I'm Alive

Hey folks!

I know I haven't been around lately here, on Facebook, and especially on Twitter. I am very very sorry. I'm not dead just been busy and I have a lot of things going on. Sorry for not having replied to anyones blogs lately but I will get around to checking out all the blogs later.

My head is killing me so I'm going back to bed now!

Stuffing the Envelope

Stuffing the Envelope


So its summer and that means its wedding, engagement, baptism, shower season. It’s actually one of my favorite and least favorite things about the summer. I love that my friends are moving on in life and getting married, having babies and all that other great stuff but I hate that every weekend seemed to be booked by going to an event. Every once in a while you like to just sit at home on your couch on a Saturday. Luckily this season has been a bit different. The majority of my friends who are having these events don’t live locally and as much as I’d love to be able to fly in to help them celebrate, I can’t. But I do send gifts when possible.

I was always taught if you can’t make it to an event, along with your RVSP card saying “I regretfully decline,” you should send a gift. Be it a check, a mixer, or whatever. You shouldn’t just say no empty handed because that person wanted you there to help you celebrate with them.

I did that with most of the events that I had to decline this season…I wasn’t able to make it to a friend’s wedding shower and I tried to buy a gift and have it sent but apparently the place she was registered at didn’t want to take my Canadian credit card. But I did make up for it at another one of her showers (lingerie).

So when it comes to sending gifts what criteria do you use? The reason I ask this is because often at Big Fat Greek Events you can over hear a couple discussing what to put into the envelope (because we don’t normally have box gifts at our weddings, that’s what the wedding shower and housewarming is for). It’s not rare to hear an older couple telling a younger couple, “Oh, you don’t have to put a lot in this envelope, the bride isn’t Greek.” Or “150$ for the both of you is okay, the served chicken!” Yep, that’s what people around these parts do. They look at the following to gauge how much you are worth.

1. Are you both Greek? If not, you just lost at least 25% of the “norm”
2. What type of meal is being served? Chicken?! Shame on you! Beef, way to go.
3. What reception hall is it at? Are you paying $40 per person or are you paying upwards of $100?
4. How well do we know you? Did you invite me because my mom made me invite you to my event?

I think its all stupid. When I go to an event with my husband I think of: “How well do I know them?” I don’t think about if they came to my event, how much did they put in the envelope, what did they serve to eat, are they both Greek or both Italian or Arabic? Who cares? The only thing that should matter is how well you know them and how close you are to them?

I’m obviously going to put more money in an envelope for my cousin then I would for a friend? And I’d put more for my sister than I would for my cousin. If I can’t make it to something I try to either send 100$ or a gift that is approximately that much. I don’t say, “Oh they are having their wedding at the Chateau Royal so their meal is probably $40…” that’s wrong. That’s cheap. At that point just don’t even bother going.

I have a funny story about my wedding. Instead of doing the traditional Greek thing and going to a Greek reception hall which are totally over done and need a MAJOR face lift I decided to go to an Italian hall in the East End. Sure, it’s a bit further away but you know what? I loved my hall. If I would have gotten married in the Greek halls I would have spent about $5,000.00 just decorating the hall to make it look decent. I didn’t have to pay a dime at the Madison. Sure I spent a little more for the meals then I would have at a Greek hall but who cares? I’m only getting married once and I wanted to have an event that I’d never forget. I wanted an event that I would look back at the pictures in 20 years and smile about how perfect everything was.

Some people (I won’t name names!) told me that I would “lose” money if I got married at an Italian hall because the meals were more expensive and people wouldn’t put that kind of money in the envelope. I told that person that I’m not looking at my wedding as a money making event. I’m looking at it as a celebration and if you can come then come. I was told that the Canadians (read “white folks”) don’t put money in envelopes and would bring us a bottle of wine or something and we’d lose money on them so to not invite them. I told that person to stop telling me what to do at my wedding. I’m happy enough to have that person join me at my wedding and I don’t care what they bring. In fact, I had recently met a cousin of a great friend of mine who was having a hard time. He was going through a divorce, he wasn’t enjoying life, and he was out of a job. (Oddly enough his parents were invited to my wedding via my parents. His parents actually married my parents. They put the stefana on them! SMALL WORLD!). I asked him if he had a suit and he said he did. I told him to come to my wedding. (I met him on Thursday, getting married on Saturday…). He said he’d love to but he just didn’t have money to put into the envelope and I told him screw that. Just come. I told him that I’d already given my head count to the hall and one of my husband’s friends cancelled at last minute so I was going to pay for that meal regardless and I’d rather someone be there to eat it then end up trashing it. He thanked me and said he’d come. He did show up and you know what? He had an amazing time hanging out with his cousin, her husband, and a lot of my friends. He loved Table 13.

Well, there was a family of 4 that showed up to my wedding. A family that was related to the person who told me that we’d lose money by doing the wedding at an Italian hall (yes this is important to the story). The husband of this family works for a huge company and brings home a 7 figure paycheck yearly. Do you know what they put in the envelope? A check for $125 for a family of 4. Um, sorry dude but that doesn’t even cover the cost of ONE meal let alone 4. At that rate, why even bother putting anything at all? It made HIM look like a fool and no one else. In fact, my husband and I decided not to even bother cashing the check. That guy called us one day asking why we didn’t cash the check (about a month or two after the wedding) and I told him simply, “Apparently you need it more than I do”. Was it rude? Sure. Do I care? Not really.

Now with all that being said I know that its not everyone’s customs to bring an envelope as a gift. But my question to you is, how do you determine the value of the gift (envelope or box)? Strictly on what you can afford that weekend? If you have to travel to get there? How close you are? The venue that the event is held?

The Talk

So, those of you who have been reading my blog regularly know that I have had some issues in the past with my co-worker(s). You can read my last post for the latest as well as a link to the issue before that if you want more information.

I had also posted something on another blog about another issue with a co-worker and I listened to every one's advice, because seriously, why ask for it if you don't listen to it?

My biggest issue is related to my last post. I work with Stupid Ugly Bitch (SUB) and I hate her. This week I found myself doing a lot of things out of character such as wishing she'd get hit by a bus, trying to plot ways to make her fail at her job, dreaming of her getting run over by a steam roller and only her big head remaining, and things of that sort...Okay, so maybe its not that out of character for me but it is regarding work situations. I've always been highly professional at work.

Anyway, on Wednesday my boss came into the office and the morning was really busy so I didn't have time to talk to him. I had made a comment to my co-worker about this article on MSN about 43 strange things said during a job interview and my boss suddenly piped up, "Why are you looking for another job." I replied, "Not at the moment." We let it go for about an other hour or so.

I had a few messages I had to give to Boss so I went into his office and told him about the two calls that came in earlier in the day and about a marketing opportunity that we had. As I was turning to leave his office I said, "Hey Boss, can we talk about SUB?" He goes to me, "Do we really have to? I'm just not in the mood to talk about SUB." I said to him, "Fine, I just want you to know that I'm extremely uncomfortable at work and no longer want to be here and shes one of the reasons." and with that I broke down.

Yep. Me. I broke down at work. I actually sat in my boss' office and fucking cried like 3 year old. My boss looked at me in complete and utter shock. Quickly handed me some tissues and then got up and closed his door so that no one else could hear our conversation or see my reaction. He was shocked that something bothered me so much because I usually have very thick skin and in fact have never even shown that anything bothers me at work. I've always taken things with a grain of salt. I try to compose myself and manage to mumbled that I'm embarrassed that I'm crying at work. He says its okay to just let everything out.

I basically told him that I understand that SUB is older than me (and older than my mom too) but I do NOT tolerate someone talking down to me, treating me like I am stupid, or crossing the boundaries and attempting to do my job. If thats the case then I might as well just pack up my office and go home. He can just pay SUB to do my job too...although she's proven she'd be very very bad at it.

My boss goes on to explain to me that truthfully speaking he doesn't like SUB either but right now we are stuck with her because she is all we have on the East Coast and my boss's boss likes SUB. He told me how she annoys him and how he cannot be on the phone with her for more than 5 minutes before he wants to stick a pen in his eye, how he hates travelling with her because shes just that annoying. The unfortunate thing is that he doesn't think she will ever change. He doesn't think she will learn how to work with people and that its just her character.

I mentioned to him (I'd stop crying every now and then long enough to make full sentences and then I'd cry and then I'd have to stop...UGH!) that if she treats her co-workers like crap (another co-worker HATES her mainly because she is so condescending and bitchy) how does she treat stores? How does she work with her distributors and dealers? Boss said that its pretty much 50-50. 50% love her the other 50% could live without her. I don't think those are good numbers. I mean half of her territory could live without her? Thats HORRIBLE! Then I told my boss, "Look, I'd think I was being an overly sensitive PMSy person if I was the only one who couldn't stand her but out of 5 in the North American office 2 hate her, 1 is annoyed, 1 is indifferent and the 5th person is SUB herself. She obviously has issues working with people.

My boss and I ended things pretty well. He told me that he would have a talk with her without bringing me up. He didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she got under my skin. I told my boss that if SUB were to call my cell, text my cell, or email me at my personal email even during work hours I would not answer. My personal stuff is for people I consider to be friends (and I did clarify with him that he and my other co-workers fall into the "friends" category). I also told him that if SUB lived in Montreal we would be having this conversation from prison.

After I left his office I went to wash my face and try to put myself together before going back to my desk (he actually asked me if I wanted to go for a walk or to leave for the rest of the day just to get my head on straight again, I said I just needed a few minutes). I went back to my desk and got back to work when he came out of his office and puts his hand on my shoulder and said, "Jen, I want you to know that I always have your back. ALWAYS. I will always take your side. Next time please don't wait so long to talk to me about something bothering you."

I smiled and enjoyed the rest of my work day.

Yesterday we went for lunch and had a nice talk and did a lot of laughing but of course he asked me like 20 times "How are you, are you okay?" Oh did I mention that at one point during our conversation he says to me, "I don't mean to get personal but is there a chance that you are pregnant? I mean I've never seen you so emotional." I just laughed and said no that when things piss me off enough I cry... but when I get sad I want to hit.

SUB of course pissed me off yesterday. She was blatantly disregarding my orders and finding 20 reasons not to do her job. Oddly enough I got a response the minute I wrote to my boss and copied her on it kindly explaining to Boss how the show stopping was on a standstill because SUB thinks its outside of her job description to decide what items to pull and show at the tradeshow.

Today Boss didn't come into work but of course he sent me a text message, "How are you today." I wonder if my boss now thinks that I am mentally unstable, will that breakdown always be on his mind? He dealt with my crying well, he talked until I was ready to end the conversation but I hope he doesn't think he has to worry about me and treat me delicately.

I'm annoyed and considering quitting

Gosh, I really hate writing in my blog only when I'm annoyed but I guess that is the only time I feel truly inspired. Oddly enough when I'm really annoyed/pissed off I also tend to clean the house.

So why am I so pissed off? Well, today started off fairly okay. Like it wasn't a great day but it wasn't a horrible day either. It was just an okay day. By mid-morning I got a text message from my boss informing me he wasn't coming in (hey it was a gorgeous day, I wouldn't have come in either if given that chance) BUT he had a few things he wanted me to review. I took notes on what he wanted and had everything completed by 1pm. My boss writes me back saying good work.

Then around 1:30 I realized I hadn't gotten an answer from my graphics artist regarding an ad I needed created for this company. Before I could pick up the telephone to call her my computer alerted me that I had an email. It was from the graphics artist. I reviewed what she did and it was what the boss wanted but I forwarded the email to the boss. He copied my co-worker (Stupid Ugly Bitch) on his reply so that she could see the ad since it was for her territory. I don't mind especially because SUB had come up with the concept for this ad.

Boss, SUB, Graphics Artist and I send a few emails back and forth regarding the layout of the ad and possibly changing the wording. I said that I would email the person in charge of the company that we are running the ad for in order to find out if it is "okay" and if we can change the wording to something or if that would be violating their rules. My boss says "Let me know".

I write back to my boss and copy SUB on it saying, "Spoke with X and they said ad is fine as is, we can not make the changes you want because its violating their rules. Am sending the file to the printer now for 2000 copies".

So now this is ALREADY at the printer right?! I get copied on an email from SUB to person X at that company saying "here is our draft please let me know if its okay or not...." Um excuse me? Do we not look stupid now as a company? Completely disorganized if 20 minutes after ANSWERING me he gets another email from another employee asking the same thing? And get this, the attachment wasn't a sample of the ad it was sales figures!!!!

SUB is constantly complaining about how person X thinks our company is disorganized, how we don't follow the rules, how we this and how we that...Don't you think you are adding fuel to the fire but crossing your job description lines and trying to do my job when I already had an answer to the exact same question? When I already had the ad printing in Texas?

I sent SUB an email and copied my boss saying: "SUB I already emailed X and got his reply. This is already at print as I got his approval. Please STOP doing my job as it makes our company look very disorganized. By the way, you attached the wrong file to that email" (which by the way went to 6 people not just person X, myself, and my boss).

She didn't reply. Of course not, everytime I call her out on her shit she never sends a reply. She gets her tail between her legs when she is informed that she is wrong. That was the SECOND time today the she had contacted person X at the same company to ask him something I had already asked him (I emailed him last week regarding a promotion we wanted to run and he told me on what items he was willing to accept a discount). The first time I didn't get too wound up about it because I wasn't sure if I had informed her of what we'd be doing promotions on.

Then another issue happened when a customer noticed something but I managed to find a loophole. I emailed SUB and Boss and told them that althought something looked like something it specifically said something else but I could see where someone would be confused but it doesn't change the fact that there is a loophole.

SUB writes back to me and my boss saying, "Jenny, please don't take my email personally as an attack on your work but blah blah blah blah blah blah". I write back to SUB copying my boss, "SUB, STOP telling me to stop taking things personally because I don't. In fact, I, personally did not work on any sell sheets so its not my work to get offended at any errors. I simply found a loophole for you to be able to use until we can all discuss this when Boss is in the office and figure out a way to work around this".

This is the second email that shes written to me telling me not to take something personally. Bitch I don't take anything personally other than you crossing the fucking line and doing my fucking job. You know what, why don't I just quit my job and you can feel free to do mine as well as yours? Oh wait, maybe I should take half of your pay because I spend a lot of my time trying to fix your fuck ups.

I can not wait until my boss comes into work tomorrow because I really feel I have to talk to him. The first time I emailed him about SUB and how she's been behaving apparently accomplished nothing. This time something will happen. I'm annoyed and can't see myself continuing my position and always having to deal with someone like SUB. I don't care how old she is, how long she has been in the industry or whatever. She's annoying, constantly crosses the line, and has no idea how to speak to people. She might be older than my momma but that doesn't mean I won't tell her where to shove it.

I'm honestly at a cross road and have no idea what to do regarding this issue. I'm seriously considering just putting in a letter of resignation and finding a company where I don't have to tolerate people like this. Not only that but there was recently an issue with a pay increase that I've been trying to figure out how to address. I just feel like lately I'm not happy at the company.

Being Stalked -- Not So Fun..Especially TWICE

Hey guys,

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this on my blog so I put mine up as well. I hope you guys read it and comment. These are both TRUE stories and both have scared the living daylights out of me.


*****

I’ve had a scary situation happen to me twice, yes, the same situation twice which kind of makes you think that maybe I am the cause of the problem but I don’t really think that’s the case very much. However, it has changed the way I view things and what things about myself I reveal online.

Back in 1999, yes a full 10 years ago, I was stalked by a guy I had met on the internet. For this blog’s sake lets call him Jeremy.. This guy seemed rather normal at first and we had met through in a chat room and hit it off and we added one another to the chat program ICQ. We’d talk all the time. He was older than me by a few years and lived in Nebraska, I lived in Texas. We had never spoken on the telephone but we had seen pictures of one another from our wonderful geocities webpages. I hadn’t realized at the time how much information I was giving out over the internet. I had just turned 17 years old and was a little chatter box. I had mentioned the city and state I lived in, he knew my last name from my outgoing emails, I mentioned what high school I went to, and he had seen a picture of me in my wrestling uniform that had my schools name and mascot on it.

I wasn’t really too worried about the things I had told Jeremy because he was talking to one of my other internet friends (who lived in a city near by) and they were talking about dating in real life. Often when I’d talk to Jeremy we’d talk about Kelly and how things were going in their relationship. They spoke on the phone a lot and were planning a trip to see one another. Well one day suddenly Kelly didn’t want to talk to me anymore, in fact she hated me. I didn’t understand why. Turns out that Jeremy had broken up with her because he had feelings for someone else. He had feelings for me. I didn’t return those feelings. I was 17 years old and dealing with my own screwed up relationship. Some douchebag that I went to Homecoming with was spreading rumors how he banged me and half the wrestling team was trying to murder him and he ended up transferring schools. I didn’t need an online boyfriend, the real life one I had proved to be more than enough headaches!

Well, a few weeks after my Homecoming debacle my parents went on two separate trips. My mother had gone to Greece to visit her parents and my father went to South Texas for a business trip. I must had brought that up in conversation with Jeremy because a few days later I notice a black truck parked outside of my house during daylight and night hours. It was a truck that didn’t belong there. The people who lived across the street from me had moved out so it was no way that it was their car. This car would follow me to school and back. The good thing was that I was never alone. My friends were always keeping me company and my house was never empty for that reason.

I went to take my senior pictures with my best friend Amy and the truck followed us again. I rushed into the parking lot of the mall and ran inside. Once I was finished taking my pictures and walked out of the studio Jeremy was there. He started to talk to me and I just asked him basically, WTF are you doing here? He told me had had to see me and he got my address from the telephone book. Seriously, not too many people with my Greek last name living in Arlington Texas. I freaked out and told him to go away, go back to Nebraska and leave me alone. He got into his truck in the parking lot and sped off.

I went home with Amy and we chilled for a while and then she had to go home. I was home alone and I didn’t mind it. I got on the internet, I watched some movies, I just tried to occupy myself. It had gotten late, about 1am, and I finally went to sleep. There was a tap at my window and I froze. I didn’t know how to react. I tried to think quickly if all the doors and windows were locked. There was no way anyone was coming in through my back yard as I had 2 pitt bulls back there. I rolled off my bed quietly and crawled on the floor to our spare bedroom and looked out the window. I saw that the black truck was back. I crawled to the living room and picked up the cordless phone and called 911.

I informed the police that there was a strange car parked outside of my house for a few days, that I knew who it was and know they were knocking on my window. They asked me if they had a weapon and I said, “Not that I know of but I’m inside and they are outside”. A few minutes later the police showed up and made Jeremy leave the state; Something about stalking underage kids that didn’t sit well with the APD.


Now fast forward a few years. I’m now older and more aware of things. I no longer use my full name on emails unless I know you personally (two email addresses) my Myspace and Facebook profile don’t have my full last name, I’m very vague about where I live and work. (Right now my FB profile has my full last name but is on a private profile, reason for the full name is for high school reunion, people are looking for me!) Well in 2006 on Myspace I had bumped into a few kids from high school and they got me in contact with others and we all started talking again. We went from Myspace messages to MSN conversations and occasionally telephone conversations. One kid (we’ll call him Ruben) that I had graduated with (and went to elementary school with too) and I realized that we had a lot in common in regards to our favorite t.v. shows, what we ate and what we didn’t. We just had a lot of similarities. He started to call me at all hours of the day and night, he would message me all the time on MSN and basically wanted to know what I was doing every minute of my life. It didn’t bother me too much because he was in Texas and I was in Montreal. Not too much he could do right?

Yeah…right. That is until I decided to take a trip to Texas to visit my parents and of course friends. At first everything was okay. Ruben would call me to see if I needed a ride out to where all of our friends were meeting or if I wanted to pick him up (oh at this point I really should mention that we live on the same freaking street, just different blocks! Like I lived on the 1400 block of Noname St. and he lived on the 900 block of Noname St.) Once, I agreed to let him pick me up because I had decided that I would drink that night. Big mistake! He ended up trying to put the moves on me and I wasn’t having it. I was like, oh no…. I stopped hanging around him and I told our friends that if he was invited somewhere I could not go because I refused to be near him. Our friends obliged and they wouldn’t invite him out with us (they saw how he was acting towards me and the entire situation and he ended up alienating a lot of people because of his attitude).

Well a while into my trip it was time to celebrate my sister’s birthday (Oh we drove from Montreal to Dallas TOGETHER…ALONE!) and I had a surprise party for her. I had invited a lot of her friends and one of her friends brought a guy friend, lets call him Guy. Guy and I really hit of off and we ended up dating while I was in Texas (3 months folks!) I decided that it was time that Guy met my friends from high school because although we had gone to the same high school Guy graduated in 1995 and I graduated in 1999 so we ran in different circles, but some circles crossed. My sister graduated in 1996 and I dated guys from class of 1997 and 1998 and we ALL hung out. Well my friends had invited Ruben out to the place that we were all going to be at. Guy and I were sitting there talking with everyone and occasionally stealing a kiss here and there. Ruben was there and he just straight up stood up and called me a bitch. Guy wanted to beat his face in but I told him to relax. Guy and I left and went to another party where his friends were. It was about 3am when Guy dropped me off at my parents house and I noticed a black truck parked across the street (déjà vu anyone?). I recognized the truck instantly. It was Ruben’s. I passed his house EVERYDAY going anywhere as it was on the way to the high way. I ran into my house and sent him a text message asking him to leave. He wrote back saying no. I wrote back asking how he’d feel in about half an hour, when my dad gets up to go to work, when I tell my father how some strange dude is parked outside of my house watching me? I heard the ignition start and Ruben was off.

I woke up the next day and the truck was there again. I’d go to the mall, I’d go run errands, I’d go to Guy’s place and he’d follow me. The problem with that is that Ruben lived in my city, he had all the rights to be on the same roads as I was, he lived on my street and had the right to be there. There was nothing anyone could do and the last thing I wanted to do was tell my father. My dad would end up in jail for beating the crap out of Ruben.

Final straw was when Guy and I had headed to a party in a city about 45 minutes from my house. We are on the high way and I noticed the truck. I didn’t pay attention at first thinking maybe he was going somewhere and would get off at a different exit. He continued to follow us even though I was making Guy take weird exits, random turns, and just aimless driving. Guy picked up the phone and called the police. The police were made aware of this situation, for the second time now, and we told the police where we were, what we were driving, and what Ruben was driving. We told the police about the route we were taking and they met up with us and pulled Ruben over informing him of the laws about stalking people. They had a stern talking to and the police were monitoring my street even more for the duration of my trip.

I think the second stalking was worse then the first case because it was soooo obvious and it was being done by someone I grew up with. One would think that if you get stalked twice that you have something to do with it but that couldn’t be more wrong. People just get obsessed.

Guest Post: 20sb.com Blog Swap

I don't know if I had mentioned it on my blog or not but I participated in a blog swap hosted by 20something bloggers. I got paired up with Kelly and we decided to write our blogs on the same topic. We came up with "Scariest Thing To Happen to You". Below you will find her post as well as a link to her blog. I will repost my blog here tomorrow as well as I found my situation terrifying and of course I'd love to share it all with you. If you can't wait, then be sure to check out my post on Kelly's blog!

*****

I started blogging January 2008 and have very much enjoyed sharing my life with anyone looking for a good laugh. A couple weeks ago I was meandering through 20sb.net and signed up for their annual blog swap and was paired with Jenny. Shortly thereafter, our conversation regarding blog topics ensued and in the end, we both decided we could have some fun blogging about the scariest thing that ever happened to us.

Now, we’ve all been scared out of our wits at one point or another in our lives, right? Imagine my surprise when I tried to weed through my memory bank to pick a good scary memory and came up short. Boo! Then it hit me and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this immediately!

When I was 24, I moved to a very unique apartment. It was a private residence and on the grounds was a carriage house that the owners transformed into two apartments. My next door neighbor was great and I loved living there – for the first 3 or 4 months anyway. One day, I was at work and got a phone call from my next door neighbor. We had been robbed! I’ll never forget that moment; even now when I think about it my heart skips a beat. I could hear the panic in her voice as she told me I had to come home. Fortunately, I didn’t live too far from work and thank God the cops must have been on lunch break because they would have had multiple reasons to pull me over; swerving, speeding, running lights. Hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, right?

When I got home, my heart was pounding out of my chest because I had no idea what I was going to come home to. My mind was picturing a complete and total invasion of my home. My privacy. My space; stolen TV, things thrown everywhere, pictures and mementos broken and thrown all over the place, clothes piled in random spaces, and doors and windows broken. Fortunately, my mind’s picture was worse then what I actually encountered. My door was busted in and lying on the floor, a few things had fallen off the walls, but nothing too major. The most frustrating thing was I couldn’t find my cats. I had no idea how long it had been since my lovely visitors had left and was scared to death my cats had gotten out, because on their way out, my visitors weren’t kind enough to pick my door up off the floor. Jerks! Later that evening I found my cats. They were huddled not only under my bed, but had clawed their way up into my box spring and were hanging out there.

That happened November 2006. Fast forward to November 2007, one week short of the “My House Got Broken Into for the First Time” anniversary. It was in the middle of the day and I had stopped at home on my lunch break and guess what? Can you guess? Yup, I had been broken into once again and this time they took my laptop and, once again, busted my door down off the hinges. (Cats were eventually found, yet again, under the bed).

The second time, I felt more anger and down right rage, then fear. I gave my landlord a piece of my mind and moved out of that apartment very quickly.

Getting robbed sure did scare the hell out of me and it took me a while to feel truly safe and secure, even in my new apartment. However, it did teach me one valuable lesson; scary things are bound to happen to everyone, we can’t change that. What we can change is how we react to the situation. It’s like Randy Pausch used to say, “We can’t change the cards we’re dealt; just how we play the game.”

Thanks for reading and if you want to hear more about the life of a blonde, single, 20-something, learning to navigate her way through this world, feel free to visit me at http://smileygirl-2008begins.blogspot.com/

A great big huge thanks to Jenny for hosting me, it’s been great fun!

That Kiss (an old blog from years ago!)

Okay so tomorrow I'm going to have a guest blogger here thanks to the Blog Swap hosted by 20sb.com and I was looking for an old blog to get my inspiration for the topic we both decided to blog about and I came across this jewel.

Oh how much someone can change in just a matter of a few years.....

************ Original blog posted ages ago****************


As much as I like to think that Im good with words and I have a way of expressing myself it seems like I cant ever get out my true feelings. Sure I can bitch and moan about things that bother me but I struggle a lot when it comes to expressing what I feel and what I want. In fact Ive started this blog like 5 times and constantly go back and delete everything but the title of it.

So why not delete the title of this blog? Youll find out later on I guess. Have you ever met someone that was so perfect for you but you never got a chance to be with them for some reason or another? They managed to slip away because the two of you werent on the same page or one wasnt ready for the commitment that the other was? You would refer to them as the one that got away, right? Well what do you do if the one that got away somehow found a way to slip back into your life? Do you see that as an opportunity and seize it or do you sit back in the shadows and watch it slip away again?

What if the situation isnt as cut and dry as that? What if there is a third party involved? Do you keep your mouth shut and say nothing because someone else is in the picture or do you follow your heart and go after what it really wants? See my situation isnt that cut and dry. There is a third party and there is all this damn distance. I sit here and I think of everything and a part of me wonders if its not a real attraction on both of our parts, more like a tease but then I really think of what I feel and what I know is true and I dont think its a game. I know on my part its not a game. I have feelings for someone that I had feelings before in the past and never perused, and Im sure even if I had mentioned my true feelings that things would still end up like this. 10 years ago neither of us was in any sort of position to make any kind of commitment to one another, besides didnt I flee the country 8 years ago right after I walked across that stage? (Thats another story all in its self that you dont need to know about.)

So now Im stuck in a situation that I dont find fair to anyone involved. This is the point in life when Mr. Anderson pops into my mind with his little expressionm Rule Number One. Life is not fair. I wonder if Mr. Anderson ever found out how truly right that expression was.

So without putting any pressure on anyone, I feel like my entire life can be fixed by one simple kiss. A kiss that will tell me everything. A kiss that will let me know if the feelings are the same on both parts, a kiss that will tell me what to do with my life. You know, the type of kisses that you see in movies where fireworks go off and the girls leg goes up in the air? Ive been waiting all of my life for a kiss like that and I truly think that this one person in my mind can give me a kiss like that.

That kiss is the only thing Im looking forward to.


********************The Aftermath*********************


So what happened after "THAT kiss"? Were lives shattered? Was everything happily ever after? Did the Earth standstill? Did the world still go on?

Without getting into too many details:
Lives chaged, the world went on, friendships were lost, hearts were broken, and people never spoke again.

Sometimes, THAT kiss is better left as a thought instead of brought to reality. Sometimes having such high expectations ends in upset and hurt.