Half-Pint

Nothing that much going on right now to update. I scored my 2nd goal on Sunday night with another assist from Vivian which was sweet! Seems like we do very well playing together and I have learned so much from her. She is like a mini hockey wiki for me! Oh I went to the UW Women's hockey game Saturday as well which was awesome! They are so good, and quick! DAMN! Anyway, we had so much fun! It ended up being my friend Mel, Loni and Vivian but that was just enough to make it enjoyable! What else..my new schedule is going good, I just love being done at 230 in the afternoon. It worked to my advantage today with the weather since work wasn't letting anyone leave, pathetic really...they don't really care that much for our safety. The job hunt is still on but I am working on something, of course it requires a few essays which are taking me a while to write but I have until March. Next week I head to Tampa for work..don't really want to go though. I leave Wednesday morning ...

Okay I am so irritated and downright pissed with Citibank. I will hereby and forever more encourage people NEVER to use them. They have the shittiest customer service of any company I have worked with. Seriously, let's share a story: St. Patrick's Day 2007, I go to Ashley furniture and purchase a couch. A lovely micro-fiber thing, biggest purchase to date (before the house of course) and get approved for 12 months no interest, no payments. Happily I stroll out the door. Fast forward to Nov 2007, just after the house purchase, I get a charge for NSF. Since I have not had one of those, and I am sure my bank would have sent a nasty gram, I call customer service because they must have added this in error. After getting the run-around from Citibank, and them telling me that my check was returned by my bank, I hung up the phone quite ticked off. I checked my online account with the bank..funny that my check was cashed with no problem! So I get someone on the phone that confirms this...

First of all I totally feel like Sally Field right now…you read it, you really read it! Anyway, enough of that! Nothing much to report lately other than my days just seem to be flying by! I am happy to report that today my boss realized that my current sucky schedule of 10-630 was just not a worthwhile one, and had decided to move me to the 6-230 one. This is a huge win for me on work happiness, although slightly early, I am going to focus on going to the gym after work. I am excited in the summer I will be able to get out and snap some pictures as well…good times! I got my new issue of Rangefinder Magazine (it’s a professional photography mag) and it is all in black and white and the pictures are just fabulous! I have not had the camera out since new years now…damn I think it’s time to change that! I am thinking with the $$ I made doing Angela’s wedding this summer that I will look into getting 2 things for the camera. I need a backpack that can hold all my gear and my tripod, they ar...

So it's early, 445am actually..and I have been awake for 45min already. Hard to believe after my day yesterday. I had to coordinate Thurs night so I was up for over 24 hours since work won't let you count that as working time. I think that will someday be the downfall of work, someone will get so exhausted and try driving a long distance either back home or to a case and get in an accident. Since I was wide awake I took the dogs out and DAMN it's cold! Like your breath freezes in your chest cold (-7 with -15 wind chill currently for those that want to know) Since I am sitting here I am watching ER from last week and they played hockey...it was rather amusing! Speaking of hockey, they have an essay contest about what gay hockey means to us (they pay for us to go to a tournament in NY if we are selected) so I have been working on that since New Year's Eve. The interesting thing, is that as I was writing I realized that hockey is more than a sport I play once a week. It ...

So I have decided that no one really reads my blog. Not that I mind, it gives me a place out in cyberspace that I can share my thoughts and observations or whatever. Actually, I think I just have blog envy. I look at some of friends or family and they have TONS of people that comment. Oh well..that's how it flows. On the exciting front, I have an interview tomorrow morning. Yippie! But I don't want to get too excited, this is just the beginning. I need to be very selective and really decide what it is that I want. What will make me happy. I will gladly shovel hay if that will make me smile and alleviate some of my stress. So how is this for irony jumping into you email box in the morning. I subscribe to a daily email thing that said this "Everybody in our life – one way or another - comes to help us in our correction process.  Even the people who may hate us: ex-husbands, disgruntled employees, downstairs neighbors, former friends.  Every person in our life is here to a...

So with a new year comes another chance to change one's perspective on things in life. The most obvious thing for me lately is just how much I need to remove myself from the job that I have. It is effecting my health, my soul, my personality. Everyone that knows me knows that I am a very happy-go-lucky, love to laugh type of person. But when I pull up to work I get a wave of depression that just overwhelm's me. My energy is sucked away and I just am not me. I won't say I am desperate to find a new job right now because desperation will make a person do crazy things but I am on the prowl. I will find that something that I will be able to let me come shining through again. Things have been busy, lots of meetings for steering committee. It's hard to believe that we are busy planning the Act 6 ride and before we know it the day will be here! I am trying to gather up a list of mentors for the ride, to make the 1st year riders more prepared, more supported and more involved....

This year I did some things differently, tried some new things and gave up on others. Here is a short reflection of my 2007: Said I was going to do the Act ride..and actually did it!! Earned my Bachelors of Science AND graduated with honors Joined hockey Stopped eating meat Purchased our first home Scored my first goal in hockey Made some outstanding friends Started Punky Productions Selected for the Act 6 steering committee as a co-chair for participant support So, I don't really believe in new years resolutions, since people tend not to stick with them anyway..however, here are some hopes and wishes for 2008 To remain healthy To find a job that I truly enjoy, that challenges me Train properly for Act 6 Learn how to do the hockey stop both directions..and actually use it in the game Go to the gym at least 3 days a week Laugh more Let people know how much they mean to me Get my snow blower to work Be proud of myself Create my family of choice

Well it's hard to believe but I am now holding in my hands the 1st official business cards for Punky Productions. I am so excited to have an outside passion for photography, I actually had someone ask me if they could book me for the first week of Dec. 2008 (um yeah, not quite that busy just yet!!) So, slowly word is spreading that I do this and enjoy it. Hopefully people are happy with the results! In the next few days I will scan in my card to show it off!!!

Last night at hockey I scored my first goal, whoohoo!! It was truly an awesome feeling. We still ended up losing the game, but that didn't dampen my spirit. So that is me doing a little bragging! Also, I will be taking the pictures for the MGHA New Years Eve bash so I am totally stoked about that. It feels good that people ask me to do that,I probably would have taken pictures anyway but its nice to be "official photographer." I did order business cards the other day, they are pretty sweet! can't wait until they arrive.

This morning I thought rather than do some "house stuff" I would take the time to sit and drink my coffee and write a bit. The last few weeks, well okay last month, has been a blur. From looking at houses, to putting and offer in, then moving all took less than 2 months. Slightly different from my preconceived notions on house buying. Let's see, last weekend I had my first paid photography gig and my nights lately have been consumed by attempting to learn how to use Photoshop. I am thinking it might be good to take a class at the camera shop on this since I have no flippin clue what I am doing! I am trying to get my business name on the bottom, which I figured out how to do, but it won't save as anything but a Photoshop file..so that is what I need to figure out before the end of the weekend. I need to turn in my pictures next week. Speaking of business, yesterday I mailed out the tax stuff for a sole-proprietorship which will make tax time much easier for the photo...

for the bible tells me so go see this documentary..open your eyes.

I have a ton to write, about the weekend visit with my folks and life in general. But I am physically and emotionally drained right now.

Yesterday at work one of the girls gave me a People Magizine from Nov.19th that had an article about a christian lady who's daughter committed suicide after struggling with being a lesbian. The mother name is Mary Lou and she origionally told her daughter that although she loved HER she felt being gay was a sin and she could not accept that. Mary Lou has a web site called teach ministries which is a wonderful site for anyone GLBT or their Allies. So, I sent an email to their web site, asking for some help with my parents since they are also christian and struggling with this for quite a while. I recieved the most wonderful, caring letter back from Mary Lou within the hour! Tears just rolled down my cheeks as I read this at work..for the first time, I felt like someone "just like" my mother was wrapping their arms around me and saying it was okay, that they love me just the way I am. Go visit them Teach Ministries Well I have to get some stuff ready for my mom and dad'...

In the last couple of days we have gotten a few inches of snow. I am not sure what the latest total is but I am assuming around 7-8 inches. Now, a month ago this would not have been much of an issue since my landlord took care of the driveway (and it was kind of short anyway) but now that we own our place guess who is out shoveling?! This weekend I am getting a snow blower but until that time, I must clear out the driveway on my own. I remember years ago when dad would get home from work and go out to do the driveway.. I thought it was so cool. Yeah, not so much. Cold perhaps...freezing at times..but not cool. Last night when I got home from work I shoveled for about and hour and then at 615am I had to start all over again..so here are the things I was thinking of while shoveling: it's way to damn early and cold to be out here suddenly 500$ seems like a bargain for a snow blower wind pants, although keeps the snow off...not so much warm now i know why the gloves i found were i...

So my parents are coming for a visit in 3 days. As usual right now I am busy trying to choreograph the entire visit, trying to make sure they enjoy their visit, and allowing for time to hang out. This weekend is going to be slightly longer since they are coming on Friday and not leaving until Monday so they can watch the hockey game Sunday night. While they are here we will attend my work holiday function and do some work around the house. Sound pretty simple and nice right? Well that is where the kicker is… since they have STILL not met Loni (after 7 ½ years) they will not be in the same place as her at the same time. This usually causes me the anxiety since I do not want to ask Loni to leave her house and make sure my parents are not uncomfortable. But, I am at a point that I am not sure what to do. I know my parents are set in their ways and their thinking, which I am not trying to change. But at what point can I say enough is enough!! How long will they continue to sit in their jud...

Do you remember those books that would allow you to choose your adventure? If you wanted to explore something go to page 4 and if you wanted to do nothing turn to page 6?! Tonight I thought about my life and tried to think of what life would have been like had I made a different choice. What would have happened had I not been adopted into my family? What would it have been like if I had siblings? How would life had changed if I stayed at Ferris that 1 last year? What if I would have remained in Texas? Would things be different if I would have gone to Iraq? Recently I have felt that I was supposed to be in Madison, at this time, for a reason. I know I have met people here and had experiences that have changed and challenged me. Hopefully, I am a better person for these encounters. Perhaps I have made a difference with my life.

I decided to title this post broken because right now I feel like I have a broken spirit. Work has been stressing me out a lot, and next weekend we were having our formal function that I was asked to shoot the pictures for. Well today I found out that my work has found a way not to pay me for the event. Based on principle I told them they can stick it..their argument was that as a company they have some "rule" that will not allow an employee to benefit from such activities. Great argument, however, we have someone at work who's wife is our IT person on contract..is this not a violation of said rule? This benefits the one employee..I don't get it. So, I am deeply disappointed by that, and have decided to forgo the event all together. It just so happens that my hockey team is having a jock auction that evening as well and now I am going to be able to go. I would rather hang out with my friends anyway! With all that being said, it is just another thing at my job that is ...

That just made me feel like Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean "why is the rum always gone?!" Seriously I don't know where the time went, moving has completely consumed my everyday life for about the last 3 weeks, however, it's all over now. Sometime this week I will head over to the apt to turn in the keys and kiss it goodbye, Friday we have to be gone. The cool thing is that on Sunday we cleaned the whole place so it's all done really..just have a TV to take to the house, but we didn't have a spot big enough at the moment so we figured that would give us a day or two. With that being said, the last week has been one of the most stressful I have had in a long time. I am disappointed in the vast amount of poor customer service individuals representing such major companies. Thanksgiving found us sitting in the living room of the new house, gathered around the TV for the football game. We were all sitting in any folding chair we could find. 1 plate shor...

I really don't have time to post..its been too busy getting ready to move. Tomorrow morning we close at 9. Then everything is going to get busy, we have the Dish person, the TDS individual, and our refrigerator on the way. Hopefully before 10pm we can also get a kitchen table. Then we start moving on Thanksgiving. The realtor company was nice enough to include in our purchase a moving truck for free..all we have to do is put gas in it. To be honest, I have not slept well since Friday, eaten good in the last few days, or focused on anything in a week. My mind is racing too much and I have so much on mind right now. I will post more when things have settled down perhaps sat or Sunday. I am lucky enough to have some friends that want to help us out, for nothing in return but a little food. Since I am on call, I don't know how this will all work.. so of course I am stressing about that too! Can't believe in 12 hours I am going to be a homeowner!

So, this morning I sat at my computer with my cup of coffee, surfing various blogs and web sites,  as I always do in the morning. I read the deep thoughts and ramblings of people I know and complete strangers and wondered about their lives. I really wish I had the ability to convey my thoughts the way some of these people do. But I will have to settle for the style that I blog in. Anyway, I came across this article  about a student hugging another one at school. Now, I know it was a while ago but I remember giving hugs to my friends all the time in high school. It was almost like passing notes, you just did that. Can you imagine just giving you friend a hug or holding hands with someone can get you punished?! Seriously, wtf is going on in the school system. Kids are not allowed to show any type of affection for each other now? Where are they going to learn this? I remember as a kid getting spanked with a paddle or belt, hugging my friends, holding hands down the hallway, it ...