it's a pity party.. .no, you aren't invited.

Today's skill....

Watching other people get what I want and being completely happy for them.

I'm sad because I can't have that right now... but I know that they deserve it so much more than I ever will.

It's really hard to give up on something that you have wanted so bad for so long, but I think this is going to help in other arenas of my life. Maybe I can focus more on My Husband, or myself. Maybe we can get and do some of the things we have dreamed of.

Just not this.

Congratulations, I know you guys will be excellent parents.

eerrrr...

So, I had some skills all lined up and accomplished some of them, but I honestly do not remember what they were.

I can tell you about my skill of yesterday and my skill for today, but that's about as far back as I can go.

My skill yesterday may sound absurd to anyone that wasn't there, but believe me... it is worthy of making the list.

I managed to not pee all over myself.

Now, for many, this comes naturally as they tend to take periodic bathroom breaks. I have a terrible fear of public restrooms and will only use one if I absolutely have to. Last night, I had to.

For those of you that pay any attention at all to my twitter bar, you know that I work for one of the most amazing companies in the universe. If you have ever heard me talk about it, you know how completely devoted I am... and no, they don't actually pay me to say that. I am in love with my job, and I can't imagine ever working anywhere else. (well... maybe some day...)

Periodically, we have amazing parties and we actually close the call center for a few hours so that everyone can attend (if you have ever worked in a call center, you know how crazy that is... but yeah. we do it.)

Last night, we had our Vendor Party at Rain nightclub in The Palms casino. I wish so bad that everyone could have been there, because it is probably the best party I have ever been to in my life.

Thanks to our awesome customers, the company pays for us to get drunk a few times a year. Knowing how much we all love a good drink (or 20) they also provide vouchers for a cab ride or for a designated driver. The designated driver program lets you and your buddies drink all you want, and then you call up the DD guys and they come get you, and your car, and deliver you safely back to your home.

How amazing is that?

So.... we're at the party, right? We get there at like, 9 or something, and the first thing you see when you walk through the door is a bar. Stop for a drink. Then you walk a little further, and theres a huge ice sculpture... with another bar! Stop for a drink.... then you may your way on down, and there are these girls offering alcoholic snow cones. Everyone loves a good snow cone, so you have two or three and keep on movin to the next drink station. Now, you just got to the party and you've already had 5 drinks. There's 3 hours left in the party.

The theme was Fire and Ice, and I think they did an amazing job of pulling it off. The outside was all Ice and inside was Fire.

Get this, they even had penguins. One of the small pools was drained, filled with salt water, and chilled so that 4 penguins could entertain us. We were not allowed to pet the penguins (though the CEO got to later) so we went back down the stairs and ran right into, you guessed it, another bar.

During the night, we sat down for quite a bit and just watched the people walking by. We amused ourselves and laughed a lot, grabbing a snow cone here and there as the girls walked by.

Eventually we made it inside and stopped at another bar. There were people dancing and there was this really cool fire show that I only vaguely watched. I'm not quite sure how many drinks I'd had by this point, but I know that by the end of the night I had downed, like, 20 glasses of Jack and Coke and had eaten a crapload of snow cones. The one thing that saved me was that the snow cones were full of Vodka. For some reason, Vodka does strange things to me and I think it kept me from absorbing all of the other alcohol. I really think I should have passed out.

It could have been the fact that I loaded up on pizza before we left, but who knows.

The best part was that no matter who you were standing next to, they were your best friend. Not just because you were both drunk, but because that is the kind of team and family spirit that we work so hard to keep alive in the company.

I nearly stumbled right into the CEO and he just smiled and greeted me like we hadn't seen each other in years. Everyone was smiling and happy, and it reminded me that I am so lucky to work for the company.

After a bit of drunken flailing (dancing) we went back outside for a cigarette and a snow cone. At Midnight, the free drinks stopped and most of us headed for the door (for us, that meant that we had been drinking for 3 hours straight and it was time to go home.)

We stopped for a few minutes so that My Husband could put some money in a slot machine. I don't remember how much he won, but we ended up giving it to the DD guy.

At this point, we stumbled and chatted our way to the doors and parked ourselves on the benches outside. My Husband called the DD guys and it was going to take about 45 minutes for them to arrive. We sat and chatted with people as they were leaving and then loaded into the car.

It was then that I realized I hadn't gone to the bathroom all day, and I had an incredibly full bladder. There wasn't time for me to go back inside, so I figured I could just hold it until I got home.

BIG MISTAKE.

Halfway home I made it very clear that I was not going to make it much further and My Husband convinced the DD guy to take us to a gas station so we could fill up the gas tank, and so I could empty my own tank.

Our Roommate had to assist me while I was exiting the car, and entering the gas station. The attendant (I see this guy weekly) just kept laughing. As soon as I got directions to the bathroom, I ran (or, you know, stumbled) my way over there. I don't remember if I locked the door or flushed, but I know that I washed my hands and nearly did a face plant when I tried to stand up.

I was about 5 minutes away from destroying the back seat of the car.

I don't know how much we tipped the guy, but it was so worth it to save myself that embarrassment.

When we got home, I ate a little bit more in an attempt to stop myself from having a hangover. It didn't really work.

At some point I remember My Husband lost it and had to evacuate his stomach. I am terrified of throwing up, so I managed to keep everything down. As soon as I started to actually feel sick, I fell asleep.

For some unknown reason, I woke up at 7:45. Note, I had just gone to sleep a few hours earlier.

I was thirsty, my head hurt, and I was slightly hungry. I got up, had a coke, some pizza and two excedrine, then tried to go back to sleep.

It took about an hour, but I finally did it.

When I woke up, I felt fantastic! I did not want to get out of bed, but I felt fine.

Today's skill was treating a hangover and I think I did an amazing job. I've never really had a bad hangover before, and I think I took all of the necessary precautions to make this one as pleasant as possible.

When I got to work, I took my first call with a glorious smile. I know that I made someones day a little better, and they helped make mine just as awesome.

It only took you how long?

When we were in Texas, I bought a dresser at Goodwill instead of getting a big fancy entertainment center. We move around a lot, so we like to keep our furniture as light (and inexpensive) as possible. I needed something that would be easy to move up and down stairs. Plus, I didn't really want to worry that the air force contracted movers would damage it

My Mom had come to visit us and she helped me pick it out, stuff it in the van, and laughed with me all the way to the apartment (it was hilarious. I had to use rope to tie the back doors together because the dresser was too big. I didn't know my way around town very well because we had just moved there, and I had to make several quick, awkward turns... awesome) She also helped me get the thing upstairs and put it in place. Since then we have moved. And while we are still upstairs, the dresser is being viewed in a much different light.

I thought it was the coolest thing in the world... until I saw it's full glory in direct sunlight. WOW. How on earth did it manage to hide all of the ugly? How did I not notice there there were holes from previous hardware? Holy cow, this thing needs a makeover right this moment.





For a larger image, click here.

And that is exactly what I spent most of yesterday doing. I had to remove a lot of (what appeared to be) glue from the front so that I could sand it. Normally I would have attempted this with a razor blade, or a putty knife... but I didn't have either. I chose scissors! Excellent if you want to gouge a ravine into your High Class Wood-like Entertainment Station, not so great if you need to dig in and crack off gobs of industrial strength, government issued bonding cement.

I wasn't smart enough to take pictures of the really bad spots, but you can see a little bit of it here. It looks kind of like drops of wax. Those were the small ones that were pretty easy to remove. ... I wish so bad that you could see the other ones.





After fully sanding and prepping the doors, I was finally able to start painting. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken during this time as I did not want to document the insanity. Rather than fully showing and explaining the process, I'll just tell you a little story about the day.

My Husband had just finished his lunch of Bratwurst with a side of beans, and was getting ready for work. He decided that he would take my car since his has been having a bit of trouble, and I didn't really have any plans so I told him it was fine. He kissed me goodbye and walked out the door. I stepped out onto the balcony to have a cigarette and wave to him as he left.

The second he was out of sight, I ran back inside and emptied the dresser. I knew it would take a while for the paint to dry, so I wanted to get started as soon as possible. This was going to be a surprise for him since he always tells me how much he hates the dresser.

First, I pulled off the doors and started sanding, and once I had two coats of paint on them, I started on the drawers. Thinking I would be done within a few hours, I just dumped everything in the middle of the living room floor.

I pulled the knobs off the drawers and started sanding. Once they were sanded, I put another coat of paint on the doors and then realized... the dust from sanding was going to start sticking to the fresh paint.

Everything on our small balcony was moved to a new spot to maximize the distance from paint to dust.

Then I painted the drawers.

After a few coats, I realized I was going to have enough time to do the whole dresser and immediately began ripping out cables and finding temporary homes for the electronics. Once I had the dresser unloaded, I started to drag it outside. It was a lot bigger than I remember it being, so it took a little while to do it by myself and I kept being reminded of old I Love Lucy episodes.

After sanding the rest of the dresser and starting on a coat of paint, The Roommate came home. He had a rough day at work and we talked for a moment before he decided to go to his room. After a little bit I somehow ended up standing with one foot on a chair and the other on the edge of the balcony railing. I very nearly fell.

At that point, I decided to ask The Roommate if he could supervise me, lest I pass out or fall to my death. ( I really have no idea what I was doing.)

He came to sit with me for a little bit and made a comment about this not being a lot of work. I very nearly slapped him with my paintbrush.

At some point, he decided to go to his bedroom (I think I may have accidentally yelled at him from our bedroom. I knocked a cup over and screamed.) and I was left to supervise myself.

I decided to add some detail work to the doors so that the entire thing would not be black. During this process O (one of our neighbors) showed up to keep me company. We sat and chatted for a bit while we were waiting for everything to dry and while I was finishing the doors.

My Husband pulled up, hopped out of the car and asked if dinner was ready. At this point, I have been working on the dresser and doing other house things for nearly 10 hours. I was covered in sweat, paint, dirt, and dust. My hair was a wreck, and he was home about an hour early. No, dinner was not ready. He let us know that he had a horrible day, and asked what we wanted from Burger King. I picked something that I knew would take a little longer and as soon as he was gone, O and I jumped up to put the dresser back.

We got the dresser moved, drawers in and filled, and put the doors back on. Then I realized that we were missing a knob. I frantically searched for it and discovered that it had not been painted. Since I mixed the color myself, I had to dive in the sink to grab the paint dish before it got washed. I painted the knob and put it back on the dresser while it was still a bit wet.

The second O and I stood back up, My Husband walked through the door. It took him a minute to notice the change, but he said that it looked much better.



Though we got most of the stuff back in place, I didn't have time to hook everything back up. So, instead of watching a movie, we just hung out with the neighbors for a while before we went to bed.

I kept moving things around the living room to make everything look a little better and I am so happy with the results!

If you're happy and you know it, slap your mom!

I have no idea what that title was about... but I just watched video of the CEO at Work getting slapped at a recent Happy Hour.

I would so post it, but then everyone might know everything about my life. Let's just say that I work in the call center for one of the most amazing companies ever. You have probably heard of them or seen them on tv recently. Lots of news stories and interviews pop up every day.

My primary job is to answer calls, but I rarely do that. Mostly, I'm answering emails, watching holds, or working on Live Chat.

I was looking through work related videos (instead of cleaning) because I was trying to find footage of my most recent skill. I just completed a 4 week sign language course!

Someone recorded us all saying "We love to work at Work". We had to finger spell the name since there is not a sign. Then I did a short little video thing about how awesome it is that Work pays for us to take classes, during our workday, that help us grow both personally and professionally. In fact, those may have been my exact words.

Anyway, now I have a fancy certificate hanging up on my wall at work (drat. I should have taken a picture of that...) and I can, slowly, form very short, choppy sentences.

The biggest set back is that I have injured both of my hands this week, so my signs are not as perfect as they could be. Then again, the instructor kept saying "If it hurts, don't do it."

My skill for today (that will probably be posted tomorrow) is refinishing the dresser that acts as our entertainment center. Pictures will be included (so it may actually take a day or two) and that will be another skill! While I'm doing that, I may go ahead and do the tutorial for Hey You and I think I might have this week covered. YAY!

another day without a post.

I hope this doesn't become a habit....

This more of an accomplishment than a skill, but it took learning some new skills to do it.... so it counts! Right?

In January, My Husband and I made New Year's Resolutions for each other. I wanted him to become a better shopper (checking for grocery sales, price comparison, shop around before you make a major purchase, things like that.)

He wanted me to get back down to the weight I was when I first moved in with him.

A) That is so rude!

B) It's impossible for that to safely happen in 1 year.

C) That really killed my self esteem considering it was shortly after another major event. Since this is trying to remain anonymous, I may go into it some time...

So, I don't know that mental image you have of me (for those of you who don't know me personally).... I'm not a tiny person, but it is mostly muscle. (No, really. My bicep is way bigger than My Husband's and my thighs are like concrete. I did a lot of strength training when I was younger.) I was about 110 lbs lighter (than when I started exercising in January) when I moved in with My Husband.

I started to go into detail about the entire gaining and losing process, but it got too complicated so I'll just say that I am now the lightest I have been in over a year by paying attention to what I'm eating and exercising on a regular basis.

I am still way off from hitting the goal My Husband set, but I'm pretty happy with the way things are going.

Oopsie doodle!

I neglected to update last night because we all packed up and headed to the theater! That's right, we saw a midnight showing of The Dark Knight, because we are incredible geeks.

Though it caused me to get to sleep much later than intended, it was worth every moment! I don't even feel guilty spending nearly $60 to take us all out! I wish we had been able to see it at the Imax, but we figured that they would be sold out by the time we got over there.

So anyway...

Yesterday's skill involved setting up the printer/scanner/copier/ice maker that came with our most recent computer system purchase. Though we have had it since march, it has lived in a box in our hallway. I took it out once, to see what kind of printer it was... and then I put it back in the hallway.

We spoke to a lender yesterday to see how much we can get approved for, and he needed copies of our 07 and 06 w2's, our last two pay stubs, and... something else.

Since it was too late to run them by his office, he said that we could just email them. Then I remembered that we have a scanner! When we got home, I popped it out of the box and hooked it up. This thing is so fancy that we will probably never use half of the functions.

my skill for today: taking some information I've learned over the last few weeks and putting it all together! I now know how to form simple sentences in american sign language.

For more info on ASL, click on this handy link!

My Husband is planning to enter a Guitar Hero contest at one of the nearby casinos tonight, so I came home early to cheer him on (at least, that's my excuse :P)

I should probably do some laundry with all of this extra time, or figure out what my next skill is going to be. Maybe I'll work on that tutorial that Hey You wanted...

Either way, gotta go. Thanks for reading!

Smoosha!

Well, there's not much to report today... I spent my entire day off cleaning, looking at houses, and paying bills.

My Husband helped me pay the bills because he found an online bill pay program that lets us pay our gas, power, and cable/phone/internet all at once! Now I don't have to worry that I forgot about something!

My big skill for the day was repairing the bifold doors where the washer and dryer are. Both sets of panels were coming off the track every time you open the door, so I got out the drill and the mallet. After a few minutes of banging around, I managed to get the outer panel hinges to stay put so that the doors don't pop off the track. I'm not sure if it's a permanent fix, but it's doing the job for now! The only down side is, I wasn't sure exactly where the hinges were supposed to go, so now there is about an inch gap where the doors are supposed to meet...

It's a design feature!

Tomorrow we meet with a Realtor to see if there is anything in the area that we like AND can afford. I'm really really done with apartment life, and we are looking to purchase something in the next 6 months or so, depending on if the complex will let us out of our contract. (If we break the lease, we owe them a little over $5,000 thanks to our really awesome move-in special)

Sorry to cut this short, but we've got a big day tomorrow :)

Every little bit helps...

Today's skill only vaguely counts because I had an actual skill but I forgot what it was.

At work I discovered that my team is going to be moving again! We got to pick which seats we wanted (though that may change) and since I'm not going to be there for the next two days, I had to pack my desk tonight.

For the first time in the history of desk moving at My Job, I was able to fit my entire desk into one box.

Nevermind the fact that this box used to contain a two drawer file cabinet... I packed my desk in a little over 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, I will have to go back to work tomorrow to retrieve the wall adapter for my Zune (and the cord that allows me to upload music) because I neglected to pack that into my box. I must remove the evidence before someone notices, since we aren't supposed to have things plugged into the outlets anyway.

Enough about work, let's talk about me.

My skill may have involved sticking to the cigarette goal for the day (I'm making an attempt at trying to quit) or it could have been completely unrelated... It might have involved something I did when filling my gas tank, or something I did on my lunch break.

It could have been the way I controlled the urge to hit someone at work, or the urge to disconnect a call when someone was talking down to me (Me, the person they called for help because they can't figure out how to do on their own...)

It may have been me finding a way to get out of something I didn't want to do, or thinking of a way that I might be able to do something that I thought I wouldn't be able to do...

Or I may have imagined it.

I took some bad news with a grain of salt, helped some people out of seemingly hopeless situations, reminded everyone that I am 100% batshit crazy, and had a glass of wine before bed. All in all, I think it was a successful day.

Double the pleasure, double the fun

I missed updating yesterday in part because I was dealing with the fact that one of my old friends died.

He was a giving friend and always had a story to tell. I have not talked to him in a while, but I thought about him often.

My skill for yesterday was managing to do three jobs simultaneously since there wasn't anyone else at work that is qualified to do them. It was a little difficult, but I think I did pretty well.

As for today, I finally mastered the art of driving across Las Vegas without fear. This may seem pretty simple to those who have not driven in Las Vegas, or those who do not fear tragic accidents... but to me this is major considering I have put my life at risk nearly every day for the last 9 months.

I was almost squished to death by an 18 wheeler that did not allow space between us when the string of traffic in front of me came to a sudden stop. Fortunately, the cars moved just in time for the truck to come to stop on the exact spot where my drivers seat would have been.

More recently, an Avis bus tried to switch lanes through me in a construction zone. I was so close to the concrete barrier that my mirror was getting scratched (The bus was touching the passenger mirror) when one of the passengers yelled at the driver.

Between people who drive entirely too fast, those that drive way too slow, and the ones that think everyone is psychic so they don't need to use their turn signals, it's a wonder that I'm alive.

I've noticed that I've been getting more used to the traffic lately, but I had the first day where I was nearly smashed by someone that misjudged distance and I didn't even freak out. I barely reacted except to speed up a little bit.

I have shared my traffic stories with others, and none of them have had the amazing luck that I seem to spew. They have rare occasions where they are almost in an accident, but for me it happens daily. Perhaps it's just a part of the melancholy mood I've been in, but I like to think that I am growing as a person and becoming less afraid of the world that I so often find myself forced into.

Tomorrow I'll try to have a real skill for you. Good night!

Ba dump bum bum

Today at work around 3pm, they sent out a message saying that you had the opportunity to leave early if your shift ended at or before 10pm. This happens every once in a while when it gets slow, and I jumped on the chance to leave! Now, figuring that it takes me about an hour to get to work, and about an hour to get home from work, I used more gas in transportation that I actually made by going to my job. Does that count as a skill?

Anyway, since I got home so early, I taught myself how to play "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" on the guitar. I'm getting a lot better at it, even though my fingertips are not cooperating.

I also go a phone call from one of my friends. She wanted to let me know that another friend of ours is in a coma. For the first time in my life, I wanted to use teleportation for good instead of evil. She dated this friend for several years, and they were even engaged at one point. I really wish that I could have been there to comfort her. Note to self, call her Wednesday around 4.

Well, now I'm off to make brownies! I hope they turn out well.

Bow Makin'

Tonight I learned how to make gift bows from magazine cuttings.

I thought the craft might be a little more therapeutic that it turned out to be, but perhaps I'm just not in a bow making mood.

I'm in a little bit of a funk right now, and I can't pinpoint the cause. Lately life just doesn't have it's usual sparkle.

Ideas for skills that can be easily learned are running thin, so I might have to resort to the cop-out semi-skills that I have stashed away unless I can get some good contributions.

It isn't much, but I think that's all I have for tonight. Have an awesome day.

MIA, but two new skills!

So, My Husband and I went on a "weekend" excursion, since we both have our days off in the middle of the week. I really needed to get away from the apartment and the city for a little bit. We wound up about an hour away in a town called Primm. We were gone for less than 24 hours, but being away for a bit sure did help a lot. If I had my way and we had lots of money and could take as much time off work as we wanted to, we would still be there.

I need another week.

Though lots of interesting things happened on the trip, I shocked My Husband by revealing that I had not played Texas Hold 'Em with actual, real live cards. I have played poker with a lot of my friends, but never Texas Hold 'Em.

Though we were in a Casino/resort(ha!)/(mo)Hotel, we bought a deck of playing cards in the gift shop and sat in our room playing cards and watching CNN. He still owes me $20 bucks, but I'm sure that we can work something out ;)

After a while we decided to venture out for food, and went to the Casino, Buffalo Bill's, right across from us. It was like Silver Dollar City tried to cram itself into a small gaming hall. Most of the restaurants were closed, so we ate at a small sandwich shop. I was turned around in my seat, trying to take a picture of what looked like a Hillbilly in a mine cart, and this big headed bitch stared straight at me through the lens, and sat directly in my shot. I would have forgiven her, except she made a few comments about photographers needing to learn their place. Had I stood up, the restaurant would have blocked the shot, so I just started talking about the most obscene things I could to make her and her two devil children leave. I don't remember exactly what I said, but eventually it worked.

At that point, I didn't even want the picture from that angle anymore, so I walked around the wall and muttered (loudly, apparently) "Now that Mrs. Hoebag McWhoreson is out of the way, I can take the damn picture." I turned to My Husband and noticed an elderly woman at a slot machine behind him. The memory of her expression will bring me joy for years.

"Oh my god, there is someone behind you. Screw the picture, let's go."

We walked rather quickly to a group of slot machines near an ashtray and lit two cigarettes. Somewhere between me taking pictures of the Hillbilly figures and a security guard giving me a few rather odd looks, My Husband decided he wanted to try out the $1 slots. I handed him some cash, and we sat there for a bit.

Rather than saying we lost all of our money, I like to think that we made a charitable donation to the Nevada Public School District. They should really enjoy the gold-plated toilet seats that our generosity will provide.

We got back to our hotel and I remembered that we had two 12 packs of drinks in the back. I was kind of thirsty, so I thought that we could take them inside and dump them in the ice bucket since our lavish accommodations did not include a mini fridge, or mini bar. More on our penthouse suite later...

We opened the hatch and reached for the drinks. The boxes pulled away. I turned to My Husband "The drinks exploded. Have these been in the car since Tuesday?".

Rewind-- Tuesday I went grocery shopping. My Husband came home and I asked him to get the drinks out of the car. He didn't. They sat in the car in 114+ heat for well over 24 hours.--Fast Forward

He replied "No... why does it matter?" I then explained that heat will cause carbonated drinks to burst. He apologized. He pulled the cases out so that we could throw them away... the drinks fell out and erupted all over us, the car, and the parking garage.

After a moment of laughter, we cleaned up the drinks and set off to find a Car Wash nearby so that we could shampoo the mat and wash the sugar off. There was not a car wash at the closest gas station, so He asked if we should go across the street or down the interstate. Since we live in a city with a million exits, I told him to go down the interstate. I did not realize that this town has three casinos, 2 fast food restaurants, two gas stations, and a strip mall... and NOTHING else.

Silly me! We drove over an hour to the next town! This happened to be across the state line, and through some of the most insane construction zones I have ever seen in my life. At one point, both lanes AND the shoulder we closed, so we had to drive on the dirt and gravel that line the highways of the Mojave desert.

When we finally got to the next town, we found out that they didn't have a car wash either! We used the windshield cleaner from the gas station to remove most of the syrup and then decided that we would shampoo the mat some other time. We got back in the car and drove another hour back to our hotel.

With only two working elevators, we waited about 20 minutes to get back to our floor. Walking down the hallway, you would think that this had been the scene of a spree of violent crimes. The carpeting was ancient and covered in bleach stains from people either trying to clean up or cover up bodily fluids.

It was a little horrifying.

We got to our room and I was a little shocked to see that everything else looked pretty clean. I hadn't paid much attention to anything when we first got there because I was just so excited to get out of the house, and now I realized that there was no remote control for the tv, no fridge, only two pillows, one towel, and none of the fancy toiletries that I was accustomed to finding in a hotel.

The pool closed at 8pm, there was no gym, no internet access, and only a questionable vending machine on the ground level. But there was free adult entertainment. If the room had come with a remote control, we could have ordered regular movies, or checked out the viewing guide. Instead, My Husband stood at the tv and changed the channels manually... until we stumbled upon something that mystified and intrigued me. Free adult television. Not the 'late night cinemax' stuff either... I was shocked.

If we were the sort of people that would rack up a huge porn bill, the free stuff would have been well worth a night in this place.

Instead, we watched cartoon network until we fell asleep.

The next day, we got in the elevator so that we could go to the desk and check out. It didn't seem odd at first, but we were in one of the elevators that was not working the previous day.

When we got to the bottom, there was a repair man in one of the other shafts. "Oh good! It finally came down! I was just about to shut them all off, just in case that one fell!"

Now, there was no sign anywhere that said "Elevator to Certain Doom" or "Elevator Out of Order" or even "Use at Own Risk", so I was a little concerned that we could have fallen to our death, but I just laughed it off. Somehow, it just seemed fitting.

At this point, I might add that the grand total of our room charge was $25.75, and that it was the same price as all of the other hotel rooms in town.

Less than a full day in this town made me realize how much I love home, and I guess that was well worth it.

On the way home, we stopped at a music franchise store and purchased a "learn to play the guitar set" along with a few picks and some strings. My Husband and I both have guitars, but neither of us know how to play. Mine was given to me as a gift when I was senior in high school, several years ago, and My Husband received his when his Great Aunt died. It had been one of his relatives, and no one else wanted it.

When we got home, we put the DVD in, sat down, and had The Roommate act as our remote control. He would pause, fast forward, and rewind upon request, while reminding me that no one expected me to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan right away. Once it occurred to me that it takes everyone more than 5 minutes to master chords and fingerings, I felt a little bit better. Since I am still doing the very basic, it took me a little while to get the G7 chord. It really confused me that there would be a G and then another G, so I am counting that as my second skill.

To recap: I learned to play Texas Hold 'Em with actual cards, and I learned all about the G7 chord.

I'm sure there are several other skills from this trip that I could have chosen, but those are the most memorable.

Sangria + Crazy = good feelings

So, tonight my skill was to repair a set of headphones that The Roommate broke.

I repaired them. Then I went into crazy mode.

My everything decided that the apartment must be clean RIGHT NOW, and My Husband and The Roommate helped make that happen.

It isn't perfect, but it is way better than it was.

I am so lucky to have two people in my life that understand the fact that I can't help it when I go crazy. I usually don't have much warning, so it isn't like I can just say "Hey guys, I'm going to go crazy in about 45 minutes, so we should probably start cleaning up or go see a movie or something."

Fortunately, they get it and are more than willing to help.

Next, I need to learn how to properly thank them.

Two half skills is the same as one real skill, right?

Today I learned to do two semi-skills, so I think that should count!

I learned how to ask for a letter of recommendation, and how to turn the captions off on my T.V. using the remote control.

For some people, the T.V. thing may not be so special, but we have not had a working remote control for our main T.V. in... over 3 years.

About a week ago, we had to have the cable guy come out to replace our box because it was doing crazy things and I was tired of paying for cable that I wasn't watching. While he was out, he did something that I never imagined possible... he programed our remote control.

For the first time, we were able to turn the T.V. off without getting up! We can change the volume, the channel-- even switch over to a game system-- all from the comfort of our couch!

Again, this may be old hat for some people, but it completely amazes me. Sometimes I will switch channels, or go to picture-in-picture just because I can. Note, I am not actually watching more T.V., I am just watching it differently.

The letter of recommendation thing is something I have never been able to do before. I could never walk up to my boss and ask them for anything, much less permission to go to a different department. Today, however, I walked up to my Lead and said "Hey Lead, do you think I could get a letter of recommendation to move to -insert department here- ?". He looked at me for a second and said that he would be thrilled to do so! He offered to set up a Shadow session so that I could sit with that department and really learn what they do.

I was completely in shock! I have moved departments, but my old Lead just came up to me and told me that he put in a recommendation, I didn't actually have to ask. I overcame a fear that I have had for years with one single sentence.

These may not seem like huge things to a lot of people, but they mean a lot to me.

I might also add that I work in a Call Center for one of the best companies in the universe. No department there would be a poor choice, but I really want to learn everything that I can while I have the chance!

So, that's really it for today! Have an awesome night!

Meet The Cast!

Hello again!

To make reading this blog a little easier, here is a list of the people I will probably talk about, along with a short description:




Me- The writer. The one with all of the skills.



My Husband- This one is pretty self explanatory. This is the man that I married on Oct 31st, 2005. I love him even more now than I did that night.



Our Roomate- This guy has been one of my best friends for years. He has been living with us since Christmas of 2007.



O- One of the most awesome Neighbors (and friend!) that anyone could ever ask for. She is truly spectacular!

K- Her husband! He works with my husband, we became friends, and then they moved in next door.

Child 1 - O's oldest son. He is from a previous marriage, and is insanely adorable.

Child 2 - That Guy's only, and O's youngest son. This child (when calm) is one of the many reasons I want children of my own.

As this list grows, I will probably go into more detail about the lives and relationships, but for now this is really all you need to know.

For everyones privacy (and sanity) no actual names will be mentioned (hopefully...). This is not because we are crazy afraid of stalkers and the like, but after the experiences I have had, I think it is best that we keep it simple. I apologize if this leads to confusion, but there will be a handy link if you ever need to refer back!

In the begining... there were Zebra Cakes

Lately I've found myself learning a new skill each day. I decided that I wanted to keep it going, so this is today's new skill-- Blogging! I've had a journal and a myspace, but those are more like personal diaries than really having a blog.

My hope is that by next year, I will have all of the skills necessary to survive without running to Google or my mother everytime I need to know how to do something. So far I have learned how to solder, repair the ac cable that is used to charge a laptop computer, and last night I dabbled in minor upholstery repair.

If you have any suggestions for skills to learn, whether elementary or advanced, please let me know so that I can keep this up!

Hopefully, this Blog will become a real thing for me, but if not... I at least learned a lot about blogging.