Audrey's Blog

At Work At Home?

It's really not all that unusual these days.  And, I've done it often enough myself.  Working from home is one of the glorious things "remote connectivity" allows many of us to do easily.  But for me, I'm now truly at work at home (and yes, I'm still in my PJs and have been "at work" for about 30 minutes). 

After 18 months of officing with my broker, I moved my office home this weekend.  You see ... I thrive on structure.  Getting up, getting dressed, going into the office, being in that work environment always seemed to help motivate me.  I have always been a little afraid that working at home would allow me a bit too much freedom to get distracted by pesky things like TV, laundry, dishes, etc.  I've been able to manage it for short periods of time in the past, but this is something entirely different.  So, wish me luck!

Now, back to work ... :-)

An anniversary of sorts

Chris came home this evening sporting roses, which in and of itself isn’t all that unusual (ladies, eat your hearts out!) … it was the “Happy Anniversary” that went along with it that caught me off guard.  Anniversary?  Our wedding anniversary is March 25th.  Our first date was February 17^th (yes, 3 days after Valentine’s Day - suspicious, huh?  I thought so, too.).  So what anniversary could he possibly be talking about???  I was stumped. 

Then it dawned on me … 11 years ago today (December 5, 1997) Chris proposed to me under the Century Tree on the Texas A&M campus in College Station.  My husband is pretty cool.  :-)

Long time, no blog

What can I say?  Life happens.  In my case, life was a series of consecutive illnesses that had me feeling like crap for most of November.  That coupled with the usual hub-bub of the holiday season setting in and blogging took a back seat to sleep, work, and other household chores.  <sigh> 

Trust me when I say it would have probably been more fun blogging about November than living it?

Christmas Carols already???

Because of this weird warm-cool-warm weather, I haven’t even fully gotten into fall yet (my absolutely favorite season of the year).  So, when I dropped into Kohl’s on Friday and my ears were assaulted with Christmas carols, I was in more than a little shock.  Then as I flipped through radio stations this weekend, I stumbled onto 103.7 Lite FM and they’ve already switched to an all Christmas format.  Holy crap!

Geez … what happened to giving Thanksgiving it’s due and waiting until after that bless holiday to start in on the Christmas carol marathon???

Its Audrey Way or the highway!

Having an unusual name had its perks and drawbacks growing up. 

PERK (sort of): I was never confused by another parent yelling at their child.  There simply weren’t any other Audreys around when I was young.  In fact, according to Baby Names World, the only time the name “Audrey” was less popular than it was in the 70’s was pre-1900.  So, if an “Audrey” was getting yelled at in a grocery store, it was always me.  I couldn’t ever hide behind “I thought you were yelling at someone else”.  Suck!

PERK: “Audrey” has a very cool meaning - “Noble Strength”.  Audrey was also a 6^th century saint and also a character in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. 

DRAWBACK: A little less fortunate but well know Audrey was in the Little Shop of Horrors both as a person and a Venus Flytrap. 

DRAWBACK: Living in a town that had an unusually high concentration of Andreas it seemed like everyone dyslexed when they saw my name.  It’s a freaking “U” NOT an “N”.  How hard can that be???

DRAWBACK: I could never find the cool name accessories that everyone else had.  No neat pencils with my name on them, no awesome little license plate to clearly denote my bike as mine, no cool keychain proclaiming “Audrey’s Keys” when I finally got my driver’s license.  How deprived was I???

So now, even at 32 years of age, anytime I see my name on something I still get tickled. That’s what made me slam on the brakes and turn around in a new neighborhood a few days ago … I saw my name! 

To truly appreciate this sign, you also have to know one other thing about me (if you didn’t already).  My maiden name is Allen.  So, seeing “Audrey Way” in the City of Allen is particularly amusing. 

I hope you've all enjoyed this little escapade through my psyche.  I know I did - and after all ... it's my way or the highway, right?  ;-)

A low key Halloween

This year's Halloween festivities were pretty low key in the Reed household. The main attraction was the seasonal debut of my award winning chili (seriously, I have the awards to prove it!). When we found out the Chris' carpool partner, Paul - who happens to be Australian, had never had true Texas chili, we invited him over so that we could appropriately introduce him to chili experience.

We did get a little taste of Halloween in the form of a visit from our neighbors, The Nylecs, before they headed out for a Halloween gathering. We were more than a little amused with Darren's "costume". Here's a snapshot … can you guess what he is???

It took me a minute, too, and he finally clued me in after seeing the truly baffled expression on my face. He's a leaf blower! LOL!

Of course, whenever he's around, Jayden steals the show. Tonight, he made an incredibly adorable Tigger. All together now … Ahhhh!

After enjoying a hearty serving of chili followed up with Weight Watcher friendly pumpkin spice muffins and the fun visit from the Nylecs, we settled in for a scary movie classic - Poltergeist (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/). Too bad I didn't make it past the first 15 minutes. The comfy sofa and a full tummy were just too much to resist. It was off to snoozeville for me. (Chris gets so annoyed with me when I do that! Apparently, I've missed a number of good movies that way. <blush>)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

An Excellent Ad

I was digging through my briefcase looking for a file this afternoon when I stumbled on an ad that made me chuckle so much I had to pull it out to share.  Obviously other things took my mind off the ad since then, but I figured now was as good a time as any to share the laugh.  Kudos to the company for a truly memorable piece of print advertising!

If you’re wondering - the breed of cat featured here is a Sphynx (aka Canadian Hairless).  Happy Tuesday!

Texas Tech T-shirt & Tim Ryan

Being an Aggie, I’m all about good natured rivalry.  Each and every year, I look forward to the opportunity for my Ags to Beat the hell outta t.u. (whoop!).  In recent years, a new and not-so-good-natured rivalry has emerged between A&M and Texas Tech.  I’m sure the hard feelings have been nurtured by both sides although most accounts have Tech fans as the instigators of most of the incidents (from ESPN).  Unfortunately, we all have our bad apples that will instigate and encourage this kind of bad blood. 

But, some fans of Texas Tech went too far this time.  Animal cruelty is nothing to joke about, but apparently to some frat boys at Tech it is.  They produced 500 of these t-shirts which depict a football player wearing a #7 jersey (Michael Vick’s number) holding a rope with an image of our mascot, Reveille, at the end of a noose. (Read the story here.)

 

Thankfully, the t-shirt has already been banned, but I’m still disgusted by the disrespect of it. 

Almost even more unfortunate was Fox 4 Good Day Anchorman Tim Ryan’s comment about the store.  He ended the short segment about the t-shirt with this comment - “It’s funny … in a tasteless sort of way”.   I don’t often take offense or get my knickers in a twist over what a TV personality says, but in this case, I have.  I think it says something about his character or lack of judgment - or both - that he would in any way, shape, or form think this is funny.  I don’t think he should lose his job over it, but an apology isn’t out of the realm of reasonable in my mind. 

I’ve been an avid watcher of Good Day for many years.  I’m not sure if this is enough to make me change the channel, but I guess we’ll see what happens when I wake up in the morning.  In the meantime, this whole incident reminds me that what may seem “funny … in a tasteless sort of way” might be completely offensive to someone else - even if it’s all meant in jest.

The Law of the Line

This is one of those universal laws that just frustrates the snot out of me.  Each and every freaking time I walk into a municipal-type building (i.e., the post office, the tax office, the DMV, etc) the line is winding its way out the door and generally ends somewhere around to Timbuktu.  And, then 1 of the MAYBE 3 people working the line goes on break.  WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?

My latest run in with The Law of the Line was this past Thursday when I had to go to the local DPS office to renew my expired drivers license (oops!).  On a side note - why on earth do they send out the renewal notices 2 months in advance?  What good does that do?  All that happens is the notice is put somewhere where we all swear we'll never miss it.  Yeah, right! Anyway ... I walked into the office, and the line actually wasn't that bad.  But of course, I had just walked in so that had change - immediately.  I got in line and 23 people promptly walked in behind me.  One might say that I was lucky.  I could have been that 23rd person, and they would be correct.  But, that's beside the point. The point is that the line wasn't exactly short - I only said that it wasn't that bad - and with the additional 23 people in line, the Law of the Line had to kick in.  Sure enough ... one of the three workers promptly disappeared.  Ugh!  At that point, the line moved a slow as molasses in a New England winter. 

Oh, well.  I do have my new license complete with a new picture, and I wasn't there for the entire afternoon.  So, the next time you have to venture to one of these municipal-type buildings, prepare yourself to experience with The Law of the Line and know that I feel your pain.

I, <state your name>, ...

I attended the orientation for my new position on the McKinney Parks Board this evening.  I received my official City of McKinney Boards and Commissions Handbook and took part in the Texas Open Meetings Act & Texas Public Information Act training which is required for anyone participating in anything remotely resembling government affairs in Texas.  The training was enlightening if not exactly entertaining. 

The most amusing part came at the end of the meeting when I was sworn into my position - to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States of America" (seriously). However, it would have been seriously embarrassing if I had indulged in the rather juvenile urge to do exactly as the City Secretary instructed me to do and said "I, state your name, ...". 

I think I'm okay with the fact that I still have these childish urges (I got a pretty good private chuckle).  At least I have the maturity not to carry them out.  That's what counts, right?  :-)