Done At Last

When, exactly, did Christmas become a project?  One year you're under the tree in your jammies, happily ripping things open- the next, you're the one out in the crowds shopping.  At least this weekend I got it all done- the presents are wrapped, the tree is up ( till the cats get at it,at least!).  Now all I need to do is food shop- that's simple enough.

Had some technical difficulties wrapping this year- the tape just didn't go where I wanted it to.  I even bought the good stuff and not the store brand.  Every damn time I went to tear a strip off, it got all bunched up on itself, and I ended up with a sticky blob.  I think it's a plot to make you waste it so you have to buy more.

And I finally had a year where I didn't have to buy any bows, tags, or wrap--I had plenty left from last year.  Now, if only I'd've had some spare gift bags...how does that happen with gift bags, anyway?  They're reusable, so why doesn't anyone every have any left at Christmas to reuse?  I think they must migrate back to the factory in the fall- another evil plot to make us spend-spend-spend!

I'm Dreaming Of A Soggy Christmas.....

Well, not really, but it was certainly soggy when I put up the lights outside today.  At least it was warmer, and it was much easier staking the electric reindeer to the ground with the ground not being frozen solid.

There seems to be a rule with Christmas decorations that the smaller your yard is, the more decorations you put up.  Especially those big blow up things. There are houses in my neighborhood where the house itself seems dwarfed by the 12 foot inflatable Santa or snowman outside.  Cute, but wow!  A little too big.

I've put up the same set of outdoor decorations for the last few years now, and I hit the stores looking for something a little bit different to mix it up.  To tell the truth, I didn't really find anything.  The only thing that really caught my eye was those LED lights that change color, but yikes!  Way too expensive.  It's kind of unusual, really-each Christmas season there's usually at least some new things out there.  The blow up things were new a couple of years back, and the wire light-up figures were before that.   Maybe we need a nostalgia Christmas, with bubble lights and those big plastic light-up figures everyone used to have.  They weren't very original-every block had the same Santa, snowman, manger scene, and choir boys- but they sure were indestructible!  Some people would put them out year after year till the paint wore off and they were mostly just big white blobs.  They don't make 'em like that anymore (and maybe that's a good thing!).

Wiki-leaky

I keep reading about this whole Wikileaks thing.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm very much a free speech girl.  I believe in transparency in government, otherwise some of the folks in charge tend to get up to naughty business (remember Watergate?).  There are definetely times when it's 100 percent appropriate for the press to disclose classified things that governments and corporations are up to- it helps keep people honest.  But the reverse is also true- when one is in posession of information that could affect the safety of hundreds if not thousands of people, then one has a responsibility to act cautiously.  Dumping all sorts of classified information out there in the public domain without regards to the consequences to other people is not cool.  And anyway, I find it far more disturbing that Wikileaks was able to get the information in the first place. And they have this seemingly unbreakable code to protect the information they haven't released yet.  Apparently they have better security than our national security folks do!

Where Does The Time Go?

Oh dear-been away from the blogosphere for awhile!  Let's see-what's happened since my last post?  I was in a wedding (beautiful ceremony) and I started Christmas shopping (whoopee for me!).  Time does fly...

One things for sure, there's a lot of folks out there shopping compared to the past couple of years.  I was in one store today where the merchandise was plied way up in the aisles, and there were so many people with carts I practically had to climb over them to get past.  I know now how a rat feels in a maze......I think that if we go by this years holiday shopping, the economy is definately starting to recover. :)

Lots of good bargains, too.  I'm almost done, and I got a lot of great stuff for less than I spent last year.  Woo-hoo! 

I'll be checking back in later..the holiday season is busy for me, just like everybody.

Saturday Night At The Mall

Some things never seem to change, and Saturday night at the mall is one of them.  Families with screaming kids shopping and teen- and tween- agers hanging out.  Everybody lining up for their soft pretzel or smoothie. The cool place for kids to hang out used to be the record store-now it's a store called Hot Topic (clothes, novelty stuff, and some music too).  And we used to hang out at Spencer's gifts, too-when I was a kid they had the whole back of the store set up as a mini-disco.  That was like WOW for those of us who were too young to go to a real disco!  Now Spencer's seems to sell mostly sex and gross-out novelty stuff.  I think what I miss most about the mall of my youth, though, is good old Woolworth's.  Not a cool place to hang out at all, but it was the kind of place that you could find things you couldn't find anywhere else, and cheap, too.  Now it's all the same, same, same everywhere you shop.  Attention future retailers; originality please!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like......

Christmas?  I was shopping today, and of course the Christmas decorations are up and the carols are playing.  I know, they have to do it for the sake of business, but it's just too weird to be listened to Jingle Bells and White Christmas when it's 66 degrees outside (here in the Northeast!).  Next Santa will be showing up to take the kids trick-or-treating.

And all this means I have to start thinking about gift shopping.  It's not the money that's so much of a problem, it's coming up with ideas!  Especially when you're buying for kids. Why are all the "hot new gift ideas" always so freakin' expensive?  Can't anyone invent a reasonably priced electronic toy?  Hmmm, maybe I should give it a try. :)

The Bachelorette Party

Saturday night I was at a bachelorette party.  No, I'm not going to go into details ;) .  I will say though, that it's been a long time since I was out doing the "the bar was so smoky that the air was blue" thing.  Ugh!  I am so glad most places aren't like that any more.  I remember when every bar, club, and restaurant was like that.  How did anyone ever enjoy a meal? Not to mention drawing a full breath. And then the lovely aroma follows you home. Yech!  I know the smokers out there will disagree, but I think the no smoking laws and policies we have today are a good thing.  I prefer my air clean and clear.

New Furry Baby

I haven't had too much time to write this week; I've been busy integrating my new kitty into my household.  Poor little Sasha showed up at the back door at work last week, and stayed there all day trying to get in.  No collar, no microchip, no "lost kitty" ad in the paper- someone must've dumped her off.  One of the girls took pity on her and took her home temporarily to try to find her a permanent home.  She couldn't find anyone to take her, and as I couldn't bear the thought of such a sweet kitty going to the shelter, I brought her home with me.  I'm so glad I did!  She's got a wonderful personality. It makes me sad to think though, that so many other strays aren't as lucky as Sasha.  There are so many unwanted cats that the shelters can't handle them, and many of them end up being euthanized.  Pet owners please remember: be reponsible, and spay or neuter your pet.

Trick or Treat!

Well, I just turned out the porch light this Halloween night.  I'd say I had about 250 little (and not so little ) trick-or-treaters at my door.  It's cute when you get a little one that's never done the trick or treat thing before-they're just mesmerized at the sight of all that candy in the bowl!  Then they finally try to grab a handful, and Mom or Dad says "No! Just one."

And for the first time since the first "Scream" movie came out, I didn't have one kid at my door wearing that mask.  One year I had about a dozen of 'em.  It was a variety this year; some from Toy Story, an assortment of zombies, even an Alfalfa (I'm surprised a kid today would even know who Alfalfa was!).  At least there weren't any Kate Gosselins; that'd REALLY be scary.

Guilty Pleasures

I'm sitting here watching that show The Millionaire Matchmaker.   Now I'm not much of a reality show fan, but there's something fascinating about this one.  It's like a mini-lesson in pscychology. It seems that in order to be a millionaire, you have to be an a**.  This isn't true for all the millionaires, but I can definitely see why most of them can't find a decent date.  So they pay this loud pushy woman to find someone for them.  When she asks what they're looking for, they all want perfect.  When the pushy lady introduces them to a room full of nice women, they always pick the cheap tramp who's out for their money.  Then they go out on this big-time date trying to impress the tramp.  I guess rich doesn't neccessarily mean smart!

Old knees

I wish I knew how I ended up with knees that are 25 years older than the rest of me.  They're always reminding me how old they are, too.  Like today; I was hiking up on the trails at Hawk Mountain, and somehow it was harder to do than in years past.  Bending my legs to climb up a steep and rocky trail was never a problem in years past, but it is these days.  And I'm sure not looking forward to getting out of bed in the morning--the damn knees will probably be frozen in place.  In another 10 years I'll needed to move to a state that's completely flat, so I won't have to bend them at all.

Everything old is new again.

There was a seamstress lady on the news tonight, showing how she could take vintage clothing and alter it into something modern and stylish.  I'm sitting here wondering what she could've done with things I've long since gotten rid of, like my fake Members Only jacket or my myriad 1980's bridesmaids dresses.  Especially the bridesmaids dresses-all those poofy sleeves and bows!  The sleeves and bows alone probably had enough material in them to make a fairly large tablecloth.  In the '80's it was like the more bows you had on your dress, the more of a status symbol it was.  I blame Madonna-she started the bow thing with the one in her hair.

Oh, who am I kidding anyway?  Even if I had hung on to some of my "vintage" clothing, my present-day backside wouldn't fit into any of it!

If I Have To Watch One More Political Ad, I Will Scream

..and scream and scream.  I hate all this pre-election stuff-it's like a big lying competition.  You know they're not going to do what they say they are.  And all of them hate what's going on in Washington, until they're a member of the club-then that opinion changes pretty quickly, and they're toeing the party line.

I wonder what would happen if the President and Congress were all Independents?  Food for thought!

I also think we could get more women to run for office if we abolished the political pantsuit.  Horrible things, pantsuits--it's like '70's leisure suits for women.  Ladies in politics should not be required to look like an overstuffed cushion.

And how in the world did we get anyone running for a major political office who's ad starts out "I'm not a witch."?  How do these things happen? :-0

Before Walmart

I was at Walmart today, and as always it made me miss all the stores that aren't there anymore.  You used to be able to go shopping and all the stores had different things-nowadays, most of them carry the same or similar merchandise.  And a lot of them had a snack bar or a resaurant-Kresge's and Woolworth's had a lunch counter, Two Guy's had a snack bar with a little bowling alley.  The closest you get to that today is Target's snack bar where they always burn the popcorn!

And what is it about Walmart that makes babies cry?  I don't think I've ever been in a Walmart that there's not been at least one baby screaming it's little head off.  Maybe they're just taking advantage of the acoustics of the place for some extra "mommy I want it" volume. :)

10-10-10

Today (in case you haven't noticed), is October 10, 2010.  10/10/10.  They said on the news today that there was a rush to the alter for brides and grooms, as this date is supposed to signify new beginnings.  Seemed like just another day to me, though. ;-)

It makes one wonder why people get so psyched up about such things.  After all, it's just numbers on a calendar.  Nothing too interesting happened today, nor did the world come to an end.  It didn't  on 9/9/09, or on 8/8/08, etc.,either, and I doubt it will on 11/11/11.  And yet we have all these people that are sure the world will end on December 21, 2012, because the Mayans made a calendar that ends on that date.  I have a calendar in my kitchen that will end on December 31, 2010, but I sincerely doubt that the world will end on that day, either.

Maybe the Mayans just ran out of room for more dates on the stone.

Oh, technology...

I'm sitting here writing this on my new (re-conditioned) teeny tiny netbook. It's taking some getting used to-I'm just glad my hands aren't any bigger than they are!  It's kind of weird to think that it's something that wasn't even thought of when I was a child, and I sit here using it like it's nothing.  Yet some things continue on unchanged. It's comforting to know that Legos and Kool Aid and the Candyland game continue on.  And yet I like all this tech stuff,too- it's great to be able to have a phone with you always in case of emergency, and to always be able to have all your favorite music in your pocket.  I guess that comes of boing part of my generation-we've seen so much change, and I think we'll see a whole lot more in the years to come.

Too Young To Be A Hippie

I'm a Baby Boomer, or so the demographics say-the Baby Boom ended in 1964, and I was born in '63.   I and my fellow Late Boomers can't quite be lumped in with the earliers Boomers, though- we were just kids when the whole Vietnam Protest/Summer of Love thing was going on.  Kind of a shame for me; I would've made a fine hippie.  Peace, Love, and Power to the People, that's me! :)  No, on my side of the Boom we had the moon launch and Easy Bake Ovens,  Star Wars and the Kiss Army.  It's a whole different perspective on life.  I hope you enjoy my musings on Late Boomer life, then and now.