... Me again!

Hey, you ... The one that still looks here! Yes! You.

The blog can be found right here, now hosted at its own domain and now with 32.6 percent more awesome.

girlofwords.com -- On air. Online. On demand.

Moving sale. Nothing must go!

I'm breaking up with Blogger for a while. I'm hoping much like my friend Jim, a change in scenery brings about a change in will because right now, I've got no will.

Visit us here:

On air. Online. On demand.

If I forgot you on my blogroll, holla. I'll throw it up there. :)

You've missed a lot. I've missed a lot. And that's my fault.

So it's NOT just cleverly hidden state workers

Sorry to pick on you again, state employees. You're my favorite target because both my mother and my sister are state employees. They get to stay home when the weather gets bad and they have three months in the summer to watch "Maury" reruns and go to the pool while I spend another 50 hours a week winning bread. They also have an undetermined number of holidays they get off from work. Who knew this state honored the spotted owl? I didn't.

"You are NOT the father."

Again?!

So, today, I learned on CNN.com that about one-third of us sleep at work.

Survey: One-third of workers catching zzz's on job

I'm in the two-thirds that don't. Mostly because I've never figured out exactly how to pull it off and still keep my job. I can admit to times, though, where I've lost 15 minutes just spacing out. Maybe that's sleeping. But I know that at least twice in the past year, I've put my head in my hands to look DOWN at a piece of paper that I needed and *poof* ... there just went 30 minutes.

Maybe it's because I have a woobie. And a heater. And when I get a woobie and a heater, it's a bad combination. I'm wearing the woobie. I have the heater on. I bet I could lose 30 minutes right ... now ...

Two separate, yet equal, things that have just pissed me right off so far today

Lemme ask you something ... And be honest. I could be crazy, here.

Does this offend you?

That's a picture of a sign from an advertising campaign by Sheetz, which is a Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain.

Crispy frickin' chicken!

Pretty harmless, right? Maybe even a little funny?

Not according to one guy. And as we all know, ONE guy is enough to ruin even the best party.

Frickin' ads catch more than attention

OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I don't like Sheetz.

I freaking LOVE it.

If the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would allow me to enter into marriage with Sheetz, it easily would become my second husband. Any man who entertains dating me is made aware, up front, that they're No. 2 in my heart to Sheetz. And God help him if we don't stop at Sheetz if we pass one along the way on a road trip. Deal breaker. It's over. You're out.

I've actually go so far as to map out routes BASED on where you can find ... a Sheetz.

As Sweet Ann pointed out this morning, when one of our friends on the Groundhog Day trip got sick from her Sheetz sandwich, I actually said, "If I ever got sick from something I ate at Sheetz, I'd apologize to Sheetz for being weak."

But, really, that's not the point here. The point?

Let me use this to set it up and drive it home.

It's too close to a certain four-letter-word that Sherri and Michael Sucec used to use before they were saved, a word that commonly means having sex. When the Sucecs noticed the Sheetz billboard in Derry Twp., they called and wrote their complaints to Sheetz.

"If we have any sanity left in the United States of America, this is totally unacceptable," Michael Sucec told the Derry Twp. supervisors Tuesday night, speaking with the Bible on his podium. He appealed to the supervisors' sensibilities, hoping they would help remove the billboard.

No, Michael. If we have any sanity left in the United States of America, people like you will SHUT YOUR FRICKIN' MOUTH. If we have any sanity left in the United States, we stop throwing hissy fits every time something doesn't fall within the neat packaging our moral compass fits inside.

It isn't like you've got a naked chick covering herself in wing sauce to get you to eat this sandwich, people. It isn't like they used the mother of all curse words that starts with an F. It isn't like they're making sweet, passionate love to a piece of breaded poultry. No wang was harmed, or seen, in the making of his ad.

Really, Michael? Everything that's wrong morally in this world and you're taking umbrage with "frickin'"?

You don't like the billboard? Ignore it. Accept it for the temporary medium it is. In fact, Michael, you've totally done exactly what marketing geniuses at Sheetz would hope -- by you BITCHING and WHINING like a vadge, you got your name in the paper. Congratulations. You also helped Sheetz get people into their stores to see what the big frickin' deal is.

And, as my hero Paul Harvey would say, Page Two:

I have a giant, crippling fear of public marriage proposals. I mean, even thinking about it to write this blog is causing hives to break out on my right arm. I wish I was kidding about this, because hives are amazingly unsexy.

I didn't know this little factoid, but apparently on Leap Day (which for those of you playing along at home, is today) women have the right to ask their special dude to marry them.

Why in God's name you need a "special" day to make this happen is beyond me. Maybe it's because I don't think like a typical woman. I think that if I was in love with someone enough that I wanted to marry them, in my low-key way I'd be like, "Hey, I just saw that 'Ghostbusters' is on at 8 and 'Ghostbusters II' is on at 10! Badass!! You know what else would be awesome? If you'd marry me."

I don't think I'd ever get to that point, though. Most men I know are so protective of that kind of moment that I wouldn't want to take it from them. And besides, to beat a trendy new adage into the ground, if I was dating a man for a long, extended period of time and he hadn't addressed it, I'd be willing to believe that he's "just not that into me."

Some people aren't into marriage, and I'm 100 percent in favor of that. Clearly, I'm no example of "how-to" when it comes to the marriage department. Some of the happiest, most functional couples I know have been together years and years and never got married. I can't say I'll ever get married again. That doesn't mean that I won't fall in love and spend the rest of my life with someone -- it means that I'll never again feel the need to take it to that "formalization" step.

But this girl ... oof. She not only felt the need to drive it to that step, but do it in a really, really public manner.

Hey, Sean: Will You Marry Me?

You don't get much more public than the New York Daily News with its circulation well over a million. And you don't get much more public than a followup appearance on "The Today Show."

Which, for your viewing pleasure, by the way:



Am I the only person who senses his visible, rampant discomfort? He's so uncomfortable it's like he's sitting with a hot metal poker going straight in the back door. He may as well have worn a sandwich board that said, "I had no choice but to say yes."

She's oblivious to his suffering right now. This was at 7:45 a.m. I can guarantee now, almost three hours later, she's well aware of it.

To use a phrase I use often, "This will not end well."

Why would you put someone through this? I'm for creative proposals and all, but not in front of millions of people. I guess I'm a traditionalist in that I think that's a really private moment.

I'm really mad at this woman. Not good form, Marina. Not good form at all.

I know, I'm woefully behind.

Here's a basic rundown ... Things have been crazy and I haven't had much time to even catch my breath lately.

When I was in Philadelphia last week, Ang reminded me that I provided her a much-needed break during some harsh work days. It's been stuck in my head since.

You put these things out here and you never really know if anybody's reading it and then someone sends a message like Patty, or asks like Jim or says they miss it like Angie did.

So, I promise here to make a more concerted effort. I even put it in my planner for tomorrow because I'm an uber-geek and I live for planning.

Thank you if you've stuck with me ... those of you who are closest to me know I'm going through a lot of changes right now and it's both really fun and exiting and really overwhelming at the same time. :)

So, I'll get some pics ready and resume my regular schedule tomorrow.

This one's for you, PattyO!

Yes, I'm alive! I'm doing pretty well, actually. It's just been an incredibly busy start to February. With Punxsutawney, my birthday, friends, family, fun, work, boys and another half-month of traveling, I hadn't thought much about it lately.

But I will develop some sort of update in the next couple of days. I'm at my parents' house right now just trying to get a show together before 2 p.m.! I'm a slacker. Big time.

You're pretty good for a quadraped

We're hours away from Phil Fest '08.

Expect pics and stories from Gobbler's Knob, the ISDA and Denny's Beer Barrel Pub!!

Maybe even ... live team updates.