Binary humor

T: Yeah, we went visited our end product today too. There were lots of people dressed as zeros and ones and we thanked them for being electrons. Actually, there wasn't anyone dressed as zeros--there was just blank space that we assumed...
Me: You're too cute for your own good.
T: Well there are 10 types of people in the world...
Me: Those that understand binary and those that don't.

Forgotten

My grandparents got married in the 1940s. My grandmother is an extremely strong woman--very sure of what she wants and not afraid to tell you what she thinks--but she is also a product of her generation. For example, my grandfather held all their accounts in his name.

My grandfather appeared to have Alzheimers as he got older. My grandmother took care of him at home and the arrangement seemed to be working--until one month when she gave him the checks to sign to pay their bills and he had lost the ability to sign his own name. At that point it was a mad dash to get their accounts handed over to my grandmother. But she continued to care for him at home until less than two months before his death almost a decade later.

THAT ring

I have this friend who always threatens to give me one of those Tiffany's blue boxes. If his knees weren't too sore from playing tennis, he'd probably even get down on a bended one. If I were ever going to let him, I would have to put him through my pre-engagement education program (patent pending).

Step one: show the scene from Bed of Roses when Christian Slater proposed to Mary Stuart Masterson in front of his whole extended family and she runs out of the room and demands that they go home to NY.

Lesson one: proposals are best in a private setting. There is no need to make her feel pressured to say yes or for you to be embarrassed if she says no. (Although it does work sometimes--see While You Were Sleeping for rebuttal.)

Which brings me to lesson two--don't ask the question if you don't know the answer. While the moment of the proposal may be a surprise, the fact that you're asking shouldn't be. In season two of the Gilmore Girls, when Lorelei tells Luke that Max proposed, he asks all kinds of questions--where will they live?, are they going to have kids, or a joint checking account? She is ashamed to realize they haven't discussed any of those things. And it is a discussion about Max's role in raising Rory (Lorelei's daughter), which helps lead Lorelei to call off the engagement.

And then, for me, there is a third lesson. While I would like an effort made, I don't necessarily need that special blue box, or 1000 yellow daisies. I think the key is that those unique touches be personally meaningful. For me, I'm a traditionalist and the things that I do need include a bended knee and I would like my parents to have given their permission first. Like I said, I'm a traditionalist.

Oh, and if you haven't learned anything from the cliche about hiding the ring in the food and the bride-to-be needing the Heimlich maneuver, then you don't meet the IQ requirement for marriage or reproduction.

Those opportunities don't come along every day

We arrived back at the hotel from the amazing rehearsal dinner about 11pm, the night before BLB's wedding. LS, my sorority sister, roommate and fellow bridesmaid, and I knew we had to be ready to leave the hotel--all bridesmaid accessories in hand--at 7am so we got ready for the next day and then hurried to bed. We had only been in bed for a few minutes when the phone rang.

"Hello," I said--who could be calling our hotel room? Even my mom didn't have that number.
"Hey--is LS there?"
"Yes, but she's sleeping."
"Oh, is this Angie?"
"Yeah."
"This is Owen, the best man. We're downstairs in the bar--come join us."
"Who's us?" I asked.
"The groomsmen. We're playing bocce ball. Come down and join us."
"Look, we're in bed and we have to be up early in the morning. BLB would kill us. We're not coming down."
"Come on--it'll be fun. I'm a fun guy."
"Here--talk to LS."
LS had sat up after I turned on the lamp and was looking curiously at me. After taking out her earplugs, she had been following my side of the conversation and wondered what plans I was turning down. LS could be fierce when she wanted to, so I knew she would tell Owen off. I handed her the phone and she mostly listened--after just a minute or so, she said, "Ok, we'll be down in a few."
"What?" I said. "We're in our pajamas and we have to be up early in the morning."
"Yeah," she replied, "but we're not in college anymore. These opportunities down just come along everyday."
A few minutes later I was downstairs--drinking beer from the groomsmen's glasses, contributing to the noise that got us kicked off the outdoor bocce ball court, dancing with the groom's uncle and warmly laughing at the groom's drunk declarations of love for his absent bride.

LS was right--those opportunities don't come along everyday.

This weekend

Just some random notes from this weekend:

• The weathermen were right. I may not have gotten a lot of snow accumulation, but watching the snow fly parallel to the ground past my bedroom windows convinced me that staying home today was my best plan. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to try to get to work in the morning--a snow day sounds nice!
• My roommate wants to know what to call his weekend away from his 11-week "vacation".
• Wow--I am so attracted to preppies. Patrick Demsey came on-screen in his new series Grey's Anatomy, the newest addition to my TV likes list, wearing corduroy pants and a sweater over a button-down shirt. The cuffs and collar were pulled out, which is already nice, but the real kicker was the little bit of the shirt tails that were pulled out. I'm speechless just thinking about it.
• (Oh, and curse those network programmers--repeating the first couple episodes on Saturday night got me hooked.)
• I got surprised at my annual sorority brunch on Saturday with an award from the local alumnae chapter. They're so sweet. Especially since I was at the president's house on Friday night helping her get ready, and she struggled to keep me from seeing evidence of it.

Serenade

I was serenaded at the meeting tonight:

Well, I wake up in the morning, And the 'larm gives out a warning, And I don't think I'll ever make it on time. By the time I grab my books, And I give myself a look, I'm at the corner, just in time to see the bus fly by. It's all right, 'cos I'm Saved by the Bell.

Ah, the fun of working with 20-year-olds. :)

Interviewee

Thanks to RP for interviewing me. My questions and the rules are below--keep scrolling and you'll see my answers as well.

1. If you could pick one world affliction to end, which would it be and why? What bad effect on the world at large do you think your choice might have?
2. What is your biggest disappointment to date? How have you rebounded from it, assuming you have?
3. How is it to work in a traditionally male dominated profession? Do you find it different from other jobs you have held?
4. What is your favorite room in your house and why? How is it furnished?
5. What was the most unexpectedly great class you've ever taken?
6. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

Here are the rules:

Leave me a comment saying "interview me". The first five commenters will be the participants. I will respond by asking you five questions. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

Here are my answers:

1. If you could pick one world affliction to end, which would it be and why? What bad effect on the world at large do you think your choice might have?

I would choose to get rid of addiction. Unfortunately, if addiction were eliminated, I believe a lot of those individuals who are addicted would find another way to ease their emotional pain. Hopefully that new technique would be less destructive, but it might be worse.

2. What is your biggest disappointment to date? How have you rebounded from it, assuming you have?

I live a relatively charmed life, so all of my disappointments seem trivial. I could go with the trite breakup story, but I think I'll choose my discovery that my favorite adults (Aunt K and my elementary school teacher) were actually adults and not my playmates. While I had this realization a long time ago, it has far-reaching implications. It is still a little disappointing when I see that my aunt is imperfect like the rest of us or even when I am disappointed in one of my friends today.

3. How is it to work in a traditionally male dominated profession? Do you find it different from other jobs you have held?

Being an engineer is the only professional job I've held, so I have little room for comparison. For the most part I enjoy working in a male-dominated field, but more than working with men, I simply enjoy working with engineers. Engineers have an appreciation for little weird things that I share with them as well as being, for the most part, comfortably logical.

4. What is your favorite room in your house and why? How is it furnished?

I skipped this question because since I moved in January, I wouldn't really classify any of my rooms as furnished--at least, not in any kind of cohesive manner. :)

5. What was the most unexpectedly great class you've ever taken?

Women's Health Care in America. One of the books we read for this class was Midwives by Chris Bohajalian. In addition to introducing me to a great author, the book convinced me, as well as the majority of the students in the class, that we would be interested in giving birth at home with a midwife. To understand why that is so amazing, you have to know that book is about a midwife that is put on trial for murder because she performs a caesarian section delivery on a woman she believes has just had a stroke during labor while trapped by a Vermont ice storm. (Also read Trans-sister Radio. Wow.)

6. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

I'm sure this is a peculiar statement from an engineer, but I typically don't analyze my life or my feelings. By maintaining my blog, I commemorate fun moments and anecdotes but I also explore feelings that I wouldn't otherwise.

Cease and desist order

To whom it may concern:

Effective immediately, no employees are allowed to whistle in the hallways, excepting [my boss]. SR is the only employee allowed to sing in the hallways. Only DM is allowed to snap his fingers. Adopting a signature sound already in use by another supervisor causes employees to prematurely close browser windows and inadvertently lose personal emails. If you wish to adopt a signature sound of your own, please register it with Angie and R before implementation. Thank you,

the Management