Politics: Democrat or Republican? Why?

I hear a lot of people boldly proclaim which party they vote for, but I don’t hear the reasons quite as boldly.  I’ve heard that Republicans are for the rich man, and Democrats are for the unions.  Republicans are generally pro-life, and Democrats are generally pro-choice.

I don’t understand why a person would jump in on one side or the other based solely on one issue.  Then again, both sides are going to do something we don’t like.

Politics … What a heated discussion that can be!  What I would like to see are comments flooding in telling me what you like and dislike about each party and why.

She Works Hard for the Money

Eleven hours on Monday.  Eleven hours on Tuesday.  Ten hours today.  WHEW!  She (that would be me!) really does work hard for the money.  I took an hour lunch break to take a shower and run to the grocery store today.  I made it back with 5 minutes to spare, which I used to fix my salad so I could eat while I worked.  This is why I haven’t had time yet to edit, resize, and upload those wedding photos.

I do take a couple hours off after I’ve done at least 8 hours.  Then I come back for more before bed.  Miranda came in tonight and said, “You’re still working?”  I told her, “No, I’m working again.”  Not much of a difference, really.

There are a lot of people who think work-at-home jobs are mostly scams or menial.  That’s certainly what I thought when I was considering all possible job opportunities.  I was very leery of anything that mentioned working at home, except for medical transcription, which I’m not trained to do.

VRBO.com is far from any of those marketing scams that give “work-at-home” a bad name.  I’m in advertising!  I’m an editor about to be further trained in customer service as well.  I already put the word out that I’m interested in advancement in the future if the opportunity arises.  I’m in a position now that when VRBO becomes a well-known entity, I can say, “I was there when very few people knew what it was.”  How cool is that?

These are the ramblings of a very sleepy me.  I think I’ll leave it at that for tonight!

Extremely Nontraditional Wedding

It’s so easy to get married in Colorado.  You can go to the Department of Revenue, sign the marriage license, and you’re married on the spot!  No vows or witnesses required.

I took photos at a very nontraditional wedding this weekend.  Mom walked groom in.  Dad walked bride in.  Mom said a little something.  Dad said a little something.  Bride and Groom said a little something to everyone there, thanking them for coming.  They exchanged rings, kissed, and signed the license.  Then all the group photos happened and everyone ate.  Bizarre!

I’ll get photos uploaded to Flikr soon.  We got slammed at work again, so I’m doing more overtime.  My email training was postponed until later next week.  After shooting the wedding from 9AM until 6PM, I worked from 7-11PM.  Then I put in three more hours late Sunday evening.  Today I did 46 emails, 13 listings so far, and I filled in at the last minute on phones in the afternoon.  I’m doing two more hours this evening to bring me to 11 hours today!  Sheer madness!  But I do it with $$ in my eyes!  [Maybe I should only do 10 hours.]

More Learning at Work

Here’s another boring post about work…

I’ve been trained how to respond to e-mails requesting password resets since we’re getting flooded with those.  This frees up the rest of the e-mail crew to answer the huge backlog of other e-mails.  Next Monday-Wednesday, I will be training for the entire e-mail system at the Support Desk Manager’s house less than ten minutes from my own.  That means toting my laptop and wireless keyboard & mouse every day.  I will miss the dual monitors, which I’ve grown quite fond of (especially the separate 20″ wide-screen).

Once I’m fully trained in the e-mail department, more overtime will ensue!  I got two hours yesterday just to get the password reset requests caught up.  Now it’s just a steady flow.  There are over 3,000 e-mails waiting for answers, though, and they keep coming in about as fast as they are answered.

The overtime earnings are even sweeter now that I got a raise already.  They changed everyone’s review date to April 1, no matter what their hire dates were.  What’s even better is that the base bonus amount is 5%.  Last year’s bonuses exceeded that amount due to outstanding sales, and they’re trying to match or top that this year.

American Idol – Top 7

I’m not a Mariah Carey fan, especially her high notes.  I’m all for high notes in opera but in pop songs, I call it screeching.  So when I saw that she was this week’s mentor, I was reluctant to watch.  Of course, I couldn’t help myself – curiosity got the best of me, and I caved.

David A. started it all off and had people thinking he’d be a tough act to follow … except for his less-than-confident lift up into his falsetto.

Kudos to Brooke and Jason for not taking Mariah’s advise on how high to take the songs they each chose.  Jason did a bit of falsetto, but it worked for him.  I don’t think it would have worked for Brooke because it’s not her style.

Carley was okay until the end for me.  I don’t like when she forces the sound.  It really does sound like she’s shouting the music.

Syesha impressed me!  She did a good job.  So did Kristy.  She keeps stepping it up each week.  I really liked what she did tonight.

Then there’s David C.  This boy has amazing talent.  I love how he changes up songs and really takes them to a whole other place.  Hands down, a winner – no matter how American couch potatoes vote in the end.

My top 3 for this week: David C., Jason, and Brooke (in that order).

Mild-Mannered Mom Stresses Out

I think what I’m feeling today is anxiety. My heart rate is 102 sitting, I’m a little light-headed, and my stomach feels strange. I generally consider myself to be a Type B personality type, but what I’ve discovered is that I actually avoid stress as a way not to have to deal with it. I turn my back on situations that need my attention so I don’t have to worry about them.

So the issues that are always there, neatly stuffed down just out of sight, leave no room for added stress. That’s what happened today. The boys’ grades are awful, and I had to lay down the law and take away privileges for the remaining 7 weeks of school. Some leniency may be granted if they pull them up before the last minute. Ali has to stay after until 7:30 at the high school for the play’s crunch week. Friday they stayed until 5:30, and someone brought in dinner for them. It was sloppy Joe’s, which she chose not to eat, but they did bring food. Today, she said they gave them those mini-packs of donuts and some juice at 4:00, and that’s all they’re getting. She eats lunch before 11:00, and she won’t get dinner until nearly 8:00 at night. That’s not healthy. I told her that if she gets hungry, I will bring something to her.

That doesn’t sound like much, huh? That just goes to show how much I keep stuffed down inside. Only getting about six hours of sleep last night probably doesn’t help matters, either. Oh! The fact that some good friends of ours are moving away this week might play a part as well. Then there’s Josh, who has needed new shoes for several weeks, and I’m trying to figure out when exactly we can go do that. I wanted to do it today, but I don’t want it to run into the time I have to pick up Ali. Jason had to work, so he can’t get her for me, and Greg doesn’t get home until 8:00 or so.

So… I’m going to try a shower to refresh my brain before dinner, which is half ready in the crock pot (BBQ Country-Style Ribs with homemade BBQ sauce). We’ll take it from there!

American Idol Sings Shout to the Lord!

Before the Idol Gives Back show last night, I had already noticed several songs leaning to the spiritual side. Yes, they changed “Jesus” to “Shepherd”, but so what? I’ve already seen many comments about this by Christians. Why be argumentative? Is that a true Christian heart? The fact that they sang this song on a secular television show at all is a giant step – I mean HUGE! [NOTE: On the results show, they sang the song again with Jesus in place!]

I am surprised that Michael left this week. I expected him to make the top 5 at least. He could have traded places with Brooke, and I think they would have had a more accurate bottom three. I do like Brooke more than Syesha, and I’m on the fence now with Carly. I would have picked Syesha to go home this week.

When the Dog Bites…

Time and distance apart may have brought subtle changes here and there, but the animosity that has always existed between my mother-in-law and me seems to still be there to a higher degree than I thought. She does keep quiet about certain things (at least to my face), but I’ve become much more accepting of others.

The thing that kills me is how much she talks about church and how involved they are; yet, she’s very judgmental. They stopped by with our nieces for a short time last evening, and I had American Idol on. There were some unnecessary comments made about Carly because of her tattoos. It’s a good thing they didn’t see her husband when the camera panned over the audience! I don’t care for the look of huge tattoos, but I don’t think small tattoos are bad, especially when they are a reminder of something special in a person’s life. Regardless of size or number, tattoos don’t make a person any different than anyone else.

Our youngest niece always likes to treat Gizmo (Pekingese) like a stuffed animal, and he remembers that. He may feel like a floppy toy, but his bones are very small, and I’m sure it hurts him to be flipped around and squeezed, and it’s not good for his back. He’s very defensive around her, which is TOTALLY out of character for this lazy, happy-go-lucky dog. When they were leaving, he hid under the kitchen table – also not like him. She crawled under the table to hug him, and he bit her in the face! Her cheek welted, and there was a minor scrape on her chin with surface blood seepage – definitely not through all three layers of skin. It was the end of the world for her, of course. My mother-in-law looked at it with me and asked if it needed to be reported. WHAT? Are you kidding me? NO, it doesn’t need to be reported. I’ve seen worse scratches resulting from dog claws while playing.

I do feel bad about that it happened, but we did tell her repeatedly to leave him alone. Any dog can bite when they feel threatened. Although I know she didn’t realize what she was doing was perceived as threatening to Gizmo (I don’t expect her to understand that whole concept at her age), I do expect her to respect what we say when we tell her to leave him alone. No, I’m not trying to justify his behavior. I’m very disappointed that he did it. I’m just saying that I understand his reaction.

He has never done anything like this before, so we had no reason to fear it as a possibility. We will definitely warn all small children not to try to pick him up, hold him, hug him, or put their faces near his and will ask their parents/caregivers to back us up on this 100%. This is a respect I have had for all dogs since being bitten myself, which resulted in 32 tiny stitches down my nose when I was barely 11 years old.

I just get the feeling that a few family members are now going to hate my dog and harbor resentment towards me because this happened. My mother-in-law didn’t even say goodbye to me when she left.

So…. I’ll simply remember my favorite things, and then I won’t feel so bad.

American Idol – Top 8

Every one of the top eight contestants has had their share of the limelight.  David A. was on Star Search.  Michael, Brooke, Carly, and David C. have all had CDs released.  Syesha has a modeling and commercial acting background.  Jason is in Cheyenne Kimball’s “Hanging On” music video (search for that on YouTube).  Even Kristy has been in a commercial for a toothbrush, which wasn’t done in the best taste I might add.

I think David Cook should win, but I’d really like to see this show be a search for new talent that’s never been discovered before.  So I guess I really don’t care who wins at this point.  It is what it is!  I will keep watching because I love music, but I’m done voting.

The Big Move

Still a work in progress that should be done later today – except for the painting and window treatments.