A Rare Topic: Politics

So, I'm really not a very politically-opinionated person. The only class in college that I got a "W" in was Political Science. I mean, I have my opinions, but I'm not very good at relaying them. However, a series of unrelated events happened today that got me thinking:
This morning I got a 'forward' from a friend's mom that sends way too many forwards. I normally just delete them but I happened to skim through it today. It was supposedly from David Letterman (which is not true according to snopes.com), who claims to be a Bush basher and one of the 2/3rds of Americans that seem to blame him for everything that's horrible with the US today. Within the email, however, it says (and I paraphrase) that 'Americans are so unhappy, yet we have clean water and electricity, police, fire fighters and emergency workers that are available within minutes, and flat screen TVs and computers in almost every home. All that we have, yet we are ungrateful brats. People love America, but hate Americans. We only think about ourselves. '
Then, as I'm listening to talk radio on the way home, they say to the caller(as they do often), "You're preaching to the choir, son." Which is completely true. I decided to listen to "the other station" for a while and wondered how many people actually do the same. How many people are open minded enough to truly listen and read about both sides and form opinions without the influence of the media. I'd say it's a rare few.
Finally tonight, while again listening to talk radio, there was a story about the inauguration of the new South African President. I thought about how insignificant it was compared to the US Presidential race. How we, Ungrateful American Brats - comprised of only 4-5% of the world's population - are responsible for electing one of the most powerful persons in the world. How sobering. And that thought brought me to my next one: I wonder how the election would turn out if the entire world voted for the American Presidency. Doesn't it seem fitting that they should at least have a partial say before it's all said and done in November?

Just a thought from a non-political American Brat.

FINALLY

I FINALLY got in the mood to organize my spare bedroom. For the last 6 months or more, it's been nothing more than a storage space and looked more like a garage w/ a bed in it than a bedroom. We also have SO much furniture in here, that it's hard to make it look like a usable space. But for the last hour i've gone though most of the junk and the only thing on the floor is the furniture - YAY!!
In going through everything i've found:

• 3 years of mail, 1/2 not even opened yet.
• my 2006 tax returns
• random books about China - how to speak it, read it, and travel in it.
• A box of shot glasses
• Enough Party Lite candles to burn for a year - straight.
• a cowboy hat
• My Paradigm medals and other random memorabilia
• and last but not least: our video camera! We've been missing it since we moved here. Barry was certain it was lost forever. It was a birthday gift of his and now it's back!! WOOT!!

It's amazing what you'll find when things are actually organized. I'm quite excited. (can you tell?)

NOW all that's left to do is organize the bookshelves and computer area. Ew. i'm not looking forward to this, but if i'm this happy about having the floor clean, just imagine how i'll be when it's all done. :)

I know, you can't contain your excitement either.

ARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/howto.html

Only To Prove Angelle Right

A) Four places that I go over and over:
1 The Bank
2 Publix
3 Target
4 The Toilet

B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
1 Random People at Work (counts as 1!)
2 Eric King
3 Nichole
4 John McCain (recently... :P)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
1 My Mom's
2 Maggiano's
3 Sorbello's
4 Mama Fu's

D) Four places I would rather be right now:
1 My Grandparent's Lake
2 Denmark(to see my sister and her baby & baby belly)
3 The Acupuncturist
4 Turneffe Island Lodge

E) Four people I think will respond:
1 I
2 Have
3 No
4 Idea
(But I tag Laurie, Rhiannon, Erin, Jamie)

F) Four TV shows I watch all the time:
1 Scrubs
2 Mythbusters
3 Diners Drive-ins and Dives
4 Heroes (Sept 22nd!)

Feeling Sorry For Myself?

There are about 5 people on my myspace that are currently expecting a baby. I am unbelievably happy for them. I love children, I love the joy they bring me and I'm not even a mother. I love seeing the little peanut ultrasounds and the "We're expecting!" headlines. I love the joy i read through friends blogs or even just captions of a child's picture written by their mother. I read Laurie's blog about parenting.com and decided to take a gander at the DS baby pictures. Looking at them put tears in my eyes. They are just so beautiful. Children, whether they have DS or are "46-ers" just have a way to show undeniable love through their eyes and smiles.
I really don't want a child right now. I'm not ready yet. Barry and I aren't in a place that we can financially take care of a child. Barry's not in a place mentally that he is ready for a child. I don't know if he ever will be. But I knew that when I married him.
Even if we both were ready and wanted a baby, who knows when it would be before i got pregnant, if i am able to get pregnant at all. (That thought scares me the most.) With my PCOS, things don't seem to be getting any better. Most of that is my fault - the 20 pounds the doctor told me to loose is still sitting on my fat belly. I was doing so well at taking my meds on time and now, since we've been traveling a lot lately, i keep forgetting. I will get back on track with that though.
With all that being said, I have a confession to make: I would be estatic if I got pregnant. I can't help but feel envious of those 5+ people on my myspace. The warmth that must be going through their hearts - i can only imagine it. I've been only imagining it for a few years now. My heart is ready to experience it first hand. If only my head and pocketbook (and husband) would catch up.

Spirit Air Fiasco

I hope this is the worst that it will be. With Ike coming, i doubt it.

Barry and I are going to NYC this weekend to visit his brother in law and see the city.

A few months back I couldn't confirm my flight, so i was a little tiffed. I blogged about that here. Tonight is the night we drive to Ft. Laudie to catch a flight at 7:05am. Yesterday I went to my booking just to check up on it to make sure everything was kosher - of course it wasn't.
Not only did they change our arriving airport from Long Island's MacArthur Airport to LaGuardia, but they also changed the time of departure from 10:00am to 7:45pm, which gets us in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:50pm on Tuesday night. This give me NO time to get to work on Wednesday. There's another day of PTO i have to use as well as try and get coverage for my already short staff. With this news i had a scramble of phone calls. First to the airline to CONFIRM confirm. They actually answered the phone! It was India, but hell, at least it was a person. Then calling the hotel to see if we can change locations - of course I booked a hotel in long island, not near laguardia. No, because it was booked through Priceline, I'll have to talk to them. So on to priceline. I new it was a long shot, but i thought I'd try and save the $300 hotel bill. Amazingly, because of this mix up, priceline was able to refund my hotel COMPLETELY without penalty. (I recommend them to anyone!) After i got that straightened out, i call my brother in law to let him know and to ask him to recommend a good hotel in the city. He's like "Why did you cancel your hotel? You're not going to get a price like that in the city!" Well, shit. Back to pricline.com to try and get another hotel for the weekend. Lo and Behold! I got 3 nights at the Holiday Inn (same place bro-in-law is staying) in Long Island for $80 cheaper! woot!

All in all, its going to work out. I have coverage at the bank for Wednesday, and it actually gives us another 1/2 day in the city. Who knows, we may be there all week with Hurricane Ike headed straight for South Florida. Hopefully we'll have a car to come back to so we can drive home to Jax.

GRRRRRR...

After being SOOO good and not buying the Mondo-Expensive-Yet-Perfect-In-Every-Other-Way dress, go to balance the checkbook to find that Barry traded in his xbox and games (we have the 360 now), and even though he got $58 in credit, ended up spending another $55 at GameStop on 4 games. Why in the hell do you need 4 games at a time?? His excuse was that I spent money on my class reunion tickets even though he doesn't want to go. Of the men that read this, does that make any damn sense?? Blah.

Now that he's talking...

My nephew Braydon is so freakin' adorable. I know i say it all the time, but seriously? He is. He's talking so much more now. His articulation is very low, so a lot of the times i have to utilize Ashton as his interpreter.

Today i was taking off his shoes, which i guess i haven't done in quite sometime, because his feet have gotten so big! So i asked him:

Me: Braydon! When did your feet get so big!?
Braydon: Monday. :)

Later on, he had an accident, and the only thing left for him to wear is his swim trunks, so he thought he could go swimming. After countless times of telling him he can't go outside and to the pool, he says something. Ashton finally had to interpret.

Me: No Braydon, you can't go swimming, you're about to go home.
Braydon: I won't go swimming, I want to go standing.
Me: You'll just stand in the pool?
Braydon: Uh-huh.

I love kid's logic.

The Biggest Gainer

That's what i'm going to be if people don't stop bringing me these Vanilla's Cupcakes. If you read my previous post, you'll see why they are irrisistable. But they keep coming up with new ones. Today Kim walks in with that nondescript white box and sly smile and i knew where she had been. She opens up not only 2 of our favorite (Vanilla Bean w/ fresh pureed strawberry & vanilla bean icing) but 2 NEW flavors: Peanut Butter Cup and Banana Yumm-o. The peanut butter icing is re-DONK-ulous and the banana is like the best banana bread you'll ever eat because it's just sooo smooth.

I only have a few bites left and i'm so sad...

My Labor Day Weekend

FRIDAY

Friday night after work I went to the Roadhouse. It is my hometown's dive bar where the beer is cheap, but the cover bands are decent and you don't have to dress up. Also, it's within walking distance to 3 of my good friends so if i have to much i can just crash at their place. This was the case on Friday. At $5 pitchers of Yuengling and friends willing to buy most of that for me, it was a cheap night! I definitely paid for it later on though. After walking (barely!) to Nichole's parent's house, we went swimming for a spell and crashed on her couch. I got home about 7:30 am, took a shower, and went back to bed until 10.

SATURDAY

I had a hangover Saturday, which is not normal for me. It took until about 6pm to get rid of my headache, so we ended up watching the rest of this show called Firefly and the movie that went with it, Serenity. (Angelle, i think you'd like it.) The show did a really good job of allowing you to fall in love w/ every character, but unfortunately, it was cancelled after the first season. I don't know why, because it really was a good show. I also was Barry's Wingman while he played GTA 4. :)

SUNDAY

We woke up at the ass crack of dawn (5:15am) to meet James's family (all 12 of them) to go to Itchetucknee Springs and float the river. I was really good and put sun screen on my whole body! Well, except, of course, for my armpits!!! You know, that really sensitive area where your arms rub against your boobs, and your bra strap adjusts at will? I'm a pretty pale gal, and when i burn, i BURN. See? Anyway, other than the burn, it was a great day of relaxing and snorkeling, as well as spending a good time w/ my nieces and James's crew.

MONDAY

Today has been pretty uneventful. We are going to NYC this weekend, so we spent some time planning for that, and then I went shopping w/ Nichole for something for our 10 year HS reunion, which is coming up in a month! I found a really pretty dress, and i only tried it on because i was sure it didn't fit. Of course, it fits perfectly, all $198 plus tax of it! I was "this" close to buying it when Angelle, my voice of reason, reminded me that it was a bad idea. Thanks Angelle!

Happy Labor Day everyone!