Too much tv.

I’m pretty sure I’ve been watching way too much tv lately.  My imagination is on the fritz.  It’s not really working.  

Even now it’s hard for me to think up anything worthwhile to type up.  I think it’s time for a change. 

I kinda wish I didn’t have the distraction of a tv… I think I’m gonna try not to watch anything on it tonight… might be hard.

*edit at 12:17 pm*

Ok so I decided maybe I should make a list of things I can do in place of watching tv.

1. Do a really good detailed cleaning job in my kitchen, not just do the dishes and wipe the counter lol  but scrub the sink and mop the floor, AND organize my cabinets! (I’m truly in love with the container store.)

2. Clean my bathroom!  I’m amazed at how easy it is for me to dirty up the counter with all my hair products and make up… it only stays nice for about 3 days before it looks awful and cluttered again!

3. Work on my Bible study of Esther so I don’t put it off til the weekend… again.  I’m actually really into it, I just procrastinate a lot.

4.  Upload my Chicago photos to walmart.com so that I can work on a project for Christmas shhhh

5. Reorganize my guest bedroom…. again.  In my mad frenzy of “packing” up my apartment when I thought I was going to be able to leave my job soon, I kinda got it completely cluttered up again.

6. Check out the job search engines again and see if there is anything out there.  Although I’m kinda at the point were I’m pretty sure God just wants me to wait it out.  Which is terribly frustrating.  But I’m trying to just be thankful I have a job. Albeit not a job I am fulfilled by but a job none the less.

Hmm… lets see what else can I work on???

Birthday Blues

Every year it’s the same story for me (and others I’m sure)…. it’s birthday time and I’m just not in the mood for a party.  Even when I try to make things simple it seems like it just doesn’t “go my way”.  It’s really no one’s fault but my own.  I just can’t have fun at my own “party” lol I can have fun at anyone else’s though.

This year several things weren’t on my side.  First of all I was on call.  If you know me at all you know that I loathe being on call.  I’ll be in a horrible mood basically the whole time I’m on call.  So that wasn’t helping matters…. but just to make sure I didn’t have a good time mother nature decided to bring me a gift for my birthday 3 days early.  SWEET! lol It’s just one of those things.  So in all honesty if I had done what I really wanted to do this past weekend it would have involved me, my pjs, tcby shivers, and the sofa.   BUT of course I didn’t know that was how I would feel until I had already made “birthday” plans… dinners out and drinks with friends etc etc.  So I was basically moody for most of the time.  Which sucks because I do appreciate all my friends and family that celebrated with me but I’m sure I didn’t seem like I did. 

ah the birthday funk.

I am a Meanie.

My job has turned me in to a mean untrusting person.  Everyone is a liar and everyone will stab you in the back if you turn around.   I’m so tired of having to be mean.  I feel like a b****h most of the time.  The problem is as soon as you are nice to someone they walk all over you, give them an inch and they take a mile.  Sometimes I just want to scream why can’t people just do what they are told?!  Is it THAT hard to just do it. No it’s not. 

I have to watch my words at work because when I’m talking to a tenant about something in their apartment or whatever it may be it’s like they remember every single word I said and will later use it to turn it on me to make whatever “hardship” they are in MY fault.  I didn’t make the hot water take above your apartment explode… therefore it’s not my fault your carpet was saturated with water and we now have to keep fans in to dry it up.  If YOU would leave the dang things on, maybe we could speed up the process of getting them out once the carpet was dried.

I know it shouldn’t be that big of a deal and I shouldn’t feel bad about having to get “stern” with people.  But I have the type of personality that tends want everyone to like me…. I don’t like making anyone mad or uncomfortable…. yes I say what I think but I generally try not to hurt anyone.  So I suppose that is why I feel so incredibly uncomfortable when I have to deal with people in a “mean” way to make them do what is best for them.  And I know it’s good for me to have practice doing that and maybe that’s why God has placed me where I am… and hasn’t allowed me to leave…. I’ve asked.  I’m pretty sure it was a resounding NO for the moment.

I still don’t like being mean.   I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to having a vacation in Memphis where I don’t have to worry and stress.

My biggest Fear? Pollen.

So yeah…… I haven’t had a chance to write a blog in a while because I don’t really think about doing it when I’m at home because I don’t want to pay for Internet and work has been a wee bit crazy to say the least.   And my constant fight with pollen hasn’t helped much either.  Basic recap of the past 3 weeks after I fell and got a new fridge…. I had one week left with out sweets and it was surprisingly easy til I got to Saturday and all I wanted was ice cream…. I was good… I waited til midnight to have it. Easter Sunday started out well and ended with me feeling rather sickly.  I think I passed out on the couch for about 2 and a half hours.  It was that sleep that just made you feel even more sleepy every time you woke up all you wanted was more sleep.  So I allowed myself to be a little lazy.

I wasn’t feeling any better that next day either.  I got a variety of meds to help with the “sickness” and started feeling better around Wednesday… well that is until I thought it would be ok to ride with the windows down.  It was like my sore throat and achey body came back with vengeance.  I finally broke down and took the claritin D which makes me feel crazy but also helps me feel better in other ways.  By Friday I was praying for rain… anything to give me some sort of relief.  And it did… it poured Saturday.

I’m still fighting the pollen considering it’s already made another thick layer of green/yellow nastiness on my car.  I can only imagine what is hiding out in my sinuses.  I’ve taken to using a netipot(which I think is awesome… something to clean out your nose with..who would have thought?!)  and taking showers nightly to get any pollen that is attached itself to me off.  I avoid being outside for extended periods of time which is going to be hard this next weekend because of the music festival…. I’m taking all the meds I own with me. haha 

Another new thing I’m going to try is eating at least a spoon full of locally made honey.  Several years ago a friend told me that was supposed to help with colds and more recently a co-worker said it has helped with her son’s allergies.  So I figured it can’t hurt to try it.

I’m considering allergy shots….. however that will be a process considering I haven’t been tested in over 20 years soooooooo that will involve a lot of poking and prodding and I’m not looking forward to ANY of that.

If anyone else has any suggestions of ways to combat allergies that doesn’t involve pills I would love to know!

Also my birthday is this Sunday I’ll be the ripe old age of 28!

Skinned Knees, Dust Clouds, and New Appliances….

It’s been a long week so far.  It started out not so good.  Let me start with Sunday.  Jeremy decided to come over and we had lots of good plans of walking downtown… well we get our walking shoes on and head out only to realize that 1. the pedestrian bridge is closed for construction and 2. the wind is crazy.   We stay out in the windy cold weather as long as we can handle it.  We start walking back to his truck and this mighty gust of wind blows dirt and sand in our faces so we can’t see and some how I trip either over his feet or my own and go falling to the ground.  I knew my knee had got the brunt of the fall so I roll up my jeans to take a look and sure enough it’s skinned and starting to bleed and the bruise is already showing. As you can see…. it doesn’t look so good.   I took that picture Tuesday night so it had healed a little bit.  I’m just hoping it goes away before it officially warms up!  A skinned knee is usually not an accessory a girl wants with her new dress.  Anyway so that happened Sunday. 

And then there was Monday…. At work (I work at an apartment complex) we have had to put these trays under all the hot water tanks, just the ones on the second floor in a particular area… well mine just so happens to fall in to that catergory.  They started on mine that morning… Now I’m sure it sounds easy, all they have to do is insert a tray underneath the tank, what’s the big deal right?  Well they have to shut off the water and drain the tank before they can do anything because those things are heavy… it’s 40 gallons of water!  And to make matters worse the closet that the hot-water tank is in is just ridiculously dusty and dirty, so the maintenance is having to also vacuum out this closet as they drain the tank to move it.  Well I come home around 11 for lunch and I walk in to a cloud of dust.  I have some serious allergies and I do my best to keep them at bay… I’ve bought air purifiers, I take medicine, I shower at night so I can get the pollen and allergens out of my hair, I use a netipot… I do what I can.  So when I see what is going on I am livid.   To make matters worse they have cut all the water off… so really what is the point in me trying to eat lunch at home?  So I leave.

Later that day I come home to the biggest mess of dust I have ever had to contend with.  So I start cleaning… but the more I clean the more dirt and dust I find.  Actually let me backtrack a bit…. Last Thursday I realize that my ice maker is no longer making the ice… so I ask maintenance to work on it when they can and that was something else that was worked on that day (Monday).   So back to cleaning… I’m having to clean off all the counters and cabinets and well everything… it’s all COVERED in dirt.  (as a side note I found out that the guy who was vacuuming everything out had his shop vac too full and that’s why it was so nasty in my apartment…. thanks guy.)  I decide to turn my air purifier on high because I think that will help.  About 20 minutes later it smells like something is burning, so I turn the purifier down, but I’m still smelling it… mostly in my kitchen.  Something tells me to look in the freezer.  I open up the freezer and everything is thawing out so I quickly start moving all my frozen foods to the empty apartment across the hall and when I come back there is just water everywhere inside.  The bucket that the ice is supposed to fall into is full of water, the ice maker then starts to sizzle and smoke and I put my hand on top of the freezer and it is extremely hot.  I’m freaking out and call the maintenance that lives on property and she comes over to help shut it all off, we end up moving all my food next door and having to turn off the breaker and unplug the fridge!  It was nuts!  One good thing that came out of it is that I did get a NEW fridge   So I took a picture of it.  It’s a little shorter than the old one, but it’s also deeper so I guess that makes up for it.  I’m just glad it works! 

That was all my craziness for the week.  Hopefully I’m done with crazy!  I shouldnt’ speak too soon though….. I am on call. eek!

The Foreigner

Yesterday (Sunday) after doing my many many loads of laundry, Jeremy and I went to the Rep.  Jeremy had never been and it has been a long time since I have.  So we were both excited.  The plan was to go out to eat some where fairly quick and then park and get to the Rep by 6:30, the show started at 7pm.  Well…. to our surprise and frustration A LOT of restauarnts are closed on Sunday.   Our first stop was Juanita’s… right down Main Street, we thought it would be perfect.  The parking lot was halfway full so we quickly park and walk up to the door…. and they are closed. What?!  Some guy hollers at us that if we want mexican there is a place a few blocks away called Rumba.  Number 1 Rumba isn’t really supposed to be Mexican…. it claims to be Cuban.  Number 2 they have really crappy service.  And our whole issue was getting in and out quickly.  So we get back in the truck and start driving again… the minutes are slowly ticking away and we are just making it harder.

Gusano’s too slow, Iriana’s not open, sticky fingerz… way over dressed, flying fish didn’t feel like it, bosco’s too expensive, at this point I am getting so frustrated and it’s now 5:30 and we only have an hour before we need to be getting parked.  Jeremy is threatening fast food and has started heading towards Broadway aka burger row. Vomit. I’m in a dress I don’t want McDonald’s… are you serious?!

Finally I convince him that the Heights are only 5 minutes away and there are several places there that we can surely go… again we find that a lot of places are closed so we end up at US Pizza, which to be honest I’m getting pretty sick of.  We’ve been like 6 times in the past 2 months, but i choke down another salad with house dressing while watching a very silly baby try to eat her way through the car seat seat-belt.

One positive thing is that US Pizza is pretty good at getting us out of there fast.  We are done by 6:20pm and we had back to main street.  We get seated inside, not all that sure what to expect out of the play “The Foreigner” but the premis of it is hilarious.  The basic idea of the play is that there is a man(Charlie) who is very shy and feels like he is rather boring but has been taken to this lodge to spend a few days alone… Charlie’s wife is in the hospital and has told him to go away haha, so Charlie’s friend takes him to this lodge in Alabama and to make it so that he doesn’t have to speak to anyone they tell the people at the lodge that he is a foreigner and can’t speak a word of english.  In a twist of events the man gets to hear everyone’s secrets and begins to feel a little less boring. 

We had wonderful seats and I could see everything that was going on.  It started off a little funny… and just got more hilarous as it went on!  It was really great.  The guy playing Elmer(one of the guests of the lodge and also Charlie’s “english” teacher) was extremely funny to me.  His accent was really good and he and the guy who played the Foreigner worked really well together for laughs.  It was great.  At times it was a little dark but in the end of course good overcomes evil.

Jeremy even said he wanted to go back to see it again hah!   I would recommend if you have a moment this week to go see it then you should!  They have extended the show times til Sunday April 5th.  The tickets are $35.00 and well worth it!

Cheater Cheater Petit Four Eater

Yesterday was the day of my friend Krystle’s Baby Shower (she’s having a little baby boy in May) And the shower turned out really pretty, I was glad several people showed up because I had no idea who would be there since no one RSVPed.  I had 4 other girls planning the shower with me, but I guess I was the ring leader and I took on the roll of decorating for it.  I’ll post some pictures later.

Anyway, there was a lot of food and desserts and I knew this going into the shower and I had decided at the beginning of Lent that I would allow myself to cheat that day at the shower only.  See I gave up desserts for lent, it’s been hard.  And I would also like to take back a comment that I made in reference to temptation.  I had the stupidity to say “I think it’s easier to not do something if you don’t know what you are missing… I think once you give up something long enough it gets easier.”   We were talking about temptation in bible study and that is when I spoke those words.  That night, and since then I have had dreams of desserts.  It’s ridiculous. I’ve never had food dreams.  But I have lately had ice cream dreams and cake dreams… I don’t even like cake by the way. 

Anyway so I felt like a big cheater yesterday eating one of the petit fours… and a cookie…. and a truffle…. and a couple bites of this key lime something or other… and about 10 sweet tart jelly beans….. I went a little over board.   I won’t be having anything else til after Easter and I’m sure it will be all the more difficult now that I allowed that splurge.   Already today I had to fight the urge to grab a couple m&m’s out of my parents candy bowl. gah.  So weak.

Back to laundry… 3 loads down, 2 to go.

Memphis in May

 

Well it’s that time again, it’s getting close to Memphis in May and I feel really good about it this year.  It usually takes me a while to get excited about it but this year is different.  Things have been slow at work and it’s given me a chance to research some of the music.  I’ve had a chance to discover which bands I want to see and which ones I’m not that concerned about.  It’s going to be a compromise though because Jeremy likes different types of music than I do.  And it’s not that I don’t like what he likes, it’s that I like other stuff more lol.  We haven’t yet seen what the actual schedule is for the concerts… I wish they would hurry up and post it to the website so we could get things planned out.

Right now I’m listening to the songs I had Jeremy download for me so I could get prepared for the Beale Street Music Festival.  We also went and ate bbq last night and man it was awesome but that will be the last time I have it before May 1st. I gotta save up my cravings til that weekend lol.  I’m also excited because we are taking separate cars from our friends that we go with… I think this will make things easier on everyone this year.  We all work to our own time schedule and last year it got old waiting around for our friends to finish “hanging out” on beale.  I think this will cut down on some of the stress of last year.

Really I am just looking forward to a little mini vacation.  I need one badly. Work just gets me down.  Especially right now because things seem to be so slow moving.  And I’m just concerned it’s the calm before the storm….  we’ll see.

I have tomorrow off so that will be nice after working for 10 days straight…. I’m sick of being here.  But on the flip side it seems like crazy things happen whenever I’m off so I end up getting a call on my cell phone to tell me about it. bleh.

I’m also looking forward to having dinner with my mom tonight yay!

It’s a Crime…

for me to be at work today.  It is BEAUTIFUL outside!  I recently read an email, it was a forward, and it hit a note in me.  We are always soooooo busy.  So busy that we don’t take time to really live.  I would much rather perfer to be outside with a group of friends on a patio enjoying the weather and their friendship.  However…. on this glorious day I was destin to work lol.  So here I am on my laptop being rather solitary.  Here is the email that I recieved:

“Subject: Will you dance?

READ THIS VERY SLOWLY…. IT’S PRETTY PROFOUND.

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because
They haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t
Know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who
Passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut
Back. From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t
Suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed?
Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while
You watched ‘Jeopardy’ on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, ‘How about going
To lunch in a half hour?’ She would gas up and stammer, ‘I can’t. I
Have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known
Yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.’ And my
Personal favorite: ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years ago. We never
Did have lunch together.
Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule
Our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to
Ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get the baby
Toilet-trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room
Carpet… We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids
Out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter,
And the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we
Awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m
Going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a
Bit.
When anyone calls my ’seize the moment’ friend, she is open to
Adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new
Ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for
Five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of
Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord..
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream.
It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a
Spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped
The car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on
The way home, I would have died happy.
Now…go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to……not
Something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and
Had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what
Would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to
The rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly’s erratic
Flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through
Each day on the fly? When you ask ‘ How are you?’ Do you hear the
Reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred
Chores running through your head? Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it
Tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch?
Let a good friendship die? Just call to say ‘Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened
Gift….Thrown away….. Life is not a race Take it slower. Hear the
Music before the song is over.
It’s National Friendship Week.. Show your friends how much you care.
Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND. If it comes back to you,
Then you’ll know you have a circle of friends.
To those I have sent this to… I cherish our friendship and
Appreciate all you do.
‘Life may not be the party we hoped for… But while we are here we
Might as well dance!”

Makes you think about what’s really important in life.  It’s so easy to get caught up in planning for the ‘future” … Just a few weeks ago one of my best friends was telling me how she just felt so strapped for cash that she wasn’t sure she was going to go on a family vacation, which was a cruise.  The expense of it was reasonable, but the worry of what would be left for her when she got back was keeping her from going for it.  Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we can’t take it with us when we die.  It’s better to spend time with the ones we love then waste time with worry. 

Several many years ago I made a New Years resolution to just say yes.  Say yes to whatever activites I get invited to do.  I may need to start that again.  I remember that year, it was pretty darn awesome.

Politically incorrect.

I do realize that I might be scorned for what I am about to profess but I’m not sure I care anymore.  I think it’s great that we have so many young men (or well some still children being in their teens) that volunteer to defend our country.  However some seem to take on a worthier than the rest attitude.  About 6 out of ten take on this attitude, from my experience.  I’m sure they are perfectly nice to other people, but since I’m in a sort of “service” type job they tend to want to “walk over” and expect special treatment, and are then offended when they don’t receive it.

I hate to stereotype so I will say that in general it’s the younger crowd.  19-23ish, over 25 and they are nice and considerate.  So maybe it’s more of an ageism instead of militaryism. lol.  I just have been treated so rudely by that age group of boys in that profession.   I’ll explain.

Here is an example.  The other night I received a call about a noise disturbance at midnight.  The person that called said he couldn’t tell which apartment it was coming from he just thought it was coming from the 3rd floor.  So I pulled myself out of my warm bed, got dressed, and drove up there.  I drag myself up to the 3rd floor and I can clearly hear someone in their apartment playing a video game.  If you can hear it from outside the apartment, it’s loud.  Just imagine if you share a wall.  So I ring the doorbell… wait…. ring it again… finally a younger guy comes to the door. And I say to him what I say to everyone who I have deal with at 12am.  “Hi I’m getting some complaints about the noise coming from your apartment and you need to turn it off.”  He sneers at me and says he’ll “turn it down.“  I’m sure I gave him a dirty look.  It was freakin 12 am and he’s gonna argue with me when he clearly in the wrong.  And I probably said ok or something like that because I really don’t remember my exact words.  Then he said next time for me to tell the tenant to come and knock on his door and let him know. 

What?!

No idiot.  At this point I was mad, and I told him that it was common sense for him to not be loud at midnight in his apartment and that he needed to be courteous to those around him and turn his TV down. 

 Athough this is what I’ve had to deal with, they think it’s ok to put everyone else out but themselves.  It is so frustrating.

So just like I always do I let the manager know that next morning what took place.  Well they then send out a note to tell him to stop causing noise disturbances, which I didn’t realize but this same person was already on the s*** list with the manager. 

This kid, and he is a kid, he’s only 21.  Sent us a note back HAHA and told them that I was the rude one and I didn’t let him speak… jerk.

And this isn’t the only thing I am basing my opinion on.  I’ve dated a few and know lots others since I’ve worked here and generally I find that they (being young and generally military) treat me like crap. 

Anyway, like I said… I realize it sounds bad.  It’s just something that I have learned over time and it sucks that it’s connected with people who defend us.