All is Calm, All is Bright

This week has been....busy.  Jason's youngest sister came into town with her husband last Sunday and they were here until the day after Christmas.  I should probably preface all of this by saying that our house is not very big.  It looks like it from the outside, but reality is very different.  So, they came to stay and that was fine, but you would be surprised how two people can make a place feel smaller, especially when there are already 3 people, 2 dogs, 3 cats and a bird in there.  Then his sister got a puppy for Christmas.  Add one more creature.  My dogs were NOT pleased with the puppy, so that was interesting.  They mostly stayed downstairs until the puppy left on Friday.  Then, on Friday Jason's other sister, her boyfriend and their 3 year old came to stay with us.  Still, 3 additional creatures in the house, and one of them is LOUD.  My nephew could break glass with the pitches he reaches sometimes.  Again, the dogs were mostly not amused, since he likes to pull on tails and ears and wrestle.  So, there were all of the accouterments that accompany a 3 year old, and the house was a TOTAL disaster because our tiny living room was taken up mostly by the giant Christmas tree.  But, everyone left yesterday and now the house is once again quiet and calm.  My dogs aren't in hiding, my cats haven't evacuated to the high ground where they are safe, and my husband hasn't been slapped in the face by a toddler in like 2 days.  Visits are nice, but getting your house back is nicer. 

Pieces of Me

This morning I woke up to an entire city covered in snow. Not a little bit of snow, a lot-a-bit of snow. According to the radio, just under three inches of snow. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I left really early because I figured the roads would be a mess and my doctor is in Milan so I take mostly back roads to get there. I know that everyone around me was probably grumbling about their commute and how it was snowy and slippery and people didn't know how to drive and everything else that you always hear when we get a lot of snow in a short period of time, but all I could think was how beautiful everything was. I was driving at the breakneck speed of 35 mph, but it didn't matter. It was beautiful out. Everything was covered in white, the trees were sagging slightly from the snow that had settled in the branches and everything was so quiet. I was just....I was happy. At about 7:52 this morning, I smiled to myself and thought "Life is good". Sure, that attitude didn't last long because I eventually went to work, but for that 40 minute commute this morning, life was good and everything was beautiful and the world was peaceful.

When I got to the office, which is in a shiny pretty new building now, I was checking in and I could see one of the walls back in the hallway to the exam rooms. Currently, if you were to go into that office, when you open the door from the waiting room into the exam areas, you are greeted by a smiling Santa face made from felt and google eyes with a big yarn beard. My grandma made that. Her doctor was part of the same practice, and she gave him the Santa about 8 years ago, and he still hangs it up every year. So, unexpectedly, my grandma greeted me this morning. She died two years ago, and there are days when I miss her a lot, but it seems like I'm always finding pieces of her everywhere, even in places I don't expect to find her. I hope some day, when I'm gone, there are pieces of me (not literal pieces BOBBIE!) everywhere so that I can unexpectedly greet my loved ones and make them as happy as I was this morning.

So today you get a break from my usual ranting or smart assed commentary. Today life is good. Today I am happy.

I Haven't Been Drinking the Company Kool-Aid

I'm going to praise the company anyway though. This year, due to the fact that my free time is way more limited than it has been in the past (working, drama department AND 5 classes?! I must hate myself!) I've had to resort to making more purchases online than I ever have before. I don't like doing my Christmas shopping online, to be honest. I enjoy going to the crowded mall, I don't mind that there are tons of people in stores or long lines. I really like to go out, be surrounded by other shoppers, and select gifts for my friends and family. Even when I was working retail and had to deal with cranky customers, a packed store and insane hours, I never stopped loving the hustle and bustle of Christmas. Plus, I have an instant gratification complex where I like to have things NOW, not wait for shipping. Anyway, my point is that I don't usually shop online.

Since I had to do online shopping this year, there were a ton of sites I had to visit to acquire all of the gifts I was searching for. Luckily, a lot of people on my list want books and movies, which means I get to take advantage of my Borders discount (And the insane 40% off DVD set coupons that the Borders Rewards members have been getting). But, with no time to make it to a store, I've had to shop our website. Yeah. Because this year we have a website. Oh sure, we said we were going to have one a long time ago, but we ran into obstacles and stuff and that was delayed, but it's been up and running since sometime late this summer. Umm....I'm in love with this site. No joke. I have shopped Amazon in the past, because they were our website affiliate, but I hated shopping there. Sure, I could get books, movies, a digital camera and random toys all in one transaction, but the site isn't my favorite. It's kind of sterile, like "Here's a list of stuff. Please buy it and leave" or something. There was nothing that made me want to search further in the site or spend more time on there than was needed just to complete my transaction. Plus, I didn't get my employee discount from them. Sucks! The new borders.com site is soooo different. I honestly feel like they took one of our stores and dropped it on the internet. I surf that site all the stinking time! There is shopping to do, obviously, but there are also interviews, book clubs, celebrity chef videos and all kinds of other stuff. It's fully interactive. I freaking love it! Plus they offer free shipping on purchases over $25 just like Amazon.com does, and almost all of our Borders Rewards coupons can be redeemed online as well as in store. Prices aren't unreasonable, even without the employee discount, and the selection is huge. I know it sounds like I'm just towing the company line on this one, but I swear I'd be saying this even if I didn't work for them. It's just a really really nice site. Go check it out!

Plus, it wouldn't hurt if you made your online purchases from there instead of Amazon since...you know...our stock price is like $0.63 a share right now and I'd really hate to see the company go out of business, because even if I don't plan on working for them forever I'd really like to be able to shop in the stores when I'm teaching. I'm just sayin'.....

I've Been Unseated

In general, I'm really good at finding bargains. Now, that doesn't mean I will only buy something if it's on super discount, but I do tend to pounce on really good deals when I find them. For example, if I find a $400 down filled comforter on sale for $140, I'm going to buy that sucker. I do this a lot for Christmas gifts, because I have a LOT of people to buy for and I don't want to give everyone a bunch of really crappy gifts, so I look for deals where I can find them. I hit outlet malls, I shop online clearance specials, I pick up books when my company does its 40% off sale for employees. I feel that, in general, when it comes to finding discounts, I'm really successful.

Or at least that's how I felt before about half an hour ago when Jason unceremoniously unseated me from my bargain shopping throne. That is because today, Jason was browsing the internet for potential Christmas gifts for yours truly, and came across this:

This is the Wusthof Classic 23 piece knife and block set that we both have been salivating over for the past six months. I bought one of the Wusthof Santoku knives on super clearance when Linens 'n Things was going out of business and fell in love with it. It was SO nice to use a knife that was well balanced, light weight, super sharp and easy to handle. From that point on Jason and I had our eyes on the entire set of these knives, but with really good quality comes a really big price tag. I'm talking $1500 big. Yeah. That's a lot of coin to drop on some knives. So, we resigned ourselves to salivating over them and dreaming of the "some day" that may never come.

Well...it came today. While browsing macys.com Jason came across this set clearanced for their online one day sale for $299.00. HOLY CRAP!

They'll be at my house in a week. I may piddle.

Proposal 8, the Musical!

My friend's mother sent this to me.  I assume she found it by being made of awesome.  HILARIOUS!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Let The Countdown Begin!

It's coming up on the time of year that I both love and hate. No, not Christmas. It's winding down to the end of my semester at school. I love it, because there's a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm SO CLOSE to being done with my classes and one step closer to being done with school all together (I kick myself every day for procrastinating and not knowing what I wanted to do with my life so that I'm still in school). While this is exciting and rewarding, it also leaves me ripping my hair out as I panic about the amount of work I have due before the semester ends. AHHHH! As of right now I have a 6 to 10 page paper due on Tuesday, which I'm hoping won't be a big deal since it's a literary interpretation of a book of my choice as compared to the novels we've read in class over the semester. Then I have a 20 page paper due for one of my education classes, which is friggin NUTS, but I've got the framework for that done so we'll see how it goes. That's due the 18th. Then I have a homework assignment due on Monday for my Linguistics class, and another due on Tuesday for my other Linguistics class. And, I have a project where I have to write up tests for my assessment class so that I accomplish this CAP thing that's due on the 15th. HOLY COW! Crazy huh? Oh well, soon it'll all be over and I'll have a week of vacation over the holidays and I'm going to be REALLY happy about it.

Then everything starts again on the 5th of January.

Break is ALWAYS too short.