I have two questions September 6, 2008
1. What function do these hold?
2. Why am I wearing one right now?
Change is good (scary, but good)
Mr. Man got offered a new job and he accepted. This makes me happy, but also scared. Money is better, benefits are better… But it’s always hard to make a change when you’re kind of OK in the role you already have. He enjoys the job he has now, but felt that it was time for a change. For making the change and going through with it, I’m proud of him. I just hope that the new role keeps him satisfied and happy enough to where he feels challenged and not burned out.
The schedule is also a factor. It’s more of a mid-shift instead of 1st shift like he’s working now. I think going in later will be good for him, but nobody likes to get out later. And this may screw with our G pick up/drop off schedule a little.
I guess we just need to jump in feet first and do what’s best financially for our family. We can work out the details (together) later on.
Overall though, I’m pretty excited! If he can just get over that uncomfortable hump of giving his 2 weeks notice today, he should be fine. 
Nobody likes to give notice.
Especially when your boss has no idea that it is coming
Actually, wow… I totally don’t envy his position!
How do you…. September 1, 2008
Drink your tea? Does anyone drink their tea (hot tea) with milk (or cream) in it? I always have and I’m wondering if this is unusual to just me or if others drink it this way. When I was in Europe, people drank their tea this way. My grandma Essex (Who was Scottish) also drank her tea this way, and she’s who I learned to drink tea from. We always enjoyed a cup together when I’d go over there after school or after church on Sundays. Even if we only drank plain old Lipton out of the tea-bag, we’d always put sugar and milk in our tea.
Just wondering if I’m weird. Someone at work tonight kind of looked at me funny when I came back with my Earl Grey and Lavender and it was all white from my sugar free creamer. Is this like a European thing or something that I’m not aware of?
Just because this is funny August 30, 2008
Books on tape August 29, 2008
I find it way more tolerable to listen to cheezy teen books (which I enjoy reading… so sue me) than read them. I really enjoy the easy reads, but I always feel like a dork carrying around a book called “Bras and Broomsticks” or something equally stupid. It’s much easier to just listen to it through my ipod.
there was no other reason for me to write about that other than to tell you that I was at the library this week with G and we picked up some books on CD. As a matter of fact, “Bras and Broomsticks” is pretty good so far. Yeah, I’m supposed to be listening to this with G, but here I am at work listening to it and actually enjoying myself.
I’m a big kid.
On an unrelated note, my other 2 cats don’t know what to think without their bossy brother around the house. It’s quite lonely not having him by my side constantly. 
We lost our friend today August 24, 2008
My sweet boy, Rueben…
1994-2008
He’s in his papa’s arms here today at the vet’s office. The rest of the pictures we took are just a little too heartbreaking to post right now (we’re all crying)
This was a terribly horrible decision to have to make, but at least my momma has a friend up there now.
I miss you my boy. You were my best cat.
Easily influenced August 22, 2008
I think it’s really important to have your own identity. I find it difficult to tolerate people who’s interests gravitate towards those of others as they meet new people. It’s NICE to get involved in what your friends are doing, but it’s not nice to lose your self identity all together. There’s a person like this in my life, and it seems that this person has a different hobby every time they meet someone new, and every time you realize that the person has changed interests again, you can clearly see who that change was molded after and it’s obvious that that person is just picking up what the new person in their life is doing. When hanging out with a certain group of friends the chosen activity one thing… And that will last until they no longer hang out with those people. When those people get dumped and the person gets wrapped up in another person who has a different interest and they adopt those interests and there’s not a trace of the old interest to be found. It’s almost like this person is incapable of having any original thought of their own… It seems like they only do the things that the other people in their life do and then when that is no longer a novelty, they pick up whatever else someone else is doing.
The thing that sucks about this is how easy this influences kids. My step-daughter is easily influenced by whatever the people closest to her in her life are doing. When she stays with Mr. Man and I, she’s totally in to music and likes to be on the computer and downloading things. She plays tons of video games and chooses to write and express herself (which are things I like to do). I find it flattering that she tries to do things that I enjoy doing, but I also encourage her to find out what it is that SHE wants to do and what SHE enjoys doing instead of just doing the things that all the people around her like to do.
Right now her dad struggles with the fact that she has been influenced in to hunting. I don’t think her dad or her mom ever intended to raise her as an animal killer. I know that Mr. Man is the furthest thing from a hunter and has no desire to see his daughter move in that direction. I don’t’ think her mom ever had much interest in hunting either, until she met the guy she’s dating now. He seems to be big in to hunting… And in turn, her mom is now big in to hunting (see what I was saying above?) and because of that, I think my Step Daughter now “thinks” she wants to try it out.
I fear the moment that she kills something and then has to look it in the face. I FEAR the moment she strings that animal up and is forced to watch it be skinned and de-limbed. I fear it, because I know her, and I know those images will terrify her. I can’t imagine living with myself (at any age) knowing I had killed another living thing. I have guilt sometimes over killing spiders… And spiders scare the hell out of me. I couldn’t imagine going outside and hunting down an innocent animal and ending it’s life. Not only is it archaic and horrifying to me, but it isn’t necessary. And for the record, yes… I do eat meat. But I get my meat from a grocery store.
This isn’t by any means a post that’s meant to be anti-hunter. I think hunting is fine. I understand a need for it in some situations and I’m not going to try to stop people from doing it that actually are in to the “sport” of it. But the situation my step daughter is in doesn’t warrant her having to kill to eat and honestly, if I had any say in it I would stop her from pursuing it. But I don’t, and I respect that.
I’m just watching her turn in to (forgive me for saying this) a hillbilly and it breaks my heart that she’s so easily influenced by things in her life that she feels are necessary to do just because others are interested in them. I think it is a genetic flaw. Luckily for this side of the family, it’s not a Filipino trait. 
I have no expertise in anything August 21, 2008
As I sit here I realize that I have no concrete knowledge in anything. I’m no music expert. I don’t know anything about film. I don’t have expertise on wine or food or travel. I’m no crafty genius when it comes to knitting or sewing or any of those “womanly” kinds of things. I’m no aficionado on anything, that’s for sure.
I mean, I can do several things “pretty” well but I’m not an expert at any one thing and I’ve realized lately that this kind of bums me out. Everyone seems to have their niche except me. I have a friend who’s a DJ and has a vast knowledge of music. Mr. Man is a computer expert and knows endless volumes of knowledge about video games. Other friends are experts at painting and crafting. I even have a friend who’s an expert at bargain shopping… (which I admit I’m pretty good at, but no expert)
I wish I was one of those smarty-pants people that could rattle off movie quotes from Kevin Smith movies (which for some reason seems to be “The Thing” to do among Mr. Man’s friends and I just don’t get why) or any movie for that matter. It would be cool to have long and drawn out conversations with my friends about music… But it seems that whenever I start to get any kind of passionate conversation about music, it’s in a genre that the other person/people I’m talking with doesn’t care about and the conversation goes stale. I can’t talk to any of my girl-friends about knitting or sewing or any of those girly things that they all do so well because I’m not good enough at any of them to venture in to conversation much further than “I can purl now” or “I know how to hem pants!”
I know nothing about wine, so I can’t talk to anyone on my dad’s side of the family. I EAT a lot of food, but I’m no expert on cooking, preparing or serving it. Occasionally I can have an intelligent conversation with my aunt or my cousin about the vegetables I roasted or how I found this really cool new seasoning… But anything fancy, nope… I stop at simple cooking.
I drink a lot of tea… But my knowledge of it goes no further than knowing that Earl Gray is flavored with Bergamot oil. Until a few years ago, I didn’t know that bergamot oil was a citrus flavor. I didn’t care. Earl Gray was just “yummy”.
I’m passionate about my animals but when anyone talks to me about animal rights or animal welfare I get freaked out because I feel guilty for not being so passionate about it. I’m not anti-fur or anything extreme like that. I can give you my opinion on how I think animals should be treated, but am I going to go stand on a street corner in Flint or Detroit and protest? No… I just don’t have it in me. I treat my animals well and that’s about that.
So all of these things that I’m NOT good at gets me thinking… What am I good at? There has to be something. Can anyone tell me? Because I’m not naturally seeing myself as an expert at any one thing. And then I ask myself, do I need to be an expert at something? Or is being “pretty good” at a bunch of things sufficient?
Baseball is stupid August 20, 2008
As mentioned in a previous post, Mr. Man and myself attended a Detroit Tiger’s Baseball game on Sunday.
I’ve determined that baseball is stupid. Here are my reasons:
1. We paid $30 each for a ticket and I didn’t even watch a second of the game. The big dude in front of me impared my vision and secondly, it’s stupid to pay $30 for a ticket when you don’t understand the game or know any of the players. We really went for the atmosphere and the company… That was good but…
2. It was friggin hot. I got sunburned a little bit, which turned out to be good because my white ass finally has a little color this summer.
3. My friends go to the games to drink and eat ball-park food, neither of which I can do very well. I don’t drink alcohol at all and ball park food just makes me sick. I do like to entertain myself by watching them drink and eat though. Here’s some pictures of me pretending that beer is cool/bad for you. Thanks to Mr. Man for letting me hold his beer so I could pretend that I was just like everyone else there.
4. Bathrooms at ball parks are gross. Nuff Said.
5. People at Baseball games are generally assholes. I realize that makes me and my friends assholes as well, and in some ways I’m sure we are… But the sport of people watching is just awesome. This is me, approving of Mr. Douchebag that sat in front of us with his collar popped up. He CLAIMED it was so that his neck wouldn’t get sunburned. Um, sure.
However…………. There are some good things about the ball park as well. For example, the mascots just make me smile… I love all the entertainment. I love the smell of roasting nuts. I enjoy watching dad’s carry around Dora backpacks while drinking beer and chasing around their kids… I love the little (brainwashed) kids running around in the team colors (Orange Crocks were on the feet of every child (and overweight woman) on Sunday). I actually like that they can charge $4.50 for a cup of soda and $5 for a hot-dog and get away with it. It’s the ball-park. You have to expect that kind of stuff.
When the whole world goes wrong…
Today I was tired and couldn’t sleep. I got home and someone had been in our garage and my car door was open. Nothing was missing but it still upset me. Then my dad asked me to call his friend to tell him that he wouldn’t be able to meet him for breakfast as he was in Detroit at the hospital with his friend. So I didn’t get to sleep until late, then I wanted to get up with Mr. Man for lunch… Then I couldn’t fall back to sleep.
In the middle of the 2nd time of trying to sleep my dad stopped over 3 times knocking on the back window (like he always does and how I always think is cool… But not today). His intentions were sweet, he brought me corn, some chicken and just wanted to show off his new pants that he got while in Detroit. I, however, was a completely rude and sleep deprived daughter to him… And now looking back on it I feel sad.
Life is too short and I promised myself I wouldn’t get this way with my only remaining parent. I’m disappointed in myself that I let myself slip today.
And now, I get to think about it all night until I can call in the AM to make it up to him.
I hate it when life gets complicated.
