I had a job interview today – I think it went well, but who knows. I really could use some good news for the new year – a year withouta steady job – or rather without a job that is only part time or part year – would be awesome. I’d miss my job at Leg Hall, but fulltime would rock – and it’s in my field to boot. It is a human services job.
..Mom — Merry Christmas. I miss you. Here are your favorite songs.
and
Eleonore Kaethe Martha Schwarz (Blochwitz)
1950 – 2000
Rest in Peace
Woken up from my sleep by the muffled noise of something above my head I open my eyes, groan, and reach above my head to grab Munchkin, the cat we adopted after my dearly beloved caught it in the Prison’s workshop, and dump her unceremoniously onto my blanket. Once again she has woken me up in the middle of the night because somehow she is fascinated by the light on my night stand and likes to rub against it while sitting on the headboard, not caring if it wakes me up or not. Having finally gotten comfortable again, tightly wrap my comforter around me and hide my head in the pillow, ready at yet another attempt to go to sleep. Just as I am about to drift off into lalaland, I am startled by 65 ponds of living and breathing canine flesh plopping down onto my legs and feet. I move my legs in an attempt to make Hunter, the Border Collie Mix, leave the bed, but instead he just moves in between me and my dearly beloved and deposits his mass in the middle of the king-size bed, using a good third of the mattress space and pressing into my back. Meanwhile Munchkin has decided to go for yet another attempt at my bedside lamp, but not before walking not on the bed but across my body to get to the headboard. Meanwhile Puck, the Chow mix, awoken from his sleep by all the commotion, turns over and lays his heavy head onto my feet – I assume they must make a good pillow. I grab Munchkin once again and dump her somewhere near his head, but she decides to make yet another attempt to walk all over me, slamming her head into my face with a loud purr, and working her claws “making biscuits”.
Resigned and annoyed I grab my comforter, body pillow, and regular pillow and get up to sleep on the sofa instead.
It was quiet here – just the three of us.
The day before the feast I got a call from a Sheriff’s Department in Colorado – wanting info on my son’s father so I can arrest him for owing child support. Do they really think that 18,000 dollars in arrears later I wouldn’t have gone to court already if I had any clue WHERE he is? However, I also found out that there are two warrants out for his arrest – a drug charge and a domestic violence charge – I am not surprised. Anyway, the Sherriff there in Colorado is running a “special” for Social Services to pick up a few guys that owe a lot of money. Good Luck and Happy Holidays.
Then again - what woman was stupid enough to live with him? Hope she didn’t have his child!
As for Thanks-giving – I am thankful that my son is with me and is safe 
wow..39 – and I don’t feel a day older than I did yesterday.
I keep looking forward to the forties – but they take quite a long time to here. Yes, I know – i am strange — I am the only person that wants to get older instead of younger – I hear the 40s really rock!
So anyway – my gift from my dearly beloved was a pasta maker – so I’ll be cranking out some home made pasta later today – if you have a good recipe, post it in the comments I am making Ravioli stuffed with Buttercup Squash and with a nut sauce, I think. I already made myself some good Espresso (one would think I am of Italian and not German heritage).
I won’t celebrate much though. Still feeling sick from that fly my son gave me and I am actually running a low temperature – so I am EXHAUSTED and tired. This too shall pass.
Zeus
Unfortunatly Zeus- which was a stray until we took him in when we built our house (he lived on the property that we purchased) – lost the fight and lives now at the Rainbow Bridge together with Dino, Hattrick, Ivan, Mischief, and Doofus. I take comfort in the fact that he had a few really good years with a family that loved him – and that for a few years he didn’t have to worry about how to stay warm and how to get food. He had a few years of walking across me in bed and poking me with his paws (boy, he knew how to put all his weight onto one spot only). He had a few years of being loved – that’s all that matters, right? Rest in Peace “Pokey Paws”. We miss you.
Wow – time flies if you are (not) having fun…
Will I ever find the time to actually read the newspaper again and post here things of substance (well, to me they are, anyway)? It’s been at least 2 weeks since I even watched the news.
I hope that life becomes less stressful soon – but who knows…
I hope to be able to post something this weekend – but who knows…
I hope to be able to read the other blogs this weekend and catch up – but who knows…
So we finally did it — we hooked up the Wii that we bought a while back and while I can’t quite figure out how to box and bat a baseball – I rock at owling. I really didn’t think it would be this much fun! Do you have a Wii? What is your favorite game?
We bought the Wii together with 4 exercise games because we really purchased it in an attempt to make exercising fun – I HATE exercising. I went to CURVES for a while and liked it, but the CURVES here closed down and the next closest one to our house is owned by a Christian Right Winger — She won’t get my money.
I also bought a bike earlier this year but I need to figure out how to adjust the damn brakes – the front brake touches the wheel and I can’t seem to adjust it right. Once the weather isn’t as hot, I hope to ride my bike every day for at least an hour.
I suck at dieting, but I hope that exercising will get me into the mindset to really change things around.
And what better way to exercise then in a way that is FUN!
View from the front porch
I was so happy last night when the snow started coming down and I was looking out the window and could hardly wait for morning to come. I went to sleep with a smile on my face and this morning I woke up and jumped up and down like a little kid screaming “SNOW SNOW SNOW…LET’S BUILD A SNOWMEN!!!” — Though, I have to admit – at our house we tend to build snow-women or snow-bears – they have either big ears or big boobs…I know, my poor son — he didn’t stand a chance with me as a mother.
Our Driveway covered in Snow
ANYWAY — I had a nice hot cup of coffee, put on my long underwear and undershirt and 2 sweaters as well as my fur lined boots and wandered outside up and down our 3oo-something foot driveway – together with my dearly beloved (the woman that can’t seem to update her blog — ever). We checked on tress, cut a few branches and shook the snow off of some others so they wouldn’t hang so low to the ground, and shoveled some snow in front of the house.
Afterward we cleared the steps to the backyards for the dogs. The dogs had a blast outside. Harley and Puck (the Black lab mix and then Chow mix) are loving the weather. Poor Sarge (the Beagle) almost totally sunk into the snow, but he loved it anyway. Meanwhile Hunter, the Border Collie Mix, just ate a lot of snow.
it’s cold outside, there is snow all over the place, and i feel ALIVE. I love snow. I am not a summer person. Hot weather drives me nuts — after all, there is only so much clothing you can take off — just to still feel hot and sweaty and nasty. Cold weather and red cheeks – that is my kind of weather.
Our Backyard (view from the Florida Room)
I can’t wait to get back out there after some more coffee. I will clear off my car and drive up and down the driveway to compact some of the snow and to see how my little car handles driving in the snow.
Anybody want to come over and help build a snow-woman?
Do you think the drop is due to the high cost of gasoline last year? What about the high unemployment? people that don’t have to commute daily would drive less, or not? Do you believe that the recent drop in gas prices will cause more people to drive more again?
I think that the high prices have a lot to do with the drop in miles driven. People were probably more likely to carpool then they did before and some may even have opted for public transportation instead (if they live in an area where that is possible). I know I used to make 2 to 3 shopping trips a week and now try to do only one. I also decide to stay home more often. We (my family) often just drive around and look at stuff, or take the scenic routes versus the shortest ones. While we still do that, we don’t do it as much anymore. The drop in gas prices may change that a bit, but with the other prices being as high as they are and there being less sales in stores (at least that is how it seems to me), we are still more careful with what we spend money on and how much.
How about you?
We went to a meeting of the Stonewall Democrats in Wilmington today. Of course, once I am up in Wilmington, I want to go shopping. So we went to Barnes & Noble for some books and I was reminded once again of how much Sussex County sucks in terms of Bookstores. I love Lambda Rising, the gay and lesbian bookstore in Rehoboth Beach, and know we have Atlantic Books and Browseabout Books, but I miss places such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, where you can peruse the isles for hours on end and stop to have a cup of coffee in between. I can not find a magazine section as good as theirs in any other store and am tired of having to subscribe to the magazines that I like. Oh well.
We also went to Trader Joe’s and stocked up on some low calorie cereal, good oatmeal, and and a few other things. I really need to plan a trip up north more often. I swear, once I lose all the weight that I want to lose, I will take my Beloved to the Melting Pot in Wilmington.
Enough about me. Since I have not been home, I have no clue what happened int he world today and haven’t even glanced at a newspaper so I suppose it’s time to check the web and see what is up.
Oh yeah, Delaware Liberal has a poll today about if cats rule or dogs rule – I can’t answer that or I will get either mauled or clawed.
According to the News Journal:
The county’s overall furlough plan includes:
• Converting 14 paid holidays a year to unpaid days for the next fiscal year, which is July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010.
• Adding 10 unpaid days off in the next fiscal year. On those dates, which have not been decided, government would shut down except for public safety and other essential personnel.
• Converting two holidays this fiscal year – Good Friday and Memorial Day – to unpaid days.
• Freezing step pay increases.
The plan applies to non-union employees and Coons’ executive staff, though it is unclear whether it would include the 13-member council and its staff.
For the top tier of county leaders, the furloughs would be added to a 7 percent pay reduction that Coons imposed on them in December. Coons included himself in that pay cut. His yearly salary is $126,141, a figure set by the state.
It’s easy to give up a month’s worth of money if you make over 120K – how about Coons returns some of his pay and lives off of the average Delaware salary. Here are some examples:
CAREER TOOLS: Salary Calculator, Career Path Tool, Cost of Living Calculator, Meeting Miser
CAREER TOOLS: Salary Calculator, Career Path Tool, Cost of Living Calculator, Meeting Miser
As for Coons' proposal, workers making a salary of $30,000 would lose $2,769 for a total of $27,231.
Workers making a salary of $60,000 would lose $5,538 for a total of $54,462. For those 30K workers that's about $100 per paycheck. If you live in NCC and make only 30K and are a single mother, that can hurt you a lot.
Why you ask? Well, let me give you an example from my past. When I worked as Administrative Assistant at the University of Maryland, I made about 34K, that’s about 1,300 gross per paycheck. My net pay (taxes, insurance, parking, etc.) was about $$1800 a month.
So my total bills came to $1,645. At the end of the month that left me with about $155 for food, clothing, shoes, doctor co-pays, medication, car repairs and oil changes, and entertainment (I did have a child after all and he deserved an ice cream every now and then or a trip to the zoo or something).
Now if my pay back then was cut by $100 per paycheck, I would not have had enough money to cover my basic bills — none of which had lots of frills or where outrageous. I lived on the bare minimum as it was. My work was too far to walk and so was my son’s daycare. My apartment was the cheapest I could find in the area and having the utilities included as least didn’t give me outrageous heating and a/c bills in the summer. Other apartments ran close to what I paid but had utilities extra. The only part I could have cut out was my home phone. HOWEVER, my family lives in Germany and when my mother died, the telephone was the only way for my family to get in touch with me and tell me. I was not going to let go of my only tool to be reached by my family in an emergency.
Anyway, there is a little history of my life 8 years ago – so if you scream that we need furloughs, think again and wonder if they really should be applied to EVERYBODY or not.
And what if a State employee that gets furloughed now qualifies for food stamps?
If you have not checked it out yet, go to www.good.is and see for yourself. I found the blog via little leaflets that were at a Starbucks store and have been hooked on the website ever since. This week the GOOD blog had a story about Atheists. Of course, this article comes at a time where I am really struggling to figure out where I am in terms of religion/spirituality/atheism.
I am not a believer and I don’t make a secret out of it. However, I also always had an interest in trying to find out more and trying to figure out what it is about religion that hooks people. In some way I am even a bit jealous in the fact that people can find comfort in something that isn’t tangible – because I can not. That said, however, my partner and I have been to a few meetings of a “house church”. The meeting were started by some of our friends and are headed by Reverend Dusty Pruitt.
I feel comfortable with Dusty because I know her on a personal level and, most of all, because she is a lesbian. The church that we are starting here is a UCC (United Church of Christ) which varies greatly from the Church of Christ in that is is an open nd welcoming denomination. Nevertheless I still struggle with the idea of “being religious” but on the other hand feel pulled toward seeing this through to see where it will lead me (or what it will lead me away from, as the case may be).
I try to be very open minded at this point and to really see if there is anything there that means something to me. After all, when my mother died at age 49, the first thing I wanted to do was to go to church. I never quite understood why I felt so strongly about going to church during that time of my life, but I lived in Maryland and visited a German church. I didn’t quite fund what I wanted (inner peace, healing, talk, companionship of some sort) — but I never quite gave up hoping that I would find it somewhere.
During the holidays there were a lot of shows on TV about the bible, the history of Christianity, and the life of Jesus. I watched many of them but found one on the Banned Books of the Bible the most interesting because it answered many of my questions (how did the Bible come about, who compiled it, who decided what to put in it, etc.). I find myself more confused now then I did before though – because I just don’t think I can put a lot of faith and believe in a book that I feel is not “divine”. How can something be the word of God, if men meddled with it? I also have a tough time seeing Jesus as the savior – but thats a story for another day.
SO ANYWAY – I stared attending service and try to become more informed about Christianity and the Bible – because I need to KNOW about it to be other in favor or against it or to even not have an opinion at all. I didn’t grow up with spirituality of any kind. My family ily did not attend church, did not subscribe to any religion, or was very spiritual in any other way. So I am learning and teaching myself as I go. Now if only I could figure out what is pulling me and why and where to — though, something inside of me tells me that I will never be a believer or a follower of any one religion. But until it gives me the heebie jeebies, I will stick with it and see where it leads me – and who knows – maybe Dusty can help a hard headed skeptic like me find my niche in this whole thing.
Where am I getting with this post? I don’t know. . .
I am curious – are you a religious, spiritual, or atheist person? Why?
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