Redbox rocks!!!

"Who likes Redbox?" "I do, I do!!!!"

Since I've moved into this house, I don't have TV or internet and my life 'at home' is very very quiet. I do have a radio but rarely think to turn it on. I'm the kind of person who enjoys that background noise so I started renting from Redbox. I love that you don't have to have a membership and the rentals are only $1 each for the night. I usually only rent when I know I have the time to watch them so there's no need to spend more for a longer rental time anyway.

If you follow my link, we can both get free rental codes for new customers!!! So if you haven't tried it yet, why not try it on their dime? LOL I've been able to rent for free a few times in their various promotions and it's always appreciated. So follow my link to get your free rental code and they will send me one as well! Be sure to check out 'Going the Distance', it's so flippin' funny!!!

Make my heart happy and support my walk!

I've decided to walk in the American Heart Association's Heart walk held here in St. Louis on May 14, 2011. It is a 5k walk (3.1 miles) and I need all the support I can get! Not only physically getting conditioned to complete the walk (which I WILL do!) but also you can show your support by donating to the efforts with a cash donation on my walk page.

I will be posting my progress in training for the event as I go. Last night was my first workout in such a long time, we won't mention it. I walked all of .30 miles LOL We will just focus our attentions to all future efforts since that's all I can do anything about at this point :) Please support me in any way you can. I set a very low goal of $100 and I know we can beat that to a pulp LOL

Moving status update

Wow what craziness the past couple of weeks has brought me!! In the end, all good things but it's always interesting to look back and see how it all worked out. I just kept thinking, "This time next week, this will be past me!" I haven't had time for anything, not even finding a new car insurance rate, seriously...when you move, you should check into how the rate might change with your new location.

Anyway, moving sucks. I am just amazed and appalled at how much 'stuff' I have accumulated! I do not get rid of things as much as I should, for sure! Right now I'm in my first of two temporary places, working my way to the goal of renting a house from a client at my office. I've been waiting about a year and very much looking forward to it.

At the moment I am in terrible back/hip pain. I think it has everything to do with my bed, again. I know this is not a new storyline but in moving my bed and getting it set up again, I believe I did not get the right side of the top mattress up. I was *this* close last night to calling my mom and having her drive me to the ER for pain relief and some muscle relaxers. I ended up taking 2 advil and putting ice on it and stripping the bed and flipping the mattress over. I slept well considering and woke up feeling better. Today sitting in my chair at work, I'm in pain. It's difficult to stand/walk. I called a new chiropractor. Found out I have some chiropractic coverage on my insurance!! 26 visits per calender year, $50 each for co-pay but that's not so bad. Calling back soon to make an appointment. Just as soon as I balance my $ and see where I am. I'm behind, haven't made my car pmt yet this month but I'll get there.

So things are everywhere, some at the house I'm staying in now, in the living room, bedroom, basement and the garage as well as the storage unit. One might say, "Oh, that's just you all over!" It's true... I'll post again later to update you on my storage unit woes. For now, I'm enjoying the quiet of my suburbian oasis and making arrangements for the next move in March to my 2nd temporary place. I met with her last night to discuss the logistics and price. She's really doing it to help me so this will work out great, keep praying for me!!!

Weekend move update

Friday morning I was up and packing at 8 am. Working to complete the craft room was my goal for the daytime because I had a couple of friends scheduled to come in the evening and completing the bedroom was the goal for the evening. I really wanted to get the rest of my clothes and cold foods moved over to the new place at night's end. Of course, there began to filter in mentions of snow overnight. On my way down the driveway at the new place, I fell on the ice. Landed very hard on my rear end. I immediately began to cry, probably out of fear that I was hurt. Once I took a few breaths, I realized, "Why am I crying? I'm not actually hurt!" Probably just a rush of emotions. I've been having alot of those lately. I have a few phobias: falling on ice or anywhere else for that matter, management jobs because I hate making other people's schedules and big rocks under water. I know, I'm weird. At any rate, I'll probably be very sore after this slip and fall.

Things never go as planned, as I'm sure you've learned in life. Unplanned things happen, you have to learn to take things in stride. Friday night, put quite simply, I was exhausted. Physically and mentally. The Mexican restaurant below my apartment had no notions of my fret and partied like it was Cinco De Mayo. Around 2:30 am, I finally fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion and I have no real idea of how long they were noise downstairs.

Saturday morning there was just too much snow to go through with the move. I couldn't live with myself if someone got hurt trying to help me! So, I called it off for that day. Saturday night, things were oddly quiet downstairs and I found myself relieved that I might actually get some rest. This was not to be. I think perhaps they were partying next door and around 1:30 or 2 am, they decided to bring it back over to the kitchen and restaurant below me. It was like living above Tijuana on Cinco De Mayo! Around 3:45 am I called the police. After about 15 minutes of continued disruptive noise, I decided to go to the front of the apartment and watch out the window for an officer to come. About 45 minutes later, I decided to call back, you know, make sure they had the correct address or something. The dispatcher looked it up in the computer and said, an officer responded within 5 minutes of my original call! I told him there had been no change in the noise and he put it back in the system. About 10 minutes later, I saw an officer come and finally they all began to leave. 5:15 am, and it was finally quiet so I could go to sleep. I'm soooo ready to be out of there!

Sunday I went to church and then had lunch with my brother and a couple of friends from his church. I spent the rest of the afternoon stripping my bed and packing the bedding. I gathered the remaining essentials from the bathroom, shower curtain included and paced my car to the gills. On my way over to the new place, albeit temporary, I felt for the first time in this whole process, a sense of happiness. A glimpse of joy and relief. Sitting at a red light, I finally felt like I could enjoy this move! So much of the hardest part is behind me, packing and sorting and deciding...I can now focus on the best parts of why I'm moving in the first place! A better life, peace at night and safety. The last few weeks, I have not felt safe at my apartment. Perhaps that's why I haven't been resting. Between that and the mice, it's been less than desireable for a while now.

After shoveling the walkway and putting out salt, unloading the car and getting everything ready in the bedroom to receive the bed, I went to the kitchen and warmed up some leftovers. I pulled a daybed that was left in the dining room over to the kitchen counter and sat in peace to enjoy my first meal in the new place. Sigh...peace. I have no idea what is going on with the super bowl, don't much care. I didn't even know who won until I got on Facebook earlier today! My brother came over after the game to move my bed to the new place and after getting it carried in and all made up, I enjoyed several hours of uninterrupted sleep! Peace.

Monday morning brings a very sore body. This move and the icey fall are starting to take affect on this body but I can see light at the end of the tunnel and it's wonderful! :)

TV technology, I can't tell HD from 3D!

A couple of weeks back, I was saddened by the loss of my bedroom tv. The sound was fine but the picture went down to a single line across the screen and that will never do! Being the resourceful single lady that I am, I used my office chair to load the living room tv and roll it into the bedroom. I'm just not strong enough to carry it by myself. I was smart to take plenty of measurements first, good thing too because there was very little room in the bedroom armoir and that would have been an ugly scene!

Now that I will be moving soon, I will wait to purchase another tv but frankly, I have no idea what means what in tvs these days! DPI and HD and 3D and Plasma and all the other options. Heck, now you can even use these new tvs as computer monitors! Take the Sony VAIO for instance, sounds like a tv but also sounds like a computer! I wish I could just say, ok, here's some money just give me whatever will fit right here and poof! The perfect tv would appear. Decisions, decisions...glad I have some time before I need to worry about it :)

2011 is off to a busy start!

No time to sit down & kick back with a good friend and some cohiba cigars, it's time to get packin'!!

Looks like 2011 is off to a busy start for me. I need to pack this month for a move at the beginning of February and also will be out of town for 5 days. Couple that with working full time and 60 hours at my second job, I only pray I can get it all done in time. Sometimes it sucks to be single, no one to help! Of course, I'd just have more junk to move then LOL

Negotiations have started with my current landlord regarding a partial final month of rent in exchange for my washer and dryer. He said he would let me know on Wed. Just pray he agrees, that will get me $250 closer to moving costs!! So much to do & no time for it. I foresee alot of sleep deprived work days ahead. Keep me in your prayers....better yet, why not swing by and help me pack? :)

Buyers beware!

My last post about being robbed in Brooklyn hasn't even been published long enough to get stale and a friend just called me to say he also has now been hit by card # stealing bandits!! Apparently having a fun day out on the town on someone else's dime is easier than ever!

Anytime you swipe a credit card or debit card, say if you're buying discount office supplies, it gets processed in mass transactions and those who know how to...can and will hack in and gain access to our card #s. Supposedly they don't have the actual expiration dates so a successful transaction on their end is not guaranteed. However, I don't think they care! If they go to one store and shop to their heart's content and get turned down every other time, they just move on to the next store of their choice. I'm guessing they are still happy with those odds. My friend got robbed in Virginia, still on the East Coast but I seriously doubt it's the same person. Unfortunately, there are more than a couple bandits among us. My friend vented, "$160 at Game Stop and then a nice restaurant after; sounds like a fun day...too bad I wasn't there even though I paid for it!"

He'll get his money back, I just hope it goes quickly. I was so very pleased with the way PayPal handled my fraudulent charge. I had the $ back in my PayPal account within 24 hours of it being cleared through and the balance from my PayPal account has now been completely deposited back into my checking account and it's only 4 days later (and the Christmas holidays were in there too!). All-in-all I was only "out" the money for about 6 days. Great job PayPal!

I got robbed in Brooklyn, NY...

while I was in St. Louis! That's right, some crafty hacker got away with $215 worth of liquor in Brooklyn, NY on my dime. It's a good thing there are companies paid to monitor account activity. A local transaction I did here on Saturday prompted a raised eyebrow when a card transaction also was initiated from the East Coast at the same time.

Thanks to Google Maps, this is the actual liquor store in Brooklyn.

Of course, the $215 transaction has to actually post and be deducted in order to be disputed as fraudulent. I will get my money back, not too worried about that. It will just be a hassle until it gets straightened out. Of course, I had no choice but to put off Christmas shopping until the last week due to other circumstances & now because of this, it might mean I won't be able to get anything at all until later. Christmas shopping is not like shopping for cheap auto insurance, you have to actually have *something* to wrap up. It'll all work out, I'm not worried about it, to be honest. If I can't get anything else right now, that's that then. I'm sure everyone will understand. Except the kiddos :(

Something tells me, I've seen this before.

For the past few years, I have saved my own Christmas cards and collected them from anyone else who wanted to give me theirs after Christmas was over. "Why?" you ask? Well, I had this idea of taking the Christmas greetings and refurbishing them into NEW Christmas greetings!

At first I had decided to send the recycled Christmas cards back to the same people they originally came from the previous year. However, once I cut them down into usable 'parts', the signed portion has been disconnected and disregarded. Makes it virtually impossible to keep track of which ones came from where. Now, I'm not talking about recycled Christmas cards as in, made from recycled materials of various other kinds. I am talking about a more hands on and organic recycling, a transformation. Cutting the front off and putting it onto a back color and mounting it onto a new card altogether!

Only trouble is, it's an extremely time consuming process and I haven't yet been successful in completing enough of them to send them out. Normally I go out on Dec. 26th and buy boxed cards for cheap and put them back for the next year. But in an effort to ensure I would work on them enough throughout the year, I failed to buy any last year. Of course, I haven't had the time to work on them enough this year so...in other words, don't get your feelers hurt if you don't get a Christmas greeting from me this year. :( I'll try again next year so keep the cards coming and you may be surprised next year and think...something tells me, I've seen this before.

Un-Silent Night

For the past 4 nights, I have had a hard time falling asleep. Even after successfully falling asleep, I've been unable to stay asleep. It's just not like me, at all. Once or twice a year, I experience a bit of insomnia like this. I can sometimes relate it to stress or other factors but lately I can't pin it down.

Last night was no exception. I cleaned for about 3 hours before turning off the tv and trying to fall asleep. I was *almost* there when I became suddenly annoyed by an unidentified repetitive noise coming from the kitchen. It was like that nagging sound you get in your head when you are trying to remember to pick up ink cartridges after forgetting to do it for the 100th time. So I quickly hopped out of bed to investigate. I have no idea what's going on inside of it to make that gurgling noise but after taking a little aggression out on it by bumping and thumping it, the sound did not relent. In the end, I had to shut my bedroom door and luckily, was later able to fall asleep. Finally.

For the next 2 nights, I am house/dog/teenager sitting for a friend and will be completely out of my element. I hear Mr. Boots, a beautiful brindle colored Boxer, will be my bedmate (something I am NOT used to having) but hopefully that won't affect my ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. I'll keep you updated.

Clown Face

I wore makeup today. "So what, you're a woman! Why is that a big deal?" you ask? Ever since I was a teenager, I always felt like a clown when I have makeup on. Not that I really ever knew the proper ways of applying it. Even when wearing the basics and being told it looked great, I *felt* like I looked like a clown.

I recently decided to start wearing eye liner only. I figure you can't go too wrong with just eye liner, right? Well, like most things I decide to start, it quickly faded and now it's been a few months or longer since I last put some on. Today I wore eye liner. At home I thought it looked ok but in the light of my office...clown face has reared it's ugly head! I don't know if it's because I'm just not used to the look of it or I honestly just don't like the look of it on me. It's just not fair that others can wear some makeup and look great and feel great about it. I guess I also need to find some eye creams that work. Maybe it would help if my face was firm and rested looking before I put it on. Well, anyway, if I just try it again and again, perhaps it will grow on me. Only time will tell, I guess!!

New year, new self?

Why am I asking you? Only I know the answer to this question. I have 3, count them...3 short years before I am 40. The sound of it is unsettling in my soul. Nonetheless, it will come.

Is it possible to be healthier at 40 than at 25? Being overweight and unhealthy is NOT new to me. I've been increasingly heavy from age 10 to present so, if I were to change things and change my intake and output....could I really be healthier now? If I don't try, I'll never know! I'll die. That's right, I will die broken hearted and alone and with nothing to show for my life other than the need to have an oversized wooden box to bury my big butt in. So...who's in? I'm not talking fad diets or various other hoodia gordonii whatnots which may be helpful to some. I'm talking: healthy foods & drinks go in & exercise becoming more than a passing thought.

I really feel like I was on a great path a few months back but I got past the follow up blood tests and began to relax on the discipline of choosing healthy foods. And I won't even begin to pretend I exercised-AT ALL. The most movement this body sees is a shift at my second job walking about the building. So! I'm going to find that track and get back on it and not only that, I will begin to move with purpose and exercise as my schedule allows. Warning: I may become even more annoying real soon, my apologies up front but if you love me at all, you will support me and go with me :) Your health is important to me too!! I henceforth give thee permission to hold me accountable to this.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, today is another birthday for me. When you get to be my age you worry about gray hair and paying bills. Yes, the days of finding the best treatment for acne have long since passed and you ponder the days gone by.

I feel a sort of 'middle age' thing happening. Where you self evaluate where you've come from, what you did or didn't get done yet and what you want to do in the future. Life rarely turns out the way you think it will so once you get to a certain point you realize you'll never get the chance to go back and redo your youth and all that time was wasted and gone forever.

SIGH. It's time to dream new dreams. What shall they be??? Hmmm....

It's that time of year again

Time for the men-folk to venture out into the wilderness and rustle up some proper game! Get your ATV Parts installed and your tree stands out of the garage. Get your guns sighted in and your camouflage gear de-scented...it's deer season 2010!

Rifle season starts on Nov. 13th here in Missouri and for the bow hunters you already have a green light. Please don't forget to wear your safety orange and bring back a big one, boys!! Oh sorry...men! If I can keep from hitting them all on the road, you should have a great hunting season. There seem to be so many more deer this year out and about on these colder evenings. Have fun and be safe!

Halloween: anything goes?

When I was a kid, Halloween was that magical time when you could dress up like a fireman or ghost or perhaps a cute dog or clown. Since when does Halloween mean it's ok to dress like a street walker? Seriously.

Seeing 14 & 15 year old girls scantily clad has become acceptable in mainstream society but for some reason, Halloween has become an even bigger reason to let it all hang out and play up the part. I mean, dressing like 30 year old crack heads who need drug rehab treatment centers is just not a good idea on any day of the year, even for 30 year old crack heads. Just sayin'.... I'd love to see parents teaching more modesty and respect, yes even on Halloween. It's supposed to be a day for fun and candy and spooky creatures not tryouts for strip clubs and lap dances. You dress sexy every other day of the year why not step out of the 'norm' and cover up with an original self respecting idea for a change?

MP3 player, you turn me right round, baby...right round!

Right round through the same few songs over and over and refuse to cycle through them all! Why is that? This particular MP3 player is a 1 Gig and doesn't have a shuffle feature but I have almost 200 songs on it and it only plays a few of them then starts over playing through the same few again! I can see all the mp3 files are there when I look on the Windows Media Player, so why won't it play them all???

So frustrating. I just wanna grab my hairbrush as my imaginary microphone and rock out but I'm getting bored of the same 30 songs....anyone else have this issue and know how to fix it without erasing everything and starting over? I chose all praise and worship music for this player and handpicked/selected *just* the right songs, it would be a huge time consuming hassle to erase them all and start over. Can anybody out there help this poor girl make it work???

Laundry List...

Literally. I have a laundry list of things to do tonight after working over to make up for time I am short this week UGH! Let's see if I can name everything on my mind that I'd love to accomplish tonight: Het-hum....(tap-tap-tap)

Dishes
Sort laundry
Take out trash
Carry laundry downstairs
Re-wash load already in washer (from last week!)
Clear out junk mail
Do more laundry
Make dinner
Dishes, again
Research phentermine diet pills
Paint the cat

Who am I kidding? I don't have any paint! Oh bother, looks like I'm working til 8 pm tonight to make up for being so late this morning...guess I won't be getting much on that list done tonight!! Do they sell anti-procrastination pills??

To go or not to go? That is the question.

Thanksgiving weekend offers up many options this year. My mom and I had planned a trip back down to Kimberling City for a weekend of R & R only as it turns out, there are several reasons building for both of us not to go. The list of Pros is being dwarfed by the growing list of Cons.

Perhaps if this were a warmer time of year, the decision would be made much more easily as swimming would be the factor swaying down the list of Cons. Without swimming on the agenda, there really isn't much to do there besides watch movies and eat and go into Branson and spend money. There isn't even internet in the condo, you have to walk over to the club house for wifi. So, with work schedules playing in, my mom just moving, Girl's night would be missed, no swimming, the cost of driving there & 'doing' anything fun to keep from being bored...I think I'll stop losing sleep, giving myself dark circles and just call the trip off. Perhaps next year once the pool is opened again it will make all the difference but for now, we might just have to pass.

Tis the week of near misses

Tuesday evening brought another round of excitement to my week. This time it was no deer in my headlights, it was a near fire in my microwave! Long story short, I'd never used this particular rice cooker before and took a friend's advice on how long to set my microwave for. Of course, I didn't realize her microwave has sensors and auto shut off. So I put the rice and water in the microwave, set it for an hour and then put my ear buds in so I could listen to my MP3 player while preparing the rest of the meal.

Once I smelled the burning, it was too late! The microwave had enough smoke inside to set off my smoke detectors and the entire building is hard wired because of the restaurant downstairs. So mine went off and theirs went off. I was able to fan mine with a towel and get it to shut off but what I didn't know was there was actually smoke downstairs in the restaurant and they didn't know where it was coming from so they called 911! 3 firetrucks and the fire chief showed up...all over some burned rice! I was so totally embarrassed. I chose brown rice since I am concerned about getting enough vitamins for women these days and thought brown rice (even though it cooks longer) would be better nutritionally than white minute rice. I am still of the same belief but I will change my preparation! LOL

This picture was taken with my cell from my living room window. I'm so glad everything was ok. Upon further inspection after the rice cooker had time to cool, I discovered it actually had been on fire inside of it. Scary!!!

Deer in my headlights

Traveling home from my second job on Sunday night around midnight, I saw a pretty good size buck out of my left side window. He was just standing there looking right at me.

As I realized I should be slowing down my speed, you know... *just in case*... he decided to bolt! If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was just standing there waiting for his next 'victim' to get oh so close before he made his move! He came right across the road in front of me and was only slightly in a hurry to do so. WTHeck, deer!!!??? I applied the maximum amount of brakes while trying to control the direction of my car. I had to turn a bit towards the end just to get that much more stopping distance out of it. It was close, guys. I was so very close to taking his legs out. At that point, I wouldn't even have killed the poor thing, I would have just hurt it and that would have been worse! No need for extra colon cleanser after an experience like this, let me tell ya. I'm just glad all is well that ends well. He continued across the road and into the grassy knoll next to the road, looking back at me as if he were mad cause I almost hit him! How dare I, after all? Sheeshk!!