Holiday Cleaning

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. My mom is flying in tonight and we are having my in-laws and my aunt and uncle over for dinner. Yes, dinner at my house! The husband and I spent all last night cleaning, getting to bed at around midnight. I must say, it's the cleanest our house has been in a very long time. I always bust my butt to get things just so before company comes over, I think its a throw-back to my childhood. Besides, it's one thing to wallow in your own filth, it's a whole different thing to wallow in someone else's filth. It's amazing how much crap we can accumulate in just a month. The last major cleaning was in Oct when my son's birthday party was held at our house. I love lists, so here is a list of clutter that bugs me the most.

1. Mail. Junk mail, real mail, invitations, announcements, bills...I never know when to throw something away. Obviously you throw away invites after the party has come and gone, but what about all that other mail? Cards from birthdays or other holidays. Someone took time out of their life to pick this card out for you and then you read it and throw it away? That is sort of callous don't you think? Junk mail you think is junk, you throw it away and all the sudden your credit card company says "we've raised your rates because you didn't call to tell us not to.(?!?!?) We sent you a letter about this." (me) "well, you send me about 5 letters a week and 99.9% of them are trash. How can I decipher the trash from the important stuff?" Needless to say I cancelled that card.
2. Random crappy toys. You all know what I'm talking about. The crappy toys you get in Happy Meals or the ones that you get a kids birthday party. My son seems to think that these are way better than the $20 toys he gets from his birthday...I think for Christmas I'm getting him a wooden spoon and a cardboard box. Imagine the possibilities!
3. Empty CD cases. I usually try to re-purpose these for CD's with pictures on them or what have you, however, the majority of mine are cracked (from hiding underneath clothes and getting stepped on). Do I save it? A sub-point to this one is also the random CDs that you didn't mark...are they precious day of birth pictures or is it an empty CD? Who has time to sit there and read all the CDs?? From now on I mark all the important ones!
4. Paper DVD covers. Why????? Why to companies put that crap on their DVDs? The plastic cover isn't good enough? Inevitably I always find about 3-4 of them underneath my TV table...I've relinquished to just throwing them away.
5. Random nails, paper clips, broken wheels, and other such crap. First off, let me say, I love having a junk drawer. This drives my husband crazy! He shudders to think of an entire space dedicated solely to crap (drawers are limited in my house so I have a "junk shoe organizer" hanging on the back of my closet door). I, however, feel comforted by it. When I need just one nail, I don't have to wade through his tool box to find it, I can look in the "junk rack" and find it just as easily (and less dirty). I can also throw crap in there that doesn't have a specific home...it's great. I feel like Monica on Friends. Did you all see that episode when Chandler found her secret closet? I am by no means as much of a neat freak as she, but it's still funny and so true.

Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a very happy holiday season. I also hope that at least some of you have to clean your house for relatives and you will know exactly what I'm talking about!!

Why do people come to work sick?

You know when you are sick, the aching back, the cloudy feeling in your brain, it feels like someone is standing on your chest and squeezing your head.
So my questions is, when you feel that bad...

WHY COME TO WORK?!?

I am all for companies automatically giving you days off for being sick that don't count towards PTO. Can you imagine the kind of efficiency you could have if only one person took one day off versus 18 people taking 18-20 days off?
As you have probably guessed, I have recently caught the horrible cold that everyone at my office has been sharing. I don't know who it started with, but every day I would hear someone else sniffling and hacking. I vehemently defied the virus with everything I could, but finally, it infiltrated my cloud of disinfectant and hand sanitizer. Damn you cold virus!
So now, I'm the annoying sniffer and I have to put people on hold for my coughing fits. I get the "oh, you sound sick. You poor thing" with every phone call (regardless of whether I even know the person on the other end!) I take my daily regiment of DayQuil and vitamin C. At night have the the Breathe Right nose patches and my lovely, lovely NyQuil (Dennis Leery was so right!)
But couldn't this have been avoided by the first person saying to themselves, "I don't feel good. My job is not that important to where someone wouldn't miss me for one day if I took the day off and prevented the cold virus from contaminating the entire office thus infecting all of my co-workers." No, that first person decided that they needed to get to work and share their lovely germs with all of us.
I guess it's THAT time of year again. Cold and Flu season. Perhaps big corporations can start making that into a holiday to spread the wealth? You could have a gift exchange of decongestants. They could sell cards that when you open them spray you with disinfectant. We could decorate our homes with Kleenex and those silver bubble wrappers that pills come in. We could go door to door and people could hand out Halls lozenges. We could have people dress up like bacteria and sit in malls with kids getting their picture taken with them. This holiday could make up for the lack of holidays in the months of January - March (seriously, we go from Christmas to no time off until Memorial Day!) It's just a thought. With our sagging economy we could just add another gift giving holiday in there and people would eat it up.

Maybe it's just me and my DayQuil talking, but have I gotten my point accross that I hate being sick?

This magical time of year.

There's something about the this time of year, the first snow, the warm baking of fragrant goodies wafting through the house, the wonderful sounds of laughter coming from small children as they play during family get-together's...that is until the first snow turns into the first hour long commute, the fragrant goodies turned black because you forgot to set the timer, the sounds of laughter turn to tears because "she hit me", and the family get-together's turn into long marathons. Of course, none of us have ever experienced any of those things!

Major holidays have long since been my Nemesis. I tend to hurt myself only on days that the banks (and some hospitals, at least in a rural town) are closed. In fourth grade on the 4th of July I ran into a horseshoe pole that just so happened to be freshly cut, then pounded into the ground (rough edges). This incident left a large gash in my right shin. On Thanksgiving one year I was opening a can of cranberries and like an idiot tried to pry the lid off by holding the freshly cut lid between my middle finger and thumb...sliced them to the bone. I broke my arm one year two days before Easter, and let's not get started on the croquet wickets. Most recently, though not a major holiday, I sliced the tip of my thumb off the day before my son's birthday. I guess I get so excited on holidays that I forget my brain.

Now that I'm older...and know my enemy well. I tend to be a little more careful on those special days. I shy away from putting Christmas lights on the roof, I don't light candles, I no longer open cans on major holidays, and I rub a rabbits foot then turn around three times and throw a penny into a wishing well before opening the oven door. Okay, so maybe that last one is a little much, but everything counts right? No one wants to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas in the Emergency Room!

So this year, along with your baking and cooking needs, remember to stock the first aid kit too! You never know when I may be coming to dinner!!!

Election Day

Thank goodness this day is here – and nearly over! I for one cannot stand another smear commercial about those running for political office! Whatever happened to letting people know what you stand for? If I listened to those commercials, I would have no idea who to believe, what to think, or what they stand for regarding the politicians in my state. Here are a few of my biggest pet peeves this election.
The money spent on smear ads.
It really makes me sad to think of all the money that is being spent on TV ads with half truths about other candidates. Tell me what YOU plan to do about the economy or the housing markets. Tell me what YOUR stance is on health care and education. I do not care if you used to be on Saturday Night Live or if some rich guy buys you suits. If I had a dollar for every commercial I heard about someone not being "fit for office" or someone else having "Bush politics" I would be able to put on my own Obama-mertial (which happens to be another example of money “well” spent.) The most unfortunate thing is I think most people really do get their opinions from these commercials and head to the polls miss-informed. That is the true travesty of our nation. No one bothers to do any research when making a decision.
You know what would really impress me, if someone ran a commercial saying exactly what they plan to do while in office and then donated all the leftover campaign funds to a charity. Now that would get my vote.
“Bush Politics”.
This concept that George Bush has his own set of politics and that he has such a commanding grip on the entire GOP that everyone within that party is a drone working solely to help out Bush and his ideology is completely ridiculous. Enter our right to vote leaders into office that will do the best job regardless of whether they are DP or GOP.
Everything is the [enter current presidential party here]’s fault because the current president is [repeat party name here].
Congress currently has a democratic majority. (In the 2006 election the Democratic Party won the majority for the first time in 75 years. In 2007 the Democrats gained the majority seats in the Senate - www.senate.gov and elections.foxnews.com). This means that the Democratic majority Congress and the Republican President had to be in agreement in order to pass things into law. I am no expert, but I'm pretty sure that if the president made all the decisions all by himself we would no longer be a democracy. Last I checked we were still in the United States of America. I’ll sit back and let anyone blame Bush, but when people start to generalize everyone into the same category, that’s where I get heated. It’s like saying “Oh, you’re from Ohio? I know a guy from Ohio that robbed a bunch of people. That must mean that you are a robber too.” This type of sweeping statement is just ignorant. Everyone should get a fair chance. Oh and by the way, Bush did win the last election so if you want to place blame, talk to the voter majority in 2004.
People that make fun of McCain because he can’t raise his arms above his head.
Seriously? Would you make fun of someone that lost a leg in Iraq? Would you make fun of someone that has burns scars all over their face as a result of an IED attack? NO! I don't know anyone, not even the most cynical person can ethically or morally do that. Click here or here to read the facts about why John McCain has limited mobility in his arms. I just want people to know that regardless of your political views, John McCain fought for many years and suffered at the hands of captors for our country. At the very least we can honor him as a POW and the war hero that he is and refrain from laughing at his limitations.

I've never voted for someone because of their party affiliations. I always vote for the person that I think will do the best job. Now go out and make an INFORMED vote!!

Whew, I think I should lay off the coffee on Election Day.