Something Shiny

Matt and I splurged a few days after Christmas. Unexpectedly.

Our old HP kicked its final bucket, after numerous miraculous revivals... And we were literally in the electronics store the next day.

It's not as if we don't have a desktop in the house. Yep, we still had access to the outside world.

...The honest truth?

The crashing of the our laptop basically meant we couldn't blog/fark/email/facebook in front of the tv. It meant we would have to drag our happy asses to the back of the house, into our secluded, tv-less, spouse-less office.

So that alone merited the blowing of a couple hundred dollars. And here I sit with my shiny, new, fancy ass, wide screen HP notebook in my lap... As I'm curled up in my recliner.

And all is right with the world.

Candy Canes

Well, the stocking contents are scattered across the carpet. Matt's back in bed. And I'm sitting here with my Kahlua and coffee, watching the dogs tear into their Christmas gifts.....

Raw hide candy canes. Never fail. ...Although it did take Wynn a minute to remember she had to work a little to get to the good stuff. It's been a year since she's last indulged. Thel, on the other hand, dug right in.

Matt stuffed my stocking with Burberry perfume and an ornament from Papyrus. ......Yep, I caught me a good one.

Warm Wishes

Happy Christmas!

...I spent my Eve sleeping and baking and watching/re-watching A Christmas Story on some 24-hour tv marathon. I produced roughly 130 of the chocolate chip cookies I grew up on. 130! ...Straight out of my Memaw's cookbook. Is it lame that I'm kind of excited to finally be that neighbor?... You know, the one who drops off home-made cookies and a cute little note? Look at me, I get a day off and transform into Holly Homemaker.

Since we've decided to skip the whole gift-giving thing this year, I decided mass amounts of sugar might help fill the void. Sugar and butter. Lots of butter.

Matt and I did stuff each other's stockings in lieu of big gifts this year. I had a little fun with it. Got him an Optimus Prime figurine after we saw the movie and he was all excited about it... Got him a few airplane-sized bottles of Jack D. A little inside joke involving nearly every plane ride I've witnessed Matt take over the course of the past 6 years. Lots of candy, of course.... And another PSP game. We do an ornament exchange every year too... Which is funny because we have yet to put a full-sized tree up. Ever. ...In due time, I suppose.

Well, better get some sleep. I have a long, hard day of couch-potatoing and stuffing myself silly tomorrow.

Warm wishes to you and yours...

An Abstract Mr. Kringle

Over the weekend, I finally got some Christmas decorations up. My Christmas bin was like a huge gift in itself... I completely forgot about all the decor I bought last year.

I pulled out this little man and fell in love with him all over again. ...He does have a Christmas Tree friend, not pictured, that stands about two inches shorter than him, but the whole abstract vibe is what makes this set my favorite. ...So much so that they sit on my entry way table and are the first to greet the incoming....

How to Deal with a Bitch for a Coworker

I've been working for a week and a day now... Training with three other people, two of them being of the male gender. The first day went really well. The other girl and I went to lunch... Expressed how nice it'd be to have a friend at work. ...And I can't decide if her sentiments were genuine, or if she was just conniving from the beginning.

But the next day brought on a rain of passive-aggressive, catty-ass behavior. Hit me like a brick.

Only thing I can chalk it up to is the primitive womanly instinct to compete. Perhaps she feels threatened. Perhaps she's pms'ing. Perhaps she's just a bitch.

My point of this thread, because she's not worth much more of the strain on my fingertips, is... The way to deal with a bitch for a coworker is to put her in her place one time, to make her aware that you are capable of pushing back.

Then to sit back and watch her spin her wheels. Her issues are obviously with herself... Might as well appreciate their entertainment value.

Curlers Are Out...

This weekend we threw a party..... We were kind of tired of the usual 'fiesta' or italian-themed parties and opted for something a little more... Fresh.

To prepare, Matt and I visited Good Will, the 99 Cent Store and Walmart. Our decorations consisted of a Good Year banner, indoor mismatched Christmas lights, beer cans dispersed across the room, an American flag, 2-liter soda bottles with tops cut off and fake flowers put in as center pieces, Jerry Springer on the tube, tarps as table cloths, and a rope strung across the room with some lingerie and a Lynyrd Skynyrd tshirt hanging. Refreshments included Ding Dongs, HoHos, Twinkies, as well as crackers and squeeze cheese, Pabst Blue Ribbon and boxed wine..... So yeah. Have you guessed the theme yet? ....Here's another hint: There were contests for best dressed, arm wrestling and beer chugging with scratchers for prizes.

Ha! White Trash it was.

Nutritious and classy refreshments.

Drying some laundry. (Not sure whose panties those are.)

I went for bright blue eyeshadow, my hair in curlers, a wife beater (of course), some boxers, Matt's torn up robe, and some slippers. Matt did a trucker cap with a wife beater and a flannel vest. Thelma and Wynn also opted for wife beaters, with an American flag bandana and pink bandana, respectively.

Wynn in her beater.

We had a great turn out. And some VERY spirited costumes. ....And thankfully no ambulances this time.

The next-day damage.

Something had to suffer....

I suppose without the luxury of being an all-day homebody, the frequency of my postings have and will suffer.

This working thing is draining. ...How soon we (I) forget.

Even when I was working, I was spoiled with leaving at 3, and cruising in at 9. My boss worked out of Irvine, and let's just say he wasn't one for micromanagement. Which, of course, was fine by me.

This job is boot camp by comparison.

It is, however, growing on me. There's a whole competitive side that I'm getting into... Sales may not be my strong suit. But that's because I never chose for it to be.

That's right. I'm gonna kick some ass and take some names. ......Along with some enrollment applications.

Most Certainly a Product of the Y Generation

Not that I plan on blogging from work (wouldn't want to be 'dooced' so soon), or facebooking, or farking... But we don't even have our login codes yet. At a technical school.

So far we've spent the majority of our time either in a conference room or on our feet wandering, trying to find random people to bother. We've had a lot of luck with people acting not bothered until today... Some dude with Star Wars posters on his wall, an enormous silver-tinsel Christmas tree display on his filing cabinet and Madonna's Vogue playing in the background decided that our 7-minute delay merited a meeting cancellation. We caught him half way out the door, and let's just say he wasn't one for good first impressions. ....Although, I think I half way forgave him/understood once he explained his major was engineering. Perhaps I should be thankful that out of the 20 people we're expected to interview, that's been our only hang up so far.

Tangent.

Point being, I'm not used to not sitting in front of a computer all day. I am most certainly a child of the Y Generation. I feel nekkid without my blackberry. On the table. Next to me. ...Let alone no computer until I get home at night..........

I did, however, finally get to see where I'm sitting. And my cubicle is THANKFULLY not the one situated directly in front of the entrance, with the computer screen basically staring anyone that opens the door in the face.

First Thing's First

So today was my first day back to work after a 6-month vacation. And in a word, it was exhausting.

You'd be surprised how much paperwork can be heaped onto a person in such a short amount of time. Only to be followed by this obnoxious "scavenger hunt", that will actually come in handy later... But that is not the point. We ran around the entire school searching out this list of people and interviewing them to learn what their job entails, and how this job applies to me.

I suppose I was lucky because there are 3 others being trained along with me... Sharing in the anguish that was meeting and greeting and interrupting complete and total strangers all day.

Day one down. And I feel like I need a 12 hour-night's sleep to recover. Is that just because I'm spoiled rotten from my free-as-a-bird schedule from the prior half year? ...You don't say.

Charred

I think we all heard about the So Cal fires that took place on November 15th in and around the Inland Empire.

Without being around a tv all day, I hadn't heard the news, and got a call from my mom saying the fires were less than 15 miles away from their Chino Hills home... Without any of them being contained. Apparently the high winds weren't helping. At 2am, my parents were evacuated.

View from my parent's backyard

Not too distant charred hills... View from my parent's driveway

They left knowing the fire had nearly reached their back fence, and could apparently feel the heat coming off of the hills in front of their house.

It wasn't until the morning that they were able to return to see if their home still stood.

I had the conversation over the phone with them a few times. But at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks later, I could still smell the smoke in the air. And only in person were these blackened hills so daunting.

Space

So I'm on this new medicine for my leg aches, and before I fill prescriptions these days I always go home and google them. You can expect the usual side effects... Fatigue, headache, weight gain, etc. Yet, for the most part, you're cornered by your doctor and you're expected to fill it regardless of the unpleasant experiences to come.

Well, google I did and I was interested to learn that the side effect of this drug was to make you feel drunk. ...Drunk.

That was more than one person's review on Yahoo.

Now, I can't say that I've been walking around bumping into walls all day. But I can say I am all sorts of spacey. ...I think I made a dozen u-turns when I was out running errands this morning.

In fact, I'm having trouble formulating sentences.

...Let us hope this is temporary.

On the Upside

Last night was the "seal-the-deal" meeting with my job. Now they're stuck with me.

And after three visits to the place, you'd think I'd have seen my work space by now, right? ........I had to ask. Even then he gave me an apprehensive, "Oh, you want to see it tonight?" I should have known when he said, "Give me a minute, and I'll see if there's a meeting going on down there."

Down there? Was there a dungeon I failed to notice in the original tour?

So he came back and the coast was clear, and to my relief he assured me there were no staircases in the building.

But we did enter an interesting room. ...I choose the term "interesting", because it will definitely be a new experience to me. There are about 16 cubicles lining the walls and about zero privacy.

I knew that this job wouldn't provide me with the office-with-a-window that I had at my last job. Actually, I couldn't expect that from any position I was applying for.

I guess the reality is just sinking in.

On the upside, there are about 14 interview rooms which are basically small offices that you go to meet with your potential students in. I suppose that will give me a little room to stretch my legs.

Oh and hey! It's a job.

All Around Town

So it's December, which means we're back from our last-half-of-November travels. For all the relaxing we did, I'm pretty beat.

Yesterday was our commute home from the last leg of our tour, Southern Cal.

My parents were gracious enough to let us stay for close to a week... "Us" includes our mutts, which, when you add them in to their existing mix, totals FIVE mutts. My mom would tell you theirs are not mutts. (Mom, it is just a funny term). That alone made for an interesting week... As always, my parents' b&b was nothing short of hospitable and relaxing. Not to mention the frat-house aspect..... (Laughing on the inside). We're lucky to have such a great family to come home to.

On Thanksgiving we got to see the whole family. ALL three of my nephews and my adorable little niece. It's hard living 400 miles away, because even though everyone would like to say, "Oh it's a short trip"... I have news for you people - The trip? Not so short. And the flights? Not so cheap. Not for two... Not these days, at least. ...Everyone also says "they grow up so fast". I'm not sure I could have been taught that lesson in a harder way. If you ever hear me say I miss Southern California, you'll be hearing the one thing I miss is my family.

At the end of the night, my biggest bro, Bobby, and I checked out on the porch to play catch up on about 2 years. ...Bobby's about 4 years older than me. And if I was like one brother over another, it'd be him. In fact, it's eery how similar we are. For a long time I struggled with the fact that adulthood had driven our closeness apart. But bringing it into perspective, we talked about how exhausting our relationship can be. Any conversation we have can't be one in passing, and being so similar, nothing is lukewarm. Either you sit down for an epic journey, or you avoid it entirely... And it's been about 2 years of evasive "fine, how are you's" adding up. But he is just as much a force in my life today as he was when I was in 6th grade writing poems to be just like him. In the past year we've seen each other skin our knees... Some bleeding more than others. But I don't wonder any more if I can call for help on how to stop the bleeding. And on the porch, he knocked some of the walls I had built up in my head down. Maybe even restructured them to be in their rightful place. I guess he can reach me in ways no one else can. Or maybe I listen to him in a way that I won't listen to anyone else...........

We were lucky enough to catch my nephew, Noah's 2nd birthday party. Lots of memorable moments other than kids running around hopped up on cotton candy... While I was pushing Noah, the birthday boy, on a swing, he fell off, only to get up and walk directly in front of Briley, my niece, swinging before I could get to him. No, he wasn't hurt (too bad), but I walked away sick to my stomach. ...I almost got beamed in the head with a flying pinata part. ...My nephew Dane when asking for one of the suckers that fell out of the pinata repeatedly "asked", "Mom, I want a fucker!" ...Brock decided he wanted to cover his body in Transformer tattoos. I think the total was 5 at the end of the day, including one on his knee cap. ...I saw my brother Mike and his wife acting like husband and wife, with Noah in her lap as he blew out his candles and Mike leaning over the two of them. Something I didn't think I'd see again. But something that seemed too natural for it not to be right.

I'm happy to be home. Happy to be back to a routine. Tomorrow I go in to sign papers for my new job... To seal the deal. And I officially become a working woman again next Monday. I have mixed emotions about it... I'm mostly excited. But outside of the financial stress, I could have gotten used to being a professional couch potato. Hey, at least I'm honest.