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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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