Skillz

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I've been at work about 17 minutes. I've had 6 people ask me who does my hair... not cut, not color (cuz quite frankly, I rarely get the cut done, and I never color my hair, yet) but I braided my hair. I did it, all by myself. Who am I going to convince to come to my house at 7 am to braid my hair? For free, mind you, because I think people over charge for hair styles and such.

My two little girls got their hair trimmed... $24 each! What happened to the good ol' $5 trim?

Ah well, I went to see the Black Dalhia last night.
I'd say wait until it comes out on Showtime and seriously save money, don't even rent it. Unless lesbian soft porn is your thing :-)
Really I think it could have been better. I kept thinking it was Matt Damon in the film, but I was mistaken, but it was however, another male actor that is associated with Ben Aflek.... Remember Pearl Harbor? The best friend of "Rafe" named "Danny" yeah, it was him, and another chick in this film that played a big part... Hilary Swank... she played a bisexual girl and it reminded me of "Boys Don't Cry" a transgengered teenager who prefers to be a boy, but was born biologically a girl.... so seeing this character in "The Black Dalhia" for the first time in a lesbian bar, was kind of ironic for me...

Stereotypes

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So I'm at the store last night, buying tampons, among other things, and I notice on the endcap of the feminine hygeine aisle, there is a wall of chocolate bars, totally on sale, super cheap. Wow, while it totally may be true that PMS and chocolate go hand in hand (for most people, not allergic to chocolate), we don't need to advertize it like that, do we?
Of course, I find it kinda humerous and strike up a conversation with another lady in the aisle about it.... who talks to other people in the tampax aisle... god, what an idiot! You go in grab whatcha need, keep your head down, your mouth shut, and put the product in the bottom of your cart or basket... and here I am talking about how funny it is that there's chocolate at the end of the aisle... the other lady says, "yeah I noticed it too, and it is really cheap!"
So yeah, leave it to me to make a PMS friend :-)
I'm currently feeling like a heffalump here.... (if you gotta ask, you'll never know).... and so I'm trying to contain myself, and keep a positive mind frame.
I've gotten a bunch of homework done so far yesterday and today, but my motivation is lagging a bit. I'm starting to stress a bit about my student loans. They really need to be in before October 13th, when my next payment of tuition is due. And they seem to be taking forever to process through.... *sigh*
Ohh October 13th is on a Friday, saweet, gonna have to play that up a bit. I wonder if I can get my kids to sit through a scary movie.... maybe if it is called "Scary Movie 4" :-)

Okay I guess I should go back to doing school work....
Dorkness OUT!

Be Careful

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of what you wish for, you just might get it. Anyone else see Thinner? or heaven forbid, read the book? Of course there are other prime examples of this, such as the kid who puts on some basketball players shoes and all of a sudden is in the NBA at the age of 10 or something. Then we have things like the sisterhood of the travelling pants.

I don't know what got me onto this topic, other than the speeches I'm going to work on. I've scratched the first topic. I hope my teacher doesn't get crabby over that, buth oh well. Stem Cell research is my new topic. I'll have to argue against it, and since that isn't my heart held beleif, If we aren't careful with what we want out of it, we may be stretching ourselves too thin, mentally and physically. Do we really need to feel immoratality? I realize that the purpose isn't to live forever, but there are some who are ready to go. Cancer is a huge threat to many lives in today's world. It is a fact. It strikes regardless of age, sex, creed, gender, or preference of football team.

Would the research stop at just trying to keep diseases like caner from ending lives too soon? If we can fix that, then why not fix the common cold? Perhaps with some more genetic testing we can, in fact, live forever. Is that a good thing? Maybe, but what happens to our natural resources? Do we have enough space for everyone to not only live forever, but to continue to procreate? Even now, we are spanning the realm of natural "child-birthing years," through infertility processes, we've established that it is possible for women to give birth to a child after they've entered menopause, with a whole lot of hormones and in-vitro fertilization (and other methods). Some people think that waiting to have kids until the career is established is a responsible thing to do, others think that we've been programmed with x amount of years to accomplish parenthood and we shouldn't push our luck. If I were 45 when I gave birth, I'd be 63 by the time they graduated from high school. I'd be almost eligible to retire for my job. Just in time for grandbabies, if my child didn't follow in my footsteps. If they waited until they were 45 to have their first child I'd be 108, now that is a good example of why we'd need to live longer, eh?

I'm going to get some artery clogging breakfast now, I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome here on earth :-)

Have a good day!

Quote of the day from Yesterday, actually

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"Yeah, because nothing says 'I love you' like lawn furniture..."

Thanks for that, it made me smile several times since.

Cautious or wimpy: You be the Judge

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The marathon was this last Saturday. I got up and choked down my oatmeal. A foodstaple that is necessary for me, and goes down quite nicely on any other day, that isn't a race day. Go figure. I arrived and was met by S. we went to the store to get post-race hydration items for me. We hung out and justjen came to hang and brought her little emster (THANKS GUYS FOR COMING TO SEE ME OFF!!!!), a cannon went off before I realized it and it scared me! I remember thinking as I crossed the START line, "do I really want to do this?"

Up the hill we went, "huff puff, whew!" I really actually felt pretty good for the first 7 or 8 miles. My legs burned and we went up a very steep hill at 9 1/2 mile and I actually had to take a stop for a breather... I'm lame! But in my defense that hill is a killer, actually this marathon is termed one of the most difficult in North America, like in the top 10. It is technically a trail race with a net elevation change of 4,000 feet.

I dropped out some where between 12 and 13 miles. I ate some cookies, I cried, I knew that another 4 hours of this wouldn't be productive to me. My hip flexor had started to hurt me every time I moved my leg... well that is a lot of movement to cover another 13 plus miles. I thought it out logically, something I don't do very much, and came to the conclusion that I wasn't prepared for the distance mentally or physically, and if I didn't have basic training on the horizon, I would have pushed through the distance, consequences be damned. But a lot is riding on me going to basic. I need to go to close the gap to the next chapter of my life. I need to go to become more productive and be able to provide a bit of a better life for my kids. I wasn't in the front running of this race. It took me almost 3 1/2 hours just to make it that far... so yeah, it shouldn't have been a big deal to drop out. But anyone who is a runner or has put a lot of effort into a project or hobby, knows that having to back out last minute is very hard. As I sit here and most of my soreness has receeded, I wonder, could I have done it without really injuring myself? Was I just hitting a wall and would have gotten a second wind? The chute would have only been a few miles away, and that is down hill, I was almost to that part, but I will never know and that disappointment of never knowing if I could have will eat away at me, but with time I know that I've made the smart decision, and I know that I need to respect this race and this distance, this isn't one of those pancake flat races with a hill or two strategically placed...

Okay, I have to go draw some blood cultures... I thought I'd let you know what happened... sorry for the let down after so much suspence, I know you were checking here every 5 minutes to get the nitty gritty on it :-)

Its The End of the World

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Or at least the end of mine... I dropped my cell phone last night on the way out of the building. It must have hit just right to sever the little microfiber thingies (my IT high tech jargon, bare with me) that connect to the flip cover of my phone. So after much frustration, I've concluded I can use my phone if I guess where I am in the menus, and dial, and put it on speaker phone. I have no function of the ear piece, the drop down menus, the camera, or the alarm/time function unless I can guess my way through. I know my phone pretty well, but I won't bank being on time to work because of it.

So, I've been mulling over what to do. I've been wanting to get a PDA to accompany my phone, but now that my phone is no longer, I was thinking I should just go ahead and get the blackberry thingie (that jargon again). That way I hav the phone and PDA all in one... and you get almost a $200 discount for the 2 year contract... but ya know.... I sign two year contracts with them each time I get my phone anyway... I've been with them since before my husband and I divorced... actually the first phone I got from them was from my husband for my birthday as I was leaving... he was trying to buy me practical things to help me when I was independant of him, but supposedly he was "fighting" the divorce... (I'm fighting this, but here is a cell phone, and a tv/vcr for your new place, but please stay) Is that mixed messages for anyone else? Yeah I thought so, too... so lets see I've been with them for 6 years maybe more, now. So yeah, I'm debating hard on whether to spend the money... hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

On another note, my speech went really well, I was told that I have confidance and the prof, appreciated the humor. We'll I get humerous when I'm a bit nervous. I started off being the 4th person (out of the 5 that showed up so it wasn't exactly a big crowd), he said we could have a 3 x 5 index card.... I was the ONLY one who wrote one up... the topic was an experience that totally changed our lives, what it was like before the change, after the change and during the change, was the change for the better or for the worse. I began, "Apparantly even while talking about myself, I need a 3 x5 index card...." I ended up just getting rid of the card, it was too tempting to just look at the safety of the blue lined white thick paper, with my scrawl on it... can any one read my handwriting? Yeah, me either.... So I put the card aside and continued on with my favorite topic: MY KIDS!!!!!!!! Who can't talk for 3-5 minutes about their kids. I have no idea how long I spoke for, he didn't comment on my time. But everyone else got a comment about theirs being too short... I'll have to be sure to use the clock at the back of the room when we get to the 25 minutes speeches.... one guy has a very thick dominican republic accent, and it takes considerable amount of concentration to keep with what he is saying... no fault of his, but it will be a challenge to follow along for almost a half hour. Ah well, it will make me a better listener that way. I imagine I need practice in that arena.

The race is this Saturday... so yeah, that ought to be fun. One of the Doc's I work for, came down to get his blood drawn at the end of the day yesterday and we got to talking about the race... he had mentioned that he was doing it so it came down to me telling him that yeah, I had done it in '03 and it took almost 8 1/2 hours... he was surprised... he said you look like you could do better than that... I said yeah, but I have kids and it is difficult for me to be consistant like I want to... then he went on to talk about our "local hero" that apparantly the whole community agrees is an @$$... well, come on people he is a laywer after all ( no offense to any pre-law/ law students) but he isn't known for being a nice guy, and he shows up to win... this doc made the comment that our "hero" is 37 and should know by now that he isn't going to the olympics this lifetime and needs to give it a rest (the ego thing). I'm not sure I'd agree. this guy pulls down some good time and well, maybe he might be on an improvement still, but I don't know. It isn't for me to say what one individual can or cannot do. Quite honestly I'm rooting for the underdog, cuz, I'm usually the underdog, myself.

dorkness OUT!

I can't take it anymore, I'm gonna dive in while every one is talking and the prof is making rounds... can you even eat in a computer lab??? Hmmm I'll risk it. I've been sent to the hall by a college teacher before, I'm used to it.....

Off Task

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I'm sitting in my CIOS class... that is computer information operation systems. It is moving kind of slow. I thought I missed something, but recovered. What are you doing, not paying attention in this class? Well we've entered the department of redundancy department :-)

It's okay, I've come to terms that some things click faster with me than some others. I also know I researched information for this class BEFORE I started it. Not all people are as geeky as me, or dare I say, DORKY???

I'm gonna learn how to design web pages? Any one else excited about it?

I'm totally hungry, I brought food, but I don't want to be the one totally munching away on my super crispy chips that I actually bought for lunch from the cafeteria, and a sandwich to go with. I only ate my yogurt and some cookies for lunch... and now, of course, I'm starving. Shall I crinkle the bag a bit so the people who don't "get-it" have to have the teacher repeat it so now they don't get it and they can't hear it... do you get IT? Isn't that a slogan for a computer technical institute or something... ohh geeky and clever, wow, what is this girl lacking? Poor manners enough to eat her freaking food! That's what she's lacking... soon they won't be able to hear over the roar of my stomach!

Equinox Marathon Bib Pick-Up

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I went and got my race number and shirt last night. I've got a little more than a week left to make this happen. I'm getting nervous. I've let my training slip and I'm sure I'll be paying for it next Saturday.

I also got a snazzy water bottle whoo-hoo, I like new water bottles. The race shirt was an awesome blue, and moisture wicking, another whoo-hoo is in order.

My race number is 208. I immediately got a warm fuzzy feeling over this number, I couldn't explain it. I mulled it over on my way home, and didn't come up with anything. I had just a good feeling over this silly three digit number.

I was laying in bed after putting encoraging, loving notes in the kids' lunch boxes, we had done home work, baths, quick round of video games, and reading time. I still hadn't done my homework, but it hit me, the number 208 is the room number at the hospital when I gave birth to my youngest child. I've visited this room frequently after, since I work in the same hospital...

So the last childbirth, it was short, fast, and relatively painless compared to the first two... I wish I could be a prophet and say that compared to the first two marathons I started, that this third one will be quick, short and relatively painless as well. The third time is the charm, right?

Other than that, I start my communications class tonight. I've been putting that off for a very long time. I need to just bite the bullet and make it through the silly class. It is 3 hours 2 nights a week, but only through october.... so it is a shorter class... woo hooo (again!)

Have a good day all!

Buzy Little Bee

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It has been brought to my attention, that I haven't blogged in a while... oops, sorry.

I've been a bit busy lately. I'm not sure what I've been doing that I feel that way, because I honestly don't have much to show for my efforts. I haven't been running all that much, again, there doesn't seem to be enough time.

Ah, well.

I've begun another semester of classes. I'm actually excited about it. I've finished my first Trig lesson today and faxed it off to the instructor, since it is independent study. I'm also taking a Dreamweaver class. That should be fun. I'm finally admitting my geekiness over the math and science, and now some computer science interests...

I will be back in a bit, I've got lots of work to do... at work... go figure, eh?

Dorkness OUT!