helps that the grays don't show so much against my blond hair; they look more like highlights.

2. If you watch "While You Were Out" on TLC, you know that there is a new host this season. Originally, I thought it was just that he had no "stage presence" on the first couple episodes, but then I figured out what it is about him that bugs me: he reminds me too much of my ex-boyfriend. He looks like him, has about the same build, even the voice is kind of similar (as far as I can remember; it has been more than six years since I've heard it).

But I'm pretty sure Gary would end up cutting off limbs if he tried to use power tools. Let's just say that as far as I remember, he wasn't too good with his hands.

posted by Allyson at 1:13 AM


wMonday, February 10, 2003


Dude, Yer Gettin' a Cell!

I'm at work so I can't really write now. Just read this:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dude! The actor who gained fame and a cult following as the slacker "Steven" in commercials for Dell computers was arrested buying a small bag of marijuana, police said.
Benjamin Curtis, a 22-year-old New York University drama student, was arraigned Monday on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The charge assumes a suspect is not carrying more than a "use amount" -- enough to roll several marijuana cigarettes.
Police said he was arrested Sunday night on the Lower East Side after officers on a drug detail spotted him buying a small bag of marijuana from Omar Mendez, 19. Mendez faces drug sale and possession charges.
Curtis' portrayal of a surfer type who proclaims, "Dude, yer gettin' a Dell!" drove up computer sales and spawned T-shirts, caps, and backpacks, along with Web sites and online fan clubs.
At the arraignment, Criminal Court Judge Ellen Coin advised Curtis that his case will be dismissed, and his record expunged, if he avoids arrest during the next year.

So who is really surprised that "Steven" is a stoner?

posted by Allyson at 6:30 PM


wSaturday, January 18, 2003


What I've Learned from VH1

I've been watching a lot of VH1 lately, in particular "I Love the 80s" and "100 Moments that RockedTV," and it's been very educational. Here's just a few of the things I've learned:

~Germans love David Hasselhoff, and I think it's because he sang on TV when the Berlin Wall came down. I can only imagine that whoever sang when the Declaration of Independence was signed was *huge* for a while in 1776.

~VH1 has a knack for getting B-list stars to comment on just about everything. Sure, every once in a while they throw a Paul McCartney into the mix, but it mostly is people like Hal Sparks and Ali Landry who are telling us about what they remember about the 80s or their memories of TV's magical musical moments.

~The Super Bowl Shuffle was nominated for a Grammy, and Walter Payton had been a dancer on Soul Train. I learned this from watching "One Hit Wonders," in the same episode that I learned that Cotton-Eye Joe, deemed a hit at sports stadiums across the states, was a number one hit in nine countries in Europe. Sort of makes sense if you know that the band Rednex is from Sweden.

~I don't knw who came up with the 100 moments that rocked TV, probably a panel of VH1 and TV Guide "experts," but I think they were wrong on their choice for number one. How does Bill Clinton playing saxophone on Arsenio Hall top, say, the Beatles playing for the first time on Ed Sullivan? Or Michael Jackson's Thriller video? Or, for that matter, the start of MTV? I'm a bit perplexed by this.

~Whoever told Molly Shannon that the outfit she was wearing looked good should be shot. It was a stupid outfit (the shirt moreso than the leather pants) and it made her look dumpy. She's not a glamour girl to be sure, but she could at least have worn something flattering for five hours of TV that VH1 is sure to show over and over again!

Anyway, I always love a good countdown show or 80s nostalgia trip, and seeing the top five one-hit wonders paying homage to the posterior was fun.

posted by Allyson at 2:32 AM


wFriday, January 10, 2003


Notes 'n' Stuff

To update you (because I know how much you all care), the hole in our ceiling has been filled, though will not be plastered over for a few days yet. Still, as noted before, it's better than having water all over the bathroom floor.

Couple stories that caught my attention today ("today" being Jan. 9, even though this is being posted under a Jan. 10 header): this one, on the front of the Living/Arts section of the Boston Globe. Not quite sure what to make of this guy, though he certainly seems like he could give any of us a run for our money. Interesting read, if nothing else.

This story frightens me, if only because I suspect my first house will cost about as much as this town but have about 60 feet of land, not 60 acres, and I'd be living in a cramped neighborhood full of soccer moms and people driving SUVs for no reason other than to be snooty. Sure, this town is probably not the ideal place for either Matt or I to ply our trades, but hey, it's got water access and fiber optics -- how bad could it be?

In an entirely unrelated matter, have you seen the new Sprint PCS commercial? This one is easily my favorite of them all, and I got quite a kick out of "the Captain and Tenille" and "a monkey with a cold." I won't spoil the hilarity for you, but let's just say it involves animals at the opposite end of the spectrum size-wize. I laughed so hard when I first saw it the other night that Matt got out of bed to see what was causing me to nearly pee my pants. Alas, it's not available on the company's Web site like the counting sheep commercials for Serta, but I'm sure if you've not yet caught it you will soon enough, like all their other commercials.

Off to Mohegan Sun this weekend to gamble away our Christmas money and start gearing up for our big trip to Vegas this summer. I really hope that we manage to not come home with our pockets turned out like Hoover flags. (Like the U.S. history reference there? Don't remember it? Look it up yourself! What do I look like, a librarian?)

posted by Allyson at 1:29 AM


wWednesday, January 08, 2003


Monsoon Season

I woke up shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday to hear my husband cursing and water coming from somewhere. As it turned out, it was pouring through our bathroom ceiling vent, then once it stopped from there was dripping steadily through a newly-developed crack in the ceiling above the toilet. The importance of it being over the toilet is twofold: good on the one hand, as we only have one bucket and it was already under the vent; but bad on the other because, well, you couldn't use the toilet without getting dripped on.

Matt called the emergency maintenance number, but alas, they could not do anything for us given that it was Sunday and the guy he talked to assumed it wasn't as big a drip as it was. He agreed to come on Monday morning to look at it. And when he did, he was absolutely floored that a crack that big and that much damage had all happened in one day.

Turns out the pipe from the tub drain in the apartment above had rotted out, causing the water to leak into the open space in between their floor and our ceiling; luckily it was just from their shower and not their toilet.

So it was like an episode of "This Old House" in here on Monday, with anywhere from one to four guys in my bathroom at any given time either taking down the ceiling, cleaning up the plaster and stuff that came down, replacing the rotted pipe, etc. I was excited because I heard them talk about using teflon tape and I had seen that on TV.

At any rate, monsoon season is over in our bathroom. But there's a 6-by-3-foot hole there now from where they took down the ceiling, and it's unclear when the plasterer will be able to come in to patch it back up. It's made the bathroom get colder, and I keep getting up early to shower in case the guys come to fix it, because inevitably the day I sleep late and wait to shower will be the day someone will come to fix it and I won't be able to get to the shower, but compared to having to mop up water on our tile floor I can't complain too much.

posted by Allyson at 1:21 PM


wSaturday, January 04, 2003


Laugh Tracks Suck

Before I rant, I'd like to wish you all a happy 2003. Those of you not here in the Rhode Island/Massachusetts/Connecticut area were spared the Christmas snow-messiness that prevented my aunt, uncle and cousins from traveling out to the northwest corner of Rhode Island for family holiday festivities (despite the fact that they live a mile from my parents, from whence my travels began that evening, and my family (parents, sister and husband) and I all made it out there OK). Not exactly what I was looking for in a "white Christmas," but hey, I drove slower than I ever thought possible on the Mass Pike (30 mph!) and got home just fine.

Matt and I spent a good 4+ hours watching the first 12 episodes of "SportsNight" tonight (my gift from my sister), and it was really great, except for the laugh track. I can understand their purpose on shows that suck -- I mean, it's easier to believe that a show doesn't suck if you hear "people" laughing, clapping, hooting with glee, etc. But in my opinion (and in the opinion of a lot of other people with more credentials to have an opinion on this than me), SportsNight just didn't need a laugh track. The same thing was/is said about M*A*S*H and for much the same reasons.

I (sort of) understand the reasoning; SportsNight (to stick to just one example) was a sort of a ... oh, I hate this word, but ... "dramedy." It wasn't always funny so someone with "authority" decided that people should be told when to laugh -- when it was OK to laugh, if you will. Not to let viewers see and hear irony or sarcasm or just plain humor for themselves, because those qualities might get lost in the tension, drama or whatever.

But at the same time, no one puts fits of laughter in dramas when a funny moment happens. Someone on "CSI" cracks a corpse joke and there's no "spontaneous" giggling from a disembodied audience (though that would be really weird, right? Disembodied responses in a morgue scene?)

Anyway, it seems like there should have been a way for the laugh track to have been removed for the episodes released on DVD. It's just a separate audio track, right? (My knowledge of TV series production is not very good, having only done news/sports stuff, so I'm not exactly sure how that all works.) Or maybe make it so you can watch the shows either with or without the laugh track -- sort of the anti-director's commentary.

Don't get me wrong. You should still watch SportsNight in its entirety, though as Matt noted, between Ted McGinley in the early episodes and Paula Marshall in the later ones, the show was doomed even if people had been watching (and shame on you all for coming late to the party, once TV Guide declared it the best show no one's watching, which in and of itself is a kiss of death, right?). And of course, watching this show plus West Wing and the movie The American President lets you play "six degrees of Aaron Sorkin." It was only a matter of time before Joshua Malina joined the West Wing cast, wasn't it? (Though Sabrina Lloyd is on the next new Ed, which isn't an Aaron Sorkin project but is on the same night as one, so that almost counts ...)

posted by Allyson at 12:44 AM


wTuesday, December 24, 2002


Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to extend holiday greetings to all you fine folks out there in cyberspace reading the Whine Column. You'll be happy to hear that my holiday spirit has increased, and I'm almost excited about Christmas now. Plus it's supposed to snow, so we'll have a white Christmas after all. Hooray!

I know that most of you reading are aware of these other sites, but on the off change that you are reading my blog and are not already reading these other blogs, follow these links and read some other fine blogs that you will likely enjoy: Matt, Mark, Matt and Jon. Plenty of other links from their sites too, so go blog-wild!

So to quote Gumby, "Merry Christmas, damnit!" Enjoy your holiday or your non-denominational day off from work or your day at work (such is the life of newspaper folk, though luckily not me). Deck those halls, trim those trees, raise those cups of Christmas cheer and all that stuff. And know that I really do appreciate you reading. :)

posted by Allyson at 1:06 AM


wWednesday, December 11, 2002


Things that are Good/Things that are Bad

In the spirit of Santa's list of good and bad girls and boys, here's a short list of things that of late have struck me as, well, good or bad.

Good: the recent uptick in Muppets sightings Apparently the Muppets are popular again, which is really cool. As a matter of fact, the jammies I am wearing right now are red with green Kermit faces all over them. Totally cute and comfy. There's from Macy's, which at least in Boston has a Muppet travel theme for its holiday windows (plus the chance to buy a stuffed Kermit the Frog-tographer complete with working camera).

At any rate, there was a Muppets Christmas special on the day after Thanksgiving, and the Kermit voice is markedly improved from when the Muppets Tonight show was on. Not sure if it's the same person or if there's someone new, but it's much closer to Jim Henson's Kermit voice. Plus the Muppets are in a commercial for a credit card and in a Weezer video. Not sure how Weezer went from Hashpipe to Muppets, but hey, anything can happen.

And for those of you who have yet to file your Christmas lists, you may want to add the Muppets DVDs. Three of 'em, each with three full Muppet Show episodes plus some other stuff. Forgot to put them on my list, but will probably buy them in the post-holiday sales. (Saw them at Target, but they're probably available elsewhere.)

Bad: too much Christmas music There is a radio station in Providence that has been playing Christmas music and nothing but (save for commercials) since at least the Friday *before* Thanksgiving. This is a very bad thing. Seriously, who needs more than a solid month of Christmas music? The DJs must be going batty already and we're still two weeks from the actual holiday itself.

If you decide to play all holiday music, it should start no sooner than Christmas Eve, and even then it shouldn't start until, say, 6 p.m., so all the people driving home from work aren't subjected to it but people heading out to holiday festivities can tune in if they wish.

I know, all I have to do is change the station. And believe me I do.

Good: electric blankets There's nothing like climbing into a chilly bed when your toes are already cold to make you realize that heating coils really do belong in blankets. It's certainly cheaper than putting the heat on, which we've yet to do since the woman who lives downstairs from us keeps her apartment plenty toasty and all that lovely heat rises to help keep us warm.

Bad: Celine Dion singing songs she has no business singing I know, some of you are thinking that Celine Dion in general is bad. I'm not a fan, but as a fellow frog I can't speak too ill of her. At any rate, Celine Dion singing "Feliz Navidad" is just wrong. I really do like that song, in its Jose Feliciano incarnation. But a Canuck warbling it is somehow ... inappropriate. Much the same as Celine singing "God Bless America" on that post-Sept. 11 special was not quite right. I mean, actual Americans were chomping at the bit to play on that thing, right? So who do we get to sing what practically became our new national anthem? A Canadian.

What's next, Celine's version of the Chanukkah Song?

Good: more dogs in commercials This pleases my husband quite a bit more than it does me, I think, but I have no complaints overall. There does seem to be an increase in the number of commercials that include dogs. And then of course there's the L.L. Bean catalog, which is always good for its share of adorable puppies and puppy/mom combos. Plus there were puppies on Zoboomafoo today. :) Not a commercial but still cool.

Bad: Christmas lists Making a Christmas list is great when you're a kid and you watch cartoons specifically for the toy commercials, and you hope and pray that you'll be good enough for Santa to bring you what you asked for. But when you're 27, making a list sucks. At least I hated making mine, because it was specifically for my in-laws, who now know exactly what to get me and will send it all neatly wrapped from afar. This is apparently how it's done in Matt's family -- ask and you shall receive.

This is not some kind of slight on my in-laws. I love them dearly and I understand that they don't know me entirely well enough to know what I'd like for Christmas. What I'd prefer is if they asked Matt what I might like, if there's anything I've hinted about, etc. Then again, he's terrible at taking hints so that wouldn't work and I'd end up with ... well, I don't know what.

The problem is that there will be no real surprise on Christmas day when I open all that stuff, because it is bound to all be stuff I asked for. My parents are giving me money, my grandmother is giving me money, and I suspect that my sister and my husband both got me stuff I asked for, too. It's entirely possible that the only gift I'll get that I didn't ask for is whatever I end up with from the Gongo family Yankee swap on Christmas Eve. (I know my parents will probably get me a few little things, plus the usual stocking stuff -- chocolate coins, a Nancy Drew book, maybe some fun socks -- but that's not the same to me.)

I suppose I shouldn't whine too much, given the number of people who will have nothing to open this holiday season. But given how low on Christmas cheer I already am, this is just one more reason to not look forward to Christmas.

Bah humbug.

posted by Allyson at 2:15 AM


wFriday, December 06, 2002


Beware -- Late-Night Bloggage
Well, early morning to be truly honest.
At any rate, I've had a few things on my mind lately that I thought I'd share. In no particular order ...
~~~Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Almond lies on his driver's license. We have proof. Rhode Island just began issuing new digitized driver's licenses, very similiar to the ones we have here in Massachusetts now, and of course Bigfoot got the first one. So the Associated Press moved a photo (and we used it on our front page) of the gov with his new license, and magnified only a little bit we could see that he's listed himself as 6-6, 225. Now the 6-6 I believe. But 225? The man's chins weigh more than that! If you've not seen him, a quick google search should find you at least a head shot.

Of course, this being Rhode Island, if the worst thing he's done is lie on his driver's license ...

~~~Driving in the snow really brings out the stupid in some people. As quite a bit of the white stuff has been dumped on us lately, it's given me an opportunity to observe other drivers' behaviors. My favorite is the people who are in too much of a hurry to clear their back windows before driving on Route 95. Seriously, those people are going to end up causing an accident where someone else gets really hurt but they walk away without a scratch despite being dumber than dirt. Honestly, does it really take more than a minute or two to clear the back window?

Then there are the people who panic and drive 15 miles an hour because it's snowing. Somehow I always seem to end up behind these people on the highway, with no chance to change lanes because everyone coming up behind me is moving to the next lane over. So I crawl along, trying not to slam on my horn at people to speed up. I'm certainly not saying that if the road is slippery people should drive 70, but when the road is in decent shape it's OK to go at more than a snail's pace.

~~~If any of you know someone who is learning how to drive, could you please ask them if they teach people how to yield anymore? I've almost been hit more times than I can count by people doing 70 down the onramp to Route 95 who completely ignore the yield signs at the bottom of every onramp. The words that escape my lips are not nice out-loud words, but I've been trying to tame my potty mouth lately because Santa's watching. ;)

Time to settle in my sheepy jammies under my electric blanket and sleep the day away.

posted by Allyson at 3:43 AM