bitterdiva

Christmas story

An amusing story from my Christmas.

Waking up early in the morning to get a start on baking breads, gathering the ingredients for string bean casserole I wandered off into the kitchen. I brought out all the stuff I needed for cranberry and lemon poppy seed bread and during the gathering of the casserole I realized that I was missing one.

I had gone shopping earlier in the week and was adamant about purchasing cream of mushroom soup and remember putting a can into my basket. I searched all the cabinets in the kitchen three times in total disbelief of my stupidity and the only thing that could have occured was that I purchased cream of chicken soup instead of CoM soup. I needed to go out to a store and find the renegade component.

Here's a big difference between Connecticut and New York. During holidays, such as Christmas, markets are open for a marginal period of time in Connecticut. Under this assumption, I got in my car and began my search. Ghetto Chopper on Madison Ave was closed; likewise Westgate Chopper along with the Hannaford. I began to freak out, seeing that my car was low on gas I stopped at the gas station which was open, fortune smiled down upon me.

Knowing that the station was a mini-convenience store, I popped in to check if perchance they had soup. They did, and they only had one can of cream of mushroom soup. I grabbed two crumbcakes for Pat and Kris and my can of soup, opening up my wallet I discovered that I forgot to put my pile of cash in it. After hitting up the ATM there, I laid my bounty on the counter.

The alternateen cashier was somewhat on the mopey side but warmed up to me after I had told her the store was my saving grace for christmas dinner. The cashier looks down at my two cakes and can of soup, looks back at me, and says, "oh honey that just ain't right, at least go to a diner or something." I didn't want to tell her that what I laid on the counter wasn't actually my dinner, but hey, at least she feels a bit better about her christmas than mine.

No prayers | 08:40 AM

Geek chic-k

I registered for another semester of torturous classes today. I'll be taking Advanced Web Design primarily focusing on Javascript, cookies, and DOM, oh my! To compensate for my geek-i-tude, I signed up for an equally geekesque class, Medieval History. I have been wanting to take this class for 3 years now and I am finally getting around to it, probably because I've exhausted all the English classes and art classes until next year.

I find that as a Libra I need balance, so I need to take a fine artsy fartsy or humanities class to cancel out the geek science/tech classes. Or in other words, cheese class with flambé class. Each semester I get all turned around about my path in career and hobbies. I'm decent at web design, bitchin with photoshop, mediocre with a camera, and sometimes extraordinary with writing. Perhaps this time around I'll be fully convinced that my calling in life was to be a wench in a dimly lit grogshop quick with some wit and quicker with knives.

4 prayers | 01:03 PM

Scentsational

Saturday I spent in South Deerfield, MA with my mother and sister, aunt and cousin. We went to the "big" Yankee candle sale after xmas. Typically the sale lasts one week and has mega reduced bargains, but this year it was for 3 days and the sale was not so intense. I've been looking forward to this trip for several weeks now because if anyone knows me, they know that I am my mom's daughter and could put a church to shame with all the candley goodness in the apartment.

When we arrived, at 10 in the morning, my mom said, "we made great time" - her typical excited statement when she has the itinerary planned down to the minute. Wake up 6:45, shower, dress, leave house no later than 7:30; get to Dunkin' Donuts 7:35; meet up with aunt & cousin 8:00; leave and arrive in S. Deerfield 10:00. My mother's a wack when it comes to driving and arriving on time - she believes in getting on the road on the ass crack of dawn to get the shopping on before the hoards (and there was hoards) of people infiltrate the store and make it impossible to find the good deals.

When we entered the store, we got a flyer with all the sales for seasonal scents and discontinued scents. I saw on the list that sunflower, one of my favorite Yankee scents is going to be discontinued. I love their candles, but this company loves to torture me with discontinuing the fragrances that I buy. The next thing I know is that they'll cancel MacIntosh or Midsummer Night. It's bad enough that they gave patchouli the old heave-ho, now I have to suffer future years to come without sunflower? So I stocked up, and probably will again.

Speaking of discontinued patchouli candle, we were searching for Mistletoe in Hallmark because we got word they were doing 50% off rather than Yankee's 33%. I am searching with my mom for the scent when what is staring right at me? The Chernobyl size jar of patchouli - this store must have had the last known jar of patchouli in the tri-state area. My mom turns to me and said, "oh, yeah, I bought you one of those." So now I have the Chernobyl jar and the middle-sized jar of patchouli. It was an xmas miracle.

3 prayers | 10:54 PM

Happy Birthday Patsy!

Since you share your birthday with this lovely lass, this picture is more than appropriate.

4 prayers | 08:54 AM

Oh the weather outside...

is absolutely horrific that's why I'm cleaning my room. It's extremely nice not to have to think, or work on final projects, or worry about goofing off and not doing final projects.

Last evening Kris and I went to Colonie Center and we ran into a slew of people, one of my coworkers, Kris' family, and an ex-coworker of his. I'm still amazed that a. Kris requested a mall trip, b. Kris went to a mall, and c. Kris held up for the four hours we were shopping. I was able to get some stocking stuffer's for my secret stocking family member and he was able to finish up the xmas shopping.

Normally, I'm in a good mood when it comes to shopping but this year I'm stressed out because I have a looming $800 tuition bill that's due first or second week of January. I was supposed to put $200 of this paycheck into the account but I've spent it on xmas presents and groceries. A trip to the market is at least $20 and I've gone two or three times this week. Next week, I have rent and car insurance to pay for along with finishing up my xmas shopping. Supposedly I'm also to put $400 of my check into the tuition account since I already spent this week's $200. It's just unnerving sometimes. I think that I'm getting ahead and I keep not being able to save any money.

What I need for Christmas is to win the lotto, I'm not talking about a multi-million dollar prize, I'm talking about $100,000 after taxes. Enough to pay off all my useless college loans and credit card debt. After that, I would be living comfortably with my current salary. It's frightening to think I'm worth more dead than I am alive - don't get any fun ideas though it'll all be seized to pay off my debts.

It's snowing outside, it's absolutely beautiful in its pure unadulterated form. It makes me thankful for the warm apartment I live in, for the safety of my family, for my friends, for my cats that curl up warmly on my bed. I worry about the unfortunate people that have no homes, no family, no where to go when it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. This Christmas when you're opening presents around your family and friends inside your nice homes take a moment to think about those in the world that don't have the luxury of bitching about which PS2 game you failed to receive. Think about those individuals that drink from a stream littered with garbage and polluted with various diseases. Think how if you drank from that stream, your life expectancy would be half what it is and how right now you could be a rotting corpse.

Just a little happy thought on your snowy Sunday.

1 prayer | 04:23 PM

Finally final project

Well, my project is done, it's a lesser version of what I want but thankfully I have some kind of story to present. So here it is: Final Project

5 prayers | 04:58 PM

How I spent this weekend

I spent the fun of my weekend at Mahar's Friday night. Knowing full well that I have a final paper, oral presentation (both due this evening), and a children's story in web format (look for that kids on Wednesday), Friday night was my one chance in hell to put back a couple of beers and enjoy the clean sidewalks.

Saturday, I wake up like a child on Christmas morning and run out not to a tree, but the front porch to see what gift Mother Nature brought to me. Yay snow! I could break out the snowblower on her maiden voyage through the winter wonderland that I call the front of the house. I spent an hour clearing a path on the sidewalk and stopped when I got to the driveway, I ran out of 50' cord that was dangling beautifully from the upstairs window on the porch.

Sunday, I procured a 100' cord and attached it to the 50' one and gleefully attacked the sidewalk again. One of the neighbors that walks their dog asked me how it was, appparently it's the envy of poor college folk in the neighborhood. I have blower envy. The crazy dude across the street who doesn't stop blowing, shoveling, salting until he sees black on his driveway was out helping the neighbors release the grip of the plowed mounds on their unsuspecting cars.

I figure since I started with a shovel several years ago, went to the Toro 4" clearance electric shovel, and now the 'Snow Thrower' in 2 years I'll upgrade to puny gas powered blower. Or I can just wait until my folks buy a new one and give me their old one - which ever comes first.

I need to bring a pair of jeans and socks and clothes to change into and attack the snow during lunch one day this winter. Go outside and make a snow person. My coworkers really would love to see me do that one. Since I'm the baby of the office I feel justified in acting like a child on my lunch hour. Besides, it might entice others to come out and help and that my friends is what I call a bonding and morale boosting experience.

1 prayer | 05:36 PM

Essay: RIAA's disregard for its customers

The Recording Industry Association of America has repeatedly shown to its customers that the most important thing to them is not consumer satisfaction but financial rewards. The organization continually fights online downloading of its members’ artists’ work using methods that does not promote confidence in the system. Instead of appearing as tyrants and fighting a one-sided battle, the RIAA should be focusing not only on issuing lawsuits for copyright infringement but also working towards a compromise between the music labels and the consumers that want a method of easy and affordable online music purchases.

Continue reading "Essay: RIAA's disregard for its customers"

No prayers | 05:40 PM

blinking cursor

Last night was my first experience seeing Phish live in concert. They were absolutely amazing and it was a surreal experience. I would definitely go to see them again, I just will have to make sure that I make it through the entire concert. I'll probably get mocked and ridiculed at work for calling in sick, but I believe that if you're sick and incapable of driving yourself to work, you should probably lie back in bed and pray that normalcy returns.

I'll just say that I was in a bad place last night, to make matters worse, while I came back in during intermission from outside (to which I had to leave the crew and started the downward spiral) some dude sat down next to me. He's tried to have a conversation with me asking some questions to which my interface wasn't working thoroughly and I could have sworn the guy was trying to get me to allow him to sit in our seats so he could be near his friends. I just watched the people coming and going giving monosyllabic answers and eventually the guy left me alone. I think that was the breaking point for me, I kept looking up the stairs for Pat or Kris to rescue me but I felt alone and was forcing myself from freaking out too horribly.

Was it an experience that I'll never forget? Yes. Will I see them again? Yes. I just feel like shit because I needed Kris to help me to the car and he couldn't enjoy himself. For this I will never be able to express the gratitude that I have nor can I ever repay him.

I'm going to go lie back down again - catch you mofos later.

1 prayer | 01:59 PM