niicelaady

To paraphrase the Capital One commercial: What's in YOUR head? What's in mine is here: always personal, occasionally political, sometimes a rant on language or pop culture, or a heads-up on an interesting link I've found. I hope that all my friends will visit and comment and gain some insights into the workings of my twisted little mind.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Good news!

No, I didn't save a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. State Farm rules!

But I did find out I am eligible for paid holidays. I had no clue. And the last time holidays were an issue, my bookeeping was so facacta that I wouldn't know if I'd gotten holiday pay, as I have direct deposit, a bank that's very forgiving about overdrafts and (at that time) a tendency to float checks a day or two in advance of payday. I was just grateful to see a positive balance.

But I mentioned I was coming in on Friday because I couldn't afford to lose a day's pay (Monday having been a holiday), and R. informed me afterward that she'd found out we are eligible for holiday pay after six months. I've been there 14 months.

I already committed to come in Friday so S. can have the day off. But it will be gravy, at time and a half. And I don't have to work a full shift. Yaay!

Next step: Find out if I'm also eligible for paid vacation days, because I could use a few.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Happy Whatever!

To my Christian friends and those who aren't Christian but celebrate Dec. 25 anyway: Merry Christmas!

To my Jewish friends: Happy Hanukkah!

To my pagan friends: Super Solstice!

To my atheist friends: Happy holidays/season's greetings!

To my "Seinfeld" fan friends: Fabulous Festivus!

Also cool Yule, kwazy Kwanzaa, righteous Ramadan ... there, did I forget anyone?

Oh, yeah, to Bill O'Reilly: Shut the fuck up! Go have some falafel!

Nobody's trying to take Christ out of Christmas by saying "Happy Holidays," OK, Billy boy? This season was sacred in many religions and traditions before Jesus came along. When I say "Happy holidays," I mean, "Blessings to you this season, no matter why it's special to you" -- and that INCLUDES those of you who celebrate the birth of Christ as your Savior.

I am not a Christian. I was raised Catholic. I no longer subscribe to any organized religion, although I believe in a Supreme Being. Today I celebrate Christmas as a historically and culturally significant holiday. And I don't leave Jesus out of it. While I don't believe he was necessarily born of a literal virgin with God as his biological father, he was a great man with an important message, and certainly important as a historical figure. So yeah, I don't worship Jesus as God but have no problem celebrating his birthday.

And I have no problem either, with acknowledging that others don't celebrate Christmas, but it's their holiday season, too.

Ah well, 24 hours from now we'll all be saying "Happy New Year" anyway. Meanwhile, whatever you're celebrating, have a happy one.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Blue skies! Puppies! Christmas presents! Oh, my!

So to get rid of the sour taste from my previous hissyfit post, here's some nice stuff:

I was delayed getting into work this morning because I was making my famous deviled eggs for our department food day. Which means I actually drove to work in daylight. And the drive was MAGNIFICENT. All the trees were white with frost against a blue sky. We're talking postcard. We're talking calendar. We're talking visual Prozac here, folks.

Last night I met the latest addition to the D&SC family: an adorable little Yorkshire terrier. She was a bitch in every sense of the word when they got her, because her previous owners had let her be the alpha in the family pack. A few lessons in tough love from D&S, and she is a sweetie. She gave me kisses! They are looking for a new name for her; I suggested Star, because she is small and twinkly and her coat shines.

Today we exchanged secret Santa presents at work. I opted out of the Christmas shopping mania a few years ago. It's too stressful, too expensive, and even if I made twice what I make now, I'd never have the money to buy for everyone I'd want to give a gift to, nor do I have the time to make gifts for all of them. But I do participate in the secret Santa thing at work, and I bring a little something to whomever I spend Christmas Day with. GD was my work Santa and gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card, which is my favorite thing to get. I was MW's and gave her a movie lover's gift basket with DVD, which I literally got for a song.

See, I told you this was going to be about blue skies, puppies and Christmas presents. Would I lie?

I feel a rant on the "War on Christmas" thing coming on, but I'll save it for later. Cheers!

Monday, December 19, 2005

Warning: Major hissyfit alert

It's my blog and I'll throw a hissyfit if I want to! I thought about posting in the Land of Confusion but I'd probably start a flame war and get sent to the BBQ Pit. Besides, there's that language filter.

The other day I did post there on how I thought Toxic Jock was getting boring and annoying lately, talking about little else besides himself and all the money he makes. That was before I heard, today on the podcast, his little speech in the third hour of Thursday's show, which also made me want to hurl (a) chunks, and (b) something large and heavy at my monitor.

How lovely for you, TJ, that you are having the best year of your life and the best Christmas ever and it's all because of Marcia!Marcia!Marcia! And how nice that you're sharing your good fortune with everyone. Everyone, that is, except the woman whose LIFE YOU RUINED FOR ALMOST TWO FUCKING YEARS!!! Who only wanted to be your friend. Whose mind you messed up with your line of bullshit and turned into a basket case for ALMOST TWO FUCKING YEARS!!!!
And whose relationships and finances may never completely recover from the lack of attention I gave them for ALMOST TWO FUCKING YEARS!!!! Whom you called "pushy" -- and worse -- because all I wanted was to understand why YOU STOPPED pushing.

What really got me was the way you threw the ex-Mrs. Jock under the bus. She didn't sell your story to the tabloids for big bucks. She approached ONE newspaper to tell the story of your breakdown because (a) thousands of people, like me, were genuinely worried, and (b) rumors were starting to fly and she wanted to squelch them before your reputation was damaged. And yet you call what she did "exploitative"?

I was always your biggest defender. When someone came online and said they'd had an unpleasant encounter with you, I was the first to jump up and take your side. How blind I was.

I'm not bitter because of Marcia. I'm bitter because you stole ... did I mention it was ALMOST TWO FUCKING YEARS!!!! of my life and haven't expended so much as a second of remorse or regret. You've just gone on to have the best year of your life while I'm still recovering from ALMOST TWO of the FUCKING WORST of mine.

That Vacation From Which You May Never Return? I hope you don't. And to steal one of your expressions, I hope you step in dog shit every day for the rest of your miserable life.

End of hissyfit.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

New Year's resolutions revisited

Another great idea copped from a friend's blog! Instead of big, ambitious New Year's resolutions like losing 50 pounds or quitting smoking (I once had a friend who resolved to do that. She was going to quit at the stroke of midnight, then postponed it to midnight on the West Coast. What's next? Quit on Chinese New Year? Jewish New Year?), list the things you want to do in the next year that may not necessarily be life-changing but will add up to make your life better.

I recently came up with another idea: Old Year's resolutions. Think of something you left undone this year and do it in the time remaining, like reconnecting with an old friend, finishing that writing or craft project, seeing that movie everyone talked about.

Anyway, here's my 2006 "wanna-do" list, a work in progress:

Practice guitar at least once a week.
Play music with WB at least twice a month.
Meet RF in person (if we don't get to that in 2005).
Visit the library at least once a month.
Find some interesting low/no-carb recipes.
Get to know Mrs. JB better.
Learn "A Gathering of Spirits."
Learn "Calling All the Children Home."
Create a morris dance to "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" for the Tulip Festival.
Sell at least one article or short story.
Call my mom more, and send her pictures.
Save something out of each paycheck.
Get a professional bra fitting.
Resume home brewing.
Finish baby afghans for Michelle and the wee Tell.
Buy a pair of jeans that fits and flatters.
Plant something in my flower bed.
Get new glasses.
Attend doo-wop at least once a month.
Exercise peripheral vision.
Learn all the words to "That's What Friends Are For" (aka Potatoes & Tomatoes)
Buy an Old Songs Brick with "It's a Pleasure to Know You."
Offer something on Freecycle at least once a month.
Try to make someone else's day as often as possible.
Dig out one of the craft supplies I bought years ago (rug braiding kit, copper cross-stitch magnets) and complete a project.
Make dinner (or breakfast, or both) for WB at least once a month.
Host an a cappella sing.

I may not get to them all, but even if I get to only a few, life will be good (not that it isn't now).

OK, fellow bloggers, you know who you are. I showed you mine, now you show me yours!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

2005, folk processed

The idea came from SyncretistFool, who also took some liberties with the formula, which is to recycle the first sentence of your first blogs of each month into your year in review.

I've only been blogging since June, and my first post/first sentences aren't all that good, so I cherry picked some lines from each month's blogs for my year in review. Here goes:

OK, so I finally did it.

Physically I have reconnected with the world, but emotionally and intellectually, I still feel disconnected to some degree.

I have been corresponding with an old friend.

have expended a hell of a lot of mental energy these past few days over two people -- ToxicJock and MarciaMarciaMarcia -- who couldn't care less if I dropped off the face of the earth.

Office politics suck.

GET OFF MY RADIO, BITCH!!!!!! There, I'm over it. No, really. I'm over it.

Phase One of holiday celebration complete

Still sort of lame, but these are the lowlights.

Monday, December 12, 2005

More cute quizzes -- thanks, Mrs. Pi!

Your Christmas is Most Like: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

You can't really get into the Christmas spirit...
But it usually gets to you by the end of the holiday.



The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few.
But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky.

Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Phase One of holiday celebration complete

Nowell Sing We Clear and the Threesome's tree-trimming/SyncretistFool'sbirthday party duly attended. It's the big Three-Oh for SF on the 14th. Happy birthday, sweetie!

Today is mine, but no milestone involved. I'm 47, just feeling old.

Coming up: a quiet birthday celebration with me and WB, and next weekend, the Wassail, which is my family Christmas celebration. The following, possibly a quiet celebration with Mr. and Mrs. JB and maybe some other random friends. But as long as I have Nowell and Wassail, my holiday is complete.

Nowell had to have the topical humor, of course. We were waiting for a John Roberts joke in the mummers play. For the uninitiated, one of the guys in the Nowell Sing We Clear troupe is named John Roberts for real.

Tony Barrand in drag: "I'm Harriet Miers."

John (as Father Christmas): "If you're Harriet Miers, I'm John Roberts!"

Good times! Despite the pain of seeing Tony more incapacitated by MS each year. Stings particularly hard this year as on the way home I heard the news that Richard Pryor had succumbed to MS today. R.I.P, R.P.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Five evil words:

"YOUR BROWSER IS NOT SUPPORTED."

I had some problems earlier today trying to post to my blog using my Internet Explorer 5.1. In the course of investigating said problems, I discovered the above. Blogger/Blogspot doesn't support IE5.

Problem seems to have resolved itself (I am currently composing this using IE5). But in the meantime I had to download iCab to get my previous post up.

This has been a GPO (Giant Piss-Off) since Twinkletoze sent me a link to an Onion article that I could not access because Onion's site doesn't support my browser and in lieu of content gave me the evil YBINS page. I've gotten that message before (pbs.org, lookin' at you!) but at least got to see the content.

Memo to Internet gods: Not all of us are made of money, and we are still using older 'puters that will not support OSX, which is what is required to use your beloved Firefox. I am far ahead of where I was two years ago when I was running OS 7.6.1 -- I have cable Internet! Yaay! -- but I am not in a position to drop 2 grand on a Mac running OSX.

We may not be made of money but we still have disposable income, and you are losing revenue in the form of access to your sites and your advertisers by shutting us out. Not to mention the good will. ONION SUCKS! ONION SUCKS! ONION SUCKS! Get my drift?

Ten-plus things that make me happy

I have been tagged by SyncretistFool to list 10 things that make me happy. I don't think I can stop at 10 but I'll try to exercise some self-restraint.

1. Loving and being loved.
2. Cuddling my puddytats.
3. Singing with several dozen of my closest friends.
3a. Finding the perfect harmony.
4. "Fish and Whistle" by John Prine (audio Prozac!).
5. Extra-crispy Buffalo wings.
6. A perfectly poured pint of Guinness.
7. Waking up from an upsetting dream to discover it was all a dream.
8. Matching wits with smart people.
9. Long weekends.
10. A comfy chair and a good book.
11. Folk festivals (see 1, 3 and 3a).

Your turn, Bean and Mrs. Pi!