Hey, know what's annoying?

People who make you change your bookmark. Go here now: www.gonecrunchy.wordpress.com

Much love, friends.

And for the record

I thought the ending to Sopranos was brilliant. Like everyone else I was pissed at first, calling it a copout. Then I realized it was because I had been duped and I was lashing out because I felt dumb. But it really was a genius ending.

Just wanted to publically state which camp I'm in for The Question.

The most important question

I know about myself that the degree of my anxiety can spiral into mildish panic attacks if I let it, so for the most part I am good about keeping it in check. But this Kelsey Smith thing has completely unnerved me.

I took the kids to (coincidentally) Target today and without consciously realizing I was thinking about it, I became hyper-aware of everything I was doing. I was second-guessing whether or not I was putting myself and the kids in danger by how I came in and out of the store. I am fairly educated in the 'safe' ways to do things, but with two young kids I am always going to be somewhat vulnerable. And I think that's the reason I'm so disoriented - the arbitrary and audacious way it happened: In the busy parking lot in broad daylight of a nice neighborhood. Obviously no one's immune to the possibility of danger; I'm just having a hard time processing this one in the balance of my anxiety. When do you know where the line is between cautious and paranoid? I'm not sure whether other people parent along the same lines that I do, in that you make choices that are best for the child within an acceptable frame of risk (or simply: don't make choices you'd regret if you know better), but I'm probably not alone. And when I think about my kids getting older and having more independence, I can't imagine (literally) where I'll be on the overprotective spectrum. It's a balance of caution, common sense, faith and fate, I suppose. So how do you think rationally about the panic that associates with the safety of your children? I dunno. Maybe the better question is whether we should.

Another open letter to AT&T

To Whom It May Concern:

You suck. I hate you and the pimply obnoxious summer-job-having teenage morons you have working for you in all your call centers across the country. Especially Dan. And Joseph (whom I suspect may not actually be in this country, though I was kidding before when I joked about outsourcing).

I'm not doing the bundle package you scheduled me for because you employ people who take a lot of time to create intricate lies, and frankly, that creeps the shit out me. In fact I plan to go through the steps of ending business with you altogether because we all know you don't care in the least about your customers - let's not kid ourselves - and we know Joseph the smooth liar and Dan the pimply twit will have no repercussion for their actions, despite my unleashed anger and demands for supervisors who all apparently were gone today (unwise HR planning in my opinion). Be aware I intend to leave loudly and with the hope that everyone I know follows, so that eventually you'll go down in the unethical morass you've built your empire on.

Again, in closing, you suck. I hope your CFO embezzles all your money and you go belly up before the pensions clear.

Karma will get you. And I plan to wait.


Sincerely,

Jennifer

Sounds right..

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?

You're a Speak & Spell!! You nerd, you. Just because you were disguised as a toy doesn't mean you weren't educational, you sneaky bastard.
Take this quiz!

Monday June 4th

Not much happening around here. I've been having a whole lot of headaches lately, pretty mild ones with a few migraines thrown in, and I'm trying to figure out why. I've always gotten migraines in the spring/summer time, so I think allergies must have something to do with it, but I'm not sure. I know I wake up Every Single Morning with a tension headache (it feels like my gargantuan head has been putting pressure on my eyes while I sleep) that usually fades by afternoon. I know it worsens exponentially if I try and read or fart around on the computer first thing, so I wonder if it might be vision related. Except I only wear glasses when I drive, and really, the script has always been so mild it's basically by choice I wear them. I suppose eventually I'll go into the Optometrist (Ophthamologist?) if it continues. I also haven't tried to figure out yet if it's related to caffeine or dehydration/lack of sleep, which are my usual migraine triggers, but I really don't think so. If for no other reason than nothing has changed with my lifestyle other than the weather (and possibly hormones) so I think it's allergy related. I think that's an odd presentation of allergies, with no other signs, but whatever. I'm not really worried right now, just irritated and keeping an eye (ha ha) on it.

So we've been going to the gym to get out of the house (just like I thought we would. Who incidentally gets into shape besides me? I'm such a weirdo about some things.). And at K-State when I went to the rec I would walk/run the track upstairs to warm up, and two songs stood out as my "running" songs: Fuel's 'Shimmer' and Monica's 'The Boy Is Mine'. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit that, b/c those are not the most musically-gifted of songs, but they both had a great rhythm, and they were first on my mix tape (awesome!) I worked out to. And I remember from then that I could never, ever run if I wasn't on the treadmill looking out the window. I just need to be distracted and in place to actually get productive calories burned. And the same is true now, except they have little TVs attached to some of the treadmills, and I can watch Extreme Makeover or other mindless TLC shows while I boogie to my boy JT. I've also found a new perfect running song: Muse's 'Knights of Cydonia'. I lurve me this song, it not only has the perfect 4/4 cadence, but it's got a kick-ass guitar section that quite literally has me headbanging - nodding, at least - it's so fun. (ETA: I forgot to add that the best part is leading up to the guitar bridge where the voices go quasi-acapella a la 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. It builds momentum before crescendoing into the guitars - thus the overwhelming release of the head-nod. It's so borderline cheesy in its gloriousness. Ok I'm done.) And it's 6 some-odd minutes long, so if I listen to that twice I've run like, a mile and a half. And that's good stuff for me, since I'd rather go to the dentist than run.

Gotta go, someone's squawking. They're beginning to learn I must be trying to communicate to the outside world when I'm on the computer. Drats.

Unabashed Name Dropping

Or: Why I love my friend Chris Zampas.

Zamp and I worked at Carrabba's together, and after he graduated with a film degree from KU he promptly moved to LA to get into the movie industry where he's got familial connections. I hadn't talked to him since Christmas so on my way home from book club tonight (where I outed myself as an uberdork for casually throwing out the Shakespeare quote 'methinks thou dost protest too much' in conversation) I called him to catch up. We chatted and he told me he had just finished assistant-editing a movie that had Topher Grace in it. I dig Topher Grace, so that was exciting to hear that he really is as nice as he appears in most of his characters. Chris told me a certain director whose movies often make me think he was tripping when he envisioned them (rhymes with Boliver Crone) fulfills his rep as an a-hole, and that Jon Heder's brother looks exactly like him. Then he tells me he's working on a movie now that has Joshua Jackson in it. And, I gotta admit, I have l-o-v-e-d me some Pacey since he was Charlie Conway in the Mighty Duck series. I'm sorry, I do. And I was so excited I blurted out that I'd love an autograph, though really they've always seemed sort of dumb to me. He told me no, because he doesn't want to be known as a 'fan guy', and I completely understand. I don't mind in the least that I get a kick out of blogging about my celebrity vicariousness, but it's not cool to make Chris look like one of those people.

[Which really, it's all kinda ridiculous - that I am just like most people caught up in celebrity, and that the higher up you go the more cool you're supposed to act about it all, as if it's not the reason they're popular. Whatever. Either way I get it, and don't mind that this is fun for me and a job for him. And, to clarify - because I'd hate to paint him differently than he is - Chris is not one of those Hollywood people. He's incredibly sincere and down-to-earth. He just knows I'm a dork and would love to hear about what he's doing now.]

So that's it. Topher Grace and Joshua Jackson are pretty cool drops in my book. But I made sure to tell him that if he could ever get a picture of even the FOOT of Matt Damon I would die a happy, happy girl. **Sigh**

It's a random blog, but I'm not sure what day it is.

And this isn't even because of Mem. weekend. I'm always a little confused what day it is if there's no schedule for me to be anywhere, and now that Jack's school is out.. well, there ya go.

So I'm feeling torn about this moving thing again, simply because after some heavy rain last night and morning, there is STANDING WATER ON MY WINDOWSILLS. It's the same wall in the dining room that we've had worked on eleventybillion times. We'd had condensation on the outside of one window for a while, but our computer is flush in that corner, and I was in denial that maybe it was from the minute amount of heat coming from the computer tower on the floor. We never open that window b/c obviously (duh) it's right next to the computer. But then fairly recently I noticed condensation on the other window right next to it (and between the cursed leaking back door). Again it was denialdenialdenial (or, in a less ethical thought: we'removingwe'removingwe'removing) because I just don't want to have more construction work done. But I'm going to have to call Jamie Martin at Pulte and tell them something's wrong. And I'll probably get run-around and put on a 4 month waiting list to fix it. But maybe it's good we do all this now, b/c if we had tried to sell it and someone demanded it be fixed, we'd have been scee-rewed to wait for Pulte. I tell you what though, I will be one unhappy litiginous puppy if we have problems selling this place someday. ROAR.

On a lighter note, Lo can (with prompting) say the following: apple, Jack, Daddy, Momma, Nana, Papa, poopy, hi, uh-huh, unh-uh, bye, baby, woof-woof and woo-hoo. And the funniest unintentional thing I've heard Jack say is "let's look for flamimbos on the suhbanana" (translation: let's look for flamingos on the savannah).

Lazy day

..for that promised weekend photoblog, minus last night's block bbq, because I totally forgot (though it's the second time in a week, so I'm not worried it won't be recreated again). I actually don't have many pictures of anything else either, because my artistic ideals don't pan out in photography either. Oh well, c'est la vie.


Loyal Royal fans: Jack and Maggie (aka Magpie or Pie)


Demasculating the animals (for Lawson the cat lover)


Some of the pals at the wedding


And a loverly day for the park








So whatchoo do this weekend?

Gardasil

I don't wholly endorse JudicialWatch, but this info is easier to read than the actual VAERS reports, and I think it's important for people to be aware of the recorded reactions while doing their research. (ETA: I shrunk it b/c it took up too much space. Read it here.)


Also you can click here to view the Garadsil Related Deaths Reported to VAERS as of May 11, 2007