Birthday Month

I actually had a blog all picked out today, but I am going to do SWC's meme instead. I will save the other one for tomorrow or the next day once I can sound calm and intelligent about it.

I was born on March 26th and here are my opinions on my March traits. I should probably also note that besides being a Ram, that I am also an Ox in Chinese astrology, so that may twist some of my answers.

Attractive personality - I would like to think so, but it does take awhile for me to feel comfortable with new people. I don't exactly draw people to me.

Sexy - Again, I would like to think so, but I think it is hard to judge yourself on this unless you are comletely conceited.

Affectionate - With certain people.

Shy and reserved - I used to be. Besides being a cheerleader, quiz bowl member, honor society member, Class Secretary, etc, I seem to be remembered in high school as being quiet. I just don't think people were paying attention - lol.

Secretive - Um, I don't think so. I can keep a secret for somebody else, but there are not too many I keep internally for myself. I tend to pretty much lay everything on the line.

Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic - I don't like lying (loathe it actually) and I am pretty generous with my time and money. However, I am not naturally sympathetic, in fact, it is pretty hard for me. I am much more of a fixer - take a day to feel sorry for yourself and either find a way to move on or find a way to fix it depending on the situation.

Loves peace and serenity - I could live without a bunch of drama in my life. I like quiet and peace.

Sensitive to others - In certain situations - yes. But, usually the fixer part comes out in a very short amount of time.

Loves to serve others - hmmm, this is a tough one. I love to be the hostess and I love to make people happy (fixer thing again). If someone needs help, a place to stay, etc. then I am the the first one to volunteer. I like to help people who need help. But, if it is someone who needs help and always needs help because they can't pull their life together, then my patience will only go so far.

Easily angered - Oh yeah! Patience is not a trait of mine, and I keep trying to improve that. But, if someone does something that is against what I believe or personally hurts me or someone I love. Whether they are right or not, I get immediately ticked and it takes me a little while to get over.

Trustworthy - to the utmost.

Appreciative and returns kindness - Again, I completely agree with this. I don't ask for help, so whenever I get help I appreciate it tremendously. I also like to reward for a good job and someone else's kindness towards me.

Observant and assesses others - all the time, I am a big people watcher.

Revengeful - No, not at all.

Loves to dream and fantasize - Only when it comes to my future. You need to have something to strive for.

Loves traveling - Yes, I do like to travel. But, there is a limit. I travel too much right now.

Loves attention - No, not at all.

Hasty decisions in choosing partners - Since I have really only had two, I am not sure if I have been hasty or not.

Loves home decors - I do tend to notice and appreciate a nicely decorated home. I just wish I had more of a knack for it myself. I didn't see creative anywhere on the March list :-)

Musically talented - I do play saxophone and I taught myself to play keyboard. I don't play keyboard well, but I know the basics.

Loves special things - I do have a keen attention to detail, which makes me pay attention to the special things around me.

Moody - Oh yeah. I could be over the moon one minute and if one thing goes wrong or someone makes me mad, it's over. But, most days, I can be fairly even keeled. I think with everything it just depends on the day.

Drunk and Sober

Well, all of the Christmas activities are now complete with little drama. Other than the "other" parents wanting to either wait until 8:30 Christmas Eve for us to get one child or the the other two wanting to have the children at 10:00 Christmas morning everything went okay. When we have the kids for Christmas that generally means 3 or 4 Christmas Eve to Noon Christmas Day, which to me is not unreasonable, actually it is pretty generous on our part. But, somehow this does not fit into everyone else's schedules. When in fact we could keep them all day Christmas, we never do which means "they" get the kids every single Christmas while we get Christmas morning every other year. Which is fine, except that we do ask that they give us the time we deserve and ask for and not be a bunch of whiners about it. Anyway, that was the only drama we really had.

Ira confronted his Mom last week on how Jason and I are treated by her and the family and it seemed to have helped a little. I still see a lot of shortfalls, but I will be patient to see if more changes are in the works.

The real meaning behind this blog is Christmas Eve and my Dad's journey into sobriety. All of my life my Dad has been a drinker, scratch that, a drunk. He was a factory rat his whole life and carried a pint of whiskey in his glove box. I have always been close to my Dad, but I have grown up with a tougher exterior in order to deal with him and my stepmom (also alcoholic, but won't admit it).

There have been few times in my life that I can remember that he has quit drinking. There has been the time that he decided that he wanted to quit, drank himself to oblivion, and I took him to rehab the next morning. It seems to me that the sobriety after that didn't last long. Then there was a couple of years ago after having a heart attack and now, after getting a DWI. When my Dad is drinking he is tough, opinioninated, obnoxious, and down right rude. He still has his highlights, but overall that is what you get. Anytime he gets sober, I never believe it will last because I never see him really wanting to be sober.

I am a bit more optimistic this time, even if it is because he legally has no choice, he seems to be embracing it. The great thing about my Dad is that when he is sober, I love to be around him. He is loving, compassionate, intelligent, and friendly. A complete 180 from the man I have grown up with. He was a pleasure to be around on Christmas Eve and when he and Ira talked on the phone last night Ira could hardly get him off the phone for us to walk into our movie.

He has been two months sober, he is attending outpatient classes, and attending AA meetings. I am not putting all of my faith into this recovery, but I am really praying that it works this time. My Stepmom does not appear to have stopped drinking, but she seems to have slowed down, which is all I can ask for until she is ready to change her habits. I always told them that they were going to have side by side hospital beds due to lung cancer, kidney failure, emphysema, or some other disease brought on by smoking and drinking, if they didn't change something, but that was as a kid and young adult. I learned a long time ago that you can voice your opinions, let them know how you feel, and test the boundaries. But, nothing will change until the person with the addiction wants to change.

I am starting to see the desire to change in my Dad, and I just hope he sticks with it this time. I would like to spend the rest of his years with this great person that I like to spend time with.

Christmas, games, cookies, and time

In know, it's a strange title. But, it summarizes my lack of focus the past few days and how everything has become serverely jumbled.

I am happy to announce that I essentially completed my Christmas shopping in 2 days - Dec 7th and 8th, which has been great. But, then it was the cookies. Shop for the ingredients and slot out time to mix, bake, and decorate 5 different kinds of cookies. It took me 3 days and I feel like that is all I did all weekend. But, they are done and will be shipped or delivered tomorrow. Now, it is putting together menus and a shopping list for Christmas Eve Eve, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I never do a big Christmas dinner, so most of my time is spent on a family meal for Christmas Eve. Jambalaya, Spinach Artichoke Dip, Pumpkin Pie (all 12/24), Tea Ring (12/25), Peanut Butter Ice Box Cake (12/23), and a sauce for the crab cakes (12/24) I bought from Costco. I plan on shopping and cooking some of this over the weekend, the items that I can anyway.

This is my last week of work before 2 weeks of vacation and 15 days of traveling in January. Which means that I am busting my butt to try to close out the year and organize myself for next year. Because when it comes to January I will be spending any office time just catching up in between trips. However, I am looking forward to the trips and am happy to make the sacrifice. As with everybody else it is trying to find the balance of work and preparing for the holildays.

Plus, the additional stress from the holidays. The stress to me is wrapped up in one family and it happens to be the one that is not my family and takes time to remind me (and my son) that we are not family anytime they are around us (or even when they are not around us). Always nice around the holidays. So, I haven't invited them over for the holidays and yet, I know they will show up Christmas morning to my house because their grandkids will be here. Just do me a favor - stay home. If you want to coninuously leave Jason and I out of your lives then please just stay out of mine and quit pretending that everything is fine when it obviously is not.

On top of that, the dinner (see Monthly Review blog) that I have been looking forward to has been postponed. To when, I don't know, since it was the last night we had for a few days. Easy I guess since Ira didn't have a place picked yet anyway. I am not mad, his work schedule changed, but I am still disappointed.

My highlight...Jason has been wanting to spend time with both of us more lately. He even went out and started shoveling on Sunday without any prodding. He has been asking to play board games just to have some time together. He also asked if I was going to have any free days for us to just hang out. I said, "Honey, I am available every day from December 26th to January 6th. Is that enough time for you?" He was happy with that.

God grant me the patience to get through the next week and not strangle anyone. It will all be better December 26th.

Noodles and Waffles

At church a couple of months ago our Teaching Pastor was discussing communication between men and women. Much of this I agree with him on and I was glad to have my son with me to learning about this at such an impressionable age. But, there are definitely some exceptions....

The are two theories that resonate with me, the first is the noodles and waffles. Men talk in waffles. They talk about one subject, finish the subject, give the other a slight warning, and switch subjects. Women, we have all seen this first hand - "Hey man did you see the game last night?" "That run, blah, blah, blah, the touchdown, blah, blah, blah, can you believe that move, blah." "Yeah, that was a good game." - end of subject. New subject - "Hey, did I tell you I bought a new lawnmower...." You get the idea.

Women talk in noodles, we will talk on one subject and there will be something else that will pop into our heads on a completely subject, but was brought on by the first subject. This is amazing to men and why they can never follow us. "Can you believe that she thought that shirt looked good on her this morning, way too tight?" "Yeah, she should definitely think about losing weight or joining a gym." "Did I tell you I joined a gym last month?" "You will never believe who I ran into there?" Ladies, in man world that was 3 conversations.

Now that you know this, you will watch and listen and see that this is in most cases true. I don't know too many men that noodle, unless they might be gay. However, I had lunch with a male friend of mine this week (very not gay) and after I went back home, I realized that he completely noodled with me. In fact it was so bad, that we went back to a conversation twice and I had to e-mail him the next day to ask him if we ever got to the end of that conversation because we kept getting off track. So, maybe as we evolve (or just get older), men are learning to noodle in men/women conversations, but waffle in men/men conversations. Interesting....

The other theory is that women look for love in the relationship - think, act, talk, everything for love. Men look for respect. If the man didn't do something, it always shows a lack of love to the woman. He wasn't home on time, didn't offer to pick up dinner, didn't sweep off the deck - all due to lack of love (or laziness). However, she did not get the kids up, do laundry, or dress nice due to lack of respect.

Now, I firmly believe (and could be very wrong on this) that this has transitioned a bit since there are now more women in the household that make more money than the men. If the woman has the better career, makes more money, and has a bit different perspective than our mothers or grandmothers then love is no longer the main driver, it is respect. In fact, when our Pastor was talking about this I tapped a female friend of mine on the knee and said Ira and I are so opposite on that. She completely agreed with me on this after spending time with us on enough occassions. He is focused on the love and I am focused on the respect, which is okay because at least we balance each other out. Can you imagine if you had two lovers and two respecters in a relationship - ugly. In fact, now that I think about it, that may have been the biggest flaw in my previous marriage, at one point love was no longer the issue, we both wanted respect.

Jason's ornaments

I have included some of Jason's ornaments, including this years tree in a ball.

Tradition

So, after much prodding, Jason and I put out Christmas decorations, listened to Christmas music and yes, we put up the tree. However, this was how we ended the night.

Tonight had already been set aside for our traditional ornament shopping. Just before we left the postman left me a little Christmas gift though. On Monday, I will have 15 years with PQ, so I got a little bonus check. I have decided that I am going to be a little selfish with this money - no donations, no gifts, no bills, no groceries - I am spending this money on me. You know, those little items that we never buy for ourselves, but we would if we had a little extra money. So, I think I will be slating $100 for a new office chair. So, the first stop was to the credit union to cash my check and withdraw some money for our shopping tonight and Ira's and my annual shopping trip to Great Lakes Crossing tomorrow.

After that, it was to Sears Essentials to look at bikes (the one gift Jason knows he is getting and gets to pick out), to JoAnn's for scrapbooking and holiday items, to Wildernest (awesome wind chimes and birdhouses) to buy a Christmas gift, and finally to BSG gifts for Jason's ornament. BSG's always has a great selection and has ornaments from $3 - $35 or more. Jason was eyeing these little hand-blown glass Christmas trees - some with gold, some with color, and some with gold and color. Until, I spotted this pretty glass ball with a hand blown glass tree (with color for the lights on the tree) inside the ball. I went to pick it up and knocked it off the tree (enter expletive here!!). Lo and behold, Jason caught it and decided that since he caught it and that we both liked it that it must be the one he is supposed to have. I think it is my favorite ornament of his. And, trust me he has quite a few. As I mentioned, this is a tradition. He has at least one ornament for every Christmas he has been alive, plus a few that he has received as gifts. I bought one for him each year when he was a baby and toddler, but since he was probably 5 he has been picking them out for himself. This way when he leaves home, he will have enough ornaments to at least partially decorate a tree.

After we shopped, we stopped at Salsarita's for dinner, came home, and decorated the house. It was fun and special and I appreciate every day we have like that since I know that they will not last forever. Tomorrow, I get to shop with my other favorite guy....

Picture me

My friend SWC tagged me to do this - enjoy!

1. Age at next birthday.

2. Place I would like to travel.

3. Favorite place - Bahamas Baby!

4. Favorite food - love Mexican food!

5. Favorite animal.

6. Favorite color.

7. Town I was born - Ypsilanti, MI

8. Name of past pet - Bandit was an Australian Cattle Dog

9. Name of past love - I have not had many, so I had to choose my ex-husband

10. My first name.

11. Bad habit I have - just can't help it, my house goes by my rules

12. First job - No, I haven't always been in sales

13. Grandmother's name - it was either this or Rosie O'Donnell :-)

14. College major - Business Management

A Giving Christmas

Last night I had the privilege of attending a charity event held by our women's ministry for a special cause that our church is collecting donations for. There was great appetizers, mingling with other women, raffles, auctions, and fun. I won two silent auction items - a beautiful painting that I actually fell in love with on Sunday and a one year membership to a health and wellness center that some of our friends own. I actually won this for Ira since I already have my Bally's membership.

It was all for a good cause. We do run two Christmas stores in December, one in Brighton and one in Detroit to help support lower income families in the area (this allows them to buy gifts and Christmas dinner at 20% of the actual cost). But, this year we are working with another church to help raise money for children and families in Kenya and India. It just breaks my heart to see some of the living conditions that some of these people are accustomed to. To walk 10 miles every day just to have clean water for your family - now that is a Mom!!!

Anyway, besides donating time and items to the Christmas Store, and going to the event last night, Ira and I have decided to shift our Christmas spending a bit. For all of those family members outside of our immediate family that we normally buy Christmas presents for, they are getting a letter to let them know that we will be donating that money to the Kenya mission and to please not buy anything for us. We will ask them to use any money that they would spend on us to spend on each other, use for their own donation, or use towards the kids. For our immediate familiy members - Moms, Dads, etc. we are cutting back on the amount we spend in gifts and putting that money in the donation pot. The kids will still get spoiled, after all they do bring the true joy to Christmas :-)

Oh yeah, and we are only buying stocking stuffers for each other.

This has been a very difficult decision, but I hope it will be one that will be very worth it.

We will just have to wait and see how everyone else takes the change.

Relaxing and now back to work

As I had menetioned earlier in the week, Thanksgiving vacation is usually one of my favorite vacations. It is not going anywhere or doing anything special; that is actually what makes it so nice. Summer vacations are wrapped around trips, guests, or housework (you know those projects you can't get to in a normal week - like painting or building).

Sure, there is shopping and cooking, but overall that is mostly it. So, this is what my week has looked like:
Monday - took my boys to a late lunch and went grocery shopping by myself
Tuesday - went to see my Dad and played dominos with him all afternoon (which I won BTW)
Wednesday - Ira and I made the cranberry sauce for Thursday, delivered a Thanksgiving dinner for a family that didn't have an oven, and stopped and had dinner on the way home.
Thursday - Cooked all day (with help from my sous chef), watched some football, ate dinner, and went to a friend's house for dessert.
Friday - never left the house. Did some housework in the morning. Put away the Halloween decorations and took down the Christmas boxes, which will stay in the garage for a couple more weeks. We played games all night - cribbage, trivial pursuit, and dominos. This lasted from after-dinner to 12:30 :-)
Saturday - Played games on the computer, took a nap, and Ira and I went to the outlet mall that night to catch the Nike basketball show sale (it was only 7 - 9), and stopped for dinner afterwards.
Sunday (today) - church, and football. For me football means watching it all day from the comfort of my recliner while monitoring my fantasy football games, for Ira it means a flag football tournament in the cold.

Tomorrow is back to work for a few more weeks until Christmas vacation. I am hoping that tomorrow my mind will be clear, rested, and ready to be productive - 4 more weeks to close out the year and exceed my number.

Thanksgiving recipes

Yesterday was nice, quiet, and delicious. It was nice to cook without the stress of pleasing anyone, but Ira and I. We were able to try completely new recipes that we never tried before, which I never would have done if I had to cook for a bunch of people. As promised, I am including some recipes for anyone who is interested.

Awesome Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing
The recipe can be found here - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Sausage-Apple-and-Cranberry-Stuffing/Detail.aspx

A couple of notes:
I used fresh herbs instead of the dried ones that the recipe calls for. Remember to double or triple the amount when using fresh.
I did not bake the stuffing in the bird. I used a large lasagna pan and covered with aluminum foil. I baked it for 55 minutes at 400 degrees. I uncovered and stirred the stuffing in 20 minute intervals and took the aluminum foil completely off for the last 15 minutes that it baked. This helped it keep the moisture but still give it a little crispiness on the top. Because I cooked it this way, I also added a can of chicken broth instead of the cup it calls for.

Sweet Potato Casserole
This is probebly the best sweet potato casserole I have ever had:

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 TBSP frozen tangerine juice concentrate, thawed (I couldn't find tangerine juice, so I used orange tangerine juice)
1 TBSP Amaretto
1 TBSP Kahlua
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup toasted pecans (I forgot to toast these until it was too late - it still tasted great)
Miniature marshmallows

Cube sweet potatoes and combine with enough cold water to cover in saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer for 30 minutes or until tender; drain. Mash with a potato masher. Spoon the mashed sweet potatoes into a mixing bowl. Beat until blended. Add brown sugar, butter, tangerine juice concentrate, Amaretto, Kahlua, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add the eggs, beating until blended. Stir in the pecans. Spoon the sweet potato mixture into a buttered 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle marshmallows on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cranberry-Port Relish
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups tawny port
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup golden raisins
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 TBSP cider vinegar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 - In large saucepan, combine cranberries, port, sugar, raisins, onion, vinegar, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg; mix well. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.

2 - Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes until cranberries have popped and liquid has slightly thickened. Cool to room temperature. Cover and store in refrigerator.

Notes - this is great as a topping or complement to chicken, pork, or turkey. If you want to eat as a cranberry sauce without the meat I would suggest leaving out the onion.

Apple Stuesel Pie
This has been my favorite apple pie recipe for years.

3 cups apples, sliced and peeled
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Place apples in 9 inch pie shell and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Cream Cheese filling:
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 TBSP soft margerine
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
Cream sugar, eggs, butter for 2 minutes. Add salt, vanilla, and cream cheese. Blend until smooth and pour over apples.

Struesel topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 TBSP soft margerine
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Mix together and spread on top of pie.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, then at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Let cool and refrigerate.

Enjoy!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who graces my blog and reads what I have to say. I am thankful to have people that listen, even if it is just to read my rants.

As requested by one of my friends, I will post a couple of the receipes from my list of Thanksgiving dishes below (last post) in my next post. While I know the pie is good, I am not sure about the other ones since I have never tried them before. I will pick 2 or 3 that I thought were the best at our small and intimate Thanksgiving meal.

I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving day and long weekend!!

Thanksgiving Vacation

Ahhh, my first day of vacation, although I still have a regional conference call at 1. Oh well, part of the job. Historically, my vacations are full of something - guests, errands, painting, something. But, my Thanksgiving vacation is generally pretty relaxing.

All of my Thanksgiving and Christmas donation shopping is done and most of it has been dropped off. However, I have not begun my Christmas shopping and probably won't for another week or two. My to do list is pretty small:

Buy groceries for Thanksgiving dinner
Set aside some time to go visit my Dad this week
Help deliver Thanksgiving dinner baskets to needing families
Take back a remote control to Best Buy and get another one - stupid thing won't even light up

Of course, there is cooking on Thursday (and part of Wednesday), but this year I am only cooking for two. Ira and I decided that since we did not have the kids that we would prefer a non-family dinner and just enjoy the day to ourselves. So, we (at least I hope we) are cooking a completely fresh from scratch, slighty different homemade dinner.

Lemon and Thyme Roasted Chicken (instead of turkey - there is only 2 of us after all)
Sweet potato casserole (instead of my regular yams, green bean casserole, and masked postatoes)
Awesome Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing (instead of my normal stuffing)
Cranberry Port Relish (instead of the canned jellied cranberry sauce that I normally buy)
Butter Dipped Dinner Rolls (well, it's normally brown and serve)
Apple Struesel Pie (This is a staple to my regular Thanksgiving dinner, but I usually make a Pumpkin Pie too - again there is only two of us)

We have been invited to some friends house for dessert Thursday night, which we will probably just take our pie too.

All in all, I am looking forward to my week and am hoping that the few things that I do need to do go smoothly.

Male friends

Ever since I can remember, I have had more male friends than female friends. Ironically, most other Aries women I know also seem to have this same situation. Now, don't get me wrong I have some great female friends, but the number of true female friends that I have been able to talk to about anything is extremely limited.

I have been told by my own boyfriend that it is because I look at friendships more like a guy. I like some of the same topics that guys do and can usually stay on task with most sports topics, I play golf, and I am pretty open about my thoughts on most topices. It has even been said by Ira's male friends and a variety of my male friends that I am not like hanging out with a girl - the joke is that I am like one of the guys, but have breasts and no penis. Balls, sometimes though :-) This also might have something to do with being raised by my Dad as well. However, the one friendship feature that he had mentioned that I never noticed before is that I am extremely loyal. I have always known that, but I didn't realize that most women (I stress most, not all) are not. But, after thinking about it, I could see what he was talking about. Many women are friends with whoever is convenient at the time and I have been hurt by too many of my female friends to count.

So, this is my tribute to the 4 men that have been there for me throughout my life in various stages.

I have known my friend J since Kindergarten, and while he is not in my life right now, I have no doubt he will eventually be back. Even though I have also been best friends with his wife (known her since 2nd grade and just started talking to her again after a two year break), my friendship with him was always different. With his wife, she and I have shared many good times, bad times, and everything in between. But, there were certain things I felt I could never talk to her about in fear of being judged. With J, we could talk about anything at day, night, alone, or in a group. I always appreciated his honesty, even if I didn't want to hear it sometimes. I think he was the first person to look me in the eye and ask why I was still with my husband at the time. Sometimes, you just need that person to be blunt and know that they are looking out for your best interest. I truly miss him not being in my life right now.

I have known my ex-husband since I was 15 and while we should have probably never dated, nor gotten married, we have maintained a friendship. I don't know if we would have done this if it wasn't for our son, but we have and I appreciate that friendship. Sometimes, if just to remind myself why we are not married and how not to be sometimes. But, I grew from his strength at some of the lowest points in my life. He was the one who got me through the teenage years while I was still living with my Dad (love my Dad, but story for another day). He basically lives next door to me and our son has grown up with his parents being friends even though we don't always agree. That is a very rare thing to come across and I hope Jason realizes how lucky he is.

My boyfriend Ira and I have known each other since 1995. We were friends before we ever started dating, which I highly recommend. He has been my rock when I have needed one. We laugh, we have similar interests, and we can talk about anything. Sure, we have our issues, every couple does. But, I just can't imagine him not in my life in some way or another. Even after more than 7 years of being together we still go on dates and sometimes end up in our living room just talking (no tv in there :-)).

Lastly, there is my work friend S. For the past 11 years, we have vented to each other, talked, laughed, yelled at each other, and supported each other. We are the same age and have been on similar paths in our careers. We have been able to turn to each other for advice or sometimes just to complain. Like my friend J, I appreciate his brutal honesty at times even if I don't want to hear it just then. And, hopefully he appreciates mine, because God knows I give it.

These are the 4 guys that have made the biggest impacts in my life and probably know me better than any of my female friends. I appreciate them every day and we are proof that men and women really can be just friends (well except for the 2 that I did live with at some point - lol).

Online sites

Hi 5, Blogger, Yahoo 360, My Space, Face Book, Linked In, Plaxo Pulse, ESPN....

It seems that there are a million social sites on the internet anymore. Some you stick with, some you use for a long time and find a replacement, some you register for and never use again, it's like taste testing sites to decide what are the best fit. The question is when is enough enough.

I like to meet new people and I especially like to meet people through other people. I am really enjoying Blogger so far and am meeting interesting people through their blogs that I have linked to from friends of mine. I like Linked In because I can keep track of people I used to work with. I like Reunion and Classmates to keep in touch with people I went to school with.

I have signed up for Hi 5 on an invitation, but never used it. I have now been invited to Plaxo Pulse which I need to investigate. If anybody knows anything about it, please let me know.

Now, the ones that I have stayed away from are sites like Piczo, Face Book, and My Space frankly because I don't like to open myself up on such a vastly public space. So, I stepped out and opened myself in Blogger, which has been a good experience. So, while I have posted some of my favorite sports team information on my ESPN profile (I have this because of Fantasy Football) in the past, that was all I ever had posted out there. However, I have always hated the background and this horrible grey and white picture that they give everyone. Since I have had a good experience with Blogger I decided to step out of my comfort zone and upload a picture and implemented a U of M background on my ESPN profile- I swear that was it. In three days, I have had 10 profile views - all guys, 3 friend invitations - all guys, and 1 message - yep, you guessed it - guy hitting on me. I did accept the invitations after reviewing the sites and not noticing any scary red flags, however, I immediately deleted the message.

So, I have posted a message that I love football and am happy to talk football, but that I am seriously taken and to please not hit on me. Frankly, it is so uncomfortable to me that I will definitely turn the profile to private or delete it entirely if this pattern continues.

So, this got me thinking about my friend Mary and her quest for a man. Why pay for the singles sites when you can find one sport that you have any tiniest possible interest in, follow a team, create a profile for free, pick a couple of favorite teams, and post a picture. If you are looking for a man, just make sure it is a great picture. Voila - men just contact you :-) Or, if my man prevention note did not work then I will send you all of the men that contact me.

I just re-read this and while I am going to post it I do apologize the many turns and twists it takes. I will need to post a blog on how I have learned how women talk in noodles (evident in this post) and how men talk in waffles.

MSU vs. Purdue

This picture was in the Free Press yesterday, my son is the little blonde boy on the left and my boyfriend is the tall guy in the gray sweatshirt behind my son. So, at the age of 11, Jason has made his newspaper debut.

They went the MSU game in Purdue on Saturday. Now, while Ira and I are Michigan fans, Ira's cousin Devin #5 is the starting WR at MSU and my son has been completely converted to an MSU fan. And if he wasn't before Saturday, he is now. The game in Purdue was the first time he has gone to a college football game. Plus, he is an avid football fan (gee, I wonder where he gets that from) and he knows all of the players on the MSU roster. On top of that, this kid loves autographs.

So, with all of that in mind, Ira can hardly get Jason to get up and go to the bathroom during the game because he doesn't want to take the chance of missing a thing. With the sharpie in his pocket he was able to meet the entire team after the game and his jersey is packed with signatures. Devin signed the #5 in front and Javon Ringer #23 signed the #5 on the back. The rest of the back of his jersey is filled with black squiggles - Davis, Hoyer, Saint-Dic, etc. Needless to say, he wore the jersey and took the newspaper into school today.

After the day was through he ended up throwing up and came home with a headache. I am guessing it was due to all of the excitement and lack of food (he just wouldn't eat). Unfortunately, there was only two tickets so I didn't get to see all of the excitement, but it fills my heart to know that Saturday will probably be remembered as one of my son's best days ever.

7 random facts

I was tagged to post 7 random facts about myself.

1 - I was a cheerleader in school for 5 years. I look at cheerleaders now and wonder why did I do that. Frankly, I loved it. We were a competitive squad and we cheered for 10 months a year - summer competitions, football, basketball, more competition in the late Winter. I loved the performance of it and the power of the lifts, jumps, etc. Geeky, I know, but it was my thing and I was good at it. One of my biggest regrets in life was quitting the end of my Junior year in high school. But, it was a rough time in my life and to this day I think I still probably made the right decision.

2 - I had visited over half of the United States before the age of 18.

3 - My graduating class had a grand total of 35 graduates.

4 - I am an avid football fan - especially the NFL and have been playing fantasy football for 10 years.

5 - I was the non-stereotypical college student. It took me 5 years to get my Assoc. Degree and when I went back to school after a 2 year break it took me another 18 months to obtain my BS in Business Management. I always worked full time and went to school part time in the evenings.

6 - When I am outside of my comfort zone and around a bunch of people that I do not know I become very withdrawn and quiet. I know a few people will have a hard time believing this, but it is something I have struggled with my whole life. Trust me, being a sales rep, especially in the field was not even fathomable 15 years ago.

7 - I play the saxophone. I don't play regularly now, but I played for 8 years in school and won the John Phillip Sousa award my Senior year in high school.

Words to live by

As I was sitting in my hotel room yesterday morning waiting for my breakfast (1 hour BTW) and already late for the MLA tradeshow I was flipping through the channels and started watching Forces of Nature. It's not one of my favorite movies, but I couldn't find anything else to hold my interest. I happen to start watching while Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock are in the hotel bar dancing and she is giving advice to him about his upcoming marriage and how to keep his wife happy. I feel that there is a lot of truth in what she tells him, so I have included it here.

• Never forget her birthday and make a really, really big deal out of it.
• After sex, hold her for a little while, talk to her like a human being.
• Do not wear your socks to bed because you might not be all that attractive to begin with.
• Always, always side with her in an argument with your mother.
• Listen to her like you mean it.
• Supportiveness is a really, really sexy turn-on.
• Never, ever hit.
• No matter what annoying habits she has, just realize that she's dealing with a huge mountain of imperfections every day. So you might just want to let it go.

Introduction

Well, all of my blogging friends have moved to Blogger from Yahoo 360 and have forced me to move with them, otherwise I will only be blogging for me and what fun is that. So, here I am. Will this be updated daily - no! Why - because I am a single mom with an 11 year old son, a job and travel schedule that keeps me very busy, and a boyfriend who is just as busy as I am. So, what will this blog bring to you - my opinions (take them or leave them, they are just my opinions), stories from the road, stories of raising a son in middle school with a busy sports schedule, relationship stories, and anything else that comes to mind.

I appreciate feedback, just be kind and understand that I am direct and just call it as I see it whether I am right or wrong.

Yahoo 360 entries 1

In order to keep all of my entries together, I am posting all of previous entries in here.

Day of quiet

Well, it was supposed to be a day of quiet. Ira went to the Iowa / MSU game (in Iowa) and Jason was with his Dad, football season is over, and I had the house to myself. The only tasks on my list of things to do today was to switch my closet from summer clothes to winter clothes and grocery shopping. That was before I had to ground my son for hiding things in his room and lock up one of my cats for peeing on the floor. So much for my smooth, quiet day. Oh well, comes with the job of Mom and cat owner right?

On another note, my next 9 weeks are full of two conferences, two vacations, and 2 million dollars in forecast. Which leads into January of ALA and the sales meeting in Vegas which I am looking forward to. A few of us are extending our time there by flying in our spouses and staying through the weekend after the meeting - that is going to be so much fun, I can't wait. So, as you can see, my schedule is pretty much already set through the end of January. I will blog when I can and since we are getting 3 commission checks before the end of the year, that means three dinners and three reviews. Next up, Ira's choice of Bella Luna in South Lyon in 2 weeks.
Saturday October 27, 2007 - 08:04pm (EDT)
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New tradition

Ira and I are starting a new tradition this weekend. The Friday/Saturday after a commission check we are going to go to dinner to a restauarnt that neither one of has ever been to before.
The rules are simple: no national chains (small state or regional ones are ok), neither one of has eaten there, it's within a 1 hour radius from home, and it needs to be affordable.

I didn't want to set a price limit, but "affordable" gives us some flexibility. I also know the one hour radius sounds extreme, but if we limited it to half an hour we would only get as far as Novi, Chelsea, and Belleville. Plus, we are both used to driving so much that an hour isn't a big deal for us if it a good meal. So, now we can go as far as Lansing, Flint, Jackson, and Detroit.
We will be taking turns picking the restaurant, so this weekend is on me and I am thinking Mexican. I will write a review after every new visit.

If anyone has any recommendations for any great non-chain local restaurants please let me know, we would love to check it out.
Friday September 28, 2007 - 01:00pm (EDT)

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Football - American Style

Blog 2 of 2 today, but this one will be short. We have made the switch to football from soccer and it has been an adjustment. Jason is one of only two 6th graders on the varisty team, he is the smallest, and he is a rookie. So, the blocking has been horrible by the whole team, and I did not see Jason completing plays let alone getting the ball. This has been driving me crazy.

So, Ira is now on the coaching staff and informed me that the coach had them working on blocking big time this week and the reason Jason was not finishing his blocks was because during practice the coaches would only put him up against kids closer to his size. They were actually pulling him out when a bigger guy was put in the drill - hello, he has to go against the big guys in the game. So, Ira stopped them and had him blocking some of the big guys - wow, what a difference, he looked great on Saturday - blocking, chasing after the ball carrier on the other team (he kept running past 4 of his teammates, but unfortunately didn't catch him in time), and he even got his first 1st down. I was so excited, I think I might have cried if he would have had a touchdown.

6 more weeks to go, and hopefully the coached have learned not to baby my kid even if he is the smallest. If he is not playing, he is not having fun, and we will end up back at soccer. He is tough and he can handle it.
Monday September 10, 2007 - 02:00pm (EDT)

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Upper Peninsula

Okay, so I have been swamped and I am a couple of weeks behind on this blog. Ira went with me on my annual UP trip the last week of August on my to visit my 4 schools. Unfortunatley, I could only get appointments at 3, but I take what I can get and there is not much you can do when your librarian is still on vacation.

So, we headed up to Sault Ste Marie on Monday afternoon and had dinner, stopped at a little ice cream shop, walked through the park, and visited the Soo Locks. Tuesday afternoon we headed to Marquette. While it was beautiful drive, we had some rain and mostly worked, but we did have a great dinner at Upfront and Company. This place has a really cool history - it was a grocery store, bowling alley, hotel, etc and was actually scheduled for demolition 5 times before Upfront bought it, remodeled it and opened a great restaurant and they even host various bands and comedy acts. Wednesday it was up to Houghton, where we did fit in a couple of hours of fishing (BTW - I don't really fish, but I even through in a line) and did not even get a nibble. We had dinner at this little place I went to last year with fresh fish and a great menu.

Thursday we headed to St. Ignace before going home on Friday. We decided to stop for lunch around 2:30 and my normal method of finding decent places to eat that are not the normal chains was not going to work. Usually, I can base a decent restaurant on the amount of cars in the parking lot - it was 2:30 and it was the UP, nobody was anywhere. So, we stopped at this bar/restaurant off of 41. We were customers 2 and 3 at that time, but it was some of the freshest food I have seen. Ira had a great looking burger and he actually overheard the bartender on the phone with a local fisherman telling him that she was all set on whitefish, but if he caught anything else to let her know. Wow!

Friday we headed home from a long, productive, and still relaxing week. 1208 miles and close to 19 hours of driving. If you think 5 days is crazy, I did it in 3 last year and still loved it.
Monday September 10, 2007 - 01:51pm (EDT)

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Niagara Falls

Warning - it's a long one, make yourself comfortable.
I feel like my blogs should be named - Vacation Blogs of Summer 2007, but honestly I have had scheduled so much time off this summer that I blog about vacations and spend the rest of my time working to catch up. Which hasn't left much time for day-to-day blogging.

So, Ira and I headed to Niagara Falls Friday morning for some much needed together time. The ride went fairly smooth (just one little wrong turn), we talked and listened to music as we headed across Ontario. Can I just Ontario is like driving through Ohio or Iowa - cornfields and not many places to stop and eat. Well, other than Tim Horton's and Wendy's. Once we hit Hamilton, it was beautiful the rest of the way to Niagara Falls - green trees and blue water.

Friday, we walked down to the falls, had dinner at Shoeless Joe's, and had drinks at the Coco's patio (good service that night) while listening to music and watching Canadian football. Saturday, we walked, and walked, and walked. Our hotel was up Murray St, which requires a downhill hike to Niagara Parkway - 10 minutes to the left is Maid of the Mist and 10 minutes to the right is Journey Behind the Falls. Now you can see both falls from our central point but, essentially Horseshoe Falls is to the right and the American Falls is to the left. Now, that you know my logisitcs....we walked (10 minutes) to the Journey Behind the Falls ticket location to buy tickets and wait 2 hours for our tour time. So, we went to Maid of the Mist to buy tickets (20 minuts). We bought tickets, but there was a 45 minute wait. Not being sure of the length of the boat trip, we walked back towards Murray St (10 minutes), for a cafeteria style lunch at the gift shop/restaurant. And then on to the Journey Behind the Falls (another 10 minutes). Now, did I mention I have hurt my right foot from playing softball (actually it has been hurt, but I have really messed it up now) and I have a blister forming on my left foot. Note to self - bring tennis shoes, not just flip flops. Fortunately, you can cover blisters with band-aids.

So, we get to Journey Behind the Falls which was pretty cool. It was a fairly short walk (thank goodness) through two tunnels behind the falls where you see a water curtain and out the observation deck where we were right next to the horseshoe falls - it was beautiful!

Back up the very steep hill to our hotel (probably another 15 minute walk from Journey Behind the Falls) and we relaxed and hung out by the pool. We saw how great the pizza looked at Coco's the night before and decided early in the day that it was what we wanted for dinner. However, at 7:00 they do shift change - um, I have never worked in a full restaurant, but hello - isn't that the middle of dinner rush?? Needless to say, we had to convice the busboy to get us menus, we had one waitress take our order, some other guy brought our drinks, somebody else brought our food, and finally the waiter that showed up to work checked on us once. The poor people behind us never saw a waiter and had to go get their own drinks from the bar. I will say the pizza was great and 10 minutes after our pizza was gone and the one drink we each had was finished (yes, one, we were never offered any more than that) the waiter finally shows up with our bill. Which I hand delivered to the manager for my change, and informed him that it was the worst service I have had in my life and that I would not be leaving a tip (which for the record, it has to be really bad for me to complain and not leave a tip). Frankly, he is lucky I paid the bill. Ugh, still in good spirits we decide to take a leasuirely walk downtown and then walk back to the Fallsview Casino across from our hotel (Holiday Inn by the Falls). I had such good luck at roulette and the sales meeting charity casino night I wanted to try it with real money, however, with an error in my commissions I am low on money and don't want to spend any more than $30 or $40 (I am not a big gambler). Let's just say there were not any $5 tables like I was hoping for. There were 2 $15 tables and a bunch of $25 tables. So, no roulette, since I didn't feel like blowing my money in 10 minutes. We were both so tired and I have been sick the whole trip (cough/congestion - I sound horrible) that we both decided to just go back to the room and relax - yes, it's Saturday night at 9:30, in Niagara Falls, and we are in our room exhausted. Can you say pathetic??

Sunday we decide to hit the Casino breakfast buffet and head down to Maid of the Mist. Breakfast was good and as we are in line for our 1st boat ride of the day when I notice the little note on the ticket that says valid on date of purchase only - uh-oh, that was yesterday. Hmm, let's see how we can pull this one off?? Everybody along the way is just checking to make sure we have tickets - so far, so good. We have our lovely blue water trash bags, oops, I mean ponchos (the ones yesterday were yellow) and we are ready to get on the boat while I am eyeing the lady taking the tickets. She is taking the tickets and putting them at the bottom of her little ticket pile without even looking at them - JACKPOT! Let me tell you that you do get up close and personal with the falls on this boat, especially the Horseshoe. These poor little Asian men in the dress shoes were dumping water out of their shoes when we headed back to the dock. The trash bags do work well to protect your clothes if you have shorts on, but bring shoes you can wear in the water. I was glad I did have the flip-flops for that.

By 12:30 we are back in our room, chilling out before we go up to Niagara-on-the-Lake for our 5:30 Whirlpool Turbo Jet boat ride. So, we head up early through wine country, I honestly think we passed 15 wineries. Beautiful countryside and a beautiful drive up the Niagara River. We had a great lunch at a little hotel about a block away from the mouth of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario. Since we still had time, we went to the park and walked on the beach, sat on the rocks, watched the boaters, etc. Finally, we head down for our 2nd boat trip of the day. No trach bag ponchos with this one - full water gear - thick poncho, life vest, and water shoes. And we are off to play in the rapids...class 5 rapids that is. This trip is an hour long and 18 miles round trip from the edge of the Niagara River to the whirlpool (class 6 rapid) where the river coming down from the falls bends to go towards Lake Ontario. It is illegal to go into that rapid, but Devil's Hole which is on the way to the whirlpool and back is not illegal and as fun as you can imagine. We sat in row 2, rows 1 - 3 are the controlled drowning area - you will get soaked, water gear or not. But image being on a big turbo boat and crashing around in a class 5 rapids - it was awesome!! It was like the biggest, best water ride you can imagine.

Out night ended with a walk to Clifton Hill (past Maid of the Mist for those of you keeping track of all of this walking that we did) for dinner and a chaos of people. Clifton Hill is definitely designed for the kids - Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Marvel Superheroes, WWE, arcade, etc. All we wanted was dinner and to watch the fireworks from the ferris wheel. So, we had dinner at Montana's (another good meal) and unfortunately, we were not done in time to watch the fireworks, but we have all seen fireworks before, so no big deal. However, we did ride the ferris wheel and walked past the falls to see them illuminated with the various colors at nighttime. By the time, we made it back to our room it was 12:00 and both of us were sore and tired.

Due to the fairly flat drive through Canada to get to Niagara Falls we decided to take the longer trip back through the US - NY, PA, OH, and MI. I do have to say even though it is a couple of hours longer, it is much prettier and does have more food options :-) However, we are both walking like penguins, especially me - my legs did get a true workout this weekend.
All in all it was a great and well-needed trip. Back to work tomorrow - LOL! I will be planning my UP trip at the end of August to visit the 4 universities up there, which Ira will be going with me so, I am sure I will have more to blog about then. Pictures will be posted soon.
Monday August 6, 2007 - 07:15pm (EDT)
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vacation ends tomorrow - sigh

Just thought I would do a quick catch up. The visit with my Mom has been going fine, everything has reconfirmed what jerks my stepbrothers can be sometimes, but I will not dwell on that. However, they fly out tomorrow and my vacation ends after tomorrow so everything will go back to normal.

I can say we have ate well - I have made ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, jambalaya, spaghetti salad, taco salad, sausage gravy and biscuits, waffles, and one birthday cake. I have tried to stay out of restaurants if you cannot tell. Even while entertaining my Mom and Stepdad, I have been able to see some of my favorite friends (and ex-coworkers). My friend Mike came out to have dinner and watch fireworks with us last Tuesday and on Saturday Ira, Jason, and I went out to my friend Scott's to hang out with him and his family for tubing, swimming, and having dinner lakeside.

We also had Jason's birthday party which was only disappointing due to the low turnout (I tried to warn him July 5th cound be a little limited on guests). But, we still had fun. Ira and I took Jason and his buddy Rory to the batting cages, they drove the go-karts, and we played 18 holes of mini golf. To which, Mom had to school them all - I won by 9 strokes. They went swimming and we had a campfire where they camped out under the stars. Anybody who remembers that storm that rolled through the area around 3:00 last Thursday - picture me and one of the other Mom's putting up a tent as the storm was rolling in.

I also gave Ira his birthday gift a little early - a 80 gb Toshiba laptop - he literally teared up, he was sooo happy. And, we had furniture deliverd that fit. Okay, I have a few new scratches on my walls and I had to fix the basement door. But nothing major and if anything, this will motivate me to now paint some of the rest of my house.

Well, I think that summarizes everything. I will sooo be ready for a fruity margarita by tomorrow afternoon.
Monday July 9, 2007 - 10:55pm (EDT)
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Countdown

Only 2 days left until my Mom gets here and I am just about ready. I did order new furniture, but I knew when I ordered it that even with all the checking and confirmations that it may not fit into the basement - sure enough, it was too long (102 inches) to make the turn into the basement from the stairwell. This is disappointing because it was a sleeper sofa and I was hoping to have it for the visit. Anyway, I went back and ordered our 2nd choice (this sofa is only 88 inches so that should fit) set to be delivered next Friday, which will be too late for this visit, but it will be nice to have for other times.

The deck is done except for a second coat on the new step that Ira put in and the stair rails. The upstair rooms has been steam cleaned, I just need to clean the living room carpet and mop. Some minor sheet changing and grocery shopping and we will be all set. I relaxed most of today - read on the deck, took the kids to the lake for a couple of hours, and went to Farmers Market this morning. I have tomorrow night (after Ira's kids leave) and Monday to get the last bit of stuff done and then I can spend the rest of the week enjoying the visit and preparing for Jason's bday party Thursday night. I am so close to Ahhhh that I am starting to feel it.
Saturday June 30, 2007 - 09:12pm (EDT)

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Family visits

For those that don't know, my Mom and Stepdad are flying in from Arizona in few days to visit. While they will be splitting their time between my house and my Stepbrother's house, most of their time will be spent here. Now, any of you who have any insight into my relationship with my Mom - this is driving me crazy. Fortunately, travel time is light due to ALA and lack of customers wanting to see me in the Summer.

So, I feel like I am vacuuming every day, I am finally finishing staining the deck (hopefully today!), I have been putting up pictures that I have procrastinated on for a year, been throwing things away that we don't use anymore, hung wind chimes that have been sitting on the bathroom window sill since we moved in two year ago, etc. I feel like I am nesting!!! I feel like everything that I have not been in a hurry to do, I am doing now at breakneck speed.
I only have 2 rooms painted and that won't change, but I do need to put up some molding in the downstairs bathroom, we need to fix the steps on the deck that broke last Summer and I need new vertical blinds in the living room and 2 new pull blinds for each for the kids rooms. Heck, we even went to Art Van last night looking for a comfortable, inexpensive, sleeper sofa (I know, good luck) for the basement. It's not that they can't sleep in the full size beds upstairs, but a sleeper sofa is something I have been considering for awhile.
10 more days to go, let' see how much more I tack on to my list.
Saturday June 23, 2007 - 10:27am (EDT)

Yahoo 360 entries 2

Florida Vacation - Days 4 and 5

Ok, I was so exhausted last night that I did not blog, so today's blog is a twofer. Yesterday was Wet N Wild day (WW), again with the alarm clock. But, at least was 8 and not 6:30. The only shuttle to WW left was at 9, so it was that or a cab.

We had a beautiful day for the water park, high 80's, low humidity, and sunny skies. We rode Brain Wash, Black Hole, and Disco H2O (first ride I can ever remember screaming on - even Jason commented that he had never heard me scream before). We hung out in the most unrelaxing lazy river I have been in, for a very short while. It was more like running with the bulls than lazy and relaxing. Most of the kids in the river did not have tubes (because you had to rent them) and they were pushing, jumping, swimming past people, etc. But, besides that, everything else was great.

We had lunch, relaxed, rode water rides, got wet, and were back in our room around 3. And of course, we were down at the pool after we returned :-) Showers, dinner at Margaritaville, and the new Fantastic Four movie finished out our night. Both of us were sleeping around 10:00.
Today, there were no plans, yeah!!! We went shopping - Ron Jon, Steve & Barry's, Bass Pro Shop, World of Denim, etc. I am happy to say that I paid for lunch and bought Jason a pair of shoes ($15). Nothing for me!!! Okay, for anyone who knows me, that is a miracle. I think I am getting better at mall shopping and not buying anything since I have moved to field sales. Most of my nighttime, after dinner activity is mall walking. And, usually, I try to stick to bargain stores, that way if I buy anything at least I won't spend much.

Again, we hung out at the pool and we are just relaxing before our 5 minute walk to dinner. We fly back home tomorrow and I am ready. This has been a great vacation, fun, relaxing, great weather, and the perfect amount of time. But, tomorrow is back to reality and Monday is back to work - I still have $400,000 in sales to close by the end of June.
Saturday June 16, 2007 - 04:47pm (EDT)
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Florida Vacation - Day 3

The alarm went off at 6:30 am this morning which I was not thrilled about, after all aren't you supposed to sleep in on vacation? Well, after the never ending waits yesterday at Universal Studios we were going to take full advantage of our early bird pass to Islands of Adventure today and even though I was not thrilled about getting up early I am so glad we did. By 9:30 we had breakfast, ridden the Hulk coaster twice, the Spiderman ride twice, and got drenched in two water coaster rides. By 11:15 we hade ridden everything we wanted to and never waited more than 10 minutes for anything.

We went to lunch at NBA City and went back to IOA for games and shopping. Jason won a NC Tar Heel ram stuffed animal shooting baskets and we both bought some shirts (yes, he had to save his own money for spending on this trip). Walking back past Spiderman on our gaming and shopping rounds the bright digital sign showed a 75 minute wait - suckers, hee hee!!

We were back at the hotel shortly after 2 and headed down to the pool. We swam and hung out until some big fluffy clouds swept in and blocked the sun with no evidence of leaving for awhile. So we headed back up to our room for showers and dinner. Dinner was pancakes at IHOP, other than the breakfast buffet this morning at the hotel, IHOP was the cheapest meal we have had yet. I can't seem to find any cheap food and I am trying to stay away from the fast food route. So, since we have a kitchenette, we at least bought a box of cereal and some milk to cover breakfast the next three days.

Tomorrow is our last completely sunny day, so we are planning on Wet N Wild. After the busyness and fun of the last three days we may be sleeping all day Saturday .
Thursday June 14, 2007 - 07:07pm (EDT)
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Florida Vacation - Day 2

We headed off to Universal Studios this morning. Because we slept in and took our time, we didn't have time for a lengthy breakfast and caught the 2nd to last free shuttle to the park. We stopped at the Cinnabon on Citywalk for a shared cinnamon roll and bottle of water before continuing our adventure.

We started with Shrek 4-D, it was very cool, the theatre shook and moved, the action on screen was all over the theatre and in your face with our Ogrevision glasses, we were even sprayed with water. We then headed to Twister, which was okay, I am pretty sure if I hadn't ducked from the fire explosion I would have singed my eyebrows, since Jason and I were in the first row.
Off to lunch at Bubba Gump's and then some shopping. We were both on a very strict rule of pre-shopping, but no buying. Neither of us wanted to carry anything, all buying was done on the way out as we headed back to the hotel.

Back to Universal Studios for the Blues Brothers show and the Mummy ride, it had the most unusal line I have been in, halls, rooms, stairs, bridges, you never knew when you were actaully going to get to the ride. But, it was worth it, the ride was awesome.

Jason did get to play some games and we decided we didn't want to wait 35 and 40 minutes for Jaws and Jimmy Neutron, so we made our way towards the exit after going through many stores along the way. Of course with the rain now on top of us, we were diving under trees and coverings.

We had a fantastic dinner at Orlando Ale House and are now winding down for showers and bed. Tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be sunny, so I think we will get up early tomorrow, go to breakfast, and head over to Islands of Adventure early. Since we get to go in an hour before regular admission maybe we can ride some of the big stuff without the long lines.
Wednesday June 13, 2007 - 08:57pm (EDT)
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Florida Vacation - Day 1

We flew into Orlando last night to overcast skies, but I have been watching the weather for a few days now and know there are some storms heading this way. So, that was not a surprise and there is nothing we can do about the weather. We should still have plenty of sunshine and hot weather while we are here.

While I was checking reviews of the hotel, there were maybe 60% good and 40% bad, so this is something that I have been a little concerned about before we got here, but the room will really be for clothes storing and sleeping. So, as long as it is acceptable I am cool with it. So, saying that, we got to our room smoothly, we got the keys to the room, I am praying as we approach the room "please be a nice, clean room", slide the key in the door, light turns green, push handle down, door does not budge. That's right, we could not get in the room. Back to the lobby for room number 2, again praying, slide key, door opens, yeah! Okay, not to be fussy, but the tub faucet will not stop unless I lift up the shower thingy (the technical term) and there are water bubbles in the ceiling above one of the beds. By the way, this is a Holiday Inn not the Motel 6. So, I think I can deal with this and we go to dinner. After we finally order dinner I decided to try to switch rooms again, but this time I am going for upgrade.

So, fortunately the manager happens to be the one who asks if he can help me, I tell him my situation in a very nice manner (it's not that I can't deal with my room, but if I can get something nicer then I will take it), plus I am a Priority Club member, and I stay in Holiday Inn hotels every week. Is there any way we can discuss a price to upgrade to a suite? $20 a night and I can upgrade (usually $40/night), done and ready to dance!!! So after dinner, we get ready to switch rooms again, slide key in door, turn handle down, door won't open again. Well, I have a suite now, so I don't want to change rooms, I just want to get into my 3rd room. New keys, an engineer, and I am ready to go again. Engineer guy turns the handle down, nothing, lifts it up, nothing, lifts it up and then down, door opens. Our room is so secure you need a special turning code to get in it - LOL. I like this room so much better - 4 rooms and space for our 5 day stay.

I didn't sleep real well last night, but I am looking forward to today. Due to the storms that are forecasted we are starting with Universal Studios since I could not find any evidence of any water rides. Stay tuned for more tomorrow...
Wednesday June 13, 2007 - 09:14am (EDT)
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Good blog...

No bitch-log today. I think blogs are great for getting frustrations off your chest, I could dig deep on the very crappy soccer season we are ending 6 years on, the non-stop picking up after everyone else (like we don't all do that), but all of that would be digging deep.

Instead, I am in a great mood, everything seems to be lined up correctly, I have lost 5 pounds and I am 10 days from my first vacation of the year....Jason and I are heading to Orlando for 5 days. The closest I plan on getting to Disney is Downtown Disney, but we are hitting everything surrounding Universal Studios. We did Disney when he was 4 and spent one day at Islands of Adventure, so this time, now that he is almost 11, he can ride everything and he is sooooo past Disney. I also have a week off at home the first week of July, sales meeting at the end of July and a long weekend in Niagara Falls in early August. Okay, so the sales meeting isn't a vacation, but I just love seeing everybody and having a good time outside of the meetings. I will miss the Sersol people dearly though, luckliy I got to hang out with them in Baltimore in March though.

Anyway, one of the great things about this job is that travel slows down tremendously in the Summer, so I can spend more time at home. It does, make it harder to close business when everyone is on vacation, but I do what I can and enjoy the slow time.
Life is good, everything is great, and there is no complaining to be found here for once :-)
Saturday June 2, 2007 - 03:45pm (EDT)
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Nosey people

Well, it has been a tumultuous couple of weeks. Ira and I seem to get more and more pressure about getting married. It's becoming a bit difficult to deal with, but we are both in agreement that it is really nobody else's business when we decide to take that lifelong step.

It seem like over the past couple of weeks it has just been soming up more thanusual, Ira was told by our pastor not to expect to be in anymore of the church dramas, becuase due to our living situation he would not be a reputable public face of the church. There have been more and more questions from our church friends whom just natually assumed we were married. And, frankly that is not anything that I have lied about or attempted to mislead anybody on. For cryin' out loud I even got questioned at a soccer game in Chicago from one of the soccer mom's. Why is it so hard for people to just keep their inquiries, comments, and opinion to themselves?

I think my explanation is pretty valid....Ira has some sordid details to his life due to his children, child support, and his financial situation that needs to be cleared up before we can even consider marriage. This does not mean that our faith, love, dedication, or committment to each other waivers. We have both been married and divorced, entering into marriage again is not something we take lightly. Why is that so hard for people to understand? We are essentially married in every possible way except in the eyes of God and on a piece of paper. In fact, we have been together longer than some married couples I know.

I just hate the questioning and the feeling that some people find it necessary to leave us out of couple activites simply because we have not stood at an alter and taken vows.
To each their own, I guess... I just hate being judged this way.
Sunday May 20, 2007 - 08:31pm (EDT)
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One sided friendships

Maybe I just had too much to think while driving today, but I feel like I hit a brick wall. Keep in mind that this does not apply to everybody, but it applies to more people in my life than not and that is what has me thinking about it. So, here goes and yes, I am probably going to cry while I type this.

I have had a lifetime of one-sided friendships, I am assuming everyone has some friendships like this, maybe not as many as I have, but some. You know, the friend that you are always reaching out to, calling, inviting to lunch/dinner, movie, calling, but, you don't hear from them first. They are only there when you call them and even then there may be a lot of excuses or reasons on why they cannot talk, meet, etc. Now, you may say, well honey, they just don't want to be around you. In some cases, that is true and we all have people we avoid and people who avoid us. But, I am talking about the people that in their best moments you honestly believe is one of your best friends and you just like to be around them. As, you can see it has different layers.

Now, my problem is that most of my friendships look like that. Great friends in the times that are convenient for them, but when you need them, they are never anywhere to be found. Or, how about the one's that you invite out and the reasons always seem to be there on why they can't go, but lo and behold they found time for another friend. Or, you ask them to do something they can't do for you, but can find the time for another friend.

Invitations to parties...too far to drive, too busy, no response, you name it. But, don't even think about not showing up for their get together. I could invite 15 friends on my side and 15 on Ira's - 2 would show up on mine and 13 would show up on Ira's.

Now, I know life gets in the way, trust me I do understand that more than most. Traveling every week, soccer, Jason, church, you name it. My life is busier than most. So, why is it I go out of my way to be there for friends that on their lightest day would not show that loyalty to me.

We had 2 other couples that we were best friends with, 3 out of 4 of the people in those couples I had known since elementary school. Without the details, I will just say something happenend between the two couples and they decided they could not be friends and that included with us either, even though we were not involved and knew nothing about what was going on. I mourn the death of those friendships every day. In fact that mess happened 3 years ago this month. How do people treat friendships like that as dispensable? How do you turn away some of your best friends when you may need them the most? I do not understand that.

My bridal shower was thrown by my Mom and then to be Mother-in-law. 4 baby showers - 2 work , 1 from my Stepmom, and 1 from Jess's Aunt. You guessed, it mostly family at those 2, in fact I thinkn there was only 1 friend at those two combined.

I admit that I do not let myself into friendships easily, I am super cautious after being burned so many times, but once I enter into that friendship it has become an investment and I guarantee you will not find a more loyal friend anywhere. I would drop anything, anytime to be there for a friend if they needed me.

But, just once I would like that from somebody else. Now, I admit, it is hard for me to lean on somebody or ask for help, but aren't friends supposed to reach out and help you whether you ask for it or not. At least offer, right? (Oh, your Dad almost died, gee, sorry to hear that. Hello??? WTF kind of response is that?)

So, my question is why don't I have that? Never had that? Why can I count my really, true friends on a couple of fingers? At this point, I want to keep everyone at an arm's length and accept that I am going to live my life without somebody I can call up to go to a movie or that will call me to go shopping or go have a beer.

Please do not respond with, "You're great, you are strong, frun to be around, blah, blah, blah." Because if that was all true, then I would not be in this situation typing this. Am I too strong, to picky, intimidating, annoying, egotistical, negative, judgemental? What is that I do that tends to repel people? The very few people that have seen me breakdown, always say that I am one of the strongest people they know that to see me cry confuses them and they are not sure how to handle it. So, am I that person that everyone else leans on and it is just assumed that I don't need anybody? Well, I will tell you that that is not the case. I am human, I am female, I have feelings and I do hurt too. Maybe more than most people, see, know about, or understand.
And yep, I cried while typing the end of this.
Thursday May 17, 2007 - 10:29pm (EDT)
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I hate being sick

I am not one to get sick on a regular basis, but when I do get sick I take it to a whole new level. In the past three days I have had a persistent sore throat, vomiting, diahrrea, passed out twice, and slept alot. I have also sat through 2 soccer games (couldn't make the third), went to a birthday party, and went to a comedy benefit. I am pretty sure after a non-stop Saturday that is why I passed out Sunday morning, my body said enough is enough.

So, I am feeling better, I went the doctor today to get an antibiotic for my throat this afternoon and I leave for Evansville in the morning. No downtime for the driven, I have sales to close.
Monday May 14, 2007 - 09:29pm (EDT)
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Numbers, decimals, get it out of my head

Jason had a bunch of make up math homework tonight, fortunately I made him start re-doing some of the problems a few days ago. I only made him start doing it because he had it all wrong and I wanted him to understand it. Well, little did I know that his teacher wanted him to re-do it too, in addition to his homework tonight. 5 pages of decimal multiplication and metric conversion later and I can no longer think straight and poor Jason has a headache. He went to bed and he/we still have 1 more page to get done before school tomorrow. Before he went to bed he just kept saying thank you, it was soooo sweet.

I am ready to just veg, watch tv, and not think about anything. I am hoping that I don't have dancing numbers in my dreams.
Monday April 30, 2007 - 10:06pm (EDT)
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Technology

First off, I know it's been a while, I've been busy :-)
I was just thinking how great it is to have the technology that we have today - IM, e-mail, cell phones. Do high school and college kids just realize how luck they are? How many people did we graduate with that we didn't stay in touch with because they moved or their number changed? But, now through e-mail, blogging, IM, and cells information is changing less often and we can honestly stay in touch people after moving, graduations, changing jobs, etc.

I have had three friends leave PQ to go onto bigger and better things and of course, both of them felt it necessary to move out of state. Now, as much of a bummer that this is I still know that I will talk to them. Maybe not on a regular basis, but they are always an e-mail or phone call away.
Plus, they are all on my LinkedIn list, so if necessary we can hunt each other down :-)
Friday April 20, 2007 - 08:20pm (EDT)

Yahoo 360 entries 3

I feel lucky!

A friend of ours has a 10 year old daughter that she adopted from Kazakstan (sp?). Her daughter has had some mental health issues that has required her to be medicated. I have seen the little girl plenty of times and you really would never know anything is unusual about her. However, due to either stress or something that the therapists have not been able to pinpoint, in the last week she has shaved off her eyebrows, plucked out all of her eyelashes, and has shaved off all of the hair below her hips.

I see all the distress that this latest event has caused my friend and my heart and prayers go out to her. I am just not sure how she does it. I have so much respect for parents that have children with mental or physical disabilities. I know with your child you have no choice but to do absolutely everything you can for your child and you deal with every barrier that gets thrown at you. I will say that seeing how great these parents are does make me feel very fortunate to know such great people and I feel lucky that with any issues my son has had in his 10 year life they are not to the extent of some of these other kids.
Thursday February 8, 2007 - 09:29pm (EST)
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Sometimes it's fun....

being the Mom or psuedo Stepmom.

My son, argumentative as they come (must get that from his Dad) tells me that he has a bug bite and needs alcohol on it. Now, if I would have told him that he actually needed peroxide I would received the infamous "but, Grandma uses alcohol." So, to avoid the argument and teach him a lesson I gave him exactly what he asked for, while saying, "I would normally use perioxide, but here you go." Needless to say if he was allowed to swear he would have, you could tell he sure wanted to. He didn't remember alcohol hurting that bad before, maybe it was peroxide that Grandma uses. Somehow, I don't think he will be making that same mistake in the near future
:-)

As far as Ira's 6 year old son goes, he decided that this weekend it was a problem for him to sleep in the same bed and in the same room he has slept in every other weekend for a year and a half. After he was up twice to get Ira, I volunteered to deal with him from there on out. Now, anybody who knows me knows I have no sympathy for the kid and don't really cared if he is scared, hurt, etc. Bad, I know, but reality. So, therefore, dealing with me is a little different than dealing with his Dad, plus I am pretty sure he is scared of me. He was up again at 11:50, after 12, and again at 2. After threatening to close his bedroom door after the 12:00 knock on our bedroom door I really didn't think I would hear from him again (I am pretty sure Ira didn't hear anything). But no, at 2:00 he knocked on the door again and this time when his Dad was still not coming to the door, it was followed by, "never mind." Okay, so I got little sleep last night since all of those times he knocked on the door I was in dreamland and then the cat decided she wanted in the room at 4:30 and needed to wake me up for that. But, hopefully it was worth it and we won't have to go through another ordeal like we had a toddler in the house. The "never mind" still brings a little smile to my face, it was like him admitting defeat.

Sometimes, it just plain good and fun being the Mom.
Monday January 15, 2007 - 03:53pm (EST)
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A new year!

Boy, am I glad I am through with yesterday!!! Better day, looking forward to 2007, I think it is going to be a great year.

A lot of exciting things to look forward to and many changes ahead.
Friday January 12, 2007 - 10:41am (EST)
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Here's to...a complainer

I do like to think that I am not a "complainer". I prefer to be solution-oriented and find the bright side. But, today I am tired and woke up depressed, so I am going to just get everything out of my system.

Here's to... sore feet, heavy eyes, heavy heart, poor motivation, and lack of energy.
Here's to... broken friendships, broken relationships, never ending disappointment, and going downhill.
Here's to fear, sorrow, fear again, pity, and the desire to want everything perfect.
Here's to disappointment, lies, and scars that will never heal.
Here's to admitting to yourself that things will never be perfect and figuring out how long to deal with those that continue to hurt you in one way or another.
Cheers to the complainer who will work past it, move on, and keep striving for the solution and silver lining.
Thursday January 11, 2007 - 11:31am (EST)
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Friends and Family

I have another friend (you will find that my friends are what get me thinking the most) who will probably never be more than a waitress and housekeeper. God knows we need them in life too, I accept it and I love her for it. The fact of the matter is she just doesn't have the confidence and determination to do anything bigger in life. I am not saying that to be mean, it really is just the way she is.

Anyway, she and her son (10 years old) went with us to Church last weekend and to a house party afterwards. Now, the friends of ours that were having the house party are about as stable as a family as you can get. Two of the brothers own various physical rehab clinics across the state, so you have successful and down to earth in one nice package. Well, by the end of the evening, my waitress friend was feeling a little sorry for herself after hanging out with us at this party - wishing she had a family that close, more success, etc.

So, it got me to thinking. I think we surround ourselves with three types of friends... the friends that remind us where we've been, where we are, and where we would like to be. The family at the house party are definitely where I would like to be, my waitress friend is where I've been, and I am her friend of where she would like to be. Every friend is either on an equal level with your present, someone to use as an inspiration, or someone that you inspire.

Each one has an equal role and you don't love any of them any less or any more because of it. Because, frankly, all of us are at various roles with our own blood families and I know that I spend more time with my friends than I do with my family. You create yourself another non-blood family of people you enjoy being around. Even more so when your family is nuts, which let's face it, there are many times I am pretty sure I am adopted.

You can usually relate to your friends in one way or another in ways that you may not be able to relate to your family. Just because you are born into a family doesn't make you like the rest of them, but you can find people all over the world that are more similar to you, what you think, and what you believe.

Friends who are on the same playing field, friends that you inspire for bigger and better things, and friends that inspire you to be the best that you can be.
Friday December 29, 2006 - 10:55am (EST)
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Age difference

I know I have not been finding the time to devote to blogging like I should be. So, I will try to come up with 2 or 3 topics a week to discuss and give my righteous opinion on. All while not trying to give the world my daily activites .

Last night Ira and I went out with a group of people that he went to high school with. Most of which I have either met before or hang out with regularly. One of Ira's best friends and a close friend to me as well has been in an on again, off again relationship with the same girl (trust me this term fits) for approximately 6 years. When they first started dating, she was 18 and he was 30.

Now, at 24 and 36, you never are quite sure from day to day on whether they are a couple or broken up. The main problem, he wants to commit and at 24 she doesn't know what the hell she wants. I don't think they have actually lived together, but the have been together, been engaged, and been broken up more times than I can fathom. I should note that I don't tend to have a problem with age differences in relationships, I have seen many work out. In fact, my Dad and Stepmom are 13 years apart and ironically that makes her 13 years older than me (I know - weird!). They will be married for 20 years next Summer. Okay, that sets the scene...
Now, from a psychological standpoint here is something to ponder.... as we get older we tend to change our opinions, become more open-minded on some issues and more close-minded on others. As a teenager, in your 20's, and for some people even longer, if your spouse, boy/girl friend, significant other gives their attention to someone else you feel resentment and get mad. At 33 years old and in the same relationship for almost 7 years, I am sooo passed this. When Ira and I go out we tend to flirt with other people, get involved in various conversations with other people, and may hardly say a word to each other all night. We like to mingle, and frankly, the flirting is harmless fun, and we both know that we are going home with each other at the end of the night. For those who comment regularly, how much time did Ira and I spend together at Robin's party? We know where each other is at, what each other is up to, etc.

So, back to last night... Our friend above was flirting with me, I was flirting back, Ira was sitting across the table, out of 9 people 8 people could have cared less. Who cared - the 24 year old girlfriend. I had commented to Ira last night about how we become more open-minded as we get older and then found out this morning that there was an argument last night (after they went back to his place - see, they went home together, happens everytime) about him flirting with me and complimenting me. What she didn't hear was myself and another female friend grilling him as to why he was back with the youngun again (they were broke up two weeks ago). He responsed that he really does love her, clarified that he is in love with her. She also didn't hear our response that is he wanted to be with her that he needs to get het to commit and quit all the BS.

So, here is my tip - if you are going to be 24 hanging out with 30 somethings then you better grow up pretty damn quick or you are going to be mad alot!

Don't get me wrong, I like the girldfriend, but gain some self-security, stop feeling threatened, and know at the end of the night he is going to go home with you.
Saturday December 23, 2006 - 12:11pm (EST)
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Thanksgiving 2006

2 days to Thanksgiving and 11 mouths to feed. I took the week off just to get shopping and cleaning done. I rented a couple of movies since I figured I would have time to watch them - 2 days and still haven't watched either one of them yet, but I will find time.
I am just happy not to be working every night, that is relaxing to me :-)
Tuesday November 21, 2006 - 10:52pm (EST)
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Fall craziness!!

Around Labor Day I had invited my step-brother, his wife and their two kids out to our house. They couldn't make it, but he had commented that now that Summer was ending that things would be less crazy. Less crazy in the Fall?!? Summer IS my non-crazy time. His kids are young, he just has not idea yet.

School starts, soccer is in full swing, and I fall into the Fall Push (echo, echo, echo). Travel and more travel, phone calls and more phone calls, all trying to close every dollar you can by the end of December. You flow through the whole year with trying to close sales every month, but the last 4 months is what it comes down to. You then know exactly every dollar you need to make your year-end goal annnnd you are running out of time. So, everything is surrounded around work, travel, and closing sales.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to throw in soccer, kids extra-curricular activities, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, shopping for all of the above. Plus my own social life.
I can't wait until Summer :-)
Saturday October 21, 2006 - 11:12am (EDT)
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Page Views

I wish 360 had a guest book. If there is one, can someone please tell me how to activate it? I have had over 1,000 page views to my 360 page (25 in the past week) and I know it cannot be all the people on my friends list checking out my page that many times - I just don't update it enough to warrant that. So, if you are not on my list of friends and you are reading this (which makes you at least a friend of friend of friend) please send me message or comment to this blog with who you are, who's friend you are, and what drew you to look at my page.
THANKS!!!!
Saturday September 16, 2006 - 11:19am (EDT)
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School is in session

All the kids are back to school. It has been a bit of an adjustment with Jason's new schedule - he is at school over an hour earlier than he used to be - which means I have to get up to an alarm while it is still dark outside - ugh!

It also means that the colleges are back in session and I am back on the road. Which I am actually happy about. I know it sounds absurd, but I was actually going a little stir crazy sitting in my office during the Summer. And, it also means business was slow then too. But, hopefully things will start rolling now - travel and commission wise.

We have one more weekend of relaxation before soccer season starts. The season actually started this weekend, but I didn't schedule any games due to kids being absent. Which means we now have 5 weeks of Saturday and Sunday games - busy, busy.

This weekend also marks the start of our bowling league and fantasy football. I love Summer for the relaxation, but I love Fall for some of the craziness. Relaxation is great and highly preferred, but sometimes crazy is a lot more fun!
Saturday September 9, 2006 - 03:28pm (EDT)