There all sorts of messes here and there, all attributed to understaffing and poorly timed vacations. Poop on that. I can only do what I can do and hope that it turns out well.

[sigh]

Now onto an entry that�s like Visa -- everywhere you want to be.

Here are songs that remind me of each year of my life. Please remember that I�m music retarded, so I very well could have not known of a song until way after it was released. For instance, when you tell me that a certain LP was released in 1992 but that I wasn�t stuck on that song until 1994, I�m going to throw things at you.

1st grade � �Gonna Be Startin� Somethin�� by Michael Jackson. Still one of the coolest songs ever for the same reason I thought so then: Mama-say-mama-saw-moo-mock-eww-saw!

2nd grade � �The Greatest Love of All� by Whitney Houston. I have no idea why. I was a weird kid.

3rd grade � �Kokomo� by the Beach Boys and �Locomotion� by Kylie Minogue. Both were my favorites at the skating rink. You had to get out of my way if those songs came on, because my Rainbow Bright skates were ready to roll!

4th grade � Anything from the �Dirty Dancing� soundtrack. I got a walkman for my 8th b-day, and that was the tape I got with it. I still love most of the songs on that tape and vow to illegally download all of those songs to play on repeat once I get high speed Internet in my condo. Lucky for the RIAA, I�m too damn busy to call the cable company, making it difficult to get Internet access at my place.

5th grade � �Hangin� Tough� by the New Kids on the Block. What 9-year-old girl didn�t have a favorite New Kid? Mine was Joe. I was such a dork... A dork with all of their tapes.

6th grade � �Baby Got Back� by Sir Mix-a-lot. My friend Julie�s parents were divorced, so we got to do pretty much everything we wanted to when we were at her house. Don�t freak out Mom and Dad. All that means is that we got to jump on the trampoline a lot, use the stove by ourselves to make Rice-a-roni, play with Black Cats fire crackers, and stay up entirely too late making mix tapes about songs we didn�t understand but thought were funny anyway.

7th grade � �Open Arms� by Bryan Adams. This was a staple at every middle school dance, and who you chose to dance with to this song was important. If you wanted to be boyfriend or girlfriend with someone but hadn�t yet worked an agreement out, this solidified it.

8th grade � �Two Princes� by Spin Doctors. This entire album is still one I enjoy. Unfortunately, all I had was it on tape, and that got trashed when my Honda with a tape deck got totaled. So sad. So very sad.

9th grade � �Jump� by House of Pain. Gotta. Love. It. Yes, even today.

10th grade � �Texas Tornado� by Tracy Lawrence. For some reason I thought this was good country music. I was wrong. Good country music includes bands like Lonestar, not Tracy Lawrence or anything exceptionally twang-y.

Freshman year of college � �1979� by the Smashing Pumpkins. I didn�t like the Smashing Pumpkins, but everyone else did. And because everyone else did, I had to listen to it in the dorms, on MTV, on the radio, and all over campus. Argh.

Sophomore year of college � �Mayonnaise� by the Smashing Pumpkins. I found one SP song that I liked, so I quit listening to the radio, watching MTV, and called the dorm RAs if someone was playing music too loudly to avoid hearing too much of it.

Junior year of college � �Constantinople� by They Might Be Giants. My roommate and I didn�t like anyone else in our dorm, so we set the radio to go off loudly in the middle of the day while we were both out shopping. It took a long time before someone was able to get a key to get into our room to shut it off. All the while, we were at Urban Outfitters and a snow cone shack near UT�s campus. La-la-la.

I don�t remember much after that year and getting out of school. I like Sheryl Crow, most anything produced by Dre (Dre 2001 is one of my favorite CDs), that country band Lonestar, Ben Folds, Ryan Adams, Wilco, the super-cheesy Britney-like pop, and most go-shorty-it�s-your-birthday/rock-yo�-body/it�s-the-freakin�-weekend-about-to-have-me-some-fun/crazy-in-love dance hip-hop that you�d hear on a typical Saturday night at your local club that�s jumpin�-jumpin�.

The weather here has been crazy. Yesterday I was walking toward North Avenue Beach for a volleyball game when the cloud parted and poured on me. Luckily I was right next to this little Thai restaurant I always wanted to try, so I stepped in there and had a very nice dinner of fried tofu and some tofu pad thai while reading an old copy of Reader�s Digest that I�ve been carrying in my backpack since I was a commuter and needed something to read on the train or bus.

From 38 floors up (my office), I have an amazing view of everything surrounding me. All day I�ve watched the clouds change colors and shapes, blowing out to the lake with a speediness that makes me think there�s some major meteorological mojo floating around.

I went to the bakery after 4 p.m. to take advantage of the half-price back sale, and the cashier hypothesized that with the come-and-go rain, the cloud action, and having a 65-degree July, that another war was going to break out.

I, of course, smiled, nodded, grabbed my oatmeal raisin, and then headed outta there.

Right now it�s bright and sunny out, but I hear lightening reverberating from the building beside mine.

I think there�s a stronger chance that a storm�s a-brewin� than another war is a-brewin�. But then again, who am I to discount the cookie-selling cashier?

Oh yes, exciting, exciting! I now have six ChicagoJo readers who have signed up for my Mary Kay mailing list, and someone even put in an order yesterday. Whee!

So if you want a 15% discount off your entire first order and to be added to my list to get free samples and to know when I�m running other sales, email me your name, address, and preferred email address.

If you�re a d-lander woman who owns a business or know someone on the site who is, please leave me a note in my guestbook.

All righty. It�s now after 8:30 and I�m still at work creating PowerPoint presentations like you wouldn�t believe. Goodness.

Someone please take me home, pour a little Calgon in the tub in Hambone�s bathroom, and make me some vegetable curry for dinner.

I would be most grateful.

Back to work I go. Enjoy your evening and wish me well as I trudge through this stuff that needs to be ready by tomorrow a.m. �