11:08 p.m. | 2004-03-08 I�m So Excited I Could, Um, Barf. Like Right Now. It�s been an exciting and barf-inducing day, actually. First off, NewBoss, Colleague, OfficeMateColleague and I did the lunch thing again today. Of course, we invited other people, as we�re wont to do, and only got a �take-out� request as a result. And, we went to a place that has great burgers, pizzas and stuff like that. I was thrilled to find that the special was a half BBQ (beef, pork or chicken) sandwich and pasta salad. Cool. Didn�t know they �did� pasta salad, but hey, it�s all good. Kinda. That pasta salad was the oddest, and most deadly salad I ever attempted. Purple grapes that look like black olives? Two points for creativity but minus four points for not being all that compatible with the other ingredients. And, a thousand negative points for the surprise ingredient of shrimp. I�m allergic. As are many, many folks. If you�re gonna throw shrimp in pasta salad, let folks know. Just like they do at MyFavoriteDeli. Here�s that discovery. (CI:) (Routing around in my salad � also know as �playing with food� � and discovering this shrimp-shaped object. Stabbing such object and pretty much shoving it in Colleague�s face.) What is this? (C:) (Somewhat taken aback.) What? (CI:) Is this shrimp? It looks like shrimp to me. Is it? (C:) Looks like shrimp to me too. (CI:) Dammit! Why do they do that? It�s not uncommon to be allergic to seafood and shellfish. Why didn�t they tell me? (NB:) Oh my god. Did you eat any shrimp? Are you okay? Are you gonna die? Do you have medication or something? What�s gonna happen? Hey you guys� does she look okay? (CI:) I�m fine. I didn�t eat any shrimp and I think it�s frozen as opposed to fresh, so I�m fine. Well, except that I�m not gonna eat anymore of this salad. (NB:) No! No! Give me your plate. It shouldn�t even be near you. Get it away. Lord, my sister-in-law had a seafood reaction just this weekend and we had to take her to the hospital. Are you okay, Cruel-Irony? (CI:) I�m fine. I can feel it but it�s not bad. I�ll be right as rain in a couple of hours. (NB:) OMC, you watch her okay? If she does anything weird� (CI:) Weirder than normal? I mean, how would OMC be able to tell if I�m acting weird. Or unusual? (OMC:) Good point. (NB:) Medically, if something happens, tell me right away. (CI:) Hell, if anything medically weird happens, you�ll all know about it right away. Trust me. I know the signs. My face was �hot� for a while but it went away. No problem. Then, after all that excitement and at the end of the day, YoungerSister picked me up in order to do the car-purchasing thing. You know, that part where we all (YS, YSHusband and LittleNephew) went to dinner, I gave them money and they gave me a �new� car. They really made it easy for me, and it was great having dinner with them. And, I love my �new� car already. However, now I have to deal with smog crap, registration, insurance changes, new parking permits and all kinds of normal car things which involve the StateCarDepartmennt (SCD). It�s nice that you can now make appointments at SCD, but the next one isn�t available for two months. And, if you blink, then it�s three months. However, having an appointment helps. Once you get there, you only have to stand in line for two hours instead of eight or more. If you don�t have an appointment, you might have to come back every day for a week. But, really? I�m just grateful that they made the car-finding-and-purchasing thing easier. Because I�m not good at that. I�m hoping that I�ll have all the paperwork settled within one year. Then, I�m gonna drive that poor car until it quits. Respectfully though. your thoughts? seed flower