Archive for December, 2008

Not bad… not bad..

December 31, 2008 at 8:56 am · Filed under daydreaming, debt, dreams, exercise, family, holidays, interior design, job stuff, knitting, life, love, motivation, travel

I knew I had one of these “resolution” posts floating around… so I checked it to see how I did for 2008.  All in all, not too shabby.  I do remember making a list half-way through the year of things I wanted to do by the end of the year and one of those items was to finish knitting a pair of socks and that SO did not happen.  Oh well.  At least there’s this:

- End the year with less debt.   Well, I can’t say this happened… but I certainly have a better idea of what my debt is – that counts for something, doesn’t it?  I also managed to get my cell phone to stop ringing with debt collector calls by changing my phone number.  heh.

- End the year with less fat.  I haven’t seen PJ since I’ve been back from my trip…  I did weigh myself this morning and I weigh exactly the same as I did last year on the first… does it count that I haven’t GAINED fat?

- End the year with less angst.  Much less angst-y about certain family situations.  Though, I have flown off the handle about relatively calm emails… I guess it means at least I’m not willing to be a doormat anymore.

- End the year with a nest-egg.  I do have one of these, though it might disappear once I have other dental work done in a couple weeks.  UGH.

- End the year with the same job I had at the beginning of the year.  I’d like this to continue through 2009 as well…  I totally enjoy working here and want to stay on for a while longer!!

- End the year having seen my paternal family.  Been there, done that… twice!  It sucks that it was done once for going to a funeral on my maternal side of the family, but… it reminded me how nice and caring they all can be!

 

As for 2009… here we go:

1. I’ll take the NCIDQ and pass it, first try.

2. I’ll end the year with less debt – for real.

3. As mentioned above, I’d like to end 2009 still at the job I’ve started it with.  Retail = never again!

4. I’d like to go to Ireland for a week.

5. I’ll visit my mother.

6. I’ll get my weight back under ___ lbs.

7. I’ll knit a pair of socks.

8. I’ll NOT have “ex-sex”.

9. I’ll upgrade my apartment (as in, get out of the studio… still waiting on word for that 1 bedroom.)

and finally

10. I’ll continue to do things because I want to do them, and not care what other people think or how crazy they seem.

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Pepper Spray!

December 30, 2008 at 11:01 am · Filed under family, funny, rants, stupid, travel

When I was back east I went to the Yankee Candle Factory in South Deerfield, MA.  This used to be a nice excursion to take because the candles were cheaper to buy there than they were to buy at a local Hallmark or Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  Now… not so much.   Where I used to be able to get 18 votive candles for 20 bucks I now paid 18 dollars for 12.  Pih on that, I say!

Anyhow, part of my mission while I was there was to get this Reed Diffuser for my mother.   My mom likes beach-y scents and I had bought her some candles of this scent once before and she really enjoyed it.  My sister had bought mom a diffuser for her birthday but she knew she’d need another one soon.  Anyhow, I obliged, made the purchase, plus some other candles, and called it a day.

With my candle purchases, and my yarn purchases at Webs, I had planned to mail a box back to myself so I wouldn’t have to check a bag at the airport.  I thought (and was proven wrong) Jetblue charged for checking a bag, but still… it seemed silly to check a small box when I could just mail it back to myself. 

However, with the power out in my hometown and the roads being hazardous all the way around, I never made it to the post office.   I figured with some creative packaging I could manage to fit the candles, mom’s gift, and the yarn in my carry-on after all. 

I was prepared for some static when I hit security at Logan Airport because I had purchased a pair of scissors at Wal-Mart and even though I had tucked them way in the bottom of my carry-on, I wasn’t sure if they’d let me through the gate with them or not.  So, when my bag was pulled aside, I shrugged and figured I wasn’t going to be able to knit while I was on the plane… What I was NOT prepared for was for the security guy to pull out the reed diffuser and tell me I couldn’t take it on the plane because it exceed the liquid limitations for carry-on items.   Sure, I could have checked my bag, but I was already running a little behind and I seriously have a fear of losing my luggage!   I allowed them to confiscate my mom’s present, and told the security guy he should give it to his wife for Christmas, as it’s a really nice, clean smell!

Ok, real quick, let me just say how stupid I thought it was that they confiscated the present, but didn’t say anything about the scissors in my bag, nor did they say anything about the brand new, full-sized bottle of hairgel I had not in my suitcase, but in my open purse carry-on.  But, whatever… I exceeded the liquid limitation and they took it. 

Fast forward to Christmas Eve.  I’m getting ready to go to the theater to see Jersey Boys and I decide I want to take my cute little Asian-print purse with me to the show, as I don’t need to bring a whole hell of a lot with me.   I remember that said little purse is still in my suitcase, as I never unpacked the small outside zipper-thingies and I brought it with me to MA.  I take out the purse and open it up to stick my wallet in it when I realize there is something in the purse.  I reach my hand in and you know what I pull out?  Pepper spray. 

Let me repeat: There was pepper spray IN MY CARRY-ON that went through security in Chicago, and again through security in Boston. 

PEPPER SPRAY.

Did TSA confiscate this?  No.  Of course not.

Did TSA confiscate my mother’s Yankee Candle Reed Diffuser?  Yep.  They sure did!

Freaking pepper spray got through security.  Twice.  I’m still shaking my head in disbelief!

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By the letter V…

December 29, 2008 at 9:49 am · Filed under aches & pains, anxiety, bummed, dating, life, rants

Wrote this on Saturday evening…

Oral surgery went better than I expected. There was no counting backwards from 10 – it was just… now I’m awake, now I’m not, now I am and I’m less 3 teeth from my mouth. I was even able to talk and crack crappy jokes.

Got more Vicodin. Could totally become an addict at this point, but I don’t see how people do it. Right now I feel like my heart is barely beating, I can’t concentrate enough to read or knit and even though I’ve already napped, I think another one is in order. I’ve been good and I wrote down when I took the last dose, per my mother’s instructions, so I don’t overdo it or put myself through unnecessary pain.

Andi is a freaking angel for taking me.

What else… Christmas Day I posted an ad on craigslist, much to my own chagrin. The biggest clause being that if said guy was to answer the ad, they were to please answer a few simple, but silly questions. No answers, immediate deletion. Well, 2 people kept my attention throughout the day, one more than the other… The more-attention guy, we’ll call him E, he and I passed questions back and forth and it made the day far less depressing than I thought it would be when I woke up (I was literally chanting to myself it’s just another Thursday). Anyhow, we got to a point where I flat out asked him when he was going to ask me out for coffee. 2-3 more emails passed after that – he asked if I was free that night, I suggested Friday because.. well, just because.

And then he stopped emailing.

The other guy… the other guy DID ask me out for coffee, which I initially agreed to, but then things got a little weird. He didn’t have a myspace or facebook to offer up, and despite the fact that we were going to go meet each other, he was unwilling to give me his phone number. Call me crazy (which I probably am for posting a fucking ad on CL in the first place), but I just felt a little weird only knowing this guy’s first name, no number, nothing else. He made some crack about giving me his SSN after we met so I could do a background check, which I thought was rather condescending. I was asking for his phone number – not his freaking blood type.

So I guess this cements my whole ‘not worth it to date’ feelings again. I’m mildly bummed that I didn’t get to meet the E guy, and the other person who emailed was a potential psychopath.

I know there are moments where it’s good to be alone, but I can’t help but wonder what the frig is wrong with me sometimes. Maybe that’s the wrong verbiage.. I wonder what is wrong with MEN that they don’t find me the least bit appealing. Whateva.

Finally, I’m potentially moving down the hall next weekend. There’s a 1 bedroom opening up on my floor and, if the floorplan is every bit as fabulous as it is in my head, I’ll be walking all my shit from one end of the building to the other. This means I can have a cat-free bedroom, which is going to take some getting used to – I do enjoy when Forrest curls up in my feet at nighttime – but I think I’d enjoy knowing I could put my face on my pillow without using a sticky roller on it first to get all the cat hair off.

I think I’ve hit my limit for how long I can sit up vertically.

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Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings…

December 23, 2008 at 9:53 am · Filed under anxiety, family, holidays, life, travel, worry

I haven’t really had much to say as of late, as it seems like everything in my life has revolved around the freaking weather.

I went to New England earlier in the month and got caught in a monster of an ice storm.  It knocked the power out of my small town for 4 days and they’ve continued to be pummelled by snow ever since. 

My mom, on the west coast, has been experiencing her share of snow too.  And me in the middle?  Well, it’s snowing right now and plans to do so for a while longer, if that says anything.  I keep threatening to move to Mexico as Florida is simply just not far enough south.  This is usually the time of year I love to see snow – I’m not usually fed up with it until January/February, but I’m feeling very Bah-Humbug lately.  Actually, it’s not even that – I feel like the holidays are already over anyhow because I went to visit my family at such a weird time.

I did want to share the mass quantities of driving I did while I was back east – I did this in the 2 days before the ice storm hit… I’m glad I did make the trip to western Mass when I did… I got to see the home of yarn.com (Webs), and I hit up the Yankee Candle factory.  My suitcase smelled really nice on the way back home.  Anyhow, here’s what my Tuesday and Wednesday looked like:

Tuesday was aprox 147 miles, and Wednesday was aprox 171 miles.  For someone with anxiety when it comes to driving…  that’s a whole lot of area covered.

Then, on Thursday I spent the day with my dad and had Lobster, Steamers, and passed out on his sofa.  I went back to my aunt and uncle’s place and that night the storm hit.  We spent Friday heating up water on the gas grill outside so we could have hot chocolate and I curled under 5 blankets and read Eclipse, the 3rd book of the Twilight series, by flashlight.

Anyhow, I’ve been back for a little over a week.  I managed to knit a pair of fingerless gloves for a coworker for our secret santa exchange and while knitting I listened to the 4th and final book of Twilight.  I’m contemplating a move down the hall from my existing apartment into a larger one, and I’ve got my oral surgery coming up this week. 

I’m rather bah-humbug and lonely all wrapped into one emotional mess.  This year has been so fabulous, I don’t want to end it on a bad note so I’m trying to work through the emotional crap and focus on the good.  It’s harder than it sounds.

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Not to mention… who’s going to hold my hand?

December 16, 2008 at 8:36 pm · Filed under aches & pains, life

Things that suck about being single #092380923:

You need oral surgery.
You have to have someone arrive with you, stay there while your mouth is cut open, and escort you home.

When you are living with someone you simply say, “Hey.. I’m doing this – be there.”

When you are single you have to see which friend doesn’t have plans with their family, who has a car, and who will make the least fun of you while your numb, drooling and potentially puking.

Andi is going to be that friend, but she makes no promises on the not-making-fun front.

December 27. 3 extractions. I’m there.

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