Insomnimusing

Winter's officially here

2009-12-07T22:52:00.002-05:00

It's happened. The evil white, flaky invaders have landed. Yes - I woke up to snow this morning. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I prefer as much later as I can get. I suppose it's December now, so I can't complain too terribly much - as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

By the time I had to drive to the commission meeting for work tonight, the temperature was hovering around freezing, there was a light drizzle falling and a light fog had set in. I feared for the road conditions for the drive home, but it turned out that they weren't bad, yet. It was a good thing, took, because I was in such a rush yesterday that I didn't have time to get my new tires put on the front of my car, and the ones there now are quite bald.

Yesterday was Munch's Christmas program at school. I never look forward to those, because it's always a long and miserable experience, but it wasn't so bad this year. They've finally rearranged things so the K-4 student program and the band program are on separate nights, to reduce the number of family members attending at one time. They also finally set up the floor so they could open both sides of the bleachers in the gym. It's always been so crowded before that I've only once gotten a real seat. Twice I had to stand against the wall throughout it, once I was sitting on the floor, and once I actually couldn't even get into the gym, so I had to stand in the hallway! One year I dropped Gin off at the school and just came home instead. (She didn't mind. Munch would have, but Gin didn't care one way or the other.) The new arrangement allowed for much more seating and a much shorter program. It was a tremendous improvement. You see, it's a pretty small school, but it's a Catholic community with large, very involved families. For each child, there's generally a set of parents, one or two sets of grandparents, and any number of siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins attending. You can see why they had to do something to make it survivable for the audience.

Best deals of the year

2009-12-05T01:25:00.000-05:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter Communication. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Book-bound

2009-12-05T00:06:00.001-05:00

My friend D recommended a book to me a few days ago called "The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield. He knows I'm a Taoist, and we've discussed that before, so he said when he read this, he thought it had me "written all over it."

Naturally, that intrigued me. I downloaded it Thursday night onto my Blackberry, and I've been rapt ever since. I could definitely see why he thought of me when he read it. By the time I went to sleep last night, I'd gotten through the section on the Third Insight, regarding energy. That really fascinated me. It's very much akin to the concept of chi. I don't remember ever discussing that with D before, and if I haven't, I'm impressed by his own insight. If I have, I'm impressed that he remembered it, because as I said, I don't. Of course, I've discussed various levels and aspects of my life philosophy with many people, so it's probable that many of the specific conversations and courses of discussion have slipped my mind.

I must say, as the book has progressed, it's captured my attention completely. I expect I'll be finishing it tonight - or tomorrow at the latest. I didn't get much sleep last night (about two hours), so despite my nap earlier, it's possible that I'll fall off at a moderately reasonable hour. It's after midnight now. Moderately reasonable is relative.

Have your music at home again

2009-12-04T22:09:00.000-05:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Yamaha. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love taking my music with me on the road and having it with me wherever I go, but my mobile music has become the real hub of my entire music collection. I don't even have a home stereo system anymore, so when I want to listen to my music at home, I'm still using my mobile option.

If you've got all your music on your iPod or iPhone, and you've given up the limitations of the whole home set-up, you can still get the home stereo experience with your mobile music library with the Yamaha PDX-60.

This cool little dock isn't like the others. It connects to your iPod or iPhone wirelessly. So you can sit in your comfy chair with your iPod or iPhone right next to you, while the dock sits on the shelf or wherever you like it sharing your music with the whole room.

It also comes with a cradle that charges your iPod or iPhone, as well as a small card type remote control. With the dual chargers - the dock and the cradle - two iPhones or iPods can be charged at the same time.

It's even available in plenty of colors to compliment or liven up your decor, depending how you like it. You can get it in blue, pink, gray or black.

And keep in mind, this isn't some little set of speakers, it's a real music system with no sound delays, rich, quality sound and high-impact bass. You can rock out to all your favorite tunes shaking the knickknacks off the shelves with this one.

All these years we've wanted to be able to take our music on the road with us. Now it's gotten to the point that we only have it on the road. Here's your chance to bring your favorite music back home again.

Coffee, new book and insomnia don't mix.... or mix too well

2009-12-04T21:02:00.000-05:00

Last night on my way home from the meeting, I stopped for a big cafe mocha to stave off the cold. Seeing as it was after 8 p.m., and I'm an insomniac, this was probably a bad idea. I also started reading a book that was recommended to me by a friend. Also a bad idea for a voracious reader insomniac on top of a big cafe mocha.

I was up until 5 a.m. I had to get up at 7.

I did manage to get up, and not only that, I stayed up. The crash didn't end up hitting me until late this evening.

In the mean time, I got my Internet back, so I got some things done there. My ex's mother called to say he was still in the hospital, but (unfortunately) apparently will live. Gin took off to spend the night at a friend's house, and Munch has decided to have a big bowl of popcorn and watch a movie (since Pooh's also gone and she actually gets control of the television set).

Since I got my nap in, I'll curl up with my book again.

Flashback Friday - Believe It or Not

2009-12-04T08:31:00.001-05:00

I'm going TOTALLY CHEESY with this week's Flashback Friday! It's the theme song from that horrible 80s TV show, The Greatest American Hero!

Net down

2009-12-03T22:34:00.001-05:00

My internet's been down since last evening, so I am forced to post via e-mail by Blackberry. When oh when will Google give us a Blogger app for Blackberry? Btw, how about a full-size keyboard accessory for the BB? Does that exist yet?

I had to work tonight, covering a meeting of the new Liberty Group (a chapter of the Dayton Tea Party). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the speaker's running theme was to cut out the personal attacks and stick to the issues. Too many conservatives have become so vitriolic that they look like a hate group, and I'm becoming ashamed of calling myself conservative again. Tonight's meeting restored some hope for me on that score. (And my support of personal liberty still includes the right of gays to marry - so don't throw stones at me for that conservative label on that issue.)

As I was getting into my car for the drive home, I saw .... urgh ... snow. Only a little, but I still don't want it. I have no problem with a brown and gray Christmas, thanks. This is Ohio though, and like cows, corn and soybeans, snow is inevitable.

While I was home writing up my story (which had to be written on the computer, photo uploaded to the computer, both files transferred to the Blackberry, then e-mailed in to the office), I got a phone call from my ex-husband. He said he was on his way to the hospital, believing he's having a heart attack. I'm sure he's fine. Not only is he a wimp when he's ill, he also refuses to just die. Call me cold, but this is the man who constantly lied and cheated, once knocked me down a flight of stairs when I was eight months pregnant, spit in my face, and has provided ZERO financial support for either of his daughters in the last seven years. Last year was the first time since the divorce that he even got them Christmas gifts, and I'm convinced that was just because he's living with his mother now. The man's personal theme song (that he selected himself) is "Son of a Bitch" by Judas Priest - and he lives up to it.
Hither and yon

Delayed start to the week

2009-12-01T14:32:00.001-05:00

Another week has begun, though I delayed it as long as possible. I got an unexpected extension of my holiday weekend, as my regular Monday night commission meeting was canceled - so I didn't have to work.

I actually managed to do quite a lot over the weekend, but I still haven't gotten my new kitchen faucet installed. I really do have to get to that. I didn't have Book this weekend, so the girls and I took advantage of a full Saturday at home. They actually managed to clean their entire room (Munch said, "Wow! It's been a while since we've seen the carpet!"), and we have a mountain of laundry as a result, which is slowly being whittled down.

On Sunday, my mother gave me a call asking if the girls and I would like to take a trek back to my hometown for some taco pizza at the place that makes the world's BEST. It was worth the drive of more than an hour, and we also did a little shopping while we were out. We even stopped off to see my long lost cousin and her family for a few minutes on the way back. I don't think we've seen each other since last Christmas, and since mom decided not to host her sisters and their children for this year's Thanksgiving, it seemed appropriate to stop for a visit. It's also the first time I've seen my aunt since she was diagnosed with cancer. She's still hanging in there, though it's been about two months, and even then, the doctor's were pretty much predicting "any time now."

Yesterday I actually got to have a real conversation with my friend D, who's been almost completely absent from my life for the past few months. It was nice to reconnect. I missed him.

Today's agenda has only a phone report to do for work and further whittling of the laundry mountain. Oh... and of course the Manchester United - Tottenham game. :)

Annual Thanksgiving disgust

2009-11-27T12:34:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was a quieter event than usual this year. My mother hosted it, like she always does, but rather than having all of her sisters and their children this year, she kept it to just "the kids," meaning me and my stepsiblings and our children.

I made the turkey, as usual - and as usual, it was a hit. I use Alton Brown's Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe, which is absolutely the best turkey recipe ever. I even passed it along to a friend this year, and hers was a smashing success as well. She thanked me profusely for that. Always happy to help. I also made a cheesecake, which was the only one of six desserts at the dinner that had no leftovers. I think I'll be recruited to make that one again too. I didn't hear anyone even mention any of the other desserts, but everyone was saying, "Wow, the cheesecake is soooo good!"

I don't interact much with my stepsiblings. They're not really my kind of people. We had two tables set up for eating, and they all sat at one, while my mom, my kids and I all ate at the other one.

After dinner, the conversation was pretty much the same way. It was a good thing too. I overheard some of the conversation in the other room, and I had no interest whatsoever in joining it. My son was stuck in that crowd at one point, during my stepsister's rant on how she will never allow her daughter to date someone who's not white. Pooh just had to roll his eyes and groan until he was able to escape. I told him and my mom that I wished I'd been able to bring P home for the holidays one time when we were dating. Hmmm, my Jamaican boyfriend. I wonder if the stepfamily would have been able to get past the skin and hair since he was a TV star. That would have been an interesting dynamic. It would have been fine for P. I warned him about their attitude very early on in our relationship. My mother used to have it in my youth, but year of training by me have since straightened her out. By the time P and I split up, she was so supportive of us being together that she even encouraged me to hold onto hope that he might come back. She's fully reformed now.

I still remember the very first time I met my other stepsister. I was a junior in college at the time, and I'd come home for the weekend. One of the very first thing's she said to me was, "Do you like black people?" As I just sort of gaped in stunned silence, she continued, "Because in (this town), if you like black people, you're a nigger lover." That was enough for me to know that I would NEVER want to be involved with that family any more than was strictly required. I was utterly disgusted.

What I hate more than anything is knowing that they are passing those disgusting attitudes on to their children. I can only hope that at least some of them manage intelligent thought on their own, because they are certainly not getting it from their parents.

At least my children know that when they come to finding love, I will always support and encourage them. I ask only that they find a good person who treats them with respect and dignity. It does not matter to me where they are from, what color their skin is or what sex they are.

My ex-husband once told me that if he'd known I kissed a black man in college, he never would have married me. Makes me wish it had come up in conversation earlier. I would have happily avoided that whole disasterous marriage. He also asked me what I would think if my son Pooh came home and told me he was gay. I told him I'd have no problem with it. I'd still support him and love him just the same, and it would make no difference to me whatsoever. He appeared to have a moment of clarity for just one moment and looked at me and said, "You really would, wouldn't you?" Well, of course I would.

Flashback Friday - Edie (Ciao Baby)

2009-11-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

For this Flashback Friday, here's The Cult singing Edie (Ciao Baby)

Prep day

2009-11-25T23:12:00.001-05:00

I spent most of the day as many people did in the country today. I was preparing for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

I procrastinated, as usual, so my preparations included a trip to the grocery store today. I got lucky though. It was crowded, but I was patient. I got a decent parking spot, and I had no wait at all for a cashier, so I was in and out pretty quickly.

I came home and made a cheesecake, which cracked, unfortunately. I could conceal it with some cherry topping, but it was requested plain, so the flaw will be obvious. I think it'll pass with the family, though. The cherries and chocolate will be served on the side, and I'll probably have quite a bit left to bring home. It'll taste good, so I'm not complaining.

I also have the biggest responsibility of the dinner. I'm making the turkey. I first made the turkey four or five years ago, and it went over so well that I've been asked to do it again every year. I use Alton Brown's Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe, so I have him to thank for making my family look forward to my centerpiece of the meal every year. I also have him to blame for my having to do it! Oh well. I love the praise.

The evening's mine now, so I'm kicking back with a drink. Wish I had a friend to unwind with, but I guess this'll do for now.

I love finding a deal

2009-11-24T11:46:00.001-05:00

I'm always looking for a way to save money, so I used the Local Offers Search Engine at Offeretti to find a good deal on services close to my home. Winter's coming, and I need to get my car ready. Right now, that's means I need an oil change, and I'm also going to need new tires. At Offeretti, I found a deal for $10 off an oil change, and I also found a deal to buy three tires and get the fourth one free. And as luck would have it, the same place with the tires has a deal on Offeretti for free starting, charging and battery check, so I can have that done at the same time. It's always a good idea to get that evaluated before the cold Ohio weather sets in. Not bad for a search that took me ten seconds.

Can I start titling every post "Whatever"?

2009-11-24T00:30:00.000-05:00

I had a meeting to cover tonight. It was about a 45 minute drive to get there, and the meeting lasted about 25 minutes. I love those.

On the way there, I had two near-misses with deer on the road. On the way back, I took the normal route instead of the back road, and I'd forgotten that the road was closed at the railroad tracks. So two blocks from my house I had to turn off and make a four-mile detour.

When I got home and finished the story, I got a call from Book's dad saying that they'll be going out of town this weekend, so I won't be getting him Saturday. I wonder if I can get rid of the rest of the kids too. Oh well. It doesn't really matter. I've got nothing to do, and no one to do it with anyway.

Win a record deal!

2009-11-23T21:44:00.001-05:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Popstation. All opinions are 100% mine.

I'm a closet X Factor UK and American Idol addict. I don't really sing myself, except in the car and in the shower. But I know and understand the dream of becoming a pop star. The odds are long out in the real world - they're only slightly shorter if you can manage to get through one of those reality shows.

But you've got another option. You can make your break for the charts at PopStation, where you can sing for your chance at an album deal. Original Popstation songs are available in the practice rooms for two weeks. You pick what you want and make it your own, then enter the songs into the contest. Real people vote on your songs, and if you're good enough, work your way up to Number 1 on the charts.

Every three months, one Number 1 artist will, with a guest, be awarded a three-night trip to New York City to stay at a super-hip hotel and spend two days in a professional recording studio to record your own album with the help of a professional production team.

Finished albums are then posted on the Artists page at Popstation for the whole world to hear!

If you've got the dream to be a hip-hop, R&B, country, pop, rock, Latino or inspirational music star, take your chance to Win The BIG Deal at Popstation!

Good shopping :)

2009-11-22T23:50:00.001-05:00

I went shopping with my mom today. She wanted to find me some new jeans for Christmas, so we went up to Old Navy, which was the source of my favorite jeans ever (jeans that have since disintegrated, so my wardrobe's been missing a "favorite pair of jeans" for a while now). As luck would have it, I picked out two pairs, tried them on, and they were both a perfect fit. How often does that happen? She got me a new pair of pajama pants too.

After that, we hit another store and happened to come across a couple of perfect Christmas gifts for my son Pooh. He's extremely hard to buy for, so we weren't about to pass that up.

Stop number 3 was a kitchen store, at which I was able to find a replacement for a recently broken kitchen gadget for $5 less than the previous one I'd bought, and it appears to be of higher quality and more durable than the last one as well.

In another store, I bought a new webcam, as the one I have for some reason disconnects me from the internet whenever I plug it in. Kind of negates the whole purpose of a webcam. When I got home, I hooked up the new one, and it seems to work perfectly. It's plugged in right now, and I'm still online. Seems that's another problem solved.

To top off the day, we stopped for Cinnabon. :) How much better can it get?

Flashback Friday - Play That Funky Music

2009-11-20T11:30:00.000-05:00

Let's have fun with it. Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music. :)

Another try

2009-11-20T01:02:00.002-05:00

This will be my second attempt at a mobile post through my Blackberry (by e-mail). The first one worked, so I'm hoping this one does too. I tried checking Blackberry App World to see if there was a Blogger app available, but that app (BAW) always lags so badly that I got fed up and just restarted my Blackberry.

Does anyone know if there is a Blogger app for Blackberry?

Anyway, I'm posting this way because my Internet's been down half the night again. It's probably a good thing. I've been spending the past several nights feeding my insomnia by sitting up watching episodes of Ally McBeal online. I'd forgotten how much I liked that show, and since it's been almost ten years since I've seen it, it's like every episode is new. Hell, I'd even forgotten that Billy died - only about the most significant moment in the show's five seasons.

I do remember discovering Josh Grobin on the show, and I even remember most of that episode's plot. I have no idea what the name of the episode was, however, or which season it is. I guess I get to be pleasantly surprised when I come across it. I'm not quite to the end of the third season now, so I've still got many hours ahead to kill.
Hither and yon

Not even a step

2009-11-19T01:04:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to feel like I did a year and a half ago. I've been in this melancholy for a while now, but it's beginning to feel like a real depression again. The last time it was triggered by the loss of the man I loved more than any man I ever had before. This time I haven't lost anyone, because I haven't had anyone. But I think I know what it is anyway. I think I've begun to lose hope about the one I thought could be.

Sometimes I feel really stupid about it. I think about him all the time. For a while I really believed that something could come of it. I know I have this romanticized notion that you can really overcome anything if you love someone enough. And it didn't seem like that insurmountable of a thing. It's only geography. I'm not saying that we had some kind of great love. I just believed that the potential was there. And that it was worth exploring. If nothing came of it, at least we'd know. It's really not all that difficult to make that first step to find out. If it was as good as I thought it could be, then we could figure out the rest. If not, we'd know. But we can't even get to that first step, and now I'm beginning to feel the loss as if it was really there - as if all of it was really there. But we never even made the first step.

I'm not sure how I can really feel so bad about it. They say you can't miss something that you never had. That's the line of a song anyway. Of course, the next line is, so tell me why, why I could feel so bad. That's what I wonder, I guess. Why do I feel so bad?

New Moon on Monday

2009-11-16T22:21:00.000-05:00

It's a new moon today. It's Monday. I almost missed it, but I couldn't resist it anyway. :)

A new idea in the works

2009-11-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

I was having a dream the other night - I won't get into the details - but as I was waking up a phrase repeated in my head. I thought it sounded like the name of a pretty cool drink. So I got up at 3 a.m., logged onto my computer and looked it up. As far as I could tell, it didn't exist.

A concept started developing in my head. What would this drink be? It all came together in my head perfectly. It was a little complicated, but I could work out the details.

This is part of my nature. I feel the need to create. It comes out of me in lots of different ways. I used to crochet a lot, because I wanted to make something out of nothing. I found that to be very satisfying, but unfortunately, my joints being what they are, eventually it reached the point that my wrists really couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't crochet more than a few rows before the pain became too much, and I'd find myself either pushing through and causing myself too much pain and then setting it aside for so long that my creative beginnings kept going unfinished.

Over the past few years, I've been letting my creative juices flow through my cooking. And of course, throughout everything, much of my creativity is expressed through my writing (don't expect it here - this is just a brain vent, not creativity but a pressure valve).

So anyway, my very first attempt at developing a drink is coming along nicely. I bought the necessary ingredients and made my first go of it last night. I wasn't able to attempt the full concept, but I've got the flavor right. I'll buy some glasses today and start sorting out the details. If I can get it all worked out, I'll have a grand unveiling. In the meantime, I'll be drinking. :)

It's getting colder again - yech!

2009-11-13T15:50:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I woke up, and the fog was so thick that I couldn't see the trees in my back yard. I don't mind the fog, but the ground was covered with frost. THAT I definitely didn't like. It means it's getting cold. I don't like cold. Unfortunately, I live in Ohio, where cold is inevitable.

I got to go on a little vacation to Florida recently, and I saw a friend there who moved from Ohio to Florida about 10 years ago. I must admit, I begin to envy that when the weather turns. Oh who am I kidding? I envy it anyway. The beaches and palm trees. The fact that there's some kind of life there. I could deal with that.

I could spend the day funning and sunning, swimming in the surf or just riding along with someone I love on our custom beach cruisers.

That sounds like a whole lot more fun than another winter in Ohio, doesn't it?

Friday the 13th

2009-11-13T13:02:00.002-05:00

It's Friday the 13th. Will that mean anything to you? According to the superstitious, Friday the 13th is bad luck. According to cinemaphiles, Friday the 13th is a series of bad movies. The fear of Friday the 13th is called "paraskevidekatriaphobia." The fear of Friday the 13th movies is called "wussiness." Nah, I'm just kidding. The first one actually wasn't too bad for the genre and the period.

I suggest if you're a teensy bit freaked out over the day, have fun with it instead! Thumb your nose at it! Throw a theme party!

I do things a little more subtly. I just wear a white cable knit sweater and speak in a slightly breathy voice, warning people not to have sex on the beach. (Hey! Serve those as your drinks for that theme party!)

Flashback Friday - Broken Wings

2009-11-13T12:41:00.002-05:00

This week for Flashback Friday, I present to you Mr. Mister's Broken Wings.

The Dirty Joke

2009-11-12T19:03:00.001-05:00

Two little fleas meet up to vacation in Florida every year. One year, one of the fleas shows up and he's cold and shivering and miserable.

The other flea asks him, "Why are you so cold?"

The first flea says, "Man, my trip was awful! I hopped a ride in Jersey, and I've spent the last eighteen hours zipping down the highway in the moustache of some dude on a Harley!"

The second flea says, "That's no way to travel! What you do is you go to the airport bar, have a couple of drinks, find yourself some sexy stewardess, crawl up her leg into her panties and nestle yourself down nice and cozy. Trust me, man. That's the way to go!"

So the next year the two fleas meet up again, and the one flea is again cold and shivering and miserable.

The second flea says, "Why are you cold again? Didn't you take my advice?"

The first flea says, "Yeah, I did just what you said. I went to the bar. I had a couple of drinks. I found myself a sexy stewardness, crawled up her leg into her panties, settled in all nice and cozy and warm, and I fell asleep. The next thing I knew, I woke up and I was zipping down the highway in the moustache of some dude on a Harley!"

Blah and stuff

2009-11-11T00:44:00.002-05:00

I got all settled in to work today (or yesterday, I guess, seeing as it's after midnight now), and then it turned out that I didn't have anything on my schedule. Yes, I finally forced myself into motivation to work, and there's nothing for me to do. I've got three stories to do tomorrow though. I wonder if I'll be remotely motivated then. Probably not.

I need a real job again. This whole freelancing thing feels so pointless and dead-end. I've been looking, but it is frightening how little is available. And of course, there's nothing in my field at all - at least not anywhere near me. I hate not having any options. I can't go anywhere else right now, because I'm bound by a custody arrangement for my son. That locks me in for the next five years. Not that I could afford to move anywhere anyway. There's quite a cost involved in that.

I wish I weren't doing all of this alone.