Death

Two weeks ago my mothers mother passed away. She had been living in a nursing home for the last four and a half years in Ohio where I grew up. I was never close to her growing up or as an adult and I cannot remember the last time that I saw her. It was sometime after I was an adult but I cannot remember...I didn't even see her at my mom's funeral in 2004 because she was in the hospital. I felt bad the her time on earth was over but I didn't have allot of remorseful feelings beyond that.

I have been trying to remember any happy memories of her and I cannot draw any out. She was never that type of "doting" grandmother. I remember her going on vacation with us a child but I don't remember it being happy or fun.

The reason for this post is that I received some more bad news this morning. My sister called to tell me that her father had died in an accident this morning. My mom was married twice so my older sister and brother had a different father. I have been feeling remorseful all day about this...not for him necessarily but more for my sister. The was her last parent alive and she sounded so awful this morning on the phone. She was closer to my grandmother than I was so I know that her death effected her more than me and now her dad is gone so suddenly. It has not been a good November for our family.

Her father has a morning paper route and he was driving it on a county highway this morning with one of his grandchildren and he went left of center and he had a head on collision. The grandchild walked away uninjured but not him. This is the link to the online newspaper article about the accident.

http://www.sent-trib.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8481&Itemid=81

Thankfulness on Thanksgiving

I know it is a cliche but I thought since today is Thanksgiving that I would put together a list of things that I am thankful for.

Mickey - my old geriatric cat (he is now a robust 15)

IPOD – I have been able to ingest music and podcasts much more easily with this great tool


Amazon Kindle – I know we still have paper books…but I love this little gadget. It also provides me with instant gratification of any book I might want to read.


DVR – Hurray to not being a slave to network TV times.


Friends with Similar Interests – Having the opportunity to see so many cultural events this year with a variety of friends has been great. It wasn’t that long ago that I had to cajole uninterested parties to these events.


Owning my own house – I am still amazed that I accomplished that task.

Seeing my family on the holidays - I feel like this needed to be on the list.....I had a nice visit with Traci today while we drove to Ohio

IPOD

OK...I know...I know...you have herd enough stories about my IPOD...but it is so precious to me...So I was adding more podcasts to listen to on my trip to Ohio and something horrible happened....I ran out of space (I am aware that this was a long, run on sentence). I never imagined that this would happen to me, I have a 30G. When I purchased the IPOD two years ago (September 22, 2006...This was an important day for me), I thought that my capacity had way exceeded my need. How could I be more wrong. I guess housing all of my music, photos, multiple podcasts and a couple movies taxes the memory card. So now I have to be more discriminating on my content. I can't just download any old item. If I really didn't care about my money I would buy another unit with tons more space...but my frugal nature will not allow me the luxury. I will just have to live with the full 30G unit.

If only I were rich! Or less concerned with the balance on my credit cards...If I was really concerned with the balance I would not be taking a trip to Europe next year.

Couch Antics

On Sunday night I was doing some work on my laptop that involved a large amount of numerical data entry. This is a difficult task on a laptop because the numbers are above the letters. I have a wireless ten key attachment for such occasions so I decided to get up and get it to make the work easier. The ten key attachment was where I left it on the top of my dresser but the piece that plugs into the USB port was missing. You can’t use it without this piece so I began my search. I looked all over the top of the dresser, behind the dresser and in the dresser drawers. It was no where to be found. I got on the floor and looked under the bed and around the garbage can…then under the couch. It just wasn’t where I left it. I have to say that I usually don’t loose things…it is easier to not loose things since there are not any children that live at my house.

I was getting mad! I then decided to look on the couch and under the couch cushions that are in my room. Sparks was sitting on the couch so I gingerly lifted up the cushion he was sitting on to peak under it and I was disgusted. There was a ton of crap under the cushion. I couldn’t just ignore this mess so I disrupted Sparks and moved all of the cushions off of the couch. I found 10 pens….how could I loose 10 pens in the couch. I guess I just kept getting a new one. I found a pair of scissors…Whatever! I found berets and rubber bands and LOADS of crumbs. I put my hand in the side of the couch and I came back with a fistful of crumbs. How could there be so much food residue in the couch. I know I sit on it and eat…but REALLY I am an adult…I didn’t think that I spilled so much stuff. I got out the vacuum and gave the whole area a through cleaning. I honestly cannot remember the last time that I cleaned the inside of the couch. Probably when I moved into my house 4.5 years ago. I don’t think that I am a dirty person…I do spring cleaning stuff. Just a couple months ago I moved all of the furniture in my bedroom and vacuumed the baseboards. I guess I will have to add this to my cleaning repertoire.

The bad thing is I NEVER FOUND THE THING I WAS LOOKING FOR! The ten key attachment piece is gone. I guess the kitties have a secret hiding place for these items. Whatever! Hint Hint Hint…I might need a new one for Christmas ;)

Christmas Decorations

I decided to put up my outside Christmas decoration on Saturday. Lou came over with Wyatt, Sarah and Paige to help me. Since, I am too scared to climb up the ladder to the attic; we made that our first task. I have never gone up there and I don’t ever want to. I don’t think that I am afraid of heights but I know it would REALLY HURT to fall out of the attic. We brought down about ten boxes of inside and outside decorations, it seamed like a lot for one person. It has been three years since I have put up any decorations and it felt a bit like shopping because I had purchased some outside clearance items in the prior years that I have never hung up or used. Last year I was very stressed with school and I didn’t have the time, energy or the patience to make an effort. Then the year before that (2006) we decided to go to Florida for Christmas and I was also in school so I thought why bother, since I wasn’t going to be home anyway.

It was very cold on Saturday afternoon…when I looked at my temperature widget it said it was 27F degrees. I bundled up in a coat, scarf and gloves and tried to suck it up and not complain because it was nice to have help with this task. Lou had brought a glass of diet coke outside with him and it kept freezing over. I don’t think he was very happy about that. The children were surprising cheerful to help us with this task outside. I guess it was fun for them to hang out in the cold. I let the children place the lawn decorations…I think that they did a very good job.

I love driving home when it is dark and seeing my house all lit up and sparkling. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit.

Let me know what you think?
This is a little lit up tree in the yard.

The moving penguin.

Aren't the lit up gift boxes and candy cane's cute?

Lou was very proud of himself when he hung these lights.

I know it is fuzzy but it really shows off the colors.

I wonder if Joanne is having any trouble sleeping with all of the lights in the front yard since they are directly in front of her bedroom window.

Twilight

I went to see the new Twilight movie on Saturday afternoon and I was anticipating really loving the movie because of my great love of the books. I am sad to report that the movie just didn't have the same appeal for me as the book. I liked the actors that were picked for the movie. I feel that they represented what I had in my imagination for what the characters should look like...especially Bella. But the movie had a fair amount of cheese as well as a soap opera feel.

The thing that I liked best about the book was the romance between Edward and Bella...the movie just didn't capture this for me. I don't think that I ever saw the actress smile in the movie and she always looked so sad. My favorite scene in the book was when Edward took Bella to an open field to show her how her how his skin sparkles and just generally falling in love. This wasn't really in the movie. Then all of these things were punctuated by the fact that there were several young girls in the audience who were laughing, clapping and making comments in a boisterous manner in the theatre. It was very distracting.

Another thing that I didn't like was the visual aspects of the film. Much of it was in a very close up perspective to the actors. I wanted them to pull back a bit. Most of the time you could only see the actors faces on the screen...I just wanted to see more of the scene.

I feel like I would want to see the move again by myself at home, but it didn't capture the magic of the book in the way that the Harry Potter series has been so successful.

I am sad that I didn't like it more.

I pre bought the tickets online because I had herd lots of hype that there were extremely long lines for this film. I felt a bit ripped off because there was never a line and the theatre was only about half full. Then I overpaid for the tickets....it is $10.50 to buy them online. Shouldn't I have paid an afternoon rate for the movie??? It was at 4:10 in the afternoon.

Spike Heels

Friday night I met a friend for dinner and to see a play at the University of Indianapolis. We went to see Spike Heels by Theresa Rebeck.

This is the schools description of the play-

Studio Theatre
Pygmalion goes awry in this contemporary comedy which explores sex, power, and the possibility of a four sided love triangle. The combatants are a sexy, volatile young woman and three upscale Boston types: a writer, a lawyer and a fiancee in sensible shoes.

I really enjoyed this production. There were only four actors and they had great chemistry together. This was about a lower class girl trying to make something better of herself and how to deal with these two new men in her life and one of the men's finance. The F bomb was dropped practically every other word but it was fitting to the characters and story. Sometimes when I go to these productions at the school you never know what you are going to get. The first one this year, Into the Woods, was just awful. The acting was mediocre and the play itself left much to be desired. I am glad that Spike Heels was so much better. BTW...the lead actress wore five inch heels through much of the play....WOW...I am glad that wasn't me.

Speaking of shoes I had an interesting observation while I was people watching at the school. There was a group of about six girls together and they were all dressed alike in jeans and high heels of various bright colors. Is that the style now...am I missing something. I guess I NEVER wear heels when I wear jeans...to me it is either a sneaker or boot outfit.

Spock-Lizard Expansion

The Big Bang Theory

OK…This is my ultimate favorite TV show. I just love it. I laugh and laugh and laugh during the entire 22 minutes…my roommate frequently asks me what is so funny and why am I laughing so hard in my room. If you haven’t seen the show the premise is about two nerdy guys who are roommates and the funny nerdy things that they do while they try to live their life. Last nights episode was especially funny. Wolowitz picked up a girl in a bar and lured her away with the promise that she could drive a vehicle on Mars. Since he works at a Cal Tec he has access to this equipment and while he is entertaining her he drives the vehicle into a hole and it gets stuck. He asks his friend Leonard to take the girl home and when they get their they start to make out. This is very funny as Leonard is a very nerdy guy who has trouble with girls. The whole interaction was extremely humorous and amusing.

The secondary part of the show was there was some debate on a subject and the three guys decide to use rock, paper, scissors to make the decision. Sheldon come up with some reason that says they need to diversify the game and add two new throws into it…Spock and Lizard. It is now called rock, paper, scissors, lizard and Spock. I almost fell out of my bed laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Spock is signified by using the live-long and prosper gesture, and Lizard, fingers and thumb facing the opponent in a sock puppet gesture. The game is played like this…Rock beats both lizard and scissors, Scissors beats lizard and paper, Spock beats Rock and scissors, Paper beats rock and Spock, and Lizard beats Spock and Paper.

So maybe my explanation is not as funny as the original show but you must try it out! It is hilarious!

Amusing Website

I had a friend over on Saturday for some inexpensive hang out time and she was telling me about this funny feature on the Mary Kay website. Apparently, you can go on the website and upload a photo of your face and then apply virtual make-up to it. This was the most hysterical thing I have done in a long time. I laughed for such a long time while we were playing with it. You can be serious or you can be crazy...it is up to you.

When we started on the website we were trying to be serious and applied makeup that would look good on my friend...then I took over the mouse and it deteriorated from there. They allow you to apply all types of face make up and apply different hairstyles and colors. If you are looking for a color change this could become a useful tool.

I dare you to try it my friends, you could find some new colors for yourself or just be extremely amused. Your Choice!

Desk

Sunday I decided that I needed to sell the desk in my office at home because I never use it. I got this desk about six years ago free from work and I was happy that it was still in such good shape. I was glad to have it at the time but now that I have a laptop I never use it. It is just easier to use the laptop while I am sitting in bed or in the kitchen. Sitting in my home office seems so stuffy and I really want to redecorate that room to become a library with built in bookshelves. Maybe one day when I don't travel so much I can save my dollars.

So, I put an add on craigslist and had a few responses right away. I listed it for $30 and the person didn't even try to negotiate. I was very excited. She came over today and it was a bit of a debacle. The large portion of the desk just wouldn't fit through the door. We tried it several times but we couldn't get it out. We (and by we I mean the lady that I sold it to) decided to take the door off of it's hinges. Theoretically, it should take some light tapping from the hammer to remove the pin. This wasn't my case. They were really wedged in. We just couldn't remove the last one. We ended up unscrewing the hinges. I guess this should have been our first action...but you know hindsight.

I was surprised that the lady was willing to go to all of the trouble for the desk. I hope she enjoys it at home.

Wish me good luck on my next batch of craigslist castoffs!

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

I had a friend expose me to some culture yesterday that I may have never seen otherwise. She had received a free ticket to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and asked me to go with her about a month ago. I said yes with no prior knowledge of what it was about. I just let her plan the evening and I showed up at our designated coordinates yesterday at 6pm. I wore jeans and a sweater and I felt a bit under-dressed when I arrived. We got to the box office and it was still necessary to buy the second ticket as we only have one free ticket. My friend was kind enough to share the discount with me so we each split the price of the one ticket. I am glad that she did because they were pricey…$50 each. So I only spent $25, which is my limit on a ticket because I like to go and do so many things.

The event that she chose was called “A Taste of New Orleans” and it had a special guest Trumpet player and vocalist, his name is Byron Stripling. Not being familiar with Jazz music his name means nothing to me and I am not aware if he is famous. I have to say I really enjoyed the show. I am glad that she invited me and found something interesting for us to do. I love to participate in the arts but I have never been interested in the symphony. It always sounded stuffy to me. BTW…the demographic of the audience was way way into my future. We were not part of the cool crowd there.

As we sat down I thought it might be a bit boring to watch people play music on the stage, but it wasn’t. The show was two hours long and it included a twenty minute intermission and I hardly looked at my watch during the event. I enjoyed the exposure to music that I don’t normally listen to and hearing it in a different way. I am looking forward to future events with the symphony. If only someone knows a cheaper way to procure tickets…please let me know????

A Taste of New OrleansFriday, November 7, 8pm Saturday, November 8, 8pmSunday, November 9, 7pmJeff Tyzik, Conductor Byron Stripling, Trumpet and Vocalist

http://www.indianapolissymphony.org/

Dreams

I went with my brother Lou yesterday when he was able to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams. He bought his first BMW. He has dreamed of owning a BMW since he was a little kid. He used to talk about it all of the time. He always had this goal to buy one on his 30th birthday. He didn't make that goal. So he finally found the right deal for him and we had to drive to Merriville, IN to make the purchase. They had exactly what he was looking for.

As a side note...if you look to the right of this photo...there is my new roommate.

I don't especially care about cars. I like my current car more than any other car I have owned in my lifetime. But, I really don't think about it much. Doing this with him made me think about what my lifelong dreams are and what they were in the past.

My first dream was taking a trip to Europe. As a kid growing up in poverty I never thought that it was an obtainable goal. I just thought I would never make it to Europe. Then one day in 1999 my friend Andrea told me about this Au Pair program that she was going to apply to. She wanted to spend her summer in France and thought that this would be a cheap way to do it. My brain immediately began to churn and think of a way to make that happen for myself. So I shamelessly copied her idea and set things in motion to be an Au Pair in England. After all I only spoke English. After working two jobs, going to school full time at night, being disciplined, and getting an unexpected $2000 bonus at work I managed to set things up so I could move to England in May of 2000.

I was set to live with a family in Seven Oaks which was a rich neighborhood outside of London. Being an Au Pair was not what I expected so I only managed to stay with the family for five weeks. Then I went on another five week adventure traveling around the rest of Europe by myself. I was so happy to be able to realize a lifelong dream.

My second lifelong dream was to own my own home. It was a great day when I was able to achieve this goal. Just two years after graduating from college I was in a position to purchase my own home. Just like the trip to Europe I never ever thought I would be able to own a home. I grew up in a family where people did not live in homes. We lived in a mobile home and so did most of my friends. In my head I thought that you had so be sooooo rich to buy a house. As a teenager I never realized that utilizing a great amount of determination I could make things happen for myself.

So now I am thinking about what is my next dream. I have a different perception and view of the world now than I did as a teenager. I know with hard work I can make most things happen for myself. I feel like most things are obtainable except one thing. Loosing Weight! I have never been able to achieve this goal. I am not sure what I need to do to fix my head to make this happen. However, it is still a goal in progress.

So my friends, what are your goals. Is there still something you want to achieve in you life?

Goonies

Do you remember the old 1985 movie Goonies? Well I do and I went to see it last night. The movie theatre on 96th Street and I-69 recently had a series of eight classic 1980’s movies on Wednesday nights at 8pm for the barging price of $5.00. I was trying to think back to when I went to the movies when I was in Junior High and High School and I cannot remember how much I paid. Was it comparable to the $5.00. The only memory I have is my mom giving me $10 on Friday nights and dropping me off at the mall with my friends. It seamed to be enough to eat, play some video games (because that is where the boys would hang out) and watch a movie. I remember it was even relatively easy to sneak into the rated R movies.

I enjoyed seeing Goonies again last night. I know that I saw it several times when I was a teenager but I don’t remember the last time I watched it on TV. It was funny. I laughed out loud through most of the movie and little Sean Austin was so cute. I don’t think Corey Feldman was very attractive, he had a pale and pasty face, although, his redeeming quality was wearing a Prince Purple Rain T-Shirt the entire show. The sad part was he was also wearing a jeans jacket that obscured most of the shirt front.

I was surprised when we entered the theatre that it was so full of people. I would guess that they had about a 75% occupancy. That is pretty good for a 20+ year old movie. When I commented to my friend who joined me about the large attendance she said, “Candy don’t you know that there are a lot of nerds in Indianapolis”. I guess she is right and it also puts me in that category.

Last week they played the original Indiana Jones Movie. I had the opportunity to see that as well. Even though the picture quality might be better at home on my HDTV, there is still something special about being in the movie theatre. Before the movie started the announced that they were going do a series of 80’s movies again in February. Please remember that I am a nerd when I ask you to go.

Halloween Fun

Halloween is my favorite holiday each year. I enjoy seeing other people’s costumes and going trick-or-treating with the children. Each year my company celebrates Halloween by allowing the employees to decorate their departments, dress up and then to trick-or-treating around the building. People with children are allowed to bring them in to partake in the fun. After trick-or-treating ends in the morning the festivities end with a company sponsored lunch in our café. We had sloppy joes, hot dogs, mac and cheese and cake. I don’t think we had health in mind when these choices were made. This is the second year that I have been with my company and it is always great fun.

This year our department decided upon a theme of the sixties. We could dress up as hippies and then we decorated our department with hippy items (no not the illegal kind). Two people had several original items from the sixties, like posters and old Life magazines and we displayed them along our filing cabinet wall. I was challenged with taking these two large cardboard bus cutouts, which were used several years ago for the publishers clearing house theme, to make them into hippy buses. I was excited but scared about this challenge. I think that I am a creative person but not in a crafty way. I never make stuff…I have very little patience to finish these types of projects. But I went shopping at three different stores to get the needed supplies and tackled the project on the Sunday before Halloween. My new roommate was home and she was gracious (and excited) enough to help me. What to you think? I think they turned out pretty good. I was very proud of myself for finishing this project.

I also made my costume. I used the same fabric paints and stencil that I used for the bus to make the flowers on my shirt. I tasked JoAnne with writing the sayings. My handwriting is not very good, I think that I missed that lesson at school. I then bought some flower patches at Michaels and ironed them to my pants. Just so you know they are permanently attached to my pants…and I will continue to wear them. Then Joanne suggested a flower ring for my head. I went to Michaels again and picked up some silk flowers and the greenery and I came home and cut up the flowers and taped them to the greenery. Then I added long ribbons to the back. I am very proud of my entire costume as I don’t usually make this much effort each year. But it was fun and if I wasn’t on a coke and caffeine withdraw I probable would have enjoyed it more.

I have included some photos of our department. What do you think?

MY FRIEND COKE

Last week I decided in my endeavor to loose weight and to become healthier that I would give up all forms of pop. A few months ago I gave up artificial sweetener and that has gone well but I had noticed a gain of about 7lbs in the last few months due to the extra sugar in my diet. Today I think I am finally past the withdraw symptoms. The first day was last Thursday and I was ok the entire day but I don’t think that my body realized what I was going to do to it.

Then Friday was here. BAM! I could hardly do anything all day. My brain wouldn’t focus and I was unable to concentrate. I tried to compensate by eating loads of Halloween candy but it didn’t seem to have the same effect. Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year and I felt like I was just going through the motions all day. I had plans to meet my brother to go trick-or-treating with him and all of the kids, but I just didn’t feel much enthusiasm the entire night. I just wanted to stop moving and sit!

Saturday was better and I took a long hike again at Fort Ben but I still lagged on energy the rest of the day. Sunday was more of the same.

BUT TODAY IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!! I feel more like my normal self. I am able to sit and concentrate for my normal amount of time (on a normal basis this isn’t long to begin with). I am not having any residual headaches or blah feelings. Maybe I made it past the COKE addiction. Only time will tell.

Is it cheating if I buy carbonated water and add flavoring to it…ie…cool aid mix ins or fruit?