Oh To Be a Woman

Today was an amazing day for me. Usually I would say that a six hour drive between Sacramento and Santa Barbara is more of a boring day, but something amazing happened during this drive, something that shocked me to my very core. About two hours into the drive we stopped at a Chevron somewhere south of Stockton on the I-5, and I get out and head to the bathroom. And this is where I saw it. As I walked to the ladies room I noticed that the men's room actually had a small line while I walked straight into the ladies. This never happens. I've waited in lines for ten minutes as thousands of guys goes in and out while the women in line make small talk about how there is always a line for girls. So I couldn't help but smile a triumphant smile at the guy, because for once I was able to walk straight up to the door and go in.

Weird Day

Ever have one of those days that's just kind of surreal? Today was my last day at my first "real" job, I was there for over two and a half years. I thought that I would be sad to go, kind of nostalgic? Nope, the whole day just kind of passed. Didn't seem special, monumental, nothing. Of course I'll miss some of the people but not the job itself. The main feeling I get is relief. So the whole day I kind of just went through the motions, the weirdest point was when I finished cleaning off my desk and packed everything away and all I thought was "Hmm my desk has never been that clean, looks weird." And the worst part is getting ready for my new job the part that I mention is the best part is that I can walk to work. Does nothing else draw me to the job, sadly that was the deciding factor.

Milestones

I'm am so proud today. After two years and much agony I've finally finished, and I don't think that I've ever been prouder. College graduation, my first job these are nothing compared to the joy I feel from this. That's right I've finally finished knitting my first scarf. Sure the lines aren't the straightest and many of the loops are large enough to drive cars through but I don't care, I wear it proudly to work on this the twenty fifth day of April. And then you might ask me, why this project has taken me 2 years? Well I started in Dan's house thinking to knit myself something warm in that freezing place, but my joints froze up from the cold and I could only knit very slowly. Summer came along and it got put away. And then we moved. So randomly I was trying to find something in the closet when I came across my old knitting, so I brought it downstairs and decided to give it another shot. And now after about a month I have a finished scarf!! YEAH ME!

Sure I Can Drive Five Hours

Ah the joys of getting married. One of them is calling up friends from miles away so that they can watch you try on dresses while they sit there and ooh and ahh wondering why this place doesn't have vending machines because a big bar of chocolate would definitely be appreciated. Of course I can't really complain I promised that if she needed me I would be up there, and I wanted to go too. As E is one of my closest friends it nice to be a part of the planning. But I'm not a good shopper, it tires me out and it gets annoying really quickly. But wedding dress shopping is different you actually have to make an appointment and then wake up early and head to these places, where it takes at least two people to dress one person, in dresses that cost more than my rent. And of course no one can decide on one dress, they all look wonderful, although there were quite a few that looked hideous (as a good bridesmaid I let her know that those were not an option), so we take pictures and then obsess about those for the rest of the night. After the dress is narrowed down to two likely contenders its the bridesmaids' turn to try on the dresses. Thankfully we basically ran out of time. I'm kind of hoping that they just tell me to buy a certain dress, at this point I don't even care if it looks good I just don't want to try anything on. Although I did get a hot dog on a stick so I had a good day.

Procrastination and Taxes

Have you noticed that taxes aren't really that hard to do anymore? Well if you're me, a single gal making very little they aren't hard to do at all. But I still wait till the last minute and then scramble around and try to find all of my W-2s. I swear I put them all in the same spot, but I could only find two of the three forms that I needed. Oh well I'm a pretty good guesser. Then I had to decide if I was going to do this the traditional way or online, online won by a landslide. I got a bunch of emails from turbo tax, and I'm a big believer in quantity not quality so I gave them a shot. They are great for for federal, but charge you for state the whole thing probably took about ten minutes. And since today is the seventeenth I suck it up and pay for state instead of doing them again (I have no idea where I stuck the rest of my W-2s anyways). At least I'm getting more back than what I had to pay. Now here I am sitting at work printing out my tax forms and looking for an envelope, asking myself why didn't I finish this three weeks ago when I started filling out the form and got distracted by Land of the Dead? At least the post offices are open till midnight.

Parents

I went up to visit my parents for the weekend. I love the bay area but visiting my parents is kind of a chore. Its not that I don't love them, I do its just that they are divorced so I feel like have to spend a certain amount of time with both of them to be fair. And then I have no time to visit my friends. I have to sneak up to the Bay Area and not tell my parents if I want to visit friends, and then I feel guilty. But the other thing is that I don't do anything when I visit my parents. I sit, eat, and watch t.v. And then I go to the other house and the cycle repeats itself. This time I mixed it up a bit by bringing my knitting, wow that was a good time. And then my dad always tries to get me to have a drink or be ok with him smoking a stinky cigar, I showered because I don't want to smell bad, your cigar will completely ruin the effect. A five hour drive for this? I get guilt trips about not coming home, but when was the last time one of them came and visited me? My mom cam over a year and a half ago my dad almost two years ago. But still its my fault, I'm a bad child for moving so far away.

Mind wanderings

 So I'm trying to take up knitting again. Its kind of frustrating, and I'm no good at it but it keeps my hands busy. So last night as I sat at home trying to knit, feminism popped into my head. I have no idea why, I think knitting is neither a feminist or nonfeminist thing, its generally a girlie thing but I don't think practitioners of the craft have any particular leanings either way. But there I was and a commercial came on, and it made me so annoyed. In our battles to make everything equal, advertising does its best to keep all stereotypes intact. Its moms that are cleaning the house and making dinner, men that are driving fast cars, and clothing challenged women selling beer. So I tip my hat to you Hoover vacuum for having bikers as the spokesmen for your product, bikers drinking milkshakes. There is no point to this story.