Someone did a google search today on my full name, plus the word ‘blog’.

That freaks me out!

Tell me who you are, googler!

(I have a statistics things on my site that tells me when people do Google searches that lead them to my page.  In the past, it’s been about the snuggie, the low iodine diet, hemp milk, and people have even googled “inquisitive robin”.)

But seriously, who is this?  And why are they searching for my blog?

Like SNL, but not really.

This is just a quick update because I have a paper that is kind of due tomorrow.  The professor said we could pass it in tomorrow if we wanted to get it back by our last class since we don’t have class next Monday.  Or, we could pass it in next class and not get it back.  I’m having a hard time cause I don’t really understand it completely.  I emailed three people from class to get help, and haven’t heard back from any of them.  I’m thinking if I can’t finish it, I’ll see if I can mail it out to the professor, or drop it off to him when he’s teaching another class.  I’m just having a hard time understanding it.

It’s going to be December in Massachusetts in two hours, and I am completely shocked that it hasn’t snowed yet.  I can’t believe it.  I have seen snow fall from the sky, but it hasn’t stuck to the ground.  There hasn’t been a snow fall where you’d suddenly find yourself looking outside and saying “Oh wow, it snowed!”   Currently, it’s raining outside. Gross, cold rain.

I started reading Twilight after seeing the movie on Tuesday afternoon.  That’s another reason I want to finish this paper, so I can spend all my spare time reading.  I will think of it as a reward.

We had a Brew Year’s Eve meeting tonight.  It’s a constant Wednesday and Sunday night thing.  Liz made us Sweet Potato Tarts (I think they were sweet potatoes) to try as a possible appetizer for that night.  It was delicious even though it got to us cold (I think it’s suppose to be served hot).  It was nice and filling, even thought it was really little.  Great bite size food.

Ok, off to do my paper.  It’s about family therapy, and my family and how I would do family therapy on us.  Or something.  Not really positive.   But it’s only about 5-7 pages long, and that includes a one page genogram, and a two page “chronological chart” that includes all big events in our family and how it impacted us.  So, the actual paper part is pretty short, but I figure it needs to be short and GREAT.

Off to write!  I’ll reward myself with Twilight a little later tonight, cause I want to read it very badly.

I worked a full 8 hour day, and logged in 17,500 steps just at work.  Then, I went home and rushed to the gym (I got there 30 minutes before they closed), and did 2.3 miles on the elliptical.  I’m now up to 22,500 steps.  Yay!

Macy*s didn’t seem that busy, but we kicked ass with our sales plan, and our credit goal.  So that’s good.

Now, Caroline, Alysha and I all have the night off from Destare, so we’re going out.  We’re meeting at Destare.  Seriously.  I don’t want to go there on MY NIGHT OFF, but that’s where they both wanted to go. Hopefully, we won’t stay there too long.  I wanted us to get together and watch a movie and drink for free (well, for the cost of the alcohol at the store.)  I have wine here, so it’s like it’s free.

update:  We went to Destare at 10, where we stayed all night.  Caroline and I left for a bit to go to a friend’s new condo.  He was having a party right up the street, and I wanted to stop by.  It was at the Johnsonia, and Caroline and I were talking about how much fun it’d be to live there together!  It was a fun night… but I didn’t get home until 2am.  I don’t know if I’m a big baby or what, but I would have rather started the night at 8pm, had some wine, cheese and crackers, watched a movie or just hung out with the girls, and gone to bed at midnight.  I need to get some friends who have that same idea as fun.  That’s my ideal roommate, too.  Someone who will hang out with me, drink some wine (or juice, or water), and watch movies with me while chatting.

I ended the day with 25,004 steps.  That’s 12.5 miles. 

Fruit salad (cause it is delicious)

Wonderful friends at both of my jobs

Jenny at Macy*s for bringing me to see Twilight (I give it a 93 out of a possible 100).  We’re going to try to hang out more and watch sci-fi/fantasy movies together.

Trevor, Liz, and my dad for letting me be a part of Beers For Good, even though I’m not a beer enthusiast.

Being the healthiest and most fit I’ve ever been in my entire life (minus having cancer).

Being almost done with my degree.  One more class, and then my internship!

A mom and dad who understand that I’m trying to save money, and let me live at home rent free, and they even buy me groceries.  I try to cook for them, but I’m terrible at cleaning up after myself.

My friend Jay who introduced me to the TV show How I Met Your Mother.  It’s fantastic.

My friend Niles who always makes me smile at Destare, and who goes and picks up trash with me. (He’s the only one, you environment hating dead-beats).

Honey Bunches of Oats.  I couldn’t start my day without it!

Emiliano for hosting this blog free of charge.  (I didn’t even know that until last week, but I’m very thankful)

Fruit salad  (I just got a second serving!!!)

Diet Pepsi Max (Megan will kill me, but I LOVE it)

That Barack Obama won the election

Niles was the one who put the fruit on my car!  He also placed several pieces in the driveway, too.  I guess kids are throwing it at other kids or something — he said he almost got hit by an orange one day.  And he had read my posts about it, and thought “Oh, I bet Robin would like an orange on her car!” (and boy did I!)  He stopped by this afternoon to say Hello, and he told me about his shenanigans.

Macy*s is going well.  I enjoy it.  There’s a GSM position opening up (full time, General Sales Manager) because Kaleena is leaving to be Assistant Manager at New York and Company in Auburn.  It’s much closer to her home, and just makes more sense for her.  I’m debating about applying for it, but I’m not sure if they’d let me do it only temporarily.  Or, I don’t know if I even WANT to do it.  I start my internship in September of 2009, and would probably be interested in doing it until then.  But, should I instead look for a job in my field that would be only part time (or, I guess it could be full time)?  Next semester, I have only one class on Mondays nights, from 5-10pm.  It is a six credit class, Case Methods, and we have a mini internship (a practicum) of 35 hours.  With Macy*s, I know I could get days during the week off for school and for my practicum. My regular internship is 600 hours!   But, I’d also like to have a Monday through Friday job where I don’t have to worry about working weekends.  But I should find out how often the managers at Macy*s have to work weekends.  I’m not really sure what to do.  My friend from class, Heather, says there might be a part time position available with her counseling place, You, Inc.  Should I apply and inquire about both?  I wouldn’t want to start at You, Inc until January, once I’m done with Macy*s for the season.

Here’s my ideal life:  I would live in an apartment with two cats, and work a job that I absolutely love during the week.  My hours would be 9-6.  I would have several really good friends, and perhaps a roommate who would stay up and watch movies with me and drink wine.  I would read one book a week, and have time and energy to exercise every day.  I would cook fantastic meals for dinner, and enjoy every bite.  I think I live in the city. I would recycle everything, be really conscious about my trash, and try to do without paper towels and tissues.

I am very frustrated currently, because my life is very, very far from that.  The only thing that I do right now is exercise every day.  But with Thanksgiving and Christmas here, my gym is closing (I use the one at Fitchburg State), and that means I either do cardio outside in the cold, or not at all.  So that is worrying me, too.  I’m not a happy person lately, and I’m going to start going back to therapy.  I don’t really think Erin (my counselor) will be able to help me, but it will probably be good for me to go anyway.  I’m back to the point where I never want to do anything, and I just want to sit and mope on the couch watching TV.

Brew Year’s Eve is one of the only things I’m happy with.  I enjoy the meetings, and I look forward to them.  It is coming along nicely.  We’re averaging about two meetings a week, which last at least two hours a piece.  We’re finally getting stuff done, and the website www.beersforgood.com is up and running, and it’s finally done.  Well, done for now.  There will always be things we need to change, but we’re happy with it.

Here’s Liz and Trevor during Sunday’s meeting.

I filled up my gas tank for $18 today, it was $1.89 a gallon.  That just doesn’t seem right.  My dad came into Destare Thursday night, and said that for the average person who doesn’t have stocks, things are pretty good.  Gas prices are down, things in store are on sale  super cheap (to get people in to buy stuff), houses are cheap if you’re looking…. things aren’t bad at all!  The whole stock market free fall isn’t affecting me at all, and the whole change in the economy isn’t really affecting my family at all.  Because of the problems with the city’s budget, my mom was forced to go down to part time, leaving her with half her salary.  That sucks, but we’re not really living any differently.  My mom just occasionally says “We don’t have the money for that,” but it’s always for extravagant things like redoing the kitchen floor.  Nothing else has changed.

I’m kind of bummed out that gas prices went down again.  It was nice to hear that SUVs weren’t selling, and that people were actually doing something about driving so much.  Now that gas is the cheapest it’s been in 5 years (I heard that somewhere), people are going to go nuts again driving again.  Sure, it’s nice on my wallet, but I didn’t really mind $4 gas.

I got out of work early last night, and went to Hooligans. Drinking ensued.  It was fun, until I drank too much.  (stupid Robin, be smarter!) Here are some pictures.  The one of me and Niles is my favorite (this top one, Niles is wearing a hat).

Photos (from top to Bottom), Me and Niles, Dave and Rob, Rob and Mark, and Rob and me.

Dave and Rob I met at Hooligans, but they did video stuff with Steve.  Mark is one of Niles’ friends.

My mom bought apples today (the $16 of apples I bought on Halloween are ALL GONE!), and when she came home, she said “Do you want me to store the apples in the fridge?”  I said “no, not really.”  And then she said “Oh, well, I like them when they’re in the fridge.”  So then I asked her “So then why did you even ask me?”  I don’t care if my apples are cold or room temperature, but she did.  That’s silly.  She should have just put them in the fridge, and not worried about it.

She also does this thing with my dad where she sees what he’s wearing before they’re going out, and she said “Is that what you’re wearing?”  Obviously, yes, that is what he’s wearing.  There’s no reason to ask that question.  She’s not really looking for an answer, it’s just a way for then the guy to say “Yes, why?”  And then the woman will say “Well, I don’t like what you have on.”  So many women do this (hell, I’ve probably done it).  When really, she should say “Why don’t you put something more dressy on,”  or “Will you wear that blue sweater?  It looks really good on you.”

All too often, people don’t say exactly what they mean.  I learned all about this in my couples counseling classes.  Women just need to state exactly what they mean.

Don’t say “Will you help me out?”  Say “Please vacuum the rug in the living room.”

When I was living with Eric, I was having trouble dealing with household stuff.  Someone in my Psychology of Intimacy class suggested to give him a  list of whatever I wanted, and give him a deadline “You don’t have to do it now, but please have it done by Saturday night when my parents are coming to dinner.”

That makes total sense, I hate being in the middle of something when my mom says “Go do this!”  I’m in the middle of something, I’m not going to get up and do whatever you want me to do.  I can see how that makes sense.  BUT, I tried it with Eric, and I said “Tomorrow is trash day, can you please take out the trash before you go to bed, and also make the orange juice tonight so we have it for tomorrow.”
I went to bed after him, walked into the kitchen and saw that the trash was still in the kitchen, and the orange juice container was still empty sitting on the counter.  I took our the trash and made the orange juice.  I complained to my dad about this, and he said I shouldn’t have done it.  But then I said “but it was trash day, and the trash had to go out!”  And he said “no it didn’t.  It could just have sat there until next week, and then he would have woken up in the morning, and been like ‘crap, I didn’t take out the garbage’, and he would understand that he messed up.”  I understand that I could have left the trash, and I probably should have.  But I absolutely needed orange juice in the morning.

Anyway, I think it’s very important to specifically ask for what you want, and don’t be vague about it.  My mom should have said “I like my apples in the fridge, is that ok with you?”  And if it wasn’t ok with me, we could have split it, and put some on the counter for me.

Why do they do soda in liters, but milk and orange juice in gallons?

I bet the average person when asked “how does a 2 liter bottle compare to a gallon jug?” they wouldn’t know the answer.

Do you?

I was getting ready to meet Liz and Trevor about the Brew Fest, when I looked outside and saw an orange nicely placed on my windshield  (I’m hoping it was nicely placed).  The fruit is back! This orange went straight into the compost because I was right next to it.  Plus, it was about 30 odd degrees out, and this orange was probably too cold to be any good to eat (plus I wouldn’t trust it in the first place).

We met at a local business, Advanced Print Technologies to talk about ordering our pint glasses.  We wanted to see what we could get for our money, and what the label would look like on the glass.  For a regular 16 oz. pint glass, we have 3inX3in of space for our label.  With a 16oz glass with a handle, we would only have 2inX1.5in.  Just the difference in label size alone (plus, the one with the handle was $1 more a glass) made us want to stick with a regular pint glass.  The ones with the handles would be cool because they’re different, but it just didn’t seem that it would work out well with our label.  One of the guys at APT comes in to Destare occasionally, so he knew I had an iPhone.  He’s interested in getting one, so I let him play with mine, and showed him how to use it.  I forgot he had taken this picture until I was scrolling in my photo album and was confused at how I had taken a  picture of myself.

Christmas is almost here, and with it, comes Macy*s BIGGEST ONE DAY SALE OF THE YEAR!!!!

Now, Macy*s has sales ALL the time.  Seriously.  There is maybe one day a week where there isn’t some sort of sale going on.  But, I know from working at Macy’s for so long, that you will find the absolute best prices at Macy*s during a One Day Sale (ODS).  Things are just cheaper then.  It’s the best time to buy.  So obviously, with the BIGGEST ODS of the year, things are going to be cheap.  I got to work an hour early, cause I had done some other shopping at Kohl’s and Target (and by shopping, I exchanged a sweater at Kohl’s.  I had bought a striped one-I love stripes-but hadn’t worn it yet.  I lost my receipt, so I exchanged it for a black one that I can wear to Macy*s).  Then I wandered around Target, but didn’t find anything.  Once I got to Macy*s, I saw all the rediculously priced merchandise.  All of the clearance racks were $4.99 or 75% off.  I just had bought a bunch of sweaters that were $8 for me after discount (they were 50% off at the time), but now they were on sale for $4 (after discount).  I did price adjustments on two of them (so I got $8 back), and bought two more.  I’m not sure if I should keep them (do I need them?), but they’re $4 sweaters!!!!!  I also returned some things that didn’t fit - a wicked awesome sweater in the Misses department that was a Small, but still too big.  This lady obviously has it clipped in the back, because there is no way that is how a small looks on her.   But anyway, things were super cheap, and I went a little crazy.  Well…. I bought two more of the sweaters I had already bought.  One in light grey, and one in grey and blue striped.  They’re long cardigans, so they can be worn on top of other shirts, and light enough to be worn in the summer.  Perhaps I’ll change my mind and return them… but right now, they’re $4 sweaters!  This should motivate me to clean out my closet, and throw away things I don’t wear.