I’m writing now over at digtune. Follow this link to view my review of Pete & The Pirates’ “Little Death”.
Archive for the 'General' Category
I’ve solved why people bang their head on the wall. The moments in between each sudden stop against the wall are complete bliss compared to the searing pain that occurs when flesh and bone are pummeled into a hard surface. I think for most people it’s hard to imagine why one might seek out this kind of pleasure, but those in IT or some other industry in which you are hated for simply doing your job know differently.
Add the wonderful economic climate to this usual situation and you’ve got yourself the making for a salad of bitter greens and hot sauce.
Recently some of us met up for a usual lunch at one of our local watering holes. It was a mix of former and current colleagues and of course, the vast amount of the discussion was around current employment situations, career choices, and what the hell any of us are doing about it.
One of us (that’s probably me) says too much and is edgy almost to the point of making others uncomfortable. Fuck it, he says. We’re in a bar, swilling pints, eating artery-clenching foodstuffs, and inhaling a thousand other drunks’ second hand smoke. According the health experts, we are on the edge of death anyway. The guy proceeds to talk trash about most everything. It’s an American bar tradition.
The older gent in the party is as he usually is, taking everything is stride. No one is sure that he’s ever threatened by anything. The young bucks in the group should probably take a page from his laid-back, almost Laissez-faire playbook, but they won’t. At least not until they “get it.”
Another of the guys is a 30-something recently jettisoned from his long time employer and wondering what the hell is next. He a dedicated guy who, in the time he has been known to the group, has never been known to be stressed or even the slightest bit bitter. He has a plan and is confident, laughing, and comments on how being unemployed and worried about where he’s going to go is less stressful than the job he held a few weeks earlier.
The group still notes the slight tinge of worry and bitterness coming through in his story of not getting a single solid lead in the near month of holding the title “professional unemployment line squatter”.
In fact, from the laid back veteran to the bitter, loud barfly to the job seeker, it’s apparent that all these guys are deeply affected by the crumbling economy. All have an uneasy demeanor that was absent even a few months earlier as they got together for lunch to discuss technology, beer, and make the occasional vulgar comment or three.
The conversation digresses into complaints about the new jukebox and the bitter dude splits the scene, leaving the other two to most likely discuss how much of a pain in the ass he is.
Over the past 24+ hours, I’ve thought long and hard about the conversation; probably more than any of the other participants. I keep looking at my demeanor and the things that fly out of my brain in fits of passion in the rear view mirror. Most times, it looks like a train wreck, but I think there are things to learn.
I have a new mantra that goes something like this. “I’m tired of waiting for things to happen to me.” I think in order to act on that thought, I have to start paying a little more attention and maybe making a few less train wrecks. Figuring out how to direct my passion in a constructive direction is definitely my first priority.
Anybody know anyone who’s looking for a crazy, passionate, brilliant, well-written information technology professional to become a significant and active member of their organization? If so, hit me up in any of the usual places.
Current Mood:
Happy
For the past 5 or 6 years we’ve gone to Paw Paw for their annual Wine Festival. For those that have been long time readers you may have remembered my post from last year. This year we went for the full weekened to enjoy the festival with our parents. We met up with them on Friday Sept. 5th at a campground just North of Kalamazoo. We’ve gone “camping” with our parents for the past 2 or 3 years…I can’t remember how many exactly, but we’ve never really camped. We would just go back with them after the festival activities on Saturday night for dinner and a campfire, and bunk in their campers (Clare in my parent’s, and Brad & I in his parent’s) leaving on Sunday morning after breakfast. This year we opted to try tenting! We as a family have never been camping, and this was a good way to find out if we could in fact do it on our own.
Brad’s brother had bought a tent and some gear from a family friend 4+ years ago, and they never used it - leaving it to sit in my in-laws garage. Being the adventures we are, we opted to try it out as we had remembered it being a large 2 room tent, and that was the kind of tent we had wanted to look into getting. It is an old tent, it’s been well used and abused, and has served it’s purpose for many people in their camping fun. We weren’t told we might want to water proof it before using it, which might have been helpful for the 2nd night of camping, but in the end we survived despite the tons of wet laundry to do on returning home.
That Friday I busied myself with errands to run, packing to do, and prep work for our weekend. I had everything all piled up by the door so by the time Brad got home all we had to do was load the car, and hit the road after scarfing some pizza. We had a small plan worked out that we needed to arrive well before dark to put up the tent, as we had never put it up before and had no clue on how to do it. We arrived at the campground, found our parent’s, and began to set-up. It was kinda nice because we were right in between our parent’s campers, so it made for easy potty runs with Clare, and food prep was a snap with our mom’s fridges holding our goodies! We didn’t exactly rough it though, as we had bought a double high areobed at Costco to sleep on, and had our comfy cozy down filled comforter to sleep with. Clare was like, “Where’s my bed”, and I replied “You’re sleeping bag on the ground”.
The first night wasn’t so bad, despite the temps dropping down into the 5o’s. I actually kinda liked it that cold! We had some dew seap in on the sides, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Clare woke up for a 2 am potty, which we ran to my parent’s camper to take care of, and she complained of the cold. My dad sent over an old heater, and even though it didn’t warm up the tent too much it seemed to satisfy her. We ate a quick breakfast of bagles & coffee cake, and did some hanging around before packing our lunches to head into Paw Paw. It was the usual crafty street fair for the mom’s, Clare & I, and the dad’s & Brad hit a car show that was set up accross the street. My mom, Clare, and I bought some cool Ya Ya hats to wear around, as well as the usual crafty things that one buys. After our wine tasting adventures we went back to the campground for dinner, a campfire, and wine! I think the wine helped us in thinking our hats were cool, although I will say it was kinda fun to wear them around town listening to people ask us about them.
Clare actually went to bed early, and we sat around the camfire for a bit before heading off to bed. All was well until about 2am when it started to rain. I did a quick look around with the flashlight to make sure all was well, and it was despite a few wet spots. Clare’s pillow was soaked because she pushed it against the tent wall in her sleep, so I folded an extra blanket to put over the top of it so she wouldn’t have to worry about feeling it. I went back to sleep for a bit, and then the rain was coming down hard so I woke up only to find a big sag in our tent over Clare. I quickly wisked it off the top of the tent in hopes of making it better, the sag only filled with water again, and the door we were using for our main entrance was not working the greatest and was pulling and separating and water was coming in around the extension cord we had brought into our tent. We fixed the poles the best we could, Clare woke up to say “Are we going to die?” “No” I said, “but we might get a little wet!” The rain finally let up, and we had a pile of wet dirty clothes & bedding, and a crabby 6 year old on Sunday morning.
We packed everything up, said our good byes, and headed home. Despite the few mishaps we had with our little tenting adventure, I would have to say it was a good weekend and left us feeling kinda relaxed. I think next year we might buy a new tent though, while this one while it was free to us, just has a few too many problems for us to want to deal with. Especially if we go on our own, and don’t have our parent’s 25 feet away from our tent to help us!
Current Mood:
Bored as hell
I don’t think my break was long enough. I really do dislike the place I work and have a hard time sometimes finding the motivation to get things done; especially when it seems that the very essence of my position is to create more havoc.
Of course, I came back to a pile of e-mail to go through because, for once, I’ve actually been ignoring it. My phone was on ringer-only for most of the holiday (meaning that only the phone would ring… no ring, no vibrate for e-mail). Yes… I have a cursed Blackberry. No… I could live without it.
It was an insanely slow day. It probably will be for most of the rest of the week. I suspect a lot of people are still virtually on holiday or actually are taking off the rest of the week. We used to get two weeks at Christmas. It was a week and a half in 07. In 08, we have to go back between XMas and New Year’s; for the first time since I’ve been here (almost 7 years).
It seems that every year our benefits get pulled a little more (certainly no match for the piddly pay increases we’re afforded), but given the W Michigan economy and my very industry-specific background, finding another high-paying job in this town is probably not in the cards anytime soon.
So I wait.
We’ll be out drinking (*shock*) tonight, so I figured I’d drop a quick Happy New Year to everyone. After the festivities are over, I’ll post our list of this year’s contributions to the alcoholic goodness (hint: we made pudding shots).
Current Mood:
Martini Mood
This morning has been relatively quiet around the Eastowners’ house…..and might I add it’s sweet bliss. Yesterday was far too hectic of a day for me, and I needed a day to clear my anger out of my head. Yesterday started out okay, I got to sleep in a bit…..Clare ate breakfast, as did I, I surfed my usual blog reading with the help of my handy dandy Google Reader, and it went down hill from there. Before I go down hill I would like to share with those readers of our fine blog exactly what Google Reader does for me. If you have (or want to create) a gmail account (googles answer to e-mail), you have access to their Reader. When you go to Google’s page, look in the upper left for the More tab, click on it and you’ll see Reader down under it. Here you can subscribe any and all blogs you read on a daily basis. It tells me when my pals have posted a new blog, I read them….comment if I choose to…..and then I move on up the line to the next blog. I find it handy especially as a busy mom that has to read a sentence 10 times before I can get through a blog post, and this way I’m not clicking all over creation to find the blogs I read the most. I come downstairs every morning, open up my laptop, click refresh, and I read to my hearts content. It’s a great way to manange your blog reading if you do a lot of it. I’m sure I’m not even using it to it’s fullest potential…..but I would have to say I LOVE it!
Back to the down hill slide of yesterday that put me in such an utter bad mood I felt like crying. I did my reading, and decided to take a shower before getting Clare to school. Clare asked if she could get a shower too…..I said yes, thinking if she got in there first I could slip in after her and she could get dressed while I showered. I got wrapped up in folding towels, and then it took Clare far too long to get dressed. Okay fine, I thought I’d take her to school, come home grab a shower, and have a relaxing afternoon. We got through lunch with the help of the timer (we’ve been using it A LOT as of late to help us in our time management), and headed out the door with time to spare. Sweet, I don’t have to speed accross town to get her to school on time! Well, not 3 blocks from our house my brakes blew out. I stopped, thankfully, called Brad immediately ready to cry, crept my way around the corner and barely stopped in front of our house. Brad came home, gave me his car and he tried adding brake fluid to my car…..I immediately saw the leak, brake fluid gushing out by my rear passanger tire. He told me to leave, and had a coworker come pick him up to take him back to work (thankfully he works only 2 miles away from home). Clare was 10 minutes late to school, I felt aweful. I’ve been telling her all along that we need to be to school on time because now that she’s in Kindergarten it counts if she’s tardy, and if we’re late too many times we end up in the Principal’s Office. The office staff, and her teacher were very kind in saying don’t worry about it……I thought to myself, I wonder how many stories they hear when people are late. My brakes truely did go out though. The only stipulation for taking Brad’s car though was that he wanted me to check the oil in it, as he thought it was low. I said, “Well, why don’t I just take it for an oil change since that hasn’t been done in almost a year.” While I was out he was able to find a part for my car to fix the brake line in the back, so I figured I’d go down to Delta Imports and pick it up because the sooner I have the part the faster my car gets fixed (in theory anyway). By the time all that was said and done I only had a little less than an hour before having to head back to school to get Clare, and I was still showerless and very cranky. I came home, read for a bit, and then left to get Clare. Dinner wasn’t so bad, something new Eggplant Parmesean sandwhiches with a side of rice. IT was actually kinda yummy. Brad made me a drink to help ease the pain of my day. We sent Clare to bed early as the toll of school has really given her some attitude issues, and we settled down to a night of DVR & drinks.
Today has been relatively quiet. I was able to get my shower, breakfast, and do my blog reading all the while having a quiet morning. Let’s hope our afternoon is equally quiet!
It’s finally feeling like Fall around here. The days are getting shorter, and it’s much cooler….the way I like it! It’s been a while since I’ve written last….been pretty much the same around here for the past month. Let’s see, since I’ve last blogged Clare has finally turned 4! We celebrated with a small party at home the Sunday before with the grandparents, and then the day after her birthday we had a party at Chuck E Cheese with some of her girl friends. Clare was very specific this year, she only wanted girls….as she doesn’t like boys right now, and they ruin things according to her. She had a blast with her friends Anya, Gwen, and Kathleen. Clare has also picked-up on her bike riding skills, and loves to ride her bike now. About 2 months ago you had to put her on it kicking and screaming! Now, you can’t get her off of it. We also had a yard sale Labor Day Weekend to raise money for our drinking funds 
We actually made quite a bit of money, and got rid of a bunch of stuff! I did have to take a large carload to Goodwill when it was all said and done, but oh well….I didn’t expect to sell everything. I still have a few things to take over there, but nothing major. This weekend we are headed to Paw Paw, MI for some Wine Festival Fun! This is our 3rd or 4th year going, and it’s turned into quite an event. Last year we had my parents, Meghan’s parents, Larry & Meghan, Brad’s parent’s, and some of their friends come. It was quite the ordeal. This year I think it’s just the parents, and we might meet up with some of our friends for a drink under St. Julian’s tent in the afternoon. Should be fun none the less, as we are camping this year, so we get to continue drinking with the parents while Clare sleeps away in the camper. Moonshadow is being kenneled, and we are off for some fun. And then on Monday it’s off on our new schedule, as Clare begins preschool 3 afternoons during the week. I am VERRRRYYYY Excited about that! I have no clue what I’ll do for 7 hours a week, but I’m sure I’ll find something.
So, our vacation went well. On Friday we ended up not getting as much in as we had hoped for….but that’s because we had a slight incident on Thursday night with some Motini’s. Our friend decided to make dinner for us, as well as a few drinks….well, a few led into complete and utter drunkeness! I felt slightly drunk, we were wandering around their back yard, and then Jackie came home….we were all talking to her in the kitchen, and then we decided to go to bed. All of a sudden I felt rather ill. I spent a good while in the bathroom…….and then the next morning Chris spent a good while in the bathroom. So, after much needed sleep and rest we headed out later in the morning for some decent greasy breakfast….and then off to Golden. We did the Coors Brewery tour, which was okay….but they really didn’t tell you much more than you learn on a History Channel show on beer. Everything is top secret apparently! That took quite a while to do, so then we quickly drove over to Red Rocks for some pictures. The stairs there will make you die!!!! I started out okay, and then a quarter of the way up I was completely out of breath. High altitude and being overweight does not work so well together. Afterwards we came back to their place as they had some stuff to do with their refinancing signing. For dinner we went to the oh so yummy Thai Garden…..their food is so good, it makes you want to instantly die and go to heaven!
On Saturday we got up went to breakfast, and then headed South to Castle Rock for the wine festival. There were over 20 wineries there, plus some yummy oil dipping place, and crafters, and the like. I couldn’t make it to the end though…..my nose was numb, and I was hot. We did at least 2-3 tastes per booth, plus I had a full glass from one of the booths. We came home with some great wine, and 2 awesome wine carriers that were included in our ticket price. I am hoping if we go around that time next year we’ll be able to go. Then we came back to Chris & Jackies and lounged for a bit before heading out for some mexican dinner. On Sunday we went to the Flea Market out in Commerce City. It was huge!!! Chris & Brad equated it to Shipshawana, I’ve never been so I don’t know. We walked about half of it, and I was done because it was so stinkin’ hot out! We came back, lounged around, ate an awesome morracan stew made by Jackie, and went to bed.
On Monday we left about 3:30am and headed South/East on I-70. We decided to take 2 days to come home this year, and try the South route to see if it was anymore interesting than Nebraska. It is! We did 8 states in 12 days this year, and coming home was much nicer this way….although I don’t think we’ll stay at the Lake St. Louis Days Inn again. We made Kansas by daybreak, and saw some interesting signs along the way. Worlds Larges Prarie Dog, and a 5 legged steer! Oh, and Exit 292 the Oz museum in Wamego, KS. Brad was kind enough to make the 9 mile detour so I could go to the great land of Oz! It was kinda cheaky, but hilarious none the less. It’s basically some guys collection of stuff related to THe Wizard of Oz that got out of hand, so he made a museum of sorts with the help of the state. Most of it was replica’s. I took a ton of pics, so you can experience it too! Then it was back down KS 99 to I-70 so we could make it to our hotel. We stayed just outside of St. Louis in Lake St. Louis at a Days Inn. It wasn’t too divey….but a chair was broken, and you could hear motorcycles most of the night. It was a place to sleep, and that’s what we did. We awoke at 4am, drove around St. Louis in the dark, and headed to Indy. Then we caught I-69 and headed North towards my parents house. We arrived there around 5:45pm for some pizza. On Wednesday we went blueberry picking with Larry & Meghan. Afterwards we had dinner with Meghan’s parents, sister & her husband, and her neice Sophia. Oh, and Meghans grandma came too. After dinner it was time to load the car….we got most of it to fit, with the exception of the things we forgot! That’s okay, we’ll see everyone in a few weeks for Clare’s birthday.
Yesterday was spent catching back up on my rest, unpacking, and finding new homes for the souvineer’s we bought. We had to go buy a replacement card reader, as we left ours in CO for our digital camera. I was hoping Brad would have put the pics up last night, but he got side tracked with his clay. There are a ton of pics, so I am sure that it will take a while to get them up anywyay. Today it is off to playgroup this morning, with laundry followed in the afternoon. I kinda hate going on vacation sometimes….there’s so much prep before you go, and then there’s the unpacking when you get back. I guess it was worth it to be able to go out to CO and see some sites though. Maybe I need a maid!?!?!?!
| You Are Cookie Monster |
 You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you’ll eat anything if cookies aren’t around. You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking How you life your life: In the moment. “Me want COOKIE!” |
So, I figured that I’d use a different color so you can understand how HOT I am this weekend. I think summer is finally here! I’ve been trying to tough out the heat by not turning on the air, but I chickened out this afternoon when it was a steamy 85 in the dining room….meaning it was about 90 upstairs where Clare had taken a nap at and was sweating up a storm. Of course it didn’t help that she had a fleece blanket covering her, but she’s so darned independent and OCD about certain things! So, I turned it on and the AC is diligently working on getting it cooler in here. It’s not bad on the main floor, it’s the sweltering upstairs that’s the problem. Oh well, I complain when it’s freezing and snowy….and I complain when it’s hot and sticky. At least the humidity isn’t that high…..that’s the clincher for me.
In other news, here’s an update on life in the Watson house! Let’s see….we’ve had some fun adventure’s as of late. Clare went to an open gym at Gymco, and had a blast! She really enjoyed jumping down the trampoline runway that they have inground, as well as doing balance beams, summersaults, and she even swung from the rings in the ceiling into a donut ring on the ground. I was highly impressed with the swinging on the rings, as that is something she’d usually shy away from, and she did it twice! On Saturday the 20th we headed down to Niles to take advantage of some free babysitting while we went out to Czar’s 505 in St. Joe to see our favourite band Hello Dave. It was an interesting night with my brother-in-law and his wife Karyn, as well as their friend that came with us. THe drinking began with the usual double vodka and tonics, then suddly we were doing Jager Bombs…and it all went downhill from there. Thankfully we had a DD to get us back to Niles. It was a bad night, and now my father-in-law has some stories to add to the holiday dinners. I personally and going to forget that that night ever happend! This past week has been very busy with play dates, MOMS Club stuff, and our usual 3 days a week spent at the YMCA for classes and workouts. I found a babysitter for the summer, so I am excited about continueing my once a week 3 hours away from Clare time. She’s very nice, and came highly recommended from the gal I had this Winter/Spring. Clare seems to like her, so that’s all that counts…well, and that they don’t do anything too crazy while I’m gone
This weekend has been spent relaxing to the most extreme. Yesterday we were able to sleep in til like 9:30am, thanks to Clare playing in her room while we slept. It was so nice! Then we headed out for some coffee and bagles at the Bagle Beanery….very yummy, and a perfect way to start a Saturday. Afterwards we cruised on down to Costco for some petrol and much needed grocery shopping. While we were in there I mentioned stopping by their cell phone qiosk just to see what they had to offer and if it was any kind of a deal being a member and what not. Well, it turns out that T-mobil had an awesome plan….and I got the hippest new phone for dirt cheap! I was able to get the Magenta Razor by Motorola for like $35, when it was a $230 phone. Plus I got a $45 mail in rebate to send in on top of it all. Pretty sweet deal, and it is all cute and Magenta! It also has a camera in it for taking pics & video, which will come in handy when either I don’t bring the nice camera or we go out to the bar. It only takes little snap shots, but will definitely be nice to have. And it’s so dang small & thin, I forget I’m talking on a phone when I’m on the phone. So, I have a new toy to play with for the weekend. Today we took Clare to see Over the Hedge…..so cute, and way better than The Wild. I could see buying it and watching it over and over again. Who knows what tomorrow brings, I think more relaxing, and Clare will probably want to go out and spalsh around in her kiddie pool I set up last night. She was so die hard about getting in last night when I put the water in…..I tried to be a good mom, and not let her freeze…but no way, she wanted in. So….I let her get in, and after about 15 minutes she was shivering. Tonight it was much better, and she actually enjoyed it.
