It's All Coming Back

When did I become a TV junkie?? Who let this happen?

I don't know, but the end of the writers' strike has got me grinning from ear to ear. All my favorites are coming back to finish the season. (But please allow 4 - 6 weeks for delivery.)

Jericho has already returned, a fact which caused much rejoicing around our house. It fell victim, not to the writers' strike, but to an incredibly poor programming decision by CBS. The fans spoke up (including my husband) and Jericho is back on the air, tucked away into a horrible little back-corner time slot on Tuesday nights, right after Big Brother. That's okay. It's still there.

The other shows that I've somehow become hooked on - two sitcoms, three dramas - are shooting new episodes and will begin airing in mid-March (How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory) to early April (Criminal Minds, CSI, and Numb3rs - which will be my reward for surviving the College Math class that I start today.)

Rand is back!

Yayyy! Oh, so many people that I miss - old friends - even if I haven't talked to them for months or years.

Rand is the one who got me started on this whole bloggedy thing, and his writing is still a source of inspiration (except when he writes about his job, which seems to involve computers and code, and is so far over my head - and not just because I'm short!)

So anyway, Mr. Inspiration hasn't bothered to write anything in simply forever...and his excuse is that he's been traveling all over the world. Globe-trotting. And now he's back, from outer space, with news of the latest fashion trend: Visible Butt Cracks. Swear to Buddah. Don't yell at me, go check it out for yourself - he's at RandNix.com

Good to have you back.

Homework

21 is Impossible

I came to the realization the other day that number 21 on my list of 43 Things will never be achieved.

Of course, the same can be said for many of the items on my list; but number 21 is to "get all the books on my Amazon wish list." I've gotten a lot of the books since I started the list of 43 Things...but everytime I get some of the books on my wish list, I add even more new ones! It's a never-ending quest.

I guess that's okay. Some quests shouldn't have endings. And I hope I never run out of books to wish for.

Another Good Question

So they showed last night on Mythbusters - not conclusively, but very persuasively - that elephants are indeed afraid of mice.

Why??

I can't figure out what there could be about a mouse that would make an elephant skittish around it. If someone out there knows about elephants and/or mice, please fill me in. Meanwhile, I'll be doing my own research - this just fascinates me, for some reason.

Xander was on Criminal Minds!

Yay...I've missed Xander.

Course, his name wasn't Xander, but he was still a geek. And they set him up as a "friend" for Penelope Garcia - who is, without question, the coolest female character on TV.

If I ever get to be a super-hero, I want to be Garcia.

Making Changes

I know, I know, this site dosn't seem to look the same from one week to the next. I'm working on it...

I just got the new Adobe CS3 software (yay!), but I don't really know how to use it just yet. I'm working on that too, taking a class, got a lot of good tutorials, but not a lot of time just now to sit down and work my way through it. What I want to do is re-vamp this site with my own artwork and designs. I know it can be done, but until I figure out how to do it, I'll be using Typepad's designs, and continuing to try to find one I really like.

Bear with me...when I learn how to do what I want to do, it'll be REALLY cool!

Got to go to work now.

4 a.m. (again)

"Ah, you are using Bonetti's Defense against me!"

"I thought it fitting, considering the rocky terrain."

"Naturally, you would expect me to counter with a Cappa-ferra?"

"Naturally. But I find a Tybalt cancels out a Cappa-ferra. Don't you?"

"Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa...which I have."

Plastic and Pom-Poms

We were watching football, as we usually do on Sunday afternoons, and I got to wondering about the cheerleaders.

Who are these women?? In High School, it's cool to be a cheerleader; in college, it's an extra-curricular activity that only a few people continue to pursue - and one that seems to get dropped in the third or fourth year, when classes start to get intense and graduation becomes a looming reality. But who takes it further than that? Surely there's a point, and an age, where being a cheerleader just isn't that cool anymore.

I wonder if they even know anything about football? They must know a little - else how would they know when to cheer? If it was me, standing there watching game after home game, I would pick up at least the rudiments of the game, even if it didn't interest me all that much...but of course if it was me, I wouldn't be there in the first place.

And I wonder what the players think of the cheerleaders? In High School, the captain of the football team was always supposed to date the head cheerleader, right? But I don't see any of the big famous NFL quarterbacks hanging out much with the eye candy. Even they have moved on, and most, it seems, are either married or dating women of substance.

Do NFL cheerleaders get paid? Is this like an actual job for them? Do they make enough to pay their bills - do they even have bills? Or is it just a side-gig that picks up a few extra bucks? Do they have other, real jobs? What do they do in the off-season? Modelling, I suppose...if you consider that a real job...

Women like that - cheerleaders and beauty queens - have always fascinated me. As a waitress, the way I look does have an impact on my job; but for me, that's always been an obstacle to be overcome. And I have overcome it, I think, by being very, very good at my job. But my life is about going to work to pay the bills and buy groceries and put gas in my car, then figuring out what to fix for dinner.

These Barbie-dolls with their pretend lives...what must that be like? I don't think I would want to find out. I like being real. Even if the reality isn't always pretty.

Relapse

I didn't want to do it.

I've been so good for so long...

I swear I didn't want to do it, but I just didn't seem to have any choice.

It was the weekend, I was away from home...

You know, I didn't even have to say anything about it; no one would've known, except the people who were with me - my husband and my daughter (and in my own defense, I didn't give her any.)

If it helps, I didn't enjoy it. I hated myself the whole time. I even thought I was going to be sick.

Lord, please give me the strength not to do it again.

.

It happened like this:
We were in Muleshoe, coming back from taking his sister and her kids home to Clovis, and we were hungry, and didn't have a lot of money to spend. So...

(I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry)

...we went to McDonald's.

We looked for a Dairy Queen - we did! But the only one in town was closed down. Our other choices were Sonic (too expensive), Pizza Hut (takes too long), or Leal's (too expensive and takes too long).

It was horrible; I almost gagged on every bite - even the soda didn't taste good to me. The whole experience reminded me of when I quit smoking: all of a sudden every time I took a drag off a cigarette, I could just feel all that junk going into my body, and it was disgusting. It didn't take me long to quit, and before long after that I couldn't even stand the smell of cigarette smoke - and I stll can't. Same thing with the Big Mac I found myself choking down. The taste, the smell, even the texture of it, plus the knowledge of what I'd just given my money to - it was sickening, and I devoutly hope that I never have to go into one of those red-and-yellow buildings again.