You see, the first part of my Wednesday was awful. I won’t get into details as it’s work related, but I will say that in my line of work, I encounter people every day who are less than happy with something. It’s part of the job and it’s really no problem, because most of the time both parts are able to keep it at a reasonable and polite level. I really don’t mind angry people. What I do mind is people who are unreasonable and rude, and yesterday I got them by the bucket load. I was yelled at and called names, one costumer after the next. A few once in a while I can brush off, no problem, but when you get a good handful in a day, it wears you down quite a bit. By the time I got home, I was ready to slip into my sweats and take a nap.

I look like poo today, so you get a photo of my sister and the dog instead ;)

BUT! I noticed that I had received an invitation to the re-opening of a Lindex store nearby, and decided to grab Maren and check it out. There were promises of pretty clothes to look at and a musician to listen to, so I figured, why not? When I got there, it turned out to be a much fancier event than expected – first of all, there was a guest list. And it turned out, I was not on it. It turned out to not be much of a problem, someone was asked and I was let in. I later remembered that I received the invitation through my blog’s email address, and that my last name can’t be found anywhere my blog. I can’t blame them for not putting down “Maja the Piranha” on the list ;)

Anyway, the event was nice – there were nice clothes and music by Magnet, little canapés to nibble on and free champagne. I felt a little confused  as to why I was invited, but hey, no complaints here. Big thanks to Mammadamen who invited me! Oh and when we left, we each got a little goodie bag containing sunglasses, a scarf, moisturizer, makeup remover and some product samples. Maren and I went to look at bikinis afterward – I highly recommend doing this after three glasses of champagne, by the way, it makes the who thing a lot more pleasant!

Today I feel much better, thank goodness. Work has been back to it’s usual level of pleasantness, and I’m on my way to check out Maren’s wedding dress! I wish I could promise you photos of it, but I’m not allowed to post any photos until after the wedding day in October ;)

Image linked to source

While in reality.. Oh god, I can’t believe I’m showing you this:

Now, I can explain the burned bits. It’s the first time I’m using the oven in this apartment, and it seems to get a bit over-excited. I used to correct temperature, darn it! The wonky shape, however.. That one I can’t explain. One minute they looked fine, the next there had been formed some kind of batter-volcano in each muffin, resulting in wonky growths. Which again explains the uneven frosting-application.

I am going to be the laughingstock of big burly men tomorrow.

Original here.

What a great way to end the workday! It’s too bad I don’t have time to properly dig in to neither the magazines nor the book right now, but I shall do it as soon as I possibly can. I just got home from work (9pm), so I consider myself excused. It is now definitely dinner time, so I have to sign off!

I also have to add published photographer to my resumé, cough cough.

New earrings. I had a gift card left over from Christmas (Thanks sis!) that I had to use, and found these pretties after work yesterday. I went straight back today and got them :)

A rubik’s cube. I don’t know why my workplace wants to hurt me, they must not know how  scared to death I am of any kind of IQ-type game. I can do colors, I can do words, I can hit notes and draw a mean giraffe. Puzzles leave me sweating and angsty. I still haven’t started twisiting it, because once it’s messed up, it will never look this way again, ever.

Nokia sweeties! I guess my job don’t want to hurt me after all. I must say, of all the phone manufacturer sweeties I’ve tasted so far, Nokia’s knocks everyone elses out of the ballpark. If the whole phone thing ever collapses, they should start selling these!

Nokia backpack. Supported by my foot, because I’m classy like that. Only the hallway had proper lighting, shut up.  Notice the lack of huge logos. Love it!

Another freebie – more snow than I’ll ever know what to do with. Spring is right around the corner, right? … Right?!

In other news, we’re going to see our new apartment again tomorrow, and I’ll ask very politely if I can take a few photos to show you. Sunday is contract signing day, and on Tuesday we’re having the first person to come over who might take over the apartment we live in now. Things are moving so fast, I absolutely love it. Only thing left to figure out is who’s available to help us move – we don’t have a car at all, we’re not muscle men, and we have tons of stuff. I have a driver’s license, but I’ve never driven in Bergen before, so that’s out of the question. I have a feeling we’ll have to whip out some serious bribes :)

1. I’ve written two bachelor papers – one on the use of Medusa in art, and one on the land art movement. I didn’t have to write two, I chose to :)

2. I still own a Furby.

3. I hate robots.

4. I used to play the flute and sing in choirs.

5. I hoard perfume, I’ve got way more bottles than I’ll ever empty. I currently switch between Chanel’s Chance and Boss Orange.

6. I LOVE note books.

7. I’ve watched the movie Mean Girls more times than I’d like to admit.

Phew! Ok, on to part two of the post:

Things that appear out of nowhere.

What’s that big black square in the corner..?

I came home one day after work and THIS was in our apartment. I had to give back my borrowed Intuos 3 before Christmas (BIG thanks to my brother-in-law Tom for lending it to me!) and was very sad to see it go. So imagine my surprise when this thing appeared out of nowhere! Marius has decided to pick his drawing hobby back up, so he bought himself this baby without telling me. I’ve been assured that I’ll get to borrow it as often as I want. Whee! <3

Marius, however, has set a few toes outside, which enabled him to get today’s mail. And there was something there, something for me! But first, let me show you a present I got from Sofi of yarrkarping.com last week:

It’s a necklace! Can you see who it is?

It’s Fiskulf!! New readers might not know who the hell Fiskulf is – He was my Siamese Fighting Fish, whom I often blogged about when he was alive. So often, in fact, that he had his own tag! Sofi is the nicest :)

So yes, both mailmen and Swedes in Scotland are awesome. And so is moo.com!

I felt fancy one day before Christmas and ordered my very first business cards! And not any old cards, no – these are 50 cards, each with a different favorite photo from my flickr photostream on the back. I get to be fancy, give away my contact information, and show off my photography at the same time! Delivery was kind of slow, it took three weeks from the cards were shipped until I had them, but I’m willing to let that one slip seeing as they were shipped right before Christmas. The cards weren’t expensive at all (160 NOK if I remember correctly) and the quality is pretty great. Moo.com gets my seal of approval :)

Have a good weekend, everyone! Got any fun plans?

Oh, what a wonderful evening it was! The food was perfect and a walked like a pregnant lady for the rest of the evening. Christmas eve is really one of those evenings where you wish you had four stomachs, à la cow. Without the whole regurgitation part, of course. Everyone got wonderful presents, we listened to Christmas music, and had a really nice time. It is now past 2pm on Christmas morning, and we are getting ready for breakfast. Same procedure as every year, in other words :)

Okay, onto the loot list:

- Money

- Fancy cutlery

- Persepolis on DVD

- A “World’s best sister” mug (Aaaw!)

- Makeup

- Gift cards

- A pretty handbag

- One year subscription for Elle UK (Hooray!)

- Chanel Chance perfume

- Lenore “Cooties” comic book

- A bracelet

- Swiss chocolate

- A polar pulse watch

- Clothes

The pulse watch will really come in handy. I haven’t been much of a gym bunny this winter, partly because of my health, partly because I prefer to stay inside during the dark winter months, and have thus become a bit flabby. No worries though, I’ll sort that out in January! ;)

What about you, did you get what you wanted this Christmas? :)

Cute, right? I’m really happy she liked it!

In other news, I finished all my Christmas shopping today. I had a looong list of things to do, and managed to do everything besides two things – I couldn’t burn a CD full of ebooks for Airam because my CD burner refused to work, and I skipped getting the piggie flu vaccine because I was exhausted by the time I had finished my shopping. Marius and I went out for burgers instead ;)

Oh, and don’t tell Marius, because he’s already fed up with listening to my puppy-talk, but I’ve been dreaming of dogs again. I know exactly what I want now. I present to you:

Toy sized poodle. Black. Adorable! (clicky for source, the photo is taken by Samchou)

I’ve been reading thetoypoodle.com. I’ve watched poodle grooming videos on youtube. I’ve even scouted breeders! Now all together, do this with me – gaze at the photo and sing like Mariah: “All I want for Christmas is yooooooou…”

(Yes, I am very well aware that I can’t have a dog right now. Let a girl dream!)

Fabulous blogger Frk. Speilvendt has an avdent calendar running where she presents a new blogger every day, and today it was my turn! I had told her that I like photography, that I sometimes wish I could be a fat, lazy housecat, and that my favorite song is “Sunburn” by Muse. She then created this adorable little drawing! Cute, no? :)

I really recommend her blog for you Norwegian readers, she’s a great blogger and her advent calendar is one of the cutest I’ve seen in a long time!

December 1st calendar present

December 3rd calendar present

Today my friend Yusela and I went out to eat dinner and catch a movie right after work. We ended up enjoying some Italian food and watching  New Moon. I had a good time – girl nights are always a good thing. At work I’ve been dreaming of black toy poodles (It is time to call it an obsession now), and I’ve been thinking of when the perfect time to get one would be. I figured out summer 2011 would be prefect. Marius will be a university student by then, and will be able to keep an eye on the dog while I’m at work. See, I’ve got it all figured out!

In unrelated news, I am currently wearing two and a half pairs of tights (one pair cut off at the knee, hidden under my skirt) to keep warm and am longing for spring. My dad’s name is the Norwegian word for “bear”, thus I feel I should be allowed to go into hibernation for a month or two. Right? I mean, I’m half bear! I should be building up lard and snoozing in a cave!

I guess that’s what I should wish for for Christmas. A toy poodle and a cave. And permission to sleep through winter :)