There's a first time for everything

To kick off the holiday season, here are a list of some firsts for me so far.......

• Drove four hours on Thanksgiving morning along with a whole bunch of other pumpkin pie craving people. We usually host dinner and when we haven't, the traveling is always done at least a day ahead.
• Ate Thanksgiving dinner sitting across the table from a goth chick complete with multiple lip piercings and dog collar and a tattoo artist.
• Decorated a fake tree. Once we got the branches fluffed up, it doesn't look too bad. Plus, we didn't kill another poor tree.
• Decorated the Christmas tree minus one member of the family. Unbeknownst to his parents, Nate took off on his bike (after being told to stay home and join the family in decorating) to a friend's house. He is now grounded from going to anyone's house for the next two weeks.
• Have 99.9% of my shopping done BEFORE Black Friday. Even if I don't wake up for the 4 am shopping frenzy (which I've done more than a handful of times), I almost always end up shopping at least sometime during the big sale weekend. No need to this year. Even though I'm a huge bargain hunter, it was actually nice not to stand in any of those lines.

How is your holiday season going so far?

Happy Thanksgiving to All (and to all a full stomach)

Things I am grateful for at this present moment:

my good health

my dad's new job so he's not out on icy mountain roads in the middle of the night

an almost acne-free face

apple and pumpkin pie (yes, I will be eating some of both even though they contain cinnamon)

getting invited somewhere for Thanksgiving dinner

a job where I can be home and still work when one of my kiddos is sick (happened yesterday...the throwing up session has thankfully stopped)


Anyhoo, see you all on the flip side. We're headed to Cincinnati to spend the holiday with family. Also, apparently there's a really cool, really big aquarium (etc) that we'll be checking out before we come home. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (even Suzy who's stuck in Canada with no pumpkin pie :( ).

Point and Click

Last night while talking on the phone with my mom, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I am not the most computer illiterate person alive. Also, to prove that point, I recently updated my Myspace page with pictures and an actual background (I only have one to stay in touch with a best friend).

Mom recently acquired a new laptop for her birthday. My dad had been putting some money aside here and there from his upholstery jobs. It was a big surprise to my mom because dad has always been anti-computer. He basically thinks that they are the devil. So when he got her a laptop, she was elated. Up until now, she's been hooked up with a verrrrry slow dial-up connection. She now has the slowest "fast" internet and is officially hooked. She said it's so fun to click back and forth between stuff and not have time to go get a snack in between.

Well, inevitably, she had to call the computer help line for something. I don't remember what it was she was having trouble with, that's not really the point. As soon as Mom got someone on the line, she admitted to the girl that she is very computer illiterate and to be patient. Here's how it went down.

Help line chick: "Do you see the icon in the right hand corner of the screen?"

Mom: "Yes."

"Right click on it."

Mom types out "click" on the keyboard and nothing happens.

"Did you right click?"

"Yes, but nothing happened."

"Okay, try it again."

Mom types out "click" again and notices no change on the screen.

"It doesn't seem to be doing anything."

"I'm not sure why it's not working. You did right click with your mouse, correct?"

"Oh...the mouse? I thought you meant "write click" as in type out the word click."

Heehee! I bet she makes the Top Ten list at this year's company Christmas party. You think?

So, What the Fuss?

Let me just say first off, Stevie was Wonderful. He did not disappoint. On the other hand, the loud mouths sitting behind us just about got a mouthful of fist. Lucky for them, I'm more civilized than that. My question: Why pay upwards of $50 per ticket to sit and LOUDLY chat with your buddy sitting next to you and when that gets too boring, call another friend on the cell phone and have this engaging conversation (during a slow, quiet song no less), "Yeah, I don't know what Stevie is singing right now, just some song.......yeah, I had a roast beef sandwich for lunch." And then after every song they scream at the top of their lungs, "WE LOOOOVE YOOOU STEEEEVIE!!!!" At one point I turned to Ron and said, "If they love Stevie so much, then why don't they shut up and listen to him sing?"

He sang all of my favorites so I was satisfied with that. He definitely has not lost his voice over the years. It is still very much intact. For most of the performance he sat either at the keyboard or the piano, which were set up right next to each other. Later on, he stood up and belted out a few tunes (making me nervous because he was at the very front of the stage, right next to a small speaker on the floor....one wrong step). Then, with the help of one of his backup singers, he stepped up onto the piano bench to sing. Towards the end of the song, and without any help, he jumped down off the bench. Of course, their was a loud, collective gasp from the audience. I have a feeling he does this on purpose. :)

A great night. Memorable performance. One of the best birthday gifts ever.

When crying is a good thing

I typically think that most everything on YouTube is a big, fat time waster. But...BUT....you just have to see this one. But don't blame me if you have to change your pants afterwards.


Human Tetris


And then this one is just for fun.


Evolution of Dance

P.S. It's worth it to watch the whole thing(in both cases). Hey, you were wasting time reading me blabbering about nothing. What's another few minutes. ;)

As Per Request

Here you have the mild flippy look

Today, on the other hand, my hair was out of control. No picture as it felt like a bad hair day. I think if my hair had been any more 'flippy', it would have flown right off of my head. I'll have to experiment with it when I have time (ie: when I don't have to show my face in public).

And to switch gears completely, I went to donate blood this evening. Even though they extracted a pint of blood from my body, it will not be used to save anyone's life. :(
The nurse (are they nurses? not sure) inserted the needle incorrectly. She hit a vein, alright. But, according to her layman's terms, the needle was pressing up against the side of the vein. In all the times that I've had blood drawn, it has never EVER felt like this. She didn't realize what had happened until we were more than halfway through. She kept increasing/decreasing the amount of pressure on the cuff and readjusting the needle. At one point I looked down at my arm because it was going numb and my whole arm and hand were turning a dark purple. Not normal. And again, extremely painful. By the time she decided to bail, I had tears brimming. The nurse at the next station asked if I was okay and I couldn't even answer. All I could do was give a weak 'okay' nod because I didn't want to seem like a wimp. I've never been a wimp when it comes to needles, but this felt like something straight out of a terrosist torture scene (okay now I'm being dramatic). The most irritating part for me was knowing that I had taken a good 2+ hours and a bunch of discomfort basically for nothing. The nurse told me not to let this scare me from donating again. I won't. I realize that people make mistakes. But she could have been a little more sympathetic about it.

This is as good a pic as I could manage.

We'll see what it looks like tomorrow. There's a huge knot under the bruised area and it hurts every time I move my hand and/or arm. I'll stop now because I know there are some people that have to endure soooo much worse than this every day of their life due to health conditions. Now I feel like a doof for even complaining about it.

A cut above the rest

Welp. I did it. I bit the bullet (and didn't break any teeth). I am now sporting a new, fashionably cute haircut. Before leaving for the salon, I was browsing through Oprah's site again to see if any of the 100 makeovers (minus the one of the caveman dude) looked intriguing. None really caught my fancy although Ron found a couple that he said he sorta liked.

Part of the reason I wanted to go short again is because I find myself pulling my hair back into a ponytail more often than not. It's been driving me crazy for months on end to have hair brushing against the sides of my face. All the styles that I or Ron liked the look of, the hair would still be long enough to be 'in my way'. Ron's final comment/suggestion of what he thought I should go with? "Get it cut to look like you're running from the law." ???? "You know how in the movies they always show women chopping their hair off in a motel room (motioning with hands to demonstrate about chin length)? Something like that. Except a little more stylish. And then you could color it a really, really dark brown....almost black with a reddish tint." So off I went. I wasn't planning on taking his opinion to heart because it sounded a little too wacky to me. And since I've never payed anyone else to color my hair, and never plan on doing so, I was just going for the cut.

I looked through a couple of the books at the salon for ideas. Found a couple that I might consider. One was a short, short look that I've had before. The other one.....I went with. No pictures as of yet. But it is cute. And I love it. It can be styled in a 'flippy' look. It can be combed back into a sleek look. Or just kind of tousled into a messy, laid back look. How versatile I am! If you're still reading I'm sure you're all bored to tears and ready for me to move on. ;)

On a side note: Jesse thinks I 'ruined my hair'. She wanted me to keep it long. But she also likes all girls to have long hair so I'm not surprised. Nate just gave me a 'What?' look when I walked in since he didn't know I was even going for a haircut. Ron said he liked it....a few times. He also warned me before I left that I was not to hold him personally responsible for his reaction upon my return. He's too funny.

Having a girl moment

I've been contemplating for a while whether or not to keep growing my hair out or......get it chopped off again. I go back and forth every 2-3 years or so. Once my hair gets about shoulder length, sometimes a bit longer, I get the urge for a change. After looking at old pictures of myself with the short short cut, I vowed never to go that short again. I feel too masculine, hardly ever wear make-up, and my hair always seems so 'flat' whenever it's super short.

But I just looked at Oprah's (I know, don't say it) website and she apparently had a makeover show where 100 people (I almost said women but then remembered the one shaggy guy!) got a hair makeover. Some of the shorter styles look really cute, but would they look that cute on me. Maybe, maybe not. I also could go with a trim and some layers. I don't know if I would be happy with that either. I may be looking for something more dramatic.

It never does me any good to ask Ron for advice or his opinion on this matter. He's too afraid to tell me what he likes because he thinks I'll get mad if he says he likes it long and I want it short...vice versa. But I have an inkling that he likes long hair since all his celebrity crushes have long, dark tresses. And two of his high school crushes had the long, dark hair also.......

But, of course, I am not any of the above people. I am what I am. That would be confused and needing advice. Anyone? (don't tell me just do what you want because I don't know what that is!)

Changes

I love the change of seasons. It always feels like a fresh start. Even in autumn when it seems that everything is dead. The death of the leaves is so brilliantly gorgeous. The death of the garden, not so much. I love having fresh veggies. :(

I love autumn because it means winter is just around the corner. Winter means sitting by the warm fire, fuzzy hats and scarves, thick sweaters, puffy jackets, hot chocolate, sledding, crunching through the snow in heavy, toasty boots, driving with snowflakes flying at the windshield (I love how that looks!), and snuggling up in bed to steal body heat from your honey.

Bring on the cold!