I bought a new cell phone. Yes, I know. I’m retarded. But T-Mobile was having a special free upgrade thing that ended tomorrow, and I had a moment of weakness. It’s my birthday gift to myself. It’s fine.

I’m losing my mind, I’m finding it very, very difficult not to communicate with O every day, and I know I need to stop that. I’m trying so hard to keep my head around this, but my heart’s going to let it get away from me. I know it.

I had a few totally random thoughts today…

1. Why is it assumed that lettuce has to be the main ingredient in a salad? Today, I had more celery than lettuce, so my salad consisted of mostly celery. Why did I think that was so odd?

2. Why can you buy 20 oz and 1 liter bottles of water, but you can’t buy 2 liter bottles? And if it’s weird to have a 2 liter bottle of water, then why isn’t it weird to have a 20 oz bottle or a 1 liter bottle?

3. Why did I have to talk myself out of buying a pizza for dinner in order to reward myself for surviving another day and to prepare myself for the shit week I have ahead of me, yet I felt guilty after I ate two Smart Ones, a salad, and a bag of light microwave popcorn today? I didn’t get the pizza. Weigh in is on Wednesday. I’ll keep ya posted.

4. Why is my life becoming a time warp to 2004? Seriously? Details will come, but seriously? All these people that had slowly disappeared are now popping back up. Odd.

All that being said, I’m going to go back to watching my House marathon until inspiration strikes me. Or until family Guy starts at 9.

It seems I just can’t win when it comes to cell phones.

O and I primarily keep in touch through e-mail, Skype, and texting for many reasons: time differences between here and wherever he happens to be working; the fact that his cell phone is registered in the UK and the roaming charges would be out of control for him; our work schedules, especially when I’m working night shifts; and just the very basic idea that I’m not really a big phone talker and neither is he. Usually, I’ll have a text waiting for me when I wake up in the morning after he’s already gone to work, and, if he’s in Europe, when I get out of work it’s the middle of the night for him, so I send him a text to wake up to. We plan the time we actually do talk on the phone because we have to. It’s not the easiest of relationships at the moment, but like he said, I have to be patient because it’s all leading to something that’s shaping up to be pretty sweet and the plan is laid out for the next few months and… well, I’ve always been a planner. And there’s a 12 month plan. Which makes me want to break it down into neat little goals for every month up until then, but that would be a bit more anal than the plan we’ve already developed. Thank God O gets me because most men don’t initiate a conversation involving the path of your relationship for the next year, and when he did, it just made whatever crazy was left in me go away.

Anyway, the last text I received from him was Tuesday night when I was out with Lib before he went to bed. I didn’t have my normal good morning message, nor did I get a response to the two I sent him during the day. After speaking to him, I realized that my phone has stopped receiving international texts. He can call me from that number, and I can send texts to that number, but I can’t get texts from him.

I called T-Mobile last night and they reset my network or something, but it still wasn’t working this morning. So, then I walked to the T-Mobile store by my house today and they still can’t help me. I have to call customer care back and tell them to set up a Trouble Ticket or something. I don’t know. So it sucks. I mean, we’re still keeping in touch, I talked to him three times today, but a text every now and then during the day just to say hello… well, it makes me smile on a regular basis every day, and I want my damn texting to work.

It seems I can’t get lucky with cell phones. But, at least the T-Mobile guy was nicer than the ATT people were.

I hate ATT. Every time I see that commercial with that man going away on business taking pictures of that stuffed monket and sending them to his daughter… well, I want to throw something at the TV because the wife in that commercial has my old awesome phone that ATT screwed me on. Bastards.

I just hope I can resolve this with T-Mobile. I might need to get another phone number or phone if this isn’t resolved soon.

Last night, I was bored and there wasn’t anything worth watching on tv so I settled on the Gauntlet Reunion on MTV. I used to be addicted to the Real World and Road Rules, but I stopped watching them a few years ago when the people that were on the show started being so much younger than me.

After the reunion, there was something called the Real World Bash, an awards show that gave former Real Worlders a fish bowl trophy in catergories like ‘Hottest Male’ and ‘Best Love Story’, along with ‘Best Fight’.

If you are of my generation, you may remember Stephen and Irene in the ‘bitch slap’ in season 7. I think it was season 7. It was in Seattle. If you’re not familiar, Irene was the curly haired weird girl with Lyme’s Disease and Stephen was the angry black guy who’s sexual orientation was a bit questionable. Irene chose to leave for whatever reason - I think the disease may have been making her insane or something - and she pulled Stephen outside when she was walking away and told him that he was a homo. He laughed at her and then, as if to prove his manliness, ran back into the house and threw her teddy bear over the pier.

As if that wasn’t enough, he then ran after the car, knocked on the passenger door, and slapped her across the face.

This scene won best fight. Irene was not in attendance, but Stephen accepted for her, and made some speech about how Irene was such a nice girl, blah blah. First off, I think that Irene has distanced herself from the Real World and isn’t a part of “the family”, as Puck kept referring to it. Second of all, Stephen seemed to get awfully upset when accused of being gay all those years ago…

They had set up confessional booths and Stephen announced he was engaged to his “partner”. Now, I’m totally down with gays and gay marriage, but usually heterosexuals don’t refer to their significant other as their partner… Well, wouldn’t you know, Irene was right. Stephen was gay. Something that everyone who watched the Seattle season probably already knew, but I guess that Stephen wasn’t ready to hear that or admit it back then.

I didn’t realize how many seasons had passed since I stopped watching regularly, but it was weird to see things from seasons past. Montana yelling at Vaj on the phone in Boston. Shawn and Rachel getting together on one of the challenges and now having what I believe is their 5th child. Anything Puck ever did. Puck got old, by the way.

It was just odd to see. I guess because they’re kept enternally young on TV, but some of them got old and gray, while I just realized that Cara looks almost exactly like Sarah Jessica Parker.

I used to want to be on the Real World, but I think I would’ve been too boring. On the earlier seasons they had nice, wholesome people like Julie and the Mormon guy that was in the New Orleans season, and Irene and John from Los Angeles (I think), but the last few season just look like crazy drunk kids.

I lost my interest in The Real World, which means I am way old.

1. Downloading, installing, and then setting up Norton Anti-Virus takes more time than I’d like it to and makes my second hand lap top run even slower than it did ten minutes ago. Fuckers.

2. I much prefer the cardboard sleeves that Starbucks puts on their hot paper coffee cups than the plastic garbage bag-esque job that the Crazy Mocha has come up with; also, Starbucks has those really cute/sometimes obnoxious words of wisdom on the side of their cups, which would give me something to read while waiting for Norton Anti-Virus to install. But Crazy Mocha provides free internet access (By the way, Starbucks and T-Mobile… why should I have to pay to use the Hot Spot you have in your store when I already pay T-Mobile every month for Hot Spot services? Why would I pay twice when there’s free internet all over Shadyside? Morons.) and has very awesome background music - today it has been the Talking Heads and Radiohead. Much better than the coffee shop pop at Starbucks. But, still, the white chocolate mocha will always have a way of drawing me back to Starbucks, along with the vanilla bean scones.

3. Was it Family Guy or South Park that made fun of people sitting in Starbucks writing their screen plays? I think it was Family Guy because that seems like the kind of pointless flashback or flash sideways that Family Guy would have. Either way, it’s funny, true, and this whole list item just proves that I have been watching way too much Family Guy and South Park lately.

4. Norton is finally done downloading, installing, and setting itself up, and now it claims it’s fixing my problems. God bless it’s little heart. My computer is now secure. I know this because the writing went from red to a calming green, for “GO!”, as if it’s telling me “Go peacefully into the internets, for Norton will protect you.”

5. When I logged onto the internet, it gave me some kind of message about free wireless in the business district or Shadyside, and I’m wondering… does this free internet extend into the Starbucks on Copeland? Because if it does, I may hit it up tomorrow. I’ll beat the Starbucks/T-Mobile union of Screwing Me yet.

6. If you are a pediatric ICU nurse or if you just think it’s ok to laugh at pediatric cardiac anomalies, Miracle Neveah suggests you check this out. I find it inappropriately hilarious and accurate.

7. Although I haven’t actually been blogging all that much lately, I have still been attempting to keep up on my blog reading. When I read this entry on the Burgh Blog (see #6 on PittGirl’s entry), two things struck me. One was blatantly obvious, I wondered “What could be wrong with my pseudo-internet friend who I’ve actually met in person?” The other thing was “Holy shit, the word ’sadcakes’ is fucking awesome!” I think this second thought was probably a little more subliminal than the first as several days later at work, I consoled a screaming baby by swaddling it and patting it’s tummy, soothing it by saying ‘Don’t be all sadcakes, little man! Here, have a binky!’ as I shoved a pacifer dipped in sugar water into the baby’s mouth. When asked where I had come up with the word, I could have said “Well, I read the Burgh Blog every day and PittGirl used it in reference to this girl I’m kind of friends with, but only on MySpace and the internet, and only periodically”, but I thought that would sound a bit pathetic. So, instead, I simply said “There’s this girl i’m kind of friends with who uses it sometimes, I guess it just stuck with me.” PittGirl and Julie, not only are you unintentionally invading my brain, but you are now somewhat ingrained into Children’s Hospital as the word just keeps leaping out of my mouth every time I’m trying to console a crying child. Which is pretty much every day I work. I do it as a tribute to you two for kicking my ass at blogging.

8. The one thing that I like most about dating an Englishman? The language barrier. I almost pissed my pants when he referred to the cookies I made him as “biscuits” and he commented on how Starbucks spelled “fibre” wrong on the previously mentioned cardboard coffee cup sleeves. My very favorite exchange, though, has been when he was attempting to explain to me the people he is dealing with in the Southern town he’s now in by referring to their “wife beating shirts”.

     Since the only thing I’ve posted about is the man lately, I feel I must devote some time to the things that probably should have been mentioned weeks ago…

1. Woy launched WearPittsburgh. Yes, I officially suck ass for not mentioning it sooner, demonstrating why both PittGirl and Tunesmith and Anthony rock so much harder than I do. To make it up to Woy, I’ve been screaming like a rabid Beatles fan anytime I hear anyone mention it. I’ve mentioned it to my friends, no doubt, but twice, it was brought up to me first and I squealed and said “Oh my God! IKNOW him!” Several bartenders at Jack’s will be receiving tee-shirts from WearPittsburgh for Christmas, and I am buying myself a PittGirl shirt.

2. I haven’t gone to Weight Watchers to get weighed in since the second week of November, but I’ve lost a few more pounds. 18 to be precise. I was planning on going to get weighed in on Monday, but apparently we’re supposed to have a massive snow storm or something Sunday night. Which is terribly unfortunate because I have yet to start my Christmas shopping, which was all supposed to be done on Monday.

3. I am obsessed with Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. Thus far, my favorite episode has been Ice Worlds. There’s something about penguins and seals that makes me stare at the television screen with my mouth agape. The caves one was pretty awesome, too.

4. Since I got my new phone and since I have a new email penpal with whom I’m trying to plan a vacation, I keep checking my email via my awesome new cell phone every two hours or so. Which is bad because I HAVE TO PAY EXTRA FOR THAT. I had NO idea.

5. I haven’t sent an inappropriate drunk text message in three weeks.

6. I recently discovered the awesomeness that really is Facebook. I have to say, I have turned the MySpace page. I am a Facebooker now.