Seven.Caged.Tigers

I’m so very tired. The last three/four days have been exhausting to say the least. My grandma, as I mentioned earlier, died Sundary morning. Her showings were on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday was her funeral. I spent those three days at the funeral home.

My back aches, my eyes are red from exhaustion and sorrow, and my head is pounding. But I am back at work as this is the best place for me right now.

I just wanted to thank all the folks (family and friends) who wished my family well. It means a lot. The next few days will likely be just as difficult as my Grandfather is about to make a major life change. Actually my mom and her sisters are doing it for him–he’s going into a “memory impaired” place. Needless to say, it was difficult to tell him (or watch others tell him) that Grandma (or as he called her “my Laura”) had died. This happened about every half and hour or hour for the entire time I was there. It was difficult for everybody involved.

Her obit can be found here… Her name is Laura G. Clifford.

Anyway, I am just tired.

Just FYI…I’ll be gone for the next few days. My grandma died early this morning and now I must attend to family business. I’ll be gone from Monday through at least Wednesday.

Wish me luck.

In any case, I saw my best friend Kristin on Saturday night. All went well, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m old and we’re old. I did manage to stay up to 1:30am. Quite an accomplishment really–especially considering a minimal dose of alcohol was involved. We had a nice night together–most notable of which was the fact I saw Big Fish. That was a great movie.

Uh. Yeah. That’s it.

This just has not been my week. First the crap with my grandparents. Then the crap with my husband’s job. Then, last night I got a taste of my own crap (eww…I know). In any case, I was charged with the job of setting up a computer for a presentation. I’d already warned the proper parties of a few things.

1. The Internet is probably not going to work
2. We use PC’s
3. To bring an alternate method of presentation

So fine. Whatever. Sure enough, after an hour of fiddling I couldn’t get the Internet going. That wasn’t any shock at all. So she finally shows up (late, mind you, with some lame half ass excuse). She whips out a Macintosh formatted disc and insists that it will work. She’s like “it’s PowerPoint, it will work.” I tried to explain to her that no indeed it would NOT work on our laptop. I tried anyway. It didn’t work. So then she’s like “I can do it with the internet, do we have the internet?” Of course we didn’t…she knew that.

At that point I was really very mad. She didn’t even bring along printouts of her presentation so she had nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. I did everything I could. She kept on asking people for “a more modern computer.” The students kept on explaining to her that it had nothing to do with the computer–it has to do with the building’s uber-secure network. In any case, I was mad. To top things off, she was speaking down her nose to me as though I were the raving idiot lunatic. I think she thought I was a student.

Finally at the most convenient moment, I left the situation and ran for the shelter of my frigid car. I love computers. They are my livelihood. I’m good at them. But the people who use computers need to realize that they aren’t there to replace personal interaction and hands-on materials. Apparently that message has yet to reach her. Apparently.

The anger from Tuesday has finally subsided. And that’s a good thing–I don’t think I could function well for long if I continued being so mad at an entity that has no direct impact on my life. Well, I guess they do but only via my husband. And since my husband is an easy going sort of fellow it’s probably best I don’t rub off on him.

I don’t think I’ve seen him REALLY mad even once in the nearly seven years we’ve been together. Crazy, eh? Crazy but true.

Anyway, I’m excited for this weekend. Friday will be same ol’ same ol’ but Saturday I’m headed to Kristin’s apartment in Lansing. I told her we can do ANYTHING she wants. She kept on asking what I want to do. I really don’t care. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her so I miss her and am just happy to do anything. So we’re going to David’s Bridal in Okemos to check out bridesmaid dresses for Karyn’s wedding in early July. We’re also going to see a movie and go out to eat. She MADE me choose a movie so I blurted out Big Fish. I have strange taste in films. After that, she wants to go to a bar. Not just any bar, but a gay bar. Not like lesbian gay but gay gay. I’ve been to a lesbian bar with her–NO NOT THAT–for her boss’s birthday. But this whole gay bar experience should be interesting. I’m looking at it from the social science perspective I guess.

Plus, it’s not the kind of thing a girl gets to do all the time. She warned me to wear leather shoes (her new guy friends would notice if they weren’t leather). No problem, I told her. I love me some leather…

So I’m pretty psyched for the weekend to get here. A girl’s night out shopping, movie watching, eating, and last but not least going to the bar.

I am seething with anger. It’s leaking out my every pore. And it doesn’t even have anything to do with me specifically…

It’s my husband. See, he’s gone and gotten himself a new and better job. He gave his two week notice to the ungrateful bastards at his current place of employment (which I’ll mention only after his employment there is completely over). For four and a half years he’s gone with largely positive reviews and has made his coworkers, bosses, and clients happy. He’s a hard worker and quick learner not to mention an all-around nice fellow.

In any case, he’s leaving the jerks he works for now. The ones that won’t pay him. The ones that won’t respect him. The ones that like to talk about former employees (who also were good while they were there) behind their long since turned backs. He had a meeting with his useless boss about this past quarter’s bonus. Jeremy’s not getting it. He’s already done the work, and done it well. He’s not getting it. To make matters worse, the quarter that ended in October (or whatever) Jeremy was awarded $1k in bonus. It was an incredible amount. His UB said he took it out of his pocket out the kindness of his heart and gave it to the three best employees. Jeremy got it. Well, turns out said bonus was NOT a bonus. Turns out that the $1k was some kind of loan. Turns out that they intended on deducting that amount from future bonuses.

Too bad Jeremy never agreed to this, was told of this, or signed any promissory note.

This is the biggest asshole move I’ve ever heard from an employer. Seriously. UB needs to get himself some logic, life, and for that matter get off his damn high horse.

JT has in the span of one day gone from treasured, prized, grossly underpaid employee to the shit on the bottom of their shoe. You wouldn’t believe how mad I am. I can’t wait to scream at the top of my lungs about how bad this company bites ass. They lie, they cheat, they are childish–don’t work for T…uh…THEM.

So last night marked the start of American Idol. To be quite honest I couldn’t be happier with television as a result. I’ve got American Idol, CSI, and a few other lesser shows to entertain me. What more could a girl want?

I think we covered that the other day. More shoes.

In any case, watching it was interesting. I wish they’d show more people rather than concentrating on just a few. With that said, I thought it was interesting that there was a (strange) Michigan girl on there. “Scooter Girl.” She said she was from Grand Rapids. Turns out she’s from Hudsonville (not GR) and that she attended a Christian HS there. Looked her info up about track (I know a lot about the subject) and certainly enough the girl was a very good Long Jumper. Remember I’m tall–5′10″ so my stretch is pretty incredible. Round my parts I won just about everything jumping in the sixteen-foot range. Looks like Scooter Girl Tieri managed to jumped well into the seventeen-foot range. Impressive if I do say so myself.

Anyway, yeah, I’m entertaining. Then again, I’m a reality TV junky.

Had to take today off to help JT with some stuff in getting ready to change jobs. Apparently there’s supposed to be a FedEx package arriving today. He’s supposed to bring it to the union hall to get all set up on his new job.

Whatever. It just turned out to be me staying home since he can’t. It sucks, but it’s also kind of nice. This weekend is turning out to be three and a half days! Woo-hoo!

Anyway, just found this and thought it was funny in a very dark and strange sort of way…

Current Terror Level

A lovely lazy Saturday. What more could a girl want?

Well…there’s always shoes. I like shoes. A lot.

After five miserable days of working on a report I’m finally done. Ah…how I do love work. Actually it wasn’t horrible because I’m a freak when it comes to assembling information. I really do like it. I just despise having to actually enter the info and then there’s the fact that complex math drives me bonkers.

Anyway, after getting it all assembled I was able to take it upon myself to vacation for half the day. Turns out it was a bit of a waste considering I had a brutal headache and had to take a nap. In any case, at least I got some down time.

JT is out of town for the weekend. He and his buds went to Blue Mountain in Toronto for a guy’s weekend of drinking and snowboarding. That leaves me alone. That also leaves me to be at my house watching movies. I rented a few he wouldn’t probably watch. An interesting mix according the the video rental dude who is also a screenwriter (of course, aren’t they all?). He talks a hell of a lot too much but in any case, I don’t blame him for his ideas about my choices–The Hours, 13 Ghosts (the original) and Strangeland.

Strangeland–ah yes. I should have seen that one sooner. Dee Snider has always kind of freaked me out. It’s a sure thing now…believe me.

I also got a disturbing call from my mum tonight. She’s making some decisions about the grandparents that aren’t so good–but they are necessary. Grandpa is apparently going into a nursing home; after finally getting his driver’s license yanked he has to. He’s got altzheimer’s of the violent strain. It’s not pretty. And grandma is already in another nursing home. More decisions there. Bad ones.

Anyway, I’ve got a lot to chew on now (more info will come later as I’m more comfortable talking about it). And my husband isn’t here.

Snow, snow everywhere.

Of course, I should put this all in perspective. I left work yesterday early because of the nastiness. The roads were all pretty awful and it took me about twice as long as usual to get home (an hour and a half). There were about 8 inches.

Now, keep in mind I used to live in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. This is, for all people who may or may not care way up in the UP. Of course, you can go a bit farther west and hit even more remote places. But basically hop on I-75 and drive north. Get off at the last exit before the road ends at Canada. That’s where I lived for four years.

Needless to say it was cold and snowy. I remember one time, actually on my 19th birthday (December 8th, 1995) when we got a literal THREE AND A HALF FEET OF SNOW over night. I ended up trapped down at another house (on campus) and fell asleep on the floor. In the morning, I trudged up the hill in this THREE AND A HALF FEET OF NEW SNOW wearing somebody else’s boot and hat and scarf because I didn’t need it the night before.

It was really incredible. I believe the final total of the three day snow storm was OVER SIX FEET. SIX. It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen and will ever see weather-wise. The whole of the Soo was shut down. The Uni shut down for three days and the whole town was closed for a good week. There wasn’t any food and I-75 was impassable. In fact, from the stories my mom told me she saw on the news that they were sending plows through and then making a second pass to knock down the tops of the tunnels they’d created.

Yeah. So basically what I’m saying is that eight inches shouldn’t be any cause for alarm.

Call for National Guard Assistance to Sault Ste Marie
Midwest Almanac - 80+ inches in the one snow storm

See. It was incredible. I need to dig up the pictures. It was amazing. I’d look out the window and couldn’t see the next building. When I finally was able to dig myself out of the freshman dorm the paths that existed were like walking down tunnels. People were jumping off the roofs of buildings into the drifts of snow. The drifts reached a good 12 feet.

Not one to sleep in, it came as a BIG SHOCK this morning to awake to an alarm at 6:45am instead of 5:45am. See, yesterday I had my six-month dentist appointment. My teeth look great by the way aside from the fact that I’m grinding them down (probably “clenching” actually) and my old silver fillings are leaking. In any case, I reset the alarm for yesterday and didn’t set it back for today.

So I slept in. And considering I’ve not been late to work so much as ONCE in the past 2 1/2 years I’ve been here it really disturbed me. I was up, showered, and dressed in twenty minutes and out the door on the way to Ann Arbor. I didn’t have time for makeup, but managed to at least dry my hair. Not my idea of fun, but in any case…uh yeah.

Anyway, last night JT and I were digging through our old yearbooks. His 10 year anniversary is this year and mine is next. His high school class was significantly larger and more, well, ritzy than mine. It will be interesting to see the people he graduated with and all those girls’ hearts he broke by marrying me. Oh wait–he dated younger women back then. In any case, we were just digging through them looking at long lost friends and memories. Reading old inscriptions and checking out all there was to check out.

I forgot how truly horrendous my high school experience was. Okay, I guess it could have been worse but not much. I’ll have to post some pictures so as to explain myself, but I can just say that I was not comfortable in my own skin. I was tall, gawky, gangly, and strange looking. Actually not EXTREMELY strange looking but just so thin and tall and freckled that people didn’t know what to make of me. Plus, I was a pretty good runner but also a great student at the same time. And I wasn’t popular–that’s the kicker in a small town.

The “popular” kids were kids I grew up with. Most of them had teacher parents (like me) so I’d known them literally my entire life. Yet, I was the least “popular” of the bunch. Back then it killed me, but in retrospect I am pleased to have stayed away from that mess. I found myself some really, truly outstanding friends who never cared what I looked liked and vice versa. Anyway, I’m looking forward to going to my reunion and still looking about identical to what I did ten years ago but all those girls I despised will be fat (and one of them I’m hoping will have taken after her mother and be bald…)

Yeah. I can be mean. Deal.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/business/0401/13/c01-34499.htm

Farmer Jack is the biggest rip-off grocer in all of Michigan. Mind you, I’ve shopped at a variety of stores across the state from Spartans (Ashcraft’s and VG’s) to IGA and from Kroger’s to Meijers. Farmer Jack is the worst of the lot by a long shot. Their pricer are obnoxious (much like CVS pharmacy) and aside from the occasional sale it isn’t worth driving to a store.

Unfortunately, Farmer Jack is by far the closest grocer to my home. So I shop there. Unfortunately, after the recent round of announced closures my town’s lovely rip-off will remain (probably because the new building JUST openen in the last year and a half). Brighton, on the other hand, will close forever. Let me just say that if it’s too expensive for folks in Brighton to shop at than NOBODY can afford the place.

Anyway, die Farmer Jack, die. Give me Meijers any day. Or even VG’s (despite their not-so-discount prices)…

So last night, there was this nasty caterpillar (or as JT said “huge meal worm”) on my kitchen floor. Max was playing with it and it was struggling to escape intact. In any case, I have no clue how it got there in the middle of winter and with three blood-thirsty cats.

In any case, maybe my husband had something to do with it.

On Friday night, I heard him jump up from bed and run to the front door. I heard the door open, stay open for two or three seconds, and then slam shut. In the morning, I asked JT what he was doing. Mind you, he’s a very restless sleeper. He talks in his sleep, jerks around, and snores incredibly loudly. In any case, he said that he was dreaming that he had something (an unnamed object) in his hand that was covered in bugs. He didn’t want it in bed with him, so he jumped up and ran to the front door with the thought that the bitter cold (like -2 degrees) would freeze them to death. When he got to the front door he apparently regained some mental capacity and asked himself why he was doing that. He still opened the front door and threw “it” out there.

He never had a damn thing in his hand. I guess that’s what you call “sleep walking and thinking.”

Yeah. He’s a weirdo.

Some people are weird. I don’t mean mildly strange–I mean incredibly, utterly, incomprehensively bizarre. I’m not going to go into details, but there’s this one girl (not woman) who irks me to no end. There’s only so much I can do to not virtually strangle her. Gack.

Sometimes I think people just need to shut their computers off and get lives–me included.

This isn’t to say I don’t have a life but you get the picture. I like (or is it love?) my computer and my sites and everything I do around those things. But I refuse to do any of it at home. It’s like I want to live life when given the opportunity instead of sitting on my bum eating Fritos and typing away at my keyboard. Not to say I wouldn’t LOOOVE to do that, but I’d just prefer to love life and live it.

Speaking of strangeness, I must admit there are things I don’t get. I am an elitist. You are an elitist. Let’s sing it together…we are all elitists? Don’t believe me? Well, consider for a moment that we all have favorites. We all have preferences. And at the same time we have things that we won’t do or listen to or look at for no other reason than out of sheer (ridiculous?) principle. I like rock music and indie pop and alternative whatever. I’ve never stated my tastes are perfect but I like them, and because we are all elitists this is all that really matters. I don’t have anybody around me to influence my taste–none of my friends or family is particularly into music (aside from my sis who lives in London). There is indeed music I will not listen to. Country for one is horrible. It reminds me of the town I grew up in. I also won’t listen to Christian music for obvious reasons. Finally, I won’t listen to bubblegum pop. Bubblegum pop has, IMO, zero redeeming quality. Of course, my opinion is only relevant to ME so discount whatever you’d like to.

In any case, give me a good rock album (few of which exist today) or a good alt-pop or a good indie whatever and I’m set for the next week and will probably dig up and buy whatever I can find from said artist. Cases in point from the last few years–Spiritualized, Gomez, Rufus Wainwright, Queens of the Stone Age, Lisa Germano, Grant-Lee Phillips, the Eels, and so many others.

Again, we are all elitists. Deal.

Ya’ll should know by now that I’m by no means a supporter of a certain president and a certain war and certain things associated with it. There are soldiers and civilians dying every day for a reason that never existed and at least in part of a certain man’s unwarranted and misguided personal vendetta (…subliminal mesage…subliminal message…read Dude, Where’s My Country by Michael Moore).

In any case, there’s rarely a face put to the happenings. The Washington Post has done the world a great service in attaching names to the dead American soldiers. They died patriotically fighting for a man, a country, and a cause that half of Americans have a problem agreeing with.

Faces of the Fallen - The Washington Post

And speaking of costs:

When Sarah/Sara (we’ve never settled her spelling) was a kitten I called her “stink.” Why? Well, she didn’t clean herself. The stench got so bad I first tried to give her a bath. After the miserable failing of that endeavor and the embedding of teeth in the heel of my hand I decided to instead turn to dry shampoo. So for the first few months of her life with me, Sara smelled like carpet deodorizer.

Well, last night she jumped up on my lap as usual. Mind you that she’s not really all that friendly unless it suits her and she only wants attention at night so I almost always allow her to lay on me. Well, she positioned herself directly beneath my chin. So when I turned my head down, my nose was in perfect position to sniff her head. So I did. Not on purpose mind you, but just by default.

You know when you lovingly call your pets “shit head?” Well, the term is particularly fitting to Sara. See, her head officially smells like poo. It’s horrible and awful and makes me wonder exactly what she was doing and where. I mean I’ve never seen her roll in litter or anything so–uh–I’m confused. So Sara stinks. Woo-hoo. It made my day.

This comic says so much about cat folks. And since I’m a cat “folk” then it applies directly to me:

Now I love my cats. They were even named after humans–or at least one of them was named Dewey after the littlest bro on Malcolm in the Middle. In any case, they are fantastic little purr monsters. One is a bit freaky (Sarah), one is a bit stupid (Max) and one is really fat (Dewey) but it’s hard not to love ‘em all.

But cats are horrible nasty creatures who take every opportunity to a) sleep on your clothes and b) rub up on everything else and shed incredible amounts of hair. As such I’m usually covered in hair of ever shade imaginable. The worst is the white hair. Even worse is the fact that I wear a wool J Crew coat all winter. And guess what? Solid wool-felt attracts hair in amazing quantities. And if I make the mistake of setting it down the cats LOOOOVE it.

It rocks to be a cat person. Or not.

I’ve never been to Las Vegas but it seems that JT and I will both have the opportunity this summer because of a certain wedding. There’s no definite date yet (except for late-ish July during the week), but my sister and her boyfriend are planning on getting hitched.

Congrats to Cheryl & Robin!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy (belated) New Year!

It’s 2004 and already things are off to a boring start. Not boring really…just “usual.” I’m still on vacation. It’s been really wonderful not having to do anything but sit on my (sick) butt. I return to work on Monday after nearly two weeks off. Oh well…I guess I’ve gotta bring home the bacon occasionally.

I am still sick. I don’t feel horrible really, my head is just swimming strangely and my eyes refuse to focus properly. I’m not coughing, but my head is all gummed up and I’m sneezing. It might be sinuses or allergies but I’m still leaning toward the flu as everybody seems afflicted with the damn virus.

I’ll live.