The things I love, The things I hate,

Hello my favorite elves and sugarplums! How I have missed you! I promise in the next few days and weeks I'll let you in on the craziness that has been my life. Ever feel like you are rooted up and dumped in a new spot? That's been me. After time and thoughts I'm coming to peace. I promise to share all. The good. The bad. The worst. The light. But today I feel like sharing a little of me in the now rather than what brought me to now. So here it is 3 things I'm hating and 3 things I'm loving.

3 Things I'm Hating
1. Those 40+ hairs that I accidentally fried off while round brushing my hair last month. Those mutinous bastards are sticking straight up any more on my forehead aka Something About Mary style. Yeah. That's just awesome.

2. I'm hating people who think only of themselves at Christmas. It was once my favorite holiday and honestly I carry around cash just to stuff in the red buckets of bell rings. The moment you make a difference in anyone's life means a lot to me and the fact that they will never know means the most. So to all those people who bitch about how Christmas time is to stressful, open your eyes. This isn't about you. Open your heart.

3. No snow. It's Christmas time in Colorado and down in the metro Denver area we've seen as little white as a Hilton sister wedding. Nilche. I miss the snow.

3 Things I Love Right Now
1. I'm loving this Barbie. Maybe it's a little Dexter meets Oxygen Networks Snapped, but way to take control Barbie! Check out the little poochie in the corner just staring at headless Ken.

2. The text I got from my girls today who recently moved to the Lonestar state. "Hey girl I miss ya!" That's the type of thing that makes me smile for a random instant in the day. Big mental hug to one of my besties. Hope she felt it.

3. And I'm a country girl no matter where I go in life so a little country music makes me happy. At this moment I'm smiling to a little Blake Shelton's Who Are You When I'm Not Looking on repeat.

What are you loving (or hating) right now?

27 may have a bite, but hey, I've got teeth too.

I’ve been absent. My blogging buddies as we all know absent bloggers often mean something big is happening in our lives or a few somethings big. In my case it is the later. Big, I mean BIG things are happening in my little corner of the world.

As all of you know I took turning 27 a little hard.  I was panicking with my “what the hell have I done with my life?” and my 20s are just seeping away like a bottle of tequila on margarita Monday in a sorority house. A strange thing happened when the actual birthday came. I was perfectly calm and unaffected.

I’m convinced it was due to my new plan to grapple with that bitch 27, and I’m not above pulling hair or eye gauging in this case. After the initial calm 27 poked her catty head in the door, snickered at me and with the wrathful indifference only she can have threw up all kinds of suckiness on my new comfy pillow top couch and my life. Hello bad news and angry feeling. Make yourself at home. So yeah, round 1 went to 27.    

But despite the crap she brought in her wake I'm coming out the winner. 27 is going down. I've come up screaming, gasping for air and fists swinging. One month in and volatile 27 is vacuuming up my living room and tipping her head to me. And maybe we will one day be friends. Maybe. 

I’m taking that step I whined so much while tucking my head in between my knees because 26 was panicking about coming to an end. 27 seems to be respecting that as she snidely remarks "It's about damn time. That cowering whiner isn't you." I'm taking all the crap 27 brought in on her arrival in stride and stomping the hell out of it when it peeks at me in a manner other than meekly. And in the mists of all of this there was that step I'm taking that will make an exciting change for the better. The BIG change for the good that is exciting, slightly nerve racking because of the constant talk of economic issues, but exciting none the less. 

What BIG thing are you making happen?

Sitting with My Head in a Paper Bag

So I’m sitting here thinking about what is coming up on Friday and I’m panicking. Literally, I’m getting nervous, short of breath. Hell, I’m going to start sweating and may need to put my head between my knees and scream until my lungs are empty. I’m panicking. I have 4 more days before I reach the big 2-7.

Okay, I know 27 isn’t typically one of those age numbers that people get worked up about, but for me it’s began to fill like this giant drop off point and there’s a big orange and white blockade with one of those incredibly bright orange rotating lights that is trying to warn me of something. Oh, that’s right. It’s warning me that my 20s are seeping away. It’s warning me that I’ve been out of college for 5 years (where the hell did that time go?) and I haven’t been to even half the places I was so eager to go and I’m standing here staring at a computer screen wondering what the hell I’m doing.

I always figured 26 would be the one that hit me in the gut. The one that said that I’m officially closer to 30 then to 21. The one that says I can’t just act like a dumb ass or screw up monumentally if I feel like it, because I’m an adult. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been fiscally responsible for myself since I was 18. Nope. Still didn’t feel like an adult then, just a teenage with a lot of life pressure and bills.

To squelch my panic-ridden-aging-self, I’m taking another step. In truth, 26 has been filled with lots of steps from giving the idea of having a life plan my middle finger to embracing my new desire to do something good for others and not only myself. But this one is a big one. I’m making my dreams and wants a priority. No more focusing on the what I should be doing. Should is over rated anyway.

I’m not selfish; I’m just living my life for me, for the enjoyment, pleasure and fulfillment of me. I’m embracing that mantra. I’m going to tattoo it on my forehead so that when I wake up every morning it’s in my face saying “Hey. Remember me? What you said you’re going to do with your life?” I’m stopping just being and getting back to living. Maybe I'll make a bucket list for my 20s. Who said it had to be for when you die?

What is your priority?

Dear Dryer. I hate you.

Let me begin by saying I’m not the kind of person who automatically resorts to blaming others for my shortcomings. However, since this obviously isn’t my shortcoming, but a morbid plot that my laundering machinery has hatched out, I feel the need to call that bitch out.

Let me assure you that it hasn’t started all at once. She’s been sneaky about it. She started by shrinking one article then another. It was all done so casually that I even began to blame the man for a short amount of time. After all, he’s a guy’s guy and those types are notorious for being less then efficient in any domestic matters. I probably owe him an apology since it wasn’t him who shrunk two of my favorite sun dresses so it now looks like I’m purposely trying to show the world what color my thong is. Natural to think he may have had something to do with that.

However, now that overgrown piece of soon to be scrap metal is being just plain unforgiving. I went to put on my favorite pair of jean shorts last weekend, you know the kind all worn and comfy and glorious in the summertime, and she’d done it again. The damn things wouldn’t button!

I was forgiving when she shrunk my capris to the point that they now cut off the circulation to my legs. I may walk like I’m on stilts because I can’t bend my knees in my only pair of expensive rock republic jeans, but I didn’t hold it against her.

I checked in with every girls arch nemesis, the dreaded scale. And no, he’s not out to get me. He happily told me I’ve only put on two measly pounds this summer, most likely from all that South American vacation food. I’m very doubtful that all two pounds somehow managed to migrate directly to my ass.

Which leaves me with one conclusion, that harmless looking lint pot has it out for me.  With this last assault she has gone too far. I hate her. I’m calling her out. This. Means. War.

Who would you like to send hate mail too?

Relationships. Forget the a la carte menu. Go for all inclusive.

2010 has been a seriously interesting year so far. For several of my friends it has been filled with some major life changes and undoubtedly when you’re in one of those moments you get to see the good, the great and the downright eFFed up relationships that you have.

A guy who has repeatedly begged my friend to move clear across the country with him acts surprised when she is hesitant when he can’t even text, yet alone call her, on V-day, her birthday or even within the same 24 hours when she has called him. (douche alert.)

I call bullshit.

A guy friend who asks his girlfriend to move in with him and after she does rips his ass in front of his friends and always takes off for days at a time over every little fight. They she has the nerve to act surprised when he asks her to move out. (Seriously? WTF did she expect to happen?)

I call bullshit.

A girl friend at long last after lots of trying, fertility drugs, one miscarriage, several rounds of AI action and buckets of tears was finally pregnant. At a time in the pregnancy when the baby’s health was in serious question and doctors were preparing her for the possibility of aborting the pregnancy pending some test results her sister-in-law decides to announce that she is pregnant. Oh it gets better, the in-law is only 5 weeks along (hello, you don’t tell people that early) and, get this, doesn’t want my friend to tell her husband cause the in-law wants to tell him on his birthday! (Did she really think he would be thrilled to hear that when they may have to abort his own baby?)

BULLSHIT!

Relationships, whether it is family, friends, hell even business, are a two way street driven by communication and respect. No one should just expect someone else to do something for them just because that is what they want. We have to earn it!

You can’t just pick when it is convenient for you to be part of that relationship and forget all about the other person any other time. A relationship is an intricate dance of give and take. It’s never ending. If you want to be part of it strap on the ballet shoes and bring an extra pair for them.

The beauty of the best relationships are the unexpected little perks that you will get out of them. The friend you’ve spent months listening to vent all their frustrations suddenly stops talking a gives you a big hug because they instinctively know that everything isn’t alright in your world and they’re going to be there for you to cry to, vent to or just lean on. The love of your life who buys 3 avocadoes at the grocery store when it only takes 2 to make guacamole just because he knows you will want one to eat with garlic salt because you do the same for him all the time.

The people who don’t return the sentiments, don’t return the respect, are the ones that you end up being better off without. I’ve spent 5 years weeding out the relationships that haven’t been mutually gratifying to me and invested myself in cultivating the ones that have. As such I’m a happier person.

I do my best to never treat anyone like they are the mustard. You should never be anyone’s condiment. Be the entire entrée with a little dessert thrown in on the side.

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tuesdays - WTF?

I saw this today, loved it and felt it was a must share cause this is how my week is feeling.

You ever have one of those weeks when everything makes you want to scream and punch coworkers, the guy that was riding his brakes all damn morning and eventually random old ladies on the street for walking slow and smiling at you? (I promise that isn't an everyday occurrence, but more of a random feeling today, and yesterday, and maybe tomorrow.)  Well, that's my week so far. It's one of those that sends me home on a Monday to veg on a coach and watch Leverage on the DVR with 2 giant pint size glasses of homemade Sangria because a wine glass just wasn't going to be big enough.  And it's only Tuesday. 

Makes me seriously wonder where this week is going to end up. But wait, Friday is a half-day of work and Monday is off thanks to the independence of America. God bless the USA, bottle rockets, hot dogs, apple pie, beer koozies, and most importantly our soldiers. Without you I'd be working on Monday and speaking in a funny British accent that would most likely resemble a combo of Kiera Knightley and Charlie Hunnam's real accents (it wouldn't sound to pretty). 

So that brings us to next Tuesday and wondering: WTF will it bring? 

Damn You April - Damn You!

It’s official. I’m jinxed. Or April is jinxed. Or maybe it’s a little bit of both. Any which way you look at it, April and me, we apparently don’t get along. More specifically April has it out for me. At the very least it has it out for my knees.

I spent last Sunday giving the Skyla a few last runs before she returns to the basement for the long summer season. Springtime on the mountain is great. There is always a chance of a freak storm that will dust the resorts with upwards for 2 feet of snow. It’s the days Coloradans dream of. On the flip side the temp can also creep into the 50s and the runs begin to take the consistency of mashed potatoes. Then the following morning all that slushy greatness has frozen packing the runs with ice. That’s the down side and last Sunday it gave April the chance to come back and bite me in the ass again, or the knees.

About 4 hours into my farewell to winter day, the ice was turning back to gooey softness again and I was picking up speed with each run. Then fate stepped in and I managed to find the last patch of ice with my toe edge. Slam! Knees go down, both cracking against said ice patch. After rolling stopping my downward spiral down the mountain I proceed to rock back and forth for a good ten minutes grabbing my knees before proceeding cautiously down the remainder of the run. That was it. My day was done.

Several days later the left one is still sporting a nasty purple moon and the right has what I can only describe as a mini-tumor growing just beneath the cap. After little change and significant prodding by the man I’m finally going to the doctor to have them looked at.  

What I realized in the process of setting up said appointment is this isn’t the first time my knees and April have crossed paths and I’ve lost.  If you know me you know that my knees are practically my nemesis by themselves. Four times they’ve failed me and you guessed it, almost all of those have been in April. Who could forget the so called pirate incident in New Orleans exactly a year ago. ;) After all it’s not really a vacation unless someone comes back in a wheel chair. (Side note – Beware of the Hurricanes & Hand Grenades in the Big Easy)

This one goes to you April, but be warned – next year will be mine even if have ride in a damn little rascal scooters like an old person all month. In the meantime let’s call us square this year.  

FYI: The job title is Account Manager not Whipping Post

It’s one of those days. You know the one. The day where anything that can go wrong will. The day where tempers run hot and mouths seem to be running off at decibels that shatter ear drums. The day where you just want to clock out and say “See you world! Until tomorrow!” then curl up in an oversize chair with a glass of wine or even a strong martini and stare at the wall because that’s all your brain can take at this point. That’s my day.
 
I work in an environment that is filled to the brim with big egos, where each one is a little more pompous then the next. My day is filled conversing with legal minds and plastics’ artists. My time is spent talking to the heads of these practices who are often used to speaking down to everyone in their general vicinity. And the joy of being the representative and face of my organization for my client s is that when things go wrong I’m the one to feel the lash.

Sometimes that can be ridiculously hard. The urge to lay blame where it belongs dances around on my tongue though never quite escaping. I bite it back and swallow it down. I sit and allow the verbal mounds of complaints to lash out at me never breaking my calm, never pointing my finger at another, never making an excuse and always accepting the blame.

And when it’s through and I’m ready to wrap my fingers around the neck my teammate who didn’t think before doing something without my permission, I stalk down the hall to their office mumbling explicitives all the way. But before I can begin launching projectile missiles in the form of staplers and keyboards at my colleague, I reign in my temper. I politely let them know what the issue is. I don’t scream how I need this crap fixed in ten but right now damn it! I haggle, I bribe and I beg to get it done today.

Why? Because that is my job. Yes, I’m the project overseer, strategist and account manager. But I’m apparently also the fundamental hidden titles not listed in my job description – the listener, the peacekeeper and the whipping post.   I’m the one who maintains control of my emotions, never blinking no matter how bad it stings. That’s what makes me good at my job.

To reform or not reform – that is the question

With the passing in the House last night I felt the need to discuss the topic that has been on Americans’ minds at one point or another over the last year. And if you are like most Americans (myself included) your confused on what it’s all about. Sure we’ve heard what the most highly debated area of the reform is - abortion always sparks aggressive political and religious debates. But want about the rest? Why is one party so aggressively for it while the other will do anything to squash it? And yes, the most important questions to most of us “What does it mean for me?”

I have to give a big kudos to media outlets that have picked up on this and started pushing out various information on the pros and cons of healthcare reform. However I’ve noticed pretty quickly that like all things media it definitely isn’t a bipartisan view. So after all of the research I’ve done today here are my thoughts on the pros and cons I see:

Pros
1. No more pre-existing conditions or discrimination! I come from a family filled with all sorts of issues from knee problems to diabetes to high blood pressure. In April of last year I damaged my knee while on vacation. The orthopedist diagnosed me with a severe sprain and partial tears in my lateral and medial ligaments. But what if he missed something? Under the new government plan, the insurance couldn’t call it a pre-existing condition if I every hurt it again! Also, no more discrimination over if a procedure is covered or if it is too experimental.

2. Healthcare will be available to the 33 million Americans without coverage!  Hurrah! As a poor college student who was conveniently removed from my parent’s health insurance, I remember praying that I wouldn’t get sick. After all I couldn’t afford any medical bills. At that rate even student health would be too expensive for me. I couldn’t afford to buy a prescription. Circumstances didn’t change much in the first few years out of college either. On the flip side, it may be more affordable and realistic for poorer, health Americans to simply page the $695 fine for not having insurance rather than $2,500 for government insurance.  That said the tax credit for having the insurance better make it worth it.

Cons
1. I have health insure through work and a pretty damn good plan. However there is the distinct possibility that companies will shift away from private healthcare plans to the government healthcare plan in the near future. That means the killer coverage I’m receiving now for fairly cheap could very easily go away leaving me with the standard government care. My next two points are the areas I find issue with on the government plan.

2. What about the freedom to choose my doctor? I’ll say it. I’ve had a crappy doctor before. You know the one, that primary care physician you’ve been seeing regularly for years and yet every visit is like the first time. Yes, sir. We’ve already had this conversation before. Maybe you should actually look at my chart or maybe you need to learn to take better notes. I trust you with my health and you aren’t taking the time to be informed about me, so I’ll just find a doc who will. But under the Medical Home plan that won’t be an option. You can’t just quit your doc and find a new one. He doesn’t think you need that test or to see that specialist. Too bad! We are a country founded on freedom and our right to choose. How can it possibly benefit us to remove that right?

3. Why the hell have I bothered with a healthy life style? I’m going to pay the same premium as the 26-year-old bar fly who drinks 5 nights a week, smokes a pack a day, leaves her panties in at least 2 new guys apartment a week, snorts coke on a daily basis, and lives off of cold pizza and fruit pies. Sure, she’d be able to rehab for free and so could I, but why should I have to pay for the same plan as her? Maybe I don’t need rehab, but I’m still paying for that service. I don’t smoke. I’m less likely to have health issues. I live healthy so why should I have to pay $2,500 or more in premium costs when I only cost $800 a year to insure?

I don’t mind that those with a significant income will pay a 1% tax increase to pay for the plan. I believe that the wealth should take care of their less fortunate majority. However, I’m a believer in having government working in the background rather than on the forefront controlling healthcare.

So where am I? I’m still riding the fence. I still need answers to bigger questions. Will universal healthcare jeopardize the quality of healthcare we receive? Will we lose our ability to receive speedy healthcare? Will we become like Canada and the countless other nations that have a waiting list to receive care? Will government run healthcare be worth it in the long run?

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I'd Bag These Airlines

For the last year regular air travelers have been frustrated with the baggage fees. First toted as a result of the high cost of fuel, many airlines kept the new fees in place long after the price of fuel dropped back to a manageable level. After all a new source or revenue is always a plus in business. Now it seems that some airlines are at it again.

This morning I read an article in the Denver Business Journal stating that both Delta and Continental are raising the price of of checking baggage. Turns out these two airlines aren't the only ones. United is also upping the prices for bags. I'm curious to the effects that the baggage price hikes have on overall purchase traffic.

Lets look at a real life example, I did for a search for flights from Houston to Denver for February 17-21. Lets assume that I am coming out for a snowboarding trip and bringing my own gear. I'd have to check both bags. Lets also assume that I'm flying non-stop and sticking with the same airline for frequent flyer mile earning purposes.

Frontier

The cheapest ticket is $222.90 on Expedia.com with taxes. Factor in the baggage ($20 for first and $30 for second) for both ways and I pay approximately $322.90

United

The cheapest ticket is $222.90 on Expedia.com with taxes. Factor in the baggage ($25 for first and $35 for second) for both ways and I pay approximately $342.90

Continental

The cheapest ticket is $220.90 on Expedia.com with taxes. Factor in the baggage ($25 for first and $35 for second) for both ways and I pay approximately $340.90

Southwest

The cheapest ticket is $228.30 with taxes at their want to get away rate. Factor in the baggage (free) for both ways and I pay approximately $228.30

When I'm booking a trip that seems like a pretty significant difference. We already hear news stories toting how other airlines are having trouble competing with low cost carrier Southwest. I'm curious, how do airlines think this will be financially beneficial in the long run? For me there is no contest. Price wins out in the end.