So I’ve made my decision to leave the Ocean Group and go back to my passion of working in the food & beverage industry, returning to Dean Foods as the Northeast region’s Marketing Manager.  I’m very excited about the opportunity and getting back into an industry that I find interesting and fun.

That was my biggest problem at Ocean Group and MEDport – I just never got "into" the category and really couldn’t get comfortable enough with it to use all my creative juices.  Now that the company is reorganizing and refocusing after Jeff’s untimely death, they will have an even stronger focus on consumer medical products, and that just isn’t something I want to get deeper into.  My reason for going to the Ocean Group in the first place was the Ocean Group and the business incubator model that they had.  Now they will be MEDport and more closely focus on a more narrow set of products.  Good for the company, bad for my ADHD-like career path…

However, just in case I was feeling any last minute regrets – which I’m not  – I had my decision reaffirmed by nothing less than a…. fortune cookie.  And an eight-month old one none the less!

Back
in November/December when I had to make a decision about leaving Garelick and
what job I was going to take, I happened to have Chinese food for dinner.  It was literally the night before I was going
to make a final decision.  My fortune cookie that night said “Your destiny lies
before you, choose wisely.”  I thought it
was eerily appropriate,  so I kept it. 

Here’s the
REALLY weird part, and what I admit threw me for a little bit of a loop at the
time: the “learn Chinese” word on the backside of the fortune was… “milk”.

No, I’m not kidding.

When
the fortune cookies start speaking to you, you know it is time to do something!

Got a few thoughts that I wanted to express but none of them were worth a full blog entry on their own, so here you go:

• First of all, I have two new candidates for my list of favorite female celebrities (as stated in my earlier post) – I need to find a replacement until Lindsay Lohan stops being so goddamn skinny, gets some curves back and goes back to being a redhead.  The first is Miranda Lambert, yet another drop dead gorgeous country singer that I happened to notice while flipping past CMT this morning.  Every once in a while, it’s worth stopping on that station and hitting "mute."   The second is Natasha Bedingfield, a fairly indistinguishable pop singer that was on MTV or VH1 or whatever.  You know who else is looking hotter and hotter?  Joss Stone. She’s turning into a fine looking young woman.  However, my favorite hot female singer videos out right now are still the latest Mariah Carey (whatever the song is… I don’t really care.  She looks great, especially at the beginning when she’s lying on her back) and the new Kelly Clarkson video "Behind these Hazel Eyes" – I’m likin’ that corset thing that she’s wearing big time.  She’s so damn cute she’s hot.
• Speaking of videos and songs…  am I the only one who thinks that the new R. Kelly song and video  "Trapped in the Closet Part 1 of 5" is absolutely atrocious!?!?  It has to be one of the most boring songs and videos ever created.  God help us if there are actually another 4 parts to come of that crap.
• I had the hiccups this morning.  yeah, I know, how much more exciting can this blog post get, eh?  Hope no one reading this has a heart condition….  anyway, isn’t it amazing how many cures there are for hiccups?  I did a quick Google search for it, and man, there are a LOT of pages out there dedicated to it.  Came across some that I had never heard of before.  I just held my breath for a while and they eventually went away, thank god.  I hate getting the hiccups – I get them really hard and they sometimes hurt.  They are the epitome of annoying and proof that if there is a higher power, he/she/it/them has a sick sense of humor.  If anyone has their own person favorite hiccup remedies, let me know…
• Back to sexy videos… I would like to be the first to congratulate an entire generation of boys on reaching puberty thanks to the new Jessica Simpson video for "The Boots Are Made for Walking" from the Dukes of Hazard movie.  If  they put that on the DVD, it may become the best selling movie of all time…
• What the hell was Trot Nixon thinking/doing last night when he got picked off of second base?!?!?
• Anyone out there get the new Ryan Adams & the Cardnials disc?  I’m looking forward to picking it up and was wondering if it as good as it seems from what I’ve heard so far.
• I just bought my first Terry Pratchett novels and looking forward to starting them.  I gotta finish "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde first, which is very good so far.
• Also tried fried cheese curds for the first time yesterday.  I spent some quality time with my mom, since we were both heading in the same direction and we hadn’t gone and done something just the two of us in a long time – brought back fond memories of running errands with her as a kid – and we went out to lunch.  We figured we’d go completely retro and we went to the A&W drive-in (yeah, they still do car service) in Smithfield.  I had been there before, but don’t remember it was so long ago.  We had some cheeseburgers and I had to try the cheese curds.  They were pretty good – taste like mozzarella sticks, but made with a mild cheddar.
• Lastly, I’m totally crazy about the latest Weezer song "Beverly Hills" – I first heard it a few months ago during my trip to LA, and now it’s getting all sorts of play on XM radio
• OK, I lied… one more… if you’re still debating whether to get XM radio, do it… you can now get a receiver for $49.00!

So I haven’t had much time lately for many posts.  I returned from a trip to Los Angeles and actually had almost an entire LONG post written up here, and then I accidentally closed the window, losing about an hour’s worth of work.  That resulted in two observations: 1) Is it THAT hard to put a little bit of programming on the web page that asks you if you’re sure you want to close it? TypePad may want to consider that.  and 2) I will never write a long post in the browser again.  That same post was re-started in a Word document and is saved on my computer waiting for me to finish it.  So be watching for that.

In the meantime, I have to vent about something.  Lately, I’ve been noticing a LOT of apostrophe usage errors, and it is driving me nuts!  The biggest error I have been seeing is a lot errors around using an apostrophe to indicate plurality.  You DO NOT use an apostrophe to indicate more than one of ANYTHING.  Never! Ever!  See this web page for further explanation: http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

Thank you… and remember to practice safe punctuation.

These are my favorite female celebrities, not necessarily in perfect order.  This is NOT based on any sort of talent, but rather on their "natural abilities."  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

1. Rachel Ray
2. Jewel
3. Kelly Clarkson
4. Sarah Michelle Gellar
5. Reese Witherspoon
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. Mandy Moore
8. Kirsten Dunst
9. Scarlett Johansson
10. Dido

So all of us here in the office were trying to figure out a date that we could all go out together for drinks, since our plans for tonight are quickly falling apart.  The idea of doing it Monday after work was mentioned and Jen (who I have a feeling will get quoted here again at some point) says "But Monday might suck, since its the day after Easter and we’ll all be hung over and stuff."

Easter. Hung-over.  Not necessarily two words I put together, but hey, whatever works.  That’s funniest thing I’ve heard since John’s comment about the Libery Bell in Philly (See below).