Monday, October 30, 2006

"The Uglies"

Do you ever get the uglies? If you're female, you know what I'm talking about. The uglies can hit when you least expect it. They sneak up on you like a bad pimple! You get to work and you feel great - you're stylin' - feeling good, a confident, sophisticated momma...but then...afternoon hits, you go to the ladies' room to check your fine self out - and...aghast!!....you see....the UGLIES have hit!

How does this happen? How do you go from a vision of beauty at 7am to a frizzy-haired, blotchy-skinned, bloated, red-eyed "ugly" by 3pm? Could it be the circulated office air? or what you ate at lunch? or how stressful your day has been? Perhaps, but I personally think there is an ugly-monster who comes out and secretly sprinkles ugly-dust on me.

A good friend of mine and I had an idea. We thought that we would make some extra money on our lunch hours by setting up a "Beat the Uglies Booth". We would go to the lobby of our office building with our supplies - foundation, powder, lipstick, hairspray, perfume, etc. Women could come by on their lunch hour, walk thru' our booth, sort of like an assembly line - and get touched up, sprayed and straightened out, and then continue on their way. The whole process would only take a couple of minutes and voila! no more uglies! We thought it was a brilliant idea!

Unfortunately the security guards at our office building did not.

So, for now I will just accept the fact that the uglies may get me now and then and I will have to rely on my inner beauty to shine through. And...you know...maybe the Uglies aren't all bad...Halloween is just around the corner after all. We could save money on a pumpkin and just put my head in the window!

Friday, October 27, 2006

Vacations

"Vacation...All I ever wanted...Vacation...Had to get away...Vacation...Meant to be spent alone" - a little Go-Go's action to get you groovin'. But really...are vacations meant to be spent alone? Some say yes; some say no. I just had a fabulous trip of a lifetime in September. For 25 days I lived the life of luxury. 4 days in London, England, then off to France for the remaining three weeks. Let me tell you...had I been there alone, I would have seen bupkiss, but thanks to my wonderful tour guide (aka 'the boyfriend' - hereinafter referred to as the "BF" - can you tell i'm in the legal field?) I saw everything my little (big) heart desired. This post is not to get into the details of our trip - my friends and family have already been tortured with our 3 hours of video and 542 digital pics. No - the point of this is to contemplate - are vacations better taken with someone, or on your own?

A lot of people travel by themselves - some by choice - some due to circumstance. I have never travelled alone. I think I would be a little scared, and a little lonely. But..there are those who love the freedom of not being on anyone else's schedule - seeing exactly what you want, when you want, etc. You want to eat at that restaurant? go for it! You want to go to that museum? knock yourself out! You want to sit on a beach all day and read your book and not go anywhere? Fabulous! When you travel alone - you are free. Free to come and go and do and see whatever you like. But.....with all these wonderful things you are doing and seeing - is it not more fun to share it with someone? I think so. I loved my vacation with the BF. Even though there were times when I'm sure he wished he was travelling alone (due to my groans of "my feet hurt" / "i'm getting car sick" / "i don't want to eat there" / "do you really know what subway line to take?", etc.), I didn't feel that way once. I loved every minute of every day sharing these new experiences with him. My eyes were the size of golfballs when I saw the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame and endless acres of vineyards, etc. I was seeing all these places that I'd ever only read about, and I was so happy to be there with him. Once home, I asked him "did you like travelling with me or do you prefer to travel alone?" His response was...

Actually - do I really have to tell you? We're still together aren't we? ;)

So what about you my friends? what do you prefer? Flying Solo or The More the Merrier?

Thursday, October 26, 2006

"And Stuff....."

So, you know how some people have their own little sayings, or phrases that they tend to use - usually at the end of their sentences. Well, I've been known to finish off the odd time with the ever fabulous encapsulating term of "and stuff". I never thought of this being abnormal or slang in any way - it was just a way of saying, 'you know...there's more to it...but don't want to list every little detail' - so the 'and stuff' kind of covers that yes? Apparently no - It's been brought to my attention by someone that it's really a useless term - serves no purpose - and is in fact, just silly. However, this someone also has said that he's never heard that saying before until he heard it from me. (love you honey - but what planet were you living on?)

So - to all my peeps who are in touch with my emotion - let's have a moment shall we?

"I saw this skirt I really liked, but it had all these flowers on it and stuff...so I didn't buy it". (translation- great skirt - but the flowers were too big and the wrong colour and kind of made the skirt look too 'busy' and wouldn't have gone with most of the tops in my closet, and I'd probably prefer a plain skirt to a printed one...) - case in point - "and stuff" just saved me like 40 words! loves it. let's try again:

"I took this class and the teacher was showing us how to tie knots and stuff". (translation: I signed up for sailing lessons and we had to spend the whole first day just learning how to tie different kind of knots - slip knots, reef knots, etc. and then we had to see who could do them the quickest and the winner got a prize and then we all had lunch). bravo! - another 40+ words saved.

So you see, "and stuff" can really become your friend if you just embrace it. Who doesn't need more time in their day? This little saying will surely get you on your way. And hey....at least I'm not a "whatnot" girl. HATE that phrase - "whatnot".......it's just stupid and stuff. ;)

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

My First Blog

Ok...so, here goes...Lisa shall try to blog. I say 'try' because I'm not the most disciplined of individuals, and I feel that blogging requires dedication and a somewhat energetic thought process. A friend at work has a blog and I LOVE reading it. So I thought, hey, perhaps someone would like to read about me too? Maybe...maybe not - I may be the only one reading my blog, but I guess it's a way for me to share some of my thoughts and maybe teach even me something I didn't know about myself. (was that a grammatically correct sentence? I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to good grammar - of course I love my slang too, and will often use on this site, but you know..."I aint got none" just drives me nuts). anyway ... where was I ... oh right...blogging.

So, when someone says to you "hey..how's it going" - do you ever give them a detailed history of your daily events - share with them what bothered you, enlightened you, confused you, or just plain made you smile (or cry?) NO - usually you say "yeah..good...'n you?" - So, here's a chance for me to expand on the "how am I today" and put it on paper so to speak, rather than giving a 10 minute answer to a question that was most likely rhetorical in the first place. I thought maybe I would post a question every so often for you to think about, something that I'm curious about, or something that I really would like an answer to! Hopefully you can give me some of your thoughts back, in the comments section. How's that sound? (no - that wasn't the question...) You learn about me - I learn about you. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. Ok - there ya go - question # 1 - where the heckizzle did that saying come from!!?? Let the games begin!