Creative Juices

Summer Lovin' Had me a Blast

Lets get one thing straight. I'm not a beach person. I like to pretend I am, having spent half my life as a resident of Florida, but I'm not. What I am, is a concrete and chlorinated pool person.
Lets get another thing straight. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to tan. It's like my skin wants to tan, it really does, but all it can do is freckle. Some of my skin molecules get it, others do not. I can, however, burn. Burn, baby, burn. Which is why sunscreen is very important. But even when I bath in sunscreen, I always seem to miss a spot. It doesnt even matter if someone else helps. Like the brown mark on my back. That is the fault of Aunt Alice (may she rest in peace) (no, I didnt kill her for leaving a perminant mark on my back.. she died of cancer :P ). Aunt Alice missed a spot at the beach when I was 8. That spot has never gone away, kinda like Steve's paintball scar.
This time around, as I spent maybe 5 hours total in the sun, I missed the outside of my armpits. Only because I'm an idiot (which I think I've already established). That it.. just that spot. top of my ears.. fine... part in my hair... fine... feet... fine... back of my knees... fine. Armpits... oopsie!
But the rest of the trip was largely successful. We arrived just in time for dinner on Sunday. Lucky for me, the family had prepared Italian food. I can eat Italian. The sauce wasnt even spicey. I was thankful. (for those who dont know... Steve's family has an East Indian background and they really like their curry, along with some other spices my palate cannot handle).
After dinner, Steve's cousin, Ian mixed us some drinks. Yeah, baby. We sat around and discussed my nostaligic need for vodka,
"Wow, it really does smell like your family!"
"Told you."

"This drink is missing something..."
"Vodka?"

After the drinks, we took some time to bath in the mosquito swamp.. which the real estate had advertised as a jacuzzi. 15 mosquito bites later...

Monday morning was a challenge. Yes, you pray for sunshine on your beach trip... but really.. it does not need to be sunny at 7am. Cant the sun wait till 10 or so come out.
We slept on an air mattress in a room that can only be described as the room with twenty windows and no shades. That's what we get for not paying our way.

What made the day wonderful? Getting to watch Dawson's Creek reruns with my younger sister-in-law and her boyfriend, Mike. Steve was there too.. but he rolls his eyes most the time (though he did get into ep320, "The Longest Day").

It was a lovely vacation. Though I thought it might have been nice to stay longer... I dont know if I could have handled that much of Steve's family. Dont get me wrong.. I get along very well with my inlaws and I love my sisters-in-law. Some of the extended family could get on my nerves, though. I suppose if we do pay for the whole week next year, at least we'll have our own bedroom. A place to retreat would be nice. And I might get to sleep in a little bit.

That was Vacation 1. In less than two weeks... Steve and I are flying up to good ol NYC to spend some drunken hours with my family.

Oh, btw, I decided on a gift for my dad and his wife. Mary, one of my coworkers, suggested making the movie basket an annual gift. Brilliant! So, I got another basket... three movies (Analyze This, Analyze That and Sinatra:Duets) and some popcorn and candy. They called yesterday to thank us for it. Sucessful!!

That's all folks.

To the Beach I Go!

Steve and I are meeting his family (lots of them) at the Outerbanks. Wont be back till the end of the week. So you'll have to do without my whining and wit.
Enjoy the week without me!

Sleepy Sabrina

I try very hard to be a cool wife. I never want to be nagging (in front of other people... I'll nag his ass off in private), I dont want his friends to think I wont let him do stuff or that I keep him from having fun. Because of my need to be cool... I'm now very very tyerd.
I feel like I only got two hours of sleep. Though I was in bed from 10pm to 6:30am.
See, Steve had a LAN party last night. This one isnt powered by NVidia, cause it's just Steve, his friend Mike and his other friend Brian that lives in Florida. So, Mike brings his box over (we keep a spare monitor in the closet) and they play. Apparently, Mike's box is also a space heater... so they cant close the office door. 20 clicks (I dont even know what clicks are...) from the office door is the bedroom door.
Now, they've had several LAN parties before. And I've managed to sleep nicely through all of them, with the helpful aid of Channel 920something, The Light Classical Music Channel.
But last night... they were INCREDIBLY loud. I completely understand how exciting it can get and the need to express yourself vocally. But why do I know that Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" was not received well at it's first production? Because at 3am, I was reading the random facts on channel 920something.
As if their loudness wasnt enough.... the cats go "People are up at 3am! Partay! Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!" and run around the house like crazy. They also find great amusement in the bedroom door game. One sits on the bedroom side of the door, and the other on the hallway side and they paw at each other until one wins by getting the door open. Fun for everyone! But me.
So, I'm tyerd. And since the sun has ceased to exist in Durham, I will be tyerd all day.

The repercussion of buying a really great gift

Understand this. Gift giving is huge in my family. It is, in fact, the only way they know how to say 'I Love You.' (By family, I mean my dad and his side of the family. The New Yorkers).
The beginning of July proves an interesting dilemma. July 1 is my Dad and his wife's (Rose) anniversary. And it is wonderfully sandwhiched between both of their birthday's. Rose's on June 27 and Dad's on July 4.
Last year. Last year I got this genius idea. Why not make them a movie basket. So, i got a cute little basket and filled it with a pretty (but inexpensive) throw blanket, a couple of DVD's, a couple of blockbuster movie coupons and all my dad's movie favorites (jiffy pop popcorn, snowcaps, raisinets, dots, twizzlers). They LOVED it. I mean, who wouldnt? It was a GREAT gift.
And now, a year later... I'm screwed. How the hell do I top that kind of gift?
Em-poss-eh-bull!
Now that my comments are enabled, feel free to give me an idea or two. I really need it.

As if you needed another reason...

To believe that I'm an idiot.
Over the weekend... I did the usual Krogering (for those unfamiliar, it's a grocery store). Now, Kroger has these wonderful amazing machines... U Scans. You can scan your groceries, bag em, pay for it... all right there. Without any contact with another human being. I love these machines. Not only are they cool... but for someone anal like me, I get to bag all my groceries myself. No more eggs on top of the bread, no sir. And now I can bag my groceries according to shelf. It doesnt get more effecient than that, folks.
However, I might not be able to use them. See, stupid people shouldnt use smart machines. Not only do these all in wonders let you check out all by yourself, they also save you a trip to the bank. You can get your cash back right there.
So, I did. I got my usual 20 for the week.
Sunday morning, all the sudden, in between applying eye shadow and mascara I think... "Did I grab the 20 out of the little slot?" And the Point and Laugh Angels said "Noooooooooooo! Haha! You loser!"
I didnt grab the 20. Why? Cause I'm a big fatty fat loser.
After church I went back to Kroger, to plead my case. I figure, I'm probably not the first stupid person, right? And besides, who can resist this cute face?
Lots of people, apparently.
I didnt get my 20. But somebody else did. They better enjoy my money. Spend it well Random Person!
(Shh, dont tell the husband. He'll get mad).

What a Loser!

Can you believe I havent blogged in a week? Don't worry, I have plenty of excuses.
On Saturday, I went to the mall. I love malls. And I especially love Southpoint. So, I spent the majority of the day there. I came out of it with a new way on sale bathing suit and some really cute flip flops. Not to mention some other random things I must have bought on a whim cause I cant recall them now. Oh oh, I got my dad this nifty tool from Brookstone. The dad has a home repair business in Florida, so when I saw a tool that on one side was regular pliers and then you flip over the handle and you've got needlenose pliers with a crimper and stripper, I thought "Perfectomundo!" And since the only lead I got from my dad when I spoke to him on the phone was "Yeah, uh, there was this, uh, CD I wanted. But I cant rememba the name." I went with the neato tool.
After the trip to the mall, I went home, got Steve and our good friend Mike and we went for dinner at McDonalds (so I could get a Finding Nemo toy). Then we went to see "Bruce Almighty" It was a pretty cute movie. I think the Jim Carrey antics are getting kind of old... he's not as funny as he used to be. The funniest part was a scene with one of the correspondents from The Daily Show. But it was still good. I think they did a good job with the whole God thing without making it ultra-Christian. Something that your average non-athiest could relate to.
Monday. Monday was the worst day of my life. I went to the dentist to get some major long aweful work done. I wont go into details. I know you dont want to hear it. But the important part is that I did it. Without valium, without gas, just me, the novicane and my wonderful CD. It was ultimately the worst experience of my life, but I made it through and I'm very proud of that. So, my reward... "Enter the Matrix." More about that in a minute.
Tuesday... blah blah day until I got my hair done. Yay for highlights and a trim. But... I might go back and get a couple more inches off my hair. It's bugging me.
Wednesday was boring until I got home. Steve picked up "Enter the Matix" He played it until I got home from work. We decided that he'll play Ghost and I'll be Niobi. Which is good, cause I like driving much more than shooting. I only played for an hour before my eyes started hurting (they do that when I concentrate on a screen too hard, doctor says I forget to blink... I really am stupid). It took me awhile to get the hang of it... lots of walking around going "where the hell am I?" but good fun all in all. And I made it further than Steve did, so that was pretty exciting. That night, I watched the first ep of the season for The Osbournes. The whole Jack/Kelly/Christina Agulera thing was annoying... but Ozzy at the dentist on nitrious. He was begging for it and they turned it up so high. I was on the floor laughing when they told him to rinse and he kept raising the cup up to his cheek. I even watched it again. Then, when he was in the teeth whitening room, he kept asking for nitrous. Could you imagine being a dental assistant and having to tell Ozzy he cant have anymore nitrous, he's already too high. LOL
Oh, funny story from Wednesday morning. So, I trained my mom to chat with me on aim, rather than random phone calls twenty times a day. She's gotten very good at it, and we talk just about every weekday. Now, mom has dial-up... so sometimes she'll just sign off, mid conversation. No big deal. So, when that happens Wednesday morning, I just go about my business, get some stuff done while she's not around. I check my email... and there is a message from her. All it says in the subject line is "help" Nothing in the body of the email... So, I start freaking. "Help! Help what! ohmygod she's choking! or somebody broke in the house and has her at gunpoint!" So, I try to call her on the cell. No answer! Oh jeez! But then I get another email... where she explains that IM just locked up and she didnt know what to do. Blah, stupid computer. I overreacted for nothing. Stupid me.
Yesterday I cleaned house a little bit, trying to get ready for my Pampered Chef party Saturday morning. I also worked on some graphics for church on Sunday. **(side note... I was very tempted to not link our church website... see... Steve and I spend countless hours working on the website... and it looked so beautiful (which might still be evident on some daughter pages) but, then our worship arts pastor went and changed it back... it was a pissy thing to do... he apologized.. end of story... but I take no credit for that website. I really did try... but for some reason, some people thing cut out photos are cool, go figure)** We're doing a Jeopardy sort of skit and I offered to do the make the graphics of the question board. I sort of miss using photoshop and it gets kinda depressing when I cant remember to do something. So, this was kinda nice.
Tonight, we're supposed to be going to a Bull's Game with our small group. However, the weather isnt looking very promising. And Steve and I have had one of the worst thunderstorm experiences last year at a game. But I still want to go. Have a little faith or something. The weatherman is rarely right. Plus, there's gonna be fireworks! Yay!
Work has been busy lately, but obviously not today, cause I've managed to spend all this time catching up with my blog. I might even have time to go through and link things... ooo... havent done that in awhile.

Phobias

If an effort to procrastinate after the top 20 things I do... I've decided to do some online research on fears. In hopes of finding out something I dont know.
Of course, i got stuck on the list of phobias. Here is my absolute favorite.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia -- fear of long words.
ROTFLMAO
Why in the world would doctors assign such a very long word... probably the longest word I've ever seen... to the fear of long words. "You have Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia," "AUGGHHHHHHHHH NO! PLEASE! NO! NOT THAT!!!"
Some other phobias that tickled my fancy...
Allodoxaphobia -- Fear of opinions
Arachibutyrophobia -- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth
Boshephobia -- Fear of Bolsheviks
Deipnophobia -- Fear of dining and dinner conversation
Hydrophobia -- Fear of water or of rabies (Now, my question is... why? Why are they the same word. Two very different fears... did we run out of words or something? Is Rabieophobia taken???)
Mnemophobia -- Fear of memories
Novercaphobia -- Fear of your step-mother (also Pentheraphobia)
Papaphobia -- Fear of the Pope
Phobophobia -- Fear of phobias (lmao... how? how???)
Porphyrophobia -- Fear of the color purple (a moment of silence, please).

Sometimes I do stupid things

Backstory: The majority of my extended family lives in New York City. In July, my cousin Allison will be getting married. Steve and I are joining the whole family for a very Italian NY wedding. We're talking black tie... fancy dresses... everybody rides in a limo... no presents, just money.... So, my wonderful Aunt Debbie bought me a dress for this occassion. I doubt I would have picked it out on my own, but it's a beautiful blue and shimmery and Steve says I look very great in it. So, for lack of other options, I'll wear it.
Story: The first time I tried it on, I just slipped on some black heels. They are pretty tall heels, and the dress was still laying on the floor. So, I decided I needed to get it hemmed. You know, to avoid tripping on the dance floor (though that might have been a good excuse for my poor dancing skills). I found a small little shop by the mall close to work, so I could stop by on my lunch for a fitting. And that's what I did today. But in between the first time I tried the dress on and this time, I had gotten new shoes. Pretty shimmery silver shoes.
I'm in the dressing room... I slip the shoes on and stand up and realize that the dress fits perfectly. Now, it's floating right above the ground, just at the point that you can see my toes if I stick it out and high enough up that I wont trip. And now I feel like an idiot. Here I am in this teeny tiny dressing room of a tailor.. and I dont need their help anymore. Just Kidding, thanks for your time. I decide to go out of the dressing room and give them a looksie. I could use a few compliments today. The man behind the sewing machine says "Dress fine, no hem" and the woman holding back her little boy says "You no trip in that." The little boy says "Toes!" and squats down and puts his finger on my big toe. I'm going to assume the little boy was pleased with the color. I'll take that as a compliment.
Slightly embarrassed by how stupid I can be sometimes, I apologize and go back and put my clothes back on.
The good news is, I dont need my dress hemmed. The bad news is... I can do stupid things sometimes.

Things I do to procrastinate...

1. check people's away messages
2. check email
3. drink water
4. see if I have any shout outs on my blog, which I dont
5. try to get my wedding ring off, it wont budge
6. check email
7. check people's away messages
8. try to figure out what "afk" means... a flying kookoo... after friendly konversation....
9. lurk on a message board
10. fill up water
11. stand in front of Anne, and stare
12. play with my in/out magnet
13. talk to Dawson the fishie
14. write this
15. make a paperclip chain
16. count the days till I go to NY (35)
17. check email
18. stare out the window
19. ponder if it's too early to have a rolo
20. job search

Give me a D! Give me a V! Give me an R!

What's that spell? DVR! Steve hooked up our very own wannabe Tivo last night. Time Warner recently released DVRs to the area. So, he got to bring one home (for free) so that he can understand how it works. And boy does it take some understanding. The interface is pleasing, easy to figure out and all. But it's sooooooooo sloooooooooow. Press Channel Up....................................................................................................Channel Up. Now, I dont flip through channels anymore because of the guide (which might I add makes me read more, what the hell is that? If I wanted to read, I wouldnt be watching TV, people), but I do expect that when I select a channel for viewing, it should appear instantly. Instead, the turtle in the box gets the message... walks very slowly over to the hard drive and says "Dude, can I get, like TechTV, man?" And the hard drive snail goes "O.....K...." I suppose I'll get used to it.
The perks are just all too appealing. All those shows I cant manage to stay up and watch, the timer is now set to tape them everyday of the week. And the pausing... oh the pausing. The best thing to happen to our marriage since... since... I dont know what. The husband isnt very good at listening to my random thoughts and watching The Simpsons at the same time. Now, I go "I talked to my dad today" and he can pause the show right there and listen to me. Absolutely amazing.
But it isnt Tivo. It doesnt automatically assume because I watched Trading Spaces I will also want to see Changing Rooms. Which is fine, I suppose. You cant have it all for free, can you?
This morning on the radio, the djs were talking about their Tivo's. Apparently it's sending a signal back, and they're keeping track of what people are watching. I guess it'll help out with rating and stuff. But the ultimate goal is to customize commercials. So, because Joe watching lots of nature fishing hunting crap, he gets camping commercials and Ford commercials and stuff. And because I watch TechTV and MTV... I get Sony commercials and movie previews. Kinda interesting, kinda scary.

Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine

Ah, Pixar does it again. Will they ever cease to amaze us? Toys, Bugs, Monsters and now The Ocean. "Finding Nemo" was absolutely wonderful. I laughed, I almost cried, I even snorted. Crush was hilarious "Dude" and Squirt was the cutest. The jellyfish scene was incredible. Who knew purple and pink could be so frightening and so beautiful at the same time? But really, did it have to take place in a dentist office? Like I really needed my fears of the dentist exemplified in a computer animated feature film. However, the fish and pelican discussing the dental procedures was very entertaining.
I only hope that some day Pixar can shrug off the Disney name and market movies on it's own.