SORRY THE BLOG IS JACKED

I'm working on some things again. I'll be moving this blog. Sorry to make you have to update your links and all that. The idea here is that I'd like to make oxygenbandits into the site I always wanted it to be, which is NOT about me, and ALL about reporting on those little bastards who are sucking up our oxygen. And that will require a LOT more coarse language and generally unkind comments, so I really need 2 separate places for all of this.

Something I'll be adding to this blog is the content of my previously-private blog about losing my mother and brother and the thoughts and feelings that come up sometimes surrounding those losses. As you might expect, I've been dealing with that a lot more in the past several weeks and today was a particularly rough day for me. Dealing with loss is a little like being in a 12-step program in that you really do have to take it One Day at A Time. I know it sounds cliche', but it's also very true. So, I'll be writing more about that now that I finally feel like I can share those feelings. So, the blog is morphing yet again, but I think that will be a good thing. And of course, once I get the blog moved, I will be upgrading to the new Blogger!

so, so late

If you haven’t received a holiday card from me, it’s because I haven’t mailed any cards yet. If you somehow did receive one, well, that’s just weird. And if you are CubeNeighborKelly, I saved you the extra work of having to open and read it, and just tossed yours in the trash can for you. Heh.

This year, I gathered all the random Christmas cards from around my house and around my dad's house and that's what I'm sending. It's been kind of fun to go through and pick cards that make me think of a particular person, or that I think a particular person would like. So, if you get a card that you really like, just be aware that you may be the only person who got that same card.

Discussion Post

Here’s something from msn.com today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16287113/?GT1=8816

 

I would like to know what people think about the study, and whether the stats are accurate. I was actually surprised at the 90% stat and not sure I believe it.

 

Discussion starts…now.

More general thoughts

I wonder how long the friendly folks at blogger will let me go on without switching to their new version. I plan to hold out as long as I can, but they've already gone from encouraging messages and notifications that it's available to making the sign-in screen all but force me to make the switch.

Your Questions Answered:
*The new blinds came from JCPenny.com (I don't think I spelled that right) and I got the second set today. SIDE NOTE: They actually addressed them incorrectly, so the blinds ended up on the Army boys' porch. And the boys looked close enough to see that the box actually had blinds, because one of them announced when I got home, "Erin, you got some blinds that got delivered over here!" I just hope that the same thing doesn't happen whenever my birth control pills show up. Which I use for keeping my acne clearer, in case you were getting ready to judge me. Heh.
*Motivation for running/walking. This is actually not hard for me right now, because the weather is PERFECT for running outside and I already have a gym membership for when I can't be outside. And right now, getting out and moving my body just feels good. However, it's been a long road to get to this point: I trained hard for an entire year to prepare to run/walk the Flying Pig marathon, ran an entire marathon 3 weeks before the Flying Pig as part of that training, and then ran the Flying Pig in a blazing finish time of 7.5 hours. Right after the race, I decided to take a break from running because the plantar fasciitis was wickedly painful. Then, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, I let myself slide over the next 3 years until I wasn't running or even walking, and found myself getting winded after a single flight of stairs. For some reason, on Saturday, I felt completely disgusted with my current physical condition, and finally decided to get off the GD sofa and do something. Of course, I could have just circumvented a LOT of pain and misery, as well as lots of sadness, by having never stopped running in the first place, but hey -- hindsight is 20/20.

Running observation, day 3: Handicapping. I've been thinking about this as I crawl along the streets of the 'Wood. I think I should be able to handicap my minutes/mile in direct proportion to my weight. For example, flat-out running gets me about a 12-minute mile (each subsequent mile gets slower) Let's say I'm 200 pounds**. And let's say I have a friend who also runs a 12-minute mile, but she weighs 120 pounds. So we are both running at the same rate of speed, but I am essentially lugging around an extra 80 pounds - like if I were carrying a big Army pack with me. I'm not saying that I don't want to try to go faster. I'm just saying that my fitness level should be considered as higher than my 120-pound friend, or possibly equal to a faster friend who weighs less. I'm pretty sure this is how they do it for racehorses. Also, if you happen to be one of my 120-pound running friends, I promise not to ask you to carry an extra 80 pounds on our run if you promise not to make me run 8-minute miles.


**All times and weights have been changed to protect the innocent.

Random Observations Along the Way

I have a lot of frustrations in my life right now, and I've decided that I'm just going to go for a run/walk whenever I start getting wrapped up in them. Today was Day 2 of the "Running Kills Frustration" campaign. I observed a LOT on this run!

First, running and walking are both mind-clearing activites. I knew this, but somehow I managed to forget it over the past few years. It's really hard to stay mired in sadness or anxiety when you are in the middle of a run/walk. Try it; it really is hard. So, at least for those few minutes of the day, I can let my mind roam where it wants. Something else that helps with that is listening to Trance (Techno). Trance really does take me to a higher state of consciousness. I am much more creative AND focused while listening. I listen to it a lot at work because I have lots of tasks that require me to focus and isolate myself from distractions. Anyway, it helps with the running and walking because it provides a tempo and a distraction from the pain, and all the jiggling, and the labored breathing.

Second, I love the weather we are having and I wish that it would always be in the 50s-60s in December. I don't really care for Christmas, much - other than the birth of Christ part, and the cynic in me is always quick to point out that He was probably born in the Springtime, anyway. But the great weather we have right now has really elevated my mood. I actually have been able to go outside and ENJOY the neighbors' Christmas decorations and my neighborhood in general. I really like it here and I'm glad that things fell into place for me to move back into my own house!

On the "cool down" part of my run/walk, I noticed a dead mouse on the sidewalk. Ew.

Last, and certainly not least, I think Stella must not have known I was just going out for a quick walk (because she's a cat, and cats can't tell time). When walked back into the house, I heard a loud banging noise over the sound from my headphones, and just as I yanked them out of my ears, there was another loud bang, and I realised that Stella was crawling OUT of a cabinet in my bedroom and the banging was the door swinging shut behind her. I immediately opened the door to see what she had been doing, and I realised that she must be opening the door while I'm gone so she can climb in there and take a nap on the towels, because the top towel was super warm and had some stray hairs on it. That Stella. She has a mind of her own. I have found a few other cabinet doors open this way, but I keep thinking it's something else, like the wind or old-house problems. Now I know it really is her.

bah, humbug

I’m Erin, and I hate the holidays. I really, really do. Sure, I like the part where people get together and laugh and have fun, and I do like to see the twinkly lights that all my neighbors have hung, and I even enjoy the cheesy holiday specials and all-holiday-music programming on the radio stations. But I can’t stand all the shopping and the rushing around and the being generally rude to store clerks and fellow drivers and fellow shoppers. I was in the Hobby Lobby earlier this week. The Hobby Lobby is one of my favorite stores, because it’s basically a Giant Warehouse of Potential Unfinished Projects. And we all know how I treasure and cherish my Unfinished Projects. So, I’m there, in my favorite store, which is usually quiet, because I visit in the evenings when most other Hobbyists are home cooking dinner and getting the kids ready for bed. But this night was not like any other night, because some lady had let her 2 kids loose in the store, and while they were running up and down the aisles screaming at each other (which was really kind of cute for the first 2 aisles and then got REALLY OLD, REALLY FAST), she was nowhere to be found. And all of the other shoppers were walking around with that look that Heidi described as “trying to look irritated and trying to pretend like it’s not happening, all at the same time”. After some time, I make my way up to the front of the store, and I see that the lady is now up there, and the kids have finally joined her, but that hasn’t calmed them down at all. In fact, they’re still both screaming, and one of them is actually in the cart, jumping up and down. And all the while, she is just doing the normal checkout activities like nothing is at all out of the ordinary, while the rest of us in line are doing The Look again. Ergh. So, while all this is going on, the strangest development EVER happens, right behind me. There are basically 3 lanes open, but they’re all bunched together so there’s kind of a cluster of shoppers and not a lot of order. And the lady behind me has a cart with about 20 little various items. And the lady behind her has one spool of ribbon, the kind you take and wrap around an entire tree. And the Ribbon Lady says to the Cart Lady, “Um, excuse me, Hi, I only have one item, and you have a lot of items, and I was wondering if you could let me go ahead of you so I can just get out of here.”…I’m going to pause here and let you soak this in, because that’s what Cart Lady did, and that’s actually what I was doing, too. Keep in mind that I’m actually in the checkout process, so my place in line is neither threatened nor even negotiable at this point. I am merely observing this interaction. So, I’m thinking to myself, “Is this right? This isn’t how it works, right? You don’t ask to go ahead. People offer that, if they notice.” Certainly, people have done that for me before, but I’ve never asked. So Cart Lady starts stammering her way through some sort of apologetic “no, I need to get out of here and I was even thinking about leaving without this stuff” story, and the whole time, I’m getting angrier and angrier at Ribbon Lady. And Ribbon Lady actually has a rebuttal of “but I only have one thing,” and thankfully, Cart Lady stuck to her guns, because really, it’s not Cart Lady’s fault that Ribbon Lady only had one thing. I mean, come on. So Ribbon Lady is pulling out all the stops to make Cart Lady look like some kind of jerk for not letting her go in front, and just when I’m thinking I’m maybe going to interject and say something, but I can’t even begin to figure out what the appropriate comment is here, some lady from the next line over says, “Here, you can go in front of me. It’s not that big of a deal!” As if Cart Lady is just The Worst Person Ever to Walk the Face of the Earth, and I’m now thinking to myself “I wonder how the lady behind Martyr Lady feels about this, since Martyr Lady just let Ribbon Lady in front of her, too.” And I finally decided to just flee the building because I didn’t even know where to start to make this right. And because the 2 Screaming Banshees were STILL screaming.

 

Side note to Ribbon Lady: It is considerate and kind when people notice you only have one item and offer to let you go in front of them. It is rude, inconsiderate, and selfish for you to ASK anyone to do that for you. So yeah, if you wonder why I hate the holidays, it’s stuff like that.

success

here is the new top-down shade. as you can see, it does the job perfectly. now i can enjoy beautiful sunlight AND my privacy at the same time. i can hardly wait for the other one to arrive, but it won't ship until 12/15. in the meantime, i am really going to admire this one.

:-)

I'm not here for your entertainment...

…and other lyrics from the “Euro Music World” station I’ve been listening to:

 

I'm not here for your entertainment...

…quit spilling your drinks on me.

Keep your drink; just give me the money,

It’s just U and UR hand tonight.

 

Heh. This is actually Pink, in case you want to download the song for yourself.

 

What I'm Reading

I finished a book last night, Every Contact Leaves A Trace. It’s a compilation/synopsis of LOTS of interviews with people involved in police work, forensics, and the trial process. The author conducted all these interviews and then organized her quotes into sections such as “Crime Scene Processing,” “DNA,” and “Criminal Trials”. Very interesting stuff. Here, I’ve provided my 2 favorite quotes from the book.

 

The first is from a Prosecutor: “We see homicide, every day…I just can’t get over it…It happens so frequently that – phew! Am I normal, or what? You know, I’m fifty-two years of age. I’ve spent fifty-two years’ worth of weekends in my life. And at the end of every weekend, I come back to work on Monday without having committed a homicide over the weekend. Now why can’t other people do that?” Heh.

 

And this, from a Crime Scene Processor, regarding pets: “We get a lot of calls where the person is murdered at home, but is not found for a period of time. And so the animals have already started to take the body apart because they haven’t been fed in that period [Stella!!]…I tell you – dogs are more loyal than cats…Cats will wait only a certain period of time and they’ll start chewing on you [STELLA!!]. Dogs will wait a day or two before they just can’t take the starving anymore. So, keep that in mind when choosing a pet. You know how a cat just stares at you, maybe at the top of the TV, from across the room? That’s because they’re watching to see if you’re gonna stop breathing.” Again, heh. I love cop humour!!

twoFer Friday

The presence of two posts in one day indicates my total lack of interest in doing anything remotely productive. Don’t worry – I’ll pay for that next week, to be sure.

 

You know when you go to someone’s house and you see an interesting figurine, or wall hanging, or other piece of…art? And you wonder to yourself, “Where does one even buy such a thing? Certainly not in the stores I frequent!” Well, kids, I have found out where one buys such a thing, and it is here. Just call this place a little slice of heaven.

 

This one is for Jenn

(and Frank!)

 

http://dlisted.com/2006/11/30/riddle-me-this/