Little beings that the universe trusts us to raise

I love my puppy Zak. He is a Bichon who is currently 10.5 months old. He is at a kennel because Sweetie and I are going to Pittsburgh to see my family for Christmas.

Since getting Zak at 3 months old, he has not spend a night away from either Sweetie or me. It was very hard driving to the kennel to leave him there. We were going to take him, but he is still at a point that he does not like long car rides. We were going to take the 5 hour drive to Pittsburgh with Zak, but his whining, and motion sickness made us think twice. I came to the decision quicker than Sweetie, but once we inspected the kennel (on line) and I talked to people who have used it we decided to give it a go. He has 2 hours of play dates a day, he gets to eat his own raw food diet, and drink his own water. He is also sleeping in his own crate and has a few toys. I hope he is fine.

When we first got Zak I was a bit freaked out. Here was this adorable creature that is totally dependant on me for food, water and hygiene. I saw my carefree single woman days flying away from me. As a small puppy he ate 3 times a day and went out every 2 hours during the day and about every 5 to 6 at night. He had several accidents (not his fault) and I thought we would never be able to go out to dinner, or to the movies again. I actually had to stay home from work one day -- well I worked from home, because Sweetie had to go to NYC to take care of some family things. Had Zak not been so sweet and cuddly alone together I would have returned him. I kept threatning that if Sweetie was delayed in returning that when Sweetie got back Zak would be gone.

It took me about 2 weeks, and now I am to the point that I can not imagine what it was like without him. He is far cuter than he is cuddly (twice as cute as he is cuddly) but we deal with it. He will cuddle, but only on his own terms. Which I can respect.

When we were packing his food and toys and crate where he sleeps, I actually got a tummy ache as I realized that we were sending him away for the first time. How do people do that with their kids! Yikes.

I am glad that I don't want children, I don't think I could take it.

One of the most biased phone calls ever

I was in the kitchen, a place where I am vowing to spend more time cooking so I can break my eating out habit, when the phone rang. It was a number I did not know but I answered any way. It was a poll. Political polls are interesting to me. At any rate the pollster asked me if I was voting in the Republican Primary this January. I said yes, he wanted to know if I am pro life, no; if I was anti gay marriage, No; if I thought that there should be a state or constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, No. Then he wanted to know who I was going to vote for. I selected McCain as the lesser of all evils. He then wanted to know if knowing that he voted with some democrats against Bush and his horrid Judicial nominees would change my mind, No. He brought up some other random middle of the road position of McCain's and asked if that would stop me. Again, No. He then gave up and ended the call.

It was so overtly conservative, and right wing nonsense that I was shocked.

Even though I am a registered republican and have been for 21 years, I could never vote for any of the current slate. Romney and his "Father marching with MLK," Rudy and his closet of horrors (just wait America... just wait); Ron Paul who is just nutty, and Huckabee who is even more religious and evangelical than W... Yikes. McCain is about the only one I could vote for from the group... but hopefully one of the really scary ones will be the nominee and we can have our first black president. Go Obama!

Sleep Health

I spent last night and the better part of today in a sleep clinic. I am exhausted. It is ironic because when you are at a sleep clinic the last thing you do is sleep. In addition the people who monitor your sleep have sleep issues them selves as they are working overnight.

There should be a better way to do this.

I have sleep apnea. Until I was diagnosed I had no idea how many people have it. When ever I meet someone and mention it, I am astonished at the number of people who have it and use a c-pap. They are the machines that you sleep with to prevent you from not breathing while you sleep.

Other than being exhausted all of the time from waking several times an hour, while you sleep-- I was about 50 time an hour-- you also can develop high blood pressure, weight problems, memory problems and a host of nasty diseases from being sleep deprived. Since I got my c-pap machine I have started to get REM sleep that I was not getting for probably decades. Insane.

I am definitely more rested, but I am still sleepy enough that it is draining to function each day. So in order to determine what other sleep disorders I have I had to go for a day time sleep test. This was extremely painful, mainly because the test consists of you sitting in a room, reading or watching TV and then only being able to sleep when they tell you. So about every 2 hours you can take a nap, of about 20 min. This goes on all day.. I am so tired that I could sleep for a week now. YAWN.

I am going to bed, it is around 9 pm and I am sure that I will sleep through the night. Thank goodness Zak also can sleep though the night, so I don't have to worry about him. Not that I do because Sweetie takes care of most of Zak's bathroom needs. I am very lucky to have such a great man in my life.

Internships and Religion

I live in south west Michigan. They are trying to have a early presidential primary to make sure that the issues that are specific to a rust belt states. It seems to have backfired as only a very few of the Democratic candidates are on the ticket. Since the Republican slate is on the primary ticket here we have started to see adds. So far its only Romney, and I find his add quite snarky. He suggests that since Hil-billy has never run anything, that if she is elected president it would be an internship. He discounts her years of public service in the Senate, and reminds everyone about Billary's intern problems. Funny, kinda, mean, definitely, effective? Not so much. He seems to suggest that being a senator is not as good of a training ground as being a Governor. While statistically it is much easier for a Governor to be elected president than a senator, I think that being a senator exposes the candidate to more foreign policy than being a Governor. Running the Olympic as foreign policy, also a stretch unless we are worried about the huge terrorist trade in steroids.

Last Sunday Mitt Romney was on "Meet the Press." What a piece of work. He just suggested that even though the Mormon church did not recognize the right for black people to fully participate in the church until 1978 (when he was 31). His response to Russert's question was to say that when he heard the news he cried. This was not a satisfactory answer.

Listening to Romney and Huckabee makes me further marvel at the framers of the constitution's fantastic decision to include the separation of church and state. As a Christian I am all in favor of everyone believing as I do. I also acknowledge that not everyone has received Christ, and if I am in a situation to witness and help others understand my personal relationship with Jesus, then I do. However, I also understand that there are other religious beliefs, and as an American I think it is personally fine for everyone to believe as they see fit. I do not think it is acceptable for Christians to impose their beliefs on others who are not open to what we believe. Religion is personal and has no place in government or public policy, other than to allow for the free expression of religious ideas. The moment that one religion imposes its ideals, beliefs, and in some cases hatred of others on the general public and those who do not believe that they do, that religion has overstepped their bounds (in America). If I wanted to live in a Theocracy I would move. I don't, and I resist all that want to impose their religious beliefs and practices on me (even if I agree with them).

Holiday Frenzy

Oh how I wish that my title pertained to parties, shopping, cooking and visiting friends and family.

No, rather it is about work. I love the holidays, or should say that I used to love the holidays when I was a child. But then, why wouldn't I love it then. My only responsibilities were to help decorate the tree, watch my mother prepare Christmas Dinner, pick out gifts for others to pay for and write letters to Santa. Pure bliss.

Since 1999 the Holidays have not been the same for me. I still love giving and receiving gifts, but loosing my mother; finally being in the financial place where I could indulge my self without having to resort to meatless weeks for a lack of money resulting in me being one of those people who are very hard to shop for; having to work the day after Thanksgiving, and having the office be closed only on Christmas Day, the holidays became less special.

This year is the first year that I went out of my way to decorate (2 trees, light outside, cookies) and it is fun, but it is hard to enjoy when exhausted from work. What happens is that several vendors run their business such that they have contract renewals at the end of the year, then you have to face those who plan to take the last 2 years of the year off. So I find my self scrambling to get things done to meet others needs and schedules instead of doing things on my own schedule. To top it off, I have had a nasty sinus infection that has had me dizzy and sleepy for over 10 days.

Next year I am going to be smarter. I am going to save enough vacation to be able to take more than 3 days off at the end of the year, and I am going to plan to take a winter vacation in early January!

A word about my blog in process

As explained in the "digital ghetto" post, I am a Mac user (at home and would be at work if I could convince 19,999 other co-workers to join me). But I am constantly trying to add things to the blog, remove things and edit. So please bear with me.

With respect to the links from my reader, i found that this was an easy way to include links to things I like without dealing with the whole Mac Internet issue.

Finally with respect to the David Beckham add, he is simply hot hot hot. Usually I don't go for the buff and beautiful but Hot Damn, can you blame a girl?

Usually I prefer real people or quirky beautiful (think of the androgynous beauty of Prince, Johnny Depp). But there is something about a hard body in an underwear add that does it for me.

Oddly enough although I sigh dreamily over these wispy, sexually ambigious men, most of my true loves are manly, "basic" men, not Metrosexuals, not feminine, and usually favor jeans and t-shirts over dressing up. That is probably because they are real men, who are not worried about appearance, rather they care about real issues, and most importantly-- me.

Additionally, I do want to be with a man who I know that in an emergency I can count on not to leave me or Zak in the house while they run ineffectively about wondering what to do. While it may not be fair to andrognyous or slender artistic men (who again I find sexy, no wait... extremely sexy think Axyl Rose, Mic Jagger, Steven Tyler or Steve Conte), I want a man who gives the impression that he could carry me (and my shoes) out of the house if necessary.

I guess this post is no longer about my blog construction, it is more about my taste in men. Shocking. Not.

Hair Balls and other pre sleep musings.

Sometime all you can do is move the hair ball to the other pocket.

This is currently how I feel today.

Not exactly sure what it means with respect to me, but I read it in a "Dilbert" comic (see my reader list) and it made me laugh. The more I thought about it the more I decided that I applied to me, today, right now.

It probably stems from being overworked and slightly stressed. The problem in being in the services business, is that other peoples schedules and needs suddenly determine your schedule. Usually I don't mind, but today it really got on my nerves. I really need to take some time and work on my patience. Someone called me about an agreement, that actually was next in line, but I told him (not to kindly) that he would get it tomorrow after I got several other agreements that were equally as important to the people who asked for it first. Sigh, I really need to work on my holiday spirit.

Happy Holidays

Here is what I do not understand. The people who have nothing better to do than complain that large corporations (who are in business to make money after all) have removed the religious element from Christmas.

How can anyone with a straight face couch this as a religious argument. It seems as the religious right thinks this is a great issue, and that consumers should boycott corporations who don’t have specific Christmas greetings in their catalogs. As a matter of fact I nearly drove off of the highway this morning as I was listening to a religion based talk show. I think it was a show from the Family Values group or some other organization, which prides it self in fighting for Christian based issues. What had me so steamed was the lack of logic behind this whole movement. Perhaps I do not understand their position.

Ok, lets start with what I understand is that these groups, lets call them the RRC (for religious right crusaders) have a concern that Christmas is being censored because many corporations choose to use the more inclusive Happy Holidays, and Holiday Greetings instead of Merry Christmas.

Putting aside that public corporations are in the business to make money for their shareholders. And that many of these RR crusaders are probably invested through their IRAs or 401(k) or pensions in the very corporations they are suggesting people don’t purchase from. Putting that all aside, why should something secular (a corporation) be held to uphold a religious standard. Unless it is a corporation that sells exclusively religious items, they are selling to anyone and everyone who has money and a desire to buy their products. So why should the bow to represent only one religions holidays? What about Jews, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others who do not celebrate Christmas. Should these corporations bow to only recognizing Christmas in December thus missing out on Chanukah, large food purchases for the feast after Ramadan (which can be in December), or any other holiday merriment that comes at the end of the year? As a Christian shareholder I say no!

Additionally, the same RRC who have recently adopted the fight against the censoring of Christmas, are the same ones who have long bemoaned the commercialization of the same holiday. So how is the reasonable corporation to respond?

A few years ago:

RRC: Christmas is too commercial.

Corporate Response: Fine let’s change it to Holidays, good for profit, good for not commercializing a religious holiday (leaving aside the fact that “true” biblical scholars are not sure that Jesus was born in December, thus many determine that it is celebrated in December near the Winder Solstice based in the large pagan holiday celebration- but I digress).


A few years later
RRC : you have gotten away from Christmas, you are censoring it by saying Happy Holidays.
Corporate Response: But you just told me it was too commercial!

The only point of levity from this morning’s broadcast came from one of the commentators, who proudly commented that she and her family “Only give gifts that celebrate the birth of the Christ child.” She then went on to say that she would not purchase any Christmas gifts from “Old Navy” because they say Happy Holidays, and not Merry Christmas. Now, I don’t shop in Old Navy, but I will hazard to guess that none of the products they sell have anything to do with, or reflect upon the birth, the life or the resurrection of the Christ. So why would she ever look at their catalog or go into the store?!?! Perhaps she was looking for painters pants, although Jesus was a carpenter not a painter, or perhaps she was looking for sandles? At any rate, her argument did not and does not work with me.

As a Christian I am often dismayed at peoples interpretation of what is Christian, what is religious and how one goes about spreading the word of the Gospel and honoring Jesus. The RRC’s are no where near reasonable about this, and most of their actions, from my world view are neither Christian or correct. But that is for another post.

Happy Holidays!

The Ultimate Consumer Christmas Carol

The 12 days of Christmas modern, woman, with disposable income style--this is also a thinly veiled attempt to enter into a contest so forgive my shamless promotions of products;

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a Partridge Family CD

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three French perfumes, two SeoCats Mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four types of Mad Roaster Coffees , three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me five golden rings (some traditions are perfectly fine not to change) four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six Peter G Candles , five golden rings, 4 types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens, and a Partridge Family CD.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven days of swimming at Le Sport, St Lucia, six Peter G Candles, five golden rings, four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the eight day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight types of Tub Truffles, seven days of swimming at Le Sport, St Lucia, six Peter G Candles, five golden rings, four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, nine nights of dancing, eight types of Tub Truffles,seven days of swimming at Le Sport, St Lucia, six Peter G Candles, five golden rings, four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten lords a leaping (again same as five, why change tradition- think of the things these lords could do), nine nights of dancing, eight types of Tub Truffles, seven days of swimming at Le Sport, St Lucia, six Peter G Candles, five golden rings, four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me 11 pretty baubbles, ten lords a leaping, nine nights of dancing, eight types of Tub Truffles, seven days of swimming at Le Sport, St Lucia, six Peter G Candles, five golden rings, four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

On the tweleth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 Laga handbags 11 pretty baubbles, ten lords a leaping, nine nights of dancing, eight types of Tub Truffles, seven days of swimming at Le Sport, St Lucia, six Peter G Candles, five golden rings, four types of Mad Roaster Coffees, three French perfumes, two SeoCats mittens and a Partridge Family CD.

Please Click here to purchase handbags, coffee or candles as mentioned above
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Retail Therapy

My mother and I used to go shopping every Saturday that I can remember. We wouldn't necessarily buy anything, but we often would follow outfits until they went on sale (nothing less than 25% off) and the purchase. The days when we would "really" shop were at the end of the seasons when there were clearance sales. Since loosing my mother I don't enjoy shopping as much as I used to.

Don't be confused, I still love to shop, but I seem to have more fun shopping online.

That was until I moved to Taradise.

Now I tend to spend all of my money for the house. Sweetie and I went all out for Halloween, we created a grave yard, had smoke from a smoke machine, we had at least 10 pumpkins (actually funkins- made out of some craft foam so they last forever). I made "wicked witch of the east" legs to go under the garage door, we had masks, costumes and tons of candy.

Christmas, we have lights, wreaths, trees (real and fake - see earlier post) ornaments, and little trees to line with walk way.

But today explains the lengths that I will go to for Taradise. I bought my 4th and 5th hand woven oriental rugs. I have a Saruk, and 3 stone washed tea dyed and lovely chodras. Now all of my floors are covered, and the store where I purchased the rugs is closing so I am done. The one for my bedroom is yellow, pink and turquoise and I have never seen another rug like it. I cant wait to put them in place and walk around barefoot over the rugs.

It will be hard for me to downsize homes because I need at least 2 huge rooms for the big rugs (12x9) and a few long hallways and room for the smaller rugs. But I think Taradise is done (well not totally I have 3 more rooms that need the flooring attended to, but I have no tolerance for construction for the next 6 or so months.)

Ally McWho?

I never watched Allie McBeal. I may have seen it once or twice but I never was a fan. The one thing that I think they characters in the show had was a theme song. Once I heard that and grasped the concept I determined that I had to have a theme song. This was in the early 2000s, and at the time Destiny's Child was huge. Naturally the song that most represented me (and most of my friends) was Independent Woman Part 1.

This was the same time that I was running a lot. I created a 3 Mile play list. It has songs from Queen, Sum 41, and my theme song. I tried to set it such that when I was getting low energy a favorite song would pull me out of the energy slump to cruise to the finish line. In addition I wanted to either take the same time I used to run 3 miles, and eventually run 4.

I still use my i-pod, but not for running, unless it is running for an airplane.

Mental Masturbation

Even though I am potentially running late for work I felt the compulsion to write this blog now so that I wouldn't have 13 posts on my blog. I am working on a few ideas for my next posts, theme songs, and arranged marriages, but right now I don't have the time to do justice to either post. So I am slapping this together, while I know I should be doing something else, because I have 13 prior posts, and I wanted 14.

I will sit on the 13th row of an airplane, I will stay on the 13th floor of a hotel, and I will even totally forget that it is Friday the 13th. But for some reason seeing that I had 13 posts bothered me.

This post is what bothers me about blogging, I cant honestly think that anyone cares about me and my desire to get past my 13th post. But if you do, let me know.

Mind Games

I really love being an attorney. I enjoy having a job where I am able to think creatively about problems and help people settle their issues.

About a year ago I took a new job. It is very exciting and has renewed my love of practicing law. I was a technology attorney for about 13 years. I worked on software, services, outsourcing, consulting and electronic trade agreements. I worked for computer companies, travel companies, Internet data providers and investment banks. I had a great time. But after a while I became bored with doing the same thing over and over again.

I decided to leave my beloved NYC and move to South Western Michigan to have a chance to be a generalist. My new job is all that I hoped it would be and more. I am working on employee benefits, employment and labor law, I do commercial transactions and I am involved with investment decisions, litigation and a smattering of technology. It is great fun.

Today I have worked on issues that involve federal codes, federal civil procedure, technology law with a bit of employment law thrown in. I really does not get much better than this in my estimation.

It is sad that most people come in contact with what I will call general criminal or commercial lawyers, and that is where they form their impression of the practice of law. I am happy that there are people out there who help private citizens with their legal problems, but I am also just as happy that I don't practice that type of law. I wonder if people who come into contact with lawyers for happy reasons (buying real estate or purchasing a business,) have a better impression of lawyers than the ones who only engage lawyers to sue others. Probably.

The Digital Ghetto

I love my Apple computer products. My I-mac, MacBook and I-pod.

I started out with Mac in grade school, my father is an early adopter and he was one of the first home users of the Mac. I took one to college (my roommate had an electric typewriter). Its only recently that Apple products have gained close to their rightful place in technology users hands and homes. Thank goodness for the I-pod. I have a 1st generation i-pod, and based on my desire to have one I came back to the Mac.

Unfortunately, other than in the creative fields, corporate America runs on the PC. As a long time Apple fan, I cant understand why. Macs are so much easier, more elegant and more intuitive to use. But the PC and Microsoft dominance remains. I am fine with people having to deal with viruses, and programing issues, but what I am not fine with is the fact that doing things on the world wide web are either not available to me as an Appleite (I just made this word up) or are much harder for me to do.

Take blogging for example. I am having problems uploading photos, widgets, and the java applications are murder. Why? Because I use a Mac. I also can not take advantage of Netfliks view now option, unless I steal Sweetie's computer. Fortunately for you dear reader, blog spot has recently improved its Mac friendliness and I can now check my spelling using the built in spell checkers instead of copying pasting and doing all sorts of other gymnastics.

Maybe one day. Until then I am going to continue with my love affair with Mr. Jobs and his products.

Come into the light

I used to love the fall. The leaves changing colors, the cool crisp weather, the beautiful sunsets. Until the late 1990s. October 1996 was my first really bad fall. I got sick, and found out that I had a condition rather than just the flu, something that would plague me for the rest of my life (not life threatening but more along the constantly annoying type of illness that could flare up from time to time). The next few falls were ok, until 1999 when my mother passed away from a battle with colon cancer. Not to mention 2 years later September 11, 2001. Followed by October 2002, the year that I was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety brought on by witnessing the second plane full of terrorists crash into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Sigh, is it any wonder that I don't like the fall?

It was beginning to rise to the level of more than annoying when I decided to try light therapy. So each morning I wake up and sit by a light box for 15 min and answer e-mail or just read. It is like taking uppers (I know as I have had some experience with uppers as a treatment for anxiety-- go figure). It is great, and today for the first time (I have been doing this for about a week) I felt energized and happy all day.

I think that the light box is pretty amazing, and I hope I continue to have such great results.

I suppose I could just move somewhere that they have more than 8 hours of sunlight in the winter, but I do love snow.

Tis The Season

Yesterday I went out into the frozen tundra of Climax Michigan to cut down my own Christmas Tree. I have never done anything like this before, and it was awesome.

We decided that we would go for a Blue Spruce tree, we both like the color, the number of needles per branch and the smell. Since we are going to Pennsylvania for Christmas we thought it was not to early to have and enjoy a fresh tree. I am quite excited, we decided to rearrange the furniture in the basement room were we spend 90% of our at home time, and put it in the corner so we are facing it when we are looking at the TV.

Cutting down a tree is fun, basically because all I had to do was pick out the tree, and stand around looking cute while my Sweetie cut the tree, and the owner came in a tractor to haul us and the tree to the cleaning and payment area. Once the tree is cut they square off the bottom cut, trim any branches so you can put it in the holder, and then they hoist it up on a string to blow any dead leaves, small animals and dirt off. Then the tree is put through a machine that wraps it in a net and off you go.

Although I am not a country girl, the hot coco, cookies and the smell of the fresh cut tree made me happy to live near a place where for $35 you can buy a bit of American Christmas Lore.