Wednesday Thoughts

This winter has been incredibly mild. Practically warm, really. So why am I still miserable? I think it can be explained pretty easily by this picture I took yesterday.

It's gray outside. All the time. In fact, when the sun does come out, it's a topic of conversation.

"Today wasn't too bad! The sun came out for a bit!"
"Did you guys see that strange orb in the sky earlier? Anyone know what that was?"
"Ahhh! She burns!" (cowering)

Anyway, enough whining. Here's something funny. The last TWO days I've seen this car parked like this in two different locations. Why!? No, really, why!?

I don't know why that guy parks like that day after day, but it definitely amuses me. And why do I assume it's a guy? That's sexist.

I got a mini-crockpot this week and I'm super excited about it for one reason only: lil smokies. I told my mom about buying the mini-crockpot and how excited I was about making lil smokies. She said she was craving them with all my talking about it. I said, "I'll make some soon. I have all the ingredients. Except the lil smokies." My sister says I just bought the crockpot because I like saying lil smokies. She's not wrong.

Have any of you been doing the "Fab Ab February" workout? How's it been going? A couple of people have asked me what a plank is, and as far as I know, a plank looks like this:

Ok, that was a really lame joke. It actually looks like this:

The first few days of the workout I was hurting all day, but it's gotten a lot less painful. Have you guys noticed your abs getting more and more fab?

Happy Wednesday.

Wednesday Thoughts

I couldn't get into my car this morning. It wasn't an emotional thing; it's not like I couldn't face the day (though I suppose that's not entire untrue). I just literally couldn't get into my car. The door was completely frozen shut. And remember my awesome new scraper? It was frozen into my ice-sealed trunk, unable to fulfill its destiny. So I used an old-school scraper and when that didn't work, a giant glass of super hot water. Eventually I was able to get the car door open and face the slippery drive to work.

I'll admit, the drive in could have been a lot worse, but the prettiness of the snow softened my heart somewhat.

I was totally watching the road when I took this, no worries.

And this scene greeted me when I walked up to my office building:

Fine, snow. Fine. I'll concede. You're pretty.

Between the snow and parting my hair on the other side of my head as an experiment, today is definitely going to be a challenging day. Let me explain about the part. See, I heard this piece on Radiolab about mirror image, and how the way we see our reflection in the mirror is different than how people see us. They had a guy on the show who talked about how he thought the way he looked in the mirror was fine, and couldn't understand why he was unpopular. Then one day he got several passport pictures taken and discovered by examining them that he was goofy looking. He blamed it on his part, and parted his hair on the other side of his head from then on. And because of this, he claims his life improved dramatically. He was more popular and had more friends. Because of his part.

So I decided to experiment and change my part today. I had talked with my coworker, Justin, about the Radiolab show yesterday so he knew about the guy who changed his part. Today I told him about changing mine, and asked him if changing it made me more likable, less likable, or the same likable. He paused and I added, "And you can't take into consideration the annoyingness of the question. This is based on part alone." He then quickly answered: "same likable."

So now I have to feel "off" all day and I am not even more likable. In fact, if I'm being honest, it's probably making me less likable. Or maybe that's the snow's fault?

Between the snow and my part, the deck is definitely stacked against me today. I guess I better take a quick look at the bright side for today: peppermint hot chocolate, Chinese food, a party at my grandma's retirement building at which Elvis* is going to be performing, and my book club. (Oh boy, all those people are going to see me with this weird hair part. [Sigh.])

Happy Wednesday.

*not the real Elvis, cause you know....he died and stuff.