Stupid Stuff We Do

This post is mostly inspired by the receptionist here at work this morning, who will remain nameless (although it's not too hard to figure out who she is). Anyway, there are a couple of things that I had in mind that I myself had done or thought this week, and we have a guest contribution as well from Greg, thanks buddy. Mostly what I had in mind for this were those head-scratching moments when you tilt your head and think to yourself, "now why in the world did I/he/she/they/we think/do that?" When I started thinking of stuff to include in here, I realized that there are about a 1000 things that I could include, but I think those should get their own post. Here are a few things that occurred recently:

• I was picking up a few things at Target the other day and I will usually do a lap around the music & movies section, just in case there was something out there that I really needed that I had possibly forgotten about (although if there was something that I really needed, you would think that it would be easy to recall, right?). This time around though on my way to get some other items I passed the toy section. Feeling pretty aimless, I wandered through looking at the toys thinking about which ones I might have wanted when I saw them - G.I. Joes.
  
  I don't think any of you realize the obsession I had with these action figures (not dolls!) growing up. I had my own little army of about 50 or so. My best friend in grade school had all the vehicles. Needless to say our battles were epic. So I see them and realize that they're the 25th anniversary edition of the old action figures that I actually had as a child, meaning the same characters in the same packaging. About $20 later I have several, including Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow, and Snake Eyes. What is a 27 year old guy going to do with a bunch of action figures you ask? I have no idea, but I know that if I saw more of them I would buy up whatever ones are out there. By the way, if you guys see Duke or Destro, I must have them.
  
  While I was still attending BYU, one of my girlfriends found out about my love affair with G.I. Joes and she ended up buying several new ones for me and I loved her for it. I took them out and put them in battle poses around my room, and she asked me if I played with them and was disappointed when I laughed and told her no. But if I'm too old to play with them, shouldn't I be too old to even want to have them in the first place? Apparently not. Go Joe!
  
  


• Girl came in yesterday to work to drop off some items, and given how things played out I could have been pretty easily annoyed with having to deal with her. Or if not that, then at the very least too prideful to even take a second look at her, but when I saw her my heart just softened completely and I just wanted to embrace her, and sit down and talk about anything or nothing at all. It's just funny to me what a soft spot I can have for certain members of the opposite sex. I had never seen her in just casual clothes and she just looked so good. I guess if I have a type, there's something about dark features that just really does it for me, and as far as personal qualities go, just someone that laughs a lot and is easy to talk to.
  
  When I was in kindergarden, I had a crush on a girl and the only reason was because she was the only girl with glasses. Ever since Jenny, I just really dig on seeing girls wearing those dark-rimmed spectacles. Anyway, the girl I saw yesterday probably could have kicked me in the junk, stolen my car, and insulted my mother last week, and when I saw her yesterday I still would have just melted. Weird. I think I'm pretty much like a little puppy when it comes to people - you can yell at me, neglect me, or kick me, but if you give me a treat or scratch my belly I'll forget everything else that happened. I seem to have a pretty short memory span when it comes to a lot of that stuff. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
  


• My coworker is quite the endurance athlete. She is a cyclist and rides 100, even 200 mile races. This weekend she has a 112 mile race, but she hasn't been able to train for a little while now. Further compounding the difficulty, she's been sick the last week or two and has recently started focusing on short distance races so her training regimen is totally different now. Earlier this week she got talked out of going on a training ride for this upcoming event because she was still getting over her cold, and needed the rest for the weekend. That was two days ago. So what does she do last night instead? Does a lot of dancing and doing late night stuff, and not getting in until after 5 am the morning before the weekend of her big race. I love her.
  


• My best friend's dad feels it's necessary to exterminate a black widow infestation at his new house by using a blow torch. He even sent picture of him doing it. Awesome.
  


• From Greg: I am currently taking post-bacc classes at CSUF to show that in spite of my shameful under-grad GPA I actually am smart and can get good grades. As I was anticipating the freedom of my first ever quasi-collegiate spring break (as my alma-mater the Y doesn't have one) I considered my options to relax and/or party my tush off. My first and most preferred option was to fly home to the Mile-high City and go skiing with my father; because other than the flight my trip would end up being free.
  
  I called up and talked scheduling with him, and he pointed out that "Unfortunately, [my younger brother's] high school spring break is the week prior".
  
  "Okay", I prodded, "but what about the following week? Any chance you could go up for just one weekday and maybe Saturday too?"
  
  "Hmmm, looking, looking, nope. No I'm sorry son, I don't have any days off that week. Maybe another time."
  
  I hung up just defeated. Another time? I'm married and live in CA and plan to go to dental school soon - what other time? My dad is a skiing nut and a doctor so he has the money and time to ski his brains out and I couldn't believe that there was no way he could take some time to ski with his favorite and most talented son (wink). So the next day I called my mom and asked her to check out dad's calendar and would you believe it? He had Friday off and nothing planned on Saturday!!!! WTF!?! Turns out I have slipped in the rankings of favored son. My dad didn't want to go skiing with me! Talk about a total ball-busting, heart-crushing, spank to the face...
  
  P.S. He went this week (week after my break) and called to tell me that he had a 10 inch powder day - thanks for rubbing it in dad.

Those are just a few. I just love those things that make you pause and think, "what was that all about?" Even if they're small, I feel like there are a hundred different things that happen like that each week that just make me laugh at myself, or you.