Could It Really Be Spring?

I’m watching the news this morning and the weatherman just said, “Periods of rain, late Thursday right on through Sunday.”

Rain. Not snow.

My yard is muddy enough, and the dogs keep tracking it into the house. Which means it keeps winding up in my bed. I can’t STAND that. However the fact that it’s warm enough to be rain and not snow makes me very, very happy.

I’ve got the “spring cleaning” bug, but have lots of work stuffs to do. Part of all the reason I’m doing this whole shift in work stuff. I need more personal time in life. For nearly 5 years, I’ve been working from 630am til often midnight or later, with maybe only an hour or two’s break in between, nearly 7 days a week. I think I’m burning out a little, and I’m trying to attack it now before it causes problems, you know?

I’m currently not taking on new clients, unless there’s a hefty budget. I’m sorry, please don’t hate me. It’s Spring – a time for renewal, rebirth, and rediscovery. My birthday’s coming up, and I’ve always held Spring in a much higher regard for things like this than New Year’s Day as a result. It’s time for me to get things rolling in a more specific direction that will allow me to enjoy more of LIFE.

What part of Spring are you looking forward to? Are you renewing your plans, your schemes, your ideas or goals?

XLIV Superbowl Sunday 2010 – Geaux Saints?

So I’m not your typical anti-sports kind of girl, though I’m sure as hell not a football fanatic. (Although, I’m a die-hard Yankees fan!)

My dad explained the game to me at one point, and I’d watch with him once in a while, but I really just never got into it. A few years ago I was dating a football watching kinda guy. Sundays we’d go to his sister’s and watch football. She and I would half-heartedly watch, of course, but you know the deal.

On Superbowl Sunday, there was a huge party at his mom’s. I’m talking the same quantities of food as there was on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Tons of people, a huge television, and enormous quantities of food.

I like Superbowl parties. I like the commercials a lot, too. And I’ll even pick a team to root for, though historically it’s been that which was the favorite of the group I was with at the time. This year, I’m actually rooting for the Saints for the same reason a lot of people are: NOLA deserves to have a good day today.

Seriously. Amidst all this “Help Haiti” crap going on (yeah, not gonna get into my thoughts on that right now), New Orleans and the suffering there since Katrina has been on my mind a lot. My mom and I are even talking about taking a trip down, but besides that, I think that a win for the Saints would be just an amazing boost for a city OF OUR OWN that has endured so much in recent years.

So despite the fact that I’m single this year, and I’ve got no real reason to watch the game or cheer on any particular team (afterall, NY’s not in it LOL), I’m heading off soon to my friend’s house where her man and her son are going to be watching the festivities today. We’re gonna order lots of food, watch the commercials, probably partake in some tasty adult beverages, and deep down inside, I’m going to be praying that the Saints take it home today.

Geaux Saints!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Superbowl final breathes life into New Orleans (telegraph.co.uk)
• Super Bowl XLIV: Heart Says New Orleans Saints, Head Says Indianapolis Colts (bleacherreport.com)
• The Super Bowl Shuffle: The Greatest Music Video EVER! (trueslant.com)
• Attention, Everyone: Please Stop Writing Girl’s Guides To The Super Bowl [Rants] (jezebel.com)

John Edwards, Tiger Woods, and Me

I’ve just got to get something off my chest…

John Edwards is complete scum.
(So is Tiger Woods.)
And Eliot Spitzer.
And Bill Clinton.

Look, before I go any further, I realize that there’s always “behind the scenes” stuff that we as the gawking American public don’t know about when it comes to politicians and celebs who have affairs. (Hell, does anyone really not understand why Bill would look elsewhere for his lovin’?) However what bothers me most is that these people flat out LIE once they’re caught. Not only did they cheat on their wives (and thereby screwing up their kids), but then when they were caught, they lied like it was life or death. Billy boy even cost the American public financially when he lied, as there was was actually an investigation and trial. The man swore under oath that he was innocent, which was a lie. And he was allowed to remain PoTUS and is still hailed by many to this day. Seriously?!

With the exception of Tiger Woods, the other three men I named up there (yes, there are surely thousands more) have this public persona where they’re to be held responsible to the public for some pretty major stuff. Bill Clinton was getting his weenie wet INSIDE the Oval Office. John Edwards was running for president, and cheated on his cancer-fighting wife. Eliot Spitzer was using paid staff to guard the doors of his hotel rooms where he paid over $400 an hour to do things that are illegal in some states to a hooker.

So not only have these men been unfaithful to the women who stood by them while they rose up in the political ranks, the women who trusted them, the women who carried and cared for their children, but then they lied about it.

I personally have three rules when I’m in a relationship: Don’t cheat on me, don’t lie to me, and don’t get abusive in any way, shape, or form. Outside of those three things, I can honestly probably forgive anything. (So yeah, Chris Brown wouldn’t have made it very far with me either, and likely would’ve suffered some major infliction of pain to his “manhood” had he tried striking me.)

I give Tiger’s wife (and Rihanna) some credit for booting him out and taking off her ring. Though the rumor mill today says that he’s in a sex addict’s rehab somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and that she happens to be in the same town. Who knows, but at least she’s putting her foot down. Elizabeth Edwards, though? The woman’s been battling cancer for what, 5+ years now? I mean, we’re not talking having a sketchy looking mole removed, this woman’s gone through the wringer and all the while, hubby’s bonking some indie documentary film maker. Today the “breaking news” (of which the public already was aware of) is that he lied before, and he knows that the child this homewrecker gave birth to is his. (Also that he had asked one of his staffers to pay off a doctor to fake a paternity test, and to steal a diaper so he could privately conduct one to tell for sure if the baby was his. Nice guy who was almost elected President, eh?) And where is Mrs. Edwards in all of this? Standing by her man. WTF?!

Guess what ladies? Standing by a cheating man doesn’t do anyone any good. It lets him know that there’s literally nothing he could do to make you stop wanting him. It tells young women that it’s okay to be cheated on, and that you should forgive him for his indiscretions. It shows that as a young man, you can cheat, get caught, lie, and still keep a good woman at home.

Now, before you go claiming that I’m jaded, that I’m not looking at cheating women because I’m a woman, or that I’m being too harsh – take note of something… I’m 32 years old, and have NEVER cheated. I’ve never even thought of it. My father was always faithful to my mother. But I happen to know a LOT of men (I belong to a volunteer fire department, for one thing), and I can honestly say that very few of them have the ability or desire to be faithful.

I do know a few guys who I believe are faithful, sure. It’s less than maybe 5% of the total number of men I know well enough to make that call, but they do exist. They’re honestly the only reason I haven’t given up entirely on the idea of marriage. But the other 95% are one of the reasons I’ve made it into my 30’s without having ever been married. That bothers me. It bothers me that we’re living in a world where relationships are so dispensable. So un-important to people. Celebs get married on a gust of wind and get divorced on the next one. “Real” people spend years in relationships and then all of the sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, one of them decides they’ve found someone “better”. Sometimes they respect the other person enough to leave first, but usually not.

I know that making a statement about “the old days” where marriages lasted would be on the verge of naive. I know that back then, husbands “worked late” and cheated with secretaries while wives stayed at home cooking and cleaning. I know that wives would sleep with the Maytag man when he showed up, because hubby was off earning the bread and wouldn’t be home for hours. I know that these things haven’t changed, however I do think they’ve become more accepted, and that’s so wrong to me.

What’s to blame for this sex-addicted population? Why are wives not giving it up to satisfy their husbands, or are they? Is one woman truly ever enough for a man, or do we believe the cheater’s broken record stating that “spreading the seed” is a primal instinct? There are plenty of animals which “mate for life”, so why are there so many humans who just simply can’t? Afterall, we’re the species with advanced brain power, and the ability to make conscious decisions based on more than hormones.

I may just be frustrated this morning. The news programs showed the John Edwards and Tiger Woods sex rehab stories virtually back-to-back, and I’ve been dealing with my own frustrations over relationships (actually, my lack thereof) and maybe all of this just touched a nerve with me because my ex was a cheater. In any event, to say I’m disgusted with all of it is an understatement.

Okay, I’m off to spend the day working now. I don’t need to devote much more attention at all to lying, cheating scum. (So for the record, major news networks – stop shoving it down my throat. Kthxbai.)

Related articles elsewhere on the web:

• High Infidelity (washingtonmonthly.com)
• National Post editorial board: Tiger’s tale proves morals still matter (network.nationalpost.com)
• Lack of shame is name of the game (timesunion.com)
• Are We Born to Cheat? Tempers Rise in White-Hot Debate (abcnews.go.com)

Black Friday or Cyber Monday – How Do You Shop?

I have a dear friend of mine who up until this year has been addicted to Black Friday shopping. I’m talking pouring over circulars, planning out her day to get to the right store at the right time, accounting for traffic, you name it.

I’m not saying it can’t be fun, if you’ve got a bit of a plan and decide you want to just get out in the madness of it all for some laughs and the chance of snagging a great deal. HOWEVER, I’m much more of a “Cyber Monday” kinda girl. In fact, last week was a really great week for a lot of deals, online or in store, and I grabbed a few items at record low prices.

I just have such little tolerance these days for the madness, I think. Add to that, you know damn well you can get the same or better prices online (even on Black Friday, if not on Cyber Monday), and it frustrates me.

Here are a few things I’m looking to snag online on Cyber Monday…

Matchless: A Christmas Story I’m a huge Gregory Maguire fan (and so is my Mom). I had the chance to meet him and go to a reading he did here in his “hometown area” of Saratoga, NY. I’ve seen so many copy-catters out there, and no one compares to Maguire. Matchless is the story of “The Little Match Girl” – revisited.

When the story was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, the match girl’s dying visions of lights and a grandmother in heaven were often interpreted as metaphors of religious salvation. In Matchless, Maguire adds a different dimension to the story, intertwining the match girl’s tale with that of a young boy, Frederik, whose own yearnings are the catalyst for a better future for himself and his family. Maguire uses his storytelling magic to rekindle Andersen’s original intentions and to suggest transcendence, the permanence of spirit, and the continuity that links the living and the dead.

Gregory Maguire is also the mastermind behind the famous book-turned-Broadway-musical Wicked, and other great “prequels”.

Rockwell RK5102K Sonicrafter Deluxe 72-Piece Kit – Okay, so you’ve seen the infomercials for another product just like this, and I’m so not usually the kind of person to go nuts for infomercial products, but this thing is amazing (and on sale). You can cut through anything, and this one’s got 72 pieces! HELL-O!? Hehe Yes, I’m a home improvement junkie, but as much as I want this one for myself, I’m probably getting it for my Dad. (Hope he’s not looking!) I’ll borrow it, no doubt.

My friend Eva is a yoga junkie. She’s really gotten into it, and made a special request for Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There’s Nothing to Worry About by Steve Ross, her favorite TV yoga dude. I’m telling you, I’ve tried yoga. Twice. I just can’t get into it. I don’t know what it is about it, be it that I feel like it’s too slow, or too tough, or too… I don’t have a clue. I just am not a fan. But my oldest friend is obsessed and has flat out put in a request for this one. Hey, it’s on sale, cool! LOL

I’m looking for a little bit of a better price on this, because I bought myself one not too long ago for $100, but the bottom line is that everyone I know who works on computers, especially those doing graphic design, photography, and the like can use one. It’s the Western Digital My Book Mac Edition 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive. Hopefully this one will go on a bit of a better price for Cyber Monday, no?

So there you have it – a few items on my shopping list for Cyber Monday – what are you getting? How are you planning to shop?

Seeking Your Input on a Business Decision…

Okay, so it’s a realllllly long story how I came to this scenario, and I don’t want to explain it much because I don’t want it to influence your decision in the poll below. I’m talking with a few people about starting a new project and I wanted to see what people think about the names we’ve already got picked out.

Basically what it boils down to is a network/community site about dogs. I’ve currently got the main domain, PoopieDogs.com and about 80+ other domains. GreyhoundPoop.com, AkitaPoop.com, DachshundPoop.com, etc…

What I really want to know is if you think this is a cute, catchy idea… Or if I should scrap those names in favor of something less… disgusting than “poop”.

Let me know what you think in the poll and the comments, and please RT and share this with all your other friends so they too can weigh in? I’d really appreciate it! (And don’t worry about offending me… I want HONEST opinions!)

Update: I remembered that I have GreyhoundSpirit.com – could also run with that if you guys think it’s a good idea.