The Geek's Meow

I am the ex girlfriend that stole your CDs.

Let me explain!

They were both accidents.  The first one, I honestly forgot I had No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom still.  I think a little part of me had forgotten that it wasn’t mind all along, because of how much I listened to it.  If it ever gets mentioned, I will just buy him a replacement, we’re still friends after all.

The big one, the main one, the time when I stole an entire collection… I didn’t want it!  I didn’t exactly agree with his taste in CDs anyway!  There were a few good ones, but a lot of ones I would never listen to at all.  If I could have gotten clean closure I would surely have done so, and giving the CD folder back would have helped.  They were under the recliner that we rarely used in a messy living room.  My roommate discovered them when we were moving out, by which point bridges had been burned and contact was sporadic at best.  But I saved them for years, with some hope that someday I could unburden my conscience and give them back.

When we moved from Fullerton to Carson in 2012, I finally gave up.  The break up had occurred nearly a decade earlier, it was time to move on, there was no reason to try to return them (and really, no chance, nor do I think they were wanted anymore), so along with a great moving purge they went into the dumpster.

Guess who I’m going to probably see this weekend?

*sigh*

I’ve come down with a cold, probably from the large number of people I was exposed to last week.  Hooray.

I’m very fortunate, though, that I work at a place with unlimited sick time.  You think this would mean we’d be very good at avoiding the office when there is any chance of being contagious.  You would be SO wrong.

Apparently the idea of unlimited time off, combined with true work-a-holics, leads to less time taken off!  We have no real way to measure our time off, so we just don’t do it.  This year I have two small vacations planned and I feel ridiculously decadent.  Less than a week each, but still like I am wallowing in PTO.

So we always have “just one meeting” we have to make, or a deadline that can’t be missed.  I was actually thanked by my boss today for staying home and not bringing this plague into the office.  That staying home sick is something thank-worthy is mind-boggling!

Alright team, it’s been one month since I started this blog.

Although some of them are maintenance posts, and today’s post comes after the 30th so it’s actually on the next calendar week (but WordPress rolls their calendar over on Monday) I have successfully maintained a crazy work schedule, many personal life interruptions, and still hit the three posts a week goal!

If you recall from one of those maintenance posts, that means I have earned a WordPress upgrade including a domain name.  Soon we will go from TheGeeksMeow.wordpress.com to just TheGeeksMeow.com – hooray!

Next month I set myself the same goal – all of August must achieve 3 posts per WordPress week (Mon-Sun) and if I can do it, I will order The Geek’s Meow business cards – whether I go with template cards from an online order site or get custom art designed will depend on how close I come to the wire.  If I am feeling like I am solidly posting, I get custom art.  If I make an extensive amount of maintenance posts or scrape by at the deadline, I get the cookie cutter cards.

Yes, I have realized I am allowing brain weasels a chance to sabotage me if I’m not feeling like a success at the end of the month.  Battling brain weasels is going to always be part of my struggle, so I’m trying out not giving them a concrete marker to latch onto for this one.

Mostly the hair change has been taken in stride by my friends and coworkers.  Mostly.

But I’ve had a few fun encounters – such as walking across the courtyard at work and waving to someone who never makes eye contact and behaves as if I’m focusing on someone behind them.  This was someone who sat behind me for six months and I talked to on a daily basis for that time, as well as meeting with weekly for over a year after our desks moved.  A few days later I got to talk to them, and as soon as they heard my voice, just like there was never any mis-identification, we got to talking as normal.

Even better was at a party last night.  End of the night, someone I knew but wasn’t close with had been ignoring me all night.  No big deal, it could have been because I didn’t accept his Facebook friend request a year ago, it could be that we’re just not in touch at all, no big deal.  But end of the night he came up to a group of us, made a point of saying good night to everyone else including my husband, but ignored my goodnight at first, and then finally shook my hand and introduced himself.  So I did the same and his eyes about bugged out of his head – then he turned to my husband and said “You were right, I didn’t recognize her at all!”

This does make me realize, the darker hair is perfect for an American McGee’s Alice costume…

Last night I went with some coworkers to karaoke – we went to a Koreatown norebang.

Usually I’m spoiled by a pretty extensive English selection, so this particular karaoke place was disappointing.  It had some strange options (Gay Bar, Dick in a Box) but over all there were several songs I was looking for that just weren’t there (Come on Eileen, for goodness sakes, is a karaoke classic!).

But we had an excellent crowd, I wound up in the “smaller” room – there were six of us and we easily could have fit many more.  But it meant we all got to pick our songs for a while with minimal waiting, and because I had a good silly crowd nobody got self conscious or hogged the mike.  There was alcohol, but somehow we got the reputation as the “non-alcholic” room, so people left us to our own quieter fun time, instead of the drunken antics from the big room next door.  Honestly, I think I had a lot more fun because of that!  Especially because I can get very embarrassed by my own voice… however last night I very competently and proudly sang Celebrity Skin by Hole solo.  I never ever want to sing solo at karaoke, even when totally drunk, and this was still sober time.

It boosted my confidence so much, even after people started trickling in to join us (I think because the realized we had alcohol left and they didn’t) I was still able to keep pace, hold the mike, and even did Malibu on my own.  For which I got compliments!  But I was also proud of my choices, they were often good karaoke sing-alongs, so everyone got really involved.  That way everyone got to be a part and feel included, which is what I really want out of a session.

Over all, while I am still not a singer, I’m really glad I was able to spend last night out with these folks, and that I did let my voice fly free a bit.

Songs I wanted to sing and couldn’t: I’m Only Happy When It Rains, U + Ur Hand, Come On Eileen, One Week, and I’m sure a handful more that aren’t coming to mind right now.  Apparently I love my angry girl music.

Alright, so maybe this post isn’t actually about Daft Punk, but I really am jamming to “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” as my “Own it” groove today.

Because that’s what I’ve done with my look lately, I’ve totally owned it!  I finished my tattoos.  I bought a new car (not planned, but I worked hard to get the right car for me).  And then I took my super-long sit-on-the-ends bright red hair and changed it!

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Ghostbusters!

Last night I went to see the new Ghostbusters movie.  I didn’t expect much based on the trailers, but enough friends had really enjoyed it that I wanted to see what it was all about.

What knocked my damn socks off was that we had a group of heroic, but realistically problematic, main characters who grew as the movie went on, did bad-ass things, and never really had to do it in spite of or because of being women.  They were just… people!  Fun, flawed, freaky, fantastic people!

The women ate food.  There were no jokes about how or what women ate.  There were jokes about the food, sure, but it was also just a normal part of what they did without being inextricably linked to body image and issues therein.

The costumes were real, practical, clothes.  There were clothes jokes, but no absurdly sexy outfits, and the jokes were to further develop characters.  There was no real fashion focus, beyond the practical/obvious.

Holtzman, however, stole every scene she was in, and I am shedding no tears over that!  The character was so much fun, I think I have a little crush on her.  I adored Chris Hemsworth’s dumb eye-candy act.  I was only disappointed that he never uttered the words “We got one!”

Why is my bar so low for a woman-led movie?  Thanks, Hollywood.

Okay, but this time, for Ghostbusters, I really mean it – Thanks, Hollywood!

And on the way out I leave you a great Epic Rap Battle of History:

I’m having a pretty good body-image day.  This isn’t always the case, there are days I definitely do not get along with my body.  But wandering around the internet I found something that helps, so I wanted to share my version of it…

Think of your body like a cat.  Itty bitty kitty, totally wonderful and acceptable and oh-so-cute.  Big fluffy fat cat, so much fun to snuggle!  No matter what a cat looks like, we appreciate him or her, so let’s try to do that for ourselves.

Find out what it means to me!

Well, a bunch of car dealerships got to find that out over the last week.  From bombarding me with high pressure contacts to talking to my husband (who had not been introduced at all) that was not the car-buyer, I’ve seen a lot of slights over the past week.

I was given a test drive that was four right turns at slow speeds, then back into the dealer’s lot.  One guy tried to tell me he had the inside scoop on how the legislature is going to decide on the carpool lane stickers soon… yeah, right.  Another dealer that I was really ready to go with gave me the brush off and told me to call a tech (without giving me a name or number to call) about my concerns with the history of issues in the particular model.  Of course there were the “no pressure, but here’s some high pressure to make a sale right now” types, and the inevitable decision that what I wanted was not what I really wanted, what I wanted was what they could get me into right now.  One dealership called me, didn’t know I was married or that my partner was opposite gender, but asked if my husband leased a vehicle.  That one infuriated me – more because of the assumption that I was straight than even the idea that I must be married.  I actually wrote to that dealer and let them know why I would not be dealing with them further – heteronormativity leads to marginalizing other groups and I won’t stand for it – especially since I’m bi and actually not straight, so I fall into those other groups.

A few dealers played me straight, helped me make a decision, gave me options and information without pressure.  Oddly enough, at least two-thirds of those quality dealers, were female.  Apparently women sell cars in the way I want to buy them.

In the end I am going with a Hybrid RAV4 from Toyota, and I’m pretty excited to pick it up at the end of the month!

I have not forgotten or abandoned you.

This week at work I have had pressing dead lines, missed time due to further doctor’s appointments – there are apparently new injuries to discover from the accident, and in between all that the joys of car shopping.

(That’s sarcasm.  Car shopping is awful.)

Next week looks just as work-heavy. Our company is involved in a major conference that takes up most of my days. It will be awesome, but also time consuming, which is why I’ve been working to hit those deadlines this week, there’s no leeway.

In summary, I still want to write, I just need to take time to get things in order and let my brain wander again soon.

Maybe next time I’ll tell you about the time I became an accidental smuggler last year!