Biden

I was prepared to like Joe Biden (he and Obama make such a nice-looking pair). Then he started saying "literally."

Friday

It's Friday, aka Jeans-With-Heels day. So I'm wearing jeans with heels. The spiky sandal kind.

This morning I went out to tour a new house for a story I'm working on. In my jeans and heels. And good news: the ground is not landscaped. It's dirt and rocks. PERFECT. so i walk around getting dirt up my toes and stumbling all over the place, and here is what is going through the minds of the very nice, very rich, very down-to-earth people who live in the house: this girl is somewhat high maintenance.

NOOOOOOOO. I'm not! I wake up half an hour before I have to leave for work and never have time to blow-dry my hair! Not high maintenance!

Oh well, the idea is solidified in their minds and I'll never see them again.

thoughts on those bronze statues of children in shopping malls and other public places

I hate them.

Mosaic

I love this! I got the instructions and questions from Rachel.

Instructions:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Daniela
2. What is your favorite dessert? banana split
3. What high school did you go to? San Ramon
4. What is your favorite color? Red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? George Clooney
6. Favorite drink? hot chocolate
7. Dream vacation? pyramids
8. Favorite food? alfredo
9. What you want to be when you grow up? happy
10. What do you love most in life? family
11. One word to describe you. unsure
12. Your flickr name. danigrigg

:)

I'm not a smiley face person, and I'm not that into exclamation points either (in a professional context). I absolutely NEVER say or type "lol" or "hehe." Unless I'm making the point that I don't say or type them.

But sometimes, in an email or twitter response to someone I don't know too well, I feel like if I don't mirror his or her punctuation and symbol enthusiasm, they're going to think I have a bad attitude. So, I am known to throw in exclamation points (though never more than one at once), and occasionally you may see a smiley face make its way into my typing. That is, if you're a professional associate who uses such things liberally. 

For example:

This morning I typed a Twitter post: "disappointed to find my krispy kreme donut is filled with lemon instead of apple." 

A twitter friend who has been known to help me out with articles posted this in reply: "let's see, $780B bailout, war in Iraq, pres election, Larry Craig, wrong filling in Krispy Kreem donut, slow day at the IBR? :)"

So I said: "ha! okay, you're right. Thanks for the perspective."

and then I get a private message from the guy: "just fooling with you, ya' know (I hope)."

Of course I knew! I can recognize fooling when I see it (most of the time). I suspected that if I had thrown in a smiley face at the end (like he's so fond of doing), we would have been on the same page. 

So I responded: "yeah, I know. keep it coming. :)" 

Smiley face. Mission accomplished. Even though I cringed a little bit as I was typing it.

pants

I changed my clothes at lunch. I guess the first half of the day was enough to make me realize that my outfit sucked. Seth commented that people at work might think I pooped my pants.

NOTE TO PEOPLE AT WORK: I did not poop my pants.

Speaking of things that suck, yesterday in my primary lesson somebody mentioned getting your head chopped off, and I said, "yeah, that would--." and then I realized you can't say "suck" in primary, so I changed it last second to, "yeah, that would stink."

Good catch, Dani, good catch.

thoughts on sewing

I'm not good at it. Nobody would give me any money for what I do. They might ask ME to pay THEM if I tried to hem their pants or make them a stocking or a duvet cover.

I take a bit of pride in my ragged little projects. I show them to friends with a beam and say, "hey, look! I'm awful at sewing!" Their respect for me goes up a notch when they see my efforts, because does anybody really like the ultra-domestic perfect girl? No, but everybody likes the enthusiastic, ultra-domestic untalented girl.

At least that's what I suspect.

And yes, I'm a girl. Not a woman. And as I get older, I'll become a lady. still not a woman. So please don't refer to me behind my back as a woman.