Friday, February 29, 2008

Leap Day


Did you know that it is a folk tradition that Leap Day is the only day that a woman may propose marriage to a man? Only one day out of 1460! Well, I didn't want to miss my chance, so I proposed to my co-worker Billy. I felt fairly certain that I would not end up married because Billy is gay. But he laughingly accepted my proposal, and spent the day referring to me as his fiancee. We discussed china patterns (he has much better taste than I do) and talked about the flowers we would plant in the spring. Then right before the end of the day he came up to my desk and told me that he didn't think it was going to work out because he had met a guy. I told him that I too had a feeling it was not going to work out, what with him being gay and all. We parted as friends and said that no matter what, we'll always have Leap Day.

Hope your Leap Day was a good one!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

A Glimmer Of Hope

It hasn't really snowed in almost a month but there is still a lot of snow on the ground. Every morning when I get out of bed, I look out my bedroom window at all the snow and heave a big sigh and say in a small voice, "Damn, it's still winter."

I had pretty much given up on the idea of Spring ever coming, but today the temps hit almost 50. I sat in my car at lunch with the window down and no coat on and let the sun shine on me while I was knitting, it felt sooooo good.

Today, I considered the possibility that Spring may eventually arrive.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

All About Barf

So Leo has been sick since Monday morning with something that makes him barf several times a day. And also have a fever. If it's not the flu it's certainly flu-like. What I want to know is this: can the flu pass from humans to cats? Because last night within half an hour, my kid and not one but two of my three cats all barfed! The big difference between Leo barfing and Dolly and Blossom barfing is that Leo at least makes an attempt to get to some sort of barf-containment receptacle. The cats just barf in the hallway and think that is okay. Let me go on record to say that it is not okay! I have not lived all these years aspiring to a career in barf management, but that is what I have!
I just want the barfing to stop. All of it.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Stupid Hormones!

I have a hard time concealing my emotions on a good day, but throw in some PMS hormones and there is no concealing anything. So it's Saturday morning and I am trying to catch up on my tv watching that I record all week. Here is the lineup:
1) Celebrity Rehab
2) Gone Country
3) Oprah
Sounds benign enough, right? Wrong.
So I'm watching Celebrity Rehab and the celebrities are getting ready to go back out into the real world and they are emotional so I start crying too for no apparent reason. I don't mind crying for a reason, but no reason? Ugh. Fortunately, Gone Country gave me plenty of reasons to cry. The singers went to visit a childrens hospital in Nashville, and seeing all those ill kids just tore me up and made me so grateful that my kids are healthy. Now by this time I am a mess. This is not what I bargained for when I sat down with my coffee to relax, sobbing through half a box of tissue. So I get through that, and then it's Oprah with the Jim Carrey, Carol Burnett and Steve Carrell, three of the funniest people ever. I think I am home free with the crying, but no. As Jim Carrey is introducing Carol Burnett and talking about her influence on his 10 year old life, I think about how much I used to love her show and how as a kid I used to cry when the season was over and there would be no more Carol Burnett for the summer. And that got me going again! So there I am crying and thinking that if my kids walk in right now they may have me committed. But I soldiered on through Oprah, which was mostly funny, and for the record I did laugh too, sometimes maniacally! Clearly the only solution was to turn off the tv, so I tried, but now my Saturday morning Soul Train is on, and the Captain and Tennille are going to perform! I can't miss that, it will be hilarious! I blame this whole tv debacle on hormones. So if you are my friend or family and would like a seat on my emotional roller coaster, call now! No guarantees on what might come out of my mouth though.

Thanks, Estrogen!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Dark Side Of The Moon

Hope you all saw the total lunar eclipse tonight, it was awesome! I have this tradition that goes back to my stoner days that whenever there is a lunar eclipse I watch it while listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. And tonight was no different. I drove to the end of a dead end street away from the city lights and watched and listened. I love the fact that we all watched the moon tonight, and I felt connected to my far away friends and family knowing that they were watching the moon with me.

Here is another thing--is anyone watching American Idol this season? Usually I just watch the auditions but this year I am already sucked in, thanks in part to Faythe who has been coming over to watch and blog. I already have my favorites picked out, hope they do well!

Also--I am loving my "new" computer! I bask in the glow of my new big monitor, and listen to my music with my new speakers which are 100 times better than the old ones. I am a happy happy girl.

Lastly--I don't want to jinx it by saying too much, but an avenue has opened up for me to be in the Spokane St. Patrick's Day Parade ! It is not the avenue I proposed last year, but an avenue nonetheless. March is shaping up to be a great month!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Thank You Patrick

Thanks so much to my nephew Patrick who told Max what to do to get the internet back on my computer.
And a big thank you to Max for replacing my broken disc drive, now I can play CD's again!
Tomorrow I get a new monitor, a bigger one, I'm so excited!
Woohoo!

Crappy News and Great News

First the crappy news...my computer is dead! Well, it was dying and then Max finished it off in an attempt to save it. Really it wasn't even dying, it was just constipated. It was the enema that killed it. First we got an external hard drive and saved everything I wanted off it like pictures and music. Then Max cleared everything off of it, I think it's called reformatting. But somehow during that process, my computer got some sort of amnesia and now it no longer recognizes it's old friend The Internet. So right now I am on Leo's computer. Max will attempt to get my computer to remember the internet, but I don't know how, maybe by showing it old pictures of them together, or reminding it of the love they once shared. At any rate, there will be a computer connected to the internet on my desk by the end of the day one way or the other. My Dell is like 5 or 6 years old so it has essentially been obsolete for years anyway. It served me well for a long time so I have no qualms about getting a new one, especially since I got a decent size tax return this year.
This whole computer crisis really put a kink in what I really wanted to post about last night, so let's start that.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

That is the sound of me squealing, here's what happened. Yesterday morning was craft day with my friend Heather from work. So I am at the stoplight at the corner of Boone and Ash at 9 am and I look over and there is a billboard with the B-52's on it. Then I notice what it says: B-52's March 29th Northern Quest Casino. Here was my reaction:
Oh My God
OH MY GOD
OHMYGOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (pause to take a breath) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
Then I kind of came to and noticed that the light was still red and after looking around, was relieved that nobody had witnessed my screaming fit. At least with this one it was daylight and I was stopped, not like the Led Zeppelin seizure I had at night on the freeway.
So anyway, the good news is that Max and I are going to see the B-52's!! I have seen them many times, but not in about 6 or 7 years, last time I took Max too, it was his first real concert. I'll tell you, compared to where I used to live, this place rocks for shows. I used to have to drive to San Jose or San Francisco to see bands, now I just drive 10 minutes! Since I have moved up here I have seen The English Beat and Morrissey, and now one of my all time favorite bands since I was 17. Life is so good!
Except for the whole computer thing.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

VD Is For Everybody!

I remember in elementary school we used to tell people Happy VD on Valentine's Day and think we were so funny because we had managed to incorporate VD legitimately into a sentence. Get it, VD, Valentine's Day but also Venereal Disease! Now it is 30 years later and today at work there were a few of us who confessed to that memory and spent the rest of the day wishing each other a Happy VD, it was good silly fun.

I remember when I was first married I loved Valentine's Day. I would pick out 2 or 3 cards to give to Dana, who would make me feel abnormal for getting him more than one card, and then try to hide my disappointment when I would receive a hastily last minute chosen card or sometimes nothing at all. I had not yet learned about having no expectations and how much better things are when you only try to change your behavior and not others.

Anyway.

After my divorce, Valentine's Day became this holiday that I felt left out of because it was a sweetheart's holiday and I didn't have a sweetheart. I just tried to ignore it until it went away.

But in the past few years, I have come to regard Valentine's Day as a holiday of love. Imagine, a day set aside on the calendar where not only is it okay, but expected for people to express their love for one another. What a happy day. And I love a lot of people. Here are some of them:
Max, Leo, SusanLynn, Dave, Jason, Jeremy, Jamie, Jenny, Nichole, Kristina, Eraya, Eduardo, Steve, Mike, Joe, Tami, Elizabeth, Kim, Dennise, Bart, Shannon, Lou, Doug, Ray, Flo, Tracey, Therese, & Sharlene. That is just the tip of the love iceberg. And I really miss my mom and my brother, I will love them always.

So Valentine's Day is almost over but it is never too late to tell the people you love that you love them.

I will end this post the way my mom ended every phone conversation with all of us--Love'Ya Love'Ya, ByeBye!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A Very Fun Musical Day

It started this morning when I got Leo up for school by singing "git up, git on up" which is from the song Sex Machine by James Brown. This does not make me a bad mom because I didn't tell Leo to stay on the scene like a sex machine, I only told him to git up. So Leo says to me, "Why do you do that?", Meaning, why do I sing. So I answered in my customary loving mom way--"It makes me happy, shut up!"
So then I leave for work and when I turn on the XM, guess what is playing--Sex Machine! It was like a musical affirmation, permission for me to sing and be happy. And I was, I don't think anyone had more fun driving to work today than me. After Sex Machine I heard Blue Jean by David Bowie and then it was Union of the Snake by Duran Duran, it was so much fun!
Then tonight Faythe came over to watch American Idol, it was a 2 hour show, and I'm sure that by tomorrow she will have her post up, it's all about crying! We laughed and laughed tonight. Then after she left I put on the Oprah from today and oh my god David Cassidy was on!! If you want to know how I feel about David Cassidy, go here. The ladies in the audience were totally losing it over him and if I had been there I would have lost it too. Instead I limited myself to much gleeful giggling and more singing.
I swear, music is the thing that consistantly makes me happy whenever I hear it. It can change me from a grumpy girl into a happy girl just like that. And today I have been happy all day. Thanks, music!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

302

I cannot believe that this is my 302nd post. I started this blog in June 2005 because I read a lot of blogs and thought, I could do this. It was kind of hard and scary at first but it got easier as time went by. Also it helped that nobody was reading it. Then in the summer of 2006 when I moved away from everyone I knew, the blog gave my family and friends a way to keep up with me and the boys. And once I learned how to put pictures on the blog, well there was no stopping me. I never thought I had 302 posts in me though. And over the course of time I have developed a small readership. I'm not even sure if these people actually know me or would know who I was if I walked up to them. But for some reason they continue to read my blog. So I just want to say thanks for reading, and because I am trying to stay in the moment here, this is a picture of myself that I took about 5 minutes ago, here in my office where the magic happens. HAHAHAHA I always wanted to say that. Please keep in mind that it is 11:30 on Sunday night AND I did my taxes today, I'm giving those as the reasons why I look a bit fried.



Goodnight all.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Caucus Fever!

Today was the Washington State Democratic Caucus. They are like the primaries I used to vote at in California, but everybody gets together publicly and votes in person to determine the number of delegates each candidate will get. The candidate with the most delegates wins the state.

Washington state also holds a primary as well as a caucus, this FAQ from the WA State Democrat website:

Why is Washington State having Caucuses and a Primary? The Washington State Legislature was the body who voted to hold a primary. The means that the Washington State Democratic Party, which chooses how delegates are decided, had no participation in the decision to hold the primary, which will cost $9 to $10 million. The Washington State Democratic Party decided to choose their delegates through the Caucuses, as it always has. As a result, your vote for a Democratic candidate in the State Primary will not count toward delegate selection.

So basically if you are a democrat and use the normal mail-in ballot for the primary, your vote doesn't count! I found this out 2 hours before the caucus started. So Max and I went to the Sacajawea Middle School cafeteria where our caucus was being held. We were all grouped together according to our precinct. We signed in and wrote down which candidate we were supporting. Our precinct's Caucus Chairperson Jane Cunningham had someone tally the votes, out of 108 votes, over 70 were for Obama, there was 20 something votes for Hillary and 9 people were undecided. Then people for each candidate could speak to try to sway the undecideds to their candidate. Of the 9, seven went to Obama and two remained undecided. Of our precinct's twelve delegates, nine went to Obama and only three went to Hillary. Then came the time to vote for the delegates, which went like this: if you wanted to be a delgate you went around to other people in your precinct and said hey, write my name down. Everyone voted for nine delgates and I ended up being an alternate because they need nine of those too. So on April 5th I will get to go to the Legislative district Caucuses, although I probably won't get to vote unless delegates don't show up.



Here is my ticket! Also, we got these blue rubber bracelets that say 56MILLIONSTRONG. What is 56 million strong? Obama supporters? People who wear blue bracelets? We guessed it must be 56 million democrats, but who knows?

So the caucuses started out seemingly disorganized but in the end (2 hours later)everything was done and the delegates were chosen. I have to say the the primaries I used to vote in were much less time consuming, but you didn't get to stand with your neighbors and be involved. I prefer the latter.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Some Weeks Are Just Like That

I have been out every night this week. Monday it was my hair appointment, Tuesday and Wednesday it was dinner and drinks with out of town visitors, and tonight it was a birthday dinner for a good friend. Tomorrow night--NOTHING!!! Maybe I will do some dishes or laundry, but probably I will just fall asleep in the chair. I would fall asleep right now but Lost is coming on in a few minutes and I'm already sucked in again.

I promise to say something when I have something of little or no importance to say. Meanwhile, goodnight.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

All I Wanted Was Some Coffee

So this morning I am curled up in my chair watching a Lifetime movie that I recorded before Christmas and finally had time to watch. (Clarification: I DO NOT watch Lifetime but this movie had Genie Francis in it and I love her from my General Hospital days--Viva Luke and Laura!) So I am about 20 minutes into this movie and I decide that a cup of coffee would be great right now, but I remember that I used the last bit of coffee creamer yesterday and since I DO NOT do coffee without creamer (milk will not do), I decide to run over to the Rocket Bakery and treat myself to a delicious cup of White Chocolate Mocha. So I get dressed and all layered up with jacket, gloves, etc. (see, already the Lifetime movie-coffee relax vibe is deteriorating) and go down to my car in the garage, open the garage door to discover that my driveway is PLOWED IN. I should have just gone upstairs, sucked it up and had coffee with milk and sugar but no, I was determined. Twenty minutes of shovelling rock-hard chunks of heavy ice and I was only halfway through the berm. So I put down the shovel and get into my car, throw it in reverse and go all Dukes of Hazzard over the berm and into the street. I push the button on the garage door remote to close the garage and nothing happens. So I get my cell phone out to call Leo to tell him to close the garage door because my remote died. And of course my cell phone is dead. So I do the next best thing, which is sit in my car in the middle of the street on a peaceful Saturday morning and honk my horn like crazy until Leo looks out the window. I ask him to close the garage door, so he very grudgingly comes downstairs and pushes the button in the garage and again, nothing happens. So he goes back upstairs, leaving me out in the street to figure out what to do. So I Duke of Hazard it back into my driveway and push the garage door button myself, as if my pushing the button will somehow scare the garage door into operation. It does not. Now, I am surprisingly calm through this whole thing, I think I was tired from the shovelling. So I assess the situation, and realize that I set the snow shovel down in front of the garage door sensor thingie and that's why the door won't come down. And what do you know, after I move the shovel the door works just fine! So I Evel Knievel it back over the snow berm again, and finally get to the Rocket Bakery. And everything was fine until the sweet girls behind the counter asked me how my day was going. They were very sympathetic when they heard my story and suggested that I make my white chocolate mocha a double. So I did, and that is why I am sitting here typing about 500 words a minute with a million typos in each sentence. Obviously I am not going to sit back down and watch that stupid movie now! I am going to make soup. And beer bread, if someone brings me some beer because I am NOT going back out there. So there is my story. I will now take a deep breath and go turn on Soul Train. Thank you for listening.