Random Tangents

Moving Sale!!!

Blogspot seems the trendy (and easier) way to go.  You can now find me at http://brendasblather.blogspot.com/ or you can pretend that you never knew I moved and then you don't have to read my crap anymore :)

20% Off!

So, tomorrow is my last day at Coors.  It's been a good 3.5 years.  I start at Pepsi on the 9th.  I am looking forward to it.  I think it will be really good.  I think that I need a new challenge.  I was reading some of my blogs from last year, and I think I was much more articulate then.  I wonder if I am getting less and less intelligent with each passing day?  Maybe I need to read more often.  Maybe this new challenge will stimulate my brain.

Alaska Pictures

So.  I went to Alaska at the end of August.  It was amazing- the best vacation I've ever taken.  I had great company, it was beautiful, we had good luck (for the most part) and I still get completely taken back with the pictures and memories.  Looking at the pictures makes me wish we were still there- although I am pretty sure it's getting dark and cold up there by now. :)  Man- what a trip.  We stayed in Anchorage for a day on the way up, then backpacked for six days in Denali, then went back through Anchorage and down the Kenai Penninsula for our last day there.  Here are some samplings for those of you who haven't already seen these.

  

Ok- more pictures coming soon.  I'll load one a day, or something :)  Got to go check if the Dems are taking much needed control!  :)

Gillyweed

I keep hearing the same stupid commercial on the radio on my way to work in the morning and it is driving me nuts.  It is a bunch of different people singing the happy birthday song to other people and then it goes into the fact that Burt Subaru in Boulder is having a birthday.  I have friends and family who sing once a year and hearing their and my own horrible voice on other people's special days is enough to keep me satisfied for the year.  And anyway, who really needs to do any advertising out here for Subarus, especially in BOULDER.  They have the highest number of Subarus per capita in the world there.  The things sell themselves!!!! Rahhhhhh!  Maybe I should get some CDs in the car again to avoid this commercial hell.

Clams Casino

So this is a long time coming.  The computer is set-up, so I think that it is official that we are completely moved in.  Yayyyy!  Moving is a painful venture, but our place is awesome and I am really happy and comfortable here.  It is nice not to be living out of a bag and wondering what I need to pack all the time, and it is really ,really nice to be living with the person I love.

Abdula Sumatra Floyd

I wish that I would win the lottery.  Then I wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow.  Then I could make it so that my parents could retire and so that we could go see Leah and Ben in New Zealand more often than once in two years.  Then Brant and I could find a place together that is nice where we don't have to be bothered by the fact that the neighbor is selling drugs noisily.  Then we wouldn't have to think about the fact that anyone above or below anyone else can hear the other person peeing, or that anytime you are either a.)having sex, b.) arguing or c.) doing anything else loud that everyone above or on the side of you can hear it.  Don't get me wrong, I don't hate this place, it just could be better.  The apartment on the side of Brant seems to be cursed.  First we had meat head and the puker.  Before them, Brant had a chronic smoker that caused smoke to waft through the walls and into Brant's apartment.  Now we've got a guy who is constantly wearing tie-dye, never leaves, makes the whole building smell like pot smoke, and has many, many "visitors" who only stay about 5 minutes each "visit."  I don't care who smokes pot, I don't have any kind of issue with it and think it should clearly be legalized, but having someone next door who is selling it is really quite annoying.  I probably wouldn't care so much if I wasn't jealous that his job is much cooler, probably more lucrative, with way better hours and less effort expended than mine.  Maybe I can get into that.  How does one become a drug dealer?  I'd probably start gang ware fare because if I sold from Brant's place I'd be in his "turf."  Hee hee.  I think I just finally realized through writing that jealousy really is the reason I am so annoyed by it.  What a life.  Stay at home, do mostly what you want, and sell a product at a good profit that people are willing to pick up from you, rather than you having to deliver it.  Nice.  Stupid work tomorrow.  At least maybe I'll get a sunrise like this one, from Natalie D called "Dawning of Bucket."

Oh, by the way, I am writing an article each week for a writing site called Babblog (click to get there).  It is a Survivor recap, so if you are the least bit interested, keep an eye out.  It's more good fun than an actual recount of the episode.  My season preview should be out there in the next few days.

Love you lots!

Almonds

Went out to look at the latest from Natalie Dee.  Shelly- this one is for you!

B and I have booked our flights to Mexicoooooooo.  I am looking forward to it.  May will sneak up on us quickly. 

I have had the hiccups all f-ing day.  It's been driving me and everyone around me nuts.  Which leads me to my topic of discussion.  How, oh how do we come up with the "cures" for these things?  All day I had people making suggestions.  "Drink some water upside down."  "Hold your breath."  "Take a spoonful of sugar."  How did these tricks come to be?  Was there a caveman sitting there back in the day who finally drove his fellow cavemates to distraction?  Were they trying to kill him by making him stand on his head in a puddle or lake, and when he ingested some of the water the hiccups stopped?  Did someone get so sick of hiccuping at one point that they decided to suffocate themselves only to find that a minute into their suicide the hiccups had stopped?  How?  How do these crazy cures come into existence?  Let me ponder that while I sleep.

Target Does Too Have Christmas Cards

Hi.  I lost a post yesterday.  I was working on a file in Excel that shut down my whole MS Office and my explorer window closed just as I was about to post.  I guess that is what I get for posting at work when I should be working.  I am saving frequently tonight and have the pop-up blocker turned off.  Just imagine the masterpiece that you might have read :)

So, it's the holidays.  Everyone is in a mad rush to spend, spend, spend without regard for their own financial well-being, and most of the time without much thought for the person they are buying for. 

I am beginning to believe that Christmas stinks.  Here is why.  A lot of people just buy to buy.  How many lame presents can you think of that you've received in your life?  DISCLAIMER- Luckily this year I only bought and received from the people closest to me, so that was not the case.  But most of the time, people just buy out of obligation. 

"Tonya got this piece of crap ceramic dish with a Santa on it for me, so I'd better go out and get her something equally cheap and tasteless."  Who wins in that?  Tonya wasn't really buying a cheap ceramic plate with a Santa on it because she thinks you are so wonderful and wants to express her gratitude that you are in her life.  No.  Tonya bought the plate out of obligation.  "Hmmmmm.  Who do I have to buy for this year?  Well, last year I got a gift from Sally, so I'd better get her something this year." 

And now Sally will go out and buy something equally crappy for Tonya, feeling obligated to not show up empty handed to receive her Santa plate.  Six months later, Good Will ends up with an entire set of cheap Santa plates, and both Sally and Tonya end up paying $30 for the $10 plate because they both put them on their credit cards and the interest eats them alive.

When did Christmas get so out of hand?  I don't think that I'll ever go to the extreme of getting nothing for anyone.  I like buying nice things for people that I really care about.  This Christmas, my family put limits on spending so that we could all feel good about giving, but also keep it in check.  But when did it become the holiday where you send cards to everyone under the sun (even people you consciously don't like), feel pressured to buy things for everyone in your entire circle, and lose a year off your life dealing with the stress of traffic, crowded malls and disappointed recipients of Santa plates?  That is not what the holiday is about.  The only people who win in that are the stockholders of the companies making the crap we are buying.

I guess what it boils down to is that it's a massive onslaught of consumerism, and I hate consumerism.  I hate it that I am a smart girl and still get caught up in consumerism at Christmas.  It bothers me to know that my aunt bought my mom a gift card to Outback Steakhouse when I know damn well that she lives off her credit card and is probably an inch away from filing for bankruptcy.  It bothers me even more that my mom will send her something in return in order to not feel guilty instead of putting that $50 to better use.  It bugs me that I got two Christmas cards without anything but a signature- what's the point?  One of them was even from a person who I know for a fact doesn't like me a bit.  WHY? 

I HATE this time of the year.  The only good thing about it is family.  And that's what it really should be about.  Valuing and spending time with the people you love.  I'm glad that I at least have that, even if I do have to deal with the parts that I hate.

Time to go, though.  I am off to the mall to finish a bit more Christmas shopping- I think I missed a co-worker or two and need to look for some Santa plates.........HA!

Look!  The tooth fairy is like a credit card company!

The Smell of New Vinyl

I remember when I first got Nitro.  A and I went to go see the kitties when the whole litter was still together, only about four weeks old.  Nitro was spastic.  He was all over the place, climbing on things, scrambling around like a little fireball.  That's how he got his name.  It's pretty funny now to picture him that way.  In hindsight, I think it was probably the existence of a very curious toddler in the house that had him scrambling all over the place, not just his own internal drive for action and adventure. 

I picked him out right away.  We were only supposed to get one cat, but A liked a different one than I did.  Getting them both was the first in many attempts to fill a void in our relationship.  But that's another post for another time or never.  Anyway, we brought them home four weeks later in a bathroom trashcan because we didn't yet have any kind of carrier.  It was very white trash, really.  God, they were so cute.  They played together all the time.  We had a kitchen table that had a foot level bar across the middle, and they chased each other under it and over it and around it until one day they grew enough that they were bonking their heads on it constantly.  I wonder if that's when Nitro lost some of his hyper nature...BONK.

Nitro and Harley got us through a lot of rough patches in our lives and relationship.  They never failed to do something funny just in time to get a crack of a smile out of us in the middle of a fight, or do something bad enough that the tension between us dissipated and the cat of mischief became the momentary focus of our anger.  Unfortunately, even a feline is no match for something that's just not meant to be.  When A and I separated, Nitro stayed with me and he kept Harley and the other calico kitty that had entered our life between the adoption of the brothers and the end of "us." 

Nitro's been through it with me.  I often laugh to think that he is my longest male relationship except for my dad.  He has been with me since I was barely 18 years old.  I love him.  He is loyal and soft and comfortable.  He is predictable and there when I need him.  I will miss him soooooo much.  At some level I can't even believe that I am really doing this.  It is a really, really strong bond to break.  The person who can break a bond like that must be pretty special to be worth it.  Trust me- he is, and it still hurts.

Salty Beans

How do you change something about yourself; something that you hate, and you realize is an issue, but you can't seem to control it?  Do you hide it, stocking the feelings away inside yourself so that there is no outward appearance of an issue?  How can you sit there with completely irrational feelings, knowing that they are irrational, yet not being able to change them?  It's incredibly maddening.  I'll have to continue to sort through it on my own to avoid subjecting others to my insanity.  Internal conflicts suck.  I feel like slapping myself.  Grrrrrr!