Squash Enchiladas and Some Pitiful Tennis

TONIGHT’S TENNIS MATCH: 3.  It was pitiful to say the least.  Lauren insisted on a rematch, so Brian and I teamed up against her and Jon.  While we managed to kick their butts last time, this time was a little bit different… Jon got rid of the hurky style serve (which was good for both our winning and my perpetual entertainment) and actually got some in.  Lauren decided to stop hitting them long and instead sharp cross court, making it impossible for me to get.  Brian decided to try out Lauren’s game and sailed one into the woods, while I was too busy seeing how many tennis balls could fit into my oversized sweatpants (7 for anyone who’s curious).  It’s really no wonder we lost…

SQUASH ENCHILADAS: 10.  Brian then decided to cook us all dinner, and I must say this was genuinely one of the best home cooked meals I”ve had in a really long time.  Whole wheat tortillas with a butternut squash filling, covered with salsa and cheese, it had just the right amount of spiciness and was uber satisfying.  HIGHLY recommended.  Maybe this is what I’ll cook for Thanksgiving when I get to host my family for the first time ever in my adult life

BURNING THE TOP OF YOUR MOUTH BECAUSE YOU CAN’T RESIST STUFFING YOUR FACE WITH THE DELICIOUS SMELLING ENCHILADAS: 4.  A little painful, and slightly sad because it slows down the eating, it still seems to be worth it because the food was so good.  And every single of one of us managed to do it.  Even after watching the person before us suffer.  Weird how we somehow thought the intense heat would have no effect on our mouths.

MURPHY’S SQUISHED NOSE: 7.  It might be one of my favorite things about him.  Makes him super adorable, especially when it’s all squished up while he’s sleeping.  However a major downer is he struggles to keep up running in heat and he snores pretty bad sometimes.

WHITE LADDER: 9.  Last night at City Bev we got to talking about albums, and the lost art form they are.  Which reminded me how much I heart the full White Ladder album by David Gray.  It’s beautiful, chill and distinctive.  I can immediately tell when it’s David and not someone else and I totally value that.  ‘This Year’s Love’ is particularly good.  If you are also mourning the loss of the album, go on to iTunes music store and buy this one.  Or the store.  Either way, you should do it.  I’ll guarantee you’ll love it or I’ll give you a full refund… how I’m not quite sure, but I’m so confident you’ll love it that I don’t even really care.  ENJOY!

Happy almost Halloween!  I can’t wait for ‘Dress as Your Favorite Book Character’ at work tomorrow.  I love being on the Sunshine Committee

Painful AT&T Experience

AT&T STORE ON FRANKLIN STREET: 2. AT&T needs some etiquette lessons from Sheetz, that’s for sure. Today I had potentially one of the worst customer service experiences EVER. My mom and I have been working on getting my iPhone onto her family plan for a little while now, and she’s made a ton of calls and gone into several stores. It’s funny how every time they tell you something a little bit different every time, and are always directing you to a different person. After a lot of hassle they finally told my mom that to finish it up I needed to go into a store to change my number. As soon as I walked in she insisted she couldn’t do anything for me and gave me a number to call. When I walked out and called my mom she told me to go back in and put her on the phone with the woman I just talked to. I can’t blame her for being frustrated after all we’d already gone through, and as she was talking to this woman the sales rep was rolling her eyes and eventually put the phone down and rudely said “I guess I don’t work at AT&T.” I couldn’t believe how rude she was being!!! I then said ‘That’s my mom on the phone- you could be a little more polite” and she yelled at me and stormed off. She then said to the manager loudly “I need to see YOU in the back.” Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I felt so uncomfortable and just wanting to escape a situation. Eventually the manager came back out and helped me, and fixed the situation, never really openly acknowledging how embarassingly rude this woman was. And clearly he proved her wrong when he did exactly what I had come in asking for. Eventually he did give me a $50 credit to my account which earned them these two points. But seriously, NEVER GO THERE. They made me want to cry.

CLIMBING WALL IN MY APARTMENT: 8. Hell yeah. Doesn’t really get better than having your own homemade hang board in the middle of your living room. I can’t wait to get the foot holds up on the edges so I can actually climb up rather than having to stand on a bench that makes my feet cramp up. So that’s minus a point, plus all the damage in the walls I’ll have to deal with when I take it down. Maybe I’ll just have to stay here forever…

KATIE’S TECHNIQUE ON THE CLIMBING WALL IN MY APARTMENT: 1. Clearly she needs to come to more Sunday morning climbs with me…

CITY BEV OPEN MIC NIGHT: 7. I love that the local bar has open mic on Wednesday nights. I love even more the large assortment of pretty attractive guys who choose to play there. It’s funny how a 6 or 7 can instantly become an 8 or a 9 when they pick up a guitar and start singing. Pictured below is my fave. I might be his number one fan. However I must admit I miss Clare who played here a month ago. Despite not being a cute boy. She was incredible.

CHAZ AND YOGAMAZING: 9. I totally love Chaz! These free Yoga podcasts found on the iTunes music store are great. He has classes for all different things (balance, Golf, stress, etc.) and they’re all the perfect length (between 20-40 minutes). Plus, did I mention they’re free??? They got me through my first year of teaching, and taking his class again today made me super happy. Definitely going to have to become a more frequent part of my routine. Check it out

Climbing Laziness and Sheetz Coffee

THE VIEW: 8.  The leaves are starting to change… I can’t wait for some more color!

THE AWKWARD NOISE LEVEL AT VERTICAL EDGE: 2.  When you walk in to the gym and feel weird talking because you’re interrupting the silence, there’s something wrong.  We’re at a climbing gym people, not a library!  It wasn’t even that there weren’t a lot of people there.  There were.  It’s just they were all quiet.  I think the real problem is that Lisa wasn’t there…

MEN WHO THINK THEY’RE TOO ‘COOL’ FOR A HALLOWEEN COSTUME: 2.  Halloween comes but once a year friends, and if you’re going to waste it then I’m not going to waste a high score on you.  While theme parties, thank god, allow the spirit of Halloween to live on longer than just one day, I’m still a firm believer in living it up.  Yet at the gym when I invited folks to our Halloween party I found THREE people who were ‘too cool’ or ‘too old’ to have a costume idea.  Really guys.  Really.  Get over yourself.  But have no fear.  I’m on it.  And you better believe I’m gonna do whatever I can to get them costumed by Friday.

(If you look closely you can see all three of them in this picture)

 

CLIMBING MOTIVATION: 3.  Oh boy.  Tonight was a bit of a disaster.  It was nice to be back to Tuesday night climbing, however I quickly realized while Times Square and Bourbon Street may have been good for the spirit they certainly weren’t good for the body.  Between the bike ride to work yesterday and climbing tonight it is becoming very clear I’m getting out of shape.  I had more fun laying on the mats tonight than I did not getting to the top of all the oranges in the gym.  Awesome.  Although this picture shows I’m not the only one…

 

SHEETZ ON ALEXANDER DRIVE IN DURHAM: 10.  I’m about to make this rating description way longer than it needs to be… bear with me.  So most of the people I work with are out of the office this week for selection so I decided to work from home on Wednesday.  A lot of times I get my best work done late at night so after climbing I headed to Sheetz to pick up a giant coffee, then head home to work for a couple hours.  The one downside of Sheetz is that they don’t have skim milk for your coffee, so I decided it was worth asking for some.  The woman went out of her way to the back to get me a cup of skim milk which was awesome to start with.  Then I headed to the register and asked to speak with a manager.  Just wanted to let them know they were doing something right and I really appreciated the help.  Turned out the manager was the one who got me the milk, but then I got out my wallet to pay and the dude was like “You’re all set”.  I said to him “No, I haven’t paid yet!” and he goes “You’re all set “.  So not only did they hook me up with the perfect coffee but then gave it to me for free.  I love this Sheetz.  You better believe I’ll be returning

Pumpkin Carving!!!

FALL WEATHER: 9.5. When walking Murph after work today it smelled like fall, felt like fall (cold enough where you almost needed gloves but not quite), and looked like fall (the leaves are changing AND falling!). I could go on (as you all know) but either way the only thing keeping it from a 10 was the 30 minute period of rain in the afternoon. Which meant I was going to have to ride home in the cold weather in the rain. Not quite as doable as pouring rain in 90 degree weather. Until Lauren offered to come pick me up. That earns an 8 for sure (-1 for my laziness, -1 for her getting lost on the way there).

SCOTT’S PUMPKIN PATCH:3. I love the way it looked, all set up and fally in front of Krogers. Driven by several times thinking I needed pumpkins. In fact, I may even credit Scott with inspiring the pumpkin-carving party. However, pumpkins were overpriced and the warty ones were even more expensive! Not a fan of people who take serous advantage of fall to make money.

KROGER’S PUMPKINS: 6. We then walked over to Kroger where it was still overpriced, but at least better than Scott’s. Plus, the pumpkins were all really nicely shaped. Mine especially

We got them home and joined up with Katie, Charlie, Jordan and Brian, some faves from Park Ridge. It was pretty fabulous teamwork if I do say so myself as we cut, cleaned, carved and cooked all at the same time. Charlie was the brilliant chef behind the delicious pumpkin seeds, while Katie, Brian and I were the artists behind the impressive pumpkins.

COOKED PUMPKIN SEEDS: 7. Great snack, great use of something you would otherwise throw out, and they kinda reminded me of popcorn. A tiny, little bit burnt which could have been improved, and overall weren’t the most delicious thing I’ve ever had, but I definitely would recommend them to others- especially if Charlie’s cooking.

FINISHED PUMPKINS

MINE:8. Didn’t choose the most difficult design, but it does go with my costume and looked pretty good when done. After Murphy took a bite out of her dress and I had to make her bigger it definitely went down to a 5, but I’m sticking with my original score.

BRIAN’S:7.5. He clearly came with slightly more experience, which was to be expected, and more prepared. We were going to attack them with my kitchen knives but he saved the day with his orange pumpkin carving knife. The idea was original and I liked it a lot once I figured out what it was. But that took a minute… which loses some points. Guesses as to what you think it might be?

KATIE’S: 8. Considering that most of hers was actually done with the original knives and not the pumpkin carver earns some extra points. I also love the NC pride For those of you who don’t know her, it’s also going to look fabulous in her entirely too beachy apartment. Not especially seasonable though…

All in all I’d say we did pretty good

Back to the old stomping grounds

As I’m pretty sure I blogged about earlier (is it sad that I’m too lazy to actually go back and look?) I spent Thursday and Friday at American University, camping out in the student union building recruiting for TFA.  Most of the meetings were signed up for ahead of time, and I got to do a couple of class presentations.  A little sad by how few questions were asked (and realized a little bit how difficult it must be to be a college professor… the blank stares you see on half the faces was something I would have gotten SO frustrated with in a classroom.  Either way, definitely some things worth rating

CATCHING UP WITH OLD FRIENDS: 7.  A couple points off because not everyone do you genuinely care about catching up with, and small talk can sometimes be so draining.  HOWEVER, that being said I really enjoyed seeing how old members of Family Five were doing (my old floor Senior year… myself and two good friends were co-RAs on one of the best floors on campus).  That and I ran into a couple old students who were in my orientation groups over the years.  One in particular is hopefully gonna help out with a potentially awesome trip for a couple students come basketball season… top secret for now, but would be incredible if it happened.  One point off overall because when I run into people I really do enjoy seeing, it makes me wish for this ideal world where I could pick the location I love (Durham, clearly.  Or maybe Boone.) and populate it with all my favorites from all over.  When reuniting with people like Amy, Laiah, Joanne (my best friend from Harrisburg who I got to see while in Frederick), Susanna, Daniel, Cherice and others recently, it really makes me miss having them in my life and wishing I could get them all in one place.  Once every couple of years just doesn’t seem to do it.  

 

‘LIBERAL BEANS’: 9.  While chatting with Amy and Laiah, Laiah told me a funny story about the RA who replaced us after we graduated.  So apparently he was pretty conservative and one day she was cooking edamame in the lounge kitchen and she offered him some.  He refused, saying that he was not interested in any of her ‘liberal beans’.  I think this may be my new favorite phrase.  I wonder if I went into the local Harris Teeter and asked for some ‘liberal beans’ they’d know what I was talking about.  I think this might be an experiment waiting to happen.

 

JOHN MCCAIN’S BOOK IN THE $3.99 BIN: 6.  Slightly sad for him, and I genuinely do support his right to publish a book.  That and for others to read it and maybe even agree with him.  But still made me laugh to see it in there so close to the election.  Isn’t this when people normally want to read up on the candidates?  Maybe this should be a low rating on the apathy of the American public right about now.  But at least it wasn’t Obama’s book

  

 

THIS GUY’S PURSE: 4.  Friday night my sister joined me in Bethesda (where my hotel was) and we headed out to grab some dinner. While walking around we saw this…

 

I think my sister may have been slightly embarassed by my sketchy/stalkerish behavior as I got this picture, but I think it was worth it.  I’ve never seen a guy with a purse quite like this one.  At first I liked it because it reminded me of the fanny pack, but then I got over it because it’s not actually a fanny pack.  And it’s kinda funny looking.  I think he could own it a little bit more to be honest.

GAS PRICES DOWN SOUTH: Before I rate this I have to be transparent on my struggle with gas ratings.  The lower it gets, I get more excited and want to give a higher rating, but at the same time it could always get lower, so what do the numbers actually mean?  Help on this one would be much appreciated.  In the meantime, I paid $2.49 here and $2.25 at a WaWa on the way back home.  Gotta be at least an 8.  Filled up my tank for a little over $30.  Made my weekend.

  

COMIC STRIP MY MOM CUT OUT FOR ME: 8.  How fitting.  I got super excited when I read it (the rating system is spreading!!!), however as you all know two key pieces to any great rating are 1) transparency and 2) context.  He didn’t really give either… In their defense though they did only have two little boxes, and not a whole blog. 

SUPER pumped to finally be biking to work again tomorrow!  It’s been three weeks of craziness and my life is finally back to normal.  I can’t wait to get back to it

Integrity of Rate Your World

So, I’ve been rethinking some of my recent ratings and have decided to check myself.  It seems (and I admit this with a little hesistance), I may be overrating a tad.  Not my life, just some of the things in my life.  I’m finding that I haven’t put as much thought into things I like, but tend to just give it a 10 if I really like it.  Not giving enough reason as to why there’s actually nothing that could be improved.  

One example, and a re-rating if you will, would be the karaoke video posted yesterday.  For me, it was definitely a 10.  The real live experience was HILARIOUS, and every time I watch it I find myself laughing out loud.  However, I believe I overrated the actual video.  The singing quality should definitely take off some points (sorry Daniel, I’ve heard better from you), and it would have also been better if there was more audience involvement.  However, serious points given for the following:  pink wig, song choice, Cherice’s umbrella, and the oh-so-classic dancing.  So overall I would re-rate it an 8.  

I think before I was giving out too many 10′s because people considered things less than a 10 ‘bad’.  I’m hoping to renorm and emphasize that anything above a 5 is actually considered favorable, but that doesn’t mean I have to automatically give it a 10.  

 

That being said, it’s back to rating

Sellers’ Stellar Karaoke Performance

How could this not be a 10?

Addendum to Marriot Beds

Lauren was kind enough to provide some proof of my exceptionally high rating of the Marriot beds in New Orleans…

Hotel Internet…

is a little sketchy here in DC, and they’re charging me $10 if I wanna use it from my room.  So instead I’m here in the lobby stealing it real quick to update and hopefully get these videos online…

LACK OF FAMILIAR (OR SMILING) FACES AT AU: 3.  I was so excited to come back to AU, and am still excited to be in my old city, but it makes me a little sad how little I recognize on campus.  Claudia said it best tonight when she said that college is about the people and not the place.  It’s not quite the same without Jill, Hannah and Jenn around, without Family Five, and without all the other folks who made it so great.  Plus no one really seemed to be smiling (except the wonderful women at Pura Vida).  Maybe it’s cause they’re in the middle of midterms…

RICHARD’S ABILITY TO HELP ME WITH YOUTUBE: 8.  The videos are almost up!!!  They’re loading as we speak and I’ve been laughing out loud for a while here in the hotel lobby as I watch this karaoke over and over.  This is certainly the cure for any bad day you might have.

GETTING TO SLEEP IN TOMORROW: 7.  Super excited to maybe catch up on a little bit of sleep after getting up at 5am to drive up here.  Even though I’m using two vacation days to be here I’ve found myself doing work and losing even more sleep.  At least a couple extra hours tomorrow will make me feel a little bit better   That and my sisters gonna join me in the hotel.

Okay so the video finally made it on YouTube but weirdly enough it published the totally wrong part of it.  HOWEVER, the good news is this is a hilarious video of two of my kids from last year as they played with Photobooth on my computer.  For anyone who’s used Photobooth you know how much fun it can be.  Well they were HILARIOUS while messing around with it (while staying after school for homework help… clearly they’re working really hard).  I rate this video a 7.5.  I wish I had gotten the music to match better, but at least it’s a start.  Now that I know how to publish videos I’ll work on making better ones.  New videos to be posted soon

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly… and a Video for Janice

(NOTE: This is the first guest rating EVER on ‘Rate Your World’, written by Richard as I’m in New Orleans… stay tuned for the most recent travel update )

The Good – Carolina Sunset in the Fall: 7. I wish the picture would have captured what I saw, but I am sure that we have all been there. Sun setting on a beautiful fall day in Carolina, there is something so peaceful about it. I normally would rate this higher, but in my attempt to capture the colors while driving (yes, I know not a good idea), I captured some ugly traffic, power lines, and the picture quality is poor, so I have taken a point off for each of those.

More Good – Ellen’s Beer: 10. As rated by Ellen… let’s hope that she comments to let us know what kind it was and just how she came up with such a high rating.

The Bad – Trader Joe’s Pizza: 2. First of all, I should say that I know better than to go to the grocery store hungry.. I was on a mission to pick up some 3 Buck Chuck which I think we all rate at least a 7, for me more like an 8 or 9, but anyway I digress… While walking through Trader Joe’s I spot this pizza with a wonderful picture on the box… it looked good, so good in fact I bought 2 boxes. Could not wait to get home to have a slice of the heavenly pizza. Followed the instructions exactly and 20 minutes later when the buzzer went off, I opened the oven and was totally disappointed, it looked bad. If that was not bad enough, it didn’t taste any better.

The Ugly – Thanks to Claudia… oh you brave soul: 2. This is Claudia rating her own feet and she did not offer an explanation, so I will let the picture do the talking. I will take this opportunity to let you all know that Claudia did stick her shoes in my face and they no longer stink, thank goodness! I will rate that a 7, as from what I understand it could have been very bad… so I give it some extra points out of the joy they weren’t her old shoes. Claudia coming in 2nd in her triathlon I will rate a 9, way to go! Would have given it another point but I do not know how many women competed in it.

More Ugly – Trash at an intersection: 2. I really do not understand why some people feel the need to toss their trash on the side of the road. We see so much of it every day that we almost get to the point that we stop seeing it. I gave this 2 points instead of a zero, as I believe that this was left here by a person at this intersection who is in need. So, a couple of points for him and the person that gave him the food.

Climbing without Janice: 6. We all love climbing and if I was just rating that it would be much higher. If I were just rating climbing without Janice on one night it would be higher as well. Here I am taking into consideration that Janice has not joined us for 3 weeks… and so I rate it a 6.
So Janice, hurry back and here is a little video just for you… with a few attempts at your famous Ta-Da at the end.