Subtle Glow

Nothing says “I love and trust you” like a pair of these panties!

SO WRONG! Also - amusing!

Bush v. Jesus

I’m not generally a bumper sticker person, but some of these are tempting.

No. Just… NO.

Come clean. Not JUST a toy cleaner anymore!

And by that I don’t mean the fact that Big Brother is not just watching, he’s all up in your grill these days.

What’s funny is there is already some snarky graphic with associated tagline to illustrate the situation.

The highlight of my Mother’s Day was when Kiddo presented a book to me with all sorts of facts and figures about me, his mom.

My favorite:  “When my mom has some free time she likes to: ______________”

His fill in the blank answer:  “Call people.”  Complete with a phone handset and the word “phone” detailed with an arrow pointing to his drawing.  I should scan it in later and post it up here.  It’s priceless.

Oh, yeah I’ll be rushing right out to spend $500 for this.

Except I have a ton of random little thoughts popping around my head from time to time today. I went ahead and got a venti americano this morning. I’m sure the caffeine has worn off by now, but I kind of feel like I’m crashing. I guess it’s not such a good idea to go from barely functional, so super high functioning fueled by double your normal daily intake of espresso, to pan-crust mushroom pizza (the crust… so bready and delicious… mmmm).

I warn you of this, because, I feel really tired, but at the same time really restless. Oh, actually, nevermind - that’s just boredom. I’m bored because it’s Friday at 2:30 and the sun finally came out. I’ll bet the overcast is burning off down at the beach… the beach where Kiddo and I will be moving if I can ever get out of this office so I can go find a place to move! *deep breath*

Switching topics to Dateline.

This came up at lunch - because apparently there are enough sickos out there that Dateline can make a weekly segment entirely devoted to catching child predators. How disgusting is that? Not that they have a weekly segment (or is it the entire show on Wednesdays? omg) but that there are enough of the fuckers out there to keep a weekly segment going for more than two weeks.

Again, switching topics to cell phones.

You really can’t turn on the radio or the television or log on to the internets these days without being bombarded with all the ads from every cell phone provider about the Razr phones.  It is a marketing avalanche.

It makes me wonder, though.  Why?  Why are they pushing this phone so hard and furiously?  They even have a PINK one… and a pink bluetooth headset to go with it.  What’s so crazy about this phone that they want everyone to have one?  The conspiracy theorist in my ponders this with a skeptical and suspicious eye…

Meanwhile the outright consumer in my drools and pants. I want one.  I don’t want the pink one though.  It’s cute and all - not to mention they are branching out on the SHADES of pink - depending on cell phone provider. However, I know how I am, and I’ll get sick of the pink in a couple months and then I’ll be stuck with the pink FAD phone.

So, I want the black one.  Unfortunately, as much as I love my wireless provider (LOVE YOU CINGULAR!) I’m not up for an upgrade until September.  Maybe by then the heat will have cooled for this phone.  Maybe by then there will be another HOT! NEW! PHONE! that I’ll just have to have.  I guess by then I’ll know if I really want one, or if all this foam at the mouth is just a result of the marketing.

The search for a place to move continues, though I have shifted the location quite a bit. The bottom line is I’ll shave 1 freeway and maybe 10-15 minutes off my commute, which isn’t much, but Kiddo will most likely end up a lot closer proximity to his dad.

What I’ve found is there isn’t really a happy medium. I can either be close to work and far from his dad, or close to his dad and far from work. When those are the options… Kiddo’s needs win out. In a way it makes it easier, as his dad will be able to take a more active part, which is something I think needs to happen, and something Kiddo wants to happen.

Once I find a place, maybe I’ll finally be able to sleep at night, knowing I did what’s best for the Kiddo. In the meantime - sleep has been elusive. Last night I think I logged maybe 3 full hours, the rest were either awake or fitful, to downright disturbing as far as dreams go.

So, we’ll probably spend a chunk of this weekend looking around in that area, trying to see what’s available and what might be coming available. The nice thing is that the price range is a little bit lower than the original area I was looking - which means I’m pretty confident I can find a place with a garage and a washer/dryer in it. Perfect.

The school zoning has me a bit concerned, as the schools in that part of the district are somewhat iffy… curiculum-wise. But - Kiddo is a great student and in a lot of cases - you get out of it what you put in to it. We’ll see how it goes and make adjustments accordingly.

That’s one of my biggest areas to work on, as far as my own mental health goes. I struggle not to require complete control over everything. To do that, I like to plan everything out ahead of time, eliminate the unknowns. Even if it is a known item that I don’t really like all that much, I can usually manage to deal with it as long as it’s not just some loose end waving around out there.

I randomly came across a link titled, “How To Have a Successful Day of Shopping.”

I like shopping, and hey - I like success, too. I clicked the link.

The first few tips were not bad… plan it out, shop smart, etc.

When I reached this point, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What the… ?”

Pack a bag, purse, or fanny pack the night before that include your list, a map, a water bottle, some snacks, some emergency cash, a credit card and ATM card, a cell phone or coins for a pay phone or a phone card, and a positive attitude! It is better to be more prepared than to be left in an unsafe/undesirable situation. Also, keep in mind that you might not be able to bring your tote into the store, so make sure you keep valuables (money, phone card, etc.) in a safe, next-to-body layer. This will additionally help prevent theft.

Can I ask… where the hell are you going to be shopping? Cleveland National Forest? I mean, seriously. “Pack a fanny pack the night before” - Seriously? Also, I just snorted a little bit about “fanny” pack. Who carries a fanny pack anymore? Not to mention the British translation for fanny. heh. Be careful what you pack in there!!! har har.

Let me break it down for you:

How to REALLY have a successful day of shopping:

1. Go to a store like Target (Wal-mart, Costco, Barnes & Noble, whatever) where you can browse around at all kinds of stuff.

2. When you spot an item that is either shiny, nicely-packaged, or remotely related to either office supplies, organization for home, office, kitchen, bathroom, etc. or NEW! FANCY! cleaning supplies (because I swear my house would be cleaner if I had just the right new! fancy! cleaners, regardless of how likely I am to actually USE them once I get home) or anything else that strikes your interest.

3. Take said item and place in cart.

4. Stock up on paper products while you’re here (paper towels, plates, might as well grab toilet paper, too). Go ahead and get another box of tampons - like toilet paper, it’s better to have an overstock, kwim?

5. Go through checkout line, pay for items, go home.

6. Admire shiny pretty items as you put them away. Particularly the cleaning products - it will be awhile before you see them again, what with all the successful shopping you will be doing.

That’s it! Successful shopping, without the aid of any fanny packs.

So, it seems the time has come for me to get the ball rolling to move out of my place. I have until the end of July, if I really need it, but I’d rather time it for the end of June/beginning of July.

Only, so far… the search has been, well - ehhhhhhhh.

The first day I went out looking, I just drove around looking for ‘rental’ signs and leaving messages and by the end of THAT - I was in tears. Just looking at the outside of these abysmal and sometimes even scary apartments and condos just makes me want to wretch. And, of course, cry.

Actually - pretty much everything makes me cry these days. To the point I was driving home from work yesterday, crying - AGAIN - when I realized, Hey - you know what? I seem to do this a lot these days. You know… drive home from work, and cry.

It must be the traffic! Seriously, traffic in these parts really can MAKE YOU CRY, and I mean full on boo-hoo cry - EVERY DAY.

Or. You know. Or I am just in a big crybaby slump from all the NOT FUN parts of life that have been happening lately.

And now. Now I have to move out of my pretty pretty place into some ugly fucking apartment where a bunch of douchebags will run the management office, unless I want to rent from a private owner. Why are apartment owners or management so damn PROUD of the little hovels they rent out?  Only ‘PROUD’ means charging $1400/month for carpet that is nearly a decade old - all matted from years of repeated washing and wear, with who knows what kind of filth piled up underneath it - and appliances in serious need of updating as well.  Not to mention the laminate cabinets and that fucking cream color paint they all use.  Halogen lighting, minimal windows, ahhhhh!!
I’m really TRYING to be upbeat and positive about it. I know it’s hard to tell that from this entry, but really - I AM.  Though it’s not hard to see why one would think of all this and cry, now is it?
Except, then this morning I went through a whole hassle of getting the morning free so I could meet with some rental agent for a private property, that honestly - looked and sounded pretty good. It’s hard to say for sure, because - well he didn’t actually SHOW UP for me to see the inside. But from the outside it was nice, and the rent was decent, and the area was really great.

Of course, once he called me and I told him to pound sand up his ass because there was no way in hell if it was this difficult to simply SEE the property that I was going to go ahead and RENT from him, that pretty much removed that property as a possibility.

I wanted to save the apartment communities for last, not because they are best, but because I just don’t have any “nice factor” going on with regard to the renting at this point. Not yet, but you know I’m trying. Plus I just know how that all works: they are so nice when you’re looking to sign a lease and the horns and fangs and slimy drool comes out AFTER you’ve signed and you’re locked in to the place.

You’re starting to see why it’s taking a little time to work up to this, right?

I thought about it a little more, and thought - what the hell I’ll check in to apartment communities. I know this move won’t be my last, in fact it will be two years max (yet another reason to be OH SO JOYFUL about this move… because once it’s done I still get to move… AGAIN!). As crappy and fucking annoying as the apartment communities can be - it is only for two years.

Only I stumbled across a website I have seen before where residents review the apartment communities they live/lived in. Apparently there is No Such Thing as a pleasant apartment community. At which point I started thinking, what the hell? I can’t move in to another community! I also found it funny how none of the LOUD neighbors were reviewing these places. It was just THEIR neighbors. I started to realize that Fuck, they are all the same. All of these apartments will have cunty leasing agents and crappy, rude neighbors - and all of them will fuck with your sanity while you’re there.

I just have to find one in a good school district.

Living in Southern California, specifically in the greater San Diego metro area, there is a larger population of mainly Hispanic immigrants/migrant workers, etc.

Monday, May 1st was supposed to be a nation-wide protest/boycott to urge those in Congress not to pass additional measures against illegal immigration.

I’ll start by saying this:  I don’t agree with the laws that Congress is currently considering that would make an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. a felon.
Here’s why:  It seems to me that the focus should be on the employers who knowingly and willingly exploit the immigrant, specifically illegal immigrant, labor.  By hiring them illegally, they can pay them much lower wages than the federal minimum wage - which we all know will hardly pay the bills anyway, but at the same time if $6.75 hardly pays the bills then how can $2 and $3 do it?

If I support undocumented immigrants doing work for such meager wages so as to keep the cost of a basket of strawberries under $4, isn’t that the same as supporting the businesses who are exploiting this labor force?

I don’t understand the argument that says the illegal workers take jobs that Americans don’t want.  What if we made the job pay minimum wage, or more? More people would be willing to take those jobs - both legal and illegal workers.  Right now, there is a system in place where basically the person who will take the job for the lowest wage will get it.  But if the business hiring is forced to pay minimum wage then they wouldn’t be able to exploit those who are worried they may not get a job somewhere else because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to do so.
Here’s the other thing -  Yes, by requiring businesses to pay people the minimum wage, the cost of things that I buy will go up.  However - when we’re talking about food it falls in the same category as gasoline.  I don’t have a choice about buying either one.  I NEED gasoline in my car, to get to work, so I can earn my paycheck, so I can buy food.

No matter how much gasoline costs - I still HAVE to buy it.  The same goes for food.  So if I NEED food, then I’m going to buy it no matter how much it costs.

So here is what I think:  Open the border.  Allow businesses to hire anyone who can and will do the job, BUT force them to pay at least the minimum wage, as well as providing their workers with safe working conditions, worker’s comp coverage, etc.

I have more thoughts on this but I’m out of time right now.  To Be Continued.