Milton Friedman died today.

You may not know who that is, but I guarantee he’s had an impact on your life with his ideas.

NPR was discussing his death, and what he did for economics, while I was on my way home. I learned about him in high school… I had a crazy teacher who preached Friedman’s laissez-faire economics like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t until I got older (and had to live in the real world) that I realized the importance of his theories.

From the Boston Globe: “Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who played a key role in the intellectual resurgence of capitalism and the global shift to free-market economics in the final third of the 20th century, died today at a San Francisco hospital. He was 94.

In a 90th-birthday tribute, the columnist George F. Will described Dr. Friedman as ‘the most consequential public intellectual of the 20th century.'”

Wikipedia has some great info and links.

My favorite person is having a sample sale.

It’s invite-only, but you can register and get in on the deals. (Some stuff is 75% off.) It only lasts four days and some things are already selling out… even though it started this morning.

Fortunately, I already got the one I wanted—seconds before it sold out. 🙂

:::happy dance, happy dance:::

One of the best things about my job is the environment, and in particular, the funny people who I share an office space with… let’s call them Mickey and Granny.

I’m in the design room (which is actually a space twice the size of my apartment and half of it’s the conference room) because they couldn’t decide where else to put me. (And thank god, ’cause if I was with the sales people.. oh lord.) So I’m the Web person and Mickey and Granny are the print people and I swear, they are some of the funniest coworkers I have ever had.

Mickey has a very dry, caustic sense of humor and really, really loathes the sales team; Granny is at least 60-something, and just as funny… although she’s a bit nicer about the sales team.

Together, they’re a comic duo of greatness.

And I… I am the instigator. Err.

As labeled by my boss, following a round of barely stifled laughter during Mickey’s one—and only—photo shoot for an image we needed.

It wasn’t my fault though.. he was making faces (and little comments) behind the magazine. All I was doing was laughing!

The rest of the day my emails arrived addressed to the Instigator Upstairs.

😛

First of all, oh the cupcake-y goodness. (That gave me joy.)

Second, I have the bestest cousin ever… she sent me a package for my birthday. 🙂 And it contained… a tiara! Wheeee!

Which I would’ve been wearing when the Porkchop came home from the grocery store this evening, but SOMEBODY forgot his wallet.

Yep.

So instead of making dinner wearing my tiara, I found myself heading back out into the rain, sans tiara.

But the day didn’t end there, oh no.

The day ended with a toilet overflowing and tonic water exploding.

Never a dull day, people, never a dull day.

Usually he sits toward the front. He wears dress slacks, but no tie and always seems like he only brushed the front part of his hair. He nods often, asks questions constantly and sits sideways, eyeballing the room, as if looking for a prospect.

And he sat in front of me today and irritated the ABSOLUTE shit out of me.

He’s the constant conference-goer and my sweet lord in heaven, I can’t stand him.

Which in part led to my having a very obnoxious day.

Here’s the thing about seminars/conferences: sometimes they’re good, but most of the time they’re worthless.

Today’s seminar? Useless. Not only was the information old, I gave one of the panelists more information than he had. That’s so sad to me. And it makes for a boring day, particularly when I have to get up at 530AM to make sure I’m there by 8AM, and I’m tired and there are so many things at work I want to do.

I know there are good conferences out there, ones with relevant, viable information that specifically pertain to certain fields, but sometimes those are overshadowed by corporations with lots of cash who put on nonsense seminars on their namebrand alone.

And it’s insanely irritating.

Due to massive flooding across the state, my sister and her family are being evacuated from her house.

According to the Seattle PI, “The National Weather Service has raised the flood warning from “major” to “record severity” for six Western Washington rivers.”

She is understandably not happy.

Send dry thoughts.

My last present from the Chop was tickets to a Death Cab for Cutie concert this weekend (opened by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, who are very good and someone you should check out).

The music was great, but the entertainment came from all sides. Young high schoolers, there with parents, gossiping about so-and-so who came with such-and-such and OH MY GOD, what is she wearing… college students, rocking out, trying to appear as if they aren’t having the same conversation the high schoolers are having with their friends about so-and-so… and the Chop’s personal favorite, the crazy woman and her daughter.

They sat next to us.

The mom, who was in her early 50s (I’d guess), was wearing the clothes and jewelry of a 20-something, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the perfume.

They arrived in a cloud of muskrat perfume, which then settled like smog over five rows. Eventually I thought it had mellowed down, then she moved… as she was wont to do, seeing as how her and her daughter (maybe? probably in her late 20s) rocked out to Death Cab (um, emo anyone?) like they were at a metal band in a mosh pit.

The moves were somewhere between disco, hip hop and insane gyrating. It was a real treat for the Chop, who sat next to them. lol

The best part was that we were in the sixth row… which, as we found out Saturday, was totally necessary. Seeing as how the Porkchop hadn’t been to an optometrist in several years and his vision, with his glasses, was 20/80.

It says something when the doctor walks out with him, looks pointedly at me, and says, “He is NOT allowed to drive. It would be illegal for him to do so.”

20/80, in case you don’t know, is very, very bad.

I got rear-ended this morning. In a Starbucks drive-thru. By an idiot who couldn’t pronounce grande.

Seriously, it’s just my luck.

No damage to my Jeep (she hit the tire), but it looked like a small dent was in her bumper. Then again, that could’ve been there from the myriad other accidents she had, as she seemed the type.

It was such a bonehead move, too. She was ordering, incorrectly and with terrible grammar, and she leaned forward (as if that would help her in some way) and either put her foot on the gas, or took it off the clutch, and then boom.

The best part was she didn’t even get out of the car when I did. She was all, “Oh was that me…!?!”

Grrrrrr.

I just found out a very old friend of mine, one who I used to be close too, proposed to his girlfriend last week.

Which is a little creepy for the following reasons: he is younger than me, I have known him since we were 7 and it’s just weird, he’s known the girl for less than a year and he has a notorious habit of picking the wrong girls to date.

And somehow I figured his sister and mine, both older, would get married and settle down before he and I.

He and I haven’t really talked in a long time, so I didn’t expect him to call and tell me he had gotten engaged.. but considering how close we used to be, I’m still surprised I found out from my sister a week after it happened.

And a little sad.

In good news, someone’s decided to join us. 🙂

I saw a car accident on my way to work this morning. A small fender-bender in a yield, right-turn lane, and it reminded me of my very first car accident. Which, unlike my sister, didn’t occur until a couple of years after I got my license.

I did the exact same thing this guy did this morning. A car was in front of me, looking to the left and inching into traffic. I was looking as well, saw the break in the flow of cars and hit the gas before I looked to see what was in front of me.

::Crunch::

The pansy hadn’t gone and it was my fault. Stupid rules.

I then managed to get into two other car accidents in the ensuing year, one being quite memorable for I totalled my Jeep and was grounded for three months… during my high school graduation.

It was then I decided my parents were fascists, hehe, and my car insurance—the true fascists—dropped me.

Obviously I’m back in their good graces (both of them), but for a few months I truly thought my life was going to suck forever.

It’s amazing the difference a few years can make.

I’m not quite old yet, but I am older today and I’m happy to say that although this has been a rough year for me, I can without a doubt say it’s been one of the most interesting and fulfilling ones yet.