OMG!

You should have seen the size of the wax chunk that James just took out of my drain. No amount of boiling water or drain-o or plunging was going to tackle that. I would love to post a picture of it, but James had "thrown it away" before I could get my hands on it. I think he was taking it back to the office to show what the latest crazy woman had done to her drain. I'm okay with that as long as he tells them I'm hot.

It Doesn't Take Much

This sent me over the edge today. Which seems like a pretty familiar place - that sad, over the edge place. More on that later. Just need to name it in this moment.

Facsinating

Am I the last person to hear about this? Apparently in the 80s some archaeologists found what they claim is the tomb of Jesus. With bones in it. I for one want to watch their full special on Discovery Channel this week.

Reason 497

Yesterday I took a bath after watching almost an entire season of America's Next Top Model on VH1. Totally addictive! Anyway - I lit candles because I like them when I take a bath and left one of them burning to make the bathroom smell nice. I went to bed after Weekend Update on SNL and totally forgot to blow it out. I didn't realize that until this morning when I went to wash my hands after using the bathroom and saw that the candle wax had overflowed. Into the drain of the sink. And so now my sink is totally clogged. Which sucks. I'm such an idiot!

For The Record

I wish that Rob's Sex God Tour would come to Colorado. I guess the University of Colorado, Boulder isn't a big enough school. I mean seriously Rob, you could take a long layover in Denver on your way to Berkley. Please?

I'm settling for starting in on Sex God today. I thought it wasn't being released for a few more weeks, but Amazon shipped it to me already. Yay.

Ding

For the last two weeks I have been sad. I have been hiding. I have been repressing. I have been accepting the role of victim. I have been making choices without thinking.

For a time the hiding, repressing, victimizing helped. I am done.

I Heart the Clumsy Lovers

I first saw the Clumsy Lovers with Sheralee and Burt and Darcy and Joel on a snowy night in Michigan. I loved them then and I still heart them now. They come to Colorado all the time so we get to see them - like last night at the Oriental Theatre.

I really wasn't feeling like I wanted to go at all. I've been kinda off and down lately and last night was no exception. Since I had a ticket I went anyway and the dancing and fun music was good for me. I do have to say though that while I understand the logic of it, I don't like sitting through the opening bands. The lovers that are clumsy did not start playing until 11. If you're going to do the opening band thing - limit the length of their set to a half hour max. Any longer and people get bored which is not good for the band or the audience.

Happy Fat Tuesday

I can not stop dreaming about Paczki (poonch-key) today. My stomach is unsettled, and yet, I think I might give my first born for a taste of Paczki and I can't find any evidence of a Polish bakery in Denver. Did you know that Paczki is really just a Detroit, Chicago and Grand Rapids thing? No one here has heard of them - they look at me like I'm crazy. Admittedly there is a ton more emotionally going on and I think I just want to be comforted more than anything - the Paczki is just getting the brunt of the attention today. I did after all eat an ENTIRE BOX of Tagalongs yesterday. No joke.

UPDATE: (Feb 4, 2008) - So tomorrow is Fat Tuesday again, and my tracker tells me I'm not the only person looking for Paczki in Denver. The only place I've been able to locate Paczki here is at the Royal Bakery in Arvada (9606 Ralston Road, Arvada, Colorado, 303-940-2065). Their hours are 8 - 5 though, so I won't be able to make it out there. Wah wha.

I Made Promise

When I started this blog I made a promise to myself and to my friends that I would not use it as a forum to vent anger, frustration, irritation or sadness that I felt toward people that I could express directly. Its a value I hold highly and one that's been pretty hard to hold to - I haven't held as strongly to it as I wanted to. Most of the posts I've imagined or written in the past week or so have been crossing that line. I just couldn't post them.

So in their absence, a summary of the past week:

• My grandfather fell and has been in the hospital. It's scary and yet I find myself laughing over stories of him preaching sermons to anyone who will listen. The medicine's got him quite confused.
• I almost had to be on jury duty for 4 weeks!
• I got my car back only to find that it's not fixed correctly. Thankfully my coworker is helping me there.
• Dave's gone and I miss him. That's gone an entire different direction than I thought it would.
• I've got a new project at work that gives me a bit more freedom and I'm really enjoying it.
• Tonight I tried some retail therapy and I couldn't find anything I really wanted to buy.
• I started thinking about Lent, and the prospect of giving something up.
• Sunday was beautiful. The weather was good. And it turned into a random Sunday.

I think that about sums it up. I'll be back to regular posting soon.

The Reason

I haven't blogged in a few days is because every time I think about writing a post this amazing, explosive verbal diarrhea jumps out that is just plain inappropriate for cyberspace. If and when I get it together you'll be the first to know.

Car Update

The good news is I have my car back. The bad news is I paid for it. The even worse news is - I'm now, after I paid for it, convinced that I've been lied to and cheated. Which is awesome.

Yesterday morning when I was trying to get the car guys to pay for the repairs they told me two things:
1-Because I had to use the switch to get the key out of the car the ignition was ready to break anyway and while it was unfortunate that it broke while it was in their shop, it was ready to break anyway.
2-The key was never taken out of the car without using the switch.

I disagree with both of those statements and have no way to prove it. So I ate the cost. Which makes me so angry. On top of all of this yesterday afternoon I drove the car after paying for the repairs and the key still will not come out of the ignition without using the switch. So what the hell? If it was the same part why wasn't that part fixed too? I mean seriously! So now I'm weighing letting it go or starting the confrontation all over again. Because I hate confrontation and the last two days have stressed me out. I'm just pissed because now the spark plugs and the muffler that I need will have to wait. And I don't want to bring the car in anywhere because I'm finding it more and more impossible to trust the car people. (with apologies to my relatives who work on cars...I'm positive they don't rip people off.)

This is Why My Car is Falling Apart

I have been trying to get my car fixed. And of course I can NOT get it out of a shop without paying for something I did not want to.

Case #1 - The Brakes
I brought my car into the brakes shop on Friday morning. They said - hey - we do all of these things for $100. Great - between buying the brakes and having someone put them in for me it seemed like a good deal. Until they called an hour or so later with $500 worth of extra repairs that I "needed." I of course don't think I need any of it, but they scare me. So I try to get Dave to talk to them and he's at work. So I talk to this guy I work with who says no way you need all that stuff - take it to these guys who I trust who take care of all our trucks here at the shop. So I pull my car from the brakes store, but not until they've charged me $150 for the work that they did. For the record - I can now stop, but my faith in car people is hit one more time.

Case #2 - The New Shop
So on Monday I bring my car into the new shop. I give them the paperwork from the brakes store and ask them to check if I really need these things. They call back and say of all these extra $500 worth of repairs we think you only need this one thing for $57. Great. Go for it. So they call me later in the afternoon and say "have you had any problems with your ignition?" Oh - yes, I say, I forgot to tell you, there's a release under the steering column to get it out. Really, the guy on the line says, the tech didn't tell me anything about that, he just said that when he took the key out it beeps like the key's still in the ignition. Huh I say, that's never happened to me. Long story short (because I'm getting tired of typing all of this out) they get my key out but now the ignition won't turn. They try to blame it on the key, but in the end unless my ignition lock gets replaced the car's not going to start. I really think that the tech forced the key out and that's what broke it and now they're gonna charge me $366 to get my car back to starting. I've told the guy that it never did this before and he just says well you did have problems with the ignition. Yes - but it always would turn. This NEVER happened before I brought it to the shop.

Moral of the story - getting your car fixed always leads to getting MORE things on your car fixed and that is why I HATE getting my car fixed. Also I'm convinced that I get taken advantage of every time I bring my car in somewhere and I swear it's just because I'm a girl. That makes me sooo angry! And this is why I don't bring my car into the shop. I hate it so much.

Super Bowl meets Austin Powers

I can not believe that no one is talking or blogging about Prince's half time show last night during the Super Bowl. I for one was excited about Prince's show - mostly because I really like Prince and because I was intent on proving to people I was watching with that Prince is sexy. He's not hot or cute or pretty - he's only sexy, and sexy nonetheless. So we're watching, it's raining, it's weird because Prince isn't singing his own songs, I'm afraid that the dancers are going to fall down (okay...I wanted to see one of the dancers fall down) and then, joy of all joys, Prince starts singing Purple Rain. Except this weird floating cloth comes up and you see a shadow of Prince playing the guitar. And it's the most phallic thing - like something out of an Austin Powers movie. I for one was laughing out loud - I was laughing so hard I was crying. I'm disappointed though - no one is talking about this. Am I the only one with a 13 year-old boy in my head? Seriously - please check out 1:22 - 1:51 of this video. If Prince can do this - then Janet can have a "wardrobe malfunction." I say this and I just think it's funny. I'm sure there are people who should be offended.

In the Strangest Places

I got my haircut today - don't worry, I'm not crying even though I have before over a bad haircut. That's not what I'm planning on discussing today. While I was there having my hair cut I was talking with the stylist like normal. What have you done since the last time I saw you? Anything new? How much are you sick of the snow? Pretty typical. Until for some unknown reason we started talking about religion. Mostly about how both of us were a little jaded on organized religion. Well - that's what I think and feel , she felt a lot more strongly about the futility of organized religion. It was an interesting conversation - she and i took a completely different path to get to very similar places.

It's got me thinking though. About the place I am. How long am I going to be here? In what direction am I headed? Why am I making the choices I'm making? The thing is that all the answers to those questions are in my control. It's not as though someone is controlling it. My circumstances have in many ways influenced the choices I've made to be where I am now, and yet they are not holding me here. I'm the only thing keeping me where I am. The thing is I don't know where I'm moving toward. If I'm even moving at all. And I'm thankful for the conversation tonight that's gotten me thinking again. In a healthy way.