Archives for May 2007

Admissions of a notorious Forgetter

May 29, 2007 by Maren 8 Comments

Shamefully, I admit, I do a TERRIBLE job at remembering my friend’s birthdays. AND, even when I do, it seems I can’t win. Three times in the past month, I have forgotten the birthdays of friends. I have friends that are so thoughtful in remembering, and I’d like to be the friend who remembers that sort of thing, but no matter how much I try, I come up short time and time again.

This past weekend I forgot the birthdays of some of our closest friends in Louisville. The husband and wife (a true example of the thoughtful friends I was just referencing) have birthdays a day apart–yep forgot both. I didn’t remember until we dropped in at their apartment, where they casually told us they had been celebrating birthdays earlier! OOOOOOOOOOOOOH, did I feel terrible. And of course, I didn’t even come close to remembering.

BUT sometimes, I do a little better… I knew that my coworker’s bday was this week—Knowing my consistent failures in this area, I had it all planned out. I kept looking at my calendar and making mental notes not to forget, because I’m ever so much aware of my horrible fault. I’d already purchased the card, and had planned the present for a couple of weeks. I was going to fix it all up tonight and give it to her tomorrow on her birthday. I even reminded my boss that her birthday was tomorrow because we usually celebrate in the office and she is usually the ‘social planner’.

“I am on top of it this time!” I complimented myself.

When she came in today, I wished her a happy birthday EVE–ONLY to have her tell me that TODAY is her birthday. You see, I had in my mind that her birthday was on TUESDAY (which it is). The problem with this is that because of the holiday yesterday, I got thrown off and was thinking that since this was the first day back from the weekend, TODAY was MONDAY! GRRRRRRRRR!

Will I ever win this battle? My brother and brother-in-law share the same birthday as me. You would think that this would help me to remember theirs; but for some reason, they still only receive belated birthday cards from me…In fact, that’s pretty much the only card section I peruse through, because buying a card early is a VERY RARE oddity for me. Sigh. My lack of planning is obvious. I’m trying to work on it–perhaps today’s defeat will help me to become one step closer to timely “Happy Birthday”s!!!!!

Just call me Heloise

May 25, 2007 by Maren 4 Comments

I preface this by saying that any time I find out something new, I quickly find out that the rest of the world has known for years! No worries–that won’t stop me from posting this little helpful hint. Somewhere out there SOMEONE will want to refer to me as Heloise from hereafter!

Few things in life annoy me to the point that I can’t take it any longer–I’m generally pretty easygoing, and laid back. One thing however, drives me crazy after it goes unfixed–perhaps more appropriately I should say, “It grates on my nerves.” It’s the noise that is made when you pull the shower curtain back–metal on metal… You see, I have decorative metal hooks and over time, they wear on the metal shower rod, making it hard to pull and creating an annoying shrill sound.

I’ve got something that fixes this little annoyance (as well as metal hangers on metal clothes racks), and today, I thought, “I REALLY SHOULD XANGA THAT.” ( I know…too much time on my hands, I agree.) So, wad up sheet of wax paper, and rub it along the metal shower rod. No longer will you have this irritating issue. This is one of the perks from my employment at Ann Taylor Loft several years ago… Go try it…you’ll appreciate the results. AND the next time you hear that noise, you have two choices: now you can either go fix the problem, or you can think, “Maren hates that…” every time pull back the curtain and experience that annoying shrill noise. The choice, my friend, is yours.

Okay… hit me with the, “Duh, Maren, I learned that when I was 2, comments.” I’m armed and ready. 🙂

HAPPY LONG MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, FOLKS!

It’s like giving a free Big Mac at Burger King…

May 23, 2007 by Maren 2 Comments

So tonight, I ran a couple of errands. One was to the Post Office. Outside the post office, there was something quite disturbing– a Fedex mail drop. Is this conceding that another product/service is better than yours?

It’s like a Burger King serving Big Macs.

Or a Starbucks serving Dunkin Donuts’ Coffee.

Or a Blockbuster having a Netflix return station.

Some things in life will always be a mystery.

Here’s to Thursday!

(and a sidenote to mom: as I type this blog, I can’t help but think, “WELCOME TO FEDDDDDDDDEX!”) 🙂

Oklahoma & Peter Cottontail

May 22, 2007 by Maren 10 Comments

Michael and I celebrated our sixth year anniversary this weekend! Michael was so sweet to leave me clues to solve throughout the entire week! With me, if something requires solving, it is more fun! Perhaps that is why I’ve loved games my whole life! On Monday, he gave me a clue on parchment paper that he’d toasted to make it look old. On Tuesday, he emailed me a clue where to find flowers! On Wednesday, he gave me a clue–a phone number in code–to call Krista for Friday night date info, on Thursday he just made me wonder and ask where my clue was all day, and on Friday he made me a cryptogram telling me where to find my card! He put the card high up in the tree; so after I got off work, I’m sure the neighbors wondered why I was dancing and around the tree, broom in hand, batting at the limbs–Maybe they thought it was some type of ritual dance.

We went to see Rodgers & Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA at a dinner theater over the river in Clarksville, IN! Michael and I had gone to another rendition of the musical while were dating. I lived in Oklahoma at the time, and he came to visit me during summer break. There, they have a permanent ampitheater for the musical, running every summer evening. So…we had seen another company do the play before, BUT this production, we agree was a favorite–done better than Oklahoma’s Oklahoma! The food was good, too, if you like down-home type cookin’.

In other random news, we found the cutest rabbit’s nest in our back yard! I’ve never see one before. I noticed a patch of fur and grass, and thought an animal of sorts had eaten a rabbit dinner there. If you touched it (in my case stepped on it), though, it moved from beneath! Michael pealed back the fur and grass to discover all the little bunnies. The picture doesn’t show all of the bunnies, but one little Peter Cottontail posed for the camera!–eyes are still closed! The mother conveniently positioned this nest 3 feet away from our newly planted garden! Uh Oh! Side note: After doing some Googling, I found out that mothers pull out their own hair to create the nest…how painful!

Happy Tuesday!