We had a meeting today where our HR director told us that she finally wrangled the corporate office who’s abandoned us into getting the career coaching service to come to our office and hold sessions to help us with résumés, interviews, salary negotiations, and all the other exciting stuff that goes along with hunting for a new job. This news was most welcome because we had been told that we actually were not going to be able to use this service until AFTER the company shut down. Yeah… how useful is that?

So to show our appreciation, we had a few seconds of applause for our HR director for fighting for us. After the meeting was over, I started in the ladies’ room, where I was met by one of the members of the management team of the company who’s shipping our work to a midwest state.

“Oh,” she said, “is the party over?”

Perhaps she didn’t mean it quite so sarcastically, but I literally had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her, “Why yes, we’re celebrating the fact that we’ll have help FINDING JOBS before we LOSE OUR JOBS. Because, you know, that’s why you’re here… to TAKE OUR JOBS.

Of course, I also could have offered to hold the restroom door open for her and then “accidentally” slammed it on her head.

But then, I’ll lose my severance.

So April 1st was my third-year blogaversary. Yeah, I know, I didn’t send out announcements or throw a party or anything. Besides, a party of three people is just sad. I’m more than happy to accept presents, though.

When I first started this site on Blogger in April 2005, I was starving for a creative outlet. I was bitter at The Powers That Be at the company where I worked because they took me out of my writing position and put me back out on the newsletter formatting assembly line for the second time. (Sidenote: I’m talking about this now because The Powers That Be are now The Powers That Were, and the whole company shuts down in 66 days, so pffffft…)

I started writing my own blog for validation. That extraction from the writing department — which was actually disbanding it altogether — was a huge blow to my self-esteem. To have the new VP of Marketing label all the work you’ve done in trying to improve products as “worthless” was a huge blow to me. Mainly because it’s never really happened before. Not to sound conceited, but I’ve never really had someone look me in the eye (well, in this case it was the eye of my coworker) and say what I had done was of no value.

So in conversing with a former coworker of mine by e-mail, I noticed a link in his e-mail signature, found his blog, and realized that this blogging thing could be something to nurse my creative wounds. And I wasn’t disappointed. However, it did shift from a blog about my writing to a blog about what was going on in my life.

I have to be honest too — most of the time, what you read here on this site is what came out of my head on the first run-through. Some bloggers keep an arsenal of posts to go through and edit and then post when they feel they are perfectly composed. With me, you get my mental diarrhea, and I’m sure that may seem hypocritical — to call myself a writer and then not make sure that each entry is a literary gem. But it’s my site. I’m Sappy Chick; I ramble. I edit my stuff when I get paid to do it.

As of this post, I’ve had 41,905 visits, and 1,399 comments on 383 posts. (This one will make it 384.) My all-time most popular post — with 1,332 visits — is this one, written after a pesky stomach virus last spring. It’s most popular because the most popular search term that brings visitors to this site is “stomach virus 2007.” So, I guess you could say that people read my blog because I’m full of shit?

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with blogging. Do I wanna get my own domain? I can’t justify paying for hosting when I can’t even keep up a decent posting schedule. I thought I had worked past my slackerdom a few weeks ago when I posted every day for a week, but now, I chalk that up to being off from work.

But that’s where I am… a soon-to-be-unemployed newsletter formatter who used to get paid to write full-time, trying to figure out what I want to do with my Web site… and the rest of my life.

How’s that sound for a blog tagline?

Cinlach: (catching a glimpse of of a movie trailer on the TV) Oh, cool the Prince Caspian movie. I can’t wait to see that.

John: Dude, I’m so tired of fucking talking animals.

Our friend Rob: (to his stepson) Okay, one more choke slam and then you’re going to bed.

…because it brought up this conversation on the way home from dinner:

Opening chords of “Key Largo” playing on 106.3 Charlie FM (”They play… everything.” Literally, that’s their tagline.)

Cinlach: Oh, what’s this song?

Me: (singing along with Bertie Higgins) “Wrapped around each other… Tryin’ hard to stay warm…”

Cinlach: It sounds familiar…

Me: “That first long winter tooo-gether… lyin’ in each others’ arms…”

Cinlach: I can’t think of the name…

Me: “Watching those old movies… falling in love so desperately… Honey, I was your heeeero… and you were my leeeeading laydeee… (pause for one… two…) We had it all…”

Cinlach: Oh. My. God…

Me: “Just like Bogey and Bacall…”

Cinlach: How do you know the words to this song?

Me: “Starring in our ooown late laaaate shooooow… sailing away to Key Largo…”

Cinlach: What were you, like 5 when this song came out? How do you remember that?

Me: “Here’s lookin’ at yoo-ou kid…” I was not 5. I was probably 8 or 9.

Cinlach: So you listened to bad music then, too, huh?

Note: The year was 1982, so I was 9… maybe 10. Still not old enough to know better.

What a small world this is! The person who left a comment after mine under The Great Interview Experiment (thereby making her my interview subject), went to college in Greenville, SC!

Alex of The Roaming Southerner (now on my blogroll) is a sweet, funny girl now living in Michigan. I told her if she were still single and living in Greenville, I’d totally try to set her up with my brother. She was a great person to interview, and here are my questions and her answers.

1. When I first visited your site, I saw those yummy pictures of that chicken pasta, and I thought, “Now, here’s someone I can get along with… a fellow foodie!” So tell me, what are your favorite things to cook? Are you by-the-recipe in the kitchen or do you just experiment with different ingredients and sometimes just throw stuff together because it sounds good?
Okay, so I am a closet foodie. My hubs does not like spending money on food (he thinks that a can of tuna and a spoonful of peanut butter are good enough). So when I get the chance (aka. company) or I see something great on sale, I will make “nicer” food. On normal days, I just try to put spins on classics (sausage, beans, and rice…chili (all kinds white, spicy, beany, etc.)…and different spaghetti recipes (I am in a quest to make the perfect sauce). I never go by the recipe, usually because I don’t have all the ingredients and I love to taste the food as I season and think about what is missing. I have made some things that are not spectacular before but, in my book, almost any dish can be saved by more garlic and pepper. But I love to experiment with fancy foods from cookbooks and Food network shows.

2. You’ve moved several times. What’s your coping strategy for adjusting to a new place and for living farther away from family?
I didn’t cope at ALL with moving when I first got married. We moved the day after we got married (great honeymoon, huh?)…so I never had time to worry about moving. I was more concerned with getting my marriage off to a good start and finishing the wedding nonsense. My husband is a true adventurer…he gets antsy if he stay in one spot too long. So I’ve had to learn that adventures are good…to put down the book I’m currently reading and get out and explore. After our second move, I became less paranoid (but leaving DC will do that)…more open…less concerned on how I was perceived…because we could move if I didn’t like it (after a few years at least). And when I became more open, I made more friends. And that is what makes moving good…you get to expand and make new friends without as much fear. The blog has helped me cope with change…more on that below!

3. Who or what inspired you to start blogging? How’s your experience been so far?
My best friend from college started blogging when she got pregnant…she was cataloguing her life and I thought that it was a good idea even though I didn’t have a kid to catalogue. The blog was great because it helped me stay connected from the friends I just moved away from in the south, helped me vent frustrations, and find a community that was more like me (rather than the people I went to graduate school–to say I was strange because I was southern, conservative, married, and not snotty is an understatement). I have loved blogging…I will admit that when times get tough (bad job, strained friendships, dealing with seasonal depression) I go into myself and leave blogging behind, which is counterproductive. I love finding people that I relate to when I am far away from those that know me. Even reading the momblogs that scare me to celibacy make me laugh and smile when my husband is studying till midnight for law school finals and/or feeling lonely.

4. Give us a current and all-time favorite entertainment rundown:
The CD/artist that’s currently on repeat and your all-time fave: I am not a music gal, but I have found a new obsession at work: Pandora. Online Radio that you pick. I vary it up from Beyonce (for energy), Rap (when I’m frustrated), Toby Keith (when I want to be driving home to Atlanta), and Dolly Parton (whenever I want a smile).

The last movie you saw and your all-time fave flick: In the theater: 27 Dresses (very cute)…but I just finished watching Pride & Prejudice (BBC version) for the 50th time last night and caught the last part of Wayne’s World …party time, excellent.

The book your currently reading and your all-time fave: Current Read, Anna Karenina and another Philipa Gregory, Virign’s Lover (about Elizabeth I). All time fav: anything related to Pride & Prejudice, Harry Potters, and John Irving’s Prayer for Owen Meany (You will finish this book and think that the world is a great place that makes sense).

The TV show you MUST watch each week and the one that’s (you guessed it) your all-time fave: I will watch every rerun of Gilmore Girls in existence so that might be for both answers… but new shows I love: Chuck, The Office, My Name is Earl, Project Runway/Top Chef. Oh, and all things Alton Brown/Ina Garten and House Hunters. I watch too much TV.

5. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
My mom always says to me, “Include everyone, it is the best way to make friends rather than enemies.”

6. Another thing we have in common: We both like to entertain! Your post on your recent Ave friend party hit home because sometimes I go through that same dilemma. (Want to keep the party small but not leave anyone out as well!) What’s been your most memorable get-together?
HA! I just touched on that with my mom’s quote. But I will tell you, it has been the best way for me to meet new people when I’ve moved to a new place. People automatically will make a connection with you coming into your house, and they will feel your friendliness because you invited them. (They also usually ask you to do something back, which is good for a girl who is home with a studying husband a lot). My most memorable get-together would be my first: New Year’s 2005, a year after we were married. My mom let me host it at her house (she was going to another party)…all my college friends and their boyfriends/fiances/husbands came dressed up…we used my fancy china and silver. We stayed up late…drank WAY too much…and I made brunch for people in the morning… It was a LOT of work, but one of the most fun times I’ve had with my friends. Sidenote: also the first time my mother ever saw me drunk/I was ever drunk at my mom’s house (I was 23)…she was less than thrilled.

7. So being a southern girl, what’s your reaction when you get the “Oh, I LOVE your accent!”? Have you lost any of the drawl living up north?
Sadly, I’ve never had a thick accent. My mom worked hard to lose hers when she moved from (what she terms) “the armpit of the South” and my dad grew up in ATL…now that being said…my accent comes out crazy for two things: talking about Southern things or food. When my friends with southern accents talk, I start slinging the lingo full force. I start preaching to yankees about “FrIEd Peeckls” or the allure of “Geohrgah Rehd ClaAy.” They say my southern is showing. The weirdest thing is southern phrases I never new were southern. Like my favorite: “I get lost trying to get out of a paper sack.” Someone said, what is a paper sack? HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN PAPER SACK TO A YANKEE? Grocery bag.

8. What’s a hobby/skill that you haven’t quite been able to pick up yet that you wish you could do?
I tried knitting last year…my friend tried to teach me…and I learned something about myself. If I have to follow directions, do things precise, then it isn’t for me. I love to throw pottery (on a wheel not at my husband)…but I’m not very good at it. If I could get better at that I would love it. My other skill I would love to pick up without work would be organization and shower cleaning–not a sport I’m good at. Oh, and I am learning to run (I know I know…you think that you just move your legs fast, but my chubchubs just won’t go for long and evidently I breathe badly–my friend is trying to teach me the ways to run correctly!).

9. You’ve just accidentally banged your pinky toe on your bed frame. The first thing out of your mouth is “________!”
You don’t know how many times I actually do this…scary, you have been spying on me! Usually, after stubbing my toe, you will find me rolling on the bed in pain shouting “FRACKIN A! OUCH” or jumping around while my husband is taking up my bed rolling space saying “F*ckin’ jimminies, that hurt.” My ease at dropping the f* bomb is becoming a little more proficient…I need to work on that.

10. What’s your all-time favorite quote?
“Everywhere you go, there you are” - Susanne Sugarbaker from Designing Women. And while I liked that first because it is just silly…there is some truth to it…you can’t run from yourself. The things you do, the stuff you mess up, the qualities you don’t like in yourself can not be solved by running away or moving…you have to look at yourself objectively, make the hard to decision to change/rectify the wrongs, and then DO IT. This is easier said than done, but it is a truth I’ve learned.

So, I’m surfing around the usual blogs around I read, and I find a post over at Sarcomical, where she participated in The Great Interview Experiment. I thought it was a cool idea, so I signed up. (The list is now around 500 now; it’s pretty cool.)

Butterfly over at Urban Heat Island was my interviewer, and she came up with some good ones!

1. What do you wish you had invented?
I wish I had come up with the idea to put spandex in jeans and twill pants and almost all the other materials that clothes are made out of these days. It just takes that little bit of spandex to make my wardrobe so much more comfortable!

2. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
I’ve always been fascinated with the weather. I could sit for hours and watch the Weather Channel, and the going joke at work when storm watches go out is to have me check the radar (like no one else can get on the Internet and check it). Seriously, I’ve got like 3 or 4 weather sites bookmarked. Unfortunately, I hated science in school and spent class writing poetry instead of taking notes, so meteorology school wasn’t for me. Of course, seeing as I’m out of a job in a couple of months, perhaps it’s time to reconsider. Kidding… totally kidding. I could just see my mother reading that and fainting at the thought of the $50,000 they spent on my college education going out the window.

3. What are some of your addictions/vices/guilty pleasures/etc?
I’m hopelessly addicted to Mexican food. I eat some sort of Mexican dish at least two but sometimes three to four times a week. We have the local Mexican place, the chain fast food (Moe’s Southwest Grill), and we usually make at least one Mexican meal at home each week.

Also, my husband convinced me to start playing World of Warcraft last fall, and I now have a level 56) Blood Elf mage on the Earthen Ring server. So if any of you gamers out there wanna group up for an instance, my character name is Sennadria.

And, I’ve also been known to watch The Hills and Making the Band (the P. Diddy ones) on MTV. I… I don’t know why.

4. What book do you casually put out on your coffee table to impress visitors?
My husband and I have joked about putting my college Shakespeare book on the coffee table for company because it is one of those monstrous, hardcover, intellectual-looking books. But then, the first guest to crack open the cover would find it littered with highlighted passages and notes in the margin from my undergrad Shakespeare class. So it stays on the bookshelf.

Our coffee table has a top and then a lower shelf, and I can admit to strategically placing Pampered Chef catalogs when people come over in the hopes that they’ll look at them and want to buy something. But mainly on the bottom shelf are magazines we haven’t looked at in months, a nice poker chip/card set that has been used maybe twice, and an Apples to Apples game that has been played maybe twice as well.

5. Weigh in briefly on the following topics:
body modification (tattoos/piercing/cosmetic surgery/extreme bodybuilding/scarification/etc): I think body modification is a tricky thing because there can be a fine line between modification and mutilation, perhaps less so for tattoos and piercings, but more so for scarification and cosmetic surgery. Two words — Jenn@ J@meson. I think people can get so wrapped up in changing their bodies that their mindset becomes warped to the point that they’ll never be happy with the way they look.

religion: Oooh, there’s a touchy one. I have a set of beliefs. I am a Christian, but I don’t go to church. I know I’ll go back when we have kids, but it’s going to be a difficult process finding a church to go to. I’ve just been so tired of the people who go to church to enhance their social agenda and make themselves look better or show off how great they are.

sex/porn/prostitution and morality: Sheesh, you pick some toughies! What you do in your own home is your own business until it starts hurting someone else.

Britney Spears: Someone should just take her to Montana for maybe three years so her hair will finally grow out and the paparazzi might leave her alone for half that time. Maybe then she might be okay. Unless there’s some great big conspiracy to kill her, like this week’s episode of South Park.

cat people vs dog people (since you seem to be both): I think that everyone is one or the other, even if they have both. I believe that even animal lovers have a preference, and I think that many times the inclination toward one over the other has to do with upbringing. I myself have always been a dog person, and no one else in my family has ever really liked cats. My father’s mother hated them, and while I do think our Loki is adorable and loving, I have to say that I do play favorites and would choose Domino over him if I ever had to be forced to choose between one of them. Just don’t tell him that because I think he’d kill me in my sleep.

6. What constitutes an ordinary meal in your house?
Heh… This is a good one. Well, Cinlach (the husband… not his real name) doesn’t eat veggies, so sometimes I try to do a main dish of some sort of meat with one side dish we’ll both eat and then some sort of veggie that I want: barbecue chicken with mac and cheese and then green beans for me. We make quesadillas at home once a week, (I add chopped veggies on mine) and we do personal pizzas with premade crusts. (Mama Mary’s are da bomb!) I love cooking, and I feel especially victorious when I find new dishes that Cinlach and I both enjoy.

7. What is your favorite book right now? Your favorite author? Read anything lately you don’t really want anyone to know about?
Well, I don’t want anyone to know that I haven’t been reading a lot lately. (See aforementioned comment about World of Warcraft.) However, I have been transitioning to doing a little more writing and reading and a little less gaming, so I can tell you that I’ve started reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. I’ve got a whole stack of books sitting on my dresser as well, just waiting to be read.

My favorite author? I can’t pick. I can tell you that when I was in college I read Josephine Humphries’ Rich in Love and immediately devoured anything else she had written before and has written since. She hasn’t put anything out in a while though. I also love reading Kaye Gibbons, and Empire Falls by Richard Russo and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni are a couple of my favorite books.

8. Say that you have 24 hours to do whatever you want: family and friends, co-workers and telephone solicitors have all agreed to leave you alone. What would you do?
Sit in my pajamas all day and watch my chick flicks without having Cinlach come in and go, “What are you watch– Oh, that crap again?” The day would also include an afternoon nap and a long soak in a bubble bath.

9. If you were alone on a deserted island and could have 5 things, what would they be?
1 & 2 - A huge stack of notepads and a case of pens so I could write to pass the time
3 - Soap because I’m not going that long without a bath
4 - My iPod: Yes, I realize the battery will go dead eventually, but I’ll ration out my blessed music time.
5 - Fingernail clippers: Because sooner or later, in all the work I’d have to do to survive, I’d a nail will start breaking down in the quick… And I’m not gonna tear that bad boy off.

10. What is the difference between affect and effect?
“Affect” is a verb that means to influence someone/something or to bring about a change or an “effect,” which is a noun meaning a result of something. In my eyes, I’d rather affect someone rather than be an effect.

Thanks again to Butterfly, and I’ll be posting my interview with Alex from The Roaming Southerner on Thursday.

My poor blog has been neglected over the past few months. I let myself get busy doing… well, nothing really. And now, I’m coming up on my third-year blogaversary (seriously… three years!) next week, and I’m ready to inject some new life into this site — well, at least some new posts.

I think sometimes I get distracted away from my blog is because I feel a need for validation. I like to think that I don’t need it, but in the end, when I put a post out there and it sits with no comments, I feel a little deflated. But really, aren’t there some of you who feel the same? I know I’m not the only one who wants a little blog love…. Wait, that didn’t come out right.

I have this idea for a new feature here at Sappy Chick’s Ramblings called Thoughtful Thursday. There are probably similar things floating around the blogisphere, but mine will work as follows:

• Leave at least one thoughtful comment on any post on my blog between now and 11:59 pm (EDT) Wednesday night. And by thoughtful, I mean some sort of statement that shows you read the post, not some “Hi, nice post” blathering. I told you any post, so surely you can find something to which you can add something insightful. And if you can’t, for God’s sake, don’t tell me because I’m already down to my last few therapy appointments unless I find a new job soon!
• In return for your time, I will post at least one thought-provoked comment on your blog tomorrow, which I have deemed Thoughtful Thursday.
• And don’t stop with just my blog! Check out some of the other recent commenters by clicking on their name in the “What’s Been Said” section of the sidebar. Let them know you got there by participating in Thoughtful Thursday!

And while I’ll be honest and admit that this is sort of a ploy to get you to boost my self-esteem, I also hope it sort of builds a little bit of a community here — one that plays nicely, of course. Begging for comments is so demeaning, this is a win-win for all of us, and it gives me access to some new blogs that I’ll enjoy.

So, we’ll see how it works. Hope to talk to you Thursday!

1981
Wrote in a diary given to me at Christmas, a small red book with a lock and key. Would prove to be an idea that should have been followed in… say, 10 more years.

1982-83
-Wrote my first poem as a fifth grader for Mrs. Finley’s class. The poem was about the town of Simpsonville, and I remember her being pleased with my work.
- Wrote a short story as a class assignment to be entered into a contest. Mrs. Finley would choose the story to be entered. My story was about me and my friend Mandy discovering a haunted house. She didn’t pick my story, and when I asked her why, she replied that my story was all dialogue. Criticism I’ve remembered for 25 years.
- For yet another class assignment, I wrote a fake news story about the big, red storm on the planet Jupiter coming to Earth. I don’t remember how the particulars of that would work or even if I even came up with any. I do remember Mrs. Finley actually asking if that was really going to happen. In hindsight, I realize my reply should have been, “How’s that for no dialogue, bee-yotch!”
- My friend Rhonda reads my class journal (with my permission) and says, “You could be a writer.”

1983-87
- Began keeping a five-subject notebook with mainly sappy, cheesy love poems. Poems so bad that 15 years later, they couldn’t even win a Bad Poetry Contest at work. My middle school and high school friends, however, couldn’t get enough and made requests for me to write poems about them.
- Was published in the school’s literary magazine in seventh grade. Don’t remember the exact topic, but do know that it wasn’t a sappy love poem.
- At age 13, received a guitar for birthday and started taking lessons. Decided I would leave South Carolina at age 18 to go to New York and pursue a career as a singer/songwriter. Announced goal at dinner one night; thoroughly entertained parents with good laugh.
- Most extensive diary action so far occurred during 8th grade year. Some entries included lists of who had crushes on whom and diagrams of where my current crush sat in relation to where I sat in classes we shared.

August 1987
Grandfather passes away suddenly after a massive heart attack at age 58, leaving me (then 15) devastated by the first loss of a close loved one. A couple weeks after his death, my grandmother finds a poem that he wrote in his Bible. Would become the moment I decided I wanted to be a writer.

1987-1990
- Still wrote some sappy poems, but their numbers were dwindling. Read “She Sweeps With Many-Colored Brooms” by Emily Dickinson and became infatuated with her poetry, em dashes in particular.
- Published in high school literary magazine sophomore and junior years.
- Joined literary magazine staff, which was a class, for senior year. Was recruited by teacher/advisor during free period to type in entries and layout magazine in PageMaker 2.0 on a tiny Macintosh with a hard drive so small, the magazine had to be split up on three 3.5″ disks. Eventually did so much work on it that instead of a staff member listing, I was listed as Production Manager.
- Had my biggest high school crush tell me he liked my poetry. Feet didn’t touch the ground for days.
- During one literary magazine class, had a guest speaker, who regularly put on shows at a local dinner theater, read our work. She told my teacher that I had a lot of raw talent, which is also a way of saying, “You got a lot of work ahead of you.”
- In browsing college brochures, found one for Columbia College, a women’s college in South Carolina. After seeing the major of English with a Writing Emphasis, decided that’s the school for me. Got acceptance letter in January 1990 and later learned that I was the only person in my graduating class going there.

Coming Soon — My Writing Timeline, Part II: The College Years (or The Angst Strikes Back!)

I work in a casual dress environment, which is a good thing because I can’t remember the last time I didn’t wear jeans two days in a row. It’s gonna suck having to go somewhere that has a more upscale dress code. Of course, clothes are more comfortable now that almost every material used to make garments contains at least a little spandex. Can we give that dude a Nobel prize, by the way? Come on… at least a standing ovation.

Anyhoo, because the majority of my coworkers stroll around in jeans and T-shirts each day, when someone dresses a little nicer, others take notice. Before it was kind of a joke to ask, “So, when’s the interview?” Of course the joke kind of backfires if that person is going to a funeral, which has happened.

Now, (see the post below if you’re not up to speed on our company’s situation) it’s more of a legitimate question than a joke. I heard one customer service rep ask someone from accounting if she had an interview today. She answered, “No, I had one yesterday.”

Then another coworker walked by wearing a nice pink and black blouse and dark slacks, so seeing as she’s usually in jeans and some sort of Duke university shirt, I asked, “Where’s the interview?”

“I didn’t have one,” she said, “but if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that today, I’d be rich.”