car

Lunch Break!

/ car, life, work

I’m on my lunchbreak. I had leftover spaghetti from last night, and a snickerdoodle cookie from Cheryl & Co. I never used to care much for Cheryl & Co. cookies. There was something a little “off” about them. I think they were too soft. But their snickerdoodles. Oh God. They’re almost better than the A Blessed Cookie Co. ones I used to eat when I worked at Nationwide. Heavenly. Perfect. Soft, delicious. Oh God. Mmmm. Snickerdoodles.

I was thinking about how much I like organizations such as Toys for Tots or Operation Christmas Child. I wish I could open something like that, but make it year-round. Kids have birthdays. Kids need clothes all the time, not just in December. I would love to start an organization and have people donate clothing and toys, and then I’d ship them to shelters and churches all over the city. I’d love to adopt a family one year. Give things to an entire family, brighten their season. Toys for the kids. Clothes for the parents. Food for a Christmas dinner. Maybe one year I’ll be able to do that.

I missed most of the donation barrels and drives this year, which disappoints me. I just didn’t have the extra cash to give this year to get a great deal of stuff. The ironic thing is that my friends are giving to me–going above and beyond to make sure I’m taken care of–and learning to accept that when I want to give so much myself is a learning experience. Flat out asking for help is hard for me. Sometimes I’ll drop hints, and hope someone offers to help me, but it’s so hard for me to go to someone and say “hey, can I borrow $30 for groceries?” Or even worse, “Can I have $30? I probably won’t be able to pay you back.” I feel like–I’ve made certain choices in my life and that I should be able to deal with those consequences–bad or good–like an adult. And for me, like an adult means not having to borrow or take money from my friends, or ask my mom for help with groceries, or even whine about being broke on my LJ. I guess I’m not so good at this being an “adult” thing, huh?

It’s not hard for me to accept the help, but it’s hard to let go of the guilt that floods in with the relief.

I’ve listened to this Canon Christmas song over 30 times today. It’s been on repeat for hours. I don’t want to get sick of it, but it’s so pretty!! I should turn it off after this time. Heh.

There should be at least two packages waiting for me when I get home after work! 🙂 Hopefully one from swankivy as well. I love packages. LOVE them. And fun mail like cards andletters. I will take a picture of my card wall this weekend. Okay, actually, it’s card closet doors–the doors to the closet that holds what Aidan calls “the fiery furnace.”

Tonight, it’s off to Midas to get my brakes looked at. I really hope it’s just the brake pads. This noise didn’t really start until the past few days. But I remember that for a month or so, when I’d stop, it would sound like a space ship stopping. That “brooooom” sound. I can’t describe it–but you hear that sound a lot at Cedar Point near the Power Tower and the Top Thrill Dragster. I wonder if that wasn’t the brakes going weird on me. I’d thought it was because of the flat tire I got a few weeks ago, but who knows? Poor Little Ronica. I’m worried about her. She’s not even five yet! Anyway, I hope today’s trip to Midas is quick and painless, and that I don’t have to bumble up my holiday travel plans. I have a feeling my mom spoiled me, and I KNOW she spoiled Aidan!

Rumour has it that the newest HP title is…. …. wait for it … …

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Oooo. Sounds SCARY!!!! I think that’s all for now. I always have a list of things to write about, but then I get on here and my mind starts wandering and I lose track and yeah. Heh. Back to work for me. Errata and errata and errata, but Handwriting PDFs like WHOA will be hitting, probably starting today!

Oh my, I just checked my inbox. AJ put a card in, and on it, there is a mean-looking dog guarding the fireplace going GRRRR and Santa looks a bit perturbed. The inside says “Good thing Santa had an exit strategy,” and there is a picture of a bone wrapped in a bow. HAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHAHA. HAHAH. Okay, I’m easily amused. Or punch drunk. Or maybe just addled from listening to Christmas Canon too many times. Still, HAHA. What a great card! HAHA. Santa’s face. The dog, he looks so pissed. And there is a reindeer looking in the window like “oh shit.” HAHAHAHA. I just found out that AJ made the card himself! HAHA. Even better! 🙂

All right. The Mountain Dew must be kicking in. Back to Errata for me. ‘Til next time!

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Mixed Feelings, But More Good Than Bad (Picture)

/ birthday, car, hair, life, pictures

I’m thirty-two years old today. I don’t look it, I certainly don’t feel it, but there it is. I was born in 1974. The decade that teens now surely believe belong to the old people. I can say I’ve known people for 15-20 years. And yet, some memories of childhood still seem like yesterday. My life has taken a change that I certainly did not see coming a year ago. Make that several changes. And I’m growing into this new person, and learning to like her, maybe even love her. Appreciate her, nurture her, and take care of her.

I got to work this morning, and there were suprises on my desk. The admin was going around putting pretty silk boxes filled with candy on everyone’s desk, and giving those of us who were present a red rose. There were cards, and homemade fudge Rice-Krispie treats. There was an antsy and excited me, accepting happy birthday greetings from all over. In the midst of all that, I got everything done, and tomorrow, once I finish the two things in my inbox, I will be caught up through January 4, 2007. Unless I get some surprise rush stuff.

After work, all of us who worked on the LACE guides went to The Knotty Pine for drinks and snacks. Tamera bought the first round, but I only ordered a lemonade. I wish I could have stayed longer–everyone else was drinking and it would have been fun to hang out with them outside of work, and relaxing. Susan, the project manager, gave us all $20 gift cards to Barnes and Noble (YES!!), and Tamera gave us all Christmas CDs titled Naughty or Nice.

The past two days, I heard a beautiful version of Canon on the radio, with lyrics–a children’s choir singing Christmas lyrics. It was so pretty. I was sure I’d never hear it again, but it came on tonight. I decided to do some searching, and thanks to Google, I found it. Christmas Canon, by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

This night
We pray
Our lives
Will show

This dream
He had
Each child
Still knows

The only bad thing I am worried about are my brakes. They’re grinding badly, so that means instead of relaxing tomorrow evening before the holiday rush, I’ll have to go and get them looked at tomorrow. I know something’s going to have to happen–more than likely new brake pads, but I really can’t afford the money or time to get it taken care of. However, I won’t have a choice–I need to be able to drive!! So I’m trying to figure out what I can move around and manipulate to make this happen. *sigh* I feel like I’m on a financial see-saw. 🙁 Tomorrow’s payday, but it’s not like I’ll see any of it!

Tonight, Bizzy came over, and we had spaghetti with hot dogs and watched The Boondock Saints. I’d wanted to see her brother’s band play at Little Brothers, but there was an $8 cover (although Jon said he’d get us in free), and I didn’t want to drive with my car acting so weird, and they weren’t going on until 10. Old folks like me shouldn’t be out that late. *innocent look*

Okay, so I was out late last night. Angelo and I went shopping. Okay, Angelo went shopping and I helped him pick out gifts. He got loads of neat things for his sister. He also bought me dinner at Applebee’s. We went to Best Buy, where he spent a nice chunk of change, so I gave him my Reward Zone card to use. More points for me! I used the gift card Andy gave me and got a CF card reader. Now it will be less hassle to get my pictures off of my camera. We also went to Toys R Us and spent way too much time in there. Playing with the Elmo that says your name. Looking at crayons and board games and dolls (the Hilary Duff doll may have scarred me for life) and learning toys and there I was, wishing I had all the money in the world so I could buy Aidan everything. But he’s going to have a very special Christmas anyway, thanks to my mom, and Andy, and Chris, and Ivy and everyone else who thinks he’s special enough to shower with gifts this holiday. Including me!! 😀

Tried out a new hairdo.

New Hairdo

I think my face looks huge and blah, but the curls are cute. It’s not shorter, just very curly. I got a lot of compliments on my hair today.

Honestly, as far as looks go, winter is not my best season in my opinion. I think autumn is. And summer. But winter and spring…? Ugh. Just… ugh. And winter starts tomorrow officially, so yeah. Six months of me feeling UGH about myself, appearance-wise. Just…UGH. I’ve stopped wearing makeup months ago, but I wonder if I don’t look too pale or whatever? Wait. I’m not fishing for compliments or reassurance. This is my honest assessment about the way I look these days. I won’t go any more into depth than that.

So, digressing….

I took that picture at work, can you tell? That’s Janet in the background working at her computer.

Finished reading A Christmas Carol. 🙂 I’d never read the book before, and it was hard to put down. I loved it. But now I’m a bit sad because it’s over!! That’s the one bad thing about good books. Eventually, they do end. Good thing I’m a re-reader.

All right, I should get to bed. I’m starting to get reflective and melancholy, and there is no reason for that. And I have a longish day tomorrow. Sigh. The evenings go by too quickly anymore. 🙁 It’s not fair. But oh well. C’est la vie!

Til next time.

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It Was A +/- Kinda Day

/ car, christmas, happy, life, sad

–
– flat tire
– being an hour late to work because of flat tire
– $$ issues 🙁

+
+ talking to tamera
+ phone call from adam
+ coming home and turning on the christmas tree lights
+ cuddling with lucy (who is currently staring at her reflection in the TV)
+ reading laura ingalls wilder’s books
+ the fact that this list is longer than the “-” list. 🙂

I haven’t done one Christmas/holiday card yet. Oops. They’re sitting here, and waiting. Not sure why I’m holding on–probably because it’s something fun, so I want to prolong the anticipation. And also, I’m not entirely sure I have all my addresses. Eek.

Spam Report: Now I’m getting lots of eBay tips for Dummies emails. I haven’t open a one–they go straight to my spam folder. But I like to check the folder to make sure that nothing important goes there by mistake. It’s happened. Now there are 54 pieces of spam mail. This, over the course of two days, as I emptied it out on Monday. I want to see how high the number will go!

Tomorrow, I have to go to the tire place and pray they can patch my old one. I knew something was odd because my steering wheel wouldn’t sit straight for the past few days. When I left this morning, driving felt WEIRD, so I pulled into the BP. And there it was. A nice, flat tire. 🙁 It was COLD out, too. I called Roadside Assistance, and waited inside the BP for them to come. Even if I knew how to change a tire, I probably wouldn’t have in 20-degree weather. Who knows? But tomorrow, I’ll head out to Discount Tire and get Little Ronica all fixed up. She also needs an oil change. I need to clean her out, too. Give her a good vacuuming. Aidan found the trash bag and dumped everything out. Nice. There are crumbs and stupid things all over the backseat and front seat too. Plus the glove compartment is full of who knows what.

Oh well. One of these days. Heh.

Now, I’m sleepy. On my own accord. This is good. Night!

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Broadband & More

/ car, disney, friends, life

So, the Time Warner guy came out to check out our Broadband connection. Apparently, there was LOTS wrong with it, hence all the time-outs and instability. He ran the line directly in instead of through that dumb Greyfox thingy for one thing, but before that, apparently lightening had struck the drop box and some of it was charred! He had to cut the charred pieces away and put in new ones.

So hopefully my connection will be a lot more stable from now on. Yippee! 🙂

Last night was fun. Becky, Tyler, and I went to Rob’s to watch a couple of movies, eat pizza, and chill. We watched Boondock Saints (amazing film) and Hostage (not so much). We got ice cream and Becky bought Harry Potter at Meijer (the workers were dressed in wizard gear and were passing out candy), and I didn’t leave til 3am! It was a good night. Tyler said a hilarious quote about asses but darned if I can remember. : It was funny, though.

Rob had an idea of us riding bikes. Tyler and Becky were all up for it. I was quiet, but went along with it. The plan fell through (no good resources for obtaining air for the tires), but it was interesting. Huge storm kicked up last night. Not so scary when with a bunch of people.

So Wednesday, I had my first real fender bender. And when I say “real” I mean I had to actually report this to the insurance. I rear-ended a guy who was here on business. It was the company car which explains why he wasn’t upset at all. He was very nice, I was very nice. He didn’t file a report (YAY) and only if it costs more than $750 to pay for his repairs (a dent in the bumper and a few scratches) will I get a 10% surcharge at the next policy renewal. I’m not getting mine fixed. I just ended up with a few minor scratches. I have worse ones. They give the car character. It was really loud. Let me tell you, hitting a car really moves things around and I found some stuff I thought I’d lost!

Speaking of cars, I need to wash mine badly! Like, WHOA. The inside is a mess–I have several changes of clothes, papers, socks, shoes. It’s kind of crazy. I need an oil change like whoa, but I’m going to have to wait on that til I get paid again. Let’s just say that I’ve been extremely frugal lately and the only reason I have Harry Potter coming is because I pre-ordered it in January!

I wasn’t too frugal for lunch yesterday, but it worked out. I got my usual chicken nuggets and fries (the people there pretty much expect that out of me), then they offered me a free sample of their new turkey subs. That was very yummy once I removed the tomato. Mmmm. They also gave me a large fry instead of a McValue fry. The fry had a code on it for some kind of game. I just entered the code and lost but I got $5 off of a Playstation 2 game. I have $10 in reward zone certificates already, so basically, I can get a $20 game for $5. 😀 Cool, huh? And since McD’s is selling peach pies for a season instead of cherry, there is $1 that I save when I go. I don’t mind the peach ones, but the cherry ones are the best by far. Yumm.

My Spectromagic pin came in the mail yesterday. I got it from MrDisneyPins. $6 per pin and free shipping and a money back guarantee. Seriously, how can one beat that? I have to be careful and make sure I don’t get irresponsible with it. His listings are a pin collector’s dream. ºOº

In case you didn’t know, I am a HUGE Disney pin collector, so if any of you have pins that you just NEED to get rid of, I’ll be happy to take them off of your hands. I’m not really a trader, just a collector. So yeah. 🙂

I’m tired now, but I’ll be okay. Harry Potter comes in the mail today!! If not, I get my money back. Heehee. Aidan knows who he is. I showed him the cover of Goblet of Fire and asked who it was. He answered “‘arry Podder” in the cutest little voice! Awwwww.

I’ll bet the amusement parks and zoos are quiet today since everyone will be home reading. Heehee.

‘Til later!

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:D

/ car, friends, life

Yay! Got my new car deck–SWEET. They called hours ealier than I expected, woohoo!!

It’s so awesome. Being able to listen to my iPod with no FM station interference, being able to listen to CDs without them skipping. AND it has lots of buttons and flashing lights.

I’m loving it! 🙂

Hanging out at Craig’s now; gonna eat a steak. Got to see my brother and sister in law today. She’s five months pregnant and HONESTLY, she looks like she just ate a huge meal. I mean a teeny tiny bump. It’s so cute. We gave them lots of baby stuff.

I’m FREEZING.

Til later, then.

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