Mini Hiatus...

I am moving in less than a week, and I have been meaning to update almost daily, but I have been packing and prepping for the move (garage sale, etc). I won't be able to update at least until we do move, but until then I leave you with one of the most awesome videos I have ever seen. And this song, still after all these years, still gives me goosebumps. Well, they ARE my very favorite group, after all.... but who would have thought that someone JUGGLING to this song would be so cool??

I Like You!

This is adorable, totally SFW and turn on your sound.

If You want to be liked.

Manners

This is one of my favorite pictures from my honeymoon in Lincoln City, Oregon. I was so happy!

I got the nicest compliment the other day.

We went to get gas, and we overpaid by a few dollars (!!!). So I had to go back in to get my change. When I went in the lady behind the counter told me that I made her day with my smile. She aid that she had been having a crappy day before that and when I came in and smiled at her, she suddenly felt better and happier. I smiled the rest of the day.

Now, I have always been like this. “A smile means friendship to everyone?” Yeah, that's me. I just feel like it's polite. And I always try to be friendly. Especially to people who have the jobs that deal with people directly or even indirectly. Even on the phone I have a smile in my voice. I got a compliment from a coworker once that my smile brightened his day every time he saw me. I just thought that was the nicest thing anyone could ever say to me.

I know what it's like to be a customer service person, behind a cash register and on the phone. It's a pretty thankless job. People can be extremely mean, blaming you for something that has nothing to do with you. I know what it's like to have the nice people, who smile and thank you for helping them. “Have a nice day” aren't just words to me.

I was taught really great manners. My parents taught me please and thank you. And beyond that. I have had less patience with people as I get older, and I have grown to understand the frustration that the people on the other end. I still try my hardest to be nice, and smile. Sometimes, it works, sometimes, it doesn't.

After all the crap that I have had to deal with and go through, to me, it's not worth it to be rude to people. Or pick on them. I try to be constructive if I have to say something that is not so nice. I don't understand what makes people feel the need to be mean to other people, especially when they aren't thee to stick up for themselves. And why I must get into stupid, petty arguments with people who feels the need to knock me down for stupid things. I get told I am to nice. Especially by internet strangers. And then, I get ripped a new one. Ok, I just don't put up with it anymore. I used to, and try to fight back. There is no point, really. There are so many cliche's here that I could throw in, but I'll spare you. I have left more than one message/chat board because of this. I have better things to do with my time.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am no saint. I have my moments of saying something snarky to my husband, or one of my friends. But, I would never say something rude to someone or loud enough for them to hear in order to hurt their feelings or make myself feel more high and mighty. On fact, in my complaints that I have had at different jobs that I had, I am usually the loudest and people have told me that I should be a comedienne. I don't think I'm that funny, but weird things seem to happen to me, and I seem to meet strange people. I may attract them, but I revel in that weirdness. It gives me something to talk about later.

Anyway, I guess my point is, Be nice to people. Or at least show them the same respect that they show you. You never know what kind of day that person has had, and if you could make them smile, wouldn't that be great? If you could make just one person feel better by smiling at them or letting them know that you had been there? A perfect stranger? It does have a ripple effect. And you never know who's day you will make better just by laughing or smiling. Try it.

Tagged

Alright, so most of the blogs I read have posted the tagged blog. It was sent out to all the people that are lurkers and anyone who wants to post it themselves... So here goes.

Tagged

1. What was I doing ten years ago?

I had just gotten fired from Disneyland the night before my BF broke up with me because he cheated and moved back to Huntington Beach, CA. I was probably drunk out of my mind about 80% of the time. I was experimenting, and having a great time finding myself. I am SO different now.

5 things on my to - do list

1. Clean my apartment before the pre-move out inspection
2. Turn in my $300 holding fee for the new apartment
3. Pack
4. Have sexy time with my husband
5. Sleep

3. Snacks I enjoy?
Very high carb stuff that is really bad for me. :-) Mostly ice cream, though.

4. Things I Would Do If I Were A Billionaire
Buy a house, hell, a few houses.
Give my mom a bunch of money (she so deserves it)
Get some land to operate a dog rescue on.
Donate and volunteer my time to Children's Cancer Centers
Build a completely green house.
Have more time to write and write.

I really can't think of anything else off the top of my head.


5. Three of my bad habits
Not realizing my blessings
Being lazy
Not following my diet as well as I should.


6. Five places I have lived
Huntington Beach, CA
Anaheim, CA
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Torrance, CA
Vancouver, WA

7. Five jobs I've had?
1- Everything except management at Target

2. Hotel Merchandise, including specialty products at the Disneyland Hotel

3. Data Entry for classified ads for Dog Fancy Magazine

4. Receptionist for Chapel Steel

5. Tech Support at Stream International, Inc.


8. How did you name your blog?
It's exactly what it says it is. :-) I had cancer, I can't remember much, and this is my way of remembering. It's also just random stuff that I need to vent about. Enjoy!

I am supposed to tag people, but I think just about everyone that could be tagged has already done this, but if you are a lurker, please come forth and let me know who you are, and feel free to fill out the tag form!

Moving

Pacific NW Sunset with clouds and the corner of my porch and balcony.

My husband and I may be moving at the beginning of next month. I am so happy. I have wanted to leave here for about the past year. There are several reasons for this. And here they are:

1. This complex and area were fairly nice and somewhat cheap when I moved in here three years ago. It was a nice, family oriented neighborhood. We had block parties and watched each other's kids. Many of these people moved out, slowly. So slowly, I didn't even notice it. Suddenly, the cops were here about once a month. Including, once, even a paddy wagon/swat team like van. The street was told to stay in their houses and out of the windows. At 4 am. In the middle of the week. After shots were fired out into the street. We are pretty sure that meth dealers had moved in across the street.

2. People drive up and down the street at over 50 mph. They don't care that little kids and dogs play in the street. No matter what the family oriented people say or do, they still do it.

3. We have a neighbor across our courtyard who gets picked up by an ambulance every few days.

4. Our next door neighbor parks on the curb, and beats up his girlfriend on a regular basis, and the cops get called every time. And it's always early in the morning, like between 3-5 am. Since the last time, they have been pretty nasty to us.

5. The volume of the stereos! Across the street, our neighbors turn on the radio starting at about 6 pm and it echoes down the cul-de-sac. They have people over every night, and get drunker and drunker to the point that they are yelling at each other and cursing so loudly, that we can hear it above our TV in the house. Not to mention that our bedroom window faces their house. This usually doesn't stop until 11 pm on weekdays, and all hours on weekends. They have two boys that are not quite in their teens, yet. I have no idea how these kids sleep through that. Plus the dad over there likes to run his power washer 24-7.

6. Down the street a little way, are some people. I think they share the duplex. One house has about a three year old that we frequently see walking down the middle of the street yelling. By himself. And then dad comes out and yells at him to get back to the yard. The kids yells and yells until his little voice is screeching that he is coming back. Or that mom said it was ok. Why? Why would you let a small child do that? Would you not go down the street and grab the kid? I just don't get it. Next to them, is the Bass house. Starting at about noon each day and into the night, they play a stereo. I don't know if it is in the garage, house or car, and I can never actually hear the music, but the bass is so loud, it makes things move in my house. Why must bass ever be that loud? Why is that even necessary?

7. Our landlords. When I first moved in here, there was a fabulous, but fairly cheap, management company that ran this place. Rent was cheap, the office people were fabulous, and our maintenance guy was quick and thorough. And on time with notices. This last summer, management switched hands. While they painted, and paved our alley ways, they did it with horrid diarrhea and vomit browns, and the pavement was ground up within weeks, because they waited until the rainy season to start doing it (the week of our wedding). It is impossible to get help or find anything out without the management talking to you condescendingly. And even then, your chance of help is pretty slim. We were waiting to look for an apartment at the end of our last lease because we wanted to see what our rent was going to be. When they finally let us know, it was 2 weeks before our lease was due to change and they said we had to give 30 days notice before we could move out. This was at Christmas, so we decided to stay for 6 months. They raised our rent so much, we can't afford to live here. Our rent has already been latte twice this year.

8. Around January or February of this year, we started seeing things happen out the corner of our eyes – in our house. We slowly noticed we had mice. We complained to management. We were told to get a cat. We thought she was joking. We told her that my husband is deathly allergic, and she told us that we were out of luck then. We tried every method to get rid of them, and it took us three more months before poisoning finally took effect. This sucked quite bad, because everything had been touched in some way by the mice. I had to throw away so much food. Food that we could barely afford anyway (but had to buy because of my strict low carb diet). And they did nothing. It was really upsetting. I found out that most of the surrounding apartments had the same problem. Even the ones that weren't connected to us.

9. Our car got broken into. They stole our car stereo. We don't have a lot. But we commute to work almost an hour each way. The stereo isn't worth calling the insurance company about. Until we could save the money, which took us several months, we had to ride around with a shower radio in our car that only one station came in. I reported it to our management, just to let them know that other people's cars may get broken into and people should be aware. There is almost no lighting where our cars are (or really, anywhere in our complex). We complain all the time about it. Management just sighed and said she guesses that she should send out a memo to everyone telling them to keep their porch lights on at night. (Our patios/porches are nowhere near the cars). The memo never went out. I don't know if anyone else's car got broken into, but I was pretty pissed.

10. I have a young (early 20's) neighbor, who thinks I want to hear about her woes. And always wants something. She comes over to my house every single day. At least 5 times. It doesn't matter what I am doing or what kind of a mood I'm in, she just won't shut up. I have stopped answering the door and tend to hide when I take the dog outside or check the mail. She always wants Something, and covers it up by making small talk with me. And I don't trust her friends. They look nasty and they won't look me in the eye. I just have an overall bad feeling about them. I'm afraid if I tel her to go away, these friends of hers will rob my house or something. They are always around.

11. Dog poop. Yes, I have a dog. I CLEAN up after my dog. At least my dog poops where I can see it. I can not tell you how many times – mostly because of bad lighting – I have stepped in poop that was not cleaned up by the owners. Big poops. Usually on the SIDEWALK. My next door neighbor, has her dogs pee and poop on the patio next to mine. In the summer, let me tell you – it SMELLS awful.

12. The distance from work and our friends. We don't get visitors very often. No one wants to drive all the way to our house. We live 30 miles away from our closest friends. They are all pretty close to each other, close to where we work. Since gas just went up over $4.20 here, we can barely afford to get to work. We carpool, or did, until I was laid off. Even though I get excellent gas mileage, this will save a ton in gas.

13. And Last – this will be the first home that we pick out together. We just got married at the end of the September, and we currently live in an apartment that I picked out before we met.

Sorry for the vent. I was just thinking about all the reasons I wanted to move. I can't wait to get out of here. It'll be so much better for us. With the amount of money (and sanity) that we will save, we may eventually be able to buy a house.