Absolut Margie

downer

2011-07-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

I know the only person who reads this already knows, but for anyone who stumbles in here by accident: My mom died suddenly last week from an anuerism that exploded deep in her brain and immediately destroyed her entire upper brain.

I know that she's in a better place, and I'm actually doing pretty well, but this has had a surprising side effect on me. Well, maybe not so surprising when I think about it. I'm lonely.

You see, it's like this: when my last boyfriend dumped me, part of the reason was that I had gained some weight and he thought I was going to end up like my mom, who weighed over 350 lbs, was wheelchair bound, had type 2 diabetes, arthritis, severe kidney disease, etc. This has been a fear that every guy I've ever dated has expressed. When my brother died, I did put on some weight, and when I got dumped, I basically decided that there was no reason to even try because I obviously have such a horrible personality that I'm only desirable if I have an hourglass figure. I essentially decided that I have a fabulous family and school to worry about, so I would forget about dating and marraige and just be here. I then proceeded to put on a lot more weight. (Not as much as mom, though.)

Now that Mom's dead, I guess it's made me realize that my family won't be here forever. Dad will die, Ethan will grow up and move away, and who knows what Josh will do. OK, he might be here forever. :) I mean, I knew all this intellectually, but they were concerns for the distant future, not something to worry about. Suddenly, I feel like getting myself in order and finding someone. Not that I've had any success in the past, but still. Maybe if I start dieting and working out, I can be attractive again by the time I graduate. It actually makes me pretty angry that I apparently have to work like a dog to get something that almost everyone in the U.S. gets like 15 years+ before me, and that I just have to acknowledge the fact that no man will ever love me unless I'm hot. *sigh*

In other news, I got on facebook against all expectation. I just got friended by a guy who I totally thought was gay. Apparently he has a girlfriend! Weird. Maybe she's a beard.

No homework!

2011-05-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well the semester has come to an end and I came out with 3 A's and a B, raising my overall GPA to 3.0. Considering how in the tank my GPA was after my drinking years, I'm pretty pleased with that. I was very surprised about the B because it was in Art History and I was expecting a C.

In other news, I have developed a nasty growth. I'm exaggerating. The 5 year old girl from next door has taken a liking to me and now comes over every single day. It wouldn't be that big a deal, but my dad HATES having people in our house and insists that I hover over her every single second that she's here, and if I don't jump on her fast enough when she does something he wouldn't like, he yells at her (literally) and gets upset with me. So it leaves me feeling like I have a particularly ill behaved small child and gets me all irritated. I wish that there were any little kids in our neighborhood for her to play with. Or, I wish that my dad weren't so angry. Either would work, really. Plus, my dad worries that she's going to bring her hoodlum 17 year old brother over, which I don't see happening, but whatever.

Ethan's favorite YM advisor got released, so Ethan is totally bummed. But then he got called to be our home teacher, so that's cool. But Ethan only wanted to go to scout camp because he likes that guy, so now he's trying to weasel out of it. It's not going to work. His dad is also sending him to EFY, so that should be exciting.

Well, my cat has decided that he simply MUST take a bath between me and my computer, so this is growing difficult. Hasta!

Lady Fortune Smiles

2011-05-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

All my life, I have never been a winner. As a kid, I was always a finalist in the TWU wildflower art competition, but never took the big prize. As an adult, the best thing I ever won was a giant inflatable hot dog, which I immediately gave away. Suddenly, the tide seems to be changing. Last month, my technical editing teacher said that a few of us needed to go to the grad school expo and collect brochures. I was one person chosen to go, and of course, when I went, I entered the door prize competition. A couple of weeks later I got an email that I had won a free meal at McAllister's. I don't care for McAllister's cause I think it's too expensive, but if it's free, hey, it's free! So that's cool, but not world changing.

A couple of weeks ago, I randomly decided to go to Recycled Books and Records, and they said that since I spent over $20 I could enter a drawing for a $75 gift certificate. Today I got a call that I won! Now THAT'S a prize I'm on board with!

I can't help but wonder if the universe has been saving up all my luck for now. I could certainly handle winning some design competitions while I'm in school cause that would really help when it comes to job seeking. In technical editing, we've been split into groups and we had to design a brochure, poster, and give away item promoting the technical writing and linguistic department, and the best one is going to be used by the school. Tuesday we're presenting our design to the committee. Keep your fingers crossed for THAT win!

Comm Design and Me

2011-04-20T16:20:00.001-07:00

I am taking my first class in the communication design program, which is called design thinking. I'm learning a lot, and that's good, but I am having some problems. The biggest problem is that it's a pretty exclusive program. I know that doesn't sound like a problem, but the thing is...well, I know it sounds egotistical, but I'm pretty used to being one of the most talented people in the class as far as art classes art concerned. In this class I am not amongst the best. I am pretty mediocre actually. It's pretty rough on my ego, and it has me questioning if I have any real talent for this stuff. But, we're only finishing the first project, so I definitely won't do anything drastic until I've gotten a few more projects under my belt. It's just got me feeling discouraged, but I'll get over it. To top it off, in my technical editing class, I was designing a brochure, poster, and mouse pad for a group project and this other guy decided to help, and whipped up a design that was way better than mine. *sigh* Maybe I should just quit and open up a cupcake bakery. :)

Winter!

2011-02-04T12:23:00.001-08:00

I guarantee that anyone reading this post is already well aware that a veritable blizzard has cause the entire North Texas area to come to a complete standstill this week, but I would be negligent if I didn't comment on how this crazy weather has affected me and mine, so here I go. Both my school and Ethan's school have been cancelled since Tuesday, so we've all been home. What a great time to catch up or even get ahead on school work, right?!? Well, no. I spent the first few days mostly sleeping because the extreme cold caused my arthritis to flare up and I got such a bad crick in my neck that I could barely move my right arm and was in extreme pain with every movement, or sometimes even when I took a breath. It started Monday night, and when I woke up Tuesday morning to make sure Ethan's school was cancelled I was literally writhing in pain. I took two ibuprofen, which didn't even touch it, so I ended up waking up my parents to beg for a prescription pain killer. (I know, it's illegal, but seriously, you have that kind of pain and see what you'll do!) They handed me a bottle in the darkened room, I took a pill and ate a slice of bread to avoid stomach problems and went mack to bed. Before long, I was dead to the world. Even when I eventually woke up, I was still groggy. It turned out that they gave me Oxycontin, famed the world over for being awesomely addictive. I don't see how anyone could get addicted to it, cause I would never be able to get anything done! I took more of the fabulous stuff the next two nights until my crick finally subsided to the point that I can function. Now if it acts up (which it does when I make dinner) ibuprofen does the job nicely.

Our hot water has been frozen since day one of this situation, which means no shower. Eww. I am so gross it's not even funny. On top of that, I needed to do laundry going in, so I've been dirty and wearing dirty clothes to boot. Just one hour ago our hot water started flowing in every room except my parent's bathroom, so I quickly put a load of laundry on and as soon as it's in the dryer I will be in the shower until the hot water is gone! I also set Ethan on the dishes, much to his dismay, but I think he can cope. Oh, shampoo, how I long for your sweet embrace!

Dad and I went to the store on Wednesday (which did not help my crick one bit). Dad worked for the phone company for over 30 years, which means that he had to work no matter what the weather was and has tons of experience driving in crappy crap. Man, I've never seen such thick layers of ice in all my days! In the store parking lot, the ice was literally an inch and a half thick, and solid as could be. And very slippery. Fortunately I have huge snowshoe-like feet that keep me stable under most circumstances. I did slip a little at one point, but didn't fall, thank heavens. I think if I had, my spine would have staged a rebellion and left for warmer climes.

I'm supposed to have a test in my Design Thinking class on Monday, and I don't know if my teacher is going to postpone it or if she's going to say, "Hey, we already covered everything in class, so you should be ready!" I really need to start practicing my illustrator skills, since this is the first class of my major and all. My art history teacher has postponed the due date of our assignment, so yay for him! Anyhoo. My video games aren't gonna play themselves...wait, is the washer finished? Gotta go!

Back to School

2011-01-17T21:55:00.001-08:00

It is 11:55, Monday night and tomorrow morning I am going back to school. For anyone who didn't hear my screams of excitement, I did get into the design program. I keep meaning to take pictures of the pieces I used, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I will soon, I promise! The problem is the light is crap in my house, so I have to take them elsewhere for the shoot or they turn out all pixelated. But, just so you know, I did some work on the hand one and the leafy still life and used those for the drawing choices. I also made some changes to the collage and used it, but I did not use the black with white spots. I got to looking through my grade sheets and realized that I had a black and white piece that was better, so I did a little work on it and used it. I'll show you next time.

Sadly, I didn't respond to the email telling me that I had gotten in quickly enough, so I got stuck in the 8 am class! This sucks partly because I am not a morning person, and they are going to expect me to be awake for a class called "Design Thinking" at time of day when I generally don't do any thinking. It also sucks because my son doesn't have to be at school until 8:15 and there is no bus service to our house. So my dad, who is also not a morning person will have to take him to school three days a week. Which he will probably lord over my head anytime he wants me to do anything. lol.

Since I am now a comm design major AND an English major, I am taking two art classes and two English classes. I think my brain will probably explode.

Also, Ethan had a cold last week, which he generously shared with me, so I get to start school with an annoying head cold. Thankfully his didn't last too long.

Avoidance and procrastination

2010-12-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

You'd think that I would have learned by now. I mean, I am a full-on grown up. Meaning in age of course, not lifestyle, heaven forbid. :) So I am up to my old habits. They got me through high school, so apparently I've decided to stick with them. I'm referring to my study habits.

You see, I fully believe in putting off till tomorrow what I should be doing today. As a result of this, I am sitting here at 12:46 in the morning, blogging about how I'm probably going to fail my anthropology lab final tomorrow. I knew it was coming for half the semester. I went to a review on Friday. Then...I waited until almost 9 tonight to start studying. And this is some hard crap, too, not stuff you can fit in your head at the last minute. I have to learn all the primate taxonomy and the evolutionary steps of primates from the Miocene down to yours truly. I also have to be able to identify and justify my ID of skulls of various evolutionary stepping stones. Yeah. I am so screwed. This stuff is hard. *pout* And boring. And the book doesn't explain it very well. *pout pout* I hates it.

But, in other news, my mom's kidney doctor told her that if she didn't start eating a diabetes friendly diet she would be on dialysis within 2 years. So, she's quit sugar cold turkey, and man is she going through some major detox. Yesterday she had a massive headache that she couldn't get rid of. But, I for one am glad, because dad has vowed to support her in this and has stopped bringing home goodies every other day. Seriously, he would make special trips to the store every two days for cookies or donuts. So now maybe Ethan and I can benefit from the ebb of the sugar tide. I have noticed our families' orange consumption has increased dramatically. :D

I wonder if I should keep studying or call it a lost cause?

Jury-time

2010-11-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

In order to get into the communication design program, I have to be accepted by a jury one month from now. What this means is I have to jump through their hoops or drop out of school and turn to prostitution for my career. They only do the jury once a year, so if I don't get in I have to wait another year or change my major. According to my professor, about 200 people will be applying and about 40-60 will get in. Yikes! So I want some help picking my pictures. I can only submit two design oriented pictures and two drawing oriented pictures. Below I will tell you the requirements and present you with my options.

Design:

2 examples of 2-D design that demonstrates the following compositional skills: (one must be in black and white or grey scale, the other must be in color.)

a. Submit work that demonstrates your understanding of figure/ground;

b. Submit work that demonstrates your understanding of the principles of visual gestalt (repetition, similarity, proximity, closure, and continuity);

c. Submit work that demonstrates your understanding of asymmetrical compositional structure (this must be demonstrated in at least one of the two pieces);

d. Submit work that demonstrates a knowledge of color manipulation as it applies to a pattern-effectively apply two or more of the following formal attributes of color:
1. value (how light or dark a specific area of color or gray appears);
2. amount (the areas within a given compositional space occupied by a specific color);
3. saturation (how pure or grayed-down a specific area of color appears);
4. complementary contrast (the relationship between colors opposite each other on the color wheel).

For the black and white one, I'm choosing a piece that the head of the design department was ga-ga over. She even showed it to the class in lecture and asked me questions about it. I know, right!
Obviously, this one will cover the need for an asymmetrical design as well.

In my class, we really didn't do many color pieces, and several of them were 3-D, so I can't use them. I figure my only choice is this one:

It's a collage, and it's not really my favorite piece of all time, but it's color, so what can ya do? My teacher didn't like the tile pieces at the bottom, so I'm going to pull them off and replace them with broken brown root beer bottles. It's either that or make something new. So yeah. Drawing is where I'm having the hard time, so here we go.

Drawing

2 examples of drawing that demonstrate skills chosen from the following list: (these pieces must not be renderings based on photography, nor can they be products of your imagination--they must be depictions of real-life situations)

a. Submit work that demonstrates your understanding and ability to render perspective: one-point perspective, atmospheric perspective, or two-point perspective are all acceptable.

b. Submit work that demonstrates your understanding of value through your rendering of still-life.

c. Submit work that demonstrates your abilities to render the human figure--nude figures are preferred as subject matter but not required.

So, I think that for the figure drawing one I'll use this picture of my mom's hand:

I'm not sure if they consider this figure drawing, but the hand IS the hardest part of the body to draw, so it should count, right?

Another option is this one for value:

OR, if we can count a drapery as a still life, I could use this one:

Is a drapery a still life? I just don't know!

And I could use this one for atmospheric perspective:

For that last one, I feel like I need to sharpen up the lines, cause I think they got smudged in storage. It's more confusing on the computer than in real life. And, I got a 98 on this one, so apparently it's pretty dang good, so I think I might go with this one and the hand one. What's your opinion?

Dilemmons

2010-10-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

(I was making a pun about dilemmas combined with lemons in case you didn't get it.)

This week I was thrown a major curve in my educational expectations. I was expecting to get into the Comm Design program and then take the classes as fast as I can to graduate in 2012. Then my comm design professor was talking about registration and told us that we can only take the classes in the order they allow us to take them. Meaning next semester I can only take one comm design class, the semester after that I can only take two, etc, etc. There are several problems with this. I have already taken all of my core classes and am nearing the hours cap at which you lose financial aid. So my choices seemed to be either take one or two classes a semester and not get financial aid anyway, change to an interdisciplinary degree which would let me graduate sooner but not teach me the things I want to learn, or switch to a double major and the hour cap requirements magically disappear.

So I went to talk to the technical writing advisor about getting a degree in technical writing. I found out that they only have a minor in technical writing which doesn't get rid of the hour cap. They have applied for a degree in technical writing, but it won't be in place until 2012 which doesn't help me at all. So I had to make an appointment with the English advisor.

I went to see the English advisor and told her my problem. She told me what classes I would need to be an English major specializing in technical writing, and it seems alright. I'll have to take 24 hours of English classes, which I don't think is that bad, considering that some of them I've already taken. The problem is that the core requirements for an English major are more rigorous than for an art major, and I'll need to take 6 hours of an intermediate foreign language.

I have taken 6 hours of beginning Japanese, and 3 hours of beginning Spanish. The problem is I took them over a decade ago. Now I love Japanese, but I have known Japanese people who were forgetting it because it's such a freaking hard language. There is no way I remember enough to jump into intermediate Japanese. The problem with Spanish is...I hate Spanish. I don't know why. I know that it's super useful in this area and it would be a really good idea to know it, but I took it in junior high and I took it in college and my mind rebels because I simply don't give a crap.

So it seems like my choices are: 1) Tell my brain to suck it up and take Spanish. 2) Try to get some at home remembering on my Japanese skills and jump into the deep end. 3) Start over with beginning Japanese and just retake those two classes. 4) Say screw it, if I'm gonna have to take two beginning classes, I might as well learn a new one. I've always wanted to learn French, so maybe I could learn to be a cheese eating surrender monkey.

*sigh* I keep vacillating. See, now that I'm an English major I have to remember to use big words. :) What to do, what to do.

cough cough cough

2010-10-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

That's the noise that has been pervading my house for almost two months, now. About 7 or 8 weeks ago, Ethan got a really really bad cough. His fever never went over 100, and it was very short lived, but he was waking up in the middle of the night coughing so hard that he wouldn't be able to breath, and sometimes threw up. He gave himself a really bad nose bleed a few times, too. So I took him to the doctor and she gave him an inhaler, which I still say was bollocks. (I've been watching British TV again.) Needless to say, he really didn't get any better, but I figured it was allergies. About a week after, I started. I never threw up or got a nose bleed, but I did feel sick to my stomach and got really achy and had a really hard time getting air after I coughed. A few days later, Josh set in, then Mom and Dad. We all fell like dominoes.

Time passed, an we didn't get any better. Dad got so bad that his doctor thought he had pneumonia and did an x-ray. (I know that it's supposed to be A x-ray, but it doesn't sound right!) He did not have pneumonia, but the doctor gave him antibiotics and sent home samples for me. The antibiotics helped me to not feel like dying, but not by much. I still was coughing up a lung every time I moved, talked, laughed, or took a breath, except now I was in school doing it. I skipped nursery once when I was at the peak, but I couldn't miss school, so I sucked Fisherman's Friends cough drops, which have so much menthol that they might have stripped my nasal passages but were the only thing that helped. I also stayed dosed on rotating over the counter drugs which did little, but made it so I could stay awake for the most part. Assuming that all this was horrible, horrible allergies since it just wasn't going away, we all went on with our lives and tried to make the best of it.

So one day this week, mom was at one of her doctor's (she has so many I can't possibly be expected to keep track), and he said it sounds like she has Pertussis, better known as whooping cough. She went home and looked it up, and sure enough, it sounds like that's EXACTLY what we all have! Whooping cough! Who woulda thought?!? You see, whooping cough last 6+weeks, plus some time before the symptoms actually start which is when you are contagious. Sadly, that's the only time treatment works. Isn't that lame? You have to take a really strong antibiotic, like Z-Pac, before you even know you have it or you are completely screwed. Also, that's the only time they can do tests to prove it's whooping cough. After that, you just have to make an educated guess. So, after the few weeks of being contagious, and 6+ weeks of actively feeling like you might lose a lung at any moment, you have several more weeks of convalescence, where you aren't coughing quite so bad, but you still have something of a cough. That's where Ethan, Josh and I are right now. Dad might be too, and mom might have just barely finally broken the barrier. It seems the name doesn't come from the sound of the cough like I thought, but rather the voracious sucking sound you make after you cough cause it's hard to get air back into your lungs. Weird, huh?

So, Margie, whooping cough? Really? Isn't that wiped out like polio? Didn't you get vaccinated, they seemed to say. That's exactly what my reaction was! Here's the dealio, the Pertussis vaccine isn't one of those that you get and you're set for life like the Polio vaccine, it's one that you have to keep getting, like the tetanus vaccine. And they really only give it to babies cause they invariably die if they get whooping cough, which is generally considered a bad outcome. So. Who knew?!?

In other news, my life has pretty much returned to normal on the romance front. No more singing Lotharios, no more guys wanting to get to know me, and my lab teacher used the 'my girlfriend' phrase. :( Today in class when he was talking I was mentally going, "How YOU doing?" And then I realized it was because he was wearing a sweater. Any men that might read this in hopes of winning me, just put on a sweater. It works every time for some reason. I guess it's good that I don't live someplace cold, I'd probably be a major slut. My classmates are still friendly, though, so that's something. Today when I was talking to a guy in my technical writing class, I laughed so hard I snorted, and he was like, "did you just snort?" I said, "Yeah, I do that, it's embarrassing." He said, "I think it's cute!" He later also used the girlfriend word, so don't get excited or anything. Strangely, they only people that I don't seem to hit it off with are the people in my art classes. It might be because, in my experience, artist are assholes. And the ones in my intro to comm design class all seem so young and ego centric, I just find them terribly annoying. Hopefully that won't be a problem as time goes on.

Well, I have tons of homework, so I better blow this Popsicle stand. Laters!

Alternate Dimension, maybe?

2010-09-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Something very weird is going on in my life. All of the sudden people like me. I have no idea what's going on and I'm not sure that I like it. In all my classes, people have been striking up conversations with me left and right. I've been thinking that it might be my new haircut, which I don't have a picture of, but I'll take one and post it asap. It's curlier and every single person that I've known for more than a few weeks has commented on how much they like it.

Also, as far as men are concerned, I am on fire. I have truly not been thinking about dating because I've figured that that men don't like me when I'm fat, so why bother. So I've been concentrating on school and figured that my love life would work it's way out somewhere down the line. Then I started school, and developed a tiny crush on my anthropology lab instructor. He's shorter than me by about an inch, and he's pretty heavy, and he only wears shorts, button up shirts and flip flops as far as I can tell (he actually said in class he doesn't own any pants!), but he's kinda cute and very funny. Plus since he's an anthropology grad student, he's smart. And he has cute dimples. So the other day in class, I was working in a group (yeah, some more of those people that have taken to me, inexplicably) and I told this story: I said, "I was watching Bones the other day, and they said the girl had a cut below her mental foramens, and I was like, I know where that is!" Cause that's the stuff we learned in the first lab. Now I was just telling my group, but I noticed that the instructor, who was all the way across the room was looking at me and started laughing. Then, when I went for him to check my work, after he signed off, he kinda looked at me out of the side of his eyes, smiled a cute little smile and said, "Don't believe ANYTHING you hear on bones." I said, "Oh, I don't!" And we both laughed. It seemed very flirty to me. So all day I was mulling that over, and at the end of the day when I was walking to my car, a guy with ear buds in his ears came up next to me, tapped on the arm, and when I looked at him, he started singing about how he wanted my body! I actually laughed out loud I was so surprised. He went on for several verses, looking right at me and doing little hand motions that matched the words. Eventually of course, we went our separate ways, but I was smiling ear to ear all the way home!

Now, I would say I was just having a good day that day or something, but there's more. Back in July, I was bored and saw a commercial for eHarmony saying that you could try it for free for the week and I signed up. Half way through signing up, I got annoyed with myself cause I really don't care to meet anyone on eHarmony, but I had already started, so ya know. Also, online dating stuff makes me into a crazy person. But, I figured, might as well leave it for the free week. By the next day, a guy was wanting to communicate with me, but I had to subscribe to do that, so I figured I would subscribe for the shortest commitment and then cancel before the renewal. That guy mentioned 5 times in his profile how important a woman's physical appearance is, so I said hasta, dude. After I uploaded my photo, nobody wanted to communicate with me, so I've been pretty much ignoring the matches they sent me. Then out of the blue, yesterday and today I got emails that TWO guys wanted to get to know me! I was astonished! *sigh* Now I'll get all excited about guys liking me and they'll stop again. That's always the way it works. :)

Unbelievable

2010-09-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

All the anguish was for nothing, NOTHING, I tell you! I went to the church with Ethan, and it turns out that I was LITERALLY the only parent there. Not only that, but most of the kids were in jeans and some even wore shorts. So I was in there for opening exercises feeling very out of place, not to mention the splitting migraine I had which my drugs weren't working on yet, and I decided that after opening exercises I would split and go to the foyer and read my book. Then, they counted off for groups to go to the different activities in different rooms, and they put me and Ethan into different groups. Okay, how retarded is that? Parents, come with your kids so that you can do activities with other people's kids. I don't think so. I beat it, post haste. In conclusion, youth activities a dumb. :)

Standards

2010-09-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

I am most grievous troubled by a dilemma that has been placed before me. Sunday the scout master and assistant scout master came up and told me that this Wednesday is Standard's night and parents are invited to attend. For anyone who doesn't know what that means who might happen across my blog, once a year for the Wednesday night youth activity, they get to listen to talks all night about standards and how to uphold them. I had to sit through this once a year every year from the age of 12 to the age of 18. Now that my son is 13 (cause I didn't hear about the one when he was 12), they want me to come sit through this snooze fest again, only now that I'm the parent, I'm supposed to act all enthusiastic and supportive to be a good example to my son. I seriously do not want to go. Add to the boring factor the fact that I work from 9-3:45 on Wednesday, then have class till 5:30 and get home basically in time to fix dinner, scarf dinner, change clothes and get up there, and this is not high on my list of fun things to do. (Now I know that since neither one of my parents work and they are at home all day doing nothing except reading, watching TV, or playing video games, it would seem like they could make dinner. In my experience, this seldom happens. Mostly because they stay up all night then don't get up till 12-3 pm. They then eat, and don't get hungry again until around 8 or 9.)

So here's the big dilemma: They aren't requiring church dress for this, just no shorts. Ethan only has church clothes and shorts. Seriously, he has no pants other than his suit pants. I can't afford to run out and buy him clothes. Mom suggested he wear his church pants and a polo shirt. Which is another thing he doesn't have. Now if it were me and Ethan living by ourselves, I would just skip the whole thing and be done with it, but I know my parents are going to give me crap if I do. Like, I'm supposed to "teach Ethan what's important" and crap like that. *sigh* I dunno.

Cinnamon day!

2010-09-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

Lately my friend has been posting about yummy food everyday as she quests to avoid eating chocolate, which has been hilarious, but has also been giving me the munchies real bad. Add to that the fact that I'm re-reading the book Sunshine by Robin McKinley, in which the heroine is a baker whose speciality is "cinnamon rolls the size of your head" and I've been getting a serious jones on. So, after passing by multiple stores and knowing that their cinnamon rolls would be inferior to anything I'm imagining, I went in search of a recipe worthy of me actually heating up the oven. (We don't have central air, and our kitchen doesn't have a window unit, so it can get pretty warm in there.)

My search sent me here. I picked the recipe that won the Iowa State Fair, cause I bet in Iowa they know cinnamon rolls. I mean, what else is there to do there but bake? Just kidding, I figured if it won a contest, it must be good. I was a bit thrown off because it called for mashed potatoes and mashed potato water, but whatev. When all was said and done, they were FAN-FREAKIN-Tastic. My dad, who doesn't really care for sweets all that much, had five. Seriously. I had three, and I only stopped for fear of the integrity of my stomach if I stuffed any more in. So this is how the remaining pan looks:

Josh has requested Asian Meat Buns for dinner tomorrow, so we'll be having this. Wish me luck!

Some people annoy me

2010-08-31T17:37:00.001-07:00

Ok, many, MANY people annoy me, but in this case I am specifically referring to authors. And more specifically than that, I am referring to authors that leave a story wide open and then refuse to write a sequel. I think when you choose to entertain the public, you have responsibilty and it's just wrong to shirk. There are 4 cases that really flip my pancakes.

Number 4 is Jean M. Auel of Clan of the Cave Bear fame. She starts the series with a girl that is born homo erectus, but whose parents die tragically in an earthquake when she is a toddler. She is found and raised by the shamen and the medicine woman of a neanderthal tribe, where her life is hellish and she can't live to her full potential. Eventually she is forced to leave. In the next book, she goes to a nearby valley where she tames a horse and makes a lovely life alone until one day she rescues an injured and handsome homo erectus hottie. Throughout the course of the next gazillion or so books, she and he make their was across the continent to join his family. At the end of one of the books, they see his family in the distance! Hooray! The next book didn't come out for over TEN FRICKIN YEARS. But eventually it did. Some of us read the book, glad that the story would finally be wrapped up before the aging Auel kicked it. I eagerly plodded through the book, (because I don't enjoy these books nearly as well as I did when I was a teenager, and a book that's 2 inches thick is quite a bit of plodding when you're not having fun.) And then, after all the anticipation...the book ends. No really, it just ends, right in the middle of the story. No effort at wrap up of any kind. It's like she was writing a 4 inch book and the publisher were like, just give us the first two inches dammit, we'll publish the rest when you finish! That book came out in paperback in 2004. The next book is supposed to be released in the spring of next year. And if it's not the end of the damn series, I'm gonna write the ending myself.

Number 3: Witch and Wombat by Carolyn Cushman. Ok, this book isn't a magnificent feat of literature. But still, it's clearly supposed to be the beginning of a series. But Ms Cushman only wrote one book. Ever. In 1994. WTF? Surely it wasn't that bad! Did she get hit by a bus? Did she lose her typewriter? Nobody knows, because despite internet searches, I can find no information on dear Carolyn, other than the fact that she was a sci fi/fantasy book critic for a magazine. Maybe she decided that she should just write one book to show she could do it, I dunno.

Number 2: Robert Asprin. The Myth Series and the Phule Series are great punny fun. With interesting plots and light hearted goodness. Until...they aren't anymore. The dear sweet kid hero in the Myth Series turns into an alcoholic and becomes abusive to his friends. Phule turns from a light hearted but surprisingly adept and intelligent leader into an idiot who only scrapes by because his butler bails him out. Turns out that Mr Asprin hates writing. Like, seriously HATES it. It's like doing homework while getting a root canal as far as he's concerned. As soon as he got enough popularity and money, presumably, his books started being ghost written or "co-written," which seems to be code for "he gave someone permission to write it." And the people who are writing his books now really REALLY didn't get it. At all.

And Numero Uno, drum roll, please: Robin McKinley. As far as anyone I've ever talked to is concerned, some of her books are left wide open for a sequel. Sunshine being the most obvious example. Sunshine was written in 2003, and is really really not finished, but according to Madame McKinley's blog, she DOES NOT write sequels! And she likes the ending just fine, thank you very much. Hmph. She says if she ever is gifted with a sequel story springing from her head, so be it, but don't hold your breath. grumble grumble.

Of course, this list wouldn't be complete without The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and several other books by Heinlein, but he's dead, so I'm not really expecting much there.

And I would be derilict in my duties if I didn't mention some people who can't stop writing but really should: Orson Scott Card after writing Ender's Game, Frank Herbert after Dune, and of course, Terry Goodkind and Eric Van Lustbader before they even started.

And the cat came back...

2010-07-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today has been a big day at our house. This morning, my dad had knee replacement, which went very well. He should be the in the hospital for two days and then he'll be transferred to rehab for who knows how long.

I know it seems like a change of subject, but my cat's been missing for over a week. We walked around the neighborhood, the yard, I called the pound, and I put up signs.

Have you seen me?

I had pretty much given up hope, but today when I went home to pick up Ethan and take him to his piano lesson, I heard a loud meowing coming from our shed. Yep, apparently he got locked in there last weekend when Dad mowed the lawn. He's fine, although all the extra flab he had packed on is gone. He is rather verbal if I'm not in his immediate eye line, and is currently resting on his rightful place between me and my computer, purring like a motorboat. I seriously can't believe he survived, cause it gets really stinking hot in there.

So, despite the fact that I'm having allergies from hell, I'm a happy camper.

Birthday Blog

2010-07-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

The time has come for my annual birthday wish list. Yay me!

XBox 360, or money towards one
Buffy Season 7
Xena Season 3 (I can't remember if I have 2, so I'll say 3 for now)
Uh...I can't think of anything else. So, there you go!

Travel Time

2010-06-29T21:13:00.001-07:00

I'm am writing this post from beautiful Texarcana, Texas! Dad, Ethan, and myself have traveled to North-East Texas because my Great-Aunt is not long for this world. About a month ago, she had a stroke, so we figured we should come visit her soon. Then, last night we got a call that she had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and they expected her to live 2 months without treatments, and 4 months with. Of course, they strongly recommended the no treatment route. So we started making plans to come up here this weekend. This morning we got a call that her kidneys had shut down. I immediately went home from work, we packed, and here we are, probably until Sunday. Her children have already signed the no heroic measures paperwork, which was an uncomfortable conversation that took place while I was standing there. To me, that's a no brainer. But one of her daughters had a 10-year-old that she made that decision for when he was dying of leukemia, and she basically freaked out and kept saying, "I CAN'T MAKE THAT DECISION AGAIN!" I wish that I had been in the waiting room for that portion. So, Memaw (which is what we call her) is wired up to all these tubes and wires and stuff and when I was in there, I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or just making random noise. It's sad, but I always have a hard time being very sad when an elderly person dies of illness or other natural causes.

So, that all explains why I'm here in Texarcana where everyone sounds like an extra from the set of King of the Hill (my relations included) and already ready to kill Ethan in a most horrifyingly graphic manner. :) At least I have the interweb!

just fyi

2010-05-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

So I know the only person that reads my blog already knows this, but just for historical accuracy I have to tell you that a little over a week ago, my boyfriend of fours years dumped me. There, I'm glad we got that out of the way. So that said, I've obviously been doing some soul searching lately, and I had an interesting realization this morning. There's back story here.

When I was 14, they redivided the wards, and I was sent to Denton 2nd ward. In my Sunday school class, there were 4 people. One was Mike, who was my best friend for many years. As of now, he is 36, spent some time inactive from the church but is back now, and is unmarried with no prospects. Next we have Becky (who also happens to be my son's aunt). She is 35, spent some time inactive but now is back, and is unmarried with no prospects. Next I'll list myself, I am...you guessed it; 35, spent some time inactive but now am back, and am unmarried with no prospects. Lastly, we have other Mike. He hated us and we hated him and we all sat as far away from him as possible and argued with him at every turn. He served a mission, got married and has kids.

I'm really not sure what to make of this. Mike, Becky and I were the bane of Sunday school. We regularly went through 3 teachers a year and would walk out en masse if the teacher was not someone we liked. Other Mike's mom got called once, and boy did that fly like a lead duck. Finally, Brother Porter got called, and he knew just how to deal with us. We were sick of the pat lessons that we got every year and wanted answers to deep theological questions that people always blew off, so the first Sunday when Brother Porter pulled out the manual, we raised a ruckus and told him how we felt about the manual. He asked us what we wanted to know, so we fired questions at him while he made a list. Every Sunday after that, he would answer one of our questions and incorporate the lesson from the manual, or vice versa. He was excellent, and we spent far less time at Whataburger during Sunday School as a result.

My question is, what's the link? Are we all like we are because of when we were born? Did we just happen to be people who were a lot alike that ended up together? Or did we mold each other into what we are now? We've each gone different ways in life, and we're not still friends, although I could reach either Mike or Becky if I wanted to. Just something I was thinking about, so there you go.

procrastinator me

2010-04-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I have a huge project due on Monday that I've barely made a dent in. And another huge project due on Tuesday that I've barely made a dent in. And another huge project due on Tuesday that I haven't started yet. I'm sitting here updating my blog instead. I am dumb. But dammit, I don't wanna draw a dragonfly! We had to do studies of dead things and then do a large project based on the studies that we drew. But, believe it or not, dead things give me the major willies. I was sick to my stomach the entire time we were in that room of dead things. I also can't touch dead things with my bare hands, which makes it hard to move said dead things to a position to draw them. So I decided to draw dragonflies because dead bugs look and feel just like live bugs and bugs don't creep me out at all. So drew a billion dragonflies (and a luna moth and a giant cicada when I got bored) and now it's time for me to do the big project, which is due Monday. Man, am I so not into it. Seriously. I've drawn one wing. Just three more, the body and the background left! Woohoo! For Design I've got to finish a large collage, which I'd much rather be working on but since it's due Tuesday I feel obligated to do the dragonfly first...you see my conundrum. I also need to do a project for art appreciation where I pretend to be the curator of a museum, pick 4 works that we've learned about in class, write a 500 word description which would go on the wall, 100 word description that would go by each piece and draw up a floor plan as to how I would do the layout. I have no interest in museum curation, so I don't want to do the project. Museum layouts just happen, I shouldn't have to think about it! Oh yeah, I also have to get together my process notebook for Tuesday. *sigh* And I'm having allergies. Oh well. :) I got a haircut, so at least my neck isn't hot anymore!

Message from the terminally busy

2010-03-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

Oh man. My life is craziness. All week I have classes and work and homework and all weekend I have church and scheduled activities and homework. It's enough to make a girl go crazy. Normally at this time I would be asleep in my car, but instead I am at the Union eating sushi and having my eardrums bursted by the extremely talented but loud one o'clock lab band. And they started at 12:20. I think that's weird. So here's the dealio: I never ever get enough sleep at night. I usually end up going to bed around 12ish and then spend an hour trying to fall asleep over the noise my parents are making. They are night owls and now that dad's retired, they have no reason to keep a regular schedule, so they usually go to sleep around 2:30 or 3 in the morning. And people wonder why I'm not a morning person. I have to get up at 6:30 cause that's when Ethan likes to get up. I wake him up then go back to bed for about an hour (or more, which is why Ethan's usually late for school.) I drop him off at school at 8:15, more of less, and I head to my school. I start work at 9 every morning, and then I go to class. If it's Monday or Wednesday I have classes from 10:30-2, then I eat lunch and return to work until 6. On Tuesday and Thursday, though, I have an hour and a half between my classes, so I grab a sandwich or sumtin, head to my car, eat and then nap till my 2 o'clock class. Whee! Today is different because Ethan in sick. I checked his temp and went back to bed intending to get up in time to go to work, but I decided that wasn't happening and emailed work to say I was skipping, so I got to sleep in until 10:00!! So I decided to use my lunch 1 1/2 to study for my Art Appreciation quiz. Which you can see I'm right on top of. I still have an hour and 15 minutes, get off my back!

This weekend is going to be INSANE. There's a single adult conference which Lawrence is in on the planning of, so I feel like I should attend. Unfortunately, I also have 50+ drawings due Monday, of which I don't think I should say how much I have done. Like 5. Yeah. I also have to revisit some of my other artwork and correct or redo them so I can turn them in for a better grade. Yay! Kill me please. Last night I was up till 12:30 getting my design homework done. I tell you, if they are seeking to improve the quality of work by sheer quantity, it's gonna work. Sadly, I seem to be getting mostly B's, which I am not used to getting in art classes. It's starting to piss me off. I've been sneaking looks at other people's grade sheets, and it seems like my grades are actually pretty good, but still. At least I don't have to take any more math classes!

Why do people like Jazz? I just don't get it. Sorry, one o'clock lab band again.

At least my history midterm is AFTER spring break so I can use that time to catch up on the readings. I appreciate my history teacher cause she doesn't give homework. Unfortunately, we're having two required tests and one optional test, each having 1-2 essays. That doesn't leave much room for mistakes, grade wise. But I like her lecture style and she's all about the why of history rather than memorizing dates, so I think I'll be fine.

Ouch. I just adjusted in my seat and hit the giant bruise on my butt. :) I slipped on our ramp the other day and landed right on the edge and flipped off. It was frosty at the bottom. I'll be fine. I think. :)

There's going to be a PostSecret book signing at UNT in April and Lawrence, his sister, and I are going. It's free for me, but they each cost $20! Yikes. I hope it's not super crowded.

Uh...I guess I should study now. *sigh* I'll try to update more often, but my desktop for some reason won't let me sign in to blogger. *shrug* I think the security settings are set too high. Lawrence is sick and tired of cleaning killer viruses off our machines because Ethan plays all these little flash games that aren't safe. I think I might have accidentally gotten a virus on my work machine through the free tv website that Kiera sent me to. Shh! Don't tell them it was my fault!

Math is lame

2009-12-01T17:43:00.001-08:00

I am currently sitting in my math class not paying attention as you can clearly see. My teacher is completely useless, so I pretty much ignore him and then get Josh to explain it all to me. I am glad I came to class today, though, cause I didn't realize there's a test on Thursday, so I woulda gotten a nasty surprise if I hadn't been here! The other bonus of being here is that I've gotten a lot of my technical writing homework done, so that's nice.

Mom's finally come home. We busted her out last Saturday. She threw a kickin' old folks home party before she left, cause she's like that. I got the cake for her. It was delicious. Mmmmm. Cake. She's really whipping Ethan and Dad into shape now that she's home! She made Ethan clean his room and bought groceries and everything! What a good mommy! It's actually really nice that I know some one is home with Ethan that won't let him eat everything in the house.

Speaking of Ethan, it turns out his puberty and testosterone are lagging behind, but it's not terribly bad. The doctor said that it could be because Ethan's fat and fat prohibits testosterone. So he wants Ethan to change some of his eating habits and come back in March. Ethan told him straight to his face that he wasn't going to change his eating habits, and I don't know how to force him since dad takes him out to eat all the time. *sigh* I've put on a lot of weight too, but I'm gonna start going to the gym again. The doctor straight out said that exercise wouldn't make that much difference for Ethan, that his eating is the problem, so I'm trying to have healthier foods at home, too.

The job at the library is good, but a little boring. I started out scanning in old yearbooks, then I scanned in a book called "The History of Lubbock." Now I'm scanning in the Henderson County court records from the 1800's. Man, I woulda hated to live back then when they had to write all that crap by hand! I'm glad I don't have to transcribe the things cause I have a hard time reading all that loopy cursive handwriting. I've watched several t.v. shows and quite a few movies while I was working. I hope I don't finish the internets!

Rene has gotten a little busier, so he asked me to come back in and work for him here and there. I worked Friday and Saturday of the Thanksgiving holiday, which sucks, but I seriously need the money. I was afraid I would have forgotten how to do everything, but I guess doing something for 5 years straight really imprints it in your memory!

Uhhh...I can't think of anything else, but I still have 20 minutes of class left. Hmm. Maybe I'll just leave early. Normally there's only 2 people left in class by the end and today there's 13 people here still! Maybe they're worried about their grade. One day I left and there was actually only one guy left behind. Poor guy and poor teacher. But it's his own fault, if he wouldn't suck so much we would stay! There's over 25 people in the class, so I'm not the only one that thinks he sucks!

OH! I know! I'll talk about the dream I had the other night. I had a dream that I was pregnant, and Joe walked up to me and asked what I was going to name her. I said, "Josephine Evangeline," and he just smiled. Even in the dream I was like, "Josephine Evangaline? That's a HORRIBLE name!" And I started trying to think of alternatives. The high point here is that all the dreams I've had with Joe have always featured gross Joe. All grey and bloated, bald with the droopy face like in the hospital. In this dream, he looked really good. He was thin like he was back when we were exercising all the time. His hair was a little longer on top than he usually kept it and was parted on the side and looking very shiny and professional. I can't remember if he had his beard or not, but he was wearing a polo shirt (tucked in) and jeans. I think he was even wearing the belt and shoes that he was buried with, which makes sense cause he wore them all the damn time in life. :) It's nice to have that image in my head rather than the creepy one!

Ten more minutes. hmph.

New horizons

2009-10-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

You are reading the blog of the newest member of the UNT library's Digital Projects Unit! Soon I'll never have to clean any one's toilets but my own! YAY!

I'm also seriously thinking about changing my major. Mostly because programming makes me want to die. I'm thinking of going into communication design and minoring in technical writing. Then I could become a technical writer, or a graphic designer, or a web designer, or go into advertising, or a number of other things. It's good. I likes it. Plus, I wouldn't have to take nearly so much math and science, which makes me happy beyond all reason.

Ethan had a blood test the other day and is being referred to an endocrinologist for low testosterone levels. He said, "I don't want shots in my balls everyday!" I assured him that is not the probable outcome (after I told him to not be crass), and boy will my face be red if that's what they do! :) Mom's still in the nursing home, but she's making good progress. Dad can't seem to beat the flu.

hard day

2009-10-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a hard day. I woke up with a horrible horrible case of pink eye, which was incredibly painful. My office said to go to work anyway, and I had to work at the house of the lady that chain smokes the entire time I'm there and it gives me a headache and a runny nose. And on top of that, it was the anniversary of Joe's death. The whole day everytime I looked at the clock I would think, "Last year at this time I was writing his obituary," or whatever I was doing. So, that's a fun way to spend your day. I skipped my computer lab cause my eye just hurt too much, and today I'm skipping my other classes to go to the doctor.

But on an up note, I got an email from the library wanting me to interview for the digital projects job! Huzzah!

I'm probably going to cut my hair off cause I'm sick of it making me hot all the time. My hairdresser has an idea, and I trust her completely. This is what I think she wants to do, only shorter:

By the way, you can't really click to enlarge. Sorry. I think she wants to cut it a little more in line with the chin, but I could be wrong. We'll see won't we? It'll be an adventure!

Ka-razy

2009-09-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

My life is crazy busy these days. I only have time to blog because I'm ignoring the lecture in my pre-calculus class. Don't worry, Josh explains all this crap FAR better than my lame ass teacher. Here's what my life is like: I have class literally all day on Tuesday and Thursday. My first class is at 11, and my last one ends at 8:20pm. I had to place them far apart because the middle one is across town at the Engineering campus, and parking's a lot cheaper out there, so I have to park there and take the shuttle to my other classes, which adds a good hour to my class block for each class. Before my last class, I have a 3 hour break, which I have to use to try to do any errands I have and on Thursdays I have to drive to Lewisville to turn in paperwork for work. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I work 8-5. I'm exhausted when I'm done, and can barely move, plus I have to go home and shower before doing anything else. Monday nights I have my computer lab from 7-8:50, and Ethan is joining Civil Air Patrol, which goes from 6:30-9. Of course, Ethan has scouts Wednesday night, and I usually go to Josh's for help on my math homework during that time. I usually have to call Dad to see if he'll pick Ethan up, cause 1 1/2 hour is no where NEAR enough time for Josh to pound all that math into my head. As a matter of fact, Ethan spends most of his time with my dad these days. I try to take him to Lawrence's to practice piano, but most days I just don't have time. Between all of this, and other homework as my teacher's see fit, I have to eat, and as a consequence, my no fast food efforts have gone right out the window. *sigh* I also have to schedule time with my cat everyday, because if I don't pet him for long enough each and every day, he poops on the living room floor. Stupid cat. Of course on the weekend, I have church and anything else that I need to do. Mom is still in the hospital, so I have to try to get up there just about everyday or she poops on the floor, too. Just kidding, she gets mopey. Some days I literally go up there for 15 minutes. It doesn't help that traffic in Denton and Corinth has suddenly become a crazy traffic jam just about any hour of the daylight hours. What the heck is up with that?!? Anyhoo, mom is doing pretty well, and may be released next week, unless of course she has further complications, which knowing her is highly likely. :) But the good news is that Barbara's planning on moving out soon! Huzzah!

Important info

2009-08-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

I realize that I'm supposed to be writing about vampires right now, but I fell the need to report on a more serious issue. I have had quite an insane week or two. Both of my parents have been in the hospital for a full week. My mom went in to the ER on a Monday night two weeks ago because her hand was swollen and painful. They decided it was gout and sent her home. On Friday, her kidney doctor told her that it was not gout and to go back to the ER. She did, and they admitted her. It was cellulitous and needed IV antibiotics, so they started with that. Eventually her veins collapsed and they put in a pik line. The evening she was admitted, dad started feeling bad. He was weak, his speech was slurred, and he would break into a sweat every time he got up even though he was icy cold to the touch. On Saturday afternoon, he asked me to drive him to the ER. They ran every test known to mankind, and the final diagnosis was that he had a virus and was dehydrated. He was admitted to the hospital and put on an IV to rehydrate him. While he was there, they discovered that he had a magnesium deficiency and an ulcer. They did a colonoscopy, found three ulcers and cauterized them. He had been bleeding internally, which had contributed to his problems. He was just released yesterday (Friday). Mom's hand infection got into the bone, which is really bad apparently, and yesterday they transferred her to long term care for the next 4-6 weeks to try to treat the infection with continued IV antibiotics. If it doesn't work they'll end up doing surgery, which they really want to avoid. They want her under constant surveillance because if the infection gets into the blood, fast action will be needed or she might die. Fortunately, the place she's staying is really close to Lawrence's house, so that's convenient. On top of all this, Ethan and I started school this week. *sigh* I need a vacation already! :)

Books I've read lately

2009-08-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

So I've read a few books lately that I've been wanting to share and now I will. You'll see a decided theme to the books, which might be one of the reasons I can't help but compare and contrast them.

First I read a book called "Bloody Good" by Georgia Evans. I was really excited about this book because it's about vampire Nazis infiltrating a small British village during WWII. What a great concept! Nazi vampires, it totally makes sense, am I right? They both pale, they both are super stylish, and they both have no conscience and kill indiscriminately! Sadly, I was very disappointed. The book was written in the omniscient format, and all the characters seemed to have the exact same thought patterns and speech mannerisms. I looked on Amazon, and most readers gave this book 4 stars, and quite frankly, I'm baffled. Also, in the middle of all the Britishness and stiff-upper-lippyness, there were a couple of extremely graphic sex scenes. It was very jarring. Not to mention the constant glaring grammar and spelling problems that made me want to get out a red pen, mark the corrections and send it back to the editor with a big 'F' written on the front.

Next I read a book called "Dust to Dust" by Heather Graham. This book was on the New York Time's best seller list, so I was astonished to see that on Amazon it has only received 3 stars with most of the reviews talking about how it falls flat. I loved it! The thing that captured my eye at the store was the subtitle; "This is the way the world ends." It is about the apocalypse, and about the first 3 people that have been chosen to prevent it. The book is free standing; although there will be more books in the series, and some of the characters in the book come from others of her books. She thoughtfully provides a list of books and which characters are in them at the beginning. My only complaint is that the story took a long while to get going. By the time the "twist" that some of the characters are vampires is revealed, I was long since like, "Yeah, no duh!" But that's OK, cause the book definitely left me ready for the next one, which doesn't come out till next summer.

After that, I really wanted to read a book called "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell. I read another of his books a while back called "Outliers: The Story of Success" and I was just enthralled by it. It was all about the strange little things that lead to one person being successful while others aren't. So I was excited to get started on another one of his books, so I went to get before work one morning and...I couldn't find it anywhere. I STILL haven't found it. I have no idea where it's gotten to. But I had to have something to read, so I grabbed a book that Josh gave that I really had no interest in reading. I'd been putting it off as long as possible, but it looked like it's time had come. Some people might have heard of it, it's a book called "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. I had been avoiding it because the movie was kinda lame and teenage angsty, and because practically every house I clean has all the books piled next to the wife's side of the bed and everyone I know even casually has gushed to me that every single person they know just LOVES it!!!! Any book that's that popular usually is not that great, in my humble opinion. (Except for the Harry Potter books, but that's just due to JK Rowling's pact with the devil.) So that said, I've actually been enjoying it somewhat. Possibly because it's better than the movie. The teenage angst and brooding isn't nearly so annoying when you know what's going on in their heads. I am a little annoyed by Bella and Edward going on two dates and then falling in irreversible eternal love. It just really doesn't work that way, and I was appalled by the "you're my life" sentiment of it all. I'm surprised people talk about Jacob so much from this book, because he's barely in the book. Maybe they're projecting future knowledge. I would also like to know why Bella's so freaking clumsy. Some people criticise Bella's lack of self esteem as being even farther down that a real teenager, but I really disagree. I think my self esteem was about that level as a teen. *shrug* I'm just at the climax now, so we'll see if I change my mind dramatically before the end.

Next time: Vampires and teenage girls; what's up with that?

Ah August

2009-08-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

I really am going to do a picture post about my vacation, I swear it with the computer gods as my witness. I finally got around to trying to download the pictures and it turns out my SD card reader can't handle an 8 mg card. Every time I tried it, the computer crashed hard. There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It wasn't pretty. So, now I have to try to find what Mom did with the cord to plug the camera into the computer, and we'll see how that goes. Anyone who's looked into my house lately will see that I will need special equipment; ropes, harnesses, those little hats with the lights on the front, some Sherpas, and a fair supply of rations. Ugh.

Arkansas was just how I remember, which is to say boring and lame. My cousin was an all-right guy, but I don't really see us spending Christmas together or anything like that. He remembers teasing me when I was very little because I said flyer instead of flower. I have since rectified that problem and have no recollection of my past errors.

I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, and I thought it was pretty good. I'm kinda over the whole Harry Potter thing, I guess JK Rowling's contract with Satan must have run out or something. But I saw it anyway and enjoyed it. I especially though it was really pretty. I haven't read the book in so long that I can't remember it well enough to get angry over all the stuff they left out, so I probably enjoyed it a lot more than a number of people out there.

I'm sick and tired of my home and visiting teachers and companion all trying to contact me in the last few days of the month to schedule visits. I think I'll make a rule that I don't accept calls past the 23rd or something like that. I like this plan. I think it'll work.

I am a slacker

2009-07-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

My family and I went on a two week vacation all over the western US, and I fully intend to blog about it. First, I need to load the pictures from the camera to the computer, and I keep not doing that. So, I will be doing that someday soon. Trust me. And the check's in the mail. Really.

This morning I went to work, you know, like you do, and while I was walking through the house, I did not notice that the living room was a sunken living room. So down I went, and much pain ensued. I'm glad the client wasn't home, because I was in so much pain that some naughty words escaped my lips. I tried to keep on working, but about an hour later, I was gasping in pain at every movement, and I knew I was done for. I took off my shoe and discovered a lump about the size of an egg right below my ankle. So I called in, and the told me to come by the office to drop off the key so that someone else could go finish this afternoon. I went to the doctor, and he said I have a type 2 sprain, which apparently means that 2 ligaments are torn. So, I'm taking the rest of the week off, and then I'm supposed to get back on that horse, complete with working and ankle exercises and everything. I'm also supposed to wear a stiff ankle brace to work for the next couple of months. That should suck.

This weekend mi familia and I are going to Arkansas. I know, that's not my first ideal destination, either, but we have reasons. You see, my dad's brother died in a car crash when he was 21 (The brother was 21, not my dad). At the time, his girlfriend was preggers. This was about two years before I was born. So, about a month ago, my brother gets a myspace message from this long lost cousin, who's just itching to get to know his father's side of his heritage, so off we go to Arkansas to meet this guy. It's all kind of exciting, I think. I've often fantasized about unknown family popping out of nowhere, but usually it was royalty or famous people or at least fabulous wealthy people rather than unemployed truckers with a mullet, but I'll take what I can get. :)

I should probably go ice my ankle now. Bah.

decisions, decisions

2009-06-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

I am currently in the throws of trying to decide what to do with my life. Well, at least my work life. You see, I got a job as a maid in March, and while it's a job and better than nuthin, it's not my dream job. When you clean 10 houses a week, you make $14/hr, but due to the economy, I'm still not up to 10 houses a week, and only making $12/hr. On top of that, although most weeks I clean about 6-8 houses, some weeks I clean as few as 3, and that's not much bacon on my paycheck. But, once again, in this economy, I'm glad for what I have and wouldn't be thinking of leaving except for one thing. On my financial aid, I was approved for $2500 per semester for work study, meaning I can get a job on campus. I am having a really hard time deciding if I should do that, so I'm gonna list the pros and cons of both and see what you think.

Maid/pros:

I already have it.
I'm good at it.
It's year round.
It's only during the weekdays, no weekends/evenings.
It pays pretty well, when there's actually work.

Maid/cons:

It wears me plum out.
It's inconsistent.
I have to travel (around the area anyway).
I never know what my schedule will be.

School job/pros:

It'll be on campus, easier to get to.
They'll probably be more understanding when I have papers or tests.
MIGHT be able to get a job where I can study while working.

School job/cons:

Might have hours I don't like.
Might not pay well.
Only during school, no income during breaks.
Looks bad to quit a job so soon after getting it.
Unknown quantities.

Hmph. So, what do you think?

Bringing home the bacon, etc.

2009-04-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

All's well in Margie-land. I'm behind on my homework because apparently I can't work and go to school at the same time, but I'm catching up. I had been really busy with work, but it seems that some of the jobs they had been sending me on were just because the lady who normally did them was out for surgery, and they gave them back to her when she came back. Ungrateful! So this week, I've only had a couple of jobs, but I got hit with massive allergies that turned into a painful ear infection, so it all worked out after all. Today they sent me to sub for someone that got hurt at a house that I had helped in before, and the lady there likes me so much that she called the office and requested me permanently! I think it's cause I listen to her while she tells me all about her medical conditions, and the last maid didn't speak much English. :) Maybe being fluent in the language DOES help sometimes! Tomorrow I go back to the only house that I've broken something in. It was a painted rock. You heard me. I'll have to be extra careful this time. I like this lady, and I'd like to get her permanent-like too, but if I keep breaking stuff she'll boot me fer sure!

It took me longer to post than I wanted because I was going to take a picture to post of the latest addition to my family, but I haven't gotten around to it. I went and got myself a cat from the SPCA. He's a huge orange and white short hair tom, although the orange is so light it looks kinda tan. He's 2 years old, and he's got some scars and a chunk missing from his right ear. When the girl took him out and handed him to me, he started purring and rubbing his cheek against mine and giving me kisses. Who could resist that?!? His name is Sprite, but he was immediately re-dubbed Spritecus Maximus, both because of his size and cause he gives off the air of being a tough gladiator type, although you and I know he's just a softy that loves to love ya, baby. Mittens (the cat from next door) is very confused by all this. He thought he was the only cat for me. Sad really. Also, turns out I'm allergic to cats. I've had cats all my life, so I never put it together before. *sigh* Too late now. I'll just have to make with the vacuuming.

Speaking of vacuuming, now that I clean houses all the time, my messy messy house is driving me batty. Seriously. It is a chaotic evil that must be stopped. I'm planning on taking some major time this summer to get right on top of that situation. Since I'm going to UNT full time this fall, and will still need to work unless my financial aid is mammoth, I certainly won't have time to do it in the fall!

Seems that now that my kid is old and less cuddly, I'm loving the nursery. Who knew?!? It's fun most of the time, except when there's a full moon or sumtin and all the kids are super cranky. There's two new girls that just came into the nursery, and one wants me and only me all the time. She screams like a fire truck when her parents drop her off. Seriously, I'm afraid of hearing damage. So I have to take her in the hall to calm her down, then take her back in and hold her for at least 30-45 minutes until she realizes that playing with toys is fun. Even then she doesn't want to get too far from me and she has to return regularly to make sure everything's ok. There's another baby that ALSO wanted me to hold her, so I had a double armful for a while on Sunday. Fortunately, the second one was much smaller than the first (who's family calls her chubs cause she's so big). It's actually making not getting married easier, strangely enough. You see, I know I'm supposed to be in the nursery. Five separate people turned in my name when they needed someone, and knowing that I'm where God needs me to be helps me to be patient and know that when I'm done there it'll be time. I personally think it's cause of Whitney (the screamer/Chubs). Since she normally won't let anyone but one of her parents hold her, and she likes me, I'm the right person to acclimate her to nursery. And believe you me, her mom NEEDS her to go to nursery! She has 3 girls under 4, and she's already had one nervous breakdown, so I'm glad to take some of her stress off. Ironically, I have two of her girls in the nursery, and she teaches Ethan's class, so we just trade kids.

So anyhoo. This is turning into a novel, and I gots homework to do, not to mention that dinner ain't gonna make it's self. Hasta la pasta!

Gainful

2009-03-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

You are now reading the blog of a woman who is no longer a drain on society. I am now a drudge of society instead. I an now a "cleaning technician." In other words, I am a maid, which, if you've ever seen my house you would realize is hilarity. I am in training this week, and at the end of the week they decide if they want to keep me for sure, but considering that my trainer wanted to know yesterday if I've ever cleaned professionally before, I'm thinking it's a sure thing. It's not as hard as it sounds, because most of these rich people seem to keep their houses pretty neat anyhoo. It's not the most fulfilling job I've ever had, but that's why I'm going back to school. I'm only taking 2 classes this semester, but next semester I'm gonna go full time and in a couple of years I can get a white collar job! (Although technically, the uniform I wear does have a white collar, but I don't think that's what they mean.)

Unfortunately, I don't get paid for three weeks, and working without money sucks ass. Someday my check will come! Also on the sad side of matters, it ALSO sucks to go from working 4 or less days a week for about two years (averaging 2 days a week for the last 9 months), to being unemployed for 5 1/2 months to working full time hard labor! Man, I can't seem to get enough sleep! I know I' ll get used to it, but it's hard right now. It's also surprisingly hard to be away from Ethan so much. I didn't think that would be a problem, but I feel like I never see him anymore. :(

I was a zombie at class this morning, and it was a lab day, so I had to pretend to be working the whole time! Since I did squat during spring break, I'm way behind, but I was so brain dead I had no hope of actually figuring out loop structures! Not a chance! I'll do it this weekend, no worries.

working it. hopefully!

2009-03-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

The animal control job didn't happen, and I must say that while I want and need a job, I'm just as happy to not get a weekend job. I had an interview at Buckets and Bows Maid Service yesterday, and it seems a lot more promising. The lady actually said, "I have to start the background check, but as far as I'm concerned, you can start Wednesday!" She told me if they hadn't called me by Wednesday that I should call at noon. It's gonna be hard work cleaning houses, but I can work around my school schedule and still only work weekdays. Plus, she assured me that it's a great workout, which is good cause I'm lazy and prefer getting paid to exercise. So say a little prayer for me, and we'll see tomorrow what the outcome is.

Speaking of exercise, I keep the Wii at Lawrence's house because at my house there's never a time when it's possible to use the TV. Plus, it's a pain in the neck having to rearrange our entire living room t0 use it. See, we have Wii Fit, which is a great work out program, and I love it, and now that I've moved it to Lawrence's, I can actually use it on a regular basis. The only problem is that my clothes and stuff aren't over here. So I leave two sets of undies and a set of exercise clothes over here so that I don't have to cart them over everyday. The problem is, if I work out every day, then 2 sets of undies aren't enough, and today I forgot to bring a set with me, so now I am washing clothes. Yes, I am washing a load of whites at Lawrence's house. What this means is that I am also washing HIS undies. So, I'm been making dinner almost everyday, taking showers here, now I'm washing his unmentionables, AND we're not having sex. It's just like we're already married! Of course, he helps me with my bills and changes my oil, and I eat MUCH healthier over here, so maybe our pseudo-marriage is all right! :)

Last night my computer programming teacher showed up on my caller ID. Isn't that weird? He didn't leave a message OR send an email to either one of my TWO student accounts, so I have no idea why he was calling. It's kinda wigging me out. And, no, he's not young OR cute. That was the first question my mom asked.

I know that there was something else I was going to write about, but for the life of me I can't think of what it was. Oh well, probably a lie then. Laters!

New beginnings

2009-02-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

I had a really interesting dream this morning. Most of it isn't all that interesting, so I'll just say the good part. I had a dream that I had left my car somewhere in Denton and was having to walk miles to get back to it, in my nightgown, none the less. Then, in my dream, I woke up to take Ethan to school. Joe was in the living room. His hair was grown out some, but still wasn't back to it's previous glory. He also had a set of crutches next to him because he had trouble walking due to all the nerve damage to his feet. I told him about my dream and having to walk and told him that when he fell asleep, he should come pick me up. He chuckled and told me, "Sure, no problem!" It was kind of a nice dream, and besides being able to spend a little virtual time with Joe, it was nice that I was so quick witted in my dream. :)

I had a second interview about the animal control job yesterday. I had really struggled with whether or not I should continue to pursue this job since it would mean I would have to work every Sunday. After much thought and prayer, I decided to also get a blessing. My bishop gave it, and in it he said that if I was open and honest that doors would be opened to me. He told me after that he didn't know if that meant I would get THIS job, but that I would be blessed for standing for my beliefs and continuing to attend church. See, the problem isn't so much that I would have to work Sunday, cause I understand that SOME jobs must still happen on Sunday, such as Hospital workers, Police, etc, and I could see that if a dog gets hit by a car or something and needs animal control, that it probably couldn't wait until Monday. The biggest problem is that I really didn't want to have to miss church every single Sunday. So when I went in for the interview, I asked right off what the hours were, and she told me 8-5, so I explained the situation to her and said that unless I could come in after church then I should probably take myself out of the running. She said that she would have to ask the Chief, but she wouldn't have a problem with me working 4 hours Friday afternoon, 8 hours Saturday, and 4 hours after church on Sunday! So I still might get the job. I'm supposed to get a call early next week.

Speaking of new jobs, after about a bazillion years as ward librarian, I was finally released on Sunday! And guess what calling they gave me. Go on, guess. Nursery assistant. Oh boy! The most annoying job ever! Oh well, wither thou needest me, Lord, eh?

Typing fool

2009-02-13T08:54:00.000-08:00

Just so everyone knows, I am typing this using the correct technique. Which means that is going much more slowly than usual. :) I'm still no typing wunderkind, but it's coming along. Last night as I was laying in bed thinking, everything I thought then got repeated on a keyboard with the keys for the words lighting up as I went through each word. It amused me and I started thinking of sillier and sillier sentences on purpose. I just wish it was that easy when I was doing it fer real. Part of the problem is that keyboard keys are so darn easy to press sometimes I don't even realize I've hit one! The only numbers I can do are 1 and 8, so don't ask me for major phone numbers or math problems.

My programming class is totally easy. The hardest parts are trying to get the school computers to work right and typing, cause I try to maintain proper form and my brain works way faster than my fingers. Mostly cause my fingers have no brains. Maybe I should upgrade!

I thought that the animal control job had been taken out of the running because I hadn't gotten any calls, but then I DID get a call, so now I have to make a decision. *grumble grumble* I hate the idea of turning down a job, but I also hate the idea of working every weekend. Especially the Sundays part. But it would let me schedule classes for whenever I need to, so that would be a bonus.

The big storm that came through blew off major portions of our shingles, so I had to spend Monday on the roof re-shingling. Some fun! I'm still not all the way done, but I got it to the point where it's not an emergency or anything. I do not relish the idea of going back up there, so I'm essentially stalling. :) All righty-roo. That's all for today!

job dilemma

2009-01-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

So I'm into my second week of typing, and I'd like to announce that typing the fer reals way sucks ass. I'm catching on slowly but surely, though. And, no, I am NOT typing that way now cause I haven't learned all the letters yet. :) My programming class seems like it's gonna be pretty easy.

I had an interview for the animal control job, and the problem with it is that I would be working every weekend for 8 hours each day. Plus I'd be on call for the evenings. The only reasons I am still considering it is because: a)it's a job, and b) the guy who works weekdays is leaving and I MIGHT be able to move up. I dunno, what do you think?

The more things change. . .

2009-01-18T21:37:00.001-08:00

Most people reading this blog probably don't know a man named Larry Cook, but he's a friend of mine. He used to be in the bishopric in my ward, and he also was diagnosed with cancer while Joe was in the hospital. They shared their struggles and became very close over the months that they were in the same hospital together. I just found out that he died tonight in the hospital in Florida where he went to get special treatments. I intellectually knew that he was probably going to die, but this is hard for me, never the less. He asked to be buried near Joe, and I don't know how I am going to make it through the funeral and burial. He was such a sweet man, and I hope that Joe helped him across. Maybe it wasn't so scary for him.

I start school this week. I'm only taking typing and beginning programming, but it's progress at least. I did NOT get the Kinko's job. :( I've even stopped praying for a job because I don't think I'll ever get one. Man. This post is a real bummer. I think I'll come back when I'm in better spirits. See ya! :)

life is so blah

2009-01-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

I'm here with another update, due to popular demand. If by popular, you mean one person. :) I STILL don't have a job. Everyone hates me. I think I'll go eat worms. Actually, this morning I went in for an interview at Kinko's. Most people don't even bother calling me, so I'm pretty optimistic. Also, for anyone job seeking, Kinko's has the most interesting test I've taken, and believe you me, I've taken a few. It actually had questions about what I would do in real work situations. Crazy! So keep your fingers crossed. Or better yet, give me a job!

Josh and Cainnum are officially quitters, in that they've quit trying to quit smoking. They suck.

Ethan passed sacrament for the first time on Sunday, and was sent up to be Bishop's assistant and sit on the stand for sacrament, much to his dismay. He also went to Sunday school rather than primary for the first time. Craziness!

I'm a slacker. Since I spend many hours not working, you'd think my house would be immaculate, but not so! I spend a fair amount of my time sleeping or playing World of Warcraft. I think it might be addictive! Or I'm a bad person. Or both!

rocky times

2008-12-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

I've been a little grumpy lately. I'm am sick and tired of looking or a job. There is seriously nothing as bad as applying for 5 jobs a week and not even getting any calls. It really makes a girl feel worthless. I just applied for a job as a Librarian Assistant at TWU, and I am SO hopeful. It pays really well, and I hear TWU has really good benefits. I REALLY want them to call me! I keep trying to think if I know anyone with connections so that I can pull strings, but sadly I don't think I do. *sigh*

I had a big fight with my dad about the neighbor's cat. This cat thinks he belongs to me, and I love him so much, but dad doesn't want him in the house. Last night it all came to a head, so things have been bad around here. The neighbor knows that the cats always here and totally doesn't care, so I wish that I could ask for him so it would be official, but between Dad's being a jerk and Lawrence's allergies, I don't feel like I should. But if I get this job and am able to move out of my parent's house before Lawrence's proposes; fuck it, I'm taking the damn cat. Lawrence can just kick himself for not proposing sooner!

Last night I also realized that Lawrence's Christmas trip that his parent's bought makes it so that he will not be here for Ethan's receiving the priesthood. Oops! It has to be that Sunday because that's when his dad can come. So I asked Lawrence to see if he could get the flight moved and he said he'd try. I'm glad he saw it as a problem, because if he didn't, it would seriously be time to rethink our relationship. :) It's so weird that Ethan's getting the priesthood in a few weeks. I don't see him as being that old!

Thanksgiving wasn't as bad as I thought it would be without Joe. Don't get me wrong, I'm still sad, but I thought mom would be crying all day and she wasn't, so that was a relief! We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner, then we came home and later we had snacks and watched The Island. (Fine Thanksgiving movie!) I made an apple strudel and my aunt Debra came up and brought all kinds of venison products from a hunting trip that she and her boyfriend went on, and it was good. The next day she took us to see some ice sculptures at The Gaylord Texan, and they were really cool. Literally. It was 9 degrees in there. I enjoyed the exhibit, but the whole experience went a bit long for me and I got tired.

Josh is trying to quit smoking, so he's cranky these days. Cainnum's quitting, too, so our World of Warcraft instance on Friday night was. . .interesting. I was trying to be the peacemaker, and it worked for the most part I think. At least Ethan's not off his meds in addition; I think someone might have died if that was the case.

Well, gots to go. Wish me luck on the job sitch. Prayers are helpful, too! :)

bereft, bemused, beffudled

2008-10-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

So here's the haps:

My dad had shoulder surgery, which went far better than expected and he's going to have a far shorter recovery time than expected. But for the moment, he can't lift anything or use his right arm for much of anything, which means that my mom wants me to go every where with them so that I can lift her wheelchair. It's freakin annoying and I'm tired of being dragged all over the metroplex every day.

My brother died. I'm sure anyone reading this would already know that, but it bears repeating for any strangers who have the misfortune to stumble into my little lair. I still miss him a lot. It's not cool, and I don't like him being dead one bit. I had a dream last night in which my friend Mark was working at the factory I got a job at (in my dream, not real life) and I thought he looked weird, but didn't think much of it while I was dreaming. When I woke up I realized it was because he looked like my brother when he was in the hospital. Bald, eye patch, etc. I sure wish it would be easy to substitute Mark for Joe, but he's living in Iowa, so I don't see it working out. Plus he doesn't have nearly as foul a mouth as Joe.

When I'm not hauling my parents all over God's creation, I'm looking for a job. Yeah, I got laid off. On the day of my brother's funeral. They called me especially to tell me. That's just rude. I was hoping to get a job at UPS because they have free benefits and tuition assistance, but it turns out that they're only hiring seasonal help right now, and if I do get hired for permanent, I wouldn't start receiving benefits until January of 2010. Stinky. That's a long time of low paying, back breaking work to get insurance. So I dunno. I'm considering taking it anyway just so I don't have a long gap on my work history, but I haven't decided yet. I checked the paper today, and there's a dental office in Flower Mound that's looking for a lab tech with one year's experience, and I have 5 years experience, so maybe that's the job for me! Only time will tell.

Ethan's been having troubles since Joe died. He's having break downs in class anytime the other kids get rowdy or he's having trouble with the work. He's having massive daily nosebleeds. Last week I got a call from the principle because Ethan just walked out of class and another teacher found him wandering around and brought him to the office. She had a nice long talk with him about his troubles and he asked her to call me and tell me. We're working on it. Hopefully we'll get it all figured out. I'm thinking about putting him in counselling, but there's a few adjustments in his life I'm trying to make first. Keeping a structure for him is never easy in this house! Everyone says the nosebleeds are because of his hormones changing. He had his nose cauterized about a year ago, and it worked like a charm, but I can't afford to do it again right now! He walks around with toilet paper sticking out of his nose all the time these days, and that's just annoying. Not to mention goofy.

Well, that's about it I think. The most interesting thing in my fridge is cherry-orange marmalade. :)

Let's put it up the flagpole and see if any one salutes

2008-08-19T19:42:00.001-07:00

I must admit to you that while I appreciate not feeling obligated to update my blog during these crazy times, I've also been missing it. I've been thinking that I should start again maybe. So this is a trial to see if anyone gives a crap. :)

So I figure the only person who's gonna read this will be Kiera, but just in case I thought I should give an update on what's been going on since November. Here's the big things:

1) My brother Joe's been in the hospital with Burkitt's Lymphoma since January 9th. If you don't know the story, go to www.bigjoewatch.blogspot.com

2) My dad had a sextuple arterial bypass on July 11th (the day after my b-day). He's doing fine.

3) Our cat got diagnosed with FIP and died. I've been having major cat withdrawal, but we can't get a new one; partly because it lives in the environment for 2 months, partly because with all the hospital stuff I just don't think I can care for a new cat properly, and partly because my boyfriend's allergic and since I plan on moving in with him within a cat's lifespan, it's really not right for me to get one.

4) My son came home rather than staying with his Dad for 6th grade as was planned. It's a long story, but let's just say that his step mom was kinda stressed and couldn't handle all the kids. I was super freaked about him coming back due to the circumstances, but he's been so sweet and helpful that he's been a real blessing. I'm really glad to have him here with us.

5) School starts next week, and rather than going to Argyle, Ethan's going to be attending a charter school called The Education Center. ( http://www.theeducenters.org/theeducentersatdenton )
We're really excited about this place, and hope for Ethan to make a lot of good progress there. The drawbacks are that they don't have door to door pick-up and drop-off and that it's not a "normal" school experience, but the nicest thing is that when we move, Ethan won't have to change schools AGAIN. Plus, possibly no homework! SWEET!

6) No, I'm still not engaged. But I'm actually good with it. Lawrence and I had a series of talks this summer and I found out that he's WAY more traumatized from his ex-marriage than I realized. So, I'll wait. I'm not giving him an ultimatum or anything like that. I've prayed about it and I really feel like waiting is the right thing to do, but I DID tell him to get back in counselling. THAT's non-negotiable. For now I'm just chilling and enjoying the wonderful relationship that we have right now. Even if that does mean that I'm STILL NOT GETTING ANY! *grumble grumble* :)

7) I'm still making teeth for a living. Barely. The current economic crises has seriously impacted our business. I get enough hours to scrape by. As long as I don't need anything like gas or meds. I'm off my arthritis medication because it's too expensive, and that kinda blows. But Ethan's ADHD meds are more important. SERIOUSLY.

8) I'm out of tae kwon do for the moment. My contract was up for renewal in July, and considering the constraints on my time and wallet, I thought it would be better to let it slide for a while. Which is good, cause without my arthritis pills, I don't think I could do it anyway! :) I'll go back when I can, but not right now!

Well, I think that's all the big stuff. Maybe I'll be back soon! I'll see ya when I look at ya!

My New Christmas List

2007-11-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of year again, and despite the fact that I haven't blogged since October, I am going to post my Christmas wish list. My mom's been asking for a list, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, although usually I am against needless violence towards animals. Except ugly animals. Maybe these are ugly birds. Like vultures or something, although that would have to be one heck of a stone I can tell you. So without further eloquence. . .

Buffy seasons 6 and/or 7

Quantum Leap season 4

Xena season 2

a light for my bike (so I can ride after dark)

money towards new running shoes

Spa visit (facial, pedicure, massage, makeover, etc)

a fuzzy sweater (like cashmere or something else very soft, size XL)

a column kicking bag

a good book (one that you think I would like)

never forget that I have an extensive wish list at www.amazon.com

please remember that I am seriously trying to lose weight. When it comes to food and candy, quality is better than quantity. One year I ended up with like 4 bags of candy, and that's just not good for my waistline.

and for the readers who have more heart than money: I will GLADLY let you perform the service of cleaning my room, cause I just never seem to have time

That's all I can think of for now. I'll let you know if I think of anything else. Peace out, and happy holidays dawg!

Food Quiz

2007-10-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, well, I don't really think about food that much, but I done been tagged, so here goes:

1) How do you like your eggs? Usually scrambled, but sometimes I like them fried where the white's all the way done and the yellow's still runny. I never can remember what that's called.

2)How do you take your coffee/tea? I don't drink them, but when I did, iced coffee with lots of sugar and lots of cream was the way to go.

3) Favorite breakfast foods? Probably Basic 4 cereal or pancakes, but I love breakfast foods and eat them as often as I can. Just usually not for breakfast.

4) Peanut Butter: Crunchy or Creamy? Creamy of course. I LOVE LOVE LOVE peanut butter, but I really don't care for peanuts. Weird, huh?

5) What kind of dressing do you like on your salad? Ranch, but I'm also a big fan of Catalina, French, Italian, and any kind of Vinaigrette. I guess I'm a dressing whore.

6) Coke or Pepsi? Coke. They DO NOT taste the same, KIERA!

7) You're feeling lazy, what do you make? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me. For la familia, angel hair pasta with butter and herbs with broccoli and sauteed chicken tenders. Easiest meal ever.

8) You're feeling REALLY lazy, what pizza do you order? Pepperoni with black olives.

9) You feel like cooking, what do you make? Depends on the mood. When I really feel like cooking, I like to look for recipes I've never tried before and make them. Currently I really want to make Beef Wellington. But if I'm making something I have made before and I feel like cooking, it'll probably be lasagna or cheesecake. Or cake in general. Or cookies. Let's just go back to it depends on the mood.

10) Do any food bring back good memories? Watergate salad reminds me of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wafer cookies reminds me of when I was a kid and mom would make them and freeze em and I would steal them out of the freezer. I'm not usually a thief, they're just like crack, I couldn't help it.

11) Do any foods bring back bad memories? Let me count the ways. I got dumped 3 times at Pancho's by Ethan's dad, so for a long time I lost my appetite every time I thought about Pancho's. Of course, it's Pancho's so a lot of people probably lose their appetite when they think about it. I ate a bad ham sandwich when I was a kid, so ham makes me sick. I threw up a banana once when I was pregnant, so smelling bananas makes me think of that. I know there's more, but it's early and my brain's damaged.

12) Do any foods remind you of someone? fudge, cream wafers, Watergate salad: mom. Cold Stone ice cream: Lawrence. Churrascaria: my brothers. Spaghetti, crab, lobster, calamari: Ethan

13) Is there any food you refuse to eat? Ham, lobster, veal. The first because it makes me sick. The other two because I find them morally offensive.

14) What was your favorite food as a child? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Geez people, why do I have to keep reiterating how wonderful PB&J is?

15) Is there any food you hated as a child, but like now? Sausage.

16) Is there a food you liked as a child, but hate now? Can't really think of anything.

17) Favorite fruit and vegetable? Watermelon and broccoli. Not together.

18) Favorite junk food? Does Nutella count as junk food?

19) Favorite in between meal snack? Nutella on pretzels. Or craisins. Not saying I like nutella on craisins, I'm saying I also like craisins.

20) Do you have any weird food habits? People have often been annoyed that I always smell my food before I eat it. But that's just good sense, I think.

21) You're on a diet, what do you fill up on? Celery and carrots.

22) You're off your diet, now what would you eat? Whatever I want. If I'm not on a diet, why would I care?

23) How spicy to you order your Indian/Thai? Not very.

24) Can I get you a drink? Water, lemonade (preferably of the strawberry variety), caffeine free coke, milk, fruit or vitamin water. Seriously people, variety is the spice of life.

25) Favorite dessert? Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. Or chocolate chip cookies. Or whatever flavor ice cream I'm in the mood for. It's all on the moods really. I wish anybody luck who tries to guess what I'm gonna want on any given day.

So there you have it. Now I tag. . .did Kiera tag Josh? No, ok, I tag Josh and Cainnum. Go to!

It's not a problem, it's cool, I feel alive

2007-09-06T15:47:00.001-07:00

So I've been thinking about trying to cut down on my swearing. I'm not saying that I'll be in Disney language area, I'm just thinking about pulling back out of Quentin Tarentino area is all. Maybe to a nice PG-13 place. I know that they're just words, and swearing doesn't bother me in the least, but I've been thinking lately that if I feel the need to curb it around certain people (aka: someone's grandmother or baby) or in certain places (like the temple or a preschool) then maybe I shouldn't be making with the sailor mouth quite so much. The problem here is that I started swearing when I was 8. The first time I tried to stop I was in 8th grade, which was obviously a dismal failure. I think it's kind of like how when people start smoking too early in their developmental years it's almost impossible for them to stop later. Any tips for me? And, no, I refuse to pop myself with a rubber band every time I swear, so that's already covered.

It's not a problem, it

2007-09-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

for my loyal fans, a blog entry!

2007-08-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ethan called me Sunday and he was being very silly. I think he was just bored, and was being extra silly to fight off the boredom. When I talked to his step mom, she said that he was certainly being silly on the phone with me, and that he was far sillier with me than he ever is with them (meaning her and his dad.) I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, I feel like kids should be able to have fun, and goodness knows that with Ethan's depression he spends little enough time having fun. On the other hand. . .no, I've decided. I like silliness. Done and done.

Lawrence's sister Melanie has come to live with him for four months. I don't like it one bit. She's abrupt and unpleasant. I wish she were more fun. But, Lawrence and I are a lot less likely to get into trouble with her around, so maybe having a chaperon is a good thing. Maybe he'll want to have authorized private time with me and finally propose. That would be super!

I feel like a slug today. I think I need a vacation. But there's no rest for the wicked, sadly. I'm getting a haircut tonight, I have a doctor's appointment and bike riding tomorrow, and TKD the day after. The office manager at work is trying to rig things so that we can have a 4 day weekend for labor day, but always dangling over me like a foul miasma is the stench of knowing that I have to feed 400-600 people 3 square meals at the Single Adult conference on the 15th. Gack. The last weekend of September, I'm going to visit Ethan, and he wants to take me swimming at the bubble and ice skating. Of course, long time readers might remember that last time I went to Bountiful I felt like crap the whole time because of the higher elevation. But, it'll be nice to see my baby boy, and after that I can rest for a little while. You know, like I'll blow off exercise one night and be a couch potato or something. Yep, I think I'll definitely schedule that for October.

my life, or something like it

2007-07-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

So, anybody who still checks my blog might have noticed that I haven't blogged for a while. (Kiera wrote a whole post about it, so I figgered I should acknowledge.) There are a number of reasons for that, and I will tell you now.

1: Nobody else blogs. I know this is lame, but it's so much more fun to blog when all your friends are doing it too. I saw a shirt that said, "Nobody reads my blog" and I really wanted it cause I thought it was funny. So, even though a few people check my blog, very few people leave actual comments, and none of them update, so what's the point, eh?

2: I have a seriously busy life. I have no idea how this happened to me. I work full time, I exercise 6 days a week, I go to church, date my boyfriend, spend time with my friends (occasionally), and somehow between all of this, I'm supposed to fit in housework, eating, sleeping, relaxing, AND blogging?!? Yeah, right! Some weeks my entire week is scheduled to the MINUTE, and that is NOT an exaggeration. Of course, I do have a little more free time now that Ethan's living with his dad, but that's new.

3: I have nothing to write about. My life is lame. I'm happy, I'm busy, and stuff happens, but it's boring stuff. Do you really want to know about the dentist that's making me crazy or how sore I am from sparring class? (5 bruises, btw) Ok, a few exciting things happened in the last month; Lawrence gave me a promise ring, Ethan moved to Utah, and our cat died. But anyone who cares already knows all that. OH OH!! My dad and brother just got home! Alert the media! That's my life in a nutshell.

4: I was an art major in school. But I don't really call myself an artist because a) I don't make art and b) I feel no urge to make art. I feel that those two points are really critical to the whole art scene. I'm weird that way. Lawrence suggested one day that maybe my blog was dispersing my need to create something and I started to think that maybe he was right and I should conduct an experiment. I would quit blogging and see what happened. So guess what the outcome is. I had ideas for 2 painting and in the 2 free hours I had on Saturday, I'm now going to buy supplies! So is it more important for me to blog or paint? Blogging sure as hell is cheaper. And takes up less space. Hmmm....maybe I should re-think this.

So maybe I should put up a picture of my promise ring. Maybe I should keep you updated on the painting situation. I'm belt testing next week, maybe I'll tell you how that went. We'll see. Place a vote if you have a preference.

I am the last of the international playboys

2007-05-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

This Friday, the most wonderful thing of all time happened to me. I went to a Morrissey concert! That's what Lawrence got me for mother's day this year, So Friday we made our way to The Palladium Ballroom at 7:30, which is what the concert time was supposed to be. The doors opened at 8, so we got to stand in line in a downpour for half an hour. We shared our golf umbrella with a polite fella named Nick. When we finally got in there, we found out that there is no seating at this venue. How crap is that?!? So we stood around for another half hour, when we got treated to the screaming stylings of Kristen Young. It was not great. After a half an hour of that, they took about 20-30 minutes to revamp the stage while they played strange old movie stuff on the curtain. But finally! It happened! I was so excited that I didn't even noticed when my toes went numb one third of the way into the show due to the fact that I was wearing 2 1/2 inch heels. For some reason, all the tall people decided to stand in front of me, but I still managed to see for the most part. There was a guy standing near me that started yelling "HOW SOON IS NOW!!" after about 2 songs and I really wanted to turn to him and call him a poser, but I refrained. Morrissey changed his shirt 2 or 3 times during the show because he was sweating a lot, and once he even took his shirt off on stage. We dutifully screamed like teenagers, even though he's really old. Towards the end of the show, he said, "My ass is leaving town in ten minutes. . .be on it." I though that was pretty funny. The venue had posted all over the freaking place that we weren't aloud to bring in cameras or take pictures, but people still were with their phones. One person was right up near the stage and when they held their phone up Morrissey looked right at the person and they started to lower the phone, but he nodded his head and struck a pose. He kept shaking the hands of the people in front and cracking jokes. At the end, the band threw out paper airplanes, guitar picks, and the drum sticks, but I didn't get anything (other than the t-shirt Lawrence bought me of course). Morrissey is a really good showman, and I still had the time of my life despite the very sore feet, the tall drunk people, and the volume being so loud the music almost wasn't recognizable. Seriously, I never realized that Morrissey's music had screaming guitar music. Note to the sound person: when the music is distorting, you have it too loud. But it was still amazing. I can't believe how great this year is, Pet Shop Boys, Morrissey, and next month Erasure!! How great is my life!

Also: something cute. There's one part of a song where he says, "This is the last song I will ever sing." And on the cd you hear a crowd screaming, and then he says, "No wait, I changed my mind again," and the crown goes, "ahhh" in a disappointed way, and we did that! The screaming and the ahh and everything. It was AWESOME!! WOO HOO MORRISSEY!!

Boy am I a sucker

2007-05-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I am the single adult rep for my ward at church. I work with the other ward single adult reps and the stake single adult rep to organize events. Well, sometimes a stake will have a single adult conference that everyone in North Texas is invited to. Well, the church leadership decided that they didn't like the conferences to be be all willy nilly like that, so they all agreed to rotate the responsibility between all the stakes and have one every spring and one every fall. Every stake is donating a certain amount to the endeavour so that each conference has a budget of $6000. They scheduled all the stake for the next 6 years. Well, somehow, we, the Denton stake ended up with the 2nd one, the one this fall. So we are trying to plan this gig, and as much as I don't want to do it, I guess I'm committed. So Sunday, Linda (the Stake rep, or in other words, the boss. Also known as Ethan's grandmother.) was wanting to assign the committees. She asked if anyone would volunteer to chair a committee. Well, I looked around the room, and I quickly realized that I would end up in charge of something, so I should probably volunteer for something I was at least somewhat comfortable with before I got stuck with something I would really hate. So I looked over the choices, and I volunteered to chair the food committee. So, in September I have to provide at least three square meals for 400-600 people. Plan menus, buy the food, prepare the food, serve the food. Yikes. So yeah. Who's the sucker? I am! I am!

sluggish yet peppy

2007-05-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Today I watched The Island, and man oh man did I love that movie. Great stuff! Tomorrow I'm supposed to receive season one of Ab Fab. I am so excited! Lest you think everything excites me, I also watched The Day After Tomorrow today, and man was that movie predictable and preachy. You see! I don't love EVERYTHING I watch! Oh yeah, I need to go put season one of Heroes in my queue. I really enjoy the word queue because it totally looks like it shouldn't be a real word. Not only does it have a q, it also has a long string of vowels to boot! Love it!

It's super dooper slow at work, and this week I'll only be working three days. That'll suck on payday, fer shore. I hope this doesn't keep up too long, cause a girl's gotta eat. My last paycheck was a little short and it just so happened that ALL of my bills came out of the one, so I'm am dead broke. My boss keeps telling me to get out of town this weekend and go do something since I'll have a four day weekend. He can't seem to accept the idea that I can't DO anything without money. Of course, on Saturday, I am flying down to Houston so that I can ride back here with Lawrence, but I don't think that's the kind of vacation my boss is thinking of.

I saw a preview for the Bratz movie. It was horrifying. It's live action. And now some stupid little pop song is stuck in my head. Not to mention that there are precious brain cells being taken up with the memory of that preview AND the song from the preview. I think I might need to drill a hole in my skull to get that shit outta there. Seriously.

I miss Lawrence. I also miss Ethan (believe it or not) but not as much as I miss Lawrence, because Ethan is much more high maintenance than Lawrence. And. I'm having allergies. It sucks ass.

July 10th: Feast day of the Virgin Saint Amalberga

2007-04-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

Three historical events that occurred on July 10th:
1) In 988, the city of Dublin was founded (How do they know this happened on July 10th, O wonder?)
2) In 1821, the US took possesion of the territory of Florida from Spain
3) In 1962, Telstar, the world's first communications satelite was launched into orbit

Besides me, three people who were born on July 10th:
1) 1509: John Calvin, Religious reformer
2) 1856: Nikola Tesla, Inventor
3) 1871: Marcel Proust, Writer

here's a freebie-1926: Fred Gwynne, Herman Munster!

Two significant deaths on July 10th:
1) 1978: John D Rockefeller III, businessman
2) 1989: Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble, etc.

July 10th holidays or observances:

-Followers of Meher Baba observe Silence Day
-It is the Bahamas Independence Day
-It's also Muritania's Armed Forces Day
-Apparently, in Ancient Latvia, Septinu Bralu Diena was observed

So there ya go. More than you ever wanted to know about my birthday. I took a page from Kiera's blog and got all my answers from www.answers.com

I hereby, by the authority vested in me by the state of being, do declare Andy AND Shemsi tagged. Does that count as two tags? I say yes.

I also want to thank Kiera for teaching me how to create links. If I had half a brain, I coulda figured it out myself, but since I only have a third of a brain, she helped me out! Holla!

Biatch!

2007-04-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, today the other shoe finally dropped. For a year now, I have been waiting for the day that Lawrence and I would run into his ex-wife. Every time we went to Scarborough or anything for one of his friends or a church event outside of our immediate area, we always worried that she would be there and what the fallout would be. So today was the wedding of some of Lawrence's friends, and when Lawrence called a few weeks ago to RSVP, the information was volunteered that his ex hadn't RSVP'd yet. So we really didn't even worry about it. Then today, we walk into the church just barely in time, and sitting on a bench is a red head that waves at Lawrence and Lawrence gave a little wave back to just before the groom and best man walked up and started talking to Lawrence and myself. So I don't think anything of the red head at first because I'll be honest, the main feature that stuck in my head about Becky (that's her name for anyone who didn't catch on) is that her hair was curly curly, and this woman's hair was straight. But then I got to percolating and wondering if that was her. So we go in and sit on a pew, and she sits down in the very back, and I'm sitting there wondering if it's her and being annoyed that she's behind us so I can't look at her but she can watch me all she wants, when Lawrence says, "Oh, I'm sorry! I should have re-introduced you and Becky! I didn't even think about it!" And I said, "So that IS her. I wasn't sure cause I really didn't remember what she looked like very well." We sit there for a couple of minutes and then she gets up and comes and sits RIGHT BEHIND US. Like, directly behind Lawrence, on the seat immediately behind ours! My exact thoughts: "THAT BITCH!" So that made me uncomfortable, but I figure ya know, if she wants to watch Lawrence and myself hold hand and chat and smile with each other, than that's her problem.

After the ceremony, everyone files out, and as soon as Lawrence and I clear the chapel doors, there's Becky, who proceeded to attach herself to us for almost the rest of the time we were there. She was oh so nice and oh so friendly. All asking me what I'm doing these days, (and what great restraint it took me to not say, "Your ex!") and how's 'Evan' doing, (when I had already called him Ethan and she knew damn well what his name is) and telling wedding horror stories and whatnot. I got a huge tension headache from the stress of not stabbing her in the eye, and my face hurt from smiling so much. Not only did I not kick her ass for screwing up my potential future husband so that he's totally gun shy about getting married again, nobody could even tell that I hate her with a passion! Lawrence said that if he didn't know better, he'd have thought that I actually enjoyed spending time with her. She was there with a guy named David (who seemed like an unpleasant little man, but whom Lawrence says is a real fun guy when he lets lose, and also whom Lawrence says would really like a shot with Becky but she would never go for because he's not a member of our church) who looked really annoyed every time Becky spoke directly to Lawrence, and that kinda make me chuckle inside. Cause I'm mean like that. When Lawrence and I said we were leaving, Becky actually hugged me. HUGGED! WTF?!?

I wondered what Becky['s game was. I figure maybe she thinks that if she's all nice that maybe Lawrence will see what a prize he gave up and take her back. OR that maybe she's like me and in a circumstance like this she likes to keep her friends close and her enemies closer. OR one time she told Lawrence that she "just misses her best friend" and maybe she was trying to be nice to me so that he would see that she isn't trying to get back with him, but we can all be friends! (fat chance.) Lawrence thinks that she's doing the good Christian martyr thing and going, "I'll put in the happy face because I want him to be happy, even if it's not with me." Whatever her reasons are, I'm glad it's finally over and I don't have the threat hanging over my head anymore. And on the plus side (and mushy side), I really feel like Lawrence and I grew closer today. He's such a sweetheart. :)

And in related news, the bride and bride's maids were wearing some of the ugliest and most unflattering dresses I've ever seen. Bride's over 50 (and over weight) should NEVER wear sleeveless. I'm just saying.

dreams of the south

2007-04-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

I have been somewhat ill lately, and last night I had the requisite weird dream that accompanies being sick. I'd thought you'd like to share the joy, so here ya go. I dreamt that I went to visit Shemsi and Andy in South Carolina (just thought I'd squeeze in a plug for their blog while I was at it) which is weird in and of itself, because I have friends in California who have been wanting me to visit them for about 10 years, and if I'm gonna spring for a trip to visit people, I'd much rather go to California. But anyhoo, so I'm riding in the back seat of Shemsi's car because someone else is in the front, but I can't remember who (I remember it was another girl), and Shemsi apologizes for the air conditioner not working very well. She explains that she thinks a mouse has gotten into the engine compartment and chewed through an air conditioning tube. So I come up with the bright idea that we can open the top of the engine and pour in a big bucket of water and that will force the mouse out of the air conditioning. Now, in real life I am well aware that not only would pouring water into the engine probably ruin it, it also would not go into the air conditioner, but you know how dreams are. So, we enact my plan. In my dream Shemsi was driving a little econo box and when I poured in the water, nothing happened for a minute, and then out of some round vent hole on the side of the car (yes I know these are not anything on a real car) comes a bunch of water and about 50 dead mice. It was gross. Then I look back at the hole on top of the engine and about 100 dead and alive mice are coming up out of the hole an I am like, "AH! Yikes!" Cause that's pretty disturbing. So, with that problem solved, we go into the apartment, where Shemsi, Andy, and I chat for a minute, and then I take Ethan out to show him something in the woods next to the apartment complex. On the way back, my visit transforms into a Hollywood movie set in the south, complete with a small town fair and a handsome love interest. There was some complication but I can't remember what it was. Of course there was the required populous of small town southern nutters that made the town oh so colorful. Lawrence did not play the male lead because, well, I love my honey, but let's face it, he's not exactly a Hollywood leading man type. Unless of course, the leading man is played by Kevin Spacey. But my leading man was played by this man: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604747/ Hello good dreams! Other than the mice thing I mean.

I'll never get to go on a cruise!

2007-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've told you all this, but I'm not going on the cruise. The reason for this is that I met Lawrence's sister. Although she has told Lawrence that she likes me, she certainly didn't seem to like me at the time. And we all know that Lawrence's mom doesn't like me. Well, when David and I were thinking about getting married, his sisters didn't like me, and one day I was basically forced by his mother to go to a family event. Well, his sisters didn't like me but were polite and tolerant before, when I went to the event, the gloves were off. They were so mean to me, it wasn't even funny. And I told Lawrence that I thought that if I went on his family's cruise that they would resent it, but that if he talked to his sister and she thought I should go, then I'd go. Of course, she didn't think I should go. Ostensibly she doesn't think it's appropriate for Lawrence and I to go on vacation together before we're married even though we wouldn't be sharing a room and they would all be there so it's not like we could DO anything. Also, if Lawrence and I break up, then they'll have all these pictures with me in them that they don't want anymore. Sounds like bullshit to me, but whatever. So, no cruise for me. Lawrence is very sad, but he'll just have to cope.

Also, Lawrence and I had a discussion a couple of months ago where we agreed that we were going to get engaged soon. But, after another discussion a couple of weeks ago, I had to come to the realization that Lawrence is simply not ready to get married anytime soon. So I have to think of him as merely a boyfriend, not as ALMOST my fiance. So if you see anyone that's gonna pressure me and ask when we're getting married, please tell them to bugger off, cause it's something of a sore subject for me right now. Tomorrow's the first time I'm going to church since this epiphany, and since about 3-7 people ask me every Sunday if I have a ring or an announcement yet, I'm not looking forward to the experience. Some fun!

My VisualDNA

2007-04-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Katamari has HUGE BALLS!

2007-03-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

So this weekend, my honey and I went and bought technology. Seriously, my baby is a balla now. He boughts a 50 inch plasma HD flat screen Panasonic TV and a HD upconverting DVD recorder. He also bought a pretty sweet TV table for the new TV. Prince of Persia is very very pretty on this TV. Katamari is hardly affected. He also bought 2 wireless controllers for the PS2, since the couch is too far away from the PS2 to use the wired ones now. We watched half of Spiderman, and all of True Lies. He wanted to see special effects and explosions, and as it was his turn to pick the movie, I wasn't gonna argue. The whole setup is pretty sweet. Now we just need surround sound and will be mad pimpin'.

Ethan came back from Utah today. He's tan and Becky cut his hair. So yeah. Ok, I don't feel like talking anymore. BYE-EEEEE!

blarg

2007-03-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Ethan's gone to Utah for spring break, and for once, I actually miss him. And I started missing him right away, I didn't wait three months like usual. I hope this doesn't indicate a reversal, where I stop missing him just before he comes back. I feel that could only go badly.

I'm suffering mad allergies lately. My throat hurts like I went for an evening at a battery acid tasting. Plus, I gots no energy. Sad really.

I don't know if I've told you this, but I got my right ear pierced a third time. I like it, and it stopped hurting for the most part. I wish it was healed already, but these things take time.

Also, my mom was in the hospital for almost two weeks. Blood clots in her legs and all. Apparently, that's a big deal, just because it can cause instant sudden death. But, she's out now, with the addition of a filter right by her heart, to catch arrant future clots. That sounds kinda like the title of a sci-fi book. "Arrant Future Clots," by Frederick Pohl. Feel free to suggest what the plot might be about.

I'm hungry. You can also feel free to suggest what I should eat, cause I'm outta ideas here. Really, I got nuthin.

Somedays

2007-03-05T14:22:00.000-08:00

Somedays I think that I should make more of an effort to take pleasure from the small thing in life. Other days I think to myself, "Is this really all there is?"

On the taking small pleasures front, I saw a character in a comic strip that was wearing a shirt that said, "I'd verb his noun." I thought that was pretty freakin hilarious. I also think I need that shirt. Fer reals.

PB Woes

2007-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

Every since they jerked the only brand of peanut butter I can eat off the market because it's contaminated with Salmonella, all I freaking want is a freaking peanut butter sandwich. Damnation. I wish they'd get some new non-salmonella pb out for me. :(

I could do it with integrity, I could do it with disgrace

2007-02-25T20:18:00.000-08:00

My child is so cool. Today he wanted to listen to "that CD that has "Can't Talk to a Psycho" and "Angry Johnny" on it. In other words, my Poe CD. How sweet is that?!? Early he passed me and he was singing "Trigger Happy Jack" under his breath. Coolest ten-year-old ever.

In other news, last night some of us went to see Kodo Drummers perform. If you're not in the know, Kodo Drummers are those Japanese peeps that play drums all rigorous like, sometimes in nothing but a diaper thong. As I was watching the show, which was pretty entertaining, btw, it occured to me that a Kodo Drumming game would be perfect for the Wii, what with the crazy motion sensitive controller and all. Am I right?!? I'm totally right and you know it. Even if it was just regular drumming, it could be Nintendo's answer to Guitar Hero. Mark my words, it would be HUGE. I should take out a patent.

You mean Xena isn't an aspect of Shiva?

2007-02-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

So, I've been watching Xena season 4, and there were a spate of episodes where Xena and Gabrielle are traveling in India. At the beginning of these episodes, there was a disclaimer stating that the writers took some liberty with Hindu deities and beliefs, but their sole purpose was to illustrate the beauty of the Hindu religion. I have no problem with the whole not wanting to offend thing, but I mean, seriously, we're talking about Xena: Warrior Princess here, it's not like it's exactly a documentary. They took liberties with all kinds of religions; Greek gods, pagan beliefs, amazon beliefs, Christianity, etc. I think that if you're watching Xena, you can probably just take for granted that you shouldn't be using it as a guide for religious facts and history. So why don't they have a disclaimer for all religions? Why just Hindus? Just thought that was interesting.

The seaweed is always greener. . .

2007-02-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, so I'll go ahead and tell the whole story in case I haven't. Lawrence's parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and they have decided that they would like to take a cruise with their family and closest friends, rather than have a party. They are also getting a chunk of money, so any family who can't afford to go can get subsidized through them, although that amount is limited, so ya know. Well, Lawrence wants me to go, but of course, I'm not family, so if I go, he has to pay for me. Not only does he have to pay for me, he has to pay for a separate cabin for me, as we're not married and this is polite Mormon folks, meaning a boy and a girl can't sleep in the same room together unless they're married. His parents are cool with me coming (according to Lawrence) and have specified that he and I can do whatever we want during the day, but would be expected to attend dinner and select other activities with the family, so I wouldn't even have to spend the entire time with his mother, um, I mean. . .his relatives. All this would occur in May, and it would be a five day cruise which includes Jamaica and two other places, although I can't recall what they are. Now, I'm trying really hard not to get too excited, because I know that Lawrence might not be able to afford to pay my way, and I sure as HELL can't afford to pay for myself, but I am failing miserably on the not getting excited arena. How awesome would going on a cruise be?!? I mean, SERIOUSLY! We'd sail out of Galveston on May 14th, which is Lawrence's birthday. I have also never been to Galveston, so bonus! Lawrence really wants me to go too, since even though it'll be his family, he'll be the only one without a significant other if I'm not there, and that would really suck. So, keep your fingers crossed, and be prepared to offer me a hanky to cry into if I don't get to go. The tropics! SWEET!

Baby boy

2007-02-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Since Kiera asked about Mark and Brietta's baby, I guess not everyone got an email, so I will give you all the 411. On Friday, December 15th at 6:15pm, Connor was born. He was 6lbs and 12oz and 19 inches long. They are all doing well, and Cooper has hardly any sibling rivalry. (Cooper's their dog for anyone who forgot.) So there ya go.

My movie reviews

2007-02-06T14:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I watched Finding Comedy in the Muslim World, and I thought it was amusing. There were a few parts where I actually laughed, but here's the thing I'm wondering: WHY does Albert Brooks bill himself as a comedian when he is simply not funny? Oh don't get me wrong, he sometimes makes me smile, but he's more like guy in the next cubicle kind of funny, not professional actor/comedian funny. This is something I've been complaining about since I saw the movie, so some of you may have already commented on this, but I felt the need to alert the blogging community at large.

I also watched The Man Who Fell to Earth. Like Labyrinth, it ALSO starred David Bowie's package. Only in a much more literal sense. In that I got to see David Bowie's unclothed semi-erect penis. I would say this makes me special, but how many people in the world HAVEN'T seen David Bowie's penis, really? I also saw lots and lots and lots of boobies and bush. Seriously. My boss recommended this movie to me, and when I pointed out all the blatant nudity, he was surprised because he didn't remember that from when it was released in 1976. He's not losing his mind though, that stuff was cut out of the American release in order to get an R rating. That movie was very strange and I wanted to move on after I saw it, but I couldn't. I couldn't figure out some of the major plot points, so I finally went to IMDB where people who have read the book explained everything, thank heavens. I recommend that you ALL see this movie. Not because I think you'll like it, but because it is so very strange that I feel like I shouldn't be alone.

You should ALSO see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but not because it's strange; you should see it because it's AWESOME! Seriously. I loved it. I rushed out and bought it. I kid you not. It has Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer. And some girl, whatever. :) It's kind of a pulp mystery sort of storyline. But I don't want to ruin it. Go rent or buy it now, this second! GO! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!? Get out of here!

A tale of two chins

2007-02-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I had been trying to lose weight. I started this journey at 260 pounds, and lost down to 185 after more than a year. I then made the mistake of starting to date the love of my life who not only plied me with rich dinners and ice cream, but exhibited unbridled enjoyment at watching me enjoy food, and constantly told me how gorgeous I am. That selfish bastard! So, I went back up to 233. Sad, but true. So, this winter, my joints have started hurtin' sumtin fierce, and I came to the realization that in order to avoid the fate of crippled arthritic in a wheelchair (IE: my mom), I would HAVE to get down to a reasonable weight and stay there while also staying active. *GASP* Fate worse than death! Well, just as I came to this realization (while everyday saying, "I'll start tomorrow") my tae kwon do school announced that they were having a "Biggest Loser" competition. You see, every person who wanted to participate would throw in ten bucks and be weighed at the beginning of January. Then, on March 3rd, whoever lost the most weight would win all the cash. What could be better, thought I; If I win money or just lose weight, I win either way. So, I plunged back into the healthy living pool with a great big belly flop, although this time, I determined that I should make changes that I could possibly do for the rest of my life: or in other words, I made a lifestyle change. I still eat out sometimes. (Hee hee. "Eat out.") I still eat meat and bread and potatoes. I just try to get more veggies and I eat reasonable portions and get more exercise. It's actually working out quite well. As of the last weigh in on February 2nd, I was officially in the lead, with a total weight loss of 10 pounds. If I keep that pace, I can be in my ideal weight range in July. So, hopefully, hopefully! Wish me luck boys and girls. And if you see me stuffing my face, go ahead and knock the food out of my hand. I'll thank you for it later, when I'm a smokin' hottie. Oh yeah, and when I can walk without my knees and ankles crying out in pain.

the frugal reception

2007-02-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have discovered that my connections could potentially make my wedding reception very inexpensive. You see, I have a friend (more like an acquaintance) who's a chef and wants to cater my reception at friend prices. She did a pretty kick ass reception where she only charged $1.70 per person, and the food was awesome, so that's gonna be one way that I'll save money.

Then, my brother's girlfriend is a cake decorator at Candy Haven and she says she wants to do my cake. Now I'm not sure if she means at a discount or for free or for full price, but I'm assuming she means at a discount (since she won't let us buy anything there without using her employee discount), so that's really cool. She's the most amazing cake decorator, AND I saw their wedding cake showroom, and they have the perfect cake that I think is gorgeous. Plus, I looked at the flavors, and I want a dark chocolate fudge cake with raspberry (or strawberry. or cherry) filling and cream cheese frosting. YUMMY!

I have another friend that I used to work with at Lifetouch who's an amazing photographer who has offered to give me a discount on wedding photos. The only problem is that he doesn't photograph fatties very well, so I have to lose the weight if I plan on using him.

Being Mormon, I could have my reception at the church if I wanted to (which I really don't, but still), which Kiera told me costs $50. Last night I was talking to lifelong friend's of the family who own a cleaning company named the Dartts (the family is the Dartt family, it is not the cleaning company that is called the Dartts.), and mama Dartt said that they only charge you if they have to clean it and if I have my reception at the church and they try to charge me, just tell them that the Dartt's are taking care of it. So, I could get a free reception place if it comes to it.

Of course, I happen to have a blacksmith friend who's gonna help Lawrence out with mad ring hook-ups, so that should be gravy.

Now for the hard parts: the flowers and the dress. I haven't spoken to her in a decade, but I used to have a good friend who was a seamstress who always said she would make my wedding dress for me. I wonder what would happen if I tracked her down. Now I just have to make friend's with a florist real fast. Hmmmm. Anybody know any florists? Josh? You're gay, come on, hook a sista up!

yay for surveys!

2007-01-26T14:47:00.000-08:00

I saw this on MySpace and decided it could be my next post since there is nothing interesting in my life to talk about.

Tired of those same old 55 questions about me surveys? Well here are 55 I guarantee you've never answered.

1. Is your second toe longer than your first?
nope

2. Do you have a favorite type of pen?
yes

3. Look at your planner for January 17, what are you doing?
I don't know that is about a year away, but since it's on a Thursday, I'd say working and going to to TKD.

4. What color are your toenails usually?
I usually paint them pink, red, gold, silver, or blue.

5. What is the last thing you highlighted?
I remember highlighting something a few weeks ago, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.

6. What color are your bathroom towels?
sage

7. What color are the seats in your car?
grey

8. Have you ever had a black and white cat?
ah, Scarface. What a sweetie. That was my family's cat, that still counts, right?

9. What is the last thing you put a stamp on?
receipts I mailed to my son's dad. Actually, I put the stamps on the envelope.

10. Do you know anyone who lives in Wyoming?
Dear Lord, no.

11. Why did you withdraw cash from the ATM the last time?
I can't remember the last time I got money from the ATM, to be honest. I cash my paychecks and deposit the cash, so I just keep out what I'll need.

12. Who is the last baby that you held?
I think it was Isabelle.

13. Do you know of any twins with rhyming names?
Thank heavens, no.

14. Do you like Cinnamon toothpaste?
gross!

15. What kind of car were you driving 2 years ago?
Ford Explorer

16. Pick one: Miami Hurricanes or Florida gators?
Uh, gators are more easily contained than hurricanes, so I guess I'll choose them. :) Oh, are we talking about sports?

17. Last time you went to Six Flags?
Last summer. Ethan was a whiny little bitch.

18. Do you have any wallpaper in your house?
I live in a mobile home. They come standard with wallpaper, but I think we've painted over most of it.

19. Closest thing to you that is yellow:
Ethan's report card. A's and B's, thank you very much.

20. Last person to give you a business card?
a guy from church to whom I was needing to send an email.

21. Who is the last person you wrote a check to?
School for Ethan's lunches.

22. Closest framed picture to you?
I think the closet one is actually a picture of me and Ethan. Tee hee.

23. Last time you had someone cook for you?
Sunday. Lawrence cooks for me all the time. Oh wait, I think my mom made dinner once since then.

24. Have you ever applied for welfare?
My son was completely paid for by the government! But that's Medicaid, not welfare, so does that count? I was also on WIC when I was pregnant. Does that count? In conclusion, I have no idea.

25. How many emails do you have?
Do you mean email addresses or actual emails? Cause I have two email addresses, but I don't think I could even count how many emails I have. I mean, there's the inbox, and then there's tons of folders with who knows how many saved emails in them. I'm not even going to discuss the bulk mail.

26.Last time you received flowers?
about two weeks ago. Lawrence is letting me down. He promised me weekly flowers!

27. Do you think the sanctity of marriage is meant for only a man & woman?
I think that sanctity has nuthin to do with it. The only reason for homosexual marriage is illegal is because religious folk think it's a sin, and we have a thing called separation of church and state, so really, they don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to keeping homosexuals from getting married. It should be legal, and then churches can refuse to marry them if they want.

29. Do you play air guitar?
Am I a ten year old boy? So, no, I don't play air guitar.

30. Do you take anything in your coffee?
I don't drink coffee, but when I did, I took sugar and cream. And sometimes Kahlua.

31. Do you have any Willow Tree figurines?
I have no idea what that even means.

32. What is your high school's rival mascot?
Does my high school have a rival? I don't even know!

33. Last person you spoke to from high school?
Mike

34. Last time you used hand sanitizer?
I don't like hand sanitizers because they leave a film on your hands. I'd much rather just go wash them with soap.

35. Would you like to learn to play the drums?
not really, but I would take the opportunity if it presented itself.

36. What color are the blinds in your living room?
beige.

37. What is in your inbox at work?
don't have one

38. Last thing you read in the newspaper?
I don't read the paper except when a headline catches my eye. So the last thing I read was about a woman who lives in Argyle that can't go outside because she was exposed to so many pollutants her body became allergic to everything. She lives in a special trailer with all these filters and stuff. She makes jewelry to keep herself mentally stable.

39. What was the last pageant you attended?
Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever been to a pageant. Have I been missing out?

40. What is the last place you bought pizza from?
Olive Branch.

41. Have you ever worn a crown?
Of course! On my birthday my friends bought me a silver plastic tiara with a big butterfly on the front that has flashing multicolored lights in the wings. I just put it on the other day as a matter of fact.

42. What is the last thing you stapled?
Something at the library at church, I'm sure.

43. Did you ever drink Clear Pepsi?
Yeah man. I'm actually one of the four people nation wide that liked it.

44. Are you ticklish?
I'm not ticklish. I'm not ticklish. I'm NOT ticklish!

45. Last time you saw fireworks?
Labour day I think. Wait, I think I saw some random ones on New Years.

46. Last time you had a Krispy Kreme doughnut?
Couple of months ago.

47. Who is the last person that left you a message & you actually returned their call?
I think it was the guy from the bank.

48. Last time you parked under a carport?
When I picked up Lawrence at the airport. Oh, I guess that's a parking garage.

49. Do you have a black dog?
No, I fully intend to never have a dog.

50. Do you have any pickles in your fridge?
Do you see by my picture where it says, "Margie the Pickle Princess?" Of course, I have pickles in my fridge.

51. Are you an aunt or uncle?
no.

52. Who has the prettiest eyes that you know of?
I like that guy's eyes that played Chris on Charmed. What?!?

53. When was the last time you saw a semi-truck?
Today. I live in Texas. All I have to do is look out the window and I'll see one.

54. Do you remember Ugly Kid Joe?
Of course. My Ugly Kid Joe CD (America's Least Wanted) got all scratched up when it fell under my seat, dammit.

55. Do you have a little black dress?
Yes.

redirect

2007-01-24T20:10:00.000-08:00

So, I've been asked to let everyone know to read Raine's blog about Cainnum, so here's the link: http://raineydayrealestate.blogspot.com/

I'll write a real post soon, but no time now.

I guess it's serious

2007-01-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

As of yesterday, Lawrence and I have been dating 1 whole year. It's hard to believe! I must say, I've never been in a relationship where we dated fer reals for a year straight. I mean, I've been "with" a guy secretly for that long, and I dated my son's dad for almost two years, but we broke up almost monthly, so I don't think that really counts as a serious, solid relationship. Some days I can't believe it's been a year already, and some days it feels like we've been dating forever. And, quite frankly, between him being pretty annoying in a lot of ways, and me being a demanding and neurotic bitch, I'm shocked neither one of us has dumped the other yet. And the weirdest thing is that we don't even fight or anything. I mean, we've had a couple of fights, but I think two minor fights that get resolved before the evening is over in a year is a pretty damn good track record. We disagree about things, but we actually talk about them and work things out like real people are supposed to. It's just weird, really. Some days I think that I should dump him for his own good, so that he's not saddled with this bag of mood swing that is me for eternity, but when I actually seriously consider it, it's like the lights go off in my brain and all the air gets sucked out of my lungs, so I guess I won't do it. The truth is, I've never been happier in my life, and I find that to be strange and foreign, but in a way that I think I could probably get used to.

So, down to the nitty gritty. For our anniversary, we exchanged gifts, of course, and I got him two movies and a sweatshirt. (We had agreed ahead of time that I'm am poor as hell right now and that I would either not get him anything or would get him something inexpensive.) He got me a SanDisk Sansa c250 MP3 player. It's totally swwweeeeet! Not only does it play MP3's, it also has an FM tuner and recorder! That's always been my problem with most MP3 players; I was like, what if I get tired of what I have on there and want to listen to the radio, eh? So no problem there. It's 2 GB, but it also has a slot for a microSD card, so I can expand the memory, so that's pretty cool. It can also store and show pictures and has a voice recorder, neither of which I can see myself using, but it's nice to know they're there. He also got me a sports pack to go with it, that has a neoprene case with a belt clip and an armband so that I can wear it while I'm exercising, which is exactly why I wanted an MP3 player in the first place.

So now I have a kick ass MP3 player AND a sweet sweet boyfriend! How lucky can one girl be? Now I just have to upload all my cd's to the computer and transfer them to the Sansa. Uh. . . that should be. . .fun. :)

Must we read a blog based on lies?!?

2006-12-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hark! I hath been taggeth. So the dealio is that I am supposed to write five interesting facts about myself, but the catch is that one is made up: a lie if you will. I really can't imagine that I'll be able to think up anything you people haven't read on here already, but I'm willing to give it a try. BTW, I still haven't found anyone to help me with my template problems. I'm looking for volunteers if anyone cares to pitch in. So here we go.

1) I really hate playing Scrabble. It was my mom's favorite game when I was growing up and she always made me play it with her. I hated it, I don't think I'm good at it, and to this day I pretty much avoid any kind of game involving scrambles of letters. I really like Life. I'm a simple sort, I guess.

2) I once knew a guy who believed that he had been called by God to restore polygamy to the Earth, and "God" (or the voices. whatever.) told him that I was to be his number one wife. I had to say a big NO to that one. He recovered quickly. I guess when "God" has a whole passel of women lined up for you, there really are plenty of fish in the sea.

3) I once had a huge crush on a guy named Yoshi. (It was short for Tsiyoshi.) Now every time I think of Mario games, it reminds me of him, and I smile a little.

4) Once when I was a kid, there was a cotton mouth snake at the bus stop and one of the older guys killed it. They then put it down where the bus would drive so that the bus ran over it and squished it. It was gross.

5) When I was in first or second grade, I had a parakeet named Cindy, whom I loved like crazy. At least once a week when I came home from school, mom would tell me that Cindy was dead, usually that the cat ate her or that I left the cage open and she got out and ran into something. I would always then run crying to my room to find that Cindy was perfectly fine. Then one day, Cindy really did die, probably because of a draft or something, and I didn't believe my mom when she told me. I was so shocked when I went to my room and she was laying on the bottom of the cage. I was hoping that she got in on the joke somehow, but apparently not.

So there ya go. Which is the lie? I hope it's not too, too obvious. :)

My Christmas, or why I don't blog anymore

2006-12-27T22:46:00.000-08:00

I am annoyed with Blogger. Do you want to know why? Because it forced me to get a Google account in order to comment on Cainnum's blog, and it was a big huge pain in the ass, and now my blog is all messed up because everything on my sidebar starts AFTER all my blog listing instead of being at the top and that seriously pisses me off. And since I know nothing about HTML, I don't know how to fix it. Plus, I'm kinda sick of blogging anyway because I don't have anything interesting to write about anymore and none of my friends blog anymore. And I got a little soured by the whole pictures not working out on the picture blog I was trying to do and by people on another blog totally attacking everything I say because they are immature and take themselves WAY too seriously, and the whole thing just kinda made me think, "Well, if this is the kind of people reading blogs, maybe I don't even want to have one." (Which is NOT a commentary on the blogger in question, who has an intelligent and quality blog that is very enjoyable to read.) Plus, blogger is problematic as often as it isn't and every time I think of something to blog about, it is immediately followed by the thought that blogging might actually be so difficult as to not even be worth it. So this is just a commentary on why I don't blog very much anymore.

In conclusion, I had a great Christmas and received many wonderful gifts. They are:
Xena season 4
Buffy seasons 3 & 4
a cameo necklace
some hair clips and hairbands
glow bracelets
candy and more candy
two Tannith Lee books
temporary tattoos
a box cutter (which is sweet!)
a mini-mag light (which I asked for)
measuring cups and spoons
a video game for a system I don't have that I returned for credit
Rocket Slime for the DS
a set of plastic party glasses
a Blockbuster gift card
a CD: Erasure, The Very Best 20 Hits
a DVD recorder (TOTALLY SWEET!)

So, all in all, it was a pretty good haul, not that that is the important thing. The important thing is that we had a good day, marred only by the fact that my love was far away in Pennsylvania. *le sigh* But he's back now and all's right in the world. Except for the fact that I now hate Blogger. Yep. That's about it fer now. See ya!

Ethan times

2006-12-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

The other night I wasn't feeling well, so I decided that, dammit, I was going to have me some chocolate frosting. I eat it right from the container with a spoon. Here's a conversation that ensued:

Ethan: Why are you eating that cream stuff right out of the can?
Me: Because I want to.
Ethan: I can't wait to be an adult.
Me: Yep. It's pretty awesome.

So, I get the award for worst example, but I mean, the kid has a point. I hear people telling kids to enjoy their childhood, it's the best time of their life and all. No responsibilities and what not. But you know what I say to those people? FUCK THAT. I fucking hated being a kid. You're always under somebody's thumb. Always controlled by the seemingly random whims of adults. Plus, you're too short to reach the top shelf of the closet, and everyone knows that's where they keep the good stuff. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to be an adult. Some people say, oh, but the responsibility, the worries! You know what I say to that? It's worth it. You can be your own person and make your own decisions. Even if it FEELS like you don't have a choice on something, you still do. Here's an example: You hate your job and your boss is an asshole. You can choose to a) find a new job, b) suffer through it, or c) quit your job and live on the streets. You might think that some of those things aren't actually options, but they are! And it's really that simple. When you're a kid, if your boss (IE: your parent, guardian, babysitter, or teacher) is an ass, you know what you can do? Suffer. Sure, you could run away from home or act out, but those really aren't solutions, just stop gaps. Plus, most kids don't have the sophisticated problem solving skills to realize that they can do anything other than suffer. And I even remember when I was a kid and people would tell me all that crap about how that was the best time of my life, I really did think to myself and say in some instances, "Well, I better just go ahead and fucking kill myself now and save myself the trouble later." In conclusion, being an adult is awesome. So says the 32-year-old woman who is living with her parents practically rent free.

Here's another amusing Ethan story for you from earlier this week:

I was driving through an intersection when the traffic which had been moving quite nicely suddenly slammed to a halt, leaving me in the middle of the intersection. I really try not to block intersections, because I hate when people do that and then their light turns red and mine turns green but I can't fucking go because they are a huge jackass, but ya know, what can ya do? Sometimes it happens. So we're sitting there in the middle of the intersection and Ethan says, "You know what those people are thinking right now?" "What?" says I. "Bitch," says Ethan. I say, "Ethan! You shouldn't use words like that." He asks, "Well what are they thinking then?" To which I reply, "Well, yeah, that's totally what they're thinking, but you still shouldn't use words like that!" And we laughed and laughed. Good times.

Ethan had his first absence of the year today. He was running a fever of 102.5, so I thought he deserved it. AND my boyfriend's sick too. And it's all thanks to me, who was sick first! I'm typhoid Margie! Hooray!

My annual Christmas list

2006-11-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

Well, the time has come once again to discuss what everyone's going to be getting me for Christmas this year. I know that everyone loves me, and wants to get me things that ROCK, so I thought I'd offer a few suggestions.

I have a wish list on www.Amazon.com You can see a link to it on the side bar, but, sadly, it doesn't seem to take you directly to my list. But you can find me if you type in my first and last name. You don't know my last name? Well, then you probably aren't obligated to buy me a gift. Please take note that Buffy season three is STILL on my wishlist.

I like cool/funny tees. I have really been impressed by the ones on http://www.bustedtees.com/male and http://www.defunker.com/
I also really want this shirt: http://www.cafepress.com/buy/Mormon/-/pv_design_prod/p_1513549.70530643/pNo_70530643/id_13979391/fpt_/opt_/c_360/pg_
Wow, that was a long link. Just FYI: I wear a women's xl or a men's med or large.

Of course, I want an MP3 player, but not enough to actually buy one myself.

Ummm. . .yeah. I guess I'm an easy sell this year. Go forth! Buy me stuff! I strongly encourage everyone to make a list, it'll make my life a lot easier. :)

"Mother-In-Law" is a stereotype for a reason

2006-11-21T19:10:00.001-08:00

Since Lawrence's parents left, I have spent a fair amount of brain power thinking about things they said. Well, actually, I've been thinking about things Lawrence's mom said. His dad is an absolute sweetheart and Lawrence claims that his dad just adores me and approves of our union wholeheartedly. He also spent some time showing me how to saw on my violin, so that was fun. He says that if they ever move down here, he'll teach me to play! And, he wouldn't let Lawrence pay for anything while they were here, telling him to save his money for a ring. :)

Lawrence's mom, on the other hand, has caused me a fair amount of increased forehead wrinkles. Lawrence says that she said that she likes me and didn't say anything else about me, bad or good. Lawrence's mom is VERY negative and has no qualms about expressing her opinions, so Lawrence and his sister both agree that her not saying bad things about me is a very good sign. But. she did say some things that bothered me. Like she said, "Lawrence, is it Margie that's fattening you up? Because you've always been thin as a board!" Ok. So, is it just me, or does it sound like she's saying that I'm fat, so I must be responsible for Lawrence's increased belly size? (Which is something he had when I started dating him, thank you very much.) When I pressed Lawrence to find out what his parents thought of my appearance, he reluctantly admitted that his mother said only one thing, "Well, Margie's certainly not like Becky is she?" (Becky is Lawrence's first wife, and Lawrence's mother's favorite bashing topic is Becky, just FYI.) Lawrence agreed that I am nothing like Becky, but wanted to know exactly what she meant. She said, "Well, she doesn't care about her appearance like Becky does." Um. I tried really hard to look nice that night, so I was a little offended by this. Ok. Not a little, more like a lot. My response when Lawrence told me this was somewhere along the lines of, "WHAT is THAT supposed to mean?!?" Lawrence claims up and down that Becky was always the kind of yuppyish chameleon that had to have every hair in place and her nails perfectly manicured, with just the perfect name brand outfit and her personality tailor made for the occasion, and that I'm not like that; I dress how I feel and I don't wear much makeup and I'm me no matter whom I'm with. Ok, well it sure as hell sounded a lot worse than that, but whatever. I won't be criticized by a woman who wears a thick layer of metallic baby blue eye shadow. So these are examples of things she said, but I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet. Her only concern about Lawrence marrying me is. . .you guessed it. . .Ethan. (I hear from Lawrence that is.) She is absolutely convinced and will not be moved on the idea that ADHD means "Special Needs," like rides the short bus "special." She even asked Lawrence if they were going to try to mainstream Ethan at school. Hello! He IS mainstream! He doesn't have to wear a helmet to walk or anything! He gets to write with sharp pencils and everything! It doesn't help at all that he acts like a nine year old but looks like a twelve year old, that really just confirms her beliefs. For some reason, I find it very offensive and disconcerting that she thinks my child is retarded. I should mail her his standardize test results showing that he, on average, scores in the high ninetieth percentile. And I find it even more disconcerting that this is STILL bothering me even though she's been gone for a week and a half. Oh well. At least she lives in California, ya know what I'm saying?!?

mom

2006-11-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Dude, my life has been hella stressed lately. Long story short, and to the fact that I was all hob-nobbing with Lawrence's parents that fact that my mom has been in the hospital since Saturday night. She's got spinal stenosis, seems like, and it's way painful. They gave her three shots of steroids to the spine yesterday plus some kinda numbing shot to boot. If it works, she'll have to have that done every 3-6 months for the rest of her life. So, that's fun. She just got home from the hospital today. I must say, it sure is stressful having to be a fer real single mother. I had to rearrange my work schedule so that I get off in time to be home for Ethan getting off the bus. Then I had to all help him with his homework and shit. What's up with that?!? AND I had to like, watch him all the time, and make arrangements for someone else to watch him when I wanted to go somewhere. What the HELL?!? How do people do it? Lawrence says I better get used to it, because when we have kid(s), this is what'll be like. I told him that this was probably not the smartest thing for him to point out. So anyway. My boss had me sign us up for NetFlix, and he's paying for it, but so far he's let me pick out all the movies, so this is AWESOME. Today, I was watching memoirs of a Geisha (which I still have 45 minutes left to watch, so I can't tell you if it's good or not.), and we got Over the Hedge, Thank You For Smoking, and Sleepy Hollow. It's very exciting, because I had watched all my movies.

Tomorrow Ethan is leaving to spend Thanksgiving week with his dad, and I am looking forward to a vacation. All this parenting has been absolutely exhausting.

Met the parents

2006-11-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true. I have now met the parents. I was super nervous for weeks, and then yesterday, I experienced a strange calm all day. Then, just as Lawrence and I were driving up to the hotel, my nervousness returned with gale force. But, it all went well. His parent's were pleasant and conversed with me freely. Toward the end of the evening, his dad gave me some bits of advice for living with Lawrence, which I take as a very good sign. His mother finishes everyone's sentences for them. I can definitely tell where Lawrence gets a lot of his traits from. But, all in all, it was a very pleasant evening. During lunch yesterday, Lawrence told me that he had a surprise for me, then later he told me he lied; he didn't have a surprise for me, he had TWO surprises! The first was. . .new glasses! That's right, he snuck around behind my back and got himself new glasses! They are SO SO much better than the old ones, but they'd almost have to be really. He looks so cute in them! Of course, I think he's cute in general, but I might be biased. The second surprise was a splurge purchase. He bought me silver hoop earrings from Jarrod's Jewelers! I couldn't believe it. I think I'm obligated to say, "He went to Jarrod's," everytime someone notices them. At least that's what the commercials would have me believe. I also found out that Lawrence's mom (who's name is Thurza, btw. Thurza?!?) brought with her Lawrence's baby blankets. The one he used, and the one he was blessed in. Their both very nice, but I did wonder at her timing. I said, "Ok, is she just getting them out of her house, or is she planning on them being used soon?" Lawrence said he wondered the same thing, but didn't ask. lol. Anyhoo. All in all, it was a good evening.

I don't understand

2006-11-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

Hey kids. Still haven't figured out the picture situation. Maybe someday I will be able to get that damn post finished.

I'm in something of a mood right now, I must say. I once saw a t-shirt that said across the front, "I can't, I'm Mormon." Now I think that is hilarious, cause, well, lets face it, it does seem that Mormons are prohibited from doing pretty much anything that most people would consider fun. But I read articles about how Utah Mormons got all up in arms about this t-shirt because it made it seem like we WANT to drink and smoke and do the two backed mattress dance, but we don't just because we're told not to. They made the postulation that we deny ourselves, not because we're told to, but because it's the right thing, and they wouldn't do those things EVEN IF THEY WEREN'T MORMON. Um. . .excuse me? Are they FUCKING MORONS? Hi, um. . .those things are fun. Millions of people all over the world do them freely because they are tons and tons of fun, and any sheltered little Mormon idiot who thinks otherwise needs to stay in his or her little bubble forever so that they never have to question their beliefs or see the world for what it really is. And I am in no way trying to bash the Mormon religion here. I believe there are good reasons to avoid those things. I am bashing stupid airheaded Mormons who don't realize that their way of life isn't the only way of life. But, I have diverged from my original point. I had found the original website that sold those t-shirts, and had bookmarked it for the day when I had money to purchase said tee. So I went back one day to see if they had any new stock, and low and behold, the website has been changed to something new. I guess they crumbled under the pressure. Sad.

So today I did a search to see if anyone else was selling this t-shirt, and I did find some. I also found many MANY Mormon bashing t-shirts, as well as numerous blogs, forums, and websites dedicated to Mormon bashing. To all these people I would just like to say, "WHAT THE FUCK DID WE EVER DO TO YOU?" I really really don't understand. Sure, I was raised (from the age of 7) Mormon. But, I had to be converted myself and I am Mormon of my own free will and because I really believe it is where I need to be. My brothers are not participating in the church, and I have no problem with that because maybe it's NOT where they need to be. While I do believe that Mormonism is the most complete religion on the Earth, I don't believe you are going to Hell if you're not Mormon. I believe that Mormonism is only right for some people, and that we do not have the market on truth cornered. I believe that you can be a good person and be doing all the things that you need and be growing and learning as a person and still be Catholic, Methodist, Buddhist, or even atheist. And this is what true Mormonism is all about. Sure I know that they tell us to do the missionary work like crazy, but it's still up to the person who is being taught whether they want to participate or not. It's not a cult, there's no brainwashing, and you are free to join or not as you wish. So why the hell is that SO deplorable that people feel the need to spew hate and venom about us? I'm so upset about this that I am actually nauseous. I don't know why it has upset me so much, but maybe it's because it's so clearly wrong for us to be persecuted like that. I have never hated any group of people on so little basis so much that I feel the need to wear a t-shirt deriding them. Like, one shirt I saw said, "NotMormon: Mormonism, just say no!" Um. . .ok. Just say no. Why go around advertising that you feel that everyone should say no? I just don't get it. When I was in high school and college, I faced many blatant attacks on my religion from kids and preachers of some of the Baptist churches around here. They would revile me and tell me all kinds of things about my church that are simply not true. They would call me names and attack my intelligence. I feel that I have good reason to hate Baptists. But I don't. I know that those were misguided individuals who felt like they were doing what was right to try to help me see the light. I know that not every Baptist feels that way, or would do those things. I would never go around wearing a shirt slandering the Baptist religion. (Although I do sometimes make jokes about Baptists, but only with close friends. I know, I should be better than that. I'm sorry.) Why am I to be hated merely because I choose to belong to a church who places family above work, who places a large emphasis on community service and service to our fellow man, who teaches kindness, forgiveness, and love, who contributed more in the way of supplies and aid after the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina than any other non-governmental organization(except maybe the Red Cross), who allows people to join as they wish and never coerces people into membership. I just don't get it.

pic probs

2006-10-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted. I am working on a post, but blogger is not cooperating where it comes to uploading pictures. I will get it up ASAP. But for now, I ate too much sugar tonight, and now I am tired and I'm going to bed.

So Fabulous

2006-10-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have had a pretty eventful weekend. The biggest thing that happened was that I went to see THE PET SHOP BOYS!!! It was awesome. I had the best time ever! Even when the queens behind me whouldn't shut up for most of the second half of the show. I discovered last night that the most entertaining thing in the world is ripped guys in sleeveless, skin tight, gold lame cowboy outfits doing the electric slide during "Where the Streets Have No Name." (At least that's what I think the dance is called. I'm not with it on the line dancing.) And I really liked it when everyone was gathered in one spot on the stage and if you looked out over the crowd, you could see a sea of cell phones flipped open and being held aloft, presumably to take pictures. But I don't have much time left, so I'll show you what I took away from the concert:

Everybody love quizzes!

2006-10-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

Do you snore?
Sometimes.

Are you a lover or a fighter?
Hey, baby, there's enough pent up emotions here for both! Don't try to hold me back!

What's you worst fear?
Being a complete failure as a person. Oh yeah, and I might have mentioned maggots in the past.

As a kid, were you a Lego maniac?
Nope. They were expensive and too blocky.

What do you think of reality TV?
Yuck yuck yuckity yucky. Lame ass people doing stupid ass things. I don't count things like So You Think You Can Dance. That's more like a game show as far as I'm concerned.

Do you chew on your straws?
Nope.

Were you a cute baby?
I don't think so, but everyone else seems gaga over my baby pictures. *shrug*

Is the single life for you?
No way. I'm a cancer. We're all about the domestic life. Of course, if I could just have sex with anyone I felt like I'd be all over the single life. :)

What color is your keyboard?
Gray/Silver.

Do you sing in the shower?
No. I try it out every once in a while, but I just can't get into it.

Have you ever bungee jumped?
No, but I totally want to!

Any secret talents?
Not that I'm gonna tell you about. Don't you understand the meaning of 'secret'?

What is your ideal vacation spot?
Somewhere tropical. Or Paris. Or London. Or Tokyo. Hell, I just want top travel! Give me a chance! I'm sure I'll LOVE it!

Can you swim?
Sure.

Have you seen the movie Donnie Darko?
Yes. Although it was pretty damn disjointed because they got the reels mixed up.

Do you give a damn about the ozone?
Not really.

How many licks does it take to get the center of a Tootsie Pop?
I don't know. I don't like having large hard things in my mouth for a long time. :D

Can you sing the alphabet backwards?
Yes. I rule at singing the alphabet song backwards.

Do you prefer electric or manual pencil sharpeners?
Electric. I'm lazy.

What's your stand on hunting?
If you're gonna eat what you kill, go for it. I strongly disapprove of hunting for trophies, though.

Is marriage in your future?
If my boyfriend EVER gets around to proposing, then yes. Yes it is. Please refer to my last post which was about him asking me to go ahead and look at china patterns.

Do you like your handwriting?
Off and on.

What are you allergic to?
What AREN'T I allergic to would be easier. I am allergic to soy, malt, grapes, penicillin, grass, trees, weeds, dust, and I think I MIGHT be developing an allergies to animal hair. Fabulous.

When was the last time you said "I love you"?
This morning just before my son got out of the car.

Do you cry at weddings?
Nope. Why would I cry? Just because I'm 32 and still not married?

How do you like your eggs?
Scrambled. With cream cheese mixed in.

Are blondes dumb?
Some of them. Just like some brunettes are dumb and some red heads are dumb and so on.

Where does the other sock end up?
Who gives a fuck?

What time is it?
4:50. Why?

Do you have a nickname?
Margie IS a nickname.

Is McDonalds disgusting?
I am sadly addicted to McDonalds. It's true. I could probably eat it every other day.

When was the last time you were in a car?
An hour ago.

Do you prefer baths or showers?
Showers. Baths get cold. And you're sitting in your own dirt.

Is Santa Claus real?
Mom says we can believe in Santa and get lots of presents or not believe in him and only get one present, so. . .hell yeah, I believe!

Do you like to have your neck kissed?
Who doesn't? Are you kidding me with this?

Are you afraid of the dark?
No, but I prefer not to move around in the dark. I got my front tooth knocked out playing blind man's bluff when I was twelve and it taught me an important lesson. If it's dark, STAY PUT.

What are you addicted to?
Harry and David Moose Munch Bars, Nutella, and. . .I'm gonna have to face it. I'm addicted to love.

Crunchy or creamy peanut butter
Peanut butter should only be creamy.

Can you crack your neck?
Kinda. Not in a disturbing way.

Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
Sure have. It was shiny.

Is drug free the way to be?
Well, without my albuterol, I could be dead, and my son wouldn't pull through without his meds. Also, my mom really needs her diabetes pills. . .oh, you mean illegal or illicit drugs! I don't mind if other people do them, but I don't want to do them or be around those people at all.

Are you a heavy sleeper?
I don't think so.

What color are your eyes?
Hazel leaning toward green.

Do you like your life?
Could be better, but it could be a WHOLE lot worse.

Are you psychic?
I like to pretend I am, but I don't think so. I have dreams that come true every once in a while. Does that count for anything?

Have you read Catcher in the Rye?
Nope.

Do you play any instruments?
Beans, beans, the musical fruit. . .

Have you ever stolen money?
I don't think so.

Can you snowboard?
No, but I could be wrong. I've never tried.

Do you like camping?
I say yes, but I go so seldom that I might not anymore.

Do you snort when you laugh?
Sometimes.

Do you believe in magic?
No. Now are you going to ask me if I believe in unicorns?

Are dogs a man's best friend?
Dogs smell and they are stupid. So, for some men, they are a perfect match.

Do you believe in divorce?
What are you Catholic? Of course I believe in divorce! Are you crazy? I don't think that someone should be forced to stay married to someone who's beating them or psychotic or just making their life unlivable. That's not something I would force on anyone.

Can you do the moonwalk?
*shrug* Who cares?

Do you make a lot of mistakes?
Repeat after me, *Margie is always right*

Is it cold outside today?
It was this morning, but now it's delightful.

What was the last thing you ate?
Half pound bacon cheese burger with homemade chips and wedge fries. I am a pig.

Do you wear nail polish?
Yes, only on my toes usually.

How many people do you like right now?
What kind of question is that? I like lots of people. Do you want me to list them all in ascending order ending with my biggest BFF? Are we in 5th grade?

What's the most annoying TV commercial?
I don't really watch TV much anymore. When I do, I usually mute it during the commercials.

Do you shop at American Eagle?
Is that a store?

Favorite song at the moment?
Dammit. Ethan just walked through singing "Can't Get No Satisfaction" and now that's all I can think of.

you want HOW much for one plate?!?

2006-10-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

I am confused. Yesterday, I spent a portion of the day looking at china patterns. Why? Because Lawrence thought that I should. Ok. I'm confused. A) We're like, not engaged yet. So why am I looking at china patterns again? And B) Aren't I the girl? Just checking. Sometimes it's hard to tell. So I went to the Noritake website, and this is the one I like best: I have no idea if this is the pattern we will end up registering for, but there ya go. The reason this whole thing came up is because his ex-wife called him asking if he wants their china because she's only used it once in the last year. Of course, I don't really want THEIR china in MY house, but I agreed to look at it. He sent me a picture and it was super girly pink with roses and crap. Yuck. So I dodged that bullet. Anyhoo. China. Weird.

Big Tex wants to welcome you!

2006-10-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my brother and his girlfriend and Lawrence and Ethan and I went to the Texas State Fair. It was tons o' fun! We spent a lot of time looking at cars and riding rides. I have decided to rate the highlights of the day for your convenience.

Directions to the Fair: D+ I printed out the directions to the fair from their website and followed them. Sadly, they told me to take the WRONG EXIT. They told me to take an exit that doesn't exist, so I ended up having to turn around and figure out where to go. It turned out to not be a big deal, as I could just follow the 14,000 other cars that were going that way, but it's the principle of the matter. If your only job is to be a website that gives people directions to your event, they should be correct.

Fair parking: B I would give the parking a higher grade except for two things. It cost freaking ten dollars, and the parking lot was kinda rough. But here's the thing: we went from our car to a train, which was all nice and air conditioned, and it delivered us right to the gate! How sweet is that! It was totally sweet.

Getting around the fair: C It is very confusing to walk around the fair. I feel like we walked like crazy, and I never could figure out where we were, even if I looked at the map. And the masses of people standing around everywhere didn't help none. If it weren't for my brother's girlfriend's mad navigation skills, we would have been toe-up.

Car shows: A- They had lots of cars. They were very friendly. Their games were free. Toyota had free fishing for the kiddies. Unfortunately, you also had to put yourself on lots of mailing lists to participate and well. . .you have to care about cars. Lawrence viewed this area much as I view a shoe store. Which meant that he was doing LOTS shopping for future reference. I signed up to win a pass to Texas State Parks. I doubt I'll win, but I bet I'll be getting lots of mail!

Rides: B+ I like the rides. I don't like the cost. We were only able to ride a few rides, but the ones we rode were kick ass!

Free biscuit samples: A+ Super yummy! I just wish they were bigger. :(

Donkey tails: A For those of you not in the know, a donkey tail is a hot dog, stuffed with cheddar cheese, wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried. I got mine with chili but tried a bite without chili. The chili makes it. Well worth trying if you go.

Fletcher's Corndogs: B Very yummy. Not worth standing in line behind 50 people for. Seriously, you can find the Fletcher's stands very easily. Just look for the big group of people that look like they're standing around waiting to get into a concert.

Homemade lemonade: B- Super yummy. Not worth $4 for about 10 oz. I can make a whole pitcher for less than that.

Turkey leg: A Great value for a really good leg, I tell you what. I didn't expect to like it, but Ethan wanted one so I had a few bites and damn it was good!

Sausage sandwich: A+ By far the largest amount of food for the lowest cost. It filled my tummy good and proper, and it was delicious to boot!

Regular Fries: C Bland and boring. They also had something called Tornado Taters. I should probably try those next time.

Vendors: A What a crazy assortment! They had all kinds of things to buy! I bought Ethan a key chain with a yellow jacket encased in resin that glows in the dark. Very cool. I was seriously tempted by the Dr Pepper beef jerky.

Bathrooms: A+ There are bathrooms around every corner in the fair. And not just porta-potties. Real bathrooms with rows of stalls and sinks and soap and everything! AND they were clean! I made about 5 stops and every single bathroom I went into was clean, even at the end of the day. Very nice.

Price: F The fair is really really freaking expensive. Seriously. It costs like 4 dollars per ride. Water is $2.50. The ferris wheel was $6 apiece. And the haunted house? 12 bucks. I kid you not. And they try to trick you. You see, all the rides and food people only take tickets. So you buy a gazillion dollars worth of tickets and you don't really realize how much you're spending. The shifty bastards.

The Ferris wheel: A- The ferris wheel at the fair is the tallest ferris wheel in the western hemisphere! It says so right by the entrance. It's like 225 feet tall I think, or somewhere around there. But, surprisingly, the line moved extremely fast, and the ride was a little longer than I expected. It really didn't seem that high though. Also. Six bucks apiece. But worth doing at least once in your life.

The weather: A The weather was amazing. It was nice and cool for the most part, and not too windy. The only reason I didn't give it an A+ was it got a mite warm in the middle of the day, but what do you expect, really? It barely barely sprinkled a few times, and started raining almost as soon as we left. What kind of great timing is that?!?

Ethan's behavior: A+++ Ethan was SO good! I was so proud of him, he didn't whine all day and didn't argue when he couldn't do what he wanted. I was surprised in the best way by his behavior. What a good boy! Also, he did something really cute. At one point, I was holding his hand and Lawrence was on the other side of him. He grabbed Lawrence's hand and pulled our hands together behind his back and then put his arms around both of us. What a sweetie.

All in all: B+ I had a great time. I'm just glad I wasn't paying.

On a related note, Lawrence and I went to Bennigan's Friday night, and I thought I'd give a few pointers;

Cheeseburger eggrolls: D- Interesting concept. Could be really good if done right. Their's aren't done right. They're mushy and mealy, not yummy like I want food to be.

Ice Cream with brownies, caramel, and hot fudge: C- Good. But freaking TEN bucks. WTF?!? If I had realized how much it costs, I NEVER would have ordered that thing.

So there you go. I recommend you go to the fair at least once in your lifetime. Save up first.

Disturbing dream theatre

2006-10-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

And now it's time for another installment on Disturbing dream theatre! YAY! You might recall that last time we left our heroine, she was coping with advances from a certain late crocodile hunter. Well, this time, she was a member of Buffy's scooby gang. That's right, I dreamed that I was one of the characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy? Nope. Willow? Don't think so. Even Cordelia? Think again. I was. . .Xander. Yep. The everyguy next door, Xander. Why? No idea. So, we all were living on the moon, (what?!? it was a dream!) and it was actually kinda cool because there were invisible force fields around all the pathways, so there was air where you would be walking or whatever, then it just looked like moonscape beyond that. And since there's no weather on the moon, the walkways were all red carpet instead of cement. So we were watching this contest where people randomly draw something strange that they then have to incorporate into a play. The play we were watching had as it's random object: maggots. EWWW! So we're watching this play with maggots of all sizes doing a choreographed "dance," which was more of a repeating pattern of movement sort of thing, and the maggots are also burrowing under the carpet and I wig out because I'm afraid they might come back up on the carpet where I am, and I HATE maggots, so you can see how that might give me the wiggins. So the play ended and the gang split up and went our separate ways, except Willow and I walked together. Willow, you guessed it, came on to me, and we did the dirty deed right on the walkway. I'm beginning to worry about my subconscious mind. Seriously. Is it considered hot girl on girl action if I'm being a guy at the time? Just a thought. Anyhoo. So afterwards, the main plotline was that there was an army of gorgeous robot women (who looked like real women of course, with silver swimsuits like outfits with sticking up collars with little capes and boots and large blonde bouffant hairdos) who were trying to sex me up. They were being led by a man who looked like Vincent Price, and they were trying to get my semen for some nefarious reason, which I can't remember. Well, what did you expect? The only time gorgeous women who weren't in the main cast tried to sex Xander up was when it was part of some evil plan. So anyhoo. Weird. Sex as a guy was. . .sticky. Hey. Don't judge me. I can't help what I dream!

the icy grip of death

2006-10-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

I came to a startling realization the other day. My dad's pushing 60! I can't believe it. It came as quite a shock to me to realize that my dad is 59. I know you're saying, "But Margie, he's your dad, don't you keep up with how old he is?" The answer is. . .no. I knew he was in his fifties, but I can barely keep track of my own age, let alone other people's age, fer pete's sake. So the other day it came up in conversation (with my BFF, who's also my brother and who ALSO didn't know my dad's age, so there) and we said, ok, dad was born in 1947 and the year is currently 2006 and he's already had a birthday this year, so some quick calculations. . .carry the one. . .is that right? More calculations. . .um. . .holy crap! Is dad really 59?!? That is something how the conversation went. It's weird. Dad doesn't seem 59. His hair is hardly grey. (In actuality the temples are a nice silver, very distinguished.) He doesn't seem wrinkly or all that grandpa-ish. This situation is totally blowing my mind. Mom on the other hand is 55 (soon to be 56) and that seems perfectly reasonable, probably because she's in a wheelchair. Gimps always seem older, ya know? Plus 55 is NOWHERE near 60. It's like lightyears from 60. 59 on the other hand is like having one foot in the grave! 60 is retirement age! It's very very strange how this happened without me noticing. I'm totally buggin.

making babies for Jesus

2006-10-03T10:45:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but last time I tried to post blogger erased it and it pissed me off and I didn't redo it so there. I'm not feeling very well AGAIN today, and I'm pretty sure my son has a sinus infection. When I asked him what color his snot is, he pointed to the INSANELY bright yellow writing on his shirt and said it was that color, but duller. Great. I told him to drink lots of water and get lots of citrus and if he wasn't better in a couple of days I would take him to the doctor. I figure there's no point in pumping him full of more antibiotics than he already gets in his beef and milk unless it's absolutely necessary, right? So, we'll see how that turns out.

Lately, it has been a Veronica Mars pallooza around here. I bought season 2, which mom and Joe watched, and now I am watching all day every day at work. Tonight is the season premiere of season three! *squeal!* I am so excited! It's gonna rock! I've also been excited because October is finally here, which means that we are officially in PET SHOP BOYS month! Hooray! Just 19 more days till I see them live and in person! Tee hee!

Lawrence's dad bought him a ticket to go to Pennsylvania for 6 days in December, where his sister lives and where all his family is gathering this year for their holiday jubilee. Lawrence is thinking about buying me a ticket to go out for a few of those days. It's so weird to think that I am forever more going to be dividing my holiday time between my family, my husband and child, and his family. Bizarro. You know, over the years, being Mormon and all, I've often looked at these 19-22 year old girls who get married to mister cute return missionary and have a little baby for Jesus, and most of the time my thought is, "Thank heavens that's not all there is to MY life!" But other times I've wondered what I've done wrong that I don't deserve that kind of happiness. And then I remember that I went and got myself knock-up when I was 21 and I say, "oh yeah, that's what happened." But now that I am about to get that life, I'm thinking, "Holy crap! This sounds really freaking hard and scary!" But that's ok, most of the time I'm just looking foward to getting started. And to having sex again. That would be awesome. But I digress. I hope his family doesn't think I'm a freak or gold digger or sumtin awful like that.

I'm going to be late getting back to work again. Oh well, I was ten minutes early this morning, so it all balances out. I'm about to get into the baby kidnapping episodes that I missed when VM season 2 originally aired, so this is gonna be exciting! I hope you too have a very Veronica evening!

Hoping. . .each time. . .that his next leap will be the leap. . .HOME

2006-09-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Today, after many months of not watching, and a solid week of at work watching, I finally finished season three of Quantum Leap! YAY! I must admit, I had a slow start on the season, and I went a long time without watching it at all, but then either I got into it or the episodes got better, because I got way into it. I left it up at work over the weekend, and I kept thinking about how if I brought it home with me, I coulda fit in a episode here and there. Now at the end, I think it might be my favorite season so far. Especially the last episode where Sam leapt into a mental patient and immediately got hit with a huge electroshock that fried his brain and made him revert to various former hosts that he had inhabited. It was sad and touching. And then, at the end when he leaps out, it showed that the next ep is my favorite one where Al is solid and Sam is the hologram. Now I need season 4. Dammit! And I need season 3 of Buffy. And season 2 of Veronica Mars. Grr. And Christmas isn't for months! Am I doomed to have to spend my own money on these things?!? The horror! The ignominy! The brokeness of my bank account! *sigh*

Dance Mutha Fuckers, Dance Mutha Fuckas, Dance

2006-09-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

I got new muuuusic! I got new muuuusic! I'm so HAPPY! I was getting absolutely sick of the radio, and my cd's have gotten a little stale, so I needed more, and now I have them!

I bought 2 cd's to replace some of the scratchy ones that I had already:

Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
They Might Be Giants: Flood

I also bought cd's that I DIDN'T previously own. These are they:

Banarama: Greatest Hits (Bland bubble gum pop for when I don't feel like having a brain.)
100% Pure Dance (I thought this cd had different songs than it does. I'm pretty disappointed with it)
Material Issue: The Best of Material Issue (I bought this for "Valerie Loves Me," and it's a good thing, cause I'm not terribly impressed with the rest.)
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand (What can I say? It's Franz Ferdinand. It's what you'd expect. I'll probably listen to this one when I'm tired of Fall Out Boy.)
The Magnetic Fields: i (So good. Very offbeat, though. You'd definitely have to be in the mood. Cainnum would probably really like this one.)
The Darkness: Permission to Land (I really like "I Believe in a Thing Called Love." Now that I've heard the cd, I can honestly say. . .I really like "I Believe in a Thing Called Love.")

Now I have the new music bug. I want MORE! Oh dear. I wonder if there's a 12 step program for this sort of thing.

What would Freud say?

2006-09-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Since most people don't wanna touch my last post with a ten foot pole, I thought it was time to write something a little more disturbing. It just makes sense really. You all know that I've had an unexplained fever for 5-6 days, and with fever comes weird dreams. Last night I had the weirdest. dream. ever. I dreamed that Steve Irwin tried to seduce me. Yes. The Steve Irwin. He wasn't dead in my dream, thank heavens. Understand that I do not find Steve Irwin attractive in any way, at all, ever. So it's particularly strange that I would have a naughty dream about him now that he's a goner. He didn't succeed in the seduction, by the way, but that's mostly cause my alarm went off, thank the gods. So, ya know. That's the sort of thing that I would normally just shudder and try to forget, but thanks to technology, I can share it with all of you. Aren't you so happy!

We're both tiger's on the Chinese zodiac, that's where the problems come from

2006-09-16T09:32:00.001-07:00

*Sigh* My life hasn't exactly been sunshine and flowers lately. I've been running a fever for no apparent reason for three days. As a result, I am cranky and keep taking things the wrong way and getting into fights with people. Also, yesterday I had a pretty big altercation with my mom. Here's the gist of it. I told Ethan to get in the parent pick up line yesterday. I even did it by the numbers and sent his teacher a note saying that he should not ride the bus home, but should get in the parent pick up line. The reason I needed to pick him up at 3:15 is because mom had a doctor's appointment at 3:45, which would be cutting things pretty darn close. So I go to pick him up. After waiting in line FOREVER, we get to the front of the line, and. . .I bet you can see it coming. . .no Ethan. The people who are running the line are no help at all and just keep calling his name over and over even though I can see all the kids and have told them that Ethan in not there. Finally I get them to reveal to me where a kid would wait for the parent walk up line. I go to the spot, and I ask a lady if I can park on the side to walk up to the right spot and she says yes. So I park and go to the doors, and they are locked. I look around inside and can't see anyone. I go back to the lady and ask how you get to the kids if the doors locked. She tells me that the kids that are left are the two standing right there. Ok, what the fuck did she think I wanted to know where to pick up kids for?!? So I realize that Ethan has gotten in the bus. At this point, I realize that my 9 year-old son who has NEVER stayed home by himself before ever is going to arrive home to find no people and no explanations, and that mom is going to be late for her doctor's appointment. I tell mom to call her doctor and cancel. She FREAKS OUT hard core. She starts crying and saying she can't miss this appointment because of blah blah blah. So I say FINE, I'll take her to her appointment and Ethan will just be home all alone. Now I have no problem with Ethan being home alone, he is nine for pete's sake. My problem is him being home alone with no preparation or warning. Ethan is a worrier, and I knew that if he came home and found no one there, he would freak out and think that someone got sick or died or something. I think that because that's exactly what I thought when I was a kid and would come home to an empty house. So she comes up with the idea to call dad (who is a telephone man driving around our town all day) and ask him to go by the house between 3:45 and 4 and explain to Ethan what's going on. OK, fine. So I'm still pretty pissed at mom, and eventually I tell her that, "I just thought my son was more important than your doctor's appointment. I guess my priorities are all screwed up." This starts round two. She was all screaming that she's had to reschedule appointments three times and she has to go today because it's so horrible for her to get people to take her because they always get mad and I don't know how horrible it is to be her and so on and so forth. First off, she goes to the doctor like every week, so I don't see what the big deal of missing one is, and then I ask why she can't just call because she's going to get lab results and she can get those over the phone and she tells me no, they need to draw more blood. I tell her that I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I get mad when I have to take her to the doctor all the freaking time is because she did this to herself. She has refused to lose weight or to exercise and she has let herself get sicker and sicker and now WE are the one's having to pay the price. I said that it has taken the doctor telling her that her kidneys are failing and her losing her sense of taste for her to even start cutting back on her eating, and that I know there's nothing she can do about it now, but it still doesn't seem fair. She said well maybe she should just kill herself so that she's not such a bother. I just rolled my eyes. That's her kind of highly emotionally charged fighting tactics that just make me want to leave and never come back. Some time passed, and she starting talking about the conditions that being fat or skinny wouldn't have any affect on, and I told her that it was true, but being skinny sure would make dealing with those problems easier. (There was more to that, but it's boring, so ya know.) So some more time passes with her crying quietly until she finally says, "You can't judge me until you've walked in my shoes." By this time, I'm feeling like I should try to lighten the mood a little, so I say, "I have walked in you shoes. They're very uncomfortable." She says bitterly, "You HAVEN'T walked in my shoes!" So I reply in a harsh tone, "You're RIGHT. I haven't walked in your shoes. Because when I hit 260 pounds, I decided to LOSE WEIGHT!" Yeah, I know. Low blow. So I got her to the doctor's office and drop her off and tell her that I will go get Ethan then come back. I immediately start calling the house every three minutes. Finally I get dad, who tells me Ethan isn't there yet. I ask if he's gonna wait for him, and he says he's out of area and he's supposed to be in Bartonville right now. So I ask him to just leave Ethan a note and I will keep calling. Then he calls me back and he's told Ethan he has to stay in the house and can't have visitors. Shew, that's taken care of. Then mom calls and the doctor's office says she doesn't have an appointment. WHAT THE FUCK?!? So I tell her that I'm still in Denton, I can turn around and get her, but she finds her appointment card and goes to show them. They admit that it's their fault (Well, yeah!) and they work her in. Of course, they can only draw the blood because THE FUCKING DOCTOR ISN'T FUCKING THERE. AGAIN. He's never fucking there. GAR. Apparently this time he had to fly to San Francisco suddenly. I keep telling mom she needs to change fucking doctors. There's always a 3-4 hour wait and that's just to see the Nurse Practitioner! Anyhoo. So, that was all pretty stressful. Then Lawrence didn't want to get together last night because he'd had a really hard day and was tired, and I started crying on the phone. I tried not to and a I tried to hide it, but he could tell, and he came over. But because I've been running a fever and have a cold sore, he wouldn't kiss me at all. I guess he doesn't want to get sick for some reason. Geez. So, all in all, I've had better days in my life. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Fiddle dee dee.

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

2006-09-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the worst has happened. I am in full-on nesting mode. I've been planning and plotting all along about how I'm going to decorate Lawrence's house when I move in, (I say decorate rather than RE-decorate because his house is completely bland and beige. Sad but true.) and I've given a little thought to his landscaping. He lives in suburbia, and all his neighbors have landscaped yards, but he just has weeds. Well, last night we invited a girl from church over for ice cream, and we got to talking about his yard and it turns out she is hardcore into yard work. She knows all about what plants to use for what sunlight and stuff like that. Stuff that I have no knowledge on what-so-ever. But she was talking, and it got me all excited about landscaping. I spent all my lunchbreak looking up information on the internet about plants and trees. I got so engrossed that I looked at my watch and realized that I was ten minutes late and I hadn't even left my house yet. We're thinking about planting some kind of tree in the front and putting up a trellis against the wall along the walkway for some kind of vine. I'm thinking morning glories and sweet peas. Also, Lawrence wants to plant flowers to attract butterflies, which I think we would put in a raised bed under the bay windows in front. I'm so excited, I want to start today, but I know this isn't really the right time to start planting things. Grrr. Isn't this bizarre and weird? I guess the second I get the whiff of a place to call my own, my cancerness kicks in full force. Who woulda thunk?

Road Raging

2006-09-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I have noticed an interesting phenomena. I am an aggressive driver. I drive fast. I take the lane when I need it. I pass drivers who are going slow. I don't believe that I am a dangerous or crazy driver, just that I drive at the more aggressive end of the driving spectrum. I always have. I drove that way when I had a grey Ford Taurus. I drove that way when I had a beat up Sunbird. I drove that when when I had a older model Ford Explorer. Now I have a new, somewhat sporty bright blue/purple Chevy Impala with windows that are practically black and a black car bra on the front. And suddenly drivers are responding to me in a completely different way. Before when I would try to pass someone, every once in a while they would speed up to make it more difficult for me, but usually they would slow down and let me by. Before when I wove in and out of traffic, people usually let me in. Suddenly, I find that people are speeding up to block me or creating a purposeful moving road block or racing me almost 95% of the time! It's weird! I am the same person, driving the same way I always have, yet now that I drive a nice looking car people act like I'm an asshole. I don't even have to DO anything and I find people road raging at me! It's the most bizarre thing. It's really interesting the psychological effect your vehicle can have on people. It's also interesting the effect it has on me. I'm getting a bazooka installed next week.

Things I hate, revisited

2006-08-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

I decided it's time to cover the list of things I hate. I like to keep up to date on these things. It's important to be able to identify and list the things you hate so you don't get confused. So, without further ado:

Scorching heat: Strangely, despite the fact that I have lived in Texas all my life, I still hate being so hot if feels as if my skin is melting off. You'd think I'd adjust. Some mammals are so unadaptable!

The owner of my building at work: This guy has major little man syndrome. He's shorter than me, and he drives a HUGE jacked up F-250 pick up truck. It's gigantic, and it pisses me off to no end. Plus, on the back window, he has a huge Oakley sticker. Can anyone say poser? So not only does this man drive an unnecessarily gargantuan vehicle, he parks it in the best spot, right next to the door. If he gets there late and can't get the best spot, he goes down and actually MOVES his truck while everyone's gone for lunch! Can you believe that? It's not like this is a mall parking lot. There's only about 20 spots, so I have no problem walking to a further spot. My problem is that his truck is so freakin huge that you can't see around it to back up. So by the time you've backed out enough to see whether cars are coming, they're having to swerve around you to avoid hitting you. When I was driving dad's huge truck, I parked at the end so that nobody was parking near me. He is a selfish ass, and I physically have to restrain myself from keying his truck on a regular basis.

Nazis: Sure, they have kick ass fashions. But a great sense of style does NOT give a person a right to attempt genocide.

Catholic art: Statue of Christ: Slightly off putting, but tolerable. Statue of Christ with blood dripping from his thorn of crowns and his heart, which he is TOUCHING, sticking out of his chest for God only knows whatever reason: FREAKY. Seriously, what's up with that shit? Who wants to see that? Catholic artists must be some fucked up freaks.

Ham

My boyfriend's job: which has been taking all of his free time and turning him into a slobbering brain damaged lump of stress whom I hardly get any time with anymore and when I do get time he's not his old self cause he's useless for anything other than jumping nervously everytime the phone rings and having a facial twitch.

People at church asking if I'm engaged YET: No. NO. I'm not engaged yet. If I were engaged, you would see a FUCKING RING. Do you see a fucking ring? Then I'm not fucking engaged yet. SO FUCKING LAY OFF! At first, it was slightly amusing, but now it has become seriously fucking tiresome, so FUCKING STOP IT.

Video game bugs: I hate when games crash. And it seems like they do it at the worst possible time. Like when you've been working SO hard to make it to a certain point, and you're ALMOST there, and you say, "You know, I haven't saved in a while, I better save before I go in this castle," and BAM. That's when it happens. And you lose two hours of gameplay. If not more. I had a version of Oregon Trail that crashed right as you got to Oregon, everytime. Doesn't that suck? All that travel and no payoff! What? Yeah, I play Oregon Trail! I happen to love Oregon Trail, and have since I was in fifth grade. You got a problem with that? Well, do ya punk?

My mom: No really. I love my mom. But I really hate her too. The idea that I could be married eventually and actually move out of her house has made living with her almost unbearable. She doesn't even have to do anything and I want to roll my eyes and leave the room. I think I might be damaged.

Getting burned: I got burned on my fingers this week. It sucks.

MySpace: I used to enjoy MySpace. I don't know what happened. I think I got a life or something. Weird. I really don't like strangers sending me messages or requesting a spot on my friend's list. I really don't like 14 year olds, which MySpace is rife with. I really don't like strangers sending me propaganda against my religion. That happened. WTF? Who does he think he is? It really pissed me off. I leave my profile up so that I can stay in touch with certain people, but it's really getting stale as far as I'm concerned.

Having to stay in contact with people I don't care about: Used to be, you work with someone and you enjoy working with them alright, but you don't really have much in common beside working together, and then one day one of you quits and you never speak to them again, and no one cares. Well, no more my friends! Now you exchange email addresses, and you have to stay in contact with them for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. But, of course, they never answer the emails where you ask them how they're doing or anything, instead they send you perpetual emails about how if you love God you won't delete this and will send it on to prove you're not ashamed, or emails about how important you are and you're such a good friend complete with annoying pictures of watercolor cherubs and a really lame-ass poem, and you have to send this to at least 5 other people who make a difference in your life. Gack. Do me a favor. Keep your stupid forwards. I'll send you an email when I get married or die and you can do the same, oh-kay?

Mormons: Yes, yes, I am fully aware that I am Mormon. But DEAR LORD some Mormons are so freaking annoying! I'm not even joking. Why, as a group, do they have to be so holier-than-thou and goody two shoes? Why is it that only a few of us have figured out that you can be Mormon without being really annoying and without being a big old goober? (I realize I leave myself open to a barrage of insults at this juncture. I say to you, take the high road, man. Take the high road.)

People who drive slow

Mattress commercials and car commercials: Seriously. Why do I need to hear a mattress commercial at EVERY SINGLE COMMERCIAL BREAK? I will buy a mattress every, what? 5-10 years? I think that when the time comes, I can find a mattress with, say, a commercial just once an hour. Really. I know, I know, it's crazy, but I really don't think I need to be reminded every 15 minutes that I can possibly buy something that I will really only need a few times in my life time. And car commercials. SO loud. So annoying. I'm speaking not of the ones from the makers, which can actually be kinda cute. I'm speaking of dealership commercials. Grrr. They make me want to stab people. And I can't tell you how many mattress stores and car dealerships I will NEVER go to based SOLELY on their annoying ads. Sad really.

Well, I should stop. If I list everything I hate this could take tomes, or maybe fill up the entire internet. These are just the things that have been preying on my mind lately. Feel free to add to my list. I'm sure what you hate is something I hate. I have plenty of hate to share.

Meet the Parents

2006-08-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

Last week, my entire life flashed before my eyes. My future life, that is. Lawrence told me that his parents are coming to visit in November, and they SPECIFICALLY said they want to meet me. How disturbing. I mean, I know that the day had to come eventually, but to be faced with the actuality is frightening. What if they don't like me? What if I don't like them? (That's a distinct probability according to Lawrence.) Lawrence's mom is fugly. I've seen pictures. Sad but true. Suddenly, confronted with this, I saw the years fly by in my head, complete with future Christmasses, funerals, family reunions, etc. I don't even like my OWN extended family, and suddenly I'll have a whole bunch more and I don't even have the advantage of shared DNA to smooth the way. *sigh* They also asked if they'll be meeting Ethan on this trip and Lawrence was like, hold on, let's take this one step at a time. I wonder if they will meet my parents while they are here? Weird. It's kinda freaking me out to be honest. My reaction is kinda, "HOLD ON! WAIT! This is adult stuff! I'm not ready for this! I'm a free spirit, you can't tie me down!" Although, of course, that's ridiculous. I'm 32. How old does my subconscious think I need to be to get married? My mother once told me that she felt like an 18 year old that wakes up every morning in the body of an old lady. I really didn't understand what she meant at the time. I mean, I wouldn't say that I feel like an 18 year old. More like a 21 year old. It's weird, I know, and I know I've learned and changed since then, but I still feel like a kid at heart. Well, as much of a kid as I ever was, which is not much. I mean really, I've always been a cranky old lady at heart. When I was at recess, one of my favorite activities was arranging the fallen leaves into life-size house floor plans. In elementary school, I would scowl at the stupid childish antics of the other kids. I was the one the teacher told to take names when she left the room. Yeah. Like I said, I wasn't much of a kid. But anyway. So, that's something that's been happening with me. But, I can put that out of my head, because before the fateful meeting comes the Pet Shop Boys concert! YAY!

Funny things

2006-08-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some funny things that I have heard or read recently:

Funniest thing I've heard recently:

"I'm a tiny invincible guy." -my son, while playing New Super Mario Bros, after getting a tiny mushroom and a star.

Funniest song line I've heard recently:

"Sometimes it makes me want to laugh. Sometimes it makes me want to take my toaster in the bath." -Blink 182. Don't remember the name of the song, but it's track 2 on the greatest hits album.

Funniest text message:

Me: "Argh. Yer booty shivers me timbers!"
My boyfriend: "Then prepare to be boarded!"

Funniest joke:

"A guy was complaining that his Texan girlfriend ate ranch dressing on everything, and he just didn't get it. Later in the week, he complained to the same friend that she wouldn't go down on him. His friend said, 'well, have you tried putting ranch on it?'" That joke's not so funny for itself, but I am unusually amused by the idea of putting ranch on a guy's wanker. I don't know why. Just smile and nod.

Funniest polite action

My boyfriend trying not to brush stuff off of my shirt (specifically in the breasticle area) while my son was standing next to him. Maybe you had to be there.

ok. that's all I think. good day.

evolution of the language

2006-08-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

My brother has invented a new swear word, and I quite like it. It is smack-dammit! I think we should propagate this word. We should all start saying it, nurture it and let it grow. I expect to hear each and every one of you saying smack-dammit before the week is out, SMACK-DAMMIT!

My stupid car loan people refuse to accept the fact that I have insurance. My insurance people swear they have sent the car loan people the policy. Now I have received a letter from my car loan people saying that since I won't get insurance, they are buying it for me, and it will cost $86.50 a month. I am already paying $82 for full coverage! Gar. How annoying. The insurance lady says she will call them, so I need to fax this letter to her so she can do that. So SO annoying.

I have to go back to work now. See ya!

Seven. Not the kind with severed heads and crap.

2006-08-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Since I now have a relatively normal life that is sans Soap Opera love life drama, I am the most boring. blogger. ever. I almost feel the need to make up Jared stories to spice things up a bit. But, sad to say, my love life is awesome, my boyfriend is amazing, my friends are intelligent and supportive, my job is satisfying and pays well, and my life looks to be going nowhere but up. Which is very satisfying and joyful. But makes for a life that you really don't really want to hear about. Sad but true. Maybe I should purposefully introduce drama into my life so that you can be entertained! I remember at the end of one of my favorite books, a Heinlein book called "Friday," the main character. . .Friday. . .says that years pass that you, the reader, wouldn't find interesting, years of raising babies and making dinners and living life. I never really understood that until now. So, here to fill the hole left by my happiness, I present to you a cut and paste quiz that my friend Kiera wants me to do. So there you go.

7 Things I want to do before I die:
-have sex again
-learn to play an instrument
-learn Japanese
-travel the world
-open an art gallery
-finish college
-master SOMETHING athletic (some kind of dance, marshal art, or sport)

7 Things I cannot Do:
-touch my toes without bending my knees
-make pancakes
-drive a stick
-do housework in my pajamas
-learn how to play poker
-eat soy and soy products
-a cartwheel

7 Things that attracted me to my spouse (I'm not married, so this is about my boyfriend):
-he's nice
-he's thoughtful
-we could (and did) talk for hours
-his broad shoulders
-he's financially stable
-he has a real job
-he's a good Mormon man

*bonus reason-he's not 10 years younger than me! :)

7 Things I say often:
- right?!?
-you know what I'm saying?
-I hear ya
-Can I poke you in the eye?
-oh holy crap
-ok, here's the plan. . ./So, what's the plan, here?
-I will stab you.

7 Books I am currently reading/are on the reading list:
-The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey
-The Unhandsome Prince by John Moore
-Bad Prince Charlie by John Moore
-The next Terry Goodkind book. . .someday
-The Book of Mormon by God
-uh. . .I don't really read with an itinerary, I usually see how I feel when I finish a book.
-the only reason I have so many on my list right now is because my boyfriend loaned all these to me

7 Movies I could watch over and over:
-French Kiss
-Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
-Amelie
-O Brother Where Art Thou?
-So I Married an Ax Murderer
-The Hudsucker Proxy
-Shaun of the Dead

7 People I'd like to See do a list like this:
-Josh
-Cainnum
-Dave
-High Maintenance Hussy (Even though she doesn't do her blog anymore)
-Lawrence (Even though he doesn't have a blog)
-Joe (Ditto)
-Bobbie (ditto ditto)

Now I am certified to wear spandex shorts

2006-08-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Herro! Some good things have been happening to me lately. I am now the proud owner of a new bike. It is pretty. When I ride it I wobble around like a little kid. Here is what it looks like:

I took the picture from an artistic picture, complete with our kitty to add interest. Do you like it? Now I can ride bikes with my son, who has constantly been ASKING me to, every since he got his own new bike that his grandfather gave him. Well, not constantly, as he's been spending the better part of the last week and a half with his paternal grandparents because his cousin is visiting for two weeks. So I've been Ethan free once again. I actually miss him sometimes. See! I DO have a uterus and estrogen! Yay!

The second good thing that happened was kinda weird. It's really slow at work right now. Like, REALLY slow. This week, I worked 2 1/2 days. So, being concerned with money, I decided to not pay extra on all my credit cards like I usually do, but rather to only pay the minimum due. Not wanting to bother finding all my most current statements, I just called the number on the back of each card to get an automated voice telling me just the information I want to hear. When I called Citicard, I entered my number as instructed, and there was a long silence, then an operator came on. I told him I was sorry, I was just trying to get the automated thingy to tell me my due date and amount due. He said it was really slow, so he doesn't mind. He told me my due date, and then asked me to hold for my amount due. I held, and when he came back, he told me my amount due, but explained to me that my accounts in default for some reason, and he was going to check on it. I though this was weird as I make my payments regularly, but it would certainly explain why I got a letter last month saying that my interest rate was going up substantially. When he came back on the line, he told me that I had missed a payment in February, and he adjusted it to take care of that missed payment so it's not all skewed and he said lots of stuff involving words like 'transfer', 'balance', 'principle', and 'interest'. Don't ask me, I just smile and nod. But long story short *too late* he said that my account is no longer in default and he got my interest rate reduced by 6%! How sweet is that! I told him that this is why I love Citicard. Everytime I call an operator, they totally got my back. So, I am pretty damn happy about that. Yay!

People have been asking me what Juliana's fiance looks like, so in response to inquiring minds, I decided to post the picture that came with the invite. Here you go:

Ok. The technology is failing me. I have tried three times to upload this picture, and three times, it has told me it worked, and just not been here. So I guess it's not to be. Make that four times. I decided to try again, but to no avail. So sorry.

Today I was so tired, I came home from work at one, and mom wanted to go to lunch so we did, then I came home and slept for three hours. That's not like me. Weird.

Anyhoo. I've lost all momentum here, and So You Think You Can Dance is about to start, so I guess I'll see ya round. Peace out, yo!

Oh yeah! PS-the more commercials I see for Snakes on a Plane, the more in love with this movie I am! Seriously, I want to see that flick so BAD! It looks cheez-a-rific!

I have been an irresponsible blogger. . .

2006-08-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

and I apologize. I have not been posting as I should. But, since I've been PMSing unusually badly this week, the posts that I might have made would not have been pleasant.

Ethan is staying with his paternal grandmother this weekend, and my parents and BFF went to Austin, so I have been free! Free of obligations, both filial and social. It's been kinda nice. I am sitting here at the computer surfing and blogging, and my mother is not sighing and hanging around because SHE wants to use the computer to play luxor or something; neither is she lecturing me on how I SHOULD be spending less time on the computer and MORE time with my son. I figure, he's nine. Does he want to spend every waking moment with me? No. He wants to play video games and ride his bike down to his friend's house. But since SHE'S completely codependent and has to spend every waking hour with someone, preferably one of her children, she thinks everyone should be the same way. Man, this totally reminds me of how smothered I always felt as a child. And as an adult. I mean, I used to do things that were against the rules so that I would get sent to my room so that I could read or just be by myself. I started that before I was even in school. If I just went to CLEAN my room, mom would keep calling me into the room she was in and demand that I spend time with her. How nuts is that? But, I digress. After this, I will probably go play Psychonauts. Yesterday I finished the milkman conspiracies level and started into the insane asylum. It's such a fun game! I also took this opportunity to shower with the bathroom door open! Nah. I couldn't do it. I still had to shut the door, just in case Joe came home from his girlfriend's house. But I did walk to the bathroom partially naked! HA! In your face family living! TAKE THAT! (And when I say partially naked, I mean with just my white bikini cut panties on, for anyone who feels like picturing the scene.) (Ignore that last aside if you are one of my brothers.) (D'oh. I should have said THAT aside first, huh?)

Now let's see. This post had drama (with the PMS), cute kids, tension (the mom part), and nudity. What's missing? AH! Explosions! Uh. . .I saw a commercial this morning where the guy's car exploded! How's that? Man, this could totally be a blockbuster! Who wants to write the screenplay?

Happy day. . .another girl off the market

2006-08-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today I received an envelope addressed to "Sexy M and friends." So, friends, here's the news. Juliana is getting married! The bitch, stealing my thunder. Ehem. We are invited to her reception on August 19th at 4 pm. This is occurring in Rockwall, TX, where ever the hell that is. I hear about it on the news sometimes, so it must not be too far. Ewww, at the country club! Fancy! Oh, Expedia says it's only an hour from my house in BFE, so that's not bad. Not like Shemsi and Andy's reception. I mean DAMN! That was like, what 14 hours? Oh. . .uh. . .anyway. :) According to Julianna, she moved to Arkansas to take care of her grandfather and met the perfect guy. So, congratulations are in order, and clear your calendar for that day if you're going. Skomps!

Dumb God and Jesus people

2006-07-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Today at church, I was stimulated to new heights of confusion at the stupidity of my fellow men. My bishop stood up, and taught a brief lesson about why we all need to get health insurance. He had an overhead of a medical bill and showed us how much it would have cost the person if they didn't have insurance. He told us that although many of us already have insurance, those of us who don't really need to get it. Oh! REALLY?!? I didn't realize that medical expenses could really add up! Now that I know, I'll rush out an get insurance straight away! I mean, geez people. Why do you think we don't have insurance? Cause we don't FEEL like it? No, it's because we can't afford it, dumbass. So after church, I ran into one of the members of the bishopric, and I mentioned to him my feelings on this. He directed me to speak to his wife, who informed me that I couldn't afford NOT to have insurance. I said, no really, I can't afford it. I asked her if I should stop making my car payment or what. She asked what I do. I told her that I am a dental technician, and it pays really well, but I still can't afford insurance. She told me I need to CHANGE JOBS and get one with benefits. Oh, just like that, huh? I told her that I don't have education or training to do anything else, and my job is pretty competitive, once you find something, you have to stick with it. She told me that, No, I really needed to just change jobs. I told her that I didn't think she understood the job market right now. She told me she did, her and her husband both are self employed and pay over $800 a month for insurance. I said that it's nice that she has those kinds of resources.
Then I ran into the bishop himself. I expressed my feelings on the issue to him, and he also told me that I couldn't afford to NOT have insurance. Was that part of the orientation or something? I told him that I really COULDN'T afford it, that I really want insurance and I've ran the numbers every way I could, and I simply can't afford it. He said that he guesses I'll find out when I get a $20,000 hospital bill. *!* I told him that I do know because I had to pay $2000 for my ankle hole and I STILL can't afford it. He seemed dubious.
I happen to know that my bishop works for American Airlines and make a 6 figure salary. Now it's all well and good for him to say that you can't afford to not have insurance, but I live in the real world. Some of us have to choose to pay bills and eat OR to have insurance. Hmmm. Tough decision. You would think the bishop would understand that. He deals all the time with people who can't make ends meet. What the fuck?

Another thing that bothered me today is that they have scheduled a primary activity (primary being the organization for kids 3-12) for Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning? Oh, cause I guess every single woman in the church is a stay at home mom that can just run the kids over to the activity in between baking bread and having her nails done! Yeah, I'm a single mother, and I have a little thing we call a job! Grr. How annoying! AND it's a swim party none the less. Like I can tell my son, who loves swimming even more than he loves video games, Oh no, sorry honey, you can't go to the swim party cause I'll be at work. Why don't you pile that on top of the anger you have for all the after school extracurricular activities and friend's parties that you've missed because of my job, roll that up with the feelings of betrayal you have for me going back to work when you were one, and pack that in real tight with the feelings of abandonment you have from your father moving away when you were three. That should make a nice little cocktail of anti-social behavior around the time you hit 15. But I digress. Fortunately, I called a lady who lives nearby, and she is willing to pick Ethan up and take him. Sadly, she actually lives in the neighborhood where the party is taking place, but she still agreed. I would have been annoyed, but she's a sweeter lady than myself.

In conclusion, people are dumb. Or maybe I need to not be so sensitive? Nah, it couldn't be MY fault!