I come from a family where we generally sweep any kind of turmoil under the rug. Others come from families where it’s widely known there are issues. Surprisingly, as I’ve grown older, the skeletons in my family’s closet have come to light. A big part of it is alcoholism. It’s a touchy subject with my grandma since she lost her brother (or uncle?) to alcoholism a la Edgar Allen Poe. Not to mention, there have been quite a few instances where family members have had their share of crashes and DUI convictions.

There’s been no talk of any alcohol treatment these family members have been to, so if they’ve actually gone through alcohol rehab I wouldn’t know. I do have one family member who’s come clean to me about their involvement and past with not only alcohol, but drugs as well. They, I know for sure, have definitely gone through the drug rehab process and just recently celebrated either 6 or 7 years sober!

I’m generally in the dark about such goings-on, even when they’re close to me. Friends who’ve had problems with drugs beyond alcohol or marijuana, or just addictive behavior in general. It’s surprising and I feel pretty dumb when I finally find these things out, usually after the fact. What I think is fairly amazing is the husband’s father, after battling his own demons and addictions, has come through to become a successful employee at a drug & alcohol treatment center. He’s continuing to work his way up and through, attending school to become better versed in addiction counseling and the like. Knowing how to battle it is part of it, right?

One of the teachers I’m still close to from high school just lost her son to a heroin overdose. It was tragic, sudden, and after all the demons he’d been battling – he was sincerely on his way up in life. It’s not just those drugs we have to be wary of, but simple, legal ones like alcohol. I’ve observed and experienced what alcohol abuse can do to somebody and their relationships and it can get just as bad. I think every young person should be really educated on the effects of all these substances can really do to your life, and not just physically. There are plenty of experiences that others don’t need to go through to learn how serious the consequences can really be.

I’ve been expanding the reach of my blog to more than just a sounding board of things I’ve done and have to say. One of those ways is through reviewing adult toys and now I’ll be expanding my reach just a little more by offering you the chance to win one for yourself! However, I’ll make sure to let you know that only readers who are over the age of 18 will be eligble to win. Sorry, youngins!

Giveaway Details

One randomly selected winner will receive one Blue Venus waterproof vibrator. This giveaway is open to anyone in the United States.

How To Enter

Comment with your name, a valid email address and willingness to provide me a shipping address to send the toy if you win. Tell me something that gets your engine revving for sexy time either with yourself or your significant other. It can be clean, or as dirty as you’re willing to get here in public

You can earn additional entries by doing the following:

• Blog about this giveaway, making sure to link this entry.
• Tweet from your public Twitter account with: Check out Mika’s first giveaway at Mikachu.nu! http://bit.ly/bIgBG4. Comment with the link to your tweet.
• If you’re up to leaving more, tell me what toy you’d be interested in from the GoodVibes.com website!

Deadline

This giveaway starts today, September 2nd, 2010 and will last through for two weeks, closing September 16th at 11:30pm PDT. At that point, a winner will be randomly selected and contacted. I will post a follow up entry announcing the winner here on Mikachu.nu on September 17th

Now… GET TO IT!

I’ve been to my share of sporting events, predominantly baseball, with a couple of hockey games thrown in for good measure. I absolutely love going to baseball games and really, the only team I’ve seen at home are the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s a little rough being a Dodger fan in San Diego since we’re the only team Padres fans can really hate on. We usually have other, bigger fish to fry like the San Francisco Giants.

Apparently it’s totally okay, however, for San Diegans to root for the Los Angeles Lakers come basketball season. I’d say they should be rooting for the Clippers since they originally were based out of San Diego, but I can’t fault them for not caring since few people care about the Clippers. Now that all L.A. basketball teams are playing out of the Staples Center, I wonder how many of my peers managed to get Great Western Forum tickets to see at least the Lakers play? I’m not sure how many would have since we were all around the age of starting high school. I know guys can be pretty into sports, but just how much at that age?

My mom, surprisingly, is a real big sports fan. She predominantly watches basketball and football. She’s originally from Madison, WI so she’s a huge Cheese Head. As in, she’s a huge Green Bay Packers fan. She gets a lot of crap for it, I’ve observed, but like a true fan, she doesn’t waver in her loyalty. One thing I’ve wondered is if she’s ever managed to score Lambeau Field tickets and see a home game of theirs. I know my dad recently got to go to St. Louis and see the Rams play (the team of which he’s a fan), so I wonder if my mom’s have the privilege of seeing her team play at home. That could make for a real awesome milestone gift for her, either 30th anniversary, retirement or one of her over-the-hill birthdays :D Maybe at some future point I’d be able to give that to her… She certainly deserves it.

There was actually a time when my sporting event attendance dwarfed to my attendance to music events, including having Hollywood Bowl tickets to Cher’s finale show to her Farewell Tour, the Righteous Brothers shortly before one of them passed away and Weird Al Yankovic. Would you believe that I’ve seen Cher in concert twice? I’ve been able to take a friend to each concert and they’re still my best friends from school, so I’ve joked that you’re not my best friend until you’ve seen Cher in concert with me

Guest post written by my buddy Israel Fowler

Grocery shopping has always been a hassle for me. I have never liked grocery shopping and I find that it has gotten worse now that I am married. When you’re single, grocery shopping is not so bad. Once you get married grocery shopping takes a turn for the worst!

I love my partner but there are some things that just don’t work for us and grocery shopping is one of them. Our grocery shopping routines typically consists of going to Wal-Mart twice a month. Once every two weeks we will get in the car and go. We don’t put together a grocery list and we usually forget things. Countless times we have said we would make a grocery list and later forgotten. One thing we never forget to do before we go to the grocery store is set our home security alarm. Check out door alarm around Portland.

Once we get to Wal-Mart we go aisle by aisle, identifying things we need. Oddly enough it is usually the small things that I tend to remember. I forget the obvious things, once we even went as far as to forget toilet paper. Typically our shopping routine is interrupted and we have to return more than two times a week due to forgotten items. Other such small items that expire like bread and milk do require weekly visits to the supermarket. It’s always a pain to go shopping!

I don’t get into debates and arguments often because regardless of the point I’ll be trying to make, I’m sure I’ll fail at it somehow. Either my emotions will get the best of me, my words won’t come out right, or my facts will be wrong. It’s been my experience that these things usually happen, even when simply opinions are at stake and there’s no win or lose. Well, there’s supposed to be no win or lose when it comes to an argument of opinion, right?

The times I will get into it with other people is when I know for damn sure my supporting facts are solid, I know the topic like the back of my hands or I honestly don’t care if people don’t care for my opinion. Unfortunately, these cases don’t occur often enough. Things will get me riled up, either because I’m so severely convinced my opponents are stupid beyond help or I’m made to feel like a dumb failure somehow. It’s even worse if I don’t intend to get into it with others, I simply want to offer support to somebody else or throw in a non-combative two cents and I’m pulled into it anyway.

That’s why I avoid hot topics like politics, religion, and most other controversial topics, even though I often feel goaded by others’ ignorance and closed-mindedness. I never feel good after arguing because even after making good points, people rarely become enlightened or try to understand your side as well. I’ll almost always try to see both sides of an argument. There are, of course, exceptions to this because sometimes there’s just not agreeing with dumb or absolute wrong.

Guest post written by Ginger King

I always enjoyed dressing up in costumes and being an adult hasn’t stopped me from doing that. Every year I help lead a committee that puts on a haunted house whose proceeds go to a local children’s home. I also participate in the haunted house in some capacity that requires I dress up in a spooky costume.

Last year the theme was a zombie virus, so I got to dress up like a zombie. In years past I had dressed up as the bride of Frankenstein, a witch and even a psychotic clown, but that zombie costume was by far my favorite.

We’ve started planning this year’s haunted house, which will run from October 1 through a week after Halloween. It’s narrowed down to a few themes, which all sound great, but I got worried at a committee meeting last week when I realized that I was having trouble hearing what the other people were saying and must having hearing loss. I went and got hearing aid devices yesterday after getting a hearing test to help the problem.

I’m sure that I’ll be able to hear people tiptoe through the haunted house even more and give them a better scare this year!

One thing that’s always been fairly important to me in regards to living arrangements is the place has to have a homey yard, particularly when it comes to the back. I grew up lucky enough with a pool, but the rest of our yard is relatively small and covered in cement with planters around the perimeter of hap-hazardly planted shrubbery that feral cats loved to give birth to their litters in. It’s a decent backyard, but it always left a lot to be desired in my eyes.

My desire is to have a yard that has a decent sized cement area where grilling can be done. Nearby, the rest of the yard would be grassy and set-up nicely with pretty, yet durable outdoor furniture. I want a place where I can invite friends over during seasonable days and evenings and entertain. Shooting the breeze outside while cooking up some easy food to enjoy and have a great time. I’m a sociable person and I like to entertain, but it’s been difficult to do so since the husband and I haven’t been able to properly set-up shop in our homes yet.

What’s keeping us? Currently we don’t have our furniture from storage. It’s something we’re working on right now and a long story, but we’re essentially living in a bachelor pad. Before, we were shacking up in my parents’ home and while it was homey and filled out, it wasn’t ours. We’d have to ask my parents before being able to invite others over. Prior to moving back to CA, we lived in South Carolina and our home’s backyard was a mess with spiders and bugs and needless to say, I never opened the windows in the back of the house OR the backyard door unless absolutely necessary. It wasn’t landscaped at all and faced a wooded lot, so little desire to be out there was present. Once again, before that we lived on base and we were still acquiring furniture so a lot of space went to waste. We seem to have that problem quite a bit.

I am very determined and convinced I will have my backyard, complete with even a hammock (thanks to my Marinara friends who finally introduced me to the joys of one!), and nobody can stop me!

I appreciate the guest post, Marian Combs.

A great television show that I greatly enjoy watching on my satellite television from direc4u is NCIS. This show takes the real organization of Naval Criminal Investigative Services, and turns those into a drama television show like never before. It really gives a good look at what the organization goes through on a daily basis and how it affects the world around us.

The most popular character in my eyes is Leroy Jethro Gibbs. This character is played by a great actor named Mark Harmon. Leroy is a Special Agent in Charge in the show and leads the Major Cast Response Team. His wife Shannon and daughter Kelly were tragically killed while in the protection of the NIS, possibly creating the entire reason why he now does what he does.

Another great character in the show is Anthony ‘Tony’ Dinozzo. He is played by Michael Weatherly. Anthony is a field agent in the show who is a Special Agent of the Major Cast Response Team that Leroy is on. He uses a lot of great intuition and gut instincts in the show, making him one of the most valuable members on the force.

The show is filmed almost completely in Santa Clarita, California. The show is supposed to be taking place in Washington, D.C. Sadly, a main character, Donald Bellisario, stepped down in 2007. This was something I disliked, but the show is still great!

I’ve never thought of myself as angry person, but I’ve realized that I’ve felt a lot of anger over the past few years. Not to mention, I seem to let myself feel it more easily than I ever have before. I hate it. Anger is such an exhausting emotion for me. I don’t understand how people can be so angry all the time and be so comfortable holding onto it.

Right now, I’m angry with things I can’t control. Customers at work, the status quo… Like, seriously, I’m angry with these things? I used to pride myself on letting shit roll off my back like water on a duck’s feathers. I think that’s why I ended up with a diagnosis of mild-to-moderate depression as I was getting out of the Air Force. I became so angry with things and my body wasn’t used to it so it just fucked me up beyond what I could handle on my own. After going on Zoloft, it helped me a lot. I haven’t been on it in months due to an expired prescription and a lapse in health insurance, but I believe I need to be back on it.

I don’t want to be angry and I shouldn’t be if I can somehow control – if not on my own, than with medication. I’m fine with that. It’s not simply being angry because something didn’t go right, because while I’ll be angry if something doesn’t go right, I can get over it in a short time. It’s when I’m sucked dry emotionally that it’s a problem.

I grew up with angst. Classic teenage angst. A combination of being angry with the world in general and sadness. Classic dumb shit. That is so not the game being played now.

How do you keep from exhausting yourself emotionally?

It was my birthday yesterday and I’m now one step closer to being in my mid-20s. Although, some might consider 24 mid-20s, right? Do you split up a decade in half or in 3rds as far as early, mid and late ___s go? Curiouser and curiouser…

My day was an average, as I went to work like normal. I did bring in some mini-cupcakes for my coworkers to enjoy. Anyone that knew or found out it was my birthday kept asking me questions about how come I didn’t request it off? To be honest, it was a Thursday and the husband worked, we’re in a relatively new city without friends or family close by, so why not make money instead of sitting at home doing nothing? Not that I went into that explanation! “It’s my birthday, and I’ll work if I want too…” is pretty much what I went with Afterwards, I just came home and sat on my computer looking at the tons of messages left for me on Facebook and the handful of phone messages. I managed to leave “thank you”s for half of the people who sent me messages on FB, but I don’t think I have the energy to do the rest and make my thank you sound personal. I know some people just wish people happy birthday because they pop-up on their list of “Birthdays Today” list and figure why not? Either way, all the messages were so awesome to receive

The one thing I treated myself to was dinner from Pick Up Stix. I bought a family platter so the husband could partake and I could get some of everything I wanted AND have left overs

Today I’m working my first closing shift at work. I’m half dreading it, half excited. Closers & clean-up crew have their own camaraderie different from your everyday crew, so I think it could give me a foot into making better friends at work. I’m going to have to find a different way to make friends, as well. Angel brought to light the website MeetUp.com and I think it could be a good way to meet people who enjoy doing the things I do (hello, karaoke friends!). I really wish, though, that all of my current friends were at LEAST 3 hours away! It’s kind of a real bummer, ya know. I go into work in about 45 minutes.

My parents are coming down for the weekend tomorrow. Today is their 27th wedding anniversary and Monday is my dad’s 54th birthday. August is a clusterfuck for occasions in our immediate family. I was pretty much my parents’ 3rd anniversary and dad’s 30th birthday present We’ll be wine tasting Sunday and, apparently, my mom and I will be going to a spa Monday morning while my dad and the husband go golfing.

Now, it’s time to get ready for work and head off… It’s about time I posted a regular entry, though.