For 2 weeks, we have to put up with construction right outside, a floor below my cube.  Aside from the inconvenience of street closures, I also had to put up with incessant jackhammering today.  

Sometimes bored from work, we would people-watch...okay, we spied on the construction guys.  Nope, none of them were remotely hot.  Not ONE.  Typically, we observed a couple of them just "supervising."  Today, we noticed them watching us watching THEM!  So my friend decided to imitate the guy whom she thought was the supervisor.  She thought it would be funny to put on one of papier mache heads of the Peanuts' Gang (our Halloween costume last year).  No way, she's not gonna do that!

She called my bluff.  She wore the head as she did various funny gestures: the zombie walk, jumping jacks, peek-a-boo, Thriller move...  Meanwhile, I was kneeling on the ground, weak from all the laughing.  At some point, I fell on my butt laughing my ass off.  If there were enough room and if I wasn't weary of the cleanliness of the floor, I would literally be ROFLMAO.  The head insulated her laughter so well, I could not hear it at all.  It made me laugh harder, which egged her on some more.  She switched to another head.  Marcie's this time.  She asked me to join her.  I'm just not kooky enough...

The entire crew downstairs were enjoying the one-person show.  Yes, she's crazy like that.  At one point, the man operating the heavy machinery...some kind of bulldozer contraption with this rolling thing on the other end to force the gravel down into the trough they've cut up...was staring up at the show.  That's a hazard waiting to happen!  One of the guys even pretended to lift weights with a skinny tube.  SOOO, of course...my friend had to emulate that.  She just grabbed my name tag and started to do bicep curls.  The supervisor started to record everything.  When it got too stuffy in the head, she decided to call it quits.  I told her to take a bow.  And she received applause from the appreciative and entertained crew.

That was so awesome.  Certainly, she had made their day...AND MINE!  I had a great ab workout from everything.  I asked if she'll do the show again, same time tomorrow.  Maybe she could recruit this other chick, who's a total ham.  I'll be downstairs to record the entire thing.

Have you heard about the limo fire in Norther California?  This bride-to-be was on her way for a bachelorette party when her stretch limo suddenly burst into flames in the back seat.  With only two doors and nine passengers, the odds were not good.  The doors were automatically locked.  All the ladies were trying to squeeze through the partition glass to escape.  It's devastating that the bodies were found piled next to that one opening.  Celebrating a happy event but instead suffering from horrific tragedy.  No wedding but funerals.

With that in mind, how certain are we there will be a tomorrow?  Anything can happen overnight, within hours, minutes...

The one main thing that I would regret not doing if anything happens is not being able to let my loved ones know how much they mean to me.  When grandma was alive, I never hesitated to tell her how much I loved her and hugged her frequently.  She was the only affectionate adult I had in my family.  She was someone you can confide in.  I've lost count how many times I had ran away from home to go live at grandma's for a few days.  I just wanted to stay with her forever.

There was one argument sis and I had back in 2006 that resulted in months of silent treatment and her forgetting my bday!  I was the one who drove all the way over to her house one day after work to resolve things face-to-face.  It hurt me so deeply.  I was never the same.  Things were awkward for a while.  These days, I have a deeper appreciation for my only sibling.  Our time together is precious.  Truly, there's no way to know how much longer.  We must cherish it when we can.  We often tell each other how much we love each other.  She has a big impact on me.  As mentioned before, if I was an only child to the smothering controlling parents I would have ended my misery long ago.  (She recalled seeing my slumped shoulders as I walked into school and sensed something was wrong.)  She is always the one I run to when I have trouble with mom.  Misery loves company.  She never allowed me to slip into a deep depression.  

Just before dad went into surgery to repair his carotid artery in February, I knew I had to tell dad how much I loved him.  We never had that affectionate relationship, so that was a rare poignant moment we shared together.  The look of fear he gave me when they wheeled him to surgery will never leave me.  If anything went wrong in the OR, at least I made sure he knew that I loved him so much.  If only mom's bitchy personality didn't over-shadow his...

If you were curious, I never told mom that I loved her.  She's mean-spirited, selfish, clueless, hurtful, petty, jealous, immature, needy, manipulative, judgmental, and shallow.  Because sis is a nice person, mom often made her the target...even now in her condition.  She's a bitch.  That sums it up.  She's everything I don't want to be -- a gullible country bumpkin, drama queen, and attention whore.  She often wanted pity from her siblings by telling them how awful we are to her...often exaggerating for effect.  And she wonders why her daughters aren't close to her.  I'm sorry.  Even though she gave me life, she could've easily taken it with her incessant verbal and emotional abuse.  I contemplated suicide growing up.  I'm a strong person now but there's only so much I can take from this hateful miserable woman.  I won't regret not telling her I loved her because I don't.  She's lucky I haven't told her how much I despise her.  I refuse to celebrate mother's day this year.  It's just another day to me.  I'd be happier watching the NBA playoffs.  Go Warriors!

They say a female's intuition is spot on, but it not something that we're born with.  It takes years to develop and hone, through life experiences.  The cause and effect of every action and inaction can train and protect you from what's to come.  It helps you ward off troubles.

Anyway, I've been through all kinds of harassment in my time, so I can spot an unsavory character a mile away.  Well, actually I can tell from chatting with them for a short while. Red flags will go off when I detect the slightest hint of pervy sleaziness.  My skin starts to crawl, and I begin to squirm until I could escape.

The latest confirmation of my perceptive intuitions was at work...again.  So in recent days, I was talked into having lunch by my friend to join her and her "friend," HR director.  He had helped her in her promotion, so MAYBE...just maybe, it'll benefit me to have friends in high places.  I also thought perhaps he could aid in helping my nephew secure an internship position at the company (this was before we learned that he got the Stanford opportunity).

We've had two lunches.  The first one wasn't too uncomfortable since we were at a lunch counter and I was on the other side of my friend.  I didn't have to converse much.  I just spent the entire time stuffing my face.  The second one was not as fortunate.  He sat across from us and bombarded us with questions.  He was relentless even though my friend didn't want to elaborate.  Oh, his Prius smelled like weed!  I wonder if he was high at the time.

Even before these recent events, I've always had my reservations about this man.  He always always always seem overly friendly to me and gave me extra attention.  I saw the same in my friend.  It's obvious he has his motives.  I don't know if it gives him some sick sense of satisfaction from being associated with us.  I found it disturbing.  This one time he caught me alone in the kitchen.  As he drew me into this long conversation, I couldn't help but notice how his eyes could never stay on my face but drifted downwards to my chest and lingered there!  They're B cups, you pervert!  Go ogle someone with a bigger chest and cleavage!  This fool is in HR!  He should be the in-house expert in what's inappropriate in the work place.

Couple of weekends ago, he came by looking for her at her desk because he wanted us to join him for dinner at our favorite crawfish place.  Ew, no...

He even asked her if I was dating?!  And he commented that I'm mysterious.  None of your damn business!  He had stalked me online and even friended me on Flickr and even found me on Twitter....Ewww....something is not right with that fool.  Wait, did I neglect to mention he's in his 50s, married with 2 boys in college?

I avoid this man as much as I can, fleeing when he found us and forced a conversation with my friend.  Funny how he didn't take this personally and called me "mysterious" instead.  My friend, however, didn't feel as weirded out as I did.  That is until just last week, when he tried to take a photo of her!  WTF?!