Sunday, December 30, 2007

Twas the night AFTER Christmas...

So, as I sit here on the eve of New Year's Eve...I am reflective of all that has happened in my world this year. Some good....some bad.....but all apparently by the will of God. But I pause to think sometimes "did I CAUSE x,y,z to happen", or was it simply my actions that caused these things to happen.

In any case, things happen, friends die, babies are born, laughs and tears are shared amongst confidantes and the world goes on. But life is good...life is VERY good and I try to never forget that.

While my husband and son are gone today, I have had the atypical chance to have the house to myself. And I have been sitting here and thinking about a resolute list of resolutions that I want to put together for the upcoming new year. I feel as though this year once again, has flown by and it seems that I have again, not accomplished some of the things that I wanted to this year. Maybe I am hard on myself, but I really want next year to be better than this year :-)

Boy time has a way of "slipping into darkness"!!LOL In my assessment of my life and what I want to do with it, I of course, must take my family into account, but being that they support me, I guess it may be just ME holding ME back!

***thinking to self..."hmmmmm".....***

So, I am about to put together a realistic list that I truly BELIEVE that I can accomplish after all there is nothing BETTER than the feeling of accomplishment.....I haven't felt that much this year, so..... we are off to the race folks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

What (if anything) are your plans for the new year?

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Snow & Lack of Santa

Well, I don't know about YOU all's weekend, but mine has been ummm...interesting....

Well, to start, I tried to take the little one to see Santa at our local Hoighty-Toighty mall, The Somerset Collection. It's not that far from where I live and it has a BEAUTIFUL set in which Santa sits. It is the best of ALL the malls by far! Now.... ya'll that have been with me for awhile know that I am a budding photog, so that means I am not paying your extortive $10 for ONE picture with Santa... I will kindly plop my child on his lap and take the damn picture my-DAYUM-self and get 30 Christmas Cards printed from them at the local camera store (also located conveniently RIGHT in the same mall) for the same $10 (give or take a few dollars).

So. My girlfriend who's daughter used to go to pre-school with my son called me and asked if I would be willing to do just what I just described (we do it at Easter too) on Saturday, I said "SUUUURE... I have to take him anyway because we haven't been to see Santa". And as all of you parents know, since he is now 3 1/2 THIS is the year where he "gets it". Last year, kinda and year before, not at ALL. But THIS YEAR, we are SANTA ready baby!

So, after going to my OTHER girlfriend's house to take family Christmas pictures for her of she and her hubby and my Godchild, I came home, rested a minute and then trucked on out the the mall. We get there and I see this white guy that I work with, so we make chit-chat and I am like "yeah, we are here to take these two to see Santa". He goes "what time is your appointment?"


****record scratching *****


Me: what did you say??? Appointment?? You have to have an APPOINT.MENT to see frickin SAN.TA CL.AUS?????

Him: Yes, and we got our appointment for 6:18 THIS MORNING at 10:30!

Me: WHAT???? **thinking expletives in my head but refraining due to the gaggle of children in my midst**

Him: Yeah... you might not be taking any pictures today if you do not have that....

Me: uh.... yeah **looking at my girl whose mouth was agape in disbelief**

Now, my mind begins to race because I KNEW what he said to nbe true that there was probably NO WAY in HELL that we were sitting atop Santa's red velvet pants on THAT day! But the bad thing..... this year, he "gets it".... I KNEW that I was probably going to have to deal with him crying and SCREAMING since I had been telling him ALL DAY that we WERE going to see Santa!!!!

And furthermore , what happened to the "your ass just GOES and WAITS in line" like when I was a kid??? So, I go to the counter and this is the discourse between me and "santa's lil helper" at the counter:

Me: **looking at a sign that says "all of the appointments for pictures with Santa are filled for today..please come back tomorrow"** Oh,...so I see that all of the "appointments" are taken..... have you had any cancellations?

SLH: Well, the thing is that if someone doesn't come, the next people just kinda move up..... just like if they were in line, so there really are no cancellations, per se.

Me: Sooo...... why are there APPOINT.MENTS if there's no ability to cancel them? How can you have an up without a down? Maybe I am not understanding....

SLH: Well, if say you were unable to make it, the next family could just step up, so it's kinda on a first come first serve basis, and that is why we hand out the times to show up, so you won't HAVE to stand in line...even though the system functions like a virtual "line".

Me: **getting REAL irriatated** So, is there any way if someone DOESN'T come that I could just TAKE their slot???

SLH: Well, no....becuase other people have had their appointments for most of the day and we would just move them up.

***dead look***

Me: Ok. so... can I get an appointment for TOM.ORROW ?

SLH: Oh, well.... you have to come BACK first thing tomorrow morning to get the "appointment", we don't give them out in a day in advance.

Me: WHAT??? Are you serious?????? So, I have to come BACK just to get a ticket??? and then leave AGAIN and come BACK some 2, 3, 4-6 hours LATER????? That is the stupidest system I have even heard of!! People don't have time to keep running back and forth to a mall! That's rediculous!

SLH: **looking bewildered and speechless

Me: **to my friend** let's go..... ***to SLH***.... thank you.

Why did I feel like we were playing the charade of "Who's on First"!!!!!????? Can you say pissed??? I was so angry about that DUMB ASS system that they have to see Santa that I was like (in my mind) "Oh HELL NAW.... he may not be able to see Santa this year!" And I am holding to that shit. Who, but stay at home momma's have time to be running BACK AND FORTH to a frickin mall??

My mind quickly raced baclk to the little Santa-enthusiast holding my hand. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! Think fast....this boy is sabout to have a heart-attack.... I called my husband and he was like "tell him that Santa doesn't feel good and that we have to come back".

**blank stare**

Me: Are you SERIOUS???? Do you NOT know your dayum child????? He is TOOOO smart for that and you KNOW he is going to PROBABLY throw a tantrum and then we are gonna have to make our way to the bathroom for a "talk" (none of which I felt like dealing with at that moment as it was alomst 6:00pm)

Him: Give it a try.....

So..... I did and MIRACULOUSLY, it worked! My son was like "awwww poor Santa...we'll come back another day Mom". I was saying to myself " there are miracles"!

So, we trot on home and awake to this this morning:



This is my husband obviously in disbelief over how much HE has to shovel.....


And in case you were wondering no... I do NOT do snow (anymore that is).... I get all sweaty, fuck up my hair (because when I get hot and have on a hat, I sweat HORRIBLY in my head!!!) and I CANNOT do this short ass hair-do OVER. Besides, I TOLD him to get a snowblower..... hhmph.... I will NEVER EVER shovel any snow as long as I have him OR once this lil boy gets old enough! I used to help shovel it (sometimes BY MYSELF IF my husband was at work just because I knew that on a couple of occasions that he would NOT be home until late and that the snow would sit and become compacted from cars rolling over it and that is SUCH a pet peeve of mine!) the first two years that I was here, but now..... fuck it... that is the MAN'S roll to shovel that darn snow! Shit a couple times I was out there and straight UP felt like I was about to have a heart attack!!! SHIIII-IT !!!! Not anymore.... if that shit DOESN'T get shoveled, c'est la vie.... I am rollin over the shit until it melts, hell I have AWD!!!! LOL

Anyway.... it looks like he was getting a workout (hee hee).....


My only question was with this 10-14 inches that have fallen today...WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY couldn't TODAY have happened TO.MOR.ROW?????????????????????????????? DAMN weather! LOL

Sunday, December 09, 2007

All I want for Christmas is.....

I was pondering this the other day and came to the conclusion that I really want this Tiffany necklace and this digital camera. Ya'll heard me correctly.... another digital camera. I want this small camera so that when I go out I don't have to ALLLLWAYS drag the big dog out! I can just slide this into my purse or hell, my bra! (just jokes...but that's the reason I want another camera!

I haven't been taking many "professional" pictures of late as I have been an exteremly lazy ass in getting my "light bulb" replaced. This is the first time I will have had to replace it and it's like $20 a pop. Not much but I can't just go to the local wal-mart and get another one. I will either need to order a light or go buy one. Hence I have been lazy becuase I have not been to the camera shop to see if they have it and I really don't evne KNOW what it's called other than a 500W bulb. O.k.,so I wasn't THAT lazy... I DID order one from Ebay but I did not look at the SPECS on the dayum thing and it was the same look and SHAPE but about 6 times BIGGER than the one that I needed! DAYUUUUUUUUUM!!!! LOL

So, I need to get on my hustle game. With all the drama going on at work and just being drained from having to deal with MORE work and LESS money... my creative love for is still there, but the energy has waned a bit, but I am coming back....

Hopefully I will be FINALLY taking a class in photography this spring, so that willbe a help as well.

But that's not too bad of a wish list. The other thing , the limited Edition DOoney & Burke Hayden Panatierre bag in Red is SOLD OUT, so I can scratch THAT mug off my list.

So how about ya'll....what do ya'll want for Christmas?

Friday, December 07, 2007

Chicken Fried shit

Hey people! What's good?

I am in a good mood today though you might not know it by the post that it so follow, LOL. So, the other day this black guy that I work with came to me and had a few questions becasue he will be leaving the company because he didn't get a position that he interviewed for (the equivalent to what I do) and he was like "I have to be out.

So, here's the skinny... .this guy was working with the group that he would have been supporting in a new role, he was mature, had a master's degree and was very well suited to the position. It came down to him and three white girls. Basically, the white girl who was well liked by the HAIC (head ass in charge) was the one who got it. Now, I will say that I LIKE here, but I do NOT think that she was MORE qualified than old boy and I know and have worked with them BOTH! First off, her personality does not lend itself to the position (the position is one of basically being the police and making sure that while people are having fun, that they are "doing the right thing" and maintaining a semblance of order...since this typically is a pretty anything-goes type of environment)as she is DITZY-DINGY acting as HELL. BUT, the boss (who knows literally NOTHING about HR, yet was promoted into a high ranking position) LOVES her. Case closed.

I don't know why this insenses me the way it does...but it does. So I was talking to the black guy who didn't get the role and he said this:

"You know, I was watching this Bill Cosby special one day and he was talking about steak.... say I have this beautiful Ribeye, nice and fresh, I season it well, cook it on the grill, medium to medium well, it's juicy and looks scrumptious right? Do you want that steak? If you like steak you probably would say "Hell YEAH I want that steak!!".....now..... I am going to place this steak on a maggot encrusted garbage can lid as your plate....do you still want it?? You would say "Uh...that's O.K.". "

And my friend likened this story to our company.... and I agree....there are some reeeeally attractive things about our company and some REALLY good things in the way that they do things in general, but for real, for real.....the bad in SOME WAYS outweigh the good (e.g. the way there are NO people of color at the upper levels of management because the owner who started this 4,000+ people company has his "boys" and what-not up in those levels)

And that is but one of the reasons that I feel like with less than a year under my belt here....that it's time to go...because I really do not like eating chicken fried shit.