How NOT to recruit volunteers...

A few days ago I received a call from someone for the Barack Obama campaign. Just so you know, I am all about President Obama, I’ll be voting for him, and I have donated to his campaign. At some point in the distant past I MAY have said I was interested in volunteering. But if I did it in the past 6 to 12 months, I don't remember doing so. Anyway, so I get a phone call the other day:

Danette (D): Hello?

Obama Campaign Organizer (O): This is Blah Blah with the Barack Obama campaign. I am the organizer for your district.

D: Oh! Great!

O: Several months ago you said you would like to volunteer. I was wondering if you would like to grab a cup of coffee to talk about volunteering (he also had a short spiel about how important it is that President Obama gets re-elected).

D: Great! I totally agree! But here’s the thing. I’m currently working full time, am just starting my last 5 classes of grad school, and am in an internship. I would LOVE to volunteer for the Obama campaign starting in July but I just can’t help out right now. Is there any way you could call me in July? (just so you know, I was completely serious. I actually would LOVE to volunteer anytime after graduation)

O: Well Danette, there are lots of ways to volunteer that don’t take much time at all. Why don’t we meet for coffee now and we can discuss ways you can be involved that don’t take much time.

D: I really can’t right now. But like I said, in July if you need help with knocking on doors, fundraising, phone calls, or licking envelopes, I’m your girl.

O: But Danette, we need to get organized now. I would love to meet with you for coffee and discuss ways in which you can be involved…

Click. I hung up.

I felt bad doing so, but seriously. If you have someone who is saying they will help out in a couple of months take that for what it is and move on. Don’t be obnoxious and continue to invite someone who doesn’t drink coffee to come meet you for a cup when she already said she doesn’t have time.

All I Want for Christmas Is...

Dear Santa,

This year, all I want for Christmas is a new butt.

Or a pair of jeans that fit the nonexistent one I seem to have.

I have never been very picky about the fit of jeans. I would just go to the store, search forever to find the right color of jeans, buy them based on color, and head home a happy girl. But over the past few years I have lost a bit of weight. I still have a ways to go, but I've lost 75% of the weight I want to lose. I'm wearing smaller sizes in everything, but I'm down 5 full sizes in pants. Which is great. The problem is that I have lost more from my butt than I have from my waist. So now, when I shop for jeans it's not just looking for the right color but for the right fit for a butt that isn't big enough for my waist, I guess.

Regular women's jeans in my new size all have the woefully unattractive saggy butt. I tried juniors, but hello, they are all ultra low rise these days which does nothing for an almost 32-year-old woman with a stomach that needs to catch up in the weight-loss race . I tried men's jeans, and while the butt fits great, the legs are way too wide.

So now I'm on the hunt for the perfect jeans. Or a new butt. Or a smaller waist that is proportionate to my butt.

Is that too much to ask, Santa?

Sincerely,

Me.

Scotch Fur Fighter

Another product I love - Scotch Fur Fighter

I have tried half a dozen new fur removal products over the past few years on our couch. Some things worked better than others, but none have worked as well as this one! It was fast, easy, and left the couch looking like it had just been shampooed. And to top it off, it was fairly cheap ($5 bought the tool and several refill sheets). The sheet did fill up fairly quickly, but the cost of the refill sheets will be worth it to have hair-free couches in less than three minutes!

A Strange Shopping Trip

So today at the store the woman ahead of me in the checkout line (we’ll call her Jane) had a very full cart of items. Groceries, household items, office supplies, clothing, etc. As the cashier was finishing up with the person ahead of Jane, Jane began taking items out of her cart and holding them up one by one, inspecting them. Holding up a pair of jeans, shaking them out, turning them around, checking the size. Holding up a gallon of milk, looking at the expiration date, turning it around in her hands, shaking it a bit. Holding up a package of pens, reading the brand, straightening out the plastic, inspecting individual pens within the plastic. This went on and on. She was sorting the items into two piles. One she put on the conveyor belt, and the other she set aside. This was a long process, and both the cashier and I were just waiting. I could have gone to a different line, but to be honest, I was curious to see what Jane was doing.

After she had finally finished sorting everything, Jane put the “other” stuff back in her cart and pushed the cart up to the cashier. Jane told the cashier that she didn’t want the stuff in the cart. We aren’t talking about one or two or three items here. She had well over half a cart of stuff she didn’t want. Jane also told the cashier that she would need a second cart to take the things she did want out to her car, and could she (the cashier) please have someone bring her one?

I thought I was going fall over. It seemed so surreal. The cashier, however, didn’t seem fazed. Is this something that happens with any sort of regularity? Do people really do this all that often? And if they do, can’t they make these decisions before getting into the checkout line? Has anyone else ever seen something like this happen?

I Believe...

by Unknown

I believe-
that we don't have to change friends
if we understand that friends change.

I believe-
that no matter how good a friend is,
they're going to hurt you every
once in a while and you must forgive
them for that.

I believe-
that true friendship continues to grow,
even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.

I believe-
that you can do something in an instant
that will give you heartache for life.

I believe-
that it's taking me a long time
to become the person I want to be.

I believe-
that you should always leave loved ones
with loving words. It may be the last
time you see them.

I believe-
that you can keep going
long after you can't.

I believe-
that we are responsible for what we do,
no matter how we feel.

I believe-
that either you control your attitude
or it controls you.

I believe-
that regardless of how hot and
steamy a relationship is at first,
the passion fades and there had
better be something else to take
its place.

I believe-
that heroes are the people
who do what has to be done
when it needs to be done,
regardless of the consequences.

I believe-
that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe-
that my best friend and I can do anything
or nothing and have the best time.

I believe-
that sometimes the people you expect
to kick you when you're down,
will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe-
that sometimes when I'm angry
I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn't give me
the right to be cruel.

I believe-
that just because someone doesn't love
you the way you want them to doesn't
mean they don't love you with all they have.

I believe-
that maturity has more to do with
what types of experiences you've had
and what you've learned from them
and less to do with how many
birthdays you've celebrated.

I believe-
that it isn't always enough to be
forgiven by others. Sometimes you
have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe-
that no matter how bad your heart is broken
the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I believe-
that our background and circumstances
may have influenced who we are,
but we are responsible for who we become.

I believe-
that just because two people argue,
it doesn't mean they don't love each other
And just because they don't argue,
it doesn't mean they do.

I believe-
that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a
secret. It could change your life forever.

I believe-
that two people can look at the exact
same thing and see something totally.
different.

I believe-
that your life can be changed in a matter of
hours by people who don't even know you.

I believe-
that even when you think you have no more
to give, when a friend cries out to you
you will find the strength to help.

I believe-
that credentials on the wall
do not make you a decent human being.

I believe-
that the people you care about most in life
are taken from you too soon.

Boiling Hamburger...Who Knew?

So as I previously mentioned, Ellie has been sick the last several days. She is now on a "bland" diet consisting of hamburger and rice. The vet told us to "boil" the hamburger. I had never heard of such a thing, so I looked it up online.

I thought it would be complicated, but no. Boil water, dump the hamburger in, come back in two minutes. Yes, I said two minutes.

So this morning I get a pot out, get the water boiling, and start to crumble the hamburger into it. The little pieces immediately rose to the top already done. I threw the package away, washed my hands, returned to the pot, and wah la! A half-pound of hamburger browned to perfection. I drained it, rinsed it, and mixed it with the rice. Ellie loved it.

The article I read online said that it's a fast way to cook hamburger, but because you're taking all of the fat out of it, there isn't much taste left (which was true, I tasted it)...but for recipes calling for hamburger that will also have other spices or flavoring in it (tacos, for example), this works great! Also, if you have some frozen hamburger you can just dump the whole frozen piece of hamburger into the water. After a couple of minutes break it apart with a utensil and leave it to cook for a few more minutes. Soooo much faster than thawing it on the counter, in the fridge, or in the microwave and then frying it up.

Obviously boiling hamburger wouldn't work for every recipe, but I'm excited to "discover" this trick that I can use for some recipes or when I'm in a pinch for time!

Craigslist Addicts

We just went and picked up a reel mower that Kristin found on Craigslist. I love my self-propelled mower, but it is tearing the steep hills in our yard apart, so I wanted to get a lighter mower to do those with.

After we picked it up I realized we have A LOT of stuff in our house from Craigslist. We have probably saved thousands of dollars over the past few years by purchasing so many things second hand.

Here is a quick list of some things we have purchased that we are still using (I'm sure there are more, but this is what I could come up with in a few minutes):

Entertainment Center

Bookshelves

Couch

Kitchen Table and Chairs

Cat Perch

DVD/CD Storage Unit

Wardrobe

Day/Trundle Bed

Dishwasher

Reel Lawn Mower

Deck furniture

Bathroom Storage Unit

Plastic Wardrobe Units

Dog Bed (converted camping mattress)

Butcher Block

Hmm...I'm sure there's more...but that's a lot of stuff...all of which we got for very cheap or free (the couch was a little spendy but much less than we would have paid had we gone to a store to buy it!).

Thanks to Kristin for finding all the deals...I'm not big on perusing Craigslist, but am always happy with what she finds :)

Mother's Day

Tonight we were at Target and Kristin, being the procrastinator she is, decided now would be a good time to get a Mother's Day card. Now, I'm all about Mother's Day. If there is a day for middle children and a day for dads and a day for everyone else in between, there should be a day for mothers. If nothing else it provides a good reminder to say "hey, mom, sorry I was such an idiot as a child"...right?

For some reason, as Kristin was looking at the cards, I just thought about how silly it is for throngs of people (the photo doesn't do the crowd justice) to be crowded around and reaching over each other to find a card that says just the right thing.

A woman picked up one card, read it, and was all weepy. Then then a guy picked up the same card, read it, muttered "lame," and put it back. Wouldn't it be better to just pick up the phone or write your own note?

Anyway, happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there...and for those of you who have mothers still roaming around this big round planet, pick up the phone, write a note, or go see your mother. Forget the card. Then again, I sent a card to my mom AND grandma earlier in the week...so who am I to talk?

Death by Facebook

Tonight I was pondering how I don't update this as much as I should...and I realized that it's largely due to Facebook. Instead of taking the time to write everything up and post it here, I just say it in one or two sentence snippets on Facebook....which for some reason made me feel a little bitter towards Facebook...even though it's not Facebook's fault...well, it kind of is, but never mind.

Anyway, that got me thinking about the death of a blog…it must happen often. Especially with the emergence of Facebook and other networking sites. And then I thought that it is probably a good thing that there aren’t obituaries for all of these dying blogs (hey, it’s late, I’m tired, it’s where my mind goes)…and if my blog were to die (which it won’t since I think I’d rather say goodbye to Facebook, or at least to the majority of Facebook), it would have a really great obituary…like:

The Inner Musings of a Chronic Muser, 3, of Blogspot.com died today after a long battle with Facebook. Inner Musings was born on May 10, 2007, and enjoyed a couple of years of relative happiness before first battling with Twitter (Inner Musings reigned triumphant over that one) and finally facing her match with Facebook.

Inner Musings was preceded in death by a sister who lived on LiveJournal and a cousin who resided in MySpace.

Inner Musings is survived by arch enemy Facebook.

There will be no memorial service, but friends are invited to view previous entries as much as they want since she will probably be floating around in cyberspace forever (god help us all).

The end.

Three Things...

Three things I have purchased lately that I love, love, love:

A Pampered Chef food chopper! Buying this was actually a hard decision for me because it was a little spendy ($40), but it came highly recommended (thank you, Cassi!), so I went ahead and bought it. I LOVE it and use it almost every day. :)

A cookie scoop! I know, sounds stupid, but I've wanted a cookie scoop forever and finally picked one up. I kept thinking "why would I spend $10 on a cookie scoop when a spoon works just fine?" But I am so happy I did! Makes prepping cookies a million times easier, and I don't have to deal with my cookie balls being all different shapes and sizes. :)

I've always been a bit annoyed by old dryer sheets. I would find them all over the house, in clothes, under the couch, in the dog's mouth, etc. So I was thrilled to see that Bounce had come up with this bar idea. I decided to try it out and it's worked great! No more random dryer sheets laying around!

Any cool new household items you've acquired?

Misc. November Pictures

Ellie's Godmama Jehn gave her an adorable French maid costume.

Surprisingly, Ellie didn't seem to mind wearing it.

She was looking a little straggley, but was still cute :)

Wearing my new red coat - ready for winter to arrive.

Rosa posing in her beautiful new outfit.

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

While I have always been an avid supporter and am happy you are working on improving the state of the economy and am even okay with you handing out billions of dollars all over the place, I must say: could you please contact MnDOT and ask them to quit working on the roads or at the very least work on them faster? No matter where I turn or what road I use I run into construction. While it is said that in Minnesota there are only two seasons (winter and road construction) this year seems out of control – mostly due to projects you funded with the stimulus package. I appreciate the funds, as I’m sure other Minnesotans do, but the execution of using those funds is driving me nuts.

Sincerely,

Me.

Happy Middle Child Day!

With all the excitement of a new puppy I forgot to say

Happy Middle Child Day!

I blogged about this day last year...talking about how not one person had stopped to tell me that it was MY day. I got the same treatment this year, but hey, there's a new puppy in the house...it's all good. :)

Easily Offended

I think I am too easily offended.  I read something tonight that shouldn't have offended me, but it did.  Maybe it's my current state of mind - my life is full of drama right now, and it's filling every part of my life.  So excuse me if I'm crabby, excuse me if I'm offended, excuse me for whatever.

Just know that the guy who cut you off this morning on your way to work?  Maybe he's not really a jerk.  Maybe he's rushing to the hospital to be with someone he loves.  The woman who cuts in front of you in line?  Maybe she's late for work and really just needs to buy those bananas and get out of the store.  The person who writes something that you don't like?  Maybe they're going through stuff that you wouldn't have a clue about...be a little compassionate, people.

BookMooch

My manager, David, recently introduced me to this great site called BookMooch.  Basically to start you have to list at least 10 books you have available that you are willing to get rid of.  Then, you can search the site for books you would like.  When you find one you want you can mooch it at the cost of 1 point or add it to a wishlist if it isn't available.  For every book you list you get .1 points.  For every book you receive you get .1 points.  For every book you send out you get 1 point.  Each book you mooch costs you 1 point.

So far I've sent out 5 books.  I send them all media mail, so the cost to me is minimal, and I have received 3 books for free.  The extra points I have right now are waiting to be spent on books that are on my wishlist which is growing every day!  When a book on your wishlist becomes available you receive an email letting you know.

It's a great site.  Definitely would recommend checking it out if you have some unwanted books laying around!

Our Father

Another song.  Must be in that mood today.

Our Father

Susan Werner

They kingdom come to every nation

Thy will be done in everything we do

Lord, lead us not into temptation

And deliver us from those who think they’re you

Lord send us forth to be of service

To build the schools and dig the wells

And deliver us from the creepy preachers

With their narrow minds and very wide lapels

They kingdom come to every nation

Thy will be done in everything we do

Lord, lead us not into temptation

And deliver us from those who think they’re you

Lord send us forth to bring compassion

To every corner of the world

And please allow for women in the Catholic priesthood

And remind the Pope that he could have been a girl

They kingdom come to every nation

Thy will be done in everything we do

Lord, lead us not into temptation

And deliver us from those who think they’re you

Lord deliver us from politicians

Who drop your name in every speech

As if they're your best friend from high school

As if they practice what they preach

They kingdom come to every nation

Thy will be done in everything we do

Lord, lead us not into temptation

And deliver us from those who think they’re you

Radical

No reason for this...just in the mood to post the lyrics to a song by Catie Curtis:

Radical

Catie Curtis

It's all right, we're gonna be fine

But let's give my mama and my daddy a little more time

'Cause I"ve been good up 'til now

They see you and they think that I have changed somehow

But I'm not being radical when I kiss you

I don't love you to make a point

It's the hollow of my heart that cries when I miss you

And it keeps me alive when we're apart

We go downtown, some people they stare

But there are lots of people who really don't care

I just want to hold your hand

I don't feel like making some big stand

But I'm not being radical when I kiss you

I don't love you to make a point

It's the hollow of my heart that cries when I miss you

And it keeps me alive when we're apart

It's all right, we're gonna be fine

Even if this world is taking so much time

And though I mind what people say

Love is stronger than any words anyway

But I'm not being radical when I kiss you

I don't love you to make a point

It's the hollow of my heart that cries when I miss you

And it keeps me alive when we're apart

Pictoral Proof

Pictoral proof that SA actually does have Obama cookies.  Now the question is just what is the ratio and why are the Obama ones so hard to come by???

Spiders

So we have this issue in our house with a spider which has taken up residence between our screen and glass door leading to our deck.  I hate bugs, especially spiders, but we’re not talking about any kind of spider.  As Kristin would say, this spider was big enough to have facial expressions.  Think of a large bee and that’s the size of this thing’s body.  Gross.  

So basically it had built its web between the two doors and when I tried to slide the screen door the web held and just stretched, the spider was running around like crazy, and I quickly returned the screen door to its open position and ran inside.

Now that it’s cooling off we would like to open up the windows and the screen door and get some fresh air circulating so we can turn the A/C off.  The problem with that is the spider  If we were to just open up the glass door and have the screen door exposed, the spider would have free access to our apartment.  Totally not going to happen.

So the other day I noticed the spider minding its business in the middle of her web.  I decided I had had enough and grabbed a can of ant Raid from under our sink.  I went outside and started spraying the crap out of the screen and the spider’s hiding area.  As I sprayed, more large spiders came crawling out trying to escape my tirade.  Me, being the inhumane person that I am, kept spraying the things until nothing was moving.  In total I found 5 large dead spiders. 

So yay me.  The only problem is that they still freak me out because they’re so big (even if they are dead) so the screen door remains open, the glass door remains closed, and the spiders remain stuck in the spot where my ant Raid reached them and cut off their ability to breathe. 

Sleep Deprivation

Wow. I’m dragging today. I officially go around 50 minutes of sleep last night. I couldn’t sleep. I tried doing my meditation exercise from my class. Made it through the full 45 minutes and I was still wide awake. Granted, I had things on my mind, but lately I’ve been able to put things aside and haven’t had a huge problem with sleep. So, I got up for a bit, went back to bed when Kristin finally went to bed (around 1). She was snoring in a few minutes. I stayed there for about an hour before I finally got up. I decided I would search iTunes for some sleep meditation tracks.

So I start sifting through them. Started the search with “sleep meditation” and moved to “guided meditation” since I tend to relax more with guided meditation than other versions. So the search for the perfect track turned out to be fairly difficult. Which begs the question: why are most meditation CDs done by creepy men? The only two women ones I could find on iTunes sounded like they were high or something. I finally found one that had three different sleep tracks, each about 25 minutes long. It had good reviews, and the guy’s voice wasn’t too bad, so I decided to download it. By this time it was about 3 a.m. (yes, it took me a full hour to figure out what meditation tracks I wanted to buy). They took FOREVER to download because they were such huge files. It was 3:45 by the time I got them downloaded and put on the iPod and headed back to bed.

I started with the first meditation track. It was called something like sleeping with self hypnosis. It started off okay. He said to listen to the sounds outside of the room. I couldn’t hear anything because I had the ear buds in. Then he said to listen to sounds inside the room. All I could hear was Kristin snoring and the cat purring on my pillow. I realized that sleep was really not going to come easy even with new meditation material. I tried to focus on the guy’s voice and what he was saying, but I realized that it reminded me of a therapist I saw several years ago who always wanted to hypnotize me. I would always tell him no because, frankly, the idea of being hypnotized scares the crap out of me. As the track continued, I realized the therapist had used the same imagery of going down 20 steps to relaxation. Before last night I never realized he had actually tried to hypnotize me, though, and so it freaked me out. Obviously, at the end of the 25 minutes, I was still wide awake.

The second track was called yoga something for sleep. It wasn’t like you had to do yoga moves, but, similar to the meditation I do for my class, it was all about becoming aware of different parts of your body. Jon Kabat-Zin’s version is very slow and deliberate. When I first started listening to it I thought I was going to go crazy. I would think “are we really still on the little toe of the left foot?” This guy’s was fast. Just as I began to visualize my little toe he was on to another part of the body. It wasn’t restful at all, so of course at the end of the 25 minutes I was still wide awake.

When the third track started I realized it was after 4:30. My alarm was set for 6:15. No good. The third track was called deep sleep meditation with ocean sounds. Nice. This one would surely put me right to sleep. So I’m listening. He’s talking. “Drift.” He said. So I drifted. “Float.” He said. So I floated. It was truly lovely (even with the snoring and the vibrating cat next to me). At one point he said “now listen to the music and the sounds and drift into a deeper relaxation.” So I was totally doing that – finally starting to drift to sleep when all of a sudden he started talking again and I jerked awake. “SHUT UP!” I yelled at him. I had been so close! I had to laugh, though, because he was talking about sending thoughts into the subconscious (I’m guessing he assumed most people would be asleep at this point) – things like “I’m calm.” “I’m happy.” “I am satisfied at my job.” “I work hard.” “I am a good person.” It was weird. And there was no way I was going to fall asleep after that.

Around 5:30 I considered just getting up but decided to give it one more shot. I threw the iPod on the floor and tried my old trick of counting backwards. It must have worked because next thing I know it was 6:15 and my alarm was going off. Two Excedrin and two Diet Cokes later, here I am. Falling asleep at my desk and waiting for my phone to ring. It’s gonna be a loooong day.