Monday, October 31, 2011

Bah Humbug

Wrong holiday, right sentiment. Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I blame my kids. But whatever.

One thing I do like about this time of year is watching scary movies. I likes all kinds from the slasher types to the psychological/suspenseful types. The Mister and I watched Paranormal Activity 1 on Netflix (Yep, I'm still a subscriber having faith that the powers that be at Netflix will eventually pull their heads out of their butts) and it was ok. It was kind of predictable but it still made me jump at times. The funny thing about it was that when we went to watch it, we had the option to "resume" meaning that someone else had already started it. Turns out the oldest child tried watching it by herself and got too creeped out to finish it, lmao.

Last night, we watched the ending of The Exorcist with the oldest child. I've seen the whole movie before and IMO, all you need to watch is the last 30 minutes of it. I've always thought this movie was silly more than scary. Maybe you have to be Catholic to completely appreciate it. I dunno.

The Mister and I also watched a paranormal investigation show on the Lizzy Borden house. They didn't find anything conclusive, lol. Oh wells.

To prove that I'm not a totally buzz kill when it comes to this holiday below are some pictures from yesterday and last week.


Friday, October 28, 2011

5 Question Friday



 
1. Do you prefer cotton, silk, or flannel sheets?
 
I've never had silk sheets so I can't say whether or not I'd like them. Living in Vermont, we had flannel sheets and when it's 40 below outside, they are wonderful to have on your bed. Overall, I prefer good quality, high thread count, cotton sheets. 

2. What time zone are you in?
 
I'm in the Pacific time zone. Yuppers.

3. What is your favorite part of the holiday season?
 
Thanksgiving by far. Thanksgiving is all about family and food. It's not about getting the most candy, buying presents, or pretending that there's a mysterious bunny that leaves baskets in your house. It's straightforward and involves turkey comas. What's not to love?

4. What is your favorite "wintry" drink? (It doesn't have to be an "alcoholic" drink!) 

Hmm. I'm not sure that I have one. I like hot tea and coffee but I drink that year around.

5. In your opinion, what is the worst job in the world?
 
I don't know. Most people are just happy to have any job nowadays. I would say the medieval job of wiping the king's butt had to suck or being a whipping boy but those jobs don't exist (to my knowledge) today. 

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Looking Through the Window

The Children's Pool at La Jolla, CA

What have I been up to lately? I don't call anyone, I don't blog regularly, and I only post generalized snippets of my life via Twitter and/or Facebook. I feel very out of touch.

So, the Mister and I went to see the Foo Fighters at Viejas Arena last week. Cage the Elephant opened for them. It was the best concert I've ever been to. Granted, I haven't been to a lot of concerts, but the Foo definitely comes out on top and I can't imagine a better show. The concert was on a Monday and we didn't get home until after midnight. Getting up at 6:20 the next morning with the kids was rough, lol. Worth it though. I was tired, had an ear ache and a sore throat on Tuesday, but it was all worth it to see Uncle Dave and the boys.

The oldest child is currently enjoying the longest and most severe grounding of her life. I won't go into the details except to say that if she ever deserved to be whipped, this would have been the time. Other than that, she is finishing up the football season with the band on Friday. She has her first competition on Saturday. Despite her complaints, she has had fun being in the marching band this year. It still remains to be seen whether or not she'll stick with it next year.

The youngest is still the same. She gets her homework done as fast as possible and goes outside until it's dark enough to come in. On the weekends, she's out the door as fast as she can to come in at dark. She's so tanned and her hair is so sun bleached that she doesn't even look related to the rest of us. Saturday, she's going to her first party as a middle school kid. It's Halloween themed so I'm sure it'll be a good time.

The Mister got his associates degree certificate in the mail the other day. He actually could have gotten it a long time ago but kept putting off taking biology, his last requirement for the degree. Very soon he'll have his bachelor's in hand. Other than school and work and going to concerts with me ;), that's about all he's up to. No deployments on the horizon as of this writing. Things like this can change in an instant though.

As for me, I'm in transition. I feel like I've either hit the "finding myself phase" of early adulthood very late or I'm having a midlife crisis very early, lmao. My clients were regularly pissing me off (sorry to any of them reading this) so I started siphoning them off until I was down to zero. I was planning on getting a job outside of the house not realizing what life would be like once the kids were in high school and junior high respectively. Unless I want to work from 5 pm to 6 am, and I don't, finding a job outside the house will be really tough for me. Likewise, school has been put on hold indefinitely. I have run out of financial aid so until I figure out a way to pay for it out of pocket, school isn't likely right now. I have to say, I'm not that sorry about it. I was only going through the motions and doing the minimal amount of work necessary to maintain my GPA. I wasn't enjoying any of my classes or actually learning anything. My only regret is all the time and money I wasted going to school when I wasn't getting anything from the experience.

In the interim, I have started a historical research project that I find fascinating, engaging, and fulfilling. It's still in the early stages so I don't have anything to say about it yet.

I'm also loving living life in California. In the less than two years we've lived here, the Mister and I have been to two concerts, one symphony and our anniversary vacation to Paso Robles. As a family, we've been to Sea World twice, Seaport Village, Julian, Balboa Park, numerous baseball games, the book fair at UCLA, to the desert to visit Jennifer, and other outings around the San Diego area. The kids have been to the zoo, the wild animal park, Old Town as well as many others. Not to mention all the fabulous shopping we've done. That's more than we did the entire six years we lived away from San Diego. California suits us.