Me-Dates!

I love calendars. I love big ones with pretty pictures to post on the wall. I also like the little ones you can set on your desk, and tear off a page and it has something new for you every single day. Its a mini treat for myself. Its fun. Last year, my dad gave me a book a day calendar, and it was great. I got a lot of great books to add to my "to read" list! This year, I found something fun as I was checking out in Barnes and Noble. I just got it recently, so, I'm having to catch up.

Friday, January 16 in "The Bad Girl's Rage-A-Day 2009 Daily Calendar":

"Today's to-do: Take yourself on a me date!
You'll never be bored when you're dating yourself! Before you can fall in love with someone else, you have to fall hard for yourself. And that can take time. So go ahead and start the long, luscious process of self-seduction."


Now, this calendar has some suggestions of their own, some involving bubbly, some involving mirrors and feathers and bras...

However, I'm thinking since the Hallmark holiday V-Day is coming up soon, why not treat yourself?

Some of my Me-Date ideas:

Spend the entire day in Barnes and Noble and AC Moore, then follow it up with a nice dinner. Not just a salad, either. On a Me-Date, who cares if you eat all of the rolls?

For a warm-weather day, definitely go for a nice, not too hard hike up to some waterfalls, pack a picnic. Read. Take pictures. Draw. Watch the birds. If its a private waterfall, go skinny dipping or sunbathe. If its public, get wet, but keep the clothes on.

Bubble bath. Good book. Something sparkling in a pretty wine glass. 'nuff said.

Chick Flick Night.

Mani/Pedi... then shoe shopping!



I'm definitely going to make some time for some Me-Dates! What are your Me-Date ideas?

Blank....

I've gotten onto blogger almost every night, checking out other blogs. My faves are listed on the sidebar, check them out. While I've not been writing much, they have some interesting things to say. I've wanted to write, but some of the things that are on my mind lately, I haven't been able to figure out.... and some of the things that I have figured out, I'm not sure if I want to post them online for the world to see. Not like the world reads my little blog, but.....

I apologize for the lameness of this blog, but you gotta start somewhere. That's something I notice about myself. If I get out of the habit of doing something, like writing, it makes it harder to get back into the habit. Even if its something that I want to do, if I'm out of the habit, I lack inspiration. Does anyone else have that problem?

Well, I will keep this short since I have to get up for class tomorrow. I will actually have to get up early a lot within the next week or so. All of the budget cuts at work have actually helped me to get some extra hours in, helping another department. That way they don't have to pay extra for someone outside to come in and help; they just use the "resources" they already have.. hence, me. I'm excited about it though. Its something that I have been trying to learn and improve in for a while, and it's a great opportunity. I'm just not looking forward to the reduced hours I will spend behind my lovely little lamb sleep mask! Oh well. Give and take, I guess.

Oh, and I got a lovely new ipod shuffle this weekend. I'm really excited about listening to some actual music instead of all of the just graduated teenie boppers talking about how wasted they got at this monster party this weekend. I. Dont. Care. I will listen to Pink instead. And my painting will be much better, because I will not be frustrated with noise pollution. Excited, I am. Yep yep yep.

RELAX!...?

There aren't enough hours in the day. I know everyone says that, but its true. There's so much I want to do and don't get to. Naturally, my sleep suffers as a result of this....

So, I was talking to a friend, we'll call him D, this evening before I came home, and yawned.

D: You need to get some rest!

Me: I do rest!

D: No, you need to go home, and just watch a movie or something, NOTHING else. That's why your back hurts all the time, cuz you're always doing something else.

Me: huh?

D: Go home, do what you need to on the computer. An hour, tops, that's plenty of time to do what you need to. Then, TURN IT OFF, close it, and put it away. Then just lay back and relax, watch a movie. You might even fall asleep.

Me: ...and do NOTHING else but watch the movie? really? How?

D: Just do it.


(D will probably text me as soon as he reads this, 'THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID!' hehe... Sorry! I'm not very good at memorizing conversations verbatim... but that was pretty much the gist of the conversation, you can at least admit that.)


SO, obviously I haven't done that yet. I'm actually getting pretty close to the hour limit. I am always, always doing something. I'm on the computer, reading a book or magazine, drawing, painting, talking, texting. I literally go crazy just sitting, doing nothing. Mr. can sit and listen to the radio. Why? There aren't any pictures (not like pictures stop me...I can't even sit still through a music video. Maybe I should get that checked out..) but, just sitting, staring at the walls, listening to the radio? There's other things you can do at the same time...virtually anything really.

I've always been that way. Multitasking, keeping busy, whatever you want to call it. When I was younger, I would come home, listen to music, eat a snack, and do my homework, AND talk on the phone sometimes. Hey, it worked for me! I graduated High School with a 4.2 GPA on a weighted scale...

I work in a school, so I get two months off for the summer every year. Which is both good and bad.. good because I love the summer and the time off, bad because I don't get paid. Anyhoo...the most recent summer, just for an example, since I had plenty of time, obviously, I was known to paint the kitchen cabinets and read an entire book in a day, sometimes at the same time.

That's hilarious. D just text me (I can get this verbatim! )"You ain't relaxed, yet huh?" He knows me so well! So I'm going to try it. Relax. Sit. Watch a movie. Do NOTHING ELSE. I wonder how long before I get restless or fall asleep....

Looking towards the future

What a historical day. Well, yesterday, technically. Obama is officially our president. Finally! Inauguration day, for most people is a really exciting day. If I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, I may have been more enthused myself. I honestly intended on watching the event. I didn't know it started at noon. I saw something about 8pm...so I was planning to watch that. Don't ask. I really thought it started that late. I didn't care about Bush, to be quite honest with you, so I didn't pay attention the last time... and before that, I was too young. Anyhoo... I was sleeping through the whole thing. Hence, I was completely lost when I got to work and everyone was talking about it. How powerful his speech was.... how beautiful the music was... what Michelle was wearing....

It really is exciting. I truly believe that he will make a difference and that change is coming. I do have a question, though. Like I said, I never paid attention before, so don't laugh. Or laugh. I can be pretty unobservant at times. ahem. Anyhoo, is Inauguration always the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day? Probably is. I just thought it was a really big coinky-dink the two days were back to back like that. So.... it got me thinking....obviously I'm really behind, because people have been thinking about this forever already. I really should pay better attention sometimes. BUT, I found this video, and I thought it was really touching...If you've already seen it, humor me.

The Undomestic Goddess

I'm not really a housewife. Never really wanted to be. The whole staying at home cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids, cooking, and cleaning some more... never reall interested me. I need to get out of the house. Work, do things.... learn things.

Don't get me wrong, I love to cook.... when I have someone to cook FOR. I don't like to cook for just one or two of us, I end up with a lot of leftovers, and I'm not good with leftovers. I don't do dishes, either. I would not mind cleaning everything in the entire house.... including the bathroom before I do the dishes. It's bad. Like, seriously, if someone is willing to come to my house and wash dishes for me, I WILL PAY. Mr.? Don't get me started. "I didn't dirty them, so why should I wash them?" How about you eat the food I fixed in that pot? Sorry. Touchy subject. You know, actually, household chores in this house are such a battle, it's gotten to the point where we do our own laundry. I do mine. He does his. But that's a blog for another day.

So, I actually do love to cook. I'm really good at baking sweets, those are my favorites. Cookies, pies, cakes, brownies, pumpkin rolls. Everyone loves my pumkin rolls for the holidays. I can follow directions in any cookbook really well! As far as dinners and such, there's not much I can do in that area. Sloppy Joes, Tacos, Cheese Dip, burgers, grilled cheese, anything in a box like Hamburger Helper or Mac and Cheese, or the dinner in a box. I'm good at those, too. That's about it. I can't even do meatloaf, which I hear is supposed to be really easy.

So, today, for lunch, I made homemade macaroni and cheese. It was not my first attempt, and it was sort of a success. If by success you mean edible and on a taste factor of 1 to 5 it was a 2.. MAYBE 2.5. The first attempt was a total failure. I followed the recipe... but ... the cheese and the milk didn't really blend together.. and it tasted really funny. Don't ask how you mess up mac and cheese, but I did it. This time, it worked out ok. Perhaps it was just the recipe, but it wasn't the best I've had by a long shot. After cooking the noodles until they were al dente, in another pot I melted the butter, and then whisked in the flour. At this point I was somewhat confused because it had the consistency of cookie dough.

But, of course, I continued to follow the directions on the recipe, feeling exactly how I imagined Samantha Sweeting felt on her first day as a housekeeper in "The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella.




Which, by the way, is a really funny book if you haven't read it. For both the real life undomestic goddesses, or the really domestic goddesses. Imagine a big-time lawyer, overworked and overstressed due to certain circumstances becomes a housemaid. It's a good, funny, summer read. I know it's winter, but, in some parts of the world it feels like summer, so that's good enough for me. Perhaps, like Samantha, I will one day become a domestic goddess. Or perhaps not.

Book-Lovers, Attention, Please!

Fellow Book lovers, please look at this website:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2.The_worst_books_of_all_time

I am quite shocked and offended by this list. Apparently people have voted for the worst books of all time, and some of the books on this list, in my opinion are some of the BEST books of all time! I wonder what the criteria for this list would be. I mean, Twilight, The Notebook, The Fountainhead, The Great Gatsby, Wuthering Heights, A Child Called IT, The Giving Tree, Ender's Game, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Secret Life of Bees, Little Women, Jane Eyre... just to name a few of the books on this list. So, naturally, after reading this list, I went in search of what these people considered the best books, and this is what I found:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1.Best_Books_Ever

This is where I got confused. The same people made two lists: the best and the worst. The books on both of these lists are virtually the same!!! How much sense does this make? Obviously, they did not want to offend anyone so what I've gathered from this is that they think all books are the best AND the worst of all time. Huh. Riiiight.

So, I have decided to make my own lists!

These are some (read: SOME) of what I consider the BEST books of all time. They do not require much explaination, but all are MUST READS:

1. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks: Makes me cry every time. How beautiful to think that some people really do have a love like this.
2. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer: (I count a Saga as one) Some of these books are better than others, but all of them together, are wonderful! And this is one of those where you can't get away with just watching the movie. Book: 100% better!
3. The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall: The last book given to me by a family friend before she died. A quick read, but good message!
4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: I'm not much of a sci-fi person, but this book captivated me, and the ending was awesome!
5. One Child and Tiger's Child by Torey Hayden: Again, these books go together, but these are fictionalized true stories written by someone who works with children who have....difficult lives and how she helps these children.

The next list took a little more consideration. I am a book lover, and it is really hard for me to say a book is bad. These, however, I had THE HARDEST TIME finishing. And was very very glad that I did finish them:

1. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: I don't care if it is Hemingway. I don't care if it is metaphorical. I do not care about an old man who goes to take a piss on the side of the road before he goes fishing and has the world's longest cramped hand. No. Thanks.

2. Flatland: A romance of many dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott: A dot, lives in a line. Goes to visit some triangles, squares, octagons... circles. The dot is on the bottom rung of the social ladder, and the octagon and the circles are at the top... and gasp! He meets a sphere one day... and... hey! Wake up! I'm not done!

3. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards: Slow to start.... slow in the middle... slow at the end. A good story, but hard to get through. Movie was great, though.

4. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier: I love Tracy Chevalier. I love her other books, this one on the other hand... not one of her best.

5. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb: This book came out 17 years ago and you can still buy it at Wal-Mart. Why? I don't know. It wasn't AWFUL. But... let's just say.... weird, major!


So.....What are your lists?

Let's get political for a minute.....

So, on the way home this evening, I was listening to Pink's "I'm Not Dead Yet" album.... and heard this song. That's when I realized, that we have four more days, technically, until the Bush administration is out of the White House. Some people have been looking forward to this for eight years. My dad is one of those people.

I LOVE Pink!... And I LOVE people who tell it like it is...

Pink's "Dear Mr.President:"



Looking towards the future now.....