Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Tis the season to be jorry fra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra....
Exercise: 2 mile run
Yah, it once again has been awhile since I last posted here - SUCK IT! I've been busy this time with spreading holiday cheer. Ok maybe I should change that to holiday sarcasm but it was all in good fun. When you have a mother who looks like (and sometimes acts like) Maxine from the greeting cards, how can you honestly think some of that won't rub off. LOL Oh and for those of you that might think I'm being mean by saying such about my mother, I'm not. I've told her this stuff to her face and it was all in good fun. Actually in a way I think she prides herself on it. LOL
So yah, the Christmas/New Year holiday. Shopping for shippable gifts really bites. With all the "rules" now when it comes to posting stuff overseas it makes sending presents a pain in the ass and requires a lot of creativity when filling out customs forms so that the surprise isn't totally given away. I am thankful, however, that I was able to find some stuff that wasn't overly large or weighty so the shipping bill came in under $50 this year. Of course I wasn't too pleased at the fact that the postman that I spoke with said that the package would get there before Christmas with a couple days to spare and then after speaking with my mummy in law, I found out that as of Christmas Day, it hadn't arrived. I have a feeling though that the problem lies with the Royal Postal Service not the USPS. I guess they have been having troubles over there with the mail for quite some time now so more than likely it got hung up after it made it across the pond.
After it was all said and done, I ended up celebrating Christmas three times. Once on the 16th - that's when we all got together with my brother and his family. That was one hell of a long day too. I got up at 5:30 so I could make it to Iowa City in time for TBB's graduation. I don't care much for getting up really early but when it comes to one of my best buds' graduation ceremony, "I'm there dude!". Fortunately it was over early enough that we were able to shoot down to the Olive Garden for lunch before I had to leave. I needed to be back on the road by 1:30/2 so I could be at my parents' house by 4 and I just wouldn't have felt right about attending the gig and then having to leave right away. I had called my mom the night before to tell her there was a possibility I could be late but I wanted to try and make it on time. I ended up only being 5 minutes late which isn't bad considering I was coming from 120 miles away. Of course true to form my sister and brother both showed up late. My my sister in law even went so far as to say she was told an hour later than my sister and I were. Now I know my mother can be a little "flakey" from time to time and she definitely has been known to show some "blonde tendancies" but I'm confident that she told her the same time as she told my sister and I.
The second celebration was on Christmas Eve at my parents' house which is when we exchanged gifts with my parents' and two oldest nephews. On this evening we also played UNO Attack. It's not a bad little game and when it's my family playing, you can bet it's a great time. As my mother likes to say, "We put the fun in dysFUNctional!". LOL Not that I would say that word is overly descriptive of my family. I mean we have our moments but, for the most part, we're pretty happy people who get along really well.
The third celebration was the one at home with Chi and the furballs on Christmas Day. That's when he and I exchanged gifts and open the goodies sent over to us from England.
All in all, I have to say I feel as though I made out like a bandit since I received nearly everything I had given as suggestions plus a little bit more. Here's a rundown of all my goodies.
From J-Lo
A cool lamp
From Chi
Two really nice warm sporty but structured jackets
Another CD flight case. I just love those things and think I may just have to get one for my laptop.
From Two Oldest Nephews
A $50 gift card for Bed, Bath, & Beyond
From My Parents
KT Tunstall CD
The Who CD
An 80's Box Set CD
Madonna CD
Foreigner CD
Victoria's Secret So In Love Parfume & Lotion
From My In Laws
A Man U Football Shirt
Scissor Sisters CD
The Who CD
KT Tunstall CD
Calvin Klein's Euphoria Parfume & Lotion
A Small Little Stuffed Bunny
From TBB
An Assortment Of Goodies From Bath & Body Works
A Candle
A New Air Freshener For My Car
Yep, I did alright and I love everything that was given to me. :)
I was also happy to see that my waistline didn't grow any during the week and a half I had off over over the holidays. My mother always makes some of my favorite cookies at Christmas time (Snickerdoodles & Ginger Cremes) along with some killer fudge so you can bet I was doing some serious chowing down. :) I guess I must have subconsciously trained myself to only take in the amount of food I need or something because I was slacking a little bit in the exercise department so I would have thought with all the tasty crap I consumed, I would have gained "a little more me" somewhere in there. LOL
As for New Year's, it was fairly low key but that's ok since I knew that Tuesday meant going back to work.
And now for something completely different....
I have to say that I am utterly sickened by the people who were celebrating Saddam Hussein's death. Yes, the guy was mainly viewed as a nut and did some pretty awful things along with the good that he brought his country, however, for those in the US to find pleasure in his demise only leaves me to think that they have sunk to his level and maybe below.
So far the news has been reporting that there hasn't been any great backlash over it which was feared but that kind has me wondering if it could be due to a plot to catch us off guard as the terrorists did with 9/11. In a way, it seems that terrorists stratagize like cats meaning that they will sit close by their prey observing what is going on but not directly look at it so the prey builds a false sense of security that things are ok. As soon as the prey is fairly comfortable - BAM! - the cat attacks. Take the WTC towers for example. Terrorists bombed them in the early 90s and did a fair amount of damage but nothing like 9/11. In the nearly 10 years that passed, a lot of people once again got "comfortable" and thought something like that would never happen again all the while the terrorists were "watching" and just waiting for the right moment to pull off a smiliar attack on a much more grand scale.
On last week's Suze Orman show, she was showing clips from past shows (some of which I never saw) and I could do nothing but shake my head at some of the people who called in. Now some of the time the people who call in do know what they are doing with money but they just want some advice on how to further better their methods. Other times there are people who call in and just leave me saying, "You really had to ask that?" For example, there's a segment on the show called Can I Afford It. This is where people will call in with a high ticket item they want to buy, give Suze their financials, and she will tell them if they can afford to get it. This one chic called in wanting to buy a $5000 pair of diamond stud earrings. According to the financials she gave, her outgoings were more than her income plus she had a pretty big student loan debt, substantial credit card debt if I remember correctly, and no savings. I was floored (and I'm sure my mouth was just hanging agape) that she would even need to ask about buying such a thing. "Um, like HELL NO!" Of course I think the thing I love about Suze the most is that when people pull an idiot move like this woman did, Suze is sure to call them on it. A word to everyone reading this - if you aren't, at the very least, putting 10% of each paycheck away in a svaings account, you're screwing yourself. There's no excuse for not doing this and it will be a great benefit to you should you ever find yourself in a position where you need emergency cash.
Over the holiday and this past weekend, I had another couple episodes of sleep paralysis. I swear it's the oddest feeling. During the first one, Chi was next to me and I swear I willed myself to say something in order to get his attention so I could see if someone touching me would be enough to "wake" my body up. What was so strange was that I thought he had heard me and turned to touch my hand but based on what he said, none of that took place and he said he didn't hear me say anything. During this last one, I swear I had opened my eyes and was able to look around because the view that I had was exactly what it was when I did finally open my eyes. The thing is, I'm not sure if I really did or not because of what I obviously imagined concerning Chi the time before. It's odd because no matter how many times I have one of these experiences and try to keep myself calm, panic usually always sets in because it feels like you can't breathe and you're unable to move anything no matter how much you tell your brain to do it.
I know there was something else I wanted to mention here but I'll be damned if I remember what it was so I'm just going to leave it here.
Til next time......
Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
|
