Remedial Spelling

Why is it that people in Texas have the hardest time spelling my name? Its E-R-I-N. Four letters. Spelled the "normal" way. When I lived up north, I had few problems (past professors not reading for comprehension, and calling me Eric during roll call.) Since I've been here, I get creative spellings quite frequently. Most of the time from the staff at Starbucks. Its so bad that I say my name, then spell it for them right after, in hopes that they'll get it. They rarely do. In fact, this confuses them even more. I'm not sure why people have such issues with my name. Perhaps Hooked on Phonics is to blame? Or parents creatively spelling names? I dunno. Either way, it irks me. So, for your amusement, some examples:

• Eric/k
• Karen
• Arin (today's SB mistake)
• Erwin (happens more often than you'd think)
• Aren
• Aerin

And my personal favorite - Darlene. No idea how one could derive Darlene from Erin.

Just said to me a few minutes ago...

I was walking down the hall, clutching something in a plastic baggie in my hand. Ran into coworker. Conversation went like this:

Coworker: Oh, you must be going out tonight!
Me: ummmm, what makes you say that? (I'm not wearing anything closely resembling "going out" clothes)
Coworker: Oh, well, you're holding toothpaste in your hand. I figured you were off to brush your teeth and then go out after work.
Me: ummmm, no. (shakes head, walks away)

SEE?!?! I AM a freak/idiot magnet. I am so lucky. And for the record, I was not holding toothpaste. Why I would wander around my office with toothpaste and a toothbrush is beyond me.

Whole lotta nuttin'

Work has slowed down for the time-being. Got back from a wonderful 4 day weekend in the Bay Area (which I still need to recap). Just kinda feeling blah and tired, no real reason why. Thought I'd post some random comments that have been popping in my head the past couple of days.

Halloween Stores
Those freaking Halloween costume stores are springing up already. Its August. I mean really, how much business could they get pre-October? And I'm sure that I'll be spying Christmas displays in stores shortly, which pisses me off even more.

Wasabi Peas
Ironically do not taste like peas. But do have that lovely back-of-the-throat/nose wasabi kick. Will thinks is hilarious that I will eat them - as I hate Peas. I blame my friend Jinni for introducing these little dried green crunchy snacks into my life.

I am an freak magnet
Really, I should get a t-shirt saying this. Freaks love me. I do not, however, love them. Unless they allow me to laugh openly at them and not get mad.

High School
The pool that I swim at is in a high school. Which in and of itself is bizarre to me. School started up last week. And we have to share the pool for the last 30 min of our practice with the co-ed water polo team. Today, there were some very hot (albeit young) guys. Is it wrong of me to be checking them out from behind my goggles?

This whole getting ready for work in a HS locker room is also trippy. And a blow to my ego. These girls are tiny. And spoiled. And they look at me like I'm old. And my self image takes a hit, as I'm not skinny anymore or nearly as cute. But I just think to myself that, if those girls are anything like I was, they have no idea what will become of them in 10 yrs or so. And they'll probably be worse off. And that makes me chuckle to myself.

4400
I discovered this show early in the summer - when USA was re-playing the 1st season. 2nd season started in July. And its ending in a few weeks. Why so short? Grrr!

Well, that's about all the random thoughts I have at the moment. And my lunch break is over and I'm out of wasabi peas. Guess that's a sign I should get back to being productive.

You know you have too much work to do when...

You are afraid to drink any fluids ALL day because that TWO minutes (yes, I'm fast) spent in the bathroom may just make you miss your deadline or not get everything done for the day.

Sad, right?

For the past several days I've been Excel Bitch. Tables on uranium. Tables on arsenic. Taking tables from Word, pasting into excel. Taking data from Access, putting it into Excel. And my least favorite, hand typing in data. Ugh. Seriously, I am about done with Excel. Which says a lot b/c I'm a huge geek and I love Excel.

So, that's why I haven't posted a whole lot. Because I'm in Excel Hell.

But, silver liming. I'm going to make damn sure that I'm able to leave early tomorrow so I can meet my friends in San Antonio, get plenty drunk, then spend Saturday floating down the river. Yay!

Mojitos for Everyone!

Ingredients
One pint glass
fresh mint (~12 leaves, give or take)
1 lime, cut into wedges
simple syrup*
RUM
sparking water
ice

Directions
1) Take mint leaves, place in glass. Take 1 lime wedge, squeeze juice into glass. Put lime wedge aside for later.
2) Smoosh mint leaves/lime juice with a wooden spoon until the mint is properly bruised, but not yet pulverized.
3)Squeeze lime wedges into glass. Put wedges into glass (along with the one from Step 1). I use ~1/3 to 1/2 of a lime per drink.
4) Add ~3 Tbsp of simple syrup.
5) Add rum to taste. Less if you're a wuss, more if you drink like I do. Trust me, the rum is really not all that noticeable in this. Stir.
6) Add ice. THEN sparkling water. Stir. The idea is that you want the mint/lime below the ice so you're not constantly straining crushed mint with your teeth. This is ok if you're drinking at home by yourself, not so great if you're with others and you get a big blob of mint in your teeth.
7) Drink up and repeat until you've got a good buzz.

*simple syrup = 2:1 sugar:water. Boil water in saucepan, add double the amount of sugar into boiling water, dissolve. Store in a seal-able container in the fridge. This is rumored to keep indefinitely. If you don't feel like making the simple syrup, you can just add plain sugar, but then you'll end up with a crunchy mojito.

Mexican Jello Flavors

Just got back from the grocery store. The store I like going to has an entire aisle filled with strange foreign foods. From British to Asian to Brazillian to Mexican. I love wandering down this aisle and just looking at all the crazy stuff. The mexican jello flavors always stumps me, though. I mean, what's so appetizing about walnut, pistachio, or eggnog flavored gelatin? Although, I will admit, as scary as it sounds, the eggnog flavor smelled pretty damn good. But not good enough to actually buy. Maybe someday when I feel frisky and like I want to gamble 97 cents, I'll try it.