Peace and quiet aren't overrated. In fact, these are very good things. Everyone needs time to themselves to think and regroup. Weekends help me with that. I avoid everything I can completely. If I don't have to leave the house, I don't. If I don't have to answer a call, I don't. I avoid people like the plague. Sometimes. There are times where I will go out and be with friends and have a good time. Those times I need people, I need conversation.

My buddy called me up weeks ago and left me a voicemail. I was sick and there were only a couple of people I was answering calls from. I forgot he had called and decided to give him a call to let him know that I hadn't forgotten him. He told me people have still been asking about me at the bar we go to. I told him the same thing I told them. Once it gets cold, I won't be going out. Of course this was a weekend in the sixties when it should have been in the thirties. He said it's WARM out. Get out here. Well I couldn't because I had extra kids. I told him if I had a kid free saturday (today) that I'd come out if he was buying. So he said he'd buy me a drink. So I'll be going out for at least two hours if the Little Lady is staying with one of her friends tonight.

I'm still sniffling and coughing a bit. Sinus pressure was bothering me when I got up this morning so I took two advil and it's gone now. I can't stand being sick even a little bit. It's too much.

Alright, well. I know I didn't post yesterday, but maybe I'll have some more to post later today. I am off.

Enjoy the new layout. Thank you, Sammmmm.. *HUG* for all your help.

You'll need these fonts:

dis-fonts.zip

Laters!!

So it's no longer a fantasy. My friend is officially arriving on January 6th, 2007. This means Mark your calendars boys and gals, friends and foes. I'll probably only be online to do homework and participation posts. You know you'll miss me though.

The waiting is still going to be rough though. I have this really deep wish that during his vacation here that time goes slow. I want to savor his company and have a good time. I don't want it to speed away and feel as if we didn't get to do anything.

I'm glad he's mine. I still think he's going to freeze his ass off out here.... But we'll find out, won't we?

Ok.. this is my post for the day. I'm exhausted and I shouldn't be. Haven't been sleeping well, but hopefully that will change soon. Not sure why, I think it's work related stress. Oh gee, why would I be stressed about work? Bah. Not getting into that yet. Perhaps when the rage wears off.

Sweet dreams to all the people I love. You all know who you are. Or at least you should by now.

You'd think the first few weeks of classes when you are starting a new course would actually teach you something about what you'll be doing the rest of the time. Nope. I have been getting assignments to do that are to be done in programs that I've never used. Programs that I have to spend hours in figuring out if I am doing the assignment correctly because I don't know specifically how to use it.

I knew the one class wasn't going to teach me these programs that I need to use. But I expected it of the other. And then the assignment for the one class was easy as pie, yet the teacher didn't do her part of it and we had to improvise! Come on. If there was some sort of emergency, I can understand. We have not heard anything from her all day. So either she's going to have to give us grades for what we improvised or she's going to have to give us an extra day so that she can do her part of the assignment.

Oh yeah. It snowed today. So it isn't the first snow, but it is the first snow that stuck. That means my sinuses are going to be clearing. It also means a ton of pain for me. I've already started experiencing the headache portion. In a couple of days I should be back to normal. Or what's normal for *me* anyway.

The closer it gets to January the happier and more anxious I am. It'll be nice to snuggle up on the couch with a friend and a hot cup of tea to watch tv. Oh yeah.. and he's mine. I'm not sharing.

I'm off. Good night, sweet, steamy dreams.

It's a whopping 17 degrees, or it was when I got home. I turned the heat up a degree or two and made dinner. Was thinking of doing a load of laundry, but then only my room would get warm and not the rest of the house.

But Velvet is helping keep me warm by laying on me. Although I can't tell if I am keeping her warm and she's just covering part of my arms. Hehe.. I am thinking of getting the heating pad. I love my heating pad. It's old and decrepit but it puts out good heat.

i got to talk to Honey today. I've been a really bad girl during work, too. I've been texting him now and again using my cell when we aren't even allowed to do so. Well, if the New Girl (yeah another one) can talk on hers all freaking day then I don't see what harm it is going to do when I am sending a text during the quiet times and then putting it away again.

I am taking the christmas dishes we received as a gift last year to work tomorrow and putting them in the back of the Techie's car so she can take them to her professional Ebay friend and sell them for me. I haven't opened them and that means they have never been used, so I might get a good price for them. I'm hoping anyway.

I also plan on getting my fiberoptic angels sold, too. I don't use them and think that they'd be better off making other people happy.

Well.. I am off. Laters.

So I got the assignments that were due today completed and posted. Tomorrow I'll be working on the stuff that is due for Sunday. Should be a ton of fun, can you hear the sarcasm?

I am grateful to be going back to school, but I didn't think the first month was going to grind me down so easily! I thought it was supposed to start out slow and then pick up. They are really trying to drain every drop out of you. So I'm at work around 10 hours a week and then I come home, make dinner, eat, and start doing my assignments and participation posts. I can only participate in the discussions at work if the assignment is a regular post. If there is a word document or excel worksheet then I can open it at work. If it is a powerpoint presentation then I have to wait until I get home.

So I'm sort of worn out already from looking at the work that is due Sunday. But at least I have all day tomorrow and Sunday to work on the projects.

On another note work is interesting. Seems the current New Girl thinks she is going to get a raise starting monday. Yeah. She thinks that since she will be taking client calls full-time now instead of the ones I was told to give her that she will be getting more money. Now I have been working for this place over 5 years. It took these people over a year to hire me in "because they were extremely busy and were hard pressed for time but oh so sorry that it took so long"....

She thinks that if she tells the Boss that she wants to continue doing the paperpushing and take calls here and there that he'll go along with that. Bullshit. If he didn't take my proposition years ago to take the paperpushing, quotes and claims calls then he isn't going to take hers. I know I have nothing to worry about on that front.

I'm just tired of getting kicked. I've been passed up three times for the processing position and the people who are walking in the door are starting out at more than I get paid. That right there pisses me off because the front desk is literally twice, sometimes three times, the work than the processing job is.

Supposedly I'll be giving all the processing to a different person now. She's going to give me part of it, the stuff that needs done daily, and eventually I'll be taking over it. Their window for me taking over it is like 6 months. Whatever. I don't plan on taking 6 months to have a full time processing job. I'm taking the intranet duties, since I rebuilt the thing, and the download with me when I start paperpushing. The Techie wanted me to continue to do the download because she refuses to train someone new. I refuse to train someone new. So I highly doubt that anyone is going to have issues with me taking the duties.

Another issue I'll be having during the transition is that they are going to have someone cover my desk 3 hours a day. Two hours will be for me to do processing and one hour will be for me to go to lunch. Odd, I know. Hopefully they will find someone who can handle the front desk for 8 hours a day because I refuse to allow someone up there that is going to be rude to the clients. I've worked hard cultivating the relationships I have with clients. I refuse to have them destroyed by someone who ends up being rude just because they feel they have that right. I don't know. The person I replaced was in the interviewing session that I went through. It would only be fair for me to be involved in the process as well. I feel that way. I wonder if I told the Boss if he would be ok with that. Doubtful.

Alright well. I am gonna go and see if I can work on some interesting layouts. Laters.

So far I have the next two layouts planned. One was made by Sam and the other was made by me. There's a rumor that he's working on another one for me. I made one for him that I think he likes. He hasn't officially let me know if he wants the files or not.

So I've got a few questions to answer and a project due tomorrow. I should be working on it instead of blogging but I needed a break from the reading. There's so much to read.

I really like making layouts. Wonder if there's any money in it.

Laters.

Yeah... that's exactly what I said when Sam sent me a link to the latest layout he made for me. So now I've got the next three layouts planned, and no there won't be any sneak peeks posted here. You'll have to wait and trust me, they are worth it.

I don't know what's going on with me regarding doing layouts but I am having so much fun doing it. I think Sam is, too. We enjoy the same shows and we enjoy a lot of the same characters and actors/actresses. Also, we have great taste. So obviously we are going to enjoy each others layouts.

I've been needing to use these creative juices for quite a long time and right now I think layouts is where it is going to be. It'll work for me!

Laters.

Want some really beautiful christmas finery for christmas dinner?

Click here

I'm here at work using the CursedCube's computer and for some reason whenever I login to this computer it completely wipes out all of my stuff. I can't access anything work-wise (email) which is fine since I'm on lunch. The problem is that it doesn't have any fonts that I use normally. So everything seems to be going to the sans-serif or serif fonts and it's driving me nuts. I can't stand it. I don't know why it's doing this. I'll have to ask the Tech to figure it out for me.

Well I have to get back to work. Laters.

Well here it is, christmas, disillusioned style. Hope you enjoy the layout, it's going to be gone the day after christmas, so soak it up.

I am off. Laters.

So last night I got to go out for a few hours. I only planned to be out for two or two and half hours. I left the house a little before 10 and ended up being out until a little after 1. I paid for two of my drinks and went to split one with my girlfriend. Neither of us wanted to have another full one so we thought it a good idea to split one. Normally I drink two and dance and leave. Next thing I know one of my buddies sees that we are splitting it and he asked why. I told him because we didn't want a full one but we wanted a little more to drink. Next thing I know he bought me one. Then he had his friend buy me one. Supposedly the security guard that keeps an eye out on my well being gave them the money to do this. I don't know if I should believe him or not. I don't really care either way anyway.

I texted my sweetheart twice last night and he called me twice. The second time he called I told him give me 20 minutes, I'm gonna dance to one more song and get out of here. I had already walked my girlfriend to her car and watched her go.

Overall the best part of the night was being on the phone with my sweetheart. I can't wait until he comes to visit. Waiting is the hardest part of anything anymore. Ok, the little lady wants the computer so I am off for a bit.

So I got my christmas bonus today at work. Yep. Slightly better than last year, but then with two highly paid employees gone, I'd have been a bit upset if it hadn't been. So I get home after going to the Mom's to help her with the printer ink. She wasn't there to watch me, but ohwell. Maybe next time. The Little Lady didn't do the dishes before I got home. Her chores were to wash the dishes and pick up the living room. I have a feeling she spent the two hours on the computer. She complained that 'we had no food' and that 'she was starving to death' so I told her to grab her shoes and we'll go to the store.

Bye bye Bonus... I spent the entire card, plus a little extra, on food. But we should be eating good for a month, at the very least. There are, of course, things I'll still have to buy such as milk and bread. But we are good on butter, juice, meat and veggies. I may have to pick up side dishes in a couple of weeks.

But I am a mean mommy and made the Little Lady do dishes before I started dinner. I listened to her whine the entire time she was doing the dishes as I was stocking the fridge and freezer and cupboards. We had salad and sloppy joes tonight. I might have an orange before I go to bed, but I am comfortably full.

I am off. Sweet Dreams.

So the latest coworker preparing to leave, the Techie, has been talked into staying an extra week. So instead of a two week notice, it's a three week notice. So yay, she'll be staying another week. It's actually quite relieving.

Been having issues sleeping. I sleep fine but when I wake up I feel as if I haven't slept. My honey calls me to say goodnight and talk for a bit and that's in the middle of the night, but I feel better after talking to him, listening to his voice. I sleep straight through the rest of the night, almost until the alarm goes off. Yet I wake up feeling tired. I really have to stop using the snooze. I seriously think that is the problem.

Alrighty, well I am off. Nothing much to say about today.

Looks like I get another buck an hour. I can almost pay bills and eat! This paycheck is already planned to be gone due to bills. But our cupboards are full thanks to the christmas bonus. So the next paycheck I get will actually have money in it that I can put away. Yay!

If there is a place where a lot of negative emotions and people have been can that area become cursed over time? I have a theory!

My theory is from the Cursed Cubicle at work. This cube has had negative people working in it since before I started working here, so that's 5+ years of built up negativity. I think it also eats Time as a treat throughout the day. Like when I spend my lunches on the internet using this computer, time passes so fast that it's almost as if I never really had a lunch at all.

Every person that has worked in this cube since I've been here has been fired, with one exception. We had one lady quit because she couldn't seem to work the hours meant for her position and refused to work anything but what she wanted, so when discussed with her she quit.

The last person who worked in this cube moved to the one next door when the coworker formerly in the last cube quit and moved on to another company. Though the new girl keeps threatening stuff already. Something about wanting a raise when she starts taking client calls and something about her 90 days (she's still temping) being up she may just leave. Oh boy.

Alright. I have to go for now because it takes three minutes to shut this computer down. You'll never notice me gone though.. I'll possibly add more to this post this afternoon at the front desk because we are blessed today. Be back soon.

So I'm back. A lot of time has passed, too. Like almost 2 hours! I know, you really missed me.

So far the Tart (partial nickname for the psychotic drama queen in the office - perhaps PDQ would work?) has been up here several times whining and crying about this or that. I knew it was going to be 'a bad day' for her when she got to whimpering as I gave her the first call this morning.

Alright, well. I finished entering data regarding some stuff and now I could use a break to get up and walk around. I probably won't bother though. Every time I get up to walk away for whatever reason the phone rings.

I've got aol radio playing and I've got aim express up (talking to the techie that's leaving us way too soon) and I'm posting here. Being bad all around I am. Perhaps in need of a beating? Maybe.

Erhm. I gotta go. New Girl had to tell a client he couldn't have HOLES in the side of his house.

Ok.. are you enjoying this layout? Remember, it'll be gone when Christmas is over.

Hope everyone has healthy and joyful holidays. Laters!

John Tucker Must Die. If you're worried about your teenage or younger daughters watching this movie because it must be full of sex and underage drinking. It's not! Yeah, the latest movie that should be full of this junk to rot the brains of our youth, isn't going to. Not only is it a cute movie, it also has a moral that every character learns their lesson.

I even risked putting it on the unrated version thinking that I was going to have to shut it off. There was mention of sex but nothing more than kissing in the movie. There wasn't any nudity or anything either. It was quite a nice movie. I am impressed. Lately that's been hard to do.

So I was in one of those states this morning when you wake up slightly, realize you're starting to wake up and turn over to go back to sleep. I started having this extremely out of this world dream. There was some way of going into different planes (You know, like dimensions) and I kept doing this. I'd be in one and look around, get bored or chased (Yes, chased) and I'd go into a different one. I ended up meeting people who I already know, except it wasn't them. (Obviously.) Every one of the people I knew looked right, but their voices were all different and their names were different.

I think I need to stop watching Dr. Who.

Couldn't help myself. Isn't she beautiful? I wish I could get my hair that color. I thought she would represent Disillusioned well. I love this layout. I hope you do, too.

Ok so the family got together for the holiday. We all went to my sister's house. She made ham and potatoes and all kinds of food. I didn't eat though. I wasn't really hungry being as I've not stopped grazing since the office party.

We were playing cards though. Which is usually fun. I won the first hand and almost won the second hand. After that I was screwed. I only won another small pot and that was it. Ohwell, no big deal. A friend decided my gambling habit was worth it, so he was fronting me change to continue playing. I tried to give it back, but he wouldn't let me. Known the guy for years. My cup of change is still sitting over there on their kitchen table though. I'll have to wander over at some point and grab it or just leave it there for next time.

I got accosted and taken to the bowling alley. They couldn't force me to bowl, though. I dislike bowling. Bowling hurts my wrists worse than being on a computer for 16 - 20 hours a day. I sat there and talked and joked though, so it was all good. I had a Fuzzy Navel, woohoo! I love that drink. It's my favorite. I keep thinking I really need to buy some peach schnapps and make them for myself at home.

I got some cleaning done today. I did the dishes and swept and mopped the kitchen floor. I tried to vacuum but I had to tear it down and clean it out in order to do so. That took forever because I had to blow dry the filters. But I finally got to vacuum. I still have to tear apart the bottom though. I have to figure out where 'tab number 1' is so that I can take the cover off and clean the roller. I think I might have to replace the belt, but I'm not sure since I can't get the cover off.

Things have been fairly quiet today. The Little Lady slept at my sister's house last night, which was great. Tonight she's sleeping over at the Mom's house. Not sure how that happened. I'm glad though, it helps me get cleaning done. I have a load in the washer that I need to throw into the dryer.

I have to do some shopping but I don't like going out the day after christmas, or any other holiday for that matter. There are a lot of crazy people out there, I swear. So I will do the shopping I need to do after work tomorrow. Ugh. Work. I have to go back tomorrow and I don't want to.

Still grateful I have a job though. I'm off. Laters.

So I had a rough day today. I planned on ranting and raving here regarding the crap I waded through. But I am just too exhausted.

Ohwell. I may even go to bed early. Laters.

The Little Lady has not been home all week. She's been with the Mom. Tonight she'll be staying with a friend. I have been hoping that I would get to go celebrate new years eve with adults, but unless this trend keeps happening, it's not likely.

I'm just way too lucky right now for it to keep holding. If necessary I could probably talk her into staying with her cousins and then doing something together on New Years Day. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.

The Little Lady forced me to come over to the Mom's house last night because she wanted me to open the present she got me for christmas. She bought me body lotion and body soap that smell so pretty. I'm going to take a nice steamy shower tonight and use them.

Otherwise I've been sitting here in the Cursed Cube at work on Lunch. I've been reading some articles on different things. I'm also freezing my ass off for some reason. I think I am gonna get another cup of hot chocolate here shortly. I hate being cold.

On another note, I am ready for school to start again - almost. I saved 20 bucks on the digital tablet I needed by getting it at Circuit City. So far from what I've done (playing with it) I think it's a pretty cool piece of hardware. I like having a mouse again and the pen is interesting. Haven't set my buttons on it yet but I have time to figure out what I want them to do.

I ordered the software I need and the book I need. I am supposed to have a beginners html book, too, but I didn't order it. I've got two html books at home if I need them and from what I saw of the pages they have available online, I shouldn't need it.

Ok, I'll be right back. I'm going to get hot chocolate before I freeze all my goodies off.

Ok, so now I'm getting warm again. Replied to two emails and back to the post I go. Unfortunately I have to go back to work now. Perhaps I'll post again this afternoon if things slow down.

Laters.

... and the City.

Yes, I knew the word sex would get your attention. Every now and then I watch Sex and the City and I wonder if there really are women out there who live the way they do. Alone, yet enjoying being alone, yet wanting a man, yet not wanting to be held down.

Say Huh?

Anyway. Why can't they just be happy? I know, I know. It's a TV SHOW. But come on. They have great lives, great jobs, beautiful homes, wonderful friends.

Then you have to wonder.. all those questions that get asked using the articles written by "Carrie": Do they ever really get truly answered?

You ever have one of those days where you just want to lay in bed all day? This is one of those days so far. Except, it's Velvet and I'm the bed.

My wonderful kitty cat can't stay more than three feet from me for some reason. She loves me up. This is just not her. She's been doing it for so long now that I've almost gotten used to it though.

So I don't really have any plans for today yet. I was going to do a load of laundry or two and clean. Hang out on here and not sure what else. I forgot to bring a monitor home from the office so that I can attempt to bring the old desktop back to life. Ohwell.

Ok.. why do cats have to sit in the basket of clean laundry and bathe themselves? No, it isn't a riddle. I really do want to know. Laters.