Eclectic Spaghetti

Had a great weekend – got my new MP3 player, ate some good food, went walking and saw some great movies.

We had some time before the party, so we went to see “Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” upon my mom’s request. It was the regular version, not the 3D. I thought, “Oh gawd, a kid’s movie – we’ll be confronted with tons of kiddie previews and the movie will be childish.” I was happily surprised. Yes, there were some previews to stupid movies, but once the movie started, we both enjoyed it from beginning to end. What a refreshingly animated movie. It was mixed with jokes kids could understand along with jokes adults could get (there were actually more adults in the theater than kids). Plus, I always love trying to identify the voices. A new character, a forest weasel, was hard to place. After straining my ears a bit, thinking that I’m such a great expert in voice recognition, I thought that Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) did the voice. I was wrong. It was actually the voice of Simon Pegg (who I know from “Shaun of the Dead” and the new “Star Trek” movie). He was hilarious. A crazed and piratey, one-eyed forest weasel and dinosaur hunter that led the pack of two mammoths (one pregnant), one saber-tooth tiger and two sibling possums on their way to find their sloth friend who had been kidnapped by a dinosaur who was just trying to protect her newborns who the sloth had adopted because he thought the eggs had been abandoned. Did you get all that? Well the movie was too cute, that’s all I have to say. And, being me, I actually cried during a certain scene. My mom whispered, “Are you crying??” I whispered while dabbing away my emotions, “Of course I am.” Couldn’t help it. Anyway, I recommend it.

Most of us skipped out on fighting the crowds to go to the fireworks. I went home and later that night I could hear some. I went out on my balcony and could see some fireworks from another town. So I sat down, listened to my MP3 player and watched the show. It was really nice!

Yesterday I decided to walk all the way from my apartment to a walking trail in the next town. I really should’ve waited for my foot to heal a little more, because by the time I was ready to go home, my toe was throbbing and my limp was back. I walked to Walmart on the way home, bought some batteries, a bottle of vitamin water and a turkey-sub (random enough?) and limped home where I could rest my foot and enjoy dinner.

Later that day I watched “Ice Age” and and “Ice Age: The Meltdown” on TV – Never saw the 2nd one, so I was glad I could catch up.

- Remember when I said I broke my pinky toe? Well today was the first day I could actually walk normally with a shoe on. Woot! It still hurts in the morning and at the end of the day, and I noticed some delayed bruising on my foot, but it is a huge improvement.

- I had a confrontation with my associate last week about resumes. I know – hard core, right? The issue needed further discussion and thinking about it the night before, imagining there’d be a huge blowout, caused me to lose some serious sleep. But sleep or no sleep, I marched into my coworker’s office the next day. He was enjoying a PopTart and part of me felt bad for wrecking his breakfast. Long story short, we both got frustrated, he snapped at me a few times, said the Lord’s name in vain…you know…totally professional. I won’t go into all the issues I had that made me want to confront him, but one of those reasons had to do with the fact that it felt like my professional opinion was ignored and worthless, that, after working in that hell hole for 7 years, whatever I learned was wrong and he was the only one who was right. I’m not saying that my version of a resume is perfect, but he shouldn’t think his is either. I told him that I wish he respected my opinion and my feelings (which sounded a lot like we were dating). He said he did respect my opinion (which I seriously doubt). I also said that some students like the version of resume that was in a packet I handed out. He flat out said something very close to, “That one is crap.” To which I replied, “That’s MY version!” Then he fell back a bit saying that there are good points to my version and…well it just went back and forth like that. I told him that, since he’s not going to give in and I’m not going to give in, that we should get a third opinion from the new department director we were going to get the following week. He argued a bit more and then finally said, “Fine” (to the idea of getting another opinion). We eventually settled into a discussion just a bit off the path of our argument and then he apologized for yelling. A day after our new manager arrived, I sat down with the guy and I showed him both resume versions. I was honest, I said I did not like the layout of the other style, but I did not trash my associate behind his back. The new guy saw benefits in both styles, but settled on my coworker’s. I still feel successful because I told it like it was and we have a higher authority making a decision. He saw my side too, which was nice. I hate confrontations and I don’t like friction within the department, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let someone trash all over MY experience and knowledge.

- My mom and I are venturing out to another town tomorrow and will finally dine at “The Melting Pot”. We need to check that place out – we both love fondue. Then later on a movie – not sure what we’ll see – either “Up” or “Public Enemies”. Hard to say, I confuse the two.