Imatjen’s Neighborhood

Things I Love:

• Brian announced what he would like to get me for Christmas: ANOTHER KITTY.  You can imagine my excitement.  It is such that I'm beyond even being about to use exclamation points and I have to revert back to using plain ol' periods.  Also, this will be great for Fritz, who we think is getting pretty lonely, especially at night--we don't let him into the bedroom and he's taken to howling at all hours of the night.
• SHOPPING FOR KITTIES ZOMGZ CAN WE HAVE THEM ALL
• How affectionate Fritz has been lately.  As we speak he's sitting in the chair with me, purring away.
• Brian, who despite claiming to have no idea how to get gifts for people has come up with an untoppable gift the second year in a row.
• Threadless, and online shopping in general.  In the last week I have: ordered a Threadless shirt, ordered something from Woot (a WootOff, to be precise), pre-ordered a video game from Amazon, and ordered yet another Threadless shirt.  The first one's already come in:

"The Ultimate Combo"--JUST CALL ME CHUN-LI, YO

2 comments

• The PetSmart employee who I suppose didn't want to risk getting off even a few minutes late, so she lied to us and told us they don't do adoptions after 8pm.  (They close at 9--we got there right at 8:30.)  I called another PetSmart to confirm this isn't a company policy.  We were going up to look again at a kitty we'd played with and loved last night (AFTER 8).
• My decreasing ability to control my RED IMPOSSIBLE ANGER!  (That phrase is only going to be funny to me because I am a loser who has inside jokes with herself.  I'm aggravated and will cheer myself up however I please, damn it.)
• Procrastination.  Sigh.  I cannot get myself to stick to a reading/study schedule and as a result, have something like 300 pages of (textbook) reading to do in a week before two tests next Tuesday. 
  

 On Oct 3, 2009 Lynd's Fruit Farm in Pataskala, OH held an event for Nationwide Children's Hospital raising money for a good cause. We plan to go every year and don't leave without a taste of their sinful pumpkin roll. Our kryptonite... This year all of us McGuire's went. The kids did very well and they each picked out their own pumpkin. Little miss E made sure she'd be able to carry her own. They taste tested the apples as we picked them.

Dear Douchebags,

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you backed into my car--which was at the time the only car in that particular row in that particular parking lot--and were courteous enough to just leave.  I can only assume you knew how upset I would be, and being the sensitive douchebags you are, I suppose you just didn't think yourselves emotionally capable of seeing me so distraught.  Bravo.

I'm sure it was out of your control anyway, since my car apparently has a first rate magnet stuck in its bumper.  Only that could explain why it would be struck again just a few weeks after it was hit in the parking lot at work.  (Of course, that damage was nicely repaired just in time for you to redamage it.  I'm glad I provided a tidy bumper for you to smash.  And kudos on the extra damage to my trunk!

Anyway, good thing you just drove off--the hassle of exchanging information and taking responsibility for your actions really is just too much to ask.  It's much better that my family and I have to pay our insurance's $500 deductible to get my car fixed (since we don't have your insurance info) than that you be inconvenienced with a minor increase in your insurance rate.  If you even have insurance!  O-ho!

Well, thanks for your time, Douchebags.  I'll think of you when I have to go pick up the police report on my birthday next week.  I can't imagine a better gift!

Best,
Joie

I'm in a great mood, and thus I bring you Things on Tuesday: The All Love Edition.

Things I Love:

• Knowing that if I find Fritz's giant plush ladybug stuffed in a corner somewhere, I can put it out in the middle of the floor and when he finds it, it will be like a whole new discovery to him.  This includes war cries/meows, adorably vicious attacking of the giant plush ladybug, and apparently dragging its carcass off somewhere.
• I kicked some major ass on my first test as a psychology major.
• Coffee and vanilla lattes.
• My professor gave an extra credit assignment to those of us who stayed for the second half of class--eat that, people who left when he announced that we'd be watching a video when we returned from the 10-minute break.
  
• Today I wandered into Belk to find a skirt/outfit I fell in love with in May on clearance and in my size.  I got a three piece outfit plus shoes that would've totaled $211.24 for $43.80.  THANK YOU, BELK.  The fact that this is clearly a summer outfit might be a problem if not for the fact that...
• ...I live in Alabama where summer clothes can easily be worn into October.  BOO-YA.
• 

  I have surprisingly girlie tastes, sometimes.
  
  
• Thunderstorms!
• Celebrating the first day of fall with my manfriend by getting some O'Charley's potato soup.

This evening a music theme popped into my head, and I realized it was from this past Sunday's episode of Mad Men, "The Fog."  I knew when I heard the music I recognized it, so I assumed it was some famous classical-something-or-other I'd heard in school or on NPR.  A little research, however, revealed that in fact it's called "Me voy a morir de amor" from the score of the movie Lucía y el Sexo.  If I recall correctly, I think I saw this movie three times in a one month period (which is not as pervy as it sounds)--I watched it a second time to try to understand it better and a third to show it to Brian.  (I gave a brief review after the first time I saw it--you can read here.)  I found this video someone made featuring the music, and it reminded me how beautiful the movie was... I suspect I'll be seeing it a 4th time soon.  Hey-o!

I actually have things today, and I know if I wait till tomorrow I'll either forget them or forget to blog entirely.  SO DEAL WITH IT.  But out of respect for TonT, I'll switch the format up a bit for TofM.

Loathe:  Ordering what was clearly supposed to be an HP-brand battery from what looked like a reputable seller... only to receive a knock-off (RECGARGEABLE BATTERY, as it was labeled).  The seller's customer service tried to convince me (in terrible English) that the battery comes from a "manufactory" authorized by HP and that because the battery only works in HP laptops, HP did not have the "manufactory" put the logo on it.   Yes.  That explains why my original battery has a giant HP logo.

Love:  Getting hassle-free refunds and being able to leave bitchy negative feedback, completely guilt-free.

Loathe:  That people leaving seller feedback do not seem to understand they are reviewing the seller, not the product.  I NEED ACCURATE INFO, PEOPLE. 

Love:  ...Being able to leave bitchy negative feedback, completely guilt-free?

Loathe:  Even after a year of being out of school (in which time one would assume I'd have done some growing up), I still have the same habit of procrastination and now have a massive amount of reading to catch up on.

Love:  MY CLASSES OMGZ.  I am loving this psychology business.  My Tuesday night class is 2-and-a-half hours long, and I actually feel a little sad when it's over.

Loathe:  How hard Facebook is working to be Twitter.  Also, seeing MAFIA WARS! and FARMVILLE! application notifications filling my news feed.

Love:  ...Being able to tag people/things in Facebook status updates (you got me, FB).  Also, the "Graffiti" application, which is old as Facebook dirt but which I am just now using.

One small complaint not big enough to be a loathe is that I miss having music majors around me in classes.  The other day before class the professor's phone rang, and his ringtone was the third movement to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  I looked around excitedly, but no one noticed, cared, or knew what the ringtone was.  It was one of those odd small moments that feels overpoweringly dramatic to the person in it.  I console myself by hoping that when I get into the more upper-level classes I'll find other psychology-nerds with whom I can joke about ... whatever psychology nerds joke about, I don't know yet.

I am expecting my 2nd child May 4th. I am unbelievably nervous. There's no doubt in my mind that I want another child. There's just doubt in my ability to raise 2 of them. I love my daughter and she is amazingly brilliant. She's healthy, beautiful, and the joy of my life. I can't imagine having two children to make me feel the way I do. This should be one amazing time. I bought a 3 tab journal for my pregnancy. That way I could write about Ella and the baby seperately then once the baby comes write about their interactions together. We'll see how it goes.

If you could have personally witnessed one event in history, which one would you want to have seen?

Wow that's really hard to just pick one. I think one event I would've liked to have seen would be when Jesus fed 5,000 with a few fish and a couple loaves of bread. To have seen the look on the disciple's faces when they realized that was all there was to serve and to see the miracle happen. I think that would've been quite an interesting event.

Or to see the landing of the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock. To see the reactions of both sides to the new people. I wonder if the Indians would've sat down with them for the first Thanksgiving meal if they knew later they'd be kicked out of their homes and sent west along the infamous trail of tears. I find it interesting that because of events in history to the Native American people that they get rewarded for their heritage with the ability to open a casino when back in the day they sold a great deal of land for a bunch of beads.

After posting a link to my YouTube account where most of my Fritz videos go, I realized it's been awhile since I actually posted one.  Fritz got a kitty tube and tent this week and he's loved diving into them--I realized it was time for me to learn how to use iMovie so I could present the highlights of his play time.  Maybe now that I know how to edit video I'll post more of him!