Sunday, November 25, 2012

Let's Get it On.

With the holidays, i mean!

I am sitting here listening to Dustin Kensrue's Christmas album which is one of my very favorites. Yes, i am already listening to Christmas music! And Brian put up the outside lights last night. (He is the best putter upper of Christmas lights because he satisfies my OCDness by getting them perfectly straight!)

I'm just gonna start numbering stuff and be done with it. I have 6 more blog posts to reach my goal of averaging one a week so i need to change it. I'll keep this one short. I keep promising to do that and then i forget.

1. Facebook ads are still driving me nuts. I don't care about what Women Get for Free or the Freebie links. I keep hiding them but they multiply by different names. I don't trust anything that says it's for free and i don't even want free stuff. If it's free, how good can it be, really?

2. I am one of those consumers who believe if it costs more, it's better quality. And i usually go for what is the most expensive. Luckily i don't shop that much.

3. Everywhere i look i see Taylor Swift and i want it to stop. First of all, she looks like a cat. And everyone knows how i have a phobia against cats. They totally creep me out. More than snakes even! Seriously, i would be more inclined to have a pet snake than a pet cat. I don't think you can even call a cat a pet. You never hear the term 'pet cat' for example. Think about it.

4. I just had 5 days off for this T-Day holiday and i barely remember what i did except for going to louie's house for T-Day where we did exactly what i wanted to do, cook, eat enchiladas, drink wine and visit with her very cool kids, who if God promised me i could have kids just like them, i would have chosen to be a mother after all.

5. I did watch a few movies. The end of Lonesome Dove and the end of Gone with the Wind, two of my favorite movies - i've seen them many many times already and i know so many of the lines!...which is always fun. Even many of the non-famous lines. I also enjoyed Midnight in Paris.( I like Woody Allen. He almost makes me want to travel! Yes, even ME!)

6. Last night for probably the first time in maybe a year that i can remember i slept all through the night! We went to bed around 11 pm and i never got up until 6 am this morning. It was wonderful! And i'm thinking it's cause our neighbor Gary gave us a growler of this great dark beer. (Somewhere i read that hops can help with your sleep.) So i just poured a beer from that growler to see if it works again tonight.

Ok, i'm going to try and scan a put up a postcard that louie sent me in the mail yesterday. Her disclaimer on the back says she is officially an old lady because she recycled it from a greeting card she received from someone else. I know it has nothing to do with Christmas, (except the drinking part) since they are in bathing suits, but i love it!

I just added a photo of louie's kids Nick and Emma that i took on Thanksgiving. I've known them since they were babies! They are so awesome.


Notes to Self:

All time blog posts: 36,491
Blog views yesterday: 86 (!)
Today's High: 45 degrees
Tonight's forecast: 29 degrees. (I better take in the fuschia. It's still alive and looking good!)
Sunset : 4:25 pm.


Saturday, November 17, 2012

Thanks... even for the stuff that kinda sucks.

Marie, Ashley, me and Kylee at Brian and Adrienne's wedding last Sept.
It's Thanksgiving. Most people love this holiday, me not so much. Maybe if i had kids. I would like it better if it was not so close to Christmas and if people didn't already start decorating their homes so early, as two houses down the road have done this week. It's only November 17 and i feel a little bit stressed that i haven't thought about presents nor do i have any ideas.

But i do know this. I have a lot to be thankful for even in spite of stuff that bugs me. I thought about these last night when i couldn't sleep. So i decided to write them down: Here we go.

1. Health: As a committed runner I am pissed at having high blood pressure. I really hate how tired the medication seems to make me and i think it has blunted what creativity i used to have. Sometimes i try to see if i can control it. For example i didn't have any wine last week so i decided to try going without my pills to see what would happen since i figured no wine would make it better. I skipped them for two days. By the afternoon of the second day i had a scheduled appointment and the nurse told me that it was up to 155/95 even though it had been ok that morning. I told her i accidentally forgot. Then i went home and took my medicine. (Lesson: I can't control it.)

I never have liked taking medicine (even aspirin). But i am so thankful that i have good health insurance and that there is medication that keeps me healthy. And another thing: if giving up wine lowered my blood pressure then i would have to make a serious decision about giving up wine for good in lieu of taking the medication i hate.


2. Job: I don't always love my job. Too many values get stomped on when i watch what happens with some of the folks in union leadership. Lack of work ethics and follow through, wasting money, greediness, inflated egos, it goes on.

However, i am thankful that for 25 years i got to work for an employer that not only allowed me my political leanings, but embraced them, encouraged them and expected me to act on them. This was one of the best elections i can remember in all of my years of voting. And in our state my union employer had alot to do with this success. Out of 99 legislative candidates we endorsed, 79 were elected. That's what i call action and effort.


3. Living in the Pacific Northwest: Yes, the rain and semen colored skies are a bitch. And our mushroom colored skin and perpetually bad hair days this time of year do not help make us attractive in our holiday photos. And the sunset (4:32 pm today) makes me tired by 8:30 at night.

However, I am thankful for this: (back to election for a moment) : We grew up in our early youth in Louisiana where my mom was also born and raised. And every election year (except those two George W ones) i call my dad on the phone and thank him for moving us to Washington State from Louisiana.

AND truthfully, i sort of love the rain. It's conducive to my lifestyle anyway. I love to be indoors, i am a voracious reader and i love TV, cooking,  movies and low lights. I don't even mind running in it. And  the high humidity (nearly 10 months of the year) and lack of sun benefits our skin and helps to keep us younger looking.


4. Family: I sometimes think i was born into the wrong family.  With the exception of my Dad, they all love to party. A lot. With Coors Lite Beer (ick!) or my mom's big magnums of cheap chardonnay If it's at my parents little house (where my mom always wants it), it's always a quasi-hoarder's chaotic paradise, where i spend the first 5 minutes straightening all her pictures on the wall to settle down my slight OCD. And if you want a seat you first have to navigate and excavate piles of magazines, folded laundry, and other crap first.

The meal is always BBQ and lots of it. (I call it caveman eating).  And for some reason my mom thinks she always has to make some casserole with the key ingredient being cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup. It's a raucous affair. The music comes off one of those cable TV channels. And the conversations can often turn to politics, religion, which celebrity would we be willing to cheat on our spouses with (mine was Brad Pitt, but only if he has quit smoking),  AND if we were gay which celebrity would we want to date...(Rachel Maddow for me)....nothing is off the table!

But even as i get irritated at times by these very things, i am actually thankful for all of these reasons above too. I am never intimidated about what to cook or bring to these affairs. The music playing is usually the blues.  And I always bring my own bottle of chardonnay, and nobody give me the raised eyebrow when i pour my third glass AND if after my third glass I say something stupid, nobody will even notice in the midst of all of the arguing about same sex marriage. And like my nephew Brian says, "We Louvraks are  good looking family!" I love my family. And they love my husband and he loves them.  And that is what matters. (So what if i sometimes feel adopted.)

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  If you are reading, (and by the stats i know you are even if you don't post - unless is amulbunny and louie checking in 500 times each by themselves)....Anyway, if you are, please come share yours.
My brother Scott and Kylee at her Art Institute graduation 2010


Kylee's mom Marie, brother Troy, and me at nephew Brian's wedding
Coors Lite balancing with Troy and Brian

Kylee with Brian at the Bayou Bar at Scott's house, both wearing goofy glasses

I love this photo of Kylee from a couple of Christmases ago

niece Jessica, me, Jessica's daughter Mari and Kylee


My Baybee and Kylee March 2011

Nephew Josh, Brian, and Ashley Christmas 2008


Monday, November 5, 2012

Back in Business: Election Eve Musings....

Menu of the Day: 

on iTunes: Forest Sun's Harlequin cd. Love this guy!

Book: I'm reading The Middlesteins. I like it. It reminds me of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. Odd Family Drama story.

What I'm thinking about: The election. I'm excited and i'm scared.

Finally accomplished: Putting my summer clothes away, switching them for my 10 months of gloomy. The funny thing is my summer clothes take up more room than the stored winter clothes. But that's only cause summertime often feels like the rest of the year (by that i mean, autumny kind of weather) so i have AC/DC clothes that never need to be stored away...and for God's sake, I swear i think i own about 35 tank tops. I had no idea until i started packing them away.

What's irritating me: I got a call on Friday from a co-worker who's 21 year old gay friend had not registered to vote. She wanted to know if there was still time for her to do so. I knew this answer because i  had put this info up on our work's website - first time voters could walk in to register in person if they did so by Oct. 29. So If same sex marriage goes down by 1 vote i vote that someone should beat the shit out of that lesbian.

Shout Out: Lynnie. What happened to you? It's been a very long time!

I have no idea what's on my mind, but i'll go ahead an number some things and see where this goes:

********************************

1. I phone banked 7 times for our governor this election and called cranky menopausal women (that was our demographic target) to get out the vote for our Democratic governor candidate, Jay Inslee. A candidate i don't love very much, but who is better than the other dude who i am super scared of.

But here's a phone bank i would really enjoy!..... post election i want to call people who don't vote, like the woman above i describe. I would  ream them up and down and tell them what shits they are.

2. My predictions tomorrow:

  • Obama will handily win re-election....    :) 
  • Charter schools will be allowed in Washington State ....   :( 
  • McKenna and Inslee will be close but i'm afraid that McKenna is going to win ... :(   I wish there was a SCREAMING emoticon for this using our keyboard. 
  • Dawn Morrell (who louielouie/Sarah and i doorbelled for will win)....   :)
  • Steve O'Ban will win .... :(
  • Tami Green will win ... :)
  • Same sex marriage will lose ... :(  (which is what my photo above is about.)
  • marijuana will lose ... :(  I don't smoke pot at all, but i wish it were legal cause it's stupid that it's not. My childhood would have been much less chaotic had my Dad been a pothead instead of an alcoholic. 
3. I hate ending daylight savings time. I went to bed at 9:30 because it feels like 11 pm. I have been awake since 4:00 am and will probably need to go to bed again at 9:30. this will take me about 3 weeks to get adjusted. 

4. I bought a Christmas present already, but it almost doesn't count cause it for my parents. I bought them sheets. 

5. I already hate thinking about the holidays. Brian and i rarely fight hard about stuff. We get into disagreements and talk it out, but we rarely get into something that makes us both mad where we don't want to talk to each other for awhile...that is, until we talk about the holidays and family dynamics. 

6. So far it's been okay, but we also haven't made a definitive plan so i dread it and try to tread softly, but anyone who knows me understands how very difficult that is for me. 

7. Here's a good question: If you are in a relationship,  married...or not, or if you are divorced or broke up....  what is the topic you most fight about?  For us, it's definitely holidays and family stuff.  The good news is it is never about money. 

OK, i'm going to end this cause i've been trying hard to make this shorter. Only one person posted on my shortest post of all though... though i did notice that "Nada" had 18 views today. (And thank you amulbunny for being the one person posting on it!..hahahaha.)



Notes to self:
Sunset: 4:47 pm ....boohoo :(
Today's high: 60 degrees. weirdly warm today!
Longest run this week: 60 minutes on Saturday
All time pageviews: 35,651
Views last month: 1206


Friday, November 2, 2012