People, in general, suck.

Remember that story about how some woman got trampled rushing into a Wal-Mart store because everyone was running to pick up some really cheap DVD players?

What the hell is wrong with people?

I haven't gone on a rant in a long time, and after going downstairs for lunch, I figured now is a good time to go on one.

I work upstairs from a mall. There aren't a ton of stores downstairs, but there are enough. Usually it isn't so horrible. But a month before Christmas, the idiots come out to play.

Since it is raining today, I figured I'd just go downstairs and get food from the food court. But it is packed... even the Indian place, which is usually not crowded and what I decided I wanted to get today, was crowded. Fine, I wait on line, which seems like forever because there are idiots on line in front of me. A guy who takes ten minutes to decide what to get. A guy who has to ask for water, and then lemon (why would you think they would have lemon at a food court place?) and then takes forever to find his money to pay.

So it got me thinking of the idiots in the world, especially the ones who have to rush out at 5 AM the day after Thanksgiving to buy Christmas gifts. What the hell is wrong with you people? Is any savings that worth getting trampled by millions of other idiots? Are these gifts that worth it? Chill out, people.

But I guess I need to learn to accept that people really do suck. They are the reasons why people care about Nick and Jessica. About talentless and clueless Paris Hilton. Even Melissa told me a story about Paris how she wanted to take home a baby kangaroo from Australia, and someone had to make a statement for her, saying "Paris adores animals but she's too impulsive and often buys exotic pets without understanding how to care for them or whether they can legally be kept as pets." Like she is Veruca Salt or a whiny 8-year old brat. Oh yeah, and she also asked for the kangaroo to be "boxed up."

Ok, done ranting.

Happy belated Thanksgiving.

The long Thanksgiving weekend was a good one. Ate a lot at Melissa's parents on Thursday, and then did a lot of nothing the rest of the weekend. Except for a couple of hours on Saturday and a quick food shopping run yesterday, my ass was planted to the chair the whole time. It was good to have that time to do nothing, although I got a little restless towards the end. But there was not many alternatives... the malls would be crazy with Christmas shoppers and there was not much else to do besides that.

The evening before Thanksgiving, we went to see the movie "Rent." I was looking forward to seeing this for a long time, after seeing the musical three times. I enjoyed it a lot... they definitely missed out on a few key spots and some stuff was kinda cheesy (like Roger looking like Jon Bon Jovi standing in the mountains in Santa Fe), but overall, I really liked it and would even go see it again if someone was going to go. I am hoping that the DVD will show a lot of stuff they cut out.

But now it's back to work on a Monday, and it has not been that busy. Back to school on Thursday... but with classes winding down this semester, there is not much more work to do. My last Strategic Management class is this week, and I already finished the case writeup. And next week is my last Marketing class, and we're almost done with our group project. But it will be great to actually do our presentation and finish up...

My Saturday.

A whole Saturday by myself... Melissa went on a "field trip" with people from her work to do a shopping day in NYC. So what have I done while she's been gone? Let's see... I started off by reading a case for school, and then I watched a bunch of "Lost" episodes (I am almost done with season 1). I did some laundry, made some food, and spoke to Melissa on the phone as she told me how the new Comfort Diner on 23rd street was really good.

I'm psyched that I don't have classes for another two weeks (with Thanksgiving this coming week). After that, I only have one more strategic management class, and two more marketing classes. And then that's it for another semester! Yesterday I even got a letter from Northeastern letting me know about filling out my graduation card. I'll officially get my degree on August 31, 2006, even though classes will be over for me at the end of June.

I can't wait to be done already... and then Melissa and I can begine the next phase of our lives.

Has it been a week already...

...since I last updated? Wow time flies.

Well, what has happened this past week? Let's see. On Thursday I had class, as usual, and got back two papers - a 90 on one, a 9.5/10 on the other. Not too shabby. I also can't believe there's only three more weeks of classes for this semester. My strategic management class ends on December 1, and my marketing class ends on the 8th. And the infamous quarters night will take place on the 15th, after Bill and Brian's class gets out.

Friday evening was spent with the wonderful Red. We talked, and I managed to get pizza and pasta for Melissa and I right before the place closed. And I didn't mind when Red ate some of my Nutzels. :)

Saturday evening was spent with the also wonderful Chillier and Prof. K. The girls chatted and K and I watched Rocky III and college football.

Sunday was spent at Melissa's grandparents house (Melissa's sis came along, Melissa's parents were in Italy). We had an eight hour meal - started with pasta and meatballs, then salad, chicken cutlets, eggplant parm, and then dessert with coffee, pizzeles and chocolate cream pie. It was fun... they talked about when they were younger, and I kept an eye on the Patriots game (they won 23-16).

And today... FINALLY the flooring guys came back and fixed the bubble. Now I hope it doesn't bubble up again!

Our weekend in pictures.

I know people like pictures, so I will let them tell the story.

Friday night we stayed at the historical Mt. Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire. We had a fancy dinner and a really nice time there.

We then went to Vermont at this cute B&B with the nicest couple running the place. The breakfast was fantastic and we would definitely go back.

Then going back home yesterday, we drove through some weird towns, like:

And we saw the creepiest hotel right when we entered Massachusets!

In all, it was a really fun and relaxing weekend. Sucks being back at work, though.

Self reviews.

I am having trouble trying to put together my self review. Do these things really help? Obviously, no one is going to come out and say "I stink. I just sit at my desk all day and do 15 minutes of real, actual work," doing it "Office Space" style. But what can I say? I will say what a good job I am doing and how people respect me and trust my work.

I am also having trouble putting together a paper for tomorrow's brand advertising class. I am almost done with the paper... I have almost three pages done, but the most important part of the paper, some media mix, I am having trouble with. I spent some hours last night contemplating this, staying awake thinking of different combinations, but I could not justify my numbers based on the information in the case. I was trying to do some percentages of my target market, but it gets kind of confusing, and is not even close to the alternatives that are presented in the case.

Sorry to rant, but isn't this what my blog is for? :)

The floor situation is still not resolved yet. I am still waiting for cool Home Depot guy to call me back.

Does it seem like everything sucks right now? Well, not everything. This weekend, Melissa and I are going with Mardi and Mark on a fun, joint anniversary weekend to NH and VT. We are gonna be all fancily at the Mt. Washington hotel. That's gonna be so much fun. :)