Belated Birthday Post

So I meant to write this many moons ago (or at least three or four days ago), but I haven't gotten around to it as I might have hoped. It has been a rather long week for a variety of reasons, which has contributed to me not writing it. But better late than never right?

I had a fabulous birthday this week. Many people did many nice things for me, and I think I would be ungrateful if I didn't share what some of them are.

It all started with a little surprise party at work. The Fashionista made delicious cupcakes for the occasion, including this little guy who was intended to match my facial expression. Not too bad, huh. :)

I also received pretty flowers at work, although the florist delivered them late, so I didn't get to see them until after Smirk brought them home for me.

I have pretty toes, thanks to a lovely pedicure.

I had a party that night at my house which a number of good friends attended. Here is the cute little helper who assisted me with blowing out the candles. I suppose she's not actually one of my nieces, but she's an honorary niece.

And here are some of the wonderful friends who came.

Happy birthday to me! Thanks again to everyone who made it a special day for me. You're pretty much the best I know of. :)

A very unTammylike experience

I have another story to share with you. I'm hoping you enjoy it especially since it contains some very unTammylike behavior.

I preface this storyby telling you that one of my biggest pet peeves is when people feel the need to text or play with their phone during a movie. The bright light from their screen completely distracts from what's going on in the movie, and I get very angry. I always think, "Dude, you're in a movie for crying out loud. Can you NOT check your phone for the duration of the movie?! Unless this is some type of emergency (and I very much doubt it is), then I think you can leave your phone for at least two hours. Gees louise!"

Last night I went to see "The Lightening Thief" with a good friend. I had just read the book a couple months ago so I was excited to see the movie. Of course the movie bore little resemblance to the book, but that's really to be expected. The point is that I was excited to get lost in the movie and enjoy watching how it played out on the big screen.

I was terribly annoyed when the man sitting just in front and down a little ways from where my friend and I were sitting decided he needed to check his stinking cell phone, every two seconds throughout the movie. Oh man was I bugged. By the time we reached the halfway point in the movie, I was ready to hit him over the head with something or take his stupid cell phone away, so I could enjoy the movie in peace.

Well, I decided to do something about it, but I'm not going to say it was the most mature decision I've ever made. I reached into my purse and ripped off a piece of paper to make a little ball. I told myself the next time I saw the bright light from his stupid cell phone I was going to huck it at his head. Well, it took a few times, but then I was mad enough I did it. Slightly appalled at my behavior, I'm pretty sure I missed him completely. So, I got another little ball ready and this time I threw it straight at the cap on his head. I'm pretty sure I hit him head on, no pun intended, but it still didn't help!! Urgh!!

I know that there are several more mature ways that I could've handled this, but the immature route just happens to be the one I chose. I know, I know I'm really terrible, but I must admit that it was somewhat satisfying. . . :)

Writing just because

I've been feeling like I need to write something in my blog sometime in the last week, but I don't really have anything terribly exciting to say. I might feel the need because my last entry was such a downer (sorry but I really was disappointed) or just because I hate going too long without writing. But here I am writing even without much to say.

I guess I could talk about Idol and how I'm soooo ready for Hollywood week to just be over already. They over dramatize and drag it out to the max and by the time all of that is done, I'm just ready for them to start the singing competition already. Hallelujah that tomorrow is the last night of Hell Week, as it's so fondly called.

I do think that Ellen has done well thus far. She's kept the one liners to a minimum or used them at appropriate times, and she has made it about the contestants. I actually think she's a better judge than both Kara and Randy to be quite honest. She is honest but less brutal than Simon, which is often a refreshing change. I'm already seeing some favorites emerge from this crop of singers, and I'm interested so see how they do as the competition really gets underway. Hmmm

The other subject I can talk about is the Olympics! I love watching the Olympics. I would say I love all the events, but the truth is that I don't love all events equally. I did enjoy the moguls and I like speed skating, but figure skating is my top choice. Speak, Smirk and I just got finished watching the mens short program. We saw some pretty awesome skaters, and it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out on Thursday. Usually we don't have very strong talent in men's figure skating, but this year there are a couple standouts.

I feel terrible for Jeremy Abbott whose Olympic debut was less than ideal. I think he ended up in 14th place, mostly because he missed his jumps. The judges are apparently harsher with men's skating than with pairs because there were a number of pairs skaters who biffed it or missed their jumps and they still got higher scores than what I thought they deserved. Oh well. I'm hardly a skating expert so I should just chill. But it still seems awfully suspicious. . .

In any case, I sure do enjoy watching the Olympic events. It's getting late now so I'd probably better go. I'll write more later.

Life is full of ups. . . and downs

If I've learned anything in my life, especially recently, it's to expect the unexpected. You never know what's going to happen. Sometimes you win and other times you lose, but that's just the way things go, I'm afraid.

Today I learned that something I've been putting a lot of hope into isn't going to happen. I first heard about it at a time when I really needed something positive to hold onto, and it gave me something to anticipate during a time I was in desperate need of relief. It helped me to feel positive when so much else around me was frustrating and out of my control. Truthfully, it wasn't ever in my control, but anticipating that it could happen gave me something to cling to.

The knowledge that it's not going to work out is a bitter pill to swallow. I am disappointed, and I'm just going to have to deal with that until I can move on. But I'm doing my best to continue on anyway because, well, what other choice do I have? I suppose there's always a choice, but the other road is not going to lead me anywhere I really want to go.

Here's to putting one foot in front of the other even when it's really difficult and dealing with disappointment and the accompanying anger.

And the Award for Worst Parent Goes to. . .

Generally speaking I try to be positive in my blog. I want my readers to have a happy, fun experience, but tonight I'm going to have a little rant, so bear with me.

I was in the store tonight just wandering around, when I happened to witness an interaction between these two ladies and their children. I'm not sure how long they'd been in the store, but it was immediately apparent that the children were bored. Two of them were playing chase around the clothes racks, another one was whining at his mother and kept asking when they got to go home.

I have nieces and nephews, and I've witnessed for myself what happens when you take them any kind of shopping but clothes shopping in particular. I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary that the kids were behaving this way, and I wasn't appalled by their behavior. I was frustrated with the way their parents handled the situation.

It looked like the mother didn't want to bother with her whining child (I know whining children are hard to deal with but she kind of brought it on herself by taking her kids shopping in the first place) because she refused to answer anything related to when they'd be going home. She was harsh in everything she said and also kept telling him to get lost. When the little girl decided to try to entertain her brother (the whining child) by chasing him around, the mom got mad and again told the kids to get lost. They were begging to go to the toys (also a typical child request) and the mom refused to even acknowledge the request. The other lady kept saying "freakin'" every other word and then swore in front of the child, telling him/her (I can't remember which) not to remember that word because it was bad.

Through all of this, the two ladies continued to talk, refusing to do anything to deal with their bored children. Before I moved to a different section, I heard the mothers fairly shooing their children away, so they could continue shopping in peace and then acting like they'd taken care of the problem.

I am well aware that I am not a parent so I don't fully understand what it's like. And I know that taking children shopping can be a trying experience, to say the least. I also know that I'm too idealistic and don't have to deal with whiny children on a daily basis, so that influences what I think and feel.

But with everything going on with my niece, I have started looking at children and parenting in a different light. I couldn't help thinking how sorry these women would be if something happened to their children because they had pushed them away. I also couldn't help thinking these women should appreciate the time with their children because you never know when you could lose them. And if you're going to be a parent, you have to deal with all the annoying things your children will do because, well, they're children, which means they sometimes just do annoying things.

Okay, I'm stepping away from the soap box . . .

A Girl Power Moment!

Today I totally had a girl power moment, and I'm so proud of myself that I have to share it with all of you.

This week I completely jinxed myself. I was looking for a recipe in a drawer and found the extra headlight I had purchased back in June when my headlight burned out. The guy at the store assured me I needed both because they usually go out within a short time of each other. As I looked at the headlight, I started thinking about the fact that seven months have now passed and my other headlight appears to be just fine, so that guy must've been wrong. . .

Little did I know what such thoughts were going to bring.

I was leaving the parking garage the next day when I noticed that in my car's reflection on the glass, my driver's side headlight was out. Yup, I'm sure it was the power of thought alone that caused my headlight to burn out. Okay, not really, but it was certainly ironic.

Last time my home teacher was kind enough to fix my headlight for me. I felt kind of silly because when he did it, he asked me to pull out my owner's manual so he'd know exactly how to do it. I hadn't even thought of that, but I decided this time would be different. I was determined to take care of it on my own.

As soon as I got home on Thursday, I pulled the manual out, found the correct page and started reading up. I even opened the hood, but then I decided I'd better wait because a) my engine was still hot (not that a hot engine should affect changing my headlight, but I thought it better to do it when it was cold) b) it was already dark outside and c) I was still in my nice work clothes. I didn't expect I'd get filthy, but I still thought it would be better to be in more casual attire.

I waited until today to fix it. Before I took off this afternoon, I read all of the instructions again, more carefully this time, then popped the hood. The process was much easier than I'd expected. There was one part where I got stuck and briefly considered asking for help, but I was pretty determined to do it on my own so I persisted and out the light came. After installing the new bulb and putting all the pieces back in, I slammed the hood and checked to make sure my light worked. It did. Yay!!!

I know this is a small accomplishment, but it was a great girl power moment. It also reminded me that I'm a strong, independent woman, which I sometimes tend to forget. Hooray for small victories!