I Hate Goodbyes

I know you’re not supposed to blog about work, but I had to share this story because it’s more of a “friendship” story than a “work” story. Unfortunately, meeting friends at work always comes with the reality that other job offers often loom outside the walls of your current employer… and (fortunately for him, unfortunately for me) my friend Ben became the recipient of such an offer.

The marketing department that I work in was made up of 2 other people, Ben and Sarah, until today…Ben’s last day at Technuity. Ben accepted a new job a couple weeks ago and today we had to say our goodbyes. Ben was not only a great co-worker and graphic designer, but an amazing friend, (with GREAT stories, I might add) :) Ben has a wonderful talent for making people laugh and he’s also just as good at being there for you when you just need someone to talk to. I’m glad I was able to work with Ben for a year, and Sarah and I have stressed to him that taking a new job doesn’t mean that he’s getting rid of us. So, if you’re reading this Ben, be ware…we will be calling, e-mailing, and IMing you on a regular basis:) We still expect “Weekend Updates” on Monday morning:)

(The picture below was created for Ben as a going away gift to remind him that Sarah and I still expect “Weekend Updates” even though we won’t get to see him every Monday. Thanks to Ben I now know how to use Photoshop to put our heads on different bodies!)

Unexpected Encounter

Sometimes unexpected encounters of people from your past are quite un-wanted and other times they’re exactly what you’re looking for. Luckily, my experience last night was the latter of the two!

I have been trying to track down one of my high school buddies for the last couple months and up until last night my searching had proved futile. I had “Googled” his name on line, gone to his University’s website to try to find his e-mail address, and sent an e-mail to the address he used in high school hoping that he was still using the same account…all to no avail. Then, last night at my cousin Angela’s birthday party at Longhorn Steakhouse in Avon, Aaron leaned over and said, “Is that Clayton over there?” And it was!!! He’s a server at Longhorn!!!!! What are the odds??? I ran over to him and we gave each other a hug (the kind of huge hug that you give someone when you haven't seen them in 5 years!), and then spent a couple minutes catching up and exchanging correct e-mail addresses and new phone numbers. When I returned to the table I talked with my family about who I had just been re-united with and I mentioned that he had an AMAZING voice (Clayton and I were in plays and musicals together in high school; he was always the lead male vocal!)…and telling this information to my family of course caused them to request that he sing to Angela. Clayton, being the good guy that he is, obliged:) I bet he’s sorry that he ran into me (and my family) last night! :)

PS-Clayton still has an AMAZING voice!

Sophisticate, eh?

When I told Aaron that I was going to write about this incident he said, “are you sure…you are supposed to be the Small Town Sophisticate,” and though he has a very good point (since this story will make me sound very unsophisticated) I decided that it was too good to pass up telling all of you.

In preparation for the huge snow a couple weeks ago I decided I should fill up my gas tank in the car. Aaron and I had gone ice skating downtown, but had driven separately so I tried to talk Aaron into taking the blue car home and filling it up for me on the way. No dice:) So, on my way to the gas station I decided to call my cousin Christine to talk about the family plans for Christmas (this would prove to be Mistake #1.) When I pulled up to the Flying J gas station I was still on the phone, but rather than hanging up like I should have (since it’s a fire hazard to talk on a phone while pumping gas, and because it was a distraction) I jumped right out of the car and headed to the pump with the phone to my ear. I inserted my credit card, as I always do at the Flying J, lifted the nozzle, put it into my tank and began to reach for the button for the grade of gas (the cheapest of course.) As I reached for the button, the pump started beeping at me. The screen on the pump said, “Swipe card again,” so I did and the error message continued to show. At about that point, Christine and I hung up (thank goodness, because I was already struggling:) ) and I swiped my crazy card again. This time it said “one moment please”. However, “one moment” turned into about 3 moments and the screen still read “one moment please.” Frustrated, I decided to pull up to the next pump (Mistake #2). I got back into my car and pulled forward. As I pulled forward I heard a loud thump, so I looked over my right shoulder, thinking I had hit something with a side mirror, but nothing was close enough for me to have hit it. I began to pull up again and heard another thump, this time I turned all the way around to look out the back window and saw the problem. If you haven’t figured it out by now…the gas nozzle was still in my car!!!! Luckily, the nozzles at the Flying J are the kind that can “reach to either side of a car or van” (as the sign in front of the pump says) and luckily they can also reach to the next pump! I quickly backed up and looked around to see if anyone had seen my debacle before exiting the car. I nonchalantly got out of my car and removed the nozzle, still hoping that no one had witnessed my stupidity. Then, I proceeded to pull back up to the new pump. The story doesn’t stop here though…again, I put my credit card into the machine and I got the same error message that the last pump had given me. At this point, I was about to give up because it was something like 6 degrees outside and I was fed up, but I carried on. I went inside to tell the attendant what was going on and she told me “there is nothing wrong with either of those pumps.” I wanted to say, “then you come out here in the freezing cold and make them work,” but I restrained myself. She swiped my card inside and as I turned to walk out the door, she yelled to me (in her best gas station attendant voice, aka “twang”), “You’re going to have to come back in to sign the slip Hun”… The icing on the cake, I had to make another trip into the gas station before I could get in my car and get the heck out of there.

I got home 20 minutes after Aaron (even though we left downtown at the same time) to find him sitting on the warm couch watching TV.

He pumped my gas the next time I needed it:)

Chinese Finger Trap

I know you've all played with a Chinese finger trap at one point in your life, right. You know, those crazy little dollar store trinkets that come in outrageously bright colors and create hours of enjoyment and frustration by trapping a finger in both ends and then tightening their grip around your fingers as you try to free them. Well, have you ever heard of a Chinese Arm Trap? Probably not, because I just discovered it. I went shopping with my mom last night and I decided to wear a zip-up sweater that I hadn't worn in YEARS. When Mom and I got to Kohl's I found another sweater that I wanted to try on and started taking my arms out of the sweater I had arrived in. However, as I tried to pull my arms out of the sweater, the sleeves tightened around my arm like a Chinese finger trap does around your fingers. I could even see the weave of the fabric stretch in length and tighten around my arm like a Chinese finger trap. I started cracking up and told mom that my sweater had become a Chinese arm trap and she watched me struggle with it while laughing...maybe that's why I hadn't worn the sweater in a while:)

To Blog or Not To Blog...

That is the question I asked myself yesterday when my friend Sarah told me that I should create a blog (It was also a blog title suggested by Chris). Obviously, I chose "to blog." When I started the blog creation process I was asked to create a title for my blog and that posed a challenge for me. My first idea was "My Lame Existence" that way no one would have high expectations for my blog and there would be no suprises if I proved to be awful at this blogging thing. However, I decided I'd rather title it something a little more upbeat so I decided to enlist the help of my friends.

The ideas ranged from "Average...but well accessorized" (thank you Sarah) to "Diaries of Indiana's Strongest Man's Wife" and "The Good, the Bad, and Cassandra (real nice Chris). As you can see, I decided to go with "Small Town Sophisticate" which was Sarah's idea...props to Sarah. It's nice to know that my small town roots are good for something... like creating a blog title:)

Thanks to all of my friends for your help and a special thanks to Chris for including a chart with his e-mail of title suggestions. Way to go the extra mile CW:)