Reason #26 to Give Up Drinking

After reading this, ya've just gotta wonder, "What kind of accident did he have?"

And, most importantly of all, "What the HELL was he drinking???!!"

It must be stopped

Okay, I was almost okay with Bennifer. It was kinda cute. It was new. It could almost be a name.

But puleeze!!

Dashmi ???!!

That's just wrong.

Timeline and Five things

10 Years ago
Ten years ago I was living in Plano, TX and working for DSC Communications. I liked working there. It was a pretty good job and I lived close to one of my best friends. I miss being close to her.

5 years ago
Five years ago, I was living in Kent, WA and working for Logicon. Again I liked working there and I really liked the people that I was working with. We were a really good team. I had to travel a lot though, to places one normally would not put on one's vacation hot spot. We were living in our first house. I really liked that house and the lot was great. One thing that I loved about that place is we were right next to a holding pond. That pond always had water in it and it had many frogs living there. Their croaking every spring always made me smile. They started to make noise just as it was getting warmer. What a lovely sound.

1 year ago
One year ago I was in Tucson, AZ. We didn't really love living in AZ. It is so gawdawful HOT there. I liked my job (I was working for IBM), but I hated being a contractor.

Yesterday
Yesterday I kissed my six-figure job goodbye.

5 songs I know all the words to:
- Happy Birthday
- The Star Spangled Banner (yep, I do...I really do...)
- I Am A Rock by Simon & Garfunkle (yes I am that old)
- Beautiful Boy by John Lennon
- Pretty much every Beatles song

5 snacks:
- popcorn
- ice cream
- fresh fruit
- chips
- chocolate

5 things I'd do with $100 million:
- savings for my old age and E's college education
- buy a huge chunk of land and build my dream home
- give lots and lots to family and friends
- quit my job & live on the interest (I can live pretty frugally)
- travel

5 places I would run away to:
- Paris
- Tuscany
- A small Irish town
- Colorado Springs
- The huge chunk of land that I would buy with my $100 million

5 things I would never wear:
- a thong anything (I have spent my life pulling things out of there...why do I want a garment that is MEANT to go there)
- a bikini (put 2 rubber bands on an egg and you can picture me)
- midriff-baring anything (see bikini)
- most of the crap you see on the runways in Paris
- black leather (just not my thing...)

...I gotta lose some weight...

5 favorite TV shows:
- Monk
- ER (I guess...I like to watch it anyway)
- Jeopardy (I kick butt...)
- Antiques Roadshow
- too much crap on...

5 greatest joys:
- being a mom
- wearing something I've made
- being with my family
- my good friends
- music

5 favorite toys:
- my digital camera
- my sweater machine
- my sewing machine
- my laptop
- I need more toys...

5 people I'm taggin:
- Not taggin' anybody (nobody reads this anyway...)

A pause...

I need to rant some more about finding a house, but I found this neat thing and decided to plunk it down for today's post.

Such a non-world traveler am I.

I've been to a lot of places in the US:

But not too many other places:

My god

I have not said anything about Katrina on my blog. I guess there was just nothing to say.

But tonight I was watching CNN and saw the last half of a story that just made me gasp and cry.

There are 1700 children missing in LA, MS and AL since that bitch hit the coast.

Seventeen hundred children.

SEVENTEEN HUNDRED.

my god

Making Decisions

I am usually pretty good at making decisions for myself. I am not sure why I can make up my mind and stick to it without looking back and some people have to agonize over everything making sure they made the BEST decision ever (anyone recognize B?), but I do.

That being said, I now have another BIG decision ahead of me. I know what I want to do but I am afraid that it may be hard to stick with it (B is pressuring me one way; my heart is pressuring me another).

I have been offered a job. Yes, I know I just got a new job but this is another one. They want to pay me a LOT of money. More money than I have ever made in my life money. Six figures of money. To the left of the decimal point. In dollars. US dollars. So, what could possibly be wrong with that?

It is in Cincinatti.

Ohio.

I don’t want to live in Ohio. I have already put in my time in the Midwest. No offense to those of you who live in and love those midwest states, of course, but it is not for me. I do not like the summers; too hot, too humid. I don’t like the winters; too cold, too much snow. Snow belongs in the mountains not in my driveway.

And I love the northwest.

Plus the job is really a step backward. It is not doing the work I want to do. And at the job here in Tacoma I am finally doing what I want to do. In the state I want to live in. Near my family.

So what would YOU do? A or B?
a) More money; good benefits; away from home; not the job you want to do.
b) Okay money (but >$20K less); okay benefits; near home; what you want to do.

House Hunting or The Impossible Dream

We are house hunting. I am totally sick of it by now and am ready to buy a cardboard box under the Fremont Bridge just to put an end to it.

The problem is, well, B, of course. He has dreams. I had dreams too once. I dreamed of being 5’9” and weighing 125 pounds (okay, I knew there would never be a 5’9” in my future unless I bought a fica tree and as for the other dream…well I would settle for simply weighing what my driver’s license says I do).

If I can give up my dreams, why can’t he bend a little on his?

B (whining): I want a lakefront lot!!!

S: Why?

B: So I can launch my boat from our backyard.

S: Huh? When did we get a boat?

B: That way I can waterski!!

S: I have known you for almost 20 years and I have never seen you waterski.

B: E will be able to go boating whenever he wants.

S: He isn’t even 3 yet. He can’t even ride a bicycle.

B: How about a saltwater lot? Can we get something on the Sound?

S: Do you have some extra money stashed somewhere?

You have to keep in mind that anything with even an inch on the water will probably double the price of your home. Even a view of the water will probably add at least fifty thousand.

S: I just want a house.

B: How about this 7 acres for $350,000.

S: I just want a house.

B: How about this lot for $189,000. I can build us a house.

S (mumbles to self): ...and in about 10 years there might be a foundation poured: (aloud) I just want a house.

B: Hey! Look at this! I found 40 acres for just $600,000. We can subdivide it! We’ll get our house for free!!

S (slitting wrists): AAAAGHGHGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Too smug...

This is just to give my (few? any?) readers something to look at while I come up with another post. This is my dog, Ellie. I think she has this 'too smug' expression on her face.

Makes me smile to look at it.

(this picture was taken the day she got her haircut...unfortunately she doesn't always look this good...for instance right now she is desperately in need of a trim...)

Selfish Parent

Earlier this week (okay maybe it was last week) I read an article that kind of fried my cookies. Well it wasn’t so much the article itself that got me steamed as it was some of the comments left on the accompanying message board.

Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait.

There. Did you read the message boards? Did you see it? No?

“Fostering a child when you're 50 is different than giving birth to a child for selfish reasons. I wouldn't hesitate to foster any child. I would hesitate to have a child for purely selfish reasons…”

It seems that the prevailing opinion among some people is that if you are older and infertile and need fertility treatments and choose to carry and birth a baby you are somehow ‘selfish.’ I really don’t understand how wanting a child makes me selfish. If I were 25 and wanted to have a child I would not be selfish? If I adopted I wouldn’t be selfish?

My child was compared to a ‘chihuahua’ and an ‘accessory.’ I am an ‘upscale career woman’ who ‘purchased’ my child ‘via fertility treatments’ while ‘defying nature’ and ‘distorting my values and morality.’

Huh? I just wanted to be a mom. Just like most other females on the face of the earth. I just wanted a child. And adoption is not possible for us (whole other can of worms...don't wanna go there).

“She did not foster a child, she did not adopt a child, she is not a grandparent stepping in and she is not raising a child whose birth parents cannot or will not. This is her own baby at a late age. There is a whole lot of difference in the two.”

I don’t understand what the difference is. Because it cost a lot of money to conceive my child? Has this person ever looked into what it costs to adopt a child? Because it took years to conceive and birth my son? Again, ask someone who has spent a year or more gathering paperwork, going through home visits, getting fingerprinted, waiting to hear from adoption agencies about how long it takes to adopt a child. Does she think adoptive parents walk into a big room and choose from a pile of children in the corner? If that’s what you think then take a look at Soper or Shelba or Karen.

Sure I may not have as much time with my child if I had had him at age 25. But I hadn’t even met my husband at age 25. The father of one of my best friends died of a massive coronary when she was still in elementary school. One of my uncles died in a car accident when his wife was pregnant with their 3rd child. Young people die too.

If I had adopted a child, I would still be over 40. If I fostered a child, I would still be over 40. I just happened to birth a child. And, yes, I am, most definitely, over 40.

And totally in love with my child.

I raise my middle finger to all who would deny me my son.