Ever hit your funny bone? I personally find nothing funny about it. It's quite painful. Not even sure why it's called a funny bone. Maybe because it's pretty funny to figure out exactly how one can hit that particular part of your body spot on to extract that much pain? Still - not finding it funny.
I of course did that this morning. I was trying to get out of my car with my hands full of crap, why do I haul so much stuff with me all the time? Anyway, I was trying to get out of my car and it never fails, when your hands are full the wind will come out of no where and shove your door closed just perfectly hitting that part on your elbow that normal everyday life doesn't even touch. Yeouch. That event always wants me to swear out loud like a freaking sailor...because that helps me feel better.
I realized, if anyone is walking by my house they must think I'm a terrible person - I mean I swear out loud to myself all the time. It makes me feel better. For some reason, when your angry, a good swear word makes everything way better....well it does for me. So when I cracked my funny bone, I swore out loud....and immediately remembered I was out in public, at work and now....my dirty secret is out...I am a sailor.
So I had to figure out where the funny bone got it's name...so I googled it. The internet is a wonderful thing:
"The "funny bone" got its nickname because of that funny feeling you get after you hit it.
But your funny bone isn't actually a bone at all. Running down the inside part of your elbow is a nerve called the ulnar nerve. The ulnar nerve lets your brain know about feelings in your fourth and fifth fingers. It's also one of the nerves that controls some movement of your hand.
You get that funny feeling when the ulnar nerve is bumped against the humerus (say: hyoo-muh-rus), the long bone that starts at your elbow and goes up to your shoulder. Tapping your funny bone doesn't do any damage to your elbow, arm, or ulnar nerve."
So, if you hit it one too many times, does one lose their sense of humor?
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
A watched pot never boils....
or in my case, a watched toaster never toasts. It may be because the toaster her at work is the SLOWEST toaster ever invented, but it literally takes forever to toast a single slice of toast.
I may have mentioned this before, but I am kind a creature of routine. I do what works for me, mostly. I've tried to change, tried to "upgrade" my life but I can't do it, I like what I got and it works for me, so I've quit fighting it. I get up, get ready and leave....all in anticipation of that nice hot cup of coffee from our cafeteria. It's good coffee, it's Caribou, so it's not like I'm drinking some generic coffee, and it's $1.27 for a big cup. Now if I bring my own mug it's only $1.21...and I've tried, I've tried several times. I have several of those cute reusable mugs that I lose. Yes, I lose. I for some reason can not train myself to hang onto them. I either throw them away, not thinking I toss them in the trash only to remember horrifically later I did it or I leave them some place, can't remember where, or I forget them at home, at work, in my car and they begin to grow all kinds of funky things because they haven't been washed...so I get the good old disposable paper cup...yes I know...I'm not green...or earth friendly or whatever. It's who I am, I've accepted it...you might as well too. In an attempt to "help me", my bestie got me a super cute cup that was not only pink (my favorite color) but it had OUR pictures on it. So #1 if I left it behind someone could easily identify me, the owner, by my photo, and #2 who would throw out their bestie?
So I proudly use(d) it...I cleaned it too so as to not grow funkiness in my besties cup....here's the problem...I can't find it. It's not at work, it's not tumbling around in my car, it's not at home and it's not at my second job......so where in the world are the besties? Yikes...I can only imagine the adventure it's having. Hoping to find it again, but the point is, I'm a creature of habit, of routine, of what works for me. So I bring bread to toast...usually about 8:30 a.m. I get hungry...I get a rumbly in my tummy that only a slice of peanut butter toast can fill. So I take my trusty peanut butter (oh and that's a whole other story, but don't sway from what you like...I like my Smart Balance chunky peanut butter, when I try to switch, I'm always disappointed...anyway), my bread and I go to the slowest toaster in history and wait.
Here's where the "watched pot" comes into play. As I stand there mindlessly willing the toaster to toast faster there is a lot of activity in the break area where the toaster is. There are two microwaves, a refrigerator, a sink, and our mail bins all in this back break area, so there is lots of morning hub-bub. The toaster is next to the sink...seems wrong somehow doesn't it? water/electricity? But I stand there and I watch the glowing of the coils trying to cook my bread, a coworker walks in to heat water, we have a very surface level conversation about him nuking his water for tea, he is trying to save money by switching from coffee to tea.
He brings his own cup but still thinks $1.21 is too much to pay for coffee, we discuss the pros of making it at home and bringing it in as well as a thermos. He says he can't do that because he doesn't' get up early enough to make coffee. Really? It takes like 5 minutes, less time that it does for this freaking toaster to make toast, but OK, I can respect that.....so he's trying tea. OK, rock on with your bad self, I'm sticking to coffee. I then suggest setting a timer and preparing it the night before. He says can't, we are a - and he used air quotes on this phrase - "green household". Interested I ask what does that mean. He said we unplug all unnecessary appliances because it saves like $5 a month on electricity. Curious, I asked more....what? What do you consider "unnecessary"? He says things like the toaster, the blender, the coffee maker, the food processor - all things I barely even know how to use much less own, but OK. I was curious. I've not heard of that. My friend did tell me to unplug my air conditioner unit in the winter as just having it pluged in sucks energy but I thought just because it was a big old window unit. Makes sense I guess.
He leaves and then there is that awkward moment when there is someone left at the sink who apparently is washing his cup like it was soaked in fuel or buried in the ground for days. He's using one of the "high quality" paper towels that shreds the second water touches it, to scrub every nook and cranny of his reusable coffee mug. He makes some comment about why he's working so hard to clean coffee from his coffee cup and I do the polite laughter like it's funny. He makes some comment about how if we were kids we couldn't care how clean this was, that we would drop it in the sand and then just pick it up and drink from it. More polite laughter. Then I then say something like you know, if the coffee is hot enough, it will just melt the old coffee right into the new and you'll never know. He now does the polite laughter back, hesitates, then begins to scrub his cup harder. I've probably installed some new fear into him.
So when my toast is finally ready, I douse it in peanut butter and make the trek back to my desk but it makes me think about how our interactions, even for just minutes, make lasting impressions on ourselves and others. I was going through my house in my mind trying to see what I could unplug to save $5 bucks! My friend and I joke that we are "spreading our joy" when we have these interactions, but what if it's not "joy" we are leaving behind? I worry that I've caused great stress for this poor gentleman at the sink.
Maybe there is more to this world than just our little bubble. Who would have known?
I may have mentioned this before, but I am kind a creature of routine. I do what works for me, mostly. I've tried to change, tried to "upgrade" my life but I can't do it, I like what I got and it works for me, so I've quit fighting it. I get up, get ready and leave....all in anticipation of that nice hot cup of coffee from our cafeteria. It's good coffee, it's Caribou, so it's not like I'm drinking some generic coffee, and it's $1.27 for a big cup. Now if I bring my own mug it's only $1.21...and I've tried, I've tried several times. I have several of those cute reusable mugs that I lose. Yes, I lose. I for some reason can not train myself to hang onto them. I either throw them away, not thinking I toss them in the trash only to remember horrifically later I did it or I leave them some place, can't remember where, or I forget them at home, at work, in my car and they begin to grow all kinds of funky things because they haven't been washed...so I get the good old disposable paper cup...yes I know...I'm not green...or earth friendly or whatever. It's who I am, I've accepted it...you might as well too. In an attempt to "help me", my bestie got me a super cute cup that was not only pink (my favorite color) but it had OUR pictures on it. So #1 if I left it behind someone could easily identify me, the owner, by my photo, and #2 who would throw out their bestie?
So I proudly use(d) it...I cleaned it too so as to not grow funkiness in my besties cup....here's the problem...I can't find it. It's not at work, it's not tumbling around in my car, it's not at home and it's not at my second job......so where in the world are the besties? Yikes...I can only imagine the adventure it's having. Hoping to find it again, but the point is, I'm a creature of habit, of routine, of what works for me. So I bring bread to toast...usually about 8:30 a.m. I get hungry...I get a rumbly in my tummy that only a slice of peanut butter toast can fill. So I take my trusty peanut butter (oh and that's a whole other story, but don't sway from what you like...I like my Smart Balance chunky peanut butter, when I try to switch, I'm always disappointed...anyway), my bread and I go to the slowest toaster in history and wait.
Here's where the "watched pot" comes into play. As I stand there mindlessly willing the toaster to toast faster there is a lot of activity in the break area where the toaster is. There are two microwaves, a refrigerator, a sink, and our mail bins all in this back break area, so there is lots of morning hub-bub. The toaster is next to the sink...seems wrong somehow doesn't it? water/electricity? But I stand there and I watch the glowing of the coils trying to cook my bread, a coworker walks in to heat water, we have a very surface level conversation about him nuking his water for tea, he is trying to save money by switching from coffee to tea.
He brings his own cup but still thinks $1.21 is too much to pay for coffee, we discuss the pros of making it at home and bringing it in as well as a thermos. He says he can't do that because he doesn't' get up early enough to make coffee. Really? It takes like 5 minutes, less time that it does for this freaking toaster to make toast, but OK, I can respect that.....so he's trying tea. OK, rock on with your bad self, I'm sticking to coffee. I then suggest setting a timer and preparing it the night before. He says can't, we are a - and he used air quotes on this phrase - "green household". Interested I ask what does that mean. He said we unplug all unnecessary appliances because it saves like $5 a month on electricity. Curious, I asked more....what? What do you consider "unnecessary"? He says things like the toaster, the blender, the coffee maker, the food processor - all things I barely even know how to use much less own, but OK. I was curious. I've not heard of that. My friend did tell me to unplug my air conditioner unit in the winter as just having it pluged in sucks energy but I thought just because it was a big old window unit. Makes sense I guess.
He leaves and then there is that awkward moment when there is someone left at the sink who apparently is washing his cup like it was soaked in fuel or buried in the ground for days. He's using one of the "high quality" paper towels that shreds the second water touches it, to scrub every nook and cranny of his reusable coffee mug. He makes some comment about why he's working so hard to clean coffee from his coffee cup and I do the polite laughter like it's funny. He makes some comment about how if we were kids we couldn't care how clean this was, that we would drop it in the sand and then just pick it up and drink from it. More polite laughter. Then I then say something like you know, if the coffee is hot enough, it will just melt the old coffee right into the new and you'll never know. He now does the polite laughter back, hesitates, then begins to scrub his cup harder. I've probably installed some new fear into him.
So when my toast is finally ready, I douse it in peanut butter and make the trek back to my desk but it makes me think about how our interactions, even for just minutes, make lasting impressions on ourselves and others. I was going through my house in my mind trying to see what I could unplug to save $5 bucks! My friend and I joke that we are "spreading our joy" when we have these interactions, but what if it's not "joy" we are leaving behind? I worry that I've caused great stress for this poor gentleman at the sink.
Maybe there is more to this world than just our little bubble. Who would have known?
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