perspective

It's been a tough week. Emotionally and otherwise. Life doesn't seem to get easier as we get older. Just when you feel like you can handle one thing, another thing pops up and demands you reassess your grip on life. I don't want to go into detail, but if you're of the praying/meditating/hoping/thinking persuasion, please send as much good juju as you can muster towards El Paso this week. It is much appreciated by someone dearly close to me.

I'll take "Inappropriate Office Analogies" for $500, Alex

Someone I know quite well recently related a story to me about a meeting they had with the big CEO of their company in regards to contracting a third party company. It went something like this:

Friend: (listing the reasons to do business with third party company)
"...And that's why we should contract with them for their services."

Big CEO: "The way I see it, it's like we're the mistress."

(questioning look from Friend)

"We're the mistress. A mistress is sexy, until you get her in bed. Then she's not sexy anymore."

(leaning back and smurking)

"And I like being sexy."

conversations that make me cringe

Religion.

Politics.

On that note, let me open myself up for hate mail. Because it's Friday, and why not! Let's get spicy. On the menu: Politics.

Democratic Debates at UT last night were very interesting. I am going to get slammed for this, but so much of how I sway is based on how the candidate presents themself. [Is "themself" a word? It looks funny, like 'Them's Elf'. I digress.] I lack the detailed policy information to have an intelligent argument about politics, which is probably partially why I do not like discussing politics normally. Also, because the media kills me, and I am very mistrustful of it in general. Words can be amazing and terrible things. And there are a million ways to look at a phrase and comprehend it. What I do find inspiring, is the excitement that has been generated by this election. I feel like it's the first time (in my life time) that I want to be engaged in a decision, and not make my vote based on "the lesser of two evils." So, this year, I want to do my research. Real research, reading many views from different sources on policies and more. I wonder if I'll be successful, or if it will just make me confused and jaded. Maybe my schizo tendencies will arise - I am the quintessential swing voter. It's comforting to have loonies like me involved in the democratic process, isn't it?

On a slightly related note, I am easily amused. (Keep clicking on the link)

a post where in I cuss twice

Another whirlwind weekend. Last week was so hectic, that when I was in the elevator leaving and coming to work, I had to remind myself to take a few slow breaths to ease the anxiety. It helped. Maybe.

Valentine's did not happen for us last Thursday, mostly because I worked late for a deadline, and then came home exhausted and in a state of mental moosh. I am embarrassed that I did not even get Andrew a card, preferring to spend the time I would use looking through the rejects at Target, with him. He did get me a very nice card and took me to get philly cheesesteaks (a splurge), score one for the husband team. I feel like in general I am sucking at most things relationship-wise lately. I can't seem to get my shit together, and I feel like a lousy friend, daughter, wife, sister all around in terms of attention spent. Just FYI, I'm trying to crawl out of it, and the beautiful weather this weekend I think helped ease the stress a bit.

It was the beginning of the wedding parade this weekend, but not with an actual wedding. We have a lot of weddings this year, enough to where it became an actual budget item in our fiscal financial planning. Saturday I co-hosted a bridal shower for the fiance of a family friend this weekend, and later that night went to an engagement party for a long-time Polish mafia friend of mine. It was heart-warming to see the excitement they were feeling about their approaching day, maybe the champagne and booze helped (helped whom?). After my FIL's birthday dinner Friday night (I love Redfish), Andrew stayed up late with me to cook crepe fillings (yummy!) while I arranged flowers late into the night for the bridal shower the next morning. I am no florist, for sure, but I do like putting together arrangements occasionally, and I did take a shot at corsages - not quite as easy as I thought it would be.

Sunday was more relaxed, which kind of made up for the the mad week. Janet dropped off her cutie Maggie for a couple hours for us to watch, and we went for a walk to the dog park. For an early dinner, Andrew and I went to Chuy's to sip margaritas on the patio, which reminded me of Amy (Hi Ames! Miss you! Can't wait to see you!). I wish the weekend was one more day, like it is for all the people celebrating their dead Presidents. Lucky bastards.

And a Merry Satan's Day to you all!

I used to call St. Valentine's Day, "Satan's Day" in high school and college. All the pressure and commericalism annoyed me, just like it annoys everyone else. My best Valentine's memories were when I was single with no expectations at all. And now the benefit of being stuck with someone for life (in the most loving way possible! Hi Andrew!), is that we can go back to no expectations at all again. And instead of wearing black today, I wore pink. And put on makeup. For work.

Hurray.

Look at me being festive.

With out further ado, Happy Valentine's Day to my beloved friends and family who actually still read this blog. You are reason enough to celebrate today. And if you get naked, bonus to you!

Birth Control via Television Programming

I need to monitor what I watch before falling asleep at night a little better because this show, John & Kate Plus 8, scares the bajeezuz out of me and makes me have nightmares.

Bad dreams with lots of screaming.

Have you seen this show?? It reminds me of this family, but with less vapid smiling and more yelling.

dial Hoover, the fun vacuum is in town

This weekend was relatively tame, my major accomplishment being I finished every last thank you note from the wedding, in just under 3 months. What a relief.

I attacked the guestroom. Since pretty much a month before the wedding, this has been the room that I dared not enter. Before November, it was the Wedding Supply Storage Facility, and was declared unusable for any other purpose, don't even think about actually SLEEPING in there. So this weekend, I was sick of avoiding it, and tired of my own laziness that was preventing the housekeeper from cleaning in there. Andrew and I shoved the door open (you couldn't really open the door to walk in) and started making piles. Hours later, the pile for goodwill/garage sale/resale shops was so large, that it has it's own identity with in the house. Meet our newest roommate, he's a little messy, his name is Archibald. Until Archibald is evicted, the room is barely usable, but not pretty, and I really hope to make some progress in this room this spring. Look at me with spring cleaning goals! In February!

Sunday night, after a boring-until-the-last-35-seconds Superbowl game, we went to see the Angels & Airwaves concert. Andrew is a fan, I like some of their music, and I definitely have fond memories of Blink 182, so Andrew got tickets a few months back. This was definitely a new feeling for me - watching 15 year olds crowd-surf down below us. I remember the days when moshing and all that entails, seemed like the concert norm. We were sitting in the seats above, watching the sweaty teenagers writhe below us. The part where a young girl would get thrown on top of the crowd, only to get dropped head first on the ground repeatedly when some unsuspecting moshers weren't clued in to the approaching human canopy behind them, would literally make me jump and cringe in pain. It was like watching a horror movie for me. I can't do it without screaming WHAT ARE YOU DOING, THE KILLER IS RIGHT BEHIND THAT DOOR. Why?!? Maybe I have not experienced the full gamet of musical euphoria, because nothing has ever made me want to throw my body over strangers, trusting they will carry me and not grope my swimsuit places. So, for the first time, as a concert-goer, I was unable to relate to teenagers, and that made me feel, well.... not young.