Blogging MoRe

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

So this site has a worm, which is ok cause I needed a fresh start anyway…  However, my computer died on me and so I am stuck without many options at the moment.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo, in the next week or so I will be bringing this site down and starting from el-scratcho.

Gotta love hackers.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

Today I got my very first Schwan’s delivery and I feel as though I should be attempting to eat everything that’s now in my freezer. Or maybe the point of getting it delivered to my home is to keep it tucked away for a rainy day. I have no idea. What I do know though is that it wasn’t cheap. Why is food so expensive these days?

Thanksgiving is about 2 months away, and I love cooking enough food for 20 people but considering my brain issues and the cost of food, I think it would be best if I went “home”. My mom is the best cook on the planet, so I am certain it will be a good time if I keep my visit short.

Yeah, I think that’s exactly what I will do.  Besides, this way, the mess will be in her kitchen and not mine.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

I have come to realize my life was far more entertaining when I had one on one contact with the ever so annoying public everyday. Working for myself, I only deal with nice people who are more than willing to give me their hard earned cash.

It really boggles my brain that our customers are some of the greatest people on earth while spending thousands… but the worst are those who want to curse me out because a book of stamps went up 20 cents. I really need someone to explain that to me.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

I have come to the realization that I am old. I have finally reached the age where some music is just too loud. And some kids are indeed disrespectful and need some home training. But even with all of that, nothing seems to get under my skin more than the fact that the youth of today have lost all capabilities of conveying a simple sentence into something that I can understand.¹

It all began a few years ago when texting became the new craze. I saw words like ‘you are’ abbreviated into ‘ur’ and ‘for’ became ‘4′ and I could live with that. Five to ten years ago most phones didn’t come with a QWERTY keyboard and it was indeed quite annoying to hit #2 three times in order to spell out a C.

But as times have changed, and technology has adapted and improved, the IQ of the texting generation has dropped by about 75 points.  And the ridiculous spelling craze is no longer limited to texting. I cannot seem to escape it! Everywhere I turn someone is forcing me to read ‘what’ as ‘wat’. Is adding the ‘H’ to the word THAT complicated? Is the extra 0.00001 second it would take really so much that it would throw off their entire schedule?

Now I know that we all use abbreviations in our day to day lives… and if you don’t, I applaud you. When I think about abbreviations, I am pretty much ok with them. Simplifying a sentence is something I am willing to tolerate. If you want to thank me and opt to use ‘tyvm’ I won’t get mad. I will admit to tossing around an ‘ikr’² and ‘iawtc’³ while commenting on Oh No They Didn’t. But even on those forums, there are grown ass woman and men who use ‘bb’ to say baby. I haven’t quite wrapped my brain around how the sounds “Be Be” can be pronounced to sound like ‘baby’, but that’s just me. Maybe they are saying “Beh Beh” which is just…. annoying. But remember, I am old now so little things are bound to annoy me. Now where was I?

I play World of Warcraft and so of course I use the typical LOL and BRB or AFK. Sometimes when having to explain things I will use ‘ppl’ as a substitute for ‘people’.  I will flat out put a kid on ignore on when I can not understand what the hell they are saying.  “Erbody go 2 da farm n kil dem hords tryna take da flag” was something tossed out the other day while playing.  I had to screen cap it because I was really shaking my head wondering if his mother knew that her child, who I am going to assume was still in elementary school based on the sentence, was messing around on her computer playing a game designed for people over the age of 13.⁴

I think the part of it that really drives me bonkers is seeing someone pretty much misspell every word in a sentence and I chalk it up to them texting only to realize that that wasn’t the case … they were actually sitting at a real keyboard and still couldn’t manage to spell ‘dat’ as ‘that’.  Is it meant to be something cute? Are misspelling words on purpose  the new rage? Do people really hire someone who doesn’t know that ‘my’ is not ‘ma’⁵ or ‘mah’. And if a person can spell ‘ma’ or ‘mah’, why not just type it correctly to begin with?? Do I now have to make potential employees take a spelling test to make sure our paperwork will get filled out in a professional manner?

So for those who may be confused about some how to form basic sentences, here is a quick little review course:

• Iz is not Is. The ’s’ and ‘z’ keys are not that far apart so if you can hit one, you can hit the other.
• Dem is not Them. I don’t even understand the point in typing out the word like that unless it’s how you say it when you speak, and if that’s the case, stop it.
• Sum is not some. A SUM is the total of something. The sum of 2+2 is 4. SOME is usually an unspecified amount.
• Da or Tha is not The. If you can manage to spell ‘tha’, then you are close… find the ‘e’ key which isn’t far off from ‘a’ and you are good to go.
• Wit is not With. One of the definitions of wit is “speech or writing showing such perception and expression” and purposelessly misspelling ‘with’ isn’t at all witty. The letter ‘h’ is hop away from ‘t’ so use it so make the word you actually are trying to express.
• Wat or Wut is not What. I am realizing there is a common problem forming here with the missing ‘h’. I don’t get it because the ‘h’ is dead smack in the middle of the keyboard! Find it and use it.
• Your can NEVER be substituted as UR. I can get trying to use it for ‘you are’… I can semi tolerate that… but never ever for ‘your’. And if that’s something I need to explain, then please do not pass go, go directly to grade 1 and speak to your teacher.
• N is not And. There are very few situations where ‘n’ can be used as a substitute for and. Telling me to invite ‘Sarah n Jane’ is not one of them.
• Git is not Get. If you can manage to type out a word using all the letters, why not just spell it the right way?
• What is the point of removing the last letter from words? If you can type ‘hav’ then just add the damn ‘e’. Another one is ‘gon’.  Toss on the ‘e’ and the word is complete! It’s really not that hard to do. I could go on and on but you get the point.

I am sure I have pissed off a lot of people so let me quickly clarify that I am not an English teacher, nor do I propose to know all things about the English language, but I can speak about common sense. I  find text typing nothing more than something annoying and so very unamusing. Most of us tolerate it and choose to not say anything but I’ve had enough of it. If you want to use it in the privacy of your home or to text back and forth to a friend who is willing to have their IQ lowered by having to read it, that’s between you and them. I’m going to pass on it.⁶

We as a civilization are supposed to be getting smarter and wiser… not backtracking into the land of idiocy. So for all you kids and maybe even grown ups who think it’s cool to type like a jackass, all I can really say is L2Spell.⁷

1. sorry little sister [↩]
2. i know right? [↩]
3. i agree with this comment [↩]
4. and oh how I wish the age limit was higher but that’s for a different day [↩]
5. because ma is your mom/mother [↩]
6. and no, that doesn’t make me conceited or sadiddy or anything else you may want to call me… I just enjoy the English as it’s meant to be delivered. [↩]
7. that would be doodspeak for ‘Learn to Spell’ which is something slightly less irritating than text typing… plus I just couldn’t resist. [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

I am not a really big infomercial type of girl. I can honestly say I have never ordered anything after seeing one… even when the offer sounds amazing and they plan to send me four for the cost of one. There is just something a little odd about them that makes me keep myself at arms length. I don’t even own a shamwow , even after it was sold in stores¹. And other than OxyClean, anything Billy Mays² tried to sell me, I had to kindly refuse.³

However, this all changed one day while I was standing in Staples a while back. There in the middle of the post-it notes aisle and the paper products, so out of place was a Smooth Away. RoRo⁴ and I had been talking about her trying it out because she absolutely hates shaving. I am lucky that I don’t have extreme hair growth on my legs… hell I could probably go 2 months and not have a forest below my knees. And above the knee, hair rarely sprouts. But, there I was face to face with the pretty pink box and decided to go ahead and see what it could do for me.

I hurried home and ripped open the box. I read the directions, sat down on the floor and gave it a whirl.

Nothing happened.

So I rubbed a little harder…. and still nothing.

So, I rubbed even harder. After a little burn I noticed the hairs were vanishing. I finished both legs and they appeared pretty hairless. Truthfully it was kind of hard to tell because it looked like my legs had been attacked by a nail file… so much dust and ash. I then decided to test it on DH’s leg. He was such a patient guinea pig but I did learn that with him, it was required we use a little extra pressure and the hair doesn’t just fall off, it get’s all knotted up and needless to say very  OUCH worthy!  After the end of all of our testing which included legs, arms face we had used every ’superfine crystal’ buffer they had in the box which meant if I wanted to use it again the next time, I would have to spend another $10.

In the end though, I realized that all smooth away is is a glorified piece of sandpaper and I have those in my garage. I think I will just stick to shaving.

1. and I love that their dork of a pitchman Vince Shlomi – how could I not with a name like that! [↩]
2. may he rest in peace [↩]
3. I will admit though that the P90X people had me reaching for the telephone and then I snapped out of it when the infomercial ended [↩]
4. one of my trusty BFF’s [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

I am happy to report that I once again have full use of my face. It’s been one annoying ass journey to get here though.

Apparently, my insides do not like antibiotics. I don’t think I have ever had any drug make me feel as sick as these antibiotics.  After a few days on them, I discovered that taking them with yogurt took the edge off the nausea.  However, nothing has been able to relieve me of this overall sick feeling.  And who decided that taking pills every 6 hours was a smart thing??? No matter how I try, I end up having to wake up at some point to take pills, which naturally leads to me wanting to hurl. I have started counting pills so I know how much of this torture I have left.

Anyway, as most of you know, I am a TV junkie. I have a nice TV in my office so that while I am working (or playing) I can at least listen to my shows when I can’t watch them. I do have my favorites, and of course my guilty pleasures that I just can’t get enough of. Up until this year, I loved that show Bridezilla. I don’t know if it’s because the show has been on for a while, or if there is a new breed of bitch roaming the wedding circuit, but some of these women are out of control.

I have been watching this season one episode at a time because I knew two of them back to back would just piss me off. I was really sick last week, and so I ended up missing one which left me no choice but to sit down and take a double dose tonight.

I can report that I am so annoyed right now… Who in their right mind would marry any of these women? They are all deranged!! If you are single and are thinking you might be alone forever because you can’t find mister right, all you need to do is tune into one of these episodes and you will have no doubt that if these psychos can snag a man, so can you. There clearly is someone for everyone.

Tonight’s two episodes focused on some nutcase named Karee Gibson. She was one of the most pathetic people I have ever seen on TV. The way she treated people, especially her mother in law to be, was absolutely inexcusable. I do not understand where these women get off thinking that the world owes them something because they are getting married. Yeah, it’s YOUR wedding, not mine. If any friend of mine treated me with half the disrespect displayed on this show, the friendship would be over! And then after all the fuss she made about her precious wedding, it looked like she only had 15 people at the damn ceremony.  And it was tacky as hell.

Some of their antics were so off the wall, I am starting to think that maybe some of this crap is staged. Karee was screaming and screeching at everyone and they just took it. When her lame ass dress got dirty she made her mother in law clean it with her own toothbrush. A part of me thinks that maybe the MIL was just going through the motions for the sake of her son, but yeah, no… it wouldn’t have been me. No ma’am. And I can assure you ANY son of mine would never be with some skank who disrespected me to begin with. Don’t even get me started on that.

Anyway, I’m going to have to start recording Bridezilla so that I don’t ever find myself stuck watching it for hours… maybe I will start making my own mini shows, only watching 30 minutes at a time.

And here are a few other little tidbits that have been annoying the hell out of me on TV lately:

• What is the hell is with those kids on Hung? I mean… really? REALLY?
• What is with these peoples voices on this Febreeze commercial? It sounds like it was recorded while using tin can telephones, you know the ones with the string we used as kids?! And who thought the slogan ‘wash your room’ was a good idea?
• After watching shows like The First 48 and Forensic Files, why do people still insist on committing crimes?
• Why isn’t there more Olivia Lee on American TV?
• Why do Holy Robinson Peete and Brooke Shields think I care what toothpaste they use? I know we have celebrity endorsements everywhere, but for some reason, this one really bothers me and I reallly am  a HRP fan.
• Speaking of endorsement, why oh why oh why did they think it was ok to make my nights even longer, and my insomnia worse by increasing the number of  commercials about erectile dysfunction? And it’s not even just regular commercials, we now have in dept commercials about medically approved vacuum systems which can be paid for with medicare! The commercials come complete with couples over the age of 60, who LOOK like they are over 60 talking about IT! Look, I know married couples are doing it… some probrably well into their retirement age… but I don’t want to think about my parents doing it… let alone my grandparents!!!!
• Who do I have to pay off to get Flo off my television forever?

That’s all for now! Have an excellent week.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

So, since losing the job I didn’t really want and assisting DH with the business, life has been pretty good. We could of course stand to have the phone ringing off the hook a bit more, and I would love one of those fancy store front offices off a main road, but all that will come in due time I am sure.

On the downside, about 5 days ago my face began to hurt like someone punched me in it and then it started swelling up as if I had eaten an entire bag of peanuts.¹ I waited a bit to see if maybe I had eaten something I shouldn’t have but the swelling only got worse, and so did the pain.

I finally went to the hospital only to be tortured by some incompetent jerk face who thought watching me scream, squirm and cry were delightful. He claimed I have a tooth abscess, way up under my eyeball… and then to prove it he began poking on my gums. I felt no pain when he did that, so he pushed on my teeth. That didn’t trigger anything either so he jammed his finger up inside my mouth which shot pain through me like I have never felt before.

After he did that I was in hysterics because my cheek pain was now face and eyeball pain. He offered me an injection to stop the discomfort… something he claimed was a “nerve blocker’. I was in so much agony so I said ‘ok, sure.’

He came back 10 minutes later with a needle, after I had calmed down a bit and asked me to hold my lips. He was going to inject me up through my gums!!!! I was like what?!?! I can not possibly endure being jammed with a needle in my now tender gums while holding my own mouth! Was he crazy?

I asked for a moment to compose myself, to get my head right but he wasn’t having any of it. I grabbed my lips to pull them up – not an easy task with a swollen face – and he proceeded to slowly poke around inside my mouth and stick me with this needle.

It was a nightmare.  He was causing me even more pain and I was groaning – of course – while he kept telling me to STAY STILL!

I don’t know what the point of it was, but in the end, I had numb lips and gums, a bloody mouth,  and my face was still throbbing. The pain had spread even further down my face and into my ear and neck. He didn’t seem to care though… he was just excited that my gums were numb.

By now, DH was stuck between being pissed off and concerned so he chatted with Dr. Idiot for a few while I laid there shaking and crying from the new found pain and my inability to feel my lips. They decided I needed some pain medicine because I was now clearly suffering.

Fifteen minutes later, a nurse comes in with not one needle, but three. She injects me in my arms with some morphine, antibiotics, and something else I don’t recall the name of.

Over three hours after we arrived, we finally got to leave. And I can honestly say that was the first – and hopefully last time – I have ever left a hospital feeling worse than when I arrived.

It’s been a few days since then, and I still feel like crap. Part of my face still are numb. Not to mention that antibiotics taste horrible! I already have a pill phobia, and these nasty buggers instantly stick to my tongue when I put them in my mouth. If I drink too much water, I want to hurl, not enough water, and all I can taste is nasty pills.

They gave me vicodin for the pain but I have watched way too much Intervention to take those as prescribed. I usually pop one before bed and for some reason they take an eternity to kick in so I can’t rely on them too much.

Anyway, that’s been my week. Not fun! And looking at the pile of work on my desk, it’s about time I rejoin the pain free world.

1. damn allergies [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

I got fired from my job on June 22nd without cause. I am actually not pissed about it… just annoyed. The people I worked for were tools so it’s a relief to not have to deal with that type of idiocy anymore. I do think though that at some point I will burst into tears whether they be due to frustration or relief, they are somewhere… hiding.

Now I can focus on things I really want to do…. finally. Our own business is finally starting to take flight. I really hope we can go far with it because I know it’s something DH absolutely loves to do and what better to make a career out of than your passion?

RIP Michael Jackson and everyone else we have lost in these past 2 weeks. It’s been really crazy in the news.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo… yeah.

Hi.

I updated WordPress and I’m not really seeing a difference but of course that could be just me.

I am feeling SO much better its kind of like I have been cured without doing anything. I still have headaches and the occasional case of dizziness but other than that I am feeling pretty damn decent.

Home life is actually on the rise. The firing of DH hasn’t been too bad because he got to collect unemployment and then I was able to start my lifelong dream of owning a business. I am now the proud owner of [FILL IN BUSINESS NAME HERE]! I have a pretty logo and everything!  Plus because I am a minority in the eyes of Texas, they consider me to be a Historically Underutilized Business. I am not sure who came up with that nonsense, but it sounds all kinds of wrong.

Anyway, so far it’s coming together rather nicely so hopefully it will take off and by next year I will be a semi millionaire drinking margaritas with my mother by my pool in my brand new house.

Meanwhile, back in the land of reality I am still working at the same old place¹ that has been giving me nightmares. As usual it’s not the job that is causing me the nightmares but the people. I really don’t know what it is about a post office that causes people to leave their brains at home, but damn. More now than ever we get people who show up with items in hand, no address, no boxes and then look at us like we are crazy when we tell them we can’t help them.²

I am like 35 years old or something, and as far back as I can recall when my mother went to the post office her letters were sealed with a stamp on it UNLESS she was there to purchase new stamps because she overlooked the fact that she was on her last few. I grew up doing the same thing. The post office was a place for me to drop off letters. It was never a packing place. I never rolled into it with a bag of items looking for a box, and free tape and free labels. Hell, I never recall them offering ANY of that. The line was long so that we could pay for the postage on the already packed up boxes or add little extras to our envelopes.

I know I have touched on this 100 time before, but it really blows my mind. And as I have said before, my face holds no secrets. When I feel someone is being an idiot, my facial expression will reveal it long before I have a chance to utter the words ‘You are a [bleeeeeeeeep] moron!’

And oh… before I go. Postage rates are now 44 cents. They went up on May 11th from 42 cents. Next year they will more than likely go up again. If you own Forever Stamps (the liberty bells) you do not need to ever add additional postage.  Ever.³

Thank you.

1. rumor has it come Friday I won’t have a job anymore so lets see how that goes [↩]
2. And go figure as I am writing this someone walks in and does this exact same thing. Wants to send his crap across the country and expects us to give him a free box and then ADDRESS THE LABEL FOR HIM! [↩]
3. Unless you are sending something international. [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

Ok, my plan was to sit down and write out a post and such, but then I noticed how out of date EVERTHING on this site is, so tomorrow I will have to update my WP and plug ins and give everyone the latest scoop on where my life ISN’T going. lol

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

Time sooooooo slips away from me.

And I really can blame no one but myself.

I finally am feeling semi-normal. I’m sleeping for most of the night… a lot less sweaty outbreaks and I am really thankful for that.

But more importantly I haven’t had a major headache in weeks. Maybe it’s because I have a new awareness of what’s wrong and I know how to control it all a little better…. who knows.

In other areas of life, DH is still unemployed. He was loving his mini-vacation at first, but now he’s getting restless. This economy suuuucks.

Well, that’s it for now. I really do intend to stick to my word and write more often but I am just taking complete advantage of how well I am feeling right now.

I miss you girls (and guys)!

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m gonna to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

I figure it’s about time I get rid of the ginormous pink elephant in the middle of the room.  As much as I love the color pink and I think elephants are cute, I don’t really think they are meant to be put together.

The question I get asked most these days is “Is everything OK?” and to be quite honest, yes it is. I am actually as OK as I think I could possibly be under the circumstances. I went through a period of time where I was really really angry and wanted to go back to each doctor I previously had seen and give them each a swift kick in the nether region. And of course, eventually anger brought me peace because I was finally relieved to know what the hell was going on.

As much as aspects of my life suck right now, I am embracing that relief like a security blanket because before, when I was dizzy and wanted to puke, it was a mystery. Now… I know what it is and I can deal with it.

It only took about 12 years to get an answer.

I have lost count of how many idiot doctors I have visited.

My favorite ‘medical professional’ was some freak in New Mexico. He was a neurologist who I was sent to to figure out the cause of my frequent and often intolerable headaches. When I arrived at his office, he had me completely disrobe to put on a too-small gown and sit on a very dirty looking table. His breath was so fowl it made my stomach churn.. and his examination included him groping my breasts, tapping my knees and elbows and rubbing my shoulders. He then determined from that that I had migraines. He wrote me out a prescription and sent me home.

Sadly, most of the other doctors weren’t much better.

Finally, I spoke to a nurse practitioner one morning after having a headache that had me in tears. I described to her all of my symptoms. I went down my usual list of symptoms:  headaches, dizziness, vertigo, pain in my face, sleep apnea, muscle weakness and countless other things.

Before I could even finish telling her everything she said to me, “have you ever heard of chiari malformation… because I think that’s what you have.”

I had to stop for a moment and gather my thoughts because I was so used to people breaking down the symptoms, trying to fix me in tiny pieces… the amount of meds in my cabinet are out of control… and there it was finally, a NAME that I could associate with everything. FINALLY!

I don’t understand what took so long.

THAT pisses me off more than anything. Slowly, my life had come to a screeching halt because to do anything usually resulted in me having to head home early or cancel plans.  I am sure it pissed everyone else off to always have to deal with me not being close to useless.

Anyway, Chiari Malformation is complicated. It’s a brain disorder. It’s rare. It’s incurable.

I can have surgery to relieve some of the pressure but it doesn’t always work, and there is the slight chance things could get worse. Without surgery the alternative choice is to have a shunt placed or be on medication for the rest of my life.

Soooooooooo, that’s where I am at.

I am happy. Pissed off. Content. Wanting to nutpunch old doctors. But happy. Because honestly…. life could be worse.

It could be a lot worse.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

My intention is to write more… it really is.  But my days consist of me sleeping, eating, feeling pain, popping pills, sleeping, sleeping more, rinse and repeat.

I don’t want to make this a blog about me being ill cause that would be too depressing. Or would it?

Who am I kidding… I have so much to say that so not related to whats happening now and so I just need to get over myself and get back to blogging full time. I miss it a lot. I miss all of you sooooooo consider me back.

Even if it’s a quick blurb, I will post at least 3 times a week from now on

I appreciate all this support more than words can even expresss.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

So… where have I been?

I don’t even know.

But I can tell you that I am alive… and still kicking.

Being me.

The only thing different now is that after 10 years and counting of not knowing what was causing me to feel like I had no control over my life, I finally have answers.

What turned out to be so simple for others to figure out… and for me to google and confirm… remained a mystery to every idiot doctor I have spoken to over the past decade.

And now we know.

I have a brain disorder.

Uncurable.

But treatable.

So the circus once again begins for me to demand treatement to make me feel better.

To once again live with some control.

And even though I am angry… I am livid… I am pissed because I was forced to suffer because my doctor’s were too lazy… I am so relieved to at least know something.

I guess that’s where I have been…

Surrendering to my fate.

Accepting what this is.

Finally seeing life for what it can be.

And I have to admit… I’m liking what I am seeing so far.

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

The hardest part about being on a hiatus is the mass of information you return with, but yet have no clue where to start with it. I have had quite a few things happen to me or around me over these past few weeks, but yet I can not decide if I want to immediately dive in and gross people out with pictures of mice droppings, or do a post about my adorable dog.

I’ve been sorting through my pictures and preparing to upload them, as well as write a short blurb about the events that matter but that is taking longer than expected. I really do take an absurd amount of pictures.¹

On top of that, DH is preparing to go to Washington, DC for the inauguration. He is so excited it borders on ridiculous. From the moment I gave the thumbs up for him to go² he has spent these past few weeks making endless reservations to see everything historic in DC. I must admit I was a little annoyed by that because it wasn’t supposed to be a vacation for him, just an opportunity for him to be a part of this historic event. However, I have come to realize that for the week of the inauguration, DC will look like a madhouse with a trillion other tourist, and he will have a miserable time which should come as no surprise since anything without me is bound to fail. Therefore, he will have to plan another trip to the nations capital, with me in tow so he can actually enjoy himself.

Another thing I am dealing with is a psycho neighbor. Rumor has it she was annoyed by the presence of the Obama sign in the yard³ and has begun “creating” issues with us. The latest drama was her calling the police on us because she thought we let her dogs out. Like, really?? DH is  the mouse rescuer! He would protect flies given the opportunity! Obviously she doesn’t know that about him or else she would realize how ridiculous her claim is.

And I still hate my job… for a variety of reasons which I can not get into. I am sure those who know me know why… and it’s getting old and tiresome having to deal with the same shit everyday.⁴ As I love to say, “I’m over it.” It’s time for me to focus on myself and getting my business off the ground so I can spend my days annoying myself. I really don’t do well where things are unfair and unbalanced… and sadly, that is how most businesses⁵ seem to function these days.

1. and all that does is make me want a new damn camera [↩]
2. alone - without me - since I am not a crowd person [↩]
3. i can only assume she doesn’t love Obama as much as DH does [↩]
4. like the fact that I get to work an hour early everyday… and usually have to work through my lunch and don’t even get credit for it. not that i want free time or something… just some acknowledgement of it… and it pisses me off SO much that i am expected to waste gas to drive all over town during lunch because no one can respect the parameters of me sitting there, and not being bothered for an entire hour [↩]
5. that are not run by me [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

I have spent the past 3 days upgrading my website.

Talk about torture.

I first had to upgrade wordpress because apparently I hadn’t done that since 2.4 or whatever… And then my theme needed upgrading as well¹. Of course, somewhere in all of that things shifted so I had to figure how to get everything back in the right place.

Now it seems it is all working, and less laggy so I can officially resume blogging.

So what has everyone been up to? How were your holidays? Did you make a New Year’s resolution? If so, what was it?

My holidays were booooring. My birthday was semi-interesting, which I will share soon, and for New Year’s I did nothing. I sat at home playing World of Warcraft. I didn’t even tune into any of the countdown shows. I didn’t make any resolutions… but I did set goals. I will get into those later.²

1. i can not say enough how much i love my WP theme… it is the best thing ever! [↩]
2. i can’t spill everything in one post! [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

Hi everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Talk about being AFK¹ for way longer than I ever expected.

I started this blog early January 2008 while I was enjoying some peace and quiet from the chaos of working through the holidays. I clearly blocked all memories of those disastrous few works or else I would have known to not intend to write anything for the month of December. I would have put a “closed for the holidays” sign up so you would have known that I would be completely unavailable as well.

After dealing with insane people who again want to pay nothing but have their package arrive at its destination in pristine condition before Christmas, by the time I came home I wanted to do nothing more than take off my clothes, watch a little TV, kill something on WoW² and go to bed. This was how the entire month of December worked for me. Anything I could do that required very little thinking was my top priority.

In fact, this year I was so consumed by the mess of the working through the holidays that I didn’t send my usual holiday cheer - although most of you are indeed still receiving something albeit weeks late - nor did I check my email AT all for the entire month. How sad is that?

But now things have returned to a dull hum and I am eager to once again write and share, as well as read and learn about you all. I miss my friends so much! Most of my days are spent wondering how everyone is doing… making mental notes to go home and check your blogs or drop you an email, but like I said, by the time I would get home my brain had become some nasty kind of jelly that made it impossible for me to do anything other than go into auto-pilot mode.

All of us at the P.O. have made resolutions to not be working there for Christmas of 2009. I’m crossing my fingers this is true because losing a month of your life sucks.

So now, we shall resume our normally scheduled programming… And boy, do I have a lot to share. I hope everyone’s holidays were amazing… mine was not. And I hope you all can find it somewhere within to forgive me in my month long absence.

Until tomorrow.

1. away from keyboard [↩]
2. world of warcraft [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

With Thanksgiving behind me (and I must say I was very disappointed that I didn’t find some gold ring lodged in the middle of my overly priced ham) I am preparing for Christmas.

I am not a big Christmas person… in fact, we usually don’t even do anything on Christmas day. There is no big exchange of gifts or anything like that mainly because I put all my focus into Thanksgiving. Since this year Thanksgiving was a bust, I have decided to have a holly jolly Christmas. I am new to this, so I don’t even know where to start.

One thing that I definitely do each year is send out way too many Christmas cards. I have a list, and I cross reference it with the list from previous years so I know  how many rude people didn’t send me cards back. I always vow to stop sending those people cards, but never do.

I had been hoping to send my cards out the day after Thanksgiving but I haven’t even picked them out yet! Talk about running behind. Hopefully I will have this project out of this way by the weekend.¹

By the end of this year, I will be a year older. The birthday gets all wrapped up in the holidays so it’s pointless. In fact, I don’t even get birthday gifts… I get Birthmas presents. Like seriously, what the hell is that. And it would be one thing if the present was something bigger or better, but its the same present everyone else would get if their birthday didn’t fall around Christmas. I wonder how people would react if this year I gave them their X-mas present with a birthday card and announced that it was for both and to not expect anything else from me for the rest of the year.

All of that aside, all I ever really expect each year is a birthday cake and some candles. As a child I didn’t usually get one because my parents worked a lot, so my DH makes sure to get me one each year. Even though I know it’s coming, seeing it makes me smile more than anything.

I am happy to say I am feeling 70x better than I had been these past few weeks… I’m back to my usual cranky, outspoken self which seems to be a big relief to those around me. I am sure somewhere they are secretly wishing I’d go back to moping though.

I must say bye for now, I have much to do and I am hungry. Sadly, I am on a diet so my choices are limited.

PS - I will return to dropping Entrecards next week. Sorry for being such a slacker.

1. i’m not holding my breath on it [↩]

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

As Thanksgving approaches I have been working feverishly to get things in order. I absolutely love this holiday and usually go all out for it. I prepare food for days and make the biggest turkey I can find.

However, this year I work all week which limits the time I have to do much of anything. Of course with my extra visitors roaming freely I wasn’t very eager to whip up anything in the kitchen this week.

Instead we decided to go get a HoneyBaked Ham and prepare a few simple side dishes. It’s not what I really wanted or expected, but it’s better than nothing.

Last night we went to get the ham…. I was so excited because it’s been about 10 years since we’ve had one. It used to be tradition for us when we lived in Wisconsin to get one for Thanksgiving but the back woods of New Mexico didn’t have a store, so that ended that.

Anyway, the store was crowded and the workers looked crazy. They were bringing the hams up to people to inspect. It looked sooo odd. The couple next to us sent back 4-5 before selecting one that they liked. I mean really, its a HAM, not a child.

We kept the first one they offered to us and then proceeded to go into shock when we saw that 11 pounds of ham would cost us over $70. As we were paying it was declared that this would be the end of our relationship with HoneyBaked Ham.  Sad but true.

Or maybe not. On the way home we stopped and got some napkins and drinks and ate ham all the way home. It was better than I remember…. so maybe next year we will get 4 pounds instead of 11.

What are you all doing for Thanksgiving?

Originally published at Blogging Monique Renae. Please leave any comments there.

Yes, I know… I have absolutely failed hardcore at being a blogger, a friend, an associate and everything else. It was never my intention to completely vanish from the world of the living but by the time I realized what was going on, it had been almost 2 weeks since I last posted.

It’s kind of funny because writing here has always been therapeutic for me, and yet when I am stressed and beating the shit out of myself, the first thing I do it run from my comfort zone.

Anyway, I think I am better now. I’m not depressed… and that’s a start. Just the other day I barked some orders at the DH which made us both laugh because I was finally sounding like my old self. Hopefully the rest of me isn’t far behind.

I won’t make this post long… I imagine most of my readers have found another blog to replace this one and I can’t say I blame them… but here is a list of 5 things that have been going on in the world of Monique for the past month.

1. My home has been invaded by crickets - It’s gotten so bad that I really think I am on some candid camera show. Everywhere I turn, there is one waiting for me. Even on my bed!!! My screams are bound to result in someone calling the police one day.
2. My dogs are in heat - Talk about disturbing. Three female dogs all trying to get their groove on, all without a clue as to what they are doing. I’ve had them for years and years and never seen anything like this and I hope to never again.
3. We have mice - Thanks to all the construction around me, the area is having a rat/mice problem. I am grateful that it’s not rats racing through my house, but the mice aren’t making me feel all that great either. We saw one, and caught it… and then two, and caught it… and then a third and caught it… The DH rescued the first two and made homes for them since we already had one as a pet. I will elaborate on this nightmare in a later post. All I will say is that we recently caught the 5th one and they still aren’t all gone.
4. Too much internet has begun to hurt my eyes and wrist - I am definitely going to need to go see a doctor soon about both issues. Plus the new expansion for World of Warcraft came out and I was sucked back into the gaming world. I now can admit the geek in me will never die.
5. I have missed you all - Even though I wasn’t online to tell you, alllllllll of you were on my mind daily. And those who have shared their address with me have mail coming their way.

So tell me, what have I missed these past few week?