My cousin who died the other day was well loved by a shit load of people. I have never been to a wake or funeral with so many people there to pay their respects. The funeral home is a pretty large building. The line snaked through the equivalent of 7 rooms. The wake was from 6 to 9. We got there at 6:30 and the line was out the door. It took us an hour and a half to get to his coffin and his parents. My brother Scott and his wife got there after we did, we saw them through the window of the 3rd room. They never made it into the building before they had to leave to get their kids from a neighbor and put them to bed. His wife stayed home and he came back. I talked to him on the phone and told him to come in another door, that mom would take him past the line since he only wanted to give them a hug and give his condolences. So that's what he did and she did. He was there maybe all of 15-20 minutes because of talking with some family members that he hadn't seen in awhile.
As I said, he didn't even make it in the door, they had been outside 45 minutes before they decided to leave and he said they were still 10-15 feet from the door. It was below freezing last night and his wife is from the Philippines. She's only been here 2 years, she's nowhere near acclimated to this weather yet.
We heard other people say they were outside 1 1/2 to 2 hours. By the time we left, which was around 9:30, everyone was inside but the line was still very long. Today when I talked with my uncle, the deceased's grandfather, he said they didn't get out of there until 11:30. My cousin, the deceased's aunt, said she didn't get home until 2:30.
Most of the people that were there were friends from high school, college and work. He was well loved. There was a group of very well dressed young men, all wearing similar suits with a pin on the lapel. His grandmother on his dad's side asked them who they were. They were boys from his fraternity. Today we found out that 6 of them were pledges. Pledges. Kids who had next to no idea who he was but because they want to become members and members become brothers for life, they came to his funeral. They drove from southern Illinois all the way up to north of Chicago and left last night to go back.
Today the funeral was at 10:30. Although there weren't as many people there as last night it was still a very large crowd. It was a good 30 - 45 minutes for the people standing to pay their respects before the 1st row of seats was motioned to go up.
Even as a little kid of 5 he had something about him that just made you love him. I babysat him from the age of about 5 months till he was 5 1/2 and I had to move to Louisiana. My fondest memory is of him running down the hallway from his bedroom and tackling his older brother or me or my brother Wayne who also watched them from time to time.
It'll be about 6 weeks before we'll know anything. The good and somewhat bad thing is that he wasn't mugged. His wallet and everything in it, keys, digital camera, everything was still on him when he was found. There was no blunt trauma anywhere on his body. So what's going to take forever is the toxicology report. They know he'd been drinking but not how much. Also there was cold medicine found laying out on his table at home so he may have been on that.
It's good that his stuff wasn't stolen but if he had been mugged at least we'd have a reason why. No questions unanswered really, he had been killed for his money, etc. If the test results show only cold medicine and alcohol in his system we're going to have questions. Since we know he got in the cab, why wasn't he taken directly home? Did he give the wrong address? If he gave the correct one was he so out of it that he went wandering down the street? Did he pass out? etc, etc, etc.
It's senseless no matter what anyway, answer or no answer. He died too young and his brother and parents will never get over it. They'll learn to live with it but never get over it.
Media quote of the day:
To know just how he suffered would be dear
BY Emily Dickinson
To know just how he suffered would be dear;
To know if any human eyes were near
To whom he could intrust his wavering gaze,
Until it settled firm on Paradise.
To know if he was patient, part content,
Was dying as he thought, or different;
Was it a pleasant day to die,
And did the sunshine face his way?
What was his furthest mind, of home, or God,
Or what the distant say
At news that he ceased human nature
On such a day?
And wishes, had he any?
Just his sigh, accented,
Had been legible to me.
And was he confident until
Ill fluttered out in everlasting well?
And if he spoke, what name was best,
What first,What one broke off with
At the drowsiest?
Was he afraid, or tranquil?
Might he know
How conscious consciousness could grow,
Till love that was, and love too blest to be,
Meet -- and the junction be Eternity?
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Weekend and 1st half of week update
Saturday was boring, nuff said.
Sunday we had two of our friends over to watch the Saints game. Wait, let me amend that, the fucking kickass Saints game. The beginning had us scared. The 49ers looked like they came to play some football and were giving the Saints a run for their money. But then Reggie Bush decided to show everyone why he went first in the draft and why he's worth all the money the Saints paid for him. He had 4 touchdowns. Wow, just wow. I think he's finally figured out how to play in the NFL. Which, for those of you who don't know, is fucking hard as hell compared to college. Before I learned I always thought it wasn't that big of a leap between the two but it's a huge fucking leap. The guys had to leave before the game ended which was fine since HD had to go back to bed right after it ended since he had to go to work later.
I sent him off to work and made myself dinner. I decided to have popcorn chicken with fries. Now, I had forgotten I had this chicken. We have a small stand alone freezer and we actually don't use it that often. It's mainly used to hold the extra frozen dinners we'll buy when they're on sale. I had to get one of those for HD to take to work and I saw the bag of chicken and decided that's what I wanted for dinner. I noticed some kind of ink stamp over the directions so I looked closely and it was a date stamp. It said "best if used by December 2005." Proof that we don't use that freezer all that much. But I figured they'd be fine, the bag had never been opened so at the most they might not taste as good as they would if they were fresh. I was right, they weren't the best but they weren't that bad either.
I had a brownie for desert. About 3 hours later after I couldn't stand my back hurting anymore I decided to take another hydrocodone pill. Another 15 minutes went by and I was in a munching mood so I had a handful of Frito Scoops.
By 9:45 my stomach wasn't feeling so well. I figured it was from the pill since I was feeling the affects of it. A little light headed and the pain was subsiding. Now the two times before when I took a pill I only had the light headed feeling for about an hour or so and then I got really tired. So I figured the Fritos were what was affecting my stomach more than the pill.
It wasn't until I was upchucking at 10pm that I decided it was the chicken. That makes more sense, especially since I upchucked two more times. My throat hurt afterward and my body was all shaky/jittery.
Right before my first upchuck my mom called and tells me one of my 2nd cousins was found dead in Chicago. Right now they're thinking freezing to death since he was found outside, no physical trauma and all of his belongings still on him. I used to babysit him from when I was 12/13 until I moved to Louisiana when I was 16. Him and his older brother. It's very hard for me to fathom this. Now, I haven't seen him since he was just a teenager, at one of the last family reunions. But that doesn't matter. It's one of those things, ya know? He's a family member, one younger than me at that, I expected him to be around for a long time to come, that I'd see him again one day. Maybe at his wedding or his brother's wedding. It's just so damn weird. I'll be going to his wake tonight and probably the funeral tomorrow.
In lighter news... It sounds like H Ditty's sister only had an intestinal infection. The doctor told her that if this happens again then it might end up being Crohn's disease but it would definitely be a very mild case of it. I guess she's supposed to meet him at some point to go over diet and preventive things.
We went to see Stranger Than Fiction with HD Sr yesterday. It was pretty good. I knew it wasn't a full blown comedy but I didn't expect that much drama either. I'd say it was more a serious film than anything else. But it was still very good. I thought Will Ferrell did a very fine job. And I love Queen Latifah in anything she does.
Both his sisters and their boyfriends came over last night also. We watched Office Space then the older sister had to leave to get to her son. The younger and her boyfriend stuck around and we played Texas Hold'em. Not for money though. She's still learning, had just started playing a few weeks ago. The boyfriend is still in the learning stages too but he knows more than she does. After they left H Ditty and I talked about how it was fun watching her get all excited, especially since there wasn't any money involved. She ended up winning too.
So that's what's been going on in my boring life right now.
Sunday we had two of our friends over to watch the Saints game. Wait, let me amend that, the fucking kickass Saints game. The beginning had us scared. The 49ers looked like they came to play some football and were giving the Saints a run for their money. But then Reggie Bush decided to show everyone why he went first in the draft and why he's worth all the money the Saints paid for him. He had 4 touchdowns. Wow, just wow. I think he's finally figured out how to play in the NFL. Which, for those of you who don't know, is fucking hard as hell compared to college. Before I learned I always thought it wasn't that big of a leap between the two but it's a huge fucking leap. The guys had to leave before the game ended which was fine since HD had to go back to bed right after it ended since he had to go to work later.
I sent him off to work and made myself dinner. I decided to have popcorn chicken with fries. Now, I had forgotten I had this chicken. We have a small stand alone freezer and we actually don't use it that often. It's mainly used to hold the extra frozen dinners we'll buy when they're on sale. I had to get one of those for HD to take to work and I saw the bag of chicken and decided that's what I wanted for dinner. I noticed some kind of ink stamp over the directions so I looked closely and it was a date stamp. It said "best if used by December 2005." Proof that we don't use that freezer all that much. But I figured they'd be fine, the bag had never been opened so at the most they might not taste as good as they would if they were fresh. I was right, they weren't the best but they weren't that bad either.
I had a brownie for desert. About 3 hours later after I couldn't stand my back hurting anymore I decided to take another hydrocodone pill. Another 15 minutes went by and I was in a munching mood so I had a handful of Frito Scoops.
By 9:45 my stomach wasn't feeling so well. I figured it was from the pill since I was feeling the affects of it. A little light headed and the pain was subsiding. Now the two times before when I took a pill I only had the light headed feeling for about an hour or so and then I got really tired. So I figured the Fritos were what was affecting my stomach more than the pill.
It wasn't until I was upchucking at 10pm that I decided it was the chicken. That makes more sense, especially since I upchucked two more times. My throat hurt afterward and my body was all shaky/jittery.
Right before my first upchuck my mom called and tells me one of my 2nd cousins was found dead in Chicago. Right now they're thinking freezing to death since he was found outside, no physical trauma and all of his belongings still on him. I used to babysit him from when I was 12/13 until I moved to Louisiana when I was 16. Him and his older brother. It's very hard for me to fathom this. Now, I haven't seen him since he was just a teenager, at one of the last family reunions. But that doesn't matter. It's one of those things, ya know? He's a family member, one younger than me at that, I expected him to be around for a long time to come, that I'd see him again one day. Maybe at his wedding or his brother's wedding. It's just so damn weird. I'll be going to his wake tonight and probably the funeral tomorrow.
In lighter news... It sounds like H Ditty's sister only had an intestinal infection. The doctor told her that if this happens again then it might end up being Crohn's disease but it would definitely be a very mild case of it. I guess she's supposed to meet him at some point to go over diet and preventive things.
We went to see Stranger Than Fiction with HD Sr yesterday. It was pretty good. I knew it wasn't a full blown comedy but I didn't expect that much drama either. I'd say it was more a serious film than anything else. But it was still very good. I thought Will Ferrell did a very fine job. And I love Queen Latifah in anything she does.
Both his sisters and their boyfriends came over last night also. We watched Office Space then the older sister had to leave to get to her son. The younger and her boyfriend stuck around and we played Texas Hold'em. Not for money though. She's still learning, had just started playing a few weeks ago. The boyfriend is still in the learning stages too but he knows more than she does. After they left H Ditty and I talked about how it was fun watching her get all excited, especially since there wasn't any money involved. She ended up winning too.
So that's what's been going on in my boring life right now.
Sunday, December 3, 2006
Picture Post 2
You should be able to click on each picture for the full size to see better detail if you want to. Which is especially useful for some of them.
Night shot
Obviously two lawn chairs that are sitting by my back porch. They look like male and female chairs to me. The one on the right has a cooler sitting on it that we forgot to bring in so it looks like a big chested female chair.
Close up of the same tree. Look how thick the snow is. See that low branch on the left side of the picture, the snow is holding it down so low that it's hanging over the driveway. Low enough that it hits our truck as we drive past.
The same tree the next day. Already a lot of the snow has been melted and blown off by the wind. You can sort of see two more trees on the left side.
This is looking up the middle of the tree that's closest to the road on the right side of our driveway. I thought it was a kinda neat picture.
This is the bottom portion of the other two trees. They're in our front yard close to the street. The tree on the left is so laden down with snow the bottom branches are touching the snow on the ground.
Day shot of the same two trees.
The trees on the left are our neighbors, the two on the right our the previous two.
The front of our house. Our snow blower still isn't working and since we never use our front door we haven't bothered clearing it so it still looks pretty much like this.
Night shotObviously two lawn chairs that are sitting by my back porch. They look like male and female chairs to me. The one on the right has a cooler sitting on it that we forgot to bring in so it looks like a big chested female chair.
Day shot
Obviously the chairs again the next day, it wasn't all that warm but they are facing the east. And it was absolutely sunny on Saturday so they had sun beating down on them all morning until around 12:30 when the sun finally was on the side of the house.
The sidewalk and stairs that I shoveled that made my back hurt again. As you can see it isn't that long of a sidewalk but the snow was deep and it was heart attack snow, so yeah, hurtin back. It hurts even worse today, all on the right side too.
We have four very large pine trees in our front and side yards. This one is the first tree as you face the street from the end of the driveway up by the garage. You can't even see the top of the tree it's so damn tall.
Close up of the same tree. Look how thick the snow is. See that low branch on the left side of the picture, the snow is holding it down so low that it's hanging over the driveway. Low enough that it hits our truck as we drive past.
The same tree the next day. Already a lot of the snow has been melted and blown off by the wind. You can sort of see two more trees on the left side.
This is looking up the middle of the tree that's closest to the road on the right side of our driveway. I thought it was a kinda neat picture.
This is the bottom portion of the other two trees. They're in our front yard close to the street. The tree on the left is so laden down with snow the bottom branches are touching the snow on the ground.
Day shot of the same two trees.
The trees on the left are our neighbors, the two on the right our the previous two.
The front of our house. Our snow blower still isn't working and since we never use our front door we haven't bothered clearing it so it still looks pretty much like this.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Picture post
Me and H Ditty and the turkeyThis is in front of H Ditty's dad's house on Thanksgiving Day right before we headed over to his mother's house. Not a bad one I think.
Me and the kids1st off, it looks like I don't have a pinky finger on my left hand, don't worry, I do. Heh This group of kids are the 4 I went to the zoo with. Scott Jr up top; his sister on my left - Nicole; the two on my right are their stepsisters - Kay and Maria. Maria is the one laying ontop of Kay. They're from the Philippines
Me and my two nephewsThese two handsome boys are two of my nephews. The one that I have my arm wrapped around is Wayne's son, Lee. The other is Scott Jr. This was at Scott's 12th birthday party.
The night of the snowstorm. This is my Magnolia Tree and garage.
Similar shot the next afternoon.
It's a weird garage, I know. The half with all the windows used to be a Florida room. Someone who owned the house before us painted all the windows but those facing the tree, don't know why.
Well, for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to put anymore pictures up. Not even in another post so I guess I'll try either later tonight or tomorrow. I've got a bunch more on the snow.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sister in law not feeling so well
My sister in law, H Ditty's oldest sister who's 27, is in the hospital. She went in the other day for what they thought might be some viral infection, maybe intestinal flu. She called this morning saying as long as she could keep her food down she'd be leaving in the afternoon.
Then later in the day we're told that she's going in for a ct scan. Turns out she has either an intestinal infection or Crohn's Disease, at least that's what the doctors are thinking right now. She's going in tomorrow morning (Friday) at 10:00 for a colonoscopy to determine what's going on. We'll be heading down there to see her before she goes in. It's also supposed to be snowing big time, it'll be a fun day.
EDIT FRIDAY around 1pm: So we got back from the hospital not too long ago. She's probably got Crohn's disease but it's a mild case of it. But I guess they're not a 100% sure. She's being given some antibiotics and she can go home. They told her that in 3 months she should come back for more tests. If they come back negative then this was just an infection; if they come back positive she's got a mild case of Crohn's disease.
I'm choosing to think positive that it was all an infection.
______________________________
In other news, we got dumped on today. I'm not sure the inches yet, let me go see...oh well, they don't have an actual number yet but we're thinking it's been 6-8 inches so far. H Ditty decided to do the driveway with the snow blower after we got home from the hospital but was unable to get the damn thing started. I shoveled a path from the drive to our back door while he was trying to get it started. My back is better but by the time I was done it was aching a little.
We're now sitting back in front of our respective computers and eating some lunch. He'll probably be going to bed after since he's working tonight and I may join him for a nap. So I'm going to end this so I can finish eating, surf the few sites I want to get to and then go lay down.
Media quote of the day: Mornings in a hospital are filled with possibilities. You could encounter a disease you've never seen before, make a life-saving diagnosis or try out the best new nickname ever [to Turk] Good morning Black Whale! - J.D. on Scrubs
Then later in the day we're told that she's going in for a ct scan. Turns out she has either an intestinal infection or Crohn's Disease, at least that's what the doctors are thinking right now. She's going in tomorrow morning (Friday) at 10:00 for a colonoscopy to determine what's going on. We'll be heading down there to see her before she goes in. It's also supposed to be snowing big time, it'll be a fun day.
EDIT FRIDAY around 1pm: So we got back from the hospital not too long ago. She's probably got Crohn's disease but it's a mild case of it. But I guess they're not a 100% sure. She's being given some antibiotics and she can go home. They told her that in 3 months she should come back for more tests. If they come back negative then this was just an infection; if they come back positive she's got a mild case of Crohn's disease.
I'm choosing to think positive that it was all an infection.
______________________________
In other news, we got dumped on today. I'm not sure the inches yet, let me go see...oh well, they don't have an actual number yet but we're thinking it's been 6-8 inches so far. H Ditty decided to do the driveway with the snow blower after we got home from the hospital but was unable to get the damn thing started. I shoveled a path from the drive to our back door while he was trying to get it started. My back is better but by the time I was done it was aching a little.
We're now sitting back in front of our respective computers and eating some lunch. He'll probably be going to bed after since he's working tonight and I may join him for a nap. So I'm going to end this so I can finish eating, surf the few sites I want to get to and then go lay down.
Media quote of the day: Mornings in a hospital are filled with possibilities. You could encounter a disease you've never seen before, make a life-saving diagnosis or try out the best new nickname ever [to Turk] Good morning Black Whale! - J.D. on Scrubs
2nd Media quote of the day: We're building an igloo in Central Park! It's going to be legendary! Snow-suit up! - Barney in How I Met Your Mother
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Just another Tuesday job search
Looking for work sucks the big one. Since I've given up on the employment agency I have to do this myself and I'm just not seeing anything out there. So I guess I'm gonna do what they were doing, sort of anyway. They made calls to all kinds of places without the company advertising. I'm just gonna send my resume, ad or no ad, to places in my town and the surrounding towns.
Update on my back. It feels better today, even better than yesterday. I took another hydrocodone last night in hopes it would do the same as it did Sunday and it seems to have done so. I think by taking the pill it's allowing it to heal unlike before. I may take another tonight, I'm not sure yet.
Media quote of the day: So, Dawn's in trouble... must be Tuesday. - Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Update on my back. It feels better today, even better than yesterday. I took another hydrocodone last night in hopes it would do the same as it did Sunday and it seems to have done so. I think by taking the pill it's allowing it to heal unlike before. I may take another tonight, I'm not sure yet.
Media quote of the day: So, Dawn's in trouble... must be Tuesday. - Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Monday, November 27, 2006
Weekend Update
Friday at the zoo went very well. My mom, Scott's wife and their four kids and I all went. We got there close to noon, had lunch before we went in and then spent a good 3 1/2 hours walking around. All four kids were wonderful, not a whiny one in the bunch. They had fun telling mom and me about all the different times they'd been there and what had happened before.
My nephew, Scott Jr. and I noticed that almost every time we got to a new primate area one of them would take a piss. One of them, a big gorilla that was sitting on a branch that ran along the top of the window along the inside viewing area took a long piss and a bunch of it ran down the window. It was pretty funny because there had been some young girls standing there without knowing the gorilla was up there. When the piss started running down they looked up and squealed and back away. Scott Jr enjoyed that. Also, the biggest one in that exhibit picked it's nose around 5 times and ate it, so the kids got a kick out of that. That was the story they told the most afterward.
In some of the exhibits there's this large round red scratchy thingy for the animals to rub on. One of the camels looked like it was going to scratch it's stomach or chest but then I noticed that it didn't quite do that. It had been rubbing it's chin and neck on it and after it would back away and paw at the ground. It did that 2 or 3 times then it (the thing was laying on the ground by the way) walked over it straddling it with it's front legs. It started to bend down, looked like it was hunching it's back trying to get it's hind legs close up and it's tale was swishing back and forth. It's whole body was sort of twitching. It did this 2 or 3 times also. My mom agreed, it was trying to do the nasty with the scratchy thingy.
Although it's not a big zoo we still didn't see it all so maybe H Ditty and I will go back sometime and check it out.
Saturday was Scott Jr's birthday party (he actually turned 12 on Thanksgiving Day). We got there around 3 and as soon as we walked in the door we were handed a paint color chart saying it was our ticket to get into the show that the girls were going to be putting on a little later. We all had some food and then the girls ran down to the basement to finish working on the routine. Eventually they came and got us, collected the tickets and put on their show. It was the 3 youngest of them (6, 8 and 10) and it was gymnastics routine. Basically they did a bunch of cartwheels but they did them in sync and to music. They're all a bunch of hams. The oldest of all of them used to do these types of things too but she's 14 now and doesn't do it as much. She's the one that taught all of them though so they're just carrying on the tradition.
A little while later they brought out a karaoke machine but no one wanted to sing. Only my SIL and her oldest daughter (the 8 year old). Eventually 14year old sang some, she was very silly while doing it but it was fun to watch. They kept trying to get me to do it but they didn't have anything to get me drunk enough. Although I did end up doing one because I was singing it anyway, just not in the mic. So I finally agreed and took it and finished the song, Proud Mary by Credence Clearwater Revival. The machine they have gives a rating and I got a 67. Which seemed pretty good since I missed half of the words from not starting it and then screwing up when I did start singing into the mic. All the young girls eventually took it over and had a good time singing and competing to get the highest score. All the kids ended up going over to Wayne's (4th oldest brother) house to spend the night. Jason, H Ditty and I stuck around until close to midnight just bullshitting the night away.
Sunday was the game. HD had invited a few people to come over but figured only his dad would show up and sure enough he was the only one. Until he called his wife to bring him one of his Bears hats and she decided to come over to stay too. She also went to the store and bought all kinds of snacks: 4 bags of chips and dip; a cheese, sausage and cracker tray, a cupcake tray and brownies. She misunderstood HD Sr and thought the other people that were invited were here so that's why she bought so much. And of course they left it all here so he's going to take a bunch of it to work tonight.
So we watched the Saints game at noon. Which was awesome! They did what they should have done the previous two games which was kick ass. When there was less than 2 minutes left I changed into my Bears sweatshirt to get ready for that game. HD didn't like that and made me go change back into the Saints sweatshirt. After it was official I went back to the Bears sweatshirt and we proceeded to watch that game. It was an exciting but sad game since they lost. They really should've won though. Ah well.
My back was still bad and around 2ish HD remembered he had some hydrocodone (the generic form of vicodin) from when he had a root canal. So I took one since regular over the counter pain relievers haven't been working. It took awhile to kick in but finally did. It was very nice to be able to stand up, bend over and walk up the stairs normally again. But today it's back to hurting. Doesn't seem as bad though so I wonder if taking that pill allowed it to start healing. If it gets worse again I'll call the doctor.
Media quote of the day: It's true, I'm having a party. I've got three cases of imported beer, karaoke machine, and I didn't invite Michael. - Jim Halpert from The Office
My nephew, Scott Jr. and I noticed that almost every time we got to a new primate area one of them would take a piss. One of them, a big gorilla that was sitting on a branch that ran along the top of the window along the inside viewing area took a long piss and a bunch of it ran down the window. It was pretty funny because there had been some young girls standing there without knowing the gorilla was up there. When the piss started running down they looked up and squealed and back away. Scott Jr enjoyed that. Also, the biggest one in that exhibit picked it's nose around 5 times and ate it, so the kids got a kick out of that. That was the story they told the most afterward.
In some of the exhibits there's this large round red scratchy thingy for the animals to rub on. One of the camels looked like it was going to scratch it's stomach or chest but then I noticed that it didn't quite do that. It had been rubbing it's chin and neck on it and after it would back away and paw at the ground. It did that 2 or 3 times then it (the thing was laying on the ground by the way) walked over it straddling it with it's front legs. It started to bend down, looked like it was hunching it's back trying to get it's hind legs close up and it's tale was swishing back and forth. It's whole body was sort of twitching. It did this 2 or 3 times also. My mom agreed, it was trying to do the nasty with the scratchy thingy.
Although it's not a big zoo we still didn't see it all so maybe H Ditty and I will go back sometime and check it out.
Saturday was Scott Jr's birthday party (he actually turned 12 on Thanksgiving Day). We got there around 3 and as soon as we walked in the door we were handed a paint color chart saying it was our ticket to get into the show that the girls were going to be putting on a little later. We all had some food and then the girls ran down to the basement to finish working on the routine. Eventually they came and got us, collected the tickets and put on their show. It was the 3 youngest of them (6, 8 and 10) and it was gymnastics routine. Basically they did a bunch of cartwheels but they did them in sync and to music. They're all a bunch of hams. The oldest of all of them used to do these types of things too but she's 14 now and doesn't do it as much. She's the one that taught all of them though so they're just carrying on the tradition.
A little while later they brought out a karaoke machine but no one wanted to sing. Only my SIL and her oldest daughter (the 8 year old). Eventually 14year old sang some, she was very silly while doing it but it was fun to watch. They kept trying to get me to do it but they didn't have anything to get me drunk enough. Although I did end up doing one because I was singing it anyway, just not in the mic. So I finally agreed and took it and finished the song, Proud Mary by Credence Clearwater Revival. The machine they have gives a rating and I got a 67. Which seemed pretty good since I missed half of the words from not starting it and then screwing up when I did start singing into the mic. All the young girls eventually took it over and had a good time singing and competing to get the highest score. All the kids ended up going over to Wayne's (4th oldest brother) house to spend the night. Jason, H Ditty and I stuck around until close to midnight just bullshitting the night away.
Sunday was the game. HD had invited a few people to come over but figured only his dad would show up and sure enough he was the only one. Until he called his wife to bring him one of his Bears hats and she decided to come over to stay too. She also went to the store and bought all kinds of snacks: 4 bags of chips and dip; a cheese, sausage and cracker tray, a cupcake tray and brownies. She misunderstood HD Sr and thought the other people that were invited were here so that's why she bought so much. And of course they left it all here so he's going to take a bunch of it to work tonight.
So we watched the Saints game at noon. Which was awesome! They did what they should have done the previous two games which was kick ass. When there was less than 2 minutes left I changed into my Bears sweatshirt to get ready for that game. HD didn't like that and made me go change back into the Saints sweatshirt. After it was official I went back to the Bears sweatshirt and we proceeded to watch that game. It was an exciting but sad game since they lost. They really should've won though. Ah well.
My back was still bad and around 2ish HD remembered he had some hydrocodone (the generic form of vicodin) from when he had a root canal. So I took one since regular over the counter pain relievers haven't been working. It took awhile to kick in but finally did. It was very nice to be able to stand up, bend over and walk up the stairs normally again. But today it's back to hurting. Doesn't seem as bad though so I wonder if taking that pill allowed it to start healing. If it gets worse again I'll call the doctor.
Media quote of the day: It's true, I'm having a party. I've got three cases of imported beer, karaoke machine, and I didn't invite Michael. - Jim Halpert from The Office
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Thanksgiving Day Recap or Nothing much exciting to report for Thanksgiving Day but here it is anyway
So Thanksgiving Day didn't go as planned of course. No holiday plans ever seem to. The day was to go as such: Be at his dad's around 12 and spend between 1-2 hours there, get to his grandma's after that and spend 1-2 hours there and then head to my mom's and end the day there. He would either take a nap at her house and leave for work directly from there or I'd take him home around 6-7ish and he could take a nap then leave from home and I'd go back to mom's after dropping him off. Since H Ditty had worked the night before and was to go in later at 10pm he was supposed to go to bed as soon as possible after getting home Thursday morning. He didn't get into bed until after 9am. All of these times were supposed to work out very well. His dad was supposed to be eating around 12, his grandma around 3 and my mom around 4.
We got a call from his grandma while he was sleeping that she screwed up the time it would take for the turkey to be done so we ended up not having to be at her home so early and we also found out from his dad that eating wouldn't take place until close to 3. We decided to let him sleep until 2 and everything would just get pushed back some. Which was fine since I had already told my mom that we more than likely wouldn't be eating at her place, to not wait for us.
We got to his dad's around 2:50, dinner was at 3:20 and we were out of there by 4:20. Nothing exciting happened here. We met his aunt's new boyfriend and his son, that was about it. Seemed nice enough.
Made it to grandma's house by 4:35 and dinner was finally being served around 5:30. We had the exact same things at both places with one exception, he had some ham at his dad's. Otherwise it was turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll or two. I was disappointed that there wasn't corn or beans at either place. Just that damn green bean casserole, blech! Nothing much happened here either. Usually there's a good political discussion that happens but not this time. Although his uncle did say some things during his grace, which I didn't hear because I was trying to get my nephew to be quiet. HD said he thought his uncle was trying to get a discussion/fight going but no one took the bait. His sisters were giddy, one because she had had half a bottle of wine and the other because she just was.
We finally left there around 7 and headed to my mom's. One of my brother's and his family were already gone but the others were there. All the kids were in the basement playing pool with my oldest brother. My parents and Scott, 2nd oldest brother, were chilling in the livingroom which is where HD and I went to. Eventually Jason, oldest brother, came upstairs and we all just hung out. They had decided not to have a fire, never did learn why, oh well it was still nice. The kids came up for a little while and hung all over HD to look at his camera and the pictures he'd taken that day of his family. We finally headed out a little after 9. I thought about going back after bringing him home but my back was starting to hurt worse and I was getting tired so I stayed home. Besides as my previous post said, I had to get up early because some of us were going to the zoo.
All in all it was a nice day. No arguments, no drama, just good visits everywhere. I wish we could've spent more time at all the places but that's ok, at least we saw everyone for a little while.
No media quote, can't think of anything that would fit.
We got a call from his grandma while he was sleeping that she screwed up the time it would take for the turkey to be done so we ended up not having to be at her home so early and we also found out from his dad that eating wouldn't take place until close to 3. We decided to let him sleep until 2 and everything would just get pushed back some. Which was fine since I had already told my mom that we more than likely wouldn't be eating at her place, to not wait for us.
We got to his dad's around 2:50, dinner was at 3:20 and we were out of there by 4:20. Nothing exciting happened here. We met his aunt's new boyfriend and his son, that was about it. Seemed nice enough.
Made it to grandma's house by 4:35 and dinner was finally being served around 5:30. We had the exact same things at both places with one exception, he had some ham at his dad's. Otherwise it was turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll or two. I was disappointed that there wasn't corn or beans at either place. Just that damn green bean casserole, blech! Nothing much happened here either. Usually there's a good political discussion that happens but not this time. Although his uncle did say some things during his grace, which I didn't hear because I was trying to get my nephew to be quiet. HD said he thought his uncle was trying to get a discussion/fight going but no one took the bait. His sisters were giddy, one because she had had half a bottle of wine and the other because she just was.
We finally left there around 7 and headed to my mom's. One of my brother's and his family were already gone but the others were there. All the kids were in the basement playing pool with my oldest brother. My parents and Scott, 2nd oldest brother, were chilling in the livingroom which is where HD and I went to. Eventually Jason, oldest brother, came upstairs and we all just hung out. They had decided not to have a fire, never did learn why, oh well it was still nice. The kids came up for a little while and hung all over HD to look at his camera and the pictures he'd taken that day of his family. We finally headed out a little after 9. I thought about going back after bringing him home but my back was starting to hurt worse and I was getting tired so I stayed home. Besides as my previous post said, I had to get up early because some of us were going to the zoo.
All in all it was a nice day. No arguments, no drama, just good visits everywhere. I wish we could've spent more time at all the places but that's ok, at least we saw everyone for a little while.
No media quote, can't think of anything that would fit.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Obligation
So, I should be going to bed because I have to get up early enough to go pick up my mom then my sister-in-law and her 4 kids and drive us all down to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago by 10am. We were going to go to the Field Museum but my mom called them for some info and found out that it's the busiest day of the whole year, so yeah, we ain't going there anymore. And since mom and I have never been to that zoo, it's free and the kids will love going there that's where we'll be going.
But it's 11:42pm and I just so don't feel like going to bed. That's bad. But I am tired, helps that I've been drinking since that'll make ya want to sleep. But Bravo has the top 100 funniest movies on that I've been listening to while playing some games on the computer. I've seen it before but it's still fun to watch again.
Ok, I gotta just make myself go. So here I go, gonna get off of here, bye bye.
Media quote of the day: You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead, asshole. - Otto from A Fish Called Wanda (The movie that they were talking about while I was typing this.)
But it's 11:42pm and I just so don't feel like going to bed. That's bad. But I am tired, helps that I've been drinking since that'll make ya want to sleep. But Bravo has the top 100 funniest movies on that I've been listening to while playing some games on the computer. I've seen it before but it's still fun to watch again.
Ok, I gotta just make myself go. So here I go, gonna get off of here, bye bye.
p.s. My back still hurts like a motherfuck!
Media quote of the day: You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead, asshole. - Otto from A Fish Called Wanda (The movie that they were talking about while I was typing this.)
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Back pain
My lower back is in such pain right now. I don't know if it's because I slept wrong or what but about a week ago it started hurting. It wasn't too bad, more annoying than anything else. Then I mowed, bagged and raked the last of the leaves on Friday and that definitely made it hurt worse. I could barely move that night but I took a nice hot bath and some Aleve and that seemed to help some. H Ditty says it'll take awhile for it to stop since it is back pain and that seems to take the longest to heal. But damn, today it hurts worse than any other day. I've been sitting here with a heating pad hoping it'll help but not so far. When I got up a little while ago to reheat the pad (it's a microwave kind) it hurt like a motherfuck to stand and then walk up the stairs to the kitchen. I took some Motrin when I got back to my seat so I'm hoping that'll kick in soon.
Update on the job progress. Last Tuesday Wendi, my headhunter I guess you'd call her, had told me there was a possibility that she wouldn't be in on Wed because of her aunt dying of cancer. Sure enough I got a call at 8:15 Wed. morning from her office saying she wasn't going to be in that day. As soon as she was back she'd call to reschedule me. I didn't hear from her until Monday morning. So I figured her aunt had died. So she calls me Monday, she's booked through the rest of the day but would like to schedule me for Tuesday. I say that I had some things to take care of in the morning but I could make it in in the afternoon. She said she'd check out her schedule and call me back. She didn't call back at all Monday or early Tuesday. So around 9:45 or so I called and they tell me she's no longer working there and they're in the process of reassigning all of her clients. They'll have to call me back once I've been given to someone else and that person will schedule me to come in. It's now 4:25 on Wednesday afternoon and I haven't heard back from anyone. So I've decided that if and when they do I'll do the other route with them. Which is, you've got my info if any company happens to request someone with my credentials then set up an interview for me but I'm not going to be coming in everyday anymore.
I've come to the conclusion that using them has actually hindered me more than helped. Not that Wendi did a poor job because I don't think that at all. I really liked her, I feel like we could have been friends outside of that environment. Plus she really did get a hold of a lot of companies, they just weren't hiring.
Anyway, what I meant by hindering me is that if a company were to hire me they would have to pay the employment agency a fee and unless said company hired them to find them someone they won't want to pay that fee. So I'm thinking that most if not all of the places we sent my resume too that had advertised in the paper didn't want to interview me because my resume came from the employment agency and they didn't want to pay for me. The last job I got was the first and only place I sent my resume to. Yeah, it turned out it wasn't the place for me but so what. It just shows that I do have what someone would want so I'm gonna go it on my own for awhile and see how it goes. Wish me luck.
So tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I don't know if I'll be around to post anything because we're supposed to be going to H Ditty's dad's house, his grandmother's house and my mother's house. His dad's day starts at noon, we haven't heard about his grandmother's yet and my mom's is at 4:00. So we know we'll end the day at her house, just not sure if we'll be going to dad's or grandma's first and at what times. It's gonna be a long day but hopefully it will end in front of a nice bonfire at mom's. The weather is supposed to be nice and as long as it holds up she's gonna have a fire going by 7. And I'll be having me a long island ice tea or at the very least a glass of Irish cream in hand in front of that fire.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it and of those of you who don't...Happy Thursday!
Media quote of the day: [to Izzy about being late for Thanksgiving dinner] Today I committed bird murder, and I was forced to touch my dad's ass. I get extra points for showing up at all. - Dr. George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy. Mmmmm, I love me some George.
Update on the job progress. Last Tuesday Wendi, my headhunter I guess you'd call her, had told me there was a possibility that she wouldn't be in on Wed because of her aunt dying of cancer. Sure enough I got a call at 8:15 Wed. morning from her office saying she wasn't going to be in that day. As soon as she was back she'd call to reschedule me. I didn't hear from her until Monday morning. So I figured her aunt had died. So she calls me Monday, she's booked through the rest of the day but would like to schedule me for Tuesday. I say that I had some things to take care of in the morning but I could make it in in the afternoon. She said she'd check out her schedule and call me back. She didn't call back at all Monday or early Tuesday. So around 9:45 or so I called and they tell me she's no longer working there and they're in the process of reassigning all of her clients. They'll have to call me back once I've been given to someone else and that person will schedule me to come in. It's now 4:25 on Wednesday afternoon and I haven't heard back from anyone. So I've decided that if and when they do I'll do the other route with them. Which is, you've got my info if any company happens to request someone with my credentials then set up an interview for me but I'm not going to be coming in everyday anymore.
I've come to the conclusion that using them has actually hindered me more than helped. Not that Wendi did a poor job because I don't think that at all. I really liked her, I feel like we could have been friends outside of that environment. Plus she really did get a hold of a lot of companies, they just weren't hiring.
Anyway, what I meant by hindering me is that if a company were to hire me they would have to pay the employment agency a fee and unless said company hired them to find them someone they won't want to pay that fee. So I'm thinking that most if not all of the places we sent my resume too that had advertised in the paper didn't want to interview me because my resume came from the employment agency and they didn't want to pay for me. The last job I got was the first and only place I sent my resume to. Yeah, it turned out it wasn't the place for me but so what. It just shows that I do have what someone would want so I'm gonna go it on my own for awhile and see how it goes. Wish me luck.
So tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I don't know if I'll be around to post anything because we're supposed to be going to H Ditty's dad's house, his grandmother's house and my mother's house. His dad's day starts at noon, we haven't heard about his grandmother's yet and my mom's is at 4:00. So we know we'll end the day at her house, just not sure if we'll be going to dad's or grandma's first and at what times. It's gonna be a long day but hopefully it will end in front of a nice bonfire at mom's. The weather is supposed to be nice and as long as it holds up she's gonna have a fire going by 7. And I'll be having me a long island ice tea or at the very least a glass of Irish cream in hand in front of that fire.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it and of those of you who don't...Happy Thursday!
Media quote of the day: [to Izzy about being late for Thanksgiving dinner] Today I committed bird murder, and I was forced to touch my dad's ass. I get extra points for showing up at all. - Dr. George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy. Mmmmm, I love me some George.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Nothing much to say
So this last week has been rather boring, hence no updates. Last week the chick I've been working with at the employment agency had an aunt die of cancer so I didn't go in at all Wed. thru Fri.
H Ditty and I went to a large video, cd, electronics store with the initials of BB to pick up a battery pack for his digital camera. We had purchased both items at the same time back at the end of July but they had to order everything. The camera and lens were delivered to our house. The battery pack could only be delivered to their store. This store is a good 45 minute drive away from where we live. Now I know it's our own fault for buying these items at this store and not at one in our own hometown but it wasn't until after the deal was going through that the sales guy told us this.
So he tells us that someone will call when the pack is in. No one ever did and since we're procrastinators we didn't call them until the end of Sept or beginning of Oct. So one afternoon H Ditty finally calls them up and we start getting a run around. They can't find it, don't know what's going on they'll call us back. He has to go to bed because he works that night so he tells me that when they call back if they still haven't found it to just cancel the order and put the money back on the card. The lady calls back a little later and says that the delivery date is Oct. 31st. That that was the original date all along. Which is bullshit, there's no way it would be a full 3 months later but whatever. I say to her that we'd like to cancel it and she says we can't. It's a purchased item in their books and has to be delivered. The only way we can do this is on the 31st go pick up the item and then turn right around hand it back to them and say we want to return it.
Now it's November 16th, a good two weeks after it's to be ready for pick up. We drive down and you guessed it, it's not there. They can't find it anywhere in the store and then we're told it's never been ordered. Neither time was it ordered. So again I say I want it taken off the card and the guy tells me he's not sure they can do that but calls over some chick to see. She takes 10 - 15 minutes but it's finally reversed. While she's punching away at the keys she says that it DOES show it was ordered originally in July and that it should be somewhere in the store. We said the guys looked for it and can't find it and it doesn't matter anyway because we don't want it anymore. So she continues and like I said, finally gets it taken care of.
The good thing about it all is that the purchase was a 12 month same as cash deal so at least we weren't paying interest on it for these last few months.
Saturday was my niece's 14th birthday. Had a good time over at her house for her party. I was the only one who bought an actual present, everyone else gave her cash. She raked it in though, got over 170 bucks. I thought about giving cash but I really prefer to give an actual gift. That is, as long as it's something they actually want, which she did. She wanted the board game Deal or No Deal. She was happy to get it, so was her mom, the family planned on playing it that night after everyone had left.
Today the Saints decided to loose another game. Two turn overs in the end zone. Bad, just bad. It was going to be a hard game to win anyway but they very well could have won it if they hadn't turned the damn ball over.
So that's been my boring week. Damn, even when I have nothing to write about apparently I can still ramble and make a long post.
Media quote of the day: I work at a shitty video store! I want to go to a good video store and get a good movie! - Randal Graves - Clerks
H Ditty and I went to a large video, cd, electronics store with the initials of BB to pick up a battery pack for his digital camera. We had purchased both items at the same time back at the end of July but they had to order everything. The camera and lens were delivered to our house. The battery pack could only be delivered to their store. This store is a good 45 minute drive away from where we live. Now I know it's our own fault for buying these items at this store and not at one in our own hometown but it wasn't until after the deal was going through that the sales guy told us this.
So he tells us that someone will call when the pack is in. No one ever did and since we're procrastinators we didn't call them until the end of Sept or beginning of Oct. So one afternoon H Ditty finally calls them up and we start getting a run around. They can't find it, don't know what's going on they'll call us back. He has to go to bed because he works that night so he tells me that when they call back if they still haven't found it to just cancel the order and put the money back on the card. The lady calls back a little later and says that the delivery date is Oct. 31st. That that was the original date all along. Which is bullshit, there's no way it would be a full 3 months later but whatever. I say to her that we'd like to cancel it and she says we can't. It's a purchased item in their books and has to be delivered. The only way we can do this is on the 31st go pick up the item and then turn right around hand it back to them and say we want to return it.
Now it's November 16th, a good two weeks after it's to be ready for pick up. We drive down and you guessed it, it's not there. They can't find it anywhere in the store and then we're told it's never been ordered. Neither time was it ordered. So again I say I want it taken off the card and the guy tells me he's not sure they can do that but calls over some chick to see. She takes 10 - 15 minutes but it's finally reversed. While she's punching away at the keys she says that it DOES show it was ordered originally in July and that it should be somewhere in the store. We said the guys looked for it and can't find it and it doesn't matter anyway because we don't want it anymore. So she continues and like I said, finally gets it taken care of.
The good thing about it all is that the purchase was a 12 month same as cash deal so at least we weren't paying interest on it for these last few months.
Saturday was my niece's 14th birthday. Had a good time over at her house for her party. I was the only one who bought an actual present, everyone else gave her cash. She raked it in though, got over 170 bucks. I thought about giving cash but I really prefer to give an actual gift. That is, as long as it's something they actually want, which she did. She wanted the board game Deal or No Deal. She was happy to get it, so was her mom, the family planned on playing it that night after everyone had left.
Today the Saints decided to loose another game. Two turn overs in the end zone. Bad, just bad. It was going to be a hard game to win anyway but they very well could have won it if they hadn't turned the damn ball over.
So that's been my boring week. Damn, even when I have nothing to write about apparently I can still ramble and make a long post.
Media quote of the day: I work at a shitty video store! I want to go to a good video store and get a good movie! - Randal Graves - Clerks
Monday, November 13, 2006
Weekend update
Friday after leaving the employment agency I called the dealership where I bought my truck from and made an appointment for them to look at it. I've been getting a low brake fluid warning for a couple weeks now. On Friday it happened 7 times, 4 of those on the way to the dealership. Turns out it wasn't the fluid but the brakes themselves. $225.00 later they're fixed. That hurts when a bitch ain't working yet. Thank God for credit cards.
Saturday was poker night. I came in 2nd, again!! It's my own fault though. I was up 3 to 1 in chips and during one hand I was milking him. I just kept placing 100 dollar bets. Then the last card was flipped. He had already bet half of his chips or I should say called with half his chips, so he decided to make a play and go all in. I called. He sucked out on the river, got a straight to the king. I only had a pair before but the river also gave me a straight, but just to the jack. So that put us pretty much even in chips. After that mine just kind of dwindled away and he ended up winning it all. If I would have just bet high after the flop or maybe even after the turn he would've folded. Oh well, there's always next month.
Yesterday we watched the game that sucked. Saints also should've won but they let themselves loose too. They basically gave the game to the Steelers. Oh well, there's always next week.
Today I went back to the employment agency. Didn't get as much accomplished since she saw me inbetween other clients, more so than normal. But then I didn't have an actual appointment, we both knew that was how it was going to go. I do have an appointment for tomorrow so we should get a lot more done. Not knowing quickbooks is hurting me though. There have been a shit load of companies that want someone with quickbooks knowledge and I don't have it. It won't take me long to learn though, they just have to give me a chance.
Media quote of the day: In my club, I will splash the pot whenever the fuck I please. - Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) in Rounders
Saturday was poker night. I came in 2nd, again!! It's my own fault though. I was up 3 to 1 in chips and during one hand I was milking him. I just kept placing 100 dollar bets. Then the last card was flipped. He had already bet half of his chips or I should say called with half his chips, so he decided to make a play and go all in. I called. He sucked out on the river, got a straight to the king. I only had a pair before but the river also gave me a straight, but just to the jack. So that put us pretty much even in chips. After that mine just kind of dwindled away and he ended up winning it all. If I would have just bet high after the flop or maybe even after the turn he would've folded. Oh well, there's always next month.
Yesterday we watched the game that sucked. Saints also should've won but they let themselves loose too. They basically gave the game to the Steelers. Oh well, there's always next week.
Today I went back to the employment agency. Didn't get as much accomplished since she saw me inbetween other clients, more so than normal. But then I didn't have an actual appointment, we both knew that was how it was going to go. I do have an appointment for tomorrow so we should get a lot more done. Not knowing quickbooks is hurting me though. There have been a shit load of companies that want someone with quickbooks knowledge and I don't have it. It won't take me long to learn though, they just have to give me a chance.
Media quote of the day: In my club, I will splash the pot whenever the fuck I please. - Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) in Rounders
Thursday, November 9, 2006
Busy week
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop." | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The Northeast | |
| The Midland | |
| The South | |
| Boston | |
| The West | |
| North Central | |
| What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes | |
Well, I used to call carbonated drinks pop, until I moved to Louisiana. The land where all carbonated drinks are called Coke. Even if it's a pepsi. It was very confusing for awhile, but once I got the hang of it it was no problem at all. Then, after moving back the first place I worked half the people there lived in Wisconsin where the drinks are called soda and I got in that habit. So now it's mostly soda out of my mouth but coke and pop still come out every now and then.
So this week has been pretty busy for me. Monday while at the employment agency the chick that's helping me asked how I felt about working for the rest of the day. I told her I was game, what did she have in mind. One of the other girls there had been trying to get one of her temp people to go to a one day job but most weren't answering their phone and the others that did said they couldn't go. So I did. Hell, 12 bucks an hour to file some papers, I'll do that. I worked from 11:30 to 4:45. And that is literally all I did for those 5 hours, filed. Then I filed some more. But that was the easiest 60 bucks I think I've ever made. Well, I guess that's not true, working at that asshat of job I had previously there were many a day of doing nothing but surfing the net. But even though all I did was file I at least contributed, I earned my pay. I didn't get home until almost 6 because it took 45 minutes just to make it back into town and then I had to go to the bank before coming home.
Tuesday I was back at the employment agency for Wendi to fax my resume off to some more places and a make a few more calls. Oh yeah, I also took a tutorial on Excel to learn the parts I don't know, which is basically the charts shit. After doing that I retook the test and went from a 73% to 86%. Yep, definitely the charts. I also found it funny that most of the questions on the test weren't covered by the tutorial but because I at least learned where to look and how some of the other things were done I was able to complete some of the questions.
After leaving there I went home, got H Ditty and then we took his little sister who's pregnant to her doctor's appointment. All's good and she's very happy to be having a girl. After those two went to her place of employment so she could cut his hair and I went to Target to get some toilet paper, we were seriously low. Seriously! Then took her back to grandma's where she's staying and then his mom showed up. We ended up not getting home until close to 8, I was starving!
Didn't get into bed until after midnight, didn't fall asleep until close to 1 and then the damn cats started bugging me around 4 to be fed. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep so I called into the employment agency (yes I know, no lectures please) and canceled my appointment. After the scoundrals had been fed (around 6) they left me alone for the most part but I couldn't fall asleep, I'd dose but not sleep. H Ditty got up a little after 8 and after he was out of the bed I slept like a baby until 11. That very well could have been a huge part also. I'm used to sleeping by myself, with him working nights and all. And with him in the bed and then all the cats running all over me I got no sleep.
Did the grocery shopping in the afternoon. Went to Sam's club also. Sam's has some kick ass stuff for Christmas but with us being poor I can't have anything. Oh well.
Oh yeah, the agency had called me Tuesday and asked if I'd go back to the one place again, I agreed to go on Thursday. So that's what I did today. I worked from 9 to 2 and filed again. This place files per job numbers. Everything starts with 19, 20 or 21. There was a wall of filing cabinets. 8 cabinets, 4 drawers each (the wide kind, not the skinny kind). Every one but the last 3 drawers in the 8th cabinet were used. On Monday I had noticed that there were a few files out of order. Donna, the chick I reported too also knew this and asked me today if I would put them in order. It took me 45 minutes to do this, that's how bad they were. I honestly didn't notice before that it was that bad. On Monday there had been 3 very large stacks (a good foot and half to two feet tall) of papers that needed filing. I was only able to file away maybe a quarter of them. Today, after putting things right I got rid of almost all of them, plus all the new things that needed filing in the last 2 days.
So because I've been so busy during the day I wasn't able to keep up with my blog/journal reading. I only did a very small perusel of some of the blogs/journals the last couple of days and played catch up this afternoon. It's taken me many hours to catch up but I feel better now. I was going through withdrawals. What's gonna happen when I finally get a job and It's a real one, one I can't stop by these places. Nevermind, I don't want to think of that now. Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts.
Media quote of the day: As patriotic citizens, it is our duty! According to the Chief Elder, times are only bad if we think they're bad. So we should fill our heads with happy thoughts, and our nation will prosper! - "Dinosaurs" (1991) Earl Sinclair
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Music and how it takes you back
Warning: Very long post ahead
The experts say that smell is the sense that promotes memory the most. I have to disagree with that, I think it's sound; at least for me it is. A mother yelling down the street to her kids that it's time to come in is one. Which nowadays you rarely hear since most kids are already indoors playing a computer game or two. But what does it for me the most is music, particularly specific songs.
My earliest memory, I must have been younger than 10, of listening to music by myself is of me sitting in my room putting on one of the records that have a bunch of different artists on them. Was that K-Tel? I remember there being KC and the Sunshine Band, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis and so many more. I would sit in my room, turn on the record player and very carefully put the record on and then the needle. The sound, that scratchy badoop sound, was a harbinger of good things to come. Ronstadt's the one I remember the most. She'd been lied to and cheated on so much that she had to sing about it and let everyone know she wasn't happy. When I hear that song, which isn't often, but when I do I'm instantly back in my room listening to her sing with the scratch of the needle in the background.
The other song that brings me back to young childhood is The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. It's such a haunting song that to this day I still get tears in my eyes every single time I hear it. My mother would sit at the dining room table paying bills or doing whatever moms do, listening to the radio at a low volume while we kids would be sitting in the living room watching tv. I remember on more than one occasion that song coming on and I would leave whatever was on the tv, no matter how into the show I was, to go stand next to the radio and listen to that beautiful tribute. I would stand there singing along with tears streaming down my face. The 1st time I did it my mom didn't even notice. A few days later when I did it again she asked me what I was doing. When I looked at her my eyes were shining with tears and she instantly got up and held me for the rest of the song and cried along. I'll always remember that special moment with her.
I love rock and roll, I thank my brothers for that. As my bio states I enjoy just about anything played on classic rock stations. And many a song will remind me of something or other of my childhood.
The 80's flashbacks on the radio remind me of my teen years. I was more a fan of the hairbands than any other kind of 80's music but there's a few others that will take me back. I don't care for Bruce Springsteen, I know blasphemy, but there's two songs of his that when I hear them do it for me. Pink Cadillac (which I hate so won't listen to, just the first few words are enough) and I'm on Fire which is alright. Pink Cadillac, Missing You - John Waite , Money for Nothing (I Want My MTV) - Dire Straits and These Dreams - Heart all take me back to the summer of '85 when I worked in Wisconsin Dells as a bus person. It was the best summer and job of my life. There are times that I wish I were back there if even for just one day.
Then there's the "This is our song" songs. Now normally you'd only remember your own but my oldest brother was a huge influence on me and The Scorpions' No One Like You makes me think of him with his girlfriend at the time. I think it sticks with me because she broke his heart (the cunt). And it hurts me every time I think about it. He deserves someone special.
My first "our song" was George Michael's Father Figure. My first serious boyfriend wanted to be everything to me and he thought that song just summed up our relationship. It was a toss up between that song and Terance Trent D'Arby's Sign Your Name, which I thought fit better but I let him choose.
Nightrangers' When I See You Smile was the song I had with my exhusband. That one fit so well because before it came out I used to tell everyone to smile all the time. Especially my fiance when he was feeling down or just whenever he wasn't smiling. I didn't do it in an irritating way, just so you know, I did it because I genuinely wanted to see people and especially him smile. Then the song came out and it just fit with us. When I hear that song I think of him of course but in particular when we saw them in concert. It was in some small venue/bar in New Orleans. Everyone had to stand, there weren't seats or tables anywhere. We had gotten there early enough to be directly in front of the stage. At the end of that song the guitarist threw his pick into the audience and I caught it. Have no clue where it is now but for awhile it was stuck in the frame of a picture of us. When we got married that song just didn't fit well enough to be our first dance song so we chose Angel Eyes by The Jeff Healey Band which also was special to us.
Wow, even just mentioning that one brought up a whole new memory that I had forgotten about until just now. When it first came out I loved it, as so many others did. When I went to my towns local record store to buy it the owner looked me up and down and said, "You don't want it, just get the single." Now I knew him as well as any customer could who goes into the store on a three times a month if not more basis. He was always good to us kids, stayed open later than normal on the weekends for us scoop the loopers. He was a 30 something black guy, I was an 18 year old white chick. He says the rest of the album is nothing like that song. It's a blues band and that's what the album is, he looked me up and down again and says, "Katrina, you're a white girl, you wouldn't like the first song that came on." Now is that not just the snottiest thing to say to me or what? But I laughed and said that, "Yes, I may be white but I would like the first song that came on and all the rest if they were even half as good as Angel Eyes. Whether they sounded like that or the deepest, darkest blues." Now, admittedly most of the blues songs I knew at that time were by Led Zeppelin but if you know anything about Zep you know they stole and stole and stole from the best blues artists around. And I liked just about every one of their blues songs. The few other songs I had heard by blues artists I also liked. So after mentioning this to him he laughed right back and said that he'd sell it to me but if I ended up not liking it I could return it. I loved every song and still have the cassette. Just can't play it anymore because of having no cassette player. Haven't thought about it in years, now after this I must see if it's available on CD so I can get it. Maybe other stuff by them too. The next time I was in the store I let him know that it was all I'd listen too. He was very proud. Makes me laugh.
H Ditty and I have a couple songs but other than very private moments there's no real stories to go with them.
There was one week in August of '88 that will always be special to me for many reasons. I was in Gulf Shores Alabama with my best friend and there was a song for just about every day. Monday is Aerosmith's Angel, Wednesday is G n R's Sweet Child O' Mine, Thursday is Eagles' Hotel California and Friday is Def Leppard's Love Bites. All for specific reasons that I won't go into at this time. Maybe one day if you ask me nicely.
Whenever I hear a Police or Sting song my Freshman and sophomore English teacher comes to mind. She was 24 and had a huge crush on Sting. She had a poster of him up on the wall in the classroom. The top left corner started to peel away from the wall about halfway through my Freshman year. One day she goes into the room and it's gone. Turns out the janitor tossed it. It had fallen off the wall and was on the floor when he had come in to clean so rather than put it on her desk he tossed it in the garbage. She was not a happy camper.
There are other songs, of course, many many 80's songs. Especially the silly 80's songs such as Safety Dance and Puttin on the Ritz and Amadeus that just make me happy. I hated Safety Dance when it was out, as I did most top 40 songs then but I can appreciate them now and some I even like.
Whenever I hear a Prince song it usually makes me think of The Funny Bone, a comedy club in Baton Rouge. Or at least, it was there when I lived there, don't know about now. One night there was a hypnotist, by the way, if you ever get a chance to see a comedic hypnotist do it it's some of the best stuff around. Anyway, this guy asks if there's anyone that knows a song from start to finish. One guy raises his hand and says he knows Little Red Corvette. He goes up on stage, the hypnotist talks to him for a bit, says some things, snaps his fingers and the guy starts singing away. No music, just him up on stage and within the first couple lyrics he was into it. So much so that this tall skinny white boy became small skinny black Prince. It was a sight to see and the audience was eating it up. He got a standing O when he was done. I felt bad for the next person. It was a chick that said she new Madonna's Like A Virgin. She did know the song but the hypnotist basically put these people under to become the artist. It was very sad, she couldn't sing and she had no rhythm. Her slithering around on stage and trying to be all sexy was just not working. About halfway through the song the hypnotist stopped her. She had no clue, she thought she had finished. I will say this about the audience, we still clapped and cheered for her. No one booed or hollered anything mean, we did laugh quite a bit though while it was going on, couldn't help that.
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and as I said nothing brings me back like the sound of music.
Media quote of the day:
Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way.
Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I've got one thing I got to do...
Ramble On, And now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song.
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way.
I've been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.
Got no time for spreadin' roots, The time has come to be gone.
And to' our health we drank a thousand times, it's time to Ramble On.
Partial song of Ramble On by Led Zeppelin
The experts say that smell is the sense that promotes memory the most. I have to disagree with that, I think it's sound; at least for me it is. A mother yelling down the street to her kids that it's time to come in is one. Which nowadays you rarely hear since most kids are already indoors playing a computer game or two. But what does it for me the most is music, particularly specific songs.
My earliest memory, I must have been younger than 10, of listening to music by myself is of me sitting in my room putting on one of the records that have a bunch of different artists on them. Was that K-Tel? I remember there being KC and the Sunshine Band, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis and so many more. I would sit in my room, turn on the record player and very carefully put the record on and then the needle. The sound, that scratchy badoop sound, was a harbinger of good things to come. Ronstadt's the one I remember the most. She'd been lied to and cheated on so much that she had to sing about it and let everyone know she wasn't happy. When I hear that song, which isn't often, but when I do I'm instantly back in my room listening to her sing with the scratch of the needle in the background.
The other song that brings me back to young childhood is The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. It's such a haunting song that to this day I still get tears in my eyes every single time I hear it. My mother would sit at the dining room table paying bills or doing whatever moms do, listening to the radio at a low volume while we kids would be sitting in the living room watching tv. I remember on more than one occasion that song coming on and I would leave whatever was on the tv, no matter how into the show I was, to go stand next to the radio and listen to that beautiful tribute. I would stand there singing along with tears streaming down my face. The 1st time I did it my mom didn't even notice. A few days later when I did it again she asked me what I was doing. When I looked at her my eyes were shining with tears and she instantly got up and held me for the rest of the song and cried along. I'll always remember that special moment with her.
I love rock and roll, I thank my brothers for that. As my bio states I enjoy just about anything played on classic rock stations. And many a song will remind me of something or other of my childhood.
The 80's flashbacks on the radio remind me of my teen years. I was more a fan of the hairbands than any other kind of 80's music but there's a few others that will take me back. I don't care for Bruce Springsteen, I know blasphemy, but there's two songs of his that when I hear them do it for me. Pink Cadillac (which I hate so won't listen to, just the first few words are enough) and I'm on Fire which is alright. Pink Cadillac, Missing You - John Waite , Money for Nothing (I Want My MTV) - Dire Straits and These Dreams - Heart all take me back to the summer of '85 when I worked in Wisconsin Dells as a bus person. It was the best summer and job of my life. There are times that I wish I were back there if even for just one day.
Then there's the "This is our song" songs. Now normally you'd only remember your own but my oldest brother was a huge influence on me and The Scorpions' No One Like You makes me think of him with his girlfriend at the time. I think it sticks with me because she broke his heart (the cunt). And it hurts me every time I think about it. He deserves someone special.
My first "our song" was George Michael's Father Figure. My first serious boyfriend wanted to be everything to me and he thought that song just summed up our relationship. It was a toss up between that song and Terance Trent D'Arby's Sign Your Name, which I thought fit better but I let him choose.
Nightrangers' When I See You Smile was the song I had with my exhusband. That one fit so well because before it came out I used to tell everyone to smile all the time. Especially my fiance when he was feeling down or just whenever he wasn't smiling. I didn't do it in an irritating way, just so you know, I did it because I genuinely wanted to see people and especially him smile. Then the song came out and it just fit with us. When I hear that song I think of him of course but in particular when we saw them in concert. It was in some small venue/bar in New Orleans. Everyone had to stand, there weren't seats or tables anywhere. We had gotten there early enough to be directly in front of the stage. At the end of that song the guitarist threw his pick into the audience and I caught it. Have no clue where it is now but for awhile it was stuck in the frame of a picture of us. When we got married that song just didn't fit well enough to be our first dance song so we chose Angel Eyes by The Jeff Healey Band which also was special to us.
Wow, even just mentioning that one brought up a whole new memory that I had forgotten about until just now. When it first came out I loved it, as so many others did. When I went to my towns local record store to buy it the owner looked me up and down and said, "You don't want it, just get the single." Now I knew him as well as any customer could who goes into the store on a three times a month if not more basis. He was always good to us kids, stayed open later than normal on the weekends for us scoop the loopers. He was a 30 something black guy, I was an 18 year old white chick. He says the rest of the album is nothing like that song. It's a blues band and that's what the album is, he looked me up and down again and says, "Katrina, you're a white girl, you wouldn't like the first song that came on." Now is that not just the snottiest thing to say to me or what? But I laughed and said that, "Yes, I may be white but I would like the first song that came on and all the rest if they were even half as good as Angel Eyes. Whether they sounded like that or the deepest, darkest blues." Now, admittedly most of the blues songs I knew at that time were by Led Zeppelin but if you know anything about Zep you know they stole and stole and stole from the best blues artists around. And I liked just about every one of their blues songs. The few other songs I had heard by blues artists I also liked. So after mentioning this to him he laughed right back and said that he'd sell it to me but if I ended up not liking it I could return it. I loved every song and still have the cassette. Just can't play it anymore because of having no cassette player. Haven't thought about it in years, now after this I must see if it's available on CD so I can get it. Maybe other stuff by them too. The next time I was in the store I let him know that it was all I'd listen too. He was very proud. Makes me laugh.
H Ditty and I have a couple songs but other than very private moments there's no real stories to go with them.
There was one week in August of '88 that will always be special to me for many reasons. I was in Gulf Shores Alabama with my best friend and there was a song for just about every day. Monday is Aerosmith's Angel, Wednesday is G n R's Sweet Child O' Mine, Thursday is Eagles' Hotel California and Friday is Def Leppard's Love Bites. All for specific reasons that I won't go into at this time. Maybe one day if you ask me nicely.
Whenever I hear a Police or Sting song my Freshman and sophomore English teacher comes to mind. She was 24 and had a huge crush on Sting. She had a poster of him up on the wall in the classroom. The top left corner started to peel away from the wall about halfway through my Freshman year. One day she goes into the room and it's gone. Turns out the janitor tossed it. It had fallen off the wall and was on the floor when he had come in to clean so rather than put it on her desk he tossed it in the garbage. She was not a happy camper.
There are other songs, of course, many many 80's songs. Especially the silly 80's songs such as Safety Dance and Puttin on the Ritz and Amadeus that just make me happy. I hated Safety Dance when it was out, as I did most top 40 songs then but I can appreciate them now and some I even like.
Whenever I hear a Prince song it usually makes me think of The Funny Bone, a comedy club in Baton Rouge. Or at least, it was there when I lived there, don't know about now. One night there was a hypnotist, by the way, if you ever get a chance to see a comedic hypnotist do it it's some of the best stuff around. Anyway, this guy asks if there's anyone that knows a song from start to finish. One guy raises his hand and says he knows Little Red Corvette. He goes up on stage, the hypnotist talks to him for a bit, says some things, snaps his fingers and the guy starts singing away. No music, just him up on stage and within the first couple lyrics he was into it. So much so that this tall skinny white boy became small skinny black Prince. It was a sight to see and the audience was eating it up. He got a standing O when he was done. I felt bad for the next person. It was a chick that said she new Madonna's Like A Virgin. She did know the song but the hypnotist basically put these people under to become the artist. It was very sad, she couldn't sing and she had no rhythm. Her slithering around on stage and trying to be all sexy was just not working. About halfway through the song the hypnotist stopped her. She had no clue, she thought she had finished. I will say this about the audience, we still clapped and cheered for her. No one booed or hollered anything mean, we did laugh quite a bit though while it was going on, couldn't help that.
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and as I said nothing brings me back like the sound of music.
Media quote of the day:
Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way.
Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I've got one thing I got to do...
Ramble On, And now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song.
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way.
I've been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.
Got no time for spreadin' roots, The time has come to be gone.
And to' our health we drank a thousand times, it's time to Ramble On.
Partial song of Ramble On by Led Zeppelin
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Just wanted to get that out for now. I'll put something more up a little later. I already did a reminiscent of a Halloween memory at the end of last month, check it out.
Later:
So, I was looking for my photo album so I could go down memory lane on the costumes of yore but can't find it. I did find my folder of essays/stories I wrote during my high school days and there's one that will do just fine in lieu of the photos.
The following assignment had to be done during class and we had to: Write a description of a place in such a way that the description conveys a recognizable feeling (for example, delight, revulsion, nostalgia, disappointment) more through the use of concrete and specific details than by direct statement of attitude.
The Haunted Castle by Katrina
Looking at the castle through the coal black forest gave me the same kind of feeling as one would get when a spider would crawl up his back. The path leading to the drab, haunted building was covered over with dead, soggy leaves and long, sharp thorns.
When I finally stepped out from the dreadful clinging vines onto the brown lawn I was struck with a feeling of doom. The two top windows looked like giant, staring eyes and the windows near the ground looked like a toothless grin of evil.
After I got my courage up I opened the front door to a drab, cobwebbed hallway. There were three lighted candles that cast huge shadows along the walls. One shadow looked as if it was a person with a bloody ax ready to pounce on its unknowing prey.
The door to the sitting room was open about an inch. When I slowly and painfully pushed it open, it let out a loud, piercing cry of resentment. The wind coming through the cracks of the windows sounded like lost souls calling to one another. The fireplace looked inviting until I took a better look and noticed it would give no cozy fire for anyone ever again. There were holes in the walls and the blood red bricks were falling apart. There was a barbed wire fence over the opening so no one could put anything in it to burn, without making a bloody mess of his hands. The furniture was covered over with musty sheets. They looked as if they would begin floating at any moment.
I passed through to the back hallway that led me to the spiraling staircase. Every step had its own distinctive scream. The first bedroom was covered with portraits of the generations of the family which had lived there. They all looked like they were carved from stone. All had piercing blue or black eyes. The men had hard set jaws and the women had wide shoulders. Some so large they left an impression of a strong willed and never giving in kind of woman. One to be fearful of.
The last bedroom I entered was to be mine. I was not expecting what I found. As I walked in, my eyes bulged and my heart sank. The bedroom looked like a tomb. The bed itself looked like a coffin with covers. The full length mirror on the closet door had a hazy, grayish and mysterious hue to it. When I looked at my reflection it looked as if I had no body, only a head floating endlessly around. The armoire along the south wall was huge. It seemed to forebode a frightful ending to my tour. As much as I didn't want to, I began to slowly open the doors. It seemed to draw me into it, as if it was demanding me to open them. The moment they were all the way open I felt a feeling of nausea come over me. There was a grotesque looking "thing" hanging from a hook. Skulls with candles on them and skulls with spiderwebs through the eyes, stared back at me.
I turned and ran out of the room. I wouldn't feel safe until I was away from its overhanging feeling of decay.
When I reached the outside of the forest I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth and feeling of death in my heart. I knew that if I took my ancestor's castle as my home I would either become as they were or I would kill myself. The haunted castle was left to crumble in an undying scary heap of gray, moldy stone.
I received an A with the word beautiful written next to it and Mrs. D. read it during class the next day. I was very proud.
Media quotes of the day:
It's haunted. - Angel from Angel (1999) {Rm w/a Vu (#1.5)}Oh, still haunted. - Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Later:
So, I was looking for my photo album so I could go down memory lane on the costumes of yore but can't find it. I did find my folder of essays/stories I wrote during my high school days and there's one that will do just fine in lieu of the photos.
The following assignment had to be done during class and we had to: Write a description of a place in such a way that the description conveys a recognizable feeling (for example, delight, revulsion, nostalgia, disappointment) more through the use of concrete and specific details than by direct statement of attitude.
The Haunted Castle by Katrina
Looking at the castle through the coal black forest gave me the same kind of feeling as one would get when a spider would crawl up his back. The path leading to the drab, haunted building was covered over with dead, soggy leaves and long, sharp thorns.
When I finally stepped out from the dreadful clinging vines onto the brown lawn I was struck with a feeling of doom. The two top windows looked like giant, staring eyes and the windows near the ground looked like a toothless grin of evil.
After I got my courage up I opened the front door to a drab, cobwebbed hallway. There were three lighted candles that cast huge shadows along the walls. One shadow looked as if it was a person with a bloody ax ready to pounce on its unknowing prey.
The door to the sitting room was open about an inch. When I slowly and painfully pushed it open, it let out a loud, piercing cry of resentment. The wind coming through the cracks of the windows sounded like lost souls calling to one another. The fireplace looked inviting until I took a better look and noticed it would give no cozy fire for anyone ever again. There were holes in the walls and the blood red bricks were falling apart. There was a barbed wire fence over the opening so no one could put anything in it to burn, without making a bloody mess of his hands. The furniture was covered over with musty sheets. They looked as if they would begin floating at any moment.
I passed through to the back hallway that led me to the spiraling staircase. Every step had its own distinctive scream. The first bedroom was covered with portraits of the generations of the family which had lived there. They all looked like they were carved from stone. All had piercing blue or black eyes. The men had hard set jaws and the women had wide shoulders. Some so large they left an impression of a strong willed and never giving in kind of woman. One to be fearful of.
The last bedroom I entered was to be mine. I was not expecting what I found. As I walked in, my eyes bulged and my heart sank. The bedroom looked like a tomb. The bed itself looked like a coffin with covers. The full length mirror on the closet door had a hazy, grayish and mysterious hue to it. When I looked at my reflection it looked as if I had no body, only a head floating endlessly around. The armoire along the south wall was huge. It seemed to forebode a frightful ending to my tour. As much as I didn't want to, I began to slowly open the doors. It seemed to draw me into it, as if it was demanding me to open them. The moment they were all the way open I felt a feeling of nausea come over me. There was a grotesque looking "thing" hanging from a hook. Skulls with candles on them and skulls with spiderwebs through the eyes, stared back at me.
I turned and ran out of the room. I wouldn't feel safe until I was away from its overhanging feeling of decay.
When I reached the outside of the forest I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth and feeling of death in my heart. I knew that if I took my ancestor's castle as my home I would either become as they were or I would kill myself. The haunted castle was left to crumble in an undying scary heap of gray, moldy stone.
I received an A with the word beautiful written next to it and Mrs. D. read it during class the next day. I was very proud.
Media quotes of the day:
It's haunted. - Angel from Angel (1999) {Rm w/a Vu (#1.5)}Oh, still haunted. - Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Monday, October 30, 2006
70 words a minute
Our weekend went pretty well. Instead of going to the movie Friday we ended up going on Saturday for a mantinee showing. Still cost 9 bucks though because of it being 3-D. But it was worth it. It looked great and I enjoyed listening to the 2 young girls sitting in the row infront of us and just to the right. They were cute reaching out to the objects that were right in our faces and giggling.
After the movie we went to my ex-SIL's house to help her with her computer - H Ditty is a computer geek. She was having problems with her networking but turned out he couldn't help. The company that installed her online service and network card changed the default password and the password they told her it was wasn't. He couldn't do anything for her so we came back home and caught up on some tv watching.
Sunday the Saints got their asses handed to 'em by the Ravens. It was a good thing it was trick-or-treating in my town. Our tv is in the basement so I could only listen to the game while handing out candy. I'm glad I didn't have to watch the massacre because listening was bad enough.
Today was my appointment with the employment agency. Was there for a couple hours. I got glowing recommendations from all my previous employers so that's good. I took Word, Excel, 10 Key Pad, Typing and Data Entry tests. I did really well too considering I taught myself Word and Excel. I got an 85% in Word and 73% in Excel which was better than I expected. Word was about what I expected. 10 Key said I do over 10,000 an hour. Don't remember what the data entry score was and my typing was WAY better than I thought it would be. Apparently I type 70 words a minute. And that's cold. Imagine what I do when I've been typing throughout the day and my fingers are limber.
I have no desire to be an admin assistant anymore, I want accounting work only, if I can get it. My couselor, if that's what they're called, said, "No wonder people keep wanting you to do admin work, after seeing those scores I see why." She was actually a little floored they were as good as they were after listening to me say I don't feel I'm that skilled in Word or Excel since I'm self taught and I'd rather not do them if possible.
So now I'll be going back as often as possible to basically continue my education in different softwares and work with her on looking for jobs to go interview. Tomorrow I'm back there at 10:30. GO ME!
Media quotes of the day: I was so upset when Daddy told me I had to get a job that I went shopping to calm down. - Jill Green (Rachel's sister on Friends) This is what I'd like to do but don't have a daddy to pay for it.
And this is what I hope to never have happen to me:
Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. - Peter Gibbons from Office Space
After the movie we went to my ex-SIL's house to help her with her computer - H Ditty is a computer geek. She was having problems with her networking but turned out he couldn't help. The company that installed her online service and network card changed the default password and the password they told her it was wasn't. He couldn't do anything for her so we came back home and caught up on some tv watching.
Sunday the Saints got their asses handed to 'em by the Ravens. It was a good thing it was trick-or-treating in my town. Our tv is in the basement so I could only listen to the game while handing out candy. I'm glad I didn't have to watch the massacre because listening was bad enough.
Today was my appointment with the employment agency. Was there for a couple hours. I got glowing recommendations from all my previous employers so that's good. I took Word, Excel, 10 Key Pad, Typing and Data Entry tests. I did really well too considering I taught myself Word and Excel. I got an 85% in Word and 73% in Excel which was better than I expected. Word was about what I expected. 10 Key said I do over 10,000 an hour. Don't remember what the data entry score was and my typing was WAY better than I thought it would be. Apparently I type 70 words a minute. And that's cold. Imagine what I do when I've been typing throughout the day and my fingers are limber.
I have no desire to be an admin assistant anymore, I want accounting work only, if I can get it. My couselor, if that's what they're called, said, "No wonder people keep wanting you to do admin work, after seeing those scores I see why." She was actually a little floored they were as good as they were after listening to me say I don't feel I'm that skilled in Word or Excel since I'm self taught and I'd rather not do them if possible.
So now I'll be going back as often as possible to basically continue my education in different softwares and work with her on looking for jobs to go interview. Tomorrow I'm back there at 10:30. GO ME!
Media quotes of the day: I was so upset when Daddy told me I had to get a job that I went shopping to calm down. - Jill Green (Rachel's sister on Friends) This is what I'd like to do but don't have a daddy to pay for it.
And this is what I hope to never have happen to me:
Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. - Peter Gibbons from Office Space
Friday, October 27, 2006
Good girl
So I was a good girl and finally made an appointment with an employment agency. It's next Monday at 11:30. Wish me luck.
I also gave my resume to H Ditty's partner at work. He knows a chick in his bible study group that works at some agency in a neighboring town. She told him to grab it and she'd see what she could do. She's never met me, doesn't know me from Eve, and she's willing to do that, how nice is she?
We've also been talking about getting rid of my Rendezvous to save money. My payment is pretty high. At the time I bought it I was making really good money but then I quit that job when the company started to go under. So that was another thing I did today, I called to see what my payoff would be. It's still a little high to try to sell it. Kelly Blue Book says it's worth less than I owe so I guess I'll be hanging onto it awhile longer. Maybe I'll refinance it to lower the payment, we'll see.
I really really want to go see Nightmare Before Christmas the 3-D version. H Ditty told me we could go but now he's all worried because of me not working. But 15 bucks for a movie ain't gonna kill us. I love this movie, I watch it at least once a year and to get to see it in the theater again in 3-D no less is just awesome. So in an hour or 2 I'm gonna have to go wake his ass up and demand to go. Otherwise I'm going by myself.
Media quote of the day: Kidnap the Santa Claus / beat him with a stick / lock him up for ninety years / see what makes him tick. - Lock, Shock and Barrel - Nightmare Before Christmas
I also gave my resume to H Ditty's partner at work. He knows a chick in his bible study group that works at some agency in a neighboring town. She told him to grab it and she'd see what she could do. She's never met me, doesn't know me from Eve, and she's willing to do that, how nice is she?
We've also been talking about getting rid of my Rendezvous to save money. My payment is pretty high. At the time I bought it I was making really good money but then I quit that job when the company started to go under. So that was another thing I did today, I called to see what my payoff would be. It's still a little high to try to sell it. Kelly Blue Book says it's worth less than I owe so I guess I'll be hanging onto it awhile longer. Maybe I'll refinance it to lower the payment, we'll see.
I really really want to go see Nightmare Before Christmas the 3-D version. H Ditty told me we could go but now he's all worried because of me not working. But 15 bucks for a movie ain't gonna kill us. I love this movie, I watch it at least once a year and to get to see it in the theater again in 3-D no less is just awesome. So in an hour or 2 I'm gonna have to go wake his ass up and demand to go. Otherwise I'm going by myself.
Media quote of the day: Kidnap the Santa Claus / beat him with a stick / lock him up for ninety years / see what makes him tick. - Lock, Shock and Barrel - Nightmare Before Christmas
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Name change
So I haven't been doing much lately. Taking my time looking for a new job. Well, looking is what I've been doing along with not sending my resume to any of them. Ha! But I've done some shopping that needed doing. I've watched and gotten rid of the Ellen's that needed watching and getting rid of.
Today I finally, after over a year, went and changed my social security card and driver's license to my married name. I'm the queen of procrastination. I still haven't sent out my thank you cards for all the gifts we received. Miss Manners and my mom are ready to ream me a new one. But H Ditty will be happy to learn I've finally done the name change thing. I had debated keeping my maiden name after we got married but decided I'd go ahead and switch it. When I got married the first time I never did the name change with the documents. I mean, I changed my credit cards, bank, pay checks, etc. just never my license or SS card. After we got divorced I was happy I didn't do it since all those other things are easier to change than the license and SS card.
You know what is fucked up? When you get divorced your husband has to give his permission for you take your maiden name back. I couldn't fucking believe that when I saw it on the papers. The line went something like: I ____________ hereby agree that ___________ can revert back to her maiden name of _______. That is just fucked up.
But I don't see that happening with H Ditty. The getting divorced thing that is.
It's going to be weird though going by a different last name. I mean, I've been this name for 34 years. It's just who I am. At the DMV when they called out my name to go take my picture and then after to go pick up the license I said to myself that it just isn't right. That's not my name. But it is and I will get used to it and it will make my honey very happy and that's what's important.
EDIT: Awww, he's so cute. When I told him I'd changed my name he got a cute grin on his face and hugged me and says, "You mean I've got a wife now?" He was about as happy as I figured he'd be.
Media quote of the day: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet."
--From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) - Shakespeare
Today I finally, after over a year, went and changed my social security card and driver's license to my married name. I'm the queen of procrastination. I still haven't sent out my thank you cards for all the gifts we received. Miss Manners and my mom are ready to ream me a new one. But H Ditty will be happy to learn I've finally done the name change thing. I had debated keeping my maiden name after we got married but decided I'd go ahead and switch it. When I got married the first time I never did the name change with the documents. I mean, I changed my credit cards, bank, pay checks, etc. just never my license or SS card. After we got divorced I was happy I didn't do it since all those other things are easier to change than the license and SS card.
You know what is fucked up? When you get divorced your husband has to give his permission for you take your maiden name back. I couldn't fucking believe that when I saw it on the papers. The line went something like: I ____________ hereby agree that ___________ can revert back to her maiden name of _______. That is just fucked up.
But I don't see that happening with H Ditty. The getting divorced thing that is.
It's going to be weird though going by a different last name. I mean, I've been this name for 34 years. It's just who I am. At the DMV when they called out my name to go take my picture and then after to go pick up the license I said to myself that it just isn't right. That's not my name. But it is and I will get used to it and it will make my honey very happy and that's what's important.
EDIT: Awww, he's so cute. When I told him I'd changed my name he got a cute grin on his face and hugged me and says, "You mean I've got a wife now?" He was about as happy as I figured he'd be.
Media quote of the day: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet."
--From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) - Shakespeare
Friday, October 20, 2006
I AM OUTTA THERE!!
So we had a mutual agreement for me to leave my job. Those of you that have been reading for awhile now will recall that I can't stand my job, I usually don't have anything to do and I've been contemplating leaving for awhile now. Bossman hasn't been happy with me for awhile now either. I haven't really written about him because, well, I was still working there. Now I don't give a flying fuck about it.
Bossman is a real pain in the ass. He's pretty critical and since he had gotten it into his head that I couldn't do the job he would find anything he could to bitch about. In the 5 1/2 months I've been there I've learned that every girl that's been in my position has either left or been fired in less then a year and it's all because of him. Most girls have quit. I would have too if not for the fact that I didn't have another job to go to, I wanted to be able to stay at least a year so I wouldn't have a few months on my resume, I wanted to give it a true try and most of all I didn't want to leave my two coworkers in the lurch. I amended the few months thing, I decided I'd hang on through the holidays, that is if I could put up with him that long or he didn't let me go.
Yesterday just before 3 he called me into his office. Said this was really hard, he didn't really want to do it, would be easier if I were a bitch. That way he could just hand me my check and send me on my way. Said he liked me, everyone there liked me, I was a good person and repeated that he really didn't want to do it but thought it best. I told him I'd been seriously thinking about leaving myself for the past couple of months. I told him I knew he wasn't happy with me which in turn made me not happy which of course would affect my performance. So he said let's make it a mutual agreement. The good think is is that I can collect unemployment if I need to because he won't contest it. But I'm hoping not to have to do that.
He did say he didn't think I could handle the job though, I sort of scoffed and said that it wasn't that I couldn't handle the job, it's that it's a different kind of construction I'm used to. I've been in the general contractor commercial building business since Sept. 1992. I've been the office manager of two companies, I can handle the job. I didn't say that I was actually over qualified to do it but I should have. The real estate developer construction business is completely different than what I had been doing. It's completely different contracts, verbiage, forms, etc. that I had to deal with previously. So I of course had to learn all of this, plus learn how this office works and how he personally works. He figured I, and every other girl that's ever been there, should either just know this stuff or if we're told once that should be it, from then on there shouldn't be any problems.
As many people know, if you never get praise only get negativity then you're more likely to make mistakes. My "mistakes" were not huge. Nothing I did or didn't do caused problems. Contracts still got done, payments still got paid. I actually only made a few true mistakes, and when I did I admitted them, owned up, made my apologies. He didn't seem to really care.
At one point I was even accused of keeping secrets. I laughed when I was told that. It was because I didn't tell bossman or bossman 2 everything I was doing. If I was asked to make a phone call to get some information if I didn't immediately go and tell which ever one had asked me to make the call then I was keeping a secret. If they had given me a letter or anything really, to type up, if I didn't bring it in right away for them to see then I was keeping a secret. It was unreal.
So I smiled through our meeting, shook his hand and thanked him for the opportunity and said I wanted to finish what I had been working on when he called me in. I went back to my desk and resumed working. He came out a couple minutes later and said I didn't have to stay and finish but I said I was ok with it, that I didn't want to stick J or M with having to finish it up, that it wasn't fair to them.
He left about 15 minutes later. His son was still there though so we girls got together at the front of the office to talk. M had no idea it was happening until as bossman was leaving he told her I wouldn't be back. J is the comptroller so she knew when he went in to ask her to make up my check. But couldn't tell me or M because she said she would've cried. She was starting to tear up as she was saying that. Plus, it wasn't her place to tell me, she said he wanted her to do it or at least be in the meeting with him. She told him that if he really wanted to do it, if he was going through with it then he had to do it himself. He hired me, he'd have to let me go.
Bossman is a real pain in the ass. He's pretty critical and since he had gotten it into his head that I couldn't do the job he would find anything he could to bitch about. In the 5 1/2 months I've been there I've learned that every girl that's been in my position has either left or been fired in less then a year and it's all because of him. Most girls have quit. I would have too if not for the fact that I didn't have another job to go to, I wanted to be able to stay at least a year so I wouldn't have a few months on my resume, I wanted to give it a true try and most of all I didn't want to leave my two coworkers in the lurch. I amended the few months thing, I decided I'd hang on through the holidays, that is if I could put up with him that long or he didn't let me go.
Yesterday just before 3 he called me into his office. Said this was really hard, he didn't really want to do it, would be easier if I were a bitch. That way he could just hand me my check and send me on my way. Said he liked me, everyone there liked me, I was a good person and repeated that he really didn't want to do it but thought it best. I told him I'd been seriously thinking about leaving myself for the past couple of months. I told him I knew he wasn't happy with me which in turn made me not happy which of course would affect my performance. So he said let's make it a mutual agreement. The good think is is that I can collect unemployment if I need to because he won't contest it. But I'm hoping not to have to do that.
He did say he didn't think I could handle the job though, I sort of scoffed and said that it wasn't that I couldn't handle the job, it's that it's a different kind of construction I'm used to. I've been in the general contractor commercial building business since Sept. 1992. I've been the office manager of two companies, I can handle the job. I didn't say that I was actually over qualified to do it but I should have. The real estate developer construction business is completely different than what I had been doing. It's completely different contracts, verbiage, forms, etc. that I had to deal with previously. So I of course had to learn all of this, plus learn how this office works and how he personally works. He figured I, and every other girl that's ever been there, should either just know this stuff or if we're told once that should be it, from then on there shouldn't be any problems.
As many people know, if you never get praise only get negativity then you're more likely to make mistakes. My "mistakes" were not huge. Nothing I did or didn't do caused problems. Contracts still got done, payments still got paid. I actually only made a few true mistakes, and when I did I admitted them, owned up, made my apologies. He didn't seem to really care.
At one point I was even accused of keeping secrets. I laughed when I was told that. It was because I didn't tell bossman or bossman 2 everything I was doing. If I was asked to make a phone call to get some information if I didn't immediately go and tell which ever one had asked me to make the call then I was keeping a secret. If they had given me a letter or anything really, to type up, if I didn't bring it in right away for them to see then I was keeping a secret. It was unreal.
So I smiled through our meeting, shook his hand and thanked him for the opportunity and said I wanted to finish what I had been working on when he called me in. I went back to my desk and resumed working. He came out a couple minutes later and said I didn't have to stay and finish but I said I was ok with it, that I didn't want to stick J or M with having to finish it up, that it wasn't fair to them.
He left about 15 minutes later. His son was still there though so we girls got together at the front of the office to talk. M had no idea it was happening until as bossman was leaving he told her I wouldn't be back. J is the comptroller so she knew when he went in to ask her to make up my check. But couldn't tell me or M because she said she would've cried. She was starting to tear up as she was saying that. Plus, it wasn't her place to tell me, she said he wanted her to do it or at least be in the meeting with him. She told him that if he really wanted to do it, if he was going through with it then he had to do it himself. He hired me, he'd have to let me go.
I said to the girls that hopefully the new girl (and there is one, she's starting Mon.) had experience in the real estate development business. J said that she didn't and that she didn't even have as much as I did in general. She said she didn't see this girl working there as long as I did even. She was actually surprised I stayed as long as I did. I told her one of the biggest reasons was because I didn't want to screw her over. She's the one that would have to do the work. She told me I was nuts for staying for her but she was grateful.
Any way, I'm outta there and the only thing that's sad about it is that I don't have another job right now but I'm not gonna be sitting on my ass for long.
I know I've used this before but I'm using again anyway:
Media quote of the day: Take this job and shove it/I ain't workin' here no more - Johnny Paycheck, lyrics by David Allen Coe
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Pet Peeve
So, I have a few pet peeves but today I was subjected to the top offender as far as I'm concerned.
I cannot stand it AT ALL when people chew with their mouths open. It's absolutely disgusting. I've actually gagged and thrown up in my mouth a little because of this revolting habit.
My boss does this. I'm subjected at least once a week to it. This morning he was eating a bagel in his office. Our whole office is very acoustical, pretty much anywhere you are you will hear anyone and everyone speaking. You may not always understand what they say but you'll hear them, but most times you will be able to understand everything. There's very little privacy in your conversation. Anyway, he has hardwood floors and his desk faces his door. My desk faces his door. So not only is it already amplified I have to have my ears facing the sound so it's that much LOUDER! This morning I was making a face because I just couldn't help myself and gagging, blech.
Usually it's while he's eating lunch that I have to deal with it. So he's in there smacking away on a sandwich and chips. Crunch, crunch, smack, smack, crunch crunch....... The only good thing is that I've already eaten so the gag reflex isn't as acute.
H Ditty's best friend eats mostly with his mouth open. On our poker nights we've all established where we'll each be sitting around the table and he sits next to me on my right. We usually order pizza so I get to hear him smacking away up close and personal. Luckily over the years he's calmed it down some. I don't know if it's because he has a couple girls and maybe they've said something or maybe his wife has said something. I don't know, I just know that every once in awhile he actually eats pretty normal and only smacks a few times. I pray each poker night that this will be the night he doesn't smack.
H Ditty ate this way most of the time too when I first met him. We became pretty comfortable with each other right away so I didn't have any problem calling him on it when he did it. Now it's only every and now and when he does do it I usually let it slide but sometimes I just can't help it and tell him to close his mouth.
This habit is absolutely disgusting and there's no reason for it.
Well, I take that back. I had a cousin that did this for years. He was constantly badgered by his parents and siblings to stop it but he claimed he couldn't breathe correctly when he'd eat with his mouth closed. So finally when he was around 13 or 14 his parents took him to see a doctor. I guess he had something fucked up in his nasal cavity that really did mess with his breathing.
But other than something medical it's uncalled for. It's almost always going to be a habit and habit's can be broken. It may take awhile but it can happen.
Not a Media quote of the day: KEEP YOUR FUCKING MOUTH SHUT, thank you - me
I cannot stand it AT ALL when people chew with their mouths open. It's absolutely disgusting. I've actually gagged and thrown up in my mouth a little because of this revolting habit.
My boss does this. I'm subjected at least once a week to it. This morning he was eating a bagel in his office. Our whole office is very acoustical, pretty much anywhere you are you will hear anyone and everyone speaking. You may not always understand what they say but you'll hear them, but most times you will be able to understand everything. There's very little privacy in your conversation. Anyway, he has hardwood floors and his desk faces his door. My desk faces his door. So not only is it already amplified I have to have my ears facing the sound so it's that much LOUDER! This morning I was making a face because I just couldn't help myself and gagging, blech.
Usually it's while he's eating lunch that I have to deal with it. So he's in there smacking away on a sandwich and chips. Crunch, crunch, smack, smack, crunch crunch....... The only good thing is that I've already eaten so the gag reflex isn't as acute.
H Ditty's best friend eats mostly with his mouth open. On our poker nights we've all established where we'll each be sitting around the table and he sits next to me on my right. We usually order pizza so I get to hear him smacking away up close and personal. Luckily over the years he's calmed it down some. I don't know if it's because he has a couple girls and maybe they've said something or maybe his wife has said something. I don't know, I just know that every once in awhile he actually eats pretty normal and only smacks a few times. I pray each poker night that this will be the night he doesn't smack.
H Ditty ate this way most of the time too when I first met him. We became pretty comfortable with each other right away so I didn't have any problem calling him on it when he did it. Now it's only every and now and when he does do it I usually let it slide but sometimes I just can't help it and tell him to close his mouth.
This habit is absolutely disgusting and there's no reason for it.
Well, I take that back. I had a cousin that did this for years. He was constantly badgered by his parents and siblings to stop it but he claimed he couldn't breathe correctly when he'd eat with his mouth closed. So finally when he was around 13 or 14 his parents took him to see a doctor. I guess he had something fucked up in his nasal cavity that really did mess with his breathing.
But other than something medical it's uncalled for. It's almost always going to be a habit and habit's can be broken. It may take awhile but it can happen.
Not a Media quote of the day: KEEP YOUR FUCKING MOUTH SHUT, thank you - me
Monday, October 16, 2006
Weekend update
So this weekend went well. Friday night right after work I went to my favorite grocery store, oh here's where it's not so well. They were apparently bought out so they're closing down, something else is moving in but the checkout guy didn't know what. So that sucks big time, I bypass two other stores to go to this one. But the upside was that everything was on sale so I bought a few extra things. Bought two large porterhouse steaks that H Ditty cooked up on the grill. Those were some kick ass steaks.
His youngest sister came over and finished off my steak for me since I couldn't eat it all. We all hung out watching Comedy Central's comedian line up and had us a few laughs. Then she took off because she had to work in the morning. She and their other sister were also coming over on Saturday.
Saturday came and we got ready for his sisters and a few other friends to come over. Decided we'd buy an easel to play Picturenary. So we headed out to the store for that and of course bought other things. We two can never get in and out of store with only what we went for.
Neither sister showed up, the youngest didn't feel well and the other we never heard from although he left her two messages. But the other people came, ended up just being 5 of us but we still had a great time. Played Battle of the Sexes first. We chicks won. There were 3 of us and only 2 of them but it didn't matter, we were just better. But then, I guess I should admit that many of their questions were a bit harder than ours. Many of the answers we wouldn't even know. After that we played picturenary, chicks against guys again. Then H Ditty and A played on a team and her husband, BF, and I were on the other. C, the extra chick, started out on their team but they were halfway round the board before we even got off the start position. So we stole her and she helped us make it more even. She's a great guesser and a pretty good drawer too. When we were only a few spots behind they stole C back. Both teams ended up on the finish square together and with C's guessing they ended up winner. After that it was going on 3am and A had to get up for work in 5 hours and they still had an hour to drive to get home so they all left.
I got into bed around 5:30 and H Ditty about an hour or so later. I made myself get up around 10:15 so I could start the potroast going in the crock pot. By the time I was done, peeling and cutting up and throwing everything in the pot it was close to 11. So I cleaned up the kitchen and then woke up H Ditty. We watched the Saints game, all nervous again because Philly's such a good team right now. The Saints'll finally get some respect though. They let Philly know they came to play, wouldn't be walking over them AT ALL. We finally got to see Jiggedy Joe Horn be all jiggedy. And we got worried for Duece when he went out hurt but then he came back nice and strong. It was an exciting game.
After that I laid down to take a nap and H Ditty went to a local bar/restaurant for a benefit for a co-worker. He got home around 7ish. We ate the pot roast which was absolutely delicious, he watched the late game while I read and half watched the game.
All in all it was another great weekend.
Media quote of the day: Joe Horn finished with 110 yards receiving, including a key 20-yard gain on the winning drive, while catching two touchdowns, his first end-zone visits of the year. "I've got to keep doing a better job of getting him involved early on," Saints first-year coach Sean Payton said. "He plays hard and has been fantastic. He is everything you want in a player." All taken from NFL.com
His youngest sister came over and finished off my steak for me since I couldn't eat it all. We all hung out watching Comedy Central's comedian line up and had us a few laughs. Then she took off because she had to work in the morning. She and their other sister were also coming over on Saturday.
Saturday came and we got ready for his sisters and a few other friends to come over. Decided we'd buy an easel to play Picturenary. So we headed out to the store for that and of course bought other things. We two can never get in and out of store with only what we went for.
Neither sister showed up, the youngest didn't feel well and the other we never heard from although he left her two messages. But the other people came, ended up just being 5 of us but we still had a great time. Played Battle of the Sexes first. We chicks won. There were 3 of us and only 2 of them but it didn't matter, we were just better. But then, I guess I should admit that many of their questions were a bit harder than ours. Many of the answers we wouldn't even know. After that we played picturenary, chicks against guys again. Then H Ditty and A played on a team and her husband, BF, and I were on the other. C, the extra chick, started out on their team but they were halfway round the board before we even got off the start position. So we stole her and she helped us make it more even. She's a great guesser and a pretty good drawer too. When we were only a few spots behind they stole C back. Both teams ended up on the finish square together and with C's guessing they ended up winner. After that it was going on 3am and A had to get up for work in 5 hours and they still had an hour to drive to get home so they all left.
I got into bed around 5:30 and H Ditty about an hour or so later. I made myself get up around 10:15 so I could start the potroast going in the crock pot. By the time I was done, peeling and cutting up and throwing everything in the pot it was close to 11. So I cleaned up the kitchen and then woke up H Ditty. We watched the Saints game, all nervous again because Philly's such a good team right now. The Saints'll finally get some respect though. They let Philly know they came to play, wouldn't be walking over them AT ALL. We finally got to see Jiggedy Joe Horn be all jiggedy. And we got worried for Duece when he went out hurt but then he came back nice and strong. It was an exciting game.
After that I laid down to take a nap and H Ditty went to a local bar/restaurant for a benefit for a co-worker. He got home around 7ish. We ate the pot roast which was absolutely delicious, he watched the late game while I read and half watched the game.
All in all it was another great weekend.
Media quote of the day: Joe Horn finished with 110 yards receiving, including a key 20-yard gain on the winning drive, while catching two touchdowns, his first end-zone visits of the year. "I've got to keep doing a better job of getting him involved early on," Saints first-year coach Sean Payton said. "He plays hard and has been fantastic. He is everything you want in a player." All taken from NFL.com
Thursday, October 12, 2006
IT'S SNOWING
Well, not just snowing, there's so much coming down it's close to a white out. I can see out my bosses window that faces the street and I can barely see the building on the other side. The weather was just calling for possible showers. Showers usually means some snow fall that quickly comes then goes with little to no accumulation. This isn't coming and going, it's been coming down for almost an hour now and it's piling up.
It is a little too early though. I mean, we just hit autumn, the trees haven't even lost all their leaves yet. Hell, some haven't even turned.
But I am loving it, the 1st snow fall is always a little magical.
When I lived in Louisiana I was blamed for the first snow fall in 14 years. It was my Junior year and in English class we had to write an essay about anything we wanted as long as their was emotion in it. The emotion had to be clearly shown in just how and what you wrote about. I'd been there for almost a year at this point and I dearly missed the snow so that's what I wrote about. It was two full, front and back, college ruled paper written in my tiny handwriting. I think I still have it even, somewhere in a keepsake box in the storage room.
Anyway, we had to write it during class and the next day Mrs. D. read a few during class and mine was one of them. No one there was old enough to remember the last snow fall except for her. Only one other person had even been anywhere were there had been snow, everyone else's experience with it was on the tv or movies. Only one week later during English class the Principal comes over the PA and says the school is closing due to snowfall in Baton Rouge and it's heading our way. Should be hitting Gonzales in about 30 minutes and wants everyone to be able to be home safe and sound before it gets to us. Also announces that I-10 has been closed down in certain areas because of the fear of freezing. Everyone in the class looked at me and then they cheered. Someone said that if it weren't for my essay it wouldn't have happened and many agreed.
The Principal's information was incorrect, it was snowing before we were even out of the building. It snowed 2 inches and I made a tiny little snowman in my backyard. The couple who lived across the street were playing in it, throwing snowballs at each other like they were teenagers again.
It was all melted by 5pm that day. But I was a hero to my English class for getting us out of school.
It snowed two more times while I lived there. December of 89 or 90, can't remember which year exactly. But those snow falls weren't much of anything. No accumulation with either one.
Well, it's calmed down now. Still snowing but it's the pretty lazy snow that's falling. There's about a 1/2 inch or so on the cars at the dealership next door. I do see some blue sky to the North so it looks like it'll be ending soon.
Media quote of the day: What's this? There's white stuff everywhere. - Jack Skellington (Yeah, yeah I know twice in a row, but it fits beautifully.)
It is a little too early though. I mean, we just hit autumn, the trees haven't even lost all their leaves yet. Hell, some haven't even turned.
But I am loving it, the 1st snow fall is always a little magical.
When I lived in Louisiana I was blamed for the first snow fall in 14 years. It was my Junior year and in English class we had to write an essay about anything we wanted as long as their was emotion in it. The emotion had to be clearly shown in just how and what you wrote about. I'd been there for almost a year at this point and I dearly missed the snow so that's what I wrote about. It was two full, front and back, college ruled paper written in my tiny handwriting. I think I still have it even, somewhere in a keepsake box in the storage room.
Anyway, we had to write it during class and the next day Mrs. D. read a few during class and mine was one of them. No one there was old enough to remember the last snow fall except for her. Only one other person had even been anywhere were there had been snow, everyone else's experience with it was on the tv or movies. Only one week later during English class the Principal comes over the PA and says the school is closing due to snowfall in Baton Rouge and it's heading our way. Should be hitting Gonzales in about 30 minutes and wants everyone to be able to be home safe and sound before it gets to us. Also announces that I-10 has been closed down in certain areas because of the fear of freezing. Everyone in the class looked at me and then they cheered. Someone said that if it weren't for my essay it wouldn't have happened and many agreed.
The Principal's information was incorrect, it was snowing before we were even out of the building. It snowed 2 inches and I made a tiny little snowman in my backyard. The couple who lived across the street were playing in it, throwing snowballs at each other like they were teenagers again.
It was all melted by 5pm that day. But I was a hero to my English class for getting us out of school.
It snowed two more times while I lived there. December of 89 or 90, can't remember which year exactly. But those snow falls weren't much of anything. No accumulation with either one.
Well, it's calmed down now. Still snowing but it's the pretty lazy snow that's falling. There's about a 1/2 inch or so on the cars at the dealership next door. I do see some blue sky to the North so it looks like it'll be ending soon.
EDIT: Well, it's 4:00 now and all the snow is melted and the sky is looking like the Simpson's sky. I guess that's that for now.
Media quote of the day: What's this? There's white stuff everywhere. - Jack Skellington (Yeah, yeah I know twice in a row, but it fits beautifully.)
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Another thought provoking entry. Heh
So H Ditty has been on vacation the last two weeks and now has to go back to work tonight. It was nice having him home every day, I'm gonna miss him. It'll only be for two days and then he's off again for the weekend but still it's sad. The days he works we only see each other for a total of approximately 20 minutes. The 10 minutes or so in the morning when I'm getting ready and he gets home and the 10 minutes or so after I get home and he's running off to work. Ah well.
It's one of those days again at work. Both bossmen have been out of the office all day so far and I've nothing to do. But today is a day that I actually like it, I'm tired and kinda cranky so I really don't feel like doing anything if I can help it. It's going on 1:00 right now and if I'm lucky they won't be in for awhile yet. But I have this feeling at least one of them will be walking in the door real soon. We shall see.
I've been working on my 100 things and I've noticed that I'm very wordy. I mean, my little blurb at the top of the page says I like to talk but geesh. Most of the entries so far have an explanation to them, they don't just say a thing and then move on to the next. Oh well, it's more fun this way I think. I'm also thinking I'll post the 1st 50 as my 50th post, that's coming up soon, probably by next week.
It's all dark, rainy and chilly outside, the perfect fall weather. I wish I were home snuggled up with one of the cats and reading a good book right now.
You know what's sad, when you think you've got a funny story, type it all out and then realize that it's just . . . not. It's just rambling nonsense about rambling, so I deleted it. You're welcome. Not that this post isn't rambling, because it is, it's just that it's not about one thought going on and on like the paragraph I just deleted.
So I'm pissed at Blogger right now. When I go to my site right now all my links to the sites I like are gone. My header is there but no links. I'm at work, this is the only way I can get to those sites without having to use a search engine. Oh well, so be it.
Saw a commercial for the 3-D version of Nightmare Before Christmas, told H Ditty I wanna see it and he agreed, can't wait that is one awesome movie.
It's now 1:25 and no bosses yet, yippee!
Ok, I'm boring myself it's time to sign off, have a great day all.
Media quote of the day: And on a dark cold night, when the moon is high, he flies into the fog like a vulture in the sky! - Jack Skellington
It's one of those days again at work. Both bossmen have been out of the office all day so far and I've nothing to do. But today is a day that I actually like it, I'm tired and kinda cranky so I really don't feel like doing anything if I can help it. It's going on 1:00 right now and if I'm lucky they won't be in for awhile yet. But I have this feeling at least one of them will be walking in the door real soon. We shall see.
I've been working on my 100 things and I've noticed that I'm very wordy. I mean, my little blurb at the top of the page says I like to talk but geesh. Most of the entries so far have an explanation to them, they don't just say a thing and then move on to the next. Oh well, it's more fun this way I think. I'm also thinking I'll post the 1st 50 as my 50th post, that's coming up soon, probably by next week.
It's all dark, rainy and chilly outside, the perfect fall weather. I wish I were home snuggled up with one of the cats and reading a good book right now.
You know what's sad, when you think you've got a funny story, type it all out and then realize that it's just . . . not. It's just rambling nonsense about rambling, so I deleted it. You're welcome. Not that this post isn't rambling, because it is, it's just that it's not about one thought going on and on like the paragraph I just deleted.
So I'm pissed at Blogger right now. When I go to my site right now all my links to the sites I like are gone. My header is there but no links. I'm at work, this is the only way I can get to those sites without having to use a search engine. Oh well, so be it.
Saw a commercial for the 3-D version of Nightmare Before Christmas, told H Ditty I wanna see it and he agreed, can't wait that is one awesome movie.
It's now 1:25 and no bosses yet, yippee!
Ok, I'm boring myself it's time to sign off, have a great day all.
Media quote of the day: And on a dark cold night, when the moon is high, he flies into the fog like a vulture in the sky! - Jack Skellington
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Great Weekend
So the weekend started off great. Friday we went out to dinner at the restaurant where H Ditty proposed. We each had a great steak for dinner. After we went to a bookstore and shopped a little since we had over an hour before the show at Zanie's.
Tom Wilson, who played Biff in Back to the Future, was the headliner. He was great, had us laughing the whole time. If he comes to a club near you definitely go. He was good enough that we bought his cd on the way out.
Saturday was this month's poker night. I won again!!! How awesome is that!?! I wasn't as far down as last month's game but close enough. I was down to a thousand and H Ditty was my final opponent, he had six thousand. I climbed my way back up and won. I'm very happy. Oh yeah, Local H was my musical choice for the night. See, whoever wins gets to choose the music for the next game. There's 3 guys that don't really care for them, H Ditty being one of them so I chose Local H for the psychological aspect of it. So I plan on doing the same thing next month too. Maybe throw in some chick music to go along with.
Tom Wilson, who played Biff in Back to the Future, was the headliner. He was great, had us laughing the whole time. If he comes to a club near you definitely go. He was good enough that we bought his cd on the way out.
Saturday was this month's poker night. I won again!!! How awesome is that!?! I wasn't as far down as last month's game but close enough. I was down to a thousand and H Ditty was my final opponent, he had six thousand. I climbed my way back up and won. I'm very happy. Oh yeah, Local H was my musical choice for the night. See, whoever wins gets to choose the music for the next game. There's 3 guys that don't really care for them, H Ditty being one of them so I chose Local H for the psychological aspect of it. So I plan on doing the same thing next month too. Maybe throw in some chick music to go along with.
Then today the Saints won their game, they had to fight for it but they won. Bush got his 1st touchdown ever and to top it off it was the game winning touchdown! They had us worried though. We were holding hands and sending our power of good thoughts through the tv to them. Heh
The only bad part is that more than likely H Ditty will lose his fantasy football game. He's only got the Raven's defense tomorrow and they'll have to have a kick ass game to give him enough points to pull off the win. The only good thing going for him is that his opponent is done, he doesn't have anyone else playing. So I'm sending my good luck to H Ditty and my good thoughts to the Ravens to pull out a win for my honey.
I like weekends like this, every day was great!
Media quote of the day: Hello McFly - Biff from Back to the Future
Friday, October 6, 2006
Anniversary
Today is my 1 year married, 11 years together anniversary with H Ditty.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HONEY!
We're supposed to be going out to dinner and then to Zanie's Comedy Club where our first official date was held. Which is fitting since the date fell on a Friday 11 years ago also.
EDIT: Awww, right after I published this I got a dozen roses with two balloons here at work. Thank you honey.
Media quote of the day: Maybe, more than enough - Over the Hills and Far Away - Led Zeppelin
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HONEY!
We're supposed to be going out to dinner and then to Zanie's Comedy Club where our first official date was held. Which is fitting since the date fell on a Friday 11 years ago also.
EDIT: Awww, right after I published this I got a dozen roses with two balloons here at work. Thank you honey.
Media quote of the day: Maybe, more than enough - Over the Hills and Far Away - Led Zeppelin
Monday, October 2, 2006
Feeling Icky
I hate being sick but I like being home. I'm not feeling well today, mainly female problems so I decided to rest for a few hours and see how I felt later but when my office called because they didn't get my message I was told not to worry about it they'll see me tomorrow. Which ended up being good because I was sleeping and not feeling the pains but of course woke up when they called and they started all over again. I tried to fall back asleep but my body is having none of that. I feel a little like Ferris Bueller because I'm not upchucking and I don't have a fever but I'm not faking like him so I'll get over it.
I have the biggest baby in front of me right now. Cry baby is being his usual demanding self. He's a big cat and keeps flopping down on the desk between myself and the keyboard and kneading anything he can get his bigass paws on with their sharp claws. They don't feel so good digging into my left hand. But he's so cute that I don't have the heart to make him leave. Ah, he's finally calmed down and is just laying here now.
While searching for a good quote rather than the typical Bueller, Bueller quote Cry Baby left and now I have Pretty Boy up here. He's pretty demanding too but at least he's smaller so I can type easier around him. So there aren't any real good quotes from the movie so I'll go with this 2nd most famous from it.
Media quote of the day: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. - Ferris Bueller
I have the biggest baby in front of me right now. Cry baby is being his usual demanding self. He's a big cat and keeps flopping down on the desk between myself and the keyboard and kneading anything he can get his bigass paws on with their sharp claws. They don't feel so good digging into my left hand. But he's so cute that I don't have the heart to make him leave. Ah, he's finally calmed down and is just laying here now.
While searching for a good quote rather than the typical Bueller, Bueller quote Cry Baby left and now I have Pretty Boy up here. He's pretty demanding too but at least he's smaller so I can type easier around him. So there aren't any real good quotes from the movie so I'll go with this 2nd most famous from it.
Media quote of the day: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. - Ferris Bueller
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