The Winter Solstice, or the Winter Solicit, I’m not sure which….

Two situations last night, basically happening in the same spot just at different times during the evening.

Walking to the ladies room:

Gent: Excuse me, are you red?  They must call you red.

Me: Sometimes

(Caught me off guard so I tried to keep it simple with one word answers).

Just keep walking!

Sitting at the bar, older gent, much older gent, should actually be retired, dressed in a work suit and nice jacket (if I didn’t know better I would have thought Santa had regular 9-5 job).  Thankfully my posse didn’t go very far and stayed within the ‘save me’ eye distance.

OD (old dog): Hello, you have a beautiful smile

Me: Thank you

(I figured he was just being nice and he would move along with the rest of his pack)

…I’m going to skip to the good stuff

OD: I’m (insert name here)

Me: I’m (insert pseudo name of the night here I carry these around with me like credit cards for times like this)

OD: Where are you from?

Me: I live in (insert pseudo name of the town I chose to live in for the night).

OD: Oh that’s pretty close

OD: What would you say if I asked you to come home and take care of me?

Me: (again caught off guard at his sheer bluntness) You’re a sweet man and I’m flattered but no.

(At this point I’m pissed, he’s blocked me in on the chair so I can’t get up unless I’m rude and did he just solicit me?)

A drink was put in my hand by one of my friends and I tried to ignore him the best I could, if you don’t make eye contact eventually he will go away.

OD: Would you think about it?

Me: No thank you, I’m flattered.

It may have been the way I said that, that prompted him to say
OD: I guess I should walk away now

Me: Yes.

I’ll give the OD credit, he tried and failed even with the Claddagh ring on his finger, I should have suggested he meet my Grandma, she’s single.

‘Cuz You’re Hot N’ We’re Cold

Everyone has their own standing temperature, what they are comfortable at in both hot and cold weather.  I prefer to be warm in the summer, not sweating, but warm enough where I do not need to wear a cardigan indoors (obviously one of the reasons why they call it summertime).  In the winter I prefer to be comfortable, meaning my nose, hands and feet are not cold, again indoors.   Here’s where it gets tricky.  In an office setting, in the summertime, men get warmer before the women do, so they jack the AC up.  Some women have the same body temperature as the men so they aren’t complaining.  The rest of us are chilly.  There’s also the theory that businesses keep the air conditioning on full blast (and/or do not turn the heat on to a comfortable setting) to 1) prohibit those who are fit to wear classy business attire that may consist of a sleeveless shirt and skirt to distract the workers around them (just because they work hard to stay in shape and be healthy aka have a right to ‘bear arms’) and 2) to keep us awake.  One good thing about #1 is I haven’t had to buy anything new for work in a few years and unfortunately #2 puts me to sleep (many of us do not sleep with the heat up to normal in the winter).  #1 also provides me with the opportunity to wear a skirt but have to sit at my desk with a blanket over my legs, and keep a heavy sweater or fleece handy at all times. (I have seen men walking around in their coats and sweaters, so at times its not just the women who are cold.)  I can also see the point in #1, this is where the double standard comes in.  When its too warm, number #1 also prohibits the others from wearing clothes from their teenage daughters closet, going against company dress code policy in general.

 

Yes I sit in a bad spot, I not only have the breeze from the hall that leads from the lobby area, I am surrounded by 3 vents, so the constant air on me is not healthy to begin with.  I can’t complain too much though, I can wear my winter clothes throughout the year (can you hear the sarcasm?)  And thanks to a sign posted by office management on the thermostat closest to my area, the temperature gastapo has stopped moving the dial below 70.

So there are a few good things that come about from this daily inconvenience.  Not only has the inconsistent temperature saved me money from buying new work clothes for the change of seasons, it also makes me spend more money to keep warm in the winter months because you never know if the heat is going to be on when you walk in on Monday.  There are only so many layers of clothes you can wear to work before it gets to be ridiculous, sitting at your desk in a turtleneck, sweater, plus your coat, scarf and fingerless gloves for half the day draws the line.  At times its more comfortable outside in the sun. 

Some say if you get up in the morning and dread going to work you’re not having fun or you don’t like your job, the only thing I dread is knowing what the temperature will be.  Because its not healthy or good for your posture if you are hunched over your keyboard shivering, trying to keep warm, or leaning in because the draft is too much.  I don’t think we’ll ever win this battle (since things haven’t changed since I’ve been here so I’m quite used to it), but at least we can avoid it by working from home/Starbucks/Panera where its comfortable.

HP – and not Hewlett Packard

Don’t have much to say about the other night except that we crashed a ‘group’ party.  A group party meaning most of the attendees were extras from the “Big Bang Theory” or could have been their doubles.  But the line of the night goes to a young gent who had asked us what we were drinking and in response asked “What’s stoli?”

Full Moon Coffee – a new taste of sleepyness

I’ve been up since 3:15 am, yes, AM.  After tossing and turning with no chance of falling back asleep I got out of bed at 4 am today and started my day (about 50 minutes earlier than usual).  One cup of coffee kick started this insomniacs day, and that’s my max for the day.  But today I had two cups, it just didn’t seem right not having coffee at 7 am with breakfast.  (I might be a little crazy to be wide awake at 4 am, but not that crazy to have breakfast too, I wasn’t even hungry.)  So I started my day by doing laundry, then continuing to wrap the Christmas presents, made the list of boxes and bags I needed to buy to finish and then logged on to work.  I watched emails come in from Europe at 5 am and thought that was way too early to respond.  It wasn’t, they’re used to me replying earlier, I guess they didn’t think any different today.

Now somehow I am still awake, 15 hours later, wide awake, not tired. I tried my hardest to tire myself out today, even by finishing the laundry by 8 am.  Ran 2 miles, did 25 minutes of P90X Shoulders and Arms, I cooked dinner, packed the ingredients for cookie weekend, watched True Grit (it was Ooh kay) and anything else that was collecting dust on my DVR.  As frustrated as I was (am still) I did some digging.  I usually cannot sleep when there is a full moon but that’s three days away and this is the 2^nd time in 2 months I’ve been up for an extended period of time (and not on purpose).  Last time I blamed it on the pumpkin coffee I had at 5 pm on Thanksgiving, Target was lucky not to find me shopping in their store.  I tried so hard to tire myself out that day, I shopped till I dropped (2 bouts of Black Friday shopping) and a movie later, I was still awake. 

I haven’t had any coffee or caffeine since the two cups this morning, I ate normal today, nothing unusual, no chocolate snacks to keep me up and no sugar, at this rate I might as well just keep going, I’m sure I could find something else to do around here besides analyze why I am indeed still awake.  I could try the old fashioned remedies…drink warm milk, hot chamomile tea with honey, but instead I choose to write about it in the hopes that I’d find this as a subliminal way to count sheep.  Sad to say its not working, so around my usual bedtime tonight should I need some kickstart to finding my pillow comfortable again, I will rely on my sleeping pills to knock me out until my alarm goes off.  If that doesn’t work, then I’ll be back here feverishly typing another bedtime story.