remember me? - the final round

As I was trying to clean up my inbox this morning I realized that there's only one word to describe me these days. Slacker!! That's right. Complete and total slacker on anything that doesn't have to do with work, my kiddo, and/or the necessities of life.

I found two sets of questions that I never answered. Oy! Sorry girls. Here's the Q&A for the final round of Remember me?

Hilly wants to know:
1. What do you think of Angelina Jolie?
DSL, baby! DSL!!!

2. When did you last eat a cupcake?
Ummm... maybe a year ago? Sad, I know.

3. Boxers or Briefs? (on men) Why?
Boxers. They leave a little something to the imagination.

4. What did you last buy that made you happy?
A piece of artwork in celebration of my previous, tumultuous three years.

5. What's your favorite time of the day?
First thing in the morning, when the kiddo's still sleeping, and I'm hanging out, waking up, and trying to keep up with all you verbous bloggers.

6. How would you teach the world to sing?
In perfect harmony?

LOL

I used to sing (in public) when I was younger, and I've been told that my voice doesn't totally suck, but I seriously doubt anyone would want me teaching anyone, let alone the world, to sing.

7. Whom would you most like to get drunk with?
Stacie. I'm trying to help her come out of her shell!

38 more days, baby!!! W00t!!!!

**************************************************

And Nicki (as my final inquisitor) wants to know:

1. What do you think of boochachas?
I've been told on more than one occassion that I've got a pretty nice set of them.

2. When did you last fart?
About 30 minutes ago

3. Boxers or Briefs? Why?
See question #3 above

4. What did you dream of last night?
I was so tired last night, I didn't dream.

I go through stages where I have very, very elaborate dreams for nights on end and then total dry spells with nothing I remember. Last weekend I had a few doozies, but nothing since then.

5. What's your favorite blog? - I can answer this one - Everybody Else is Doing It.
Indeed. LOL

6. How would you tip a stripper?
Is this a male or a female stripper?

The female strippers don't seem to like me much being that the guys aren't giving them (the strippers) their undivided attention.

7. Whom would you most like to poison?
Oh, that's an easy one! Can you say beeyotch!??! I knew you could.

Thanks to everyone who participated! I'm sure you don't know me any better than you did before this all started. But, hell! At least I blogged a few times this month.

remember me? - Round 2

Well the week got away from me again, but I still have more questions that need answering so here's the next round.

Stacie wants to know:

1. What do you think of your new blackberry?

I'm addicted! Now if I could just get you added as a contact. Grrr!!

2. When did you last go on a road trip?

Depends on what your definition of a road trip is. If it's just driving for longer than an hour or so away from home, then it was the middle of last month when I went to Oregon. Otherwise I guess I'd have to say it was March '01 when I moved to WA from Arizona.

3. Skiing or rock climbing? Why?

I really wouldn't pick either, but I'll take skiing. Keeping my feet on the ground sounds better than dangling in mid air.

4. What did you want the most for Christmas as a kid?

A 10-speed bicycle. I finally got one right before going into the 6th grade and promptly told my parents to keep it since I was also told the reason they'd finally bought me one was because I was being sent to a new school that was further away.

5. What's your favorite laundry detergent?

Tide

6. How would you like to come visit me?

Nah. That doesn't sound like much fun at all. :P

7. Whom would you most like to kick?

Depends on the day, but in general, stupid drivers.

****************

And Groove asks:

1. What do you think of free soda?

Free is always good.

2. When did you last mamba horizontally?

I don't mamba, or limbo, or any other latin dancing. But thanks for asking.

3. Silk or Cotton? Why?

Cotton. I'm a low maintenance kinda girl.

4. What did you have fun doing last week?

Playing pool.

5. What's your favorite pick-up line?

Is it time? LOL

6. How would you break into a sperm bank?

Doubtful I'd ever want/need to break into a sperm bank considering I'm done having kidlets.

7. Whom would you most like to (Damn Sizzle stole it) rub virgin olive oil into their scalp?

You! I'd take all those long locks you're growing, lube 'em up, then slick 'em back.

remember me? - Round 1

Wow! I'm shocked there's still any of you who care enough to check up on li'l old me. Makes a girl feel kinda special!

Here's Round 1 of the Q&A from the Remember Me? questions I posted yesterday. (I'm calling this Round 1 assuming there might be another round. Then again, maybe no one else cares. We'll see. LOL)

Here are Sizzle's questions:

1. What do you think of the LOST season finale?

LOST? What is this LOST you speak of? I know I've been missing for awhile, but I had no idea they'd created a finale about it.

2. When did you last get a pedicure?

Um... never. In case I haven't already mentioned it before I have a foot phobia. Now, let me just say that doesn't keep me from putting on my "party toes" during the sandal wearing season (are we ever going to have one out here this year?), but the idea of someone else touching my feet. Ewww!!!

3. Chocolate or Vanilla? Why?

Definitely chocolate. There is no other choice.

4. What did you do on Sunday?

This past Sunday I got up, read through blogs (yes, I still read even though I don't post or comment much), yakked with Stacie for a bit, put away some laundry, washed some more laundry, talked to my Dad, showered, watched NASCAR, went to the grocery store, played hide-n-seek out front with the little man and all the other neighbor kids, made dinner, checked work email, then vegged out in front of the TV.

5. What's your favorite pizza topping?

Honestly I don't have a favorite. There's truly one two things I won't eat on a pizza - anchovies and cashews.

6. How would you explain a prolonged absence without really giving anything away?

There's this thing called work. It pays my bills. It keeps me working strange hours. It's even been known to make me think once or twice. And... it's definitely gotten in the way of my personal computer time. And then there's this other thing about taking a break and not really posting much of anything of personal nature because snooping eyes (you know who you are) like to read about it.

7. Whom would you most like to shag?

Stacie.

Okay, not really. But if I swung that way...

I could go with someone obvious like Matthew McConaughey, but I'd like a sexy man with more experience so I'll say Sean Connery.

********

And here's Kim's questions:

1. What did you think of all natural disasters in the world?

Apocalypse. I know where I'm headed when it comes.

2. When did you last go to the theater?

You know it's been too long when you can't remember. I think it was either Meet the Robinsons or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Whichever came to the theater 2nd.

3. Sweet or Salty? Why?

Yes. One always follows the other. There is no separation.

4. What did you eat for breakfast?

I don't eat breakfast, so Diet Coke and a smoke it is.

5. What's your favorite thing to do in the evening?

Relax on the phone with friends and have a couple of beers.

6. How would you quit your job if you could do it any way you want?

Oh, I'm in NO way thinking of quitting my job since I've worked very, very hard to get it and hold on to it, but... if I was going to quit, it'd depend on the circumstances. I pretty much don't like to leave a place in a bad way just in case I ever need to go back to them for whatever reason, but in my wild imagination I'd walk up to everyone I've ever thought was a moron and tell them directly to their faces.

Quite the imagination, eh?

7. Whom would you most like to meet?

You.

Hehe! Okay, you and a bunch of the other bloggers I've gotten to know over the past few years. I just never seem to be able to make any of the meet ups that are scheduled either because of work, lack of funds, or whatever.

remember me?

I know it's been months since I've posted anything. What can I say? I've been busy? I've not had anything to write (bullshit)? I've been a slacker (mayhaps!)? Whatever.

It's not that I don't think of posting, I just don't do it. But when I saw Chag's Libs I figured I'd throw one out there for myself on the off chance there's still anyone who checks up on me periodically to see what I think.

With that said, here you go. Leave a comment filling in the blanks to the questions and I'll answer them in a future post. Whatever you want. Within reason, of course.

1. What do you think of ________?

2. When did you last ________?

3. ________ or ________? Why?

4. What did you ________?

5. What's your favorite ________?

6. How would you ________?

7. Whom would you most like to ________?

You know you want to.

birthdays are for those who still count the months

It's that time of year again. Time to start the official birthday countdown, that is. In four short days I will officially be forty and twelve-months of age. Why 'forty and twelve-months' instead of forty-one?

I am mourning the loss of my fortieth year! Seriously!!

With all its ups and downs (those things I didn't blog about) it was a mighty fine year, indeed. I had some pretty big shake-ups in my life and worked through all of them, one at a time. It was a year of growth, self-realizaton, and freedom. But I'm not ready to move on from saying "I'm forty!"

When I'm 85 and tooling down the nursing home hallway trying to escape being knocked over I'll still be saying "I'm forty and one-thousand and twenty months!" Not sure if I'll be able to remember how to calculate that. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

PSA: Are you experiencing SAD?

You know I always have you, my readers, best interests at heart, so today I find it crucial to pass on this very important PSA you should all be aware of.

Do you find yourselves driving a daily path and suddenly noticing something new along the way, then question yourself about how long it's really been there and why you haven't noticed it before? Maybe you're one to be walk through a parking lot and not notice others coming and going because you're busy talking to someone, or thinking about something, or heading where you need to go? Do you sit in your cubicle (or office) at work with your back to the doorway and not notice when people come in and sit down waiting to talk to you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you too could be suffering from SAD (Situational Awareness Disorder). A recent study was released* discussing the causes and known side effects of SAD. The study noted most people living with SAD don't even know they have it. And those who discover they're suffering from SAD have a difficult time accepting it. I was one of those unfortunate few until the study opened my eyes, and I now accept my SAD situation and work daily to improve it.

To better illustrate how SAD quietly takes over and rules your life, I'd like to share with you some of my personal SAD experiences. These may be difficult for some of you to read since they will most likely hit close to home, and it has taken me several months to get to the point of accepting I suffer from SAD. Just remember I'm concerned about your well being and hope you will read the situations carefully, analyze your own situations, and be honest with yourself. It's the first step in the healing process.

SAD Situation #1: The Office - As many of you can probably relate, my desk is situated such that the opening to my cubicle is at a 90 degree angle to where my monitor sits, a 180 degree angle to where my phone sits, and my visitor chair sits directly behind my chair, completely obstructed from my direct line of vision.

One afternoon, several months ago while on the phone and concentrating on the conversation at hand, I was absorbed in looking back and forth at printed reports on my desk and other data on my monitor. As the conversation ended and I went to hang up the phone, I nearly fell out of my chair and let out a little squeal as I felt something (or in this case someone) simultaneously poking both of my sides. As I would discover, it was Groove. He'd walked in, sat down in my visitor chair and patiently waited for me to finish my conversation completely unbeknownst to me.

This was my introduction to SAD though I was completely unwilling to admit it at the time.

SAD Situation #2: The Interstate - Most every day, and most every time of day, the portion of the Interstate I travel is congested. Obviously watching traffic is a major concern. The secondary concern - watching for law enforcement. Because of these two neccessities I find it difficult, if not impossible, to notice much that isn't directly in front of me. So when something new is added - such as a pole with a camera watching traffic flow and presumably recording speed as it is placed immediately before the "speed trap" area - I rarely notice.

Thankfully I have friends who don't suffer from SAD to keep me informed of these situations. However, a well noted side effect of SAD is this - even when informed of a situation, and repeatedly reminded, you still may be completely situationally unaware.

Note: I still haven't seen said pole (even though it's been mentioned multiple times in the past few weeks) and have not, as of this report, been caught in the "speed trap".

SAD Situation #3: The Parking Lot - Generally speaking I am, what I'd like to consider, at my peak of awareness when walking through a parking lot. Apparently my peak is comparable with others valleys.

Walking out to the front parking lot at work the other day, Groove and I stopped to chat. A few minutes into the conversation he turns to me and asks, "Which security guard just went into the building?" I looked at him with those deer-in-the-headlights eyes and asked "What security guard?"

I'd seen people walking though the parking lot. I'd even noticed my friend Karen walking into the building and could tell you exactly what she was wearing though I'm sure that's because I'd already seen her several times that day and had absorbed the information earlier, but I hadn't seen the security guard at all.

It was inevitable and time to finally admit to myself. I am suffering from SAD. Looking back with the knowledge I now have about SAD and how it controls your life, I realize I've been suffering from this disorder for much longer than I ever realized. Are you? Don't be afraid to admit it. Acceptance is the first step to recovery.

*The study revealed in this PSA, and all other information provided on SAD (Situational Awareness Disorder), is in no way, shape or form professional medical information and has not been researched, authorized or reported by any professional medical personnel that I know of.

tgif

Thank whatever power you believe in it's Friday! This has been the longest week.

Thanks much to those of you who were sending good juju my Dad's direction! He called last night when they got home and said the procedure went fine. Now he gets to wait until the 24th to go back for the results. What ever happened to doctors phoning results home? Why do we always have to go back to their office for another visit to hear the results? Stupid!

Okay, I'm still tired and a little bit grumpy about some other stuff, so since I've said what I really came to say, that's it for now. Maybe I'll come back and tell you about my day later; maybe not.

Whatever, enjoy your day and thanks again!

sunday sweep - volume II

It's time again for another Sunday Sweep! What a random week this turned out to be. Whatever happened to having a "regular" work week without chaos? I was truly looking forward to getting back to work after the holidays and having some sort of normalcy in the schedule. Yeah, right! Not last week.

Ice: Monday morning brought massive ice to our area, though it wasn't apparent until I actually got out there on the roads. We started off to school and once realizing the roads were a mess I started second guessing if I should have watched the weather report to see if there were any school closures or delays. By now we were halfway to school so I figured I'd might as well keep going. They were there.....so far, so good. After dropping off the little man it was time for me to snake my way across town to the Interstate. We live in an area where there is just no easy way to get to the Interstate - good or bad weather. Deciding to take the heavier traveled roads in hopes the city had sanded and the ice wasn't as bad was a good idea. But arriving at the top of the hill that takes me down to the basin where I hop onto the Interstate I determined there was no way I was going to keep going. Traffic was backed up all the way up the hill, and then some, and the radio was reporting an accident between my "hop on" and "hop off" points. At the last possible road I turned off and snaked my way back home for a few hours to wait on the thaw out.

Snow: Tuesday morning was only better in the fact you could actually see what you were contending with before stepping foot out the door. Snow. This time I had the news on and scoured the local news sites on the internet for delay notices. At 6:30am our school district finally posted a 2 hr late start - right around the time the snow stopped falling. Figures. Even worse than the snow was the rain that started immediately after turning the roads into a slushy mess and squelching any hopes of taking advantage of the delay and playing in the snow before school/work. Ah the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest! Making matters worse as the morning dragged on I started feeling like total crap. Upset stomach, slight headache, and overall feeling like shit didn't sit well for spending a day at the office, so after dropping off the kiddo I turned around, came home, and slept. And that's all I did for the next 3.5 hrs. At 2:10pm I got my lazy ass out of the recliner and made a cup of tea. Two sips later my cell phone rang. It was the school. The little man had thrown up (in the bathroom, thankfully!) and I headed out to pick him up. Not really sure what either of us had/were fighting but the rest of the night went by without racing to the toilet, and after a long and solid night's sleep, we were good as new the following morning.

They're just words: Speaking of toilets, as witnessed on many of my posts (including this one) I have a potty mouth. For the most part, I try to temper my mouth around the little man. Do I think he's not going to hear it somewhere else? Hell no! Not the point. I think it was Marni who was recently talking about her kids making up their own cuss words. Well, the same thing's been happening around here. In fact, there's two new phrases added in the last week - "What the heyhawtie?" and "Jeepers McCreepers". I'm sure you can figure out both of them without me telling you what they're replacing. "Jeepers McCreepers" actually started out as "Jesus McCreepers" and was modified due to me being pretty damned sure the parochial school he attends wouldn't want him using "Jesus". After a couple other renditions including "Molly McCreepers" and something else I can't remember right now, he settled on "Jeepers McCreepers". Whatever works.

Uplifiting news: Turning things to a more serious topic, I am thrilled to report on the arrival of my new Victoria's Secret bras. Hehe! You may remember last week the reporting on my complete devastation in walking into a nearly empty VS at the local mall. Well, I remedied that one. Not only did I order and receive my precious uplifting bras, I got them at the 50% off price AND found an online coupon for FREE shipping. Ya know ya gotta love anything that's FREE!! The girls are happy, happy now! And if they're happy, I'm happy. Except for my ever growing muffin top that I still haven't done a damned thing about. I'll be blogging more about that one later today.

For now, I'm off to grab a quick shower, figure out what's for dinner (maybe one of Liss' new recipes), and park my butt in the recliner to watch football. With the Seahawks losing yesterday I haven't decided who I'm backing now, but if I were a betting woman (which I'm not) I'd say the Packers are a shoe in.

Wishes for a fantabulous week for all of you!

sunday sweeps - Volume I

Well here we are, the end of the first week of the new year.....already! Sheesh! I sporadically posted Sunday Sweeps last year, but since we're into a new year and can start anew again, I'm going to attempt to make every Sunday a collection of random stuff that I didn't get around to posting during the week. We'll see how that works. Now on to the randomness.

The new year started quietly around here.....just the way I like it. I don't typically stay up to see the new year in. Just not my style. My folks had left New Year's Eve morning after a two week stay with us, the kiddo was in SoCal with his father, and I had the place to myself. Aaah! Since I don't make resolutions - for the new year, or otherwise - I debating on reposting my out with the old, and in with the new post from a couple years ago, but obviously didn't. So, if you want to read it, or re-read it if you've been with me that long, here's your chance. New Year's Day, after a quite morning at home, I headed down to the mall to see what I could nab with some of the awesome gift cards I scored for Christmas. My trip to Victoria's Secret was a bust (no pun intended) as they were ending their annual week of 50% sales and didn't have a single item in stock that I wanted. I had a little success at Macy's and Eddie Bauer.....oh, and Bath & Body Works too.....then headed home for some much needed R&R.

The work week totally sucked with the holiday stuffed there in the middle, and the next three days seemed to drag on like months. I did get a little good news at work, but I'll have to back up to a month or so ago to fill you in. Most of you know I'm working on contract right now. Well, my one year contract ends at the beginning of May, but since The Winnebago (the place I work) is still reorganizing (read as screwing up people's lives by laying them off) my business unit decided they'd no longer need me after the end of February. Gawd I love contract work.....not! Anyway, with all the shuffling that's going on, there's this other group that seems to need some additional help and is supposedly going to pick me up until at least the end of March, maybe a little longer. We'll see. I hope it all works out cuz I'm really not looking forward to being out of work again, and this time of the year sucks for finding a job.....decent or otherwise.

Yesterday was spent watching and playing (on the PS2) football. Did you see Seattle hold on over the Redskins? Woot!! Sorry to disappoint you, Chag. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Pittsburgh. Of course now this means we'll be heading to Green Bay next week (yikes!). As for the playing, good gawd that Madden '08 is a bitch. I was so totally confused and frustrated it completely killed the fun. Of course having a 7 year old trying to explain how it works doesn't help. Especially when said 7 year old has owned and played Madden '07 for a full year and plays it frequently. {sigh}

And that's about it for the week. Time to get off my arse and squeeze in some laundry and kitchen clean-up in between watching the games of the day. Hope you're weekend's been a good one!

buying myself some weather insurance

I'm racing the clock here, even though it's Friday evening and most people are starting to unwind and relax. Don't get me wrong, I've got my beer cracked open beside me, will head up to put on my comfy flannels in a few short minutes, but right now I'm racing the clock against the building wind that's winding up outside. I figure if I get posting and all now I might buy myself some weather insurance.....ya know, the power won't go out because I've already posted. If I wait till later it's sure to screw with me.

Anyway, how was everyone's Friday? Can I tell you just how freakin' happy I am that the post holiday week is over!? Gawd the last two weeks seemed to go on forever. At the office one day, off for a couple days, back to the office again. Sheesh! With all the broken up worktime you'd think I'd be relaxed and happy, but it really seemed to be more of a PITA than anything.

I've still been reading and reading and reading all the posts ya'll have been making. Damn, where do you find so much to talk about? My comments are sparse but don't think I'm not keeping my eye on you.

Speaking of eyes, I was informed by a fairly reliable source that my last picture of my new specs wasn't truly the most flattering picture and didn't do them (or me) justice. So, I grabbed the camera this morning right before heading out the door and snapped a new one that hopefully meets with better approval. Please don't look at my hair. I can't believe how awful it's really looking these days, but hell.....what do I expect when it's been almost a year since I've cut or colored it. Yikes! Anyway, here's me again with my new specs.

TGIF!!! Cheers and Enjoy!

my name ain't stacy london but i match my clothes, dammit

I'm surely no fashion queen but I've always had a pretty good eye for color. At one time I actually took a few classes while entertaining the idea of become an Interior Designer. If you looked at my home, or my wardrobe, now you'd laugh at the thought but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to make ends meet.

Anywho, back to my fashion sense - or lack there of.

I stopped over to see Groove today despite being days behind on work due to spending the first part of the week training someone on a chunk of my job that I'll be losing (yay!) and check out his new map. We sat there shootin' the shit, when this conversation started.

Groove: "Your socks don't match." (match in the sense of the rest of my clothing, not that I was wearing two different socks)
Me: "Sure they do."
Groove: staring at me but silently giving me the whatever
Me: "There's pink on my shoes and my pants and shirt are blue."
Groove: "Uh huh"

We truly have a very lackadaisical dress code at work; so lackadaisical in fact I wouldn't even call it a "dress code". Pretty much whatever goes. We often laugh about the shit we wear to work and our extremely lacking creativity wardrobes, but dang it if I didn't match today. Here's your whatever. Phfffft!

Now follow me here, and you be the judge. I was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a long sleeved light blue tee with a short sleeved brown tee over it, and a white hoodie layering the set of tees. Have I mentioned it's freakin' cold in our office? On my feet I had my totally comfy and cute little brown Converse sneakers and my apparently not matching socks. The socks are pink, blue and white striped - one of the pairs of cute socks I was given by The Girls since they got tired of seeing me in my boring plain white socks all the time. The white went with my hoodie, the blue my long sleeved tee and jeans, and the pink not only tied in with the pink accents on my totally comfy and cute little brown Converse sneakers but added that splash of color every ensemble must have.

Now tell me, does that not match? Does that not sound cute? Okay, yes, I know I was dressed like a teeny bopper and would have gotten carded to buy booze or smokes, but dammit; it matched.

Whatever.

i really hate it when that happens

I was reading through responses to yesterday's post (yes, yesterday's post) and Jenny asked if I missed a day of posting. I was thinking "What? I know I posted yesterday." So I went to look and sure enough, nothing. Well not exactly. Just nothing with Monday's date even though my last post was posted on Monday.

Let me explain.

The one big issue I have with blogger is that you can't set a post to load on a certain date or certain time. So, when you come up with a topic to write about and save it as a draft it posts the entry with whatever day you started the draft. That's what happened with my post from yesterday. I'd found the video clips and saved them all to a draft. The little intro was written in the morning, and the whole entry was posted in the morning. Only, it posted showing the date (Sunday) and time (6:09PM) from the day the draft with the video clips was showing. Grrrrr!!

Well, thanks to Jenny pointing this out I've now gone back in and changed the date and time to reflect the actual time I finished writing the post, and posting it - Monday 5:49AM. So, I didn't really miss a day of posting. And, apparently in the process, I've been tagged for the seven weird or random facts meme again.

Sorry Jenny, I already did this one at the beginning of the month. But here's my list of seven again.

1) I hate feet, except for baby feet. Yeah, I know this is one that Stacie used on her list, but it's definitley my number one weird fact.
2)I have a totally screwed up sleep cycle. Some nights I fall asleep in the recliner as early as 8pm, and other nights I can't seem to fall asleep at all.
3)Speaking of sleep, I cannot fall asleep unless I'm on my stomach. I can change positions during the night, but when first trying to doze off I must be on my stomach with my head cocked to the right or it just isn't happening.
4)I can't point straight. Try this out. Make a fist and then put your index finger out as if you're pointing at something. Most people's index finger is in line with their hand and arm, but not mine. Mine curves sharply to the side whether I'm using my right or left hand. Weird, huh?
5)I color coordinate my undergarments with my clothing.
6)I hate being submerged in water. This includes swimming, sitting in a hot tub, or taking a bath. As far as I'm concerned water serves two purposes - making coffee and showering.
7)When I was little, I used to think a little birdie followed me around and reported back to my mother when I'd done something wrong.

Okay, so just in case there's anything crazy going on with blogger today, I'm now finished with this post and am getting ready to post it. It's Tuesday and it's 5:30AM.

since i can't find my brain, i'm using the telephone instead

With so many things to remember on a daily basis I'm always looking for ways to make sure I don't forget things. Mainly I have my Outlook calendars at home and at work loaded with all the events and activities of the year. But before they get on the calendar, if I'm not sitting at the computer when I think of them, they have to start somewhere else.

I make notes on scraps of paper and Post Its when I have one handy. I've even been known to keep a pad and pen on my nightstand so when something wakes me from the dead sleep, or I'm tossing and turning afraid I'll forget about it in the morning, I can just lean over and scribble the thought. Reading it the next morning, on the other hand, is nearly impossible most times considering I don't turn the light on when jotting it down.

There's also the things that don't necessarily need to be on the calendar. We'll call those the To Do's (TD's for short). Things like needing to call someone to make an appointment or trying to remember to bring something with you to work the next day. Of course, as I'm writing this I just remembered I need to take my camera. I'd asked Wesley during dinner to remind me when we were done. Uh, yeah. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the TD's. I'll email myself little reminders, ask people to remind me which as we've just witnessed isn't always fool proof, and have even text messaged myself so I don't forget. Since I'm not always sitting at my computer when I have these thoughts, and don't carry a pen and paper with me wherever I go, I started forgetting a lot of things. Important things. Like taking things to work that I'd promised people could borrow, appointments that needed making, topics to blog about. You get the idea.

During one of these moments I had a great idea. I decided to call myself and leave a reminder message on my voicemail. My phone blinks when there's a message so I figured it was pretty safe to say I'd notice it when I got home. But when the phone was ringing, and I was waiting for voicemail to kick in, a seemingly strange thought crossed my mind.

What would I do if I knew for sure that no one should/would be there to answer the phone, but someone did?

Freaky, huh? Yeah, that's the way my mind works, sometimes. Okay, most of the time, but I wouldn't want to scare you off.

Seriously, what would you do? I started imagining some stupid burgler being so wrapped up in the moment of rifling through drawers looking for my sexiest undies... no, wait... did I just say that out loud? Nevermind. Rifling through drawers looking for the loot and so caught up in the moment that when the phone rang they just reached out and answered it, as if they were in their own house. Wouldn't that be weird? Again, I ask, what would you do?

I know what I'd do.

I'd tell them to make sure and lock up before they left. Wouldn't want any of the evil spawn in the neighborhood running amok in my house while I was out. Would you?

jedi master

Have I mentioned our addiction to Lego Star Wars? Here's proof of what I'm talking about.

Witness the concentration!

We take this very seriously around here. So seriously, in fact, that when we're out about town we are now seeing things that consistently remind us of various chapters in the game. Crazy! What I'd really like is to be able to have some of those special powers while at work, or driving behind the lunatics that most certainly got their driver's licenses out of a Cracker Jack's box.

Speaking of Cracker Jack's - how many of you remember those? Do they even still make them?

Okay, now I'm hungry. And tired. And parched.

G'nite

a confession

For those of you who don't know already, I have a confession to make.

I have another blog.

Sadly, it's been neglected for so long because I'm a slacker. But, thanks to a couple of friends for making me break under the peer pressure to keep up, and the random commenters that decided to say something on the last post I made (from April), I am resurrecting Girl Redefined.

Check it out if you're so inclined. If not, no biggie.

to the left, to the left, to the left

Don't worry, I'm not channeling Beyonce. Last month I had this completely out-of-nowhere random moment where I asked you all to look at your activity patterns and see if you tend to do things on/with the right or the left. I bet you thought that'd be the end of it? Guess again. I'm back again to remind you about it. Have you analyzed yourself? I'm sure some of you who will remain nameless have overanalyzed it.

Really, I'm not here to torture you or make you go into a panic thinking about your habits again. I just happened to notice, that on several occassions in the past couple of weeks since I wrote about this, my patterns have slightly changed. Take my socks and shoes, for instance. I used to put both socks on first, starting with the right, and then the shoes, also starting with the right. All of a sudden, as if I'm subconsciously aware of it, I've stopped that rotation and have moved onto right-sock, right-shoe followed by left-sock, left-shoe. Weird, huh?

The most notable action I've noted is getting out of bed to the left. I've only done it less than a handful of times, and not conscously, but after having what I considered to be a pretty good day I noticed I'd risen on the left for that day. Now admit it. That's weird.

This got me to thinking (uh oh... you knew that was coming) about the differences between right brained and left brained people. After reading a few articles, and taking a few tests I still can't figure out my brain. I keep hitting the middle of the line with no dominant side. Even when I look at this picture it changes on me when I look away from it. When I first looked at the picture she was spinning counter-clockwise. I glanced away for a moment to look at the article and noticed out of the corner of my eye she was spinning clockwise. Does she spin in different directions for you too?

Maybe it's like I told Sue. I lost my brain a couple of days ago and really needed it for something today, but couldn’t find it. Have you seen it? My cranium's feeling a bit empty without it.

the more things change, the more they stay the same

Wow! I've been doing a heck of a lot of writing in the past few days. Do you see what happens when you're forced to produce? Okay, forced isn't really the right word because no one held a gun to my head to make me write. I made the choice. All by myself. By making the choice it brings back memories of procrastination and waiting until the last possible minute to get things done.

Stacie and I were swapping stories the other day about how we were - and still are - procrastinators. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Seriously though, we both agreed that we are most productive when we've pushed ourselves to the end and simply must get whatever it is done right then. Take, for example, when we were in school. Book reports? Presentations? How long ahead of time did teachers tell us these projects were due? Maybe a month or so. Where were we the night before the due date? Working on our reports/presentations. Why? Because the one time (for both of us, ironically) that we actually planned ahead and started working on stuff we spent the entire time analyzing, worrying, changing, etc. to the point of not getting the A we knew we would have gotten had we waited to the last possible minute.

Well, some things never change it seems.

This past weekend I had no less than a dozen things I planned to accomplish. Let's take a look at some of what did, and did not, get done.

Laundry: All but one load washed, none put away.
House cleaning: Didn't even attempt it.
Paying bills: If I don't get off my ass and do them, the creditors are gonna start shutting me down.
Balancing the checkbook: (see paying bills)
Grocery shopping: Not until Sunday afternoon and only because we didn't have anything to make lunches with this week.
Paperwork: I really need to find some house documents. Maybe if the room I keep them in wasn't so disorganized I'd have found them by now.
PAT meeting prep: I'm on a policy committee for the school. Tonight is our second meeting, the one where we come with our suggestions on what we'd like to see in the new policies. I still haven't reviewed the documents from the last meeting - two weeks ago.
Appointments: I have so many appointments I have to make, but aside from having the time to actually keep the appointments I haven't taken the time to make them.
Taking down the Halloween decorations: Yeah, that'll probably happen when it's time to put up the Christmas stuff.

And I even had an extra hour to do it all in. Ugh!

right or left?

Do you ever have one of those moments when you're going about your ususal routine and all of a sudden stop to analyze it? No!? Okay, maybe I'm just a freak, but it happened to me last week and it's been on my mind ever since.

It all started the other morning when I sat down on the edge of the bed to put my socks and shoes on. Halfway through pulling my left sock up (right sock already on) it hit me. Do I always put my right sock on before my left? And what about my shoes? Do they have a special order too?

Apparently they do, and so do many other activities in my life as I discovered throughout the week. For example, my hair. I realized I always start drying my hair on the left side of my head before the right. Even the brushing and straightening starts on the left. Walking up or down a flight of stairs I always start with my right foot. And when I brush my teeth, it's the left side that gets to enjoy their cleaning first.

Being that I'm right handed I would have assumed that everything I do would start on the right, but as you can see from the list above, it simply isn't true. The one activity I found that isn't always the same (but at least 95% of the time) is getting out of bed. The right side is the leader on this one, but every so often the left side gets a turn.

Now that you know for sure I'm a freak, and possibly even have a few OCD tendencies, why not observe yourself and see if there's a pattern to your activities? I can't possibly be the only one thinking about this. Besides, now that I've implanted the idea in your brain you'll be consciously noticing your idiosyncracies whether you want to or not. You're welcome for that!

hair days of summer

For weeks now I've had hair on the brain. Every morning when I fight with my unruly hair it reminds me it's time for a cut. Nothing drastic, just a reshaping really, getting all the old, dead ends taken off and the layers redone. My days of drastic hair changes are over. Afterall, who'd want to see a 40 year old woman with a mohawk? Hehe! I was thinking about coloring it again, but I'm pretty sure that'd be a big waste of money at this time of the year when being out in the sun naturally lightens my hair.

I know that because I've been thinking about making a hair appointment I'm more aware of conversations having to do with hair, but this past week's been ridiculous.

It started off with a conversation at work with one of the girls telling us about a coworker who commented on her haircut by saying "Oh, I see we've got a new 'guy' on the team!" Uh, yeah. WTF? She cut her hair really short. And, yes, she's a lesbian and doesn't get all foofy and shit, but c'mon. Why does our hair style make people want to say nasty things to us? Then this other coworker was telling us about the cafe manager stopping her in the hallway to tell her "Your order is taken care of and will be delivered at xx:xx time." She just looked at her and responded, "Huh? I'm not S. I'm K. S is the blonde." (which is funny because S is by no means blonde, but in comparison to K she's a little bit lighter). That of course prompted S to tell us she's really sick of her hair (the color, the length) and needs to do something different. Then A starts in with "I really need to get my hair cut! It's such a PITA, but my hubby doesn't like short hair." Okay, that one got me going. Since when do men get a freakin' say in how we keep our hair?? It's our hair, dammit, and until they start washing, styling and taking care of it for us they've got no damn say in what we do with it.

Then at the BBQ on the 4th the topic of hair came up again. The two teenaged neighbor boys (not brothers, just friends) are in some funky phase of growing their hair long. The hanging in your eyes, greasy, scraggly sort of long. One comes walking past the adults wearing a baseball cap. Apparently the parents finally said 'enough' and made him chop it off. LOL The other, well as of Thursday he was sporting a brand spanking new summer cut. You can actually see ears and eyes on him now.

Even my kiddo who fights me every time I make an appointment for him was looking at a picture taken at school last year when I'd gotten really lazy and hadn't had his hair cut in a couple months. Looks like he's got a mop on his head, literally. He say, "Mom, I hate that picture of me!" When I asked why he tells me his hair is too long. So I reminded him about the fit he pitches every time we go to get his hair cut and he says, "Yeah, I know. I just don't like going, but I like it when it's done." Kids!

And finally, of course, where is Stace today? Taking Michael to get his hair cut. Okay, let's all say it together now. Shocker! Uh, yeah.

So, I still haven't made a hair appointment. And I'm still not really sure what I'm gonna have done if I ever get off my ass to make one. But I'm sure until I do, the topic of hair will be floating into my life over and over again, cuz that's just the way it works for me. Sheesh!

warning: whining ahead

I've read on several blogs in the past couple of weeks people posting about other bloggers who waste time blogging about how they have nothing to blog about. Let this serve as your warning.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ MY WHINING ABOUT HAVING NOTHING TO BLOG ABOUT...

STOP READING NOW!!!

Okay, for those (if any) that are still reading, pull up a seat and listen to me whine. I don't know why it's so hard some days to actually sit down and write something. It's been almost two weeks since I've said anything out here. Maybe it's because ever since I went back to work and spend virtually the entire day sitting in front of a computer I have absolutely no desire to come home and park my ass in front of another one? Or it could be that it's summer and there's so much more to do to keep the house and yards up so I'm spending more time outside instead of feeling my brain rotting staring at the monitor? And then there's been the yearly visitation from The Rents that's kept me doing other stuff and having to socialize, whether I wanted to or not. Whatever the case, they all add up to the same result. No blogging.

Yet, even if I had (or made) the time to blog these days, what in the hell would I say? I don't want to talk about my job because frankly, it'd be boring. I can't talk about certain issues I'm currently dealing with because it wouldn't be prudent. And since I live a pretty mundane existence of work, kid time, house shit, yard work, and whatever other crap comes my way that doesn't leave much to say.

So, maybe if I ask all of you to give me something to write about it will get the mojo moving in my brain again. Go ahead. Make a suggestion. Ask me a question. Anything will do. Just get me writing again, dammit. It's been too long.