Footprints on the Moon

I had a pretty good birthday… I didn’t get any diamond rings or anything like that, but I did get some cash, some frog patio lights, frog chimes, and a mini fridge. Which is still in the trunk of my car because I don’t want to attempt to carry it up to my apartment lol
I made a pit stop at the company picnic, had Killian for a couple of hours, and had a good visit with my sister-in-law. It was all good. One thing that stunk though was at lunch. We had all been talking about the pronunciation of our last name because apparently Ash-lee says it wrong. There is also one way that people pronounce the name wrong all the time, and Gloria piped up and said oh just say it that way. I said, “says the outsider…” And everyone laughed. I didn’t think anything of it.
Until Ash-lee left and I got online, and my dad’s away message said “Happy Birthday to Ryan from Dad and Gloria. Happy Birthday to Jenn from Dad and ‘the outsider’.” So that upset me. I can see why she took it the way that she did, but that’s not how I meant it at all. What I was thinking about was that the name pronounced like that is one of my pet peeves because I’ve been correcting people my whole life and it drives me insane, and I was amused at the difference that she’d only had the last name for a little over a year, and she doesn’t care how people pronounce it. But obviously, it didn’t get expressed that way. I basically have two modes: verbal constipation, or verbal diarrhea. Either I think so long about everything I want to say that it never gets said at all, or I don’t think at all about how to say things, and just say it the first way it pops into my head. And of course, when that happens, *I* know what I’m trying to say, but it doesn’t come out that way to other people. So that got me upset because I don’t want Gloria to think that I think of her as an outsider because I don’t, she’s family. But what’s a birthday without a few tears, right?

Did you know that you have the opportunity to Win an 80GB Portable Harddrive? You actually only have a limited time left– the contest only runs until tomorrow, August 21st. Sorry guys, I’m a slacker. But there’s still a chance to get in on it, so head over to GeekySpeaky to see what you need to do to enter for yourself.

Though, you know, if you don’t get around to entering, no skin off my back. That will just be one less person to compete with, as I really want that Portable Hard Drive for myself. I currently don’t have any system at all for backing up the files on my laptop, and as well all know, friends, that is what is known as a bad idea. I’ve also downloaded a bunch of digital scrapbooking things to play with, and I’d like to move them off the laptop before they seriously bog things down. So either enter for yourself, or cross your fingers for me to win it. Whichever.