Well, my birthday weekend is over, the month continues, in the immortal words of Tracy Lawrence, Time Marches On. I had the best birthday this year, not just due to the presents but due to the fact I got to have lunch with Jeffrey, Elizabeth and Alex. It was not only enjoyable but fun, I have really funny kids, they have the most amazing humor. So happy I was chosen to be their mom, the only missing element was Tessa.
Let’s see, I know you want to know what I got, so I shall go down the list in order of birth, from Jeffrey I got a Starbucks gift card, he told me he knows how much I love my “Friday” coffee treats. Very thoughtful!
From Elizabeth a new Coach purse, all three of my Coach purses have come from her; this one is the trademark brown, only with purple trim! It is so pretty! I immediately had to empty the old one and put everything in the new one!
Alex gave me the gift of pampering; he got me a gift certificate for a mani/pedi at a salon called the Beverly Hills Salon! I get to be a movie star! How cool is that? I can go in with my coffee treat, holding my purse and get the star treatment.
The Irishman, I know you are all wondering about him, well, he gave me the gift of communication. I got the new IPhone 5, at first I was like, my IPhone 4 works fine, but then we got to the Apple store and I fell in love with the white one. Then Siri talked to me! OMG I think I am in love with Siri! It was a very cool and thoughtful gift.
He and I had a combination of lunch and dinner, at the Londoner in Allen, it was nice, it was a really nice day.
Next year I don’t know if I want to acknowledge my birthday as it will be a huge one, a really huge one. I don’t even want to say the number, I don’t feel this number, I feel like I am maybe 25, however I know my body is going to start betraying me, that I will eventually just cave. I really don’t want to get osteoporosis, which really terrifies me. My grandmother had it and her spine curved, I know it caused her a lot of pain, she never complained about it, but I know it was not fun. I remember the doctors wanted her to wear a metal contraption that would help straighten her spine, but that was more painful than the actual curvature, so she quit wearing it.
On that note I will say goodbye and go eat my yogurt for the calcium!
Elusive Creature
Yesterday I took Tessa and the Irishman’s girls to lunch and playtime at McDonald’s, fun for them, typically incredibly loud for me. Usually I see parents who do not parent, you know the ones; “little Johnny don’t do that, oh hahaha boys will be boys” I will be honest, I hate passive parents.
I was sitting there, and a woman walked in with her four children, two older boys, a little girl and a baby, they proceeded to have their lunch then the older children ran off to play. When they were done playing they came back to their mother and said they were ready for desert.
The mother sat up a little straighter and proceeded to let the boys know there would be no desert for them, the boy began to speak and she said no, I was very clear before we even got into the car. I said that if you fought in the car on the way over there would be no desert for whoever was fighting. You and your brother went at it like animals, sister did not fight, she is the only one who gets desert. The older of the two boys began to speak, trying to negotiate a desert for himself. Trying to justify the fight, the mother looked him in the eye and said you are not a terrorist, there will be no negotiations, my word is final, perhaps next time you will think twice before fighting. She then made the boys go and purchase the sisters desert. I love this woman, there was no yelling, she was calm, she let them know that she had already told them the consequences of their actions and followed through.
It has renewed my faith in the younger generations ability to parent, I love this woman, I don’t know her, I am not likely to ever lay eyes on her again, however I think she rocks.
Too many times I see parents being lazy regarding their duties as the leaders of their own households, one or more of the children run the household. When did this happen? I was the undisputed leader of my household, the children did not dictate the actions of the household. The parent residing there did, it is unconscionable what is happening in this country. Parents are getting lazy, some not all, as I have witnessed, but when children dictate what they have for meal times, resulting in obese children, children no longer are told to go outside and play they are given controllers to video games. Resulting in lazy, obese children, given soda instead of water, given cookies and candy instead of fruit. Shocking is what it is, however, due to this one woman in McKinney, TX I have hope, I have hope there are others like her out there.
Parents, if your child is running the roost, make some changes, I beg you, for the health of our country, mentally and physically, take control, say no to soda, say no to candy, say no to nothing but junk for the mind and body. Take your children outside, make some hard rules, follow the rules yourself and have some follow through. Stop allowing the terrorist to hold you hostage, no more negotiations, run your households!
24 Hours of Positivity
So, I saw something on Facebook (of course) that said something to the effect that we should try to have one day where we say nothing negative. Well, I have decided to do that, today, as a matter of fact. So I will go one solid 24 hours where I utter not one negative word. This should not be too difficult as I am a naturally positive human.
This weekend was a good one, Friday was spent cleaning and catching up on things of that nature, then Saturday evening was date night with the Irishman. We went to dinner then took the train downtown to attend a Dallas Stars game. If you are not familiar with them, they are a hockey team, the game was a lot of fun, then it was taking the train back home.
We walked from the train to the American Airlines Center, which was a good mile walk, so that was nice, walking through Downtown Dallas at night. Seeing the lights, it was a nice night for a walk; the company was good, nothing whatsoever to complain about.
So, on Facebook (naturally) I read this thing about honey and cinnamon, I shared it on there, I do believe I am going to share it here as well. Very interesting, after reading it, I added cinnamon to my coffee routine, I highly recommend it. First you mix the honey and cinnamon and add a little hot coffee to mix it really well, then your unflavored cream (if you use cream) and then drink away. So very yummy and the health benefits are going to be listed after I am done writing whatever it is that I want to impart to you.
I saw on Twitter (my second avenue of information these days) that Mary O’Connor passed away, who is she you might wonder; well she was Hugh Hefner’s girl Friday so to speak. She worked for him for years in the Mansion, I am not really sure what she did, I saw her on the show The Girls Next Door. She had an office and her desk had tons of paper on it and she always looked very busy. Everyone who came into contact with her has had nothing but positive things to say about her. I don’t know if I could work somewhere like that, not due to the obvious moral issues, but due to the simple issue of being around so many women who are so much more beautiful than I. For me it would be disconcerting, of course at the age she was when the viewing public met her, she was older, a mother figure to the women who resided there. However when she was first hired she was younger, a lot younger, so one has to wonder if there was ever a time she had doubts about her own personage. It was obvious this was a woman who was comfortable with herself; she chose to age naturally, gracefully even, quite an accomplishment surrounded by all of the plastic surgery that inhabited her world.
I have decided to do a special edition after this one for the honey and cinnamon tips as this is over 500 words. I’ll post that one later this afternoon to give everyone time to read this posting. Happy Monday, remember to be positive today, it will do you a world of good, let me know tomorrow how it went. Going 24 hours, consciously being positive, I will be interested in knowing how you all feel, do you feel good, was it hard, did you find it relatively easy to erase negativity from your world for a day.
There’s a Stye in my Eye
So far in 2013 I have had an eye stye and a fever blister, however, I am on the mend, so still good, I hope everyone else is having a better start to their year.
So far on Conversations we have tackled teenage curfews, do they work, or are they antiquated, they do work and are not antiquated, so keep it up parents. Let your children know their limitations within the confines of the home and the consequences if they break the rules. Open communication is the key, that is what we learned while talking with Pastor Purvey, very informative show.
This week we take on depression and what the bible has to say about it, i think you will also find this very informative and hopefully if not helpful to you personally, perhaps someone you know. We all go through it, none of us are immune to depression, it hits at some point in our life. However, there are things that you can to do combat it, first off, talk to someone, that is the most important key. I believe. Keeping things internalized will just compound the issue and it will eat at you. Not healthy, trust me, someone out there has been where you are and has something helpful to tell you.
Well I am feeling better today, so it is off to run a few errands, the Irishman’s daughters are selling Girl Scout cookies, so if you would like to order some, email me.
The Pursuit of Happiness?
There is something that has been on my mind a lot lately, and no, it isn’t Dean Cain, well, alright, it is, but not this time. This time I want to talk about how people bandy about the word happy. It all started with the hippies, do whatever makes you happy, whatever makes you feel good. I am going to tell you right now that is really no way to live, and I will tell you why I believe it is no way to live your life.
If I did whatever made me happy, I would sit around watching old episodes of All My Children and eating nothing but puffy cheetos and chocolate. Also throw in some Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse and Firefly and you have my complete happy experience. But wait, let’s add-on some Lois and Clark; the new Adventures of Superman and well you have just made my happiness meter go off the charts.
I do not do those things because I would end up being 800 pounds and after a while my brain would atrophy.
I do what is necessary, I hold down a full-time job, after all they don’t pay you to sit around looking for new pictures of Dean Cain on the internet. Oh, wait, is that a real job? I must check into that. I digress. I take care of a household, make sure the Irishman has his medicines and eats halfway decent and I shop. Now add radio personality, well, ok that makes me happy.
I would suggest everyone stop this notion that you have to be happy, pursue joy, peace, those are the things we should be pursuing. There are many things that give me great joy, helping someone fix their internet so they can talk to their family. That gives me joy, picking up my granddaughter every other Friday from school, gives me immense joy. Talking to my children, hearing that their lives are going well, gives me peace.
This week, your mission, if you so choose to accept it, will be to put aside the notion of happiness and instead understand what joy and peace are. Find things that make your soul peaceful, and gives you great joy. Understand that sometimes wanting the things that inspire happiness are a little selfish, perhaps if the rest of the world set aside doing things that make them happy and focus on others then the world might just improve a little.
Dream State
Ok, so, on Monday night I got no sleep, it wasn’t that I couldn’t sleep, I could sleep, however when I would fall asleep I was having the strangest dreams.
I was dreaming the apocalypse was upon us, in all dreams that was the recurring theme. So in dream number 1 the end is imminent, Jess calls me and says “listen, the apocalypse is coming and I need to run some errands, come over here and watch my dog.” So of course, being the good friend that I am, I go to his house to watch his dog. Now this is no ordinary dog, it is huge, pure white with green eyes. While Jess is gone on his end of the world errands it begins to rain, rain is too mild a word, it was torrential. The dog runs out and will not come back in, I have to go out and get soaked trying to get this beast back in the house. I wake up before I can convince that animal to come back in.
Dream b, it is the end of the world, I decide I am going to Bonham, so I tell the Irishman “listen, it’s the end of the world you go find your kids and be with them I am going to Bonham.” So I load up the car with canned goods, blankets, pillows and my shoe collection. Oh and dog food, I put Nacona in the car and we go to McKinney and get Jeffrey, Alex and Tessa. Off to Bonham we go, the roads are congested and it takes us over two hours to get there.
When we get there I tell Elizabeth I am taking the bedroom off of the kitchen and Tess decides she wants to stay with Gigi. Then I inform Elizabeth Anne I hate the outdoors so I will do all of the cooking. I wake up at that point, I guess we were going to live off of pancakes. I don’t know what my great cooking plan was, these dreams were so weird. I think I am watching too many shows about the end of civilization as we know it. Reading too many books about it, I don’t know, but I know last night I slept and don’t remember anything I dreamed about, so it is all good today.
Anger at Starbucks
Yesterday not as bad as what the news sources predicted, as a matter of fact I only know of one person in our office who got a call about the DNS outage. Not too shabby.
Today is my Friday, I am so happy, last week was tough working 5 days in a row, I don’t think I can go back to that. I think I need to stay with the 4 days a week, I seriously don’t notice that the days are 10 hours in length. Maybe because I am getting off at a decent hour, not 11pm at night. I could not do that, I would be asleep under my desk by 10 pm, not good at all. So I will stick with morning start times as long as it is an option for me.
Tessa is coming to spend the night tonight, she is eager to see the Irishman’s girls, she adores them and they have been gone. I promised her as soon as they got back she could come and see them.
Has anyone ever been to a psychic? I want to go and have someone tell me what my future is, that way I can avoid all mistakes. I will know where I am going and how long the journey will be, ok I already know the last part. I don’t think I would like to talk to one of those people that can talk to dead people. That would freak me out, I want to know that my loved ones are in heaven having a great time, not watching what goes on down here. For the most part I think it would make them sad, seeing all of the heartache and the mistakes that we make. I also do not want to think of myself as staying here, I want to know that there is something so amazing on the other side of life. A place where I can eat all of the chocolate I want to without the pesky weight concerns, where there is a Starbucks on every corner, oh wait that part is here, ok, where there is free Starbucks on every corner.
Oh speaking of Starbucks, I am angry with them, I have not gotten the last two free drinks I have earned. I have not received my cards, that is not right, I earned those drinks. I buy a lot from you Starbucks, why have you forsaken me in my time of caffeine need? I don’t understand, we had such a great relationship, we had an understanding. I give you money, you give me caffeine filled coffee treats. I buy so many I get a freebie, it has worked well all this time and now you have abandoned me. I am saddened by this disloyalty and complete disregard for my fragile emotional state. When it comes to you Starbucks I am completely loyal, I could go to the McDonald’s across the way, get coffee, they have a mighty fine cup of Joe over there. But no, I stay loyal, I am just asking for you to stay loyal to me in return.
Late Day and Weird Dreams
Well, this is a late post, I am writing on my first break at work, you see my alarm clock did not, well, sound the alarm. In fact my alarm was turned off, I have no memory of doing that, crazy. So I woke up at 5:03, when I usually wake up at 4:00, I was over an hour late. Thank goodness I have my coffeemaker programmed and had done the prep work the night before. I jumped in the shower, hair in a ponytail, makeup on, coffee in a to go container.
But I made it! I was here not only on time but 3 minutes early, thrilled with that!
I had a horrible dream last night, woke up angry with the Irishman for what he did in my dream. I may stay that way all day, don’t know yet. Will keep you updated. Also in the dream, my friend Kat and I were walking Nocona, and we met another friend of ours, and we look down and she is walking a prehistoric beast. And her feet were claws, not like cat claws, which would have been kinda cool. But more like bird talons, it was weird, so now I am wondering if the dream has any meaning. Or if I am just going insane, that is a totally viable option in my world.
We are having a celebration at work today, our supervisor is going to cook out, we voted for burgers and we all pitched in funds to get the food. It should be a fun-filled day.
Spoke to Jeffrey yesterday, we will be celebrating Tessa’s birthday on Sunday, her actual birthday is Monday. She will be 5 years old, I am so amazed at how the time has flown. I remember when she was born, she is growing so fast, and her personality is so amazing, she is smart and funny and completely gorgeous.
I will sign off for now, I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday.
Productivity
I have just finished re-reading a book that I have read once a year every year for the past 15 years. It is The Eight by Katherine Neville, it is a book that combines mysticism, Fibonacci numbers, chess and intrigue all rolled together with high adventure. When I read it, I can actually feel the hot sand of the Algiers, the intrigue of Egypt and I can feel the boat swaying under me as the heroine of the story solves the mystery and saves lives. It is a great read and I highly recommend it. Well written, not like the popular trash that passes as literature today. Please tell me that you all have stopped buying that drivel, the waste of perfectly good trees, Shades of Grey nonsense. Just step back and buy something that was not written at a 3rd grade level, a pornographic 3rd grade level. Disturbing that this is a best seller.
Anyway, I have accomplished a lot in these past two days, the laundry is actually all caught up and it was clean sheet Saturday. All in all a good, productive day, I also had a great conversation with Thomas Alexander. Then later in the evening a call from Elizabeth Anne, consider my day complete.
Then the Irishman comes home and we watch Horrible Bosses together, that is a good ending to the day.
I am still working on my 4th of July homage to this great, amazing country, it is my fervent wish that we can keep it great long enough to elect a new leader. I don’t know how political I will get on here as election time nears. However those that know me, know that I am a political creature by nature, I just don’t like doing it here.
I have had great Starbucks coffee this morning, here at my humble abode, I even made a terrific, low-fat, unsweetened mocha frappicino. Yay me!
Unappreciation
Do you ever feel unappreciated? Like the things you do on a daily basis go unnoticed? The people around you just expect what you do, so they never say thank you? I feel that way at times, and yes now is one of those. I do all the laundry, for every person in this household, I vacuum, I sweep, mop, dust all cleaning, except sometimes the Irishman does the dishes. I do all the shopping, and I seriously hate grocery shopping. I know I sound incredibly whiny, however, since this is my outlet, I reserve the right to whine once in a while.
I wonder if what I do on a daily basis is noticed, I doubt it, no one says thank you, I am exhausted with it all. Oh well, as women we rarely get a thank you, maybe when I die, God will say well done.
Ok, enough, even I am done with me at this point, coffee was good this morning, I have already done a load of dishes in the dishwasher, three loads of laundry and I am just getting started.
I plan to be productive today, tomorrow I want to go see a movie, yes, it will be Magic Mike, with the Irishman working Friday through Monday, we have no weekend days together anymore. This coming Wednesday, July 4th, he and I both will be working, so this coming week we will not even have Wednesday off together. Oh well, it is what it is, we will have Tuesday and Thursday evening to watch tv and catch up.
So, that is it today, I am feeling unappreciated and am very busy doing the things that make me feel unappreciated.
Angie World 