Speaking of Obsessions I think this blog is mine

So this tax stimulus, I’ve been thinking about it as I’ve made sure all my May bills and early June bills are mailed, scheduled, etc. I had to pay my personal property tax and my vehicle registration renewal this week. I don’t know about these, I don’t understand why I have to pay more for something I’ve already paid a large amount of money to own. Seriously, they make me pay this money and then don’t even pay the postage, I’ve still got to fork that over as well.
I understand taxes, they take it from your paycheck before you see it, they even take some after you think you’re in the clear ($1 to the state of Virginia this year when taxes were all said and done). I pay a tax on food, a gasoline tax (at least I’m told I do), I pay a different - lesser tax on non-food items at the store, or maybe that tax is more - I can’t remember at the moment. I pay all these taxes and suddenly I’m supposed to be grateful and unsuspicious that the government is going to give me some money back. But before I even get the money they send me personal property tax and vehicle registration. Depending on how much money I get with this stimulus I’ve either already spent over 1/4 or 1/3 of the “rebate” whatever they’re calling it. That coupled with the fact that I can go two weeks without having to fill up my tank and somehow this morning I still went over my newly revised gas budget which is already more than my food budget. Then there are elections this year and I’m supposed to vote in this popularity contest for which politician is going to screw me over the least.
Don’t even get me started on the lesser bottom dwelling politicians who can’t even seem to show up for work when it’s required of them, who knows what they are doing other than paying themselves far too much for the job required of them, which means more national debt, which means more taxes on people who can’t afford to have a good standard of living and pay these ridiculous taxes. I can’t believe I live in a country that pays professional liars so much money (don’t think I’m not throwing in lawyers into the mix because the best politicians started out as lawyers – oh and let’s just toss in overpaid actors as well, they could be considered liars). Excuse me for being upset but I feel awful if I pay over $30 for a pair of shoes, while these guys can go buy a yacht with money I’ve earned and somehow ended up in some agreement to pay them for not even showing up to vote on a bill.
You don’t even want to hear how I feel about the idiots who think “Carbon Points” are a good idea. It’s just some way to make more money off of the American people while pretending you actually care about the environment. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/20/miliband_carbon_trading/
Agh. I’m just in a mood today
Just so you know, this entire blog is complete opinion, I may have facts incorrect, I don’t care, I don’t want to hear about it. I just want to vent, immature and possibly completely wrong. That’s my prerogative.

Excuse my manners if I make a scene

Sara's okay with me posting again, so I will. I just worry I'm bugging you guys, of course you don't have to read them I suppose.



So two blogs ago I wrote about obsession. I happened to mention my fondness for Peter Pan and I’m not sure if anyone else got to see, but a new reader posted a comment.
I’m not sure how The_Never_Fairy came across my blog, whether a Google search on Peter Pan or an avid closet reader who has been waiting for me to write something of interest to them before they felt the need to leave a comment. Part of me thinks maybe it is someone I already know, because what are the odds of a Peter Pan fanatic finding the one blog I happen to write about Peter Pan? I just don’t know if I know anyone I could give credit to for being so creative and knowing so much detail. But then again I don’t put it past people to surprise me. There’s really so little we know about each other, even the people we think we know so well.
Well, it’s Tuesday and I’m back to work. I’ve actually been pretty busy this morning; a lot of people have questions for some reason. Its funny how that works out, they don’t ask questions for weeks at a time and then suddenly everyone decides to ask on the same day. Maybe I’m missing the memo where it said, “Save all questions for Tuesday, May 27th because Jessica will be thrown off due to the holiday weekend.” It’s like when I worked in the grocery store and it would be dead up front, no customers what so ever and then suddenly, everyone in the store decided to come up at the same time. We always wondered how that worked, was there a code word? A secret sign? How did they all happen to finish shopping at the same time?
In other news, I went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie Saturday…and Monday. I really enjoyed it, I don’t care what people say. I enjoyed it even more the second time and on the drive home I kept saying, “I really liked that movie,” or “I love Indiana, I just love-love him” (it’s true, ask Emily). And for a brief second I thought of buying the original three, and then thought, I don’t like the second one, I like the first, third, and fourth. So I think I’m just waiting for them to go on sale, or until I get that tax gift -thingy. I think the thing people forget about this movie is that it’s not an action flick made to today’s standard of constant adventure. If you watch the original three it’s not action scene after action scene. So, true to form the fourth isn’t that way either, another reason I loved it so much. I think we get used to constant action and then suddenly we’re bored if a movie for some odd reason tries to give some quiet time, time to learn something about the characters or the history of the story. I’m not saying everyone is like that, I’m just saying that maybe people who don’t enjoy the fourth never really knew the original three. Actually, that wasn’t what I was saying really, but it’s what I wanted to say, so I guess I’ve done that. Now that I know I love the movie I get a little defensive about it. Strange how that works.

I've been bored lately - I promise I'll stop posting for a while

Yesterday I ran a 5k. I know after having told you I ran a 10k, a 5k kind of pales in comparison, but I ran one nonetheless. My time was 31 minutes; I was a little bummed because my goal was 30. My sister, Kathryn, (who runs all of these with me) and I agree that the downfall for us are the dumb hills, granted they aren’t big, but the 10k didn’t have any inclines. Still, I beat my time from last years 5k so I guess that’s something. Kathryn and I have decided that we have become quite the ‘k’ runners. I think our favorite part is going out to breakfast afterwards, but you know, whatever gets you motivated – a worthy cause or a good sausage biscuit.
After the race we went to Target and I bought her birthday present, she wanted a planner and she kept talking about the planners and how she likes mine, but she would never just buy it. So I figured I’d take her to pick one out and buy it for her. I mean, those are the best gifts anyway, something you want but just won’t buy for yourself – like a shredder (that’s mine for now). We ran into my boss, Kathy, while I was there. Kathy was asking me about the payroll temp that we have now, how she’s treating me and such. I told her that I’m scared to go over to her cubicle because she beats me and she told me not to tell but I figured since we were outside of work I was in a safe space; Target’s always a safe space. Kathy is used to me making false accusations of being beat by people, so she just laughed but she asked if everything was seriously okay, she said she’d worried this new payroll temp would be patronizing towards me. I told her in all honesty I was worried that she would treat me like that at first too, especially because the first day she was there she said, “Those are cute shoes,” the statement in and of itself is not offensive or patronizing, it was the tone. She sounded like her true calling was working with 2-3 year olds. I don’t like being talked to like a preschooler (Tami knows what I'm talking about, remember Foundations to Education or whatever that class was with "The Ring" book and there was that one girl who spoke to us that way?) So the first day was rough, and I asked a few people if she talked the same way to them. So far at my job I haven’t had any problems with people accepting how young I am because most of the underwriters are my age, and they’re the main income source for the company. The other payroll temps (yeah, we’ve had a total of 3 since I started in October) never treated me like I was younger. Well, Wanda would, but only when I would make reference to feeling old, or say something outlandish like, “When I was younger” because apparently using that statement to talk about being 17 is unacceptable. Digression. I informed Kathy that the more I got to know the temp (who for some reason won’t get a name mention because that’s apparently what you do with temps…just call them temp) the better we got along, she’s no Wanda (we really liked Wanda and wanted her to stay), but I didn’t feel like she was trying to win over a 3 year old when she spoke to me. Granted she really likes reading me my horoscope every day. It’s not so bad, but she really believes this stuff so I can’t make fun of them with her, I just have to say, “Oh nice, I’ll keep those lucky numbers in mind” or “Guess it’s a good moon to get a boyfriend.” Then she smiles and is content.
Wow, I was just going to tell you about the 5k, sorry about that. But I figured you’d had enough of Starbucks rants and toilet paper admiration and would like to hear some stuff that’s really happening.



P.S. Chubbers (who for some reason I keep calling Polka Dot) and I have some pictures together. We don't have a lot of them, so I figured I'd show you so I could feel like I'm a good mom. Ignore my clothing, I never go out in public like that so don't judge me. Anyway, I think he likes me.

Those are my feet, so this counts as one.

“A man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales resistance.” - C.S. Lewis

I was at Wal-Mart Thursday night and couldn’t help but notice an ultra sheik Starbucks display…in Wal-Mart. What is the deal with Starbucks anyway? I don’t understand why every store has to have a Starbucks in it, I mean, Wal-mart doesn’t have an actual Starbucks, but it has the nice display for it. Target has a Starbucks, Barnes and Noble has a Starbucks, some Ukrop’s and Kroger’s have Starbucks, and now Wal-Mart? If that weren’t enough every mall has a Starbucks and there are plenty free standing Starbucks hanging around town.
Is it seriously that good? Something about its popularity is unsettling. There are a lot of things that shouldn’t be embraced as strikingly as Starbucks. Becoming obsessed with things is not healthy for the body or mind. Coffee’s side effects are obvious, yet, even with all the risk it’s as though they are addicted, and just can let it go.
There is one obsession I wish to speak about in this blog. I have a thing for Peter Pan, I don’t mean I have a crush on him, but most things Peter Pan I instantly enjoy. Something about the story just gets me. The story has adventure, romance, and whether Peter Pan is a cartoon, a 12-year old kid, or a 40 year old orphan I find it intriguing. I have my limitations though, a woman playing Peter Pan, for instance, does not compel me to purchase the version, the ‘new’ adventures of Peter Pan (who knows what it is about) is not going to get me to go to the theater or purchase the film, despite it being Peter Pan. I feel okay with this, because if I were to embrace Peter Pan the way some people embrace Starbucks I’d turn into this guy.

My mom used to tell me when I was younger, “All things in moderation” I didn’t really know at the time what moderation was, nor did I care. But now that I am older I think that I am seeing the beauty as well as wisdom in that saying. I just want all my friends to be careful with the things they choose to become obsessed with, because as we can see, you could become a creepy, unattractive version of it all while leaving people wondering if you have some kind of handicap or are really just that strange.

NTPAD (NitPad)

Today is National Toilet Paper Appreciation Day (NTPAD), bet you didn’t know that. That could be due to the fact that I just made it up. The other day I was in the ladies room and was admiring the perforated edges of the toilet paper and thought, “how cool is that?” Then I got to thinking, kind of like when I found my deep rooted fondness for paper clips. Where did toilet paper originate from, obviously it’s always been a need of man’s, a more desperate need than paper clips and other office supplies, this is more a necessity, one that man had to begin immediately to postulate the best possible…design.
I personally am grateful for toilet paper, especially after reading some of the things that were used in lieu of it, things such as newsprint, discarded sheep’s wool, corn cobs, coconut shells, and in some places a sponge soaked in salt water on the end of a stick, and that could be found in the public restrooms in Ancient Rome, sadly though I’m more surprised by the fact that Ancient Rome had public bathrooms. However, even with an obvious need for something better the first toilet paper was not invented until 1391 in China. That’s a shame considering that the average person uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day and 20,805 sheets of it per year, I wonder how that translate into coconut shells and corn cobs.
If you haven’t guessed it, I’m at work, with nothing to do. My boss has some stuff to give me, but for the moment her door is closed. So I’m just listening to my iPod and appreciating toilet paper

1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4

Last night I waltzed. I’ve never really waltzed before, kind of strange. Luckily the guy I waltzed with was an excellent leader; I don’t think I could have done it otherwise. He told me that I could dance, all I needed was someone who knew how to lead and I said, “So, I’m screwed.” Not many guys around here can dance. But for FHE we’ve all been learning to dance, granted this is only week two. They want to do a little formal dancing activity at the end of the summer. So every Monday night after FHE we can stay after if we so choose and learn to dance. I stayed after last night because of where FHE was, it was a good 30-40 minute drive, so I was going to make the most of my travels and stay as long as possible. So when the small group of remaining individuals moved into the gym I followed, hoping to just sit on the stage and watch since there were obviously more girls than boys at this point. But the guy, Nic, in charge of teaching us all how to dance made me dance with him, possibly because I said something about how I couldn’t dance. So I stared at his feet a lot to see what I should do. After a while when I had it he tried to moved around the room rather than in an imaginary box, and that screwed me up. So we went back to the box and then he would try to slip in moving around the room. At one point he said that you just have to trust the person leading you, hoping they wouldn’t run you into other people or a wall, and while he spoke he was leading me towards a wall! But I’ll admit, it was fun, not so much running into a wall, but the dancing part. I’ve been practicing my “square” to see if I can get it down so that next Monday no matter who I dance with I should at least know which foot to start out with. Dancing is definitely something that is out of my comfort zone, but I figure I don’t really have much of one left at this point in my life, so why not overcome the last few things. Next I might actually be comfortable with boys, who knows, the possibilities are endless.

Just a few short hours left...

So, I got a letter from Tami the other day and she said that I have been slacking on my blog. My sincerest apologies to anyone that may have been upset or disappointed by my slackness. I don’t really have all too much going on. I’m having a great time in my social life right now, church is going well, work is a bit lackluster for the moment, and my family is doing well.
We’ve had some drama in the family, but I don’t like to dwell into family drama in this blog, so I won’t be going on about that. I have high school like boy craziness right now, but seeing as I don’t like to write about boys in a public blog either that’s out. I filled up my tank on Friday, two cents short of $60. I didn’t need to eat, so if they want to keep upping the price of gasoline per gallon that’s fine, I could lose some weight anyway. If I could wake up early enough I could just ride my bike to work, of course I would have to then buy a bike, and I’m moving soon so the bike ride idea may not work, and yet, it just may with how bad traffic can get sometimes. We’ll see. Whatever, that probably wasn’t the most interesting story for you, my apologies.
My friend (soon to be roommate) had a movie party this weekend. It was an X-Men party and I was Mystic, mostly because Mystic can be whoever she wants to be so I basically went as myself, kind of like how my FHE brother in college was “a hot college student” one year for Halloween, way to go on the brain power but effort was weak. It’s okay because no one dressed up, I just liked being able to say that I did.
I’m so excited to move, every time I hang out with Evan (my soon to be roommate) I get more excited about her being my roommate. I just wish we were all living in the new house already, I know it’s only two more weeks (holy crap it’s only two more weeks) but when you’re ready to move you’re ready.
I’m making summer friends too, haven’t done that before. Summer friends are the kids who are home from college – for the summer. It’s a short term commitment but I am finding that they are the more fun part of the group. One of them is having a party this Saturday and I’m pretty excited to go, even though its memorial weekend and people might be skipping town or going to the beach at least I already know a few cool people will be there, and that’s all I need to have a good time. Wish life had some more sharable details, I apologize that it doesn’t right now. But I’ll come up with something, just wait.

Nothin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven.

First Annual Cookie Bake-Off!

So we had our first annual cookie bake off yesterday, these are the little Pilsbury characters I drew to decorate my box for voting, though I didn't use the sad one. I love making boxes and was really excited about making this one, but once I got started I lost my fire. I wasn't as interested in doing it anymore. I don't know what it was, maybe the paper I used to cover the box was too thin, maybe cookies aren't as fun as chili peppers. Who knows, just another one of life's mysteries I suppose. Here's the finished product though.

The bake-off went well. No emergency meetings, no blood in the bathroom, a relatively quiet event. We had to reschedule it for Monday because it was going to rain on Friday, turns out that it was going to rain on Monday too. We thought about moving it to Tuesday but the President wouldn't be able to make it Tuesday so Monday rain or shine we had to have it. Guess what? Today (Tuesday) is absolutley beautiful!

But what can you do?

That's it, those are all the photos.

History Mystery

Don't worry, I have some great blogs planned for the future, I'm just waiting on the pictures (and on one of them for the event to happen :) But in the meantime I wanted to post this because I have always found this fascinating. I knew some of these eerie similarities but I certainly didn't know them all.

History Mystery

Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can.

• 

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.


Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.


Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head

Now it gets really weird. Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.



John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln , was born in 1839.

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names are composed of fifteen letters.


Now hang on to your seat.

• Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
• Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford.'
• Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
• Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.
• Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker... A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Think of Alaska as one big theme park.

So I completely ditched the idea of being a home owner for now. I’m not ready, and I think deep down I knew it, but I’m also the kind of person who has to make commitment on the fly. My car was an impulse buy, agreeing to take one of my sister’s puppies was impulsive, switching jobs was actually impulsive, so it only made sense that the next big thing in my life would be handled impulsively. But somehow the grounded side of myself won this one, either that or buying was too complicated and I was too lazy to put up with all the things involved. My roommates and I found a new house to rent, and I’m very excited to move to it, once we’re in I’ll take pictures for your viewing pleasure. I actually had to sign a lease, which I have never done in the state of Virginia, I’m sure those things I had to sign at school were leases for various apartment complexes, but renting a place was so much easier in college, there weren’t many options so price was pretty much the only factor, it wasn’t such a big commitment then because it was just two semesters, two semesters doesn’t seem as long as 12 months, a year. In the long run of course a 1 year doesn’t seem half as bad as a 30 year loan; I’m still geeking out about my 5-year car payment. Also I didn’t have a pet, and if I did it was something that could be hidden under the bed, Chubbers is not something you can just hide under a bed.
Speaking of Chubbers, he gave us a scare last night. I had him in the backyard and when I went to bring him in I couldn’t find him, he wouldn’t come when I called either. I stepped out into the backyard, walked around a bit, who knows, maybe he was sleeping, or stuck in the grass (the grass is pretty dangerous here, it’s reached phenomenal heights). My roommate went into the front yard and started to call for him, but nothing. So I got in the car and drove around for a bit, scared to death that he had been hit by a car (we are near three busy roads). Nothing again, but this time that’s a good thing, to find him on the drive would mean he had been hit, or had come close). So I came home and sat on the front steps, not sure what to do, it was 9 o’clock at night, not much you could do, knock door to door? That’s a good way to make some enemies. I decided to walk around the neighborhood, who knows, it could work. So until 10 o’clock I walked all around the neighborhood, checked by his favorite yards to see if he was visiting with buddies. But again, nothing. I went home, got ready for bed, and then went to the back door one more time, turned on the outside light and looked outside for him, nothing. I decided that there was nothing I could do for the night and went to bed. I had a dream that I found him in the backyard, just sitting there waiting for me to open the door, the top of his head was all dusty like he used a dirt pile to scratch his head. But then I woke up, and knew that I hadn’t found him., so I got ready for work. Before I left though I went to the back door one more time. I had trouble unlocking it and while I struggled he jumped up from his little bed he made himself out of a piece of tarp my roommate had in the backyard. The little terd, I swear he wasn’t in the backyard last night and my roommate swears it too, but sure enough, there he was. I let him in, pet his head, told him he had me worried, and then got him some water. At the new house I’m going to have an outside kennel for him, that way there will be no jumping of the fences.
Oh, last Monday we had our Goodwill Awards. For you West Coasters the Good Will is the equivalent of the D.I. – which is what I kept calling it and throwing myself off. My friend Mary and I thought that meant to dress up in the craziest outfits we could find, turns out it meant buying prom dress from the Goodwill. It’s alright, we know we’re cool so it didn’t bother us too much. We watched the videos that we’ve been working on for the last month in smaller FHE groups. Five videos in all, and if I could give my unbiased opinion on whose is the best I would, but you see, I can’t. Ours was really good…really good, I was surprised at how professional it was. I’ll try to figure out how to post it here once I get my copy of it.

Anyway, that's all for now, hope it's enough.