Saturday 17 December 2011

Ha.

Picture - if you will - a bustling contact centre in South Wales. Men and women are carrying out their business: talking to customers, doing admin, walking around looking busy to avoid being busy... The kind of thing that happens in a professional work place.

In walks a woman in her CMU (Central Michigan University) hoodie, Airwalks and occasional drawl. That's me. Even after living in this country for almost a decade, I dress and talk and act in a way that is instantaneously recognizable as American.

In walks a man in a UofM (University of Michigan) sweatshirt and sits behind me. Must be another American, right? From, you might guess, the same state even, given his apparel. Right?

...But what are the chances of two 'Ganders working at the same contact centre in South Wales?

Slim to none. (I have worked with other Americans since moving here - and the occasional Canadian which I count since most people can't tell us apart here - but never another person from Michigan.)

Meet Max. He's ITALIAN. And, no... He DIDN'T attend UofM. So why the UofM shirt? Clearly not to offend me since Western are "our" rivals, not the Wolverines.

Well, I had to ask. His reply was a grin and the words: "Super Max."

Much LOL.

Best use of a UofM sweatshirt ever... Except for the ones being burned by students in East Lansing each Fall, of course. (Hey. I said they weren't my college's rivals... I never said I liked them.)

Thursday 15 December 2011

Happy Holidays

It's been a long, long time since I've posted. Mostly because I just don't have any time. I get up, look after the animals, clean house, make the DH breakfast, go to work, squeeze in homework between calls, read during my lunch, come home, cook dinner, clean house, look after the animals and go to bed. That's my life at the moment.

But this past weekend, I took the time to put up our Nightmare Before Christmas tree. (A lot of time since I packed away three boxes of Jay's mum's stuff in order to make room for it.)


Jay and I were never going to do anything the right way, were we? Instead of an angel at the top of the tree, we have one of the vampires from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The first year we got it, Jay's mum took it down every day and put an angel up in its place. Jay would find the vampire and up it would go again.

I love the odd mixture of NBC ornaments, witch's hats and traditional Santa ornaments. It's a tree that definitely describes us.