gratitude…

have I mentioned lately how GRATEFUL I am for my husband and our life??

when I sit down and think about it, it seems as though I’ve won the lottery – I seriously feel like I’ve really dodged a bullet by somehow NOT winding up in the situations I see some of the people I know going through

I can’t really get into the recent drama adjacent to me, that has me thinking about this… but I feel like I must have the worlds best guardian angel or SOMETHING steering me away from having similar disasters of my own *knock on wood*

because from what I can see it's real easy to take a wrong turn into a total nightmare!!

I don’t know WHAT I did to be blessed with the good fortune I’ve had, meeting Sam when I did and building the (virtually drama free) life we’ve built together – but I’m so grateful I could cry!!

at the same time I could cry for the person in the seemingly impossible situation that has reminded me of how fortunate I have been – grateful for the reminder… but sad for their situation

my heart breaks for them - I wish I could help… I hope they know that if there was something I could do, I would - my thoughts are with them and the hope that everything will work out in the best way possible

that is all

meme...

got this one from mary who only did it partially... got the rest HERE

I give you money and send you into the grocery store to pick up 5 items. You can only pick one thing from the following departments, what is it?

Produce: onions – I seem to buy onions almost every week
Frozen: I buy almost no frozen food – with the exception of the occasional bag of french fries
Meat: since we’re using YOUR money I’ll by a pound of wild Alaskan salmon – if it was MY money it would be boneless skinless chicken breast (as long as it’s on sale)
Dairy: greek yogurt (another thing I seem to buy almost every week)
Canned goods: another thing I rarely purchase… aside from the occasional can of fat free refried beans

Let's say we're heading out for a weekend getaway. You're only allowed to bring 3 articles of clothing with you. So, what's in your bag?

underwear – tee shirt – black velvety lounge pants

If I was to listen in on one of your conversations throughout the day, what 4 phrases or words would I be most likely to hear?

‘uh huh’ - ‘that’s cool’ - ‘that sucks’ – ‘I love you’

So, what 4 things do you find yourself doing every single day, and if you didn't get to do, you probably wouldn't be in the best mood?

I don’t think there are 4 things I do every day that not doing would put me in a bad mood – ummm

sleep – I need AT LEAST 6 hours – preferably 8-10

eat… gotta have food – if I go too long without food I’m like a grizzly bear hehehe

get hugs from the spousal unit

talk to Ohio friend – I can’t say if I went a day without talking to her I’d be in a bad mood but she definitely helps keep me sane haaaa

You're driving down the road, and suddenly you're hit with this sense of road rage. What 3 factors probably contributed to it?

I don’t drive – but if I did I would probably be REALLY irritated by people who honk their horns to get people to move faster – people who don’t use turn signals – and people on bicycles who don’t move the hell over!!

Sweet, you just scored a whole afternoon to yourself. We're talking a 3 hour block with nobody around. What 5 activities might we find you doing?

I’m always alone so instead of alone I’ll say what I would do if I had the afternoon free of my usual ‘chores’

you might find me watching a movie
organizing something or cleaning out drawers or cabinets (those jobs you neglect most of the time)
baking
FINALLY working on one of my crafty projects I keep ignoring
playing video games

We're going to the zoo. But, it looks like it could start storming, so it'll have to be a quick visit. What 3 exhibits do we have to get to?

I would NOT go to the zoo if it looked like rain (or snow) but for the sake of this meme I’ll say…

bats – monkeys – butterfly garden

You just scored tickets to the taping of any show that comes on t.v. of your choice. You can pick 4, so what are you going to see?

I’m not really one for wanting to see things live – I guess if I had to choose I’d say it MIGHT be kinda cool to see a UFC event live – I can't think of anything else... other than concerts which have already happened and will never happen again =(

You're hungry for ice cream. I'll give you a triple dipper ice cream cone. What 3 flavors can I pile on for ya?

chocolate – pistachio – strawberry

Somebody stole your purse/wallet…in order to get it back, you have to name 5 things you know are inside to claim it. So, what's in there?

my ‘purse’ is pretty easy to spot… I doubt many adults would claim it as theirs - it’s HUGE and has a giant Ramones logo on the front – inside I think you would find:
scattergories
5 dice in a leather cup
at least one pentel RSVP fine point black pen
a yellow card holder
and some hubba bubba

You are at a job fair, and asked in what areas you are interested in pursuing a career. Let's pretend you have every talent and ability to be whatever you wanted, so what 4 careers would be fun for you?

comic colorer
window dresser
horror movie set designer
elementary school art teacher

If you could go back and talk to the old you, when you were in high school, and inform yourself of 4 things, what would you say?

hmmm that's a tough one!! lets see...

'you are NOT fat now – but you WILL be in 10 years and you will wonder what you were thinking - so appreciate your body now instead of wishing you were thinner'

'get your head out of your ass - even if someone DOES have to pump the gas… it does NOT have to be YOU!!'

'you will eventually marry the only boy that mattered – pay no attention to the rest'

'hold on to every dime you’re wasting on stupid crap – you’ll wish you had that money later – haaaa – you could buy a house in your 20’s with that money instead of it still being a fantasy at 35' (this is something I should STILL be telling myself) hehehe

I gotta ask you something real personal…

do you douche?

remember that commercial?



who the hell asks someone that?

I’ll tell ya who… ME!! I’m asking you!! (of course I don’t expect an answer) hehehe

all my life I've seen these commercials for feminine hygiene products – to remedy that ‘not so fresh feeling’ and I always wondered… if you have that not so fresh feeling… couldn’t you just TAKE A FUCKING SHOWER??!!

seriously… I’ve always wondered this… if you are itchy and smell bad and it’s NOT because you need a shower… isn’t it time to see a doctor??

is it NORMAL just because you’re a chick, to be stinky and itchy ‘down there’? is this a common problem?? because *knock on wood* I have NEVER had this problem… aside from a yeast infection of course… which requires MEDICATION… NOT douching or some country fresh vag deodorizing spray!!

so I’m curious… who is using this stuff??

is there something wrong with me because I don’t?

don’t mind me… I’m just thinking 'out loud' - I fully expect this to be a completely comment free post haaaa

anyway… while I was looking on youtube for that massengill commercial I found this TOTALLY AWSOME VIDEO…



have a GREAT weekend everyone!! =)

candy day... or why I think Ric Ocasek is the coolest dad in the world!!

for the last two weeks Sam and I have hemmed and hawed over the idea of going to the drive-in – a movie we’ve both been hoping would play there has been playing the last two weeks… but we can’t seem to muster up the energy to go out… actually it’s not so much GOING out as being out so late

we often have to remind ourselves that we’re NOT 90… and that it’s ok… even possibly beneficial, to sometimes venture out of the house after dark

but alas for the second week in a row we decided not to bother… we had things we wanted to do the next day and if we got home at 1am we’d be too tired to function… we may not be 90 but we ain’t 19 anymore either!! haaaa

I wasn’t too keen on the idea of spending money this weekend either… we have a chunk of money I’m trying to hold onto for more important things

I know it’s probably surprising to hear me suggest that there might be something more important than the drive-in hehehe

anyway – since we have yet to bite the bullet and join Netflix, lately rather than go to the movies or renting ‘on demand’ movies we’ve been using one of those $1 dvd boxes at the front of the supermarket – ya can’t really beat a buck a day – PLUS the cost of candy and soda at the supermarket is insanely better – not to mention the selection!!

anyway so on Saturday since we again decided to be hermits we thought we’d do our own double feature thing… we rented a couple movies and while Sam was off getting himself some beer I stopped by the candy aisle

as I made my way toward the mountains of chocolatey, sugary, candy coated choices I noticed a familiar rather tall figure in black up ahead – I looked up half way (because that’s about where my eyes land… sternum level – cause I’m short and he is like 6’13) and noticed two armloads of candy!!

HOLY CRAP! I thought… I wanna go home with HIM (that’s what I always say to people who are buying all the crap I want to buy but never do)

so I said to the guy… (because I always talk to strangers… especially strangers with armloads of candy!!) ‘whoa - movie night?!’ (in my experience aside from Halloween, the only other time people might purchase large amounts of candy is for the movies) although this was kinda beyond just a large amount… it literally was enough for handing out on Halloween... in a busy neighborhood!!

the man says: ‘nope… it’s candy day’

me: CANDY DAY? WOO HOO!!

him: yeah, one day a week the kids can eat as much candy as they want… but can’t have any for the rest of the week

me: that’s an awesome idea… they’ll be bouncing off the walls today – but won’t want to see a grain of sugar again for DAYS!! ~ BRILLIANT!! I think we should ALL have candy day!!

he continues gathering candy... and I have my usual difficulty trying to choose my ONE piece - I continue thinking CANDY DAY! I wish he was MY dad!!

and that is why I think Ric Ocasek is the coolest dad in the world!!

conflict...

for some reason I find myself reminded of one of my favorite movies EVER!! a little movie called When the Wind Blows... which is nearly impossible to come by (in the U.S. anyway)

When the Wind Blows is an animated film made in the mid 80’s and is centered around an older British couple with romantic memories of WWII, coping with a nuclear attack – despite it’s serious storyline it contains plenty of humorous moments

as for the soundtrack - the bulk of the background music was done by Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd) – with other music by David Bowie and Genesis, among others.

as you can imagine, it’s not the happiest of movies… but it IS entertaining, and touching… and sadly with all that's going on in the world, still entirely relevant today

so without furtho ado… this weeks TOTALLY AWESOME VIDEO (in 8 parts)

When the Wind Blows…

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

______ ______...

so I have a myspace page - cause I’m a loser like that – no seriously I’ve come to the conclusion that the only people my age who have myspace pages are total losers!!

I only got one because I was bored and wanted something to tinker with

but Ohio friend, my father AND my sister are all on there now – not to mention my mother in law, brother in law and a bunch of people I hung out with in high school and even elementary school – so it’s been kinda neat

anyway – if you’re familiar with myspace at all you know that you sometimes get friend requests from total strangers – because apparently it’s a competition on there to have the biggest friends list – me personally I don’t care… I’ve been on there a year or two and have like a dozen friends (most of which are relatives)

I’m not trying to sell or promote anything so I keep it small – that is probably why I don’t hear from a lot of strangers these days

which was why it caught my attention when I got an email notification that someone I didn’t recognize had sent me a message on myspace…

this is what it said (you can tell from the ridiculous spelling and lack of punctuation that she is a kid):

“um hi i kno u dont know me but um i think u might be using my name because when i looked it up u came up : /”

(you can do a ‘people search’ on myspace if you’re looking for someone you know, type in their name and hopefully they come up) usually when you type in a person’s name, anywhere from a dozen to over 500 listings pop up and you have to try to figure out if any of them are the individual you are looking for

so I thought it was kind of odd that this person seemed confused as to why anyone else would be listed under her name

although I have to admit it IS kind of odd – I have a relatively uncommon first name, one that can be spelled a couple different ways and my (our) way is probably the least common – couple that with my last name (maiden) and I would have thought I was probably the only one

however if I did a search for my name and others came up – I wouldn’t think someone stole my name – I would just think – ‘hey neat someone else with the same name as me… I wonder how they’ve been enjoying it’

I have not… when I got married I couldn’t change my last name fast enough!! and my first name has always been kind of a pain… it rhymes with a lot of words and other names so people are always getting it wrong... plus there are numerous other cute things people like to say about it... which might have been cute the first few times - but after 35 years it gets pretty tiring!!

anyway – so I answered back ‘what name’ unsure if she meant my actual name or the name I use on there (like I’m kitty here – I’m something else there)

she replied ‘______ ______’ (my actual name)

so I replied: “sorry - that's the name they gave me”

to which she asks: ”who is they”

me: my parents

her: ”just please do me a favor and change it”

I was like… is this chick insane??

I just told her to embrace the connection - it's a VERY uncommon name - and it looks like we're both pretty unique girls =) I don't think anyone will get us mixed up

besides… just imagine how many other people would be listed if we had a boring common name - I bet at least 500 listings would pop up if you typed in Jane Smith hehehe

then she writes back – asking if there is any way I can even just change it a little bit – our last name has a double letter in it and she thought maybe I could leave one of them out

I gotta hand it to the kid – she has some balls!!

she said her friends keep referring to my profile pic (a garden gnome) and asking why she has a ‘nomb’ (her spelling) on her page

first of all when you do a search for our name – 3 profiles come up… mine and two of hers… MINE has a garden gnome for a profile pic and says I’m 35 and live in NY

HERS says she’s 16, has a pic of HER and says she lives in… some other state (I forget)

how fucking stupid are her friends that they think I am her?

I told her that none of her friends have sent me a friend request – so I think they figure it out pretty quickly…

she has been nice enough though so I didn’t give her a hard time – but sorry… I’m not gonna change my freakin’ name just so she can be the only ______ ______ on myspace!! haaaa

if I did that, how would MY friends find ME? hehehe maybe she should change the spelling of HER name… from the sounds of it her friends wouldn’t know the difference anyway hehehe

anyway we got to talking a little bit – she seems like a nice enough kid… a little stupid but what teenager isn’t? she laughed when I told her I’m the same age now that my mother was when I was her age (although I have a REALLY hard time believing I was as dumb as this girl sounds) I think when I was her age I could put words and sentences together and use periods and commas

actually I think when I was 4 I could put words and sentences together… and AT LEAST use periods…

I think kids these days are just getting dumber and dumber though – they all seems like they’ve been deprived of oxygen for extended periods of time or something, ya know?

at some point she told me that she is 14… her profile (that she was using to talk to me) says she’s 16 – she has another that says she’s 17!! – that kinda worries me!! I mean maybe I’m nuts… but if I had a 14 year old girl I would NOT let her ‘advertise’ herself on myspace as 16 or 17

hell I wouldn’t even let her on there I don’t think…

I told her I’d spare her the lecture (she’s not gonna listen to me anyway) but that she should be careful… there are a lot of weirdos and I would hate to see something happen to the only other known ______ ______ in the world… we ARE an endangered species after all hehehe

she told me she is careful… but I have to wonder what she thinks careful means… in the course of our brief exchange she told me her age, her FULL name (first, middle and last) that she has a twin brother, he father’s first and last name, her mother’s first initial and last name, she has a town listed on her profile

I feel like I should keep talking to her to prove how uncareful she is!!

but then I look like a troll!! haaaa

I feel bad for the kid though… ya hear all these crazy stories about how perverts prey on kids like that and all sorts of horrible things happen – like that boy Oprah had on a while back who was lured into doing internet porn… it started off ‘innocently’ enough when someone offered him money to just take his shirt off and before he knew it he was doing full on live sex shows for money!!

they tell you how to set up paypal or amazon wish lists and they pay you money or send you gifts just to see you naked or watch you touch yourself – and these dumbass kids think it’s OK!!

~sigh... I hope this other ______ ______ is smarter than that!!

gooniegoogoo…

I’ve learned something since we got our DVR – there is NO good time to pause on a person… especially if they’re talking!!

no matter when I pause the tv, the faces on the screen are all contorted and constipated looking - kinda like how we all look 99% of the time when someone snaps a picture of us by surprise (which thankfully doesn’t happen to most of us very often!)

but these poor people on tv nowadays with technology like DVR’s – sure they can spend hours in a make-up chair attempting to look perfect – but no amount of make-up can cover up the reality of the faces we naturally make in order to form words

however they are in the business of entertaining us and it DOES provide entertainment… laughing at the goofy looks it seems everyone makes every second of the day – seriously if you can pause your tv you should check it out… pause – play – pause – play

no matter how quickly or how many times you do it, chances are the people will look like someone is throwing a water balloon in their direction or are they trying to poop out a corn cob sideways…

actually there are countless things you could speculate they are experiencing to cause them to make such faces… when in reality all they are doing is TALKING… just like we all do, all day every day!!

it’s kinda scary actually... think about it - at any given moment while having a conversation, chances are you look like you’re pooping out a corn cob

YIKES!!

silly man…

I’ll spare you the details of how we got to talking about tonsils (even though THAT is probably the interesting part of this story - haaaa)

over the weekend my tonsils got brought up

and Sam says to me ‘you don’t have any tonsils’

I said ‘no dear, it’s YOU who has no tonsils’

he gets a thinking look on his face and says ‘oh yeah, I have no tonsils – YOU have no appendix'

anyway - we're a little young to be losing track of who had which surgery... I know we joke around about it all the time... but is it possible we actually DO share a brain?!