All dressed up and everywhere to go

A few weeks ago, I bought a new dress to wear to a friend’s wedding that is happening this Friday. Flora saw the dress last night before it went to the washing machine and decided she had to try it on. I didn’t have a camera handy then, but I did have one tonight when I brought the dress up from the dryer.

(Click images for larger versions)

All dressed up and ready to roll

Once she spotted it tonight, she started saying “Pretty dress!” so I helped her put it on and she traipsed around the kitchen. While the skirt of the dress looked like a beautiful mermaid train, I’m pretty sure it did double duty as a floor mop. Hopefully I don’t have to wash it again before the wedding.

Then Flora decided she needed to finish beautifying herself:

A little lipgloss and I'm readyShe decided to do that by getting into my purse and stealing my lip balm. I don’t think she opened it.

Then, she decided enough was enough and wanted it off.

New hat

And finished her fashion show with a bag on her head.

I just hope I look as good in my dress as she does, or I’ll end up needed to borrow that bag to wear on my head.

melissa-ology

Saw this survey on Little Odd Me’s Vox today. Haven’t done one in awhile, so I will answer the questions.

FOODOLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Italian, blue cheese or balsamic, depending on the salad

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. I think Taco Bell

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A: I love the Keg. I know it isn’t cool to like chain restaurants, but the Keg is always tasty, so I stand by my choice.

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. 20% – I believe in tipping well since restaurant wages are crap

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A: cheese

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A. Right now, it’s spinach, roasted garlic and bruschetta-style tomatoes

Q. What do you like to put on your toast?
A. butter and smooth peanut butter

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. It cycles (using Webshots) between various pictures I’ve taken and professional garden/flower/nature pictures I’ve downloaded. Very relaxing, and I always smile when the pet pictures come up!

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. Two

BIOLOGY

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A. Right-handed, but both my parents are left handed, so that’s kinda weird

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. I had a birthmark (a big gross mole) removed from my ribcage when I was 13

Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. I think about two years ago. It was my first one too, so I was pissed

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A. I don’t know – probably the last bag of groceries I brought home

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. No

BULL[CRAP]OLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Absolutely not – I’m not living life on a schedule and what if someone made a mistake in the calculation. I’ll be taken by surprise, thanks.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A. I don’t have a serious answer for this. All I keep thinking of is “Hootie McBoob” and “Chesty LaRue”. Maybe I should go with something more soap opera-y. How about “Davialla Starr”? (I got that from What is my Soap Opera Name?)

Q. Pink
A. The colour of both my purse and cell phone. They don’t match each other though so I am not totally coordinated.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. I swallowed a marble when I was seven years old (old enough to know better). I found out a few years ago that I did it right before my parents were to go away to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. I was a real buzzkill. Never found out if the marble went away. I wondered a few days ago if it was causing the pain in my ovary.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. I don’t think so.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. Not in a literal sense.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Depending on who it was, I’d do it for free.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. It’s tempting, but I’m a wimp so probably not.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Again, it’s tempting, but I don’t think so. I don’t want to lose the opportunity to tell the world about bumblebee’s having an orgy on my deck. Or answer surveys like this one.

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A: I don’t think any magazine would have me without airbrushing me to the point of being unrecognizable. Depending on the magazine, I’d consider it seriously.

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
A. Nope, the after-effects aren’t worth it.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Nope. My conscience couldn’t take it.

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A: No pockets in these pants.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. I really wanted to like it more than I did, but it was just a little too dumb for me.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A: hardwood and laminate.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A: Stand – makes leg-shaving an adventure in balancing.

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A: Yes, but I’d rather not. Living with a husband, cat and dog is enough right now.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A. None. I wear real sandals

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A: I saw some cops walking through the office building next door to work today – does that count?

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: Happy, considerate, curious and adventurous

Q: Who is number 1 on your top 8
A: Is this a MySpace thing?

LASTOLOGY

Q: Person you talked to?
A. Sean

Q: Last person who called you?
A: Telemarketer or political candidate – we didn’t pick up

Q: Person you hugged?
A. Sean

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: 8

Q: Season?
A: Summer

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A. not really

Q: Mood?
A: Impatient – how many more frigging questions are there on this thing?

Q: Listening to?
A: Sean playing computer games

Q: Watching?
A. my cursor flicker

Q: Worrying about?
A. what the test results could be (but not worrying much right now)

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: The bathroom

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. That’s a secret (and not a dirty one, surprisingly)

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A: In full? I’m not sure.

Q: Do you smile often?
A: Yes! 😀

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: I hope so.

I've never even seen this movie!

This morning as I was walking into the subway, I saw a cute guy about my age (probably a little younger). Normally, I would just take a quick look and move on with my day. However, when I took a quick peek at him, I saw that he was wearing an interesting T-shirt. I thought it was a band shirt (I like to see what band shirts people are wearing), but I couldn’t read it. So when the moment was right, I turned around and looked again. Still couldn’t read it. Of course now I’m curious, but don’t want to seem all psycho, so I follow my usual routine – swipe my metropass, get my newspaper and go to the train.

However, by the time I came back from getting the paper, I saw the guy again. I got a good enough look at his shirt to realize that it wasn’t a band shirt, but a Bubba Ho-Tep movie shirt. This made me smile because I knew Sean liked this movie when he watched it with our former roommate. (Besides, it has Bruce Campbell in it – how bad could it be?)

Now that my question was settled, I could get on with my day.

However, when I got on the train, Mr Bubba Ho-Tep T-Shirt also got on the train. Then he ended up sitting right beside me! When there were other empty seats in the train! This freaked me out. What if he asked me why I was staring at him earlier? (I was really trying not to, I thought I was being subtle.) What if he tried to start a conversation beyond that? I realized I was overthinking when he pulled out his book and began to read. That was when I began to calm down and read my newspaper, but I did make sure that my left hand with wedding ring was noticeable, just in case he thought I was trying to lead him on. I thought I was being subtle, but now I worry that I was as subtle as a Mack truck. Forgive me – I’ve been with the same guy for over eleven years, and I didn’t have much success with boys before that! The idea of getting hit on frightens me, cuz I don’t think I’ve ever really experienced it, except for one time on the bus by some creepy guy. (What is it with public transit anyway?)

So we never ended up speaking, and when we got to Yonge station, we went our separate ways. I admit that I breathed a sigh of relief. If he actually had spoken to me, I don’t know what I would have said that didn’t make me sound like an idiot. I’ve always wanted to be brave and tell someone randomly that I think they are cute. But I’m always afraid that they will take it the wrong way and ugliness will prevail.

At this point, I was kinda embarrassed – it wasn’t about me, it was all coincidences. As I continued my trek to work, I began to wonder, “should I tell Sean?” We’re one of those couples who aren’t afraid to point out good looking people to each other, so that wasn’t an issue. Fortunately, the answer came to me thanks to a conversation we had today that led to “guess what happened to me this morning?” I told Sean my pathetic story and I’m pretty sure I heard his eyes roll over the phone. He did advise me to watch the Missed Connections page on Craigslist. (Nothing yet – of course I looked! I do blame Sean though since he put the idea in my head)

However, the icing on the cake was when Sean called me downstairs to show me what was on TV earlier this evening. Bubba Ho-tep was playing on TV. This is one of those times that I think God has a sense of humour. We laughed about it, and I told him that I loved him the most. Then I asked him if he thought this would make a good blog post. This time I saw his eyes rolling, but he supported it with a hearty “Do what you want!”

I told him that the post would probably turn into a love letter for him. More eyerolling. So I’ll just stick to a sentence:

I love Sean more than I could ever love some random cute boy I saw on the TTC wearing a cool T-shirt.

QotD: I Was Sold

Have you ever purchased something from an infomercial?
Submitted by Colleen.

I’ve never purchased something from an actual informercial, but Sean and I did purchase our first George Foreman Grill from the Shopping Channel back in 1998 or 99. I loved that thing, and we got a new one as a wedding present, which we still use regularly. (The old one didn’t break, we just wanted to upgrade!)

I do like watching infomercials for cooking products. If Sean or I catch one on TV, we end up watching it and thinking that we should purchase whatever it is. Then we talk ourselves out of it, since the items are almost always sold in US dollars. The infomercials always portray the items as so versatile and cook things so fast! And it’s the only kitchen appliance you’ll ever need! At least that’s how the products work on TV. And we both know that when the item finally comes, we’re going to be disappointed as its less-than-perfect results, and its less-than-usefulness. We still watch them though. Maybe one item will come through and be another Foreman Grill. Maybe we’re just hungry and like watching the food cook.

In a real-life example, my mother-in-law bought us one of those Pasta Magic sets last year, and I tried it a few times, and it didn’t really work. I can’t tell if it was a user-error or a product error. Maybe it was a knockoff of the original As Seen On TV product, and therefore unusable. Either way, the canisters are still sitting on my dishwasher, and I don’t know if I should give ’em one more try or just get rid of them.

QotD: Repeat After Me…

How have people mispronounced your name? How is it supposed to sound?
Submitted by Lorie.

Strangely enough, on two occasions when I have been speaking to people on the phone, they have thought my name was Martha. I still can’t figure out how Melissa = Martha – I don’t talk that fast and they really don’t sound that much alike. I guess I’ll just blame bad telephone connections. My name is pretty phonetic though so if you see how it’s spelled, you can’t really screw it up too bad.

Now my sister, she has a hard time. While Kyla is not a terribly common name, it has been getting more and more popular in the 26 years that she has had it. She gets stuff like this: Kayla, Karla (her in-laws thought that was her name for awhile so it’s become a nickname), Kaylie and Kylie. I remember when we were kids, someone thought her name was Wyla cuz they misheard it.

People have a terrible time with the spelling of it too – a lot of cards get addressed to her as Kayla, but the best spelling I ever saw was “Kilah” which came from someone who should have known better. I did think that spelling looked cool though – kinda Biblical. But really, her name is pretty phonetic too – I just don’t get how you can screw it up.

Speaking of names, here is a fun site that shows you the popularity of names: NameVoyager. Melissa peaked right about when I was named. There were a couple of other Melissa’s in my grade when I was in highschool (of course we were stuck in a class together in grade nine to confuse the teacher), but soon I lost track of them, and don’t really know any other Melissa’s right now.

Edited to add (thanks for the reminder Sean): About the spelling of my name. My name is spelled the way most (but not all) Melissa’s spell their name. Again, it’s fairly phonetic, and not that hard. That said, if you look at the photo on the right, you will see that a close friend of my mother-in-law’s (she actually babysat Sean while he was growning up) took the time to sew us a lovely commemorative pillow for our wedding.

She spelled my name wrong. Not in an expected way like with two “l’s” or one “s”, but with an “r”.

An “R”!

My lovely wedding commemorative pillow says “Sean and Melisra, June 26,2004″ You’ll notice that my sister’s name is spelled correctly.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
This work by Melissa Price-Mitchell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.
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