33tekfan’s Weblog

I have been among the missing for awhile. 

We were on vacation last week and work was crazy this week!  Sometimes working from home takes up more hours than if I just went into the office!

So here is a bullet post.

• We rented a big-ass dumpster the week we were on vacation and filled the ENTIRE thing!  We are still waiting for the total bill.
• When planning a trip to Sam’s, it is helpful for one of us to have a Margarita or seven before we go.  If I have the Margaritas, then I don’t care that we walk up and down every single aisle and I don’t bitch.  If the Postman has the Margaritas then he doesn’t care if I am bitching.  This has worked twice for us so far.
• I am typing this on my brand new fancy schmancy Toshiba laptop.  It has taken me about 47 million hours because I keep hitting keys that take me to weird places on the page.  Technologically sound I am not.  I am also prone to exaggeration.
• I have done something to my neck and it is hurting like crazy!  I should take something and try to lay down, but I am too enthralled with my new laptop.  Plus laying (lying?  I never get that one right) down really makes it hurt more.

That’s it for now.  I’ll be back soon (er)!

No man needs a vacation so much as the person who just had one. ~ Elbert Hubbard

Last night I was convinced I was either hallucinating or there were aliens tracking my every move via my dog.

I was very restless after going to bed so I was about to get up and use the bathroom, get a drink of water, flip my pillow to the cool side…but as I was rolling over and opening my eyes I saw a flash of light in our bedroom. I reached for my glasses (because I am blind as a bat without them)…took a look around the room, looked out the window and saw nothing. Except out of the corner of my eye - another flash.

WTF?

I got back in bed, and contemplated my next move. This is the point at which I thought I might be hallucinating. I have been fighting a migraine for a couple of days, and I had taken two pain pills over the course of the last two days. Since we have a habit of overmedicating here at Casa Crazy, I thought maybe I had overdone the pain pills. 

As the flashes continued, I tried to pinpoint where they were coming from.  I realized one was RIGHT NEXT TO ME ON THE BED.  Except…it seemed to be coming from under the covers…where the Hairless Chinese Crested sleeps.  (Yeah…he sleeps with us, under the covers…all the dogs sleep with us because we’re idiots and they are spoiled.  Don’t judge.  He’s the only one who sleeps under the covers because, well, he has no hair.)  So anyway…the dog is flashing.  Aliens have planted a tracking device in our dog - which, if you’ve seen him IRL, makes PERFECT sense and explains a lot.

Did I mention I haven’t been sleeping well AND I’ve been fighting a migraine?  It’s time to call in the big guns.

Me:  Honey, are you awake?  (Shaking him just in case he isn’t…)

P-Man:  What?  What’s wrong?  What is it?

Me:  There’s lights flashing in our room.

P-Man:  Huh?

Me:  Flashes. Of. Lights. In. Our. Room.  Just wait - you’ll see one.

Cricket, cricket, cricket.

Me:  There!  Did you see that?  And here!  On our bed - another one!

Him: Yeah.  (He reaches over for the light now)

Him:  It’s a lightning bug.

Me:  No.  No it isn’t.  It wasn’t just in one spot.  Except for the one under the covers which is clearly an implanted tracking device.

Him:  No, it’s lightning bugs.  (As he reached out and traps one that is flying by…and turns back the covers to reveal the one on the back of the dog….)

Me:  Oh.  Um.  Well.  Look at that!  Lightning bugs!  Heh heh heh.  Um…sorry for waking you up for that.

Him:  Goodnight honey.

I am such a loser.

Light comes to us unexpectedly and obliquely.  Perhaps it amuses the gods to try us.  They want to see whether we are asleep.  ~H.M. Tomlinson

I covet this:

It’s a Kindle.  Go here to check it out.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.  ~Oscar Wilde

So I am JUST NOW in my laundry room (at 8:45PM), which also doubles as our side entry, when I hear a tap, tap, tap at the door.  Great.  The light is on, and just the screen door is open at the moment.  Someone is obviously at home.

It was a kid - maybe 18 or 19.  He is on some sort of scholarship  donation quest - improving his public speaking and finding out what people do for jobs so that he is MOTIVATED for next year - and “oh yeah, would you like to contribute?”.  I practically had to push this kid off my doorstep after I said “no thank you, but good luck” and he continued talking and trying to get me to donate.  Clearly his approach was just to keep talking until I paid him to go away.  Or pushed him off my doorstep.  I didn’t push him, but I DID walk in the house and close the door.  Look, I’m patient ONCE.  Don’t press your luck with me.

I cannot stand people who come to my door to solicit.  Be it scholarships, sales, or churches.  I did not ask you to come here and try to solicit money or anything else from me.  If I want to donate to a cause, I will do so.  One that I’ve researched and feel compelled to give to - not just some random organization that some kid standing on my doorstep - with no documentation - tells me to.  If I want new windows, frozen food, steaks, or a new pool (::snicker:: that makes it seem like we even have an OLD pool)…I will buy it when I want to and when I’m ready - not because someone has appeared on my doorstep to persuade me to do so.

And don’t even get me started on the church thing.  I am not religious, although I was raised Catholic.  I feel I lead a good life and organized religion just doesn’t hold a place in my life right now.  Might that change?  Who knows…never say never.  On average, we get at least one visit a week from members of local (and maybe not so local) churches.  You know what I do?  I hide.  And I let the dogs bark at the door like the little balls of fluff  mad guard dogs that they are.  So I get the little brochures tucked into my door for me to find later.   I am probably on the fast track to hell.

So does that even work?  Really?  How many people drop whatever it is they are doing at the moment said sales/scholarship/religious person show up at their doorstep and proclaim “THANK YOU!  I HAVE JUST BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, OH SWEET STEAK SALESMAN!  How happy I am that you are finally here and I don’t have to trek three miles to that pesky grocery store.  I hope the baked potato salesman shows up soon.”  

I know I may have offended since I threw the religious card in.  Please don’t take it personally.  I am way cool with religion - it’s just not for me at this point in life.  They probably annoy me because of that lingering Catholic guilt that screams in my head “you should go to church (and take your children) you heathen!” - and they give it an external voice when they show up.

There are no facts, only interpretations.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I need to write today, but I can’t wrap my head around what I want to say quite yet.  There are problems in school/baseball, the boys aren’t getting along.  It’s the end of the year - 3 1/2 days left - and we’re just trying to make it through to summer.  Everyone just needs a break I think.

So, instead, a Thursday thirteen for you.

Thirteen of my favorite songs:

1.  Colorful (Steel Dragon) - I’m a sucker for sappy lyrics.  “You are more beautiful when you awake than most are in a lifetime”

2.  Faithfully (Journey) - This song reminds me of my friend, Drummer Boy.  I don’t know why…I don’t remember what connects the two.  But I smile when I hear it.  Drummer Boy and I listened to the entire Rush 2112 album one night and he explained the entire story to me as we listened.  Still not a big Rush fan though.  Sorry, DB!

3.  Canon in D (Pachelbel) - I heard my grandfather practice this piece repeatedly one summer in preparation for a wedding.  I was probably 10 or 12 and I decided that I wanted him to play that at MY wedding.  He did, and it was beautiful.  I think of him every time I hear it. 

4.  In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel) - I know.  Juvenile.  But I loved all those 80’s teen flicks and the image of Lloyd standing outside with the boom box over his head playing this song for Diane?  Gets me every time.

5.  Anything by Dave Matthews Band - The soundtrack for the movie we saw in the Omni Theater on the Boston field trip was by them.  I was thrilled and frankly, it made the whole movie about the river MUCH more interesting!

6.  Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) - Early on in our relationship I asked the Postman what his favorite song was.  Ever the slick one, he replied “whatever song is playing the first time we make love.”  After a little more prodding, he decided on this one.  I’ll be damned if it didn’t play the first time…which made us both laugh, and I think that’s when the deal closed.   So I have to add it to my favorites, don’t you think?

7.  You Are the Love of My Life (Jim Brickman and Michael W. Smith) - The Postman sent this to my e-mail once - just the link to the song - when we were going through a rough patch.  Now it makes me cry.  Good tears.

8.  Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond) - What can I say?  I’m a Sox fan.

9.  Crazy Train (Ozzy) - My son LOVED this song when he was a toddler.  I’m not even sure how or when he first heard it, but I think of that little baby voice singing what he thought the words were.

10.  Photograph (Def Leppard) - I’m an 80’s girl.  “I wanna touch you!”

11.  Shakin’ (Eddie Money) - There’s a definite 80’s vibe going on in this list, isn’t there?  Who can listen to this song and not move? 

12.  Classical Guitar (Eric Clapton) - Not much to say about this one except I think it’s beautiful.

13.  December 1963 (Oh, What A Night) (Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons) - Again, who can hear this and not move and sing?  It’s FUN!

That’s it folks.  Happy Thursday!

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo
 

Tomorrow is the 6th grade Boston trip.  Complete with a tour of Fenway!  The Diva and I will be up at 4:00AM for a 5:30 departure, and back home at 10:00PM tomorrow night.

Details to follow!

I pulled out my old yearbooks today.  I was not looking for them, but as I am prone to distraction, there I was sitting on the bed flipping through all my high school memories.  Holy feathered hair.

I got a wee bit melancholy.  Looking at those old pictures, I could remember some of the events vividly.  My heart skipped a beat and I slightly caught my breath as I longed  to go back to that point in time.  Then I came to my senses.  Of course there is no going back…and even if there was, I don’t know that I would take the opportunity.  I think about how I would do things differently and make different choices, but since I believe every choice affects every future choice, where would I be now if I had done things differently? 

 It’s interesting to ponder but dangerous to spend too much time on, because then it’s too easy to get lost in what might have been instead of what IS.  It’s about living in the moment, being  present in the moment.

I read “The Secret” not long ago.  As I was reading it, and especially at the end, all I kept thinking was “Duh!”  There was nothing earth shatteringly “secret” in there for me.  The energy you put out is what you get back.  Call it Karma, or the Universe at work. 

So although it was fun to reminisce, I do not feel that tinge of longing for the good ol’ days…because that negates the here and now.  And this is where I’m supposed to be.

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment.  And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new.  Right now.  ~Author Unknown

This is the Captain being hit by a pitch - AGAIN!  I really need to teach that kid to duck!  This time it was on the back part of his arm, near his shoulder.  It was actually warm to the touch after it happened.  So he took his base - and stole second again.  After being hit, his team rallied and ended up winning 14-12.  His coach gave him a game ball for “Taking one for the team”. 

I had a really nice Mother’s Day.  The Diva painted a plant pot for me and The Captain made me a very cool glass trivet. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.  ~Lisa Alther

One hoodie, one fleece coat, a scarf, gloves, and a fleece blanket.

For baseball outside on the first day of May.

O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dear Dunkin’ Donuts,

One hour and 5 minutes for 3 bagel sandwiches is highly unreasonable.  I understand you run out of things sometimes - although on a Sunday morning?  Really?  You couldn’t predict you’d be busy on a Sunday morning at 10:00AM?  Ok…I’ll drive to the OTHER Dunkin’ Donuts in town.  Except, well even though they weren’t out of anything, they weren’t especially speedy.  Customer Service doesn’t seem to be a priority for you so as much as I love your product, I think you’ll find me at Tim Horton’s from now on.

Sincerely,

A disgruntled customer

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Dear Target,

I didn’t mean to shop lift.  Truly, I didn’t.  The fact that I’ve spent about $150 at your store in the last several days should indicate that I didn’t mean to walk out without paying for the $1.49 shoelaces.

I must have been holding them in the same hand as my keys, and when I needed both hands to help my son pick out a new baseball glove I put my keys - and the laces - in my pocket.  When we got home, I was mortified to find them when I reached into my pocket.

The thing is?  I live 40 minutes away from you.  At $3.57 a gallon, driving back to pay for the laces seems somewhat absurd.  But I believe in karma, so what I’m going to do is make an extra charitable donation this month.  Deal?  Good.  Thanks for understanding.

Sincerely,

A most apologetic customer (who loves Target WAY more than Wal-hell*)

*Stolen Borrowed from Morgan.

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Dear Postman,

You rock.  Thank you for putting together the Captain’s pitch back, and tightly strapping his new glove.  I spent 5 years doing all of that by myself (not always with great results!) and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it when you help my kids with things like that.  I know they appreciate it, too.

I love you more,

Me

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Dear Captain and Diva,

I missed you!  I am glad you had a nice time with your dad, but I am also glad you are home! 

Love you lots,

Mom

To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.  ~Phyllis Theroux