Arrested Development?

Which decade should you have grown up in?

You should have grown up during the Eighties.

A very different decade for very different people. You like to challenge the norms, and try to be original at all costs. Plus the music was definitely cool. Go Retro Night.

Hurry Up and Wait

I find the word "waiting" one of the most difficult in the English language. Well, not the word itself. I mean, I know what it means and I can even spell it. It's the whole concept behind waiting that drives me to distraction.

Waaaiiitinnnnng.

I think I've alluded to my little problem with patience before. I hate to be told to wait -- or hold, hold on, in a minute, it'll be a little while, soon, it's going to take longer than we thought, be patient, they'll be right with you, expect a short delay...

If I wanted to wait, I wouldn't be there NOW. Grrrrrr.

Serena's Friday Playdate

It's Friday, it's cold out, and I have to GO out, and I'm just a wee bit cranky. But I can deal with it and do whatever has to be done because it's by golly Friday and I'm not in the office. TGIF!

Your Theme Song is Beautiful Day by U2

"Sky falls, you feel like It's a beautiful day Don't let it get away" You see the beauty in life, especially in ordinary everyday moments. And if you're feeling down, even that seems a little beautiful too.

What's Your Theme Song?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

The Blogthing is truly off its rocker with this one. Some of it is probably pretty on point, but a lot of it is pure BS. But still, do yours!

You Are Seductive and Ruthless

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

Now Hiring: Twisted Linguistics

I cruise through the job listings on Craigslist frequently. I rarely see any likely prospects, but I did find TWISTED LINGUISTICS the other day.


We are seeking someone that is upbeat and don't mind working independly...
...Responsibilities inclunde but are not limited to:
...compliling and analyzing financial infromation
...Skills required:
Very good knowledge of the English laguage...
...Interested candidate should foward there resume...

I'd say just about anyone could walk in off the street, take this $485 per week job, and own the company in no time flat.

Have a good Thursday!

Just a Post and Run Blogthing Today

Your Hands Say That You Are Logical

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Idealistic and dreamy, you tend toward the impractical. You have a knack for getting yourself in sticky situations. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

Sheesh, Monday Again?

I didn't win the lottery over the weekend. Or Publishers Clearinghouse. Or even the Miss America pageant. Oh, well. I still enjoyed my weekend. Hope you did, too.

There's a full moon rising Wednesday night. It's fairly common knowledge that its effects on me can be a little spooky. I'm hoping for no kinks or hijinks. We'll see.

Have a good Monday!

Serena's Friday Playdate

Friday couldn't get here quick enough this freezing cold week full of upheaval, so hallelujah and ... TGIF!

Your Last Words:

"I dunno, press the button and find out."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Ho-Hump

Boy, time really flies when you're having fun -- or whatever. Yesterday was pretty ho-hum, but now it's Hump Day again already. Have a happy one!

Your Quirk Factor: 83%

You're beyond quirky... You're downright bizarre. You've lost touch with social norms and what's appropriate. And you're loving every minute of it!

How Quirky Are You?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Serena. Champagne for the Brain.

That pretty much sums you up!

The Slogan Generator

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

I've Got a Little List...

No, I'm not doing Gilbert & Sullivan. I'm just making a little list. Or two.

Lists are good, don't you think? You need lists to strategize and make plans, and I'm trying to come up with a viable plan. Or two, because only a half-witted woman would be caught without a Plan B. It suddenly occurred to me -- not quite out of the blue, but practically -- that I've been a Woman Without a Plan for the past two years. I've been so enamored with having my own place and my own space that I hadn't even realized that I've been treating it rather like a lark while waiting for something else to fall into place. It's taken me this long to comprehend (uh-oh) that the thing might not fall. Doesn't say much for my Math skills, does it? Consequently, I haven't been thinking through the long-term causes, effects, consequences, yada-yada. Thank God someone took pity on me and provided me with a planning kit, huh?

Just because one has some sort of nebulous plan for the future does not guarantee it will happen. Therefore, it only makes sense to live as though it won't and do what is necessary to ensure that one's lifestyle and quality of life can be maintained, whatever happens. Or not. I should know this; I was raised knowing not to count my chickens before they're hatched, that whatever can go wrong, will. But I'm on it now, and making my freakin' lists. Could be a great adventure, could be disastrous. I'm putting my money on adventure, but I do know not to expect it.

"Expect" -- that word is a buzz killer in Serena World. I love it when something good jumps out and throws itself at me, but if I expect it, it AIN'T gonna happen. Law of (my) nature. It's okay to go off the reservation every now and then, but you'd better have yourself a darn good GPS system to find your way back because smoke signals are sometimes fairly indecipherable.

Twisted Linguistics

Let's take these Words Gone Wild and, er, define them, shall we. I've given them my best shot, albeit a couple of them stumped me. Want to see what you can do with them?

champaign - A half-baked, liquored up plan for seduction.

attetion - Bubba's not going to pass that course.

anomosity -

intersted - I think it's something to do with grave robbing, but I'm not sure.

recouperated - When one coup fails but you're still alive, launch another one.

chronilogical - Consistently analytical thinking.

handingling - An illegal act in most states.

meantioned - Speaking badly of someone.

scenariou -

Oh, yeah, it's Monday, isn't it? Since I wrote this on Sunday night, I'm gambling on what the heat situation at work will be. Last Monday, I wore a skirt, one sweater, and stockings and, when I got there, there was absolutely no heat and there had been none for the entire weekend. It was absolutely miserable. Normal employers would have sent everyone home, but not these guys. The repair guys didn't get there 'til it was time for me to go home, either. This weekend, it snowed and never got out of the 20s and it would be stupid of me to assume there will be heat, so I'm wearing wool pants, a long-sleeved tee, two sweaters, and thick socks. Better safe than sorry, I always say -- which is a damn good motto for any given scenario. Or scenariou, as the case may be -- if perhaps you're a caribou?

Serena's Friday Playdate

TGIF.

Your Heart Craves Love

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring. You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

Just Wondering

Do you know why the sky is blue? I knew that once, because I either read it or was told, but I've forgotten.

Do you know why some people leave their Christmas lights up year round?

I know why dogs like to roll in awful smelling stuff, but why do they want to eat the most appalling items imaginable?

I know a little bit about birds and bees, and flowers and trees, but am sometimes bumfuzzled about the thing called love, even at my slightly advanced age. What do you know about it? Educate me. Please.

Why are there so many different kinds of breakfast cereal? You could buy one variety per shopping trip for the next umpteen years. Do we need that much variety in our lives?

Why are ad agencies so convinced that we all stink? Do we really need all those gels, washes, deodorants, mouthwashes, breath fresheners, 50,000 kinds of shampoos, wipes, body sprays, clothing deodorizers, dog deodorizers, and ... feminine hygiene products? Speaking of which, I never see any male hygiene products. Where are they?




The Undoubtedly Continuing (Mis)Adventures of InvisibleGirl...

There are two lawyers in my firm. We'll call them SenileMan and YoungTurk. There are two other staff members, who we'll refer to as Stop and Go. So, Senile Man came in yesterday while Go was also in the area, probably less than six feet from my desk, and he started asking Go about what was going on in a case. It's not even his case, it's YoungTurk's. And I do the casework in that area of Turk's practice. I heard Go tell Senile she had no idea because she doesn't work on those cases, InvisibleGirl does. But Senile keeps on pumping her 'til I say, "Yo, Senile, I'm familiar with that case." So he toddles over and asks me for the scoop, to which I reply that I can tell him in three words -- "It got continued." Then he goes back over and asks Go why it got continued. She, of course, had no clue; it's not her case. I just let Senile steep in his own deteriorating neurons.

Faith, Redux

Vis-à-vis one of my January 3rd posts, the "Faith" one, I've concluded that I,
Invisible Girl (Ta-da!), am not much on faith. If I can't see it, smell it, hear it, and/or feel it, I'm generally not buying it. So, where does that leave me if I don't easily buy into the whole principle of blind faith? Stubborn? Or simply thinking and questioning a little overmuch? Not that there's anything wrong with needing a little tangible something-something. I don't think so, anyway. There is that which we all take on faith; e.g., some greater power than us. But on this plane, I need to see it to believe it.

Do I have faith that certain senile old men will have the decency to retire soon? Why, no, I'm not foreseeing that.

Do I have faith that the sun will rise in the morning? With cataclysmic weather all over and dead birds falling out of the sky? Not really.

Do I have faith that everything I hear is for real and for true? Geez, do I look that stupid?

Do I have faith that everything will work out in the end? About as much as I believe in happy endings and the Tooth Fairy. Oh, I believe that things will work out the way they're meant to work out. Everything happens just the way it's supposed to happen, which does not necessarily inure to my benefit. Or yours. It just is.

Do I have faith that we have to live with what is -- whether good, bad, or indifferent -- in order to someday live without it? Oh, yes, I do believe in that. And I do have faith that perseverance and determination will get you where you need to go; perhaps a little worse for wear, but there.

I have faith that I'm a little bit of a black sheep. I like it like that. I hate being shut up in a freakin' box with four linear walls.

Never Mind Me

Sometimes I feel like the Invisible Woman. Sometimes people talk around me, and I'm just not rude enough to say, "Hello! I'm over here, I can hear you."

Sometimes the people to whom I make valid complaints minimize them. That pisses me off. I'm not nuts; I don't imagine stuff -- except for the stuff I've gotten paid for imagining and setting down on paper. It kind of makes me feel diminished, you know?

Sometimes people downplay the things that I tell them are bothering me, as though it were nothing. I don't know if it's to save face on their part, but it pisses me off.

Why can't my own BFF, who spreads attagirls all over, toss one my way every now and then, maybe every second or third full moon? I am not above a hard-earned attagirl. Pisses me off.

Why do people at work habitually help themselves to things they find on my desk and take off with them, sometimes never to be seen again? That totally pisses me off. I don't liberate other people's junk, but maybe I should start.

If I'm going to be the Invisible Woman, then I'm going to be the Invisible Woman, and I want my own TV series. I'm thinking I should wear a swirly pink tulle skirt, probably pretty short, with a coordinating long cape in a darker pink -- velvet, of course. And a damn fine looking tiara, fiery sparkly enough to blind a lesser mortal. I'm not sure about pink tights -- that might not look too good on TV -- but pink boots with stiletto heels would be a must. I'm not going to date Batman because I think he's got something going on with Robin, which would render me the Invisible Date, but Iron Man's kind of cute.

I'll let you know when I get my channel and time slot.

...and Charity

Charity creates a multitude of sins.

~Oscar Wilde


Charity extends only so far, don't you think?

When you help someone and, in the bargain, help him or her to help him- or herself, you both feel better for it. True charity, selflessly rendered, is a good and noble thing.

When you help someone over and over again and they keep falling back into the same behaviors, there comes a time when you have to say "Enough." I don't get it when someone else insists on perpetually being there to pick that person back up, every single time, no matter what they've done, forever after, ad infinitum. To me, that's just enabling. Don't you have to open your eyes and see the light of day sometime? Perhaps the aid giver sees it as extra keys to heaven, but I don't believe it's helping the recipient find anything but more excuses to screw up.

Is it just me?

Hope...

True hope is swift and flies with swallow's wings; kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

~ William Shakespeare


We all have our hopes and dreams. Sometimes, we employ extreme measures and work and fret ourselves half to death to ensure that they come to fruition. Other times, we simply let the chips fall where they may and hope for the best. How do you manage your hope? Do you micro manage it as best you can, or do you leave it in the hands of Fate? Does it really matter because, in the end, won't whatever will be, be?

Faith...

It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.
~William Shakespeare

They say that some things, you just have to take on faith. And if I am not mistaken, much of that theorem is contingent upon blind faith. When do you know that your faith is not misplaced? How can you be sure you're not suffering from delusion? Is there some arcane "finish line" you cross and it's then announced that your faith was either (a) right on target or (b) you win the booby prize? How in this world do you know?

We are asked to take so much on faith.

This won't hurt.
You won't even notice.
You'll never even miss it.
Everybody else is doing it.
I'm from the government.
We're just friends.
It's a great deal.
Trust me.
It's for your own good.

So much. It's frankly scary sometimes.