greetings

i just received a work email with the closing salutation of "yours".

um... doesn't seem P.C., does it?

we stayed for dinner

thought i'd write another post, because i felt sort of mean at the end of that last one. i hope you'll enjoy this one.

last friday night, dan and i went to dinner at a Thai restaurant that we really like... it's a fairly small place with really good food. it was kind of crowded when we arrived, so we had to sit by the front door where it's rather drafty. within a minute of entering, actually before sitting down, we notice that a diner at one of the back tables is puking at his table. like, everywhere. table cloth, floor, you name it.

and, as the title of this post indicates, we stayed for dinner! yup. we've been there so many times that we were not phased by this at all... a few days later when i mentioned this to a friend i realized that maybe we could have interpreted this as a sign that something was wrong in the kitchen, but we didn't. and there was no issue as far as we were concerned-- we enjoyed our pad see-yu and pad thai quite a bit.

i bet if we hadn't been to this place a dozen or so times before this, we would have left. probably. i will tell you one thing, though: we're never sitting at that back table. i mean, i know that any number of things could have happened in any public space i'm in, but the fact that i actually saw the puking take place means i refuse to sit at that table. in fact, if we went back and it was really busy and that was the only table free, i'd probably opt to go somewhere else.

really.

more on etiquette

at this time of year, we have lots and lots of fancy dessert-type snacks all around the office. there are tins of cookies and plates of pies and dishes of breads scattered around.

i just witnessed a co-worker paw through approximately 10 pieces of a baklava-type dessert before choosing a piece.

um, hello, swine flu anyone??

a real life episode of 'seinfeld'

or maybe i should call it 'cohen'?

wow. get ready, this is a great story.

saturday night we went to dinner and the movies with heidi and dave. we met at cambridge brewing company at 6:30, enjoyed dinner and conversation, then walked over to the theater for an 8:00 showing of 'up in the air'. we were chatting so much, we didn't get to the theater until about 7:55, but they were still selling tickets to the movie, so we figured we wouldn't have trouble finding seats. immediately upon entering the theater-- and at this point it was 8:00 and the previews had started-- we realized we would have trouble finding 4 seats together, so we agreed to just find 2 pairs and meet up afterwards. heidi and dave headed up to the front third of the theater, while dan and i stayed in the back. dan noticed a row with a few vacant seats-- there were 3 or 4 occupied seats, then a vacant seat, then an occupied seat, then another vacant seat. he asked to verify if the seats were unoccupied before we entered the row. as we approached the vacant seats, dan asked the woman with empty seats to either side of her if she could move to her right so that we could sit together. she said no, citing that she would not be able to see over the person's head in front of that seat... ok. so dan asks if she'll move to her left, and she says the same thing. at this point, we're sort of standing in the row, blocking people in the row from sitting back down and blocking the people behind us from seeing the previews, so we have no choice but to SIT ON EITHER SIDE OF HER! seriously. the woman on my other side said to me 'wait, she's not going to move to let you sit together?' yeah. this ASSHOLE wouldn't move, so dan and i watched the movie with 1 seat between us. at first we thought that maybe during the previews she'd have the sense to offer to move, but no, she didn't. unreal.

tonight we watched 'julie and julia' from the comfort of our own home, seated side by side. during the opening credits, dan turned to me and said 'it's nice to be able to sit next to you during the movie.' he's right. there were several moment during 'up in the air' that i wanted to say something to dan, and instinctively looked to my right, only to see this woman instead.

WHO DOES THAT!?!?!

haircut

why is it when you get a haircut, people feel obligated to say, "did you get a haircut?" and wait for a "yes" response before saying "it looks good". i mean, seriously, just say you like it without confirming that i got the haircut, or keep your mouth shut.

it takes me back to when i was in kindergarden... a 5th grader at my bus stop had gotten a haircut, or maybe it was a perm? in any event, we got off the bus and i asked her if she had gotten a haircut (clearly, i was too young to do this differently). of course she said "yes" and then followed it with "do you like it?" (now i am remembering: it was most certainly a perm.) so i looked at it, and said "no, i think it looked better before." honestly i'm not sure she ever spoke to me again.

so let me say this: if you notice someone got a haircut and you like the new style, feel free to simply say "i like your haircut". if you notice, and do not like it, keep it to yourself.

(note: i got a haircut and i look awesome. if you see me, feel free to just jump out with "OMG your new haircut looks great!")

it's almost 'the office'

this is probably crossing the line of information, but whatever. i can't contain it anymore.

there are 2 people who sit closely to me at work-- which means that they also sit near each other. at least once a day, they talk on the phone. both are overjoyed to be talking to each other, and one frequently puts the other on speakerphone.

um, really? is this necessary? i think not. i feel there should be a minimum distance apart that 2 employees must be in order to be allowed to exercise phone rights. someone needs to tell these people-- the speakerphone is insane, because we hear this cheerful person in stereo surround sound-- and it's just too much.

too much.