Hmmm

I've just finished reading my friend Kim's blog and that got me to thinking about how this year has been for me.

I would say I've accomplished some of my goals and come close to accomplishing others. Then there are some goals that I didn't even come close to tackling.

I've lost quite a bit of the weight that I wanted to lose. I would still like to lose 5 or more lbs to be completely happy but I'm pretty satisfied with my results so far.

I've also made a few new friends that live near me. I'm extremely happy about that since some of the friends I've made here are not that reliable.

I bought my very first house down here. I'm still scared about that decision what with the state of the economy and everything. But I do love my new home. In fact yesterday I was able to open all the patio doors and it felt like I was outside the entire afternoon. :o)

I've still yet to make any head way in the relationship world. I've dated a few people this year, but none of them has ever panned out to be anything more than just a passing good time. I will say I've learned to take more risks this year in the dating world, but it I'm still currently single. :o( I know I put a sad face there but I do realize that still being single isn't all bad news.

I'm really looking forward to the next 2 months b/c I love the holidays!! I cannot wait to decorate my house for Christmas and having my first Thanksgiving. This is probably one of my favorite times of the year.

Men??

Men confuse the hell out of me! They walk around saying that it's the women who can't make up their minds, well I've got a newsflash for ya; if you did a poll I believe you would find an overwhelming response from the female population on how confusing men are.

First you find men that are in it for the hunt. They put soooo much effort into getting your attention/affection that you finally cave and become attached to them. Well this will just not due! As soon as this lovely event takes place, they bolt. Then on the other hand you have the "nice guy" who also puts a lot of effort into gaining your affections. The unfortunate thing here is you cannot tell them apart. The game players and nice guys all come in the same packages!!! I mean come on, shouldn't they have signs or something. Once a woman experiences a man that was just in it for the "hunt." she will forever have her guard up in an attempt to protect her heart from getting crushed again. This is what will cause us to miss the "nice guys" that are out there b/c they look so much like the "hunters." The reverse can also be said about women I know but I'm not talking about women right now. :o)

The other kind of man that just irritates the hell out of me is the "damaged goods" man. This man could be a hunter, nice guy, etc. there are no set rules here. The problem is when you get one of the nice ones who has his head on straight, knows how to treat women, and can figure out what/who he wants. This man will go after the women he wants and will want to keep her once he wins her over. None of this is the issue. The issue reveals itself much later after you are entirely invested. This type of individual is the type that will ultimately end up sabotaging the relationship inadvertently. Either by neglect and their assumption that no matter how far they pull away you will always be there when they decide to come back or by sheer selfishness. They can only see their pain/problems and do not have time to focus on others. It's is not really because they are a bad person....just damaged.

There are very few honestly good men out there anymore. I know they still exist b/c I have a few friends who have managed to stumble upon these mythical creatures. I envy these women and the treasures they have found. I hope/pray that one day I may know what it is like to find one of these men. I also hope/pray that my friends will be lucky enough to find their own unicorn.

1st Time Homeowner

I'm officially a homeowner now. It's kind of scary at time but I'm mostly loving every moment of it. Of course after only a week, what's not to love. I go swimming just about every day and I love eating outside in my screen porch. My puppy is still getting used to the new digs but he's coming around. I haven't run into too many homeowner "issues" just yet but there have been a couple of snags. Mostly just trying to learn how everything works. My first night I thought I didn't have power to the outlets in any of the bathrooms, only to learn later that there is a reset switch in the spare. For some reason even though the bathrooms are on the opposite sides of the house they are still controlled by the same reset switch. Weird.

I just learned how to work my sprinkler system last night and I still have to learn how to maintain my pool. I've heard that once you learn how it's not that difficult, it's just a process. Mostly I'm too excited about having my own home to think too much about all the other stuff.

Hotels going "Green"

Okay so how many of you out there have been in a hotel lately and noticed the little sign in the bathroom that reads; "In an effort to help us save water, please hang up any towels you wish to reuse and throw any on the floor you wish to have replaced." Or something to that effect. I have always been a person who reuses the towel for which I dry off with and I always hang it up when I'm done. It never fails that when I get back to my room the next day after the cleaning people have been there that ALL of my towels have been replaced. Now I ask you, does this make any sense. I asked someone who worked for the hotel once why this was and the only answer they were able to give me was that some people still hang up their towels but expect new ones in return. My response to this would be to leave their old towels hanging up and if they received a call to the front desk complaining you would simply state that based upon the SIGN in their bathroom that b/c they hung up their towels you were under the impression they wanted to reuse them. If this was not really the case then you can simply bring that particular room up some clean towels. Please who visit these hotels know how to read and if they get upset b/c they didn't have the sense to read a little sign in plain sight in their bathroom then they can just get over it!

Breaking up is Hard to do...

Okay so for the majority of you that follow my blog, you know it was a big deal for me to finally be involved with someone for more than just a week. :) Although my relationship with Michael only lasted 2 short months, I must say it was eye opening as to how a relationship could be. He was the first guy that I have ever really cared about that took the time to tell me how he felt and did it often too. I never once felt like I had to pull his thoughts about our relationship out of him. In point of fact, he started most of the "emotional" conversations himself. It was just a nice change to have a guy care about me and want to share that fact with me. I've never before experienced that kind of relationship. With all previous relationships, you would have thought that talking about feelings was like asking them to admit they were gay! It was just nice to know exactly how much someone cared about you, not only because of what they said but also because of how they acted. Michael was someone who was not afraid of PDA. Now I'm not saying that we went around making out in public because I would have drawn the line at that, but he wasn't afraid to lean down and give me a kiss whenever he felt like it. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that he knew about the "little things" that every girl loves. The hand holding, the lite quick kisses to let you know they are thinking about you, asking if you need anything when they get up and always checking to make sure you are comfortable. He was really good at making me feel cherished and for that I will always thank him.

That's not to say we didn't have our own problems though. There weren't many issues between us, but the major one we had could not be overlooked. Even though there was a rather large age difference, ultimately that is not what came between us. Unfortunately Michael had one fairly large flaw that I could not ignore. I will not go into details regarding this flaw because I do not wish to speak ill of him via the internet, but this flaw was not just some cosmetic flaw that people would think I was stuck up for leaving him due to it. It was/is a serious issue that was only going to cause more fights and hurt between the two of us than it already did. So the relationship had to come to an end. At least I can say it came to a friendly end and we can still be friends and speak to each other when we see each other in public (we live in a small town and this is bound to happen). I can also always look back on this experience and smile because for once the good times really overshadow the bad.

Publix Bakery

Just this past weekend, my mom and I were in our local Publix shopping. We had gathered most of our items and decided to check out the fresh baked goods. While my mom was looking around at what they had to offer, I was staying with the cart. All of a sudden this bakery worker dumped a box full of pound cakes on the floor. Luckly only 2 of the packages opened when they were dropped. One of which had the entire pound cake falling out. I watched as the guy picked the pound cake up with his bare hand and put it back in it's container. He then placed this cake back in the bottom of the box, under all the others. To my dismay he then brought the box with all the cakes out onto the floor and started stacking them on the shelves. As he neared the bottom of the box, I decided I could not take it any longer. I turned to him and said "didn't you just drop those all over the floor." He promply turned around and flat out lied about putting the one that fell on the floor behind the counter. Me being me called him on his lie and stated that in fact I had seen him put it in the bottom of the box. Now all of a sudden he's like oh yes I have it right here, it's the one that hasn't been closed yet. He then proceeds to take this cake back to the back. I told my mom that we didn't want anything from this section of the store today. I'm sure that once we left he probably took the cake back out onto the floor. I just had to share this disturbing story.

New Stimulus Plan = Crap

How is this Stimulus plan going to be any different.

No one bothered to oversee the last stimulus/bail out bill and make sure the money was spent where it should be. Why should we believe this will be any different.

In addition to the fact that we do not know if the money will be spent wisely, there are news items in this plan that are not being talked about. Like changes to Health Care that no one has discussed publicly yet. Why??? Is it maybe because the ideas written down about how Health Care should proceed are insane! This states that we should just give up on trying to keep people healthy for as long as possible and just let "nature" take it's course.... Sounds to me like the person who suggested this did not have a happy home life or a good relationship with their parents/grandparents. Now he/she is in a position to take revenge on them (and all others who represent their generation) through their Health Care. I am willing to bet that when the person who suggested this comes to an age where he/she needs medical attention that their little program deems unnecessary (or too expensive given the number of years that they will benefit from it) that somehow they will arrange to receive it.

I agree there are problems with our Health Care system, but I think it is caused more by the people who abuse the Federal aid than the elderly. More time should be spent on getting the care to those who actually need it, instead of people out there who finds holes in the system and continue to get Federal aid when they can afford to buy their own insurance. I have know people who know people who are perfectly capable of buying their own health insurance yet they still get checks for Medicaid/Medicare (I'm not sure exactly which program it is). Their kids wear expensive clothes yet all their doctors bills are paid for by us, the tax payers. Not to mention all the illegals that receive our tax money every day. You constantly hear stories about mothers with 4 and 5 children going into labor with their 5th or 6th child and yet they have no insurance. They have no insurance b/c they are not legally supposed to be in the USA, but now that their baby/babies have been born here they are citizens. By that account now we have a legal responsibility to keep these kids healthy. AAAAHHHH

First Super Bowl Experience

I'm calling this my first Super Bowl experience even though it will probably be my only Super Bowl experience. We got the tickets through work and when they arrived in the mail, I was surprised by the ticket value printed on the actual ticket. These tickets were listed as $800 a seat. I could not even begin to imagine paying that much money for one seat to see one game. That being said the game was amazing. It was a close game and both teams were keeping everyone on their feet.

The day started by heading down to Tampa to take part in the "NFL Experience." I had no idea what all this was going to include. The gates opened at 11 and we were there for the opening. Once inside we started making our way around all the different set-ups. The first one we stopped at was sponsored by Bridgestone. This had you trying to throw footballs through tires for 30 seconds. My dad and I got to throw against each other and to my surprise I got 2 footballs through the tire, while my dad failed to get any. That got a big laugh out of both of us. Our next stop had us trying to kick a field goal. The goal posts were set to the same height as they are on the field but I have no idea how far back we were actually kicking. My first kick was pretty laughable. The second kick however just barely sailed over the bottom part of the goal. I was pretty stoaked about making the goal. Unfortunately for my dad, he didn't make any goals. Girls 2 - Boys 0 :)

Beyond those 2 games you could try doing some of the exercises that the players do to get in shape, they had the punching bag shaped things that you run through and a few areas where you could see how far you could throw a football and still get it into one of their nets. There was also a huge tent set up for memorabilia and another was the NFL Store. The NFL Store was like a sauna there were so many people in there. Another tent had a band playing; I have no clue who they were; I'm guessing they were probably locals. We had lunch outside by the Mega Screen where we watch the live performance of John Legend. He was actually performing there at the Super Bowl but it was in a closed off location for a private party, so I didn't get to see him in person. :(

We headed into the Stadium around 3:30 to look around and take more pictures. We also took this time to get some souvenirs (I got long and a short sleeve T's). Our seats were great! We were on the Cardinals end zone about 13 rows up from the field. I feel like I got some amazing pictures to really capture the experience of being at the Super Bowl. Our plan was to root for the Cardinals, seeing as how they were the underdogs going into the game. This plan was hard to execute since we were sitting in a sea of Steelers fans. If I had to take a guess I would say that the stadium was probably 85% Steelers fans and every single one of them had a Terrible Towel. Now before yesterday I had no clue what a Terrible Towel was but now I will always be able to picture the entire stadium twirling these things above their heads. I will say this for the Steelers fans, for the most part they were well behaved. We did have one over-zealous fan sitting just to our right who yelled most of the game.

Pre-show was pretty outstanding. Faith Hill came out and sang America the Beautiful and Jennifer Hudson sang the National Anthem. One surprise was when they announced that the entire crew of flight 1549 was there and they brought them out onto the field. The game of course started shortly after that. The Steelers came on strong and for a few minutes I was worried that this was going to be a shut out. Fortunately enough the Cardinals got their feet under them and got back into the game. During the course of the first quarter as I was looking around/watching the game when I noticed that the Steelers didn't have any cheer leaders. I asked one of the many Steelers fans sitting around us where their cheer leaders were and they informed me that their team didn't have cheer leaders. They seemed to think this was mainly due to the fact that many of their games are played in freezing cold weather. Makes sense to me. First and second quarters seem to fly by and before we knew it they were setting up for the half time show. Bruce and the E-Street Band were performing. Now I'm not a Bruce fan so this part of the Super Bowl was lost on me. It was also disappointing that they set up their stage where half of the stadium could not see the performance without looking at the tv screens.

Second half was very intense. I don't think we ever sat down except maybe during time outs. When the Cardinals scored and took over the lead, I thought the Steelers fans were going to come unglued. Unfortunately they redeemed themselves shortly after that to win the game. It was really quite exciting having the winning touch down scored right in front of our seats.

We didn't really stick around long after the game ended. We saw the confetti blasted into the air and some of the fireworks but that was it and we were booking it out of there. When we got out of the gates there were people actually standing around trying to buy ticket stubs. Why on earth would you want to buy a ticket stub to a game you didn't attend. I mean do you plan on lying and saying you were there? Are these considered collectors items? I have no idea, I didn't sell mine b/c it's going in MY scrap book. :) I was also surprised to see a couple of protesters sitting outside of the gates at the end of the game.

Overall this was an awesome experience and I feel very lucky that I was able to take part in it.