The Post College Years

This blog is officially closed.

2008-01-27T08:07:00.000-05:00

Please direct your attention to http://www.silverneurotic.wordpress.com for your daily fixings of The Post College Years-Part Two. Updated daily and sure to entertain. Don't forget to bookmark me!

See ya there!

Smilies of the Day

2008-01-01T23:55:00.000-05:00

This is a sticky post. It will stay on the top indefinitely. It's purpose is to remind myself and everyone else visiting my blog that it's important to smile at least once in the day. Whether it's because of a major event (a birth in the family, a marriage, a proposal, a new romance...etc.), or the tiny events in our daily lives that make us smile (seeing a pretty flower, the first snow fall of the year, a funny joke or story you heard, etc.) smilies are an integral part of who we should strive to be, happy and healthy human beings. So if you are visiting...please take the time to read some of the joys that I've experienced in my day to day experiences and please share your own daily joys with me and everyone else. Just click on the Add hugs link at the bottom of this post and share your joy. Hope to see you there!

Finally, after many years of wanting to go see my favorite band, I was able to buy tickets to an upcoming show they are giving.
Having "white" pizza for lunch...something I do not get very often, but througly enjoy.
Getting my room into a somewhat decent shape than the total chaos it was.
Catching up with some emails that have been piling up in my inbox.
Going to the library.
Good episode of Grey's Anatomy.
Sucessful staff meeting.
Getting my concert tickets in the mail.
A good dinner.
Good night at work.
Sleeping well today.
Homemade bread.
Being able to spend a couple of uninturrupted hours reading.
Going into work to find that all chores have already been done.
Chocolate.
Getting caught up with laundry.
Finishing up a GREAT book.
Gilmore Girls.
Knowing that the end of Bush's (dictatorship) term is nearly over.
Two days off work with NOTHING scheduled.
New blog.

New posts update

2007-01-25T22:09:00.000-05:00

Please visit my new site at The Post College Years-Part Two and comment there, comments on this post, and subsequent posts will be disabled. Thanks. New posts will only be added here for another week or so while everyone gets used to my new blog.

I do have a life, I swear!

I know I should have gotten out of the house today...

The 25 Question Meme

This had to have sucked...

My new book catalogue (please comment me with suggestions of new things to read!)

Smilies of the day page. (Don't forget to send me smilies!)

New Book Reviews

2007-01-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

Haunted by Chuck Paluhniuk

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Process of Moving

2007-01-24T16:51:00.000-05:00

Well, I've finally reached the breaking point with Blogger. I have moved to Wordpress after some urgings from a few people. I'm a bit confused there right now, but I am slowly learning to navigate and build up my site there. It seems pretty cool really.

For now I will be keeping this blog up, and I will be updating the Smilies of the Day post...also, I will probably be putting up links to my new Wordpress posts at Blogger, just temporarily until people get used to my new home. Also, I am not sure how to move things like the chatterbox to the new blog, so I will leave that up and people can continue to use it like they used to.

Yeah, so my new home away from home can be found here. Hope to see you there!

http://silverneurotic.wordpress.com/

*edit*
I am closing all commenting, you MUST visit my new blog from now on.

Is this happening for anyone else?

2007-01-23T17:07:00.000-05:00

Bobby's site (The Bestest Blog of All-Time) is not working right. It won't load properly. It doesn't matter how many times I've hit reload on my browzer (Mozilla by the way), it's still the same, the only thing that loads is what's usually in his left side bar...which is right now taking over the entire screen.

I don't know if it's a problem on my end or what. I'm guessing no though. I think that the problem is that there's just too much "extra" stuff on the blog which either makes the site EXTREMELY slow to load (even on a semi brand new computer like mine), or doesn't allow the page to load at all, or at least properly.

Now, I have a few "frills" on my site, but I don't overdo it like I've noticed on some blogs. I don't have a gazillion ads, I don't have a gazillion little gadgets (wigets?) and well, I think that my blog still gets the traffic it does because of the content I put into my posts, not what I put on my sidebar. Yes, some of the stuff is cute and fun. But when you think about it, why are you really blogging? To express yourself through your written word? Or, by how many widgets you can fit on your blog?

Personally, I keep my blog to write and to express myself through writing. I don't really add too many extras as I don't really see the need. When I do add something to my sidebar, it's usually related to what I write about or holds a special meaning for me. I don't mind when other people add things to their sidebars, but when it gets to the point where your blog becomes excruciatingly slow to load, or doesn't load at all...well, I think it's time to rethink how necessary all the extras really are.

I am up way too early...

2007-01-23T12:49:00.000-05:00

For a Tuesday that is. Usually post work I sleep until 2pm, I've been up since noon...and oh yeah, I didn't fall asleep until after 9am (usual time 8am). So, esentially I'm running on three hours of sleep. Three good hours of sleep though. Which I think makes a difference.

I had a feeling I wasn't going to be able to sleep much since I got home. I mean, I'm tired, but for whatever reason I've just not had that urge to sleep like I normally do. Partially its because I'm bored of sleeping. And partially it's because I'm attempting to not sleep as much today, to see if it'll help with the sleeping situation tonight.

So I got up, checked the phone for messages (the dog is in heat, and according to my dad, my mom's suppose to call to tell me what to do with her). No messages. So I started a load of wash. And now I am planning on going and getting a very late breakfast of cereal and coffee downstairs in the kitchen...and finish up the book I am reading (no, not "Anna Karenina", I've managed to finish that)...nope, it's "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides...and very good. Much better than his first attempt at being a novelist with "The Virgin Suicides". But I won't get into that.

And I'm happy to finally announce that the Gilmore Girls is back on tonight (well, it's been on, but reruns since before X-mas). And, despite the crappy episodes that have plauged this season, it sounds like it'll be a good episode. So between the hours of 8pm to 9pm tonight, you'll know where to find me.

first snow

2007-01-22T21:36:00.000-05:00

So, we finally got hit with some winter weather. Not much, mind you, just enough to remind us that yes, indeed, it is winter.

It was actually pretty anti climatic. Even if you hate snow (like me), the first official snow fall of the year is still a little exciting. How much snow will fall? Will life get interuppted temporarily? Etc.

I don't think the snow fall reached an inch deep. The roads were messy though, the road crews didn't bother cleaning so I suppose it did interrupt life a tad bit as my coworker called out of work last minute.

Which then meant I had to work the 11-7 shift alone. Which, I don't like to do...but I knew it would be really hard to find coverage, and as I was also working the 3-11 shift yesterday, meant it would be me calling around trying to find someone to come into work. And well...both kids sleep through the night, or at least stay in their beds all night and I had already done most of the work that needed to be done. So I opted to stay there alone.

And as predicted, nothing happened. I spent the night reading and watching tv. In the morning I got together some of our stock of ice salt toi put on the steps coming into the house and the sidewalk, and then I got one of the clients up for school (though, wasn't sure if he would be going due to the conditions of the road still being iffy, and the fact that we are his primary transportation to and from school)...people were late though, not by too much, one was just a few minutes and one was about 15 so I couldn't complain too much. I was just kind of annoyed that because I was the only one there, I couldn't go to my car to start it up until someone else showed up so I got out of work a bit late.

This weekend...

2007-01-22T07:40:00.001-05:00

has been dead.

That is all.

How my dog nearly sent me to the ER (twice!) yesterday...and people are particularly stupid today

2007-01-20T07:17:00.000-05:00

So, my dog is hyper. I guess that goes with the territory of being a puppy...and as I haven't had a whole lot of experience with puppies just seems a little, uh, excessive. Especially because I don't particularly care for big dogs jumping up on me.

So yesterday, about an hour before I had to leave for the staff meeting I had my dog out running around the house. She gets in these hyper moods and there's really not much to do besides waiting it out...and well, she was in the middle of one when she suddenly jumps up on me, and her head connected fully with the underside of my nose (where the nostrils are) and jammed it upwards. I literally saw stars. My hand immediately covered my nose and I was dead sure that when I took my hands away, they would be covered in blood and knowing that if there in fact blood pouring out my nose that I would end up calling my dad and beg him to come home and take me to the ER as I was dead convinced that my nose was broken. I took my hand away and was amazed to find not one drop of blood and dripped from my nose. And so for that moment, the crisis had passed, leaving me in pain but otherwise (I hope, my nose is still sore) unscathed.

Fast forward to yesterday evening. My parents were both home and I was laying down on their bed talking to them as we were discussing going out to eat. All of a sudden the dog takes a flying leap up onto the bed, and lands on both me and my dad...my dad and rolled over to avoid the worst of it, but I hadn't reacted quite as quick and her knee connected with my forehead (temple area) and for the second time that day I saw stars. I know have a slight bump from that incident and my nose hurts (was hurting quite a bit last night at work, should have taken something for it).

Now for the second part of my title. The stupid people part. Well, when I was at work last night, around 2am after I had finished up with most of the work and was attempting to sit and relax for a bit...I got a text message from an unfamilar number. I texted them back to see who it was and the person said it was my brother, which I highly doubted as I knew for a fact that 1. That was not my brother's cell phone and 2. My brother was safe at home in bed (asleep) as he had to get up early for a winter track meet up in NYC today...but to humor this guy I texted him back with my brother's name and he sent me back a message going, no your other brother...which I answered that I only had one brother and that he had the wrong person...so instead of leaving it at that he messages me back with his name "Donnie". I'm half tempted to text back saying that I knew two Donnie's. A mutant turtle and a member of a now defunkt 80's boyband (New Kids on the Block). But as that would take way too much effort on my part, I once again told him he had the wrong person and that I didn't know him.

So, you think at this point he would give up, right? Nope. Now this time he calls me. Which is just plain annoying. I don't like phones as it is, and knowing that it was this same guy who was either too stupid, or too drunk or too high to get that he was being a pest...oh, not what I wanted to deal with. But I knew that if I didn't answer the call he most likely would just keep calling and messaging me. So I answer and he asks for Chrissy, which I inform him, in my most scathing voice (that I only use for particularly stupid people, mind you) that I WAS not in fact Chrissy and that I had been telling him he had the wrong person for ten minutes and that I would greatly appreciate if he would stop calling and messaging me and lose my number. And I hung up.

Now, you'd think at this point that this guy would stop texting and calling. But either he was really stupid but he texts me ONCE again to apoligize for bothering me. Now, I'm all for apoligizing for wrong doings, but at this point I was just so fed up with him that I seriously wanted to throw the phone against the wall. I really do hope he loses my number. And if he doesn't...well, he might just find his number publically displayed somewhere. He also is very lucky that I have a text plan, or else I would demand that he reimburse me with all the messages that went back and forth between us. Cuz yeah, that's not cool.

staff meeting

2007-01-19T20:15:00.000-05:00

I hate staff meetings at my work. It wasn't always like this, yes, it was a nuisance at times to go in to work a few hours before my shift, or worse yet, on one of my day's off (which I tresure quite a bit!). But I'd go just because I had to and get it done with.

Then things at work started going downhill as far as some staffing issues went. And well, staff meetings were just uncomfortable, and often times, irrelevant to me because I usually stay out of problems with other staff members. I had ONE issue with ONE staff member (drama all of it's own), but luckily it stayed between us and we both worked together and with the supervisors to work out our problems...and for the most part, we've been getting along fine. So the past few months I haven't been too happy with going to staff meetings...and well, guess I got lucky as I think between September and now, I've only gone to one (there's a meeting every month unless it gets cancelled). September I had the excuse that I was visiting my grandmother in the hospital. I did manage to get home in time for the meeting but as I'd already said I wouldn't be coming, I didn't bother. And as it turned out...very few people showed up anyway. Then I went in October. November, the meeting got cancelled because of state inspection. And then last month was the meeting/Christmas party and as I was feeling really down and not into a party mood I ended up talking to the supervisor and explaining the situation (plus I had a funeral the next day) and she excused me (and I believe she told the head supervisors from the main office that I was at a funeral). Oh, and before the Christmas meeting I inadvertantly walked in on a meeting between certain staff members...can we say uncomfortable. One of those situations where you know it would be best off if it was a private meeting between those people, but unavoidable because it was going on right where you are suppose to be at that moment...and no one is giving you cues of other things you can busy yourseslf with until the meeting was over.

So, with all the bullshit that's been going over there, it's no wonder I was sort of dreading the meeting today. I knew I couldn't get out of it, (especially since next months meeting is the same day I'll be in NYC), so I was hoping that it would get cancelled. No such luck.

So I go, usually I'm one of those people who like to show up early, but today I decided that I'd time it so I'd just be walking in at 1pm...because we very rarely start the meetings on time. So I get there with only two minutes to spare...but, we actually started on time today. And I have to say, that even though the meeting lasted until 2:30 (we usually finish at 2) I didn't really mind. It was a good meeting...except for one staff "issue" (which I'll get to later), the questions and comments were relevent to the program. And we had some good, positive dialouge going on which is a plus. I managed to suggest a thing or two which hopefully will start getting implimented (nothing major, just suggested people start logging personal calls they use using our programs cell phone...so when the bill comes there's no questions of who made the calls, etc.).

The only problem was when the coworker I work with Sunday and Monday made a comment about certain staff not pulling their own weight, especially at the end of the shift. And well, there was an incident Tuesday morning where I left and she was still there...so I didn't know if she was referring to that...and well, when it comes to work I tend to get a little paranoid. So the rest of the meeting I felt uncomfortable, especially as that coworker and I have always been cool with one another and she's someone I feel as though I can trust there (very important for me).

Now, normally if this happened, I'd push it aside (and then spend the next few days obsessing over it, especially as I'm shy and hate confrontations, especially with coworkers)...but since we've always had a good working relationship, after the meeting when we were clocking out to leave I asked her if I could talk to her for a minute...so I stepped outside and she finished up a few things and she followed me and I apoligized to her for leaving on Tuesday and asked her if she had been referring to me...and, as it turned out, I was being paranoid and she was referring to another staff member and she assured me that she LIKED when she worked with me as we had a good system going with who does what chores and all that.

So, for once I didn't hate being at the staff meeting. It wasn't exactly "fun" but I do think that as far as staff meetings go, that had to be one of the most relaxed and most productive ones we had in a long time, I really hope that they continue in that vein from now on.

(Oh, and my concert tickets came in the mail today!)

Silverchair-The Greatest View

Little Miss Sunshine-A Movie Review

2007-01-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

You know that feeling you get, when you are sitting in a movie theater, anxious for the latest Blockbuster to start showing...and then, just to really annoy you...there's like a million adverts for upcoming movies and like usual, most of those movies just look stupid and you are this close to standing up and shouting at the pimply teenager running the projection to get on with the movie already...

Or maybe you don't. Maybe the adverts don't bother you at all, and weirdly enough, you find them more entertaining than that actual movie.

I can't remember what movie I was going to see when I first saw the advert for "Little Miss Sunshine". Most likely, the advert for "Little Miss Sunshine" was much better than whatever movie I had originally gone to see. But that's not important. The important thing is that when I saw the trailer for LMS I knew I would like this movie. Unfortanately, when the movie was in theaters...I missed it. It never played in my town and at the time I just didn't have a whole lot of extra time to be galavanting over southern NJ trying to find a theater that WAS playing it.

So, fast forward last Wednesday. I went shopping with a friend and while browsing the local record shop (what's the hip term for those type of stores now?) when I saw that LMS was now on DVD, and even better...it was onsale.

Now, typically I don't buy movies unless I've seen them before. I don't watch movies too often as it is, so for me to buy a movie without seeing it first is a pretty big gamble. But, as I was so sure I was going to like it, I bought it.

And I was very pleased to see that it has met and exceeded the hype. It seems like such an insignificant story line...a family taking a cross country trip so the daugher can compete in a pagent...well, really, that doesn't seem too exciting.

But mix in the characters on this little journey, and well, I don't think you'll ever look at roadtrips the same way ever again. There the Dad, who's running a failing motivational speaking seminar (oh the irony), Mom...just trying to hold everyone together the best she can, grandpa...who, well, don't expect him to be a sweet old grampa...there's the uncle who's fresh out of the mental hospital after a botched suicide attempt...the teenage son who has taken a vow of silence until he is old enough to join the air force...and of course the beauty queen herself, Olive...a very precoucious seven year old.

The humor in the movie is first class, leaning heavily on irony and dark humor...the type that will probably having you saying to yourself...omg, I cannot believe this! And even, jeeze, do they have any feelings at all? But then there are some very pivitol scenes in the movie that are are really touching and very human and changes the tone of the movie (at least for me it did). Instead of just being a comedy about a messed up family, it became a movie about a family learning how to be a family despite their shortcomings.

The movie is rated R. However, I didn't think it was "that" bad. Yes, there were a liberal amount of F-bombs thrown around, but the content was fairly tame compared to other R movies I have seen. There's some mention of sex and a brief view of the front of a porno magazine, and two brief scenes of one of the characters doing snorting drugs but it wasn't that bad.

Little Miss Sunshine Trailer

sleep to dream

2007-01-18T14:30:00.000-05:00

I'm a chronic dreamer. Almost everytime I sleep, I dream. I don't always remember my dreams when I wake up (more times than not they are just a blur), but I do know that I dream frequently.

Often times the dreams that I remember are nightmares or otherwise "strange" dreams. And stressed out dreams. I am prone to them when I have had a fairly stressful day of doing the same thing over and over again (carpal tunnel dream?). These were quite frequent during my years of being a cashier. Whenever we'd have an unusually busy day and I'd work the evening shift I would come home and dream about being at work, doing my cashier duties over and over again. Once I even awoke to find myself physically sitting up in bed, and going through the motions of bagging. And also using my bedside clock as the register, the time obviously being the total amount due. Luckily as I got used to the job, those dreams, for the most part, stopped.

In the past week or so, I've had two dreams in which I've remembered, at least partially. The first dream was a good one...it was after I missed buying those silverchair tickets and I had a dream that I was at a silverchair show, right at the front next to the stage. It was a pretty nice dream and I took it as a sign that I would be getting to see them soon.

Last night I had a strange dream. Now, last night I watched the show Criminal Minds on tv. I've been watching that show since it first started on a semi regular basis. If you haven't seen Criminal Minds, think of it as a CSI type show, but instead of using science to solve crimes, it's psychological profiling that gets the job done. At times, this show can get fairly intense, but it's never really bothered me. But I guess last night's episode got to me, it was about a anti-social serial killer who has committed over 100, extremely gruesome murders. And unlike all the other episodes, the episode left off on a cliffhanger that really made you wonder if the guy was ever going to be caught. So I guess this episode got to me. This morning I was more tired than normal, I woke up about nine and attempted to get up, but I fell back to sleep..and started dreaming about the show and this episode. There was no real details to my dream except two of the characters from the show were on there...and my car had broken down in the middle of nowhere (which is something that happened in last night's show). I don't think anything happened in my dream after that, but I woke up really suddenly with that panicky feeling that you sometimes get after having a nightmare. It was not a good feeling at all.

Smashing Pumpkins-In the Arms of Sleep (don't mind the soap opera video, its the best I could find).

Writers block

2007-01-17T22:59:00.000-05:00

Blah. I hate writers block. I was trying to write something else but just wasn't coming out right. So I'll move on and forget about that blog entry I was attempting to write. It was really boring though, so consider yourselves lucky. I think it was a lame attempt at trying to organize my blog. But I think that gradually I'll figure things out the direction this thing is heading. While I wasn't posting as much I realized just how much I normally post. So I'll probably cut back on the less "personal" posts...not saying that this blog is going to become totally serious or anything! But no, more like, I'm just going to cut down on stuff like the video of the day feature I started and cut it down to a weekly thing (and perhaps put it in the side bar?)...and there I go, back at where I started. Funny how my mind works. Hehe. But yeah, also, quote of the day. I think I've written two so far...so I'm just going to lower it down to...whenever I see a quote I "really" like on my daily quote feature...I'll write about it. Um...what other things was I thinking of changing around???

Oh, I'm going to start doing a daily post called "smile of the day". A little background story about that first though. I know I've mentioned a few times that I am a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers message board...well, if I haven't...I am. I first came on that board in 2003 and have posted on and off since...mainly on for the last two years. It's nothing spectacular really...for the most part its just a fun place to "hang out" on the web and chat about whatever with other people. The two features of the board that really sucked me in however is two threads started by the same woman before I showed up on the boards. One of the threads is called Sharing the Joy and it's sister thread is called Sharing the Pain. They are pretty self explanatory. It's such a simple concept but a really beautiful one. I love reading the posts on sharing the joy, it's so nice to see people posting what makes them happy and I love posting when I have something to share. I've decided that everyday I am going to try to find at least one thing that made me happy. And I'm going to post it, probably in a sticky post so that's the first thing you see when you start reading my blog. And I think it would be awesome if you, the reader, also stop by and "share" your smiles with me. I think it would be a fun and postive thing for everyone.

I've been in a cleaning mood for the last few hours, cleaned up quite a bit here in my room today (still got some drawers and my closets (yes plural, I have two) yet to do but I'm not rushing to get them done yet. I tackled the room itself and that was a major task. But it explains this post a little as I had an urge to do some "housekeeping" here.

It's nearly midnight here, so I'm going to really quick get the "Smilies of the Day" sticky up and running then I'm heading off to bed.

Yes!!!!!!!!

2007-01-17T13:38:00.000-05:00

I'm like insanely happy today.

Like, bouncing off the walls happy.

Like, manic stage bipolar happy.

Like, winning the multi million dollar lottery happy.

You get the picture I'm sure.

Now, you are probably asking yourselves why Miss Silver is so happy, especially after her mental turmoil over the last few days. No, it's not because of a talk I had with my mother or anything related to that.

See, last week I found out that Silverchair was playing a show in New York City; but unfortanately I missed out on buying tickets as I had prior plans and by the time I got back home and on the computer the show was completely sold out.

So I was very sad. And I wrote a letter to their fan club and complained about not getting tickets as there literally was only a few hours between the time that the show was announced and the time tickets went on sale (and if you've ever bought concert tickets, you know that typically a show is announced about a week or so in advance to when the tickets go onsale). So I felt I had a ligitament excuse to bitch and complain. A few hours after I sent the email I got a response from them telling me that no one had expected the tickets to go as fast as they did, due to the lack of publicity Silverchair has had here in the states over the last couple of years. It was just suppose to be a low key show (the venue holds less than 500 people), to put their name out there before their latest album is released. But they said plans were in the works to move the show to a larger venue. So for the next few days I've been checking their website a few times a day for an announcement about this. Then an announcement went out that instead of changing venues, there was a possibility of another show the next night.

So I felt a little better about the whole thing. There was still a possibility of finally, after ten long years of waiting, to finally see "my" band live.

But I didn't hear anything, and nearly a week went by. I was beginning to lose hope and start praying that when the album was released they would have a proper tour and hopefully play a few shows in the area...either in Philly...or even better, Atlantic City.

But then, last night after "the talk" I was killing off nervous energy on the computer and I thought to check their website once more...and there was the announcement announcing a second date. Unfortanately tickets were going on sale today at noon. And well, I was suppose to go have lunch with mom today so I wasn't sure what I was going to do, bar bring my laptop with me to lunch (I'm not kidding, I seriously was considering it).

I woke up early today. Lots of nervous energy. My mom was suppose to go to a meeting this morning, but she was home as my dad wasn't feeling well and she wanted to go to the doctor with him (long story). So I told her about the ticket sale and that I really wanted to stay home and attempt to get tickets and she didn't mind (I know she didn't really want to leave my dad home alone when he wasn't feeling well)...so all morning I stayed close to the computer, refreshing the ticket outlet page every few minutes. I was bound and determined to go to that show.

So finally noon comes around and I finally am able to get to the purchase page. I had a few problems...by that time I was a nervous wreck (I think next time I do something like this, I'll have to get my mom to do it for me!). First I screwed up on typing in my credit card number. So I had to go back and retype it in. Then I forgot to do the shipping information so I had to back track again. And I click on the continue button. About ready to do some serious damange if I have to backtrack again...or if tickets sold out while I was fighting with the computer (should have reminded myself that this wasn't a U2 show)...but finally it let me click on the buy now page...and it processed...and now in a few days I WILL have my tickets to go see Silverchair. After 10 LONG years.

Unfortantely I will probably be making the trip alone. I bought two tickets in case I find someone to go with me, and I have a few people that might like to go...but if I can't I don't mind going alone. I'm going with one thing in mind, and that's seeing the show and knowing how I am, (and how I was when I saw the Chili Peppers a few years ago), I'll just end up forgetting who I'm with and totally zoning them out. And that's not very nice.

Silverchair-Across the Night

Did it...

2007-01-16T21:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I was finally able to talk to my mother tonight. I spent from about 2pm this afternoon until 9pm agonizing over what I was going to say to her...nearly chickening out many times over the course of the day but finally, as the two of us sat on the couch watching tv I was finally able to tell her that I've been feeling depressed lately.

It really didn't go as well as I would have hoped. It wasn't terrible. But just not the positive experience I wished it would be. I guess it did throw my mom off balance, and contrary to what I had thought, I don't think my mother had any indication that I was feeling depressed for such a long time.

The reason I got this impression was because when I told her...her first remark was something along the lines of, well, you should call the doctor and make an appointment and maybe he'll perscribe something for you. Which is not the route I want to take at all. I don't want to be perscribed an anti-depressant by someone who most likely doesn't know much about depression, anti depressants, etc. other than just a surface understanding...

Then, even though I told her it was something I was dealing with for awhile, she blamed it on the fact that I don't have very many friends, the fact that I don't have a boyfriend and the fact that I'm unhappy at my job. Oh, and my dad's ungoing health problems. It's true that all these things do bother me, but, with the exception of my dad's problems, they most likely are CAUSED by the depression, NOT the cause of my depression. Besides, my problems started way before these things occured.

Now, we're probably going to talk about this more indepth tomorrow, and hopefully I will be able to get her to understand how long I've been suffering and hopefully then she'll realize how far off she was tonight. I'm just really surprised (and a little upset) that my mother reacted like that. It almost seemed as though she had NO background in mental illness...which just isn't the case at all. I'm not going into details with most of it as they are family issues that aren't really mine to discuss, but on the very surface level, my mom has worked as a psychiatric nurses aide before she finished nursing school and has an interest in mental health which makes her a tad more knowledgeable than the normal lay person. So, I guess I kind of assumed that it wouldn't take much to get her to realize how serious a problem I was dealing with, but I guess I was wrong. Which is really disppointing to me, because once again I feel as though my own mother doesn't even understand me because she's too busy with everything else going on.

But hopefully when we talk again tomorrow it'll be better. I'm taking her to lunch (I invited her before I decided to talk to her), and for some strange reason we have a much better relationship outside the house. Once my old manager at this department store made a remark that we seemed like best friends because we'd often come to the store and shop on my days off, and we always got along really well. Maybe not as close as the younger two Gilmore Girls, but you get the idea. So tomorrow at lunch I might feel a little braver, and mom will be a little less distracted and will be better equippted to listen.

I should have talked to my dad instead though. At least he pays attention to what's going on in my life and knows when things are bothering me. The last few days I've had this semi paranoid feeling that my dad's been reading this blog...the other day after I had that rant about my mom and her dog "issues" my dad came to me and said that I shouldn't let her get to me and that I shouldn't give up sleep, or going out with friends just because of the dog...then today when he got home from work he asked me if anything "interesting" happened today. Which I've never noticed him asking me before. So it's sort of strange that twice I've blogged about something and my dad's come to me and said something that gave me the idea that he's read my blog...which I'm almost positive he hasn't...as my dad's nearly computer illiterate and I don't think he would even guess that I keep a blog (or possibly what a blog is!)...but it still makes me wonder. So Dad, if you are reading my blog, you don't have to hide! I promise not to be (too) mad.

Oh well, I'm heading off to bed. I'm feeling quite exhasted.

Garbage-I Think I'm Paranoid

just stopping by

2007-01-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

First off, let me say how much I've appreciated the comments I've gotten over the past few days. I seriously think I've nearly started crying on average, once an hour since I last posted. Okay, maybe not THAT much...but it's been very nice to come on the computer and see how many awesome, heartfelt comments are sitting in my inbox. So thank you. When I have a little more time, I'll try to write a post personally responding to the comments.

I'm missing blogging...I wanted to hold off on blogging again until I talked to my mom but I'm cleaning my room today, and well, I needed a little distraction. So I came on here and read a few blogs and got the urge to write again. So here I am. For now anyway.

I took off a shift of work last night. Normally on Sundays I work a double shift (which gives me three days off a week, rather than two. And usually I manage to get through both shifts...but Sunday morning when I came home to try to sleep a few hours, my mom and sister were off and on arguing, quite loudly, and very close to my bedroom. Not fun at all. So I didn't get much sleep and when I had to get up to get ready for work I just felt like crap, really tired and rundown. But I made it to work with the plans of asking the supervisor if I could leave at the end of the first shift, but I had missed her so I decided, rather than bother her at home, I'll hack it out. But then later that shift she called to check in, and to call out for today and I asked her if I could leave if I could find coverage...so I found coverage and came home at 11pm and was actually able to sleep really well for a change. Lately I've been struggling to sleep, especially at night as my body is so adjusted to sleeping during the day so I was a tad worried that after all that trouble (and losing out on holiday play and using up some sick time), I wouldn't be able to sleep but I slept from a bit after midnight until 8am when I woke to my ferret making noises then falling back to sleep for about two more hours. I feel much better now! Last night at work I was really droozy and feeling shaky. And I ached....all over. When I don't get enough sleep for an extending period of time, I usually find myself getting sick so hopefully skipping out on work to get some much needed rest was enough to stave off whatever evil bug was laying in wait to get my immune system weak enough to attack.

Yeah, so like I mentioned earlier in this post, I've decided that I'm going to talk to my mother tomorrow. I'm still not sure what exactly I'm going to say to her, but I think my best course of action will be to be frank with her, not just hint around at feeling bad but just strait out tell her that I've been depressed for awhile now and I feel as though it's getting worse for me with everything that has been going on...by the work drama I went through over the summer, the recent family deaths...especially my grandmother, my aunt's car wreck (which, by the way, she's improved enough to move out of the critical care unit), and my dad's ongoing health problems. I didn't even get into that stuff in that post, but I'm sure that just those things alone could seriously bring someone not suffering from depression, down enough that it could turn into depression.

Since writing that stuff though, I've felt this incrediable calmness and lightness. It sounds a tad silly, but I really felt that way. Just knowing that I was able to write all that stuff out and talk about it so frankly with someone (or many people really) and not feel ashamed or too scared was such a big step for me...I don't even feel all that worried now about talking to my mother. I don't often talk to her about serious stuff like this, and when I do, it's usually when I just get to worked up about something that it just comes spilling out. But we'll see how it goes tomorrow. We both have off tomorrow (well, after 7am for me anyway) and I have the next few days off work so I won't have to worry about going into work while I am worked up or just feeling really emotional. My mom unfortantely only has Wednesday to recover...in which she'll be going with my dad to see a neurologist for his back problems...but if I wait even longer than I have...well there's a good chance I won't talk to her at all.

So there you have it.

Pearl Jam-Rearviewmirror

the dam has broken

2007-01-12T15:17:00.000-05:00

I expected today to be a normal day full of my normal blogging, that was my intention anyway. But it turned out to be a much different day and I realized that I had a lot of things going on mentally that I had to get out of my head and onto paper (or a computer screen). It was extremely personal to me, and I struggled with my myself debating whether or not I was actually going to finish putting everything out in the open and then pushing that publish button. It would have been a lot easier not to finish. At least in the short term. In the long term however, it would still be there bothering me...probably for many more years.

So I wrote what I did. And I published it. And now everyone in the blogging world, and some non bloggers who read this blog will know what I've been dealing with for the last 10+ years. I broke down the barrier I had built up for years and am now letting me see me for the person I really am. And frankly, it's scaring me. A lot. But at the same time it feels liberating. I don't have to "act" anymore. If I feel like crap...well, I'm not gonna hide it because you've now all seen me for who I really am.

I'm sorry if I've lead anyone on. I hope that my post won't cause you to dislike me because you've felt as though you've been had because this wasn't my intention. Let's just say that the online world, for the longest time, was a safe haven for me and now I am realizing that it isn't fair to anyone for me to do this.

I'm emotionally exhasted right now. I don't think that is a surprise to anyone, I know it's no surprise to me. But because of how I'm feeling, and the fact that today marks the beginning of the work week for me, I am going to take a bit of a break from blogging. Try to clear my head and hopefully try to work up my courage to talk to my parents about things. I will still be online, as I have my comments emailed to me, I'll see them. I will be checking my regular email and I might even be on AIM or msn. So I promise I won't be disappearing totally, just taking a bit of a break from my blog and consequently from your blogs.

I see that I have already gotten a very nice comment from my last entry. So thank you Sebastian. You have no idea how much it meant to me that you read what I had to say and commented.

Anyway, in the words of the Terminator..."I'll be back!"

Warning, very long post ahead. Serious matter.

2007-01-12T12:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the well wishes I got. I'm feeling better today, I don't know what was wrong yesterday since I felt fine in the morning but after lunch I just started feeling crappy. It also probably didn't help that I only got about four/four and a half hour of sleep the night before. My body just wasn't feeling tired I suppose as I didn't fall asleep until close to 3, and at 7am my body (with help from my siblings running around trying to catch the bus) woke up and just would not go back to sleep for a few hours. Oh well. I slept well last night to make up for it. And I had a very nice dream (NO NOT that kind of dream!). But anyway, I am back and feeling more "bloggy" today.

Before I started feeling ill yesterday, I wanted to write this post that started forming in my head after seeing those comments people have left me saying they didn't believe I was shy.

But the truth is...I'm really shy "in real life". I have always been shy. I have a tape here at home of my kindergarden "graduation". I went to a private school back then, so things like that were a pretty big deal and the graduation was professionally taped and sold too the parents. Before the graduation, the guy that was taping the graduation came to the school during the recess time came and tapes all the kids running around on the playground, and this footage was also used on the tape. While most of the kids were doing everything in their power to get noticed by the camera, I was doing my damnedest to get the hell away from it. I actually faintly remember the day this was being taped. I didn't want to be in the picture, and I felt really uncomfortable with the idea of being taped for this "movie". So I spent all of that recess time trying to stay away. So when all the other kids were surrounding the camera man vying for his attention I was hiding...but no matter how hard I tried to hide, somehow I'd always find the camera lurking around, and I would leave and find a new refuge and yet again I would find myself having to leave. When the tape was finished, my mother of course bought a copy and I remember watching it. It's actually painful to see me trying to run away from the camera. But it wasn't my thing. That sort of thing scared me. Still scares me in fact. I don't like cameras very much. And video cameras...forget it. Last year while vacationing in NYC my mother dragged my sisters and I out at the crack of dawn to get in the crowd for the Today show. And while there I was on the phone with my dad who was watching the Today show on tv watching for us...and he said that I had gotten on for like two seconds. Now, while the "normal" person would probably feel excited about being on national tv...all I could think was...god, I hope no one noticed me.

I had a physical difference, which always made things hard. I have some type of genetic disorder that affects their hair on your head. Where as a normal hair root is strait, mine is kinked up in a way that affects hair growth. I have hair, but it's very short. When I first meet people for the first time, it can make things a bit difficult. Some think I have cancer and am going through chemo. And some probably think that my hair is that short for a reason...mainly that I'm a lesbian. I kind of have to have a laugh about that. Unless they are the mean sort and make derogatory comments about being a lesbian. Then I get mad, because that's just really uncool and uncalled for. But because of this "physical affliction" probably plays in to my shyness more than I would like. And yes, I have considered my "options" and the truth is...I'm too proud for that, at least right now. My thinking is, if you are too shallow to see past this, than you aren't the type of person I would like around me.

Believe it or not, in preschool/kindergarden/elementry school I was fine. I think most people would assume that I'd get teased, but to be honest, I only rememeber one incident in the cafeteria of my elementery school...some kid made some comment and immediately one of the boys from my class stepped in and told the other boy to shut up. I don't remember who my "protector" was, but I always remembered that incident. I was shy back then...but I had friends and overall I was a pretty happy kid. Fourth grade was kind of crappy, my one best friend had moved on to the next level of school that year, and my other best friend moved to a different part of town and transfered schools...so it was a lonely year. And looking back it was probably the first indication I had that I suffered from emotional/ mental problems. I was still a happy kid at home, but at school I often times just felt really lonely and sad and didn't understand why.

In my school district 5th grade was the start of middle school (it's now 6th grade, which was just started this year). I was in a new school with many new kids. At the time there was something like five elementry schoools, so I was in with a whole new mixture of students. At first it was traumatic for me, as I was expecting to go to another middle school so I had been mentally preparing myself and had visited that school back during the previous year...so when I found out that I was instead going to a different middle school it was hard. But I got there and many of my old friends were at that school so soon I felt secure there. Sixth grade was fun. I had a huge group of friends in class, and though I didn't always "like" my teacher, she understood me and really encouraged me to let my bookwork/geeky self come out.

7th and 8th grade were the worst. It's when the "shit hit the fan" so to speak, started, and when instead of just being shy I became very shy and began to have serious depression issues and unfortanately screwed up the little amount of self esteem I had managed to build up. I came into 7th grade feeling good. I had spent the summer attending this summer program playing around with multi media equipment and singing in a music class and attending a 4-H sleep away camp for a week and had had a lot of fun, and had even built up the courage to get up in front of the camp and sing at the end of camp talent show. Then probably about midway through 7th grade an incident occured (that I don't feel comfortable talking about), and as in the case of many similar incidences I became the victim of a lot of bullying. Often times I'd be walking down the hall and from out of nowhere someone would pass by muttering some derogatory statement in my direction. Or playing some cruel joke on me. I tried to laugh it off, and find refuge during the school day in my classes and in my friends but it was still hard. I never told my parents what was going on. Instead, after the school day was over I'd come home and go up to my room where I'd usually try to lose myself either in a book or writing angsty poetry...and always I would listen to the music I had recently discovered through my friends. I was never happy. I'd pretend to be happy when I "should" have been happy but really, I don't recall really feeling happy about anything. I was just going through the motions of being a 13-14 year old. The scary part (now) was the fact that my unhappiness felt normal. I honestly thought that everyone, at least all teenagers, felt sad and lonely. Which is probably why I didn't say anything. When I finally started seeing that there was something wrong, I was too scared to admit to it...I didn't think anyone would take me seriously, or just blame me for feeling bad. I don't know. A few years ago I talked to my best friend from back then (we had lost touch when she moved out of state) and she told me that during the time we were friends, she was really scared for me, because of how, everytime we were together, or talked on the phone I'd always make comments about being unhappy or hating myself or whatever. I don't actually remember this. But then again, like I said, at the time I thought it was normal to feel bad.

My depression followed me throughout high school. I very rarely went out and hung out. I did colorguard for four years, so during the fall I stayed busy with practices and football games and competiotions and all that but the rest of the year I didn't do anything. I had a few friends inside school, that I would talk to between classes, or sit with at lunch but outside of lunch, until my senior year...I very seldom did anything after school or on weekends, as I did during those last few years of middle school, when I'd come home from school I would just disappear into my room and try to forget who I was. When my grades suffered freshman year, I blamed it on adjustment issues, even though a lot of it was probably due to my depression and inability to concentrate on my school work. That was the only time I remember my mother commenting about depression, asking me if I was depressed. She had picked me up from school and was upset that I had failed yet another math exam and asked me if I was doing so poorly in school because I was depressed. And I denied it. Sometimes I wonder how things would have been different if I had said yes.

I'm not going to say high school was hell because it wasn't THAT horrible. I wasn't bullied much (on occasion I'd see someone from middle school that would say something to me), but by that time my self esteem was shot to hell. I had a hard time making friends because I was scared I'd be treated badly like I did in middle school, so for most of high school I tried to be as invisible as possible. And I think a lot of people thought that I was stuck up...when the truth was I just didn't know how to act in that sort of social situation. I never went to parties. I did attempt to go to a school dance but hated it (and when a dance ends and there's about four cop cars outside watching the people leave and breaking up fights, it's usually a turn off). I had a few boyfriends but none of them were good relationships really. Out of the three I had, two of my boyfriends were pretty emotionless and the one that was somewhat normal, I couldn't deal with because the guy really liked me, and as I hated myself I couldn't understand how he could like me. I still have some issues with this. I get really uncomfortable when someone tells me how much they like me, or how much they appreciate me...because I really can't see what they are seeing.

I wanted to go away for college, make a new start away from everyone that knew me. That didn't happen. My parents didn't have the money to send me to college, so I literally worked my way through my degree at a college close to home. They bought me a used car for graduation and several (five to three) times a week I'd make the 45 minute drive to and from school...and work evenings and weekends to pay for tuition. I was pretty resentful at not going away but now I'm glad I didn't. I don't think I would have been able to handle it. I don't think my mental health would have been able to handle it. I was still the same type of person in college, no self esteem....didn't make many friends, at least that I'd talk to, hang out with outside of school, etc. I didn't even make an attempt very often either. By college I was so used to feeling depressed that I didn't really notice it anymore. I didn't have a name for it, I just knew that something wasn't right. I think the first time I realized that there was a name for what was going on when I was sitting in my abnormal psych class. We were doing a unit on depression based mental illness and I was sitting there, learning the symptoms and going...that's me, that's me, that's me...again and again. I remember saying this for most of the list of symptoms. In a way it shocked me and in another way it didn't shock me. I think I had known for awhile that I was "sick" and I think that in small ways I had been trying to tell people for years but when I'd get close to actually verbalizing I'd chicken out.

I've been at this stage for awhile. I know (at least partly) what's wrong with me. I know that I have depression and I know that I should get help for it...and at the same time I don't want to admit to this. I want to tell my parents but at the same time I don't want them to worry about me. I just don't know how to go about talking to them, and telling them.

This is the first time I've gotten so indepth with this. I've mentioned before that I have sufferent from feelings of depression before, but I have never sat down and really put it into words. Looking back I didn't even realize it was this bad. Like I kept saying, for the longest time I had always assumed that how I was feeling was "normal" and that I would eventually get over it...but now I don't think that that's going to happen, at least not without help.

Yuck

2007-01-11T18:26:00.000-05:00

I'm feel yucky tonight. Stomach issues that you probably don't want to hear about and I didn't get enough sleep last night so I'm not feeling very creative at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to write some stuff that has been floating around in my head.

Pictures!

2007-01-11T14:26:00.000-05:00

Just going to give the links, as they didn't show up right.

Me, last night.

Kira!

My Parents

Christmas Tree

Buddy

Atlantic Ocean

Sunset

Atlantic City Boardwalk

Atlantic City Skyline

1975 vs. 2007

2007-01-11T13:38:00.000-05:00

Got this from a message board. By the way, I wasn't alive in 1975...I wasn't born until 1982.

How the world has changed (for the worse) since I was young in 1975.

================

Scenario: Johnny and Andy get into a fist fight after school.

2007 - Police called and arrest Johnny and Andy. They are charged with assault. Both are expelled even though Johnny started it.

1975 - Crowd gathers. Fight starts and ends. Nobody is hurt badly. No weapons are used. Johnny and Andy shake hands and end up friends.

================

Scenario: Johnny won't sit still in class and disrupts other students.

2007 - Johnny is given huge doses of Ritalin. Johnny becomes a zombie. The school gets extra money from the province because Johnny may have a disability. Although Johnny sits still in class, he doesn't learn a thing because he is drugged.

1975 - Johnny sent to office, scolded and spanked by Principal. Johnny sits still in class from now on.

==================

Scenario: Johnny breaks a window in his father's car and his dad gives him a spanking.

2007 - Johnny's dad is arrested for child abuse. Johnny's sister is told by a provincial psychologist that she should remember being abused. Based on that their Dad goes to prison. Johnny's mom struggles to raise a family alone.

1975 - Johnny is more careful next time.

==================

Scenario: Johnny's dad pulls into school parking lot with a rifle legally stored in his car's gun rack.

2007 - School goes into lockdown, CSIS, SWAT and RCMP are called. Johnny's dad hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. Criminal charges laid but tossed out in court after Johnny's dad pays thousands in lawyer fees to defend against a charge that is unkown to Canadian law.

1975 - Vice Principal comes over and sees the rifle. Vice Principle goes to his own car and gets his own rifle to compare firearms.

==================

Scenario: Jose fails high school English.

2007: Jose's cause is taken up by the Liberal Party of Canada. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. Liberal Party files class action lawsuit against the school system and Jose's English teacher. Jose is given a diploma anyway but ends up cleaning pools for a living because he can't speak English.

1975: Jose goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

====================

Scenario: Johnny takes apart firecrackers, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up Star Wars action figures.

2007: - CSIS, RCMP and local authorities are called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, CSIS investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's parents go on a terror watch list and are never allowed to fly again.

1975 - Star Wars figures are blown away and lunch is served shortly after by the nearest mom in the neighborhood. Everybody drinks from the nearest backyard hose.

The Thinking Meme

2007-01-11T13:10:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by Skittles:

If you had to choose one vice in exclusion of all others what would it be? Probably spending way too much time on the 'net.
If you could change one specific thing about the world what would it be? George W. Bush out of office.
Name the cartoon character you identify with the most. Genie from Aladdin.
If you could live one day in your life over again which one would it be? Maybe the day I went and saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert...that was a really fun day, minus the ride home.
If you could go back in history and spend a day with one person who would it be? Jimi Hendrix, I'd love to have seen him play guitar....maybe he'd of taught me a few things as well.
What is the one thing you lost, sold or threw away that you wish you could have back? This sounds silly, but when I was really little I had these mittens that were knit by my grandmother (not the one who passed away recently, this one past away when I was 12). I was at the beach (in winter) with my parents and I was throwing rocks into the water and when I threw one of the rocks one of my mittens came off and floated away in the water. I remember being quite upset and wanting my dad to go in the water after the mitten...needless to say, he wouldn't and my parents tried to convince me it wasn't that big a deal.
What is your one most important contribution to this world. I try not to litter?
What is your one hidden talent that nearly no one knows about? Writing maybe, hardly anyone I know outside the online world has really read anything I've written.
What is your most cherished possession? My family.
What one person influenced your life the most when growing up? My Grandmother.
What one word describes you better than any other? Strange (but in a good way!)

And is my style, I tag anyone and everyone that has the time, or patience to fill this out!

How Shy Are You?

2007-01-10T22:36:00.001-05:00

You Are 56% Shy

Although you live a pretty normal life, you tend to be a fairly shy person.
Many situations make you feel uncomfortable, and you sometimes find your shyness hindering your life.

How Shy Are You?

Video of the Day

2007-01-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

It's Celebrity Jeopardy Time!

"Reappearance"

2007-01-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

I meant to write a post about this last week, but I didn't for two reasons. 1. I wasn't sure if the person in question would approve and 2. I had a lot of stuff going on with my family that the topic just slipped by. But today that person happened to leave a comment about wanting me to write about her reapperance so I'm taking that as approval.

Several years ago I was a member of the Silverchair message board. While I was a member of said board I met a lot of "colorful" people. Some were nice, some were just okay and some were absolute assholes (which caused me to stop participating). I tried to keep in touch with the nice people I had met on the board, and for awhile I did...one of the people I stayed in touch with was someone I will call "Elise". She was a very nice French girl, and we quickly become fairly good friends, on and off the message board. We would write emails back and forth quite often, and on occassion would chat on MSN Messenger. I can't remember how long we stayed in contact for, but eventually, like many internet friends, we started talking less and less as our lives became more busy. Eventually, for whatever reason, the emails and online chats stopped completely.

We both went on with our lives, occassionally "Elise" would pop in my mind and I'd wonder to myself how she was doing. But I had long since misplaced her email and neither of us visited that message board so I really didn't think there was a way to get back in touch with her.

Sometime last week (I think it was), I noticed that I had gotten a few messages on my little chat box here on my blog. I had no idea who this person was, and at first I thought that it was just some random person stopping by, but eventually, after Elise giving me a few hints, my memory was jogged. I was very surprised, and happy.

Prior to getting back in touch with my friend, I just saw blogging as something to do, I enjoyed it but I never imagined that it would get me back in touch with an old friend. So for those who have had doubts about their blogging or think that maybe they are just wasting time...well, just remember my story...maybe it will keep your faith in the blogging world.

Pretty proud

2007-01-10T19:58:00.000-05:00

I went out today to meet K for lunch. Although this can be considered a bit a major even as of late, it's not what I wanted to talk about.

I met K for lunch at Applebee's. We get seated right away and were only seating for a minute or two when our waiter shows up. It turns out that our waiter was a guy that I went to high school with. A fairly attractive guy, I must add. We weren't best friends back then, but we were always friendly and would have a chat when we'd see each other. He was a year below me in school so when I graduated I pretty much lost contact with him. I did see him once when I was working at a local department store towards the end of his senior year and I believe he told me he was going to Florida for school.

I haven't thought of him in years. But there he was, standing in front of our table apoligizing for the wait (huh, what wait?) and introducing himself...he doesn't notice me at first, which is understandable. When I worked retail I'd see so many people in the day that they'd blend together, and it would take me a minute to recognize a person I knew...so I gave a pretty enthusiastic "Hey, how are you!" and he finally notices me and tells me that he's done school and working there to save up money so he can move to New York. We don't talk long as he's got to work, and in the resturant time definitely is money so the rest of our exchanges were of the standard resturant talk of, "how's your meal?" "Great!"..."Can I get you anything else?" "No, just the check, thanks".

When it came time to pay the bill my friend gave me the money for his share and I tell him I'd cover the tip as I wanted to give a bit extra (I usually do this is the service was decent, as I know waiters get paid crap for the most part)...and then I did something I normally wouldn't do. I took a piece of paper from a little notebook I carry around and scribbled out a note wishing him luck on the New York thing and I put my cell number under my name.

Now, I don't know if he will call...(or even if he got the note...with my luck a busboy picked it up and pocketed the note)...nor, do I really care...but it's not something I would normally do. Even when I know someone, unless I know them REALLY well I'm very shy and don't like drawing attention to myself. At all.

So I am proud that I took the risk to reach out and try making a connection to someone. And the fact that I'm calm about it also amazes me. Normally, if I did something like that I would immediately start chiding myself for doing that, telling myself that it was a stupid thing to do and feeling very embarrassed.

Alanis Morissette-You Learn

I'll keep this in mind...

2007-01-10T00:31:00.000-05:00

Borrowed from Skittles:

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything.
You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey.
You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Video of the Day

2007-01-09T22:53:00.000-05:00

Skydiving Bear

Clearing the air

2007-01-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

I wanted to clear some things up from my previous post as from the comments I'm getting, it sounds as though a lot of people who read that particular post interpreted it to mean that my mother and I have a rocky relationship. Which isn't the case at all.

For the most part I get along really well with my mom. Yes, there are certain days when we want to kill each other, but most of the time we get along. We go shopping together, we go out to meals together, we might go to the movies together, etc. Today was just one of those days where we just weren't getting along too well. We had a few words (if that), and then we parted ways to cool down.

As is my style, I wrote about my feelings and because I was feeling upset I think I blew things a tad out of proportion. Yes, sometimes I do get tired of watching the dog and stuff, and I do sometimes feel as though I'm being put on a guilt trip...but I know that unless something really major was going on, she wouldn't out and out deny me going and doing what I need to do. I was just blowing off steam; I wasn't announcing to the world I hate my mother and I needed out of this house. I'm no longer a teenager, and I try to stay away from the teenage angst thing. As Kurt Cobain said, "teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old."

I don't want to move. Not right now at least. Right now I am still recovering mentally from the roughest year of my life and mentally I don't think I'm healthy or stable enough to handle the pressure of having my own place. Moving out with friends would be an option...if I had friends that were also moving out. Which, I don't think any are. Besides, though I love my friends dearly, I admit I can be a tad tough to deal with on an everyday basis.

So anyway, I just wanted to write that and clear all that up.

Mother issues

2007-01-09T16:52:00.000-05:00

According to my mother, I sleep too much after I get off of work.

This baffles me as I usually don't go to sleep until 8 or 8:30 am and usually wake up between 2pm and 3pm...which is roughly six hours. Now, my mother is a nurse, so you would think she'd have better judgement than that, she should realize that six hours isn't much sleep at all, especially for a person working nights as working those hours is twice as hard on the body. But no, according to her that's too much.

Her reasoning, her dog. When she is not home (like today), she depends fully on me to stay with the dog all day long. And she just doesn't get that it's too much. I do like the dog, and I don't like that she has to be locked up in a crate when no one is watching her but at the same time, I do need my sleep despite the fact I sleep on different schedules as everyone else. When I am not working, it's a little better. I am awake most of the day, though usually extremely tired as I had a lot of trouble falling asleep the night before, and forcing myself up at a "decent" hour so I can take care of the dog for my mom.

My mom also doesn't realize that I have a life. One that doesn't always include staying home every single day I have off. But no, if I tell her that I might be going out (even to the library) and won't be available to watch the dog she gets an attitude. She might not outright tell me that she's not happy that I am not going to be home, but her attitude clearly states it.

So then I usually end up staying home just to please her...but of course she's got to critize everything...from the fact that my dog doesn't eat her meals when I try to feed her, to the fact that she gets hyper with me and not listen to me, yet "supposedly" listens just fine for my mother.

She knew the kind of responsibility that was needed when we got the dog; she knew what her work schedule was like and knew that chances are she wouldn't be home very much. She hasn't bothered to get the dog obediance lessons like she keeps claiming she needs to do, which, would help a lot in terms of the "listening" aspect.

Now, I love the dog. I love pretty much all dogs and during my lifetime the longest we've gone without having a dog in the house was a few weeks between the time when our Carin Terrier had to be put to sleep (from old age) and we adopted our black lab from the SPCA. I've also been in dog clubs through the 4-H as a preteen/teenager. So I do know something about dogs. If I elect to spend time with the dog, it would be a lot better. I do enjoy spending time with her, playing with her and all that...but the thing is, I'm being forced to do it, day after day and it's really putting a damper on my personal life. When I want to go out with friends I feel as though I have to check in with my mother and get "permission" and if she's going to be at work, or the millions of meetings she lays on the guilt about the dog being in the crate all day. So then a lot of the time I just end up cancelling plans and I rarely see my friends. And then if I do go out, I can't really fully enjoy myself because I feel as though I need to hurry home to deal with the dog, or I just spend the time feeling guilty that no one is home and the dog is locked up.

What should I read...

2007-01-08T21:53:00.000-05:00

Currently I'm reading two books. One that I'm carrying around in my purse and (mainly) reading at work, and one that I've been reading at home, for the past few weeks (as it's really long). The "work" book is a Chuck Paluniuk book which I am half tempted to stop, as it's pretty disturbing. But at the same time it's like a car wreck, you don't want to look but you just can't help it. So I will most likely read it until the end. And then I will more than likely stuff it into my closet where I put the books that I've read that I probably will never read again. One day I will either sell them off, or donate them somewhere. Haven't decided yet.

The second book I'm reading is Anna Karenina which is a book I have been wanted to read since high school, if not before. This is my second attempt. The first time I had to return it to the library before I could really get into it. Now I'm nearly halfway finished.

I have several other books on my bookshelf that I have bought over the last few months that I haven't read yet, currently the number stands at 6. Usually, I save the books I own to bring to work (so if they get ruined it's not a big deal)...and I go find books at the library that I read here at home (mainly to save money, and shelf room). Because of reasons I can't even remember, I haven't been to the library in a few months now which was okay for the time as I didn't have a whole lot of time to read at home with the holidays but now that things are back to normal I was thinking of heading to the libary as soon as I finish with the Tolstoy book...

But then yesterday at work I happened to see that the movie The Stand was on. I only watched a few minutes of it, but now I REALLY want to go back and reread that book. I read it when I was in high school, once, and haven't been able to read it from cover to cover since (it's over 1,000 pages long by the way). So I'm sort of undecided. Do I start reading another book that will most likely take me a few weeks to get through right after finishing my current book, or do I head to the library and find something brand new that will be a much quicker read?

Video of the Day

2007-01-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

*warning, some strong language*

Wow, Australia is in big trouble!

sleeplessness

2007-01-08T19:32:00.000-05:00

*blogger seems to be having issues with comments at the moment, any comments can go on my Chatter box*

Now, if you've been visiting my blog for awhile, or know me outside the blogger world you'll know that I work night shifts in a group home. And if you are a newcomer to my blog, or just didn't realize what I did for a living, well now you do.

Because I work nights, I am on a different schedule than most of the rest of the world...while most people are just starting their day, I am just coming home and getting ready for a well deserved nap. While most people are getting ready (or already in bed), I am heading out my front door to head to work. Normally this doesn't bother me. My family does it's best to stay quiet so I can sleep, or else they are all out of the house. I'm also fortunate that my bedroom is on the quiet side of the property. On one side we have noisy, troublesome neighbors...some of which look like wannabe gangstas, and on the other side we have the same neighbors we've had since before I was even born...an elderly woman and her two grown children who never bother anyone.

Today however I was sleeping pretty well when I started hearing this very loud annoying noise outside on the street, almost like a motorbike going up and down the street constantly. I manage to ignore it for a little while while I attempt to fall back to sleep but eventually it becomes too much and I get up out of bed and go to the window to see who or what is disturbing my rest.

It's one of my neighbors. At least I think it's one of the neighbors (the neighbors on the "noisy" side have a tendency to move in and out at whim as it's a rental property with a two family house in front and a one family home in the back, and out of the three, only one keeps the tennents there for any amount of time). But back to the "neighbor". He has a four wheeler and is driving it up and down the street, or rather, half the street. First of all, it's illegal for a four wheeler to be on a street like that. Second of all, he is riding without a helmet, which, if it's not illegal it should be and is an extremely stupid thing to do. So, without any regard to who he's disturbing this guy just continues to ride up and down the street, interrupting traffic and otherwise just being a total nusance.

There's not much I can do. I could call the cops but my dad tried doing that once or twice and nothing was done. I could open the window and yell at him but there's two problems with that...my air con is still in the window as we still haven't had a chance to take them out...and he wouldn't be able to hear me over the roar of the engine anyway...so I go back to bed and try to ignore him again but it's just too annoying. So while I try to wait him out I start thinking about all the bad things that can happen to him while he's trying to ride that thing...a car could come up and hit him (or better yet, a school bus), he could flip the thing over when trying to turn around, or a cop could just so happen be riding down the street and arrest him.

Now, on normal circumstances I wouldn't want any of these things to happen to this guy. Yes, he's an idiot, but besides the cop thing, that's pretty horrible stuff to wish on somebody...but come on, I can't be held responsible for my morbid thoughts when I am sleep deprived now can I?

Papa Roach-Getting Away with Murder

Wannabe Computer Nerd

2007-01-08T08:01:00.000-05:00

Another quiz from Jared:

Guess this is what I get from hanging around a computer programmer.

Quick update

2007-01-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

My dad got a phone call about twenty minutes ago from my Aunt's son. My Aunt is responsive finally. She actually had her eyes open (for more than a few seconds) and held my cousin's hand (squeezed it) and was trying to talk though because of the trach that's not possible. This is really great news as the last few days have not been good...she's had a few infections and the doctors have been unable to get her off oxygen (which is why she now had a trach as they can't keep her on a ventilator), and they haven't been able to get her off the pain medications they've been giving her....so this is just really great news and hopefully it's a sign that she's finally decided that she's going to fight to get better.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

2007-01-06T21:52:00.000-05:00

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay is a coming of age story about Peekay, a British child growing up in South Africa in the Would War II era. Peekay is an exceptionally bright and wise child who astonishes everyone who he meets during his life. He also has the special gift of seeing things for what they really are, and not seeing things the way his culture, society, and family tells him he should see things. However, his main ambition in life is to become the welterweight boxing champion of the world, and the story follows Peekay as he works towards his ultimate goal in life.

This was a really wonderful book, however, it isn't a book that you can just race through. I also do not recommend trying to read it amongst other books (like I did), or only read once in awhile (also, like I did). It's such an involved story, with so many different characters that it's one of those books that you will want to sit down and carefully read in order to involve yourself with Peekay's story.

It is beautifully written and it's hard not to become emotionally involved. The heart breaking passages will make you want to cry, the joyous passages will make you want to dance around your living room and even the more neutral passages will suck you in so you won't want to put the book down.

I do believe I will, one day, read this book again without the many distractions that I had reading this book. Even in the start/stop way I read this book, I got so much out of it and I can only imagine how great I will find the book when I put my full attention into it.

Video of the Day

2007-01-06T16:46:00.000-05:00

Well this surely explains a lot!

How much have you changed?

2007-01-05T20:19:00.000-05:00

You've Changed 52% in 10 Years

You've done a good job changing with the times, but deep down, you're still the same person.
You're clothes, job, and friends may have changed some - but it hasn't changed you.

How Much Have You Changed in 10 Years?

Quote of the Day

2007-01-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

"A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized"
~Fred Allen~

I haven't really had much to say on the last few Quotes of the Day that showed up on my blog...so I did a little searching and found this one and liked it enough to write about.

When I first read it, and really, up until I started writing this, I thought that the quote was humourous. However, after a few minutes of thinking I realize that this quote isn't all that funny, in many cases it's dead on.

I know most of you remember a time in your life when you would think to yourself (or make semi public affirmations) that one day you were going to be a famous...actor/musician/model/sports star/politition/etc. And for awhile these make for fun little fantasies...standing up on a chair in front of a mirror pretending to give an Oscar acceptance speech, practicing your talents in hopes that one day you'll be really good and hit it big. That sort of thing. It's fun while it lasts...maybe not for the people around you...but to you, its exciting to think of the possibility of having everyone know who you are, to be on tv, on the radio, the big screen...

But we grow up and put those dreams aside for more realistic dreams of getting an education, getting married, having kids, traveling...normal things like that. Most of us do anyway. Every once in awhile you'll run into someone that is convinced they will make it someday...and it's usually an ackward situation as many of them have no talent (see an American Idol audition for example). And then of course there's that VERY small handful of people who have made it...by hard work, talent and an extrodinary stroke of good luck. (Usually anyway, I won't even get into people like the Hiltons).

Most of these people were also the ones standing at the mirror giving pretend acceptance speeches. They too had fantasies of becoming rich and famous and think that if they do make it, they'll leave their troubles behind. Unfortanately, in many cases, this doesn't happen.

Once you reach celebrity status, you have basically signed "your" life away. Your privacy is invaded on a daily basis. Going out to the store can turn into a major event. Feeling grouchy one day because you don't feel well and the waitress looked at you funny can make you into a world class bitch. And if you think a breakup is hard enough when you are Mr/Miss Nobody...well, when your a celebrity...EVERYONE is talking about it. Not just the cafeteria at Anytown High School. Misquotes are a daily event and anytime you say something in the public's earshot can be construed in a million different ways. Your kids will be under scruntinty...your house, car, pets...all under scruntiny. And God forbid you do something illegal. Everyone and everyone's mother knows about it (though, on the plus side, you usually won't get into a whole lot of trouble).

And being a celebrity and being rich doesn't guarantee happiness. Not by a longshot. You're physical and mental health are constantly being put to the test day in and day out. Physically, you've got so much going on that you make yourself exhasted. If you are a woman (and men as well), you are always under pressure to stay a certain size to any cost. Eating disorders are rampant amongst celebrities trying to achieve that perfect weight. Anorexia, Bulimia, Exercise Addiction...many celebrites deal with those issues. Drug and alchohol addiction. That's big amongst the celebrities as a way to deal with the tremendous stress they are under.

So, being a celebrity just isn't all it's cracked up to be. Its great to have recoginition in what you do, but remember, sometimes too much recognition can be a bad thing. So the next time you find yourself going on about how you wish you were famous, just remember what exactly goes into being famous. It might make you stop and think a bit.

Hole-Celebrity Skin

Video of the Day

2007-01-05T18:35:00.000-05:00

And you thought animals were dumb...

The Family Stone (movie review)

2007-01-05T16:27:00.000-05:00

The Family Stone is the story of a family of two parents and their adult children, three sons and two daughters. Like many families, the Stones gather at the parents home every Christmas to celebrate the holidays.

During this particular Christmas, the Stones' must welcome son Everett's new girlfriend Meredith, a woman who clearly does not fit into the Stone mold.

I found this to be an enjoyable movie for the most part, from the trailers I had been expected something along the lines of an understated Meet the Parents, however, the movie stayed away from falling into the same storyline. In fact, it had a more serious/somber tone as the story progressed and there were a few "sniffing" moments. I also liked how each of the major characters had their moments in the movie instead of having the movie focus totally on Sarah Jessica Parker, without this, it wouldn't have been apparent why the characters in the movie treated Meredith the way that they did.

I did find some of the situations that Meredith found herself in to be almost painfully ackward between the family trying to make things difficult for her, and her personality and opinions clashing with those of the Stones' which made viewing the movie just a tad uncomfortable at times but the movie moved quick enough that those scenes didn't linger on for too long before moving on the next scene.

Overall, I think it's a worth while to see at least once.

The Family Stone Movie Trailer

The Nerd Test

2007-01-05T14:40:00.000-05:00

Borrowed this from Jared King

quiet day

2007-01-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

It was a really quiet day. My parents went up to the hospital, and I stayed home and did the dog sitting thing. For the first time in a long time I spent most of the day on the computer catching up with things online. My parents invited my aunt and uncle for dinner again tonight, but they declined. I don't know why, but I'm sort of glad that they didn't come for dinner. It's nothing against them, but they've been here a lot and whenever they come over they stay until close to 11pm and it's just tiring to try to entertain for so long. Plus my mom had a project to finish up for her job and we were able to sit down together and work on it and pretty much finish. My aunt was helping when she would come over and it was a help but it was a lot easier for my mom and I to get them done tonight without having to worry about making small talk, or any of that stuff. My mom and I talked a bit, usually to make fun of the project (we had all these nursing policy books, and in every chapter there were things that had to be crossed out as policy is changing, or it was just really outdated...so occassionally we'd bitch about one section that had like one tiny word crossed out or bitching how a certain chapter needed so many little things crossed out. A lot of the things that had to be done away with was easy, the whole section (or page in many cases) just had to be crossed out, but in certain sections there would be just one parargraphy or sentence and in some cases just one word that had to be crossed out...and let me tell you, some were just totally ridiculous. But yeah, we've finally got done that. I did quite a bit of work on them, so now that they are finished with it's a relief. Even if they weren't something I had to do, I knew with everything going on there'd be no way my mom would be able to finish it up in time...or she'd end up having to pull an all nighter one of these days just to do it. So I'm glad that I had the time to sit down and help her out. I know that she really appreciated it.

The Dissociatives-Thinking in Reverse

Geek Wars (video of the day)

2007-01-04T23:05:00.001-05:00

Fun Game!

2007-01-04T12:26:00.000-05:00

*Warning* Partial nudity, proceed with caution.

http://www.nudisttrampolining.com/

Dad's birthday

2007-01-03T23:37:00.000-05:00

Today was my dad's birthday. It probably wasn't the best one he's ever had but considering the circumstances of the day, it's understandable.

For the most part it was a quiet day. I awoke late, due to going to sleep so late and just hung around the house watching tv and helping my mom out with a project she has to do for work, I've been working on it on and off since Monday and it's still not done. My parents keep telling me not to worry about it, but my Mom's been so busy and preoccupied lately that I don't want her to have to worry about this stupid project on top of all that, and end up pulling an all nighter before she's suppose to hand it in. So I worked on that a bit, then I helped my mom put together my dad's birthday present, a new computer desk. Wasn't too hard actually. Then after that I went to the grocery store and the drug store to pick up a few things for dinner. I had to get tomatos for the salad my mom wanted to have, and I needed to get a card and some lottery tickets so I did that and after decided to pop into the pet store next door to see if they had a bed for my ferret as he literally destroyed his old one and I had to throw it away...unfortanately they didn't have any, and while I was there I ended up getting chased around by the cats they have wandering around there....and well, I don't hate cats or anything...I think they are quite lovely animals in fact...as long as they are away from me! (I grew up in a dog family). So they sort of chased me out of the store. Then my mom called to ask me if I would go back to the grocery store to get some potatoes...luckily I was still over there and hadn't left to go to the drug store...I wouldn't have been to happy but I got everything done and came back home and my aunt and uncle came over as my mom had invited them for dinner and cake.

The dinner was nice as was the cake but after dinner we found out that my other aunt isn't doing too well. She was running a fever yesterday and the doctors wanted to get her off the respirator but that's not going to happen so tomorrow she'll have to have a trach put in to help her breath...and also they discovered that despite the initial thought of her having no head injuries she has a concussion as well as a skull fracture...so that was a blow to the night.

Oh, I also got a notice for jury duty. Mixed feelings about that. Yeah, I'm a bit strange as I wouldn't mind serving cuz I think it would be an interesting experience...but at the same time, it's going to really suck because I work weekends, not a normal work week so it will be like working for two strait weeks with no break. I have a few weeks before the date I have to report so I'm going to talk to my supervisor and see if I can make arrangments to take off those weekend days and still get jury duty pay. If I worked a normal shift I'd still get paid for it, so I don't see why just because I work the weekends and overnight shifts I have to be shafted for something everyone else in the company is elgible for. So we shall see how it goes.

Aqualung-Good Times Gonna Come

This is a strange one (video of the day)

2007-01-03T23:34:00.000-05:00

Can't sleep (Quote of the day)

2007-01-03T01:06:00.000-05:00

So, I can't really sleep right now. Spent all my waking moments today just wanting to go to sleep but now that I can finally go to sleep...forget it. I think I should just give up on attempting to live during the day. I should just live at night and sleep all day regardless of whether I work or not. Might make things a hell of a lot easier for me.

But while I was browsing aimlessly on the web as I'm prone to do when I am bored at night...I came up with an interesting idea for a post...and possible posts in the future. See...a few weeks ago I added the quote of the day feature which I really like a lot. But other than just give the quote of the day a cursorary glance once a day, I never really did a whole lot with it. And really, the point of me adding the feature was to give me (and others) something worthwhile to think about.

So, here I am attempting to use these quotes as something creative, entertaining and perhaps even a little bit educational...and see how it goes.

Today's quote is by Ben Franklin whom, has always been an interest of me...if only for the fact he is probably Philadelphia's most famous historical figures and it is nearly impossible for someone living in the Philadelphia area to go through a day without being reminded of his exhistance.

The quote reads: "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

Now, at first I didn't really like this quote...I'm not really a planner. I like doing things at the last minute, it's fun and I've always had a fear that if I plan for something, and for whatever reason those plans fall through, I'll be crushed...which has happened many times in my past.

But then I started thinking...Planning and preparing are two seperate things. Planning is the initial stage of doing something. It's just saying...this is what I want to do but it doesn't really give a way of actually doing that thing. That's where preparing comes in. And the reason that my "plans" often times fall through is because I start planning but then I forget that there's the next processes that has to be put into gear. I have to start preparing for those plans.

Three years ago my dear friend from Australia found myself in this situation. He and I were very close at the time, even closer than we are today (long story) and over the course of that past year we'd been talking on and off about one of us visiting the other. But at first it was just a long term goal and we never really got past the planning stage. One day, after A was having some issues with certain people in his life he proposed our plan again, but this time in the near future...as in the next few months. Of course I was very excited...we both were. He supposedly had money that was promised by a family member as a loan so he was going to use that money, and the little money he'd been saving up for "a rainy day". We made all kinds of plans, but as far as preparing for the trip (as in making sure the money was a guarantee), we faltered. About a month and a half before the trip I had signed online while I was waiting for T to come over...I was surprised to see that A was online as it wasn't a day that we'd usually have a live chat...I should have realized it was a bad sign, but I didn't...I just thought that I had gotten lucky. I said hi to him and he immediately told me that he had something bad to tell me and that I'd probably be upset, probably at him. I assured him that I wouldn't get upset at him and he informed me that his family member reniged on the money loan, claiming she needed that money for something else. I was devastated. I had been looking forward to his visit and it was practically the only thing I talked about. My friends were all looking forward to his visit as they knew how much I liked him, my parents were excited, my grandmother had even offered to let him stay over her house as she had a spare bedroom and we didn't. And then everything came crashing down.

For the longest time I was upset with that certain family member...I was upset with A (which was part of the reason our friendship nearly died after this incident), I was upset with myself for getting so excited as I believed I had jinxed the whole thing...I was upset with life in general.

Now, however, in hindsight, (with a little reminder from Mr. Franklin), I realize that the trip had fallen through because neither of us really prepared for the trip. We'd spent all our energy and time into planning what we were going to do when he got here, that we totally lost sight of making sure that our plans had turned into preparations and doing what we had to do to assure that his trip would go off without a hitch.

So now, thanks to this quote...next time some major event comes up like this, I will have to rememeber that plans are all fine and well, but they also have to make it into the next level and I have to also prepare.

My New Years

2007-01-02T23:42:00.000-05:00

I didn't get to party hardy on New Years Eve, but then again, I've never really partied on New Years Eve. I think the closest was the year when I had a couple friends over to watch Gladiator (and I fell asleep and woke up to my friends laughing at me snoring). Yeah. I fail at partying.

Instead, I was at work when the stroke of midnight came around. I rang in the New Year by watching Nick at Nite and reading. I made a few phone calls pre midnight as I figured if I tried calling anyone at midnight I probably wouldn't be able to get through. I didn't even watch the ball drop over Times Square...but I did happen to glance at my clock on my cell phone at exactly midnight. And I got to watch an impromptu (and illegal) fireworks display right across the street from my job.

New Years Day was mainly spent sleeping and eating. I got home and went right to bed (I was exhasted!) and a few hours later I was woken up as my mom had made her famous cinnamon buns so I had my share and went right back to bed for a few hours. Then I woke up and got a shower and right as I was getting out my parents came home from the hospital with my aunt and uncle from Indiana who were coming for dinner...and then a bit later my Dad's uncle came over with his wife and they also stayed for dinner...so my mom and I threw together a quick dinner of left overs and some frozen popcorn and Burbon chicken we had in the freezer and we had dinner and the adults sat around the table for awhile talking.

I had to go back to work at 11pm. So after dinner I went upstairs and laid down a bit and just caught up with some emails and that sort of thing. Then I went into work and things were going fine. We didn't have any consumers so it was suppose to be an easy night, just some cleaning and then some relaxing. That was the plan anyway. Funny how that hardly ever happens at my job anymore.

At about 12:45am, my coworker was sitting in the office playing on the computer. I was in the living room watching tv. I wasn't really paying much attention to anything when all of a sudden I heard my coworker start arguing with someone. I didn't think much of it, I figured that she was on the phone or something so I sort of tuned her out...but then she came into the room looking agitated and blabbering about someone was here. I got up and followed her to the office and finally gathered that someone had been at the door...I walked over to the door and looked out and saw some strange man down near the driveway looking as though he was walking away from the house. I made sure the door was locked and was trying to follow his progress up the driveway by looking out the windows. I had gotten to the bathroom to look out the window there (as you can see the front yard from that window) when the guy came back to the door and was jiggling the handle. My coworker called the supervisor who advised us to call the cops. So we did. We also called the group home across the street and discovered that the man had been there as well and the girl that was working there had gotten a good look at him. So the cops came and we told them what had happened and told them that the guy had been across the street at the other group home, so they left and went there to talk to the girl and got a description. I guess they also looked around the area for the guy but they didn't find him. There was no way we were going to stay there, so when the cops came back we asked them if they could watch us while we left the house and went to the other group home. There was only one girl working over there, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone...so we went over there and stayed the rest of the shift.

It was a pretty freaky experience. Then, as I had paperwork to fill out I got home late and everyone had left for the day. Even though it was day, I really did not want to be in the house alone...especially sleeping. I did eventually fall asleep, but I don't think I slept too well...and I ended up having to get my Iriver and listen to music through my headphones just to stop my brain from obsessing over what had happened and what could have happened. Thank god I don't have to go back to work until Friday. Maybe I'll be able to calm down over the next two days.

Oh, and happy birthday to my dad. It's officially his birthday!

Silverchair-After All These Years

Shopping Penguin (video of the day)

2007-01-02T23:40:00.000-05:00

Dude, I wish I had a penguin like this...I hate shopping!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T14:40:00.000-05:00

Well, since I'm leaving for work in about five minutes, I thought I'd take the time to stop by and wish everyone a Happy New Year. I for one, am very happy to see 2006 leave and I'm anxious to see how 2007 plays out. Fingers crossed it's a good year for us all.

Need a favor

2006-12-30T23:53:00.000-05:00

*sticky post* (new posts below)

A few hours ago my family recieved the news that my dad's older sister was involved in a serious car accident and was air lifted to a hospital in a nearby city. About half hour ago we found out that the doctors at the hospital have put her into a medically induced coma. I'm not religious at all, but I'm asking if you can all keep my aunt in your thoughts or your prayers if you are the praying types and basically send some good vibes her way.

Thanks

*update*

Everything is about the same. They were going to operate on her today to remove her spleen but for whatever reason they (the doctors) cancelled the surgery.

I guess something good did come out of the experience though. At the time of the accident she had been driving two of her grandkids (my little cousins) and both of them are okay. They were lucky that they had been sitting in the middle and on the passenger side as the car that hit them broadsided them on the drivers side.

Right now the family is trying to get home. She has 7 kids, and 3 of her daughters and their families are on a cruise so they are trying to make arrangments to come home, her one son that lives out of state flew in early today from Kentucky and my other aunt is coming from Indiana.

*update 2*

My aunt isn't in a coma, she's just heavily medicated to keep her calm. She had her spleen out this morning as it was bleeding. She had internal and external bruising, but no other bleeding which is a good sign. She also has no brain injuries (also a very good thing, obviously). She'll be in the hospital for awhile though and have a slow recovery but that's understandable considering everything that happened with the accident, and the fact that she has underlying medical problems and the fact that she's kind of old (there's 14 years between her and my dad).

I'm really thankful for all the nice comments that people have been leaving, and the prayers that you all have been saying for her. It really is very much appreciated and I really do think that it's helping with her recovery.

Bad luck gopher (video of the day)

2006-12-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

Morbidity killed the cat...

2006-12-30T07:48:00.000-05:00

I never realized how morbid some people really are...I just checked my traffic counter and found three or four people logged on here looking for Saddam Hussein's execution video...I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this. I want to laugh because before this post, the only time I mentioned Suddam was in this post where I came up with a possible South Park episode dealing with his execution...and at the same time I want to cry because I just don't understand how people would WANT to watch something like that unless they had a personal vendetta against him. Maybe that's just me though...maybe I'm the only one that doesn't get any enjoyment out of things like that.

Alice in Chains-Over Now

It's the little things in life...

2006-12-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

With all the drama that's been going on here, I've been doing all that I can to keep sane...and well, for me, keeping sane usually consists of me either reading (whether its a book or something on the computer), and listening to music. Today was no different...I have been spending the last few days loading my cd's onto my computer and consequently killing a lot of time on the 'net. While on the net I realized that I hadn't checked out the website for my favorite female musican, Sarah McLeod, in awhile so I headed to her Myspace page to see if there was anything new up on her page. Now, if you are at all familar with MySpace, you'll know that on most "pages" there is a section for "top" friends and they show up on your front page and all your other friends you link to are on a seperate page...and you can choose how many "top" friends your page will show. So, as I'm looking at various things on the page I happened to see Sarah's top friends...and wouldn't you know, I'm right there in the front! Now, I don't know Sarah personally though I did once, several years ago, receive a very sweet email reply from her after I had written, which I'm sure by now she's long forgotten and I'm sure that even if she hadn't forgotten she would not have associated my "silverneurotic" persona to to my real name (which I used in that email)...so it baffles me why I made her top friends list unless it's set up where every week or so it gets switched around and each fan gets his or her turn at being at the top of the list...or if whoever runs the page (or Sarah herself), thought that my profile pic of my dog deserved being at the top.

Whatever it was, it was a really awesome surprise and despite the bad crap I've been dealing with today (and over the last few months really), it made me smile and feel just a little bit special.

Sarah McLeod-All But Gone

Impressing the Boss (video #2 of the day)

2006-12-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

What's in an accent (video of the day)

2006-12-29T19:10:00.000-05:00

The Silverchair Story: A New Tomorrow (book review)

2006-12-28T22:24:00.000-05:00

Back in 1994, Australian rock journalist published his first book, a biography about the Australian band Silverchair called Tomorrow Never Knows. It was a decent first attempt at a book, although, after it was published it was pointed out by many die hard Silverchair fans that there were many errors scattered amongst the pages (for example he switched the instruments of two of the members on one of the first pages, he stated that the lead singer was suffering from an illness...that after some quick research on my part only affects canines, and over all it just seemed to drag off on two many tangents about the state of the music business instead of staying on the topic of the band, focused entirely too much on the lead singer...and overall just seemed unprofessional for someone that was a veteran journalist. I suppose for those who hadn't been die hard fans of the band it was a decent book, but for the fans that had more or less been fans from the beginning it was a let down.

After the book was released, Apter released several more books, one being a biography of Red Hot Chili Peppers. This attempt was much better. It seemed much more professional, I personally didn't pick up on any blantant errors so I forgave him for his first attempt at writing a book.

A few months ago it was announced that Apter has updated his first book...went in and fixed up all the errors, cut out the really boring parts and added quite a bit as the band is currently in the process of releasing their fifth studio album and in between this album and the last album had been involved in varying degrees of sucessful side projects. So needless to say, I received this news with both excitment and a bit of apprehension...and so I asked my Australian buddy for the book for X-mas, which he did...what a champ!

I finished reading it today, and I have to say that I was impressed by how well Apter did on this book compared to the last version. Quite a bit of it was the same as far as the quotes and some of the interviews but it seemed that some of the parts that didn't work in the first book were taken out...and their was a new introduction to the book, and the last few chapters were completely new. And probably the one thing that made me happy was that in the first book, at the end, there was a full interview with the lead singer...(and scattered through the book was other, similar interviews with other people associated with the band)...but he hadn't sat down with the bassist or the drummer for the same type of interview which is something that really bothered me about the first book. I don't know why, but I've always been protective of them in that regard.

So overall I really enjoyed this book, it was nice to "revisit" my favorite band from my teenage years...for the last year or two I really haven't paid too much attention to them...I honestly couldn't remember the last time I really sat down to listen to any of their albums...which was a bit strange considering that from the time I was 14 until about a year or so ago I'd listen to at least one of albums a couple times a week. But now after reading the book I'll probably go and start listening to their albums again on a more regular basis, and start looking forward to their new album coming out.

Family Guy Fans (video of the day)

2006-12-27T20:51:00.000-05:00

The best of Stewie. Enjoy...I know I did.

Christmas postings

2006-12-27T08:42:00.000-05:00

I still haven't managed to visit all your blogs and catch up with reading yet. Was way too tired yesterday and today hopefully I'm going to be visiting my friend to bring her her and her parents' Christmas present.

My Christmas Day was really nice, (the night was a different story as you will see!). I got home from work and more or less just slacked off all morning watching tv and that sort of thing. Then Mom came home from work and we opened gifts. I got a few Gift cards from my parents (Barnes and Noble's and Cold Stone Creamery and the movie theater), a digital camera and memory card, a coffee maker (LOL!). From my siblings I got a cordoroy jacket and gift cards (which I've already used!), my aunt E gave me a bracelet and my Australian friend sent me a Silverchair biography that just came out this month...it's not really "new" as it's just an updated version of one that came out a few years ago, but the writer totally botched it making all types of errors on it and just generally was a mess so this time around it's a lot better, and more enjoyable. I also ended up getting $40 from my dad though it wasn't Christmas present related...yesterday he decided to play the lottery (pick three and four) so we all gave him numbers to play and the numbers my brother picked won so we all got $40. So that was pretty cool.

Christmas night wasn't too good though. I had to work, I had thought it was going to be an easy shift...no consumers so I'd just be doing some housework and relaxing. But I got in and the girl I was releaving told me that one of the adult consumers was at the ER with stomach pains and that I might have to go over there and stay with her so the supervisor that was with her could leave. So I started my shift and began the chores and in the middle of cleaning the bathroom I got a call from the supervisor asking if I could go over to the hospital...so I went over there...and ended up spending nearly my entire shift in the ER waiting for them to figure out what was wrong. That's definiately not a place I like spending any amount of time at...and especially not on Christmas. There wasn't a whole lot I could do except stay with the woman and try to calm her down and try to make her comfortable and then she fell asleep so I ended up spending a lot of that time reading. It wasn't all boring though. There was a very interesting episode with a drunk guy there that was cursing at the staff and making these threats...and then I happened to see an old friend from high school who I haven't seen since high school (he's on the rescue squad, not a patient) and then...I had an interesting interaction with one of the nurses...I was reading a book called "The Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay who isn't too well known around here as he's more or less an Australian/South African writer and this nurse randomly stuck her head in the door to ask if I was reading "The Power of One" and when I told her that yes, that was the book she started gushing over how great it was and asking if I was liking it. So that was sort of funny, I've actually never had anyone go on about the book I was reading like that before unless I was reading a Harry Potter book (yes, I've read them all). As it turned out, the woman (the consumer, not nurse) had a UTI so that was sort of a relief, at least it wasn't cardiac related anyway so they finally gave her a antibiotic IV and we were discharged. I got out of work late as I got her back to the home and had to write everything down in the house log book...and of course I'm trying to concentrate on what I was doing but of course the staff kept talking to me about different things...which I usually don't mind but I really needed to get home and get to bed! But I finally got done and was able to leave. And I came home and passed out until about 2pm or so.

Last night after dinner I went to the mall with my mom and siblings. I ended up going to FYE to check out some cd's that I had wanted and walked out of there with $55 worth of cd's and a DVD. Crazy. And only one of them was actually the cd I came in for! But I saw that they had The Beatles "White Album" on sale for $20 and I HAD to get it, then I found The Cure's Greatest Hits so I wanted that even though it was used and still expensive, then I saw that they had U2's "Rattle and Hum" dvd for $6 so I had to get that and finally I found one of the cd's I had come for in the first place, the new album from Nellie McKay which was also on sale for a good price (considering it was also a double album). So it was a pretty sucessful trip. But by that time I was exhasted so I spent the rest of the time sitting on benches...caught up with my sisters and brother and ended up hanging out with my brother as he was also done shopping. We both were thristy so we went to the food court to buy something to drink and my brother actually paid for my Snapple. He's never done that before, usually I end up paying for stuff when I'm with my siblings but he insisted and I wasn't going to argue with him. Guess his girlfriend taught him good!

Anyway, work called me about an hour ago to see if I wanted to work today...and I told them no, I had plans so I suppose I should actually try getting up and getting a shower, get some coffee and call my friend to see if she's going to actually be around today so I can bring her her present and hang out with her for awhile. I'll be back later to try and catch up with your blogs and to post a video of the day since I didn't get around to it yesterday.

Ben Kweller-Hospital Bed

T'was the Night Before Christmas

2006-12-25T08:05:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I just got home from work about an hour ago, and killing time before my mom gets off work at 11am. It was a very quiet evening/night there as we have no consumers over this holiday. It was quite boring to be honest! Ended up watching movies on television the whole time I think. Mom and Dad stopped by last night to drop off a plate of food from my aunt and uncle's house...they have an annual Christmas Eve party that we always go to, but as I was at work I had to skip...so they brought be some pasta and chicken. So that was nice. I talked to K for awhile so that alleviated the boredom slightly.

In sad news today however, the legendary James Brown has passed away. I am now kicking myself for not bothering to go see him the last time he played in Atlantic City. Even in his old age I heard that he was quite the performer. So, that was quite sad news to see when I logged on the computer this morning.

I'm posting a semi long video today...a bunch of people that I "know" from the Red Hot Chili Peppers message board electronically got together recently and recorded a reading of the classic Christmas story "T'was the Night Before Christmas". It probably won't mean a whole lot to you, other than an interesting idea as the participants were from literally all over the world, representing five of the six continents (no Antartica unfortanately) but there were people from the US, Brazil, England, Ireland, Scotland (I think), Greece, South Africa, and Australia who participated and personally I think it came out very nicely. The intro is a tad slow, and probably won't make too much sense to anyone that's not a member of the "BBS" but if you want a good laugh, just bare with it. The guy that did this is quite a great, funny guy and it's worth giving him a watch.

Getting to know you Meme

2006-12-23T21:12:00.000-05:00

I got tagged by Jared and as I've been a sloth all day long so I have to do something productive. And no, I'm not sick...but I just don't feel that great. One of those times when you don't have any real symptoms but you just don't have energy to do much besides lay around and sleep. Oh, and it seems as though my sister did NOT have the flu, just some other virus, she's doing better today.

1. What is your occupation? A residential aide at a group home for kids with developmental disabilities.

2. What color are your socks right now? White and grey.

3. What are you listening to right now? Pearl Jam-Severed Hand

4. What was the last thing that you ate? A couple pieces of Russian chocolate and a glass of milk.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? No

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Well duh, I AM Silver.

7 Last person you spoke to on the phone? Tonya.

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I barely know them but I'll say they seem decent.

9. How old are you today? 24

10. Favorite drink: Iced tea or coffee

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Gymnastics

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Once, years ago. We did it wrong and it washed out like the next day.

13. Pets? Two dogs and a ferret

14. What was the last movie you watched? The Breakfast Club

15. Favorite day of the year? Whatever day Thanksgiving falls on.

16. What do you do to vent anger? I throw things.

17. What was your favorite toy as a child? I don't remember, but I'm going to say my Nintendo (the original one).

18. What is your favorite fall or spring? I like spring.

19. Hugs or kisses? I like them both.

20. Cherries or Blueberry? Blueberries, I don't like cherries.

21. Living arrangements? I live with my parents.

22. When was the last time you cried? *embarrassed* Last night watching Love Actually. I think I cried through the entire movie.

23. What is on the floor of your closet? Clothes, books, presents and boxes.
24. What did you do last night? Watched Love Actually.

25. Favorite smells? Anything baking.

26. What is your dream car? Anything that looks semi nice and runs well.

27. What are you afraid of? Heights, Big crowds of people I don't know.

28. Plain, cheese or spicy: Spicy cheesey?

29. Favorite dog breed? Most kinds, just not pitbulls or dobermans and some rottweilers...they scare the crap out of me.

30. Number of keys on your key ring? 4, house, bedroom, car, and work.

31. How many years at your current job? Nearly 3.5.

32. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday...have off from work and still have nearly two days off until I go back and there's some decent shows on tv.

33. How many states have you lived in ? 1

34. Favorite holiday? Thanksgiving

35. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? No

36. Who's your favorite NFL team? Don't really care about football but if I had to choose I'd have to go with the Eagles...especially after getting rid of T.O.

37. Do you have a house phone that is NOT cordless? Yes, in my parents room.

38. 10 inches of snow or 100 degree weather? The weather, in the summer it gets so muggy that it feels like 100 degrees, and I hate the snow.

Video of the Day...for those who have worked retail during Christmas season will probably relate.

Muffins! (Video of the Day)

2006-12-22T22:01:00.000-05:00

Well, the flu bug has officially hit the Neurotic household. Luckily so far it has only hit my sister, but I have a feeling it'll only be a matter of time before the rest of us have it in some form or another. Great...Merry Christmas to us all. I'm still feeling kind of crappy but no real symptoms. Just a cough and today I felt pretty tired all day....actually took a two hour nap this afternoon which I usually don't do when I'm not working. But then again I've been staying up late a lot and doing a lot more running around and doing things in general so it might just be from that. We finally got a tree and my brother and I set it up after dinner so that's good. Was a little worried we wouldn't have one this year.

Anyway, I probably won't be around too much until after Christmas. I'll most likely still post something when I have a free moment but I don't think I'll be able to come visit you lovely people at your blogs until after Christmas...so bear with me until then.

I'm adding the video of the day on this post instead of making a seperate post for it like I usually do. Just pressed for time a I'm planning on watching Love Actually before bed and it's already past ten. This video is a bit weird...I let my brother take over my computer for a bit yesterday while surfing You Tube and he just HAD to show me this...and well, I just HAVE to share with you so you get an idea of the insanity I deal with on a regular basis. Oh, and I'm also adding a trailer for the movie I'm about to watch.

Muffins!

Love Actually Trailer

A Mini Movie (video of the day)

2006-12-21T20:27:00.000-05:00

Found this cute little animation type movie called The Chubb Chubbs. It was so cute I couldn't resist sharing.

Completed!

2006-12-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I did eventually finish the dishes that had been piled in the sink. It took a long time, as I kept being interrupted but eventually I got them done. I also did two loads of laundry (though, they aren't folded), and finished the truffles I started last night, a blueberry loaf, made dinner (just tuna out of a can though), and did loads of more dishes as my sister was busy with homework. And I've been taking care of the dog.

I think the truffles came out okay, not great. My dad didn't like them but I thought they were okay as did my brother and sister who snacked on them. They were really easy to make, but really messy...if I had known how messy they'd be I might not have made them...I really don't like having my hands dirty like that, especially if I can't wash them right away but I managed. Had a few annoying moments when the telephone kept ringing and my brother and sister came home unexpected and I had to go unlock the door. I don't know about the blueberry loaf though, as I haven't tried it yet but it looks REALLY good. I started to panic when I took it out of the pan as it started to fall apart (the number one reason why I don't bake cakes), but quickly flipped it over and it managed to stay together. I honestly think I would have cried if it fell apart.

I'm really tired right now, and I think I'm getting sick. Got the beginning of a headache, chills, I keep coughing, more than I have been anyway and I can start feeling some congestion starting. My brother has a cold as well, and I probably picked it up from him. Seems like whenever he gets sick I end up catching it...except for the time he had Mono, thank god. But yeah, I was trying to lay on the couch and sleep a bit but the dog does not want me to sleep as she keeps jumping on me.

Belle and Sebastian-Sleep the Clock Around

Procrastination

2006-12-21T12:43:00.000-05:00

The sink is completely filled with dishes, so it the counter next to the sink. Mom was baking last night and well...it got too late and she didn't get a chance to wash up her dishes so now I have to clean up the kitchen...and afterwards finish making the chocolate truffles I started last night.

I really hate doing dishes. If it was up to me, at this point I would throw away the dishes and run to the store and buy new ones (just kidding). So instead of doing them, I'm sitting here, in my kitchen on a chair "blogging". I know that this is not helping matters at all, I really need to get this stuff done, and preferably before people start coming home...but I have no motivation. I wrapped all my gifts this morning, and I'm currently doing laundry...so its not as if I haven't done anything. Just not the ONE thing I really have to do today.

Anyone feel like coming over and doing up these dishes for me? I'll bake you something yummy!

The Beatles-Help!

What Book are You

2006-12-21T12:25:00.000-05:00

Also borrowed from Skittles, I guess now I'll have to go and read it.

You're The Poisonwood Bible!

by Barbara Kingsolver

Deeply rooted in a religious background, you have since become both
isolated and schizophrenic. You were naively sure that your actions would help people,
but of course they were resistant to your message and ultimately disaster ensued. Since
you can see so many sides of the same issue, you are both wise beyond your years and
tied to worthless perspectives. If you were a type of waffle, it would be
Belgian.

Take the Book Quiz

http://bluepyramid.org/ia/bquiz.htm
a

What Kind of Gift Giver Are You

2006-12-21T12:18:00.000-05:00

Borrowed from Skittles:

You Are a Practical Gift Giver

Your gifts are useful, appropriate, and custom tailored to each person.
In your opinion, the best gifts are gifts that someone will actually use.
Your gifts may not be the most glamourous, but they are always appreciated.

What Kind of Gift Giver Are You?

Honda Car Advert (Video of the Day)

2006-12-20T22:48:00.000-05:00

You may have seen this video, it made its rounds around the WWW a few years ago, but I came across it on Stumble Video today and just had to share it for those who missed it the first time around, or would like to see it again.

Nearly there...

2006-12-20T22:30:00.000-05:00

I finally managed to go shopping again tonight with my sister. I still have to go out sometime tomorrow to get my Dad's gift...and I might have to return the gift that my dad wanted for my mom as I think it's going to be too small but after that I am finished. It was exhasting though. First we went to Walmart and I bought something like $90 worth of school supplies for T's gift, then we went to the mall and I bought Mom a calender with German Shepards and then gold chain to replace the one that got broken and also the necklace my dad wanted to get her and my sister went into a few other stores to buy things for her friends. We stopped at Aunt Annie's Pretzel place for something to drink and pretzels and we got free sauces because we had to wait for our order (and probably also because they didn't have the lemonade or the bottled water I wanted so I ended up with regular tap water in a cup) so that was nice. I didn't think it was too long of a wait really.

When I got home I started making these chocolate truffles I found a recipe for today, and I'll finish them up tomorrow. Got a lot of things to do tomorrow, laundry, the truffles and wrapping gifts. And running out to get my dad's gift. Hopefully I won't have to go back to the mall, but I have a feeling that Friday I'll end up having to go and return the necklace.

Oh, I found this funny website tonight. It's a hoot!

Gary Jules-Mad World

Video of the Day

2006-12-19T20:55:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Thermal's Blog I have been introduced to a fun little website called StumbleVideo which links up the two major video sites on the web (You Tube and Google Video) and ramdomly picks out videos based on your interests for your viewing pleasure. I checked it out last night and had a blast watching some of the videos (one of which I posted). I then had the idea to post one video a day that I found using this nifty little website, I know that I post a lot of music videos and movie trailers already but I don't often post other types of videos which might also be interesting to you guys so I'm going to try this out and see how it goes.

Dog Fun

If my head wasn't attached...

2006-12-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

One of my downfalls is that I'm very forgetful when it comes to leaving things behind, or forgetting important pieces of information (such as, a paper that's due, or a phone message I'm suppose to relay)...though, I have a very good memory for events that have happened in my life. Even the most mundane things that most people don't remember.

Back in November I left my cell phone at work, and didn't even realize it. I only realized it when I had to stop back at work a few hours after my shift was over and the supervisor was like, "oh yeah, you didn't have to come in afterall, but you forgot your cell phone". So mentally I told myself, "Silver, don't you go leaving your cell phone at work anymore. It's not a good idea with the kids running around. With your luck, one of them will try to call China or something."

For awhile it worked. Then Sunday night I had my cell phone out on top of the heater cover and pretty much forgot about it. And I left it there. I kind of had the suspicion I did when I was falling asleep after getting home, but it wasn't strong enough to actually get up and call work to find out and after I woke up I completely forgot about it. I didn't think of it until I got to work last night and sat down...and looked over at the heater cover and saw, sitting in broad daylight, my cell phone. I suppose I should check the call history to make sure there wasn't any calls to China.

Soul Asylum-Miss This

This is amazing

2006-12-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

Looking for something to read?

2006-12-18T18:10:00.000-05:00

If you aren't familar with the website, Bestest Blog of All Time, I recommend checking it out. First off, it's a great way of finding interesting blogs without the headache of having to keep clicking on that "next" button, and second, recently Bobby Griffin the mastermind of the operation created a "blog carnival" in which he has featured 44 blog posts for those who use his website. Now, I haven't had a chance to read any of the entries yet, but as I am familar with a handful of the people who have submitted work for the carnival, I am sure that it will be a treat to read...and if you are so inspired perhaps you will link up with The Bestest Blog of All Time and perhaps even participate in the next blog carnival, (hint, I will be attempting to submit something for).

Dragged kicking and screaming...and the Bell Witch

2006-12-16T17:00:00.000-05:00

I know that I've been slacking on "real" posts lately. There just hasn't been much going on here that I've been inspired to write about, but I thought that it was time to post something, even if wasn't all that interesting.

So you all know that I have a German Shepard puppy who is a tad..hyper active. Well, because the fences in our yard are too short in some areas and we're worried that Kira will just decide to take off for a little adventure whenever she has to go outside, someone has to take her on the leash...and as I'm here most days as I work nights and evidentally have no other life besides work, I'm usually the one that takes her out. There is a slight problem with this, as she is increasingly becoming stronger than I am...and whenever she sees anyone or anything outside she just has to run around trying to get to whatever she sees...and when she runs, well, I best keep up with her!

So yesterday I take her out and it just so happened to coincide with the mailman coming up to the house to deliver our mail...and as I wasn't expecting him I was literally dragged across the yard...the mailman slowed way down so he could have a good laugh at my totally ungraceful dash across the yard trying desperately trying to stay on two feet. It wouldn't have been so bad, but he's sort of cute...now I've got to avoid him for awhile as I'm afraid that whenever I see him my face will be beet red in embarrassment.

Also, my sister and I just watched the movie An American Haunting. To be honest, it wasn't all that great, confusing, and definitaly a little too many special effects borrowed from movies such as The Exorcist and The Exorcisim of Emily Rose. It is however based on true events, about an incident that happened in Tennessee in 1818...The haunting of the Bell Witch. I read about the incident online a few months back and it was pretty freaky. Worth giving a read anyway, if you are into scary stories, especially scary, true stories.

An American Haunting Trailer

Naughty or Nice

2006-12-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

Borrowed this from Asara:

Raising Awareness for Mental Illness

2006-12-16T08:19:00.000-05:00

For those who know me, know that I have a strong interest in mental illness which stem from personal and professional experience. While perusing my normal blogs this morning I found a link to this blog who's author is trying to spread awareness of mental illnesses and has been on a mission since October to get 100 comments commemorating Mental Health Awareness Week. So if you have a free moment today please stop by and read her entry and leave her a comment so that hopefully she can reach her goal.

Wow, this is just plain freaky

2006-12-15T22:44:00.000-05:00

Your Birthdate: June 24

For you, love is a natural progression from friendship. You are almost always friends first.
In love, you are loyal, steady, and honest. You are not a cheater or even much of a flirt.
You are likely to stay friends with your ex... and open to rekindling something in the future.

Number of True Loves You'll Have: 4

Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 1

You are most compatible with people born on the 6th, 15th, and 24th of the month.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?

What part of Christmas are you?

2006-12-15T21:10:00.000-05:00

Dog Quiz

2006-12-15T20:52:00.001-05:00

discover your dog breed @ quiz meme

Google Not as Good

2006-12-15T13:35:00.000-05:00

I used to love Google, I never had any issues with it before...I have had a GMail account for several years ago and I blog through Blogspot which is owned by Google (I think)...9 times out of ten, if I need to do an internet search I use Google...you get the picture.

However, I am beginning to have issues with Google. Blogspot, through their mission of becoming more user friendly is proving to have more and more issues with the commenting feature...and Gmail has been acting up lately. I have Gmail's message center on my taskbar which informs me if I have any new mail and lately it's been hit or miss with it working. Half the time it can't communicate with my inbox...and right now I can't even get Gmail to work. This is annoying. I have emails that I would like to get a chance to reply to before the weekend starts and I get caught up with work. This issue has been going on all day it seems. It takes me forever to be able to get into my inbox, and I'm kind of worried that if I start emailing now, while I'm in the middle it'll stop working again andI'll have to start over once it actually works again.

For Google operators, please get your stuff together. Yahoo is beginning to look awfully nice right about now.

A Christmas Meme

2006-12-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by Skittles who thought I needed a bit of Christmas cheer. She is one awesome lady with one awesome blog, so how could I resist.

Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog? Hot Chocolate, I really can't stand the taste of eggnog.
Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps most but some he'll leave in random places such as the garage.
Colored lights on tree/house or white? Normally colored, but I think this year we're going with white.
Do you hang mistletoe? Nope...now if there were some cute guys around that weren't family...I would have to hang some for sure!
When do you put your decorations up? When we get around to it. Usually a few days before Christmas.
What is your favorite holiday dish? My mom's homemade cinnamon rolls she makes for breakfast. They are soo good that you will only need to eat one before you are totally addicted.
Favorite Holiday memory? Getting my first computer I think; it was totally out of the blue and just such a shock.
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was five or six. I just walked into my parents room one morning and demanded to know the truth about Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. But I'm still not totally convinced there's no Santa.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Usually, though I was working last year, and will be working this year...but for several years we did a Pollyanna and we'd exchange our gifts then. One year somehow my dad ended up with two gifts and I didn't get any. Hm, wonder how that happened?
How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Ornaments, lights and tinsel usually.
Can you ice skate? I have never tried. Kind of scared to since I'm such a klutz.
Do you remember your favorite gift? Computer!
What's the most important thing? Family!
What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Anything really. Unless it has mint...then I'll skip.
What is your favorite holiday tradition? The buns!
What tops your tree? Alternate between an angel and a star.
Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I like to give, cuz I'm fussy.
What is your favorite Christmas Song? See here.
Candy canes, Yuck or Yum? Yuck!

I tag...everyone!

Should have seen this coming

2006-12-14T21:50:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I made that post about the Girls Gone Wild court hearing. I didn't think much of it in terms of where my blog would turn up on the web. I went into my traffic counter (as I like to do cuz I'm nosy), and I discovered that I had a visitor from Germany who found my site from this. Great. I better remember that the next time I want to post something of a sexual manner. Hopefully I don't get too many pervs on my blog now.

So anyone who has stumbled upon my blog by accident in hopes of seeing pictures of naked girls...or whatever the hell gets you off...sorry to disappoint...now move along.

The third funeral

2006-12-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

I am really tired of funerals. Since September I've been to three...and considering that prior to this year I had only gone to two in my entire life, that's a little excessive. Actually quite a bit excessive. I'm glad that today the funeral wasn't for someone I was really close to...I don't think I'd have been able to handle it. The funeral today was okay, I think it was really distracting though...the priest was really hard to understand and the alter boy and girl seemed to not know what they were doing. So that kind of distracted everyone from the ceremony.

The after gathering was fun though. I know that it's kind of weird for there to be a "party" after a funeral but I'm really glad there is. It's a nice way to get together and remember the deceased in a more informal setting and it's nice to see family members that you don't often see. I spent most of the time with my cousin E catching up with her and bonding with her son that was born in September. He's so adorable...and he took right to my dad...hehe. I think my dad ended up holding him the longest of everyone there.

The whole experience is exhasting though. Of course I haven't been sleeping well the last few days, but still, whenever I come home from a funeral I'm just really drowsy and sleepy. Nothing much is on tv either, so I think I'm just going to end up going to bed kind of early.

Louis Armstrong-What a Wonderful World

Site Updates

2006-12-14T09:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I added a chatbox...thought it would be nice to have an area to chat instead of just posting in the comments section. Once people start using it, it'll be a nice tool to have some actual dialogue with some of you (instead of just comments back and forth) and instead of making posts about updates, or if I'm going to be gone a few days I might just post them there instead of making a post like I have been doing.

I also got rid of the achive section, as it didn't seem to be working. I don't know if it was a problem on my end, or on blogger but when I'd try to go back in my archives through the blog and not go into my dashboard thingy I would get an error message, instead I retagged all the journal entries and put the tags right up on my sidebar...so for example, if your a music fan all you'll have to do is click on the music video link and all the entries that I have included a music video on will come up and you can watch them to your hearts content...if your more of an animal lover, well click on the pets link and all my crazy pet stories will come up, etc.

I also did away with the what I'm reading and what albums I've recently bought. With the chatbox and the Tag section is just didn't look right. Besides, I usually write a book review, or an album review if I have a spare moment. I've been slacking, but the last book I read was Slaughterhouse-Five.

Girls Gone Wild creater gets fined

2006-12-13T19:45:00.000-05:00

A while back I had heard that the people who were behind the "Girls Gone Wild" empire had gotten into some type of trouble, but I never really paid much attention to the case and didn't have any interest. Lately however, I have taken notice, as the DVD's are very often advertised on late night tv (for example BET must show the commercial at least once every 15 minutes between midnight and 6am). Frankly, I have become quite disgusted by these commercials and the entire empire.

Today I read this article about the trouble that the video empire was in, and the subsequent ruling. It furiated me that the empire itself ONLY got a fine and the actual brain (or nonbrain) behind the operation got off on just doing community service. 17 is underage, at least in the US and I believe that the empire and the creator should have been charged the same as they would have been charged with distributing child pornography.

I understand that these girls very well might have lied about their age, but the way I see the whole concept of the series, the people who are making the videos are taking advantage of drunk girls. To me, the situation is just as bad as having sex with a girl that is too intoxicated to make a rational, intellegent decision as to whether they should engage in sexual activity with someone. In many, if not all cases, this would be considered rape...and while these videos (as far as I know) do not show sexual intercourse these girls are still engaging in sexual activity that can be very detrimental to their psychological health and their current and future relationships. These girls are usually not in a position to understand the long term effects of allowing themselves to be taped while they are in the state that they are in, and the waive form that they sign to allow the footage that was taken of them should be invalid due to the fact that the girls were under the influence when they were signed.

Tag, you're it!

2006-12-13T15:23:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by New Mom on the Blog to do this Meme...and since the only other thing I can think of doing today is read Tolstoy...I've chosen the meme. So here goes:

A - Available/Single? *looks around* Hm, besides my reflection in the mirror, I will say single.
B - Best Friend? Toss up between T,K and A.
C - Cake or Pie? Cake...especially chocolate.
D - Drink Of Choice? Coffee and Tea
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? My brain, never leave home without it!
F - Favorite Color? Black, Silver and Blue
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Neither, unless they come up with a chocolate flavor kind.
H - Home or Homesick? Home
I - Indulgence? CD's
J - January Or February? Um, January I guess. It's still too early to tell if the year is going to suck or not.
K - Kids & Their Names? No kids, just a ferret named Kit Kat.
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Lots and lots of coffee
M - Marriage date? Not married...though for fun I'll put down 6/24/12 (my 30th birthday).
N - Number Of Siblings? 2 younger sisters and 1 younger brother
O - Oranges Or Apples? Oranges if they are raw, apples if they are cooked.
P - Phobias/Fears? Heights, big crowds
Q - Favorite Quote? "We're one, but we're not the same" Bono
R - Reason to Smile? I have a weird looking Christmas tree in my room that I just decorated for the hell of it.
S - Season? Spring
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? Chris Muss, Sometimes Saintly Nick, and Jen
U - Unknown Fact About Me? I am very imaginative
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Red Beets
W - Worst Habit? Biting my nails
X - X-rays You’ve Had? Ankle, Knee, Hands, Teeth and Head.
Y - Your Favorite Food? White Pizza, Pasta with Vodka sauce
Z - Zodiac Sign? Cancer

What to do with a MeMe:

Copy the idea of the MeMe into a new post on your blog. Answer the questions. Tag 3 people. (Make sure you leave them a comment letting them know they've been tagged.)

Stupid people

2006-12-12T17:33:00.000-05:00

So this morning I heard on the news that a certain airport took down their Christmas trees after a Rabbi complained that there was no Hanukkah decorations up, only Christian decorations up. Then, as the Rabbi did not lodge a formal complaint with the airport the airport just turned around and put up the decorations again.

Now, wouldn't it have made more sense, when the Rabbi complained, to go and put up some Hanukkah decorations up (as well as some Kwanzaa), instead of taking down all the decorations? Jeez, haven't you guys heard of common sense?

Emo Dog

2006-12-12T15:36:00.000-05:00

According to Wikipedia emo "is a slang term used to describe a range of fashion styles and attitudes somewhat affiliated with emo music and its related scene. As an adjective, emo can describe a style of fashion or music; or a general state of unhappiness or melancholy (as in "to feel emo"). Emo is also used as a noun, often pejoratively, to identify a member of the "emo scene" or someone viewed as fitting the "emo" stereotype."

My siblings are constantly making jokes about emo and people that they know who are emo...though, to be perfectly honest, they are a tad emo themselves...at least in regards to certain fashion statements and their musical taste.

Lately, they have been making fun of our dog, kidding around that she is an emo dog. Now, I'm not 100% sure how they came up with this rational, but like most things that run through their teenage heads, I don't ask...mainly because as an "uncool" adult, I probably wouldn't get it.

A little while ago my sister and I had left the dog alone for a few short minutes (never a good idea), and when I came into the room where she was laying I realized that she had, in her paws a pair of scissors.

Guess they weren't too far off after all.

Dashboard Confessional-Screaming Infidelities

Weekend Update

2006-12-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

I've decided that I wasn't going to post here on the weekends. No real reason why, except for the fact that Saturday is the only day I get a chance to get on the computer anyway. We'll see how that goes anyway.

New York City

Had a busy weekend. I went to New York again on Saturday, this time it was just for the day...a bus trip through my mom's work. I went with my mom and my two sisters. We got into the city about 10am and spent most of the day shopping in Herald's Square...including Macy's. All I have to say is, Macy's in Herald's Square is bad enough on a regular day...but on a weekend during the Christmas shopping season...definitely not worth it. If anything, just look at the window displays. They are pretty nice...or at least what I managed to see of it.

We ate at The Hard Rock Cafe...again. I'm not sure who wanted to, but it was a two hour wait. So it didn't seem worth it...though, we did go to Virgin Megastore while we waited (right across the street) and I was able to pick up a few new cd's and my mom was able to get my brother's Christmas shopping done. I finally replaced my The Postal Service album which I had lost several months ago.

We also got to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, it was so packed that way you couldn't even walk. We were pressed for time so we couldn't stick around, we stayed long enough to say that we saw it and we had to rush to catch the bus home.

On the ride home, we got into a minor bus accident. Our driver hit a car infront of us, but there wasn't much damage and it was taken care of pretty quickly. I've been in two other bus accidents though, one fairly serious, so it freaked me out a bit so through the whole ride home I felt on edge, my stomach was in knots and my head was literally pounding. But there was no other problems which was good. Just a long drive home.

Family Stuff

We has yet another death in my family on Saturday, my Great Aunt's husband. He's been ill for years and has needed constant care for years so I guess it wasn't too shocking...he was a pretty gruff guy (kind of scared me really), but it's still really sad. He left behind his wife, three daughters (his son passed away last year), 12 grandkids and 4 (I think) great grandkids. The services are on Saturday, he's being cremated so I don't know what sort of services though. Good possibility that it's going to be a Russian ceremony though...and they are LONG.

Work Stuff

I walked into a meeting with several of the staff members and two of the supervisors yesterday. Was pretty ackward. Not too sure what exactly it was all about, but yeah, lots of personal problems going on in that place. It's very lame if you ask me. But it was weird walking into that. The rest of the night was good. We were decorating for Christmas and I set up the tree and helped make some really lame looking snowflakes. I bet that as soon as I left they ripped them down.

But yeah, that was my weekend. The good, the bad and the indifferent.

Depeche Mode-Personal Jesus

A snow story

2006-12-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

Earlier today I got a comment that made me remember an incident that happened to me two years ago involving snow and ice. Since it's a quiet day today, and I don't have much else to do other than wash up some dishes (which I really don't mind putting off!), I thought I would share it with you.

It was the last day of January. Monday evening, nearly 9pm. It had snowed quite a bit a few days prior, but the roads were clear for the most part. I was driving home from school, and had just stopped at the gas station to fill up my gas tank. I was close to home, approaching the church where I had attended pre school and kindergarden when I noticed that someone was pulling out of the driveway.

As I drove closer and closer to the driveway and the car I realized with horror that the other car was not stopping, and as my car was directly in front of the driveway I felt this sudden and violent jolt as the other car rammed into my car. The driver had hit a patch of ice that was at the foot of the driveway, when she tried to brake, the ice caused the car to accelerate instead. Right into my car.

The impact happened so fast. I don't remember much, but when I looked up, my car was facing the space between the church and the house next door (coincidentally that house was my cousin's house...but unfortanately she was on vacation at the time).

The first thing I realized was that my glasses were gone. I am nearly completely blind without them, so you can imagine my horror when I thought that they were totally gone, or destroyed. I semi noticed that my passanger side was completely open as well, but at that point, my main focus was finding my classes.

Some man ran over and found me madly scrambling for my glasses. He asked me if I was okay and I told him yes, but that I had lost my glasses and that I couldn't see with out them. Somehow we managed to find my classes and to my joy, they were fine.

Now that I could see, I started assessing the damage (and checking to see if the other person was okay, she was). To both of our amazement, the impact had caused my passenger door to become totally imbedded into the front of her car, to the point that no one could actually get the door off of her car. And as my car was a small, two door Chevy Barreta, essentially half my car was missing.

I managed to call my dad sometime during this ordeal and to tell him what had happened, where I was, etc. A little while later my parents showed up. A cop had showed up before hand and he started the processes of gathering our information, statements, called for a tow truck, etc.

The car was a total write off. Two days later I paid $700 for a powder blue Dodge Dynasty and got reimbursed from the insurance company. It really wasn't my choice for a car, but I was stuck, I had classes to attend and no way of getting there without a car. I still really miss the Baretta, it was my first car...a graduation gift from my parents and aside from a few problems (new muffler and new altinator) it hardly ever gave me any trouble. I loved it. I really would love to get another Barretta at some point. Though, having power windows and locks does come in handy.

Elastica-Car Song

26 Years Ago...

2006-12-08T11:09:00.000-05:00

John Lennon was assassinated in front of the Dakota, his apartment building in New York City.
R.I.P. John. You are still an inspiration to many.

Give Peace a Chance

It's Snowing!

2006-12-08T00:42:00.000-05:00

No, it's not really snowing. I just felt like it was, after making these cute snowflakes at this site. Thank's again Tara for your cute ideas!

Music on the radio

2006-12-07T17:20:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I love when I'm listening to the radio or watching tv or a movie and a song that I love starts playing and it's totally unexpected. This evening I was listening to a radio station that I found recently, called RadioioHistory. This station has several different channels to it, each one playing different types of music, from rock to jazz, to country to disco and everything in between. By far my favorite channel is the 90's station that plays all 90's rock...and I'm a 90's rock junkie.

One of my favorite bands from this era is a band called Silverchair, who has quite a bit of fame in the mid 90's with the "grungers". When they came out, they had a similar sound to bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and with the death of Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain, the grunge kids were looking for something to fill that void. So when Silverchair reached the American shores from Australia, they were an instant hit. And it didn't help that the lead singer got compared to Kurt Cobain a lot, he had the angst, he had the blonde hair, and he had the blue eyes. Even Cobain's widow Courtney Love once commented on the similarities between the two musicians.

After the 90's finished, Silverchair fell out of the spotlight in the US for the most part. They put out one album, which though completely brilliant, was not what American audiences were looking for, pop punk ruined the rock music scene. And because of that, and other issues caused their record company to drop them. They are still active however, and they are planning on releasing their fifth studio album this coming year.

Because of the lack of interest in the US, it's fairly uncommon to hear Silverchair's music on the radio. So today while I was listening to this new station, I was very excited to hear a song by Silverchair come on, and not only that, one of my favorite songs by Silverchair, a song called "Miss You Love".

Silverchair-Miss You Love

Site updates

2006-12-07T16:21:00.000-05:00

As you might have noticed, I've been making a lot of changes to my blog, adding stuff and so on. I've been trying to make my blog interesting, yet not too busy as the primary goal of my blog is for the blog...not so much the sidebar. Still, I'd like some feedback on what you'd like to see (free stuff only) included on the side bar. Also, if you don't like something I have included, let me know and I will think about changing it.

The Post Office

2006-12-07T14:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finally made my way to the post office to send off a Christmas present to my friend A in Australia. I was planning on doing it last week but I got lazy. So this week I realized that Christmas was quickly approaching and if I wanted the gift to get there on time, I'd have to send it pretty much right away.

So I pull into the parking lot behind the post office and it was packed. It usually isn't full, maybe a few cars but it seemed that all the spots were full. I did manage to find a spot without too much trouble and went in. There was a line, so I was expecting to be there awhile.

The line went quickly, much to my surprise. Soon I was at the front of the line.

The worker who helped me was nice. That doesn't happen to often. I don't know why, but at the local post office, the workers are usually pretty straitforward, don't like small talk...or smiling. I think the only time I went in and the person was nice was when I applied for my passport.

Anyway, I gave him the package and he weights it and all. Then, as with any package you send, he asks me if if there's anything breakable or dangerous.

"Well, it's a teeshirt, so I suppose it shouldn't do too much damage."

"Oh, well I guess it's a pretty special teeshirt then."

"Uh, I guess, at least to the person getting it."

Kind of strange, but funny. He must have been having a good day.

The Postal Service-The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

According to Tara at e*clec*tic spaghetti today is Make Your Own Snowman day, as it has yet to snow here in my part of the woods, I had to make one in paint.

Hope you enjoy!

Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley: A Book Review

2006-12-05T19:47:00.000-05:00

Nick Naylor is a spin doctor. His forte? The tobacco industry. Naylor's job is to keep people smoking, and hopefully gain a few new customers along the way.

In this entertaining, and extremely addictive novel, Christopher Buckley shows us the live of Nick Naylor as he gains power working for the leading tobacco company in the US. His job is to convince the public that contrary to what they are being shown again and again, smoking isn't bad for you. As the novel progresses, Naylor's job, and his live are put on the line, often times in darkly comedic situations.

This book is a quick read, fast paced and a lot of fun. It doesn't matter what your stance is on the smoking issue, even if you are totally against the tobacco industry and what it stands for, you can't help but get sucked in to the story and won't want to put it down until the end. It is that addictive.

Now, where did I put my lighter?

Rufus Wainwrite-Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Waiting on the phone

2006-12-05T18:56:00.000-05:00

About 11:30 this morning when I was dead asleep the phone rang. I answered it and it was my supervisor asking me about that girl being late the other day. It's kind of a complicated story that I don't want to get into other than just to say, that girl will probably end up getting into quite a bit of trouble.

So, I'm talking to my boss and telling her the situation and letting her know that I had informed the supervisor directly below her and that that supervisor was taking care of it. While we were still talking the supervisor got another call, so she told me to hang on and she's be right back.

So I waited.

One minute goes by and I'm starting to feel very sleepy.

Two minutes go by...still no supervisor.

Three minutes, nothing. At this point my eyes are starting to close.

Four minutes. I finally give up and hang up the phone and fall back asleep.

She never called back. Guess she really didn't need to talk to me anymore after all. This was the second time this has happened, with getting interrupted in the middle of the call and her telling me she'd get right back to me.

Blondie-Hanging on the Telephone