In A Perfect World

Here are a few of the things I'd change today to make my world just a little better place to be:

1.  Spiders would not be household creatures.  If they did come in the house, they certainly wouldn't jump when you tried to hit them with a red plastic dog toy shaped like a hammer.

2.  The "closest" towel to the coffee spill would not be one of the white ones from the main bathroom.

3.  Once the weather cooled down it would stay cool and not suddenly get hot for no good reason.

4.  Folding clothes for Andrew would not be a useless effort and said clothes would actually make it to his dresser rather than staying in a wadded-up ball in the laundry basket.

5.  My hormones would recognize that 36 years old is way beyond the teenage years and thus acne should be a thing of my past, not my present.

6.  A maid, a cook, a financial planner, a chauffeur, a professional organizer, a personal trainer and a private masseuse would suddenly appear on my doorstep, perform their various tasks and disappear like a band of ninja spider monkeys.

Please feel free to solve any of these burning problems and/or provide any of the necessary professionals at your leisure.....

30 Days of Me - Day 21

A picture of something that makes you happy.

Some days all it takes is a big dorky dog

Something I Know About Me

There is absolutely no reason for me to plan to have weekly "theme" posts.  On occasion I will remember to do a "Friday Random" or a "Sunday Roundup" but it will not happen on a weekly basis and it will likely not happen on the designated days.  Thusly, I have determined that I shall not relegate specific posts to specific days and shall instead let the posts flow as they may. 

If I have things to get done I find that I do much better with a list than trying to designate Monday as laundry day (although in my house it would have to be Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the very least!) and Thursday as grocery shopping day and so on and so on.  I think that it is that I don't work particularly well with a schedule.  A list with completed tasks crossed off acts as visual confirmation that I'm actually accomplishing something and, if it happens to be laying out when the hubby is around, he gets to see how hard I'm working too, right? 

Well, we're off for some dress shopping for the Homecoming Dance tonight.  Wish me luck. I'll need it.

30 Days of Me - Day 20

Easiest one so far - "Someone you see yourself marrying or being with in the future."

'Nuf said.

Thrifty Goodness

I can only imagine that you share my excitement at my recent find - a mint-condition BeDazzler, still in the box, for the low low price of $2.99!  As Seen On TV!

Believe it or not, I've already broken in this bad boy on a project with Malorie.  In the process I discovered that the little Dazzlers (for that is what they must be called, right, if we are "BeDazzling"?) are remarkably like ticks when it comes to removing them from fabric.  Luckily I screwed up enough to develop a pretty workable system.....

Now that my computer and Blogger are once again working together to allow me to upload pictures, I shall resume posting on a more regular basis.  Lucky you, huh?!?!?!?

Grrrr......

Okay, now I'm like three days behind on my "30 Days of Me" because stupid blogger won't let me upload pictures.  It's also thwarted my efforts to post pictures of some of my "Thrifty Goodness" finds and updates on my craft projects.  I'm just so.....Grrrrrrr!  I'll have to come back later when I'm not so grrrrrrrrrey.

30 Days of Me - Day 19

I'm going to try to keep this short because it's getting late and work looms large in the morning. All I have to do is stay on task and we'll get right through this. I can't go off on my usual tangents and expect to make this a quick post. I mean, you know how I get, I start with one subject and then hop to the next and pretty soon it's like we got on a train going to NYC and ended up in London. Don't even get me started about the parallels between my ramblings and train travel on the ocean - too much quantum physics and meteorological theorization to get into during this brief posting. Too much by far. :)

Today's topic is "nicknames you have and why you have them."

Family lore relates that my first (and to this day most pervasive) nickname was "Susie." Mom told me that my dad starting calling the baby-bump that was to become me "Susie" really early on in her pregnancy. I remained a "Susie" (with a few notable and upcoming exceptions) until college, where as all adults must I changed to the more serious-sounding "Susan." You can always tell how long someone has known me by whether I'm "Susie" or "Susan." I guess that's one of the perks of staying near the town that you grew up in. At some point Andrew started calling me "Susie" too, which I kinda like. It's better than "Evil Stepmother" anyway!

When I was about knee-high I apparently told my Uncle John that my name was "Susanbarrina" or something close to that. It's got a certain ring to it, that's for sure, and sometimes Uncle J or my dad still calls me that. I also get "Susanfrasser" on occasion.

I think that my coolest nickname ever is "Z". It sounds cool. Mysterious. It could be a secret agent name, even. I was dubbed "Z" by my friend Ang in high school. Being a "Susie" people often wanted to shorten my name even farther to "Sue." Problem being, of course, that I hate being called "Sue." It got to the point that everytime Ang was around when someone called me "Sue" she would say "Z," thus making Sue into Sue-zee. Soon I became "Z" and she was "G" and that was likely the coolest I've ever been, as far as nicknames go.

"Suz" is a pretty general handle for me, too, which I like. My high-school boyfriend's best friend (follow that?) called me "Suzzo" for a while, but honestly that sounds a little bit like one of the lost Marx brothers, does it not? Now that I think about it, we really didn't get along very well back then so maybe it was a slam. We're much better now (another perk of sticking close to home is that you grow old with mature with the same people you grew up with.)

That's it for the nicknames I can remember right now. So much for a short post, huh?

I Have an Announcement!

That is all. :)

Day 18 Update

I am 80% rockstar certified - I've cleaned the windows, washed and re-hung the curtains, vacuumed and steam cleaned the carpeting, dusted most of the bedroom and the last of the bedding is in the dryer. I'm even pulling a Sandy (my mom) and washing the pillows. The animals aren't quite sure what to think of the mattress and box spring stacked in the computer room but the cats are making the most of the new high ledges.

So far so good on the "no money" weekend, but we had pizza a couple of nights ago and the boxes are still out on the back porch. Every time I go out there the smell of pizza wafts into my nostrils and makes me crave it again BADLY. No worries though - I'll make due with the instant mashed potatoes or pancakes. Actually pancakes sound pretty good. With eggs. Mmmmmmmmmm......pancakes and eggs.

I'm watching Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. While I'm certainly no stoner - never even tried the stuff, to be honest - I gotta say that I love this movie. Neil Patrick Harris = Genius!

Okay, I'm making 'cakes. Later!

30 Days of Me - Day 18

"Plans/Dreams/Goals you have"

Okay, early on I said that I wasn't going to frequently post a "to do" post, but this prompt seems to be begging for it, right? Far be it from me to ignore so obvious a demand!

My first goal for this weekend is to make it a "No Money" weekend. I guess I have to define "weekend" as Saturday and Sunday, because you've no doubt already read about my Wal-Marting last evening and have likely surmised that that little adventure wasn't free. I mean, I did cop to the doughnuts, right? Hee-hee. Cop. Doughnuts. I'm hil-larous.

My other weekend goal includes doing a deep-clean of our bedroom which includes, but is not limited to, washing all of the bedding and curtains, cleaning the windows, moving the bed out and cleaning/organizing underneath, dusting, vacuuming and steam-cleaning the carpeting and, if that hasn't done me in, maybe going through my clothes too. Gosh. That seems really ambitious, doesn't it? I think it can be done, though. I will give myself mad rockstar points if I get all of that done. I don't know what you can redeem rockstar points for but it's got to be something great, right?

How do you tell a plan from a goal from a dream?

I would say that I'm already pretty much living my dream. Now that I think about it, this may be the "best" that my life is likely to be. I am married to my absolute favorite person, my parents are still together and relatively healthy, the kids are maturing into very interesting young adults, my friends are always there for me, I love our house and our pets and I am working at a job that I'm good at (if I do say so myself) where I feel that I'm making a difference. Sure, I can always wish for "more" - more time, more money, etc., but it would be like a bonus rather than a necessity.

I plan to get my small business idea off the ground by this time next year. I'm working on developing products and making contacts and, even if it doesn't work out, I've already had a pretty good time with it.

One of my biggest long-term goals is to help the kids grow into responsible, self-sufficient, confident adults. Even though they are not "mine" biologically, I think that any time a child is in your life you bear some responsibility to guide them. I'm not a big "green" person - I don't recycle as much as I should, I probably leave too many lights on and I'm not against the use of Styrofoam if it's convenient to me - so helping to raise two well-adjusted adults will be my biggest contribution to the future.

So the more time I spend on here is less time that I can spend meeting my weekend goals, so I'm outta here for now. Catch ya later!

Wal-Marting Is Not for the Faint of Heart

Okay, maybe your middle of the day, nice location Wal-Marting isn't so tough, but late night sketchytown shopping can sure be fun! I had a very nice conversation with a lady in the cereal aisle about a local diner that offers all-you-can-eat pancakes for breakfast (she confided she could eat five, which probably at least partially accounted for her presence in the motorized cart complete with backup alarm) and got a fist-bump from Josh at the doughnuts. Yes, I was at the doughnuts, and I bought some. Two, in fact. All for me, none for you. Did I know Josh? Of course not, but he was very friendly. He told me that blankets make the world go 'round and that he didn't know me but would party with me based upon my two-doughnut stance. As he vacillated between cinnamon roll and chocolate, I encouraged him to join me in the land of the two-fisted doughnut eaters then beat a hasty retreat before he could crown me his queen. See what you missed?

One of the people that I work with quoted a part of a poem yesterday that intrigued me. I couldn't remember enough of it to find it on Google, so I asked him to repeat it to me so I could track it down. The poem was "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. While I do not particularly enjoy poetry, I found some of the imagery in this one compelling, most specifically the lines:

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Really, I thought the whole thing was pretty good which really surprised me. I guess you never know, huh? No doubt inspired by T.S. Eliot, I wrote a poem while standing in the bakery aisle at Wal-Mart. Wanna hear it? Here it goes.....

In the too-bright land of low low prices
Amist the beeps and bops and boops
As I look around at all of the misfits
With the practiced eye of the holier-than-thou
It stikes me
I am among my own.

I guess I was trying to express the thought that while I was taking mental note of all of the "interesting" people at Wal-Mart, I was obviously one myself because I was there too. Kinda like the "everyone has one really ugly friend and if you don't then you're the ugly friend" thing....

While at Wal-Mart, I picked up the newest issue of all*you. I'm telling you about it because I bought it under the mental condition that I would try at least one of the recipes contained therein and would use at least one of the advertised "$94.50 worth of coupons" contained inside. Now that I've told you about it I will feel obligated to do it, but I'm not using you. I swear! (Anyone else catch that I admitted to my "mental condition"? Admit it, you've been thinking it all along!)

Anyone else think that one of the "79 Ways to Save More" might be to not make impulse purchases of magazines promising to help you save more money? I'll let you know...

So you know how super-psyched I get when I spell everything right the first time in my posts, right? Today I was trying to spell "fictitious". First I spelled it "ficticiuos" and someone brought it to my attention and then I spelled it "ficticious". Finally I gave up and said that I would try to do the document again on Monday as it was obviously not my day to spell "fictitious". And I haven't spell-checked this post yet, but my on-purpose misspellings do not count toward the total misspellings! (There were two.....)

Okay, enough for now. L8R!

30 Days of Me - Day 17

"Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why."

I thought I would have to put some real thought into this but suddenly the perfect answer occurred to me - I wanna be Rob Dyrdek.



Now I'm sure you're asking yourself why I chose Rob, that is unless you've caught either one of his shows on MTV. I first became aware of Rob through his show "Rob and Big" which was filmed with his bodyguard, Big Black. Essentially Rob is a professional skateboarder who apparently has both too much money and too much time on his hands. Like, one day he decided he was interested in time travel so he bought a "time machine" online and then a whole episode was devoted to his attempts to make this obviously-bogus machine work. He's just a big goofy kid in a somewhat grown-up body (I'm pretty sure I could bench-press him 'cuz he's just a wee little thing) and when paired with the incredibly ginormous Big Black (which was a very apt nickname, by the way!) it was more hilarious than I can describe.

Rob's current show is called "Fantasy Factory" and it's not nearly as dirty as it sounds. He took a warehouse and converted some of it into a massive indoor skate park, complete with rappelling lines and a huge ramp into a foam pit where they frequently run motorcycles, cars and other assorted modes of transportation around. His cousin Drama works for him as a quasi-assistant and his manager Jeremy as well as an assorted cast of hangers-on are often featured on the show. One of my favorites? The rapping receptionist, Channel. Channel is white. Looks like a farm girl. Not necessarily a bad rapper, but certainly against stereotypes! Here's what some of the factory looks like:

Seriously, how much fun would it be if "having fun" was your total job description and, what's more, you had the funds to immediately purchase absolutely insane impulse items? That's why I wanna be Rob Dyrdek!

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

I really don't. Sure, now I've put the song from that old commercial in your head and quite possibly dated myself in the process, but I really must know. When did it become incumbent upon me to be the responsible one? All of the sudden I'm the one cleaning out the litter box, making sure that the animals are fed, folding the laundry and enforcing bedtimes, and that really seems like more of a "grown up" job list than what I'm qualified for...

Is that how all "grown ups" become "grown up"? Is it kind of a default thing, like since I'm the oldest person in the house the "responsible" jobs fall to me? I'm not saying that Shad isn't responsible, because he really and truly is - after all, he even built us a window for the garage and who else do you know that actually builds a window? But do you think he really cares if all of the dishes are done and the laundry is put away before we go out of town? And I know if it was up to him we'd buy new shampoo, toothbrushes and other necessary toiletries once we got to our destination instead of making sure that they were all packed beforehand. Don't even get me started about sunscreen!

See what I'm talking about? Sunscreen, for Pete's sake! And not that crappy SPF4 see-I'm-doing-what-I'm-supposed-to-but-just-barely sunscreen, but the heavy duty SPF50 sweatproof, waterproof, windproof stuff that takes twenty minutes to rub in completely. Yep, that's become me. Yipee.

Completely off topic, but what in the heck is the fascination with cats and scotch tape? I've had to rescue my tape from Oscar twice now, and he's still eyeing the roll with desire in his eye. He's also bad about licking - yes licking - photographs. The cat ain't right.

Sorry I missed posting yesterday, but Shad and I went to a visitation for the father of one of my best friends from high school. He was sick for quite a while, so it was not unexpected, but I don't know that you can prepare yourself for the loss of a parent. I know that it's not something that I'm likely to ever be "ready" for, no matter if it happens tomorrow or 30 years from now. I guess that would probably be the last step in really growing up, huh?

Lately I've been wondering if it would be easier to have a pretty decent idea of when you're going to die and have time to prepare everything, do all of the things that you want to do, say all of the things that you want to say, all that, or to just have it happen. While there will always be more things that I want to do, I would have to say that I don't think that I would feel as if I missed a lot if I go tomorrow. Great family, good friends, some really interesting life experiences and doing as much good (or at least what I perceive to be "good") as I can. I think that's what we're supposed to be doing here, right?

Night all!

30 Days of Me - Day 16

Today's post - another picture of yourself.

Since it didn't say it had to be of just me, I've chosen a picture of me and my cutie-pie hubby that was taken earlier this summer on one of our roadtrips. Seriously, how adorable is he? I love jumping in a vehicle (or on the bikes!) with him and just taking off. We usually end up somewhere interesting at the very least!

30 Days of Me - Day 15

This should be interesting. Today's post is "put you ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play." I'm going to use the music on the computer, though, because all of the music on my mp3 player is work-out type music which is not a fair representation of my overall musical taste.

Here we go:

First song: Bob Marley - Jammin'

Second song: Pearl Jam - Jeremy

Third song: Black Eyed Peas - Imma Be

Fourth song: Kayne West - Stronger

Fifth song: Eminem - Crack a Bottle

Sixth song: 3OH3 - I Can't Do It Alone

Seventh song: Pitbull featuring Lil Jon - Crazy

Eighth song: Busta Rhymes featuring Linkin Park - We Made It

Ninth song: Edwin McCain - I'll Be

Tenth song: Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

That's probably not a bad representation of the stuff that I listen to depending on what mood I'm in. "Stronger" is actually one of my favorite workout songs, as is "Crazy" and "Imma Be." Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" is one of my favorite slow songs from 1998. (Okay, I totally had to look up the date that song came out because it's not like I would have remembered it. I can hardly tell you where I was in 1998, much less what songs were on the radio. Wait - I was in Alabama in 1998. Still no idea on the songs, though....)

That was one of my favorite "Days of Me" so far. Cool.

30 Days of Me - Day 14

Yeah, I skipped Day 13 because I couldn't think of anyone who has hurt me lately and, if I could, I'm not usually one for the "write a letter that you never send" exercise. What if it's a really good letter and I can't help but send it? If it's something I wouldn't normally say why take the chance of giving into the urge to send it in written form?

So we're on to Day 14 - a picture of you and your family. Frankly I really can't do this one easily either, because I'm the picture taker of the family. I've got one from a family trip to Florida about five years ago and from our wedding ten years ago, but not a lot more, but I'd have to scan them in order to post them and I'm feeling pretty lazy this morning. I'll do better tomorrow.

Quick Revelation

I finally realized why I've been waking up earlier and earlier on the weekends. Looking back, I'm pretty sure it's the reason that my mom was always the first one up, too, and I suspect that it's happening in households all across the world.

It's quiet in the morning.

I've been on the computer for a bit, made a pot of coffee, watched what I wanted to watch on TV and I've yet to say the words "No" "Stop" or "Don't." I might have even finished of the delectable brownie that I've been saving just for me......

Everyone will wake up pretty soon and things will go back to normal, but for right now I'm enjoying being home "alone."

Sometimes Life Confuses Me

Okay, maybe not life so much, but more like people I come into contact with during the course of my life.

My biggest "What the heck?" moment came yesterday. You know when you tell someone, "If you do A, the result will be B." To me, especially if the person making the statement is in a position of power or authority, it seems pretty easy. If you want "B" to happen then you do "A." If you do not want "B" to happen, avoid doing "A." Seems straight forward, right?

I seem to constantly encounter people who can verbalize the "if A then B" concept but then cannot understand the actual implications. Say "A" equals getting in trouble and "B" equals getting kicked out of school and the principal of your school says, "If you get in trouble one more time, you're going to get kicked out of school." To me it's simple - if you don't want kicked out of school, you don't get in trouble. You stay far, far away from trouble. Looks like trouble? Run away. Far away.

Instead I get to deal with the people that think so long as the trouble isn't that they killed someone or burned the school down, there really isn't a reason that they would get kicked out of school. After all, it was just a cigarette, a fight, whatever. You didn't really mean that kind of trouble, did you? Yep, sure did. And we wonder why society is declining.....

You haven't lived until you're sitting at the computer and get a surprise ear-hole sniff by a big dog. Ask me how I know that.

By the way, it happened again. I got out of work almost an hour late because of something that came up "last minute." I don't mind so much, really I don't, but why doesn't this stuff come up at 10:00 on Monday morning instead of 3:30 on Friday afternoon?

I shall leave you with a quote that I found recently that ties into today's post.

"It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself." - Theodore Roosevelt


**Whoo-hoo! Another perfectly-spelled post! Go grammar! Go spelling! Go grammar! Go spelling!**

30 Days of Me - Day 12

Go ahead and set the alarm for about five minutes from now, because today's post is a snoozer....

"How you found out about blogger and why you have one." Steph talked about starting a blog for quite a while. She got me hooked on blogs like Elsie Flannigan's where people shared bits of their crafty lives, suggested projects, etc. I originally thought that I had enough creative stuff going on to focus mostly on that, so I decided to give it a try. What I've found is that I'm more likely to blather on and on about whatever occurs to me than to take time to take pictures at each step of my project, think of coherent step-by-step instructions and have a final project that doesn't look like a 3rd grader with poor motor skills and an eyepatch did it. (I'm totally not making fun of people with eyepatches, but it would mess with depth perception something awful, thus likely negatively effecting creative efforts...)

I like my little potpourri of a blog - it wanders from here to there and back again. Heck, most of the time I don't end up where I thought that I would, so it's like an adventure for all of us!

30 Days of Me - Day 11

As required, here is another picture of me and my friends. This one is from a St. Patrick's Day parade we went to with Chris and Kevin. St. Patrick's Day is a special day for Shad and I since it is also our anniversary. It's pretty cool because bars and restaurants always have specials for us and everyone is in a festive mood. Sure a lot of people end our anniversary puking their guts out, but at least sometimes it's festive green vomit....

30 Days of Me - Day 10

"Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad"

I'll admit that I'm not really that into music. I have rather eclectic tastes and don't necessarily pick one type of music for each mood that I have. Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz are my "go-to" guys as far as general listening music goes, but I also enjoy groups/artists like the Doors, Perry Como, White Zombie and Hootie & the Blowfish. It just depends, I guess.

I had music on in my office the other day and found myself singing along (and maybe doing a little butt shaking) to Katrina and the Waves "Walkin' on Sunshine." That was pretty happy, I guess. I probably should be even happier that no one walked in on me.

I'm going to equate "sad" with "nostalgic" and tell you that in that case I'll listen to some REO Speedwagon, Chicago, Skid Row or another generic 80's type band. Growing up Depeche Mode was my sad, dreary, angst-ridden teenage choice. Doesn't get much more stereotypical than that.

Honestly if I'm bored I'm not about to put a CD in. In fact, a lot of the time I'll get bored if all I'm doing is listening to music, so I can't really post for that category I guess.

Okay, hyped. I thought on this one for a bit and I'm gonna have to go with a couple of specific examples - "Dragula" by Rob Zombie and "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf. Love it!

I'm not mad so much as I get a little overwhelmed or frustrated. I usually blast a little Slipknot in the office if I am serious about putting out the "don't bother me" vibe. Nine - I guess now eight :( - guys banging the heck out of whatever they can get their hands on and screaming unintelligible lyrics tends to work much in the same way as those lizards that flare out the sides of their neck and run all funny on their back legs - straight intimidation baby! I totally need this sign:


I really feel like this post kinda sucked. Sorry. I'll do better next time!

I Have a Plan!

I've been doing a little brainstorming and have come up with a couple of different "theme" posts that I'm going to try from time to time. I will not claim that they are original ideas, because we are truly to the point that it seems as if there is nothing "original" anymore. Well, I shouldn't say that, because certain actions involving a lemon, an umbrella and two members of the Blue Man Group might sill be original - chances are, though, that those actions are also illegal, immoral, and/or sacrilegious.

Back on task now. I don't think that I'm going to reveal the topics just yet because if I list something and then don't post it in a reasonable amount of time I get to feeling all guilty and obligated and that's not what I'm looking for. What I will tell you though is that I'm sure the new stuff I anticipate posting is just as interesting as all of my other ramblings (and you are free to take that exactly as you choose!)

If I posted yesterday I would have said that, although it's been among my busiest times ever at work, I've been exceedingly happy. Content, even. Very pleased with where I am in most aspects of my life. The kids are good, the hubs is good, the house hasn't fallen down around our ears, and even the dogs have been as good as three big dogs can be. You know the times in your life when you haven't really felt like "you"? Well here lately I've really felt like "me" and I must say that I'm digging it.

Work today kicked my arse. I seem to have fallen into the "It needs done so I'll do it" trap and I've been tres busy. My friend/colleague Joe told me that he really likes one of Harry S. Truman's quotes that I'm keeping as my motto: It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. I've even been getting some credit lately, so I don't even know why I'm stressing. Still, it would be nice if I could get someone else to help out with the after-hours stuff that comes up....

It occurs to me that I accomplished one of my "4 Little Goals" and was supposed to give myself some sort of reward, which I have failed to do. I'm thinking that some decent saddlebags for the motorcycle would be something that I both want and, at this point, I'm starting to need. Perhaps I will order them tomorrow.

In closing, please remember that although people in glass houses should not throw stones, they also should not pick their butts. Or their nose. Or their butt's nose. Wait.....