i tell you what.

- today i was in costco on my lunch break picking up a thing or two, at the check out, and after the woman in front of me was finished buying enough food to feed the country of malta for 3 to 5 years, it was my turn.  this burley man who appeared to be in his 50s, whom i have never laid eyeballs on before, came squeezing in between me and the check out counter behind me, slugged me on the arm so hard i had to steady myself, and said jovially, "be sure and charge this one extra!"  the cashier and bagger ladies asked, "friend of yours?"  "no, i've never seen him before in my life!"  then i thought about all the times i hugged dark suited legs after the 3rd hour of church, begging to go home to get some vittles, only to look up and find those legs did NOT belong to my dad.  i'm hoping that burly old man only mistook me for some teasy friend.  if not, i just...have no answers.

- i LOVE the movie the baxter. i started to watch it a few weeks ago when jeff's roommate had rented it, and despite it's terrific nature i was falling asleep, so i left half way through. this morning it was on tv so as i got ready for work i got to finish it off. did this movie come out when i was on my mission or something? why did no one ever tell me about it? why did no one ever make a big deal about it? annie, i'm expecting that at least you saw and love this movie.

- tonight i went jogging/running (?) with jeff and while i can definitely say i've had more leisurely moments in my life, i didn't keel over either.  onward christian soldiers.

- my parents got a new computer.  mother meri and father eaton really know how to get the most bang for their buck.  the purple computer we've been scraping from for the last gazillion years is...gone!  in its place is a shiny new dell (no i'm not holding it against them it's not a mac).  and yes, of COURSE i am going to miss the purple groaning computer!  i really, really am!  it saw us, all of us eatons, through so much, and in the end, even allowed me to download picasa 3 (genius).  like my dad's volvo, it gave so much, only asked for an electric outlet in return...and now...goodbyes are horrible.  but the new computer has a knock off of photo booth.  i'm sure that someone in the 50s wrote a song that could be applied to the good times which are most definitely coming our way with this new technological gem.

- harry's really lucky, because sarah made this lemon cake last saturday night that could have brought bonnie and clyde back into subordination.  oh happy, happy lemon cake!  come again soon!

and here's a picture of me and my mom to polish off this post.

update o' fun

i'm ready and willing to blog a snibbin again.

- i'm going to go ahead and start the paralegal program in july. i didn't apply with enough time to get some funding, but lucky para mi, UCI is on the quarter system and i don't have to wait as long for a new batch of classes to start.

- my sister sally is in town this weekend. i was going to go taste wedding cakes with them except i was foiled by the fact that 1) it's not the sabbath yet, so i can't be sucking down treats, and 2) when mom and sarah found out how much this french bakery costs, my mom uttered that infamous line, "dollars?? d-dollars???  my first car didn't cost _____ dollars." the cake tasting session was cancelled with something along the lines of a "don't call us, we'll call you."

- i have a plan for the "operation: miss chloe pants, you don't even know it but you're going to pay for the damage you did to my car".  stage I of this plan is to get a bid on the fixing that she doesn't even know for which she's most deservedly going to pay.  mother meri and i went all the way over to the ghetto to the place i went to in 2003 to fix the geo prism, and i suppose the world has not been kind to this place, because it's vanished, aka out of business. foiled again.  until i get another minute to go find another car spa.

- today i saw a bumper sticker that said, "ORDAIN WOMEN TO BE CATHOLIC PRIESTS -- OR STOP BAPTIZING THEM!"  so many things to say about that...which...i'm not going to.  but it's just funny what some people say, and even better, what people say on loop from the metal crust of their mode of transportation.

- irvine always smells good in march.  it smells like star jasmine rubbing shoulders with eucalyptus.  i would wish it on all noses.

there's a first for everything!

i just...don't have anything to say!

hmmm...this is sort of strange and new....

let's see how long this lasts.

far too quickly doth he grow.

my darling nephew turned 6 today. for reasons of privacy and to respect his mother's wishes i shall call him mr. bungaloo. 

mr. bungaloo is the finest of the bungaloos that ever were. during my time in vegas he was such a little companion, often giving a hug, a zerbert/raspberry, a "joke" (4-5 year old original humor...oh heaven help us all), a request for a youtube video (see below...our favorites were the "3 laughing babies" and the how does she know song? from the movie enchanted.)

when bungaloo's mother lets his hair grow, he has these lush, dark-blond curls. several women have stopped elizabeth as they go about town and said, pointing to his mane, "oh that's going to be trouble someday." 

bungaloo knows himself so well.  he's thoughtful and deliberate.  he gives me advice on whom i should marry, and loves that dog of his.  he is to the young social scene as paul mcartney was to the beatles, and makes friends faster than you can say "bob's your uncle." perhaps best of all, he's a sweet-hearted boy and has many deep and profound brain waves moving around in his head that help him see all the incentives to being a good child (unless his sister has been left in peace for far too long).

bungaloo, on this your 6th bday, i give you an auntie's salute! many happy returns!  i love you ever so.

at any given moment, i'm thinking,

"man, i wish i had me some pita chips and a bowl of guacamole."

lucky there are 2 important people in close proximity who make it, and make it good: aubrey and jeff.

and that's all i have to say about that.

in other news, my hairs are suffering, and shall be snipped, shaped, and coifed by none other than natalie-knows-what-she's-doing-dulaney this wednesday.  thrilled is what i am.

since i work about a mile from my parents' house, i get to pop in and visit with even more ease, stealth, and regularity than before.  every spring there is a family of ducks that come to "nest" and waddle around the carefully manicured gardens of my street.  yesterday i was leaving the house after my lunch break was through and daddy duck was chillin on the planter.  i took a picture, which you'd all be able to look at right now, except i don't have time to upload it.

because if i don't stop blogging right now i'm going to be late for work.  (!!!)

the most random post to date.

remember your elementary school crush?  mine was pretty uniform, and landed on b.j. fell.  first tip that it was a childhood crush: i would never allow myself to go out with an acronym name person in adulthood.  i don't believe there's a slip of a chance he reads this blogety blog, but if he is in fact reading this post, it shouldn't come as a surprise to him, and i had it in good faith from a few of my grammar school BFFs that he had a crush on me too.  

what was this crush like?

he'd catch me staring at him, i'd catch him staring at me.  maybe if we were assigned seats next to each other and boys and girls were fraternizing in a friendly way, i'd say something like, "i like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches best."  and then b.j. might utter, "i like them best, too."  and then we'd look at each other with a mixture of shame and appreciation.  other than that we'd tease each other, call each other names, react dramatically (and scoffingly) to the slightest comment made by the other, perhaps even a poke, an "indian burn" (oh the political incorrectness of the late 80s!), and perhaps share an infrequent giggle.  "no" meant "yes" 99% of the time in them days.  i'm sure you yourself remember.

and that romance was on-again, off-again for at least 3 years of my tutelage at el camino real elementary school.  but you know, you grow apart, you reinvent yourselves, and with any luck, the split is amicable.  then at high school graduation we took a picture together, the summer after freshman year of college i waited on his parents one evening during my month-long stint as an annoyed server at the restaurant "on the border," and that's the end.

back to the description of the crush.  am i the only one who thinks that looks like the right side of the judges' table on american idol?  isn't paula abdul INSANELY in love with simon cowell?  unrequited has-been love.  what a doosy.

i promise i have other things going on in my life besides american idol.

apparently obama was in orange county today.  didn't see him.

jeff and i went to california adventure on monday and went on all the rides that are hard to persuade a larger group to go on.  he may be able to beat all 10 levels of labrynth on his iphone in about 7 minutes, but i beat him by a clear mile on that toy story target shooting ride.  

work has been going well so far.  although it's unfortunate how much i'm needing to adapt to longer hours (it used to go by so quickly!), i haven't yet rolled my eyes about this employment switch.  i actually have had some great conversations about the church with my new co-workers, it's a relatively aesthetically pleasing branch, the hours are much better than at charles david, and i just might become a cheapskate out of all this.  working with money all day somehow sucks the will to spend it plum out of a person.  

at sarah's wedding i'll have my 7th go as a bridesmaid.  how does that old saying go?  "23 times a bridesmaid, never a bride."  right.  i'm safe!

if anyone in orange county even considered shimmying into a pool or jacuzi sometime this year, just forget it.  you heard me, forget it.  we've been griping since january that jeff's association pool and jacuzi were closed down until april, then july, and now august.  last saturday we hauled buns to irvine to use my parents'/the jacuzi of my formative years.  nothin doin.  there we found out that every county pool and hot tub has been closed down until some unspecified date to bring it up to some lame code that i don't think could even be that important. :) i mean, we've all enjoyed those water bins as-is all this time!  some might say, "if something ees not broken, you are not to feex eet!"  anyway, it looks like i'll be spending the entire cruise in the pool to make up for lost time.  that and eating jalapeno poppers.

speaking of jalapeno poppers, i've already informed my parents they don't need to worry about those for sarah's wedding reception, i'll make the trip to costco and make sure they're on the refreshment table.  :)

speaking of refreshment table, i'm going to go see what i got me in my fridge.  :)

No Fair

1. Last Monday as I was exiting my parked car in the employee section of the South Coast Plaza garage, a then-secretly demonic Chloe employee zoomed into a U-turn to park on my left (I was parked at the end of the row), and swiped my open car door (which she didn't have time to see, what with her speedy mcspeeding and all).  Notice the ugly pouty lip on my once-upon-a-time cute-ish Scion xA driver's side door.  I filed a claim, she LIED a RIDICULOUS LIE to the insurance company, and (sssshocking!) her insurance company isn't accepting liability.  Oh, Miss Evil Chloe girl, we are so not through here.  When the insurance guy called to report, it felt like when someone stole $7 out of my wallet in jr. high.  Sort of like, "Hey, I don't do that to anyone else, what makes you think you can do it to me???"  I'm not one of those people that goes around saying, "The world has gone to pot!" but her cheap lie (she said that I hit her car with my door while opening it. ????) made me dishearteningly disappointed in humanity.  Shake it off, Merzy, shake it off.

2. About 10 of my friends are going to Europe tomorrow with airfare and board they purchased at a screamin rate.  (So maybe that's completely fair, I'm just insanely jealous.)

3. Despite his blood-curdling performance tonight, Adam Lambert will probably still be in the running tomorrow on American Idol.

4. This little muffin niece of mine is pulling full on belly laughs, and she lives too far away for me to hear them in person.  It's such a cheap shot for Elizabeth to email pictures like these.  Sheesh.  FINE, I will come and visit as soon as I am able!!  You got me!

Sometimes a little bit of venting on a blog really does feel better.

happy birfday to the king bee

in my family, st. patrick's day isn't just for pinching. it is for the commemoration of my who's your daddy, james/jim/jimmy eato.

*dad loves to cook. loves. to. cook. he's tres good at it, too.

*songs that remind me of him are do ya by ELO, ex-girlfriend by no doubt, any song from the robert plant/alison kraus collaboration, goodnight by the beatles, anything by miles davis, and of course, goin down slow by muddy waters. he has terrific taste in music and i always feel proud of myself when i show him something he turns out to like.

*he took me to an albert king concert when i was 7. he let me get as many shirley temples as i wanted, and it turns out i wanted about 49. i remember thinking, "eef thees ees torture, CHAIN ME TO THEE WALL!"

*when i was 6 and elizabeth was 8, my mom went out of town for a weekend. over a couple of slices of northwood pizza elizabeth casually asked, "hey, dad, can we get our ears pierced tomorrow?" "sure!" upon her return to irvine, mom was shocked to say the least, but eh, ear piercing was inevitable in any case.

*his midwestern accent has faded quite a bit, but you can still hear a sliver of it in the words "soda pap" and "barbie dall."

*he hates peanut butter frozen yogurt, loves peant butter. go fig.

*i think he misses heidi, our dead dog, every day. she was dumb as a rock, but dad saw something special in her, and he half-seriously calls her his "angel."

*if you're lucky, he'll bagpipe at your wedding or funeral.

*he worked hard, hard, hard to bring home enough bacon to keep us in tutus, piano lessons, little league, rugby, choir dresses, gassed up for trips to palo alto several times a year, a few trips to chi-town, etc. it's been a good life.

*he's got a freakishly brilliant political and religious mind.

happy bday dad, we love, love, love you.

i stand corrected, i stand corrected.

the nuptials of sarah and harry will take place on july 25, not july 28.

Sarah hearts Harry, and Harry hearts Sarah.

it's (finally!!!) official! there's a ring, a date, a bride, a groom. sarah eaton + harry reynolds = lurve.



do you want to know what's kinda cool? for years i have called sarah "sally." so now we get to be really hilarious/cool and say things like, "hey, have you seen when harry met sally???"

i actually remember the day harry met sally. it was at annie garlock reynolds' uncommonly delightful wedding on june 9, 2001. we were at five crowns restaurant in corona del mar. i had already met and bonded with harry enough to be able to say prior to the wedding, "harry.  you should totally go out with my sister."  it seemed agreeable to him but the thing with those pesky set ups is just because you have a 5 star female and a 5 star male, it doesn't mean they'll have self-perpetuating conversation and be inclined to pinch each other's bottoms.  but then came the day of the wedding and at the reception i pulled harrison aside, and said, "hey, that's the sister i was telling you about.  over in the corner."  (she was probably tossing her long chocolate locks with a quick whip of her head, and looking wistfully towards the pacific ocean.  or picking her nose.)  whatever she was doing, harry looked over at her, looked back at me, and did the quick little double eyebrow lift and said, "yeah, cool."  unfortunately, sarah was but 15, and in the eaton world one cannot salir with a dude until the 16 birfday candles have been blown out.  then there was that inevitable mission of harry's, a couple of random dates at BYU...fast forward to september 2007.  they started making eyes at each other, and have been for the last year and a half, which pretty much means they'll have a statue commissioned for them at BYU.  they'll be the "holding out" monument.  they'll put it in the quad.  

by the way, while i type this i'm listening to glenn beck in the background.  he's bawling about how much he loves his country.  what a dude.

anyway, i knew sarah would end up with someone great.  she's absolutely the living end, and i love her so much.  it would be silly to try and communicate how thrilled i am that harry met sally, he's someone who gets her and makes her giggle.  july 28th, baby!

please don't make my bridesmaid dress peach, sar.

shakin in m'boots.

they're baaaa-aaaaaaack....

I am blogging from an iPhone. Just wanted to cross it off the list of things to do on a lazy Saturday.

Today

sorry.

my day

today i woke up feeling a little apprehensive. who wants to feel apprehensive? not i. i had to work at my soon-to-be old job and start the new one, i had to go to la mirada to get fingerprinted, the internet wasn't working at my apartment, and i hate, hate, HATE being new at a job. i like to know what i'm doing. i'm a creature who adores routine with a fringe of spontaneity. a new job offers none of that cozy familiarity. i feel like at almost 27, i am WAY too old to be starting a new job in a new field. this whole employed to unemployed to employed with a peanuts paying job to now thing has really reaked havoc on my ego. so those feelings twirling around with the feelings of a new job and the awkwardness of the "2 weeks notice hum drum" with an old job, i was just feeling like march 12 would not be my day.

when i'm apprehensive, i'm usually too busy feeling this way to do anything about it, but today i wanted to do some things "because i wannoo." please say that as a 3-6 year old who's wining. like this:

scenario 1

mother in a shrill voice: mary! please empty the dishwasher!

mary calling down from her barbie dreamcastle shelter: but i don' wannoo.

scenario 2

mother scolding: jimmy bob! WHY are you smearing my lipstick all over the egyptian cotton bedsheets?????

jimmy bob without a hint of remorse: because i wannoo.

ok back to me. there were 2 or 3 things i did just because at the time i thought, "i wannoo." like i drove to irvine (the US bank branch i'm now working at is about 1 mile away from my parents' house) with my laptop, took a shower and got ready there, ate lunch (thanks for the grub!), checked my email, blah blah blah. it might have been more time efficient to do this in huntington, but it just felt good to be in the edifice of my upbringing. i love it there. then i got a chocolate diet coke. just because i wannoo. those were about the only "wannoo" things i could do, so then i went to us bank (love my new co-workers). then i went to la mirada (this place smells like BO, no offense to anyone who feels a kinship to that land). then i went to charles david and got there 20 minutes late (but they had a heads up concerning that tardiness).

little did i know that march 12 actually WOULD be my day. in the late afternoon i found out why. let me tell you folks.

i got myself a new mantra written for me, and was pink in the face over the fact that sometimes your friends are just ridiculously kind.

i got myself hand delivered flowers at charles david by a tall, blond, and handsome guy. so cute. my co-workers were pea green with envy.

and then we made pizza at 10pm. i sprinkled cheese to my heart's content.

because sometimes you get to do things just because you wannoo.

life is good.

the end.

hum dee dum

hum dee dum #1: i was in a costa rican mood 2 weeks ago so i bought 4 plantains or "platenos" to whip up like them old days.  if plantains are cooked under-ripe they taste like potato chips, and i can eat those any time in the version called "ruffles," so i like to wait until they're over-ripe or "maduro."  then you can boil or fry them...is this more info than you bargained for?  anyway as i said i bought them 2 weeks ago, and they are just barely ripening up.  for a while i thought they were pre-petrified or something.  hard as rocks.  in costa rica those things would be mush in 3 days.  

hum dee dum #2: i voted for megan joy corkrey 60 times tonight from jeff's AT&T phone on american idol.  i didn't really plan to vote so many times but the more the judges threw the proverbial roses onto the stage for that idiot adam lambert, the fake fall out boy wannabe (he really wants to be a broadway star on rent or pirates of penzance), the more my resolve was stiffened that megan must stay in the competition.

hum dee dum #3: words of wisdom from a clever and adorable boy: "when life hands you lemons, get a couple of avocados and make guacamole."

Ecua Boy

cameron's mission has been going by at a fairly quick pace (almost 10 months down, folks!), and everything's chugging along just great, but then every now and then i'll come across a day where i just miss him something awful.  yesterday was one of those.  i just don't think i ever wanted to give that big lug a hug and make him a milk shake as much as i did yesterday, and then for FHE we had to haul off and watch a church-ish movie about a highland, UT high school rugby team, which i would totally recommend, called forever strong.  (if you don't know my brother, i'll just inform you here and now he was a rugby starlet until he got a wicked knee injury).  in the name of missing the brother that is gone (until may 2010) but never forgotten, here are some fun facts about cam: 

• he was an 11 lb. + baby.  my mother's very proud to still hold that record in their ward.
• in fact, he was so big they originally thought mother meri was packing twins in there.
• he's 6'4", and the only blond amongst us.  
• i teased him a couple times that he was the "fed ex" kid.  it didn't go over so well.
• dad always said that his blond locks come from our norwegian ancestors.  i always thought he was kidding, but then, the viking seed was spread throughout 70% of the world (thanks, history channel!), so yeah, his blond hair probably DOES come from our norwegian ancestors!
• if you ever want something really, really sinfully gluttonous to eat but JUST a bite or two in hopes of retaining a somewhat girlish figure, he's your guy.  he'll finish the rest.
• he can sing, but if he knows you're listening closely to him in a sacrament meeting hymn, he'll quit that and start humming.
• he's been able to rock the guitar since he was 10.  it's actually pretty cute, because he'll be on some crazy riff, fingers totally spazing out, but his face is stoic as an asian tourist at disneyland.
• he's picked up the bagpipes, the harmonica, the ukulele, he can tickle a few ivories, and sarah, am i missing any??
• he wore his kilt to his junior prom with his tuxedo jacket.
• when he laughs really hard his nostrils flair, in true mcomber fashion.
• he's a really fantastically funny writer.  i hope he takes some writing classes upon returning to "the BY," and if he doesn't i shall throw a hissy directly.
• maybe it's the blonde hair that makes him so, but he's one of the most selfless people i know.  quite regularly he'd help out around the house without being asked.  if you're in veg-splendor and ask him for a glass of water or to let the dog out, he'll hop to without hesitation.
• our shtick was to go on a walk on sunday nights together.  he'd dish and i'd dish and i, of course, didn't know how much those walks meant to me until i'd moved.  
• he ends all of his mission emails with "POWER TO THE PEOPLE" or, "THE GOSPEL IS TRUE, AND I PITY DA FOO'!"
• and, as evidenced by the picture below, he is so hilarious and silly.  if you have the means, i highly recommend getting yourself a brother like cameron.

A MAJOR DISCOV'RY!

Apparently one person got Shakespeare to sit still long enough to get his portrait did.  Then some Irish person hoarded it away, and hoarded away it's been for these large quantities of years.  Not anymore!  Now we get to see what the darling of love actually looked like!!!  

Hmmmm...I know, looks a lot like the other portraits painted after he died. Ok fine, you're right, he IS wearing a different outfit.

The Vill

Yesterday I went to the Getty Villa with some of my peeps. The Fun-O-Meter was off the charts.

Mother Meri and Me at CA Adventure

As we shuffled through the park, eating goldfish crackers and hypothesizing about random nothings, and the speakers tooted, "If you're goiiiiiing to Saaan Fraansiscooooo, be sure TO weaaaar some flowers in your haaair..." I knew I was a happy duck.  Something about being with your mom feels so lovely.

an insomniac's prattling

1. i got a job at us bank.  i'm starting mondee.  

1.5. i got into the paralegal program at UCI and am trying to decide on that.  i know what some of you are thinking.  "didn't you beg me to write your letter of recommendation for the MFA in creative writing???"  "gee, thanks, i'm glad i spent time writing your letter o' rec for the masters/teaching credential.  wonderful.  love it."  i'm trying to make a decision.  i hate this decision, because now does NOT seem to be the time to be going into hefty debt, even for school.

2. jason.  it seems everywhere people are talking about this guy jason, and not in positive tones.  this all savors strongly of when i came home from my mission and the whole of california was up in a big to do about tom brady leaving his prego ex-girlfriend, which doesn't make sense because how can you leave someone you left before either of you knew she was baking a bun of baby?  (oh the fun they all had when he lost the super bowl after a perfect season.  i heard the word "karma" about 390 times the next day at work.  boo ya, tom!)  so back to jason, the moron of the hour.  i didn't know much about him, having never been a bachelor watcher, so i peeked in on the season finale and the "after the rose" episode that was sittin pretty on my DVR.  this is what i have to say about it: ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR.  it seems to me we had a guy, he thought he liked it, and because the time came for the season finale, he put a ring on it, and then later he decided he didn't like it so he took the ring off it, and is dating someone else.  tacky to take the ring off it on national television?  of course.  but it's reality tv, and as a rule they do EVERYTHING in a tacky and attention grabbing way.  

3. i went to disneyland today with my mum.  great time.  she's so cute i'll have to put pictures up tomorrow.  it reminded me of being in europe with her, which was one of the best times i'll ever have in my life, so go ahead and assume today was a good day.  safe assumption.

kind of depressing.

i'll probably never have my own room again.  unless my trust fund kicks in early, or rent in california stops being around $700 for your own sector, or unless i move to some cheapy mccheaper state like utah or south dakota.  i love my roommate, she's, as we'd say at irvine high school, "the coolness," but i miss having mine own room.  

if mrs. jennings were here she'd offer me olives for my misfortune.

Hagelslad

I've mentioned before that Jeff and I are drinking deeply from this "no treats except for Sunday" torture fountain. There are frightening penalties for disrupting the flow of one's dessert deprivation, and besides the Sabbath, we pause only for national holidays (woot woot for St. Patrick's freaking day!). Although we do it by choice, we don't often appreciate the "nobility" of our "endeavors." We have been known to sit with our eyes glued to the clock on Saturday nights, holding a box of donut holes and/or a bag of bridge mix, waiting with twinkly eyes for the stroke of midnight.  By 12:04 it's really not a pretty picture.

There is one thing that keeps us sane from Monday morning to Saturday night: "No Sugar Added" Frozen Yogurt. In a perfect world, that world where my legs are indeed quite sexy and cellulite-free, no ifs, ands, or but(t)s, I would go to the yogurt chain of choice and load up a bowl with the 99% Fat Free Peanut Butter flavor. Then I would scoop, nay, POUR brownie cubes and cheesecake bites atop that cold calcium divine. Then I would get a second bowl. This would be a most prized bowl, for it would be the treasure chest of mochi. The gelatinous poetry of the mochi balls, how they speak to my taste buds and therefore to my soul. [Snap back to reality!] It's not a perfect world, and if I eat 23,000 mochi balls and quarts of brownies and cheesecake bites, it would be impossible to differentiate between the thighs on me and the thighs on a Brontosaurus.  And so we eat "No Sugar Added" and try not to grumble about the fact that while the other flavors rotate from a seemingly bottomless list, there are only 3 flavors that come from the approved list, and one of them is coffee, aka illegal for a different reason.  

Last Friday was not a good day for me, because my hours got cut at work.  Go California!  Not to worry, I got a new job the next day.  As the Reverend Mothah says, "When the Lord closes the door, somewhea he opens a window."  But as far as I knew on Friday, the job market had handed me another reesty elbow in the rib cage.  As I shuffled through the Cherry On Top doors, Jeff lifted an extra-large bowl from the pink stack and passed it to me.  Then he informed me of a loop hole: there are no treat restrictions on days of unfortunate employment developments.  He himself insisted on abstaining, but didn't have to tell me twice about that off-the-cuff loophole.  By the time we got to the topping bar, I was feeling guilty for my gluttony and looked at his health infested bowl.  I looked down at the sprinkles in the trough before me, and said, "Jeff, if you want to get sprinkles, I don't mind.  I mean, they're not really against thr ules, because....what are they even made of anyway??  Nothing!"  The guy in front of Jeff in line seemed to think I had a good point, and anyway definitely thought I was funny, because he chuckled at/with me, and then came behind me in line to paint his own yogurt with the confectionery maggots.  

So anyway I ended up doing some research on sprinkles.  I was right, they are nearly flavorless, nearly made of undefinable specks of who knows what, nearly impossible to eat one at a time, because even the most effectively developed fine motor skills as were ever seen could not handle the pressures.  I did find, also, that they are Dutch, originally named Hagelslad, or "hail" in my mother tongue.  They are called "jimmies" in other circles, and, their "sister" decoration, Comfits, are made of ginger, fennel, coriander, anise, and caraway; all of these are decidedly plants and herbs.  Sprinkles = good for the glutton and the Jainist alike.

This was a load of ramblings and odd findings and statements.  I guess I'm just sayin', everyone should have some sprinkles, or jimmies, or comfits, or whatever they need to feel better in these touch-and-go days in the country I love.  Those sprinkles ain't gonna hurtcha none.  Things will get better soon, because good things happen to good people, and I happen to see so many of those good people all around me.

Tonight

I was on my 15 minute break at work and got a 

Chocolate Diet Coke

and

Trail mix that consisted mainly of walnuts, cashews, and dried apples.

And to borrow a line from Testaments, "it would please me." And it so did.

Tomorrow I'm going to get a new book club book. I expect that shall please me too.

Sometimes I just don't have things to complain about.

if i had a nickel for every time someone took leave of me with this salutation....

This is what my chocolate craving looks like:

things to utter:

1. my older sister elizabeth just joined facebook, which means that in my own nook of eaton clan, only murdy and jim-a-lim (aka my 'rents, padres, those who gave me life) remain as non-facebookers.  elizabeth seems to be in the honeymoon phase, as evidenced by her frequent mixing-up of the profile picture and excessive wall posting (luckily she's charming and hilarious and i am well amused), but it shall soon fade.  i also don't anticipate my parents joining facebook, but then on the other hand, i had expected my parents to jump on the snuggy bandwagon long ago, and the only snuggy owner i know is my age!

2. i realized i must really be under the american idol spell when i heard myself say last week after a performance, "that didn't really showcase his voice.  i'm so disappointed."  nice one, merz.

3. tonight at work a woman spilled a latte on the ground.  ten minutes later a child barfed in the exact same spot.  true story.

4. my brother's been on his mission 9 months today.  c-c-c-crazay!

5. my roommate's been duped into subscribing to a runner magazine.  i'm sorry to say it's doubtful there are so many NEW DISCOVERIES or NEW TOPICS on running that they'll make each month's issue worth the guacamole.  they're basically just saying in a slightly different way, 12 times a year, "running's so cool!"  ah well, she has a good job and isn't about to be laid off so i appreciate her doing her consumer duty.

6. remember that one time i was blogging at 1:25 am for no apparent reason even though my eyelids were really heavy?  goodnight!