crazy week.
layoffs.
i have somehow for the 2nd time managed to avoid the chopping block.
so, i get to continue to come to work everyday..unlike about half of my department.

of course now we are all in this frenzied mode of figuring out who is going to do what, when etc.

these types of things always force your hand a little. one of those times you just have to think long and hard about what it is you are doing, where you want to be, stuff like that.
the bitch is that the ecomony is not very forgiving if i come to any conclusions that this is not where i want to be, want to be doing and so on.
ironically, i had just updated my resume on monster last weekend. this was out of the blue, so the timing seems somewhat ironic, almost pre-determined.
time will tell. i will keep doing my job the best i can, and if i get the axe, well i go have a few drinks(quite possibly more than a few) and the next morning, slightly groggy, i begin to figure out what i am doing.
no need to panic yet.

Read Still Life With Woodpecker.
it asks the right questions. not where are the weapons of mass destruction? but questions that count in our day to day existence. what makes love stay? what happened to the golden ball?
read it.
you won't be dissapointed and you might be enlightened.
yum.

some things i think i know...
almost a top 10 but not really.

1. getting a massage once a month, while great, is not nearly frequently enough.
2. cats will always, no matter what they are doing, find you the minute you open a magazine, newspaper or book and sit right on it.
3. i can ask for a beer in close to 10 languages.
4. my mother always calls on saturdays right as i am sitting down with a plate of hot pancakes. they are never hot when we are done talking.
5. i have my grandmothers laugh.
6. i think perfectionists and procrastinators are very close to being one in the same.
7. i should travel more.
8. as much as i tried to avoid it, i find myself saying/doing things like my parents.
9. adultswim on cartoon network has to be one of the funniest things on tv.
10. i can quote WAY too many movies verbatim from the 80's (thank you john hughes)
11. i sing as loud as i can in my car and the shower, i should not sing anywhere else.
12. chunky shoes not withstanding, i am short.
13. i should own a motorcycle.

i have decided to take on a new hobby.
i am going to learn how to create web sites. not a big deal.
web designers are all around, this i know. but i want my own site and i want it to be reflective of what i want, not some canned format... no offense to the lovely folks at blogger.com that make this all possible.
so this weekend i am begining.
i will keep my progress here.

also i wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a cultural phenomena that i witnessed first hand last night.
having seen a few legitimate cultural phemomena, i think it is fair to say this one ranks up there.
granted this is not like a running of the bulls type thing, but has its place in iowa.

so sunday was the kick-off day for RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa)
One: the Register is the Des Moines Register...local daily paper
Two: I have been informed that the acronym sucks. well, i had little, scratch that, NO imputs when it was decided some 20 odd years ago.

so here is the deal. every summer at the end of july people from all over the states (and a few from other countries as well) start at the west side of this lovely midwestern state and bike to the other side. 7 days total on a predetermined route. which is varied from year to year.
so a few of my motivated friends decided to give it a shot this year. i have now been enlightened to the fact (and i don't think i am revealing any real secrets here) that this week is more about partying and drinking than biking.
which leads me to my phenomena....
last night drove down to the town that was closest on the route to des moines and met up with my friends.
we hung out on the bus (the support vehicle, support of course means mobile bar) which was eerily reminescent of some bad college parties, complete with the busch light in a can and a lingering stench of old socks and then made our way down to the beer garden the local town folk had put up in the town square...and yes, they had a bandstand and everything, this is small town iowa we are talking about.
so every one that rides, does so with a team. the teams have names, logos, t-shirts, hats...your basic marketing wear.
they also get stickers made.
and here is where it gets interesting.
they take rolls of stickers with their team name and logo on it, and peruse the crowds at the beer garden for members of the opposite sex in which to plant them on.
nothing out of the ordinary there.
except, your goal is to get as many, in as many places as you can.
i watched a group of men (more than likely professional in their "real" lives) circle around a girl (and this was not just one instance, they did it a few times) grab her around the waist, turn her upside down and using a sticker that was being sucked against their lips plant them all over her butt.
good times.

crazy really. i suppose this is the nearest these guys will ever get to some sort of girls gone wildtype activity. not that i condone any of it, but i thought i would log it here for everymore recorded.
like i said, cultural phenomena. there is no rule that says you have to like/appreciate them. but you do have to at least think about it.

i might start a whole seperate blog on the events like this. Meghans Cultural Phenomena. of course it would be somewhat limited and may not hold a captive audience for those outside the midwest...who knows? i will record them when i see them. if volumes are sufficient, maybe then.
that is all for today from my little corner of the world.

gorgeous day here in lovely iowa.
nice change of pace from the humidty that seems to follow you everywhere and stick to your skin better than a band-aid.
ideal day to play hooky.
just need some willing accomplices and everyone is being a responsible adult for some reason.
whatever.

i need a vacation.
my attention to detail has suffered and dragging myself out of bed in the morning has become a cosmic battle. with the cosmos coming dangerously close to winning on several occasions.
last year i took a whole week and camped my pale ass on the beach.
for those of you who have not been, check out Dewey Beach in Delware. well worth the trek. spring break for the 25-35 crowd.
i was not pale when i left...not tan, more of a lobster red. but, did the trick. no meetings, no voicemail, no email...nuttin'.
loved it.

this year, alas, no beach for me.

which brings me to my "needing a vacation" comment.
i need one.
however, not thinking i am going to get one this year.
sucks.
that is what happens when you start a new job...vacation takes the hit.
plus at my last job, overtime could be applied to vacation time. here, nothing. if i could use my overtime for vacation, i would have a month of it at this point.

so instead, i take a 3 day weekend here, a 3 day weekend there.
not the worst way to use vacation time, but not the same.

went to omaha this weekend.
city gets a bad rap. i lived there for 7 years (4 of which were in school) and it really is not that bad. especially in the summer.
saw a bunch of old friends. shocks me some times. not that i am tripping the life fantastic, or the rock style lifestyle by any means. but i still go out and have fun. of course most of my friends are single. most of my friends that i used to run with are all married and domestic and stuff.
if they are happy, then no big deal. i just still enjoy going out and being social.
although while there i had this horrible feeling that i was going to run into my ex. i have not seen him or spoken to him for that matter, since we broke up 2.5 years ago. the thought of seeing him kinda freaked me out. it is really easy to work through a break up and who you are when you don't have to worry about running into them at the grocery store or the bar/restuarant that you like to hang out in.
but, chalk that one up to meghan's flair for drama or her tendency to think too hard about some things. not a single glimpse of him all weekend.


so for kicks the other night i was checking out the local singles on match.com. one of those pop-ups while browsing got the best of me. damn marketing people.
anyhew...kinda funny. some people take that stuff seriously, others have a bit more tongue in cheek attitude about the whole thing.
can't really say that i found prince charming among the lot. although a blurry digital photo and some self-deprecating single paragraph on what you want out of a relationship are hardly worthy for quick judgement.
i don't think i could ever go that route. i kinda suck at the dating/small talk crap and that is how all those deals have to start. at least i think that is how they start.
of course, i still reserve the right to lament the lack of quality men in the des moines greater metro area.
although, one of the last holdouts in the dating game has been hooked. my great neighbor kim who is always available to go grab a beer or two and bitch about life with has met a boy. at a bar. at the same bar that my now ex-roomie met her fiancee.
doesn't that mean i am due?
really, he is a good guy. kim deserves it.

on a closing note as i have been all over the charts today, i have begun re-reading "still life with woodpecker" by tom robbins. for those of you that have not had the pleasure of mr. robbins prose, i highly suggest any of his books. i am partial to this one as it was the first of his i read, and has an amusing theory on redheads.
go to your local library (not the local college bar, not barnes and noble, the place where you get books to read for free) and check out a copy.
well worth the time.
who knows, maybe my outlaw bomber is out there after all...
a girl can dream.

do you ever have one of those days where your mind is moving in roughly 10 million directions and you can't seem to get a handle on any of it?
one of those days.

been doing a lot of thinking lately. could be from the fact that i know have a rather empty house. which is odd. i have more crap than i care to think about, yet the house seems strangely empty. i guess i knew all along that the roomie's stuff was hers. no question there. it just seems like it was more a home with all of our stuff all over. i know, i know, rather cheesy, smarmy comment. but that is life on occasion. so now i am in a position where i am trying to make it home again and still look for a roommate. of course, when new roomie moves in, the whole "home" concept gets re-arranged all over again.
vicious circle.

so back to my recent bought of pensive-ness.
work has been kicking my butt. late nights, lots to do. however, my boss and i might just kill each other. actually he is not technically my boss. which is a good thing, as my rather short irish temper seems to kick into over drive whenever we have the slightest disagreement. but i get the feeling that i am picking up a lot of his slack in addition to my own. hoping things will calm down on monday after we get this major project done.
i for one will be much happier.

but work is not really what i have been thinking about, short of finding a new job in a bigger city. constant effort on my part. just hard to convince people to move you half way across the country. i will get there.

no, just kinda trying to figure out where i want to be (more spiritually/emotionally etc) with my life. first thing that i need to do is work on the physical.
gack.
but i have to do something. that much i know. looking into a yoga program.

on the upside, have some fun planned before too long. going to sturgis this year (again) for some fun with motorcycles. we are actaully looking into creating our own line of gear. specifically for the chick on the back.
you can check it out at www.seatcandy.com
so that is coming up. as long as the weather holds out, we will have a great time.
and i am planning a trip to chicago for a few days. always manage some good clean fun in the windy city...right.
and will be back in DC sometime this fall (sept/oct)
so, now that everyone has my itenirary..on with the rants.

blah
blork
gack
ick
pphshsspt

i think i should go home. except it is 3 pm...would have to sneak out WAY under the radar. not sure how to make that happen.
i will keep you posted.
i should go. in theory they pay me to work, not blog.