Fish Fridays

In celebration of the second to last Friday of Lent (and being able to get out of the office to grab lunch), I did what any good Catholic girl would do and headed straight to McDonald's for a delicious Filet-O-Fish. Truth be told – and since the picture is going to incriminate me anyway – I went full throttle and ordered a #13. Terrible, I know, but Lent really isn't fully celebrated unless a Filet-O-Fish is involved, and who am I to get in the way of tradition?

A few years ago I heard that the FOF is actually one of the least healthy items at McDonald's. After a little further investigating (post-lunch, clearly) I had my info. And it wasn't pretty. The FOF weighs in at a whopping 380 calories. HOWEVER, of the 30 sandwiches listed online, the FOF was the 11th healthiest option, with the Angus Bacon & Cheese bringing up the rear (the pant-splittin' rear) with a diet-obliterating 790 calories. And you know nobody orders that one with a Diet Coke. 

Just a little more Catholocism/Filet-O-Fish 101 to share at your next cocktail party...The Filet-O-Fish was introduced in 1963 in response to declining sales at restaurants because of the Catholic practice of not eating meat on Fridays. Today, nearly 25% of all Filet-O-Fish sales occur in the 40 days of Lent. 

File this one under Catholocism, Fast Food Nation, and I know who needs to work-out this weekend!

Tuna and Orkin

Two blogs in row about work-related stuff is actually very appropriate, seeing as my life is currently being held hostage by my job – a new business pitch for tuna (shh! top secret!) and boatloads of Orkin research, to be specific. I literally sat in the same conference room from noon until 8:30pm tonight talking about tuna (okay, I left for 2 bathroom breaks, one 20 minute meeting elsewhere, and one pretzel run). What could there possibly be to discuss about tuna for 8.5 hours, you ask? You have no idea. Companies do an insane amount of research to "get to know their consumers" (i.e. profile the heck out of them so crazies like me know how to position said brand's product(s) so consumers BUY BUY BUY!). Hmm. That doesn't really make my job sound super moral does it? Rebuttal: MD Anderson. Another one of my clients. The number one cancer hospital in the country. Total rock stars. "Making Cancer History." Now I will rest my sleepy little, not-guilty-feeling head. Night night!

Synesthesia

My history with interns isn’t the best (shout out, Llama!). I usually get annoyed that they can’t do what I ask them to do correctly, and I waste time trying to explain what I need when really it would be faster do just do it myself. A real nurturer and teacher, I am.

But that’s not really the point of this story. Every couple weeks an intern does what we’ve so brilliantly named “an intern presentation.” During this presentation they’re supposed to tell us something about themselves and relate it back to account planning (the job they're aspiring to get). The presentation today was totally nuts. Not the presentation itself – as they sometimes are – but the subject. This girl, Laura, has what’s called synesthesia. I don’t even know how to begin to explain it, so I’m depending on the ever-trusty Wikipedia definition:

Synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.

Apparently there are several different variations of synesthesia, but in Laura’s case, letters and numbers are perceived as colors. As in every number and every letter in the alphabet is inextricably linked in her mind to a specific color. So when she spells her name, she sees color for every individual letter. And those colors never change. So to her, L is a specific hue of brown, A is lavendar, etc. The visual she used (which, interesting enough, is also straight from Wikipedia) was this: 

Just the way every letter and number is a different color, that's the way she thinks about letters and numbers. ALL THE TIME! But her colors would be completely unique when compared with another synesthete's. Does this make sense at all? This is soo hard to explain. And so incredibly strange. 

Here’s another example. There was a Mad Men poster in the conference room we were in (disclaimer: we’re not trying to act like we’re Sterling Cooper, AMC is just one of our clients). If you’re not familiar with Mad Men posters (and why would you be?), I’ll provide a little visual for reference. The colors in it are very clearly red, black, and white. Someone asked Laura what colors she saw when she looked at the poster, and although she sees that the colors are red, black, and white, she also sees yellow (for the M), lavendar (for the A…remember, just like in her name), etc. etc. etc. 

Is this not the most bizarre thing you’ve ever heard? We were all sitting there, completely dumbfounded, so I’m nearly positive this isn’t going to translate in writing. But I had to write about it anyway.

Next step? Read Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. Totally intriguing.

Week(end) Nine

I'm on a mission to go to sleep relatively early this week, which means a quick post tonight. Notable end-of-week/weekend highlights:

1. Wore a dress of Lizzi's to work on Thursday. Came home, and she wanted to know why I had her dress on backwards. Fail.
2. Dinner at Dish Friday night. Ordered the Pear-tini; one part alcohol, 19 parts sugar. Have got to stop ordering weird things at restaurants (but I won't). 
3. Late-night drinks at Sangria. A guy who works there is in love with a girl we were with. Seven pitchers of really awesome sangria, one could-have-done-without shot, and one cheese board later we only had to pay ten bucks. Thanks, Lauren!
4. Housework on Saturday. Still trying help Mom get boxes out of the garage, stuff to Anne's, etc. Covered Anne's newly planted flowers with a tarp and kitchen forks since she didn't have any gardening forks (it was quite a sight).
5. Snow in Dallas. Again. CrAZy. Seems to me this flies in the face of Global Warming, but according to my mom, scientists say weird weather (like this) is actually further proof. Could be.
6. Bought a very Anthropology-ish white wash wine rack with two birds on top at Pier One. Pretty exciting.
7. Did some work (Go Tuna! Go Orkin!).
8. Made some progress on the "Explore Austin" front (code language, what?!?).
9. Got to bed by midnight-ish. Not so early after all.  

Is YOUR middle name Sullivan?

Every year there’s a giant parade in Dallas on the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day. I can’t say I’ve ever made it to the parade itself (I hear it’s really fun), but I’m all about the house parties in the surrounding M-streets. This year we made it a family affair and headed out for a day ‘o fun.

Over the course of the day, mimosas were consumed, bounce houses were used (and subsequently deflated), games were played, new friends were made, old friends were found, Chuy’s was devoured, and maybe best of all, words were had with Lizzi’s terrible excuse for an ex (it's okay for me to say that because Lizzi agrees).

There are few people on this planet I dislike with the passion with which I dislike Jonasty (Jonas for short, Jonasty for accuracy), and nothing so fun as Anne and I lashing into him without our usual filters. Lord help that man boy. He needs it.

All in all, a fun-fun day, and an early-early night.

Precious Cargo

Hellllooooo, Baby Jack! Have you gotten even cuter since my last update? Is that even possible? Isn’t this pic the cutest? Stacy took it today on Jack’s first plane ride! I haven’t seen him in, I think, three weeks and he looks SO different it’s nuts. Adorable much? Mmmm...yeah.