Ch-Ch-Cha Changes...

Wow, this has been a crazy year! This is the year that I FINALLY got full time employment.
O-M-G it's been sooooo long!!! Long story short: My old boss left, they moved some idiot from another department into mine to help cover his old duties, said idiot gets caught stealing company property on camera and gets fired a few months later. I have never been so happy for someone else's failure; if it weren't for this moron, I would still be only part time with no benefits. :)  Now I have all the holidays paid, I have personal/sick time and vacation time. And here's the kicker- they even gave me a RAISE without my asking for it. So this has been a win win overall. I am actually ALMOST at the same rate of pay I had at the first company that laid me off, starting off this chain of unemployment and underemployment. I finally feel like I have emerged from the dark and into the light. I am finally happy in a job. I am beyond thrilled and grateful. Thank you GOD!!


Now on to the baby boy update: My little one is 3 years, 4 months old now. He goes to preschool, and this whole summer he is attending summer camp 3 days a week all day! He is finally getting the hang of the potty training, it's been a very long process encouraging him to go poop on the potty. I had to take all of his favorite toys away, "The Potty Fairy" swooped in one night and cleared out his playroom and got him thinking that if he could go on the potty and not in his pants, then he could get toys back one at a time.


This has been going on for 3 weeks, and this week it finally clicked and we have had 5 days of no poop accidents. I am not ready to declare him "trained" yet, I'm trying not to tempt fate here... ;)


As for the bad friend situation- I can honestly say that I have had no contact with her for months. I had one or 2 text exchanges and left it at that. It's pointless to call her, b/c she will never answer or return the call, so I just let it be. I am not going to participate in this one sided friendship any longer. I am not going to feed her ego by always being there for her when she finally feels like calling me to "catch up".  She called a few weeks back and I ignored the call. She didn't even bother to leave a message, so I wasn't about to call her to find out the reason for her call. I think I have finally realized that I don't need to have her friendship to feel like I have a friend. I have many friends that I have put up a "wall" with and not become close to in order to preserve her BFF status. The problem is, she never did that for me, and I was always someone expendable to her. It is much like a breakup or a divorce. Call it a friendship divorce, only without the acrimonius exchanges in an actual marital divorce. I have downgraded  her status literally (on FB) and figuratively (in my mind) to acquaintance status. If I run into her on the street, I'll be polite and say hello, maybe have a little catch up session, but under no circumstances will I allow her to worm her way into my life again. I am through with the dysfunction. I have enough of it in my own family that I can't get rid of as easily.


So to sum up- I am pretty happy with the career, mothering and friend front. I am still a work in progress on the weight loss thing. I need to get on that one, stat!


One thing at a time...


That's it and that's all....

Goodbye, Daydream Believer

Today is Leap Day- 2/29/2012. It's an event that only happens every 4 years. Today I will remember for another reason. Today, the music world lost an icon.



Yes, I am a Monkee-maniac - a throw back to the 80's when the Monkees made their triumphant reappearance on the music scene. I was 13 years old at the time, and I was smitten by Davy Jones. I was a typically obsessed teen fangirl: I had every vinyl recording, paperback book, teenybopper magazine,television show and interview recorded. I knew every episode of the Monkees show by heart- I could recite the dialogue from any given episode and knew the names of each one, and the episode order memorized.

My highlight of those years was seeing the Monkees reunion tour in concert in 1986. It was my first ever show- and it was the best thing I had ever seen to that point in my life.

Years later, when I was a senior in high school, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Davy Jones in person. I met him twice- once after his performance as Fagin in the musical "Oliver!" and once at a booksigning for his book "They Made a Monkee Out of Me." I carry the distinction of being the only fan to have him "lock" my class ring. I saved that last turn on my ring for Davy. In typical fashion, he was gracious about doing it, despite not being aware of that particular custom (it must be an American custom, he had never heard of it.) I remember his daughter, who was also in the production of "Oliver!", thought it was was funny that he had no clue about that particular tradition.

I remember him being very warm and down to earth. You never would have known that he was a "star" or a celebrity. Over 20 years later, I still vividly remember those 2 encounters with such fondness. Davy Jones was my first ever celebrity crush, and now that he is gone, I feel a little bit empty inside. The closest thing I can compare it to is the feeling of loss that many of John Lennon's fans felt when he died. For those of us that grew up with the Monkees, both the original 60's fans and the 20 yr anniversary fans, we all feel this loss. For many of us, Davy represented the first of many celebrity crushes and he will always have that distinction in our hearts for that reason.

Davy, I know that you are now in heaven. I pray that God holds you in his arms and gives comfort to your grieving family. Heaven received another angel today.

Rest in peace Davy. Until we meet again....

That's it and that's all.

Happy New Year 2012!

Well, it's a new calendar year- maybe this will be the beginning of things looking up for me. The Christmas holidays were on the somber side. We managed to get through them though. The first miracle of the new year happened: my parents finally got the loan modification that they had been trying to get for over a year, they will finally be able to keep their home. Thank God, it was such stress on them, and me as well. Now I have my own financial issues to worry about- mostly the fact that Hubby's almost 2 months without income severely hurt our nest egg (what little we had, it wasn't much.) It will takes months to recover from it, especially if I can't get full time employment. I have been actively looking ever since my boss hinted that he was leaving. He told me the other day that he would be leaving pretty soon, that he was lining up another position for himself, etc. No idea how soon is soon. I am terrified of being left at the company after he is gone- I will be thrown to the wolves. I need to get out of there, and fast. The problem is that the job market is still pretty soft for my line of work. Positions are few and far between and have a ton of applicants. I think my resume is being lost in the sea of job seekers. I know I have a great resume, it just needs to get in front of the right person to give me a shot.

Anyway, that is the situation for now. I will really try to get in and post more often, if only to help alleviate my stress level.

That's it and that's all...