Thursday, October 25, 2007



Ok, you're walking through the grocery store. Minding your own business and then suddenly, you think you hear your name. You pop your head up and look around like a nervous squirrel. Not recognizing anyone in the vicinity, you keep shopping. Then it happens a second time. Again, you look around and don't see anyone that you know. You keep shopping thinking that you must be more tired/stressed than you thought, because now you're hallucinating. Then when it happens a third time and someone taps you on the shoulder from behind. You twirl around to find a smiling face staring at you. You have no idea who this person is as they proceed to start with the "Didn't you hear me calling your name?"

Not wanting to admit that you have no idea who they are, you apologize and mumble something about ear infections stuffing up your ears so you didn't hear them. (Way to think on your feet!) You allow them to ramble on, offering only non committal responses while racking your brain trying to figure out who they are. 5 or so minutes later you come up with some excuse and tell the person that you're glad to have run into them and hope to see them again soon but you really have to go. Then a day or so later, you get a call from a friend of a friend's friend saying that so and so ran into you at the grocery store and was so glad to see you again. Ohhh, you think... So that's who that was.


That happened to me the other day. It had been a particularly hard day at work, I wasn't feeling all that great, and I had to pick up a few essentials at the store before I went home. I've got my cart loaded up yogurt, a few other little items, and was in the process of picking out some toilet paper (I splurged and got the good stuff) when a lady approached me. She went on and on for a good 10 minutes about her kids, her husband, and about sports. "You'll have to come over and watch a game or two with us" she says. "The boys are starting practice tonight, you're gonna come to their games right?" And "How's work been going for you?" Luckily, she was the one that had to rush off. So I was spared. Then the next day my boss comes in the office after a meeting and tells me that "Sherry" told her that she ran into me at the store the day before. Apparently, the stranger in the store was the PR lady for the hospital and her son is a co op that sometimes works in our department.

Life is fun sometimes isn't it. As the movie says "life is like a box of chocolates..." Only my box seems to be filled with nut clusters lately!

I'm so so so glad that its almost the weekend. It's supposed to be rainy and cold, but at least it will be the weekend. You can tell that the full moon is this week. one more day and we're free everyone. Here's to a better day for all of us tomorrow.





Tuesday, October 23, 2007

What's in a name?


Shakespeare once asked, What's in a name?

Think about when you were in school. When the teacher checked attendance each morning. You probably heard names like Emily, Michael, or John. In fact, you might have had a couple kids in your class with the same name who had to be designated by the first letter of their last name. Ex: Jennifer D. and Jennifer T. When I was in school, one of my teachers had the brilliant (and I use that term loosely) idea to sit me between the 2 Joel's that were in my class. So there we sat, Joel/Joelle/Joel. We never knew who he was talking too.

While in school and after graduation, I worked in Medical Records. And during the 17 years that I worked in that field, I came to the realization that my name was not as unusual as I had thought it to be. I came across names like Tight Banks and Quadralon. There was the sweet little lady of Asian decent named Phat Ho. (Pronounced exactly like it looks.) The brothers, Cassius, Cashmere, and Cashmoney. There were the kids named after the alcohol that their parents were drinking when they were conceived; Jack Daniels and Brandy Wine. One of my duties as a medical records clerk was to do birth certificates. You'd be amazed at what people name their children. It wasn't uncommon to see kids named after movie characters, animals, or even foods. Then there was the "normal" names with the different spellings. (Sydni pronounced as Sidney) Heck, I went to school with sisters named Sundown and Earlie Mist. Compared to those names, Joelle seems rather normal doesn't it?

When you think about naming your children, remember that they are the ones that are going to have to live down the monikers that you force upon them. Before you slap that name on them consider how you'd feel if you had to use the same name yourself. Naming your daughter "Mystique" after the X-men movie might seem cool to you. But imagine her applying to an University and having to explain 200 times that their name is pronounced Miss-teek, not Mistake. Think about it. You name your pet Sam or Max, but your child is Eolande or Atreyu? Also, avoid initials with odd spellings such as “RAT" or "ASS."

Well gang, It's time for me to exercise and then go to bed. I'll talk at yall another time.

-Joelle

Sunday, October 21, 2007

They say that waking up is hard to do...

“They say that waking up is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it's true
Don't say that this is the end
Instead of waking up I wish the dreams were starting up again..”

I am not by definition, a morning person. I am forced to be on due to having to start my work day at 6 AM. It takes 4 alarm clocks to drag my rear out of my bed each morning. I have each clock set a few minutes apart. That way if I turn one off, the power goes off in the middle of the night, or I set the alarm for pm instead of am, then I still have at least one back up. While that works great during the week when I have to get up on time, it sucks in a big way on the weekends when I can sleep in if I want to. My internal clock has been set up to get up at 5 am, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I don’t eat after 8 pm, but I do tend to consume a lot of fluids between 8 pm and when I go to bed around midnight. So, Nature kicks in and gives me what has been termed a Native American Indian Alarm Clock. The more fluids that you drink in the evening, the earlier that your kidneys wake you up the following morning.

Why am I rambling on about this you might wonder? Well, I went to bed at 2 am this morning after watching the Red Wings play the Phoenix Coyotes. (It was a great game despite the efforts of the Referees!) I thought to myself before I finally fell asleep, “Tomorrow is Sunday, you don’t have to wake up until at least noon.” But, do I sleep in at all… NO. 5 am rolls around and I have to get up to pee. There’s no going back to sleep for me after getting up. So, now I’m sitting here exhausted and in dire need of some caffeine. I tend to be somewhat of a Chatty Cathy first thing in the morning. Much to the chagrin of my co-workers, family, and friends.

So please forgive my random ramblings this morning. I’m going to trek over to Detroit to watch my mother get big check for the foundation she works for. It’s going to be one of those big cardboard ones that they hand out at golf tournaments. My older sister and younger brother also live over there, so I’m going to visit with them as well. I hope you all have a good day. I’ll see ya’ll later.

PS… In case you were wondering about the Magical Trevor song that was stuck in my head in my last blog. You can find it at http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/magical+trevor/ They have a series of Trevor songs. My older brother linked it to me one time and I got hooked. Oh, crap… Now its stuck in my head again…


Ever notice that the only other people besides hockey referees who wear black and white striped outfits are prisoners. Heck, even the armbands that designate them as referees are prison jumpsuit orange. Irony in its truest sense if you ask me.


I watch alot of sports, but mostly hockey. In my humble opinion, the refs are ruining the game. It's no longer a game of sport, but now has become figure skating with sticks. I realize that there has to be some sort of control in the game, but what the NHL is doling out isn't control, its a giant ego trip. It's obvious that the refs are losing control early in the games and spend the rest of the game trying to re establish that control. With little or no success! When over 20 minutes of a 60 minute game is spent in the penalty box (total for both teams playing) something is wrong. I don't think I'm alone in my thoughts that some teams are more favored by the refs than others.


What tweaks my buttons is that the NHL supposedly "punishes" (fines) refs who screw up during games. (disallowing obvious goals, not calling obvious penalties, and such) But, as there have been no evidence that that actually happens, I don't believe they are held accountable for their actions. The league almost trips over themselves to announce the players fines or suspensions, but you never hear about the refs punishments. Anyone else see the double standard here?


The teams and the players have no way of defending themselves. Its mandated in the NHL rules that if the player or team says anything about the referee's they get fined thousands of $. Even if their complaints or comments are valid. It's almost like frontier justice. Most of the lawmen (referees) were corrupt and abused their power. And the persecuted people had no recourse because the powers that be were the corrupt lawmen themselves.

Isn't it funny that the director of officiating for the NHL stepped down when it was discovered that he was giving referees that gave him loans to cover his gambling debts were given preferential game assignments. That in itself showed me that the NHL officiating system was corrupt . Something that fans of the game have been saying for years.

LOL, that's enough of my rant for now. You'd think that my favorite team had lost their game wouldn't you. But, surprisingly they won and won in convincing fashion. Its 2 am in the morning and I'm wide awake. I took a late nap so I'm no wear near tired. I have to get up in about 4 hours because I decided to ride along to Detroit to see my little brother's new apartment.