Weird Day

It is a weird mother f*ing day… no really its like I keep finding out things or doing things that are a little crazypants.

#1 I switched up my weekly work from home routine- I switched it from Wednesday to Tuesday this week… so for ½ of the morning I was confused as to why I didn’t have any emails from 9/30- as if the day didn’t exist because clearly it’s today. Switching up your routine apparently lowers cholesterol, but I think it just made me have brain farts all morning.

Did that make sense?

# 2 I can’t make up my mind over shit today. Did I want coffee or tea this morninig- I stood in the kitchen staring at 2 containers for about 45 seconds to a minute. That’s a long time to ponder what type of caffeine I was subjecting my body to.

# 3 I really hate it when its sunny outside but starts to drizzle. My grandma used to say that when it did that it was the devil beating his wife… WTF, I don’t even believe it but always think of that bc of what GMA said… damn it Joan!

#4 You know when Al Green sings and has those little “A Ha’s!” in there? Similar to MJ’s “hee hee’s” but it’s an “A Ha!”- ok well I’ve done 2 of those outloud in the office, phenom.

I set myself off, I think it’s Thursday I don’t know what I’m doing, I feel like a venti something, and just need to get into bed and chill out. I’m just waiting for the cat and the hat to pop out and a talking goldfish to tell me I’m making bad decisions!

What If There Was More?

Would you Pay It Forward if you knew more people were doing the same? What started as a simple challenge to get people to “follow” me on Twitter is now something I have put way more thought into.

A lot of my friends know I ask a lot of rhetorical questions about why people are the way they are… in fact I just think people are rude today. That doesn’t mean their not good people, but we’ve become extremely impatient and intolerable of other people, things, and situations. The pace of life and what’s expected of us doesn’t help.

However, what about what’s expected of us socially- when did the I turn into ME ME ME? I’m curious if everyone saw what other people did, for others, that was good, would it make them want to do the same? Would you want to be inspired or motivated to do something that even in the slightest day made someone else smile or have a good day.

What if everyday you did 1 thing. 1 thing for someone else that you knew or a stranger. Perhaps something as simple as opening the door for someone whose hands were full or holding the elevator open and not pushing DOOR CLOSE. What if we all just did 1 thing per day that made someone else’s life a tad easier- even in the smallest way. And then what if you kept track of it. 365 good deeds per year. You’d probably feel pretty good about it.

Can we try? Follow the Twitter, I want to build on this.

BIG Change of Thought

What a change of thought!

So originally I had thought about doing this Pay it Forward Twitter as a way to prove my friend wrong- that he COULD NOT get 2,000 followers in 24 hours. It’s not about the followers anymore, well not completely true.

Originally I was asking for my fellow twitterflys to follow mejust see how viral it was. And yes It’s viral, but what are we doing with the virus? I’ve caught a small philanthropic bug and what if Twitter was used to make a huge social impact? Not just for fame, celebrity, or power, but for something good- something that made its community feel better and be a part of something bigger than themselves.

That’s what I want to do with this project- I want to create a Pay It Forward community. Whats important to you? Let me know via Twitter and once our community has been established we'll let you all vote on an organization that means something to you- one you want other people to get involved with. How can you turn a gesture, a dollar, or a single idea into a viral explosion of charity!?

This is very rough at this stage, but really what if we tried? This is gng to go on for a lot more than 24 hours!

Pay It Foward Twitter Style

I’ve created a personal challenge for myself and whether I succeed for fail is in up in the air until 4:00 PM EST tomorrow.

A friend of mine said he could get 2,000 new followers on Twitter by morning. I said I didn’t think it was possible due to the fact he’s not a celebrity. He coached me some in the 3 necessary steps it takes to feat such a task.

• Way to get followers number 1
  How many people to you follow?
  
• How often do you engage to the people you follow?
  ....way number 2
  
• Way 3, you find a way to link yourself to a person like that
  
• Actively discuss your community, region, industry
  
• Does the term hash tag mean anything to you? Or trending topics? Or #ff- it stands for follow Friday where people recommend other people to follow
  

Yup this list is taken directly from our Gchat convo. So I’m pretty new to this whole thing, the twitter thing, but I just don’t see how a normal person can get such notoriety and so many fans in less than a 24 hour period- so again, I’ve challenged myself.

Let’s see how viral we can get this and see how many new followers I can get in 24 hours (I’ve stretched my timeline a little). I’m not necessarily aiming for 2,000 because it’s just little ‘ol me we’re talking about, but seriously I’m going to be engaged and updating up the wazoo.

Every hour there will be an update on the number of followers I’ve gotten. Between the hours of 11 PM- 7:00 AM I will be sleeping. Overnight should be interesting.

Pass it forward and let’s see how many WE can get!

Not a Complete Fan

I’m not a fan of the complete womens movement. I am not anti-woman, and I am all in favor of equal rights, equal pay and all that jazz. But I am not a fan of someday knowing I’m going to end up with 2 jobs: workplace and domestic, eventually I will be working 24/7.

There was an interesting segment on tv regarding how womens happiness has declined since the 70’s. I contribute this to expecting women to join the work force then go home and have dinner waiting for Don, Sally, and little Jimmy.

What was so wrong with a man being the bread winner and the woman staying at home? Running a household is a full-time job. This is not a view I’ve always had- in fact, I’ve always been very vocal about how both parents should contribute to the family income, and how that sets a good example for what a good work ethic is for your kids, etc.

But now that I’m here I don’t see how I would be able to hold this 8-5 and come home and have energy to put food on the table, help with homework, do laundry and all of the other 900 activities kids are doing these days.

My mom is self employed- she works, but makes her own schedule. That’s what I want. I want to be able to still provide for myself and have my own money but have the freedom to be and work at home if I choose.

I totally used to think it was bad for a girl to say I just want to get married and be a stay at home-mom. I don’t want that completely, but it goes back to having enough time in the day to complete everything that needs to be done- it’s just not possible.

It's not a detriment to women, but you can’t ask anyone, man or woman, to do that much in one day and then ask them to be able to perform in bed. If you can... BRAVO because I’m already exhausted when I come home from work and I don’t have a boyfriend, husband, kids, the whole she-bang. I don’t even have a pet.

If you hadn't guessed that's the logo for Mad-Men. A phenomenal show on AMC, Sundays at 10 PM EST. It's not necessarily a pretty picture of how things used to be, or should be, but I really do love how a man went to work, the kids went off to school, and the women took care of everything else- and damn it going to the hair salon once a week to get pampered is awesome.

Clean Sheets

(P.S. not my bed) I thought about this at 4 this morning, and then again lying in bed for 15 minutes before I got up. I sleep 10x better when my sheets are clean. Not to be gross, but I was not a person who washed their sheets every week. Washing your sheets is a pain in the arse, and especially in college who is going to take the time to do 2-3 loads of laundry for their bed… I didn’t.

I’d say on average I used to wash my sheets once a month- oh stop your snickering I think a lot of people are like that. ANYWAYS…. Most recently I started washing my sheets every week and sleeping in a fresh clean bed is the shizzzzzzz. It’s just fresh and comfy and new and wonderful and now I am totally washing my sheets every week.

I woke up this morning to find that I had barely moved in my bed. The sheets weren’t all tussled and I hadn’t kicked everything off the bed (not including STARFISH). But yes, sleeping in a clean bed fosters an awesome night sleep, and I am a huge fan of the “clean laundry smell”- I might prefer it over cologne actually. Point is I felt like one of those people in the febreeze commercials… I couldn’t stop smelling my sheets and once again I found another thing to add to my list of “things that make Renee make cheesy smile faces”.

Word.

Stuff for Friday

So the twitter thing is fun- I dig it. Sometimes though it’s hard to decide if a random thought should be written out in detail on here, or give the brief version on twitter. Either way, I think it’s awesome and slightly addicting.

Keep the followers coming- I appreciate it!

Not to be a copy cat, but I did see the movie Julie & Julia, and I wouldn’t dream of reinventing the wheel and going through her cookbook to do all of the recipes, but some of those things looked freaking awesome, and I totally want to try them!


$40.00 for the cookbook- I think it’s worth it. It was such a bad idea seeing that movie hungry.

Happy New Year (Mazel!)

Balloons!!!

I haven't had a reason to do this in years, but I had lots of balloons from my bday and thought why not make the next video blog while sucking the helium out which makes your voice rediculously high.... no it's not whippids or drugs- I'm giggling because i forgot how funny this is, I can entertain myself quite easily :)

p.s. i have to plug Oliver Peoples for the glasses- style drake, color crystal.

Catching Up from Last Week

The birthday was fantastic (and yes, that's my apartment)! I was so happy and big thank you’s for everyone who came! It was a ridiculously fun weekend which resulted in my average bed time to be 3:45 in the AM.

I don’t think I’ve had so much cake and rich foods in one weekend mixed with marshmallow milkshakes and drinks. Good jaheeeeeez-us. And what a surprise to come back to work and have a lovely, huge, and NOW NOW NOW list of things to do. Good news: My boss is out for the whole week- yayyy. The work is manageable, keeps me busy, and makes the days go by faster.

Lots of favors asked, but fortunately because of Ms. Cathie Black I have learned to politely say I can’t help you this time, but when I’m finished I’ll check up to see if you need further help.

Thanks Cathie! If you don’t know who she is, President of Hearst Publications- she’s phenom.

Oh and also, I twitted earlier about Kayne being a douche at the VMA’s. I’m starting to think he does it on purpose for publicity…. May be instead of drinking and partying, his claim to fame is being an ass. Do you think they’ll beef up stage security from now on?

Also, the MJ tribute was fantastic! The set was amazing, the arrangements were seamless and Janet was boss- if you didn’t watch do it.

If you also missed Beyonce’s performance she killed it! Best performance of the night.

This week is crazy busy at work, I’ll be sure to have some fun stories for sure. I love how helpless corporate people are sometimes.

New fun word: Jaded. Reference Real World Cancun if you don’t know already.

The Tale of Creepy Yellow Motorcycle Man

I’m not the only person in my apartment building who shares this sentiment. There is a guy probably 35+ who owns and drives a yellow motorcycle. I’ll get to why he’s creepy in a minute, but first I want to point out how my annoyance with his parking manners turned into creepiness. I have named him Creepy Yellow Motorcycle Man.

He doesn’t drive a Harley Davidson, or some other bike that legitimately takes up a parking spot. He drives a smaller motorcycle, not a Vespa or scooter, but it’s small- small enough that he doesn’t need a whole parking spot to himself. Westwood parking is somewhat limited and finding a close spot in the front doesn’t always happen, but it’s not terrible. What’s terrible is coming home somewhat late and going “YES! An open spot in the front!” to just pull around and see the damn yellow mini motorcycle. It just happens too much, and there’s a sliver spot that he could safely park his yellow machine and no one would hit it- he’s greedy.

So there’s some background, but he’s a creepy guy and not because of his parking antics. I was walking from my car to the apartment building and he was in front of me- he’s the worst starer I’ve ever seen. Any girl that walked by he legitimately stared down and turned his head as they walked by- ew. AND he was with a girl. Long story short I rode in the elevator with him and this girl and he looks at me and goes 8- that’s a good number- WHAAAAAT??? Do you ever just get weird vibes from people?

My friend Sal has some fun observances, but it would be too long to type. This morning Sal and I for the first time saw creepy yellow motorcycle man in a suit and up at 7:45 going somewhere. We couldn’t help but exchange txts in a WTF manner. Oddly enough we took the same route to work, but he dipped off at another point on Dupont. Ughhh Creepy Yellow Motorcycle Man.

Twitter??

Ok so I never thought I'd actually jump on the bandwagon, but yes I just created a Twitter page. Holler @BlueSmeeBlog and follow. This won't be good for my attention span at work :p http://twitter.com/BlueSmeeBlog

Quirks

It’s been brought to my attention by a certain friend that I have certain quirks.
I’m very well aware of these, but to have someone specifically point them out was amusing to me and made me laugh like a tart at work for a good 15 minutes yesterday.

So I decided to think of everypossible quirk I thought I have and post them. Why not? Their funny- at least to the quirker.

1. I randomly burst into song when doing small tasks. Sometimes I’m not aware of it, especially around people.
2. When telling stories I sometimes speak like Pee-Wee Herman, but for no more than a phrase at a time.
3. Thunder doesn’t phase me… slamming a door, random crying or outbursts make me jump.
4. I kick in the sheets when I stretch in bed. After which I sprawl out in a position I like to call “The Starfish”.
5. Michael Jackson music pumps me up.
6. I burp, but I always say excuse me.
7. I can find something funny about 80-90% of commercials on TV and laugh out loud on the couch.
8. I think it's funny when I put huge earrings in my nose ring
9. Stupid things make me cry in kid movies- For example when Kevin from Home Alone 2 is reunited with his mom under the big Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center- waterworks. And then I laugh at myself for being an idiot.
10. I’ve always dreamed about being on Jeopardy or being an Oscar Meyer Weener kid in the commercials.
11. I love my big f’ing glasses (optical and sun)
12. If I'm doing laundry for my bed sheets or towels I still wrap myself in them when I take them out of the dryer- undoubtedly there's a cheesy smile on my face.
13. My blog is a quirk ya dig?