Amalgamation (or It's Been a While and I've Been Meaning to Blog About This.)

Totally random things I felt important enough to bookmark and comment on later. Well later is finally now.

1) Ten Craziest Job Perks
As someone in the market for permanent employment, I read the article above with hope that maybe my new job would offer one or two of these things. But when Google hands out free, chef-prepared lunches (they spend an estimated $72 million dollars a year on food for their employees!), Microsoft campus has it's own mall and IT firms start providing free-of-charge housekeeping, any company would be hard pressed to compete. And here I was super-excited last week when the office I was working at had chocolate covered cherries. While it wasn't free lunch, those cherries were quite tasty.

2) The Dehydration Myth
This article is linked for all those times someone told you, you don't drink nearly enough water. You need at least eight cups a day! They're right. But more importantly, they're WRONG. And for someone like myself who would choose apple or cranberry juice over water any day, it is gonna be AWESOME the next time someone tries to tell me my daily water quotient is a little low and I show them this article.

3) The World's Most Underrated Cities
Ever since my ex-boyfriend broke up with me after his semester abroad, Italy and I have had a love-hate relationship. I love it because it's beautiful and romantic and dreamy. I hate it because I can't think about it without immediately remembering that he thought so too. Ugh. And while that relationship ended years ago, I still feel like Italy's tainted. Well no more. As soon as I can get my fanny over there, I'm going to gorge myself on spaghetti Bolognese with fresh grated Parmesan and every kind of gelato I can manage. Bologna, Italy: I'm coming for you! (There are 25 great cities on this list, so be sure to flip through all the slides!)

4) BBC Dimensions
Have you ever wondered just how large the Gulf oil spill was? Or how many people were in Athens during the Peloponnisan War? Or better yet, just how big the pyramids of Giza really are? No? Well I have, because I am a NERD. If you have entertained these thoughts, then look no further than BBC Dimensions for the answer. This website allows you to input your area code and see how much space the Great Wall of China takes up in a familiar landscape. Not gonna lie, I spent like an hour on this website one day. WHEN I DID NOT HAVE THE TIME. Ah, well. Such is the way of the internet.

5) ABSURDITY
I can't even begin to tell you how crazy this was or the fact that, according to the letter sent in reply, this sort of thing happens all the time. Ridiculous. Interest piqued? Just go ahead and click. You know you want to. Hint: Copyright law totally applies here!

6) ANIMALS TALKING IN ALL CAPS and Animals Being Dicks and When Parents Text
You know when you come across a gem on the interweb and it's so good you want to share it immediately while at the same time keep it for your own laugh-out-loud pleasure? These three websites are GEMS. I laughed OUT LOUD (LOL for realz) for like TWO FULL HOURS on the parent's texting website. Dude, even my mother thought it was hilarious. You must go there and see for yourself. You must. They're so funny, they even have a book out.

:) Hope you enjoyed!

Recent (ish) Thoughts

On The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl: I know I'm late ya'll, but wasn't J's date with White Jay going so well until the arrival of "Slutty Nurse"?

On Halloween: Also what is with the introduction of the word Slutty in front of female Halloween costumes? Can't women just be regular nurses, pumpkins and witches? I mean, I pretty much hate Halloween with a hot and fiery passion, but it wouldn't suck as much if there wasn't an overabundance of random cleavage. And Also, I hate to break it to you (and by you, I'm referring to some random woman on a website I came across) there is no such thing as a Slutty Leaf. LEAVES ARE NOT SEXY. And neither is spider-web pantyhose. SPIDERS ARE NOT SEXY.

On Facebook: (status update) "Hey Facebook. You know what's really annoying? When the same person keeps popping up in my "People You May Know" section. Yes, I do know them. Yes, we have 91 friends in common. However, WE are NOT friends, which is why I clicked the little "X" on the right the last THREE times they popped up there. Please remember this time, k? Thanks."

On In Time: Horrible Title. Best Movie Premise Ever. Well worth a trip to the theater. P.S. Justin's pretty hott in this one guys.

On Tower Heist: Ben Stiller did not disappoint :)

On going to the movies and making it a double feature: Seeing two movies, back to back actually saves you money; you only need to buy one bucket of popcorn. Also, twice the previews. Now I know about another 36 movies I want to see. It's a vicious cycle.

On Google+: Waste of time? Oh, I think so.

On my Father's willingness to go see Breaking Dawn with me: Priceless.

School: I did it to myself this time :)

So I'm taking summer classes. They start on Monday and I'm doing it because A) I need to pay my rent and B) I need to graduate on time, without stressing myself out by overloading fall quarter. I start on Monday, which means that I have one day left to PAR-TAY! And by party, I mean curl up and read a book in my bowl-chair after church. LOL, I feel like such a lame. I'm determined to finish The Shack before school completely takes over my life. I think I can do it. Wish me luck :)

I need a job. Seriously. Anyone know of anybody that's hiring? I refuse to be poor this summer and I need to buy stuff for new apartment in the fall. Oh yeah, and make September rent. Ahhh! Being a real adult person isn't the greatest right now.

On a happier note, Kate's B-day was pretty awesome. Just a couple of us hanging out at her and Sam's new place, but it was definitely cool. We played LIFE, which is my new favorite game, and I didn't suck too badly. Kate and Hannah definitely blew us out of the water though they made almost three million dollars apiece! The birthday girl won the game, though, which I'm sure only added to the awesomeness that was her day.

Another happy note: My mom and Dad surprised me today and took me out to brunch @ Flattop. It was pretty good and they stayed almost the entire day. The bummy part is that I didn't get to see my dad that much since Mom and I went to a baby shower while Dad worked on his sermon. But at least he got most of it written, and we set up a day to go to the Goodwill Downtown the weekend after next. I love my dad!

Random: I was thinking about Luke earlier today. For those of you who don't know, Luke is my ex-boyfriend (who just came out of the closet). Anyway, he graduated today and for a brief second I thought that I might like to see his parents. I thought again. While they were sweethearts, I really don't need that kind of drama in my life anymore. Besides, I'm almost positive that I couldn't have kept the fact that he's gay a secret: I seriously doubt they know. Anyway, I am happy that he graduated (for his sake and my own) and I hope that I won't see him again for a very long time, maybe never. Rumor is, he's staying around Chicago, but my hope is that he'll be far from Evanston.

Another random note: I have yet to ask certain someone to hang out. True, it's only been a week, but it feels like much longer. And as for the other certain someone, I was told that it is now "illegal" for us to date. Oh, the irony. Perhaps there will be an exception if I can get him to look twice at me. (Which in turn means, I actually have to TRY; I really don't.) Here's to a summer full of agony: school and unrequited love (sort of). Ohh, add in the beach and a few good books to make it bearable. (Please note the lack of seriousness in this section. I'm actually really excited for the summer, whether it be with or without male attention.)

So there. I think that's enough for right now. I'll try to write again soon, when something interesting happens to me.

I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers :)