The Randomest of Randoms

Okay, the first sentence of Kent's last blog scared me. It scared me so much that since I first read it I've been trying to think of something I could blog about just to bump it down a bit...Unfortunately for all of you I was unable to come up with one awesome, blog-worthy topic, so I'm just writing about all the runners-up (or is it runner-ups?).

First, Kent just called me his "Pink Princess" and that disturbs me on a number of levels. Technically this is just an observation on his part because currently I am sitting here completely clothed in pink, this fact also disturbs me on a number of levels. For those of you who know me, I do not associate with pink. I just never have. My favorite color has always been blue, and pink always seems to be too "obviously" girly, whatever that may mean. I mean, obviously I'm a girl, but for some reason pink seemed to broadcast too strongly, or maybe it became trendy and that turned me off even more. Anyway, another level of disturbance stems from the "Princess" side. I apologize if this offends anyone (not really), but I think it's creepy when any female over the age of 8 refers to herself, and expects others to refer to her, as "Princess." Okay, sure, every girl wants to be treated like a princess (I prefer Queen-Bee), but there is no need to pretend you are of royal birth. It's just wrong...so stop it.

Secondly, and I think this is a good segue from the "First," I think the date of Kent's birthday explains a lot. My little charmer was born on Valentine's Day, February 14th. Now, he offers me my own "Mellintine's Day" (thanks JoEllen) if you reference below, so we can solely celebrate his birthday once the 14th rolls around. However, he still gave me a Valentine on February 14th, and wanted to know why he only got a birthday card from me. I figured the heart-shaped pancakes I made him for breakfast would cover that...Anyway, he had typed, which implies pre-meditation, a list of his Top 32 things he loves about me. I'm not sure why he picked 32...maybe he was aiming for 50 and ran out of ideas. And this was a list of really good reasons, in fact, I almost teared-up reading it. The whole point of this paragraph is to voice this theory: I believe that because his birthday is disguised as a romantic holiday, he is forced to live his life as a romantic disguised as a burping-sports watching-poop talking-macho man. I say this because I think there are many of you who would be surprised by his romantic notions. For those of you who require further evidence you can refer back to the whole proposal scheme that he worked out entirely on his own. Think about it.

Thirdly, I hate mass hysteria, and not for the obvious reasons, but because I hate it when people freak out for no reason at all. Let me preface this with a reminder that I live in New England. New England, where the term nor'easter has a meaning. That said, people need to calm down about snow. It's just snow, we've seen it before, we'll see it again, so just prepare yourself for that reality. This comes up because on Friday the state of Massachusetts was on the verge of a state-of-emergency because we live in a world where no one wants to be held accountable for acts of God. I should probably interject a brief bit of history: In December there was a big snow storm forecasted to hit our area, but it wasn't supposed to start until 5ish. Long story short, the snow started earlier and harder than expected and people ended up in this:

So, this past Friday another big storm was expected and sure enough, what do you know, it started snowing! Granted, it was snowing pretty hard, but not anything unmanageable, in my opinion. However, the governor issued a statement that all "non-essential staff" should go home. First, what makes you "non-essential?" Way to make government workers feel less appreciated...Anyway, soon after Kent called me to tell me his office was closing at 2pm. Corporate offices were closing early!?! And then shortly after that we received news that the University was also issuing its "Emergency Closing Policy" in effect at 1pm. I stayed at work until 5:30pm, why, you ask? Because there was NO need for me to go home early. I got home in regular time, with no issues other than having to step through a bit of snow on my way from the train station to my apartment.

Here's the theory associated with this: If everyone was able to act normally in times of snow storms, it would really limit the chaos. More people drive into the city on days when snow is expected, which to me, makes absolutely no sense. When it snows (or rains for that matter) road conditions are worse, increasing the odds of delays, so why would you want to add to the number of cars creating all the traffic? Why not keep taking the public transportation like you do every other day? So, because more people are driving in, and all of these "Emergency Closing Policies" go into effect, it just pushes all of these people into their cars and onto the roads, all at the same time. Great plan. For the storm in December plows couldn't even clear the roads because of all the traffic, which then made road conditions even worse, creating more accidents, in turn adding to the delays. Do you see what I'm saying? If everyone had behaved as usual, no extra cars on the road, no leaving work early, the roads would have been plowed and maybe the drive home would have been a bit slower than usual. Seriously people, CALM DOWN.

Welcome to the randomness.