workingwifey

Tonight I was watching something I believe on this History channel about rites of passage in different cultures. They explained a ritual in South Africa where a boy around 20 years of age gets sent away to the middle of no where to get circumcized, and must have it performed by a “traditional surgeon” who does not have any formal training. Then the boy must live in a hut and can not eat or drink until he is fully healed. By himself. People in the U.S. probably can not imagine that type of tradition. Then the program went on to explain how in the United States, it is common for families to send their old parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents to “assisted living”, “retirement”, or “nursing” homes to be taken care of. In many other countries, the community will take care of the old people as they age, and they hold them in high regard for their experience and wisdom. The program stated that in the Apache Native American tribe, for a girl to become a woman, the ceremony is not written down anywhere. The elder of the community will state the tradition orally. Without the elderly to communicate this to the rest of the tribe, the tradition would cease to exist. So how come in the U.S. does not normally take care of their elderly as a community? The program said that it costs around $5000 per month for an old person to live in an assisted living facility. Most people that are my age (20’s or 30’s) can not even afford to pay that much per month to live TOTAL, so how in the heck are we expected to pay that when we can not even work for a living? At least children without a home are able to go to orphanages and not have to pay for it (probably because of child labor laws), so why can’t we have some type of program for the elderly like this as well? Maybe we do and I just don’t know about it? I mean I know there is social security and medicare but social security alone is not enough for most people to live on. Hopefully by the time I am old enough for this to have an affect on me, things will be different and I won’t have to worry so much.

The Devil just called me, but I didn’t pick up the phone. No seriously, I just got a phone call from a phone number in Vista, CA that started with the numbers 666. And no, that’s not the area code. 760-666-xxxx (I will spare whoever’s number that REALLY was). Heck no, couldn’t pay me to answer it. It called my HOME phone, no less, to find me.

Everyone knows I have a thing about 666. I am afraid of the numbers 666 and also of Friday the 13th. I have examples of why but my 2009 examples: Rory got laid off on Friday the 13th of February and is STILL laid off, nearly 6 months later. And about a week after that, he went and got something to eat and the total came to $6.66!!! WTF!!!????!!!?!?!

Rory also has a friend that BOUGHT a condo, the address being 666. If you bought it for me and fully furnished it and everything, AND paid me, I would never live at a place where the address was 666. You are just asking for trouble if you do that!

Check this out, the fear of the number 666 is called Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. Say that three times fast! It’s like the number follows me and haunts me. I don’t think that normal people have to come into contact or have the need to avoid this number as often as I do. Why me??

I can’t remember if I’ve posted a blog about it before, but Rhythm Ring is my dad and his friend Brian’s company. Check out www.rhythmring.com. Saturday, my dad and I got matching Rhythm Ring tattoos of the logo. They sold over 2000 rings over the weekend so we thought we would celebrate! It’s a pretty cool little musical instrument. Uke players are really digging it, as well as people in other countries like China and Germany. My dad is currently developing a double one that is vertical (i think? Opposite of what it is now lol) for playing guitar, so that when you strum, the sound actually goes with the strumming. It’s sweet. The current standard Rhythm Ring is mostly for percussion or uke players.
Anyways, the tattoos is on the inside of my right calf. My dad got his on his right bicep. Now we have two matching tattoos Not only was it a time for business celebration, but it was a time of father/daughter bonding! I couldn’t figure out how to put a picture in the body of this blog so look at the comment I left with a picture of the tattoo.

So what’s with the Denver crowd? I’m a big Lakers fan, though I’m from Colorado so I’m partial to Denver as well. I’ve noticed recently that in these playoffs, when the Nuggets are in LA playing, the LA crowd may boo them a tiny but but NOTHING like how Denver boos the Lakers. I mean come on! It’s totally unncessary. They were booing the Lakers before they even went out on the dang floor! They were just sitting there, before the game, and the crowd is booing. That is so rude! The Nuggets deserve to lose because of their stupid, rude, unnecessary fans.

I have faith that the Lakers are going to win tonight anyways. I’m watching the game now as I write this. Granted, it was garbage ball for the first few mintues for both teams, but you know Lakers are a 4th quarter team. Can’t wait for the finals! Though Lakers vs. Magic will be boooorrring. Orlando is no where near as good as the Lakers. Not AT all. Should be a quick sweep and then basketball will be over.

I’ve always wanted a Derek Fisher jersey but haven’t been able to find one til the other night. Went to NBA.com and my husband suggested I do a personalized one, but then just put his name and number on it, and what do you know? When I selected that option, it gave me a list of most of their players that I could choose from. Didn’t say it on the front page that the personalization ones were that way. Thank GOD too! I was even on the “for her” section of the website so it’s in a woman’s size I’m so excited. It shipped today. For now I have a Derek Fisher giant shirt I’ve had since 2003.

I love Derek Fisher

Tomorrow is Cindo de Mayo and also Cootie’s birthday. He’ll be eight years old! I can’t believe he’s my old man baby. We are having my dad and his girlfriend over to celebrate by eating Carne Asada (Cootie’s favorite food which he only gets on his birthday) and drinking margaritas.
So hard to believe another year has passed. I find myself saying this every year, well every month actually. Time goes by so quickly. As as kid, adults would tell me how when you get older, time will go by faster and faster and I never believed them, because I thought it already was going by fast enough. But it was the truth. Every year I look back and say, “Where in the heck did the last 12 months go?” It’s really unbelievable.
I started my core accounting classes today! : ) I’m excited. I also have a Research Writing class which at first I was dreading, but it’s basically just an expanded version of the Critical Thinking class I just took, which I aced (I had a 99.2% last time I checked. That’s without the final project being graded though) and was actually fairly easy for me. In this Research Writing class though I get to pick a topic, and write a paper about it. I think I’m going to pick to write about how it is possible to be a feminist and a Christian at the same time. Waiting for approval from the professor on that topic.
That’s it for now. My new job that I started two months ago is going really well! I love it. So glad I decided to take the opportunity while I had it.
I”m going to try to attach a picture of my baby Cootie that I just took, the day before his birthday. He was napping.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written… yikes. Here’s an update:
I finished my first two classes of COLLEGE! So far I have A’s in both classes but the final projects havent been graded yet. I’m dreading my next two classes… Critical Thinking & Effective Essay Writing. YUCK!
I start a new job on Tuesday. I got tired of where I was working, learned a lot but it was time to move on. I cant wait to start my new job! More money, more vacation, 401k which I’ve never had, more hours, so excited!! It’s a bit farther away than my old job, but that’s ok. My old job was only 3 miles away from where I live and this one is 13 miles. But that’s OK, it’s in the same city in which my In-laws live so I can visit them more often!
That’s about it for me. I’ve been really busy with work and school.
Oh my husband got laid off on 2/13 (Friday the 13th!), I dont think I blogged about that. I cant even remember when I last blogged! LoL! He was doing some work for my uncle but that isnt guaranteed and it isnt every day. His company from where he got laid off has another job starting in April sometime, so if he doesnt find a job at a better company before that, he’ll go back to work for them.
Thank GOD for our big tax refund, we are living off that. We’d be poor & homeless if we didnt get that tax refund!! God always provides to those who are faithful!!! :)

I got a parking ticket that was totally not warranted. I sent a compalint letter to City Hall, along with a letter to the Parking Enforcement center of my city, with the ticket back telling them I’m not paying for it. Here’s the letter I sent to City Hall. I can’t believe these jerks (the city names and addresses have been taken out for security purposes).

2/5/09

Dear City of ********* City Hall,

I sent the below letter to the City of ********* Parking Enforcement in ****** today, but wanted to forward it to you to complain about the parking situation as well.

I parked in one parking space at *** E. 3rd Ave in *********. My ticket says my car was marked at 9:35am, which is probably true. I find it funny that I received a parking ticket when I left my space at 11am and it had NO Parking ticket on it when I left. I went to the post office, came back at 11:30am, parked in the same spot I was in before, and then left again at 12:10pm. When I went to my car at Noon, I had a parking ticket on my car which was given at 11:44am.

It isn’t fair that I have a parking ticket stating that I went over the time limit of 2 hours when I was only parked there for barely 20 minutes! I am not paying this ticket. Granted, I have gone over the limit multiple times but have always paid my parking tickets, and this time I legitimately do not deserve a ticket. This has happened before at my work (located at *** E 3rd Ave) to other people and it is it not right. I am not paying this ticket, it is enclosed in the envelope with this letter.

The parking time limit around this block should be changed. We do not have walk-in customers that would need to park near our buildings, so these 2 hour parking spaces should be left for employees to park in. We all have to either move our cars every two hours which does not make for a productive work day, or park 3 blocks away in residential areas, or in church parking lots which is also not right since we aren’t using the parking lot for what it’s intended for. Employees of businesses that have 2 hour parking signs should be issued passes that allow us to park in the 2 hour parking and not get ticked. We are the only ones that use these spaces!

Please send me confirmation that my ticket has been written off and is not due to me since I did not go over the parking limit. The person that marks the tires should double check that there’s still a mark on the tire before a parking ticket is issued. Just because I parked in the same space more than once in a day does not mean I was there for over two hours. I was gone for over 30 minutes and drove all over *********, so I know the white tire mark rubbed off and was not there when the ticket was issued to me. The city of ********* is ridiculous with its’ downtown parking rules and the people that it hires to do the enforcing must be blind.

Thanks for your time

Today my husband and I went to a certain tax perparation company which shall remain nameless, to do our taxes. Normally we used Turbo Tax each year at home, and do them ourselves, but this year I wanted to see if we got better results at this company that specialized in taxes, and we did. The past two years we owed over $2,000 in taxes and this year we get back $6,000! I still don’t really believe it, though it’s happening and I have the paperwork to prove it. Anyways, since we had never been there we had to fill out a few forms. When signing the forms, they told us that the man must sign the form first, and then the woman can sign after as the “spouse”. I was offended by this and I now resent this company, and tomorrow I am going to mail them a complaint letter. I found it offensive that they require the man to sign first, and he is listed as the main person on the account, and I am listed as “spouse”, therefore “not as important”. Who came up with this STUPID rule? It has nothing to do with who made more money, who controls the finances, or even who makes the major decisions. It all has to do with HE IS A MAN SO HE IS BETTER AND WOMEN ARE NOTE EQUAL TO MEN. I find this horribly offiensive and it may prevent me from using them next year for our taxes. I can’t wait to get into work tomorrow and email AND mail them a letter of complaint. I also subscribe to a feminist magazine, though I am not truly a feminist, and I am thinking about writing to them as well. I am not a feminist, though I do support a lot of their beliefs, which I won’t go into for this blog because that would take me hours to write about. I am very passionate about womens rights. Anyways, I had to say something in my blog about this place, and I’m sure you can all guess who the company is if you think about it (rhymes with SHACH & SHMAR SMLOCK).

Instead of doing a New Years Resolution, I think I’m going to try doing a monthly resolution. It might work better. That way I will have a goal to work towards each month instead of a whole entire year to try and fail
This month’s resolution is going to be to stop talking about people behind their backs. I don’t do it that often except at work. Today I called myself and a co-worker out on it and said we need to knock it off because it’s going to turn around and bite us in the butt. I don’t talk about people too often, but when I do, it just let it all out and say what I think. I would say it to the people’s faces too, if they asked me, but unfortunately for them, they aren’t around to ask me when I happen to be talking about them
No in all seriousness though, I am a nice person but when people have screwed me over, or tried to screw me over or take advantage of me or anything like that, then I lose all respect for them and then they are leaving themselves to be talked about. They are almost ASKING for it. Don’t be an @$$ and you won’t get treated like one.

So you all know that the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday. That is the biggest shopping day of the year. Tons of stores reduce their prices and have major sales so that people will shop at their store for christmas presents. They all advertise these LOW prices and everyone rushes as fast as they can to as many stores as they can to buy as much as they can, all in one day. I have never participated in Black Friday until this year. I did all of my shopping online, and I was still able to take advantage of the cheap sales which was awesome, and very convenient. I thought I was scoring amazing deals and was so happy with myself.

And NOW I am seeing all these advertisements for stores having their pre-christmas sales this weekend, LOWEST prices of the season! What’s that all about!? They brainwash you into thinking that Black Friday is going to the the cheapest deals you’ll find all year and then of course, right after sucks get sucked into Black Friday, then they sucker even MORE people into shopping at their pre-christmas sales. I don’t quite think that’s fair. If I would’ve known that I could’ve gotten even cheaper merchandise if I would’ve waited just one more week, of course I would have waited!

So now, I am screwed for this year. To me, that makes no sense for stores to do that to their customers. I mean I understand that they probably got a bunch of business on Black Friday, but they could get even MORE if they would just wait and do one huge pre-christmas sale, and then another huge after-christmas sale. Well at least now I’ve learned my lesson - the one year I try to participate in major sales, and I got screwed! Next year - no sales for me. I will do the after christmas sales because those are usually pretty good, and the after new years sales are usually decent. But that is IT!

All of you that were like me and were against participating in these sales, now you know. Don’t do it! There’s always going to be a better sale coming up right after you thought that you had already gotten the best sale!