Bah-humbug

"You bought me a present? Why would you do such a thing? I know you think you're being generous, but the foundation of gift giving is reciprocity. You haven't given me a gift, you've given me an obligation. The essence of the custom is that I now have to go out and purchase for you a gift of commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship as that represented by the gift you've given me. Ah, it's no wonder suicide rates skyrocket this time of year. Oh, I brought this on myself by being such an endearing and important part of your life..."

-Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory

(Amen!)

I am Ebenezer Scrooge this time of year. I have absolutely no problem with this. Maybe it has something to do with getting older. I don't know.
I do know that I've always hated Christmas music. Think I'm exaggerating? Ask my mom what I did to her Chipmunks Christmas music...
This makes my desire to shop even less then normal. It's not even December and I swear if I hear "Jingle Bells" one more time I might just snap. Combine this with the fact that I'm prone to panic attacks when crowds are involved and you'll understand why I might become a tab-bit bitchy this time of year.
*sigh*

Husband purchased an Xbox 360. I am now a widow. (As if I needed another reason to hate Microsoft!)

This is perhaps the greatest find of the last several weeks. I got a $10 coupon for Up, as well as an $8 coupon for Monsters, INC. They have an amazing upgrade program, all you have to do is enter the barcodes from previously purchased Disney VHS/DVDs and they give you a coupon for the Blu-Ray version (which also comes with a digital download version that you can import using iTunes). When they offer this for Toy Story 1 & 2 I might die from sheer happiness.

Which reminds me. Our laptop is off at the Best Buy repair center for the 2nd time in, oh let's say, 2 months. First they had to replace the motherboard and now the wireless card. This lead a very frustrated Husband and I to start looking for new laptops, preferably one that is a bit more reliable. This time we went with Sony because it has the Blu-Ray player (for Husband) and an awesome graphics card capable of playing the Sims (for me, obviously). I'm in love. Windows 7 is weird but other than that.

Right. My desktop has also gone crazy in the last 3 days. It now is taking 4 minutes to boot up. We have no idea what's wrong.
*sigh*

Technology, what a bitch.

I got a new book last night that I'm ridiculously excited about. The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. She had blogged about the book over on Crazy Sexy Life and I was intrigued. Besides I need to build up my resources before making any seriously, life-alternating changes. I mean I have an awesome/supportive Husband, but even he has his limits.
(Barnes & Noble keeps throwing coupons at me.) (seriously, 40% off any book for using my mastercard!)(That's not mentioning the 2 15% off ones sitting in my wallet))

I have got to do something about my professional life. Seriously. This sucks. I hate being this unhappy. Ugh.

So in short, wake me up when spring rolls back around. Or at least when the holidays are over.

A glimpse...

I haven't blogged lately because... Well... I got nothing...

However, I promised she who shares my namesake that I would blog by the end of the week (which obviously didn't happen, seeing as how it is now next week) so here I am. I know you've missed me. Don't lie.

So you say to yourself... "What's been going on Karen?" To which I reply... "um, let me think about it"

On yoga - Yes, I'm still going. Yep, you guessed it, my body still hates it. Some of the most basic things my body just refuses to do. It screams, protests and threatens to shut down while I try to make it bend and pose. I know patience is a virtue and at some point I will be bending and posing with the best of them but in the meantime it's a struggle. 27 years of being sedentary are coming back to haunt me. No worries though, I will make my body love yoga, whether it wants to or not is irrelevant.

On my quest for better health - Obviously I've been having some issues when it comes to staying with it. Legolas (my Elf boyfriend) is trying his hardest to remind me. Juicing has also been a little problematic as I've been lazy and also have been having a hard time finding kale that isn't dry. So what happens when I don't do the things I know I should be doing? I get sick. My sinuses are killing me. Consequently I can't sleep (especially if I try to take a Claritin D close to bedtime) and have raging headaches. However, I'm getting sick of being sick so I think that will spur me back to the path of health.
In a related note I tried some Almond milk a while back and decided that it is supreme yum. I'm hesitant to try soy products just because I'm heard so many bad things about it... Any recommendations for dairy substitutes? (And if you are a family member reading this don't freak out, I'm not going vegan anytime soon)

On my new phone - I got an iPhone! We've been together for 2 weeks now. The honeymoon phase is over and now we're stuck trying to find our groove. It's a delicate relationship currently because we're still on unfamiliar territory. He (yes my iPhone is male) is a sensitive one and I'm always pushing the wrong buttons. I've been told eventually it'll become easier and like second nature. I hope so because I've lusted after this relationship for so long. (Just for you Karin =P)


Work on the bathroom continues (now that Husband is home). The shower is tiled & grouted. Yesterday he started on the floor (and finished but I'm too lazy to take another picture). It will probably be grouted sometime later this week. I love the design and I love the fact that Husband just dreamed it up out of nowhere. He's so awesome. Now if we could just get done with the house...

So now I'm sure you're saying to yourself... That's great Karen but what have you been doing while your husband has been hard at work? Well... I've been busy too... Sorta.

Yesterday I spent most of the day making our book shelf look pretty and organized again. 250+ books/4 hours later doesn't it look pretty? I also discovered that we apparently need more shelves... Which means I also need to sit down with my thoroughly marked up excel spreadsheet and update some info... Oh books how I love thee... (This is our "read" section... which brings me to...)This didn't happen yesterday, maybe last weekend but here's even more books that I have stashed away somewhere else... This is my to-finish-reading-dammit pile. I need to stop buying books for the love of jeebus. Or just read faster...And this morning I did this... *beams with pride* Welcome to the kingdom of Karen. (And yes Li that is the Sims on my computer screen... but I was working while playing darnit!) Isn't it beautiful? (Although I did forget to dust my keyboard/mouse area...) It feels nice to be organized... even if it won't last.

Let me see... what else?
Oh I signed up for the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel. That means I scan in my weekly household purchases and transmit the data for free stuff! Yep, I love me some free stuff. I got the scanner in Friday and finally set up the store information today along with scanning in my first purchases. I'm excited.

Honestly, I think that's all. Even if it's not my brain refuses to think anymore. Over and out.

Busy, busy...

I feel like I've been run over.
People think I'm lazy.
I'm not.
I'm just not good at being busy.
I hate it actually.
I like quiet time.
I miss it.

• I've been selling old textbooks on Amazon. Which means I've been dealing with the post office. I wish there was a less headache-y/faster way to do it but... at least it'll ultimately (hopefully) be a little extra cash.
  
• I went to a volunteer orientation this morning for the TSPCA. Now the anxiety of actually volunteering has set in. I'm proud that I went. I tried really hard to talk myself out of it. At some point though I have to stop being so afraid to live my life. This is a step in the right direction, I hope.
  
• I started learning to sew today as well thanks to the wonderful (read: patient) Amy. If my new sewing machine wasn't possessed it would be going better. The bad thing is that when Husband took me to Hobby Lobby to buy some thread he needed I found myself wandering off to ogle all the pretty fabric and fantasize about what I could make with it. I'm so becoming my mother.
  
• My college roommate moved back to town. I've missed her terribly. Maybe now I'll be a little less of a hermit.
  
• I've been dealing with insurance screw ups. God bless doctors, they just aren't too smart.
  
• I've been trying to give my worthless crap away. Freecycle was too much of a headache (read: full of flaky ass people) so instead I waited for a charity to call. They really weren't much better.
  
• I finally gathered up all my old plastic bags and took them for recycling. It only took me 6 months.
  
• I've been trying to be better about actually reading books instead of just buying them. Easier said then done when you spend 4 hours sitting in a Barnes and Noble catching up with old friends.
  
• Somehow I stopped taking my vitamins. I don't remember deciding to stop taking them, I guess I just stopped making time to take them. So now my body is revolting. I'm not entirely sure I'll make it out of bed tomorrow. Ugh.
• I really need to finish a scarf I started as a birthday present for a friend. Her birthday was last month and I'm maybe a quarter of the way through.
  

I'm just tired.

Disappointment reigns supreme...

(Cast of Twilight)

I had horribly low expectations for this movie. I mean really low. And somehow I still managed to be annoyed/disappointed. Go figure.

I love books. I love to read for the sake of reading. I may have a degree in English Ed but I hate analyzing literature. I like to enjoy a good story. To me, Twilight is a great story. Twilight the movie, however, is an abomination. To be fair though... I'm one of those obnoxious people who wants the movie to follow the book. Husband hates taking me to see the Harry Potter movies (I nearly walked out of the 4th movie I was so angry). However, those I can handle because they at least stay true to the essence of what Harry Potter is. This was... awful. The casting was terrible. The acting... laughable. They changed who the characters were at their very core and that is unforgivable to me.

Went to the NIN concert last night with Husband. I have never been to a worse concert in my life, I'm dead serious. The opening act was bizarre and all the strobe lights pointed directly in my face nearly made me blind. I'm not a huge NIN fans to begin with but I've liked some of their big hits. I think I knew approximately 4 songs the entire concert. Even Husband gave up and sat down during most of the concert. And when did Trent Reznor go from looking like a goth-type to looking like the lead singer from 3 Doors Down? And frankly 3 Doors Down would have been a much better concert.

Oh well. Time to go snuggle up with a good book I suppose.

Insomnia: version who knows what

I have insomnia, again. I was doing better for a while, sleeping through the night without waking up. Then I started waking up ridiculously early. Last Friday it was 5am, this Friday it was 4:30, this morning it was somewhere around 3am. The last few days though I feel like I haven't gotten any rest, at all. I'm painfully aware of everything, it's like my nerves are on edge. There's nothing particular I'm stressed about, consciously anyway. It's so frustrating. So here I sit, sipping some tea that's supposed to help make me drowsy. We shall see.

At first I thought this latest bit of my newly re-aquired insomnia had something to do with my latest book purchase. I finally came into possession of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. (This is where I would rant about how much I hate B&N and UPS but I'm just too stinking lazy) Her books always give me insomnia, I figure it has something to do with the fact that she makes me care so much about the characters in the book but who knows... In any event I adored this book as much as I adored the other books in the series. I just don't know that I can pin the insomnia down on that.

I'm sure there's something to do with work and my feelings of inadequacy or general stupidity making me prone to insomnia but I just don't want to go there.

I'm sure seeing the Primetime tribute to the late Randy Pausch made me somewhat on edge too though.

Oh well... maybe this tea will kick in soon enough and I can get some sleep tonight...

Saturday ramblings...

I keep thinking that something will come to me. That a really great articulate blog idea will materialize and it will flow seamlessly from my brain to the keyboard. Alas that is not the case. I've been an intellectual mess the past few weeks.

I don't really feel like my work-place drama has been resolved. If anything, I feel like the recent events are killing whatever remaining moral we may have had. We are under-staffed so things aren't running as smoothly as they were before. Plus add that to the fact that my scheduling has yet to be resolved and set in stone.

Most days I love my job. Although there are those days where I leave feeling so unsettled. I think about the 7 week old puppy who developed a heart murmur and had to be euthanized because it was the right thing to do. But then there are those moments that despite the fact that you KNOW it was the right thing to do you can't help but feel devastated. I asked one of the vets today if it ever got any easier, despite the fact that I already knew the answer, and she said no. She says that you learn to move on easier afterwards but it will never get any easier. I could barely look in the face of the woman with the puppy afterwards because I just didn't know what to say or do. I've always been a hyper-emotional person but I don't think I ever learned how to respond to other people's emotions. Maybe it's a skill I will be forced to learn now.

Husband volunteered for a what I consider a substantial deployment this summer. It's not even a for-sure thing but I find myself distraught anyway. I'm not really good at being a "military" wife therefore I'm always thankful he's just in the National Guard. Although he was offered a temporary position on base which we're both really happy about. It'll be for only four months but hopefully it'll give him the leverage to get a full-time position in the not-so-distant future.

Last weekend I went into OCD mode and reorganized 95% of our bookshelf unit. (I would have done it all but was entirely too lazy to balance precariously on a chair to get the top 2 shelves) I even threatened Husband with a swiffer duster when he suggested another way of doing things. This is yet another reason I should not be allowed to clean. Granted the rest of our house is still a mess but at least now my books are organized.

I had to drop one of the classes I was taking this semester. With everything that has been going on lately I should couldn't handle it as well as I had hoped. In doing so I also decided to put off getting into the tech program for a while. I think it all happened too much too soon. Besides to do what I'm wanting to do you don't even technically need to be certified in Oklahoma. This takes a little pressure off me for a while which is really nice. For now I'm just enjoying learning all the different aspects of veterinary medicine.

I'm sure I've blathered on long enough about nothing entirely relevant so I'll wrap this up. Until next time...

Among other things...

I had intended a much different blog yesterday but emotions were overflowing and that happens I suppose. I'm better today but emotionally very drained.

Christmas went well I suppose. Food was eaten and gifts were exchanged. I'm still not used to having split Christmas celebrations. Both sets of family are so different... I wonder if I'll ever get used to it. Among other things I got a pen tablet from my parents that completely caught me off guard. It's wonderful but unfortunately my cursive penmanship still sucks. Hopefully more time will be found to play with it.

I was disappointed when I tried picking up a copy of The World Without Us and B&N was completely sold out. So much for my 30% off coupon.

Husband and I saw National Treasure 2 this morning for $4 a person. It wasn't bad... I will say it's frivolous fun. And after yesterday... I sorely needed that.

Things will be settling down in the new year... I hope. I have enrolled in 11 hours in my attempt to get into the world of Veterinary Technology. My last day at the bank is Friday and I have mixed emotions about all of that. I'll be full time with the vet in the New Year but none of Husbands job prospects worked out so it's back to the drawing board there I suppose.

It's been both a painful and joyous year... but that's another blog in and of itself.

Saturday fodder...

Cartoon from the Bunny Suicides series by Andy Riley.

I bought the box set for Husband last Christmas. He didn't know it even existed until I pointed it out one year in Barnes and Noble. It doesn't matter how many times I read the cartoons it still makes me giggle. Yea, I know, I have a sick sense of humor...

Thin line between love and hate...

I love books.
I'm passionate about books.
Although Barnes and Noble is about feel my wraith.

Pictured above is the newest addition to my book family. Want to read more about it? Click here. I wanted to pick it up in store when I saw that it had been released because I don't seem to have good luck with ordering online. We buy it and I get my discount... then I come home and see I could have saved $4 ordering it from their website. Bastards.

I ordered a couple of books from their website on 10/3 because Husband didn't want to drive across town to just pick up the one book I wanted originally. Therefore I had to order some additional books just to get free shipping. Bastards, again. They didn't even send out my order till yesterday. 3 day shipping my foot. I'm not scheduled to get the books until the 11th.

Maybe I just need to get a library card...
Oh wait... that means I'd have to actually give the books back though...
Nevermind...