Archive for December, 2008
So This Was Christmas
Whew.. OK so we made it through the holiday with no family incidents. No fights. No drunken shenanigans.
Done with that for another year.
Meanwhile, I am sitting here two days after Christmas, reveling in my solitude and watching “What Not To Wear”
Yes, I know… but I love it.
The thing I do not like about this show? The people who nominate their “Friends” for the makeover usually look like such crap themselves.. I’m like “Where do you get off telling this poor shmuck they can’t dress when you look like that?”
Also, the latest season of this thing – the people really need therapy more than a makeover. But hell, I still love to see Stacy and Clinton dress people.
It’s Not Just Laziness After All
So I was blogging around just now, as I am wont to do while I eat lunch, and I had something of an epiphany that I thought I would share.
I make no secret of the fact that I am an appalling blog-commenter. I often think of things to say, but then I never do seem to get around to actually typing the comment.
I used to just put that down to laziness. That’s my general fall back position for everything in my life… “Why did you do / not do / leave / take / experience / etc. That?” – “Oh… because I am lazy”
But today I think I realized that it’s not the laziness really that’s keeping me from commenting on blogs.
I tend to read blogs while I am eating my lunch at work. So the arrangement is me sitting in front of my computer. In my left hand I am holding a cup of soup. With my right hand, I alternate plying the mouse through blog-ville and shoveling the soup of the day into my gaping maw.
SO… if I want to leave a comment, I have to release both the spoon and the mouse, then kind of do a one-handed typey-hunty-pecky thing to get the comment down. Because no… I am NOT going to put down the cup of soup. Once it’s in place I try not to move it around. I am a spiller, you know… the soup is dangerous in the first place.. picking it up and putting it down would be, I think, far to perilous for my keyboard to bear.
So there you are… It’s not that I am a lazy slacker with nothing interesting to say in your comments section… it’s all the fault of the soup!!
Doing My Part for the Economy
If you’ve been reading around here for a while, you may recall (as though you have nothing better to do than remember all the minutia of my life) that around October / November of ‘07, I opened up a brokerage account.
Yes… I decided that with everyone else making money in this wacky “stock market” thing, I might as well jump on that bandwagon and play along.
So… I put $550 in an account and bought some mutual funds with it. (I know, not a large amount as “investments” go – but not small potatoes to me – I coulda bought something really good with that!)
On the day I purchased my mutual funds, the Dow was hovering around 14,000 something.
Then… I invested money in the stock market.
The balance of that account never saw $550 again.
Seriously… the VERY NEXT WEEK after I bought stock, the whole house of cards started tumbling down, down, down, down. (and you can see where we stand today)
Being the paranoid wacko that I am, I immediatelycame to the conclusion that the reason the stock market fell and the whole economy was going in the pooper was simply because I had decided to make an investment in it.
It’s been just over a year now. The balance in that account is now $271.
I decided that for the good of the market, nation, and, really, planet, it was time to end my experiment in investing in mutual funds, take my losses (tax deductible, you know), and close that account before year end.
So fear not, US economy!!! I am no longer the proud owner of a brokerage account with stock investments. The economy will, of course, begin rebounding immediately.
You’re Welcome.
It only cost me $279 to learn that I have no business putting my money anywhere but a nice, safe, savings account.
Just to make sure that the curse of that money coming out of the brokerage account doesn’t taint anything else, I plan on spending it on something ridiculous. I have a feeling that if I were to put THAT in my savings accout, the credit union would probably go under!
I Passed!
Yay!
So I took the last day of assessments yesterday and passed everything.
And since I had passed all that I had the opportunity to make up the stuff that I failed the day before and I managed to pass all those too.
Whew – I am so glad! Now that I have the “skillz” down I am allowed to scrimmage – which is how we learn to really play the game!
Woo Hoo!
Never in my life have I done something so physically demanding as the last few months learning all this derby stuff. It’s a really cool feeling to be able to get my body to cooperate with me in something I want to do… historically it’s not really been receptive to things like “sports”. I am very pleased (and very sore from the last two very intense days!)——————————————————————
PS – Renn… CLT is, alas, a rookie league. We are not in the big leagues wth the CRG team in Raleigh, so we can’t play them.
One Down…
So I made it through the first day of derby assessments yesterday.
OK “Made it” is a bit of an overstatement.
“Squeaked in by the skin of my teeth” is a more accurate description.
Over the course of two days of assessments we are allowed to fail three skills.
Yesterday I failed three skills. (OK, two of them I pretty much knew going in I was bad at, so not really a huge shock, but I was a little surprised at the third).
So I do get to go back today – but it’s gotta be zero mistakes.
I think I am about 50/50 on whether I can get through the skills tonight with zero mistakes. It is the easier day… but there’s one skill that I am not really great at and I am going to be really tired by the end of the list (when this one comes up), so it’s kind of a toss-up.
I guess I will find out tonight.
Again… not like anything bad is going to happen to me if I don’t pass – I’ll just feel really stupid and sucky for a while, but I will eventually get over that and practice harder and try to be ready for assessments in February.
We shall see.
Memeing Around
In yet another attempt to avoid coming up with my own actual topics, I have accepted the “Interview Meme” gauntlet that was thrown down over at Ron’s place.
The deal is… Ron was interviewed by someone whose blog he reads and posted his answers along with the offer to interview other people, which I signed up for. So now, Ron is asking me questions (see below) and if YOU want to join this merry band of interviewing, you just have to say so in the comments and I will send you 5 wacky questions of my own devising that you can then answer on your blog.
Yes… I know you all already knew how this works, but I am a stickler for form:)
THE INTERVIEW…
Question #1:
What inspired you to start your blog?
This is actually my third blog. I begain blogging… um… 2004? 2005? My first blog was completely un-anonymous. My name and picture were plastered all over that thing. Then also – I posted a lot of ranting and political stuff in those days. Those to factors combined to make me realize that anyone reading that blog (and I actually did have a pretty big audience because I was also a comment whore back then and signed up for all kinds of blog promotion sites, etc) could easily take offense at something I wrote and hunt me down and kill me.
So I started my second blog – which I fully intended to be anonymous, but this and that sort of thing happened, and my blog was eventually found by some relatives of mine, and the LAST thing I want is to have a blog where I can’t bitch freely about my family (which i still don’t do because I’m so mega-paranoid that someone might find it). So that was shuttered too
This blog was a second attempt at anonimity. I don’t think it would be impossible for someone who was really determined to find out who I am from this blog (especially now with the derby thing). But, hell… I don’t get all ranty anymore… and my huge paranoia keeps my blog relatively “personal info” free. So who’s gonna go to the trouble, I ask you?
Question #2:
What one Holiday tradition/decoration could you not live without?
Two words… Meat Pie
My mom makes these every Christmas. She starts about a week out from Christmas and makes 15 to 20 of these things and freezes them. We are ABSOLUTELY forbidden to touch them before Christmas morning. But as soon as we are awake enough on the day to muster some enthusiasm for breakfast, these start coming out. It takes the family about 3 to 4 days to go through the whole stack.
They are ground beef (although my sister mixes ground pork into hers) cooked in a pan with breadcrumbs and spices until it is the consistency of a very thick pudding. Then put into pie shells and baked. Think a GIANT empanada… or maybe meatloaf in a pie crust as long as your idea of meatloaf doesn’t involve tomatoes in it.
Anyway… best food ever. I like them even better than cheesecake. They are ONLY served at Christmas.
I like mine with a fried egg and cheese on top of the piece of pie. Yum!
Question #3:
Are there any hot, single, straight roller derby women in your league? If so my number is….
Ummm… wait that one may not be appropriate
Yes! There are, in fact, plenty of hot, single, striaght derby girls on my team. Alas, Ron, you sort of live in Ohio, which is a hinderance to introducing you.
But why come all the way here to meet derby girls when you can go see your very own OHIO team? http://www.ohiorollergirls.com/index.html
Go to a bout! Volunteer to be a statistician – teams ALWAYS need volunteers – go for it!
Question #3
How did you hear about the Roller Derby and why did it appeal to you so much?
I loved to roller skate when I was a kid. I was also kinda looking for a new activity to take up. And was considering perhaps a martial art of some kind.
So when a co-worker who is married to a derby girl left flyers for CLTRG in the break room, I thought “HOLY COW! Charlotte has ROLLER DERBY!! I MUST DO IT!!!”
And that was pretty much it.. Full contact roller skating – how can you go wrong?
PLUS the ADDED bonus that I am an adult woman and could NEVER get away with wearing those outfits anywhere else but the derby track without looking like a complete tool.
Question #4:
I believe from you blog that your line of work is in security, do you get to carry a gun? If so what kind?
LOL – no… I work in corporate security, which means that I compile statistical reports and maintain and administer software applications and put together training modules and compose enterprise-wide communications.
The actual gun-toting folk are, ironically, much farther down the food chain.
Question #5:
What would be your perfect costume to where to DragonCon next year?
If I go… I am seriously considering going in full-on derby gear. (probably not the skates, though… I might die in those crowds).
If I had unlimited money / and or time / artistic ability? I would go as The Enterprise. That would be cool.
———————————–
So there’s my Frost / Nixon moment… if you would like your own hard-hitting investigative meme… you just let me know.
Butterflies
I am doing my roller derby assessments on Wednesday and Thursday.
Been practicing like crazy.
But I still feel all nervous and pukey about it.
Why? It’s not like anything bad is going to happen if I fail them… I’d just take them again in February. They don’t kick people out of the league… you just have to practice some more and take them again until you can prove that you can skate without being a danger to yourself or others.
I think it’s because it’s a test, and I am a whacked-out crazy perfectioninst and I am going to come over all “oh, I suck” if I fail them.
Oh, um, did I ever mention that I am insane? Because I kinda am.
Tonight is the last chance to practice prior to the first day of assessments on Wednesday. I’ll be going early.
I Loves Me Some Stolen Memes
Thanks to TIFF for providing me with the ability to post a post today, because my brain has completely refused to cooperate in the “things to post about” department.
So here’s a list of questions… followed by my answers.
You know the drill…
1. Do you like blue (sic) cheese?
Gag… ick. Barf. I will allow it in the house because the SB likes it. But I’m not touching it… or anything that has touched it. The worst thing EVER is when I am tricked by lighting or what have you into thinking some kind of dippiness is ranch and then it turns out to be moldy cheese flavor.
2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
No
3. Do you own a gun?
Not even a water gun (although I suppose that’s just happenstance and not a moral objections)
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic?
I do not go to Sonic. They serve tater tots. I am not allowed near tater tots. I would be forced to eat all the tots they had in the place… and then who has time for drinks? And what the heck is this about adding flavors anyway?
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
They have scales there and they are not afraid to use them. Nervous? Yeah.
6. What do you think of hot dogs?
Only if they are charred to a crisp on the grill. I prefer turkey ones.
7. Favorite Christmas movie?
I cannot stand schmaltz.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Water with breakfast… but Tea, Hot, Earl Grey comes at around 10 am.
9. Can you do push ups?
Just the fake, girly ones.
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?
My Claddaugh ring wedding band
11. Favorite hobby?
Roller Derby, Baby!!!
12. Do you have A.D.D ?
No – I am focused like a… what now?
13. What is one trait you hate about yourself?
Horrible, debilitating laziness.
14. Middle name?
Elise
15. What is your favorite TV show or movie?
Firefly! Serentity! (Actually I like a lot of movies)
16. Name 3 things you bought yesterday.
Hmmm, yesterday was Monday. I did not buy anything. Buying of things is usually a weekendal activity.
17. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink.
Water. Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. And, um, water.
18. Current worry?
Only four opportunities to practice before assessments. I still cannot booty block worht a damn.
19. Current hate right now?
Stupid clock is stuck again at 3 pm.
20. Favorite place to be?
This is a difficult choice between my couch and my bed. Hmm, ok bed.
21. Where would you like to go?
Seattle has been calling my name for two years now… But yeesh, the plane tickets are not cooperating at all.
22. Name three people who will complete this?
I am not tagging anyone… but I suspect a few folks who are stuck for a topic might lift it.
24. What shirt are you wearing?
Red.
25. What year would you go back in time to?
Back? No freakin way. You know that relatively speaking, electricity has only just been invented? Oh no… I am going to whaever time I can get one of those Jetsons flying cars.
26. Can you whistle?
Badly.
27. Favorite color?
Black. Purple. Red. Dark Green. Grey. Brown. Yellow. I love colors!
28. Would you be a pirate?
It all seems very romantic, but pirates were not so much with the bathing.
29. Favorite girl’s name?
hmmm. I don’t think I have one.
30. Favorite boy’s name?
I always wanted to name my kid Seamus. Probably a good thing I’m not having any.
31. Last thing you dreamed about?
I don’t remember my dreams. Well… only the ones with zombies, and I haven’t had a zombie dream in quite some time.
32. What’s in your pocket right now?
Pockets are currently empty.
33. Last thing that made you laugh?
The SB sent me a link to a Toles cartoon.
34. Best Halloween costume?
My halloween costumes were ALWAYS last minute and sucktastic.
35. Worst injury you’ve ever had?
I am lucky and have not ever injured myself beyond the point of just bruises.
36. Do you like where you live?
Charlotte is fine. It’s a perfectly cromulent city. New York it aint, but at least here I can afford a place to live.
37. How many TVs do you have in your house?
2 that we use. 1 in the workout room that never goes on.
38. Who is your loudest friend?
Bryan may not be the loudest, but he’s the most committed to talking.
39. How many dogs do you have?
1
40. Does someone have a crush on you?
After 12 years of marriage, I do not think it qualifies as a “Crush” anymore.
41. What is your favorite book(s)?
This is an impossible question.
42. What is your favorite candy?
Reeses Peanutbutter cups.
43. Favorite Sports Team?
Charlotte Roller Girls!
44. Favorite Sports?
Roller Derby! Yeah, and Football’s ok too.
45. What were you doing 12 AM last night?
sleeeeeeeeeeep
46. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
Time to get up again!!?
I am easily amused
I don’t know if this is only funny to me because I am in the industry… But I found this effort by Comcast to convince people that cable theft is wrong to be Hi-Larious!
(Cable theft IS wrong, by the way)
