Update Time

I haven’t posted in a couple weeks…but I have some good updates:

– My parents came to visit Mothers Day weekend and we had a really nice weekend filled with shopping & eating
– The semester (MBA) is finally over and I don’t have to take classes again until the Fall – woohoo! I’m still waiting on my grade in my Business Management class, but as long as I got a 64% or better on the final, I still scored an A in the class
– I had my annual review at work and it went swimmingly! Spencer was actually super nice and told me that I’m doing a great job and that I’m highly valued at the agency. He envisions moving me into more of a data analysis role in the future, and as soon as the agency’s hiring freeze is up, his priority is to hire someone that I can manage. Also, as soon as the agency’s salary freeze is up, I can also expect a nice salary bump – woohoo!
– Boyfriend & I celebrated our 1 year anniversary last week and we had a nice little staycation in the District. We stayed at a boutique hotel in Dupont, had a romantic dinner, went to a couple bars, and then ended the night with some good old fashioned sex fighting. More on that next post.
– Boyfriend & I also went to dinner at Komi (DC’s Number 1 Restaurant for 2009) with his sister & her husband. It’s a Greek-Italian fusion and overall I thought it was good, but way overpriced (about $800 for 4 people – thank god Boyfriend’s brother-in-law paid haha). It was cool to try once, but I’m not sure I would go again.
– I’m househunting! My extremely generous Dad has agreed to co-sign basically entirely pay for a condo or townhouse that I can live in! I’ll have to handle mortgage payments, insurance, and condo fees, as well as work out a long-term payment schedule to repay him for the down payment, but I can finally get out of the world of renting! So, I’ve started the process (i.e. found an agent & talked to a loan officer), and most likely I’ll go look at some places next week. I’m looking for at least a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo or townhouse in NoVa within walking distance to a metro on the Orange Line…exciting!!!
– Still no updates on the vacation situation. We are thinking either Costa Rica or Dominican Republic, but have not heard back from our vacation consultant.
– Boyfriend & I are going to see Coldplay tonight. He’s not that into them, but I’ve been a fan for years and I’m really excited to see them! I was reading reviews of the concert at other venues and it’s been getting phenomenal feedback.

That’s about it for now. I promise I will get back on posting more often. And I have a great story about Boyfriend & I’s romantic anniversary staycation – so stay posted!

My Roommate, Virgin Mary II

The following IM from my OCD roommate sums up why she is the most annoying freakshow on the planet:

Roomie: so my boobs are killing me! and i know that is TMI but i don’t know what the deal is. i even took a freaking pregnancy test because i was freaking out. even thought i have no reason to…unless i am a kind of virgin mary.

I need to move out.

I Guess I Should be Thankful

As I have written about before, I work in the interactive department of a full-service ad agency. My boss, Spencer, is a bit of a douche. To put it lightly. I am not the only person who works under him – there is also another girl named Stephanie (I’m going to stick with the Hills references). We’re actually pretty good friends and her dry, sarcastic wit is what gets me through many a boring day.

Stephanie has worked here longer than I have, but is still one level below me title-wise (which really doesn’t mean anything because we both do the same work despite title differences). But, after 3 years of working here, she still has not been promoted once. The amazing thing is the glaring difference between how Spencer treats her and how he treats me. It is literally like she’s Cinderella and I’m one of the step-sisters. For example, there have been times where we have both made the exact same mistakes. Spencer told me not to worry about it, and instead praised me for all of the things I’ve done correctly. But, he told Stephanie that she needs to pay more attention to detail and he doesn’t want to see the same thing happen again.

I think the reason that Spencer treats us so differently is that I play the game and Stephanie refuses to. Spencer is one of those bosses who needs an ego massage. He needs someone to make him feel important. Not to say that I kiss his ass, but if asking him for his opinion once in a while makes him feel important (and thus gets him off my back), why not? Stephanie, on the other hand, will bend over backward to make Spencer feel un-important. I think it’s what gets her through the day. She has told me that time & time again, Spencer has told her that she needs to display more enthusiasm & initiative in her work. But, when I ask him what I need to improve on, he tells me that I’m doing a great job. And, believe me, I don’t really go above & beyond. But, I guess I know the amount I need to do to get in Spencer’s good graces.

Anyways, the point of this story is that something happened today that really illustrated the double standard Spencer has for me vs. Stephanie. Since today is Friday, Stephanie & I thought it would be a good day to go out to lunch. Normally, we only get 30 mins for lunch, but once in a while we’ll go out for longer – no one has ever said anything to us about it. We recruited another girl we work with, Nose, and we headed to a local Indian joint around noon. We finished around 1 and then decided to stop at a gelato place on the way back to the office (OMG cake batter gelatto is pure heaven). So by the time we got back, it was 1:30. We ended up being out longer than we expected, but oh well. Right? Wrong.

When we got back, Stephanie saw that she had 1 missed call and 2 emails from Spencer asking her to “swing by when she’s back in the office.” She headed over to talk to him, and then came back and IM’d me about the conversation:

Stephanie: well I can’t go to lunch anymore

Sunshowers: what happened?

Stephanie: I walk in and he looks like his dog died or something and he’s like “can you close the door”

Sunshowers: oh god

Stephanie: he’s like “i don’t even want to have this conversation but where have you been for the past 2 hours”

Stephanie: I was like uh I went to lunch

Stephanie: he’s like ok well I think it’s just like common sense that you can’t leave for that long

Stephanie: if you need to be out of the office you need to give me a heads up

Sunshowers: wow…first of all, i love that he’s lecturing on common sense

Stephanie: he’s like “I don’t want to have to babysit”

Stephanie: I wanted to be like “well then why the hell are you???”

Sunshowers: seriously

Sunshowers: what a douche…did he need something urgently?

Stephanie: no he just wanted to go over some document

Stephanie: like I didn’t already know what needed to be done

Sunshowers: wtf

Stephanie: he just seemed like disappointed that he needed to talk to me about it

Stephanie: and just condescending like he usually is

Stephanie: stuff like this just makes me want to walk out though, seriously

Guess how many missed calls/emails I had from him? Zero. I even went into his office later to talk to him about something and he was in a good mood and talked to me really nicely. I guess I should be thankful that my asshole boss likes me, but I feel bad that he’s treating my friend so badly. Lame.

Vacation Planning

So Boyfriend and I are thinking of taking a vacation later this year (probably in November), so we’re I’m doing some research & planning. I was actually planning on going to India in December of this year, but I decided to hold off for now. Basically, my entire extended family lives there and I don’t get to see them very often because the flight itself is so expensive (around $1700) and then when I go, I have to use all 3 weeks of my vacation to make the trip worth the cost, so then I basically can’t take any other vacation/personal days for the rest of the year.

Anyways, since India is now out, I thought it would be nice if Boyfriend & I could take a vacation somewhere. My parents have timeshares, which they have generously offered to us, so we would only have to take care of airfare & spending money. Good deal.

The only annoying thing? Having to plan this trip entirely on my own. The deal with my parent’s timeshares is that I have to pick 1-2 locations & the dates we want to go, submit a request form, and then wait for a consultant to call me with what’s available. Easy enough, right? Wrong. I had to practically beg Boyfriend to look at the resort/location directory with me. Everytime I asked him, he said he was “too tired to process it.” Seriously? All I’m asking him to do is use his eyes…he doesn’t even have to talk to me, just point!

Finally, I got fed up the other day and forced him to sit down with me & the laptop to pick our top choices. We decided between Hawaii & Costa Rica. So I submitted the form, and now I just have to wait for the consultant to call me. But, seriously…why are guys so bad with planning!?

I’m Going to Vent

Things That Annoy the Crap Out of Me

– Metro outages: Sorry Metro, but my idea of a fun time IS NOT standing on the platform with a hundred other commuters, while you decide to off-load every train that stops by. Further, I do not appreciate sweating to death in the train, while it holds in between stations because of mechanical problems. And finally, I do not appreciate your dumbass conducters you can’t master the idea of a smooth ride…constantly accelerating & braking makes me want to vomit.

– Metro riders: Hey Metrosexual Man in a Power Suit…do you mind not reading your newspaper 2 centimeters from my face? I know you really need to get your dose of global news from “The Daily Express,” but do you think you could abstain from practically slapping me in the face when you turn the page?? Thanks.

– Metro riders (part 2): To all the riders who have trouble with  escalator etiquette, let me break it down for you. Stand Right, Walk Left. It’s not brain surgery. Don’t stand on the left side and then give me a blank stare when I say “Excuse me.”

– My Roommate: I know you’re a really social person who craves attention ALL THE TIME, and most times I’m okay with indulging you. However, when I come home from work, that is my Me Time. All I want to do is curl up under my covers, watch TV, and relax. My door is closed for a reason. Please refrain from bursting in, telling me inane details about your life, and then walking back out WITHOUT CLOSING THE DOOR, which causes me to have to get out of bed to close my door again. I’m going to start locking my door in the hopes that you will get the hint.

I think that’s it for now. It’s only 9:21AM and it’s already been a long morning. Ugh.

Law School Update

Remember Law School? My ex who un-friended me on facebook for no apparent reason? Well I have an update on that waste of life.

So I messaged him on facebook a day after his birthday to wish him and throw in a snarky comment:

“Hey, I wanted to wish you a belated happy birthday. I was going to write on your wall, but then i saw that you un-friended me. Not really sure what that’s about? I thought we were on good terms, but anyways, hope you had a good birthday and hope all is well with you.
Take Care,
[Sunshowers]”

He responded within like half an hour with the following gem:

“Hey [Sunshowers], thanks for the wishes. I had a great birthday. I hope you’re doing well too.

About the defriending, it’s not that we’re on bad terms or that I have any ill will. I’ve made a decision to move forward and I didn’t think I could by staying friends with you.

I do hope you are doing well with everything. Take care.

– Law School”

You made a decision to MOVE FORWARD? Seriously? We dated for 3 months over a year ago and you didn’t even touch my boobs. Get over it you weirdo.

Wedding Recap

Well, I’m back from the busiest weekend ever. Actually, I was back Monday afternoon, but too exhausted to do anything till today.

Overall, the wedding was good. Everything was beautiful and went according to schedule…no real glitches. Surprisingly there wasn’t any drama. JB’s fiancee did give me the death stare on Saturday (I’m not really sure if she knows the whole story about how I hooked up with her then-boyfriend/now-fiancee 6 years ago, but whatevs), but I managed to ignore her. Me & Lil Sis ended up spending the Saturday night at the hotel with Big Sis, so that was nice to be able to hang out with her the night before the big day. I have to give Big Sis props – she has a HUGE extended family but she really made sure that Lil Sis & I were included in her wedding every step of the way. That was nice. Lil Sis & I had to give a speech at the reception (which we wrote about 6 hours prior at the actual wedding ceremony haha), but that went really well too. We gave Big Sis’ now-husband some tips on how to keep her happy. It was funny & sweet and she loved it. So overall, great wedding. Only 2 more this year (so far).

Boyfriend came to the wedding too – he drove up to PA Saturday night (around midnight) and then ended up leaving Sunday night (like 1AM) after the reception to drive back down to DC because he had to be at work early Monday morning. And the fact that he was only at the wedding for about 24 hrs has actually kind of morphed into this whole other situation between us. I need to vent, and I need some advice.

Boyfriend & I have been dating for almost a year, and we’re pretty serious. Both of our families have been on us to seal the deal & get this show on the road…meaning get engaged and then eventually get married (Our parents are Indian and don’t really understand the concept of long-term dating). For a while, the reason this hasn’t happened yet is because he wasn’t sure if he was ready for marriage & how we would deal with married life. I have always been the one to have a lot of faith and tell him that things will work out and that we’ll be able to handle any situation that comes our way. But now, especially after this weekend, I’m not so sure.

Boyfriend has a very demanding job that takes up a lot of his time. Basically he works for his family, so there is absolutely no concept of work-life balance. He has to be ready to go at the drop of a hat to do whatever needs to be done. I know that he really does make an effort to spend time with me & be available, but it can still be a frustrating situation. And now I’m questioning how our future would be if we got married (because this shitty job situation is not one that is going to go away anytime soon). I’m not sure that I would be able to deal with a lifestyle where I pretty much only see my husband for a few hours in the evenings. He can barely get away from his job for a weeked (e.g. he wasn’t able to come to all the events for this wedding this past weekend because of job-related stuff), so I can pretty much assume that family vacations are out of the question. If we get married and eventually have children, what if he isn’t able to be around as much because of his job? That just doesn’t seem like an appealing lifestyle to me and I’m not sure that I could handle it on my own. I guess it’s hard for me to relate to him because my job is extremely flexible and I have the ability to separate work & home life very well.

So basically, I told him that I’m having all these doubts and that I don’t think we should think about moving forward until things between us start to get better. I also want to talk to some of my friends & family members who are married to get their opinions on how these types of situations are dealt with. Any advice out there?

I Work with Spencer Pratt

I realize I have only glossed over this topic before, but I’m not the biggest fan of my boss. He’s a micromanager. He is unorganized and never prepared for meetings. He continually gives me high-priority projects with little direction and expects me to read his mind. He starts every sentence with “Soooooo…” and if you ask him a yes/no question, instead of responding with “Yes” or “No,” he’ll say “I will” or “I did” or “It is.” All in all, he is the most infuriating, annoying, douchey person I have ever met. Thus, I refer to him as Spencer 2.0 (or the second version of Spencer Pratt – he even kind of looks like him with pasty skin & blonde hair).

Allow me to illustrate his douchiness with an example.

We work in the interactive marketing department of an advertising agency. One of our clients requires monthly reports to detail the performance of the campaigns we are running for them. Spencer 2.0 knows this. We have discussed this MANY MANY times. Yet, he still cannot get it through his thick skull that this report is monthly and not weekly. Read:

From: Spencer 2.0
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 2:53 PM
To: Sunshowers
Subject: FW: Interactive Dashboard Report

Hi Sunshowers,

Do you think we can include some iphone campaign stats and the iphone screenshot in this week’s report?

Thanks,

Spencer

From: Sunshowers
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 2:54 PM
To: Spencer 2.0
Subject: Re: FW: Interactive Dashboard Report

Hey Spencer,

We are only sending out this report monthly. The March report has already been sent out, so I can send over the iPhone stats when the April reports go out.

Thanks,

Sunshowers

I am not even kidding that he called me literally 15 seconds after I sent my response. HE ALWAYS DOES THAT. Why can’t he just email me back? So anyways he calls me and this is the conversation [comments in bold are what i was thinking as this conversation occurred]:

Spencer 2.0: Hey, soooooooo…we’re only sending out that report monthly?
Me: Yes. [oh my fucking god how dense are you? i just emailed you this information and you are calling me to waste more of my time?]
Spencer 2.0: Gotcha. Sooooooo…you’ll send out the iPhone stats in April?
Me: Yep. [SERIOUSLY? Can’t you fucking read?!?]
Spencer 2.0: *30-second silence peppered with his unusually heaving breathing* Okay. Cool thanks! *Hangs up the phone*
Me: *Physically resisting the urge to go to his office and kick him in the balls

I know this conversation probably doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but imagine that this type of event happening like 6 or 7 times a day. It is SUCH a waste of my time to have to constantly reiterate things I’ve already told him. Ugh.

I hate it here sometimes. Lame.

Anyways, I’m leaving for Big Sis’ wedding tomorrow morning, and probably won’t have time for any posts all weekend. Boo. But, on a happier note, I’m sure I’ll have lots of funny/ridiculous stories (if Big Sis’ brother’s wedding or Big Sis’ engagement party was any indicator), so look forward to that!

Have a lovely weekend 🙂

Ready to Throwdown at CVS

Let me preface this with the fact that I’m not a confrontational or violent person. I swear. But, there are some idiots out there in the world and a gal can only hold her composure for so long. This past Sunday was such a time.

Boyfriend & I had gone to dinner in Clarendon with friends of ours who recently got engaged. They wanted to go to this Irish pub called RiRa, so we made our way over there for dinner & drinks. (On a side note, Boyfriend decided that as this was his first time at an Irish eating establishment, he HAD to order something really “Irish-y,” and decided on a Shepherd’s Pie Boxty. He didn’t like it and ended up eating half of my food. I hate when he does that.) So anyways, dinner & drinks were fun. After we left RiRa, we popped into CVS quickly because I needed to pick up some essentials (aka a Hershey’s cookies & cream candy bar).

So Im standing in line at CVS and there is another couple in front of me. The boy was white and kind of goofy looking and the girl seemed to be middle eastern. (Another preface needed for this story: Boyfriend & I are both of Indian descent. We grew up in the US, but we both learned an Indian language while growing up. So, sometimes we speak in that language to each other. It comes in handy when you are trying to be secretive. Or just trying to talk shiz about someone.) Anyways, Boyfriend is walking around the front of CVS, touching EVERYTHING, and just acting like a 5 year old. His attention is captured by a display of sunglasses and he mosey’s on over to check them out. He ends up knocking some stuff over and just acting a fool (yes, I am dating a 27 year old in a 14 year old’s body…). So the couple in front of me are laughing at him and making unecessary comments like, “oh my good look at this idiot.” and “wow…what a retard.”

Okay. Yes, I realize he is a little spedtastic sometimes, but Boyfriend is my man and I’m going to defend his honor. So, I yell over to Boyfriend in our language, “[Boyfriend], come here.” So he comes over and stands with me all like what’s going on. And I say to him, again in our language, “Nothing, these fucking idiots in front of us have a problem with you, so just be easy.” And then the girl turns around, looks at me, and says the following:

“I understood everything you just said.”

fuuuuuuuuck.

But, I held my cool. I looked right back at her and said” Good for you…I still think you’re an idiot”

And then they left. Boyfriend was, of course, excited by the possibility of me “getting into a rumble at CVS” haha. But, no one was waiting, knife in hand, outside for us when we left the store.

But, yeah lesson learned: I have to be careful when speaking in our language. Indians are all over the place.

In Need of an Ego Massage

Alright, this post is probably going to come off really lame and self-absorbed, but I don’t care. I’m annoyed.

In early 2008, right before I moved to DC actually, I was living in Pittsburgh and I started dating this guy, Law School, who lived in MD. We met at a house party, kept in touch, and eventually started dating long-distance. I would go visit him or he would come to Pittsburgh. Things were fine at first…he was nice and sweet and everything seemed to be going well. But after a couple months I realized that Law School was not someone I could seriously date. He was 25 years old, had been out of college for at least a year, and was applying to law schools. He lived at home with his parents, and had lived there all through college, and didn’t really have an idea of how the world worked. He didn’t even have a debit card. And he was 25. Failure to Launch. Seriously. But not as cute as Matthew McConaughey. Anyways, I had already been in the working world for a year at the time, and I was working as an Account Manager at a marketing firm. So, we were in different places in life. Plus, he was wayyyyy too slow in the bedroom department. I swear to God, in the 3 months we dated, all we did was make out a little bit. He told me that he hadn’t had sex in 3 years! And, I would always try to push for us to go further and he would say that he wanted to wait. It was weird.

Anyways, not willing to babysit someone as they figured out their life, I broke things off with him. We were only dating for a few months, so it’s not like it was that serious. We stayed friends, and would talk online from time to time – just to catch up on each other’s lives. After I moved down to DC, he even drove down from MD one day to have dinner. Eventually, he started law school in the fall, and we still kept in touch throughout his first semester. He knew that I was dating someone else, and he seemed fine with it. He also started dating someone else, and I wished him all the best. So, in my mind everything is totally cool between us.

Well, I would look at his facebook page from time to time – I admit, to look at his pictures and massage my ego a little bit. So I went to look at it recently, and to my complete & utter surprise, he had un-friended me! WTF? Who does that? Just put me on freaking limited profile. It was just so out of the blue and completely unwarranted.

I discussed this with my college buddy, Chicken Little, over Gchat:

CL: you are some sort of stalker

and like to keep tabs

to see if they are happier without you/miserable

so you can be satisfied for the day

Me: um, i would prefer the term “monitoring” instead of “stalking”

Let me explain. I think one of the best parts of being Facebook friends with an ex is that you can look at their pictures, massage your ego a little bit and think “yesss, i am sexy and so much better off.” You know all of you think this & do it…at least I admit it. But anyways, I’m super annoyed that he is taking this privilege away from me.

So, in retaliation, I will be sending him a text or facebook message on his birthday (this Sunday), where I will wish him a happy birthday and apologize for not being able to write on his wall since he un-friended me. I’ll probably throw in some other snide remarks too. I never said I was mature.