‘Random’ Category

04 March 2010

Treat Friday

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Random, work

I love Fridays. And no, not TGI Fridays. Okay, TGI Fridays isn’t awful, I thought it would be more like Chotchkie’s in Office Space and was disappointed when the waiters didn’t wear flair.

Back on point! I look forward to Fridays because I walk into my office and yell out, “It’s Treat Friday!” and I hear some of my coworkers mumble back “it’s Treat Friday!”

Before I sat near them, they had no idea what it is and now Fridays take on a whole new meaning in my part of the office.

Actually, that might be a crock, but I like to think it isn’t.

Treat Friday is simple: On Fridays, you eat WHATEVER you want. Calories, carbs, fat grams, sodium, alcohol content (to some extent) don’t matter. AT ALL.

Treat Friday is all about treating yourself.

Why? Well…why not? Don’t we all deserve a treat at the end of the week?

I bring my lunch to work four days a week and now that I can’t eat chocolate candy because of Lent, I am in NEED of a pick-me-up on Friday and Treat Friday is just that.

Hannah’s Bretzel for lunch? SURE! Milkshake from Potbelly’s? GET TWO!

On Treat Friday, it’s whatever you want whenever. So when Treat Friday rolls around, my cubemates and I discuss what we’ll be having for lunch that day as our indulgence.

It’s pretty great. Tomorrow is another Treat Friday and I cannot wait.

I’m trying to decide already how I will reward myself for another week of work :) Plus, I’m taking the day off so it’s like a DOUBLE treat.

What’s your idea of a perfect Treat Friday?

My official Oscar picks: The big show is this weekend and I absolutely cannot wait! So to get in the Oscar spirit, I’ve listed my official Oscar picks in the major categories.

Let me know if you agree or think I’m off my rocker.

01 March 2010

Rooms I hate to clean

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Random, apartment

When I was a kid, I always had household cleaning chores. Mine centered around dusting and vacuuming, which are the perfect tasks to get a perfectionist anal retentive kid. Seriously, it was like heaven.

But now that I’m an adult and living on my own, cleaning is the bane of my existence. I daydream about getting a Roomba (maybe even a DJ Roomba!) or one day, a cleaning person because I hate doing it that much.

And if I had to pick two rooms that I hate cleaning the most, it would be the bathroom or kitchen. Those are the bastard stepchildren of my apartment. I give them as much attention as I would to a rock stuck in my shoe.

Why should I have to clean those rooms? Shouldn’t they compete for my love and affection by self-cleaning? Maybe? Maybe…not.

After honing my skills as a master vacummer and duster, I hate getting on my hands and knees to scrub the floor or toilet. This is embarrassing to admit, but sometimes, I only know when it’s time to clean the toilet when I’m in between dry heaves after a night of drinking. When you’re waiting for that next wave, you have plenty of time to see the filth in hidden places.

I have to clean both rooms (actually my entire apartment) this weekend and I know I’ll leave them for last because I’ll magically be looking for an excuse not to do it. Like a meteor hitting my building or someone calling and asking if I want to meet up right away or John K showing up at my apartment declaring his love for me and taking me away on his private jet. DREAM!

But as much as I hate doing it, I love the way both rooms look when they are clean. Until the next day when somehow they get dirty again and I look at them and say…FAIL.

What room do you hate cleaning the most in your apartment/house? Or do you just really love cleaning…and want to come over to my house? I pay in baked goods and witty humor.

25 February 2010

Amelie-inspired silliness

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Movies, Random, travel

I’m feeling a little silly today, a definite sign that it’s been a long week :) So I’m indulging my silliness with a little inspiration from one of my favorite movies, Amelie.

I love this movie. It makes me fall in love with Audrey Tatou and want to move to Paris stat.

I could only hope I would meet a cute Parisian boy like Nino (but would prefer he didn’t work in a porn store.) If you saw the movie, you know who I’m talking about.

I could gush about this movie for hours but one of my favorite parts of the movie is when she steals her father’s garden gnome and has it travel worldwide, mailing her father photos from various landmarks. Again, if you saw the movie, you know what I’m talking about.

So this weekend while I was in Houston, I got a little slap happy at the end of each day and took the horse toy that the Four Seasons gave me and took a few Amelie-inspired photos around my hotel room.

Take a look:

Sitting in bed, snacking on Texas Chewie Pecan Pralines (she had a long day and didn’t give up sweets for Lent)

Reading USA Today’s Life section (she loves her entertainment news)

Left her alone for too long and she found the mini-bar key. That’s gonna cost me. Such a boozer

My personal favorite: Updating Twitter. She’s so social media savvy!

Yeah, I got a little zany but come on, she’s updating Twitter and hitting the mini bar. How cute is that??

I never was a big stuffed animal person, but I think I’ll keep her around. But introducing her to Bubbles could be tough. She is very territorial.

Pretty sure I sound crazy now, I should go :)

Does anyone have big plans for the weekend? Or what was your favorite stuffed animal growing up as a kid?

Movie review update: Yes, I’m back to movie reviews today and I finally got to see A Single Man, Tom Ford’s directorial debut, check it out!

08 February 2010

Tardy for the party

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Random

Oh god now I have that awful song in my head. Ohhhh ohhhh, don’t be tardy for the party.

No, no must refocus.

What I mean to say is that I am a punctual person.

When I need to be somewhere, I’m usually 5-10 minutes early. My Blackberry is perfect because I can always entertain myself cruising the Web or killing time on Twitter.

I hate the feeling being late and people waiting on me.

This weekend, I was 45 minutes late to brunch thanks to being hungover and oversleeping and it made me scream like a five year old girl when I looked at the clock.

Fortunately, some of my friends always run behind schedule so I know if I get delayed on the bus or anywhere that I have a little cushion when we go out.

I do have one friend though that is always late. At least 15-20 minutes late.

If he says 7 p.m., he actually means 7:20 p.m. What cracks me up is why he’s late. Usually it’s because he’s watching TV, playing video games, talking on the phone or enjoying a drink in his apartment. And he never calls to tell you he’s late either. Once, we were supposed to meet at 7:30 so I showed up at 7:45 and he actually beat me to the restaurant and asked, “Dude, lost your watch? I’ve been waiting.” Yeah he was waiting for two minutes, which still puts him 13 minutes late. And no, he wasn’t kidding.

And I think that’s what bothers me the most is when people don’t call to tell you they’re running late.

In this age of cell phones, Blackberrys, iPhones, email, smoke signals and pigeon carriers, you can always take two seconds to send a note saying, “hey I’m running late.”

Yes, my tardiness this weekend made me think about this.

What about you? Are you usually on time to running late? Do you have a lot of friends that are always late too?

25 January 2010

When the blog bites real life

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Random

Oh blogging. I love it but sometimes I feel like it does more harm than good.

When I started blogging, I shared the link with some family members so they could be a part of my life in Chicago, mostly because I didn’t see or speak to them often.

Then it bit me in the a** a few times. People took offense to what I was writing about or what I wasn’t writing about and that they were mentioned on the blog.

And to them I said, “if you don’t like it, don’t read it.”

But recently, I found out additional people started reading my blog, unbeknownst to me, and found in the archive some posts about my behavior and themselves that they didn’t like.

Part of me wants to say again, “if you don’t like it, don’t read it,” but a part of me feels that exasperation like, OMG I can’t make ANYONE happy.

Blogs evolve and so do the things we talk about on them. And what we write about won’t make everyone happy. For me, blogging is a creative outlet that allows me to talk about things I feel and want to in my own voice. Sure, I may come off b*tchier, lazier or crazier on here, but hopefully for those who know me IRL and have read this for awhile, you know that’s not the case (I’m actually 10x awesomer in person).

But now that I find myself with unhappy IRL people again and I feel very unsure about how to proceed. Do I let myself be censored on a blog that is about me and my life/challenges? Or do I stay the way I am now and maybe be more mindful. Or do I say, f*ck it?

It’s a tough call.

I do know that this blog isn’t about trashing people or saying anything crazy, super, hyper negative. But maybe I need to redefine what I consider “blogworthy.”

What about you? Do you have topics you never discuss on your blog? Or how have you handled situations where your blog has upset family or IRL friends?

New movie review: I love period pieces with some scenes of shirtless men, so I’m reviewing Sherlock Holmes!

Oh and I promise the review blog isn’t becoming all movie reviews. Shopping stuff is coming up soon!