Snarke

NaBloPoMo Post One (they won’t all be titled this way)

Hooray for NaBloPoMo!

Last night I told Will that I was getting excited for this year’s NaBloPoMo and his response was not really a “good for you!” but a “doesn’t that thing end up stressing you out every year?” And to that I say Pffft.  Okay sure, 2007’s was stressful–it was the first time I made myself do the post every day thing.  But last year’s wasn’t that big of a deal–I was posting pretty much every day anyway and before I knew it, the month was over.  This year I’m looking forward to it.  I’ve been in a posting funk for a few months because of all of the other stuff that has been sucking my time and I’m hoping that NaBloPoMo will help put me back on the right track.

Other weekend wrappy post type stuff?

This is the first weekend that Will and I have had entirely to our selves since we got back from our honeymoon.  So far.  There are still a few hours left so there is still time for someone to crash in upon our pajama’d lazy little oasis of hanging out.  We left the house for a couple of hours last night to get some food and to buy some DVDs (our experiment of not spending money until Christmas shopping? Epic FAIL) but other than that we’ve been hanging out in our pajamas, eating junk food and generally being unhealthy and lazy.  It (so far) has rocked!

We did not have a single trick or treater, unless they showed up between 7:30 and 9.  Which is certainly possible.  Last year I think we had 3 or 4.  Maybe next year we’ll live in a more family friendly neighborhood and actually need the three huge bags of candy we bought.  This year, though, we have plenty of left over candy.  Yay! More Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for me!

I desperately wanted to think of a third thing right here but…I’m out.

Bring on NaBloPoMo 2009!  (And I haven’t even had any caffeine!)

Our Old Monthiversary

Internet, I have a question:

After you get married, does your dating anniversary fall TOTALLY by the wayside?  This morning I said “happy monthiversary!” to Will–mostly out of habit and he told me that we weren’t celebrating dating anniversaries or monthiversaries anymore, only our wedding anniversary.  And while I understand that–the wedding is most important, at the same time it makes me a little bit sad.  And stubborn.  I pointed out that when people asked how long we’d been together we’d probably say something like “well we’ve been married for [however long] but we’ve been together for [however long].”  Maybe this is because we were together for more than four and a half years before we got married.  It’s a little hard to break an almost sixty month habit.  Will is insistent though that we shouldn’t care about the 27th anymore since we have an official wedding anniversary.

So I’m putting it to you, internet.  What do you think?

Obviously there is nothing to make me stop keeping track of this in my head.  I can think “we’ve been together for a lot of months!” whenever I want.  But it feels a tiny bit sad to give up the whole acknowledging it out loud.  I mean sure, I get a new monthiversary (the 12th) now to use as an excuse to go out to eat at a real restaurant (no husband, the Carl’s Jr drive through doesn’t count) but still….  I may not hang on to every single piece of paper I’ve ever written on anymore, but I tend to hoard important dates.

So.  Internet, discuss.  I know I’m probably the goober here, but what do you think?  Do you still think to yourself “we’ve been together for this long and married for this long?” or does your dating history fall off the track completely? Is it a time thing–the longer we’re married, the less I’ll consider our years of dating, living together and engagement as “counting”?

Kreativ!

It’s Monday so I got far too late a start on my work day (which might have something to do with my having spent over an hour trying to transfer my work e-mail from my laptop to the new computer).  But that is not the point of this post.  The point of this post is that my friend Wendy (of OperaBuffo fame) gave me a Kreativ Award.  Thanks Wendy!

So here is the deal with the Kreativ Award (copied mostly verbatim from Wendy’s site ’cause I’m all kinds of lazy like that):

The directions to this award are as follows…Recipients-You are charged with completing certain guidelines once receiving this award (you know, if you want)!

1. Copy the pretty picture and post it on your blog.
2. Thank the person that gave it to you and link to their blog. (Thanks Ms. W!)
3. Write 7 things about yourself we don’t know.
4. Choose 7 other bloggers you would like to pass the award to.
5. Link to those 7 other bloggers.
6. Notify your 7 bloggers.

Okay, so here are my seven things:

1.  I do not know why pizza with canadian bacon and pineapple is most often referred to as “Hawaiian Pizza.”  I know that Hawaii is famous for its pineapple, but…it’s one of two toppings on the pie. Is it a matter of national pride to choose to say Hawaiian instead of “Canadian bacon and pineapple?”  Is it laziness? What is it??

2.  I am a damn good Ringo when playing Beatles Rock Band on easy mode

3.  Over the course of my life I have been able to play the piano, the violin, the ukelele and the clarinet (sort of) but somehow that damn tambourine has always eluded me.

4.   My most recent bout of PMS manifested itself by making me bawl my eyes out at the last few episodes of the last season of the Gilmore Girls.  I sat on the couch crying my eyes out and telling the cat “I don’t know why! I’m not that sad!” and then bawling some more.

5.  I make Will eat all of the green Skittles and pink Starburst.

6. The movie Role Models taught me why Starbucks insists on calling its large a “Venti.”

7.  At one point in my early twenties, I owned eleven pairs of overalls.

And now for seven bloggers, in no particular order:

Jennifer Garrett

Kristabella

Sizzle of Sizzle Says

The Tooth Fairy’s Adventures

Keri’s Korner

Du Wax Loolu

United States of Motherhood

I read all of these great ladies!  Check them out!

Long, Long Long*

It has been a long week.  Long. And…long.  And yet short. Isn’t that always the way?  When you’re in it, you think “how could it only be fifteen minutes? Haven’t I been sitting here for a couple of hours now?” and then all of a sudden you’re all “hang on, it’s time to stop for the day already? What the hell? Where did the time go?”  And even though the week has been long and I’m rocking a severe case of Mouse-Shoulder (whoever thought it was a good idea to pair a desk chair with arms and a desk with a slidey outy keyboard tray must have been high), I feel almost nourished by the work I’ve been doing.  Okay that’s a weird metaphor.  Let’s try a simile.  This has been a long week of work, work and…wait for it…more work.  I’ve spent all week sitting in our office looking for work, retooling websites and pages (for work, not so much for here) and yet, I feel oddly satisfied–like I just ate a plate full of spaghetti and stopped at just the right moment (happily full but not yet about to barf).

It’s geeky but I truly love working, even when the monetary rewards aren’t flowing in as heavily as I’d like.  I like a job well done.  I like putting in the work, doing the drafts and implementing feedback.  I do! Have you not yet figured out that I am a ginormous nerd?

In completely unrelated asides: I cannot get enough of the Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup from Glee.  It is on repeat in my brain.  So is Beyonce’s Single Ladies.

What was I saying?

Oh right, a job well done.  I appreciate it.  It’s why I’m okay with getting down on my hands and knees to wash the kitchen and bathroom floors the “real” way (pffft, I use my swiffer to clean off my kitchen cabinets and the wall above the shower) every week.  It’s why I don’t mind making the bed most days.  It’s why I still fold shirts the way I did when I worked as a t-shirt pusher at a certain souvenir shop in a certain hotel/casino in a certain tourist destination.  That and, well, you try folding t-shirts for eight hours a day five days a week for two years and see how easily you go back to the non-t-shirt-shop way of folding.  It’s why I don’t mind spending a week pulling apart copy and then re-pulling and tweaking and resubmitting and then rearranging and revising one more time.  I like going back and looking at my first drafts and seeing how far I’ve gotten the words to come.

Because I’m a nerd! This is what we do!

I’m looking forward to trying the same thing during NaBloPoMo.

Hurry up NaBloPoMo!

And also? I think I’m going to spend the weekend knitting on the couch.  Because I keep meaning to pick up the yarn again but instead I’ve spent every evening doing work stuff.  Except for last night.  Because nothing gets in the way of Grey’s Anatomy in this house.

*The Beatles! Who else?

Not Much Longer Until NaBloPoMo!

Is anybody else really looking forward to this year’s NaBloPoMo?  I mean, sure they’ve expanded it so you can do it every month if you want and then there’s that whole Blog 365 thing (that I failed MISERABLY in 2008) but for me November is always NaBloPoMo month.  And I am really looking foward to it this year.  The first year sucked and was hard.  Last year it didn’t phase me much at all and this year I’m looking forward to it so that maybe, hopefully, I can get some of my blogging mojo back.

I FINALLY finished two Bloggers’ books: Julie and Julia and Rage Against the Meshugenah: Why it Takes Balls to Go Nuts .  I think it says something about me that, even though I was not a follower of either blogger, I still had to buy their books because they are Bloggers.  I am not sure what it says exactly but I’m sure it says something…probably “this girl is too into that blogging thing”.  I liked both books very much (though I’ll admit that I like the movie of Julie & Julia better than I liked the book) and they did what good books always do: made me want to jump right on this here blog and type type type my brilliance into a blog post.

Of course, actually being brilliant would probably help a lot.

I have said it over and over again–my problem is not a lack of ideas.  It is mostly a lack of confidence to put them in writing–which could be a blog post all by itself.  When I can’t sleep I can think of a bunch of things to write about.  When I’m out and about there is inspiration everywhere.  But then I get home and my inner censor goes “not good enough, the moment has passed, that’s too controversial, don’t tempt fate,  that will surely end up with at least one of your in laws on the phone in a snit, don’t write about that – your MOM reads this!” and a bunch of other excuses.  So really, the biggest problem is me and my reluctance to grow the eff up and say “you know what? I’m an adult.  I pay for this space.  It’s mine.  If you don’t like what I have to say just don’t read it!”

At least I know what the problem is.  Now I just have to grow some balls. Are those available through Amazon do you think?  ‘Cause I have a gift certificate…

Blogging From the New Computer!!

I didn’t quite mean to give my title a second exclamation point but now that I’m sitting here, it seems kind of appropriate.   If you follow me on twitter (and you should, seriously, I’m awesome) you’ll know that we went to Fry’s (the electronics fan’s wet dream).  We came home with two monitors.  Two big ol’ flat screen HD monitors which means that our computer’s screen is now higher tech than our television–something that Will wants to recifty ASAP; too bad we don’t have anything close to resembling a disposable income or we’d also have found a way to buy a big ol’, flat screen TV.

Will put the monitors up last night and spent a few hours installing things and then, of course, playing World of Warcraft.  I figured that I wouldn’t get access to the computer until Monday when Will went back to school but he got called in to work today so I spent the morning re-cleaning up the computer room and then installing some of my own stuff and now I’m blogging!

I have to say that at first I was skeptical about the need for two screens.  But today has shown that being able to watch a DVD on one screen while I worked in the other has been pretty nice.

Yay! New computer!

Can You Tell I was Raised (mostly) as an Only Child?

My current template isn’t set up to display the time of my posts so I will just tell you that it is after midnight.  It is after midnight and I am still awake.  Heck, I’m not just awake.  I’m still up and moving around!  And so is Will!  We got the parts for the fancy schmancy new computer today so Will spent his lunch break and most of the evening putting the CPU together and has been installing things.  Of COURSE World of Warcraft is installed already because he “just wants to see how it plays compared to the laptop.”  Even though, technically his account is cancelled (finally!) as of the 28th.  Anyway, right now he’s having fun trying to get everything perfectly networked even though tomorrow evening he’ll have to unplug it all because he has to hook up the new monitors we still need to buy and he has to move stuff from his old computer to the hard drive and…oh a bunch of stuff that you have to do when you get a new computer that sounds complicated when he says it.

My flu seems to be losing its grip.  I still have the stupid cough but it isn’t nearly as bad.  That Mucinex DM stuff worked really well (I took a second one when the first wore off to help me sleep through the night.  I haven’t yet decided about whether or not I’ll do that tonight.  The having to drink a whole glass of water at the same time kind of turns me off from the idea).  My energy is slowly returning as well.  I did not have to take a nap after washing the dinner dishes tonight.  This makes me almost giddily happy because it shows promise for my being able to actually fall asleep tonight.  Nothing keeps you up at night like getting too much rest during the day!

Finally, we broke down and bought some Pepsi.  But! Before you groan about my falling off the caffeine wagon… it was caffeine free Pepsi! Because! I missed the taste of Pepsi.  Even though the caffeine cravings are mostly gone, I’ve missed having soda to drink (which will be my next hurdle, I know) so tonight I broke down and asked Will to bring home a 2-liter of caffeine free Pepsi so I could try it out.  It’s all I drank growing up (caffeinated soda was only had at restaurants and out of the vending machines at school until I went to college) and I don’t remember it tasting any different and…hurrah! It still tastes the same! There’s just something about soda… it has the perfect texture-thicker than water but not as thick as juice or milk.  Or something.

Back in the world of we have a new computer, the grand total of computers in our house now? Four.  Two desktops and two laptops.  Except that the (now) old desktop is just barely still running.  And Will wants to give my laptop to his Dad because his Dad will not stop complaining about how he wants a new computer.  He was “asking” us (to everyone outside this family it would appear more like “ordering” or “telling emphatically that we needed to”) to buy him a new one (incidentally, the man and his wife bring in at least twice as much as Will and I do each month thanks to retirement funds, VA benefits and 401Ks) but has since “agreed” that he only “needs” one of our old computers.  And here’s where I’m a completely stereotypical American who has lived in luxury for too long: I am not in love with the idea of giving him my laptop.  At least right now.  For one thing it would leave me without a computer of my own to play on when Will is using both the desktop and his laptop to “do homework” (aka play games.  Don’t laugh, somewhere I think I have photographic evidence of this happening).  For another, if there is one person on the planet who does not need constant internet access it is the F.I.L.  Seriously.  Trust me.  Mostly though, it is more of a “why do we have to foot the bill for something he can afford to buy on his own?” issue, especially since Will’s family members are not known for treating their posessions with anything resembling respect.  I don’t want to give my beat up old laptop to someone who won’t be nice to it (or for a few other reasons that I shouldn’t document here in case we do end up sending him a computer but can I just say? Ebay addict).

Incidentally, it is because my laptop is older and less advanced than Will’s that is the reason behind it being my laptop to get “given.”  If I had the newer computer we’d probably have already sent Will’s laptop away but Will refuses to even consider “giving away” my computer without my giving complete permission (he’s a good man, my husband).  At first I was okay with the idea.  I mean, sure give him my cat hair clogged Dell.  I’ll have a shiny new desktop to play with during the day! And it will get him off our backs for at least a couple of months.  But then I remembered Will’s gaming habits and how I like to surf the web while we watch television too.  And damn it, why can’t he just buy his own?!?

But still.  Poor me.  I have too many toys and don’t want to share.

I am so getting visited by a few ghosts this Christmas.

Getting Better. Possibly. Hopefully.

Last night I got out of the house for the first time since I met Will at work on Saturday afternoon and can I just tell you that even though it was cold, windy and rainy that the fresh air felt amazing?  I can? People: the fresh air felt amazing.  So good.  I just wanted to stand outside for hours.  Except, you know, standing or doing any movement for more than a few minutes leaves me feeling so wiped out that I end up taking a two hour nap when I lay back down. And then all of those naps leave me feeling wide! awake! at bedtime.  I was awake until about one thirty in the morning last night (we turned in for the night at eleven).

We bought some Mucinex DM last night while we were out and about and I took one this morning and so far it has been working pretty well.  I can breathe just fine and I am barely coughing at all.   I’m not all medicine heady or anything like that.  The only down side is that it has not helped my energy level.  And my stomach is still doing that “I’m empty! This makes me mad! Grrwoooowwwwl! Have some nausea!”  and “Hey, what’d you shove that stuff in here for?  I’m not hungry after all!  Grrrrooowwwwllll, I’d rather be empty! Have some nausea!” thing which is really quite a lot of fun.

But you know? You know you’re getting better when you’re throwing up at one in the morning and instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you’re thinking “wow, I really need to clean this toilet.  It’s gross.”  So I have hope that I am getting better.  I certainly have the motivation to get better.  I just don’t have the energy to do the things I do when I’m feeling okay like cleaning, or cooking, or working for more than an hour or two at a time.  Or being upright for very long.  But my spirit! Lo, it is strong and it will win the day!

Or something that means that pretty soon I’m going to turn this thing into  mind over matter and kick its butt.

Dear Immune System,

You and I have inhabited the same body for more than thirty years now and I have a question.  Why can’t I ever just get a head cold?  Why must every sniffle become a cough? Seriously I.S. what’s up?  As soon as I started to feel the sniffles take hold last week I swore off dairy.  I swore off going outside.  I started pounding vitamin C and did my best to eat only healthy well made home cooked foods.  And, sure, okay, I did eat a whole bag of Doritos over the course of a couple of days but that’s nothing compared to my usual snacktitude and I had to eat those! Will and I aren’t buying any more snacks until we finish off the snacks we bought for our wedding reception that didn’t get eaten (or opened).

You have to know how irritated I am right now.  I woke up this morning thinking “wow! I can breathe! And I didn’t even need to get up in the middle of the night to take a benadryl to get that to happen!” and immediately started hacking.  That painful, tight, non crunchy hacking which means that you are simply gearing up for the gravelly coughing and bronchial bark fest that are sure to show up in the next day or two.  You know the kind–the kind where I can’t laugh without having a coughing fit?

You do this to me every. single. time I get sick.  Not once have I had a 24 hour flu.  Not once have I had a small case of the sniffles.  Not once have I had a full on head cold that left me feeling sore in the nose but nowhere else.

Look, I know that coughing is how I’m supposed to get rid of the extra germy germs from the flu.  I know that coughing is a good workout and that, should this cough run the way most of my chest colds do, I should have some awesome abs in a couple of weeks.  But honestly?  I’d rather breathe clearly and deeply without it turning into a hacking fit.  I’d like to laugh and not have to deal with people rushing to my aid because they think I’m dying (because the chuckle turned into a doubled over coughing attack).

So if you could see fit to let this weird cough thing last just a day or so?  I’d be really grateful.

Thanks,

Me.

P.S.  If you could also see to it that I can stand up and move around for more than five minutes without needing to take a two hour nap I’d really appreciate it.  I have work to do!