ipod bling & swollen lymph nodes.

I originally started this post over the Labor Day weekend but I got about two sentences in before I felt an overwhelming urge to fall asleep on my keyboard. Thus, I called it quits and decided to start fresh, 3 days later. Well, fresh besides this particular entry's title.

First, the iPod bling. My loving husband recently bought me an iPod video out of the blue (yes, me, an iPod! And an iPod video at that!). He engraved it with some pet names we call each other, as well as our wedding date. It was very sweet. He also edited every memorable dance routine from this season's So You Think You Can Dance and put all of them on the iPod, which was also an amazing feat. Geez, I'm spoiled.

So my friend and I, along with her mom, decide to go out shopping on Labor Day, and we're milling around the housewares section of a particular store that was having a moving sale...she brings me 3 iPod cases, all marked down to a whopping $1.18. I had my choice of dressing up my new tech toy with a blue, pink, or silver be-dazzled iPod case. The sequins were frightening and funny at the same time. So, I got the silver. Don't be jealous. ;)

And the swollen lymph nodes. Those are no fun. Never had 'em before, and to be quite honest, they freaked me out a bit. My sis recommended Ester-C and Airborne since I'm "in-between" doctors. Airborne, might I say, is the nastiest medicinal ANYTHING I've ever tried in my entire life. Granted, I've never taken any pill larger than my thumbnail, nor have I had to have painful injections anywhere, but let me tell ya....Airborne = gross. It's as though they took every unpleasant-tasting thing in the world (liver, tuna, and green olives), bottled it up, turned it orange, and manufactured it in dissolving tablet form.

Something I've noticed the past several days, and actually on an ongoing basis, is our generation's ability to listen, or lack thereof. Listening has seriously become an ancient art, and I'm the last person who wants to admit that. But perhaps it isn't just my generation, either. I try my darndest to be intuitive to people and my surroundings, and for the most part, I'd say I'm a decent listener. But I find myself getting frustrated with people who, when I have a conversation with them, I have to preface it by saying, "I've got three things to tell you," and BAM, BAM, BAM. I rattle them off, one by one, because I know I've lost their complete attention after 30 seconds.

I call it the 30-Second Attention Span. After about 30 seconds, my listener's eyes glaze over, dart around the room, their head starts to dip to one side, or they completely cut me off and change the subject. It's aggravating. For the most part, I experience this at work - and I'd like to say that when I find my own attention slipping I'm verbal about my own inattentiveness, apologize, and have someone repeat themselves.

But I still can't help myself but find an individual entirely refreshing when you can see them listen. You see their facial expression steady, fixated, and absorbed in who speaks to them. When I meet new people, I find myself criticizing whether they're really listening or not - especially when meeting new people at work. I was at business lunch with a coworker where we met with the owner of an ad agency, and I kept watching his eyes. There's a lot to be said when an individual can't look someone else in the eye. As a shy child I was never able to look someone in the eye. I'd bow my head, hide behind my parents' legs, anything I could to stay out of the attention of someone else. It wasn't until I was about 17 - when I stopped being so introverted, that I broke that habit.

I'm glad this was a short work-week. (our power at work went out on Wednesday so we were basically out the whole day!) I'm looking forward to breezing through tomorrow and enjoying the weekend. Hmm, perhaps I'll do another blog, and up the quote to 2 blogs a month. ;)